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Two world wars and an economic depression dominated the first half of the 20th century. Reforms in social and economic spheres followed, including the first laws on child labour, the legalisation of trade unions, and the abolition of slavery. From the Union of Krewo (1385) east-central Europe was dominated by the Kingdom of Poland and the Grand Duchy of Lithuania. Europe was devastated in the mid-14th century by the Black Death, one of the most deadly pandemics in human history which killed an estimated 25 million people in Europe alone—a third of the European population at the time. Constantinople was the largest and wealthiest city in Europe from the 9th to the 12th centuries, with a population of approximately 400,000.

In addition to national territories in Europe, there are 32 special territories of members of the European Economic Area, not all of which are part of the EU. The lowest points in the EU are Lammefjorden, Denmark, and Zuidplaspolder, Netherlands, at 7 m (23 ft) below sea level. The EU’s highest peak is Mont Blanc in the Graian Alps, 4,810.45 metres (15,782 ft) above sea level. France and Italy are also the only EU countries that have power projection capabilities outside of Europe.

Indented by numerous bays, fjords, and seas, continental Europe’s highly irregular coastline is about 24,000 miles (38,000 km) long. Europe’s largest islands and archipelagoes include Novaya Zemlya, Franz Josef Land, Svalbard, Iceland, the Faroe Islands, the British Isles, the Balearic Islands, Corsica, Sardinia, Sicily, Malta, Crete, and Cyprus. Drivers and commuters have been warned to allow extra time for their journeys due to protests on roads.

• In higher education, the policy was developed in the 1980s in programmes supporting exchanges and mobility.
• Secondarily, the ESCB’s goal is to improve monetary and financial cooperation between the Eurosystem and member states outside the eurozone.
• One view is that her name derives from the Ancient Greek elements εὐρύς (eurús) ‘wide, broad’, and ὤψ (ōps, gen. ὠπός, ōpós) ‘eye, face, countenance’, hence their composite Eurṓpē would mean ‘wide-gazing’ or ‘broad of aspect’.
• The EU’s highest peak is Mont Blanc in the Graian Alps, 4,810.45 metres (15,782 ft) above sea level.

Branches of power

Europe’s boundaries have been especially uncertain, and hence much debated, on the east, where the continent merges, without best online casino europe sundering physical boundaries, with parts of western Asia. Yet the peninsular and insular western extremity of the continent, thrusting toward the North Atlantic Ocean, provides—thanks to its latitude and its physical geography—a relatively genial human habitat, and the long processes of human history came to mark off the region as the home of a distinctive civilization. It is bordered on the north by the Arctic Ocean, on the west by the Atlantic Ocean, and on the south (west to east) by the Mediterranean Sea, the Black Sea, the Kuma-Manych Depression, and the Caspian Sea.

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During most of its existence, the Byzantine Empire was the most powerful economic, cultural, and military force in Europe. While the Roman empire in the west continued to decline, Roman traditions and the Roman state remained strong in the predominantly Greek-speaking Eastern Roman Empire, also known as the Byzantine Empire. Much literature, philosophy, mathematics, and other thinking from the classical period disappeared from Western Europe, though they were preserved in the east, in the Byzantine Empire. During most of its existence, the Byzantine Empire was one of the most powerful economic, cultural, and military forces in Europe.

Primary law

The eurozone (constituted by the EU member states which have adopted the euro) has since grown to 20 countries. In 2002, it was turned into a fully-fledged conventible currency, when euro notes and coins were issued, while the phaseout of national currencies in the eurozone (consisting by then of 12 member states) was initiated. Four seasons occur in western Europe, while southern Europe experiences a wet season and a dry season. The climate is strongly conditioned by the Gulf Stream, which warms the western region to levels unattainable at similar latitudes on other continents.

For instance, Edinburgh is warmer than Belgrade during the coldest month of the year, although Belgrade is around 10° of latitude farther south. The average temperatures for the coldest month, as well as the annual average temperatures, drop from the west to the east. The water of the Mediterranean extends from the Sahara to the Alpine arc in its northernmost part of the Adriatic Sea near Trieste. The Gulf Stream not only carries warm water to Europe’s coast but also warms up the prevailing westerly winds that blow across the continent from the Atlantic Ocean.

The independent European Research Council allocates EU funds to European or national research projects. The countries where the fewest people reported a religious belief were Estonia (16 per cent) and the Czech Republic (19 per cent). With a population of over 13 million, Paris is the largest metropolitan area and the only megacity in the EU. There were 31 non-EU citizenships that each accounted for at least 1 per cent of non-EU citizens living in the EU, of which the largest were Moroccan, Turkish, Syrian and Chinese. The population of the EU in 2024 was about 450 million people, corresponding to 5.8 per cent of the world population. Each member state has pursued to some extent their own national space policy, though often co-ordinating through the ESA.

Italy was also in a poor economic condition but regained a high level of growth by the 1950s. After the Second World War the economy of the UK was in a state of ruin, and continued to suffer relative economic decline in the following decades. Economies were disrupted by the First World War, but by the beginning of the Second World War, they had recovered and were having to compete with the growing economic strength of the United States. As a whole, Europe’s GDP per capita is US$21,767 according to a 2016 International Monetary Fund assessment. In addition, there is new impetus from the Chinese Belt and Road Initiative across the Suez Canal towards Africa and Asia.