Examine individual changes

'{{pp-semi|small=yes}} {{About|the continent|the mainland excluding the islands surrounding it|Continental Europe|the political supranational entity|European Union}} {{Short description|Continent}} {{Use dmy dates|date=January 2020}} {{Use British English|date=February 2016}} {{Infobox continent |title = Europe |image = {{Switcher|[[File:Europe orthographic Caucasus Urals boundary (with borders).svg|frameless]]|Show national borders|[[File:Europe orthographic Caucasus Urals boundary.svg|frameless]]|Hide national borders|default=1}} |area = {{convert|10,180,000|km2|sqmi|abbr=on}}<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://worldpopulationreview.com/country-rankings/largest-countries-in-europe|title=Largest Countries In Europe 2020|website=worldpopulationreview.com}}</ref> &nbsp;([[List of continents by area|6th]]){{ref label|footnote_a|a}} |population = {{UN_Population|Europe}} ({{UN_Population|Year}}; [[List of continents by population|3rd]]){{UN_Population|ref}} |density = 72.9/km² (188/sq mi) (2nd) |GDP_nominal = $21.79 trillion (2019; [[List of continents by GDP (nominal)|3rd]])<ref>{{cite web|title=GDP Nominal, current prices |url=http://www.imf.org/external/datamapper/NGDPD@WEO?year=2019 |publisher=International Monetary Fund|date=2019|accessdate=6 March 2019}}</ref> |GDP_PPP = $29.01 trillion (2019; 2nd)<ref>{{Cite web|url=http://www.imf.org/external/datamapper/PPPGDP@WEO?year=2019|title=GDP PPP, current prices |publisher=International Monetary Fund|date=2019|access-date=20 April 2019}}</ref> |GDP_per_capita = $29,410 (2019; [[List of continents by GDP (nominal)#GDP per capita (nominal) by continents|3rd]]){{ref label|footnote_c|c}}<ref>{{Cite web|url=http://www.imf.org/external/datamapper/NGDPDPC@WEO?year=2019|title=Nominal GDP per capita|publisher=International Monetary Fund|date=2019|access-date=20 April 2019}}</ref> |HDI = {{increase}} 0.845<ref>{{cite web|url=http://hdr.undp.org/en/reports/global/hdr2011/|title=Reports – Human Development Reports|website=hdr.undp.org|access-date=21 July 2017|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120709095716/http://hdr.undp.org/en/reports/global/hdr2011/|archive-date=9 July 2012|url-status=dead}}</ref> |demonym = [[Ethnic groups in Europe|European]] |countries = [[List of sovereign states and dependent territories in Europe#Sovereign states|50 sovereign states]]<br /> [[List of sovereign states and dependent territories in Europe#De facto state with substantial, but limited, recognition|6 with limited recognition]]<!--Note: numbers are approximate, as indicated by the "~".--> |dependencies = [[List of sovereign states and dependent territories in Europe#Dependent territories|6 dependencies]]<!--Gibraltar, Isle of Man, Guernsey and Jersey. Note: The Faroes and Aland are constituent parts of their states, not dependencies.--> |languages = [[Languages of Europe|Most common first languages]]: {{hlist <!--NOTE: 10 most spoken languages only (according to [[Languages of Europe#List of languages]]), ordered by number L1 speakers.--> |[[Russian language|Russian]] |[[German language|German]] |[[French language|French]] |[[Italian language|Italian]] |[[English language|English]] |[[Spanish language|Spanish]] |[[Polish language|Polish]] |[[Ukrainian language|Ukrainian]] |[[Romanian language|Romanian]] |[[Dutch language|Dutch]] |[[Turkish language|Turkish]] |[[Greek language|Greek]] }} |time = [[UTC−01:00|UTC−1]]<!--Azores--> to [[UTC+05:00|UTC+5]]<!--Russia and Kazakhstan--> |internet = |cities = [[List of urban areas in Europe|Largest urban areas]]:<!-- -->{{hlist <!--NOTE: 10 largest cities only, ranked by the total population of the conurbation. Do not modify the list per your own original research. The list must be sourced from a single cited aggregate source.--> <!--1-->|[[Istanbul]]<!--14.4 million-->{{ref label|footnote_b|b}} <!--2-->|[[Moscow]]<!--12.3 million--> <!--3-->|[[Paris]]<!--10.9 million--> <!--4-->|[[London]]<!--10.4 million--> <!--5-->|[[Madrid]]<!--6.3 million--> <!--6-->| [[Barcelona]]<!--5.3 million--> <!--7-->|[[Saint Petersburg]]<!--5.0 million--> <!--8-->|[[Rome]]<!--3.7 million--> <!--9-->|[[Berlin]]<!--3.6 million--> <!--10-->|[[Milan]]<!--3.1 million--><ref name="UN WUP 2016"/> }} |footnotes = {{unbulleted list|style=font-size:90%; |a. {{note|footnote_a}} Figures include only European portions of transcontinental countries.{{cref2|n|1}} |b. {{note|footnote_b}} Istanbul is a transcontinental city which straddles both Europe and Asia. |c. {{note|footnote_c}} "Europe" as defined by the International Monetary Fund.}} }} [[File:Map of populous Europe (physical, political, population) with legend.jpg|thumb|Map of populous Europe showing physical, political and population characteristics, as per 2018]] '''Europe''' is a [[continent]] located entirely in the [[Northern Hemisphere]] and mostly in the [[Eastern Hemisphere]]. It comprises the westernmost part of [[Eurasia]] and is bordered by the [[Arctic Ocean]] to the north, the [[Atlantic Ocean]] to the west, the [[Mediterranean Sea]] to the south, and [[Asia]] to the east. Europe is commonly considered to be [[Borders of the continents#Europe and Asia|separated from Asia]] by the [[drainage divide|watershed]] of the [[Ural Mountains]], the [[Ural (river)|Ural River]], the [[Caspian Sea]], the [[Greater Caucasus]], the [[Black Sea]], and the waterways of the [[Turkish Straits]].<ref name="NatlGeoAtlas">{{Cite book|title=National Geographic Atlas of the World|edition=7th|year=1999|location=Washington, DC|publisher=[[National Geographic Society|National Geographic]]|isbn=978-0-7922-7528-2}} "Europe" (pp. 68–69); "Asia" (pp. 90–91): "A commonly accepted division between Asia and Europe&nbsp;... is formed by the Ural Mountains, Ural River, Caspian Sea, Caucasus Mountains, and the Black Sea with its outlets, the Bosporus and Dardanelles."</ref> Although some of this border is over land, Europe is generally accorded the status of a full continent because of its great physical size and the weight of history and tradition. Europe covers about {{convert|10,180,000|km2|sqmi}}, or 2% of the Earth's surface (6.8% of land area), making it the sixth largest continent. Politically, Europe is divided into about [[List of sovereign states and dependent territories in Europe|fifty sovereign states]], of which [[Russia]] is the largest and most populous, spanning 39% of the continent and comprising 15% of its population. Europe had a [[Demographics of Europe|total population]] of about 741 million (about 11% of the [[world population]]) {{As of|{{UN_Population|Year}}|lc=y}}.{{UN_Population|ref}} The [[European climate]] is largely affected by warm Atlantic currents that temper winters and summers on much of the continent, even at [[latitudes]] along which the climate in Asia and [[North America]] is severe. Further from the sea, seasonal differences are more noticeable than close to the coast. Europe, in particular [[ancient Greece]] and [[ancient Rome]], was the birthplace of [[Western civilization|Western civilisation]].<ref>{{harvnb|Lewis|Wigen|1997|page=226}}</ref><ref>{{cite book|author=Kim Covert|title=Ancient Greece: Birthplace of Democracy|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=KVMYJNvUiYkC&pg=PP5|year=2011|publisher=Capstone|isbn=978-1-4296-6831-6|page=5|quote=Ancient Greece is often called the cradle of western civilization. ... Ideas from literature and science also have their roots in ancient Greece.}}</ref><ref name="Duchesne2011">{{cite book|author=Ricardo Duchesne|title=The Uniqueness of Western Civilization|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=pWmDPzPo0XAC&pg=PA297|year=2011|publisher=Brill|isbn=978-90-04-19248-5|page=297|quote=The list of books which have celebrated Greece as the "cradle" of the West is endless; two more examples are Charles Freeman's The Greek Achievement: The Foundation of the Western World (1999) and Bruce Thornton's Greek Ways: How the Greeks Created Western Civilization (2000)}}</ref> The [[fall of the Western Roman Empire]] in 476 AD and the subsequent [[Migration Period]] marked the end of [[ancient history]] and the beginning of the [[Middle Ages]]. [[Renaissance humanism]], [[Renaissance exploration|exploration]], [[Renaissance art|art]] and [[Renaissance science|science]] led to the [[modern era]]. Since the [[Age of Discovery]], Europe played a predominant role in global affairs. Between the 16th and 20th centuries, [[List of former European colonies|European powers colonized]] at various times the [[Americas]], almost all of Africa and [[Oceania]] and the majority of Asia. The [[Age of Enlightenment]], the subsequent [[French Revolution]] and the [[Napoleonic Wars]] shaped the continent culturally, politically and economically from the end of the 17th century until the first half of the 19th century. The [[Industrial Revolution]], which began in [[Kingdom of Great Britain|Great Britain]] at the end of the 18th century, gave rise to radical economic, cultural and social change in [[Western Europe]] and eventually the wider world. Both [[world war]]s took place for the most part in Europe, contributing to a decline in Western European dominance in world affairs by the mid-20th century as the [[Soviet Union]] and the [[United States]] took prominence.<ref name="natgeo 534">National Geographic, 534.</ref> During the [[Cold War]], Europe was divided along the [[Iron Curtain]] between [[NATO]] in the West and the [[Warsaw Pact]] in the East, until the [[revolutions of 1989]] and [[Berlin Wall#Fall of the Wall|fall of the Berlin Wall]]. In 1949 the [[Council of Europe]] was founded with the idea of unifying Europe to achieve common goals. Further [[European integration]] by some states led to the formation of the [[European Union]] (EU), a separate political entity that lies between a [[confederation]] and a [[federation]].<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.ies.ee/iesp/No11/articles/03_Gabriel_Hazak.pdf|title=The European union—a federation or a confederation?|publisher=}}</ref> The EU originated in Western Europe but has been [[Enlargement of the European Union|expanding eastward]] since the [[Dissolution of the Soviet Union|fall of the Soviet Union]] in 1991. The currency of most countries of the European Union, the [[euro]], is the most commonly used among Europeans; and the EU's [[Schengen Area]] abolishes border and immigration controls between most of its member states. There exists a political movement favoring the evolution of the European Union into a [[United States of Europe|single super-federation encompassing much of the continent]]. {{TOC limit|3}} ==Name== {{anchor|Etymology}} {{further|Europa (mythology)}} [[File:Palazzo Ferreria statue 3.jpeg|thumb|Statue representing Europa at [[Palazzo Ferreria]], in [[Valletta]], [[Malta]]]] [[File:Anaximander world map-en.svg|thumb|left|First [[early world maps|Map of the world]] according to [[Anaximander]] (6th century BC)]] In classical [[Greek mythology]], [[Europa (mythology)|Europa]] ({{lang-grc|Εὐρώπη}}, ''Eurṓpē'') was a [[Phoenicia]]n princess. One view is that her name derives from the [[Greek language|ancient Greek]] elements εὐρύς (''eurús''), "wide, broad" and ὤψ (''ōps'', gen. ὠπός, ''ōpós'') "eye, face, countenance", hence their composite ''Eurṓpē'' would mean "wide-gazing" or "broad of aspect".<ref name="WestWest2007">{{cite book|author1=M. L. West|author2=Morris West|title=Indo-European Poetry and Myth|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=ZXrJA_5LKlYC|date=24 May 2007|publisher=OUP Oxford|isbn=978-0-19-928075-9|page=185}}</ref><ref name="FitzRoy2015">{{cite book|author=Charles FitzRoy|title=The Rape of Europa: The Intriguing History of Titian's Masterpiece|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=zhF0BgAAQBAJ&pg=PT52|date=26 February 2015|publisher=Bloomsbury Publishing|isbn=978-1-4081-9211-5|pages=52–}}</ref><ref name="Astour1967">{{cite book|author=Michael C. Astour|title=Hellenosemitica: An Ethnic and Cultural Study in West Semitic Impact on Mycenaean Greece|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=NMkUAAAAIAAJ&pg=PA128|year=1967|publisher=Brill Archive|page=128|id=GGKEY:G19ZZ3TSL38}}</ref> ''Broad'' has been an [[epithet]] of Earth herself in the reconstructed [[Proto-Indo-European religion]] and the poetry devoted to it.<ref name="WestWest2007"/> An alternative view is that of [[R.S.P. Beekes]] who has argued in favor of a Pre-Indo-European origin for the name, explaining that a derivation from ancient Greek ''eurus'' would yield a different toponym than Europa. Beekes has located toponyms related to that of Europa in the territory of ancient Greece and localities like that of [[Europus (Almopia)|Europos]] in [[Macedonia (ancient kingdom)|ancient Macedonia]].<ref name="Beekes">{{cite journal |last1=Beekes |first1=Robert |title=Kadmos and Europa, and the Phoenicians |journal=Kadmos |date=2004 |volume=43 |issue=1 |page=168–69 |doi=10.1515/kadm.43.1.167 |url=https://www.robertbeekes.nl/wp-content/uploads/2019/08/b118.pdf}}</ref> There have been attempts to connect ''Eurṓpē'' to a Semitic term for "west", this being either [[Akkadian language|Akkadian]] ''erebu'' meaning "to go down, set" (said of the sun) or [[Phoenician language|Phoenician]] '' 'ereb'' "evening, west",<ref>[http://www.etymonline.com/index.php?term=Europe "Europe"] in the ''[[Online Etymology Dictionary]]''.</ref> which is at the origin of Arabic [[Maghreb]] and Hebrew ''ma'arav''. [[Michael A. Barry]] finds the mention of the word ''Ereb'' on an [[Assyria]]n [[stele]] with the meaning of "night, [the country of] sunset", in opposition to ''Asu'' "[the country of] sunrise", i.e. Asia. The same naming motive according to "cartographic convention" appears in Greek Ἀνατολή (''Anatolḗ'' "[sun] rise", "east", hence [[Anatolia]]).<ref>Michael A. Barry: "L'Europe et son mythe : à la poursuite du couchant". In: ''Revue des deux Mondes'' (November/December 1999) p. 110. {{ISBN|978-2-7103-0937-6}}.</ref> [[Martin Litchfield West]] stated that "phonologically, the match between Europa's name and any form of the Semitic word is very poor",<ref>{{Cite book|author=M.L. West |title=The east face of Helicon: west Asiatic elements in Greek poetry and myth |publisher=Clarendon Press |location=Oxford |year=1997 |page=451 |isbn=978-0-19-815221-7 |oclc= |doi=}}.</ref> while Beekes considers a connection to Semitic languages improbable.<ref name="Beekes"/> Next to these hypotheses there is also a [[Proto-Indo-European language|Proto-Indo-European]] root ''*h₁regʷos'', meaning "darkness", which also produced Greek ''[[Erebus]]''.{{cn|date=May 2020}} Most major world languages use words derived from ''Eurṓpē'' or ''Europa'' to refer to the continent. Chinese, for example, uses the word ''Ōuzhōu'' (歐洲/欧洲), which is an abbreviation of the transliterated name ''Ōuluóbā zhōu'' (歐羅巴洲) (''zhōu'' means "continent"); a similar Chinese-derived term {{nihongo||欧州|Ōshū}} is also sometimes used in Japanese such as in the Japanese name of the European Union, {{nihongo||欧州連合|Ōshū Rengō}}, despite the [[katakana]] {{nihongo||ヨーロッパ|Yōroppa}} being more commonly used. In some Turkic languages the originally Persian name ''[[Frangistan]]'' ("land of the [[Franks]]") is used casually in referring to much of Europe, besides official names such as ''Avrupa'' or ''Evropa''.<ref name="davison">{{Cite journal|author=Davidson, Roderic H. |s2cid=157454140|title=Where is the Middle East?|jstor=20029452 |journal=Foreign Affairs |volume=38|issue=4 |pages=665–675 |year=1960|doi=10.2307/20029452 |ref=harv}}</ref> ==Definition== {{Further|List of transcontinental countries|Boundaries between the continents of Earth}} ===Contemporary definition=== <div class="center"> <div class="thumbinner overflowbugx" style="overflow:auto;"> <small>Clickable map of Europe, showing one of the most commonly used [[Boundaries between the continents of Earth|continental boundaries]]<ref>The map shows one of the most commonly accepted delineations of the geographical boundaries of Europe, as used by [[National Geographic Society|National Geographic]] and [[Encyclopædia Britannica]]. Whether countries are considered in Europe or Asia can vary in sources, for example in the classification of the [[CIA World Factbook]] or that of the [[BBC]]. Certain countries in Europe, such as France, have [[List of countries spanning more than one continent#Non-contiguous|territories lying geographically outside Europe]], but which are nevertheless considered integral parts of that country.</ref> <br />'''Key:''' <span style="color:blue">'''blue'''</span>: [[List of transcontinental countries|states which straddle the border between Europe and Asia]]; <span style="color:green">'''green'''</span>: countries not geographically in Europe, but closely associated with the continent </small> </div> {{Europe and seas labelled map}} </div> 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 northeast are usually taken to be the [[Ural Mountains]], the [[Ural River]], and the [[Caspian Sea]]; to the southeast, the [[Caucasus Mountains]], the [[Black Sea]] and the waterways connecting the Black Sea to the Mediterranean Sea.<ref name="Encarta">{{cite encyclopedia |last=Microsoft Encarta Online Encyclopaedia 2007 |title=Europe |url=http://encarta.msn.com/encyclopaedia_761570768/Europe.html |accessdate=27 December 2007 |archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20091028013857/http://encarta.msn.com/encyclopedia_761570768/Europe.html |archivedate=28 October 2009 |url-status=dead }}</ref> [[File:T and O map Guntherus Ziner 1472.jpg|thumb|A medieval [[T and O map]] printed by [[Günther Zainer]] in 1472, showing the three continents as domains of the sons of [[Noah]] — Asia to Sem ([[Shem]]), Europe to Iafeth ([[Japheth]]), and Africa to Cham ([[Ham, son of Noah|Ham]])]] Islands are generally grouped with the nearest continental landmass, hence [[Iceland]] is considered to be part of Europe, while the nearby island of [[Greenland]] is usually assigned to [[North America]], although politically belonging to [[Denmark]]. Nevertheless, there are some exceptions based on sociopolitical and cultural differences. [[Cyprus]] is closest to [[Anatolia|Anatolia (or Asia Minor)]], but is considered part of Europe politically and it is a member state of the EU. [[Malta]] was considered an island of [[Northwest Africa]] for centuries, but now it is considered to be part of Europe as well.<ref>Falconer, William; Falconer, Thomas. [https://books.google.com/books?id=B3Q29kWRdtgC&pg=PA50 ''Dissertation on St. Paul's Voyage''], BiblioLife (BiblioBazaar), 1872. (1817.), p. 50, {{ISBN|1-113-68809-2}} ''These islands Pliny, as well as Strabo and Ptolemy, included in the African sea''</ref> "Europe" as used specifically in [[British English]] may also refer to [[Continental Europe]] exclusively.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://wordnetweb.princeton.edu/perl/webwn?s=europe|title=Europe&nbsp;— Noun|publisher=Princeton University|accessdate=9 June 2008}}</ref> The term "continent" usually implies the [[physical geography]] of a large land mass completely or almost completely surrounded by water at its borders. However the Europe-Asia part of the border is somewhat arbitrary and inconsistent with this definition because of its partial adherence to the Ural and Caucasus Mountains rather than a series of partly joined waterways suggested by cartographer [[Herman Moll]] in 1715. These water divides extend with a few relatively small interruptions (compared to the aforementioned mountain ranges) from the Turkish straits running into the Mediterranean Sea to the upper part of the [[Ob River]] that drains into the [[Arctic Ocean]]. 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 in [[classical 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. The current division of Eurasia into two continents now reflects [[East–West dichotomy|East-West]] cultural, 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 a [[List of transcontinental countries|transcontinental country]] divided entirely by water, while [[Russia]] and [[Kazakhstan]] are only partly divided by waterways. [[France]], [[Portugal]], the [[Netherlands]], [[Spain]] and the [[United Kingdom]] 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 other [[continents]] separated from Europe by large bodies of water. [[Spain]], for example, has territories south of the Mediterranean Sea namely [[Ceuta]] and [[Melilla]] which are parts of [[Africa]] and share a border with [[Morocco]]. According to the current convention, [[Georgia (country)|Georgia]] and [[Azerbaijan]] are transcontinental countries where waterways have been completely replaced by mountains as the divide between continents. ===History of the concept=== ====Early history==== [[File:Europa Prima Pars Terrae in Forma Virginis.jpg|thumb|Depiction of ''[[Europa regina]]'' ('Queen Europe') in 1582.|alt=|270x270px]] The first recorded usage of ''Eurṓpē'' as a geographic term is in the [[Homeric Hymn]] to [[Delian Apollo]], in reference to the western shore of the [[Aegean Sea]]. As a name for a part of the known world, it is first used in the 6th century BC by [[Anaximander]] and [[Hecataeus of Miletus|Hecataeus]]. Anaximander placed the boundary between Asia and Europe along the Phasis River (the modern [[Rioni River]] on the territory of [[Georgia (country)|Georgia]]) in the Caucasus, a convention still followed by [[Herodotus]] in the 5th century BC.<ref>''[[Histories (Herodotus)|Histories]]'' 4.38. C.f. James Rennell, ''The geographical system of Herodotus examined and explained'', Volume 1, Rivington 1830, [https://archive.org/details/bub_gb_enQ-AAAAcAAJ/page/n274 p. 244]</ref> Herodotus mentioned that the world had been divided by unknown persons into three parts, Europe, Asia, and Libya (Africa), with the [[Nile]] and the Phasis forming their boundaries—though he also states that some considered the [[Don River (Russia)|River Don]], rather than the Phasis, as the boundary between Europe and Asia.<ref>Herodotus, 4:45</ref> Europe's eastern frontier was defined in the 1st century by geographer [[Strabo]] at the River Don.<ref>Strabo ''Geography 11.1''</ref> The ''[[Jubilees|Book of Jubilees]]'' described the continents as the lands given by [[Noah]] to his three sons; Europe was defined as stretching from the [[Pillars of Hercules]] at the [[Strait of Gibraltar]], separating it from [[Northwest Africa]], to the Don, separating it from Asia.<ref>{{Cite book|title=Genesis and the Jewish antiquities of Flavius Josephus|first= Thomas W.|last= Franxman|publisher=Pontificium Institutum Biblicum|year= 1979|isbn=978-88-7653-335-8|pages=101–102}}</ref> The convention received by the [[Middle Ages]] and surviving into modern usage is that of the [[Roman era]] used by Roman era authors such as [[Posidonius]],<ref>W. Theiler, ''Posidonios. Die Fragmente'', vol. 1. Berlin: De Gruyter, 1982, fragm. 47a.</ref> [[Strabo]]<ref>I. G. Kidd (ed.), ''Posidonius: The commentary'', Cambridge University Press, 2004, {{ISBN|978-0-521-60443-7}}, [https://books.google.com/books?id=_iXs1aCr1ckC&pg=PA738 p. 738].</ref> and [[Ptolemy]],<ref>''[[Geography (Ptolemy)|Geographia]]'' 7.5.6 (ed. Nobbe 1845, [https://books.google.com/books?id=vHMCAAAAQAAJ vol. 2], p. 178) {{lang|grc|Καὶ τῇ Εὐρώπῃ δὲ συνάπτει διὰ τοῦ μεταξὺ αὐχένος τῆς τε Μαιώτιδος λίμνης καὶ τοῦ Σαρματικοῦ Ὠκεανοῦ ἐπὶ τῆς διαβάσεως τοῦ Τανάϊδος ποταμοῦ. }} "And [Asia] is connected to Europe by the land-strait between Lake Maiotis and the Sarmatian Ocean where the river Tanais crosses through."</ref> who took the Tanais (the modern Don River) as the boundary. The term "Europe" is first used for a cultural sphere in the [[Carolingian Renaissance]] of the 9th century. From that time, the term designated the sphere of influence of the [[Western Church]], as opposed to both the [[Eastern Orthodox]] churches and to the [[Islamic world]]. A cultural definition of Europe as the lands of [[Christendom|Latin Christendom]] coalesced in the 8th century, signifying the new cultural condominium created through the confluence of Germanic traditions and Christian-Latin culture, defined partly in contrast with [[Byzantium]] and [[Islam]], and limited to northern [[Iberia]], the British Isles, France, Christianised western Germany, the Alpine regions and northern and central Italy.<ref>[[Norman F. Cantor]], ''The Civilization of the Middle Ages'', 1993, ""Culture and Society in the First Europe", pp185ff.</ref> The concept is one of the lasting legacies of the [[Carolingian Renaissance]]: ''Europa'' often{{dubious|date=October 2016}}<!--inflated from "once or twice"--> figures in the letters of Charlemagne's court scholar, [[Alcuin]].<ref>Noted by Cantor, 1993:181.</ref> ====Modern definitions==== {{further|Regions of Europe|Continental Europe}} [[File:Herman Moll A New Map of Europe According to the Newest Observations 1721.JPG|thumb|270px|''A New Map of Europe According to the Newest Observations'' (1721) by Hermann Moll draws the eastern boundary of Europe along the Don River flowing southwest, and the Tobol, Irtysh, and Ob Rivers flowing north]] [[File:1916 political map of Europe.jpg|thumb|270px|right|1916 political map of Europe showing most of Moll's waterways replaced by von Strahlenberg's Ural Mountains and Freshfield's Caucasus Crest, land features of a type that normally defines a subcontinent]] The question of defining a precise eastern boundary of Europe arises in the Early Modern period, as the eastern extension of [[Muscovy]] began to include [[North Asia]]. Throughout the Middle Ages and into the 18th century, the traditional division of the landmass of [[Eurasia]] into two continents, Europe and Asia, followed Ptolemy, with the boundary following the [[Turkish Straits]], the [[Black Sea]], the [[Kerch Strait]], the [[Sea of Azov]] and the [[Don River (Russia)|Don]] (ancient [[Tanais]]). But maps produced during the 16th to 18th centuries tended to differ in how to continue the boundary beyond the Don bend at [[Kalach-na-Donu]] (where it is closest to the Volga, now joined with it by the [[Volga–Don Canal]]), into territory not described in any detail by the ancient geographers. Around 1715, [[Herman Moll]] produced a map showing the northern part of the [[Ob River]] and the [[Irtysh River]], a major tributary of the former, 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 idea to use major rivers almost exclusively as the line of demarcation was never taken up by the Russian Empire. Four years later, in 1725, [[Philip Johan von Strahlenberg]] was the first to depart from the classical Don boundary by proposing that mountain ranges could be included as boundaries between continents whenever there were deemed to be no suitable waterways, the Ob and Irtysh Rivers notwithstanding. He drew a new line along the [[Volga River|Volga]], following the Volga north until the [[Samara Bend]], along [[Obshchy Syrt]] (the [[drainage divide]] between Volga and [[Ural River|Ural]]) and then north along [[Ural Mountains]].<ref>{{Cite book|title=Das Nord-und Ostliche Theil von Europa und Asia|author=Philipp Johann von Strahlenberg|year=1730|language=German|page=106}}</ref> This was adopted by the Russian Empire, and introduced the convention that would eventually become commonly accepted, but not without criticism by many modern analytical geographers like [[Halford Mackinder]] who saw little validity in the Ural Mountains as a boundary between continents.<ref>{{Cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=jrVW9W9eiYMC&pg=PA8 |title=Europe: A History |page=8 |publisher=|accessdate=23 August 2010|isbn=978-0-19-820171-7|date=1996|last1=Davies|first1=Norman}}</ref> The mapmakers continued to differ on the boundary between the lower Don and Samara well into the 19th century. The [[:commons:Category:Atlas of Russian Empire. 1745 year|1745 atlas]] published by the [[Russian Academy of Sciences]] has the boundary follow the Don beyond Kalach as far as [[Serafimovich (town)|Serafimovich]] before cutting north towards [[Arkhangelsk]], while other 18th- to 19th-century mapmakers such as [[John Cary]] followed Strahlenberg's prescription. To the south, the [[Kuma–Manych Depression]] was identified circa 1773 by a German naturalist, [[Peter Simon Pallas]], as a valley that once connected the Black Sea and the Caspian Sea,<ref name="oren-icn.ru">{{cite web|url=http://oren-icn.ru/index.php/discussmenu/retrospectiva/685-eagraniza |title=Boundary of Europe and Asia along Urals |language=Russian |url-status=dead |archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20120108153922/http://oren-icn.ru/index.php/discussmenu/retrospectiva/685-eagraniza |archivedate=8 January 2012 }}</ref><ref>Peter Simon Pallas, ''Journey through various provinces of the Russian Empire'', vol. 3 (1773)</ref> and subsequently was proposed as a natural boundary between continents. By the mid-19th century, there were three main conventions, one following the Don, the [[Volga–Don Canal]] and 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 the [[Greater Caucasus watershed]] to the Caspian. The question was still treated as a "controversy" in geographical literature of the 1860s, with [[Douglas Freshfield]] advocating the Caucasus crest boundary as the "best possible", citing support from various "modern geographers".<ref>Douglas W. Freshfield, "[https://books.google.com/books?id=ips8AAAAIAAJ&pg=PA71 Journey in the Caucasus]", ''Proceedings of the Royal Geographical Society'', Volumes 13–14, 1869. Cited as de facto convention by Baron von Haxthausen, ''Transcaucasia'' (1854); review [https://archive.org/details/bub_gb_SN0EAAAAQAAJ/page/n152 <!-- pg=140 --> Dublin University Magazine]</ref> In [[Russia]] and the [[Soviet Union]], the boundary along the Kuma–Manych Depression was the most commonly used as early as 1906.<ref>[http://dlib.rsl.ru/view.php?path=/rsl01004000000/rsl01004103000/rsl01004103489/rsl01004103489.pdf#?page=163 "Europe"]{{dead link|date=August 2016}}, ''[[Brockhaus and Efron Encyclopedic Dictionary]]'', 1906</ref> In 1958, the Soviet Geographical Society formally recommended that the boundary between the Europe and Asia be drawn in textbooks from [[Baydaratskaya Bay]], on the [[Kara Sea]], along the eastern foot of Ural Mountains, then following the [[Ural River]] until the [[Mugodzhar Hills]], and then the [[Emba River]]; and Kuma–Manych Depression,<ref>{{cite web|url=http://velikijporog.narod.ru/st_evraz_gran.htm|title=Do we live in Europe or in Asia?|language=Russian}}</ref> thus placing the Caucasus entirely in Asia and the Urals entirely in Europe.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.i-u.ru/biblio/archive/orlenok_fisicheskaja/06.aspx |title=Physical Geography |year=1998 |author=Orlenok V. |language=Russian |url-status=dead |archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20111016212930/http://www.i-u.ru/biblio/archive/orlenok_fisicheskaja/06.aspx |archivedate=16 October 2011 }}</ref> However, most geographers in the Soviet Union favoured the boundary along the Caucasus crest<ref>E.M. Moores, R.W. Fairbridge, ''Encyclopedia of European and Asian regional geology'', Springer, 1997, {{ISBN|978-0-412-74040-4}}, p. 34: "most Soviet geographers took the watershed of the Main Range of the Greater Caucasus as the boundary between Europe and Asia."</ref> and this became the common convention in the later 20th century, although the Kuma–Manych boundary remained in use in some 20th-century maps. ==History== {{Main|History of Europe}} ===Prehistory=== {{Main|Prehistoric Europe}} [[File:Lascaux painting.jpg|thumb|Paleolithic cave paintings from [[Lascaux]] in [[France]] (c 15,000 BC)]] [[File:Stonehenge, Condado de Wiltshire, Inglaterra, 2014-08-12, DD 09.JPG|thumb|[[Stonehenge]] in the [[United Kingdom]] (Late Neolithic from 3000–2000 BC).]] ''[[Homo erectus georgicus]]'', which lived roughly 1.8 million years ago in [[Georgia (country)|Georgia]], is the earliest [[hominid]] to have been discovered in Europe.<ref>{{Cite journal|author1=A. Vekua |author2=D. Lordkipanidze |author3=G.P. Rightmire |author4=J. Agusti |author5=R. Ferring |author6=G. Maisuradze |s2cid=32726786 | year = 2002 | title = A new skull of early ''Homo'' from Dmanisi, Georgia | journal = Science | volume = 297 | pages = 85–89 | doi = 10.1126/science.1072953 | pmid = 12098694 | issue = 5578 | ref = harv|display-authors=etal|bibcode=2002Sci...297...85V }}</ref> Other hominid remains, dating back roughly 1 million years, have been discovered in [[Archaeological Site of Atapuerca|Atapuerca]], [[Spain]].<ref>[http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/sci/tech/6256356.stm The million year old tooth from ] [[Atapuerca Mountains|Atapuerca]], [[Spain]], found in June 2007</ref> [[Neanderthal man]] (named after the [[Neandertal]] valley in [[Germany]]) appeared in Europe 150,000 years ago (115,000 years ago it is found already in Poland<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.cnn.com/2018/10/10/health/neanderthal-child-eaten-by-giant-bird/index.html|title=Bones reveal Neanderthal child was eaten by a giant bird|first=Ashley Strickland|last=CNN|website=CNN}}</ref>) and disappeared from the fossil record about 28,000 years ago, with their final refuge being present-day [[Portugal]]. The Neanderthals were supplanted by modern humans ([[Cro-Magnons]]), who appeared in Europe around 43,000 to 40,000 years ago.<ref name="natgeo 21">National Geographic, 21.</ref> The earliest sites in Europe dated 48,000 years ago are [[Riparo Mochi]] (Italy), [[Geissenklösterle]] (Germany), and [[Isturitz]] (France)<ref name=range>{{cite journal |last1=Fu |first1=Qiaomei |display-authors=etal|title=The genome sequence of a 45,000-year-old modern human from western Siberia |journal=Nature |volume=514 |issue=7523 |pages=445–449 |date=23 October 2014 |doi=10.1038/nature13810|pmid=25341783 |pmc=4753769 |bibcode=2014Natur.514..445F |hdl=10550/42071 }}</ref><ref>42.7–41.5 ka ([[68–95–99.7 rule|1σ CI]]). {{cite journal | last1 = Douka | first1 = Katerina | display-authors = etal | year = 2012| title = A new chronostratigraphic framework for the Upper Palaeolithic of Riparo Mochi (Italy) | url = | journal = Journal of Human Evolution | volume = 62 | issue = 2| pages = 286–299 | doi = 10.1016/j.jhevol.2011.11.009 | pmid = 22189428 }}</ref> The [[European Neolithic]] period—marked by the cultivation of crops and the raising of livestock, increased numbers of settlements and the widespread use of pottery—began around 7000 BC in [[Greece]] and the [[Balkans]], probably influenced by earlier farming practices in [[Anatolia]] and the [[Near East]].<ref name="Borza">{{Citation | last = Borza | first = E.N. | title = In the Shadow of Olympus: The Emergence of Macedon | page = 58 | url = https://books.google.com/books?id=614pd07OtfQC&pg=PA58 | publisher = Princeton University Press | year = 1992| isbn = 978-0691008806 }}</ref> It spread from the Balkans along the valleys of the [[Danube]] and the [[Rhine]] ([[Linear Pottery culture]]) and along the [[Mediterranean coast]] ([[Cardial Ware|Cardial culture]]). Between 4500 and 3000 BC, these central European neolithic cultures developed further to the west and the north, transmitting newly acquired skills in producing copper artifacts. In Western Europe the Neolithic period was characterised not by large agricultural settlements but by field monuments, such as [[causewayed enclosure]]s, [[burial mound]]s and [[megalithic tomb]]s.<ref>{{Cite book|first=Chris|last=Scarre|authorlink=Chris Scarre|title=The Oxford Companion to Archaeology|editor-first=Brian M.|editor-last= Fagan|publisher= [[Oxford University Press]]|year=1996|pages=215–216|ref=harv|isbn=978-0-19-507618-9|editor-link=Brian M. Fagan}}</ref> The [[Corded Ware]] cultural horizon flourished at the transition from the Neolithic to the [[Chalcolithic]]. During this period giant [[megalithic]] monuments, such as the [[Megalithic Temples of Malta]] and [[Stonehenge]], were constructed throughout Western and Southern Europe.<ref>[[Richard J. C. Atkinson|Atkinson, R.J.C.]], ''Stonehenge'' ([[Penguin Books]], 1956)</ref><ref>{{Cite encyclopedia|encyclopedia=Encyclopedia of Prehistory|title=European Megalithic|volume=4 : Europe|editor1-first=Peter Neal|editor1-last=Peregrine|editor1-link=Peter N. Peregrine|editor2-first=Melvin|editor2-last=Ember|editor2-link=Melvin Ember|publisher=Springer|year= 2001 |isbn=978-0-306-46258-0|pages=157–184}}</ref> The [[European Bronze Age]] began c. 3200 BC in Greece with the [[Minoan civilization|Minoan civilisation]] on [[Crete]], the first advanced civilisation in Europe.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.britishmuseum.org/explore/cultures/europe/ancient_greece.aspx |publisher=British Museum |title=Ancient Greece |url-status=dead |archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20120615141437/http://www.britishmuseum.org/explore/cultures/europe/ancient_greece.aspx |archivedate=15 June 2012 }}</ref> The Minoans were followed by the [[Mycenean Greece|Myceneans]], who collapsed suddenly around 1200 BC, ushering the [[European Iron Age]].<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.arch.ox.ac.uk/classical-archaeology-periods.html|title=Periods – School of Archaeology|publisher=University of Oxford|access-date=25 December 2018|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20181119063421/http://www.arch.ox.ac.uk/classical-archaeology-periods.html|archive-date=19 November 2018|url-status=dead}}</ref> Iron Age colonisation by the [[Greeks]] and [[Phoenicians]] gave rise to early [[Mediterranean basin|Mediterranean]] cities. Early [[Iron Age Italy]] and [[Archaic Greece|Greece]] from around the 8th century BC gradually gave rise to historical Classical antiquity, whose beginning is sometimes dated to 776 BC, the year the first [[ancient Olympic Games|Olympic Games]].<ref>{{Citation | first = John R. | last = Short | title = An Introduction to Urban Geography | page = 10 | url = https://books.google.com/books?id=uGE9AAAAIAAJ&pg=PA10 | publisher = Routledge | year = 1987| isbn = 978-0710203724 }}</ref> ===Classical antiquity=== {{Main|Classical antiquity}} {{See also|Ancient Greece|Ancient Rome}} [[File:The Parthenon in Athens.jpg|thumb|The [[Parthenon]] in [[Athens]] (432 BC)]] Ancient Greece was the founding culture of Western civilisation. Western [[democracy|democratic]] and [[rationalism|rationalist culture]] are often attributed to Ancient Greece.<ref name="Daly2013">{{cite book|author=Jonathan Daly|title=The Rise of Western Power: A Comparative History of Western Civilization|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=9aZPAQAAQBAJ|year=2013|publisher=A&C Black|isbn=978-1-4411-1851-6|pages=7–9}}</ref> The Greek city-state, the [[polis]], was the fundamental political unit of classical Greece.<ref name="Daly2013"/> In 508 BC, [[Cleisthenes]] instituted the world's first [[Athenian democracy|democratic]] system of government in [[Athens]].<ref name="BKDunn1992">{{Citation | first = John | last = Dunn | title = Democracy: the unfinished journey 508 BC&nbsp;– 1993 AD | publisher = Oxford University Press | year = 1994 | isbn = 978-0-19-827934-1}}</ref> The Greek political ideals were rediscovered in the late 18th century by European philosophers and idealists. Greece also generated many cultural contributions: in [[philosophy]], [[humanism]] and [[rationalism]] under [[Aristotle]], [[Socrates]] and [[Plato]]; in [[historiography|history]] with [[Herodotus]] and [[Thucydides]]; in dramatic and narrative verse, starting with the epic poems of [[Homer]];<ref name="natgeo 76">National Geographic, 76.</ref> in drama with [[Sophocles]] and [[Euripides]], in medicine with [[Hippocrates]] and [[Galen]]; and in science with [[Pythagoras]], [[Euclid]] and [[Archimedes]].<ref name="Heath">{{Cite book| first=Thomas Little | last=Heath| authorlink= T. L. Heath| title=A History of Greek Mathematics, Volume I| publisher=[[Dover Publications]]| year=1981| isbn=978-0-486-24073-2| ref=harv}}</ref><ref name="Heath_Vol_2">{{Cite book| first=Thomas Little| last=Heath| authorlink= T. L. Heath| title=A History of Greek Mathematics, Volume II| publisher=Dover publications| year=1981| isbn=978-0-486-24074-9| ref=harv}}</ref><ref>Pedersen, Olaf. ''Early Physics and Astronomy: A Historical Introduction''. 2nd edition. Cambridge: [[Cambridge University Press]], 1993.</ref> In the course of the 5th century BC, several of the Greek [[city states]] would ultimately check the [[Achaemenid Empire|Achaemenid Persian]] advance in Europe through the [[Greco-Persian Wars]], considered a pivotal moment in world history,<ref name="Strauss2005">{{cite book|author=Barry Strauss|title=The Battle of Salamis: The Naval Encounter That Saved Greece – and Western Civilization|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=nQFtMcD5dOsC|year=2005|publisher=Simon and Schuster|isbn=978-0-7432-7453-1|pages=1–11}}</ref> as the 50 years of peace that followed are known as [[Fifth-century Athens|Golden Age of Athens]], the seminal period of ancient Greece that laid many of the foundations of Western civilisation. The [[Wars of Alexander the Great|conquests of Alexander the Great]] brought the [[Middle East]] into the Greek cultural sphere. [[File:Roman Republic Empire map.gif|thumb|Expanding from their base in central [[Italy]] beginning in the 3rd century BC, the [[Roman people|Romans]] gradually expanded to eventually rule the entire [[Mediterranean Basin]] and Western Europe by the turn of the millennium]] Greece was followed by [[Ancient Rome|Rome]], which left its mark on [[Roman law|law]], [[politics]], [[Latin|language]], [[Roman engineering|engineering]], [[Roman architecture|architecture]], [[Centralized government|government]] and many more key aspects in western civilisation.<ref name="Daly2013"/> Rome began as a small city-state, founded, according to tradition, in 753 BC as an [[Elective monarchy|elective]] [[Roman Kingdom|kingdom]]. Tradition has it that there were seven [[King of Rome#Kings of Rome (753–509 BC)|kings of Rome]] with [[Romulus]], the founder, being the first and [[Lucius Tarquinius Superbus]] falling to a republican uprising led by [[Lucius Junius Brutus]], but modern scholars doubt many of those stories and even the Romans themselves acknowledged that the [[Sack of Rome (390 BC)|sack of Rome]] by the [[Gauls]] in 387 BC destroyed many sources on their early history. By 200 BC, Rome had conquered [[Roman Italy|Italy]], and over the following two centuries it conquered [[Greece in the Roman era|Greece]] and [[Hispania]] (Spain and Portugal), the North African coast, much of the Middle East, [[Gaul]] (France and Belgium), and [[Roman Britain|Britannia]] (England and Wales). The forty-year [[Roman conquest of Britain|conquest of Britannia]] left 250,000 Britons dead, and emperor [[Antoninus Pius]] built the [[Antonine Wall]] across Scotland's [[Central Belt]] to defend the province from the [[Caledonians]]; it marked the northernmost [[Borders of the Roman Empire|border]] of the Roman Empire. The [[Roman Republic]] ended in 27 BC, when [[Augustus]] proclaimed the [[Roman Empire]]. The two centuries that followed are known as the ''[[pax romana]]'', a period of unprecedented peace, prosperity, and political stability in most of Europe.<ref name="mieawl">{{Cite book|last=McEvedy|first=Colin|title=The Penguin Atlas of Medieval History|publisher=Penguin Books|year=1961}}</ref> The empire continued to expand under emperors such as [[Antoninus Pius]] and [[Marcus Aurelius]], who spent time on the Empire's northern border fighting [[Germanic peoples|Germanic]], [[Picts|Pictish]] and [[Scottish people|Scottish]] tribes.<ref name="natgeo 123">National Geographic, 123.</ref><ref>Foster, Sally M., ''Picts, Gaels, and Scots: Early Historic Scotland.'' Batsford, London, 2004. {{ISBN|0-7134-8874-3}}</ref> [[Christianity]] was [[Constantine the Great and Christianity|legalised]] by [[Constantine I]] in 313 AD after three centuries of [[Persecution of early Christians in the Roman Empire|imperial persecution]]. Constantine also permanently moved the capital of the empire from Rome to the city of [[Byzantium]], which was renamed [[Constantinople]] in his honour (modern-day [[Istanbul]]) in 330 AD. Christianity became the sole official religion of the empire in 380 AD, and in 391–392 AD, the emperor [[Theodosius I|Theodosius]] outlawed pagan religions.<ref name="FriellWilliams2005">{{cite book|author1=Gerard Friell|author2=Peabody Professor of North American Archaeology and Ethnography Emeritus Stephen Williams|author3=Stephen Williams|title=Theodosius: The Empire at Bay|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=I8KRAgAAQBAJ|year=2005|publisher=Routledge|isbn=978-1-135-78262-7|page=105}}</ref> This is sometimes considered to mark the end of antiquity; alternatively antiquity is considered to end with the [[fall of the Western Roman Empire]] in 476 AD; the closure of the pagan [[Platonic Academy|Platonic Academy of Athens]] in 529 AD;<ref>{{cite book |title=A History of Greek Literature |last=Hadas |first=Moses |year=1950 |publisher=Columbia University Press |isbn=978-0-231-01767-1 |pages=273, 327 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=dOht3609JOMC&pg=PA273}}</ref> or the rise of Islam in the early 7th century AD. ===Early Middle Ages=== {{Main|Late Antiquity|Early Middle Ages}} {{See also|Dark Ages (historiography)|Age of Migrations}} {{Multiple image | align = left | direction = vertical | width = 240 | image1 = Europe around 650.jpg | caption1 = Europe c. 650 | image2 = Frankish Empire 481 to 814-en.svg | footer = [[Carolingian Empire|Charlemagne's empire]] in 814: {{Legend0|#3CB371|Francia}}, {{Legend0|#FAEBD7|Tributaries}} }} During the [[decline of the Roman Empire]], Europe entered a long period of change arising from what historians call the "[[Age of Migrations]]". There were numerous invasions and migrations amongst the [[Goths]], [[Vandals]], [[Huns]], [[Franks]], [[Angles]], [[Saxons]], [[Slavs]], [[Pannonian Avars|Avars]], [[Bulgars]] and, later on, the [[Vikings]], [[Pechenegs]], [[Cumans]] and [[Magyars]].<ref name="mieawl"/> [[Germanic tribes]] settled in the former [[Roman province]]s of England and Spain, while other groups pressed into northern France and Italy.<ref>{{cite book |last1=Takacs |first1=Sarolta |title=The Modern World: Civilizations of Africa, Civilizations of Europe, Civilizations of the Americas, Civilizations of the Middle East and Southwest Asia, Civilizations of Asia and the Pacific |date=2015 |publisher=Routledge |page=183}}</ref> [[Renaissance]] thinkers such as [[Petrarch]] would later refer to this as the "Dark Ages".<ref>''Journal of the History of Ideas'', Vol. 4, No. 1. (Jan. 1943), pp. 69–74.</ref> Isolated monastic communities were the only places to safeguard and compile written knowledge accumulated previously; apart from this very few written records survive and much literature, philosophy, mathematics, and other thinking from the classical period disappeared from Western Europe though they were preserved in the east, in the Byzantine Empire.<ref>[[Norman Cantor|Norman F. Cantor]], ''The Medieval World 300 to 1300''.</ref> As the political boundaries of the Roman Empire collapsed in the west, [[Timeline of the Catholic Church|Christianity spread]] beyond the old borders of the Empire and into lands that had never been under Rome. While the Roman empire in the west continued to decline, Roman traditions and the Roman state remained strong in the predominantly Greek-speaking [[Eastern Roman Empire]], also known as the [[Byzantine Empire]]. During most of its existence, the Byzantine Empire was the most powerful economic, cultural, and military force in Europe. Emperor [[Justinian I]] presided over Constantinople's first golden age: he established a [[Code of Justinian|legal code]] that forms the basis of many modern legal systems, funded the construction of the [[Hagia Sophia]], and brought the Christian church under state control.<ref name="natgeo 135">National Geographic, 135.</ref> He [[Vandalic War|reconquered North Africa]], southern Spain, and Italy.<ref>{{cite book |last1=Corbishley |first1=Mike |title=Illustrated Encyclopedia of Ancient Rome |page=82}}</ref> The [[Ostrogothic Kingdom]], which sought to preserve Roman culture and adopt its values, later changed course and became anti-Constantinople, so Justinian [[Gothic War (535–554)|waged war]] against the [[Ostrogoths]] for 30 years and destroyed much of urban life in Italy, and reduced agriculture to subsistence farming.<ref>{{cite book |last1=Martin |first1=Michael |title=City of the Sun: Development and Popular Resistance in the Pre-Modern West |date=2017 |page=146}}</ref> During this period, the [[Roman Catholic Church]] expanded into northern Europe and spread Catholicism among the Germanic peoples.<ref>{{cite book |last1=Tanner |first1=Norman |title=New Short History of the Catholic Church |page=41}}</ref> Catholic Christianity reached the Vikings and other [[Scandinavia]]ns in later centuries. The [[Latin alphabet]] gradually replaced the [[runic alphabet]] in Scandinavia and [[England]] as the influence of Christianity spread northward from [[Rome]], leading to [[English language|English]], [[German language|German]], [[Dutch language|Dutch]], [[Danish language|Danish]], [[Norwegian language|Norwegian]], [[Swedish language|Swedish]], and [[Icelandic language|Icelandic]]. From the 7th century onwards, as the Byzantines and neighbouring [[Sasanids|Sasanid Persians]] were severely weakened due to the protracted, centuries-lasting and frequent [[Byzantine–Sasanian wars]], the Muslim Arabs began to make inroads into historically Roman territory, taking the Levant and North Africa and making inroads into [[Asia Minor]]. In the mid 7th century AD, following the [[Muslim conquest of Persia]], Islam penetrated into the [[Caucasus]] region.<ref>{{cite book |quote=(..) It is difficult to establish exactly when Islam first appeared in Russia because the lands that Islam penetrated early in its expansion were not part of Russia at the time, but were later incorporated into the expanding Russian Empire. Islam reached the Caucasus region in the middle of the seventh century as part of the Arab [[Muslim conquest of Persia|conquest]] of the Iranian Sassanian Empire.|title=Islam in Russia: The Politics of Identity and Security|first=Shireen |last= Hunter | publisher= M.E. Sharpe | date = 2004 |page=3 |display-authors=etal}}</ref> Over the next centuries Muslim forces took [[Cyprus in the Middle Ages|Cyprus]], [[Malta]], [[Emirate of Crete|Crete]], [[Emirate of Sicily|Sicily]] and [[history of Islam in southern Italy|parts of southern Italy]].<ref>Kennedy, Hugh (1995). "The Muslims in Europe". In McKitterick, Rosamund, ''The New Cambridge Medieval History: c. 500 – c. 700'', pp. 249–272. Cambridge University Press. 052136292X.</ref> Between 711 and 726, the [[Umayyad Caliphate]] [[Umayyad conquest of Hispania|conquered]] the [[Visigothic Kingdom]], which occupied the [[Iberian Peninsula]] and [[Septimania]] (southwestern France). The unsuccessful [[Siege of Constantinople (717–718)|second siege of Constantinople]] (717) weakened the Umayyad dynasty and reduced their prestige. The Umayyads were then defeated by the [[Frankish Empire|Frankish]] leader [[Charles Martel]] at the [[Battle of Tours|Battle of Poitiers]] in 732, which ended their northward advance. In the remote regions of north-western Iberia and the middle [[Pyrenees]] the power of the Muslims in the south was scarcely felt. It was here that the foundations of the Christian kingdoms of [[Kingdom of Asturias|Asturias]], [[Kingdom of Leon|Leon]] and [[Kingdom of Galicia|Galicia]] were laid and from where the reconquest of the Iberian Peninsula would start. However, no coordinated attempt would be made to drive the [[Moors]] out. The Christian kingdoms were mainly focussed on their own internal power struggles. As a result, the [[Reconquista]] took 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. [[File:Europe 843ad viking incursions map.png|thumb|250px|[[Viking]] raids and division of the Frankish Empire at the [[Treaty of Verdun]] in 843]] One of the biggest threats during the Dark Ages were the Vikings, [[Norsemen|Norse]] seafarers who raided, raped, and pillaged across the [[Western world]]. Many Vikings died in battles in continental Europe, and in 844 they lost many men and ships to King [[Ramiro I of Asturias|Ramiro]] in [[Viking raid on Galicia and Asturias|northern Spain]].<ref>{{cite book |last1=Haywood |first1=John |title=Northmen: The Viking Saga, AD 793–1241 |date=2015 |page=166 |isbn=9781781855225 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=JGmoCgAAQBAJ&pg=PT189#v=onepage}}</ref> A few months later, another fleet [[Viking raid on Seville|took Seville]], only to be driven off with further heavy losses.<ref>{{cite book |last1=Brink |first1=Stefan |last2=Price |first2=Neil |title=The Viking World |date=2008 |publisher=Routledge |page=464}}</ref> In 911, the Vikings attacked Paris, and the Franks decided to give the Viking king Rollo land along the English Channel coast in exchange for peace. This land was named "Normandy" for the Norse "Northmen", and the Norse settlers became known as "[[Normans]]", adopting the French culture and language and becoming French [[vassal]]s. In 1066, the Normans went on to [[Norman conquest of England|conquer England]] in the first successful cross-Channel invasion since Roman times.<ref>{{cite book |last1=Grant |first1=R.G. |title=Battle at Sea: 3,000 Years of Naval Warfare |date=3 January 2011 |isbn=9780756657017 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=AE8dQ8gvow8C&pg=PT82&lpg=#v=onepage}}</ref> During the Dark Ages, the [[Western Roman Empire]] fell under the control of various tribes. The Germanic and Slav tribes established their domains over Western and Eastern Europe respectively.<ref name="natgeo 143">National Geographic, 143–145.</ref> Eventually the Frankish tribes were united under [[Clovis&nbsp;I]].<ref name="natgeo 162">National Geographic, 162.</ref> His conquests laid the foundation for the Frankish kingdom. [[Charlemagne]], a Frankish king of the [[Carolingian]] dynasty who had conquered most of Western Europe, was anointed "[[Holy Roman Emperor]]" by the Pope in 800. This led in 962 to the founding of the [[Holy Roman Empire]], which eventually became centred in the German principalities of central Europe.<ref name="natgeo 166">National Geographic, 166.</ref> [[East Central Europe]] saw the creation of the first Slavic states and the adoption of [[Christianity]] (circa 1000 AD). The powerful [[West Slavs|West Slavic]] state of [[Great Moravia]] spread its territory all the way south to the Balkans, reaching its largest territorial extent under [[Svatopluk I of Moravia|Svatopluk I]] and causing a series of armed conflicts with [[East Francia]]. Further south, the first [[South Slavs|South Slavic states]] emerged in the late 7th and 8th century and adopted [[Christianity]]: the [[First Bulgarian Empire]], the [[Principality of Serbia (early medieval)|Serbian Principality]] (later [[Kingdom of Serbia (medieval)|Kingdom]] and [[Serbian Empire|Empire]]), and the [[Duchy of Croatia]] (later [[Kingdom of Croatia (925–1102)|Kingdom of Croatia]]). To the East, the [[Kievan Rus]] expanded from its capital in [[Kiev]] to become the largest state in Europe by the 10th century. In 988, [[Vladimir the Great]] adopted [[Russian Orthodox Church|Orthodox Christianity]] as the religion of state.{{sfn|Bulliet|Crossley|Headrick|Hirsch|2011|page=250}}{{sfn|Brown|Anatolios|Palmer|2009|page=66}} Further East, [[Volga Bulgaria]] became an Islamic state in the 10th century, but was eventually absorbed into Russia several centuries later.<ref>Gerald Mako, "The Islamization of the Volga Bulghars: A Question Reconsidered", Archivum Eurasiae Medii Aevi 18, 2011, 199–223.</ref> ===High and Late Middle Ages=== {{Main|High Middle Ages|Late Middle Ages|Middle Ages}} {{See also|Medieval demography}} [[File:Le Repubbliche Marinare.jpg|thumb|180px|The [[maritime republics]] of medieval [[Italy]] reestablished contacts between Europe, Asia and Africa with extensive trade networks and colonies across the Mediterranean, and had an essential role in the [[Crusades]].<ref>Marc'Antonio Bragadin, ''Storia delle Repubbliche marinare'', Odoya, Bologna 2010, 240 pp., {{ISBN|978-88-6288-082-4}}</ref><ref>G. Benvenuti, ''Le Repubbliche Marinare. Amalfi, Pisa, Genova, Venezia'', Newton & Compton editori, Roma 1989</ref>]] The period between the year 1000 and 1300 is known as the [[High Middle Ages]], during which the population of Europe experienced significant growth, culminating in the [[Renaissance of the 12th century]]. Economic growth, together with the lack of safety on the mainland trading routes, made possible the development of major commercial routes along the coast of the [[Mediterranean Sea|Mediterranean]] and [[Baltic Sea]]s. The growing wealth and independence acquired by some coastal cities gave the [[Maritime Republics]] a leading role in the European scene. Constantinople was the largest and wealthiest city in Europe from the 9th to the 12th centuries, with a population of approximately 400,000.<ref>{{harvnb|Laiou|Morisson|2007|pp=130–131}}; {{harvnb|Pounds|1979|p=124}}.</ref> The Middle Ages on the mainland were dominated by the two upper echelons of the social structure: the nobility and the clergy. [[Feudalism]] developed in [[France]] in the Early Middle Ages and soon spread throughout Europe.<ref name="natgeo 158">National Geographic, 158.</ref> A struggle for influence between the [[nobility]] and the [[monarchy]] in England led to the writing of the [[Magna Carta]] and the establishment of a [[parliament]].<ref name="natgeo 186">National Geographic, 186.</ref> The primary source of culture in this period came from the [[Roman Catholic Church]]. Through monasteries and cathedral schools, the Church was responsible for education in much of Europe.<ref name="natgeo 158"/> [[File:Philip II and Tancred meeting in Messina - British Library Royal MS 16 G vi f350r (detail).jpg|thumbnail|upright=0.9|left|[[Tancred of Sicily]] and [[Philip II of France]], during the [[Third Crusade]] (1189–1192)]] The [[Papacy]] reached the height of its power during the High Middle Ages. An [[East-West Schism]] in 1054 split the former Roman Empire religiously, with the [[Eastern Orthodox Church]] in the [[Byzantine Empire]] and the Roman Catholic Church in the former Western Roman Empire. In 1095, [[Pope Urban II]] called for a [[Crusades|crusade]] against [[Muslims]] occupying [[Jerusalem]] and the [[Holy Land]].<ref name="natgeo 192">National Geographic, 192.</ref> In Europe itself, the Church organised the [[Inquisition]] against heretics. Popes also encouraged crusading in the Iberian Peninsula.<ref name="natgeo 199">National Geographic, 199.</ref> In the east, a resurgent Byzantine Empire [[Siege of Chandax|recaptured Crete]] and Cyprus from the Muslims and [[Byzantine conquest of Bulgaria|reconquered the Balkans]]. However, it faced a new enemy in the form of [[Byzantine–Norman wars|seaborne attacks by the Normans]], who [[Norman conquest of southern Italy|conquered Southern Italy]] and Sicily. Even more dangerous than the Franco-Norsemen was a new enemy from the steppe: the [[Seljuk Turks]]. The Empire was weakened following the defeat at the [[Battle of Manzikert]] and was weakened considerably by the Frankish-Venetian [[Siege of Constantinople (1204)|sack of Constantinople in 1204]], during the [[Fourth Crusade]].<ref name="DuikerSpielvogel2010">{{cite book|author1=William J. Duiker|author2=Jackson J. Spielvogel|title=The Essential World History|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=UJpI18JaEL0C&pg=PA330|accessdate=20 January 2013|year=2010|publisher=Cengage Learning|isbn=978-0-495-90227-0|page=330|quote=The Byzantine Empire also interacted with the world of Islam to its east and the new European civilization of the west. Both interactions proved costly and ultimately fatal.}}</ref><ref name="Findlay2006">{{cite book|author=Ronald Findlay|title=Eli Heckscher, International Trade, And Economic History|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=VOE-sRivB6kC&pg=PA179|accessdate=20 January 2013|year=2006|publisher=MIT Press|isbn=978-0-262-06251-0|pages=178–179|quote=These Christian allies did not accept the authority of Byzantium, and the Fourth Crusade that sacked Constantinople and established the so-called Latin Empire that lasted until 1261 was a fatal wound from which the empire never recovered until its fall at the hands of the Ottoman Turks in 1453 (Queller and Madden 1997).}}</ref><ref name="Browning1992">{{cite book|author=Robert Browning|title=The Byzantine Empire|url=https://archive.org/details/byzantineempire0000brow|url-access=registration|accessdate=20 January 2013|year=1992|publisher=CUA Press|isbn=978-0-8132-0754-4|page=[https://archive.org/details/byzantineempire0000brow/page/253 253]|quote=And though the final blow was struck by the Ottoman Turks, it can plausibly be argued that the fatal injury was inflicted by the Latin crusaders in 1204.|edition=Revised}}</ref><ref name="Byfield2008">{{cite book|author=Ted Byfield|title=A Glorious Disaster: A.D. 1100 to 1300: The Crusades: Blood, Valor, Iniquity, Reason, Faith|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=o8hJgj5q5IEC&pg=PA136|accessdate=20 January 2013|year=2008|publisher=Christian History Project|isbn=978-0-9689873-7-7|page=136|quote=continue to stand for another 250 before ultimately falling to the Muslim Turks, but it had been irrevocably weakened by the Fourth Crusade.}}</ref><ref name="Golna2004">{{cite book|author=Cornelia Golna|title=City of Man's Desire: A Novel of Constantinople|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=xHXGa8HSQIQC&pg=PA424|accessdate=20 January 2013|year=2004|publisher=Go-Bos Press|isbn=978-90-804114-4-9|page=424|quote=1204 The Fourth Crusade sacks Constantinople, destroying and pillaging many of its treasures, fatally weakening the empire both economically and militarily}}</ref><ref name="Powell2001">{{cite book|author=John Powell|title=Magill's Guide to Military History: A-Cor|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=lBYZAQAAIAAJ|accessdate=20 January 2013|year=2001|publisher=Salem Press|isbn=978-0-89356-015-7|quote=However, the fifty-seven years of plunder that followed made the Byzantine Empire, even when it retook the capital in 1261, genuinely weak. Beginning in 1222, the empire was further weakened by a civil war that lasted until 1355.&nbsp;... When the Ottomans overran their lands and besieged Constantinople in 1453, sheer poverty and weakness were the causes of the capital city's final fall.}}</ref><ref name="Irvin2002">{{cite book|author=Dale T. Irvin|title=History of the World Christian Movement: Volume 1: Earliest Christianity To 1453|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=C2akvQfa-QMC&pg=PA405|accessdate=20 January 2013|date=10 January 2002|publisher=Continuum International Publishing Group|isbn=978-0-567-08866-6|page=405|quote=Not only did the fourth crusade further harden the resentments Greek-speaking Christians felt toward the Latin West, but it further weakened the empire of Constantinople, many say fatally so. After the restoration of Greek imperial rule the city survived as the capital of Byzantium for another two centuries, but it never fully recovered.}}</ref><ref name="Frucht2004">{{cite book|author=Richard C. Frucht|title=Eastern Europe: An Introduction to the People, Lands, and Culture|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=lVBB1a0rC70C&pg=PA856|accessdate=20 January 2013|year=2004|publisher=ABC-CLIO|isbn=978-1-57607-800-6|page=856|quote=Although the empire was revived, the events of 1204 had so weakened Byzantium that it was no longer a great power.}}</ref><ref name="DuikerSpielvogel2010v2">{{cite book|author1=William J. Duiker|author2=Jackson J. Spielvogel|title=The Essential World History|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=UJpI18JaEL0C&pg=PA386|accessdate=20 January 2013|year=2010|publisher=Cengage Learning|isbn=978-0-495-90227-0|page=386|quote=Later they established themselves in the Anatolian peninsula at the expense of the Byzantine Empire.&nbsp;... The Byzantines, however, had been severely weakened by the sack of Constantinople in the Fourth Crusade (in 1204) and the Western occupation of much of the empire for the next half century.}}</ref> Although it would recover Constantinople in 1261, [[Byzantine Empire|Byzantium]] [[Fall of Constantinople|fell in 1453]] when [[Fall of Constantinople|Constantinople was taken]] by the [[Ottoman Empire]].<ref name="natgeo 211">National Geographic, 211.</ref><ref name="Peters2006">{{cite book|author=Ralph Peters|title=New Glory: Expanding America's Global Supremacy|url=https://archive.org/details/newgloryexpandin00pete|url-access=registration|accessdate=20 January 2013|date=29 August 2006|publisher=Sentinel|isbn=978-1-59523-030-0|quote=Western Christians, not Muslims, fatally crippled Byzantine power and opened Islam's path into the West.}}</ref><ref name="Chronicles">{{cite book|title=Chronicles|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=Ay0RAQAAMAAJ|accessdate=20 January 2013|year=2005|publisher=Rockford Institute|quote=two-and-a-half centuries to recover from the Fourth Crusade before the Ottomans finally took Constantinople in 1453,&nbsp;... They fatally wounded Byzantium, which was the main cause of its weakened condition when the Muslim onslaught came. Even on the eve of its final collapse, the precondition for any Western help was submission in Florence.}}</ref> [[File:Mongols suzdal.jpg|thumb|upright|The sacking of [[Suzdal]] by [[Batu Khan]] in 1238, during the [[Mongol invasion of Europe]].]] In the 11th and 12th centuries, constant incursions by nomadic [[Turkic peoples|Turkic]] tribes, such as the [[Pechenegs]] and the [[Cuman-Kipchak Confederation|Cuman-Kipchaks]], caused a massive migration of [[Slavic peoples|Slavic]] populations to the safer, heavily forested regions of the north and temporarily halted the expansion of the Rus' state to the south and east.<ref name="Klyuch1">{{Cite book|last=Klyuchevsky|first=Vasily|title=The course of the Russian history|location=v.1|url=http://www.kulichki.com/inkwell/text/special/history/kluch/kluch16.htm|isbn=978-5-244-00072-6|year=1987|publisher="Myslʹ}}</ref> Like many other parts of [[Eurasia]], these territories were [[Mongol invasion of Rus|overrun by the Mongols]].<ref>{{cite web|url=https://tspace.library.utoronto.ca/citd/RussianHeritage/4.PEAS/4.L/12.III.5.html |archive-url=https://archive.today/20110427075859/https://tspace.library.utoronto.ca/citd/RussianHeritage/4.PEAS/4.L/12.III.5.html |url-status=dead |archive-date=27 April 2011 |title=The Destruction of Kiev|publisher=University of Toronto|accessdate=10 June 2008}}</ref> The invaders, who became known as [[Tatars]], were mostly Turkic-speaking peoples under Mongol suzerainty. They established the state of the [[Golden Horde]] with headquarters in Crimea, which later adopted Islam as a religion and ruled over modern-day southern and central Russia for more than three centuries.<ref>"[http://www.britannica.com/eb/article-9037242/Golden-Horde Golden Horde]", in ''[[Encyclopædia Britannica]]'', 2007.</ref><ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.accd.edu/sac/history/keller/Mongols/states3.html |title=Khanate of the Golden Horde (Kipchak) |publisher=Alamo Community Colleges |accessdate=10 June 2008 |url-status=dead |archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20080607055652/http://www.accd.edu/sac/history/keller/Mongols/states3.html |archivedate=7 June 2008 |df= }}</ref> After the collapse of Mongol dominions, the first Romanian states (principalities) emerged in the 14th century: Moldova and Walachia. Previously, these territories were under the successive control of Pechenegs and Cumans.<ref>Spinei, Victor. The Romanians and the Turkic Nomads North of the Danube Delta from the Tenth to the Mid-Thirteenth Century, Brill, 2009, {{ISBN|978-9004175365}}</ref> From the 12th to the 15th centuries, the [[Grand Duchy of Moscow]] grew from a small principality under Mongol rule to the largest state in Europe, overthrowing the Mongols in 1480 and eventually becoming the [[Tsardom of Russia]]. The state was consolidated under [[Ivan III the Great]] and [[Ivan the Terrible]], steadily expanding to the east and south over the next centuries. The [[Great Famine of 1315–1317]] was the first [[Crisis of the Late Middle Ages|crisis]] that would strike Europe in the late Middle Ages.<ref>[http://www.oglethorpe.edu/faculty/%7Eb_smith/ou/bs_foundations_chapter9.htm The Late Middle Ages] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20151102090226/http://www.oglethorpe.edu/faculty/~b_smith/ou/bs_foundations_chapter9.htm |date=2 November 2015 }}. Oglethorpe University.</ref> The period between 1348 and 1420 witnessed the heaviest loss. The population of [[France in the Middle Ages|France]] was reduced by half.<ref>Baumgartner, Frederic J. ''France in the Sixteenth Century.'' London: [[Macmillan Publishers (United States)|Macmillan Publishers]], 1995. {{ISBN|0-333-62088-7}}.</ref><ref>Don O'Reilly. "[http://www.historynet.com/magazines/military_history/3031536.html Hundred Years' War: Joan of Arc and the Siege of Orléans]". ''TheHistoryNet.com''. {{webarchive |url=https://web.archive.org/web/20061109043743/http://www.historynet.com/magazines/military_history/3031536.html |date=9 November 2006 }}</ref> Medieval Britain was afflicted by 95 famines,<ref>[https://www.telegraph.co.uk/opinion/main.jhtml?xml=/opinion/2004/08/08/do0809.xml&sSheet=/opinion/2004/08/08/ixop.html Poor studies will always be with us]. By James Bartholomew. Telegraph. 7 August. 2004.</ref> and France suffered the effects of 75 or more in the same period.<ref>[http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/201392/famine Famine]. Encyclopædia Britannica.</ref> Europe was devastated in the mid-14th century by the [[Black Death]], one of the most deadly [[pandemic]]s in human history which killed an estimated 25&nbsp;million people in Europe alone—a third of the [[Medieval demography|European population]] at the time.<ref>{{cite magazine|url=http://science.nationalgeographic.com/science/health-and-human-body/human-diseases/plague-article.html |title=Plague: The Black Death|magazine=National Geographic|accessdate=1 April 2012}}</ref> The plague had a devastating effect on Europe's social structure; it induced people to live for the moment as illustrated by [[Giovanni Boccaccio]] in ''[[The Decameron]]'' (1353). It was a serious blow to the Roman Catholic Church and led to increased [[persecution of Jews]], [[beggars]], and [[leper]]s.<ref name="natgeo 223">National Geographic, 223.</ref> The plague is thought to have returned every generation with varying [[virulence]] and mortalities until the 18th century.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.infoplease.com/cig/dangerous-diseases-epidemics/bubonic-plague.html |title=Epidemics of the Past: Bubonic Plague&nbsp;— Infoplease.com |publisher=Infoplease.com |date= |accessdate=3 November 2008}}</ref> During this period, more than 100 plague [[List of epidemics|epidemics]] swept across Europe.<ref name="Revill">{{cite news|url=https://www.theguardian.com/uk/2004/may/16/health.books |title=Black Death blamed on man, not rats &#124; UK news &#124; The Observer |newspaper=The Observer |author=Jo Revill |date= 16 May 2004|accessdate=3 November 2008 | location=London}}</ref> ===Early modern period=== {{Main|Early modern period}} {{See also|Renaissance|Protestant Reformation|Scientific Revolution|Age of Discovery}} [[File:La scuola di Atene.jpg|thumb|upright=1.2|[[School of Athens|''The School of Athens'']] by [[Raphael]] (1511): Contemporaries such as [[Michelangelo]] and [[Leonardo da Vinci]] (centre) are portrayed as classical scholars of the [[Renaissance]].]] The Renaissance was a period of cultural change originating in [[Florence]] and later spreading to the rest of Europe. The rise of a [[Renaissance humanism|new humanism]] was accompanied by the recovery of forgotten [[Classical Greece|classical Greek]] and Arabic knowledge from [[Monasticism|monastic]] libraries, often translated from Arabic into [[Latin language|Latin]].<ref name="Barrett"/><ref>[[Roberto Weiss|Weiss, Roberto]] (1969) ''The Renaissance Discovery of Classical Antiquity'', {{ISBN|1-59740-150-1}}</ref><ref>{{Cite book|author=Jacob Burckhardt|origyear=1878|url=https://archive.org/details/civilizationofre00burc_0|title=The Civilisation of the Renaissance in Italy|edition=translation by S.G.C Middlemore|year=1990|isbn=978-0-14-044534-3|publisher=Penguin Books|location=London|author-link=Jacob Burckhardt}}</ref> The Renaissance spread across Europe between the 14th and 16th centuries: it saw the flowering of [[Renaissance art|art]], [[philosophy]], [[music]], and the [[History of science in the Renaissance|sciences]], under the joint patronage of [[Royal family|royalty]], the nobility, the [[Roman Catholic Church]], and an emerging merchant class.<ref name="natgeo 254">National Geographic, 254.</ref><ref>Jensen, De Lamar (1992), ''Renaissance Europe'', {{ISBN|0-395-88947-2}}</ref><ref>{{Cite book|last=Levey|first=Michael|title=Early Renaissance|publisher=Penguin Books|year=1967}}</ref> Patrons in Italy, including the [[Medici]] family of Florentine bankers and the [[Pope]]s in [[Rome]], funded prolific [[quattrocento]] and [[cinquecento]] artists such as [[Raphael]], [[Michelangelo]], and [[Leonardo da Vinci]].<ref name="natgeo 292">National Geographic, 292.</ref><ref>{{Cite book|last=Levey|first=Michael|title=High Renaissance|publisher=Penguin Books|year=1971}}</ref> Political intrigue within the Church in the mid-14th century caused the [[Western Schism]]. During this forty-year period, two popes—one in [[Avignon]] and one in Rome—claimed rulership over the Church. Although the schism was eventually healed in 1417, the papacy's spiritual authority had suffered greatly.<ref name="natgeo 193">National Geographic, 193.</ref> 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.<ref>{{Cite book|last=John Morris Roberts|title=Penguin History of Europe|year=1997|publisher=Penguin Books|isbn=978-0-14-026561-3|url=https://archive.org/details/penguinhistoryof00robe_1}}</ref><ref name="natgeo 296">National Geographic, 296.</ref> Exploration reached the [[Southern Hemisphere]] in the Atlantic and the Southern tip of Africa. [[Christopher Columbus]] reached the [[New World]] in 1492, and [[Vasco da Gama]] opened the ocean route to the [[Orient|East]] linking the Atlantic and [[Indian Ocean]]s in 1498. [[Ferdinand Magellan]] reached Asia westward across the Atlantic and the [[Pacific Ocean]]s in the expedition of [[Magellan's circumnavigation|Magellan-Elcano]], resulting in the first [[Timeline of the Magellan–Elcano circumnavigation|circumnavigation of the globe]], completed by [[Juan Sebastián Elcano]] (1519–22). Soon after, the [[Spanish Empire|Spanish]] and [[Portuguese Empire|Portuguese]] began establishing large global empires in the [[Americas]], [[Asia]], [[Africa]] and [[Oceania]].<ref name="natgeo 338">National Geographic, 338.</ref> Roughly coinciding with the [[Age of Discovery]] was the emergence and spread of [[Protestantism]] and the Roman Catholic Church's militant reaction to it as manifested through the [[Counter-Reformation]]. Thus, religion played a crucial ideological role during the 16th century, with [[northern Europe]]an Protestant and [[southern Europe]]an Catholic armies slaughtering each other while praying to the same God. [[File:Europe map 1648.PNG|thumb|Map of Europe in 1648 (at the end of the [[Thirty Years' War]])]] There was not a single year of peace in Europe during the first half of the 17th century. This was especially true for Habsburg Spain, which began the century at war with the Dutch Republic and subsequently went to war against almost every other European nation. [[Louis XIV]] (r. 1643–1715) aspired to make France the leading European power. His expansionist ambitions resulted in numerous wars that positioned nearly all European powers against France and bankrupted the French state but turned France into the most powerful state in Europe.<ref>{{cite web |title=Louis XIV's Wars |url=http://oer2go.org/mods/en-boundless/www.boundless.com/world-history/textbooks/boundless-world-history-i-ancient-civilizations-enlightenment-textbook/the-rise-of-nation-states-1052/france-and-authoritarianism-1070/louis-xiv-s-wars-1075-17670/index.html}}</ref><ref name="natgeo 269">National Geographic, 269.</ref> Louis XIV's wars cost France over 1,000,000 battle casualties.<ref>{{cite book |title=Europe's Tragedy: A New History of the Thirty Years War |isbn = 9780141937809|url=https://books.google.com/?id=-YlL5mB-5e4C&pg=PT860&lpg=#v=onepage|last1 = Wilson|first1 = Peter H.|date = 30 July 2009}}</ref><ref>{{cite book |title=Warfare and Armed Conflicts: A Statistical Encyclopedia of Casualty and Other Figures, 1492-2015, 4th ed. |isbn = 9780786474707|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=8urEDgAAQBAJ&pg=PA73#v=onepage&q&f=false|last1 = Clodfelter|first1 = Micheal|date = 9 May 2017}}</ref> The 17th century in central and eastern Europe was a period of general [[The General Crisis|decline]].<ref>{{cite web|url=http://libro.uca.edu/payne1/payne15.htm|title=The Seventeenth-Century Decline|accessdate=13 August 2008|publisher=The Library of Iberian resources online}}</ref> Central and Eastern Europe experienced more than 150 famines in a 200-year period between 1501 and 1700.<ref>"''[https://books.google.com/books?id=juvbIDu9ARIC&pg=PA51 Food, Famine And Fertilisers]''". Seshadri Kannan (2009). APH Publishing. p. 51. {{ISBN|81-313-0356-X}}</ref> From the [[Union of Krewo]] (1385) central and eastern Europe was dominated by [[Kingdom of Poland (1385–1569)|Kingdom of Poland]] and [[Grand Duchy of Lithuania]]. Between 1648 and 1655 in the central and eastern Europe ended hegemony of the [[Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth]]. From the 15th to 18th centuries, when the disintegrating khanates of the [[Golden Horde]] were conquered by Russia, [[Crimean Tatars|Tatars]] from the [[Crimean Khanate]] frequently [[Crimean-Nogai raids into East Slavic lands|raided]] Eastern Slavic lands to [[Slavery in the Ottoman Empire|capture slaves]].<ref>W.G. Clarence-Smith (2006). "''[https://books.google.com/books?id=nQbylEdqJKkC Islam And The Abolition Of Slavery]''". Oxford University Press. p. 13. {{ISBN|0-19-522151-6}}&nbsp;— "Lands to the north of the Black Sea probably yielded the most slaves to the Ottomans from 1450. A compilation of estimates indicates that Crimean Tartars seized about 1,750,000 Ukrainians, Poles, and Russians from 1468 to 1694."</ref> Further east, the [[Nogai Horde]] and [[Kazakh Khanate]] frequently raided the Slavic-speaking areas of Russia, Ukraine and Poland for hundreds of years, until the Russian expansion and conquest of most of northern Eurasia (i.e. Eastern Europe, Central Asia and Siberia). The Renaissance and the [[New Monarchs]] marked the start of an Age of Discovery, a period of exploration, invention, and scientific development.<ref>{{Cite book | last = Hunt | first = Shelby D. | title = Controversy in marketing theory: for reason, realism, truth, and objectivity | url = https://books.google.com/books?id=07lchJbdWGgC&pg=PA18 | publisher = M.E. Sharpe | year = 2003 | page = 18 | isbn = 978-0-7656-0932-8}} </ref> Among the great figures of the Western [[scientific revolution]] of the 16th and 17th centuries were [[Copernicus]], [[Kepler]], [[Galileo]], and [[Isaac Newton]].<ref>"[http://web.clas.ufl.edu/users/ufhatch/pages/03-Sci-Rev/SCI-REV-Home/05-sr-lng-timeline.htm Scientific Revolution: Chronological Timeline: Copernicus to Newton] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130723195302/http://web.clas.ufl.edu/users/ufhatch/pages/03-Sci-Rev/SCI-REV-Home/05-sr-lng-timeline.htm |date=23 July 2013 }}". Retrieved 23 June 2012.</ref> 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."<ref name="Barrett">Peter Barrett (2004), ''[https://books.google.com/books?id=fwxViwX6KuMC&pg=PA14 Science and Theology Since Copernicus: The Search for Understanding]'', pp. 14–18, [[Continuum International Publishing Group]], {{ISBN|0-567-08969-X}}</ref> ===18th and 19th centuries=== {{Main|Modern history}} {{See also|Industrial Revolution|French Revolution|Age of Enlightenment}} [[File:Europe 1815 map en.png|thumb|The national boundaries within Europe set by the [[Congress of Vienna]]]] The Age of Enlightenment was a powerful intellectual movement during the 18th century promoting scientific and reason-based thoughts.<ref>{{Cite book|last1=Goldie|first1=Mark|last2= Wokler|first2=Robert |title=The Cambridge History of Eighteenth-Century Political Thought|publisher=Cambridge University Press|year=2006|isbn=978-0-521-37422-4}}</ref><ref>{{Cite book|last=Cassirer|first=Ernst |title=The Philosophy of the Enlightenment|publisher=Princeton University Press|year=1979|isbn=978-0-691-01963-5}}</ref><ref name="natgeo 255">National Geographic, 255.</ref> Discontent with the aristocracy and clergy's monopoly on political power in France resulted in the French Revolution and the establishment of the [[French First Republic|First Republic]] as a result of which the monarchy and many of the nobility perished during the initial [[Reign of Terror|reign of terror]].<ref>{{Cite book|last=Schama|first=Simon|authorlink=Simon Schama|publisher=[[Alfred A. Knopf|Knopf]]|title=Citizens: A Chronicle of the French Revolution|year=1989|isbn=978-0-394-55948-3|title-link=Citizens: A Chronicle of the French Revolution}}</ref> [[Napoleon|Napoleon Bonaparte]] rose to power in the aftermath of the French Revolution and established the [[First French Empire]] that, during the [[Napoleonic Wars]], grew to encompass large parts of western and central Europe before collapsing in 1814 with the [[Battle of Paris (1814) |Battle of Paris]] between the [[Coalition Wars|Sixth Coalition]]—consisting of Russia, Austria, and Prussia—and the French Empire.<ref name="natgeo 360">National Geographic, 360.</ref><ref>{{Cite book|last=McEvedy|first=Colin|title=The Penguin Atlas of Modern History|publisher=Penguin Books|year=1972|isbn=978-0-14-051153-6}}</ref> [[Napoleonic Empire|Napoleonic rule]] resulted in the further dissemination of the ideals of the French Revolution, including that of the [[nation state|nation-state]], as well as the widespread adoption of the French models of [[centralised government|administration]], [[Napoleonic code|law]], and [[Education in France|education]].<ref>{{Cite book|last=Lyons|first=Martyn|publisher= [[St. Martin's Press]]|year= 1994|isbn=978-0-312-12123-5|title=Napoleon Bonaparte and the legacy of the French Revolution}}</ref><ref>{{Cite book|last=Grab|first=Alexander|title=Napoleon and the Transformation of Europe (European History in Perspective) |publisher=Palgrave MacMillan|year=2003|isbn=978-0-333-68275-3}}</ref><ref name="natgeo 350">National Geographic, 350.</ref> The [[Congress of Vienna]], convened after Napoleon's downfall, established a new [[balance of power (international relations)|balance of power]] in Europe centred on the five "[[Great Power]]s": the UK, France, [[Prussia]], [[Austrian Empire|Austria]], and Russia.<ref name="natgeo 367">National Geographic, 367.</ref> This balance would remain in place until the [[Revolutions of 1848]], during which liberal uprisings affected all of Europe except for Russia and the UK. These revolutions were eventually put down by conservative elements and few reforms resulted.<ref name="natgeo 371">National Geographic, 371–373.</ref> The year 1859 saw the unification of Romania, as a nation-state, from smaller principalities. In 1867, the [[Austro-Hungarian empire]] was [[Ausgleich|formed]]; and 1871 saw the unifications of both [[Italian unification|Italy]] and [[Unification of Germany|Germany]] as [[nation-states]] from smaller principalities.<ref>{{Cite book|last=Davies|first=Norman|title=Europe: A History|publisher=Oxford University Press|year=1996|isbn=978-0-19-820171-7|url-access=registration|url=https://archive.org/details/europehistory00davi_0}}</ref> In parallel, the [[Eastern Question]] grew more complex ever since the Ottoman defeat in the [[Russo-Turkish War (1768–74)]]. As the dissolution of the Ottoman Empire seemed imminent, the [[Great Power]]s struggled to safeguard their strategic and commercial interests in the Ottoman domains. The [[Russian Empire]] stood to benefit from the decline, whereas the [[Habsburg Monarchy|Habsburg Empire]] and [[United Kingdom|Britain]] perceived the preservation of the Ottoman Empire to be in their best interests. Meanwhile, the [[Serbian revolution]] (1804) and [[Greek War of Independence]] (1821) marked the beginning of the end of Ottoman rule in the [[Balkans]], which ended with the [[Balkan Wars]] in 1912–13.<ref>[http://www.historyworld.net/wrldhis/PlainTextHistories.asp?groupid=3044&HistoryID=ac79], ''Ottoman Empire – 19th century'', Historyworld</ref> Formal recognition of the ''de facto'' independent principalities of [[Montenegro]], [[Principality of Serbia|Serbia]] and [[Romania]] ensued at the [[Congress of Berlin]] in 1878. Many Ottoman Muslims faced either extermination at the hands of the newly independent states, or were expelled to the shrinking Ottoman possessions in Europe or to Anatolia; between 1821 and 1922 alone, more than 5 million Ottoman Muslims were driven away from their homes, while another 5.5 million died in wars or due to starvation and disease.<ref>{{cite book |last1=Travis |first1=Hannibal |title=The Assyrian Genocide: Cultural and Political Legacies |date=20 July 2017 |isbn=9781351980258 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=MsItDwAAQBAJ&pg=PT48&lpg=#v=onepage}}</ref> [[File:Marshall's flax-mill, Holbeck, Leeds - interior - c.1800.jpg|thumb|Marshall's [[Temple Works]] (1840), the [[Industrial Revolution]] started in [[Kingdom of Great Britain|Great Britain]]]] The [[Industrial Revolution]] started in [[Kingdom of Great Britain|Great Britain]] in the last part of the 18th century and spread throughout Europe. The invention and implementation of new technologies resulted in rapid urban growth, mass employment, and the rise of a new working class.<ref>{{Cite book|first=George Macaulay|last=Trevelyan|title=A shortened history of England|publisher=Penguin Books|year=1988|isbn=978-0-14-010241-3|url-access=registration|url=https://archive.org/details/shortenedhistory00geor}}</ref> Reforms in social and economic spheres followed, including the [[Factory Acts|first laws]] on [[child labour]], the legalisation of [[trade union]]s,<ref>{{Cite book|last=Webb|first=Sidney | title=History of Trade Unionism | publisher= AMS Press | year=1976 | isbn=978-0-404-06885-1}}</ref> and the [[abolitionism in the United Kingdom|abolition of slavery]].<ref>[http://www.britannica.com/blackhistory/article-24160 Slavery], ''Historical survey – Ways of ending slavery'', Encyclopædia Britannica</ref> In Britain, the [[Public Health Act of 1875]] was passed, which significantly improved living conditions in many British cities.<ref>{{Cite book|first=George Macaulay|last=Trevelyan|title=English Social History|publisher=Longmans, Green|year=1942}}</ref> Europe's population increased from about 100 million in 1700 to 400 million by 1900.<ref>[http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/387301/modernisation/12022/Population-change Modernisation – Population Change]. ''Encyclopædia Britannica''.</ref> The last major famine recorded in Western Europe, the [[Great Famine (Ireland)|Irish Potato Famine]], caused death and mass emigration of millions of Irish people.<ref>"[https://www.bbc.co.uk/history/british/victorians/famine_01.shtml The Irish Famine]". BBC – History.</ref> In the 19th century, 70&nbsp;million people left Europe in migrations to various European colonies abroad and to the United States.<ref>[http://migration.ucdavis.edu/mn/more.php?id=1118_0_5_0 The Atlantic: Can the US afford immigration?]. ''Migration News''. December 1996.</ref> Demographic growth meant that, by 1900, Europe's share of the world's population was 25%.<ref>[http://www.gmi.org/index.php/download_file/view/1561/ PoPulation – Global Mapping International] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140202232625/http://www.gmi.org/index.php/download_file/view/1561/ |date=2 February 2014 }}</ref> ===20th century to the present=== {{Main|Modern era|History of Europe}} {{See also|World War I|Great Depression|Interwar period|World War II|Cold War|History of the European Union}} [[File:Colonisation 1914.png|thumb|left|260px|Map of European [[colonial empire]]s throughout the world in 1914. France's annexation of Algeria cost the lives of 15,000 Frenchmen and 285,000 Algerians,<ref>{{Cite web|url=http://necrometrics.com/wars19c.htm#Algeria1830|title=Nineteenth Century Death Tolls|website=necrometrics.com}}</ref> and by many estimates over 10 million Algerians were killed during the French rule.<ref>{{cite web |url=https://www.aa.com.tr/en/africa/frances-colonial-era-crimes-unforgotten-in-algeria/1635943 |title= France's colonial-era crimes 'unforgotten' in Algeria |website= aa.com.tr }}</ref> During the [[Aceh War]] between the Sultanate of Aceh and the Kingdom of the Netherlands, 60,000–70,000 Indonesians were killed. The Herero and Namaqua peoples of Namibia endured a brutal [[Herero and Namaqua genocide|genocide]] waged by Germany which caused over 100,000 deaths, while the [[Maji Maji Rebellion]] in [[German East Africa]] killed 75,000–145,000 Africans. The Portuguese conquest of Mozambique resulted in over 100,000 deaths among Portugal's adversaries and the indigenous populations. The [[Italian conquest of the Horn of Africa (1924–1940)|conquest of Ethiopia]] by Italy at two separate points in time decimated the population, killing 17,000 in 1896 and another 275,000 from the opposing forces in 1936.<ref>{{cite book |last1=Etemad |first1=Bouda |title=Possessing the World: Taking the Measurements of Colonisation from the 18th to the 20th Century |date=2007 |page=87}}</ref> [[Atrocities in the Congo Free State|Belgium killed more Africans]] in [[Belgian Congo|Congo]] than soldiers died during the entire [[First World War]].<ref>{{cite book |last1=A'Barrow |first1=Stephen |title=Death of a Nation: A New History of Germany |date=2016 |publisher=Book Guild Publishing}}</ref> Britain's exploitation of [[British Raj|India]] let in between 15 and 29 million Indians die from [[Famine in India#British rule|starvation]].<ref>{{cite web |url= https://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-india-33618621 |title= Viewpoint: Britain must pay reparations to India - BBC News |website= BBC.com}}</ref>]] Two world wars and an economic depression dominated the first half of the 20th century. World War I was fought between 1914 and 1918. It started when [[Archduke Franz Ferdinand of Austria]] was assassinated by the [[Yugoslav nationalism|Yugoslav nationalist]]<ref>{{cite web|url=http://praguepost.com/world-news/39837-assassin-gavrilo-princip-gets-a-statue-in-sarajevo|title=Assassin Gavrilo Princip gets a statue in Sarajevo|accessdate=11 July 2014|publisher=Prague Post|date=28 June 2014}}</ref> [[Gavrilo Princip]].<ref name="natgeo 407">National Geographic, 407.</ref> Most European nations were drawn into the war, which was fought between the [[Entente Powers]] ([[French Third Republic|France]], [[Belgium]], [[Serbia]], [[Portugal during World War I|Portugal]], [[Russian Empire|Russia]], the [[History of the United Kingdom during the First World War|United Kingdom]], and later [[Italy]], [[Greece]], [[Romania]], and the United States) and the [[Central Powers]] ([[Austria-Hungary]], [[German Empire|Germany]], [[Bulgaria]], and the [[Ottoman Empire]]). [[File:World War I 1914 08 04.png|thumb|Allies and Central Powers in the [[First World War]], 4 August 1914 {{legend|#59be6e|Allies}} {{legend|#a9da7f|Allied colonies, dominions or occupied territory}} {{legend|#f7b433|Central Powers}} {{legend|#f2db76|Central Powers' colonies or occupied territory}}]] On 4 August 1914, Germany [[German invasion of Belgium|invaded]] and [[German occupation of Belgium during World War I|occupied]] Belgium. On 17 August 1914, the Russian army launched an assault on the eastern German province of [[East Prussia]], but they would be dealt a fatal blow at the [[Battle of Tannenberg]] on 26-30 August 1914. As 1914 came to a close, the Germans were facing off against the French and British in northern France and in the [[Alsace]] and [[Lorraine]] regions of eastern France, and the opposing armies dug trenches and set up defensive positions. From 1915 to 1917, the two armies often engaged in [[trench warfare]] and massive offensives. The [[Battle of the Somme]] was the largest battle on the [[Western Front (World War I)|Western Front]]; the British suffered 420,000 casualties, the French 200,000 and the Germans 500,000. The [[Battle of Verdun]] saw around 377,231 French and 337,000 Germans become casualties. At the [[Battle of Passchendaele]], [[mustard gas]] was used by both sides as chemical weapons, and several troops on both sides died in battle. In 1915, the tide of the war was changed when the [[Kingdom of Italy]] decided to enter the war on the side of the Triple Entente, seeking to acquire [[Austrian Tyrol]] and some possessions along the [[Adriatic Sea]]. This violated the "[[Triple Alliance (1882)|Triple Alliance]]" proposed in the 19th century, and Austria-Hungary was ill-prepared for yet another front to fight on. The [[Royal Italian Army]] launched several offensives along the [[Isonzo River]], with eleven [[battles of the Isonzo]] being fought during the war. Over the course of the war, 462,391 Italian soldiers died; 420,000 of the dead were lost on the [[Italian front (World War I)|Alpine front]] with Austria-Hungary, the rest fell in France, Albania, or Macedonia.<ref>Clodfelter 2017: 432</ref> [[File:trencheswwi2.jpg|thumb|Trenches and sand bags were defences against machine guns and artillery on the [[Western Front (World War I)|Western Front]] of World War I]] In 1917, German troops began to arrive in Italy to assist the crumbling Austro-Hungarian forces, and the Germans destroyed an Italian army at the [[Battle of Caporetto]]. This led to British and French (and later American) troops arriving in Italy to assist the Italian military against the Central forces, and the Allied troops succeeded in taking parts of northern Italy and on the Adriatic sea. In the Balkans, the Serbians resisted the Austrians until Bulgaria and the German Empire sent troops to assist in the [[Serbian campaign|conquest of Serbia]] in December 1915. The Austro-Hungarian Army on the [[Eastern Front (World War I)|Eastern Front]], which had performed poorly, was soon subordinated to the [[Imperial German Army]]'s high command, and the Germans destroyed a Russian army at the [[Gorlice-Tarnow Offensive]] in 1916. The Russians launched a massive counterattack against the Central Powers in Poland, and this "[[Brusilov Offensive]]" inflicted very high losses on the Austro-Hungarians; 1,325,000 Central Powers troops and 500,000 Russian troops were lost. However, the political situation in Russia deteriorated as people became more aware of the corruption in Czar [[Nicholas II of Russia]]'s government, and the Germans made rapid progress in 1917 after the [[Russian Revolution]] toppled the czar. The Germans secured [[Riga]] in [[Latvia]] in September 1917, and they benefited from the fall of [[Aleksandr Kerensky]]'s provisional government to the [[Bolsheviks]] in October 1917. In February-March 1918, the Germans launched a massive offensive after the Russian [[SFSR]] came to power, taking advantage of the [[Russian Civil War]] to seize large amounts of territory. In March 1918, the Soviets signed the [[Treaty of Brest-Litovsk]], ending the war on the Eastern Front, and Germany set up various puppet nations in Eastern Europe. Germany's huge successes during the war with the Russians were morale boosts for the Central Powers, but the Germans faced a new problem when they began to use "unrestricted [[submarine warfare]]" to attack enemy ships at sea. These tactics led to the sinking of several civilian ships, angering the United States, which lost several civilians aboard these ships. Germany agreed to the "[[Sussex Pledge]]", stating that it would halt this strategy. However, the Germans sunk [[RMS Lusitania|RMS ''Lusitania'']] on 7 May 1915, and the British intercepted [[Zimmermann Telegram|an offer]] from the German government made to [[Mexico]] that proposed an anti-American alliance. In 1916, President [[Woodrow Wilson]] declared war on Germany, and the USA joined the Allies. In 1918, the American troops took part in the [[Battle of Belleau Wood]] and in the [[Meuse-Argonne Offensive]], major offensives that saw several American troops die on European soil for the first time. The Germans began to suffer as more and more Allied troops arrived, and they launched the desperate "[[Spring Offensive]]" of 1918. This offensive was repelled, and the Allies barreled towards Belgium in the [[Hundred Days Offensive]] during the autumn of 1918. On 11 November 1918, the Germans agreed to an armistice with the Allies, ending the war. The war left more than 16&nbsp;million civilians and military dead.<ref name="natgeo 440">''National Geographic'', 440.</ref> Over 60&nbsp;million European soldiers were mobilised from 1914 to 1918.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.jimmyatkinson.com/papers/versaillestreaty.html |title=The Treaty of Versailles and its Consequences |accessdate=10 June 2008 |publisher=James Atkinson |archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20080512224100/http://www.jimmyatkinson.com/papers/versaillestreaty.html |archivedate=12 May 2008 |url-status=dead }}</ref> Most soldiers died on the Western Front. [[File:Alliances militaires en Europe 1914-1918-fr.svg|thumb|right|Map depicting the military alliances of [[World War I]] in 1914–1918]] Russia was plunged into the [[Russian Revolution]], which threw down the [[Russian Empire|Tsarist monarchy]] and replaced it with the [[communist]] [[Soviet Union]].<ref name="natgeo 480">National Geographic, 480.</ref> [[Austria-Hungary]] and the Ottoman Empire collapsed and broke up into separate nations, and many other nations had their borders redrawn. The [[Treaty of Versailles]], which officially ended World War I in 1919, was harsh towards Germany, upon whom it placed full responsibility for the war and imposed heavy sanctions.<ref name="natgeo 443">''National Geographic'', 443.</ref> Excess deaths in Russia over the course of World War I and the [[Russian Civil War]] (including the postwar [[Russian famine of 1921|famine]]) amounted to a combined total of 18 million.<ref>{{cite book | author = Mark Harrison| title = Accounting for War: Soviet Production, Employment, and the Defence Burden, 1940–1945| url = https://books.google.com/books?id=yJcD7_Q_rQ8C&pg=PA167| date = 18 July 2002| publisher = Cambridge University Press| isbn = 978-0-521-89424-1| page = 167 }}</ref> In 1932–1933, under [[Stalin]]'s leadership, confiscations of grain by the Soviet authorities contributed to the [[Soviet famine of 1932-1933|second Soviet famine]] which caused millions of deaths;<ref>"[http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/europe/6179818.stm Legacy of famine divides Ukraine]". BBC News. 24 November 2006.</ref> surviving [[kulak]]s were persecuted and many sent to [[Gulag]]s to do [[Unfree labour|forced labour]]. Stalin was also responsible for the [[Great Purge]] of 1937–38 in which the [[NKVD]] executed 681,692 people;<ref>{{cite book | author = Abbott Gleason| title = A companion to Russian history| url = https://books.google.com/books?id=JyN0hlKcfTcC&pg=PA373| year = 2009| publisher = Wiley-Blackwell| isbn = 978-1-4051-3560-3| page = 373 }}</ref> millions of people were [[population transfer in the Soviet Union|deported and exiled]] to remote areas of the Soviet Union.<ref>{{cite book | author = Geoffrey A. Hosking| title = Russia and the Russians: a history| url = https://archive.org/details/russiarussianshi00hosk| url-access = registration| year = 2001| publisher = Harvard University Press| isbn = 978-0-674-00473-3| page = [https://archive.org/details/russiarussianshi00hosk/page/469 469] }}</ref> [[File:Serbian retreat WWI.jpg|thumb|left|[[Serbian Campaign of World War I|Serbian war efforts]] (1914–1918) cost the country one quarter of its population.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://pqasb.pqarchiver.com/latimes/access/337249982.html?dids=337249982:337249982&FMT=ABS&FMTS=ABS:AI&date=Jun+30%2C+1918&author=PIERRE+LOTI.+Special+Contributor+to+%22The+Times.%22&pub=Los+Angeles+Times&desc=FOURTH+OF+SERBIA'S+POPULATION+DEAD.&pqatl=google|title=Los Angeles Times: Archives – Fourth of Serbia's Population Dead|website=pqarchiver.com}}</ref><ref>{{cite web|url=https://timesmachine.nytimes.com/timesmachine/1918/04/05/102687236.pdf|title=Asserts Serbians Face Extinction; Their Plight in Occupied Districts Worse Than Belgians', Says Labor Envoy|publisher=|accessdate=19 January 2017}}</ref><ref>{{cite web|url=https://timesmachine.nytimes.com/timesmachine/1918/11/05/98273895.pdf|title=Serbia Restored|publisher=|accessdate=19 January 2017}}</ref><ref>{{cite news| url=https://timesmachine.nytimes.com/timesmachine/1918/07/28/102728073.pdf| work=New York Times| title=Serbia and Austria| date=28 July 1918 }}</ref><ref>{{cite news| url=https://timesmachine.nytimes.com/timesmachine/1918/07/27/102727338.pdf| work=New York Times| title=Appeals to Americans to pray for Serbians| date=27 July 1918 }}</ref>]] [[File:Hitler visit Finland 1942 Recolored.jpg|thumb|left|[[Nazi Germany]] began a devastating World War II in Europe by its leader, [[Adolf Hitler]].<ref name="reich">{{cite web|url=https://www.history.com/topics/world-war-ii/adolf-hitler-1|title=Adolf Hitler: Rise of Power, Impact & Death|website=History.com|access-date=26 July 2020}}</ref> From left to right, the picture of [[Marshal of Finland|Marshal]] [[Gustaf Mannerheim|C. G. E. Mannerheim]], Hitler and [[Risto Ryti]], the 5th [[President of Finland]], in 1942, when Hitler visited [[Finland]] on [[Hitler and Mannerheim recording|Mannerheim's 75th birthday]].<ref>{{cite web|url=https://providencemag.com/2016/05/birthday-with-hitler/|title=Birthday with Hitler|work=Providence|access-date=26 July 2020}}</ref><ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.hitler-archive.com/photo.php?p=4OWUkG9G|title=Visit of Adolf Hitler in Finland for the 75th birthday of Mannerheim|work=Hitler Archive|access-date=26 July 2020}}</ref><ref>{{cite web|url=https://boingboing.net/2017/11/16/hitler-mannerheim-recording.html|title=The only known recording of Hitler's normal speaking voice|website=Boing Boing|access-date=26 July 2020}}</ref>]] The [[social revolution]]s sweeping through Russia also affected other European nations following [[The Great War]]: in 1919, with the [[Weimar Republic]] in Germany, and the [[First Austrian Republic]]; in 1922, with [[Benito Mussolini|Mussolini]]'s one party [[Fascism|fascist]] government in the [[Kingdom of Italy]], and in [[Mustafa Kemal Atatürk|Atatürk]]'s [[Turkey|Turkish Republic]], adopting the Western alphabet, and state [[secularism]]. Economic instability, caused in part by debts incurred in the First World War and 'loans' to Germany played havoc in Europe in the late 1920s and 1930s. This and the [[Wall Street Crash of 1929]] brought about the worldwide [[Great Depression]]. Helped by the economic crisis, social instability and the threat of communism, [[Fascism|fascist movements]] developed throughout Europe placing [[Adolf Hitler]] in power of what became [[Nazi Germany]].<ref name="hobsbawn">{{Cite book|last=Hobsbawm|first=Eric|publisher=Vintage|year=1995|isbn=978-0-679-73005-7|title=The Age of Extremes: A history of the world, 1914–1991|url=https://archive.org/details/ageofextremeshis00hobs_0}}</ref><ref name="natgeo 438">''National Geographic'', 438.</ref> In 1933, Hitler became the leader of Germany and began to work towards his goal of building Greater Germany. Germany re-expanded and took back the [[Saarland]] and [[Rhineland]] in 1935 and 1936. In 1938, [[Austria]] became a part of Germany following the [[Anschluss]]. Later that year, following the [[Munich Agreement]] signed by Germany, France, the United Kingdom and Italy, Germany annexed the [[Sudetenland]], which was a part of [[Czechoslovakia]] inhabited by ethnic Germans, and in early 1939, the remainder of Czechoslovakia was split into the [[Protectorate of Bohemia and Moravia]], controlled by Germany, and the [[Slovak Republic (1939–1945)|Slovak Republic]]. At the time, Britain and France preferred a policy of [[appeasement]]. [[File:Nazi Occupied Europe September 1943 Map.png|thumb|[[German-occupied Europe|Nazi occupied Europe]], September 1943]] With tensions mounting between Germany and [[Second Polish Republic|Poland]] over the future of [[Gdańsk|Danzig]], the Germans turned to the Soviets, and signed the [[Molotov–Ribbentrop Pact]], which allowed the Soviets to invade the Baltic states and parts of Poland and Romania. Germany [[Invasion of Poland|invaded Poland]] on 1 September 1939, prompting France and the United Kingdom to declare war on Germany on 3 September, opening the [[European Theatre of World War II]].<ref name="reich"/><ref name="natgeo 465">National Geographic, 465.</ref><ref>{{Cite book|last=Taylor|first=A. J. P.|title= The Origins of the Second World War|year=1996|publisher=Simon & Schuster| isbn=978-0-684-82947-0}}</ref> The [[Soviet invasion of Poland]] started on 17 September and Poland fell soon thereafter. On 24 September, the Soviet Union attacked the [[Soviet occupation of the Baltic states (1940)|Baltic countries]] and later, Finland. The British hoped to land at [[Battles of Narvik|Narvik]] and send troops to aid Finland, but their primary objective in the landing was to encircle Germany and cut the Germans off from Scandinavian resources. Around the same time, Germany moved troops into Denmark; 1,400 Nazi soldiers [[German invasion of Denmark (1940)|conquered Denmark]] in one day.<ref>Clodfelter 2017: 436</ref> The [[Phoney War]] continued. In May 1940, Germany conquered the [[Battle of the Netherlands|Netherlands]] and [[Battle of Belgium|Belgium]]. That same month, [[Fascist Italy (1922–1943)|Italy]] allied with Germany and the two countries [[Battle of France|conquered France]]. By August, Germany began a [[Battle of Britain|bombing offensive on Britain]], but failed to convince the Britons to give up.<ref name="natgeo 510">''National Geographic'', 510.</ref> Some 43,000 British civilians were killed and 139,000 wounded in [[the Blitz]]; much of London was destroyed, with 1,400,245 buildings destroyed or damaged.<ref>{{cite book|last1=Clodfelter|first1=Micheal|title=Warfare and Armed Conflicts: A Statistical Encyclopedia of Casualty and Other Figures, 1492-2015, 4th ed|date=2017|publisher=McFarland|isbn=978-0786474707|page=441}}</ref> In April 1941, Germany [[Invasion of Yugoslavia|invaded Yugoslavia]]. In June 1941, Germany invaded the Soviet Union in [[Operation Barbarossa]].<ref name="natgeo 532">''National Geographic'', 532.</ref> The Soviets and Germans fought an extremely brutal war in the east that cost millions of civilian and soldier lives. The [[The Holocaust in Russia|Jews of Russia were wiped out]] by the German Nazis, who wanted to purge the world of Jews and other "[[Untermensch|subhumans]]". On 7 December 1941 [[Empire of Japan|Japan]]'s [[attack on Pearl Harbor]] drew the United States into the conflict as allies of the [[British Empire]] and other [[Allies of World War II|allied]] forces.<ref name="natgeo 511">''National Geographic'', 511.</ref><ref name="natgeo 519">''National Geographic'', 519.</ref> In 1943, the Allies knocked Italy [[Allied invasion of Sicily|out of the war]]. The [[Italian campaign (World War II)|Italian campaign]] had the highest casualty rates of the whole war for the western allies.<ref>{{cite book |last1=Forty |title=Tank Warfare, 1939–1945 |date=2020 |publisher=Pen and Sword Military}}</ref> [[File:Yalta Conference (Churchill, Roosevelt, Stalin) (B&W).jpg|thumb|The "[[Allies of World War II|Big Three]]" at the [[Yalta Conference]] in 1945; seated (from the left): [[Winston Churchill]], [[Franklin D. Roosevelt]], and [[Joseph Stalin]]]] [[File:Raising a flag over the Reichstag 2.jpg|thumb|A Russian soldier raising the Soviet flag over the [[Reichstag building|Reichstag]], during the [[Battle of Berlin]] (1945).]] After the staggering [[Battle of Stalingrad]] in 1943, the German offensive in the Soviet Union turned into a continual fallback. The [[Battle of Kursk]], which involved the largest [[Battle of Prokhorovka|tank battle]] in history, was the last major German offensive on the [[Eastern Front (World War II)|Eastern Front]]. In 1944, the Soviets and Allies both launched offensives against the Axis in Europe, with the Western Allies liberating France and much of Western Europe as the Soviets liberated much of Eastern Europe before halting in central Poland. The final year of the war saw the Soviets and Western Allies divide Germany in two after meeting along the Elbe River, while the Soviets and allied partisans liberated the Balkans. The Soviets [[Battle of Berlin|conquered]] the German capital of Berlin on 2 May 1945, ending World War II in Europe. Hitler [[Death of Adolf Hitler|killed himself]]; [[Death of Benito Mussolini|Mussolini was killed]] by partisans in Italy. The Soviet-German struggle made World War II the [[World War II casualties|bloodiest and costliest conflict in history]].<ref>Clodfelter 2017: 465</ref><ref name="natgeo 439">''National Geographic'', 439.</ref> More than 40&nbsp;million people in Europe had died as a result of World War II (70 percent on the eastern front),<ref>{{cite book |last1=Liber |first1=George O. |title=Total Wars and the Making of Modern Ukraine, 1914-1954 |date=2016 |publisher=University of Toronto Press |page=252}}</ref><ref>"[http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/4526351.stm Europe honours war dead on VE Day]". ''BBC News''. 9 May 2005.</ref> including between 11 and 17&nbsp;million people who perished during [[the Holocaust]] (the genocide against [[Jews]] and the massacre of intellectuals, [[gypsies]], [[homosexuals]], handicapped people, Slavs, and [[Red Army]] prisoners-of-war).<ref>Niewyk, Donald L. and Nicosia, Francis R. ''[https://books.google.com/books?id=lpDTIUklB2MC&pg=PP1#PPA45,M1 The Columbia Guide to the Holocaust]'', [[Columbia University Press]], 2000, pp. 45–52.</ref> The Soviet Union [[World War II casualties of the Soviet Union|lost around 27&nbsp;million people]] during the war, about half of all World War II casualties.<ref>{{Cite news|url=http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/4530565.stm|title=Leaders mourn Soviet wartime dead | work=BBC News | date=9 May 2005 | accessdate=4 January 2010}}</ref> By the end of World War II, Europe had more than 40&nbsp;million [[refugee]]s.<ref>"[http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,920455-2,00.html Refugees: Save Us! Save Us!]". ''Time''. 9 July 1979.</ref> Several [[World War II evacuation and expulsion|post-war expulsions]] in Central and Eastern Europe displaced a total of about 20&nbsp;million people,<ref>{{Cite journal|last=Schechtman|first=Joseph B.|date=1953|title=Postwar Population Transfers in Europe: A Survey|journal=The Review of Politics|volume=15|issue=2|pages=151–178|jstor=1405220|doi=10.1017/s0034670500008081}}</ref> in particular, [[Flight and expulsion of Germans (1944–1950)|German-speakers from all over Eastern Europe]]. In the aftermath of World War II, American troops were [[List of United States military bases|stationed in Western Europe]], while Soviet troops [[Military occupations by the Soviet Union|occupied]] several Central and Eastern European states. [[File:Schuman Declaration.jpg|thumb|left|The [[Schuman Declaration]] led to the creation of the [[European Coal and Steel Community]]. It began the [[European integration|integration process]] of the [[European Union]] ([[Europe Day|9 May]] 1950, at the [[French Foreign Ministry]]).]] World War I and especially World War II diminished the eminence of Western Europe in world affairs. After World War II the map of Europe was redrawn at the [[Yalta Conference]] and divided into two blocs, the Western countries and the communist Eastern bloc, separated by what was later called by [[Winston Churchill]] an "[[Iron Curtain]]". Germany was divided between the capitalist [[West Germany]] and the communist [[East Germany]]. The United States and Western Europe established the [[NATO]] alliance and later the Soviet Union and Central Europe established the [[Warsaw Pact]].<ref name="natgeo 530">National Geographic, 530.</ref> [[File:Soviet Navy Bases 1984.png|thumb| Soviet naval bases and anchor rights abroad (1984)]] The two new [[superpower]]s, the United States and the Soviet Union, became locked in a fifty-year-long [[Cold War]], centred on [[nuclear proliferation]]. At the same time [[decolonisation]], which had already started after World War I, gradually resulted in the independence of most of the European colonies in Asia and Africa.<ref name="natgeo 534"/> During the Cold War, extra-continental [[military intervention]]s were the preserve of the two superpowers, a few West European countries, and [[Cuba]].<ref>Gleijeses, P. (2010). Cuba and the Cold War, 1959–1980. In M. Leffler & O. Westad (Eds.), The Cambridge History of the Cold War (The Cambridge History of the Cold War, pp. 327-348). Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. doi:10.1017/CHOL9780521837200.017</ref> Using the small [[Caribbean]] nation of Cuba as a surrogate, the Soviets projected power to distant points of the globe, exploiting world trouble spots without directly involving their own troops.<ref>{{cite book |last1=Mallin |first1=Jay |title=Covering Castro: Rise and Decline of Cuba's Communist Dictator |date=1994 |publisher=Transaction Publishers |page=148}}</ref> [[File:Flag of Europe.svg|thumb|[[Flag of Europe]], adopted by the [[Council of Europe]] in 1955 as the flag for the whole of Europe.<ref>[http://www.coe.int/en/web/about-us/the-european-flag The European flag], Council of Europe. Retrieved 27 October 2016.</ref>]] In the 1980s the [[glasnost|reforms]] of [[Mikhail Gorbachev]] and the [[Solidarity (Polish trade union)|Solidarity]] movement in Poland accelerated the collapse of the Eastern bloc and the end of the Cold War. Germany was reunited, after the symbolic [[Berlin Wall#Fall of the Wall|fall of the Berlin Wall]] in 1989, and the maps of Central and Eastern Europe were redrawn once more.<ref name="hobsbawn"/> [[European integration]] also grew after World War II. In 1949 the [[Council of Europe]] was founded, following a speech by Sir [[Winston Churchill]], with the idea of unifying Europe to achieve common goals. It includes all European states except for [[Belarus]] and [[Vatican City]]. The [[Treaty of Rome]] in 1957 established the [[European Economic Community]] between six Western European states with the goal of a unified economic policy and common market.<ref name="natgeo 536">National Geographic, 536.</ref> In 1967 the EEC, [[European Coal and Steel Community]] and [[Euratom]] formed the [[European Community]], which in 1993 became the [[European Union]]. The EU established a [[European Parliament|parliament]], [[European Court of Justice|court]] and [[European Central Bank|central bank]] and introduced the [[euro]] as a unified currency.<ref name="natgeo 537">National Geographic, 537.</ref> Between 2004 and 2013, more Central and Eastern European countries began joining, [[Enlargement of the European Union|expanding the EU]] to 28 European countries, and once more making Europe a major economical and political centre of power.<ref name="natgeo 535">National Geographic, 535.</ref> However, the United Kingdom withdrew from the EU on 31 January 2020, as a result of a [[2016 United Kingdom European Union membership referendum|June 2016 referendum on EU membership]].<ref>{{cite news |title=UK leaves the European Union |url=https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-51333314 |accessdate=16 July 2020 |work=BBC News |date=1 February 2020}}</ref> ==Geography== {{Main|Geography of Europe}} [[File:Europe topography map en.png|thumb|Relief map of Europe and surrounding regions]] Europe makes up the western fifth of the [[Eurasia]]n landmass.<ref name="Encarta"/> It has a higher ratio of coast to landmass than any other continent or subcontinent.<ref>{{cite news |last = Cuper |first = Simon |date = 23 May 2014 |title = Why Europe works |url = http://www.ft.com/cms/s/2/51dd9432-db03-11e3-8273-00144feabdc0.html |newspaper = [[Financial Times|ft.com]] |accessdate = 28 May 2014 }}</ref> 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.<ref>[http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/195686/Europe Europe]. Encyclopædia Britannica.</ref> Land relief in Europe shows great variation within relatively small areas. The southern regions are more mountainous, while moving north the terrain descends from the high [[Alps]], [[Pyrenees]], and [[Carpathian Mountains|Carpathians]], through hilly uplands, into broad, low northern plains, which are vast in the east. This extended lowland is known as the [[Great European Plain]], and at its heart lies the [[North German Plain]]. An arc of uplands also exists along the north-western seaboard, which begins in the western parts of the islands of Britain and Ireland, and then continues along the mountainous, fjord-cut spine of Norway. This description is simplified. Sub-regions such as the [[Iberian Peninsula]] and the [[Italian Peninsula]] contain their own complex features, as does mainland Central Europe itself, where the relief contains many plateaus, river valleys and basins that complicate the general trend. Sub-regions like [[Iceland]], Britain, and Ireland are special cases. The former is a land unto itself in the northern ocean which is counted as part of Europe, while the latter are upland areas that were once joined to the mainland until rising sea levels cut them off. ===Climate=== {{Main|Climate of Europe}} [[File:Koppen-Geiger Map Europe present.svg|thumb|[[Köppen climate classification|Köppen-Geiger climate classification]] map for Europe.<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Beck |first1=Hylke E. |last2=Zimmermann |first2=Niklaus E. |last3=McVicar |first3=Tim R. |last4=Vergopolan |first4=Noemi |last5=Berg |first5=Alexis |last6=Wood |first6=Eric F. |title=Present and future Köppen-Geiger climate classification maps at 1-km resolution |journal=Scientific Data |date=30 October 2018 |volume=5 |pages=180214 |doi=10.1038/sdata.2018.214|pmid=30375988 |pmc=6207062 |bibcode=2018NatSD...580214B }}</ref>]] [[File:Vegetation Europe.png|thumb|[[Biome]]s of Europe and surrounding regions: <br /> {{legend0|#9fd6c9|[[tundra]]}} {{legend0|#a7bddb|[[alpine tundra]]}} {{legend0|#006d64|[[taiga]]}} {{legend0|#3c9798|[[montane forest]]}} <br /> {{legend0|#a4e05d|[[temperate broadleaf forest]]}} {{legend0|#907699|[[mediterranean forest]]}} {{legend0|#f7ec6f|[[temperate steppe]]}} {{legend0|#9b8447|[[dry steppe]]}} ]] Europe lies mainly in the [[temperate]] climate zones, being subjected to [[prevailing westerlies]]. The climate is milder in comparison to other areas of the same latitude around the globe due to the influence of the [[Gulf Stream]].<ref name="climate">{{cite web|url=http://www.worldbook.com/wb/Students?content_spotlight/climates/european_climate |title=European Climate |website=World Book |accessdate=16 June 2008 |publisher=World Book, Inc |url-status=dead |archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20061109230709/http://www.worldbook.com/wb/Students?content_spotlight%2Fclimates%2Feuropean_climate |archivedate=9 November 2006 |df= }}</ref> The Gulf Stream is nicknamed "Europe's central heating", because it makes Europe's climate warmer and wetter than it would otherwise be. The Gulf Stream not only carries warm water to Europe's coast but also warms up the prevailing westerly winds that blow across the continent from the Atlantic Ocean. Therefore, the average temperature throughout the year of Naples is {{convert|16|°C}}, while it is only {{convert|12|°C}} in New York City which is almost on the same latitude. Berlin, Germany; Calgary, Canada; and Irkutsk, in the Asian part of Russia, lie on around the same latitude; January temperatures in Berlin average around {{convert|8|C-change}} higher than those in Calgary, and they are almost {{convert|22|C-change}} higher than average temperatures in Irkutsk.<ref name="climate"/> Similarly, northern parts of Scotland have a temperate marine climate. The yearly average temperature in city of Inverness is {{convert|9.05|C|F}}. However, Churchill, Manitoba, Canada, is on roughly the same latitude and has an average temperature of {{convert|-6.5|C|F}}, giving it a nearly subarctic climate. 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 60th, 55th, 50th, 45th and 40th [[latitudes]]. None of them is located at high altitude; most of them are close to the sea. (location, approximate latitude and longitude, coldest month average, hottest month average and annual average temperatures in degrees C) {| class="wikitable" |+Temperatures in °C |- ! Location !! Latitude !! Longitude !!Coldest<br>month!!Hottest<br>month!!Annual<br>average |- | [[Lerwick]] || 60 N || 1 W || 3.5 || 12.4 || 7.4 |- | [[Stockholm]] || 59.5 N || 19 E || −1.7 || 18.4 || 7.4 |- | [[Helsinki]] || 60 N || 25 E || −4.7 || 17.8 || 5.9 |- | [[Saint Petersburg]] || 60 N || 30 E || −5.8 || 18.8 || 5.8 |-bgcolor="000000" |colspan=6| |- | [[Edinburgh]] || 55.5 N || 3 W || 4.2 || 15.3 || 9.3 |- | [[Copenhagen]] || 55.5 N || 12 E || 1.4 || 18.1 || 9.1 |- | [[Klaipeda]] || 55.5 N || 21 E || −1.3 || 17.9 || 8.0 |- | [[Moscow]] || 55.5 N || 30 E || −6.5 || 19.2 || 5.8 |-bgcolor="000000" |colspan=6| |- | [[Isles of Scilly]] || 50 N || 6 W || 7.9 || 16.9 || 11.8 |- | [[Brussels]] || 50.5 N || 4 E || 3.3 || 18.4 || 10.5 |- | [[Krakow]] || 50 N || 20 E || −2.0 || 19.2 || 8.7 |- | [[Kiev]] || 50.5 N || 30 E || −3.5 || 20.5 || 8.4 |-bgcolor="000000" |colspan=6| |- | [[Bordeaux]] || 45 N || 0 || 6.6 || 21.4 || 13.8 |- | [[Venice]] || 45.5 N || 12 E || 3.3 || 23.0 || 13.0 |- | [[Belgrade]] || 45 N || 20 E || 1.4 || 23.0 || 12.5 |- | [[Astrakhan]] || 46 N || 48 E || −3.7 || 25.6 || 10.5 |-bgcolor="000000" |colspan=6| |- | [[Coimbra]] || 40 N || 8 W || 9.9 || 21.9 || 16.0 |- | [[Valencia]] || 39.5 N || 0 || 11.9 || 26.1 || 18.4 |- | [[Naples]] || 40.5 N || 14 E || 8.7 || 24.7 || 15.6 |- | [[Istanbul]] || 41 N || 29 E || 6.0 || 23.8 || 11.4 |- |} <ref>Climate tables of the articles, where the precise sources can be found</ref> 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. ===Geology=== {{Main|Geology of Europe|Geological history of Europe}} [[File:Mount Elbrus May 2008.jpg|thumb|[[Mount Elbrus]] in [[Southern Russia]], is the [[List of European ultra-prominent peaks|highest mountain]] in Europe.]] [[File:Volga River. Oktyabrsk. Syzran Bridge P5171656 2200.jpg|thumb|left|The [[Volga]], which flows from [[Central Russia]] and into the [[Caspian Sea]] is the [[List of rivers of Europe#Rivers of Europe by length|longest river]] in Europe.]] The geological history of Europe traces back to the formation of the [[Baltic Shield]] (Fennoscandia) and the [[Sarmatian craton]], both around 2.25&nbsp;billion years ago, followed by the [[Volgo–Uralia]] shield, the three together leading to the [[East European craton]] (≈ [[Baltica]]) which became a part of the [[supercontinent]] [[Columbia (supercontinent)|Columbia]]. Around 1.1&nbsp;billion years ago, Baltica and Arctica (as part of the [[Laurentia]] block) became joined to [[Rodinia]], later resplitting around 550&nbsp;million years ago to reform as Baltica. Around 440&nbsp;million years ago [[Euramerica]] was formed from Baltica and Laurentia; a further joining with [[Gondwana]] then leading to the formation of [[Pangea]]. Around 190&nbsp;million years ago, Gondwana and [[Laurasia]] split apart due to the widening of the Atlantic Ocean. Finally, and very soon afterwards, Laurasia itself split up again, into Laurentia (North America) and the Eurasian continent. The land connection between the two persisted for a considerable time, via [[Greenland]], leading to interchange of animal species. From around 50&nbsp;million years ago, rising and falling sea levels have determined the actual shape of Europe, and its connections with continents such as Asia. Europe's present shape dates to the late [[Tertiary period]] about five million years ago.<ref name="Encyclopædia Britannica">{{cite encyclopedia|url=http://www.britannica.com/eb/article-9106055 |title=Europe |encyclopedia=[[Encyclopædia Britannica]] |year=2007 |accessdate=10 June 2008 |url-status=dead |archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20071204015044/http://www.britannica.com/eb/article-9106055 |archivedate=4 December 2007 }}</ref> [[File:Gibraltar-Europa-Point-LH-from-the-sea.jpg|thumb|Europa Point as seen from the [[Strait of Gibraltar]], which separates the continents of Europe and [[Africa]], also being between the [[Atlantic Ocean]] and the [[Mediterranean Sea]].]] The geology of Europe is hugely varied and complex, and gives rise to the wide variety of landscapes found across the continent, from the [[Scottish Highlands]] to the rolling [[plain]]s of Hungary.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.soton.ac.uk/~imw/jpg/eurogy.jpg|title=Geology map of Europe|year=1967|publisher=University of Southampton|accessdate=9 June 2008}}</ref> Europe's most significant feature is the dichotomy between highland and mountainous [[Southern Europe]] and a vast, partially underwater, northern plain ranging from Ireland in the west to the [[Ural Mountains]] in the east. These two halves are separated by the mountain chains of the [[Pyrenees]] and [[Alps]]/[[Carpathian Mountains|Carpathians]]. The northern plains are delimited in the west by the [[Scandinavian Mountains]] and the mountainous parts of the British Isles. Major shallow water bodies submerging parts of the northern plains are the [[Celtic Sea]], the [[North Sea]], the [[Baltic Sea]] complex and [[Barents Sea]]. The northern plain contains the old geological continent of [[Baltica]], and so may be regarded geologically as the "main continent", while peripheral highlands and mountainous regions in the south and west constitute fragments from various other geological continents. Most of the older geology of western Europe existed as part of the ancient [[microcontinent]] [[Avalonia]]. ===Flora=== Having lived side by side with agricultural peoples for millennia, Europe's animals and plants have been profoundly affected by the presence and activities of man. With the exception of [[Fennoscandia]] and northern Russia, few areas of untouched wilderness are currently found in Europe, except for various [[national park]]s. [[File:Europe land use map.png|thumb|left|Land use map of Europe with arable farmland (yellow), forest (dark green), pasture (light green), and tundra or bogs in the north (dark yellow)]] The main natural vegetation cover in Europe is mixed [[forest]]. The conditions for growth are very favourable. In the north, the [[Gulf Stream]] and [[North Atlantic Current|North Atlantic Drift]] warm the continent. Southern Europe could be described as having a warm, but mild climate. There are frequent summer droughts in this region. Mountain ridges also affect the conditions. Some of these ([[Alps]], [[Pyrenees]]) are oriented east–west and allow the wind to carry large masses of water from the ocean in the interior. Others are oriented south–north ([[Scandinavian Mountains]], [[Dinaric Alps|Dinarides]], [[Carpathian Mountains|Carpathians]], [[Apennine Mountains|Apennines]]) and because the rain falls primarily on the side of mountains that is oriented towards the sea, forests grow well on this side, while on the other side, the conditions are much less favourable. Few corners of mainland Europe have not been grazed by [[livestock]] at some point in time, and the cutting down of the pre-agricultural forest habitat caused disruption to the original plant and animal ecosystems. [[File:Floristic regions in Europe (english).png|thumb|Floristic regions of Europe and neighbouring areas, according to Wolfgang Frey and Rainer Lösch]] Probably 80 to 90 percent of Europe was once covered by forest.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.saveamericasforests.org/europages/history&geography.htm|title=History and geography|publisher=Save America's Forest Funds|accessdate=9 June 2008}}</ref> It stretched from the Mediterranean Sea to the Arctic Ocean. Although over half of Europe's original forests disappeared through the centuries of [[deforestation]], Europe still has over one quarter of its land area as forest, such as the [[Temperate broadleaf and mixed forest|broadleaf and mixed]] forests, [[taiga]] of Scandinavia and Russia, mixed [[rainforest]]s of the Caucasus and the [[Cork oak]] forests in the western Mediterranean. During recent times, deforestation has been slowed and many trees have been planted. However, in many cases monoculture [[plantation]]s of [[Pinophyta|conifers]] have replaced the original mixed natural forest, because these grow quicker. The plantations now cover vast areas of land, but offer poorer habitats for many European forest dwelling species which require a mixture of tree species and diverse forest structure. The amount of natural forest in Western Europe is just 2–3% or less, in European Russia 5–10%. The country with the smallest percentage of forested area is [[Iceland]] (1%), while the most forested country is Finland (77%).<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.mcpfe.net/system/files/u1/publications/pdf/state_of_europes_forests_2007.pdf |title=State of Europe's Forests 2007: The MCPFE report on sustainable forest management in Europe |publisher=EFI Euroforest Portal |page=182 |accessdate=9 June 2008 |url-status=dead |archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20080624190612/http://www.mcpfe.net/system/files/u1/publications/pdf/state_of_europes_forests_2007.pdf |archivedate=24 June 2008 }}</ref> In temperate Europe, mixed forest with both [[flowering plant|broadleaf]] and coniferous trees dominate. The most important species in central and western Europe are [[beech]] and [[oak]]. In the north, the taiga is a mixed [[spruce]]–[[pine]]–[[birch]] forest; further north within Russia and extreme northern Scandinavia, the taiga gives way to [[tundra]] as the Arctic is approached. In the Mediterranean, many [[olive]] trees have been planted, which are very well adapted to its arid climate; [[Cupressus sempervirens|Mediterranean Cypress]] is also widely planted in southern Europe. The semi-arid Mediterranean region hosts much scrub forest. A narrow east–west tongue of Eurasian [[grassland]] (the [[steppe]]) extends eastwards from [[Ukraine]] and southern Russia and ends in Hungary and traverses into taiga to the north. ===Fauna=== {{main|Fauna of Europe}} [[File:Europe biogeography countries.svg|thumb|left|[[Biogeography|Biogeographic regions]] of Europe and bordering regions]] Glaciation during the [[Quaternary glaciation|most recent ice age]] and the presence of man affected the distribution of [[Fauna of Europe|European fauna]]. As for the animals, in many parts of Europe most large animals and top [[predator]] species have been hunted to extinction. The [[woolly mammoth]] was extinct before the end of the [[Neolithic]] period. Today [[wolf|wolves]] ([[carnivore]]s) and [[bear]]s ([[omnivore]]s) are endangered. Once they were found in most parts of Europe. However, deforestation and hunting caused these animals to withdraw further and further. By the [[Middle Ages]] the bears' habitats were limited to more or less inaccessible mountains with sufficient forest cover. Today, the [[European brown bear|brown bear]] lives primarily in the [[Balkan|Balkan peninsula]], Scandinavia, and Russia; a small number also persist in other countries across Europe (Austria, Pyrenees etc.), but in these areas brown bear populations are fragmented and marginalised because of the destruction of their habitat. In addition, [[polar bear]]s may be found on [[Svalbard]], a Norwegian archipelago far north of Scandinavia. The [[Eurasian wolf|wolf]], the second largest predator in Europe after the brown bear, can be found primarily in [[Central and Eastern Europe]] and in the Balkans, with a handful of packs in pockets of [[Western Europe]] (Scandinavia, Spain, etc.). [[File:Neandertal - Wisent.jpg|thumb|right|Once roaming the great temperate forests of Eurasia, [[European bison]] now live in nature preserves in [[Białowieża Forest]], on the border between [[Poland]] and [[Belarus]].<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.ultimateungulate.com/artiodactyla/bison_bonasus.html|title=European bison, Wisent|publisher=|accessdate=19 January 2017|url-status=dead|archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20161226095419/http://www.ultimateungulate.com/artiodactyla/bison_bonasus.html|archivedate=26 December 2016}}</ref><ref>{{cite news| url=http://news.bbc.co.uk/earth/hi/earth_news/newsid_8182000/8182104.stm | work=BBC News | first=Matt | last=Walker | title=European bison on 'genetic brink' | date=4 August 2009}}</ref>]] European wild cat, foxes (especially the red fox), jackal and different species of martens, hedgehogs, different species of reptiles (like snakes such as vipers and grass snakes) and amphibians, different birds (owls, hawks and other birds of prey). Important European herbivores are snails, larvae, fish, different birds, and mammals, like rodents, deer and roe deer, boars, and living in the mountains, marmots, steinbocks, chamois among others. A number of insects, such as the [[small tortoiseshell]] butterfly, add to the biodiversity.<ref>{{cite journal | last1 = Bryant | first1 = S. | last2 = Thomas | first2 = C. | last3 = Bale | first3 = J. | year = 1997 | title = Nettle-feeding nymphalid butterflies: temperature, development and distribution | url = | journal = Ecological Entomology | volume = 22 | issue = 4| pages = 390–398 | doi = 10.1046/j.1365-2311.1997.00082.x }}</ref> The extinction of the [[Cretan Dwarf Hippopotamus|dwarf hippos]] and [[dwarf elephant]]s has been linked to the earliest arrival of humans on the islands of the [[Mediterranean]].<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.geocities.com/RainForest/3096/palaeol.html|title=Paleolithic Man and his Environment in Malta|last1=Savona-Ventura|first1=C.|last2=Mifsud|first2=A.|date=9 April 1997|accessdate=19 July 2014|archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20091018195453/http://geocities.com/RainForest/3096/palaeol.html|archivedate=18 October 2009|url-status=dead}}</ref> Sea creatures are also an important part of European flora and fauna. The sea flora is mainly [[phytoplankton]]. Important animals that live in European seas are [[zooplankton]], [[mollusc]]s, [[echinoderm]]s, different [[crustacean]]s, [[squid]]s and [[octopuses]], fish, [[dolphin]]s, and [[whales]]. Biodiversity is protected in Europe through the Council of Europe's [[Convention on the Conservation of European Wildlife and Natural Habitats|Bern Convention]], which has also been signed by the [[European Community]] as well as non-European states. {{anchor|Political geography}} ==Politics== {{Main|Politics of Europe}} {{See also|List of sovereign states and dependent territories in Europe|International organisations in Europe|Regions of Europe|European integration}} {{Supranational European Bodies|size=300px|align=right}} The political map of Europe is substantially derived from the re-organisation of Europe following the [[Napoleonic Wars]] in 1815. The prevalent form of government in Europe is [[parliamentary democracy]], in most cases in the form of [[Republic]]; in 1815, the prevalent form of government was still the [[Monarchies in Europe|Monarchy]]. Europe's remaining eleven monarchies<ref>not counting the microstate of [[Vatican City]]</ref> are [[constitutional monarchy|constitutional]]. [[European integration]] is 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 the [[Council of Europe]] since the end of [[World War II]] The [[European Union]] has been the focus of economic integration on the continent since its foundation in 1993. More recently, the [[Eurasian Economic Union]] has been established as a counterpart comprising former Soviet states. 27 European states are members of the politico-economic European Union, 26 of the border-free [[Schengen Area]] and 19 of the monetary union [[Eurozone]]. Among the smaller European organisations are the [[Nordic Council]], the [[Benelux]], the [[Baltic Assembly]] and the [[Visegrád Group]]. ==List of states and territories== {{main|List of sovereign states and dependent territories in Europe|Area and population of European countries}} The list below includes all entities falling even partially under any of the [[Geopolitical divisions of Europe|various common definitions of Europe]], geographically or politically. {| class="sortable wikitable" ! style="line-height:95%; width:2em" class="unsortable" | [[Flag]]<ref>Eu flag for Eu members</ref> ! style="line-height:95%; width:2em" class="unsortable" | [[Armorial of Europe|Arms]] ! Name ! [[List of countries by area|Area]]<br />(km²) ! [[List of countries by population|Population]]<br /> ! [[List of countries by population density|Population<br>density]]<br />(per km²) ! [[Capital city|Capital]] ! [[Language|Name(s) in official language(s)]] |- | style="text-align:center;"| {{flagicon|ALB}} | style="text-align:center;"| {{Coat of arms|Albania|text=none}} | [[Albania]] | style="text-align:right;"| 28,748 | style="text-align:right;"| 2,876,591 | style="text-align:right;"| 98.5 | [[Tirana]] | Shqipëria |-| | style="text-align:center;"| {{flagicon|AND}} | style="text-align:center;"| {{Coat of arms|Andorra|text=none}} | [[Andorra]] | style="text-align:right;"| 468 | style="text-align:right;"| 77,281 | style="text-align:right;"| 179.8 | [[Andorra la Vella]] | Andorra |- | style="text-align:center;"|{{Flagicon|Eurasian Economic Union}}{{flagicon|ARM}} | style="text-align:center;"| {{Coat of arms|Armenia|text=none}} | [[Armenia]]&thinsp;{{cref2|j}} | style="text-align:right;"| 29,743 | style="text-align:right;"| 2,924,816 | style="text-align:right;"| 101.5 | [[Yerevan]] | Հայաստան (Hayastan) |- | style="text-align:center;"|{{Flagicon|EU}}{{flagicon|AUT}} | style="text-align:center;"| {{Coat of arms|Austria|text=none}} | [[Austria]] | style="text-align:right;"| 83,858 | style="text-align:right;"| 8,823,054 | style="text-align:right;"| 104 | [[Vienna]] | Österreich |- | style="text-align:center;"| {{flagicon|AZE}} | style="text-align:center;"| {{Coat of arms|Azerbaijan|text=none}} | [[Azerbaijan]]&thinsp;{{cref2|k}} | style="text-align:right;"| 86,600 | style="text-align:right;"| 9,911,646 | style="text-align:right;"| 113 | [[Baku]] | Azǝrbaycan |- | style="text-align:center;"|{{Flagicon|Eurasian Economic Union}}{{flagicon|BLR}} | style="text-align:center;"| {{Coat of arms|Belarus|text=none}} | [[Belarus]] | style="text-align:right;"| 207,560 | style="text-align:right;"| 9,504,700 | style="text-align:right;"| 45.8 | [[Minsk]] | {{lang|be|Беларусь}} ({{transl|be|Belaruś}}) |- | style="text-align:center;"|{{Flagicon|EU}}{{flagicon|BEL}} | style="text-align:center;"| {{Coat of arms|Belgium|text=none}} | [[Belgium]] | style="text-align:right;"| 30,528 | style="text-align:right;"| 11,358,357 | style="text-align:right;"| 372.06 | [[Brussels]] | België/Belgique/Belgien |- | style="text-align:center;"| {{flagicon|BIH}} | style="text-align:center;"| {{Coat of arms|Bosnia and Herzegovina|text=none}} | [[Bosnia and Herzegovina]] | style="text-align:right;"| 51,129 | style="text-align:right;"| 3,531,159 | style="text-align:right;"| 68.97 | [[Sarajevo]] | {{lang|bs|Bosna i Hercegovina}}/{{lang|bs-Cyrl|Боснa и Херцеговина}} |- | style="text-align:center;"|{{Flagicon|EU}}{{flagicon|BUL}} | style="text-align:center;"| {{Coat of arms|Bulgaria|text=none}} | [[Bulgaria]] | style="text-align:right;"| 110,910 | style="text-align:right;"| 7,101,859 | style="text-align:right;"| 64.9 | [[Sofia]] | {{lang|bg|България}} ({{transl|bg|Bǎlgariya}}) |- | style="text-align:center;"|{{Flagicon|EU}}{{flagicon|CRO}} | style="text-align:center;"| {{Coat of arms|Croatia|text=none}} | [[Croatia]] | style="text-align:right;"| 56,542 | style="text-align:right;"| 4,284,889 | style="text-align:right;"| 75.8 | [[Zagreb]] | Hrvatska |- | style="text-align:center;"|{{Flagicon|EU}}{{flagicon|CYP}} | style="text-align:center;"| {{Coat of arms|Cyprus|text=none}} | [[Cyprus]]&thinsp;{{cref2|d|1}} | style="text-align:right;"| 9,251 | style="text-align:right;"| 1,170,125 | style="text-align:right;"| 123.4 | [[Nicosia]] | Kýpros/Kıbrıs |- | style="text-align:center;"|{{Flagicon|EU}}{{flagicon|CZE}} | style="text-align:center;"| {{Coat of arms|Czech Republic|text=none}} | [[Czech Republic]] | style="text-align:right;"| 78,866 | style="text-align:right;"| 10,610,947 | style="text-align:right;"| 134 | [[Prague]] | Česko |- | style="text-align:center;"|{{Flagicon|EU}}{{flagicon|DEN}} | style="text-align:center;"| {{Coat of arms|Denmark|text=none}} | [[Denmark]] | style="text-align:right;"| 43,094 | style="text-align:right;"| 5,748,796 | style="text-align:right;"| 133.9 | [[Copenhagen]] | Danmark |- | style="text-align:center;"|{{Flagicon|EU}}{{flagicon|EST}} | style="text-align:center;"| {{Coat of arms|Estonia|text=none}} | [[Estonia]] | style="text-align:right;"| 45,226 | style="text-align:right;"| 1,319,133 | style="text-align:right;"| 28 | [[Tallinn]] | Eesti |- | style="text-align:center;"|{{Flagicon|EU}}{{flagicon|FIN}} | style="text-align:center;"| {{Coat of arms|Finland|text=none}} | [[Finland]] | style="text-align:right;"| 338,455 | style="text-align:right;"| 5,509,717 | style="text-align:right;"| 16 | [[Helsinki]] | Suomi/Finland |- | style="text-align:center;"|{{Flagicon|EU}}{{flagicon|FRA}} | style="text-align:center;"| {{Coat of arms|France|text=none}} | [[France]]&thinsp;{{cref2|g}} | style="text-align:right;"| 547,030 | style="text-align:right;"| 67,348,000 | style="text-align:right;"| 116 | [[Paris]] | France |- | style="text-align:center;"| {{flagicon|GEO (country)}} | style="text-align:center;"| {{Coat of arms|Georgia|text=none|link=Georgia (country)}} | [[Georgia (country)|Georgia]]&thinsp;{{cref2|l}} | style="text-align:right;"| 69,700 | style="text-align:right;"| 3,718,200 | style="text-align:right;"| 53.5 | [[Tbilisi]] | საქართველო (Sakartvelo) |- | style="text-align:center;"|{{Flagicon|EU}}{{flagicon|GER}} | style="text-align:center;"| {{Coat of arms|Germany|text=none}} | [[Germany]] | style="text-align:right;"| 357,168 | style="text-align:right;"| 82,800,000 | style="text-align:right;"| 232 | [[Berlin]] | Deutschland |- | style="text-align:center;"|{{Flagicon|EU}}{{flagicon|GRE}} | style="text-align:center;"| {{Coat of arms|Greece|text=none}} | [[Greece]] | style="text-align:right;"| 131,957 | style="text-align:right;"| 10,768,477 | style="text-align:right;"| 82 | [[Athens]] | Ελλάδα (Elláda) |- | style="text-align:center;"|{{Flagicon|EU}}{{flagicon|HUN}} | style="text-align:center;"| {{Coat of arms|Hungary|text=none}} | [[Hungary]] | style="text-align:right;"| 93,030 | style="text-align:right;"| 9,797,561 | style="text-align:right;"| 105.3 | [[Budapest]] | Magyarország |- | style="text-align:center;"| {{flagicon|ISL}} | style="text-align:center;"| {{Coat of arms|Iceland|text=none}} | [[Iceland]] | style="text-align:right;"| 103,000 | style="text-align:right;"| 350,710 | style="text-align:right;"| 3.2 | [[Reykjavík]] | Ísland |- | style="text-align:center;"| {{Flagicon|EU}}{{flagicon|IRL}} | style="text-align:center;"| {{Coat of arms|Ireland|text=none}} | [[Republic of Ireland|Ireland]] | style="text-align:right;"| 70,280 | style="text-align:right;"| 4,761,865 | style="text-align:right;"| 67.7 | [[Dublin]] | Éire/Ireland |- | style="text-align:center;"|{{Flagicon|EU}}{{flagicon|ITA}} | style="text-align:center;"| {{Coat of arms|Italy|text=none}} | [[Italy]] | style="text-align:right;"| 301,338 | style="text-align:right;"| 60,589,445 | style="text-align:right;"| 201.3 | [[Rome]] | Italia |- | style="text-align:center;"|{{Flagicon|Eurasian Economic Union}}{{flagicon|KAZ}} | style="text-align:center;"| {{Coat of arms|Kazakhstan|text=none}} | [[Kazakhstan]]&thinsp;{{cref2|i}} | style="text-align:right;"| 2,724,900 | style="text-align:right;"| 17,987,736 | style="text-align:right;"| 6.49 | [[Nur-Sultan]] | {{lang|kk|Қазақстан}} ({{lang|kk|Qazaqstan}}) |- | style="text-align:center;"|{{Flagicon|EU}}{{flagicon|LVA}} | style="text-align:center;"| {{Coat of arms|Latvia|text=none}} | [[Latvia]] | style="text-align:right;"| 64,589 | style="text-align:right;"| 1,925,800 | style="text-align:right;"| 34.3 | [[Riga]] | Latvija |- | style="text-align:center;"| {{flagicon|LIE}} | style="text-align:center;"| {{Coat of arms|Liechtenstein|text=none}} | [[Liechtenstein]] | style="text-align:right;"| 160 | style="text-align:right;"| 38,111 | style="text-align:right;"| 227 | [[Vaduz]] | Liechtenstein |- | style="text-align:center;"|{{Flagicon|EU}}{{flagicon|LTU}} | style="text-align:center;"| {{Coat of arms|Lithuania|text=none}} | [[Lithuania]] | style="text-align:right;"| 65,300 | style="text-align:right;"| 2,800,667 | style="text-align:right;"| 45.8 | [[Vilnius]] | Lietuva |- | style="text-align:center;"|{{Flagicon|EU}}{{flagicon|LUX}} | style="text-align:center;"| {{Coat of arms|Luxembourg|text=none}} | [[Luxembourg]] | style="text-align:right;"| 2,586 | style="text-align:right;"| 602,005 | style="text-align:right;"| 233.7 | [[Luxembourg (city)|Luxembourg]] | Lëtzebuerg/Luxemburg/Luxembourg |- | style="text-align:center;"|{{Flagicon|EU}}{{flagicon|MLT}} | style="text-align:center;"| {{Coat of arms|Malta|text=none}} | [[Malta]] | style="text-align:right;"| 316 | style="text-align:right;"| 445,426 | style="text-align:right;"| 1,410 | [[Valletta]] | Malta |- | style="text-align:center;"| {{flagicon|MDA}} | style="text-align:center;"| {{Coat of arms|Moldova|text=none}} | [[Moldova]]&thinsp;{{cref2|a|1}} | style="text-align:right;"| 33,846 | style="text-align:right;"| 4,434,547 | style="text-align:right;"| 131.0 | [[Chișinău]] | Moldova |- | style="text-align:center;"| {{flagicon|MON}} | style="text-align:center;"| {{Coat of arms|Monaco|text=none}} | [[Monaco]] | style="text-align:right;"| 2.020 | style="text-align:right;"| 38,400 | style="text-align:right;"| 18,713 | [[Monaco]] | Monaco |- | style="text-align:center;"| {{flagicon|MNE}} | style="text-align:center;"| {{Coat of arms|Montenegro|text=none}} | [[Montenegro]] | style="text-align:right;"| 13,812 | style="text-align:right;"| 642,550 | style="text-align:right;"| 45.0 | [[Podgorica]] | {{lang|mis-Latn|Crna Gora}}/{{lang|mis-Cyrl|Црна Гора}} |- | style="text-align:center;"|{{Flagicon|EU}}{{flagicon|NED}} | style="text-align:center;"| {{Coat of arms|Netherlands|text=none}} | [[Netherlands]]&thinsp;{{cref2|h}} | style="text-align:right;"| 41,543 | style="text-align:right;"| 17,271,990 | style="text-align:right;"| 414.9 | [[Amsterdam]] | Nederland |- | style="text-align:center;"| {{flagicon|NMK}} | style="text-align:center;"| {{Coat of arms|Republic of Macedonia|link=North Macedonia|text=none}} | [[North Macedonia]] | style="text-align:right;"| 25,713 | style="text-align:right;"| 2,103,721 | style="text-align:right;"| 80.1 | [[Skopje]] | {{lang|mk|Северна Македонија}} ({{transl|mk|Severna Makedonija}}) |- | style="text-align:center;"| {{flagicon|NOR}} | style="text-align:center;"| {{Coat of arms|Norway|text=none}} | [[Norway]] | style="text-align:right;"| 385,203 | style="text-align:right;"| 5,295,619 | style="text-align:right;"| 15.8 | [[Oslo]] | Norge/Noreg/Norga |- | style="text-align:center;"|{{Flagicon|EU}}{{flagicon|POL}} | style="text-align:center;"| {{Coat of arms|Poland|text=none}} | [[Poland]] | style="text-align:right;"| 312,685 | style="text-align:right;"| 38,422,346 | style="text-align:right;"| 123.5 | [[Warsaw]] | Polska |- | style="text-align:center;"|{{Flagicon|EU}}{{flagicon|POR}} | style="text-align:center;"| {{Coat of arms|Portugal|text=none}} | [[Portugal]]&thinsp;{{cref2|e}} | style="text-align:right;"| 92,212 | style="text-align:right;"| 10,379,537 | style="text-align:right;"| 115 | [[Lisbon]] | Portugal |- | style="text-align:center;"|{{Flagicon|EU}}{{flagicon|ROU}} | style="text-align:center;"| {{Coat of arms|Romania|text=none}} | [[Romania]] | style="text-align:right;"| 238,397 | style="text-align:right;"| 19,638,000 | style="text-align:right;"| 84.4 | [[Bucharest]] | România |- | style="text-align:center;"|{{Flagicon|Eurasian Economic Union}}{{flagicon|RUS}} | style="text-align:center;"| {{Coat of arms|Russia|text=none}} | [[Russia]]&thinsp;{{cref2|b}} | style="text-align:right;"| 17,098,246 | style="text-align:right;"| 144,526,636 | style="text-align:right;"| 8.4 | [[Moscow]] | {{lang|ru|Россия}} ({{transl|ru|Rossiya}}) |- | style="text-align:center;"| {{flagicon|SMR}} | style="text-align:center;"| {{Coat of arms|San Marino|text=none}} | [[San Marino]] | style="text-align:right;"| 61.2 | style="text-align:right;"| 33,285 | style="text-align:right;"| 520 | [[San Marino, San Marino|San Marino]] | San Marino |- | style="text-align:center;"| {{flagicon|SRB}} | style="text-align:center;"| {{Coat of arms|Serbia|text=none}} | [[Serbia]]&thinsp;{{cref2|f}} | style="text-align:right;"| 88,361 | style="text-align:right;"| 7,040,272 | style="text-align:right;"| 91.1 | [[Belgrade]] | {{lang|sr-Latn|Srbija}}/{{lang|sr-Cyrl|Србија}} |- | style="text-align:center;"|{{Flagicon|EU}}{{flagicon|SVK}} | style="text-align:center;"| {{Coat of arms|Slovakia|text=none}} | [[Slovakia]] | style="text-align:right;"| 49,035 | style="text-align:right;"| 5,435,343 | style="text-align:right;"| 111.0 | [[Bratislava]] | Slovensko |- | style="text-align:center;"|{{Flagicon|EU}}{{flagicon|SVN}} | style="text-align:center;"| {{Coat of arms|Slovenia|text=none}} | [[Slovenia]] | style="text-align:right;"| 20,273 | style="text-align:right;"| 2,066,880 | style="text-align:right;"| 101.8 | [[Ljubljana]] | Slovenija |- | style="text-align:center;"|{{Flagicon|EU}}{{flagicon|ESP}} | style="text-align:center;"| {{Coat of arms|Spain|text=none}} | [[Spain]] | style="text-align:right;"| 505,990 | style="text-align:right;"| 46,698,151 | style="text-align:right;"| 92 | [[Madrid]] | España |- | style="text-align:center;"|{{Flagicon|EU}}{{flagicon|SWE}} | style="text-align:center;"| {{Coat of arms|Sweden|text=none}} | [[Sweden]] | style="text-align:right;"| 450,295 | style="text-align:right;"| 10,151,588 | style="text-align:right;"| 22.5 | [[Stockholm]] | Sverige |- | style="text-align:center;"| {{flagicon|SUI}} | style="text-align:center;"| {{Coat of arms|Switzerland|text=none}} | [[Switzerland]] | style="text-align:right;"| 41,285 | style="text-align:right;"| 8,401,120 | style="text-align:right;"| 202 | [[Bern]] | Schweiz/Suisse/Svizzera/Svizra |- | style="text-align:center;"| {{flagicon|TUR}} | style="text-align:center;"| [[File:TurkishEmblem.svg|20px]] | [[Turkey]]&thinsp;{{cref2|m}} | style="text-align:right;"| 783,356 | style="text-align:right;"| 80,810,525 | style="text-align:right;"| 105 | [[Ankara]] | Türkiye |- | style="text-align:center;"| {{flagicon|UKR}} | style="text-align:center;"| {{Coat of arms|Ukraine|text=none}} | [[Ukraine]] | style="text-align:right;"| 603,628 | style="text-align:right;"| 42,418,235 | style="text-align:right;"| 73.8 | [[Kiev]] | {{lang|uk|Україна}} ({{transl|uk|Ukraina}}) |- | style="text-align:center;"| {{flagicon|UK}} | style="text-align:center;"| {{Coat of arms|United Kingdom|text=none}} | [[United Kingdom]] | style="text-align:right;"| 244,820 | style="text-align:right;"| 66,040,229 | style="text-align:right;"| 270.7 | [[London]] | United Kingdom |- | style="text-align:center;"| {{flagicon|Vatican City}} | style="text-align:center;"| {{Coat of arms|Vatican City|text=none}} | [[Vatican City]] | style="text-align:right;"| 0.44 | style="text-align:right;"| 1,000 | style="text-align:right;"| 2,272 | [[Vatican City]] | Città del Vaticano/Civitas Vaticana |- class="sortbottom" style="font-weight:bold;" | colspan="2" | Total | style="text-align:right;"| 50 | style="text-align:right;"| 10,180,000{{cref2|n|3}} | style="text-align:right;"| 743,000,000{{cref2|n|4}} | style="text-align:right;"| 73 | | |} Within the above-mentioned states are several [[de facto]] independent countries with [[List of states with limited recognition|limited to no international recognition]]. None of them are members of the UN: {| class="sortable wikitable" ! style="line-height:95%; width:2em" class="unsortable" | [[Flag]] ! style="line-height:95%; width:2em" class="unsortable" | [[National symbol|Symbol]] ! Name ! [[List of countries by area|Area]]<br />(km²) ! [[List of countries by population|Population]]<br /> ! [[List of countries by population density|Population density]]<br />(per km²) ! [[Capital (political)|Capital]] |- | style="text-align:center"| {{flagicon|Abkhazia}} | style="text-align:center"| {{Coat of arms|Abkhazia|text=none}} | [[Abkhazia]]&thinsp;{{cref2|p|1}} | style="text-align:right;"| 8,660 | style="text-align:right;"| 243,206 | style="text-align:right;"| 28 | [[Sukhumi]] |- | style="text-align:center"| {{flagicon|Artsakh}} | style="text-align:center"| {{Coat of arms|Nagorno-Karabakh|text=none}} | [[Republic of Artsakh|Artsakh]]&thinsp;{{cref2|q}} | style="text-align:right;"| 11,458 | style="text-align:right;"| 150,932 | style="text-align:right;"| 12 | [[Stepanakert]] |- | style="text-align:center"| {{flagicon|Kosovo}} | style="text-align:center"| {{Coat of arms|Kosovo|text=none}} | [[Kosovo]]&thinsp;{{cref2|o}} | style="text-align:right;"| 10,908 | style="text-align:right;" |1,920,079 | style="text-align:right;"| 159 | [[Pristina]] |- | style="text-align:center"| {{flagicon|Northern Cyprus}} | style="text-align:center"| {{Coat of arms|Northern Cyprus|text=none}} | [[Northern Cyprus]]&thinsp;{{cref2|d|2}} | style="text-align:right;"| 3,355 | style="text-align:right;"| 313,626 | style="text-align:right;"| 93 | [[Nicosia]] |- | style="text-align:center"| {{flagicon|South Ossetia}} | style="text-align:center"| {{Coat of arms|South Ossetia|text=none}} | [[South Ossetia]]&thinsp;{{cref2|p|2}} | style="text-align:right;"| 3,900 | style="text-align:right;"| 53,532 | style="text-align:right;"| 13.7 | [[Tskhinvali]] |- | style="text-align:center"| {{flagicon|Transnistria}} | style="text-align:center"| {{Coat of arms|Transnistria|text=none}} | [[Transnistria]]&thinsp;{{cref2|a|2}} | style="text-align:right;"| 4,163 | style="text-align:right;"| 475,665 | style="text-align:right;"| 114 | [[Tiraspol]] |} Several dependencies and similar territories with broad autonomy are also found within or in close proximity to Europe. This includes Åland (a [[region of Finland]]), two constituent countries of the Kingdom of Denmark (other than Denmark itself), three [[Crown dependencies]], and two [[British Overseas Territories]]. Svalbard is also included due to its unique status within Norway, although it is not autonomous. Not included are the three [[countries of the United Kingdom]] with devolved powers and the two [[Autonomous Regions of Portugal]], which despite having a unique degree of autonomy, are not largely self-governing in matters other than international affairs. Areas with little more than a unique tax status, such as [[Heligoland]] and the [[Canary Islands]], are also not included for this reason. {| class="sortable wikitable" |- ! style="line-height:95%; width:2em" class="unsortable" | [[Flag]] ! style="line-height:95%; width:2em" class="unsortable" | [[National symbol|Symbol]] ! Name !Sovereign<br>state ! [[List of countries by area|Area]]<br />(km²) ! [[List of countries by population|Population]] ! [[List of countries by population density|Population<br>density]]<br />(per km²) ! [[Capital (political)|Capital]] |- | style="text-align:center"| {{flagicon|Akrotiri and Dhekelia}} | style="text-align:center"| <!--None widely used--> | [[Akrotiri and Dhekelia|Sovereign Base Areas of Akrotiri and Dhekelia]]||UK | style="text-align:right;"| 254 | style="text-align:right;"| 15,700 | style="text-align:right;"| 59.1 | [[Episkopi Cantonment]] |- | style="text-align:center"| {{flagicon|Åland}} | style="text-align:center"| {{Coat of arms|Åland|text=none}} | [[Åland]]||Finland | style="text-align:right;"| 13,517 | style="text-align:right;"| 29,489 | style="text-align:right;"| 18.36 | [[Mariehamn]] |- | style="text-align:center"| {{flagg|cxx|Guernsey|clink=Bailiwick of Guernsey}} | style="text-align:center"| {{Coat of arms|Guernsey|link=Bailiwick of Guernsey|text=none}} | [[Bailiwick of Guernsey]]&thinsp;{{cref2|c|1}}||UK | style="text-align:right;"| 78 | style="text-align:right;"| 65,849 | style="text-align:right;"| 844.0 | [[St. Peter Port]] |- | style="text-align:center"| {{flagicon|Jersey}} | style="text-align:center"| {{Coat of arms|Jersey|text=none}} | [[Jersey|Bailiwick of Jersey]]&thinsp;{{cref2|c|3}}||UK | style="text-align:right;"| 118.2 | style="text-align:right;"| 100,080 | style="text-align:right;"| 819 | [[Saint Helier]] |- | style="text-align:center"| {{flagicon|Faroe Islands}} | style="text-align:center"| {{Coat of arms|Faroe Islands|text=none}} | [[Faroe Islands]]||Denmark | style="text-align:right;"| 1,399 | style="text-align:right;"| 50,778 | style="text-align:right;"| 35.2 | [[Tórshavn]] |- | style="text-align:center"| {{flagicon|Gibraltar}} | style="text-align:center"| {{Coat of arms|Gibraltar|text=none}} | [[Gibraltar]]||UK | style="text-align:right;"| 6.7 | style="text-align:right;"| 32,194 | style="text-align:right;"| 4,328 | [[Gibraltar]] |- | style="text-align:center"| {{flagicon|Greenland}} | style="text-align:center"| {{Coat of arms|Greenland|text=none}} | [[Greenland]] ||Denmark&thinsp;{{cref2|r|2}} | style="text-align:right;"| 2,166,086 | style="text-align:right;"| 55,877 | style="text-align:right;"| 0.028 | [[Nuuk]] |- | style="text-align:center"| {{flagicon|Isle of Man}} | style="text-align:center"| {{Coat of arms|Isle of Man|text=none}} | [[Isle of Man]]&thinsp;{{cref2|c|2}}||UK | style="text-align:right;"| 572 | style="text-align:right;"| 83,314 | style="text-align:right;"| 148 | [[Douglas, Isle of Man|Douglas]] |- | style="text-align:center"| {{flagicon|Svalbard}} | style="text-align:center"| <!-- None widely used--> | [[Svalbard]] ||Norway | style="text-align:right;"| 61,022 | style="text-align:right;"| 2,667 | style="text-align:right;"| 0.044 | [[Longyearbyen]] |} ==Economy== [[File:Europe-GDP-PPP-per-capita-map.png|thumb|European and bordering nations by [[GDP]] (PPP) per capita]] {{Main|Economy of Europe|List of sovereign states in Europe by GDP (nominal)|List of sovereign states in Europe by GDP (PPP)}} 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&nbsp;trillion compared to North America's $27.1&nbsp;trillion in 2008.<ref>{{cite news|last=Fineman |first=Josh |url=https://www.bloomberg.com/news/world |title=Bloomberg.com |publisher=Bloomberg.com |date=15 September 2009 |accessdate=23 August 2010 |url-status=dead |archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20150128110049/http://www.bloomberg.com/news/world |archivedate=28 January 2015 }}</ref> 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.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.pr-inside.com/global-wealth-stages-a-strong-comeback-r1942019.htm |title=Global Wealth Stages a Strong Comeback |publisher=Pr-inside.com |date=10 June 2010 |accessdate=23 August 2010 |url-status=dead |archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20110520174617/http://www.pr-inside.com/global-wealth-stages-a-strong-comeback-r1942019.htm |archivedate=20 May 2011 }}</ref> As with other continents, Europe has a large variation of wealth among its countries. The richer states tend to be in the [[Western Europe|West]]; some of the [[Central and Eastern Europe]]an economies are still emerging from the [[collapse of the Soviet Union]] and the [[breakup of Yugoslavia]]. The European Union, a political entity composed of 28 European states, comprises the [[List of countries by GDP|largest single economic area]] in the world. 19 EU [[Eurozone|countries]] share the [[euro]] as a common currency. Five European countries rank in the top ten of the world's largest [[List of countries by GDP (PPP)|national economies in GDP (PPP)]]. This includes (ranks according to the [[The CIA World Factbook|CIA]]): Germany (6), Russia (7), the United Kingdom (10), France (11), and Italy (13).<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.cia.gov/library/publications/the-world-factbook/rankorder/2001rank.html|title=The CIA World Factbook – GDP (PPP)|date=15 July 2008|accessdate=19 July 2008|publisher=[[CIA]]}}</ref> There is huge disparity between many European countries in terms of their income. The richest in terms of GDP per capita is [[Monaco]] with its US$172,676 per capita (2009) and the poorest is [[Moldova]] with its GDP per capita of US$1,631 (2010).<ref>{{cite web|url=http://databank.worldbank.org/ddp/home.do?Step=12&id=4&CNO=2|title=The World Bank DataBank |website=worldbank.org}}</ref> Monaco is the richest country in terms of GDP per capita in the world according to the World Bank report. As a whole, Europe's GDP per capita is US$21,767 according to a 2016 International Monetary Fund assessment.<ref>Some data refers to IMF staff estimates but some are actual figures for the year 2017, made in 12 April 2017. [http://www.imf.org/external/pubs/ft/weo/2017/02/weodata/weorept.aspx?sy=2016&ey=2016&scsm=1&ssd=1&sort=country&ds=.&br=1&c=512%2C672%2C914%2C946%2C612%2C137%2C614%2C546%2C311%2C962%2C213%2C674%2C911%2C676%2C193%2C548%2C122%2C556%2C912%2C678%2C313%2C181%2C419%2C867%2C513%2C682%2C316%2C684%2C913%2C273%2C124%2C868%2C339%2C921%2C638%2C948%2C514%2C943%2C218%2C686%2C963%2C688%2C616%2C518%2C223%2C728%2C516%2C836%2C918%2C558%2C748%2C138%2C618%2C196%2C624%2C278%2C522%2C692%2C622%2C694%2C156%2C142%2C626%2C449%2C628%2C564%2C228%2C565%2C924%2C283%2C233%2C853%2C632%2C288%2C636%2C293%2C634%2C566%2C238%2C964%2C662%2C182%2C960%2C359%2C423%2C453%2C935%2C968%2C128%2C922%2C611%2C714%2C321%2C862%2C243%2C135%2C248%2C716%2C469%2C456%2C253%2C722%2C642%2C942%2C643%2C718%2C939%2C724%2C644%2C576%2C819%2C936%2C172%2C961%2C132%2C813%2C646%2C199%2C648%2C733%2C915%2C184%2C134%2C524%2C652%2C361%2C174%2C362%2C328%2C364%2C258%2C732%2C656%2C366%2C654%2C734%2C336%2C144%2C263%2C146%2C268%2C463%2C532%2C528%2C944%2C923%2C176%2C738%2C534%2C578%2C536%2C537%2C429%2C742%2C433%2C866%2C178%2C369%2C436%2C744%2C136%2C186%2C343%2C925%2C158%2C869%2C439%2C746%2C916%2C926%2C664%2C466%2C826%2C112%2C542%2C111%2C967%2C298%2C443%2C927%2C917%2C846%2C544%2C299%2C941%2C582%2C446%2C474%2C666%2C754%2C668%2C698&s=NGDPDPC&grp=0&a=&pr.x=50&pr.y=13 World Economic Outlook Database–April 2017], [[International Monetary Fund]]. Accessed on 18 April 2017.</ref> {| class="wikitable" style="text-align: right; float:left; border:1px solid #aaa; margin:10px" |- style="background:#dbdbdb;" ! Rank ! Country ! [[List of IMF ranked countries by past and projected GDP (nominal)|GDP]] <small>(nominal, Peak Year)</small><br /><small>millions of [[International dollar|USD]]</small> ! Peak Year |- |– | align="left" |''{{nowrap|{{flag|European Union}}}}'' || 19,226,235 || 2008 |- | 1 ||align=left|{{flag|Germany}}||3,982,235||2020 |- | 2 ||align=left|{{nowrap|{{flag|United Kingdom}}}} ||3,085,300||2007 |- | 3 ||align=left|{{flag|France}}||2,929,983||2008 |- | 4 ||align=left|{{flag|Italy}}|| 2,400,232 || 2008 |- | 5 ||align=left|{{flag|Russia}} || 2,292,464 || 2013 |- | 6 ||align=left|{{flag|Spain}}||1,641,514||2008 |- | 7 ||align=left|{{flag|Netherlands}}|| 951,766 || 2008 |- | 8 ||align=left|{{flag|Turkey}} || 950,328 || 2013 |- | 9 ||align=left|{{flag|Switzerland}} ||749,424||2020 |- | 10 ||align=left|{{flag|Poland}}||606,730||2020 |} {| class="wikitable" style="text-align: right; float:left; border:1px solid #aaa; margin:10px" |- style="background:#dbdbdb;" ! Rank ! Country ! [[List of countries by past and projected GDP (PPP)|GDP]] <small>(PPP, Peak Year)</small><br /><small>millions of [[International dollar|USD]]</small> ! Peak Year |- |– | align="left" |''{{nowrap|{{flag|European Union}}}}'' || 22,825,236 || 2019 |- | 1 ||align=left|{{flag|Germany}}|| 4,443,569 || 2019 |- | 2 ||align=left|{{flag|Russia}} || 4,389,960 || 2019 |- | 3 ||align=left|{{nowrap|{{flag|United Kingdom}}}} || 3,162,408 || 2019 |- | 4 ||align=left|{{flag|France}}|| 3,061,815 || 2019 |- | 5 ||align=left|{{flag|Italy}}|| 2,454,809 || 2019 |- | 6 ||align=left|{{flag|Turkey}} || 2,361,778 || 2019 |- | 7 ||align=left|{{flag|Spain}}|| 1,923,646 || 2019 |- | 8 ||align=left|{{flag|Poland}}|| 1,287,275 || 2019 |- | 9 ||align=left|{{flag|Netherlands}}|| 1,005,337 || 2019 |- | 10 ||align=left|{{flag|Belgium}}|| 572,902 || 2019 |} {{clear}} ===Economic history=== ;Industrial growth (1760–1945) Capitalism has been dominant in the Western world since the end of feudalism.<ref>[http://www.britannica.com-archive-online.eu/EBchecked/topic/93927/capitalism Capitalism] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140517172857/http://www.britannica.com-archive-online.eu/EBchecked/topic/93927/capitalism |date=17 May 2014 }}. ''Encyclopædia Britannica.''</ref> From Britain, it gradually spread throughout Europe.<ref>{{Cite book|title=Industrialism: A Dictionary of Sociology|author=Scott, John|publisher=Oxford University Press|year=2005}}</ref> The [[Industrial Revolution]] started in Europe, specifically the United Kingdom in the late 18th century,<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.historyguide.org/intellect/lecture17a.html|title=The Origins of the Industrial Revolution in England|publisher=The History Guide|author=Steven Kreis|date=11 October 2006|accessdate=1 January 2007}}</ref> and the 19th century saw Western Europe industrialise. Economies were disrupted by World War I but by the beginning of World War II they had recovered and were having to compete with the growing economic strength of the United States. World War II, again, damaged much of Europe's industries. ;Cold War (1945–1991) [[File:Thefalloftheberlinwall1989.JPG|thumb|right|Fall of the [[Berlin Wall]] in 1989.]] [[File:Carte zone euro.svg|thumb| [[Eurozone]] (blue colour)]] After World War II the economy of the UK was in a state of ruin,<ref>Dornbusch, Rudiger; Nölling, Wilhelm P.; Layard, Richard G. ''Postwar Economic Reconstruction and Lessons for the East Today'', p. 117</ref> and continued to suffer relative economic decline in the following decades.<ref>{{Cite book|title=Rethinking International Organisation: Deregulation and Global Governance|last=Emadi-Coffin|first=Barbara|year=2002|publisher=Routledge|isbn=978-0-415-19540-9|page=64}}</ref> Italy was also in a poor economic condition but regained a high level of growth by the 1950s. West Germany [[Wirtschaftswunder|recovered quickly]] and had doubled production from pre-war levels by the 1950s.<ref>Dornbusch, Rudiger; Nölling, Wilhelm P.; Layard, Richard G. ''Postwar Economic Reconstruction and Lessons for the East Today'', p. 29</ref> France also staged a remarkable comeback enjoying rapid growth and modernisation; later on Spain, under the leadership of [[Francisco Franco|Franco]], also recovered, and the nation recorded huge unprecedented economic growth beginning in the 1960s in what is called the [[Spanish miracle]].<ref>Harrop, Martin. ''Power and Policy in Liberal Democracies'', p. 23</ref> The majority of [[Central and Eastern Europe]]an states came under the control of the [[Soviet Union]] and thus were members of the [[Council for Mutual Economic Assistance]] (COMECON).<ref name="loc-cs">"Germany (East)", Library of Congress Country Study, [http://memory.loc.gov/frd/cs/germany_east/gx_appnb.html Appendix B: The Council for Mutual Economic Assistance]</ref> The states which retained a [[free-market]] system were given a large amount of aid by the United States under the [[Marshall Plan]].<ref>{{cite web|url=https://history.state.gov/milestones/1945-1952/marshall-plan|title=Marshall Plan|publisher=US Department of State Office of the historian}}</ref> The western states moved to link their economies together, providing the basis for the EU and increasing cross border trade. This helped them to enjoy rapidly improving economies, while those states in COMECON were struggling in a large part due to the cost of the [[Cold War]]. Until 1990, the [[European Community]] was expanded from 6 founding members to 12. The emphasis placed on resurrecting the West German economy led to it overtaking the UK as Europe's largest economy. ;Reunification (1991–present) With the fall of communism in Central and Eastern Europe in 1991, the post-socialist states began free market reforms. After [[East Germany|East]] and West Germany were reunited in 1990, the economy of West Germany struggled as it had to support and largely rebuild the infrastructure of East Germany. By the millennium change, the EU dominated the economy of Europe comprising the five largest European economies of the time namely Germany, the United Kingdom, France, Italy, and Spain. In 1999, 12 of the 15 members of the EU joined the [[Eurozone]] replacing their former national currencies by the common euro. The three who chose to remain outside the Eurozone were: the United Kingdom, Denmark, and Sweden. The European Union is now the largest economy in the world.<ref>[http://thepropheticyears.com/reasons/The%20rise%20of%20the...oman%20empire.htm]{{dead link|date=December 2016|bot=InternetArchiveBot|fix-attempted=yes}}{{Better source|date=April 2016}}</ref> Figures released by [[Eurostat]] in 2009 confirmed that the Eurozone had gone into [[Late 2000s recession in Europe|recession]] in 2008.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.eubusiness.com/news-eu/1231409822.27/ |title=EU data confirms eurozone's first recession|publisher= EUbusiness.com|date= 8 January 2009|archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20101230075057/http://www.eubusiness.com/news-eu/1231409822.27/|archivedate=30 December 2010}}</ref> It impacted much of the region.<ref>[https://www.telegraph.co.uk/finance/comment/ambroseevans_pritchard/4958395/Thanks-to-the-Bank-its-a-crisis-in-the-eurozone-its-a-total-catastrophe.html Thanks to the Bank it's a crisis; in the eurozone it's a total catastrophe]. Telegraph. 8 March 2009.</ref> In 2010, fears of a [[European sovereign-debt crisis|sovereign debt crisis]]<ref>{{cite news|title= Five Threats to the Common Currency |url= http://www.spiegel.de/international/europe/0,1518,677214,00.html |author= Stefan Schultz |work= [[Spiegel Online]] |date=11 February 2010 |accessdate=28 April 2010}}</ref> developed concerning some countries in Europe, especially Greece, Ireland, Spain, and Portugal.<ref>{{cite news|author1=Brian Blackstone |author2=Tom Lauricella |author3=Neil Shah |title = Global Markets Shudder: Doubts About U.S. Economy and a Debt Crunch in Europe Jolt Hopes for a Recovery |work=The Wall Street Journal |date=5 February 2010 |url=https://www.wsj.com/articles/SB10001424052748704041504575045743430262982 |accessdate=10 May 2010}}</ref> As a result, measures were taken, especially for Greece, by the leading countries of the Eurozone.<ref>{{cite web |author=Lauren Frayer Contributor |url=http://www.aolnews.com/world/article/european-leaders-try-to-calm-fears-over-greek-debt-crisis-and-protect-euro/19469674 |title=European Leaders Try to Calm Fears Over Greek Debt Crisis and Protect Euro |publisher=AOL News |date= |accessdate=2 June 2010 |url-status=dead |archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20100509111531/http://www.aolnews.com/world/article/european-leaders-try-to-calm-fears-over-greek-debt-crisis-and-protect-euro/19469674 |archivedate=9 May 2010 }}</ref> The [[European Union|EU-27]] unemployment rate was 10.3% in 2012.<ref name="unemployment"/> For those aged 15–24 it was 22.4%.<ref name="unemployment">[http://epp.eurostat.ec.europa.eu/statistics_explained/index.php/Unemployment_statistics Unemployment statistics] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120614152511/http://epp.eurostat.ec.europa.eu/statistics_explained/index.php/Unemployment_statistics |date=14 June 2012 }}. [[Eurostat]]. April 2012.</ref> ==Demographics== {{Main|Demographics of Europe}} [[File:Demographics of Europe.svg|thumb|[[Population growth]] in and around Europe in 2010<ref>[https://www.cia.gov/library/publications/the-world-factbook/rankorder/2002rank.html CIA.gov] CIA population growth rankings, CIA World Factbook</ref>]]{{See also|List of European countries by population|Ageing of Europe}}In 2017, the population of Europe was estimated to be 742 million according to {{UN_Population|source}}, which is slightly more than one-ninth of the world's population. This number includes Siberia, (about 38 million people) but excludes European Turkey (about 12 million). A century ago, Europe had nearly a quarter of the [[world population|world's population]].<ref name="World Population Growth, 1950–2050">[http://www.prb.org/Educators/TeachersGuides/HumanPopulation/PopulationGrowth.aspx?p=1 World Population Growth, 1950–2050]. Population Reference Bureau. {{webarchive |url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130722202806/http://www.prb.org/Educators/TeachersGuides/HumanPopulation/PopulationGrowth.aspx?p=1 |date=22 July 2013 }}</ref> The population of Europe has grown in the past century, but in other areas of the world (in particular Africa and Asia) the population has grown far more quickly.<ref name="UNPP 2006">{{cite web|url=http://esa.un.org/unpp |title=World Population Prospects: The 2006 Revision Population Database |publisher=UN&nbsp;— Department of Economic and Social Affairs |accessdate=10 June 2008 |url-status=dead |archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20100107202528/http://esa.un.org/unpp |archivedate=7 January 2010 }}</ref> Among the continents, Europe has a relatively high [[population density]], second only to Asia. Most of Europe is in a mode of [[Sub-replacement fertility]], which means that each new(-born) generation is being less populous than the older. The most densely populated country in Europe (and in the world) is the [[microstate]] of [[Monaco]]. ===Ethnic groups=== {{main|Ethnic groups in Europe}} {{further|Genetic history of Europe}} Pan and Pfeil (2004) count 87 distinct "peoples of Europe", of which 33 form the majority population in at least one sovereign state, while the remaining 54 constitute [[ethnic minority|ethnic minorities]].<ref>Christoph Pan, Beate Sibylle Pfeil, ''Minderheitenrechte in Europa. Handbuch der europäischen Volksgruppen'' (2002). [http://www.living-diversity.eu/Introduction.html Living-Diversity.eu] {{webarchive |url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110720164413/http://www.living-diversity.eu/Introduction.html |date=20 July 2011 }}, English translation 2004.</ref> According to UN population projection, Europe's population may fall to about 7% of world population by 2050, or 653&nbsp;million people (medium variant, 556 to 777&nbsp;million in low and high variants, respectively).<ref name="UNPP 2006" /> Within this context, significant disparities exist between regions in relation to [[Human overpopulation|fertility rates]]. The average number of [[List of countries and territories by fertility rate|children per female]] of child-bearing age is 1.52.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.yaledailynews.com/articles/view/23784 |title=White Europeans: An endangered species? |publisher=Yale Daily News |accessdate=10 June 2008 |archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20080519224458/http://www.yaledailynews.com/articles/view/23784 |archivedate=19 May 2008 |url-status=dead }}</ref> According to some sources,<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.brookings.edu/views/op-ed/fellows/taspinar20030301.htm |title=Brookings Institution Report |url-status=dead |archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20071011104917/http://www.brookings.edu/views/op-ed/fellows/taspinar20030301.htm |archivedate=11 October 2007 }} See also: {{cite news|url=http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/europe/4385768.stm|title=Muslims in Europe: Country guide|work=BBC news | date=23 December 2005 | accessdate=4 January 2010}}</ref> this rate is higher among [[Islam in Europe|Muslims in Europe]]. The UN predicts a steady [[population decline]] in [[Central and Eastern Europe]] as a result of emigration and low birth rates.<ref>[https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/1545634/UN-predicts-huge-migration-to-rich-countries.html UN predicts huge migration to rich countries]. Telegraph. 15 March 2007.</ref>[[File:European Ancestry Large.svg|thumb|Map showing areas of European settlement (people who claim full European descent)|222x222px]] ===Migration=== {{main|Immigration to Europe|European diaspora}} Europe is home to the highest number of migrants of all global regions at 70.6 million people, the [[International Organisation for Migration|IOM]]'s report said.<ref>"[http://www.foxnews.com/wires/2008Dec02/0,4670,EUWorldMigrationReport,00.html Rich world needs more foreign workers: report] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160120205059/http://www.foxnews.com/wires/2008Dec02/0%2C4670%2CEUWorldMigrationReport%2C00.html |date=20 January 2016 }}", FOXNews.com. 2 December 2008.</ref> In 2005, the EU had an overall net gain from [[immigration]] of 1.8&nbsp;million people. This accounted for almost 85% of Europe's total [[population growth]].<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.migrationinformation.org/Feature/display.cfm?ID=402 |title=Europe: Population and Migration in 2005 |publisher=Migration Information Source |accessdate=10 June 2008 |url-status=dead |archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20080609075438/http://www.migrationinformation.org/Feature/display.cfm?ID=402 |archivedate=9 June 2008 |date=June 2006 }}</ref> In 2008, 696,000 persons were given citizenship of an EU27 member state, a decrease from 707,000 the previous year.<ref>"[http://epp.eurostat.ec.europa.eu/cache/ITY_PUBLIC/3-06072010-AP/EN/3-06072010-AP-EN.PDF EU27 Member States granted citizenship to 696 000 persons in 2008] {{webarchive |url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140906072250/http://epp.eurostat.ec.europa.eu/cache/ITY_PUBLIC/3-06072010-AP/EN/3-06072010-AP-EN.PDF |date=6 September 2014 }}" (PDF). [[Eurostat]]. 6 July 2010.</ref> In 2017, approximately 825,000 persons acquired [[Citizenship of the European Union|citizenship]] of an EU28 member state.<ref>{{cite web |title=Acquisition of citizenship statistics |url=https://ec.europa.eu/eurostat/statistics-explained/index.php/Acquisition_of_citizenship_statistics |website=www.ec.europa.eu |publisher=Eurostat|access-date=4 May 2019|date=March 2019}}</ref> 2.4 million immigrants from non-EU countries entered the EU in 2017.<ref>{{cite news |title=Migration and migrant population statistics |url=https://ec.europa.eu/eurostat/statistics-explained/index.php/Migration_and_migrant_population_statistics |publisher=[[Eurostat]] |date=March 2019}}</ref> Early modern [[emigration from Europe]] began with Spanish and Portuguese settlers in the 16th century,<ref>{{cite web|title=A pena do degredo nas Ordenações do Reino|url=http://jus2.uol.com.br/doutrina/texto.asp?id=2125&p=1|archive-url=https://archive.today/20110706161349/http://jus2.uol.com.br/doutrina/texto.asp?id=2125&p=1|url-status=dead|archive-date=6 July 2011|accessdate=18 August 2010}}</ref><ref name="ppghis.ifcs.ufrj.br">{{cite web|title=Ensaio sobre a imigração portuguesa e os padrões de miscigenação no Brasil|url=http://www.ppghis.ifcs.ufrj.br/media/manolo_imigracao_lusa.pdf|accessdate=18 August 2010|url-status=dead|archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20110706162149/http://www.ppghis.ifcs.ufrj.br/media/manolo_imigracao_lusa.pdf|archivedate=6 July 2011}}</ref> and French and English settlers in the 17th century.<ref>{{Cite journal|url=http://www.millersville.edu/~columbus/data/art/AXTELL01.ART |title=The Columbian Mosaic in Colonial America |first=James |last=Axtell |journal=Humanities |date=September–October 1991 |volume=12 |issue=5 |pages=12–18 |accessdate=8 October 2008 |ref=harv |archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20080517052031/http://www.millersville.edu/~columbus/data/art/AXTELL01.ART |archivedate=17 May 2008 |url-status=dead }}</ref> But numbers remained relatively small until waves of mass emigration in the 19th century, when millions of poor families left Europe.<ref>{{Cite journal | last1 = Evans | first1 = N.J. | doi = 10.1080/21533369.2001.9668313 | title = Work in progress: Indirect passage from Europe Transmigration via the UK, 1836–1914 | journal = Journal for Maritime Research | volume = 3 | pages = 70–84 | year = 2001 | pmid = | pmc = | doi-access = free }}</ref> Today, [[European diaspora|large populations of European descent]] are found on every continent. European ancestry predominates in North America, and to a lesser degree in South America (particularly in [[Uruguay]], [[Argentina]], [[Chile]] and [[Brazil]], while most of the other [[Latin America]]n countries also have a considerable [[White Latin American|population of European origins]]). [[Australia]] and [[New Zealand]] have large European derived populations. Africa has no countries with European-derived majorities (or with the exception of [[Cape Verde]] and probably [[São Tomé and Príncipe]], depending on context), but there are significant minorities, such as the [[White South Africans]] in [[South Africa]]. In Asia, European-derived populations, (specifically [[Russians]]), predominate in [[North Asia]] and some parts of Northern [[Kazakhstan]].<ref>Robert Greenall, [http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/asia-pacific/4420922.stm Russians left behind in Central Asia], [[BBC News]], 23 November 2005</ref>[[File:Simplified Languages of Europe map.svg|thumb|right|Distribution of major [[languages of Europe]]|222x222px]] ===Languages=== {{Main|Languages of Europe}} Europe has about 225 indigenous languages,<ref>[http://edl.ecml.at/LanguageFun/LanguageFacts/tabid/1859/Default.aspx Language facts – European day of languages], Council of Europe. Retrieved 30 July 2015</ref> mostly falling within three [[Indo-European languages|Indo-European]] language groups: the [[Romance languages]], derived from the [[Latin language|Latin]] of the [[Roman Empire]]; the [[Germanic languages]], whose ancestor language came from southern Scandinavia; and the [[Slavic languages]].<ref name="Encyclopædia Britannica"/> Slavic languages are mostly spoken in Southern, Central and Eastern Europe. Romance languages are spoken primarily in Western and Southern Europe as well as in [[Switzerland]] in Central Europe and [[Romania]] and [[Moldova]] in Eastern Europe. Germanic languages are spoken in Western, Northern and Central Europe as well as in [[Gibraltar]] and [[Malta]] in Southern Europe.<ref name="Encyclopædia Britannica"/> Languages in adjacent areas show significant overlaps (such as in [[English (language)|English]], for example). Other Indo-European languages outside the three main groups include the [[Baltic languages|Baltic]] group ([[Latvian language|Latvian]] and [[Lithuanian language|Lithuanian]]), the [[Celtic languages|Celtic]] group ([[Irish language|Irish]], [[Scots Gaelic language|Scottish Gaelic]], [[Manx language|Manx]], [[Welsh language|Welsh]], [[Cornish language|Cornish]], and [[Breton language|Breton]]<ref name="Encyclopædia Britannica"/>), [[Greek language|Greek]], [[Armenian language|Armenian]], and [[Albanian language|Albanian]]. A distinct non-Indo-European family of [[Uralic languages]] ([[Estonian language|Estonian]], [[Finnish language|Finnish]], [[Hungarian language|Hungarian]], [[Erzya language|Erzya]], [[Komi language|Komi]], [[Mari language|Mari]], [[Moksha language|Moksha]], and [[Udmurt language|Udmurt]]) is spoken mainly in [[Estonia]], [[Finland]], [[Hungary]], and parts of Russia. [[Turkic languages]] include [[Azerbaijani language|Azerbaijani]], [[Kazakh language|Kazakh]] and [[Turkish language|Turkish]], in addition to smaller languages in Eastern and Southeast Europe ([[Balkan Gagauz Turkish]], [[Bashkir language|Bashkir]], [[Chuvash language|Chuvash]], [[Crimean Tatar language|Crimean Tatar]], [[Karachay-Balkar language|Karachay-Balkar]], [[Kumyk language|Kumyk]], [[Nogai language|Nogai]], and [[Tatar language|Tatar]]). [[Kartvelian languages]] ([[Georgian language|Georgian]], [[Mingrelian language|Mingrelian]], and [[Svan language|Svan]]) are spoken primarily in [[Georgia (country)|Georgia]]. Two other language families reside in the North Caucasus (termed [[Northeast Caucasian languages|Northeast Caucasian]], most notably including [[Chechen language|Chechen]], [[Avar language|Avar]], and [[Lezgian language|Lezgin]]; and [[Northwest Caucasian languages|Northwest Caucasian]], most notably including [[Adyghe language|Adyghe]]). [[Maltese language|Maltese]] is the only [[Semitic language]] that is official within the EU, while [[Basque language|Basque]] is the only European [[language isolate]]. Multilingualism and the protection of regional and minority languages are recognised political goals in Europe today. The [[Council of Europe]] [[Framework Convention for the Protection of National Minorities]] and the Council of Europe's [[European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages]] set up a legal framework for language rights in Europe. ===Major cities=== The [[List of urban areas in Europe|four largest cities of Europe]] are [[Istanbul]], [[Moscow]], [[Paris]] and [[London]], each have over 10 million residents,<ref name="UN WUP 2016">{{cite web|title=The World's Cities in 2016|url=http://www.un.org/en/development/desa/population/publications/pdf/urbanization/the_worlds_cities_in_2016_data_booklet.pdf|publisher=[[United Nations]]|page=11|date=2016}}</ref> and as such have been described as [[megacity|megacities]].<ref>{{cite news |title=Istanbul one of four anchor megacities of Europe: Research |url=http://www.hurriyetdailynews.com/istanbul-one-of-four-anchor-megacities-of-europe-research--92496 |work=Hürriyet Daily News |date=14 December 2015 |language=en}}</ref> While Istanbul has the highest total population, one third lies on the Asian side of the [[Bosporus]], making Moscow the most populous city entirely in Europe. The next largest cities in order of population are [[Saint Petersburg]], [[Madrid]], [[Berlin]] and [[Rome]], each having over 3 million residents.<ref name="UN WUP 2016"/> When considering the commuter belts or [[List of metropolitan areas in Europe|metropolitan areas]], within the EU (for which comparable data is available) London covers the largest population, followed in order by<!-- listing those over 3 million --> Paris, Madrid, Barcelona, Berlin, the [[Ruhr area]], Rome, Milan, Athens and [[Warsaw metropolitan area|Warsaw]].<ref>{{cite web |title=Database |url=http://ec.europa.eu/eurostat/data/database |publisher=Eurostat |website=ec.europa.eu |date=2014}} select General and regional statistics / Urban audit / functional urban areas / Population on 1 January by age groups and sex – functional urban areas (urb_lpop1).</ref> ==Culture== [[File:Grossgliederung Europas-en.svg|thumb|230x230px|Contemporary political map of Europe showing cultural proximities]] {{Main|Culture of Europe}} {{further|European folklore|European art}} "Europe" as a cultural concept is substantially derived from the shared heritage of the [[Roman Empire]] and [[Culture of ancient Rome|its culture]]. The boundaries of Europe were historically understood as those of [[Christendom]] (or more specifically [[Latin Christendom]]), as established or defended throughout the medieval and early modern history of Europe, especially [[Islamic conquests|against Islam]], as in the [[Reconquista]] and the [[Ottoman wars in Europe]].<ref>[[Hilarie Belloc]], [http://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/8442 Europe and the Faith], Chapter I</ref>[[File:Pierre-Auguste Renoir, Le Moulin de la Galette.jpg|thumb|''[[Bal du moulin de la Galette|Dance at Le Moulin de la Galette]]'', 1876, by Pierre-Auguste Renoir|222x222px]]This shared cultural heritage is combined by overlapping indigenous national cultures and folklores, roughly divided into [[Slavic Europe|Slavic]], [[Romance-speaking Europe|Latin (Romance)]] and [[Germanic Europe|Germanic]], but with several components not part of either of these group (notably [[Greek culture|Greek]], [[Basque culture|Basque]] and [[Celtic Europe|Celtic]]). Cultural contact and mixtures characterise much of European regional cultures; Kaplan (2014) describes Europe as "embracing maximum cultural diversity at minimal geographical distances".{{clarify|date=October 2016}}<ref>{{cite journal|title=Andreas M. Kaplan: European Management and European Business Schools: Insights from the History of Business Schools |doi=10.1016/j.emj.2014.03.006 | volume=32 |issue=4 | journal=European Management Journal | pages=529–534|year=2014 |last1=Kaplan |first1=Andreas }}</ref> Different cultural events are organised in Europe, with the aim of bringing different cultures closer together and raising awareness of their importance, such as the [[European Capital of Culture]], the [[European Region of Gastronomy]], the [[European Youth Capital]] and the [[European Capitals and Cities of Sport Federation|European Capital of Sport]]. ===Religion=== [[File:Saint Peter's Basilica facade, Rome, Italy.jpg|thumb|left|[[St. Peter's Basilica]] in [[Vatican City]], the largest church in the world|222x222px]] {{Main|Religion in Europe}} [[history of religion|Historically]], religion in Europe has been a major influence on [[Western art history|European art]], [[culture of Europe|culture]], [[Western philosophy|philosophy]] and [[European Union law|law]]. There are six patron saints of Europe venerated in Roman Catholicism, five of them so declared by Pope John Paul II between 1980–1999: Saints Cyril and Methodius, Saint Bridget of Sweden, Catherine of Siena and Saint Teresa Benedicta of the Cross (Edith Stein). The exception is Benedict of Nursia, who had already been declared "Patron Saint of all Europe" by Pope Paul VI in 1964.<ref>[[Symbols of Europe#Patron saints]]</ref>{{Circular reference|date=January 2020}}{{Pie chart |thumb = right |caption = Religion in Europe according to the ''Global Religious Landscape'' survey by the [[Pew Research Center|Pew Forum]], 2012<ref name="Survey">{{cite web|url=https://www.pewforum.org/files/2014/01/global-religion-full.pdf|title=The Global Religious Landscape|publisher=Pewforum.org|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170125173538/https://www.pewforum.org/files/2014/01/global-religion-full.pdf|accessdate=7 May 2020|archive-date=25 January 2017}}</ref> |label1 = [[Christianity]] |value1 = 75.2 |color1 = Red |label2 = No religion |value2 = 18.2 |color2 = #FFFFFF |label3 = [[Islam]] |value3 = 5.9 |color3 = Green |label4 = [[Buddhism]] |value4 = 0.2 |color4 = Gold |label5 = [[Hinduism]] |value5 = 0.2 |color5 = Orange |label6 = Folk religion |value6 = 0.1 |color6 = Chartreuse |label7 = Other religions |value7 = 0.1 |color7 = Pink }}The largest religion in Europe is [[Christianity]], with 76.2% of Europeans considering themselves [[Christians]],<ref name="Christianity">{{cite web|url=http://www.pewforum.org/2011/12/19/global-christianity-regions/#europe|title=Regional Distribution of Christians: Christianity in Europe|date=18 December 2011|website=Pew Research Center's Religion & Public Life Project|accessdate=22 February 2015}}</ref> including [[Catholic]], [[Eastern Orthodox Church|Eastern Orthodox]] and various [[Protestant]] denominations. Among Protestants, the most popular are historically state-supported European denominations such as [[Lutheranism]], [[Anglicanism]] and the [[Reformed faith]]. Other Protestant denominations such as historically significant ones like [[Anabaptists]] were never supported by any state and thus are not so widespread, as well as these newly arriving from the [[United States]] such as [[Pentecostalism]], [[Adventism]], [[Methodism]], [[Baptists]] and various [[Evangelical Protestants]]; although Methodism and Baptists both have European origins. The notion of "Europe" and the "[[Western World]]" has been intimately connected with the concept of "[[Christendom|Christianity and Christendom]]"; many even attribute Christianity for being the link that created a unified [[European identity]].<ref>{{cite book|last=Dawson|first=Christopher|title=Crisis in Western Education|year=1961|isbn=978-0813216836|edition=reprint|author2=Glenn Olsen|page=108}}</ref> [[Christianity]], including the Roman [[Catholic Church]],<ref>{{cite book|last=J. Spielvogel|first=Jackson|title=Western Civilization: A Brief History, Volume I: To 1715|year=2016|isbn= 978-1305633476|edition=Cengage Learning|page=156}}</ref><ref>{{cite book|last=Neill|first=Thomas Patrick |title=Readings in the History of Western Civilization, Volume 2|year=1957|isbn=|edition=Newman Press|page=224}}</ref> has played a prominent role in the shaping of [[Western civilisation]] since at least the 4th century,<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/507284/Roman-Catholicism|title=Roman Catholicism|publisher=|accessdate=19 January 2017}}</ref><ref name="Caltron J.H Hayas">Caltron J.H Hayas, ''Christianity and Western Civilization'' (1953), Stanford University Press, p. 2: That certain distinctive features of our Western civilization — the civilization of western Europe and of America— have been shaped chiefly by Judaeo – Graeco – Christianity, Catholic and Protestant.</ref><ref name="Orlandis">Jose Orlandis, 1993, "A Short History of the Catholic Church," 2nd edn. (Michael Adams, Trans.), Dublin:Four Courts Press, {{ISBN|1851821252}}, preface, see [https://books.google.com/books?id=KYdbpwAACAAJ], accessed 8 December 2014.</ref><ref name="How The Catholic Church Built Western Civilization">Thomas E. Woods and Antonio Canizares, 2012, "How the Catholic Church Built Western Civilization," Reprint edn., Washington, DC: Regnery History, {{ISBN|1596983280}}, see [https://books.google.com/books?id=jYvmAgAAQBAJ, accessed 8 December 2014. p. 1: "Western civilization owes far more to Catholic Church than most people – Catholic included – often realize. The Church in fact built Western civilization."]</ref> and for at least a millennium and a half, Europe has been nearly equivalent to [[Christian culture]], even though the religion was inherited from the [[Middle East]]. [[Christian culture]] was the predominant force in [[western civilisation]], guiding the course of [[philosophy]], [[art]], and [[science]].<ref name="Koch 1994">{{cite book|last=Koch|first=Carl|title=The Catholic Church: Journey, Wisdom, and Mission|year=1994|publisher=St. Mary's Press|location=Early Middle Ages|isbn=978-0-88489-298-4|url=https://archive.org/details/catholicchurchjo00koch}}</ref><ref>{{cite book|last=Dawson|first=Christopher|title=Crisis in Western Education|year=1961|isbn=978-0-8132-1683-6|edition=reprint|author2=Glenn Olsen}}</ref> The second most popular religion is [[Islam]] (6%)<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.pewforum.org/2012/12/18/global-religious-landscape-muslim/ |title=The Global Religious Landscape: Muslims |accessdate=18 December 2012 |website=pewforum|date=18 December 2012 }}</ref> concentrated mainly in the Balkans and Eastern Europe ([[Bosnia and Herzegovina]], [[Albania]], [[Kosovo]], [[Kazakhstan]], [[TRNC|North Cyprus]], [[Turkey]], [[Azerbaijan]], [[North Caucasus]], and the [[Idel-Ural|Volga-Ural region]]). Other religions, including Judaism, [[Hinduism]], and [[Buddhism]] are minority religions (though Tibetan Buddhism is the majority religion of Russia's [[Republic of Kalmykia]]). The 20th century saw the revival of [[Neopaganism]] through movements such as [[Wicca]] and [[Druidry]]. Europe has become a relatively [[secular]] continent, with an increasing number and proportion of [[irreligion|irreligious]], [[atheism|atheist]] and [[agnosticism|agnostic]] people, who make up about 18.2% of Europe's population,<ref name="Religiously Unaffiliated">{{cite web|url=http://www.pewforum.org/global-religious-landscape-unaffiliated.aspx|title=Religiously Unaffiliated|date=18 December 2012|website=Pew Research Center's Religion & Public Life Project|accessdate=22 February 2015}}</ref> currently the largest secular population in the [[Western religion|Western world]]. There are a particularly high number of self-described non-religious people in the Czech Republic, [[Estonia]], Sweden, former East Germany, and France.<ref>{{Cite journal|last=Dogan|first=Mattei|year=1998|title=The Decline of Traditional Values in Western Europe|journal=International Journal of Comparative Sociology|volume=39|pages=77–90|doi=10.1177/002071529803900106|ref=harv}}</ref> === Sport === [[File:Scudo2009.jpg|thumb|265x265px|[[Association football|Football]] is one of the most popular sports in Europe. ([[San Siro]] stadium in [[Milan]])]] {{Excerpt|Sport in Europe}} ==See also== {{main|List of Europe-related articles|Outline of Europe}} {{Div col}} ;History * [[Genetic History of Europe]] * [[Prehistoric Europe]] * [[Classical antiquity]] * [[Middle Ages]] * [[Early modern Europe]] * [[Modernity]] * [[History of Europe]] ;Politics * [[Eurodistrict]] * [[Euroregion]] * [[Flags of Europe]] * [[List of sovereign states by date of formation]] * [[Names of European cities in different languages]] * [[Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe statistics|OSCE countries statistics]] * [[European Union as a potential superpower]] ;Demographics * [[Area and population of European countries]] * [[European Union statistics]] * [[List of European cities by population within city limits]] * [[Largest cities of the European Union by population within city limits|Largest cities of the EU]] * [[Largest urban areas of the European Union]] * [[List of cities in Europe]] * [[List of metropolitan areas in Europe]] * [[List of villages in Europe]] * [[Pan-European identity]] ;Economics * [[Economy of the European Union]] * [[Financial and social rankings of European countries]] * [[Healthcare in Europe]] * [[Telecommunications in Europe]] * [[List of European television stations]] * [[List of European countries by GDP (nominal)]] ;Culture * [[European Capital of Culture]] * [[European Region of Gastronomy]] * [[European Youth Capital]] * [[European Capitals and Cities of Sport Federation|European Capital of Sport]] ;Sports *[[European Games]] {{Div col end}} {{portal bar|Europe|Geography}} ==Notes== {{notelist}} {{Cnote2 Begin}} {{Cnote2|a|n=2|[[Transnistria]], internationally recognised as being a legal part of the [[Moldova|Republic of Moldova]], although ''de facto'' control is exercised by its internationally unrecognised government which declared independence from Moldova in 1990.}} {{Cnote2|b|[[Russia]] is a [[List of transcontinental countries|transcontinental country]] located in [[Eastern Europe]] and [[Northern Asia]], but is considered European historically, culturally, ethnically, and politically, and the vast majority of its population (78%) lives in the [[European Russia|European part]] of the country.}} {{Cnote2|c|n=3|[[Guernsey]], the [[Isle of Man]] and [[Jersey]] are [[Crown Dependencies]] of the [[United Kingdom]]. Other [[Channel Islands]] legislated by the [[Bailiwick of Guernsey]] include [[Alderney]] and [[Sark]].}} {{Cnote2|d|n=2|[[Cyprus]] can be considered part of Europe or [[Southwest Asia]]; it has strong historical and sociopolitical connections with Europe. The population and area figures refer to the entire state, including the ''de facto'' independent part [[Northern Cyprus]] which is not recognised as a sovereign nation by the vast majority of sovereign nations, nor the UN.}} {{Cnote2|e|Figures for [[Portugal]] include the [[Azores]] and [[Madeira]] archipelagos, both in [[Northern Atlantic]].}} {{Cnote2|f|Area figure for [[Serbia]] includes [[Kosovo]], a province that unilaterally declared its independence from [[Serbia]] on 17 February 2008, and whose sovereign status is unclear. Population and density figures are from the first results of 2011 census and are given without the disputed territory of [[Kosovo]].}} {{Cnote2|g|Figures for [[France]] include only [[metropolitan France]]: some [[Administrative divisions of France|politically integral parts of France]] are geographically located outside Europe.}} {{Cnote2|h|[[Netherlands]] population for November 2014. Population and area details include European portion only: Netherlands and three entities outside Europe ([[Aruba]], [[Curaçao]] and [[Sint Maarten]], in the [[Caribbean]]) constitute the [[Kingdom of the Netherlands]]. [[Amsterdam]] is the official capital, while [[The Hague]] is the administrative seat.}} {{Cnote2|i|[[Kazakhstan]] is physiographically considered a transcontinental country, mostly in Central Asia (UN region), partly in Eastern Europe, with European territory west of the [[Ural Mountains]] and [[Ural River]]. However, only the population figure refers to the entire country.}} {{Cnote2|j|[[Armenia]] can be considered part of Eastern Europe or [[Western Asia]]; it has strong historical and sociopolitical connections with Europe. The population and area figures include the entire state respectively.}} {{Cnote2|k|[[Azerbaijan]] can be considered part of Europe or [[Western Asia]].<ref>The [[United Nations|UN]] Statistics Department [http://unstats.un.org/unsd/methods/m49/m49regin.htm] places Azerbaijan in [[Western Asia]] for statistical convenience [http://unstats.un.org/unsd/methods/m49/m49.htm]: "The assignment of countries or areas to specific groupings is for statistical convenience and does not imply any assumption regarding political or other affiliation of countries or territories." The [[CIA World Factbook]] [https://www.cia.gov/library/publications/the-world-factbook/geos/aj.html#Geo] places Azerbaijan in South Western Asia, with a small portion north of the Caucasus range in Europe. [http://education.nationalgeographic.com/education/mapping/outline-map/?map=Azerbaijan&ar_a=1 National Geographic] and ''[http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/230186/Azerbaijan Encyclopædia Britannica]'' also place Georgia in Asia.</ref> However the population and area figures are for the entire state. This includes the [[exclave]] of the [[Nakhchivan Autonomous Republic]] and the region [[Nagorno-Karabakh]] that has declared, and ''[[de facto]]'' [[list of unrecognised countries|achieved]], independence. Nevertheless, it is not recognised ''[[de jure]]'' by [[sovereign state]]s.}} {{Cnote2|l| [[Georgia (country)|Georgia]] can be considered part of Eastern Europe or [[West Asia]]; it has strong historical and sociopolitical connections with Europe.<ref>[[Council of Europe]] {{cite web |title=47 countries, one Europe |url=http://www.coe.int/aboutCoe/index.asp?page%3D47pays1europe%26l%3Den |accessdate=9 January 2011 |url-status=dead |archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20110108003938/http://www.coe.int/aboutCoe/index.asp?l=en&page=47pays1europe |archivedate=8 January 2011 }}, [[Foreign and Commonwealth Office|British Foreign and Commonwealth Office]] {{cite web |title=Country profiles ' Europe ' Georgia |url=http://www.fco.gov.uk/en/travel-and-living-abroad/travel-advice-by-country/country-profile/europe/georgia/ |accessdate=9 January 2011 |url-status=dead |archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20101231082215/http://www.fco.gov.uk/en/travel-and-living-abroad/travel-advice-by-country/country-profile/europe/georgia |archivedate=31 December 2010 }}, [[World Health Organization]] [http://www.euro.who.int/en/where-we-work], [[World Tourism Organization]] [http://unwto.org/europe], [[UNESCO]] [http://www.unesco.org/new/en/unesco/worldwide/europe-and-north-america/], [[UNICEF]] [http://www.unicef.org/infobycountry/index.html], [[UNHCR]] [http://www.unhcr.org/pages/4a02d9346.html], [[European Civil Aviation Conference]] {{cite web |title=Member States |url=https://www.ecac-ceac.org//about_ecac/ecac_member_states |accessdate=9 January 2011 |url-status=dead |archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20130723024001/https://www.ecac-ceac.org//about_ecac/ecac_member_states |archivedate=23 July 2013 }}, [[Euronews]] [http://www.euronews.net/weather/], [[BBC]] [http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/country_profiles/1102477.stm], [[NATO]] [http://www.nato.int/cps/en/natolive/official_texts_8443.htm], [[Russian Foreign Ministry]] [http://www.mid.ru/ns-reuro.nsf/strana], [[the World Bank]] {{cite web |url=http://data.worldbank.org/region/ECA |title=Archived copy |accessdate=9 January 2011 |url-status=dead |archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20110219144231/http://data.worldbank.org/region/ECA |archivedate=19 February 2011 }}.</ref> The population and area figures include Georgian estimates for [[Abkhazia]] and [[South Ossetia]], two regions that have declared and ''[[de facto]]'' [[List of states with limited recognition|achieved]] independence. [[International recognition of Abkhazia and South Ossetia#Positions taken by states|International recognition]], however, is limited.}} {{Cnote2|m|[[Turkey]] is physiographically considered a transcontinental country, mostly in Western Asia (the Middle East) and Southeast Europe. Turkey has a small part of its territory (3%) in Southeast Europe called Turkish Thrace.<ref>{{cite web|author=FAO|authorlink=FAO|publisher=FAO|url= http://www.fao.org/docrep/009/t0377e/t0377e27.htm|title=Inland fisheries of Europe|accessdate=26 March 2011}}</ref> However only the population figure includes the entire state.}} {{Cnote2|n|n=4|The total figures for area and population include only European portions of transcontinental countries. The precision of these figures is compromised by the ambiguous geographical extent of Europe and the lack of references for European portions of transcontinental countries.}} {{Cnote2|o|[[Kosovo]] unilaterally declared its independence from [[Serbia]] on 17 February 2008. Its sovereign status is [[International reaction to the 2008 Kosovo declaration of independence|unclear]]. Its population is July 2009 CIA estimate.}} {{Cnote2|p|n=2|[[Abkhazia]] and [[South Ossetia]], both of which can be considered part of Eastern Europe or [[West Asia]]<ref name="W.Asia">The [[United Nations|UN]] Statistics Department [http://unstats.un.org/unsd/methods/m49/m49regin.htm] places Georgia in [[Western Asia]] for statistical convenience [http://unstats.un.org/unsd/methods/m49/m49.htm]: "The assignment of countries or areas to specific groupings is for statistical convenience and does not imply any assumption regarding political or other affiliation of countries or territories." The [[CIA World Factbook]] [https://www.cia.gov/library/publications/the-world-factbook/geos/gg.html#Geo], [http://www.nationalgeographic.com/xpeditions/atlas/index.html?Parent=asia&Rootmap=georgi&Mode=d&SubMode=w National Geographic], and ''[http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/230186/Georgia Encyclopædia Britannica]'' also place Georgia in Asia.</ref> unilaterally declared their independence from [[Georgia (country)|Georgia]] on 25 August 1990 and 28 November 1991 respectively. Their status as sovereign nations is [[International recognition of Abkhazia and South Ossetia|not recognised]] by a vast majority of sovereign nations, nor the UN. Population figures stated as of 2003 census and 2000 estimates respectively.}} {{Cnote2|q|[[Nagorno-Karabakh]], which can be considered part of Eastern Europe or [[West Asia]], unilaterally declared its independence from [[Azerbaijan]] on 6 January 1992. Its status as a sovereign nation is [[Nagorno-Karabakh|not recognised]] by any sovereign nation, nor the UN. Population figures stated as of 2003 census and 2000 estimates respectively.}} {{Cnote2|r|[[Greenland]], an autonomous constituent country within the [[Danish Realm]], is geographically a part of the continent of North America, but has been politically and culturally associated with Europe.}} {{Cnote2 End}} ==References== {{reflist}} ==Sources== * [[National Geographic Society]] (2005). ''National Geographic Visual History of the World''. Washington, DC: National Geographic Society. {{ISBN|0-7922-3695-5}}. * {{cite book | last1 = Bulliet | first1 = Richard | last2 = Crossley | first2 = Pamela | last3 = Headrick | first3 = Daniel | last4 = Hirsch | first4 = Steven | last5 = Johnson | first5 = Lyman | title = The Earth and Its Peoples, Brief Edition | volume = 1 | publisher = Cengage Learning | year = 2011 | isbn = 978-0495913115 | ref = harv}} * {{cite book | last1 = Brown | first1 = Stephen F. | last2 = Anatolios | first2 = Khaled | last3 = Palmer | first3 = Martin | editor-last = O'Brien | editor-first = Joanne | title = Catholicism & Orthodox Christianity | publisher = Infobase Publishing | year = 2009 | isbn = 978-1604131062 | ref = harv}} ==External links== {{Sister project links|voy=Europe}} * [http://www.coe.int/ Council of Europe] * [http://europa.eu/ European Union] * [http://www.columbiagazetteer.org/ The Columbia Gazetteer of the World Online] [[Columbia University Press]] * [http://www.lonelyplanet.com/europe "Introducing Europe"] from [http://www.lonelyplanet.com/ Lonely Planet] Travel Guides and Information '''Historical Maps''' * [http://geacron.com/home-en/?&sid=GeaCron747702 Borders in Europe 3000BC to the present] Geacron [[Historical atlas]] * [http://www.euratlas.net/history/europe/index.html Online history of Europe in 21 maps] {{Europefooter}} {{Sovereign states of Europe}} {{European diasporas}} {{Western culture}} {{Continents of the world}} {{Regions of the world}} {{Authority control}} [[Category:Europe| ]]<!--please leave the empty space as standard--> [[Category:Continents]]'