Preface xxviiatrocities perpetuated in Bosnia in the 1990s recall the ravaging of Central
Europe during the Thirty Years’ War.
The causes and effects of economic change are another thread that weaves
through the history of modern Europe. The expansion of commerce in the
early modern period, which owed much to the development of the means of
raising investment capital and obtaining credit, transformed life in both
Western and Eastern Europe, and directly led to the European empires that
followed. The Industrial Revolution, which began in England in the eigh¬
teenth century and spread to continental Europe in the nineteenth,
depended on a rise in population and thus of agricultural production, but
also manifested significant continuities with the past. As important as were
inventions, the Industrial Revolution also drew on technology that had been
in place for centuries. It ultimately changed the ways Europeans worked and
lived. Here, too, European empires are an important, fascinating part of the
story.
European history remains crucial to understanding the contemporary
world. The political, religious, economic, and global concerns that affect
Europe and the world today can best be addressed by examining their roots
and development. Globalization has carried movement between the conti¬
nents to new levels. For centuries, Europe sent waves of emigrants to other
parts of the world, particularly North and South America. Now the pattern
has been reversed. The arrival of millions of migrants from other continents,
particularly Africa and Asia, has posed challenges to European states and
Europeans. Moreover, the poverty of some of the states of Eastern Europe
and the Balkans, and the tragic events in Bosnia in the 1990s, have increased
immigration into Western European countries. Immigrants have added to
the religious and cultural complexity of European states. As globalization
continues to transform Europe and the world, it becomes even more impor¬
tant and exciting to study the continent’s history. With the initiation of a
new single currency within most of the member states of the European
Union and the continued expansion of that organization, Europe has entered
a new era, even as a daunting global economic crisis and the threat of terror
in the post-9/11 world present some unprecedented challenges. This third
edition enhances our understanding of Europe and the world today, as we
contemplate not only the distressing failures and appalling tragedies of the
past, but also the exhilarating triumphs that have been part of the European
experience.