[182][183][184] The Soviet invasion of Poland started on 17 September and Poland fell soon thereafter. Further European integration by some states led to the formation of the European Union (EU), a separate political entity that lies between a confederation and a federation. ", "The Global Religious Landscape: Muslims", "Replacement Migration: Is it a solution for Russia? Pan and Pfeil (2004) count 87 distinct "peoples of Europe", of which 33 form the majority population in at least one sovereign state, while the remaining 54 constitute ethnic minorities. In 1938, Austria became a part of Germany following the Anschluss. The three who chose to remain outside the Eurozone were: the United Kingdom, Denmark, and Sweden. [66] The empire continued to expand under emperors such as Antoninus Pius and Marcus Aurelius, who spent time on the Empire's northern border fighting Germanic, Pictish and Scottish tribes. [162] In the 19th century, 70 million people left Europe in migrations to various European colonies abroad and to the United States. Euro) an Hilfsdarlehen gewährt. Padraic Kenney "A Carnival of Revolution: Central Europe 1989" (2002) pp 109. The rise of a new humanism was accompanied by the recovery of forgotten classical Greek and Arabic knowledge from monastic libraries, often translated from Arabic into Latin. The invention and implementation of new technologies resulted in rapid urban growth, mass employment, and the rise of a new working class. [246] In 2010, fears of a sovereign debt crisis[247] developed concerning some countries in Europe, especially Greece, Ireland, Spain, and Portugal. [195] Particular hot spots after the Second World War were Berlin and Trieste, whereby the Free Territory of Trieste, founded in 1947 with the UN, was dissolved in 1954 and 1975 respectively. Sub-regions such as the Iberian Peninsula and the Italian Peninsula contain their own complex features, as does mainland Central Europe itself, where the relief contains many plateaus, river valleys and basins that complicate the general trend. [59] The Greek city-state, the polis, was the fundamental political unit of classical Greece. In addition, there is new impetus from the Chinese Belt and Road Initiative across the Suez Canal towards Africa and Asia. [16][17][18] Broad has been an epithet of Earth herself in the reconstructed Proto-Indo-European religion and the poetry devoted to it. [106] The period between 1348 and 1420 witnessed the heaviest loss. [52] It spread from the Balkans along the valleys of the Danube and the Rhine (Linear Pottery culture) and along the Mediterranean coast (Cardial culture). By August, Germany began a bombing offensive on Britain, but failed to convince the Britons to give up. [231], The European Union, a political entity composed of 27 European states, comprises the largest single economic area in the world. [196][197][198], The two new superpowers, the United States and the Soviet Union, became locked in a fifty-year-long Cold War, centred on nuclear proliferation. He drew a new line along the Volga, following the Volga north until the Samara Bend, along Obshchy Syrt (the drainage divide between Volga and Ural) and then north along Ural Mountains. Europe's remaining eleven monarchies[226] are constitutional. The yearly average temperature in city of Inverness is 9.05 °C (48.29 °F). However the Europe-Asia part of the border is somewhat arbitrary and inconsistent with this definition because of its partial adherence to the Ural and Caucasus Mountains rather than a series of partly joined waterways suggested by cartographer Herman Moll in 1715. who took the Tanais (the modern Don River) as the boundary. [47] Neanderthal man (named after the Neandertal valley in Germany) appeared in Europe 150,000 years ago (115,000 years ago it is found already in the territory of present-day Poland[48]) and disappeared from the fossil record about 28,000 years ago, with their final refuge being present-day Portugal. Kennedy, Hugh (1995). During the decline of the Roman Empire, Europe entered a long period of change arising from what historians call the "Age of Migrations". [42] In 1958, the Soviet Geographical Society formally recommended that the boundary between the Europe and Asia be drawn in textbooks from Baydaratskaya Bay, on the Kara Sea, along the eastern foot of Ural Mountains, then following the Ural River until the Mugodzhar Hills, and then the Emba River; and Kuma–Manych Depression,[43] thus placing the Caucasus entirely in Asia and the Urals entirely in Europe. (Michael Adams, Trans. Other religions, including Judaism, Hinduism, and Buddhism are minority religions (though Tibetan Buddhism is the majority religion of Russia's Republic of Kalmykia). In the Mediterranean, many olive trees have been planted, which are very well adapted to its arid climate; Mediterranean Cypress is also widely planted in southern Europe. From the 7th century onwards, as the Byzantines and neighbouring Sasanid Persians were severely weakened due to the protracted, centuries-lasting and frequent Byzantine–Sasanian wars, the Muslim Arabs began to make inroads into historically Roman territory, taking the Levant and North Africa and making inroads into Asia Minor. Meanwhile, the Serbian revolution (1804) and Greek War of Independence (1821) marked the beginning of the end of Ottoman rule in the Balkans, which ended with the Balkan Wars in 1912–1913. [258] In 2005, the EU had an overall net gain from immigration of 1.8 million people. ", "Europe's Bogeyman: 'There Is No Doubt Germanophobia Exists, "Fearful Germans add to Greece's woes by staying away in droves", "Germany offers fund to defuse Greek war reparation claims", "As Germans Push Austerity, Greeks Press Nazi-Era Claims", http://www.ekathimerini.com/234728/article/ekathimerini/news/europe-relents-on-pension-cuts, "Tsipras says Greece won't go back to old spending ways", "IMF 'to admit mistakes' in handling Greek debt crisis and bailout", "For hard-hit Greeks, IMF mea culpa comes too late", "IMF admits disastrous love affair with the euro and apologises for the immolation of Greece", "Why Three Rescues Didn't Solve Greece's Debt Problem", "Debt deal exceeded market expectations, Tsipras says", "Pavlopoulos to Moscovici: the mistakes that lead to painful sacrifices for the Greek people should not be repeated", "UpFront – Reality Check: Are the Greeks all that lazy? It is often described as "maximum cultural diversity with minimal geographical distances". [166] Most European nations were drawn into the war, which was fought between the Entente Powers (France, Belgium, Serbia, Portugal, Russia, the United Kingdom, and later Italy, Greece, Romania, and the United States) and the Central Powers (Austria-Hungary, Germany, Bulgaria, and the Ottoman Empire). The former is a land unto itself in the northern ocean which is counted as part of Europe, while the latter are upland areas that were once joined to the mainland until rising sea levels cut them off. On 24 September, the Soviet Union attacked the Baltic countries and later, Finland. The woolly mammoth was extinct before the end of the Neolithic period. There were numerous invasions and migrations amongst the Ostrogoths, Visigoths, Goths, Vandals, Huns, Franks, Angles, Saxons, Slavs, Avars, Bulgars and, later on, the Vikings, Pechenegs, Cumans and Magyars. [87], In the east a resurgent Byzantine Empire recaptured Crete and Cyprus from the Muslims and reconquered the Balkans. The population of France was reduced by half. The two centuries that followed are known as the pax romana, a period of unprecedented peace, prosperity, and political stability in most of Europe. [186] On 7 December 1941 Japan's attack on Pearl Harbor drew the United States into the conflict as allies of the British Empire and other allied forces.[187][188]. [132] Religious fighting and warfare spread with Protestantism. [37] This was endorsed by the Russian Empire, and introduced the convention that would eventually become commonly accepted, but not without criticism by many modern analytical geographers like Halford Mackinder who saw little validity in the Ural Mountains as a boundary between continents.[38]. The most densely populated country in Europe (and in the world) is the microstate of Monaco. As for the animals, in many parts of Europe most large animals and top predator species have been hunted to extinction. It was one of several regions where wealth surpassed its precrisis year-end peak. [14] During the Cold War, Europe was divided along the Iron Curtain between NATO in the West and the Warsaw Pact in the East, until the revolutions of 1989 and fall of the Berlin Wall. Der Europarat – englisch Council of Europe (CoE), französisch Conseil de l’Europe (CdE) – ist eine am 5. Important animals that live in European seas are zooplankton, molluscs, echinoderms, different crustaceans, squids and octopuses, fish, dolphins, and whales. [240] France also staged a remarkable comeback enjoying rapid growth and modernisation; later on Spain, under the leadership of Franco, also recovered, and the nation recorded huge unprecedented economic growth beginning in the 1960s in what is called the Spanish miracle. The boundaries of Europe were historically understood as those of Christendom (or more specifically Latin Christendom), as established or defended throughout the medieval and early modern history of Europe, especially against Islam, as in the Reconquista and the Ottoman wars in Europe.[272]. [233] Monaco is the richest country in terms of GDP per capita in the world according to the World Bank report. Europe's present shape dates to the late Tertiary period about five million years ago.[217]. Euro crisis saves Germany money", "Eurozone crisis saves Germany tens of billions", "Double-dip recession: There's always fantasy island", "Germany Was Biggest Debt Transgressor of 20th Century", "The Danger Debt Poses to the Western World", "European economic forecast – autumn 2014", "Germany balances budget for first time since 1969", "Despite Progress, Euro Crisis Is Far From Over", "German 'hypocrisy' over Greek military spending has critics up in arms", "There's No Getting Around It, Germany Is Taking Over Europe", "German wages to rise but restraint still rules", "Germany launches strategy to counter ECB largesse", "European Economics: Welcome higher German wages", "Recommendation for a Council Recommendation on the implementation of the broad guidelines for the economic policies of the Member States whose currency is the euro", "Germany 'pivotal' to rebalancing eurozone", "US to chide Germany on eurozone growth at G7 meeting", "G7 reaffirms commitment not to depreciate currencies for domestic gain", "Italian showdown with Germany as Enrico Letta rejects 'death by austerity, "Incoherent EU economic policy won't deliver a swift recovery", "Why Germany Will Pay Up to Save the Euro", "Deficits: good marketing in a time of austerity? [143] According to Peter Barrett, "It is widely accepted that 'modern science' arose in the Europe of the 17th century (towards the end of the Renaissance), introducing a new understanding of the natural world. [257], Europe is home to the highest number of migrants of all global regions at 70.6 million people, the IOM's report said. Europe had a total population of about 741 million (about 11% of the world population) as of 2018[update]. [21] Martin Litchfield West stated that "phonologically, the match between Europa's name and any form of the Semitic word is very poor",[22] while Beekes considers a connection to Semitic languages improbable. None of them are members of the UN: Several dependencies and similar territories with broad autonomy are also found within or in close proximity to Europe. The Age of Enlightenment, the subsequent French Revolution and the Napoleonic Wars shaped the continent culturally, politically and economically from the end of the 17th century until the first half of the 19th century. The 20th century saw the revival of Neopaganism through movements such as Wicca and Druidry. The term "continent" usually implies the physical geography of a large land mass completely or almost completely surrounded by water at its borders. Both world wars took place for the most part in Europe, contributing to a decline in Western European dominance in world affairs by the mid-20th century as the Soviet Union and the United States took prominence. The northern plain contains the old geological continent of Baltica, and so may be regarded geologically as the "main continent", while peripheral highlands and mountainous regions in the south and west constitute fragments from various other geological continents. Some data refers to IMF staff estimates but some are actual figures for the year 2017, made in 12 April 2017. European wild cat, foxes (especially the red fox), jackal and different species of martens, hedgehogs, different species of reptiles (like snakes such as vipers and grass snakes) and amphibians, different birds (owls, hawks and other birds of prey). With the exception of Fennoscandia and northern Russia, few areas of untouched wilderness are currently found in Europe, except for various national parks. [217] Slavic languages are mostly spoken in Southern, Central and Eastern Europe. Germany invaded Poland on 1 September 1939, prompting France and the United Kingdom to declare war on Germany on 3 September, opening the European Theatre of World War II. It is notable how the average temperatures for the coldest month, as well as the annual average temperatures, drop from the west to the east. Southern Europe could be described as having a warm, but mild climate. The Germanic and Slav tribes established their domains over Western and Eastern Europe respectively. Vertrag von Lissabon. To the East, the Kievan Rus expanded from its capital in Kyiv to become the largest state in Europe by the 10th century. The Atlantic: Can the US afford immigration? [213] The Gulf Stream is nicknamed "Europe's central heating", because it makes Europe's climate warmer and wetter than it would otherwise be. The southern regions are more mountainous, while moving north the terrain descends from the high Alps, Pyrenees, and Carpathians, through hilly uplands, into broad, low northern plains, which are vast in the east. PoPulation – Global Mapping International, "Assassin Gavrilo Princip gets a statue in Sarajevo", "The Treaty of Versailles and its Consequences", "Los Angeles Times: Archives – Fourth of Serbia's Population Dead", "Asserts Serbians Face Extinction; Their Plight in Occupied Districts Worse Than Belgians', Says Labor Envoy", "Appeals to Americans to pray for Serbians", "Adolf Hitler: Rise of Power, Impact & Death", "Present and future Köppen-Geiger climate classification maps at 1-km resolution", "Groundbreaking ceremony for bridge over Dardanelles to take place on March 18", "State of Europe's Forests 2007: The MCPFE report on sustainable forest management in Europe", "Paleolithic Man and his Environment in Malta", World Economic Outlook Database–April 2017, "The Origins of the Industrial Revolution in England", Appendix B: The Council for Mutual Economic Assistance, "EU data confirms eurozone's first recession", Thanks to the Bank it's a crisis; in the eurozone it's a total catastrophe, "Global Markets Shudder: Doubts About U.S. Economy and a Debt Crunch in Europe Jolt Hopes for a Recovery", "European Leaders Try to Calm Fears Over Greek Debt Crisis and Protect Euro", "World Population Prospects: The 2006 Revision Population Database", "White Europeans: An endangered species? The UN predicts a steady population decline in Central and Eastern Europe as a result of emigration and low birth rates. This includes (ranks according to the CIA): Germany (6), Russia (7), the United Kingdom (10), France (11), and Italy (13).[232]. The four largest urban areas of Europe are Istanbul, Moscow, Paris and London. [248] As a result, measures were taken, especially for Greece, by the leading countries of the Eurozone. Morris, Terence Alan (1998). The Treaty of Versailles, which officially ended World War I in 1919, was harsh towards Germany, upon whom it placed full responsibility for the war and imposed heavy sanctions. Euro, 2005 etwa 1,3 Mrd. [236] The Industrial Revolution started in Europe, specifically the United Kingdom in the late 18th century,[237] and the 19th century saw Western Europe industrialise. The same naming motive according to "cartographic convention" appears in Greek Ἀνατολή (Anatolḗ "[sun] rise", "east", hence Anatolia). The Berlin blockade in 1948 and 1949 and the construction of the Berlin Wall in 1961 were one of the great international crises of the Cold War. Areas with little more than a unique tax status, such as Heligoland and the Canary Islands, are also not included for this reason. in World Cargo News, 17 December 2019; Hospers, Gert-Jan "Beyond the blue banana? [35] The concept is one of the lasting legacies of the Carolingian Renaissance: Europa often[dubious – discuss] figures in the letters of Charlemagne's court scholar, Alcuin.[36]. The Greek government-debt crisis was the sovereign debt crisis faced by Greece in the aftermath of the financial crisis of 2007–08.Widely known in the country as The Crisis (Greek: Η Κρίση), it reached the populace as a series of sudden reforms and austerity measures that led to impoverishment and loss of income and property, as well as a small-scale humanitarian crisis. The Christian kingdoms were mainly focussed on their own internal power struggles. Prior to the adoption of the current convention that includes mountain divides, the border between Europe and Asia had been redefined several times since its first conception in classical antiquity, but always as a series of rivers, seas, and straits that were believed to extend an unknown distance east and north from the Mediterranean Sea without the inclusion of any mountain ranges. From the 15th to 18th centuries, when the disintegrating khanates of the Golden Horde were conquered by Russia, Tatars from the Crimean Khanate frequently raided Eastern Slavic lands to capture slaves. In 2017, the population of Europe was estimated to be 742 million according to the 2019 revision of the World Population Prospects[2][3], which is slightly more than one-ninth of the world's population. [157] Reforms in social and economic spheres followed, including the first laws on child labour, the legalisation of trade unions,[158] and the abolition of slavery. The Romanians and the Turkic Nomads North of the Danube Delta from the Tenth to the Mid-Thirteenth Century, Brill, 2009. The richer states tend to be in the West; some of the Central and Eastern European economies are still emerging from the collapse of the Soviet Union and the breakup of Yugoslavia. - Γραφείο Τύπου Ο.Δ.Ι.Ε. West Germany recovered quickly and had doubled production from pre-war levels by the 1950s. These two halves are separated by the mountain chains of the Pyrenees and Alps/Carpathians. Multilingualism and the protection of regional and minority languages are recognised political goals in Europe today. The notion of "Europe" and the "Western World" has been intimately connected with the concept of "Christianity and Christendom"; many even attribute Christianity for being the link that created a unified European identity. Between the 16th and 20th centuries, European powers colonized at various times the Americas, almost all of Africa and Oceania, and the majority of Asia. An arc of uplands also exists along the north-western seaboard, which begins in the western parts of the islands of Britain and Ireland, and then continues along the mountainous, fjord-cut spine of Norway. During this period giant megalithic monuments, such as the Megalithic Temples of Malta and Stonehenge, were constructed throughout Western and Southern Europe. [185] In 1941, Germany invaded the Soviet Union in Operation Barbarossa. Europe covers about 10,180,000 km2 (3,930,000 sq mi), or 2% of the Earth's surface (6.8% of land area), making it the second smallest continent (using the seven-continent model). Die Mittel für Bulgarien und Rumänien wurden ab 2004 schrittweise erhöht, so dass die EU in den Jahren 2004 etwa 1,2 Mrd. Christianity became the sole official religion of the empire in 380 CE, and in 391–392 CE, the emperor Theodosius outlawed pagan religions. [148][149] Napoleonic rule resulted in the further dissemination of the ideals of the French Revolution, including that of the nation-state, as well as the widespread adoption of the French models of administration, law, and education. The Industrial Revolution, which began in Great Britain at the end of the 18th century, gave rise to radical economic, cultural and social change in Western Europe and eventually the wider world. Most of the older geology of western Europe existed as part of the ancient microcontinent Avalonia. Around 440 million years ago Euramerica was formed from Baltica and Laurentia; a further joining with Gondwana then leading to the formation of Pangea. [161] The last major famine recorded in Western Europe, the Great Famine of Ireland, caused death and mass emigration of millions of Irish people. [59] In 508 BCE, Cleisthenes instituted the world's first democratic system of government in Athens. The conditions for growth are very favourable. [255] According to some sources,[256] this rate is higher among Muslims in Europe. This territory, under the Arabic name Al-Andalus, became part of the expanding Umayyad Caliphate. The trade between East and West, as well as towards Asia, which had been disrupted for a long time by the two world wars, new borders and the Cold War, increased sharply after 1989. From around 50 million years ago, rising and falling sea levels have determined the actual shape of Europe, and its connections with continents such as Asia. Politically, Europe is divided into about fifty sovereign states, of which Russia is the largest and most populous, spanning 39% of the continent and comprising 15% of its population. The northern plains are delimited in the west by the Scandinavian Mountains and the mountainous parts of the British Isles. Maltese is the only Semitic language that is official within the EU, while Basque is the only European language isolate. Spain and Portugal, the greatest naval powers of the time, took the lead in exploring the world. Emperor Justinian I presided over Constantinople's first golden age: he established a legal code that forms the basis of many modern legal systems, funded the construction of the Hagia Sophia, and brought the Christian church under state control.[73]. A number of insects, such as the small tortoiseshell butterfly, add to the biodiversity. [23], Clickable map of Europe, showing one of the most commonly used continental boundaries[24] Key: blue: states which straddle the border between Europe and Asia; [203] This made old previously interrupted cultural and economic relationships possible and previously isolated cities such as Berlin, Prague, Vienna, Budapest and Trieste were now again in the center of Europe. This accounted for almost 85% of Europe's total population growth. [25] It has a higher ratio of coast to landmass than any other continent or subcontinent. For other uses, see. EU-Länder, in denen der Euro nicht verwendet wird. Vertrag von Nizza. Germany re-expanded and took back the Saarland and Rhineland in 1935 and 1936. This ratio was the world's third highest after Japan and Zimbabwe. According to UN population projection, Europe's population may fall to about 7% of world population by 2050, or 653 million people (medium variant, 556 to 777 million in low and high variants, respectively). The sea flora is mainly phytoplankton. The annual budget deficit (expenses over revenues) was 3.4% GDP in 2014, much improved versus the 15% of 2009. Probably 80 to 90 percent of Europe was once covered by forest. This number includes Siberia, (about 38 million people) but excludes European Turkey (about 12 million). The emphasis placed on resurrecting the West German economy led to it overtaking the UK as Europe's largest economy. ... • Größere Auswahl und stabilere Preise für Verbraucher • Engere wirtschaftliche Zusammenarbeit zwischen EU-Ländern Der Euro wird im gesamten Euroraum verwendet. Constantinople was the largest and wealthiest city in Europe from the 9th to the 12th centuries, with a population of approximately 400,000. The Industrial Revolution started in Great Britain in the last part of the 18th century and spread throughout Europe. In June 1944, British and American forces invaded France in the D-Day landings, opening a new front against Germany. Europe has about 225 indigenous languages,[268] mostly falling within three Indo-European language groups: the Romance languages, derived from the Latin of the Roman Empire; the Germanic languages, whose ancestor language came from southern Scandinavia; and the Slavic languages. An estimated 36% of Greeks lived below the poverty line in 2014. Later that year, following the Munich Agreement signed by Germany, France, the United Kingdom and Italy, Germany annexed the Sudetenland, which was a part of Czechoslovakia inhabited by ethnic Germans, and in early 1939, the remainder of Czechoslovakia was split into the Protectorate of Bohemia and Moravia, controlled by Germany, and the Slovak Republic.