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Whites

Whites

:For other uses, see White (disambiguation). White (noun, white or whites; adjective, white people) is a color-defined term used as a form of ethno-racial classification. Though literally implying light-skinned, "white" has been used in different ways at different times and places. It is somewhat of a misnomer. While the extremes of human skin color range from pink to blue-black, the vast majority of people have a skin color which can be best described as some shade of brown. This include all races and ethnic groups whether they are described as "white", "brown", "black", "red" or "yellow". See Color metaphors for race for more discussion. A common element to the various definitions of "white" today, is that the term refers to a person of European descent. Also generally associated with white people are European culture, Christianity (whether as a religion or part of their cultural heritage) and Western civilization. Outside this scope, the inclusion and/or exclusion of other groups of people may vary from country to country due to differing popularly espoused understandings of the term, definitions based on government guidelines, or factors of socio-racial implication. Regions and countries that are today predominantly white include Europe, Russia, the United States, Canada, Argentina, Uruguay, Australia and New Zealand.

The Epistemological Challenge

The concept of a "White person" (or a "Black person") is scientifically useless. This does not mean that the terms are inaccurate, nor that there are no White people or Black people in the world. It means that the terms cannot be defined objectively so that they can independently be tested. Like aesthetic terms such as beauty and balance, religious terms such as sin and grace, and political terms such as liberal and conservative, they apparently reflect something important in the minds of those who use them. Nevertheless, the claim that any specific individual is Black or White cannot be falsified—there is no way to demonstrate it to be an inaccurate depiction of factual reality. Hence, biology, genetics, physical anthropology, indeed the all of the hard sciences ignore the concepts of White people and Black people; they are as irrelevant to the scientific method as is the transubstantiation of the Eucharist. Those who believe in the physical reality of "White" as a replicable human category use three kinds of definition to advocate the notion: ancestry, appearance, and self-identity. All three definitions are underlain by a subtext of bigotry resulting from the slave trade and inter-cultural oppression resulting from the age of European colonization. All three criteria must match in order to define one as White. The ancestry definition applies the label to anyone whose ancestors were all (or almost all) Europeans, but only if they "look White" and they also self-identify as White. All three criteria are epistemologically untenable. A problem with the ancestry definition alone is that about one-third of White Americans (non-Hispanics who are members of the U.S. White endogamous group and check off "White" on the census) have easily detectable African DNA from the transatlantic slave trade that they inherited from recent ancestors who passed through the U.S. color line from the Black endogamous group to the White endogamous group. On the other hand, dark-skinned East Indians have seldom been accepted as White, despite technically being "Caucasoids" in the obsolete craniofacial anthropometry of the early 20th century. A problem with the appearance definition alone is that it is routinely demonstrated in college cultural anthropology classes that "racial" appearance is in the eye of the beholder. The same individual seen as White by a Dominican can be seen as Black by an American. Furthermore, such perceptions have changed dramatically over the centuries. In the mid-18th-century, Americans saw Germans as being physically too swarthy of complexion to ever pass for White. Similarly, encyclopedias of the time described mid-19th-century Irish immigrants as physically non-White, apelike, evolutionary throwbacks. Conversely, the Mississippi elite of the Jim Crow era saw Chinese immigrants as being physically White. The U.S. consensus seems to be that someone of completely Nordic appearance who was born into a Black (genetically biracial) family cannot become White by changing ethnic self-identity but merely "passes as White." A problem with the self-identity definition alone is that no human society is monolithic. About 40 percent of Puerto Ricans living in the United States check off "White" on the census, fifty percent check off "other" and fill in something that the Bureau interprets as meaning "White," and ten percent check off "Black." Many individuals around the world choose to self-identify (or not) as "White" in an ethno-political sense, some in obedience to local political leadership, some in defiance of it. A deeper problem is that many if not most individuals change their ethno-political self-identity over their lifetimes; some do so often. And so, while claiming to be non-White disqualfies you from being White in some eyes, claiming to be White (as do millions of discernably biracial Puerto Ricans) does not guarantee acceptance as White. The three components (ancestry, appearance, self-identify) of the definitions of White and Black operate in an exclusionary manner for White (all must match), but in an inclusive manner for Black (any one suffices). Nevertheless, the lack of an objective definition expels the very concepts Black person and White person from the world of physical reality. The terms reflect something in the minds of the users but the terms cannot be unambiguously matched to real-world phenomena. Hence, the following discussion is descriptive, not prescriptive. It adopts a neutral point of view to describe how people use the term. It does not suggest that any particular usage is "better" or "worse" than any other, much less does it suggest that Black people are "better" than White people or vice-versa.

Synonyms

Today "white" and "black" are less often used as nouns (e.g. "whites"), as they seem slightly impolite; instead the phrases "white person/people" and "black person/people" are used. In North America, and to a lesser extent other countries, the term Caucasian is used for "white" people (even though Caucasian properly refers to people from the Caucasus region). In the United States, Anglo is a less commonly used alternative (mostly found in the American Southwest) that includes all white people who speak English as opposed to Spanish, not just those who are descended from the historic Anglo-Saxons. European American is a recent coinage on the model of African American, Asian American, etc. and has not come into popular use to date.

Historic use of the term

Pre-modern usage of white may not correspond to recent concepts; for example, the first Europeans who traveled to Northeast Asia in the 17th century applied white to the people they encountered (see suggested readings below) - the term having then no other connotations - and indeed, even today the name of the Bai people of Yunnan, China translates as "white". By the 18th century, however, "white" had already begun shifting in meaning and started showing signs of the term's nature as an exclusive label. Benjamin Franklin's essay "Observations Concerning the Increase of Mankind, Peopling of Countries, etc." defined white to narrowly include only the English (Anglo-Saxons) and North Germans - Anglo-Saxons also originally North Germans, from Angeln and Lower Saxony - even then excluding nationalities such as the French and Swedes. [http://bc.barnard.columbia.edu/~lgordis/earlyAC/documents/observations.html] As European colonization of the Americas and eventually other parts of the world brought Europeans into close contact with other peoples, the term white and other contrasting racial colour terms, such as black, brown, yellow (Far East Asian or Oriental), and red (Amerindian), etc, came into wide use as a quick shorthand to refer to race. Europeans defined the other terms with reference to "white", in other words, a "black" or "brown" person is defined by having darker skin than a "white" person, and any given "color" may apply to unrelated peoples. In the U.S.A, "black" quickly came to denote African ancestry and "brown" was later attributed to non-white Hispanics and South Asians (people of the Indian subcontinent); in Australia, for example, "Black" denotes Aborigines and "Brown" denotes South Asians and Middle Easterners/North Africans. A common 19th century view categorized most white people as either Semitic or Aryan. The latter term was used as a synonym for Indo-Europeans, who were conceived of as racially separate from Semitic peoples on the grounds that the two groups had distinct linguistic histories. This was thought to imply separate ancestry, which was supposed to be visible in different cultural and physical traits. The term Aryan derived from Indo-European speaking peoples who occupied ancient Iran and the Indus valley, a fact that problematised its equation with the term "white". However, from c1880 some writers theorised that the earliest Aryans came from northern Europe. This led to the Nazi claim that Aryans were identical with Nordic peoples. Later 20th century scholars were much more reluctant to assume coincidence between linguistic and genetic descent, since language can be easily passed to genetically unrelated populations. Although it is most prevalent in casual conversation, the term white is increasingly rare in academic and formal discussions of racial demographics, but it is still often used in discussions of racial attitudes, particularly in the humanities, and in fields such as African American studies (Black studies), critical race theory and whiteness studies. The scope of the term white has changed over time, and varies from place to place. In the United States, the term usually applies to people of ethnic European descent or anyone that appears European with no other discernable non-European features.

Who is white?

The Americas: Euro-predominant and mixed-race people

Due to the historic one drop rule in the United States, for the past century or so Americans with any known African ancestry, no matter how slight or invisible, have often been categorized as Black. Americans of Hispanic and Middle Eastern or North African heritage are an exception, in that those who look utterly European, or ocassionally even those appearing mixed, are not labeled Black even though they may acknowledge slight African ancestry. As mentioned above, before the 18th century the terms "black" and "white" did not designate groups. Before the Civil War, your "racial identity" depended on the combination of your appearance, African blood fraction, and social circle.¹ Throughout the 19th century hundreds of families were socially accepted as White despite having known but undiscernible traces of African ancestry (especially in originally Hispanic Florida, Barbadian South Carolina, and the French Gulf Coast).² Outside of the United States, people of undiscernible African admixture are considered 'white', while those of slight African appearance are often called "coloured" or mixed race —a blanket term for people of multiple racial heritage. Meanwhile, in Latin American countries like Cuba, the Dominican Republic, or Brazil, even those of clearly visible partial African ancestry may be considered, and may consider themselves, white. Unlike in the United States, race in Latin America "refers mostly to skin color or physical appearance rather than to ancestry." ³ "American orthodoxy is that a single drop of African blood inevitably darkens its host." ⁴ In Latin America, "the problem is approached from the other end of the scale: A single drop of European blood is seen to inevitably whiten... A person with discernible African heritage is not necessarily immutably black." ⁵ Upwardly mobileness, physical appearance and lighter skin colour allow for choice of an array of intermediate "categories", as well as white. Many recent studies in genetics and molecular anthropology have shown that there is a suprisingly small degree of genetic overlap between members of the U.S. Black endogamous group and the U.S. White endogamous group. In the United States, most of those who self-identify as non-Hispanic Whites are overwhelmingly European (about 99.3 percent European genetic admixture, on average) and most U.S. Blacks are quite African (about 83 percent African admixture, on average). Regarding the small overlap, about one-third of White Americans are found to have traces of African ancestry; they average about 2.3% African admixture (of 128 grandparents, 3 are black and 125 are white). And almost all Black Americans have some European admixture, averaging about 17 percent.⁶

White and Hispanic categories in the US

The definition of white in the United States often excludes Hispanics, most of whom are of mixed racial descent (mestizos and mulattos), although many others may be of unmixed European extraction. Officialy however, in the United States the term Hispanic itself does not designate race, and the US Census considers race and Hispanicity to be separate; a respondant who checks the Hispanic/Latino box can in the following question also check any of the race categories such as white, black, Asian, Pacific Islander, and Native American/Alaskan Native. Statistics on Hispanics as a group are kept in order to track discrimination, for affirmative action purposes, etc., in the same way that they are for non-white racial groups, and for women. Of the countries of Latin America, those that it can be said are composed of an overwhelmingly European population are Argentina and Uruguay. Chile and Costa Rica are also quite "European", and possess mestizo majorities (mixed European and Amerindian) where it is not uncommon for the European element to predominate heavily over the Amerindian one (See also: Castizo); of those, many would simply identify as white. Countries such as Guatemala, Bolivia, Peru, on the other hand, possess Amerindian majorities, and although they also harbour large mestizo minorities, on average the Amerindian element predominates over the European one. Also, the Dominican Republic and Cuba are composed of mulatto majorities (mixed European and African), though both with black and white minorities, which in Cuba is a relatively large white minority. Furthermore, South Asians constitute the largest segment of the population in both Guyana and Suriname, while Haiti is almost exclusively African descended. Despite these vast racial differences, there is a tendency in the U.S. to label all people of the Spanish-speaking Americas (from the Southwestern United States, Mexico, Central and South America) and Spain as Hispanic, no matter how white, black, or "brown" they might be in appearance which is appropriate since the term refers more to culture and not race.. Sometimes the term "non-Hispanic white" is used for clarity to designate members of the dominant culture of the US.

North Africa, Southwest Asia and South Asia

Another contemporary difficulty of the term is the difference between any given popular definition versus the parameters used for the official government definition in the same locale. In the United States for example, many view Arabs, Berbers, Iranians, Mizrahi Jews, Kurds, Armenians, etc. as non-white. This is despite the fact that for the purposes of statistics, all the aforementioned are always categorised as white by US government agencies and the U.S. census, and even though some of the people in these groups may look very similar to Southern Europeans. Governmental categorisation does not always lead to a sense of inclusion, as they are often excluded from the general structural concepts of white-American society, and may even experience hostile rejection- particularly Muslims in recent decades. By contrast in Europe and Australia those same Middle Easterners and North Africans are never regarded or categorised as white. Instead, they are regarded as racial minorities. This latter understanding of the term in Australia has little to do with white supremacist exclusionism, but rather a traditional, narrower, definition of white which has never encompassed Middle Easterners or North Africans, and which, unlike the definition of "white" in the United States, has not undergone continuous alterations to include an increasing number of people. (See also: Wog, Anglo and Skippy Australian). In the American context, where Middle Easterners and North Africans are grouped as white by government agencies, the popular contention of excluding these Caucasoid groups of North Africa and the Middle East from the white label has sometimes been based on the argument that there is a significant Black sub-Saharan component in their populations [http://www.colorq.org/MeltingPot/Africa/NorthAfr.htm] - a long-spanning presence throughout the history of that largely contiguous region - but moreso on their disparate cultural, religious, linguistic heritage and ancestral origins. While it is undeniable that many Arabs in North Africa (Morocco, Algeria, Egypt, etc) and the Arabian Peninsula (Saudi Arabia, Yemen, Oman, etc.) have enough black African ancestry or are dark enough—at times being as dark-complexioned as some African Americans—to be considered black by popular US standards, some may also be lighter-complexioned by comparison, comparable to Southern Europeans. And although some Arabs of the Levant (Syria, Lebanon, Israel/Palestine, Jordan, etc.) may also be as dark as those found in North Africa and the Arabian Peninsula, here, many more are lighter-complexioned and comparable to Southern Europeans. A tiny percentage throughout the entire region (North Africa, Arabian Peninsula and the Levant) may even resemble Northern Europeans. Furthermore, while many South Asians are also anthropologically caucasoid —and recognized as such by the United States Supreme Court—not only are they also excluded from the popular definition of "white", but US government agencies further categorise them as "Asians", be they Hindus, Buddhists, Sikhs, Muslims, Christians or Indian Jews. (See also: Race in the US Census). Even outside the American context, this trend of excluding caucasoid South Asians is almost universal, as is the disregarding of a comparable lighter-complexioned phenotypical presence as discussed for North Africa and Southwest Asia. For an example of legal contradictions in United States Supreme Court rulings of "white" vs "caucasian", please see United States v. Bhagat Singh Thind.

Whiteness and White nationalism

The strictest definition held by most white nationalist groups around the world - whether white separatists or white supremacists - is that anyone of total ancient ethnic indigenous European ancestry is 'white.' White-nationalists in the United States often have a definition of "whiteness" that is much more limited than the official government definition. "Whiteness" in this case requires not only an ancestry that is solely or overwhelmingly European, but also a psychological identification with the European ethnicity and a commitment to advance its interests. Under this definition, many ethnically European peoples are excluded despite being virtually indistinguishable from their respective co-regionals, such as Northern European and Eastern European Jews (Ashkenazim), Iberian Jews (Sephardim) and Balkan Muslims (Albanians, Bosniaks, Macedonian Torbesh, Bulgarian Pomaks, and Serbian Goranis). Despite this "whiteness" method used by white nationalists, as with many other racially-minded groups, the definitions still vary greatly. Among some more exclusionist white-nationalist groups, a serious ideological point is the bestowing of the "non-white" label upon ethnic European peoples of Southern European and Eastern European (Slavic) descent. Quite a few of these groups in the United States, however, have now accepted Southern Europeans and Eastern European peoples as white, considering that the blonde-hair and blue-eyed type in the Eastern European region especially is proportionally large. This is demonstrated in the written requirements for membership in white-supremacist organizations such as the National Alliance. The requirement for membership is that an individual be of "wholly European, non-Jewish ancestry."

Social vs. physical perceptions of white

It is hard to disentangle "social" from "physical" perceptions because the latter depends upon the former. How American attitudes changed over the centuries exemplifies this. German-Americans were not seen as physically White until the late 1700s. According to Benjamin Franklin, German-Americans in 1751 Pennsylvania were too dark to pass for White. In his Observations Concerning the Increase of Mankind he wrote, "[The Germans] will never adopt our Language or Customs, any more than they can acquire our Complexion. … The Germans are generally of what we call a swarthy Complexion. … The English make the principle Body of White People on the Face of the Earth." Similarly, the 1860 American Encyclopedia: A Popular Dictionary of General Knowledge said that “[The non-White Irish race has] inherited such features as low-browed and savage, groveling and bestial, lazy and wild, simian [ape-like] and sensual....” Today most Americans see German-Americans and Irish-Americans as physically White—otherwise they would be listed as "races" on the federal census. Jews are an in-between category. Many Americans today see Jews as physically non-White; although again judging by the census, most do not. Finally, Chinese Americans are listed as non-White on the census and so are apparently seen as non-White by the overwhelming majority of Americans. And yet, in Jim Crow Mississippi, Chinese-American children attended White schools and universities. Chinese Americans joined Mississippi’s infamous White citizen’s councils, became members of White churches, were recorded as White on driver’s licenses, and could marry members of the White endogamous group.⁵ The differences between social and physical definitions of white can be explained as identification of white with the dominant community or in-group, as opposed to the Other. In medieval Europe, Christendom was the community, and pagans, heretics, Jews, and Muslims the outsiders, regardless of skin color. When the primacy of religion was eroded by the Protestant Reformation and Renaissance and Enlightenment secularism, and Europeans started to colonize lands outside Europe, the in-group signifiers shifted to concepts like white and civilized, but much of the earlier attitude remained, such as exclusion of the religiously different. In the US, white consciousness was first encouraged to help maintain a caste system and control of labor; then when expansion of the in-group became politically desirable in the early 20th century as a result of mass politics, the definition of white was widened to include Southern and Eastern Europeans. Still later, when inclusion of Asians and some sections of other groups became useful, the term white has been played down as divisive, and emphasis has shifted to other signifiers like educated, professional, and modern. Even now, the current social climate in the West (although primarily the United States) seeks to be nearly all inclusive, taking an about face from the social considerations of the 19th and early 20th centuries. This has prompted other groups, especially black people, to label this a form of hypodescent similar to the "one drop rule", except the hypodescent carries large numbers of mixed people to being labeled as white instead of black. In one such instance, an Egyptian man was forced to accept a white classification imposed by goverment officials when he entered the United States. He was threatened to lose his professional career otherwise. Even though his phenotype, ancestry, and social characteristics would classify him as Black, he was told he had to accept white as his background. He sued the U.S. government to have his racial classification changed to Black. What was more socially intriguing was that many Whites and Arabs found the issue to be an unnecessary concern on Hefny's part.

Criticisms of the term

The broad usage of "white" is sometimes criticized by those who argue that it de-ethnicizes various groups, although the same charge is not leveled at the question of ethnic diversity within blacks. During the era of Jim Crow Laws in the Southern United States, facilities were commonly divided into separate sections for white and "colored" people. These terms were defined by law, with people of northern and western European being labeled white and African-Americans labeled as "colored". The categorization of people of other ethnicities and mixed ancestries varied by state, county, and municipality.

"White" as opposed to "Light Skinned"

There is considerable controversy as to the difference between "light skinned" as opposed to "white". As mentioned above, the term "white" is a misnomer, as almost all people (regardless of race) have a skin color which is some shade of brown. Thus people who are not white in the traditional sense, but have light skin, such as Japanese, Koreans and Northern Chinese may well be able to legitimately describe themselves as white. It has been noted that the descendants of light skinned Arabs (like Ralph Nader), North Africans, and South Asians (like Keanu Reeves) have been fully accepted as White by most Americans. Although acceptance as White by those with slight African ancestry (like Carol Channing) is less common, about 35,000 Americans per year re-define themselves from Black to White. In non-western countries, the term white and light-skinned is often used interchangelby.

Areas of habitation

Ever since the era of European expansion, and especially since the 19th century, most Europeans have come to see most other Europeans as White (although Greeks, Sicilians, Spaniards and Portuguese are sometimes considered non-White by other Europeans). Hence, one could say that the indigenous habitat of White people is Europe. Nowadays, countries with a majority of ethnic Europeans include all the nations of Europe, as well as some of the countries colonized by them through the 15th century to 19th century, such as the United States, Canada, Argentina, Uruguay, Asiatic Russia, and Oceanic Australia and New Zealand. In those nations, the relatively small indigenous populations were overwhelmed by White colonists from one or more European "mother countries". In the New World today, however, the White/non-White distinction is cultural, not genetic. Every New World nation save one (the United States) has a unimodal Afro-European admixture scatter diagram revealing complete mixing of European with African and Native American ancestries. The world-unique pale complexion and melanin-deficient hair common to Nordic adults is often considered the hallmark of those seen as White. This phenomenon's cline is densest within a few hundred miles of the Baltic Sea and, unlike other Old World skin-tone distributions, is independent of latitude (the natives of lands at higher latitudes than the Baltic are invariably darker than Nordics). See Human_skin_color for an overall explanation of skin-tone distribution. See [http://backintyme.com/Essay021215.htm The Paleo-Etiology of Human Skin Tone] for an explanation of the near-albino paleness of Nordics and the lack of variation in Native Americans. Significant minorities of whites live in the various Latin American countries and South Africa. Many of these nations have experienced considerable political conflict between the white minority (those who self-identify as being descendants of settlers from the former colonial power) and those who see themselves as mixed, or in the case of South Africa those who are seen as non-European unmixed majorities.

Footnotes

#See "Chapter 9. How the Law Decided if You Were Black or White: The Early 1800s" in Legal History of the Color Line: The Rise and Triumph of the One-Drop Rule by Frank W. Sweet, ISBN 0939479230. A summary of this chapter, with endnotes, is available online at [http://backintyme.com/Essay040811.htm How the Law Decided if You Were Black or White: The Early 1800s]. #See chapters 10-12 of Legal History of the Color Line: The Rise and Triumph of the One-Drop Rule by Frank W. Sweet, ISBN 0939479230. Summaries of these chapters, with endnotes, are available online at [http://backintyme.com/Essay050601.htm Barbadian South Carolina: A Class-Based Color Line]. # # #For detailed sources and citations, see "Chapter 6. Features of Today’s Endogamous Color Line" in Legal History of the Color Line: The Rise and Triumph of the One-Drop Rule by Frank W. Sweet, ISBN 0939479230. A summary of this chapter, with endnotes, is available online at [http://backintyme.com/Essay050701.htm Features of Today’s Endogamous Color Line]. #Although most such peer-reviewed studies can be found in pubmed, a handy current index to recent admixture studies is available at: [http://backintyme.com/ODR/viewtopic.php?t=1071 Various admixture studies].

External links

- [http://www.mdcbowen.org/p2/rm/white/notwhite.htm Legally white] Precedents of legal opinions and judgments authored by US courts in whiteness cases filed by non-Europeans
- [http://www.aaiusa.org/not_quite_white.htm Not Quite White: Race Classification and the Arab American Experience], by the Arab American Institute

White (disambiguation)

White may refer to one of the following.
- White color.
- White (surname); also Whyte.
- White (people), one of various color metaphors for race.
- White-, a prefix invented by Bolsheviks to designate their real and alleged enemies of all sorts, in analogy with White Army
- Whites, a common name for the Pieris genus of butterflies.
- Egg white, the albumen of bird eggs.
- Three Colors: White, the second film in the Three Colors trilogy.
- "White of the eye", a common way of describing the sclera.
- White (video game character).
- The White, a metaphor for universal order, creation and goodness in The Dark Tower (series).
- White Motor Company, a former American auto and truck manufacturer There are two small cities named White:
- White, Georgia
- White, South Dakota As well as five counties:
- White County, Arkansas
- White County, Georgia
- White County, Illinois
- White County, Indiana
- White County, Tennessee

Color metaphors for race

In some societies, color metaphors for race, often originating from differences in human skin color, are used in racial classifications.

Western classifications

In the West, particularly the United States, the primary color metaphor for race is the classification of persons of African ancestry as "black" and persons of European ancestry as "white". In Australia, Indigenous Australians are also called "black". The terms negro, colored, and Negroid also served as color metaphors (except in some places, such as South Africa, where coloured people were those of mixed racial descent). Even the racial slur "nigger" has etymological roots denoting color. Similarly, persons of east Asian descent were during the late 19th century called "yellow", the yellow peril was a perceived threat from East Asian immigration. (In Germany, the color metaphor remained, with the "yellow peril" being translated literally to "gelbe Gefahr".) Native Americans were called "red", "Redskins", and "Red Indians". Other racial groups have fallen under similar classifications, with brown as a general term for nonwhites. During the American occupation of the Philippines, Governor-General William Howard Taft referred to the native Filipino people as his "little brown friends". In the United States, color metaphors are so commonplace that many anti-discrimination statutes use the phrase "race, color, or creed". A branch of the civil rights struggle by African-Americans was known as the "Black Power" movement; by extension, a similar civil rights movement among American Indians was (much less commonly) referred to as "Red Power". The metaphors are used somewhat informally in academic writing as well, as reflected (for example) in the title of Gary B. Nash's book Red, White, and Black: The Peoples of Early America (1974). One point of objection to these terms for race is that they can be subconsciously associated with a color's other metaphorical meanings and reinforce positive and negative self-images. The numerous negative uses of black and favorable uses of white have led many people to promote other terminology for "black" people, such as "African-American". Langston Hughes, Maya Angelou, and Ralph Ellison identify a number of negative metaphors in Western cultures associated with the color "black"; see Black#Usage, symbolism, colloquial expressions.

Russia

In Russia, persons of Caucasus descent are called Black. (See also Racism in Russia). The term White Russian is both an (offensive) term for Belarusians (whose country, Belarus, is etymologically "White Russia" and was once called the same) and a term denoting opponents of the Bolsheviks during the Russian Civil War (see White movement for this usage).

India

The Sanskrit word for "caste" is वर्ण () which has several literal meanings including "color".
- Brahmins (white-symbolizing Sattva), priests, teachers
- Kshatriyas (red-symbolizing Rajas), kings, princes, warriors
- Vaishyas (yellow-symbolizing Rajas), merchants/craftsmen
- Shudras (blue or black-symbolizing Tamas), workers, farmers

China

Huang (yellow) is a common surname, but does not refer to the East Asian race as was popular in Western languages until recently. However, the Yellow Emperor was a legendary founder of China. Yellow is also identified with the "center" cardinal direction, while China is known as Zhongguo "middle country". Hua (華), one of the most common terms for "Chinese", literally means "multicolored", "flowery", or "splendid". White (白 bai) means "plain" or "free of charge" in many common expressions and was not traditionally used to refer to Europeans or descendants, who were indentified as "people from [across the] ocean" or some variety of "barbarian". Contemporary , has, however, adopted Western usage to a large extent. Black (黑 hei) is typically applied to those of African race today. However, the term "black person" (黑人) also refers to unregistered rural migrants in cities (as in black market). Names of ethnic minorities sometimes contain colors, not to indicate skin color, but simply for identification, possibly based on traditional clothing or geographical direction.
- Red, Black, Blue/Green, White, Flowery (multicolored) Miao (Hmong)
- the Bai (literally White) are a sedentary lowland people of Yunnan
- Black Bone and White Bone Yi
- The Qing dynasty Manchu military were divided into Eight Banners identified by color and with ethnic associations

Central Asia

The five cardinal directions were historically identified with colors. This was common to the Central Asian cultural area and was carried west by the westward migration of the Turks. These directional color terms were applied both to geographic features and sometimes to populations as well.
- North: Black
- Heilongjiang "Black Dragon River" province in Northeast China, also the Amur River
- Black Sea: north of Turkey
- Kara-Khitan Khanate
- South: Red
- East: Green or Blue (青 "qīng" corresponds to green or blue)
- West: White
- White Sheep Turkmen
- Ak Deniz "White Sea" in Turkish indicates the Sea of Marmara, the Aegean Sea, or the Mediterranean Sea
- Center: Yellow
- Huangshan "Yellow Mountain" in central China
- Golden Horde: "Central Army" of the Mongols

Notes and references

# Moore, Roger B., Racism in the English Language, 1976; Hughes, Langston, "That Word Black", The Return of Simple Category:Anthropology Category:Color Category:Race Category:Sociology

Culture of Europe

The Culture of Europe might better be described as a series of overlapping cultures of Europe. Whether it be a question of West as opposed to East; Catholicism and Protestantism as opposed to Eastern Orthodoxy; Christianity as opposed to Islam; many have claimed to identify cultural faultlines across the continent. Europe has been a cradle for many cultural innovations and movements, often at odds with each other such as Christian proselytism and Humanism, that have consequently been spread across the globe. The Renaissance of classical ideas influenced the development of art and literature far beyond the confines of the continent.

Faultlines

One of the major problems in defining the European culture, is where does Europe start and where does it end? Most countries share common historical experiences, but several important faultlines appear. The first one is the dividing lands that were occupied at some point by the Roman Empire, thus dividing Europe along a line that goes through Hadrian's Wall in the British Isles, along the Rhine and finally along the Danube. Another faultline is the Catholic-Orthodox divide caused by the Great Schism, which isolates Russia, Belarus, half of Ukraine (whether Uniate Ukraine is considered Orthodox or Catholic is a matter of debate) and Serbia. Yet another faultline is the one that separates the lands once occupied by the Ottoman Empire and the ones that weren't, which created the current Christian-Islam faultline, that separates Albania, Bosnia and Turkey. Also notable is the faultline that separates the parts of Europe that went through industrialization in the 19th century, including Northern Italy and Bohemia. And finally, the most recent faultline is the infamous Iron Curtain. These faultlines are key to understanding the cultural similarities and differences in Europe. They are also important for identifying what countries should be admitted into the European Union (such as in the case of Turkey or the 2004 separatist menace in Ukraine). Thus the question of "common culture" or "common values" is far more complex than it seems.

Global influence

European culture also has a broad influence beyond the continent of Europe due to the legacy of colonialism. In this broader sense it is sometimes referred to as Western Civilization. Nearly all of the Americas were ruled by European powers at one time or another, and some parts of the New World, such as French Guiana and the Bermuda, still are. The vast majority of the population of the Americas speak European languages, specifically Spanish, English, Portugese, and French. Additionally the cultures of the European colonial powers (Spain, Britain, Portugal, and France) exert a strong influence. The legacy of colonialism has spread European culture elsewhere in the world. Europe profoundly influenced on the cultures of Africa, India, Israel, Australia, and other places colonised or settled by Europeans.

Values

In recent decades the European Union has been seeking to identify and support common European values, however this has turned out to be a highly controversial issue. Some commentators wish to classify social cohesion and solidarity as European values and contrast them with more individualist values in the United States. The distinction is not a simple one, but is perhaps most fundamentally reflected in differing attitudes to government, notably in terms of trust in the government.

Arts

See European art history
- Eurovision Song Contest

Food and drink

See European cuisine

Language

See European languages Language is a very important part of culture, and Europe has a widespread variety of languages, with most countries having at least one official language. Russian is the largest language in Europe, followed by German. Many regional languages are also spoken, some enjoying a level of official status or recognition. Other minority languages are also spoken. The diversity on such a small territory is proverbial. The European Union alone uses 20 official languages, which all have the same status. The cost of translation is so high that the official language of the Union is an ongoing debate, since many MEPs are bilingual and most languages have a great level of prestige.
- http://www.eurolinguistix.com

Sport

Besides football, the most popular spectator sport in Europe, other sports enjoy more localised followings, such as rugby union, rugby league, cricket, gaelic games, pelota, petanque and ice hockey. Some sports hold European Championships.
- UEFA
- Rugby League European Nations Cup
- FIRA - Association of European Rugby
- European SC Championships
- Sport in the European Union
- Mitropa Cup

Symbols

- European symbols

Europe

:This article is about the continent. For other meanings, see Europe (disambiguation). Europe is geologically and geographically a peninsula or subcontinent, forming the westernmost part of Eurasia. It is conventionally considered a continent, which, in this case, is more of a cultural distinction than a geographic one. It is bounded to the north by the Arctic Ocean, to the west by the Atlantic Ocean and to the south by the Mediterranean and Black Seas and the Caucasus. Europe's boundary to the east is vague, but has traditionally been given as the Ural Mountains and Caspian Sea to the southeast: the Urals are considered by most to be a geographical and tectonic landmark separating Asia from Europe. :See also Continent, Bicontinental country, and Table of European territories and regions. Table of European territories and regions Table of European territories and regions Europe is the world's second-smallest continent in terms of area, covering around 10,790,000 km² (4,170,000 sq mi) or 2.1% of the Earth's surface, and is only larger than Australia. In terms of population, it is the third-largest continent (Asia and Africa are larger) with a population of more than 700,000,000, or about 11% of the world's population.

Etymology

Africa.]] In Greek mythology, Europa was a Phoenician princess who was abducted by Zeus in bull form and taken to the island of Crete, where she gave birth to Minos. For Homer, Europé (Greek: Ευρωπη; see also List of traditional Greek place names) was a mythological queen of Crete, not a geographical designation. Later Europa stood for mainland Greece, and by 500 BC its meaning had been extended to lands to the north. The Greek term Europe has been derived from Greek words meaning broad (eurys) and face (ops) -- broad having been an epitheton of Earth herself in the reconstructed Proto-Indo-European religion; see Prithvi (Plataia). A minority, however, suggest this Greek popular etymology is really based on a Semitic word such as the Akkadian erebu meaning "sunset" (see also Erebus). From the Middle Eastern vantagepoint, the sun does set over Europe, the lands to the west. Likewise, Asia is sometimes thought to have derived from the Akkadian word asu, meaning "sunrise", and is the land to the east from a Mesopotamian perspective.

History

Europe has a long history of cultural and economic achievement, starting as far back as the Palaeolithic, although this is true for the rest of the Old World as well. The recent discovery at Monte Poggiolo, Italy, of thousands of hand-shaped stones, tentatively carbon-dated to 800,000 years ago, may prove to be of particular importance. The origins of Western democratic and individualistic culture are often attributed to Ancient Greece, though numerous other distinct influences, in particular Christianity, can also be credited with the spread of concepts like egalitarianism and universality of law. The Roman Empire divided the continent along the Rhine and Danube for several centuries. Following the decline of the Roman Empire, Europe entered a long period of changes arising from what is known as the Age of Migrations. That period has been known as the "Dark Ages" to Renaissance thinkers. During this time, isolated monastic communities in Ireland and elsewhere carefully safeguarded and compiled written knowledge accumulated previously. The Renaissance and the New Monarchs marked the start of a period of discovery, exploration, and increase in scientific knowledge. In the 15th century Portugal opened the age of discoveries, soon followed by Spain. They were later joined by France, the Netherlands and the United Kingdom in building large colonial empires with vast holdings in Africa, the Americas, and Asia. After the age of discovery, the ideas of democracy took hold in Europe. Struggles for independence arose, most notably in France during the period known as the French Revolution. This led to vast upheaval in Europe as these revolutionary ideas propagated across the continent. The rise of democracy led to increased tensions within Europe on top of the tensions already existing due to competition within the New World. The most famous of these conflicts was when Napoleon Bonaparte rose to power and set out on a conquest, forming a new French empire that soon collapsed. After these conquests Europe stabilised, but the old foundations were already beginning to crumble. The Industrial Revolution started in the United Kingdom in the late 18th century, leading to a move away from agriculture, much greater general prosperity and a corresponding increase in population. Many of the states in Europe took their present form in the aftermath of World War I. From the end of World War II through the end of the Cold War, Europe was divided into two major political and economic blocks: Communist nations in Eastern Europe and capitalist countries in Western Europe. Around 1990, with the fall of the Berlin Wall, the Eastern bloc disintegrated.

Geography and extent

Eastern bloc Geographically Europe is a part of the larger landmass known as Eurasia. The continent begins at the Ural Mountains in Russia, which define Europe's eastern boundary with Asia. The southeast boundary with Asia isn't universally defined. Most commonly the Ural or, alternatively, the Emba river can serve as possible boundaries. The boundary continues with the Caspian Sea, and then the Araxes river in the Caucasus, and on to the Black Sea; the Bosporus, the Sea of Marmara, and the Dardanelles conclude the Asian boundary. The Mediterranean Sea to the south separates Europe from Africa. The western boundary is the Atlantic Ocean, but Iceland, much farther away than the nearest points of Africa and Asia, is also often included in Europe. There is ongoing debate on where the geographical centre of Europe is. At times "Europe" is defined with greater regard to political, economic, and other cultural considerations. This has led to there being several different Europes that are not always identical in size, including or excluding countries according to the definition of Europe used. Almost all European countries are members of the Council of Europe, the exceptions being Belarus, and the Holy See (Vatican City). The idea of the European continent is not held across all cultures. Some non-European geographical texts refer to the continent of Eurasia, or to the European peninsula, given that Europe is not surrounded by sea. In the past concepts such as Christendom were deemed more important. In another usage, Europe is increasingly being used as a short-form for the European Union (EU) and its members, currently consisting of 25 member states. A number of other European countries are negotiating for membership, and several more are expected to begin negotiations in the future (see Enlargement of the European Union).

Physical features

In terms of shape, Europe is a collection of connected peninsulas. The two largest of these are "mainland" Europe and Scandinavia to the north, divided from each other by the Baltic Sea. Three smaller peninsulas (Iberia, Italy and the Balkans) emerge from the southern margin of the mainland into the Mediterranean Sea, which separates Europe from Africa. Eastward, mainland Europe widens much like the mouth of a funnel, until the boundary with Asia is reached at the Ural Mountains. Land relief in Europe shows great variation within relatively small areas. The southern regions, however, are more mountainous, while moving north the terrain descends from the high Alps, Pyrenees and Carpathians, through hilly uplands, into broad, low northern plains, which are vast in the east. This extended lowland is known as the Great European Plain, and at its heart lies the North German Plain. An arc of uplands also exists along the northwestern seaboard, beginning in the western British Isles and continuing along the mountainous, fjord-cut spine of Norway. This description is simplified. Sub-regions such as Iberia and Italy contain their own complex features, as does mainland Europe itself, where the relief contains many plateaus, river valleys and basins that complicate the general trend. Iceland and the British Isles are special cases. The former is a land unto itself in the northern ocean which is counted as part of Europe, while the latter are upland areas that were once joined to the mainland until rising sea levels cut them off. Due to the few generalisations that can be made about the relief of Europe, it is less than surprising that its many separate regions provided homes for many separate nations throughout history.

Biodiversity

Having lived side-by-side with agricultural peoples for millennia, Europe's animals and plants have been profoundly affected by the presence and activities of man. With the exception of Scandinavia and northern Russia, few areas of untouched wilderness are today to be found in Europe, except for different natural parks. The main natural vegetation cover in Europe is forest. The conditions for growth are very favourable. In the north, the Gulf Stream and North Atlantic Drift warm the continent. Southern Europe could be described as having a warm, but mild climate. There are frequent summer droughts in this region. Mountain ridges also affect the conditions. Some of these (Alps, Pyrenees) are oriented east-west and allow the wind to carry large masses of water from the ocean in the interior. Others are oriented south-north (Scandinavian Mountains, Dinarides, Carpathians, Apennines) and because the rain falls primarily on the side of mountains that is oriented towards sea, forests grow well on this side, while on the other side, the conditions are much less favourable. Few corners of mainland Europe have not been grazed by livestock at some point in time, and the cutting down of the pre-agricultural forest habitat caused disruption to the original plant and animal ecosystems. Eighty to ninety per cent of Europe was once covered by forest. It stretched from the Mediterranean Sea to the Arctic Ocean. Though over half of Europe's original forests disappeared through the centuries of colonisation, Europe still has over one quarter of the world's forests - spruce forests of Scandinavia, vast pine forests in Russia, chestnut rainforests of the Caucasus and the cork oak forests in the Mediterranean. During recent times, deforestation has been stopped and many trees were planted. However, in many cases conifers have been preferred over original deciduous trees, because these grow quicker. The plantations and monocultures now cover vast areas of land and this offers very poor habitats for European forest dwelling species. The amount of original forests in Western Europe is just two to three per cent (in the European part of Russia five to ten per cent). The country with the smallest forest-covered area is Ireland (eight per cent), while the most forested country is Finland (72 per cent). In "mainland" Europe, deciduous forest prevails. The most important species are beech, birch and oak. In the north, where taiga grows, a very common tree species is the birch tree. In the Mediterranean, many olive trees have been planted, which are very well adapted to its arid climate. Another common species in Southern Europe is the cypress. Coniferous forests prevail at higher altitudes up to the forest boundary and as one moves north within Russia and Scandinavia, giving way to tundra as the Arctic is approached. The semi-arid Mediterranean region hosts much scrub forest. A narrow east-west tongue of Eurasian grassland—the steppe—extends eastwards from Ukraine and southern Russia and ends in Hungary and traverses into taiga to the north. Glaciation during the most recent ice age and the presence of man affected the distribution of European fauna. As for the animals, in many parts of Europe most large animals and top predator species have been hunted to extinction. The woolly mammoth and aurochs were extinct before the end of the Neolithic period. Today wolves (carnivores) and bears (omnivores) are endangered. Once they were found in most parts of Europe. However, deforestation caused these animals to withdraw further and further. By the Middle Ages the bears' habitats were limited to more or less inaccessible mountains with sufficient forest cover. Today, the brown bear lives primarily in the Balkan peninsula, in the North and in Russia; a small number also persist in other countries across Europe (Austria, Pyrenees etc.), but in these areas brown bear populations are fragmented and marginalised because of the destruction of their habitat. In the far North of Europe, polar bears can also be found. The wolf, the second largest predator in Europe after the brown bear, can be found primarily in Eastern Europe and in the Balkans. Other important European carnivores are Eurasian lynx, European wild cat, foxes (especially the red fox), jackal and different species of martens, hedgehogs, different species of snakes (vipers, grass snake...), different birds (owls, hawks and other birds of prey) Important European herbivores are snails, amphibians, fish, different birds, and mammals, like rodents, deers and roe deers, boars, and living in the mountains, marmots, steinbocks, chamoises among others. Sea creatures are also an important part of European flora and fauna. The sea flora is mainly phytoplankton. Important animals that live in European seas are zooplankton, molluscs, echinoderms, different crayfish, squids and octopuses, fish, dolphins, and whales. Some animals live in caves, for example proteus and bats.

Demographics

Almost all of Europe was possibly settled before or during the last ice age ca. 10,000 years ago. Neanderthal man and modern man coexisted during at least some of this time. Roman road building helped with the interbreeding of the native Europeans' genetics. In contemporary times Europe has one of the lowest inbreeding rates in the world because of an extensive transport network paired with open borders. Europe passed well over 600 million people before the turn of the 20th century, but now is entering a period of population decline, for a variety of social factors.

Territories and divisions

Political divisions

Independent states

interbreeding on this map.]] :See also: Table of European territories and regions The following independent states have territory in Europe: ² Azerbaijan and Georgia lie partly in Europe according to the usual definition which consider the crest of the Caucasus as the boundary with Asia.
³ Kazakhstan's European territory consists of a portion west of the Ural and Emba Rivers.
⁴ The name of this state is a matter of international dispute. See Republic of Macedonia for details.
⁵ Those territories of Russia lying west of the Ural Mountains are considered as part of Europe.
⁶ State union of Republic of Serbia and the Republic of Montenegro.
⁷ European Turkey comprises territory to the west and north of the Bosporus and the Dardanelles straits.
^{2, 3, 5, 7} See Countries in both Europe and Asia for details.

Dependent territories

The European territories listed below are recognised as being culturally and geographically defined. Most have a degree of autonomy. In the list below, each territory is followed by its legal status.
- Faroe Islands (autonomous region of Denmark)
- Gibraltar (UK overseas territory)
- Guernsey (British crown dependency)
- Jersey (British crown dependency)
- Man, Isle of (British crown dependency)
- Svalbard (autonomous region of Norway) Note that this is not a list of all dependencies of all European countries. Dependencies located on other continents are not listed.

Unilaterally seceded territories

Following are breakaway regions of independent states. These regions have declared and de facto achieved independence, but this is not recognised de jure by their home state or by the other independent states.
- Abkhazia (from Georgia)
- Nagorno-Karabakh (disputed by Armenia and Azerbaijan)
- South Ossetia (from Georgia)
- Transnistria (from Moldova)

Territories under United Nations administration

- Kosovo and Metohia (province of Serbia)

Table of European territories and regions

Notes:
¹ Continental regions as per UN categorisations/map. Depending on definitions, various territories cited below (notes 2-6, 8, 9) may be in one or both of Europe and Asia.
² Armenia is sometimes considered a transcontinental country in Eastern Europe and Western Asia (as per UN categorisations/map).
³ Azerbaijan is often considered a transcontinental country in Western Asia (UN region) and Eastern Europe; population and area figures are for European portion only.
⁴Cyprus is often considered a transcontinental country in Western Asia (UN region) and Southern Europe; population and area figures are for de jure Greek-administered portion only.
⁵Georgia is often considered a transcontinental country in Western Asia (UN region) and Eastern Europe; population and area figures are for European portion only.
⁶Kazakhstan is sometimes considered a transcontinental country in Central Asia (UN region) and Eastern Europe.
⁷Netherlands population for July 2004; Amsterdam is the de facto capital, while The Hague is the country's administrative seat.
⁸Russia is generally considered a transcontinental country in Eastern Europe (UN region) and Asia; population and area figures are for European portion only.
⁹Turkey is generally considered a transcontinental country in Western Asia (UN region) and Southern Europe; population and area figures are for European portion only, including all of Istanbul.

Linguistic and cultural regions

The sub-division in several linguistic and cultural regions is much less subjective than the geographical sub-division, since they correspond to people's cultural connections. There are three main groups:

Germanic Europe

Germanic Europe, where Germanic languages are spoken. This area corresponds more or less to north-western Europe and some parts of central Europe. The main religion of the region is Protestantism, even if there are also some countries with Catholic majority (particularly Austria). This region consists of: United Kingdom, Ireland, Iceland, Germany, Austria, Netherlands, Denmark, Sweden, Norway, Luxembourg, Liechtenstein, the Faroe Islands, German-speaking Switzerland, the Flemish part of Belgium, the Swedish-speaking municipalities of Finland, and the South Tyrol part of Italy.

Latin Europe

Latin Europe, where the Romance languages are spoken. This area corresponds more or less to south-western Europe, with the exception of Romania and Moldova which are situated in Eastern Europe. The major religion is Catholicism, except in Romania and Moldova. This area consists of: Italy, Spain, Portugal, France, Romania, Moldova, French-speaking Belgium and French speaking Switzerland, and Italian and Romansh speaking Switzerland as well.

Slavic Europe

Slavic Europe, where Slavic languages are spoken. This area corresponds, more or less, to Central and Eastern Europe. The main religions are Orthodox Christianity and Catholicism, with large Muslim populations in some parts formerly ruled by the Ottoman Empire. This area consists of: Belarus, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Bulgaria, Croatia, the Czech Republic, the Republic of Macedonia, Poland, Russia, Serbia and Montenegro, Slovakia, Slovenia and Ukraine.

Others

Outside of these three main groups we can find:
- The Celtic nations: Scotland, Wales, Northern Ireland, Cornwall (within the United Kingdom); the Isle of Man (a British Crown dependency); the Republic of Ireland; Brittany (within France). These are all nations where a Celtic language is spoken, or was spoken into modern times, and there is a degree of shared culture (see Pan Celticism). Also considered Celtic nations, by some, are both Galicia (Spain) and Asturias, (within Spain), whose own Celtic language died out several hundred years ago.
- Greece, the only country of "Hellenic Europe".In Hellenic Europe we can consider also the Greek Cypriot community It is sometimes associated with the Latin countries, due to the geographical and cultural ties to the Mediterranean Sea, and sometimes to the Slavic-Orthodox part of Europe due to the importance or Orthodoxy in Greece.
- Armenia has a language that constitutes a separate branch of Indo-European family of languages. The Armenian language is spoken in Armenia and other European countries with Armenian communities (such as France, Greece, Belgium, Russia, Germany etc.).
- Ibero-Caucasian, a group that includes ethnic groups throughout the Caucasus region (both North and South). Ibero-Caucasian languages are not linked to the Indo-European languages. This group includes Georgians, Abkhaz, Chechens, Balkars, and a number of other smaller ethnic groups that reside in the Caucasus.
- Turkey, having an Altaic language not of Indo-European origin, and mainly a Muslim country, unlike the main regions' different versions of Christianity.
- Hungary, having a language related to Finnish and Estonian. Due to its location Hungary is normally grouped with Central or Eastern European countries.
- Finland and Estonia, whose languages are related to Hungarian. Despite this connection (not a close one), Finland and Estonia are normally associated with northern European countries (of an even farther connection).

External links

-
- [http://www.democracyineurope.com Democracy in Europe]
- [http://www.holidayhomeseuro.com European holiday homes]
- [http://phoenicia.org/europa.html Europa, the Phoenician Princess] - overwhelmed Zeus with love
- [http://www.europestartpage.com EUROPEstartpage.com, travel and city guide to Europe]
- [http://www.limitlesseurope.com LimitlessEurope.com : information guide to Europe]
- [http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/Newsroom/NewImages/images.php3?img_id=13266 Europe at Night] at NASA Earth Observatory
- [http://www.geog.tamu.edu/~prout/GVmidtermTwo.html Regions of Europe]
- [http://p086.ezboard.com/balbanau Evropa / Europa / Europe]
- [http://www.eufpc.org EUFPC European Foreign Policy Council]
- [http://www.itmaps.com/?modul=map Map of Europe]
- [http://www.freeworldmaps.net/europe/index.html Physical Map of Europe]
- [http://www.parks.it/europa/Eindex.html Parks in Europe] - National parks, nature parks, reserves and other protected areas. Category:Continents als:Europa roa-rup:Evropa zh-min-nan:Europa ko:유럽 ms:Eropah ja:ヨーロッパ simple:Europe th:ทวีปยุโรป

Russia

The Russian Federation (, transliteration: Rossiyskaya Federatsiya or Rossijskaja Federacija), or Russia (Russian: Росси́я, transliteration: Rossiya or Rossija), is a country that stretches over a vast expanse of Europe and Asia. With an area of 17,075,200 km² (6,595,600 mi²), it is the largest country in the world (by land mass), covering almost twice the territory of the next-largest country, Canada. It ranks eighth in the world in population. It shares land borders with the following countries (counter-clockwise from NW to SE): Norway, Finland, Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Poland (only through Kaliningrad Oblast), Belarus, Ukraine, Georgia, Azerbaijan, Kazakhstan, China, Mongolia and North Korea. It is also close to the United States and Japan across stretches of water: the Diomede Islands (one controlled by Russia, the other by the United States) are just 3 km apart, and Kunashir Island (controlled by Russia but claimed by Japan) is about 20 kilometers from Hokkaido. Formerly the dominant republic of the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (USSR), Russia is now an independent country, and an influential member of the Commonwealth of Independent States, since the Union's dissolution in December 1991. During the Soviet era, Russia was officially called the Russian Soviet Federated Socialist Republic (RSFSR). Russia is usually considered the Soviet Union's successor state in diplomatic matters. Most of the area, population, and industrial production of the Soviet Union, then one of the world's two superpowers, lay in Russia. After the breakup of the USSR, Russia's global role was greatly diminished, and cannot be compared to that of the former Soviet Union. In October 2005, the federal statistics agency reported that Russia's population has shrunk by more than half a million people dipping to 143 million.

History

Ancient Rus

:This section covers the pre-Russ ancient history of present Russia and its early medieval period, which is historically referred to as Ancient Rus. The vast lands of present Russia were home to disunited tribes who were variously overwhelmed by invading Goths, Huns, and Turkish Avars between the third and sixth centuries C.E. The Iranian Scythians populated the southern steppes, and a Turkic people, the Khazars, ruled the western portion of these lands through the 8th century. They in turn were displaced by a group of Scandinavians, the Varangians, who established a capital at the Slavic city of Novgorod and gradually merged with Slavic ruling classes. The Slavs constituted the bulk of the population from the 8th century onwards and slowly assimilated both the Scandinavians as well as native Finno-Ugric tribes, such as the Merya, the Muromians and the Meshchera. Meshchera The Varangian dynasty lasted several centuries, during which they affiliated with the Byzantine, or Orthodox church and moved the capital to Kiev in 1169 A.D. In this era the term "Rhos", or "Russ", first came to be applied to the Varangians and later also to the Slavs who peopled the region. In the 10th to 11th centuries this state of Kievan Rus became the largest in Europe and was quite prosperous, due to diversified trade with both Europe and Asia. Nomadic Turkic people Kipchaks (Polovtsi) conquered southern Russia at the end of 11th century and founded a nomadic state in the steppes along the Black Sea (Desht-e-Kipchak). In the 13th century the area suffered from internal disputes and was overrun by eastern invaders, the Golden Horde of the pagan Mongols and Muslim Turkic-speaking nomads who pillaged the Russian principalities for over three centuries. Also known as the Tatars, they ruled the southern and central expanses of present-day Russia, while its western zone was largely incorporated into the Grand Duchy of Lithuania and Poland. The political dissolution of Kievan Rus divided the Russian people in the north from the Belarusians and Ukrainians in the west. The northern part of Russia together with Novgorod retained some degree of autonomy during the time of the Mongol yoke and was largely spared the atrocities that affected the rest of the country. Nevertheless it had to fight the Germanic crusaders who attempted to colonize the region. Like in the Balkans and Asia Minor long-lasting nomadic rule retarded the country's economic and social development. Asian autocratic influences degraded many of the country's democratic institutions and affected its culture and economy in a very negative way. In spite of this, unlike its spiritual leader, the Byzantine Empire, Russia was able to revive, and organized its own war of reconquest, finally subjugating its enemies and annexing their territories. After the fall of Constantinople in 1453 Russia remained the only more or less functional Christian state on the Eastern European frontier, allowing it to claim succession to the legacy of the Eastern Roman Empire.

Imperial Russia

While still nominally under the domain of the Mongols, the duchy of Moscow began to assert its influence, and eventually tossed off the control of the invaders late in the 14th century. In the beginning of the 16th century the Russian state set the national goal to return all Russian territories lost as a result of the Mongolian invasion and to protect the borderland against attacks of hordes. The noblemen, receiving a manor from the sovereign, were obliged to serve in the army. The manor system became a basis for the nobiliary horse army. The Russian state persistently battled against Nogai-Horde and Crimean khanat which were successors of the Golden Horde. Russians, captivated by nomads, were on sale on Crimean slave markets. In 1571 Crimean khan Devlet-Girei, with a horde of 120 thousand horsemen, devastated Moscow. Annually thousands of Russians became victims of attacks by nomads. Tens of thousand of soldiers protected the southern borderland--a heavy burden for the state--which slowed its social and economic development. Ivan the Great first took the title Tsar (from the Roman Caesar, also written Czar) of Moscow following his marriage to Sofia, a Byzantine Princess (niece of the last Byzantine Emperor) consolidated surrounding areas under Moscow's dominion. At the end of 16 centuries Russian cossacks established the first settlements in Western Siberia. To the middle of 17th century Russian settlements were in Eastern Siberia, on Chukotka, the river Amur, coast of Pacific ocean. In 1648 Cossack Semyon Dezhnev opened the passage between America and Asia. The Russian Empire was born. Russian Empire] Muscovite control of the nascent nation continued after the Polish intervention 1605-1612 under the subsequent Romanov dynasty, beginning with Tsar Michael Romanov in 1613. Peter the Great, who ruled from 1689 to 1725, succeeded in bringing ideas and culture from Western Europe to a Russia which had been affected by primitive nomadic cultures. Catherine the Great, ruling from 1762 to 1796, enhanced this effort, establishing Russia not just as an Asian power, but on an equal footing with Britain, France, and Germany in Europe. She enlarged the Russian territory by the Partitions of Poland. Russia has taken territories with the ethnic Belarus and Ukrainian population, earlier parts of the medieval Kievan Rus'. As a result of victorious Russian-Turkish wars Russia reached to Black sea and has set as the purpose protection of Balkan Christians against a Turkish yoke. In 1783 Russia and Georgian Kingdom (which was almost totally devastated by Persian and Turkish invasions) have signed the treatise of Georgiev according to which Georgia has received protection of Russia. In 1812, having gathered nearly half a million soldiers from France, as well as from all of its vassal states in Europe, Napoleon entered Russia and was defeated by Russian troops. In 1813 Russian army defeated the French armies in Germany. Russia has won in the War of 1877-1878 and Ottoman Empire recognized the independence of Romania, Serbia and Montenegro and autonomy of Bulgaria. Unrest of the peasants and suppression of the growing Intelligentsia were continuing problems however, and on the eve of World War I, the position of Tsar Nicholas II and his dynasty appeared precarious. Repeated devastating defeats of the Russian army in World War I led to widespread rioting in the major cities of the Russian Empire and to the overthrow in 1917 of the Romanovs. At the close of this Russian Revolution of 1917, a Marxist political faction called the Bolsheviks seized power in St. Petersburg and Moscow under the leadership of Vladimir Lenin. The Bolsheviks changed their name to the Communist Party. A bloody civil war ensued, pitting the Bolsheviks' Red Army against a loose confederation of anti-socialist monarchist and bourgeois forces known as the White Army. The Red Army triumphed, and the Soviet Union was formed in 1922.

Russia as part of Soviet Union

The Soviet Union was to be a transnational worker's state free from nationalism, which Leninism teaches is a ruse used by the bourgeoisie to keep the international working classes from re

Whites

The Epistemological Challenge

Synonyms

Historic use of the term

Who is white?

The Americas: Euro-predominant and mixed-race people

White and Hispanic categories in the US

North Africa, Southwest Asia and South Asia

Whiteness and White nationalism

Social vs. physical perceptions of white

Criticisms of the term

"White" as opposed to "Light Skinned"

Areas of habitation

See also

Footnotes

External links

Further reading

White (disambiguation)

Color metaphors for race

Western classifications

Russia

India

China

Central Asia

Notes and references

Culture of Europe

Faultlines

Global influence

Values

Arts

Food and drink

Language

Sport

Symbols

See also

Europe

Etymology

History

Geography and extent

Physical features

Biodiversity

Demographics

Territories and divisions

Political divisions

Independent states

Dependent territories

Unilaterally seceded territories

Territories under United Nations administration

Table of European territories and regions

Linguistic and cultural regions

Germanic Europe

Latin Europe

Slavic Europe

Others

See also

Lists and tables

External links

Russia

History

Ancient Rus

Imperial Russia

Russia as part of Soviet Union