The Rise of Heritage (New Studies in European History)

Germany lost its overseas empire and several provinces, had to pay large reparations, and was humiliated by the victors. They in turn had large debts to the United States. The s were prosperous until when the Great Depression broke out, which led to the collapse of democracy in many European states. The Nazi regime under Adolf Hitler came to power in , rearmed Germany, and along with Mussolini's Italy sought to assert themselves on the continent by demands and appeasement, leading eventually to the Second World War.

The Iron Curtain now separated the east under Moscow's control from the capitalist West. Secularization saw the weakening of Protestant and Catholic churches across most of Europe, except where they were symbols of anti-government resistance, as in Poland. The Revolutions of brought an end to both Soviet hegemony and communism in Eastern Europe. The EU came under increasing pressure because of the worldwide recession after Homo erectus migrated from Africa to Europe before the emergence of modern humans.

Nevertheless, the definitive advance of these technologies is made by the Aurignacian culture. The origins of this culture can be located in the Levant Ahmarian and Hungary first full Aurignacian. The last Neanderthals seem to have been forced to retreat during this process to the southern half of the Iberian Peninsula. Slowly, through the following millennia, temperatures and sea levels rose, changing the environment of prehistoric people.

Nevertheless, Magdalenian culture persisted until c. Azilian Federmesser , in Spain and southern France, and then Sauveterrian , in southern France and Tardenoisian in Central Europe, while in Northern Europe the Lyngby complex succeeded the Hamburg culture with the influence of the Federmesser group as well. Evidence of permanent settlement dates from the 8th millennium BC in the Balkans. The Indo-European migrations started at around c. In the next years the Indo-European languages expanded through Europe. In Varna Necropolis - a burial site from — BC and one of the most important archaeological sites in world prehistory, was found the oldest gold treasure elaborated objects in the world.

The first well-known literate civilization in Europe was that of the Minoans. The Minoan civilization was a Bronze Age civilization that arose on the island of Crete and flourished from approximately the 27th century BC to the 15th century BC. Will Durant referred to it as "the first link in the European chain". In Crete , the Mycenaeans occupied Knossos. Mycenaean settlement sites also appeared in Epirus , [6] [7] Macedonia , [8] [9] on islands in the Aegean Sea , on the coast of Asia Minor , the Levant , [10] Cyprus [11] and Italy.

Quite unlike the Minoans, whose society benefited from trade, the Mycenaeans advanced through conquest. Mycenaean civilization was dominated by a warrior aristocracy. The Mycenaean civilization perished with the collapse of Bronze-Age civilization on the eastern shores of the Mediterranean Sea. The collapse is commonly attributed to the Dorian invasion , although other theories describing natural disasters and climate change have been advanced as well. This end, during the last years of the 12th century BC, occurred after a slow decline of the Mycenaean civilization, which lasted many years before dying out.

The beginning of the 11th century BC opened a new context, that of the protogeometric, the beginning of the geometric period, the Greek Dark Ages of traditional historiography. The Greeks and the Romans left a legacy in Europe which is evident in European languages, thought , visual arts and law. Ancient Greece was a collection of city-states, out of which the original form of democracy developed.

Athens was the most powerful and developed city, and a cradle of learning from the time of Pericles. Citizens' forums debated and legislated policy of the state, and from here arose some of the most notable classical philosophers, such as Socrates , Plato , and Aristotle , the last of whom taught Alexander the Great. Through his military campaigns, the king of the kingdom of Macedon , Alexander, spread Hellenistic culture and learning to the banks of the River Indus.

The Romans expanded from Arabia to Britannia. In the ensuing turmoil, Octavian ruled as Augustus; and as divi filius , or Son of God, as Julius had adopted him as an heir usurped the reins of power and fought the Roman Senate. While proclaiming the rebirth of the Republic, he had ushered in the transfer of the Roman state from a republic to an empire, the Roman Empire , which lasted for more than four centuries until the fall of the Western Roman Empire. The Hellenic civilisation was a collection of city-states or poleis with different governments and cultures that achieved notable developments in government, philosophy, science, mathematics, politics, sports, theatre and music.

Athens was a powerful Hellenic city-state and governed itself with an early form of direct democracy invented by Cleisthenes ; the citizens of Athens voted on legislation and executive bills themselves. Athens was the home of Socrates , [14] Plato , and the Platonic Academy. By the late 6th century BC, all the Greek city states in Asia Minor had been incorporated into the Persian Empire , while the latter had made territorial gains in the Balkans such as Macedon , Thrace , Paeonia , etc.

In the course of the 5th century BC, some of the Greek city states attempted to overthrow Persian rule in the Ionian Revolt , which failed. This sparked the first Persian invasion of mainland Greece. At some point during the ensuing Greco-Persian Wars , namely during the Second Persian invasion of Greece , and precisely after the Battle of Thermopylae and the Battle of Artemisium , almost all of Greece to the north of the Isthmus of Corinth had been overrun by the Persians, [15] but the Greek city states reached a decisive victory at the Battle of Plataea.

With the end of the Greco-Persian wars, the Persians were eventually decisively forced to withdraw from their territories in Europe. The Greco-Persian Wars and the victory of the Greek city states directly influenced the entire further course of European history and would set its further tone. Some Greek city-states formed the Delian League to continue fighting Persia, but Athens' position as leader of this league led Sparta to form the rival Peloponnesian League.

The Peloponnesian Wars ensued, and the Peloponnesian League was victorious. Subsequently, discontent with Spartan hegemony led to the Corinthian War and the defeat of Sparta at the Battle of Leuctra. Hellenic infighting left Greek city states vulnerable, and Philip II of Macedon united the Greek city states under his control. The son of Philip II, known as Alexander the Great , invaded neighboring Persia , toppled and incorporated its domains, as well as invading Egypt and going as far off as India , increasing contact with people and cultures in these regions that marked the beginning of the Hellenistic period.

After the death of Alexander, his empire split into multiple kingdoms ruled by his generals, the Diadochi.

The Diadochi fought against each other only three major kingdoms remained: Ptolemaic Egypt , the Seleucid Empire and Macedonia kingdom. These kingdoms spread Greek culture to regions as far away as Bactria. Much of Greek learning was assimilated by the nascent Roman state as it expanded outward from Italy, taking advantage of its enemies' inability to unite: First governed by kings , then as a senatorial republic the Roman Republic , Rome finally became an empire at the end of the 1st century BC, under Augustus and his authoritarian successors. The Roman Empire had its centre in the Mediterranean, controlling all the countries on its shores; the northern border was marked by the Rhine and Danube rivers.

Pax Romana , a period of peace, civilisation and an efficient centralised government in the subject territories ended in the 3rd century, when a series of civil wars undermined Rome's economic and social strength. In the 4th century, the emperors Diocletian and Constantine were able to slow down the process of decline by splitting the empire into a Western part with a capital in Rome and an Eastern part with the capital in Byzantium, or Constantinople now Istanbul. Whereas Diocletian severely persecuted Christianity, Constantine declared an official end to state-sponsored persecution of Christians in with the Edict of Milan , thus setting the stage for the Church to become the state church of the Roman Empire in about The Roman Empire had been repeatedly attacked by invading armies from Northern Europe and in , Rome finally fell.

Gibbon said that the adoption of Christianity, meant belief in a better life after death, and therefore made people lazy and indifferent to the present. Bowersock has remarked, [17] "we have been obsessed with the fall: Some other notable dates are the Battle of Adrianople in , the death of Theodosius I in the last time the Roman Empire was politically unified , the crossing of the Rhine in by Germanic tribes after the withdrawal of the legions to defend Italy against Alaric I , the death of Stilicho in , followed by the disintegration of the western legions, the death of Justinian I , the last Roman Emperor who tried to reconquer the west, in , and the coming of Islam after Many scholars maintain that rather than a "fall", the changes can more accurately be described as a complex transformation.

When Emperor Constantine had reconquered Rome under the banner of the cross in , he soon afterwards issued the Edict of Milan in preceded by the Edict of Serdica in , declaring the legality of Christianity in the Roman Empire. In addition, Constantine officially shifted the capital of the Roman Empire from Rome to the Greek town of Byzantium, which he renamed Nova Roma- it was later named Constantinople "City of Constantine". In Theodosius I , who had made Christianity the official religion of the Roman Empire, would be the last emperor to preside over a united Roman Empire.

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The empire was split into two halves: Migration Period , and in finally the Western part fell to the Heruli chieftain Odoacer. Roman authority in the Western part of the empire had collapsed, and a power vacuum left in the wake of this collapse; the central organization, institutions, laws and power of Rome had broken down, resulting in many areas being open to invasion by migrating tribes. Over time, feudalism and manorialism arose, two interlocking institutions that provided for division of land and labor, as well as a broad if uneven hierarchy of law and protection.

These localised hierarchies were based on the bond of common people to the land on which they worked, and to a lord, who would provide and administer both local law to settle disputes among the peasants, as well as protection from outside invaders. Unlike under Roman rule, with its standard laws and military across the empire and its great bureaucracy to administer them and collect taxes, each lord although having obligations to a higher lord was largely sovereign in his domain.

A peasant's lot could vary greatly depending on the leadership skills and attitudes to justice of the lord toward his people. Tithes or rents were paid to the lord, who in turn owed resources, and armed men in times of war, to his lord, perhaps a regional prince. However, the levels of hierarchy were varied over time and place. The western provinces soon were to be dominated by three great powers: These new powers of the west built upon the Roman traditions until they evolved into a synthesis of Roman and Germanic cultures. Although these powers covered large territories, they did not have the great resources and bureaucracy of the Roman empire to control regions and localities.

The ongoing invasions and boundary disputes usually meant a more risky and varying life than that under the empire. This meant that in general more power and responsibilities were left to local lords. On the other hand, it also meant more freedom, particularly in more remote areas. In Italy, Theodoric the Great began the cultural romanization of the new world he had constructed. He made Ravenna a center of Romano-Greek culture of art and his court fostered a flowering of literature and philosophy in Latin.

In the Eastern part the dominant state wes the remaining Eastern Roman Empire. In the feudal system, new princes and kings arose, the most powerful of which was arguably the Frankish ruler Charlemagne. Outside his borders, new forces were gathering. The Kievan Rus' were marking out their territory, a Great Moravia was growing, while the Angles and the Saxons were securing their borders. For the duration of the 6th century, the Eastern Roman Empire was embroiled in a series of deadly conflicts, first with the Persian Sassanid Empire see Roman—Persian Wars , followed by the onslaught of the arising Islamic Caliphate Rashidun and Umayyad.

By , the provinces of Egypt , Palestine and Syria were lost to the Muslim forces , followed by Hispania and southern Italy in the 7th and 8th centuries see Muslim conquests. The Arab invasion from the east was stopped after the intervention of the Bulgarian Empire see Han Tervel.

The Middle Ages are commonly dated from the fall of the Western Roman Empire or by some scholars, before that in the 5th century to the beginning of the early modern period in the 16th century, marked by the rise of nation states , the division of Western Christianity in the Reformation , the rise of humanism in the Italian Renaissance , and the beginnings of European overseas expansion which allowed for the Columbian Exchange.

It was he who moved the imperial capital in from Nicomedia to Byzantium , which re-founded as Constantinople, or Nova Roma " New Rome ". Some date the beginnings of the Empire to the reign of Theodosius I — and Christianity's official supplanting of the pagan Roman religion , or following his death in , when the empire was split into two parts, with capitals in Rome and Constantinople. Others place it yet later in , when Romulus Augustulus , traditionally considered the last western Emperor, was deposed, thus leaving sole imperial authority with the emperor in the Greek East.

Others point to the reorganisation of the empire in the time of Heraclius c. In any case, the changeover was gradual and by , when Constantine inaugurated his new capital, the process of hellenization and increasing Christianisation was already under way. The Empire is generally considered to have ended after the fall of Constantinople to the Ottoman Turks in The Plague of Justinian was a pandemic that afflicted the Byzantine Empire , including its capital Constantinople , in the years — The Early Middle Ages span roughly five centuries from to From the 7th century Byzantine history was greatly affected by the rise of Islam and the Caliphates.

As the Byzantines and neighboring Sasanids were severely weakened by the time, amongst the most important reason s being the protracted, centuries-lasting and frequent Byzantine—Sasanian wars , which included the climactic Byzantine—Sasanian War of — , under Umar , the second Caliph, the Muslims entirely toppled the Sasanid Persian Empire , and decisively conquered Syria and Mesopotamia, as well as Roman Palestine , Roman Egypt , and parts of Asia Minor and Roman North Africa.

In the mid 7th century AD, following the Muslim conquest of Persia , Islam penetrated into the Caucasus region, of which parts would later permanently become part of Russia. Over the next centuries Muslim forces were able to take further European territory, including Cyprus , Malta, Crete , and Sicily and parts of southern Italy. They landed at Gibraltar on 30 April and worked their way northward.

Tariq's forces were joined the next year by those of his Arab superior, Musa ibn Nusair. During the eight-year campaign most of the Iberian Peninsula was brought under Muslim rule — save for small areas in the northwest Asturias and largely Basque regions in the Pyrenees. In , Visigothic Hispania was very weakened because it was immersed in a serious internal crisis caused by a war of succession to the throne involving two Visigoth suitors.

The Muslims took advantage of the crisis that crossed the Hispano - Visigothic society to carry out their conquests. This territory, under the Arab name Al-Andalus , became part of the expanding Umayyad empire. The second siege of Constantinople ended unsuccessful after the intervention of Tervel of Bulgaria and weakened the Umayyad dynasty and reduced their prestige. In Don Pelayo , a nobleman of Visigothic origin, formed an army of Astur soldiers, to confront Munuza's Muslim troops. In the battle of Covadonga , the Astures defeated the Arab-Moors, who decided to retire.

The Christian victory marked the beginning of the Reconquista and the establishment of the Kingdom of Asturias , whose first sovereign was Don Pelayo. The conquerors intended to continue their expansion in Europe and move northeast across the Pyrenees, but were defeated by the Frankish leader Charles Martel at the Battle of Poitiers in The Holy Roman Empire emerged around , as Charlemagne , king of the Franks , was crowned by the pope as emperor. He and his father received substantial help from an alliance with the Pope, who wanted help against the Lombards.

To the east, Bulgaria was established in and became the first Slavic country. The powerful Bulgarian Empire was the main rival of Byzantium for control of the Balkans for centuries and from the 9th century became the cultural centre of Slavic Europe.

Two states, Great Moravia and Kievan Rus' , emerged among the Slavic peoples respectively in the 9th century. In the late 9th and 10th centuries, northern and western Europe felt the burgeoning power and influence of the Vikings who raided, traded, conquered and settled swiftly and efficiently with their advanced seagoing vessels such as the longships. In the 10th century independent kingdoms were established in Central Europe including Poland and the newly settled Kingdom of Hungary. The kingdoms of Croatia and Serbia also appeared in the Balkans. The subsequent period, ending around , saw the further growth of feudalism , which weakened the Holy Roman Empire.

It lingered longer in England and in peripheral areas linked to the Muslim world, where slavery continued to flourish. Church rules suppressed slavery of Christians. Most historians argue the transition was quite abrupt around , but some see a gradual transition from about to The slumber of the Dark Ages was shaken by a renewed crisis in the Church.

In , the East—West Schism , an insoluble split, occurred between the two remaining Christian seats in Rome and Constantinople modern Istanbul. The High Middle Ages of the 11th, 12th, and 13th centuries show a rapidly increasing population of Europe, which caused great social and political change from the preceding era. By , the robust population increase greatly benefited the economy, reaching levels it would not see again in some areas until the 19th century. From about the year onwards, Western Europe saw the last of the barbarian invasions and became more politically organized.

The Vikings had settled in Britain, Ireland, France and elsewhere, whilst Norse Christian kingdoms were developing in their Scandinavian homelands. The Magyars had ceased their expansion in the 10th century, and by the year , the Roman Catholic Apostolic Kingdom of Hungary was recognised in central Europe. With the brief exception of the Mongol invasions , major barbarian incursions ceased. Bulgarian sovereignty was reestablished with the anti-Byzantine uprising of the Bulgarians and Vlachs in The crusaders invaded the Byzantine empire , captured Constantinople in and established their Latin Empire.

The Byzantine Empire was fully reestablished in In the 11th century, populations north of the Alps began to settle new lands, some of which had reverted to wilderness after the end of the Roman Empire. In what is known as the "great clearances", vast forests and marshes of Europe were cleared and cultivated. At the same time settlements moved beyond the traditional boundaries of the Frankish Empire to new frontiers in Europe, beyond the Elbe river, tripling the size of Germany in the process. Crusaders founded European colonies in the Levant , the majority of the Iberian Peninsula was conquered from the Muslims, and the Normans colonised southern Italy, all part of the major population increase and resettlement pattern.

The High Middle Ages produced many different forms of intellectual, spiritual and artistic works. The most famous are the great cathedrals as expressions of Gothic architecture , which evolved from Romanesque architecture. This age saw the rise of modern nation-states in Western Europe and the ascent of the famous Italian city-states , such as Florence and Venice. The influential popes of the Catholic Church called volunteer armies from across Europe to a series of Crusades against the Seljuq Turks , who occupied the Holy Land.

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The rediscovery of the works of Aristotle led Thomas Aquinas and other thinkers to develop the philosophy of Scholasticism. Since the mid-8th century, the Byzantine Empire's borders had been shrinking in the face of Islamic expansion. Antioch had been wrested back into Byzantine control by , but the resurgent power of the Roman successors in the West claimed a right and a duty for the lost seats in Asia and Africa.

Pope Leo sparked a further dispute by defending the filioque clause in the Nicene Creed which the West had adopted customarily. The Orthodox also state that the Bishop of Rome has authority only over his own diocese and does not have any authority outside his diocese. There were other less significant catalysts for the Schism however, including variance over liturgy.

Further changes were set afoot with a redivision of power in Europe. William the Conqueror , a Duke of Normandy , invaded England in The Norman Conquest was a pivotal event in English history for several reasons. This linked England more closely with continental Europe through the introduction of a Norman aristocracy, thereby lessening Scandinavian influence. It created one of the most powerful monarchies in Europe and engendered a sophisticated governmental system.

Being based on an island, moreover, England was to develop a powerful navy and trade relationships that would come to encompass a vast proportion of the world including India, Australia, New Zealand, Canada and many key naval strategic points like Bermuda , Suez , Hong Kong and especially Gibraltar.

These strategic advantages grew and were to prove decisive until after the Second World War. Poland , Hungary and Bohemia. The Roman Catholic Church developed as a major power, leading to conflicts between the Pope and Emperor. The geographic reach of the Roman Catholic Church expanded enormously due to the conversions of pagan kings Scandinavia, Lithuania , Poland, Hungary , the Christian Reconquista of Al-Andalus , and the crusades.

Most of Europe was Roman Catholic in the 15th century. Early signs of the rebirth of civilization in western Europe began to appear in the 11th century as trade started again in Italy, leading to the economic and cultural growth of independent city-states such as Venice and Florence ; at the same time, nation-states began to take form in places such as France, England, Spain, and Portugal, although the process of their formation usually marked by rivalry between the monarchy, the aristocratic feudal lords and the church actually took several centuries.

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These new nation-states began writing in their own cultural vernaculars, instead of the traditional Latin. Notable figures of this movement would include Dante Alighieri and Christine de Pizan born Christina da Pizzano , the former writing in Italian, and the latter, although an Italian Venice , relocated to France, writing in French. See Reconquista for the latter two countries. Elsewhere, the Holy Roman Empire , essentially based in Germany and Italy, further fragmented into a myriad of feudal principalities or small city states, whose subjection to the emperor was only formal.

The 14th century, when the Mongol Empire came to power, is often called the Age of the Mongols. Mongol armies expanded westward under the command of Batu Khan. Their western conquests included almost all of Russia save Novgorod , which became a vassal , [37] the Kipchak-Cuman Confederation.

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Bulgaria , Hungary, and Poland managed to remain sovereign states. Most historians believe only his death prevented the complete conquest of Europe. Under Uzbeg Khan , Islam became the official religion of the region in the early 14th century. In Russia, the Tatars ruled the various states of the Rus' through vassalage for over years. By the middle of the century, the Teutonic Knights completed their conquest of the Prussians before conquering and converting the Lithuanians in the subsequent decades. The Union of Krewo in , bringing two major changes in the history of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania: The Late Middle Ages spanned the 14th and early 15th centuries.

A series of famines and plagues, such as the Great Famine of — and the Black Death , killed people in a matter of days, reducing the population of some areas by half as many survivors fled. Depopulation caused labor to become scarcer; the survivors were better paid and peasants could drop some of the burdens of feudalism.

There was also social unrest; France and England experienced serious peasant risings including the Jacquerie and the Peasants' Revolt. At the same time, the unity of the Catholic Church was shattered by the Great Schism. Collectively these events have been called the Crisis of the Late Middle Ages. Beginning in the 14th century, the Baltic Sea became one of the most important trade routes.

The Hanseatic League , an alliance of trading cities, facilitated the absorption of vast areas of Poland, Lithuania , and Livonia into trade with other European countries. This fed the growth of powerful states in this part of Europe including Poland-Lithuania, Hungary, Bohemia, and Muscovy later on. The conventional end of the Middle Ages is usually associated with the fall of the city of Constantinople and of the Byzantine Empire to the Ottoman Turks in The Turks made the city the capital of their Ottoman Empire , which lasted until and included Egypt , Syria, and most of the Balkans.

The Ottoman wars in Europe , also sometimes referred to as the Turkish wars, marked an essential part of the history of the continent as a whole. The Early Modern period spans the centuries between the Middle Ages and the Industrial Revolution , roughly from to , or from the discovery of the New World in to the French Revolution in The period is characterised by the rise to importance of science and increasingly rapid technological progress , secularised civic politics and the nation state.

Capitalist economies began their rise, beginning in northern Italian republics such as Genoa. The early modern period also saw the rise and dominance of the economic theory of mercantilism. As such, the early modern period represents the decline and eventual disappearance, in much of the European sphere, of feudalism , serfdom and the power of the Catholic Church.

The period includes the Protestant Reformation , the disastrous Thirty Years' War , the European colonisation of the Americas and the European witch-hunts. Despite these crises, the 14th century was also a time of great progress within the arts and sciences. A renewed interest in ancient Greek and Roman as well as more recent Arabic texts [42] led to what has later been termed the Italian Renaissance.

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The Renaissance was a cultural movement that profoundly affected European intellectual life in the early modern period. Beginning in Italy, and spreading to the north, west and middle Europe during a cultural lag of some two and a half centuries, its influence affected literature, philosophy, art, politics, science, history, religion, and other aspects of intellectual enquiry. The Italian Petrarch Francesco di Petracco , deemed the first full-blooded Humanist, wrote in the s: In the 15th and 16th centuries the continuing enthusiasm for the ancients was reinforced by the feeling that the inherited culture was dissolving and here was a storehouse of ideas and attitudes with which to rebuild.

Matteo Palmieri wrote in the s: The Renaissance was inspired by the growth in study of Latin and Greek texts and the admiration of the Greco-Roman era as a golden age. This prompted many artists and writers to begin drawing from Roman and Greek examples for their works, but there was also much innovation in this period, especially by multi-faceted artists such as Leonardo da Vinci. The Humanists saw their repossession of a great past as a Renaissance—a rebirth of civilization itself. Important political precedents were also set in this period. Also important were the many patrons who ruled states and used the artistry of the Renaissance as a sign of their power.

In all, the Renaissance could be viewed as an attempt by intellectuals to study and improve the secular and worldly, both through the revival of ideas from antiquity, and through novel approaches to thought—the immediate past being too "Gothic" in language, thought and sensibility. During this period, Spain experienced the greatest epoch of cultural splendor in its history.

This epoch is known as the Spanish Golden age and took place between the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries. Toward the end of the period, an era of discovery began. The growth of the Ottoman Empire , culminating in the fall of Constantinople in , cut off trading possibilities with the east. Western Europe was forced to discover new trading routes, as happened with Columbus' travel to the Americas in , and Vasco da Gama 's circumnavigation of India and Africa in The numerous wars did not prevent European states from exploring and conquering wide portions of the world, from Africa to Asia and the newly discovered Americas.

In the 15th century, Portugal led the way in geographical exploration along the coast of Africa in search of a maritime route to India, followed by Spain near the close of the 15th century, dividing their exploration of the world according to the Treaty of Tordesillas in The Yermak 's voyage of led to the annexation of the Tatar Siberian Khanate into Russia, and the Russians would soon after conquer the rest of Siberia , steadily expanding to the east and south over the next centuries. Oceanic explorations soon followed by France, England and the Netherlands, who explored the Portuguese and Spanish trade routes into the Pacific Ocean, reaching Australia in [45] and New Zealand in With the development of the printing press , new ideas spread throughout Europe and challenged traditional doctrines in science and theology.

The most common dating of the Reformation begins in , when Luther published The Ninety-Five Theses , and concludes in with the Treaty of Westphalia that ended years of European religious wars.

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During this period corruption in the Catholic Church led to a sharp backlash in the Protestant Reformation. It gained many followers especially among princes and kings seeking a stronger state by ending the influence of the Catholic Church. These religious divisions brought on a wave of wars inspired and driven by religion but also by the ambitious monarchs in Western Europe who were becoming more centralised and powerful.

The Protestant Reformation also led to a strong reform movement in the Catholic Church called the Counter-Reformation , which aimed to reduce corruption as well as to improve and strengthen Catholic dogma. Two important groups in the Catholic Church who emerged from this movement were the Jesuits , who helped keep Spain, Portugal, Poland and other European countries within the Catholic fold, and the Oratorians of Saint Philip Neri , who ministered to the faithful in Rome, restoring their confidence in the Church of Jesus Christ that subsisted substantially in the Church of Rome.

Still, the Catholic Church was somewhat weakened by the Reformation, portions of Europe were no longer under its sway and kings in the remaining Catholic countries began to take control of the church institutions within their kingdoms. While still enforcing the predominance of Catholicism, they continued to allow the large religious minorities to maintain their faiths, traditions and customs.

Another important development in this period was the growth of pan-European sentiments. Many wars broke out again in a few years. The Reformation also made European peace impossible for many centuries. Another development was the idea of 'European superiority'. The ideal of civilisation was taken over from the ancient Greeks and Romans: Discipline, education and living in the city were required to make people civilised; Europeans and non-Europeans were judged for their civility, and Europe regarded itself as superior to other continents.

There was a movement by some such as Montaigne that regarded the non-Europeans as a better, more natural and primitive people. Post services were founded all over Europe, which allowed a humanistic interconnected network of intellectuals across Europe, despite religious divisions. However, the Roman Catholic Church banned many leading scientific works; this led to an intellectual advantage for Protestant countries, where the banning of books was regionally organised.

Francis Bacon and other advocates of science tried to create unity in Europe by focusing on the unity in nature. On the other hand, the Parliament in the Polish—Lithuanian Commonwealth grew in power, taking legislative rights from the Polish king. The new state power was contested by parliaments in other countries especially England. New kinds of states emerged which were co-operation agreements among territorial rulers, cities, farmer republics and knights. The Spanish constituted the first global empire and during the 16th century and the first half of the 17th century, Spain was the most powerful nation in the world, but was increasingly challenged by British , French , and the short-lived Dutch and Swedish colonial efforts of the 17th and 18th centuries.

New forms of trade and expanding horizons made new forms of government , law and eco nomics necessary. Colonial expansion continued in the following centuries with some setbacks, such as successful wars of independence in the British American colonies and then later Haiti , Mexico , Argentina , Brazil , and others amid European turmoil of the Napoleonic Wars ; Haiti unique in abolishing slavery.

Spain had control of a large part of North America, all of Central America and a great part of South America, the Caribbean and the Philippines ; Britain took the whole of Australia and New Zealand, most of India, and large parts of Africa and North America; France held parts of Canada and India nearly all of which was lost to Britain in , Indochina , large parts of Africa and the Caribbean islands; the Netherlands gained the East Indies now Indonesia and islands in the Caribbean; Portugal obtained Brazil and several territories in Africa and Asia; and later, powers such as Germany, Belgium, Italy and Russia acquired further colonies.

This expansion helped the economy of the countries owning them. Trade flourished, because of the minor stability of the empires. By the late 16th century, American silver accounted for one-fifth of Spain's total budget. The 17th century was an era of crisis. In addition, there were secessions and upheavals in several parts of the Spanish empire, the world's first global empire.

Political insurgency and a spate of popular revolts seldom equalled shook the foundations of most states in Europe and Asia. More wars took place around the world in the midth century than in almost any other period of recorded history. The crises spread far beyond Europe—for example Ming China, the most populous state in the world, collapsed.

Across the Northern Hemisphere, the midth century experienced almost unprecedented death rates. Geoffrey Parker, a British historian, suggests that environmental factors may have been in part to blame, especially global cooling. The "absolute" rule of powerful monarchs such as Louis XIV ruled France — , [55] Peter the Great ruled Russia — , [56] Maria Theresa ruled Habsburg lands — and Frederick the Great ruled Prussia —86 , [57] produced powerful centralized states, with strong armies and powerful bureaucracies, all under the control of the king.

Throughout the early part of this period, capitalism through mercantilism was replacing feudalism as the principal form of economic organisation, at least in the western half of Europe. The expanding colonial frontiers resulted in a Commercial Revolution. The period is noted for the rise of modern science and the application of its findings to technological improvements, which animated the Industrial Revolution after The Reformation had profound effects on the unity of Europe.

Not only were nations divided one from another by their religious orientation, but some states were torn apart internally by religious strife, avidly fostered by their external enemies. France suffered this fate in the 16th century in the series of conflicts known as the French Wars of Religion , which ended in the triumph of the Bourbon Dynasty.

England avoided this fate for a while and settled down under Elizabeth to a moderate Anglicanism. Much of modern-day Germany was made up of numerous small sovereign states under the theoretical framework of the Holy Roman Empire , which was further divided along internally drawn sectarian lines. The Polish—Lithuanian Commonwealth is notable in this time for its religious indifference and a general immunity to the horrors of European religious strife.

The Thirty Years' War was fought between and , across Germany and neighboring areas, and involved most of the major European powers except England and Russia. The major impact of the war, in which mercenary armies were extensively used, was the devastation of entire regions scavenged bare by the foraging armies.

Episodes of widespread famine and disease, and the breakup of family life, devastated the population of the German states and, to a lesser extent, the Low Countries , Bohemia and Italy, while bankrupting many of the regional powers involved. Between one-fourth and one-third of the German population perished from direct military causes or from disease and starvation, as well as postponed births.

After the Peace of Westphalia , which ended the war in favour of nations deciding their own religious allegiance, absolutism became the norm of the continent, while parts of Europe experimented with constitutions foreshadowed by the English Civil War and particularly the Glorious Revolution. European military conflict did not cease, but had less disruptive effects on the lives of Europeans. In the advanced northwest, the Enlightenment gave a philosophical underpinning to the new outlook, and the continued spread of literacy, made possible by the printing press , created new secular forces in thought.

In the 16th and 17th centuries Central and Eastern Europe was an arena of conflict for domination of the continent between Sweden, the Polish—Lithuanian Commonwealth and the Ottoman Empire. The Polish—Lithuanian Commonwealth continued dominance central and eastern Europe until series of wars: This period saw a gradual decline of these three powers which were eventually replaced by new enlightened absolutist monarchies: Be the first to review this item Would you like to tell us about a lower price? Share your thoughts with other customers. Write a product review. Most helpful customer reviews on Amazon.

Swenson comparatively examines the rise and development of national "heritage" movements in England, France and Germany, to illuminate the transnational patterns and interconnections between seemingly local interests in cultural pride, monument-making, and preservation. Swenson draws attention to the ways that international collaboration and competition is remembered and forgotten in shaping the historiography of heritage. Get to Know Us. Delivery and Returns see our delivery rates and policies thinking of returning an item?

See our Returns Policy. Visit our Help Pages. Audible Download Audio Books. Shopbop Designer Fashion Brands. Amazon Prime Music Stream millions of songs, ad-free. The World Hitler Never Made: West Germany and the Global Sixties: The Russian Roots of Nazism: Memory Laws, Memory Wars: Russia and Courtly Europe: Ritual and the Culture of Diplomacy, Jan Hennings. Table of contents Introduction; Part I. In search of origins; 2. The heritage-makers; Part II. Review quote 'This book should be required reading for all scholars interested in nineteenth-century collecting.

Astrid Swenson has produced a lucid and persuasive synthesis of the emergence of historical preservation in Britain, France and Germany, ranging from the debates on vandalism and restitution during the French Revolution through to the flurry of international congresses in the fin-de-siecle. In the process, she subtly challenges the orthodoxies about the unique complexion of each nation's heritage culture - namely the statist French, the civic-minded German bourgeoisie or the individualist and aristocratic British This is an extraordinarily learned, multi-faceted and important study that reminds us of what was, and is, at stake in the decision to preserve the past.