GEOGRAPHY
Modern European History
*Although by the 1500s the Catholic Church no longer had the political
power it once did, it was still a wealthy and influential institution,
but it was increasingly corrupt. Even people who did not resent
the leadership of the church did resent the use of Latin in mass, which
they said kept the common people from understanding their religion.
*The 1500s also saw an increase in the sale of indulgences, or the
purchase of forgiveness for sins for yourself or others.
*On 31 October 1517, a monk named Martin Luther nailed a list of 95
Theses (statements or arguments) to the church door in
Wittenberg. In these he condemned the sale of indulgences, and
questioned the authority of the pope and other church practises.
Eventually he was excommunicated, but the recently invented printing
press allowed his followers to spread his ideal across Europe.
This was the beginning of the Protestant Reformation.
*Luther’s followers became Lutherans; John Calvin left France for
Switzerland, and began what is now the Presbyterian Church. In
1534 King Henry VIII separated the Church of England from the Catholic
Church, but many of its practises stayed the same. In the end,
most of Northern Europe became Protestant, most of Southern Europe
remained Catholic, Eastern Europe had some Catholic nations (like
Poland, Lithuania, and Hungary) and some Orthodox nations (like Russia
and Romania), and Southeastern Europe was increasingly dominated by the
Moslems.
*The 16th and 17th centuries saw numerous wars over religion.
*The Holy Roman Emperors tried religious toleration, in order to avoid
a religious war. This did not prevent some violence in the
Empire, but nothing serious happened until 1618 when an extremist
Catholic emperor was chosen.
*A series of wars followed, in part for religious dominance, and in
part because the various lords in Germany and the various nations
around it wanted to gain control of more land. The Holy Roman
Empire’s various states, Sweden, Spain, France, Denmark, and other
powers all fought over Germany, and mostly within its borders, so that
by 1648, after a Thirty Years’ War, most of Germany was devastated,
with 15-20% of the population (or possibly 30% or more) killed by
warfare and disease.
*Germany was mostly destroyed in the War, and Spain lost part of the
Netherlands (the part it kept became Belgium) and Portugal (which it
had taken over for about 100 years).
*There was one other major religious war in Europe in the late 1600s,
and that was the defence of Christian Europe against the Ottoman
Empire, which had not stopped at Constantinople, but had slowly
continued to advance into South-eastern Europe.
*By 1683, the Ottoman Turks had gotten as far as Vienna. To
defend Vienna, Pope Innocent XI called for the formation of a Holy
League to fight them. It was formed of Austria and the Holy Roman
Empire, the Republic of Venice, Poland, and later Russia. The
Holy League defeated the Turks outside Vienna, and slowly began to push
them out of Europe, a process that would take until 1913. This
has left a Balkan Peninsula with many Catholic, Orthodox, and Moslem
inhabitants, many of whom remain deeply resentful over wrongs done them
centuries before—and about which they are still willing to fight.
*In the 1600s, most of Europe began to see the rise of much more
powerful monarchies, and kings took more and more power from their
nobles and from the already weakened church. Kings who ruled
absolutely were called absolute monarchs, and Louis XIV of France was a
great example—his control was so great that his motto could be ‘l’etat,
c’est moi.’ Absolutism was also practised in Sweden, Spain,
Russia, Austria (although not all of the Empire), and was attempted in
England.
*However, when Charles I tried to take too much power for himself,
Parliament rose against him in the English Civil War (1642-1651), and
he was eventually captured and executed in 1649. England was
ruled first by Parliament, then by Lord Protector Oliver Cromwell, then
briefly by his son Richard, who turned the kingdom back over to Charles
II. Later England created a Declaration (or Bill) of Rights in
1689. Over the 1600s, Britain developed a much less authoritarian
and a more democratic government than almost any other in Europe.
*Other parts of Europe did not experience Absolutism. The Holy
Roman Emperor’s power grew weaker and weaker outside the areas of his
family lands. Poland-Lithuania created a government with an
elected king, but with a parliament of nobles so powerful that any one
lord could veto any act of government. This made Poland so weak
that between 1772 and 1795, Poland was partitioned on three occasions,
giving all its land to Prussia, Russia, and Austria; in 1795, Poland
ceased to exist.
*France was famous for the power and decadence of its monarchy, and
France was deep in debt. The Royal Palace at Versailles cost
between 6% and 25% of the entire income of the French Government to
maintain.
*The French kings became so powerful, and oppressed their people so
much that the French revolted in 1789. They set up a republic and
in 1793, executed King Louis XVI with the guillotine. There were
also attacks against the church (which had also been rich and powerful,
and which had been seen as supporting the king and the nobles), and
even statues of saints within churches were beheaded. They even
re-created the calendar (with ten-day weeks and new names for the
months) and changed the official way to count large numbers.
*Eventually the wave of beheadings, known as the Reign Terror, would
take up many common people, too, and probably killed between 18,000 and
40,000 people in 1793-1794 (including 1,300 in July 1794).
*The nations around France were almost all ruled by Kings, and were not
comfortable with the notion of executing them. The French
Republic ended up at war with most of the nations around them.
However, France won many of these wars, as they went to fight for
Liberty, Equality, and Fraternity. However, as the Republic’s
internal politics grew more and more chaotic, a strong leader arose who
eventually crowned himself emperor in 1804: Napoleon Bonaparte.
*Napoleon was one of the greatest generals in history, and between the
years 1799 & 1815 he conquered (and then lost) most of Europe (but
never Britain), either ruling it outright, setting his brothers and
other relatives up as kings in his place, or bullying the existing
rulers into serving him.
*Napoleon took the metric system with him throughout Europe.
*In 1812, Napoleon invaded Russia, and was defeated by the size of the
place, the severity of the winter, and the Russian policy of scorched
earth. He was forced to retreat in December 1812, having lost 98%
of his army.
*In 1814, with almost all of Europe allied against him, Napoleon was
forced to surrender. He was exiled to the Island of Elba, but
returned in 1815, and the French people rose up to support him.
All Europe rose against him again, and he was defeated for the last
time at Waterloo, then exiled to St. Helena.
*After Napoleon’s defeat, the leaders of Europe met in the Congress of
Vienna to re-draw the borders of Europe, make sure the old nobility was
put back in charge, and keep everyone acting together, in a ‘Concert of
Europe.’
*The nineteenth century was a period of tremendous nationalism—indeed,
nationalism had fuelled the French Revolution as well, but it also
inspired those who fought against French occupation. This was
particularly the case in French-occupied Germany.
*In Germany, more and more people began to identify themselves as part
of a German nation, with a common language, common customs, and a
common identity. The Brothers Grimm had a role in this, as they
were German nationalists. Although famous for collecting stories
from around Germany (to preserve and promote German culture) they also
studied the German language in an attempt to promote it as a vehicle
for national expression.
*Eventually a notion of Germany as a country of German-speaking peoples
became more and more concrete, although its boundaries (as described in
‘Deutschland über Alles’) were not what they are today.
However, Germany was split between the two powerful states of Prussia
and Austria, and states willing to follow them.
*In 1848 (the Springtime of Nations), a wave of nationalism spread
across Europe, along with efforts as democratisation, as
revolutionaries in many countries tried to either create republics, or
at least constitutional monarchies.
*Eventually most of the revolutions were put down (although many kings
made minor concessions to placate or distract the revolutionaries), and
many of those involved (especially in Germany) fled to the United
States.
*Later, though, the rulers of Prussia would use this nationalism for
their own ends. Under Otto von Bismarck (and King Wilhelm I),
Prussia engaged in three wars in 1864 (against Denmark), 1866 (against
Austria), and 1870-71 (against France, to regain Alsace-Lorraine, taken
from the Holy Roman Empire by Louis XIV). In the process, Prussia
either conquered the rest of Germany or convinced it to ally with
Prussia, and, in 1871, to unify under Wilhelm I, now Kaiser of the
Germans (all except Liechtenstein).
*Austria (despite being German) was left out of Germany, but that was
all right—they wanted nothing to do with nationalism, because they
controlled eleven different nationalities in their empire, and did not
want any of them getting any ideas.
*Italy was also not a unified state until the late 19th century. Much
of it was made up of republics or small kingdoms, and much of it was
part of the Papal States.
*However, many Italians wanted their own country, and between 1820 and
1870 a series of revolutions overthrew various local lords, and
eventually united Italy (except San Marino) under the rulership of
Victor Emmanuel II, already the King of Piedmont, Savoy, and Sardinia,
three large regions in Italy.
*The Pope claimed the right to rule Rome and the Vatican was left under
his control.
*During the mid to late 1800s, Europe conquered the rest of the
world. Britain and France got the most colonies overseas, and
became incredibly wealthy doing so, as they could extract raw materials
and cheap labour from them, and use them as captive markets for their
own finished products. They also (at least in their eyes) brought
civilisation to the world.
*Other countries wanted colonies too, and there was debate over exactly
where colonial borders lay, particularly in Africa, which had never
been properly explored. To solve this, the leaders of Europe met
in the Berlin Conference in 1884-85. There they divided up almost
all of Africa, drawing borders to suit the colonial powers, without
much attention being paid to the tribes or nations already in existence
there. The only African nation left alone was the Kingdom of
Ethiopia. The Congo was left as the private property of King
Leopold II of Belgium.
*Germany and Italy did not get much (they were still too new and weak),
and a generation later, they would yearn for a ‘place in the sun.’