The almost unbroken mountain chain formed by the Pyrenees,
the Alps, and the Balkans, sharply separates the central land mass of Europe
from the regions to the south. Central Europe consists, in general, of
lowlands, which widen eastward into the vast Russian plain. Northern Europe
includes the British Isles, physically an extension of Europe, and the
peninsulas of Scandinavia and Finland, between the Baltic Sea and the Arctic
Ocean. Twenty centuries ago central and northern Europe was a land of forests
and marshes, of desolate steppes and icebound hills. The peoples who inhabited
it—Celts in the west, Teutons or Germans in the north, Slavs in the east --were
men of Indo-European race and speech. They were still barbarians. During
ancient times we hear little of them, except as their occasional migrations
southward brought them into contact with the Greeks and the Romans.
SOUTHERN EUROPE
Southern Europe comprises the three peninsulas of Spain,
Italy, and the Balkans, which reach far south into the Mediterranean. This
great inland sea is divided into two parts near the center, where Africa and
the island of Sicily almost touch each other across a narrow strait. The
eastern part contains several minor seas, of which the one called the Aegean
had most importance in Greek history.
