WorldViews. The World in Textbooks

POPULATION AND ETHNIC COMPOSITION

POPULATION. - Europe possesses, despite its limited expanse in comparison with the other continents, an abundant population, which amounts to 766,456.000 inhabitants, including the U.S.S.R, which represents 15% of the global population. Its density is 76.2 inhabitants per km².

ETHNIC COMPOSITION. – The territory of Europe is not only populated by one ethnic group because the population of the native tribes changed due to the arrival of different populations from Asia following successive invasions.

The integration of these populations, which especially came from Asia, allowed for the hybridization and the emergence of the races ^a and racial groups that currently exist on this continent.

The principle European races are: the white, that constitutes the immense majority of the population, and the yellow.

White Race. - It is formed out of two types, one blond and the other brunette. Furthermore, this race in Europe is represented by the Aryans and the Semites.

The Aryans, at the same time, are comprised of three principle groups, which are: the Greek-Latin, the Germanic and the Slavic.

Greek-Latin group. – This group comprises the parts of southwest and Central Europe, in particular the Portuguese, Spaniards, French, Italians, part of the Swiss, and in the Balkan Peninsula the Romanians and Greek.

Germanic group. – Found in one part of Central Europe and in the Northwestern part, up to the Scandinavian Peninsula. It comprises

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the Anglo-Saxons or English, the Scandinavians (Norwegians, Swedes, Danish and Icelanders), and the Teutons (Germans, Austrians, Dutch, Flemish and Luxembourgers).

Slavic group. – This group occupies the Eastern part of Europe, reaching the Centre, and the Balkan Peninsula in the South. They divide into the East-Slavs (Russians and Ukrainians), Slavs of the Centre (Polish, Czechs and Slovaks) and Slavs of the South or Yugoslavs (Serbs and Slovenes).

The Semites. – They are constituted by the Jews who live all over Europe, especially in the U.S.S.R, Romania, United Kingdom, France, Germany, Hungary and Poland.

Other minor groups of the white race are the descendants of prehistorical races that are found dispersed throughout Europe, which conserve some typical and idiomatic characteristics of their ancestors. They are comprised of the Celtic group that includes the Irish, Scottish, Welsh, Bretons, etc.: the Basques of insecure origin; the Albanians and the Helvetians ^b .

Yellow race. – It corresponds to the people of Mongolian origin, descentants of the invadors coming from Asia in the historic times, but you find them mixed with other white people to such an extent that traces of the primitive race hardly remain.

They divide into two big groups which are: the Fins and the Tartars ^c .

The first is represented by a northern group, which lives along the Arctic coastline and is comprised of the Lapps and the Samoyeds ^d ; and another group that inhabits the center and the south, conformed by the Hungarians, who inhabit the Hungarian lowlands and the Bulgarians, in the Eastern part of the Balkan Peninsula.

The second is constituted by a group that lives between the Ural and the Volga, namely the Tartars, Kirghizes and Kalmyks ^e ; and another group which is the one of the Turks which inhabits European Turkey in the surroundings of Istanbul.