Western Europe

Western Europe

Location&Movement

• Scandinavian Peninsula(N)->Iberian Peninsula(S)
• North most capitals: Reyjanvik & Helsinki
• Almost every city has a costal line
• Economy: Shipping & Trade
• Cities accessing to coast are great ports(ex. London)

Largest Cities

• 2/3 of W.E. population live in 4 nations
• the U.K., France, Germany, Italy
• people concentrate in large urban cities

Physical Feature

• Summit: highest point
• mountains in western Europe formed more than 400 years ago
• the highest point of the Alps mountains is 15,711 ft
• North European Plain is important resource of agriculture
• The Rhone Rive and  the Po river are the two most important rivers

Western Europe

Regions

• multilingual region, where many different languages are spoken
• Romance Languages & Germanic Languages
• Romance Languages such as Spanish and French

Human Environment Interaction

• less than 3% of the world's landmass
• one of the highest population densities the world
• e.g Netherlands has an about 1,164 people in each square mile

Place

• population is unevenly distributed

Catholic Cathedral

• Roman Catholic Church is prominent 
• the most impressive  are at Chartres, France
• they were constructed during 12th, 13th, and 14th centuries
• they have been religious, social, and cultural centers of city

section 4:climate and vegetation

Regions

• North Atlantic Drift
• -carries tropical water toward coast of Europe
• Prevailing westerlies
• -A wind from west to east in the temperate zone 
• -produce a warm, moist climate in western Europe

Climate along the Mediterranean sea

• Summer-hot and dry
• Winter-winds blow off the area, brings rainfall
• Cause
• -southern mountains block the Atlantic winds

Scandinavian Peninsula

• northern mountains block warm Atlantic wind
• creating a very dry, cold, subarctic climate

Human-Environment Interaction

• cut down most of nature forests in Western Europe
• -using for fuel and building materials
• -today, most land use for farming and grazing

Elevation and Vegetation

• Elevation greatly influences climate and vegetation
• Lower slopes-warm, use for farm
• Higher slopes-cooler, covered with forest 

Section 5:Economy & Resources.

1) Movement:

• In the 1950s, Western European formed"Common market"
• Common markets didn't tax goods. 
• Coordinate transportation, banking system.
• Western European countries wanted to increase and strengthen their economy.

2) Human-Enviroment Interaction.

• A belt of coal fields run across European countries.
• End of 1700s, Industrial Revolution->Form agriculture ->Industrial
• Factories and mills sprang up

3) Human-Enviroment Interaction.

• Industry affected region's natural vegetation.
• Only Germany's Black Forest region left.
• Industrial pollution endangers the Black Forest and others.

4) Agriculture

• Use new method: Sophisticated farming to get high crop yields. 
• Moderate, control temperature, fertile soils..ect.
• North European Plain becomes an agricultural  region.