City of Venice, Italy that was a commercial hub, started declining in 18th century

Overall it increased from an estimated 69 million in 1500 to 188 million in 1800, but the increase was uneven and most marked in Britain and the Netherlands by 1700, the greatest textile producers of Europe, the most active traders, with the largest merchant fleets and rapidly growing shipbuilding and metal-ware industries. The result was a shift in economic axis. In 1500 industry was concentrated in the narrow corridor running North to South from Antwerp and Bruges through Ulm and Augsburg to Milan and Florence. By 1700 the axis ran West-East from England and Holland through the metal and woolen districts of the lower Rhine to the industrial concentration of Saxony, Bohemia and Silesia, and thence to Russia, now beginning to build up an industrial base. The great expansion of overseas trade, particularly after 1700, also favored the maritime powers. A consequence was the decline of great trading cities of Northern Italy, dominant two centuries earlier. In 1500 only four cities – Paris, Milan, Naples and Venice – had more than 100,000 inhabitants. By 1700 this number had trebled, and the majority of the rising urban centers lay west of the Rhine. London and Paris had already passed the half-million mark.

Significant as these developments were, agriculture was still Europe’s most important industry. As late as 1815 three-quarters of its population were employed on the land, though here again there were sharp regional differences. In most of Europe farmers were subsistence peasants, whose small holdings of 2-10 hectares produced only about 20 percent more than their immediate needs. But in the West the need to feed growing urban populations led, first in Holland and then in Britain, to an agricultural revolution. The Dutch poured capital into land reclamation, recovering some 180,000 hectares between 1540 and 1715 and developed intensive cultivation, eliminating the need to leave land fallow by means of rotation of crops, which was later taken over in England. The growing population was also sustained by the introduction of new, more productive crops, mainly from America, including maize, which gave a far higher yield than the old regional cereals of southern Europe, and the potato introduced in 1525, which spread slowly until it became a key crop after 1700. Urban demands also stimulated specialization (Holland was exporting 90 percent its cheese by 1700), and generated a massive demand in western Europe for wheat rye from Pomerania, Prussia, Poland and Russia, greatly to the profit of Holland which virtually monopolized the Baltic carrying trade in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries.

The profitable grain-export trade of eastern Europe adversely affected the position of the peasant population which had enjoyed relative freedom before 1500 but now was reduced to a state of abject serfdom on large commercial estates. Only on the frontiers (e.g. in Hungary and on the Volga) where they performed military service, did the peasants retain freedom. Otherwise emancipation (postponed in Russia until 1861) only came slowly after the French Revolution, and the same was true in Western Germany where, following the savage repression of the great peasant revolt of 1525, feudal relationship persisted. A few rulers, notably the emperor Joseph II (1780-90) realized that improvement of productivity depended on breaking the old feudal relationships; but they were frustrated by landed interests. The position in North-West Europe was very different. Serfdom had disappeared in the Low Countries by 1300. In France and England feudal services had been replaced, even before 1500, by money rents; and although, when prices rose after 1700, French lords sought to recoup themselves by reviving ancient dues (only abolished in 1793), peasants ownership was protected by the courts. Rising prices led, in England, to enclosure of the common fields, a precondition for agricultural improvement. Rich peasants benefited, but poor peasants, driven off the land, flocked to the towns, where they provided the labor force for the new industries.

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Boldness and audacity marked Fredrick’s operations; preemptive attacks characterized his means of making war. He established Prussia as a great military power and as the dominant European nation for half a century. Not until Napoleon would the accomplishments of Fredrick be surpassed, and even the French general at the height of his glory paid tribute to the late Prussian leader at his Potsdam tomb, where he remarked, “Were he still alive, we should now not be here in Prussia.”

 He was born on 24 January 1712 in Berlin. His father King Fredrick I commissioned him in his personal bodyguard unit but he tried to escape to France at age 20. He was put behind bars and after reconciling with his father he accepted a commission as a colonel in 1732 in Ruppin Infantry Regiment and two years later joined Prussian troops under the command of Prince Eugene of Savoy.

After the death of his father in 1740 he assumed the thrown of Prussia and command of Prussian army. He introduced many reforms. His 80,000 army with sufficient funds and training potential was surrounded by very strong foes like Russia, Austria and France. His kingdom was without natural defensible barriers. So adopted an offensive strategy as military doctrine, that remained as essential part of his carrier. He became master of exploiting the weaknesses of his enemies and making best use of terrain, maneuver and surprise.

In 1740 Austrian emperor Charles VI died and taking benefit of the confusion, Fredrick attacked. Initially he was forced to withdraw under Austrian cavalry pressure but Prussian infantry was able to win the battle.

By the end of the First Silesian War in 1742, the victorious Prussian army enjoyed an aura of invincibility. Two years later Fredrick again went to war against Austria and quickly won the Second Silesian War. Now all of Europe recognized Prussia as a major power.

During the next decade, Fredrick published his book on warfare as he enlarged his army. He added horse-drawn artillery units directly attached to his cavalry and held extensive drills and field exercises. He built roads to assist commerce as well as defense and set aside substantial funds for future conflicts.

In 1756, Fredrick aligned with England against Austria and France in what became the Seven Years’ War. He launched an immediate attack against Saxony. Making intelligent use of terrain to hide his army against much larger forces of Austria, France and Russia he defeated a Franco-Austrian army at Rossbach on 5 November 1757. After another success against Austrian weak point at Leuthen he defeated the Russians at Zorndorf on August 25, 1758.

After suffering heavy losses in terms of manpower and resources despite the victories, Fredrick’s army became too weak to launch any offensive. The danger of an imminent defeat at the hands of Russian was looming large when in 1762 the Russian ruler Czarina Elizabeth died and Peter III assumed the thrown. A personal admirer of Fredrick, Peter III signed a peace treaty with him. Thereafter Austrian and France also agreed to sign the Peace of Hubertusbug in 1763 thereby ending the Seven Years’ War. Fredrick now focused his full attention on the development and making the life better for his countrymen. He died on August 17, 1763 in Sans Souci at the age of 74.

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A 15th Century Castle built in Lowenburg, Germany

After 1648 Germany was a patchwork some 300 small, petty states and free cities. In addition, the independence of Holland and Switzerland was formally recognized. Theoretically the rights of the princes were limited by the rights of the Holy Roman Empire, but in practice every prince was emperor in his own lands, with full sovereign powers including the right to make foreign alliances.

The Economic Setback

Political disruption was also compounded by a sharp economic setback, due partly to the devastation and depopulation resulting from the Thirty Year’s War. The long term shift in the European economy also affected the situation. The great south German banking houses of Welser and Fugger went bankrupt in 1614 and 1627 respectively. The Hanseatic League, in disarray since the closing years of 16^th century, was dissolved in 1669. Everywhere the towns were in decline, particularly in Austria, Prussia and Bavaria. In Bohemia and Moravia their legal rights were abolished ; in the  north and north-east they were ejected from their holdings to permit the consolidation of Junker estates and reduced to serfdom. Impoverishment and stagnation were the result. A modest economic recovery occurred after 1750; but with its resources dissipated on ostentatious building and the upkeep of princely households Germany was an economic and social backwater. It was also a pawn in great power politics. Divided among themselves and fearful and Habsburg ambitions, the princes were clients of foreign powers. These powers included England and Sweden, but particularly France which used its position to make inroads on German territories in the west, annexing Strassburg (1681), most of Alsace in 1697, the free country of Burgundy in 1714 and Bar and Lorraine in 1766.

Low Status of German States

After 1648, apart from Austria, only Saxony, Bavaria and Brandenburg could claim even the status of second-rate powers. Saxony, with the mineral resources of the Erzgebirge and its varied industries, was the most advanced, while Bavaria was falling behind. Brandenburg-Prussia was beginning, under the Great Elector (1640-88) the long climb which made it by 1786 the second German power and the rival of Austria.

The Rise of Prussia

The rise of Prussia is a story of tenacity, unscrupulous diplomacy, but above all of single-minded devotion to building a strong military and administrative apparatus to wield together the scattered territories stretching from the Vistula to the Rhine. The Hohenzollern domains lacked internal and external cohesion. Prussia itself was until 1657 a Polish fief; and it was only in 1772, after the first partition of Poland that Fredrick the Great succeeded in creating a continuous Prussian territory from Memel to Magdeburg. More impressive , and a cardinal fact in 18^th century history, was the recovery of Austria after its setbacks in the Thirty Years’ War and the creation of a vast new Austrian empire. This was largely the work of the great field marshal, Prince Eugene of Savoy (1663-1736). As late as 1683 Vienna itself was besieged by Turkish armies.  Eugene turned the tide and by 1699 they had been thrown back and the whole of Hungary brought under Habsburg rule. Austria was now a major power in eastern Europe.

Advent of France

While in the west the peace settlement of 1714 brought it the Spanish Netherlands and the Spanish inheritance in Italy. But it was a giant with feet of clay, with weak finances and an inadequate army. Serbia and Belgrade, acquired in 1718, were lost again in 1739, Lombardy and southern Italy in 1734-35. When on the death of Charles VI (1711-40) and the secession of Maria Theresa (1740-80), Fredrick II of Prussia seized Silesia, Austria’s inherent weaknesses were exposed. Although the struggle went on until 1763, it proved impossible to dislodge the Prussians. Later both Prussia and Austria took advantage of the disarray of Poland to enlarge their territories in the east. But in the three partitions they had to share the spoil with Russia. Their mutual suspicions and rivalries left the west exposed to France. When the French revolutionary armies marched into Germany in 1793 the old order was doomed, and in 1806, the Holy Roman Empire passed without being mourned from the map of Europe.

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Northern Europe was embroiled in almost continuous war from 1561 to 1658, as Sweden, independent since the time of Gustavus Vasa (1523-60), struggled with Denmark, Russia, Poland and Brandenburg for control of the Baltic and its important trade.  The rise of the Swedish empire, leading to Gustavus Adolphus’ intervention in the Thirty Years’ War and the Swedish acquisition of western Pomerania. Wismar and the bishoprics of Bremen and Verden at the Peace of Westphalia, vitally affected the balance of power in Europe and was one of the most significant developments of the period. In western Europe progress was more checkered. The new monarchies of the preceding period had over reached themselves, and from around 1536 reaction set in, particularly when rising prices, recession and widespread unemployment reinforced existing discontents. The Elizabethan Poor Law and other legislation of 1563 was no remedy. Indeed the reign of Elizabeth I (1558-1903) was less auspicious than often painted, and, Elizabeth , whose relations with parliament deteriorated sharply at the end of her reign, left her Stuart successors on the English throne, a legacy of unsolved problems with which they failed to cope.

From around 1530, sometimes earlier, the history of France and England was punctuated by revolts. As in Germany they reflected a combination of religious, social, and political grievances. In England the northern risings of 1536 and 1569 were catholic protests against the suppression of the old faith, but they also embodied the resistance of the northern gentry to centralization and control from London. On the other wing the unrest of radical dissenters combined dissatisfaction with Henry VIII and Elizabeth’s conservative church settlements with resistance to the enclosure of common lands for the benefits of grasping landlords. A similar mixture of motive permeated the frequent uprisings, 500 in all in France. These were largely the revolts of common people, driven to extremes of economic hardships; but in the end the most influential factor, visible in France in revolt of the judges and nobility which drove the king from Paris in 1649, was resistance to autocracy, centralization and taxation.

The Dutch revolt beginning in 1566, which effectively secured independence in 1609, was inspired by fear that the central government, controlled from Spain , intended to override the traditional liberties of the Netherlands. Similar motives underlay the Catalan and Portuguese revolts against Castile in 1640. The problem of the central governments was that inflation and other economic difficulties, together with the expense of war, were eating into their resources. Hence the attempt of Charles I (1625-49) to levy tonnage and poundage, collect forced loans and impose ship money (1634) , levies which were the antecedent causes of the English civil war. When civil war finally broke out in 1642, it was a defense of traditional English liberties against a thrusting monarchy, a fact which explains the conservatism of the subsequent settlement. When after the defeat of the monarchy, the Lord Protector, Oliver Cromwell beat down the radical Levelers in 1647, the future outlines of a conservative England dominated by the gentry were drawn. After the restoration in 1660, still more after 1688, power was shared between parliament, representing landowners and merchants, and the crown, with the former gradually asserting its preponderance.

In continental Europe the sequel was different. In France the failure of the Fronde broke power of the aristocracy and cleared the way for the absolutism of Louis XIV. Only in Germany was the disarray caused by a century of religious and political conflict enduring. Here the devastation of Thirty Years’ War resulted in a decline of population from 21 million to 13 million within a span of 30 years only. Though some regions were spared the setback was undeniable.  The outcome was a major shift in the European balance. The Habsburgs, who had dominated the previous period, were in retreat, and the future was in the hands of a resurgent France and its rivals, the maritime powers.

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The Thirty Years' War caused widespread devastation in Europe

Although the French Huguenots won toleration by the Edict of Nantes (1598), their numbers were severely reduced during the religious wars between 1562 and 1589, and elsewhere in Europe the second half of the 16^th century saw a great Catholic revival, led by the Jesuit order, founded in 1534 by St. Ignatius Loyola (1491-1556), and inspired by the reforms of the Council of Trent between 1545 and 1563. Using the Jesuits as their spearhead, Catholic rulers went over to the offensive. Protestants were expelled from Bavaria in 1579 and Styria in 1600. In Poland the number of Protestant churches decreased from 560 to 240 within a period between 1572 and 1650.

The decisive phase of the struggle between Protestants and Catholics, the Thirty Years’ War, took place in the Holy Roman Empire. It began in 1618-21 when the emperor Ferdinand II defeated the Bohemian Protestants at the battle of the White Mountains in 1620 and won back Bohemia and Moravia for Catholicism. When he turned against the Protestant princes of Germany, the Protestants were supported by Denmark, England and the Dutch. The imperial forces were initially successful and in 1629 an Edict of Restitution was promulgated which reclaimed large areas of church lands held by Protestant princes. Only the intervention of Gustavus Adolphus of Sweden saved the Protestant cause from collapse.

But the Swedish victories at Brietenfeld in 1631 and Lutzen in 1632 brought in Spain on the imperial side, while France allied with Sweden and declared war on Spain in 1635. The war was now a European war, but by 1644 it was evident that neither side could hope for outright victory. In 1648 the Peace of Westphalla brought a compromise solution. Lutherans and Calvinists retained the lands they held in 1624, and the wars of religion were over. But Germany, the scene of battle, suffered a lasting setback.

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Martin Luther and the Reformation Movement

Except in Bohemia and Moravia, where the Hussites comprised over half the population, and in England, where small groups of Lollards survived, heresy was virtually dead by 1500; but the materialism of the Renaissance popes and self-seeking of the higher clergy discredited the hierarchy in the eyes of many laymen. Some, like Erasmus of Rotterdam (1466-1536) and Sir Thomas More (1478-1535), still pinned their hopes on spiritual renewal; but elsewhere, particularly in Germany and German-speaking Switzerland, financial and other abuses fired revolt.

In 1517 Martin Luther (1483-1546) posted his 95 thesis on the church door at Wittenberg. In 1520, under the impulse of Huldreich Zwingli (1484-1531), Zurich renounced allegiance to Rome.  Their denunciations of the clergy and the supremacy of the pope and their demand for a return to the standards of early Christianity exercised a vast appeal. By 1560, seven out of ten of the Emperor’s subjects were Protestants, and the reformed faith prevailed in Scandinavia, Baltic Europe and England.

Further impetus came from the teaching of John Calvin (1509-64). In France over one hundred Calvinist churches existed by 1559 and perhaps 700 by 1562. Calvinism also made rapid progress in Poland, Hungary and Scotland, where it became the official religion in 1560. In addition, a number of more radical sects sprang up, Anabaptists, Mennonites and others, which rejected theology, ritual and clerical order in favor of Biblical simplicity and often combined evangelism with social protests. They even proclaimed an Anabaptist republic at Munster in 1514, but it was brutally suppressed the next year.

However the reformation was soon entangled in politics. Princes and kings, including Henry VIII of England, saw an opportunity to despoil the church of its wealth. Some German princes espoused Protestantism out of fear of imperial power. Luther himself, dependent on princely support, turned against the more radical sectaries and condemned the peasants’ revolt of 1525.

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The Dutch Revolt against Spain

In the west endemic civil war in Spain was ended after the union of Castile and Aragon in 1479. The ending of the ‘Hundred Year’s War’ between England and France in 1453 and the expulsion of the English from the French territory saw a rapid extension of the area controlled by the French monarchy, while in England Edward IV (1461-83) began a restoration of royal power which was carried further by the new Tudor dynasty after 1485. Though the Council in the North with its seat at York, and the Council in the March of Wales, with its seat at Ludlow, the turbulent outlying regions were brought under control, while Wales itself and the palatinates of Chester and Durham were integrated into the parliamentary and judicial systems from 1536. But an attempt to integrate Ireland by Poyning’s Law in 1494 had little effect, and although Henry VIII was proclaimed King of Ireland in 1541, English power was effectively limited to the Pale around Dublin. Scotland also resisted successfully.

Not all attempts at state-building were a success. The efforts of the dukes of Burgundy to erect an independent state in the rich lands between France and the Empire collapsed when the ambitious Charles the Bold was killed at Nancy in 1477. The empire of Matthias Corvinus of Hungary (1458-90) also proved ephemeral. Italy remained divided, in spite of a marked strengthening of government under rulers such as Lorenzo de Medici (1469-92) at Florence and Ludovico Sforza (1460-99) at Milan, and after the French invasion of 1494 internal division left Italy a prey to foreign intervention.

The main legatee in all instances was the house of Habsburg, which succeeded to the Spanish possessions in 1516 and emerged, under Charles V (1519-56) as the preponderant power to Western Europe. But the diversified Habsburg Empire lacked cohesion, and when the Ottoman advanced halted on the middle Danube since 1456, was resumed after 1520, and at the same time the emperor was involved in the religious wars in Germany, the strain was too great. In 1556 Charles V abdicated and the empire was divided between the Austrian and the Spanish Habsburgs. Only ten years later the Dutch revolt began.

The Dutch revolt, although the most formidable uprising was not exceptional. In England, from Henry VII to Elizabeth, the Tudors were faced by repeated rebellions and elsewhere, even in Russia, resistance to centralization became a powerful force after 1550. The rise of the new monarchies was less a new beginning than the culmination of the long struggle of aristocracy and monarchy. Their financial and administrative machinery was not adequate enough to raise a new, modern system of government in place of the old feudal order, and the decisive change from the old to the new was not made until after another century of strife and turmoil.

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Malacca was occupied by Portuguese in 1511

Here was untold wealth to be tapped. But here also, at one of the world’s main crossroads, where cultural influences from China and India intermingled, they found themselves in a region of great complexity divided in religion between Buddhism, Hinduism and Islam, and politically fragmented and unstable. On the mainland, rival peoples and dynasties competed for hegemony. In the Malayan archipelago the empires of Srivijaya and Majapahit had disappeared, leaving behind scores of petty states with little cohesion. This was the situation when Albuquerque conquered the great international emporium of Malacca for the king of Portugal in 1511.

The Portuguese presence changed little at first. Albuquerque and his successors were there to dominate the spice trade through a chain of fortified trading stations, linked by naval power. Provided this was accepted, they had no intention to interfere with the native potentates. Far more important, after the arrival on the scene of the Dutch and English, was the challenge to their trading monopoly by their European rivals. For most of the 17^th century this rivalry was the dominant factor.

The Dutch in particular, began a systematic conquest of the Portuguese settlements, capturing Malacca in 1641, and then turned against the British. But in doing so they were inevitably drawn into local politics. After establishing a base in Batavia in 1619, they interfered in succession disputes among the neighboring sultans, to ensure their own position, and in this way gradually extended control over Java, expelling the British from Bantam in 1682. Already earlier they had driven them out of the Spice Islands by the ;massacre of Amboina’ in 1623 and the seizure of Macassar in 1667. In this way they forced the English East India Company to turn instead to the China trade. With this in view the British acquired Penang on the west coast of Malaya in 1786, the first step in a process which was ultimately to make them masters of the Malaya peninsula.

But this was still exceptional. European activities encroached on the out-lying islands, but had little impact on the mainland monarchies, which had no direct interest in European trade and were mainly concerned with extending their power at the expense of their neighbors. This is a complicated story, because all the main centers were also under pressure from the hill peoples of the interior, always waiting  to assert their independence. Some of the major events were the advance of Annam at the expense of Cambodia, the rise of a new Burmese empire under Alaungpaya (1735-60), after a Mon rebellion in 1740, and successful Siamese resistance to Burmese encroachment, in spite of Burmese conquest in 1767.

These events occurred for the most part without involvement of the Europeans, but during the struggle for empire between England and France in the 18^th century some states were implicated. Already under Louis XIV France had intervened Siam against the Dutch. During the Anglo-French war in India after 1746 it supported the Mon rebellion in Burma, and in reply the English East India Company seized the island of Negrais at the mouth of the Bassein river. Later, when the Burmese foiled in their attempt to conquer Siam, switched their efforts to the north, the British, fearing for the security of Bengal, again intervened. The result was the first Anglo-Burmese war of 1824-26 and the British annexation of Assam, Arakan and Tenasserim.

In Malaya there was similar encroachment on the independent rulers when the British , after acquiring Penang in 1786, established Singapore in 1819 as a free trade port after its acquisition by Raffles. This led to a conflict of interests with Holland which was only settled by the Anglo-Dutch treaty of 1834 when the British withdrew from Sumatra in return for Dutch withdrawal from Malacca. The future Dutch and British colonial empires in South–East Asia were taking shape. But their control was still loose and indirect. Only after the Industrial Revolution in Europe , and the expanding demand for raw materials and markets, were the lives and fortunes of the peoples of the region seriously affected.

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By 1550 all the chief centers of settled population were in Spanish hands, though the task of pushing forwards the frontiers into the unexplored territories continued until the end of the colonial period. New royalties were set up in New Granada and Rio De la Plato between 1739 and 1776 along with new military governments in Texas and California in 1718 and 1767 respectively. But none of the later sparsely inhabited the conquests of Mexico and Peru compared in wealth and importance. Potosi in Upper Peru and Guanajuato in Mexico became the biggest sources of silver in the world, and by 1500 silver was the chief export from the American colonies to Spain.

Elsewhere on the American mainland colonization was slower to take effect. The Portuguese on the eastern coast of South America, were only goaded into action by fear of the French. But in 1549 they founded Bahia as an administrative capital, and sugar plantation and mills, worked by slaves from Africa, were introduced. Between 1575 and 1600 coastal Brazil became the foremost sugar-producing territory in the western world, and attracted many land-hungry immigrants from Portugal and the Azores. But the vast interior of Brazil remained largely unexplored and in the hands of native Indian tribes.

The same was true of the whole of North America at this date, beyond the frontiers of New Spain. With its harsh climate and poor soil, the eastern seaboard of North America was uninviting territory, and for the first century after its discovery the great Newfoundland fisheries were its main attraction. There was also a fur trade with the natives, and by 1535 French explorers had penetrated far up the St. Lawrence River in the quest of skins and fur. When after 1670, the English also built up a fur-trading empire, based on Hudson Bay, the result was a rivalry which erupted in the colonial wars of 18^th century.

Nevertheless, fish and furs were the original staple of north America, and settlement, strongly opposed by fishing interests, only began in the 17^th century , with the foundation of Acadia, or Nova Scotia, by the French in 1604, of Virginia in 1607 and Massachusetts Bay in 1629, by the English, and of New Netherlands, later New York , by the Dutch in 1623. Even so, progress was slow. As late as the end of 17^th century, the total population of the 12 English colonies was a mere 250,000.

The pattern of settlement was also different in the north. The English colonists wanted land for farms and plantations, expelling or exterminating the native population. The history of the British colonies in the 18^th century is punctuated by savage Indian wars in Virginia, and later in the Carolinas, where tobacco was introduced as a cash crop from Guiana, the plantations were worked by Negro slaves, numbering well over 100,000 by the time of the American War of Independence. The Spaniards, on the other hands, relied on Indian labor, both in ranching and mining, and readily intermarried; hence the extensive ‘mastizo’ population, particularly in Mexico and Peru. At the same time, all the colonies were firmly administered in the interest of the mother country. This inevitably provoked resentment on the part of the colonial elite, and lay behind the demand for independence which erupted in the north in 1775 and in Latin America in 1808.

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A Contingent of Viking Army

The Saracens pillaged Rome in 846, and after establishing a base at Fraxinetum in 890 raided deep into southern Gaul. Northern Italy and Germany were a prey to the Magyars who had moved into the Hungarian plain after Charlemagne’s destruction of Avar power. The Vikings of Norway and Denmark also began as raiders; but in their case an initial phase of plunder was followed by settlement and colonization, first in Orkney and Shetland and then in Ireland where Dublin was founded in 841. Later between 870 and 876, Iceland and England were occupied by Danish armies most of the countryside round the Five Boroughs of the Midlands. In France the West Frankish king conferred the lands at the mouth of the Seine-the later duchy of Normandy- on the Danish leader Rollo in 911.

These invasions were accompanied by widespread devastation and depopulation. Inevitably the recovery was slow. In Germany Otto I’s defeat of the Magyars at the river Lech in 955 was a turning point, in England only a determined resistance by Alfred the Great held the Danes at a bay. After 909 his successors went over to the offensive and by 939, Scandinavian England had been subjugated. But after the death of Edger a second wave of Danish invasion began.

Saracen Invasion of Southern Europe

In southern Europe where Spain had been in Arab hands for over two centuries, the Mediterranean was virtually a ‘Muslim lake’ by 950. But the collapse of Arab unity after 936 facilitated a Christian revival. After the fall of Fraxinetum in 972, the fleets of Pisa and Genoa went over to the offensive, attacking the Muslim bases in North Africa, while Venice cleared the Adriatic. After the First Crusade and the Venetian naval victory off Ascalon in 1123, the Italian cities dominated Mediterranean trade. The period of the First Crusade also saw the beginning of the Christian re-conquest of Spain under Alfonso VI (1065-1109), king of Leon and Castle, who actually advanced as far as Toledo in 1084. But the first wave of re-conquest was halted by the great Islamic revival under the Almoravid and Almohad dynasties. The Christian advance only resumed in the 13^th century after the decisive victory at Las Navas de Tolosa, which led rapidly to the conquest of Cordoba (1212), Valencia (1238), Murcia (1243), Seville (1248) and Cadiz (1262).

The 9^th and 10^th century invasions also disrupted royal authority and created political fragmentation. In Gaul the Frankish rulers virtually capitulated to the Vikings, leaving defense to the local magnates. The result was a great upsurge of feudalism. Peasant freemen virtually disappeared and society was polarized between nobles and serfs. In Germany, power devolved into the hands of Dukes Margraves, who defended the frontiers and in Italy only the walled cities could withstand the Magyar onslaught. The kingdom of Wessex was the exception, unique in 10^th century Europe beyond the borders of Muslim Spain and Byzantium. Here the monarchy took control, creating during the re-conquest of the Danelaw a system of shires and hundreds administered by sheriffs who were officials. But this royal government could not withstand the renewal of Danish attacks during the reign of Aethelred II. By the beginning of the 11^th century England seemed destined to pass into a Scandinavian orbit. The Norman Conquest decisively halted this development. William the Conqueror, quickly established control in the south; but in the north where Danish and Scottish interventions underpinned resistance, he only made his authority secure by systematic devastation. Danish re-conquest was still a threat until 1085; but after 1066, England was permanently aligned with the Christian and feudal civilization of western Europe. The period of invasions had irrevocably changed the structure of Western society.

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