Unity and Divisions in Early Modern European History: The Emergence of a Westernized Europe

Abstract

The focus of this chapter is on attempts to establish new patterns of unity through homogenization and new relations between interiority and exteriority. The first section deals with the rise of the West in the wake of the conquest of the Americas when a major shift occurred in the borders of Europe from an Eastern- to a Western-oriented one. The second section looks at the internal homogenization of Europe. The third section shifts the focus to network-based forms of integration and the tradition of popular rebellion and social movements that can be said to constitute the European heritage in ways that challenge the dominant homogenizing trends and suggest a model of integration through differentiation. By 1800, the basic structural shape of modern Europe had been created. It was a considerably more westernized kind of Europe than had been previously the case. It was westernized in the sense that the geopolitical gravity had shifted to the Western half and that this was due to a shift in the wider global context from the Asian world economy to one based in the Atlantic. The emergence of a westernized Europe was accompanied by homogenizing trends that were spear-headed by the new centres of geopolitical power.