The Modern State - AP European History

Otto von Bismarck is credited with unifying the various Germanic states into one nation. He was appointed Minister of Prussia by Wilhelm I of Prussia in 1862, and he used that position to wield a great deal of power. One of his most famous tactics was engaging in wars with Austria, France, and Denmark in order to unify the various Germanic states behind a single cause and also to gain some territory. In 1871, von Bismarck's work culminated in the formation of the German Empire with Wilhelm the first as the Emperor and himself as chancellor. He held this post until 1890, when Wilhelm II became displeased with him. He initiated many reforms meant to create a strong unified state and is revered by German nationalists.

The Weimar Constitution of 1919 was intended to replace the German government as ruled by the Kaiser before the end of World War II, and as such featured universal suffrage, wide-ranging checks and balances, and a mix of parliamentary and presidential systems. The wide-ranging, democratic reforms in the Weimar Constitution created a flourishing republic in Germany in the 1920s and the early 1930s; however, the lack of thresholds for Parliamentary representation gave legitimacy to many different ideologies and political parties, while its checks and balances were placed so as to give individuals like the Chancellor and the President expansive powers. These parts of the Weimar Constitution enabled Adolph Hitler and the National Socialists to take power in Germany by 1933.

Queen Elizabeth I of England died in 1603 without any children to succeed her. The issue of succession was one that worried many during Elizabeth’s lifetime, with some assuming that James VI of Scotland, the son of Elizabeth’s cousin, would become king. A lot of people also feared the possibility of war breaking out over the selection of the next monarch, which was extremely likely. Fortunately, many advisers and others within government had anticipated that possibility and contacted James to convey that he should come to England at once upon Elizabeth’s death. When Elizabeth died, James rode quickly to London where he was proclaimed king and became King James I of England, thus uniting the two monarchies. The countries would continue to be separate states until full unification in 1707, but that was only possible through the ascension of James.

The Battle of Bosworth Field took place on August 22, 1485, and ended when the Lancastrian Henry Tudor defeated the Yorkist King Richard III to become King Henry VII of England. This event ended the Wars of the Roses, a century-long civil war that ripped England apart along the rival lines of the Houses of York and Lancaster. Henry took the throne and married the princess Elizabeth of York, which ended the conflict and brought stability to England for the first time in a century.

The Polish Solidarity movement was founded in 1980 and was the first trade union to operate independently of the Soviet Union and the Warsaw Pact. It was wildly popular in Poland in the 1980s and formed the first Polish government after independence from the Soviet Union.

The nations of Western Europe face a significant problem in the twenty-first century because declining birth rates and higher life expectancy have led to an aging population. This will mean that there will soon be a great many more people claiming retirement benefits and not contributing directly to the productive capabilities of the nation than at any other time in European history. Essentially, there may be too few people in the workforce to support the needs of the population.

All of these countries are members of the European Union except for Norway. Norway, although not a participant of the European Union, is a member of the European Economic Area (EEA), which allows Norway to be part of Europe’s single market.

When the Maastricht Treaty was signed in 1991, formally codifying the European Union, it is estimated that illegal immigration into the countries that make up the European Union was less than one-hundred thousand individuals per year. In recent years, by some estimates, more than a million people arrive illegally into the European Union each year. Although the exact numbers are not agreed upon, what is certain is that the number of illegal immigrants arriving in Europe each year has increased dramatically in the last two decades. This presents a significant challenge to the member countries of the European Union in the years to come.

Initiated in 1848, the Peace of Westphalia was made up of treaties that ended the Thirty Years’ War and the Eighty Years’ War. The Peace of Westphalia helped to create the idea of state sovereignty, where individual states could determine their own laws and other states had to respect the right to do this. While this was not always upheld, it was the first time this had really been established in an international setting. Some of the major points involved giving independence to Switzerland, allowing a sovereign ruler to determine the official religion for the state, protecting Christians if the official religion of their state was a different sect of Christianity than the one they practiced, and overall, recognizing the authority leaders have within their own state.

The Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia was created in 1945, and contained Slavic, Balkan nations that had ethnic, religious, and cultural differences. In the late 1980s, these long-simmering problems boiled over, and the constituent nations sought greater autonomy from the Communist government and eventually to declare independence. From there, nationalist parties took over the local governments, with ethnically similar armies fighting wars that often bordered on genocide as the various nations established new boundaries and governments. Fighting continued until 2001, when the Republika Srpska army was fully disbanded.

The Soviet Union’s invasion of Afghanistan in the 1980s contributed directly to the decline of the Soviet Union. The invasion dragged on for much of the decade and may be likened to the American experience of the Vietnam War. The Soviets' failure to win the war cost them dearly in resources and public opinion. The Soviets finally withdrew from the conflict in 1989; the U.S.S.R. would fracture just a few months later.

The Balkans was ruled by the Austrians and then the Ottomans for hundreds of years before the twentieth century. The constant forced migration of people from one area of the Balkans to another and back again, has created a situation in which numerous ethnic groups live amongst one another, each one thinking they have the sole right to claim the territory as their own. The Croats, the Slovenes, the Serbs, the Albanians, and other groups each feel that they have a claim to a territory larger than that which they currently possess. They also feel that the reason they do not have this territory is that it was taken from them by one of the other ethnic groups. As a result, there is longstanding ethnic hatred in some places almost thousands of years old.

While it is certainly true that many women have benefitted from government policies designed to provide educational opportunities to women and that some women have benefitted from the declining influence of religion, the biggest reason why women have made massive strides towards gender equality in the last half-century is the introduction of birth control. Birth control has liberated women in a way previously thought impossible. Women can now control the size of their families, if they will have children, and if so, with whom they will have their children. This has allowed women to plan their lives, educational pursuits, and careers in ways previously only open to men.

All of these countries have a shared common currency called the Euro, except the United Kingdom which retains the pound as its currency. This might be understood as part of Britain’s national understanding of itself as both part of the European continent and also a distinctly separate entity.

In the 1970s, the various Western European countries relied on oil imports from the Middle East for the vast majority of their oil. When the Arab-Israeli War broke out in 1973, many Arab nations began to stop selling oil to European nations who supported Israel, leading to the Oil Embargo of 1973. This greatly damaged the economies of most Western European nations and plunged the continent into a recession.

Following the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991, the Russian Federation was formed from the territory that had once comprised Tsarist Russia. The first President of the Russian Federation was Boris Yeltsin.

The European Court of Justice is located in Luxembourg. It was established in 1952.

The Commonwealth of Independent States was formed in 1991 by Russia, the Ukraine, and Belarus. It has since grown to include countries like Armenia, Azerbaijan, Moldova, and Uzbekistan. It is meant to function as more than simply a symbolic organization, but all the countries within the group are autonomous and rarely act in unison with one another.

Slobodan Milosevic was President of Serbia for much of the 1990s and was eventually indicted by United Nation’s International Tribunal for war crimes committed in the Kosovo War. He was charged with encouraging the forced deportation of ethnic Albanians from Kosovo and the genocidal extermination of at least tens of thousands of other Albanians living in Kosovo. He is also charged with encouraging genocide in Bosnia and Croatia.