Europe is by convention one of the six continents of the world.
Comprising the western peninsula of Eurasia, Europe is generally divided
from Asia to the East by the watershed of the Ural Mountains, the Ural
River, the Caspian Sea, the Caucasus, and the Black Sea to the
Southeast. Europe is bounded by the Glacial Arctic Ocean and other
bodies of water in the North, The Atlantic Ocean to the West, the
Mediterranean Sea to the south, and the Black Sea and interconnected
waterways to the Southeast. However, the borders for Europe, a concept
dating back to classical antiquity, are somewhat arbitrary, as the term
"Europe" can refer to a cultural and political or geographical
distinction.
Europe is the second smallest continent by surface
area in the world, covering about 10,180,000 km2 or 2% of the Earth's
surface and about 6.8% of the area above sea level. Of the roughly 50
countries in Europe, Russia is the largest in both area and population
(with Russia straddling two continents, Europe and Asia) and the Vatican
is the smallest. Europe is the fourth most populous continent in the
world, after Asia, Africa and America(s), with 740 million inhabitants
in 2015, about 11% of the world's population that year, that is, for
every 100 people in the world in this period, 11 lived on the continent.
However, according to the United Nations (average estimate), the
European peso could fall to around 7% by 2050. In 1900, for example, the
European population represented 25% of the world's population (that is,
for every 4 inhabitants of the world that year, 1 lived within the
boundaries of the continent).
Europe, namely Ancient Greece, is
considered the cradle of Western culture. Having played a preponderant
role on the world stage from the sixteenth century, especially after the
onset of colonialism. Between the sixteenth and twentieth centuries,
European nations controlled at various times the Americas, most of
Africa, Oceania, and much of Asia. Both world wars were largely centered
in Europe, being regarded as the main factor for a decline in Western
European dominance in world politics and economics from the
mid-twentieth century, with the United States and the Soviet Union
gaining greater prominence. During the Cold War, Europe was politically
divided along the Iron Curtain between the North Atlantic Treaty
Organization in the West and the Warsaw Pact in the East. The desire to
avoid another war accelerated the process of European integration and
led to the formation of the European Council and the European Union in
Western Europe, which, since the fall of the Berlin Wall and the end of
the Soviet Union in 1991, have been expanding eastward. The currency of
most European Union countries, the euro, is most commonly used by
Europeans; the Schengen Agreement abolished strong immigration controls
at the borders of European Union member countries. The Hymn To Joy is
the anthem of the European Council and the European Union.
Iberia
Andorra,
Gibraltar,
Spain
and Portugal
The
countries of the Iberian Peninsula are famous for their rich and
distinctive culture, as well as friendly and cheerful people.
France and
Monaco
France is one of the most attractive countries for tourists in
the world. History, culture, fashion, wines, cheeses and of
course cuisine. France can offer the sights of Paris, winter
holidays in the Alps, castles of the Loire Valley, Normandy and
Brittany, holidays on the French Riviera.
Apennines
Vatican,
Italy,
Malta,
San Marino
Rome, Florence,
Venice and Pisa are on the itineraries of many world travelers,
and these are just a few of the many. Italy and the neighboring
states have a stunningly rich history and culture.
British Isles
United
Kingdom,
Ireland, Guernsey,
Maine, Jersey
Great Britain is a country with a rich history
and culture, the core of the former British Empire, which for
centuries included many cultures and at the same time remained
intact. Ireland is known for its distinctive customs,
traditions, folklore, and amazing natural scenery.
Benelux
Belgium,
Netherlands,
Luxembourg
An economic union of countries, each of which is not similar to
each other. The Netherlands is known for its windmills, dams,
clogs, cheese, bicycles and tulips, its liberal social order and
famous artists. Belgium is a bilingual country with interesting
historical cities. Luxembourg is a monarchical microstate in the
hills of the Ardennes.
Central Europe
Austria,
Hungary,
Germany,
Liechtenstein,
Poland,
Slovakia, Slovenia,
Czech
Republic,
Switzerland
Central Europe connects east and west, is a region where
Germanic culture coexists with Slavic. Home to countless
historic cities, fairytale castles, forests, mountain ranges,
chief among them the Alps.
The Baltic States
Latvia,
Lithuania,
Estonia
Three small
states that are famous for their long beaches on the Baltic Sea,
medieval old towns and beautiful natural landscapes.
Scandinavia
Denmark,
Iceland,
Norway, Faroe Islands,
Finland,
Sweden
Breathtaking
landscapes: mountains, lakes, glaciers, geysers, waterfalls,
volcanoes, fjords and skerries.
Russia,
Ukraine and
Belarus
Russia is a
huge country stretching from Europe to the Pacific Ocean.
Ukraine is a tourist-friendly country with authentic cities of
Odessa, Lviv and Kyiv and the tourist coasts of the Black and
Azov Seas. To the north of Ukraine lies Belarus - a country with
an economic and political regime that is surprising for modern
Europe.
Balkan region
Albania,
Bosnia and Herzegovina,
Bulgaria,
North Macedonia,
Moldova,
Romania,
Serbia,
Croatia,
Montenegro
The Balkans is a region with a rich, often turbulent, history.
Mountainous landscapes, forests and lakes, against which you can
see monasteries and fortresses, impress tourists. Also
interesting are the historical cities that developed under the
influence of different cultures.
Greece,
Turkey and Cyprus
European countries with the highest number of sunny days. A
great place for beach lovers or tourists interested in ancient
history. In the territories of the current countries in the past
there were well-known states such as Byzantium, Urartu, Armenian
Cilicia and the Ottoman Empire. A large number of Ottoman,
Armenian and Greek architectural structures have been preserved
in Turkey.
South Caucasus
Azerbaijan,
Armenia,
Georgia
The mountain
system of the Caucasus, which stretches from the Black to the
Caspian Sea, is a natural border between Europe and Asia.
Historical heritage, richness of landscapes and unique natural
conditions make the region interesting from a tourist point of
view. At the same time, several local zones of territorial
conflicts create certain problems for travelers.
Amsterdam -
the canals, Anne Frank House, Rembrandt, coffee shops and the
red light district
Berlin -
geopolitical interests divided the city between east and west
for 45 years; now it is the capital of reunified Germany and an
international cultural center
Brussels - a
truly international city with the European institutions, the
Grand Place, Manneken Pis and the Atomium
Istanbul - the
only metropolis on two continents, a fascinating melting pot of
east and west
London -
the vibrant, multicultural capital of the United Kingdom with
its Tower Bridge and Big Ben
Moscow - the
largest city in Europe is known for its nightlife and the iconic
Kremlin
Paris -
the city of love on the Seine with its Eiffel Tower and Notre
Dame
Prague - a magical city with its beautiful bridges over the
Vltava
Rome - this
city breathes history; every street corner has cultural heritage
that is even more impressive
Alps — the highest mountain range in Europe, the word alpinism is
derived from this
Etna-the largest active volcano in Europe can be
found on the island of Sicily
Camargue-nature reserve in the south of
France
Ibiza-preteiland belonging to the Balearic Islands, known for
the big clubs
North Cape-the northernmost tip of the European
mainland
Plitvice Lakes-the famous turquoise lakes with caves and
waterfalls
Santorini-remains of a volcano that exploded almost 4000
years ago with Akrotiri, the Pompeii of the Aegean Sea
Stonehenge-prehistoric stone circle located in England
Þingvellir-nature reserve around the fault plane of the Eurasian and
North American tectonic plates
What makes Europe so attractive? Is it the fjords in Norway, the
beaches of Spain, the architecture of St. Petersburg or the real
coziness of the Low Countries? No matter where you are in Europe, you
will always be fascinated by the beautiful cultural heritage that the
continent has to offer. In a trip through Europe you will discover that
the regions of Europe are connected by a tumultuous history, but also
that there is a great diversity of languages and cultures in a
relatively small area.
Europe is one of the most densely
populated areas in the world, and with London, Paris and Rome, among
others, it has unique world cities that are known all over the world.
But you are also in the right place for peace and tranquility in Europe
— just think of the emptiness of Scandinavia, the vast mountain areas in
Switzerland and the health resorts in Central Europe. In addition, all
these areas are relatively easy to visit, as tourist facilities in the
continent are very extensive. Europe offers something for everyone!
Electric power is nominally supplied with 230 V and 50 Hz almost
anywhere, and the few exceptions are still within the range of 220-240
V.
Sockets can vary, with Type F ("Schuko") and Type E ("French")
being the most common, while some countries such as Denmark ,
Switzerland or Italy maintain their own variations of the basic CEE 7
Standard. The good news is that virtually all of them accept the common
Type-C "Europlug", so unless you need a grounded connection, this should
suffice. In some countries, outlets are "protected for children",
requiring the direct insertion of the plug, which is not always easy.
Europlug does not withstand much force, so gather your self-control.
The great exceptions to all this are, of course, Britain and
Ireland, plus Cyprus . They operate their systems at the same voltage
and frequency, but use clumsy British BS 1363 ( Type G ) sockets and
plugs and fuses, which are incompatible with the CEE 7-based connectors
used on the continent.
Before buying an unstable adapter, make
sure that the power cord is removable. The device's side connectors are
much more internationally standardized, so simply getting a local cord
connected to your kettle can be easier, cheaper, safer, and more
convenient in everyday use.
Entry rules vary by country. A large number of European countries
belong to the Schengen zone. Nationals of member states of the European
Union or of EFTA (Iceland, Liechtenstein, Norway, Switzerland) only need
to carry a valid passport or identity card to enter the Schengen area —
they never need a visa, no matter how long the visit lasts. Nationals of
other countries must carry a valid passport, and require a visa
depending on nationality.
Only nationals of the following
non-EU/EFTA countries do not require a visa to enter the Schengen zone:
Albania*, Andorra, Antigua and Barbuda, Argentina, Australia, Bahamas,
Barbados, Bosnia and Herzegovina*, Brazil, Brunei, Canada, Chile, Costa
Rica, El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras, Israel, Japan, Croatia, North
Macedonia*, Malaysia, Mauritius, Mexico, Monaco, Montenegro*, New
Zealand, Nicaragua, Panama, Paraguay, Saint Kitts and Nevis, San Marino,
Serbia*/**, Seychelles, Singapore, Taiwan*** (Republic of China), United
States, Uruguay, Vatican City, Venezuela, South Korea, as well as
persons holding a British National (Overseas) passport, a Hong Kong SAR
passport or a Macau SAR passport.
Visitors to these visa-free
countries are not allowed to stay longer than 90 days in a 180 — day
period in the Schengen area as a whole, and in principle are not allowed
to work during the period of stay (although there are a number of
Schengen countries that do allow nationals of certain nationalities to
work-see below). The counter starts the moment you enter a member state
of the Schengen area and does not expire if you leave a certain Schengen
country for another Schengen country or vice versa. However, New Zealand
nationals may stay longer than 90 days if they are only visiting certain
Schengen countries - see [1] for an explanation of the New Zealand
government.
If you are a non-EU/EFTA national (even from a
visa-free country, with the exception of Andorra, Monaco or San Marino),
make sure that your passport is stamped when entering and leaving the
Schengen area. Without a stamp on entry, you may be treated as having
exceeded the length of stay on departure; without a stamp on departure,
you may be denied entry to the Schengen area next time for exceeding the
length of stay in a previous trip. If you can't get a stamp, keep
documents such as boarding passes, transport tickets and receipts from
ATMs, as they can help convince the border police that you have legally
stayed in the Schengen zone.
Note that:
( * ) nationals of
Albania, Bosnia and Herzegovina, North Macedonia, Montenegro and Serbia
require a biometric passport to use visa-free travel;
( * * )
nationals of Serbia with passports issued by the Serbian Coordination
Directorate (residents of Kosovo with Serbian passports) must apply for
a visa;
( * * * ) Taiwan nationals must have their ID number
recorded in their passport in order to use visa-free travel.
There are no border controls between countries that have signed and
implemented the Schengen treaties. These are the member states of the
European Union (except Bulgaria, Cyprus, Ireland, Romania and the United
Kingdom), Iceland, Liechtenstein, Norway and Switzerland. In addition, a
visa issued for a member state of the Schengen area is valid for all
member states that have signed and implemented the treaties. But note:
Not all EU member states have signed the Schengen treaties, and there
also exist member states of the Schengen zone that are not members of
the European Union. This means that there may be customs controls but no
immigration controls (if you are travelling within Schengen but to/from
a non-EU country) or there may be immigration controls but no customs
controls (if you are travelling within the EU but to / from a
non-Schengen country).
Airports in Europe are divided between"
Schengen "and"no Schengen "sections, which correspond to the" domestic
"and" foreign " sections in other countries. If you fly from outside
Europe to a Schengen country and then transit to another Schengen
country, you can complete the Customs and immigration checks in the
first country and then transit directly to the second country without
further checks. Travel between a Schengen country and a non-Schengen
country will result in the usual border checks. Remember that whether
you travel within the Schengen area or not, many airlines require you to
always be able to present a passport or identity card.
An example
of the implications that Schengen can have for the traveler:
Travel from Germany to France (both EU, both Schengen): no checks
Travel from Germany to Switzerland (both Schengen, Switzerland not in
the EU): customs controls, but no immigration controls
Travel from
France to the UK (both EU, the UK not in Schengen): immigration
controls, but no customs controls
Travel from Switzerland to the
United Kingdom: immigration and customs controls
The following list is an incomplete list of low-cost airlines
operating scheduled services within Europe. In addition, almost every
European country has one or more national airlines operating domestic
flights and direct flights to other European countries. The distinction
between these two categories is becoming increasingly blurred now that
various national companies have been relaunched after bankruptcy as a
cheap alternative.
Corendon
Easyjet
Eurowings
Ryanair
Transavia
Tuifly
The train network of Europe is very extensive. There are several
high-speed trains that connect the major cities of Europe at a speed of
250-300 km/h, this is the Belgian Thalys (connecting Paris, Brussels,
Cologne and Amsterdam, the Eurostar (between Brussels-South and London
via the Channel Tunnel), the TGV in France which also has connections to
Zurich in Switzerland and Milan in Italy and the German ICE connects the
major cities in Germany and also has connections to major cities that
lie in the border area of the European Union .neighboring countries of
Germany. There are of course also the ordinary trains with which you can
reach the whole of Europe. The train network of Europe is the
responsibility of the countries themselves and is usually in the hands
of the government. Private railway companies also exist such as in Great
Britain and Switzerland. You can travel across national borders thanks
to the partnerships between the various railway companies, but you
cannot speak of a uniform European railway network. Many countries of
Europe have different technologies (4 different voltages, different
among themselves in Belgium, France, Germany,... and other railway
widths in Russia, Spain and Portugal), for this purpose special
trainsets are then developed that can operate in several countries.
CityNightLine (Germany, Netherlands, Austria,Switzerland,Denmark, Czech
Republic).
EuroCity EC.
EuroNight (Italy, Spain,
Germany,Austria,France,Hungary, Switzerland, Czech Republic).
EuroStar Italia.
TGV Luria
TGV Méditerranée
Cisalpino CIS
Pau Casals Hotel Train
Talgo Spain
A good travel planner can be found on the Deutsche Bahn website
(http://www.bahn.com/i/view/NLD/nl/index.shtml) and Austrian Railways (.
http://www.oebb.at/)
InterRail Pass
With an InterRail pass you
can travel freely for 16 or 22 days or a whole month in a selection of
28 European countries, plus Turkey. These countries are divided into 8
zones, which you can combine among themselves. The price of your
InterRail pass depends on the number of zones you choose, but also on
your age (younger or older than 26).
Balkan Flexi Pass
For
travelers interested in Southeast Europe, the Balkan Flexpipass may be a
godsend: unlimited train travel for 5, 10 or 15 days in a month through
Bulgaria, Greece, North Macedonia, Montenegro, Serbia, Romania and
Turkey. You can buy the Flexipass at stations in those countries; or
much more expensive, on the web.
The pitfall is that many trains
in the region are already cheap and that the Balkan Flexpiass is only
profitable if you make longer train journeys.
See also the bus travel in Europe page for more info.
With the
bus company Eurolines you can reach almost all countries in Europe and
travel through part of Morocco. Eurolines is a Belgium - based umbrella
company that cooperates with many other bus companies.
If you
want to travel through Europe for a longer period of time, you can buy a
Eurolines pass, the price depends on whether you choose for 15 days or 1
month and on the season and your age. This allows you unlimited travel
between 40 different major cities served by Eurolines.
Eurolines
is probably the cheapest way to travel through Europe, you have really
low prices at some destinations such as Brussels-Bratislava for 28 euros
round trip if you book long enough in advance. The fact that you have to
take a long bus trip can make traveling tiring. Some people who are
afraid of flying spend dozens of hours on the bus to travel, for
example, from London to Prague.
Transport by coach is relatively
very safe, so safe that CBS does not keep separate statistics for the
Netherlands. In the Netherlands, 720 fatalities occurred in traffic in
2009, of which 7 were in the other category, which includes coaches.
Europe has an excellent road network. From the North Cape to Gibraltar or from Turkey to Great Britain: everything can be reached. In Germany, you can even drive as fast as you want on many motorways (on your own responsibility). European traffic regulations are becoming more and more harmonized but beware of differences from country to country! In Great Britain and on Cyprus and Malta you drive on the left! The maximum speed on the motorway in most countries is 120 km/h or 130 km/h. you can consult the toll rates of Europe on the excellent website of the anwb
There are several rivers that are easily accessible by boat. The
Danube, Meuse, Rhone and Rhine are a few examples of this.
Furthermore, Europe is bordered by the sea to the north, west and South
and it is therefore possible to sail from Helsinki on the Baltic Sea,
via the North Sea, the English Channel, The Atlantic Ocean, the Strait
of Gibraltar, and the Mediterranean Sea to the Bosphorus near Istanbul.
Several parts of this trip, as well as other routes, are also sailed by
regular ferries.
There are also many channels in some countries.
France in particular has thousands of kilometers of canals built between
the major rivers. In particular, between the areas where minerals were
traditionally mined to areas with a lot of industry. Before the minerals
were discovered, there was already a lot of transport of wood (logs) and
agricultural products from various areas , such as Burgundy to Paris and
surroundings.
You will also find connecting canals between the
Mediterranean Sea and the Bay of Biscaye, such as Canal du Midi and
beyond.
By plane
Security measures
From 6 November 2006, new security
measures concerning the transport of liquids in hand luggage were
adopted at airports in the European Union, as well as in Switzerland,
Norway and Iceland.
Liquids with a volume of more than 100 ml
have been prohibited - these must be checked for transport in the
luggage compartment. Liquids are considered to be: all kinds of gel
(including capillary), pasty substances, lotions, and the contents of
pressure vessels - deodorants, syrups, perfume, shaving foam, aerosols
and the like.
Below the limit of 100 ml, such products can be
loaded provided that in a transparent and sealable plastic bag, with a
maximum capacity of 1 liter (20 cm x 20 cm). Each passenger can take
only one such bag.
Some exceptions are provided for in the case
of food and medical substances indispensable for health, such as:
Specific nutritional foods without which the passenger's trip would
be impossible (lactose allergy, gluten, diabetes, etc.)
Food for
passengers infants or young children
Controlled pharmaceutical
products with their medical prescription
Non-controlled
pharmaceutical products in volume up to 100 ml
All of the above
products, as well as laptops out of bags, covers, blankets and the like
must be presented at the inspection post separately from hand luggage.
Shopping for liquids at the airport
If the trip includes a
connection at an airport in the European Union (including overseas
territories, Switzerland and Norway), liquids purchased at the airport
must be placed in a sealed bag and proof of purchase presented.
If
the purchase takes place outside the EU and the passenger connects
within the EU, it is forbidden to take the liquid in the cabin.
Purchases made on the aircraft of EU companies can be taken between
flights connecting within the EU itself, as long as they are in a sealed
bag and with proof of purchase.
On foot
The practice of
pedestrianism is widespread on the continent and countries such as
France have an extensive network of signposted paths for pedestrians, as
well as federations that organize and facilitate the practice. One of
the leading associations in this area is the European Ramblers
Association. The paths are usually classified as GR (grand routes-grande
randonée in France, gran recorrido in Spain), which are those routes
that are more than 50 km long, or PR (small routes). The routes are
formed by paths, trails and lanes that normally avoid circulation on
paved roads and with automobile traffic, passing through cities or towns
where it is possible to eat and stay, which allows you to carry less
weight.
More than 70 languages are spoken in Europe. You can't get very far in Europe with one language. The most common language is English. In the British Isles this is the standard language, but in Scandinavia in particular many people are also skilled in this, while in the south and east of Europe this language is not common. French and German are also understood in many European countries. In the East, many people, especially the elderly, master Russian.
The euro ( € , EUR) is the predominant currency in 17 of the 27
European countries belonging to the European Union (EU), among them:
Austria, Belgium, Cyprus, Estonia, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, The
Netherlands, Ireland, Italy, Luxembourg, Malta and Portugal, Slovakia,
Slovenia, Spain, together with 6 non-EU countries: Andorra, Kosovo,
Monaco, Montenegro, San Marino and the Vatican, which only use the euro,
but have no voice in eurozone Affairs.
One euro is divided into
100 cents, there are banknotes of 5, 10, 20, 50, 100, 200 and 500 euros
and coins of 1, 2, 5, 10, 20 and 50 cents and of 1 and 2 euros.
Each coin in circulation has a common face and a face that depends on
the country for which it was minted.
The Euro banknotes are
identical, but you can easily identify their origin by the letter before
the serial number that 16 of the 17 Euro members use (D-Estonia; E -
Slovakia; F - Malta; G - Cyprus; H - Slovenia; L - Finland; M -
Portugal; N - Austria; P - Netherlands; S - Italy; T - Ireland; U -
France; V - Spain; X - Germany; Y - Greece; Z - Belgium).
The
only country in the EU that contains a clause for the non-use of the
euro is the United Kingdom, which uses the Pound Sterling (£).
Shopping in Europe can be a bit expensive if there is not enough
research in various stores. It's like buying a bottle of water at the
airport, it's quite expensive. But if you look well in other places you
can find it at half the price or even less.
Value Added Tax
If
you are passing through Europe and are not a resident of the European
Union, that is, you do not live in any country in Europe, you have a
great advantage and can receive a percentage of your spending back.
This is because in Europe there is a tax levied on products called
VAT (Value Added Tax), which is currently 23%. This tax must be paid
only by residents of the European Union, so Brazilians who are visiting
a country within Europe can receive this money back.
This
procedure is known as Tax Return or Tax Free.
It is worth
remembering that it is only possible to receive the amount of VAT on
products, that is, spending on accommodation and services (such as car
rental or meals) do not fall into this category.
The real value
of the savings made through this procedure is 17.36% on the value of the
product, that is, it is a very generous value.
To know the
procedure for obtaining the value of VAT back click here.
European cuisine is varied, each country has its own type of cuisine.
The most famous, French cuisine, is the most prestigious due to its
sophistication and tradition, which takes place from the time of the
Kings until today. But anyway all countries have a certain
sophistication base for cooking, but always keeping their customs. It is
good to emphasize the saying "in Rome, do as the Romans do", so enjoy
your trip and gain experience in eating the most diverse types of food,
without fear.
Another thing to point out is how well Europeans
use their resources, and this began during the First World War, when
every can of canned food and other food was strictly rationed so that
there was no shortage of food in bomb shelters. This also included the
use of virtually all available meat from the animals, without wasting
anything (nothing at all, internal organs, meat, muscle, brain,
everything). And all this reflected in recent cuisine, an example of
which is escargot (which are simply snails, and they are eaten).
Europeans generally have liberal attitudes towards alcohol
consumption and alcohol is considered a normal part of leisure
gatherings. The legal drinking age varies between 16 and 18 in most
countries, often with differing limits for beer and spirits. While
inappropriate behavior can generate not only contempt or an expulsion
from the venue, but also put you at risk of being arrested or fined,
getting drunk alone is not a crime and is tolerated, although sometimes
socially frowned upon.
Except in the UK and Ireland, nightclubs
rarely run until after midnight-head to bars and restaurants to meet
people until then. Especially in the southern part of Europe, alcohol
gets to the table (and into the bloodstream) even earlier, since wine is
considered an obligatory part of a proper midday or evening meal. Public
laws on alcohol consumption vary widely, with some countries taking a
"legal unless explicitly prohibited by the municipality" approach, while
others have banned it everywhere but do not necessarily enforce
prohibition. Often there are also gaps, such as drinking "while going
from place to place" be treated differently from drinking while standing
still. Regardless of the precise legal situation, the police are much
more likely to intervene if you create confusion, behave in a noisy or
disorderly manner, or otherwise annoy yourself or others.
Of
course, drunk driving is heavily penalized everywhere you go and is now
enforced almost universally in Europe. Fines can be heavy, you can lose
your driver's license and causing any incident under the influence of
alcohol is considered a crime in many countries. Sometimes there are
also controls for other substances – in many countries, driving under
the influence of various psychoactive substances is also prosecuted.
Some substances can be detected in the blood or urine days after
consumption and the law doesn't necessarily care if those traces still
affect your ability to drive. Handling a bicycle may also be subject to
DUI limits, but these are usually applied much more flexibly and higher
to begin with. The police usually don't bother to specifically control
people on bikes, but if they stop you for some other reason (e.g. lack
of taillight) and smell alcohol on your breath, they can check you "just
in case" and give you a fine for both.
Europe is by far the dominant wine region in the world, with five out
of ten of the world's largest wine exporting countries: France , Italy ,
Spain , Germany and Portugal . Most European countries produce wine on
some scale, but in northern and much of central Europe little or no wine
is produced and wines are typically imported. The first known wine in
Europe was produced around 2,000 BC by the Minoan civilization in
present-day Greece, and was spread throughout Europe by the Phoenicians
and later the Romans.
European winemakers place much more
emphasis on tradition and terroir than on grape variety, and wines in
Europe will typically be labeled by region rather than by their grapes
(blends are common). This is because European winemakers claim that
their long history has allowed them to adapt production techniques to
the unique conditions of their specific region, and things like the
composition of a region's soil also have a lot of influence on the taste
of wine. Some of the most famous wine districts are Bordeaux ( whose
name is as synonymous with its wines as the city), and Burgundy
(Burgundy ) around the city of Dijon - its most famous wines, often
called Burgundy, are red wines made from Pinot Noir or white wines made
from Chardonnay grapes. The Alsace region near Germany and Mosel across
the border – grown in some of the continent's most dramatic vineyards on
very steep hills – are known for white wines. Tuscany in Italy is famous
for its Chianti wines made with Sangiovese grapes, while La Rioja is a
well-known Spanish wine region. If you are interested in lesser-known
fine wines, look to Moldova for the Reds, Slovenia for the Whites, or
the wines produced with the Kvevri method in Georgia .
In fact,
many wine names indicate the place of origin of the wine, and EU laws
prohibit the use of the name unless it is from a specific location.
Examples include Champagne, which must come from the Champagne region of
France , Porto, which must come from Porto, Portugal , Sherry , which
must come from Jerez de la Frontera, Spain , as well as Tokaji , which
must come from Tokaj, Hungary .
People from The" Beer Belt " of the UK, Ireland, Benelux and Central
Europe drink high-quality beer in large quantities. Germany, the
Netherlands, Belgium and the Czech Republic produce some of the best
beers in Europe and perhaps the world. Visitors from many countries,
especially those in East Asia or North America, will find that European
beers have a richer, stronger flavor and often a higher alcohol content
than found at home.
In Europe, as elsewhere, the most popular
beers are lagers , also known as Pilsner , named after the Czech city of
Pilsen that originated the style. A Czech Pilsner will taste remarkably
different from most non-Czech breweries, being slightly " milder "and
sometimes more" buttery " in flavor.
The United Kingdom, Ireland and
partly Belgian Abbey breweries, on the other hand , have strong brewing
traditions in ale, which is produced with fast-fermenting yeast , giving
it a sweet, hoppy and fruity taste. They come in bitter, light, mild and
brown varieties.
Wheat beers are very popular in Germany, Belgium and
the Netherlands and come in many varieties of their own. Traditional
German Hefeweizen is unfiltered and cloudy, while Kristall is filtered
and looks a lot like a lager beer. Belgian Witbiers like Hoegaarden
often taste mild and are popular in summer, sometimes with a lemon wedge
as a side dish. And in a class of their own are spontaneously fermenting
lambics , which are very sour and do not suit everyone!
Stout
(porter) is a British and Irish speciality, with Guinness available
across the continent. Made from roasted malts, the stout is dark and
strong in both flavor and alcohol content, hence the name.
Most
European nations have a national brand; like Guinness, Carlsberg,
Heineken or Stella, they're top sellers everywhere – but the really good
beers are often the smaller local brands, which don't try to please
everyone. Microbreweries have had a major renaissance springing up
across the continent. If you really want to indulge, try one of the
Volksfeste, which takes place in many German cities, the most famous
being the Munich Oktoberfest , where despite the name they start
drinking at the end of September! The area with the highest density of
breweries in the world is Franconia , north of Bavaria , if you're
curious.
Another northern European favorite is cider, most commonly produced from apples and sold bottled and on tap in pubs. The taste and alcohol content can vary widely, from dense, cloudy and strong (8% or more) to light, weak (less than 4%) and occasionally even artificially flavored. The United Kingdom is the largest consumer and producer of cider in the world, and the drink is also popular in Finland, France ( Brittany and Normandy ), Ireland, Spain ( Asturias and Galicia ) and Sweden. Frankfurt and the surrounding area are also famous for Äbblwöi, as the locals call their cider. Scandinavian varieties of flavored cider (apple combined with other fruits such as berries and citrus fruits) have become popular in some parts of the continent, especially among younger consumers.
Vodka, rum and gin are available everywhere. The Nordic countries, Eastern Europe and Russia are especially fond of vodka , and if so far you have only tried the usual suspects such as Smirnoff or Absolut; you should try the vodka from there; you may end up surprised at how tasty the thing can actually be. Elsewhere, most regions have a local specialty that local drinking buddies will gladly provide you with and look forward to your funny grimaces when your throat and taste buds scream in agony. Most likely it will be slivovitz (also called rakija) in southeastern Europe and the Balkans (especially Serbia), a brandy with a strong fruity taste, usually made from plums. The same name has the anise-flavored drink raki, also popular in Greece, Turkey and the Balkans. Other forms of spirits, made from grapes, such as traditional brandy (including cognac ) and Port wine , are popular in the United Kingdom and southwestern Europe. Greece and Italy produce the popular ouzo / sambuca which, along with resurgent absinthe , is made from star anise and sugar, giving it a liquorice-like flavor - note the many party fire tricks related to these drinks. In northern Europe, you will probably be served schnapps, usually made from grains or potatoes, accented by traditional herbs such as dill or sloe; be careful, it kicks in suddenly without much warning. In northern Germany, korn is the preferred liqueur, a clear drink made from grains and usually unfiltered. Armenians love their potent local fruit brandy called oghi, made with just one ingredient, with the BlackBerry (tuti oghi) being the most popular. Since the mid-2010s, there has been a significant gin renaissance starting in England, with small-scale distilleries springing up across the country and indeed across Europe, and many new gin-based flavours and cocktails being pioneered. Finally, it will hardly come as a surprise to many that whiskey (or whiskey ) is popular among the Scots and Irish. While all of these drinks have strong regional roots, you'll usually find one or two types of each in just about any bar on the continent.
Many European countries are known for their distinct cultures of coffee (Italy, France, Austria, Sweden, Greece) and tea (Great Britain, Ireland, Russia, Turkey). Spain and Italy also particularly appreciate hot chocolate . In Europe, hot chocolate is almost always bitter, rather than milk chocolate, which is generally considered only for children.
While Europe doesn't have anywhere near the variety of sugary sodas in the U.S., there are some non-alcoholic beverages that originated in Europe and are still better there. Juices are also abundant and often excellent, with apple juice available in all price and quality categories, especially in Central Europe, as the area around Lake Constance and the Altes Land near Hamburg are among the largest apple-producing regions in the world. In the Nordic countries you can try berry juices made from berries. Muslim communities in places like Turkey often offer a wide variety of fruit juices instead of alcohol.
All countries have numerous types of accommodation, from the most
luxurious hotels to youth hostels, which would be the cheapest option,
especially for backpackers and young people.
Lodging cultures in
Europe differ significantly from country to country, but most travelers
across the continent sleep in hotels . Most medium-sized cities have at
least one hotel, and usually a few of them in different price ranges.
Rooms are generally expensive : they usually cost around € 90-300 per
night, and prices even exceed this amount if you are staying in one of
the luxury hotels in most major cities. These hotels usually offer some
amenities, including TV, telephone, breakfast, etc. Some countries, such
as France, also have roadside hotels that are somewhat similar to motels
in the United States.
Due to the relatively high cost of
accommodation, hostels are popular with younger backpackers. All major
cities have them, but they are difficult to find outside the typical
tourist sites. For about 15-30 euros per night (for a bed in a
dormitory), hostels are significantly cheaper than hotels. Quality
varies widely across the continent. Hostels in Eastern Europe are much
cheaper, and sometimes much lower quality than in the western part.
Camping is also popular among Europeans themselves. These range from
camping without a trace in Scandinavia under the (more or less formally
granted) right of anyone to camp in undeveloped areas for one night,
provided nothing is damaged and no fence is crossed, to sophisticated
"long-term"camping. in places like Germany, where some people spend most
weekends and holidays in semi-permanent caravans. Usually campsites are
a cheap and comfortable way to stay – some even offer pre-built tents or
caravans, which are already equipped with most of your basic needs – but
sometimes it can be difficult to reach them if you can't or don't want
to. go there by car. Many campgrounds offer shuttle services, but they
may not run at all times of the day or as often.
There are also
several lodges of peculiar means to stay. In Sweden you can sleep in a
hotel made entirely of ice; Greece and Turkey have hotels in sandstone
or rock caves; and Sveti Stefan in Montenegro is an island village that
has been completely converted into accommodation.
Safety standards are relatively high in countries in general, but you
always have to be careful, especially in large cities, with pickpockets.
Therefore, avoid crowds (queues and elevators), always walk with a copy
of your passport in hand, never the original, which, if possible, leave
in a safe or secure place at your place of lodging.
For
emergencies, you can call 112 in any EU member country, as well as in
most other European countries – even when it is not the main local
number for emergency services. All 112 emergency centers in the EU are
legally required to be able to connect you to an English-speaking
operator. 112 can be dialed from any GSM phone, usually even phones that
are locked or have no SIM installed. Calls from a phone without a SIM
card are handled differently in some countries; for example, the
authorities in Germany completely ignore them.
Terrorist attacks
in European countries have caught the world's attention, but Europe is
generally one of the least violent continents . In most European cities,
the main risks for visitors are pickpockets and robberies. Using common
sense and being aware of your surroundings can help significantly reduce
the risk of these occurrences. Some countries, such as Russia and
Belarus, have problems with corruption and misconduct of authorities.
There are organized crime syndicates (mafia) in southern Italy and
Russia, but it takes some effort to get involved in issues as a tourist.
Pickpocketing is common in many of Europe's most touristy cities and
is a problem in many other locations, so it's worth taking extra
precautions and protecting your valuables as much as possible.
Barcelona, Rome, Prague , Madrid , Paris and Florence in particular have
a reputation for being places of theft.
Alcohol is an integral
part of many European cultures and its excessive consumption can lead to
violence and lack of judgment. In general, it is not in bars and pubs
that such problems are observed, but alcohol can cause problems on the
streets at night.
Other crime-related issues are drug use and
gang-related violence (which are more common in Britain and France ).
The few “problem areas” to avoid are the run-down suburbs of certain
urban areas (particularly in Europe's largest cities); some locations in
Eastern and Southern Europe have much higher violent crime rates and can
be very dangerous to non-locals, but these areas should not be of
interest to the average tourist. The Nordic countries and Switzerland
are generally considered the safest regions.
Other crime-related
issues are drug use and gang-related violence (which are more common in
Britain and France ). The few “problem areas” to avoid are the run-down
suburbs of certain urban areas (particularly in Europe's largest
cities); some locations in Eastern and Southern Europe have much higher
violent crime rates and can be very dangerous to non-locals, but these
areas should not be of interest to the average tourist. The Nordic
countries and Switzerland are generally considered the safest regions.
The attitude towards LGBT people varies greatly. Although most
countries in the West allow same-sex marriage and have a tolerant
attitude towards sexual minorities (at least in large, cosmopolitan
cities), Eastern Europe and especially Russia can be a dangerous
destination for LGBT travelers.
Although rivalry between
neighboring nations is generally on a friendly level and many European
countries have been multicultural for generations, racism remains a
problem in some parts of Europe. It is more often directed against
migrants and national minorities than against visitors, but people of
African and Middle Eastern origin in particular can in some
circumstances be the target of hostility. Like homophobia, racism is
most pronounced in Eastern Europe, where some governments repeatedly
stoke xenophobic fears in pursuit of political gain. Perhaps the most
widespread prejudice is antiziganism or opposition against "gypsies"
(Gypsy people and other groups of travelers). Even people who are
otherwise open-minded and cosmopolitan may have prejudiced opinions on
this issue.
Europe can be very urban and densely populated in
general,but there is also wildlife. As always, be prepared when
traveling in rural and forested or mountainous areas . All it takes is
one wrong turn on a ski slope and you get stuck.
Just as the
display of Nazi symbols is illegal in Germany, Austria and Poland, it is
illegal to display Soviet and/or communist symbols in Germany (almost
never applied), Latvia, Lithuania, Georgia and Ukraine.
Most restaurants in Europe, at least within the EU / EEA, maintain high levels of Hygiene, and in most countries tap water is safe to drink. EU citizens must apply for (or bring) the free health insurance card (EHIC), which grants you access to state-provided health care in the European Union, as well as Norway, Iceland, Switzerland and Lichtenstein, at reduced cost or free of charge, on the same terms as a resident of the country you are visiting. If you are used to freeing up health care in your own country, keep in mind that some member states require patient fees. EHIC is not travel insurance; it does not cover private health care, the cost of mountain rescues or repatriation to your home country. It also does not allow you to go abroad specifically to receive medical care. Non-EU / EEA citizens must purchase a travel insurance policy. While some countries provide free emergency care for visitors, any follow - up and repatriation treatment is your responsibility, and some countries expect you to foot the entire bill for any treatment yourself-the legendary universal health care system does not equal free treatment for non-EU citizens.
The use of the term "Europe" developed gradually throughout history.
In antiquity, the Greek historian Herodotus probably in reference to
maps by Hecataeus of Miletus though without explicitly naming it,
describes the world as having been divided into three continents, these
being Europe, Asia, and Libya (Africa), with the Nile and the Phasis
river forming their borders, although he also states that some regarded
the Don River, rather than the Phasis, as the boundary between Europe
and Asia. Josephus and The Book of Jubilees describe the continents as
the lands given by Noah to his three sons, Europe being defined between
the columns of Hercules in the Strait of Gibraltar, separating it from
Africa, and the River Don, separating it from Asia.
The cultural
definition of Europe as lands of Latin Christendom consolidated in the
eighth century, signifying a new cultural site created through the
confluence of Germanic traditions and Christian-Latin culture, defined
in part in contrast to Islam and the Byzantine Empire, and bounded to
the north by Iberia (in the Caucasus), the British Isles, France,
Christianized West Germany, and the alpine regions of northern and
central Italy. This division, both geographical and cultural, was used
until the late Middle Ages, when it was challenged by the age of
discovery. The problem of redefining Europe was finally solved in 1730
when, instead of canals, the Swedish geographer and cartographer von
Strahlenberg proposed the Ural Mountains as the most important border in
the East, a suggestion that was accepted in Russia and throughout
Europe.
Europe is now generally defined by geographers as the
western peninsula of Eurasia, with its boundaries marked by large bodies
of water to the north, west, and South; Europe's boundaries to the Far
East are usually taken for the Urals, the Ural River, and the Caspian
Sea to the southeast, the Caucasus Mountains, The Black Sea, and the
waterways connecting the Black Sea to the Mediterranean Sea.
Sometimes the word "Europe" is used in a geopolitically limited way to
refer only to the European Union or, even more exclusively, to a defined
cultural core. On the other hand, the Council of Europe has 47 member
countries, and only 28 member states are part of the European Union. In
addition, people living in insular areas such as Ireland, the United
Kingdom, in the North Atlantic and Mediterranean and islands also in
Scandinavia may routinely refer to the "mainland" part or the
"continent" of Europe or simply as "the continent".
In Greek mythology, Europa was a Phoenician princess whom Zeus
kidnapped after taking the form of a dazzling white bull. He took her to
the island of Crete, where she gave birth to Minos, Rhadamanthus and
Sarpedon. For Homer, Europa (Greek: Εὐρώπη, Eurṓpē) was a mythological
Queen of Crete and not a geographical designation. Later, the term
Europe was used to refer to North-Central Greece, and by 500 BC, its
meaning was extended to the lands to the North.
The name Europa
is of uncertain etymology. One theory suggests that the word is derived
from the Greek εὐρύς (eurus), meaning "wide, broad" and ὤπ /ψπ-/ππτ-
(ōps/ōp-/opt-) meaning "eye, face, countenance", so Eurṓpē would be
something like "wide contemplation". Broad was an epithet of the land
itself in Proto-Indo-European religion. Another theory suggests that the
term is based on a Semitic word as meaning the same as the Akkadian
erebu, something like "to go down, to put up" (cf. West), a cognate of
the Phoenician ereb " night; Maghreb Arabic, Hebrew Ma'ariv (see Erebus,
PIE *h1regʷos,"darkness"). However, M. L. West states that
"phonologically, the correspondence between the name of Europa and any
form of the Semitic word is very poor".
The major languages of
the world use words derived from" Europe "to refer to the" continent "
(Peninsula). Chinese, for example, uses the word Ōuzhōu (歐洲); this term
is also used to refer to the European Union in Japanese-language
diplomatic relations, despite the term katakana (ヨーロッパ yōroppa?) be most
commonly used. However, in some Turkic languages, the originally Persian
name Frangistan (land of the Franks) is used casually to refer to much
of Europe, in addition to official names such as Avrupa or Evropa.
Homo erectus and Neanderthalis inhabited Europe well before the
emergence of Moderna humans, Homo sapiens. The bones of the first
Europeans were found in Dmanisi, Georgia, and dated to 1.8 million years
ago. The first appearance of anatomically Moderna people in Europe is
dated to 35,000 B.C. evidence of permanent settlements dates to the 7th
millennium B.C. in Bulgaria, Romania and Greece. The Neolithic period
arrived in central Europe in the 6th millennium BC and in parts of
Northern Europe in the 5th and 4th millennium BC.. The Tripilian
civilization (5,508-2,750 BC) was the first major civilization in Europe
and one of the first in the world; it was located in moderna Ukraine and
also in Moldavia and Romania. It was probably older than the Sumerians
in the Near East, and had cities with 15,000 inhabitants covering 450
hectares.
Beginning in the Neolithic, there is the camun
civilization in Val Camonica, Italy, which left more than 350,000
petroglyphs, the largest archaeological site in Europe.
Also
known as the Copper Age, the European Chalcolithic was a time of change
and confusion. The most relevant fact was the infiltration and invasion
of immense parts of the territory by peoples originating from Central
Asia, considered by the main historians to be the original
indo-Europeans, but there are still several theories in debate. Another
phenomenon was the expansion of Megalithism and the appearance of the
first significant economic stratification and, related to this, the
first known monarchies of the Balkan region. The first well-known
civilization in Europe was the Minoans on the island of Crete and then
the Mycenaeans in adjacent parts of Greece in the early 2nd millennium
BC..
Although the use of iron was known to the Aegean peoples
around 1100 BC, it did not reach Central Europe until 800 BC, leading to
the beginning of the Hallstatt culture, an evolution of the Iron Age
(which until then was found in the Urnfield culture). Probably as a
by-product of this technological superiority, soon after the
indo-Europeans clearly consolidated their positions in Italy and the
Iberian Peninsula, penetrating deeply into those peninsulas (Rome was
founded in 753 BC).
The Greeks and Romans left a legacy in Europe that is evident in
today's thoughts, laws, minds and languages. Ancient Greece was a union
of city-states, in which a primitive form of democracy developed. Athens
was its most powerful and developed city, and a cradle of teaching in
The Times of Pericles. Citizen forums took place and state policing
ordered the appearance of the most notable classical philosophers, such
as Socrates, Plato and Aristotle. As king of the Greek kingdom of
Macedonia, Alexander the Great's military campaigns spread Hellenic
culture to the headwaters of the Indus river.
But the Roman
Republic, underpinned by victory over Carthage in the Punic Wars, was
growing in the region. Greek wisdom passed on to Roman institutions,
just as Athens itself was absorbed under the banner of the Senate and
the people of Rome. The Romans expanded their empire from Arabia to
Britain. In 44 BC when it reached its apex, its leader Julius Caesar was
killed on suspicion of corrupting the Republic to become a dictator. In
succession, Octavian usurped the roots of power and dissolved the Roman
Senate. When he proclaimed the rebirth of the Republic he, in fact,
transferred the power of the Roman Senate as a republic to an empire,
the Roman Empire.
When Emperor Constantine reconquered Rome under the banner of the
Cross in 312, he quickly issued the Edict of Milan in 313, declaring
Christianity legal in the Roman Empire. In addition, Constantine
officially moved the capital of the empire, Rome, to the Greek colony of
Byzantium, which he renamed Constantinople ("City of Constantine"). In
395, Theodosius, who made Christianity the official religion of the
Roman Empire, was to be the last emperor to command the Roman Empire in
its entirety, the Empire being then divided into two parts: the Western
Roman Empire, centered in Ravenna, and the Eastern Roman Empire (later
referred to as the Byzantine Empire) centered in Constantinople. The
western part was subsequently attacked by nomadic Germanic tribes, and
in 476 finally fell under the invasion of the Heruli commanded by
Odoacer.
Roman authority in the West collapsed and the western
provinces soon became pieces of Germanic kingdoms. However, the city of
Rome under the command of the Roman Catholic Church remained a center of
learning, and did much to preserve classical Roman thought in Western
Europe. In the meantime, the Roman emperor in Constantinople, Justinian
I, successfully managed to assemble all Roman law into the body of Civil
Law (529-534). Throughout the sixth century, the Eastern Roman Empire
was involved in a series of bloody conflicts, first against the Sassanid
Empire, then against the Orthodox caliphate. In 650, the provinces of
Egypt, Palestine, and Syria were lost to Muslim forces.
In
Western Europe, a political structure emerged: in the power vacuum left
by the collapse of Rome, local hierarchies were built under the Union of
the people on the lands that were worked. Tithes were paid to the Lord
of the land and this Lord owed tribute to the regional Prince. Tithes
were used to finance the state and wars. This was the feudal system, in
which new princes and Kings appeared, in which the greatest of them was
the Frankish leader Charlemagne. In 800, Charlemagne, after his great
territorial conquests, was crowned Emperor of the Romans ("Imperator
Romanorum") by Pope Leo III, effectively asserting his power in Western
Europe. Charlemagne's reign marked the beginning of a new Germanic
Empire in the West, the Holy Roman Empire. Beyond its borders New forces
were growing. Kievan Rus ' was delimiting its territory, great Moravia
was growing, while the angles and Saxons were confirming their borders.
The Renaissance was a cultural movement that profoundly affected
European intellectual life in its pre-Moderna period. Beginning in
Italy, and spreading from North to West, the Renaissance lasted
approximately 250 years and its influence affected literature,
philosophy, art, politics, science, history, religion among other
aspects of intellectual inquiry.
The Italian Francesco Petrarch
(Francesco di Petracco), supposed first legitimate humanist, wrote in
the 1330s: "I am alive now, even if I would rather have been born in
another time". He was an enthusiast of Roman and Greek antiquity. In the
fifteenth and sixteenth centuries, the continuing enthusiasm for
classical antiquity was reinforced by the idea that the inherited
culture was dissipating and that there was a set of ideas and attitudes
with which it would be possible to rebuild it. Matteo Palmieri wrote in
1430: "now surely every thinking spirit must thank God, because he has
been allowed to be born into a new age." The Renaissance gave birth to a
new era in which learning was very important.
Important political
precedents took place in this period. The politician Niccolo Machiavelli
wrote "The Prince" which influenced later absolutism and pragmatic
politics. Also important were the various leaders who ruled states and
used Renaissance art as a sign of their powers.
During this
period, the corruption of the Catholic Church led to a harsh reaction in
the Protestant Reformation. And she gained many followers, especially
among princes and Kings seeking a strong state to end the influence of
the Catholic Church. Figures such as Martin Luther began to emerge, as
well as John Calvin with his Calvinism that had influence in many
countries and King Henry VIII of England who broke with the Catholic
Church and founded the Anglican Church. These religious divisions
brought a wave of wars inspired and conducted religiously, but also by
the ambition of monarchs in Western Europe who became increasingly
centralized and powerful.
The Protestant Reformation also led to
a strong reform movement in the Catholic Church called The
Counter-Reformation, which aimed to reduce corruption as well as
increase and strengthen Catholic dogma. An important group in the
Catholic Church that emerged at this time were the Jesuits, who helped
keep Eastern Europe in the Catholic line of thought. Even so, the
Catholic Church was greatly weakened by the Reformation, and much of the
continent was no longer under its influence, and Kings in countries that
remained Catholic began to annex church lands to their own dominions.
The numerous wars did not prevent the new states from exploring and
conquering large portions of the world, particularly in Asia (Siberia)
and the newly discovered America. They were the first states to found
colonies in America and trading stations on the coasts of Africa and
Asia, but were soon followed by France, England and Holland. In 1552,
Russian Tsar Ivan the terrible conquered the two largest Tatar khanates,
Kazan and Astrakhan, and Yermak's journey in 1580, which led to Russia's
annexation of Siberia.
Colonial expansion continued in the
following years (even with some obstacles, such as the American
Revolution and the wars for independence in many American colonies).
Spain controlled part of North America and much of Central and South
America, the Caribbean/the Caribbean and the Philippines.; Portugal had
in its hands Brazil and most of the coastal territories in Africa and
Asia (India and small territories in China, etc.); The British commanded
Australia, New Zealand, most of India, and much of Africa and North
America; France commanded parts of Canada and India (but almost
everything was lost to the British in 1763), Indochina, large lands in
Africa and the Caribbean; The Netherlands gained the East Indies (now
Indonesia) and some islands in the Caribbean; countries such as Germany,
Belgium, Italy and Russia gained colonies later.
This expansion
helped the economies of the countries that made it. Trade prospered,
because of less stability between empires. At the end of the XVI
century, American Silver accounted for 1/5 of all trade in Spain.
European countries fought wars that were paid for by the money made from
the exploitation of the colonies. However, profits from the slave trade
and plantations of the West Indies, the most profitable of the British
colonies at that time, accounted for only 5% of the entire economy of
the British Empire at the end of the eighteenth century, the time of the
Industrial Revolution.
From the beginning of this period, capitalism replaced feudalism as
the main form of economic organization, at least in western Europe. The
expansion of colonial frontiers resulted in a commercial revolution. The
period saw the growth of moderna science and the application of its
discoveries in technological improvements, which culminated in the
Industrial Revolution. Iberian discoveries of the New World, which began
with Christopher Columbus's journey to the West with the search for an
easy route to the East Indies in 1492, were soon adapted by English and
French explorations in North America. New forms of trade and the
expansion of Horizons made a change in international law necessary.
The Protestant Reformation had profound effects on European unity.
Not only did Nations divide from each other by their religious
orientation, but some states were affected internally by religious
strife, strongly encouraged by their external enemies. France
experienced this situation in the sixteenth century with a series of
conflicts, such as the religious wars in France, which culminated in the
triumph of the Bourbon dynasty. England forewarned itself of this fact
with the consolidation under Queen Elizabeth of moderate Anglicanism.
Almost the entire part of present-day Germany was divided into numerous
states under the theoretical command of the Holy Roman Empire, which was
also divided within the government itself. The only exception to this
was the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth, a union created by the Union of
Lublin, expressing great religious tolerance. This religious clash
happened until the Thirty Years ' War when nationalism replaced religion
as the main engine of conflicts in Europe.
The Thirty Years ' War
took place between 1618 and 1648, mainly in the territory of present-day
Germany, and involved the main European powers. It began as a religious
conflict between Protestants and Catholics in the Holy Roman Empire, and
gradually developed into a general war, involving much of Europe, for
reasons not necessarily linked to religion. The greatest impact of the
war, in which mercenary armies were widely used, was the devastation of
entire regions in pursuit of the enemy army. Episodes such as the spread
of famine and disease devastated the population of the German states
and, to a lesser extent, the Netherlands and Italy, where they
bankrupted many of the regional powers involved. Between a quarter and a
third of the German population perished from causes directly linked to
the war or from disease and misery caused by the armed conflict. The war
lasted thirty years, but the conflicts it started still remained
unresolved for a long time.
After the peace of Westphalia, which
allowed countries to choose their religious orientation, absolutism
became the standard of the continent, while England moved towards
liberalism with the English Civil War and The Glorious Revolution.
Military conflicts in Europe did not end, but they had less impact on
the lives of its citizens. In the Northwest, the Enlightenment gave the
philosophical basis for a new point of view in society, and the
continuous spread of literature was made possible by the invention of
the printing press, creating new ways of advancing human thought. Still,
in this segment, the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth was an exception,
with its quasi-democratic "Golden freedom".
Eastern Europe was an
arena of conflict contested by Sweden, the Polish-Lithuanian
Commonwealth and the Ottoman Empire. In this period there was a gradual
decline of these three powers which were eventually replaced by the new
absolutist monarchies, Russia, Prussia and Austria. At the turn of the
nineteenth century, they became the new powers, dividing Poland among
themselves, with Sweden and Turkey losing substantial territories to
Russia and Austria respectively. A large portion of Polish/Polish Jews
emigrated to Western Europe, founding Jewish communities in places from
which they were expelled during the Middle Ages.
The French intervention in the American War of Independence
bankrupted the French state. After several failed attempts at financial
reform, Louis XVI was forced to revive the Assembly of the estates
general, a representative body of the country made up of the three
classes of the state: the clergy, the nobles and the people. The members
of the States-General met at the Palace of Versailles in May 1789, but
the debate and the form of voting that would be used created an impasse.
June came, and the third state, joined by members of the other two
states, declared itself a National Assembly and promised not to dissolve
itself until France had a constitution and created, in July, a National
Constituent Assembly. At the same time, Parisians revolted, famously
overthrowing the Bastille prison on July 14, 1789.
In this time,
the Assembly created a constitutional monarchy, and in the two years
that passed several laws were created such as the Declaration of the
rights of Man and citizen, the abolition of feudalism and a fundamental
change in relations between France and Rome. At first, the king remained
on the throne throughout these changes and enjoyed reasonable popularity
with the people, but anti-royalty grew with the danger of a foreign
invasion. Then the king, without powers, decided to flee with his
family, but he was recognized back to Paris. On 12 January 1793, on
conviction for his treason, he was executed.
On September 20,
1792, the National Convention abolished the monarchy and declared France
a republic. Due to the imminence of wars, the National Convention
created the committee of Public Salvation controlled by Maximilien
Robespierre of the Jacobin party, to act as the country's executive.
Under Robespierre the committee initiated the reign of Terror, in which
some 40,000 people were executed in Paris, mostly nobles, although
evidence was often lacking. Throughout the country,
counter-revolutionary insurrections were brutally suppressed. The regime
was brought down in the coup of 9 Thermidor (27 July 1794) and
Robespierre was executed. The regime that followed ended the Terror and
loosened most of Robespierre's Extreme Rules.
Napoleon Bonaparte
was the most successful French general in the wars of the revolution,
having conquered large portions of the Italian peninsula and forced the
Austrians to peace. In 1799, he returned from Egypt and on 18 Brumaire
(9 November) subdued the government, replacing it with his Consulate, of
which he became the First Consul. On 2 December 1804, after an
assassination attempt, he crowned himself emperor. In 1805, Napoleon
planned to invade Britain, but the newly formed alliance between the
British, Russians and Austrians (third coalition) forced him to turn his
attention to the continent, when at the same time he had failed to
divert the Superior British Armada away from the English Channel,
causing a decisive French defeat at the Battle of Trafalgar on 21
October, and putting an end to his hopes of invading Britain. On 2
December 1805, Napoleon defeated the numerically superior austro-Russian
army at Austerlitz, forcing Austria to withdraw from the coalition and
leading to the fragmentation of the Holy Roman Empire. In 1806, the
fourth coalition was formed; on 14 October Napoleon defeated the
Prussians at the Battle of Jena-Auerstedt, marching through Germany and
defeating the Russians on 14 June 1807 at Friedland. The Treaties of
Tilsit divided Europe between France and Russia and created the Duchy of
Warsaw.
On June 12, 1812, Napoleon invaded Russia with his Grande
Armée of approximately 700,000 soldiers. After the victories at Smolensk
and Borodino, Napoleon occupied Moscow, only to find it burned by the
retreating Russian army. Thus, he was forced to beat with his retreating
army. On the way back his army was ravaged by Cossacks and suffered from
disease, starvation and the harsh Russian winter. Only 20,000 soldiers
survived that campaign. In 1813, Napoleon's decline began, being
defeated by the army of the Seven nations at the Battle of Leipzig in
October 1813. He was forced to abdicate after the Six-Day campaign and
the occupation of Paris. Under the Treaty of Fontainebleau he was exiled
to the island of Elba. He returned to France on 1 March 1815 and raised
a loyal army, but was understandably defeated by British and Prussian
forces at the Battle of Waterloo on 18 June 1815.
After the defeat of revolutionary France, other major forces tried to
restore the situation existing before 1789. In 1815, at the Congress of
Vienna, the largest forces in Europe organized to produce a peaceful
balance of power between the empires after the Napoleonic Wars (although
internal revolutionary movements were taking place) under the Matternich
system. However, their efforts were unable to stop the spread of
revolutionary movements: the middle class was deeply influenced by the
ideals of democracy of the French Revolution, the Industrial Revolution
brought important socio-economic changes, the lower classes began to be
influenced by socialist, communist and anarchist ideas (especially
united by Karl Marx in the Communist Manifesto), and the preference of
the New Capitalists was liberalism.
A new wave of instability
came from the formation of various nationalist movements (in Germany,
Italy, Poland, etc.), seeking national unity and / or liberation from
foreign rule. As a result, the period between 1815 and 1871 was the
scene of a large number of conflicts and wars of independence. Napoleon
III, nephew of Napoleon I, returned from exile in England in 1848 to be
elected by the French parliament, as the then "President-Prince" and in
a coup d'état to elect himself emperor, later approved by the vast
majority of the French electorate. He helped in the unification of Italy
by fighting against the Austrian Empire and fought the Crimean War with
England and the Ottoman Empire against Russia. His empire collapsed
after an infamous defeat to Prussia, in which he was captured. France
then became a weak Republic that refused to negotiate and was defeated
by Prussia within months. At Versailles, King William I Of Prussia was
proclaimed Emperor of Germany and moderna Germany was born. Even though
most revolutionaries were defeated, many European states became
constitutional monarchies, and by 1871 Germany and Italy had developed
into nation-states. The nineteenth century also saw the British Empire
emerge as the world's first global power due in large part to the
Industrial Revolution and victory in the Napoleonic Wars.
The
peace would only last until the Ottoman Empire declined sufficiently to
become the target of others. This incited the Crimean War in 1854, and
began a tense period of minor conflicts between the dominant nations of
Europe that took the first step towards the subsequent First World War.
This changed a third time with the end of several wars that transformed
the Kingdom of Sardinia and the Kingdom of Prussia into the nations of
Italy and Germany, significantly changing the balance of power in
Europe. From 1870, Bismarckian hegemony in Europe put France in a
critical situation. She slowly rebuilt her international relations,
seeking alliances with Britain and Russia, to rein in Germany's growing
power over Europe. In this way, two opposing sides formed in Europe,
increasing their military forces and their alliances year by year.
The Industrial Revolution was a period between the end of the eighteenth century and the beginning of the nineteenth century, in which great changes occurred in agriculture, manufacturing and transport and produced a profound socio-economic and cultural effect in Great Britain, which subsequently spread throughout Europe, North America, and then to the whole world, in a process that still continues: industrialization. In the late 1700s the economy based on manual force in the Kingdom of Great Britain began to be replaced by one dominated by industry and machinery. It began with the mechanization of textile industries, the development of advanced iron production techniques, and the increased use of refined coal. The expansion of trade was made possible by the introduction of canals, highways and motorways. The introduction of steam engines (supplied primarily with coal) and crude machinery (mainly in textile manufacturing) provided the basis for large increases in English productive capacity. The development of machine tools in the first two decades of the nineteenth century facilitated the production of more machines for use in other industries. During the nineteenth century, industrialization spread throughout the rest of Western Europe and North America, subsequently affecting much of the world.
After relative peace for most of the nineteenth century, rivalry
between the European powers exploded in 1914 when World War I began.
More than 60 million European soldiers were mobilized between 1914 and
1918. On one side were Germany, Austria-Hungary, the Ottoman Empire and
Bulgaria (Central Powers/Triple Alliance), while on the other side were
Serbia and the Triple Entente — the elastic coalition between France,
the United Kingdom and Russia, which gained the participation of Italy
in 1915 and the United States in 1917. Although Russia was defeated in
1917 (the war was one of the major causes of the Russian Revolution,
leading to the formation of the Communist Soviet Union), the Entente
finally prevailed in the fall of 1918.
In the Treaty of
Versailles (1919) the victors imposed severe conditions on Germany and
the newly recognized states (such as Poland, Czechoslovakia, Hungary,
Austria, Yugoslavia, Finland, Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania) created in
Central Europe from the defunct German, Austro-Hungarian and Russian
empires, supposedly on the basis of self-definition. Most of these
countries would enter local wars, the largest of which was the
Polish-Soviet war (1919-1921). In the following decades, fear of
communism and the Great Depression (1929-1943) led to nationalist
extremist groups — under the category of fascism — in Italy (1922),
Germany (1933), Spain (after the civil War, ended in 1939) and in other
countries such as Hungary.
After allying with Mussolini's Italy
in the pact of steel and signing the non-aggression pact with the Soviet
Union, German dictator Adolf Hitler began World War II on September 1,
1939 by invading Poland, following a military expansion that occurred in
the late 1930s. After initial successes (mainly the conquest of western
Poland, much of Scandinavia, France and the Balkans before 1941), Axis
forces began to weaken in 1941. Hitler's main ideological opponents were
the Communists of the Soviet Union, but because of the German failure to
defeat the United Kingdom and the Italian failures in North Africa and
the Mediterranean, the Axis forces were reduced to Western Europe,
Scandinavia, as well as attacks on Africa. The attack made later on the
Soviet Union (which together with Germany divided central Europe in
1939-1940) was not made with the necessary force. Despite an initial
success, the German army was stopped near Moscow in December 1941.
It was not until the following year that the German advance would be
stopped and they would begin to suffer a series of defeats, as for
example in the battles of Stalingrad and Kursk. In the meantime, Japan
(an ally of Germany and Italy since September 1940) attacked the British
in Southeast Asia and the United States in Hawaii on December 7, 1941;
Germany and Italy declared war on the United States in union with their
ally. The war increased tension between the Axis (Germany, Italy and
Japan) and the Allies (United Kingdom, Soviet Union and the United
States). Allied forces won in North Africa and invaded Italy in 1943,
and occupied France in 1944. In the spring of 1945, Germany was invaded
from the East by the Soviet Union and from the West by the Allies;
Hitler committed suicide and Germany surrendered in early May ending the
war in Europe.
The period was also marked by an industrialized
and planned genocide of more than 11 million people, including most of
Europe's Jews and gypsies, as well as millions of Poles and Soviet
Slavs. The Soviet system of forced labor, the expulsions of the
population of the Soviet Union and the Great Famine of Ukraine had a
similar burden of deaths. During and after the war, millions of
civilians were affected by forced population transfers.
The first and especially the Second World War ended the preponderant
position of Western Europe. The map of the continent was redrawn at the
Yalta Conference and divided became the main zone of contention in the
Cold War between two blocs, the Western countries and the Eastern Bloc.
The United States and Western Europe (United Kingdom, France, Italy,
Portugal, Netherlands, West Germany, Norway, etc.) established the NATO
alliance as protection against a possible Soviet invasion. Later, the
Soviet Union and Eastern Europe (Poland, Czechoslovakia, Hungary,
Romania, Bulgaria, and East Germany) established the Warsaw Pact as
protection against a possible invasion by the United States.
At
the same time, Western Europe slowly began a process of political and
economic integration, desiring a united and integrated continent to
prevent another war. This process naturally resulted in the development
of organizations such as the European Union and the Council of Europe.
The Solidarność movement that took place in the 1980s weakened the
communist government in Poland, was the beginning of the end of
communist rule in Eastern Europe and the decline of the Soviet Union.
Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev instituted Perestroika and Glasnost,
which officially weakened Soviet influence in Eastern Europe.
Soviet-backed governments collapsed and West Germany annexed East
Germany in 1990. In 1991, the Soviet Union itself collapsed, splitting
into 15 states, with Russia taking the Soviet Union's place in the UN
Security Council. Meanwhile, the most violent separation took place in
Yugoslavia, in the Balkans. Four (Slovenia, Croatia, Bosnia and
Herzegovina and Macedonia) of the six Yugoslav republics declared
independence and for most of them a violent war ensued, in some parts
until 1995. In 2006, Montenegro seceded and declared independence,
followed by Kosovo, formally an autonomous province of Serbia, in 2008,
and completely erasing the old map of Yugoslavia/Yugoslavia. In the
post-Cold War era, NATO and the European Union were gradually admitting
most of the former Warsaw Pact member states.
In 1992, the Maastricht Treaty was signed by the then members of the
European Union. This transformed the "European project" from being an
economic community with certain political aspects, into a union with
intense cooperation and prosperity based on a union of national
sovereignties. In 1985, the Schengen Agreement created a borderless area
without passport control between the states that signed it.
A
common currency for most European Union member states, the euro, was
established electronically in 1999, officially sharing all the
currencies of each participant with the others. The new currency was put
into circulation in 2002, and the old ones were withdrawn from the
markets. Only three countries out of the fifteen member states have
decided not to join the euro (United Kingdom, Denmark and Sweden). In
2004, the EU ordered its further expansion, admitting 10 new members
(eight of which were former communist states). Two others joined the
group in 2007, for a total of 27 nations.
A treaty establishing a
constitution for the EU was signed in Rome in 2004, with the intention
of replacing all the old treaties with just one document. However, its
ratification was never made due to the rejection of the French and
Dutch, via referendum. In 2007, it was agreed to replace that proposal
with a new reformed treaty, the Treaty of Lisbon, which would come in as
an amendment rather than replacing existing treaties. This treaty was
signed on December 13, 2007 and would enter into force in January 2009
if ratified by that date. This would give the European Union its first
president and foreign minister.
The Balkans are the region of the
continent most keen to join the European Union, with Croatia being the
last country to be accepted into the bloc, in 2013. Formal negotiations
for the entry of Albania and North Macedonia are underway.
Europe constitutes the Western fifth of the Eurasian landmass,
bounded by bodies of water on three sides: the Arctic Ocean to the
North, The Atlantic Ocean to the West, and the Mediterranean Sea to the
South. Europe's eastern borders are poorly defined and have shifted
eastward throughout history. Currently, the Ural and Caucasus Mountains,
the Caspian and Black Seas and the Bosporus Strait are considered its
eastern border, making Istanbul the only metropolis in the world on two
continents. Cyprus is also considered part of Europe culturally and
historically, if not necessarily geographically. Geographical boundaries
are a controversial issue and several eastern boundaries have been
proposed.
The highest point in Europe is Mount Elbrus in Russia
in the Caucasus Mountains, which rises to 5,642 m (18,510 ft) above sea
level. Outside the Caucasus, the highest point is Mont Blanc in the Alps
at 4,810 m (15,771 ft) above sea level. Other important mountain ranges
include the Pyrenees, between France and Spain, the Carpathians , which
run through Central Europe to the Balkans, and the Scandinavian
Mountains, which dominate Norway and part of Sweden. Most regions along
the North and Baltic seas are flat, especially eastern England, the
Netherlands, northern Germany and Denmark. The North and Baltic Seas
feature labyrinthine archipelagos and hundreds of kilometers of sandy
beaches.
The largest river in Europe is the Volga, which winds
3,530 km (2,193 Mi) through Russia and empties into the Caspian Sea. The
Danube and Rhine formed much of the northern border of the Roman Empire
and have been important waterways since prehistoric times. The Danube
begins in the Black Forest in Germany and passes through the Capitals
Vienna, Bratislava, Budapest and Belgrade before emptying into the Black
Sea. The Rhine rises in the Swiss Alps and originated the Rhine Falls,
the largest flat waterfall in Europe. From there, it forms the
franco-German border crossing West Germany and the Netherlands. Many
castles and fortifications were built along the Rhine, including those
in the Rhine Valley .
Most of Europe has a temperate climate . It is milder than other
areas of the same latitude (e.g. northeastern US) due to the influence
of the Gulf Stream. However, there are profound differences in the
climates of different regions. The climate of Europe ranges from
subtropical near the Mediterranean Sea in the south to subarctic and
Arctic near the Barents Sea and the Arctic Ocean.
In general,
seasonal differences increase further inland, from a few degrees on the
small islands of the Atlantic, to the scorching summer sun and frosty
winter on the Russian plains.
The Atlantic and mountainous
regions experience high rainfall; especially northwestern Spain, the
United Kingdom, Ireland, Norway, the Alps and the Dinaric mountains in
the Western Balkans . North of the Alps, summers are slightly rainier
than winters. In the Mediterranean, most of the rain falls in winter,
while summers are usually dry.
Winters are relatively cold in
Europe, even in Mediterranean countries. The only areas with daily highs
around 15°C in January are Andalusia in Spain, some Greek islands and
the Turkish Riviera. Western Europe averages around 4-8°C in January,
but temperatures drop below freezing during the Winter. Regions east of
Berlin have cold temperatures with average highs below freezing. Moscow
and St. Petersburg in Russia have average highs of -5°C and lows of
-10°C in January. Most Nordic countries have averages below -10°C.
Winter in Europe can be more comfortable to spend in the light and
warmth of a big city, unless you specifically want to enjoy the snow. In
December, Christmas fairs and other Christmas and New Year attractions
can be found . While tourism peaks during the holidays, the rest of
winter is low season in the cities, providing decently cheap
accommodations and fewer crowds at famous attractions.
Although
the winter sports season begins in December in the Alps and other snowy
regions, daylight and accumulated snow may be scarce until February. The
mountains of the Alps, Pyrenees , Carpathians and Scandinavia snow until
spring, while the valleys warm up; allowing visitors to experience many
seasons in the same day. The highest peaks of the Alps have perpetual
snow.
Most of Europe has the most comfortable climate in summer,
although southern Europe can get unbearably hot. In August, the United
Kingdom, Ireland, the Benelux, Germany and northern France record
average highs of around 23°C, but these temperatures cannot be taken for
granted. The Mediterranean has the most hours of sunshine in Europe and
the highest temperatures. The average temperatures in August are 28°C in
Barcelona , 30°C in Rome, 33°C in Athens and 34°C in Alanya along the
Turkish Riviera . Many workplaces close in July or August, leaving the
cities deserted and the coastline crowded. Due to global warming, heat
waves with temperatures above 30°C are becoming increasingly common in
the summer months, even in high latitudes such as England and the
Netherlands.
Autumn provides colourful trees and fruit and
vegetable harvesting, with associated festivals (see agritourism), and
is a good time to visit the countryside.
Summers have more
daylight than winter; variation increases with latitude. At 60 degrees
north ( Shetland Islands, Oslo, Stockholm, Helsinki and St. Petersburg),
White Nights can be enjoyed in June, while the sun stays above the
horizon for only six hours in December. North of the Arctic Circle,
visitors can see the Midnight Sun in summer and the Arctic night in
winter.
The European Meteorological Services Network has a useful
website that provides up-to-date information on extreme weather,
covering most European countries.
European relief shows great variation within relatively small areas.
The southern regions are more mountainous, and as one moves north the
terrain descends from the High Alps, Pyrenees and Carpathians, through
mountainous plateaus and low Northern Plains, which are vast to the
East. This extended plain is known as the Great European plain, and at
its heart lies the North German plain. An arc of Highlands also exists
along the north-western coast, which begins in the western part of the
island of Great Britain and Ireland, and continues along the mountainous
spine, with cut fjords, of Norway.
This description is
simplified. Sub-regions such as the Iberian Peninsula and the Italian
peninsula contain their own complex features, as does continental
Central Europe itself, where the relief contains many plateaus, river
valleys and basins that complicate the overall trend. Subregions such as
Iceland, Great Britain and Ireland are special cases. The first is an
independent land in the northern ocean that is considered to be part of
Europe, while the other two are mountain areas that were once part of
the continent until sea level cut them off from the main landmass.
The continent has a complex hydrographic network, with large rivers
such as the Volga in Russia and the Danube, which crosses territories
(or delimits borders) of Germany, Austria, the Czech Republic, Croatia,
Hungary, Serbia, Romania, Bulgaria and Ukraine. The Volga River is the
largest river in Europe. It begins at Lake Ladoga and flows in a
north-south direction through the Western Region of Russia until it
flows into the Caspian Sea.
Among the European lakes stand out
the Caspian Sea, located on the border with Asia and which has 371
thousand km2; and Lake Ladoga, in the Russian Federation, the latter the
largest located entirely on the continent, with 17 700 km2 of area.
Other extensive lakes are the Onega, the Vener, the Saimaa, the Veter,
among others.
Since the Renaissance, Europe has had a great influence on culture,
economy and social movements in the world. The most significant
inventions originated in the Western world, mainly in Europe and the
United States. Some current and past issues in European demography have
included religious emigration, race relations, economic immigration, the
declining birth rate, and the aging population.
In some
countries, such as Ireland and Poland, access to abortion is currently
limited. In the past, such restrictions and also restrictions on
artificial birth control were common throughout Europe. Abortion remains
illegal on the island of Malta, where Catholicism is the state religion.
In addition, three European countries (the Netherlands, Belgium and
Switzerland) and the Autonomous Community of Andalusia (Spain) have
allowed a limited form of voluntary euthanasia for terminally ill
patients.
In 2005, Europe's population was estimated at 731
million according to the United Nations, which is slightly more than
one-ninth of the world's population. A century earlier, Europe had
almost a quarter of the world's population. The population of Europe
grew in the last XX century, but in other regions of the world
(especially in Africa and Asia), the population has grown much faster.
Among the continents, Europe has a relatively high population density,
second only to Asia. The most densely populated country in Europe is the
Netherlands, third in the world ranking after South Korea and
Bangladesh. Pan and Pfeil (2004) count 87 distinct "peoples of Europe",
of which 33 form the majority of the population in at least one
sovereign state, while the remaining 54 constitute ethnic minorities.
According to the UN population projection, Europe's population could
fall to about 7% of the world's population by 2050, or 653 million
people (medium variant, 556 to 777 million in low and high variant,
respectively/respectively). In this context, there are significant
disparities between regions regarding fertility rates. The average
number of children per woman of reproductive age is 1.52. According to
some sources, this rate is higher among Muslim Europeans. The UN
predicts the continued decline in the population of vast areas of
Eastern Europe. The population of Russia is decreasing by at least 700
thousand people every year. The country today has 13 thousand
uninhabited villages.
Southern Europe and Western Europe are the
regions with the highest average number of elderly people in the world,
currently comprising 21% of the population over the age of 65. Europe is
predicted to reach 30% by 2050. This is because the population has had
children below replacement level since the 1970s. The United Nations
predicts that Europe will decrease its population between 2022 and 2050
by -7 percent, with no change in immigration movements.
Europe is
home to the largest number of migrants of any region in the world, at
70.6 million people, according to an IOM report. In 2005, the EU had an
overall net immigration gain of 1.8 million people, despite having one
of the highest population densities in the world. This accounted for
almost 85% of Europe's total population growth. The European Union plans
to open employment centers for legal migrant workers from Africa.
Emigration from Europe began with Spanish and Portuguese settlers in
the sixteenth century, and with French and English settlers in the
seventeenth century.but numbers remained relatively small until waves of
mass emigration in the nineteenth century, when millions of poor
families left Europe.
Today, a large population of European
descent is found on all continents. European ancestry predominates in
North America and, to a lesser extent, in South America (mainly in
Argentina, Chile, Uruguay, and South-Central Brazil). In addition,
Australia and New Zealand have large populations of European
descendants. Africa does not have majority countries of European
descent, but there are significant minorities, such as that of white
South Africans. In Asia, populations descended from Europeans (more
specifically Russians) predominate in North Asia.
European languages belong mainly to three groups of indo-European
Languages: The Romance languages, derived from the Latin of the Roman
Empire, the Germanic languages, whose ancestors came from southern
Scandinavian language, and the Slavic languages. Despite having most of
its vocabulary descended from Romance Languages, The English language is
classified as a Germanic language.
Romance languages are spoken
mainly in southwestern Europe, as well as in Romania and Moldova.
Germanic languages are spoken in northwestern Europe and some parts of
Central Europe. Slavic languages are spoken in Central, Eastern and
southeastern Europe.
Many other languages outside the three main
groups exist in Europe. Other indo-European languages include the Baltic
group (ie, Latvian and Lithuanian), The Celtic group (ie, Irish,
Scottish Gaelic, Manx, Welsh, Cornish and Breton), Greek, Albanian, and
Armenian. A different group of Uralic languages are Estonian, Finnish
and Hungarian, spoken in their respective countries, as well as in parts
of Romania, Russia, Serbia and Slovakia.
Other non-indo-European
languages are Maltese (the only Semitic official language of the EU),
Basque, Georgian, Azerbaijani, Turkish in Eastern Eastern Thrace, and
the languages of minority nations in Russia.
Multilingualism and
the protection of regional and minority languages are recognised policy
objectives in Europe today. The convention for the protection of
National Minorities and the European Charter of regional or minority
languages of the Council of Europe establish a legal framework for
language rights in Europe.
Historically, religion in Europe has had a major influence on
European art, culture, philosophy and law. The majority religion in
Europe is Christianity practiced by Catholics, Eastern Orthodox and
Protestants.
It is followed by Islam, concentrated mainly in the
Southeast (Bosnia and Herzegovina, Albania, Kosovo, Kazakhstan, Northern
Cyprus, Turkey and Azerbaijan), and Tibetan Buddhism, majority in the
Russian region of Kalmykia. Other religions, including Judaism and
Hinduism, are in the minority.
Europe is a relatively secular
continent and has the largest number and proportion of religionless,
agnostic and atheist people in the Western world, with a particularly
high number of self-described non-religious people in the Czech
Republic, Estonia, Sweden, Germany (West) and France.
A union made up of more than a dozen countries, which transact
business using a single currency — the Euro — and whose interests are
represented by common institutions. This new Europe began to take shape
in December 1991, when the 12 member countries of the European Union
concluded the Maastricht Treaty, which aimed at the political, economic
and monetary union of the participants, without closing space for new
accessions.
Through this agreement, Belgium, Denmark, France,
Germany, Greece, Ireland, Italy, Luxembourg, the Netherlands, Portugal,
Spain and the United Kingdom began the journey of European integration.
Austria, Finland and Sweden are among the newest members and several
other countries have already applied.
The meeting in the Dutch
city of Maastricht — which in December 1991 consolidated the formation
of the European Union — represented a multi-stage chapter whose
pioneering initiatives emerged shortly after the Second World War.
Benelux (België / Belgique, Nederland and Luxembourg)-member
countries: Belgium, Netherlands and Luxembourg.
It was the first
organization (1948) and became a model and stimulus for the others. It
aimed at the economic development of the three member countries and the
expansion of trade between them.
ECSC (European Coal and Steel
Community)-member countries: Benelux countries plus Germany, Denmark,
France, United Kingdom and Italy.
The ECSC was the first organisation
to bring together the winners and losers of the Second World War in
1951.its main objective was the free movement of iron, coal, steel and
other minerals within the community. By reducing transport costs and
customs tariffs, the flow of those products, essential to
industrialization, was facilitated.
EFTA — European Free Trade
Association)-member countries: Iceland, Liechtenstein, Norway and
Switzerland (Western European countries).
Created in 1960, EFTA aimed
at eliminating international tariffs on industrialized products and
negotiating bilateral agreements on agricultural products. EFTA was
supposed to be unified with the European Union in 1995, but Iceland,
Norway and Switzerland decided to stay out. The Union of the two blocs
would be called the European Economic Area or European Economic Area.
The European Economic Community (EEC) or European Common Market
(ECM) was the embryo of the current European Union (EU). Its member
countries are: Austria, Belgium, Denmark, Finland, France, Germany,
Greece, Ireland, Italy, Luxembourg, Netherlands, Portugal, Spain, United
Kingdom and Sweden.
At the time of its formation in 1957, the
entity consisted only of Germany, Belgium, France, Italy, Luxembourg and
the Netherlands. In 1973, Denmark, Ireland and the United Kingdom
joined; in 1981, Greece, and in 1986, Spain and Portugal. In 1995, the
so-called Europe of the Twelve grew further, gaining the membership of
Austria, Finland and Sweden.
From 1994, the member countries of
the European Economic Community, which then adopted the name of the
European Union, would integrate to form a single market, in which
customs systems and different tax rates would be abolished, in addition
to restrictions on trade, services and the movement of capital. This
would mean, among other things, that the inhabitants of the European
Union would have free transit in all member countries, including for
work; taxes would gradually be unified and there would be free access to
goods and services from all member countries within the community.
Since 1995, in order to facilitate the movement of people through
some countries of the European Union, an agreement has entered into
force between Portugal, Spain, France, Belgium, the Netherlands,
Luxembourg and Germany to eliminate customs barriers and the obligation
to present a passport between these countries. This area was given the
name Schengen Area, taken from the Luxembourg City where the agreement
was signed.
Another important step towards economic integration
would be the use of a common currency. The ECU (European Currency Unity)
has been circulating since 1993 as a standard in financial operations
and, despite the disagreement of some members, it was intended that it
would gradually be adopted in everyday operations until 1999, when the
euro entered into force as a writing currency and as an official
currency since 2002.
All the countries that make up the European
Union have developed economies, although there are extraordinary
differences between them, such as between Ireland and Germany, for
example, or Greece and Denmark. The goal, however, is to reduce these
contrasts, making the community more and more homogeneous.
Despite the common goals, there are disagreements between the member
countries of the European Union and friction is frequent and adjustments
are necessary to ensure the implementation of such goals. The year 1994
was a test for the integrity of the European Union, since plebiscites
took place in the countries to ratify its objectives and confirm or not
membership of the Union.
In Denmark and the United Kingdom,
opinions were very divided, but support for the community prevailed. In
Norway, however, its population decided not to join the European Union,
despite the application for membership made earlier.
Western European countries are linked to important organizations that
aggregate countries from other continents, such as NATO and the OECD.
The North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO), established in 1949,
has a military character. In addition to European countries, it includes
two others washed by the North Atlantic Ocean: Canada and the United
States. Its fundamental objective is military cooperation and the
defense of its members in the event of international aggression.
With the end of the Cold War, the role of NATO has been in the
background. The Alliance assumed a predominantly political character in
1990, developing the role of resolving localized crises. Several Eastern
European countries have applied to join NATO.
The OECD
(Organization for Economic Co-operation and development) was established
in 1961 to promote economic and social well-being among its members and
harmonize the quality of life in developing countries. In addition to 18
European countries, it also encompasses Australia, Canada, Japan, New
Zealand and the United States.
As a continent, Europe's economy is currently the largest on the
planet and is the richest region as measured by assets under management,
with more than $ 32.7 trillion compared to North America's $ 27.1
trillion. As with other continents, Europe has a wide variation in
wealth between its countries. The richest countries tend to be in the
West, while some of the Eastern economies are still emerging from the
collapse of the Soviet Union and Yugoslavia.
The European Union,
an intergovernmental body made up of 28 European states, comprises the
largest single Economic Area in the world. Currently, for 19 EU
countries, the euro is the common currency. Five European countries rank
among the world's ten largest national economies by GDP (PPP). These
include (ranking according to the CIA): Germany (5), United Kingdom (6),
Russia (7), France (8) and Italy (10).
Capitalism has been dominant in the Western world since the end of feudalism. From Great Britain, which gradually spread throughout Europe. The Industrial Revolution began in Europe, more specifically the United Kingdom at the end of the eighteenth century, and in the nineteenth century boosted the industrialization of Western Europe. Economies were disrupted by World War I, but by the beginning of World War II had already recovered and were having to compete with the growing economic strength of the United States. The Second World War again greatly damaged European industries.
After the Second World War, the UK economy was in a state of
disrepair, and continued to suffer a relative economic decline in the
following decades. Italy was also in poor economic condition, but
regained a high level of growth in the 1950s. West Germany recovered
quickly and doubled production from pre-war levels in the 1950s. France
also staged a remarkable return to rapid growth and modernization, and
later Spain, under Franco's leadership, also rebounded, and the nation
achieved unprecedented enormous economic growth in the early 1960s, in
what is called the Spanish miracle. Most of the Eastern European states
came under the control of the USSR, and therefore were members of the
Council for mutual economic assistance (COMECON).
States that
maintained a free market system were awarded a large amount of aid from
the United States under the Marshall Plan. Western states have moved to
link their economies together, providing the basis for the EU and
increasing cross-border trade. This helped them enjoy a rapid
improvement of their economies, while the COMECON states were struggling
largely due to the cost of the Cold War. By 1990, the European community
was expanded from 6 to 12 founding members. The emphasis on the
resurrection of the West German economy led to the overtaking of the
United Kingdom as the largest economy in Europe.
With the fall of communism in Eastern Europe in 1991, the Eastern
states had to adapt to a free market system. There were varying degrees
of success with Central European countries such as Poland, Hungary and
Slovenia adapting fairly quickly, while Eastern states such as Ukraine
and Russia are taking much longer. Western Europe helped Eastern Europe,
forming ties at the level of the economy.
After East and West
Germany reunited in 1990, the West German economy supported the
reconstruction of East Germany's infrastructure. Yugoslavia lagged
further behind, being devastated by war, and in 2003 there were still
many NATO peacekeepers in Kosovo, North Macedonia, Bosnia and
Herzegovina, with only Slovenia able to make any real progress.
At the turn of the millennium, the European Union dominated the economy
of Europe, which included the five largest European economies of the
time Germany, the United Kingdom, France, Italy, and Spain. In 1999, 12
of the 15 EU members joined the Eurozone replacing their former national
currencies with the common euro. The three that chose to remain outside
the eurozone were the UK, Denmark and Sweden.
The Eurozone entered its first official recession in the third quarter of 2008, official figures confirmed in January 2009. The economic crisis of the late 2000s, which began in the United States, spread rapidly to Europe and affected much of the region. The official unemployment rate in the 16 countries that use the euro rose to 9.5% in May 2009. Europe's young workers have been particularly hard hit. In the first quarter of 2009, the unemployment rate in the EU-27 for people aged 15-24 was 18.3%.
European culture can best be described as a series of overlapping cultures that involves issues of West versus East and Christianity versus Islam. There are several cultural fault lines across the continent and innovative cultural movements disagree with each other. According to Andreas Kaplan, the European continent can be defined as"maximum cultural diversity at a minimum geographical distance". Thus, a "common European culture" or "common European values", is something whose definition is more complex than it seems.
A considerable amount of sports are practiced in Europe. The most popular sport is football, represented by UEFA. The most important national team tournament is the European Football Championship, while the club tournament is the UEFA Champions League. Regarding the Football World Cup, in ten editions European countries have hosted the event and five European teams have already won the tournament.