Title: history of Europe | Summary, Wars, Ideas, & Colonialism | Britannica
Headings: History of Europe
History of Europe
Content: history of Europe | Summary, Wars, Ideas, & Colonialism | Britannica
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WRITTEN BY
Peter N. Stearns See All Contributors
University Provost, George Mason University in Fairfax, Virginia. Author of European Society in Upheaval: Social History Since 1750. See Article History
History of Europe, history of European peoples and cultures from prehistoric times to the present. Europe is a more ambiguous term than most geographic expressions. Its etymology is doubtful, as is the physical extent of the area it designates. Its western frontiers seem clearly defined by its coastline, yet the position of the British Isles remains equivocal. To outsiders, they seem clearly part of Europe. To many British and some Irish people, however, “Europe” means essentially continental Europe. To the south, Europe ends on the northern shores of the Mediterranean Sea.