The Development of European Civilization

Begin your understanding of Europe as not only a place but as an evolving laboratory of ideas. 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 Encyclopédie 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.