Southern Europe

Southern Europe is the southern

region

of

Europe

. Definitions of Southern Europe, also known as Mediterranean Europe, may include countries and regions such as:

Albania

,

Andorra

,

Bosnia and Herzegovina

,

Bulgaria

,

Croatia

,

Cyprus

(politically and culturally, but belongs geographically to

Western Asia

),

Gibraltar

,

Greece

,

Italy

,

Kosovo

,

Malta

,

Monaco

,

Montenegro

, North Macedonia,

Portugal

,

Romania

,

San Marino

,

Serbia

,

Slovenia

, Southern France (especially

Corsica

),

Spain

,

Turkey

(East Thrace) and

Vatican City

.

Southern Europe is focused on the three peninsulas located in the extreme south of the European continent. These are the

Iberian Peninsula

, the Italian Peninsula, and the

Balkan Peninsula

. These three peninsulas are separated from the rest of Europe by towering mountain ranges. 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 (mainly subtropical Mediterranean) from the rest of the continent. So, the

Sirocco

hot wind that originates in the heart of the

Sahara

blows over

Italy

, 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 the Mistral and the

Tramontane

. When the Mistral and the

Tramontane

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.
This same kind of phenomenon takes place between the two slopes of the Balkan mountain range. These mountain ranges have, moreover, been a serious handicap to population displacement, focusing southern Europe mainly on the Mediterranean world. The climate and cultures are therefore very specific.

Different methods can be used to define Southern Europe, including its

political

,

economic

,

historical

and

cultural

attributes. Southern Europe can also be defined by its natural features — its

geography

,

climate

, and

flora

. Politically, seven of the Southern European states form the EU Med Group.

Geography

Geographically, Southern Europe is the southern portion of the

Europe

an 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 three

subregions

:

* South Central Europe: the Italian Peninsula (

Italy

and the microstates of

San Marino

,

Monaco

and

Vatican City

) with

Malta

and currently French territory in the Italian geographic area (

Corsica

and Alpes-Maritimes).

*

Southeastern Europe

: the

Balkan Peninsula

(

Albania

,

Bosnia and Herzegovina

,

Bulgaria

,

Croatia

,

Greece

,

Kosovo

,

Montenegro

, North Macedonia,

Romania

,

Serbia

, and

Slovenia

, as well as East Thrace in

Turkey

).

*

Southwestern Europe

: the

Iberian Peninsula

(

Andorra

,

Portugal

, and

Spain

, as well as

Gibraltar

, a

British overseas territory

and a smaller

French territory

known as the French Cerdagne), and currently French territory of Pyrénées-Orientales.

The major islands in Southern Europe include the

Balearic Islands

,

Corsica

,

Crete

,

Sardinia

, and

Sicily

, as well as the island country of

Malta

.

Europe geographique grande.jpg, Map representing the geography of Europe, with the mountain ranges separating Southern Europe.
España y Portugal.jpg, Satellite image of the Iberian Peninsula.
Satellite image of Italy in March 2003.jpg, Satellite image of the Italian Peninsula.
Wildfires Balkans July 2007-NASA.jpg, Satellite image of the Balkan Peninsula.

Climate

Southern Europe's most emblematic

climate

is the Mediterranean climate, influenced by the large subtropical semi-permanent centre of high atmospheric pressure found, not in the Mediterranean itself, but in the Atlantic Ocean, the Azores High. The Mediterranean climate covers

Portugal

,

Spain

,

Italy

, the southern coast of France, coastal

Croatia

, coastal

Slovenia

, southern Bosnia and Herzegovina,

Montenegro

,

Albania

, and

Greece

, as well as the Mediterranean islands. Those areas of Mediterranean climate present similar vegetations and landscapes throughout, including dry hills, small plains,

pine

forests and

olive

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.

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 the

Adriatic Sea

in cities such as

Venice

and

Trieste

.

Flora

Southern Europe's

flora

is mainly characterized by Mediterranean forests, woodlands, and scrub, but also temperate 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, the

Balkan

Mediterranean coast and part of Macedonia.

Particolare della foresta di faggi - Parco Naturale dei Monti Aurunci.jpg,

Beech

forest in the

Aurunci Mountains

, Italy
Donana.jpg, Stone pines in Doñana National Park, Spain
AlentejoPortugal1994.jpg, Oak

savanna

of

Alentejo

, Portugal (''

Q. suber

'' and ''

Q. rotundifolia

'')
Pinus halepensis forest, near Dubrovnik, Croatia - Stiller Beobachter.jpg, Aleppo pine forest, Croatia
MonteCimone3.jpg, Temperate pine forests of

Monte Cimone

, Italy
LandscapeInCrete.JPG, Dry

olive

groove, Crete

History

Early history

The

Phoenicians

originally expanded from

Canaan

port

s, dominating trade in the

Mediterranean

by the 8th century BC.

Carthage

was founded in 814 BC, and the Carthaginians by 700 BC had firmly established strongholds in

Sicily

and

Sardinia

(both regions in present day

Italy

), which created conflicts of interest with

Etruria

. Its colonies later reached the Western Mediterranean, such as

Cádiz

in Spain and most notably

Carthage

in North Africa, and even the

Atlantic Ocean

. The civilisation spread across the Mediterranean between 1500 BC and 300 BC.

The period known as classical antiquity began with the rise of the city-states of Ancient Greece. Greek influence reached its zenith under the expansive empire of

Alexander the Great

, spreading throughout

Asia

. The

Roman Empire

came to dominate the entire Mediterranean Basin in a vast empire based on Roman law and

Roman legion

s. It promoted trade, tolerance, and Greek culture. By 300 AD the Roman Empire was divided into the

Western Roman Empire

based in Rome, and the

Eastern Roman Empire

based in Constantinople. The attacks of the Goths led to the fall of the Western Roman Empire in 476 AD, a date which traditionally marks the end of the classical period and the start of the Middle Ages. During the Middle Ages, the Eastern Roman Empire survived, though modern historians refer to this 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 established kingdoms and empires of their own.

The period known as the

Crusades

, a series of religiously motivated military expeditions originally intended to bring the

Levant

back into Christian rule, began. Several

Crusader states

were founded in the eastern Mediterranean. These were all short-lived. The Crusaders would have a profound impact on many parts of Europe. Their sack 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 the

Silk Road

and open the way for the merchant republics of Genoa and Venice to become major economic powers. The

Reconquista

, a related movement, worked to reconquer

Iberia

for Christendom. The late Middle Ages represented a period of upheaval in Europe. The epidemic known as the

Black Death

and an associated famine caused

demographic

catastrophe in Europe as the population plummeted. Dynastic struggles and wars of conquest kept many of the states of Europe at war for much of the period. In the

Balkans

, the Ottoman Empire, a Turkish state originating in Anatolia, encroached steadily on former Byzantine lands, culminating in the fall of Constantinople in 1453.

Post-Middle Ages

Beginning roughly in the 12th century in

Florence

, and later spreading through Europe with the development of the printing press, a

Renaissance

of knowledge challenged traditional doctrines in science and theology, with the Arabic texts and thought 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 the Age 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 the Mediterranean into the

Indian Ocean

, finally involving the islands of

Southeast Asia

. 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 of colonial empires, producing the Columbian Exchange. The combination of resource inflows from the New World and the Industrial Revolution of Great Britain, allowed a new economy based on manufacturing instead of subsistence agriculture. The period between 1815 and 1871 saw a large number of revolutionary attempts and independence wars. Balkan nations began to regain independence from the Ottoman Empire. Italy unified into a nation state. The capture of Rome in 1870 ended the Temporal power (papal), Papal temporal power.

20th century

The outbreak of World War I in 1914 was precipitated by the rise of nationalism in Southeastern Europe as the Great Powers took up sides. The Allies defeated the Central Powers in 1918. During the Paris Peace Conference, 1919, Paris Peace Conference the The Big Four (World War I), Big Four imposed their terms in a series of treaties, especially the Treaty of Versailles. The Nazi regime under Adolf Hitler came to power in 1933, and along with Italian Fascism, Mussolini's Italy sought to gain control of the continent by the Second World War.
Following the Allied victory in the Second World War, Europe was divided by the Iron Curtain. The countries in Southeastern Europe were dominated by the Soviet Union and became communist states. The major non-communist Southern European countries joined a US-led military alliance (NATO) and formed the European Economic Community amongst themselves. The countries in the Soviet sphere of influence joined the military alliance known as the Warsaw Pact and the economic bloc called Comecon. Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia, Yugoslavia was neutral. The common attribute of the eastern countries is that all of them have experiences about socialism, 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.

Italy became a major industrialized country again, due to its post-war economic miracle. The European Union (EU) involved the division of powers, with taxation, health, and education handled by the nation states, while 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. European Union expanded to subsequently include many of the formerly communist European countries –

Romania

and

Bulgaria

(2007) and

Croatia

(2013).

Languages

Romance languages

The most widely spoken family of languages in Southern Europe are the Romance languages, the heirs of Latin, which have spread from the Italian peninsula, and are emblematic of Southwestern Europe. ''(See the Latin Arch.)''
By far the most common Romance languages in Southern Europe are Italian (spoken by over 50 million people in Italy, Switzerland, Malta, San Marino, and the Vatican) and Spanish, which is spoken by over 40 million people in Spain, Andorra and Gibraltar. Other common Romance languages include Portuguese (spoken in Portugal and Andorra), French (spoken in France, Monaco, and the Aosta Valley in Italy), Catalan (spoken in eastern Spain, Andorra, Southwestern France, and the

Sardinia

n town of Alghero in Italy), Galician language, Galician (spoken in northwestern Spain), Mirandese language, Mirandese (spoken in northeast Portugal), and Occitan, which is spoken in the Val d'Aran in Catalonia, in the Occitan Valleys in Italy and in southern France.

Other languages

The Hellenic languages or Greek language are widely spoken in Greece and Cyprus. Additionally, other varieties of Greek are spoken in small communities in parts of other European countries.

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, only in Gibraltar (alongside Spanish) and Malta (secondary to Maltese). English is also widely spoken in Cyprus.

There are other language groupings in Southern Europe. Albanian language, Albanian is spoken in Albania, Kosovo, North Macedonia, Montenegro, Greece, Serbia, Croatia and Italy (particularly by the Arbëreshë people in Southern Italy), and Serbo-Croatian is spoken in Kosovo, Croatia, Serbia, Bosnia, Montenegro, North Macedonia and Italy (in Molise). Slovene language, Slovenian is spoken in Slovenia, Italy (in Friuli-Venezia Giulia) and Croatia (in Istria) and Macedonian language, Macedonian is spoken in North Macedonia. Maltese language, Maltese is a Semitic language that is the official language of Malta, descended from Siculo-Arabic, but written in the Latin script with heavy Latin and Italian influences. The Basque language is spoken in the Basque Country (greater region), Basque Country, a region in northern Spain and southwestern France. Turkish language, Turkish is a Turkic language that is spoken in Turkey, Cyprus, Kosovo, Greece, North Macedonia and Bosnia, and German language, German is spoken in Italy, particularly in South Tyrol.

Religion

The predominant religion in Southern Europe is Christianity. 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.
Due to East–West Schism, the historical break of the Church into the western half based in Rome and the eastern half based in Constantinople, different denominations of Christianity are prominent in different parts of Europe.
Christians in the western half of Southern Europe — e.g., Portugal, Spain, Italy — are generally Roman Catholic. Christians in the eastern half of Southern Europe — e.g., Greece, Serbia and North Macedonia — are generally Eastern Orthodox. Islam is widely practiced in Albania, Bosnia, Kosovo and Turkey and Northern Cyprus. Muslims are a significant minority in several countries of Southern Europe- e.g., Greece, Italy, Spain.
Judaism was practiced widely throughout the European continent within the Roman Empire from the 2nd century.

Other classifications

''CIA World Factbook''

In the ''The World Factbook, CIA 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":
*

Greece

*Vatican City, Holy See (Vatican City)
*

Italy

*

Malta

*

San Marino

In addition,

Andorra

,

Gibraltar

.

Portugal

and

Spain

are classified as "Southwestern Europe", while

Albania

,

Bosnia and Herzegovina

,

Bulgaria

,

Croatia

,

Montenegro

, North Macedonia,

Romania

,

Serbia

and

Turkey

(the part west of the Bosporus) are described as located in "Southeastern Europe".

EuroVoc

EuroVoc is a multilingual thesaurus maintained by the Publications Office of the European Union, giving definitions of terms for official use. In the definition of "Southern Europe", the following countries are included:
*

Cyprus

*

Greece

*Holy See
*

Italy

*

Malta

*

Portugal

*

San Marino

*

Spain

*

Turkey

UN geoscheme classification

The United Nations geoscheme is a system devised by the United Nations Statistics Division (UNSD) which divides the countries of the world into regional and subregional groups, based on the UN M49, M49 coding classification. The partition is for statistical convenience and does not imply any assumption regarding political or other affiliation of countries or territories.

In the UN geoscheme, the following countries are classified as Southern Europe:
*

Albania

*

Andorra

*

Bosnia and Herzegovina

*

Croatia

*

Greece

* Holy See
*

Italy

*

Malta

*

Montenegro

* North Macedonia
*

Portugal

*

San Marino

*

Serbia

*

Slovenia

*

Spain

as well as the dependent area:
*

Gibraltar

European Travel Commission classification

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:European Tourism 2014 – Trends & Prospects (Q2/2014)
page 5

Albania

,

Bosnia and Herzegovina

,

Croatia

,

Greece

,

Italy

,

Malta

,

Montenegro

, North Macedonia,

Portugal

,

Serbia

,

Slovenia

,

Spain

, East Thrace.

See also

* Central Europe
* Eastern Europe
* EU Med Group
* Eurovoc#Southern Europe
* Mediterranean Basin
* Northern Europe
* Southeast Europe
* Western Europe

References

{{Authority control

Southern Europe,
Regions of Europe