European balance of power
The European balance of power is a tenet in international relations that no single power should be allowed to achieve hegemony over a substantial part of Europe. During much of the Modern Age, the balance was achieved by having a small number of ever-changing alliances contending for power,[1] which culminated in the World Wars of the early 20th century. By 1945, European-led global dominance and rivalry had ended and the doctrine of European balance of power was replaced by a worldwide balance of power involving the United States and the Soviet Union as the modern superpowers.
History[edit]
Antiquity to Crusades[edit]
The emergence of city-states (poleis) in ancient Greece marks the beginning of classical antiquity. The two most important Greek cities, the Ionian-democratic Athens and the Dorian-aristocratic Sparta, led the successful defense of Greece against the invading Persians from the east, but then clashed against each other for supremacy in the Peloponnesian War. The Kingdom of Macedon took advantage of the following instability and established a single rule over Greece. Desire to form a universal monarchy brought Alexander the Great to annex the entire Persian Empire and begin a hellenization of the Macedonian possessions. At his death in 323 BC, his reign was divided between his successors and several hellenistic kingdoms were formed.[2]
Rome expanded into the whole of Italy around the same period and then rose to prominence in the western and Eastern Mediterranean through the Punic and Macedonian wars, but was then shaken by a century-long political crisis. Meanwhile, the popularity and wealth of Roman generals increased: notably Julius Caesar acquired fame for projecting military power north of the Alps into Gaul, east of the Rhine into Germania and across the English channel into Britain. A group of senators afraid of Caesar's title of dictator for life assassinated him on the Ides of March of 44 BC. The adoptive son of Caesar, Octavian Augustus, defeated the killers of his father and became the first Roman Emperor (Princeps) in 27 BC.[3]
The Roman Empire peaked during the Pax Romana, stagnated during the crisis of the third century AD and ultimately split between the Latin West and the Greek East. Both parts of the Empire abandoned pagan polytheism in order to tolerate monotheistic Christianity and finally make it the state religion. The West collapsed around 476, following centuries of attacks by Germanic and Slavic peoples and several "barbarian" kingdoms were established on its former territory. The East continued to be ruled by the Byzantine Empire for an additional thousand years.
Among the successor kingdoms in the West, that of the Franks was the largest, and under Charlemagne managed to unite most of present-day France, Germany, Switzerland, Austria, the Low Countries and Italy under one rule: he was subsequently crowned Holy Roman Emperor the day of Christmas in 800 by Pope Leo III. Meanwhile, the Iberian peninsula fell under Muslim control. The beginning of the Reconquista of Christian forces is traditionally dated to the Battle of Covadonga (718 or 722), in which an Asturian army achieved the first Christian victory over the forces of the Umayyad Caliphate since the beginning of the military invasion.[4] Its culmination came in 1492 with the fall of the Nasrid kingdom of Granada to the united Spanish Crown of Ferdinand II of Aragon and Isabella I of Castile.[5] The Germanic Emperor (Holy Roman Emperor) and the Roman Pontiff (Pope in Rome) came to be known as the universal powers of Europe, but then entered in conflict during the investiture controversy and the clash between their factions. Their rivalry made possible the birth of autonomous city-states in northern Italy and the rise of an independent feudal monarchy in France under the House of Capet. Around the same period, the Norse was taking place with the Norman conquest of England happening in 1066 and that of Sicily in 1130. With the holy land lost to Islam and the Byzantine Empire seeking help from Turks, the Pope initiated the crusades against Muslims in an attempt to restore Christian unity following the Eastern Schism of the Orthodox from the Catholics.[6]
Most of the crusades did not achieve their objective, but some of them had a massive impact on the political and economic landscape of Europe: the first crusade (1099) re-opened the trade routes in the Mediterranean and ushered the commercial revolution; the fourth crusade (1204) resulted in the formation of the Venetian maritime empire; and the sixth crusade (1228) temporarily made Frederick II, heir of both the Kingdom of Sicily and the Holy Roman Empire, also King of Jerusalem. At the same time, was taking place in the Iberian peninsula and the kingdoms of Portugal, Castile and Aragon were formed. A vast part of the French nobility took part in the crusades under the leadership of their king: this made possible the formation of a strong centralized French monarchy. The rise of medieval France began with the Battle of Bouvines (1224) and the Avignon Papacy (1309) but ended with the outbreak of the Hundred Years' War (1337) with England and the return of the papacy to Rome (1378). After Europe recovered from the Black Death, the goldsmith Johannes Gutenberg invented the movable-type printing press, which started the Printing Revolution. A Renaissance in art and science began in Italy and spread to the rest of the continent.[7]