The New Europe
An Abbreviated History of
Europe
Based on Ginsberg, Chapter 1,
Unity and Disunity
European Unity
Not a new idea
Why should we expect todayÕs attempt to me more
successful, lasting than previous attempts?
Even so, disunity is still a
possibility, esp. as conditions change, new threats arise
Centripetal and Centrifugal
Forces
Centripetal – those
that unite
Centrifugal – those
that push apart
Centripetal/uniting
factors/common denominators: geography, history, religion, economy,
civilization
Centrifugal/disuniting
factors: religious difference, economic competition, nationalism, nationalistic
power-seeking, different perceptions of external threats
Earlier Incarnations of Unity
The
Roman Empire
The Carolingian Empire/Holy Roman
Empire
The Crusades
The Hanseatic League
The Renaissance
Consolidation of the HRE by the
Hapsburgs
The Enlightenment
The Concert of Europe
The League of Nations
The United Nations
Disunity/Competition
1054
The Schism
1066 Norman Conquest
1337-1453 Hundred Years War
14th Century The plague
15th-20th
Centuries Exploration/ Colonialism/Imperialism
16th Century The
Reformation
1618-1648 Thirty Years War
1648 The Peace of Westphalia
1799-1814 Napoleonic Wars
1854-1856 Crimean War
1914-1919 WWI
1919
Treaty of Versailles
1939-1945
WWII
*Key Difference:
Voluntary Unity or Unity by Force
What are some of the events/tendencies
Ginsberg has bolded throughout the chapter and what is their significance?
Facts/Ideas/Events with
Repeated Significance
1.
The significance of the Mediterranean Basin (15).
2.
The inability of the Roman Empire to fend off foreign attacks and to
assimilate large populations of ÒoutsidersÓ (17).
3.
Map 1.2 EuropeÕs Ònatural
constituency;Ó the Original Six;
what they share: geography, history, religion, economy,
civilization (resources?) (18).
4.
Battles betweens the
Christians and Muslims (19-20).
Ginsberg
stresses how the Crusades affected the Islamic worldÕs perception of
Europe/Christianity.
Also
important, how the experience of invasion/rule by the Ottomans has shaped
EuropeÕs view of the East/Islam.
5.
The end of the Napoleonic Wars, developed an international system based on
unifying principles (25).
6. Avoiding a punitive peace/creating a just
and lasting peace (24-25).
7. The Concert of Europe as the model for
the European Council, i.e., summits of European heads of government and state
(27).
8. The Concert of Europe as enshrining the
concept of interstate cooperation at the highest levels to maintain peace and
address common security and other interests (27).
9.
The Blue Print (for International Organizations, defined as:
an
organization of three or more states who together address a common need or
function, with a permanent base, with international civil servants who do not
report to the member governments, and which holds periodic or regular meetings.
The
worldÕs first IO: The Central
Commission for the Navigation of the Rhine, established in 1815 at the Congress
of Vienna
**Note,
once again, the RhineÕs location
10.
Political ideology as a uniting force (28).
In the
EUÕs case, social market capitalism
aka Social Democracy**
11. Economic/Functional Integration
roots
in GermanyÕs Zollverein (1834) (30)
12.
A Disuniting Trend: extreme
nationalism (29)
causes interstate conflict
chauvinism
irredentism
colonialism
What do you think?
Based on history, should we
be optimistic or pessimistic about the EuropeÕs prospects for unity?
Ginsberg is optimistic
Stress voluntary nature of
todayÕs integration (instead of force/military defeat/empire building of the
past)