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Ideas of European unity before 1948
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Ideas of European unity before 1948
This article aims to cover ideas of European unity before the formation of the first bodies of what is now European Union in 1948.
Ancient concepts of European unity were generally undemocratic, and founded on domination, like the Empire of Alexander the Great, the Roman Empire, or the Catholic Church controlled by the Pope in Rome. The first major phase of European unification can be traced to the Greco-Roman world.
"Europe" as a cultural sphere is first used during the Carolingian dynasty to encompass the Latin Church (as opposed to Eastern Orthodoxy).[citation needed] The first mention of the concepts of "Europe" and "European" dates back to 754 in the Mozarabic Chronicle. The Chronicle contains the earliest known reference in a Latin text to "Europeans" (europenses), whom it describes as having defeated the Saracens at the battle of Tours in 732.
Italian poet Dante Alighieri proposed an idea of peaceful European union in his De Monarchia (1310s). Because of this, in Italy he is often considered a "European federalist ahead of his time".
Military unions of "Christian European powers" in the medieval and early modern period were directed against Muslim expansion, namely during the Crusades and the Reconquista. A possible early attempt at European unity can be traced back to the Fall of Constantinople to the Turks in 1453; George of Podebrady, a Hussite king of Bohemia, proposed in 1464 a union of Christian states against the Turks.
In the Renaissance, medieval trade flourished in organisations like the Hanseatic League, stretching from English towns like Boston and London, to Frankfurt, Stockholm and Riga. These traders developed the lex mercatoria, spreading basic norms of good faith and fair dealing through their business.
Democratic ideals of integration for international and European nations are as old as the modern nation state.
In 1517, the Protestant Reformation triggered a hundred years of crisis and instability. Martin Luther nailed a list of demands to the church door of Wittenberg, King Henry VIII declared a unilateral split from Rome with the Act of Supremacy 1534, and conflicts flared across the Holy Roman Empire until the Peace of Augsburg 1555 guaranteed each principality the right to its chosen religion (cuius regio, eius religio). This unstable settlement unravelled in the Thirty Years' War (1618–1648), killing around a quarter of the population in central Europe. The Treaty of Westphalia 1648, which brought peace according to a system of international law inspired by Hugo Grotius, is generally acknowledged as the beginning of the nation-state system. Even then, the English Civil War broke out and only ended with the Glorious Revolution of 1688, by Parliament inviting William and Mary from Hannover to the throne, and passing the Bill of Rights 1689.
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Ideas of European unity before 1948
This article aims to cover ideas of European unity before the formation of the first bodies of what is now European Union in 1948.
Ancient concepts of European unity were generally undemocratic, and founded on domination, like the Empire of Alexander the Great, the Roman Empire, or the Catholic Church controlled by the Pope in Rome. The first major phase of European unification can be traced to the Greco-Roman world.
"Europe" as a cultural sphere is first used during the Carolingian dynasty to encompass the Latin Church (as opposed to Eastern Orthodoxy).[citation needed] The first mention of the concepts of "Europe" and "European" dates back to 754 in the Mozarabic Chronicle. The Chronicle contains the earliest known reference in a Latin text to "Europeans" (europenses), whom it describes as having defeated the Saracens at the battle of Tours in 732.
Italian poet Dante Alighieri proposed an idea of peaceful European union in his De Monarchia (1310s). Because of this, in Italy he is often considered a "European federalist ahead of his time".
Military unions of "Christian European powers" in the medieval and early modern period were directed against Muslim expansion, namely during the Crusades and the Reconquista. A possible early attempt at European unity can be traced back to the Fall of Constantinople to the Turks in 1453; George of Podebrady, a Hussite king of Bohemia, proposed in 1464 a union of Christian states against the Turks.
In the Renaissance, medieval trade flourished in organisations like the Hanseatic League, stretching from English towns like Boston and London, to Frankfurt, Stockholm and Riga. These traders developed the lex mercatoria, spreading basic norms of good faith and fair dealing through their business.
Democratic ideals of integration for international and European nations are as old as the modern nation state.
In 1517, the Protestant Reformation triggered a hundred years of crisis and instability. Martin Luther nailed a list of demands to the church door of Wittenberg, King Henry VIII declared a unilateral split from Rome with the Act of Supremacy 1534, and conflicts flared across the Holy Roman Empire until the Peace of Augsburg 1555 guaranteed each principality the right to its chosen religion (cuius regio, eius religio). This unstable settlement unravelled in the Thirty Years' War (1618–1648), killing around a quarter of the population in central Europe. The Treaty of Westphalia 1648, which brought peace according to a system of international law inspired by Hugo Grotius, is generally acknowledged as the beginning of the nation-state system. Even then, the English Civil War broke out and only ended with the Glorious Revolution of 1688, by Parliament inviting William and Mary from Hannover to the throne, and passing the Bill of Rights 1689.
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