The European
geographic realm lies
on the western flank of
the Eurasian landmass
1
Europe also is endowed with some exceptional locational advantages.
Its relative location, at the crossroads of the land hemisphere, creates
maximum efficiency for contact with much of the rest of the world
A “peninsula of peninsulas,” Europe is nowhere far from the ocean
and its avenues of seaborne trade and conquest. Hundreds of
kilometers of navigable rivers, augmented by an unmatched system of
canals, open the interior of Europe to its neighboring seas and to the
shipping lanes of the world.
The Mediterranean and Baltic seas, in particular, were critical in the
development of trade in early modern times, and in the emergence of
Europe’s early trading cities such as Venice (Italy) in the south and
Lübeck (Germany) in the north.
Europe is a realm of moderate distances and close proximities. Short
distances and large cultural differences make for intense interaction,
the constant circulation of goods and ideas. That has been the
hallmark of Europe’s geography for more than a millennium.
Source: http://projects.mcah.columbia.edu
Source: www.britannica.com
Though territorially
small, Europe is
heavily populated
and fragmented
into 40 states
2
Population: 598,784,265 (2018 est.), Russia is excluded
Area
Population
(2018)
Eastern Europe (147,993,052)
Western
Europe
(194,072,933)
Southern
Europe
(151,860,168)
Northern
Europe
(104,761,581)
Germany (82,293,457)*
United Kingdom (66,573,504)
France (65,233,271)
Italy (59,290,969)*
Spain (46,397,452)*
Ukraine (44,009,214)*
Poland (38,104,832)*
Romania (19,580,634)*
Netherlands (17,084,459)
Belgium (11,498,519)
With asterisks, declining population
Source: worldpopulationreview.com (2018), worldmeters.info (2018)
Europe (including Russia) is the second-smallest continent by
surface area but the third most populous after Asia and Africa. The
population density of Europe as a whole is 143 people per square
mile (compared to Asia's 203/square mile), which makes it the
second most densely populated continent.
Population density: Population density is the number of people per unit of area
Population growth rate: average annual percent change in population
Europe’s natural
environments are highly
varied, and Europe’s
resource base is rich
and diverse.
3
Norway Iceland
Spain
Geologically older, lower,
and more stable than the
Alpine Mountains, the
region extends from
Scandinavia through
western Britain and Ireland
to the heart of the Iberian
Peninsula in Spain.
North German Plain
Southern Poland
Netherlands
This stretches in a lengthy arc
from southeastern Britain and
central France across Germany
and Denmark into Poland and
Ukraine, from where it
continues well into Russia. It is
also known as the Great
European Plain.
Germany
These form the heart of
Europe, which is a region of
hills and low plateaus loaded
with raw materials whose
farm villages grew into towns
and cities when the Industrial
Revolution transformed this
realm.
Southern Limestone Alps [Italy, Austria, Slovenia]
This highland region is named after the Alps, extending eastward from
the Pyrenees on the French-Spanish border to the Balkan Mountains
near the Black Sea, and include Italy’s Appennines and the Carpathians
of eastern Europe.
NATURAL
VEGETATION
MAP OF
EUROPE
Europe’s geographic
diversity, cultural as well
as physical, created strong
identities, specializations,
and opportunities for trade
and commerce
4
Age of Enlightenment &
Expansionism (1650 - 1789) Age of Exploration (1505 - 1650)
Europe’s map is a legacy of its feudal and royal periods, when powerful kings,
barons, dukes, and other rulers, rich enough to fund armies and powerful
enough to extract taxes and tribute from their domains, created bounded
territories in which they reigned supreme.
Europe’s political revolution produced a form of political
territorial organization known as the nation-state, a territorial
state embodied by its culturally distinctive population. The
term nation refers to a people with a single language, a
common history, a similar ethnic background.
Europe’s prominent nation-states of a century ago—France,
Spain, the United Kingdom, Italy—have become multicultural
societies, their nations defined more by an intangible
“national spirit” and emotional commitment than by cultural
or ethnic homogeneity.
European realm is home to peoples of numerous cultural-
linguistic stocks, including not only Latins, Germanics, and Slavs
but also minorities such as Finns, Magyars (Hungarians),
Basques, and Celts.
Europe’s population of around 600 million speaks numerous
languages, almost all of which belong to the Indo-European
language family. But most of those languages are not mutually
understandable; some, such as Finnish and Hungarian, are not
even members of the Indo-European family.
English has become the realm’s unofficial lingua franca (common
language). During a visit to Europe, though, you would find that
English is more commonly usable in the big cities than in the
countryside, and more in western Europe than farther east.
Protestant
Christianity
Catholic
Christianity
Orthodox
Christianity
Sunni
Islam
Europe’s cultural heritage is steeped in Christian traditions, but
sectarian strife between Catholics and Protestants, that plunged
parts of the realm into bitter and widespread conflict, still divides
communities and, as until recently in Northern Ireland, can still
arouse violence. Some political parties still carry the name
“Christian,” for example, Germany’s Christian Democrats.
Recently, a new factor roils the religious landscape: the rise of
Islam. In southeastern Europe, this takes the form of new Islamic
assertiveness in an old Muslim bastion: the (Turkish) Ottoman
Empire left behind millions of converts from Bosnia to Bulgaria
among whom many are demanding greater political representation
and power. In the west, this Islamic resurgence results from the
relatively recent infusion of millions of Muslim immigrants from
former colonies in North Africa and other parts of the far-flung
Islamic world.
For so small a realm, Europe’s cultural geography is sharply varied. The
popular image of Europe tends to be formed by British pageantry, the
French wine country, or historic cities such as Venice or Amsterdam—but go
beyond this core area, and you will find isolated Slavic communities in the
mountains facing the Adriatic Sea, Muslim towns in poverty-mired Albania,
Roma (Gypsy) villages in the interior of Romania, farmers using traditional
methods unchanged for centuries in rural Poland.
British Royalty Roma Gypsies of Romania
Europe is best understood as an enormous functional region, an
interdependent realm that is held together through highly developed,
spatial economic and political networks. It has a huge, intensively used
network of spatial interaction linking places, communities, and
countries in countless ways. This interaction operates on the basis of
two key principles:
A. regional complementarity - means that one area produces a surplus
of a commodity required by another area. When two areas each require
the other’s products, we speak of double complementarity.
(Ex. Industrial Italy needs coal from western Europe; western Europe
needs Italy’s farm products)
B. The ease with which a commodity can be transported by producer
to consumer defines its transferability. Europe is small, distances are
short, and the Europeans have built the world’s most efficient
transport system of roads, railroads, and canals linking navigable
rivers. Taken together, Europe’s enormously diverse economic regions
and its particularly efficient transportation infrastructure make for a
highly interdependent economic realm.
The TGV, France’s version of the Bullet train
High Speed Railroad Map of Europe
Europe’s relatively
prosperous population
is highly urbanized and
rapidly aging
5
Legatum Institute’s Global Prosperity Index of 2017, which is split into
9 sub-indexes (economic quality, business environment, governance,
personal freedom, social capital, safety and security, education,
health, and natural environment) shows that out of the 30 most
prosperous countries (of 149 countries), 20 were European countries.
2014 Rankings
EUROPEAN CITIES
About three of every four
Europeans live in towns
and cities, an average that
is far exceeded in the west
but not yet attained in
much of the east. Large
cities are production
centers as well as
marketplaces, and they
also form the crucibles
[melting pot] of their
nations’ cultures. Europe’s
major cities tend to have
long histories and are
compact, and in general
the European cityscape
looks quite different from
its North American
counterpart.
In 2017, there are an estimated 962 million people aged 60 or over in the
world, comprising 13 per cent of the global population. The population aged
60 or above is growing at a rate of about 3 per cent per year. Currently,
Europe has the greatest percentage of population aged 60 or over (25 per
cent) (UNITED NATIONS, 2018)
Countries with the largest percentage of total population over 65 years in
2017 (Statista, 2018)
When the population pyramid becomes top-heavy, the number of workers whose
taxes pay for the social services of the aged goes down, leading to reduced pensions
and dwindling funds for health care.
Source: CIA World Factbook
No of
births
during a
year per
1,000
persons
Source: CIA World Factbook
No of
deaths
during a
year per
1,000
persons
Source: CIA World Factbook
Local demands for
greater autonomy as well
as cultural challenges
posed by immigration are
straining the European
social fabric.
6
Independence
movements in Europe
seem to enjoy a revival.
But calls for greater
autonomy or even
secession are not just
about cultural identity -
financial discrepancies
between regions also
play a major role.
Unsurprisingly, most of
the regions with strong
separatist tendencies are
amongst the wealthiest in
their respective
countries. Calls for
(more) independence
seem to be loudest when
national financial
equalization mechanisms
lead to results that are
perceived as
disproportional, such as
in Spain or Italy.
Eastern Europe
Source: www.theguardian.com (2018)
Eastern Europe
Source: www.theguardian.com (2018)
Northern Europe
Southern Europe
Source: www.theguardian.com (2018)
Southern Europe
Source: www.theguardian.com (2018)
Southern Europe
Source: www.theguardian.com (2018)
Western Europe
Source: www.theguardian.com (2018)
Western Europe
Source: www.theguardian.com (2018)
Europe’s native
population is
actually
shrinking, but
immigration is
partially
offsetting
Europe’s
population
deficit.
Millions of
Turks, Turkish
Kurds,
Algerians,
Moroccans,
West Africans,
Pakistanis, and
West Indians
are changing
the social
fabric of
Europe.
One key dimension of this change is the spread of Islam in Europe.
Muslim populations in eastern Europe (such as Albania’s, Kosovo’s,
and Bosnia’s) are indigenous communities converted during the
period of Ottoman rule. The Muslim sectors of western European
countries, on the other hand, represent more recent immigrations.
The majority of these immigrants are generally more religious than the
Christian natives. They arrived in a Europe where native populations
are stagnant or declining, where religious institutions are weakened,
and where certain cultural norms are incompatible with Islamic
traditions. Integration and assimilation of Muslim communities into
the national fabric has been slow, their education and income levels
considerably lower than average.
In western European countries particularly, Islamic immigrants are
highly concentrated in metropolitan areas. Thus in cities like
Hamburg, London, and Brussels, the proportion of Muslim
populations is considerably higher than the national average.
In recent years, Europe has
experienced a record influx of
asylum seekers fleeing conflicts in
Syria and other predominantly
Muslim countries. This wave of
Muslim migrants has prompted
debate about immigration and
security policies in numerous
countries and has raised questions
about the current and future number
of Muslims in Europe. Source: http://www.pewforum.org (2017)
Despite Europe’s
momentous unification
efforts, east-west
contrasts still mark the
realm’s regional geogra-
phy.
7
GDP PER
CAPITA
IN USD
(2017)
Population
below poverty
line (%)
(2017)
Unemployment
Rate
(2017)
Annual percentage increase in industrial production (includes
manufacturing, mining, and construction) (2017 est.)
Total expenditure on health as a percentage of GDP (2017 est.)
Literacy Rate
(2017 est.)
• The EU Cohesion Monitor evaluates data from all 28 member states to
measure levels of cohesion within Europe. Contrary to expectations, it found
that the EU’s overall cohesion increased between 2007 and 2017.
• The monitor analyses two kinds of cohesion: structural cohesion, which
measures ties between member states such as trade flows, participation in
common policies, and geographical proximity to other EU states; and
individual cohesion, which measures citizens’ engagement and experiences
with, and views of, the EU.
• The data indicate that there has been substantial growth in structural
cohesion in eastern central EU states, while individual cohesion has risen in
most northern EU states. However, some countries – including France, Italy,
and Spain – have experienced a decline in individual and structural
cohesion.
• The financial crisis and the refugee crisis have affected Engagement (which
measures voter behavior) more than any of the other nine indicators. Along
with a decline in the Resilience indicator, this trend reflects the political divide
between east and west that continues to shape EU policy.
EU Motto: United in diversity
The European Union
(EU) is a historic and
unique effort to achieve
multinational economic
integration and, to a
lesser degree, political
coordination
8
In 1949, the participating governments created the Council of Europe,
the beginnings of what was to become a European Parliament meeting
in Strasbourg, France. Europe was embarked on still another political
revolution, the formation of a multinational union involving a growing
number of European states.
This is a classic example of supranationalism, which geographers
define as a voluntary association in economic, political, or cultural
spheres of three or more independent states willing to yield some
measure of sovereignty for their mutual benefit.
Under the Treaty of Rome, six countries joined to become the
European Economic Community (EEC) in 1958, also called the
“Common Market.” In 1973 the United Kingdom, Ireland, and Denmark
joined, and the renamed European Community (EC) now encompassed
nine members. Membership reached 15 countries in 1995, after the
organization had been renamed yet one more time to become the
European Union (EU).
9
en.wikipedia.org/
Is your 2018
summer holiday
safe? We've
mapped FCO
(Foreign and
Commonwealth
Office) travel advice
to show countries at
risk of terror (Image:
Getty Images)
March 22, 2016: 32 killed and hundreds wounded in bombing in
Brussels
November, 2015: 130 people died and hundreds were wounded in a
series of attacks in Paris;
January, 2015: 12 people were killed in the Paris office of the
satirical newspaper Charlie Hebdo in retaliation for its articles on
Islamic fundamentalism;
May, 2014: four people were killed at the Jewish Museum in
Brussels;
March, 2012: six people, including Jewish schoolchildren, were killed
in Toulouse, France;
Islamist Terrorism in Europe