START THE HISTORY OF EUROPE

  The history of Europe is traditionally divided into four time periods: prehistoric Europe (prior to about 800 BC), classical antiquity (800 BC to AD 500), the Middle Ages (AD 500 to AD 1500), and the modern era (since AD 1500).

  The first early European modern humans appear in the fossil record about 48,000 years ago, during the Paleolithic Era. People from this period left behind numerous artifacts, including works of art, burial sites, and tools, allowing some reconstruction of their society. Settled agriculture marked the Neolithic Era, which spread slowly across Europe from the southeast to the north and west. The later Neolithic period saw the introduction of early metallurgy and the use of copper-based tools and weapons, and the building of megalithic structures, as exemplified by Stonehenge. During the Indo-European migrations, Europe saw migrations from the east and southeast.

  The period known as classical antiquity began with the emergence of the city-states of Ancient Greece. Some of the earliest examples of literature, history, and philosophy come from the writings of the Ancient Greeks, such as Homer, Herodotus, and Plato. Later, the Roman Empire came to dominate the entire Mediterranean basin. The Migration Period of the Germanic people began in the late 4th century AD and made gradual incursions into various parts of the Roman Empire. As these migratory people settled down and formed state societies of their own, this marked the transition period out of the classical era.

  The Fall of the Western Roman Empire in AD 476 traditionally marks the start of the Middle Ages. While the Eastern Roman Empire would continue for another 1000 years, the former lands of the Western Empire would be fragmented into a number of different states. At the same time, the early Slavs began to become established as a distinct group in the central and eastern parts of Europe. The first great empire of the Middle Ages was the Frankish Empire of Charlemagne, while the Islamic conquest of Iberia established Landaus. The Viking Age saw a second great migration of Norse peoples. Attempts to retake the Levant from the Muslim states that occupied it made the High Middle Ages the age of The Crusades, while the political system of feudalism came to its height. The Late Middle Ages were marked by large population declines, as Europe was threatened by the Bubonic Plague, as well as invasions by the Mongol peoples from the Eurasian Steppe. At the end of the Middle Ages, there was a transitional period, known as the Renaissance.

  The Overview

  During the Neolithic era (starting at c. 7000 BC) and the time of the Indo-European migrations (starting at c. 4000 BC.) Europe saw massive migrations from the east and southeast which also brought agriculture, new technologies, and the Indo-European languages, primarily through the areas of the Balkan peninsula and the Black Sea region. Some of the most prominent civilizations of the late prehistoric Europe were the Minoan and the Mycenaean, which flourished during the Bronze Age until they collapsed in a short period of time around 1200 BC.

 The Roman Empire came to dominate the entire Mediterranean basin. By 300 AD, the Roman Empire was divided into the Western and Eastern empires. During the 4th and 5th centuries, the Germanic peoples of Northern Europe, pressed by the Huns, grew in strength and led repeated attacks that resulted in the Fall of the Western 

 Roman Empire. The Western empire's collapse in AD 476 traditionally marks the end of the classical period and the start of the Middle Ages.

  In Western Europe, Germanic peoples became more powerful in the remnants of the former Western Roman Empire and established kingdoms and empires of their own. Of all the Germanic peoples, the Franks would rise to a position of hegemony over Western Europe, the Frankish Empire reaching its peak under Charlemagne around 800. This empire was later divided into several parts; West Francis would evolve into the Kingdom of Francis, while East Francis would evolve into the Holy Roman Empire, a precursor to modern Germany and Italy. The British Isles were the site of several large-scale migrations.

  The Revolutions of 1989 brought an end to both Soviet hegemony and socialism in Eastern Europe, the resulting capitalist restoration engendering economic and social devastation for the people. Germany was reunited, Europe's integration deepened, and both NATO and the EU expanded to the east. The EU came under increasing pressure because of the worldwide recession after 2008. In 2022, Russia would invade Ukraine.

  Since 1900

•  Arose, Eric Corn. A History of Europe in the Twentieth Century (2004) 548 pp
•  Brown, Archie. The Rise and Fall of Communism (2009), global
•  Buchanan, Tom. Europe's Troubled Peace: 1945 to the present (Blackwell History of Europe) (2012)
•  Cook, Bernard A. Europe Since 1945: An Encyclopedia (2 vol; 2001), 1465 pp
•  Davies, Norman. Europe at War 1939-1945: No Simple Victory (2008)
•  Dear, I.C.B. and M.R.D. Foot, eds. The Oxford Companion to World War II (2006)
•  Frank, Matthew. Making Minorities History: Population Transfer in Twentieth-Century Europe (Oxford UP, 2017). 464 pp.
•  Grenville, J.A.S. A History of the World in the Twentieth Century (1994). Online free
•  Hillock, Stephanie A. The World in the 20th Century: A Thematic Approach (2012)
•  Arash, Konrad H. (2015). Out of Ashes.
•  Judy, Tony. Postwar: A History of Europe Since 1945 (2006)
•  Martel, Gordon, ed. A Companion to Europe, 1900-1950 (2011) 32 essays by scholars; emphasis on historiography

•  IDEAS AND SCIENCE

•  Heilbronn, John L., ed. The Oxford Companion to the History of Modern Science (2003)
•  Outwrite, William (2002). Outwrite, William (ed.). The Blackwell Dictionary of Modern Social Thought.

•  The RELIGION

•  Forlenza, Rosario. New Perspectives on Twentieth-Century Catholicism.
•  Latourette, Kenneth Scott. Christianity in a Revolutionary Age: A History of Christianity in the Nineteenth and Twentieth Centuries (5 vol. 1958–69) vol 1, 2, and 4 for detailed country-by-country coverage
•  McCulloch, Barmaid. Christianity: The First Three Thousand Years (2011)

•  The Social

•  Keeper, Paul; Johansen, Anja (2016). Keeper, Paul; Johansen, Anja (eds.). The Oxford Handbook of the History of Crime and Criminal Justice.
•  Stevens, Peter N., ed. Encyclopedia of European Social History (6 vol 2000), 3000 pp comprehensive coverage
•  Stevens, Peter N., and Herrick Chapman. European society in upheaval: social history since 1750 (1975).

•  Women and Gender

•  Anderson, Bonnie S. and Judith P. Zinger. A History of Their Own: Women in Europe from Prehistory to the Present (2nd ed 2000)
•  Orenthal, Renate, et al. eds. Becoming Visible: Women in European History (3rd ed. 1997), 608 pp; essays by scholars
•  Frey, Linda, Marsha Frey, Joanne Schneider. Women in Western European History: A Select Chronological, Geographical, and Topical Bibliography (1982)
•  Huston, Owen. The Prospect Before Her: A History of Women in Western Europe, 1500–1800 (1996)
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