Geo-Political Northern Europe
is the
northern part or
region of
Europe. The
United Nations defines Northern Europe as including the following countries and dependent regions:
Nordic countries or Nordic region include only a subset of the mentioned countries and territories.
Before the 19th century, the term 'Nordic' or 'Northern' was commonly used to mean Northern Europe in a sense that included the Nordic countries,
European Russia, the
Baltic countries (at that time
Estonia,
Livonia and
Courland). The
United Kingdom and
Ireland are sometimes included in Western Europe.
History
A Dutch map of Northern Europe, printed in 1601.
Historically, when Europe was dominated by the Mediterranean region (i.e. the
Roman Empire), everything not near this sea was termed Northern Europe, including
Germany, the
Low Countries, and
Austria. This meaning is still used today in some contexts, such as in discussions of the
Northern Renaissance. In
medieval times, the term (Ultima)
Thule was used to mean a
mythical place in the extreme northern reaches of the continent.
Geography
Northern Europe consists of the
Scandinavian peninsula, the peninsula of
Jutland, the
Baltic plain that lies to the east and the many
islands that lie offshore from mainland northern Europe, Greenland and the main European continent.
The area is defined by the volcanic islands of the far northwest, notably
Iceland and
Jan Mayen, the mountainous western seaboard, extending from the
mountainous sections of
Great Britain &
Ireland to the
Scandinavian mountains, the central north
mountains and
hills of
Sweden (which are the foothills of the Scandinavian mountains) and the large eastern plain, which contains,
Lithuania,
Latvia,
Estonia and
Finland.
The region has a south west extreme of just under
50 degrees north and a northern extreme of
81 degrees north.
The entire region's climate is affected by the
Gulf stream which has a mild influence on the climate.
From the west climates vary from
maritime and
maritime subarctic climates. In the north and central climates are generally
subarctic or
Arctic and to the east climates are mostly
subarctic and
temperate/
continental.
As the climate and relief varies vegetation is also extremely variable, with sparse
tundra in the north and high mountains,
boreal forest on the north-eastern and central regions
temperate coniferous forests (formerly of which a majority was in the
Scottish highlands and south west
Norway) and
temperate broadleaf forests growing in the south, west and temperate east.
See also
