History of Europe

This article contains a summary of the history of the Europe .

The Prehistory

The Paleolithic

The age of the first indices of human occupation in Europe is discussed: it could be 1,8 million years according to certain researchers but it is confirmed by human fossils only from - 600 000 years ( Homo heidelbergensis ).

Later, there is approximately 200 000 years, the Homme of Néandertal appears in Europe.

The presence of the modern man, Homo sapiens , is attested in Europe since at least 35 000 years. In a climate colder than the current climate, the man is a hunter which uses stone tools cut. He left us on the walls of the caves of the artistic figurations, perhaps related to religious concerns.

The Neolithic

Evidence of permanent campings dates from in Bulgaria, Greece and Romania: appeared with the the Middle East, agriculture (culture of cereals, breeding) slowly spreads 7th at the 3rd front millenia J. - C. in all Europe. The sedentarisation (villages) is accompanied by the use of stone tools polished, the pottery, of weaving, but also of the war.

With 3rd and 2nd front millenia J. - C., during the Age of copper (Chalcolithique), megalithic civilization develops.

In Crete opens out the Minoan Civilization, and later, in Greece, the civilization mycénienne (medium of III), with which Europe enters the History, since these civilizations use the writing.

During this time, the rest of Europe enters the Bronze Age (medium of thousand-year-old IIe front J. - C.), then starting from the medium of II in the Âge of iron. It is for this protohistoric period that one starts to identify people: the Ibères in Spain, Etruscan , Ligure , Italic in Italy, Celtic , which starting from the Central Europe is spread with 5th and 4es front centuries J. - C. in all Western Europe.

The diffusion of the languages at the origin of the European languages would have been done Is towards the West, starting from a hearth located in Anatolia at the time of the phase of neolithisation of Europe (C. Renfrew, the Indo-European Enigma , Flammarion, 1990).

The Antiquity

Celtic

It is too often forgotten that Europe did not limit itself to the Greece or with Rome. There were also people which named themselves (Al), approximately meaning family centered on the family ties. the continuation finds out of W (Al) them, G (Al) Li, G (Al) late, W (Al) D (German), etc

The Celts occupied most of Europe. The Latin authors use the word “Galli” to designate the Celts installed in Gaulle, in homage to their animal fetish, the cock (Latin Gallus). The Celts are very good craftsmen and farmers. They use the Roue and the barrels to improve their daily newspaper. The Trade is prosperous and the Celts maintain good relationships with the people which live on the Mediterranean basin.

Foundation of Massilia (Marseilles) towards 600 before JC.

The Greece

At the end of the Bronze Age, the old Greek kingdoms crumble and a brilliant civilization is born in their place. The Greek civilization takes the form of several quoted States (most important being Sparte and Athens), which have forms of very different government and culture. The Art, the Music, the Philosophy, the Sciences, the Théâtre develop. The Greek cities base a great number of colonies on the edges of the Mediterranean and the Black Sea, in minor Asia, Sicily, in the south of the Italy.

But with fourth century BC, their wars internal they make an easy prey for Philippe II of Macedonia. The conquests of his/her son, Alexandre Large the extend the Greek culture until the Perse, the Egypt and the India but also make it possible to discover the knowledge of these countries.

Ancient Greece, first of European intellectual civilizations, bequeathed the idea of Athenian Démocratie, analyzed well by its Philosophe S. The latter (Socrate, Plato, Aristote, Héraclite…) also reflect in order to explain the unknown by the known one. Always in the intellectual field, one observes a first epic literature with Homère, the beginnings of lyric poetry with Sapho and Pindare, the beginnings of the Théâtre. Thus the idea of the ideal beauty emerges, which arts of the Architecture and the Sculpture reflect. A sum of knowledge in Mathématiques was born from the contact of the Greeks with older civilizations of Egypt or Mésopotamie. Moreover, Greece allowed the blossoming of the experimental Science and created the Monnaie. Isn't ancient Greece, made up of multiple States cities being aware of their common identity but constantly rival, a summary of current Europe?

Rome

As from third century BC, Rome conquers Italy, being opposed to the Greeks colonies of Italy of the South then with Carthage, then all the circumference of the Mediterranean. As from the 1st century, the border of the Roman Empire is fixed on the the Rhine and the the Danube and at the limit of the Scotland. The Empire is defended by a network of fortifications called the Limes. The Empire is divided into provinces. At the beginning of the Empire, the inhabitants are initially citizens of their city, but in 212, all the inhabitants of the empire receive the Roman citizenship. The Latin becomes the language common to all the Western areas of the empire, the remaining Greek spoken in the East.

The legacies of Rome are the Christianisme, which is essential like the religion of the Roman empire on the 4th century, the Droit as bases life in society and Latin which will form the languages Spanish and Italian and most of the French language.

the Middle Ages

Early middle ages

the memory of the Roman empire

Western Europe emerges as cradle of a Civilization distinct after the fall from the Roman Empire at the 5th century of the Christian era, following the cruel invasions. The oriental party of the Roman Empire survives like Byzantine Empire during one millenium. The Germanic and Asian invasions upset the Roman order, the cruel kingdoms are established on the ruins of the Roman empire of Occident, but the memory of this empire remains and continues like a model of government to the sovereigns of the Middle Ages. Thus, Charlemagne ressuscite the imperial title in 800; the Ottonien S seize some thereafter.

Birth of the kingdoms

At the 6th century, the Bulgares create the first Slavic State of Europe: the Bulgaria. In VIIIe century, in the center of the Italian peninsula, the States of the Church appear, placed under the protection of the Carolingien S.

social relations and political

The system vassalic and comtal gradually replace the Roman concept of Res Publica . One of the rare ancient institutions which survives the collapse of the Roman Empire of occident is the Roman Catholic church, which preserves a share of the Roman heritage (in particular the Latin language). The Middle Ages were exaggeratedly perceived as one dark period where many knowledge of the Antiquité were lost.

New invasions and consequences

At the 9th century and 10th century, Europe undergoes the incursions devastators of the Viking S, along the coasts of the the North Sea. These invasions are accompanied by massacres and of plundering but plundering allows the back in circulation of noble metals whose deficiency poses problem with the development of the markets. At the end of the 10th century and at the beginning of the 11th centuries, one sees the appearance of the Féodalisme because the States can hardly ensure the protection of their populations.

The traditional Middle Ages (11th century/15th century)

the turning of the Year Millet

About the middle of the Xe century, the European population starts to increase because of a climatic improvement and by some technological advances which find their application in agriculture like the collar of shoulder for the horse. Start at the time one two centuries period, that of the great clearings. At the same time as “a white coat of churches” covers the continent, the pilgrimages towards Saint-Jacques-with-Compostelle and towards Jerusalem are the expressions of the sharp medieval piety.

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Carte of Europe to the {{XIIIe century}}

contacts with civilization arabo-Moslem woman and their consequences

As from the 8th century, the expansion of the Islam touches the south of Europe, in Sicily, in the south of the Spain then at the 15th century around the Aegean Sea. The Crusades, of 1095 with 1291, allow contacts in the Latin States of the East, also allow contacts with a more advanced civilization. Indeed, for the Moslems, God on the one hand and science and the reason on the other hand, are definitely separate. The Christians, referring to Holy Augustin, are still submitted to God: “I thus think God is. ” In 1130, the bishop of Tolède creates a school of translation of the Arab and Hebrew manuscripts. Europeans then discover there good number of writings of the Antiquité, in particular Greek, up to that point unknown like part of the philosophy of Aristote, re-examined by Arab philosophers (Averroès…). Thus medieval Humanisme is born large a European whose thinkers, theologists and philosophers, try to reconcile the faith and the reason: Holy Thomas d' Aquin, Main Eckart, Roger Bacon, Abélard…

the alarm clock the commercial

One observes the first signs of a rebirth of the saving in exchanges in Western Europe when the trade begins again in Italy thanks to the economic growth and cultural of powerful States cities like Genoa, Florence or Venice as in Flanders where cloth manufactures develop with Bruges and Antwerp. With semi-course of these two medieval poles economic, the Foires of Champagne are with their apogee about 1250 until their decline because of opening of the road of the Saint Gothard and a direct sea link between Italy and the Flanders (1298), which makes it possible to escape the taxes installation by the capétiens in France. Venice, from which the galères themselves will seek spices and the goods with Raising exceeds its rivals and dominates the worldwide economy of approximately 1380 with 1500, Moslems having ceased practicing the trade in the Western Mediterranean.

the return of the State

At the same time, kingdoms start to take form in France, England and with the Portugal, but their formation takes several decades because of the competitions between the Church, monarchy and the noble ones.

crises of the low Middle Ages

They take effect during the XIVe century because of Guerre One hundred Year old, interminable conflict between France and England, because of pandemia of Peste of 1347 and its recurrences and of the Great schism of Occident.

* the crisis is initially demographic. The European population will pass from 73 to 45 million inhabitants between 1300 and 1400, the life expectancy moves back 25 years to 17 years in England.

* the crisis is also economic and social. For lack of labor, agriculture is insufficient, the markets of textile manufactures of Flanders are on a low level but those of the the Brabant develop. The cities increased their population because of insecurity of the campaigns but hardly offer work whereas the prices of the rents and food products increase, more quickly than the wages. The “jacqueries” are frequent, the disorders are numerous, initially in France then in all Europe. However, as of the medium of the XVe century, begins a rise generalized from the population and an economic revival.

* Lastly, the crisis is moral. The Great schism of Occident causes sharp concerns among the faithful ones. The Concile of Constancy (1414 - 1418), which is posed as above the pope and the antipape, is composed of future large the European Nation S who can examine the various questions separately. Whereas the heresies of Wyclif in England and Jean Hus in Bohemia propose to reject all the posterior writings with the Bible, the unit of Western Christendom is threatened. From this will be born the Réforme.

Modern Europe

The Rebirth and the Reform

At the 15th century, powerful nations appear, built by monarchs who centralize the capacity (France, England, Spain).

Born in Italy at the 15th century during the Quattrocento, the Rebirth is a movement intellectual and scientific (the Humanisme) and a new artistic current (painting, sculpture, architecture) which marks Europe.On will note the proliferation of works having for topic antiquity;

The diffusion of the Protestant Reform inspired by the monks Luther and Calvin, supported by the development of the Printing works, is an upheaval even more important in Western Europe. It makes burst the unit of the catholics, and leads to Wars of religion in Germany in France and later in England.

The first colonial expansion

It is also at that time that Europeans start to be able to sail on all the oceans. They are the Grandes discoveries: installation of Counters along the African coasts, road of the Indies by the skirting of Africa discovered by the Portuguese in 1498, and America discovered by the Spaniards in 1492. The Traité of Tordesillas (1494) division the world, still largely unknown enters a Portuguese hemisphere and a Spanish hemisphere.

The Spaniards and the Portuguese are joined in this colonial expansion by the Dutchmen, the French and the English at the 17th century. The Dutchmen settle on all the continents with, in particular the the Indies Dutchwomen (future Indonesia). The France will occupy a vast territory which extends from Quebec to La Nouvelle-Orléans but will never have the means of populating it. Lastly, the English create colonies on the Atlantic facade of the North America, driving out the Dutchmen of future the New York (1664).

Europe benefits as from this moment not only from the development from a world commerce, the “Protomondialisation”, but it starts with the Colonisation to establish its direct domination on other continents, mainly America at the 16th century. It starts to develop the Christian religions. But this colonization is accompanied by the Traite blacks and use of Esclave S in the plantations of America. The Amerindian S are decimated by the diseases, the forced labor, or are exterminated. Europe grows rich considerably by the discovery by the noble metals by America, from which the enormous quantity created a strong inflation at the 17th century and especially by the triangular Commerce.

The Absolutism and its questioning

The majority of the European monarchs of the 17th century and 18th century are absolute kings, who very often clash in wars of prestige, even if the religious, economic considerations and of balance of the powers are not absent. The competition between the king of France and the Habsbourgs of Spain and Austria is constant. It is Louis XIV who manages to remove the Spanish threat while placing his grandson Philippe V on the throne after the death of the Habsbourg last of Spain. Germany is devastated by the Guerre Thirty Year old (1618 - 1648). The king of France Louis XIV, model of the absolute monarch, causes four wars. The inversions of alliance are frequent at the XVIIIe century, marked by the rise of the Prussia like military power, and the maritime, colonial and economic domination of the the United Kingdom.

The period sees developing the Baroque art, then the Classic art.

However the absolutism is disputed. The United Provinces are raised at the end of the 16th century against their sovereign, the king of Spain, and manage to obtain their independence at the price of a long fight (Eighty year old War), while becoming a colonial and commercial great power. England knows two Révolution S at the 17th century, which leads to the installation of a Constitutional monarchy in 1689. Finally France, where developed at the 18th century the philosophy of the Lumières, knows in its turn a Revolution in 1789 it is the decline of the authority of noble on the people and it is a return of the idea of democracy and republic in Europe.

The French revolution (1789 - 1799) put not only an end to the Absolute monarchy and the Ancien Mode in France, but also caused a shock in all Europe. Other European monarchies were seen threatened, which starts a war between the France and the rest of Europe starting from 1792. Its true beginning probably goes back to 1788. The many bad weather having struck Paris and the bad weather which ransacked harvests surely contributed to the bad mood of the people. The oath of Jeu de Paume constitutes in itself a revolution since it does not take account of the opinion of the king. The military victories of revolutionary France, then of Napoleonean (1799 - 1815) have as a consequence the conquest or the domination of most of Europe by the French, who remove the Old mode, confiscates the goods of the Church, imposes the use of the Civil code French and the Metric system.

The opposition to France is not nourished that feelings Contre-révolutionnaire S. the Nationalisme develops among Germans humiliated in 1806, or at the Spaniards who carry out a long war to drive out the French (1808 - 1813): this nationalism will be at the base of the history of the European international relations until 1945. Napoleon i succeeds in limiting the influence of the Austria in Germany by striping chart the Saint Germanic Roman Empire after nine centuries of existence. The emperor of the French is finally overcome by all united Europe (1812 - 1815, France loses almost all its conquests and the new chart of Europe is established by the Traité of Vienna (1815). See also the comparative Chronology Europe 1745-1940.

The Industrial revolution

It is in Europe that the Industrial revolution develops, born towards 1780 with the the United Kingdom. It extends towards 1830 with the France, the Belgium and the Sweden, towards 1850 with the Germany and the Austria, towards 1880 with the Suisse and the Italy, towards 1900 with the Russia. Europe covers coal mines, of blast furnaces, spinning mill S, railways, telegraph lines. At the same time the agricultural Révolution occurs which makes it possible to nourish a population in fast increase (the European population doubles during the 19th century, except in France). The Rural migration feeds an urban strong growth. The Working class develops, for a long time miserable and exploited, and the socialist ideas appear. Nevertheless the working condition improves very slowly, with progress of the trade unionism. Progress of hygiene is also felt: they allow éradiquer the Peste (as of 1720) then the cholera (about 1900) in Europe. The Tuberculose continues its devastations until the end of the years 1940, overcome by the use of the Pénicilline.

The problem of nationalities and freedom of the people

The XIXe century, of 1815 with 1914 is a long century without war bringing into play all the European powers: the conflicts are localized. 1815 sees the triumph of the reaction, led by the Russia, the Prussia and especially the Austria of Metternich, which form the the Holy Alliance. Nevertheless the Absolute monarchy is not restored everywhere: the Constitutional monarchy remains in Western Europe. The Holy Alliance crushes the liberal movements of 1820 in Naples, in Germany and Spain, but the rising of the Greeks leads to their independence with respect to the Ottoman Empire in 1829. Following the vague revolutionist of 1830, the Belgians obtain in their turn their independence, but Polish and Italian are crushed by the Russians and the Austrians. The “spring of the People” of 1848 sees the liberal movements and national raising the Germans, the Italians, the Hungarians, but as of the following year the Austrian and Russian armies restore the order. The French intervention of 1859 against Austria makes it possible to start the Italian unit around the king of Piedmont, mainly completed in 1870. The German unit is carried out by the Prussia by the war: its victories against Austria with Sadowa (1866) and against France (1871) enable him to found the German Empire. The defeat of Sadowa makes it possible Hungary to profit from a mode of favor in this “prison of people” which is the Austria-Hungary, born from the compromise of 1867.

“Sick Man of Europe”, following defeats, the Ottoman Empire loses little by little his possessions in Europe of South-east: thus are recreated the Serbia, the Bulgaria, the Romania the Montenegro and the Albania. Greece increases of part of the Thrace, Thessalie and Crete. As of 1912, following the First war Balkan, the Ottoman Empire preserves only the neighborhoods of Istambul in Europe. The Balkan States are thus increasingly numerous but their problem is that to make coincide their borders with the extension of the nations. They are the stakes of the competitions of influence between the great powers. Russia supports Slavic South, that Serbia wishes to join together in the same State. Austria-Hungary which is blocked in its territorial ambitions can only extend towards the South: it occupies the Bosnia-Herzégovine (1878) and ends up annexing it (1908).

The second colonial expansion

After the independence of the United States in 1776 and Spanish and Portuguese colonies of America about 1820, Europeans did not have much any more of colonies with share the British who control most of the India S, the Canada, the Australia and the South Africa and the Dutchmen who have the the Indies Dutchwomen. The France launches out in the conquest of the Algérie in 1830, which starts again the colonial conqête. Thus, the end of the 19th century sees the European Impérialisme launching out in the establishment of a second colonial Empire, to Africa, to Asia and Oceania. In 1885, at the time of the Conference of Berlin on colonization, “for the good moral and material being of the indigenous populations” ( sic ), of the rules are installation by the metropolises. As all new conquest must be subjected to the approval of the other powers, the competition is launched and colonization accelerates: it is the “race with the bell-tower” which causes frictions between the European powers: Fachoda (1898) between France and the United Kingdom, Tangier (1905) and Agadir (1911) between France and Germany.

In 1914, Europe with its apogee then dominates the world and the cumulated territories that the European countries control (including Russia in Siberia) correspond to 66% from world space and 60% of the world population. Lénine will write that the imperialism is the “supreme stage of capitalism”, with the result that the European Communist parties will line up in the fight anticoloniale at least before the Second world war.

After the First World War whereas the movements of independence try to be made recognize, France, the United Kingdom and, to a lesser extent, the Belgium and the Japan divides the German colonies and the Arab territories of the Ottoman Empire. Only the Egypt arrives to a certain independence in 1922. The Crise of 1929 involves a fold of Europeans on their colonial Empires by the system of the “imperial preference”. The movements of independence are increasingly pressing, in particular in the Indies and the Maghreb.

World wars

The Nationalism and the Impérialisme of the European great powers push them with a Arms race and with the constitution of two great opposed military alliances, the Triple Alliance and the Triple Entente. If the desire of revenge of France, eager to recover the Alsace-Lorraine annexed by Germany in 1871, is powerful, it is another national question which starts the conflict. Following the Attack of Sarajevo (June 28th 1914), Austria-Hungary declares the war in Serbia, but the war extends to almost all Europe by the play from alliances. This conflict that all imagined short is an appalling butchery which lasts more than four years, because the First World War is a war of position, the war of the trenches, which caused the death of 9 million soldiers and deeply traumatized a whole generation. It is the intervention of the United States which makes it possible the Agreement finally to overcome Germany and its allies (the central Empires) in 1918, Italy having changed camp meanwhile

In addition to the human damage and materials which it caused, the “Great War” upset Europe:

the chart of Europe was strongly modified by the peace treaties which followed the conflict (Traité of Versailles, 1919): Germany and Russia lost territories, the Austro-Hungarian empire disappears, and much of people reach independence (according to more or less the Principe of nationalities and the 14 points of the president Woodrow Wilson), with the formation of the Poland, the Czechoslovakia, of Yugoslavia, of the Baltic states, the Finland
another consequence major of the war, the Russian Révolution (1917) sees for the first time revolution of a Marxist type making a success of with the seizure of power by the communist in Russia
the seizure of power by the fascistic in Italy (1922) is a reaction to the vague revolutionist who touched Europe the shortly after the war

If the democracy progresses with the disappearance of the authoritative monarchies overcome in 1918, that does not last. Authoritarian regimes (preserving dictatorships), are set up in almost all the Central and Eastern Europe (except in Czechoslovakia) during the inter-war period. The shock created by the world economic crisis of the Thirties, which brings misery and insecurity with a mass unemployment, reinforces this tendency. After a long civil war (1936 - 1939), Franco establishes its dictatorship in Spain. In 1933, Hitler arrives at the capacity in Germany and establishes the Third Reich.

The Nazisme is the direct cause of the Second world war: Hitler wants to erase the “diktat” of Versailles and to conquer a “vital Espace”. It carries out initially a series of takeovers by force, which also increase Germany without it having to fight (annexation of Austria in 1938 and the Western part of Czechoslovakia in 1938 and 1939), of the territory of Memel in 1939, in the absence of reaction of the Western democracies. Then the 1 {{er}} septembre 1939, Germany invades Poland and on September 3rd the France and the the United Kingdom declare the war in Germany. The German army gains initially a series of fulgurating victories, thanks to the “blitzkrieg” Blitzkrieg: conquest of the Poland (1939), of the Denmark and the Norway (April 1940), of the Netherlands, the Luxembourg, Belgium and France (May-June 1940), the Yugoslavia and the Greece (April 1941), of part of the USSR (1941-1942). All Europe occupied by the Nazis lives under terror: German requisitions harvests and industrial productions and subjects the civil population of the terrible reprisals. Million people was off-set in the concentration camps. Finally as from 1942, the Nazis implement the “final solution”, the extermination of the Jews of Europe in the camps of death. But finally the Nazi Germany is overcome, thanks to the resistance of the United Kingdom, and at the entry in war of the USSR (attacked by Hitler on June 22nd, 1941) and of the United States (attacked by Japanese on December 7th, 1941) to which Hitler and Mussolini declared the war immediately after Pearl Harbor. Walk towards the victory of the allies is marked by the Soviet triumph of Stalingrad (February 1943) and Koursk (July 1943), and the Anglo-American unloadings in North Africa (November 1942), Italy (1943) and in France (1944). Germany capitulates the May 8th 1945, but the war because death of million people (about fifty million on the whole), of which many civilians, because of extended of the zones of the combat, the air raids and the deportations.

Cold war and European Construction

The great political consequence of the second world war is the partition of Europe by the “Iron curtain”: in all Eastern Europe occupied by the Red Army the Communists impose their dictatorship (“people's democracies”). Symbol of this division, Germany itself is cut into two (birth of the FRG and GDR in 1949. The Western democracies are combined in the United States (NATO, 1949), vis-a-vis the Soviet threat (Warsaw Pact, 1955). But paradoxically, if Europe lived in the fear of a third world war, under the threat of the rockets with nuclear warhead, the “balance of terror” between the two blocks lasted during almost a half-century of stability, before the collapse of the Communist regimes in Eastern Europe in 1989 - 1991.

The Second world war ruined Europe, which underwent considerable destruction. But quickly Western Europe is rebuilt thanks to its potential and with the American economic aid (Marshall plan, 1947) and knows during the “Glorious Thirty” an economic advancement marked by the rise of the standard of living and the entry of Europe in the “Consumer society”.

Europe lost also much of its prestige near the colonized people (which took part in the side of the British and French to the two world wars): the Decolonization, strongly supported by the USA and the USSR, takes place mainly between 1945 and 1965.

In the West, the European Union starts to be built by the economic union of six states: creation of ECSC in 1951 and especially creation of the EEC by the the Treaty of Rome in 1957.

Europe of today

After the come to power of the General de Gaulle (1958), the Franco-German agreement appeared at the time of meetings between the Chancelier Konrad Adenauer and the president Charles de Gaulle (July 1962). July 8th 1962, François Marty, Archbishop of Rheims, celebrated a mass of Réconciliation in the Cathédrale of Rheims, which had been mutilated during the First World War.

Since this Réconcilation Franco-German, the Europe was built around the Amitié between the two Peuple S.

The wall (of Berlin) falls in 1989, Europe is reunified. Germany reunifies itself in on October 3rd 1990.

The Yugoslavia bursts in violence starting from 1991: the wars marked by the ethnic purification see to clash for their independence the people which composed it.

In 1992, the Traité of Maastricht decided introduction of a single currency into several States of the European Union.

These States adopt a single currency (the Euro) with the change of millenium, following a long policy of convergence (European Currency snake (EMS)).

In 2004, the Turkey starts the negotiations of entry in the European Union, cold in December 2006.

In 2004, the democracy enracine until the Ukraine.

In 2005 the France on May 29th then the Netherlands reject by referendum the project of a European Constitution. That puts a term at the process since all the Member States were to approve the treaty so that it is applied.

In 2006, Montenegro is detached from the Serbia.

In 2007, the Bulgaria and the Romania enter the European Union

See too

comparative Chronology Europe 1745-1940

History by States and nations of today

the Arménie and the Georgia are countries associated with Europe, but also exist in the Asian continental portion of the the Caucasus
the Greenland is politically European (because belonging to the Denmark), it is populated primarily by the Inuit. From a geographical point of view, it can be classified in North America. Greenland does not form any more part of the EEC since 1982.
the Iceland is European, of the geographers consider it isolated by the junction from the subatlantic peak between the continental shelves American and European. Iceland is member of the EFTA and EEE, but not of the EU.
the west of the Russia is located in Europe, but the majority of its grounds are in Asia (see Siberia)
the Turkey is with horse between the Asia and Europe. Turkey is in negotiations for the adhesion at the EU.

Current European institutions

European Council:

European Convention of the human rights
European Court of the human rights (CEDH)

European Union:

Court of justice of the European Communities (CJCE)
the European Parliament
the Council of the European Union

History of the European institutions

History of the European Union

External bonds

All History of Europe linked since 1945 (photographs, videos, interactive charts…) European NAvigator
History of Europe in 21 charts a chart per century of year 1 at the year 2000
All history of Europe summarized in a multi-media chronological plank
Of the charts animated for better including/understanding the history of Europe

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