why are Spanish,southern French and Italians dark, whilst northern Europeans are white?

Answer 1

This is because the Moors, North African Muslims, ruled their land for a number of centuries, They mixed with the Europeans, hence their dark colour. Their dark colour is a result of this interbreeding.

Answer 2

A new theory has emerged recently stating that blondes are a genetic mutation that occurred in Northern Europe eons ago and the white race developed over ages of selective breeding. It makes sense to me. The vast majority of the earth's peoples have brown eyes and dark skin. If it was adaptation to the north Eskimos would be blonde. Even the original inhabitants of the UK were a dark people.

Answer 3

The invasion by Hannibal and the Moors from Africa put a genetic stamp on Italians and other southern Europeans.

Answer 4

Many French, Italians and Spanish are ancestors of interbreeding. About 1000 years ago much of Europe was successfully invaded by the Moores. These were people from the middle-east and were Islamic. They settled successfully in parts of Europe such as Spain and France and stayed there many generations. These countries were part of the Islamic empire. The Islamic settlers had a profound affect on Europe bringing maths, Arabic numerals, astronomy and many other things. I think this colonisation of Europe ended when the Islamic Empire began to fail. Britain and the rest of Northern Europe were never invaded.

Answer 5

Because having darker skin helps you to survive in a climate with a lot of sun (think skin cancer). A person living in a climate with less sun (like northern europe) needs to absorb as much sunlight as possible to get enough vitamin D from sunlight to stay healthy.

Answer 6

there must have been a bottleneck in the populations sometime in the past, where darker skinned people died out in the north, due to lack of sunshine (helps process vitamin d) leaving only fairer people who could survive. I presume it must have been during one of the ice ages.

Answer 7

Adaptation to the amount of solar radiation reaching the surface of the earth.

Answer 8

Scientists have been studying melanin for awhile now & the idea is that white skin, which is a form of albinism (which literally means white) is a genetic mutation. It is the only skin that cannot reproduce yellow, red, or brown. Melanin is a key factor in reproducing which is why you might also hear "rumors" of cacuasians gradually becoming the minority in the US. The majority of the world population have dark hair w/dark eyes (which melanin also determines hair & eye color). Many believe ppl change colors due to adaptation, but this is not all the way true. You would get lighter or darker, but in no means would a black person change to white no matter how long they stayed in an area with less sunlight and vice versa. (Ex: the eskimos in the artic who have darker skin with dark hair & eyes)

Spanish & Italians have dark skin b/c they have mixed with black ppl somewhere down there blood line. There are some black spanish people. Being black does not necessarily mean being African.

Answer 9

Spanish French and Italians are better looking

Answer 10

It's hot down that Mediterranean area!