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Wow, heck of a question. I don't think the folks at Yahoo! would like me reposting Churchill's "History of the English Speaking Peoples" or Clark's "Civilisation"... might be too broad to really adequately answer here.

In very, very, very basic terms (and I'm not a professional historian, so it's even more basic), I think that war was really what influenced the cultural geography of present-day Europe. The defeat of the English by the French at the Battle of Hastings in 1066 introduced the Latin root words that form half of the modern English language, when they were required to learn French instead of the old English based partly in Gaelic and Scot, partly in Scandanavian languages from previous invasions by the Vikings, and old Germanic tongues from settlers far and wide.

The Crusades spread a healthy dislike of the Western world to the southern regions of Byzantium, Moorish Spain and the Holy Lands, but also brought back a lot of knowledge lost since the time of the Roman Empire, including astronomical and mathematics principles, chemistry and biology, and the number zero. Cultural mixing along the borders also spread a lot of ideas and lifestyles into Europe, notably the idea of regular bathing. *grin*

As far as lifestyle, medieval living was hard, and centered around a feudal structure. As a result, serfs working the land for a given lord were often conscripted into the service of that lord during whatever border skirmishes might have come up from year to year. It was only during the very late years of the Middle Ages, when fiefdoms and small holdings were joined together into what would eventually become nations that the rights of commoners began to grow in importance, and indeed, the entire idea of placing limitations on royalty to protect the rights of landowners was nothing short of revolutionary -- the king couldn't just take what he wanted or attack a barony to gain land for himself. In England, the Magna Carta, first drafted in the mid 1200's, would in later revisions and interpretations pave the way for such concepts as the prevention of taxation without representation, trial by jury, and even granting powers to the House of Commons.

I'm at work right now, so I can't really go on for another 10,000 words like this topic deserves, but hopefully that's a start for you.

2006-08-29 05:35:07 · answer #1 · answered by theyuks 4 · 0 0

It can all be attributed to the Norse.

And the guy below says the same. Actually it was not the Franks that defeated the Saxons at the battle of hastings it was the Normans that defeated them.

And that battle there rang the bell for the end of the viking age.

2006-08-29 05:11:10 · answer #2 · answered by carlcampbelljr 3 · 0 0

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