FIGURE 4.13 Photo Essay: Power and Politics in Europe Patterns of political power and conflict in Europe and in former European colonies generally suggest that countries with fewer political freedoms and lower levels of democratization also suffer the most from violent conflict (see Figure 1.18 for more). Since World War II, the most violent conflicts in Europe have happened in southern Central Europe, where repressive governments frequently denied their populations basic political freedoms. Outside Europe, many long and brutal wars were fought to gain independence from European powers. In part, these wars stemmed from the inequitable extraction of resources from the “colonies” by Europeans, but the denial of basic political freedoms to the local non-European population also was a major impetus for independence. The map shows how low levels of democratization persist in the countries that fought wars of independence, decades after the formal end of colonial rule. Other factors also worked against democratization, but European imperialism helped set many of these countries on an authoritarian trajectory that has only recently started to change. 4.13a Courtesy Tom Stoddart/Getty Images, 4.13b Courtesy Christophe Simon/AFP/Getty Images, 4.13c Courtesy Oli Scarff/Getty Images, 4.13d Courtesy Weber/Getty Images