Geography - Europe (Part 3)
Tips & Tricks for Memorizing Countries in Europe
Welcome back to this series on geography!
In the first post on this topic, we covered distances around the world.
The next post gave you some tips on memorization.
We then started by looking at countries in North America and Central America.
And then we traveled to South America.
Then we began in Europe with countries from Estonia to Greece.
After that, we memorized the line of countries from Poland to North Macedonia.
Now, we finish up the rest of mainland Europe.
A word of warning—this one is going to be a little off-the-wall (as if the others weren’t…)—we’ll weave in cowboys, Marvel, Star Trek, Saturday Night Live, and human anatomy.
A Pretest
For a quiz on the names/locations of countries in Europe, go here. You can go to this website or this website to take a quiz on country names/locations across the world.
Europe
Europe is comprised of 44 countries.
In the first Europe post, we tackled nine of those countries—Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Belarus, Ukraine, Moldova, Romania, Bulgaria, Greece.
Then we tackled 12 more—Poland, Czech Republic, Slovakia, Austria, Hungry, Slovenia, Croatia, Bosnia & Herzegovina, Serbia, Montenegro, Albania, and North Macedonia.
In this post, we’ll cover 17 countries—The United Kingdom (Northern Ireland, Scotland, England, Wales), Ireland, Netherlands, Belgium, Luxembourg, France, Germany, Switzerland, Liechtenstein, Italy, San Marino, Vatican City, Monaco, Andorra, Spain, Portugal, and Malta.
You can see them highlighted in the map below.
First, though, a little background on the imagery we’re going to use.
In the 1960s, a new subgenre of films were born—the Spaghetti Western. Up until this time, most westerns painted the characters in a very black-and-white type of way. Heroes were upright and law abiding, bad guys were bad to the bone.
Sergio Leone, an Italian director and producer, came along and turned the this idea on its head, blurring the moral lines of the hero. These new heroes, motivated by money or revenge, did what was necessary, no matter the legality, to defeat the bad guys. One of the first movies to do this was A Fistful of Dollars, starring Clint Eastwood. The stories and filming styles took off in popularity, ultimately having an impact on cinema that lasts today. Quentin Tarantino, for one, uses many Spaghetti Western elements in his movies. Ultimately, their name came from the Italian dish, spaghetti, since Italy is where they got their start.
Since Spaghetti Westerns were typically directed by Italians and filmed in Spain, we’re going to use this image of Clint Eastwood from The Good, the Bad and the Ugly as the core image for memorizing the countries in Western Europe...
…and then we’re going to add a few embellishments to make it even more memorable (sorry Clint).
Though, I guess to be more accurate, it would look like this:
THE HEAD
Our first embellishment is to replace Clint Eastwood’s head with that of a Borg head. This Borg head will represent Ireland and the UK.
For those unfamiliar with the Borg, they are cyborg aliens from the TV show Star Trek. Flying around the universe in their giant cube spaceship, they conquer other species and assimilate them into their collective. Resistance is futile.
Now, normally I wouldn’t mix cowboys and aliens (given how disappointing a movie by that name was), but there are so many great reasons why a Borg head is suitable for the United Kingdom, such as:
The head wears the crown
The Borg took over other civilizations through assimilation
There was a Borg Queen
It is made up of different parts
The United Kingdom is known as a country of countries; there’s a very long history behind this, which I’ll let you read here. Each country on our Borg head is represented by a different facial feature: eyes, nose, mouth. And, while Northern Ireland, Scotland, England, and Wales are part of the UK, Ireland is not; thus, Ireland appears different.
Ireland & Northern Ireland
In 1919, Ireland was partitioned due to religious differences, then in 1949, Ireland separated from the British Commonwealth, and Northern Ireland fell under the rule of the UK. That’s a very short explanation. You can read more here.
Thus, on the Borg face, Ireland is the “eye”, and Northern Ireland is the part of the face above the eye.
Scotland
Many people confuse Scotland and Ireland on the map (but you no longer will). Because of this, I’ve labeled Scotland as the other eye.
England
To remember England, think of British royalty being pretentious and sticking their noses up in the air. No offense to the Royal Family.
Wales
Wales is the mouth because a person wails (expresses sorry audibly) from their mouth, and Wales is shaped like an open mouth.
THE BODY
Crossing over the English Channel (the neck), we arrive at the literal and figurative body of Europe.
Netherlands
The word “Netherlands” means “low countries,” due to the lands being flat. Here, we can think of Clint Eastwood’s flat abs.
Belgium
Below the Netherlands (stomach), we come to Belgium, which we’ll think of as the belt—due to its location below the stomach, and because “BELgium” and “BELt” have the same first three letters.
Luxembourg
Southeast of Belgium is Luxembourg, a little jewel of a country that is only 1,000 square miles in size. Despite its size, the country boasts the largest GDP per capita of any country, and this is why we make it a shiny gold gem in the image, a symbol of luxury.
Luxembourg is the first of five jewels—small countries—that are each special for different reasons. Together, the five jewels can be wielded using only a golden boot (think Thanos’ glove and the Infinity Stones):
THE LEGS
With Germany and France, we move downward in two different directions. Each of these collections of countries represent a leg. Due to their size and location, Germany and France are the thighs—you can think of them as the powerhouse muscles, kind of like Hans and Franz from SNL (though, to be clear, those two characters were from Austria).
THE RIGHT LEG
Germany
Germany is the right thigh.
Switzerland
Underneath Germany is Switzerland, which sounds like “swivel-land,” so we’ll make that the knee of the right leg…you know, because knees swivel.
Liechtenstein
And just behind the kneecap are ligaments (MCL, LCL, ACL); think of Liechtenstein as the ligaments of the knee. Liechtenstein = Ligaments.
Italy
The boot. No explanation needed.
Monaco
Monaco has a fascinating history related to the Grimaldi family; however, most people are probably familiar with the country thanks to the Monaco Grand Prix and Monte Carlo, a “Lifestyles of the Rich and Famous”-type of place. The Hôtel de Paris Monte-Carlo and its casino has been used in numerous shows, including two James Bond movies.
For all of these money-related reasons, Monaco is a green jewel sitting at the top of the boot of Italy.
San Marino
Nestled in a little 23 square mile patch near the back of the boot of Italy is San Marino. The city gets its name from Saint Marinus, which sounds like mariner (one who navigates a ship). So, we’ll give this jewel a blue color, like the water.
Vatican City
Home of the Pope, Vatican City is only 0.17 square miles in size, which makes it the smallest country in the world. Since the color of royalty is purple, we’ll give this stone a purple color.
Malta
Malta is an island country sitting south of Italy in the Mediterranean. Unfortunately, this jewel fell off the boot, and that’s bad, so the people are mad (red), and so we make this stone red.
THE LEFT LEG
France
France is the left thigh.
Andorra
Andorra, sounds like “a door,” and because doors swivel, this is the knee, or swivel point for the left leg.
Spain
Spain, the left boot(ish)! You can go back to the Spaghetti Western background story for this one, remembering that many of those movies were filmed in Spain. Spain and Italy, the two boots, form the foundation (feet) of the Spaghetti Westerns.
Portugal
Portugal sits along the front edge of Spain, and as such, we’ll make that the metal tip of the boot—there to protect the boot.
Putting it all together, you get this:
With these three posts on Europe, we’ve covered 38 countries. That just leaves six more to get to 44—the five Scandinavian countries (Sweden, Denmark, Finland, Norway, and Iceland) and Russia (which is also in Asia).
Do you have a way that you remember the countries of Europe? If so, leave it in the comments section!
Thanks for reading Curated Compositions!