page_title: Central Europe
section_title: Geography
hierarchical_section_title: Central Europe / Geography
caption_attribution_description: English: Map of the Danube, the largest river of Central Europe. Created to fill a gap in which all the other Danube maps do not fulfill.
context_page_description: Central Europe is the region comprising the central part of Europe. Central Europe occupies continuous territories that are otherwise sometimes considered parts of Western Europe, Southern Europe and Eastern Europe. The concept of Central Europe is based on a common historical, social and cultural identity and is a patchwork of territories that are traditionally Catholic and Protestant. The Thirty Years' War between Catholicism and Protestantism was a significant shaping process in the history of Central Europe, and neither side was able to prevail in the region as a whole. Historically, Central Europe comprised of the most territories of the Holy Roman Empire and the territories belonging to the two adjacent kingdoms to the east. Hungary and parts of Poland were later parts of the Habsburg Monarchy, which was also a significant shaping force in its history. Unlike their Western European counterparts, few Central European states had any overseas colonies, owing to both their central location and other factors. This has often cited as one of the causes of the World War I.
context_section_description: Geography defines Central Europe's natural borders with the neighbouring regions to the north across the Baltic Sea, namely Northern Europe (or Scandinavia), and to the south across the Alps, the Apennine peninsula (or Italy), and the Balkan peninsula across the Soča-Krka-Sava-Danube line. The borders to Western Europe and Eastern Europe are geographically less defined, and for this reason the cultural and historical boundaries migrate more easily west–east than south–north. The river Rhine, which runs south–north through Western Germany, is an exception.
  Southwards, the Pannonian Plain is bounded by the rivers Sava and Danube – and their respective floodplains. The Pannonian Plain stretches over the following countries: Austria, Croatia, Hungary, Romania, Serbia, Slovakia and Slovenia, and touches borders of Bosnia and Herzegovina (Republika Srpska) and Ukraine ("peri- Pannonian states").
  As southeastern division of the Eastern Alps, the Dinaric Alps extend for 650 kilometres along the coast of the Adriatic Sea (northwest-southeast), from the Julian Alps in the northwest down to the Šar-Korab massif, north–south. According to the Freie Universität Berlin, this mountain chain is classified as South Central European.
  The Central European flora region stretches from Central France (the Massif Central) to Central Romania (Carpathians) and Southern Scandinavia.
caption: The Danube watercourse system throughout Central and Southeastern Europe
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