Europe

Europe is one among the seven major continents in the world and is close to the Asian continent. Europe is the sixth largest continent in size and the second smallest populated in the world. European continent is a portion of Eurasian land mass which includes parts of Asia, Europe, Arabian Peninsula and Asia Minor. The Ural mountains in Russia along with the Ural River mark the separation between Asia and Europe followed by the Caucasus Mountains, the Caspian sea which is the largest water body enclosed by land mass, the Black sea and also the Kuma-manych Depression. It is surrounded by the Arctic Ocean in the North, by the Atlantic Ocean in its west. The borders of Europe are capricious and its separation as an individual continent can either indicate the political as well as cultural distinction between the Asian continent and also actual geographic demarcation.

Europe Definition

The usage of the word “Europe” has gradually developed over time. In those days, the world was divided into 3 major continents namely Asia, Europe and Africa by the ancient Greeks. River Nile along with Sea of Azov combined with Aegan Sea which forms a complex system of watercourses provided the boundaries. Flavius Josephus who was a famous Jewish historian wrote in the Lesser Genesis alias Book of Jubilees, a famous religious work of the described these 3 continents as regions of land given by Noah, the tenth patriarch mentioned in the bible to his benevolent 3 sons. Europe had an earlier definition as the land mass between Pillars of Hercules located at Cadiz, which disjointed it from the continent of Africa and it was separated from Asia by the River Don. This form of separation was followed until the late middle age and it was mostly a cultural division rather than geographical one. But with the advent of Age of Discovery, these boundaries were questioned and a new definition for Europe had been given during 1730 by the Swedish cartographer as well as geographer Von StrahlenBerg who proposed the Ural Mountains to be eastern boundary of Europe and his suggestion was widely accepted throughout Europe and Russia.

Europe is one among the seven major continents in the world and is close to the Asian continent. Europe is the sixth largest continent in size and the second smallest populated in the world. European continent is a portion of Eurasian land mass which includes parts of Asia, Europe, Arabian Peninsula and Asia Minor. The Ural mountains in Russia along with Ural River mark the separation between Asia and Europe followed by the Caucasus Mountains, Caspian sea which is the largest water body enclosed by land mass, Black sea as well as the Kuma-manych Depression. It is surrounded by the Arctic Ocean in the North, by the Atlantic Ocean in its west; by Mediterranean Sea in its south and Black sea in its south east and it is the water-most peninsula of Eurasia. But the borders of Europe are capricious and its separation as an individual continent can either indicate the political as well as cultural distinction between the Asian continent and also actual geographic demarcation.

The council of Europe contains 47 countries as members while there are only twenty seven member states in the European Union. The inhabitants of parochial regions such as the UK, Ireland and the Mediterranean islands call the mainland Europe as The continent or plainly as Europe and not as European Union.

Europe Etymology

According to the ancient Mythology of Greeks, Europa was the Princess of Phoenicia who was abducted by Zeus who disguise as a blazing white bull for that. She was taken by Zeus to Crete Islands where Rhadamanthus, Sarpedon and Minos were given birth by Europa. Homer, the writer of Iliad, believed that Europe was the Crete queen myth logically and not a physical land mass. Europa was later considered as the central north Greece and around 500 BC it was considered including the lands of north.

There is no clear etymology for Europa though different meanings exist. One of the theories states that the word Europe has been derived from the Greek root words “eur” which means broad and “op” which mean eye and hence it has been called Europe which means “wide-gazing” or “broad of aspect”.  There is another theory which states that it has been derived from Semitic words like Akkadian erebu which means “to go down, set” which is closely related to the Phoenician word “ereb”  which means “evening;west”. Majority of the languages in the world use the words which are derived from “Europa” for indicating Europe. Ōuzhōu is the word used in Chinese to describe Europe and in Turkic languages it is often called as Frengistan which means the land mass of franks.

Europe History

The history of Europe comprises its chronicle from being inhabited by human beings till the current date and it has been divided into different phases by the historians for sake of convenience.  The history of Europe dates around 700 BC with the reappearance of writing in ancient Greece. By 509 BC, The Republic of Rome was established and Romans started to expand their empire over Italy, Western Europe and the regions around the Mediterranean basin. The Roman Empire reached its pinnacle of glory and greatest land mass around 150 BC.

Europe prehistory

Homo georgicus is a species of hominid which is believed to have existed before approximately two million years before and the remains of these fossil skulls were found in Georgia during the year 2001 and are the earliest to be re-discovered in the continent of Europe. Some of the other remains which date back to approximately 1 million years ago have been found in Atapuerca in Spain.  The first ever to have migrated to Europe was Neanderthal man around one hundred fifty thousand years ago whose name has been coined after Neander valley located at the country Germany and he disappeared from fossil record around thirty thousand years ago. They were superseded by the modern humans also called Cro-Magnons  the species that came into existence around forty thousand years ago.

The construction of Megalithic monuments which were memorials consisting of a very large stone forming part of a prehistoric structure took place during the Stone Age. Some good examples are Megalithic temples of Malta and the Stonehenge which were constructed all around the Southern as well as western regions of Europe. Corded ware became famous during the transition period from Neolithic or Stone Age to Chalcolithic age. The beaker culture was introduced with Bronze Age in Europe that commenced during the third millennium BC.

The Iron Age of Europe started during 800 BC marked by Hallstatt culture. The colonization by the Phoencians during the Iron Age gave birth to the early cities of Mediterranean. The classical antiquity was given birth by the Iron Age Greece and Italy during eighth century BC.

European classical antiquity

Ancient Greece experienced a strong impact on the Western Civilization and the indivialistic culture and Western democracy are most often imputed towards it. The city-state also termed Polis was introduced by Greeks that had a major role in the concept of individuality. These age old Greek political apotheoses were found again by the European philosophers during the late eighteenth century. Greece has made huge contributions towards culture, rationalism, humanism, in philosophy under famous philosophers like Socrates, Aristotle and Plato. Herodotus as well as Thucydides made great contributions in History and Homer made some ideal contribution in drama and poems including Iliad which is a famous epic poem, Euclid, Pythagoras, Archimedes and Euclid made contributions in Science and Math.

The Roman Empire made great achievements with Engineering, law, language, Government and Architecture. Some of the finest monuments including the majestic Coliseum were built by Romans. The Roman Empire has expanded its territories including the Mediterranean basin completely along with major regions of Europe during the period of Pax Romana. The Stoicism, the philosophical system of the Stoics following the teachings of the ancient Greek philosopher Zeno influenced famous emperors like  Antoninus Pius, Marcus Aurelius and Hadrian who spent most of their time fighting with the Pictish, Scottish as well as Germanish tribes in the northern borders of the Empire. Constantine I was the first to legalize Christianity following 3 centuries of royal persecution.

European Earlier Medieval Period

During the period of fall of the Roman Empire, European continent entered into long stage of transitions which was termed as Age of Migrations by the historians. There were myriad migrations and invasions amongst the Visigoths, Ostrogoths, Vandals, Goths, Franks, Huns, Saxons, Angles, Normans and the Vikings. The Renaissance minds like Petrarch would also term this as “Dark Ages”.  Disjoint and reclusive communities remained as only choice for safeguarding the previously accumulated knowledge. Most of the philosophy, literature and math and myriad inventions of the classical age were lost from Europe and only a few written records survive which were safeguarded by their forefathers.

The Celtics, Germanic and Slavic tribes took control of Western Roman Empire during the Dark ages. The Kingdoms located at Gaul which were established by Celtic tribes that later became Frankish Kingdoms eventually turned into France. The Eastern and Central Europe were occupied by the Slavish and Germanic tribes respectively. Clovis I united all Frankish tribes eventually. Charlemagne, the Frankish King during Carolingian dynasty that had captured Entire Western Europe had been embrocated by the Pope as the Holy Roman Emperor during 800 A.D. This caused the foundation of Holy Roman Empire.

Byzantine Empire was the well known term for the Eastern Roman Empire in west, which viewed itself as the natural heir of Roman Empire and was based at Constantinople. Constantinople’s first Golden age was presided over by Justinian I, a famous Emperor who established the code of laws, brought under state control the Christian churches and also funded Hagia Sophia, a 6th century masterpiece of Byzantine architecture in Istanbul; built as a Christian church, converted to a mosque in 1453, and made into a museum in the middle of the 20th century. Byzantines descended during the year of 1543 after they were defeated by Ottoman Empire.

Middle ages in Europe

Nobles and Clergies who formed the upper two grades in the social hierarchy dominated Europe during middle Ages. Feudal system had its origin in France during the Early Middle Age and it gradually spread all over Europe. The clash between monarchy and the nobility in England caused signing of Magna Carta, the royal charter of political rights given to rebellious English barons by King John in 1215 and also Parliament Establishment. Roman Catholic Church became the primary origin of Culture during this period and it was considered responsible for spreading of Education throughout Europe through Cathedral schools and Monasteries.

The Papacy came to full potential during Late Middle Ages. Roman Empire was split religiously during 1054 with Byzantine Empire holding control of Eastern Orthodox Church and Former Western Empire holding control of Roman Catholic Church. During the year of 1095, asked for a movement against the Muslims who occupied Jerusalem as well as their holy land which was the birth place of Lord Jesus. The Church organized the judicature against the heretics. During the year of 1942, The Reconquita lost their power in Spain with descending of famous Granada which ended the 7 centuries of domination by Muslims in Iberian Peninsula.

During the eleventh and twelfth centuries, the Slavic populations migrated towards safer regions of north due to constant penetrations by Kipchaks and Pechenegs, the nomadic tribes. Like other regions of Eurasia, Mongols overrun these territories. Tatars, the other term for these invaders, formed state of Golden Horde that ruled central and southern sweeps of Russia nearly 3 centuries.

During the late Middle Age in the years 1315-1317, Great Famine struck Europe which was very first crisis in Europe. There were heavy losses between the years 1348 and 1420 during which the French population got reduced to one-half its actual population. The Medieval Brittan had to suffer ninety five famines. During the 14th century Black Death, the epidemic form of bubonic plague experienced in Europe killed around twenty five million individuals which is nearly one-third its population which made Europe totally devastated. It also gave a big impact to Roman Catholic Church leading to higher persecution of foreigners, Jews, lepers and beggars. It is considered that the Plague returned for every generation till 1700s with difference range of virulence. Around 100 epidemics of plague had crossed Europe during this age.

Early modern European period

The Renaissance was the period of European history at the close of the middle Ages and beginning of the modern world; a cultural rebirth from the 14th through the middle of the 17th centuries. With the rise of new humanism, the buried classical as well as Arabic knowledge were revived from monastic libraries and also the World of Islam. Renaissance gradually spread all over Europe during fourteenth and sixteenth centuries during which Art, Philosophy, Science and Music had tremendous growth under joint support of Nobility, Royalty and Catholic Church. The famous artists like Michael Angelo, Leonarda Da vinci and Raphael existed during this period of renaissance and were funded by the Patrons of Italy, including Roman Popes and Florentine bankers.
The Great schism was caused by the intrusion of politics within church during the middle of fourteenth century. During the 40 year period, 2 famous popes including one in Rome and other in Avignon clashed for power over Roman Catholic Church. Even though the split was solved during 1417, the spiritual authority of papacy was greatly affected during this time.

The protestant Reformation headed by Martin Luther weakened the power of church further which was due to deficiency of reforms inside the Church. It further damages the power of the Holy Roman Empire, since the German princes were separated between the Roman Catholic and Protestant beliefs. This finally caused the 30 years war that stultified Roman Empire and at the same time devastating Germany and causing the death of around forty percent of its population. France climbed towards prepotency within Europe as a consequence of Peace of Westphalia. The seventeenth century in Eastern and Southern Europe was under an age of  decline.

Renaissance marked the beginning of an Age of Discovery and during this time there were lot of inventions, explorations and scientific developments. During the fifteenth century, Spain and Portugal were the leading nations in exploration and were most powerful naval powers during the period of Renaissance. It was Christopher Columbus, who discovered America during the year 1492 and immediately following his discovery Portuguese and Spain started the establishment of the colonial empires at the regions of Americas, followed by France, England and the Netherlands who established their colonial empires in Asia, Africa and the Americas.

Europe in 18th and 19th centuries

During 18th century, strong intellectual movements termed as the Age of Enlightment started which was predominated with scientific and cognitive thoughts.  The French revolution was an outburst of the people who were annoyed by the monopoly of clergies and aristocrats on controlling the politics in France which gave birth to the First Republic. The terror reign which started initially lead to the complete end of monarchy and most of nobility. The consequences of French revolution lead to rise of Napoleon Bonaparte who established a vast empire that encompassed vast region of Europe. The Empire finally collapsed during battle of waterloo in the year 1815.

The rule of Napoleon resulted in further dispersals of French Revolution ideals including the nation-state and also far-flung espousal of French model of law, administration and Education. After the downfall of Napoleon, Congress of Vienna was convened which created a new power balance in the continent Europe centered among the 5 Greatest powers known as veto powers which included the countries of France, the United Kingdom, Prussia, Russia and Habsburg Austria. This balance of power existed till the Revolutions which arose in 1848 and at the same time the liberal rebellions affected entire Europe except Great Britain and Russia and these revolutions were finally dropped off by more rightist elements and several reforms resulted. Austro-Hungarian Empire got established during 1867 and Germany along with Italy were made as the Nation states after unification of smaller principalities.

During the end of 18th century the Industrial Revolution began and spread over entire Europe during which there were innumerous inventions of new technologies for mass production of materials and it resulted in growth of urban societies and rise of a working class society. There were reforms in economic as well as social spheres including first laws on child labor, abolition of Slavery and legalization of trade unions. The public Health Act was passed in Britain during 1875, which improved the conditions of living in British cities greatly. The population of Europe was increased twice during 18th century ranging from between 100 to 200 million. The population again doubled during 19th century and around seventy million left Europe during this century.

Europe 20th century till Current Age

The first half of 20th century was dominated by 2 world wars and an economic depression. The First World War was fought between the years 1914 and 1918 which erupted with the Assassination of Austrian, Archduke Franz Ferdinand by the Bosnian Serb Gvarillo Princip. Many of the European nations were dragged into the war which was fought between the Central powers which included the countries of Germany, Bulgaria, Austria-Hungary and Ottoman Empire and the Entente Powers which included Belgium, France, Serbia, Portugal, Russia, United Kingdom and later United States, Greece, Romania and Italy. Around forty million civilians and military men were dead during the war. Around sixty million European soldiers were mobilized during the years 1914 to 1918. As a result of defeat of Russia in the world war, the Russian Revolution erupted which demolished the Tsarist monarchy and communist Soviet Union was developed as a replacement. The Ottoman Empire and Austria-Hungary broke up into individual nations and many other countries had their borders reassigned.

The Versailles treaty was signed in 1919 which brought the First World War to an End, and the treaty was very harsh on Germany as it was the root cause of the war and had some heavy countenances imposed on it. The Economic instability which caused mainly due to debts incurred during First World War caused great havoc in Europe during the years 1920 to 1930. Along with this, the Wall Street crash during 1929 brought the worldwide great Depression.  Social instability caused due to the economic depression, led to the fascist movements which developed all around Europe causing Francisco Franco in Spain, Benito Mussolini of Italy and Adolf Hitler of Germany to rise in power who preached dictatorship. Germany enlarged its territories and encompassed Rhineland and Searland in 1935-36. Austria also became a part of Germany during 1938 which was followed by Anshluss. Germany appended the German Sudetenland which finally became part of Czechoslovakia after the end of War which appeased Hitler and prevented war. After that Poland and Hungary began to stress on annexation of portions of Czechoslovakia with Polish and Hungarian majorities.

Hitler made the Slovaks to do the same thing and in early 1939, the remainder of Czechoslovakia was separated into two regions including the Slovak Republic which was controlled by Poland and Hungary and the Protectorate of Bohemia and Moravia which as controlled by Germany. There was hostility arising between Poland and Germany over Danzing, a port of northern Poland and during this time the Germans made a pact with the Soviets. They invaded Poland on September 1st 1939 which made United Kingdom and France to declare war on Germany on 3rd September. Poland’s downfall came with the Soviet invasion on 17th September.

The Soviet Union made an attack on Baltic counties on September 24th followed by Finland. The British hoped to land at Narvik so as to help Finland with their troops but they planned to enclose entire Germany and interrupt their Scandinavian resources. But the Germans were aware of the British plans and got to Narvik first and repulsed the attack. With the continuation of Phoney war the German troops moved to Denmark without leaving any room for outside. France was later attacked by Germany during May 1940, forcing them to surrender by June 1940. But the British were reluctant in accepting the peace terms which led to the prolongation of war. Germans started to aggressively bomb Britain but they could not force them to surrender. Germany started the attack on Soviet Union termed as Operation Barbarossa which was a great disaster. The Pearl Harbor attack of Japan on the United States during December 7th 1941 made United States as allies of British Empire. The German offensive on Soviet Union became a persistent failure after he famous Battle of Stalingrad on 1943. During 1944, American and British forces invaded France on 6th June termed as D-day which opened a new front against the Germany. With the fall of Germany in 1945, the World War II in Europe came to an end. The war was the most destructive and largest in the history of humans, with more than 60 million people dead across the entire world including eleven million people who expired during Holocaust, the mass murder of Jews under the German Nazi regime from 1941 until 1945. The Soviet Union had to lost around twenty seven people during the war which is about half the death in World War II. There were several expulsions in the aftermath of World War II which caused a death of twenty million people.

Both the World Wars reduced the eminence of Western Europe in the world affairs.  After World War II, the European map was re-sketched at the Yalta Conference and separated into 2 blocs, Communist Eastern bloc and the Western countries by the iron curtain as denoted by the former prime minister of UK, Winston Churchill.  The NATO alliance was established between Eastern Europe and United States, while the Warsaw Pact was signed between Eastern Europe and the Soviet Union. Then the Cold war started between the Soviet Union and United states which lasted for fifty years. The decolonization which had started after end of World War I gradually resulted in the independence of many of European colonies in Africa and Asia. The reforms and movements of Mikhail Gorbachev in 1980s and the Solidarity Movement in Poland quickened the collapse of Eastern bloc and the cease of Cold war. After the fall of Berlin wall during the year 1989, Germany was reunited and the maps of Eastern Europe were re-sketched once more and the boundaries were redrawn.

The European integration also increased after the World War II. In 1957, the Treaty of Rome established the European Economic Community between 6 Western European states with the goal of common market and economic policy. In 1967, the formation of European Coal and Steel Community termed as EEC was started, which in 1993, became the European Union. The European Union established the court, a parliament and the central bank. Euro was made as the common currency for all countries in Europe. With the end of cold war after 1990s, the countries of Eastern Europe started to unite with the European Union increase its size to twenty seven countries as of now, which makes Europe a major political and economic power.

Europes geography and extent

Europe is a portion of North West Eurasia, or Afro-Eurasia. The eastern bulk of this continuous land mass is occupied by the nearby continent Asia and both of them share a single continental shelf. The Eastern frontier of Europe is the Ural Mountains in Russia. Strabo a famous first century AD geographer, took the River Don termed as “Tanais” as the boundary to the black Sea, as did early Judaic sources. The southeast boundary with the Asian continent is not defined universally. Emba river of Ural River serves as possible boundaries, which continue till the Caspian Sea which is the largest inland sea. Then the Caucasus Mountains and the Kura River, followed by Black sea, the Dardanells and the Aegean Sea, which conclude the Asian boundary. The Mediterranean Sea separates the European continent from Africa. Atlantic Ocean forms the western boundary and Iceland which is near to Greenland is included as part of Europe.Due to the cultural and sociopolitical differences, the boundaries of Europe are described in different ways by different sources. For example, Geographers from Russia generally include Urals in Europe and Caucasia is not included as part of it and mapped with Asia. Cyprus which is a close proximity to Asia Minor is considered as part of Europe and is part of European Union.

Physical geography of Europe

The land masses in Europe show lot of variations within small areas. The southern regions are mountainous and the northern regions are terrains from high Alps Mountains, Carpathians and Pyrenees through hilly uplands, into low northern plains, broad which are vast in the east.

These lowlands are termed as Great European plains and its core lies in the North German plains. There is also an Arc of uplands along the north-western seaboard, which starts in western parts of islands belonging to Britain and Ireland and then continues along the mountains, spine of Norway.

The Peninsulas of Iberia and Italy have their own complex features similar to the mainland of Central Europe and include Plateaus, river basins and valleys. The sub-regions like Britain, Iceland and Ireland are some special cases. Iceland is a land unto itself in northern ocean which is included as a portion of Europe while the latter are upland areas which were included with mainland until it was cut off by the rising sea levels.

Europe climate

Europe is located in temperatures climatic zones, and is subjected to prevailing westerlies, the winds from the west that occur in the temperate zones of the Earth. It has milder climate compared to other regions in same latitude around the world due to the impact of Gulf Stream which is also called as “Europe’s central heating”. It makes the climate of Europe warmer and wetter. The Gulf Stream carries warm water to the coast of Europe and also warms up the prevailing westerlies which blow from the Atlantic Ocean across the continent.Therefore the average temperature of Europe around the year at Naples is sixteen degrees Celsius, while it around 12 degrees Celsius in New York which lies along same latitude. Berlin in Germany, Calgary in Canada and Irkutsk in Russia all which lie in same latitude have different temperatures. The temperature of Calgary is 22 degrees while in Berlin, the average temperature is eight degrees.

Europe geology

The Geology of Europe is complex and varies highly which gives rise to different varieties of landscapes which is found all over the continent the rolling plains in Hungary to Scottish highlands.

The dichotomy between the mountainous Southern Europe with highlands and a vast northern plain which ranges from British Isles to the Ural Mountains is the significant feature of Europe. The two halves are separated by chain of mountains including Carpathians or Alps and Pyrenees. The northern plains are delimited by the Scandinavian mountains in the west and the mountainous parts in British Isles. The submerging parts of Celtic Sea, North Sea and Baltic Sea are complex and really hard. The Baltica which is an old geological continent is present in Northern plains and is geologically considered the main continent and the mountainous regions the western and southern regions are considered as fragments of other geological continents. The microcontient Avalonia constituted the older geology.

Europe geological history

Baltic shield also called as Fennoscandia and The Sarmatian Craton were part of European Geological history which existed around 2.24 billion years ago followed by the Volga-Uralia shield and 3 lead together to the Baltica where the East European carton lies and is a part of Columbia. Arctica and Baltica joined together as Rodinia around 1.1 billion years ago and separated back around 500 million years back. The Euramerica was formed around 440 million years ago from the Laurentia and Baltica, and after joining along with Gondwana, the Pangea was formed. Gondwana and laurasia was separated due to the widening of Atlantic ocean around 190 million years ago. Laurasia was split up again, into North America termed as Laurentia and Eurassian continent. Greenland existed as the land connectivity between the two, which led to exchange of animal species. Rise and fall of sea levels determined the actual shape of Europe and the connection with the Asian continent. The present shape of Europe dates back to the Tertiary period which is dates back about 5 million years ago.

Biodiversity in EuropeEurope’s plants and animals have had a strong impact of activities of human beings having lived along with agricultural people for a millennium. Along with Northern Russia and Fennoscandia, several areas of wilderness exist in Europe, apart from various national and geographic parks and sanctuaries.The main natural vegetation is the mixed forests for which there are favorable growth conditions. The North Atlantic drift as well as the Gulf Stream give a warming effect to the continent and prevent the prevailing winds from cooling it. Especially southern Europe has a very warm climate, and summer droughts occur frequently. The conditions are also affected by mountain ridges such as Pyrenees and the Alps which are east-west oriented and allow the wind to carry huge masses of water. Other mountains like Carpathians, Scandinavian mountains are south-north oriented and the rain falls on the mountain side which is towards the sea and have thick forests, while on the other side of mountains the growth conditions are not very favorable. Some corners of the Europe have not been grazed with livestock and cutting of trees has disrupted the natural eco system.

Ninety percent of Europe was covered by thick forests once and they stretched from Arctic Ocean to Mediterranean Sea. During the centuries of deforestation, around one half of the actual forests were destroyed but Europe has still one fourth its regions as forest, which included the Caucasus mixed forest, the Western Mediterranean Cork Oak forest, and taiga from Scandinavia. Deforestation has been reduced and they have introduced afforestation in many regions. In the temperate zone of Europe, mostly mixed forests are found with coniferous and broadleaf tress. Iceland is the country with smallest vegetation around 1 percent of its region has trees.

Oak and beech are most important tree species in western and central Europe. The taiga forest is most common in northern Europe and the Tundra forests are found in the arctic regions. The Mediterranean regions have mostly olive tress which have favorable arid climate in the region followed by Mediterranean Cypress which is also planted widely in the Southern regions of Europe. Scrub forests are also facilitated by the semi-arid climate. The Glaciations during ice age and presence of men has affected the wild animal’s existence and distribution in Europe. Many parts of Europe are mostly filled with top predators and large animals which have been hunted down and remain as endangered species. The woolly mammoth was destroyed before the end of Neolithic period. Bears and wolves are most endangered species at present which were found in most regions of Europe. Hunting and Deforestation have caused these species to withdraw further.

Brown bear exists in small numbers in regions of Russia, Balkan Peninsula and Scandinavia, and their population is fragmented because of their habitats getting destroyed by human beings. Wolfs are found mostly in Balkans and in Scandinavia and Spain. Other major carnivores in Europe are European wild cats, jackals, foxes specifically the red fox, hedge hogs, reptiles such as snakes and vipers and various birds.  Other major herbivores are larvae, snails, fish, mammals, different birds and rodents like roe deer, boars etc. The earliest arrival of mankind to Mediterranean islands has caused the extinction of the dwarf elephants and dwarf hippos species. The various other sea creatures include European fauna and flora. Phytoplankton are the main sea flora. Zoo plankton, echinoderms, mollusks, squids, octopus, fish, whales and dolphins are important sea animals. Council of Europe’s bern convention takes care of bio diversity of Europe.

Europe demographics

Europe political geography - European flags

The territories are subject to various categorizations. The European Union forms a part of political geography of Europe. The twenty seven countries of the European Union are politically and economically integrated well and the European Union is a part of political geography of Europe.

Europe economy

The European Economy is the largest in Globe and it is the richest regions measure by the assets under management which is around 32, 7 trillion dollars which is high compared to North American assets which is around 27,1 trillion dollars. Europe has a high variation of wealth when compared to other continents. The Western Europe has richer states compared to the East. Euro is shared as the common currency by fifteen countries in European Union. There are five European countries ranking among top 10 in GDP value which include UK, Germany, Russia, Italy and France.

Pre–1945: Industrial growth of Europe

After the end of feudalism, Western world was dominated by Capitalism. It gradually spread around Europe originating from Britain. The Industrial Revolution was started during late 18th century and in 19th century Western Europe started to Industrialize. World wars disrupted the economies and damaged many of European Industries.

1945–1990: The Cold War in Europe

The economy of United Kingdom was under ruin after the World War II and it continued to suffer economic decline and though Italy shared the same fate it rose to high level by 1950s. West Germany recovered quickly and the production was doubled from the pre-war levels by 1950s. France enjoyed a remarkable comeback after having rapid modernization and growth and later Space recovered under the leadership of Franco.  The states with free market system were aided under the Marshal plan by United States. The council for Mutual Economic Assistance termed as COMECON was the council of major Eastern European states that came under control of Soviet Union. The Western States were moved to link their economies which provided the ground for European Union that facilitated cross border trade. The emphasis placed on resurrection of west German Economy caused the overtaking of UK as the largest economy in world.

1991–2007: The rise of the Europe Union

In 1991, after the fall of communism in Eastern Europe many states had to adapt for the free market system, which had varying degrees of success along with Central European Countries including Hungary, Poland and Slovenia which adapted reasonably quickly, while the states like Russia and Ukraine took longer time.  Western Europe helped the Eastern Europe by formation of economic ties between them. Being ravaged by war, Yogoslavia was having the worst economy and there were many peace keeping troops of NATO and EU in Kosovo, the Republic of Macedonia and also in Herzegonovia and Bosnia. By the change in millennium, European Union has been dominating the economy of Europe which compromises of 5 largest European economies including France, Spain, Italy, United Kingdom and Germany. Around 1999, twelve members out of fifteen of the European Union joined the Eurozone by replacing their former currencies with the common currency as Euro. The three countries which chose to remain outside Eurozone were Denmark, Sweden and the United Kingdom.

2008–2009: Europe recession

The first official recession in Eurozone was during the 3rd quarter of 2008 and official figures confirmed them in Jan 2009. The late 2000s recession which started in US, spread rapidly to Europe and affected most of the region. The official rate of Unemployment which uses Euros rose to 9.5 percent in May 2009. The young workers of Europe have been hard hit especially. The unemployment rate was eighteen percent for the age group of 15-24 in the Ist quarter of 2009 in the European Union.

Europe language

The languages spoken in Europe come under 3 Indo-European language groups which include the Romance languages which were inferred from Latin of Roman Empire, The Germanic languages which originated from Southern Scandinavia and the Slavic Languages. The English language though has most of its vocabulary derived from Romance languages is a Germanic Language.People in South-west and countries of Moldova and Romania mostly speak Romance languages. People in North-western Europe as well as portions of Central Europe speak Germanic languages while Slavic Languages are spoken in Eastern, Central and South Eastern Europe.Baltic group of languages like Lithuanian and Latvian,  Celtic group like Irish, Welsh, manx and Breton, Albanian, Greek, Armenian are some of the language groups that exists beyond these three major language groups.Finnish, Hungarian, and Estonian which are called as Uralic Languages is spoken in countries of Romania, Serbia, Slovakia and Russia. Maltese which is the Semitic official language of the European Union, Georgian, Azerbaijani are the other languages that exist in Europe.Protection of regional as well as minority languages is considered as political goal of Europe today. The council of Europe Framework convention for protection of National Minorities and European Charter for Regional and Minority Languages council has been setup to look after the language rights in Europe.

Europe religion

The European Religion was influenced majorly by European Culture, Art, Philosophy and law. Vast majority of Europeans practice Christianity under the Eastern Orthodox, Catholic and Protestant Churches. Islam domination is mainly present in South East regions including Albania, Kazakhstan, Kosovo, Turkey, North Cyprus, Bosnia and Azerbaijan. Various other religions including Hinduism, Buddhism and Judaism exist as minorities. Europe is a secular continent and has the largest atheistic population in Western World with non-religious people mostly in East Germany, Sweden, Estonia, Czech Republic and France.

Europe culture