Europe Through The Centuries

Europe has always been a hotbed of conflict, opportunity and new ideas in history.

Feudal age saw the conflict within Christianity itself, amongst Catholics, Orthodoxy and Protestants and involving royalty, the military and Machiavellian politicians.

After that, the rise of the Ottoman Empire threatened Christian Europe with territorial and cultural conquests - but this interface also brought new learning and influences in science and mathematics from the Arabs and Persians to the continent.

Discovery of the compass and how to harness winds for long distance sailing offered several European powers the opportunity to enhance trade, discover cultures not hitherto known to them and exploit the economies of other lands through colonisation.

The relatively stronger technology, military capability and political strategies of these European colonials made them eventually control and subjugate other populations, except in old Siam.

The negatives and positives of European rule is etched across the globe from Africa, India, The Americas, Oceania, south east Asia and East Asia.

There was no such thing like today's political correctness in the period from the 16th to the early 20th centuries, when the advent of economic competition and the spread of missionary religion from Europe were first imperatives. There was an urgent race to "discover" non- European lands for resource exploitation and strategic ports.

In the process, various Euro languages, cultural practices and DNA were disseminated throughout the colonies in what was an Euro carve up of the world at large.

It can be strange to reflect now that the descendants of colonial powers take an overwhelming approach in the 21st century, being careful not to discriminate on various fronts like disability age, gender, race and religion. Is this a new age of enlightenment with liberal democracy?

A diverse variety of migrants coming to settle in Western societies in the past 50 years appreciate enjoying the relative freedoms and high level of human rights experienced in their new countries of adoption.

Questions do arise if some groups of migrants do exploit such liberal options for their own purposes in these Western countries. Is it better for migrants to integrate with the mainstream, or do we encourage such migrants, many from former colonies, to strike out their different way of life arising from their source cultures?

This matter can come to a head when globalisation forces in trade, finance and economics displace the jobs in the heartland and disenfranchise mainstream Caucasians of their past lifestyle and standard of living.

So in reaction, populist governments have taken control in Europe and the USA, changing past assumptions of the political landscape for the future.

Is this anything new, or is the world going through a recycling from royalty and dictatorships to liberal democracy to manipulated electoral systems and hardened right wing conservatism?

Political governance can always be an evolving matter as it cannot remain static. Like evolution according to Nature's laws, politics and social interaction must make society viable enough to be sustained and to grow.

The house has to be rebuilt, gradually or with a sudden change.

The so called Old World of Europe must continue to reinvigorate itself on all fronts. 

Europe's Migration Challenge and Opportunity

The islands of Greece lie as close as only five kilometres from the shores of Bodrum peninsular in western Turkey. The typical price paid to people smugglers is USD 1200 to arrange passage to cross this divide.  2015 and 2016 witnessed a huge movement of people, mostly ordinary folks, escaping the continuing and unresolved conflict in Syria.   However, there have been individuals and families from the north western corner of the Indian sub-continent, sub-Saharan Africa, the Middle East and Central Asia all joining the persistent urge to get into Europe through difficult physical, regulatory and health conditions.    

In the biggest movement of people not seen since the end of the second World War last century, Germany, Sweden and Italy accept most applications to stay, with Romania the least.   Increasingly there is an emphasis to differentiate refugees from other migrants when deciding on acceptance by Germany. Many of these people on the move last year may not have validated identity documents with them, but most of them have cell phones with which they could communicate with relatives and friends already settled in the West.

There have been so many unselfish acts by German families voluntarily inviting refugee families to share their homes for several days instead of having to live on the streets.

A Gallup poll in 2016 indicated that as high as 13 per cent of Earth's human population would like to move to another country, especially to the USA.    The benefits to a receiving nation are offsetting declining population in the host country, fostering innovation and boosting entrepreneurship.

The flow of such migrants is so obviously skewed and headed in one way, to Western societies. It has been rare for Asian, South American, Central American and Eurasian nations putting up their hand to accept such migrants.

The second half of 2015 witnessed the beginning of masses of human beings literally and desperately walking for long distances in south-eastern Europe to their hoped for destinations, despite fences, prejudice and fatigue.

WhatsApp and Google maps have been guiding stars in the 21st century version of the exodus. The smart phone recharger has turned out to be critical when making this journey.

Many are just children, who increasingly made this sojourn alone without family. Casualties have included the drownings of would be migrants crossing the seas between Libya and Italy or Malta, and between the Turkish coast and Greek isles.

Those making this trek westwards are not only from Iraq and Syria, but also from Pakistan, Iran, Eritrea and Afghanistan. The risks have culminated in one tragic image last September, when the world learnt of the drowning of three year old Alan Kurdi, whose body, bereft of a life vest, washed ashore on a Greek beach. In reality, many family members have not made it despite having paid their borrowed or saved monies to smugglers arranging their illegal transit to Europe.

Overcrowding of boats, money lost to fraudulent people smugglers, dramatic separation of family members and having to leave everything behind of the past add to the tensions and dangers for such controversial migrants.

Many of those from Syria are well educated. Yet an individual on the migrant trek was later involved in committing the horrendous killings in the November 2015 attacks on the streets of Paris, when around 120 innocent people were shot and killed.

Turkey currently hosts the largest number of refugees, around 1.9 million. One of every four persons residing in Lebanon is a refugee from Syria.   The demographic background of refugees in this recent movement not only belong to the Muslim cohort, but include people of different faiths.


An immediate impact on the social-political landscape of several members of the European Union has been the rise of parties looking inwards and moving towards the political far right in popular sentiment and pressure.    This has also weakened the bonds between nations in the EU, especially after the still unresolved question of financial debts chalked up by some members and the increasing incompatibility of different rates of economic maturity amongst such member states.

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Brexit, the European Union and what is next?

In 2015, the largest number of non-citizen immigrants arriving in Britain come from Poland, Ireland and Germany.

Anyone born in Northern Ireland qualifies to apply for a passport issued by its neighbouring country, the Republic of Ireland.

The UK is facing a critical moment in its union, after being an island nation which once wielded power in an Empire across the world in the age of colonialism, industrialisation and shipping. Its location off the north-west coast of mainland Europe was destined for it to deal with the continent, whether in military campaigns, economic exchanges, cultural influences and social-religious developments. 

The ruling House of Windsor has German roots and once had close relatives in all the royal houses of present and past European states. The Saxons invaded England from France. The English and Portuguese have had close political alliances for the past 700 years. Brit tourists are a significant presence in Spain and in any football match held on the continent. British pensioners contribute to the viability of many countryside French villages. The British presence in Romania, despite Dracula and all, is under mentioned. 

Denmark has a Crown Princess with a Scottish-Australian background. The links between the UK and Europe are undeniable, not just in trade, banking, Western thought and shared history. 

Britain voting to leave the EU spotlights on issues underpinning how contemporary Europe is trying its best to be united. Perhaps the EU should take a more serious review of how a union can be formed with countries big and small, each with a rather strong sense of cultural identity, varying levels of ability in financing and economic development and with disadvantages in currently adopting a common currency. 

Maybe it is not so much of the UK voters in the Brexit referendum being unhappy with decisions made in Brussels, or with EU membership benefits only pleasing the banking fraternity in London city. It is the nature and conditions of EU membership that causes discontent, amongst the right wing, the dispossessed and the unemployed residing on the continent. 

Add to this heady mix the several or so ethnic groups who are unhappy and dissatisfied for a variety of reasons living in European countries, being part of a larger political entity with whom they do not share cultural and political values.   For example, Catalonians have been displaying strong signals to break away from Spain; the Scots have been pursuing autonomy from London and the referendum majority vote for the UK to leave the EU has deepened the split in this perspective between Scotland and England; and the sizeable Muslim minority in the Republic of France have complained of alienation and economic disparity from the mainstream.

The dream of a united Europe stems from the bitter, savage and regretful experiences of two major wars in the 20th century. Yet it is not a smooth and uneventful path to form a union of so many states.   Unlike historical China, where union was often violently and painfully enacted upon what were disparate kingdoms, thousands of years ago,  to result in today's Han Chinese consciousness and sense of collective cultural belonging,   Europe faces contemporary challenges in forming a meaningful federated entity.    What are the effective European values that can be utilised to keep alive the Euro dream?

It is surely that any referendum that David Cameron wrought has unleashed what may be truly a Pandora's Box impacting on economics, politics and social matters for many years to come.   Did Cameron really not consider an outcome of the majority of British voters deciding to quit the EU?     Would there not have been any contingency plans to deal with such an outcome in the expected processes of business continuity planning and action for a nation like Britain? 

It can be ironic that the EU referendum held in Britain in June 2016 may also lead to the break up not just between the European continent and Britain, but for the UK itself and perhaps for the European Union - who knows?

The pessimistic doomsayers chatter about the financial capital of Europe moving to Germany,  the opportunity for Dublin to enhance its role for the EU (it is already the back room processing centre for many businesses in that region) and for paris to steal the limelight further from London.    Londoners will not give up their strategic and profitable status that easily - and will find ways of continuing to prosper in an ever changing world.

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