Europe

Europeis acontinentlocated entirely in theNorthern Hemisphereand mostly in theEastern Hemisphere. It is bordered by theArctic Oceanto the north, theAtlantic Oceanto the west, theMediterranean Seato the south, andAsiato the east. Europe shares thelandmassofEurasiawith Asia, and ofAfro-Eurasiawith bothAfricaandAsia.Europe is commonly considered to beseparated from Asiaby thewatershedof theUral Mountains, theUral River, theCaspian Sea, theGreater Caucasus, theBlack Sea, and the waterway of theBosporus Strait.
Europe covers approx. 10,186,000 square kilometres (3,933,000 sq mi), or 2% ofEarth's surface(6.8% of Earth's land area), making it the second-smallest continent (using theseven-continent model). Politically, Europe is divided into aboutfifty sovereign states, of whichRussiais thelargestandmost populous, spanning 39% of the continent and comprising 15% of its population. Europe had atotal populationof about 745 million (about 10% of theworld population) in 2021; thethird-largestafter Asia and Africa.TheEuropean climateis affected by warm Atlantic currents, such as theGulf Stream, which produce atemperate climate, tempering winters and summers, on much of the continent. Further from the sea, seasonal differences are more noticeable producing morecontinental climates.
Theculture of Europeconsists of a range of national and regional cultures, which form the central roots of the widerWestern civilisation, and together commonly referenceancient Greeceandancient Rome, particularly throughtheir Christian successors, as crucial and shared roots.Beginning with thefall of the Western Roman Empirein 476 CE,Christian consolidationof Europe in the wake of theMigration Periodmarked the Europeanpost-classicalMiddle Ages. TheItalian Renaissancespread in the continent anew humanistinterest inartandsciencewhich led to themodern era. Since theAge of Discovery, led bySpainandPortugal, Europe played a predominant role in global affairs with multiple explorations and conquests around the world. Between the 16th and 20th centuries,European powers colonisedat various times theAmericas, almost all of Africa andOceania, and the majority of Asia.
TheAge of Enlightenment, theFrench Revolution, and theNapoleonic Warsshaped the continent culturally, politically, and economically from the end of the 17th century until the first half of the 19th century. TheIndustrial Revolution, which began inGreat Britainat the end of the 18th century, gave rise to radical economic, cultural, and social change inWestern Europeand eventually the wider world. Bothworld warsbegan and were fought to a great extent in Europe, contributing to a decline in Western European dominance in world affairs by the mid-20th century as theSoviet Unionand the United States took prominence and competed over dominance in Europe and globally.The resultingCold Wardivided Europe along theIron Curtain, withNATOin theWestand theWarsaw Pactin theEast. This divide ended with theRevolutions of 1989, thefall of the Berlin Wall, and thedissolution of the Soviet Union, which allowedEuropean integrationto advance significantly.
European integration has been advanced institutionally since 1948 with the founding of theCouncil of Europe, and significantly through the realisation of theEuropean Union(EU), which represents today the majority of Europe.The European Union is asupranationalpolitical entity that lies between aconfederationand afederationand is based on a system ofEuropean treaties.The EU originated inWestern Europebut has beenexpanding eastwardsince the dissolution of the Soviet Union in 1991. A majority of its members have adopted a common currency, theeuro, and participate in theEuropean single marketand acustoms union. A large bloc of countries, theSchengen Area, have also abolished internal border and immigration controls.Regular popular electionstake place every five years within the EU; they are considered to be the second-largest democratic elections in the world afterIndia's. The EU is the third-largest economy in the world.
The place name Evros was first used by the ancient Greeks to refer to their northernmost province, which bears the same name today. The principal river there – Evros (today'sMaritsa) – flows through the fertile valleys ofThrace,which itself was also called Europe, before the term meant the continent.
In classicalGreek mythology,Europa(Ancient Greek:Εὐρώπη,Eurṓpē) was aPhoenicianprincess. One view is that her name derives from theAncient Greekelementsεὐρύς(eurús) 'wide, broad', andὤψ(ōps,gen.ὠπός,ōpós) 'eye, face, countenance', hence their compositeEurṓpēwould mean 'wide-gazing' or 'broad of aspect'.Broadhas been anepithetof Earth herself in the reconstructedProto-Indo-European religionand the poetry devoted to it.An alternative view is that ofRobert Beekes, who has argued in favour of a pre-Indo-European origin for the name, explaining that a derivation fromeuruswould yield a differenttoponymthan Europa. Beekes has located toponyms related to that of Europa in the territory of ancient Greece, and localities such as that ofEuroposinancient Macedonia.
There have been attempts to connectEurṓpēto a Semitic term forwest, this being eitherAkkadianerebumeaning 'to go down, set' (said of the sun) orPhoenician'ereb'evening, west',which is at the origin ofArabicmaghrebandHebrewma'arav.Martin Litchfield Weststated that "phonologically, the match between Europa's name and any form of the Semitic word is very poor",while Beekes considers a connection to Semitic languages improbable.
Most major world languages use words derived fromEurṓpēorEuropato refer to the continent. Chinese, for example, uses the wordŌuzhōu(歐洲/欧洲), which is an abbreviation of the transliterated nameŌuluóbā zhōu(歐羅巴洲) (zhōumeans "continent"); a similar Chinese-derived termŌshū(欧州)is also sometimes used in Japanese such as in the Japanese name of the European Union,Ōshū Rengō(欧州連合), despite thekatakanaYōroppa(ヨーロッパ)being more commonly used. In some Turkic languages, the originally Persian nameFrangistan("land of theFranks") is used casually in referring to much of Europe, besides official names such asAvrupaorEvropa.
The prevalent definition of Europe as a geographical term has been in use since the mid-19th century.
Europe is taken to be bounded by large bodies of water to the north, west and south; Europe's limits to the east and north-east are usually taken to be theUral Mountains, theUral River, and theCaspian Sea; to the south-east, theCaucasus Mountains, theBlack Sea, and the waterways connecting the Black Sea to theMediterranean Sea.
Islands are generally grouped with the nearest continental landmass, henceIcelandis considered to be part of Europe, while the nearby island of Greenland is usually assigned toNorth America, although politically belonging to Denmark. Nevertheless, there are some exceptions based on sociopolitical and cultural differences. Cyprus is closest toAnatolia(or Asia Minor), but is considered part of Europe politicallyand it is a member state of the EU. Malta was considered an island ofNorth-western Africafor centuries, but now it is considered to be part of Europe as well."Europe", as used specifically inBritish English, may also refer toContinental Europeexclusively.
The term "continent" usually implies thephysical geographyof a large land mass completely or almost completely surrounded by water at its borders. Prior to the adoption of the current convention that includes mountain divides, the border between Europe and Asia had been redefined several times since its first conception inclassical antiquity, but always as a series of rivers, seas and straits that were believed to extend an unknown distance east and north from the Mediterranean Sea without the inclusion of any mountain ranges. CartographerHerman Mollsuggested in 1715 Europe was bounded by a series of partly-joined waterways directed towards the Turkish straits, and theIrtysh Riverdraining into the upper part of theOb Riverand theArctic Ocean. In contrast, the present eastern boundary of Europe partially adheres to the Ural and Caucasus Mountains, which is somewhat arbitrary and inconsistent compared to any clear-cut definition of the term "continent".
The current division of Eurasia into two continents now reflectsEast-Westcultural, linguistic and ethnic differences which vary on a spectrum rather than with a sharp dividing line. The geographic border between Europe and Asia does not follow any state boundaries and now only follows a few bodies of water. Turkey is generally considered atranscontinental countrydivided entirely by water, while Russia andKazakhstanare only partly divided by waterways. France, the Netherlands, Portugal and Spain are also transcontinental (or more properly, intercontinental, when oceans or large seas are involved) in that their main land areas are in Europe while pockets of their territories are located on othercontinentsseparated from Europe by large bodies of water. Spain, for example, has territories south of theMediterranean Sea—namely,CeutaandMelilla—which are parts ofAfricaand share a border with Morocco. According to the current convention, Georgia and Azerbaijan are transcontinental countries where waterways have been completely replaced by mountains as the divide between continents.
The first recorded usage ofEurṓpēas a geographic term is in theHomeric HymntoDelian Apollo, in reference to the western shore of theAegean Sea. As a name for a part of the known world, it is first used in the 6th century BCE byAnaximanderandHecataeus. Anaximander placed the boundary between Asia and Europe along the Phasis River (the modernRioni Riveron the territory ofGeorgia) in the Caucasus, a convention still followed byHerodotusin the 5th century BCE.Herodotus mentioned that the world had been divided by unknown persons into three parts—Europe, Asia, and Libya (Africa)—with theNileand the Phasis forming their boundaries—though he also states that some considered theRiver Don, rather than the Phasis, as the boundary between Europe and Asia.Europe's eastern frontier was defined in the 1st century by geographerStraboat the River Don.TheBook of Jubileesdescribed the continents as the lands given byNoahto his three sons; Europe was defined as stretching from thePillars of Herculesat theStrait of Gibraltar, separating it fromNorthwest Africa, to the Don, separating it from Asia.
The convention received by theMiddle Agesand surviving into modern usage is that of theRoman eraused by Roman-era authors such asPosidonius,Strabo,andPtolemy,who took the Tanais (the modern Don River) as the boundary.
The Roman Empire did not attach a strong identity to the concept of continental divisions. However, following the fall of theWestern Roman Empire, theculture that developed in its place, linked to Latin and the Catholic church, began to associate itself with the concept of "Europe".The term "Europe" is first used for a cultural sphere in theCarolingian Renaissanceof the 9th century. From that time, the term designated the sphere of influence of theWestern Church, as opposed to both theEastern Orthodoxchurches and to theIslamic world.
A cultural definition of Europe as the lands ofLatin Christendomcoalesced in the 8th century, signifying the new cultural condominium created through the confluence of Germanic traditions and Christian-Latin culture, defined partly in contrast withByzantiumandIslam, and limited to northernIberia, the British Isles, France, Christianised western Germany, the Alpine regions and northern and central Italy.The concept is one of the lasting legacies of theCarolingian Renaissance:Europaoftenfigures in the letters of Charlemagne's court scholar,Alcuin.The transition of Europe to being a cultural term as well as a geographic one led to the borders of Europe being affected by cultural considerations in the East, especially relating to areas under Byzantine, Ottoman, and Russian influence. Such questions were affected by the positive connotations associated with the term Europe by its users. Such cultural considerations were not applied to the Americas, despite their conquest and settlement by European states. Instead, the concept of "Western civilisation" emerged as a way of grouping together Europe and these colonies.
The question of defining a precise eastern boundary of Europe arises in the Early Modern period, as the eastern extension ofMuscovybegan to includeNorth Asia. Throughout the Middle Ages and into the 18th century, the traditional division of the landmass ofEurasiainto two continents, Europe and Asia, followed Ptolemy, with the boundary following theTurkish Straits, theBlack Sea, theKerch Strait, theSea of Azovand theDon(ancientTanais). But maps produced during the 16th to 18th centuries tended to differ in how to continue the boundary beyond the Don bend atKalach-na-Donu(where it is closest to the Volga, now joined with it by theVolga–Don Canal), into territory not described in any detail by the ancient geographers.
Around 1715,Herman Mollproduced a map showing the northern part of theOb Riverand theIrtysh River, a major tributary of the Ob, as components of a series of partly-joined waterways taking the boundary between Europe and Asia from the Turkish Straits, and the Don River all the way to the Arctic Ocean. In 1721, he produced a more up to date map that was easier to read. However, his proposal to adhere to major rivers as the line of demarcation was never taken up by other geographers who were beginning to move away from the idea of water boundaries as the only legitimate divides between Europe and Asia.
Four years later, in 1725,Philip Johan von Strahlenbergwas the first to depart from the classical Don boundary. He drew a new line along theVolga, following the Volga north until theSamara Bend, alongObshchy Syrt(thedrainage dividebetween the Volga andUral Rivers), then north and east along the latter waterway to its source in theUral Mountains. At this point he proposed that mountain ranges could be included as boundaries between continents as alternatives to nearby waterways. Accordingly, he drew the new boundary north alongUral Mountainsrather than the nearby and parallel running Ob and Irtysh rivers.This was endorsed by the Russian Empire and introduced the convention that would eventually become commonly accepted. However, this did not come without criticism.Voltaire, writing in 1760 aboutPeter the Great's efforts to make Russia more European, ignored the whole boundary question with his claim that neither Russia, Scandinavia, northern Germany, nor Poland were fully part of Europe.Since then, many modern analytical geographers likeHalford Mackinderhave declared that they see little validity in the Ural Mountains as a boundary between continents.
The mapmakers continued to differ on the boundary between the lower Don and Samara well into the 19th century. The1745 atlaspublished by theRussian Academy of Scienceshas the boundary follow the Don beyond Kalach as far asSerafimovichbefore cutting north towardsArkhangelsk, while other 18th- to 19th-century mapmakers such asJohn Caryfollowed Strahlenberg's prescription. To the south, theKuma–Manych Depressionwas identifiedc.1773by a German naturalist,Peter Simon Pallas, as a valley that once connected the Black Sea and the Caspian Sea,and subsequently was proposed as a natural boundary between continents.
By the mid-19th century, there were three main conventions, one following the Don, theVolga–Don Canaland the Volga, the other following the Kuma–Manych Depression to the Caspian and then the Ural River, and the third abandoning the Don altogether, following theGreater Caucasus watershedto the Caspian. The question was still treated as a "controversy" in geographical literature of the 1860s, withDouglas Freshfieldadvocating the Caucasus crest boundary as the "best possible", citing support from various "modern geographers".
In Russia and theSoviet Union, the boundary along the Kuma–Manych Depression was the most commonly used as early as 1906.In 1958, the Soviet Geographical Society formally recommended that the boundary between the Europe and Asia be drawn in textbooks fromBaydaratskaya Bay, on theKara Sea, along the eastern foot of Ural Mountains, then following theUral Riveruntil theMugodzhar Hills, and then theEmba River; and Kuma–Manych Depression,thus placing the Caucasus entirely in Asia and the Urals entirely in Europe.TheFlora Europaeaadopted a boundary along theTerekandKubanrivers, so southwards from the Kuma and the Manych, but still with the Caucasus entirely in Asia.However, most geographers in the Soviet Union favoured the boundary along the Caucasus crest,and this became the common convention in the later 20th century, although the Kuma–Manych boundary remained in use in some 20th-century maps.
Some view the separation ofEurasiainto Asia and Europe as a residue ofEurocentrism: "In physical, cultural and historical diversity, China and India are comparable to the entire European landmass, not to a single European country. [...]."
During the 2.5 million years of thePleistocene, numerous cold phases calledglacials(Quaternary ice age), or significant advances of continental ice sheets, in Europe and North America, occurred at intervals of approximately 40,000 to 100,000 years. The long glacial periods were separated by more temperate and shorterinterglacialswhich lasted about 10,000–15,000 years. The last cold episode of thelast glacial periodended about 10,000 years ago.Earth is currently in an interglacial period of the Quaternary, called theHolocene.
Homo erectus georgicus, which lived roughly 1.8 million years ago inGeorgia, is the earliesthomininto have been discovered in Europe.Otherhominin remains, dating back roughly 1 million years, have been discovered inAtapuerca,Spain.Neanderthal man(named after theNeandertal valleyinGermany) appeared in Europe 150,000 years ago (115,000 years ago it is found already in the territory of present-dayPoland) and disappeared from the fossil record about 40,000 years ago,with their final refuge being the Iberian Peninsula. The Neanderthals were supplanted by modern humans (Cro-Magnons), who seem to have appeared in Europe around 43,000 to 40,000 years ago.However, there is also evidence that Homo sapiens arrived in Europe around 54,000 years ago, some 10,000 years earlier than previously thought.The earliest sites in Europe dated 48,000 years ago areRiparo Mochi(Italy),Geissenklösterle(Germany) andIsturitz(France).
TheEuropean Neolithicperiod—marked by the cultivation of crops and the raising of livestock, increased numbers of settlements and the widespread use of pottery—began around 7000 BCE inGreeceand theBalkans, probably influenced by earlier farming practices inAnatoliaand theNear East.It spread from the Balkans along the valleys of theDanubeand theRhine(Linear Pottery culture), and along theMediterranean coast(Cardial culture). Between 4500 and 3000 BCE, these central European neolithic cultures developed further to the west and the north, transmitting newly acquired skills in producing copper artifacts. In Western Europe the Neolithic period was characterised not by large agricultural settlements but by field monuments, such ascausewayed enclosures,burial moundsandmegalithic tombs.TheCorded Warecultural horizon flourished at the transition from the Neolithic to theChalcolithic. During this period giantmegalithicmonuments, such as theMegalithic Temples of MaltaandStonehenge, were constructed throughout Western and Southern Europe.
The modern native populations of Europe largely descend from three distinct lineages:Mesolithichunter-gatherers, descended from populations associated with the PaleolithicEpigravettianculture;NeolithicEarly European Farmerswho migrated from Anatolia during theNeolithic Revolution9,000 years ago;andYamnayaSteppe herderswho expanded into Europe from thePontic–Caspian steppeof Ukraine and southern Russia in the context ofIndo-European migrations5,000 years ago.TheEuropean Bronze Agebegan c. 3200 BCE in Greece with theMinoan civilisationonCrete, the first advanced civilisation in Europe.The Minoans were followed by theMyceneans, who collapsed suddenly around 1200 BCE, ushering theEuropean Iron Age.Iron Age colonisation by theGreeksandPhoeniciansgave rise to earlyMediterraneancities. EarlyIron Age ItalyandGreecefrom around the 8th century BCE gradually gave rise to historical Classical antiquity, whose beginning is sometimes dated to 776 BCE, the year of the firstOlympic Games.
Ancient Greece was the founding culture of Western civilisation. Westerndemocraticandrationalist cultureare often attributed to Ancient Greece.The Greek city-state, thepolis, was the fundamental political unit of classical Greece.In 508 BCE,Cleisthenesinstituted the world's firstdemocraticsystem of government inAthens.The Greek political ideals were rediscovered in the late 18th century by European philosophers and idealists. Greece also generated many cultural contributions: inphilosophy,humanismandrationalismunderAristotle,SocratesandPlato; inhistorywithHerodotusandThucydides; in dramatic and narrative verse, starting with the epic poems ofHomer;in drama withSophoclesandEuripides; in medicine withHippocratesandGalen; and in science withPythagoras,Euclid, andArchimedes.In the course of the 5th century BCE, several of the Greekcity stateswould ultimately check theAchaemenid Persianadvance in Europe through theGreco-Persian Wars, considered a pivotal moment in world history,as the 50 years of peace that followed are known asGolden Age of Athens, the seminal period of ancient Greece that laid many of the foundations of Western civilisation.
Greece was followed byRome, which left its mark onlaw,politics,language,engineering,architecture,government, and many more key aspects in western civilisation.By 200 BCE, Rome had conqueredItalyand over the following two centuries it conqueredGreece,Hispania(SpainandPortugal), theNorth Africancoast, much of theMiddle East,Gaul(FranceandBelgium), andBritannia(England andWales).
Expanding from their base in central Italy beginning in the third century BCE, the Romans gradually expanded to eventually rule the entire Mediterranean basin and Western Europe by the turn of the millennium. TheRoman Republicended in 27 BCE, whenAugustusproclaimed theRoman Empire. The two centuries that followed are known as thepax romana, a period of unprecedented peace, prosperity and political stability in most of Europe.The empire continued to expand under emperors such asAntoninus PiusandMarcus Aurelius, who spent time on the Empire's northern border fightingGermanic,PictishandScottishtribes.ChristianitywaslegalisedbyConstantine Iin 313 CE after three centuries ofimperial persecution. Constantine also permanently moved the capital of the empire from Rome to the city ofByzantium(modern-dayIstanbul) which was renamedConstantinoplein his honour in 330 CE. Christianity became the sole official religion of the empire in 380 CE, and in 391–392 CE the emperorTheodosiusoutlawed pagan religions.This is sometimes considered to mark the end of antiquity; alternatively antiquity is considered to end with thefall of the Western Roman Empirein 476 CE; the closure of the paganPlatonic Academy of Athensin 529 CE;or the rise of Islam in the early 7th century CE. During most of its existence, theByzantine Empirewas one of the most powerful economic, cultural, and military forces in Europe.
During thedecline 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 theOstrogoths,Visigoths,Goths,Vandals,Huns,Franks,Angles,Saxons,Slavs,Avars,Bulgars,Vikings,Pechenegs,Cumans, andMagyars.Renaissancethinkers such asPetrarchwould 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. 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-speakingEastern Roman Empire, also known as theByzantine Empire. During most of its existence, the Byzantine Empire was the most powerful economic, cultural, and military force in Europe. EmperorJustinian Ipresided over Constantinople's first golden age: he established alegal codethat forms the basis of many modern legal systems, funded the construction of theHagia Sophiaand brought the Christian church under state control.
From the 7th century onwards, as the Byzantines and neighbouringSasanid Persianswere severely weakened due to the protracted, centuries-lasting and frequentByzantine–Sasanian wars, the Muslim Arabs began to make inroads into historically Roman territory, taking the Levant and North Africa and making inroads intoAsia Minor. In the mid-7th century, following theMuslim conquest of Persia, Islam penetrated into theCaucasusregion.Over the next centuries Muslim forces tookCyprus,Malta,Crete,Sicily, andparts of southern Italy.Between 711 and 720, most of the lands of theVisigothic KingdomofIberiawere brought underMuslimrule—save for small areas in the northwest (Asturias) and largelyBasqueregions in thePyrenees. This territory, under the Arabic nameAl-Andalus, became part of the expandingUmayyad Caliphate. The unsuccessfulsecond siege of Constantinople(717) weakened theUmayyad dynastyand reduced their prestige. The Umayyads were then defeated by theFrankishleaderCharles Martelat theBattle of Poitiersin 732, which ended their northward advance. In the remote regions of north-western Iberia and the middlePyreneesthe power of the Muslims in the south was scarcely felt. It was here that the foundations of the Christian kingdoms ofAsturias,Leon, andGaliciawere laid and from where the reconquest of the Iberian Peninsula would start. However, no coordinated attempt would be made to drive theMoorsout. The Christian kingdoms were mainly focused on their own internal power struggles. As a result, theReconquistatook the greater part of eight hundred years, in which period a long list of Alfonsos, Sanchos, Ordoños, Ramiros, Fernandos, and Bermudos would be fighting their Christian rivals as much as the Muslim invaders.
During the Dark Ages, theWestern Roman Empirefell 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 underClovis I.Charlemagne, a Frankish king of theCarolingiandynasty 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 theHoly Roman Empire, which eventually became centred in the German principalities of central Europe.
East Central Europesaw the creation of the first Slavic states and the adoption ofChristianity(c.1000 CE). The powerfulWest Slavicstate ofGreat Moraviaspread its territory all the way south to the Balkans, reaching its largest territorial extent underSvatopluk Iand causing a series of armed conflicts withEast Francia. Further south, the firstSouth Slavic statesemerged in the late 7th and 8th century and adoptedChristianity: theFirst Bulgarian Empire, theSerbian Principality(laterKingdomandEmpire), and theDuchy of Croatia(laterKingdom of Croatia). To the east,Kievan Rus'expanded from its capital inKievto become the largest state in Europe by the 10th century. In 988,Vladimir the GreatadoptedOrthodox Christianityas the religion of state.Further east,Volga Bulgariabecame an Islamic state in the 10th century, but was eventually absorbed into Russia several centuries later.
The period between the year 1000 and 1250 is known as theHigh Middle Ages, followed by theLate Middle Agesuntil c. 1500.
During the High Middle Ages the population of Europe experienced significant growth, culminating in theRenaissance 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 theMediterraneanandBaltic Seas. The growing wealth and independence acquired by some coastal cities gave theMaritime Republicsa 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.Feudalismdeveloped inFrancein the Early Middle Ages, and soon spread throughout Europe.A struggle for influence between thenobilityand themonarchyin England led to the writing ofMagna Cartaand the establishment of aparliament.The primary source of culture in this period came from the RomanCatholic Church. Through monasteries andcathedral schools, the Church was responsible for education in much of Europe.
ThePapacyreached the height of its power during the High Middle Ages. AnEast-West Schismin 1054 split the former Roman Empire religiously, with theEastern Orthodox Churchin theByzantine Empireand the Roman Catholic Church in the former Western Roman Empire. In 1095Pope Urban IIcalled for acrusadeagainstMuslimsoccupyingJerusalemand theHoly Land.In Europe itself, the Church organised theInquisitionagainst heretics. In theIberian Peninsula, theReconquistaconcluded with thefall of Granada in 1492, ending over seven centuries of Islamic rule in the south-western 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 atManzikert, and was weakened considerably by thesack of Constantinople in 1204, during theFourth Crusade.Although it would recover Constantinople in 1261,Byzantiumfell in 1453whenConstantinople was takenby theOttoman Empire.
In the 11th and 12th centuries, constant incursions by nomadicTurkictribes, such as thePechenegsand theCuman-Kipchaks, caused a massive migration ofSlavicpopulations 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 ofEurasia, these territories wereoverrun by the Mongols.The invaders, who became known asTatars, were mostly Turkic-speaking peoples under Mongol suzerainty. They established the state of theGolden Hordewith 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:MoldaviaandWalachia. Previously, these territories were under the successive control of Pechenegs and Cumans.From the 12th to the 15th centuries, theGrand Duchy of Moscowgrew from a small principality under Mongol rule to the largest state in Europe, overthrowing the Mongols in 1480, and eventually becoming theTsardom of Russia. The state was consolidated underIvan III the GreatandIvan the Terrible, steadily expanding to the east and south over the next centuries.
TheGreat Famine of 1315–1317was the firstcrisisthat would strike Europe in the late Middle Ages.The period between 1348 and 1420 witnessed the heaviest loss. The population ofFrancewas 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 theBlack Death, one of the most deadlypandemicsin human history which killed an estimated 25 million people in Europe alone—a third of theEuropean populationat the time.
The plague had a devastating effect on Europe's social structure; it induced people to live for the moment as illustrated byGiovanni BoccaccioinThe Decameron(1353). It was a serious blow to the Roman Catholic Church and led to increasedpersecution of Jews,beggarsandlepers.The plague is thought to have returned every generation with varyingvirulenceand mortalities until the 18th century.During this period, more than 100 plagueepidemicsswept across Europe.
The Renaissance was a period of cultural change originating inFlorence, and later spreading to the rest of Europe. The rise of anew humanismwas accompanied by the recovery of forgottenclassical Greekand Arabic knowledge frommonasticlibraries, often translated from Arabic intoLatin.The Renaissance spread across Europe between the 14th and 16th centuries: it saw the flowering ofart,philosophy,music, andthe sciences, under the joint patronage ofroyalty, the nobility, theCatholic Churchand an emerging merchant class.Patrons in Italy, including theMedicifamily of Florentine bankers and thepopesinRome, funded prolificquattrocentoandcinquecentoartists such asRaphael,MichelangeloandLeonardo da Vinci.
Political intrigue within the Church in the mid-14th century caused theWestern Schism. During this 40-year period, two popes—one inAvignonand one in Rome—claimed rulership over the Church. Although the schism was eventually healed in 1417, the papacy's spiritual authority had suffered greatly.In the 15th century, Europe started to extend itself beyond its geographic frontiers. Spain and Portugal, the greatest naval powers of the time, took the lead in exploring the world.Exploration reached theSouthern Hemispherein the Atlantic and the southern tip of Africa.Christopher Columbusreached theNew Worldin 1492, andVasco da Gamaopened the ocean route to the East, linking the Atlantic andIndian Oceansin 1498. The Portuguese-born explorerFerdinand Magellanreached Asia westward across the Atlantic and thePacific Oceansin a Spanish expedition, resulting in the firstcircumnavigation of the globe, completed by the SpaniardJuan Sebastián Elcano(1519–1522). Soon after, the Spanish and Portuguese began establishing large global empires in theAmericas, Asia, Africa and Oceania.France, theNetherlandsand England soon followed in building large colonial empires with vast holdings in Africa, the Americas and Asia. In 1588, theSpanish Armadafailed to invade England. A year later,England tried unsuccessfully to invade Spain, allowingPhilip II of Spainto maintain his dominant war capacity in Europe. This English disaster also allowed the Spanish fleet to retain its capability to wage war for the next decades. However, two more Spanish armadas failed to invade England (2nd Spanish Armadaand3rd Spanish Armada).
The Church's power was further weakened by theReformation, which began in 1517 when German theologianMartin Luthernailed hisNinety-five Thesescriticising the selling of indulgences to the church door. He was subsequently excommunicated in the papal bullExsurge Dominein 1520 and his followers were condemned in the 1521Diet of Worms, which divided German princes betweenProtestantand Catholic faiths.Religious fighting and warfarespread with Protestantism.The plunder of the empires of the Americas allowed Spain to financereligious persecutionin Europe for over a century.TheThirty Years' War(1618–1648) crippled the Holy Roman Empire and devastated much of Germany, killing between 25 and 40 percent of its population.In the aftermath of thePeace of Westphalia, France rose to predominance within Europe.The defeat of theOttoman Turksat theBattle of Viennain 1683 marked the historic end ofOttoman expansion into Europe.
In much of Central and Eastern Europe, the 17th century wasa period of general decline;the region experienced more than 150 famines in a 200-year period between 1501 and 1700.From theUnion of Krewo(1385) east-central Europe was dominated by theKingdom of Polandand theGrand Duchy of Lithuania. The hegemony of the vastPolish–Lithuanian Commonwealthhad ended with the devastation brought by theNorthern War of 1655–1660(Deluge) and subsequent conflicts;the state itself waspartitionedand ceased to exist at the end of the 18th century.
From the 15th to 18th centuries, when the disintegrating khanates of theGolden Hordewere conquered by Russia,Tatarsfrom theCrimean KhanatefrequentlyraidedEastern Slavic lands tocapture slaves.Further east, theNogai HordeandKazakh Khanatefrequently raided the Slavic-speaking areas of contemporary Russia and Ukraine for hundreds of years, until the Russian expansion and conquest of most of northern Eurasia (i.e. Eastern Europe, Central Asia and Siberia).
The Renaissance and theNew Monarchsmarked the start of an Age of Discovery, a period of exploration, invention and scientific development.Important figures of theScientific Revolutionduring the 16th and 17th centuries includedCopernicus,Kepler,Galileo, andIsaac 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."
TheSeven Years' Warbrought to an end the"Old System" of alliances in Europe. Consequently, when theAmerican Revolutionary Warturned into a global war between 1778 and 1783, Britain found itself opposed by a strong coalition of European powers, and lacking any substantial ally.
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 theFirst Republicas a result of which the monarchy and many of the nobility perished during the initialreign of terror.NapoleonBonaparte rose to power in the aftermath of the French Revolution, and established theFirst French Empirethat, during theNapoleonic Wars, grew to encompass large parts of Europe before collapsing in 1815 with theBattle of Waterloo.Napoleonic ruleresulted in the further dissemination of the ideals of the French Revolution, including that of thenation state, as well as the widespread adoption of the French models ofadministration,lawandeducation.TheCongress of Vienna, convened after Napoleon's downfall, established a newbalance of powerin Europe centred on the five "great powers": the UK, France,Prussia,Austria, and Russia.This balance would remain in place until theRevolutions 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, theAustro-Hungarian empirewasformed; 1871 saw the unifications of bothItalyandGermanyas nation-states from smaller principalities.
In parallel, theEastern Questiongrew more complex ever since the Ottoman defeat in theRusso-Turkish War (1768–1774). As the dissolution of the Ottoman Empire seemed imminent, theGreat Powersstruggled to safeguard their strategic and commercial interests in the Ottoman domains. TheRussian Empirestood to benefit from the decline, whereas theHabsburg Empireand Britain perceived the preservation of the Ottoman Empire to be in their best interests. Meanwhile, theSerbian Revolution(1804) andGreek War of Independence(1821) marked the beginning of the end of Ottoman rule in theBalkans, which ended with theBalkan Warsin 1912–1913.Formal recognition of thede factoindependent principalities ofMontenegro,SerbiaandRomaniaensued at theCongress of Berlinin 1878.
TheIndustrial Revolutionstarted inGreat Britainin 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 thefirst lawsonchild labour, the legalisation oftrade unions,and theabolition of slavery.In Britain, thePublic Health Act of 1875was 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, theGreat Famine of Ireland, 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.The industrial revolution also led to large population growth, and theshare of the world population living in Europereached a peak of slightly above 25% around the year 1913.
Two world wars and an economic depression dominated the first half of the 20th century. The First World War was fought between 1914 and 1918. It started whenArchduke Franz Ferdinand of Austriawas assassinated by theYugoslav nationalistGavrilo Princip.Most European nations were drawn into the war, which was fought between theEntente Powers(France,Belgium,Serbia, Portugal,Russia, the United Kingdom, and laterItaly,Greece,Romania, and the United States) and theCentral Powers(Austria-Hungary,Germany,Bulgaria, and theOttoman 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 theRussian Revolution, which threw down theTsarist monarchyand replaced it with thecommunistSoviet Union,leading also to the independence of many formerRussian governorates, such asFinland,Estonia,LatviaandLithuania, as new European countries.Austria-Hungaryand the Ottoman Empire collapsed and broke up into separate nations, and many other nations had their borders redrawn. TheTreaty of Versailles, which officially ended the First World War 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 the First World War and theRussian Civil War(including the postwarfamine) amounted to a combined total of 18 million.In 1932–1933, underStalin's leadership, confiscations of grain by the Soviet authorities contributed to thesecond Soviet faminewhich caused millions of deaths;survivingkulakswere persecuted and many sent toGulagsto doforced labour. Stalin was also responsible for theGreat Purgeof 1937–38 in which theNKVDexecuted 681,692 people;millions of people weredeported and exiledto remote areas of the Soviet Union.
Thesocial revolutionssweeping through Russia also affected other European nations followingThe Great War: in 1919, with theWeimar Republicin Germany and theFirst Austrian Republic; in 1922, withMussolini's one-partyfascistgovernment in theKingdom of Italyand inAtatürk'sTurkish Republic, adopting the Western alphabet and statesecularism.
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 theWall Street crash of 1929, brought about the worldwideGreat Depression. Helped by the economic crisis, social instability and the threat of communism,fascist movementsdeveloped throughout Europe placingAdolf Hitlerin power of what becameNazi Germany.
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 theSaarlandandRhinelandin 1935 and 1936. In 1938,Austriabecame a part of Germany following theAnschluss. Following theMunich Agreementsigned by Germany, France, the United Kingdom, and Italy, later in 1938 Germany annexed theSudetenland, which was a part ofCzechoslovakiainhabited by ethnic Germans. In early 1939, the remainder of Czechoslovakia was split into theProtectorate of Bohemia and Moravia, controlled by Germany and theSlovak Republic. At the time, the United Kingdom and France preferred a policy ofappeasement.
With tensions mounting between Germany andPolandover the future ofDanzig, the Germans turned to the Soviets and signed theMolotov–Ribbentrop Pact, which allowed the Soviets to invade the Baltic states and parts of Poland and Romania. Germanyinvaded Polandon 1 September 1939, prompting France and the United Kingdom to declare war on Germany on 3 September, opening theEuropean Theatre of the Second World War.TheSoviet invasion of Polandstarted on 17 September and Poland fell soon thereafter. On 24 September, the Soviet Union attacked theBaltic countriesand, on 30 November, Finland, the latter of which was followed by the devastatingWinter Warfor the Red Army.The British hoped to land atNarvikand 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. ThePhoney Warcontinued.
In May 1940, Germanyattacked Francethrough the Low Countries. France capitulated in June 1940. By August, Germany had begun abombing offensive against the United Kingdombut failed to convince the Britons to give up.In 1941, Germany invaded the Soviet Union inOperation Barbarossa.On 7 December 1941Japan'sattack on Pearl Harbordrew the United States into the conflict as allies of theBritish Empire, and otheralliedforces.
After the staggeringBattle of Stalingradin 1943, the German offensive in the Soviet Union turned into a continual fallback. TheBattle of Kursk, which involved the largesttank battlein history, was the last major German offensive on theEastern Front. In June 1944, British and American forces invaded France in theD-Day landings, opening a new front against Germany. Berlin finallyfell in 1945, ending the Second World War in Europe. The war was the largest and most destructive in human history, with60 million dead across the world.More than 40 million people in Europe had died as a result of the Second World War,including between 11 and 17 million people who perished duringthe Holocaust.The Soviet Unionlost around 27 million people(mostly civilians) during the war, about half of all Second World War casualties.By the end of the Second World War, Europe had more than 40 millionrefugees.Severalpost-war expulsionsin Central and Eastern Europe displaced a total of about 20 million people.
The First World War, and especially the Second World War, diminished the eminence of Western Europe in world affairs. After the Second World War the map of Europe was redrawn at theYalta Conferenceand divided into two blocs, the Western countries and the communist Eastern bloc, separated by what was later called byWinston Churchillan "Iron Curtain". The United States and Western Europe established theNATOalliance and, later, the Soviet Union and Central Europe established theWarsaw Pact.Particular hot spots after the Second World War wereBerlinandTrieste, whereby theFree Territory of Trieste, founded in 1947 with the UN, was dissolved in 1954 and 1975, respectively. TheBerlin blockadein 1948 and 1949 and the construction of theBerlin Wallin 1961 were one of the great international crises of theCold War.
The two newsuperpowers, the United States and the Soviet Union, became locked in a fifty-year-long Cold War, centred onnuclear proliferation. At the same timedecolonisation, which had already started after the First World War, gradually resulted in the independence of most of the European colonies in Asia and Africa.
In the 1980s thereformsofMikhail Gorbachevand theSolidaritymovement in Poland weakened the previously rigid communist system. The opening of theIron Curtainat thePan-European Picnicthen set in motion a peaceful chain reaction, at the end of which theEastern bloc, theWarsaw Pactand othercommunist states collapsed, and the Cold War ended.Germany was reunited, after the symbolicfall of the Berlin Wallin 1989 and the maps of Central and Eastern Europe were redrawn once more.This made old previously interrupted cultural and economic relationships possible, and previously isolated cities such asBerlin,Prague,Vienna,BudapestandTriestewere now again in the centre of Europe.
European integrationalso grew after the Second World War. In 1949 theCouncil of Europewas founded, following a speech by SirWinston Churchill, with the idea of unifying Europeto achieve common goals. It includes all European states except forBelarus, Russia,andVatican City. TheTreaty of Romein 1957 established theEuropean Economic Communitybetween six Western European states with the goal of a unified economic policy and common market.In 1967 the EEC,European Coal and Steel Community, andEuratomformed theEuropean Community, which in 1993 became theEuropean Union. The EU established aparliament,courtandcentral bank, and introduced theeuroas a unified currency.Between 2004 and 2013, more Central European countries began joining,expanding the EUto 28 European countries and once more making Europe a major economical and political centre of power.However, the United Kingdom withdrew from the EU on 31 January 2020, as a result of aJune 2016 referendum on EU membership.TheRusso-Ukrainian conflict, which has been ongoing since 2014, steeply escalated when Russia launched afull-scale invasionofUkraineon 24 February 2022, marking the largest humanitarian and refugee crisis in Europe since the Second World Warand theYugoslav Wars.
Europe makes up the western fifth of theEurasianlandmass.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 highAlps,PyreneesandCarpathians, through hilly uplands, into broad, low northern plains, which are vast in the east. This extended lowland is known as theGreat European Plainand at its heart lies theNorth 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. Subregions such as theIberian Peninsulaand theItalian Peninsulacontain 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 likeIceland, Britain and Ireland are special cases. The former is a land unto itself in the northern ocean that is counted as part of Europe, while the latter are upland areas that were once joined to the mainland untilrising sea levelscut them off.
Europe lies mainly in thetemperateclimate zone of the northern hemisphere, where theprevailing wind direction is from the west. The climate is milder in comparison to other areas of the same latitude around the globe due to the influence of theGulf Stream, an ocean current which carries warm water from theGulf of Mexicoacross theAtlantic Oceanto Europe.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 ofAveirois 16 °C (61 °F), while it is only 13 °C (55 °F) inNew York Citywhich is almost on the same latitude, bordering the same ocean. Berlin, Germany; Calgary, Canada; and Irkutsk, in far south-eastern Russia, lie on around the same latitude; January temperatures in Berlin average around 8 °C (14 °F) higher than those in Calgary and they are almost 22 °C (40 °F) higher than average temperatures in Irkutsk.
The large water masses of theMediterranean Sea, which equalise the temperatures on an annual and daily average, are also of particular importance. The water of the Mediterranean extends from theSahara desertto the Alpine arc in its northernmost part of theAdriatic SeanearTrieste.
In general, Europe is not just colder towards the north compared to the south, but it also gets colder from the west towards the east. The climate is more oceanic in the west and less so in the east. This can be illustrated by the following table of average temperatures at locations roughly following the 64th, 60th, 55th, 50th, 45th and 40thlatitudes. None of them is located at high altitude; most of them are close to the sea.
It is notable how the average temperatures for the coldest month, as well as the annual average temperatures, drop from the west to the east. For instance, Edinburgh is warmer than Belgrade during the coldest month of the year, although Belgrade is around 10° of latitude farther south.
The geological history of Europe traces back to the formation of theBaltic Shield(Fennoscandia) and theSarmatian craton, both around 2.25 billion years ago, followed by theVolgo–Uraliashield, the three together leading to theEast European craton(≈Baltica) which became a part of thesupercontinentColumbia. Around 1.1 billion years ago, Baltica and Arctica (as part of theLaurentiablock) became joined toRodinia, later resplitting around 550 million years ago to reform as Baltica. Around 440 million years agoEuramericawas formed from Baltica and Laurentia; a further joining withGondwanathen leading to the formation ofPangea. Around 190 million years ago, Gondwana andLaurasiasplit 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, viaGreenland, 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 thelate Tertiaryperiod 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 theScottish Highlandsto the rollingplainsof Hungary.Europe's most significant feature is the dichotomy between highland and mountainousSouthern Europeand a vast, partially underwater, northern plain ranging from Ireland in the west to theUral Mountainsin the east. These two halves are separated by the mountain chains of thePyreneesandAlps/Carpathians. The northern plains are delimited in the west by theScandinavian Mountainsand the mountainous parts of the British Isles. Major shallow water bodies submerging parts of the northern plains are theCeltic Sea, theNorth Sea, theBaltic Seacomplex andBarents Sea.
The northern plain contains the old geological continent ofBalticaand 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 ancientmicrocontinentAvalonia.
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 humans. With the exception ofFennoscandiaand northern Russia, few areas of untouched wilderness are currently found in Europe, except for variousnational parks.
The main natural vegetation cover in Europe is mixedforest. The conditions for growth are very favourable. In the north, theGulf StreamandNorth Atlantic Driftwarm the continent. Southern Europe has a warm but mild climate. There are frequent summer droughts in this region. Mountain ridges also affect the conditions. Some of these, such as theAlpsand thePyrenees, 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 bylivestockat some point in time, and the cutting down of the preagricultural forest habitat caused disruption to the original plant and animal ecosystems.
Possibly 80 to 90 percent of Europe was once covered by forest.It stretched from the Mediterranean Sea to the Arctic Ocean. Although over half of Europe's original forests disappeared through the centuries ofdeforestation, Europe still has over one quarter of its land area as forest, such as thebroadleaf and mixedforests,taigaof Scandinavia and Russia, mixedrainforestsof the Caucasus and theCork oakforests in the western Mediterranean. During recent times, deforestation has been slowed and many trees have been planted. However, in many cases monocultureplantationsofconifershave 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, while in its Western Russia its 5–10%. The European country with thesmallest percentage of forested areaisIceland(1%), while the most forested country is Finland (77%).
In temperate Europe, mixed forest with bothbroadleafand coniferous trees dominate. The most important species in central and western Europe arebeechandoak. In the north, the taiga is a mixedspruce–pine–birchforest; further north within Russia and extreme northern Scandinavia, the taiga gives way totundraas the Arctic is approached. In the Mediterranean, manyolivetrees have been planted, which are very well adapted to its arid climate;Mediterranean Cypressis also widely planted in southern Europe. The semi-arid Mediterranean region hosts much scrub forest. A narrow east–west tongue of Eurasiangrassland(thesteppe) extends westwards fromUkraineand southern Russia and ends in Hungary and traverses into taiga to the north.
Glaciation during themost recent ice ageand the presence of humans affected the distribution ofEuropean fauna. As for the animals, in many parts of Europe most large animals and toppredatorspecies have been hunted to extinction. Thewoolly mammothwas extinct before the end of theNeolithicperiod. Todaywolves(carnivores) andbears(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, thebrown bearlives primarily in theBalkan 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 bearsmay be found onSvalbard, a Norwegian archipelago far north of Scandinavia. Thewolf, the second-largest predator in Europe after the brown bear, can be found primarily inCentral and Eastern Europeand in the Balkans, with a handful of packs in pockets ofWestern Europe(Scandinavia, Spain, etc.).
Other carnivores include theEuropean wildcat,red foxandarctic fox, thegolden jackal, different species ofmartens, theEuropean hedgehog, different species of reptiles (like snakes such as vipers and grass snakes) and amphibians, as well as different birds (owls,hawksand 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 thesmall tortoiseshellbutterfly, add to the biodiversity.
Sea creatures are also an important part of European flora and fauna. The sea flora is mainlyphytoplankton. Important animals that live in European seas arezooplankton,molluscs,echinoderms, differentcrustaceans,squidsandoctopuses, fish,dolphinsandwhales.
Biodiversity is protected in Europe through the Council of Europe'sBern Convention, which has also been signed by theEuropean Communityas well as non-European states.
The political map of Europe is substantially derived from the re-organisation of Europe following theNapoleonic Warsin 1815. The prevalent form of government in Europe isparliamentary democracy, in most cases in the form ofrepublic; in 1815, the prevalent form of government was still themonarchy. Europe's remaining eleven monarchiesareconstitutional.
European integrationis the process of political, legal, economic (and in some cases social and cultural) integration of European states as it has been pursued by the powers sponsoring theCouncil of Europesince the end of theSecond World War. TheEuropean Unionhas been the focus of economic integration on the continent since its foundation in 1993. More recently, theEurasian Economic Unionhas been established as a counterpart comprising former Soviet states.
27 European states are members of the politico-economic European Union, 26 of the border-freeSchengen Areaand 20 of the monetary unionEurozone. Among the smaller European organisations are theNordic Council, theBenelux, theBaltic Assembly, and theVisegrád Group.
The leastdemocratic countries in EuropeareBelarus, Russia, andTurkeyin 2024 according to theV-Dem Democracy indices.
This list includes all internationally recognised sovereign countries falling even partially under anycommon geographical or political definitions of Europe.
Within the above-mentioned states are severalde factoindependent countries withlimited 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 close to Europe. This includesÅland(anautonomous countyof Finland), twoautonomous territories of the Kingdom of Denmark(other than Denmark proper), threeCrown Dependenciesand twoBritish Overseas Territories.Svalbardis also included due to its unique status within Norway, although it is not autonomous. Not included are the threecountries of the United Kingdomwith devolved powers and the twoAutonomous 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 theCanary IslandsandHeligoland, are also not included for this reason.
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 largewealth gapamong its countries. The richer states tend to be in theNorthwestandWestin general, followed byCentral Europe, while most economies ofEasternandSoutheastern Europeare still reemerging from thecollapse of the Soviet Unionand thebreakup of Yugoslavia.
The model of theBlue Bananawas designed as an economic geographic representation of the respective economic power of the regions, which was further developed into theGolden Bananaor Blue Star. The trade between East and West, as well as towards Asia, which had been disrupted for a long time by the two world wars, new borders and the Cold War, increased sharply after 1989. In addition, there is new impetus from the ChineseBelt and Road Initiativeacross theSuez Canaltowards Africa and Asia.
The European Union, a political entity composed of 27 European states, comprises thelargest single economic areain the world. Nineteen EUcountriesshare theeuroas a common currency.
Five European countries rank in the top ten of the world's largestnational economies in GDP (PPP). This includes (ranks according to theCIA): Germany (6), Russia (7), the United Kingdom (10), France (11) and Italy (13).
Some European countries are much richer than others. The richest in terms of nominal GDP isMonacowith its US$185,829 per capita (2018) and the poorest isUkrainewith its US$3,659 per capita (2019).
As a whole, Europe's GDP per capita is US$21,767 according to a 2016 International Monetary Fund assessment.
Capitalism has been dominant in the Western world since the end of feudalism.From Britain, it gradually spread throughout Europe.TheIndustrial Revolutionstarted in Europe, specifically the United Kingdom in the late 18th century,and the 19th century saw Western Europe industrialise. Economies were disrupted by the First World War, but by the beginning of the Second World War, they had recovered and were having to compete with the growing economic strength of the United States. The Second World War, again, damaged much of Europe's industries.
After the Second World War 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 Germanyrecovered quicklyand 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 ofFranco, also recovered and the nation recorded huge unprecedented economic growth beginning in the 1960s in what is called theSpanish miracle.The majority ofCentral and Eastern Europeanstates came under the control of theSoviet Unionand thus were members of theCouncil for Mutual Economic Assistance(COMECON).
The states which retained afree-marketsystem were given a large amount of aid by the United States under theMarshall 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 theCold War. Until 1990, theEuropean Communitywas 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.
With the fall of communism in Central and Eastern Europe in 1991, the post-socialist states underwentshock therapymeasures to liberalise their economies and implement free market reforms.
AfterEastand 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, while the latterexperienced sudden mass unemployment and plummeting of industrial production.
By the millennium change, the EU dominated the economy of Europe, comprising the five largest European economies of the time: Germany, the United Kingdom, France, Italy, and Spain. In 1999, 12 of the 15 members of the EU joined theEurozone, replacing their national currencies by theeuro.
Figures released byEurostatin 2009 confirmed that the Eurozone had gone intorecessionin 2008.It impacted much of the region.In 2010, fears of asovereign debt crisisdeveloped 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.TheEU-27unemployment rate was 10.3% in 2012. For those aged 15–24 it was 22.4%.
The population of Europe was about 742 million in 2023 according to UN estimates.This is slightly more than one ninth of the world's population.Thepopulation densityof Europe (the number of people per area) is the second highest of any continent, behind Asia. The population of Europe is currently slowly decreasing, by about 0.2% per year,becausethere are fewer births than deaths. This natural decrease in population is reduced by the fact that more peoplemigrate to Europefrom other continents than vice versa.
Southern Europe and Western Europe are the regions with the highest average number of elderly people in the world. In 2021, the percentage of people over 65 years old was 21% in Western Europe and Southern Europe, compared to 19% in all of Europe and 10% in the world.Projections suggest that by 2050 Europe will reach 30%.This is caused by the fact that the population has beenhaving children below replacement levelsince the 1970s. TheUnited Nationspredicts that Europe will decline in population between 2022 and 2050 by −7 per cent, without changing immigration movements.
According to a population projection of the UN Population Division, Europe's population may fall to between 680 and 720 million people by 2050, which would be 7% of the world population at that time.Within this context, significant disparities exist between regions in relation tofertility rates. The average number ofchildren per femaleof child-bearing age is 1.52, far below the replacement rate.The UN predicts a steadypopulation declineinCentral and Eastern Europeas a result of emigration and low birth rates.
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 constituteethnic minorities.
Europe is home to the highest number of migrants of all global regions at nearly 87 million people in 2020, according to theInternational Organisation for Migration.In 2005, the EU had an overall net gain fromimmigrationof 1.8 million people. This accounted for almost 85% of Europe's totalpopulation growth.In 2021, 827,000 persons were given citizenship of an EU member state, an increase of about 14% compared with 2020.2.3 million immigrants from non-EU countries entered the EU in 2021.
Early modernemigration from Europebegan 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 descentare found on every continent. European ancestry predominates in North America and to a lesser degree in South America (particularly inUruguay,Argentina,ChileandBrazil, while most of the otherLatin Americancountries also have a considerablepopulation of European origins). Australia and New Zealand have large European-derived populations. Africa has no countries with European-derived majorities (or with the exception ofCape Verdeand probablySão Tomé and Príncipe, depending on context), but there are significant minorities, such as theWhite South AfricansinSouth Africa. In Asia, European-derived populations, specificallyRussians, predominate inNorth Asiaand some parts of NorthernKazakhstan.Also in Asia, Europeans, especially the Spanish are an influentialminority population in the Philippines.
Europe has about 225 indigenous languages,mostly falling within threeIndo-Europeanlanguage groups: theRomance languages, derived from theLatinof theRoman Empire; theGermanic languages, whose ancestor language came from southern Scandinavia; and theSlavic languages.Slavic languages are mostly spoken in Southern, Central and Eastern Europe. Romance languages are spoken primarily in Western and Southern Europe, as well as inSwitzerlandin Central Europe andRomaniaandMoldovain Eastern Europe. Germanic languages are spoken in Western, Northern and Central Europe as well as inGibraltarandMaltain Southern Europe.Languages in adjacent areas show significant overlaps (such as inEnglish, for example). Other Indo-European languages outside the three main groups include theBalticgroup (LatvianandLithuanian), theCelticgroup (Irish,Scottish Gaelic,Manx,Welsh,CornishandBreton),Greek,ArmenianandAlbanian.
A distinct non-Indo-European family ofUralic languages(Estonian,Finnish,Hungarian,Erzya,Komi,Mari,MokshaandUdmurt) is spoken mainly inEstonia,Finland,Hungaryand parts of Russia.Turkic languagesincludeAzerbaijani,KazakhandTurkish, in addition to smaller languages in Eastern and Southeast Europe (Balkan Gagauz Turkish,Bashkir,Chuvash,Crimean Tatar,Karachay-Balkar,Kumyk,NogaiandTatar).Kartvelian languages(Georgian,MingrelianandSvan) are spoken primarily inGeorgia. Two other language families reside in the North Caucasus (termedNortheast Caucasian, most notably includingChechen,AvarandLezgin; andNorthwest Caucasian, most notably includingAdyghe).Malteseis the onlySemitic languagethat is official within the EU, whileBasqueis the only Europeanlanguage isolate.
Multilingualism and the protection of regional and minority languages are recognised political goals in Europe today. TheCouncil of EuropeFramework Convention for the Protection of National Minoritiesand the Council of Europe'sEuropean Charter for Regional or Minority Languagesset up a legal framework for language rights in Europe.
The largest religion in Europe isChristianity, with 76.2% of Europeans considering themselvesChristians,includingCatholic,Eastern Orthodoxand variousProtestantdenominations. Among Protestants, the most popular areLutheranism,Anglicanismand theReformed faith. Smaller Protestant denominations includeAnabaptistsas well as denominations centred in the United States such asPentecostalism,Methodism, andEvangelicalism. Although Christianity originated in the Middle East, its centre of mass shifted to Europe when itbecame the official religion of the Roman Empirein the late 4th century.Christianityplayeda prominent role in the developmentof theEuropean cultureandidentity.Today, just over 25% of the world's Christians live in Europe.
Islamis the second most popular religion in Europe. Over 25 million, or roughly 5% of the population, adhere to it.InAlbaniaandBosnia and Herzegovina, two countries in theBalkan peninsulain Southeastern Europe, Islam instead of Christianity is the majority religion. This is also the case inTurkeyand incertain parts of Russia, as well as inAzerbaijanandKazakhstan, all of which are at the border to Asia.Many countries in Europe are home to a sizeable Muslim minority, andimmigration to Europehas increased the number of Muslim people in Europe in recent years.
TheJewishpopulation in Europe was about 1.4 million people in 2020 (about 0.2% of the population).There is a longhistory of Jewish life in Europe, beginning in antiquity. During the late 19th and early 20th centuries, the Russian Empire had the majority of the world's Jews living within its borders.In 1897, according toRussian census of 1897, the total Jewish population of Russia was 5.1 million people, which was 4.13% of total population. Of this total, the vast majority lived within thePale of Settlement.In 1933, there were about 9.5 million Jewish people in Europe, representing 1.7% of the population,but most were killed, and most of the rest displaced, duringThe Holocaust.In the 21st century,Francehas the largestJewish populationin Europe, followed by the United Kingdom,Germanyand Russia.
Other religions practiced in Europe includeHinduismandBuddhism, which are minority religions, except in Russia'sRepublic of Kalmykia, where Tibetan Buddhism is the majority religion.
A large and increasing number of people in Europe areirreligious,atheistandagnostic. They are estimated to make up about 18.3% of Europe's population currently.
The three largesturban areas of EuropeareMoscow,LondonandParis. All have over 10 million residents,and as such have been described asmegacities.WhileIstanbulhas the highest total city population, it lies partly inAsia. 64.9% of the residents live on the European side and 35.1% on the Asian side.
The next largest cities in order of population areMadrid,Saint Petersburg,Milan,Barcelona,Berlin, andRomeeach having over three million residents.
When considering the commuter belts ormetropolitan areas within Europe(for which comparable data is available), Moscow covers the largest population, followed in order by Istanbul, London, Paris, Madrid, Milan, Ruhr Area, Saint Petersburg, Rhein-Süd, Barcelona and Berlin.
"Europe" as a cultural concept is substantially derived from the shared heritage ofancient Greeceand theRoman Empireand its cultures. The boundaries of Europe were historically understood as those ofChristendom(or more specificallyLatin Christendom), as established or defended throughout the medieval and early modern history of Europe, especiallyagainst Islam, as in theReconquistaand theOttoman wars in Europe.
This shared cultural heritage is combined by overlapping indigenous national cultures and folklores, roughly divided intoSlavic,Latin (Romance)and Germanic, but with several components not part of either of these groups (notablyGreek,BasqueandCeltic). Historically, special examples with overlapping cultures areStrasbourgwith Latin (Romance) and Germanic, orTriestewith Latin, Slavic and Germanic roots.
Cultural contacts and mixtures shape a large part of the regional cultures of Europe. Europe is often described as "maximum cultural diversity with minimal geographical distances".
Different cultural events are organised in Europe, with the aim of bringing different cultures closer together and raising awareness of their importance, such as theEuropean Capital of Culture, theEuropean Region of Gastronomy, theEuropean Youth Capitaland the European Capital of Sport.
Sport in Europe tends to be highly organised with many sports having professional leagues. The origins of many of the world's most popular sports today lie in the codification of many traditional games, especially in the United Kingdom. However, a paradoxical feature of European sport is the extent to which local, regional and national variations continue to exist, and even in some instances to predominate.
In Europe many people are unable to access basic social conditions, which makes it harder for them to thrive and flourish. Access to basic necessities can be compromised, for example 10% of Europeans spend at least 40% of household income on housing. 75 million Europeans feelsocially isolated. From the 1980s income inequality has been rising and wage shares have been falling. In 2016, the richest 20% of households earned over five times more than the poorest 20%. Many workers experience stagnantreal wagesandprecarious workis common even foressential workers.
Historical maps