Europe

==Definition==
{{Further|Boundaries between the continents#Asia and Europe}}
{{See also|List of transcontinental countries}}

===Contemporary definition===
<div class="center">
<div class="thumbinner overflowbugx" style="overflow:auto;">
<small>Clickable map of Europe, showing one of the most commonly used [[Boundaries between the continents of Earth|continental boundaries]]{{cref2|u}} <br />'''Key:''' <span style="color:blue">'''blue'''</span>: [[List of transcontinental countries|states which straddle the border between Europe and Asia]];
<span style="color:green">'''green'''</span>: countries not geographically in Europe, but closely associated with the continent
</small>
</div>
{{Europe and seas labelled map}}
</div>

The prevalent definition of Europe as a geographical term has been in use since the mid-19th century.
Europe is taken to be bounded by large bodies of water to the north, west and south; Europe's limits to the east and north-east are usually taken to be the [[Ural Mountains]], the [[Ural (river)|Ural River]], and the [[Caspian Sea]]; to the south-east, the [[Caucasus Mountains]], the [[Black Sea]], and the waterways connecting the Black Sea to the [[Mediterranean Sea]].<ref name="Encarta">{{cite encyclopedia |encyclopedia=Microsoft Encarta Online Encyclopaedia 2007 |title=Europe |url=http://encarta.msn.com/encyclopaedia_761570768/Europe.html |access-date=27 December 2007 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20091028013857/http://encarta.msn.com/encyclopedia_761570768/Europe.html |archive-date=28 October 2009 |url-status=dead }}</ref>
[[File:Possible definitions of the boundary between Europe and Asia.png|thumb|Definitions used for the boundary between Asia and Europe in different periods of history.]]

[[File:T and O map Guntherus Ziner 1472.jpg|thumb|A medieval [[T and O map]] printed by [[Günther Zainer]] in 1472, showing the three continents as domains of the sons of [[Noah]] – Asia to Sem ([[Shem]]), Europe to Iafeth ([[Japheth]]) and Africa to Cham ([[Ham (son of Noah)|Ham]])]]

Islands are generally grouped with the nearest continental landmass, hence [[Iceland]] is considered to be part of Europe, while the nearby island of Greenland is usually assigned to [[North America]], although politically belonging to Denmark. Nevertheless, there are some exceptions based on sociopolitical and cultural differences. Cyprus is closest to [[Anatolia]] (or Asia Minor), but is considered part of Europe politically and it is a member state of the EU. Malta was considered an island of [[Maghreb|North-western Africa]] for centuries, but now it is considered to be part of Europe as well.<ref>Falconer, William; Falconer, Thomas. [https://books.google.com/books?id=B3Q29kWRdtgC&pg=PA50 ''Dissertation on St. Paul's Voyage''] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170327020614/https://books.google.com/books?id=B3Q29kWRdtgC&pg=PA50 |date=2017 }}, 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''</ref> "Europe", as used specifically in [[British English]], may also refer to [[Continental Europe]] exclusively.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://wordnetweb.princeton.edu/perl/webwn?s=europe|title=Europe&nbsp;– Noun|publisher=Princeton University|access-date=9 June 2008|archive-date=15 July 2014|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140715121246/http://wordnetweb.princeton.edu/perl/webwn?s=europe|url-status=live}}</ref>

The term "continent" usually implies the [[physical geography]] of a large land mass completely or almost completely surrounded by water at its borders. Prior to the adoption of the current convention that includes mountain divides, the border between Europe and Asia had been redefined several times since its first conception in [[classical antiquity]], but always as a series of rivers, seas and straits that were believed to extend an unknown distance east and north from the Mediterranean Sea without the inclusion of any mountain ranges. Cartographer [[Herman Moll]] suggested in 1715 Europe was bounded by a series of partly-joined waterways directed towards the Turkish straits, and the [[Irtysh River]] draining into the upper part of the [[Ob River]] and the [[Arctic Ocean]]. In contrast, the present eastern boundary of Europe partially adheres to the Ural and Caucasus Mountains, which is somewhat arbitrary and inconsistent compared to any clear-cut definition of the term "continent".

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

===History of the concept===
{{see also|Boundary between Europe and Asia}}

====Early history====
[[File:Europa Prima Pars Terrae in Forma Virginis.jpg|thumb|Depiction of ''[[Europa regina]]'' ('Queen Europe') in 1582|alt=|270x270px]]
The first recorded usage of ''Eurṓpē'' as a geographic term is in the [[Homeric Hymn]] to [[Delian Apollo]], in reference to the western shore of the [[Aegean Sea]]. As a name for a part of the known world, it is first used in the 6th century BCE by [[Anaximander]] and [[Hecataeus of Miletus|Hecataeus]]. Anaximander placed the boundary between Asia and Europe along the Phasis River (the modern [[Rioni River]] on the territory of [[Georgia (country)|Georgia]]) in the Caucasus, a convention still followed by [[Herodotus]] in the 5th century BCE.<ref>''[[Histories (Herodotus)|Histories]]'' 4.38. C.f. James Rennell, ''The geographical system of Herodotus examined and explained'', Volume 1, Rivington 1830, [https://archive.org/details/bub_gb_enQ-AAAAcAAJ/page/n274 p. 244]</ref> Herodotus mentioned that the world had been divided by unknown persons into three parts—Europe, Asia, and Libya (Africa)—with the [[Nile]] and the Phasis forming their boundaries—though he also states that some considered the [[Don River (Russia)|River Don]], rather than the Phasis, as the boundary between Europe and Asia.<ref>Herodotus, 4:45</ref> Europe's eastern frontier was defined in the 1st century by geographer [[Strabo]] at the River Don.<ref>Strabo ''Geography 11.1''</ref> The ''[[Jubilees|Book of Jubilees]]'' described the continents as the lands given by [[Noah]] to his three sons; Europe was defined as stretching from the [[Pillars of Hercules]] at the [[Strait of Gibraltar]], separating it from [[Northwest Africa]], to the Don, separating it from Asia.<ref>{{Cite book|title=Genesis and the Jewish antiquities of Flavius Josephus|first= Thomas W.|last= Franxman|publisher=Pontificium Institutum Biblicum|year= 1979|isbn=978-88-7653-335-8|pages=101–102}}</ref>

The convention received by the [[Middle Ages]] and surviving into modern usage is that of the [[Roman era]] used by Roman-era authors such as [[Posidonius]],<ref>W. Theiler, ''Posidonios. Die Fragmente'', vol. 1. Berlin: De Gruyter, 1982, fragm. 47a.</ref> [[Strabo]]<ref>I. G. Kidd (ed.), ''Posidonius: The commentary'', Cambridge University Press, 2004, {{ISBN|978-0-521-60443-7}}, [https://books.google.com/books?id=_iXs1aCr1ckC&pg=PA738 p. 738] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200801115807/https://books.google.com/books?id=_iXs1aCr1ckC&pg=PA738 |date=1 August 2020 }}.</ref> and [[Ptolemy]],<ref>''[[Geography (Ptolemy)|Geographia]]'' 7.5.6 (ed. Nobbe 1845, [https://books.google.com/books?id=vHMCAAAAQAAJ vol. 2] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200524011208/https://books.google.com/books?id=vHMCAAAAQAAJ |date=24 May 2020 }}, p. 178) {{lang|grc|Καὶ τῇ Εὐρώπῃ δὲ συνάπτει διὰ τοῦ μεταξὺ αὐχένος τῆς τε Μαιώτιδος λίμνης καὶ τοῦ Σαρματικοῦ Ὠκεανοῦ ἐπὶ τῆς διαβάσεως τοῦ Τανάϊδος ποταμοῦ. }} "And [Asia] is connected to Europe by the land-strait between Lake Maiotis and the Sarmatian Ocean where the river Tanais crosses through."</ref> who took the Tanais (the modern Don River) as the boundary.

The Roman Empire did not attach a strong identity to the concept of continental divisions. However, following the fall of the [[Western Roman Empire]], the [[Western culture|culture that developed in its place]], linked to Latin and the Catholic church, began to associate itself with the concept of "Europe".<ref name="Pocock2002">{{cite book |author1=J. G. A. Pocock |author1-link=J. G. A. Pocock |editor1-last=Pagden |editor1-first=Anthony |title=The Idea of Europe From Antiquity to the European Union |date=2002 |publisher=Cambridge University Press |isbn=978-0511496813 |chapter=Some Europes in Their History |chapter-url=https://www.cambridge.org/core/books/abs/idea-of-europe/some-europes-in-their-history/261CF37C1E49E93280878F816D4483F1 |doi=10.1017/CBO9780511496813.003 |pages=57–61 |access-date=30 July 2022 |archive-date=23 March 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220323132907/https://www.cambridge.org/core/books/abs/idea-of-europe/some-europes-in-their-history/261CF37C1E49E93280878F816D4483F1 |url-status=live }}</ref> The term "Europe" is first used for a cultural sphere in the [[Carolingian Renaissance]] of the 9th century. From that time, the term designated the sphere of influence of the [[Western Church]], as opposed to both the [[Eastern Orthodox]] churches and to the [[Islamic world]].

A cultural definition of Europe as the lands of [[Christendom|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, Christianised western Germany, the Alpine regions and northern and central Italy.<ref>[[Norman F. Cantor]], ''The Civilization of the Middle Ages'', 1993, ""Culture and Society in the First Europe", pp185ff.</ref><ref>{{cite book|last1=Dawson|first1=Christopher|title=Crisis in Western Education|year=1961|isbn=978-0-8132-1683-6|edition=reprint|first2=Glenn|last2=Olsen|page=108|publisher=CUA Press }}</ref> The concept is one of the lasting legacies of the [[Carolingian Renaissance]]: ''Europa'' often{{dubious|date=October 2016}}<!--inflated from "once or twice"--> figures in the letters of Charlemagne's court scholar, [[Alcuin]].<ref>Noted by Cantor, 1993:181.</ref> The transition of Europe to being a cultural term as well as a geographic one led to the borders of Europe being affected by cultural considerations in the East, especially relating to areas under Byzantine, Ottoman, and Russian influence. Such questions were affected by the positive connotations associated with the term Europe by its users. Such cultural considerations were not applied to the Americas, despite their conquest and settlement by European states. Instead, the concept of "Western civilization" emerged as a way of grouping together Europe and these colonies.<ref>{{cite web |url=https://www.unaoc.org/repository/9334Western%20Historiography%20and%20Problem%20of%20Western%20History%20-%20JGA%20Pocock.doc.pdf |title=Western historiography and the problem of "Western" history |author=J. G. A. Pocock |author-link=J. G. A. Pocock |publisher=United Nations |pages=5–6 |access-date=30 July 2022 |archive-date=13 June 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220613222622/https://www.unaoc.org/repository/9334Western%20Historiography%20and%20Problem%20of%20Western%20History%20-%20JGA%20Pocock.doc.pdf |url-status=live }}</ref>

====Modern definitions====
{{further|Regions of Europe|Continental Europe}}
[[File:Herman Moll A New Map of Europe According to the Newest Observations 1721.JPG|thumb|270px|''A New Map of Europe According to the Newest Observations'' (1721) by Hermann Moll draws the eastern boundary of Europe along the Don River flowing south-west and the Tobol, Irtysh and Ob rivers flowing north.]]
[[File:1916 political map of Europe.jpg|thumb|270px|right|1916 political map of Europe showing most of Moll's waterways replaced by von Strahlenberg's Ural Mountains and Freshfield's Caucasus crest, land features of a type that normally defines a subcontinent]]

The question of defining a precise eastern boundary of Europe arises in the Early Modern period, as the eastern extension of [[Tsardom of Russia|Muscovy]] began to include [[North Asia]]. Throughout the Middle Ages and into the 18th century, the traditional division of the landmass of [[Eurasia]] into two continents, Europe and Asia, followed Ptolemy, with the boundary following the [[Turkish Straits]], the [[Black Sea]], the [[Kerch Strait]], the [[Sea of Azov]] and the [[Don River (Russia)|Don]] (ancient [[Tanais]]). But maps produced during the 16th to 18th centuries tended to differ in how to continue the boundary beyond the Don bend at [[Kalach-na-Donu]] (where it is closest to the Volga, now joined with it by the [[Volga–Don Canal]]), into territory not described in any detail by the ancient geographers.

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

Four years later, in 1725, [[Philip Johan von Strahlenberg]] was the first to depart from the classical Don boundary. He drew a new line along the [[Volga River|Volga]], following the Volga north until the [[Samara Bend]], along [[Obshchy Syrt]] (the [[drainage divide]] between the Volga and [[Ural River]]s), then north and east along the latter waterway to its source in the [[Ural Mountains]]. At this point he proposed that mountain ranges could be included as boundaries between continents as alternatives to nearby waterways. Accordingly, he drew the new boundary north along [[Ural Mountains]] rather than the nearby and parallel running Ob and Irtysh rivers.<ref>{{Cite book|title=Das Nord-und Ostliche Theil von Europa und Asia|author=Philipp Johann von Strahlenberg|year=1730|language=de|page=106}}</ref> This was endorsed by the Russian Empire and introduced the convention that would eventually become commonly accepted. However, this did not come without criticism. [[Voltaire]], writing in 1760 about [[Peter the Great]]'s efforts to make Russia more European, ignored the whole boundary question with his claim that neither Russia, Scandinavia, northern Germany, nor Poland were fully part of Europe.<ref name="Pocock2002"/> Since then, many modern analytical geographers like [[Halford Mackinder]] have declared that they see little validity in the Ural Mountains as a boundary between continents.<ref>{{Cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=jrVW9W9eiYMC&pg=PA8|title=Europe: A History|page=8|access-date=23 August 2010|isbn=978-0-19-820171-7|date=1996|last1=Davies|first1=Norman|publisher=Oxford University Press |archive-date=1 August 2020|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200801123242/https://books.google.com/books?id=jrVW9W9eiYMC&pg=PA8|url-status=live}}</ref>

The mapmakers continued to differ on the boundary between the lower Don and Samara well into the 19th century. The [[:commons:Category:Atlas of Russian Empire. 1745 year|1745 atlas]] published by the [[Russian Academy of Sciences]] has the boundary follow the Don beyond Kalach as far as [[Serafimovich (town)|Serafimovich]] before cutting north towards [[Arkhangelsk]], while other 18th- to 19th-century mapmakers such as [[John Cary]] followed Strahlenberg's prescription. To the south, the [[Kuma–Manych Depression]] was identified {{Circa|1773}} by a German naturalist, [[Peter Simon Pallas]], as a valley that once connected the Black Sea and the Caspian Sea,<ref name="oren-icn.ru">{{cite web|url=http://oren-icn.ru/index.php/discussmenu/retrospectiva/685-eagraniza |title=Boundary of Europe and Asia along Urals |language=ru |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120108153922/http://oren-icn.ru/index.php/discussmenu/retrospectiva/685-eagraniza |archive-date=8 January 2012 }}</ref><ref>Peter Simon Pallas, ''Journey through various provinces of the Russian Empire'', vol. 3 (1773)</ref> and subsequently was proposed as a natural boundary between continents.

By the mid-19th century, there were three main conventions, one following the Don, the [[Volga–Don Canal]] and the Volga, the other following the Kuma–Manych Depression to the Caspian and then the Ural River, and the third abandoning the Don altogether, following the [[Greater Caucasus watershed]] to the Caspian. The question was still treated as a "controversy" in geographical literature of the 1860s, with [[Douglas Freshfield]] advocating the Caucasus crest boundary as the "best possible", citing support from various "modern geographers".<ref>Douglas W. Freshfield, "[https://books.google.com/books?id=ips8AAAAIAAJ&pg=PA71 Journey in the Caucasus] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200801113249/https://books.google.com/books?id=ips8AAAAIAAJ&pg=PA71 |date=2020-08-01 }}", ''Proceedings of the Royal Geographical Society'', Volumes 13–14, 1869.
Cited as de facto convention by Baron von Haxthausen, ''Transcaucasia'' (1854); review [https://archive.org/details/bub_gb_SN0EAAAAQAAJ/page/n152 <!-- pg=140 --> Dublin University Magazine]</ref>

In [[Russia]] and the [[Soviet Union]], the boundary along the Kuma–Manych Depression was the most commonly used as early as 1906.<ref>[http://dlib.rsl.ru/view.php?path=/rsl01004000000/rsl01004103000/rsl01004103489/rsl01004103489.pdf#?page=163 "Europe"]{{dead link|date=August 2016}}, ''[[Brockhaus and Efron Encyclopedic Dictionary]]'', 1906</ref> In 1958, the Soviet Geographical Society formally recommended that the boundary between the Europe and Asia be drawn in textbooks from [[Baydaratskaya Bay]], on the [[Kara Sea]], along the eastern foot of Ural Mountains, then following the [[Ural River]] until the [[Mugodzhar Hills]], and then the [[Emba River]]; and Kuma–Manych Depression,<ref>{{cite web|url=http://velikijporog.narod.ru/st_evraz_gran.htm|title=Do we live in Europe or in Asia?|language=ru|access-date=30 July 2022|archive-date=18 February 2018|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180218073322/http://velikijporog.narod.ru/st_evraz_gran.htm|url-status=live}}</ref> thus placing the Caucasus entirely in Asia and the Urals entirely in Europe.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.i-u.ru/biblio/archive/orlenok_fisicheskaja/06.aspx |title=Physical Geography |year=1998 |author=Orlenok V. |language=ru |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20111016212930/http://www.i-u.ru/biblio/archive/orlenok_fisicheskaja/06.aspx |archive-date=16 October 2011 }}</ref> The ''[[Flora Europaea]]'' adopted a boundary along the [[Terek (river)|Terek]] and [[Kuban (river)|Kuban]] rivers, so southwards from the Kuma and the Manych, but still with the Caucasus entirely in Asia.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Tutin |first=T.G. |title=Flora Europaea, Volume 1: Lycopodiaceae to Platanaceae |last2=Heywood |first2=V.H. |last3=Burges |first3=N.A. |last4=Valentine |first4=D.H. |last5=Walters |first5=S.M. |last6=Webb |first6=D.A. |date=1964 |publisher=Cambridge University Press |isbn=978-0-521-06661-7 |location=Cambridge}}</ref><ref>{{Cite book |last=Tutin |first=Thomas Gaskell |title=Flora Europaea, Volume 1: Psilotaceae to Platanaceae |date=1993 |publisher=Cambridge University Press |isbn=978-0-521-41007-6 |edition=2nd |location=Cambridge New York Melbourne [etc.]}}</ref> However, most geographers in the Soviet Union favoured the boundary along the Caucasus crest,<ref>E.M. Moores, R.W. Fairbridge, ''Encyclopedia of European and Asian regional geology'', Springer, 1997, {{ISBN|978-0-412-74040-4}}, p. 34: "most Soviet geographers took the watershed of the Main Range of the Greater Caucasus as the boundary between Europe and Asia."</ref> and this became the common convention in the later 20th century, although the Kuma–Manych boundary remained in use in some 20th-century maps.

Some view the separation of [[Eurasia]] into Asia and Europe as a residue of [[Eurocentrism]]: "In physical, cultural and historical diversity, [[China]] and [[India]] are comparable to the entire European landmass, not to a single European country. [...]."{{sfnp|Lewis|Wigen|1997|p=?}}
Description	What you type	What you get
Italic	''Italic text''	Italic text
Bold	'''Bold text'''	Bold text
Bold & italic	'''''Bold & italic text'''''	*Bold & italic text*
Description	What you type	What you get
Reference	Page text.<ref>[https://www.example.org/ Link text], additional text.</ref>	Page text.^[1]
Named reference	Page text.<ref name="test">[https://www.example.org/ Link text]</ref>	Page text.^[2]
Additional use of the same reference	Page text.<ref name="test" />	Page text.^[2]
Display references	<references />	↑ Link text, additional text. ↑ Link text