Old Europe (epoch)
Old Europe or the Old European Age describes the age before the start of industrialization in an alternative structure of European history . The main representatives of this concept are Otto Brunner and Dietrich Gerhard .
Problems with the traditional periodization model
The classic tripartite division of European history into antiquity , the Middle Ages and modern times comes from the historical picture of the Renaissance , which, in its return to antiquity, assessed the past thousand years as an intermediate, middle age. This negative image of the “dark Middle Ages”, ie the period from approx. 500 - 1500 , also contributed to later currents of thought oriented towards antiquity, such as the Enlightenment and Classicism .
In addition, a general problem with historical periodization questions is that the results depend on the parameters used. With a different approach, the boundaries of the epochs necessarily shift.
Features of the old European era
In historical discourse, therefore, alternative historical structures have increasingly been considered since the 1970s, such as B. Koselleck's concept of the saddle time or that of the old European age.
This concept draws on categories such as the economic form and the social structure of the respective society for periodization . It divides European history into a pre-industrial era, which is characterized by an agrarian subsistence economy , feudal and hierarchical structures as well as a Christian worldview, and into an industrialized phase, the characteristics of which are an increasing division of labor, free-market forms of employment, national and central government structures and an enlightening attitude and the pursuit of social equality. Under these premises, however, there is a stronger continuity between the Middle Ages and the early modern period than between these and the period since the 19th century . For European history this means a turning point around 1800 .
Variants of the model
The Austrian social historian Otto Brunner includes Greek and Roman antiquity in his structural model. For him, Old Europe includes “the period from Homer to Goethe ”, ie it encompasses the entire European history from around 700 BC. Chr. To 1800.
The Constitutional historian Dietrich Gerhard , however limited the term Old Europe in the period from the 12th to the 18th century . According to its division, the beginning marked the emergence of social structures and institutions such as the bourgeoisie , court culture and canon law , which had a decisive influence on these centuries.
literature
- Blickle, Peter: Old Europe / From the High Middle Ages to the Modern. , CH Beck, Munich 2008, ISBN 978-3-406-57171-8 .
- Gerhard, Dietrich: On the problem of the periodization of European history . In: Old and New World in Comparative History . Edited by Dietrich Gerhard. Göttingen 1962, pp. 40-56.
- Christian Jaser, Ute Lotz-Heumann and Matthias Pohlig (eds.): Old Europe - Premodern - New Time. Epochs and Dynamics of European History (1200–1800) (Journal for Historical Research. Fourth Annual Review for Research into the Late Middle Ages and the Early Modern Era, Supplement 46) , Duncker & Humblot, Berlin 2012, ISBN 978-3-428-13867-8 .