|
}} Europe ( or 〔OED Online gives the pronunciation of "Europe" as: ''Brit.'' , , ''U.S.'' , .〕) is a continent that comprises the westernmost part of Eurasia. Europe is bordered by the Arctic Ocean to the north, the Atlantic Ocean to the west, and the Mediterranean Sea to the south. To the east and southeast, Europe is generally considered as separated from Asia by the watershed divides of the Ural and Caucasus Mountains, the Ural River, the Caspian and Black Seas, and the waterways of the Turkish Straits.〔 "Europe" (pp. 68–9); "Asia" (pp. 90–1): "A commonly accepted division between Asia and Europe ... is formed by the Ural Mountains, Ural River, Caspian Sea, Caucasus Mountains, and the Black Sea with its outlets, the Bosporus and Dardanelles."〕 Yet the borders of Europe—a concept dating back to classical antiquity—are arbitrary, as the primarily physiographic term "continent" also incorporates cultural and political elements. Europe is the world's second-smallest continent by surface area, covering about or 2% of the Earth's surface and about 6.8% of its land area. Of Europe's approximately 50 countries, Russia is by far the largest by both area and population, taking up 40% of the continent (although the country has territory in both Europe and Asia), while Vatican City is the smallest. Europe is the third-most populous continent after Asia and Africa, with a population of 739–743 million or about 11% of the world's population.〔"(World Population Prospects: The 2012 Revision )". UN Department of Economic and Social Affairs.〕 Europe has a climate heavily affected by warm Atlantic currents, tempering winters and enabling warm summers on most of the continent, even on latitudes that have severe climates in North America and Asia. Further from the Atlantic, seasonal differences increase, but the mildness of the climate remains. Europe, in particular ancient Greece, is the birthplace of Western culture. The fall of the Western Roman Empire, during the migration period, marked the end of ancient history and the beginning of an era known as the "middle ages". The Renaissance humanism, exploration, art, and science led the "old continent", and eventually the rest of the world, to the modern era. From this period onwards, Europe played a predominant role in global affairs. Between the 16th and 20th centuries, European nations controlled at various times the Americas, most of Africa, Oceania, and the majority of Asia. The Industrial Revolution, which began in Great Britain around the end of the 18th century, gave rise to radical economic, cultural, and social change in Western Europe, and eventually the wider world. Demographic growth meant that, by 1900, Europe's share of the world's population was 25%.〔(PoPulation – Global Mapping International )〕 Both world wars were largely focused upon Europe, greatly contributing to a decline in Western European dominance in world affairs by the mid-20th century as the United States and Soviet Union took prominence.〔National Geographic, 534.〕 During the Cold War, Europe was divided along the Iron Curtain between NATO in the west and the Warsaw Pact in the east, until the revolutions of 1989 and fall of the Berlin Wall. European integration led to the formation of the European Union, a political entity that lies between a confederation and a federation.〔(The European union—a federation or a confederation? )〕 The EU originated in Western Europe but has been expanding eastward since the fall of the Soviet Union in 1991. The currency of the European Union, the Euro, is the most commonly used among Europeans and the EU's Schengen Area abolishes border and immigration controls among most of its member states. ==Definition== Clickable map of Europe, showing one of the most commonly used continental boundaries〔The map shows one of the most commonly accepted delineations of the geographical boundaries of Europe, as used by National Geographic and Encyclopædia Britannica. Whether countries are considered in Europe or Asia can vary in sources, for example in the classification of the CIA World Factbook or that of the BBC. Note also that certain countries in Europe, such as France, have territories lying geographically outside Europe, but which are nevertheless considered integral parts of that country.〕 Key: blue: states which straddle the border between Europe and Asia; green: states not geographically in Europe, but closely associated with the continent The use of the term "Europe" has developed gradually throughout history. In antiquity, the Greek historian Herodotus mentioned that the world had been divided by unknown persons into three parts, Europe, Asia, and Libya (Africa), with the Nile and the River Phasis forming their boundaries—though he also states that some considered the River Don, rather than the Phasis, as the boundary between Europe and Asia.〔Herodotus, 4:45〕 Europe's eastern frontier was defined in the 1st century by geographer Strabo at the River Don.〔Strabo ''Geography 11.1''〕 The ''Book of Jubilees'' described the continents as the lands given by Noah to his three sons; Europe was defined as stretching from the Pillars of Hercules at the Strait of Gibraltar, separating it from North Africa, to the Don, separating it from Asia. A cultural definition of Europe as the lands of Latin Christendom coalesced in the 8th century, signifying the new cultural condominium created through the confluence of Germanic traditions and Christian-Latin culture, defined partly in contrast with Byzantium and Islam, and limited to northern Iberia, the British Isles, France, Christianized western Germany, the Alpine regions and northern and central Italy.〔Norman F. Cantor, ''The Civilization of the Middle Ages'', 1993, ""Culture and Society in the First Europe", pp185ff.〕 The concept is one of the lasting legacies of the Carolingian Renaissance: "Europa" often figures in the letters of Charlemagne's court scholar, Alcuin.〔Noted by Cantor, 1993:181.〕 This division—as much cultural as geographical—was used until the Late Middle Ages, when it was challenged by the Age of Discovery. The problem of redefining Europe was finally resolved in 1730 when, instead of waterways, the Swedish geographer and cartographer von Strahlenberg proposed the Ural Mountains as the most significant eastern boundary, a suggestion that found favour in Russia and throughout Europe. Europe is now generally defined by geographers as the western part of Eurasia, with its boundaries marked by large bodies of water to the north, west and south; Europe's limits to the far east are usually taken to be the Urals, the Ural River, and the Caspian Sea; to the southeast, including the Caucasus Mountains, the Black Sea and the waterways connecting the Black Sea to the Mediterranean Sea. Islands are generally grouped with the nearest continental landmass, hence Iceland is generally considered to be part of Europe, while the nearby island of Greenland is usually assigned to North America. Nevertheless, there are some exceptions based on sociopolitical and cultural differences. Cyprus is closest to Anatolia (or Asia Minor), but is usually considered part of Europe both culturally and politically and currently is a member state of the EU. Malta was considered an island of North Africa for centuries.〔Falconer, William; Falconer, Thomas. (''Dissertation on St. Paul's Voyage'' ), BiblioLife (BiblioBazaar), 1872. (1817.), p 50, ISBN 1-113-68809-2 ''These islands Pliny, as well as Strabo and Ptolemy, included in the African sea''〕 The geographic boundary drawn between Europe and Asia in 1730 follows no international boundaries. As a result, attempts to organize Europe along political or economic lines have resulted in uses of the name in a geopolitically limiting way〔See, e.g., Merje Kuus, ('Europe's eastern expansion and the re-inscription of otherness in East-Central Europe' ) ''Progress in Human Geography'', Vol. 28, No. 4, 472–489 (2004), József Böröcz, ('Goodness Is Elsewhere: The Rule of European Difference' ), ''Comparative Studies in Society and History'', 110–36, 2006, or (Attila Melegh, ''On the East-West Slope: Globalisation, nationalism, racism and discourses on Central and Eastern Europe'' ), Budapest: Central European University Press, 2006.〕 to refer only to the 28 member states of the European Union. Conversely, Europe has also been used in a very expansive way by the Council of Europe which has 47 member countries, some of which territorially over-reach the Ural and Bosphorus lines to include all of Russia and Turkey. In addition, people in the British Isles may refer to "continental" or "mainland" Europe as Europe.〔(【引用サイトリンク】title=Europe — Noun )〕 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Europe」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
|