Gordon Kerr - A Short History of Europe: From Charlemagne to the Treaty of Europe

What is Europe? Firstly, of course, it is a continent made up of countless disparate peoples, races and nations, and governed by different ideas, philosophies, religions and attitudes. Nonetheless, it has a common thread of history running through it, stitching the lands and peoples of its past and present together into one fabric. This narrative is welded together by the continents great institutions, such as the Church of Rome, the Holy Roman Empire, the European Union, individual monarchies, trade organisations and social movements. At times they have prevented anarchy from destroying the achievements of the many great men and women the continent has produced. At other times, of course, it is these very institutions that have been at the heart of the war and strife that have threatened to reduce Europe to ruin on numerous occasions.

Europe, however, is also an idea. From almost the beginning of time, men have harboured aspirations to make this vast territory one. The Romans came close and a few centuries later, the foundations for a great European state were laid with the creation of the Holy Roman Empire - an empire different to any other in that it enjoyed the approval of God, through the Church in Rome. Napoleon overreached himself in attempting to create a European-wide Empire - as did Adolf Hitler. Now, however, Europe is as close as it ever has been to being one entity. The European Union is an ever-expanding club of which everyone in Europe wants to be a member, although, as the recent rejection of the European Constitution by the French and the Dutch, demonstrates, we Europeans still cling to our national independence.

Gordon Kerr is a writer and editor who has worked in bookselling, publishing, journalism and the wine trade.

In memory of

William Kerr

Helen Kerr

and Dennis Baker

I grew up in Europe, where the history comes from

Eddie Izzard

Charlemagne: Father of Europe; Invaders: Vikings, Magyars and Ottoman Turks; The Byzantine Empire; Western Europe: The Tenth and Eleventh Centuries; Religion; Feudalism; Feeding a Growing Population; Church Reform and the Investiture Dispute

The Crusades; Kings and Kingdoms; Gothic Art; Heresies and Social Unrest; The Black Death

From Crisis to Renaissance in the Fourteenth and Fifteenth Centuries; From Feudalism to the Modern State; The Western Schism; The Renaissance; The High Renaissance; The Age of Discovery; Charles V

Religious Revolt; The Counter-Reformation; The Wars of Religion; The Thirty Years War; Absolute Monarchs; Louis XIV and French Expansionism; Great Britains Two Revolutions; Baroque Culture and Science

The Age of Enlightenment; Thinkers of the Enlightenment; Enlightened Despots; The War of the Austrian Succession; Revolutions: America and France; Napoleon Bonaparte; The Congress of Vienna

Europe in 1800; Revolution and Rebellion; A New Europe; A Shift in Population; The Industrial Revolution; Changing Politics

Imperialism; The First World War; The Russian Revolution; The Treaty of Versailles: Redrawing the Map of Europe; Nationality and Conciliation; Hitler, Mussolini and the Rise of Dictatorships; Nazi Germany; The Second World War

Post-War Europe; Decolonisation; Eastern Europe; A Common Market; The Birth of the European Union; The West Prospers and the East Stagnates; A New Attitude; The 1970s: Economic Chaos and Social Unrest; The European Union: Expansion; Coming in from the Cold: The Fall of the Berlin Wall; The Balkans Erupt; Europe in the Twenty-First Century

What is Europe?

Firstly, of course, it is a continent. A continent made up of countless disparate peoples, races and countries. A continent of different ideas, philosophies, religions and attitudes and just as each individual country is many things and not one, so, too, is the continent of Europe.

Nonetheless, it has a common thread of history that runs through it, stitching the lands of its past and present together into one fabric. Great institutions such as the Church of Rome, the Holy Roman Empire, the individual monarchies, trade organisations and social movements that have existed during its history have welded it together and sometimes prevented anarchy from destroying the achievements of the many great men and women that Europe has produced. At other times, of course, these very institutions have been at the heart of the war and strife that have threatened to reduce the continent of Europe to ruin. The wars of the twentieth century, for instance, founded on imperial aspiration and national and racial prejudice, left a continent ravaged by death, its inhabitants horrified by mans potential for evil.

Perhaps Europe is also an attitude, a quest for improvement and achievement. From the countries of the continent, ships sailed on great voyages of discovery, opening up the world for exploration and settlement. Alongside the terrible exploitation that often accompanied the ensuing imperialism, much that was good was also achieved and the world became a bigger place. In the fields of science and the arts, Europe and Europeans have been at the heart of innovation, creativity and discovery. Great Europeans such as Copernicus, Newton, Leonardo and Shakespeare have illuminated the worlds learning and enhanced the lives of everyone on the planet.

If Europe is the sum of its disparate parts, it is also the culmination of millennia of history. But it was as it emerged from the Dark Ages that it began to become the entity we know now. Charlemagne took the first steps on the road and, within a few decades of his death, the great powers of the continent began to form when the Treaty of Verdun was signed in 843. By this treaty, the three sons of Louis the Pious, who had succeeded Charlemagne in 814, divided the Carolingian Empire between them. For the first time, the kingdom of France became a distinct state (known as West Francia) with Charles the Bald as monarch; Lothair became king of Middle Francia, comprising the Low Countries, Lorraine, Alsace, Burgundy, Provence and the kingdom of Italy; East Francia, now Germany and other regions to the east, was to be ruled by Louis the German.

Perhaps above all, however, Europe is an idea. From almost the beginning of its recorded history, men have harboured aspirations to make this vast territory one. The Romans came close and, eight centuries later, Charlemagne laid the foundations for a great European state when he brought into being the Holy Roman Empire an empire different to any other in that, through the Church in Rome, it enjoyed the approval of God. In later attempts, Napoleon overreached himself, as did Adolf Hitler.

Today Europe is as close as it ever has been to the dream of unity. The European Union, begun as a common market of six countries in 1957 with the signing of the Treaty of Rome, is an ever-expanding club which every state in Europe wants to join. The new nations of the east, risen from the ashes of communism and eager to share in the wealth of the continent, are especially anxious to become members.

As Europe moves painfully ever closer to a greater degree of union, it is a good time to examine the events, people and thinking that have brought it to this point.