Topics

History comes to life when you make connections between historical figures, events, countries and cultures. Though interesting in themselves, events in chronological order (read the chronological tables by clicking on the map on the Home page) only become significant when viewed in a broader context. The topics that StudyBuddy has selected for you are:

Religion Dynasties and States War Culture Society Economy Politics

Religion
For some time after the Second World War, organized religion in Europe seemed on the wane. Christianity, especially, suffered from the effects of wartime events. Many could not accept that a God in whose name the gospel of love was being preached would permit the kind of horror that was so common during the war. The decline of religion was not a new phenomenon. Long before the Second World War, industrialization and the socialist struggle for a better life had induced many Europeans to renounce the faith of their parents. However, on the threshold of the Third Millennium it seems that both Christianity and Islam are growing in Europe. Like their ancestors, more and more Europeans are once again hoping to find solace and support in the belief that there is life after death.

Middle Ages (Europe)
During the Middle Ages, people were more exposed to the vicissitudes of nature than the West Europeans of today. Medieval Europeans were often more religious than their modern descendants, though superstition was likely to be just as common as true religiosity. In Western and Southern Europe, people were generally Roman Catholic, in Eastern Europe and the Balkans most were Orthodox. Many people in Spain and Southern Italy were Muslims. Many Jews were to be found in cities and towns all over the continent. Thus, most Europeans believed in the existence of a single God. Pagans were still to be found in the Eastern Baltic and in Finland. The most important religious organization was the Roman Catholic Church. Its head, the Bishop of Rome, generally known as the Pope, had tremendous power and influence. The Pope was regarded as the heir of the early Roman emperors and claimed supreme authority in all religious and political matters.

1880-1919 (Netherlands)
The "schoolstrijd" (schools, or education struggle) was a political conflict between religious and secular parties. The conflict over state subsidies began in the 1850s. The religious parties demanded that all private schools received the same level of state funding as public schools. According to the basic education act of 1878 (introduced by the cabinet under J. Kappeyne van de Coppello) only non-religious private schools received state funding. During the 1880s, the political leader of the Roman Catholics, Herman Schaepman and Dr. Abraham Kuyper, leader of the Calvinist "Anti-Revolutionary Party," forged an alliance. It was their goal to secure government money for private religious schools. The Constitutional revision of 1887 paved the way for the funding of all types of private education. In 1889, the coalition cabinet under Baron Aeneas Mackay that came to power in 1888 introduced legislation for subsidizing all forms of private primary education.

1945-2000 (Germany)
The Nazi dictatorship, with all its terror and cruelty, has had a strong effect upon religion in Germany. Although many Germans (like millions of other Europeans) continued their lives under Nazi rule without asking themselves any moral questions, there were a few who had the courage to act differently. One of them was the protestant theologian Dietrich Bonhoeffer, who was killed in a concentration camp. Among Roman Catholics, such intrepid men and women were to be found as well. After the war, the churches initiated the so-called Vergangenheitsbewältigung (coming to terms with the collective past). In the GDR the (protestant) churches have played a key role in the dismantling of the SED dictatorship and the "Wende", the collapse of communist rule. Just as in the rest of Europe, home to some 15 million Muslims, Islam in Germany is a growing religion. There are now some four million Muslims in Germany, most of them of Turkish origin.

Dynasties and States
Families, or dynasties, that passed on their sovereign rights from father to children (generally sons), ruled many countries in Europe. Such rulers were known by a great variety of names, the highest being king, followed by duke, marquis (or margrave), count (earl in England) and baron. Whoever made a "sensible" marriage could also claim the inheritance of his father-in-law. By a judicious choice of marriage partners, some dynasties managed to acquire quite extensive domains and political influence. The Staufen and Habsburgs in Germany, the Valois, Anjous and Plantagenets in France and the Burgundians in the Low Countries were among the most powerful royal families in Europe. Many lesser noble families were also notably successful, such as the German Nassau family. The power and influence of ruling dynasties was increasingly curtailed by the cities, which were gaining in importance since the 12th century. As cities were becoming key economic centers, local rulers grew increasingly dependent on them for financing their policies by the levying of taxes. In return for taxes, cities demanded participation in political decision making. The political power of dynasties was broken by cataclysmic events, such as the Dutch rebellion in 1568, the "glorious revolution" in England (1688) and the French Revolution of 1789.

1880-1919 (Netherlands)
After the death of her three half-brothers, Princess Wilhelmina became heir apparent to the Dutch throne. When in 1890 her father King William III died, Wihelmina was only 10 years old. Since she was too young to actually carry out royal duties her mother, Queen Emma, acted as regent. While King William had been an ill-tempered, inaccessible man, Queen Emma was likeable and open-minded. She had a way with people. As regent, she was largely responsible for regaining much of the popularity the House of Orange had lost under King William. Queen Wilhelmina was crowned in 1898. In 1901, she married the German Prince Henry of Mecklenburg Schwerin. They had one child, Princess Juliana, born in 1909.

1945-2000 (Germany)
The 1945 German surrender closed a historical cycle that had begun in 1870 with the creation of the Second German Empire. Defeat in the Second World War reduced the German territory to some 360,000 square kilometers (138,000 square miles), half the prewar size but still ten times as big as the Netherlands. The Nazi regime had lost control over the country, large tracts of which had now fallen prey to anarchy. Therefore, the victorious allies, (the U.S., the Soviet Union and Great Britain) established a provisional administration. France was also given a part of Germany to occupy and administer.
In 1949, the actual occupation ended with the creation of two independent German states, the German Federal Republic ("Bundesrepublik Deutschland", BRD) in the West and the German Democratic Republic ("Deutsche Demokratische Republik", DDR) in the East. It was only at the beginning of the 1970s that the two states recognized each other. However, the Federal Republic, which considered itself the "real" Germany, continued to regard the citizens of the GDR as its own. Meanwhile, the GDR was fighting for international diplomatic recognition, which the West only began to grant in the early 1970s. Sports were a favorite instrument for the GDR government to acquire prestige. No amount of money or effort was deemed excessive to help secure gold medals for the GDR. It is sheer irony that, when the GDR had finally earned recognition and seemed internally strong, collapse was imminent. This collapse did not come from within but was caused by the reform process that had been started in the mid-1980s in the Soviet Union.
The Federal Republic was encapsulated in the Western alliance system. In the first place it was tied to the U.S. and its allies through membership in NATO and a number of other international organizations. Secondly, since the early 1960s, it was tied to France and the other member states of the European communities. The Franco-German cooperation (the "axis" Paris-Bonn) was and still is essential for European cooperation. The unification of the two German states in 1990 was only possible after Germany agreed it would exchange its strong national currency for a European one, the Euro. Germany is now a unified state, but securely embedded in a network of alliances that curtails the freedom of action of the national government. For the first time in modern history, there is a German national state to which a majority of Germans (80 million strong) actually belong.

War
War, the solution of conflicts through violence, has traditionally played a crucial role in European history. Though the Pope was generally regarded as the highest international political authority, his intervention was often as ineffective or even harmful as that of the UN today. War was therefore frequent, with much spilling of blood, violence and wanton destruction.

Middle Ages (Europe)
Medieval warfare was generally aimed at destroying enemy property rather than at fighting "decisive" battles. Major battles mostly resulted when the attacked party tried to protect its property. Heavily armored cavalry (knights of noble lineage) were the king of the battlefield. Infantry was mostly made up of peasants or burghers (city dwellers). Hence, the balance of forces on the battlefield during the Middle Ages reflected the social and political relations in the society at large.

1945-2000 (Germany)
Some 4.5 million Germans lost their lives in the Second World War. Nazi Germany was also responsible for the murder of almost 6 million Jews and the deaths of millions of other people in Russia, Poland, the Balkans, Italy, France, Belgium and the Netherlands. The allied bombings of German cities (since 1940) and the heavy fighting on German soil in 1944 and 1945 had resulted in staggering destruction.
Germany's enemies often secretly admired the German soldier's discipline, efficiency and courage in the face of awe-inspiring odds. The victorious allies, especially the U.S. and the Soviet Union quickly adopted many German technical inventions (ballistic missile, cruise missile).
About 1950 the two German states were allowed to rearm, the East as a member of the Warsaw Pact, the West as a member of NATO. German rearmament, so soon after the end of the war, met with strong criticism and objections in both the East and the West. After "reunification" in 1990, German troops were deployed in Somalia, Bosnia and Kosovo, either under UN auspices or under NATO command.

Culture
It is hardly possible to give a good definition of "culture." Nor is it any easier to define what is "European." Certainly, both notions are often abused for obscure political objectives. At any rate, many works of art and science belong to the realm of culture, especially when such works enjoy some permanent value or appreciation.

Middle Ages (Europe)
European medieval culture had strong religious overtones. Most expressions of "high" culture were in some way connected with organized religion, whether Roman Catholic, Orthodox, Jewish or Muslim. Universities always had a church connection, as had most other forms of education. Since churches were often the biggest permanent structures in medieval towns, they doubled as theaters, covered markets and venues for assorted other activities attracting large crowds. The overwhelming majority of people could neither read nor write. Nor was there a lot to be read, since books were quite rare and expensive. The invention and spread of printing (since about 1450) changed all that. Since then, more and more people have been learning how to read and write.

1945-2000 (Germany)
German culture, one of the main elements of European civilization, had seriously suffered from twelve years of Nazism and almost six years of war. After the surrender in May of 1945, cultural life (theater, literature) rather quickly began to recover. For instance, the "Gruppe 47" is well known for its Nobel Prize winning members Heinrich Böll and Günther Grass. Bertolt Brecht and many other leftist intellectuals preferred to settle in the GDR. During the 1970s German cinema earned international acclaim, with directors such as Rainer-Werner Fassbinder, Werner Herzog, Margarethe von Trotta and Wim Wenders. German science recuperated rather quickly as well from the effects of the war. Some twenty (West) German scientists won Nobel Prizes. Universities also returned to normalcy. However, the destruction of many libraries caused serious problems. Many scientific and artistic treasures of incalculable value had been lost forever.
The introduction of television in the 1950s was quite important for cultural life. In the 1980s the German police series Derrick, starring commissioner Derrick and his faithful assistant Harry, enjoyed worldwide success and helped correct a traditionally negative image of Germany. The German music market (once records, now CD's), for being Europe's biggest has enticed many foreign performers, including Americans like Elvis Presley and Britons like Cliff Richard, to record songs in German. German musicians (the Kraftwerk group) have played a key role in the birth of popular electronic music (techno, house and such).
Fifty years after the end of World War Two, unified Germany is again one of the pillars of European culture, alongside France and the United States. The German language has lost its former significance. Before 1945 it was Europe's most important scientific language and the main commercial language of Middle and Eastern Europe. English has now definitively replaced German in these positions. Still, some 95 million Europeans in some ten countries consider German their mother tongue, making German, after Russian, Europe's "biggest" language.

Society
Social relations are per definition unequal and unjust. Over the last two centuries, however, many European states and nations have managed to soften the sharpest edges of social conditions. As a result, for an increasing portion of its members, society has become all the more pleasant.

Middle Ages (Europe)
Medieval society was stratified, with the Church and the nobility at the top of the hierarchy. Foreigners and Jews found themselves at the lowest level, with the burghers and the peasants in between. On the whole, burghers were more important and influential than peasants. Furthermore, medieval society was typical in that the state had no direct relationship with the population. There were no citizens in the modern sense of the word. Everybody belonged to a corporation, a community with an official, legal status. Such a corporation could be anything from a village to a trade guild. The nobility, the church and universities were also corporations. It was not always easy to escape the status to which one was born. Therefore, to us, medieval society seems to have been a rigid one. The Church preached that everyone should be satisfied and happy with his natural status and therefore should not try to escape the situation birth had bestowed upon him. Nevertheless, medieval society was not the immutable structure we make it out to have been.

1880-1919 (Netherlands)
The "sociale kwestie" (social issue) involved employers and capitalists on the one hand, and workers, dependents and assorted underprivileged on the other. The legal rights of workers were still insufficient to guarantee them a decent life and to take care of their families in case of death or injury on the job. The Pierson cabinet (1897-1901) introduced important social security legislation and greatly improved the situation of workers. As long as industrial workers constituted an underprivileged, but growing sector of society, political movements and parties that strove to improve their lot had an important role to play. In the period 1880-1919, socialism grew to become a main political current. Together with Calvinism, Roman Catholicism and Liberalism, Socialism became one of the four major pillars on which a new Dutch society was being constructed.

1945-2000 (Germany)
The Second World War has radically changed German society. More than 12 million "ethnic Germans" (a literal translation of the Nazi term "Volksdeutsche") fled to the West from Eastern Prussia, Poland, Czechoslovakia, Yugoslavia, Hungary and the Baltic States. The break with the distant past was complete. The millions of "Heimatvertriebene" (refugees, literally "those chased from their homeland") have helped to dissolve the old regionalist character of German society. Nevertheless, regional pride is still strong in Bavaria, Hamburg and Bremen, the only regions that have preserved their prewar collective identity.
German society is strongly influenced by the U.S. The continued presence of a big American army has clearly left its mark on the country. However, at the beginning of the 20th century, Germany was already Europe's most modern nation, with rapid economic growth and social change. Like the U.S., Germany had a high percentage of women working in paid jobs outside the home. Like Americans, Germans were deeply fascinated by technology, science and space travel. Thus, even before 1914, Germany was the most "American" nation in Europe.

Economy
Today, Europe is one of the three core areas of the world economy (together with North America and East Asia). Since about 1300 AD, the growth of the European economy has been enormous. Almost all the inventions that make our lives pleasant have been made in Europe. Europe is the cradle of modern agriculture, industry and world trade. Although Europe no longer is the undisputed world leader in innovation, it is still ahead in many fields.

Middle Ages (Europe)
The medieval economy was largely based on agriculture. Most people lived in the countryside and worked the land as peasants or serfs. Work was hard and heavy, though in some areas, horses and oxen (harnessed to pull plows and wagons) helped to make work easier. Industry was concentrated in cities (such as the cities of Flanders, famous for their woolens), or in regions where iron ore and fuel were found in abundance, such as the Valley of the Meuse and Franconia (near Nuremberg). The latter were known for their hardware. Trade and banking were concentrated in the cities of Northern Italy and in some cities North of the Alps, such as Augsburg. Goods and people were moved by ship and over land by wagons or mules. The famous passes in the Alps (Saint Bernard, Saint Gotthard and Brenner) played a key role in the traffic between Northern and Western Europe and the Mediterranean.

1945-2000 (Germany)
In 1945, the German economy was largely destroyed. Factories and machinery in the big industrial areas (Ruhr area, Silesia, Middle Germany and the big cities) had been wiped out by bomb attacks. Many skilled workers serving in the army had died or returned from prison camps only after some years. Millions of foreign workers from all over Europe (many of them no more than slaves) could finally go home. The occupation powers dismantled many remaining factories and shipped the tools and machines out of the country. The Soviets, especially, long continued with this practice.
Towards the end of the 1940s, the economy in the West began to recover. The currency was reformed (the German Mark was introduced), the tax system was adapted and workers were given good secondary conditions, such as a participation in management. With common efforts, the Economic Miracle "Wirtschaftswunder" was thus created. High internal demand and European economic integration (creating a huge market for German products) were crucial factors in the recovery. During the 1960s, the Federal Republic became a rich country that needed to import great numbers of "guest workers" from Mediterranean countries, such as Turkey. Reconstruction in the East was a lot more difficult. During the 1950s, poverty was still widespread and a modest wealth only came to the GDR two decades afterward. The GDR, however, became a rich country by Eastern European standards, especially because of its varied industry, making it the world's tenth industrial nation. Nevertheless, shortly afterward, during the 1980s, the socialist system collapsed.
Unified Germany had to integrate the impoverished GDR at great cost. Therefore, the Treuhandanstalt ("Trust Institute") was created for the privatization of state and collective property. Economic reforms caused a dramatic fall in production. The dismantling of state firms caused widespread unemployment and human suffering. Ten years after unification, however, there are signs that integration is finally succeeding.

Politics
The ground rules for politics are fairly simple. They are fundamentally the same for all ages and all places. One of the requirements for success is never to speak one's mind in public. An important rule is loyalty to the right persons. Another rule is, for instance, "first punish your enemies and then reward your friends, in that order." Politics is synonymous with corruption, though this does not necessarily imply that any money changes hands. Some politicians find it hard to resist the enticement of ideals and commit themselves to realize higher goals with a zeal that may be their undoing. Though the rules of politics are basically simple, there are countless subtle variations according to time and place. Sometimes, mistakes can be fatal and are punished with death, either by execution or by covert assassination. In this respect, modern Europe is still not very different from what it used to be.

Middle Ages (Europe)
Medieval politics were different from modern politics. There were no parties, as we know them. Elections were by no means common. There were elections for office in some cities as well as for the throne (for instance in Germany, Poland and Scandinavia). Suffrage was limited, and mostly, women were excluded. There were no parliaments or representative bodies, as we know them today. Modern parliaments on the basis of effective universal suffrage have only come into existence after 1900. Some countries (such as Castile and England) had parliaments composed of representatives from the three major estates, Church, nobility and burghers. The monarch had to secure their permission for the levying of taxes. These parliaments (called Cortes in Castile) can be regarded as the earliest form of European parliamentary democracy.

1880-1919 (Netherlands)
The "kiesstrijd" (suffrage struggle) was fought over the widening of suffrage within the framework of the constitution. In 1917 universal male suffrage was established and in 1919 it was broadened to include women. By a series of successive enfranchisements (in 1887 and 1896 on the basis of yardsticks of wealth and education), an increasing number of citizens were given the right to vote. From 1880 to the first years of the World War, Dutch foreign policy was strongly oriented towards Germany. The British war against the Boers (1899-1902) contributed to anti-British sentiment. Dutch public opinion identified with the Boers, who were the descendants of Dutch immigrants, who spoke a form of Dutch, and who were devout Calvinists. In view of mounting international tensions after 1900, the Dutch army and navy were strengthened and modernized. However, Dutch defenses were never put to the test, since Germany and Britain essentially left the Netherlands alone during the Great War. Evidently, the policy of scrupulous neutrality the Dutch government had adopted, was a convincing one. The relationship with the Netherlands East Indies was changed after 1901. The government embarked on a new course, the "ethical policy", a kind of development aid within a colonial framework. A modest Indonesian nationalism began to take shape as the first local emancipation movements were organized.

1945-2000 (Germany)
After 1945, the victorious allied powers tried to introduce their own political system in the parts of Germany they were occupying. Thus the Soviet system was introduced in the Soviet occupation Zone "SBZ" (Sowjetische Besatzungszone) in the East, and the Anglo-Saxon two party system in the West. West Germany was given a federal structure inspired by the U.S. and Switzerland but in part also by regionalist tendencies in the vernacular political tradition. The system was based on parliament (Bundestag) and the federal constitutional court (Bundesverfassungsgericht) at Karlsruhe. The prime minister (Bundeskanzler, Federal Chancellor) is appointed by the Bundestag and wields great power. The Germans were loath to introduce a multi-party system such as they had known under the "Weimar Republic" (1918-1933). After 1949, parties that did not acquire at least 5% of the vote did not gain seats in the Bundestag.
Until the 1980s there were in fact two parties: the Socialists (SPD) and the Christian Democrats. The liberal FDP was always needed as a participant in coalition governments and could thus soften the sharper edges of the two leading parties. The Neo Nazis (NPD) never played a significant role. The nationwide Christian Democratic CDU always cooperated with the CSU, the Bavarian Christian Democrats. Since 1954 the Communist Party was proscribed in the West. In the 1980s the Green Party entered the Bundestag, thus breaking the prevailing system. In the GDR, several other parties were allowed to operate alongside the SED (German Socialist Union Party) but only under its supervision. The most important and most significant politicians were the Federal Chancellors Konrad Adenauer (1949-1963), Willy Brandt (1969-1974) and Helmut Kohl (1982-1998), and the GDR leaders Walter Ulbricht (1953-1973) and Erich Honecker (1973-1989).