Europe, historically and politically the most important of the five great divisions of the world, is, next to Australasia, the smallest in area, but Asia alone exceeds it in population. Geographers are agreed that, apart from its history and significance for the history of civilisation, it should be regarded rather as a peninsula of Asia, or as a portion of the great joint Eurasian continent ; for in regard to physical geography, fauna, and flora, it is difficult to draw a sharp line between Europe and Asia. On three sides Europe is bounded by sea - north by the Arctic Ocean, west by the Atlantic, south by the Mediterranean, Sea of Marmora, and Black Sea. But on the east the Urals, Ural River, and Caspian, though commonly assumed as the boundary towards Asia, do not mark a precise limit in respect of climate, flora, fauna, or physical conditions generally; the governments of Perm and Orenburg in European Russia extend far beyond the Urals. Between the Caspian and the Black Sea, the ridge of the Caucasus seems a convenient dividing line between Europe and Asia, but the Manytch depression is really, from the geographical point of view, a more correct boundary; physically the whole lieutenancy of the Caucasus is part of Asia. It is more curious that North Africa and South Europe are very closely related in many respects, geological and biological. It has even been said that the mountains of Auvergne divide northern France more sharply from Provence than the Mediterranean (q.v.) does southern Provence from Morocco and Algeria.

Various etymologies have been proposed for the name Europe. The old mythological one was that it was named from Europa - the Phoenician damsel whom the enamoured Zeus, in the form of a bull, bore off to Crete. Another was that it came from Eurus, the south-east wind. A third notes that the name is first applied, not to the whole continent, but (in the Homeric Hymn to Apollo) to the mainland of Thrace, as distinguished from the Peloponnesus and the Greek islands, and suggests that Europe therefore means Broad Land (eurus ops, ' broad face'). Of late the tendency is to assume that the name was first given by Phoenician traders, and is from the word Erebh, ' darkness' - i.e. the land of sunset, of the west. The area to which the name of Europe was applied grew with the extension of Greek geographical knowledge.

Europe has a total length from Cape St Vincent on the south-west to the mouth of the Kara River on the north-east of 3400 miles ; and from North Cape in Norway to Cape Matapan, the southernmost point of Greece, a total breadth of 2400 miles. The continent of Europe, irrespective of islands, lies within 36° 20' - 71° 10' N. lat., and 9° 30' W. - 66° 30' E. long. Its area is estimated at 3,800,000 sq. m., being about a third of that of Africa, a fourth of that of America, and a fifth of that of Asia. It does not greatly exceed the total area of the United States. Its indented coast-line is, owing to the number of deep inlets and gulfs, more extensive in proportion to its size than that of any other great natural division of the globe, and is estimated to measure little less than 50,000 miles. It has a pop. of above 892,000,000, which gives an average of over 103 for every square mile.

The body of the European continent divides itself naturally into two great portions - the great plain in the north-east, and the highlands from near the centre towards the south-west, the mountainous peninsula of Scandinavia lying apart from either. The plain occupies about two-thirds of the continent, reaching from the eastern boundary, north to the Arctic Ocean, south to the Caucasus and the Black Sea, and westward over the whole extent of the continent. In shape this plain resembles a triangle ; its base rests on the eastern boundary, and it may be said to reach its apex on the shores of Holland. It separates the two mountain-systems of Europe - the Scandinavian system (highest summit 7566 feet) on the north, and on the south the system of southern Europe. The mass of the Alps, covering an area of nearly 100,000 sq. m., forms the centre of the mountain-system of southern and western Europe, and stretches down on four sides towards France, Germany, Hungary, and Italy; the highest summit being 15,732 feet. The other chief mountain-masses are the Carpathians (8343 feet), the Balkans (9750), the Apennines (9574), the Pyrenees (11,170), and the Sierra Nevada (11,670), and in Sicily, Etna (10,850).

Europe is surrounded by water on three sides. The White Sea comes in from the Arctic Ocean; the German Ocean (with the Baltic) and the Mediterranean from the Atlantic. The most important peninsulas are in the north Scandinavia, and in the south the Crimea, Turkey and Greece, Italy, and Spain. Except Iceland, the islands cluster closely round the mainland, the chief being Great Britain and Ireland, Iceland, Nova Zembla, Sardinia, Corsica, and Crete. The lakes of Europe are small as compared with those of Africa or America, the largest being Ladoga and Onega in Russia, and Wener in Sweden. The Volga (1977 miles), the Danube (1740), the Ural (1450), the Don (1125), the Kama (1050), the Petchora (975), and the Rhine (760) are the largest rivers of Europe. The details of the geography of Europe are given under the names of its several political divisions, and of its lakes, rivers, and mountains.

In respect of climate, by far the greater portion of the area of Europe belongs to the northern section of the temperate zone, though parts of Norway, Sweden, and Russia lie within the Arctic Circle. The southern parts of Spain, Sicily, and Greece are some twelve degrees from the northern tropic. The natural history of Europe very much agrees with that of the corresponding latitudes of Asia. The most northern regions have the arctic flora and fauna ; whilst the natural history of the most southern countries assumes a subtropical character. The temperature of the western and northern parts of Europe being raised by the Gulf Stream and the winds from the great mass of dry and desert land in Africa above what is elsewhere found in similar latitudes, the flora and fauna exhibit a corresponding character, affected, however, by the great amount of moisture derived from the Atlantic Ocean, and also to a still greater degree by the comparative uniformity of temperature which the proximity of the ocean produces. The effect of the last-mentioned causes is so great that the northern limit of some plants is sooner reached on the shores of the Atlantic than in the more central parts of Europe, where the winters are much colder, and the average temperature of the year is lower. Of this the vine and maize are notable examples. Plants which require a mild winter will not grow in the north - and scarcely even in the centre of Europe - but they advance along the western coast under the influence of the maritime climate.

Thus, the myrtle - although not indigenous - grows even in the south of England. Amongst plants the date-palm, and amongst animals a species of ape, are found in the south of Europe (the ape only on the Rock of Gibraltar): whilst some strictly African birds are frequent visitants, and many birds - as the cuckoo, swallow, stork, etc. - are common to Europe and Africa, inhabitants in summer even of very northern regions, and returning in winter to the warm south. Of the plants now most commonly associated in our thoughts with the southern countries of Europe, many have probably been introduced from Africa or from the East. This has probably been the case even with the myrtle, and certainly has been the case with the vine, olive, orange, lemon, fig, peach, almond, apricot, etc. Some fruits are certainly indigenous to Europe, as the apple, pear, plum, and cherry, although even of these the first improved varieties may have been introduced from the East. Among the wild animals of Europe, the bison is still reckoned ; and the ox existed at no very remote period in a truly wild state. The reindeer inhabits the extreme north; the elk, the stag, the fallow-deer, and the roebuck are found in more southern regions ; the ibex or bouquetin exists on the high central mountains ; two species of antelope - the chamois of the Alps, and the saiga of the Russian plains - connect the European fauna with the Asiatic and African. Of mammals peculiar to Europe, the most notable are the chamois, musk rat, and fallow-deer, while the civet, ichneumon, and porcupine are not found in any other part of the pahAearctic region but in Europe. Of carnivorous animals, the most noteworthy are the bear, wolf, fox, and lynx. The European seas afford valuable fisheries, particularly of herring and of cod in the north, and of tunny, anchovy, etc. in the Mediterranean.

The European races belong in the main to the various branches of the great Aryan stock, though in few European countries is there a pure race - the admixture of various stocks being in some cases very great and close. But, generally speaking, Celtic blood is most largely found in France (especially in Brittany, where a Celtic tongue is still spoken) and parts of Great Britain and Ireland; Teutonic peoples occupy Germany, Switzerland, Holland, part of Belgium, part of Austria, Denmark, Norway and Sweden, Iceland, and Great Britain. Slavonic races are found in Austria, Prussia, the Balkan peninsula, and Russia. Romanic language and blood are prominent in Italy, France, Spain and Portugal, and Roumania. The Greeks belong to the same Greco-Italian branch of the Aryans as the Italians. Non-Aryan peoples are the Finns, Lapps, and Samoyedes of the north and northeast, various Turanian tribes in the east of Russia, the Hungarians and the Turks, and the Basques of the Pyrenees; and a strong element of pre-Aryan blood is also to be traced in other parts of western Europe, as in Ireland and Britain. The most obvious method of classifying races is language. By this test, some 105,000,000 Europeans are Teutonic (German, English, Dutch, Flemish, Swedish, Norwegian, Danish); 95,000,000 Slavs (Russian, Polish, Czech, Slovak, Serb, Croat, Slovenian, Bulgarian); 100,000,000 Romance-speaking (French, Italian, Spanish, Portuguese, Roumanian, Walloon, RhAetian); 3,000,000 Letts and Lithuanians; 5,250,000 Greeks and Albanians; 3,600,000 Celtic (Welsh, Breton, Irish, Gaelic, Manx); 1,050,000 Armenians, Ossetians, and Gypsies. Some 18,000,000 are non-Aryan (Magyars, Finns, Ugrians, Tartars, Turks, Kalmucks, Basques, Circassians, etc, and Maltese). Upwards of fifty languages are spoken in Europe. But language is by no means a sure test of race; thus, the Normans quickly took to speaking the Romance tongue of their Romanised Gallic subjects, whilst the French - Celts, with a strong infusion of Frankish-Germanic blood, and a smaller infusion of Italic blood - speak a modified Latin tongue. Many parts of the German-speaking area are mainly Wendish or Prussian (Slavonic) in blood. The Bulgarians, speaking a Slavonic tongue, are originally Ugro-Finnic. South Germany is probably more Celtic and less Teutonic than northern France.

The table gives a comparative view of the states of Europe, their areas, and populations in 1900-5:

The density varies from 589 per sq. m. in Belgium (60(5 in England without Wales, and 1897 in Monaco, which is mainly two towns) to 34 in Andorra, and 25 in Sweden and Norway.

Europe is practically a region of monotheists : though there are Buddhist Kalmucks in South Russia, and Pagans amongst the Lapps, Finns, Samoyedes, and Tcheremisses. The Turks, some Russian Tartars, many Albanians, and some Slavs are Mohammedans (6,600,000), and there are nearly 7,000,000 Jews; but the bulk of Europeans are professing Christians. The Catholic Church may number some 156,600,000 adherents, the Greek Church 80,000,000, while the various Protestant communions number about 76,000,000.

See the relevant portions of Reclus, Kloden, and Stanford's Compendium of Geography (1886), J. Geikie's Prehistoric Europe (1880), J. Sime's Geography of Europe (1889); Freeman's Historical Geography of Europe (1881), and his General Sketch of European History (1876) and Primer of the History of Europe (1876); the Histories by Lodge (1886), Dyer (1877), and Fyffe (1884-90) ; and the annual Statesman's Yearbook and Almanach de Gotha.