Europe (/ˈjʊərəp/, YOOR-əp) is, by convention, one of the world's seven continents A continent is one of several large landmasses on Earth. In geography, they are identified by convention rather than any strict criterion, with seven regions commonly regarded as continents—they are : Asia, Africa, North America, South America, Antarctica, Europe, and Australia. Comprising the westernmost peninsula A peninsula is a piece of land that is surrounded by water but connected to mainland via an isthmus of Eurasia Eurasia is a large landmass covering about 52,990,000 km2 or about 10.6% of the Earth's surface (36.2% of the land area). Often considered a single continent, Eurasia comprises the traditional continents of Europe and Asia (and Eurasia is a portmanteau of the two), concepts which date back to classical antiquity and the borders for which are, Europe is generally divided from Asia Asia is the world's largest and most populous continent, located in the eastern and northern hemispheres. It covers 8.6% of the earth's total surface area and with approximately 4 billion people, it hosts 60% of the world's current human population to its east by the water divide A drainage divide, water divide, divide or watershed is the line separating neighbouring drainage basins (catchments). In hilly country, the divide lies along topographical peaks and ridges, but in flat country (especially where the ground is marshy) the divide may be invisible – just a more or less notional line on the ground on either side of of the Ural Mountains The Ural Mountains (also known as the Urals) are a mountain range that runs roughly north-south through western Russia. They are usually considered the natural boundary between Europe and Asia, the Ural River The Ural , known as Yaik (Russian: Яик) before 1775, is a river flowing through Russia and Kazakhstan. It arises in the southern Ural Mountains and ends at the Caspian Sea. Its total length is 1,511 mi (2,428 km). It forms part of the traditional boundary between Europe and Asia, the Caspian Sea The Caspian Sea (Azerbaijani: Xəzər Dənizi, Russian: Каспийское море, Persian: دریای مازندران یا دریای خزر ) is the largest enclosed body of water on Earth by area, variously classed as the world's largest lake or a full-fledged sea. The sea has a surface area of 371,000 square kilometres (143,244 sq mi) and, the Caucasus Mountains The Caucasus Mountains is a mountain system in Eurasia between the Black Sea and the Caspian Sea in the Caucasus region (or the Kuma-Manych Depression The Kuma–Manych Depression , is a geological depression in southwestern Russia that separates the Russian Plain (north) from the Fore-Caucasus (south). It is named after Kuma and Manych rivers),[1] and the Black Sea The Black Sea is an inland sea bounded by Europe, Anatolia and the Caucasus and is ultimately connected to the Atlantic Ocean via the Mediterranean and Aegean Seas and various straits. The Bosphorus strait connects it to the Sea of Marmara, and the strait of the Dardanelles connects it to the Aegean Sea region of the Mediterranean. These waters to the southeast.[2] Europe is bordered by the Arctic Ocean The Arctic Ocean, located in the Northern Hemisphere and mostly in the Arctic north polar region, is the smallest, and shallowest of the world's five major oceanic divisions. The International Hydrographic Organization recognizes it as an ocean, although some oceanographers call it the Arctic Mediterranean Sea or simply the Arctic Sea, classifying and other bodies of water to the north, the Atlantic Ocean The Atlantic Ocean is the second-largest of the world's oceanic divisions. With a total area of about 106.4 million square kilometres , it covers approximately one-fifth of the Earth's surface and about one-quarter of its water surface area. The first part of its name refers to the Atlas of Greek mythology, making the Atlantic the "Sea of to the west, the Mediterranean Sea The Mediterranean Sea is a sea connected to the Atlantic Ocean surrounded by the Mediterranean region and almost completely enclosed by land: on the north by Anatolia and Europe, on the south by Africa, and on the east by the Levant. The sea is technically a part of the Atlantic Ocean, although it is usually identified as a completely separate to the south, and the Black Sea The Black Sea is an inland sea bounded by Europe, Anatolia and the Caucasus and is ultimately connected to the Atlantic Ocean via the Mediterranean and Aegean Seas and various straits. The Bosphorus strait connects it to the Sea of Marmara, and the strait of the Dardanelles connects it to the Aegean Sea region of the Mediterranean. These waters and connected waterways to the southeast. Yet the borders for Europe—a concept dating back to classical antiquity Classical antiquity is a broad term for a long period of cultural history centered on the Mediterranean Sea, comprising the interlocking civilizations of Ancient Greece and Ancient Rome, collectively known as the Greco-Roman world. It is the period in which Greek and Roman literature (such as Aeschylus, Ovid, Homer and others) flourished—are somewhat arbitrary, as the term continent can refer to a cultural and political Human geography is an interdisciplinary field combining approaches from academic geography with the traditional subject matter of social science, thus emphasizing population issues such as tourism, urbanisation, and so on distinction or a physiographic Physical geography is one of the two major subfields of geography, as opposed to the cultural or built environment, the domain of human geography. Within the body of physical geography, the Earth is often split either into several spheres or environments, the main spheres being the atmosphere, biosphere, cryosphere, geosphere, hydrosphere, one.
Europe is the world's second-smallest A continent is one of several large landmasses on Earth. In geography, they are identified by convention rather than any strict criterion, with seven regions commonly regarded as continents—they are : Asia, Africa, North America, South America, Antarctica, Europe, and Australia continent by surface area Area is a quantity expressing the two-dimensional size of a defined part of a surface, typically a region bounded by a closed curve. The term surface area refers to the total area of the exposed surface of a 3-dimensional solid, such as the sum of the areas of the exposed sides of a polyhedron. Area is an important invariant in the differential, covering about 10,180,000 square kilometres (3,930,000 sq mi) or 2% of the Earth's surface and about 6.8% of its land area. Of Europe's approximately 50 states, Russia Russia (pronounced /ˈrʌʃə/ ; Russian: Россия, tr. Rossiya, pronounced [rɐˈsʲijə] ( listen)), also officially known as the Russian Federation (Russian: Российская Федерация, tr. Rossiyskaya Federatsiya, pronounced [rɐˈsʲijskəjə fʲɪdʲɪˈraʦəjə] ( listen)), is a country in northern Eurasia. It is a federal is the largest by both area and population, while the Vatican City Vatican City /ˈvætɪkən ˈsɪti/ , officially the State of the Vatican City (Italian: Stato della Città del Vaticano, Italian pronunciation: [ˈsta(ː)to della tʃitˈta del vatiˈka(ː)no]), is a landlocked sovereign city-state whose territory consists of a walled enclave within the city of Rome, the capital city of Italy. At approximately 44 is the smallest. Europe is the third most populous continent after Asia and Africa Africa is the world's second-largest and second most-populous continent, after Asia. At about 30.2 million km² including adjacent islands, it covers 6% of the Earth's total surface area and 20.4% of the total land area. With a billion people (as of 2009, see table) in 61 territories, it accounts for about 14.72% of the World's human population, with a population Figures for the population of Europe vary according to which definition of European boundaries is used. The population within the standard physical geographical boundaries was 825 million in 2005 according the United Nations. In 2009 the population is 831.4 million, using a definition which includes the whole of the transcontinental countries of of 731 million or about 11% of the world's population The world population is the total number of living humans on Earth at a given time. As of 8 January 2010, the Earth's population is estimated by the United States Census Bureau to be 6,795,000,000. The world population has been growing continuously since the end of the Black Death around 1400. The fastest rates of world population growth were seen; however, according to the United Nations The United Nations Organization or simply United Nations (UN) is an international organization whose stated aims are facilitating cooperation in international law, international security, economic development, social progress, human rights, and the achieving of world peace. The UN was founded in 1945 after World War II to replace the League of (medium estimate), Europe's share may fall to about 7% by 2050.[3] In 1900, Europe's share of the world's population was 25%.[4]
Europe, in particular Ancient Greece Ancient Greece is the civilisation belonging to the period of Greek history lasting from the Archaic period of the 8th to 6th centuries BC to 146 BC and the Roman conquest of Greece after the Battle of Corinth. At the center of this time period is Classical Greece, which flourished during the 5th to 4th centuries, at first under Athenian, is the birthplace of Western culture Western culture refers to cultures of European origin. However, the idea that all European countries (especially the Orthodox civilization) belong to the Western culture is refused by the majority of Western scholars of social sciences.[5] It played a predominant role in global affairs from the 16th century onwards, especially after the beginning of colonialism Colonialism is the building and maintaining of colonies in one territory by people from another territory. Colonialism is a process whereby sovereignty over the colony is claimed by the metropole and social structure, government and economics within the territory of the colony are changed by the colonists. Colonialism is a certain set of unequal. Between the 16th and 20th centuries, European nations controlled at various times the Americas The start of the European colonization of the Americas is typically dated to 1492, although there was at least one earlier colonization effort. The first known Europeans to reach the Americas were the Vikings during the 11th century, who established several colonies in Greenland and one short-lived settlement at L'Anse aux Meadows (51°N) in the, most of Africa North Africa experienced colonisation from Europe and Western Asia in the early historical period, particularly Greeks and Phoenicians, Oceania Oceania is a geographical, often geopolitical, region consisting of numerous lands—mostly islands in the Pacific Ocean and vicinity. The term "Oceania" was coined in 1831 by French explorer Dumont d'Urville. The term is used today in many languages to denote a continent comprising Australia and proximate Pacific islands, and is one of, and large portions of Asia Asia is the world's largest and most populous continent, located in the eastern and northern hemispheres. It covers 8.6% of the earth's total surface area and with approximately 4 billion people, it hosts 60% of the world's current human population. Both World Wars A world war is a war affecting the majority of the world's most powerful and populous nations. World wars span several continents, and last for multiple years. The term has usually been applied to two conflicts of unprecedented scale that occurred during the 20th century: World War I , World War II (1939–1945), although in retrospect a number of were ignited in Europe greatly contributing to a decline in Western European Western Europe is the collection of countries in the westernmost region of Europe, though this definition is context-dependent and carries cultural and political connotations. One definition describes Western Europe as a cultural entity—the region lying west of Central Europe. Another definition was created during the Cold War and used to dominance in world affairs by the mid-20th century as the United States ^ b. English is the de facto language of American government and the sole language spoken at home by 80% of Americans age five and older. Spanish is the second most commonly spoken language and Soviet Union The Union of Soviet Socialist Republics was a constitutionally socialist state that existed in Eurasia from 1922 to 1991. The name is a translation of the Russian: Союз Советских Социалистических Республик (help·info), tr. Soyuz Sovetskikh Sotsialisticheskikh Respublik, IPA [sɐˈjʊs sɐˈvʲeʦkʲɪx səʦɪ took prominence.[6] During the Cold War The Cold War was the continuing state of political conflict, military tension, and economic competition existing after World War II (1939–1945), primarily between the USSR and its satellite states, and the powers of the Western world, including the United States. Although the primary participants' military forces never officially clashed Europe was divided along the Iron Curtain The concept of the Iron Curtain symbolized the ideological and physical boundary dividing Europe into two separate areas from the end of World War II in 1945 until the end of the Cold War in 1991. On either side of the Iron Curtain, states developed their own international economic and military alliances: between NATO The North Atlantic Treaty Organization ; French: Organisation du traité de l'Atlantique Nord (OTAN)), also called "the (North) Atlantic Alliance", is an intergovernmental military alliance based on the North Atlantic Treaty which was signed on April 4, 1949. The NATO headquarters are in Brussels, Belgium, and the organization in the West and the Warsaw Pact The Warsaw Treaty is the informal name for the mutual defense Treaty of Friendship, Cooperation and Mutual Assistance commonly known as the Warsaw Pact subscribed by eight communist states in Eastern Europe, that was established at the USSR’s initiative and realised on 14 May 1955, in Warsaw, Poland. In the Communist Bloc, the treaty was the in the East. European integration European integration is the process of political, legal, economic integration of states wholly or partially in Europe. In the present day, European Integration is primarily achieved through the European Union and the Council of Europe led to the formation of the Council of Europe The Council of Europe is the oldest international organisation working towards European integration, having been founded in 1949. It has a particular emphasis on legal standards, human rights, democratic development, the rule of law and cultural co-operation. It has 47 member states with some 800 million citizens and the European Union The European Union is an economic and political union of 27 member states, located primarily in Europe. Committed to regional integration, the EU was established by the Treaty of Maastricht on 1 November 1993 upon the foundations of the European Economic Community. With over 500 million citizens, the EU generates an estimated 30% share (US$18.4 in Western Europe Western Europe is the collection of countries in the westernmost region of Europe, though this definition is context-dependent and carries cultural and political connotations. One definition describes Western Europe as a cultural entity—the region lying west of Central Europe. Another definition was created during the Cold War and used to, both of which have been expanding eastward since the fall of the Soviet Union in 1991.
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Mon, 01 Feb 2010 16:46:38 GM
Sasha is two years old, she lives in Crimea, Simferopol. She can speak Russian and three words of English, and at school she will learn Ukrainian. She is trying to figure out where Ukraine fits on the map of . Europe. .
Q. I know about the Greek legend of Europa and Zeus, but always wondered when the term Europe was first used to describe the continent. Celts? Barbarians? Romans? Not a clue!
Asked by Blue Rose - Mon Oct 29 13:23:32 2007 - - 1 Answers - 0 Comments
A. You're right in guessing the name has it's origins in the story of the abduction of Europa. You're probably familiar with the story of the Greek god Zeus carrying of the Princess of Tyre on his back to island of Crete. The ancient Greeks came to see this as a connotation of the exploration and colonization of the new unexplored lands of the western Mediterranean, by the Old World of Greece and Mesopotamia. The Hellenes came to use the name "Europe" as a name for their territories west of the Aegean Sea, as a distinction from their lands in the eastern Mediterranean. The Romans adopted this name, "Europa" to describe the whole of European continent, separating it from the older continent of Asia. The name was adopted by all the… [cont.]
Answered by unknown - Mon Oct 29 13:43:04 2007
