occupation viking expansion
Erik Thorvaldsson ( 950  c . 1003 ), known as Erik the Red was a Norwegian Viking , remembered in medieval and Icelandic saga sources as having founded the first Norse settlement in Greenland . The Icelandic tradition indicates that he was born in the Jæren district of Rogaland , Norway , as the son of Þorvald Ásvaldsson , he therefore also appears , patronymically , as Erik Thorvaldsson (" Eiríkr Þorvaldsson "). The appellation " the Red " most likely refers to his hair color and the color of his beard . Leif Erikson , the famous Icelandic ___MASK58___ , was Erik ' s son . Normandy ( pronounced , Norman : " Normaundie ", from Old French " Normanz ", plural of " Normant ", originally from the word for " northman " in several Scandinavian languages ) is one of the regions of France , roughly corresponding to the historical Duchy of Normandy . Nizhny Novgorod , colloquially shortened to Nizhny , is a city in the administrative center of Nizhny Novgorod Oblast and Volga Federal District in Russia . From 1932 to 1990 , it was known as Gorky , after the ___MASK4___ Maxim Gorky , who was born there . The city is an important economic , transportation , scientific , educational and cultural center in Russia and the vast Volga - Vyatka economic region , and is the main center of river tourism in Russia . In the historical part of the city there are a large number of universities , theaters , museums and churches . Nizhny Novgorod is located about 400 km east of Moscow , where the Oka empties into the Volga . Population : Winnipeg is the capital and largest city of the province of Manitoba in ___MASK26___ . It is located near the longitudinal centre of North America , at the confluence of the Red and Assiniboine Rivers . The United Nations ( UN ) is an intergovernmental organization to promote international co - operation . A replacement for the ineffective League of Nations , the organization was established on 24 October 1945 after World War II in order to prevent another such conflict . At its founding , the UN had 51 ___MASK20___ states ; there are now 193 . The headquarters of the United Nations is in Manhattan , New York City , and experiences extraterritoriality . Further main offices are situated in Geneva , Nairobi , and Vienna . The organization is financed by assessed and voluntary contributions from its ___MASK20___ states . Its objectives include maintaining international peace and security , promoting ___MASK89___ , fostering social and economic development , protecting the environment , and providing humanitarian aid in cases of famine , natural disaster , and armed conflict . Rogaland is a county in Western Norway , bordering Hordaland , Telemark , Aust - Agder , and Vest - Agder counties . Rogaland is the center of the Norwegian petroleum industry . In 2016 , Rogaland had an ___MASK68___ rate of 4 . 9 %, one of the highest in Norway . In 2015 , Rogaland had a fertility rate of 1 . 78 children per woman , which is the highest in the country . The Viking Age is the period from late 8th century to mid 11th century in European history , especially Northern European and Scandinavian history , following the Germanic Iron Age . It is the period of history when Scandinavian Norsemen explored Europe by its seas and rivers for trade , raids , colonisation and conquest . In this period , the Norsemen settled in Norse Greenland , Newfoundland , and present - day Faroe Islands , Iceland , Norway , Scotland , England , Ireland , the Netherlands , Germany , ___MASK84___ , Russia , and Turkey . Though Viking travellers and colonists were seen at many points in history as brutal raiders , many historical documents suggest that their invasion of other countries was retaliation in response to the encroachment upon tribal lands by Christian missionaries , and perhaps by the Saxon Wars prosecuted by Charlemagne and his kin to the south , or , were motivated by overpopulation , trade inequities , and the lack of viable farmland in their homeland . Information about the Viking Age is drawn largely from what was written about the Vikings by their enemies , and primary sources of archaeology , supplied with secondary sources like the Icelandic Sagas . ___MASK83___ Petersburg is Russia ' s second - largest city after Moscow , with five million inhabitants in 2012 , and an important Russian port on the Baltic Sea . It is politically incorporated as a federal subject ( a federal city ). Situated on the Neva River , at the head of the Gulf of Finland on the Baltic Sea , it was founded by ___MASK47___ Peter the Great on May . In 1914 , the name was changed from ___MASK83___ Petersburg to Petrograd , in 1924 to Leningrad , and in 1991 back to ___MASK83___ Petersburg . Between 1713  1728 and 1732  1918 , ___MASK83___ Petersburg was the imperial capital of Russia . In 1918 , the central government bodies moved to Moscow . Africa is the world ' s second - largest and second - most - populous continent . At about 30 . 3 million km² ( 11 . 7 million square miles ) including adjacent islands , it covers 6 % of Earth ' s total surface area and 20 . 4 % of its total land area . With 1 . 1 billion people as of 2013 , it accounts for about 15 % of the world ' s human population . The continent is surrounded by the Mediterranean Sea to the north , both the Suez Canal and the Red Sea along the Sinai Peninsula to the northeast , the Indian Ocean to the southeast , and the Atlantic Ocean to the west . The continent includes Madagascar and various archipelagos . It contains 54 fully recognized ___MASK5___ states ( countries ), nine territories and two " de facto " independent states with limited or no recognition . Inuit ( pronounced or ; Inuktitut : , " the people ") are a group of culturally similar indigenous peoples inhabiting the Arctic regions of Greenland , ___MASK26___ and Alaska . Inuit is a plural noun ; the singular is Inuk . The oral Inuit languages are classified in the Eskimo - Aleut family . Inuit Sign Language is a critically endangered language isolate spoken in Nunavut . ___MASK26___ ( French : ) is a country in the northern half of North America . Its ten provinces and three territories extend from the Atlantic to the Pacific and northward into the Arctic Ocean , covering , making it the world ' s second - largest country by total area and the fourth - largest country by land area . ___MASK26___ ' s border with the United States is the world ' s longest land border . The majority of the country has a cold or severely cold winter climate , but southerly areas are warm in summer . ___MASK26___ is sparsely populated , the majority of its land territory being dominated by forest and tundra and the Rocky Mountains . About four - fifths of the country ' s population of 36 million people is urbanized and live near the southern border . Its capital is Ottawa , its largest city is Toronto ; other ___MASK53___ urban areas include Montreal , Vancouver , Calgary , Edmonton , Quebec City , Winnipeg and Hamilton . Ottawa is the capital city of ___MASK26___ . It stands on the south bank of the Ottawa River in the eastern portion of southern Ontario . Ottawa borders Gatineau , Quebec ; the two form the core of the Ottawa  Gatineau census metropolitan area ( CMA ) and the National Capital Region ( NCR ). The 2011 census reported a population of 883 , 391 , making it the fourth - largest city in ___MASK26___ ; and 1 , 236 , 324 within the CMA , making it the fourth - largest CMA in ___MASK26___ . The City of Ottawa reported that the city had an estimated population of 960 , 754 as of December 2015 . Toronto is the most populous city in ___MASK26___ , the provincial capital of Ontario , and the centre of the Greater Toronto Area , the most populous metropolitan area in ___MASK26___ . Growing in population , the 2011 census recorded a population of 2 , 615 , 060 . As of 2015 , the population is now estimated at 2 , 826 , 498 , making Toronto the fourth - largest city in North America based on the population within its city limits . Toronto trails only Mexico City , New York City , and Los Angeles by this measure , while it is the fifth - largest ( behind also Chicago ) if ranked by the size of its metropolitan area . An established global city , Toronto is an international centre of business , finance , arts , and culture , and widely recognized as one of the most multicultural and cosmopolitan cities in the world . Calgary is a city in the Canadian province of Alberta . It is situated at the confluence of the Bow River and the Elbow River in the south of the province , in an area of foothills and prairie , about east of the front ranges of the Canadian Rockies . In the 2011 census , the City of Calgary had a population of 1 , 096 , 833 and a metropolitan population of 1 , 214 , 839 , making it the largest city in Alberta , and the third - largest municipality and fifth - largest census metropolitan area ( CMA ) in ___MASK26___ . An island country is a country whose primary territory consists of one or more islands or parts of islands . As of 2011 , 46 ( approximately 24 %) of the 193 UN ___MASK20___ states are island countries . In physical geography , tundra is a type of biome where the tree growth is hindered by low temperatures and short growing seasons . The term " tundra " comes through Russian  (" tûndra ") from the Kildin Sami word " tndâr " " uplands ", " treeless ___MASK37___ tract ". There are three types of tundra : Arctic tundra , alpine tundra , and Antarctic tundra . In tundra , the vegetation is composed of dwarf shrubs , sedges and grasses , mosses , and lichens . Scattered trees grow in some tundra regions . The ecotone ( or ecological boundary region ) between the tundra and the forest is known as the tree line or timberline . Newfoundland English is a name for several accents and dialects of English found in the province of Newfoundland and Labrador . Based on the Irish accent and terminologies ( which the majority of Newfoundlanders are descendants of ), most of these differ substantially from the English commonly spoken elsewhere in neighbouring ___MASK26___ and the North Atlantic . Many Newfoundland dialects are similar to the West Country dialects of the West Country in England , particularly the city of Bristol and counties Cornwall , Devon , Dorset , Hampshire and Somerset , while others resemble dialects of Ireland ' s southeast , particularly Waterford , Wexford , Kilkenny and Cork . Still others blend elements of both and there is also a Scottish influence on the dialects  while the Scottish came in smaller numbers than the English and Irish , they had a large influence on Newfoundland society . One estimate claims 80 to 85 percent of Newfoundland ' s English heritage came from the southwest of the country . A vernacular or vernacular language is the native language or native dialect ( usually colloquial or informal ) of a specific population , especially as distinguished from a ___MASK100___ , national or standard variety of the language , or a lingua franca ( vehicular language ) used in the region or state inhabited by that population . Some linguists use " vernacular " and " nonstandard dialect " as synonyms . Norway (; Norwegian : ( Bokmål ) or ( Nynorsk ); Sami : " Norgga "), officially the Kingdom of Norway , is a ___MASK5___ and unitary monarchy whose territory comprises the western portion of the Scandinavian Peninsula plus the island Jan Mayen and the archipelago of Svalbard . The Antarctic Peter I Island and the sub - Antarctic Bouvet Island are dependent territories and thus not considered part of the Kingdom . Norway also lays claim to a section of Antarctica known as Queen Maud Land . Until 1814 , the Kingdom included the Faroe Islands ( since 1035 ), Greenland ( 1261 ), and Iceland ( 1262 ). It also included Shetland and Orkney until 1468 . It also included the following provinces , now in Sweden : Jämtland , Härjedalen and Bohuslän . A lava field , also called a lava plain or lava bed , is a large expanse of nearly flat - lying lava flows . Such features are generally composed of highly fluid basalt lava , and can extend for tens or even hundreds of miles across the underlying terrain . The extent of large lava fields is most readily grasped from the air or in satellite photos , where their typically dark , nearly black color contrasts sharply with the rest of the landscape . According to the US Geological Survey , monogenetic volcanic fields are collections of cinder cones , and / or Maar vents and associated lava flows and pyroclastic deposits . Sometimes a stratovolcano is at the center of the field , as at the San Francisco Volcanic Field in Arizona . Monogenetic volcano fields have systematic growth patterns that suggest they represent single magmatic systems in the same way that stratovolcanoes do , but monogenetic volcanoes grow laterally rather than vertically ( Wood and Shoan , 1984 ). Detailed mapping indicates that some cinder cones in monogenetic fields ( e . g ., Cima , California , and Timber ___MASK37___ Volcanic Field , Nevada ) may have had multiple eruptions separated by tens to hundreds of thousands of years ( Wells , et al ., 1989 ). Thus , some monogenetic cones may actually be polygenetic . This possibility differs from observations of historic eruptions ( Wood , 1979 ), and is physically difficult to understand because cinder cone conduits are narrow and must solidify within a few years of eruption . Nonetheless , such multiple eruptions appear to have happened at least twice : Other cinder cones need to be closely reexamined . Algeria (' " Dzayer "), officially the People ' s Democratic Republic of Algeria , is a ___MASK5___ state in North Africa on the Mediterranean coast . Its capital and most populous city is Algiers , located in the country ' s far north . With an area of , Algeria is the tenth - largest country in the world , and the largest in Africa . Algeria is bordered to the northeast by Tunisia , to the east by Libya , to the west by Morocco , to the southwest by the Western Saharan territory , Mauritania , and Mali , to the southeast by Niger , and to the north by the Mediterranean Sea . The country is a semi - presidential republic consisting of 48 provinces and 1 , 541 communes ( counties ). Abdelaziz Bouteflika has been President since 1999 . A patronym , or patronymic , is a component of a personal name based on the given name of one ' s ___MASK97___ , grandfather ( i . e ., an avonymic ), or an even earlier male ancestor . A component of a name based on the name of one ' s mother or a female ancestor is a matronymic . Each is a means of conveying lineage . In such instances , a person is usually referred to by their given name , rather than their patronymic . The Byzantine Empire , also referred to as the Eastern Roman Empire , was the continuation of the Roman Empire in the East during Late Antiquity and the Middle Ages , when its capital city was Constantinople ( modern - day Istanbul , which had been founded as Byzantium ). It survived the fragmentation and fall of the Western Roman Empire in the 5th century AD and continued to exist for an additional thousand years until it fell to the Ottoman Turks in 1453 . During most of its existence , the empire was the most powerful economic , cultural , and ___MASK39___ force in Europe . Both " Byzantine Empire " and " Eastern Roman Empire " are historiographical terms created after the end of the realm ; its citizens continued to refer to their empire as the " Roman Empire " ( tr . ), or " Romania ", and to themselves as " Romans ". Reykjavík is the capital and largest city of Iceland . It has a latitude of 64 ° 08 ' N , making it the world ' s northernmost capital of a ___MASK5___ state , and is a popular tourist destination . It is located in southwestern Iceland , on the southern shore of Faxa Bay . With a population of around 130 , 000 ( and over 200 , 000 in the Capital Region ), it is the heart of Iceland ' s cultural , economic and governmental activity . The Middle East is a transcontinental region centered on Western Asia and Egypt . The corresponding adjective is " Middle - Eastern " and the derived noun is " Middle - Easterner ". The term has come into wider usage as a replacement of the term Near East ( as opposed to Far East ) beginning in the early 20th century . FOREST ( short for " Freedom Organisation for the Right to Enjoy Smoking Tobacco ") is a ___MASK99___ political pressure group which campaigns against tobacco control activity . Viking expansion is the process by which the Vikings sailed most of the North Atlantic , reaching south to North Africa and east to Russia , Constantinople and the Middle East as looters , traders , colonists and mercenaries . Vikings under Leif Ericson , the heir to Erik the Red , reached North America and set up a short - lived settlement in present - day L ' Anse aux Meadows , Newfoundland and Labrador , ___MASK26___ . Longer and more established settlements were formed in Greenland , Iceland , Great Britain and Normandy . Arabic (' or ' ) is a Central Semitic language that was first spoken in Iron Age northwestern Arabia and is now the " lingua franca " of the Arab world . Arabic also is a liturgical language of 1 . 7 billion Muslims . It is one of six ___MASK45___ languages of the United Nations . It is named after the Arabs , a term initially used to describe peoples living from Mesopotamia in the east to the Anti - Lebanon mountains in the west , and from northwestern Arabia to the Sinai in the south . Greenland is an autonomous constituent country within the Danish Realm between the Arctic and Atlantic Oceans , east of the Canadian Arctic Archipelago . Though physiographically a part of the continent of North America , Greenland has been politically and culturally associated with Europe ( specifically Norway and Denmark , the colonial powers , as well as the nearby island of Iceland ) for more than a millennium . The majority of its residents are Inuit , whose ancestors migrated began migrating from the Canadian mainland in the 13th century , gradually settling across the island . Montreal officially Montréal in both Canadian English and French , is the most populous municipality in Quebec and the 2nd - most populous in ___MASK26___ . Originally called " Ville - Marie ", or " City of Mary ," it is named after Mount Royal , the triple - peaked hill in the heart of the city . The city is on the Island of Montreal , which took its name from the same source as the city , and a few much smaller peripheral islands , the largest of which is Île Bizard . It has a distinct four - season continental climate with warm to hot summers and cold snowy winters . The Arctic ( or ) is a polar region located at the northernmost part of Earth . The Arctic consists of the Arctic Ocean , adjacent seas , and parts of Alaska ( United States ), ___MASK26___ , Finland , Greenland ( Denmark ), Iceland , Norway , Russia , and Sweden . Land within the Arctic region has seasonally varying snow and ice cover , with predominantly treeless permafrost - containing tundra . Arctic seas contain seasonal sea ice in many places . Sudan (" as - Sdn ", ), also known as North Sudan and officially the Republic of the Sudan (" Jumhriyyat as - Sdn "), is a country in Northern Africa . It is bordered by Egypt to the north , the Red Sea , Eritrea , and Ethiopia to the east , South Sudan to the south , the Central African Republic to the southwest , Chad to the west and Libya to the northwest . It is the third largest country in Africa . The River Nile divides the country into eastern and western halves . Before the Sudanese Civil War , South Sudan was part of Sudan but broke away in 2011 . Its predominant ___MASK72___ is Islam . Inuktitut (; inuk " person " + - titut " like , in the manner of "), also Eastern Canadian Inuktitut or Eastern Canadian Inuit , is one of the principal Inuit languages of ___MASK26___ . It is spoken in all areas north of the tree line , including parts of the provinces of Newfoundland and Labrador , Quebec , to some extent in northeastern Manitoba as well as the Northwest Territories and Nunavut . It is one of the aboriginal languages written with Canadian Aboriginal syllabics . The Rocky Mountains , commonly known as the Rockies , are a ___MASK53___ ___MASK37___ range in western North America . The Rocky Mountains stretch more than from the northernmost part of British Columbia , in western Canada , to New Mexico , in the southwestern United States . Within the North American Cordillera , the Rockies are somewhat distinct from the Pacific Coast Ranges and the Cascade Range and Sierra Nevada which all lie further to the west . A capital city ( or simply capital ) is the municipality exercising primary status in a country , state , province , or other region , usually as its seat of government . A capital is typically a city that physically encompasses the offices and meeting places of its respective government ; the status as capital is often designated by its law or constitution . In some jurisdictions , including several countries , the different branches of government are located in different settlements . In some cases , a distinction is made between the ___MASK45___ ( constitutional ) capital and the seat of government , which is in another place . Japan (" Nippon " or " Nihon " ; formally "" or " Nihon - koku ", means " State of Japan ") is a ___MASK5___ island nation in Eastern Asia . Located in the Pacific Ocean , It is lying off the eastern coast of the Asia Mainland ( east of China , Korea , Russia ) and stretching from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north to the East China Sea and near Taiwan in the southwest . The Republic of Iceland , " Lýðveldið Ísland " in Icelandic , is a Nordic island country in the North Atlantic Ocean . It has a population of and an area of , making it the most sparsely populated country in Europe . The capital and largest city is Reykjavík . Reykjavík and the surrounding areas in the southwest of the country are home to over two - thirds of the population . Iceland is volcanically and geologically active . The interior consists of a plateau characterised by sand and lava fields , mountains and glaciers , while many glacial rivers flow to the sea through the lowlands . Iceland is warmed by the Gulf Stream and has a temperate climate , despite a high latitude just outside the Arctic Circle . Its high latitude and marine influence still keeps summers chilly , with most of the archipelago having a tundra climate . Near East is a geographical term that roughly encompasses Western Asia . Despite having varying definitions within different ___MASK90___ circles , the term was originally applied to the maximum extent of the Ottoman Empire . The term has fallen into disuse in English and has been replaced by the terms " Middle East " and " West Asia ". Constantine the Great ( 27 February 272 AD  22 May 337 AD ), also known as Constantine I or ___MASK83___ Constantine ( in the Orthodox Church as ___MASK83___ Constantine the Great , Equal - to - the - Apostles ), was a Roman ___MASK49___ from 306 to 337 AD . Constantine was the son of Flavius Valerius Constantius , a Roman Army officer , and his consort Helena . His father became " Caesar ", the deputy ___MASK49___ in the west , in 293 AD . Constantine was sent east , where he rose through the ranks to become a military tribune under the emperors Diocletian and Galerius . In 305 , Constantius was raised to the rank of " Augustus ", senior western ___MASK49___ , and Constantine was recalled west to campaign under his father in Britannia ( Britain ). Acclaimed as ___MASK49___ by the army at Eboracum ( modern - day York ) after his father ' s death in 306 AD , Constantine emerged victorious in a series of civil wars against the emperors Maxentius and Licinius to become sole ruler of both west and east by 324 AD . Jellyfish or jellies are softbodied , free - swimming aquatic animals with a gelatinous umbrella - shaped bell and trailing tentacles . The bell can pulsate to acquire propulsion and locomotion . The tentacles may be utilized to capture prey or defend against predators by emitting toxins in a painful sting . Jellyfish species are classified in the subphylum Medusozoa which makes up a ___MASK53___ part of the phylum Cnidaria , although not all Medusozoa species are considered to be jellyfish . North Africa or Northern Africa is the northernmost region of Africa . The United Nations definition of " North Africa " includes seven countries and territories ; Algeria , Egypt , Libya , Mauritania , Morocco , Sudan , Tunisia , and Western Sahara . The countries of Algeria , Morocco , Tunisia , and Libya are often collectively referred to as the Maghreb , which is the Arabic word for " sunset ". Egypt lies to the northeast and encompasses part of West Asia , while Sudan is situated on the edge of the Sahel , to the south of Egypt . Vikings ( Danish and ; Swedish and ), from Old Norse "", were Nordic seafarers , mainly speaking the Old Norse language , who raided and traded from their Northern European homelands across wide areas of northern , central and eastern Europe , during the late 8th to late 11th centuries . The term is also commonly extended in modern English and other vernaculars to the inhabitants of Viking home communities during what has become known as the Viking Age . This period of Nordic ___MASK39___ , mercantile and demographic expansion constitutes an important element in the early medieval history of Scandinavia , Estonia , the British Isles , France , Kievan Rus ' and Sicily . Kiev or Kyiv is the capital and largest city of ___MASK84___ , located in the north central part of the country on the Dnieper River . The population in July 2015 was ( though higher estimated numbers have been cited in the press ), making Kiev the 7th most populous city in Europe . Labrador is the distinct northerly region of the Canadian province of Newfoundland and Labrador . It comprises the mainland portion of the province , separated from the island of Newfoundland by the Strait of Belle Isle . It is the largest and northernmost geographical region in Atlantic ___MASK26___ . L ' Anse aux Meadows ( from the French " L ' Anse - aux - Méduses " or " Jellyfish Cove ") is an archaeological site on the northernmost tip of the island of Newfoundland in the Canadian province of Newfoundland and Labrador . Discovered in 1960 , it is the most famous site of a Norse or Viking settlement in North America . The Innu ( or Montagnais ) are the Aboriginal inhabitants of an area in ___MASK26___ they refer to as " Nitassinan " ( Our Land ), which comprises most of the northeastern portion of the province of Quebec and some eastern portions of Labrador . Their population in 2003 included about 18 , 000 people , of which around 14 , 000 lived in Quebec , under 3000 in Labrador , and the rest outside their traditional territory . Newfoundland and Labrador (; Innu : " Akamassiss "), is the most easterly province of ___MASK26___ . Situated in the country ' s Atlantic region , it comprises the island of Newfoundland and mainland Labrador to the northwest , with a combined area of . In 2013 , the province ' s population was estimated at 526 , 702 . About 92 % of the province ' s population lives on the island of Newfoundland ( and its neighbouring smaller islands ), of whom more than half live on the Avalon Peninsula . The province is ___MASK26___ ' s most linguistically homogeneous , with 97 . 6 % of residents reporting English ( Newfoundland English ) as their mother tongue in the 2006 census . Historically , Newfoundland was also home to unique varieties of French and Irish , as well as the extinct Beothuk language . In Labrador , local dialects of Innu - aimun and Inuktitut are also spoken . Great Britain , also known as Britain , is a large island in the north Atlantic Ocean off the northwest coast of continental Europe . With an area of , Great Britain is the largest European island and the ninth - largest in the world . In 2011 the island had a population of about 61 million people , making it the world ' s third - most populous island after Java in Indonesia and Honshu in Japan . The island of Ireland is situated to the west of it , and together these islands , along with over 1 , 000 smaller surrounding islands , comprise the British Isles archipelago . France , officially the French Republic , is a country with territory in western Europe and several overseas regions and territories . The European , or metropolitan , area of France extends from the Mediterranean Sea to the English Channel and the North Sea , and from the Rhine to the Atlantic Ocean . Overseas France include French Guiana on the South American continent and several island territories in the Atlantic , Pacific and Indian oceans . France spans and had a total population of almost 67 million people as of January 2017 . It is a unitary semi - presidential republic with the capital in Paris , the country ' s largest city and main cultural and ___MASK9___ centre . Other ___MASK53___ urban centres include Marseille , Lyon , Lille , Nice , Toulouse and Bordeaux . Kievan Rus ' (, ) was a loose federation of East Slavic tribes in Europe from the late 9th to the mid - 13th century , under the reign of the Rurik dynasty . The modern peoples of Belarus , ___MASK84___ , and Russia all claim Kievan Rus ' as their cultural ancestors . A country is a region that is identified as a distinct national entity in political geography . A country may be an independent ___MASK5___ state or one that is occupied by another state , as a non - ___MASK5___ or formerly ___MASK5___ political division , or a geographic region associated with sets of previously independent or differently associated people with distinct political characteristics . Regardless of the physical geography , in the modern internationally accepted legal definition as defined by the League of Nations in 1937 and reaffirmed by the United Nations in 1945 , a resident of a country is subject to the independent exercise of legal jurisdiction . Constantinople was the capital city of the Roman / Byzantine Empire ( 330  1204 and 1261  1453 ), and also of the brief Latin ( 1204  1261 ), and the later Ottoman ( 1453  1923 ) empires . It was reinaugurated in 324 AD from ancient Byzantium as the new capital of the Roman Empire by ___MASK49___ Constantine the Great , after whom it was named , and dedicated on 11 May 330 AD . Vancouver , officially the City of Vancouver , is a coastal seaport city on the mainland of British Columbia , ___MASK26___ , and the most populous city in the province . Russia ( from the  Rus '), also officially known as the Russian Federation , is a country in Eurasia . At , Russia is the largest country in the world by surface area , covering more than one - eighth of the Earth ' s inhabited land area , and the ninth most populous , with over 140 million people at the end of March 2016 . The European western part of the country is much more populated and urbanised than the eastern , about 77 % of the population live in European Russia . Russia ' s capital Moscow is one of the largest cities in the world , other ___MASK53___ urban centers include Saint Petersburg , Novosibirsk , Yekaterinburg , Nizhny Novgorod and Samara . Russia is not proportionately populated between the smaller western portion ( almost 25 %) of the country that is considered part of Europe , and the larger eastern portion ( more than 75 %) that is part of Asia . European Russia contains about 77 % of the country ' s population ( 110 , 000 , 000 people out of about 144 , 000 , 000 ) in an area comprising almost 4 million km ( 1 . 54 million mi ); an average of 27 . 5 persons per km ( 70 per mi ). This territory makes up 38 % of Europe . Its eastern border is defined by the Ural Mountains and in the south , it is defined by the border with Kazakhstan . This area includes Moscow and ___MASK83___ Petersburg , the two largest cities in Russia . Quebec City ( pronounced or ) officially Québec ) is the capital city of the Canadian province of Quebec . In 2015 the city had a population estimate of 545 , 485 , and the metropolitan area had a population of 806 , 400 , making it ___MASK26___ ' s seventh - largest metropolitan area and Quebec ' s second - largest city after Montreal , which is about to the southwest . The British Isles are a group of islands off the north - western coast of continental Europe that consist of the islands of Great Britain , Ireland and over six thousand smaller isles . Situated in the North Atlantic , the islands have a total area of approximately 315 , 159 km , and a combined population of just under 70 million . Two ___MASK5___ states are located on the islands : Ireland ( which covers roughly five - sixths of the island with the same name ) and the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland . The British Isles also include three Crown Dependencies : the Isle of Man and , by tradition , the Bailiwick of Jersey and the Bailiwick of Guernsey in the Channel Islands , although the latter are not physically a part of the archipelago . Morocco (', lit . " The West "; '), officially known as the Kingdom of Morocco (', lit . " The Western Kingdom "; '), is a ___MASK5___ country located in the Maghreb region of North Africa . Geographically , Morocco is characterized by a rugged mountainous interior , large tracts of desert , and a lengthy coastline along the Atlantic Ocean and Mediterranean Sea . The Duchy of Normandy grew out of the 911 Treaty of ___MASK83___ - Clair - sur - Epte between ___MASK78___ Charles III of West Francia and Rollo , ___MASK64___ of the Vikings . From 1066 until 1204 it was held by the kings of England , except for the brief rule of Robert Curthose ( 1087  1106 ) and Geoffrey Plantagenet ( 1144  1150 ). Normandy was declared forfeit by Philip II of France in 1202 , and seized by force of arms in 1204 . It remained disputed territory until the Treaty of Paris of 1259 , when the English sovereigns ceded their claim , except for the Channel Islands . Leif Erikson or Leif Ericson ( Icelandic : " Leifur Eiríksson "; Norwegian : " Leiv Eiriksson " c . 970  c . 1020 ) was an Icelandic ___MASK58___ and the first known European to have discovered North America ( excluding Greenland ), before Christopher Columbus . According to the Sagas of Icelanders , he established a Norse settlement at Vinland , tentatively identified with the Norse L ' Anse aux Meadows on the northern tip of Newfoundland in modern - day Canada . Later archaeological evidence suggests that Vinland may have been the areas around the Gulf of St . Lawrence and that the L ' Anse aux Meadows site was a ship repair station .