Europe Warning: You are not logged in. Your IP address will be publicly visible if you make any edits. If you log in or create an account, your edits will be attributed to your username, along with other benefits.Anti-spam check. Do not fill this in! ====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> Summary: Please note that all contributions to Christianpedia may be edited, altered, or removed by other contributors. 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