Continental Europe

{{Short description|Mainland Europe, excluding European islands}} {{For|the whole of the European continent|Europe}} {{Redirect|The Continent|other uses|Continent (disambiguation)}} {{See also|Pan-European corridors|Trans-European Transport Network|International E-road network|United Nations Economic Commission for Europe}} {{Use dmy dates|date=September 2023}}

thumb|right|The extent of continental Europe '''Continental Europe''' or '''mainland Europe''' is the contiguous mainland of Europe, excluding its surrounding islands.<ref>{{Cite encyclopedia |url=http://www.merriam-webster.com-archive-datasets.eu/dictionary/europe |dictionary=Merriam Webster Dictionary |title=Europe |access-date=5 May 2019 |archive-url=https://archive.today/20140422145420/http://www.merriam-webster.com-archive-datasets.eu/dictionary/europe |archive-date=April 22, 2014 |url-status=dead }}</ref> It can also be referred to ambiguously as the '''European continent''',<ref name="ae00">{{cite book |last1=Rosensteil |first1=Francis |title=Annuaire Europeen 2000 / European Yearbook 2000 |date=2001 |publisher=Martinus Nijhoff Publishers |page=69 |isbn=9041118446 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=sFo33dJcyxcC&pg=RA7-PA69-IA1}}</ref><ref name="euroterre">{{cite book |last1=Robert |first1=Jacques |title=The European Territory: From Historical Roots to Global Challenges |date=2014 |publisher=Routledge |page=183 |isbn=9781317695059 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=l2uLAwAAQBAJ&pg=PA181}}</ref> – which can conversely mean the whole of Europe – and, by some, simply as '''the Continent'''.<ref>{{cite web |url=https://dictionary.cambridge.org/dictionary/english/continent |title=the Continent |author=<!--Not stated--> |date= |website=Cambridge Dictionary |publisher=Cambridge University Press |access-date=14 November 2023 |quote=}}</ref> When Eurasia is regarded as a single continent, Europe is treated both as a continent and subcontinent.<ref name="Baldwin">{{citation |last=Baldwin |first=James A. |chapter=Continents |editor=R.W. McColl |title=Encyclopedia of World Geography |chapter-url=https://books.google.com/books?id=DJgnebGbAB8C&pg=PA214 |year=2014 |publisher=Infobase |isbn=978-0-8160-7229-3 |pages=214–216}}</ref>

==Conceptual history== The continental territory of the historical Carolingian Empire was one of the many old cultural concepts used for mainland Europe.<ref name="Heacock 2013">{{Cite web|last=Heacock|first=Roger|date=2013-12-13|title=Europe and Jerusalem:From Unholy Cacophony to Holy Alliance|url=https://www.palestine-studies.org/sites/default/files/jq-articles/JQ_55_Europe_and_Jerusalem_0.pdf|url-status=live|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210115195816/https://www.palestine-studies.org/sites/default/files/jq-articles/JQ_55_Europe_and_Jerusalem_0.pdf |archive-date=January 15, 2021 |access-date=February 11, 2021|website=Institute for Palestine Studies}}</ref> This was consciously invoked in the 1950s as one of the bases for the prospective European integration (see also multi-speed Europe)<ref name="Kaiser 2003 p. 67–69">{{cite book |last=Kaiser |first=Wolfram |author-link=Wolfram Kaiser |chapter=Trigger-happy Protestant Materialists? The European Christian Democrats and the United States |chapter-url={{GBurl|id=Yltz0aCPaM4C|pg=PA67}} |editor-last=Trachtenberg |editor-first=Marc |editor-link=Marc Trachtenberg |title=Between empire and alliance : America and Europe during the Cold War |publisher=Rowman & Littlefield Publishers |publication-place=Lanham, Md. |year=2003 |isbn=978-0-585-45510-5 |oclc=52451911 |pages=67–69 |ref=none}}</ref><ref name="Hyde-Price 2000 p. 128">{{cite book |last=Hyde-Price |first=Adrian G. V. |chapter="Epochenwend:" unification and German grand strategy |chapter-url=https://archive.org/details/germanyeuropeano0000hyde/page/102/mode/2up |chapter-url-access=registration |url=https://archive.org/details/germanyeuropeano0000hyde |url-access=registration |title=Germany and European order : enlarging NATO and the EU |publisher=Manchester University Press : Distributed exclusively in the USA by St. Martin's Press |publication-place=Manchester, UK, New York |year=2000 |isbn=978-0-7190-5427-3 |oclc=44851822 |page=[https://archive.org/details/germanyeuropeano0000hyde/page/128/mode/2up 128] |via=Internet Archive}}</ref>

The most common definition of mainland Europe excludes these continental islands: the Greek islands, Cyprus<ref>Geographically, Cyprus belongs to Southwest Asia (more specifically, the Near East), but politically and culturally it is considered part of Europe.</ref>, Malta, Sicily, Sardinia, Corsica, the Balearic Islands, Great Britain and Ireland and surrounding islands, Novaya Zemlya and the Nordic archipelago, as well as nearby oceanic islands, including the Canary Islands, Madeira, the Azores, Iceland, the Faroe Islands, and Svalbard.<ref name="Misachi 2019">{{cite web |last=Misachi |first=John |title=What Is Continental Europe? |website=WorldAtlas |date=2019-05-07 |url=https://www.worldatlas.com/articles/what-is-continental-europe.html |access-date=2022-05-11}}</ref>

The Scandinavian Peninsula is sometimes also excluded even though it is a part of "mainland Europe", as the ''de facto'' connections to the rest of the continent were historically across the Baltic Sea or North Sea (rather than via the lengthy land route that involves travelling to the north of the peninsula where it meets Finland, and then south through northeast Europe).<ref name="Misachi 2019"/>

[[File:Europe As A Queen Sebastian Munster 1570.jpg|thumb|''Europa Regina'' map (Sebastian Munster, 1570), excluding the greater part of Fennoscandia, but including Great Britain and Ireland, ''Bulgaria, Scythia, Moscovia'' and ''Tartaria''; Sicily is clasped by Europe in the form of a ''globus cruciger''.]]

==Great Britain and Ireland== Great Britain, off the western coast of the continental landmass, is the largest island of Europe by both area and population. It is geographically close, with the Strait of Dover being {{convert|21|mi|km}} at its narrowest.<ref>{{Cite news |date=2019-08-27 |title=English Channel: The history of swimming the Channel |url=https://www.bbc.com/newsround/49483420 |access-date=2025-08-24 |work=BBC Newsround |language=en-GB}}</ref> In both Great Britain and Ireland (which together consist of the states of the United Kingdom and the Republic of Ireland), ''the Continent'' is generally used to refer to the mainland of Europe.<ref>{{Cite news |date=2011-02-14 |title=The moment Britain became an island |url=https://www.bbc.com/news/magazine-12244964 |access-date=2025-08-24 |work=BBC News |language=en-GB}}</ref> An amusing British newspaper headline supposedly once read, "Fog in Channel; Continent Cut Off".<ref>{{Cite news |url=http://edition.cnn.com/2005/WORLD/europe/04/19/oakley.blog.dayten/index.html |title=Europe no star as election issue |publisher=CNN |first=Robin |last=Oakley |date=April 19, 2005 | access-date=April 30, 2010}}</ref> It has also been claimed that this was a regular weather forecast in Britain in the 1930s.<ref>{{cite book|title=Fog in Channel?: Exploring Britain's Relationship with Europe|editor1-first=Tom|editor1-last=Sykes|editor2-first=Simon|editor2-last=Sykes|date=September 2, 2009|publisher=Shoehorn Publishing|id= {{ASIN|1907149066|country=uk}}}}</ref> In addition, the sole word ''Europe'' itself is also regularly used to mean anywhere on continental Europe.<ref>{{Cite web |title=What is Europe? |url=https://www.open.edu/openlearn/society-politics-law/geography/what-europe/content-section-1.2.2 |access-date=2024-10-03 |website=Open Learning |language=en}}</ref>

Derivatively, the adjective ''continental'' refers to the social practices or fashion of continental Europe, or at least specific parts of it. Examples include breakfast, topless sunbathing and, historically, long-range driving (before Britain had motorways) often known as ''Grand Touring''.{{citation needed|date = April 2012}} Remaining differences as seen in electrical plugs, the use of left-hand traffic, and for the United Kingdom, the continued use of certain imperial units alongside the metric units (which have long since displaced customary units in continental Europe) have reinforced the idea.<ref>{{cite news |url=https://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/6988521.stm |title=EU gives up on 'metric Britain' |work=BBC News |access-date=4 May 2015 |date=11 September 2007}}</ref><ref>{{cite news|title=Will British people ever think in metric?|url=https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/magazine-16245391|publisher=BBC|access-date=4 May 2015|date=21 December 2011|first1=Jon|last1=Kelly}}</ref>

In 1994, Britain became physically connected to continental Europe for the first time (since becoming an island 8000 years ago) through the opening of the undersea Channel Tunnel. The tunnel accommodates passenger traffic between the island and northern France while maintaining border controls on each side.<ref>{{Cite news |last1=Nelsson |first1=Richard |last2=Nelsson |first2=compiled by Richard |date=2019-05-01 |title=No longer an island: when the Channel Tunnel opened – May 1994 |url=https://www.theguardian.com/travel/from-the-archive-blog/2019/may/01/channel-tunnel-opens-eurostar-may-1994 |access-date=2025-08-24 |work=The Guardian |language=en-GB |issn=0261-3077}}</ref><ref>{{Cite news |date=2010-12-01 |title=Party marks tunnel breakthrough |url=https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-11893718 |access-date=2025-08-25 |work=BBC News |language=en-GB}}</ref>

==Scandinavia== [[File:Cosmographia Claudii Ptolomaei ante 1467 (7456016) Scandinavia.jpg|thumb|The Scandiae islands by Nicolaus Germanus for a 1467 publication of ''Cosmographia Claudii Ptolomaei Alexandrini'']]

The Scandinavian Peninsula is attached to continental Europe, however the land route runs along the 66th parallel north, in the north of the peninsula. The ''de facto'' connections to the rest of the continent were historically across the Baltic Sea or North Sea, thus making Scandinavia functionally an "island" and is why the region is often excluded from continental Europe,<ref name="Misachi 2019" /> including by the European Union which make a distinction between Scandinavia and Mainland Europe.<ref>{{Cite web |title=Fehmarn belt railway axis |url=https://ec.europa.eu/ten/transport/priority_projects_minisite/PP20EN.pdf |publisher=Trans-European Transport Network |quote=}}</ref> In traditional Germanic studies, ''continental'' refers to the European continent excluding the Scandinavian Peninsula (as well as Britain, Ireland, and Iceland). In Denmark (not on the peninsula), Jutland is referred to as the national mainland and thereby a part of continental Europe.

People in Scandinavia have viewed the region as distinct and a separate entity to continental Europe, similar as in Britain. The term {{lang|sw|Kontinenten}} in Swedish or {{lang|no|Kontinentet}} in Norwegian ("the Continent") is a vernacular expression that refers to continental Europe but with the exclusion of Sweden, Norway, and Finland (although Denmark is included, despite the Danish Archipelago technically not a part of continental Europe). Another Swedish expression is {{Lang|sw|nere på kontinenten}}, meaning "down on the continent".<ref>{{Cite web |last=Johansson |first=Anders |date=2010-08-08 |title=Avspark nere på kontinenten |url=https://www.gp.se/avspark-nere-pa-kontinenten.7d0d8513-960a-44f2-8b96-604ef2eae034 |access-date=2025-08-24 |website=Göteborgs-Posten |language=sv}}</ref> Some other differences in social culture and climate have further reinforced this idea of it being separate.<ref>{{Cite web |date=2006-11-08 |title=How to drink: Nordic or Med style? |url=https://www.politico.eu/article/how-to-drink-nordic-or-med-style/ |access-date=2025-08-24 |website=POLITICO |language=en-GB}}</ref>

The opening of the Great Belt Bridge and Øresund Bridge, in 1998 and 2000, have for the first time provided a direct physical connection from the Scandinavian Peninsula to the Danish mainland (the Jutland Peninsula), and thus the European mainland. This also included the other Danish islands (Zealand and Funen), as was noted in the ''New York Times'' headline: "Copenhagen is linked to the Continent".<ref>{{Cite news |date=1997-06-08 |title=Copenhagen Is Linked To the Continent (Published 1997) |url=https://www.nytimes.com/1997/06/08/travel/copenhagen-is-linked-to-the-continent.html |access-date=2025-08-24 |language=en}}</ref><ref>{{Cite news |date=1999-09-05 |title=Link Finally Anchors Sweden to the Rest of Europe (Published 1999) |url=https://www.nytimes.com/1999/09/05/world/link-finally-anchors-sweden-to-the-rest-of-europe.html |access-date=2025-08-24}}</ref>

== Mediterranean and Atlantic islands == The term ''The Continent'' may also be used from the perspective of the island residents of each country to describe the continental portion of their country or the continent (or mainland) as a whole. So for example, "continent" may be used to refer to the continental part of France (excluding Corsica and overseas France), the continental part of Greece (excluding the Aegean Islands, Crete, and the Ionian Islands), the continental part of Italy (excluding Sardinia, Sicily, etc.), the continental part of Portugal (excluding the Azores and Madeira), or the continental part of Spain (excluding the Balearic Islands, the Canary Islands, the plazas de soberanía, etc.).

The part of continental France located in Europe is also known as ''l'Hexagone'', "the Hexagon", referring to its approximate shape on a map. Continental Italy is also known as ''lo Stivale'', "the Boot", referring to its approximate shape on a map. Continental Spain is referred to as peninsular Spain. ==See also== * Contiguous United States * Geographical midpoint of Europe * Hajnal line * Regions of Europe

==References== {{reflist}}

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Category:Regions of Europe Category:Political geography