Europe and the outside world
Access to the sea has always played a big role. The Eastern Mediterranean was once seen as the center of the inhabited or civilized world. Here the three continents of Africa, Asia and Europe meet, and here were good sea connections. The sea roads connected the cultural landscapes in valleys and on coastal plains. Here, knowledge, skills and important cultivated plants found their way from Asia and Africa to Europe. The “known world” was later extended to several of the countries around the Mediterranean and its beehives. Gradually, Europe’s centers of power shifted to different parts of the continent, and European influence, civilization, and exploitation spread to other continents.
Europe was previously ravaged by conquerors from Africa and Asia. As late as 1683, the Turks were stopped in front of Vienna. In the 1700’s, 1800’s and 1900’s. Europe sent armies, emigrants, and industrial goods to other continents where societies changed or perished. The changes in production patterns were often detrimental to the living conditions of local people. Agriculture shifted from self-sufficiency to production to export; first in Europe, then in the foreign continents that had to supply raw materials to Europe’s factories and food and beverages to the people of Europe. Through the 1800’s and 1900’s. Europe’s business was exposed to increasing competition. Many European industrial areas have experienced crises related to company closures and restructuring. It went wrong early on in the textile and clothing industry, where cities like Verviers, Norrköping and Manchester were hit hard. Later, for example, the machinery industry, shipyards, car factories and also high-tech industries were affected. The successive transformation of European iron and steel production from a myriad of small farms at the raw material sources to large facilities at coasts and transport hubs lasted 150 years and is a story in itself. Many cities lost almost all industrial jobs, and only a few large companies, which partly produced huge quantities of iron and steel, partly could get raw materials from all over the globe, produced with profits. The successive transformation of European iron and steel production from a myriad of small farms at the raw material sources to large facilities at coasts and transport hubs lasted 150 years and is a story in itself. Many cities lost almost all industrial jobs, and only a few large companies, which partly produced huge quantities of iron and steel, partly could get raw materials from all over the globe, produced with profits. The successive transformation of European iron and steel production from a myriad of small farms at the raw material sources to large facilities at coasts and transport hubs lasted 150 years and is a story in itself. Many cities lost almost all industrial jobs, and only a few large companies, which partly produced huge quantities of iron and steel, partly could get raw materials from all over the globe, produced with profits.
Europe accounts for a very large share of the world’s energy consumption, and a large part is covered by imports. Power plants and huge oil refineries at many port cities are landscape evidence of this. The oil crisis in 1973 accelerated both energy savings and the restructuring of the energy supply. Renewable energy was supported, and fossil fuels other than oil, along with nuclear power, were preferred in electricity generation. A large part of Europe’s consumption of oil and coal must continue to be imported, and Russia accounts for significant parts of European production and of the reserves of fossil energy, not least natural gas. In several countries, especially France, Belgium and Sweden, nuclear power covers large parts of electricity production, while the nuclear power plants of Russia, Ukraine and other countries not only play a key role in electricity supply, but also represent a significant environmental risk. See COUNTRYAAH for all countries in Europe listed by population.
European industry continues to transition with major local and regional consequences, negative in the old industrial areas and positive in the new growth regions. Industries with a need for research background and skilled labor have become increasingly important, but the growing tertiary sector has not been able to employ so many that it offsets women’s entry into the labor market, immigration and less employment in primary and secondary occupations.
Europe has two major and partly interplaying labor market issues: unemployment and immigration. Unemployment is largely structural and difficult to tackle. Migrations across Europe’s state borders are partly a response to the labor demand that set in from the 1960’s, and partly a result of globally growing migrations. The immigrants come both from civil war zones in Europe and from the third world. Some immigrant groups are well integrated and are soon a benefit to overall employment; other groups are largely referred to poorly paid jobs or unemployment.
Kosovo
Kosovo, Albanian Kosovo, independent state, until 2008 part of Serbia; 10,887 km2, 1.7 million. population (2011), of which the vast majority are Kosovo Albanians. As far back as the Middle Ages, both Albanians and Serbs lived in Kosovo, which formed the core of the Serbian Empire in the 1200’s. Kosovo Polje, Danish Kosovosletten (also called Solsortesletten), is known for several battles, especially the battle 28.6.1389 (15/6 according to ancient times), where a Serbian-led force was defeated by the Ottomans.
During the Balkan Wars of 1912-13, Serbia recaptured Kosovo, which now had an Albanian population majority. In 1968, unrest broke out in the area, with Albanian protesters demanding independence and the opportunity to unite with Albania. In 1974, Kosovo gained greater autonomy, so that in practice it was equated with the republics of Yugoslavia, but in 1981, unrest broke out again with Albanian demands for full republican status for the area. This provoked backlash from the Serbs, and in 1989 the Serbian parliament effectively deprived Kosovo of its autonomy. Thereafter, the area was under the strict control of the Serbian military and police, and tensions were high, even though the Albanian population avoided direct revolt.
Conditions were calm on the surface in 1996-97, but in January 1998, the Kosovo Albanian organization, the Kosovo Liberation Army, began systematically attacking Serbian police, and the conflict soon escalated on both sides. Ibrahim Rugova’s non-violent Albanian resistance party took the initiative to re – elect Kosovo’s illegal parliament, and in July 1998 he was re-elected president. But UÇK refused to accept the election result. This summer’s fighting was fierce, bringing both Albanian and Serbian locals into exile, until NATO, with a threat of air strikes in October 1998, forced Yugoslavia to withdraw most of its forces from Kosovo and allow the province’s peacekeeping to be monitored by the OSCE.. From mid-December, however, the conflict escalated again, ending in fruitless negotiations in an unofficial war in which NATO in March 1999 carried out precision bombings in Yugoslavia, while Serbian forces expelled Albanians in the hundreds of thousands from Kosovo.
The war ended with a peace in Belgrade in June 1999, followed by UN Security Council Resolution 1244 of 10 June 1999, which established Kosovo’s future status as a province governed by the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia, whose military and police forces withdrew from the province. NATO countries and NATO partner countries provided a military force of almost 50,000 men (KFOR), and a civilian UN administration led by the Frenchman Bernard Kouchner, and later by the Danes Hans Hækkerup and Søren Jessen-Petersen (2004-06), was established.
In the autumn of 1999, a partial disarmament of the UÇK was carried out, and in 2001 a constitutional framework legislation was put in place and the first free parliamentary elections in the province’s history were held. In the elections, Ibrahim Rugova’s party LDK generally won over the main opponent, Kosovo’s Democratic Party, DPK, led by UÇK leader Hashim Thaçi.
In the spring of 2001, a cooperation between KFOR and the Yugoslav government in Belgrade succeeded in disarming a local Albanian rebel army in the Serbian border areas with Kosovo. On the other hand, the UN authorities had the greatest difficulty in establishing cooperation between the Albanians and the other sections of the population, especially the Serbs. KFOR has spent a lot of resources on protecting isolated minority groups and cultural monuments such as the Serbian churches and monasteries in the Albanian majority areas.
Kosovo declared independence on 17 February 2008. The country has not yet joined the UN, OSCE and Council of Europe in 2010, but is a member of the IMF and the World Bank.
Kosovo’s just over 1.6 million voters went to the polls for the country’s first parliamentary elections on 12.12.2010 to vote among candidates from over 30 parties for the 120 seats in parliament. The election was monitored by 850 foreign and 26,000 local election observers.
In 2014, the state of Kosovo was recognized by 108 countries, including Denmark, the USA and 22 other EU countries.
