European History For Dummies E-Book

Seán Lang

• Herausgeber: John Wiley & Sons
• Kategorie: Geisteswissenschaft
• Sprache: Englisch
• Veröffentlichungsjahr: 2010

Seitenzahl: 759

Beschreibung

Read about the world's smallest continent's incredible history: From Greek gods and mad Roman emperors to kings, queens, Visigoths, and Normans You meet Visigoths in Africa and Normans in Sicily; an Italian who talked to his books and another who conquered a kingdom and gave it away; Roman emperors who weren't Roman; and Holy Roman Emperors who weren't holy (or Roman). This is the story of Europe's rich history rolled into one thrilling account in plain English. European History For Dummies takes you on a fascinating journey through the disasters, triumphs, people, power, and politics that have shaped the Europe we know today - and you'll meet some incredible characters along the way! From Roman relics to the Renaissance, World Wars, and Eurovision, this accessible guide packs in the facts alongside fun tidbits and brings the past alive. You meet the two Catholic kings of Spain (one was a woman) and the Spanish king who never smiled. You discover a German monk who split Europe in two because he was so afraid of going to hell. And what about the great European war that started when two nobles were thrown out of a window onto a dungheap? Well, at least they had a soft landing. If you don't remember much of what you learned about European history at school, if you didn't like those dry school textbooks, if you think European history sounds a bit hard, but you're interested anyway, this is the book for you. Inside you'll discover: * The varied history of the world's smallest continent, its origins, and its huge impact on the world * How the Romans shaped the ancient world, what they learned from the Greeks, and what they lost to the barbarian tribes * The many battles of the Middle Ages and the leaders who waged them * The medieval people's great achievements in building and learning * Europeans' world explorers, including Columbus and Vasco da Gama * Unfortunate religious wars and the persecution of witches * Europe's world domination in the 18th and 19th centuries * The world wars of the 20th century * European life today Get your own copy of European History For Dummies to learn all of that and more -- including the ten Europeans who dominated the continent, ten unforgettable dates, and ten European locales you'll absolutely want to visit.

Leseprobe

European History For Dummies®, 2nd Edition

European History For Dummies®, 2nd Edition

by Seán Lang, PhD

European History For Dummies®, 2nd Edition

Published byJohn Wiley & Sons, Ltd The Atrium Southern Gate Chichester West Sussex PO19 8SQ England

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ISBN: 978-0-470-97818-4 (paperback), 978-0-470-978382 (ebk), 978-0-470-978399 (ebk), 978-1-119-99300-1 (ebk)

Printed and bound in Great Britain by TJ International Ltd, Padstow

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About the Author

Seán Lang studied history at Oxford and has been teaching it to school, college, and university students for the past 20 years. He is the author of British History For Dummies, 3rd Edition and has written textbooks on nineteenth and twentieth century history. He broadcasts regularly on historical matters on BBC and independent radio and has acted as adviser on school history to the British Government and the Council of Europe. Seán is currently based in Cambridge where he is Senior Lecturer in History at Anglia Ruskin University.

Author’s Acknowledgements

I must thank my editors at John Wiley, Mike Baker and Rachael Chilvers, who have shown a lot more patience with my hectic schedule than I am sure I deserve. Alan Palmer was invaluable on the history of the Baltic region and Nicolas Kinloch and Marc Polonsky both gave me good ideas for the Part of Tens. To my in-laws, Phyllis and Monica Graham of Cockermouth, and my friends Laure and Alain Renouf of Aix-en-Provence, all of whom put me up (and put up with me) over the summer while I was writing this, I owe special thanks. Finally, my thanks go to my cousin, John Hooper – writer, journalist, European, and very forbearing Kraftwerk fan.

Publisher’s Acknowledgements

We’re proud of this book; please send us your comments through our Dummies online registration form located at www.dummies.com/register/.

Some of the people who helped bring this book to market include the following:

Acquisitions, Editorial, and Media Development

Project Editor: Rachael Chilvers

Commissioning Editor: Mike Baker

Assistant Editor: Ben Kemble

Production Manager: Daniel Mersey

Cover Photo: © The Gallery Collection/Corbis

Cartoons: Rich Tennant, www.the5thwave.com

Composition Services

Project Coordinator: Kristie Rees

Layout and Graphics: Joyce Haughey, Vida Noffsinger

Proofreader: Dwight Ramsey

Indexer: Claudia Bourbeau

Publishing and Editorial for Consumer Dummies

Diane Graves Steele, Vice President and Publisher, Consumer Dummies

Kristin Ferguson-Wagstaffe, Product Development Director, Consumer Dummies

Ensley Eikenburg, Associate Publisher, Travel

Kelly Regan, Editorial Director, Travel

Publishing for Technology Dummies

Andy Cummings, Vice President and Publisher, Dummies Technology/General User

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Debbie Stailey, Director of Composition Services

Introduction

One afternoon in 1983, when I was living and working in Paris, I was heading into the Place de la Concorde when I noticed some people running across it, something you don’t usually do unless you’ve got an advanced death wish. Some sort of student demonstration was going on. The students chanted ‘Etudiants en colère!’ (‘Students are anger-y!’ though in my experience ‘Students are still-in-bed!’ is usually more accurate.) Older people stood in doorways and shook their heads. And then things turned nasty. The riot police made their first charge. Yes, they had batons, and yes, they used them. Hard.

‘Place de la Concorde’ means ‘Square of Peace and Harmony’, which was always rather a pious hope, because before that it had been called the Place de la Révolution(you can probably work out the translation) and this place was where the guillotine stood that executed King Louis XVI. The Tuileries palace used to be there too, but in 1871 the Paris mob stormed it and burnt the palace to the ground. If you’re going to take on the French riot police – and I wouldn’t entirely recommend it – the Place de la Concorde is certainly the most appropriate place to do it.

Teaching European history, as I do, you are forever explaining scenes like that one I witnessed. Always remember that what happened in the past wasn’t always history, and it wasn’t always told in history-book language: it was now, it was real, and – very often – it hurt. Of course, my students might think that about my lessons, but I hope you won’t think it about this book.

About This Book

We’d better get one thing straight. This is my history. I don’t mean it’s my life story, but this book is my version of Europe’s history. Historians certainly try to get their facts right, but what we say about the past, whether what happened was a good thing or a bad thing or an act of God or whatever, is down to us. Or, in this case, me.

Europe is the world’s smallest continent, yet it has an incredible history: Greek gods; mad Roman emperors; Roman emperors who weren’t Roman; and Holy Roman Emperors who weren’t holy (or Roman). You meet Visigoths in Africa and Normans in Sicily; an Italian who talked to his books and another who conquered a kingdom and gave it away. You meet the two Catholic kings of Spain, one of whom was a woman, and the Spanish king who never smiled. You discover a German monk who split Europe in two because he was so afraid of going to hell. And what about the great European war that started when two nobles were thrown out of a window onto a dungheap? Well, at least they had a soft landing.

Scared of Europe and its history? Think you’ll never get your head round all those foreign names? Relax. You’re going to enjoy this.

Conventions Used in This Book

I follow the usual conventions for history books. Most of these are fairly straightforward, such as arranging history in centuries or decades. I also keep to the sort of terms you’ve probably heard before, such as ‘ancient’ and ‘medieval’, even though they were not how the people at the time referred to themselves.

Most of the world numbers its years from the notional date of the birth of Jesus Christ. (I say notional, because they miscalculated and got it wrong by some four years or so.) In Latin – these things were all worked out by the Catholic Church in the Middle Ages, so it’s all done in Latin – that comes out as A.D., which stands for Anno Domini, or ‘Year of Our Lord’. Dates from before the birth of Christ are labelled B.C., ‘Before Christ’. Some people nowadays prefer to use C.E. and B.C.E. for ‘Common Era’ and ‘Before Common Era’, but I use B.C. and A.D. because it’s what I’m most comfortable with.

Foolish Assumptions

I assume, perhaps wrongly, that you:

Never learned anything about European history at school except a bit about Hitler and maybe Stalin, and anyway, you’ve forgotten it.

Didn’t like those school textbooks with lots of documentary extracts in them with endless questions you had to answer.

Think European history sounds a bit hard.

Are prepared to give it a go, but this had better be good.

How This Book Is Organised

The great thing about For Dummies books is that you don’t have to read them all the way through. You can simply turn to the bit you want – a chapter, a section, even just a paragraph. The Table of Contents and the Index help you out. Of course, history has all sorts of links and connections from one period to another, but I show you how to follow these links if you want to. The great thing is, you don’t have to. This section gives you an idea of what lies ahead:

Part I: Origins of a Continent

This part is about how Europe was actually formed. Chapter 2 covers the Stone Age: that’s all those incredible cave paintings and stone monuments. You probably know of Stonehenge, which is actually rather later than the Stone Age proper, but you can find some pretty impressive monuments on the continent as well. And talking of ‘the Continent’, Part I explains how Europe took its present shape, and how Europe fits into the story of the formation of the world.

Part II: Europe of the Ancients

Part II is all about the history behind those sword and sandal movies, such as Troy, Alexander, and Gladiator. The writers, mathematicians, and statesmen of Ancient Greece and Rome laid the foundations for western society. This part looks at how a rich civilisation grew up in the raggedy coastline of Greece and Turkey (though it wasn’t Turkey then), and a mighty empire took shape on the banks of the River Tiber: Rome.

Part III: Middle Ages

Nowadays people say something is ‘medieval’ when they mean it’s primitive and barbaric, but this judgement is a gross slur on one of the brightest and most dazzling periods in European history, a time of art, chivalry and cathedrals.

The kings of Europe fought each other over land and titles, and set off for the Holy Land to redeem the holy city of Jerusalem, and in 1282, the people of Sicily seized the opportunity of evening vespers to murder every Frenchman they could find. Europe came face to face with the terrible Black Death, and a German printer called Johannes Gutenberg created an information technology revolution that changed the world.

Part IV: New Ideas, New Worlds

Part IV begins with the Renaissance, when the people of Italy rediscovered the heritage of the ancients, when Europeans took on new ideas that made them look at the world in a different way. This part also explains the dramatic changes that took place in the Church, starting with Martin Luther’s doubts about whether or not he would ever get to heaven, and ending in terrible religious wars that tore the continent apart.

Meanwhile, Europeans were taking to the sea in small ships and setting foot on what they thought of as new worlds: America, yes, but also China, India, and the islands of Asia.

Part V: Europe Rules the World

In the 18th and 19th centuries Europeans took over the world. Quite literally. There is not a single continent on the face of the globe that was not conquered or settled or mapped or evangelised by Europeans.

At home, new ideas about man’s natural rights helped lead to the French Revolution, which sent a shiver down the spine of the crowned heads of Europe (and a blade through the spine of one of them!). The revolution spawned a host of important ideas about nationalism and about democracy that would dominate the centuries ahead, as another revolution, industrialisation, created a whole new type of European – the industrial worker.

Part VI: Europe Tears Itself in Two

Part VI deals with the calamitous 20th century, which saw Europe torn apart by two World Wars – which some people, understandably, prefer to call ‘European civil wars’ – and a Cold War, which brought the continent, and the world, to the brink of destruction. This part looks at how the mighty European empires crumbled and fell after the Second World War, and how in 1989, amid incredible scenes of rejoicing, the barriers of the Cold War and the Berlin Wall itself came down and Europe could reunite. Well, sort of.

Part VII: The Part of Tens

Here you find a handy list of ten Europeans who had a pretty good go at dominating the continent and some good ideas for places to visit in Europe that you might not have considered. But what about things – and people – Europe could well have done without? You’ll have your own ideas; have a look at mine.

Icons Used in This Book

This book won’t throw lots of questions at you, but it should certainly set you thinking. These icons highlight some of the points you may be thinking about.

The wooden horse of Troy. Luther nails his ideas to the church door. Queen Marie Antoinette says the people can eat cake. Quick reality check: did it really happen? Find out when you see this icon.

What happened long ago affects our lives today in all sorts of ways. When you see this icon you see yet another way in which you too were created from the past.

You can always find at least two ways of looking at anything in history, which is why historians are always arguing and rewriting it. Okay, I give you my version, but this icon highlights when opinions differ.

This icon draws your attention to an important point to bear in mind.

For the nerd in you. Small details, little points that add a touch of interest to your life and mean that people steer clear of you at parties. Read or skip them as you like.

Where to Go from Here

Where to go? Wherever you like. You can home in on the Middle Ages, run-in with the Renaissance, or gather round the foot of the guillotine. But if you’re really not sure where to start, why not have a look at Chapter 1, which gives you a bit of a general survey and may give you a few ideas. The history of Europe is at your fingertips. All you have to do is turn the page.

Part I

Origins of a Continent

In this part . . .

Europe offers much more than a summer backpacking around the Eiffel Tower and the Leaning Tower of Pisa. Europe is the smallest of the world’s continents but it’s one of the most varied. This part introduces you to Europe and its history and gives you some idea of why Europe’s had such an impact on the world. You’ll see something of Europe’s long, fascinating Stone Age, with its mysterious cave paintings and stone circles, and you can consider the strange case of Neanderthal Man – the advanced form of life that just didn’t seem to go anywhere.

You’ll also consider the idea of Europe. General De Gaulle used to talk about ‘a certain idea of France’, but you can say the same of the whole continent. Europeans have a strong idea of their separate national identities, but they are also aware that they are part of a much wider unit, with its own distinctive culture.

Chapter 1

Not So Much a Continent, More a Way of Life

In This Chapter

Defining European culture and identity

Identifying what European history has in common

Tracing Europe’s impact on the world

One thing that hits you very quickly about Europe is how varied it is. In some areas, you can take a two-hour drive and go through three or four different language zones, sometimes with different alphabets to write them with. General de Gaulle once said that you could not unite a nation like France that had 265 different types of cheese; it’s even harder for Europe, a small continent that can’t decide which language to speak, which religion to follow, which money to use, or even where exactly it begins and ends.