Example Of Essay On Boundaries And Economic Development

Each country’s territory can be described both in terms of its political clout and the official geographical territorial boundaries approved by the international community. The objective of this section of this paper is to describe the development of the political boundaries of a European Union country. In this case, the European Union country selected was Germany. There were three wars that defined modern Germany’s borders. The first was the Franco Prussian War. The war ended in 1871. This time, the country was on the winning side. After peace negotiations were finished, Alsace, and part of Lorraine’s territories were ceded to Germany from France. This is what defines Germany’s western borders today.
Germany was first formed as a country in 1871 when Otto von Bismarck unified the German States except for Austria in a grand attempt to revitalize the German Empire. Historical recounts and literatures would all lead to the fact that Germany is a country that has experienced numerous expansions and downsizing in terms of its political territory. During the middle ages, for example, countries in Europe have been engaged in continuous conflicts for power and territory. Germany, being a European country, was not an exemption. Even after the rough times that European countries have had endured during the middle ages, Germany still did not become exempted or at least did not work to exempt itself from the future conflicts that it would face several hundreds of years later into the 19th and 20th centuries.
Changes in Germany’s political borders can be largely determined by the results of its conquests for territorial expansion. The country has been involved in World War I. Now, it so happened that the country was sided with the losing party and as a result, it lost some 10% of its pre-World War I territory, the entire territory that Otto von Bismarck managed to collectively unite when he reunited the German States under the banner of the German Empire.
After the Germans lost the First World War in 1919, the German Empire collapsed and in an effort to maintain peace and order as well as the livable conditions required to accommodate the citizens, a new republic was formed and it was named the Weimar Republic. As mentioned earlier, the Weimar Republic was the result of the German Empire’s collapse after the First World War and consequently, it lost 10% or probably even more of its territory. Apart from losing its territory, the new Weimar Republic was forced to pay huge monetary and commodity reparations to the countries from the winning side of the war. The new republic was not able to withstand the economic pressure as a result of the reparations and so it printed more and more of its currency just so it can pay its foreign debts. The result was catastrophic as the country suffered from massive hyperinflation that led to the sinking of its own economy later on. Unable to pay its foreign debts, countries that Germany owed money from (as a result of the war reparations) decided to invade some of its territories, thereby leading to more loss of territories.
The last war that defined modern Germany’s political boundaries was the Second World War. Early on during the Second World War, Germany managed to annex large portions of Poland. It also managed to occupy a large portion of the European Continent, particularly territories from England and the Soviet Union. However, as the war progressed and the Allied Powers decided that they would focus their forces on defeating the strengthening forces of Germany in Europe first, the territories that Germany occupied got smaller and smaller until the only occupied city it had was Berlin. The Second World War ended with Germany on the losing side again.
The territories it annexed during the war such as the Polish territories and that of other countries in Europe were either ceded back to its owners or occupied by the leading countries of the Allied Powers such as the United States and the Soviet Union. Germany was also divided into East and West Germany with the former being controlled by the Soviet Union and the latter being controlled by the western democratic countries such as the U.S., France, and Great Britain. This became the country’s political boundaries’ status quo for quite some time mainly because the Soviet Union and the Western democratic countries became unable to have a common decision about what to do with post-ward Germany. This is what, in fact, led to the creation of the Berlin Wall that divided the country into Eastern and Western portions. It was only in 1990 that the division of the country into east and west became officially ineffective. This effectively led to the unification of East and West Germany.
Being a member of the European Union, the process of trading with other members of the economic bloc is fairly easy; especially when we consider the fact that goods and commodities to and from the country can easily be transported using land-based transportations such as freight trains, trucks, and etc. Also, part of the benefits of being a part of the European Union is the considerably lower taxes (i.e. tariffs) that commodities traders would have to pay every time a border to border trade is facilitated . Being a member of the EU effectively removed the trade barriers such as the higher import and export costs that would have been otherwise present in a trade transaction with a non-EU member country.
Because of these trade benefits alone, it can be asserted that Germany’s being a part of the European Union benefits the country, particularly its economy, in a lot of ways. From a bigger picture, the EU can be identified as a single country because goods and commodities to and from its member countries are freely traded with little to no tariffs. Its citizens can easily travel to and from one country; and the same is, in fact, true of the workers and laborers .
The European Union’s biggest country, when it comes to the size of the economy is Germany. Other prominent member countries include France, Finland, the United Kingdom, Belgium, Austria, Denmark, Hungary, Spain, Luxembourg, and Greece. It is important to remember, however, that the EU member countries are spread across borders; that is, they are all within the borders of the European continent.
Germany is one of the most liberal countries socio-culturally. It has a democratic type of government. Its views on social orientation, gender identity, and women’s role in society, has been described in numerous literatures as liberal especially when compared to other non-Western countries . When compared to the level of liberalism of other western countries such as the United States, it may therefore be safe to suggest that Germany is on the same level.

References

Baldwin, R., & Wyplosz, C. (2006). The economics of European Integration. McGraw Hill .
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Lane, P. (2006). The Real Effects of European Monetary Union. Journal of Economic Perspectives.