Ten fun facts about Europe

Fact 1
The Gulf Stream is known as “Europe's central heating”, because it makes the continent’s climate warmer and wetter than it would otherwise be.

Fact 2
Between the 16th and 20th centuries, European countries controlled at various times the Americas, most of Africa, Oceania, and many portions of Asia.

Fact 3
The geology of Europe is hugely complex and varied, and gives rise to the wide variety of landscapes found across Europe, from the Scottish Highlands to the rolling plains of Hungary.

Fact 4
Europe, particularly Ancient Greece, is the birthplace of Western culture.

Fact 5
Europe is the second-smallest continent by surface area, only covering about 10,180,000 square kilometers (or 3,930,000 square miles). This is just two percent of the Earth’s surface and only 6.8 percent of its land area.

Fact 6
As a continent, the economy of Europe is currently the largest on Earth.

Fact 7
During the Cold War, Europe was divided along the Iron Curtain between NATO in the west and the Warsaw Pact in the east.

Fact 8
Europe mainly lies in the temperate climate zones, being subjected to prevailing westerlies.

Fact 9
The Industrial Revolution, which started in Great Britain around the end of the 18th century, gave rise to rapid economic, cultural, and social change in Western Europe, and eventually the wider world.

Fact 10
Both World Wars I and II were largely focused upon Europe, greatly resulting in a decline in Western European dominance in world affairs by the mid-20th century as the United States and Soviet Union took prominence.

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Asia

is the world's largest and most populous continent, located primarily in the eastern and northern hemispheres.

North America

is a continent wholly within the Northern Hemisphere and almost wholly within the Western Hemisphere.

Belgium

Is a federal state in Western Europe.

Romania

Is located in the Southeastern part of Europe, bordered by Ukraine in the North, Moldovo on the east, Black Sea in the South east, Bulgaria in the south, Yugoslavia in the southwest and Hungary in the West.