u/Timely-Macaron268

An ugly scar has riven Europe into two, and consigned whole nations to bolshevism. Others, such as brave Poland, have themselves as a people been torn in two. Across the continent, their forces press ever forward.

To stop the Soviet advances, the United States Congress must approve this bill of military aid.

This 5 billion dollar investment into American weapons systems will help fight communism across the European continent.

- Aircraft, missiles and close support helicopters will allow the French in Algeria to go on the offensive against the reds.

- Small arms shipments to Egypt will allow brave Jewish and Christian freedom fighters in Jerusalem and across occupied Arabia will have the means to defend themselves.

- Sea mines for Finland and Sweden will protect the Baltic from Soviet incursions.

- New tanks and aircraft for West Poland and Germany will continue to deter Soviet aggression against the European Federation.

With the recent announcement of which cities will be hosting which matches I wanted to make this map.

I put an asterisk next to the Malawikulu stadium because the UGF claim it already has a capacity of 40,000 when that just clearly isn't true based on the MSA website...

This tournament will be a first in a lot of ways. The first 64-team tournament, the first sub-Saharan African tournament (unless it gets canceled like S.A.!), the first four-country host...

I know that the East African world cup is really controversial right now with the team expansion debate and the Azanian human rights allegations coming up again but I think those are kind of irrelevant to the question of whether there will be good football. (I grew up in East Poland so this kind of debate is pretty boring to us obviously).

Maybe I'm not cynical enough but I'm not listening to the haters. I think this is going to be an amazing tournament and I am already searching for flights to Nairobi!

In a similar to my other post about the Balkans I have taken the outline of what 16 unique maps describe as 'Central Europe' and superimposed them on one another to create a heatmap of Central Europe.

Note: this map is not an authoritative truth claim and it doesn't claim to be.

There is quite clearly a close-to-consensus region consistent of Czechia and its neighbours (though only Slovakia and Moravia clinched the 100% score). Other areas, such as Slovenia and Switzerland are usually included. Beyond them lies a wide periphery of 'sometimes Central European, sometimes not'.

EDIT: I have made a terrible mistake; Slovakia was not included on one of the maps and therefore should also only be at 94%. Only Moravia and tiny slices of Bohemia should be at 100%.

Where do you draw the line?

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Maps I included:

• World Factbook (2008)
• StAGN State Boundaries (2005)
• StAGN Cultural Proximity (2005)
• E. Schenk (1950)
• Alice F. A. Mutton in Central Europe (1961)
• Czesław_Miłosz (1983)
• Katzenstein (Visegrad) (1997)
• Encarta Encyclopedia (2009)
• Encyclopédie Larousse (2015)
• Meyers Grosses Taschenlexikon (1999)
• EU Interreg Central Europe Program (2026)
• Columbia University (1998)
• Emmanuel de Martonne (1927)
• Sourcebook of Central European Avant-Gardes (1930)
• Europe Then and Now (2013)
• Danube River Basin (2021)

There is quite famously no official definition of the Balkans, and the rather pejorative association that the term has collected through the grim historical vagaries 20th and 21st century has caused the location to be quite contested.

As a fun exercise, I have collated sixteen unique maps that all depict, in their own way, 'the Balkans'.

Some purport to be neutral geographical descriptions (such as the WorldAtlas one, or what you can find on Google Maps). I have also snuck in the actual literal definition of the Balkan mountain range. Other included maps have an explicitly ideological goal (such as a Croatian map showing Croatia conspicuously out of the Balkans).

Others, such as a map of the Balkan Open Initiative Members, or a map of the participating countries in the Balkan Games, do not claim to provide definitions at all, but do represent something meaningful about identity (note: Israel, not pictured, is for some reason a participant).

Others are historical, such as an Austro-Hungarian ethnic map, or an eighteenth century German map of the region. Keen Serbian geographical history nerds may be able to spot the outlines of Jovan Cvijić's original ethnographic map of the Balkans which notably excluded islands and anything north of the Danube.

So what do we get when we combine these all together?

A fascinating Balkan heatmap. Enjoy!

EDIT: One small error - Bucharest should be listed at 44%