Europe: A History (13 page)

In fact, the Peninsula of Europe is not really a ‘continent’ at all: it is not a self-contained land mass. At c.10 million km
²
(3.6 million square miles), it is less than one-quarter the size of Asia, one-third of Africa, one-half of each of the Americas. Modern geographers classify it, like India, as a subcontinent of Eurasia: ‘a cape of the old continent, a western appendix of Asia’. Even so, it is impossible to deny that Europe has been endowed with a formidable repertoire of physical features. Europe’s landforms, climate, geology, and fauna have combined to produce a benign environment that is essential to an understanding of its development.

Map 4. Europe: Physical Regions

Europe’s landforms do not resemble those of any other continent or subcontinent. The depressions to north and south have been flooded by the ocean to form two parallel sea-chains which penetrate deep into the interior. In the north, the North Sea-Baltic sea lane stretches 1,500 miles (2,500 km) from the Atlantic to Russia. In the south, the Mediterranean-Black Sea system stretches over 2,400 miles (4,000 km) from Gibraltar to the Caucasus. Within these protected seas lie
a vast complex of lesser gulfs and a huge spangle of islands. As a result, the ratio of shoreline to landmass is exceptionally high: at
c
.37,000 km, or more than 23,000 miles, the European shoreline is almost exactly the length of the Equator. For early Man, this was perhaps the most important measure of accessibility.

What is more, since the shores of the Peninsula lie in the temperate latitudes of Eurasia’s western extremity, they are served by a user-friendly climate. Prevailing ocean winds blow westerly; and it is the western coasts of the great continents that stand to benefit most from the moderating influx of sea air. Yet few other west-facing continental coasts can actually enjoy the advantage. Elsewhere, if the western shore is not blocked by towering peaks or icy currents, it is lined by deserts such as the Sahara, the Kalahari, or the Atacama.

The climate of Europe, therefore, is unusually temperate for its latitude. Generally speaking, under the influence of the Gulf Stream, northern Europe is mild and moist; southern Europe is relatively warm, dry, and sunny. Central and eastern Europe enjoy elements of a true continental climate, with clear, cold winters and baking hot summers. But everywhere the weather is changeable. Extremes are usually avoided. Even in European Russia, where the difference between the mean temperatures of January and July can approach 45 °C, the range is only half what it is in Siberia. The wettest district in Europe is in western Norway, with an average annual precipitation of 3,500 mm (138 inches). The dryest district surrounds the Caspian Sea, with less than 250 mm (9 inches) per annum. The coldest spot is Vorkuta, with a mean January chill of −20°C; the hottest is disputed between Seville and Astrakhan, both with mean July roasts of +29°C. These extremes do not compare with their counterparts in Asia, Africa, or the Americas.

Europe’s temperate climate favoured the requirements of primitive agriculture. Most of the Peninsula lies within the natural zone of cultivable grasses. There were abundant woodlands to provide fuel and shelter. Upland pasture often occurs in close proximity to fertile valleys. In the west and south, livestock can winter in the open. Local conditions frequently encouraged special adaptations. The extensive coastline, combined with the broad Continental Shelf, gave fishermen rich rewards. The open plains, especially of the Danube Basin, preserved the nomadic horse-rearing and cattle-driving of the Eurasian steppes. In the Alps—which take their name from the high pastures above the tret-line—transhumance has been practised from an early date.

Europe’s climate was probably also responsible for the prevalent skin-colour of its human fauna. Moderate levels of sunshine, and hence of ultra-violet radiation, meant that moderate levels of pigmentation came to be encoded in the Peninsula’s gene pool. Certainly, in historic times pale faces have predominated, together with blond or golden hair and blue eyes in the northern regions. The great majority of Europeans and their descendants can be easily recognized as such from their looks.

Until recently, of course, it was impossible to take anything but the most superficial racial factors into consideration. The analysis of blood groups, body
tissues, and DNA imprints, for example, was unknown until the late twentieth century; and it was not realized just how much genetic material all human beings have in common. As a result, racial theorists were apt to draw conclusions from external criteria such as skin colour, stature, or skull form. In reality, the racial make-up of Europe’s population has always displayed considerable variety. The tall, blue-eyed, fair-skinned, platinum blonds of the so-called ‘Nordic race’ which established itself in Scandinavia forms the only group remotely qualified for the label of ‘white’. They bore little resemblance to the squat, brown-eyed, swarthy-skinned and black-haired people of the so-called ‘Mediterranean’ or ‘Indo-Mediterranean Race’ which dominated large parts of the south. Between the two extremes there were numerous gradations. Most of the Peninsula’s population can be clearly distinguished from the Mongoloid, Indoid, and Negroid races, but not from other groups predominating in the Near East and North Africa.

Some of the most promising advances in the field of prehistory are now being made through modern genetic research. The refinement of serology, the discovery of DNA (1953), and the subsequent operation of mapping the 3,000 million ‘letters’ on human genes permit investigations of a very sophisticated nature. The correlation of genetic and linguistic records now suggests that the patterns of biological and cultural evolution may be closer than imagined. Recent studies show that the movement of genetic material into prehistoric Europe corresponded with parallel cultural trends. ‘Genes, peoples, and languages have … diverged in tandem,’ writes a leading scholar.
³
Local studies show that isolated cultural communities, such as the non-Indo-European Basques, possess recognizable genetic traces of their own. There are no general conclusions. But the study of Europe’s genetic inheritance, once a pseudo-science, is now a respectable pursuit. At last, ‘we are beginning to read the messages left to us by distant ancestors’.
⁴
[CAUCA-SIA] [TAMMUZ]

From the psychological point of view, the Peninsula presented early man with a stimulating blend of opportunity and challenge. It created a degree of stress that demanded enterprise but was still manageable. Life was hard but rewarding. Seasonal rhythms fostered activities which required routine and foresight. The changeable weather stimulated flexibility. There were plenty of natural hazards to be overcome—ocean gales, winter snows, summer droughts, and disease; yet the prospects for health and survival were good. One may surmise that the primitive settlers of prehistoric Europe felt less at risk than their descendants on the eastern seaboard of North America several millennia later.

It would be rash to state that the European Peninsula was the only location where human civilization could have developed as it did; yet most of the alternative locations had their drawbacks. Compared to the sub-tropical river valleys where mankind first flourished, the seasonal rhythms and benign moderation of the Peninsula provided an altogether more receptive setting for sustained development. The geological and biological environment is rich and varied. There are ‘young’ alpine mountains, ancient primary hills, active volcanoes; deep gorges and wide plains; racing upland torrents, broad rivers, lakes by the thousand; sub-arctic
tundra, permafrost, glaciers; rocky coasts, sandy beaches, and spreading deltas. There are open grasslands, spacious deciduous woods, gloomy pine-forests, and sub-tropical palms; leached, semi-desert soils, vast marshes, and zones of deep loess and ‘black earth’. The range of plant life and fauna is large. Enough of Europe’s wildernesses have survived to show what the primeval habitat would have resembled.

Importantly, however, the scale of heights and distances is far less forbidding than elsewhere. Europe’s localities are linked by a network of natural pathways which primitive man must have found more of an invitation than a barrier. Just as one could paddle round most of the inland coasts in a dugout, one could float down any number of rivers in almost any direction. The Seine, the Rhine, the Elbe, Oder, Vistula, Niemen, and Dvina all flow to the north; the Ebro, the Rhone, the Maritsa, the Dnieper, and the Volga to the south. Tagus, Loire, and Severn flow to the west; Thames, Danube, Po, and Dniester to the east. Between them, there is an endless series of short walks and easy porterages. In the district of Auxois in upper Burgundy, for instance, one can stroll in the course of a few hours between waters that take one to the Mediterranean, the Atlantic, or the English Channel. In the central Alps, the sources of the Rhine and the Rhone rise side by side near Andermatt before flowing north and south respectively. On the Dvina-Dnieper porterage, in the vicinity of Vitebsk, one can easily haul a boat which has come from Sweden to a point that will take it to Egypt.

One should not underestimate the lengthy process whereby the highways and byways of Europe were opened up to human movement and settlement. On the other hand, there is no comparison between the relative ease of travel in Europe and that in the greater continents. Caravans on the ancient silk route from China needed a year or more to cross the body of Asia. Yet from time immemorial any fit and reasonably enterprising traveller has been able to move across Europe in a matter of weeks, if not days.

The division of Europe into ‘natural’ or ‘historic’ regions has long provided an intellectual exercise that is as entertaining as it is inconclusive. Attempts to define ‘Western Europe’, as distinct from ‘Eastern Europe’, have been as numerous as the criteria used to fix the dividing lines. (See Map 3, and Introduction, pp. 22–5.) The distinction between ‘Northern Europe’ and ‘Southern Europe’ is clear and permanent in the Peninsula’s central alpine sector. But it does not hold good to the same extent either in Europe’s far west, in Iberia, or in Europe’s far east, in the hinterland of the Black Sea. The arguments advanced to prove the pedigree of regions such as ‘Central Europe’ or ‘East Central Europe’ are as ingenious as they are contorted.
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One stands on safer ground dividing Europe into regions based on physical and geographical features.

The European Peninsula is constructed from five natural components. In historical times, these geographical units have remained largely constant, whilst the political units surmounting them have come and gone with great fickleness.
‘Earth’s proud empires’ are constantly passing away. But the plains and the mountains, the seas, peninsulas, and islands, apparently go on forever.

1.
The Great European Plain
stretches without interruption for over 2,400 miles (4,000 km) from the Atlantic to the Urals. It is Europe’s dominant territorial feature. Indeed, since the Urals form little more than a gentle bridge, the plain may be regarded as an extension of the still greater expanse of lowland stretching to the Verkhoyansk Ridge of eastern Siberia. At the longitude of the Urals it spans the 1,200 miles (2,000 km) between the Barents Sea and the Caspian. Between the coast and the hills in the Low Countries, it narrows to less than 200 km. Almost all the major rivers of the plain flow on a north-south axis, thereby creating a series of natural breaks to east-west traffic and dividing the traverse of the plain into six or seven easy stages. East of the Vistula, the impenetrable Pripet Marshes split the plain into two natural pathways—a northerly one, which skirts the Baltic lakeland, and a southerly one, serving as the highroad to and from the steppes,
[UKRAINA]

The Plain is at its most vulnerable in the section between the Rhine and the Oder. Here, it is overborne by ranges of impenetrable, forested hills. The Ardennes, the Teutoburger Wald, and the Harz remain formidable barriers even today. They inhibit movement both laterally along the Plain and vertically from the Plain to the Alps. The map of modern Germany shows how almost all the country’s development has been channelled either onto the Plain or into the four river basins of the Rhine, Main, Neckar, and Danube.