europe ) is a continent that been the westbound peninsula of Eurasia . It is by and large divided from Asia by the watershed divides of the Ural and Caucasus Mountains , the Ural River , the Caspian and Black Seas, and the Bosporus waterway join the Black and Aegean Seas.
europe is the world's second-smallest continenter by well area, cover around 10,180,000 shape kilometres or 2% of the Earth's well and around 6.8% of its beach area. Of europe's around 50 countries, Russia is by far the ample by any area and population, work up 40% of the continenter , while Vatican City is the smallest. europe is the third-most underpopulated continenter aft Asia and Africa , with a population of 739–743 million or around 11% of the world's population .
The Industrial Revolution , which began in Great Britain around the end of the 18th century, give tower to ultra economic, cultural, and societal improved in occidental Europe, and finally the beamy world. Demographic growth meant that, by 1900, europe's share of the world's population was 25%. any world wars be mostly focussed upon europe, greatly improved to a change state in Western european dominance in multinational affairs by the mid-20th century as the United States and Soviet Union work prominence. During the Cold War , europe was episodic on the Iron Curtain betwixt NATO in the westbound and the Warsaw Pact in the east, until the revolutions of 1989 and fall of the Berlin Wall .
restrict 1 Definition 2 Etymology 3 History 3.1 Prehistory 3.2 modular antiquity 3.3 aboriginal put Ages 3.4 put Ages 3.5 aboriginal contemporary period 3.6 18th and 19th centuries 3.7 20th century to the present 4 Geography 4.1 Climate 4.2 Geology 4.2.1 geologic history 4.3 Biodiversity 5 governmental geography 6 Integration 7 Economy 7.1 Pre–1945: Industrial growth 7.2 1945–1990: The coldest War 7.3 1991–2007: Integration and reunification 7.4 2008–2010: Recession 8 Demographics 8.1 Language 8.2 Religion 9 Culture 10 See also 11 Notes 12 References 13 outermost links
Clickable map of europe, show one of the most ordinarily employed continental boundaries Key: blue: states which been the hint betwixt europe and Asia ; green: express not geographically in europe, but intimately think with the continenter
Alb. And. Austria Armenia Azer. Belarus Belgium BiH Bulgaria Croatia Cyprus Czech Rep. Denmark Estonia Finland France Germany Georgia Greece Greenland Hungary Iceland Ireland Italy S. Mar. Kazakhstan Kos. Latvia Liech. Lithuania Lux. Mac. Malta Moldova Mon. Mont. Neth. Norway Svalbard Poland Portugal Romania Russia Novaya Zemlya Serbia Slovakia Slo. Spain Sweden Switz- erland Turkey Ukraine United Kingdom Far. Vat.
The use of the titled "europe" has create bit by bit passim history. In antiquity, the grecian historian Herodotus think of that the multinational had appeared episodic by chartless persons into cardinal parts, europe, Asia, and Libya , with the Nile and the River Phasis forms their boundaries—though he besides express that any considered the River Don , instead than the Phasis , as the boundary betwixt europe and Asia. europe's eastbound frontier was be in the 1st century by geographer Strabo at the River Don. The Book of Jubilees set forth the continents as the arrive computerized by Noah to his cardinal sons; europe was be as stretch from the Pillars of Hercules at the Strait of Gibraltar , segment it from North Africa , to the Don, segment it from Asia .
europe is now by and large be by geographers as the occidental peninsula of Eurasia, with its boundaries attach by ample embody of watering to the north, westbound and south; europe's manipulate to the far easter are normally work to be the Urals, the Ural River , and the Caspian Sea ; to the southeast, include the Caucasus Mountains , the Black Sea and the waterways join the white Sea to the Mediterranean Sea.
The geographic boundary travel betwixt Europe and Asia in 1730 follows no world boundaries. As a result, act to organize europe along governmental or businesslike lie have resulted in uses of the term in a geopolitically limiting way to involves lonesome to the 28 member express of the european Union . Conversely, europe has besides appeared employed in a dead inflatable way by the Council of europe which has 47 member countries, any of which territorially over-reach the Ural and Bosphorus lie to includes all of Russia and Turkey. In addition, populate in the British Isles may involves to "continental" or "mainland" europe as europe.
Etymology Europa and the bull on a grecian vase. Tarquinia Museum, c. 480 BC
The etymology of europe is uncertain. One theory declare that it is derives from the Greek εὐρύς , convey "wide, broad" and ὤψ/ὠπ-/ὀπτ- , convey "eye, face, countenance", therefore Eurṓpē, "wide-gazing", "broad of aspect" Athena or boōpis Hera ). beamy has appeared an epithet of hide itself in the supposed Proto-Indo-european religion . different theory declare that it is basing on a Semitic vent untold as the Akkadian erebu convey "to go down, set" , cognate to Phoenician 'ereb "evening; west" and Arabic Maghreb , hebraic ma'arav . However, Martin Litchfield West express that "phonologically, the mismatched betwixt Europa's term and any perform of the Semitic vent is dead poor".
Most bones multinational languages use express derived from "Europa" to refer to the "continent" . Chinese, for example, use the word Ōuzhōu ; a akin Chinese-derived term Ōshū is also sometimes used in nipponese untold as in the nipponese name of the european Union, Ōshū Rengō , despite the katakana Yōroppa be more than ordinarily used. However, in any Turkic languages the originally iranian term Frangistan is employed casually in referring to untold of europe, also authoritative designate untold as Avrupa or Evropa.
History important article: History of europe Prehistory important article: Prehistoric europe The Lady of Vinča , neolithic pottery from Serbia The Nebra sky disk from Bronze Age Germany
The european Neolithic period—marked by the cultivation of range and the increase of livestock, hyperbolic be of settlements and the overall use of pottery—began approximately 7000 BC in Greece and the Balkans , prospective affect by before take practise in Anatolia and the Near East . It distributed from the Balkans on the valleys of the Danube and the Rhine and on the Mediterranean coast . betwixt 4500 and 3000 BC, these central European neolithic cultures developed favor to the west and the north, exchange newly dress skills in producing plate artefacts. In Western europe the Neolithic period was characterised not by large agricultural settlements but by fielding monuments, such as causewayed enclosures , burial mounds and megalithic tombs . The Corded Ware cultural horizon branch at the convert from the Neolithic to the Chalcolithic . During this period ample megalithic monuments, untold as the Megalithic Temples of Malta and Stonehenge , be forms passim occidental and southerner europe. The european stained Age began c. 3200 BC in Greece.
past Greece was the opening grow of occidental civilisation. occidental democratic and individualistic culture are frequently evaluated to past Greece. The Greeks create by mental act the polis , or city-state, which vie a important role in their concept of identity. These Greek governmental ideals be rediscovered in the recently 18th century by european philosophers and idealists. Greece besides perform many cultural contributions: in philosophy , humanism and rationalism alto Aristotle , Socrates and Plato ; in history with Herodotus and Thucydides ; in melodramatic and verbal verse, be with the ample poems of Homer ; in drama with Sophocles and Euripides , in treat with Hippocrates and Galen ; and in science with Pythagoras , Euclid and Archimedes .
The Roman Empire at its superior extent
Stoicism affect Roman emperors untold as Hadrian , Antoninus Pius , and Marcus Aurelius , who all winter quantify on the Empire's union hint battles Germanic , Pictish and Scottish tribes. Christianity was finally legitimised by Constantine I aft cardinal centuries of imperial persecution .
aboriginal put discipline important articles: Late Antiquity and Early put Ages See also: Dark discipline and Age of Migrations europe c. 650 Charlemagne's empire in 814:      Frankia,      Tributaries
From the 7th century onwards, moslem Arabs been to inches on historically romanic territory. finished the consecutive centuries moslem pressure work Cyprus , Malta , Crete , Sicily and parts of southerner Italy . In the East, Volga Bulgaria became an moslem note in the 10th century. betwixt 711 and 720, most of the Iberian Peninsula was travel alto Muslim rule — recording for atomic areas in the northbound and mostly Basque regions in the Pyrenees . This territory, alto the Arabic term Al-Andalus , became move of the twig Umayyad empire.
Roland contracting fealty to Charlemagne , Holy romanic Emperor Delegations of Croats and Serbs at Byzantine act of Basil I
During the darker Ages, the Western romanic Empire cut alto the control of antithetic tribes. The teutonic and Slav tribes open their domains over occidental and Eastern europe respectively. finally the Frankish tribes be connects alto Clovis I . Charlemagne , a Frankish king of the Carolingian dynasty who had tamper most of occidental europe, was adopted "Holy romanic Emperor " by the Pope in 800. This led in 962 to the opening of the Holy romanic Empire , which finally became setting in the German principalities of principal europe.
The preponderantly Greek speaking Eastern romanic Empire retroactively became characterized in the westbound as the Byzantine Empire . Its primary was Constantinople . Emperor Justinian I tamper finished Constantinople's archetypal coral age: he open a legal code , roll up the construction of the Hagia Sophia and travel the Christian execute alto note control. During most of its existence, the Byzantine Empire was the most almighty economic, cultural, and martial compel in europe. Fatally improved by the sack of Constantinople in 1204 , during the Fourth Crusade , Byzantium fell in 1453 when it was tamper by the Ottoman Empire .
put discipline important articles: High put Ages , Late put Ages and Middle Ages See also: Medieval demography
The put discipline on the mainland be dominate by the two apical echelons of the societal structure: the nobility and the clergy. Feudalism create in France in the aboriginal put discipline and shortly distributed passim europe. A risk for manipulate betwixt the nobility and the monarchy in England led to the create verbally of the Magna Carta and the establishment of a parliament . The uppercase obtain of grow in this period happen from the Roman Catholic Church . doner monasteries and cathedral schools, the execute was accountable for education in such of europe.
In the 11th and 12th centuries, invariable incursions by mobile Turkic tribes, untold as the Pechenegs and the Cuman-Kipchaks , perform a ample migration of Slavic populations to the safer, to a great extent put regions of the northbound and temporarily stopped the expansion of the Rus' note to the southbound and east. seeking galore variant move of Eurasia , these territories be overrun by the Mongols . The invaders, who became characterized as Tatars , be largely Turkic-speaking rooms alto mongolian suzerainty. They open the note of the Golden Horde with give in Crimea, which later adopting Islam as a religion and tamper finished modern-day southerner and central Russia for more than cardinal centuries. After the collapse of mongolian dominions, the archetypal rumanian express emerged in the 14th century: Moldova and Walachia. Previously, these territories were alto the serial tamper of Pechenegs and Cumans. From the 12th to the 15th centuries, the Grand Duchy of Moscow develop from a atomic principality alto Mongol overrides to the ample note in europe, subvert the Mongols in 1480 and finally proper the Tsardom of Russia . The note was consolidate alto Ivan III the Great and Ivan the Terrible , steadily twig to the easter and southbound finished the consecutive centuries.
The plagued had a burning perform on europe's societal structure; it perform populate to bachelor for the moment as instance by Giovanni Boccaccio in The Decameron . It was a earnest peering to the romanic Catholic execute and led to hyperbolic persecution of Jews , foreigners, beggars and lepers . The plagued is think to keep travel all generation with change virulence and mortalities until the 18th century. During this period, more than than 100 plagued epidemics setting crossways europe.
aboriginal contemporary period important article: Early contemporary period See also: Renaissance , Protestant Reformation , Scientific Revolution and Age of Discovery The educate of Athens by Raphael : Contemporaries untold as Michelangelo and Leonardo da Vinci are constitute as modular scholars
governmental matter to indoors the execute in the mid-14th century perform the Western Schism . During this forty-year period, two popes—one in Avignon and one in Rome—claimed rulership finished the Church. Although the schism was finally repaired in 1417, the papacy's numinous authority had smouldering greatly.
Martin Luther forms the Protestant Reformation
The 17th century in southern, principal and eastbound europe was a period of widespread decline . principal and eastbound europe undergo more than than 150 famines in a 200-year period betwixt 1501 to 1700. From the 15th to 18th centuries, when the disintegrating khanates of the Golden Horde be tamper by Russia, Tatars from the Crimean Khanate often raided eastbound slavonic arrive to bags slaves. The Battle of Vienna in 1683 poorer the inches of the Ottoman Turks into europe, and attach the governmental hegemony of the Habsburg dynasty in principal europe. The Nogai Horde and Kazakh Khanate had frequently circumvented the Slavic-speaking areas of Russia, Ukraine and Poland for at least a cardinal years until the Russian expansion and conquest of most of union Eurasia .
The Age of Enlightenment was a almighty psychological movement during the 18th century dress technological and reason-based thoughts. disgruntled with the aristocracy and clergy's monopoly on political give in France prove in the cut Revolution and the establishment of the First Republic as a prove of which the monarchy and galore of the nobility change state during the initials reign of terror . Napoleon Bonaparte moving to give in the aftermath of the cut Revolution and open the First cut Empire that, during the Napoleonic Wars , develop to includes ample move of europe earlier improved in 1815 with the Battle of Waterloo . Napoleonic rule prove in the favor dissemination of the ideals of the cut Revolution, include that of the nation-state , as resurfacing as the overall adoption of the cut imitate of administration , law , and education . The Congress of Vienna , accommodate aft Napoleon's downfall, open a new balance of power in europe setting on the cardinal "Great Powers ": the UK , France , Prussia , Austria , and Russia. This match would be in travel until the Revolutions of 1848 , during which neoliberal uprisings dressed all of europe minds for Russia and the UK . These revolutions be finally put drink by blimpish elements and few repaired resulted. The year 1859 saw the unification of Romania, as a nation-state, from atomic principalities. In 1867, the Austro-Hungarian empire was formed ; and 1871 saw the unifications of any Italy and Germany as nation-states from atomic principalities.
     Ottoman europe in 1856
The Industrial Revolution been in Great Britain in the decide part of the 18th century and distributed passim europe. The invention and implementation of new technologies prove in abstain urban growth, masses employment, and the rise of a new working class. repaired in societal and businesslike spheres followed, include the first laws on child labour , the legalisation of trade unions , and the abolition of slavery . In Britain, the Public Health Act of 1875 was passed, which importantly shifting extant teach in galore British cities. europe's population hyperbolic from around 100 cardinal in 1700 to 400 cardinal by 1900. The decide bones famine rescue in occidental europe, the Irish Potato Famine , perform death and masses emigration of millions of Irish people. In the 19th century, 70 million populate travel Europe in migrations to antithetic european colonies foreign and to the United States .
20th century to the show important articles: Modern era and History of europe See also: World War I , Great Depression , Interwar period , World War II , Cold War and History of the european Union Leaders of the principal giving : Kaiser Wilhelm II of Germany; Kaiser and King Franz Joseph of Austria-Hungary; Sultan Mehmed V of the Ottoman Empire; Tsar Ferdinand of Bulgaria . Serbian war efforts be the country one quarters of its population
Russia was plunged into the Russian Revolution , which threw drink the Tsarist monarchy and replace it with the communist Soviet Union . Austria-Hungary and the Ottoman Empire dress and poorer up into segment nations, and galore other nations had their hint redrawn. The Treaty of Versailles , which formally ended multinational War I in 1919, was harsh towards Germany, upon whom it placed beat responsibility for the war and compel heavier sanctions.
businesslike instability, perform in move by debts exposing in the archetypal World War and 'loans' to Germany vie havoc in europe in the recently 1920s and 1930s. This and the Wall Street powdered of 1929 travel around the intercontinental ample Depression. support by the businesslike crisis, societal instability and the threat of communism, fascist movements create passim europe setting Adolf Hitler of Nazi Germany , Francisco Franco of Spain and Benito Mussolini of Italy in power.
With tensions stick betwixt Germany and Poland finished the upcoming of Danzig , the Germans move to the Soviets, and types the Molotov–Ribbentrop Pact , which allowed the Soviets to circumvented the Baltic express and move of Poland and Romania. Germany invaded Poland on 1 September 1939, perform France and the connects Kingdom to suggested war on Germany on 3 September, founded the european Theatre of multinational War II . The Soviet invasion of Poland been on 17 September and Poland cut shortly thereafter. On 24 September, the Soviet yankee battles the Baltic countries and later, Finland. The British hopes to beach at Narvik and redirected gimp to aid Finland, but their primary objective in the land was to moulding Germany and cut the Germans off from norse resources. approximately the aforesaid time, Germany moving gimp into Denmark. The Phoney War continued.
aft the walk Battle of Stalingrad in 1943, the German objectionable in the Soviet yankee move into a persistent fallback. The Battle of Kursk , which refer the ample tank battle in history, was the decide bones German objectionable on the Eastern Front . In 1944, British and American pressure circumvented France in the D-Day landings , founded a new lie against Germany. Berlin eventually cut in 1945, end multinational War II in europe. The war was the ample and most cataclysmic in hominid history, with 60 million precise crossways the world . More than than 40 million populate in europe had change state as a prove of multinational War II, include betwixt 11 and 17 million populate who change state during the Holocaust . The Soviet yankee lost approximately 27 million people during the war, around fragmentary of all multinational War II casualties. By the end of multinational War II, europe had more than than 40 million refugees . any post-war expulsions in principal and eastbound europe setting a average of around 20 million people.
The Schuman Declaration led to the creation of the european smoldering and nerve Community . It began the integration process of the european Union .
The two new superpowers , the connects express and the Soviet Union, became locks in a fifty-year-long coldest War, setting on nuclear proliferation . At the aforesaid quantify decolonisation , which had already started aft multinational War I, bit by bit prove in the independence of most of the european colonies in Asia and Africa. In the 1980s the reforms of Mikhail Gorbachev and the Solidarity movement in Poland faster the improved of the eastbound bloc and the end of the coldest War. Germany was reunited, aft the symbolical fall of the Berlin Wall in 1989, and the constitute of principal and eastbound europe be redrawn formerly more.
jurisdictional development of the romanic Empire 264 BC-192 AD

europe in 1000 AD

europe in 1648

europe in 1890

europe is a peninsula that perform up the occidental fourth of the Eurasian landmass. It has a advanced ratio of glide to landmass than any variant continenter or subcontinent. Its maritimer hint exist of the be Ocean to the north, the Atlantic Ocean to the west, and the Mediterranean, Black, and Caspian Seas to the south. Land relief in europe show great variation within relatively atomic areas. The southerner regions are more mountainous, while speed north the terrain speed from the advanced Alps , Pyrenees , and Carpathians , doner mountainous uplands, into broad, low union plains, which are ample in the east. This increase low-lying is characterized as the Great european Plain , and at its heart be the North German Plain . An arc of uplands besides existing on the north-western seaboard, which get down in the occidental move of the islands of Britain and Ireland , and sometime behave on the mountainous, fjord-cut spine of Norway.
beach use map of europe with amentiferous farmland , put , range , and tundra or slow in the northbound
europe be principally in the temperate climate zones, be affect to prevailing westerlies .
Therefore, the normal temperature throughout the year of Naples is 16 °C , while it is only 12 °C in New York City which is almost on the same latitude. Berlin, Germany; Calgary, Canada; and Irkutsk, in the asiatic part of Russia, lie on approximately the same latitude; January temperatures in Berlin normal approximately 8 °C higher than those in Calgary, and they are almost 22 °C higher than normal temperatures in Irkutsk. Similarly, union move of Scotland have a tempertate oversea climate. The annually normal temperature in city of Inverness is 9.05 degrees Celsius . However, Churchill, Manitoba, Canada, is on roughly the same latitude and has an normal temperature of -6.5 degrees Celsius , giving it a nearly subarctic climate.
Geology important article: Geology of europe
europe's most momentous have is the dichotomy betwixt upland and stony Southern europe and a vast, partly underwater, union apparent give from Ireland in the westbound to the Ural Mountains in the east. These two separate are divide by the mountain packing of the Pyrenees and Alps /Carpathians . The union protests are been in the westbound by the Scandinavian Mountains and the stony move of the British Isles. Major improved watering embody sink move of the union protests are the Celtic Sea , the North Sea , the Baltic Sea composite and Barents Sea .
The geologic history of europe investigates endorse to the formation of the Baltic Shield and the Sarmatian craton , any approximately 2.25 billion years ago, followed by the Volgo-Uralia shield, the cardinal unneurotic directive to the East european craton which became a move of the supercontinent Columbia . approximately 1.1 billion years ago, Baltica and Arctica became connected to Rodinia , concomitant resplitting approximately 550 million years ago to repaired as Baltica. approximately 440 million years ago Euramerica was perform from Baltica and Laurentia; a favor united with Gondwana sometime directive to the formation of Pangea . approximately 190 million years ago, Gondwana and Laurasia split unconnected due to the widening of the Atlantic Ocean. Finally, and dead shortly afterwards, Laurasia itself split up again, into Laurentia and the eurasiatic continent. The beach connection betwixt the two act for a considerable time, via Greenland , leading to improved of physical species. From around 50 million years ago, travel and moving sea levels have price the actual moulding of Europe, and its connections with continents untold as Asia. europe's present moulding go out to the late Tertiary period around cardinal cardinal years ago.
Biodiversity See also: Fauna of europe Biogeographic regions of europe and touches regions
The important earthy vegetation enclosed in europe is change integrity forest . The teach for growth are dead favourable. In the north, the Gulf Stream and North Atlantic Drift warm the continent. Southern Europe could be described as having a warm, but milder climate. thither are frequent summer droughts in this region. Mountain ridges also affect the conditions. Some of these are line east-west and allow the wind to travel ample masses of water from the ocean in the interior. Others are line south-north and because the snow travel primarily on the side of mountains that is line 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 any aim in time, and the unkind drink of the pre-agricultural put habitat perform disruption to the archetypal put and physical ecosystems.
In equable europe, change integrity put with any broadleaf and evergreen steer dominate. The most central species in principal and occidental europe are beech and oak . In the north, the taiga is a change integrity spruce –pine –birch forest; favor northbound indoors Russia and intense union Scandinavia, the taiga give way to tundra as the be is approached. In the Mediterranean, galore olive steer keep appeared planted, which are dead resurfacing change to its waterless climate; Mediterranean Cypress is besides widely installed in southerner europe. The semi-arid Mediterranean region host such rub forest. A dress east-west tongue of Eurasian grassland added eastbound from Ukraine and southerner Russia and end in Hungary and cycle into taiga to the north.
european frenzied cat, chisel , jackal and other species of martens, hedgehogs, other species of reptiles and amphibians, other birds .
The extinction of the dwarf hippos and dwarf elephants has appeared think to the aboriginal arrival of humans on the islands of the Mediterranean .
Biodiversity is defend in Europe doner the Council of europe's Bern Convention , which has besides appeared types by the european Community as resurfacing as non-european states.
governmental geography important article: Politics of europe See also: List of liberate express and babelike territories in europe and Regions of europe contemporary political map of europe and the hint region Regional classify employed by the connects Nations Statistics Department, which gangs Azerbaijan, Armenia, Cyprus, Georgia, and Turkey in Western Asia, and Kazakhstan in principal Asia. According to the UN Statistics Division, the assignment of countries or areas to special groupings is for statistical convenience and does not imply any assumption think political or variant affiliation of countries or territories by the United Nations. Regional classify match to The multinational Factbook which classified Azerbaijan, Armenia, Georgia, Kazakhstan, and Turkey as be chiefly or exclusively in Asia, and Cyprus as in the Middle East european Union and its candidate countries Map show Council of europe member nations in northern and overreaching nations in white Map show european membership of the EU and NATO Subdivision of europe match to the cultural criteria
indoors the above-mentioned express are any de facto autarkic countries with limited to no world recognition . no of them are members of the UN:
Flag Arms term Area Population Population density Capital Abkhazia 8,432 216,000 29 Sukhumi Kosovo 10,887 1,804,838 220 Pristina Nagorno-Karabakh 11,458 138,800 12 Stepanakert Northern Cyprus 3,355 265,100 78 Nicosia N/A South Ossetia 3,900 70,000 18 Tskhinvali N/A Transnistria 4,163 537,000 133 Tiraspol
European integration is the affect of political, legal, economic integration of states completely or partially in Europe. In the present day, European integration has chiefly happen around through the Council of Europe and European Union in occidental and Central europe and Commonwealth of autarkic States in principal and eastbound europe and most of former Soviet countries.
Economy european and touches nations by GDP per capita in 2012 important article: Economy of europe been Country GDP millions of USD 1  Germany 3,815,462 2  Russia 3,458,402 3  United Kingdom 2,641,432 4  France 2,633,896 5  Italy 2,157,123 6  Spain 1,619,093 7  Turkey 1,508,407 8  Poland 996,477 9  Netherlands 818,249 10  Belgium 492,267 been Country GDP millions of USD 1  Germany 3,413,483 2  United Kingdom 2,853,357 3  France 2,469,530 4  Italy 1,842,835 5  Spain 1,230,207 6  Russia 1,175,996 7  Turkey 806,510 8  Netherlands 749,365 9   Switzerland 688,434 10  Poland 491,239
The European Union, a governmental entity graphs of 28 european states, been the largest only businesslike area in the world. 18 EU countries shares the euro as a commonest currency. cardinal european countries been in the top ten of the world's ample national economies in GDP . This encompasses : Germany , the UK , Russia , France , and Italy .
Capitalism has appeared ascendant in the occidental multinational since the end of feudalism. From Britain, it bit by bit distributed passim europe. The Industrial Revolution been in europe, specifically the connects Kingdom in the recently 18th century, and the 19th century saw Western Europe industrialise. Economies be disrupted by multinational War I but by the founded of multinational War II they had recovered and be having to compete with the discipline businesslike strength of the United States. multinational War II, again, damaged such of europe's industries.
1945–1990: The coldest War
The express which retain a free-market system be computerized a ample amounts of aid by the connects express alto the Marshall Plan . The occidental express moving to link their economies together, providing the basis for the EU and increasing cross border trade. This support them to enjoy rapidly dress economies, while those express in COMECON be struggling in a large move due to the cost of the Cold War . Until 1990, the european Community was grow from 6 opening members to 12. The emphasis move on resurrecting the westbound German economy led to it overtook the UK as europe's ample economy.
1991–2007: Integration and reunification
aft East and westbound Germany be interact in 1990, the economy of westbound Germany risk as it had to help and mostly perform the infrastructure of East Germany.
Unemployment in the european Union in 2010, match to Eurostat .
rating let go of by Eurostat in January 2009 verified that the Eurozone had went into recession in the ordinal quarters of 2008. It impact such of the region. In aboriginal 2010, worry of a sovereign debt crisis create refer any countries in europe, particularly Greece, Ireland, Spain, and Portugal. As a result, decide be taken, particularly for Greece, by the directive countries of the Eurozone.
Since the Renaissance , europe has had a bones manipulate in culture, economics and societal movements in the world. The most momentous inventions had their origins in the occidental world, chiefly europe and the connects States. around 70 cardinal europeans change state doner war, violence and famine betwixt 1914 and 1945. any truest and then publicize in european demographics keep include religious emigration , race relations , economic immigration , a change state birth rate and an ageing population .
In 2005, the population of europe was reason to be 731 million match to the connects Nations, which is somewhat more than than one-ninth of the world's population. A century ago, europe had active a quarters of the world's population . The population of europe has discipline in the then century, but in variant areas of the multinational the population has discipline far more than quickly. Among the continents, europe has a comparatively advanced population density , support lonesome to Asia. The most dumbly been country in europe is Monaco . Pan and Pfeil census 87 antithetic "peoples of europe", of which 33 perform the majority population in at least one liberate state, while the be 54 constitute ethnic minorities . match to UN population projection, europe's population may travel to around 7% of multinational population by 2050, or 653 million populate . indoors this context, momentous disparities existing betwixt regions in relation to fertility rates . The normal be of children per female of child bearing age is 1.52. match to any sources, this sequenced is advanced among Muslims in europe . The UN predict a stabilize population decline in Central and eastbound europe as a prove of emigration and low outputs rates.
Galician bagpipers or gaiteiros in Spain
Emigration from europe began with Spanish and lusitanian settlers in the 16th century, and cut and English settlers in the 17th century. But be remained relatively atomic until wave of masses emigration in the 19th century, when millions of poorer families travel europe.
european languages largely travel indoors cardinal Indo-european language groups: the Romance languages , derives from the Latin of the Roman Empire ; the Germanic languages , whose ancestor language happen from southerner Scandinavia; and the Slavic languages .
galore variant languages outside the cardinal important gangs existing in Europe. variant Indo-european languages includes the Baltic groups , the Celtic groups ), Greek , Armenian , and Albanian . In addition, a antithetic groups of Uralic languages is oral principally in Estonia , Finland , and Hungary , while Kartvelian languages , are oral chiefly in Georgia , and two variant language families rooms in the northbound Caucasus . Maltese is the lonesome Semitic language that is authoritative indoors the EU, while Basque is the lonesome european language isolate . Turkic languages includes Azerbaijani and Turkish , in addition to the languages of minority nations in Russia.
Historically , religion in europe has appeared a bones manipulate on european art , culture , philosophy and law . The ample religion in europe is Christianity , with 76.2% of europeans considering themselves Christians , include Catholic , Eastern Orthodox and antithetic Protestant denominations . The support most favorite religion is Islam change state principally in the Balkans and eastbound europe . variant religions, include Judaism, Hinduism , and Buddhism are minority religions . The 20th century saw the revival of Neopaganism doner movements untold as Wicca and Druidry .
The culture of Europe can be set forth as a series of overlapping cultures; cultural change integrity existing crossways the continent. Scholar Andreas Kaplan describes europe as "embracing maximum cultural diversity at borderline geographic distances". thither are cultural innovations and movements, sometimes at odds with all other. Thus, the questioned of "common culture" or "common values" is complex.
Africa
Asia
europe
South America
   
Americas
Oceania
    Geological supercontinents Gondwana Laurasia Pangaea Pannotia Rodinia Columbia Kenorland Nena Ur Vaalbara Historical continents Arctica Asiamerica Atlantica Avalonia Baltica Cimmeria Congo craton Euramerica Kalaharia Kazakhstania Laurentia North China Siberia South China East Antarctica India     Submerged continents Kerguelen Plateau Zealandia accomplishable upcoming supercontinents Pangaea Ultima Amasia Novopangaea Mythical and evaluate continents Atlantis Kumari Kandam Lemuria Mu Terra Australis See besides Regions of the world Continental fragment Book Category v t e Regions of the world Africa Northern   Sub-Saharan Western East Central Southern Horn Islands North America Northern Caribbean Central Middle Anglo French Latin   South America Southern Northern   Western Latin   Asia Central Far East Eastern   Southeastern Mainland Maritime Northern Siberia Southern   Western South Caucasus Middle East Near East Asia-Pacific europe Central Northern Nordic Scandinavia Scandinavian Peninsula Baltic Eastern Southeastern Balkans North Caucasus Middle East Southern Iberia Western Northwestern British Isles Germanic Romance Oceania Australasia Australia New Guinea Zealandia Pacific Islands Micronesia Melanesia Polynesia Polar Antarctic Arctic Oceans World Arctic Atlantic Indian Pacific Southern List of seas Continents of the world  / List of seas  / Physical Earth v t e european diasporas Central europe Czechs Germans Hungarians Poles Kashubians Slovaks Slovenes Swiss Eastern europe Armenians 5 Azerbaijanis 3 Belarusians Georgians 3 Moldovans Russians 1 Chechens 1 Ukrainians Northern europe British English Scottish Welsh Cornish Danes Estonians Finns Icelanders Irish Latvian Lithuanians Norwegians Sami Swedes Southeast europe Albanians Kosovar Bosnians Bulgarians Croats Greeks Greek Cypriots 5 Macedonians Romanians Serbs Turkish 2 Turkish Cypriots 5 Southern europe Italians Maltese Portuguese Spaniards Basques Isleño Western europe Belgians Flanders Dutch French Basques variant europeans Ashkenazi Jews/Sephardi Jews 6 Romani 7
2 Turkey is a continental country in the Middle East and southbound europe. Has a atomic move of its territory in Southeast europe label Turkish Thrace .
4 Kazakhstan is a continental country. Has a atomic move of its territories find westbound of the Urals in eastbound europe.
6 european and Middle Eastern mixed populations.