Interesting Facts About Europe

Europe is one of the seven continents of the world. In area it is the second smallest, after Australia; but in population it is the second largest, after Asia. Because of Europe's location, its considerable economic resources, and its large population, this continent has played and continues to play a major role in world affairs.

Europe is hard to define precisely because it does not form a clear-cut entity with respect to either geography or population. Geographically, it is simply one of several large peninsulas projecting from the vast Eurasian landmass. In the west and north it has clear boundaries in the Atlantic Ocean and the Norwegian and Barents seas. In the south the Mediterranean appears to form a similarly clear boundary, but in fact Mediterranean Europe, which is separated from the greater part of the continent by mountains, is much like North Africa and the Middle East in climate and topography. 

This can be illustrated by reference to Turkey, which spans the boundary between Europe and Asia at the northeast corner of the Mediterranean: Turkey's European and Asian coastal areas share essentially the same physical characteristics. The greatest geographical imprecision, however, is in the east, where Europe is separated from Asia only by the low Ural Mountains and the more substantial Caucasus Mountains. Not only are these lines somewhat arbitrary geographically, but both of them run through portions of a single sovereign state—the Russian Federation. Sometimes, therefore, and particularly in political and economic discussions, Europe is defined as the area lying west of the Russian Federation and Turkey.

Racially, most Europeans belong to the Caucasoid group of physical types. However, individuals essentially indistinguishable from Europeans also constitute the major part of the population in all of North Africa and in Asia as far east as India. Moreover, individual Caucasoid traits, including medium to tall stature, round to long head form, high-bridged noses, and comparatively light skin color, can be found even farther afield in Asia and Africa as well as in other parts of the world. Racial types vary more between one part of Europe and another than between Europe and adjacent parts of Africa and Asia.

Europe can best be distinguished as a major area different from other parts of the world by the totality of its cultural heritage. Throughout prehistory, Europe was an appendage to Asia and Africa, developing culturally in response to impulses from outside. However, in the last millennium B.C. the growth of first Greek and then Roman civilization set Europe on a distinctive course of cultural development. By the 2d century A.D. the Roman Empire enveloped North Africa, the Middle East, and Europe from the Mediterranean north to parts of Britain, Germany, Austria, Hungary, and Romania. And even beyond these limits of direct control, some Roman influence was felt.

The influence of Rome weakened and died after the 4th century, but it left as its heritage a new unifying force in Europe—Christianity. Latin Europe was converted before the fall of Rome, and most of the rest of the continent became Christian by the 11th century. During the period of disruption and cultural decline that followed the collapse of the Roman Empire in the west, Christianity provided the essential link with the civilized past, and the church was a major factor in the reappearance of town life, trade, and a money economy after about 1000.

From about the end of the 15th century on, European society became increasingly secularized. It also became much more prosperous as, following the voyages of discovery, the European nations established colonies in Africa, Asia, and North and South America and developed trade and manufacturing. However, Europe remained predominantly agrarian until, beginning in England in the late 18th century, the Industrial Revolution spread across the continent. By the mid-20th century, all Europe had felt the impact of intensive industrialization.

Following the end of World War II in 1945, the European colonial empires were broken up, and the major western European powers lost the political supremacy that they had long enjoyed in world affairs. But there also came the first serious attempts on the part of the European nations to set aside national differences and to achieve political and economic integration.

Hope of uniting the whole continent in this way seemed to have been destroyed in the late 1940s by the establishment of Communist regimes in the eastern European countries. However, the western European nations continued to pursue the goal of integration and achieved notable success with the establishment of the European Economic Community, or Common Market.

Until 1989, when generally peaceful revolutions destroyed the Communist monopoly of power in eastern Europe, the continent remained divided into divergent political-ideological blocs. The merger of East Germany with West Germany in 1990 and the desire of other eastern countries for integration with the western economy revived the hopes for a united Europe.