
An Unconventional Look at the European Map - DrSheldon
http://www.the-dialogue.com/en/en4-an-unconventional-look-at-the-european-map/
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hartpuff
> mankind did even get to the Moon with its flag

The US flag is the flag of _Mankind_? Interesting.

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Strom
Well yes, a flag, one of many. It's ownership description via superset, it
doesn't mean it's THE flag of mankind.

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hartpuff
Which is why it shouldn't say "its (Mankind's) flag".

The USA (to its credit) dedicated the Apollo mission to Mankind (which Soviet
cosmonauts were pleasantly surprised by) but the flag was planted as a symbol
of the USA. (Other considered options, such as the flags of all countries,
were rejected.)

The flags, if they still exist, are likely to be blank now anyway.

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DrScump
<The flags, if they still exist, are likely to be blank now anyway.>

Didn't at least one LRO photo show a clear shadow of a flag at one of the
Apollo sites?

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vegabook
So France and the Benelux countries are the only countries that everybody
agrees comprise "Western Europe".

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jeroen
> It is interesting that [the flag of Monaco] was the subject of a diplomatic
> conflict with Indonesia as both flags are 100% identical even today.

They aren't identical; the dimensions are different.

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voidiac
Dividing Europe based on language would make more sense: romance languages in
the west, germanic in the centre and slavic in the east.

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riffraff
except of course romanian and moldovan are romance (very much east), as is
Rumantsch (very much centre)

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oblio
And of course our dear Western neighbors, the Hungarians, who are as odd-ball
as the Fins and Estonians :)

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berryg
Fun with flags.

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batrat
What is Vexillology dr. Cooper?

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NKosmatos
Let's see how long it takes before people from neighboring countries start
"fighting" :-) This article should be read with a grain of salt...

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tunichtgut
Seems to be divided by geography. Germany is culturally a nordic country.
Which makes it northern europe, not central or west.

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GFK_of_xmaspast
> Germany is culturally a nordic country

On what grounds? There were a lot of states that went into the modern Germany,
surely you're not saying they were all nordic.

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pmontra
Not an expert of German traditions, but there is a division between catholic
and protestant areas that basically follows the border of the Roman empire.
Going back 2000 years, before the Roman expansion, then maybe all of the
current Germany nation was homogeneously nordic.

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UncleSlacky
Assuming that other countries place as much importance on their flag as
Americans do is veering into /r/ShitAmericansSay territory...

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oblio
While there might not be many events where flags are promoted, I think that
many Europeans identify strongly with their national flag.

I'm pretty sure that many Brits are proud of the Union Jack, probably as many
French are proud of the Tricolour, etc.

Heck, even countries which have been rather downtrodden such as Romania are
starting to show stronger signs of patriotism and the national blue-yellow-red
tricolor is popping up more and more.

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peterjs
This article is quite ignorant of any history. It might be cool for
preschoolers to find flags with similar geometry and colors, but making any
conclusions without mentioning the historical context is wrong.

Why would "The Traditional view" be traditional when it represents just a
fraction of the relevant history that shaped the culture of European
countries? The same goes for "Historical and cultural divide".

Let's take Central Europe as an example - the "Traditional view" was valid for
45 years (during the Cold War) and does not hold for more than 25 years now.
The article also dismisses roughly 300 years of the Habsburg Monarchy, 100
years of Austia-Hungary and the years preceding the Cold War.

These lightly ignored years are important when speaking of any cultural divide
as tradesmen, craftsmen, students, etc. moved around the empires and exchanged
goods and knowledge with each other. Travelling around European towns and
villages shows how the builders and craftsmen influenced each other - in
regions much larger than the current states.

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diego_moita
Meh, these maps are way better:
[http://atlasofprejudice.tumblr.com/post/80937352126/20-ways-...](http://atlasofprejudice.tumblr.com/post/80937352126/20-ways-
to-slice-the-european-continent-from-atlas)

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legulere
Traditionally Germany belongs to eastern europe and Russia to the north.

Edit: seriously, downvotes? Before the east-west divide russia was considered
north Europe because it lies so far up in the north. Germany was already seen
as eastern Europe because Europe centered more around France. Even today the
geographical center of Europe lies well into eastern Europe.

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Chos89
I don't agree with your statement but I agree it's not a cause to get
downvoted. Russia stretched from the Baltic sea to the Black sea for a good
part of history so calling Russia north Europe is wrong imo. And Germany was
always center Europe

