EUROPE 



2093 



EUROPE 



is strikingly evident from the fact that save 

 for Russia and the very easternmost por- 

 tions of Austria-Hungary, no point in Eu- 

 rope is more than four hundred miles from 

 the sea. Closely as the two continents are 

 connected, however, there has always been a 

 recognized distinction, and dwellers in Asia 

 Minor thousands of years ago gave to the lands 

 across the Aegean the name Ereb, or "land of 

 the setting sun," just as they called their own 

 land Assu, or "land of the rising sun." Grad- 

 ually the former name was corrupted into its 

 present form, and was at the same time ex- 

 tended in its significance to cover the whole 

 western continent. 



Why Europe is Important. Even if Europe 

 is geographically but a pendant of Asia, it has 



awakened from their centuries-long sleep only 

 when the nations of Europe and the American 

 republic, founded by Europeans, knocked at 

 their doors. Practically all of the great books 

 and pictures, the music and the sculpture, as 

 well as the inventions and the so-called "com- 

 forts of life," have been produced by Euro- 

 peans or by their descendants. 



The People. No other continent is as 

 densely populated as Europe. Asia, it is true, 

 has twice as many inhabitants, but it is so 

 much larger that its density percentage is less 

 than half that of Europe. In the latter con- 

 tinent, with its 480,000,000 people, there is an 

 average of over 125 people to the square mile. 

 They are very unevenly distributed, for the 

 barren northern parts of Sweden and Russia, 



GREATEST EXTREMES IN ALTITUDE IN WESTERN EUROPE 



Mont Blanc rears its summit 15,782 feet above sea level ; the low country of Holland Is below sea 

 level, and the Dutch dykes have played an important part in the history of the Netherlands. 



been the world's most important continent, 

 so far as the history of civilization is con- 

 cerned. Not without full reason did Tenny- 

 son exclaim 



Better fifty years of Europe than a cycle of 

 Cathay. 



True, the very earliest civilizations grew up in 

 Asia and Africa, but these waned centuries 

 before the beginning of the Christian Era, 

 while Europe gradually became the home of 

 most of the important nations of the world. 

 Progress has been almost unknown among 

 other than European peoples. There are 

 in the Americas federations which have made 

 wonderful advance, but these were all founded 

 and not a great while ago, as history 

 reckons time by Europeans. The states of 

 Africa which count in the world's affairs are 

 controlled by Europeans, while the two great 

 countries of the East (China and Japan) 



with their long, bitter winters, are almost un- 

 populated, while in portions of the fertile 

 north-central plain the people are crowded 

 together until it seems a marvel that they 

 can find means of supporting themselves. Of 

 all the countries Belgium, with 653 people to 

 the square mile, is the most densely populated, 

 while Sweden, with but thirty-two, has fewest 

 people to each square mile. That is, the least 

 densely populated country of Europe has more 

 inhabitants to the square mile than has the 

 United States as a whole, which has but thirty- 

 one. 



What is a European? There is no such 

 thing as a European in the sense in which 

 there is an African, for instance; in other 

 words, there is no European race. The an- 

 cient Greeks, the earliest civilized inhabitants 

 of the continent, boasted that they sprang 

 from the soil, and that their ancestors had 



