In terms of territorial area, the top ten European countries are as follows:

No. 1, Russia (total area 17055400 square kilometers, the European part accounts for about 1/4 of the total land area, that is, 4268350 square kilometers. The total area ranks first in the world).

2. Ukraine is 603,700 square kilometers (43rd in the world).

Third, France has 547,030 square kilometers (ranked 47th in the world).

Fourth, Spain has 504,782 square kilometers (ranked 50th in the world).

Fifth, Sweden has 449,964 square kilometers (ranked 54th in the world).

Six, Germany 35702 1 10,000 square kilometers (world ranking 6 1)

Seventh, Norway has 324,220 square kilometers (ranking 66th in the world).

Eighth, Poland has 3 1.2685 million square kilometers (ranking 68th in the world).

Ninth, Italy has 30 1.23 million square kilometers (ranking 69th in the world).

Britain is 65,438+00,244,820 square kilometers (ranked 76th in the world).

Extended data:

In Europe, France has the largest land area in Europe after Russia and Ukraine. If you count overseas territories and islands, France is the second largest country in Europe, and its territorial sea and exclusive economic zone can rank among the top three in the world.

The area of France has always been in the leading position in Europe, which is basically the result of historical evolution. France is only one of the great European countries in history, but there are indeed European countries larger than France in history.

For example, the Holy Roman Empire in the Middle Ages, the Spanish Empire and the Ottoman Empire in early modern times. /kloc-austro-hungarian empire and german empire after 0/9th century. With the exception of Russia, other countries that used to be bigger than France have either disintegrated or greatly weakened, and their territorial areas have been greatly reduced.

On the contrary, the historical territory of France is relatively stable. The highest peak in French territory in history should be 18 12 in the Napoleonic era. However, after Napoleon's defeat, the territory retreated to the territory around 1789. In the next 200 years, except for the acquisition of Sava and Nice, and the tug-of-war with the Germans in alsace-lorraine, there was basically no change.

In the two world wars, France fought hard, but fortunately, it was on the side of the victors. Unlike Germany, because the defeat cost a lot. Therefore, the territory of the European part of France has remained stable for a long time until today.

From the map of Europe in 2000 and the map of Europe in 1900, it can be clearly seen that Germany was greatly weakened by the two world wars, while the Austro-Hungarian Empire was completely disintegrated.

On the other hand, in the history of Europe, those countries that once had a vast national territory. Either it disintegrated because of the internal vassal regime (such as the Holy Roman Empire in the Middle Ages), or it was besieged by European countries because of excessive expansion and gradually lost its territory (such as the Spanish Empire and the Polish-Lithuanian Federation in modern times).

Or because of internal ethnic problems (such as Austria-Hungary and Ottoman Empire, Ireland's independence from Britain, Catalonia's request for independence from Spain can also fall into this category). In addition, the influence of the world war on Germany, which we talked about in the last paragraph, is also the main reason why European powers are difficult to survive.

The French, because they established centralization very early, concentrated their political power in the hands of the king, avoiding the separation of princes. At the same time, due to France's strong military strength and certain diplomatic skills in history, it has repeatedly avoided the fate of being weakened by the failure of the war.

For example, after the Napoleonic Wars, French Foreign Minister talleyrand took advantage of the great power contradiction of the Vienna Peace Conference to safeguard France's great power status. After World War II, France used its allies to prevent Germany from making a comeback, balanced the excessive influence of the Soviet Union and became a permanent member of the UN Security Council.

In addition, after the Great Revolution, France established a national identity model based on the political concept of "freedom, equality and fraternity" rather than blood and language, and continuously promoted this model through unified official language, French and compulsory education for all. This enabled bretons, Alsace and other ethnic minorities to integrate into France, avoiding ethnic division.

European countries with a larger area than France in history, such as Roman Empire, Spanish Empire and Ottoman Empire, Austro-Hungarian Empire and German Empire, are not as lucky as France. Because of the defeat, the land suffered great losses. Other big countries are either disintegrated or separated by powerful countries, or weakened by powerful countries, and their territorial area is naturally much less.

Baidu Encyclopedia-France

Baidu Encyclopedia-Europe