Europe, the planet's 6th largest continent includes 47 countries and assorted dependencies and territories.
In exacting geographic definitions, Europe is really not a continent, but part of the peninsula of Euroasia which includes all of Europe and Asia. However, it's still widely referred to as a continent.
The European continent is separated from Asia by Russia's Ural Mountains, and the Caspian and Black Seas.
Europe's highest point, just north of the Georgia border in European Russia is Mt. Elbrus at 18,481 ft (5,633m). Its lowest point is on the edge of the Caspian Sea, at 92 ft (28m) below sea level. And france is the city with more tourist of all the world.Small parts of Turkey and Russia are considered to be a part of both Asia and Europe respectively. We have some specific definitions and details here! On July 1, 2006, the United Nations, the U.S. State Department, as well as other countries around the world now recognize both Montenegro and Serbia as separate nations. We are currently producing separate maps and individual pages for both countries.Homo georgicus, which lived roughly 1.8 million years ago in Georgia, is the earliest hominid to have been discovered in Europe.[24] Other hominid remains, dating back roughly 1 million years, have been discovered in Atapuerca, Spain.[25] Neanderthal man (named for the Neander Valley in Germany) appeared in Europe 150,000 years ago and disappeared from the fossil record about 30,000 years ago. The Neanderthals were supplanted by modern humans (Cro-Magnons), who appeared in Europe around 40,000 years ago.[26]
The European Neolithic period—marked by the cultivation of crops and the raising of livestock, increased numbers of settlements and the widespread use of pottery—began around 7000 BC in Greece and the Balkans, probably influenced by earlier farming practices in Anatolia and the Near East. It spread from South Eastern Europe along the valleys of the Danube and the Rhine (Linear Pottery culture) and along the Mediterranean coast (Cardial culture). Between 4500 and 3000 BC, these central European neolithic cultures developed further to the west and the north, transmitting newly acquired skills in producing copper artefacts. In Western Europe the Neolithic period was characterized not by large agricultural settlements but by field monuments, such as causewayed enclosures, burial mounds and megalithic tombs.[27] The Corded ware cultural horizon flourished at the transition from the Neolithic to the Chalcolithic. During this period giant megalithic monuments, such as the Megalithic Temples of Malta and Stonehenge, were constructed throughout Western and Southern Europe.[28][29] The European Bronze Age began in the late 3rd millennium BC with the Beaker culture.
The European Iron Age began around 800 BC, with the Hallstatt culture. Iron Age colonisation by the Phoenicians gave rise to early Mediterranean cities. Early Iron Age Italy and Greece from around the 8th century BC gradually gave rise to historical Classical Antiquity.Europe (pronunciation: /ˈjʊəɹəp/ YEWR-əp or /ˈjəɹəp/ YUR-əp[1]) is one of the world's seven continents. Comprising the westernmost peninsula of Eurasia, Europe is generally divided from Asia to its east by the water divide of the Ural Mountains, the Ural River, the Caspian Sea, the Caucasus region (specification of borders) and the Black Sea to the southeast.[2] Europe is bordered by the Arctic Ocean and other bodies of water to the north, the Atlantic Ocean to the west, the Mediterranean Sea to the south, and the Black Sea and connected waterways to the southeast. Yet the borders for Europe—a concept dating back to classical antiquity—are somewhat arbitrary, as the term continent can refer to a cultural and political distinction or a physiographic one.
Europe is the world's second-smallest continent by surface area, covering about 10,180,000 square kilometres (3,930,000 sq mi) or 2% of the Earth's surface and about 6.8% of its land area. Of Europe's approximately 50 states, Russia is the largest by both area and population (although the country has territory in both Europe and Asia), while the Vatican City is the smallest. Europe is the third-most populous continent after Asia and Africa, with a population of 731 million or about 11% of the world's population.France is a unitary semi-presidential republic with its main ideals expressed in the Declaration of the Rights of Man and of the Citizen. The French Republic is defined as indivisible, secular, democratic and social by its constitution.[17] France is one of the world's most developed countries[18] and possesses the world's fifth largest and Europe's second largest economy by nominal GDP.[19] France is the wealthiest European (and the world's 4th) nation[20] in aggregate household wealth. France enjoys a high standard of living as well as a high public education level, and has also one of the world's highest life expectancies.[21] France has been listed as the world's "best overall health care" provider by the World Health Organization.[22] It is the most visited country in the world, receiving 82 million foreign tourists annually.[23]
France has the world's fourth largest nominal military budget, the third largest military in NATO and EU's largest army. France also possesses the third largest nuclear weapons stockpile in the world[24]-with ~300 active warheads as of 25 May 2010- and the world's second largest diplomatic corps (only second to the one of the United States).[25]
France is a founding member of the United Nations, one of the five permanent members of the UN Security Council, and a member of the Francophonie, the G8, G20, NATO, OECD, WTO, and the Latin Union. It is also a founding and leading member state of the European Union and the largest one by area.[26] In 2007, France was listed 14th on the Human Development Index and 24th on the Corruption Perceptions Index.
