Europe is the second smallest
of the inhabited continents. It is a part of the Eurasian land mass
that includes Europe, Asia, Asia Minor and the Arabian Peninsula.
As many large islands east and south of Asia are usually included in Asia,
the Eurasian land mass extends from Iceland to New Guinea, from the Atlantic
to the Pacific and from the Arctic to the Indian Oceans. Just where
to divide this mass into continents has long been debated. Traditionally
the Ural mountains in Russia have been used as a division. This line
then had to curve back through the Caspian and Black Seas to avoid leaving
Turkey in Europe. The fact that this separated Christian Europe from
Muslim, Hindu and Buddhist Asia is not coincidental. With the creation
of many new countries from the collapse of the Soviet Union the division
is more difficult as so many want to be included in Europe for economic
reasons. In order to show complete countries only we have included
Russia in Asia, where most of its area lies, rather than in Europe.
