The Changes and
Continuity over Time
in Europe
Paul Kondratyev, Anna Kheyfets, Kyle Oleksiuk, Maggie
Gutmann, Eyrna Jones-Heisler, Jared May, and Nadia Saleh
Classical Era (100 CE – 600 CE)
Religion in Rome
• Started pagan, used as an explanation for phenomena and
used as a source of deities to pay tribute to for good fortune.
• Christianity was spread peacefully by Saint Paul, but received
violent backlash as monotheism intersected the belief that the
emperor is divine.
• Emperor Constantine had a vision of “the sign of Christ”,
which invoked him to paint it onto the shields of his soldiers,
which he believed was the leading force of him winning a
battle; this caused Christianity to become more popular.
• Under Theodosius in 380, Christianity became the official
religion in Rome.
Partition of Rome
• The Roman Empire spanned Mediterranean world, and
although powerful, lacked sustainability.
• In order to prevent collapse Diocletian split up the empire.
• The East Roman Empire and the West Roman empire had
separate leaders.
• The Western Roman Empire ironically collapsed under
Romulus Agustulus, which led to the formation of many
countries in Europe.
• The Eastern Roman Empire (along with the city of
Constantinople) thrived and became the Byzantine Empire and
then a thousand years later the Ottoman empire.
Partition of Roman Empire
Collapse of Roman Empire into
the European countries
• The Eastern Roman empire
survived and evolved into the
Byzantine Empire and later
the Ottoman Empire.
• This was due to strong
internal stability and
Justinian’s code of laws.
• The West Roman empire
lacked this kind of stability
and collapsed into the
multitude of countries in
Europe.
Regional and Transregional
Interactions (600 CE – 1450 CE)
Interregional trade in Europe
• From 600 – 1450 interregional trade flourished, improving
conditions for the wealthy, whilst Christianity spread.
• Up until the 11th century, trade was minimal, as the manors
were self-sufficient.
• The iron industry, which was fairly large by the 11th century,
fueled trade between different regions.
• In the 1200’s annual trade fairs were held, and many cities
grew due to trade and the manufacture of goods.
• In the mid 1300’s the Black Plague rapidly reduced the
population, causing an urban revival.
Results of Interregional Trade
• New technologies began being available, such as the
harvesting of wind and water energy.
• Social mobility allowed due to cities.
• Crusades inspired by Religion took place, but ended with new
trade routes.
• The cultural contact due to the crusades spread many ideas
and caused changes in thought.
• Christianity continued to grow, and by the 1450’s the
Renaissance began, a cultural and philosophical movement
began, utilizing religious symbols.
Political changes and continuities
in Western Europe
• Western Roman Empire was very destabilized, causing the
creation of the Carolingian empire, and then the Holy Roman
Empire.
• During Charlemagne’s rule of the Carolingian empire, the
empire included most of Western Europe, excluding the British
Isles and Spain.
• Charlemagne’s empire was then broken up between his
grandsons.
• Meanwhile, the invasion of William of Normandy into England
led to his establishment of a long-lasting hierarchical feudal
system that served the king
Political changes and continuities
in Eastern Europe
• The Eastern Roman Empire remained stabilized until it’s
interaction with the neighboring Muslim peoples.
• The Eastern Roman Empire began fracturing, until it was
sacked by the crusaders of the Fourth Crusade, which led to
the creation of the Ottoman empire.
• In Northeastern Europe there was very little political structure
during the first millennium.
• The Varangians led the rise of Kievan Russia, which was an
organization of the Slavs.
• The later Mongol invasion of Kievan Russia destroyed existing
power structures, decentralizing power away from cities, and
in its wake allowed for the formation of Russian autocracy, as
well as rise of the states of Lithuania and Serbia.
Cultural and Intellectual
changes(1450 CE – 1700 CE)
Cultural and Intellectual
• Religion was replaced with Science and people began
questioning their societies.
• More education for the people, and more rights for women,
such as being able to work and no longer being forced into
marriage.
• Poor remained poor, many risked starvation and were unable
to do anything about this.
• Scientific Revolution bred thinkers like Nicholas Copernicus
and Galileo Galilei, as well as inventions like the printing press
which was able to spread these ideas.
• Bourgeoisie promoted education by building schools.
Religion in Western Europe
(1450 – Present)
• Driving force for unity of Europe beyond individual nations.
• Catholic Church and Pope worked to benefit themselves,
dictated lives of people.
• In 1517, Martin Luther nailed his 95 Theses to the doors of
churches to state his qualms with the Catholic Church and
their selling of indulgences(guarantee to go to Heaven)
• Printing press helped spread the 95 Theses.
• People who followed him were the Lutherans.
• Anti-Semitism grew, as Jews were the ones who killed Jesus.
• Anti-Semitism changed how people treated each other and it
fueled many events like the Spanish Inquisition, the Holocaust
and the Dreyus Affair.
Religion in Eastern Europe
(1450 – Present)
• In Russia the Church influenced culture and politics, the
Romanovs encouraged loyalty to the Church until they were
overthrown by the provisional government and the Bolsheviks.
• The Bolsheviks, being communist, were also Atheists, so they
banned and persecuted Religion.
• Religion came back during the fall of Communism in the Soviet
Union , as religion is also what supported the fall.
• Although there was the holocaust, Anti-Semitism decreased as
Theodore Herzl, who led a Zionist movement called for the
Jewish state of Israel, which was established a few years after
the Holocaust.
Industrialization (1750 CE –
1900 CE)
European Growth
• Increased trade, improved communication and transportation.
• The food revolution led to high population growth and
urbanization.
• Movement to cities cause the invention of many new
technologies to get work done faster and cheaper.
• Inventions include the spinning jenny and the flying shuttle.
• The invention of the steam engine combined with railroad
systems led to the rapid growth of trade.
• Telegraph invented by Samuel Morse led to easier and faster
communication.
Setbacks
• Work force shrunk because less workers were hired.
• Gap between the rich and poor grew.
• The peasants were so dispensable that they began to be
mistreated by the rich factory owners. They worked long
hours, for little pay, in horrid conditions. The Factory Act of
1833, set standards for some conditions for the workers.
• In 1789, the French Revolution against absolutism took place
by the bourgeoisie who wanted more free capitalism.
However, Napoleon ended up taking over, and continued
industrializing, but the poor were still stepped on.
Yields of Industrialization
• Industrialization spread throughout Europe, and more
factories began to pop up in cities.
• New ideologies began to be formed with the growing
proletariat class in a society revolving around the economy.
• Adam Smith’s idea of capitalism and laissez-faire turned into
socialism and Marxism.
• Marx and Engels created socialism because of how awful the
upper class was treating the lower class. They believed that
the proletariat workers would take over and push the
bourgeoisie out of their power.
Nationalism and Global Change
Nationalism in Eastern Europe
• The rise of nationalism in Eastern Europe unified people who
shared ethnicity, religious beliefs, language, and heritage.
• Once nationalism rose in the Ottoman empire, the Ottoman
empire began being destabilized.
• In 1815, 39 states created the German Confederation, which
was controlled by the Austrian empire.
• In 1866, Otto von Bismarck, under Prussian ruler, King
Wilhelm, went to war with the Austrians (Seven Weeks War)
and then with the French (Franco-Prussian war) in 1871 to
gain the German states and unite all the German speaking
people.
• In 1915, the Young Turks murdered hundreds of Armenians,
because they were revolting to become independent and this
became known as the Armenian Genocide.
Nationalism in Eastern Europe
cont.
• In 1914 the Archduke Franz Ferdinand of Austria was killed by
a Serb, which resulted in the first World War.
• Nationalism brought rise to the Fascist party in 1933 in
Germany, who held the belief that they were the “Aryan
Master Race” and needed to find living space.
• This ideology led to Hitler’s rise to power and the second
world war, with an emphasis on anti-Semitism.
• The Russian empire which was comprised of many different
ethnicities was united under the USSR by Vladimir Lenin.
• In the 1980’s nationalist movements rose in the USSR, which is
what ultimately led to the collapse of the Soviet Union.
Global trade and Eastern Europe
• Up until the rise of the Soviet Union, Eastern Europe lagged
behind Western Europe, and this led to the rise Marxism
which heavily affected Eastern Europe and its trade.
• In the 1920’s the Soviet Union, under Joseph Stalin,
industrialized in a very short period of time, due to Stalin’s
Five Year Plans, which doubles the output of industry, whilst
quintupling the output of electricity.
• The Soviet Union was therefore able to industrialize faster
than any other nation that came before it.
• Due to it’s growth the Soviet Union exported much more than
it imported, maintaining self-sufficiency.
Global trade and Western Europe
• The Industrial Revolution led to the replacement of manual
labor by machines.
• Production rates grew faster than they were able to supply
raw materials for, which led to imperialism.
• Western European countries would imperialize regions like
India and Africa, from whom they would buy goods to resell to
their colonies. This led to very large profit for the Imperialists.
• Revolution resulted, and Western European countries were
forced to free their colonies after World War II.
• Trade again began to rise post-war as the European Union
forced cooperation between the western European countries,
and the technology made available by the time period (e.g.
automobiles, trains, planes, cargo ships) allowed trade to
flourish on a grand scale
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<http://ancienthistory.about.com/od/fallofrome/a/Dorrington
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Sources:
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