North and West European ethnicity indicates genetic origins in the region of Northern and Western Europe. The region is bordered by the Alps to its south, the North Sea to its north, and the English Channel to its west and encompasses northern France, Luxembourg, Belgium, the Netherlands, and northern Germany. Ethnically, its inhabitants descend from a mixture, at varying degrees, of Celtic, Germanic, and Latin people. Sometime during the 3rd millennium B.C.E., Celtic tribes migrated westward from central Europe, settling in modern-day Germany and France. Having conquered and assimilated preexisting groups, Celtic cultures and languages ruled supreme in Western Europe until the 5th century B.C.E., when Germanic tribes from southern Scandinavia started moving south, pushing back and displacing the Celts as they went. By the turn of the Common Era, the rapid expansion of the Romans into Western and Northern Europe introduced the Latin element into the region.
North and Western European history
By the turn of the Common Era, the Romans had conquered Gallia Narbonensis, Gallia Citerior, and Rhaetia — encompassing France, Belgium, the Netherlands, and Germany. The Romans introduced Greco-Roman culture into what had, until then, been considered Southern Europe’s barbaric hinterland. During the 4th century, Emperor Constantine established Christianity as the official religion of the Roman Empire. In 395, following a century of turmoil and divisions, the empire was split into 2, a Western Empire ruled by Rome and an Eastern Empire ruled by Constantinople. Around that time, a remarkable period of mass migration — known as the völkerwanderung (“migration of nations”) — saw the widespread invasion of peoples within or into Europe. Germanic tribes began pressing aggressively into the Roman provinces; in 410, the Visigoths attacked and sacked Rome, precipitating the collapse of the Empire and the division of its territories into new Germanic kingdoms. The next millennium saw Western Europe slip into demographic, cultural, and economic decline. In the year 800, Pope Leo crowned Charlemagne, the powerful King of the Franks, as Emperor of the Holy Roman Empire. The polity — a vast, multi-ethnic kingdom, sardonically described by Voltaire as “neither holy, nor Roman, nor an empire” — persisted in various forms until its final dissolution in 1806 during the Napoleonic Wars.
During the late 16th century, several processes were set in motion which cast Western Europe into what it is today. The Renaissance (literally meaning “rebirth”), a cultural and intellectual revival movement, stressed the rediscovery and application of texts and thought from classical antiquity. At the same time, the Protestant Reformation and the ensuing Counter-Reformation led to the creation of modern universities, which renounced religious orthodoxy in favor of rational and objective intellectual inquiry. Subsequently, the rise of exact sciences saw a veritable creative boom in fields such as weaponry, navigation, and financial and trading mechanisms. The Dutch, French, and English maritime empires announced Western Europe to the world stage as a force to be reckoned with.
The invention of the steam engine in 1698 kicked off the Industrial Revolution, prompting a century of radical technological, socioeconomic, and cultural transformations; the French Revolution in 1789 ushered in the age of liberalism and democracy. By the turn of the century, Western European technological, military, and economic superiority were absolute. But the idealist conception of progress espoused by European modernism was punctured during WWI (1914–1918) and all but shattered following WWII (1939–1945). The post-war period saw the gradual dismantling of the Western European empires, and the ascendency of the United States and the Soviet Union as the main players on the world stage. The formulation of the European Union in 1993 joined Northern and Western Europe in a political and economic union, formally bringing to an end over a millennium of incessant hostilities.
North and Western European culture
Western Europeans take food very seriously. European culinary practices and dining etiquette are highly developed, with artisanal wine and cheese making, pastry baking, and cooking having been elevated to an art. Perhaps no country evokes as strong an association with fine wine as does France. Many of its local varieties, such as Merlot and Chardonnay, are grown all over the world. The French have also taken the art of pastry making down to a science — from flaky croissants to delicate macaróns. French pride in their pre-Roman Celtic past is exemplified in the comic book series The Adventures of Asterix, in which Gaulish warriors fight the Roman Empire during the era of Julius Caesar.
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Germans are known as hardworking and industrious people. Globally renowned for giants of industry such as Daimler-Benz, Volkswagen, or Siemens, it is actually small-sized firms that best encapsulate German values of family and community: companies that employ fewer than 500 workers constitute 98% of all German companies, hiring 80% of all employees. Germany is also home to Oktoberfest, the world’s most famous celebration of beer: over 7 million people flock annually to Munich to wash down a traditional bratwurst and sauerkraut with one of a variety of beers specifically brewed for the festival.
With an average height of 184 cm for men and 170 cm for women, the Dutch are the tallest people in the world. Dutch artists are believed to have brought oil painting to Europe, and painters like Vermeer, Rembrandt, and van Gogh are among the most celebrated artists of the Western canon. Bordering France, Holland, and Germany, Belgium boasts a rich artistic and culinary tradition. Among its contributions to Western culture are the comic book series The Adventures of Tintin, Flemish painters Pieter Paul Rubens and René Magritte, and — despite its misleading name — french fries!
North and Western European languages
Northern and Western European languages mostly fall within two Indo-European language families: the Romance languages, descended from the Latin of the Roman Empire, and the Germanic languages, which came to the region via the Germanic tribes of southern Scandinavia. Celtic languages are all but forgotten in continental Europe — barring Brittany on the French Atlantic coast — but persist and flourish in the United Kingdom. Starting in the 16th century, colonial migratory patterns spread French, Dutch, Belgian, and German people around the world, from New World colonies to colonial holdings in Africa, Asia, and the West Indies.
Explore more about ethnicity estimates
- MyHeritage DNA at MyHeritage
- Ethnicities around the world at MyHeritage
- What Is My Ethnicity? How MyHeritage Estimates Ethnicities at MyHeritage Knowledge Base
- Where's My Ethnicity?!: Why An Ethnicity Might Not Show Up In Your DNA (and How To Find Evidence Of It Anyway) at MyHeritage Knowledge Base