Europe

Europe is a continent^[t] located entirely in the Northern Hemisphere and mostly in the Eastern Hemisphere. It is bordered by the Arctic Ocean to the north, the Atlantic Ocean to the west, the Mediterranean Sea to the south, and Asia to the east. Europe shares the landmass of Eurasia with Asia, and of Afro-Eurasia with both Africa and Asia.^[9][10] Europe is commonly considered to be separated from Asia by the watershed of the Ural Mountains, the Ural River, the Caspian Sea, the Greater Caucasus, the Black Sea, and the Turkish straits.^[11]

Europe covers approximately 10,186,000 square kilometres (3,933,000 sq mi), or 2% of Earth's surface (6.8% of Earth's land area), making it the second-smallest continent (using the seven-continent model). 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. Europe had a total population of about 745 million (about 10% of the world population) in 2021; the third-largest after Asia and Africa.^[1][2] The European climate is affected by warm Atlantic currents, such as the Gulf Stream, which produce a temperate climate, tempering winters and summers, on much of the continent. Further from the sea, seasonal differences are more noticeable producing more continental climates.

The culture of Europe consists of a range of national and regional cultures, which form the central roots of the wider Western civilisation, and together commonly reference ancient Greece and ancient Rome, particularly through their Christian successors, as crucial and shared roots.^[12][13] Beginning with the fall of the Western Roman Empire in 476 CE, Christian consolidation of Europe in the wake of the Migration Period marked the European post-classicalMiddle Ages. The Italian Renaissance spread across many Western European countries, adapting to local contexts and giving rise to distinct national expressions. The renewed humanist emphasis on art and science was among the several factors that contributed to the broader transition to the modern era. Since the Age of Discovery, led by Spain and Portugal, Europe played a predominant role in global affairs with multiple explorations and conquests around the world. Between the 16th and 20th centuries, European powers colonised at various times the Americas, almost all of Africa and Oceania, and the majority of Asia.

The Age of Enlightenment, the 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 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. Both world wars began and were fought to a great extent 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 and competed over ideological dominance and international influence in Europe and globally.^[14] The resulting Cold War divided Europe along the Iron Curtain, with NATO in the West and the Warsaw Pact in the East. This divide ended with the Revolutions of 1989, the fall of the Berlin Wall, and the dissolution of the Soviet Union, which allowed European integration to advance significantly.

Die europäische Integration wurde seit 1948 mit der Gründung des Europarats und maßgeblich durch die Verwirklichung der Europäischen Union (EU), die heute den Großteil Europas repräsentiert, institutionell vorangetrieben. ^{[ 15 ]} Die Europäische Union ist ein supranationales politisches Gebilde , das zwischen Konföderation und Föderation angesiedelt ist und auf einem System europäischer Verträge basiert . ^{[ 16 ]} Die EU entstand in Westeuropa, dehnt sich aber seit dem Zerfall der Sowjetunion 1991 nach Osten aus. Die meisten ihrer Mitglieder haben den Euro als gemeinsame Währung eingeführt und nehmen am europäischen Binnenmarkt und der Zollunion teil . Ein großer Staatenverbund, der Schengen-Raum , hat zudem die Kontrollen an den Binnengrenzen und die Einwanderung abgeschafft. In der EU finden alle fünf Jahre reguläre Wahlen statt; sie gelten nach den Wahlen in Indien als die zweitgrößten demokratischen Wahlen der Welt . Die EU-Wirtschaft ist gemessen am nominalen BIP die zweitgrößte und gemessen am kaufkraftbereinigten BIP die drittgrößte der Welt .

In classical Greek mythology, Europa (Ancient Greek: Εὐρώπη, Eurṓpē) was a Phoenician princess. One view is that her name derives from the Ancient Greek elements εὐρύς (eurús) 'wide, broad', and ὤψ (ōps, gen.ὠπός, ōpós) 'eye, face, countenance', hence their composite Eurṓpē would mean 'wide-gazing' or 'broad of aspect'.^{[17][18][19][20]}Broad has been an epithet of Earth herself in the reconstructed Proto-Indo-European religion and the poetry devoted to it.^[17] An alternative view is that of Robert Beekes, who has argued in favour of a pre-Indo-European origin for the name, explaining that a derivation from eurus would yield a different toponym than Europa. Beekes has located toponyms related to that of Europa in the territory of ancient Greece, and localities such as that of Europos in ancient Macedonia.^[21]

There have been attempts to connect Eurṓpē to a Semitic term for west, this being either Akkadianerebu meaning 'to go down, set' (said of the sun) or Phoenician'ereb 'evening, west',^[20] which is at the origin of Arabicmaghreb and Hebrewma'arav. 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.^[21]

Most major world languages use words derived from Eurṓpē or Europa to refer to the continent. Chinese, for example, uses the word Ōuzhōu (歐洲/欧洲), which is an abbreviation of the transliterated name Ōuluóbā zhōu (歐羅巴洲) (zhōu means "continent"); a similar Chinese-derived term Ōshū (欧州) is also sometimes used in Japanese such as in the Japanese name of the European Union, Ōshū Rengō (欧州連合), despite the katakanaYōroppa (ヨーロッパ) being more commonly used. In some Turkic languages, the originally Persian name Frangistan ("land of the Franks") is used casually in referring to much of Europe, besides official names such as Avrupa or Evropa.^[23]

Clickable map of Europe, showing one of the most commonly used continental boundaries^[u]Key:blue: states which straddle the border between Europe and Asia; green: countries not geographically in Europe, but closely associated with the continent

Alb.

Andorra

Austria

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Belarus

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Bosnia

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Croatia

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Denmark

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Lithuania

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Poland

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Romania

Russia

Franz Josef Land (Rus)

Serbia

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Turkey

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Strait of Gibraltar

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 east and north-east are usually taken to be the Ural Mountains, the Ural River, and the Caspian Sea; to the south-east, the Caucasus Mountains, the Black Sea, and the waterways connecting the Black Sea to the Mediterranean Sea.^[24]

Islands are generally grouped with the nearest continental landmass, hence Iceland is considered to be part of Europe, while the nearby island of Greenland is usually assigned to North America, although politically belonging to Denmark. Nevertheless, there are some exceptions based on sociopolitical and cultural differences. Cyprus is closest to Anatolia (or Asia Minor), but is considered part of Europe politically^[25] and it is a member state of the EU. Malta was considered an island of North-western Africa for centuries, but now it is considered to be part of Europe as well.^[26] "Europe", as used specifically in British English, may also refer to Continental Europe exclusively.^[27]

The term "continent" usually implies the physical geography of a large land mass completely or almost completely surrounded by water at its borders. 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. Cartographer Herman Moll suggested in 1715 that Europe was bounded by a series of partly joined waterways directed towards the Turkish straits, and the Irtysh River draining into the upper part of the Ob River and the Arctic Ocean. In contrast, the present eastern boundary of Europe partially adheres to the Ural and Caucasus Mountains, which is somewhat arbitrary and inconsistent compared to any clear-cut definition of the term "continent".

The current division of Eurasia into two continents now reflects East-West cultural, linguistic and ethnic differences which vary on a spectrum rather than with a sharp dividing line. The geographic border between Europe and Asia does not follow any state boundaries and now only follows a few bodies of water. Turkey is generally considered a transcontinental country divided entirely by water, while Russia and Kazakhstan are only partly divided by waterways. France, the Netherlands, Portugal and Spain are also transcontinental (or more properly, intercontinental, when oceans or large seas are involved) in that their main land areas are in Europe while pockets of their territories are located on other continents separated from Europe by large bodies of water. Spain, for example, has territories (Ceuta and Melilla) south of the Mediterranean Sea which are parts of Africa and share a border with Morocco. According to the current convention, Georgia and Azerbaijan are transcontinental countries where waterways have been completely replaced by mountains as the divide between continents.

The first recorded usage of Eurṓpē as a geographic term is in the Homeric Hymn to Delian Apollo, in reference to the western shore of the Aegean Sea. As a name for a part of the known world, it is first used in the 6th century BCE by Anaximander and Hecataeus. Anaximander placed the boundary between Asia and Europe along the Phasis River (the modern Rioni River on the territory of Georgia) in the Caucasus, a convention still followed by Herodotus in the 5th century BCE.^[28] Herodotus mentioned that the world had been divided by unknown persons into three parts—Europe, Asia, and Libya (Africa)—with the Nile and the Phasis forming their boundaries—though he also states that some considered the River Don, rather than the Phasis, as the boundary between Europe and Asia.^[29] Europe's eastern frontier was defined in the 1st century by geographer Strabo at the River Don.^[30] The Book of Jubilees described the continents as the lands given by Noah to his three sons; Europe was defined as stretching from the Pillars of Hercules at the Strait of Gibraltar, separating it from Northwest Africa, to the Don, separating it from Asia.^[31]

The convention received by the Middle Ages and surviving into modern usage is that of the Roman era used by Roman-era authors such as Posidonius,^[32]Strabo,^[33] and Ptolemy,^[34] who took the Tanais (the modern Don River) as the boundary.

The Roman Empire did not attach a strong identity to the concept of continental divisions. However, following the fall of the Western Roman Empire, the culture that developed in its place, linked to Latin and the Catholic church, began to associate itself with the concept of "Europe".^[35] The term "Europe" is first used for a cultural sphere in the Carolingian Renaissance of the 9th century. From that time, the term designated the sphere of influence of the Western Church, as opposed to both the Eastern Orthodox churches and to the Islamic world.

Im 8. Jahrhundert kristallisierte sich eine kulturelle Definition Europas als der Gebiete des lateinischen Christentums heraus. Sie bezeichnete das neue kulturelle Kondominium, das durch das Zusammenfließen germanischer Traditionen und christlich-lateinischer Kultur entstand und sich teilweise in Abgrenzung zu Byzanz und dem Islam definierte . Europa umfasste zunächst die nördliche Iberische Halbinsel , die Britischen Inseln, Frankreich, das christianisierte Westdeutschland, die Alpenregionen sowie Nord- und Mittelitalien. ^{[ 36 ] [ 37 ]} Dieses Konzept zählt zu den bleibenden Vermächtnissen der karolingischen Renaissance : Europa taucht häufig in den Briefen von Alkuin , dem Hofgelehrten Karls des Großen, auf . ^{[ 38 ]} Der Wandel Europas von einem geografischen zu einem kulturellen Begriff führte dazu, dass die Grenzen Europas von kulturellen Überlegungen im Osten beeinflusst wurden, insbesondere in Bezug auf Gebiete unter byzantinischem, osmanischem und russischem Einfluss. Diese Fragen waren von den positiven Konnotationen geprägt, die der Begriff Europa verband. Solche kulturellen Überlegungen wurden trotz der Eroberung und Besiedlung Amerikas durch europäische Staaten nicht angewendet. Stattdessen entstand der Begriff der „westlichen Zivilisation“ als Mittel, Europa und diese Kolonien zusammenzufassen. ^{[ 39 ]}

Die Frage nach der genauen Festlegung der Ostgrenze Europas stellte sich in der Frühen Neuzeit, als die östliche Ausdehnung Moskaus begann, Nordasien mit einzuschließen . Im gesamten Mittelalter und bis ins 18. Jahrhundert folgte die traditionelle Aufteilung Eurasiens in die beiden Kontinente Europa und Asien der ptolemäischen Auffassung, wobei die Grenze den türkischen Meerengen , dem Schwarzen Meer , der Straße von Kertsch , dem Asowschen Meer und dem Don (dem antiken Tanais ) folgte. Karten des 16. bis 18. Jahrhunderts unterschieden sich jedoch häufig darin, wie die Grenze jenseits der Donschleife bei Kalatsch-na-Donu (wo der Don der Wolga, die heute durch den Wolga-Don-Kanal mit ihr verbunden ist, am nächsten liegt ) in ein Gebiet zu führen war, das von den antiken Geographen nicht detailliert beschrieben worden war.

Around 1715, Herman Moll produced a map showing the northern part of the Ob River and the Irtysh River, a major tributary of the Ob, as components of a series of partly joined waterways taking the boundary between Europe and Asia from the Turkish Straits, and the Don River all the way to the Arctic Ocean. In 1721, he produced a more up to date map that was easier to read. However, his proposal to adhere to major rivers as the line of demarcation was never taken up by other geographers who were beginning to move away from the idea of water boundaries as the only legitimate divides between Europe and Asia.

Four years later, in 1725, Philip Johan von Strahlenberg was the first to depart from the classical Don boundary. He drew a new line along the Volga, following the Volga north until the Samara Bend, along Obshchy Syrt (the drainage divide between the Volga and Ural Rivers), then north and east along the latter waterway to its source in the Ural Mountains. At this point he proposed that mountain ranges could be included as boundaries between continents as alternatives to nearby waterways. Accordingly, he drew the new boundary north along the Ural Mountains rather than the nearby and parallel running Ob and Irtysh rivers.^[40] This was endorsed by the Russian Empire and introduced the convention that would eventually become commonly accepted. However, this did not come without criticism. Voltaire, writing in 1760 about Peter the Great's efforts to make Russia more European, ignored the whole boundary question with his claim that neither Russia, Scandinavia, northern Germany, nor Poland were fully part of Europe.^[35] Since then, many modern analytical geographers like Halford Mackinder have declared that they see little validity in the Ural Mountains as a boundary between continents.^[41]

The mapmakers continued to differ on the boundary between the lower Don and Samara well into the 19th century. The 1745 atlas published by the Russian Academy of Sciences has the boundary follow the Don beyond Kalach as far as Serafimovich before cutting north towards Arkhangelsk, while other 18th- to 19th-century mapmakers such as John Cary followed Strahlenberg's prescription. To the south, the Kuma–Manych Depression was identified c. 1773 by a German naturalist, Peter Simon Pallas, as a valley that once connected the Black Sea and the Caspian Sea,^[42][43] 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 Volga–Don Canal 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 Greater Caucasus watershed to the Caspian. The question was still treated as a "controversy" in geographical literature of the 1860s, with Douglas Freshfield advocating the Caucasus crest boundary as the "best possible", citing support from various "modern geographers".^[44]

In Russia and the Soviet Union, the boundary along the Kuma–Manych Depression was the most commonly used as early as 1906.^[45] 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,^[46] thus placing the Caucasus entirely in Asia and the Urals entirely in Europe.^[47] The Flora Europaea adopted a boundary along the Terek and Kuban rivers, so southwards from the Kuma and the Manych, but still with the Caucasus entirely in Asia.^[48][49] However, most geographers in the Soviet Union favoured the boundary along the Caucasus crest,^[50] and this became the common convention in the later 20th century, although the Kuma–Manych boundary remained in use in some 20th-century maps.

Martin W. Lewis and Kären Wigen argue that the separation of Eurasia into Asia and Europe of vastly uneven sizes produces a false impression of parity between European and Asian countries, as a residue of Eurocentrism: "In physical, cultural and historical diversity, China and India are comparable to the entire European landmass, not to a single European country."^[51]

During the 2.5 million years of the Pleistocene, numerous cold phases called glacials (Quaternary ice age), or significant advances of continental ice sheets, in Europe and North America, occurred at intervals of approximately 40,000 to 100,000 years. The long glacial periods were separated by more temperate and shorter interglacials which lasted about 10,000–15,000 years. The last cold episode of the last glacial period ended about 10,000 years ago.^[53] Earth is currently in an interglacial period of the Quaternary, called the Holocene.^[54]

Homo erectus georgicus, which lived roughly 1.8 million years ago in Georgia, is the earliest hominin to have been discovered in Europe.^[55]Other hominin remains, dating back roughly 1 million years, have been discovered in Atapuerca, Spain.^[56]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^[57]) and disappeared from the fossil record about 40,000 years ago,^[58] with their final refuge being the Iberian Peninsula. The Neanderthals were supplanted by modern humans (Cro-Magnons), who seem to have appeared in Europe around 43,000 to 40,000 years ago.^[59] However, there is also evidence that Homo sapiens arrived in Europe around 54,000 years ago, some 10,000 years earlier than previously thought.^[60] The earliest sites in Europe dated 48,000 years ago are Riparo Mochi (Italy), Geissenklösterle (Germany) and Isturitz (France).^[61][62]

Das europäische Neolithikum – gekennzeichnet durch Ackerbau, Viehzucht, eine Zunahme von Siedlungen und die weitverbreitete Verwendung von Keramik – begann um 7000 v. Chr. in Griechenland und auf dem Balkan , vermutlich beeinflusst von früheren landwirtschaftlichen Praktiken in Anatolien und dem Nahen Osten . ^{[ 63 ]} Es breitete sich vom Balkan entlang der Donau- und Rheintäler ( Linearkeramik ) und entlang der Mittelmeerküste ( Cardialkultur ) aus. Zwischen 4500 und 3000 v. Chr. entwickelten sich diese mitteleuropäischen neolithischen Kulturen weiter nach Westen und Norden und gaben neu erworbene Fertigkeiten in der Kupferverarbeitung weiter. In Westeuropa war das Neolithikum nicht durch große landwirtschaftliche Siedlungen, sondern durch Feldmonumente wie Wallanlagen , Grabhügel und Megalithgräber geprägt . ^{[ 64 ]} Die Schnurkeramik erlebte ihre Blütezeit am Übergang vom Neolithikum zum Chalkolithikum . In dieser Zeit wurden in ganz West- und Südeuropa gigantische Megalithbauten errichtet , wie beispielsweise die Megalithtempel von Malta und Stonehenge . ^{[ 65 ] [ 66 ]}

Die heutigen indigenen Bevölkerungen Europas stammen größtenteils von drei verschiedenen Abstammungslinien ab: ^{[ 67 ]} Mesolithische Jäger und Sammler , Nachkommen der paläolithischen Epigravettien -Kultur; ^{[ 52 ]} frühe europäische Bauern des Neolithikums , die vor 9.000 Jahren während der Neolithischen Revolution aus Anatolien einwanderten; ^{[ 68 ]} und Hirten der Jamnaja- Steppe, die im Zuge der indogermanischen Wanderungen vor 5.000 Jahren aus der pontisch-kaspischen Steppe der Ukraine und Südrusslands nach Europa kamen . ^{[ 67 ] [ 69 ]} Die europäische Bronzezeit begann um 3200 v. Chr. in Griechenland mit der minoischen Kultur auf Kreta , der ersten Hochkultur Europas. ^{[ 70 ]} Auf die Minoer folgten die Mykener , deren Kultur um 1200 v. Chr. plötzlich unterging und damit die europäische Eisenzeit einleitete . ^{[ 71 ]} Die Kolonisation durch die Griechen und Phönizier in der Eisenzeit führte zur Entstehung früher Mittelmeerstädte . Das frühe Italien und Griechenland der Eisenzeit ab etwa dem 8. Jahrhundert v. Chr. bildete die Grundlage für die historische klassische Antike, deren Beginn manchmal auf 776 v. Chr., das Jahr der ersten Olympischen Spiele , datiert wird . ^{[ 72 ]}

Ancient Greece was the founding culture of Western civilisation. Western democratic and rationalist culture are often attributed to Ancient Greece.^[73] The Greek city-state, the polis, was the fundamental political unit of classical Greece.^[73] In 508 BCE, Cleisthenes instituted the world's first democratic system of government in Athens.^[74] The Greek political ideals were rediscovered in the late 18th century by European philosophers and idealists. Greece also generated many cultural contributions: in philosophy, humanism and rationalism under Aristotle, Socrates and Plato; in history with Herodotus and Thucydides; in dramatic and narrative verse, starting with the epic poems of Homer;^[75] in drama with Sophocles and Euripides; in medicine with Hippocrates and Galen; and in science with Pythagoras, Euclid, and Archimedes.^[76][77][78] In the course of the 5th century BCE, several of the Greek city states would ultimately check the Achaemenid Persian advance in Europe through the Greco-Persian Wars, considered a pivotal moment in world history,^[79] as the 50 years of peace that followed are known as Golden Age of Athens, the seminal period of ancient Greece that laid many of the foundations of Western civilisation.

Greece was followed by Rome, which left its mark on law, politics, language, engineering, architecture, government, and many more key aspects in western civilisation.^[73] By 200 BCE, Rome had conquered Italy and over the following two centuries it conquered Greece, Hispania (Spain and Portugal), the North African coast, much of the Middle East, Gaul (France and Belgium), and Britannia (England and Wales).

Expanding from their base in central Italy beginning in the third century BCE, the Romans gradually expanded to eventually rule the entire Mediterranean basin and Western Europe by the turn of the millennium. The Roman Republic ended in 27 BCE, when Augustus proclaimed the Roman Empire. The two centuries that followed are known as the pax romana, a period of unprecedented peace, prosperity and political stability in most of Europe.^[80] 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.^[81][82]Christianity was legalised by Constantine I in 313 CE after three centuries of imperial persecution. Constantine also permanently moved the capital of the empire from Rome to the city of Byzantium (modern-day Istanbul) which was renamed Constantinople in his honour in 330 CE. Christianity became the sole official religion of the empire in 380 CE, and in 391–392 CE the emperor Theodosius outlawed pagan religions.^[83] This is sometimes considered to mark the end of antiquity; alternatively antiquity is considered to end with the fall of the Western Roman Empire in 476 CE; the closure of the pagan Platonic Academy of Athens in 529 CE;^[84] or the rise of Islam in the early 7th century CE. During most of its existence, the Byzantine Empire was one of the most powerful economic, cultural, and military forces in Europe.^[85]

Europe c. 650

Charlemagne's empire in 814:      Francia,      Tributaries

During the decline of the Roman Empire, Europe entered a long period of change arising from what historians call the "Age of Migrations". There were numerous invasions and migrations amongst the Ostrogoths, Visigoths, Goths, Vandals, Huns, Franks, Angles, Saxons, Slavs, Avars, Bulgars, Vikings, Pechenegs, Cumans, and Magyars.^[80]Renaissance thinkers such as Petrarch would later refer to this as the "Dark Ages".^[86]

Isolated monastic communities were the only places to safeguard and compile written knowledge accumulated previously; apart from this, very few written records survive. 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.^[87]

While the Roman empire in the west continued to decline, Roman traditions and the Roman state remained strong in the predominantly Greek-speaking Eastern Roman Empire, also known as the Byzantine Empire. During most of its existence, the Byzantine Empire was the most powerful economic, cultural, and military force in Europe. 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.^[88]

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. In the mid-7th century, following the Muslim conquest of Persia, Islam penetrated into the Caucasus region.^[89] Over the next centuries Muslim forces took Cyprus, Malta, Crete, Sicily, and parts of southern Italy.^[90] Between 711 and 720, most of the lands of the Visigothic Kingdom of Iberia were brought under Muslim rule—save for small areas in the northwest (Asturias) and largely Basque regions in the Pyrenees. This territory, under the Arabic name Al-Andalus, became part of the expanding Umayyad Caliphate. The unsuccessful second siege of Constantinople (717) weakened the Umayyad dynasty and reduced their prestige. The Umayyads were then defeated by the Frankish leader Charles Martel at the Battle of Poitiers in 732, which ended their northward advance. In the remote regions of north-western Iberia and the middle Pyrenees the power of the Muslims in the south was scarcely felt. It was here that the foundations of the Christian kingdoms of Asturias, Leon, and Galicia were laid and from where the reconquest of the Iberian Peninsula would start. However, no coordinated attempt would be made to drive the Moors out. The Christian kingdoms were mainly focused on their own internal power struggles. As a result, the Reconquista took the greater part of eight hundred years, in which period a long list of Alfonsos, Sanchos, Ordoños, Ramiros, Fernandos, and Bermudos would be fighting their Christian rivals as much as the Muslim invaders.

Im Frühmittelalter geriet das Weströmische Reich unter die Herrschaft verschiedener Stämme. Germanische und slawische Stämme etablierten ihre Herrschaftsgebiete in West- bzw. Osteuropa. ^{[ 91 ]} Schließlich wurden die fränkischen Stämme unter Chlodwig I. vereint . ^{[ 92 ]} Karl der Große , ein fränkischer König aus dem Geschlecht der Karolinger , der den größten Teil Westeuropas erobert hatte, wurde im Jahr 800 vom Papst zum Kaiser des Heiligen Römischen Reiches ernannt . Dies führte 962 zur Gründung des Heiligen Römischen Reiches , dessen Zentrum schließlich in den germanischen Fürstentümern Mitteleuropas lag. ^{[ 93 ]}

In Ostmitteleuropa entstanden um 1000 n. Chr. die ersten slawischen Staaten und das Christentum . Der mächtige westslawische Staat Großmähren dehnte sein Territorium bis zum Balkan aus und erreichte unter Swatopluk I. seine größte Ausdehnung , was zu einer Reihe bewaffneter Konflikte mit dem Ostfrankenreich führte . Weiter südlich entstanden im späten 7. und 8. Jahrhundert die ersten südslawischen Staaten , die ebenfalls das Christentum annahmen: das Erste Bulgarische Reich , das Serbische Fürstentum (später Königreich und Kaiserreich ) und das Herzogtum Kroatien (später Königreich Kroatien ). Im Osten expandierte die Kiewer Rus von ihrer Hauptstadt Kiew aus und wurde im 10. Jahrhundert zum größten Staat Europas. 988 erhob Wladimir der Große die Orthodoxie zur Staatsreligion. ^{[ 94 ] [ 95 ]} Weiter östlich wurde Wolgabulgarien im 10. Jahrhundert ein islamischer Staat, der jedoch einige Jahrhunderte später in Russland eingegliedert wurde. ^{[ 96 ]}

The period between the year 1000 and 1250 is known as the High Middle Ages, followed by the Late Middle Ages until c. 1500.

During the High Middle Ages the population of Europe experienced significant growth, culminating in the Renaissance of the 12th century. 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 Mediterranean and Baltic Seas. The growing wealth and independence acquired by some coastal cities gave the Maritime Republics a leading role in the European scene.

The Middle Ages on the mainland were dominated by the two upper echelons of the social structure: the nobility and the clergy. Feudalism developed in France in the Early Middle Ages, and soon spread throughout Europe.^[99] A struggle for influence between the nobility and the monarchy in England led to the writing of Magna Carta and the establishment of a parliament.^[100] The primary source of culture in this period came from the Roman Catholic Church. Through monasteries and cathedral schools, the Church was responsible for education in much of Europe.^[99]

The Papacy reached the height of its power during the High Middle Ages. An East-West Schism in 1054 split the former Roman Empire religiously, with the Eastern Orthodox Church in the Byzantine Empire and the Roman Catholic Church in the former Western Roman Empire. In 1095 Pope Urban II called for a crusade against Muslims occupying Jerusalem and the Holy Land.^[101] In Europe itself, the Church organised the Inquisition against heretics. In the Iberian Peninsula, the Reconquista concluded with the fall of Granada in 1492, ending over seven centuries of Islamic rule in the south-western peninsula.^[102]

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.^[103] The Empire was weakened following the defeat at Manzikert, and was weakened considerably by the sack of Constantinople in 1204, during the Fourth Crusade.^{[104][105][106][107][108][109][110][111][112]} Although it would recover Constantinople in 1261, Byzantiumfell in 1453 when Constantinople was taken by the Ottoman Empire.^{[113][114][115]}

In the 11th and 12th centuries, constant incursions by nomadic Turkic tribes, such as the Pechenegs and the Cuman-Kipchaks, caused a massive migration of Slavic populations to the safer, heavily forested regions of the north, and temporarily halted the expansion of Kievan Rus' to the south and east.^[116] The Mongols invaded Europe in the mid-13th century, and together with their mostly Turkic subjects, became known as Tatars.^[117] These Tatars ruled the Russian principalities through vassalage for the next 200 years.^[118][119] After the collapse of Mongol dominions, the first Romanian states (principalities) emerged in the 14th century: Moldavia and Walachia. Previously, these territories were under the successive control of Pechenegs and Cumans.^[120] The Grand Principality of Moscow became the dominant Russian principality, forming in the process a centralized, autocratic Russian state by the late 15th century.^[121][122] The Great Stand on the Ugra River in 1480 traditionally marks the end of the "Tatar yoke" over Russia.^[122]

The Great Famine of 1315–1317 was the first crisis that would strike Europe in the late Middle Ages.^[123] The period between 1348 and 1420 witnessed the heaviest loss. The population of France was reduced by half.^[124][125] Medieval Britain was afflicted by 95 famines,^[126] and France suffered the effects of 75 or more in the same period.^[127] Europe was devastated in the mid-14th century by the Black Death, one of the most deadly pandemics in human history which killed an estimated 25 million people in Europe alone—a third of the European population at the time.^[128]

The plague had a devastating effect on Europe's social structure; it induced people to live for the moment as illustrated by Giovanni Boccaccio in The Decameron (1353). It was a serious blow to the Roman Catholic Church and led to increased persecution of Jews, beggars and lepers.^[129] The plague is thought to have returned every generation with varying virulence and mortalities until the 18th century.^[130] During this period, more than 100 plague epidemics swept across Europe.^[131]

The Renaissance was a period of cultural change originating in Florence, and later spreading to the rest of Europe. 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.^{[132][133][134]} The Renaissance spread across Europe between the 14th and 16th centuries: it saw the flowering of art, philosophy, music, and the sciences, under the joint patronage of royalty, the nobility, the Catholic Church and an emerging merchant class.^{[135][136][137]} Patrons in Italy, including the Medici family of Florentine bankers and the popes in Rome, funded prolific quattrocento and cinquecento artists such as Raphael, Michelangelo and Leonardo da Vinci.^[138][139]

Political intrigue within the Church in the mid-14th century caused the Western Schism. During this 40-year period, two popes—one in Avignon 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.^[140] In the 15th century, Europe started to extend itself beyond its geographic frontiers. Spain and Portugal, the greatest naval powers of the time, took the lead in exploring the world.^[141][142] Exploration reached the Southern Hemisphere in the Atlantic and the southern tip of Africa. Christopher Columbus reached the New World in 1492, and Vasco da Gama opened the ocean route to the East, linking the Atlantic and Indian Oceans in 1498. The Portuguese-born explorer Ferdinand Magellan reached Asia westward across the Atlantic and the Pacific Oceans in a Spanish expedition, resulting in the first circumnavigation of the globe, completed by the Spaniard Juan Sebastián Elcano (1519–1522). Soon after, the Spanish and Portuguese began establishing large global empires in the Americas, Asia, Africa and Oceania.^[143] France, the Netherlands and England soon followed in building large colonial empires with vast holdings in Africa, the Americas and Asia. In 1588, the Spanish Armada failed to invade England. A year later, England tried unsuccessfully to invade Spain, allowing Philip II of Spain to maintain his dominant war capacity in Europe. This English disaster also allowed the Spanish fleet to retain its capability to wage war for the next decades. However, two more Spanish armadas failed to invade England (2nd Spanish Armada and 3rd Spanish Armada).^{[144][145][146][147]}

The Church's power was further weakened by the Reformation, which began in 1517 when German theologian Martin Luther nailed his Ninety-five Theses criticising the selling of indulgences to the church door. He was subsequently excommunicated in the papal bull Exsurge Domine in 1520 and his followers were condemned in the 1521 Diet of Worms, which divided German princes between Protestant and Catholic faiths.^[149]Religious fighting and warfare spread with Protestantism.^[150] The plunder of the empires of the Americas allowed Spain to finance religious persecution in Europe for over a century.^[151] The Thirty Years' War (1618–1648) crippled the Holy Roman Empire and devastated much of Germany, killing between 25 and 40 percent of its population.^[152] In the aftermath of the Peace of Westphalia, France rose to predominance within Europe.^[153] The defeat of the Ottoman Turks at the Battle of Vienna in 1683 marked the historic end of Ottoman expansion into Europe.^[154]

In much of Central and Eastern Europe, the 17th century was a period of general decline;^[155] the region experienced more than 150 famines in a 200-year period between 1501 and 1700.^[156] From the Union of Krewo (1385) east-central Europe was dominated by the Kingdom of Poland and the Grand Duchy of Lithuania. The hegemony of the vast Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth had ended with the devastation brought by the Northern War of 1655–1660 (Deluge) and subsequent conflicts;^[157] the state itself was partitioned and ceased to exist at the end of the 18th century.^[158]

Vom 15. bis zum 18. Jahrhundert, als die zerfallenden Khanate der Goldenen Horde von Russland erobert wurden , überfielen Tataren aus dem Krimkhanat häufig Osteuropa, um Sklaven zu erbeuten . ^{[ 159 ]} Weiter östlich überfielen die Nogai-Horde und das Kasachische Khanat über Jahrhunderte hinweg immer wieder die slawischsprachigen Gebiete des heutigen Russlands und der Ukraine, bis zur russischen Expansion und Eroberung des größten Teils Nordeurasiens (d. h. Osteuropa, Zentralasien und Sibirien).

Die Renaissance und die neuen Monarchien markierten den Beginn des Zeitalters der Entdeckungen, einer Periode der Erforschung, Erfindung und wissenschaftlichen Entwicklung. ^{[ 160 ]} Zu den bedeutenden Persönlichkeiten der wissenschaftlichen Revolution im 16. und 17. Jahrhundert zählten Kopernikus , Kepler , Galilei und Isaac Newton . ^{[ 161 ]} Peter Barrett zufolge gilt es als allgemein anerkannt, dass die „moderne Wissenschaft“ im Europa des 17. Jahrhunderts (gegen Ende der Renaissance) entstand und ein neues Verständnis der Natur einführte. ^{[ 132 ]}

Der Siebenjährige Krieg beendete das „alte System“ der Bündnisse in Europa . Als sich der Amerikanische Unabhängigkeitskrieg zwischen 1778 und 1783 zu einem globalen Krieg ausweitete, sah sich Großbritannien folglich einer starken Koalition europäischer Mächte gegenüber und hatte keinen bedeutenden Verbündeten. ^{[ 162 ]}

The Age of Enlightenment was a powerful intellectual movement during the 18th century promoting scientific and reason-based thoughts.^{[163][164][165]} Discontent with the aristocracy and clergy's monopoly on political power in France resulted in the French Revolution, and the establishment of the First Republic as a result of which the monarchy and many of the nobility perished during the initial reign of terror.^[166]Napoleon Bonaparte rose to power in the aftermath of the French Revolution, and established the First French Empire that, during the Napoleonic Wars, grew to encompass large parts of Europe before collapsing in 1815 with the Battle of Waterloo.^[167][168]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.^{[169][170][171]} The Congress of Vienna, convened after Napoleon's downfall, established a new balance of power in Europe centred on the five "great powers": the UK, France, Prussia, Austria, and Russia.^[172] This balance would remain in place until the Revolutions of 1848, during which liberal uprisings affected all of Europe except for Russia and the UK. These revolutions were eventually put down by conservative elements and few reforms resulted.^[173] The year 1859 saw the unification of Romania, as a nation state, from smaller principalities. In 1867, the Austro-Hungarian empire was formed; 1871 saw the unifications of both Italy and Germany as nation-states from smaller principalities.^[174]

In parallel, the Eastern Question grew more complex ever since the Ottoman defeat in the Russo-Turkish War (1768–1774). As the dissolution of the Ottoman Empire seemed imminent, the Great Powers struggled to safeguard their strategic and commercial interests in the Ottoman domains. The Russian Empire stood to benefit from the decline, whereas the Habsburg Empire and Britain perceived the preservation of the Ottoman Empire to be in their best interests. 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.^[175] Formal recognition of the de facto independent principalities of Montenegro, Serbia and Romania ensued at the Congress of Berlin in 1878.

The Industrial Revolution began in Great Britain 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.^[176] Reforms in social and economic spheres followed, including the first laws on child labour, the legalisation of trade unions,^[177] and the abolition of slavery.^[178] In Britain, the Public Health Act 1875 was passed, which significantly improved living conditions in many British cities.^[179] Europe's population increased from about 100 million in 1700 to 400 million by 1900.^[180] The last major famine recorded in Western Europe, the Great Famine of Ireland, caused death and mass emigration of millions of Irish people.^[181] In the 19th century, 70 million people left Europe in migrations to various European colonies abroad and to the United States.^[182] The industrial revolution also led to large population growth, and the share of the world population living in Europe reached a peak of slightly above 25% around the year 1913.^[183][184]

Two world wars and an economic depression dominated the first half of the 20th century. The First World War was fought between 1914 and 1918. It started when Archduke Franz Ferdinand of Austria was assassinated by the Yugoslav nationalist^[185]Gavrilo Princip.^[186] 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 war left more than 16 million civilians and military dead.^[187] Over 60 million European soldiers were mobilised from 1914 to 1918.^[188]

Russia was plunged into the Russian Revolution, which threw down the Tsarist monarchy and replaced it with the communistSoviet Union,^[189] leading also to the independence of many former Russian governorates, such as Finland, Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania, as new European countries.^[190]Austria-Hungary and the Ottoman Empire collapsed and broke up into separate nations, and many other nations had their borders redrawn. The Treaty of Versailles, which officially ended the First World War in 1919, was harsh towards Germany, upon whom it placed full responsibility for the war and imposed heavy sanctions.^[191] Excess deaths in Russia over the course of the First World War and the Russian Civil War (including the postwar famine) amounted to a combined total of 18 million.^[192] In 1932–1933, under Stalin's leadership, confiscations of grain by the Soviet authorities contributed to the second Soviet famine which caused millions of deaths;^[193] surviving kulaks were persecuted and many sent to Gulags to do forced labour. Stalin was also responsible for the Great Purge of 1937–38 in which the NKVD executed 681,692 people;^[194] millions of people were deported and exiled to remote areas of the Soviet Union.^[195]

The social revolutions sweeping through Russia also affected other European nations following The Great War: in 1919, with the Weimar Republic in Germany and the First Austrian Republic; in 1922, with Mussolini's one-party fascist government in the Kingdom of Italy and in Atatürk's Turkish Republic, adopting the Western alphabet and state secularism. 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 Wall Street crash of 1929, brought about the worldwide Great Depression. Helped by the economic crisis, social instability and the threat of communism, fascist movements developed throughout Europe placing Adolf Hitler in power of what became Nazi Germany.^[201][202]

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 Saarland and Rhineland in 1935 and 1936. In 1938, Austria became a part of Germany following the Anschluss. Following the Munich Agreement signed by Germany, France, the United Kingdom, and Italy, later in 1938 Germany annexed the Sudetenland, which was a part of Czechoslovakia inhabited by ethnic Germans. In early 1939, the remainder of Czechoslovakia was split into the Protectorate of Bohemia and Moravia, controlled by Germany and the Slovak Republic. At the time, the United Kingdom and France preferred a policy of appeasement.

With tensions mounting between Germany and Poland over the future of Danzig, the Germans turned to the Soviets and signed the Molotov–Ribbentrop Pact, which allowed the Soviets to invade the Baltic states and parts of Poland and Romania. 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 the Second World War.^{[203][204][205]} The Soviet invasion of Poland started on 17 September and Poland fell soon thereafter. On 24 September, the Soviet Union attacked the Baltic countries and, on 30 November, Finland, the latter of which was followed by the devastating Winter War for the Red Army.^[206] The British hoped to land at Narvik 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. The Phoney War continued.

In May 1940, Germany attacked France through the Low Countries. France capitulated in June 1940. By August, Germany had begun a bombing offensive against the United Kingdom but failed to convince the Britons to give up.^[207] In 1941, Germany invaded the Soviet Union in Operation Barbarossa.^[208] 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.^[209][210]

After the staggering Battle of Stalingrad in 1943, the German offensive in the Soviet Union turned into a continual fallback. The Battle of Kursk, which involved the largest tank battle in history, was the last major German offensive on the Eastern Front. In June 1944, British and American forces invaded France in the D-Day landings, opening a new front against Germany. Berlin finally fell in 1945, ending the Second World War in Europe. The war was the largest and most destructive in human history, with 60 million dead across the world.^[211] More than 40 million people in Europe had died as a result of the Second World War,^[212] including between 11 and 17 million people who perished during the Holocaust.^[213] The Soviet Union lost around 27 million people (mostly civilians) during the war, about half of all Second World War casualties.^[214] By the end of the Second World War, Europe had more than 40 million refugees.^{[215][216][217]} Several post-war expulsions in Central and Eastern Europe displaced a total of about 20 million people.^[218]

The First World War, and especially the Second World War, diminished the eminence of Western Europe in world affairs. After the Second World War the map of Europe was redrawn at the Yalta Conference and divided into two blocs, the Western countries and the communist Eastern bloc, separated by what was later called by Winston Churchill an "Iron Curtain". The United States and Western Europe established the NATO alliance and, later, the Soviet Union and Central Europe established the Warsaw Pact.^[219] 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. 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.^{[220][221][222]}

The two new superpowers, the United States and the Soviet Union, became locked in a fifty-year-long Cold War, centred on nuclear proliferation. At the same time decolonisation, which had already started after the First World War, gradually resulted in the independence of most of the European colonies in Asia and Africa.^[14]

In the 1980s the reforms of Mikhail Gorbachev and the Solidarity movement in Poland weakened the previously rigid communist system. The opening of the Iron Curtain at the Pan-European Picnic then set in motion a peaceful chain reaction, at the end of which the Eastern bloc, the Warsaw Pact and other communist states collapsed, and the Cold War ended.^{[224][225][226]} Germany was reunited, after the symbolic fall of the Berlin Wall in 1989 and the maps of Central and Eastern Europe were redrawn once more.^[227] 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 centre of Europe.^{[201][228][229][230]}

European integration also grew after the Second World War. In 1949 the Council of Europe was founded, following a speech by Sir Winston Churchill, with the idea of unifying Europe^[15] to achieve common goals. It includes all European states except for Belarus, Russia,^[231] and Vatican City. The Treaty of Rome in 1957 established the European Economic Community between six Western European states with the goal of a unified economic policy and common market.^[232] In 1967 the EEC, European Coal and Steel Community, and Euratom formed the European Community, which in 1993 became the European Union. The EU established a parliament, a court and a central bank, and introduced the euro as a unified currency.^[233] Between 2004 and 2013, more Central European countries began joining, expanding the EU to 28 European countries and once more making Europe a major economical and political centre of power.^[234] However, the United Kingdom withdrew from the EU on 31 January 2020, as a result of a June 2016 referendum on EU membership.^[235] The Russo-Ukrainian War steeply escalated after the 2022 Russian invasion of Ukraine on 24 February 2022, marking the largest humanitarian and refugee crisis in Europe since the Second World War^[236] and the Yugoslav Wars.^[237]

Europe makes up the western fifth of the Eurasian landmass.^[24] It has a higher ratio of coast to landmass than any other continent or subcontinent.^[238] 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.^[239] 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 Alps, Pyrenees and Carpathians, through hilly uplands, into broad, low northern plains, which are vast in the east. This extended lowland is known as the Great European Plain and at its heart lies the North German Plain. 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.

This description is simplified. Subregions 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. Sub-regions like Iceland, Britain and Ireland are special cases. The former is a land unto itself in the northern ocean that 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.

The largest European lakes are located in the north of the continent. The Volga and Danube are the two longest rivers of Europe. Europe's largest waterfall (by flow rate) are the Rhine Falls on the Rhine.

Europa liegt größtenteils in der gemäßigten Klimazone der Nordhalbkugel, wo die vorherrschende Windrichtung aus Westen kommt . Das Klima ist im Vergleich zu anderen Gebieten auf demselben Breitengrad weltweit milder, bedingt durch den Einfluss des Golfstroms , einer Meeresströmung, die warmes Wasser aus dem Golf von Mexiko über den Atlantik nach Europa transportiert. ^{[ 240 ]} Der Golfstrom wird auch als „Europas Zentralheizung“ bezeichnet, da er das europäische Klima wärmer und feuchter macht, als es sonst wäre. Der Golfstrom transportiert nicht nur warmes Wasser an Europas Küste, sondern erwärmt auch die vorherrschenden Westwinde, die vom Atlantik über den Kontinent wehen.

Die durchschnittliche Jahrestemperatur in Aveiro beträgt daher 16 °C, während sie in New York City, das fast auf demselben Breitengrad liegt und an denselben Ozean grenzt, nur 13 °C beträgt. Berlin (Deutschland), Calgary (Kanada) und Irkutsk im äußersten Südosten Russlands liegen etwa auf demselben Breitengrad; die Januartemperaturen in Berlin sind durchschnittlich etwa 8 °C höher als in Calgary und fast 22 °C höher als die Durchschnittstemperaturen in Irkutsk. ^{[ 240 ]}

Die großen Wassermassen des Mittelmeers , die die Temperaturen im Jahres- und Tagesmittel ausgleichen, sind ebenfalls von besonderer Bedeutung. Das Mittelmeerwasser erstreckt sich von der Sahara bis zum Alpenbogen in seinem nördlichsten Teil der Adria bei Triest . ^{[ 241 ]}

Generell ist es in Europa nicht nur im Norden kälter als im Süden, sondern auch von Westen nach Osten. Das Klima ist im Westen stärker vom Ozean geprägt als im Osten. Dies lässt sich anhand der folgenden Tabelle mit den Durchschnittstemperaturen an Orten veranschaulichen, die ungefähr den Breitengraden 64, 60, 55, 50, 45 und 40 entsprechen . Keiner dieser Orte liegt in großer Höhe; die meisten befinden sich in Meeresnähe.

^[243] The average temperatures for the coldest month, as well as the annual average temperatures, drop from the west to the east. For instance, Edinburgh is warmer than Belgrade during the coldest month of the year, although Belgrade is around 10° of latitude farther south.

Climate change has resulted in an increase in temperature of 2.3 °C (4.14 °F) (2022) in Europe compared to pre-industrial levels. Europe is the fastest warming continent in the world.^[245]Europe's climate is getting warmer due to anthropogenic activity. According to international climate experts, global temperature rise should not exceed 2 °C to prevent the most dangerous consequences of climate change; without reduction in greenhouse gas emissions, this could happen before 2050.^[246][247]Climate change has implications for all regions of Europe, with the extent and nature of effects varying across the continent.

Effects on European countries include warmer weather and increasing frequency and intensity of extreme weather such as heat waves, bringing health risks and effects on ecosystems. European countries are major contributors to global greenhouse gas emissions, although the European Union and governments of several countries have outlined plans to implement climate change mitigation and an energy transition in the 21st century, the European Green Deal being one of these.

Die geologische Geschichte Europas lässt sich bis zur Entstehung des Baltischen Schildes (Fennoskandinavien) und des Sarmatischen Kratons vor etwa 2,25 Milliarden Jahren zurückverfolgen. Darauf folgte der Wolgo-Uralische Schild, aus dem gemeinsam der Osteuropäische Kraton (≈ Baltica ) hervorging, der Teil des Superkontinents Columbia wurde. Vor etwa 1,1 Milliarden Jahren vereinigten sich Baltica und Arctica (als Teil des Laurentia- Blocks) mit Rodinia und trennten sich später, vor etwa 550 Millionen Jahren, wieder zu Baltica. Vor etwa 440 Millionen Jahren entstand Euramerika aus Baltica und Laurentia; eine weitere Vereinigung mit Gondwana führte zur Bildung von Pangäa . Vor etwa 190 Millionen Jahren trennten sich Gondwana und Laurasia aufgrund der Ausdehnung des Atlantischen Ozeans. Schließlich und sehr bald darauf zerfiel Laurasia selbst erneut in Laurentia (Nordamerika) und den eurasischen Kontinent. Die Landverbindung zwischen den beiden Kontinenten bestand über Grönland über einen beträchtlichen Zeitraum und führte zum Austausch von Tierarten. Seit etwa 50 Millionen Jahren bestimmen steigende und fallende Meeresspiegel die heutige Form Europas und seine Verbindungen zu Kontinenten wie Asien. Europas heutige Form geht auf das späte Tertiär vor etwa fünf Millionen Jahren zurück. ^{[ 248 ]}

Die Geologie Europas ist äußerst vielfältig und komplex und prägt die große Bandbreite an Landschaften des Kontinents, von den schottischen Highlands bis zu den sanften Hügeln Ungarns. ^{[ 249 ]} Europas markantestes Merkmal ist die Zweiteilung in das hochgebirgige Südeuropa und die riesige, teilweise unter Wasser liegende nördliche Ebene, die sich von Irland im Westen bis zum Uralgebirge im Osten erstreckt. Diese beiden Hälften werden durch die Gebirgsketten der Pyrenäen und der Alpen / Karpaten getrennt . Im Westen wird die nördliche Ebene durch das Skandinavische Gebirge und die Gebirgszüge der Britischen Inseln begrenzt. Zu den größeren Flachwassergebieten, die Teile der nördlichen Ebene überfluten, gehören die Keltische See , die Nordsee , die Ostsee und die Barentssee .

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. Most of the older geology of western Europe existed as part of the ancient microcontinentAvalonia.

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 humans. With the exception of Fennoscandia and northern Russia, few areas of untouched wilderness are currently found in Europe, except for various national parks.

The main natural vegetation cover in Europe is mixed forest. The conditions for growth are very favourable. In the north, the Gulf Stream and North Atlantic Drift warm the continent. Southern Europe has a warm but mild climate. There are frequent summer droughts in this region. Mountain ridges also affect the conditions. Some of these, such as the Alps and the Pyrenees, 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 (Scandinavian Mountains, Dinarides, Carpathians, Apennines) 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 livestock at some point in time, and the cutting down of the preagricultural forest habitat caused disruption to the original plant and animal ecosystems. The area of primary forest in Europe increased at an average annual rate of 191 000 hectare in 1990–2000, 217 000 ha in 2000–2015 and 153 000 ha in 2015–2025.^[250]

Einst waren vermutlich 80 bis 90 Prozent Europas von Wald bedeckt. ^{[ 251 ]} Er erstreckte sich vom Mittelmeer bis zum Arktischen Ozean. Obwohl über die Hälfte der ursprünglichen Wälder Europas im Laufe der Jahrhunderte durch Abholzung verschwunden ist , ist noch immer über ein Viertel der europäischen Landfläche bewaldet, beispielsweise die Laub- und Mischwälder, die Taiga Skandinaviens und Russlands, die Mischwälder des Kaukasus und die Korkeichenwälder im westlichen Mittelmeerraum. In jüngster Zeit konnte die Abholzung verlangsamt und viele Bäume wurden gepflanzt. In vielen Fällen wurden jedoch Nadelbaum-Monokulturen als Ersatz für die ursprünglichen natürlichen Mischwälder genutzt, da Nadelbäume schneller wachsen. Die Plantagen bedecken mittlerweile riesige Flächen, bieten aber schlechtere Lebensräume für viele europäische Waldarten, die eine Mischung verschiedener Baumarten und eine vielfältige Waldstruktur benötigen. Der Anteil an Naturwald in Westeuropa beträgt nur 2–3 % oder weniger, während er in Westrussland 5–10 % beträgt. Das europäische Land mit dem geringsten Anteil an Waldfläche ist Island (1 %), während Finnland mit 77 % das waldreichste Land ist. ^{[ 252 ]}

In den gemäßigten Zonen Europas dominieren Mischwälder mit Laub- und Nadelbäumen. Die wichtigsten Baumarten in Mittel- und Westeuropa sind Buche und Eiche . Im Norden ist die Taiga ein Mischwald aus Fichte , Kiefer und Birke ; weiter nördlich, in Russland und im äußersten Norden Skandinaviens, geht die Taiga in Richtung Arktis in die Tundra über . Im Mittelmeerraum wurden viele Olivenbäume angepflanzt, die sehr gut an das trockene Klima angepasst sind; auch die Mittelmeer-Zypresse ist in Südeuropa weit verbreitet. Die halbtrockene Mittelmeerregion weist weite Buschwälder auf. Ein schmaler, in Ost-West-Richtung verlaufender Streifen eurasischer Steppe erstreckt sich von der Ukraine und Südrussland westwärts bis nach Ungarn und geht im Norden in die Taiga über.

Die Vergletscherung während der letzten Eiszeit und die Anwesenheit des Menschen beeinflussten die Verbreitung der europäischen Fauna . In vielen Teilen Europas wurden die meisten Großtiere und Spitzenprädatoren ausgerottet . Das Wollhaarmammut starb bereits vor dem Ende des Neolithikums aus. Wölfe ( Fleischfresser ) und Bären ( Allesfresser ) sind heute vom Aussterben bedroht. Einst waren sie in fast ganz Europa verbreitet. Doch Abholzung und Jagd zwangen diese Tiere, sich immer weiter zurückzuziehen. Im Mittelalter beschränkten sich die Lebensräume der Bären auf mehr oder weniger unzugängliche Gebirge mit ausreichendem Waldbestand. Heute lebt der Braunbär hauptsächlich auf der Balkanhalbinsel , in Skandinavien und Russland; eine kleine Anzahl existiert auch in anderen europäischen Ländern (Österreich, Pyrenäen usw.), aber in diesen Gebieten sind die Braunbärpopulationen aufgrund der Zerstörung ihres Lebensraums fragmentiert und marginalisiert. Eisbären sind zudem auf Spitzbergen , einem norwegischen Archipel weit nördlich von Skandinavien, anzutreffen . Der Wolf , das zweitgrößte Raubtier Europas nach dem Braunbären, ist vorwiegend in Mittel- und Osteuropa sowie auf dem Balkan anzutreffen, mit einigen wenigen Rudeln in Gebieten Westeuropas (Skandinavien, Spanien usw.).

Zu den anderen Fleischfressern zählen die Europäische Wildkatze , der Rotfuchs und der Polarfuchs , der Goldschakal , verschiedene Marderarten , der Europäische Igel , verschiedene Reptilienarten (wie Schlangen wie Vipern und Ringelnattern) und Amphibien sowie verschiedene Vögel ( Eulen , Falken und andere Greifvögel).

Wichtige europäische Pflanzenfresser sind Schnecken, Larven, Fische, verschiedene Vögel und Säugetiere wie Nagetiere, Hirsche und Rehe , Wildschweine sowie in den Bergen lebende Murmeltiere , Steinböcke und Gämsen . Zahlreiche Insekten, wie der Kleine Fuchs , tragen zur Biodiversität bei. ^{[ 255 ]}

Sea creatures are also an important part of European flora and fauna. The sea flora is mainly phytoplankton. Important animals that live in European seas are zooplankton, molluscs, echinoderms, different crustaceans, squids and octopuses, fish, dolphins and whales.

Biodiversity is protected in Europe through the Council of Europe's Bern Convention, which has also been signed by the European Community as well as non-European states.

The political map of Europe is substantially derived from the re-organisation of Europe following the Napoleonic Wars in 1815. The prevalent form of government in Europe is parliamentary democracy, in most cases in the form of republic; in 1815, the prevalent form of government was still the monarchy. Europe's remaining eleven monarchies^[257] are constitutional.

European integration is the process of political, legal, economic (and in some cases social and cultural) integration of European states as it has been pursued by the powers sponsoring the Council of Europe since the end of the Second World War. The European Union has been the focus of economic integration on the continent since its foundation in 1993. More recently, the Eurasian Economic Union has been established as a counterpart comprising former Soviet states.

27 European states are members of the politico-economic European Union, 29 of the border-free Schengen Area and 21 of the monetary union Eurozone. Among the smaller European organisations are the Nordic Council, the Benelux, the Baltic Assembly, and the Visegrád Group.

The least democratic countries in Europe were Belarus, Russia and Turkey in 2025 according to the V-Dem Democracy indices.^[256]

This list includes all internationally recognised sovereign countries falling even partially under any common geographical or political definitions of Europe.

Arms	Flag	Name	Area(km2)	Population	Which political community governs (in June 2026)	Populationdensity(per km2)	Capital	Name(s) in official language(s)
		Albania	28,748	2,876,591	socialists (Socialist Party of Albania)	98.5	Tirana	Shqipëria
		Andorra	468	77,281	conservatives (Democrats for Andorra)	179.8	Andorra la Vella	Andorra
		Armenia[j]	29,743	2,924,816	liberals (Civil Contract)	101.5	Yerevan	Հայաստան (Hayastan)
		Austria*	83,858	8,823,054	liberals and socialists (Austrian People's Party and Social Democratic Party of Austria)	104	Vienna	Österreich
		Azerbaijan[k]	86,600	9,911,646	conservatives (New Azerbaijan Party)	113	Baku	Azərbaycan
		Belarus	207,560	9,504,700	conservatives (Belaya Rus)	45.8	Minsk	Беларусь (Belaruś)
		Belgium*	30,528	11,358,357		372.06	Brussels	België/Belgique/Belgien
		Bosnia and Herzegovina	51,129	3,531,159	socialists (Alliance of Independent Social Democrats)	68.97	Sarajevo	Bosna i Hercegovina/Боснa и Херцеговина
		Bulgaria*	110,910	7,101,859		64.9	Sofia	България (Bǎlgariya)
		Croatia*	56,594	3,871,833	conservatives (Croatian Democratic Union)	68.4	Zagreb	Hrvatska
		Cyprus*[d]	9,251	1,170,125		123.4	Nicosia	Κύπρος (Kýpros)/Kıbrıs
		Czech Republic*	78,866	10,610,947	conservatives (Action of Dissatisfied Citizens)	134	Prague	Česko
		Denmark*	43,094	6,001,008	socialists (Social Democrats)	139.25	Copenhagen	Danmark
		Estonia*	45,226	1,328,439	liberals (Estonian Reform Party)	30.5	Tallinn	Eesti
		Finland*	338,455	5,509,717	conservatives (National Coalition Party)	16	Helsinki	Suomi/Finland
		France*[g]	547,030	67,348,000	liberals (Together for the Republic Group)	116	Paris	France
		Georgia[l]	69,700	3,718,200		53.5	Tbilisi	საქართველო (Sakartvelo)
		Germany*	357,168	82,800,000	conservatives (Christian Democratic Union of Germany)	232	Berlin	Deutschland
		Greece*	131,957	10,297,760		82	Athens	Ελλάδα (Elláda)
		Hungary*	93,030	9,797,561	liberals (Respect and Freedom Party)	105.3	Budapest	Magyarország
		Iceland	103,000	350,710	socialists (Social Democratic Alliance)	3.2	Reykjavík	Ísland
		Ireland*	70,280	4,761,865	conservatives (Fianna Fáil)	67.7	Dublin	Éire/Ireland
		Italy*	301,338	58,968,501	conservatives (Brothers of Italy)	195.7	Rome	Italia
		Kazakhstan[i]	148,000	20,075,271	conservatives (Amanat)	7	Astana	Қазақстан (Qazaqstan)
		Latvia*	64,589	1,862,700	conservatives (New Unity)	29	Riga	Latvija
		Liechtenstein	160	38,111		227	Vaduz	Liechtenstein
		Lithuania*	65,300	2,800,667	socialists (Social Democratic Party of Lithuania)	45.8	Vilnius	Lietuva
		Luxembourg*	2,586	602,005		233.7	Luxembourg City	Lëtzebuerg/Luxemburg/Luxembourg
		Malta*	316	445,426		1,410	Valletta	Malta
		Moldova[a]	33,846	3,434,547		101.5	Chișinău	Moldova
		Monaco	2.020	38,400		18,713	Monaco	Monaco
		Montenegro	13,812	642,550	conservatives (For the Future of Montenegro, Democratic Montenegro)	45.0	Podgorica	Crna Gora/Црна Гора
		Netherlands*[h]	41,543	17,271,990		414.9	Amsterdam	Nederland
		North Macedonia	25,713	2,103,721		80.1	Skopje	Северна Македонија (Severna Makedonija)
		Norway	385,203	5,295,619	socialists (Labour Party)	15.8	Oslo	Norge/Noreg/Norga
		Poland*	312,685	38,422,346	liberals (Civic Coalition)	123.5	Warsaw	Polska
		Portugal*[e]	92,212	10,379,537		115	Lisbon	Portugal
		Romania*	238,397	18,999,642		84.4	Bucharest	România
		Russia[b]	3,969,100	144,526,636	conservatives (United Russia)	8.4	Moscow	Россия (Rossiya)
		San Marino	61.2	33,285		520	San Marino	San Marino
		Serbia[f]	88,361	7,040,272	conservatives (Serbia Must Not Stop)	91.1	Belgrade	Srbija/Србија
		Slovakia*	49,035	5,435,343	socialists (Direction – Social Democracy)	111.0	Bratislava	Slovensko
		Slovenia*	20,273	2,066,880	conservatives (Slovenian Democratic Party)	101.8	Ljubljana	Slovenija
		Spain*	505,990	49,442,844	socialists (Spanish Socialist Workers' Party)	97	Madrid	España
		Sweden*	450,295	10,151,588	conservatives (Moderate Party)	22.5	Stockholm	Sverige
		Switzerland	41,285	8,401,120		202	Bern	Schweiz/Suisse/Svizzera/Svizra
		Turkey[m]	23,764	84,680,273		106.7	Ankara	Türkiye
		Ukraine[s]	603,628	42,418,235		73.8	Kyiv	Україна (Ukraina)
		United Kingdom[259]	244,376	68,265,209	socialists (Labour Party)	281	London	United Kingdom
		Vatican City	0.44	1,000		2,272	Vatican City	Città del Vaticano/Civitas Vaticana
Total		50	10,180,000[n]	743,000,000[n]		73

Within the above-mentioned states are several de facto independent countries with limited to no international recognition. None of them are members of the UN:

Symbol	Flag	Name	Area(km2)	Population	Population density(per km2)	Capital
		Abkhazia[p]	8,660	243,206	28	Sokhumi
		Kosovo[o]	10,908	1,920,079	159	Pristina
		Northern Cyprus[d]	3,355	313,626	93	Nicosia (northern part)
		South Ossetia[p]	3,900	53,532	13.7	Tskhinvali
		Transnistria[a]	4,163	475,665	114	Tiraspol

Several dependencies and similar territories with broad autonomy are also found within or close to Europe. This includes Åland (an autonomous county of Finland), two autonomous territories of the Kingdom of Denmark (other than Denmark proper), three Crown Dependencies and two British Overseas Territories. Svalbard is also included due to its unique status within Norway, although it is not autonomous. Not included are the three countries of the United Kingdom with devolved powers and the two Autonomous Regions of Portugal, 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 the Canary Islands and Heligoland, are also not included for this reason.

Symbol	Flag	Name	Sovereignstate	Area(km2)	Population	Populationdensity(per km2)	Capital
		Akrotiri and Dhekelia	UK	255	7,700	30.2	Episkopi Cantonment
		Åland*	Finland	1,580	29,489	18.36	Mariehamn
		Bailiwick of Guernsey[c]	UK	78	65,849	844.0	St. Peter Port
		Bailiwick of Jersey[c]	UK	118.2	100,080	819	Saint Helier
		Faroe Islands	Denmark	1,399	50,778	35.2	Tórshavn
		Gibraltar	UK	6.7	32,194	4,328	Gibraltar
		Greenland	Denmark[r]	2,166,086	55,877	0.028	Nuuk
		Isle of Man[c]	UK	572	83,314	148	Douglas
		Svalbard	Norway	61,022	2,667	0.044	Longyearbyen

As a continent, the economy of Europe is currently the largest on Earth and it is the richest region as measured by assets under management with over $32.7 trillion compared to North America's $27.1 trillion in 2008.^[260] In 2009 Europe remained the wealthiest region. Its $37.1 trillion in assets under management represented one-third of the world's wealth. It was one of several regions where wealth surpassed its precrisis year-end peak.^[261] As with other continents, Europe has a large wealth gap among its countries. The richer states tend to be in the Northwest and West in general, followed by Central Europe, while most economies of Eastern and Southeastern Europe are still reemerging from the collapse of the Soviet Union and the breakup of Yugoslavia.

The model of the Blue Banana was designed as an economic geographic representation of the respective economic power of the regions, which was further developed into the Golden Banana or Blue Star. 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. In addition, there is new impetus from the Chinese Belt and Road Initiative across the Suez Canal towards Africa and Asia.^[262]

The European Union, a political entity composed of 27 European states, comprises the largest single economic area in the world. 21 EU countries share the euro as a common currency (in addition, 6 non-EU countries also use the euro as currency). Four European countries rank in the top ten of the world's largest national economies in GDP (PPP). This includes (ranks according to the IMF): Russia (4), Germany (6), France (9) and the United Kingdom (10).

Some European countries are much richer than others. The richest in terms of nominal GDP is Monaco with its US$185,829 per capita (2018) and the poorest is Ukraine with its US$3,659 per capita (2019).^[263]

As a whole, Europe's GDP per capita is US$21,767 according to a 2016 International Monetary Fund assessment.^[264]

Rank	Country	GDP(nominal, peak year)millions of USD
	European Union[265]	23,034,637
1	Germany	5,452,858
2	United Kingdom	4,264,794
3	France	3,596,094
4	Italy	2,738,164
5	Russia	2,656,452
6	Spanien	2.091.222
7	Truthahn	1.640.223
8	Niederlande	1.449.704
9	Schweiz	1.146.911
10	Polen	1.134.248

Rang	Land	BIP (Kaufkraftparität, Spitzenjahr) in Millionen USD
	Europäische Union [ 265 ]	30.677.594
1	Russland	7.525.159
2	Deutschland	6.408.420
3	Frankreich	4.734.241
4	Vereinigtes Königreich	4.720.863
5	Truthahn	4.025.249
6	Italien	3.871.906
7	Spanien	2.977.960
8	Polen	2.164.271
9	Niederlande	1.592.206
10	Rumänien	950.384

Industrielles Wachstum (1760–1945)

Der Kapitalismus ist seit dem Ende des Feudalismus in der westlichen Welt vorherrschend. ^{[ 266 ]} Von Großbritannien aus breitete er sich allmählich in ganz Europa aus. ^{[ 267 ]} Die Industrielle Revolution begann im späten 18. Jahrhundert in Europa, genauer gesagt im Vereinigten Königreich. ^{[ 268 ]} Im 19. Jahrhundert industrialisierte sich Westeuropa. Die Wirtschaft wurde durch den Ersten Weltkrieg stark beeinträchtigt, hatte sich aber zu Beginn des Zweiten Weltkriegs erholt und musste sich dem wachsenden wirtschaftlichen Aufschwung der Vereinigten Staaten stellen. Der Zweite Weltkrieg schädigte erneut einen Großteil der europäischen Industrie.

Kalter Krieg (1945–1991)

Nach dem Zweiten Weltkrieg lag die Wirtschaft Großbritanniens am Boden ^{[ 269 ]} und erlitt in den folgenden Jahrzehnten weiterhin einen relativen wirtschaftlichen Niedergang. ^{[ 270 ]} Auch Italien befand sich in einer schwierigen wirtschaftlichen Lage, erreichte aber bis in die 1950er Jahre wieder ein hohes Wachstumsniveau. Westdeutschland erholte sich rasch und hatte seine Produktion bis in die 1950er Jahre gegenüber dem Vorkriegsniveau verdoppelt. ^{[ 271 ]} Frankreich erlebte ebenfalls ein bemerkenswertes Comeback mit rasantem Wachstum und Modernisierung; später erholte sich auch Spanien unter Francos Führung und verzeichnete ab den 1960er Jahren ein beispielloses Wirtschaftswachstum, das als spanisches Wirtschaftswunder bekannt wurde . ^{[ 272 ]} Die meisten mittel- und osteuropäischen Staaten gerieten unter die Kontrolle der Sowjetunion und waren somit Mitglieder des Rates für gegenseitige Wirtschaftshilfe (RGW). ^{[ 273 ]}

The states which retained a free-market system were given a large amount of aid by the United States under the Marshall Plan.^[274] 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 Cold War. Until 1990, the European Community 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)

With the fall of communism in Central and Eastern Europe in 1991, the post-socialist states underwent shock therapy measures to liberalise their economies and implement free market reforms.

After East 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, while the latter experienced sudden mass unemployment and plummeting of industrial production.

By the millennium change, the EU dominated the economy of Europe, comprising the five largest European economies of the time: Germany, the United Kingdom, France, Italy, and Spain. In 1999, 12 of the 15 members of the EU joined the Eurozone, replacing their national currencies by the euro.

Figures released by Eurostat in 2009 confirmed that the Eurozone had gone into recession in 2008.^[276] It affected much of the region.^[277] The Euro area crisis especially affected Greece, Ireland, Spain and Portugal.^[278][279] As a result, measures were taken, especially for Greece, by the leading countries of the Eurozone.^[280] The European Union unemployment rate was 10.3% in 2012. For those aged 15–24 it was 22.4%.^[281]

The population of Europe was about 742 million in 2023 according to UN estimates.^[1][2] This is slightly more than one ninth of the world's population.^[v] The population density of Europe (the number of people per area) is the second highest of any continent, behind Asia. The population of Europe is currently slowly decreasing, by about 0.2% per year,^[283] because there are fewer births than deaths. This natural decrease in population is reduced by the fact that more people migrate to Europe from other continents than vice versa.

Southern Europe and Western Europe are the regions with the highest average number of elderly people in the world. In 2021, the percentage of people over 65 years old was 21% in Western Europe and Southern Europe, compared to 19% in all of Europe and 10% in the world.^[284] Projections suggest that by 2050 Europe will reach 30%.^[285] This is caused by the fact that the population has been having children below replacement level since the 1970s. The United Nations predicts that Europe will decline in population between 2022 and 2050 by −7 per cent, without changing immigration movements.^[286]

According to a population projection of the UN Population Division, Europe's population may fall to between 680 and 720 million people by 2050, which would be 7% of the world population at that time.^[287] Within this context, significant disparities exist between regions in relation to fertility rates. The average number of children per female of child-bearing age is 1.52, far below the replacement rate.^[288] The UN predicts a steady population decline in Central and Eastern Europe as a result of emigration and low birth rates.^[289]

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.^[290]Romani people are the largest ethnic minority in Europe, according to European Commission.^[291]

Europa beherbergte 2020 mit fast 87 Millionen Menschen die höchste Anzahl an Migranten weltweit, wie die Internationale Organisation für Migration (IOM) mitteilte . ^{[ 292 ]} Im Jahr 2005 verzeichnete die EU einen Nettozuwachs an Zuwanderern von 1,8 Millionen Menschen. Dies entsprach fast 85 % des gesamten Bevölkerungswachstums in Europa . ^{[ 293 ]} Im Jahr 2021 erhielten 827.000 Personen die Staatsbürgerschaft eines EU-Mitgliedstaates, ein Anstieg von etwa 14 % gegenüber 2020. ^{[ 294 ]} 2,3 Millionen Einwanderer aus Nicht-EU-Ländern kamen 2021 in die EU. ^{[ 294 ]}

Die frühneuzeitliche Auswanderung aus Europa begann im 16. Jahrhundert mit spanischen und portugiesischen Siedlern ^{[ 295 ] [ 296 ]} und im 17. Jahrhundert mit französischen und englischen Siedlern ^{[ 297 ]} . Die Zahlen blieben jedoch relativ gering, bis im 19. Jahrhundert Massenauswanderungswellen einsetzten, in deren Folge Millionen armer Familien Europa verließen ^{[ 298 ] .}

Heute gibt es auf allen Kontinenten große Bevölkerungsgruppen europäischer Abstammung . Europäische Vorfahren sind in Nordamerika vorherrschend und in geringerem Maße in Südamerika (insbesondere in Uruguay , Argentinien , Chile und Brasilien , während die meisten anderen lateinamerikanischen Länder ebenfalls eine beträchtliche Bevölkerung europäischer Herkunft aufweisen ). Australien und Neuseeland haben große Bevölkerungsgruppen europäischer Abstammung. In Afrika gibt es keine Länder mit einer Mehrheit europäischer Abstammung (mit Ausnahme von Kap Verde und möglicherweise São Tomé und Príncipe , je nach Kontext), aber es gibt bedeutende Minderheiten, wie beispielsweise die weißen Südafrikaner in Südafrika . In Asien sind Bevölkerungsgruppen europäischer Abstammung, insbesondere Russen , in Nordasien und Teilen Nordkasachstans vorherrschend . [ ^{299 ] Ebenfalls} in Asien stellen Europäer, insbesondere Spanier, eine einflussreiche Minderheit auf den Philippinen dar . ^{[ 300 ] [ 301 ]}

Europe has about 225 indigenous languages,^[302] 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.^[248] Slavic languages are mostly spoken in Southern, Central and Eastern Europe. Romance languages are spoken primarily in Western and Southern Europe, as well as in Switzerland in Central Europe and Romania and Moldova in Eastern Europe. Germanic languages are spoken in Western, Northern and Central Europe as well as in Gibraltar and Malta in Southern Europe.^[248] Languages in adjacent areas show significant overlaps (such as in English, for example). Other Indo-European languages outside the three main groups include the Baltic group (Latvian and Lithuanian), the Celtic group (Irish, Scottish Gaelic, Manx, Welsh, Cornish and Breton^[248]), Greek, Armenian and Albanian.

Eine eigenständige, nicht-indogermanische Familie uralischer Sprachen ( Estnisch , Finnisch , Ungarisch , Erzya , Komi , Mari , Moksha und Udmurtisch ) wird hauptsächlich in Estland , Finnland , Ungarn und Teilen Russlands gesprochen. Zu den Turksprachen gehören Aserbaidschanisch , Kasachisch und Türkisch sowie kleinere Sprachen in Ost- und Südosteuropa ( Balkan-Gagaustisch , Baschkirisch , Tschuwaschisch , Krimtatarisch , Karatschai-Balkarisch , Kumykisch , Nogaisch und Tatarisch ). Kartwelische Sprachen ( Georgisch , Mingrelisch und Swanisch ) werden vorwiegend in Georgien gesprochen . Zwei weitere Sprachfamilien sind im Nordkaukasus beheimatet ( Nordostkaukasisch , insbesondere Tschetschenisch , Awarisch und Lesgisch ; und Nordwestkaukasisch , insbesondere Adygeisch ). Maltesisch ist die einzige semitische Sprache , die innerhalb der EU Amtssprache ist, während Baskisch die einzige europäische isolierte Sprache ist .

Mehrsprachigkeit und der Schutz regionaler und Minderheitensprachen sind heute in Europa anerkannte politische Ziele. Das Rahmenübereinkommen des Europarats zum Schutz nationaler Minderheiten und die Europäische Charta der Regional- und Minderheitensprachen des Europarats bilden den rechtlichen Rahmen für Sprachrechte in Europa.

Romani wird in ganz Europa von der Roma-Minderheit gesprochen. ^{[ 303 ]}

Die größte Religion in Europa ist das Christentum. 76,2 % der Europäer bezeichnen sich als Christen. [ ^{304 ] [ 305 ] Dazu} gehören Katholiken , Orthodoxe und verschiedene protestantische Konfessionen. Unter den Protestanten sind Luthertum , Anglikanismus und Reformierte Kirche am weitesten verbreitet . Zu den kleineren protestantischen Konfessionen zählen die Täufer sowie in den Vereinigten Staaten beheimatete Strömungen wie Pfingstbewegung , Methodismus und Evangelikalismus . Obwohl das Christentum seinen Ursprung im Nahen Osten hat, verlagerte sich sein Zentrum nach Europa, als es im späten 4. Jahrhundert zur Staatsreligion des Römischen Reiches wurde . Das Christentum spielte eine bedeutende Rolle in der Entwicklung der europäischen Kultur und Identität . ^{[ 306 ] [ 307 ] [ 308 ]} Heute leben etwas mehr als 25 % der Christen weltweit in Europa. ^{[ 309 ]}

Der Islam ist die zweitgrößte Religion in Europa. Über 25 Millionen Menschen, also etwa 5 % der Bevölkerung, gehören ihm an. ^{[ 310 ]} In Albanien und Bosnien und Herzegowina , zwei Ländern auf der Balkanhalbinsel in Südosteuropa, ist der Islam die vorherrschende Religion. Dasselbe gilt für die Türkei und Teile Russlands sowie für Aserbaidschan und Kasachstan , die alle an Asien grenzen. ^{[ 310 ]} Viele europäische Länder beherbergen eine beträchtliche muslimische Minderheit, und die Zuwanderung nach Europa hat die Zahl der Muslime in den letzten Jahren erhöht.

The Jewish population in Europe was about 1.4 million people in 2020 (about 0.2% of the population).^[311] There is a long history of Jewish life in Europe, beginning in antiquity. During the late 19th and early 20th centuries, the Russian Empire had the majority of the world's Jews living within its borders.^[312] In 1897, according to Russian census of 1897, the total Jewish population of Russia was 5.1 million people, which was 4.13% of total population. Of this total, the vast majority lived within the Pale of Settlement.^[313] In 1933, there were about 9.5 million Jewish people in Europe, representing 1.7% of the population,^[314] but most were killed, and most of the rest displaced, during the Holocaust.^[315][311] In the 21st century, France has the largest Jewish population in Europe, followed by the United Kingdom, Germany and Russia.^[7]

Other religions practiced in Europe include Hinduism and Buddhism, which are minority religions, except in Russia's Republic of Kalmykia, where Tibetan Buddhism is the majority religion.

A large and increasing number of people in Europe are irreligious, atheist and agnostic. They are estimated to make up about 18.3% of Europe's population currently.^[7]

The three largest urban areas of Europe are Moscow, London and Paris. All have over 10 million residents,^[316] and as such have been described as megacities.^[317] While Istanbul has the highest total city population, it lies partly in Asia. 64.9% of the residents live on the European side and 35.1% on the Asian side. The next largest cities in order of population are Madrid, Saint Petersburg, Milan, Barcelona, Berlin, and Rome each having over three million residents.^[316]

When considering the commuter belts or metropolitan areas within Europe (for which comparable data is available), Moscow covers the largest population, followed in order by Istanbul, London, Paris, Madrid, Milan, Ruhr Area, Saint Petersburg, Rhein-Süd, Barcelona and Berlin.^[318]

European megacities

Moscow

London

Paris

Istanbul^[b]

"Europe" as a cultural concept is substantially derived from the shared heritage of ancient Greece and the Roman Empire and its cultures. 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.^[319]

This shared cultural heritage is combined by overlapping indigenous national cultures and folklores, roughly divided into Slavic, Latin (Romance) and Germanic, but with several components not part of either of these groups (notably Greek, Basque and Celtic). Historically, special examples with overlapping cultures are Strasbourg with Latin (Romance) and Germanic, or Trieste with Latin, Slavic and Germanic roots. Cultural contacts and mixtures shape a large part of the regional cultures of Europe. Europe is often described as "maximum cultural diversity with minimal geographical distances".

Different cultural events are organised in Europe, with the aim of bringing different cultures closer together and raising awareness of their importance, such as the European Capital of Culture, the European Region of Gastronomy, the European Youth Capital and the European Capital of Sport.

Sport in Europe tends to be highly organised with many sports having professional leagues. The origins of many of the world's most popular sports today lie in the codification of many traditional games, especially in the United Kingdom. However, a paradoxical feature of European sport is the extent to which local, regional and national variations continue to exist, and even in some instances to predominate.^[320]

In Europa haben viele Menschen keinen Zugang zu grundlegenden sozialen Bedingungen, was es ihnen erschwert, sich zu entfalten und ein gutes Leben zu führen. Der Zugang zu lebensnotwendigen Gütern kann beeinträchtigt sein; so geben beispielsweise 10 % der Europäer mindestens 40 % ihres Haushaltseinkommens für Wohnkosten aus. 75 Millionen Europäer fühlen sich sozial isoliert . Seit den 1980er Jahren nimmt die Einkommensungleichheit zu, während die Lohnanteile sinken. Im Jahr 2016 verdienten die reichsten 20 % der Haushalte mehr als fünfmal so viel wie die ärmsten 20 %. Viele Arbeitnehmer erleben stagnierende Reallöhne , und prekäre Beschäftigungsverhältnisse sind selbst für systemrelevante Berufe weit verbreitet . ^{[ 321 ]}