Southern Europe is a loosely defined region of Europe. It is also known as Mediterranean Europe, as its geography is marked by the Mediterranean Sea. 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 peninsulas are separated from the rest of Europe by towering mountain ranges, respectively by the Pyrenees, the Alps, and the Balkan Mountains. The location of these three 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. Moreover, these mountains have acted as a barrier to population movement and cultural exchange, rendering both the climate and cultures distinct from those of the rest of Europe.
Various other methods can be used to define Southern Europe, including its political, economic, historical, and cultural attributes.Encyclopedia of Social and Cultural Anthropology, Alan Barnard and Jonathan Spence. Retrieved 10 October 2015.Which Countries Make Up Southern Europe? WorldAtlas Culturally, Southern Europe is predominantly Romance-speaking and Roman Catholic. Politically, nine of the southern European countries form the EU Med Group. Southern Europe also loosely corresponds to the European part of the Mediterranean Basin.
Southern Europe has been shaped by a long and complex history rooted in the Mediterranean world. Early civilizations such as the Phoenicians established extensive trade networks that linked the region's coasts and islands. Ancient Greece and Rome later integrated much of Southern Europe into a shared classical framework constituting the base of European civilization. During the Middle Ages, Southern Europe experienced centuries of political fragmentation and external invasions. The Renaissance and the Age of Discovery expanded Southern Europe's influence and global connections, in particular to Latin America. From the late modern period onward, however, Southern Europe generally lagged behind northern Europe in industrialization and economic development, remaining more agrarian and subject to political instability. This gap persisted into the 20th century, despite later industrial growth and modernization driven by state intervention and European integration.
Geography
Geographically, Southern Europe is the southern portion of the European continent. This definition is relative, although largely based on history, culture, climate, and flora, which is shared across the region. Southern Europe is primarily shaped by the Mediterranean Sea, while also encompassing territories bordering the Atlantic Ocean to the west and the Black Sea to the east, as well as inland regions, often mountainous in character. Southern Europe can be subdivided into three geographically separate subregions:
The westernmost region (Southwest Europe), which consists mainly of the Iberian Peninsula, separated from the rest of Europe by the Pyrenees, a mountain range forming a nearly straight line from the Atlantic Ocean to the western Mediterranean Sea. It also consists of the Balearic Islands. The region is shared by five countries: Andorra Portugal (mainland) Spain (mainland and Balearic Islands) Part of France: Cerdagne in the Pyrénées-Orientales Part of the United Kingdom: Gibraltar
The most central region, which consists mainly of the Italian Peninsula, separated from the rest of Europe by the Alps, a mountain range forming an arc from the western Mediterranean Sea to the Adriatic Sea. It also consists of the islands of Sicily, Sardinia, Corsica, and Malta. The region is shared by nine countries: Italy Malta Monaco San Marino Vatican City Part of Croatia: Istria County Part of France: Alpes-Maritimes and Corsica Part of Slovenia: municipalities of Ankaran, Izola, Koper, and Piran Part of Switzerland: Ticino
The easternmost region (Southeastern Europe), a loosely defined region which consists mainly of the Balkans, the peninsula between the Adriatic, Aegean and Black Sea, with the Danube forming part of its northern border, rather than the Balkan Mountains themselves (to the south). It also consists of numerous islands in the Adriatic and in the Aegean Sea (notably Crete). The region is shared by a dozen of countries: Albania Bosnia and Herzegovina Bulgaria Croatia Greece Kosovo Montenegro North Macedonia Serbia Part of Romania: Northern Dobruja Part of Slovenia: southernmost part Part of Turkey: East Thrace
Additionally, several other countries are politically or culturally associated with Southern Europe without being geographically part of it. These include Cyprus (an island south of the Anatolian Peninsula), and Moldova (along with the remaining part of Romania, north of the Balkan Peninsula). Further east, the coastal regions of the Black Sea and the Caspian Sea constitute the southernmost regions of Eastern Europe, although they fall outside the core definitions of Southern Europe.
Punta de Tarifa, in Spain, constitutes the southernmost point of the European continent. Gavdos, in Greece, is the southernmost European island.
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 vegetation 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. In the highest regions of the Alps, which border southern Europe, even an ice cap climate can be found.
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, but also further north, near the Alpine foothills, in cities such as Como and Lugano.
The high mountains of the Alps and the Pyrenees act as a significant climatic barrier. An example is the Sirocco, a hot wind that originates in the heart of the Sahara and blows over Italy as far as the interior of the Alpine arc (the Po Valley), where it is prevented from spreading to the rest of Europe. Conversely, the Alps and the Pyrenees protect the Italian and Iberian peninsulas from the rain and icy winds coming from southern France, such as the Mistral and the Tramontane. When the Mistral and the Tramontane are blowing, they provoke an upwelling phenomenon along the French coast: surface waters are pushed offshore, allowing deeper, cooler waters to rise to the surface near the shore. Consequently, water temperatures along the French coast remain very cool even in summer and are not representative of the rest of the Mediterranean. This same kind of phenomenon takes place between the two slopes of the Balkan mountain range.
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 and the Balkan Mediterranean coast.Wolfgang Frey and Rainer Lösch; Lehrbuch der Geobotanik. Pflanze und Vegetation in Raum und Zeit. Spektrum Akademischer Verlag, München 2004
In the Mediterranean coastal areas, olive groves, maquis shrubland, and steppes are very common. At higher elevations, or latitudes, they are replaced by chestnut and (often coppiced) mixed forests.
History Early history
The Phoenicians originally expanded from Canaan ports, 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 legions. 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 that 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 the 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, but they 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