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The 1560 marked the apex of Ottoman naval domination in the Mediterranean. In temperate Europe, mixed forest with both and coniferous trees dominate.
Germany on 1 September 1939, prompting France and the United Kingdom to declare war on Germany on 3 September, opening the. Archived from on 8 January 2011.
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This article is about the continent. For the politico-economic union, see. For other uses, see. Europe is a located entirely in the and mostly in the. It is bordered by the to the north, the to the west and the to the south. It comprises the westernmost part of. Europe Area 10,180,000 km 2 3,930,000 sq mi Population 741,447,158 2016; Population density 72. Figures include only European portions of transcontinental countries. Istanbul is a transcontinental city with about two-thirds of the population residing in the European side. Since around 1850, Europe is most commonly considered to be by the of the and , the , the and Seas and the waterways of the. The division of Eurasia into two continents reflects cultural, linguistic and ethnic differences, some of which vary on a spectrum rather than with a sharp dividing line. The border does not follow political boundaries, with , and being. Europe covers about 10,180,000 square kilometres 3,930,000 sq mi , or 2% of the Earth's surface 6. Politically, Europe is divided into about of which the is the largest and most populous, spanning 39% of the continent and comprising 15% of its population. Europe had a of about 741 million about 11% of the as of 2016. The is largely affected by warm Atlantic currents that temper winters and summers on much of the continent, even at along which the climate in Asia and is severe. Further from the sea, seasonal differences are more noticeable than close to the coast. Europe, in particular , was the birthplace of. The fall of the in 476 AD and the subsequent marked the end of and the beginning of the. From the onwards, Europe played a predominant role in global affairs. Between the 16th and 20th centuries, European powers at various times the , almost all of and and the majority of Asia. The , the subsequent and the shaped the continent culturally, politically and economically from the end of the 17th century till the first half of the 19th century. The , which began in at the end of the 18th century, gave rise to radical economic, cultural and social change in and eventually the wider world. Both 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 and the took prominence. During the , Europe was divided along the between in the West and the in the East, until the and. In 1949 the was founded, following a speech by Sir , with the idea of unifying Europe to achieve common goals. It includes all European states except for , and. Further by some states led to the formation of the EU , a separate political entity that lies between a and a. The EU originated in Western Europe but has been since the in 1991. The currency of most countries of the European Union, the , is the most commonly used among Europeans; and the EU's abolishes border and immigration controls among most of its member states. Reconstruction of ' world map 450 BC In classical , : Εὐρώπη, Eurṓpē is the name of either a princess or of a queen of Crete. Broad has been an of Earth herself in the reconstructed and the poetry devoted to it. Most major world languages use words derived from Eurṓpē or Europa to refer to the continent. The prevalent definition of Europe as a geographical term has been in use since the mid-19th century. Europe is taken to be bounded by large bodies of water to the north, west and south; Europe's limits to the far east are usually taken to be the Urals, the , and the ; to the southeast, including the , the and the waterways connecting the Black Sea to the Mediterranean Sea. Islands are generally grouped with the nearest continental landmass, hence is generally considered to be part of Europe, while the nearby island of is usually assigned to. Nevertheless, there are some exceptions based on sociopolitical and cultural differences. History of the concept Early history A medieval from 1472 showing the three continents as domains of the sons of — Asia to Sem , Europe to Iafeth , and Africa to Cham The first recorded usage of Eurṓpē as a geographic term is in the to , in reference to the western shore of the. As a name for a part of the known world, it is first used in the 6th century BC by and. Anaximander placed the boundary between Asia and Europe along the Phasis River the modern in the Caucasus, a convention still followed by in the 5th century BC. Herodotus mentioned that the world had been divided by unknown persons into three parts, Europe, Asia, and Libya Africa , with the and the Phasis forming their boundaries—though he also states that some considered the , rather than the Phasis, as the boundary between Europe and Asia. Europe's eastern frontier was defined in the 1st century by geographer at the River Don. The described the continents as the lands given by to his three sons; Europe was defined as stretching from the at the , separating it from , to the Don, separating it from. The convention received by the and surviving into modern usage is that of the used by Roman era authors such as , and , who took the Tanais the modern Don River as the boundary. From that time, the term designated the sphere of influence of the , as opposed to both the churches and to the. A cultural definition of Europe as the lands of coalesced in the 8th century, signifying the new cultural condominium created through the confluence of Germanic traditions and Christian-Latin culture, defined partly in contrast with and , and limited to northern , the British Isles, France, Christianised western Germany, the Alpine regions and northern and central Italy. Modern definitions Depiction of 'Queen Europe' in 1582. The question of defining a precise eastern boundary of Europe arises in the Early Modern period, as the eastern extension of began to include Northern Asia. Throughout the Middle Ages and into the 18th century, the traditional division of the landmass of into two continents, Europe and Asia, followed Ptolemy, with the boundary following the , the , the , the and the ancient. But maps produced during the 16th to 18th centuries tended to differ in how to continue the boundary beyond the Don bend at where it is closest to the Volga, now joined with it by the , into territory not described in any detail by the ancient geographers. This was adopted by the Russian Empire, and introduced the convention that would eventually become adopted as standard, but not without criticism by many modern analytical geographers. The mapmakers continued to differ on the boundary between the lower Don and Samara well into the 19th century. The published by the has the boundary follow the Don beyond Kalach as far as before cutting north towards , while other 18th- to 19th-century mapmakers such as followed Strahlenberg's prescription. To the south, the was identified circa 1773 by a German naturalist, , as a valley that, once upon a time, connected the Black Sea and the Caspian Sea, and subsequently was proposed as a natural boundary between continents. By the mid-19th century, there were three main conventions, one following the Don, the and the Volga, the other following the Kuma—Manych Depression to the Caspian and then the Ural River, and the third abandoning the Don altogether, following the to the Caspian. In and the , the boundary along the Kuma—Manych Depression was the most commonly used as early as 1906. In 1958, the Soviet Geographical Society formally recommended that the boundary between the Europe and Asia be drawn in textbooks from , on the , along the eastern foot of Ural Mountains, then following the until the , and then the ; and Kuma—Manych Depression, thus placing the Caucasus entirely in Asia and the Urals entirely in Europe. However, most geographers in the Soviet Union favoured the boundary along the Caucasus crest and this became the standard convention in the later 20th century, although the Kuma—Manych boundary remained in use in some 20th-century maps. Paleolithic cave paintings from in c 15,000 BC , which lived roughly 1. Other hominid remains, dating back roughly 1 million years, have been discovered in ,. The Neanderthals were supplanted by modern humans , who appeared in Europe around 43 to 40 thousand years ago. The from the 1600 BC , The period—marked by the cultivation of crops and the raising of livestock, increased numbers of settlements and the widespread use of pottery—began around 7000 BC in and the , probably influenced by earlier farming practices in and the. It spread from the Balkans along the valleys of the and the and along the. Between 4500 and 3000 BC, these central European neolithic cultures developed further to the west and the north, transmitting newly acquired skills in producing copper artefacts. In Western Europe the Neolithic period was characterised not by large agricultural settlements but by field monuments, such as , and. The cultural horizon flourished at the transition from the Neolithic to the. During this period giant monuments, such as the and , were constructed throughout Western and Southern Europe. The Minoans were followed by the , who collapsed suddenly around 1200 BC, ushering the. Iron Age colonisation by the and gave rise to early cities. Early and from around the 8th century BC gradually gave rise to historical Classical antiquity, whose beginning is sometimes dated to 776 BC, the year the first. Classical antiquity The in 432 BC Ancient Greece was the founding culture of Western civilisation. Western and are often attributed to Ancient Greece. The Greeks city-state, the , was the fundamental political unit of classical Greece. In 508 BC, instituted the world's first system of government in. The Greek political ideals were rediscovered in the late 18th century by European philosophers and idealists. Greece also generated many cultural contributions: in , and under , and ; in with and ; in dramatic and narrative verse, starting with the epic poems of ; in drama with and , in medicine with and ; and in science with , and. In the course of the 5th century BC, several of the Greek would ultimately check the advance in Europe through the , considered a pivotal moment in world history, as the 50 years of peace that followed are known as , the seminal period of ancient Greece that laid many of the foundations of Western civilization. Bust of Augustus wearing the at Palazzo Bevilacqua in , Greece was followed by , which left its mark on , , , , , and many more key aspects in western civilisation. Expanding from their base in Italy beginning in the 3rd century BC, the Romans gradually expanded to eventually rule the entire Mediterranean basin and western Europe by the turn of the millennium. The ended in 27 BC, when proclaimed the. The two centuries that followed are known as the , a period of unprecedented peace, prosperity, and political stability in most of Europe. The empire continued to expand under emperors such as and , who spent time on the Empire's northern border fighting , and tribes. The Empire began to decline in the 3rd century, particularly in the west. Constantine also permanently moved the capital of the empire from Rome to the city of , which was renamed in his honour modern-day in 330 AD. Christianity became the sole official religion of the empire in 380 AD, and in 391-392 AD, the emperor outlawed pagan religions. This is sometimes considered to mark the end of antiquity; alternatively antiquity is considered to end with the in 476 AD; the closure of the pagan in 529 AD; or the rise of Islam in the early 7th century AD. There were numerous invasions and migrations amongst the , , , , , , , , , , and, later on, the , , and. Isolated monastic communities were the only places to safeguard and compile written knowledge accumulated previously; apart from this very few written records survive and much literature, philosophy, mathematics, and other thinking from the classical period disappeared from Western Europe though they were preserved in the east, in the Byzantine Empire. While the Roman empire in the west continued to decline, Roman traditions and the Roman state remained strong in the predominantly Greek-speaking , also known as the. During most of its existence, the Byzantine Empire was the most powerful economic, cultural, and military force in Europe. Emperor presided over Constantinople's first golden age: he established a that forms the basis of many modern legal systems, funded the construction of the , and brought the Christian church under state control. Delegations of and at Byzantine court of From the 7th century onwards, as the Byzantines and neighbouring were severely weakened due the protracted, centuries-lasting and frequent , the Muslim Arabs began to make inroads into historically Roman territory, taking the Levant and North Africa and making inroads into. In the mid 7th century AD, following the , Islam penetrated into the region. Over the next centuries Muslim forces took , , , and. Between 711 and 720, most of the was brought under rule — save for small areas in the northwest and largely regions in the. This territory, under the Arabic name , became part of the expanding. The unsuccessful 717 weakened the and reduced their prestige. The Umayyads were then defeated by the leader at the in 732, which ended their northward advance. During the Dark Ages, the fell under the control of various tribes. The Germanic and Slav tribes established their domains over Western and Eastern Europe respectively. Eventually the Frankish tribes were united under. This led in 962 to the founding of the , which eventually became centred in the German principalities of central Europe. The powerful state of spread its territory all the way south to the Balkans, reaching its largest territorial extent under and causing a series of armed conflicts with. Further south, the first emerged in the late 7th and 8th century and adopted : the , the later and , and the later. To the East, the expanded from its capital in to become the largest state in Europe by the 10th century. In 988, adopted as the religion of state. Further East, became an Islamic state in the 10th century, but was eventually absorbed into Russia several centuries later. High and Late Middle Ages See also: The period between the year 1000 and 1300 is known as the , during which the population of Europe experienced significant growth, culminating in the. Economic growth, together with the lack of safety on the mainland trading routes, made possible the development of major commercial routes along the coast of the and. The growing wealth and independence acquired by some coastal cities gave the a leading role in the European scene. A struggle for influence between the and the in England led to the writing of the and the establishment of a. The primary source of culture in this period came from the. Through monasteries and cathedral schools, the Church was responsible for education in much of Europe. The reached the height of its power during the High Middle Ages. An in 1054 split the former Roman Empire religiously, with the in the and the Roman Catholic Church in the former Western Roman Empire. In 1095 called for a against occupying and the. In Europe itself, the Church organised the against heretics. In , the concluded with the fall of in 1492, ending over seven centuries of Islamic rule in the. In the east a resurgent Byzantine Empire recaptured Crete and Cyprus from the Muslims and reconquered the Balkans. Constantinople was the largest and wealthiest city in Europe from the 9th to the 12th centuries, with a population of approximately 400,000. The Empire was weakened following the defeat at and was weakened considerably by the , during the. Although it would recover Constantinople in 1261, when by the. The sacking of by in 1238, during the. In the 11th and 12th centuries, constant incursions by nomadic tribes, such as the and the , caused a massive migration of populations to the safer, heavily forested regions of the north and temporarily halted the expansion of the Rus' state to the south and east. Like many other parts of , these territories were. The invaders, who became known as , were mostly Turkic-speaking peoples under Mongol suzerainty. They established the state of the with headquarters in Crimea, which later adopted Islam as a religion and ruled over modern-day southern and central Russia for more than three centuries. After the collapse of Mongol dominions, the first Romanian states principalities emerged in the 14th century: Moldova and Walachia. Previously, these territories were under the successive control of Pechenegs and Cumans. From the 12th to the 15th centuries, the grew from a small principality under Mongol rule to the largest state in Europe, overthrowing the Mongols in 1480 and eventually becoming the. The state was consolidated under and , steadily expanding to the east and south over the next centuries. The was the first that would strike Europe in the late Middle Ages. The period between 1348 and 1420 witnessed the heaviest loss. The population of was reduced by half. Medieval Britain was afflicted by 95 famines, and France suffered the effects of 75 or more in the same period. Europe was devastated in the mid-14th century by the , one of the most deadly in human history which killed an estimated 25 million people in Europe alone—a third of the at the time. The plague had a devastating effect on Europe's social structure; it induced people to live for the moment as illustrated by in 1353. It was a serious blow to the Roman Catholic Church and led to increased , , and. The plague is thought to have returned every generation with varying and mortalities until the 18th century. During this period, more than 100 plague swept across Europe. Early modern period The end of marked the beginning of the in , 1453. The Renaissance was a period of cultural change originating in and later spreading to the rest of Europe. The rise of a was accompanied by the recovery of forgotten and Arabic knowledge from libraries, often translated from Arabic into. The Renaissance spread across Europe between the 14th and 16th centuries: it saw the flowering of , , , and the , under the joint patronage of , the nobility, the , and an emerging merchant class. Patrons in Italy, including the family of Florentine bankers and the in , funded prolific and artists such as , , and. Political intrigue within the Church in the mid-14th century caused the. During this forty-year period, two popes—one in and one in Rome—claimed rulership over the Church. Although the schism was eventually healed in 1417, the papacy's spiritual authority had suffered greatly. The Church's power was further weakened by the Protestant Reformation 1517—1648 , initially sparked by of German theologian , an attempt to start a reform within the Church. The Reformation also damaged the Holy Roman Emperor's influence, as German princes became divided between and Roman Catholic faiths. This eventually led to the 1618—1648 , which crippled the Holy Roman Empire and devastated much of , killing between 25 and 40 percent of its population. In the aftermath of the , France rose to predominance within Europe. In the 15th century, Europe started to extend itself beyond its geographic frontiers. A Spanish expedition led by reached the in 1492, the Portuguese sailor opened the ocean route to the in 1498 and the Spanish explorer made the first in 1519—1522, and soon after the Spanish and Portuguese began establishing huge global empires in the Americas, Asia, Africa and Oceania. France, the and soon followed in building large colonial empires with vast holdings in Africa, , and Asia. The 17th century in southern, central and eastern Europe was a period of general. Central and Eastern Europe experienced more than 150 famines in a 200-year period between 1501 and 1700. From the 1385 central and eastern Europe was dominated by and. Between 1648 and 1655 in the central and eastern Europe ended hegemony of the. From the 15th to 18th centuries, when the disintegrating khanates of the were conquered by Russia, from the frequently Eastern Slavic lands to capture slaves. Further east, the and frequently raided the Slavic-speaking areas of Russia, Ukraine and Poland for hundreds of years, until the Russian expansion and conquest of most of northern Eurasia i. Eastern Europe, Central Asia and Siberia. Meanwhile, in the south, the Ottomans had conquered the Balkans by the 15th century,. In the in 1571, the checked Ottoman power in the Mediterranean. The Ottomans again laid siege to Vienna in 1683, but the permanently ended their advance into Europe, and marked the political hegemony of the in central Europe. The Renaissance and the marked the start of an Age of Discovery, a period of exploration, invention, and scientific development. Among the great figures of the Western of the 16th and 17th centuries were , , , and. Napoleon's had lost about half a million men. The Age of Enlightenment was a powerful intellectual movement during the 18th century promoting scientific and reason-based thoughts. Discontent with the aristocracy and clergy's monopoly on political power in France resulted in the French Revolution and the establishment of the as a result of which the monarchy and many of the nobility perished during the initial. This balance would remain in place until the , during which liberal uprisings affected all of Europe except for Russia and the. These revolutions were eventually put down by conservative elements and few reforms resulted. The year 1859 saw the unification of Romania, as a nation-state, from smaller principalities. In 1867, the was ; and 1871 saw the unifications of both and as from smaller principalities. In parallel, the grew more complex ever since the Ottoman defeat in the. As the dissolution of the Ottoman Empire seemed imminent, the struggled to safeguard their strategic and commercial interests in the Ottoman domains. The stood to benefit from the decline, whereas the and perceived the preservation of the Ottoman Empire to be in their best interests. Meanwhile, the 1804 and 1821 marked the beginning of the end of Ottoman rule in the , which ended with the in 1912-1913. Formal recognition of the de facto independent principalities of , and ensued at the in 1878. Marshall's 1840 , the started in The started in in the last part of the 18th century and spread throughout Europe. The invention and implementation of new technologies resulted in rapid urban growth, mass employment, and the rise of a new working class. Reforms in social and economic spheres followed, including the on , the legalisation of , and the. In Britain, the was passed, which significantly improved living conditions in many British cities. Europe's population increased from about 100 million in 1700 to 400 million by 1900. The last major famine recorded in Western Europe, the , caused death and mass emigration of millions of Irish people. In the 19th century, 70 million people left Europe in migrations to various European colonies abroad and to the. Demographic growth meant that, by 1900, Europe's share of the world's population was 25%. Two world wars and an economic depression dominated the first half of the 20th century. World War I was fought between 1914 and 1918. It started when was assassinated by the. Most European nations were drawn into the war, which was fought between the , , , Portugal, , the United Kingdom, and later , , , and the United States and the , , , and the. The war left more than 16 million civilians and military dead. Over 60 million European soldiers were mobilised from 1914 to 1918. Russia was plunged into the , which threw down the and replaced it with the. The , 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. Excess deaths in Russia over the course of World War I and the including the postwar amounted to a combined total of 18 million. In 1932—1933, under 's leadership, confiscations of grain by the Soviet authorities contributed to the which caused millions of deaths; surviving were persecuted and many sent to to do. Stalin was also responsible for the of 1937—38 in which the executed 681,692 people; millions of people were to remote areas of the Soviet Union. The sweeping through Russia also affected other European nations following : in 1919, with the in Germany, and the ; in 1922, with 's one party government in the , and in 's , adopting the Western alphabet, and state. Economic instability, caused in part by debts incurred in the First World War and 'loans' to Germany played havoc in Europe in the late 1920s and 1930s. This and the brought about the worldwide. Helped by the economic crisis, social instability and the threat of communism, developed throughout Europe placing in power of what became. In 1933, Hitler became the leader of Germany and began to work towards his goal of building Greater Germany. Germany re-expanded and took back the and in 1935 and 1936. In 1938, became a part of Germany following the. Later that year, following the signed by Germany, France, the United Kingdom and Italy, Germany annexed the , which was a part of inhabited by ethnic Germans, and in early 1939, the remainder of Czechoslovakia was split into the , controlled by Germany, and the. At the time, Britain and France preferred a policy of. Germany on 1 September 1939, prompting France and the United Kingdom to declare war on Germany on 3 September, opening the. The started on 17 September and Poland fell soon thereafter. On 24 September, the Soviet Union attacked the and later, Finland. The British hoped to land at and send troops to aid Finland, but their primary objective in the landing was to encircle Germany and cut the Germans off from Scandinavian resources. Around the same time, Germany moved troops into Denmark. In May 1940, Germany through the Low Countries. France capitulated in June 1940. By August Germany began a , but failed to convince the Britons to give up. In 1941, Germany invaded the Soviet Union in the. On 7 December 1941 's drew the United States into the conflict as allies of the and other forces. The , which involved the largest in history, was the last major German offensive on the. In June 1944, British and American forces invaded France in the , opening a new front against Germany. The war was the largest and most destructive in human history, with. More than 40 million people in Europe had died as a result of World War II, including between 11 and 17 million people who perished during. The Soviet Union mostly civilians during the war, about half of all World War II casualties. By the end of World War II, Europe had more than 40 million. Several in Central and Eastern Europe displaced a total of about 20 million people. World War I and especially World War II diminished the eminence of Western Europe in world affairs. The United States and Western Europe established the alliance and later the Soviet Union and Central Europe established the. The led to the creation of the. It began the of the 1950, at the. The two new , the United States and the Soviet Union, became locked in a fifty-year-long Cold War, centred on. At the same time , which had already started after World War I, gradually resulted in the independence of most of the European colonies in Asia and Africa. In the 1980s the of and the movement in Poland accelerated the collapse of the Eastern bloc and the end of the Cold War. Germany was reunited, after the symbolic in 1989, and the maps of Central and Eastern Europe were redrawn once more. The in 1957 established the between six Western European states with the goal of a unified economic policy and common market. In 1967 the EEC, and formed the , which in 1993 became the. The EU established a , and and introduced the as a unified currency. Between 2004 and 2013, more Central and Eastern European countries began joining, to its current size of 28 European countries, and once more making Europe a major economical and political centre of power. However, in June 2016 the people of the United Kingdom, in a on EU membership voted to. Relief map of Europe and surrounding regions Europe makes up the western fifth of the landmass. It has a higher ratio of coast to landmass than any other continent or subcontinent. Its maritime borders consist of the Arctic Ocean to the north, the Atlantic Ocean to the west, and the Mediterranean, Black, and Caspian Seas to the south. Land relief in Europe shows great variation within relatively small areas. The southern regions are more mountainous, while moving north the terrain descends from the high , , and , through hilly uplands, into broad, low northern plains, which are vast in the east. This extended lowland is known as the , and at its heart lies the. An arc of uplands also exists along the north-western seaboard, which begins in the western parts of the islands of and , and then continues along the mountainous, fjord-cut spine of Norway. This description is simplified. Sub-regions such as the and the 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. Sub-regions like , Britain, and Ireland are special cases. 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. Climate of Europe and surrounding regions: Europe lies mainly in the climate zones, being subjected to. The climate is milder in comparison to other areas of the same latitude around the globe due to the influence of the. The Gulf Stream not only carries warm water to Europe's coast but also warms up the prevailing westerly winds that blow across the continent from the Atlantic Ocean. Therefore, the average temperature throughout the year of Naples is 16 °C 61 °F , while it is only 12 °C 54 °F in New York City which is almost on the same latitude. Berlin, Germany; Calgary, Canada; and Irkutsk, in the Asian part of Russia, lie on around the same latitude; January temperatures in Berlin average around 8 °C 14 °F higher than those in Calgary, and they are almost 22 °C 40 °F higher than average temperatures in Irkutsk. Similarly, northern parts of Scotland have a temperate marine climate. The yearly average temperature in city of Inverness is 9. Geology in is the highest mountain in Europe. The geological history of Europe traces back to the formation of the Fennoscandia and the , both around 2. Around 440 million years ago was formed from Baltica and Laurentia; a further joining with then leading to the formation of. Around 190 million years ago, Gondwana and split apart due to the widening of the Atlantic Ocean. Finally, and very soon afterwards, Laurasia itself split up again, into Laurentia North America and the Eurasian continent. The land connection between the two persisted for a considerable time, via , leading to interchange of animal species. 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. Europe's present shape dates to the late about five million years ago. Europa Point as seen from the. The geology of Europe is hugely varied and complex, and gives rise to the wide variety of landscapes found across the continent, from the to the rolling of Hungary. Europe's most significant feature is the dichotomy between highland and mountainous and a vast, partially underwater, northern plain ranging from Ireland in the west to the in the east. The northern plains are delimited in the west by the and the mountainous parts of the British Isles. Major shallow water bodies submerging parts of the northern plains are the , the , the complex and. Most of the older geology of western Europe existed as part of the ancient. Flora Having lived side-by-side with agricultural peoples for millennia, Europe's animals and plants have been profoundly affected by the presence and activities of man. With the exception of and northern Russia, few areas of untouched wilderness are currently found in Europe, except for various. Land use map of Europe with arable farmland yellow , forest dark green , pasture light green , and tundra or bogs in the north dark yellow The main natural vegetation cover in Europe is mixed. The conditions for growth are very favourable. In the north, the and warm the continent. Southern Europe could be described as having a warm, but mild climate. There are frequent summer droughts in this region. Mountain ridges also affect the conditions. Some of these , are oriented east-west and allow the wind to carry large masses of water from the ocean in the interior. Others are oriented south-north , , , and because the rain falls primarily on the side of mountains that is oriented 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 at some point in time, and the cutting down of the pre-agricultural forest habitat caused disruption to the original plant and animal ecosystems. Floristic regions of Europe and neighbouring areas, according to Wolfgang Frey and Rainer Lösch Probably 80 to 90 percent of Europe was once covered by forest. It stretched from the Mediterranean Sea to the Arctic Ocean. Though over half of Europe's original forests disappeared through the centuries of , Europe still has over one quarter of its land area as forest, such as the forests, of Scandinavia and Russia, mixed of the Caucasus and the forests in the western Mediterranean. During recent times, deforestation has been slowed and many trees have been planted. However, in many cases monoculture of have replaced the original mixed natural forest, because these grow quicker. The plantations now cover vast areas of land, but offer poorer habitats for many European forest dwelling species which require a mixture of tree species and diverse forest structure. The amount of natural forest in Western Europe is just 2—3% or less, in European Russia 5—10%. The country with the smallest percentage of forested area is 1% , while the most forested country is Finland 77%. In temperate Europe, mixed forest with both and coniferous trees dominate. The most important species in central and western Europe are and. In the north, the taiga is a mixed —— forest; further north within Russia and extreme northern Scandinavia, the taiga gives way to as the Arctic is approached. In the Mediterranean, many trees have been planted, which are very well adapted to its arid climate; is also widely planted in southern Europe. The semi-arid Mediterranean region hosts much scrub forest. A narrow east-west tongue of Eurasian the extends eastwards from and southern Russia and ends in Hungary and traverses into taiga to the north. Fauna of Europe and bordering regions Glaciation during the and the presence of man affected the distribution of. As for the animals, in many parts of Europe most large animals and top species have been hunted to extinction. The was extinct before the end of the period. Today and are endangered. Once they were found in most parts of Europe. However, deforestation and hunting caused these animals to withdraw further and further. By the the bears' habitats were limited to more or less inaccessible mountains with sufficient forest cover. Today, the lives primarily in the , Scandinavia, and Russia; a small number also persist in other countries across Europe Austria, Pyrenees etc. In addition, may be found on , a Norwegian archipelago far north of Scandinavia. The , the second largest predator in Europe after the brown bear, can be found primarily in and in the Balkans, with a handful of packs in pockets of Scandinavia, Spain, etc. Once roaming the great temperate forests of Eurasia, now live in nature preserves in , on the border between and. 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. Important European herbivores are snails, larvae, fish, different birds, and mammals, like rodents, deer and roe deer, boars, and living in the mountains, marmots, steinbocks, chamois among others. A number of insects, such as the butterfly, add to the biodiversity. The extinction of the and has been linked to the earliest arrival of humans on the islands of the. Sea creatures are also an important part of European flora and fauna. The sea flora is mainly. Important animals that live in European seas are , , , different , and , fish, , and. Biodiversity is protected in Europe through the Council of Europe's , which has also been signed by the as well as non-European states. The prevalent form of government in Europe is , in most cases in the form of ; in 1815, the prevalent form of government was still the. Europe's remaining eleven monarchies are. More recently, the has been established as a counterpart comprising former Soviet states. Among the smaller European organizations are the , the , the and the. It has been suggested that this section be out into another article titled. Name km 2 per km 2 28,748 2,876,591 98. None of them are members of the UN: Name km² per km² 8,660 243,206 28 11,458 150,932 12 10,908 1,920,079 159 3,355 313,626 93 3,900 53,532 13. This includes Åland a , two constituent countries of the Kingdom of Denmark other than Denmark itself , three , and two. Svalbard is also included due to its unique status within Norway, although it is not autonomous. Not included are the three with devolved powers and the two , which despite having a unique degree of autonomy, are not largely self-governing in matters other than international affairs. Areas with little more than a unique tax status, such as and the , are also not included for this reason. Name km² per km² UK 254 15,700 59. In 2009 Europe remained the wealthiest region. It was one of several regions where wealth surpassed its precrisis year-end peak. As with other continents, Europe has a large variation of wealth among its countries. The richer states tend to be in the ; some of the economies are still emerging from the and the. The European Union, a political entity composed of 28 European states, comprises the in the world. Five European countries rank in the top ten of the world's largest. This includes ranks according to the : Germany 5 , the UK 6 , Russia 7 , France 8 , and Italy 10. There is huge disparity between many European countries in terms of their income. Rank Country nominal, Peak Year millions of Peak Year 19,669,743 2018 1 4,211,635 2018 2 3,075,538 2007 3 2,937,321 2008 4 2,402,062 2008 5 2,297,125 2013 6 1,642,765 2008 7 950,328 2013 8 945,327 2018 9 741,688 2018 10 614,190 2018 Rank Country PPP, Peak Year millions of Peak Year 21,998,468 2018 1 4,373,951 2018 2 4,168,884 2018 3 3,028,566 2018 4 2,960,251 2018 5 2,399,825 2018 6 2,320,641 2018 7 1,864,105 2018 8 1,193,112 2018 9 966,742 2018 10 550,664 2018 Economic history Industrial growth 1760—1945 Capitalism has been dominant in the Western world since the end of feudalism. From Britain, it gradually spread throughout Europe. The started in Europe, specifically the United Kingdom in the late 18th century, and the 19th century saw Western Europe industrialise. Economies were disrupted by World War I but by the beginning of World War II they had recovered and were having to compete with the growing economic strength of the United States. World War II, again, damaged much of Europe's industries. Cold War 1945—1991 Fall of the in 1989. After World War II the economy of the UK was in a state of ruin, and continued to suffer relative economic decline in the following decades. Italy was also in a poor economic condition but regained a high level of growth by the 1950s. West Germany and had doubled production from pre-war levels by the 1950s. France also staged a remarkable comeback enjoying rapid growth and modernisation; later on Spain, under the leadership of , also recovered, and the nation recorded huge unprecedented economic growth beginning in the 1960s in what is called the. The majority of states came under the control of the and thus were members of the COMECON. The states which retained a system were given a large amount of aid by the United States under the. The western states moved to link their economies together, providing the basis for the EU and increasing cross border trade. This helped them to enjoy rapidly improving economies, while those states in COMECON were struggling in a large part due to the cost of the. Until 1990, the was expanded from 6 founding members to 12. The emphasis placed on resurrecting the West German economy led to it overtaking the UK as Europe's largest economy. Reunification 1991—present blue colour With the fall of communism in Central and Eastern Europe in 1991, the post-socialist states began free market reforms: Poland, Hungary, and adopted them reasonably quickly, while and Russia are still in the process of doing so. After and West Germany were reunited in 1990, the economy of West Germany struggled as it had to support and largely rebuild the infrastructure of East Germany. By the millennium change, the EU dominated the economy of Europe comprising the five largest European economies of the time namely Germany, the United Kingdom, France, Italy, and Spain. In 1999, 12 of the 15 members of the EU joined the replacing their former national currencies by the common euro. The three who chose to remain outside the Eurozone were: the United Kingdom, Denmark, and Sweden. The European Union is now the largest economy in the world. Figures released by in 2009 confirmed that the Eurozone had gone into in 2008. It impacted much of the region. In 2010, fears of a developed concerning some countries in Europe, especially Greece, Ireland, Spain, and Portugal. As a result, measures were taken, especially for Greece, by the leading countries of the Eurozone. The unemployment rate was 10. For those aged 15—24 it was 22. A century ago, Europe had nearly a quarter of the. The population of Europe has grown in the past century, but in other areas of the world in particular Africa and Asia the population has grown far more quickly. Among the continents, Europe has a relatively high , second only to Asia. Most of Europe is in a mode of , which means that each new -born generation is being less populous than the older. The most densely populated country in Europe and in the world is the microstate of. 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. Within this context, significant disparities exist between regions in relation to. The average number of of child bearing age is 1. According to some sources, this rate is higher among. The UN predicts a steady in as a result of emigration and low birth rates. Main articles: and Europe is home to the highest number of migrants of all global regions at 70. In 2005, the EU had an overall net gain from of 1. This accounted for almost 85% of Europe's total. The European Union plans to open the job centres for legal migrant workers from Africa. But numbers remained relatively small until waves of mass emigration in the 19th century, when millions of poor families left Europe. Today, are found on every continent. European ancestry predominates in North America, and to a lesser degree in South America particularly in , , and , while most of the other countries also have a considerable. Africa has no countries with European-derived majorities or with the exception of and probably , depending on context , but there are significant minorities, such as the. In Asia, European-derived populations predominate in specifically and some parts of Northern. Languages Overview map of the distribution of major European languages Europe has about 225 indigenous languages, mostly falling within three language groups: the , derived from the of the ; the , whose ancestor language came from southern Scandinavia; and the. Slavic languages are most spoken by the number of native speakers in Europe, they are spoken in Central, Eastern, and Southeastern Europe. Romance languages are spoken primarily in south-western Europe as well as in and , in Eastern Europe. Germanic languages are spoken in Northern Europe, the British Isles and some parts of. Other Indo-European languages outside the three main groups include the group that is, and , the group that is, , , , , , and , , , and. A distinct non-Indo-European family of , , , , , , , and is spoken mainly in , , , and parts of Russia. Two other language families reside in the North Caucasus termed , most notably including , , and ; and , most notably including. Multilingualism and the protection of regional and minority languages are recognised political goals in Europe today. The and the Council of Europe's set up a legal framework for language rights in Europe. Major cities The four are , , and , each have over 10 million residents, and as such have been described as. While Istanbul has the highest total population, one third lies on the Asian side of the , making Moscow the most populous city entirely in Europe. The next largest cities in order of population are , , , , , and , each having over 3 million residents. When considering the commuter belts or , within the EU for which comparable data is available London covers the largest population, followed in order by Paris, Madrid, Barcelona, Berlin, the , Rome, Milan, Athens and. The boundaries of Europe were historically understood as those of or more specifically , as established or defended throughout the medieval and early modern history of Europe, especially , as in the and the. This shared cultural heritage is combined by overlapping indigenous national cultures and folklores, roughly divided into , and , but with several components not part of either of these group notably and. Main article: , religion in Europe has been a major influence on , , and. The largest religion in Europe is , with 76. Among Protestants, the most popular are historically state-supported European denominations such as , and the. Other Protestant denominations such as historically significant ones like were never supported by any state and thus are not so widespread, as well as these newly arriving from the such as , , , and various ; although Methodism and Baptists both have European origins. The second most popular religion is 6% concentrated mainly in the Balkans and eastern Europe , , , , , , , , and the. Other religions, including Judaism, , and are minority religions though Tibetan Buddhism is the majority religion of Russia's. The 20th century saw the revival of through movements such as and. Europe has become a relatively continent, with an increasing number and proportion of , and people, who make up about 18. There are a particularly high number of self-described non-religious people in the Czech Republic, , Sweden, former East Germany, and France. The vast majority of its population 78% lives in European Russia. However only the population figure includes the entire state. Other legislated by the include and. The population and area figures refer to the entire state, including the de facto independent part which is not recognised as a sovereign nation by the vast majority of sovereign nations, nor the UN. Population and density figures are from the first results of 2011 census and are given without the disputed territory of. Population and area details include European portion only: Netherlands and three entities outside Europe , and , in the constitute the. However, only the population figure refers to the entire country. The population and area figures include the entire state respectively. However the population and area figures are for the entire state. This includes the of the and the region that has declared, and , independence. Nevertheless, it is not recognised by. The population and area figures include Georgian estimates for and , two regions that have declared and independence. Turkey has a small part of its territory 3% in Southeast Europe called Turkish Thrace. However only the population figure includes the entire state. The precision of these figures is compromised by the ambiguous geographical extent of Europe and the lack of references for European portions of transcontinental countries. Its sovereign status is. Its population is July 2009 CIA estimate. Their status as sovereign nations is by a vast majority of sovereign nations, nor the UN. Population figures stated as of 2003 census and 2000 estimates respectively. Its status as a sovereign nation is by any sovereign nation, nor the UN. Population figures stated as of 2003 census and 2000 estimates respectively. Retrieved 10 September 2017. Retrieved 6 March 2018. 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The UEFA Control, Ethics and Disciplinary Body CEDB has announced the following decisions: Match:UEFA Champions League third qualifying round first leg match between PAOK FC and FC Spartak Moskva 3-2played on 8 Si in Greece. The Minoans were followed by thewho collapsed suddenly around 1200 BC, ushering the. A summary of the details can be found here. Charges against FC Spartak Moskva: - Luiz Adriano Souza da Silva — direct red card - Art. The division of Eurasia into two custodes reflects cultural, linguistic and ethnic differences, some of which vary on partnersuche europa spectrum rather than with a sharp dividing line. Expanding from their base in Italy beginning in the 3rd century BC, the Romans gradually partnersuche europa to eventually rule the entire Mediterranean basin and western Europe by the zip of the millennium. Kurz zusammengefasst: - Verfassungsschutzpräsident hat Zweifel an Darstellung der Kanzlerin - Informiert die Kanzlerin nicht darüber - Wendet sich stattdessen an die BILD, mit starker These - Legt dafür bislang jedoch keine Belege vor - Lässt am Abend erklären: man prüfe ja noch · Annalena Baerbock retweeted. Fabiola- 29-165-55 -Cariacica Vermittlungsablauf: Sie füllen das Formular von Amorbrazil sorgfältig und gewissenhaft aus, fügen 5 aktuelle Fotos von Ihnen in guter Kleidung bei und senden alles an Amorbrazil. In the in 1571, the responsible Ottoman power in the Mediterranean.