Introduction to European History

Why is European history so important? How has Europe had such a global influence on today's world? The region that gave rise to democracy, western Christendom, and world wars, is now on the forefront of globalization. Understanding her past will give us insight into the present.

Migrating northwest from the Middle East came the ancient Europeans, descendents of Japeth. Although the Minoans and Mycenaeans had lived in Greece for a thousand years, it was not until about 1000 B.C. that the Greek civilization developed. Because the Greeks made great advances in metallurgy, writing, art, and politics, they were to become the model for future civilizations. Greek city-states were an early form of a republic whose ideals inspired the democracies of today. Athenians, Spartans, and a capricious pantheon of gods (made in the image of man) still influence politics and religion.

During the reign of Alexander the Great, much of the known world was conquered and hellenized. Hellenization was a movement of Greek ideals, language, and culture that helped paved the way for the rise of the Roman Empire and for Christ's coming, "in the fullness of time," (Gal. 4:4).

Rome began as a city that was under the rule of a people known as the Etruscans. About 500 B.C. though, they broke away and formed the Roman Republic. From here Rome increased its territories and power. Yet, great as the Roman Republic became, the sins of its leaders no longer allowed the function of a republic. Civil War tore the land apart and continued to do so until Julius Caesar marched in from Gaul and took control of the government. He implemented a series of reforms which changed the Roman Republic into the Roman Empire.

Julius Caesar himself was assassinated in 47 B.C. just two years after becoming emperor. After a brief power struggle, his grand-nephew Octavian (later to become Augustus Caesar) took the throne and restored order. He went on to become one of the greatest Roman emperors and it was he who ordered the census which is mentioned in Luke Chapter 2. [This census was important because it led to fulfilled prophecy. It had been prophesied that the Messiah of the Jewish people would be born in the town of Bethlehem. The census forced Joseph and his wife Mary to go to the town of Bethlehem to register. There Mary gave birth to Jesus Christ, whose disciples would turn the world upside down (Acts 17:6), starting with Israel and then Europe.] After Christ's death, resurrection and ascension, Christianity spread partly due to Roman persecution and transportation.

The Roman Empire itself continued to prosper and expand its borders for a couple hundred years until it covered most of Europe. It became difficult for Rome to control and defend their vast outer provinces from barbarians who in turn were fleeing the Mongol hoard. Eventually it broke into two countries in 395 AD. The Western Roman Empire, whose capital was in Rome, and the Eastern Roman Empire whose capital was in Constantinople. This arrangement worked until Germanic tribes slowly took over Northeastern parts of the Empire and on into Rome by 476. Some say Rome fell from within due to a lack of will to defend what had already been lost. The Eastern Roman Empire went on to become the Byzantine Empire and flourished for several centuries as they preserved early Christian writings.

After Constantine recognized Christianity in 313 AD, the power of the church expanded in influence and corruption. By the fifth century Eastern Orthodox Christians supported a pope who claimed supremacy over both religious and political institutions. However, the churches of the former Western Empire believed that their Pope was the supreme authority and proved it by excommunicating the Eastern Pope. By 1054 the churches split into the Roman Catholic Church and the Greek Orthodox Church. Another problem arose in 1309 when the Western papacy fled to Avignon, France where it stayed until 1377. During this period, known as the, "Babylonian Captivity" there were two popes, one in Avignon and one in Rome.

The fall of Rome ushered in the Middle Ages. The Germanic tribes that came in and conquered were less civilized than their Roman predecessors and as a result learning regressed for a time. What had been one big empire was now divided up into small states occupied by different tribes such as the Franks, Angles, Saxons, Goths, and Jutes. This combination of events is what brought on the Middle, or Dark Ages.

The system of feudalism became the main system of government for all of Europe. The feudal system basically consisted of a Lord who lived in a large manor surrounded by a large portion of land. He rented out this property to serfs who farmed the land and paid taxes to the Lord in return for the use of the land and protection in the event of a war. Serfs also had to pay for the use of the grain mill and other necessities. During the early years of this system each Lord held his own piece of land and did not hold allegiance to higher authority. Eventually, these small estates were consolidated into kingdoms ruled by a king.

This transition was marked by urbanization. People began to move into cities protected by fortresses and as these cities grew, the lifestyle of the people changed. Metropolises such as London and Paris formed, pulling Europe out of the Dark Ages. When the Black Plague arrived from Asian trade routes, it easily spread in these crowded and polluted cities to wipe out over a quarter of Europe's population from 1347-1351. The plague brought disillusionment against the Church and forced economic and social dislocation from the feudal system.

The next period, the Renaissance, began in fourteenth century Italy but took another 200 years to move into Northern Europe. The Renaissance is so called because it was widely thought to be a "rebirth" of culture and learning that had been dormant during the Middle Ages. But in fact, there had been learning during the Middle Ages as people turned spiritually inward rather than apply themselves to the pursuit of the arts and commerce. The commercial accumulation of non-governmental investment capitalism sponsored exploration, trade and colonialism.

The trade routes spurred colonization by nations such as the England, France, Spain, and other countries. After Columbus discovered the New World for Spain, nations rush to strengthen their colonies in Africa, Australia, and the Americas. Another great change of this era was the Age of Discovery. During this age Christians like Galileo, and Sir Isaac Newton made great discoveries in the area of science. Interestingly enough men like Galileo were persecuted for their new ideas because they went against what the Catholic church had adopted from Aristotle. Nevertheless their ideas would become the foundation of modern science.

The Renaissance denounced Roman Catholic authority as an abomination toward Man's will. The corrupt authority of the papacy was denounced by the Reformation as an abomination toward God's will.

Christians who knew the scriptures, like John Hess, began to expose the immoral corruption of the Catholic Church. This culminated in 1517 when a German named Martin Luther published his 95 theses opposing the practices of the Catholic Church. Despite life threatening controversy, Luther defended his claims and the Reformation was born. Gutenberg's printing presses help spread the reformation by placing Bibles into the hands of the laity despite Rome's prohibitions.

From the 1215 signing of the Magna Carta, the shift of power from a monarch to the people ruling themselves, slowly began to spread through Europe, though it took longer to catch on in some countries. A good example of the power sharing between a monarch and the people is England during the Elizabethan era from 1558-1603. Queen Elizabeth promoted Protestantism, art, and instituted many reforms through Parliament. During her reign European power shifted to England after the defeat of the Spanish Armada in 1588.

The religious wars which followed the Reformation laid a deeper mistrust of organized religion. Philosophers such as Rouseau (1712 - 1778), led to the overthrough of Roman Catholicism in the French Revolution. Ideas promoted by Darwin (1809-1882) and Marx (1818-1883) led to the rise of nationalism in an increasingly post-Christian Europe.

The Industrial Revolution, which began in England during the 18th century, was marked by increasing urbanization and the drastic repositioning of human workers with factory machines. Factories fed on the raw materials produced in European colonies. While the rich grew richer, many of the "huddled masses" from Europe immigrated to the freedom and sweat factories of the United States furthering that country's rise to power.

A series of complex events led up to the assassination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand of Austria and his wife in Sarajevo. This caused Austria to declare war on Serbia. Russia came to Serbia's aid and Germany, who had been looking for such an opportunity to expand its borders, joined on the side of Austria. Soon the whole continent, and areas of European colonization, was involved in a tangle of alliances. The United States rose to become a world power in its actions against Germany. This conflict lasted from 1914-1918 and at its termination, the Treaty of Versailles was signed. Blaming the war on Germany, the treaty forced them to pay a large monetary compensation. Unable to afford these reparations due to the ravages of war, the treaty indirectly led to Hitler's rise and WWII.

Not to be overlooked during this time are the events that were taking place in Russia. The people, unhappy with WWI and the state of the country revolted and by October of 1917 the Bolsheviks, preaching the ideology of Karl Marx, and led by Vladimir Lenin, took control of the country. Their aim was to provide a government in which everyone would work for the common good. This atheistic experiment resulted in the deaths of over 90 million Russians. [Communism infected other governments who refused to acknowledge God and led to the devastation of China, Vietnam, Laos, and others.]

Adolf Hitler took advantage Germany's heavy war reparations and loss of national pride, to promote his National Socialist, or Nazi, that by 1933, Hitler was named Chancellor. He transferred Germany hatred of the Treaty of Versailles onto capitalists, communists, and Jews. By 1939 the Nazis controlled almost every institution in Germany. With the appeasement from European powers, Germany pushed into Austria, Czechoslovakia, the Rhineland, and Poland. Finally, on September 3rd , Great Britain and France declared war on Germany. Japan awakened the "sleeping giant" on December 7, 1941 with the attack on Pearl Harbor. Once again, war brought death to millions of persons. Germany surrendered shortly after Hitler's suicide. Predictably, Japan had no intention of surrender until after the U.S. dropped the atom bomb on Hiroshima and Nagasaki. The US helped rebuild Japan from her constitution up, and Europe through the generous Marshal Plan. The world wide devastation left the United States and the Soviet Union to contend for supremacy during the "Cold War" of the next forty-five years.

The Cold War was fought with covert threats, spies, ideologies, and by influencing smaller nations. Both countries built up huge nuclear arsenals and were constantly threatening each other. Though the superpowers did not fight directly, they used countries such as Korea and Vietnam to wage war against the other's ideology. Communism is based on the false humanist idea that we are all basically good and will work for the good of each other without acknowledging our Creator. Widespread death and disillusionment led to the collapse of Communism in the USSR by the early 1990s.

The task of recovering from this was monumental. Countries that had been behind the Iron Curtain were decades behind predominately Christian nations. Countries such as Hungary, The Czech Republic, and Poland have come a long way and the standard of living is much higher than it was. Yet countries such as Ukraine, Albania, and Russia itself are in shambles on account of poor leadership, enormous social problems, and corruption. Within this moral void, Moldova has even returned to communism like a sick dog to its vomit. During Communism in Russia, 70,000 churches were reduced to only 7,000. It is no wonder that the hopeless in Eastern Europe see no immediate results from the new democracies and ponder whether the darkness of communism might be better.

The Balkan conflict arose from centuries of strife between the ethnic and religious desires the Croats, Serbs and Bosnians. After Slobodan Milosevic came to power in 1990 the Croats and Slovenians seceded from Yugoslavia. Brief fighting followed this, but in the end the new nations were formed. The same thing happened to Macedonia and Bosnia but in both cases there was continued strife between racial and religious groups.

The major development of the past decade has been the increasing power of the European Union. The enticements of being an economic power block with the potential to rival the United States has led to a single currency and a single set of guidelines for its member's laws. As the EU sets a model precedent for globalization and the blurring of national boundaries, countries such as Hungary, Slovenia, Poland, and The Czech Republic continue to recover from the madness of communism in preparation to join the Union. Economic ties continue to be strenthened by default of Nationalism to maintain peace. Political institutions, such as the United Nations, continue to lose power to economic institutions such as the World Bank.

We see in the antiquities of European history events that continue to influence the world to this present day. These political trends have a spiritual core. The revival of Humanism first among the ancient Greeks, and again during the Renaissance, still deceives many in an evolutionary believe of a "New Age". The corrupting of the Christian gospel by Roman Catholicism, and the Protestant Reformation that sought a return to Biblical theology, has now set the stage for a one world religion as the pendulum of ecumenicalism swings back to blur distinctive lines. European events such as the Fall of Rome, the Crusades, Colonization, the Industrial Revolution, Nationalism-Imperialism, and the World Wars have been permitted by the Creator for His own ultimate glory and those who He will call his own. This is the worldview of history in Biblical perspective.

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