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The European Nation State: A Great Survivor

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  31 January 2013

R.C. Van Caenegem
R.C. Van Caenegem*
Affiliation:
Universiteitstraat 4, B 9000 Gent, Belgium. E-mail: karin.pensaert@ugent.be
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Abstract

Today Europe consists of a great number of nation states – some large like Germany, some small like Latvia – where nationhood coincides with statehood. This situation is the result of political upheavals, such as the Italian resorgimento and the waning of the Ottoman Empire in the nineteenth century, and the dismemberment of the Austro-Hungarian Empire and the collapse of the Soviet Union and Communist Yugoslavia in the twentieth century. The process is still going on and the United Kingdom may one day be divided into three nation states, England, Scotland and Ireland. The author explores the origins of the modern state after Europe had passed through the tribal and feudal phases (fifth–twelfth centuries) and the role of the Church in the success of the late medieval monarchies, while making clear that the Church also thwarted their ambition to achieve full sovereignty. The author finally wonders what encouraged the European peoples to achieve independence and national statehood.

Type
Focus: Nation
Information
European Review , Volume 21 , Issue 1 , February 2013 , pp. 28 - 40
Copyright
Copyright © Academia Europaea 2013

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References

References and Notes

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Further Reading

E. Cortese (1995) Il diritto nella storia medievale, 2 vols. (Rome: Il Cigno Galileo Galilei).Google Scholar
Fukuyama, F. (2011) The Origins of Political Order. From Prehuman Times to the French Revolution (London: Profile Books).Google Scholar
Gaudemet, J. (1994) Eglise et Cité. Histoire du droit canonique (Paris: Montchrestien).Google Scholar
Padoa Schioppa, A. (2005) Storia del diritto in Europa. Dal medioevo all’ età contemporanea (Collezione di Testi e di Studi) (Bologna: Il Mulino).Google Scholar
Van Caenegem, R.C. (1995) An Historical Introduction to Western Constitutional Law (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press).CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Wormald, P. (1999) The Making of English Law: King Alfred to the Twelfth Century. Vol. I: Legislation and its limits (Oxford: Blackwell).Google Scholar