ABSTRACT
This chapter serves as a historical overview of Europe, recognizing that in order to understand many of the contemporary political issues and debates in Europe and to discuss where Europe might be heading, it is imperative to have some idea of where Europe has been and how, through various means, certain "European" ideas and practices developed and took root. It focuses on broad trends that helped shape the present, in particular the development of states, democratic institutions, and economic systems. Countries in Western and Eastern Europe developed differently in several key respects, and one could argue that the Western European experience largely defines in substantive terms what Europe "means" today. Two features distinguish modern European states from their predecessors: the doctrines of sovereignty and nationalism. Establishing sovereign control over a territory was but a part of state formation in Western Europe.
