The witch-hunts of early modern Europe took place against a backdrop of rapid social, economic, and religious transformation. By Adam Jones Introduction For three centuries of early modern European history, diverse societies were consumed by a panic over alleged witches in their midst. Witch-hunts, especially in Central Europe, resulted in the trial, torture, and execution[…]
Distinguishing between different origins of migrants as well as migration motives. Introduction This outlines the general developments of migration within and towards Europe as well as patterns of settlement of migrants since the 1950s. We take as our starting point the bilateral labour migration agreements signed by several European countries in the 1950s and 1960s.[…]
Examining Europe’s rise out of the ashes of the ruined continent to lasting stability, peace, and prosperity. This lecture seeks to explain why the Second World War, the most destructive conflict in history, produced such a contrasting outcome to the First. It suggests that the Second World War’s maelstrom of destruction replaced a catastrophic matrix[…]
Germany’s superior woodworking and stuccowork traditions aided in refashioning the imported Baroque and Rococo styles. Introduction On a bright summer day, when sunlight pours through the windows of Vierzehnheiligen Church at just the right angle, the interior glows with dazzling warmth. Joyful painted and sculpted putti fly overhead, while sculpted foliage and leafy cartouches seem to organically grow over[…]
The first European community in North America was established c.980-c.1030 CE by the Norse Viking Leif Erikson. Introduction The European colonization of the Americas was the process by which European settlers populated the regions of North, Central, South America, and the islands of the Caribbean. It is also recognized as the direct cause for the[…]
Roman and early medieval scientific texts were read and studied, contributing to the understanding of nature in the light of reason. Introduction European science in the Middle Ages comprised the study of nature, mathematics and natural philosophy in medieval Europe. Following the fall of the Western Roman Empire and the decline in knowledge of Greek,[…]
Characterizing the Middle Ages as a period of darkness is misleading. Introduction So much of what the average person knows, or thinks they know, about the Middle Ages comes from film and tv. When I polled a group of well-educated friends on Facebook, they told me that the word “medieval” called to mind Monty Python[…]
During the Iron Age, Central, Western and most of Eastern Europe gradually entered the historical period. Introduction Prehistoric Europe is Europe with human presence but before the start of recorded history, beginning in the Lower Paleolithic.[3] As history progresses, considerable regional irregularities of cultural development emerge and increase. The region of the eastern Mediterranean is,[…]
The fin-de-siècle generation condemned the rationalistic individualism of liberal society and the dissolution of social links in bourgeois society. Defining Fascism and Its Early History Overview Fascism is a form of radical authoritarian nationalism that came to prominence in early 20th-century Europe. The first fascist movements emerged in Italy during World War I, then spread[…]
Monarchs and prime ministers have spent centuries working out which decisions need to be made in public. Introduction When the English parliamentary system emerged, it was built on a cherished principle: rulers had to take advice from a representative body of subjects before making a major decision, and whether they followed that advice or not,[…]
Monarchs were demolishing the medieval feudal political system and building strong central government in its place. Introduction Between 1450 and 1550, Renaissance humanism reshaped European education, literature, the arts, music, and political theory. It also exposed corruption and fallacies within the Roman Catholic Church. It was a profound rejection of medieval scholasticism and traditional practices.[…]
A time when Europe was swept up in the Renaissance and the Reformation, other major changes were taking place in the world. Introduction With today’s global positioning satellites, Internet maps, cell phones, and superfast travel, it is hard to imagine exactly how it might have felt to embark on a voyage across an unknown ocean.[…]
Medieval robber barons most often imposed high or unauthorized tolls on rivers or roads passing through their territory. Introduction A robber baron or robber knight (German: Raubritter) was an unscrupulous feudal landowner who, protected by his fief’s legal status, imposed high taxes and tolls out of keeping with the norm without authorization by some higher[…]
The designation Visigothi seems to have appealed to the Visigoths themselves, and in time they came to apply it to themselves. Introduction The Visigoths were the western tribe of the Goths (a Germanic people) who settled west of the Black Sea sometime in the 3rd century CE. According to the scholar Herwig Wolfram, the Roman writer Cassiodorus (c. 485-585 CE)[…]
White southerners looked to contemporary European nationalist movements and compared the South to aspiring nations abroad. The Confederacy has exploded into the news once again, as protestors seeking justice for African-Americans topple Confederate statues and municipalities follow their lead in pledging to remove more. These events have again been greeted by claims that the Confederacy was[…]
The Gaulish language and cultural identity underwent a syncretism with the Roman culture of the new governing class. Introduction The Roman Republic’s influence began in southern Gaul. By the mid-2nd century BC, Rome was trading heavily with the Greek colony of Massilia (modern Marseille) and entered into an alliance with them, by which it agreed[…]
Traditional narratives of Europe as the center of history and culture and myths of discovery are addressed in Chilean historical musicology. Abstract During the past century, Edmundo O’Gorman, Tzvetan Todorov, Enrique Dussel and other scholars pointed out the Eurocentric perspective implied in traditional narratives about the discovery of America, most of which intended to confirm[…]
Empires in the Indian subcontinent shared intertwined histories with principalities to the west such as the Greeks and Romans. Introduction The word “paradise” often describes an idyllic place of unmatched beauty, but it can also refer to a mindset of harmony and bliss. Several world religions share these conceptions of paradise, but the paths for[…]
The migrants comprised war bands or tribes of 10,000 to 20,000 people during and after the decline of the Western Roman Empire. Introduction The Migration Period was a period that lasted from AD 375 (possibly as early as 300) to 568, during which there were widespread invasions of peoples within or into Europe, during and after[…]
The Middle Ages saw the emergence of the castle in Europe, which then spread to Western Asia. Introduction Medieval warfare is the European warfare of the Middle Ages. Technological, cultural, and social developments had forced a severe transformation in the character of warfare from antiquity, changing military tactics and the role of cavalry and artillery.[…]
The Empire, for much of its history, can be seen as the Christian equivalent of the Muslim caliphate. Introduction The Holy Roman Empire was a mainly Germanic conglomeration of lands in Central Europe during the Middle Ages and the early modern period. It was also known as the Holy Roman Empire of the German Nation[…]
The first time that Francia is named is in the Panegyrici Latini in the early third century. Introduction Francia or Frankia, later also called the Frankish Empire (Latin: imperium Francorum), was the territory inhabited and ruled by the Franks from the third to the tenth century. The Frankish realm was ruled as one polity subdivided[…]
Exploring the legacy of the empire and state-system imposed on Europe during the Napoleonic wars. Napoleon has long enjoyed a stellar reputation as a field commander – his capacities as a military strategist, his ability to read a battle, the painstaking detail with which he made sure that he cold muster a larger force than[…]
The Silk Road was a vast trade network connecting Eurasia and North Africa via land and sea routes. Introduction In the first century CE, during the reign of Emperor Tiberius, silk had become a big problem. The luxury fabric, imported at great cost from China, had become a symbol of decadence and excess among Romans.[…]
The spread of Christianity in the Early Middle Ages (from the fifth to tenth centuries) marked the boundaries of slavery throughout Europe. Before New World expansion, concepts of race and racial hierarchies did not define who could and could not be enslaved in Western Europe. Instead, the spread of Christianity in the Early Middle Ages[…]
In 1947–1948, a series of events caused the nations of Western Europe to become concerned about their physical and political security. The North Atlantic Treaty Organization was created in 1949 by the United States, Canada, and several Western European nations to provide collective security against the Soviet Union. NATO was the first peacetime military alliance[…]
Batu would serve as the kingmaker of the Mongol Empire. Introduction Batu Khan (l. 1205-1255 CE) was a grandson of Genghis Khan and the founder of the Golden Horde. Batu was a skilled Mongol military commander and won battles from China to Persia, although his most famous exploits involve the grand Mongol campaign into Europe[…]
With the Mongol invasion of Europe, the world had become a lot more violent and just a bit smaller. By Mark CartwrightHistorian Introduction The Mongol invasions of Russia and Eastern Europe occurred first with a brief sortie in 1223 CE and then again in a much larger campaign between 1237 CE and 1242 CE. The[…]
Italian art and ideas migrated North from Italy. What Was the Renaissance and Where Did It Happen? The word Renaissance is generally defined as the rebirth of classical antiquity in Italy in the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries. Seems simple enough, but the word “Renaissance” is actually fraught with complexity. Scholars argue about exactly when the Renaissance[…]
Christianity did not immediately win the hearts and minds of the people of Europe. Introduction Religion in the Middle Ages, though dominated by the Catholic Church, was far more varied than only orthodox Christianity. In the Early Middle Ages (c. 476-1000 CE), long-established pagan beliefs and practices entwined with those of the new religion so[…]