The Making of Modern Europe: 1400-1945
Overview
Course No. 8215
Discover how Europe became the laboratory for modern democracy, capitalism, and scientific thought through this 48-lecture journey from the Middle Ages to WWII.
Professor Bartlett guides you through Europe’s transformative centuries, examining:
- The collapse of feudalism and rise of nation-states
- Religious revolutions from the Reformation to secularism
- The Scientific Revolution and Enlightenment ideas
- Industrialization’s social upheavals
- The ideological battles leading to World Wars
This course reveals not just what happened, but why – showing how Europe’s past shaped our present.
Video Lessons
Medieval Foundations (Lectures 1-5)
- The Idea of Europe (32 min) – Conceptual framework
- Feudalism’s Structure (30 min) – Protection and hierarchy
- Three Estates System (30 min) – Clergy, nobility, commoners
- Manorial Economy (30 min) – Agricultural foundations
- Trade and Urban Growth (30 min) – Crusades to Black Death
Renaissance & Reformation (6-16)
- Italian Renaissance (30 min) – Merchant class and humanism
7-8. Church Crises (30/31 min) – Schisms and Christian humanism
9-10. Ottomans & Expansion (31/30 min) – Mediterranean to New World
11-14. Protestant Reformations (31/31/32/31 min) – Luther to English Civil War
15-16. Religious Wars (31/32 min) – Thirty Years’ War consequences
Revolutionary Centuries (17-30)
- Absolute Monarchy (31 min) – Louis XIV’s France
- Scientific Revolution (31 min) – Bacon to Newton
19-20. Enlightenment Thinkers (30/30 min) – Voltaire to Rousseau
21-24. French Revolution (30/30/30/31 min) – 1789 to Napoleon
25-28. Industrialization (31/31/30/30 min) – Factories to middle class
29-30. Liberal Governance (31/31 min) – Mill to Gladstone
Modern Ideologies (31-48)
31-32. Science & Optimism (31/32 min) – Progress theories
33-34. Nationalism (31/30 min) – 1848 revolutions to unification
35-36. Darwin’s Impact (30/30 min) – Evolution to Social Darwinism
37-38. Socialist Movements (30/31 min) – Utopians to Marx
39-42. World War I (31/30/30/31 min) – Causes to Versailles
43-48. Interwar Europe (30/30/31/31/30/31 min) – Rise of Fascism to WWII eve

