Why is it that west European countries are generally bigger, more stable and more ethnically homogeneous, and East European countries are less so?

Question

I am mainly thinking of UK, France, Germany, Spain as big, but all of them (with the possible exception of Ireland) could be thought of as stable, ie no wars or revolution since WW2.

In: Other

Answer 1

Geography and history. Over the centuries, the east and southeast was invaded from Asia by different tribes (Mongolians, Tatars) which stifled growth. Then you had Ottomans conquering southeastern Europe who brought Islam and their peoples to this area. After the defeat of Ottomans in the Battle of Vienna, the land were reconquered and needed to be resettled. Mind that something similar happened in Western Europe, but it was 300 years prior (reconquista).

Another aspect is that some nationals of other countries, mainly Germans, were invited to settle to share the mining technology

A for last century, there were some attempts to homogenise countries after the fall of Austria-Hungary (Benes decrees), but there were further mixing and resettlements too, for example Russian settlement of Ukraine after Holodomor (which result we see now).

The result is that you have assimilated Germans, Hungarians, Slovans influenced by different cultures, Slovans embracing embracing different religions, descendants of raiding tribes, descendants of Turks and many more.