Europe

Europe has a long history of great cultural and economic achievement, starting as far back as the Bronze Age. The origin of Western culture is generally attributed to the ancient Greeks, and the Roman Empire spanned the entire continent for many centuries. Following the decline of the Roman Empire, Europe entered a long period of stasis, generally known as the Dark Ages, which came to an end with the Renaissance and the New Monarchs, marking the start of a period of discovery, exploration, and increase in scientific knowledge. From the 15th century European nations, particularly Spain, Portugal, France, and Britain, built large colonial empires, with vast holdings in Africa, the Americas, and Asia. The Industrial Revolution started in Europe in the 18th century, leading to much greater general prosperity and a corresponding increase in population. After World War II, and until the end of the Cold War, Europe was divided into two major political and economic blocks: Communist nations in Eastern Europe and capitalistic countries in Western Europe. Around 1990 the Eastern block broke up.

1. Cyprus is not shown in the above map. It is an independent island which is currently de facto divided between the primarily ethnically-Greek Republic Of Cyprus in the southern 2/3rds of the island, and an internationally-unrecognised Turkish statelette in the northern 1/3rd, the "Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus". The island of Cyprus is located to the east of southern Greece.
2. Denmark has two dependent territories: the Faeroe Islands in Europe, and the self-governing island of Greenland, which is considered part of North America. .
3. France distinguishes overseas departments (such as French Guiana), overseas territories (such as French Polynesia) and territorial collectivities (such as Mayotte); they are all located outside of Europe.
4. The Kingdom of the Netherlands consists of The Netherlands itself and overseas territories in the Caribbean.
5. Portugal also includes the Azores and Madeira in the Atlantic Ocean.
6. Russia extends far across Asia, but only the area westward of the Ural Mountains is considered to be within continental Europe.
7. Spain also includes the Canary Islands, Ceuta and Melilla in the north of Africa.
8. Turkey is for the most part on continental Asia, only the area west of the Bosporus and the Sea of Marmara is in Europe.
9. The United Kingdom consists of Great Britain, Northern Ireland and dependent territories, of which the Channel Islands, the Isle of Man and Gibraltar lie within Europe.

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The origins

The first well-known civilization in Europe was that of the Minoans of the island of Crete and the Achaeans in the adjacent parts of Greece, starting at the beginning of the 2nd millennium B.C Around the same time, the Celts spread over most of the interior as far as Iberian Peninsula (now Spain and Portugal), and later Anatolia. As they did not use a written language, knowledge of them is piecemeal. The Romans encountered them and recorded a great deal about them; these records and the archeological evidence form our primary understanding of this extremely influential culture. The Celts posed a formidable, if disorganized, competition to the Roman state, that later colonized and conquered much of the southern portion of Europe.

The Holy Roman Empire emerged around 800 AD, as Charlemagne, king of the Franks, subdued western Germany, large parts of Italy and chunks of surrounding countries; he received substantial help from an alliance with the Pope, who wanted to cut the remaining ties with the Byzantine Empire; in this way the domains of the Pope became an independent state in central Italy.

The subsequent period, ending around 1000 A.D., saw the further growth of feudalism, which weakened the Holy Roman Empire and the development of the Church as a major power.

In the following period, Western Christianity was adopted by newly created kingdoms of Central Europe: Poland, Hungary and Bohemia.

One of the largest catastrophes to have hit Europe was the bubonic plague, also known as the Black Death. There were numerous outbreaks, but the most severe in the mid-1300s is estimated to have killed a third of Europe's population. Jews were popularly to be blamed for epidemy and Europe was a scene of persecutions and pogroms. Thousands Jews fled to Poland, that paradoxally was ommitted by the plague.

Since XIV century Baltic sea becomes one of the most important trade routes. The Hansa fascilitated absorption into economy of Europe vast areas of Poland, newly baptised Lithuania and Baltic countries.

The conventional end of the Middle Ages is usually associated with the fall of Constantinople and of the Byzantine Empire to the Ottoman Turks in 1453. The Turks made the city (with the new name of Istanbul) the capital of their Ottoman Empire, which lasted until 1919 and also included Egypt, Syria and most of the Balkans.

The new national states were frequently in a state of political flux and war. In particular, after Martin Luther started the Reformation in 1517, wars of politics and religion ravaged the continent: the schism of the dominant western church was to have major political, social and cultural implications for Europe. What became the split between Catholicism and Protestantism was particularly pronounced in England (where the king Henry VIII severed ties with Rome and proclaimed himself head of the church), and in Germany (where the Reformation united the various Protestant princes against the Catholic Hapsburg emperors). Unlike Western Europe, the countries of Central Europe, Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth and Hungary resolved religious question on the way of religious tolerance. Central Europe was already split between Eastern and Western Christianity. Now it became divided between Catholics, Protestants, Orthodox and Jews.

Colonial expansion proceeded in the following centuries (with some setbacks, such as the American Revolution and the wars of independence in many South American colonies). Spain had control of a great deal of South America and the Philippines; Britain took the whole of Australia and New Zealand, most of India, and large parts of Africa and North America; France held what to become Canada and parts of India (nearly all lost to England in 1763), Indochina and large parts of Africa; the Netherlands gained the East Indies (now Indonesia) and islands in the Caribbean; Portugal obtained Brazil and several territories in Africa and Asia; and later, powers like Germany, Belgium, Italy, Russia, the U.S.A and Japan acquired further colonies.

The Eastern Europe was an arena of fight for domination between Sweden, Poland and Russia. The latter eventually have won competition, seized Finland from Sweden and Eastern Poland through partitions. Numerous Polish Jews emigrated to Western Europe, founding Jewish communities in places, where they were expelled in Middle Ages.

Throughout the early part of this period, capitalism was replacing feudalism as the principal form of economic organisation, at least in the western half of Europe. The expanding colonial frontiers resulted in a Commercial Revolution. The period is noted for the rise of modern science and the application of its findings to technological improvements, which culminated in the Industrial Revolution. New forms of trade and expanding horizons made new developments in International Law necessary.

After the Treaty of Westphalia which ended the Thirty Years' War, Absolutism became the norm of the continent, while parts of Europe experimented with constitutions foreshadowed by the English Civil War and particularly the Glorious Revolution. European military conflict did not cease, but had less disruptive effects on the lives of Europeans. In the advanced north-west, the Enlightenment gave a philosophical underpinning to the new outlook, and the continued spread of literacy, made possible by the printing press, created new secular forces in thought.

In the Treaty of Versailles (1919) the winners imposed hard conditions on Germany and recognised the new states (such as Poland, Czechoslovakia and Yugoslavia) created in eastern Europe out of the defunct German, Austro-Hungarian and Russian empires, supposedly on the basis of national self-determination. In the following decades, fear of Communism and the economic Depression of 1929-33 led to the rise of extreme governments - Fascist or Nazi - in Italy (1922), Germany (1933), Spain (after a civil war ending in 1939) and other countries such as Hungary.

After allying with Italy in the "Pact of Steel" and signing a non-aggression pact with the Soviet Union, the German leader Adolf Hitler started World War II in September 1939 following a build-up throughout the late 1930s. After initial successes (mainly the conquest of western Poland, France and the Balkans before 1941) Germany began to over-extend itself in 1941 by attacking Russia; despite initial successes, the German army was stopped close to Moscow in December 1941, and one year later it suffered a decisive defeat in the battle of Stalingrad. Meanwhile, Japan (allied to Germany and Italy since September 1940) attacked the United States on December 7, 1941; Germany then completed its over-extension by declaring war on the United States. Allied forces won in North Africa and invaded Italy in 1943 and France in 1944. In the spring of 1945 Germany itself was invaded in the east and the west by Russia and the other Allies respectively; Hitler committed suicide and Germany surrendered in early May. The last Axis power, Japan, surrendered in August 1945, after the Soviet Union declared war and two atomic bombs destroyed the cities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki.

After the end of World War II, western Europe slowly began a process of political and economic integration, desiring to unite Europe and prevent another war. This process resulted eventually in the development of organisations such as the European Union, a process which continues today (2003). See also the History of the European Union.

Algeria: In section 152, we learn Francisco d'Anconia threw a party at an Algerian desert resort where he gave away an ermine coat to any woman who undressed in step with the melting of ice sculptures.

Andes: Francisco d'Anconia has a villa in the Andes. This is mentioned in section 141. Sebastian d'Anconia's first estate in the New World was a shack in the foothills of the Andes (section 152).

Argentina: Argentina is the home of Francisco d'Anconia and the ancestral home of his family. Sebastian d'Anconia fled to Argentina to escape the Inquisition.

• Argentina is mentioned in sections 132 and 152.

Arizona is mentioned in sections 111, 146 and 171.

Atlantic Ocean: The Atlantic Ocean is mentioned in section 161. It is where Ragnar Danneskjold is active as a pirate.

Bar Harbor: Bar Harbor is a city in Maine that is mentioned in section 161 as a place where Ragnar Danneskjold has been spotted.

Buenos Aries: The home of the d'Anconia estate and the residence of Francisco's Father.

California: Hank Rearden has business concerns on California. In section 121 Lillian Rearden asks Rearden to promise he won't be in California on the night of December 10.

Cheyenne Wyoming: Cheyenne, Wyoming is the northern terminus of the Rio Norte Line.

It is mentioned in sections 111 and 171.

Chicago: Dagny Taggart passes through Chicago while returning from an inspection of the Rio Norte Line in section 112. In section 171 we learn Dagny flew to Chicago to take over Summit Casting which had gone bankrupt before delivering parts needed for the Rio Norte Line.

Chile: Francisco d'Anconia owns extensive mining properties in Chile. Chile is mentioned in section 132.

Cleveland:

• Cleveland is the home of Patrick Henry University.
• Dagny Taggart got off her train at Cleveland while returning from an inspection of the Rio Norte Line in section 112. She phoned Hank Rearden and placed the first order of Rearden Metal.
• McNamara's offices are located in Cleveland.

Colorado: Colorado is the home of Wyatt Oil and the state with the most vigorous economy in the beginning of Atlas Shrugged. It is served by Taggart Transcontinental's collapsing Rio Norte Line. It is also the location of Galt's Gulch.

Colorado is mentioned in sections 111, 114, 145, 146, 147, 148, 161 and 171.

Connecticut: The home of Amalgamated Switch and Signal.

Connecticut is mentioned in section 171.

Delaware Bay: An inlet of the Atlantic Ocean off New Jersey and Delaware - in section 161 it is mentioned as a place where Ragnar Danneskjold has been spotted.

Denver: The home of Barton and Jones.

Mentioned in section 171.

Detroit: Hank Rearden knows a contractor in Detroit who is interested in buying Rearden Metal.

Detroit is mentioned in section 161.

El Paso, Texas: El Paso, Texas is the southern terminus of the Rio Norte Line. Francisco d'Anconia was in El Paso at the time Mrs. Gilbert Vail claimed he was with her in the Andes.

El Paso is mentioned in sections 111 and 152.

England: The People's State of England is mentioned in section 161. Ragnar Danneskjold's ship is said to be better than any in the English navy.

Europe: In Atlas Shrugged, Europe has declined faster than the United States and has become an economic wasteland. For the most part, countries in Europe are mentioned only in the context of a relief ship being sent there, usually one that has been seized by Ragnar Danneskjold.

Europe is mentioned in section 161.

Fifth Avenue: A street in downtown New York. In section 111, Eddie Willers walks down Fifth Avenue on his way to the Taggart Transcontinental building.

France: The People's State of France was to receive a large ship of relief supplies from the United States, but this ship was seized by Ragnar Danneskjold. This is mentioned in section 161.

Hudson River: Dagny Taggart's childhood home was located in the hills overlooking The Hudson River. The home is also said to be five miles from Rockdale, though the actual Rockdale, NY is more like one hundred miles from the Hudson River.

It is mentioned in sections 111, 152 and 175.

Illinois: The home of Summit Casting.

Illinois is mentioned in section 171.

Lake Michigan: Ore is shipped across Lake Michigan. However the ships used to transport it are growing so old that the shipping lanes are dying. Paul Larkin cuts a deal with James Taggart to ship his ore by rail, which drives the Lake Michigan shippers out of existence, and makes Larkin dependent on Taggart.

Louisiana: Eddie Willers finds a wood-burning locomotive in Louisiana which is used to run trains on the San Sebastian Line. This is mentioned in section 132.

Madrid: In section 152 a young Francisco d'Anconia mentions he spent a winter in Madrid with the Duke of Alba.

Maine: Maine is mentioned in passing in section 161. Someone is complaining about the sense of forebodding she has whenever it is dark, as if the daylight will never return. Another woman says her cousin in Maine feels the same way. The conversation then turns to Ragnar Danneskjold, who has been seen off the coast of Maine.

Mexico: Mexico, formally the People\'s State of Mexico, is a poor, corrupt third-world nation. It is the home of the San Sebastian Mines and of Taggart Transcontinental's San Sebastian Line. After millions of investment dollars are poured into these projects, they are nationalized by the Mexican government.

Mexico is mentioned in sections 111, 131, 132, 142, 143, 151 and 152.

Mexico City: Jules Mott is Taggart Transcontinental's representative in Mexico City.

Mexico City is mentioned in sections 142 and 143.

Middle West: Nathaniel Taggart is rumoured to have killed a state legislator from the Middle West. Supposedly the legislator had sold short shares of Taggart's railroad, and was using his power in the state government to drive the railroad into bankruptcy. This is mentioned in section 132.

Minnesota: Minnesota was the location of Hank Rearden's first job, working in the iron mines at age 14. He continues to hold business concerns there. In section 171 Rearden lies to Dagny Taggart about going to Minnesota so he doesn't have to fly with her to New York.

Minnesota is mentioned in sections 121 and 171.

Montana: The location of Francisco d'Anconia's first job with d'Anconia Copper.

It is mentioned in section 152.

Nantucket: Nantucket is an island off the southern coast of Massachusetts, Ragnar Danneskjold has been spotted there.

Nantucket is mentioned in section 161. New Hampshire: New Hampshire is the home of The State Science Institute, a government research institution and the only research facility left in the country.

New Hampshire is mentioned in section 174.

New Jersey: New Jersey is the home of United Locomotive Works.

New Jersey is mentioned in section 141.

New Mexico: New Mexico is a state where the Phoenix-Durango has successfully obtained the freight business that formerly went to the Rio Norte Line. After the passage of the Anti-dog-eat-dog Rule the Phoenix-Durango is forced to abandon operations in New Mexico, as well as in Colorado.

New Mexico is mentioned in sections 111 and 146.

New York: New York is the home of Taggart Transcontinental and the scene of much of the action in Atlas Shrugged. New York is treated as the cultural and intellectual center of the United States.

It appears in sections 111, 113, 114, 141, 152, 161, 162 and 171.

Norway: The People's State of Norway was the home of Ragnar Danneskjold, who can no longer return there because they have put a million-dollar price on his head.

It is mentioned in section 161.

Ohio: In section 112, Dagny Taggart decides to appoint Owen Kellogg as the new head of Taggart Transcontinental's Ohio Division.

Ohio is mentioned in sections 112 and 114.

Pennsylvania: Home of Rearden Steel. A newspaper ridiculed Rearden for starting a steel company, claiming "The historical cycle of steelmaking in Pennsylvania is running down."

Philadelphia: Philadelphia is the home of Hank Rearden and Rearden Steel.

Philadelphia is mentioned in sections 114 and 121.

Portugal: The People's State of Portugal is another country that is offering a reward for the capture of Ragnar Danneskjold.

It is mentioned in section 161.

Redding: In section 121 Philip Rearden mentions visiting Redding. It is not clear which Redding this is, possible Redding, Connecticut.

Rockdale: A town near the Taggart estate in upstate New York. Dagny Taggart had her first position working for Taggart Transcontinental at the Rockdale Station, when she was 16. The Taggart estate overlooks the Hudson River. Rockport, we are told, is five miles from the estate. The actual town of Rockport, New York is more like 100 miles from the Hudson River.

San Francisco: San Francisco is the western terminus of Taggart Transcontinental. It is mentioned in section 111.

Scotland: Scotland is mentioned in section 161. Someone reports that Ragnar Danneskjold's ship had been spotted there.

Spain: Spain is the ancestral home of the d'Anconias. Sebastian d'Anconia fled Spain to escape the Inquisition.

This is mentioned in section 152.

Turkey: The People's State of Turkey is another country that is offering a reward for the capture of Ragnar Danneskjold.

It is mentioned in section 161.

United States: The United States is the setting of Atlas Shrugged. While almost every other nation has become a socialist "People's State", the United States remains the last country with some semblance of a free economy. This is rapidly changing, and the book follows the United States as it gradually beomes a "People's State" itself.

(This point is unconfirmed): In the novel, the United States is not referred to as America.

The United States is mentioned in section 132.

Valparaiso: In section 152 the harbor of Valparaiso is mentioned as a location for one of Francisco d'Anconia's parties. At this party, the guests wore bathing suits, and were showered with champagne throughout the night.

Washington: Washington is the seat of the government of the United States. Throughout Atlas Shrugged it is portrayed as a corrupt center of bureaucratic looters. Many directives that affect the plot are issued from Washington, but little to none of the book's action occurs there.

Washington is mentioned in sections 121, 131, 132, 143 and 161.

Wilmington: In section 121 Philip Rearden mentions visiting Wilmington. Presumably this is Wilmington, Delaware.