Europe are recognised political goals in Europe today. The Council of Europe Framework Convention for the Protection of National Minorities and the Council of Europe's European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages set up a legal framework for language rights in Europe. The four most populous cities of Europe are Istanbul, Moscow, Paris and London, each have over 10 million residents, and as such have been described as megacities. While Istanbul has the highest total population, one third lies on the Asian side of the Bosporus, making Moscow the most populous city entirely in Europe. The next largest cities in order
History of the city religious system was clearly expansive and significant, details of its political and economic functioning remain matters of speculation. In the remnants of the Roman Empire, cities of late antiquity at first gained independence, but lost their population and their importance, starting in Roman Britain and Germania. The locus of power in the West shifted to Constantinople and to the ascendant Islamic civilization with its major cities Baghdad, Cairo, and Córdoba. From the 9th through the end of the 12th century, Constantinople, capital of the Byzantine Empire, was the largest and wealthiest city in Europe, with a population approaching 1 million.