Europe: A Region or a Continent?

Europe is often a central focus of global conversation. Whether that is in history, other social studies, world politics, or otherwise, people often speak of a place called Europe, where a lot of the world's most influential countries have been. Usually, people speak of Europe as a continent, a loose category by itself. What is it that all European countries have in common? In most atlases, Europe's boundary includes a line going through a lot of land on the eastern margin through Russia, a line about as wide as the width of Europe itself. What is it, then, that distinguishes Europe from the rest of the Eurasian landmass, or the rest of the world for that matter?

For starters, we have religion. Before "Europe" was a common name, there was the idea of "Christendom": the contiguous area where Christianity was the most common or official religion. This idea held sway in the Middle Ages, right up to the overseas expansion of Portugal, Spain, and other countries called European. This is also kind of like the Ummah, the contiguous area stretching from Senegal to Pakistan and from Somalia to Kazakhstan where Islam predominates. The problem here is that the "boundaries" between these religious areas have shifted over time. For example, Spain and Portugal would have been in the Ummah in the 8th century, and the Balkans were essentially in the Ummah too from the 15th through the 18th centuries. Likewise, some nations in northeastern Europe were holdouts of paganism into the late Middle Ages. One nation, the Sami people, were a pagan remnant in Scandinavia even into the 1700s. I also doubt that any new colonies of Spain and Portugal in the 16th centuries were automatically considered a part of Christendom, so the focus now turns to natural boundaries.

I have seen a very common dividing line for Europe get drawn along the Ural Mountains, the Russia-Kazakhstan border or the Ural River, the Caspian Sea, the Caucasus Mountains, the Black Sea, the Turkish Straits, and somewhere in the Mediterranean Sea. This is one common way to split off Europe from the rest, but what about the islands? The British Isles are conventionally considered a part of Europe, and so are many Mediterranean islands. Iceland is sometimes a bit of a gray area, but it is usually considered a part of Europe as well due to its similarity to the Scandinavian countries. Does this mean the Azores, a Portuguese archipelago in the middle of the ocean, are included as well? The question becomes one of how far out islands have to be before they are included with Europe or any "continent". One could perhaps use the Atlantic Ridge as a dividing line, but the problem is that Iceland and the Azores themselves are along that ridge, meaning they would only partially be in Europe. Also, do we use the rift between the Eurasian and African plates? In that case, the Canary Islands and Madeira are a part of Africa and Italy itself would be split. Notice, though, that Europe does not have a distinct plate and is mainly on the same plate as China. That brings up, again, a possible cultural divide. It is often said that Europe and Asia are split because of differing cultures. We already looked at religious boundaries, but what about linguistic ones? Europe mainly has three language (sub-)families: Romantic (i.e. derived from Latin), Germanic, and Slavic. There are others, such as Baltic, Albanian, Greek, and Finno-Ugric, a family by itself, not to mention the language isolate Basque. However, that linguistic boundary cannot be applied without physical boundaries also. Similar to the problems with Christendom, these language families have become dominant in other places across the world, especially the Americas. However, just as a new Christian area is not automatically included in Christendom, a new Romantic or Germanic speaking area is not automatically included in Europe. Speaking of languages, though, the name "Europe" itself comes from ancient Greek and originally referred to parts of today's Balkan region. The Greeks later applied the name to all the land they knew of north of the high Mediterranean Sea, west and north of the Anatolian peninsula, and west again of what we would know today as the Crimean Strait, the Sea of Azov, and the Don River.

Ancient Greek map of the world, with the whole waterway from the "Phasis" (perhaps the Don) to the Strait of Gibraltar as the boundary of Europe.

The Greeks did not have a northern boundary for Europe, since many lands were still unknown to them, such as Scandinavia. Not even Rome knew much about Scandinavia. It was the missionary fervor of Christians in the Middle Ages, and the Viking raids at the same time, that really introduced Scandinavia to the rest of Europe and integrated Scandinavia within it.

If we take the ancient Greek boundaries of Europe on its south and east, what are its western and northern boundaries? Personally, I think that the margin of the continental shelf is a good one. By using this boundary, all the British Isles are included, but not the islands in the middle of the ocean such as Iceland, the Azores, etc. Those islands deserve their own isolated category (pun intended) since they are so far from the European mainland. As for continuing the boundary from the continental shelf to the Don River, I think the established system of waterways through Russia from the White Sea to the Don River makes a good boundary. Most of the waterway is along rivers, and other parts are canals built or remodeled in Soviet times. Considering how Norsemen knew how to navigate and portage across this waterway before the canals, I think there is good cause to establish the waterway as an eastern boundary of Europe, by which Norsemen and others knew how to get to non-European lands such as Persia or Anatolia.

The system of rivers and canals through Russia, going from the Sea of Azov to the White Sea, which I consider a good northeastern boundary of Europe.

Now that I have defined what I consider to be Europe, does it really qualify as a continent? I think not. For one thing, "continents" are almost completely surrounded by water, whereas the so-called continental boundary between "Europe" and "Asia" is hundreds of miles wide. On the other hand, there are other areas in the Eurasian landmass that have defining characteristics, such as the Arabian peninsula or "Middle East", the Indian subcontinent, Indochina, etc. Some of those regions are about as big as Europe itself but are not considered continents. That being said, we often speak of the "Indian subcontinent" consisting of Pakistan, India, Bangladesh, and all the other countries south of the boundary made by the Himalayas and nearby mountain ranges. I would argue that Europe is a region or subcontinent of Eurasia, the real "continent" as far as being a landmass almost surrounded by water is concerned.