Title: history of Europe | Summary, Wars, Ideas, & Colonialism | Britannica
Headings: History of Europe
History of Europe
Content: Many of Europe’s fields have been battlefields, and many of Europe’s cities, it has been said, were built on bones. Yet Europeans have also been in the forefront of intellectual, social, and economic endeavour. As navigators, explorers, and colonists, for a long time they dominated much of the rest of the world and left on it the impress of their values, their technology, their politics, and even their dress. They also exported both nationalism and weaponry. Then, in the 20th century, Europe came close to destroying itself. World War I cost more than 8 million European lives, World War II more than 18 million in battle, bombing, and systematic Nazi genocide —to say nothing of the 30 million who perished elsewhere. As well as the dead, the wars left lasting wounds, psychological and physical alike. But, whereas World War I exacerbated nationalism and ideological extremism in Europe, World War II had almost the opposite effect. The burned child fears fire; and Europe had been badly burned.