Constructing Europe: History, Culture and Politics (111121066Y)
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Universiteit Van Amsterdam (UvA)
A summary of all the lectures that took place for the course Constructing Europe: History, Culture and Politics. There were 12 lectures in total. The test was to write an essay answering a question about the readings.
Constructing Europe: History, Culture and Politics (111121066Y)
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, 11 september 2023
Lecture 1: introduction: Europe as a political and cultural concept
Europe – “aber wo liegt es?” (Quotes. From the 19th century, from the nation • progress and imperialism – 19th century —> Because of the technology and the
making century) progress that was meant for Europeans. European progress meant exploitation
“Fatta l’italia, bison a fare gli Italiani” in another third country. We are making a more green Europe but we should
• Europe —> many languages —> stand for identification?? —> learning the look at what that means for the other side of the world.
language of a country is important to integrate into the country • aggressive nationalism – 1848
• It is not naturally possible to get a nation that speaks only one language. • “normative power” – 21st century —> normative power against the hard power.
• Europe is a big nation with different language and a lot of diversity Europe couldn’t call itself a soft power, there is a middle ground to say you
are not a military power, you’re not hard power, but you’re a normative power
Where are the European borders? Where does Europe end and Asia begin? Where that focuses more on political ways instead of army power.
should the European borders be? Europeans were quite naïve before the
Ukrainian war. Europe – etymology
• Tripartite view – the division of the world in three distinct continent
“Nothing is inevitable” • Asia, Africa, Europe
“History teaches us lessons, but wether we are willing to learn them depends on • 5th c. BC – Herodotus, Histories
us” —> History does not repeat itself, there are patterns and similarities but • “… no one has ever determined whether or not there is a sea either to the east
history never repeats itself. or to the north of Europe. All we know is that it is equal to Asia and Lybia
(Africa) combined. Another thing that puzzles me is why three distinct women’s
What is Europe? names should have been given to what is really a single landmass … Nor have I
“United in diversity.” —> different countries, languages,cultures, political views been able to learn who it was that first marked the boundaries or where they
• a term with a long history; got the names from.”
• geography – a continent; —> it’s not a continent,because it’s on the
same continent as Asia. But ideally it’s a continent. Oldest maps – T & O maps
• idea – a cultural unit with its own values and cultural conventions; • Isidore of Seville (ca. 560-636) – Etymologiae
• Political unit – European Union; balance of power on the continent; • Isidor-Codex. Saint Gall Monastic Library, Switzerland (late 7th century)
• usually identified with: —> Europe is more than the European Union, it’s • The sea was an incredible important part of the world at that time.
richer, wider and more interesting • Jerusalem was seen as the centre of the world. Jerusalem was in the middle.
• Liberty —> freedom of speech, freedom of being who you want to be People started to compare the variety of the languages to Hebrew. It was the
• Christendom sender of the world, languages were related to Jerusalem and Hebrew.
• Civilisation —> Europe is a civilisation, it is the supreme civilisation • Though Humans are one species, why do we speak different languages
that led to European colonialism • France is “the only” country that doesn’t recognise any differences from the
official language. They refuse to recognise different dialects. Everyone is
Historical layers of the term Europe French.
• Eurocentrism —> a set of assumptions about the superiority of European • Monoculterism —> there is only one language, example: “People in Spain
ways of knowing and doing. speak Spanish”
• The idea of Europe —> historian as archeologist of ideas and cultural • The linguistic border in Europe is not the same as the political border in
assumptions about the name Europe.
• Europe has been associated with: (all the ideas merge with each other)
• political freedom – ancient Greece, 5th century BC “the Greek ideas T&O maps or Noachide maps (Noah and his sons)
against the Asian ideas. Greek was democratic and free. There was the • Shem – Asia
idea that Europe was better than Asia because there was freedom in • Cham – Africa
Europe.” • Japheth – Europe
• Christendom – 15th century (Reconquista) —> “Europe is superior to
other continents because it was a Christian continent. Europe was free
and Christian.” Origins of languages 1
• civilisation – 18th century Enlightenment (The tower of Babel – confusion of tongues) The Book of Genesis 11:1-11:9
• And they said, Go to, let us build us a city and a tower, whose top [may reach]
unto heaven; and let us make us a name, lest we be scattered abroad upon the
face of the whole earth.
,• And the LORD came down to see the city and the tower, which the children of
men builded.
• And the LORD said, Behold, the people [is] one, and they have all one
language; and this they begin to do: and now nothing will be restrained from
them, which they have imagined to do.
• Go to, let us go down, and there confound their language, that they may not Protestant Northern Europe uses
understand one another's speech. “Gothic” / “black letter”
• So the LORD scattered them abroad from thence upon the face of all the FAMILY TREE
earth: and they left off to build the city. INDO-EUROPEAN SLAVIC ROMANCE
• Sanskrit, Iranian, Western: • [Latin]
On origins of languages 2 (Most common story to explain racism) Tokharic, Hittite... • Polish • French
(Noah - great flood) Genesis chapter 10 • Slavic • Czech • Italian and its variants
1. Now these are the generations of the sons of Noah, Shem, Ham, and Japheth: • Germanic • Slovak • Spanish
and unto them were sons born after the flood. • Celtic • Portuguese
2. The sons of Japheth; Gomer, and Magog, and Madai, and Javan, and Tubal, • Romanic Eastern: • Romanian
and Meshech, and Tiras. • Russian • Catalan
3. And the sons of Gomer; Ashkenaz, and Riphath, and Togarmah. CELTIC • Ukrainian • Galician
4. And the sons of Javan; Elishah, and Tarshish, Kittim, and Dodanim. • [Gaulish] • Belarusian • Sardinian/Corsican
5. By these were the isles of the Gentiles divided in their lands; every one after • Welsh • Walloon, Rhaeto-
his tongue, after their families, in their nations. • Breton Southern: romansh
6. And the sons of Ham; Cush, and Mizraim, and Phut, and Canaan. • Irish Gaelic Slovenian • Vlach/Arumanian
7. And the sons of Cush; Seba, and Havilah, and Sabtah, and Raamah, and • Scots Galic Croatian
Sabtecha: and the sons of Raamah; Sheba, and Dedan. Serbian OTHERS
Etc.: 72 lineages are enumerated GERMANIC Bulgarian Indo-European
Nordic Macedonian • Greek
Alphabets • Swedish • Albanian
The alphabets of the languages are mostly chosen out of political • Danish • Lithuanian/Latvian
motivations • Icelandic • Roma/Sinti
• Latin (Western) – Catholic Europe • “Norwegian”
• Greek and Cyrillic – Orthodox Europe used for Greek and for some Non-Indo-Europees
Slavic languages Western • [Hebrew]
• Arabic – Islam (North Africa, Iberian emirates, Ottoman Empire) • English • Turkish
• Hebrew – Jewish world (both Hebrew and Yiddish) • Frisian • Maltese
• Netherlandic • Basque
Discovery of the Indo-European model • German • Hongarian
Sir William Jones analyzed Sanskrit ca. 1780 and noticed patterns • Yiddish • Finnish/Estonian
• mahatma == maha-atman == great-soul —> cf. German “Atem”, Latin
“anima”
• agni, fire, cf. Latin ignis (“ignite”)
After the reformation, Martin Luther preached that religions should be taught
in their own language.
, 13 September 2023
Lecture 2: 1453 Islam and orthodox Christianity in Europe
1492 Muslim Granada taken by “los reyes catolicos”, Isabella of Castile and Conflict and cooperation in contact zones:
fernando of Aragon —> “Reconquista” (which means reconquering).
• Iberia (Spain) (711-1492) —> expulsion Jews; expulsion Muslims 1609/1614 (The
completed —> Americas! remains of Muslims in Spain was driven off and mostly move to Northern Africa.
• South-East Europe (before and after 1453) —> continuity of Islam and
Renaissance to “early modern era” establishing European Empires in Christianity
Africa, America and Asia. Europe goes global by conquering parts of
the world. Eastern Roman Empire (Byzantium, ca. 330-1453)
- Columbus Ottoman Empire (ca. 1300-1922)
- Isabella Queen of Castille 1000 years of Byzantine rule, 500 years of Ottoman rule:
- Vancouver da Gama o Do they unite South-East Europe (the “balkans”) as a separate entity?
Parallel to end of Muslim reigns in Iberia: Rise of the Muslim Ottoman o Do they make South-Eastern Europe separate, different from “Europe”?
Empire in Europe. o If so, what is at work? —> Power of myths and traditions
Constantinople is the old name of Istanbul, every time a conquered comes it gives
it a different name. Balkans refer to the mountains in Bulgaria. What is history and what is historiography?
Historiography is everything we are saying about history, this produces a huge
1453 discourse of history. Historiographies give value assignments about the past.
Fall of Constantinople —> The end of the Bezjerdin empire (Europe,
Asia, part of Northern Africa). Constantinople taken by Ottoman sultan
Teleology —> Everything that goes in to one direction, history goes into one
Mehmed Fatih, he had to choose between conquering Constantinople
direction. It has a hole. History is being made by human beings. Teleology is when
and trading with it. Mehmed decided to conquer Constantinople.
historians try to understand history from its end.
There was an Ottoman settlement for those who already have land and
there was a European movement that seemed new land and new
The Eastern Roman Empire (“Byzantium”), ca. 330-1453: a multinational Greek
adventures with huge guns. The Ottomans looted the city for a
empire —> Nobody called themselves Byzantium in that time
maximum of three days and then renewed the city with new people from
Hagia Sophia, Constantinople. Completed as a
Greece.
church in 537; from 1453 to 1935 a mosque; until
What is this lesson about? 2020 a museum, since then again a mosque —>
- 1453 and beyond: from Byzantine Empire to Ottoman Empire model for most mosques in Europe, built as a
- Longevity of imperial legacies even “after empire” church, became a mosque, then a museum and now it’s a mosque again.
- Purposes of stereotypes and “myths”
- Mobilisation of religious identities (Islam, Christianity) and national Emperor Constantine with a model of Constantinople,
religious identities in today’s nation-states of South East Europe “inaugurated” 330 (mosaic Hagia Sofia from ca. 1000)
- Diaspora of different religions —> Muslims in different countries after the
Ottoman Empire What is an Empire?
Empire —> first association with an emperor, an empire is known for an emperor
Constructing Europe by “Othering”: Cultural essentialisms to portray (Western) which comes from a certain family and his family will be the next emperor. The
Europe as an entity power remains at the core of the Emperor. An Empire collects pieces of the culture
- Christianity vs Islam and brings countries together, they are all united by a certain heritage.
- Europe vs “Orient” or “Muslim World” (North Africa & Middle East) • Social integration? What keeps an Empire together? An empire becomes an
- Western Europe vs Eastern Europe (especially Russia/Orthodoxy) empire when it has a bureaucracy that permeates all the territories and keeps
- Western Europe vs South-Eastern Europe (“Balkans”) them together. There is a limited amount of social integration, it was only of the
—> “Civilizational fault line”? Samuel Huntington (1993) level of your own group. It wasn’t with the empire but with the local leader of
your group. You belonged to a religious community which was equal to a race.
Constructing Europe by cultural transfers
Greek heritage (philosophy, exact sciences, theology) What is the Orthodox Church in Constantinople?
—> To Islamic and Jewish civilisations (included texts of Socrates) • Patriarchate —> The head of the Eastern Orthodox Church, which was the pilar
—> To medieval, then renaissance and early modern Europe of the Byzantine empire, could remain. Istanbul still has the patriarch of all
There is a cultural tradition that’s coming from Greece travelling further trough Orthodox Churches. You could sill be a Jew and would be protected as a
Europe. minority in the Ottoman Empire.
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