Southern Europe

Southern Europe is a region known as Mediterranean Europe because it is surrounded by the Mediterranean Sea. It includes three main peninsulas: the Iberian Peninsula, the Italian Peninsula, and the Balkan Peninsula. These peninsulas are separated from the rest of Europe by tall mountain ranges like the Pyrenees, the Alps, and the Balkan Mountains.

The geographical and ethno-cultural borders of southern Europe are the Pyrenees, the Alps, and the Balkan Mountains to the north and the Mediterranean Sea to the south.

Because of its special location and mountains, Southern Europe has a different climate from the rest of the continent, mostly a warm subtropical Mediterranean climate. The mountains also made it harder for people to move and share cultures, so the area developed its own unique traditions.

The history of Southern Europe is very rich. Ancient groups like the Phoenicians created trade routes along the coasts. Later, Ancient Greece and Rome helped shape what we call European civilization today. Even though the area faced many changes over time, it still played an important role in world history, especially during the Age of Discovery when it connected more closely with places like Latin America.

Geography

Further information: Iberian Peninsula, Italian geographic region, and Southeast Europe

Southern Europe is the warm and sunny part of the European continent. It is shaped by the Mediterranean Sea, which gives the area its nice climate and special plants. It also touches the Atlantic Ocean on the west and the Black Sea on the east.

The area can be split into three main parts:

The west, which includes the Iberian Peninsula with countries like Portugal and Spain.
The middle, which includes the Italian Peninsula with countries like Italy and small places such as Malta.
The east, which includes the Balkans with countries like Greece and Albania.

Some places like Cyprus are often thought of as part of Southern Europe even though they are not exactly in the same area.

Climate

Southern Europe has a special kind of weather called the Mediterranean climate. This climate is shaped by a large area of high pressure in the Atlantic Ocean, known as the Azores High. You can find this climate in Portugal, Spain, Italy, the southern coast of France, and parts of Croatia, Slovenia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Montenegro, Albania, and Greece, including the islands in the Mediterranean Sea. These places share similar plants and landscapes, like dry hills, small flat areas, pine forests, and olive trees.

European climate. Note the high diversity of Köppen-Geiger climates in the southern regions.

Some areas in southern Europe have cooler weather, especially in the mountains of Spain and Italy. The north coast of Spain has a wetter climate influenced by the Atlantic Ocean. In the very high parts of the Alps, which border southern Europe, there can even be ice and snow year-round.

A few parts of southern Europe, like around the Adriatic Sea near cities such as Venice and Trieste, have a different kind of warm and wet weather, especially in the summer. This is different from the usual dry summers of the Mediterranean climate.

The tall mountains of the Alps and the Pyrenees help control the weather. For example, a hot wind called the Sirocco starts in the Sahara and moves over Italy but stops near the Alps. These mountains also protect places like Italy and Spain from cold winds and rain coming from southern France, such as the Mistral and the Tramontane. When these winds blow, they can cause cooler water to come up near the shore, keeping the water temperature along the French coast quite cool even in the summer. Similar things happen in the mountains of the Balkan region.

Flora

Southern Europe is home to many different plants, especially in areas with a warm climate near the sea. You can find forests, woodlands, and scrubland, along with olive trees, shrubs, and open grassy areas called steppes. In higher places, you’ll see chestnut trees and mixed forests.

Some special plants and places include beech forests in Italy’s Aurunci Mountains, sweet chestnuts in Spain’s Sierra Real, stone pines in Spain’s Doñana National Park, oak savannas in Portugal’s Alentejo, Aleppo pine forests in Croatia, and temperate pine forests on Monte Cimone in Italy.

History

Early history

Roman Empire. In yellow the south-west of Europe, and in violet the south-east.

The Phoenicians started from Canaan ports, becoming important traders in the Mediterranean by the 8th century BC. Carthage was founded in 814 BC, and the Carthaginians built strong places in Sicily and Sardinia by 700 BC. Their reach grew to Cádiz in Spain and even to the Atlantic Ocean. Their culture spread widely across the Mediterranean from 1500 BC to 300 BC.

The time called classical antiquity started with the rise of city-states in Ancient Greece. Greek influence grew most under Alexander the Great, spreading far into Asia. The Roman Empire later ruled all around the Mediterranean. It helped trade, acceptance of different groups, and Greek ways of thinking grow. By 300 AD, the Roman Empire split into a Western part based in Rome and an Eastern Roman Empire based in Constantinople. Attacks by the Goths caused the fall of the Western Roman Empire in 476 AD, marking the end of the classical time and the start of the Middle Ages. During this time, the Eastern Roman Empire lasted, though historians now call it the Byzantine Empire. In Western Europe, Germanic peoples took over and made their own kingdoms and empires.

The Crusades, trips to bring the Levant back under Christian rule, began. Though the Crusader states they made did not last long, the Crusaders changed Europe greatly. Their sack of Constantinople in 1204 ended the Byzantine Empire for a time. The Crusaders also helped create trade routes that grew into the Silk Road, helping Genoa and Venice become rich and powerful. The Reconquista aimed to take Iberia back for Christendom. The late Middle Ages were full of trouble in Europe. The Black Death and hunger caused many people to die. Fights over rulers and lands kept many lands at war. In the Balkans, the Ottoman Empire took more lands, ending with the fall of Constantinople in 1453.

Post-Middle Ages

Eastern Roman Empire mainly focused on southern Europe.

19th to 21st century

The hilly land and broken coasts made it hard for Southern Europe to grow factories. In the 1800s, places like Spain, Portugal, Italy, and Greece stayed mostly farming, with factories only in a few places like northern Italy and Catalonia. Unstable rule in the Iberian Peninsula and the Balkans, along with the effect of organized crime in Italy, made it hard for these places to grow well through much of the 1900s.

When World War I began in 1914, it was started by growing pride in rule among lands in Southeastern Europe, as big powers chose sides. The Allies beat the Central Powers in 1918. After the war, leaders from the main powers decided the new rules at the Paris Peace Conference, especially in the Treaty of Versailles. The Nazi leaders under Adolf Hitler came to power in 1933, and together with Mussolini's Italy tried to take control of the land in the Second World War. After the Allies won that war, Europe was split by the Iron Curtain. Lands in Eastern and Southeastern Europe came under the control of the Soviet Union and became communist states. The main southern European lands that were not communist joined together in a US-led group called NATO and formed the European Economic Community. Lands under Soviet control joined a military group called the Warsaw Pact and an economic group called Comecon. Yugoslavia stayed neutral. All these eastern lands had tried socialism, but by the early 1990s, each faced its own big problems. Some needed to become independent countries, while others dealt with being very poor and having strict rulers. As these lands changed to democracies and market-based economies, they faced issues like high prices, not enough jobs, slow growth, and lots of debt. By 2000, these economies got better, and between 2004 and 2013, many joined the European Union, with Slovenia using the euro.

Italy grew strong in factories again after the war because of its post-war economic miracle. The European Union shared powers; each country kept control of taxes, health, and schools, while the EU handled rules for trade, competition, laws, and the environment. The Soviet system fell apart, ending communism in its satellite lands in 1989 and the Soviet Union itself in 1991. The European Union later grew to include many of these former communist lands — Romania and Bulgaria in 2007 and Croatia in 2013.

The Gotthard, a main path for travel between northern and Southern Europe, was finished in 2016 with the Gotthard Base Tunnel. This added to a long history of transit across the Alps, which changed the Alps from a wall to a path between the North Sea and the Mediterranean Sea.

Demographics

Southern Europe has many different languages. The most common languages come from Latin, called Romance languages. Italian is spoken in Italy and nearby places, and Spanish is spoken in Spain and a few other spots. Other Romance languages include Portuguese, French, Catalan, Galician, and Mirandese.

There are also Slavic languages spoken in places like Bulgaria, Bosnia, Serbia, Croatia, Slovenia, and North Macedonia. Albanian is spoken in several countries including Albania and parts of Greece. Greek is mainly spoken in Greece and Cyprus. English is used as a second language in some areas, and is an official language in Gibraltar and Malta alongside other languages. Other languages in southern Europe include Maltese, Basque, Turkish, and German.

Most people in southern Europe follow Christianity. In western areas like Portugal, Spain, and Italy, people are usually Roman Catholic. In eastern areas like Greece and Serbia, people are often Eastern Orthodox. Islam is common in places such as Albania, Bosnia, Kosovo, and Turkey. There are also Muslim communities in countries like Greece, Italy, and Spain. Judaism was also practiced in Europe during ancient times.

Main article: Languages of Europe