Name three countries in Europe.

I will be able to identify the 5 themes of geography for Europe and locate the countries and capitals of Europe and the major physical features.

People:

Past: Through the centuries, people moved throughout Europe as Empires spread and different opportunities opened up through the continent. Others moved because of war, trade, or cultural reasons. European countries also began to colonize the New World and began moving in large numbers from Europe to the Americas.

Present: People still move because of war, economic opportunities, or their culture like the Romani peoples of Europe which are present day nomads. Others choose to move through tourism or to find a change in scenery. As the European Union formed, the ability to move from country to country became easier.

Goods:

Past: With the expansion of the Roman Empire,

the Holy Roman Empire, and the Renaissance,

goods spread throughout Europe and into other

parts of the world through both land and sea routes.

Present: Europe has extensive trade within it’s own borders with a common currency between countries of the European Union. Europe also exports many goods such as Italian fashion and German automobiles.

Ideas:

Language: Europe has more than 24 languages that are categorized as Indo-European or Non-Indo-European. Indo-European is divided further into Romance (Spanish, French, Italian, etc.), Germanic (German, Dutch, etc.), and Slavic (Czech, Russian, etc.)

Religion: Europe celebrates most world religions including Islam, Judaism, and many Asian religions. The majority of people in Europe, however, identify as Christian at 72% of the population.

Culture: Europe is rich in culture and has spread it through trade, colonization, and the modern technology age. Food, television, and music frequently makes it’s way around the world.

In the past, Europe was divided

primarily into East and West.

Now, Europe is divided into 4 regions:

Eastern Europe

Northern Europe

Southern Europe

Western Europe

There are also physical regions, such as

the Mediterranean, Alps, and Arctic.

Europeans have interacted with their environment in both positive and negative ways for thousands of years. They have created new growing fields with their crops, cut down and regrown forests, created elaborate road systems throughout, and built a large number of bridges and dams.

Some of the more spectacular interactions include the Dutch turning the Zuider Zee from a section of the North Sea into a fresh water lake and the building and constant maintenance of the city of Venice which used advanced building techniques.

Not all of the interaction is positive, though, as pollution has been a rising problem. There have also been many natural disasters such as flooding or the “year without a winter” as two volcanoes erupted in Europe so close together, that they affected the weather world wide and made it snow in June!

Absolute Location: Europe sits

between 31°W and 69°E Longitude,

81°N and 34°N Latitude.

Relative Location: North of Africa, West of Europe, East of the Americas; bordered by the Arctic Ocean, Atlantic Ocean, and Mediterranean Sea; in the North Hemisphere and (mostly) the Eastern Hemisphere.

Europe is home to many distinct places, some manmade, others natural.

Manmade features include: The Colosseum in Rome, the Eiffel Tower in Paris, and the Tower of London in England.

Physical Features include Mount Vesuvius in Italy, the Black Forest in Germany, and the Alps mountain range.

It is now time to label our maps!

You will need to label (not color) two maps of Europe. One will be a political map and the other a physical map.

On your political map, you will need to label the names of the COUNTRIES and their CAPITALS

*The red dots are where the capitals are.

This information is on pages A20 and A21

On your Physical map you will need to label the rivers and mountain ranges.

*Ignore the cities!

This information can be found on pages A18 and A19.