For Europe the twentieth century has been a tumultuous era of power, change, crisis, extremism, decline and revival. In 1914 Europe was at the zenith of its power, but two world wars, the Great Depression, the Holocaust, decolonization and the Cold War all combined to reduce Europe to a status it had not experienced since the early Middle Ages. Since the 1960s there has been a gradual recovery and recently Europe has moved towards a more united structure. This course addresses these themes, considers contemporary European developments from a historical perspective and closely considers the impact of European developments on the world.