When was Europe first called Europe?

It remains a bit of a puzzler why Europe stuck as a place name, since mythologically Europa never made it to the mainland of Greece. The name was well established by the time of Herodotus (in the mid 5th century BC) who complained that its borders seemed arbitrary, since there was no clear agreement on when “Europe” became “Asia” north of the Black Sea. read more

Europe first, also known as Germany first, was the key element of the grand strategy agreed upon by the United States and the United Kingdom during World War II. According to this policy, the United States and the United Kingdom would use the preponderance of their resources to subdue Nazi Germany in Europe first. read more

About 500 B.C., the northern parts of Greece were generally referred to as Europe and soon thereafter the name was applied not only to Greece, but to the whole continent. According to another theory, promoted by many researchers, the word Europe comes from the Semitic word "erebu", which means "sunset". read more