Europe: position, nature, population and economy

Europe is the western part of the Eurasian mainland, with an area of about 10 million km² (including European Russia) and about 745 million people, 9–10 % of humanity. It is washed by the Arctic Ocean in the north, the Atlantic in the west, and the Mediterranean and Black Seas in the south; the Strait of Gibraltar separates it from Africa. The border with Asia is usually drawn along the Ural Mountains, the Ural River, the Caspian Sea, the Caucasus range (or the Kuma–Manych Depression), the Black Sea and the Bosphorus and Dardanelles; the line is conventional and differs by source. The political map changed in the 20th century through the two world wars and, in the 1990s, the break-up of the USSR and Yugoslavia; depending on how one counts, Europe has about 44–50 states. It is a continent of small states: the Vatican, Monaco, San Marino, Liechtenstein, Andorra and Malta are “micro” states; the biggest is Russia. Island states: the United Kingdom, Ireland, Iceland, Malta; peninsular states: Norway, Sweden, Denmark, Spain, Portugal, Italy, Greece and others; about fifteen are landlocked (Austria, Czechia, Hungary, Belarus, Switzerland, Slovakia and others). Most states are republics (many parliamentary); 12 are monarchies, of which the Vatican is an absolute theocracy and the rest constitutional monarchies (United Kingdom, Spain, Netherlands, Belgium, the Scandinavian states and others). Federations: Germany, Austria, Switzerland, Belgium, Russia and Bosnia and Herzegovina. The continent is divided into four subregions: Northern, Western, Southern and Eastern Europe.