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Baltic Sea

Baltic Sea

The Baltic Sea is located in Northern Europe, from 53 deg. to 66 deg. north latitude and from 20 deg. to 26 deg. east longitude. It is bounded by the Scandinavian Peninsula, the mainlands of Northern Europe, Eastern Europe, Central Europe, and the Danish islands. It drains into the Kattegat by way of the Öresund, the Great Belt and the Little Belt. Kattegat then continues in the Skagerrak into the North Sea and the Atlantic Ocean. The Baltic Sea is linked to the White Sea by the White Sea Canal and directly to the North Sea by the Kiel Canal. Kiel Canal

Name

The first one to name it the Baltic Sea was Adam of Bremen and he seems to have based it on a large island, Baltia, mentioned by Xenophon and located in northern Europe.

Etymology

It is possibly connected to the Germanic belt, a name used for some of the Danish straits, while others claim it to be derived from Latin balteus (belt). From this use, Baltic has been applied to the Baltic countries. Another proposed derivation from the Indo-European root [http://starling.rinet.ru/cgi-bin/response.cgi?single=1&basename=/data/ie/piet&text_number=+129&root=config
- bhel] meaning white, shining seems speculative.

The name in other languages

The Baltic Sea is known by the equivalents of "East Sea", "West Sea", or "Baltic Sea" in different languages:
- In the Germanic languages except English East Sea is used: Danish (Østersøen), Dutch (Oostzee), German (Ostsee), Norwegian (Østersjøen), and Swedish (Östersjön); in addition, Finnish, a Balto-Finnic language has calqued the Swedish term as Itämeri, disregarding the geography; the sea is west of Finland.
- In another Balto-Finnic language, Estonian, it is called the West Sea (Läänemeri).
- Baltic Sea is used in English; in Latin (Mare Balticum) and the Romance languages French (Mer Baltique), Italian (Mar Baltico), Romanian (Marea Baltică) and Spanish (Mar Báltico); in the Slavic languages Polish (Morze Bałtyckie or Bałtyk), Kashubian (Bôłt), and Russian (Baltiyskoye Morye (Балтийское море)); and in the Baltic languages Latvian (Baltijas jūra) and Lithuanian (Baltijos jūra). ; Notes # [http://www.lysator.liu.se/runeberg/nfbb/0435.html] (in ).

Geophysical data

The Baltic Sea is a brackish inland sea, the largest body of brackish water in the world. The fact that it does not come from the collision of plates, but is a glacially scoured river valley, accounts for its relative shallowness.

Dimensions

The Baltic sea is about 1610 km (1000 mi) long, an average of 193 km (120 mi) wide, and an average of 55 m (180 ft, 30 fathoms) deep. The maximum depth is 459 m (1506 ft, 251 fathoms), on the Swedish side of the center. The surface area is about 377,000 sq km (145,522 sq mi) and the volume is about 21,000 cubic km (3129 cubic mi). The periphery amounts to about 8000 km (4968 mi) of coastline. [http://www.envir.ee/baltics/geograph.htm] These figures are somewhat variable because a number of different estimates have been made.

Icing in winter

The Baltic sea is iced in winter, except for the deepest regions in the center. Ice begins in the Gulf of Bothnia in October or November. Fast ice, attached to the shoreline, develops first, rendering the ports unusable without the services of icebreakers. Level ice, ice sludge, pancake ice or rafter ice form in the more open regions. The gleaming expanse of ice is similar to the arctic, with wind-driven pack ice and ridges up to 15 m, and was noted by the ancients. The degree of icing depends on whether the winter is mild, moderate or severe. Severe winters ice even the regions around Denmark and southern Sweden, leaving open only a relatively small extent south of Gotland. The ice reaches a maximum extent in February or March. By June it is gone.

Hydrography

The Baltic Sea is effluent through the Danish straits; however, the flow is complex. A surface layer of brackish water discharges 940 cubic km per year into the North Sea. Due to the difference in salinity, a sub-surface layer of more saline water moving in the opposite direction brings in 475 cubic km per year. It mixes very slowly with the upper waters, resulting in a salinity gradient from top to bottom, with most of the salt water remaining below 40 to 70 m of depth. The difference between the outflow and the inflow comes entirely from fresh water. More than 250 streams drain a basin of about 1.6 million square km, contributing a volume of 660 cubic km per year to the Baltic. They include the major rivers of north Europe, such as the Oder, the Vistula, the Neman and the Neva. Some of this water is polluted. Additional fresh water comes from the difference of precipitation less evaporation, which is positive. Despite the influx of salt water in the lower levels, the Baltic is still more of a lake or river than a sea. Tides are negligible. Wave height in calm weather varies between 2 and 3 m. Violent and sudden storms often sweep the surface, due to large transient temperature differences and a long reach of wind.

Salinity

Salinity is much lower than in the ocean, varying from 0.1 percent in the north to 0.6-0.8 percent in the center. Below 40-70 m, it can be as much as 1.5-2.0 percent. A lateral salinity gradient also exists from most saline in the northern Kattegat to least saline in the Northern Gulf of Bothnia. The most saline water remains on the bottom, creating a barrier to the exchange of Oxygen and nutrients, fostering totally different maritime environments.

Regional emergence

The land is still emerging from its subsident state, which was caused by the weight of the last glaciation. Consequently, the surface area and the depth of the sea are diminishing. The uplift is about eight millimetres per year on the Finnish coast of the northernmost Gulf of Bothnia .

Geographic data

Subdivisions

The northern part of the Baltic Sea is known as the Gulf of Bothnia out of which the northernmost part is referred to as the Bay of Bothnia. Immediately to the south of it lies the Sea of Åland. The Gulf of Finland connects the Baltic Sea with St. Petersburg. The Northern Baltic Sea lies between the Stockholm area, southwestern Finland, and Estonia. The Western and Eastern Gotland Basins form the major parts of the Central Baltic Sea. The Gulf of Riga lies between Riga and Saaremaa. Bay of Gdańsk lies east of the Hel peninsula on the Polish coast and west of Sambia in Kaliningrad Oblast. Bay of Pomerania lies north of the islands of Usedom and Wolin, east of Rügen. Bornholm Basin is the area east of Bornholm and Arkona Basin extends from Bornholm to the Danish isles of Falster and Zealand. Between Falster and the German coast lie the Bay of Mecklenburg and Bay of Lübeck. The westernmost part of the Baltic Sea is the Bay of Kiel. The three Danish straits, the Great Belt, the Little Belt and The Sound (Öresund) connect the Baltic Sea with the Kattegat bay and Skagerrak strait in the North Sea. The confluence of these two seas at Skagen on the northern tip of Denmark is a visual spectacle visited by many tourists each year.

Land use

The Baltic sea drainage basin is roughly four times the surface area of the sea itself. About 48% of the region is forested, with Sweden and Finland containing the majority of the forest, especially around the Gulfs of Bothnia and Finland. About 20% of the land is used for agriculture and pasture, mainly in Poland and around the edge of the Baltic sea proper, in Germany, Denmark and Sweden. About 17% of the basin is unused open land with another 8% of wetlands. Most of the latter are in the Gulfs of Bothnia and Finland. The rest of the land is heavily populated.

Demographics

About 85 million people live in the Baltic drainage basin, 15 within 10 km of the coast and 29 within 50 km of the coast. Around 22 million live in cities, defined as centers of over 250,000. 90% of these are concentrated in the 10 km band around the coast. Of the nations containing all or part of the basin, Poland includes 45% of the 85 million, Russia 12%, Sweden 10% and the others (see below) less than 6% each.

Geologic history

The Baltic Sea somewhat resembles a riverbed, with two tributaries (the Gulf of Finland and Gulf of Bothnia). From geological surveys it has become apparent that there was a river in the area prior to the Pleistocene: the Eridanos. Multiple glaciations in the Pleistocene scooped out the river bed into the sea basin. By the time of the last, or Eemian interglacial (MIS 5e), the Eemian sea was in place. From that time the waters underwent a geologic history summarized under the names listed below. Many of the stages are named after certain marine animals (e. g., the Littorina mollusk) that are clear markers of changing water temperatures and salinity. The factors that determined the sea’s characteristics were the submergence or emergence of the region due to the weight of ice and subsequent isostatic readjustment, and the connecting channels it could find to the North Sea-Atlantic either through the straits of Denmark or at what are now the large lakes of Sweden, and the White Sea-Arctic Sea.
- Eemian sea, 130,000-115,000 BP
- Baltic ice lake, 12,600-10,300 BP
- Yoldian sea, 10,300-9500 BP
- Ancylus lake, 9500-8000 BP
- Mastogloia sea 8000 BP-7500 BP
- Littorina sea, 7500-4000 BP
- Post-littorina sea 4000 BP-current

Prehistory

History

At the time of the Roman Empire, the Baltic Sea was known as the Mare Suebicum or Mare Sarmaticum. Tacitus in his AD 98 Agricola and Germania described the Mare Suebicum, named for the Suebi tribe, during the spring months, as a brackish sea when the ice on the Baltic Sea broke apart and chunks floated about. The Sarmatian tribes inhabited Eastern Europe and southern Russia. Jordanes called it the Germanic Sea in his work the Getica. Since the Viking age, the Scandinavians have called it "the Eastern Lake" (Austmarr, "Eastern Sea", appears in the Heimskringla and Eystra salt appears in Sörla þáttr), but Saxo Grammaticus recorded in Gesta Danorum an older name Gandvik, "-vik" being Old Norse for "bay", which implies that the Vikings correctly regarded it as an inlet of the sea. (Another form of the name, "Grandvik", attested in at least one English translation of Gesta Danorum, is likely to be a misspelling.) In addition to fish the sea also provides amber, especially from its southern shores. The bordering countries have traditionally provided lumber, wood tar, flax, hemp, and furs. Sweden had from early medieval times also a flourishing mining industry, especially on iron ore and silver. Poland had and still has extensive salt mines. All this has provided for rich trading since the Roman times. In the early Middle Ages, Vikings of Scandinavia fought for power over the sea with Slavic Pomeranians. The Vikings used the rivers of Russia for trade routes, finding their way eventually all the way to Black Sea and southern Russia. Lands next to the sea's eastern shore were among the last in Europe to be converted into Christianity in the Northern Crusades: Finland in the 12th century by the Swedes, and what are now Estonia and Latvia in the early 13th century by the Danes and the Germans (Livonian Brothers of the Sword). The powerful German Teutonic Knights gained control over most of the southern and eastern shore of the Baltic Sea, while fighting the Poles, the Danes, the Swedes, the Russians of ancient Novgorod, and the Lithuanians (latest of all Europeans to convert to Christianity). Later on, the strongest economic force in Northern Europe became the Hanseatic league, which used the Baltic Sea to establish trade routes between its member cities. In the 16th and early 17th centuries, Poland, Denmark and Sweden fought wars for Dominium Maris Baltici (Ruling over the Baltic Sea). Eventually, it was the Swedish empire that virtually encompassed the Baltic Sea. In Sweden the sea was then referred to as Mare Nostrum Balticum (Our Baltic Sea). In the 18th century Russia and Prussia became the leading powers over the sea. Russia's Peter the Great saw the strategic importance of the Baltic and decided to found his new capital, Saint Petersburg at the mouth of the Neva river at the east end of the Gulf of Finland. There was much trading not just within the Baltic region but also with the North Sea region, especially the eastern England and the Netherlands: their fleets needed the Baltic timber, tar, flax and hemp. During the Crimean War a joint fleet of Britain and France attacked Russian fortresses by bombarding Sveaborg that guards Helsinki and Kronstadt that guards Saint Petersburg and destroying Bomarsund in the Åland Islands. After the unification of Germany in 1871, the whole southern coast became German. The First World War was fought also on the Baltic Sea. After 1920 Poland returned to the Baltic Sea, and Polish ports of Gdynia and Gdańsk became leading ports of the Baltic. During the Second World War Germany reclaimed all of the southern shore and much of the eastern by occupying Poland and the Baltic states. In 1945 the Baltic Sea became a mass grave for drowned people on torpedoed refugee ships. As of 2004, the sinking of the Wilhelm Gustloff remains the worst maritime disaster of all time, killing (very roughly) 9,000 people. In 2005, a Russian group of scientists found over 5,000 airplane wrecks, sunken warships, etc., (mainly from the Second World War) lying in the bottom of the sea. After 1945 the sea was a border between conflicted military blocks: in case of military conflict in Germany, in parallel with a Soviet offensive towards the Atlantic Ocean, communist Poland's fleet was prepared to invade Danish isles. In May 2004, the Baltic Sea became almost completely a European Union internal sea when the Baltic states and Poland became parts of the European Union, leaving only the Russian metropolis of Saint Petersburg and the exclave of Kaliningrad Oblast as non-EU areas. The Baltic Sea starts to get very rough with the October storms. These winter storms have been the cause of many shipwrecks, for example, the sinking of the ferry M/S Estonia en route from Tallinn, Estonia to Stockholm, Sweden in 1994 that claimed the lives of hundreds. But thanks to the cold brackish water where the shipworm cannot survive, the sea is a time capsule for centuries-old shipwrecks. Perhaps the most famous one is the Vasa.

Biology

Vasa Approximately 100,000 square km of the bottom, ¼ of the total area, are a variable dead zone. The more saline and therefore heavier water remains on the bottom, preventing Oxygen distribution to it. Mainly bacteria grow there, digesting organic pollutants and releasing hydrogen sulfide. The bloom of algae is visible from the air. Since most oceanic species use the bottom for various purposes, which is denied over much of the Baltic, the ecology differs from that of the Atlantic. The low salinity of the Baltic sea has led to the evolution of many slightly divergent species, such as the Baltic Sea herring, which is a smaller variant of the Atlantic herring. The benthic fauna consists mainly of Monoporeia affinis, which is originally a freshwater species. The lack of tides has affected the marine species as compared with the Atlantic.

Economy

Construction of the Great Belt Bridge (1997) and Oresund Bridge (1999) over the international waterway of the Danish Straits limited the Baltic Sea to the middle-sized vessels. In meantime, the Baltic Sea is the main trade route for export of Russian oil. Many of the neighboring countries are rather concerned about this, since a major oil leak would be disastrous in the Baltic given the slow exchange of water, and the many unique species. The tourism industries, especially in economies dependent on tourism like for example in northeastern Germany, are naturally very concerned. Shipbuilding is practiced in many large shipyards around the Baltic: Gdańsk, Szczecin in Poland, HDW in Kiel, Germany, Karlskrona and Kockums in Malmö, Sweden, and Rauma, Turku, Helsinki in Finland and Klaipėda in Lithuania. There are several cargo and passenger ferry operators on the Baltic Sea, such as Silja Line, Polferries, Viking Line, Tallink and Superfastferries.

Countries

Main article: Baltic Sea countries Countries that border on the sea:
- Denmark
- Estonia
- Finland
- Germany
- Latvia
- Lithuania
- Poland
- Russia
- Sweden Countries that are in the drainage basin but do not border on the sea:
- Belarus
- Czech Republic
- Norway
- Slovakia
- Ukraine

Islands and Archipelagoes

Main article: List of islands in the Baltic Sea
- Åland Islands (Finland, autonomous)
- Bornholm (Denmark)
- Gotland (Sweden)
- Hailuoto (Finland)
- Hiiumaa (Estonia)
- Kotlin (Russia)
- Muhu (Estonia)
- Öland (Sweden)
- Rügen (Germany)
- Saaremaa (Estonia)
- Stockholm archipelago (Sweden)
- Usedom or Uznam (split between Germany and Poland)
- Valassaaret (Finland)
- Wolin (Poland)

Cities

The biggest coastal cities:
- Saint Petersburg (Russia) 4,700,000
- Riga (Latvia) 760,000
- Stockholm (Sweden) 743,703 (metropolitan area 1,823,210)
- Helsinki (Finland) 559,716 (metropolitan area 980,000)
- Copenhagen (Denmark) 502,204 (metropolitan area 1,823,109) (facing the Sound)
- Gdańsk (Poland) 462,700
- Szczecin (Poland) 413,600
- Tallinn (Estonia) 401,774
- Kaliningrad (Russia) 400,000
- Malmö (Sweden) 259,579 (facing the Sound)
- Gdynia (Poland) 255,600
- Kiel (Germany) 250,000
- Lübeck (Germany) 216,100
- Rostock (Germany) 212,700
- Klaipėda (Lithuania) 194,400
- Turku (Finland) 175,000 Important ports (though not being big cities):
- Świnoujście (Poland) 50,000
- Ventspils (Latvia) 44,000
- Baltiysk (Russia) 20,000
- Hanko (Finland) 10,000
- Ports of the Baltic Sea

See also


- Baltic
- Baltic region
- Council of the Baltic Sea States
- Baltic states
- Scandinavia
- Northern Europe
- List of rivers of the Baltic Sea

External links


- [http://depts.washington.edu/baltic/encyclopedia.html Encyclopedia of Baltic History]
- [http://www.abc.se/~pa/uwa/wrecks.htm Old shipwrecks] in the Baltic
- [http://www.pgi.gov.pl/pgi_en/index.php?option=news&task=viewarticle&sid=4&Itemid=2 How the Baltic Sea was changing] - Prehistory of the Baltic from the [http://www.pgi.gov.pl/ Polish Geological Institute]
- [http://www.helsinki.fi/maantiede/geofi/fennia/demo/pages/oksanen.htm Late Weichselian and Holocene shore displacement history of the Baltic Sea in Finland] - more prehistory of the Baltic from the [http://www.helsinki.fi/geography/ Department of Geography] of the University of Helsinki
- [http://maps.grida.no/baltic Baltic Environmental Atlas: Interactive map of the Baltic Sea region]
- [http://www.envir.ee/baltics/ The Baltic Sea Environment]

Tourism links

University of Helsinki
- [http://www.zrot.pl Zrot : Official Tourism Site Western Pomerania (PL)] (Polish, English, German)
- [http://www.zart.com.pl Zart : Polish Tourism Site Western Pomerania (PL)] (Polish, English, German)
- [http://www.vorpommern.de Official German Tourism Site : Regional Tourist Board Vorpommern (D)] (English, German, Swedish, Polish, French, Russian, Spanish)
- [http://www.ostseeland.de Ost|See|Land - Overview: German Polish- Tourism site (D)] (English, German, Swedish, Polish)
- [http://itameri.kyamk.fi/e.html The Baltic Sea Information Centre] (English, Finnish) Category:Seas Category:Baltic Sea ko:발트 해 ja:バルト海 simple:Baltic Sea th:ทะเลบอลติก

Northern Europe

Northern Europe is a name of the northern part of the European continent. At different times this region has been defined differently but today it is generally seen to include:
  - the Nordic countries, i.e. Denmark, the Faroe Islands, Finland, Iceland, Norway and Sweden
  - the Baltic states, i.e. Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania
  - The British Isles, i.e. the Republic of Ireland, the United Kingdom, the Isle of Man and the Channel Islands - although there is some debate about their position in this region
  - others areas bordering the Baltic Sea and the North Sea, e.g. north-eastern Russia, northern Poland, northern Germany, the Benelux Before the 19th century, the term 'Nordic' or 'Northern' was commonly used to mean Northern Europe in a sense that included the Nordic countries, European Russia, the Baltic countries (at that time Livonia and Courland) and Greenland. In earlier eras, when Europe was dominated by the Mediterranean region, everything not near this sea was termed Northern Europe, including Germany, the Low Countries, and Austria. This meaning is still used today in some contexts, such as in discussions of the Northern Renaissance. In a European Union context, Denmark, Sweden, Finland, Germany, Belgium and the Netherlands are often seen as belonging to a Northern group.

Remarks

# The Baltic sea countries, as a related term, also include Germany, Poland and Russia # The Baltic States were during the Cold War and before that during the height of the Russian Empire considered to be part of Eastern Europe, although the peoples are not Slavs, and the Baltic States share much history and many common traits with the Nordic countries. # Scandinavia is a somewhat ambiguous concept covering some or all of the Nordic countries. Northern Europe ko:북유럽 ja:北ヨーロッパ

Latitude

Latitude, sometimes denoted by the Greek letter φ, gives the location of a place on Earth north or south of the Equator. Latitude is an angular measurement ranging from 0° at the Equator to 90° at the poles (90º N or 90º S). Co-latitude is the complement of latitude. complement showing lines of latitude, which appear straight and horizontal in this projection, but are actually circular with different radii.]]

Lines of latitude

All locations of a given latitude are collectively referred to as a line of latitude or parallel, because they are coplanar, and all such planes are parallel to the Equator. Lines of latitude other than the Equator are approximately small circles on the surface of the Earth; they are not geodesics since the shortest route between two points at the same latitude involves moving farther away from the equator. A specific latitude may then be combined with a specific longitude to give a precise position on the Earth's surface.

Subdivisions

Each degree of latitude is further sub-divided into 60 minutes (one arcminute of latitude is exactly one nautical mile or 1852 metres), each of which divides into 60 seconds. A latitude is thus specified as 13° 19′ 43" N. For high accuracy, the seconds are specified with a decimal fraction. An alternative representation uses degrees and minutes, where parts of a minute are expressed as a decimal fraction, thus: 13° 19.717′ N. Degrees expressed as a decimal number (Decimal Degree notation) is more often used: 13.32861° N. Sometimes, the North/South suffix is replaced by a negative sign for South (-90º for the south pole).

Important latitudes

Latitudes of particular importance are the Tropic of Cancer (latitude 23°27′ north), the Tropic of Capricorn (latitude 23°27′ south), the Arctic Circle (latitude 66°33′ north), and the Antarctic Circle (latitude 66°33′ south). Only at latitudes between the Tropics is it possible for the sun to be at the zenith. Only north of the Arctic Circle or south of the Antarctic Circle is the midnight sun possible.

Effect of latitude

A region's latitude has a great effect on its climate and weather. Latitude more loosely determines tendencies in climate, polar auroras, prevailing winds, and other physical characteristics of geographic locations.

Types of latitude

Because the Earth is slightly flattened by its rotation, cartographers refer to a variety of auxiliary latitudes to precisely adapt spherical projections according to their purpose.

Common "latitude"


- In common usage, "latitude" refers to geodetic or geographic latitude φ and is the angle between the equatorial plane and a line that is normal to the reference spheroid, which approximates the shape of the Earth to account for flattening of the poles and bulging of the equator. The expressions following assume elliptical polar sections with eccentricity e, and that all sections parallel to the equatorial plane are circular. Geographic latitude (with longitude) then provides a Gauss map.

Reduced latitude


- Reduced or parametric latitude β is the latitude of the same radius on the sphere with the same equator. ::\beta=\arctan\!\left\\,\!

Authalic latitude


- Authalic latitude ξ gives an area-preserving transform to the sphere. ::: \xi=\arcsin\!\left\\,\! :\mbox Q\!\left\=\left|\frac-\frac\ln\!\left\\right|

Rectifying latitude


- Rectifying latitude μ is the surface distance from the equator, scaled so the pole is 90°. Unfortunately, it is an incomplete elliptic integral: ::\mu=k\int_^\phi\fracdx\,\!

Conformal latitude


- Conformal latitude χ gives an angle-preserving (conformal) transform to the sphere. ::\chi=2\arctan\!\left\-\frac\,\!

Geocentric latitude


- The geocentric latitude φg is the angle between the equatorial plane and a line from the center of the Earth. ::\phi_g=\arctan\left\\,\! For other planets such as Mars, geographic and geocentric latitude are called "planetographic" and "planetocentric" latitude, respectively. Most maps of Mars since 2002 use planetocentric coordinates.
Approximate difference from geographic latitude
φ reduced
φ − β 		authalic
φ − ξ 		rectifying
φ − μ 		conformal
φ − χ 		geocentric
φ − φg
0° 0.00′ 0.00′ 0.00′ 0.00′ 0.00′
5° 1.01′ 1.35′ 1.52′ 2.02′ 2.02′
10° 1.99′ 2.66′ 2.99′ 3.98′ 3.98′
15° 2.91′ 3.89′ 4.37′ 5.82′ 5.82′
20° 3.75′ 5.00′ 5.62′ 7.48′ 7.48′
25° 4.47′ 5.96′ 6.70′ 8.92′ 8.92′
30° 5.05′ 6.73′ 7.57′10.09′10.09′
35° 5.48′ 7.31′ 8.22′10.95′10.96′
40° 5.75′ 7.66′ 8.62′11.48′11.49′
45° 5.84′ 7.78′ 8.76′11.67′11.67′
50° 5.75′ 7.67′ 8.63′11.50′11.50′
55° 5.49′ 7.32′ 8.23′10.97′10.98′
60° 5.06′ 6.75′ 7.59′10.12′10.13′
65° 4.48′ 5.97′ 6.72′ 8.95′ 8.96′
70° 3.76′ 5.01′ 5.64′ 7.52′ 7.52′
75° 2.92′ 3.90′ 4.39′ 5.85′ 5.85′
80° 2.00′ 2.67′ 3.00′ 4.00′ 4.01′
85° 1.02′ 1.35′ 1.52′ 2.03′ 2.03′
90° 0.00′ 0.00′ 0.00′ 0.00′ 0.00′

Astronomical latitude


- A more obscure measure of latitude is the astronomical latitude, which is the angle between the equatorial plane and the normal to the geoid (ie a plumb line). It originated as the angle between horizon and pole star.

Latitude and wealth

It is frequently observed that there is a distinct correlation between latitude and the wealth of nations. The continents along the equator, Africa and South America are the poorest. Even within Africa and South America this can be seen as the nations furthest from the equator are wealthier. In Africa the wealthiest nations are the three on the southern tip of the continent, South Africa, Botswana, and Namibia, and the countries of North Africa. Similarly in Latin America Argentina, Chile and Uruguay have long been the wealthiest. Within Asia, Indonesia, located on the equator, is among the poorest. The wealthiest nations of the world with the highest standard of living tend to be those at the northern extreme of areas open to human habitation, Canada, and the Nordic Countries. Within the wealthy continents, and even within large countries wealth increases with distance from the equator. Southern Europe has long been poorer as has the Southern United States. There have been a number of explanations for this phenomenon. The first to describe and try to assess it was the French philosophe Montesquieu who proposed that cold weather means less blood in the extremities, which makes the flesh less elastic; this gives northerners more strength and makes them less able to relax. This forcing of the blood inward, according to Montesquieu also means more flows through the heart, increasing vitality. These findings have been wholly discredited by modern science.

Evolutionary explanations

One explanation is grounded in evolutionary theory. Some have argued that as humans migrated into higher latitudes and encountered colder weather there, the cold weather forced the evolution of higher group intelligence by forcing inhabitants to perform more intellectually demanding tasks, such as building shelter, fires, and clothing, in order to survive (Lynn, 1991). One study that supports this notion was performed by Beals et al. (1984, p. 309), who found a correlation of 0.62 (p=0.00001) between latitude and cranial capacity in samples worldwide and reported that each degree of latitude was associated with an increase of 2.5 cm³ in cranial volume. Researchers such as J. Philippe Rushton have argued that the association of greater brain size with greater latitude is due to the fact that cold weather imposes on its inhabitants more cognitively demanding tasks such as the need to construct shelter, make clothing, and store food.

Non-evolutionary explanations

Another explanation that is still widely held is that modern technologies and institutions were designed primarily in a small area of north western Europe. Thus agricultural techniques, machines, and medicines were designed to suit a temperate climate. These technologies and models readily spread to areas of similar climate, such as North America and Australia. As these areas also became centres of innovation this bias was further enhanced. Vastly less effort has been put into improving tropical agriculture than temperate because of this. Technologies, from automobiles to power lines are designed for colder drier regions and tend to work far worse in the tropics. In simple words, the life in tropics doesn't create a strong natural urge for new technology development since life conditions in terms of basic body needs are comfortable enough. The colder the weather, the more life necessities are required for survival, which creates a strong motivation for ongoing innovative process. To make a comfortable life farther from tropics requires a more advanced technology. But once the life is comfortable enough, the 'innovation belt' is moving further from equator again. Thus, there exists a vicious cycle of technologies being designed for the wealthy, which makes them more wealthy and thus more able to fund technological development. One piece of evidence for this is that the far north has not always been the wealthiest latitude. Until only a few centuries ago, the wealthiest belt stretched from Southern Europe through the Middle East, northern India and southern China. A dramatic shift in technologies beginning with ocean going ships and culminating in the Industrial Revolution saw the most developed belt move north, in Europe, in China, and in the Americas. Northern Russia became a superpower while southern India became impoverished and colonized. Such dramatic changes argue that the current distribution of wealth is not due to immutable factors such as climate or race. Linked to this explanation is that of disease. The tropics are far more prone to devastating diseases due to their temperature that makes life easier on vectors such as insects and rodents. There has long been a malarial belt spanning the globe; this made human life more difficult. Most notably it was almost impossible for most forms of northern livestock to thrive. These problems have been compounded by the wealth of the north: vastly more research money goes into curing the ailments of northerners. Physiologist Jared Diamond, in his Pulitzer Prize-winning work Guns, Germs, and Steel, made the case that the Europe-Asia land mass is particularly favorable for the transition of societies from hunter-gatherer to farming communities. The continent stretches much further along the same lines of latitude than any of the other continents. As it is much easier to transfer a domesticated species along the same latitude than it is to move it to a warmer or colder climate, any species developed at a particular latitude will be transferred across the continent in a relatively short amount of time. Thus the inhabitants of this continent have a built-in advantage in terms of earlier development of farming, and a greater range of plants and animals from which to choose. He also linked this progression to the development of diseases that were later to threaten the inhabitants of other continents. The close association of people in Europe-Asia with their domesticated animals provided a vector for the rapid transmission of diseases. Inhabitants of lands with few domesticated species were never exposed to the same range of diseases, and so, at least on the American continents, succumbed to diseases introduced from Europe.

Further reading


- John P. Snyder Map Projections: a working manual USGS

See also


- Geographic coordinate system
- Geodetic system
- Geodesy
- Great-circle distance
- Horse latitudes
- List of cities by latitude
- List of cities by longitude
- Longitude
- Navigation

References


-
-

External links


- [http://www.bcca.org/misc/qiblih/latlong.html Look-up Latitude and Longitude]
- [http://jan.ucc.nau.edu/~cvm/latlon_find_location.html Resources for determining your latitude and longitude]
- [http://geography.about.com/library/howto/htdegrees.htm Convert decimal degrees into degrees, minutes, seconds] - Info about decimal to sexagesimal conversion
- [http://sundials.org/links/local/pages/dd_dms.htm NASS - Convert degrees/minutes/seconds to decimal degrees and vice versa] - JavaScript version
- [http://www.marinewaypoints.com/learn/greatcircle.shtml Distance calculation based on latitude and longitude] - JavaScript version
- [http://www.cia.gov/cia/publications/factbook/reference_maps/pdf/political_world.pdf Zoomable version of the map] (pdf) Category:Navigation Category:Angle ja:緯度 th:ละติจูด

Longitude

showing lines of longitude, which appear curved and vertical in this projection, but are actually halves of great circles]] Longitude, sometimes denoted by the Greek letter λ, describes the location of a place on Earth east or west of a north-south line called the Prime Meridian. Longitude is given as an angular measurement ranging from 0° at the Prime Meridian to +180° eastward and −180° westward. Unlike latitude, which has the equator as a natural starting position, there is no natural starting position for longitude. Therefore, a reference meridian had to be chosen. While British cartographers had long used the Greenwich meridian in London, other references were used elsewhere, including: Ferro, Rome, Copenhagen, Jerusalem, Saint Petersburg, Pisa, Paris, Philadelphia and Washington. In 1884, the International Meridian Conference adopted the Greenwich meridian as the universal prime meridian or zero point of longitude. Each degree of longitude is further sub-divided into 60 minutes, each of which divided into 60 seconds. A longitude is thus specified as 23° 27′ 30" E. For high accuracy, the seconds are specified with a decimal fraction. An alternative representation uses degrees and minutes, where parts of a minute are expressed as a decimal fraction, thus: 23° 27.500′ E. Degrees expressed as a decimal number is also used: 23.45833° E. Sometimes, the West/East suffix is replaced by a negative sign for West. Confusingly, the convention of negative for East is also sometimes seen. The preferred convention that East is positive is consistent with the right-handed x-axis in the Cartesian coordinate system. A specific longitude may then be combined with a specific latitude to give a precise position on the Earth's surface. As opposed to a degree of latitude, which always corresponds to about 111 km (69 mi), a degree of longitude corresponds to a distance from 0 to 111 km: it is 111 km times the cosine of the latitude, when the distance is laid out on a circle of constant latitude; if the shortest distance, on a great circle were used, the distance would be even a little less. Longitude at a point may be determined by calculating the time difference between that at its location and Coordinated Universal Time (UTC). Since there are 24 hours in a day and 360 degrees in a circle, the sun moves 15 degrees per hour (360°/24 hours = 15° per hour). So if the time zone a person is in is three hours ahead of UTC then that person is near 45° longitude (3 hours × 15° per hour = 45°). The word near was used because the point might not be at the center of the time zone; also the time zones are defined politically, so their centers and boundaries often do not lie on meridians at multiples of 15°. In order to perform this calculation, however, a person needs to have a chronometer (watch) set to UTC and needs to determine local time by solar observation or astronomical observation. The details are more complex than described here: see the articles on Universal Time and on the Equation of time for more details. A line of constant longitude is a meridian, and half of a great circle.

History of the measurement of longitude

The search for a solution

The measurement of longitude is important to both cartography and navigation. Historically, the most important practical application of these was to provide safe ocean navigation. Knowledge of both latitude and longitude was required. Whereas latitude was easy to determine by celestial navigation using the elevation of the pole star or of the sun at noon, for longitude early ocean navigators had to rely on dead reckoning. This was inaccurate on long voyages out of sight of land, and these voyages sometimes ended with shipwrecks. The discovery of how to measure longitude accurately was among the important discoveries of the 1600s and 1700s. The first effective solution for mapmaking was achieved by Giovanni Domenico Cassini starting in 1681, using Galileo's method based on the satellites of Jupiter. For application without a professional astronomer at hand, and in particular measurement at sea, the problem was more difficult; see Dava Sobel's book: Longitude: The True Story of a Lone Genius Who Solved the Greatest Scientific Problem of His Time for a good historical overview. This genius was John Harrison.

The Longitude Act and Harrison's chronometer

The tragic wrecking of the British fleet led by Sir Cloudesley Shovell led to the British Longitude Act, which created the Longitude Prize for anyone who could devise a practical method of determining longitude at sea. This was eventually achieved by John Harrison with his chronometer; the timepiece in question was the one later known as H-4. Harrison's son led a voyage aboard a ship from Portsmouth, England to the Caribbean port city of Bridgetown, Barbados with the H-4 aboard. Harrison demonstrated a method of determining longitude by keeping the exact time of day for Britain, while using astronomical observations to find the exact local time on the ship as it sailed to the island of Barbados. In this way he was able to determine the position of the ship relative to Barbados whose longitude was known. The calculation of the ship's position was only 10 miles in error when it arrived.

Later developments

Exchanges of chronometers between observatories, to determine the precise differences in local time, used in conjunction with the observation of the transit of stars across the meridian became a standard way of determining longitude. Another method was the observation of occultations of stars at different observatories. From the mid 19th century, instead of exchanging chronometers, telegraph time signals were used; radio time signals followed in the early 20th century. Satellites were used for measurements from the 1970s and 1980s - see GPS. Longitude is the second part of the ICBM address, latitude being the first.

Ecliptic latitude and longitude

Ecliptic latitude and longitude are defined for the planets, stars, and other celestial bodies in a similar way to that in which the terrestrial counterparts are defined. The pole is the normal to the ecliptic nearest to the celestial north pole. Ecliptic latitude is measured from 0° to 90° north (+) or south (−) of the ecliptic. Ecliptic longitude is measured from 0° to 360° eastward (the direction that the Sun appears to move relative to the stars) along the ecliptic from the vernal equinox. The equinox at a specific date and time is a fixed equinox, such as that in the J2000 reference frame. However, the equinox moves because it is the intersection of two planes, both of which move. The ecliptic is relatively stationary, wobbling within a 4° diameter circle relative to the fixed stars over millions of years under the gravitational influence of the other planets. The greatest movement is a relatively rapid gyration of Earth's equatorial plane whose pole traces a 47° diameter circle caused by the Moon. This causes the equinox to precess westward along the ecliptic about 50" per year. This moving equinox is called the equinox of date. Ecliptic longitude relative to a moving equinox is used whenever the positions of the Sun, Moon, planets, or stars at dates other than that of a fixed equinox is important, as in calendars, astrology, or celestial mechanics. The 'error' of the Julian or Gregorian calendar is always relative to a moving equinox. The years, months, and days of the Chinese calendar all depend on the ecliptic longitudes of date of the Sun and Moon. The 30° zodiacal segments used in astrology are also relative to a moving equinox. Celestial mechanics (here restricted to the motion of solar system bodies) uses both a fixed and moving equinox. Sometimes in the study of Milankovitch cycles, the invariable plane of the solar system is substituted for the moving ecliptic. Longitude may be denominated from 0 to \begin2\pi\end radians in either case.

Longitude on bodies other than Earth

Planetary co-ordinate systems are defined relative to their mean axis of rotation and various definitions of longitude depending on the body. The longitude systems of most of those bodies with observable rigid surfaces have been defined by references to a surface feature such as a crater. The north pole is that pole of rotation that lies on the north side of the invariable plane of the solar system (the ecliptic). The location of the prime meridian as well as the position of body's north pole on the celestial sphere may vary with time due to precession of the axis of rotation of the planet (or satellite). If the position angle of the body's prime meridian increases with time, the body has a direct (or prograde) rotation; otherwise the rotation is said to be retrograde. In the absence of other information, the axis of rotation is assumed to be normal to the mean orbital plane; Mercury and most of the satellites are in this category. For many of the satellites, it is assumed that the rotation rate is equal to the mean orbital period. In the case of the giant planets, since their surface features are constantly changing and moving at various rates, the rotation of their magnetic fields is used as a reference instead. In the case of the Sun, even this criterion fails (because its magnetosphere is very complex and does not really rotate in a steady fashion), and an agreed-upon value for the rotation of its equator is used instead. For "planetographic longitude", west longitudes (i.e., longitudes measured positively to the west) are used when the rotation is prograde and east longitudes (i.e., longitudes measured positively to the east) when the rotation is retrograde. However, "planetocentric longitude" is measured positively to the east. Because of tradition, the Earth, Sun, and Moon do not conform with this definition: their rotations are prograde and longitudes run both east and west 180° instead of the usual 360°. The reference surfaces for some planets (such as Earth and Mars) are ellipsoids of revolution for which the equatorial radius is larger than the polar radius. Smaller bodies (Io, Mimas, etc.) tend to be better approximated by triaxial ellipsoids; however, triaxial ellipsoids would render many computations more complicated, especially those related to map projections. Many projections would lose their elegant and popular properties. For this reason spherical reference surfaces are frequently used in mapping programs. The modern standard for maps of Mars (since about 2002) is to use planetocentric coordinates. The meridian of Mars is located at Airy-0 crater. [http://www.esa.int/SPECIALS/Mars_Express/SEM0VQV4QWD_0.html]

See also


- celestial navigation
- dead reckoning
- latitude
- geographic coordinate system
- navigation
- sextant
- time zone
- great-circle distance explains how to find that quantity if one knows the two latitudes and longitudes.
- geodetic system

External links


- [http://www.bcca.org/misc/qiblih/latlong.html Look-up Latitude and Longitude]
- [http://jan.ucc.nau.edu/~cvm/latlon_find_location.html Resources for determining your latitude and longitude]
- [http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/nova/longitude/ PBS Nova Online: Lost at Sea, the Search for Longitude]
- [http://www.hnsky.org/iau-iag.htm IAU/IAG Working Group On Cartographic Coordinates and Rotational Elements of the Planets and Satellites]
- Category:Navigation Category:Angle ja:経度 th:ลองจิจูด

Northern Europe

Northern Europe is a name of the northern part of the European continent. At different times this region has been defined differently but today it is generally seen to include:
  - the Nordic countries, i.e. Denmark, the Faroe Islands, Finland, Iceland, Norway and Sweden
  - the Baltic states, i.e. Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania
  - The British Isles, i.e. the Republic of Ireland, the United Kingdom, the Isle of Man and the Channel Islands - although there is some debate about their position in this region
  - others areas bordering the Baltic Sea and the North Sea, e.g. north-eastern Russia, northern Poland, northern Germany, the Benelux Before the 19th century, the term 'Nordic' or 'Northern' was commonly used to mean Northern Europe in a sense that included the Nordic countries, European Russia, the Baltic countries (at that time Livonia and Courland) and Greenland. In earlier eras, when Europe was dominated by the Mediterranean region, everything not near this sea was termed Northern Europe, including Germany, the Low Countries, and Austria. This meaning is still used today in some contexts, such as in discussions of the Northern Renaissance. In a European Union context, Denmark, Sweden, Finland, Germany, Belgium and the Netherlands are often seen as belonging to a Northern group.

Remarks

# The Baltic sea countries, as a related term, also include Germany, Poland and Russia # The Baltic States were during the Cold War and before that during the height of the Russian Empire considered to be part of Eastern Europe, although the peoples are not Slavs, and the Baltic States share much history and many common traits with the Nordic countries. # Scandinavia is a somewhat ambiguous concept covering some or all of the Nordic countries. Northern Europe ko:북유럽 ja:北ヨーロッパ

Central Europe

] Central Europe is the region lying between the variously and vaguely defined areas of Eastern and Western Europe. The term has come back into fashion since the dissolution of the Warsaw Pact (which had divided Europe into East and West). The region is generally considered to contain (from North to South): Poland, Czech Republic, Slovakia, Hungary, Slovenia and more rarely Croatia, Romania, Serbia and Montenegro, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Bulgaria, Albania, and the Republic of Macedonia. Germany, Austria, and Switzerland are sometimes also included, although in the UK they are usually considered part of Western Europe (in Germany itself Germany is usually considered part of Central Europe). Historically, there are no physical landmarks that would commonly be seen as its borders. Rather, it is a concept of shared history, in opposition against the East represented by the Ottoman Empire and Imperial Russia, and up to World War I distinguished from the West as the area of relative political conservatism opposing the modern liberal ideas acquired by overseas trading; and ultimately from the French Revolution. Following World War I, and even more so after World War II, these modern ideas in general, and liberal democracy in particular, expanded its dominance to Austria and Germany. The concept of Central Europe fell out of usage during Cold War, shadowed by notions of Eastern and Western Europe. It may be seen in historical and cultural contexts, where it denotes areas where Germans settled and mixed with Slavs and Magyars, and where Roma and Jewish minorities made important cultural contributions. This notion has lost much of its relevance due to the Holocaust and the following ethnic division over the Oder-Neisse line with Germans transferred to the West both physically and ideologically. The term is being increasingly used again, with the recent expanses of European Union. It is sometimes joked that Central Europe is the part of the continent that is considered Eastern by Western Europeans and Western by Eastern Europeans.

Between the Alps and the Baltics

European Union According to several English-language encyclopedias, such as the Encyclopædia Britannica, the 1911 Encyclopædia Britannica and the Columbia Encyclopedia, as well as the CIA World Factbook, the term Central Europe is taken to include: In the article on Europe, the 1913 Catholic Encyclopedia counts Germany (that then reached east of the Baltic) but not Switzerland to Central Europe; Liechtenstein is not mentioned. In other articles of that encyclopedia, France and Switzerland are included. The notion of Alpine Countries extending to the Baltic Sea and the North Sea is not uncontroversial. While Germany without any doubt formerly has been considered a Central European land, both by Germans and by others, it has at least for the 19th and 20th century had an identity and self-image as located North of the Alps rather than in the Alps. This holds true even for Bavaria, the most Alpine of the German states, where most people live below the Alps.

Culturally Central-European

Several other countries also have regions that retain a Central European character, having historically been part of the central European kingdoms and empires such as the Holy Roman Empire, the Kingdom of Hungary, the Habsburg monarchy, the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth, and Imperial Germany. They include:
- Belarus (western parts)
- Croatia
- Lithuania
- Romania
- Serbia (Vojvodina)
- Ukraine (Galicia, Volhynia, Podolia)

Central Europe behind the Iron Curtain

Following World War II, large parts of Europe that were culturally and historically Western became part of the Eastern bloc, which effectively neutralized the concept of Central Europe. Following the dissolution of the Warsaw Pact and the end of the Cold War, this distinction has again come into use, often to cover those countries that had been Warsaw Pact members but are now members of NATO and the European Union, reflecting remaining differences between countries that were socialist or capitalist. The English term Central Europe was increasingly applied only to the western-most former Warsaw Pact countries (Poland to Hungary) to specify them as culturally-akin socialist countries. This usage continued after the end of the Warsaw Pact when these countries started to undergo transition. In everyday usage, this is the most common meaning of Central Europe, not least among Central Europeans for whom it is often important to point out the difference to that "Eastern Europe" that they otherwise are grouped together with. So defined, the following countries are entirely included:
- Poland
- Czech Republic
- Slovakia
- Hungary
- Romania
- Slovenia Usually excluded are:
- the Baltic countries
- Russian Orthodox and Muslim lands
- the Balkans Although Slovenia as a part of Yugoslavia was strictly speaking not a member of the Warsaw Pact, Slovenia's 20th century history has much in common with that of the other Central European countries. East Germany, on the other hand, was from 1949–1990 a loyal member of the Warsaw Pact, but would now rather be seen as the inheritors of Protestant Prussian culture than of Catholic Central Europe.

The new members of the European Union

After the enlargement of the European Union of 1 May 2004, the term Central Europe is sometimes used in a way that means "the new members of EU"— from Estonia to Malta— perhaps in particular by writers who want to avoid the term coined by Donald Rumsfeld, New Europe, which may be perceived to carry too much American ignorance of matters European. Malta and Cyprus, as well as Estonia and Latvia, are sometimes now also included, but as these new members of the EU are clearly more differentiated from most of the western EU members economically it is arguably an inaccurate construction in its own right. It can be also questioned what there is that unites the nations of a region so constructed apart from a less advanced economy. A usage that closer adheres to the common cultural traits, and also the shared experience of post-war Stalinist rule, may be less prone to cause confusion.

Remnants of the Holy Roman Empire

The German term Mitteleuropa (or alternatively its literal translation into English, Middle Europe) is sometimes used in English to refer to an area somewhat larger than most conceptions of 'Central Europe'; it refers to territories under German(ic) cultural hegemony until World War I (encompassing Austria and Germany in their interbellum-formations but usually excluding Balticum north of East Prussia). ko:중앙유럽 ja:中央ヨーロッパ

Denmark

The Kingdom of Denmark (Danish: Kongeriget Danmark) is geographically the smallest and southernmost Nordic country, and is part of the European Union. It is located at in Scandinavia which is in northern Europe, but it does not lie on the Scandinavian Peninsula. Denmark borders the Baltic Sea and the North Sea, and consists of a peninsula attached to Northern Germany named Jutland (Jylland), the islands Funen (Fyn), Zealand (Sjælland), Bornholm and many smaller islands, the waters of which are often referred to as the Danish Archipelago. Denmark lies north of Germany (its only land neighbour), southwest of Sweden, and south of Norway. Greenland and the Faroe Islands are Crown territories of Denmark, each with political home rule.

History

:Main article: History of Denmark The origin of Denmark is lost in prehistory. The oldest Danevirke is from the 7th century, at the same time as the new Runic alphabet. Oldest city: Ribe is from about 810. Up into the 10th century the Danes were known as Vikings, together with Norwegians and Swedes, colonising, raiding and trading in all parts of Europe. Viking explorers first discovered Iceland by accident in the ninth century, en route to the Faroe Islands. Erik the Red, or Erik Thorvaldson, was exiled from the colony for manslaughter in 980, and set sail for the west, to explore the lands to the west. He established the first settelments in Greenland around this time, naming the land, according to ledgend, to attract settelers. Erik's son Leif the Lucky(Leif Ericson)finally set foot in the Americas around the year 1000. While some say he was blown off course, it is most likely that he was diliberatly seeking the land spotted by Bjarni Herjulfsson several years earlier. He established a colony at L'Anse aux Meadows, which lasted only a year. Two further attempts at colonization by his brother ended in failure. At various times the King of Denmark has ruled parts of England and Ireland, Norway, Sweden, Finland, Iceland, France, especially Normandy and the Virgin Islands, Tranquebar in India, Estonia and what is now Northern Germany. Scania, Blekinge and Halland were part of Denmark for most of its early history, but were lost to Sweden in 1658. The union with Norway was dissolved in 1814, when Norway entered a new union with Sweden (until 1905). The Danish liberal and national movement gained momentum in the 1830s, and after the European revolutions of 1848 Denmark became a constitutional monarchy June 5 1849. After the Second War of Schleswig (Danish: Slesvig) in 1864 Denmark was forced to cede Schleswig-Holstein to Prussia, in a defeat that left deep marks in the Danish national identity. After this point Denmark adopted a policy of neutrality, as a result of which Denmark stayed neutral in World War I. Following the defeat of Germany, Denmark was offered by the Versailles powers the return of Schleswig-Holstein. Fearing German irredentism Denmark refused to consider the return of Holstein and insisted on a plebiscite concerning the return of Schleswig. In 1920, following the plebiscite, Northern Schleswig was recovered by Denmark. Despite its continued neutrality Denmark was invaded by Germany (Operation Weserübung), on April 9, 1940. Though at first accorded self-rule (which ended in 1943 due to a mounting resistance movement), Denmark remained militarily occupied throughout World War II. The Danish sympathy for the Allied Cause was strong; 1,900 Danish Police Officers were arrested by the Gestapo and sent, under guard, to be interned in Buchenwald. After the war, Denmark became one of the founding members of NATO and, in 1973, joined the European Economic Community (later, the European Union).

Politics and government

:Main article: Politics of Denmark Denmark is the oldest monarchy in the world. In 1849, it became a constitutional monarchy with the adoption of a new constitution. The monarch is formally head of state, a role which is mainly ceremonial, since executive power is exercised by the cabinet ministers, with the prime minister acting as the first among equals (primus inter pares). Legislative power is vested in both the government and the Danish parliament, known as the Folketing, which consists of (no more than) 179 members. The Danish Judiciary is functionally and administratively independent of the executive and the legislature. Elections for parliament must be held at least every four years; but the prime minister can call for an earlier election, if he so decides. Should parliament succeed in a vote of no confidence against the Prime Minister the entire government resigns. The country is often run by minority governments.

Counties

:Main article: Counties of Denmark Denmark is divided into 13 counties (amter, singular: amt), and 271 municipalities (kommuner, singular kommune). The coming Danish Municipal Reform will replace the counties with five new regions and reduce the number of municipalities to 98. The new municipalities will take over most of the responsibilities of the former counties. Most of the new municipalities will have a population of at least 20,000 people. The reform will be implemented on 1 January 2007.
- Aarhus (Århus)
- Frederiksborg
- Funen (Fyn)
- Copenhagen (København)
- North Jutland (Nordjylland)
- Ribe
- Ringkjøbing
- Roskilde
- South Jutland (Sønderjylland)
- Storstrøm
- Vejle
- Viborg
- West Zealand (Vestsjælland) Three municipalities have county privileges:
- Bornholm (regional municipality)
- Copenhagen (København)
- Frederiksberg Copenhagen County comprises the municipalities of metropolitan Copenhagen, except Copenhagen Municipality and Frederiksberg Municipality. Bornholm Regional Municipality comprise the five former municipalities on the island Bornholm and the island's former county. Greenland and the Faroe Islands also belong to the Kingdom of Denmark, but have autonomous status and are largely self-governing, and are each represented by two seats in the parliament.

Geography

Faroe Islands Faroe Islands :Main article: Geography of Denmark Denmark consists of the peninsula of Jutland (Jylland) and 405 named islands. Of these, 323 are habited, with the largest being Zealand (Sjælland) and Funen (Fyn). The island of Bornholm is located somewhat east of the rest of the country, in the Baltic Sea. Many of the larger islands are connected by bridges; the Øresund Bridge connects Zealand with Sweden, the Great Belt Bridge connects Funen with Zealand, and the Small Belt Bridge connects Jutland with Funen. Ferries connect one to the smaller islands. The country is mostly flat with little elevation; the highest natural point is Møllehøj, at 170.86 metres. The climate is temperate, with mild winters and cool summers. Main cities are the capital Copenhagen (on Zealand), Aarhus, Aalborg (on Jutland) and Odense (on Fyn)..

Economy

:Main article: Economy of Denmark This thoroughly modern market economy features high-tech agriculture, up-to-date small-scale and corporate industry, extensive government welfare measures, comfortable living standards, a stable currency, and high dependence on foreign trade. Denmark is a net exporter of food and energy and has a comfortable balance of payments surplus. The Danish economy is highly unionized; 75% of its labour force [http://www.iht.com/articles/2005/01/10/business/unions2.html] are members of a union in the Danish Confederation of Trade Unions. Relationships between unions and employers are cooperative: unions have a day-to-day role in managing the workplace, and their representatives sit on most companies' board of directors. Rules on work schedules and pay are negotiated between unions and employers, with minimal government involvement. The government has been very successful in meeting, and even exceeding, the economic convergence criteria for participating in the third phase (a common European currency) of the Economic and Monetary Union (EMU), but Denmark, in a September 2000 referendum, reconfirmed its decision not to join the 12 other EU members in the euro. Even so, the Danish currency remains pegged to the euro. Denmark has also placed first on the Economist Intelligence Unit's "e-readiness" rankings for the past two years. "A country's "e-readiness" is a measure of its e-business environment, a collection of factors that indicate how amenable a market is to Internet-based opportunities."

Demographics

:Main article: Demographics of Denmark The majority of the population is of Scandinavian descent, with small groups of Inuit (from Greenland), Faroese, and immigrants. According to official statistics in 2003 immigrants made up 6.2% of the total population. Danish is spoken in the entire country, although a small group near the German border also speaks German. Many Danes are fluent in English as well, particularly those in larger cities and the youth, who are taught English in school. Of the religions in Denmark, according to official statistics from January 2002 84.3% of Danes are members of the Lutheran state church, the Danish People's Church (Den Danske Folkekirke), also known as the Church of Denmark. The rest are primarily of other Christian denominations and also about 2% are Muslims. For the last decade Danish People's Church has seen a decline in the number of memberships. In the later years, the old norse religion Asatru has begun to reemerge. Asatru was approved as a religious movement by the Danish government on November 8th 2003.

Culture

:Main article: Culture of Denmark Perhaps the most famous Dane is actually a mythical figure: Hamlet, the title character of William Shakespeare's greatest play, which was set in a real castle (Kronborg) in Helsingør, north of Copenhagen. The Dane most well-known in foreign countries is probably Hans Christian Andersen, a writer mostly famous for such fairy tales as The Emperor's New Clothes, The Little Mermaid, and The Ugly Duckling. Other Danes that is probably known outside of Denmark in various degrees, includes: :See also: List of Danes
- Morten Andersen, NFL kicker (Only in the United States)
- Bille August, film director
- Vitus Bering, explorer and navigator
- Karen Blixen, also known as Isak Dinesen, author
- Niels Bohr, physicist and Nobel Prize laureate
- Victor Borge, entertainer, pianist
- Tycho Brahe, astronomer
- Ole Kirk Christiansen, inventor of LEGO
- René Dif, member of the pop band Aqua
- N.F.S. Grundtvig, poet, hymnalist, educationalist
- Piet Hein, polymath
- Anders Hejlsberg, computer scientist, inventor of the C# programming language
- Georg Jensen, designer
- Søren Kierkegaard, existentialist philosopher
- Michael Laudrup, soccer player. Winner of Confederations Cup 1995
- Viggo Mortensen, actor in USA
- Mærsk Mc-Kinney Møller, transport and business mogul
- Connie Nielsen, actor in USA
- Brigitte Nielsen, actress
- Carl Nielsen, composer
- Mickey Beyer-Clausen, Philanthropist, Entrepreneur
- Bjarne Riis, professional road bicycle racer, winner of the 1996 Tour de France
- Peter Schmeichel soccer player (goalkeeper). Winner of European Football Championship 1992, Confederations Cup 1995 and UEFA Champions League 1999.
- Bjarne Stroustrup, computer scientist, inventor of the C++ programming language
- Lars von Trier, film director
- Lars Ulrich, musician, member of band Metallica
- Jørn Utzon, architect
- Whigfield, singer
- Hans Christian Ørsted, physicist, discoverer of electromagnetism

Miscellaneous topics


- Courts of Denmark
- Communications in Denmark
- Danish colonization of the Americas
- Education in Denmark
- Foreign relations of Denmark
- Holidays in Denmark
- List of Danish monarchs - Danish monarchs family tree
- Danish Orders of Chivalry
- List of towns in Denmark
- Military of Denmark
- Rescue of the Danish Jews
- Stamps and postal history of Denmark
- Tourism in Denmark
- Transportation in Denmark
- Trees of Denmark
- Reporters without borders Worldwide Press Freedom Index 2004: Ranked 1 out of 166 countries (in an 8-way tie)

See also


- Cuisine of Denmark
- Culture of Denmark
- List of Danish painters
- List of notable Danish people
- List of people on stamps of Denmark
- Music of Denmark
- Religion in Denmark

References


- [http://www.um.dk/Publikationer/UM/English/Denmark/index.asp In-depth description of Denmark published by the Royal Danish Ministry of Foreign Affairs]

External links


- [http://www.milhist.dk/index_uk.htm Danish military history]
- [http://www.mediatico.com/en/newspapers/europe/denmark Danish Newspapers]
- [http://denmark.dk/portal/page?_pageid=374,477789&_dad=portal&_schema=PORTAL Official Portal of Denmark]
- [http://www.amnestyusa.org/countries/denmark/index.do Human rights reports] from Amnesty International
- [http://www.world-gazetteer.com/s/p_dk.htm List of Danish cities] from world-gazetteer.com
- [http://www.bo-k.dk/dk/ Old Denmark in Cyberspace - Information about Denmark and the Danes]
- [http://www.kms.dk/C1256C62002F8C6B/ Online charts and maps by the Danish survey authority]
- [http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/Newsroom/NewImages/images.php3?img_id=14785 Satellite image of Denmark] at NASA's Earth Observatory