Question: Which country is Europe's largest silk producer?
Answer: Italy

Europe is a continent that comprises the westernmost part of Eurasia. Europe is bordered by the Arctic Ocean to the north, the Atlantic Ocean to the west, and the Mediterranean Sea to the south. To the east and southeast, Europe is generally considered as separated from Asia by the watershed divides of the Ural and Caucasus Mountains, the Ural River, the Caspian and Black Seas, and the waterways of the Turkish Straits.  Yet the non-oceanic borders of Europe—a concept dating back to classical antiquity—are arbitrary; the primarily physiographic term "continent" as applied to Europe also incorporates cultural and political elements whose discontinuities are not always reflected by the continent's current boundaries.

Europe is the world's second-smallest continent by surface area, covering about  or 2% of the Earth's surface and about 6.8% of its land area. Of Europe's approximately 50 countries, Russia is the largest and most populous, spanning 39% of the continent and comprising 15% of its population, while Vatican City is the smallest both in terms of area and population. Europe is the third-most populous continent after Asia and Africa, with a population of 739–743 million or about 11% of the world's population.  Europe has a climate heavily affected by warm Atlantic currents that temper winters and summers on much of the continent, even at latitudes along which the climate in Asia and North America is severe. Further from the Atlantic, seasonal differences are mildly greater than close to the coast.

Europe, in particular ancient Greece, is the birthplace of Western civilization.    The fall of the Western Roman Empire, during the migration period, marked the end of ancient history and the beginning of an era known as the "Middle Ages". The Renaissance humanism, exploration, art, and science led the "old continent", and eventually the rest of the world, to the modern era. From this period onwards, Europe played a predominant role in global affairs. Between the 16th and 20th centuries, European nations controlled at various times the Americas, most of Africa, Oceania, and the majority of Asia.

The Industrial Revolution, which began in the United Kingdom at the end of the 18th century, gave rise to radical economic, cultural, and social change in Western Europe, and eventually the wider world. Both world wars were largely focused upon Europe, contributing to a decline in Western European dominance in world affairs by the mid-20th century as the United States and Soviet Union took prominence.  During the Cold War, Europe was divided along the Iron Curtain between NATO in the west and the Warsaw Pact in the east, until the revolutions of 1989 and fall of the Berlin Wall.

European integration led to the formation of the European Union, a political entity that lies between a confederation and a federation.  The EU originated in Western Europe but has been expanding eastward since the fall of the Soviet Union in 1991. The currency of most countries of the European Union, the Euro, is the most commonly used among Europeans and the EU's Schengen Area abolishes border and immigration controls among most of its member states.

Definition

Clickable map of Europe, showing one of the most commonly used continental boundaries  Key: blue: states which straddle the border between Europe and Asia;
green: states not geographically in Europe, but closely associated with the continent

The use of the term "Europe" has developed gradually throughout history.   In antiquity, the Greek historian Herodotus mentioned that the world had been divided by unknown persons into three parts, Europe, Asia, and Libya (Africa), with the Nile and the River Phasis forming their boundaries—though he also states that some considered the River Don, rather than the Phasis, as the boundary between Europe and Asia.  Europe's eastern frontier was defined in the 1st century by geographer Strabo at the River Don.  The Book of Jubilees described the continents as the lands given by Noah to his three sons; Europe was defined as stretching from the Pillars of Hercules at the Strait of Gibraltar, separating it from North Africa, to the Don, separating it from Asia. 

A cultural definition of Europe as the lands of Latin Christendom coalesced in the 8th century, signifying the new cultural condominium created through the confluence of Germanic traditions and Christian-Latin culture, defined partly in contrast with Byzantium and Islam, and limited to northern Iberia, the British Isles, France, Christianised western Germany, the Alpine regions and northern and central Italy.  The concept is one of the lasting legacies of the Carolingian Renaissance: "Europa" often figures in the letters of Charlemagne's court scholar, Alcuin.  This division—as much cultural as geographical—was used until the Late Middle Ages, when it was challenged by the Age of Discovery.   The problem of redefining Europe was finally resolved in 1730 when, instead of waterways, the Swedish geographer and cartographer von Strahlenberg proposed the Ural Mountains as the most significant eastern boundary, a suggestion that found favour in Russia and throughout Europe. 

Europe is now generally defined by geographers as the western part of Eurasia, with its boundaries marked by large bodies of water to the north, west and south; Europe's limits to the far east are usually taken to be the Urals, the Ural River, and the Caspian Sea; to the southeast, including the Caucasus Mountains, the Black Sea and the waterways connecting the Black Sea to the Mediterranean Sea. 

Islands are generally grouped with the nearest continental landmass, hence Iceland is generally considered to be part of Europe, while the nearby island of Greenland is usually assigned to North America.  Nevertheless, there are some exceptions based on sociopolitical and cultural differences. Cyprus is closest to Anatolia (or Asia Minor), but is usually considered part of Europe both culturally and politically and currently is a member state of the EU. Malta was considered an island of North Africa for centuries. 

The geographic boundary drawn between Europe and Asia in 1730 follows no international boundaries.  As a result, attempts to organise Europe along political or economic lines have resulted in uses of the name in a geopolitically limiting way  to refer only to the 28 member states of the European Union. Conversely, Europe has also been used in a very expansive way by the Council of Europe which has 47 member countries, some of which territorially over-reach the Ural and Bosphorus lines to include all of Russia and Turkey. In addition, people in the British Isles may refer to "continental" or "mainland" Europe as Europe. 

Etymology

In classical Greek mythology, Europa was a Phoenician princess whom Zeus abducted after assuming the form of a dazzling white bull. He took her to the island of Crete where she gave birth to Minos, Rhadamanthus, and Sarpedon. For Homer, Europe (, Eurṓpē; see also List of Greek place names) was a mythological queen of Crete, not a geographical designation.

The etymology of Europe is uncertain.  One theory suggests that it is derived from the Greek εὐρύς (eurus), meaning "wide, broad"  and ὤψ/ὠπ-/ὀπτ- (ōps/ōp-/opt-), meaning "eye, face, countenance",  hence Eurṓpē, "wide-gazing", "broad of aspect" (compare with glaukōpis (γλαυκῶπις 'grey-eyed') Athena or boōpis (βοὠπις 'ox-eyed') Hera). Broad has been an epithet of Earth herself in the reconstructed Proto-Indo-European religion.  Another theory suggests that it is based on a Semitic word such as the Akkadian erebu meaning "to go down, set"  (in reference to the sun), cognate to Phoenician  'ereb "evening; west" and Arabic Maghreb, Hebrew ma'arav (see also Erebus, PIE *h1regʷos, "darkness"). Martin Litchfield West states that "phonologically, the match between Europa's name and any form of the Semitic word is very poor".  However, Michael A. Barry, professor in Princeton University's Near Eastern Studies Department, finds the mention of the word Ereb on an Assyrian stele with the meaning of "night", "[the country of] sunset", in opposition to Asu "[the country of] sunrise", i.e. Asia (Anatolia coming equally from Ἀνατολή, "(sun)rise", "east").  In the Homeric Hymns written in the seventh century BC, Eurôpè still represents, the western shore of the Aegean Sea.

Whatever the origin of the name of the mythological figure, Εὐρώπη is first used as a geographical term in the 6th century BC, by Greek geographers such as Anaximander and Hecataeus. Anaximander placed the boundary between Asia and Europe along the Phasis River (the modern Rioni) in the Caucasus, a convention still followed by Herodotus in the 5th century BC.  But the convention received by the Middle Ages and surviving into modern usage is that of the Roman era used by Roman era authors such as Posidonius,  Strabo  and Ptolemy, 
who took the Tanais (the modern Don River) as the boundary.

The term "Europe" is first used for a cultural sphere in the Carolingian Renaissance of the 9th century. From that time, the term designated the sphere of influence of the Western Church, as opposed to both the Eastern Orthodox churches and to the Islamic world. The modern convention, enlarging the area of "Europe" somewhat to the east and the southeast, develops in the 19th century.

Most major world languages use words derived from "Europa" to refer to the continent. Chinese, for example, uses the word Ōuzhōu (歐洲/欧洲); a similar Chinese-derived term  is also sometimes used in Japanese such as in the Japanese name of the European Union, , despite the katakana  being more commonly used. However, in some Turkic languages the originally Persian name Frangistan (land of the Franks) is used casually in referring to much of Europe, besides official names such as Avrupa or Evropa. 

History

Prehistory

Homo erectus georgicus, which lived roughly 1.8 million years ago in Georgia, is the earliest hominid to have been discovered in Europe.  Other hominid remains, dating back roughly 1 million years, have been discovered in Atapuerca, Spain.[http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/sci/tech/6256356.stm The million year old tooth from ]Atapuerca, Spain, found in June 2007 Neanderthal man (named after the Neandertal valley in Germany) appeared in Europe 150,000 years ago and disappeared from the fossil record about 28,000 BC, with this extinction probably due to climate change, and their final refuge being present-day Portugal. The Neanderthals were supplanted by modern humans (Cro-Magnons), who appeared in Europe around 43 to 40 thousand years ago. 

The European Neolithic period—marked by the cultivation of crops and the raising of livestock, increased numbers of settlements and the widespread use of pottery—began around 7000 BC in Greece and the Balkans, probably influenced by earlier farming practices in Anatolia and the Near East.  It spread from the Balkans along the valleys of the Danube and the Rhine (Linear Pottery culture) and along the Mediterranean coast (Cardial culture). Between 4500 and 3000 BC, these central European neolithic cultures developed further to the west and the north, transmitting newly acquired skills in producing copper artefacts. In Western Europe the Neolithic period was characterised not by large agricultural settlements but by field monuments, such as causewayed enclosures, burial mounds and megalithic tombs. The Corded Ware cultural horizon flourished at the transition from the Neolithic to the Chalcolithic. During this period giant megalithic monuments, such as the Megalithic Temples of Malta and Stonehenge, were constructed throughout Western and Southern Europe.  

The European Bronze Age began c. 3200 BC in Greece with the Minoan civilization on Crete, the first advanced civilization in Europe.   The Minoans were followed by the Myceneans, who collapsed suddenly around 1200 BC, ushering the European Iron Age.  Iron Age colonisation by the Greeks and Phoenicians gave rise to early Mediterranean cities. Early Iron Age Italy and Greece from around the 8th century BC gradually gave rise to historical Classical antiquity, whose beginning is sometimes dated to 776 BC, the year the first Olympic Games. 

Classical antiquity

Ancient Greece was the founding culture of Western civilisation. Western democratic and rationalist culture are often attributed to Ancient Greece.  The Greeks city-state, the polis, was the fundamental political unit of classical Greece. In 508 BC, Cleisthenes instituted the world's first democratic system of government in Athens.   The Greek political ideals were rediscovered in the late 18th century by European philosophers and idealists. Greece also generated many cultural contributions: in philosophy, humanism and rationalism under Aristotle, Socrates and Plato; in history with Herodotus and Thucydides; in dramatic and narrative verse, starting with the epic poems of Homer;  in drama with Sophocles and Euripides, in medicine with Hippocrates and Galen; and in science with Pythagoras, Euclid and Archimedes.  In the course of the 5th century BC, several of the Greek city states would ultimately check the Achaemenid Persian advance in Europe through the Greco-Persian Wars, considered a pivotal moment in world history,  as the 50 years of peace that followed are known as Golden Age of Athens, the seminal period of ancient Greece that laid many of the foundations of Western civilization.

Greece was followed by Rome, which left its mark on law, politics, language, engineering, architecture, government and many more key aspects in western civilisation. Expanding from their base in Italy beginning in the 3rd century BC, the Romans gradually expanded to eventually rule the entire Mediterranean basin and western Europe by the turn of the millennium.  The Roman Republic ended in 27 BC, when Augustus proclaimed the Roman Empire.  The two centuries that followed are known as the pax romana, a period of unprecedented peace, prosperity, and political stability in most of Europe. 

The empire continued to expand under emperors such as Hadrian, Antoninus Pius, and Marcus Aurelius, who all spent time on the Empire's northern border fighting Germanic, Pictish and Scottish tribes.   The Empire began to decline in the 3rd century, particularly in the west. Christianity was legalised by Constantine I in 313 AD after three centuries of imperial persecution. Constantine also permanently moved the capital of the empire from Rome to the city of Byzantium, which was renamed Constantinople in his honour (modern-day Istanbul) in 330 AD.  Christianity became the sole official religion of the empire in 380 AD, and in 391-392 AD, the emperor Theodosius outlawed pagan religions.  This is sometimes considered to mark the end of antiquity; alternatively antiquity is considered to end with the fall of the Western Roman Empire in 476 AD; the closure of the pagan Platonic Academy of Athens in 529 AD;  or the rise of Islam in the early 7th century AD.

Early Middle Ages

During the decline of the Roman Empire, Europe entered a long period of change arising from what historians call the "Age of Migrations". There were numerous invasions and migrations amongst the Ostrogoths, Visigoths, Goths, Vandals, Huns, Franks, Angles, Saxons, Slavs, Avars, Bulgars and, later on, the Vikings, Pechenegs, Cumans  and Magyars. Renaissance thinkers such as Petrarch would later refer to this as the "Dark Ages".  Isolated monastic communities were the only places to safeguard and compile written knowledge accumulated previously; apart from this very few written records survive and much literature, philosophy, mathematics, and other thinking from the classical period disappeared from Western Europe though they were preserved in the east, in the Byzantine Empire. 

While the Roman empire in the west continued to decline, Roman traditions and the Roman state remained strong in the predominantly Greek-speaking Eastern Roman Empire, also known as the Byzantine Empire.  During most of its existence, the Byzantine Empire was the most powerful economic, cultural, and military force in Europe.  Emperor Justinian I presided over Constantinople's first golden age: he established a legal code that forms the basis of many modern legal systems, funded the construction of the Hagia Sophia, and brought the Christian church under state control. 

From the 7th century onwards, as the Byzantines and neighbouring Sasanid Persians were severely weakened due the protracted, centuries-lasting and frequent Byzantine–Sasanian wars, the Muslim Arabs began to make inroads into historically Roman territory, taking the Levant and North Africa and making inroads into Asia Minor. In the mid 7th century AD, following the Muslim conquest of Persia, Islam penetrated into the Caucasus region.  Over the next centuries Muslim forces took Cyprus, Malta, Crete, Sicily and parts of southern Italy.  Between 711 and 720, most of the Iberian Peninsula was brought under Muslim rule — save for small areas in the northwest (Asturias) and largely Basque regions in the Pyrenees. This territory, under the Arabic name Al-Andalus, became part of the expanding Umayyad Caliphate. The unsuccessful second siege of Constantinople (717) weakened the Umayyad dynasty and reduced their prestige. The Umayyads were then defeated by the Frankish leader Charles Martel at the Battle of Poitiers in 732, which ended their northward advance.

During the Dark Ages, the Western Roman Empire fell under the control of various tribes. The Germanic and Slav tribes established their domains over Western and Eastern Europe respectively.  Eventually the Frankish tribes were united under Clovis I.  Charlemagne, a Frankish king of the Carolingian dynasty who had conquered most of Western Europe, was anointed "Holy Roman Emperor" by the Pope in 800. This led in 962 to the founding of the Holy Roman Empire, which eventually became centred in the German principalities of central Europe. 

East Central Europe saw the creation of the first Slavic states and the adoption of Christianity (circa 1000 AD). The powerful West Slavic state of Great Moravia spread its territory all the way south to the Balkans, reaching its largest territorial extent under Svatopluk I and causing a series of armed conflicts with East Francia. Further south, the first South Slavic states emerged in the late 7th and 8th century and adopted Christianity: the First Bulgarian Empire, the Serbian Principality (later Kingdom and Empire), and the Duchy of Croatia (later Kingdom of Croatia). To the East, the Kievan Rus expanded from its capital in Kiev to become the largest state in Europe by the 10th century. In 988, Vladimir the Great adopted Orthodox Christianity as the religion of state. Further East, Volga Bulgaria became an Islamic state in the 10th century, but was eventually absorbed into Russia several centuries later. 

High and Late Middle Ages

The period between the year 1000 and 1300 is known as the High Middle Ages, during which the population of Europe experienced significant growth, culminating in the Renaissance of the 12th century.  Economic growth, together with the lack of safety on the mainland trading routes, made possible the development of major commercial routes along the coast of the Mediterranean and Baltic Seas. The growing wealth and independence acquired by some coastal cities gave the Maritime Republics a leading role in the European scene.

The Middle Ages on the mainland were dominated by the two upper echelons of the social structure: the nobility and the clergy. Feudalism developed in France in the Early Middle Ages and soon spread throughout Europe.  A struggle for influence between the nobility and the monarchy in England led to the writing of the Magna Carta and the establishment of a parliament.  The primary source of culture in this period came from the Roman Catholic Church. Through monasteries and cathedral schools, the Church was responsible for education in much of Europe.

The Papacy reached the height of its power during the High Middle Ages. An East-West Schism in 1054 split the former Roman Empire religiously, with the Eastern Orthodox Church in the Byzantine Empire and the Roman Catholic Church in the former Western Roman Empire. In 1095 Pope Urban II called for a crusade against Muslims occupying Jerusalem and the Holy Land.  In Europe itself, the Church organised the Inquisition against heretics. In Spain, the Reconquista concluded with the fall of Granada in 1492, ending over seven centuries of Islamic rule in the Iberian Peninsula. 

In the east a resurgent Byzantine Empire recaptured Crete and Cyprus from the Muslims and reconquered the Balkans.  Constantinople was the largest and wealthiest city in Europe from the 9th to the 12th centuries, with a population of approximately 400,000.   The Empire was weakened following the defeat at Manzikert and was weakened considerably by the sack of Constantinople in 1204, during the Fourth Crusade.           Although it would recover Constantinople in 1261, Byzantium fell in 1453 when Constantinople was taken by the Ottoman Empire.   

In the 11th and 12th centuries, constant incursions by nomadic Turkic tribes, such as the Pechenegs and the Cuman-Kipchaks, caused a massive migration of Slavic populations to the safer, heavily forested regions of the north and temporarily halted the expansion of the Rus' state to the south and east.  Like many other parts of Eurasia, these territories were overrun by the Mongols.  The invaders, who became known as Tatars, were mostly Turkic-speaking peoples under Mongol suzerainty. They established the state of the Golden Horde with headquarters in Crimea, which later adopted Islam as a religion and ruled over modern-day southern and central Russia for more than three centuries.   After the collapse of Mongol dominions, the first Romanian states (principalities) emerged in the 14th century: Moldova and Walachia. Previously, these territories were under the successive control of Pechenegs and Cumans.   From the 12th to the 15th centuries, the Grand Duchy of Moscow grew from a small principality under Mongol rule to the largest state in Europe, overthrowing the Mongols in 1480 and eventually becoming the Tsardom of Russia. The state was consolidated under Ivan III the Great and Ivan the Terrible, steadily expanding to the east and south over the next centuries.

The Great Famine of 1315–1317 was the first crisis that would strike Europe in the late Middle Ages.  The period between 1348 and 1420 witnessed the heaviest loss. The population of France was reduced by half.   Medieval Britain was afflicted by 95 famines,  and France suffered the effects of 75 or more in the same period.  Europe was devastated in the mid-14th century by the Black Death, one of the most deadly pandemics in human history which killed an estimated 25 million people in Europe alone—a third of the European population at the time. 

The plague had a devastating effect on Europe's social structure; it induced people to live for the moment as illustrated by Giovanni Boccaccio in The Decameron (1353). It was a serious blow to the Roman Catholic Church and led to increased persecution of Jews, foreigners, beggars and lepers.  The plague is thought to have returned every generation with varying virulence and mortalities until the 18th century.  During this period, more than 100 plague epidemics swept across Europe. 

Early modern period

The Renaissance was a period of cultural change originating in Florence and later spreading to the rest of Europe. The rise of a new humanism was accompanied by the recovery of forgotten classical Greek and Arabic knowledge from monastic libraries, often translated from Arabic into Latin.   The Renaissance spread across Europe between the 14th and 16th centuries: it saw the flowering of art, philosophy, music, and the sciences, under the joint patronage of royalty, the nobility, the Roman Catholic Church, and an emerging merchant class.    Patrons in Italy, including the Medici family of Florentine bankers and the Popes in Rome, funded prolific quattrocento and cinquecento artists such as Raphael, Michelangelo, and Leonardo da Vinci.  

Political intrigue within the Church in the mid-14th century caused the Western Schism. During this forty-year period, two popes—one in Avignon and one in Rome—claimed rulership over the Church. Although the schism was eventually healed in 1417, the papacy's spiritual authority had suffered greatly. 

The Church's power was further weakened by the Protestant Reformation (1517–1648), initially sparked by the works of German theologian Martin Luther, an attempt to start a reform within the Church. The Reformation also damaged the Holy Roman Emperor's influence, as German princes became divided between Protestant and Roman Catholic faiths.  This eventually led to the Thirty Years War (1618–1648), which crippled the Holy Roman Empire and devastated much of Germany, killing between 25 and 40 percent of its population.  In the aftermath of the Peace of Westphalia, France rose to predominance within Europe. 

The 17th century in southern, central and eastern Europe was a period of general decline.  Central and Eastern Europe experienced more than 150 famines in a 200-year period between 1501 and 1700.  From the 15th to 18th centuries, when the disintegrating khanates of the Golden Horde were conquered by Russia, Tatars from the Crimean Khanate frequently raided Eastern Slavic lands to capture slaves.  Further east, the Nogai Horde and Kazakh Khanate frequently raided the Slavic-speaking areas of Russia, Ukraine and Poland for hundreds of years, until the Russian expansion and conquest of most of northern Eurasia (i.e. Eastern Europe, Central Asia and Siberia). Meanwhile, in the south, the Ottomans had conquered the Balkans by the 15th century, laying siege to Vienna in 1529.  In the Battle of Lepanto in 1571, the Holy League checked Ottoman power in the Mediterranean.  The Ottomans again laid siege to Vienna in 1683, but the Battle of Vienna permanently ended their advance into Europe, and marked the political hegemony of the Habsburg dynasty in central Europe.

The Renaissance and the New Monarchs marked the start of an Age of Discovery, a period of exploration, invention, and scientific development.  Among the great figures of the Western scientific revolution of the 16th and 17th centuries were Copernicus, Kepler, Galileo, and Isaac Newton.  According to Peter Barrett, "It is widely accepted that 'modern science' arose in the Europe of the 17th century (towards the end of the Renaissance), introducing a new understanding of the natural world."  In the 15th century, Portugal and Spain, two of the greatest naval powers of the time, took the lead in exploring the world.   Christopher Columbus reached the New World in 1492 and Vasco da Gama opened the ocean route to the East in 1498, and soon after the Spanish and Portuguese began establishing colonial empires in the Americas and Asia.  France, the Netherlands and England soon followed in building large colonial empires with vast holdings in Africa, the Americas, and Asia.

18th and 19th centuries

The Age of Enlightenment was a powerful intellectual movement during the 18th century promoting scientific and reason-based thoughts.    Discontent with the aristocracy and clergy's monopoly on political power in France resulted in the French Revolution and the establishment of the First Republic as a result of which the monarchy and many of the nobility perished during the initial reign of terror.  Napoleon Bonaparte rose to power in the aftermath of the French Revolution and established the First French Empire that, during the Napoleonic Wars, grew to encompass large parts of Europe before collapsing in 1815 with the Battle of Waterloo.   Napoleonic rule resulted in the further dissemination of the ideals of the French Revolution, including that of the nation-state, as well as the widespread adoption of the French models of administration, law, and education.    The Congress of Vienna, convened after Napoleon's downfall, established a new balance of power in Europe centred on the five "Great Powers": the UK, France, Prussia, Austria, and Russia.  This balance would remain in place until the Revolutions of 1848, during which liberal uprisings affected all of Europe except for Russia and the UK. These revolutions were eventually put down by conservative elements and few reforms resulted.  The year 1859 saw the unification of Romania, as a nation-state, from smaller principalities. In 1867, the Austro-Hungarian empire was formed; and 1871 saw the unifications of both Italy and Germany as nation-states from smaller principalities. 

In parallel, the Eastern Question grew more complex ever since the Ottoman defeat in the Russo-Turkish War (1768–1774). As the dissolution of the Ottoman Empire seemed imminent, the Great Powers struggled to safeguard their strategic and commercial interests in the Ottoman domains. The Russian Empire stood to benefit from the decline, whereas the Habsburg Empire and Britain perceived the preservation of the Ottoman Empire to be in their best interests. Meanwhile, the Serbian revolution (1804) and Greek War of Independence (1821) marked the beginning of the end of Ottoman rule in the Balkans, which ended with the Balkan Wars in 1912-1913.  Formal recognition of the de facto independent principalities of Montenegro, Serbia and Romania ensued at the Congress of Berlin in 1878.

The Industrial Revolution started in Great Britain in the last part of the 18th century and spread throughout Europe. The invention and implementation of new technologies resulted in rapid urban growth, mass employment, and the rise of a new working class.  Reforms in social and economic spheres followed, including the first laws on child labour, the legalisation of trade unions,  and the abolition of slavery.  In Britain, the Public Health Act of 1875 was passed, which significantly improved living conditions in many British cities.  Europe's population increased from about 100 million in 1700 to 400 million by 1900.  The last major famine recorded in Western Europe, the Irish Potato Famine, caused death and mass emigration of millions of Irish people.  In the 19th century, 70 million people left Europe in migrations to various European colonies abroad and to the United States.  Demographic growth meant that, by 1900, Europe's share of the world's population was 25%. 

20th century to the present

Two World Wars and an economic depression dominated the first half of the 20th century. World War I was fought between 1914 and 1918. It started when Archduke Franz Ferdinand of Austria was assassinated by the Yugoslav nationalist  Gavrilo Princip.  Most European nations were drawn into the war, which was fought between the Entente Powers (France, Belgium, Serbia, Portugal, Russia, the United Kingdom, and later Italy, Greece, Romania, and the United States) and the Central Powers (Austria-Hungary, Germany, Bulgaria, and the Ottoman Empire). The War left more than 16 million civilians and military dead.  Over 60 million European soldiers were mobilised from 1914 to 1918.

Russia was plunged into the Russian Revolution, which threw down the Tsarist monarchy and replaced it with the communist Soviet Union.  Austria-Hungary and the Ottoman Empire collapsed and broke up into separate nations, and many other nations had their borders redrawn. The Treaty of Versailles, which officially ended World War I in 1919, was harsh towards Germany, upon whom it placed full responsibility for the war and imposed heavy sanctions. 

Excess deaths in Russia over the course of World War I and the Russian Civil War (including the postwar famine) amounted to a combined total of 18 million.  In 1932–1933, under Stalin's leadership, confiscations of grain by the Soviet authorities contributed to the second Soviet famine which caused millions of deaths;  surviving kulaks were persecuted and many sent to Gulags to do forced labour. Stalin was also responsible for the Great Purge of 1937–38 in which the NKVD executed 681,692 people;  millions of people were deported and exiled to remote areas of the Soviet Union. 

Economic instability, caused in part by debts incurred in the First World War and 'loans' to Germany played havoc in Europe in the late 1920s and 1930s. This and the Wall Street Crash of 1929 brought about the worldwide Great Depression. Helped by the economic crisis, social instability and the threat of communism, fascist movements developed throughout Europe placing Adolf Hitler of Nazi Germany, Francisco Franco of Spain and Benito Mussolini of Italy in power.  

In 1933, Hitler became the leader of Germany and began to work towards his goal of building Greater Germany. Germany re-expanded and took back the Saarland and Rhineland in 1935 and 1936. In 1938, Austria became a part of Germany following the Anschluss. Later that year, following the Munich Agreement signed by Germany, France, the United Kingdom and Italy, Germany annexed the Sudetenland, which was a part of Czechoslovakia inhabited by ethnic Germans, and in early 1939, the remainder of Czechoslovakia was split into the Protectorate of Bohemia and Moravia, controlled by Germany, and the Slovak Republic. At the time, Britain and France preferred a policy of appeasement.

With tensions mounting between Germany and Poland over the future of Danzig, the Germans turned to the Soviets, and signed the Molotov–Ribbentrop Pact, which allowed the Soviets to invade the Baltic states and parts of Poland and Romania. Germany invaded Poland on 1 September 1939, prompting France and the United Kingdom to declare war on Germany on 3 September, opening the European Theatre of World War II.   The Soviet invasion of Poland started on 17 September and Poland fell soon thereafter. On 24 September, the Soviet Union attacked the Baltic countries and later, Finland. The British hoped to land at Narvik and send troops to aid Finland, but their primary objective in the landing was to encircle Germany and cut the Germans off from Scandinavian resources. Around the same time, Germany moved troops into Denmark. The Phoney War continued.

In May 1940, Germany attacked France through the Low Countries. France capitulated in June 1940. By August Germany began a bombing offensive on Britain, but failed to convince the Britons to give up.  In 1941, Germany invaded the Soviet Union in the Operation Barbarossa.  On 7 December 1941 Japan's attack on Pearl Harbor drew the United States into the conflict as allies of the British Empire and other allied forces.  

After the staggering Battle of Stalingrad in 1943, the German offensive in the Soviet Union turned into a continual fallback. The Battle of Kursk, which involved the largest tank battle in history, was the last major German offensive on the Eastern Front. In 1944, British and American forces invaded France in the D-Day landings, opening a new front against Germany. Berlin finally fell in 1945, ending World War II in Europe. The war was the largest and most destructive in human history, with 60 million dead across the world.  More than 40 million people in Europe had died as a result of World War II,  including between 11 and 17 million people who perished during the Holocaust.  The Soviet Union lost around 27 million people (mostly civilians) during the war, about half of all World War II casualties.  By the end of World War II, Europe had more than 40 million refugees.  Several post-war expulsions in Central and Eastern Europe displaced a total of about 20 million people. 

World War I and especially World War II diminished the eminence of Western Europe in world affairs. After World War II the map of Europe was redrawn at the Yalta Conference and divided into two blocs, the Western countries and the communist Eastern bloc, separated by what was later called by Winston Churchill an "Iron Curtain". The United States and Western Europe
established the NATO alliance and later the Soviet Union and Central Europe established the Warsaw Pact. 

The two new superpowers, the United States and the Soviet Union, became locked in a fifty-year-long Cold War, centred on nuclear proliferation. At the same time decolonisation, which had already started after World War I, gradually resulted in the independence of most of the European colonies in Asia and Africa.
In the 1980s the reforms of Mikhail Gorbachev and the Solidarity movement in Poland accelerated the collapse of the Eastern bloc and the end of the Cold War. Germany was reunited, after the symbolic fall of the Berlin Wall in 1989, and the maps of Central and Eastern Europe were redrawn once more.

European integration also grew after World War II. The Treaty of Rome in 1957 established the European Economic Community between six Western European states with the goal of a unified economic policy and common market.  In 1967 the EEC, European Coal and Steel Community and Euratom formed the European Community, which in 1993 became the European Union. The EU established a parliament, court and central bank and introduced the euro as a unified currency.  In 2004 and 2007, more Central and Eastern European countries began joining, expanding the EU to its current size of 28 European countries, and once more making Europe a major economical and political centre of power. 

Geography

Europe makes up the western fifth of the Eurasian landmass. It has a higher ratio of coast to landmass than any other continent or subcontinent.  Its maritime borders consist of the Arctic Ocean to the north, the Atlantic Ocean to the west, and the Mediterranean, Black, and Caspian Seas to the south. 
Land relief in Europe shows great variation within relatively small areas. The southern regions are more mountainous, while moving north the terrain descends from the high Alps, Pyrenees, and Carpathians, through hilly uplands, into broad, low northern plains, which are vast in the east. This extended lowland is known as the Great European Plain, and at its heart lies the North German Plain. An arc of uplands also exists along the north-western seaboard, which begins in the western parts of the islands of Britain and Ireland, and then continues along the mountainous, fjord-cut spine of Norway.

This description is simplified. Sub-regions such as the Iberian Peninsula and the Italian Peninsula contain their own complex features, as does mainland Central Europe itself, where the relief contains many plateaus, river valleys and basins that complicate the general trend. Sub-regions like Iceland, Britain, and Ireland are special cases. The former is a land unto itself in the northern ocean which is counted as part of Europe, while the latter are upland areas that were once joined to the mainland until rising sea levels cut them off.

Climate

Europe lies mainly in the temperate climate zones, being subjected to prevailing westerlies. The climate is milder in comparison to other areas of the same latitude around the globe due to the influence of the Gulf Stream.  The Gulf Stream is nicknamed "Europe's central heating", because it makes Europe's climate warmer and wetter than it would otherwise be. The Gulf Stream not only carries warm water to Europe's coast but also warms up the prevailing westerly winds that blow across the continent from the Atlantic Ocean.

Therefore, the average temperature throughout the year of Naples is 16 °C (60.8 °F), while it is only 12 °C (53.6 °F) in New York City which is almost on the same latitude. Berlin, Germany; Calgary, Canada; and Irkutsk, in the Asian part of Russia, lie on around the same latitude; January temperatures in Berlin average around 8 °C (15 °F) higher than those in Calgary, and they are almost 22 °C (40 °F) higher than average temperatures in Irkutsk. Similarly, northern parts of Scotland have a tempertate marine climate. The yearly average temperature in city of Inverness is 9.05 degrees Celsius (48.3 degrees Fahrenheit). However, Churchill, Manitoba, Canada, is on roughly the same latitude and has an average temperature of -6.5 degrees Celsius (20.3 degrees Fahrenheit), giving it a nearly subarctic climate.

Geology

The geological history of Europe traces back to the formation of the Baltic Shield (Fennoscandia) and the Sarmatian craton, both around 2.25 billion years ago, followed by the Volgo–Uralia shield, the three together leading to the East European craton (≈ Baltica) which became a part of the supercontinent Columbia. Around 1.1 billion years ago, Baltica and Arctica (as part of the Laurentia block) became joined to Rodinia, later resplitting around 550 million years ago to reform as Baltica. Around 440 million years ago Euramerica was formed from Baltica and Laurentia; a further joining with Gondwana then leading to the formation of Pangea. Around 190 million years ago, Gondwana and Laurasia split apart due to the widening of the Atlantic Ocean. Finally, and very soon afterwards, Laurasia itself split up again, into Laurentia (North America) and the Eurasian continent. The land connection between the two persisted for a considerable time, via Greenland, leading to interchange of animal species. From around 50 million years ago, rising and falling sea levels have determined the actual shape of Europe, and its connections with continents such as Asia. Europe's present shape dates to the late Tertiary period about five million years ago. 

The geology of Europe is hugely varied and complex, and gives rise to the wide variety of landscapes found across the continent, from the Scottish Highlands to the rolling plains of Hungary.  Europe's most significant feature is the dichotomy between highland and mountainous Southern Europe and a vast, partially underwater, northern plain ranging from Ireland in the west to the Ural Mountains in the east. These two halves are separated by the mountain chains of the Pyrenees and Alps/Carpathians. The northern plains are delimited in the west by the Scandinavian Mountains and the mountainous parts of the British Isles. Major shallow water bodies submerging parts of the northern plains are the Celtic Sea, the North Sea, the Baltic Sea complex and Barents Sea.

The northern plain contains the old geological continent of Baltica, and so may be regarded geologically as the "main continent", while peripheral highlands and mountainous regions in the south and west constitute fragments from various other geological continents. Most of the older geology of western Europe existed as part of the ancient microcontinent Avalonia.

Flora

Having lived side-by-side with agricultural peoples for millennia, Europe's animals and plants have been profoundly affected by the presence and activities of man. With the exception of Fennoscandia and northern Russia, few areas of untouched wilderness are currently found in Europe, except for various national parks.

The main natural vegetation cover in Europe is mixed forest. The conditions for growth are very favourable. In the north, the Gulf Stream and North Atlantic Drift warm the continent. Southern Europe could be described as having a warm, but mild climate. There are frequent summer droughts in this region. Mountain ridges also affect the conditions. Some of these (Alps, Pyrenees) are oriented east-west and allow the wind to carry large masses of water from the ocean in the interior. Others are oriented south-north (Scandinavian Mountains, Dinarides, Carpathians, Apennines) and because the rain falls primarily on the side of mountains that is oriented towards the sea, forests grow well on this side, while on the other side, the conditions are much less favourable. Few corners of mainland Europe have not been grazed by livestock at some point in time, and the cutting down of the pre-agricultural forest habitat caused disruption to the original plant and animal ecosystems.

Probably 80 to 90 percent of Europe was once covered by forest.  It stretched from the Mediterranean Sea to the Arctic Ocean. Though over half of Europe's original forests disappeared through the centuries of deforestation, Europe still has over one quarter of its land area as forest, such as the broadlef and mixed forests, taiga of Scandinavia and Russia, mixed rainforests of the Caucasus and the Cork oak forests in the western Mediterranean. During recent times, deforestation has been slowed and many trees have been planted. However, in many cases monoculture plantations of conifers have replaced the original mixed natural forest, because these grow quicker. The plantations now cover vast areas of land, but offer poorer habitats for many European forest dwelling species which require a mixture of tree species and diverse forest structure. The amount of natural forest in Western Europe is just 2–3% or less, in European Russia 5–10%. The country with the smallest percentage of forested area is Iceland (1%), while the most forested country is Finland (77%). 

In temperate Europe, mixed forest with both broadleaf and coniferous trees dominate. The most important species in central and western Europe are beech and oak. In the north, the taiga is a mixed spruce–pine–birch forest; further north within Russia and extreme northern Scandinavia, the taiga gives way to tundra as the Arctic is approached. In the Mediterranean, many olive trees have been planted, which are very well adapted to its arid climate; Mediterranean Cypress is also widely planted in southern Europe. The semi-arid Mediterranean region hosts much scrub forest. A narrow east-west tongue of Eurasian grassland (the steppe) extends eastwards from Ukraine and southern Russia and ends in Hungary and traverses into taiga to the north.

Fauna

Glaciation during the most recent ice age and the presence of man affected the distribution of European fauna. As for the animals, in many parts of Europe most large animals and top predator species have been hunted to extinction. The woolly mammoth was extinct before the end of the Neolithic period. Today wolves (carnivores) and bears (omnivores) are endangered. Once they were found in most parts of Europe. However, deforestation and hunting caused these animals to withdraw further and further. By the Middle Ages the bears' habitats were limited to more or less inaccessible mountains with sufficient forest cover. Today, the brown bear lives primarily in the Balkan peninsula, Scandinavia, and Russia; a small number also persist in other countries across Europe (Austria, Pyrenees etc.), but in these areas brown bear populations are fragmented and marginalised because of the destruction of their habitat. In addition, polar bears may be found on Svalbard, a Norwegian archipelago far north of Scandinavia. The wolf, the second largest predator in Europe after the brown bear, can be found primarily in Central and Eastern Europe and in the Balkans, with a handful of packs in pockets of Western Europe (Scandinavia, Spain, etc.).

European wild cat, foxes (especially the red fox), jackal and different species of martens, hedgehogs, different species of reptiles (like snakes such as vipers and grass snakes) and amphibians, different birds (owls, hawks and other birds of prey).

Important European herbivores are snails, larvae, fish, different birds, and mammals, like rodents, deer and roe deer, boars, and living in the mountains, marmots, steinbocks, chamois among others.  A number of insects, such as the small tortoiseshell butterfly, add to the biodiversity. 

The extinction of the dwarf hippos and dwarf elephants has been linked to the earliest arrival of humans on the islands of the Mediterranean. 

Sea creatures are also an important part of European flora and fauna. The sea flora is mainly phytoplankton. Important animals that live in European seas are zooplankton, molluscs, echinoderms, different crustaceans, squids and octopuses, fish, dolphins, and whales.

Biodiversity is protected in Europe through the Council of Europe's Bern Convention, which has also been signed by the European Community as well as non-European states.

Politics

The list below includes all entities falling even partially under any of the various common definitions of Europe, geographic or political. The data displayed are per sources in cross-referenced articles.

Within the above-mentioned states are several de facto independent countries with limited to no international recognition. None of them are members of the UN:

Several dependencies and similar territories with broad autonomy are also found within or in close proximity to Europe. This includes Åland (a region of Finland), two constituent countries of the Kingdom Denmark (other than Denmark itself), three Crown dependencies, and two British Overseas Territories. Not included are the three countries of the United Kingdom with devolved powers and the two Autonomous Regions of Portugal, which despite having a unique degree of autonomy, are not largely self-governing in matters other than international affairs. Areas with little more than a unique tax status, such as Svalbard, Heligoland and the Canary Islands, are also not included for this reason.

Integration

European integration is the process of political, legal, economic (and in some cases social and cultural) integration of states wholly or partially in Europe. While the Council of Europe—which includes almost all European states—has promoted pan-Europe cooperation, the European Union has been the focus of economic integration on the continent. More recently, the Eurasian Economic Union has been established as a counterpart comprising former Soviet states.

28 European states are members of the politico-economic European Union, 26 of the border-free Schengen Area and 19 of the monetary union Eurozone. Among the smaller European organizations are the Nordic Council, the Benelux, the Baltic Assembly and the Visegrád Group.

Economy

As a continent, the economy of Europe is currently the largest on Earth and it is the richest region as measured by assets under management with over $32.7 trillion compared to North America's $27.1 trillion in 2008.  In 2009 Europe remained the wealthiest region. Its $37.1 trillion in assets under management represented one-third of the world's wealth. It was one of several regions where wealth surpassed its precrisis year-end peak.  As with other continents, Europe has a large variation of wealth among its countries. The richer states tend to be in the West; some of the Central and Eastern European economies are still emerging from the collapse of the Soviet Union and Yugoslavia.

The European Union, a political entity composed of 28 European states, comprises the largest single economic area in the world. 18 EU countries share the euro as a common currency.
Five European countries rank in the top ten of the world's largest national economies in GDP (PPP). This includes (ranks according to the CIA): Germany (5), the UK (6), Russia (7), France (8), and Italy (10). 

There is huge disparity between many European countries in terms of their income. The richest in terms of GDP per capita is Monaco with its US$172,676 per capita (2009) and the poorest is Moldova with its GDP per capita of US$1,631 (2010).  Monaco is the richest country in terms of GDP per capita in the world according to the World Bank report.

History

;Industrial growth (1760–1945)

Capitalism has been dominant in the Western world since the end of feudalism.  From Britain, it gradually spread throughout Europe.  The Industrial Revolution started in Europe, specifically the United Kingdom in the late 18th century,  and the 19th century saw Western Europe industrialise. Economies were disrupted by World War I but by the beginning of World War II they had recovered and were having to compete with the growing economic strength of the United States. World War II, again, damaged much of Europe's industries.

;Cold War (1945–1991)

After World War II the economy of the UK was in a state of ruin,  and continued to suffer relative economic decline in the following decades.  Italy was also in a poor economic condition but regained a high level of growth by the 1950s. West Germany recovered quickly and had doubled production from pre-war levels by the 1950s.  France also staged a remarkable comeback enjoying rapid growth and modernisation; later on Spain, under the leadership of Franco, also recovered, and the nation recorded huge unprecedented economic growth beginning in the 1960s in what is called the Spanish miracle.  The majority of Central and Eastern European states came under the control of the Soviet Union and thus were members of the Council for Mutual Economic Assistance (COMECON). 

The states which retained a free-market system were given a large amount of aid by the United States under the Marshall Plan.
  The western states moved to link their economies together, providing the basis for the EU and increasing cross border trade. This helped them to enjoy rapidly improving economies, while those states in COMECON were struggling in a large part due to the cost of the Cold War. Until 1990, the European Community was expanded from 6 founding members to 12. The emphasis placed on resurrecting the West German economy led to it overtaking the UK as Europe's largest economy.

;Reunification (1991–2016)

With the fall of communism in Central and Eastern Europe in 1991, the post-socialist states began free market reforms: Poland, Hungary, and Slovenia adopted them reasonably quickly, while Ukraine and Russia are still in the process of doing so.

After East and West Germany were reunited in 1990, the economy of West Germany struggled as it had to support and largely rebuild the infrastructure of East Germany.
By the millennium change, the EU dominated the economy of Europe comprising the five largest European economies of the time namely Germany, the United Kingdom, France, Italy, and Spain. In 1999, 12 of the 15 members of the EU joined the Eurozone replacing their former national currencies by the common euro. The three who chose to remain outside the Eurozone were: the United Kingdom, Denmark, and Sweden.
The European Union is now the largest economy in the world. 

Figures released by Eurostat in 2009 confirmed that the Eurozone had gone into recession in 2008.  It impacted much of the region.  In 2010, fears of a sovereign debt crisis  developed concerning some countries in Europe, especially Greece, Ireland, Spain, and Portugal.  As a result, measures were taken, especially for Greece, by the leading countries of the Eurozone.  The EU-27 unemployment rate was 10.3% in 2012.  For those aged 15–24 it was 22.4%. 

Demographics

Since the Renaissance, Europe has had a major influence in culture, economics and social movements in the world. The most significant inventions had their origins in the Western world, primarily Europe and the United States.   Approximately 70 million Europeans died through war, violence and famine between 1914 and 1945.  Some current and past issues in European demographics have included religious emigration, race relations, economic immigration, a declining birth rate and an ageing population.

In some countries, such as Ireland and Poland, access to abortion is limited. It remains illegal on the island of Malta. Furthermore, three European countries (the Netherlands, Belgium, and Switzerland) and the Autonomous Community of Andalusia (Spain)   have allowed a limited form of voluntary euthanasia for some terminally ill people.

In 2005, the population of Europe was estimated to be 731 million according to the United Nations, which is slightly more than one-ninth of the world's population. A century ago, Europe had nearly a quarter of the world's population.  The population of Europe has grown in the past century, but in other areas of the world (in particular Africa and Asia) the population has grown far more quickly.  Among the continents, Europe has a relatively high population density, second only to Asia. The most densely populated country in Europe (and in the world) is Monaco. Pan and Pfeil (2004) count 87 distinct "peoples of Europe", of which 33 form the majority population in at least one sovereign state, while the remaining 54 constitute ethnic minorities. 
According to UN population projection, Europe's population may fall to about 7% of world population by 2050, or 653 million people (medium variant, 556 to 777 million in low and high variants, respectively). Within this context, significant disparities exist between regions in relation to fertility rates. The average number of children per female of child bearing age is 1.52. According to some sources,  this rate is higher among Muslims in Europe. The UN predicts a steady population decline in Central and Eastern Europe as a result of emigration and low birth rates. 

Europe is home to the highest number of migrants of all global regions at 70.6 million people, the IOM's report said.  In 2005, the EU had an overall net gain from immigration of 1.8 million people. This accounted for almost 85% of Europe's total population growth.  The European Union plans to open the job centres for legal migrant workers from Africa.   In 2008, 696,000 persons were given citizenship of an EU27 member state, a decrease from 707,000 the previous year. 

Emigration from Europe began with Spanish and Portuguese settlers in the 16th century,   and French and English settlers in the 17th century. But numbers remained relatively small until waves of mass emigration in the 19th century, when millions of poor families left Europe. 

Today, large populations of European descent are found on every continent. European ancestry predominates in North America, and to a lesser degree in South America (particularly in Uruguay, Argentina, Chile and Brazil, while most of the other Latin American countries also have a considerable population of European origins). Australia and New Zealand have large European derived populations. Africa has no countries with European-derived majorities (or with the exception of Cape Verde and probably São Tomé and Príncipe, depending on context), but there are significant minorities, such as the White South Africans. In Asia, European-derived populations predominate in Northern Asia (specifically Russians), some parts of Northern Kazakhstan and Israel. 

Languages

European languages mostly fall within three Indo-European language groups: the Romance languages, derived from the Latin of the Roman Empire; the Germanic languages, whose ancestor language came from southern Scandinavia; and the Slavic languages.

Slavic languages are most spoken by the number of native speakers in Europe, they are spoken in Central, Eastern, and Southeastern Europe. Romance languages are spoken primarily in south-western Europe as well as in Romania and Moldova, in Central or Eastern Europe. Germanic languages are spoken in Northern Europe, the British Isles and some parts of Central Europe.

Many other languages outside the three main groups exist in Europe. Other Indo-European languages include the Baltic group (that is, Latvian and Lithuanian), the Celtic group (that is, Irish, Scottish Gaelic, Manx, Welsh, Cornish, and Breton), Greek, Armenian, and Albanian. In addition, a distinct group of Uralic languages (Estonian, Finnish, and Hungarian) is spoken mainly in Estonia, Finland, and Hungary, while Kartvelian languages (Georgian, Mingrelian, and Svan), are spoken primarily in Georgia, and two other language families reside in the North Caucasus (termed Northeast Caucasian, most notably including Chechen, Avar and Lezgin and Northwest Caucasian, notably including Adyghe). Maltese is the only Semitic language that is official within the EU, while Basque is the only European language isolate. Turkic languages include Azerbaijani and Turkish, in addition to the languages of minority nations in Russia.

Multilingualism and the protection of regional and minority languages are recognised political goals in Europe today. The Council of Europe Framework Convention for the Protection of National Minorities and the Council of Europe's European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages set up a legal framework for language rights in Europe.

Religion

Historically, religion in Europe has been a major influence on European art, culture, philosophy and law. The largest religion in Europe is Christianity, with 76.2% of Europeans considering themselves Christians,  including Catholic, Eastern Orthodox and various Protestant denominations (especially historically state-supported European ones such as Lutheranism, Anglicanism and the Reformed faith). The notion of "Europe" and the "Western World" has been intimately connected with the concept of "Christianity and Christendom" many even attribute Christianity for being the link that created a unified European identity. 

Christianity, including the Roman Catholic Church,   has played  a prominent role in the shaping of Western civilization since at least the 4th century.     and for at least a millennium and a half, Europe has been nearly equivalent to Christian culture, even though the religion was inherited from the Middle East. Christian culture was the predominant force in western civilization, guiding the course of philosophy, art, and science.  

The second most popular religion is Islam (6%)  concentrated mainly in the Balkans and eastern Europe (Bosnia and Herzegovina, Albania, Kosovo, Kazakhstan, North Cyprus, Turkey, Azerbaijan, North Caucasus, and the Volga-Ural region). Other religions, including Judaism, Hinduism, and Buddhism are minority religions (though Tibetan Buddhism is the majority religion of Russia's Republic of Kalmykia). The 20th century saw the revival of Neopaganism through movements such as Wicca and Druidry.

Europe has become a relatively secular continent, with an increasing number and proportion of irreligious, atheist and agnostic people which make up about 18.2% of Europeans population,  actually the largest secular in the Western world. There are a particularly high number of self-described non-religious people in the Czech Republic, Estonia, Sweden, former East Germany, and France. 

Culture

The culture of Europe can be described as a series of overlapping cultures; cultural mixes exist across the continent. Scholar Andreas Kaplan describes Europe as "embracing maximum cultural diversity at minimal geographical distances".  There are cultural innovations and movements, sometimes at odds with each other. Thus, the question of "common culture" or "common values" is complex.

According to historian Hilaire Belloc, for several centuries the peoples of Europe based their self-identification on the remaining traces of the Roman culture and on the concept of Christendom, because many European-wide military alliances were of religious nature: the Crusades (1095–1291), the Reconquista (711–1492), the Battle of Lepanto (1571).

Silk in World Markets
SILK IN WORLD MARKETS
© International Trade Centre, International Trade Forum - Issue 1/1999
Japan is the world's leading silk consumer.
Silk has a miniscule percentage of the global textile fibre market-less than 0.2%. This figure, however, is misleading, since the actual trading value of silk and silk products is much more impressive. This is a multibillion dollar trade, with a unit price for raw silk roughly twenty times that of raw cotton. (The precise global value is difficult to assess, since reliable data on finished silk products is lacking in most importing countries.) To give an idea of the value, however, the annual turnover of the China National Silk Import and Export Corporation alone is US$ 2-2.5 billion.
Unlike some other textiles, silk-wearing traditions and demand go back a long way. A good example is India, where the local demand greatly exceeds supply (and hampers export growth). India has thus become the largest importer of raw silk, despite the fact that it is now the second largest producer. Some other silk producers are also experiencing fast-growing local demand, such as China, where consumers are increasingly able to afford the lower price range silk products. This pattern is also expected to repeat itself in Viet Nam.
Italy and France
Raw silk importers, high-quality processors
Italy has been traditionally the largest importer, processor and exporter of silk products in Europe. In 1997, Italy imported some 3200 tons of raw silk and over 700 tons of silk yarn, primarily from China. Italy also imported about 300 tons of ladies' blouses, of which over 80% came from China. Silk garment imports, however, have drastically gone down over the last five years. (In 1992, the country imported more than 700 tons of ladies' blouses.) Italy is well-known for highly developed skills in silk processing (finishing, dyeing and printing silk fabrics). Exports of silk scarves rose by about 15% between from 1996 to 1997, to 586 tons. Exports of silk neckties reached 1230 tons the same year.
France is another country with a considerable silk processing industry. For centuries, Lyon has produced silk fabrics of the highest quality for domestic consumption and for export. More than 70% of silk fabrics in the French market have been traditionally used for clothing. There are signs that silk may have a growing market also for interior decoration use as curtains, wall covers, bed spreads and upholstery. France exports top quality silk fabrics to the US market, with unit prices reaching US$ 30 per m2.
United States
Emphasis on easy-care fabrics
The US market is one of the world's largest, and imports include garments, interior decoration fabrics and accessories. Silk processing capacity is virtually nonexistent. Imports of silk goods were valued at about US$ 2 billion in 1997; 10% was for home furnishing. Unlike European consumers, US consumers do not have a long tradition of using silk. Silk therefore has never had the same aura as in Europe. The United States has been a pioneer market for imported Chinese knitted silk products, initially mainly thermal underwear, and now also elegant casuals in the form of T-shirts, polo neck sweaters, etc. Easy care is a "must" in the United States, so it is important to develop fabrics with easy-care properties to compete with other fibres.
Germany
Europe's largest silk market, quality-conscious, receptive
to "green" marketing
Germany is by far the largest European market for textiles and clothing, including silk. The German consumer favours natural fibres. Germany has been importing a variety of silk garments, accessories (particularly silk cushion covers) and interior decoration fabrics. Silk garments are imported mainly from China. India and Thailand have been relatively successful in this market with their handloom silk products for home furnishing. The market is quality-conscious and prepared to pay a premium for good quality.
Japan
Leading Consumer
Traditionally the largest silk consumer, Japan in the 1960s relied entirely on local silk production, mostly for kimonos. Between the 1970s and today, local silk production dropped from over 20,000 tons to less than 2000. The country now depends on imported silk goods, particularly from China. Kimonos still absorb about 50% of the total raw silk consumption in Japan, down from 90% in the 1970s. Silk is little used in interior decoration. The decline of the Japanese silk processing industry is having a serious effect on Brazilian sericulture, which caters largely to Japan.

Producers and Consumers - Silk
Silk
Significance to Historical Events
Producers and Consumers
Silk has a small percentage in the global textile fiber market, its less than .2%, however the value and products of silk are very impressive. Silk is a multibillion-dollar trade market; the unit price of silk is roughly twenty times the price of raw cotton. The annual turnover of the China National Import and Export Corporation is 2-2.5 billion dollars.
China is the largest exporter of silk, followed by India, even thought their export figures have shown a downward trend recently. Vietnam has emerged as a major player in the silk industry and will soon pose a threat to countries like India, Brazil, and to Bangladesh.
Italy and France- Raw Silk Importers and Processors
Italy, because of its fashion industry, has traditionally been the largest importer of raw silk, processor and exporter of silk in Europe. In 1997, Italy imported 3200 tons of raw silk and 300 tons of silk thread, primarily imported from China. Along with this Italy also imported 300 tons of ladies silk blouses, over 80% of the silk blouses came from China. However, over the past five years the importing of silk garments has dramatically decreased, in 1992 they imported 700 tons of blouses. Italy is known for there high quality processing of silk, finishing, dyeing, and printing of silk fabrics. However with the decrease of blouses, the exports of silk scarves rose by about 15% in 1996-1997. Along with that the exports of silk neckties reached 1230 tons in 1997.
France is another large importer in the raw silk industry; they are also large processors of silk. Lyon has produced the highest quality of silk fabrics for domestic consumption and for export. Most of the silk fabrics in the French market have been used for clothing. However, silk soon may be growing in the interior decoration market, used for curtains, wall covers, bed spreads, and upholstery. France exports the best quality silk fabrics to the US market.
United States
The United States is one of the world’s largest importers of silk garments and interior decoration fabrics and accessories. Unlike Italy and France the US has a very little processing industry. In 1997 imports of silk goods were estimated to value about 2 billion dollars. 10% of it was for home furnishing. Unlike Europe, the US does not have a very long history of using silk, so silk has much more of a presence in Europe. However The United States has lead the way in the import of Chinese knitted silk products. It started with importing thermal underwear, and has now expanded to silk T-shirts, polo neck sweaters, etc. In the United States it is very important for the fabrics to be easy to care for, so silk fabric producers have to make the care of silk easy to compete with other fabrics.
Germany
Germany is the largest European market for textiles and clothing, especially silk. Germans prefer their fabrics to be “green” and natural fibers. Germany imports silk garments, accessories, and interior decoration fabrics. Their Silk garments are imported mainly from China. However India and Thailand have been successful with their hand loom silk products for home furnishing. Quality is important for Germany, they are willing to pay more for good quality products.
Japan
Japan is the largest silk consumer. In the 1960’s Japan relied solely on the local silk production, mostly for kimonos. However between the 1970’s and today, the local silk production in china has decreased drastically from 20,000 tons to less than 2000 tons. Japan depends more on imported silk goods from China. Kimonos take in about 50% of the total raw silk consumption in Japan. Silk in Japan isn’t used much for interior design. The decline in the demand of silk has had a serious effect on the Brazilian sericulture, because most of brazils silk products went to Japan. 
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Silk History: History of Silk Fabric; History of Chinese Silk; Silk Road History Silks History
Sericulture Today
The Legend
According to well-established Chinese legend,  Empress Hsi   Ling Shi, wife of Emperor Huang Ti (also called the Yellow  Emperor), was the   first person to accidentally discover silk as  weavable fiber.
One day,   when the empress was sipping tea under a mulberry tree ,  a cocoon fell into her   cup and began to unravel. The empress became  so enamored with the shimmering   threads, she discovered their source,  the Bombyx mori silkworm found in the white   mulberry. The empress soon developed  sericulture, the cultivation of silkworms,   and invented the reel and  loom. Thus began the history of silk.
Whether or not the legend is accurate, it is certain that  the earliest surviving   references to silk history and production place  it in China; and that for nearly   3 millennia, the Chinese had a  global monopoly on silk production.
The Silk   Road
Though first reserved for Chinese royalty, silk  spread   gradually through the Chinese culture both geographically and  socially. From   there, silken garments began to reach regions  throughout Asia. Silk rapidly   became a popular luxury fabric in the  many areas accessible to Chinese   merchants, because of its texture and  luster.
Demand for this exotic   fabric eventually created the  lucrative trade route now known as the Silk Road,   taking silk westward  and bringing gold, silver and wools to the East. It was   named the  Silk Road after its most valuable commodity – silk was considered even    more precious than gold! Clearly, a basic understanding of silk history  would   not be complete without understanding the crucial role played  by the Silk Road   in its global trade and introduction to the world  outside of China.
The Silk Road was some 4,000   miles long stretching from Eastern China to the  Mediterranean Sea. A caravan   tract, the Silk Road followed the Great  Wall of China to the north-west,   bypassing the Takla Makan desert,  climbing the Pamir mountain range, crossing   modern-day Afghanistan and  going on to the Levant, with a major trading market   in Damascus. From  there, the merchandise was shipped across the Mediterranean   Sea. Few  people traveled the entire route; goods were handled mostly by a series    of middlemen.
A   Well-kept Secret
The Chinese realized the value of the beautiful    material they were producing and kept its secret safe from the rest of  the world   for more than 30 centuries. Travelers were searched  thoroughly at border   crossings and anyone caught trying to smuggle  eggs, cocoons or silkworms out of   the country were summarily executed.  Thus, under penalty of death, the mystery   of sericulture remained a  well-kept secret for almost three thousand years.
Sericulture Spreads into Asia and   Europe
With the mulberry silk moth native to  China, the Chinese had a   monopoly on the world's silk production until  about BCE 200 when Korea saw the   emergence of its own silk industry  thanks to a handful of Chinese immigrants who   had settled there. By  about CE 300, sericulture had spread into India, Japan,   and Persia – thus making silk a part of the history of these   cultures.
The Roman Empire knew of and traded in silk. Despite its    popularity, however, the secret of silk-making was only to reach Europe  around   CE 550, via the Byzantine Empire. According to a legend well  enshrined in silk   history, monks working for the emperor Justinian  smuggled silkworm eggs to   Constantinople in hollow bamboo walking  canes. The Byzantines were as secretive   as the Chinese, and for many  centuries the weaving and trading of silk fabric   was a strict imperial  monopoly.
In the seventh century, the Arabs   conquered Persia,  capturing their magnificent silks in the process. Sericulture   and silk  weaving thus spread through Africa, Sicily, and Spain as the Arabs    swept through these lands. Andalusia was Europe's main silk-producing  center in   the tenth century.
By the 13th century, however, Italy had gained   dominance  and entered the hall of fame in silk history. Venetian merchants    traded extensively in silk and encouraged silk growers to settle in  Italy. By   the 13th century, Italian silk was a significant source of  trade. Even now, silk   processed (finished, dyed, printed) in the  province of Como enjoys an esteemed   reputation.
Italian silk was so popular in Europe that Francis I of    France invited Italian silkmakers to France to create a French silk  industry,   especially in Lyon. By the 17th century France was  challenging Italy's   leadership, and the silk looms established in the  Lyons area at that time are   still famous today for the unique beauty  of their weaving.
In Medieval   Europe, silk was used only by the nobility.
Sericulture Today
The nineteenth   century and industrialization saw  the downfall of the European silk industry.   Cheaper Japanese silk,  especially driven by the opening of the Suez Canal, was   one of the  many factors driving the trend. Additionally, advent of manmade   fiber,  such as nylon, started to dominate traditionally silk products such as    stockings and parachutes. The two world wars, which interrupted the  supply of   raw material from Japan, also stifled the European silk  industry.
After   the Second World War, Japan's silk production was  restored, with improved   production and quality of raw silk. Japan was  to remain the world's biggest   producer of raw silk, and practically  the only major exporter of raw silk, until   the 1970s.
China gradually re-captured her position as the world's    biggest producer and exporter of raw silk and silk yarn – proving that  the   history of silk follows its own boomerang principles. Today,  around 125,000   metric tons of silk is produced in the world. Almost  two thirds of that   production takes place in China.
The other major producers are India,   Japan, Korea,  Thailand, Vietnam, Uzbekistan, and Brazil. United States is by far   the  largest importer of silk products today.
Acknowledgement:   Facts about silk history in this writing have been borrowed from various sources   such as Wikipedia and Encyclopaedia Brittanica . Please visit All About Silk for further information about   silk.
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Raw Silk Production
Raw Silk Production
( Originally Published Early 1900's )
Silk is produced from cocoons of an insect usually and rather inaccurately called the  "silkworm." This popular name originates from the fact that the silk-producing moth, before reaching maturity, passes through a caterpillar or worm stage during which it spins for itself the cocoon from which later it emerges as a true moth, closely related in nature to the butterfly. The cocoon, formed from an unbroken fiber secreted from the caterpillar's body, is gathered and the fiber unwound, thereby furnishing the silk fiber of commerce.
Varieties of silk moths.-There are between three and four hundred varieties of moths that produce silk cocoons, many of these varieties being found in America. Only a few produce cocoons of the kind and quantity that make it profitable to collect them. Most silk comes from a single variety known to science as the Bombyx mori. This silk moth, or silkworm as we shall call it, has been raised for hundreds and even thousands of years. It is correctly called the domesticated silkworm. From just what wild variety it originally came is not known. It has probably changed greatly during its age-long process of culture. By the selection of only the larger ones for breeding purposes, this variety has been increased in size, with consequent en largement of the cocoon. It has lost its power of flight.
The wings of the full-grown moth are practically useless. At the caterpillar stage it has lost its sight. The constant care that man has given to thousands of generations of worms has made it unnecessary for them to see or fly; these functions therefore have been lost. All necessary movements are provided for by human attendants, who carry the worms to the feeding places and supply them with food. The Bombyx mori, the domestic silkworm, is white or cream-colored, whereas the wild varieties vary widely in color. Brown is very common.
Stages in. the life of a silkworm.-The silkworms of all varieties pass through four marked stages: first we find them as eggs; second, as caterpillars or worms; third, as chrysalides, inside of the cocoons; and fourth, as full-grown moths. It takes from twenty to thirty days for the eggs to hatch. The caterpillar stage lasts about 3o days. The chrysalis stage lasts but a few days, and the moths die as soon as they have mated and laid the new generation of eggs.
The Bombyx mori produces but one new generation each year. For this reason it is called univoltine. Some of the wild species of silkworms, however, annually produce two, three, and even more generations. The common Chinese wild silkworms produce as many as seven crops each year in the Hongkong district, while a variety in Bengal, India, produces eight generations. These varieties are called multivoltine. The univoltine is preferred for cultivation to the many multivoltine species because it produces the finest and strongest silk. In the attempt to use the cocoons from the multivoltine species there is a great deal of waste; it is utterly impossible to reel the cocoons of some varieties.
THE EGG.-Silkworm eggs are about the size of a turnipseed and it takes from 30,000 to 40,000 to weigh an ounce. If all goes well, these will produce about 130 to 140 pounds of cocoons, and from these about twelve pounds of raw silk may be reeled. Eggs are sometimes sold by one grower to another for so much an ounce. When first laid they are yellow, but if fertile they soon turn blue-gray. The univoltine species is hatched in the month of June by the use of incubators in which the temperature is kept at about 75 degrees. In Oriental countries the eggs are sometimes kept at the required temperature by having them wrapped in folds of cloth around the bodies of the people who are caring for the silk-raising establishments.
THE WORMS OR CATERPILLARS.-Finally the eggs hatch and little, dark-colored worms creep out. This is the caterpillar or larva stage. These little baby caterpillars, especially of the domestic species, are almost helpless. Those in charge provide mulberry leaves to the under side of which the caterpillars attach themselves and get food by sucking the juice out of the leaf. In eight days they have attained considerable growth and are ready to shed their skins for the first time. Three other moltings take place before the caterpillar is full grown. Each time, as the molting period approaches, the worms stop eating, rise on their hind legs, and remain still for a couple of days. Finally a crack starts in the skin above the nose. This enlarges until it gives room for the head and later for the body to wriggle out. As soon as the skin is shed the caterpillar becomes voraciously hungry and avidly attacks the leaves supplied' to it. After the first few days of caterpillar life, the worms cease sucking and begin to eat the entire soft parts of the leaf by cutting out pieces and devouring them. The noise made by thousands of these worms in a room, all busily feeding, is like that of falling rain.
Care o f the caterpillars.-The worms are kept on shallow trays which are placed by the dozen in frames. Laborersmen, women, and children-busily pick leaves from the trees, bring them in fresh to the worms, change the worms from tray to tray, clean the old trays and prepare them for another group of worms. Great care is necessary in so handling the worms that they may not be hurt. Though the worms are blind, they have none the less a very acute hearing; wherefore all noises must be prevented se far as is possible. A sharp noise causes the worm to stop feeding and to give out-really to waste-a part of that liquid in its body which will later make silk fiber. Much silk is lost in this way, even when the utmost care is exercised. Such unavoidable noises as thunderstorms cause very marked losses. As a rule the laborers walk barefooted or in their stocking feet about the room in which the silkworms are kept.
THE COCOON.-After the caterpillar has shed its skin four times it is ready to pass into the next stage, that of the cocoon or chrysalis. One ounce of eggs has become by this time, if good fortune has attended the work, 20,000 fullgrown worms. These worms have consumed in the period of thirty days over half a ton of green leaves. When ready to spin their cocoons, the worms are transferred to trays constructed with brushy tufts in which they like to make their cocoons.
The cocoon is constructed in most interesting fashion. There are two long bags inside the worm's body, one along each side. These bags or sacs contain a sticky or viscous liquid. This is slowly exuded through the worm's under lip, and immediately upon coming into the air it hardens into a thin little stream of fiber; this fiber is the silk. Usually both bags exude the liquid at the same time; hence the fiber that is formed at the lower lip of the worm is generally double, as can be seen by laying almost any silk fiber under a strong magnifying glass or a microscope.
The worm attaches itself to a tuft on the tray provided for it. The wild worm selects some bush, weed, tuft, or grass, where it begins to give off the silk liquid, and, as it does so, swings its head from one side to the other, depositing the silk fiber in the form of figure eights. At first the directions are somewhat irregular, but later the method of laying the fiber becomes almost uniform. Soon the worm is wholly inclosed by his tent of silk fiber, but he continues spinning on the inside until his silk secretions are used up, and the cocoon is completed.
THE CHRYSALIS,-The caterpillar then changes from a worm to a chrysalis, a thing that looks partly like a worm and partly like an insect. In this condition it sleeps for about eighteen to twenty days. Then, if left undisturbed, it is transformed into a moth; it becomes fully awake, and strives to emerge from the cocoon. Slowly it pushes itself forward against the wall of the cocoon, breaking some of the obstructing fiber and dissolving parts of it by a strong, alkaline liquid which it gives out of its mouth.
THE MOTH.-After it has come out of the cocoon the moth remains quiet until its wings are dry, and then proceeds to the mating which lasts for several hours. The female moth now lays her eggs in two deposits, a few hours apart. Each moth produces from three hundred to five hundred eggs. The male is smaller than the female, but more active. Both are covered with woolly hair and, if of the Bombyx mori variety, are creamy white in color. Neither male nor female eats anything betwen the time when it begins to spin and its death.
COMPLETING THE CYCLE OF LIFE.-The eggs are laid over an even surface, sometimes with a gummy liquid that sticks the eggs to the object upon which they are laid. Shortly after the mating and the laying of the eggs, the moth dies. Its cycle of life is completed.
HOW THE SILK FIBER IS OBTAINED
As already indicated the cocoons are the source of the silk fiber. The silkworm deposits upwards of 4,000 yards of the tiny fiber in making its cocoon. But when the moth leaves the cocoon by breaking its way out, it cuts this fiber off in many places, thus largely decreasing its value; hence silk producers kill the chrysalis in the cocoon to prevent its coming through. The usual method is that of immersing the cocoons in steam for a few minutes. Sometimes the chrysalides are killed by baking the cocoons in a hot oven; recently a method of freezing them to death has been used to a limited extent. Another method, that of placing the cocoons in boiling water, serves a double purpose. Not only does it kill the chrysalides, but it also softens the "gum" that sticks the threads together, so that they can be unreeled from the cocoon. But in this case the reeling must begin at once, while if the chrysalides are killed by steam, heat, or frost, the cocoons may be kept in their original form for years.
The cocoons of the best domesticated varieties of silkworms are either white or cream-colored. The wild cocoons may have almost any color, according to the feed upon which the caterpillar lives. It has been shown that red coloring matter put into mulberry leaves fed to the worms tends to tint the cocoon red, and that other colors put into their food produce corresponding effects in the cocoons.
Reeling.-The fiber is removed from the whole cocoons by a process of unreeling. The method is as simple as it is laborious. After the fiber in the cocoon is loosened by soaking in boiling water, the cocoons are taken out, and the floss, or loose, fluffy, silky fiber on the outside, is cleaned off to be used in the production of carded silk yarns. Next the cocoons are put into a basin containing water kept constantly at lukewarm temperature. Laborers use a whisk broom or brush and push the cocoons up and down in the water until some loose end of fiber becomes attached to the broom. This fiber, the loose end of a cocoon, is drawn gently; the cocoon tumbles around in the water and gradually it unreels itself. A single fiber is very small, and for reeling purposes usually three or four are combined. These are passed through a smooth ring as one fiber and then onto a reel frame which is usually run by foot power, but sometimes by mechanical power in modern reeling plants, or by filatures as they are called. By means of the reel frames the raw silk is reeled into skeins or hanks.
Care necessary in reeling.-The threads as they come from the cocoons are not of even thickness because of the fact that the various glands in the spinning worm do not operate alike at all times. Most of the time both glands or silk sacs secrete together, but occasionally only one produces; hence unevenness results. As a rule the thread is finer when the worm first begins to spin than it is during the middle of the process; the fiber tapers again at the end of the spinning. Since it is very necessary to get an even silk thread in the skein that is being formed, the operator in charge must be constantly on the watch. When the thread grows thin, another is added; when it grows thick a thread or two is taken out. Each operator runs two reels. Keeping both reels going and carefully watching the threads to note changes in size, adding to or taking away to give uniform size, preventing breakage, and keeping a new supply of cocoons properly soaked in the basin-all these are duties that call for extreme deftness of fingers, accuracy of eye, and quickness of mind.
Product per cocoon.-The average cocoon reels off about three hundred yards in a single thread. It will be recalled that there may be as many as 4,000 yards in a cocoon, but considerable is brushed off in the outer floss, and a portion near the inside will not reel well; hence only the middle of the fiber can be saved in the form of one long thread. The very best cocoons reel off as high as four hundred yards. Cocoon wastes.-The portions that are not reeled are used in making coarser yarns by carding, combing, and spinning as with the other textiles. The longer fibers are often carded and combed as in making worsteds. This sort of silk is known as florette silk. Shorter fibers which may only be carded and then spun are called bourette silk. The general names for both varieties are silk waste, floss, schappe, or echappe. Floss is probably the best name, since schappe is used frequently for manufactured goods made out of floss or waste. But it should be remembered that floss is also the name given to the outside loose fibers surrounding the cocoon.
Breeding silk moths.-The cocoons are not all alike in size, shape, color, and other qualities. For example, the cocoons containing female chrysalides are larger than those containing males. The color varies considerably. Not all can be used for making silk fiber; some must be left for breeding purposes. The very largest, best-looking, smoothest, and healthiest are set aside and the moths allowed to come out and breed. This method makes sure that the stock of silkworms will be kept up to a high producing standard.
SORTING COCOONS.-The very best cocoons are often set aside and reeled by themselves for the finest and strongest silk threads. For example, silk warp is usually made from fiber drawn from the better grades of cocoons. The finest sewing silk comes from the most perfect cocoons. The poorest cocoons, the deformed, discolored, or otherwise defective ones, are often not reeled at all but are simply turned at once into silk floss.
Silk wastes.-Various names are given to the grades and kinds of waste or floss silk. Very irregular masses of torn silk fibers are called watt silk. The inner portions of the cocoon next to the chrysalis are called wadding, neri, or ricotti, and various other names. Imperfect cocoons which are not reeled are called cocoons or piques. The wastes accumulated in reeling, due to breakage, loose ends, and so on, are called frissonets,
USE OF SILK WASTE.-Until about 1857, silk waste was entirely useless, but it is now the material of an important industry. It is cleared of gum by boiling, and then run through machines that break up, card, comb, and draw the fibers into shape for spinning.
Silkworm diseases.-The silkworm is subject to a number of severe diseases, and also to depredations from mice, weevils, and ants. There are times when whole chambers where the silkworms are kept become infected with contagious diseases that kill off the worms before they can spin. Wild worms are by no means so liable to disease. The susceptibility to disease is a direct result of domestication. Under the most favorable circumstances, fully one-fourth of the eggs fail to produce worms that grow to maturity. Some are killed by accident, but the majority by disease.
The principal diseases of the silkworm are: pebrine, grasserie, flacherie (or flaccidity), gattine (or macilonza), and muscardine (or calcino).
Pebrine is a bacterial disease, both hereditary and contagious, which has wrought tremendous damage in the silk industry in Europe, especially in France. At one time, about 1865, the French cocoon production had been almost destroyed. No cure for the disease has ever been discovered. The only means of getting rid of it is to allow the affected worms and moths to die out, carefully to disinfect the premises, and then to start in with a fresh supply of healthy eggs.
SCIENCE IN TREATING SILKWORM DISEASES.-Pasteur, a noted French scientist, showed how the disease might be prevented. Every moth, after laying its eggs, is killed and its interior examined carefully under a microscope, the only means of discovering the germs. If the germs are found in the moth's body, the eggs are destroyed, since they also are sure to contain some germs carried from the mother moth's body. When no signs of germs are found in the moth, the eggs are considered safe to grow. After this method came into use, French silk growing leaped forward again. Experiment stations for the examination of eggs were established by the government in numerous placesan example followed by Italy and other countries. Lately the French growers have become careless again, and silk production is consequently rapidly falling off. Now, Italy and Austria are doing the most to stamp out the disease, and these two countries are producing the finest raw silks. Particularly in Tyrol, a province in Austria, is this scientific method of propagating disease-free eggs in most successful use. No silk-growing peasant in either Italy or Tyrol would today think of hatching out silkworm eggs that were not certified by some government experiment station as free from disease. Leading growers in France are hoping to revive the careful inspection that Pasteur planned for them.
Flacherie is now the most dreaded disease among European silkworm growers. It attacks and speedily kills the worms shortly before they are full-grown. Often thousands of worms in one room die in a single day. It is really a form of indigestion due to various causes such as overeating, poor leaves, bad air in the room, excessive heat, dust on the leaves, or keeping worms too thick on the trays. Like pebrine, flacherie is contagious and hereditary. It can, however, be prevented by carefully avoiding the causes mentioned, and by disinfecting the rooms where cases have occurred. Eggs that have been exposed to the disease are washed in a disinfecting solution before being hatched.
The worms may easily be overfed at certain stages, especially on young, tender leaves when the worms are almost full-grown. Sometimes, this overfeeding causes a disease that is called grasserie. It is not contagious, but does kill a number of worms every year, especially in warm countries.
Gattine causes the worms to become torpid. This is a germ disease, and can be eradicated by changing the trays and disinfecting the old ones. The growers sometimes shake the worms vigorously and thus jar them out of their torpor.
Muscardine is a mold disease which kills worms very rapidly whenever it gets a start. It is more contagious than any other silkworm disease. The methods of getting rid of it are disinfection, letting in pure air and light into the trays, burning sulphur in the room, and so on.
The possibility of disease, together with the constant need of care, keeps the silk growers constantly on the watch over their worms. The task is tremendous, and the chances for loss are always great.
WILD SILKS
The wild silks are gathered principally in Japan, China; and India. There are, of course, several varieties of wild silk cocoons, each with qualities somewhat different from the rest. The principal variety of Japan is the Yamai-mai, and the chief varieties of India are the tusser, or tussah, and the ailanthus. As already indicated, most of these silks are much darker in color than the domesticated silk, the Bombyx mori, probably because of the difference in feed. Wild silkworms do not always have mulberry leaves to eat. Great numbers feed on oak leaves and in some cases on other plants.
Quality of wild silk.-In a general way it may be said that wild silks are in most respects of poorer quality than domesticated silk. They are harder to bleach, and do not take dyes so well. They are generally very uneven in texture, but when made up into fabrics are often more durable than common silks. Wild silks are used principally in the manufacture of pile fabrics such as velvet, plush, and imitation sealskin, and in heavy or rough cloths such as pongees and shantungs. While the silkworms of the wild varieties take care of themselves, and therefore do not require the constant labor that must be given to domesticated silk, the expense of gathering is nevertheless high. The wild cocoons must be hunted, trees must be climbed to gather them, and much time may be consumed in collecting comparatively few. On the whole, however, because of the poorer qualities, wild silks are worth considerably less than "tame" silks.
NATURE OF SILK FIBER
The perfect raw silk fiber is a very fine filament with two parts that can readily be seen under a microscope. This filament is composed of a substance called fibroin, and the outside is covered with a waxy substance called sericin. Silk fiber in its raw state is for its size the strongest textile fiber in existence. It is said that it is as strong as an iron wire of the same size would be. Notwithstanding that in the processes of manufacture much of this strength is lost, unless very badly treated, the fiber remains remarkably strong. It is also very elastic and durable. It has a high natural luster which is improved upon in some manufacturing processes. The fabrics into which it is made are beautiful even in the natural silk colors.
Absorptive power of silk.-Silk fiber readily absorbs water; wherefore, in commerce, rules are necessary regarding the amount of water allowable in the fiber offered' for sale. The usual amount allowed by weight is about eleven per cent. It can easily be understood that when raw silk fiber sells for more than three dollars a pound, a large fraction of the total weight, such as one-third, one-fourth, one-fifth, or even one-tenth of water, would make a big difference in the price. Silk markets, therefore, are always equipped with the necessary apparatus for telling just what part of the weight of the silk is water. For example, the Silk Association of America has a large laboratory in New York in which the principal work is the determination of the proportion of moisture in raw silks brought from the market. The process of getting the silk into the proper standard condition as regards moisture is called "silk conditioning."
Because of its absorptive qualities, silk takes dyes very well, in fact better than any other textile; hence silks may be given delicate shades and tints of color that would be quite impossible in cotton or linen. It may also, as we shall see, absorb weighting materials that are introduced by way of adulteration. Pure dye silk should not contain more than ten per cent of its weight in dyeing or weighting materials. Ordinary silks contain much more weighting than this.
HUMAN LABOR IN SILK PRODUCTION
After the raw silk has been reeled into skeins or hanks, the most laborious parts of silk production are completed; that is, most of the work done on the fiber thereafter is done by machine processes instead of by hand. The amount of hand labor that it takes to produce raw silk is almost incredible, and the amount of labor taken after the machine processes begin is no less than for other textiles. It has been said that it takes more human labor to produce a lady's silk dress, from the mulberry leaves into the finished product ready for wear, than it takes to produce and build a locomotive out of the raw ores in the ground. More hours are expended, and more people have something to do with the work.
Cost of production.-If the labor employed in the production of silk were paid as high wages as are commonly paid in the iron and steel industry the silk dress would cost almost as much as a locomotive. As it is, raw silk production is carried on chiefly in countries where wages are very low. At the present prices of silk, the most efficient workmen doing their very best could not earn more than fifteen cents per day at this kind of work. The usual wages in the silk-producing countries are lower than this.
Where the raw silk is produced.-It is not surprising then that 40 per cent of the world's raw silk is produced by the Empire of China, 20 per cent by Japan, 20 per cent by Italy, 10 per cent by Persia, Asiatic Turkey, India, and Arabia, and the remaining 10 per cent by France, Austria, Spain, or Portugal. Italy produces some of the finest silk in the world; India and China, some of the coarsest and poorest.
Attempts to raise silk in the United States.-Several attempts have been made to raise silk in this country, and practically every experiment has shown that a very fine quality of fiber could be produced; but the great obstacle is the cost of labor to care for the worms, pick the leaves, attend to the mating of the moths, make the necessary examinations for disease, and reel the raw silk. No mechanical devices have ever been invented to do away with the great amount of human hand labor. Not while clever people, men, women, and children, in China, Japan, and other countries are willing to work for less than ten cents a day as they now do, can raw silk production become profitable in this country.
Methods of production in Japan.-Silk is often handled as an auxiliary industry by Japanese and Chinese farmers. The women and children are occupied with the care of the silkworms while the adult men are employed in the gardens and fields. Being a home industry of this nature, it is often undertaken even when there is small prospect for payment for time expended. The time of the women and children is not considered worth much in any case. One person cares for about 10,000 to 12,000 worms. The average production per family among the families that do raise silk is about five bushels of cocoons per year. The return for these cocoons generally pays for the labor expended in their production at about the rate of ten cents a day.
Improvements in reeling silk.-Reeling has been greatly improved in modern filatures by the introduction of power for running the reels and by using gas to keep the basins heated at a proper and constant temperature, but this change has not eliminated the necessity for cheap labor. No filature of any consequence is to be found in any country or city except where labor is abundant and very cheap. Silk reeled by hand or foot power is called "re-reel silk," while that reeled by power machinery is called "filature silk."
MARKETING SILK
The products of silk production are marketed in various forms. For example, in certain communities in Italy, there is a large business of selling certified silkworm eggs. These are usually sold at a certain price an ounce. Many silk growers sell the cocoons that they produce. The usual method of preparing them for market is to stifle the chrysalides by steam, by heating in ovens, or by freezing and then drying them thoroughly. When dry, they are sorted according to size, color, and quality, and are sold by weight. As a rule, small silkworm growers everywhere dispose of their product in this manner and at this stage. Finally, raw silk is marketed after it is reeled, some of it as reeled silk, and the parts that will not reel as silk waste. In the Orient, silk is reeled into skeins of varying sizes, which are then packed into square blocks, called books, containing from five to ten pounds. The books are packed in bales, each weighing from 100 to 200 pounds or more. In 1912 the average price for a pound of reeled silk was between three and four dollars. From this it can be seen that a bale is a pretty valuable piece of goods.
Importations into this country.-Steamers coming from China and Japan to the western United States handle the silk as carefully as if it were gold. It is unloaded, usually at Seattle or San Francisco, and then taken east in baggage coaches directly to New York, the great American raw silk market. Often an entire train is made up of baggage coaches loaded with raw silk, and these "silk specials," as they are called, are given the right of way from coast to coast. Passenger trains, freight trains, and all must find the side tracks when the "silk special" passes through; and well they may, for the silk in each coach may average more than $125,000 in value, and the value of the entire trainload of silk may be $2,000,000.
Markets for waste silk.-Hartford, Connecticut, is the principal port of entry for the large quantities of silk waste and floss imported into this country. Boston comes second. Both are near the great New England silk mills (New London, Winsted, South Manchester, in Connecticut, and Pittsfield, Northampton, Holyoke, and Florence in Massachusetts) where large quantities of spun silk are produced. The center of reeled silk manufacture is in Paterson, New Jersey, and in the hard coal region of Pennsylvania. The state of New York also has a large number of establishments using reeled silk in some stage of manufacture.

Statistics | INTERNATIONAL SERICULTURAL COMMISSION
Statistics
Global Silk Industry
The major silk producing countries in the world are; China, India, Uzbekistan, Brazil, Japan, Republic of Korea, Thailand, Vietnam, DPR Korea, Iran, etc.  Few other countries are also engaged in the production of cocoons and raw silk in negligible quantities; Kenya, Botswana, Nigeria, Zambia, Zimbabwe, Bangladesh, Colombia, Egypt, Japan, Nepal, Bulgaria, Turkey, Uganda, Malaysia, Romania, Bolivia, etc.
The major silk consumers of the world are; USA, Italy, Japan, India, France, China, United Kingdom, Switzerland, Germany, UAE, Korea, Viet Nam, etc.
Even though silk has a small percentage of the global textile market - less than 0.2% (the precise global value is difficult to assess, since reliable data on finished silk products is lacking in most importing countries) - its production base is spread over 60 countries in the world.  While the major producers are in Asia (90% of mulberry production and almost 100% of non-mulberry silk), sericulture industries have been lately established in Brazil, Bulgaria, Egypt and Madagascar as well.  Sericulture is labour-intensive.  About 1 million workers are employed in the silk sector in China.  Silk Industry provides employment to 7.9 million people in India, and 20,000 weaving families in Thailand.  China is the world's single biggest producer and chief supplier of silk to the world markets. India is the world's second largest producer.  Sericulture can help keeping the rural population employed and to prevent migration to big cities and securing remunerative employment; it requires small investments while providing raw material for textile industries.
1. Global Silk Production (in Metric Tonnes)
 
2. Other statistical data related to Silk industry
Some of the countries have provided more elaborate statistical data on silk industry, other than the production data given above.  The country-wise details are given below:-