The decline of the Roman Empire can be thought to have begun when an influx of Goths from central Europe crossed the River Danube and decisively defeated and greatly weakened the Romans’ eastern army at the Battle of Adrianople in 378. In 402 the western empire’s administration was moved from... More
For many Roman citizens the end of the empire was by no means disastrous. While the towns and infrastructure were battle-scarred and derelict, relative peace returned to the land, and it was possible to withdraw to estates, villas and farms and live a prosperous and comfortable life. In many areas... More
The disintegration of Rome in the 5th century was epitomized by the exploits of Ricimer, a Sueve from northern Spain who gained command of the Roman armies in the 450s. He organized the assassination (usually in grisly fashion) of four successive Roman emperors, before expiring of a haemorrhage in 472.... More
World War II began in September 1939 with the German invasion of Poland but, despite a declaration of war against Germany by Britain and France, neither country launched any significant land-based military operations against the German occupation. This period was known as the Phoney War due to Allied inaction despite... More
Given the scale of World War I, the prospects of the Treaty of Versailles achieving any durable resolution were remote. The impact on eastern Europe was especially drastic. The Treaty massively reduced the spheres of influence of two empires, German and Russian, and effected the dissolution of two more, Austria-Hungary... More
The largest and wealthiest cities in the Europe at the millennium were Muslim Cordoba and Byzantine Constantinople. The embryonic nation states of France and England were precarious, threatened by powerful neighbours. Repeatedly invaded by the Danes under the weak rule of Ethelred the Unready (r. 979–1016), England would then be... More
Although in early 1812 Napoleon Bonaparte, French military commander and emperor, had annexed most of continental Europe, he was on the brink of disaster. Britain, whom he dismissed as a ‘nation of shopkeepers’, continued to fight Napoleon and paid European coalition members to field armies against him. Napoleon, determined to... More
In 1992, Francis Fukuyama argued in The End of History and the Last Man that Western liberal democracy had become, in effect, the capstone of human socio-political evolution. Europe in 2000 ought perhaps to be Exhibit A for this thesis. The rapid collapse of communism in eastern Europe (1989–91), culminated... More
The French victory at Castillon (1453) ended the Hundred Years’ War, leaving the defeated English with just the port of Calais as a toehold on the European mainland. In the same year, the long Byzantine resistance to the Ottomans was finally ended with the capture of Constantinople by Sultan Mehmet... More
In 1789 the French Revolution began. Not only did it have profound and lasting effects on the political future of France, it began a series of drastic changes in the systems of power and alliances across Europe. From the initial fighting within France, revolutionary ideas permeated across the border and... More
The elective monarchies of central Europe appeared increasingly quaint when set against the ruthless Realpolitik of ‘enlightened’ despots such as Catherine the Great of Russia, and Frederick the Great of Prussia. Poland was partitioned out of existence (1772–95), while the millennium-long survival of the Holy Roman Empire and the Venetian... More
The Congress of Vienna convened to re-map post-Napoleonic Europe and prevent the rebuilding of a strong France. By February 1815, delegates from the European great powers and several other European countries had, through heated compromises, created a new map of Europe. Amongst other provisions, Russia retained most of the Napoleonic... More