Western Civilization - History Of European Society

374Chapter 20

Religion and Eighteenth-Century

Culture

Christianity stood at the center of European culture in
the eighteenth century, as it had for more than a thou-
sand years. Although European civilization was almost
exclusively a Christian civilization, it was split into
many conflicting sects. The religious map of the Old
Regime followed lines drawn by the Peace of West-
phalia in 1648, which had ended a period of ferocious

religious warfare (see map 20.1). At the simplest level,

most of northern Europe was Protestant, most of south-

ern Europe was Roman Catholic, and much of eastern

Europe was Orthodox. Protestant Europe included

Great Britain, the Dutch republic, the northern German

states (notably Hanover, Saxony, and Prussia), all of

Scandinavia, part of divided Switzerland, and pockets

in eastern Europe (notably in Hungary). Catholic Eu-

rope included Portugal, Spain, France, all of the Italian

states, the southern German states (notably Bavaria),

and the Austrian Empire, plus most of the population in

religiously divided Ireland and Poland. Orthodox Eu-

Corsica

Sardinia

Sicily

Baleari

cIsl

and

s

Sea

Mediterranean

Atlantic

Ocean

Arctic Ocean

North

Sea

PORTUGAL

SPAIN

OTTOMAN EMPIRE

IRELAND

SCOTLAND

ENGLAND

& WALES

NORWAY

SWEDEN

RUSSIA

FRANCE SWITZERLAND

ITALIAN

STATES

PIEDMONT

POLAND

HUNGARY

NETHERLANDS

DENMARK

PRUSSIA

BAVARIA

SAXONY

HANOVER

Black Sea

0 300 600 Miles

0 300 600 900 Kilometers

Catholic majority

Orthodox majority

Orthodox minority

Muslim majority

Protestant majority

Protestant minority

Date of Jewish

Emancipation

(1865)

70%

20%

10%

Catholic

Presbyterian

Anglican

90%

8%

2%

Anglican

Dissenter

Catholic

Methodist

Jewish

65%

35%

Calvinist

Catholic

99%Lutheran

Presbyterian (Calvinist)

Catholic

Episcopal (Anglican)

(1796)

(1890)

98%

2%

Catholic

Calvinist

Jewish

(1791)

48%

27%

15%

8%

2%

Catholic

Orthodox

Calvinist

Lutheran

Jewish

(1867)

3%

1%

Orthodox

Jewish

Lutheran

(1917)

49%

40%

7%

4%

Catholic

Orthodox

Jewish

Lutheran

Lutheran

Calvinist

Catholic

Jewish

(1850)

(1908)

60%

40%

Calvinist

Catholic

(1874)

2%Protestant

(1848)

99%Catholic

99%Catholic(1910) (1848-1870)

99%Catholic

99%Catholic

(1848)

99%Lutheran(1871)

99%Lutheran

(1868)

99%Lutheran

(1865)

(1851)

MAP 20.1

Religious Population of Eighteenth-Century Europe