Setting a precedent for conquest

Where did Europeans of the sixteenth through the nineteenth centuries get the nerve

to sail all over the world claiming chunks of other continents for their kings back home?

You could argue that their attitude hearkens back to Rome’s imperial habits, or that

the Europeans, many of barbarian stock (and thus perhaps Asian as much as

European), were born to rapacious conquest.

You could argue that, but your argument would be a stretch. More accurately, you

could reach back to the Middle Ages, the need to fight off Viking invaders, and how

that need prompted feudal vassals to rally around strong leaders. This trend began to

build nations such as Saxon England as it took shape under Alfred the Great. But

nation building was a slow process, and Europeans didn’t think in terms of a political

state based on national identity. (For more on the emergence of strong kings, such as

Alfred and Charlemagne, and the beginnings of nation building, see Chapter 6.)

The Crusades shaped a European, Christian outlook on the rest of the world and

taught Westerners to assert themselves beyond Europe. Rulers put their resources

toward an imperial venture in a systematic way, setting a precedent for the exercise of

power. Christendom became militant, confident of its ability to stomp other parts of

the globe. Militant confidence served Europe’s nations well several centuries later,

after navigators arrived at a reasonably accurate idea of what the globe looked like

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