Geographical Regions of Europe

Although Europe is the second smallest of the major land areas of the globe, it is physically and culturally the most diverse. Because of this diversity, at least seven regions can be identified within the continent. One of these regions is the Mediterranean south, where there are four principal states—Greece, Italy, Spain, and Portugal—and a portion of a fifth—Turkey. This region is dominated by a dry, subtropical climate, and because its countries are overwhelmingly agricultural in character, this climatic pattern has a critical influence on their way of life.

A second region might be termed the "western fringe," for here there are three major states—Belgium, France, and the Netherlands—whose location on the Atlantic doorstep of Europe has been of fundamental importance to their development: they have continental footholds but essentially maritime outlooks.

A third region consists of the islands of Britain and Ireland. Each of these "insular realms," as they have been called, has, by reason of its insularity, largely managed to live apart from the rest of the continent. This could be accomplished as long as each—especially Britain—was strong enough to maintain its detachment.

A fourth region comprises the "Germanic core" of Europe: the common bond of its three states—Germany, Austria, and Switzerland—is the dominance of the German language within their borders. Besides sharing a common cultural heritage, these states share a central location near the heart of the continent that has exposed them to precisely the kind of involvement that the "insular realms" have largely succeeded in avoiding.

Similarly, the fifth region, the "eastern crush zone," has, by virtue of its position, been buffeted by every people, philosophy, and political tide flowing between peninsular Europe and the borderlands of Asia. Unlike the "Germanic core," however, it has become extremely fragmented culturally. The region's unity, therefore, has been its very disunity, at least from the end of World War II to 1989. Its countries—Albania, Bulgaria, Czechoslovakia, Hungary, Poland, Romania, and Yugoslavia—had all been Communist states during that period, most of them in close alliance with the Soviet Union.

The sixth region of Europe, the "northern frontier," is composed of five countries—Denmark, Finland, Iceland, Norway, and Sweden—having strong cultural and historical associations. These states have been unified by their location on the poleward margins of the habitable world. Despite inadequate natural resources, however, they have managed to achieve the highest overall standard of living of any European region.

If one accepts the traditional eastern boundary of Europe as running along the crests of the Ural and Caucasus mountains and the shores of the Caspian Sea, Europe contains a seventh region—European Russia. Vast and diverse, it comprises the most densely populated and economically developed part of the Russian Federation. It is the nerve-center of the second-greatest industrial and military power in the world.