CAN EUROPE EVER BE PROPERLY DEFINED?

University Degree Historical and Philosophical studies

Diana Sokołowska LP29

POLI 107

CAN EUROPE EVER BE PROPERLY DEFINED?

This essay will examine the problem of the boarders of contemporary Europe. It will try to answer the question if they at all exist, and if yes, how exactly they go. It will also analyze the history of the terms “Europe” and “European” in order to notice the development of the range of ‘the Old Continent’. However, geography will not be the only factor considered as influential on a definition of the “Europe” term. This essay will also cover the issues of a cultural characteristic of the region, including the very important religion problem. It will study the influence of the unification of European states in the EU on the changes in a perception of the Europe entirely as well as if political differences may be the factor which decides if a state is European or not.

According to John McCormick (2005, p.29), the term “European” was first probably used by Greeks in the fifth century BC to describe ‘barbarians’ from the north, whom they fight with. On the maps, which Greeks drew up, there were three continents: Europe, Asia and Africa. However, the border between Europe and Asia went along the River Don and the Sea of Azov (Delanty cited in McCormic, 2005, p.29). Later on, at the turn of the fifth and fourth century BC on the map appeared a new powerful state-The Roman Empire. Despite the fact its range encompassed not only terrains of the nowadays-European countries, but also the North Africa and Middle East, it was still called a European empire. The nowadays Europe is considered to be born in the Early Middle Ages having Christianity as its base, Rome as a capital and Latin as an official language. Probably that was the time, when the states first felt the need to unify in order to be an equivalent power for Islamic Asia, which led an expansionist policy.

The Arabic army was stopped only in the year 732 by the forces under the Mantel’s command in the southern France. His army was described as “European”, however this term still wasn’t very popular until the year 800, when the then Holy Roman Emperor, Charlemagne, was described in poems as the king and father of Europe (McCormick, 2005, p.30). His state reached the terrains of nowadays Austria, Switzerland, France, the Benelux countries and southern Germany. However, after his death in 814, the empire was divided between his sons. In the eleventh century the European states felt their power. They unified their forces in order to invade the non-Christian neighbours, enlighten and convert them. That caused further development of European culture and a bigger range of influence of the states considered as European. Yet Asia wasn’t the only place being influenced increasingly by ‘the Old Continent’ states. From the middle 1400 Europeans started their colonization on the lands separated from them by water. Christianity and European culture reached almost all continents. Moreover, in the fifteenth century the term “Europe” became equivalent to the Christendom (McCormick, 2005, p.30), as it was the biggest cluster of Jesus’ believers and had a Pope’s base in its ‘borders’.

The most famous Internet encyclopedia defines Europe as “the westernmost part of ; it is conventionally considered a . It is bounded to the north by the , to the west by the , to the south by the , and to the east its boundary is less clear. However, the are considered by most authorities to be a geographical and tectonic landmark separating Europe and Asia.” (). This is evidence that the most popular meaning of this term is still connected with the geographical subject matter. Trying to define the east border of Europe in more detail, it should ...

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The most famous Internet encyclopedia defines Europe as “the westernmost part of ; it is conventionally considered a . It is bounded to the north by the , to the west by the , to the south by the , and to the east its boundary is less clear. However, the are considered by most authorities to be a geographical and tectonic landmark separating Europe and Asia.” (). This is evidence that the most popular meaning of this term is still connected with the geographical subject matter. Trying to define the east border of Europe in more detail, it should be said that it is continued across the Caspian Sea and than along the Caucasus Mountains. This line was first defined by a Russian cartographer, Tatischev, in order to enable Russia to be considered as well a European and as Asian power (McCormick, 2005, p. 37). The main advantage of the geographical definition of Europe is the fact it is completely clear. “If its borders with Turkey and Russia are taken as its eastern limits, then Europe today consists of 38 countries: the 25 members of the EU, three other western European states (Iceland, Norway and Switzerland), and ten eastern European states.” (McCormick, 2005, p.39).

However, the problem begins, when the other factors than just geographical are considered. Europe is often called ‘the Old Continent’, which is caused by the quickest development of a European culture among all ancient civilizations. Agnes Heller describes a European culture as modernity. “And as ‘modernity’ she means concepts of relentless cumulative progress in knowledge, technology and wealth, and a politics based on the nation-state with ideals of freedom and equality” (Wintle, 1996, p.11). It means that the main factor characterizing Europe right now is its technological development and a political base, which aims to even out all people chances for development and the decent living standards. As a main feature of a European civilization, she gives a freedom.

James Joll (cited in Wintle, 1996, p. 13) enumerates four main factors, which influenced what is today called ‘European civilization’. The first one is the Roman Empire, so mainly the beginning of the history of the continent. It was an ancient Roman and Greek culture, which displaced the cultures of the conquered countries giving a base for development of the common standards in art, science, philosophy, et cetera. It was Europe, which started a territorial expansion in Africa or both Americas increasing the range of its influences this way. The term “Europe” in this context is understood as the countries, which, in the fifteenth century, were biggest powers both economically and scientifically. The second factor is an epoch of the Enlightment, which was the time of changes in the way of thinking among the Europeans. “‘Europe’ in the Enlightment sense meant more than Christianity; it embraced a certainty of the superiority of the ‘civilization’ of Europe as a platform on which to build the future.” (Wintle, 1996, p.14). The third factor mentioned by Joll is industrialization. It influenced on a development of technology and military putting Europe in “a world-dominating position.” (Wintle, 1996, p.15)

The fact is that the base of European culture and its values system is Christianity, the fourth of Joll’s factors. Palestine was under the Roman Empire rule when Jesus Christ was born, lived and died there. On the terrains of the countries culturally influenced by Rome acted the Apostles finding more and more people believing in a divinity of Christ and His role in the salvation. It was Rome, where first pesters of Christians took place and where later on Pope placed his base. However, in Rome the conflict between Christians and pagans grew, threatening to rend the city in two. The then Emperor, Constantine, in 325 AD decided to standardize the religion of the Empire. He chose Christianity. From that moment in the history, Europe became ‘a Christian power’ treating its religion not only as a reason to be proud but also as a good excuse to attack its non-Christian neighbours and occupy countries inhabited by the ‘pagan barbarians’.

Unfortunately, that what at the beginning unified the states of Europe, after some time became a reason of its brake-up. The Great Schism in 1034 AD religiously divided the Old Continent into two. The main, west part remained catholic with Rome as its capital and the Pope as a Head of a Church, whereas the east became Orthodox, rejecting the power of the Pope and choosing Constantinople for its capital. However, Europe as a whole still was a mainly Christian continent. The problem increased, when in 1453 AD the main city of the Orthodox Church was captured by Islamic Turks, who wanted to become a superpower and subordinate other parts of Europe to the Islamic religion. Their mission was failed, when they were stopped in a battle of Vienna in 1683 AD. Meanwhile Christian Europe was still dividing. In 1517 AD, Martin Luther displayed his thesis on the Cathedral door and it caused a discussion about changes in a catholic church, which finally led to the birth of the Protestant religions. In the later history of some European countries, a coexistence of the different Christian religions was a cause of the very bloody conflicts and fights for a power.

In the context of the cultural and religious definition of Europe occurs a problem of the few countries, which geographically are the part of the continent, but whose culture differ from ‘the European’ one in a significant way. To start with, it should be considered the case of Russia. “Russians have seen themselves as European, (…) but Russia today sees its political and economic interests as being significantly different from those of Europe. The most obvious problem with defining Russia as European is the three-quarters of its land area is east of the Urals, and more than forty ethnic minorities live in Russia, most of whom are unquestionably non-European.” (McCormick, 2005, p.37). The other aspect of Russian culture, which differentiates it from the most of European states, is its Orthodox religion and a fact, that Russians consider it as one of the most important points of their identity. Significant is also the history of Russia. As the Soviet Union, it was the biggest socialist power in the world ever. After the events taking place at the turn of eighth and ninth decade of the 20th century which led to a break-up of the USSR, Russia remained one of a very few countries, which are not fully democratic yet.

The next problematic region is Balkans, lying between Europe and Asia “being a geographical part of the former, but historically drawn towards the latter.” (McCormick, 2005, p. 38). This part of the world even not so long a time ago was called by Europeans as the Near East. Its location makes it as a place influenced both by the west and connected with it Christianity (Catholicism, Protestantism, Orthodox Church) and the east and connected with it Islam. Here was the border between western and eastern Roman Empires, as well as between Ottoman and Habsburg empires. (McCormick, 2005, p.38). For the sake of its history and the permanent divisions and occupations, the inhabitants of Balkans learnt to live in a multi-cultural society as well as they learnt to derive the best from every single culture which influenced them during the centuries. However, their indecisiveness causes the problems with identifying them as European or Asian.

Finally, the problem of Turkey occurs. From the geographical point of view, 4% of its lands are European, as the border between Asia and Europe goes through the Bosphorus. Yet, Turkey is mostly Islamic country and its culture was influenced much more by the eastern civilizations rather than the European. Also historically Turkey was always in a strong opposition to the European states, trying to conquer them and impose their own culture and religion. Moreover, Turkey still has problems with adapting to European standards in, for example, human rights.

One more possibility to analyze the problem of defining Europe is to try to do it through the prism of the European Union. Europe started to unify after the Second World War. However, it was unifying in two independent currents. On the east, the Soviet Union subordinated countries tempting them by a vision of paradise, in which everyone is equal, has the same and doesn’t have to worry about anything. Meanwhile on the west they were developing independent democracies with the idea of capitalism and free market. A few years after the war, six states of Western Europe decided to tighten their cooperation, simultaneously adapting their standards to each other requirements. This is how ‘the Europe in Europe’ raised. Since then, the organization changed its name few times, as well as admitted 19 new members. Especially significant was the last enlargement, which to a large degree, united the west and east of Europe, finally putting an end on separating these regions. In December 2004 the European Union started negotiations with Turkey tentatively moving the border of Europe from this point of view.

Europe as ‘the Old Continent’ was influenced by many factors: geographical, historical, cultural, religion, economical and political. Every of them has in some way defined Europe from its point of view. The most clear is a geographical definition as it is the only one, which gives the exact borders of Europe. However, it is based on the idea of Russian cartographer, which has no reasonable justification. The history of Europe is mainly the history of conflicts, wars, attempts of taking over the power and fighting about the range of influences. Yet, this history is what connects all European states. “Have a common historical experience, which provides it with a common legal, political and cultural heritage. These shared experiences, (…) all this is based on the ‘common cultural heritage’ of a ‘unique cultural area’.” (Wintle, 1996, p. 24). This range of factors cannot be described in any way, especially, that, as Duroselle adds, “there is no single European civilization or culture, but there are shared experiences” (Duroselle cited in Wintle, 1996, p.13) influenced by cultures of individual countries. Trying to define Europe according to its religion may be another failure. As Christianity is still the major religion of the Old Continent and was one of the most important factors influencing its development, Europe is not the only place on the world where Christians live. Moreover, because of globalization more and more non-Christians live in European states nowadays. Finally, watching the changes that occur in the European Union, this way of trying to determine the borders of Europe turns out to not be a good one. This means, that none of the factors influencing the continent, may be considered as only and irrefutable, both single and all together.

BIBLIOGRAPHY

Almond G. A., Dalton R. J., Powell G. B. Jr., 1998, European Politics Today, Longman
Bruter M, 2005, Citizens of Europe?, Palgrave Macmillan
Eder K., Giesen B., 2001, European Citizenship between national legacies and postnational projects, Oxford University Press
McCormick J., 2005, Understanding the European Union, Palgrave Macmillan
Sakwa R., Stevens A. (eds.), 2000, Contemporary Europe, Palgrave Macmillan
Wintle M. et al., 1996, Culture and Identity in Europe, Avebury
1997, Voices of Europe 1949-96, Council of Europe Publishing

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8/11/05