Click here for the home page 

The Xenophile Historian




The future flag of Europe? Albania Andorra Austria Belgium Bosnia
Bulgaria Croatia Czech Republic Denmark Finland France
Germany Greece Hungary Iceland Ireland Italy
Kosovo Liechtenstein Luxembourg Macedonia Malta Monaco
Montenegro Netherlands Norway Poland Portugal Romania
San Marino Serbia Slovakia Slovenia Spain Sweden
Switzerland United Kingdom Vatican City      

A History of Europe



Contents

(and malcontents)



Chapter 1: Pre-history and Forgotten History (Before 200 B.C.)
Chapter 2: Classical Greece (1000 to 197 B.C.)
Chapter 3: The Rise of Rome (753 to 27 B.C.)
Chapter 4: The Pax Romana (27 B.C. to 180 A.D.)
Chapter 5: Decline and Fall (180 to 476 A.D.)
Chapter 6: The West at its Lowest Ebb (476 to 741 A.D.)
Chapter 7: The Viking Era (741 to 1000 A.D.)
Chapter 8: The High Middle Ages (1000 to 1300 A.D.)
Chapter 9: Transition and Turmoil (1300 to 1485 A.D.)
Chapter 10: The Age When Europe Woke Up (1485 to 1618 A.D.)
Chapter 11: The Game of Princes and Politics (1618 to 1772 A.D.)
Chapter 12: A Generation of Revolution (1772 to 1815 A.D.)
Chapter 13: The Age of Industry (1815 to 1914 A.D.)
Chapter 14: The Great War (1914 to 1919 A.D.)
Chapter 15: The Great Intermission (1919 to 1939 A.D.)
Chapter 16: World War II (1939 to 1945 A.D.)
Chapter 17: A Continent Divided (1945 to 1989 A.D.)
Chapter 18: Europe Today (1989 to 2000 A.D.)


 

Chapter 1: Pre-history and Forgotten History

Before 200 B.C.

Part I

Introduction
Out of the Ice
From Cave to Village
The Megalith Builders
The Minoans
The Bronze Age and the Indo-European Migration
The Mycenaeans

Part II

The Phoenician Pioneers
The Villanovan Culture
The Celts
Pre-Roman Britain
The Legends of the Emerald Isle

 

Chapter 2: Classical Greece

1000 to 197 B.C.

Part I

What Made Classical Greece So Special?
The Archaic Period
Colonization
Aristocracy, Oligarchy, and Tyranny
Militant Sparta
The Athenian Road to Democracy
The Persian Wars
Why the Greeks Won

Part II

Athenian Democracy
Greek Medicine
Hellenic Poetry and Drama
Hellenic Architecture, Sculpture and Pottery
Athenian Society
Athenian Imperialism
Athenian-Spartan Rivalry

Part III

The Peloponnesian War
Spartan and Theban Ascendancy
Philip of Macedon
Alexander the Pretty-Good
Alexander's Empire Up For Grabs
Hellenistic Devolution

Part IV

Pre-Classical Greek Religion
The Early Philosophers
The Sophists and Socrates
Plato and Aristotle
Other Developments in Greek Philosophy

 

Chapter 3: The Rise of Rome

753 to 27 B.C.

Part I

The Etruscans
The Founding of Rome
The Roman Monarchy, 753-509 B.C.
The Roman Republic: The Early Years
Rome Becomes the Capital of Italy
The Samnite Wars
Pyrrhus

Part II

Carthage
The First Punic War
Interbellum
Hannibal and the Second Punic War
Roman Intervention in the East
The Third Punic War

Part III

Growing Pains
The Reforms of the Gracchi
Marius
The Social War
Sulla
Pompey's Campaigns and Spartacus
The Catiline Conspiracy
The Rise of Julius Caesar
The Gallic Wars
Caesar Rules Alone
The Second Triumvirate

 

Chapter 4: The Pax Romana

27 B.C. to 180 A.D.

Caesar Augustus
Tiberius
Caligula
Claudius I
Nero
The Flavian Dynasty
The Antonines: "Five Good Emperors"
The Roman Achievement
Economic Prosperity
Rome, Imperial Capital
Roman Engineering and Architecture
Knowledge and Science in the Roman Empire

 

Chapter 5: Decline and Fall

180 to 476 A.D.

Part I

Troubled Times Begin
The Severan Dynasty
The Barbarians Learn New Tricks
The Soldier Emperors
Diocletian
The Tetrarchy Breaks Down
Constantine I
Constantinian Christianity
Announcing the Middle Ages
Constantine's Successors Muddle Through
Julian the Apostate

Part II

The House of Valentinian
The Beginning of the End of the Classical World
Notable Fifth-Century Christians
Alaric the Visigoth
Gaiseric the Lame
Attila the Hun
The Arthurian Mythos
The Final Collapse of the West
The East Survives

 

Chapter 6: The West at its Lowest Ebb

476 to 741

Part I

The Rise of Feudalism
What Really Happened in Medieval Warfare
Clovis
Theodoric the Ostrogoth
Justinian
Justinian's Campaigns
Avars, Lombards and Slavs on the Move
Heraclius

Part II

The Byzantine Way
The Visigoth Kingdom
The Merovingian Dynasty
England: The Heptarchy
Commerce in the Dark Ages
The Church's Role in the Recovery of the West
Against Islam's First Wave: The Empire and the Eastern Church
Iconoclasm: Act I
Population in the Dark Ages

 

Chapter 7: The Viking Era

741 to 1000

Part I

Iconoclasm: Act II
Charlemagne
The Carolingian Renaissance
Wessex and the Carolingian States
The Fury of the Northmen
Alfred the Great
The Atlantic Saga
Commerce in the Viking Era

Part II

The Church Backslides and Splits
Basil the Magnificent
The Macedonian Revival Continues
Introducing Basil II
The Caliphate of Cordova
The First Reich and the Recovery of Christendom
A New Beginning

 

Chapter 8: The High Middle Ages

1000 to 1300

Part I

Basil the Bulgar-Slayer
The Kingmaker Princesses
The Normans Go to Italy
William the Conqueror
The Norman Kingdoms
The Papal Investiture Controversy
El Cid and the Reconquest
Byzantium Under Siege Again
Frederick Barbarossa
Innocent III

Part II

Commerce in the High Middle Ages
Population Growth and Medieval Republics
The Plantagenets
Centralization in France
Frederick II, Il Stupor Mundi
The Mongol Horde in Poland and Hungary
The Embattled Empire
The Magna Carta and the First Parliament
The Evolution of Castles
Central Europe's Technological Experiment

 

Chapter 9: Transition and Turmoil

1300 to 1485

Part I

The Hanseatic League and the Merchants of Venice
Scotland vs. England
The Babylonian Captivity of the Papacy
The Hundred Years War: From Sluys to Crécy
The Black Death
The Hundred Years War: Reverses and Revolts
The Rise of the Hapsburgs
The Birth of Switzerland
The Union of Kalmar
The Great Schism
Wycliffe and the Hussites

Part II

The Failure of Greenland
The Hundred Years War Resolved
The End of the Byzantine Empire
Nice Knowing You, Burgundy
The Wars of the Roses, Phase 1 (1455-65)
The Wars of the Roses, Phase 2 (1469-71)
The Wars of the Roses, Phase 3 (1483-85)
Showdown in Spain
Renaissance Italy
The Early Renaissance Men
Economics at the End of the Middle Ages
The First Age of Invention

 

Chapter 10: The Age When Europe Woke Up

1485 to 1618

Part I

How the White Man Got Ahead of Everybody Else
The Politics of Europe at the End of the Fifteenth Century
The Subjugation of Italy
Artists of the High Renaissance
Machiavelli
The Beginning of the Spanish Century
Sixteenth-Century Population and Economics

Part II

The Reformation
The Ups and Downs of Charles V
Revolts in France and the Netherlands
The Spanish Armada
Merrie Olde England
Sweden Returns to the Stage
How to Elect a King

 

Chapter 11: The Game of Princes and Politics

1618 to 1772

Part I

The Thirty Years War: An Overview
The Bohemian Phase
The Danish Phase
The Swedish Phase
The French Phase and the Treaty of Westphalia
England's Political Experiment
The Stuart Restoration
Sweden at its Peak
The Sun King

Part II

The War of the Spanish Succession
Statistics on Population and Religion for the Early Eighteenth Century
Scientific, Literary and Military Revolutions
The Wars of the Quadruple Alliance and the Polish Succession
The War of the Austrian Succession
The Seven Years War
The First Partition of Poland

 

Chapter 12: A Generation of Revolution

1772 to 1815

Part I

It All Started in America
The First French Revolution
The Reign of Terror
The Directory
The End of Poland--For Now
Enter Napoleon Bonaparte
The United Irishmen's Revolt

Part II

The First Consul Takes on the Second Coalition
The First French Empire
Napoleon at the Height of Power
From Moscow to Elba
The Hundred Days
Population at the End of the Revolutionary Era
The Industrial Revolution Begins

 

Chapter 13: The Age of Industry

1815 to 1914

Part I

The Congress of Vienna
Cracks in the Metternich System
The July Revolution and the Birth of Belgium
The Rothschilds: Financial Royalty
The German Confederation
The Sonderbund War
Demographics, 1815-1848
Britain Goes Industrial
The Year of Unsuccessful Revolutions
Two Steps Forward, One Step Back
The First World's Fair
The Unification of Italy

Part II

The Iron Chancellor's Bag of Tricks
The Franco-Prussian War
The Paris Commune
Demographics, 1848-1871
Bismarck's Peace
The Age of Imperialism
Demographics, 1871-1914
A New Century Begins
How NOT to Win Friends and Influence People
The Powder Keg of Europe

 

Chapter 14: The Great War

1914 to 1919

It Started as the Third Balkan War
The Lights Go Out
The Schlieffen Plan
The Decisive Campaign
Other Events of 1914
1915
1916
1917
The Last German Offensive
The Central Powers Give Up

 

Chapter 15: The Great Intermission

1919 to 1939

Disillusionment at Versailles
The Free Cities
The Irish Free State
The Ex-Monarchs
From Idealism to Upheaval
The Rise of Mussolini
The Scourge of the Depression
War Games in Ethiopia and Spain
Suddenly, It Became Hitler's Austria
The Munich Agreement
The Maginot Line

 

Chapter 16: World War II

1939 to 1945

The Blitzkrieg Unleashed
Hitler Strikes North
The Fall of the West
The Battle of Britain and the Campaigns of 1941
Under the Swastika
The "Final Solution"
Underground Resistance
The Battle of the Atlantic
The Air War
The Underbelly of the Axis
The Liberation of France
The Final 150 Days

 

Chapter 17: A Continent Divided

1945 to 1990

Due to Lack of Interest, World War III was Canceled
Postwar Territorial Changes
The Nuremberg Trials
The Iron Curtain Descends
The Marshall Plan
Occupied Germany and the Berlin Airlift
Yugoslavia Breaks With Moscow
The Postwar Leaders of Western Europe
Unrest in the Soviet Empire
Fascism's Last Stand
The Nations That Tried to Buy Happiness
Northern Ireland's Troubles
The Common Market
The End of the Cold War

 

Chapter 18: Europe Today

1990 to 2000

The Late-Blooming Mediterranean Republics
The Northern Ireland Crisis -- Solved
A United States of Europe?
Eastern Europe in the 1990s
The Yugoslav Wars: The Slovenian and Croatian Phases
The Yugoslav Wars: The Bosnian Phase
The Yugoslav Wars: The Albanian Phase
Demographics, 1914-2000
Europe Today

Support this site!

© Copyright 2021 Charles Kimball





Top of the Page Home Page Go to Mailer Page

Remember to check out the rest of the content on this site.