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A History of Europe



Contents

(and malcontents)



Chapter 1: Pre-history and Forgotten History

Before 200 B.C.

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

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
Athenian Democracy
Greek Medicine
Hellenic Poetry and Drama
Hellenic Architecture, Sculpture and Pottery
Athenian Society
Athenian Imperialism
Athenian-Spartan Rivalry
The Peloponnesian War
Aristocracy, Oligarchy, and Tyranny
Spartan and Theban Ascendancy
Philip of Macedon
Alexander's Empire Up For Grabs
Hellenistic Devolution
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.

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
Carthage
The First Punic War
Hannibal and the Second Punic War
Roman Intervention in the East
The Third Punic War
Growing Pains
The Reforms of the Gracchi
Marius vs. Sulla
Pompey's Campaigns and 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 and Caligula
Claudius
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
Constantine I
Constantinian Christianity
Announcing the Middle Ages
Constantine's Successors Muddle Through
Julian the Apostate

Part II


The House of Valentinian
Population Figures of the Late Empire Period
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

The Rise of Feudalism
Clovis
Theodoric the Ostrogoth
Justinian
Justinian's Campaigns
Avars, Lombards and Slavs on the Move
Heraclius
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
Population in the Dark Ages

Chapter 7: The Viking Era

741 to 1000

Iconoclasm: Act II
Charlemagne
Wessex and the Carolingian States
The Fury of the Northmen
Alfred the Great
The Atlantic Saga
Commerce in the Viking Era
The Church Backslides and Splits
Macedonian Revival
The Caliphate of Cordova
The First Reich and the Recovery of Christendom
A New Beginning

Chapter 8: The High Middle Ages

1000 to 1300

Basil the Bulgar-Slayer
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
Commerce in the High Middle Ages
Population Growth and Medieval Republics
The Plantagenets
Centralization in France
Frederick II, Il Stupor Mundi
The Magna Carta and the First Parliament
The Evolution of Castles
Central Europe's Technological Experiment

Chapter 9: Transition and Turmoil

1300 to 1485

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 Union of Kalmar
The Great Schism
Wycliffe and the Hussites
The Failure of Greenland
The Hundred Years War Resolved
The End of the Byzantine Empire
Burgundy's Bid for Glory
The Wars of the Roses
Showdown in Spain
Renaissance Italy
The Early Renaissance Men
Economics at the End of the Middle Ages

Chapter 10: The Age When Europe Woke Up

1485 to 1618

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 Economics
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
North to the Orient

Chapter 11: The Game of Princes and Politics

1618 to 1772

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
Sweden at its Peak
The Sun King
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

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
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 and Economics at the End of the Revolutionary Era

Chapter 13: The Age of Industry

1815 to 1914

The Congress of Vienna
Cracks in the Metternich System
The July Revolution and the Birth of Belgium
The Rothschilds: Financial Royalty
The German Confederation
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
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 Iron Storm

1914 to 1945

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
Disillusionment at Versailles
The Irish Free State
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 and the Maginot Line
The Blitzkrieg Unleashed
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 15: A New Europe Emerges

1945 to 2000

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
       Albania
       Czechoslovakia
       East Germany
       Hungary
       Poland
       Romania
       Yugoslavia
The Late-Blooming Mediterranean Republics
The Nations That Tried to Buy Happiness
Northern Ireland's Troubles
The End of the Cold War
A United States of Europe?
Eastern Europe in the 1990s
       Albania
       Bulgaria
       The Czech Republic and Slovakia
       Germany
       Hungary
       Poland
       Romania
The Yugoslav War: The Slovenian and Croatian Phases
The Yugoslav War: The Bosnian Phase
The Yugoslav War: The Albanian Phase
Demographics, 1914-2000
Europe Today

© Copyright 2001 Charles Kimball



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