Learn what the EU does for citizens, the way it shields legal rights, promotes prosperity and strives to create the whole world a safer position.

In the course of the center Neolithic Time period megaliths were being produced, possibly for spiritual reasons, suggesting carefully-knit communities which could increase a big workforce. Among the many oldest megalithic internet sites is the Carnac Stones in Brittany, dated to c. 4500 BCE, and among the oldest megalithic tombs is Poulnabrone in Eire, dated to c.

Europe’s boundaries have already been Specially unsure, and as a result Considerably debated, on the east, in which the continent merges, without the need of sundering physical boundaries, with portions of western Asia. The eastward limitations now adopted by most geographers exclude the Caucasus location and encompass a small portion of Kazakhstan, the place the European boundary formed from the northern Caspian Coastline is connected to that of your Urals by Kazakhstan’s Emba River and Mughalzhar (Mugodzhar) Hills, by themselves a southern extension in the Urals. Amongst the choice boundaries proposed by geographers which have received vast acceptance is a plan that sees the crest of the Increased Caucasus variety given that the dividing line amongst Europe and Asia, inserting Ciscaucasia, the northern Component of the Caucasus region, in Europe and Transcaucasia, the southern portion, in Asia.

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Within the Greek point of view then, Europa was culturally backward and scantily settled. It had been a barbarian environment—that is definitely, a non-Greek a single, with its inhabitants generating “bar-bar” noises in unintelligible tongues. Traders and vacationers also described that the Europe further than Greece possessed exclusive physical units, with mountain techniques and lowland river basins much bigger than All those familiar to inhabitants in the Mediterranean area. It absolutely was clear too that a succession of climates, markedly distinctive from Those people of the Mediterranean borderlands, were being to get experienced as Europe was penetrated in the south. The roomy japanese steppes and, on the west and north, primeval forests as however only marginally touched by human occupancy more underlined environmental contrasts.

Following Constantine’s conversion to Christianity, the new faith would finally substitute the older pagan religions of Europe here and even more deliver cultural unity by way of a typical spiritual belief system, Particularly after the Council of Nicaea of 325 founded the orthodox vision.

historical past of Europe, record of European peoples and cultures from prehistoric times towards the existing. Europe is a more ambiguous time period than most geographic expressions. Its etymology is Uncertain, as is the Actual physical extent of the region it designates. Its western frontiers feel Evidently defined by its coastline, however the position of your British Isles stays equivocal.

The Church encouraged cultural and spiritual unity as a result of these persecutions as it manufactured apparent there was just one legitimate religion all people needed to comply with. Following the rise of Islam within the 7th century, the Church – and Christian European monarchs – discovered Yet another 'enemy with the faith' to unify believers towards, which coverage attained better momentum once the Battle of Tours in 732 through which the Franks turned back a Muslim invasion of Europe.

As a conceptual assemble, Europa, as the more acquired of The traditional Greeks initial conceived it, stood in sharp contrast to both Asia and Libya, the identify then placed on the recognised northern Component of Africa. Pretty much, Europa is now assumed to own intended “Mainland,” as an alternative to the earlier interpretation, “Sunset.” It appears to own advised alone for the Greeks, within their maritime entire world, as an acceptable designation for the extensive northerly lands that lay over and above, lands with features vaguely acknowledged but Obviously different from People inherent during the concepts of Asia and Libya—the two of which, somewhat prosperous and civilized, were being related closely with the culture from the Greeks as well as their predecessors.

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note: leading five non-EU import associates depending on share share of exterior imports; does not consist of internal trade among the EU member states

This informative article treats the Bodily and human geography of Europe. For discussion of individual countries of your continent, see

The EU represents one inside a number of initiatives to integrate Europe considering that Planet War II. At the end of the war, quite a few western European countries sought nearer financial, social, and political ties to attain financial progress and navy protection and to market an enduring reconciliation in between France and Germany. To this stop, in 1951 the leaders of 6 nations—Belgium, France, Italy, Luxembourg, the Netherlands, and West Germany—signed the Treaty of Paris, therefore, when it took impact in 1952, founding the European Coal and Metal Neighborhood (ECSC). (The uk were invited to affix the ECSC and in 1955 sent a representative to look at conversations about its ongoing progress, nevertheless the Labour government of Clement Attlee declined membership, owing Most likely to a number of components, including the disease of vital ministers, a wish to keep up financial independence, as well as a failure to grasp the Local community’s impending importance.

Currently, discussion more than the origin on the name proceeds. Theories incorporate a Greek origin which means "huge gazing" in reference towards the breadth in the shoreline as found with the sea or a Phoenician origin with the identify which means "night" as from the position where by the Sunlight established.