37 Facts About Europe

1.

Europe is a landmass, which is either considered a continent in its own right or a subcontinent of Eurasia, located entirely in the Northern Hemisphere and mostly in the Eastern Hemisphere.

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2.

Europe is commonly considered to be separated from Asia by the watershed of the Ural Mountains, the Ural River, the Caspian Sea, the Greater Caucasus, the Black Sea and the waterways of the Turkish Straits.

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3.

Europe had a total population of about 745 million in 2021.

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4.

In 1949, the Council of Europe was founded with the idea of unifying Europe to achieve common goals and prevent future wars.

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5.

The EU originated in Western Europe but has been expanding eastward since the fall of the Soviet Union in 1991.

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6.

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 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.

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7.

Cyprus is closest to Anatolia, but is considered part of Europe politically and it is a member state of the EU.

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8.

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.

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9.

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 Northwest Africa, to the Don, separating it from Asia.

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10.

The term "Europe" is first used for a cultural sphere in the Carolingian Renaissance of the 9th century.

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11.

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.

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12.

Question of defining a precise eastern boundary of Europe arises in the Early Modern period, as the eastern extension of Muscovy began to include North Asia.

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13.

Europe drew a new line along the Volga, following the Volga north until the Samara Bend, along Obshchy Syrt, then north and east along the latter waterway to its source in the Ural Mountains.

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14.

The earliest sites in Europe dated 48, 000 years ago are Riparo Mochi, Geissenklosterle (Germany) and Isturitz (France).

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15.

Charlemagne, a Frankish king of the Carolingian dynasty who had conquered most of Western Europe, was anointed "Holy Roman Emperor" by the Pope in 800.

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16.

Europe was excommunicated in the papal bull Exsurge Domine in 1520 and his followers were condemned in the 1521 Diet of Worms, which divided German princes between Protestant and Roman Catholic faiths.

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17.

Napoleon Bonaparte rose to power in the aftermath of the French Revolution, and established the First French Empire that, during the Napoleonic Wars, grew to encompass large parts of Europe before collapsing in 1815 with the Battle of Waterloo.

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18.

The Congress of Vienna, convened after Napoleon's downfall, established a new balance of power in Europe centred on the five "Great Powers": the UK, France, Prussia, Austria and Russia.

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19.

Europe's population increased from about 100 million in 1700 to 400 million by 1900.

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20.

The United States and Western Europe established the NATO alliance and, later, the Soviet Union and Central Europe established the Warsaw Pact.

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21.

In 1949 the Council of Europe was founded, following a speech by Sir Winston Churchill, with the idea of unifying Europe to achieve common goals.

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22.

Europe makes up the western fifth of the Eurasian landmass.

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23.

In general, Europe is not just colder towards the north compared to the south, but it gets colder from the west towards the east.

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24.

Geology of Europe is hugely varied and complex and gives rise to the wide variety of landscapes found across the continent, from the Scottish Highlands to the rolling plains of Hungary.

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25.

Southern Europe could be described as having a warm, but mild climate.

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26.

Political map of Europe is substantially derived from the re-organisation of Europe following the Napoleonic Wars in 1815.

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27.

The prevalent form of government in Europe is parliamentary democracy, in most cases in the form of Republic; in 1815, the prevalent form of government was still the Monarchy.

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28.

In 2017, the population of Europe was estimated to be 742 million according to the 2022 revision of the World Population Prospects, which is slightly more than one-ninth of the world's population.

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29.

The population of Europe has grown in the past century, but in other areas of the world the population has grown far more quickly.

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30.

Europe is home to the highest number of migrants of all global regions at 70.

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31.

Early modern emigration from Europe began with Spanish and Portuguese settlers in the 16th century, and French and English settlers in the 17th century.

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32.

Religion in Europe according to the Global Religious Landscape survey by the Pew Forum, 2016.

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33.

Christianity, including the Roman Catholic Church, has played a prominent role in the shaping of Western civilization since at least the 4th century, and for at least a millennium and a half, Europe has been nearly equivalent to Christian culture, even though the religion was inherited from the Middle East.

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34.

Europe has become a relatively secular continent, with an increasing number and proportion of irreligious, atheist and agnostic people, who make up about 18.

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35.

When considering the commuter belts or metropolitan areas, within Europe Moscow covers the largest population, followed in order by Istanbul, London, Paris, Madrid, Milan, Ruhr Area, Saint Petersburg, Rhein-Sud, Barcelona and Berlin.

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36.

Europe is often described as "maximum cultural diversity with minimal geographical distances".

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37.

Sport in Europe tends to be highly organized with many sports having professional leagues.

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