8/17/13
Europe - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Arctic Ocean Baffin Bay Greenland (Dk) Svalbard (Nor) Barents Sea Greenland Sea Iceland Norwegian Sea Far. (Dk) Norway
North Atlantic Ocean
Finland
Sweden Estonia Russia Baltic Latvia Sea North SeaDenmark Lithuania Ireland United Belarus Celtic Kingdom Sea Neth. Poland BelgiumGermany Lux. Ukraine Czech Rep. Slovakia Bay of France Moldova SwitzAustria Azov Hungary Biscay erlandLiech. Sea Romania Slo. Black Croatia Sea And. Mon. S. Mar. BiH Serbia Portugal AdrBulgaria Ligurian Italy iatic Mont. Kos. Sea Turkey Spain Vat. Sea Mac. Alb. Gulf of Greece Cdiz Mediterranean Sea Strait of Gibraltar Aegean Cyprus Sea Malta
Kazakhstan
Caspian Sea Georgia Azer. Armenia
The use of the term "Europe" has developed gradually throughout history.[9][10] In antiquity, the Greek historian Herodotus mentioned that the world had been divided Reconstruction of Herodotus' world by unknown persons into map three parts, Europe, Asia, and Libya (Africa), with the Nile and the River Phasis forming their boundariesthough he also states that some considered the River Don, rather than the Phasis, as A medieval T and O map from 1472 the boundary between Europe and Asia.[11] Europe's eastern frontier showing the division of the world into was defined in the 1st century by geographer Strabo at the River 3 continents Don.[12] 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 North Africa, to the Don, separating it
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Europe 3/37
8/17/13
Europe - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
from Asia.[13] A cultural definition of Europe as the lands of Latin Christendom coalesced in the 8th century, signifying the new cultural condominium created through the confluence of Germanic traditions and ChristianLatin culture, defined partly in contrast with Byzantium and Islam, and limited to northern Iberia, the British Isles, France, Christianized western Germany, the Alpine regions and northern and central Italy.[14] The concept is one of the lasting legacies of the Carolingian Renaissance: "Europa" often figures in the letters of Charlemagne's court scholar, Alcuin.[15] This divisionas much cultural as geographicalwas used until the Late Middle Ages, when it was challenged by the Age of Discovery.[16][17] The problem of redefining Europe was finally resolved in 1730 when, instead of waterways, the Swedish geographer and cartographer von Strahlenberg proposed the Ural Mountains as the most significant eastern boundary, a suggestion that found favour in Russia and throughout Europe.[18] Europe is now generally defined by geographers as the westernmost peninsula of Eurasia, with its boundaries marked by large bodies of water to the north, west and south; Europe's limits to the far east are usually taken to be the Urals, the Ural River, and the Caspian Sea; to Europa regina map from Mnster the southeast, including the Caucasus Mountains, the Black Sea and (1570). The British Isles and the waterways connecting the Black Sea to the Mediterranean Scandinavia are not included in [19] Europe proper. Sea. Because of sociopolitical and cultural differences, there are various descriptions of Europe's boundary. For example, Cyprus is approximate to Anatolia (or Asia Minor), but is usually considered part of Europe both culturally and politically and currently is a member state of the EU. In addition, Malta was considered an island of North Africa for centuries,[20] while Iceland, though nearer to Greenland (North America), is also generally included in Europe. Sometimes, the word 'Europe' is used in a geopolitically limiting way[21] to refer only to the European Union or, even more exclusively, a culturally defined core. On the other hand, the Council of Europe has 47 member countries, and only 28 member states are in the EU.[22] In addition, people living in areas such as Ireland, the United Kingdom, the North Atlantic and Mediterranean islands and also in Scandinavia may routinely refer to "continental" or "mainland" Europe simply as Europe or "the Continent".[23]
Etymology
In ancient Greek mythology, Europa was a Phoenician princess whom Zeus abducted after assuming the form of a dazzling white bull. He took her to the island of Crete where she gave birth to Minos, Rhadamanthus, and Sarpedon. For Homer, Europe (Ancient Greek: , Eurp; see also List of Greek place names) was a mythological queen of Crete, not a geographical designation. The etymology of Europa is uncertain.[24] One theory suggests that it is derived from the Greek (eurus), meaning "wide, broad"[25] and /-/- (ps/p-/opt-), meaning "eye, face, countenance",[26] hence Eurp, "wide-gazing", "broad of aspect" (compare with glauk pis ( 'grey-eyed') Athena or bopis ( 'ox-eyed') Hera). Broad has been an epithet of Earth itself in the reconstructed Proto-Indo-European religion.[27] Another theory suggests that it is based on a Semitic word such as the Akkadian erebu meaning "to go down, set" (cf. Occident),[28] cognate to Phoenician 'ereb "evening; west" and Arabic Maghreb, Hebrew
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Europe 4/37
