Area and Population CJ.Europe’s Subregions

CR.Linguistic and Ethnic Groups of Europe

CS.Europeans’ Religious Roots

CT.European Colonialism and Its Consequences

24. Economic Geography

CU.An Imbalance of Wealth

CV.Postindustrialization

CW.Land and Sea

25. Geopolitical Issues

CX.Postwar Europe

CY.The Cold War and its Aftermath

CZ.The European Union

DA.Size and Diversity of the European Union

DB.The Future

DC.Differences between Europeans and Americans

The region of Europe contains forty-one sovereign states. While Europe has historically been considered one of the seven continents, it is more accurately described as a subcontinent or large peninsula of Eurasia. For historic and cultural reasons Europe is usually considered separately from Asia. Europe is physically smaller than the United States, but has nearly twice the population of the U.S. with 532 million people. Most European countries are highly urbanized and densely settled, though the region’s population is now declining slowly and aging rapidly. Immigration may be the key to Europe’s future, but many European countries remain resistant to large numbers of immigrants from abroad.

Europe’s overall climate is relatively mild considering its high latitude. The mild conditions are the result of the Gulf Stream transporting warm water from the tropical Atlantic to European latitudes. Winds blowing off this warmer water bring mild, humid conditions to a large portion of Europe. Southern Europe is drier and warmer than the rest of the region, and a distinctive Mediterranean climate and vegetation pattern exists there. Although conifers dominate in the north and steppe conditions are present in parts of the east, most of Europe consists of temperate mixed forests.

Scandinavia and much of southern Europe are hilly or mountainous, especially in the Alps, Pyrenees, and Carpathian mountains. Between these rugged areas lies the immense and agriculturally fertile North European Plain. Europe’s two most important rivers are the Rhine and Danube. Thousands of years ago, much of Europe was covered by glaciers, which left behind deposits adding to soil richness today. Agriculturally, most of Europe can be characterized by economies of mixed farming, dairy farming, Mediterranean farming, and forestry.

The primary language families of Europe today are Slavic, Germanic, and Romance. Romance languages are derived from Latin, which was the tongue of the once wide-ranging Roman Empire; the decline of the empire followed the expansion of Germanic peoples to the north and Slavic peoples to the east. Most of Europe is nominally Christian, with Catholicism prevailing in most of southern and central Europe, Protestantism in the north including Germany and the British Isles, and Orthodox faiths in the east. Islam has a small presence in the Balkan Peninsula, and has rapidly growing numbers in many western European cities. Europe used to be home to many Jews, but World War II and subsequent immigration to Israel dramatically reduced their numbers.

Until the fifteenth century, Europe played a minor role in world affairs, but the Age of Discovery began establishing Europe as a center of colonization, trade, and technological innovation. European nations colonized, settled, and profoundly altered much of the rest of the world. The Industrial Revolution originated in Europe, and the region created 90 percent of the world’s manufacturing output by 1900. Industrial, technological and agricultural advances led to Europe’s global economic and political supremacy for several centuries.

Europe’s dominance began unraveling in the twentieth century, after two devastating world wars fought mainly on European soil and the subsequent loss of most European colonies. Increasing competition from abroad, such as the United States and Japan, also hurt Europe industrially. Europe remains an important and wealthy region, and continues to be relevant by moving to a postindustrial economy, focusing on high-tech and service sector jobs.

In an effort to ensure the warfare (both hot and cold) that wracked Europe for most of the twentieth century does not recur, and to promote economic growth, Europe champions supranational organizations such as the European Union. Many EU member nations have adopted the euro and discarded their national currencies and have adopted other ways to tightly bind member states together. Differences and problems have not disappeared, however, especially with concerns in Western Europe over the EU membership of many former Communist-bloc Eastern European countries, the future of NATO, and the differing relations with the United States.

54. 
    Europe is usually treated as a separate region because of its population, history and culture that is distinct from the rest of the Eurasian landmass. [p. 68]
    

55. 
    Europe’s large, affluent population is largely urban. Europe has essentially defined the demographic transition, with most of its countries now in the final stage, with low birth and death rates. In much of Europe the population growth rate is so low that the fertility rate is below the population replacement level. Some nations are already seeing their populations decline, and others will likely follow this trend in the future. Immigration from outside Europe is one way to keep the populations of European countries steady or growing, but some European nations are resistant to this idea. Immigrant families are often large and end up on welfare, or take jobs native Europeans may need during economic slowdowns. Many Europeans are also concerned about becoming ethnic minorities within their own cities and countries. [pp. 71-74]
    

56. 
    With stable to shrinking populations, due to birth rates that are at or below the so-called level of replacement, many European countries have faced a labor shortage. This is especially true of Germany, which has had to rely on the immigration of “guest workers” to fill its many manufacturing jobs. Britain and France have had an open-door policy that has benefited residents of former colonies in particular. The downside to increased immigration is that it has resulted in a dramatic increase in ethnic tensions described as “culture wars.” Admittedly, terrorism linked to Muslim immigrants has occurred in Europe, but so too has reactionary xenophobia. [p. 73]
    

57. 
    Europe’s coastline can be described as peninsular, which comes from the Latin for “almost an island,” and insular (island-like). In fact, much of Europe consists of islands and peninsulas. Notable peninsulas include the Scandinavian, Jutland, Iberian, Italian, and Balkan peninsulas. The larger islands include Iceland, Ireland, Great Britain, and the many islands of the Mediterranean. [pp. 74-75]
    

58. 
    Europe is known for the diversity of its environments, some of which are completely unexpected. One of Europe’s most notable features is its relative mildness, despite its northern location. This is caused by the Gulf Stream and its appendage the North Atlantic Drift, warm waters originating in the tropical western Atlantic Ocean and flowing northeastward towards European shores. Most of Europe also has dependable and abundant rainfall, making much of the region perfectly suited for agriculture. Mediterranean Europe, however, has hot, dry summers, which has resulted in this sub-region’s unique agriculture. The Scandinavian Peninsula is mountainous, as is much of southern Europe, with ranges rising to heights above 1,000 meters. Lowlands cover much of the rest of Europe. Much of the region is classified as marine west coast climatically, but temperate mixed forests dominate Europe’s natural vegetation; coniferous forests are extensive across Scandinavia and the southern mountain regions, while Mediterranean climates and biomes are found from the Iberian Peninsula across Italy to Greece and Cyprus. [pages 74-79]
    

59. 
    Rivers in Europe have been used for transportation, water supply, agriculture, recreation, and generation of electricity. The most important rivers in Europe’s development have been those in Europe’s core, such as the Thames, Rhine, Elbe, and Scheldt. The Danube River has also been very important to Europe, despite its outlet in the Black Sea far from the center of European industrialization. Industry developed in northwestern Europe largely because of locally abundant coal and iron ore, along with ample river transportation. These areas – Great Britain, northern France, the Low Countries, much of western Germany, northern Italy – continue to be the center of European manufacturing and economic activity today. [p. 79]
    

60. 
    Linguistically, Europe is dominated by three language families: Germanic, Romance, and Slavic. Several smaller linguistic families are also found in Europe, mainly at the margins of the region. Europe is nominally Christian, with Roman Catholicism the largest single denomination; Europe has become increasingly secular in recent decades, however, and Christianity is in a decline across the continent. Small pockets of Islam thrive in the Balkans, especially in Albania and Bosnia and Herzegovina, and rapidly growing Muslim populations are also found in many western European cities. Europe used to be home to many Jews, but the present number of Jews in Europe is a small remnant of the pre-Holocaust population. [pp. 79-84]
    

61. 
    European exploration of the world was spurred by missionaries, traders, explorers, soldiers and others with different motives but a shared belief that European ways were superior to all other world cultures, and they attempted to bring as much of the globe as possible under their control. Europeans colonized much of the rest of the world, bringing big economic benefits to Europeans. Especially with the advent of the Industrial Revolution, wealth and raw materials were transferred to Europe from their colonies. During the supremacy of Europe, Europeans forever altered much of the natural and human geography of the planet. They transferred plants and animals from one region of the globe to another, and subjugated, cleared out or relocated huge numbers of indigenous peoples to provide for European settlement, agriculture, and labor needs in those colonized areas. European dominance in global affairs lasted for centuries and continues to influence world development today. [pp. 84-85]
    

62. 
    The Industrial Revolution originated in Great Britain around the year 1700, and quickly spread to other parts of Europe. A number of factors brought about the Industrial Revolution. Capitalist economies allowed for innovation and risk-taking, and the possibility of getting rich; large European companies were formed that helped spur on colonization to satisfy their needs for raw materials and labor. Colonies supplied plenty of raw materials that could be manufactured into goods consumers would buy. European lands and waters supplied energy that were used to power machines and factories that could produce goods much more quickly than before. Once steel was developed, massive mechanized production became possible, leading to both more goods and more jobs, leading people to move to industrialized urban areas and a general increase in wealth among Europeans. Europe’s urbanized areas today are a reflection of the cities that grew rapidly from industrialization beginning in the eighteenth century, especially in areas located near coal fields and along rivers. [pp. 68-69, 71]
    

63. 
    Through the Industrial Revolution, Europe became the first world region to shift from an agricultural to an industrial society. By the year 1900, Europe created 90 percent of the world’s manufacturing output. The devastating effects of two world wars and the worldwide rise in nationalism eventually cost Europe nearly all of its colonial holdings, and Europe’s share of world manufacturing output declined during the twentieth century and never recovered to previous levels. Shifts in manufacturing locations to Asia and North America, as well as a greater reliance upon foreign supplies of energy, also impacted European industry, so much so that in the 1960s Europe began a process of deindustrialization. This is both a voluntary and involuntary shift away from polluting, energy- and labor-costly industries and a move towards a service economy and the production of high-technology products. High-technology manufacturing requires fewer people than old-style industry, and concerns about unemployment and economic slowdowns have affected Europe in recent decades. [pp. 85-87]
    

64. 
    Europe was wracked with turmoil throughout most of the twentieth century. World War I pitted the Germans and the Ottomans against the British, French, and Russians (with later involvement by the United States). The defeat of Germany in this war eventually led to the rise of Hitler, whose dream of German expansion led to World War II in 1939. Germany overran much of Europe early on, but its early gains were eventually erased with help from U.S. forces and fierce Soviet resistance, and Germany surrendered in 1945. After WW2, Europe was split down the middle by an “Iron Curtain,” with the Soviet Union essentially taking over much of the economic and political systems of Eastern European nations. The ensuing Cold War between the United States and the Soviet Union lasted until about 1990. Violence in Europe continued during the breakup of the former Yugoslavia in the 1990s. European nations have responded to the warfare, both hot and cold, that has engulfed the continent for most of the last century by adopting such tightly integrated political and economic systems between them that, it is hoped, will make European countries so interconnected that warfare between them will be impossible in the future. [pp. 88-90]
    

65. 
    The European Union is a primarily economic supranational organization, to secure the benefits of large-scale production by pooling the resources and markets of its member countries. The EU eliminates tariffs and reduces restrictions on the movement of capital and labor between member countries, while establishing them for the entire EU bloc as a whole. Many EU members also abandoned their native currencies in favor of the euro. The EU has not been entirely successful, however. The euro and the EU itself are not always popular with Europeans. Many wealthy Western European countries worried about the EU’s expansion into poorer Eastern Europe, fearing they may have to subsidize the poorer nations. There also remain major disagreements among member nations about foreign, economic, and military policy that have prevented the EU from showing a unified front to the rest of the world. [pp. 90-92]
    

66. 
    Despite historic ties, Europeans and Americans have some significant differences. One of the most often cited is that Europeans countries tend to provide more services for its citizens in terms of health care, education, and general quality of life issues. Zoning is more strictly enforced in Europe, there is a greater investment in public transportation, and the crime rate is significantly less, all of which suggest that Europeans are “greener” and less violent than Americans as a whole. [pp. 92-94]