User talk:147.231.193.18

Today, also part of BELGIUM!!! (Rheinprovinz)

The definition of Western Europe is very vague. Western Europe, in a civilizational context, should predominantly include countries with a Catholic and Protestant past that have gone through the Renaissance and the Enlightenment. This is how it was defined in the 18th century, and afterwards, until Hitler and then the cold war changed the definition. In this case, it includes the countries of 'Central Europe' (Germany, Austria, the Czech Republic, Hungary, Slovakia, Slovenia, Croatia and perhaps even Poland, which, however, extended far to the east until 18th century, and ruled over Orthodox christians of today's western Ukraine and Belarus). In a narrower definition, the eastern border of western Europe may be the former border of the Holy Roman Empire, then it would include the Czech Republic (historic lands of Bohemia and Moravia) and Slovenia (in addition to Germany and Austria) too.