What do you think?
Rate this book
La formación de Europa: Conquista, colonización y cambio cultural, 950 - 1350
Una obra excepcional que aborda la historia de Europa en los siglos centrales de la Edad Media a partir de los procesos de conquista, colonización y cambio cultural que se produjeron en el continente entre los años 950 y 1350. Con gran solvencia y admirable erudición, Bartlett analiza la formación de estados a través de la conquista y el poblamiento de regiones distantes en la periferia de Europa: el colonialismo inglés en el mundo céltico, la expansión germánica hacia la Europa oriental, la reconquista hispana y las actividades de los cruzados y colonos en el Mediterráneo oriental, sin descuidar nunca las consecuencias que esta expansión tuvo en las regiones de procedencia de los conquistadores y colonos. Por todo ello, la «formación de Europa» no es sólo la conquista colonial en sí misma, la inmigración y el desplazamiento de las fronteras, sino también la fundación de una sociedad expansiva y cada vez más homogénea.
472 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 1993
76 people are currently reading
2657 people want to read
About the author
Robert Bartlett
69 books59 followersRobert Bartlett, CBE, FBA, FRSE is Bishop Wardlaw Professor of Mediaeval History Emeritus at the University of St Andrews.
Ratings & Reviews
Friends & Following
Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!
Community Reviews
Displaying 1 - 30 of 77 reviews
October 27, 2013
Long review!
This is a unique and important book. It's not at all what I thought: I was expecting a pretty traditional overview of medieval European history hitting all the normal beats: feudal society, rise of kingdoms and a documentary culture, monasticism and friars, rise of a papal monarchy, maybe some bits on cathedral building or literature if Bartlett was feeling particularly wide-ranging. All that jazz. Instead, The Making of Europe focuses on how the 'heartland' of European civilization, under fire from nearly every direct at the start of the 10th century, turned the tables between 950 and 1350 and began an increasingly expansive effort at conquest and colonization.
Bartlett makes it very clear that colonization in the medieval period was fundamentally different than it was in later periods (with the possible exception of English involvement in Ireland): medieval colonization was more haphazard and makeshift and, more centrally, it was almost never about the subjugation or exploitation of the local people. That's certainly not to say it was a happy and friendly affair, but most aristocratic expansion in the medieval period was designed to recreate on the periphery the culture of the center. If a knight from Swabia conquered some territory in Poland, he tended to build Swabian castles and found new, free Swabian-style towns. In turn, he might adopt a Polish name, and form new alliances with the surrounding Polish princes. It was a process of diffusion as much as conquest, and a process that involved a two-way movement of culture and ideas more than later colonial attempts would usually entail.
Bartlett makes a few central points about this large-scale trend. First, it was an aristocratic affair rather than a royal one. Kings rarely bothered to conquer new territory in this period, but the variegated aristocracy who served that king suddenly spread itself out from Scotland to Syria in the 11th and 12th centuries (with the Normans beings the most well-known and one of the more colorful examples). A myriad of reasons spurred this development, but it was rather stunningly effective. By 1350, there were 15 royal crowns in Europe. 5 were direct descendants of the Capetian royal line of France. 7 more were members of the Frankish aristocracy owing service to the Capetian kings. That's crazy. This efficacy was based on a couple of factors, including the cultural appeal of Frankish Christianity (particularly in the north) and the military dominance of heavy cavalry and stone castles.
Having established this new wave of colonization, Bartlett then turns to what it meant. He discusses the foundation of new 'free' towns that was hugely common in the conquest of new land: land was rather useless to a lord if it wasn't productive, so one of the first steps in establishing oneself was to build a village and offer mutually beneficial terms to peasants of the surrounding areas to encourage resettlement (in some cases the attempt was less subtle, and a knight would simply conquer the neighboring area and forcibly relocate their peasants). This is one of the book's most interesting sections, as Bartlett does his best with extremely limited materials to try to figure out what this new village would have been like, and who would have lived there. Along with trade, Bartlett argued that this process led to the "Europeanization of Europe," a somewhat cutesy phrase that describes the process by which Europe came to be a cohesive cultural unit, able to speak about itself as a distinctive body differing from those who were not from Europe. He attributes it largely to the increasingly ethnic nature of the label "Christian," the spread of documentary culture (especially charters) and coinage, and the spread of a universal cult of the saints. Universities were also important, allowing prelates from widely different regions to obtain a uniform education and then to return to their towns and perpetuate these ideas.
The book closes with a look at European racism, a term not usually applied to the medieval field of study. But Bartlett does make the interesting point that there was a distinctive shift during this period. Around 1000, peoples just entering Christendom might be judged for their varying customs/dress/hair/etc., but there was a large degree of peaceful coexistence and, in many areas, legal equality. There was little to no concept of racism in the biological sense. By 1400, though, this was entirely different: ethnicity had become increasingly dependent upon who your parents were and where they were from, and within a century the concept of 'purity of blood' would spread through Spain like wildfire.
The highlight of this book is that it looks at areas that are almost never explored in large-scale medieval history books. You will read way, way more about Poland & Pomerania than Paris. Paris, in fact, is not even mentioned until 5/6 of the way through the book, and then it's a glancing mention in the context of the Irish Church. I cannot stress how unusual this is in the English-language writing of medieval history. It's really fascinating though, and one of the joys of reading it is to discover how differently things look when you look at the from a place that's not the traditional center.
It's also somewhat charming in its writing. There are plenty of little stories and asides, added in just the right places so that they give the text a lively, readable feel. Just an all around fascinating book.
This is a unique and important book. It's not at all what I thought: I was expecting a pretty traditional overview of medieval European history hitting all the normal beats: feudal society, rise of kingdoms and a documentary culture, monasticism and friars, rise of a papal monarchy, maybe some bits on cathedral building or literature if Bartlett was feeling particularly wide-ranging. All that jazz. Instead, The Making of Europe focuses on how the 'heartland' of European civilization, under fire from nearly every direct at the start of the 10th century, turned the tables between 950 and 1350 and began an increasingly expansive effort at conquest and colonization.
Bartlett makes it very clear that colonization in the medieval period was fundamentally different than it was in later periods (with the possible exception of English involvement in Ireland): medieval colonization was more haphazard and makeshift and, more centrally, it was almost never about the subjugation or exploitation of the local people. That's certainly not to say it was a happy and friendly affair, but most aristocratic expansion in the medieval period was designed to recreate on the periphery the culture of the center. If a knight from Swabia conquered some territory in Poland, he tended to build Swabian castles and found new, free Swabian-style towns. In turn, he might adopt a Polish name, and form new alliances with the surrounding Polish princes. It was a process of diffusion as much as conquest, and a process that involved a two-way movement of culture and ideas more than later colonial attempts would usually entail.
Bartlett makes a few central points about this large-scale trend. First, it was an aristocratic affair rather than a royal one. Kings rarely bothered to conquer new territory in this period, but the variegated aristocracy who served that king suddenly spread itself out from Scotland to Syria in the 11th and 12th centuries (with the Normans beings the most well-known and one of the more colorful examples). A myriad of reasons spurred this development, but it was rather stunningly effective. By 1350, there were 15 royal crowns in Europe. 5 were direct descendants of the Capetian royal line of France. 7 more were members of the Frankish aristocracy owing service to the Capetian kings. That's crazy. This efficacy was based on a couple of factors, including the cultural appeal of Frankish Christianity (particularly in the north) and the military dominance of heavy cavalry and stone castles.
Having established this new wave of colonization, Bartlett then turns to what it meant. He discusses the foundation of new 'free' towns that was hugely common in the conquest of new land: land was rather useless to a lord if it wasn't productive, so one of the first steps in establishing oneself was to build a village and offer mutually beneficial terms to peasants of the surrounding areas to encourage resettlement (in some cases the attempt was less subtle, and a knight would simply conquer the neighboring area and forcibly relocate their peasants). This is one of the book's most interesting sections, as Bartlett does his best with extremely limited materials to try to figure out what this new village would have been like, and who would have lived there. Along with trade, Bartlett argued that this process led to the "Europeanization of Europe," a somewhat cutesy phrase that describes the process by which Europe came to be a cohesive cultural unit, able to speak about itself as a distinctive body differing from those who were not from Europe. He attributes it largely to the increasingly ethnic nature of the label "Christian," the spread of documentary culture (especially charters) and coinage, and the spread of a universal cult of the saints. Universities were also important, allowing prelates from widely different regions to obtain a uniform education and then to return to their towns and perpetuate these ideas.
The book closes with a look at European racism, a term not usually applied to the medieval field of study. But Bartlett does make the interesting point that there was a distinctive shift during this period. Around 1000, peoples just entering Christendom might be judged for their varying customs/dress/hair/etc., but there was a large degree of peaceful coexistence and, in many areas, legal equality. There was little to no concept of racism in the biological sense. By 1400, though, this was entirely different: ethnicity had become increasingly dependent upon who your parents were and where they were from, and within a century the concept of 'purity of blood' would spread through Spain like wildfire.
The highlight of this book is that it looks at areas that are almost never explored in large-scale medieval history books. You will read way, way more about Poland & Pomerania than Paris. Paris, in fact, is not even mentioned until 5/6 of the way through the book, and then it's a glancing mention in the context of the Irish Church. I cannot stress how unusual this is in the English-language writing of medieval history. It's really fascinating though, and one of the joys of reading it is to discover how differently things look when you look at the from a place that's not the traditional center.
It's also somewhat charming in its writing. There are plenty of little stories and asides, added in just the right places so that they give the text a lively, readable feel. Just an all around fascinating book.
Read
March 31, 2017This is a book about the making of Europe and not about the development of Europe the focus is on how common practises, cultures and structures spread across the geographic concept of Europe through conquest, colonisation and emulation. For Bartlett the creation of Europe as an actual place with common cultural elements, as opposed to a geographical concept was the result of processes in history starting from around 950. These are essentially colonial and in various ways are the prototypical colonial practices which at the end of the medieval period would be exported to other parts of the world. Bartlett tells us that between 950ish and 1350ish one the same first names spread across Europe, the same saints' cults and religious practices, similar legal and political institutions, stories - why are Charlemagne and the paladins of France and King Arthur and his knights common European property. Who one might ask is guilty for all this? Inevitability it is the busy people between the Rhine and the Seine busily bettering themselves and stirring their neighbours out of happy laziness through hard and soft processes. Hard in the sense of they came, they built castles, they played chess with our lives, soft in the sense of everybody wanting to keep up with, well not the Joneses precisely. Bartlett takes us through colonisation of England, Wales, into Scotland and Ireland, in to Spain, the eastern Mediterranean and the Baltic states as hard processes - build castles, found cities, establish new legal practises. Into eastern Europe and Scandinavia as softer processes of emulation the careful tending by secular powers of a common European tool-kit of feudalism, Church power and law to enhance their power - this might include colonialism in the form of importing settlers from Germany into eastern Europe or the low countries into Wales for economic development - draining marshlands, founding towns with uniform legal codes and common weights and measures, developing mines. In the process a lot of diversity was lost, legal discrimination established, and some very bad cultural habits deeply embedded.
This is really a view and an interpretation of the development of Europe as a more or less cultural unified area and why its boundaries lie where they do. It is not a history that will take one through the German Emperors and the Investiture crisis and the black death, it is about the deeper currents rather than the frothy crests of events.
This is really a view and an interpretation of the development of Europe as a more or less cultural unified area and why its boundaries lie where they do. It is not a history that will take one through the German Emperors and the Investiture crisis and the black death, it is about the deeper currents rather than the frothy crests of events.
November 29, 2022
Consider me impressed. The project here is to detail how by certain processes the territory of the European continent was made more uniform. This occurred over centuries and less by faith or racial identity, as it appears that money was the chief motivator. Lebensraum was needed for the aristocracy and the warrior class pushed outwards. This book is wicked analytical and wonderfully nuanced. Fortifications, land-clearing and the naming of children all receive wonderful explanation. It was quite a joy, despite the unwieldy dimensions of the book and the rabid highlighting which adorned my copy.
August 4, 2010
This is not the best choice if you are looking for an introductory survey of Medieval Europe - and I say this as a former professor of Medieval and Early Modern Europe. A basic understanding (at least) of the period is required BEFORE reading Bartlet. Bartlet expends most of his energy hammering home his theme of conquest and colonization, particularly by the Germans in Eastern Europe and the Anglo-Normans in Ireland, that he often loses sight of major developments in the core regions; the big picture is often lost by Bartlet's love of minutiae and his desire to make his argument of internal European colonization. For example, as part of his discussion of 13th-century urbanization, Bartlet chooses the market town of Kruppel (exactly - no one has heard of it!) as exemplary of German settlement moving eastward. Fine, but nothing on the great urban centers of Florence, Bruges, or Paris?
Don't get me wrong; this is a fine and scholarly work on Medieval Europe, but it will not replace a standard survey of the period and should not be a student's first reading on the subject.
Don't get me wrong; this is a fine and scholarly work on Medieval Europe, but it will not replace a standard survey of the period and should not be a student's first reading on the subject.
July 31, 2016
One of the best books on the high Middle Ages out there, and one of my favorite medieval history books in general. If you want to know how Europe went from the diversity, decentralization and weakness of the 'Dark Ages' to the continent of religious wars, racial colonialism and nation-states that it would become, read this.
May 1, 2016
Eropah yg mengambil pentas utama dunia sejak Columbus mula menjejakkan kaki di Amerika pada 1492 adalah produk kolonialisasi.
Kolonialisasi itu berlaku sekitar abad 10-14; pasca Reformasi Carolingian (zaman Charlemagne). Ia dilakukan oleh bangsa Jerman yg telah diKristiankan. Corak pergerakan kolonialisasi tersebut adalah dari tengah Eropah (Jerman Barat) ke pinggiran Eropah (Eropah Timur sekarang).
Contohnya penduduk Eropah Barat berpindah ke kawasan Eropah timur daripada Sungai Elbe ke tanah2 yg sedang dihuni oleh orang Slav, Magyars dll yg merupakan pagan. Atau Orang Franks yg bergerak ke Semenanjung Iberia. Atau Normans yg asalnya tinggal di Barat Laut Perancis, telah melintasi Selat Inggeris dan menjajah England (generasi2 seterusnya telah berjaya mengambil alih Scotland, Wales dan negara2 Scandinavia lain samada dari segi politikal atau budaya).
Antara punca kepada fenomena ini adalah populasi berlebihan, pendakyahan agama Kristian, percubaan untuk meningkatkan taraf sosial (dengan memperoleh tanah di negara yg baru) di dalam masyarakat.
Aktor2 yg terlibat di dalam kolonialisasi ini awalnya adalah golongan raja2. Hanya mereka yg mempunyai sumber kewangan dan pengaruh untuk melaksanakannya.
Namun apa yg lazimnya berlaku sepanjang High Middle Age (11-13th c) adalah golongan aristokrat, paderi2 Latin, pedagang2, dan petani yg menggerakkan usaha kolonialisasi tersebut.
Daya kolonialisasi perlu difahami bukan dalam erti modennya. Bandar2 koloni sewaktu Middle Ages tidak bergantung kepada ibu koloni seperti kolonialisme moden abad 19, 20. Sebaliknya bandar2 koloni ini mengajuk (autonomic replicas) struktur sosial dan undang2 ibu koloni yg dalam kes ini adalah Jerman Carolingian.
Kolonialisasi ini sering mendapat tentangan daripada penduduk tempatan. Selalunya penduduk tempatan akur dan mengaku kalah; mereka menganut agama Kristian dan mengamalkan budaya penjajah mereka.
Tetapi di beberapa komuniti seperti Lithuania, Ireland dan golongan Mudejar (orang Islam yg hidup di tanah Kristian) mereka melawan proses penindasan tersebut dan mula membentuk struktur masyarakat yg relatifnya autonomi dan tidak tunduk kepada status quo.
Buku ini ayat2nya ditulis dengan panjang dan berjela walaupun aku akur ia sentiasa dilakukan dengan idea di belakang. Ia boleh ditulis dengan lebih mudah; ia patut ditulis dengan lenggok bahasa yg lebih mudah.
Juga kekurangan yg lain adalah alam Eropah semasa atau sebelum Reformasi Carolingian (9th c) tidak diberi huraian ringkas.
Kolonialisasi itu berlaku sekitar abad 10-14; pasca Reformasi Carolingian (zaman Charlemagne). Ia dilakukan oleh bangsa Jerman yg telah diKristiankan. Corak pergerakan kolonialisasi tersebut adalah dari tengah Eropah (Jerman Barat) ke pinggiran Eropah (Eropah Timur sekarang).
Contohnya penduduk Eropah Barat berpindah ke kawasan Eropah timur daripada Sungai Elbe ke tanah2 yg sedang dihuni oleh orang Slav, Magyars dll yg merupakan pagan. Atau Orang Franks yg bergerak ke Semenanjung Iberia. Atau Normans yg asalnya tinggal di Barat Laut Perancis, telah melintasi Selat Inggeris dan menjajah England (generasi2 seterusnya telah berjaya mengambil alih Scotland, Wales dan negara2 Scandinavia lain samada dari segi politikal atau budaya).
Antara punca kepada fenomena ini adalah populasi berlebihan, pendakyahan agama Kristian, percubaan untuk meningkatkan taraf sosial (dengan memperoleh tanah di negara yg baru) di dalam masyarakat.
Aktor2 yg terlibat di dalam kolonialisasi ini awalnya adalah golongan raja2. Hanya mereka yg mempunyai sumber kewangan dan pengaruh untuk melaksanakannya.
Namun apa yg lazimnya berlaku sepanjang High Middle Age (11-13th c) adalah golongan aristokrat, paderi2 Latin, pedagang2, dan petani yg menggerakkan usaha kolonialisasi tersebut.
Daya kolonialisasi perlu difahami bukan dalam erti modennya. Bandar2 koloni sewaktu Middle Ages tidak bergantung kepada ibu koloni seperti kolonialisme moden abad 19, 20. Sebaliknya bandar2 koloni ini mengajuk (autonomic replicas) struktur sosial dan undang2 ibu koloni yg dalam kes ini adalah Jerman Carolingian.
Kolonialisasi ini sering mendapat tentangan daripada penduduk tempatan. Selalunya penduduk tempatan akur dan mengaku kalah; mereka menganut agama Kristian dan mengamalkan budaya penjajah mereka.
Tetapi di beberapa komuniti seperti Lithuania, Ireland dan golongan Mudejar (orang Islam yg hidup di tanah Kristian) mereka melawan proses penindasan tersebut dan mula membentuk struktur masyarakat yg relatifnya autonomi dan tidak tunduk kepada status quo.
Buku ini ayat2nya ditulis dengan panjang dan berjela walaupun aku akur ia sentiasa dilakukan dengan idea di belakang. Ia boleh ditulis dengan lebih mudah; ia patut ditulis dengan lenggok bahasa yg lebih mudah.
Juga kekurangan yg lain adalah alam Eropah semasa atau sebelum Reformasi Carolingian (9th c) tidak diberi huraian ringkas.
September 28, 2009
The Making of Europe is a wonderful history that ranges over the European world (with special weight to details in what become Eastern Europe) and creates a different picture of the middle ages. Not the static time of Renaissance historian's criticism, instead it is one of internal conquest and consolidation and external expansion via colonization. Europe no longer suffered assaults from outsiders, it was now the aggressive force, spreading into Ireland, Spain, and the East. Bartlett turns what could be dry into an amusing narrative with his wealth of details and individual stories to highlight his points. European expansion was aided by Frankish aggressiveness, legal (free towns, charters), economic (trade, ventures encouraging peasant migrations), institutional (religious orders, military orders, universities), political and military advantages. Excellent synthesis that changes your vantage on a historical period.
August 3, 2012
How did Europe become "Europeanized"? An outstanding survey of the ways in which Europe became Europe (in contrast to what wasn't). I learned so many new things--not so much facts (I knew many of them already) but their history and significance and relation to other facts. I knew that there were international monastic orders. I didn't know that this was a gradual change from more localized and independent houses and that they were a part of an "institutionalized skeleton that supported [an] intense Latin Christian Identity."
Immensely detailed without being overwhelming or boring. As the book proceeds you can see him fitting the pieces of a giant puzzle together. Perhaps that is why I found things like the spread of uniform town charters and the changing uses of saints' names for children so interesting.
Immensely detailed without being overwhelming or boring. As the book proceeds you can see him fitting the pieces of a giant puzzle together. Perhaps that is why I found things like the spread of uniform town charters and the changing uses of saints' names for children so interesting.
February 3, 2008
Anyone who follows my reading list knows of my general distaste for medieval history. But this book was a bombshell; one of the best books I've read - of all genres - in a long time. Fast paced, engaging, interesting, and, in ways a student would appreciate, easy to skim. I have two rough classifications for books: 1) rich in ideas and therefore stimulating; or 2) rich in anecdotes and stories, and therefore engaging. This book was both. From descriptions of medieval warfare and knighthood, to fantastically rich ideas (such Bartlett's idea regarding the spread a homogeneous European culture from center to periphery), this book comes through in classic form. I would recommend this book to anyone, regardless of their interests.
April 16, 2017
The bright example of historical non-fiction which provides a deep insight into the essence of the processes of building of Europe in Medieval time. The book isn't focused on any of particular names or events but rather on strong underlying flows which have defined the ways of Europe's expansion and uniformity.
The main idea thoroughly carried out by author is that Medieval history of Europe is the story of conquest and colonization spreading from the core limited by the territories of contemporary France, western Germany and northern Italy outwards to the British isles, eastern Europe and Middle East. At the same time this process is quite different from conventional understanding of colonization. It was undertaken not by states and kings but rather by individual entrepreneurs self-organised into groups united either by pursuit for land gain or by religious fire or by both. Another important distinction is that conquered lands have then been converted by the patterns common in the lands of conquerors' origin: the same (and sometimes even more liberal) law has been applied, new free trade cities have been established, same religious and educational institutions have been installed, etc. So basically conquerors converted newly captured lands into their new homes. And since after seizure these lands quite often appeared empty and unmanned then in order to attract peasants, town craftsmen and merchants new owners had to introduce enough tempting conditions and laws for a such men power flow.
Author focuses on very many entities and institutions invented or developed during period from 950 to 1350 years. Knights and reasons pushing them out of homeland, Latin Christendom and why adjective 'Latin' is so important here, knights orders, crusades, Italian maritime town-republics and their role both in European economy and in crusades, medieval art of warfare, relations between winners and defeated and consequences of these relations (sometimes reaching these days), how the racism was born in Europe, universities, agriculture, castles, languages and many more.
Usually the main problem with reading historical non-fiction books relates to the difficulty with binding all together: timeline, essential developments at the time being and cumulative effect of these developments in time. In other words, main difficulty is to make reader feel the context along entire period. Bartlett made his choice in favour of thorough analysis of every concept thus dropping the abstraction of chronology as a core of a narrative. But final chapters of the book bind everything together sewing different parts of the history with the threads of mutual relations and development in time. I personally liked such approach.
The main idea thoroughly carried out by author is that Medieval history of Europe is the story of conquest and colonization spreading from the core limited by the territories of contemporary France, western Germany and northern Italy outwards to the British isles, eastern Europe and Middle East. At the same time this process is quite different from conventional understanding of colonization. It was undertaken not by states and kings but rather by individual entrepreneurs self-organised into groups united either by pursuit for land gain or by religious fire or by both. Another important distinction is that conquered lands have then been converted by the patterns common in the lands of conquerors' origin: the same (and sometimes even more liberal) law has been applied, new free trade cities have been established, same religious and educational institutions have been installed, etc. So basically conquerors converted newly captured lands into their new homes. And since after seizure these lands quite often appeared empty and unmanned then in order to attract peasants, town craftsmen and merchants new owners had to introduce enough tempting conditions and laws for a such men power flow.
Author focuses on very many entities and institutions invented or developed during period from 950 to 1350 years. Knights and reasons pushing them out of homeland, Latin Christendom and why adjective 'Latin' is so important here, knights orders, crusades, Italian maritime town-republics and their role both in European economy and in crusades, medieval art of warfare, relations between winners and defeated and consequences of these relations (sometimes reaching these days), how the racism was born in Europe, universities, agriculture, castles, languages and many more.
Usually the main problem with reading historical non-fiction books relates to the difficulty with binding all together: timeline, essential developments at the time being and cumulative effect of these developments in time. In other words, main difficulty is to make reader feel the context along entire period. Bartlett made his choice in favour of thorough analysis of every concept thus dropping the abstraction of chronology as a core of a narrative. But final chapters of the book bind everything together sewing different parts of the history with the threads of mutual relations and development in time. I personally liked such approach.
Read
May 31, 2025It's easy to see why this book is so highly-regarded — it not only covers a lot of extremely interesting social and cultural material, it also (with great ingenuity) synthesizes that material in a way that seems all of a piece. The novelty of castles; the rise of crossbows and heavy cavalry; attitudes to language and law as markers of cultural identity; the concept of "Christendom"; the proliferation of new bishoprics, frontier settlements, market towns, and free villages — Bartlett explores all of this, and more besides, and the effect is that of coming at the time period from a host of different angles, while somehow not seeming like a hodge-podge.
So, overall excellent. My one critique is that Bartlett — as can too easily happen in scholarly writing — sometimes forgets that the trends and developments and actions he describes were undertaken by actual human beings, acting on normal human impulses and desires. You could get the impression from this book that people in the late Middle Ages did what they did solely in response to abstract principles like "prestige" or "expansion" or "solidifying one's political influence" — you could forget that people in the past made this choice, undertook that action, because they genuinely believed that it was good, or true, or just or pleasing or fun. Still, if you remember to factor this in, the book is extremely valuable: much food for thought, much to learn.
So, overall excellent. My one critique is that Bartlett — as can too easily happen in scholarly writing — sometimes forgets that the trends and developments and actions he describes were undertaken by actual human beings, acting on normal human impulses and desires. You could get the impression from this book that people in the late Middle Ages did what they did solely in response to abstract principles like "prestige" or "expansion" or "solidifying one's political influence" — you could forget that people in the past made this choice, undertook that action, because they genuinely believed that it was good, or true, or just or pleasing or fun. Still, if you remember to factor this in, the book is extremely valuable: much food for thought, much to learn.
April 30, 2025
Tres estrellas porque he de reconocer que algunos capítulos han sido interesantes pero... segunda vez que me lo tengo que leer, segundo examen del puto libro... sigo sin entender la diáspora aristocrática aunque ahora puedo tener un poco de visión general de la época que no me servirá para nada tampoco porque se me olvidará en menos de 3 meses... Al menos va a estar en mi "biblioteca de mayor" como dicen unas amigas mías... en fin
January 19, 2018
A good description, analysis, and summary of this period. A scholarly work, yet very readable.
April 2, 2023
Must read if you want to understand modern Europe and Colonialism.
It's also taught me that I literally am an 11th century Norman Knight.
It's also taught me that I literally am an 11th century Norman Knight.
May 3, 2024
3.5 or 4
November 4, 2022
Many years ago a professor told me that the process of Portuguese colonization was just a continuation of the reconquista. I didn't fully understand it until reading this book, though it stuck with me over the decades.
Professor Bartlett lays out the claim that Europe was formed as a process of "conquest, colonization and cultural change" over the Middle Ages. In one respect he is correct, but in order to accomplish this he has to broaden the definition of colonialism to the point of it being relatively meaningless. It is interesting however to note that the hot-topic and much maligned word has undergone such a change at the hands of the good professor.
When I taught social studies in British Columbia I recall the textbook listing the top ten reasons for African poverty and colonialism featured prominently, if not first. Ironically (but completely unintentionally), a couple of pages later the textbook listed the ten poorest countries in Africa and Ethiopia was either the poorest or top/bottom 3, despite never really being a colony. I don't think the author saw the flaw in his logic and the curriculum editors were only too happy to go along with the high school-level analysis. The textbook had to blame someone, and that someone is always the same: Europe/America. No mention of Hong Kong's wealth and success was included in the textbook for some reason, or Canada's, which was a colony of both the French and then the British until 1982.
So it was refreshing to read that Europe itself was the"victim" of its own process of colonization, as the centre-periphery argument goes, "Europe, the initiator of one of the world's major processes of conquest, colonization and cultural transformation, was also the product of one." (p.314). So where is my reparation cheque?
It was also refreshing that the detailed analysis of the "colonization" belied the term, as professor Bartlett makes clear in the conclusion,
Professor Bartlett is strongest when dealing with the British colonization of Scotland (invited) and Ireland (considerably less benign) and the German colonization-migration eastwards into Slavic (Wendish, then Polish, Prussian and Bohemian) lands. By collecting a wealth of information and illustrative examples he is able to walk the fine line between celebrating and condemning the "colonization" and avoids nationalist pitfalls. It is well summed up by himself,
Hardly Rouseau's noble savage, but not necessarily a welcome incursion by the native inhabitants.
He is however weakest when trying to fit the round pegs of the Crusader States and Reconquista Spain into the square holes of colonization, and the thesis of the Crusader State "colonialism" has been abandoned by most serious scholars since publication of the book (first in 1993).
Professor Bartlett lays out the claim that Europe was formed as a process of "conquest, colonization and cultural change" over the Middle Ages. In one respect he is correct, but in order to accomplish this he has to broaden the definition of colonialism to the point of it being relatively meaningless. It is interesting however to note that the hot-topic and much maligned word has undergone such a change at the hands of the good professor.
When I taught social studies in British Columbia I recall the textbook listing the top ten reasons for African poverty and colonialism featured prominently, if not first. Ironically (but completely unintentionally), a couple of pages later the textbook listed the ten poorest countries in Africa and Ethiopia was either the poorest or top/bottom 3, despite never really being a colony. I don't think the author saw the flaw in his logic and the curriculum editors were only too happy to go along with the high school-level analysis. The textbook had to blame someone, and that someone is always the same: Europe/America. No mention of Hong Kong's wealth and success was included in the textbook for some reason, or Canada's, which was a colony of both the French and then the British until 1982.
So it was refreshing to read that Europe itself was the"victim" of its own process of colonization, as the centre-periphery argument goes, "Europe, the initiator of one of the world's major processes of conquest, colonization and cultural transformation, was also the product of one." (p.314). So where is my reparation cheque?
It was also refreshing that the detailed analysis of the "colonization" belied the term, as professor Bartlett makes clear in the conclusion,
The colonialism of the Middle Ages was quite different [from that of the 19th century]...they were not engaged in the creation of a pattern of regional subordination. What they were doing was reproducing units similar to those in their homelands....The net result of this colonialism was noth the creation of 'colonies', in the sense of dependencies, but the spread, by a kind of cellular multiplication, of the cultural and social forms found in the Latin Christian core. (p. 306)
Professor Bartlett is strongest when dealing with the British colonization of Scotland (invited) and Ireland (considerably less benign) and the German colonization-migration eastwards into Slavic (Wendish, then Polish, Prussian and Bohemian) lands. By collecting a wealth of information and illustrative examples he is able to walk the fine line between celebrating and condemning the "colonization" and avoids nationalist pitfalls. It is well summed up by himself,
The introduction of an alien castle-building cavalry élite in to the Celtic lands and eastern Europe was followed by peasant immigration, a rise in the importance of cereal farming, the establishment or tighter organization of the Church and urbanization. The foundation of chartered towns and the encouragement of peasant settlement, monetization and documentary culture in the societies of the periphery meant that the very social and economic basis of life changed [including the elimination of border warfare, cattle raiding and slave raiding]
Hardly Rouseau's noble savage, but not necessarily a welcome incursion by the native inhabitants.
He is however weakest when trying to fit the round pegs of the Crusader States and Reconquista Spain into the square holes of colonization, and the thesis of the Crusader State "colonialism" has been abandoned by most serious scholars since publication of the book (first in 1993).
November 6, 2020
In The Making of Europe: Conquest, Colonization and Cultural Change 950-1350, Robert Bartlett attempts to answer two fundamental questions about the High Medieval Ages. First, how did Latin Europe, a highly differentiated society comprising only a small territory perpetually in danger from outside threats, come to spread over a continent with a more homogenized culture by the later Middle Ages. Secondly, as the title suggests, how did modern Europe develop? Bartlett argues that the process of conquest, colonization, and immigration in the High Middle Ages created an extensive and relatively homogenous society known as “Europe.”
Bartlett’s thesis demonstrates the unique lens through which he views the vast social transformation of High Medieval Europe discussed by many medievalists before him. Rather than view this period through the lens of just cultural, political, economic, or social history, he takes them all in aggregate to craft a macro-history of the period through the perspective of colonialism. He sees one of the significant trends of this period as being the expansion of Latin European culture from the “core” of Europe in the post-Carolingian territories to Europe’s “peripheries” in the Baltic Region, the Balkans, Scandinavia, Eastern Europe, Iberia, and the eastern Mediterranean. From there, Bartlett analyzes the diffusion of people, culture, legal structures, and technologies from the Latin core to Europe’s peripheries.
This book is divided into thirteen chapters in total. The introduction is a short chapter that gives a concise explanation of Bartlett’s goal is throughout the book. Chapter 1, “The Expansion of Latin Christendom,” covers the spread of Latin Christianity, which he defines as the form of Christianity that recognized papal authority and the Latin liturgy, to the periphery regions of Europe. He notes that “Latin” Christianity was not just a religious signifier but also a cultural one, associated with Frankish culture. For example, the Celtic world, already long converted to Christianity, were considered “barbarians” and de facto “pagans” for their cultural differences with the Franks. Chapter 2, “The Aristocratic Diaspora,” follows the movement of aristocrats from the core in the 10th and 13th centuries, coinciding with the Crusades. This discussion flows into the next chapter as Bartlett notes that the aristocracy was mainly a military aristocracy. Chapter 3, “Military Technology and Political Power,” notes the diffusion of Frankish military technology and techniques to the periphery through the aristocracy’s diaspora to these regions. In chapter 4, “The Image of the Conqueror,” Bartlett explores the development of the rhetoric and mythic status of expansionary violence that created the self-image of a conqueror in the conquest states and colonial societies that emerged in the wake of the movements of the military aristocracy.
Chapter 5, “The Free Village,” delves into the migratory movements of the rural and urban population of Europe’s core to its peripheries. ‘The free village’ acted as the means of peasant migration in response to labor shortages on the peripheries. Lords would grant favorable status and benefits to peasants who settled in these areas. Chapter 6, “The New Landscape,” follows from the preceding chapter by demonstrating the process in which vast amounts of woodland was transformed into productive land by the settlement of these migratory peasants discussed earlier. Chapter 7, “Colonial Towns and Colonial Traders,” shifts focus from Europe’s rural population to follow the diaspora of burgesses and western urban forms to the peripheries. The following two chapters explore medieval conceptions of race and their consequences. Chapter 8, “Race Relations on the Frontiers of Latin Europe (1): Language and Law,” explores how race became a central issue of discussion with different ethnic groups coming to live with each other on Europe’s peripheries due to the migration patterns discussed earlier. Race in the medieval context was not based on biological markers like its modern conception but was based on law, custom, and language. Chapter 9, “Race Relations on the Frontiers of Latin Europe (2): Power and Blood,” charts how the race relations discussed in the previous chapter led to a changing social and political landscape of racial solidarity and racial hostility with particular importance in the Church, the princely court, and the burgess community.
Chapter 10, “The Roman Church and the Christian People,” surveys the process by which the Roman Church saw greater liturgical and institutional uniformity throughout the High Medieval Ages. This process, in turn, led to the emergence of a conception of “Christendom.” Chapter 11, “The Europeanization of Europe,” moves from the realm of religion and politics to discuss how core Frankish culture diffused throughout the European continent to create a more homogeneous culture, which could be called a broader “European” culture. Finally, chapter 12, “The Political Sociology of Europe after the Expansion,” analyses the geopolitical consequences of the expansion of Europe as Christendom gained dominance over Muslims and pagans, as well as how previously precarious regions such as Italy became important nodes of trade and culture. The text ends with a brief comparison of medieval and modern colonialism.
After the book’s primary content, the volume contains a lengthy compilation of endnotes, a comprehensive bibliography of sources and secondary literature, and an index. All the book’s end matters are extensive and thorough. With the large number of sources cited by Bartlett, this book’s amount of research becomes evident.
After the book’s primary content, the volume contains a lengthy compilation of endnotes, a comprehensive bibliography of sources and secondary literature, and an index. All the book’s end matters are extensive and thorough. With the large number of sources cited by Bartlett, this book’s amount of research becomes evident.
Overall, Robert Bartlett’s The Making of Europe is a unique and well-researched text that impresses with its scope. Rather than focus on the “core” of Europe, such as the post-Carolingian kingdoms or the British Isles, Bartlett explores Europe’s emergence through its frontiers on the edges, which provides an interesting heterodox perspective on this macro-view of medieval European history. The book is readable and clear enough for undergraduates while providing a unique historiographical lens for scholars. The book most strongly benefits from its singular focus as it never reads as though Bartlett is losing focus. However, this focus by Bartlett is not without its issues. Since Bartlett focuses on the emergence of modern Europe through the expansion of Latin Christendom, areas outside of the realm of either Latin Christendom or modern Europe that held European colonial or conquest states during the period are largely passed over. Bartlett provides much attention to the British Isles, the Baltic region, and Eastern Europe. However, he devotes much less attention to areas within the sphere of Greek Christian influence such as the Balkans or peripheries that did not stay “European” such as the Crusader states. This issue is most glaring with the lack of attention on Iberia, given that it was well within Latin Christendom, and the role of Reconquista in Christendom’s expansion. Given the amount Bartlett does with what he does cover, the book’s positives outweigh any lapses in attention.
Bartlett’s thesis demonstrates the unique lens through which he views the vast social transformation of High Medieval Europe discussed by many medievalists before him. Rather than view this period through the lens of just cultural, political, economic, or social history, he takes them all in aggregate to craft a macro-history of the period through the perspective of colonialism. He sees one of the significant trends of this period as being the expansion of Latin European culture from the “core” of Europe in the post-Carolingian territories to Europe’s “peripheries” in the Baltic Region, the Balkans, Scandinavia, Eastern Europe, Iberia, and the eastern Mediterranean. From there, Bartlett analyzes the diffusion of people, culture, legal structures, and technologies from the Latin core to Europe’s peripheries.
This book is divided into thirteen chapters in total. The introduction is a short chapter that gives a concise explanation of Bartlett’s goal is throughout the book. Chapter 1, “The Expansion of Latin Christendom,” covers the spread of Latin Christianity, which he defines as the form of Christianity that recognized papal authority and the Latin liturgy, to the periphery regions of Europe. He notes that “Latin” Christianity was not just a religious signifier but also a cultural one, associated with Frankish culture. For example, the Celtic world, already long converted to Christianity, were considered “barbarians” and de facto “pagans” for their cultural differences with the Franks. Chapter 2, “The Aristocratic Diaspora,” follows the movement of aristocrats from the core in the 10th and 13th centuries, coinciding with the Crusades. This discussion flows into the next chapter as Bartlett notes that the aristocracy was mainly a military aristocracy. Chapter 3, “Military Technology and Political Power,” notes the diffusion of Frankish military technology and techniques to the periphery through the aristocracy’s diaspora to these regions. In chapter 4, “The Image of the Conqueror,” Bartlett explores the development of the rhetoric and mythic status of expansionary violence that created the self-image of a conqueror in the conquest states and colonial societies that emerged in the wake of the movements of the military aristocracy.
Chapter 5, “The Free Village,” delves into the migratory movements of the rural and urban population of Europe’s core to its peripheries. ‘The free village’ acted as the means of peasant migration in response to labor shortages on the peripheries. Lords would grant favorable status and benefits to peasants who settled in these areas. Chapter 6, “The New Landscape,” follows from the preceding chapter by demonstrating the process in which vast amounts of woodland was transformed into productive land by the settlement of these migratory peasants discussed earlier. Chapter 7, “Colonial Towns and Colonial Traders,” shifts focus from Europe’s rural population to follow the diaspora of burgesses and western urban forms to the peripheries. The following two chapters explore medieval conceptions of race and their consequences. Chapter 8, “Race Relations on the Frontiers of Latin Europe (1): Language and Law,” explores how race became a central issue of discussion with different ethnic groups coming to live with each other on Europe’s peripheries due to the migration patterns discussed earlier. Race in the medieval context was not based on biological markers like its modern conception but was based on law, custom, and language. Chapter 9, “Race Relations on the Frontiers of Latin Europe (2): Power and Blood,” charts how the race relations discussed in the previous chapter led to a changing social and political landscape of racial solidarity and racial hostility with particular importance in the Church, the princely court, and the burgess community.
Chapter 10, “The Roman Church and the Christian People,” surveys the process by which the Roman Church saw greater liturgical and institutional uniformity throughout the High Medieval Ages. This process, in turn, led to the emergence of a conception of “Christendom.” Chapter 11, “The Europeanization of Europe,” moves from the realm of religion and politics to discuss how core Frankish culture diffused throughout the European continent to create a more homogeneous culture, which could be called a broader “European” culture. Finally, chapter 12, “The Political Sociology of Europe after the Expansion,” analyses the geopolitical consequences of the expansion of Europe as Christendom gained dominance over Muslims and pagans, as well as how previously precarious regions such as Italy became important nodes of trade and culture. The text ends with a brief comparison of medieval and modern colonialism.
After the book’s primary content, the volume contains a lengthy compilation of endnotes, a comprehensive bibliography of sources and secondary literature, and an index. All the book’s end matters are extensive and thorough. With the large number of sources cited by Bartlett, this book’s amount of research becomes evident.
After the book’s primary content, the volume contains a lengthy compilation of endnotes, a comprehensive bibliography of sources and secondary literature, and an index. All the book’s end matters are extensive and thorough. With the large number of sources cited by Bartlett, this book’s amount of research becomes evident.
Overall, Robert Bartlett’s The Making of Europe is a unique and well-researched text that impresses with its scope. Rather than focus on the “core” of Europe, such as the post-Carolingian kingdoms or the British Isles, Bartlett explores Europe’s emergence through its frontiers on the edges, which provides an interesting heterodox perspective on this macro-view of medieval European history. The book is readable and clear enough for undergraduates while providing a unique historiographical lens for scholars. The book most strongly benefits from its singular focus as it never reads as though Bartlett is losing focus. However, this focus by Bartlett is not without its issues. Since Bartlett focuses on the emergence of modern Europe through the expansion of Latin Christendom, areas outside of the realm of either Latin Christendom or modern Europe that held European colonial or conquest states during the period are largely passed over. Bartlett provides much attention to the British Isles, the Baltic region, and Eastern Europe. However, he devotes much less attention to areas within the sphere of Greek Christian influence such as the Balkans or peripheries that did not stay “European” such as the Crusader states. This issue is most glaring with the lack of attention on Iberia, given that it was well within Latin Christendom, and the role of Reconquista in Christendom’s expansion. Given the amount Bartlett does with what he does cover, the book’s positives outweigh any lapses in attention.
January 5, 2019
If you thought Western colonialism began with Hispaniola or Mauritania's Arguin, then Bartlett will do some fancy historical footwork to demonstrate the medieval origins of Western colonialism with outposts in Riga, Palestine, and even ginger-infested Hibernia.
Bartlett does an excellent job mixing statistics with demographic/economic narratives and amusing anecdotes. (It was common practice for kings to give knights authorized land grants to territory that wasn't yet conquered. However, we have documentary evidence that an 11th century English king wrote out a land grant for the Irish region of Connacht to an Anglo-Norman lord before giving the native king the same territorial claims. Both royal grants were written on the same day.)
Above all, this book is an excellent reminder that the Protestant work ethic had its prototype in the Norman people--that queer fusion of brutish Norsemen and cultured French. They were so notorious for their brutality in the 12th century that the Chinese greeted the 17th century Portuguese sailors by the Chinese word for Norman. Yet they were indefatigable and worked tirelessly to establish sophisticated legal and administrative societies wherever they settled.
Like most aspects of modernity, European imperialism and racism had its precedent in much earlier centuries, and Bartlett does an excellent job pulling these threads together.
Bartlett does an excellent job mixing statistics with demographic/economic narratives and amusing anecdotes. (It was common practice for kings to give knights authorized land grants to territory that wasn't yet conquered. However, we have documentary evidence that an 11th century English king wrote out a land grant for the Irish region of Connacht to an Anglo-Norman lord before giving the native king the same territorial claims. Both royal grants were written on the same day.)
Above all, this book is an excellent reminder that the Protestant work ethic had its prototype in the Norman people--that queer fusion of brutish Norsemen and cultured French. They were so notorious for their brutality in the 12th century that the Chinese greeted the 17th century Portuguese sailors by the Chinese word for Norman. Yet they were indefatigable and worked tirelessly to establish sophisticated legal and administrative societies wherever they settled.
Like most aspects of modernity, European imperialism and racism had its precedent in much earlier centuries, and Bartlett does an excellent job pulling these threads together.
November 4, 2019
Definitely a nontraditional look at Europe and colonization. I've long known and felt that modern Europe came out of the Medieval period, but I hadn't thought where Europe's penchant for colonization came from. This examination of a distinctly European identity that spread chiefly from Western Europe is intriguing. At times I feel he conflates the argument a little too much in order the use the4 word colonization in there, but I can't argue with his overall thesis.
I was particularly fascinated by his examination of the roots of European racism, and how it came to be. At first, I was wary since he stated that it began as people all of the same skin colors, but he changed my mind. It's sad to see how the gradual emergence of ethnic racism based on being German vs Slav, or English vs Irish, but there it is. While he doesn't spend too much time on racism based on skin color, it's not hard to make the leap after reading his book.
Overall, an excellent book on the Middle Ages, and, as the book states, how Europe became Europe.
I was particularly fascinated by his examination of the roots of European racism, and how it came to be. At first, I was wary since he stated that it began as people all of the same skin colors, but he changed my mind. It's sad to see how the gradual emergence of ethnic racism based on being German vs Slav, or English vs Irish, but there it is. While he doesn't spend too much time on racism based on skin color, it's not hard to make the leap after reading his book.
Overall, an excellent book on the Middle Ages, and, as the book states, how Europe became Europe.
November 19, 2010
Best plan on reading this is not spreading it out over a semester like I had to because you kind of lose the thread. That being said, also don't read another Bartlett book at the same time, because the repetition is, well, repetitive. (Thank you, Redundant Department of Departmental Redundancy). I did like this, though, as a scholarly work and a new (er) way to look at the development of medieval Europe. Bartlett basically argues that Europe did not begin with Charlemagne, as many have said, but with the wandering, marauding knights that followed the collapse of his empire--and a darn good case he makes, too. His prose is very easy and doesn't assume too much knowledge of the period to begin with (you don't have to have a history Ph.D. to get this), which is fantastic to find in scholarly works. So yes. If you're into the medieval history thing, this is actually a really good choice.
September 5, 2012
I found this disappointing but am prepared to accept that this might be due to my own limitations. I can't muster a lot of enthusiasm for highly detailed accounts of law-making, coinage etc - but I did find the bits about people, and the church, and racism, and structure of villages, towns and the landscape etc. very interesting. On the whole I though it was rather dry and went into a lot of detail about a couple of parts of Europe and ignored the rest to a great extent. If I didn't have a good grasp of North German and Polish geography, I would really have struggled. There seemed to be some sloppy editing - he referred to things in a way which implied that we had already read about them but which didn't seem to appear beforehand, at least not according to the index (I am always prepared to admit that I might have missed a detail or two). He clearly had a particular agenda which he wanted to pursue but I think it's a pity that so much of Europe was ignored.
March 4, 2025
Bartlett accomplishes an astonishing task in the 314 pages of this book. That is, he brings a reader from 950 to 1350 and explains how Europe went from a series of small warring principalities to a group of empires that would colonize much of the rest of the world. Bartlett does so by working in the vein of von Ranke and Bloch, and he searches for the origin of phenomena and compares the form of those phenomena through transnational and transtemporal examples. As is expected of a work of this caliber, Bartlett avoids great man history, but he recognizes individuals' ambitions and tenacity as key loci of Europe's colonial project. Ambitious Bishops and Dukes cannot be solely credited for the expansion of "Europe" into the east and south of the continent, but they often were prime movers and shakers in determining where settlements were staked out that allowed for conquering kings to not only take land but hold it.
As is to be expected in a work this short and covering a period this broad, it relies on examples that cannot be considered dispositive, but the stories that Bartlett chooses to tell are exemplary. He further complements them by relying on a host of statistical historical studies that give clues to larger trends, such as population change in England between the Domesday book and the Poll Tax returns of 1377, to name an example. One area of weakness that I would flag and hope is corrected in some future version of the book is its rather abrupt conclusion. Bartlett masterfully brings readers to the transition from the High Middle Ages to the Renaissance, but he does little to explain how the homogenizing and colonizing zeal that created his "Europeanized Europe," would then export itself to the Americas, Africa, and Asia. Bartlett flags this, stating, "Europe, the initiator of one of the world's major process of conquest, colonization [sic] and cultural transformation, was also the product of one." However, this is the sentence with which he ends the book, and readers are left to ponder what led Europe to continue propagating itself.
Bartlett's analysis is at times contradictory, he claims simultaneously that Europe propagated itself through a process he compares to cellular mitosis, whereby groups of Frankish Europeans would move to a new locale and recreate the society they left behind, but he also argues that those same groups would move to some new locales and become a colonial aristocracy. In arguing both points, he gestures broadly to the twin themes of differentiation and integration, but he fails to lay out any significant theory explaining the differences.
Despite valid criticisms of the work, it is a masterstroke, and it has left me searching for scholars writing on other times and places who accomplish what Bartlett does. A valid response to my criticism of Bartlett's failure to address European transatlantic colonization is that such a work would fall in the domain of a historian writing for the Renaissance what Bartlett does for the High Middle Ages.
As is to be expected in a work this short and covering a period this broad, it relies on examples that cannot be considered dispositive, but the stories that Bartlett chooses to tell are exemplary. He further complements them by relying on a host of statistical historical studies that give clues to larger trends, such as population change in England between the Domesday book and the Poll Tax returns of 1377, to name an example. One area of weakness that I would flag and hope is corrected in some future version of the book is its rather abrupt conclusion. Bartlett masterfully brings readers to the transition from the High Middle Ages to the Renaissance, but he does little to explain how the homogenizing and colonizing zeal that created his "Europeanized Europe," would then export itself to the Americas, Africa, and Asia. Bartlett flags this, stating, "Europe, the initiator of one of the world's major process of conquest, colonization [sic] and cultural transformation, was also the product of one." However, this is the sentence with which he ends the book, and readers are left to ponder what led Europe to continue propagating itself.
Bartlett's analysis is at times contradictory, he claims simultaneously that Europe propagated itself through a process he compares to cellular mitosis, whereby groups of Frankish Europeans would move to a new locale and recreate the society they left behind, but he also argues that those same groups would move to some new locales and become a colonial aristocracy. In arguing both points, he gestures broadly to the twin themes of differentiation and integration, but he fails to lay out any significant theory explaining the differences.
Despite valid criticisms of the work, it is a masterstroke, and it has left me searching for scholars writing on other times and places who accomplish what Bartlett does. A valid response to my criticism of Bartlett's failure to address European transatlantic colonization is that such a work would fall in the domain of a historian writing for the Renaissance what Bartlett does for the High Middle Ages.
January 11, 2021
"The European Christians who sailed to the coasts of the Americas, Asia and Africa in the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries came from a society that was already a colonizing society. Europe, the initiator of one of the world's major processes of conquest, colonization and cultural transformation, was also the product of one."
This one took some time, but boy, was it worth it! Due to my ADD, it took me longer than expected to read this comprehensive piece of work on Europe in the Middle Ages. I had to turn it in, reserve it, and then take it out again from my local library before finishing it just after New Years 2021.
Now, first things first - I would not recommend this book as an "introduction" to Medieval history. Professor Bartlett is extensive in his quotations, references and usage of phrases - to an extent where at least a fundamental familiarity with the primary points of Medieval European history. For the enthusiast looking to delve deeper, however, this is an amazing piece of work.
You are taken through the colonization of Ulster and Prussia. Given insights into the convoluted systems of ethnically and geographically determined jurisdictions (how someone could, for example, be subject to German law despite living in a Polish city), the finer points of how tithes and taxes were calculated (and by extension, how settlements were established).
And through it all, one of his central themes are clear. That a lot of the tribulations and problems coursing through 20th (and 21st) century European communities have a venerable pedigree. From the 10th to the 14th century, Europe underwent a transformation from diversity towards homogeneity, but the transformation was never quite fulfilled. The role of the Church - and the clashes between the Greek and Latin churches - are likewise covered, but overall, the topics are very elegantly balanced.
In summation, I wasn't disappointed. I -love- Professor Bartlett's series "The Devil's Brood" on the Plantagenets, so when I spotted a book by him I pounced on it without a second thought. And I'm glad I did.
This one took some time, but boy, was it worth it! Due to my ADD, it took me longer than expected to read this comprehensive piece of work on Europe in the Middle Ages. I had to turn it in, reserve it, and then take it out again from my local library before finishing it just after New Years 2021.
Now, first things first - I would not recommend this book as an "introduction" to Medieval history. Professor Bartlett is extensive in his quotations, references and usage of phrases - to an extent where at least a fundamental familiarity with the primary points of Medieval European history. For the enthusiast looking to delve deeper, however, this is an amazing piece of work.
You are taken through the colonization of Ulster and Prussia. Given insights into the convoluted systems of ethnically and geographically determined jurisdictions (how someone could, for example, be subject to German law despite living in a Polish city), the finer points of how tithes and taxes were calculated (and by extension, how settlements were established).
And through it all, one of his central themes are clear. That a lot of the tribulations and problems coursing through 20th (and 21st) century European communities have a venerable pedigree. From the 10th to the 14th century, Europe underwent a transformation from diversity towards homogeneity, but the transformation was never quite fulfilled. The role of the Church - and the clashes between the Greek and Latin churches - are likewise covered, but overall, the topics are very elegantly balanced.
In summation, I wasn't disappointed. I -love- Professor Bartlett's series "The Devil's Brood" on the Plantagenets, so when I spotted a book by him I pounced on it without a second thought. And I'm glad I did.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
July 20, 2022
This is almost 30 years old now, and so there will inevitably have been some change in thought (and a lot of change in archaeological evidence) since it was published. Nevertheless it is a readable, interesting and uncompromisingly academic discussion of the economic, cultural and legal development of Europe during the High Middle Ages.
As I picked it up in Oxfam for £3 I'm making no complaint, although I bought it on the grounds that I know comparatively little about the political history of the period. Instead the book covers the 400 years thematically and unless you know a reasonable amount about the political shape of Europe, you may be left floundering. So there is no mention of Henry IV and Canossa, only one reference to the Black Death (although admittedly this does come right at the end of the period) and little on the Capetian kings, Frederick Barbarossa and the development of the Papacy. If there was then this book would be three times the length. Presumably the relevant volume in the Penguin History of Europe covers some of this.
Instead there is an interesting discussion on the expansion of Europe, linguistically and culturally, out of the heartlands of Frankonia and out to the East (Prussia), West (Ireland), North (Scandinavia) and South (Sicily and the Levant). Insights from the book include just how racist the Anglo-Norman colonisers were towards the Irish (I had naively thought that this attitude was the product of the early modern period), how the incentives to settle in the East were not dissimilar to modern town planning tax breaks and how the European colonisers of the New World had already gained significant experience of conquest and assimilation in the preceding 500 years.
A very interesting read even if it was on a subject slightly different to that which I had expected.
As I picked it up in Oxfam for £3 I'm making no complaint, although I bought it on the grounds that I know comparatively little about the political history of the period. Instead the book covers the 400 years thematically and unless you know a reasonable amount about the political shape of Europe, you may be left floundering. So there is no mention of Henry IV and Canossa, only one reference to the Black Death (although admittedly this does come right at the end of the period) and little on the Capetian kings, Frederick Barbarossa and the development of the Papacy. If there was then this book would be three times the length. Presumably the relevant volume in the Penguin History of Europe covers some of this.
Instead there is an interesting discussion on the expansion of Europe, linguistically and culturally, out of the heartlands of Frankonia and out to the East (Prussia), West (Ireland), North (Scandinavia) and South (Sicily and the Levant). Insights from the book include just how racist the Anglo-Norman colonisers were towards the Irish (I had naively thought that this attitude was the product of the early modern period), how the incentives to settle in the East were not dissimilar to modern town planning tax breaks and how the European colonisers of the New World had already gained significant experience of conquest and assimilation in the preceding 500 years.
A very interesting read even if it was on a subject slightly different to that which I had expected.
May 12, 2017
This book by medieval historian Robert Bartlett provides an excellent description of the social and institutional transformations that took place in Latin Europe and its frontiers during the period of the High Middle Ages, when it achieved unprecedented growth, expansion, and sophistication. It describes the development and accomplishments of the entrepreneurs of this time: the post-Carolingian military aristocracy, the clerical elites, the international monastic and military orders, and the networks of chartered medieval towns and their associated merchants. The author describes the rise of Europe as a concept during this time, in contrast to the decentralized continent in the earlier Medieval period. It describes how the institutions of Europe homogenized and replicated themselves, in some cases assimilating frontier cultures to the Frankish “core”, and in other cases producing precarious racial divisions that persisted well into the 20th century. Lastly, the book establishes a continuity between the medieval Europe and early modern period, showing how the process of Latin Christendom’s colonization of its North, South, and East during the high middle ages provided a cultural template with which European societies and institutions would proceed to colonize distant lands in America and even parts of Asia.
I highly recommend this book for anyone who is curious about the origins of Europe as a concept, but the book does not cover the early medieval period, so some rudimentary knowledge of this time may be necessary to provide some more context.
I highly recommend this book for anyone who is curious about the origins of Europe as a concept, but the book does not cover the early medieval period, so some rudimentary knowledge of this time may be necessary to provide some more context.
February 15, 2017
Bartlett sets out to examine the expansion of Latin Christendom and feudal Europe. He takes the view from the periphery and seeks to explain the homogenization of the continent by A.D. 1300. The replication of Latin Christian feudal structures on the periphery by an active and aggressive warrior aristocracy provides the general explanation but Bartlett never gives any one single reason behind the expansion. The crusade movement, economic and demographic changes, and military technology are all given a role to play. Kings and central powers to do - this is very much a story of actors on the ground moving themselves. Europe pulls itself up by its bootstraps, rather than being dragged up the Capetians/Angevins/Italian cities, etc. This book is truly a tour-de-force that gives a convincing explanation as to why feudal Latin Christian structures can be found from Ireland to the Baltic to Greece to the Levant. If there's any criticism to be leveled, it's that Bartlett's focus on the frontiers means that the centre is ignored, and sometimes one wonders about important changes in the centre and their effects on the periphery. This is not to say that Bartlett ignores the centre but, for example, the chapter on cities is entirely upon new "colonial" cities, with nothing on the radical changes that took place in urban areas during the time period.
May 18, 2022
Going into this book I was expecting I’d be giving this a five. The reason I don’t is perhaps more to do with me and my capacity to sustain attention throughout a very solidly and attentively argued historical essay. The scope of Bartlett’s book, the range of sources and examples he cites, the ease with which we makes comparisons and contrasts, or offers analogies, is truly first rate. Bartlett illustrates how in the early Middle Ages, through conquest, cultural prestige, settlement, commercial and industrial innovation, a “core Europe” centred on the Frankish lands and northern Italy gradually conquered and colonised the Celtic, Arabic and Slavic peripheries of Europe, thus creating something like an embryonic pan-European culture. Yet too often I felt like the wood was lost for the trees. Nonetheless, the inventiveness and creativity of his argument is worth it, and occasionally some of the details is so arresting that the brilliance of the whole thesis shines through. The section on language diffusion and changes in preferences of names and saints stands out in particular.
November 19, 2025
Sehr spannend und wichtig. Grundthese ist, dass Europa selbst als relativ einheitlicher kultureller (und ökonomischer) Raum ein koloniales Produkt der Expansionsbewegung ausgehend vor allem vom Fränkischen Reich zwischen dem zehnten und vierzehnten Jahrhundert ist.
Bartlett belegt das aus verschiedensten Blickwinkeln: jedes Kapitel behandelt einen Aspekt. Zwar gibt es mit der Grundthese einen roten Faden, aber es gelingt Bartlett dennoch nicht, den logisch-historischen Zusammenhang konsequent herzustellen. Der Beleg erfolgt eher aus der Summe der dargelegten Aspekte, statt einer tieferen theoretischen Arbeit. Auch gibt es immer mal wieder Passagen, wo er sich etwas zu sehr in Details verliert. Auch politökonomisch fehlen Bartlett die Mittel zu tieferen, oder auch nur klaren Einsichten zu gelangen (er spricht stellenweise von Kapital und Kapitalisten, nennt die religiösen Orden Unternehmen). Aber insgesamt ist es dennoch ein sehr lesenswertes Buch.
Bartlett belegt das aus verschiedensten Blickwinkeln: jedes Kapitel behandelt einen Aspekt. Zwar gibt es mit der Grundthese einen roten Faden, aber es gelingt Bartlett dennoch nicht, den logisch-historischen Zusammenhang konsequent herzustellen. Der Beleg erfolgt eher aus der Summe der dargelegten Aspekte, statt einer tieferen theoretischen Arbeit. Auch gibt es immer mal wieder Passagen, wo er sich etwas zu sehr in Details verliert. Auch politökonomisch fehlen Bartlett die Mittel zu tieferen, oder auch nur klaren Einsichten zu gelangen (er spricht stellenweise von Kapital und Kapitalisten, nennt die religiösen Orden Unternehmen). Aber insgesamt ist es dennoch ein sehr lesenswertes Buch.
September 8, 2023
It’s interesting to read history of a time/place I am less familiar with. I appreciate that I haven’t read the major surveys of medieval history, and that this is an argument driven book. But I found certain issues that lead me to not recommend it.
It’s approach to history is quite conservative and omits certain key details. Additionally, there are a lot of parallels that I just wouldn’t make I.e. Crusader states/ German expansion/ Anglo-Saxons in Ireland/ etc. all being lightly discussed under the general theme of colonization and conquest and are not well differentiated. The specific events and intentions behind these movements was also absent. Perhaps it is an issue of the books structure and scope?
Also, for a book that discusses the expansion of Europe, it’s exclusion of major urban centers was strange (I don’t think it even mentioned Paris).
It’s approach to history is quite conservative and omits certain key details. Additionally, there are a lot of parallels that I just wouldn’t make I.e. Crusader states/ German expansion/ Anglo-Saxons in Ireland/ etc. all being lightly discussed under the general theme of colonization and conquest and are not well differentiated. The specific events and intentions behind these movements was also absent. Perhaps it is an issue of the books structure and scope?
Also, for a book that discusses the expansion of Europe, it’s exclusion of major urban centers was strange (I don’t think it even mentioned Paris).
August 12, 2018
An insighful book, organized into rather thematic chapters- my favorite ones focused on racism within European societies, although there are more 'expected' chapters such as how military technology both helped drive as well as was proliferated by conquest. There are plenty of interesting anecdotes woven in, and there isn't a complete reliance (although a bit less than I'd hoped) on just written accounts: the discussion on other historical techniques like archeology and place-names are succinct but useful. I imagine this is a useful broad primer for those looking to the broad social movements, as well as other processes like the spread of aristocracy in the High Middle Ages.
Displaying 1 - 30 of 77 reviews