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Re:Hajnal line by trhway on Sunday September 30, 2018 @02:51PM (#18107691)
the stretch of the line along the east baltic i see as a result of https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/State_of_the_Teutonic_Order . The Teutonic Order east conquest set up a lot of history there that is still being played out almost 800 years later.
Re:Hajnal line by woodpanel on Sunday September 30, 2018 @05:01PM (#18108397)
It would be interesting to know if footprints of past conquests/empires are the reason for the line not correlating with today's borders. At least the two pockets on the south Iberian Peninsula and as well the southern Apennine Peninsula correlate with former Islamic Caliphates.

I wonder though why Ireland, Austria and Venice would be outside. In some respects all of them played central roles in European history (Ireland in Christianization).

EDIT: Just figured out, the drawing is off. If drawn correctly it would include Vienna and Venice.

Re:Hajnal line by dmos62 on Sunday September 30, 2018 @05:10PM (#18108438)
Can you elaborate?

If you mean the Teutonic Order's crusade quickening the Christian baptism of Grand Duchy of Lithuania, I'm sceptical. Not that the region becoming part of the Christian Europe isn't important; it's just that it was inevitable anyway. The paper "The Origins of WEIRD Psychology" [0] linked by another comment proposes that this is likely to do with Catholicism. However, I speculate that the East Baltic's (the Baltic states') embrace of Catholicism is evident in the 20th century, not because of the ?-1410 crusade, but because in the 20th century, they experienced severe antagonisation from the atheist USSR, and went full-throttle in the other direction. A bit like how the US alcohol prohibition backfired. Aggressive suppression of religion led to it growing strong roots. Funnily enough, same thing was happening almost a thousand years ago, only reversed. Region resisting Catholicism peddled by Teutons and suppression of the pre-Christian religion. 20th century -- same region fighting to preserve a Catholic identity.

[0] https://psyarxiv.com/d6qhu/