Begin your understanding of Europe as not only a place but as an evolving laboratory of <em>ideas</em>. Learn how these ideas—whether adopted, transformed, or the source of opposing tensions—continue to animate human life not only in Europe, but throughout much of the world.
Gain a firm foundation for understanding the medieval world with this introduction to feudalism. Learn how the need for protection and justice became paramount concerns with the disappearance of Roman rule and the absence of a central authority's ability to impose rules and order.
Plunge more deeply into the medieval world by grounding yourself in its three components: the "first estate" of the clergy, the second of the nobility, and the third of everyone else—the vast majority of whom provided all of society's labor.
See how insufficient coinage and localized allegiances made the organization of agriculture the economic foundation of most of the continent. This lecture explores life on the manor and prepares you for the transition from feudalism triggered by the growth of towns and the emergence of money.
Many forces coalesced to ultimately doom feudalism. Learn how factors as seemingly disparate as the Crusades, the collapse of two great banking houses, and the Black Death helped redefine the balance of power and pave the way for a new era of great cities and their influence.
Empowered by the enormous wealth generated by the Crusades, a powerful merchant class made Italian city-states increasingly independent of the feudal barons who ruled the countryside. Learn how the merchant class's need for a different kind of ideology led to the cultivation of humanism and a breathtaking cultural movement.
A detailed examination of both the Babylonian captivity and the Great Schism brings the forces dividing the church into sharp focus, preparing you for a firm grasp of the causes and impact of the Reformation that was to follow.
A discussion of the lives and writings of both Erasmus and Thomas More—and the importance of Gutenberg's new moveable type to making their thoughts widely available—highlight this exploration of the ideas that needed to take root before that Reformation could become reality.
Follow the aggressive expansion of the Ottoman Empire, with many Europeans reacting in terror at the transformation of the Mediterranean into a "Turkish lake." Learn how fear of both the Turks and Islam drove the later voyages of discovery to expand not only Europe's influence but also that of Christianity.
Learn why, with the collapse of the Italian trading monopolies and the dangers of sailing Turkish waters, Europe was forced to seek new trading routes and different opportunities for expansion. In the new world, especially, expansion meant conquest, and the gold sent back home shifted the balance of European power.
A discussion of Luther's teachings offers insight into the full context—not only theological, but political and social—in which his religious rebellion took place. You grasp how it opened the door for further protests against not only the Catholic Church, but Lutheranism itself.
The breaching of Catholicism's walls allowed new voices of change to emerge. This lecture focuses on two of them, the Swiss priest and Christian humanist scholar Ulrich Zwingli, and the French lawyer John Calvin. See how the reforms advocated by each would have devastating consequences.
The Roman church sought to address the challenges posed by Protestantism. But its reexamination largely rejected Protestant demands, and the founding of the Jesuit order revealed a new zeal in preserving orthodoxy. This lecture examines the permanent rending of European Christianity and the terrible violence that resulted.
Discover how, while the continental Reformation and wars of religion fragmented the continent, England embarked on its own reformation. England's, however, was driven by the intricacies of royal succession, which in the fullness of time would breed the seeds of England's own religious wars.
Explore the different forces—religious, political, and personal—that doomed the reign of Charles I. Those forces drove England into a cycle of civil war, repression, and royal restoration that would ultimately produce a nation very different from the one Charles had first ruled.
Gain a new understanding of the causes and results of the most terrible of the internal religious wars that ravaged Europe in the 16th and 17th centuries. After these conflicts, during which religious causes were ultimately superseded by dynastic, political, and strategic concerns, Europe stood transformed.
This lecture offers fresh insights into the idea of absolutism, beginning with the theory as set forth by Thomas Hobbes and concluding with an examination of absolutism in practice—the France of advisers like Richelieu, Mazarin, and Colbert and their monarchs, Louis XIII and Louis XIV.
The Scientific Revolution provided a way for extending knowledge and discovering truth without reliance on the church. Focusing on the thought of Bacon, Descartes, Galileo, Newton, and Locke, this lecture places the Scientific Revolution in context with the religious revolutions already studied, as well as the subsequent intellectual and political revolutions it made possible.
Deepen your grasp of two of the Enlightenment's most influential voices, Voltaire and Montesquieu. Although French, they were deeply influenced by their observations of England. Written in the lingua franca, their work—especially Voltaire's—was vital in spreading the ideas of thinkers like Newton, Locke, and Bacon.
Continue your exploration of the French Enlightenment with Denis Diderot's <em>Encyclopédie</em> and the impact of Jean-Jacques Rousseau. Rousseau's upturning of the ideas of Hobbes and Locke would, a decade after his death, make him in many ways the ideologue of the French Revolution.
A deep look at each of France's three estates in 1789 sets the stage for understanding the revolution that would follow. Ironically, the active beginnings of that violence would happen at the same time as many of the reforms demanded were being put into place.
Although the early policies of the revolutionary government reflected a commitment to measured and reasonable steps, they were soon overtaken by violence. This lecture traces the creation of a radical republic and the revolution's descent into the period known as the Reign of Terror.
Gain an appreciation of the extraordinary accomplishments of the minor Corsican noble and artillery officer who became a military hero, self-crowned emperor of the French people, and architect of enduring societal change in not only France, but all of Europe.
Learn how, after the downfall of Napoleon, the leading powers convened to award compensation, arrange a balance of power, and, above all, restore deposed monarchies. But the allies understood—their victory notwithstanding—that there were still Napoleonic reforms that could never be undone.
The French Revolution had altered the face of Europe forever. Yet the consequences of the Industrial Revolution were even greater. This lecture reveals the many agricultural, social, technical, and economic forces that came together, especially in England, to forge one of the transformative events of European history.
Just as the Industrial Revolution was altering the shape of England's economy, so, too, was it altering the lives of the working-class laborers who were powering it. You examine not only those often-miserable lives, but the many factors that worked against any easing of that misery.
Follow along as the Industrial Revolution forced the development of new credit and banking systems and remade the face of capitalism. But even as a changing society created a swelling middle class, pressures on the working poor increased, with little solace offered by religious and societal structures that blamed them for their own plight.
As the middle class grew, so did its self-awareness, especially in England and France, where it had a powerful political and economic influence. Learn how that self-awareness expressed itself, particularly through the presentation of one's home and inherent values and the class identification of one's clothing.
Enjoy a detailed exploration of liberalism and its defining principles, focusing first on the work of John Stuart Mill and then on the core tenets of the liberal movement as set forth by L. T. Hobhouse in his classic <em>Liberalism</em>.
This lecture explores the translation of liberal principles into liberal policies. Examine the different paths the transformation took in England, under the leadership of figures like Disraeli, Bright, and Gladstone, and in France. There, Napoleon's nephew, Louis Napoleon, instituted progressive change, first as president and then as Emperor Napoleon III.
The 19th century reinforced the Enlightenment idea of <em>progress</em>, with the world now envisioning change not as a means of restoring what had been lost, but of moving forward. Learn how science, exemplified by men like Comte, Pasteur, and Koch, led the way.
Grasp the full impact of science, technology, and liberal concepts of social responsibility as you see the lives of Europeans—even the poor—become progressively better. But even as the wealth of nations increased, so, too, did the competition among them, precipitating a headlong rush toward imperialism and empire.
Another driving factor of the 19th century—one that would ultimately lead to the Great War—was nationalism, the belief that people of similar backgrounds and traditions should rule themselves. Explore how this force, sometimes combined with powerful cultural movements like pan-slavism, kindled mid-century revolution throughout Europe.
Europe's 19th-century nationalist movements unleashed powerful programs of self-determination. The two discussed in this lecture created new states linked by language, culture, and ethnicity. One, however, emerges as a great power; the other as weak but ambitious, with its national mission still incomplete.
If political and social progress had posed a fundamental challenge to the foundations of European thought, the challenge posed by Charles Darwin was no less than seismic. Explore the ideas that would come to define European thought as either pre- or post-Darwin.
Darwin's theory opened a Pandora's box of social, political, and racial attitudes among Europeans, who applied it to situations it was never meant to describe. Grasp how it was misused to justify imperialism, brutality, lack of social concern, and, ultimately, Europe's darkest hour.
Explore some of the pre-Marxian images of Socialism, including the imposed equality of Francois Babeuf, the terrorist urgings of Louis-Auguste Blanqui, and three very different visions of utopianism as set forth by the Count Henri de Saint Simon, Charles Fourier, and Robert Owen.
Enjoy an intimate look into Karl Marx's world and gain new insight into his difficult personality. Learn how he developed his theory of "scientific Socialism" and observe his involvement—and constant dissatisfaction—with those who attempted to achieve in practical terms what they believed his ideas to be.
The Enlightenment had promoted the application of reason to the problems of society, but the belief that reason and science would point the way to progress was far from universal. Gain fresh perspective on the opposing view through examples drawn from science, literature, and music.
Grasp the situation in Europe as it makes the turn into a century that would soon explode into unprecedented violence. Reviews of the situation in Britain, France, Germany, and the Habsburg Austrian Empire reveal a continent fearful of what might come, but unprepared to do anything to prevent it.
Understand the Great War by an appraisal of its nearly incomprehensible impact. By war's end, at least 15 million of the 70 million who had taken up arms had been killed, and the European continent had been changed more profoundly than by any event since the Black Death.
Determined to impose total defeat on Germany and her allies, Britain, France, and the United States ignored the lessons of the Congress of Vienna. The terms they dictated set into motion forces none could imagine, missing any opportunity for a workable peace.
Explore the chaos that descended on Germany as the war was lost, peace terms were imposed, and order and the economy collapsed. Learn how the tensions and violence that overran Germany set the stage for the rise of a young Army corporal named Adolf Hitler.
A review of Russia's history during the 19th century sets the stage for enhanced understanding of Russia's role in World War I and its subsequent vulnerability to takeover by the Bolsheviks—first led by Vladimir Lenin and then by his successor, Josef Stalin.
An examination of post-unification Italian history explains why Fascism arose in what would seem to be a country ill-suited for it. You also learn why its embrace of Fascism was led by a man who had begun public life at the opposite end of the political spectrum, a radical Socialist journalist named Benito Mussolini.
Find new insights into why the Nazis were able to gain power. In addition to viewing Nazism from the perspective of a perversion of many themes examined in the course, the lecture also addresses the question of why a sophisticated people could allow it to happen.
Europe between the wars was hardly a celebration of democracy. A look at life in its various states reveals not only the dark forces affecting the vanquished, but also how many on the victorious side had come to believe that the sacrifices of WWI might have been in vain.
The course comes to a close with an examination of how each of the major forces discussed has left its mark on Europe's nations, and how those forces will shape the Europe still to come.