Preface
Caught as we are in a global economic crisis, the interconnec¬
tions of economies, nations, and societies around the world could not be
clearer. The ongoing social and cultural turmoil of immigrant communities
excluded from the mainstream by the former imperial powers demonstrates
that history does not go away: the effects of Europe's imperial ambitions and
vast empires, although they no longer exist, remain with us. The relatively
recent disappearance in 1989-1992 of a more recent empire, that of the
Soviet Union, has also had an enormous impact on Europe, and indeed
much of the world, transforming international relations while presenting
imposing challenges. Russia, to be sure, remains a major power, but it is
commonplace now to consider the United States as the one remaining
superpower, with an informal empire stretching across the globe through its
great economic, political, and military influence.
Empires have greatly shaped European history since the Renaissance.
Trade with Africa, Asia, and the Americas led to colonization and empire.
Within Europe, rivalries between empires—such as those of England and
Spain in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, the Ottoman Turkish
Empire and the Austrian Habsburg and Russian Empires, and Britain and
France in the eighteenth century—reflected both the consolidation and
expansion of state power and also shaped the evolution of warfare. During
the first fifteen years of the nineteenth century, Napoleon's empire extended
through much of the European continent and led to conquests as far as
Egypt.
The rise and fall of empires—Portuguese, Spanish, Dutch, Ottoman,
British, French, and that of the Soviet Union—is a major theme developed
in the third edition of A History of Modern Europe. More than ever, the
history of Europe cannot be understood without attention to Europe's inter¬
action with cultures in the rest of the world. Europeans, to be sure, have for
centuries learned from Muslim, Asian, African, and American cultures. The
influence of the Ottoman Empire in Eastern Europe and the Balkans com¬
mands additional attention in this volume. At the same time, through com¬
mercial contact, conquest, and intellectual, religious, and political influence,