Europe’s Continental Boundaries | Counter-Currents Publishing Europe’s Continental Boundaries Europe by night 4,475 words Of the Earth’s seven continents, Europe is the second smallest in total area—only Australia is smaller. In terms of population density it is the second largest after Asia. Geographically, Europe is a peninsula of Eurasia. It has been described as a peninsula of peninsulas and islands. The surprising difficulty of defining Europe as a continent can be seen not only in differing definitions of its boundaries, or the bewildering number of candidates for its most extreme points north, south, east, and west, but even in disagreements over which locale constitutes the geographical center of Europe. The answers to all of these questions seem completely undeterminable in any precise kind of way. Fortunately, the broad outlines are clear. The “boundaries of Europe” discussed here concern only Europe as a continent ending (or beginning) at the Ural Mountains. This creates a formalistic and artificially truncated political and racial horizon.

Europe: One of the most commonly used continental boundaries Notably, it ignores the Russian Federation as a unitary racial/political/social entity—a nation, including Russia-in-Asia, extending across much of northern Eurasia and constituting the world’s largest country in total area. Its 6.6 million square miles include one-eighth of the Earth’s inhabited land area—1.7 x the land area of Canada or 2 x the size of the Roman Empire at its greatest extent. Moreover, some countries still possess overseas territories outside Europe that are integral parts of the homeland. With the exception of Greenland and a few small islands close to Europe, such territories will not be discussed here. Due to Europe’s peninsular structure, the most difficult boundary to define is the eastern one, dividing continental Europe from continental Asia. Whether various countries or portions of countries are grouped geographically with Europe or Asia varies according to the sources consulted. Because the major maritime boundaries that separate the continent of Europe from the Earth’s other continents—the Mediterranean Sea on the south, the Atlantic Ocean on the west, and the Arctic Ocean on the north—have well-defined coastlines, the close analysis of such boundaries primarily involves the allocation of various islands to Europe or some other continent.

The Boundary of Europe and Asia The Southeastern boundary between Europe and Asia Evidently the first man to define the eastern continental boundary between Europe and Asia pretty much as it exists today is Philip Johan von Strahlenberg (1676–1747), a Swedish army officer, explorer, and scholar of German descent. As defined in his book Das nord- und ostliche Theil von Europa und Asia (The north and east part of Europe and Asia) (Stockholm, 1730), which was translated into English, French, and Spanish, Strahlenberg’s border followed the chain of the Ural Mountains north-to-south, then the Emba River to the north coast of the Caspian Sea before passing through the Kuma-Manych Depression to the Black Sea. This Depression, named after two rivers, lies just north of the Caucasus Mountains which are today regarded as the true boundary. The continent’s eastern boundary cuts Russia in two—European Russia and Asian Russia. There is a strikingly uneven distribution of human and natural resources between the Asian and European regions. Asian Russia, about the size of China and India combined, occupies roughly three-quarters of Russian Federation territory.

But the quarter of the country west of the Urals—a major portion of continental Europe—is home to more than 75% of Russia’s population and most of its industry and agriculture. It was in European Russia that the Russian nation took shape. Despite governmental efforts to resettle Russians in sparsely populated Asian areas with abundant natural resources, the imbalance persists. The Urals boundary The watershed divide of the Ural Mountains forms the natural land boundary between the continents of Europe and Asia. The range, averaging 3,000–4,000 ft. in height, extends about 1,640 miles north-south from the Arctic Ocean to the northern steppe of Kazakhstan. At 6,214 ft., Mount Narodnaya in the northern Urals is its highest peak. The densely forested central portion of the range, the Middle Urals, is broader and lower in altitude, a plateau region of 1,000–2,000 ft. Several low east-west passes provide major transportation routes through the Urals to the East (Asia).

A glance at a map shows that from the Urals the continental boundary broadly follows the unnavigable Ural River that rises at the mountains’ south end and empties into the northern end of the Caspian Sea to the south. However, this segment of the land border is indeterminate, as one scholar has noted: For most of its length, the eastern border of Europe, namely the Ural mountains, is beyond contention. But between the southern end of the Urals (from, say, the city of Orsk where the Ural river turns westwards) and the Caspian Sea there is a gap from north-east to south-west of some 400 km.[249 mi].

Here there is no agreement as to where Europe ends and Asia begins and at least three “natural” lines have been suggested, namely: (i) the Volga river, which however seems too far west and, moreover, divides a number of constituent republics of the Russian Federation between the two continents; (ii) the Emba river, which, of all major waterways, continues the most directly the line of the Urals in a broadly south-westerly direction towards the Caspian; this, however, would divide the Republic of Kazakhstan, usually considered as an Asian state, between Asia and Europe and there seems no good reason to accept the Emba as constituting the border; (iii) between the Volga and the Emba is the Ural river which, if we were to decide on a “natural” border, would be the most satisfactory of those proposed; this, however, would still leave a substantial part of Kazakhstan in Europe. (Glanville Price, Encyclopedia of the Languages of Europe, 2000, p. xii.) The author opts for the existing Russian-Kazakhstan border. The downside with such a choice is that political borders change constantly.

Political boundaries of Southeastern Europe, the Black and Caspain Seas The next major segment of the boundary is formed by the Caspian Sea, bordered in Europe by Russia and in Asia by Kazakhstan, Turkmenistan, Iran, and Azerbaijan. 746 mi. long and 270 mi. wide, it is the largest completely enclosed body of water, or inland sea, on Earth. It is fed by the Volga, Ural, and Emba rivers from the north. This sea was known to the ancient Greeks, Romans, and Persians. The border of Russia with Georgia and Azerbaijan runs along Caucasus Mountains watershed. The European portion of the 700-mi. east-west mountain range between the Caspian and Black Seas is Ciscaucasia on the north. The Asiatic part, Transcaucasia, lies to the south. The range’s highest peak, Mt. Elbrus (18,481 ft.) is often counted as Europe’s highest.

The Caucasus are crossed by several high passess, the two best known of which are Mamison Pass in the center, and Daryal (or Darial) Pass, which was fortified as early as 150 BC and has vertical rock walls 5,900 ft. high. The Black Sea, Caucasus Mountains, and Caspian Sea The Black Sea (ancient Euxine Sea) between Europe and Asia has been joined since ancient times with the Aegean Sea (part of the Mediterranean), and through it the Atlantic Ocean, by the Bosporus/Sea of Marmara/Dardanelles waterway. The Black Sea is connected to its own northern arm, the 200-mi. long Sea of Azov, by the Kerch Strait. Russia’s mighty Don River empties into the Sea of Azov at Azov, near the ancient site of Tanais, a Greek colony. Azov was captured by Vladimir I in the 900s AD and by the Genoese, who made it a trading port, in the 1200s.

Sacked by the Mongol conqueror Tamerlane in 1395, it was held alternately by Russians and Turks until it was finally secured by Russia in 1739. It was Vladimir I who established the Orthodox Eastern Church as the state religion c. 989 AD, thereby linking Russia religiously and culturally to the Eastern Roman Empire throughout the medieval period. Major European rivers flowing into the Black Sea are the Danube, Dniester, Bug, Dnieper, and Kuban. The steppe region north of the Black Sea has been proposed by some scholars as the original homeland (Urheimat) of the Proto-Indo-Europeans. Others contend that the heartland was further east toward the Caspian Sea, and still others that it was in Anatolia (present-day Turkey). Legendarily, the Black Sea was sailed by Jason and the Argonauts. In a sacred grove in ancient Colchis (contemporary Georgia) on its eastern shore, the Greek heroes sought the Golden Fleece.

In ancient times the Black Sea was crossed by Hittites, Carians, Thracians, Greeks, Persians, Cimmerians, Scythians, and Romans, and later by the East Romans (Byzantines), Goths, Huns, Avars, Bulgars, Slavs, Varangians (East Vikings), European Crusaders, Venetians, and Genoese. The large peninsula extending into the Black Sea on its northern shore, framed on the east by the Sea of Azov, is the Crimea, site of the Crimean War (1854–1856). In the 8th century BC it was inhabited by the Cimmerians, who were expelled by the Scythians in the 7th century. The southern coast of the Crimea was settled in the 6th century BC by Greek traders who maintained extensive trade ties with Athens. In WWII Germans occupied the peninsula from 1941–1944. At Yalta in 1945, FDR and Churchill handed Eastern Europe to the Communists.

The Mediterranean Boundary The Mediterranean Sea: Europe to the North, Africa to the South, Asia to the East To the south Europe is separated from Africa and Asia by the Mediterranean Sea and the Strait of Gibraltar. Very unlike Europe north of the Alps, the Mediterranean climate has hot, dry summers and mild, rainy winters. European nations with a Mediterranean shoreline are Spain, France, Monaco, Italy, the island of Malta, Slovenia, Croatia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Montenegro, Albania, Greece and Turkey. Traditionally, “Turkey” refers to “European Turkey” or “Easterm Thrace”—the 3% of Turkey situated north of the Dardanelles/Sea of Marmara/Bosporus waterway and regarded as geographically part of Europe, distinguished from “Asiatic Turkey” (Anatolia or Asia Minor), the 97% of Turkey geographically situated in Asia. The Dardanelles, Sea of Marmara, and Bosporus waterways Navigable since ancient times, the strategic significance of this interlinked waterway between the Black and Mediterranean Seas was a factor that led Roman Emperor Constantine the Great to found Constantinople (modern-day Istanbul) there in 330 AD.

It became the capital of the Eastern Roman Empire, which endured for more than a thousand years. Historically significant Greece, 80% mountainous and slightly smaller than the state of Alabama, has between 1,200–6,000 islands (depending upon how “island” is defined), 227 of them inhabited. The largest are Crete, Euboea, Rhodes, and Lesbos. Its many island chains and peninsulas and are extensions of its mountain ranges. Due to its highly indented shoreline and numerous islands, Greece boasts the twelfth longest coastline in the world, 8,498 miles. The main subdivisions of the Mediterranean Sea, all European, are the Adriatic, Aegean, Tyrrhenian, Ionian, and Ligurian Seas. The Mediterranean as a whole stretches 2,300 miles from east to west. Due to the narrow Strait of Gibraltar on the west, the Mediterranean has very low tides. European rivers flowing into the sea, all sources of fresh water, are the Ebro, Rhone, and Po. The Nile in Egypt, the world’s longest river, also empties into the Mediterranean.

Oceanographically, evaporation greatly exceeds precipitation and river runoff in the Mediterranean, a fact that is central to the water circulation within the basin. Evaporation is especially high in its eastern half, causing the water level to decrease and salinity to increase eastward. This pressure gradient pushes relatively cool, low-salinity water from the Atlantic across the basin; it warms and becomes saltier as it travels east, then sinks in the region of the Levant and circulates westward, to spill over the Strait of Gibraltar. Thus, seawater flow is eastward in the Strait’s surface waters, and westward below; once in the Atlantic, this chemically distinct “Mediterranean Intermediate Water” can persist thousands of kilometres away from its source. (“Mediterranean Sea,” Wikipedia, citing Paul R. Pinet, Invitation to Oceanography, 3rd ed., 1996, 202–207.) Islands in the Mediterranean are allocated to Europe, Asia, or Africa respectively.

Most of the major islands in the Mediterranean—Sicily, Sardinia, Corsica, Crete, Cyprus, Balearic Islands, Dodecanese, Cyclades, Sporades, Ionian Islands, and Malta—are associated with adjacent European countries. Of those that are not, the greatest number belong to Asian Turkey. (However, some definitions of Europe include Asian Turkey.) Five islands are associated with Tunisia in Africa, and one, Arwad, with Syria in Asia. Cyprus, with a population of 1.1 million, lies south of Turkey off the coast of Syria, north of Israel. Technically in Asia, it is a member of the Council of Europe and the European Union. The UN classification of world regions places Cyprus in Western Asia, the CIA’s World Factbook in the Middle East.The earliest known human activity on the island dates to the 9th millennium BC. Copper, of which Cyprus was the ancient world’s primary source, was named after the island (Greek Kypros). Copper and its alloy bronze are of enormous significance in the study of European prehistory and archaeology.

In a dispute with Greece, Turkey partitioned Cyprus in 1974, establishing the Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus on 40 percent of the island, a de facto state recognized only by Turkey. International entities regard the entire island as a single independent republic, the Republic of Cyprus, which controls the remaining 60 percent of the island. In modern times Greek and Turkish Cypriots have been at loggerheads. The population is divided between Greek (80%) and Turkish (20%) ethnic groups differentiated by language (Greek, Turkish), nationality, and religion (Greek Orthodox, Sunni Islam). Leaving aside substantial recent foreign immigration, it is doubtful that the two sharply-defined ethnic groups differ racially. Malta, an independent European state situated south of the Italian island of Sicily, is the main island of the (three) Maltese Islands. Originally a Phoenician and Carthaginian colony, it was captured by Rome in 218 BC. During WWII it became the world’s most bombed spot, undergoing more than 1,200 air raids. It achieved its indpendence from Great Britain in 1964.

Looking East: The Strait of Gibraltar, Europe on the left, Africa on the right, the Mediterranean in the middle The Strait of Gibraltar separating Spain from Africa in the western Mediterranean is an 8–23 mile wide, 36-mi. long passage linking the Mediterranean Sea to the Atlantic Ocean. Ownership of the “state” of Gibraltar, the 2.5 sq. mi. British territory on Spanish soil, is disputed by Spain. The towering, limestone Rock of Gibraltar and Mount Acho (ancient Abila) at Ceuta, a Spanish exclave in Morocco, Africa, form the classical Pillars of Hercules, which were crowned with silver columns by ancient Phoenician mariners to mark the limits of safe navigation for the Mediterranean peoples. The Semitic (not Jewish) Phoenicians, however, sailed well beyond them, quite possibly circumnavigating the southern tip of Africa and turning north on the other side. The Atlantic Boundary In the west, Europe’s boundary is defined by the Atlantic Ocean, with which the Irish, North, Baltic, Mediterranean, and Black Seas are all connected.

This coastline is much warmer than it would otherwise be due to the warming effect of the Gulf Stream, the ocean current which originates in the Gulf of Mexico and joins the North Atlantic Drift to carry warmth to Europe’s shores. The Atlantic coast can be viewed to some extent as an interlinked geographical-anthropological region. Weather and physical conditions are relatively uniform, resulting in common landscapes, plants, and animals. Via waterborne contact, prehistoric Atlantic peoples presented certain common traits as indicated by artifacts and architectural styles. An example is the European Megalithic Culture . Sir Barry Cunliffe , an English archaeologist and prehistorian, has written a book from such a perspective, Facing the Ocean: The Atlantic and Its Peoples 8000 BC–AD 1500 (2001). Some genetic studies also seem to interrelate specific groups of people from different parts of Atlantic Europe. Europe's Atlantic coast As with Europe’s Mediterranean boundary, the allocation of islands between continents is significant along the Atlantic periphery. Nevertheless, the situation is complex, and any treatment is to some extent arbitrary.

The Canary Islands, a Spanish possession and Outermost Region of the European Union, lies 62 miles off the coast of Morocco and Western Sahara in northwest Africa. The Canaries are the Fortunate Isles of antiquity. They were visited by the Phoenicians, the Greeks, and the Carthaginians. As described by Roman scholar Pliny, large numbers of wild dogs (Latin canes), roamed the islands, which he therefore named Canaria. The indigenous population, the Guanche, a Berber people, eventually became extinct. The present population of 2.1 million is 86% Spanish and 14 % Negro/Moor/Berber. About 250 miles north of the Canaries and 440 miles from the coast of Africa (Morocco) is Madeira, an autonomous region of Portugal and Outermost Region of the EU. It was uninhabited at the time of its discovery by the Portuguese in 1420. Prince Henry the Navigator began colonization of the islands and established sugar plantations there which became the prototype for the plantation system developed in the Portuguese colonies in the Americas after 1550. Internationally recognized Madeira wines remain an important export.

Madeira’s present population of 268,000 is classified as ethnic Portuguese, but has a marked degree of West African Negro and North African Berber admixture. North of Madeira is another autonomous region of Portugal and EU Outermost Region, the Azores, lying 800 miles off the coast of Portugal. The vast majority of its 245,000 inhabitants are an admixture of Portuguese, Sephardic Jews, Moors, Flemish, French, Spaniards, and other European populations. As with the Canaries and Madeira, emigration from the islands has been substantial. By the 1990s more Azoreans resided in the US and Canada than in the archipelago. The Mid-Atlantic Ridge Most of Europe’s Atlantic islands, including the Canaries, Madeira, and the British Isles, lie well to the east of the Mid-Atlantic Ridge, a 9,300-mile long submerged mountain chain on the ocean floor extending from the Antarctic Circle in the south to the Arctic Circle in the north, situated midway between the Western Hemisphere and Europe-Africa.

From the seafloor, mountains rise 3,300 to 9,800 ft. and measure 930 mi. wide from east to west at their base. A few peaks in the ridge break the ocean’s surface, forming islands or groups of islands. The Azores and Iceland are both situated atop such peaks. Greenland, geologically associated with North America to the west, is not. In terms of geographically allocating islands to the North American or European continents, the boundary is usually drawn between Greenland and Iceland, with Greenland on the American and Iceland on the European side. But although Greenland (Danish Grønland) is geographically part of North America, it is historically, politically, and culturally tied to Europe. Greenland formally withdrew from the European Economic Community (EEC) in 1985, but as an overseas territory of the Kingdom of Denmark with extensive home rule, its citizens possess EU citizenship. The largest island in the world, it lies mostly north of the Arctic Circle and is separated from Canada on the west by Davis Strait and Baffin Bay and Iceland on the east by the Denmark Strait. There are numerous islands along its coast, which is deeply indented by fjords.

Eighty-five percent of its total area is ice cap. Most of the country’s population lives in villages along the mountainous coastal fringe. The island was discovered and settled around. 982 AD by outlaw Norwegian chieftain Eric the Red, whose Icelandic-born son, Leif Ericsson, later discovered America by sailing west from Greenland. Greenland was uninhabited at the time of the Norse arrival—the Inuit did not arrive until more than 200 years later, c. 1200 AD. In the 1200s the island fell under Norwegian and, subsequently Danish, rule. The Norse colonists mysteriously vanished around 1435, probably due to a climate change known as the Little Ice Age. Archaeological remains and written records indicate malnourishment among the last white inhabitants. Hvalsey Church, the best-preserved Norse ruins in Greenland. The last written records of the Norse Greenlanders are of a marriage ceremony conducted in this church in 1408 Jewish pop anthropologist Jared Diamond offered a typically racist “explanation” for the Greenlanders’ disappearance. They “chose” to fail by destroying the environment and practicing violence against the Inuit.

Their selfish classism and Christian bigotry also contributed to their destruction. Diamond’s pseudo-scholarship is representative of the deep-seated anti-white hatred insinuated into every nook and cranny of contemporary society. A few centuries later, European explorers rediscovered the island, which was recolonized by Norway beginning in 1721. In 1815 it became part of Denmark. After Germany’s invasion of that country in 1940, the US occupied Greenland until war’s end. Today, Greenland’s population of 57,000 consists of 88% Inuit or Inuit-Danish hybrids and 12% Europeans, mostly Danish. The Danes occupy positions as administrators, professionals, academics and skilled tradesmen. Interestingly, the word “Inuit” does not appear in my American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (1973), nor in my unabridged Webster’s Third New International Dictionary (1981)—the heavy tome you see on its own stand in most libraries.

Instead, “Eskimo”—originally the Algonquian Indian term for the northern natives—was still used, along with variants such as Eskimoid, Eskimology, and Eskimologist. The word “Saami,” for Lapps, also does not appear. Settled by Norwegians around 850–875 AD, Iceland is the westernmost state of Europe (Greenland is not a state), located 570 miles west of Norway and 155 miles southeast of Greenland. Indented by many long fjords, it measures about 300 mi. wide from east to west. It has many active volcanoes. Geothermal energy from hot springs is employed for heating. The country possesses one of the most advanced population genetics and geneaological research facilities in the world. deCODE genetics, a private firm, has funded the creation of a genealogy database called Íslendingabók, which attempts to cover all of Iceland’s known inhabitants. The Icelandic parliament, the Althing, first convened in 930 AD, is the oldest representative assembly in Europe. Old Norse literature attained its greatest flowering in Iceland between 1000 and 1350 AD.

Grœnlendinga saga and Eiríks saga describe the discovery and settlement of Greenland and Vinland (Newfoundland). Norwegian rule was imposed in 1261, and thereafter Iceland belonged alternately to Norway and Denmark. Occupied by the US and Britain during WWII, it became independent in 1944. Icelandic, the official language, has changed less from Old Norse than any of the other Nordic languages. The Arctic Boundary The Arctic Ocean defines Europe’s continental boundary on the north. European portions of the ocean identified by specific names include the Norwegian and Greenland Seas north of Scotland, the Barents Sea north of Scandinavia and Russia, and the Kara Sea north of Russia’s Ural Mountains. The Arctic Ocean boundary, Greenland to Novaya Zemyla Regions within the Arctic Circle were first explored between 800–1100 AD by Norse Vikings who discovered Iceland, Greenland, North America, and, in Russia, the White Sea at which they had arrived by 800, and where their influence remained strong for centuries.

The White Sea, an inlet of the Barents Sea in Russia whose main port is Arkhangelsk, is connected by a system of canals to the inland Baltic Sea at Leningrad. The notorious White Sea-Baltic Canal, built between 1931 and 1933 at tremendous human cost by over 100,000 concentration camp political prisoners (at least 9,000 of whom perished), is too shallow (minimum depth 11.5 ft.) to accommodate ocean-going vessels. The Jewish overseers of the project, Genrikh Yagoda, Deputy Chairman of the OGPU, Matvei Berman, head of the GULAG during the 1930s, Semyon G. Firin, Chief of Construction and head of the White Sea Baltic Corrective Labor Camp Directorate, Naftaly Frenkel, the Chief of Works, Lazar Kogan, chief of the BBK Construction Directorate and his deputy Yakov Davidovich Rappoport, were awarded medals by the Politburo upon the canal’s completion, July 15, 1933.

Due to climatic conditions, Europe’s Arctic shores are sparsely populated. Non-white residents include the Mongolid Inuits of Greenland and the pastoral, reindeer-herding Mongolid Saamis (Lapps—about 55,000 people) of northern Norway, Sweden, Finland, and the Russian peninsula of Kola. Both groups have experienced significant white admixture. Few large towns exist. The largest cities are in Russia—Arkhangelsk (350,000), Murmansk (over 300,000), Norilsk (130,000), and Vorkuta (75,000); in Norway, Trondheim (165,000) and Tromsø (60,000). Other towns typically consist of small agglomerations of less than 5,000 residents. Constantin Korovin, "Hammerfest: Aurora Borealis," 1894–1895.

Oil on Canvas The northernmost city in mainland Europe is Hammerfest, Norway, population 9,300, which annually experiences uninterrupted daylight from May 17–July 29, and no sun at all from November 21–January 21. Hammerfest was attacked and looted by the British navy during the Napoleonic Wars, and occupied by the Germans and bombed by the Soviet Air Force during WWII. The Norwegian Svalbard archipelago in the Arctic Ocean includes the Spitsbergen group, 360 mi. north of Norway. Probably known to the Vikings, Spitsbergen was discovered in 1596 by Dutch navigator Willem Barents, who commanded several expeditions that reached Novaya Zemlya in the course of his search for a northern passage to East Asia. Barents Island and the Barents Sea are named in his honor. During WWII the Germans and Allies fought here. Svalbard Airport, Longyear provides the main point of contact with the mainland. No roads link the settlements of its 2,800 inhabitants, who travel by snowmobile, aircraft, and boat.

Covered with ice northeast of Svalbard, the 191 islands making up Russia’s Arctic archipelago of Franz Josef Land, about 600 miles from the North Pole, is the most northerly land in Europe and the Eastern hemisphere. Though Norwegian sealers may have reached the archipelago in 1865, its official discovery is attributed to the Austrian polar explorers Julius von Payer and Karl Weyprecht in 1873. They named the archipelago in honor of Austro-Hungarian emperor Franz Joseph I. In 1931 the German airship Graf Zeppelin made an historic flight from Berlin to Hooker Island in Franz Josef Land, and while there conducted an aerial survey of the archipelago as far north as Rudolf Island. Turning south and slightly east from Franz Josef Land, we connect with the two large islands known as Novaya Zemlya (New Land), which extend northward from the northern end of the Ural Mountains and are a continuation of that chain into the Arctic Ocean.

A population of 50–300 reindeer-herding Nenetses (Mongolian Samoyed), who subsisted by fishing, trapping, herding, and hunting, was resettled to the mainland by the Soviets in 1952. On Novaya Zemlya on October 30, 1961, the Soviets exploded, by dropping from an aircraft, Tsar Bomba (“King of Bombs”) , the largest and most powerful nuclear weapon ever detonated on Earth. The hydrogen bomb yielded the equivalent of 50 megatons of TNT—after being scaled down from its original design of 100 megatons! As mentioned, Novaya Zemlya is a continuation of the northern Urals to the south, thus completing our circuit of Europe’s external boundaries. Europe’s influence extends well beyond its formal geographic borders. European explorations, colonization, social, political, intellectual, artistic, and scientific innovations, empires, and revolutions, have transformed the world. While it is needful to comprehend Europe as a continent, the true geography of the Europeans extends to the far corners of the Earth—and beyond.

Related Related If you enjoyed this piece, and wish to encourage more like it, give a tip through Paypal . You can earmark your tip directly to the author or translator, or you can put it in a general fund. (Be sure to specify which in the "Add special instructions to seller" box at Paypal .) Caucasus Mountains Caucasus Mountains Caucasus Mountains in Georgia The Caucasus Mountains (like the Ural Mountains to the northeast) are usually considered the dividing line between Asia and Europe, with the northern region of the Caucasus in Europe; and the southern ( Trans-Caucasus ) in Asia--so technically you can consider the mountains themselves as either part of Asia or part of Europe. The region is divided between Russia, Turkey, Iran, Georgia, Armenia and Azerbaijan, and bounded on the west by the Black Sea and on the east by the Caspian Sea . Three territories in the region claim independence but are not generally recognized: Abkhazia, Nagorno-Karabakh and South Ossetia (See below). The mountains formed over twenty million years when the Arabian tectonic plate collided with the Eurasian plate. I found it interesting that the Caucasus Mountains are technically considered to be a continuation of the Himalayas.

The entire Caucasus region is prone to strong earthquakes. The highest peak is Mount Elbrus (18,510 ft.) which is considered the highest point in Europe. The climate of the Caucasus varies according to elevation and latitude location. For example, average temperature decreases as elevation rises. The same thing with precipitation, which increases with elevation. There is also more precipitation, including snowfall, on the western slopes of the mountains from the influence of the Black Sea. Mt. Elbrus, highest point in the Caucasus, is a long-dormant volcano. Russians were aware of the Caucasus as early as the reign of Ivan IV in the sixteenth century, but only under Catherine the Great was a calculated move into the region made (under the Viceroy of the Caucasus, Grigorii Potemkin). Shortly thereafter, Georgia (predominantly Christian) requested protection from Muslims to the south, and it was annexed into the Russian Empire in 1801. Since Russia had to maintain communications across the Caucasus Mountains with Georgia, hostilities broke out between the Russians and the mountain peoples of the Caucasus.

It took Russia into the 1860s to finally subdue resistance from the guerrillas. In the last twenty years, there has been a renewed outbreak of hostilities in different regions of the Caucasus. Some background reasons for those hostilities: The tradition of mountaineer independence dating back to the resistance against Imperial Russia--some of that resistance continued against the Soviet regime. The fact that the Caucasus is one of the most linguistically, ethnically, religiously and culturally diverse regions on earth--all those different people do not always all get along well together. During the Second World War, Stalin--on the pretext of collaboration with the Germans--deported entire ethnic peoples such as Chechens, Ingush, Karachis, Balkars, Bulgarians, Greeks, Armenians, Kurds, Hemshin, Meskhetians to Siberia and Central Asia. Following 1956, with Khrushchev's policy of de-Stalinization, most of these deported peoples were authorized to return to their home regions, but--and this is a big but--they returned to find that their property had been given to others to resettle the depopulated areas. That meant that there was going to be trouble.

The Soviet leadership took advantage of the deportations to redefine borders in the Northern Caucasus. Although some of these changes were later re-corrected, these border changes also served as a pretext for ethnic unrest. These are some of the recent problems: Abkhazia (Аҧсны, აფხაზეთი, Абхазия) is an "independent" republic that is officially part of Georgia but that is not recognized by any other country. A secessionist movement of the Abkhaz ethnic minority declared their independence from George in 1992. That lead to war, but Georgia lost (Russia helped the Abkhaz). The Georgian defeat lead to a mass exodus and ethnic cleansing of the Georgian population in Abkhazia. South Ossetia (Хуссар Ирыстон, Южная Осетия, სამხრეთ ოსეთი) was an autonomous district of Georgia in the Soviet Union. Now it is mostly controlled by an independent "South Ossetian Republic" that is not recognized by any other country. Another part of South Ossetia is still controlled by Georgia.

Nagorno-Karabakh is an "independent" republic located in the South Caucasus within the borders of Azerbaijan, near the border with Armenia. With the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1989, the population of Nagorno-Karabakh was about 75% Armenian (in the middle of Azerbaijan). There was a war, and today Nagorno-Karabakh is an "independent" state, tied to Armenia but not legally a part of Armenia. Chechnya is located in the North Caucasus. After the collapse of the Soviet Union, the Ingush people wanted to remain with Russia, while the Chechens wanted independence--the Chechens had revolted against the Soviet Union in the 1940s and been deported. They had returned to their homeland after 1956. During the First Chechen War, 1994-96, the Russian army attempted to prevent Chechnya from seceding from Russia, but was unable to completely control the area. In 1996 Boris Eltsyn declared a cease fire and signed a peace treaty. The war had been barbaric on both sides.

A Second Chechen War broke out in 1999 when Shamil Basayev began widespread guerrilla activity in neighboring Dagestan and then undertook a series of spectacular terrorist acts. This time Russian forces were much more successful in restoring order and establishing control in Chechnya. A pro-Russian regime was installed there. This page is copyright © 2007, C.T. Evans For information contact cevans@nvcc.edu What divides Europe and Asia? | Reference.com What divides Europe and Asia? A: Quick Answer The overland boundaries dividing Europe and Asia are the Bosphorus, the Dardanelles, the Caucasus and the Urals. The water boundaries include the Aegean Sea, the Black Sea, the Caspian Sea and the Ural River. The divide is also known as the Eurasian boundary. Full Answer The southeast boundary of Europe and Asia is disputed as either the Kuma-Manych Depression, the Don River or the Caucasus Mountains. The Bosporus is a straight that connects the Black Sea and the Sea of Marmara, while the Dardanelles is a straight that connects the Aegean Sea to the Sea of Marmara.

The Urals is a mountain range that runs through western Russia from the Arctic Ocean to the Ural River. Armenia, Azerbaijan, and Georgia: Are they in Asia or Europe? 27 Armenia, Azerbaijan, and Georgia – this somewhat-isolated cluster of three countries is perpetually the center of a different kind of battle: are these countries in Asia or in Europe? There are many reasons, both great and otherwise, for why these three countries are either Asian or European. But to look at this problem, it is first important to know where the borders are that separate the two aforementioned continents – a hard task, considering that there is only arbitrary boundaries that are not unanimous in nature. As I said in a previous article about the continents , borders of a continent are often based along cultural and political lines as much as geographical. So, let’s take a look at some of the arguments on each side of the table; but first, below’s an interactive map to help familiarize yourself with the area that we’re referring to: Search Locations Pro-European Arguments Linguistically, the three countries have (slightly) more in common with Europe than with Asia.

Most European languages fall within the Indo-European language family/phylum, and Armenian is its own subset of the Indo-European languages, most similar to Greek. Azerbaijani is a Turkic language, in the same subset as the Turkish language. The Georgian language, called Kartuli, makes up the bulk of the Kartvelian language family, a completely separate language family that is spoken mostly in and around Georgia. More citizens of these countries, when asked, seem to consider themselves Europeans rather than Asians. Their sociopolitical and religious leanings seem to favor the European side. All three are members of the Council of Europe, something that other Asian countries would not be able to become. (At the time I am writing this article, its Committee of Ministers’ presidency is even being held by Armenia!) Each country has shown some intent and ambition towards someday joining both NATO and the European Union. Pro-Asian Arguments Turkey, to many, is said to be somewhat in both Europe and Asia. It is known as the “Gateway to the East,” and Georgia, Armenia, and Azerbaijan lay directly to Turkey’s east. The bulk of Turkey is even referred to as Asia Minor, a peninsula also called Anatolia.

The three countries are essentially south(east) of the Black Sea, one of the popularly-defined borders of the Europe-Asia boundary. The Caucasus Mountains are generally regarded to form the southeastern border of Europe, and though all three countries are partially within this mountain range, they are more south of it than north of it. Other Europeans (to the west) often don’t consider these countries to be European at all (but then again, they also seem to disdain including Russia as European). Some sources, such as the CIA World Factbook, categorize even Armenia, Azerbaijan, and Georgia within the Middle East, though most disagree with this. Most consider the Ural Mountain system to be the eastern border of Europe. Our three countries are well to the west of that, but also to the south. As far as Europe’s southern boundaries, the Black Sea and Caspian Sea are usually regarded as forming the southeastern border between Europe and Asia/Middle East. (On this website, the countries here in the regions we are considering fall into three categories: Europe, Asia, and the Middle East.

Though most of the Middle East is considered to be akin to an Asian subcontinent (like India), we group it separately for other reasons, including language and culture.) And between the two seas, the Black Sea and the Caspian Sea, the Caucasus Mountains have the general consensus that this range completes that southeastern border. However, parts of all three countries are in the Caucasus Mountains, putting us back in the original pickle. So, what now? Well, since there is no scientific way to determine the official boundaries, and our geographical ones are nullified for the above reason, there could possibly never be a definitive answer. (Perhaps the government of each country could officially declare a stance) So, on this site, we will group them with the language and culture also in mind, and thus, they are perhaps leaning more towards being European rather than Asian. This is not a right answer, nor is it a wrong answer; I simply compared the two columns of differences above and their European-ness weighed more to me, albeit slightly. So, there you go – another article with no firm conclusion, but hopefully the points above will help you to draw your own.

If you have any other points to consider that I forgot to include, post in the comments below, and I will update the article to reflect them. • This is part of our ongoing series, “ Versus: ‘What’s the Difference?’ ” With this series, we aim to promote a better understanding and love of the differences that make us unique while at the same time casting out doubt; hopefully, this will make us better travelers, better citizens, and better people. For more, check out the “Versus: ‘What’s the Difference?'” category » TAGS Which mountain range separates Europe from Asia? | Reference.com Which mountain range separates Europe from Asia? A: Quick Answer The Ural Mountains and the Caucasus Mountains separate Europe from Asia. These two mountain ranges form a distinct border between Europe and Asia. Full Answer The idea of Europe as a geographical entity has always been somewhat indistinct. Its transition into Asia is permitted by a continuous land mass. To ease this distinction, geographers divide Europe at its highest points, which are the mountain ranges. The boundary between Europe and Asia is considered to proceed south from the Arctic Ocean along the Ural Mountains and then along the tops of the Caucasus Mountains.

The Volga river is considered to be the separation between the European and Asian parts of these ranges.

Question: Besides the Caucasus, what mountain range forms the border of Europe and Asia?
Answer: Ural Mountains