A Short History of Europe: From Charlemagne to the Treaty of Lisbon

Description

From the coronation of Charlemagne in 800 to the signing of the Treaty of Lisbon in 2007, an accessible history of the people, ideas, institutions, and events that have shaped Europe during the last 1,200 years This fascinating history for beginners provides a coherent map of the jumbled history of Europe and the European idea that has led up to this point. A continent of countless disparate peoples, races, and nations, governed by different ideas, philosophies, religions, and attitudes, Europe nonetheless has a common thread of history running through it, stitching the lands and peoples of its past and present into one fabric and held together by the continent’s great institutions: the Church of Rome, the Holy Roman Empire, the European Union, individual monarchies, trade organizations, and social movements. However, people have always harbored aspirations to make this vast territory one. The Romans came close and a few centuries later, the foundations for a great European state were laid with the creation of the Holy Roman Empire. Napoleon overreached himself in attempting to create a European-wide Empire—as did Adolf Hitler. Now, Europe is as close as it ever has been to being one entity, yet Europeans still cling to national independence. What is Europe?: by Margaret Thatcher......Page 2 About the Author......Page 3 Title......Page 4 Contents......Page 6 Introduction......Page 8 The End of Darkness......Page 10 Crusades, Plagues and Heresies......Page 30 Rebirth......Page 42 Reformation Europe......Page 59 Breaking Free......Page 76 Towards a Modern Europe......Page 87 The Descent into Madness......Page 98 Towards a United Europe......Page 112 Further Reading......Page 128 Copyright......Page 129