The Idea of Eastern Europe

Recently, I have been reading the book Inventing Eastern Europe: The Map of Civilization on the Mind of the Enlightenment by Larry Wolff. This book revealed some new insights about the origin of the way Eastern Europe is regarded within society, and it reveals the history behind the "invention" of Eastern Europe.

Interestingly enough, the French philosopher Voltaire takes much of the credit for documenting Eastern Europe and making it known to the West. In 1731, Voltaire published the book History of Charles XII. Voltaire's writing followed the trail of Charles XII of Sweden, who, years earlier, set out to conquer said land. In his book, Voltaire chose to portray Eastern Europe as a barbaric, uncivilized place. His writing resulted in the development of a variety of stereotypes toward Eastern Europeans. This was a result of the majority of Western Europeans having little interactions with their eastern counterparts, so they took Voltaire's word as the truth. Voltaire sought to drive a sharp distinction between the West and East of Europe. He characterized Western Europe as the "known" world, and he generalized Eastern Europe as the "unknown." This philosophy led to an ideology in Western Europe that sought to tame and civilize the "barbaric" East, despite most not knowing the true nature of Eastern Europe.