3-1 Discussion: Location, Location, Location
Europe and Russia both have many variations when it comes to their physical attributes. Located on the
western margin Eurasia (the largest landmass of the world), Europe "is a realm of peninsulas and
islands" (Nijman, J., Muller, P. O., & Shin, M., 2020). Although territorially the realm is small, it contains
600 million inhabitants as well as forty countries. The Arctic, Atlantic, and Mediterranean Seas form the
north, west, and south boundaries of the European Realm. Europe offers an almost unlimited variety of
natural habitats, from the warm Mediterranean Sea coasts to the frigid Alps, and from the lush forests
and moors of the Atlantic border to the semiarid grasslands north of the Black Sea. Additionally, since
the frequency of extreme weather occurrences has increased recently, Europe's dynamically diverse
spectrum of climatic zones has become apparent. The inhabitants of Europe have profited from a
plentiful and diverse supply of raw materials. The realm consistently has shown itself to have what was
needed whenever the chance or necessity presented itself. These early conditions featured arable soils,
abundant fishing grounds, and wild animals that could be tamed; in addition, there were large woods
that provided wood for buildings and boats (Nijman, J., Muller, P. O., & Shin, M., 2020). Later,
industrialization was fueled by mineral ores and coal. More recently, it was discovered that Europe has
large oil and natural gas reserves. Despite being a small area, Europe has a diverse and intricate physical
landscape. Regionally, the Central Uplands, the Southern Alpine Mountains, the Western Uplands, and
the North European Lowland are the divisions of Europe into four major units. Europe's geographic
center is the Central Uplands. They are an area of hills and low plateaus rich in raw resources, whose
farming communities expanded into towns and cities as a result of the Industrial Revolution. The
Appennines in Italy and the Carpathians in Eastern Europe make up the highland region known as the
Alpine Mountains, which stretches eastward from the Pyrenees on the French-Spanish border to the
Balkan Mountains close to the Black Sea. The Western Uplands span from northern Scandinavia through
western Britain and Ireland to the center of the Iberian Peninsula in Spain. They are geologically older,
lower-lying, and more stable than the Alpine Mountains. The North European Lowland reaches deep
into Russia from southeast Britain and southwest France, via Germany and Denmark, Poland and
Ukraine, and far into Germany. This region, often referred to as the Great European Plain, has frequently
served as a route for human migration. As a result, complex cultural and economic mosaics have grown
here, and when combined, they have created a political map that resembles a jigsaw puzzle. The relative
location of Europe at the intersection of the land hemisphere greatly facilitates communication with the
majority of the rest of the globe. Europe, a "peninsula of peninsulas," is incredibly close to the ocean
and its channels for maritime commerce and conquest. The heart of Europe is accessible to its nearby
seas and to the world's shipping routes thanks to hundreds of kilometers of navigable rivers and a
sophisticated network of canals. The early modern growth of commerce and capitalism as well as the
creation of early city-states in Europe, such as Venice, Italy in the south and Lübeck, Germany in the
north, depended heavily on the Mediterranean and Baltic waters (Nijman, J., Muller, P. O., & Shin, M.,
2020).
The large expanse of the Russian/Central Asian realm, especially its massive, nine-time zone-wide east-
west dimension, makes it unique. Russia alone has a territory that is three times larger than surrounding
Europe and twice the size of second-largest country in the world, Canada. This region of the world is
naturally dominated by Russia, making it a prime example of a monocentric geographic space. The areas
of Central Asia and Transcaucasia, which are now separate republics but were formerly a part of Czarist
Russia and its successor Soviet Union, are also included in this realm, albeit not all of it is Russian.
Russia's whole northern coast faces the Arctic Ocean, with all the environmental repercussions you
would anticipate—from its western boundary with Norway to the Bering Strait across from Alaska in the
east. And despite its astounding size, a large portion of this area is located at higher latitudes and is cut
off from the warmer and more humid regions of Eurasia by mountains and deserts. For as long as Russia
has been a state, it has been a geographical obstacle for Russian rulers and administrations. The eastern
ports of Russia are as far away from the majority of the population as is physically possible. Additionally,
every sea outlet in Russia's main region of the west is in some manner constrained. Seasonal access is
used at the ports in the Arctic. The Baltic ports are cut off from the open ocean by a shallow sea (Nijman,
J., Muller, P. O., & Shin, M., 2020). To get to the eastern Mediterranean Sea from the Black Sea ports,
one must navigate via a series of treacherous straits over Turkish land. Although the Russia/Central Asia
region is enormous in area, its population of 231 million people is small and not much bigger than that
of individual nations like Pakistan and Brazil. In addition, a significant portion of the realm's population
has been dropping since the Soviet Union's collapse in 1991 as a result of altered political, economic,
and social circumstances, which are still having a negative demographic impact today. According to our
global framework, this realm is made up of nine political entities: the enormous Russian state, three
minor countries in Transcaucasia, and five states in Central Asia. Georgia, Armenia, and Azerbaijan are
all part of Transcaucasia, the hilly region between the Black and Caspian oceans. All of them are minor in
terms of population, with a combined population of 17 million (7.5% of the total population of the
realm); they also exist in a historically tumultuous region of strife between several non-Russian peoples.
The five nations of Central Asia are Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, Kyrgyzstan, Uzbekistan, and Kazakhstan;
they are frequently referred to as the "Stans." Contrary to Transcaucasia, Central Asia has a larger
geographic extent (Nijman, J., Muller, P. O., & Shin, M., 2020). With a land area almost five times larger
than France, Kazakhstan is the largest nation in Central Asia. It also has a long border with Russia. There
are over 75 million people living in Central Asia, which makes up nearly one-third of the whole
continent. A prominent north-south trending mountain range in western Russia that stretches from the
Arctic Ocean southward to Kazakhstan is one of the first features to be noticed on the physiographic
map of the realm. This mountain range divides Russia into two unequal halves: the Russian Plain to the
west and the subdivisions of Siberia to the east. The Ural Mountains are a mountain range that is
frequently considered to be the eastern limit of Europe. That is incorrect since Russia is not Europe; the
Urals cannot serve as a cultural border because both sides of the range are equally Russian. The Urals,
which at their other end reach southerly into Kazakhstan, are extended northward to the island of
Novaya Zemlya. At Russia's core area is the Russian Plain, which extends eastward from the North
European Lowland to the west of the Ural Mountains. From Moscow, the country's capital and most
populous city, head north and you'll soon see coniferous woods similar to those in Canada. From the
wooded north, the Volga River, Russia's Mississippi, travels in a broad arc southward through this plain;
however, in contrast to the Mississippi, the Volga empties into the landlocked Caspian "Sea" (Nijman, J.,
Muller, P. O., & Shin, M., 2020). Today, if you go south from Moscow, you will pass across grasslands and
crop farms. Because this range divides into two enormous lowlands, the Urals retain their importance
even though they are not high enough to obstruct surface travel while looking east. The Caucasus
Mountains rise like a wall at the southernmost point of the Russian Plain, separating Russia from the
regions beyond. This multi-tiered barrier has been the source of centuries of conflict between Russians
and their southern neighbors. The biggest continuous lowland in the world, the West Siberian Plain is to
the east of the Urals, and all of its rivers flow northward. In reality, this plain is so flat that the Ob River
drops less than 90 meters (300 ft) during the remaining 1600 kilometers (1000 mi) of its journey to the
Arctic Ocean in massive meanders surrounded by woods until, in the near-Arctic cold, the trees give way
to mosses and lichens. The West Siberian Plain gives way to the enormous Central Siberian Plateau, one
of the least inhabited regions in the habitable world, near the Yenisey River, about in the center of
Russia, if one follows an imagined route eastward. The West Siberian Plain changes into the Caspian-Aral
Basin south of the Russia-Kazakhstan border. Nearly the whole Central Asian continent is within this
physiographic area, which is characterized by windy plains, steppes that lack precipitation, and desert.
Much of the Soviet period was distinguished by poorly implemented irrigation plans along the rivers that
flowed into the Aral Sea. After 1990, the cost was paid as an environmental catastrophe developed that
led to the Aral Sea and the rivers that feed it virtually completely drying up. The Central Asian Ranges
are located to the southeast, running the length of the country's borders with China and Mongolia. They
extend northeastward from Tajikistan and Kyrgyzstan to Lake Baikal (Nijman, J., Muller, P. O., & Shin, M.,
2020).
References:
Nijman, J., Muller, P. O., & Shin, M. (2020). The World Today: Concepts and Regions in Geography (8th
ed.). Wiley Global Education US. https://wileyplus.vitalsource.com/books/9781119577614
