Where is Europe?
Europe is the western peninsula of the supercontinent of Eurasia. Geographically, its boundaries are usually taken to be the Atlantic and Arctic Oceans in the west and north, the Ural mountains in Russia to the east, the Caspian Sea, Caucasus mountains and Black Sea in the south east and the Mediterranean Sea in the south. It’s a bit arbitrary, though. Russia and Turkey are both divided between Europe and Asia. Armenia and Georgia are generally considered to be culturally European, though some geographers place them in Asia, while neighbouring Azerbaijan is more often thought of as Asian, although its football team takes part in the European qualifi ers. Mind you, so does Kazakhstan, a small part of which is apparently in Europe, and Israel, which isn’t at all, but also gets to participate in that high point of European culture, the Eurovision Song Contest. Depending on who you believe, the centre of Europe is either in Lithuania, Estonia, Poland, Norway, Germany, Slovakia, the Czech Republic, Belarus, Austria or Ukraine. We said it was arbitrary…
What is San Marino doing there?
While Europe’s history is one of invasions and empires, wars and shifting borders, one little enclave in northern Italy has remained oblivious to it all. The Most Serene Republic of San Marino – which has a population of under 30,000 and an area about a fifth of the size of the Isle of Wight – was founded by Marinus, a Christian stonemason fleeing persecution, in AD 301. Somehow, it’s remained independent ever since, making it the oldest republic in the world. San Marino – like fellow microstates Liechtenstein and Andorra – is a throwback to the days when Europe was made up of tiny city states. The Sammarinese have the highest life expectancy in Europe at 73.4 years, and a low crime rate: the last time they executed a criminal was in 1468.
