What is Europe?: The many ways to define a continent

Thinking about what Europe is may seem like a trick question. Many of us consider it to be one of the 7 continents of the world that is made up of 44 countries, possibly plus or minus a few depending on opinion. However, it is practically impossible to define Europe using a standard, one-size-fits-all definition as countries in Europe differ on almost every factor you could think of, from language, religion, and of course politics.

Geography is commonly used as the basis for how we begin to define Europe. Obviously, a country can’t physically move itself out of Europe in a geographical sense, however, the internal boundaries of Europe have changed throughout the centuries. Many countries have broken apart, joined, or completely disappeared which has changed the way we look at and define Europe as a continent.

This is where we can begin to see that geography isn’t our most reliable source when it comes to defining Europe as, ultimately, over the last century what has caused these changes in our internal borders is politics. This is where politics and geography collide and the influence of geopolitics in how we define Europe becomes clearer.

It could be argued that geopolitics holds more importance than geography when it comes to defining Europe. For example, Asia Minor has not been considered as part of Europe throughout all of history, however, if it would be of benefit to the EU then it is still likely that Turkey would join even though 97% of its territory lies in Asia.

Politics also influences geography in a personal sense. How we see Europe on a map depends on our motives and our values. For instance, the Romans would consider Rome to be the centre point of Europe, likewise with the Ancient Greeks and Athens. Today the answer would likely be very different and this is because politics has developed over the centuries and changed the way in which we see Europe internally.

Europe is generally considered as the birthplace of democracy, so it would be relatively standard to think of politics as playing a rather large role in how we define Europe. However, just because countries are labelled as being part of Europe does not make them recognised democratic countries. In Europe today, democracy is hugely important, especially as it influences relationships between European countries which can ultimately have an impact on internal borders.

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