Europe

Europe (pronunciation: /ˈjʊərəp/ yewr-əp or /ˈjɜrəp/ yur-əp[1]) is, by convention, one of the world's seven continents. It is also known as the old continent. Comprising the westernmost peninsula of Eurasia, Europe is generally 'divided' from Asia to its east by the watershed divides of the Ural andCaucasus Mountains, the Ural River, the Caspian and Black Seas, and the waterways connecting theBlack and Aegean Seas.[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 of Europe—a concept dating back to classical antiquity—are somewhat arbitrary, as the primarily physiographic term "continent" can incorporate culturaland political elements.
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 thesmallest. Europe is the third-most populous continent after Asia and Africa, with apopulation of 733 million or about 11% of the world's population.[3]
Europe, in particular Ancient Greece, is the birthplace of Western culture.[4] It played a predominant role in global affairs from the 16th century onwards, especially after the beginning of colonialism. Between the 16th and 20th centuries, Europeannations controlled at various times the Americas, most of Africa, Oceania, and large portions of Asia. Both World Wars were largely focused upon Europe, greatly contributing to a decline in Western Europeandominance in world affairs by the mid-20th century as the United States and Soviet Union took prominence.[5] During the Cold War, Europe was divided along the Iron Curtain between NATO in the westand the Warsaw Pact in the east. European integration led to the formation of the Council of Europeand the European Union in Western Europe, both of which have been expanding eastward since the fall of the Soviet Union in 1991.}

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 whereshe gave birth to Minos, Rhadamanthus and Sarpedon. For Homer, Europe (Greek: Εὐρώπη, Eurṓpē; see also List of Greek place names) was a mythological queen of Crete, not a geographical designation. Later, Europa stood for central-north Greece, and by 500 BC its meaning had been extended to the lands to the north.
The name of Europa is of uncertain etymology.[23] One theory suggests that it isderived from the Greek εὐρύς (eurus), meaning "wide, broad"[24] and ὤψ/ὠπ-/ὀπτ- (ōps/ōp-/opt-), meaning "eye, face, countenance",[25] hence Eurṓpē, "wide-gazing", "broad of aspect" (compare with glaukōpis (γλαυκῶπις 'grey-eyed') Athena or boōpis (βοὠπις 'ox-eyed') Hera). Broad has been an epithet of Earth itself in the reconstructed Proto-Indo-European religion.[26] Another theory suggests that it isbased on a Semitic word such as the Akkadian erebu meaning "to go down, set" (cf. Occident),[27] cognate to Phoenician 'ereb "evening; west" and Arabic Maghreb, Hebrew ma'ariv (see also Erebus, PIE *h1regʷos, "darkness"). However, M. L. West states that "phonologically, the match between Europa's name and any form of the Semitic word is very poor".[28]
Most major world languages use wordsderived from "Europa" to refer to the "continent" (peninsula). Chinese, for example, uses the word Ōuzhōu (歐洲); this term is also used by the European Union in Japanese-language diplomatic relations, despite the katakana Yōroppa (ヨーロッパ?) being more commonly used. However, in some Turkic languages the originally Persian name Frangistan (land of the Franks) is used casually in referring to much of...