History At Our House

HistoryAtOurHouse European History Curriculum Summary

June 23rd, 2009 by mrpowell2

The Rise of Europe

Our first important theme this year will be the rise of Europe.  It is the rise of a new culture out of the ashes of the Roman Empire, so we will begin by recapping the story of the fall of Rome.  It will be very important for us to look at the conflicts in Rome between its traditional beliefs and the rising presence of a religion based on the teachings of Jesus.  Some Roman Emperors, such as Diocletian, saw the rise of this new religion as a grave threat and suppressed it.  Others, such as Constantine, embraced it.  Gradually, the Roman gods gave way to the system of one Christian god, and Christianity became a part of the Roman Empire’s identity.  Then it survived as the dominant remnant of Roman culture that Europe’s barbarians would adopt after Rome’s fall.

But before “Christendom” could arise, the Europeans within and without the dying Empire would have to work together to deflect the terrifying invasion of the Mongolian warrior-king, Attila the Hun.  Attila’s nomadic warriors would almost destroy Europe before it began.  However, his defeat paved the way for a new culture to form.

This culture was led by the Franks, a Germanic people who would repel the invasion of yet another wave of would-be conquerors, this time the followers of Mohammed, c.732.  The Muslims were forced to settle on the conquest of Spain (which they held in part until 1492), while the Christian Franks would go on to forge a vast new Europe, under their leader Charlemagne.

The Frankish Empire was barely formed, when it began to fall apart.  The Dark Ages were destined to continue with the ever-present threat of the Vikings disrupting the nascent European order for centuries.  Slowly, the great nations that would eventually dominate the map were formed.  In the constant war that was life in these terrible times these embryonic nations were dominated by great lords, who controlled their land by virtue of military might.  The common people were forced to seek refuge with these strong men and to trade their freedom for protection, becoming near slaves, or “serfs.”  Feudalism, the social system that would characterize Europe during the Middle Ages, was born.

Europe during the Middle Ages

Gradually, kings came to dominate the lords themselves, and a delicate order was maintained within each nation between rulers, the nobility, and the people.  France, England, and the Holy Roman Empire (Germany) emerged from this context, each with its own relative balance of power within the government.  Each had a distinct national culture.  Each was also connected in some crucial way to the other dominant institution in European life: the Catholic Church.  The popes in Rome established their own system of power in the name of their spiritual code, at times even controlling the most powerful monarchs.  This power enabled the popes to launch religious crusades to try to reclaim the Holy Land from the Muslims—a project that would continually drain Europe’s energies during the 12th and 13th centuries.  The “Reconquista” (reconquest) of Spain and the Hundred Years’ War (between France and England) also deeply affectedthe medieval mind during this time. However, even more momentous changes in the European world were to come!

In 1415, the Portuguese, led by Prince Henry “the Navigator,” initiated the “Age of Discovery,” by beginning a gradual expansion into and around Africa.  This was followed by the discovery of America by Columbus in 1492, and the circumnavigation of the world by Magellan and del Cano in 1522. Within the span of a century, an entirely new world was opened up.  European culture began to spread throughout the globe. Colonialism and contest for empire, however, merely exacerbated Europe’s internal strife.

While the great expansion of Western culture was underway, its religious framework suffered a massive upheaval during the Reformation, starting in 1517.  Martin Luther in Germany, Henry VIII in England, and John Calvin in Switzerland, each enacted major disruptions in the Catholic system of beliefs and its state-supported infrastructure.  The result was a period of religious wars that combined with the ongoing international conflicts spawned by the major powers’ imperial designs.

Although religious strife gradually faded into the background, and European culture became increasingly secular, this shift did  not signal the  end of  European wars.  As if to announce a new era of bloodshed, Louis XIV of France, the “Sun King,” attempted to extend his power over the rest of Europe, starting in 1689.  Each of the absolutist monarchs of this time claimed a “divine right” to power and attempted to redraw the map of Europe.  The cost of their wars, however, would be measured in more than just money.

Louis’s great-great grandchild, Louis XVI would be the first continental monarch to learn of a rising tide against monarchy, let loose in part by the formation of a new republic across the Atlantic.  In 1789, the French Revolution would begin a stage of European risings culminating in a broad overthrow of the old Europe by 1871.  Before its end,  the  revolutionary period would see  the rise and fall of Napoleon, and the reactionary system of Austrian prince Metternich. Each scarred the cultural landscape with his  own brand of  repression,  and the  result  was  a  great revolt against the established way of life that had made Europe what it was for the greater part of its history.

Modern Europe

Democracy replaced monarchy. The new Europe was governed by its people.  But the will of the people itself became oppressive under the influence of new political outlooks, such as the Communism of Karl Marx, and the national socialism of Bismarck, Kaiser Wilhelm II, and later Adolph Hitler.  The history of Europe as it traversed the “long twentieth century” would be its greatest ordeal.  First Germany, unified in 1871, would begin a program of aggressive imperialism in retribution for French domination during the Napoleonic period.  The Franco-Prussian War was but the first step towards World War I.  This massive conflict signaled the emergence of America as a military arbiter in Europe’s affairs.

To complicate matters, further, the sleeping giant on Europe’s eastern frontier, Russia, traded its oppressive monarchy for an even more tyrannical regime in the Russian Revolution of 1917.

Soon American military might would be brought to bear a second time, as Germany refused to accept its assigned place in the new political order of Europe, and the freer Western nations were nearly overrun.  Communist Russia was locked in an intractable struggle with Nazi Germany until America’s involvement tipped the scales.  Europe then struggled to come to grips with the atrocities of Nazism, and its confidence as a civilization was shattered.  It retreated into a submissive role as two new powers emerged to vie for supremacy: the United States and the Soviet Union.

Europe could hardly find solace in its new, secondary role.  Its very identity was cleft in two by an “iron curtain.”  The Cold War made the prospect of total destruction terrifyingly real, as the two superpowers aimed their arsenals across the fields once trampled by Attila’s cavalry, sowed by Europe’s serfs, and contested time and again by its various rulers.  A torturous evolution over 1500 years, all too well known by Europe’s leaders, had brought them to a impasse.  The age-old model of the “balance of power” spoke to them no more.  The new European idea required the adoption of a common vision.

The new ideal of its leaders, that of a “European Union,” remains a work in progress.  It represents the latest model for a cultural continent that has moved the world, and which hopes to guide its progress once again.  The unfolding story of Europe—a rich pageantry of growth and conflict culminating in this latest era—will be the focus of our intellectual adventure this year!

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Registration for the HistoryAtOurHouse European History program for 2009-10 (including live classes for students at every level) will be open from August 1-7.  Ancient and American history are also available this year. See the registration page for details.  For exclusive advanced registration, and other important registration notices, please join the HistoryAtOurHouse mailing list.

Posted in Homeschooling Curriculum, History, History for High School Students, Homeschooling, European History, Secular homeschooling, History At Our House, History Curriculum

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