[Uri]

For me, Europe is more a Cultural term than a geographical one. Geographically, it's only a peninsula of Asia.
This Cultural traits are a mix of Pagan and Christian beliefs and the fact that, in a reduced space, the people developed societies that evolucioned into urban ones with continuity in the present (in a different sense,for example, the civilizations of ancient Middle East don't survive to the current times; only aspects like script or mathematics are now useful, but his ethic system and religious values were destroyed by the islamic monotheism. In Europe, the Arts, the Law (at least, the Roman Legacy) and some aspects of Christian beliefs and celebrations, are a surviving evidence of this ancient values.

When I say "Cultural" I'm not including the Americas, Australia and other areas colonised by european inmigrants, because they are secondary areas of expansion with more specifical traits not related to his european origin; another sociopolitical system based on ideas that, for more reasons (importance of stablished religions, monarquical systems...) were not possible to develop in Europe (english religious dissidence in North America, the penal colony in Australia and even, Siberia, the "frontier" caracter of his population due to the contact with indigenous peoples).