A country that occupies the western part of the Iberian peninsula in southwest Europe, Portugal borders the Atlantic Ocean to the west and south, and Spain to the east and north. It also includes two Atlantic archipelagos, the Azores and Madeira that occupy strategic points along the approaches to the Strait of Gibraltar. The overseas territory of Macao (Macau) was returned to China in 1999. Portugal has developed a diverse and increasingly service-oriented...

The island of Ireland lies to the west of England and Wales and faces them across the Irish Sea. About 80 percent of the total area of the island is occupied by the Republic of Ireland (usually referred to simply as Ireland), which is divided up into 26 counties. Ireland consists of a central lowland area traversed by rivers, such as the Shannon, and with large areas of peat bog, an important source of fuel. The bogs are interspersed by areas of fertile...

A country in Central Europe, with a coastline on the Baltic Sea in the north, Poland is bounded to the west by Germany, to the south by the Czech and Slovak Republics, to the east by Ukraine and Belarus, and by Lithuania and the Russian oblast of Kaliningrad to the north. For the most part undulating, Poland is part of the great Northern European Plain, though it rises toward the south through hills that culminate in the Sudeten and Carpathian mountains...

The European Union (EU) consists of 28 countries, spanning the European continent from Ireland in the west to the border of Russia in the east. Any European country with a democratic government, a functioning market economy, respect for fundamental rights, and a government capable of implementing EU laws and policies may apply for membership. The EU is neither a nation, nor an international organization, nor is it intended to replace existing nations....

Germany lies in the heart of Europe. It stretches from the North Sea and Baltic coasts in the north to the Alps in the south and has land borders with nine countries: Austria, Belgium, the Czech Republic, Denmark, France, Luxembourg, Netherlands, Poland, and Switzerland. Following Germany's defeat in World War I and the collapse of their empire, they were left with crippling reparations, soaring inflation, and high unemployment. The rise of the Nazi...

A European country in the southern Balkans, Greece is a complicated series of mountain ridges and enclosed valleys, forming a deeply indented peninsula that extends down into the Mediterranean Sea. Greece is famous for the clarity of its light, and no place is very far from the sea. Scores of islands, some of them forming named groups, make up a fifth or so of the country, and are mostly uninhabited. The largest island, Crete, was acquired by Greece...

On January 1, 1993, Czechoslovakia was divided into two entities: the Czech Republic and the Republic of Slovakia. The Czech Republic now occupies about two-thirds of the area that once was Czechoslovakia, and consists of the Bohemian plateau in the east and the Moravian lowlands to the west. Mountains form most of the republic's northern border with Germany and Poland. Czechoslovakia was occupied by Germany during World War II, but the Communists...

A kingdom of Western Europe, bounded to the north and west by the North Sea, to the south by Belgium, and to the east by Germany. The Netherlands (also known as Holland), with Belgium and Luxembourg, make up what are known as the Low Countries. Strictly speaking, however, the name Holland belongs only to the two coastal provinces of North and South Holland. The plural "Netherlands," used in English, is a legacy of the past, since the Dutch themselves...