The Making of the Modern World

1. The Making of the Modern World Professor Frederick CHEUNG Department of History The Chinese University of Hong Kong

2. Introduction: the Medieval Origin of the Modern World • Magna Carta, 1215; the Emergence of the English Parliament, and the English Constitutional Monarchy; • The French Absolute Monarchy

3. II. • (A) Thesis --- Age of Faith/Medieval Origin, • (B) Antithesis – Renaissance/Reformation/ Discovery of the New World/ Scientific Revolution/ Age of Reason/Enlightenment, and

4. II. • (C) Synthesis -- the French Revolution and 19th Century Europe • Hegel’s Theory on Historical Periods: thesis, Antithesis, and Synthesis

5. III. • (A) New Imperialism (“God, Gold, and Glory”), and • (B) New “Balance of Power” in the 19th Century

6. III. • The Theory on the New Imperialism in the 19th Century: God (Missionaries), Gold (Merchants), and Glory (Soldiers for National Glory); + Human Instincts • New Theory of “Balance of Power” and the Changing of a New Center of Power in 19th Century Europe

7. IV. Conclusion: • Apparently the End of the Old, yet the Emergence of a New Europe (“Common Market” and then “Political Unification”)

8. Holborn’s Observation of the Zollverein, 1834 (Economic Confederation) for the Political Unification of Germany, 1871; • Prediction of the Common Market for the “United States of Western Europe”