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Since there is no universal agreement on Europe's regional composition, the placement of individual countries may vary based on criteria being used. For instance, the Balkans is a distinct geographical region within Europe, but individual countries may alternatively be grouped into South-eastern Europe or Southern Europe.
In terms of shape, Europe is a collection of connected peninsulas and nearby islands. The two largest peninsulas are Europe itself and Scandinavia to the north, divided from each other by the Baltic Sea. Three smaller peninsulas— Iberia, Italy, and the Balkans —emerge from the southern margin of the mainland.
Europe covers about 10.18 million km 2 (3.93 million sq mi), or 2% of Earth's surface (6.8% of land area), making it the second-smallest continent (using the seven-continent model). Politically, Europe is divided into about fifty sovereign states , of which Russia is the largest and most populous , spanning 39% of the continent and comprising ...
Central and Eastern Europe is a geopolitical term encompassing the countries in Northeast Europe (primarily the Baltics ), Central Europe, Eastern Europe, and Southeast Europe (primarily the Balkans ), usually meaning former communist states from the Eastern Bloc and Warsaw Pact in Europe, as well as from former Yugoslavia.
Western Europe. The following is an alphabetical list of subregions in the United Nations geoscheme for Europe, created by the United Nations Statistics Division (UNSD). [1] The scheme subdivides the continent into Eastern Europe, Northern Europe, Southern Europe, and Western Europe. The UNSD notes that "the assignment of countries or areas to ...
The concept of "Central Europe" appeared in the 19th century. It was understood as a contact zone between the Southern and Northern areas, and later the Eastern and Western areas, of Europe. Thinkers portrayed "Central Europe" either as a separate region, or a buffer zone between these regions. In the early nineteenth century, the terms "Middle ...
5,650 km 2. The geography of the European Union describes the geographic features of the European Union (EU), a multinational polity that occupies a large portion of Europe and covers 4,422,773 km 2 (1,707,642 sq mi). [1] Its European territory extends northeast to Finland, northwest to Ireland, southeast to Cyprus and southwest to the Spanish ...
The region represents a significant part of European culture; the main socio-cultural characteristics of Eastern Europe have historically been defined by the traditions of the East Slavs and Greeks, as well as by the influence of Eastern Christianity as it developed through the Eastern Roman Empire and the Ottoman Empire.