Southern_Europe

context: Some definitions of southern Europe, also known as Mediterranean Europe, include the countries of the Iberian peninsula (Spain and Portugal), the Italian peninsula, southern France and Greece. Other definitions sometimes include the Balkan countries of southeast Europe, which are geographically in the southern part of Europe, but which have different historical, political, economic, and cultural backgrounds.
qas: answers: text: Mediterranean Europe
question: What is another term for southern Europe

answers: text: Iberian peninsula
question: What is the name for the stretch of land on which Spain and Portugal are located?

answers: text: Balkan countries
question: What nations are sometimes included in the scope of southern Europe?

answers: text: southern France
question: What area of France is considered a part of Mediterranean Europe?

context: Different methods can be used to define southern Europe, including its political, economic, and cultural attributes. Southern Europe can also be defined by its natural features — its geography, climate, and flora.
qas: answers: text: political, economic, and cultural attributes
question: What are three characteristics that can be employed to characterize southern Europe?

answers: text: geography, climate, and flora
question: What are three aspects of the environment of southern Europe that can be used to distinguish the region?

context: Southern Europe's most emblematic climate is that of the Mediterranean climate, which has become a typically known characteristic of the area. The Mediterranean climate covers much of Portugal, Spain, Southeast France, Italy, Croatia, Albania, Montenegro, Greece, the Western and Southern coastal regions of Turkey as well as the Mediterranean islands. Those areas of Mediterranean climate present similar vegetations and landscapes throughout, including dry hills, small plains, pine forests and olive trees.
qas: answers: text: The Mediterranean climate
question: What kind of climate is exemplary of southern Europe?

answers: text: Western and Southern coastal regions
question: Which parts of Turkey are characterized by a Mediterranean climate?

answers: text: vegetations and landscapes
question: What are two broad categories of similarity among countries which have a Mediterranean climate?

context: Cooler climates can be found in certain parts of Southern European countries, for example within the mountain ranges of Spain and Italy. Additionally, the north coast of Spain experiences a wetter Atlantic climate.
qas: answers: text: mountain ranges of Spain and Italy
question: Where do colder areas occur within southern Europe?

answers: text: north coast of Spain
question: Where are more moist areas found in southern Europe?

answers: text: Atlantic climate
question: What term can be used to describe the wet area of North Spain?

context: Southern Europe's flora is that of the Mediterranean Region, one of the phytochoria recognized by Armen Takhtajan. The Mediterranean and Submediterranean climate regions in Europe are found in much of Southern Europe, mainly in Southern Portugal, most of Spain, the southern coast of France, Italy, the Croatian coast, much of Bosnia, Montenegro, Albania, Macedonia, Greece, and the Mediterranean islands.
qas: answers: text: phytochoria
question: What is a word that can be used to describe the plant life of southern Europe?

answers: text: Armen Takhtajan
question: Who coined the term phytochoria?

context: The period known as classical antiquity began with the rise of the city-states of Ancient Greece. Greek influence reached its zenith under the expansive empire of Alexander the Great, spreading throughout Asia.
qas: answers: text: classical antiquity
question: What era started when Ancient Greek cities became self-governing entities?

answers: text: city-states
question: What was the name of the different governments forming in Ancient Greece?

answers: text: Alexander the Great
question: Who was responsible for the bringing Greek culture as far as Asia?

context: The Roman Empire came to dominate the entire Mediterranean basin in a vast empire based on Roman law and Roman legions. It promoted trade, tolerance, and Greek culture. By 300 AD the Roman Empire was divided into the Western Roman Empire based in Rome, and the Eastern Roman Empire based in Constantinople. The attacks of the Germanic peoples of northern Europe led to the Fall of the Western Roman Empire in AD 476, a date which traditionally marks the end of the classical period and the start of the Middle Ages.
qas: answers: text: Rome
question: Where was the headquarters of the Western Roman Empire?

answers: text: Constantinople
question: Where was the headquarters of the Eastern Roman Empire?

answers: text: Germanic
question: Which tribes brought down the Western Roman Empire?

answers: text: AD 476
question: What year is considered the transition between the classical period and the Middle Ages?

answers: text: 300 AD
question: By what year was the Roman Empire split into two sections?

context: During the Middle Ages, the Eastern Roman Empire survived, though modern historians refer to this state as the Byzantine Empire. In Western Europe, Germanic peoples moved into positions of power in the remnants of the former Western Roman Empire and established kingdoms and empires of their own.
qas: answers: text: the Byzantine Empire
question: What is the Eastern Roman Empire in the Middle Ages called by contemporary scholars?

answers: text: Germanic peoples
question: Who took over the remains of the Western Roman Empire?

answers: text: kingdoms and empires of their own
question: What did Germanic people create in place of the Western Roman Empire?

context: The period known as the Crusades, a series of religiously motivated military expeditions originally intended to bring the Levant back into Christian rule, began. Several Crusader states were founded in the eastern Mediterranean. These were all short-lived. The Crusaders would have a profound impact on many parts of Europe. Their Sack of Constantinople in 1204 brought an abrupt end to the Byzantine Empire. Though it would later be re-established, it would never recover its former glory. The Crusaders would establish trade routes that would develop into the Silk Road and open the way for the merchant republics of Genoa and Venice to become major economic powers. The Reconquista, a related movement, worked to reconquer Iberia for Christendom.
qas: answers: text: the Crusades
question: What is the name of the period of armed incursions undertaken in the name of Christianity?

answers: text: 1204
question: When did Crusaders invade Constantinople?

answers: text: Genoa and Venice
question: Which two cities benefited greatly from the activities of Crusaders?

answers: text: The Reconquista
question: What was the name of another activity like the Crusades occuring on the Iberian peninsula?

answers: text: the Byzantine Empire
question: What empire was destroyed by the Sack of Constantinople?

context: The Late Middle Ages represented a period of upheaval in Europe. The epidemic known as the Black Death and an associated famine caused demographic catastrophe in Europe as the population plummeted. Dynastic struggles and wars of conquest kept many of the states of Europe at war for much of the period. In the Balkans, the Ottoman Empire, a Turkish state originating in Anatolia, encroached steadily on former Byzantine lands, culminating in the Fall of Constantinople in 1453.
qas: answers: text: The Late Middle Ages
question: What era was characterized by turmoil in Europe?

answers: text: the Black Death
question: What disease plagued Europe during the Late Middle Ages?

answers: text: the Ottoman Empire
question: Which new regime appeared in the Balkan region during the Late Middle Ages?

answers: text: 1453
question: When did the Ottoman Empire conquer Constantinople?

context: Beginning roughly in the 14th century in Florence, and later spreading through Europe with the development of the printing press, a Renaissance of knowledge challenged traditional doctrines in science and theology, with the Arabic texts and thought bringing about rediscovery of classical Greek and Roman knowledge.
qas: answers: text: 14th century
question: When was the start of the period known as the Renaissance?

answers: text: Florence
question: In what city did the Renaissance begin?

answers: text: science and theology
question: What areas of knowledge were subject to much debate during the Renaissance?

answers: text: Greek and Roman
question: The encounter with Arabic knowledge put Renaissance thinkers back in touch with the teachings of which ancient civilizations?

context: The Reconquista of Portugal and Spain led to a series of oceanic explorations resulting in the Age of Discovery that established direct links with Africa, the Americas, and Asia, while religious wars continued to be fought in Europe, which ended in 1648 with the Peace of Westphalia. The Spanish crown maintained its hegemony in Europe and was the leading power on the continent until the signing of the Treaty of the Pyrenees, which ended a conflict between Spain and France that had begun during the Thirty Years' War. An unprecedented series of major wars and political revolutions took place around Europe and indeed the world in the period between 1610 and 1700. Observers at the time, and many historians since, have argued that wars caused the revolutions. Galileo Galilei, invented the telescope and the thermometer which allowed him to observe and describe the solar system. Leonardo da Vinci painted the most famous work in the world. Guglielmo Marconi invented the radio.
qas: answers: text: Portugal and Spain
question: Which countries initiated the Age of Exploration following the Reconquista?

answers: text: 1648
question: When did religious conflict end in Europe?

answers: text: Spain and France
question: Between which two nations was the Treaty of the Pyrenees signed?

answers: text: Galileo Galilei
question: Which scientist developed a means of viewing space?

answers: text: Guglielmo Marconi
question: Who was responsible for creating the first radio?

context: European overseas expansion led to the rise of colonial empires, producing the Columbian Exchange. The combination of resource inflows from the New World and the Industrial Revolution of Great Britain, allowed a new economy based on manufacturing instead of subsistence agriculture.
qas: answers: text: the rise of colonial empires
question: What resulted from Europe's exploration of the New World?

answers: text: the Columbian Exchange
question: What institution of mercantilism was established with New World colonies?

answers: text: manufacturing
question: What replaced agriculture as the focus of European economy with the establishment of overseas colonies?

answers: text: the Industrial Revolution of Great Britain
question: Aside from the activities of colonies, what other event fostered the transition from agriculture to manufacturing?

context: The period between 1815 and 1871 saw a large number of revolutionary attempts and independence wars. Balkan nations began to regain independence from the Ottoman Empire. Italy unified into a nation state. The capture of Rome in 1870 ended the Papal temporal power. Rivalry in a scramble for empires spread in what is known as The Age of Empire.
qas: answers: text: between 1815 and 1871
question: When were there many struggles for independence or overthrowing prevailing governments?

answers: text: the Ottoman Empire
question: From whom did Balkan states start retaking their independence?

answers: text: 1870
question: In what year was Rome conquered?

answers: text: The Age of Empire
question: What phrase is used to describe the period marked by competition for extant lands?

context: The outbreak of World War I in 1914 was precipitated by the rise of nationalism in Southeastern Europe as the Great Powers took up sides. The Allies defeated the Central Powers in 1918. During the Paris Peace Conference the Big Four imposed their terms in a series of treaties, especially the Treaty of Versailles.
qas: answers: text: 1914
question: In what year did World War I begin?

answers: text: 1918
question: When did a victor emerge in World War I?

answers: text: the Paris Peace Conference
question: At what event did the major Allied powers assert their conditions at the end of the war?

context: The Nazi regime under Adolf Hitler came to power in 1933, and along with Mussolini's Italy sought to gain control of the continent by the Second World War. Following the Allied victory in the Second World War, Europe was divided by the Iron Curtain. The countries in Southeastern Europe were dominated by the Soviet Union and became communist states. The major non-communist Southern European countries joined a US-led military alliance (NATO) and formed the European Economic Community amongst themselves. The countries in the Soviet sphere of influence joined the military alliance known as the Warsaw Pact and the economic bloc called Comecon. Yugoslavia was neutal.
qas: answers: text: The Nazi regime
question: Which group took control in 1933?

answers: text: Adolf Hitler
question: Who led the Nazis?

answers: text: Italy
question: Which country did Hitler align Germany with?

answers: text: Mussolini
question: Who was the leader of Italy when World War II started?

answers: text: the Warsaw Pact
question: What was the military partnership between countries aligned with the Soviet Union called?

context: Italy became a major industrialized country again, due to its post-war economic miracle. The European Union (EU) involved the division of powers, with taxation, health and education handled by the nation states, while the EU had charge of market rules, competition, legal standards and environmentalism. The Soviet economic and political system collapsed, leading to the end of communism in the satellite countries in 1989, and the dissolution of the Soviet Union itself in 1991. As a consequence, Europe's integration deepened, the continent became depolarised, and the European Union expanded to subsequently include many of the formerly communist European countries – Romania and Bulgaria (2007) and Croatia (2013).
qas: answers: text: European Union
question: What does EU stand for?

answers: text: market rules, competition, legal standards and environmentalism
question: What was the European Union tasked with managing?

answers: text: 1989
question: When did communism fall in allies of the Soviet Union?

answers: text: 1991
question: When did the USSR dissolve?

answers: text: 2013
question: In what year was Croatia admitted to the European Union?

context: The most widely spoken family of languages in southern Europe are the Romance languages, the heirs of Latin, which have spread from the Italian peninsula, and are emblematic of Southwestern Europe. (See the Latin Arch.) By far the most common romance languages in Southern Europe are: Italian, which is spoken by over 50 million people in Italy, San Marino, and the Vatican; and Spanish, which is spoken by over 40 million people in Spain and Gibraltar. Other common romance languages include: Romanian, which is spoken in Romania and Moldova; Portuguese, which is spoken in Portugal; Catalan, which is spoken in eastern Spain; and Galician, which is spoken in northwestern Spain.
qas: answers: text: Romance languages
question: What is the most common group of languages spoken in Mediterranean Europe?

answers: text: Italy, San Marino, and the Vatican
question: What are the three main areas of southern Europe where Italian speakers can be found?

answers: text: eastern Spain
question: Where can people who speak Catalan be found?

answers: text: Galician
question: What language is spoken in northwest Spain?

answers: text: over 40 million
question: How many people in Spain and Gibraltar are Spanish speakers?

context: The Hellenic languages or Greek language are widely spoken in Greece and in the Greek part of Cyprus. Additionally, other varieties of Greek are spoken in small communities in parts of other European counties.
qas: answers: text: Hellenic
question: What is another term for Greek?

answers: text: Cyprus
question: Outside of Greece itself, in what other nation is Greek a major language?

context: Several South Slavic languages are spoken by millions of people in Southern Europe. Serbian is spoken in Serbia, Bosnia, and Croatia; Bulgarian is spoken in Bulgaria; Croatian is spoken in Croatia and Bosnia; Bosnian is spoken in Bosnia; Slovene is spoken in Slovenia; and Macedonian is spoken in Macedonia.
qas: answers: text: Macedonian
question: What language is used in Macedonia?

answers: text: Bulgarian
question: What do people speak in Bulgaria?

answers: text: Slovenia
question: Slovene is a major language in what country?

context: English is used as a second language in parts of Southern Europe. As a primary language, however, English has only a small presence in Southern Europe, only in Gibraltar (alongside Spanish) and Malta (secondary to Maltese).
qas: answers: text: English
question: What is considered a de facto second language in Mediterranean Europe?

answers: text: Spanish
question: Besides English, what other language is spoken in Gibraltar?

answers: text: Maltese
question: Besides English, what other language is spoken in Malta?

context: There are other language groupings in Southern Europe. Albanian is spoken in Albania, Kosovo, Macedoonia, and parts of Greece. Maltese is a Semitic language that is the official language of Malta. The Basque language is spoken in the Basque Country, a region in northern Spain and southwestern France.
qas: answers: text: Albanian
question: What language can be found used in Kosovo and Albania?

answers: text: Semitic
question: What type of language is Maltese?

answers: text: northern Spain and southwestern France
question: Where is Basque Country located?

context: The predominant religion is southern Europe is Christianity. Christianity spread throughout Southern Europe during the Roman Empire, and Christianity was adopted as the official religion of the Roman Empire in the year 380 AD. Due to the historical break of the Christian Church into the western half based in Rome and the eastern half based in Constantinople, different branches of Christianity are prodominent in different parts of Europe. Christians in the western half of Southern Europe — e.g., Portugal, Spain, Italy — are generally Roman Catholic. Christians in the eastern half of Southern Europe — e.g., Greece, Macedonia — are generally Greek Orthodox.
qas: answers: text: Christianity
question: What is the main faith practiced in southern Europe?

answers: text: 380 AD
question: When did the Romans make Christianity their official religion?

answers: text: Roman Catholic
question: What denomination of Christianity is common in the western part of southern Europe?

answers: text: Greek Orthodox
question: Which denomination of Christianity is more common in the eastern part of Mediterranean Europe?

context: For its official works and publications, the United Nations Organization groups countries under a classification of regions. The assignment of countries or areas to specific groupings is for statistical convenience and does not imply any assumption regarding political or other affiliation of countries or territories by the United Nations. Southern Europe, as grouped for statistical convenience by the United Nations (the sub-regions according to the UN), includes following countries and territories:
qas: answers: text: regions
question: What term is used by the UNO to divide groups of nations?

answers: text: statistical convenience
question: What is the reason for the UNO's division into regions?

answers: text: sub-regions
question: What smaller unit makes up the southern Europe region?

context: European Travel Commission divides the European region on the basis of Tourism Decision Metrics (TDM) model. Countries which belong to the Southern/Mediterranean Europe are:
qas: answers: text: Tourism Decision Metrics
question: What does TDM stand for?

answers: text: European Travel Commission
question: Which group uses TDM as a metric?