About Europe. State Profiles U. Cities U. Geography U. Map Index. Trending Here are the facts and trivia that people are buzzing about. Is Vatican City a Country? The Languages of Africa. At that time, Greece and Turkey were still controlled by the Ottoman Empire and Italy was a conglomerate of various city-states and independent kingdoms.
Many of the countries and political boundaries of Europe we know today were not formed until after World War II.
Whereas Europe was once largely feudal and agrarian, today around 75 percent of its people live in cities. Although the United Kingdom was the dominant force in Europe during industrialization, Germany now dominates the region in terms of population, gross domestic product, and size. The political map of Europe continues to change, with shifting alliances, competing goals, and new pushes for independence. In general, Western Europe has moved toward cooperation.
France, Italy, and West Germany signed an economic agreement with the Benelux states in , and from there, the economic cooperation continued to expand. The European Union EU itself was created in and today, the organization has 28 member countries see Figure 2. Not all members of the EU use the euro, its official currency; the 19 member states who do are known as the eurozone.
Today, it is relatively easy to travel across Europe, in part because of economic and monetary cooperation, but also because internal border checks have largely been abolished. The Schengen Agreement, signed in the s allows member states to essentially function as a single territory in terms of entry.
These states share a common visa system and residents and vehicles can travel freely throughout states participating in the agreement. Although the European Union has provided member states with a number of advantages, the system has had some structural concerns. Greece, for example, admitted to the EU in , adopted the euro in It has had continued issues with debt, however, and has required massive bailouts from other member states.
The United Kingdom held a referendum in June and decided to leave the EU, the first time a country has made the decision to leave the organization. When analyzing the EU and its advantages and disadvantages, you might consider why a country would join a supranational organization. To join an organization like the EU, a country gives up some of its sovereignty, its independence in making economic, political, or legal decisions. Ideally, a country would gain more than it loses.
Countries united economically can more easily facilitate trade, for example, or could share a common military rather than each supporting their own. Those who favored the United Kingdom withdrawing from the EU, however, argued that membership in the EU did not offer enough advantages and preferred the United Kingdom to control its own trade deals and immigration restrictions.
Devolution, which occurs when regions within a state seek greater autonomy, has continued in Europe, representing a tension between nationalistic ideals and ethnic ties.
In the United Kingdom, a Scottish independence referendum was narrowly defeated but led to greater autonomy for Scotland. In general, policies offering increased autonomy have kept the map of Western Europe fairly intact. Ethnic groups seeking sovereignty often want political autonomy but economic integration, and thus devolution generally allows them more decision-making power. In the Balkan region, however, strong ethnic identities has contributed to continued political instability and the formation of new states.
In fact, the devolutionary forces found in this region led to the creation of the term Balkanization, referring to the tendency of territories to break up into smaller, often hostile units.
The Balkans came under the control of the Ottoman Empire, and once the empire collapsed following World War I, several territories in this region were joined together as the country of Yugoslavia see Figure 2.
Following World War II, Yugoslavia was led by Josip Broz Tito who attempted to unify the region by suppressing ethnic allegiances in favor of national unity. After his death, however, those ethnic tensions reemerged.
In Bosnia alone, over 8, Bosnian Muslim men and boys were killed. Most recently, Kosovo, comprised mostly of Albanian Muslims, declared independence from Serbia in , though its status as a sovereign state is still contested by some, including Serbia, Bosnia, and Greece. The map of Europe continues to evolve. In February , for instance, the country formerly known as the Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia officially changed its name to the Republic of North Macedonia, or just North Macedonia, resolving a long dispute with Greece.
While some countries in the region have decidedly benefitted from globalization, others remain fairly limited in terms of global trade and global economic integration. Figure 2. The differences in levels of development across Europe today have largely been shaped by the Industrial Revolution. The Industrial Revolution refers to the changes in manufacturing that occurred in the late 18th and early 19th centuries.
These changes had profound effects on society, economics, and agriculture, not just in Europe, but globally. Prior to the Industrial Revolution, most goods in Europe were produced in the home.
These products, such as clothing, candles, or small housewares, could be sold by a farming family to supplement their income. This steam-driven engine was adopted by industries to allow for factory production. Machines could now be used instead of human or animal labor. Interestingly, a side effect of the steam engine was that it enabled better iron production, since iron required an even and steady stream of heat. This improved iron was then used to build more efficient steam engines, which in turn produced increasingly better iron.
These improvements and new technologies gradually spread across Europe, eventually diffusing to the United States and Japan. During this time, there were also significant changes in agricultural production. The Agrarian Revolution began in the mids and was based upon a number of agricultural innovations. This was the Age of Enlightenment, and the scientific reasoning championed during this era was applied to the growing of crops.
Farmers began using mechanized equipment, rather than relying solely on human or animal labor. Fertilizers improved soil conditions, and crop rotation and complementary planting further increased crop yields.
Around the same time improvements in rail transportation changed both the way goods were distributed across Europe and the movement of people across the region. The use of steam engines and improved iron also transformed the shipping industry, with steamships beginning to set sail across the Atlantic Ocean.
The Agrarian Revolution coupled with the Industrial Revolution profoundly changed European geography. With the improvements of the Agrarian Revolution, farmers could produce more with less work.
This provided an agricultural surplus, enabling a sustained population increase. Port cities and capital cities became centers of trade and expanded. Critically, the Agrarian Revolution freed workers from having to farm, since fewer farmers were needed to produce the same amount of crops, enabling people to find work in the factories. These factories were primarily located in cities, and thus it was the combination of these two revolutions that dramatically increased urbanization in Europe.
Overall, the Industrial Revolution considerably improved European power by boosting their economies, improving their military technology, and increasing their transportation efficiency. Even before the Industrial Revolution, Europe exerted a considerable amount of control over the rest of the world. European colonialism began in the s, led by Portugal and Spain. In the s, England, France, and the Dutch began their own colonial campaigns. Coinciding with the Industrial and Agrarian Revolutions were a number of political revolutions in Europe.
The most influential political change came as the result of the French Revolution, which occurred between and CE. It also weakened the power of the Roman Catholic Church in France, inspiring the modern-day separation between church and state that is typical of many Western countries, including the United States. Today, the map of Europe reflects the changes brought about by the Industrial and Agrarian Revolutions as well as the political changes that took place throughout the time period.
Protests developed across the Muslim world, and demonstrators set fire to Danish embassies in Lebanon, Iran, and Syria. The debate surrounding the cartoons also intensified strained relations between the Islamic world and the West.
In , the French government dismantled illegal immigrant camps throughout France. These camps were mostly populated by Roma, also called Gypsies. Roma are a people and culture native to central and eastern Europe. In the face of an economic crisis, EU citizens of poorer member countries, such as the Roma of Bulgaria and Romania, often migrate to more developed EU countries in search of work. Developed countries, however, are also facing economic challenges.
These nations do not feel an obligation to accept illegal immigrants, seeing them as both a threat and a burden. Supporters of the crackdown want to stop illegal immigration. Critics argue the move was racist. Europe is often seen as a world leader in environmentally friendly technologies and legislation.
As part of an international agreement signed at the conference, all 27 member states of the European Union agreed to reduce carbon emission s by 20 percent by from levels. In fact, many developing nations argued that the Copenhagen Accord was drafted by a small group of powerful countries and unfairly disadvantages poorer countries, many of which are expected to suffer the worst effects of climate change.
The overall population of Europe is set to drop from roughly million to million by The proportion of people older than 65 will grow from 16 percent to 28 percent.
These projected changes will have two major effects: There will be a smaller work force to create a dynamic and industrious economy, and governments and citizens will have to care for more elderly people. These changes will affect different regions of Europe in different ways. A study completed by the Berlin Institute for Population and Development found that Scandinavia, the United Kingdom, the Netherlands, western Germany, Switzerland, Slovenia, Austria, and France have the best prospects of supporting vibrant and economically successful societies.
Many of the most socially and economically powerful elements of these societies will be led by immigrants. Developing countries, such as those in eastern and southern Europe, are expected to bear the worst of the depopulation trend. Among the struggling economies that may suffer from carbon emission limits are Romania, Bulgaria, and Moldova. Enacting regional social policies and economic legislation, especially through bodies like the European Union, may help curb that trend.
Europe has a long history of human development and is considered the birthplace of Western Civilization. Most Renewable Electricity Produced Iceland Largest Watershed Volga River 1. Also called a managed economy. Also called the Shoah and the Final Solution. The audio, illustrations, photos, and videos are credited beneath the media asset, except for promotional images, which generally link to another page that contains the media credit.
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Any interactives on this page can only be played while you are visiting our website. You cannot download interactives. What does it mean to be a citizen? Citizenship is the legal recognition of belonging to a specific nation, state, or commonwealth. What does citizenship represent? It may help to form one's identity, but it also comes with responsibilities such as following the laws of a particular place. Different nations, states, and commonwealths have different duties for their citizens and different processes for naturalization.
Use these classroom resources to help teach your students about the obligations and responsibilities that accompany citizenship. A political boundary is an imaginary line separating one political unit, such as a country or state, from another. Sometimes these align with a natural geographic feature like a river to form a border or barrier between nations.
Occasionally, two countries may contest where a particular border is drawn. These disputes might arise due to a natural resource both groups want, like in the case of Sudan and South Sudan, or in an attempt to gain more political power, as in the case of Pakistan and India in the Kashmir region.
Use these resources to explore more about political boundaries. Encyclopedic entry. Europe's rich agricultural and industrial diversity has made the continent a center of commerce and culture for centuries. Europe is the western peninsula of the giant "supercontinent" of Eurasia. Join our community of educators and receive the latest information on National Geographic's resources for you and your students.
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