Southern Europe is focused on the three peninsulas located in the extreme south of the European continent. These are theIberian Peninsula, theItalian Peninsula, and theBalkan Peninsula.[14][15] These three peninsulas are separated from the rest of Europe by towering mountain ranges, respectively by thePyrenees, theAlps and theBalkan Mountains. The location of these peninsulas in the heart of the Mediterranean Sea, as well as their mountainous reliefs, provide them with very different types of climates (mainlysubtropicalMediterranean) from the rest of the continent. So, theSirocco hot wind that originates in the heart of theSahara blows overItaly, going up to the interior of the Alpine arc (Po Valley). The Alps prevent the Sirocco from spreading to the rest of Europe. And, conversely, the Alps and the Pyrenees protect the Italian and Iberian Peninsulas from the rains and icy winds from the south of France such as theMistral and theTramontane. When theMistral and theTramontane are blowing, this provokes an "upwelling" phenomenon on the French coast. They push the surface waters out to sea and bring deeper, cooler waters up to the seaside. Consequently, the temperature of the waters of the French coasts are therefore very cool even in summer, and not representative of the rest of the Mediterranean.[16][17][18]This same kind of phenomenon takes place between the two slopes of the Balkan mountain range. These mountains have, moreover, been a serious handicap to population displacement, focusing southern Europe mainly on theMediterranean world. The climate and cultures are therefore very specific.
Different methods can be used to define southern Europe, including itspolitical,economic,historical, andcultural attributes. Southern Europe can also be defined by its natural features — itsgeography,climate, andflora. Politically, nine of the southern European countries form theEU Med Group. Southern Europe also loosely corresponds to the European part of theMediterranean Basin.
Geographically, southern Europe is the southern portion of theEuropean continent. This definition is relative, although largely based on history, culture,climate, and flora, which is shared across the region. Southern Europe can be subdivided into threesubregions:
European climate. Note the high diversity ofKöppen-Geiger climates in the southern regions.
Southern Europe's most emblematicclimate is theMediterranean climate, influenced by the large subtropical semi-permanent centre of high atmospheric pressure found, not in the Mediterranean itself, but in the Atlantic Ocean, theAzores High. The Mediterranean climate coversPortugal,Spain,Italy, the southern coast ofFrance, coastalCroatia, coastalSlovenia, southernBosnia and Herzegovina,Montenegro,Albania, andGreece, as well as the Mediterranean islands. Those areas of Mediterranean climate present similar vegetation and landscapes throughout, including dry hills, small plains,pine forests, andolive trees.
Cooler climates can be found in certain parts of southern European countries, for example, within the mountain ranges of Spain and Italy. Additionally, the north coast of Spain experiences a wetter Atlantic climate. In the highest regions of the Alps, which border southern Europe, even an ice cap climate can be found.[note 19]
Some parts of southern Europe have humid subtropical climates with warm and wet summers, unlike typical Mediterranean climates. This climate is mainly found in Italy and Croatia around theAdriatic Sea in cities such asVenice andTrieste, but also further north, near the Alpine foothills, in cities such asComo andLugano.
Distribution map ofOlea europaea s.l. (olive tree)
Southern Europe'sflora is mainly characterized byMediterranean forests, woodlands, and scrub, but alsotemperate broadleaf and mixed forests. The Mediterranean and Submediterranean climate regions in Europe are found in much of southern Europe, mainly Portugal, Spain, Italy, Malta, Albania, Greece, Cyprus and all the mediterranean islands, but also in southeast France and theBalkan Mediterranean coast.[21][22]
In the Mediterranean coastal areas,olive groves,maquis shrubland, andsteppes are very common. At higher elevations, or latitudes, they are replaced bychestnut and (often coppiced) mixed forests.[23]
Roman Empire. In yellow the south-west of Europe, and in violet the south-east.Eastern Roman Empire mainly focused on southern Europe.
ThePhoenicians originally expanded fromCanaanports, dominating trade in theMediterranean by the 8th century BC.Carthage was founded in 814 BC, and theCarthaginians by 700 BC had firmly established strongholds inSicily andSardinia (both regions in present dayItaly), which created conflicts of interest withEtruria. Its colonies later reached theWestern Mediterranean, such asCádiz in Spain and most notablyCarthage in North Africa, and even theAtlantic Ocean. The civilisation spread across the Mediterranean between 1500 BC and 300 BC.[24]
The period known asclassical antiquity began with the rise of the city-states ofAncient Greece. Greek influence reached its zenith under the expansive empire ofAlexander the Great, spreading throughoutAsia. TheRoman Empire came to dominate the entireMediterranean Basin in a vast empire based onRoman law andRoman legions. It promoted trade, tolerance, and Greek culture. By 300 AD the Roman Empire was divided into theWestern Roman Empire based in Rome, and theEastern Roman Empire based in Constantinople. The attacks of theGoths led to thefall of the Western Roman Empire in 476 AD, a date that traditionally marks the end of the classical period and the start of theMiddle Ages. During the Middle Ages, theEastern Roman Empire survived though modern historians refer to the state as the Byzantine Empire. In Western Europe,Germanic peoples moved into positions of power in the remnants of the former Western Roman Empire and establishedkingdoms and empires of their own.
The period known as theCrusades, a series of religiously-motivated military expeditions originally intended to bring theLevant back into Christian rule, began. SeveralCrusader states were founded in the eastern Mediterranean, but they were all short-lived. The Crusaders would have a profound impact on many parts of Europe. Theirsack of Constantinople in 1204 brought an abrupt end to the Byzantine Empire. Though it would later be re-established, it would never recover its former glory. The Crusaders would establish trade routes that would develop into theSilk Road and open the way for the merchant republics ofGenoa andVenice to become major economic powers. TheReconquista, a related movement, worked to reconquerIberia forChristendom. Thelate Middle Ages represented a period of upheaval in Europe. The epidemic known as theBlack Death and an associated famine causeddemographic catastrophe in Europe as the population plummeted. Dynastic struggles andwars of conquest kept many of the states of Europe at war for much of the period. In theBalkans, theOttoman Empire, a Turkish state originating inAnatolia, encroached steadily on former Byzantine lands, culminating in thefall of Constantinople in 1453.
Beginning roughly in the 12th century inFlorence, and later spreading through Europe with the development of theprinting press, aRenaissance of knowledge challenged traditional doctrines in science andtheology, with the Arabic texts and thought[25] bringing about rediscovery of classical Greek and Roman knowledge. The Catholic reconquest of Portugal and Spain led to a series of oceanic explorations resulting in theAge of Discovery that established direct links with Africa, the Americas, and Asia. During this period, Iberian forces engaged in a worldwide struggle with Islamic societies; the battlefronts in this Ibero-Islamic World War stretched from theMediterranean into theIndian Ocean, finally involving the islands ofSoutheast Asia (see also:Indo-Mediterranean).[26] Eventually this ecumenical conflict ended when new players—England, Holland and France—replaced Spain and Portugal as the main agents of European imperialism in the mid-17th century.
European overseas expansion led to the rise ofcolonial empires, producing theColumbian Exchange.[27] The combination of resource inflows from the New World and theIndustrial Revolution of Great Britain, allowed a new economy based on manufacturing instead of subsistence agriculture.[28] The period between 1815 and 1871 saw a large number of revolutionary attempts andindependence wars. Balkan nations began to regain independence from theOttoman Empire. Italy unified into a nation state. Thecapture of Rome in 1870 ended thePapal temporal power.
Ottomans controlled most of the Mediterranean Sea for centuries.
The outbreak ofWorld War I in 1914 was precipitated by the rise of nationalism in Southeastern Europe as theGreat Powers took up sides. The Allies defeated theCentral Powers in 1918. During theParis Peace Conference theBig Four imposed their terms in a series of treaties, especially theTreaty of Versailles. The Nazi regime underAdolf Hitler came to power in 1933, and along withMussolini's Italy sought to gain control of the continent by theSecond World War.Following the Allied victory in the Second World War, Europe was divided by theIron Curtain. The countries in Eastern and Southeastern Europe were dominated by theSoviet Union and becamecommunist states. The major non-communist southern European countries joined a US-led military alliance (NATO) and formed theEuropean Economic Community amongst themselves. The countries in the Soviet sphere of influence joined the military alliance known as theWarsaw Pact and the economic bloc calledComecon.Yugoslavia was neutral. The common attribute of the eastern countries is that all of them have experiences withsocialism, but nevertheless, the beginning of the 1990s was just roughly the same. For some of them becoming independent was the major challenge, while others needed to face with poverty and deep dictatorship also Economically, parallel with the political changes, and the democratic transition, – as a rule of law states – the previous command economies were transformed via the legislation into market economies, and set up or renewed the major macroeconomic factors: budgetary rules, national audit, national currency, central bank. Generally, they shortly encountered the following problems: high inflation, high unemployment, low economic growth and high government debt. By 2000 these economies were stabilized, and sooner or later between 2004 and 2013 some of them joined the European Union, and Slovenia introduced the euro.[29]
Italy became a majorindustrialized country again because of its post-wareconomic miracle. TheEuropean Union (EU) involved the division of powers; tax, health and education handled by the nation states, and the EU had charge of market rules, competition, legal standards and environmentalism. The Soviet economic and political system collapsed, leading to the end of communism in the satellite countries in 1989 and the dissolution of the Soviet Union itself in 1991. The European Union expanded to subsequently include many of the formerly communist European countries –Romania andBulgaria (2007) andCroatia (2013).[30]
The most widely spoken family of languages in southern Europe are theRomance languages, the heirs of Latin, which have spread from the Italian peninsula, and are emblematic of Southwestern Europe(See theLatin Arch.). By far the most common Romance languages in southern Europe areItalian (spoken by over 50 million people in Italy, southern Switzerland, Malta, San Marino, and Vatican City) andSpanish, which is spoken by over 40 million people in Spain, Andorra and Gibraltar. Other common Romance languages includePortuguese (spoken in Portugal and Andorra),French (spoken in France, Monaco, and theAosta Valley in Italy),Catalan (spoken in eastern Spain, Andorra, Southwestern France, and theSardinian town ofAlghero in Italy),Galician (spoken in northwestern Spain),Mirandese (spoken in northeast Portugal), andOccitan, which is spoken in theVal d'Aran in Catalonia, in theOccitan Valleys in Italy and in southern France.[citation needed]
Albanian is spoken in Albania, Kosovo, North Macedonia, Montenegro, Greece, Serbia, Croatia and Italy (particularly by theArbëreshë people insouthern Italy).
TheHellenic languages orGreek language are widely spoken in Greece and Cyprus. Additionally, other varieties of Greek are spoken in small communities in parts of other European countries.[citation needed]
English is used as a second language in parts of southern Europe. As a primary language, however, English has only a small presence in southern Europe, in Gibraltar (alongside Spanish) and Malta (secondary to Maltese). English is also widely spoken in Cyprus.[citation needed]
There are other language groupings in southern Europe.Maltese is aSemitic language that is the official language of Malta, descended fromSiculo-Arabic, but written in the Latin script with heavy Latin and Italian influences. TheBasque language is spoken in theBasque Country, a region in northern Spain and southwestern France.Turkish is aTurkic language that is spoken in Turkey, Cyprus, Kosovo, Greece, North Macedonia and Bosnia, andGerman is spoken in Italy, particularly inSouth Tyrol.[citation needed]
The predominant religion in southern Europe isChristianity. Christianity spread throughout southern Europe during the Roman Empire, and Christianity was adopted as the official religion of the Roman Empire in the year 380 AD. Thehistoric break of the Church into the western half, based inRome, and the eastern half, based inConstantinople, has caused different denominations of Christianity to beprominent in different parts of Europe.[33]Christians in the western half of southern Europe such as Portugal, Spain and Italy, are generallyRoman Catholic. Christians in the eastern half of southern Europe such as Greece, Serbia and North Macedonia are generallyEastern Orthodox.Islam is widely practiced in Albania, Bosnia, Kosovo and Turkey andNorthern Cyprus. Muslims are a significant minority in several countries of southern Europe such as Greece, Italy, Spain.[34]Judaism was practiced widely throughout the European continent within the Roman Empire from the 2nd century.
In theCIA World Factbook, the description of each country includes information about "Location" under the heading "Geography", where the country is classified into a region. The following countries are included in their classification "southern Europe":[35]
EuroVoc is a multilingual thesaurus maintained by thePublications Office of the European Union, giving definitions of terms for official use. In the definition of "southern Europe", the following countries are included:[36]
The United Nations geoscheme is a system devised by theUnited Nations Statistics Division (UNSD), which divides the countries of the world intoregional andsubregional groups, based on theM49 coding classification. The partition is for statistical convenience and does not imply any assumption regarding political or other affiliation of countries or territories.[37]
In the UN geoscheme, the following countries are classified as southern Europe:[37]
European Travel Commission divides the European region on the basis of Tourism Decision Metrics (TDM) model.Countries which belong to the southern/Mediterranean Europe in this classification are:[38]
^OECD (2002).OECD Territorial Reviews: Switzerland 2002. OECD Publishing. p. 80.ISBN9789264160651.The Regio Insubrica spreads over three Italian provinces (Verbano-Cusio Ossola, Varese, Como) and the Swiss canton of Ticino. The national border cuts across a culturally and geographically homogenous territory. The region is peripheral for both countries, but it is an essential pole of communication between Northern and Southern Europe.
^Robert E. Dickinson (1969).The Makers of Modern Geography.Routledge Library Editions: Social and Cultural Geography. p. 16.ISBN9781317907336.He (August Zeune) divided Europe into its major divisions. Southern Europe falls into three units — the Pyrenean, Alpine, and Balkan peninsulas.
^OECD (2002).OECD Territorial Reviews: Switzerland 2002. OECD Publishing. p. 80.ISBN9789264160651.The Regio Insubrica spreads over three Italian provinces (Verbano-Cusio Ossola, Varese, Como) and the Swiss canton of Ticino. The national border cuts across a culturally and geographically homogenous territory. The region is peripheral for both countries, but it is an essential pole of communication between Northern and Southern Europe.
^Wolfgang Frey andRainer Lösch;Lehrbuch der Geobotanik. Pflanze und Vegetation in Raum und Zeit. Spektrum Akademischer Verlag, München 2004
^Stefano Mazzoleni (2004).Recent Dynamics of the Mediterranean Vegetation and Landscape.John Wiley & Sons. p. 145.In the coastal areas, the olive groves are tightly interwoven with low maquis, garrigue and steppe, which have been widely grazed and, consequently, burned. On the other hand, low mountains and inland hills have chestnut and mixed deciduous coppiced woods. The actual boundaries between these two different vegetation landscapes can be found at different altitudes according to local climatic conditions; higher (about 1000m asl) in the eastern and southern areas, and lower and close to the sea in the central and northern basin.
^Sarah Baxter (2017).History of the World in 500 Railway Journeys.The Quarto Group. p. 357.ISBN9781781319383.The first Gotthard Tunnel, a 9-mile (14 km) engineering marvel of its time, was dug between 1872 and 1882; 199 men died in the process. Running between the Swiss villages of Göschenen and Airolo, it was the first modern railway link between northern and southern Europe, and it is still used today.
^World Bank (2018).The WEB of Transport Corridors in South Asia. p. 186.ISBN9781464812163.The Rhine-Alpine Corridor is a north-south corridor extending from the North Sea ports of Rotterdam and Antwerp to the Mediterranean port of Genoa in northern Italy. The corridor is a primary artery for transporting goods in Europe.
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