Western Europe

Western Europe is the region comprising the western part of Europe.

Historical divisions

Classical antiquity and medieval origins

Prior to the Roman conquest, a large part of Western Europe had adopted the fairly newly developed La Tène culture. As Roman domain expanded, a cultural and linguistic division appeared between the mainly Greek-speaking eastern provinces which had formed the highly urbanized Hellenistic civilization and the western territories, which, in contrast, largely adopted the Latin language. This cultural and linguistic division was eventually reinforced by the later political east-west division of the Roman Empire.

The division between these two was enhanced during Late Antiquity and the Middle Ages by a number of events. The Western Roman Empire collapsed starting the Early Middle Ages. By contrast, the Eastern Roman Empire, mostly known as the Greek or Byzantine Empire, managed to survive and even to thrive for another 1000 years. The rise of the Frankish Empire in the west, and in particular the Great Schism that formally divided Eastern Orthodoxy and Roman Catholicism, enhanced the cultural and religious distinctiveness between Eastern and Western Europe.

Europe

Europe (ⁱ/ˈjʊərəp/ or /ˈjɜːrəp/) is a continent that comprises the westernmost part of Eurasia. Europe is bordered by the Arctic Ocean to the north, the Atlantic Ocean to the west, and the Mediterranean Sea to the south. To the east and southeast, Europe is generally considered as separated from Asia by the watershed divides of the Ural and Caucasus Mountains, the Ural River, the Caspian and Black Seas, and the waterways of the Turkish Straits. Yet the borders of Europe—a concept dating back to classical antiquity—are arbitrary, as the primarily physiographic term "continent" also incorporates cultural and political elements.

Europe is the world's second-smallest continent by surface area, covering about 10,180,000 square kilometres (3,930,000 sq mi) or 2% of the Earth's surface and about 6.8% of its land area. Of Europe's approximately 50 countries, Russia is by far the largest by both area and population, taking up 40% of the continent (although the country has territory in both Europe and Asia), while Vatican City is the smallest. Europe is the third-most populous continent after Asia and Africa, with a population of 739–743 million or about 11% of the world's population. Europe has a climate heavily affected by warm Atlantic currents, tempering winters and enabling warm summers on most of the continent, even on latitudes that have severe climates in North America and Asia. Further from the Atlantic, seasonal differences increase, but the mildness of the climate remains.

Western

Western may refer to:

Common uses and meanings

Places

Art, entertainment, and media

Educational institutions

Absolutely (Story of a Girl)

"Absolutely (Story of a Girl)" is a song by American alternative rock group Nine Days. It was released in April 2000 as the lead single from their debut album The Madding Crowd (2000). The song entered the top ten on the majority of the charts it appeared on, including the Billboard Hot 100 chart in the U.S., where it reached number 6. Because of the success of the song, it made an appearance on 2000 compilation album Now That's What I Call Music! 5.

Background and writing

The lyrics of "Absolutely (Story of a Girl)" portray John Hampson's love towards his girlfriend, despite her tears and sadness. "Absolutely (Story of a Girl)" is the presentation of an undying declaration of love between Hampson and his girlfriend at the time. Hampson and his girlfriend supply the basis for the characters. Hampson's relationships with people, including himself, provided the inspiration for most of Nine Day's "The In Crowd" (2003),

John Hampson started working on "Absolutely (Story of a Girl)" after reading the Thomas Hardy novel Far from the Madding Crowd. In writing the song, John worked with fellow band member Brian Desveaux in Hampson’s apartment in Deer Park to co-write songs that ultimately appeared on The Madding Crowd. John, Brian, and the rest of the members of Nine days recorded a demo of "Absolutely (Story of a Girl)" at Sabella Studios in Rosyln, NY, in 1998. "After ‘Absolutely’ was written everything fell into place, creatively, and we recorded a three-song demo," Desveaux said.

Pacific Ocean

The Pacific Ocean is the largest of the Earth's oceanic divisions. It extends from the Arctic Ocean in the north to the Southern Ocean (or, depending on definition, to Antarctica) in the south and is bounded by Asia and Australia in the west and the Americas in the east.

At 165.25 million square kilometers (63.8 million square miles) in area, this largest division of the World Ocean—and, in turn, the hydrosphere—covers about 46% of the Earth's water surface and about one-third of its total surface area, making it larger than all of the Earth's land area combined.

The equator subdivides it into the North Pacific Ocean and South Pacific Ocean, with two exceptions: the Galápagos and Gilbert Islands, while straddling the equator, are deemed wholly within the South Pacific. The Mariana Trench in the western North Pacific is the deepest point in the world, reaching a depth of 10,911 metres (35,797 ft).

The eastern Pacific Ocean was first sighted by Europeans in the early 16th century when Spanish explorer Vasco Núñez de Balboa crossed the Isthmus of Panama in 1513 and discovered the great "southern sea" which he named Mar del Sur. The ocean's current name was coined by Portuguese explorer Ferdinand Magellan during the Spanish circumnavigation of the world in 1521, as he encountered favourable winds on reaching the ocean. He called it Mar Pacifico, which in both Portuguese and Spanish means "peaceful sea".