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Ethnic groups in Europe

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The European peoples are the various nations and ethnic groups of Europe. European ethnology is the field of anthropology focusing on Europe.

Pan and Pfeil (2004) count 87 distinct "peoples of Europe", of which 33 form the majority population in at least one sovereign state, while the remaining 54 constitute ethnic minorities. The total number of national minority populations in Europe is estimated at 105 million people, or 14% of 770 million Europeans.

There is no precise or universally accepted definition of the terms "ethnic group" or "nationality". In the context of European ethnography in particular, the terms ethnic group, people (without nation state), nationality, national minority, ethnic minority, linguistic community, linguistic group and linguistic minority are used as mostly synonymous, although preference may vary in usage with respect to the situation specific to the individual countries of Europe.

Overview

There are eight peoples of Europe with more than 30 million members residing in Europe:
  • the Russians (ca. 90 million settling in the European parts of Russia),
  • the Poles (ca. 38 million).

These eight groups between themselves account for some 460 million or about 63% of European population.

About 20-25 million residents (3%) are members of diasporas of non-European origin. The population of the European Union, with some five hundred million residents, accounts for two thirds of the European population.

Both Spain and the UK are special cases, in that the designation of nationality, Spanish and British, may controversially take ethnic aspects, subsuming various regional ethnic groups, see nationalisms and regionalisms of Spain and native populations of the United Kingdom. Switzerland is a similar case, but the linguistic subgroups of the Swiss are not usually discussed in terms of ethnicity, and Switzerland is considered a "multi-national state" rather than a "multi-ethnic state".

Ethno-linguistic classifications

thumb|right|350px|Distribution of major languages of Europe.
Of the total population of Europe of some 730 million (as of 2005), over 80% or some 600 million fall within three large ethno-linguistic super-groups, viz., Slavic, Latin (Romance) and Germanic. The largest groups that do not fall within either of these are the Greeks and the Hungarians (about 12 million each) and the Albanians (about 6 million).

Europe has a population of about 2 million ethnic Jews (mostly also counted as part of the ethnic group of their respective home countries):
  • Karaites (less than 4,000 in Poland and Lithuania).

Depending on what parts of the Caucasus are considered part of Europe, various peoples of the Caucasus may also be considered "European peoples":
  • Azeris: approx. 7 million (i.e. of Russia and Azerbaijan).

By country

Pan and Pfeil (2002) distinguish 33 peoples which form the majority population in at least one sovereign state geographically situated in Europe. These majorities range from nearly homogeneous populations as in Poland or Albania to comparatively slight majorities as in Latvia or Belgium. Bosnia and Herzegovina and Montenegro are multiethnic states in which no group forms a majority.

History

Prehistoric populations

The Basques are assumed to descend from the populations of the Atlantic Bronze Age directly. The Indo-European groups of Europe (the Centum groups plus Balto-Slavic and Albanian) are assumed to have developed in situ by admixture of early Indo-European groups arriving in Europe by the Bronze Age (Corded ware, Beaker people). The Finnic peoples are indigenous to northeastern Europe.
Reconstructed languages of Iron Age Europe include Proto-Celtic, Proto-Italic and Proto-Germanic, all of these Indo-European languages of the centum group, and Proto-Slavic and Proto-Baltic, of the satem group. A group of Tyrrhenian languages appears to have included Etruscan, Rhaetian and perhaps also Eteocretan and Eteocypriot. A pre-Roman stage of Proto-Basque can only be reconstructed with great uncertainty.

Regarding the European Bronze Age, the only secure reconstruction is that of Proto-Greek (ca. 2000 BC). A Proto-Italo-Celtic ancestor of both Italic and Celtic (assumed for the Bell beaker period), and a Proto-Balto-Slavic language (assumed for roughly the Corded Ware horizon) has been postulated with less confidence. Old European hydronymy has been taken as indicating an early (Bronze Age) Indo-European predecessor of the later centum languages.

Historical populations

thumb|300px|Provinces of the Roman Empire in AD 117.Iron Age (pre-Great Migrations) populations of Europe known from Greco-Roman historiography, notably Herodotus, Pliny, Ptolemy and Tacitus:

Historical immigration

thumb|300px|The [[Great Migrations of Late Antiquity.]]
300px|thumb|Map showing the three main political divisions around 800: The [[Carolingian Empire (purple), the Byzantine Empire (orange) and the Caliphate of Córdoba (light green). (Borders are approximate.)]]
Ethno-linguistic groups that arrived from outside Europe during historical times are:
  • Phoenician colonies in the Mediterranean, from about 1200 BC to the fall of Carthage after the Third Punic War in 146 BC.
  • the western Kipchaks known as Cumans entered the lands of present-day Ukraine in the 11th century.

History of European ethnography

thumb|left|Europa Polyglotta, Linguarum Genealogiam exhibens, una cum Literis, Scribendique modis, Omnium Gentium ("multilingual Europe, exhibiting a genealogy of tongues together with the letters and modes of writing of all peoples")thumb|Ethnographic map of Europe, The Times Atlas (1896)
The earliest accounts of European ethnography date to Classical Antiquity. Herodotus described the Scythians and Thraco-Illyrians. Dicaearchus gave a description of Greece itself besides accounts of western and northern Europe. His work survives only fragmentarily, but was received by Polybius and others.
Roman Empire period authors include Diodorus Siculus, Strabo and Tacitus.
Julius Caesar gives an account of the Celtic tribes of Gaul, while Tacitus describes the Germanic tribes of Magna Germania.
The 4th century Tabula Peutingeriana records the names of numerous peoples and tribes.
Ethnographers of Late Antiquity such as Agathias of Myrina Ammianus Marcellinus, Jordanes or Theophylact Simocatta give early accounts of the Slavs, the Franks, the Alamanni and the Goths.

Book IX of Isidore's Etymologiae (7th century) treats de linguis, gentibus, regnis, militia, civibus (of languages, peoples, realms, armies and cities).
Ahmad ibn Fadlan in the 10th century gives an account of the peoples of Eastern Europe, in particular the Bolghar and the Rus'.
William Rubruck, while most notable for his account of the Mongols, in his account of his journey to Asia also gives accounts of the Tatars and the Alans.
Saxo Grammaticus and Adam of Bremen give an account of pre-Christian Scandinavia. The Chronicon Slavorum (12th century) gives an account of the northwestern Slavic tribes.

Gottfried Hensel in his 1741 Synopsis universae philologiae published what is probably the earliest ethno-linguistic map of Europe, showing the beginning of the pater noster in the various European languages and scripts.
In the 19th century, ethnicity was discussed in terms of scientific racism, and the ethnic groups of Europe were grouped into a number of "races", Mediterranean, Alpine and Nordic, all part of a larger "Caucasian" group.
The beginnings of ethnic geography as an academic subdiscipline lie in the period following World War I, in the context of nationalism, and in the 1930s exploitation for the purposes of fascist and Nazi propaganda so that it was only in the 1960s that ethnic geography began to thrive as a bona fide academic subdiscipline.
The origins of modern ethnography are often traced to the work of Bronisław Malinowski who emphasized the importance of fieldwork.
The emergence of population genetics further undermined the categorisation of Europeans into clearly defined racial groups. A 2007 study on the genetic history of Europe found that the most important genetic differentiation in Europe occurs on a line from the north to the south-east (northern Europe to the Balkans), with another east-west axis of differentiation across Europe, separating the "indigenous" Basques and Sami from other European populations.
Despite these stratifications it noted the unusually high degree of European homogeneity: "there is low apparent diversity in Europe with the entire continent-wide samples only marginally more dispersed than single population samples elsewhere in the world."

National minorities

The total number of national minority populations in Europe is estimated at 105 million people, or 14% of Europeans.

The member states of the Council of Europe in 1995 signed the Framework Convention for the Protection of National Minorities. The broad aims of the Convention are to ensure that the signatory states respect the rights of national minorities, undertaking to combat discrimination, promote equality, preserve and develop the culture and identity of national minorities, guarantee certain freedoms in relation to access to the media, minority languages and education and encourage the participation of national minorities in public life. The Framework Convention for the Protection of National Minorities defines a national minority implicitly to include minorities possessing a territorial identity and a distinct cultural heritage. By 2008, 39 member states have signed and ratified the Convention, with the notable exception of France.

Indigenous minorities

thumb|250px|A Sami family in northern Scandinavia around 1900
Most of Europe's indigenous peoples, or ethnic groups known to have the earliest known historical connection to a particular region, have gone extinct or been absorbed by the dominant cultures. Those that survive are largely confined to remote areas. Groups that have been identified as indigenous include the Sami of northern Scandinavia, the Basques of northern Spain and southern France, and a many of the western indigenous peoples of Russia. Groups in Russia include Finno-Ugric peoples such as the Komi and Mordvins of the western Ural Mountains, Samoyedic peoples such as the Nenets people of northern Russia.

Ethnic minorities of non-European origin






Europe is also where a multiplicity of cultures, nationalities and ethnic groups originated outside of Europe reside in, most of them are recently arrived immigrants in the 20th century and their country of origin are often a former colony of the British, French and Spanish empires.


Populations of non-European origin in Europe (approx. 22 - 29+ million, or approx. 3% to 4%+ [depending on definition of non-European origin], out of a total population of approx. 728 million):
  • *Turks (excluding the indigenous Turkish population in Europe): approx. 5 million, mostly in German-speaking states, but found in sizeable communities throughout Europe. Turkish populations in the Balkans are also prevalent from the pre-WWI Ottoman era.
  • *Jews (both practicing and non-practicing by ethno-religious descent): approx. 2 million, mainly in certain Western European capitals, but found in sizeable urban communities throughout Europe; France, Britain, Germany, and Russia have the largest numbers. Most of France's Jews are of Sephardic North African origin, while those in Germany and Russia are mainly Ashkenazi.
  • *Armenians: approx. 1.5 million. The largest communities are found in France, Russia, Ukraine and the UK.
  • *Kurds: approx. 1.5 million, mostly in the UK, Germany and Sweden.
  • *Iraqi diaspora: approx. 400,000 to 600,000, mostly in the UK, Germany and Sweden.
  • *North Africans (Arabs and Berbers): approx. 5 million, mostly in France, Spain, Italy, the Netherlands and Sweden. The bulk of North African migrants are Moroccans, although France also has a large number of Algerians.
  • *Sub-Saharan Africans (many ethnicities including Afro-Caribbeans and others by descent): approx. 5 million but rapidly growing, mostly in the UK and France, with smaller numbers in the Netherlands, Germany, Italy, Portugal and elsewhere.
  • Latin Americans: approx. 2.2 million, mainly in Spain and to a lesser extent Italy and the UK. (Latin American Britons number up to 100,000 (80,000 Latin American born in 2001) and are of European, African, Native South American and many other races.)
  • *Brazilians: 200,000 - 300,000 in the UK, around 70,000 in Portugal and Italy each, and 50,000 in Germany.
  • * Chilean refugees escaping the Augusto Pinochet regime of the 1970s formed communities in France, Sweden, the UK, former East Germany and the Netherlands.
  • * It is important to note that most legal/documented Latin Americans in Europe are of European origin, being descended from a European ethnic group.
  • South Asians (many ethnicities, not including Romani): approx. 3 - 4 million, mostly in the UK but reside in smaller numbers in Germany and France.
  • *Romani (Gypsies): approx. 4 or 10 million (although estimates vary widely), dispersed throughout Europe but with large numbers concentrated in the Balkans area, they are of ancestral South Asian origin.
  • *Indians: approx. 2 million, mostly in the UK, also in Germany and smaller numbers in Ireland.
  • *Pakistanis: approx. 1,000,000, mostly in the UK, but also in Norway and Sweden.
  • *Tamils: approx. 250,000, predominantly in the UK.
  • *Bangladeshi residing in Europe estimated at over 500,000, the bulk live in the UK.
  • *Afghans, about 100,000 to 200,000, most happen to live in the UK, but Germany and Sweden are destinations for Afghan immigrants since the 1960s.
  • *Chinese: approx. 3 million, mostly in France, the UK, Spain, Italy and the Netherlands. see also Chinese Romanians.
  • *Filipinos: above 1 million, mostly in the UK, France, Germany, Spain, Italy and Sweden.
  • *Koreans: 100,000 estimated (excludes a possible 100,000 more in Russia), mainly in the UK, France and Germany. See also Korean Russians.
  • *Mongolians are a sizable community in Germany, Poland and the Czech Republic.
  • Others
  • *U.S. Expatriates: American British, as well U.S.-born Europeans/ American citizens residing in France, Sweden, Switzerland, Italy, Greece, Spain and elsewhere.
  • *American Indians, a scant few in the European continent of American Indian ancestry (often Latin Americans in Spain, France and the UK), but most may be children or grandchildren of U.S. soldiers from American Indian tribes by intermarriage with local European women. In Germany, the Native American Association of Germany founded in 1994 as a socio-cultural organization estimates 50,000 North American Indians (descendants) live in the country.

European identity

Historical

thumb|250px|Personifications of [[Sclavinia, Germania, Gallia, and Roma, bringing offerings to Otto III; from a gospel book dated 990.]]
Medieval notions of a relation of the peoples of Europe are expressed in terms of genealogy of mythical founders of the individual groups.
The Europeans were considered the descendants of Japhet from early times, corresponding to the division of the known world into three continents, the descendants of Sem peopling Asia and those of Ham peopling Africa. Identification of Europeans as "Japhetites" is also reflected in early suggestions for terming the Indo-European languages "Japhetic".

In this tradition, the Historia Brittonum (9th century) introduces a genealogy of the peoples of the Migration period (as it was remembered in early medieval historiography) as follows,
The first man that dwelt in Europe was Alanus, with his three sons, Hisicion, Armenon, and Neugio. Hisicion had four sons, Francus, Romanus, Alamanus, and Bruttus. Armenon had five sons, Gothus, Valagothus, Cibidus, Burgundus, and Longobardus. Neugio had three sons, Vandalus, Saxo, and Boganus.
From Hisicion arose four nations—the Franks, the Latins, the Germans, and Britons; from Armenon, the Gothi, Valagothi, Cibidi, Burgundi, and Longobardi; from Neugio, the Bogari, Vandali, Saxones, and Tarincgi. The whole of Europe was subdivided into these tribes.

The text goes then on to list the genealogy of Alanus, connecting him to Japhet via eighteen generations.

European culture

European culture is largely rooted in what is often referred to as its "common cultural heritage". Due to the great number of perspectives which can be taken on the subject, it is impossible to form a single, all-embracing conception of European culture. Nonetheless, there are core elements which are generally agreed upon as forming the cultural foundation of modern Europe. One list of these elements given by K. Bochmann includes:
  • A plurality of states with different political orders, which are condemned to live together in one way or another;
  • Respect for peoples, states and nations outside Europe.

Berting says that these points fit with "Europe's most positive realisations".
The concept of European culture is generally linked to the classical definition of the Western world. In this definition, Western culture is the set of literary, scientific, political, artistic and philosophical principles which set it apart from other civilizations. Much of this set of traditions and knowledge is collected in the Western canon. The term has come to apply to countries whose history has been strongly marked by European immigration or settlement during the 18th and 19th centuries, such as the Americas, and Australasia, and is not restricted to Europe.

Religion

thumb|250px|Predominant religions in Europe

]]
thumb|250px|Eurobarometer Poll 2005 chart results

Since the High Middle Ages, most of Europe has been dominated by Christianity. There are three major denominations, Roman Catholic, Protestant and Eastern Orthodox, with Protestantism restricted mostly to Germanic regions and Great Britain (with some in Ireland), and Orthodoxy to Slavic regions, Romania, Greece and Georgia. Catholicism, while centered in the Latin parts, has a significant following also in Germanic and Slavic regions and Ireland (with some in Great Britain).
Islam has some tradition in the Balkans (the European dominions of the Ottoman Empire in the 16th to 19th centuries), in Albania, Former Yugoslavia, Bulgaria and Turkish East Thrace. European Russia has the largest Muslim community, including the Tatars of the Middle Volga and multiple groups in the Caucasus, including Chechens, Avars, Ingush and others. With 20th century migrations, Muslims in Western Europe have become a noticeable minority.
Judaism has a long history in Europe, but is a small minority religion, with France (1%) the only European country with a Jewish population in excess of 0.5%. The Jewish population of Europe is comprised primarily of two groups, the Ashkenazi and the Sephardi. Ashkenazi Jews migrated to Europe as early as the 8th century, while Sephardi Jews established themselves in Spain and Portugal at least one thousand years before that. Jewish European history was notably affected by the Holocaust and resulting emigration in the 20th century.

In modern times, significant secularization has taken place, notably in laicist France in the 19th century and in Communist Eastern Europe in the 20th century. Currently, distribution of theism in Europe is very heterogeneous, with more than 95% in Poland, and less than 20% in the Czech Republic. The 2005 Eurobarometer poll found that 52% of EU citizens believe in God.

Pan-European identity

"Pan-European identity" or "Europatriotism" is an emerging sense of personal identification with Europe, or the European Union as a result of the gradual process European integration taking place over the last quarter of the 20th century, and especially in the period after the end of the Cold War, since the 1990s. The foundation of the OSCE followng the 1990s Paris Charter has facilitated this process on a political level during the 1990s and 2000s.

From the later 20th century, 'Europe' has come to be widely used as a synonym for the European Union even though there are millions of people living on the European continent in non-EU states. The prefix pan implies that the identity applies throughout Europe, and especially in an EU context, and 'pan-European' is often contrasted with national identity.

See also
 
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