History of Early Modern Europe

The course aims to provide an orientation on the process of geo-political and cultural construction of Europe in the modern age starting from the Italian and European historiography of the immediate post-war period. In particular, questions concerning the coexistence of different political and confessional actors (monarchies, republics, confederations) and their complex interaction will be explored.
In addition to lectures, group work and/or individual reports are planned, such as the drafting of short written texts in the form of reviews, useful for understanding the examination texts.

By the end of the course, students should be able to:
- Know the process of ideal, philosophical and political construction of the idea of Europe starting from some cornerstones of classical culture and historiographical literature;
- Read some basic texts of Italian and European historiography with a critical method;
- Describe the historical development of the concept of Europe and trace the chronological stages of the consolidation of states between the 16th and 18th century;
- Identify the processes of interaction between European states with particular attention to the diplomatic junctures (Cateau-Cambrésis, 1559; Westphalia, 1648) that contributed to fixing the order of international relations;
- Understand the global projection of Europe in the modern age in economic, political, commercial and cultural terms;
- Illustrate the sources (cartographic, documentary, printed) commented on in class;
- Questioning the current constitution of a European cultural policy.