The Collapse and Recovery of Europe, AD 476-1648

The collapse of the Western Roman Empire in the late 5th century A.D. marked the disintegration of order and security in Europe. It would be twelve centuries of trial and error before a successor political system--the nation-state--emerged to fill the void. The Eastern Roman Empire survived for a thousand years after the Western Empire's fall, shielding the West from the encroachment of militant Islam. During the same millennium, the Catholic Church unsuccessfully tried to resurrect a universal empire in the West. During the period of the Renaissance, Reformation and Thirty Years' War, the nation-state arose as Rome's successor. This is the story of those 1,200 years, an era that transformed the Western outlook from one bound to faith amidst chaos to one armed with reason and a belief in progress.

Jack L. Schwartzwald is a clinical assistant professor of medicine at Brown University's Warren Alpert School of Medicine in Providence, Rhode Island.