History of Europe

{{Short description|none}} {{Use dmy dates|date=November 2025}} {{Multiple issues| collapsed=yes| {{refimprove|date=July 2025}} {{very long|date=May 2026|words=~14,000}} }} [[File:Abraham Ortelius Map of Europe.jpg|thumb|upright=1.3|Europe by cartographer [[Abraham Ortelius]] in 1595]] The '''history of Europe''' is traditionally divided into four time periods: [[prehistoric Europe]] (prior to about 800 BC), [[classical antiquity]] (800 BC to AD 500), the [[Middle Ages]] (AD 500–1500), and the [[modern era]] (since AD 1500).

The first [[early European modern humans]] appear in the fossil record about 48,000 years ago, during the [[Paleolithic]] era. Settled agriculture marked the [[Neolithic]] era, which spread slowly across Europe from southeast to the north and west. The later Neolithic period saw the introduction of early [[metallurgy]] and the use of copper-based tools and weapons, and the building of [[megalith]]ic structures, as exemplified by [[Stonehenge]]. During the [[Indo-European migrations]], Europe saw migrations from the east and southeast. The period known as [[classical antiquity]] began with the emergence of the [[city state|city-states]] of [[ancient Greece]]. Later, the [[Roman Empire]] came to dominate the entire [[Mediterranean Basin]]. The [[Migration Period]] of the [[Germanic people]] began in the late 4th century AD.

The [[fall of the Western Roman Empire]] in AD 476 traditionally marks the [[Early Middle Ages|start of the Middle Ages]]. While the [[Eastern Roman Empire]] would continue for another 1000 years, the former lands of the Western Empire would be fragmented into the [[barbarian kingdoms]]. The first great empire of the Middle Ages was the [[Frankish Empire]] of [[Charlemagne]], while the [[Umayyad conquest of Hispania|Islamic conquest of Iberia]] established [[Al-Andalus]]. The [[Viking Age]] saw a second great migration of [[Norsemen|Norse]] peoples. The oldest university currently in continuous operation in the world was established during the [[High Middle Ages]], which also saw two centuries of [[Crusades]] to try to retake the [[Levant]] from the Muslim states that occupied it and [[feudalism]] reaching its height. The [[Late Middle Ages]] were marked by a large population decline, as Europe faced the [[bubonic plague]], as well as invasions by the [[Mongol]] peoples from the [[Eurasian Steppe]]. At the end of the Middle Ages, there was a transitional period, known as the [[Renaissance]], which saw revolutions in both [[Printing_press#Mass_production_and_spread_in_Europe|printing]] and [[Age of Discovery|navigation]].

[[Early modern Europe]] is usually dated to the end of the 15th century. [[Gunpowder]] changed how warfare was conducted and printing changed how knowledge was created, preserved and disseminated. The [[Reformation]] saw the fragmentation of religious thought and then [[European wars of religion|nearly two centuries of religious war]]s. The [[Age of Discovery]] led to [[Analysis of European colonialism and colonization|colonization]], and the exploitation of the people and resources of colonies brought resources and wealth to Western Europe. Modern science emerged during the [[Scientific Revolution]] of the 17th century. After 1800, the [[Industrial Revolution]] brought [[Capital (economics)|capital]] accumulation and rapid [[urbanization]] to Western Europe, while several countries transitioned away from [[Age of absolutism|absolutist rule]] to parliamentary regimes. The [[Age of Revolution]] saw long-established political systems overturned. In the 20th century, [[World War I]] led to a remaking of the map of Europe as the large empires were broken up into [[nation state]]s. Lingering political issues would lead to [[World War II]], during which [[Nazi Germany]] perpetrated [[the Holocaust]]. The subsequent [[Cold War]] saw Europe divided by the [[Iron Curtain]] into capitalist and communist states, led by the [[United States]] and the [[Soviet Union]] respectively, and the creation of [[NATO]] and the [[Warsaw Pact]]. The West's remaining colonial empires [[decolonisation|were dismantled]]. The last decades saw the fall of remaining dictatorships in Western Europe and a [[European integration|gradual political integration]], which led to the [[European Community]], later the [[European Union]]. After the [[Revolutions of 1989]], all European communist states [[transition economy|transitioned]] to capitalism, and in 1991 the Soviet Union came to an end. The 21st century began with most of the former communist states [[Expansion of the European Union|gradually joining the EU]]. In the 2010s and 2020s, Europe has faced the [[Euro area crisis]], the [[2015 European migrant crisis]], and the [[Russian invasion of Ukraine]].

==Prehistoric period== {{Main|Prehistoric Europe}}

===Paleolithic=== [[File:Ice age fauna of northern Spain - Mauricio Antón.jpg|thumb|left|The [[Late Pleistocene]] saw [[Quaternary extinction event|extinctions]] of numerous predominantly [[megafauna]]l species, coinciding in time with the [[early human migrations]] across continents.<ref>{{cite journal|last1=Smith|first1=Felisa A.|display-authors=etal.|date=20 April 2018|title=Body size downgrading of mammals over the late Quaternary|journal=Science|volume=360|issue=6386|pages=310–313|doi=10.1126/science.aao5987|pmid=29674591|bibcode=2018Sci...360..310S|doi-access=free}}</ref>]]

''[[Homo erectus]]'' migrated from Africa to Europe before the emergence of modern humans. The earliest appearance of [[anatomically modern humans|anatomically modern people]] in Europe has been dated to 45,000 BC, referred to as the [[Early European modern humans]]. Some locally developed transitional cultures, [[Uluzzian]] in Italy and Greece, Altmühlian in Germany, [[Szeletian]] in Central Europe and [[Châtelperronian]] in the southwest, use clearly [[Upper Paleolithic]] technologies at early dates.

[[File:18 PanneauDesLions(PartieDroite)BisonsPoursuivisParDesLions.jpg|thumb|[[Chauvet Cave]] painting, [[Aurignacian culture]], France, c. 30,000 BC]]

Nevertheless, the definitive advance of these technologies is made by the [[Aurignacian]] culture, originating in the [[Levant]] (Ahmarian) and Hungary (first full Aurignacian). By 35,000 BC, the Aurignacian culture and its technology had extended through most of Europe. The last [[Neanderthals]] seem to have been forced to retreat to the southern half of the [[Iberian Peninsula]]. Around 29,000 BC a new technology/culture appeared in the western region of Europe: the [[Gravettian]]. This culture has been theorised to have come with migrations of people from the [[Balkans]]: see the [[Kozarnika]] cave.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://vdcci.bg/kiosk/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=54:kozarnika-cave&catid=14:nature&Itemid=127&lang=en |title="Kozarnika" cave |publisher=VDCCI BG |access-date=5 September 2016 |archive-date=15 September 2016 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160915170614/http://vdcci.bg/kiosk/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=54:kozarnika-cave&catid=14:nature&Itemid=127&lang=en |url-status=dead }}</ref><ref>{{cite web|url=http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/science/nature/3512470.stm |title=Early human marks are "symbols" |work=BBC News |date=16 March 2004 |access-date=5 September 2016}}</ref>

Around 16,000 BC, Europe witnessed the appearance of the [[Magdalenian]] culture, possibly rooted in the old Gravettian. This culture soon superseded the [[Solutrean]] area and the Gravettian of mainly France, Spain, Germany, Italy, Poland, Portugal and Ukraine. The [[Hamburg culture]] prevailed in Northern Europe in the 14th and the 13th millennium BC as the [[Creswellian]] did shortly after in the [[British Isles]]. Around 12,500 BC, the [[Würm glaciation]] ended. Magdalenian culture persisted until {{Circa}} 10,000 BC, when it quickly evolved into two ''[[microlith]]ist'' cultures: [[Azilian]] ([[Federmesser]]), in Spain and [[southern France]], and then [[Sauveterrian]], in southern France and [[Tardenoisian]] in Central Europe, while in Northern Europe the [[Lyngby culture|Lyngby complex]] succeeded the Hamburg culture with the influence of the Federmesser group as well.

===Neolithic and Copper Age=== {{See also|Old Europe (archaeology) |Neolithic Europe |Chalcolithic Europe}} [[File:Smac Neolithikum 122.jpg|thumb|[[Linear Pottery culture]] settlement, Germany, c. 4700 BC]]

Evidence of permanent settlement dates from the 8th millennium BC in the Balkans. The [[Neolithic Europe|Neolithic]] reached [[Central Europe]] in the 6th millennium BC and parts of [[Northern Europe]] in the 5th and 4th millenniums BC. The modern indigenous populations of Europe are largely descended from three distinct lineages: Mesolithic [[Western Hunter-Gatherers|hunter-gatherer]]s, a derivative of the [[Cro-Magnon]] population, [[Early European Farmers]] who migrated from [[Anatolia]] during the [[Neolithic Revolution]], and [[Yamnaya culture|Yamnaya]] [[Western Steppe Herders|pastoralists]] who expanded into Europe in the context of the [[Proto-Indo-Europeans|Indo-European expansion]].<ref>{{cite news|title=When the First Farmers Arrived in Europe, Inequality Evolved|url=https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/when-the-first-farmers-arrived-in-europe-inequality-evolved/|work=Scientific American|date=1 July 2020|access-date=17 September 2022|archive-date=25 May 2022|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220525055649/https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/when-the-first-farmers-arrived-in-europe-inequality-evolved/|url-status=live}}</ref> The [[Indo-European migrations]] started in [[Southeast Europe]] at around c. 4200 BC through the areas around the [[Black sea]] and the [[Balkan peninsula]]. In the next 3000 years the [[Indo-European languages]] expanded through Europe.

[[File:Grave offerings.jpg|thumb|194x194px|Artefacts from the [[Varna culture|Varna necropolis]], Bulgaria, c. 4500 BC]]

Around this time, in the 5th millennium BC the [[Varna culture]] evolved. In 4700 – 4200 BC, the [[Solnitsata]] town, believed to be the oldest prehistoric town in Europe, flourished.<ref>{{cite news|title=Archaeologists find Europe's most prehistoric town|first=Nick|last=Squires|url=https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/europe/bulgaria/9646541/Bulgaria-archaeologists-find-Europes-most-prehistoric-town-Provadia-Solnitsata.html|archive-url=https://ghostarchive.org/archive/20220112/https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/europe/bulgaria/9646541/Bulgaria-archaeologists-find-Europes-most-prehistoric-town-Provadia-Solnitsata.html|archive-date=12 January 2022|url-access=subscription|url-status=live|newspaper=The Daily Telegraph|date=31 October 2012|access-date=1 November 2012}}{{cbignore}}</ref><ref name=Maugh>{{cite news|title=Bulgarians find oldest European town, a salt production center|first=Thomas H. II|last=Maugh|url=https://www.latimes.com/science/la-xpm-2012-nov-01-la-sci-sn-oldest-european-town-20121101-story.html|newspaper=Los Angeles Times|date=1 November 2012|access-date=1 November 2012|archive-date=4 May 2019|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190504234136/https://www.latimes.com/science/la-xpm-2012-nov-01-la-sci-sn-oldest-european-town-20121101-story.html|url-status=live}}</ref>

<gallery widths="160" heights="120"> File:Expansion of farming in western Eurasia, 9600–4000 BCE.png|Neolithic expansion in Europe, 7000-4000 BC European-late-neolithic-english.svg|Late Neolithic Europe, c. 5000-3500 BC </gallery>

==Ancient period== ===Bronze Age=== {{Main article|Bronze Age Europe|Aegean civilization}}

[[File:Knossos - North Portico 02.jpg|thumb|Partly reconstructed ruins of [[Knossos]], Crete, c. 1700 BC]]

The first well-known literate civilization in Europe was the [[Minoan civilization]] that arose on the island of [[Crete]] and flourished from approximately the 27th century BC to the 15th century BC.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://oxfordbibliographiesonline.com/display/id/obo-9780195389661-0071|title=Ancient Crete|publisher=Oxfordbibliographiesonline.com|date=15 February 2010|access-date=17 May 2012|archive-date=30 May 2020|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200530225110/https://www.oxfordbibliographies.com/view/document/obo-9780195389661/obo-9780195389661-0071.xml|url-status=live}}</ref>

The Minoans were replaced by the [[Mycenaean civilization]] which flourished during the period roughly between 1600 BC, when [[Helladic]] culture in [[Geography of Greece|mainland Greece]] was transformed under influences from Minoan Crete, and 1100 BC. The major Mycenaean cities were [[Mycenae]] and [[Tiryns]] in Argolis, [[Pylos]] in Messenia, [[Athens]] in Attica, [[Ancient Thebes (Boeotia)|Thebes]] and [[Orchomenus (Boeotia)|Orchomenus]] in Boeotia, and [[Iolkos]] in Thessaly. In [[Crete]], the Mycenaeans occupied [[Knossos]]. Mycenaean settlement sites also appeared in [[Epirus]],<ref>{{cite book|last=Hammond|first=N.G.L.|title=Migrations and invasions in Greece and adjacent areas|year=1976|publisher=Noyes P.|location=Park Ridge, NJ|isbn=978-0-8155-5047-1|page=139|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=O9saAAAAYAAJ&q=%22Moreover%2C+in+this+area+a+small+tholos-tomb+with+Mycenaean+pottery+of+III+B+style+and+a+Mycenaean+acropolis+have+been+reported+at+Kiperi+near+Parga%2C+and+another+Mycenaean+acropolis+lay+above+the+Oracle+of+the+Dead+on+the+hill+called+%22|access-date=6 November 2020|archive-date=27 April 2023|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230427155343/https://books.google.com/books?id=O9saAAAAYAAJ&q=%22Moreover%2C+in+this+area+a+small+tholos-tomb+with+Mycenaean+pottery+of+III+B+style+and+a+Mycenaean+acropolis+have+been+reported+at+Kiperi+near+Parga%2C+and+another+Mycenaean+acropolis+lay+above+the+Oracle+of+the+Dead+on+the+hill+called+%22|url-status=live}}</ref><ref>Tandy, p. xii. "Figure 1: Map of Epirus showing the locations of known sites with Mycenaean remains"; Tandy, p. 2. "The strongest evidence for Mycenaean presence in Epirus is found in the coastal zone of the lower Acheron River, which in antiquity emptied into a bay on the Ionian coast known from ancient sources as ''Glykys Limin'' (Figure 2-A)."</ref> [[Macedonia (region)|Macedonia]],<ref>{{cite book|last=Borza|first=Eugene N.|title=In the shadow of Olympus : the emergence of Macedon|year=1990|publisher=Princeton University Press|location=Princeton, NJ|isbn=978-0-691-00880-6|page=64|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=614pd07OtfQC&q=%22The+existence+of+a+Late+Bronze+Age+Mycenaean+settlement+in+the+Petra+not+only+confirms+its+importance+as+a+route+from+an+early+period%2C+but+also+extends+the+limits+of+Mycenaean+settlement+to+the+Macedonian+frontier.%22&pg=PA64|edition=[Nachdr.]|access-date=6 November 2020|archive-date=27 April 2023|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230427155354/https://books.google.com/books?id=614pd07OtfQC&q=%22The+existence+of+a+Late+Bronze+Age+Mycenaean+settlement+in+the+Petra+not+only+confirms+its+importance+as+a+route+from+an+early+period%2C+but+also+extends+the+limits+of+Mycenaean+settlement+to+the+Macedonian+frontier.%22&pg=PA64|url-status=live}}</ref><ref>{{cite web|url=http://aegeobalkanprehistory.net/img_articles/thumbs/tmb_75.jpg|title=Aegeobalkan Prehistory – Mycenaean Sites|access-date=17 May 2012|archive-date=3 September 2015|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150903230427/http://aegeobalkanprehistory.net/img_articles/thumbs/tmb_75.jpg|url-status=live}}</ref> on islands in the [[Aegean Sea]], on the coast of [[Asia Minor]], the [[Levant]],<ref>The Synchronisation of Civilisations in the eastern Mediterranean in the Second Millennium BC III, Proceedings of the SCIEM 2000 – 2nd EuroConference, Vienna, 28 May – 1 June 2003</ref> [[Cyprus]]<ref>[https://books.google.com/books?id=q4eYEG2FW28C&q=mycenaean+in+italy Use and appreciation of Mycenaean pottery in the Levant, Cyprus and Italy] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230427155344/https://books.google.com/books?id=q4eYEG2FW28C&q=mycenaean+in+italy |date=27 April 2023 }}, Gert Jan van Wijngaarden, Amsterdam Archaeological Studies</ref> and Italy.<ref>[https://web.archive.org/web/20090822030452/http://www.gla.ac.uk/departments/archaeology/research/projects/mycenaeansitaly/ The Mycenaeans and Italy: the archaeological and archaeometric ceramic evidence], University of Glasgow, Department of Archaeology</ref><ref>Emilio Peruzzi, ''Mycenaeans in early Latium'', (Incunabula Graeca 75), Edizioni dell'Ateneo & Bizzarri, Roma, 1980</ref> Mycenaean artefacts have been found well outside the limits of the Mycenean world.

[[File:Tholos of Atreus.jpg|thumb|upright=.6|The [[Treasury of Atreus]], or Tomb of Agamemnon in [[Mycenae]], Greece 1250 BC]] Quite unlike the Minoans, whose society benefited from trade, the Mycenaeans advanced through conquest. Mycenaean civilization was dominated by a warrior [[aristocracy]]. Around 1400 BC, the Mycenaeans extended their control to Crete, the centre of the Minoan civilization. The Mycenaean civilization perished with the [[Bronze Age collapse|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.<ref>{{cite book |last1=Cline |first1=Eric H. |title=177 B.C. the year civilization collapsed |date=2014 |publisher=Princeton University Press |isbn=978-0-691-14089-6 |pages=xx + 237}}</ref> Whatever the causes, the Mycenaean civilization had disappeared after [[LH IIIC|LH III C]], when the sites of Mycenae and Tiryns were again destroyed. 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 Bronze Age collapse may be seen in the context of technological history that saw the slow spread of [[ironworking]] technology from present-day [[Bulgaria]] and [[Romania]] in the 13th and the 12th centuries BC.<ref name="See A 1989">See A. Stoia and the other essays in M.L. Stig Sørensen and R. Thomas, eds., ''The Bronze Age: Iron Age Transition in Europe'' (Oxford) 1989, and [[Theodore Wertime|T.A. Wertime]] and J.D. Muhly, ''The Coming of the Age of Iron'' (New Haven) 1980.</ref>

The [[Tumulus culture]] and the following [[Urnfield culture]] of central Europe were part of the origin of the [[Culture of ancient Rome|Roman]] and [[Classical Greece|Greek]] cultures.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.researchgate.net/publication/276372928|title=Barbarian Europe and Early Iron Age Greece}}</ref>

===Iron Age=== {{Main|Iron Age Europe|Iron Age Greek migrations}}

===Classical Antiquity=== {{Main|Classical antiquity}} [[File:Anaximander world map (mul).svg|thumb|Reconstruction of an early [[early world maps|world map]] made by [[Anaximander]] of the 6th century BCE, dividing the known world into three large landmasses, one of which was named Europe]] [[File:The Parthenon in Athens.jpg|thumb|The [[Parthenon]], an [[Ancient Athens|ancient Athenian]] Temple on the [[Acropolis]] (hill-top city) fell to Rome in 176 BC]]

[[Classical antiquity]], also known as the classical era, classical period, classical age, or simply antiquity,<ref>{{cite book|last=Gruen|first=E.|date=2010|title=Rethinking the Other in Antiquity|publisher=Princeton University Press|doi=10.1515/9781400836550|isbn=9781400836550|url=https://doi.org/10.1515/9781400836550}}</ref> is the period of cultural [[history]] between the 8th century BC and the 5th century AD comprising the interwoven civilizations of [[ancient Greece]] and [[ancient Rome]] known together as the [[Greco-Roman world]], centered on the [[Mediterranean Basin]]. It is the period during which Greece and Rome flourished and had major influence throughout much of [[Europe]], [[North Africa]], and [[West Asia]].<ref>{{Cite book|last=McLaughlin|first=Raoul|title=The Roman Empire and the Indian Ocean: The Ancient World Economy and the Kingdoms of Africa, Arabia and India|publisher=[[Pen & Sword]]|date=11 September 2014|isbn=9781473840959}}</ref><ref>{{Cite book|last=McLaughlin|first=Raoul|title=The Roman Empire and the Silk Routes: The Ancient World Economy & the Empires of Parthia, Central Asia & Han China|publisher=[[Pen & Sword]]|date=11 November 2016|isbn=9781473889811}}</ref>

===Ancient Greece=== {{Main|Archaic Greece|Classical Greece|Hellenistic Greece}}

[[Ancient Greece]] (also "Hellenic civilisation") was a loose collection of culturally and linguistically related city-states ("[[poleis]]") - including [[Ancient Athens|Athens]], [[History of Sparta|Sparta]], [[Thebes, Greece|Thebes]], [[Ancient Corinth|Corinth]], and [[Syracuse, Sicily|Syracuse]] - that achieved notable developments in [[Ancient Greek philosophy|philosophy]], [[Ancient Greek mathematics|mathematics]], [[Ancient Olympic Games|sports]], [[Theatre of ancient Greece|theatre]] and [[Music of ancient Greece|music]]. Athens governed itself with a form of [[Athenian democracy|direct democracy]] and by the late 4th century BC as many as half of the over one thousand existing Greek cities might have been democracies.<ref>Josiah Ober, ''The Rise and Fall of Classical Greece'' (2015) Princeton University Press.{{page needed|date=December 2024}}{{ISBN?}}</ref> Athens was the home of [[Socrates]],<ref>{{cite EB1911 |first=Henry |last=Jackson|wstitle=Socrates |volume=25 |page=331}}</ref> [[Plato]], the [[Platonic Academy]], [[Aristotle]] and the [[Peripatetic school]]. The Hellenic city-states established colonies on the shores of the [[Black Sea]] and the Mediterranean Sea ([[Asian Minor|Asia Minor]], [[Sicily]], and [[Southern Italy]] in [[Magna Graecia]]) and also fought [[Greco-Persian Wars|a half century of wars]] with the [[Achaemenid Empire|Persian Empire]].<ref name="Warfare in the Ancient World">Brian Todd Carey, Joshua Allfree, John Cairns (2006). [https://books.google.com/books?id=3OSfBwAAQBAJ&pg=PT32 ''Warfare in the Ancient World''] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20221229073713/https://books.google.com/books?id=3OSfBwAAQBAJ&pg=PT32 |date=29 December 2022 }} Pen and Sword, {{ISBN|1-84884-630-4}}</ref>

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 [[Achaemenid Empire|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 the Great]], his empire split into multiple kingdoms ruled by his generals, the [[Diadochi]]. The Diadochi fought against each other in a series of conflicts called the [[Wars of the Diadochi]]. In the beginning of the 2nd century BC, only three major kingdoms remained: the [[Ptolemaic Kingdom|Ptolemaic Egypt]], the [[Seleucid Empire]] and [[Macedonia (ancient kingdom)|Macedonia]]. These kingdoms spread [[Culture of Greece|Greek culture]] to regions as far away as [[Bactria]].<ref>{{cite news|url=http://explorethemed.com/Diadochi.asp?c=1|title=The Diadochi and the Hellenistic Age|work=Historical Atlas of the Mediterranean|access-date=23 August 2018|archive-date=23 December 2015|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20151223010309/http://explorethemed.com/Diadochi.asp?c=1|url-status=live}}</ref>

===Ancient Rome=== {{More citations needed section|date=April 2026}} {{Main|Ancient Rome|Roman Republic|Roman Empire}} [[File:Cicero Denounces Catiline in the Roman Senate by Cesare Maccari.png|thumb|[[Cicero]] addresses the [[Roman Senate]] to denounce [[Catiline]]'s conspiracy to overthrow the [[Roman Republic|Republic]], by [[Cesare Maccari]].]]

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: the only challenge to Roman ascent came from the [[Phoenicia]]n colony of [[Carthage]], and its defeats in the three [[Punic Wars]] marked the start of Roman [[hegemony]]. First governed by [[Roman kings|kings]], then as a senatorial republic (the [[Roman Republic]]), Rome 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. Under the [[Roman emperor|emperor]] [[Trajan]] (2nd century AD) the empire reached its maximum expansion, controlling approximately {{convert|5900000|km2|sqmi|abbr=on}} of land surface, including [[Italian Peninsula|Italia]], [[Gaul|Gallia]], [[Dalmatia]], [[Aquitania]], [[Roman Britain|Britannia]], [[Baetica]], [[Hispania]], [[Odrysian kingdom|Thrace]], [[Macedonia (ancient kingdom)|Macedonia]], [[Greece]], [[Moesia]], [[Dacia (Roman province)|Dacia]], [[Pannonia]], Egypt, [[Asia Minor]], [[Cappadocia]], [[Kingdom of Armenia (antiquity)|Armenia]], [[Caucasus]], North Africa, [[Levant]] and parts of [[Mesopotamia]]. [[Pax Romana]], a period of peace, [[Roman civilisation|civilisation]] and an efficient [[centralised government]] in the subject territories ended in the 3rd century, when a [[Crisis of the Third Century|series of civil wars]] undermined Rome's economic and social strength.

[[File:Colosseum Roma 2009.jpg|thumb|The [[Colosseum]] in Rome, Italy]]

In the 4th century, the emperors [[Diocletian]] and [[Constantine I of the Roman Empire|Constantine]] were able to slow down the process of decline by splitting the empire into a [[Western Roman Empire|Western]] part with a capital in Rome and an [[Byzantine Empire|Eastern]] part with the capital in Byzantium, or [[Constantinople]] (now Istanbul). Constantinople is generally considered to be the center of "[[Eastern Orthodox Church|Eastern Orthodox civilization]]".<ref>{{cite book|title=Christianity: Religions of the World|first=Ken|last=Parry|year=2009|isbn=9781438106397|page=139|publisher=Infobase Publishing}}</ref><ref>{{cite book|title=The Blackwell Companion to Eastern Christianity|first=Ken|last=Parry|year=2010|isbn=9781444333619|page=368|publisher=John Wiley & Sons}}</ref> Whereas Diocletian severely persecuted [[Christianity]], Constantine declared an official end to state-sponsored [[persecution of Christians in the Roman Empire|persecution of Christians]] in 313 with the [[Edict of Milan]], thus setting the stage for the [[Christian Church|Church]] to become the [[state church of the Roman Empire]] in about 380.

The Roman Empire had been repeatedly attacked by invading armies from Northern Europe and in 476, Rome finally [[Fall of the Western Roman Empire|fell]]. [[Romulus Augustus]], the last emperor of the [[Western Roman Empire]], surrendered to the Germanic King [[Odoacer]].

<gallery widths="160" heights="120"> File:Europe-In-301BC.png|Europe in the year 301 BC File:Cesare prima Gallia 58 a.C. jpg.jpg|The [[Roman Republic]] and its neighbours in 58 BC File:Europe-In-117AD.png|The Roman Empire at its greatest extent in 117 AD, under the emperor [[Trajan]] </gallery>

===Late Antiquity and Migration Period=== {{More citations needed section|date=April 2026}} {{Main|Late Antiquity|Migration Period}} [[File:Invasions of the Roman Empire 1.png|thumb|Migrations from the 2nd to the 5th century]]

When Emperor Constantine had reconquered Rome under the banner of the [[Christian cross|cross]] in 312, he soon afterwards issued the [[Edict of Milan]] in 313 (preceded by the [[Edict of Serdica]] in 311), 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").

[[File:Partition of the Roman Empire in 395 AD.png|thumb|Partition of the Roman Empire in 395: the [[Western Roman Empire]] is in red and the Eastern in purple]] [[Theodosius I]], who had made Christianity the [[State church of the Roman Empire|official religion of the Roman Empire]], would be the last emperor to preside over a united Roman Empire, until his death in 395. The empire was split into two halves: the [[Western Roman Empire]] centred in [[Ravenna]], and the Eastern Roman Empire (later to be referred to as the [[Byzantine Empire]]) centred in Constantinople. The Roman Empire was repeatedly attacked by [[Huns|Hunnic]], [[Germanic peoples|Germanic]], [[Slavic people|Slavic]] and other "barbarian" tribes (see: [[Migration Period]]), and in 476 finally the Western part fell to the [[Heruli]] chieftain [[Odoacer]].

==Post-classical and medieval Europe== {{Main|Middle Ages|Medieval demography}}

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 state]]s, 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]].<ref>Susan Wise Bauer, ''The History of the Medieval World: From the Conversion of Constantine to the First Crusade'' (2010)</ref><ref>* {{cite book|editor=Kelly Boyd|title=Encyclopedia of Historians and Historical Writing vol 2|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=0121vD9STIMC&pg=PA793|year=1999|publisher=Taylor & Francis|pages=791–94|isbn=978-1-884964-33-6}}</ref>

=== Byzantine Empire === {{Main|Byzantine Empire}}

The foundation of [[Constantinople]] in 330 AD by Emperor [[Constantine I]] (reigned 306–337) marks the conventional start of the [[Byzantine Empire]]. The change in the character of the Constantinople-based empire was gradual but by the 7th century Latin titles and usages had been officially replaced with Greek versions.<ref>{{cite book |last=Treadgold |first=Warren |author-link=Warren Treadgold |editor-last=Mango |editor-first=Cyril |editor-link=Cyril Mango |title=The Oxford History of Byzantium |chapter=The Struggle for Survival (610–867) |publisher=Oxford University Press |year=2002 |isbn=978-0-19-814098-6 |page=142 |location=Oxford}}</ref> [[File:Byzantine-Arab_naval_struggle.svg|thumb|Byzantine-Muslim naval conflicts from 7th to 11th centuries]] From the 7th to 11th centuries, the [[Arab–Byzantine wars|Empire fought successive Islamic caliphates]], losing [[Muslim_conquest_of_Syria|Syria in 639]], [[Arab conquest of Egypt|Egypt by 642]] and [[Muslim conquest of the Maghreb|all of North Africa by 709]]. The [[Umayyad Caliphate]] twice placed Constantinople under siege, [[Siege of Constantinople (674–678)|from 674 to 678]] and [[Siege of Constantinople (717–718)|again from 717 to 718]], but ultimately failed to seize the Empire's heavily fortified capital. From the 650s onward, Arab naval forces began entering the Mediterranean Sea, which subsequently became a major battleground, with both sides launching raids and counterraids against islands and coastal settlements.

The Byzantine Empire lasted for more than a millennium longer than the [[Western Roman Empire]], only finally ending with the [[fall of Constantinople]] to the [[Ottoman Empire|Ottoman Turks]] in 1453. During most of its existence, the Byzantine Empire was one of the most powerful economic, cultural, and military forces in Europe and during the Early Middle Ages, Constantinople was Europe's largest and wealthiest city.<ref>{{Harvnb|Laiou|Morisson|2007|pp=130–131}}; {{Harvnb|Pounds|1979|p=124}}.</ref>

===Early Middle Ages=== {{Main|Early Middle Ages}} {{Further|Medieval England|First Bulgarian Empire|Caliphate of Córdoba|Charlemagne|Carolingian Empire|Medieval Hungary|Medieval Poland|Viking Age|Kievan Rus'}}

After the [[fall of Rome]], much of [[Greco-Roman]] art, literature, science and technology was all but lost in the western part of the old empire. Europe fell into a period of [[Barbarian kingdoms|warring kingdoms and principalities]]<ref>{{Cite book|last=Croke|first=Brian|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=w-t5DwAAQBAJ|title=Greek and Roman Historiography in Late Antiquity: Fourth to Sixth Century A.D.|publisher=Brill|year=2003|isbn=90-04-11275-8|location=Leiden|chapter=Latin Historiography and the Barbarian Kingdoms}}</ref><ref>{{Cite thesis|last=Ghosh|first=Shami|title=The Barbarian Past in Early Medieval Historical Narrative|date=2009|degree=Doctoral|publisher=University of Toronto|url=https://tspace.library.utoronto.ca/bitstream/1807/19189/3/ghosh_shami_200911_PhD_thesis.pdf}}</ref> now known as the [[Early Middle Ages]] (500–1000),<ref>Events used to mark the period's beginning include the sack of Rome by the [[Goths]] (410), the deposition of the last western [[Roman emperor]] (476), the [[Battle of Tolbiac]] (496) and the [[Gothic War (535–554)|Gothic War]] (535–552). Particular events taken to mark its end include the founding of the [[Holy Roman Empire]] by [[Otto I the Great]] (962), the [[East–West Schism|Great Schism]] (1054) and the [[Norman conquest of England]] (1066).</ref> marked by a continuation, or even intensification, of the destructive trends of [[late antiquity]]: [[Medieval_demography#Late_Antiquity|depopulation]], [[Counterurbanization|deurbanization]],<ref>{{cite book |last=Cameron |first=Averil |title=The Mediterranean World in Late Antiquity, AD 395–600 |year=1993 |publisher=Routledge |chapter=Urban changes and the end of Antiquity: The changing city |pages=159ff |isbn=978-0415014212}}</ref> and [[barbarian]] invasions.<ref name="clark">Gilian Clark, ''Late Antiquity: A Very Short Introduction'' (Oxford 2011), pp. 1–2.</ref>. From the 7th until the 11th centuries, [[Early Muslim conquests|Muslims]],<ref>{{cite journal |first=Mohammad |last=Ballan |title=Fraxinetum: An Islamic Frontier State in Tenth-Century Provence |journal=Comitatus: A Journal of Medieval and Renaissance Studies |volume=41 |year=2010 |pages=23–76 |url=https://www.academia.edu/3537846 |doi=10.1353/cjm.2010.0053 |s2cid=144048972 |quote=By 939 the [[Andalusi|Andalusis]] had managed to cross the Alps and raided what is today northern Italy as well as southern Switzerland, where they attacked the renowned monastery of [[St. Gallen|St. Gall]]. They established numerous fortresses—which Latin chroniclers in the raided regions all called [[Fraxinetum]] or some variation of the name (Frassineto, Frascendello, etc.) - thus facilitating their domination of [[Provence]] and the [[Vallée du Rhône (France)|Rhone Valley]]. From their principal base at Fraxinetum, the Muslims extended their raids into [[Alemannia]] and [[Rhaetia]] in the North, [[Grenoble]] in the West, and [[Lombardy]] in the East...It was during the period of its control of the Alpine passes that Fraxinetum reached its peak, and the raids by the Andalusis became the most destructive and deadly; according to Latin chroniclers, the Muslims sacked numerous monasteries and indiscriminately killed hundreds of pilgrims on their way to Rome.}}</ref> [[Viking expansion|Vikings]]<ref>{{cite book |last=Haywood |first=John |year=1995 |title=The Penguin Historical Atlas of the Vikings |url=https://archive.org/details/penguinhistorica00john |url-access=registration |publisher=[[Penguin Books]] |page=[https://archive.org/details/penguinhistorica00john/page/8 8] |isbn=0140513280 |quote=The term "Viking" has come to be applied to all Scandinavians of the period, but in the [[Viking Age]] itself the term ''víkingr'' applied only to someone who went ''í víking'', that is plundering." }}</ref> and [[Hungarian invasions of Europe|Magyars]]<ref>{{cite book |last=McEvedy |first=Colin |author-link=Colin McEvedy |title=The Penguin Atlas of Medieval History |year=1980 |orig-year=1961 |publisher=Penguin Books |location=Harmondsworth |isbn=0-14-070822-7 |page=50 |quote=The Viking and Moslem marauders had already been active for a century when the Maygars arrived in Europe, but it was only then that the misery of Christendom became complete. Forced out of Russia by the [[Pechenegs|Patzinaks]] (893), the Maygars [[Hungarian conquest of the Carpathian Basin|occupied Hungary]]...Then their horsemen turned to raiding that was as rapid, widespread and savage as that of the sea-borne pirates. The unhappy condition of the West at that time is well shown in the history of [[Burgundy]], a state which would appear to be comparatively inaccessible, but which within half a century was raped by Viking, Moslem, and Magyar in turn.}}</ref> all raided and invaded the [[Europe|European peninsula]] from the south, north, and east.

As the remnants of Roman imperial governance contracted and the supply of Egyptian [[Papyrus#History|papyrus]] diminished, [[parchment]] became the dominant writing material.<ref>{{Cite encyclopedia |title=History of publishing → Medieval, Manuscripts, Scriptoria |encyclopedia=Encyclopædia Britannica |url=https://www.britannica.com/topic/publishing/The-medieval-book |access-date=2023-12-22}}</ref> Its vastly higher cost reinforced an already advanced clerical monopoly on literacy, the lay decline of which had begun earlier with the collapse of Roman municipal schools and the civic structures that had economically rewarded literate administrators. The [[Catholic Church]] accordingly became the primary source of institutional continuity, legal memory, and administrative expertise for the [[Barbarian kingdoms|turbulent post-Roman kingdoms]] of Western Europe, which were contending with internecine warfare, barbarian raids and invasions, and prolonged economic contraction.<ref name="Koch 1994">{{cite book |last=Koch |first=Carl |title=The Catholic Church: Journey, Wisdom, and Mission |year=1994 |publisher=St. Mary's Press |location=Early Middle Ages |isbn=978-0-88489-298-4 |url=https://archive.org/details/catholicchurchjo00koch }}</ref> The [[Third Council of Toledo|Visigoths]], [[Christianisation of Anglo-Saxon England|Anglo-Saxons]], [[Perctarit#Return,_Catholicism,_Impact|Lombards]], [[Willibrord#Frisia|Frisians]], [[Thuringi#Ecclesiastical_history|Thuringians]], and [[Bavaria#Middle_Ages|Bavarians]] all converted to Catholicism between 550 and 750 AD but the [[Muslim conquest of the Iberian Peninsula|Umayyad conquest of the Visigothic Kingdom in Iberia]] — the most organized and [[Visigothic Code|legally sophisticated]] Germanic-Catholic kingdom of the era — left the [[Francia|Kingdom of the Franks]] ("Francia"), [[Kingdom of the Lombards]] (on the [[Italian Peninsula]]) and [[Heptarchy|petty Anglo-Saxon kingdoms]] as the only remaining Catholic realms of any significance at the end of that period. Among the other long-term effects of this era of Church cultural dominance was the [[Great_Divergence#The_Catholic_Church's_Prohibition_of_Cousin_Marriage|dissolution of traditional European kinship networks]].<ref>{{Cite book |last=Henrich |first=Joseph Patrick |title=[[The WEIRDest People in the World]]: How the West Became Psychologically Peculiar and Particularly Prosperous |date=2020|pages=57|publisher=Farrar, Straus and Giroux |isbn=978-0-374-17322-7 |edition=First |location=New York |quote=...{{nbsp}}the medieval Catholic Church inadvertently altered people's psychology by promoting a peculiar set of prohibitions and prescriptions about marriage and the family that dissolved the densely interconnected clans and kindreds in western Europe into small, weak and disparate nuclear families. The social and psychological shifts induced by this transformation fueled the proliferation of voluntary associations, including guilds, charter towns, and universities, drove the expansion of impersonal markets, and spurred the rapid growth of cities. By the High Middle Ages, catalyzed by these ongoing changes, WEIRDer ways of thinking, reasoning, and feeling propelled the emergence of novel forms of law, government, and religion while accelerating innovation and the emergence of Western science.}}</ref>

[[File:Europe 814.svg|thumb|upright=1.2|Europe in the [[Early Middle Ages]]]] The [[Holy Roman Empire]] emerged around 800, as Charlemagne, King of the [[Franks]] and part of the [[Carolingian dynasty]], was crowned Emperor of the Romans by [[Pope Leo III]], solidifying his power in western Europe. His empire based in modern France, the [[Low Countries]] and Germany expanded into modern Hungary, Italy, [[Bohemia]], Lower Saxony and Spain. He and his father received substantial help from an alliance with the Pope, who wanted help against the [[Lombards]].<ref>Michael Frassetto, ''Early Medieval World, The: From the Fall of Rome to the Time of Charlemagne'' (2013)</ref> His death marked the beginning of the end of the dynasty, which collapsed entirely by 888. The fragmentation of power led to semi-autonomy in the region, and has been defined as a critical starting point for the formation of [[state (polity)|states]] in Europe.<ref>{{cite journal|doi=10.1146/annurev-polisci-050718-032628|title=Beyond War and Contracts: The Medieval and Religious Roots of the European State|year=2020|last1=Grzymala-Busse|first1=Anna|journal=Annual Review of Political Science|volume=23|pages=19–36|doi-access=free}}</ref>

To the east, [[Bulgaria]] was established in 681 and became the first [[Slavic peoples|Slavic]] country.{{citation needed|date=June 2021}} The powerful [[First Bulgarian Empire|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. The Empire created the [[Cyrillic script]] during the 9th century AD, at the [[Preslav Literary School]], and experienced the [[Golden Age of medieval Bulgarian culture|Golden Age]] of Bulgarian cultural prosperity during the reign of emperor [[Simeon I of Bulgaria|Simeon I the Great]] (893–927). Two states, [[Great Moravia]] and [[Kievan Rus']], emerged among the Slavic peoples respectively in the 9th century. In the 10th century independent kingdoms were established in Central Europe including Poland and the newly settled [[Kingdom of Hungary]]. The [[Kingdom of Croatia (925–1102)|Kingdom of Croatia]] also appeared in the Balkans. In eastern Europe, [[Volga Bulgaria]] became an Islamic state in 921, after [[Almış I]] converted to Islam under the missionary efforts of [[Ahmad ibn Fadlan]].<ref>Gerald Mako, "The Islamization of the Volga Bulghars: A Question Reconsidered", Archivum Eurasiae Medii Aevi 18, 2011, 199–223.</ref>

[[Slavery in medieval Europe|Slavery in the early medieval period]] had mostly died out in western Europe by about the year 1000 AD, replaced by [[serfdom]]. 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 1000, but some see a gradual transition from about 300 to 1000.<ref>[[Seymour Drescher]] and Stanley L. Engerman, eds. ''A Historical Guide to World Slavery'' (1998) pp. 197–200</ref>

===High Middle Ages=== {{More citations needed section|date=April 2026}} {{Main|High Middle Ages}}

From about the year 1000 onwards, Western Europe saw the last of the barbarian invasions and became more politically organized. The [[Viking]]s had settled in Britain, Ireland, France and elsewhere, whilst [[Christianization of Scandinavia|Norse Christian kingdoms]] were developing in their Scandinavian homelands. The [[Magyars]] had ceased their expansion in the 10th century, and by the year 1000, the Roman Catholic [[Apostolic Kingdom]] of Hungary was recognised in central Europe. With the single exception of the [[Mongol invasion of Europe|Mongol invasion of 1236-1242]], major barbarian incursions ceased.

[[File:Great_Schism_with_former_borders_(1054).png|thumb|upright=1.1|Great Schism between the Catholic Church and Eastern Orthodox Church]] In 1054, the [[East–West Schism]] (also "Great Schism") split the [[Catholic Church]] of the [[Latin West]] from the [[Eastern Orthodox Church]] of the Byzantine Empire.<ref>{{cite book|last1=Cross|first1=Frank Leslie|last2=Livingstone|first2=Elizabeth A.|title=The Oxford Dictionary of the Christian Church|chapter-url=https://books.google.com/books?id=fUqcAQAAQBAJ&pg=PA706|year=2005|publisher=University Press|location=Oxford|isbn=978-0-19-280290-3|chapter=Great Schism}}</ref> The Schism was followed just five years later by ''[[In nomine Domini]]'' (1059), a [[papal bull]] that stripped the [[Holy Roman Emperor]] of his traditional role in appointing popes.<ref>{{cite book |last=McEvedy |first=Colin |title=The Penguin Atlas of Medieval History |year=1980 |orig-year=1961 |publisher=Penguin Books |location=Harmondsworth |isbn=0-14-070822-7 |page=70 |quote=Previously the Papal headship of the Western Church has been passive...Now Rome actively interfered with provincial affairs, extending its authority through the ramifications of the Church. The first phase of this incredibly rapid rejuvenation ended when the Roman laity was excluded from Papal elections, a move which was more than an attempt to place the Papacy out of reach of the turbulent local nobility. By limiting the right to vote to Cardinals, it denied the Emperor any part in the election and proclaimed the independence of Pope from State.}}</ref> By simultaneously rejecting parity with Constantinople and asserting its independence from the Holy Roman Empire, the increasingly self-confident Roman Church of the 11th century sought to establish the "freedom of the church" ("''[[libertas ecclesiae]]''") as a completely autonomous and unshackled power. The Church also invested energy in [[Gregorian_Reform|improving the moral integrity and independence of its clergy]] with [[Clerical_celibacy_in_the_Catholic_Church#Medieval_Christendom|celibacy becoming mandatory for priests]].<ref>{{cite book |last=Chadwick |first=Henry |author-link=Henry Chadwick (theologian) |title=The Early Church |series=The Penguin History of the Church |volume=1 |edition=Revised |year=1993 |orig-year=1967 |publisher=Penguin Books |location=London |isbn=978-0-14-023199-1}}</ref> Finally, the geographic reach of the Church also expanded due to the conversions of pagan kings in [[Christianization of Scandinavia|Scandinavia]], [[Christianization of Lithuania|Lithuania]] and [[Christianization_of_Poland#Christianization_of_Poland|Poland]].

[[File:SiegeofAntioch.jpeg|thumb|upright=1.1|The [[Siege of Antioch]] (1097-1098), from a medieval miniature painting, during the [[First Crusade]]]]

The [[Seljuk Empire]]'s decisive defeat of the Byzantine army, including the capture of the emperor, at the [[Battle of Manzikert]] in 1071 was a long-term strategic catastrophe for the Empire, undermining Byzantine authority in [[Anatolia]] and enabling its gradual [[Turkification]]. In 1095 the Byzantine emperor [[Alexios I Komnenos]] requested military support in the empire's conflict with the Seljuks. [[Pope Urban II]] responded with a zeal that reflected the papacy’s growing self-confidence. During late 1095 and throughout 1096, Urban personally spread his message of holy war across France, commanding his bishops and legates to do the same in Germany and Italy.<ref>{{Cite book |editor-last=Peters |editor-first=Edward |title=The First Crusade |publisher=[[University of Pennsylvania Press]] |location=Philadelphia |isbn=978-0812210170 |date=1971 |pages=xiv,xvi,1-15}}</ref> The resulting enthusiasm, however, far exceeded the expectations of both the Pope and Alexios.<ref>{{cite book |last=McEvedy |first=Colin |title=The Penguin Atlas of Medieval History |year=1980 |orig-year=1961 |publisher=Penguin Books |location=Harmondsworth |isbn=0-14-070822-7 |page=62 |quote=The Crusaders' blend of cupidity and fanaticism made them dangerous allies; their enthusiasm did not stem from sympathy for the hard-pressed Byzantines whom they regarded with suspicion, but from a desire to free the Holy Places from the Turks whose conversion to Islam was too recent for them to allow Christian pilgrimage as had the tolerant [[Fatimid Caliphate|Fatimids]].}}</ref><ref>{{Cite book|last=Asbridge|first=Thomas|author-link=Thomas Asbridge|title=The First Crusade: A New History|publisher=Oxford|year=2004|isbn=0-19-517823-8 |page=46-49}}</ref> The ensuing [[Crusades]] led to the foundation of [[Crusader states|small Catholic states]] in the [[Levant]], which lasted for two centuries until their final outpost, Acre, [[Siege of Acre (1291)|fell]] to the [[Mamluk Sultanate]]. Even as the later Crusades in the Levant were failing,<ref>{{cite book |last=McEvedy |first=Colin |title=The Penguin Atlas of Medieval History |year=1980 |orig-year=1961 |publisher=Penguin Books |location=Harmondsworth |isbn=0-14-070822-7 |page=66 |quote=...the general ill success of later Crusades followed the assumption of Crusading leadership by the Kings of Europe, who could spend but little time in the East and were no substitute for the land-hungry, nothing-to-lose baronage of the [[first Crusade]].}}</ref> however, the "[[Reconquista]]" - a series of military campaigns by northern Iberian Christian polities against Muslim-ruled [[al-Andalus]] - was slowly reversing the 8th century [[Muslim conquest of the Iberian Peninsula|Muslim conquest]] of the [[Visigothic Kingdom]].<ref name="Britannica">{{cite encyclopedia |title=Reconquista |encyclopedia=Britannica |url=https://www.britannica.com/event/Reconquista |date=23 November 2022}}</ref><ref>{{Citation |last=Caraccioli |first=Mauro José |title=Narratives of Conquest and the Conquest of Narrative |date=2021 |work=Writing the New World |pages=14–38 |url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/j.ctv1gt9419.6 |access-date=11 September 2024 |series=The Politics of Natural History in the Early Spanish Empire |publisher=University Press of Florida |jstor=j.ctv1gt9419.6 |isbn=978-1-68340-170-4|quote=La Reconquista: a 700-year military and cultural campaign against the Moorish Caliphates of Southern Iberia that culminated in the joint reign of Ferdinand of Aragon and Isabella of Castile as Reyes Católicos.}}</ref>

[[File:1100_CE,_Europe.svg|thumb|upright=1.1|Europe in 1100]] European population [[Medieval demography|rapidly increased]] in the 11th, 12th, and 13th centuries. Along with the existing [[Republic of Venice]],<ref>{{cite book |last=McEvedy |first=Colin |title=The Penguin Atlas of Medieval History |year=1980 |orig-year=1961 |publisher=Penguin Books |location=Harmondsworth |isbn=0-14-070822-7 |page=58 |quote=Venice owed its rise to its political independence, the gift of its island sites; and to its shrewd acceptance of a [[Maritime Venice|formal Byzantine suzerainty]] under cover of which it was able to monopolize the East-West trade.}}</ref> new Italian [[city-state]] republics like [[Republic of Genoa|Genoa]] (from 1099) and [[Republic of Florence|Florence]] (from 1115) thrived on expanding trade and made Italy the richest region of Europe.<ref>{{cite book |last=McEvedy |first=Colin |title=The Penguin Atlas of Medieval History |year=1980 |orig-year=1961 |publisher=Penguin Books |location=Harmondsworth |isbn=0-14-070822-7 |page=72 |quote=Among Western exports to the East, woolen goods predominated. These derived only in minor degree from the northern centres, most of them being produced in north Italy, where Florence and Milan supplied the eastern and southern markets. Their increasing capacity soon outran the local wool supplies, which had to be got from as far as England. By the twelfth century, silk production had begun in northern Italy. All the large towns had a wide range of supplementary manufactures, particularly Milan, famous for its metalwork. In the booming cities of Italy Western capitalism was reborn and a full money economy revived. The use of coinage spread to the country as the urban population demanded more grain and wealthy merchants bought estates. The feudal system disintegrated.}}</ref> The [[List of oldest universities in continuous operation|oldest university currently in continuous operation in the world]]<ref name="Verger Bologna">{{cite book|title=[[A History of the University in Europe]]|volume=1, Universities in the Middle Ages|page=35|chapter=Patterns|author=Jacques Verger|editor1=Hilde de Ridder-Symoens|editor2=Walter Rüegg|publisher=[[Cambridge University Press]]|date=16 October 2003|isbn=9780521541138|quote=It is no doubt true that other civilizations, prior to, or wholly alien to, the medieval West, such as the Roman Empire, Byzantium, Islam, or China, were familiar with forms of higher education which a number of historians, for the sake of convenience, have sometimes described as universities. Yet a closer look makes it plain that the institutional reality was altogether different and, no matter what has been said on the subject, there is no real link such as would justify us in associating them with medieval universities in the West. Until there is definite proof to the contrary, these latter must be regarded as the sole source of the model which gradually spread through the whole of Europe and then to the whole world. |chapter-url=https://books.google.com/books?id=5Z1VBEbF0HAC&pg=PA48}}</ref> appeared in the 11th century in Italy (the [[University of Bologna]]<ref>{{cite book | title=The Challenge of Bologna |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=wyjnHZ1IIlgC&q=the+oldest+university+in+the+world+Bologna&pg=PA18| author=Paul L. Gaston | year=2010 | pages=18 | publisher=Stylus | isbn=978-1-57922-366-3}}</ref>) and two more were established in the 12th century in France (the [[University of Paris]]) and England (the [[University of Oxford]]). In the 11th century, populations north of the [[Alps]] began to settle new lands. Vast forests and marshes of Europe were cleared and cultivated. At the same time settlements moved beyond the traditional boundaries of the [[Holy Roman Empire]] to new frontiers in Europe, beyond the [[Elbe]] river, tripling the size of Germany in the process. After several decades of resistance - including a military victory at the [[Battle of Legnano]] in 1176 and with the alliance of the papacy - the vigorous and expansive northern Italian city-states won effective independence from the Empire in the [[Peace of Constance]] (1183).<ref>{{cite book |last=McEvedy |first=Colin |title=The Penguin Atlas of Medieval History |year=1980 |orig-year=1961 |publisher=Penguin Books |location=Harmondsworth |isbn=0-14-070822-7 |page=68 |quote=After half a century's struggle, north Italy successfully repudiated all control, and became a mosaic of city-states that only a legal fiction kept within the Empiure.}}</ref> By 1250, the robust population increase greatly benefited the economy, reaching levels it would not see again in some areas until the 19th century.<ref>John H. Mundy, ''Europe in the high Middle Ages, 1150–1309'' (1973) [https://archive.org/details/europeinhighmidd00mund online]</ref>

The High Middle Ages produced many different forms of intellectual, spiritual and [[Medieval art|artistic works]]. The most famous are the great cathedrals as expressions of [[Gothic architecture]], which evolved from [[Romanesque architecture]]. The rediscovery of the works of [[Aristotle]] led [[Thomas Aquinas]] (1225-1274) and other thinkers to develop the philosophy of [[Scholasticism]].

[[File:Expansion of the Mongol Empire 1206–1294.gif|thumb|upright=1.1|Expansion of the Mongol Empire across [[Eurasia]] between 1206 and 1294, with modern political boundaries superimposed.]] The armies of the [[Mongol Empire]] - the largest contiguous empire in human history - [[Mongol invasions and conquests|expanded westward]] and [[Mongol invasion of Europe|invaded Europe]] in the 13th century under the command of [[Batu Khan]]. Their western conquests included almost all of [[Kievan Rus']] and the [[Kipchak-Cuman Confederation]]. One Mongol army defeated a combined European force at the [[Battle of Legnica]] in Poland in 1241. Two days later, a different Mongol force crushed a larger Hungarian army at the [[Battle of Mohi]] and went on to kill half of Hungary's population. Mongolian records indicate that Batu Khan was planning a complete conquest of the remaining European powers, beginning with a winter attack on Austria, Italy and Germany, when he was recalled to [[Mongolia]] upon the death of Great Khan [[Ögedei Khan|Ögedei]] at the end of 1241. Most historians believe only his death prevented the complete conquest of Europe.{{Citation needed|date=January 2009}} The areas of Eastern Europe and most of Central Asia that were under direct Mongol rule became known as the [[Golden Horde]] (also "Kipchak Khanate").<ref>"[https://www.britannica.com/eb/article-9037242/Golden-Horde Golden Horde] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080529001039/http://www.britannica.com/eb/article-9037242/Golden-Horde |date=29 May 2008 }}", in ''[[Encyclopædia Britannica]]'', 2007.</ref> The adjacent [[Russian principalities]] had a vassalage relationship with the Khanate for the next 200 years.<ref>{{cite book |last1=Fennell |first1=John |title=The Crisis of Medieval Russia 1200–1304 |date=13 October 2014 |orig-date=1983 |publisher=Routledge |isbn=978-1-317-87314-3 |url=https://books.google.com/books/about/The_Crisis_of_Medieval_Russia_1200_1304.html?id=h2OuBAAAQBAJ |page=84 |language=en}}</ref><ref>{{cite book |last1=Favereau |first1=Marie |author1-link=Marie Favereau |title=The Horde: How the Mongols Changed the World |date=20 April 2021 |publisher=Harvard University Press |isbn=978-0-674-24421-4 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=jKMbEAAAQBAJ |language=en |page=300}}</ref>

===Late Middle Ages=== {{Main|Late Middle Ages|Renaissance|Lex mercatoria|Hundred Years' War|Fall of Constantinople|Crisis of the Late Middle Ages|Consulate of the Sea}}

[[File:Bubonic plague-en.svg|thumb|right|The spread of the Black Death from 1347 to 1351 through Europe]] [[File:Holy Roman Empire at the Golden Bull of 1356.png|thumb|The [[Holy Roman Empire]] was a limited elective monarchy composed of hundreds of [[List of states in the Holy Roman Empire|state-like entities]].]]

The Late Middle Ages spanned around the 14th and late 15th centuries.<ref>Wallace K. Ferguson, ''Europe in transition, 1300–1520'' (1962) [https://archive.org/details/europeintransiti00ferg online].</ref> Around 1300, centuries of European prosperity and growth came to a halt. A series of famines and plagues, such as the [[Great Famine of 1315–1317]] and the [[Black Death]], killed people in a matter of days, reducing the population of some areas by half as many survivors fled. [[Mark Kishlansky]] reports: :The Black Death touched every aspect of life, hastening a process of social, economic, and cultural transformation already underway.... Fields were abandoned, workplaces stood idle, international trade was suspended. Traditional bonds of kinship, village, and even religion were broken amid the horrors of death, flight, and failed expectations. "People cared no more for dead men than we care for dead goats," wrote one survivor.<ref>Mark Kishlansky et al. ''Civilization in the West: Volume 1 to 1715'' (5th ed. 2003) p. 316</ref>

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]]. The unity of the Catholic Church was shattered by the [[Western Schism|Great Schism]]. Collectively these events have been called the [[Crisis of the Late Middle Ages]].<ref>Cantor, p. 480.</ref>

Despite these crises, the 14th century was also a time of great progress within the arts and sciences. A renewed interest in ancient [[Ancient Greece|Greek]] and [[Ancient Rome|Roman]] led to the [[Italian Renaissance]], 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 inquiry. The Humanists saw their repossession of a great past as a Renaissance – a rebirth of civilization itself.<ref>{{cite book|author=Robert A. Nisbet|title=History of the Idea of Progress|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=QDRWfZ9Ydw0C&pg=PA103|year=1980|publisher=Transaction Publishers|page=103|isbn=978-1-4128-2548-1}}</ref>

Beginning in the 14th century, the [[Baltic Sea]] became one of the most important [[trade route]]s. The [[Hanseatic League]], an alliance of trading cities, facilitated the absorption of vast areas of Poland, [[Lithuania]], and [[Terra Mariana|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 1453. The Turks made the city the capital of their [[Ottoman Empire]], which lasted until 1922 and included Egypt, Syria, and most of the Balkans. The [[Ottoman wars in Europe]] marked an essential part of the history of the continent.

==Early modern Europe== {{Main|Early modern Europe}}

The early modern period spans the centuries between the [[Middle Ages]] and the [[Industrial Revolution]], roughly from 1500 to 1800, or from the discovery of the New World in 1492 to the [[French Revolution]] in 1789. The period is characterised by the emergence of modern science and increasingly rapid [[History of technology|technological progress]], secularised civic politics, and nation-states. [[capitalist economy|Capitalist economies]] began their rise, and 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 [[Renaissance]], the Protestant [[Reformation]], the [[Scientific Revolution]], the disastrous [[Thirty Years' War]], the [[European colonisation of the Americas]] and the [[European witch-hunts]].

=== Late Renaissance === {{Main|Renaissance}}

[[File:Printing towns incunabula.svg|thumb|alt=Map of Europe with dots marking cities where printing presses were established by the end of the fifteenth century|Starting in [[Mainz]], Germany around 1440, the [[movable type]] [[printing-press]] had [[Printing_press#Mass_production_and_spread_in_Europe|spread to ~270 cities]] and produced more than 20 million volumes by 1500.<ref name="Febvre, Lucien; Martin, Henri-Jean 1976 by Anderson, Benedict 1993, 58f.">Febvre, Lucien; Martin, Henri-Jean (1976). ''The Coming of the Book: The Impact of Printing 1450–1800''. London: New Left Books. Quoted in: Anderson, Benedict. ''Comunidades Imaginadas. Reflexiones sobre el origen y la difusión del nacionalismo''. Fondo de cultura económica, Mexico, 1993. {{ISBN|978-968-16-3867-2}}. pp. 58f.</ref>]]

A key 15th-century development was the [[Global spread of the printing press|advent of the movable type of printing press]] circa 1439 in Mainz,<ref name=body /> building upon the impetus provided by the [[History of paper|prior introduction of paper]] from China via the Arabs in the High Middle Ages.<ref name=books>{{Cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=9opxcMjv4TUC&q=1439&pg=PA1|title=The Coming of the Book: The Impact of Printing 1450–1800|first1=Lucien|last1=Febvre|first2=Henri-Jean|year=1997|publisher=Verso|isbn=1859841082|last2=Martin|pages=29–30|access-date=21 December 2020|archive-date=27 April 2023|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230427155348/https://books.google.com/books?id=9opxcMjv4TUC&q=1439&pg=PA1|url-status=live}}</ref> The adoption of the technology across the continent at dazzling speed for the remaining part of the 15th century would usher a revolution and by 1500 over 200 cities in Europe had presses that printed between 8 and 20 million books.<ref name=body>{{Cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=f_y3w4cQmq8C&pg=PA165|page=165|title=The Body in History: Europe from the Palaeolithic to the Futur|publisher=[[Cambridge University Press]]|year=2013|first1=John|last1=Robb|last2=Harris|first2=Oliver J.|isbn=9780521195287|access-date=21 December 2020|archive-date=27 April 2023|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230427165349/https://books.google.com/books?id=f_y3w4cQmq8C&pg=PA165|url-status=live}}</ref> The new technology ended the [[manuscript culture]] of the Middle Ages and replaced it with a [[printing culture]].<ref>{{cite book | last = Wootton | first = David | title = The Invention of Science: A New History of the Scientific Revolution | publisher = Harper, an imprint of HarperCollins Publishers | location = New York | year = 2015 | isbn = 978-0-06-175952-9 |page=282|quote=...a manuscript culture, in which experience is unspecific, indirect, and amorphous...a print culture, in which experience is specific, direct, documented and retrievable...In comparison to the world of print, manuscript culture is one of rumour and gossip. The printing press represents an information revolution, and secure facts are its consequence.}}</ref>

Important political precedents were also set in this period. [[Niccolò Machiavelli]]'s political writing in ''[[The Prince]]'' influenced later absolutism and realpolitik. Also important were the many patrons who ruled states and used the artistry of the Renaissance as a sign of their power. [[Nicolaus Copernicus]] published ''[[De revolutionibus orbium coelestium]]'' (''On the Revolutions of the Heavenly Spheres''), [[Copernican heliocentrism|challenging]] an orthodox view of the heavens that had prevailed in Europe for over a millennium.

===Exploration and trade=== {{Main|Age of Discovery}} [[File:La Rendición de Granada - Pradilla.jpg|thumb|[[Treaty of Granada (1491)|The Capitulation of Granada]], [[Francisco Pradilla y Ortiz|Francisco Pradilla]], represents the moment when the Muslim ruler [[Muhammad XI of Granada|Boabdil]] surrendered the keys and sovereignty of the city of [[Granada]] to [[Isabella I of Castile|Queen Isabella I of Castile]] and [[Ferdinand II of Aragon|King Ferdinand II of Aragon]], symbolizing the end of Muslim presence in the [[Iberian Peninsula]] and therefore the completion of the [[Reconquista]].]] [[File:Cantino planisphere (1502).jpg|thumb|[[Cantino planisphere]], 1502, earliest chart showing explorations by [[Vasco da Gama]], [[Christopher Columbus|Columbus]] and [[Pedro Álvares Cabral|Cabral]]]]

The growth of the [[Ottoman Empire]], finally culminating in the [[fall of Constantinople]] in 1453, severed trade with the east and forced Western Europe to look for new trading routes. Columbus' travel to the Americas in 1492, and [[Vasco da Gama]]'s circumnavigation of India and Africa in 1498, were both efforts to circumvent Ottoman barriers to trade.

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 1494.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.kwabs.com/tordesillas_treaty.html|title=kwabs.com|url-status=dead|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160303215021/http://www.kwabs.com/tordesillas_treaty.html|archive-date=3 March 2016}}</ref> They were the first states to set up colonies in America and European [[factory (trading post)|trading posts (factories)]] along the shores of Africa and Asia, establishing the first direct European diplomatic contacts with Southeast Asian states in 1511, China in 1513 and Japan in 1542. In 1552, Russian tsar [[Ivan the Terrible]] conquered two major [[Tatars|Tatar]] khanates, the [[Khanate of Kazan]] and the [[Astrakhan Khanate]]. The [[Yermak Timofeyevich|Yermak]]'s voyage of 1580 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 1606<ref>MacKnight, CC (1976). ''The Voyage to Marege: Macassan Trepangers in Northern Australia''. [[Melbourne University Publishing|Melbourne University Press]].</ref> and New Zealand in 1642.

===Reformation=== {{Main|Reformation}}

[[File:La masacre de San Bartolomé, por François Dubois.jpg|thumb|The [[Saint Bartholomew's Day massacre]] in 1572 was a targeted group of assassinations and a wave of mob violence directed against the [[Huguenots]] (French [[Calvinist]] [[Protestant]]s) during the [[French Wars of Religion]].]] Sparked by [[Martin Luther]]’s ''[[Ninety-five Theses]]'' (1517)<ref>{{cite book|last=Kaufmann|first=Thomas |translator=Tony Crawford|year=2023|title=The Saved and the Damned: A History of the Reformation|publisher=[[Oxford University Press]]|isbn=978-0-19-884104-3 |page=75}}</ref> and spread by the new [[movable type]] [[printing press]] in [[vernacular]] languages (i.e. not Latin),<ref>{{cite journal|last1=Becker|first1=Sascha O.|last2=Pfaff|first2=Steven|last3=Rubin|first3=Jared|title=Causes and Consequences of the Protestant Reformation|journal=ESI Working Paper 16–13|year=2016|url=https://digitalcommons.chapman.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1177&context=esi_working_papers|issn=2572-1496 |page=18}}</ref> the [[Protestant Reformation]] was a religious and political challenge to the [[papacy]] and the authority of the Catholic Church hierarchy. As the movement branched into [[Lutheranism]], [[Calvinism]], and [[Anglicanism]], it triggered the Catholic [[Counter-Reformation]], reshaped Europe’s political landscape and exploded into nearly [[European wars of religion|two centuries of religious wars]]. 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 [[House of Bourbon|Bourbon Dynasty]].

[[File:Prager.Fenstersturz.1618.jpg|thumb|Contemporary woodcut depicting the [[Second Defenestration of Prague]] (1618), which marked the beginning of the [[Bohemian Revolt]], which began the first part of the Thirty Years' War]] By far the most destructive of the religious wars, however - the most devastating European conflict until the 20th century - was the [[Thirty Years' War]], fought between 1618 and 1648 across Germany and neighbouring areas and involving most of the major European powers except England and Russia.<ref>Peter H. Wilson, ''Europe's Tragedy: A History of the Thirty Years War'' (2009)</ref> The war devastated entire regions that were 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]], the [[Crown of Bohemia]] and northern parts of Italy, while bankrupting many of the regional powers involved. Millions died. 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.<ref>{{Cite journal|jstor=649855|title=The Economic and Social Consequences of the Thirty Years' War|journal=Past & Present|issue=39|pages=44–61|last1=Kamen|first1=Henry|year=1968|doi=10.1093/past/39.1.44}}</ref><ref>{{Cite book |last=Onnekink |first=David |date=2013 |title=War and Religion after Westphalia, 1648–1713 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=XfmhAgAAQBAJ |publisher=Ashgate Publishing |pages=1–8 |isbn= 9781409480211|access-date=26 May 2026}}</ref><ref>{{cite book|last=Pinker|first=Steven|author-link=Steven Pinker|title=The Better Angels of Our Nature: Why Violence Has Declined|title-link=The Better Angels of Our Nature|year=2011|page=142|place=New York|publisher=[[Penguin Books]]|isbn=978-0143122012}}</ref>

[[File:Europe map 1648.PNG|thumb|Europe after the [[Peace of Westphalia]] in 1648]] The Thirty Years War was ended by the [[Peace of Westphalia]], which guaranteed the right to practice any of the recognized denominations: [[Catholicism]], [[Lutheranism]], and [[Calvinism]]. The independence of the Dutch Republic, which practiced religious tolerance, also provided a safe haven for European Jews.<ref>{{cite news|title=This day, Mary 15, in Jewish history|url=http://www.clevelandjewishnews.com/cjnconnect/blogs/article_057a78b4-3f44-5375-a20d-a850a62b2194.html|newspaper=Cleveland Jewish News|access-date=18 May 2014|archive-date=19 May 2014|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140519165352/http://www.clevelandjewishnews.com/cjnconnect/blogs/article_057a78b4-3f44-5375-a20d-a850a62b2194.html|url-status=dead}}</ref>

===Mercantilism and colonial expansion=== {{Main|Mercantilism}}

[[File:Colonisation2.gif|thumb|260px|The evolution of [[colonial empire]]s from 1492 to the present]]

The [[Iberian Peninsula|Iberian]] kingdoms were able to dominate colonial activity in the 16th century. The Portuguese forged the first global empire in the 15th and 16th century, whilst during the 16th century and the first half of the 17th century, the crown of Castile (and the overarching Hispanic Monarchy, including Portugal from 1580 to 1640) became the most powerful empire in the world. Spanish dominance in America was increasingly challenged by [[British colonisation of the Americas|British]], [[French colonisation of the Americas|French]], [[Dutch colonization of the Americas|Dutch]] and [[New Sweden|Swedish]] colonial efforts of the 17th and 18th centuries. New forms of trade and expanding horizons made new forms of [[Federalism|government]], [[Constitutionalism|law]] and economics necessary.

Colonial expansion continued in the following centuries (with some setbacks, such as successful wars of independence in the [[American Revolution|British American colonies]] and then later [[Haitian Revolution|Haiti]], [[Mexican War of Independence|Mexico]], [[Argentine War of Independence|Argentina]], [[Brazilian Independence|Brazil]], and [[Spanish American wars of independence|others]] amid European turmoil of the [[Napoleonic Wars]]). 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 [[Treaty of Paris (1763)|in 1763]]), [[French Indochina|Indochina]], large parts of Africa and the Caribbean islands; the Netherlands gained the [[Indies|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.{{citation needed|date=June 2021}}

This expansion helped the economy of the countries owning them. [[Mercantilism|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.<ref>{{cite encyclopedia|title=Conquest in the Americas|url=http://encarta.msn.com/encyclopedia_761575057_13/spain.html|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20091028035130/http://encarta.msn.com/encyclopedia_761575057_13/Spain.html|archive-date=28 October 2009|url-status=dead}}</ref><ref>Herbert S, Klein, ''The American Finances of the Spanish Empire : Royal Income and Expenditures in Colonial Mexico, Peru, and Bolivia, 1680–1809'' (1998) p. 92 [https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Herbert-Klein/publication/319175990_The_American_Finances_of_the_Spanish_Empire_1680-1809/links/5997235445851564431d0934/The-American-Finances-of-the-Spanish-Empire-1680-1809.pdf online] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210614034106/https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Herbert-Klein/publication/319175990_The_American_Finances_of_the_Spanish_Empire_1680-1809/links/5997235445851564431d0934/The-American-Finances-of-the-Spanish-Empire-1680-1809.pdf |date=14 June 2021 }}</ref> The [[French colonial empire|French colony]] of [[Saint-Domingue]] was one of richest European colonies in the 18th century, operating on a [[plantation economy]] fueled by [[Slavery in Haiti|slave labor]]. During the period of French rule, [[cash crop]]s produced in Saint-Domingue comprised thirty percent of total French trade while its sugar exports represented forty percent of the Atlantic market.<ref>{{cite book|last=McLellan|first=James May|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=tIxDYmc0c3YC|title=Colonialism and Science: Saint Domingue and the Old Regime|publisher=University of Chicago Press|year=2010|isbn=978-0-226-51467-3|edition=reprint|page=63|quote=[...] French Saint Domingue at its height in the 1780s had become the single richest and most productive colony in the world.|access-date=22 November 2010|archive-date=27 April 2023|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230427155348/https://books.google.com/books?id=tIxDYmc0c3YC|url-status=live}}</ref><ref name=":0">{{Cite web|last=Alcenat|first=Westenly|title=The Case for Haitian Reparations|url=https://jacobinmag.com/2017/01/haiti-reparations-france-slavery-colonialism-debt/|url-status=live|access-date=20 February 2021|website=[[Jacobin (magazine)|Jacobin]]|language=en-US|archive-date=26 February 2021|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210226224437/https://jacobinmag.com/2017/01/haiti-reparations-france-slavery-colonialism-debt/}}</ref>

=== Scientific Revolution === {{Main|Scientific Revolution}} [[File:Pleiades_Sidereus_Nuncius_(cropped).png|thumb|upright=1.1|Galileo reported in the ''[[Starry Messenger]]'' (1610) that he saw at least ten times more stars through the telescope than are visible to the naked eye.]] [[Galileo Galilei]]’s [[Galileo_Galilei#Phases_of_Venus|early 17th-century telescopic observations]] began the transformation of what had been a narrowly technical revision of [[Geocentrism#Ptolemaic_model|classical astronomy]] by Copernicus<ref>{{cite book |last=Gingerich |first=Owen |title=The Book Nobody Read: Chasing the Revolutions of Nicolaus Copernicus |publisher=Walker & Company |location=New York |year=2004 |isbn=978-0802714152 |page=55 | quote=[[Erasmus Reinhold|Reinhold]] and his many followers admired Copernicus for a quite different aesthetic idea, the elimination of the [[equant]]. Copernicus devoted the great majority of ''De revolutionibus'' to showing how this could be done. While he had eliminated all of Ptolemy's major epicycles, merging them all into the Earth's orbit, he then introduced a series of little epicycles to replace the equant, one per planet. Because this made the motion uniform in each Copernican circle, the anti-equant aesthetic was satisfied. My Copernican census eventually helped to establish that the majority of sixteenth-century astronomers thought eliminating the equant was Copernicus' big achievement, because it satisfied the ancient aesthetic principle that eternal celestial motions should be uniform and circular or compounded of uniform and circular parts.}}</ref> into an increasingly aggressive challenge to [[Celestial spheres|traditional cosmology]] and the long-standing synthesis of [[Aristotelian physics]] and Christian theology. The upheaval of the Scientific Revolution ended the medieval view of [[natural philosophy]] as the servant (or "handmaiden") of theology.<ref>{{cite book | last= Grant | first = Edward | author-link=Edward Grant | year = 2007 | chapter = The Relations between Natural Philosophy and Theology | title= A History of Natural Philosophy | pages = 241 | quote=...Christians developed the concept that philosophy and science are 'handmaids to theology'... [[Augustine]] strongly urged Christians not to seek secular knowledge for its own sake but to take only what is useful for a better understanding of scripture...The handmaiden theory of secular knowledge also tended to emphasize the role of authorities, from the divine Scriptures themselves to the church fathers who had interpreted Scripture. The handmaiden tradition remained strong in Western Europe up to the eleventh and twelfth centuries, during the period when natural philosophy was relatively weak. | location = New York | publisher = Cambridge University Press | isbn= 978-052-1-68957-1}}</ref><ref>{{cite book |last=Applebaum |first=Wilbur |title=The Scientific Revolution and the Foundations of Modern Science | pages = 7, 113-114 | quote=Natural philosophy had long been perceived as a handmaiden to theology, which was called the "queen of the sciences." It was now coming to be thought as independent of theological constraints, with its own methods, functions, and purposes different from those of religion...Traditional conceptions of natural philosophy as a handmaid to religion were transformed in the course of the seventeenth century. Some challenged the new scientific outlooks for...denying the truth of Scripture. The new natural philosophers answered by denying the validity of [[Sola scriptura|literal interpretations]] of certain passages in the Bible, which were written to appeal to the common understanding of ordinary people...Centuries earlier St. Augustine had said the function of the Bible was not to teach us about nature. Galileo, Kepler, and others held that the Book of Nature was not designed to prepare us for salvation. They urged that natural philosophy and theology should be seen as distinct areas with their own methods and criteria, and that their practitioners should not intervene in one another's provinces. |publisher=Greenwood Press |year=2005 |series=Greenwood Guides to Historic Events, 1500–1900 |location=Westport, CT |isbn=978-0-313-32314-0}}</ref> As natural philosophy continued to grow in power, self-confidence and independence during the 17th century, European society around it began to undergo a tectonic shift in intellectual attitude — from ''[[fides quaerens intellectum]]'' to a new mode of understanding that was, increasingly, completely uncoupled from religion.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Wootton |first=David |title=The Invention of Science: A New History of the Scientific Revolution |date=2015 |pages=6-11|publisher=HarperCollins Publishers |isbn=978-0-06-175952-9 |location=New York |quote=...let us take for a moment a typical well-educated European in 1600...He believes in witchcraft...He believes [[Circe]] really did turn [[Odysseus]]'s crew into pigs. He believes [[Spontaneous_generation#Aristotle|mice are spontaneously generated in piles of straw]]...He believes that [[Horror_vacui_(philosophy)|nature abhors a vacuum]]. He believes the rainbow is a sign from God and that comets portend evil...He believes, of course, that the earth stands still and the sun and stars turn around the earth once every twenty-four hours...But now let us jump far ahead [to 1733]...He does not know anyone (or at least not anyone educated and reasonably sophisticated) who believes in witches, magic, alchemy or astrology; he thinks the ''Odyssey'' is fiction, not fact....He knows that the rainbow is produced by refracted light and that comets have no significance for our lives on earth. He believes that the future cannot be predicted. He knows that the heart is a pump...He believes that science is going to transform the world and that the moderns have outstripped the ancients in every possible respect. He has trouble believing in miracles, even the ones in the Bible...Between 1600 and 1733...the intellectual world of the educated elite changed more rapidly than at any time in previous history...The only name we have for this great transformation is 'the Scientific Revolution'.}}</ref> The "New Science" that ultimately emerged by the end of the century broke sharply with the natural philosophy that had preceded it,<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Küskü |first=Elif Aslan |date=2022 |title=Examination of Scientific Revolution Medicine on the Human Body / Bilimsel Devrim Tıbbını İnsan Bedeni Üzerinden İncelemek |url=https://www.academia.edu/87500649 |journal=The Legends: Journal of European History Studies |access-date=28 September 2022 |archive-date=12 January 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230112202215/https://www.academia.edu/87500649 |url-status=live }}</ref><ref>{{cite journal |last=Hendrix |first=Scott E. |title=Natural Philosophy or Science in Premodern Epistemic Regimes? The Case of the Astrology of Albert the Great and Galileo Galilei |journal=Teorie Vědy / Theory of Science |year=2011 |volume=33 |issue=1 |pages=111–132 |doi=10.46938/tv.2011.72 |s2cid=258069710 |url=http://teorievedy.flu.cas.cz/index.php/tv/issue/view/10 |access-date=20 February 2012 |archive-date=18 November 2012 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20121118024030/http://teorievedy.flu.cas.cz/index.php/tv/issue/view/10 |url-status=live |doi-access=free }}</ref><ref name= "Principe2011">{{cite book | last= Principe | first= Lawrence M. | year = 2011 | chapter = Introduction | title = Scientific Revolution: A Very Short Introduction | pages = 1–3 | location = New York| publisher = Oxford University Press | isbn= 978-0-199-56741-6}}</ref> departed from previous Greek conceptions and traditions,<ref name= "Lindberg1990">{{cite book | last= Lindberg | first= David C. | year = 1990 | chapter = Conceptions of the Scientific Revolution from Baker to Butterfield: A preliminary sketch | title=Reappraisals of the Scientific Revolution | editor-first1 = David C. | editor-last1 = Lindberg | editor-first2 = Robert S. | editor-last2 = Westman | pages = 1–26 | edition = First | location = Chicago | publisher = Cambridge University Press | isbn= 978-0-521-34262-9}}</ref><ref name= "lindberg2007n">{{cite book | last= Lindberg | first= David C. | year = 2007 | chapter = The legacy of ancient and medieval science | title= The Beginnings of Western Science| pages= 357–368| edition = 2nd | location = Chicago | publisher = University of Chicago Press | isbn= 978-0-226-48205-7}}</ref><ref name= "Stanford Encyclopedia">{{Cite book|url= https://plato.stanford.edu/archives/fall2016/entries/natphil-ren/|title= The Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy|last= Del Soldato|first= Eva|date= 2016|publisher= Metaphysics Research Lab, Stanford University|editor-last= Zalta|editor-first= Edward N.|edition= Fall 2016|access-date= 1 June 2018|archive-date= 11 December 2019|archive-url= https://web.archive.org/web/20191211205744/https://plato.stanford.edu/archives/fall2016/entries/natphil-ren/|url-status= live}}</ref><ref name= Grant2007c>{{cite book | last= Grant | first = Edward | year = 2007 | chapter = Transformation of medieval natural philosophy from the early period modern period to the end of the nineteenth century | title= A History of Natural Philosophy | url= https://archive.org/details/historynaturalph00gran | url-access= limited | pages = [https://archive.org/details/historynaturalph00gran/page/n289 274]–322 | location = New York | publisher = Cambridge University Press | isbn= 978-052-1-68957-1}}</ref> was more mechanistic in its worldview and more integrated with mathematics,<ref name= "lindberg2007n"/><ref name= "gal2021i">{{cite book | last= Gal | first = Ofer | year = 2021 | chapter = The New Science | title = The Origins of Modern Science | pages = 308–349 | location = New York | publisher = Cambridge University Press | isbn= 978-1316649701}}</ref><ref name= "bowlermorus2020b">{{cite book | last1 = Bowler | first1 = Peter J. | last2 = Morus | first2 = Iwan Rhys | year = 2020 | chapter = The scientific revolution | title = Making Modern Science | pages = 25–57 | edition = 2nd | location = Chicago | publisher = University of Chicago Press | isbn= 978-0226365763}}</ref> and was obsessed with the acquisition and interpretation of new evidence.<ref> Wootton, David. ''The Invention of Science: A New History of the Scientific Revolution'' (Penguin, 2015). p.136. {{ISBN|0-06-175952-X}}</ref>

===Crisis of the 17th century=== {{further|The General Crisis|Deluge (history)}}

The decades of the 1640s and 1650 saw England descend into [[English Civil War|civil war]] (1642–1651), the [[Spanish Empire]] fracture under simultaneous revolts in [[Portuguese Restoration War|Portugal]] (1640-1668) and [[Reapers' War|Catalonia]] (1640-1659) and the [[Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth]] facing near-extinction from a [[Khmelnytsky Uprising|Cossack rebellion]] (1648-165), the [[Polish–Russian War (1654–1667)]] and [[Northern War of 1655–1660|Swedish invasion]] (1655–1660).<ref name="Geoffrey Parker and Lesley M. Smith, eds. 1997">{{cite book|editor=Geoffrey Parker and Lesley M. Smith|title=The General Crisis of the Seventeenth Century|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=-cJyz5jhkbkC|year=1997|publisher=Psychology Press|isbn=978-0-203-99260-9}}</ref><ref name="Trevor Aston 1965">Trevor Aston, ed. ''Crisis in Europe 1560–1660: Essays from Past and Present'' (1965)</ref><ref>{{Cite journal|jstor=40263652|title=The Economic Crisis of the Seventeenth Century after Fifty Years|journal=The Journal of Interdisciplinary History|volume=40|issue=2|pages=151–194|last1=De Vries|first1=Jan|year=2009|doi=10.1162/jinh.2009.40.2.151|s2cid=195826470}}</ref><ref>{{Cite journal|jstor=40263655|title=The Crisis in the Arts of the Seventeenth Century: A Crisis of Representation?|journal=The Journal of Interdisciplinary History|volume=40|issue=2|pages=239–261|last1=Burke|first1=Peter|year=2009|doi=10.1162/jinh.2009.40.2.239|s2cid=143713154}}</ref>

===Age of absolutism=== {{further|Absolutism (European history)|International relations, 1648–1814}} [[File:Vienna Battle 1683.jpg|thumb|right|The defeat of the [[Ottoman Empire|Ottoman Turks]] at the [[Battle of Vienna]] in 1683 marked the historic end of [[Ottoman wars in Europe|Ottoman expansion into Europe]].]] [[File:Mária Terézia koronázása a Szent Márton székesegyházban.jpg|thumb|Maria Theresa being crowned Queen of Hungary in the [[St. Martin's Cathedral, Bratislava|St. Martin's Cathedral]], Pressburg ([[Bratislava]])]]

The gradual decline of the previously powerful Sweden, Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth and Ottoman Empire was matched by the growth of three absolutist monarchies: Russia, Prussia and Austria (the [[Habsburg monarchy]]). By the turn of the 19th century they had become new powers, having [[Partitions of Poland|divided Poland]] between themselves, with Sweden and Turkey having experienced substantial territorial losses to Russia and Austria respectively as well as pauperisation.

The "absolute" rule of powerful monarchs such as [[Louis XIV]] (ruled France 1643–1715),<ref>John B. Wolf, ''Louis XIV'' (1968)</ref> [[Peter the Great]] (ruled Russia 1682–1725),<ref>Lindsey Hughes, ''Russia in the Age of Peter the Great'' (1998).</ref> [[Maria Theresa]] (ruled [[Habsburg lands]] 1740–1780) and [[Frederick the Great]] (ruled Prussia 1740–86),<ref>G.P. Gooch, ''Frederick the Great: The Ruler, the Writer, the Man'' (1947)</ref> produced powerful centralized states, with strong armies and powerful bureaucracies, all under the control of the king.<ref>Max Beloff, ''The age of absolutism, 1660–1815'' (1966).</ref>

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 1750.

====War of the Spanish Succession==== {{Main|War of the Spanish Succession}}

The [[War of the Spanish Succession]] (1701–1715) was a major war with France opposed by a coalition of England, the Netherlands, the Habsburg monarchy, and Prussia. [[John Churchill, 1st Duke of Marlborough|Duke of Marlborough]] commanded the English and Dutch victory at the [[Battle of Blenheim]] in 1704. The main issue was whether France under King Louis XIV would take control of Spain's very extensive possessions and thereby become by far the dominant power, or be forced to share power with other major nations. After initial allied successes, the long war produced a military stalemate and ended with the [[Treaty of Utrecht]], which was based on a balance of power in Europe. Historian [[Russell Weigley]] argues that the many wars almost never accomplished more than they cost.<ref>Russell Weigley, ''The Age of Battles: The Quest for Decisive Warfare from Breitenfeld to Waterloo'' (1991).</ref> British historian [[G. M. Trevelyan]] argues: :That Treaty [of Utrecht], which ushered in the stable and characteristic period of Eighteenth-Century civilization, marked the end of danger to Europe from the old French monarchy, and it marked a change of no less significance to the world at large – the maritime, commercial and financial supremacy of Great Britain.<ref>G.M. Trevelyan, ''A shortened history of England'' (1942) p. 363.</ref>

====Prussia==== {{Main|Kingdom of Prussia}}

[[Frederick the Great]], king of Prussia 1740–1786, modernized the [[Prussian army]], introduced new tactical and strategic concepts, fought mostly successful wars ([[Silesian Wars]], Seven Years' War) and doubled the size of Prussia.<ref>{{cite book|editor=Paul M. Kennedy|title=Grand Strategies in War and Peace|url=https://archive.org/details/grandstrategiesi00paul|url-access=registration|year=1991|publisher=Yale UP|page=[https://archive.org/details/grandstrategiesi00paul/page/106 106]|isbn=978-0-300-05666-2}}</ref><ref>Dennis E. Showalter, ''The Wars of Frederick the Great'' (1996)</ref>

====Russia==== {{Main|Territorial evolution of Russia}}

[[File:Russia 1533-1896.gif|thumb|upright=1.1|Russian expansion in Eurasia between 1533 and 1894]]

Russia fought numerous wars to achieve rapid expansion toward the east – i.e. [[Siberia]], [[Russian Far East|Far East]], south – to the Black Sea, and south-east and to central Asia. Russia boasted a [[Imperial Russian Army|large and powerful army]], a very large and complex internal bureaucracy, and a splendid court that rivaled Paris and London. However the government was living far beyond its means and seized [[Russian Orthodox Church|Church]] lands, leaving organized religion in a weak condition. Throughout the 18th century Russia remained "a poor, backward, overwhelmingly agricultural, and illiterate country."<ref>Nicholas Riasanovsky, ''A History of Russia'' (4th ed. 1984), pp. 192–194, 284</ref>

===Enlightenment=== {{Main|Age of Enlightenment}}

The [[Age of Enlightenment]] (also "Age of Reason" or simply "the Enlightenment") was a period of [[intellectual movement|intellectual]] and [[cultural movement|cultural]] flourishing in [[Europe]] and [[History of Western civilization|Western civilization]], emerging in the late 17th century in [[Western Europe]].<ref>{{cite book |last=Padgett |first=Alan G. |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=Ix5mKB8d0NoC |title=Science and the Study of God |date=2003 |publisher=Wm. B. Eerdmans |isbn=978-0-8028-3941-1 |page=49 |quote=...the Enlightenment was a Western phenomenon.}}</ref><ref>{{cite book |last=McGrath |first=John |title=The Modernization of the Western World |date=2024 |isbn=978-1-003-46732-8 |chapter=The Enlightenment |doi=10.4324/9781003467328-10 |page=107|quote=The Enlightenment was a period of European intellectual and cultural development that began in the late seventeenth century and lasted through the eighteenth century.}}</ref> It reached its peak in the 18th century as its ideas spread more widely across Europe.<ref>{{cite book |last=Mokyr |first=Joel |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=_LSlrytZxE0C |title=The Enlightened Economy |date=2011 |publisher=Penguin |isbn=978-0-14-196910-7 |authorlink=Joel Mokyr |page=99|quote=The Enlightenment was a Western European phenomenon, and after 1750 it reached into Central and Eastern Europe as well, even if it left the Ottoman world and much of southern Europe unaffected.}}</ref> Characterized by an emphasis on [[reason]], [[empirical evidence]], and the [[scientific method]], the Enlightenment promoted ideals of [[individual liberty]], [[religious tolerance]], [[progress]], and [[Natural law|natural rights]]. Its thinkers advocated for [[constitutional government]], the [[separation of church and state]], and the application of rational principles to social and political reform.<ref>{{cite book |last=Outram |first=Dorinda |title=Panorama of the Enlightenment |date=2006 |isbn=978-0-89236-861-7 |page=29}}</ref><ref>{{cite book |last=Zafirovski |first=Milan |title=The Enlightenment and Its Effects on Modern Society |date=2010 |page=144}}</ref><ref>{{Cite book |last=Jacob |first=Margaret C. |author-link=Margaret Jacob |title=The Secular Enlightenment |date=2019 |publisher=Princeton University Press |location=Princeton |page=1}}</ref>

The movement was characterized by the widespread circulation of ideas through new institutions: [[Academy|scientific academies]], [[Salon (gathering)|literary salons]], [[coffeehouse]]s, [[Masonic lodge]]s, and an expanding [[print culture]] of [[book]]s, [[Academic journal|journals]], and [[pamphlet]]s. The ideas of the Enlightenment undermined the authority of the [[monarchy]] and religious officials and paved the way for the political [[revolution]]s of the 18th and 19th centuries. A variety of 19th-century movements, including [[liberalism]], [[socialism]],<ref>{{Cite book |last=Smaldone |first=William |title=European socialism: a concise history with documents |date=2014 |publisher=Rowman & Littlefield Publishers, Inc |isbn=978-1-4422-0909-1 |location=Lanham |pages=3–4}}</ref> and [[neoclassicism]], trace their intellectual heritage to the Enlightenment.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Weber |first=Eugen |author-link=Eugen Weber |title=Movements, Currents, Trends: Aspects of European Thought in the Nineteenth and Twentieth Centuries |date=1992}}</ref>

==Revolutions and Imperialism== {{See also|Age of Revolution|International relations of the Great Powers (1814–1919)}} [[File:Europe 1815 map en.png|thumb|upright=1.3|The boundaries set by the Congress of Vienna, 1815]]

The "[[Long nineteenth century|long 19th century]]", from 1789 to 1914 saw the drastic social, political and economic changes initiated by the [[Industrial Revolution]], the [[French Revolution]] and the [[Napoleonic Wars]]. Following the reorganisation of the political map of Europe at the [[Congress of Vienna]] in 1815, Europe experienced the rise of Nationalism, the rise of the [[Russian Empire]] and the peak of the British Empire, as well as the [[decline of the Ottoman Empire]]. Finally, the rise of the [[German Empire]] and the [[Austro-Hungarian Empire]] initiated the course of events that culminated in the outbreak of the [[World War I|First World War]] in 1914.

===Industrial Revolution=== {{Main|Industrial Revolution}}

[[File:YCBA London a Pilgrimage 06 (cropped).jpg|thumb|London's chimney sky in 1870, by [[Gustave Doré]]]] The Industrial Revolution saw major changes in agriculture, manufacturing, and transport that impacted Britain, and subsequently spread to Western Europe and the United States. Technological advancements, most notably the utilization of the steam engine, were major catalysts in the industrialisation process. It started in England and Scotland in the mid-18th century with the mechanisation of the textile industries, the development of iron-making techniques and the increased use of coal as the main fuel. Trade expansion was enabled by the introduction of [[canal]]s, improved roads, and railways. The introduction of [[steam engine|steam power]] (fuelled primarily by coal) and powered machinery (mainly in [[textile manufacturing]]) underpinned the dramatic increases in production capacity.<ref>Business and Economics. ''Leading Issues in Economic Development'', Oxford University Press US. {{ISBN|0-19-511589-9}} [https://books.google.com/books?id=CX9kBaVx4JkC&pg=PA98 Google Books] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230331130624/https://books.google.com/books?id=CX9kBaVx4JkC&pg=PA98 |date=31 March 2023 }}</ref>

The development of all-metal [[machine tool]]s in the first two decades of the 19th century facilitated the manufacture of more production machines for manufacturing in other industries. The effects spread throughout Western Europe and North America during the 19th century, eventually affecting most of the world.<ref>Robert C. Allen, "Why the industrial revolution was British: commerce, induced invention, and the scientific revolution" ''Economic History Review'' 64.2 (2011): 357–384 [http://www.unsa.edu.ar/histocat/haeconomica07/lecturas/2011allen.pdf online] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210805000557/http://www.unsa.edu.ar/histocat/haeconomica07/lecturas/2011allen.pdf |date=5 August 2021 }}.</ref>

During and after the Industrial Revolution pervasive poverty existed throughout Europe but at the same time, as the Nineteenth Century progressed, living standards for lower-class Europeans steadily rose, with improvements in wages, housing and diets while working hours fell.<ref>[https://www.google.co.uk/books/edition/The_Birth_of_a_New_Europe/2kYhDgAAQBAJ?hl=en&gbpv=1&dq=The+rising+standard+of+living+of+the+lower+classes+of+Europe&pg=PA146&printsec=frontcovr The Birth of a New Europe State and Society in the Nineteenth Century By Theodore S. Hamerow, 1983, P.142-146]</ref>

===Era of the French Revolution=== {{main|Atlantic Revolutions|American Revolution|French Revolution|French Revolutionary and Napoleonic Wars}}

Historians [[R.R. Palmer]] and [[Joel Colton]] argue: :In 1789 France fell into revolution, and the world has never since been the same. The French Revolution was by far the most momentous upheaval of the whole revolutionary age. It replaced the "old regime" with "modern society," and at its extreme phase became very radical, so much so that all later revolutionary movements have looked back to it as a predecessor to themselves.... From the 1760s to 1848, the role of France was decisive.<ref>R.R. Palmer and Joel Colton, A History of the Modern World (5th ed. 1978), p. 341</ref>

The era of the French Revolution and the subsequent Napoleonic wars was a difficult time for monarchs. Tsar [[Paul I of Russia]] was assassinated; King [[Louis XVI]] of France was executed, as was his queen [[Marie Antoinette]]. Furthermore, kings [[Charles IV of Spain]], [[Ferdinand VII of Spain]] and [[Gustav IV Adolf of Sweden]] were deposed as were ultimately the Emperor Napoleon and all of the relatives he had installed on various European thrones. King [[Frederick William III of Prussia]] and Emperor [[Francis II, Holy Roman Emperor|Francis II of Austria]] barely clung to their thrones. King [[George III]] of Great Britain lost the better part of the First British Empire.<ref>Steven Englund, ''Napoleon: A Political Life'' (2004) p. 388</ref>

The [[American Revolution]] (1775–1783) was the first successful revolt of a colony against a European power. It rejected aristocracy and established a [[Republicanism|republican form of government]] that attracted worldwide attention.<ref>Gordon S. Wood, ''The radicalism of the American Revolution'' (2011).</ref> The French Revolution (1789–1804) was a product of the same democratic forces in the [[Atlantic World]] and had an even greater impact.<ref>R.R. Palmer, ''The Age of the Democratic Revolution: A Political History of Europe and America, 1760–1800: The Challenge'' (1959) pp. 4–5</ref> [[François Victor Alphonse Aulard|French historian François Aulard]] says: :From the social point of view, the Revolution consisted in the suppression of what was called the feudal system, in the emancipation of the individual, in greater division of landed property, the abolition of the privileges of noble birth, the establishment of equality, the simplification of life.... The French Revolution differed from other revolutions in being not merely national, for it aimed at benefiting all humanity."<ref>{{cite book|editor=A. Aulard in Arthur Tilley|title=Modern France. A Companion to French Studies|url=https://archive.org/details/modernfrancecomp00tilluoft|year=1922|publisher=Cambridge UP|page=[https://archive.org/details/modernfrancecomp00tilluoft/page/115 115]}}</ref>

[[File:Prise de la Bastille.jpg|thumb|right|The storming of the [[Bastille]] in the French Revolution of 1789]]

French intervention in the [[American Revolutionary War]] had nearly bankrupted the state. After repeated failed attempts at financial reform, King Louis XVI had to convene the [[Estates-General of 1789|Estates-General]], a representative body of the country made up of three estates: the clergy, the nobility, and the commoners. The third estate, joined by members of the other two, declared itself to be a [[National Assembly (French Revolution)|National Assembly]] and created, in July, the [[National Constituent Assembly (France)|National Constituent Assembly]]. At the same time the people of Paris revolted, famously [[Storming of the Bastille|storming the Bastille prison on 14 July 1789]].

At the time the assembly wanted to create a [[constitutional monarchy]], and over the following two years passed various laws including the [[Declaration of the Rights of Man and of the Citizen]], the [[Abolition of feudalism in France|abolition of feudalism]], and a [[Civil Constitution of the Clergy|fundamental change]] in the relationship between France and Rome. At first the king agreed with these changes and enjoyed reasonable popularity with the people. As [[anti-royalism]] increased along with threat of foreign invasion, the king tried to flee and join France's enemies. He was captured and on 21 January 1793, having been convicted of treason, he was guillotined.

On 20 September 1792, the [[National Convention]] abolished the monarchy and declared France a republic. Due to the emergency of [[French Revolutionary Wars|war]], the National Convention created the [[Committee of Public Safety]] to act as the country's executive. Under [[Maximilien de Robespierre]], the committee initiated the [[Reign of Terror]], during which up to 40,000 people were executed in Paris, mainly nobles and those convicted by the [[Revolutionary Tribunal]], often on the flimsiest of evidence. Internal tensions at Paris drove the Committee towards increasing assertions of radicalism and increasing suspicions. A few months into this phase, more and more prominent revolutionaries were being sent to the guillotine by Robespierre and his faction, for example [[Madame Roland]] and [[Georges Danton]]. Elsewhere in the country, counter-revolutionary [[war in the Vendée|insurrections]] were brutally suppressed. The regime was overthrown in the [[Thermidorian Reaction|coup of 9 Thermidor]] (27 July 1794) and Robespierre was executed. The regime which followed ended the Terror and relaxed Robespierre's more extreme policies.

===Napoleon=== {{Main|Napoleon}}

[[Napoleon]] Bonaparte was France's most successful general in the Revolutionary wars. In 1799 on [[18 Brumaire]] (9 November) he overthrew the government, replacing it with the [[French Consulate|Consulate]], which he dominated. He gained popularity in France by restoring the Church, keeping taxes low, centralizing power in Paris, and winning glory on the battlefield. In 1804 he crowned himself [[First French Empire|Emperor]]. In 1805, Napoleon planned to invade Britain, but a renewed British alliance with Russia and Austria ([[Third Coalition]]), forced him to turn his attention towards the continent, while at the same time the French fleet was demolished by the British at the [[Battle of Trafalgar]], ending any plan to invade Britain. On 2 December 1805, Napoleon defeated a numerically superior Austro-Russian army at [[Battle of Austerlitz|Austerlitz]], forcing Austria's withdrawal from the coalition (see [[Treaty of Pressburg (1805)|Treaty of Pressburg]]) and dissolving the [[Holy Roman Empire]]. In 1806, a [[Fourth Coalition]] was set up. On 14 October Napoleon defeated the Prussians at the [[Battle of Jena-Auerstedt]], marched through Germany and defeated the Russians on 14 June 1807 at [[Battle of Friedland|Friedland]]. The [[Treaties of Tilsit]] divided Europe between France and Russia and created the [[Duchy of Warsaw]].

[[File:Berezyna.jpg|thumb|Napoleon's army at the retreat from Russia at the [[Berezina]] river]]  On 12 June 1812 Napoleon [[French invasion of Russia|invaded Russia]] with a [[Grande Armée]] of nearly 700,000 troops. After the measured victories at [[Battle of Smolensk (1812)|Smolensk]] and [[Battle of Borodino|Borodino]] Napoleon occupied Moscow, only to find it burned by the retreating Russian army. He was forced to withdraw. On the march back his army was harassed by [[Cossacks]], and suffered disease and starvation. Only 20,000 of his men survived the campaign. By 1813 the tide had begun to turn from Napoleon. Having been defeated by a [[Sixth Coalition|seven nation army]] at the [[Battle of Leipzig]] in October 1813, he was forced to abdicate after the [[Six Days' Campaign]] and the occupation of Paris. Under the Treaty of Fontainebleau he was exiled to the island of [[Elba]]. He returned to France on 1 March 1815 (see [[Hundred Days]]), raised an army, but was finally defeated by a British and Prussian force at the [[Battle of Waterloo]] on 18 June 1815 and exiled to the small British island of [[Saint Helena]].

====Impact of the French Revolution==== {{main|Influence of the French Revolution}}

[[Andrew Roberts, Baron Roberts of Belgravia|Andrew Roberts]], an English popular historian, finds that the Revolutionary and Napoleonic wars, from 1793 to 1815, caused 4 million deaths (of whom 1 million were civilians); 1.4 million were French.<ref>Andrew Roberts, "Why Napoleon merits the title 'the Great,'" ''BBC History Magazine'' (1 November 2014)</ref>

Outside France the Revolution had a major impact. Its ideas became widespread. Roberts argues that Napoleon was responsible for key ideas of the modern world, so that, "[[meritocracy]], [[equality before the law]], [[Right to property|property rights]], [[Religious tolerance|religious toleration]], [[Secular education|modern secular education]], sound finances, and so on-were protected, consolidated, codified, and geographically extended by Napoleon during his 16 years of power."<ref>Roberts, "Why Napoleon merits the title 'the Great," ''BBC History Magazine'' (1 November 2014)</ref>

Furthermore, the French armies in the 1790s and 1800s directly overthrew feudal remains in much of western Europe. They liberalised [[property law]]s, ended [[Manorialism|seigneurial dues]], abolished the [[guilds of merchants]] and [[craft guilds|craftsmen]] to facilitate [[entrepreneurship]], legalised divorce, closed the [[Ghetto|Jewish ghettos]] and [[Jewish emancipation|made Jews equal to everyone else]]. The [[Spanish Inquisition|Inquisition]] ended as did the [[Holy Roman Empire]]. The power of church courts and religious authority was sharply reduced and [[Equality before the law|equality under the law]] was proclaimed for all men.<ref>Robert R. Palmer and Joel Colton, ''A History of the Modern World'' (New York: McGraw Hill, 1995), pp. 428–29.</ref>

France conquered Belgium and turned it into another province of France. It conquered the Netherlands, and made it a [[Sister republic|client state]]. It took control of the German areas on the left bank of the [[Rhine|Rhine River]] and set up a puppet [[Confederation of the Rhine]]. It conquered Switzerland and most of Italy, setting up a series of puppet states. The result was glory and an infusion of much needed money from the conquered lands. However the enemies of France, led by Britain, formed a [[War of the Second Coalition|Second Coalition]] in 1799 (with Britain joined by Russia, the Ottoman Empire and Austria). It scored a series of victories that rolled back French successes, and trapped the French Army in Egypt. Napoleon slipped through the British blockade in October 1799, returning to Paris, where he overthrew the government and made himself the ruler.<ref>William Doyle, ''The Oxford History of the French Revolution'' (1989) pp. 341–68</ref><ref>Steven T. Ross, ''European Diplomatic History, 1789–1815: France Against Europe'' (1969)</ref>

Napoleon conquered most of Italy in the name of the French Revolution in 1797–99. He split up Austria's holdings and set up a series of new republics, complete with new codes of law and abolition of feudal privileges. Napoleon's [[Cisalpine Republic]] was centered on Milan; Genoa became a republic; the Roman Republic was formed as well as the small [[Ligurian Republic]] around Genoa. The [[Parthenopean Republic|Neapolitan Republic]] was formed around Naples, but it lasted only five months. He later formed the [[Kingdom of Italy]], with his brother as King. In addition, France turned the Netherlands into the [[Batavian Republic]], and Switzerland into the [[Helvetic Republic]]. All these new countries were satellites of France, and had to pay large subsidies to Paris, as well as provide military support for Napoleon's wars. Their political and administrative systems were modernized, the metric system introduced, and trade barriers reduced. Jewish ghettos were abolished. Belgium and Piedmont became integral parts of France.<ref>Alexander Grab, ''Napoleon and the Transformation of Europe'' (2003) pp. 62–65, 78–79, 88–96, 115–17, 154–59</ref>

[[File:Colonial empires in 1800.svg|thumb|upright=1.1|The cumulative crises and disruptions of Napoleon's [[Peninsular War|invasion of Spain]] led to the [[Spanish American wars of independence|independence]] of most of [[Spanish colonization of the Americas|Spain's American colonies]] (yellow) and the [[independence of Brazil]] (green).]]

Most of the new nations were abolished and returned to prewar owners in 1814. However, Frederick B. Artz emphasizes the benefits the Italians gained from the French Revolution: :For nearly two decades the Italians had excellent codes of law, a fair system of taxation, a better economic situation, and more religious and intellectual toleration than they had known for centuries.... Everywhere old physical, economic, and intellectual barriers had been thrown down and the Italians had begun to be aware of a common nationality.<ref>Frederick B. Artz, ''Reaction and Revolution: 1814–1832 '' (1934) pp. 142–43</ref>

Likewise in [[History of Switzerland|Switzerland]] the long-term impact of the French Revolution has been assessed by Martin: :It proclaimed the equality of citizens before the law, equality of languages, freedom of thought and faith; it created a [[Swiss citizenship]], basis of our modern nationality, and the separation of powers, of which the old regime had no conception; it suppressed internal tariffs and other economic restraints; it unified weights and measures, reformed civil and penal law, authorized mixed marriages (between Catholics and Protestants), suppressed torture and improved justice; it developed education and public works.<ref>William Martin, ''Histoire de la Suisse'' (Paris, 1926), pp. 187–88, quoted in Crane Brinson, ''A Decade of Revolution: 1789–1799'' (1934) p. 235</ref>

The greatest impact came in France itself. In addition to effects similar to those in Italy and Switzerland, France saw the introduction of the principle of legal equality, and the downgrading of the once powerful and rich [[Catholic Church in France|Catholic Church]]. Power became centralized in Paris, with its strong bureaucracy and an army supplied by conscripting all young men. French politics were permanently polarized – new names were given, "left" and "right" for the supporters and opponents of the principles of the Revolution.

===Religion=== {{main|Christianity in the 19th century}}

By the 19th century, governments increasingly took over traditional religious roles, paying much more attention to efficiency and uniformity than to religiosity. Secular bodies took control of education away from the churches, abolished taxes and tithes for the support of [[State religion|established religions]], and excluded bishops from the upper houses. Secular laws increasingly regulated marriage and divorce, and maintaining birth and death registers became the duty of local officials. Although the numerous [[Religion in the United States|religious denominations in the United States]] founded many colleges and universities, that was almost exclusively a state function across Europe. Imperial powers protected [[Christian mission]]aries in African and Asian colonies.<ref>[[James Harvey Robinson]] and [[Charles A. Beard]], ‘'The Development of Modern Europe Volume II The Merging of European into World History'’ (1930) v. 2 pp 88–89. [https://archive.org/details/developmentofmod007381mbp online]</ref> In France and other largely Catholic nations, [[Anti-clericalism|anti-clerical]] political movements tried to reduce the role of the Catholic Church. Likewise briefly in Germany in the 1870s there was a fierce [[Kulturkampf]] (culture war) against [[Catholic Church in Germany|Catholics]], but the Catholics successfully fought back. The Catholic Church concentrated more power in the papacy and fought against [[secularism]] and [[socialism]]. It sponsored devotional reforms that gained wide support among the churchgoers.<ref>Kenneth Scott Latourette, ''Christianity in a Revolutionary Age, Volume I: The Nineteenth Century in Europe: Background and the Roman Catholic Phase'' (1958) pp. 321–23, 370, 458–59, 464–66.</ref>

===The rise of Nations=== {{Main|International relations of the Great Powers (1814–1919)|Serbian Revolution|Italian unification||Revolutions of 1848|Greek War of Independence|Nation state}}

[[File:Maerz1848 berlin.jpg|thumb|right|Cheering the [[Revolutions of 1848]] in [[Berlin]]]] The political development of nationalism and the push for [[popular sovereignty]] culminated with the ethnic/national revolutions of Europe. During the 19th century nationalism became one of the most significant political and social forces in history; it is typically listed among the top causes of [[World War I]].<ref>{{cite book|author=John Horne|title=A Companion to World War I|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=EjZHLXRKjtEC&pg=PA21|year=2012|publisher=John Wiley & Sons|pages=21–22|isbn=978-1-119-96870-2|access-date=23 November 2016|archive-date=27 April 2023|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230427155357/https://books.google.com/books?id=EjZHLXRKjtEC&pg=PA21|url-status=live}}</ref><ref>Aaron Gillette, "Why Did They Fight the Great War? A Multi-Level Class Analysis of the Causes of the First World War." ''The History Teacher'' 40.1 (2006): 45–58.</ref> Most European states had become [[constitutional monarchy|constitutional]] monarchies by 1871, and Germany and Italy merged many small city-states to become united nation-states. Germany in particular increasingly dominated the continent in economics and political power. Meanwhile, on a global scale, Great Britain, with its far-flung [[British Empire]], unmatched Royal Navy, and powerful bankers, became the world's global power. The sun never set on its territories, while an informal empire operated through British financiers, entrepreneurs, traders and engineers who established operations in many countries, and largely dominated Latin America. The British were especially famous for financing and constructing railways around the world.<ref>Andrew Porter and William Roger Louis, eds. ''The Oxford History of the British Empire: Volume 3, The Nineteenth Century'' (1999).</ref>

Napoleon's conquests of the German and Italian states around 1800–1806 played a major role in stimulating nationalism and demand for national unity.<ref>{{Cite journal|jstor=1875877|title=Napoleon and the Age of Nationalism|journal=The Journal of Modern History|volume=22|issue=1|pages=21–37|last1=Kohn|first1=Hans|year=1950|doi=10.1086/237315|s2cid=3270766}}</ref>

==== Germany ==== {{Main|Unification of Germany}}

In the German states east of Prussia Napoleon abolished many of the old or medieval relics, such as [[Dissolution of the Holy Roman Empire|dissolving the Holy Roman Empire]] in 1806.<ref>Alan Forrest and Peter H. Wilson, eds. ''The Bee and the Eagle: Napoleonic France and the End of the Holy Roman Empire'' (Palgrave Macmillan, 2009).</ref> He imposed rational legal systems and his organization of the [[Confederation of the Rhine]] in 1806 promoted a feeling of [[German nationalism]]. In the 1860s it was Prussian chancellor [[Otto von Bismarck]] who achieved German unification in 1870 after the many smaller states followed Prussia's leadership in wars against Denmark, Austria and France.<ref>Hagen Schulze, ''The Course of German Nationalism: From Frederick the Great to Bismarck 1763–1867'' (Cambridge UP, 1991).</ref>

==== Italy ==== {{Main|Unification of Italy}}

[[Italian nationalism]] emerged in the 19th century and was the driving force for [[Italian unification]] or the "Risorgimento". It was the political and intellectual movement that consolidated different states of the [[Italian Peninsula]] into the single state of the [[Kingdom of Italy]] in 1860. The memory of the Risorgimento is central to both Italian nationalism and Italian historiography.<ref>Silvana Patriarca and Lucy Riall, eds., ''The Risorgimento Revisited: Nationalism and Culture in Nineteenth-century Italy'' (Palgrave Macmillan, 2011).</ref>

[[File:Missolonghi.jpg|thumb|Beginning in 1821, the [[Greek War of Independence]] began as a rebellion by Greek revolutionaries against the ruling Ottoman Empire.]]

==== Serbia ==== {{main|History of Serbia|Dissolution of Austria-Hungary|Creation of Yugoslavia}}

[[File:Breakup of Yugoslavia-TRY2.gif|thumb|250px|Breakup of Yugoslavia]]

For centuries the [[Serbian Orthodox Church|Orthodox Christian]] [[Ottoman Serbs|Serbs]] were ruled by the [[Islam in the Ottoman Empire|Muslim]]-controlled [[Ottoman Empire]]. The success of the [[Serbian revolution]] (1804–1817) against [[History of Ottoman Serbia|Ottoman rule]] in 1817 marked the foundation of modern [[Principality of Serbia]]. It achieved ''de facto'' independence in 1867 and finally gained recognition in the [[Berlin Congress]] of 1878. The Serbs developed a larger vision for nationalism in [[Pan-Slavism]] and with Russian support sought to pull the other Slavs out of the [[Austria-Hungary|Austro-Hungarian Empire]].<ref>{{Cite journal|jstor=2142012|title=Pan-Slavism and European Politics|journal=Political Science Quarterly|volume=29|issue=4|pages=664–686|last1=Levine|first1=Louis|year=1914|doi=10.2307/2142012}}</ref><ref>Charles Jelavich, ''Tsarist Russia and Balkan nationalism: Russian influence in the internal affairs of Bulgaria and Serbia, 1879–1886'' (1958).</ref> Austria, with German backing, tried to crush Serbia in 1914 but Russia intervened, thus igniting the [[First World War]] in which Austria dissolved into nation states.<ref>Christopher Clark, ''The Sleepwalkers: How Europe Went to War in 1914'' (2012)</ref>

In 1918, the region of [[Vojvodina]] proclaimed its [[Banat, Bačka and Baranja|secession]] from Austria-Hungary to unite with the pan-Slavic [[State of Slovenes, Croats and Serbs]]; the Kingdom of Serbia joined the union on 1 December 1918, and the country was named [[Kingdom of Serbs, Croats, and Slovenes]]. It was renamed [[Yugoslavia]], which was never able to tame the multiple nationalities and religions and it flew apart in [[Yugoslav Wars|civil war]] in the 1990s.

==== Greece ==== {{main|Greek War of Independence}}

The Greek drive for independence from the Ottoman Empire inspired supporters across Christian Europe, especially in Britain. France, Russia and Britain intervened to make this nationalist dream become reality with the [[Greek War of Independence]] (1821-1829/1830).<ref>{{cite book|author=Alister E. McGrath|title=Christian History: An Introduction|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=gIFfXCyAYmoC&pg=PT270|year=2012|isbn=978-1-118-33783-7|page=270|publisher=John Wiley & Sons|access-date=23 November 2016|archive-date=27 April 2023|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230427155355/https://books.google.com/books?id=gIFfXCyAYmoC&pg=PT270|url-status=live}}</ref>

==== Bulgaria ==== {{main|Bulgarian National Revival|National awakening of Bulgaria}}

[[Bulgarians|Bulgarian]] modern nationalism emerged under [[Ottoman Empire|Ottoman rule]] in the late 18th and early 19th century. An autonomous [[Bulgarian Exarchate]] was established in 1870/1872 for the diocese of Bulgaria as well as for those, wherein at least two-thirds of [[Eastern Orthodox Church|Orthodox Christians]] were willing to join it. The [[April Uprising of 1876|April Uprising]] in 1876 indirectly resulted in the [[Liberation of Bulgaria|re-establishment of Bulgaria in 1878]].

==== Poland ==== {{main|History of Poland}}

In the 1790s, Germany, Russia and Austria [[Partitions of Poland|partitioned Poland]]. Napoleon set up the [[Duchy of Warsaw]], igniting a spirit of [[Polish nationalism]]. Russia took it over in 1815 as [[Congress Poland]] with the Tsar as King of Poland. Large-scale nationalist revolts erupted [[November Uprising|in 1830]] and [[January Uprising|1863–64]] but were harshly crushed by Russia, which tried to [[Russification of Poles during the Partitions|Russify]] the [[Polish language]], [[Culture of Poland|culture]] and [[Religion in Poland|religion]]. The collapse of the Russian Empire in the First World War enabled the major powers to reestablish an independent [[Second Polish Republic]], which survived until 1939. Meanwhile, Poles in areas controlled by Germany moved into heavy industry but their religion came under attack by Bismarck in the Kulturkampf of the 1870s. The Poles joined German Catholics in a well-organized new [[Centre Party (Germany)|Centre Party]], and defeated Bismarck politically. He responded by stopping the harassment and cooperating with the Centre Party.<ref>Richard Blanke, ''Prussian Poland in the German Empire (1871–1900)'' (1981)</ref><ref>Norman Davies, ''God's Playground: A History of Poland, Vol. 2: 1795 to the Present'' (2005).</ref>

==== Spain ==== [[File:Mapa_político_de_España,_1850.jpg|thumb|School map of Spain from 1850. On it, the state is shown divided into four parts:- "Fully constitutional Spain", which includes Castile and Andalusia, but also the Galician-speaking territories. – "Annexed or assimilated Spain": the territories of the Crown of Aragon, the larger part of which, with the exception of Aragon proper, are Catalan-speaking-, "Foral Spain", which includes Basque-speaking territories-, and "Colonial Spain", with the last overseas colonial territories.]] After the [[War of the Spanish Succession]], the assimilation of the states of the [[Crown of Aragon]], the kingdoms of [[Kingdom of Aragon|Aragon]], [[Kingdom of Valencia|Valencia]], [[Kingdom of Majorca|Mallorca]] and the [[Principality of Catalonia]], by the [[Crown of Castile|Castilian Crown]] through the [[Nueva Planta decrees]] was the first step in the creation of the Spanish nation state, through the imposition of the political and cultural characteristics of the dominant ethnic group, in this case the Castilians, over those of other ethnic groups, who became [[Minority group|national minorities]] to be assimilated.<ref>{{cite book|last=Sales Vives|first=Pere|title=L'Espanyolització de Mallorca: 1808–1932|date=22 September 2020|publisher=El Gall editor|isbn=9788416416707|pages=422|language=ca}}</ref><ref>Antoni Simon, [http://roderic.uv.es/handle/10550/34591 Els orígens històrics de l'anticatalanisme] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220605094401/https://roderic.uv.es/handle/10550/34591 |date=5 June 2022 }}, páginas 45–46, L'Espill, nº 24, Universitat de València</ref> Since the political unification of 1714, Spanish assimilation policies towards Catalan-speaking territories ([[Catalonia]], [[Valencian Community|Valencia]], the [[Balearic Islands]], part of [[Aragon]]) and other national minorities have been a historical constant.<ref>{{cite book|last=Mayans Balcells|first=Pere|title=Cròniques Negres del Català A L'Escola|year=2019|isbn=978-84-947201-4-7|edition=del 1979|pages=230|publisher=Edicions del 1979|language=ca}}</ref><ref name="Recopilació d'accions genocides con">{{cite book|last=Lluís|first=García Sevilla|title=Recopilació d'accions genocides contra la nació catalana|publisher=Base|year=2021|isbn=9788418434983|pages=300|language=ca}}</ref><ref name=":6">{{cite book|last=Bea Seguí|first=Ignaci|title=En cristiano! Policia i Guàrdia Civil contra la llengua catalana|publisher=Cossetània|year=2013|isbn=9788490341339|pages=216|language=ca}}</ref> The nationalization process accelerated in the 19th century, in parallel to the origin of [[Spanish nationalism]], the social, political and ideological movement that tried to shape a Spanish national identity based on the Castilian model, in conflict with the other historical nations of the State. These nationalist policies, sometimes very aggressive,<ref>{{cite book|last=Sobrequés Callicó|first=Jaume|title=Repressió borbònica i resistència identitària a la Catalunya del segle XVIII|date=29 January 2021|publisher=Departament de Justícia de la Generalitat de Catalunya|isbn=978-84-18601-20-0|page=410|language=ca}}</ref><ref>{{cite book|last=Ferrer Gironès|first=Francesc|title=La persecució política de la llengua catalana|year=1985|isbn=978-8429723632|edition=62|page=320|publisher=Edicions 62|language=ca}}</ref><ref name=":2">{{cite book|last=Benet|first=Josep|title=L'intent franquista de genocidi cultural contra Catalunya|date=1995|publisher=Publicacions de l'Abadia de Montserrat|isbn=84-7826-620-8|language=ca}}</ref><ref name=":0222">{{cite book|last=Llaudó Avila|first=Eduard|title=Racisme i supremacisme polítics a l'Espanya contemporània|date=2021|publisher=Parcir|isbn=9788418849107|edition=7th|location=Manresa}}</ref> and still in force,<ref name=":3">{{cite web|title=Novetats legislatives en matèria lingüística aprovades el 2018 que afecten els territoris de parla catalana|url=https://www.plataforma-llengua.cat/media/upload/pdf/novetats_legislatives_en_materia_linguistic02_1571310685.pdf|publisher=Plataforma per la llengua|access-date=8 October 2022|archive-date=20 October 2021|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20211020181407/https://www.plataforma-llengua.cat/media/upload/pdf/novetats_legislatives_en_materia_linguistic02_1571310685.pdf|url-status=live}}</ref><ref name=":4">{{cite web|title=Novetats legislatives en matèria lingüística aprovades el 2019 que afecten els territoris de parla catalana|url=https://plataforma-llengua.cat/media/upload/arxius/ambits-treball/Drets%20Ling%C3%BC%C3%ADstics/Novetats_legislatives_en_mat%C3%A8ria_ling%C3%BC%C3%ADstic-2019-ok.pdf|publisher=Plataforma per la llengua|access-date=8 October 2022|archive-date=27 March 2022|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220327162711/https://plataforma-llengua.cat/media/upload/arxius/ambits-treball/Drets%20Ling%C3%BC%C3%ADstics/Novetats_legislatives_en_mat%C3%A8ria_ling%C3%BC%C3%ADstic-2019-ok.pdf|url-status=live}}</ref><ref name=":5">{{cite web|date=2019|title=Comportament lingüístic davant dels cossos policials espanyols|url=https://www.plataforma-llengua.cat/media/upload/pdf/linguisticcossospolicials_1576579756.pdf|publisher=Plataforma per la llengua|access-date=8 October 2022|archive-date=20 October 2021|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20211020181419/https://www.plataforma-llengua.cat/media/upload/pdf/linguisticcossospolicials_1576579756.pdf|url-status=live}}</ref><ref>{{cite conference|last=Moreno Cabrera|first=Juan Carlos|title=L'espanyolisme lingüístic i la llengua comuna|url=https://www.cicac.cat/wp-content/uploads/2018/01/Espanyolisme_ling%C3%BC%C3%ADstic_Juan-Carlos-Moreno.pdf|language=ca|publisher=Ponència del Consell de l'advocacia de Catalunya|book-title=VIII Jornada sobre l'Ús del Català a la Justícia|access-date=8 October 2022|archive-date=5 November 2022|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20221105081404/https://www.cicac.cat/wp-content/uploads/2018/01/Espanyolisme_ling%C3%BC%C3%ADstic_Juan-Carlos-Moreno.pdf|url-status=live}}</ref> are the seed of repeated territorial conflicts within the State.

====Education==== An important component of nationalism was the study of the nation's heritage, emphasizing the [[national language]] and literary culture. This stimulated, and was in turn strongly supported by, the emergence of [[State school|national educational systems]]. [[Latin]] gave way to the national language, and [[compulsory education]], with strong support from modernizers and the media, became standard in Germany and eventually other West European nations. Voting reforms extended the franchise. Every country developed a sense of national origins – the historical accuracy was less important than the motivation toward patriotism. [[Universal access to education|Universal compulsory education]] was extended to girls at the elementary level. By the 1890s, strong movements emerged in some countries, including France, Germany and the United States, to extend compulsory education to the secondary level.<ref>{{cite book|author=Ellwood Patterson Cubberley|title=The History of Education: Educational Practice and Progress Considered as a Phase of the Development and Spread of Western Civilization|publisher=Houghton Mifflin|url=https://archive.org/details/historyeducatio02cubbgoog|year=1920|pages=[https://archive.org/details/historyeducatio02cubbgoog/page/n742 711]–23}}</ref><ref>James Bowen, ''A history of western education: The modern west'' (1981) [https://archive.org/details/historyofwestern0000bowe_h0l6/page/n5/mode/2up online]</ref>

====Ideological coalitions==== [[File:Bakunin speaking.png|thumb|upright=0.85|[[Mikhail Bakunin]] speaking to members of the [[International Workingmen's Association]] at the [[Basel Congress (1869)|Basel Congress]] in 1869]] After the defeat of revolutionary France, the great powers tried to restore the situation which existed before 1789. The 1815 [[Congress of Vienna]] produced a peaceful [[balance of power in international relations|balance of power]] among the European empires, known as the [[Metternich]] system. The powerbase of their support was the aristocracy.<ref>Henry Kissinger, ''A world restored: Metternich, Castlereagh, and the problems of peace, 1812–22'' (1957)</ref> However, their reactionary efforts were unable to stop the spread of revolutionary movements: the middle classes had been deeply influenced by the ideals of the French revolution, and the Industrial Revolution brought important economical and social changes.<ref>{{cite book|author=Peter Viereck|title=Conservative Thinkers: From John Adams to Winston Churchill|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=qXxHHXwJT28C&pg=PA71|year=1978|pages=71–77|publisher=Transaction Publishers|isbn=978-1-4128-2026-4|access-date=28 September 2018|archive-date=27 April 2023|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230427155348/https://books.google.com/books?id=qXxHHXwJT28C&pg=PA71|url-status=live}}</ref>

Radical intellectuals looked to the [[working class]]es for a base for socialist, communist and [[anarchism|anarchistic]] ideas. Widely influential was the 1848 ''[[Communist Manifesto]]'' by [[Karl Marx]] and [[Friedrich Engels]].<ref>{{cite book|author=Jonathan Sperber|title=The European Revolutions, 1848—1851|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=hRuHT71EZDwC&pg=PA86|year=2005|pages=86–88|publisher=Cambridge University Press|isbn=978-0-521-83907-5|access-date=28 September 2018|archive-date=27 April 2023|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230427155427/https://books.google.com/books?id=hRuHT71EZDwC&pg=PA86|url-status=live}}</ref>

The middle classes and businessmen promoted liberalism, free trade and capitalism. Aristocratic elements concentrated in government service, the military and the established churches. Nationalist movements (in Germany, Italy, Poland, Hungary, and elsewhere) sought national unification and/or liberation from foreign rule. As a result, the period between 1815 and 1871 saw a large number of revolutionary attempts and independence wars. Greece successfully revolted against Ottoman rule in the 1820s.<ref>{{cite book|author=Pamela Pilbeam|title=The Middle Classes in Europe, 1789–1914: France, Germany, Italy, and Russia|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=ZkZdDwAAQBAJ&pg=PA240|year=1990|page=240|publisher=Macmillan Education UK|isbn=978-1-349-20606-3}}{{Dead link|date=February 2023 |bot=InternetArchiveBot |fix-attempted=yes }}</ref>

====France under Napoleon III==== {{Main|Second French Empire}}

[[File:Barricade Voltaire Lenoir Commune Paris 1871.jpg|thumb|[[Paris Commune]], 1871]] [[Napoleon III]], nephew of Napoleon I, parlayed his famous name and to widespread popularity across France. He returned from exile in 1848, promising to stabilize the chaotic political situation.<ref>[[Napoleon II]] (1811–1832) was the son of Napoleon I but he never actually ruled.</ref> He was elected president and maneuvered successfully to name himself Emperor, a move approved later by a large majority of the French electorate. The first part of his Imperial term brought many important reforms, facilitated by Napoleon's control of the lawmaking body, the government, and the [[French Armed Forces]]. Hundreds of old Republican leaders were arrested and deported. Napoleon controlled the media and censored the news. In compensation for the loss of freedom, Napoleon gave the people new hospitals and asylums, beautified and modernized Paris, and built a modern railroad and transportation system that dramatically improved commerce. The economy grew, but industrialization was not as rapid as Britain, and France depended largely on small family-oriented firms as opposed to the large companies that were emerging in the United States and Germany. France was on the winning side in the [[Crimean War]] (1854–56), but after 1858 Napoleon's foreign-policy was less and less successful. Foreign-policy blunders finally destroyed his reign in 1870–71. His empire collapsed after being defeated in the [[Franco-Prussian War]].<ref>Napoleon III." in Anne Commire, ed. ''Historic World Leaders'', (Gale, 1994) [https://link.gale.com/apps/doc/K1616000030/GPS?u=wikipedia&sid=GPS&xid=828abdad online] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20221229073725/https://go.gale.com/ps/i.do?p=GPS&u=wikipedia&id=GALE%7B%7B%21%7D%7DK1616000030&v=2.1&it=r&sid=GPS&asid=828abdad |date=29 December 2022 }}.</ref><ref>J.P.T. Bury, ''Napoleon III and the Second Empire'' (1968).</ref>

France became a republic, but until the 1880s there was a strong popular demand for monarchy. [[Anti-Catholicism in France|Hostility to the Catholic Church]] became a major issue, as France battle between secular and religious forces well into the 20th century, with the secular elements usually more successful. The [[French Third Republic]] emerged in 1871.<ref>Denis Brogan, ''The French Nation: From Napoleon to Pétain, 1814–1940'' (1957).</ref>

[[File:Bundesarchiv Bild 183-R68588, Otto von Bismarck.jpg|thumb|right|upright|[[Otto von Bismarck]], Chancellor of Germany]]

====Bismarck's Germany==== {{Main|North German Confederation|German Empire}}

From his base in Prussia, [[Otto von Bismarck]] in the 1860s engineered a series of short, decisive wars, that [[Unification of Germany|unified most of the German states]] (excluding Austria) into a powerful [[German Empire]]. By 1871 he used [[balance of power (international relations)|balance of power]] diplomacy to preserve Germany's new role and keep Europe at peace. The new German Empire industrialized rapidly and challenged Britain for economic leadership. Bismarck was removed from office in 1890 by an aggressive young Kaiser [[Wilhelm II, German Emperor|Wilhelm II]], who pursued a disruptive foreign policy that polarized Europe into rival camps. These rival camps went to war with each other in 1914.<ref>Katherine Ann Lerman, "Bismarck, Otto von." in '' Europe 1789–1914: Encyclopedia of the Age of Industry and Empire'', edited by John Merriman and Jay Winter, (Charles Scribner's Sons, 2006) vol 1, pp. 233–242. [https://link.gale.com/apps/doc/CX3446900089/GPS?u=wikipedia&sid=GPS&xid=f59ca5de online] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20221229073716/https://go.gale.com/ps/i.do?p=GPS&u=wikipedia&id=GALE%7B%7B%21%7D%7DCX3446900089&v=2.1&it=r&sid=GPS&asid=f59ca5de |date=29 December 2022 }}.</ref><ref>Theodore S. Hamerow, ed., ''Otto von Bismarck and imperial Germany: a historical assessment'' (1994)</ref>

====Austrian and Russian empires==== {{Further|Austrian Empire|Austria-Hungary|Russian Empire}} The power of nationalism to create new states was irresistible in the 19th century, and the process could lead to collapse in the absence of a strong nationalism. [[Austria-Hungary]] had the advantage of size and a large army, but multiple disadvantages: rivals on four sides, unstable finances, a fragmented population, a thin industrial base, and minimal naval resources. It did have the advantage of good diplomats, typified by [[Klemens von Metternich|Metternich]]. They employed a grand strategy for survival that balanced out different forces, set up buffer zones, and kept the [[Hapsburg empire]] going despite wars with the Ottomans, Frederick the Great, Napoleon and Bismarck, until the First World War. The Empire overnight disintegrated into multiple states based on ethnic nationalism and the principle of self-determination.<ref>{{cite book|author=A. Wess Mitchell|title=The Grand Strategy of the Habsburg Empire|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=qxtEDwAAQBAJ&pg=PA307|year=2018|publisher=Princeton University Press|page=307|isbn=978-1-4008-8996-9|access-date=22 July 2018|archive-date=27 April 2023|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230427155347/https://books.google.com/books?id=qxtEDwAAQBAJ&pg=PA307|url-status=live}}</ref>

[[Catherine the Great]]'s reforms caused the [[Russian Empire]] to develop into a major European power.<ref>{{Cite book|last=Massie|first=Robert K.|title=Catherine the Great: Portrait of a Woman|date=2011|publisher=Random House|isbn=978-1-5883-6044-1}}</ref> In the subsequent decades, Russia expanded in a variety of directions. Like the Austrian empire, the Russian empire brought together a multitude of languages and cultures, so that its military defeat in the First World War led to multiple splits that created independent Finland, Latvia, Lithuania, Estonia, and Poland, and briefly independent Ukraine, Armenia, Georgia, and Azerbaijan.<ref>Dominic Lieven, ''Empire: The Russian Empire and Its Rivals'' (2000) pp. 226–30, 278–80.</ref> Russia had a significant impact on the [[Balkans]], [[Caucasus]], and their peoples, including 12 [[Russo-Turkish wars]].

===Emigration=== {{main|European emigration}}

[[File:William Allsworth - The emigrants - Google Art Project.jpg|thumb|Scottish Highland family migrating to [[New Zealand]]]] There was mass European emigration to the [[Americas]], [[South Africa]], Australia and New Zealand in the 19th and 20th centuries, as a result of a dramatic [[demographic transition]] in 19th-century Europe, subsequent wars and political changes on the continent. From the end of the [[Napoleonic Wars]] in 1815 to the end of [[World War I]] in 1918, millions of Europeans emigrated. Of these, 71% went to [[North America]], 21% to [[Central America|Central]] and [[South America]] and 7% to Australia. About 11 million of these people went to Latin America, of whom 38% were Italians, 28% were Spaniards and 11% were Portuguese.<ref>{{cite journal|first1=Marília D. Klaumann|last1=Cánovas|url=https://periodicos.ufpb.br/ojs2/index.php/srh/article/view/11303/6417|title=A grande emigração européia para o Brasil e o imigrante espanhol no cenário da cafeicultura paulista: aspectos de uma (in)visibilidade|trans-title=The great European immigration to Brazil and immigrants within the Spanish scenario of the Paulista coffee plantations: one of the issues (in) visibility|language=pt|journal=Sæculum|volume=11|year=2004|pages=115–136}}</ref>

===New Imperialism=== {{Main|Colonial Empires|History of colonialism|Habsburg Monarchy|Russian Empire|French colonial empire|British Empire|Dutch Empire|Italian colonial empire|German colonial empire}}

[[File:Afrikakonferenz.jpg|thumb|The [[Berlin Conference (1884)|1884 Berlin Conference]] headed by [[Otto von Bismarck]] that regulated European colonization in Africa during the [[New Imperialism]] period]] [[Colonial empires]] were the product of the European [[Age of Discovery]] from the 15th century. The initial impulse behind these dispersed maritime empires and those that followed was trade. Both the [[Portuguese Empire]] and [[Spanish Empire]] quickly grew into the first global political and economic systems with territories spread around the world.

Subsequent major European colonial empires included the [[French colonial empire|French]], [[Dutch Empire|Dutch]], and [[British Empire|British]]. The latter, consolidated during the period of British maritime hegemony in the 19th century, became the largest empire in history because of the improved ocean transportation technologies of the time as well as electronic communication. At its height in 1920, the British Empire covered a quarter of the Earth's land area and comprised a quarter of its population. Other European countries, such as [[Belgian colonial empire|Belgium]], [[German colonial empire|Germany]], and [[Italian colonial empire|Italy]], pursued colonial empires as well (mostly in Africa), but they were smaller. Russia built its [[Russian Empire]] through conquest by land in Eastern Europe, and Asia.

By the mid-19th century, the [[Ottoman Empire]] had declined. This instigated the [[Crimean War]] in 1854 and began a tenser period of minor clashes among the globe-spanning empires of Europe. In the second half of the 19th century, the [[Kingdom of Sardinia (1720–1861)|Kingdom of Sardinia]] and the [[Kingdom of Prussia]] carried out a series of wars that resulted in the creation of Italy and Germany as nation-states, significantly changing the balance of power in Europe. From 1870, [[Otto von Bismarck]] engineered a German hegemony that put France in a critical situation. It slowly rebuilt its relationships, seeking alliances with Russia and Britain to control the growing power of Germany. In this way, two opposing sides – the [[Triple Alliance (1882)|Triple Alliance of 1882]] (Germany, Austria-Hungary and Italy) and the [[Triple Entente]] of 1907 (Britain, France and Russia) – formed in Europe, escalating military forces and alliances.

===Belle Époque (1871–1914)=== {{main|Belle Époque}}

[[File:1891 Peugeot Type 3 Vis à Vis photo 2.JPG|thumb|[[Peugeot Type 3]] built in France in 1891]] The years between the [[Franco-Prussian War]] and [[World War I]] were characterised by unusual political stability in [[Western Europe|Western]] and [[Central Europe]]. Although [[French–German enmity|tensions between France and Germany]] persisted as a result of the French loss of [[Alsace-Lorraine]] to Germany in 1871, a series of diplomatic conferences managed to mediate disputes that threatened the general peace: the [[Congress of Berlin]] in 1878, the [[Berlin Conference|Berlin Congo Conference]] in 1884, and the [[Algeciras Conference]] in 1906. Indeed, for many Europeans during the Belle Époque, transnational, class-based affiliations were as important as national identities, particularly among aristocrats. An upper-class gentleman could travel through much of Western Europe without a [[passport]] and even reside abroad with minimal bureaucratic regulation.<ref>[[A. J. P. Taylor]], ''English History 1914–1945'', and ''The Struggle for Mastery in Europe, 1848–1918''</ref>

The Belle Époque was an era of great scientific and technological advancement in Europe and the world in general. Inventions of the [[Second Industrial Revolution]] that became generally common in this era include the perfection of lightly sprung, noiseless [[carriage]]s in a multitude of new fashionable forms, which were superseded towards the end of the era by the [[automobile]], which was for its first decade a luxurious experiment for the well-heeled.<ref>The first [[Ford Model T]], a car for the masses, rolled off the [[assembly line]] in 1908.</ref> French automobile manufacturers such as [[Peugeot]] were already pioneers in carriage manufacturing. [[Édouard Michelin (born 1859)|Edouard Michelin]] invented removable [[pneumatic]] [[tires]] for bicycles and automobiles in the 1890s. The [[scooter (motorcycle)|scooter]] and [[moped]] are also Belle Époque inventions.

==1914–1945: two world wars== ===World War I=== {{Main|World War I}}

[[File:The British Army on the Western Front, 1914-1918 Q4649.jpg|thumb|Trenches and sand bags were defences against machine guns and artillery on the Western Front, 1914–1918.]] After the relative peace of most of the 19th century, the rivalry between European powers, compounded by rising nationalism among ethnic groups, exploded in 1914, when World War I started.<ref>Brian Bond, "The First World War" in [[C.L. Mowat]], ed. ''The New Cambridge Modern History: Vol. XII: The Shifting Balance of World Forces 1898–1945'' (2nd ed. 1968) [https://archive.org/stream/iB_CMH/12#page/n3/mode/1up online] pp. 171–208.</ref> Over 65 million European soldiers were mobilised from 1914 to 1918; 20 million soldiers and civilians died.<ref>[[Chris Clark (historian)|Christopher Clark]], ''The Sleepwalkers: How Europe Went to War in 1914'' (2013) p xxiii</ref> On one side were Germany, [[Austria-Hungary]], the [[Ottoman Empire]] and Bulgaria (the [[Central Powers]]/[[Triple Alliance (1882)|Triple Alliance]]), while on the other side stood [[Serbia]] and the ''[[Triple Entente]]'' (France, Britain and Russia), which were joined by [[Italian entry into World War I|Italy in 1915]], [[Romania in World War I|Romania in 1916]] and the [[United States declaration of war on Germany (1917)|United States in 1917]]. The [[Western Front (World War I)|Western Front]] involved especially brutal combat without any territorial gains by either side. Single battles like [[Battle of Verdun|Verdun]] and the [[Battle of the Somme|Somme]] killed hundreds of thousands. Czarist Russia collapsed in the [[February Revolution]] of 1917 and Germany claimed victory on the [[Eastern Front (World War I)|Eastern Front]]. After eight months of [[Russian Republic|liberal rule]], the [[October Revolution]] brought [[Vladimir Lenin]] and the [[Bolsheviks]] to power, leading to the creation of the Soviet Union. With [[American entry into World War I|American entry into the war]] in 1917, and the failure of [[Hundred Days Offensive|Germany's spring 1918 offensive]], Germany had run out of manpower. Germany's allies, Austria-Hungary and the Ottoman Empire, surrendered and dissolved, followed by Germany on 11 November 1918.<ref>Overviews include David Stevenson, ''Cataclysm: The First World War as Political Tragedy'' (2005) and Ian F. W. Beckett, ''The Great War: 1914–1918'' (2nd ed. 2007)</ref><ref>For reference see Martin Gilbert, ''Atlas of World War I'' (1995) and Spencer Tucker, ed., ''The European Powers in the First World War: An Encyclopedia'' (1996)</ref>

[[File:William Orpen – The Signing of Peace in the Hall of Mirrors, Versailles 1919, Ausschnitt.jpg|thumb|upright=1.2|Detail from [[William Orpen]]'s painting ''[[The Signing of Peace in the Hall of Mirrors, Versailles, 28 June 1919]]'', showing the signing of the peace treaty by a minor German official opposite to the representatives of the winning powers]]

The world war was settled by the victors at the [[Paris Peace Conference, 1919]]. The major decisions were the creation of the [[League of Nations]]; peace treaties with defeated enemies, most notably the [[Treaty of Versailles]] with Germany; the awarding of German and Ottoman overseas possessions as [[League of Nations mandate|"mandates"]], chiefly to Britain and France; and the drawing of new national boundaries to better reflect the forces of nationalism.<ref>Sally Marks, ''The Illusion of Peace: International Relations in Europe 1918–1933'' (2nd ed. 2003)</ref><ref>Zara Steiner, ''The Lights that Failed: European International History 1919–1933'' (2007)</ref> Multiple nations were required to sign [[Minority Treaties|minority rights treaties]].<ref>Carole Fink, "The Paris Peace Conference and the Question of Minority Rights," ''Peace and Change: A journal of peace research'' (1996) 21#3 pp. 273–88</ref> The Treaty of Versailles itself weakened [[Reichswehr|Germany's military power]] and placed [[War Guilt Clause|full blame for the war]] and [[World War I reparations|costly reparations]] on its shoulders – the humiliation and resentment in Germany was probably one of the causes of Nazi success and indirectly a [[causes of World War II|cause of World War II]].

===Interwar period=== {{See also|Aftermath of World War I|Interwar period|International relations (1919–1939)}} In the [[Treaty of Versailles]] (1919) the winners recognised the new states ([[Second Polish Republic|Poland]], [[Czechoslovakia]], Hungary, Austria, [[Kingdom of Yugoslavia|Yugoslavia]], Finland, Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania) created in central Europe from the defunct German, Austro-Hungarian and Russian empires, based on national (ethnic) self-determination. It was a peaceful era with a few small wars before 1922 such as the [[Ukrainian–Soviet War]] (1917–1921) and the [[Polish–Soviet War]] (1919–1921). Prosperity was widespread, and the major cities sponsored a youth culture called the "[[Roaring Twenties]]" or "[[Jazz Age]]".<ref>Raymond James Sontag, . ''A broken world, 1919–1939'' (1972) [https://archive.org/details/brokenworld1919100sont online free to borrow]; wide-ranging survey of European history.</ref>

The Allied victory in the First World War seemed to mark the triumph of [[History of Liberalism|liberalism]]. Historian Martin Blinkhorn argues that the liberal themes were ascendant in terms of "[[cultural pluralism]], religious and ethnic toleration, [[national self-determination]], [[Free market|free-market economics]], [[Representative democracy|representative]] and [[responsible government]], [[free trade]], [[Trade unions in Europe|unionism]], and the peaceful settlement of international disputes through a new body, the League of Nations."<ref>{{cite book|author1=Nicholas Atkin|author2=Michael Biddiss|title=Themes in Modern European History, 1890–1945|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=DFN_AgAAQBAJ&pg=PA244|year=2008|publisher=Routledge|pages=243–44|isbn=978-1-134-22257-5}}</ref> However, as early as 1917, the emerging liberal order was being challenged by the new [[Communist International|communist movement]]. Communist revolts were beaten back everywhere else, but succeeded in Russia.<ref>Gregory M. Luebbert, ''Liberalism, fascism, or social democracy: Social classes and the political origins of regimes in interwar Europe'' (Oxford UP, 1991).</ref> Italy adopted an authoritarian ideology known as [[fascism]] in 1922. Authoritarian regimes replaced democracy in the 1930s in [[Nazi Germany]], [[Estado Novo (Portugal)|Portugal]], [[Austrofascism|Austria]], Poland, [[4th of August Regime|Greece]], the Baltic countries and [[Francoist Spain]]. By 1940, there were only four liberal democracies left on the European continent: [[French Third Republic|France]], Finland, Switzerland and Sweden.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Blinkhorn |first=Martin |title=A Companion to Europe: 1900–1945 |year=2011 |editor-last=Martel |editor-first=Gordon |editor-link=Gordon Martel |pages=313 |chapter=Chapter 20: The Fascist Challenge}}</ref>

====Great Depression: 1929–1939==== {{main|Great Depression}}

[[File:Bundesarchiv Bild 102-14439, Rede Adolf Hitlers zum Ermächtigungsgesetz.jpg|thumb|Adolf Hitler addressing the Reichstag on 23 March 1933]] After the [[Wall Street crash of 1929]], most of the world sank into a Great Depression; prices and profits fell and unemployment soared. The worst hit sectors included heavy industry, export-oriented agriculture, mining and lumbering, and construction. World trade fell by two-thirds.<ref>Charles Kindleberger, ''The World in Depression, 1929–1939'' (2nd ed. 1986) provides a broad survey by an economist,</ref><ref>Piers Brendon, ''The Dark Valley: A Panorama of the 1930s'' (2000) 816pp covers far more details by a political historian.</ref>

In most of Europe, many nations turned to dictators and authoritarian regimes. The most momentous change of government came with [[Adolf Hitler's rise to power]] in 1933. The main institution that was meant to bring stability was the [[League of Nations]], created in 1919. However the League failed to resolve any major crises, undermined by the bellicosity of [[Nazi Germany]], the [[Empire of Japan]], the Soviet Union and [[Fascist Italy]], as well as the lack of participation by the United States. By 1937 it was largely ignored.<ref>F.P. Walters, ''A History of the League of Nations'' (Oxford UP, 1965). [https://libraryresources.unog.ch/ld.php?content_id=31457235 online free] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200521233942/https://libraryresources.unog.ch/ld.php?content_id=31457235 |date=21 May 2020 }}.</ref>

[[Second Italo-Ethiopian War|Italy conquered Ethiopia]] in 1931.<ref>David Clay Large, ''Between Two Fires: Europe's Path in the 1930s'' (1991)</ref> The [[Spanish Civil War]] (1936–1939) was won by the rebels (the [[Nationalist faction (Spanish Civil War)|Nationalist faction]]), led by [[Francisco Franco]]. The civil war did not escalate into a larger conflict, but did become a worldwide ideological battleground that pitted the left, the communist movement and many liberals against Catholics, conservatives, and fascists. Britain, France and the US remained neutral. Worldwide there was a decline in pacifism and a growing sense that another world war was imminent.<ref>Stanley G. Payne, ''The Spanish Revolution'' (1970) pp. 262–76</ref>

===World War II=== {{main|Causes of World War II|World War II|Diplomatic history of World War II|Home front during World War II|The Holocaust}}

[[File:Bundesarchiv N 1576 Bild-003, Warschau, Bettelnde Kinder.jpg|right|thumb|Starving Jewish children in [[Warsaw Ghetto]] (1940–1943)]] [[File:AmericanAndSovietAtElbe.jpg|right|thumb|American and Soviet troops [[Elbe Day|meet in April 1945]], east of the [[Elbe River]]]] In 1938 [[Adolf Hitler]] annexed the [[Sudetenland]]. In the [[Munich Agreement]], Britain and France adopted a policy of [[appeasement]], but [[Occupation of Czechoslovakia (1938–1945)|Germany subsequently took over the rest of Czechoslovakia]]. After allying with Japan in the [[Anti-Comintern Pact]] and then also with [[Benito Mussolini]]'s Italy in the "[[Pact of Steel]]", and finally signing a [[Molotov–Ribbentrop Pact|non-aggression treaty]] with the Soviet Union in August 1939, Hitler launched the [[Second World War]] on 1 September 1939 by the [[Invasion of Poland|invasion Poland]]. Britain and France declared war on Germany, but there was little fighting during the "[[Phoney War]]" period. War began in earnest in spring 1940 with the successful [[Blitzkrieg]] conquests of Denmark, Norway, the Low Countries, and France. Britain defeated Germany's air attacks in the [[Battle of Britain]]. Hitler's goal was to control Eastern Europe but the [[Operation Barbarossa|attack on the Soviet Union]] was delayed until June 1941 and the [[Wehrmacht]] was stopped close to Moscow in December 1941.<ref>I.C.B. Dear and M.R.D. Foot, eds., ''The Oxford Companion to World War II'' (1995) covers every country and major campaign.</ref>

Over the next year the Germans started to suffer a series of defeats. War raged between the [[Axis powers|Axis Powers]] (Germany, Italy, and Japan) and the [[Allies of World War II|Allied Forces]] (British Empire, Soviet Union, and the United States). The Allied Forces won in North Africa, [[Allied invasion of Italy|invaded Italy]] in 1943, and [[Liberation of France|recaptured France]] in 1944. In 1945 Germany itself was [[East Prussian offensive|invaded from the east by the Soviet Union]] and [[Western Allied invasion of Germany|from the west by the other Allies]]. As the Red Army conquered the [[Reichstag building|Reichstag]] in the [[Battle of Berlin]], [[Death of Adolf Hitler|Hitler committed suicide]] and Germany surrendered.<ref>Norman Davies, ''No Simple Victory: World War II in Europe, 1939–1945'' (2008)</ref> World War II was the deadliest conflict in human history, causing [[World War II casualties|between 60 and 75 million deaths]], the majority of whom were civilians (approximately 38 to 55 million).<ref>{{cite web|url=http://necrometrics.com/20c5m.htm|title=Second''Second Source List and Detailed Death Tolls for the Twentieth Century Hemoclysm''|publisher=Users.erols.com|access-date=2 May 2012|archive-date=7 March 2011|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110307141223/http://necrometrics.com/20c5m.htm|url-status=live}}</ref>

This period was also marked by systematic genocide. In 1942–45, separately from the war-related deaths, the [[Nazism|Nazis]] killed over 11 million civilians [[IBM and the Holocaust|identified through IBM-enabled censuses]], including the [[The Holocaust|majority of the Jews]] and [[Porajmos|Gypsies]] of Europe, millions of [[Nazi crimes against ethnic Poles|Polish]] and [[Generalplan Ost|Soviet]] Slavs, homosexuals, [[Jehovah's Witnesses]], disabled people, and political enemies. Meanwhile, in the 1930s the Soviet system of [[Gulag|forced labour]], [[Population transfer in the Soviet Union|expulsions]] and [[Holodomor|allegedly engineered famine]] had a similar death toll. Millions of civilians were affected by forced population transfers.<ref>[[Dinah Shelton]], ed., ''Encyclopedia of Genocide and Crimes Against Humanity'' (3 vol. 2004)</ref>

==Cold War era<span class="anchor" id="Postwar Europe"></span>== {{Main|Cold War|NATO|Marshall Plan|European Economic Community}}

[[File:Berlin Wall 1961-11-20.jpg|thumb|East German construction workers building the Berlin Wall, 20 November 1961]] The world wars ended the pre-eminent position of Britain, France and Germany in Europe and the world.<ref>John Wheeler-Bennett, ''The Semblance of Peace: The Political Settlement After The Second World War'' (1972) thorough diplomatic coverage 1939–1952.</ref> At the [[Yalta Conference]], Europe was divided into spheres of influence between the victors of World War II, and soon became the principal zone of contention in the [[Cold War]] between the [[Western countries]] and the [[Communist bloc]]. The United States and the majority of European liberal democracies established the [[NATO]] military alliance. Later, the Soviet Union and its satellites in 1955 established the [[Warsaw Pact]]. The Warsaw Pact had a much larger ground force, but the American-French-British [[nuclear umbrella]]s protected NATO.

[[Communist state]]s were imposed by the Red Army in the East, while parliamentary democracy became dominant in the West. Most historians point to its success as the product of exhaustion with war and dictatorship, and the promise of continued economic prosperity.

===Economic recovery=== {{Main|Marshall Plan|European Economic Community}}

[[File:Marshall Plan.png|thumb|upright=1.5|Marshall Plan dollar amounts]] The United States gave away about $20 billion in [[Marshall Plan]] grants and other funding to Western Europe, 1945 to 1951. Historian Michael J. Hogan argues that American aid was critical in stabilizing the economy and politics of Western Europe. It brought in modern management that dramatically increased productivity, and encouraged cooperation between labor and management, and among states. Local Communist parties were opposed, and they lost prestige and influence and a role in government. In strategic terms, says Hogan, the Marshall Plan strengthened the West against the possibility of a communist invasion or political takeover.<ref>Michael J. Hogan, ''The Marshall Plan: America, Britain and the Reconstruction of Western Europe, 1947–1952'' (1989) pp. 26–28, 430–43.</ref> However, the Marshall Plan's role in the rapid recovery has been debated. Most reject the idea that it only miraculously revived Europe, since the evidence shows that a general recovery was already under way. Economic historians Bradford De Long and [[Barry Eichengreen]] conclude: :It was not large enough to have significantly accelerated recovery by financing investment, aiding the reconstruction of damaged infrastructure, or easing commodity bottlenecks. We argue, however, that the Marshall Plan did play a major role in setting the stage for post-World War II Western Europe's rapid growth. The conditions attached to Marshall Plan aid pushed European political economy in a direction that left its post World War II "[[Mixed economy|mixed economies]]" with more "market" and less "controls" in the mix.<ref>{{cite book|first1=J. Bradford|last1=DeLong|first2=Barry|last2=Eichengreen|chapter=The Marshall Plan: History's Most Successful Structural Adjustment Program|title=Postwar Economic Reconstruction and Lessons for the East Today|editor-first=Rudiger|editor-last=Dornbusch|editor2-first=Wilhelm|editor2-last=Nolling|editor3-first=Richard|editor3-last=Layard|publisher=MIT Press|year=1993|pages=189–230|isbn=978-0-262-04136-2|chapter-url=https://books.google.com/books?id=kGCfmmlGtPEC&pg=PA189|access-date=21 March 2018|archive-date=15 April 2023|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230415065100/https://books.google.com/books?id=kGCfmmlGtPEC&pg=PA189|url-status=live}}</ref>

The Soviet Union concentrated on its own recovery. It seized and transferred most of Germany's industrial plants and it exacted [[World War II reparations|war reparations]] from East Germany, Hungary, Romania, and Bulgaria. It used trading arrangements deliberately designed to favor the Soviet Union. Moscow controlled the Communist parties that ruled the satellite states. Historian Mark Kramer concludes: :The net outflow of resources from eastern Europe to the Soviet Union was approximately $15 billion to $20 billion in the first decade after World War II, an amount roughly equal to the total aid provided by the United States to western Europe under the Marshall Plan.<ref>Mark Kramer, "The Soviet Bloc and the Cold War in Europe," {{cite book|editor=Klaus Larresm|title=A Companion to Europe Since 1945|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=EyNcCwAAQBAJ&pg=PT174|year=2014|publisher=Wiley|page=79|isbn=978-1-118-89024-0}}</ref>

Looking at the half century after the war historian [[Walter Laqueur|Walter Lacquer]] concluded: :"The postwar generations of European elites aimed to create more democratic societies. They wanted to reduce the extremes of wealth and poverty and provide essential social services in a way that prewar generations had not. They had had quite enough of unrest and conflict. For decades many Continental societies had more or less achieved these aims and had every reason to be proud of their progress. Europe was quiet and civilized. Europe's success was based on recent painful experience: the horrors of two world wars; the lessons of dictatorship; the experiences of fascism and communism. Above all, it was based on a feeling of European identity and common values – or so it appeared at the time."<ref>Walter Laqueur, "The Slow Death of Europe", ''The National Interest'' [http://nationalinterest.org/commentary/why-the-euro-the-least-europes-worries-5767 16 August 2011 online] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110926084231/http://nationalinterest.org/commentary/why-the-euro-the-least-europes-worries-5767 |date=26 September 2011 }}</ref>

The post-war period witnessed a significant rise in the standard of living of the Western European working class.<ref name="google2">{{cite book|title=Is There Still a West?: The Future of the Atlantic Alliance|author1=Hay, W.A.|author2=Sicherman, H.|date=2007|publisher=University of Missouri Press, Queen Elizabeth also had a major breakdown causing her to die cause of the stress overload.|isbn=978-0-8262-6549-4|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=VwDQ3jAGMX0C|page=107|access-date=18 May 2015}}</ref>

Western Europe's industrial nations in the 1970s were hit by a [[1973–1975 recession|global economic crisis]]. Causes included obsolescent heavy industry, sudden high energy prices which caused sharp inflation, inefficient nationalized railways and heavy industries, lagging [[Computer Technology|computer technology]], high [[government deficit]]s and growing unrest led by militant [[Trade union|labour unions]]. Germany and Sweden sought to create a social consensus behind a gradual restructuring. Germany's efforts proved highly successful. In Britain under the [[premiership of Margaret Thatcher]], the solution was shock therapy, high interest rates, austerity, and selling off inefficient corporations as well as the public housing. One result was escalating social tensions in Britain. Thatcher eventually defeated her opponents and radically changed the [[Economy of the United Kingdom|British economy]], but controversy persisted.<ref>David Priestland, "Margaret Thatcher?" ''BBC History Magazine'' 1 May 2013</ref>

==Recent history== {{Further |Cold War (1979–1985)|History of the European Union|International relations since 1989}} [[File:Thefalloftheberlinwall1989.JPG|thumb|right|Germans standing on top of the [[Berlin Wall]] at the [[Brandenburg Gate]], November 1989; it would begin to be torn apart in the following days.]] [[File:Cold War border changes.png|thumb|upright=1.182|Changes in national boundaries after the end of the Cold War and the [[dissolution of the Soviet Union]] in 1991]]

Western Europe began economic and then political integration, with the aim to unite the region and defend it. This process included organisations such as the [[European Coal and Steel Community]] and the [[Council of Europe]]. The [[Solidarność]] movement in the 1980s weakened the [[Polish People's Republic|Communist government in Poland]]. At the time the Soviet leader [[Mikhail Gorbachev]] initiated [[perestroika]] and [[glasnost]], which weakened Soviet influence in Europe. In 1989 after the [[Pan-European Picnic]] the [[Iron Curtain]] and the [[Fall of the Berlin Wall|Berlin Wall came down]] and Communist governments outside the Soviet Union were deposed. In 1990 the Federal Republic of Germany absorbed East Germany. In 1991 the [[Communist Party of the Soviet Union]] in Moscow collapsed, [[dissolution of the Soviet Union|ending the USSR]], which split into fifteen independent states. The most violent dissolution happened in Yugoslavia. Four out of six Yugoslav republics declared independence and for most of them a violent war ensued, in some parts lasting until 1995. In 2006 Montenegro seceded and became an independent state. [[Kosovo]]'s government [[2008 Kosovo declaration of independence|unilaterally declared independence]] from Serbia on 17 February 2008. The [[European Economic Community]] pushed for closer integration, co-operation in foreign and home affairs, and started to increase its membership into the neutral and former communist countries. In 1993, the [[Maastricht Treaty]] established the [[European Union]], succeeding the EEC. The neutral countries of Austria, Finland and Sweden acceded to the EU, and those that did not join were tied into the EU's economic market via the [[European Economic Area]]. These countries also entered the [[Schengen Agreement]] which lifted border controls between member states.<ref name="Europa History 90-99">{{cite web|title=A Europe without frontiers|publisher=[[Europa (web portal)]]|url=http://europa.eu/abc/history/1990-1999/index_en.htm|access-date=25 June 2007|archive-date=17 March 2011|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110317105311/http://europa.eu/abc/history/1990-1999/index_en.htm|url-status=live}}</ref> The ''[[euro]]'' was created in 1999 and replaced all previous currencies in participating states in 2002, forming the ''[[eurozone]]''.

The EU did not participate in the [[Yugoslav Wars]], and was divided on supporting the United States in the 2003–2011 [[Iraq War]]. NATO was part of the [[War in Afghanistan (2001–2021)|war in Afghanistan]], but at a much lower level of involvement than the United States.

In the [[post–Cold War era]], NATO and the EU have been gradually admitting most of the former members of the Warsaw Pact. In 2004, the EU [[2004 enlargement of the European Union|gained 10 new members]]. ([[Estonia]], [[Latvia]], and [[Lithuania]], which had been part of the Soviet Union; [[Czech Republic]], Hungary, Poland, [[Slovakia]], and [[Slovenia]], five former-communist countries; [[Malta]], and the divided island of [[Cyprus]].) These were followed by [[2007 enlargement of the European Union|Bulgaria and Romania in 2007]]. Russia's regime interpreted these expansions as violations against NATO's promise to not expand "one inch to the east" in 1990.<ref>{{cite news|url=http://www.spiegel.de/international/world/nato-s-eastward-expansion-did-the-west-break-its-promise-to-moscow-a-663315-2.html|title=NATO's Eastward Expansion: Calming Russian Fears|author=Spiegel Online, Hamburg|date=26 November 2009|newspaper=Der Spiegel|access-date=17 June 2015|archive-date=9 June 2015|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150609045426/http://www.spiegel.de/international/world/nato-s-eastward-expansion-did-the-west-break-its-promise-to-moscow-a-663315-2.html|url-status=live}}</ref> Russia engaged in bilateral disputes about gas supplies with [[Belarus]] and [[Ukraine]] which endangered the European supply, and engaged in a [[Russo-Georgian War|war with Georgia]] in 2008. Public opinion in the EU turned against enlargement, partially due to what was seen as over-eager expansion including Turkey gaining candidate status. The [[Treaty establishing a Constitution for Europe|European Constitution]] was rejected [[Referendums related to the European Union|in France and the Netherlands]], and then (as the [[Treaty of Lisbon]]) in Ireland, although a second vote passed in Ireland in 2009.

The [[2008 financial crisis]] and the [[Great Recession]] affected Europe, and government responded with [[austerity]]. Limited [[National accounts|ability]] of the smaller EU nations (most notably [[Economy of Greece#2010–2018 government debt crisis|Greece]]) to handle their debts led to social unrest including the [[anti-austerity movement]], government liquidation, and financial insolvency. In May 2010, the German parliament agreed to loan 22.4 billion euros to Greece over three years, with the stipulation that Greece follow strict austerity measures. See [[European sovereign-debt crisis]].

Beginning in 2014, [[Ukraine]] has been in a [[Revolution of Dignity|state of revolution]] and unrest. On 16 March, a [[2014 Crimean status referendum|disputed referendum]] was held in [[Crimea]] leading to the ''de facto'' secession of Crimea and its largely internationally unrecognized [[2014 Russian annexation of Crimea|annexation]] to the Russian Federation.

In June 2016, in a [[2016 United Kingdom European Union membership referendum|referendum in the United Kingdom]] on the [[European Union–United Kingdom relations|country's membership in the European Union]], 52% of voters voted to leave the EU, leading to the complex [[Brexit]] separation process and negotiations, which led to [[Aftermath of the 2016 United Kingdom European Union membership referendum|political and economic changes]] for both the UK and the remaining European Union countries. The UK left the EU on 31 January 2020. Later that year, Europe was affected by the [[COVID-19 pandemic]].

According to the ''Wall Street Journal'' in 2021 as [[Angela Merkel]] stepped down as [[Chancellor of Germany]] after 16 years:<blockquote> Ms. Merkel leaves in her wake a weakened Europe, a region whose aspirations to act as a third [[superpower]] have come to seem ever more unrealistic. When she became chancellor in 2005, the EU was at a high point: It had adopted the [[euro]], which was meant to rival the [[United States dollar|dollar]] as a [[World currency|global currency]], and [[Enlargement of the European Union|had just expanded by absorbing former members of the Soviet bloc]]. Today’s EU, by contrast, is geographically and economically diminished. Having lost the U.K. because of [[Brexit]], it faces deep political and cultural divisions, lags behind in the global race for innovation and technology and is increasingly squeezed by the mounting [[China–United States relations|U.S.-China strategic rivalry]]. Europe has endured thanks in part to Ms. Merkel’s pragmatic stewardship, but it has been battered by crises during her entire time in office.<ref>Bojan Pancevski, "Merkel Says Auf Wiedersehen to a Diminished Europe: The long-serving German chancellor helped the EU survive a string of crises, but her caution and focus on her own country’s interests have undermined the continent’s once-grand aspirations" [https://www.wsj.com/articles/merkel-says-auf-wiedersehen-to-a-diminished-europe-11632495640 ''Wall Street Journal'' Sept 24. 2021] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210927103547/https://www.wsj.com/articles/merkel-says-auf-wiedersehen-to-a-diminished-europe-11632495640 |date=27 September 2021 }}</ref></blockquote>Russia began an [[2022 Russian invasion of Ukraine|invasion of Ukraine]] on 24 February 2022, in a major escalation of the [[Russo-Ukrainian War]] that began in 2014. It is the largest [[conventional military attack]] in Europe since World War II.<ref>{{cite news|last1=Herb|first1=Jeremy|last2=Starr|first2=Barbara|author-link2=Barbara Starr|last3=Kaufman|first3=Ellie|others=Oren Liebermann and Michael Conte|date=24 February 2022|title=US orders 7,000 more troops to Europe following Russia's invasion of Ukraine|publisher=CNN|url=https://www.cnn.com/2022/02/24/politics/us-military-ukraine-russia/index.html|access-date=27 February 2022|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220227052443/https://edition.cnn.com/2022/02/24/politics/us-military-ukraine-russia/index.html|archive-date=27 February 2022|quote=Russia's invasion of its neighbor in Ukraine is the largest conventional military attack that's been seen since World War II, the senior defense official said Thursday outlining United States observations of the unfolding conflict}}</ref><ref>{{cite news|last1=Karmanau|first1=Yuras|last2=Heintz|first2=Jim|last3=Isachenkov|first3=Vladimir|last4=Litvinova|first4=Dasha|others=Photograph by [[Evgeniy Maloletka]] (AP Photo)|date=24 February 2022|title=Russia presses invasion to outskirts of Ukrainian capital|publisher=ABC News|location=United States|agency=[[Associated Press]]|url=https://abcnews.go.com/International/wireStory/russia-attacks-ukraine-defiant-putin-warns-us-nato-83078619|url-status=live|access-date=26 February 2022|archive-url=https://ghostarchive.org/archive/20220227/https://abcnews.go.com/International/wireStory/russia-attacks-ukraine-defiant-putin-warns-us-nato-83078619|archive-date=27 February 2022|quote=... [a]mounts to the largest ground war in Europe since World War II.}}</ref><ref>{{cite news|last1=Tsvetkova|first1=Maria|last2=Vasovic|first2=Aleksandar|last3=Zinets|first3=Natalia|last4=Charlish|first4=Alan|last5=Grulovic|first5=Fedja|others=Writing by Robert Birsel and Frank Jack Daniel; Editing by William Mallard, Angus MacSwan and David Clarke|date=27 February 2022|title=Putin puts nuclear 'deterrence' forces on alert|work=[[Reuters]]|location=[[Kyiv]]|url=https://www.reuters.com/world/europe/western-allies-expel-key-russian-banks-global-system-ukraine-fights-2022-02-27/|url-status=live|access-date=27 February 2022|archive-url=https://ghostarchive.org/archive/20220227/https://www.reuters.com/world/europe/western-allies-expel-key-russian-banks-global-system-ukraine-fights-2022-02-27/|archive-date=27 February 2022|quote=... [t]he biggest assault on a European state since World War Two.}}</ref> In response to the Russian invasion of Ukraine, [[Finland]] and [[Sweden]] applied for [[Enlargement of NATO#Finland and Sweden|NATO membership]] on 18 May 2022.<ref>{{cite web |last=Henley |first=Jon |date=2022-05-18 |title=Sweden and Finland formally apply to join Nato |url=https://www.theguardian.com/world/2022/may/18/sweden-and-finland-formally-apply-to-join-nato |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220518073117/https://www.theguardian.com/world/2022/may/18/sweden-and-finland-formally-apply-to-join-nato |archive-date=18 May 2022 |access-date=2022-05-18 |newspaper=The Guardian}}</ref> Finland became a member of NATO on 4 April 2023, while Sweden joined on 7 March 2024.<ref>{{cite press release |url=https://www.presidentti.fi/en/press-release/finland-becomes-a-member-of-nato-on-tuesday-4-april/ |title=Finland becomes a Member of NATO on Tuesday 4 April |publisher=Office of the President of the Republic of Finland |publication-date=3 April 2023 |access-date=3 April 2023 |archive-date=3 April 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230403111625/https://www.presidentti.fi/en/press-release/finland-becomes-a-member-of-nato-on-tuesday-4-april/ |url-status=live}}</ref><ref>{{cite news |url= https://www.latimes.com/world-nation/story/2024-03-07/sweden-officially-joins-nato-ending-decades-of-post-world-war-ii-neutrality |title= Sweden officially joins NATO, ending decades of post-World War II neutrality |newspaper= The Los Angeles Times |date= 7 March 2024 |first1= Matthew |last1= Lee |first2= Lorne |last2= Cook |access-date= 25 January 2025}}</ref>

==Chronology== {{div col|colwidth=30em}} * 7000 BC: [[Neolithic]] in Europe begins. * 4600 – 4200 BC: First European proto-civilisation, first golden artefacts and first fortified stone town – the [[Varna culture]].<ref name=Maugh/><ref>[https://wayback.archive-it.org/all/20120702232530/http://www.historyofinformation.com/expanded.php?category=Survival+of+Information Survival of Information: the earliest prehistoric town in Europe]</ref><ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.smithsonianmag.com/travel/varna-bulgaria-gold-graves-social-hierarchy-prehistoric-archaelogy-smithsonian-journeys-travel-quarterly-180958733/|title=Mystery of the Varna Gold: What Caused These Ancient Societies to Disappear?|first1=Smithsonian|last1=Magazine|first2=Andrew|last2=Curry|website=Smithsonian Magazine}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web|url=http://archaeologyinbulgaria.com/2015/10/15/bulgaria-showcases-worlds-oldest-gold-varna-chalcolithic-necropolis-treasure-in-european-parliament-in-brussels/|title=Bulgaria Showcases World's Oldest Gold, Varna Chalcolithic Necropolis Treasure, in European Parliament in Brussels|date=15 October 2015|access-date=14 May 2023|archive-date=24 March 2023|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230324070432/http://archaeologyinbulgaria.com/2015/10/15/bulgaria-showcases-worlds-oldest-gold-varna-chalcolithic-necropolis-treasure-in-european-parliament-in-brussels/|url-status=dead}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.smithsonianmag.com/smart-news/oldest-gold-object-unearthed-bulgaria-180960093/|title=World's Oldest Gold Object May Have Just Been Unearthed in Bulgaria|first1=Smithsonian|last1=Magazine|first2=Jason|last2=Daley|website=Smithsonian Magazine}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web|url=https://europost.eu/en/a/view/world-s-oldest-gold-24581|title=Heritage :: World's oldest gold :: Europost|access-date=14 May 2023|archive-date=28 September 2019|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190928002450/https://europost.eu/en/a/view/world-s-oldest-gold-24581|url-status=dead}}</ref> * 5000 – 3500 BC: First European proto-script – the [[Old European script]] (Danubian script).<ref>{{cite encyclopedia|last1=Kruk|first1=Janusz|last2=Milisauskas|first2=Sarunas|editor1-last=Milisauskas|editor1-first=Sarunas|year=2002|title=European Prehistory: A Survey|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=roMxst3NKtwC|publisher=Springer|isbn=978-0-306-46793-6|page=236}}</ref><ref>{{cite journal|last1=Owens|first1=Gareth A.|title=Balkan Neolithic Scripts|journal=Kadmos|date=1999|volume=38|issue=1–2|pages=114–120|doi=10.1515/kadm.1999.38.1-2.114|s2cid=162088927}}</ref><ref>Lazarovici, Gheorghe and Merlini, Marco, "4 Tărtăria Tablets: The Latest Evidence in an Archaeological Thriller", Western-Pontic Culture Ambience and Pattern: In memory of Eugen Comsa, edited by Lolita Nikolova, Marco Merlini and Alexandra Comsa, Warsaw, Poland: De Gruyter Open Poland, pp. 53-142, 2016</ref> * 3850 – 3600 BC: [[Megalithic Temples of Malta|Malta's Temple]] period begins. * 3500 BC: First European civilization, [[Minoan civilization]], begins on Crete. * 3000 BC: [[Indo-Europeans]] begin a large-scale settlement of the continent. * 2500 BC: [[Stonehenge]] is constructed. * 2100 BC: First European script, [[Cretan hieroglyphs]], is invented by Minoans. * 1750 BC: [[Mycenaean civilization]] begins. * 1600 BC: [[Thera eruption]] occurs on the island of [[Santorini]], destructing the Minoan city of [[Thera]]. * 1450 BC: [[Crete]] is conquered by [[Mycenaeans]]. * 1200 BC: [[Late Bronze Age collapse]] begins, that may be seen in the context of a technological history that saw the slow spread of [[ironworking]] technology from present-day Bulgaria and [[Romania]] in the 13th and the 12th centuries BC.<ref name="See A 1989"/> * 1100 BC: [[Minoan civilization]] falls. * 1050 BC: [[Mycenaean civilization]] falls after a period of palace destruction, marking the beginning of [[Greek Dark Ages]]. * 900 BC: [[Etruscan civilization]] begins. * 800 BC: [[Greek Dark Ages]] end, marking the beginning of [[classical antiquity]]. * 753 BC: Traditional year of founding of Rome. * 700 BC: [[Homer]] composes ''[[Iliad|The Iliad]]'', an epic poem that represents the first extended work of European literature. * 509 BC: [[Roman Republic]] is created. * 499 BC: [[Greco-Persian Wars]] begin. * {{circa|480}} BC: The [[Thracians|Thracian]] [[Odrysian kingdom]] was founded as the most important [[Classification of Thracian|Daco-Thracian]] [[State (polity)|state]] union.<ref>{{cite book|last1=Rehm|first1=Ellen|chapter=The Impact of the Achaemenids on Thrace: A Historical Review|editor1-last=Nieling|editor1-first=Jens|editor2-last=Rehm|editor2-first=Ellen|title=Achaemenid Impact in the Black Sea: Communication of Powers|date=2010|publisher=Aarhus University Press|series=Black Sea Studies|volume=11|page=143|isbn=978-8779344310|quote=In 470/469 BC, the strategist Kimon, mentioned above, defeated the Persian fleet at the mouth of the Eurymedon river. Subsequently, it seems that the royal house of the Odrysians in Thrace gained power and in about 465/464 BC emerged from the Persian shadow. The Odrysians became aware of the power vacuum resulting from the withdrawal of the Persians and claimed back supremacy over the region inhabited by several tribes. From this period onwards an indigenous ruling dynasty is comprehensible.}}</ref> * 449 BC: End of [[Greco-Persian Wars]] with Greeks defeating [[Achaemid Empire]]. * 440 BC: [[Herodotus]] defends Athenian [[political freedom]] in the ''[[Histories (Herodotus)|Histories]]''. * 404 BC: [[Sparta]] wins the [[Peloponnesian War]]. * 323 BC: [[Alexander the Great]] dies and his [[Macedonian Empire]] (reaching far into Asia) fragments. * 264 BC: [[Punic Wars]] begin. * 146 BC: [[Punic Wars]] end with destruction of [[Carthage]]. * 48 BC: [[Julius Caesar]] crosses the Rubicon river, marking the beginning of a civil war. * 44 BC: [[Julius Caesar]] [[Assassination of Julius Caesar|is murdered]]. The [[Roman Republic]] enters its terminal crisis. * 27 BC: Establishment of the Roman Empire under [[Octavian]]. '''AD''' * 14 AD: [[Octavian]] dies. * 30 or 33 AD: [[Jesus]], a popular [[religious]] leader, is [[Crucifixion of Christ|crucified]]. * 45–55 (ca): First [[Christian]] congregations in mainland Greece and in Rome. * 68: First Roman imperial dynasty, [[Julio-Claudian]], ends with suicide of [[Nero]]. * 79: [[Eruption of Vesuvius]] occurs, burying the cities of [[Pompeii]], [[Herculaneum]] and [[Stabiae]] under the ashes. * 117: Roman Empire reaches its territorial peak. * 166: [[Antonine Plague]] begins. * 293: [[Diocletian]] reorganizes the Empire by creating the [[Tetrarchy]]. * 313: [[Constantine the Great|Constantine]] officially recognises Christianity, marking the end of the persecution of Christians. * 330: [[Constantine the Great|Constantine]] makes [[Constantinople]] into his capital, a [[new Rome]]. * 370: [[Huns]] first enter Europe. * 395: Following the death of [[Theodosius I]], the Empire is permanently split into the [[Eastern Roman Empire]] (later Byzantium) and the [[Western Roman Empire]]. * 476: [[Odoacer]] captures [[Ravenna]] and deposes the last Roman emperor in the west: traditionally seen as the end date of the [[Western Roman Empire]]. * 527: [[Justinian I]] is [[Coronation|crowned]] emperor of [[Byzantine Empire|Byzantium]]. Orders the editing of ''[[Corpus Juris Civilis]]'', [[Digest (Roman law)]]. * 597: Beginning of Roman Catholic [[Christianization of Anglo-Saxon England]] (missions and churches had been in existence well before this date, but their contacts with Rome had been loose or nonexistent) * 600: [[Saint Columbanus]] uses the term "Europe" in a letter. * 655: [[Jus patronatus]]. * 681: [[Khan Asparukh]] leads the [[Bulgars]] and in a union with the numerous [[Seven Slavic tribes|local]] [[Slavs]] invades the Byzantine Empire in the [[Battle of Ongal]], creating [[First Bulgarian Empire|Bulgaria]]. * 711: Beginning of the [[Muslim conquest of the Iberian Peninsula]]. * 718: [[Tervel of Bulgaria]] helps the Byzantine Empire stop the Arabic invasion of Europe, and breaks the [[Siege of Constantinople (717–718)|siege of Constantinople]]. * 722: [[Battle of Covadonga]] in the Iberian Peninsula. [[Pelagius of Asturias|Pelayo]], a noble Visigoth, defeats a Muslim army that tried to conquer the Cantabrian coast. This helps establish the Christian [[Kingdom of Asturias]], and marks the beginning of the Reconquista. * 732: At the [[Battle of Tours]], the Franks stop the advance of the Arabs into Europe. * 800: Coronation of [[Charlemagne]] as [[Holy Roman Emperor]]. * 813: Third Council of Tours: Priests are ordered to preach in the [[Vernacular|native language of the population]]. * 843: [[Treaty of Verdun]]. * 863: [[Saints Cyril and Methodius]] arrive in [[Great Moravia]], initiating Christian mission among the Slav peoples. * 864: [[Boris I of Bulgaria]] [[Christianization of Bulgaria|officially baptises the whole nation]], converting the non-Christian population from [[Tengrism]], [[Slavic paganism|Slavic]] and other paganism to [[Christianity]], and officially founding the [[Bulgarian Orthodox Church|Bulgarian Church]] * 872: [[Unification of Norway]]. * 886: [[Bulgarians|Bulgarian]] students of [[Cyril and Methodius]] – [[Saint Sava (disciple of Saints Cyril and Methodius)|Saint Sava]], [[Clement of Ohrid|Kliment]], [[Saint Naum|Naum]], [[Saint Gorazd|Gorazd]] and [[Angelar]]– arrive back to [[First Bulgarian Empire|Bulgaria]], creating the [[Preslav Literary School|Preslav]] and [[Ohrid Literary School|Ohrid]] Literary Schools. * 893: The [[Cyrillic alphabet]], developed during the 9th century AD at the [[Preslav Literary School]] in the [[First Bulgarian Empire]], becomes the official [[Bulgarian alphabet]]. * 895: [[Hungarian people]] led by [[Árpád]] start to settle in the [[Carpathian Basin]]. * 917: In the [[Battle of Achelous (917)]] Bulgaria defeats the Byzantine Empire, and [[Simeon I of Bulgaria]] is proclaimed as emperor, thus [[Bulgaria]] becomes an [[First Bulgarian Empire|empire]]. * 962: [[Otto I, Holy Roman Emperor|Otto I]] of [[East Francia]] is crowned as "Emperor" by the Pope, beginning the [[Holy Roman Empire]]. * 988 [[Kievan Rus]] adopts Christianity, often seen as the origin of the [[Orthodox Church of Ukraine]], the [[Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church]], and the [[Russian Orthodox Church]]. * 1054: Start of the [[East–West Schism]], which divides the Christian church for centuries. * 1066: Successful [[Norman conquest of England|Norman Invasion]] of England by [[William the Conqueror]]. * 1088: The [[List_of_oldest_universities_in_continuous_operation|oldest university currently in continuous operation in the world]] is founded in [[Bologna]]. * 1095: [[Pope Urban II]] calls for the [[First Crusade]]. * 12th century: The [[12th century in literature]] saw an increase in the number of texts. The [[Renaissance of the 12th century]] occurs. * 1128: [[Battle of São Mamede]], formation of Portuguese sovereignty. * 1131: Birth of the [[Kingdom of Sicily]] * 1185: [[Second Bulgarian Empire|Bulgarian]] sovereignty was reestablished with the [[Uprising of Asen and Peter|anti-Byzantine uprising of the Bulgarians and Vlachs]] * 1250: Death of [[Frederick II, Holy Roman Emperor|emperor Frederick II]]; end of effective ability of emperors to exercise control in Italy. * 1303: The period of the [[Crusades]] is over. * 1309–1378: The [[Avignon Papacy]] * 1315–1317: The [[Great Famine of 1315–1317]] in Northern Europe * 1341: [[Petrarch]], the "Father of [[Renaissance Humanism|Humanism]]", becomes the first [[poet laureate]] since antiquity. * 1337–1453: The [[Hundred Years' War]] between England and France. * 1348–1351: [[Black Death]] kills about one-third of Europe's population. * 1439: [[Johannes Gutenberg]] invents first [[movable type]] and the first [[printing press]] for books, starting the [[Printing Revolution]]. * 1453: [[Fall of Constantinople]] to the [[Ottoman Turks]]. * 1487: The [[Wars of the Roses]] end. * 1492: The [[Reconquista]] ends in the [[Iberian Peninsula]]. A Spanish expeditionary group, commanded by [[Christopher Columbus]], lands in the [[New World]]. * 1497: [[Vasco da Gama]] departs to India starting direct trade with Asia. * 1498: [[Leonardo da Vinci]] paints ''[[The Last Supper (Leonardo da Vinci)|The Last Supper]]'' in Milan as the [[Renaissance]] flourishes. * 1503: [[Amerigo Vespucci]]'s [[New_World#Mundus_Novus|Mundus Novus]] letter is published. * 1508: [[Maximilian I, Holy Roman Emperor|Maximilian I]] the last ruling "[[King of the Romans]]" and the first "elected Emperor of the Romans". * 1517: [[Martin Luther]] nails his [[95 theses]] on indulgences to the door of the [[All Saints' Church, Wittenberg|church]] in [[Wittenberg]], triggering discussions which would soon lead to the [[Reformation]] * 1519: [[Ferdinand Magellan]] and [[Juan Sebastián Elcano]] begin first global circumnavigation. Their expedition returns in 1522. * 1519: [[Hernán Cortés]] begins conquest of Mexico for Spain. * 1527: [[Sack of Rome (1527)|Sack of Rome]] by the mutinous troops of the [[Charles V, Holy Roman Emperor|Holy Roman Emperor Charles V]]. * 1532: [[Francisco Pizarro]] begins the conquest of Peru (the [[Inca Empire]]) for Spain. * 1543: [[Nicolaus Copernicus]] publishes ''[[De revolutionibus orbium coelestium]] (On the Revolutions of the Celestial Spheres)''. * 1547: The [[Grand Duchy of Moscow]] becomes the [[Tsardom of Russia]]. * 1572: [[Tycho Brahe]] witnesses a [[SN_1572#Historic_description|supernova]]. * 1582: The introduction of the [[Gregorian calendar]]; Russia refuses to adopt it until 1918. * 1610: [[Galileo Galilei]] uses his telescope to discover the moons of [[Jupiter]] and publishes the [[Sidereus Nuncius|Starry Messenger]]. * 1618: The [[Thirty Years' War]] brings massive devastation to central Europe. * 1648: The [[Peace of Westphalia]] ends the Thirty Years' War, and introduces the principle of the integrity of the nation state. * 1687: [[Isaac Newton]] publishes ''[[Philosophiæ Naturalis Principia Mathematica|Principia Mathematica]]'', having a profound impact on [[The Enlightenment]]. * 1699: [[Treaty of Karlowitz]] concludes the [[Great Turkish War|Austro-Ottoman War]]. This marks the end of Ottoman control of Central Europe and the beginning of Ottoman stagnation, establishing the Habsburg monarchy as the dominant power in Central and Southeastern Europe. * 1700: Outbreak of the [[War of the Spanish Succession]] and the [[Great Northern War]]. The first would check the aspirations of [[Louis XIV]], king of France to dominate European affairs; the second would lead to Russia's emergence as a great power and a recognizably European state. * 18th century: [[Age of Enlightenment]] spurs an intellectual renaissance across Europe. * 1707: The [[Kingdom of Great Britain]] is formed by the union of the [[Kingdom of England]] and the [[Kingdom of Scotland]]. * 1712: [[Thomas Newcomen]] invents first practical steam engine which begins Industrial Revolution in Britain. * 1721: Foundation of the [[Russian Empire]]. * 1775: [[James Watt]] invents a new efficient steam engine accelerating the Industrial Revolution in Britain. * 1776: [[Adam Smith]] publishes [[The Wealth of Nations]]. * 1784: [[Immanuel Kant]] publishes ''[[Answering the Question: What Is Enlightenment?]]''. * 1789: Beginning of the [[French Revolution]] and end of the absolute monarchy in France. * 1792–1802: [[French Revolutionary Wars]]. * 1799: [[Napoleon]] [[Coup of 18 Brumaire|comes to power]], eventually consolidating his position as [[Emperor of the French]]. * 1803–1815: [[Napoleonic Wars]] end in defeat of Napoleon. * 1806: Napoleon abolishes the [[Holy Roman Empire]]. * 1814–1815: [[Congress of Vienna]]; Treaty of Vienna; France is reduced to 1789 boundaries; Reactionary forces dominate across Europe. * 1825: [[George Stephenson]] opens the [[Stockton and Darlington Railway]] the first steam train railway for passenger traffic in the world. * 1830: The southern provinces secede from the [[United Kingdom of the Netherlands]] in the [[Belgian Revolution]]. * 1836: [[Louis Daguerre]] invents first practical photographic method, in effect the first camera. * 1838: {{SS|Great Western}}, the first steamship built for regularly scheduled transatlantic crossings enters service. * 1848: [[Revolutions of 1848]] and publication of ''[[The Communist Manifesto]]''. * 1852: Start of the [[Crimean War]], which ends in 1855 in a defeat for Russia. * 1859: [[Charles Darwin]] publishes ''On the Origin of Species''. * 1861: [[Unification of Italy]] after victories by [[Giuseppe Garibaldi]]. * 1866: First commercially successful [[transatlantic telegraph cable]] is completed. * 1860s: Russia [[Emancipation reform of 1861|emancipates its serfs]] and [[Karl Marx]] completes the first volume of ''[[Das Kapital]]''. * 1870: [[Franco-Prussian War]] and the fall of the [[Second French Empire]]. * 1871: [[Unification of Germany]] under the direction of [[Otto von Bismarck]]. * 1873: [[Panic of 1873]] occurs. The [[Long Depression]] begins. * 1878: Re-establishment of [[Principality of Bulgaria|Bulgaria]], independence of [[Kingdom of Serbia|Serbia]], [[Principality of Montenegro|Montenegro]] and [[Kingdom of Romania|Romania]] * 1884: First permanent citywide [[Tram|electrical tram]] system in Europe (in [[Brighton]]). * 1885: [[Karl Benz]] invents [[Benz Patent-Motorwagen]], the world's first automobile. * 1895: [[Auguste and Louis Lumière]] begin exhibitions of projected films before the paying public with their [[cinematograph]], a portable camera, printer, and projector. * 1902: [[Guglielmo Marconi]] sends first transatlantic radio transmission. * 1914: [[Archduke Franz Ferdinand of Austria]] is [[Assassination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand|assassinated]] in [[Sarajevo]]; [[World War I]] begins a month later. * 1917: [[Vladimir Lenin]] and the [[Bolshevik]]s seize power in the [[Russian Revolution]]. The ensuing [[Russian Civil War]] lasts until 1922. * 1918: World War I ends with the defeat of Germany and the Central Powers. Ten million soldiers killed; collapse of Russian, German, Austrian, and Ottoman empires. * 1918: Collapse of the German Empire and monarchic system; founding of [[Weimar Republic]]. * 1918: Worldwide Spanish flu epidemic kills millions in Europe. * 1918: Austro-Hungarian Empire dissolves. * 1919: [[Versailles Treaty]] strips Germany of its colonies, several provinces and its navy and air force; limits army; Allies occupy western areas; reparations ordered. * 1920: [[League of Nations]] begins operations; largely ineffective; defunct by 1939. * 1921–22: Ireland divided; Irish Free State becomes independent and civil war erupts. * 1922: [[Benito Mussolini]] and the [[National Fascist Party|Fascists]] take power in Italy. * 1929: Worldwide [[Great Depression]] begins with [[Wall Street crash of 1929|stock market crash]] in New York City. * 1933: [[Adolf Hitler]] and the [[Nazis]] take power in Germany. * 1935: Italy conquers Ethiopia; League sanctions are ineffective. * 1936: Start of the [[Spanish Civil War]]; ends in 1939 with victory of Nationalists who are aided by Germany and Italy. * 1938: Germany escalates the persecution of Jews with [[Kristallnacht]]. * 1938: [[Appeasement]] of Germany by Britain and France; [[Munich Agreement]] splits [[Czechoslovakia]]; Germany seized the remainder in 1939. * 1939: Britain and France hurriedly rearm; failed to arrange treaty with USSR. * 1939: [[Adolf Hitler]] and [[Joseph Stalin]] agree partition of Eastern Europe in [[Molotov–Ribbentrop Pact]]. * 1939: [[Nazi Germany]] [[Invasion of Poland|invades]] [[Second Polish Republic|Poland]], starting the [[Second World War]]. * 1940: Great Britain under [[Winston Churchill]] becomes the last nation to hold out against the Nazis after winning the [[Battle of Britain]]. * 1941: U.S. begins large-scale [[lend-lease]] aid to Britain, Free France, the USSR and other [[Allies of World War II|Allies]]; Canada also provides financial aid. * 1941: Germany invades the Soviet Union in [[Operation Barbarossa]]; fails to capture Moscow or Leningrad. * 1942: [[Adolf Hitler]] and [[Nazi Germany]] commence the [[Holocaust]] – a [[Final Solution]], with the murder of 6 million Jews. * 1943: After [[Battle of Stalingrad|Stalingrad]] and [[Battle of Kursk|Kursk]], Soviet forces begin recapturing Nazi-occupied territory in the East. * 1944: U.S., British and Canadian armed forces [[Normandy landings|invade Nazi-occupied France]] at [[Normandy]]. * 1945: [[Death of Adolf Hitler|Hitler commits suicide]], Mussolini is executed. World War II ends with Europe in ruins and Germany defeated. * 1945: [[United Nations]] formed. * 1947: The [[British Empire]] begins a process of voluntarily dismantling with the granting of independence to India and Pakistan. * 1947: [[Cold War]] begins as Europe is polarized East versus West. * 1948–1951: U.S. provides large sums to rebuild Western Europe through the [[Marshall Plan]]; stimulates large-scale modernization of European industries and reduction of trade restrictions. * 1949: The [[NATO]] alliance is established. * 1950: The [[Schuman Declaration]] begins the process of [[European integration]]. * 1954: The [[French colonial empire|French Empire]] begins to be dismantled; Withdraws from Vietnam. * 1955: USSR creates a rival military coalition to the [[NATO]], the [[Warsaw Pact]]. * 1956: [[Suez Crisis]] signals the end of the effective power of the British Empire. * 1956: [[Hungarian Revolution of 1956|Hungarian Uprising]] defeated by Soviet military forces. * 1957: [[Treaties of Rome]] establish the [[European Economic Community]] from 1958. * 1962: The [[Second Vatican Council]] opens and begins a period of reform in the [[Catholic Church]] * 1968: The [[May 1968 events in France]] lead France to the brink of revolution. * 1968: The [[Prague Spring]] is defeated by [[Warsaw Pact invasion of Czechoslovakia|Warsaw Pact military forces]]. The [[Club of Rome]] is founded. * 1973: Denmark, Ireland and the United Kingdom [[1973 enlargement of the European Communities|join the European Communities]]. * 1980: The [[Solidarity (Polish trade union)|Solidarność]] movement under [[Lech Wałęsa]] begins open, overground opposition to the Communist rule in Poland. * 1981: Greece [[1981 enlargement of the European Communities|joins]] the European Communities. * 1985: [[Mikhail Gorbachev]] becomes leader of the Soviet Union and [[Perestroika|begins reforms]] which inadvertently leads to the fall of Communism and the Soviet Union. * 1986: Portugal and Spain [[1986 enlargement of the European Communities|join the European Communities]]. * 1986: [[Chernobyl disaster]] occurs, the worst nuclear disaster in history. * 1989: [[Revolutions of 1989|Communism overthrown]] in all the [[Warsaw Pact]] countries except the Soviet Union. Fall of the [[Berlin Wall]] (opening of unrestrained border crossings between east and west, which effectively deprived the wall of any relevance). * 1990: [[German reunification|Reunification of Germany]]. * 1991: [[Breakup of Yugoslavia]] and the beginning of the [[Yugoslav Wars]]. * 1991: [[Dissolution of the Soviet Union]] and the creation of the [[Commonwealth of Independent States]]. * 1993: [[Maastricht Treaty]] establishes the [[European Union]]. * 1995: Austria, Finland and Sweden [[1995 enlargement of the European Union|join the European Union]]. * 1997–99: End of European [[Western imperialism in Asia|colonial empires in Asia]] with the handover of [[British Hong Kong|Hong Kong]] and [[Portuguese Macau|Macau]] to China. * 2004: Slovenia, Hungary, the Czech Republic, Slovakia, Poland, Lithuania, Latvia, Estonia, Cyprus and Malta [[2004 enlargement of the European Union|join the European Union]]. * 2007: Bulgaria and Romania [[2007 enlargement of the European Union|join the European Union]]. * 2008: The [[Great Recession#Effects on Europe|Great Recession]] begins. Unemployment rises in some parts of Europe. * 2013: Croatia [[2013 enlargement of the European Union|joins]] the European Union. * 2014: [[Revolution of Dignity]] in Ukraine and the beginning of the [[Russo-Ukrainian War]]. * 2015: [[European migrant crisis]] starts. * 2020: The United Kingdom [[Brexit|leaves the European Union]]. * 2020-2023: [[COVID-19 pandemic in Europe]], countries with the most cases are Russia, the United Kingdom, France, Spain, and Italy. * 2022: [[Russian invasion of Ukraine]] opens with some of the most intense combat operations in Europe since the end of the Cold War. * 2023: Finland [[Enlargement of NATO|joins NATO]]. * 2024: Sweden joins [[NATO]]. {{div col end}}

== See also == * [[Genetic history of Europe]] * [[History of the Balkans]] * [[History of the Mediterranean region]] * [[History of the Romani people]] * [[History of Western civilization]] * {{section link|List of history journals|Europe}} * [[List of largest European cities in history]] * [[List of predecessors of sovereign states in Europe]] * {{section link|List of sovereign states by date of formation|Europe}} * [[Major explorations after the Age of Discovery]] * [[Timeline of European Union history]]

==References== {{reflist}}

===Sources=== * {{Cite book|last1=Laiou|first1=Angeliki E.|author-link=Angeliki Laiou|title=The Byzantine Economy|last2=Morisson|first2=Cécile|publisher=Cambridge University Press|date=2007|isbn=978-0-521-84978-4|location=Cambridge, England}} * {{Cite book|last=Pounds|first=Norman John Greville|url=https://archive.org/details/historicalgeogra0000poun|title=An Historical Geography of Europe, 1500–1840|publisher=Cambridge University Press|date=1979|isbn=978-0-521-22379-9|location=Cambridge, England}}

==Further reading== {{Main|Bibliography of European history}}

==External links== {{Commons}} {{Wikibooks|European History}} {{Wikiversity|European History}} {{Wikivoyage|European history|European history|travel information}} * [http://hsozkult.geschichte.hu-berlin.de/eurhistxx.asp EurhistXX: The Network for the Contemporary History of Europe], edited in English from Berlin * [http://bookshop.europa.eu/en/eurostat-yearbook-95-pbCA8193204/ Contains information on historical trends in living standards in various European countries] * [http://primary-sources.eui.eu/ European History Primary Sources] Online access to primary sources for historians * {{cite web|title=History of Europe|url=http://www.nypl.org/collections/nypl-recommendations/guides?field_subject_taxonomy_value=604|author=New York Public Library|location=New York|work=Research Guides|author-link=New York Public Library}} * [https://web.archive.org/web/20131005005904/http://www.vistorica.com/eng/persongroups/1500%2C2000%2Ceuropean%2Call.html Vistorica – Timelines of European modern history]

{{History of Europe}} {{European history by country}} {{Europe topics (small)}} {{History by continent}} {{Early Modern Europe}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:History of Europe}} [[Category:History of Europe| ]]