War, Peace, and Power: Diplomatic History of Europe, 1500-2000

For much of the past five centuries, the history of the European continent has been a history of chaos, its civilization thrown into turmoil by ferocious wars or bitter religious conflicts - sometimes in combination - that have made and remade borders, created and eliminated entire nations, and left a legacy that is still influencing our world.

This 36-lecture series from an award-winning teacher and honored scholar pursues an explanation for this chaos that goes beyond the obvious ones of political ambition, religious intolerance, the pursuit of state power, or the fear of another state's aspirations. In pursuing that explanation, Professor Vejas Gabriel Liulevicius of the University of Tennessee offers everyone interested in the "why" of history a remarkable look into the evolution of the European continent and the modern state system. His provocative lectures allow us to peer through the revealing lens of statecraft to show us its impact on war, peace, and power and how that impact may well be felt in the future.

As you learn to examine key points on history's diplomatic timeline in the context of attempting to establish - successfully and not - a lasting idea of order in the European world, you'll begin to grasp the key Professor Liulevicius offers to understanding the dynamics of international politics. And you'll see how such key concepts as the balance of power, power itself, sovereignty, and "reason of state" fit into those dynamics.

All Lectures:
1. Foundations of Diplomacy
2. Europe in 1500 - Ancient and New Monarchies
3. Renaissance Statecraft in Italy
4. Religion and Empire
5. The Thirty Years' War
6. The Peace of Westphalia, 1648 - A New Era
7. French Superpower
8. The Great Powers
9. Northern Earthquake
10. 18th-Century Competition
11. Revolutions
12. Napoleon's Glory and Defeat
13. The Congress of Vienna
14. The Concert of Europe System
15. Eastern and Western Questions
16. The Challenge of 1848 and Napoleon III
17. Britain's Empire
18. The Crimean War
19.Italian Unification
20. German Unification
21. The Bismarckian System
22. High Imperialism
23. The Reconfigured World of 1900
24. Balkan Instability
25. The Outbreak of World War I
26. World War I - Total War
27. The Paris Settlement
28. Interwar Europe
29. Europe into Crisis
30. World War II
31. Aftermath and Peace Plans
32. The Cold War Begins
33. Blocs and Decolonization
34. The European Project
35. The Fall of the Wall
36. Post - Cold War to the Present