Essay Examples - European Studies Essays
A shared history unites Europeans. In most other ways they are divided. How would you evaluate this statement?
The following will evaluate whether Europeans are only united by a shared history or which factors unite or divide them. As will be outlined a shared history has frequently divided Europeans as much as it has united them.
Europeans are or have been divided in most other ways yet diversity is not always the same as being divided. There will be an evaluation of the factors that could have made a shared history more a divisive factor than a unifying factor amongst Europeans. As will clearly be shown not all the history of the Europeans has been shared which can explain much of the cultural, linguistic, political and economic differences between Europeans.
There is certainly plenty of shared history between Europeans with most of it more likely to cause division rather than unity especially before the start of the European integration process. A shared history could be regarded as having started with some share ancestors. Europe has been subject to waves of immigration and invasions, with immigrants and invaders increasing the diversities amongst the Europeans (Roberts, 1996, p. 12). Such groups of immigrants, settlers and invaders have included the Celts, the Franks, Goths and the Huns. Even in the present day the areas were immigrants were most successful is reflected in the name of European countries and regions.
For example France derives its name from the Franks, England derives its name from the Angles whilst Hungary derives its name from the Huns and the Magyars. Many of these tribes and peoples had strong links with other Europeans as well as differences (Roberts, 1996, pp. 75-76). Much of Europe has at some point being subject to invasions whether from other Europeans or from groups that were originally from beyond Europe. These periods of immigrations and invasions have made a contribution both to the factors that unite Europeans and those that divide them. For instance the Celtic culture and traditions have remained stronger in Ireland, Scotland and Wales because they survived or avoided invasions better than England and France did (McCormick, 2002, p. 30).
The long stability of the Roman Empire meant that many Europeans have a shared history and cultural heritage reflected in Latin based languages, the remnants of Roman law and the Christian religion. The Roman Empire demonstrated that that large Empires could dominate continents with a single currency, a common language for administration and good internal communications and transport systems. However the fall of the Western half of the Roman Empire demonstrated that any integration process can be soon reversed if internal divisions and external enemies are not dealt with.
Despite the collapse of the Western Roman Empire the spread of Christianity in both its Roman Catholic and Eastern Orthodox forms meant that it become the common religion of the majority of Europeans eventually. The spread of Christianity brought Greek and Roman influences to parts of Europe and their peoples that had never been part of the Roman Empire such as present day Romania, Bulgaria and Russia (Cameron, 1993, pp. 190-91).
Although many Europeans shared and nominally continue to share Christianity as their religion that caused divisions between the Roman Catholics and the Orthodox parts of the church. Religious divisions were later intensified with the split of the Protestants away from the Roman Catholic Church. Religious differences have caused much bloodshed whilst causing some of the main differences between Eastern and Western Europeans. Not all Europeans were Christians there were also Jews and Muslims that faced varying degrees of acceptance ranging from indifference to fierce persecution (Bideleux and Jeffries, 1998, p.18).
Another feature that meant Europeans had a shared history was that some nations had spent many centuries as parts of multinational empires either as ruling nations or as subject nations. The three main empires that covered large areas of Europe as recently as the start of the 20th century were the Ottoman Turkish Empire, the Habsburg Empire and the vast Russian Empire. The Ottoman Empire included the Balkans; they made the already complex ethnic, religious and national differences already there by introducing Islam into the region.
That increased the tensions by adding the potential conflict between Christians and Muslims to the rivalry between Roman Catholic and Orthodox Christians. That rivalry had greatly assisted the rise of the Ottoman Empire that at one stage almost took Vienna. The Ottoman Empire had taken over all the territories formerly belonging to the Byzantine Empire in Europe and the Middle East and beyond until the European powers hit back.
Turkish processions in the Middle East were threatened by Britain and France whilst Russia and the Habsburgs took away parts of the Empire or supported independence for Greece, Romania and Bulgaria amongst others. The decline of Ottoman power in Europe contributed to the instability that would give the Europeans one of the worst shared experiences of their shared history, the First World War (Roberts, 1996,p.440).
As for the Balkans the long periods of Byzantine and Ottoman rule followed by the creation of Yugoslavia mostly contained ethnic conflict until the 1990s. However those conflicts were never far from the surface and there had been vicious fighting between the Serbs and Croats during the Second World War (Bideleux and Jeffries 1998, p. 40). Russia and Austria had empires also split along ethnic, national and religious lines.
They and other smaller nations such as Serbia were disagreed over how to divide the remains of the Ottoman Empire amongst them. The First World War was fatal to all three of these empires, not even been allied to the might of Germany could save the Ottomans and the Habsburgs whilst the British and French were unable to prevent Tsarist Russia disintegrating under revolutionary convulsions. The collapse of these empires led to the creation of new states such as Czechoslovakia, Yugoslavia and the re-emergence of Poland.
The complete break up of the Tsarist Empire was prevented by the emergence of the Soviet Union although the Baltic States and Finland did manage to gain their independence. Until its demise in 1991 the Soviet Union divided Europeans into those that lived under communist control and those that lived under capitalism if not democracy (Breuilly, 1998, pp. 124-25).
There were times after the end of the Roman Empire when attempts were made to unite large parts of Europe and large numbers of Europeans. Charlemagne managed to establish the Holy Roman Empire but it was a shadow of the original Roman Empire (McCormick, 2002, p.32).
However, for most of their history Europeans have been divided amongst themselves. Different languages, different cultures and national rivalries divided Europeans. War and alliances are an al too frequent occurrence in the relationships between Europeans. At times wars seemed endemic in Europe and as countries gained overseas empires some of those conflicts were fought on a global scale. Those conflicts were often caused by religious, dynastic, territorial and ideological differences (McCormick, 2002, p.33). There was for example the long struggle between France and the Habsburgs over Italy and the traditional animosity between England and France that had started in the 13th century and did not end until the beginning of the 20th century. England and later Britain were always keen on maintaining a balance of power (Roberts, 1996, p.257).
The differences between Western and Central and Eastern Europeans was increased as a result of the Reformation, Counter Reformation and the Thirty Years War (1618-48). The Thirty Years War was the most devastating war to affect Europeans until the 20th century. Different rates of economic and cultural development tended to increase the divide between East and West (Bideleux & Jeffries, 1998, p.280). Economic and political differences have certainly divided Europeans with one conflict often providing the basis for further conflicts. For Instance Britain and France fought wars against each other several times during the 18th century although the British usually had to have European allies to have a chance of winning those conflicts.
The French Revolution led to further wars in Europe but with a greater ideological conflict. Napoleon at one point controlled much of Europe. His legacy included giving many Europeans a common legal system and a brief period of unified rule and common economic area. That France failed to dominate Europe indefinitely was down to British naval and financial might that bankrolled her Prussian, Russian and Austrian allies. However, it was the rivalry between France and Prussia later Germany that would prove disastrous for Europe as a whole (Roberts, 1996, p.316).
Aside from the Crimean War there was no major European war between 1815 and 1914. However international peace was threatened with France's resentment of Germany after defeat in the Franco -Prussian war of 1870-71. The culture of both countries was excessively militaristic increasing the chances of war (Breuilly, 1998, p.10).
The destructiveness of the divisions between the Europeans during their shared history reached their most awful peak with the First World War and the Second World War. The First World War was set off by a series of events that as already mentioned changed Europe dramatically and made inter-war Europe unstable. That instability left Europe prone to further conflict that some Europeans hoped would never happen whilst others wanted war to settle old scores. It was cataclysmic consequences of Second World War that provided the impetus for the process of European integration (Nugent, 2003, pp.5-6).
Europeans were split between a communist East and a capitalist West. Integration was seen as a necessary step on both side of the CW divide. In the West, integration was regarded as vital to economic reconstruction as a method of reconciling France and Germany. And the French saw it as a means of preventing the re-emergence of German threat. Steps to integration in the West included the military alliance NATO and the EEC that grew out of the European Coal and Steel Community. In the East the Warsaw Pact and COMECON were less successful rivals. The Communist regimes of the east were propped up by the Soviet Army and its actual or threatened use to crush opposition (Nugent, 2003, p.14).
The EEC had the profound effect of bringing France and West Germany into a closer, friendly relationship rather than as bitter enemies. The greater prosperity that membership seemed to entail made the EEC more attractive to join with the first enlargement of 1973 seeing Britain, Ireland and Denmark joining. The EEC could act as a catalyst for political and sometimes economic changes. For instance Spain, Portugal and Greece were not allowed to join until their military dictatorships had ended (McCormick, 2002, p. 40).
As the EEC turned into the EU its expansion increased its diversity and made it harder to govern as an institution. There are two main directions that the EU can develop in, it can be a Europe of Nations as advocated by Charles de Gaulle or Margaret Thatcher or it can become a federal state. The adoption of the single market and a single currency have given it the appearance of been a supranational state although it has been very difficult to develop a common defence and foreign policies as witnessed by the disagreements about involvement in Iraq. Some cultures have seemed to less inclined to support integration such as the British and the Danes whilst the Norwegians have twice voted against joining the EU (Nugent, 2003, p.19).
Europeans have seen some profound changes during the post war period, which have tended to bring them closer together. There was the end of the threat of war between France and Germany. Societies changed dramatically with the emergence of new social movements such as the anti-nuclear weapons and feminist movements. The arrival of immigrants from former colonies changed the nature and culture of Britain, France, Belgium and the Netherlands as well as in other countries like Germany that did not have colonies. The internal diversities of these countries increased just as their common links with their neighbours increased (McCormick, 2003, p. 41).
In Central and Eastern Europe its people (in theory if not always in practice) gained their freedom with the collapse of their communist regimes and the Soviet Union. This brought democracy and capitalism to the region and increased the things they nominally shared in common with Western Europeans. Not all the changes of the 1989-91 period were good, some brought conflict to parts of the former Soviet Union and former Yugoslavia. Nationalism played an important part in these events that reunited Germany and split up Yugoslavia, the Soviet Union and Czechoslovakia (Bideleux and Jeffries, 1998, p.639). The existence of the EU does seem to improve the chances of greater co-operation between Europeans. Whilst other changes such as the Internet and even package tours allow Europeans to understand more about each other, the things they share and the differences they can appreciate (McCormick, 2002, p. 41).
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Therefore a shared history has played a part in uniting Europeans although it was also responsible for the differences and diversity between them. However the factors that have started to unify Europeans are only recent and should not be regarded as being complete. A shared history had previously done more to divide them than to unite them. Many Europeans share common or linked heritages although their shared roots had often led to a diversity of languages, cultures and nationalities. The rivalry between the Great Powers led to ruinous wars between many Europeans especially the Thirty Years War, the Napoleonic Wars, the First World War, and the Second World War.
The Second World War resulted in severe disruption, damage and heavy human losses for most parts of Europe and its division between east and West. In fact the disastrous consequences of the Second World War provided the incentive for attempts to build unity between Europeans rather than animosity. The Cold War meant that the main attempts to do so were confined to the West until the collapse of communism in the East. The tricky part of unifying Europeans was and remains finding the right balance between moving towards unity whilst preserving national and diversities. That is however better than Europeans causing further global conflicts for the sake of historical feuds and rivalries. Europeans are perhaps learning that acceptance of cultural diversity and common interests are essential for a better future.
Bibliography
Bideleux R and Jeffries I (1998) A History of Eastern Europe - Crisis and Change, Routledge, London
Breuilly J (1998) Nationalism and the State 2nd edition, Manchester University Press, Manchester
Cameron A (1993) The Later Roman Empire AD 284 - 430, Fontana Press, London
McCormick J (2002) Understanding the European Union - A Concise Introduction 2nd edition Palgrave, Basingstoke
Nugent N (2003) The Government and Politics of the European Union 5th edition, Palgrave, London
Roberts, J.M (1996)- A History of Europe, Penguin, London
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