| 49 REGIONS/COUNTRIES/CAPITALS 2013 | |||
| Northwest | Northeast | ||
| 01 | *Greenland/Nuuk | 31 | Estonia/Tallinn |
| 02 | *Iceland/Reykjavík | 32 | Latvia/Riga |
| 03 | *Faroe Islands/Tórshavn | 33 | Lithuania/Vilnius |
| 04 | Ireland: Irish Rep/Dublin | 34 | *Western Russia/Moscow |
| 05 | Britain: United Kingdom/London | ||
| North | East | ||
| 06 | Denmark/Copenhagen | 35 | Belarus/Minsk |
| 07 | Norway/Oslo | 36 | Ukraine/Kiev |
| 08 | Sweden/Stockholm | 37 | Moldova/Chișinău |
| 09 | Finland/Helsinki | ||
| Central | Southeast | ||
| 10 | Germany/Berlin | 38 | Croatia/Zagreb |
| 11 | Poland/Warsaw | 39 | Bosnia and Herzegovina/Sarajevo |
| 12 | Czech Republic/Prague | 40 | Serbia/Belgrade |
| 13 | Slovakia/Bratislava | 41 | Romania/Bucharest |
| 14 | Austria/Vienna | 42 | Montenegro/Podgorica |
| 15 | Hungary/Budapest | 43 | Kosovo/Pristina |
| West | 44 | Bulgaria/Sofia | |
| 16 | Netherlands/Amsterdam | 45 | Albania/Tirana |
| 17 | Belgium/Brussels | 46 | North Macedonia/Skopje |
| 18 | Luxemburg/same | 47 | Greece/Athens |
| 19 | France/Paris | 48 | *Turkey/Ankara |
| 20 | Monaco/Monte Carlo | 49 | *Cyprus/Nicosia |
| Southwest | South | ||
| 21 | Andorra/Andorra la Vella | 26 | Slovenia/Ljubljana |
| 22 | Spain/Madrid | 27 | Italy/Rome |
| 23 | Portugal/Lisbon | 28 | San Marino/same |
| South | 29 | Vatican City/same | |
| 24 | Switzerland/Bern | 30 | Malta/Valletta |
| 25 | Liechtenstein/Vaduz | ||
*Associated with Europe
During the Last Glacial Period (115-11.7 kya) the ice at its greatest extent (20 kya) covered much of northern Europe, obstructing human movement into these areas until the retreat of the ice opened the way for the nomadic hunters of central Europe to venture into the region.
The peopling of southern Europe began 40 kya and from this time the hunting and gathering of food remained the only form of human subsistence until about 7000 BC when farming spread from the Near East into Greece.
This new way of life spread southeast to northwest through the Balkans to the Danube lands and the Great Hungarian Plain. By 4000 BC it had been adopted in Denmark, the Netherlands, northern Germany and northeastern France – an area that was predominantly forested but where ‘slash and burn’ cultures acquired patches of fertile soil from their efforts.
It is thought that from 4000 BC a pastoral people speaking a Proto-Indo-European language in the Pontic-Caspian Steppe area began a migration throughout Eurasia, integrating and forming new cultures with the peoples they met on the way.
Megalith building began during the Neolithic (7000-1700 BC) and continued into the Copper and Bronze ages. These structures include menhirs (standing stones), alignments (esp. Carnac, France), stone circles (esp. Stonehenge, England), henges (esp. Avebury, England) and tombs.
The introduction of bronze took place 3000 BC in southeast Europe and 1700 BC in northwest Europe, but possibly of greater influence on the period was the domestication of horses and the resulting increased mobility of cultures.
From about 2000 BC Indo-Europeans became Scythians in the area north of the Black Sea; Slavs in Poland and western Russia; Balts along the southern and eastern coasts of the Baltic Sea; Germanics on the Danish peninsula, southern Sweden and northern Germany; Thracians, Greeks and Illyrians on the Balkan peninsula; Italics on the Italian peninsula; Celts in central and western Europe, northern Spain and Britain; and Iberians in Spain and Portugal.
Urban life in Europe began during the Bronze Age with the Aegean Sea civilisations: Minoan (3650-1100 BC) on Crete in the southern Aegean, Cycladic (3000-1100 BC) in the central Aegean and Mycenaean (1600-1100 BC) in mainland Greece.
The Corded Ware culture (2900-2350 BC) covered the area from Russia to the Netherlands and from Scandinavia to Switzerland. The western extremity of this culture overlapped with the contemporary Funnelbeaker culture (4300-2800 BC) between the Elbe and the Vistula rivers.
The unrelated Bell Beaker culture (2800-1800 BC), found in large areas of western and central Europe, was followed by the Únětice (2300-1600 BC), the Tumulus (1600-1200 BC) and the Urnfield (1300-750 BC) cultures in central Europe, and by Lusatian culture (1300-500 BC) in Poland.
Iron working was introduced to Europe in the late eleventh century BC and slowly spread northwards and westwards over the succeeding years. Iron ploughs worked the tough soils in Europe where wooden ploughs could not. The soils here not being as rich as the Near East river valley civilisations meant that the people of Iron Age Europe were forced to focus much more heavily on manufacturing and trade.
In the eleventh and tenth centuries BC Phoenicians planted trading posts in North Africa, Sicily, Sardinia and Iberia. In the eighth century BC the Etruscans emerged in central Italy and began trading with Corsica, Sardinia and Iberia.
In the tenth century BC the Greeks began to colonise the Greek islands and Asia Minor’s west coast. In the late eighth century BC Greek colonists founded Croton and Sybaris in mainland southern Italy and Syracuse in Sicily.
Around 650 BC Carthage – a Phoenician colony founded 814 BC on the Tunisian (North African) coast – established hegemony over the other Phoenician settlements throughout the Mediterranean, and at its peak its influence extended over most of the western Mediterranean.
By 800 BC Greece had divided into a number of city-states. In 498 BC Athens supported the rebellion in the Greek colonies of Asia Minor against their Persian overlords, which brought about the Greco-Persian Wars (499-449 BC) which resulted in a peace treaty that safeguarded the Greek city-states in Asia Minor from Persian attacks.
Sparta’s concern with the growth of Athenian power prompted the Peloponnesian Wars (460-404 BC) which ended in a Spartan victory. In 338 BC Greece fell to Philip II (46; r.359-336 BC) of Macedon, whose son Alexander III the Great (32; r.336-323 BC) spread Hellenic culture into Asia.
From the ninth century BC the Etruscans were dominant in Italy. In 509 BC Rome revolted against their Etruscan king and founded a republic. By the third century BC the Romans controlled central and southern Italy. They drove the Carthaginians from Sicily (264-201 BC); overran Spain (218-201 BC); completed the conquest of Greece (146 BC); and by the second century AD had extended their empire around the Mediterranean through Gaul to Spain and Britain, the Rhine, the Danube and the Balkans.
Northern Europe had no cities, writing or any significant technological progress. People still lived in small villages, in log homes, and grew crops or herded animals. By the fifth century BC the Celtic customs had already spread across most of western Europe. Their earliest culture was the Hallstatt (800-500 BC), followed by the La Tène (450-1st century BC).
In the second century BC Germanic tribes moved south and east from Scandinavia. The Goths and the Vandals drove the Balts east along the coast of the Baltic. Other Germanics pressed south along the Rhine as far as the Danube, forcing the Helvetii, a Celtic tribe, to take refuge among the Swiss mountains. The Germanic Teutones and Cimbri struck south to threaten the Roman armies in southern France and northern Italy. They were defeated and driven back in 101 BC, but the Romans had been made aware of the long-term threat of the Germanics living beyond the Rhine and the Danube.
By the third century AD the Germanics were ranged along the borders of the Roman Empire, east of the Rhine and north of the Danube and Black Sea. From here they were to move throughout western Europe. In the northwest, beyond the lower Rhine, were the Franks; further south around the valley of the Main, were the Burgundians; east of the Alps, near the River Tisza, were the Vandals; beyond them, occupying a far greater range of territory than the others, were the Goths.
In AD 375 the Roman Empire split into the Eastern and Western empires. In 476 the latter fell to the Visigoths (who also invaded Spain) and the Vandals. Other Germanic tribes, the Franks and the Burgundians, overran Gaul (507); and the Angles, Saxons and Jutes conquered England (6th century).
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