Europeans are often viewed as originating in the north west corner of the Northern Hemisphere. This misperception of the term "European" can downplay the extensive presence of Slavic demographics in Russia, south eastern Europe and the eastern Slav nations.
Russia has lands extend from eastern Europe to the coasts above Japan, Korea and China - 77 per cent of Russian territory is in Asia, although most Russians live in Europe. Russia can be said to be straddling both Europe and Asia.
It really depends on a point of view.
The European continent as such can be seen as layers of differing historical, religious and cultural implications. The Vikings were focused on colder climes, as opposed to the Mediterranean nations that were the locations of the Greek, Roman and Ottoman traditions.
In between are the core of what is perhaps to be central European - Latin influenced territories meeting up with Germanic homelands and spreading into the Balkans.
The impact Europe has made on the contemporary world has been having better technology, implementing colonisation, stirring geopolitics, conducting the major wars of the 20th century and securing world wide trade links.
The Empire under which the sun once never sets - the British - has spawned five Anglocentric societies that still cuddle together in political flavour and intent in the 21st century.
Apart from the Mother Country, the other four already have resident Indigenous peoples before their colonisation. Britain used to extensively rely on agricultural, human, logistics and military resources from this alliance - and still do to varying extents. Three of these nations still have a British monarch at the top of the chain.
There are two obvious nations geographically far removed from Europe - but evolved into their present day realities primarily built from European settlement. One is Argentina, populated by southern Europeans - and the other is Australia, first settled by the British and Irish. Each nation is sited in a part of the world surrounded by non European cultures.
Being geographically located so close to northern Africa and the so called Middle East, Europe has significantly been affected by outside influences. The European mind has in the long term been heavily influenced by, amongst others:
Arabian mathematics,
Greek philosophy,
Roman infrastructure,
City states that valued diversity, Mongolian attacks,
Muslim rule,
the Renaissance,
political upheaval,
artistic movements,
the power of royalty and
movement of peoples attracted by her wealth and relative freedoms.
Queen Victoria and Prince Albert had their daughters married off across various European royalties, including that to the last Russian Tsar.
The remnants of colonialism in the 20th century had Indians, Africans and south east Asians establishing residential status across France, Holland, the UK and Spain.
The conflicts in 21st century Arab nations, economic seekers from Africa and south Asia and left wing political correctness added to another wave to another significant wave of migration, particularly to Germany and the Scandinavian nations.
The Indian diaspora seems to now be at its height of dispersion and extensiveness.
A transformative event was the expulsion of ethnic Indian residents from Uganda. This started the Indianisation of Britain, which had to accept them based on their colonial status. The Empire struck back and Anglo Indian manifestation spread onwards from Mother England to Canada and the United States.
Indian political and cultural prowess had already been evident in south east Asia before the advent of Islam and European takeovers. Perhaps Indianisation here was more successful than Sinofication - one just reflects on evidence of Hindu and Buddhist kingdoms, artefacts, arts and structures scattered from present day Vietnam to Java. The rather significant Indian influences also expressed themselves in language - contemporary Malay or Indonesian language has words originating from Sanskrit and other Indian tongues.
Will this historical Indian influence now seep and revive into the fabric of the five Anglicentric nations? It has already established more than a beach head in the United Kingdom. Will Indianisation jump across the Channel into mainland Europe - which is already grappling with Muslim demographics in the key nations of France, Germany and Scandinavia?
In eastern Europe, questions have arisen as to whether Russia wants to expand beyond her borders, or just wants to maintain her historical integrity. Continental Europe's past has been significantly marked by what three powers do - German- Prussian, French or Russian. British royalty has Germanic foundations. Europeans have given the world her share of philosophers, scientists, artists, political leaders and dictators.
South of the borders of Russia are the central Asian states and China. China and India had the largest economies in the world before the onslaught of sailing ships, colonisation and the rise of European powers. White Russians have lived together with Manchurians, Koreans and Han Chinese in the north eastern corner of the Eurasian mass. The role of Russians as Europeans interacting with Asians has often been underemphasised.
The closeness of Communism from Soviet Russia into the development of Chinese Communism has resulted from how most European colonial powers treated a fledging and weak Chinese Republic after the fall of the last royal dynasty in 1912.
Key China leaders did however spend their formative years savouring and exploring revolutionary ideas and polititical thought in Paris.
The rather embedded sentiments in Europe from 1945, with the United States and her four Anglo connected partners rescuing Europe from the Nazis, are still difficult to shake off. This sentiment perhaps has to be seriously resolved as Europe navigates into the future. Europe has this vital opportunity to implement her own strategic interests and values in the face of changing geopolitics and the rise of a multi-polar world.
Most European powers have divested of their colonies, except for France and the United Kingdom. Emerging powers are now strengthened by rising abilities in technology, infrastructure, trade and new networks in political relationships - not in far flung isles, navy ports of old and geographical spots which are no longer
strategic.
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