How are nations built?
What accounts for the rise of the European state?
Why was Europe filled with civil dissension and strife in the early modern period?
This course studies Western and Central Europe in the 16th and 17th centuries, with particular attention to the French Wars of Religion, the Revolt of the Netherlands, the Thirty Years’ War in Germany and Bohemia, the English Civil War, and the Glorious Revolution.
Specific topics include:
- Catholic and Protestant conflict
- political theories of obedience and disobedience
- the transformation of warfare by technology and finance
- international relations and the problems of empire.
You also assess the legacy of new foundations of order in the nation-state.