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Atlantic Europe encompasses the western portion of Europe which borders theAtlantic Ocean. The term may refer to the idea of Atlantic Europe as a cultural unit and/or as abiogeographical region.
It comprisesIreland,Great Britain,Iceland,Belgium, theNetherlands, the central and northern regions ofPortugal, northwestern and northernSpain (includingGalicia,Asturias,Cantabria,Southern Basque Country, and some portions ofCastile and León), the southwestern and western portion ofFrance (Northern Basque Country), westernScandinavia as well as western and northernGermany.
Weather and overall physical conditions are relatively similar along this area (with the exception of parts of Scandinavia and theBaltic), resulting in similar landscapes with commonendemic plant and animal species. From a strictly physical point of view most of the Atlantic European shoreline can be considered a singlebiogeographical region.[1][2]Physical geographers label this biogeographical area as theEuropean Atlantic Domain, part of theEuro-Siberian botanic region.[3]
TheAtlantic Bronze Age is a cultural complex of theBronze Age period of approximately 1300–700 BC, that marked the economic and cultural exchange between the current territories ofPortugal,Spain,France,Great Britain andIreland. During this time, tin from throughout Atlantic Europe was traded in theMediterranean. Via theBell Beaker culture, Atlantic and Central Europe were in close cultural contact from at least the mid 3rd millennium BC, contributing to what would emerge as theCeltic culture of the West/Central EuropeanIron Age.[4]
Archaeologists have noted that the prehistoric peoples of Atlantic Europe presented common traits, as shown byartifacts, artistic and architectural styles found in the region which attest to at least some form oftrade and/or cultural link.[5] In addition, a number of genetic studies seem to interrelate specific groups of population in parts of Atlantic Europe in contrast with, for example, Central orMediterranean Europe.[6][7]
Some examples of early cultural contact are theEuropean Megalithic Culture and theAtlantic Bronze Age, or "carp's tongue sword complex". This refers to an industry mainly based on the west coast of France andBrittany but which clearly had links with societies inIberia andBritain, as evidenced by products such as thecarp's tongue sword and theend winged axe, which were widely bought and sold along the routes of the Atlantic seaways.
Atlantic Europe is also a term often used in reference to the territory occupied by theCeltic-speaking peoples and Celtic influenced people of western Europe.[8]
A number of authors have postulated that there still is a cultural continuum in Atlantic Europe, forming a cultural unit which has its roots in prehistoric times but remained until today mostly thanks to sea trade.Geographers also mention the influence of the natural environment in the construction of a similarcultural landscape along the western European coasts.
Some of the first geographers to consider this idea of Atlantic Europe wereOtero Pedrayo andOrlando Ribeiro. Pedrayo stated in his studies aboutGalicia that this territory was marked by a strong "Atlantic character", not Mediterranean, despite being part of astate often perceived as Mediterranean (Spain). On the other hand, while researching about his nativePortugal, Ribeiro deepened the concepts of Atlantic Europe and Mediterranean Europe, linking southern Portugal more towards the Mediterranean culture and central and northern Portugal (together with Galicia and Asturias) to a pan-Atlantic European culture.
This idea would be further developed from the 1950s onwards by authors such as P. Flatrès,Emyr Estyn Evans, A. Bouhier, Meynier, J. García Fernández,Patrick O'Flanagan,Richard Bradley,Barry Cunliffe,Carlos Ferrás Sexto andXoán Paredes, among others.
O'Flanagan, based on the theories of Pedrayo and Ribeiro, states that Atlantic Europe is a cultural reality that stretches along the coastal fringe of Europe, from Norway to South-Central Portugal (roughly down to theSantarém area), and including Britain and Ireland. With this in mind, Paredes affirms that there exists a cultural landscape common to Atlantic (namely Celtic) Europe, mainly based on the settlement pattern, use and shared perception of thelived space, thus evidencing in itself a social and cultural internal cohesion and continuity.[10][11]
Bob Quinn in his documentary seriesAtlantean speculates that western EuropeanCeltic culture is actually an earlier, pre-Celtic, Atlantic culture that included Atlantic Europe and people of theMaghreb such asBerbers and that it continues today.
There is a multi-national association of regions, which acts as a co-ordinator of Atlantic European regions and its interests. This is theAtlantic Arc Commission.[12] Operative since 1989, it includes 26 regions from four member States - Great Britain, France, Spain and Portugal. The Atlantic Arc Commission is one of the sevenGeographical Commissions in the Conference of Peripheral Maritime Regions of Europe.[13]
The genetic link between the various Atlantic population is still under discussion. On the one hand, some studies show that modern and Iron Age British and Irish samples cluster genetically very closely with other North European populations, and not to southern Atlantic Europeans in Spain and France.[14][15] However, as the authors acknowledge, the sample used is unlikely to include many members of smaller genetically isolated populations that exist within countries. On the other hand, an article published in theAmerican Journal of Genetics indicates – after including samples from different regions within European countries – a shared ancestry throughout the Atlantic zone, from northwest Iberia (Galicia) to western Scandinavia, that dates back to end of the last Ice Age.[16]
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