Current Events > Why is western Europe wealthier than eastern Europe?

(+) Yeah! (+)

Gimme a history lesson.
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I'm not a historian or expert, but I would say these factors played a big part:
Climate
Access to trade routes and the Atlantic
Distance from Mongols
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Antifar posted...

Climate/access to trade routes and the Atlantic

I have a very good guess what you wont bring up.
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masticatingman posted...

Antifar posted...

Climate/access to trade routes and the Atlantic

I have a very good guess what you wont bring up.

I mean, the post is already over; you aren't exactly cracking the mystery by guessing what isn't in it.
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Everything what Antifar said plus the east being part of the Soviet Union

Being communist for several decades did that region no favors
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Decades of Communism will destroy a nation's economy.
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West had Capitalism, east had Communism. Communism is known to do this to public's wealth

The west had better access to David Hasselhoff.
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Antifar posted...

Distance from Mongols

lol
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The communism answer seems like an oversimplification; it doesn't explain why Russia, Poland, Ukraine, etc. were late to industrialize and didn't form colonial powers prior to the Soviet Union. Eastern Europe was less wealthy than Western Europe long before 1917.

A cause that comes about after the phenomenon it supposedly explains is probably insufficient.
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western europe was more involved in colonization and later industrialization. eastern europe was poorer than western europe way before communism

also europe wasn't shit before colonization and industrialization in the grand scheme of things. it's what made europe powerful
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Communism
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Intro2Logic posted...

The communism answer seems like an oversimplification; it doesn't explain why Russia, Poland, Ukraine, etc. were late to industrialize and didn't form colonial powers prior to the Soviet Union. Eastern Europe was less wealthy than Western Europe long before 1917.

Distance from the Atlantic made them miss out on the Age of Exploration. Poland, Ukraine, etc also spent most of the 17th-19th century dominated by the German, Austro-Hungarian, Ottoman, and Russian Empires.
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AmericaTheBrave posted...

Intro2Logic posted...

The communism answer seems like an oversimplification; it doesn't explain why Russia, Poland, Ukraine, etc. were late to industrialize and didn't form colonial powers prior to the Soviet Union. Eastern Europe was less wealthy than Western Europe long before 1917.

Distance from the Atlantic made them miss out on the Age of Exploration. Poland, Ukraine, etc also spent most of the 17th-19th century dominated by the German, Austro-Hungarian, Ottoman, and Russian Empires.

They didnt have the Age of Enlightenment. No Renaissance. Dark Ages just kept going...

And the primary characteristic of the Russian aristocracy was plundering the serfs.
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Because you didn't invest in eastern Poland like you were told to.
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Western Europe ammased massive wealth off of the slave trade and even now through neocolonization of Africa. Eastern European countries aren't engaged in that for the most part and missed out on the action so they aren't as wealthy