Europe has always been the center of gravity of the world economy, after the expansion of the kingdoms in the ancient Greek period and the subsequent promotion of capitalist reforms, the position of Europe has been consolidated, as the territory of the world's most developed countries, the history of European countries has also been very closely linked. The official birth of the European Union in the 1990s was a surprise and a glimpse of the common historical context behind Europe's independent countries.
The creation of the Frankish Empire, a prosperous kingdom in European history, laid the foundation for Europe's strong position, and Charlemagne, who founded the Frankish Empire, became the emperor who conquered the most lands. You may not have heard of Charlemagne's name, but you must have seen his image, which is the red peach k in playing cards, which is based on his image.
Charlemagne was not "self-made", his father was Pepin, who founded the Carolingian dynasty, and in 751 Pepin declared himself King of the Franks, and was recognized by the Pope by "offering land", and Charlemagne officially became the Crown Prince of the Frankish Kingdom.
Pepin had two sons, so after his death in 768, Charlemagne and his brother Carloman jointly ruled the Frankish Empire, and after his brother also died in 771, Charlemagne unified the country. The Frankish kingdoms that Charlemagne took over included France, Belgium, Switzerland, and the Netherlands, Germany, among others, but for him, these were not enough, he wanted more territory.
Between the 7th and 8th centuries AD, the power of the European popes was the greatest, that is, the ecclesiastical power was greater than the imperial power, and Charlemagne could not bypass the pope to become the highest status existence in any case, and the Pepin sacrifice was even deeper, and Charlemagne had to expand the country in the name of Christianity in order to win the favor of the Holy See.
The Holy See was pleased with this situation, when Charlemagne attacked Saxony in northern Germany to wage war in the name of pagans, and Charlemagne repeatedly conquered them and vigorously promoted Christianity in his territory, resulting in the killing of a quarter of the Saxons. Immediately afterward, Charlemagne began to attack the Avars, who were related to the Huns and were an Asian people, and it took Charlemagne a long time to pacify this powerful power adjacent to Eastern Europe, so that some other small countries in Central Europe also recognized Frankish sovereignty.
But Charlemagne did not stop his pace, and even christian countries began to pay no attention. In 774 AD, he plundered the northern part of the Lombard Kingdom of Italy, and in 778 turned his attention to Spain, where he established a troubled border state. Such conquest and aggression reminds people of Qin Shi Huang, who founded the Great Qin Empire, and in this way, Charlemagne became the "emperor of all ages" in the European population. In 800 AD, the Pope even crowned him personally, and the Frankish kingdom became the Charlemagne Empire.
In 814, Charlemagne died after more than forty years on the throne, but at this time four of his five sons died before him, leaving only the fourth son Louis to succeed to the throne, known as "Louis I". However, Louis I was very weak, without his father's grandeur, and eventually committed an act of dividing the country at the instigation of the Holy See.
Louis I had four sons, the second son Pepin died early, and the other three sons were the eldest son Lothair, the third son Louis, and the fourth son Charles. Because he had three sons, it was impossible to decide who would inherit the throne, and because all three sons wanted to inherit, Louis I had no choice but to set aside territory for them and make them kings, and their titles were Lothair I, Louis the German, and Charles the Bald.
After the death of Louis I in 840, the throne naturally fell to the eldest son Lothair I, who effortlessly inherited most of the Frankish territory, which annoyed his two younger brothers, who demanded the division of the Frankish Empire. After deliberating, the two decided to wage war against their brother to seize the land, and after several years of heavy casualties, the brothers decided to truce and negotiate peace, signing the famous Treaty of Verdun to jointly divide the Frankish kingdom.
They divided the Kingdom of Franconia into three parts, namely the Kingdom of East, West and Middle Francia, and the Kingdom of Middle Francia was divided among Lothair, with Louis the Germanic ruling the Kingdom of East Francia and Charles the Bald ruling the Kingdom of West Francia, with today's Paris, France as the capital, and then they went their separate ways, all administering their kingdoms as kings, keeping peace with each other until the death of Lothair I in 855 AD.
His two younger brothers saw this situation and thought differently, and they wanted to occupy the territory of the Middle Frankish Kingdom, and finally succeeded in dividing up a large amount of the territory of the Middle Francoland Kingdom by signing the Treaty of Morson, leaving only a small part of the southern territory to lothair's descendants.
At this point, the former Frankish kingdom was divided up, and the three territories gradually evolved in later history, until they became today's France, Germany and Italy. The Kingdom of West Francia has always been united, and the former Carolingian Dynasty lasted for a long time in the Kingdom of West Francia.
Later, there was the Capetian dynasty founded by Hugo I, then the Kingdom of West Francia became the Kingdom of France, and then over the course of hundreds of years it went through the Valois dynasty, the Bourbon dynasty, etc., until today's France.
The Kingdom of East Francia also experienced many dynasties, in the middle of which it became the Holy Roman Empire, and in 962 AD, King Otto I was crowned Holy Roman Emperor by the Pope. Finally, in 1871 a unified German Empire was established, which is today's Germany.
The Kingdom of Middle Francia, the smallest territory, remained divided for a long time, going through multiple dynasties until the establishment of the unified Kingdom of Italy in 1861, which is today's Italy.
On the basis of the division of the kingdom, the culture and language of the three regions were further divided, until the three lands developed into today's France, Germany and Italy, which also led among the developed countries in Europe and were the earliest member states of the European Union.
In December 1991, the adoption of the Treaty of European Union marked the birth of the European Union, the existence of the European Union is unprecedented, because the entire 27 member states are independent of each other but can recognize and circulate with each other, and the European territory is not large, but there are 44 countries, and their close connection is not unrelated to the historical and cultural roots, and the historical integration of mutual domination.
Text/Shi HaiGuanfu