POST-WAR REORGANIZATION The adaptation of former armament works in Germany to industrial production after 1918, and the reconstitution of the German mercantile fleet, and the re-growth of Germany's ship building industry, by a great effort of all concerned, has been a marked feature of European life since 1918. Parallel with this has been the reconstruction of the ruined regions of northern France and their equipment for modern industry on a large scale; this region needs supplies of fuel from Belgium and Ger many. The renovation of Belgian industry has been very marked, and Antwerp has recovered and expanded, while there has been great expansion of Dutch textile and other industries. The north western lands have felt the crisis of 1914-18 in other ways. Sweden, with her own supplies of high grade iron and timber, was able to maintain her position throughout the crisis, and in the subsequent period of financial upheavals. Norway lost a pro portion of her mercantile fleet through submarines and mines, and both her carrying trade and her exports and imports were seriously interfered with. The reorganization of trade and finance after the war has been difficult, and the Norwegian mercantile marine, formerly among the largest in Europe (after Britain and Germany) has been outstripped in size by those of several other nations ; it was naturally of importance when wooden ships were in general use. Denmark lost a proportion of her cattle in 1914 18, partly through difficulties about fertilizers and feeding stuffs, and her entrepot trade at Copenhagen is not what it was under pre-war conditions. Also, industrial depression in Britain, and the competition of New Zealand in the supply of dairy produce have limited Denmark's chief market. On the whole, therefore, the north-west is somewhat less prosperous than formerly, while the low countries seem to have gone ahead markedly. Switzerland has been in a strong position throughout, but had to face special difficulties when the currencies of all surrounding countries were heavily depreciated and subject to daily fluctuations. The prog ress of the electrical industry and of the utilization of electrical power is a leading feature. The struggle of Austria, left with a historic city of nearly two million people in a small and rather poor State, has been and still is a severe one ; it is increasingly recognized that Vienna is needed by Europe as a whole, and if the Main-Danube, Elbe-Danube and Oder-Danube ship canal schemes should mature, the great city would have to play a very impor tant part once more; every re-growth of international links is likely to profit Vienna, but the new and strong Czechoslovakian State is naturally inclined to use its own Bratislava (formerly Pressburg) as outlet towards the Danube. Czechoslovakia, in the fortunate position of combining strong agricultural, industrial and cultural traditions under able leaders, has advanced remarkably since its birth in 1918; the other new States have nearly all found serious political difficulties and, in several of these, the loss of the old aristocracy and the parcelling of the land among peasant proprietors has thus far brought a diminution of har vests. Finland, with its timber, has prospered considerably.
Communications.—Communications in an area of such varied and broken topography are very largely determined by physical features and, in Europe, the lines or zones of the loess (see above), the Elbe-Oder lines to the boundaries of the mid-Danube basin, and thence to the Adriatic, to the Vardar, to Nish, Sofia and Constantinople, and to the Black sea, have remained important since prehistoric times, while the Alpine passes and the Rhone Rhine ways have played great parts in Roman and later periods and, among the former, the Brenner was important still earlier and had very special importance in the middle ages. This impor tance is illustrated by the historical development of Venice and of Innsbruck, Ulm, Augsburg, Munchen, Ratisbon, Passau, Nurn berg and Frankfurt-on-Main north of the Alps. Many of these towns are of great industrial importance at the present time, having re-developed, especially with the re-distribution of indus try and the spread of the use of electrical power in the loth century. But the historic route is no longer of special commercial importance, and as a way across the Alps it is now supplemented by lines of railway in other passes. The Semmering had a railway built in 1848-54, and this was continued by other passes via Caibach to Trieste in 1857; this was built before the Brenner railway. The Mont Cenis railway (altitude 4,38o ft.) was built in 1871, and is being supplemented (1928) by a line from the French side down to the Riviera. The St. Gotthard tunnel (alti tude 3,785 ft.) was made in 1882, and the Simplon tunnel (alti tude 2,30o ft.) in 1906. Each of these three railways has been built at a lower level than its predecessors, thanks to the growth of engineering enterprise in planning longer and longer tunnels, and the introduction of electric power for locomotives, lighting, ventilation and pumping has greatly reduced the difficulties of long tunnels. The importance of the Simplon route has been greatly increased by the cutting of the Lotschberg tunnel through the Berner Oberland, giving direct communication from the Sim plon to the north via Berne and Basle. There are many other tun nels within the Alpine system, and the development of mountain railways, notably to Davos and the Engadine, has been an impor tant feature of the growth of communications. The railway net work of Europe has been made a good deal closer, the mileage of track laid having increased considerably since the beginning of the century. Electrification of railways is proceeding apace in Switzerland, France, Italy, Holland, Germany, etc. The railway systems which can be termed continental in the fullest sense include the following: (a) That from Calais or Paris via Strasbourg, Stuttgart, Munchen, Linz, Vienna, Budapest, Belgrade, Nish, Sofia and Philippopolis to Constantinople, with a prospect of organization of a train ferry across the Bosphorus to link this system with the railways of Arabia, Syria and Palestine and, ultimately, Egypt and beyond.
(b) That from Ostend or the Hook of Holland via Cologne, Frankfurt-on-Main and Nurnberg to join (a).
(c) That from Calais or Paris via Mont Cenis to Milan, Zagreb (Agram) and Belgrade to join (a).
(d) That from Ostend or Paris or, ultimately Lisbon or south Spain, via Brussels to Cologne, or from the Hook of Holland to Cologne, Magdeburg, Berlin and onwards, either via Vilna to Leningrad or to Warsaw and Moscow, linking with the trans Siberian system.
(e) That from Calais or Ostend via Paris or Basle, or from north Germany, etc., via Basle to the Lotschberg and Simplon or the St. Gotthard, and so into Italy, or via Munchen and Inns bruck and the Brenner, also into Italy.
(f) That from north Germany via Vienna and the Semmering pass to Trieste.
(g) That from Berlin and Vienna through Klagenfurt and the Karawanken, and the Julian Alps to Trieste, etc.
(h) That from Berlin via Lwow to Odessa.
(j) That from Oslo and Stockholm to Helsingborg and Malmo, across the Sound to Helsingfors or Copenhagen by train ferry. From Copenhagen one route via Gedser, with its train ferry to the German port of Warnemunde, giving connections with the German and general Continental systems. Another route goes across Zealand and FUnen to Jutland, traversing the Great and Little Belts by train ferry, and reaches Esbjerg, whence steam ship communications give links with England, France, the Low Countries, etc.
Water transport on rivers and canals developed greatly prior to the invention of the railway locomotive, and in England it has, on the whole, lagged behind since the railway gave such added speed to movement. Canals in Britain involved much engi neering and many locks, which greatly delayed transport. On the European plain, however, there were large navigable rivers, and, linking them in Prussia, natural channels between morainic hills (see BERLIN) . The canal systems of the Rhine and north Ger many are of great economic importance, but they are, as yet, not adequately united to the Danube system of navigation, for the old Ludwigs Kanal via the Altmuhl linking Nurnberg and Regensburg (Ratisbon) is small and may freeze in very cold weather. A new canal, from Main to Danube, for large boats, has been planned and would make a great difference to European communications, as also would the projected canal from the Oder to the Danube via the March. The added importance of Vienna, if these schemes develop, is easily appreciated. The canal from Marseilles to the Rhone and the opening up of the Etang de Berne which is the consequence, the improvement of the Seine, making Paris an important port, the similar development at Manchester, due to the Manchester Ship canal, the Kiel canal, and the improvement of the Hamburg-Lubeck system, are important local changes of water communication in the last generation which deeply affect European commerce. Ocean-going boats of moderate size can go up the Rhine to Cologne, very large river boats and barges get up to Mannheim; i,000 ton barges go right to Strasbourg and Kehl, Kehl being the port on the German side of the Rhine opposite Strasbourg; at times they can even go as far as Basle. Barges of ',coo tons can go up the Meuse to Liege; Brussels is becoming a port of some importance. The treaties of 1919 enforced inter national control in the case of several navigable rivers, previously belonging to the Central Powers, and, for example, gave Czecho slovakia special privileges at Hamburg and Stettin.
The revival of road-transport, thanks to motor cars and lorries, is leading to improved road systems and alterations of communi cations, the end of which it is not easy to foresee, but it is said that this has not yet deeply affected international commercial transport, much as it has changed tourist traffic. Air communi cations are still in their infancy (1928), but promise to enhance the importance of the capitals as termini at the expense of junc tions near frontiers. The many, and in some cases unexpected, results of the development of telephones, wireless telegraphy and films as means of international communication are matters of common talk, and the spread of certain English or American phrases and notions through the films is very noticeable in some countries in Europe.