Books

Generations of social scientists and historians have argued that the escape from empire and consequent fragmentation of power - across and within polities - was a necessary condition for the European development of the modern territorial state, modern representative democracy, and modern levels of prosperity. The Catholic Church and European State Formation, AD 1000-1500 inserts the Catholic Church as the main engine of this persistent international and domestic power pluralism, which has moulded European state-formation for almost a millennium.

The 'crisis of church and state' that began in the second half of the eleventh century is argued here as having fundamentally reshaped European patterns of state formation and regime change. It did so by doing away with the norm in historical societies - sacral monarchy - and by consolidating the two great balancing acts European state builders have been engaged in since the eleventh century: against strong social groups and against each other. 

Review by David Stasavage (for The New Rambler)

Review by Anna Grzymala-Busse (for the Journal of Church and State) 

Review by Thomas F. X. Noble (for the Journal of Ecclesiastical History).

Review by Mark Dincecco (for Perspectives on Politics).

Review by Kerice Doten-Snitker (for the Medieval Review).

Review by Reima Välimäki (for the Society for Medieval Studies in Finland).

Article in El País by Victor Lapuente (Spanish)

Broadstreet blog post; OUP blog post; 

This book argues that settlers from Western Europe shaped European state formation and transformed the political and economic fate of Eastern Europe and Scandinavia between 800 and 1800. While existing work on European colonization focus on overseas settlers, and studies of Europe's development tend to concentrate on the continent's western regions, this book highlights a significant internal wave of settlement from Western to Eastern and Northern Europe. Beginning around 1100 and tapering off after 1400, this settler movement spurred economic development and the spread of local self-government across Eastern Europe and Scandinavia. 

Cities that were targeted for settlement grew as they imported new technologies and integrated into extensive trade networks. In addition, settlers brought with them inclusive political institutions, initially only for themselves, that changed the governing structure of targeted cities.

In many instances, settlers repressed pre-existing populations, contributing to fragmented territorial authority. At the same time, they provided institutional templates that local rulers adapted in their efforts to build states. These rulers were increasingly compelled to bargain with politically autonomous and large cities. Over time, the emergence of new states in Eastern Europe intensified geopolitical competition across the continent.

The book assesses these claims by introducing novel quantitative data on urban political institutions, urban economic activity, and settler movements. The database spans more then a millennium (800-1800) and include regions of Europe that are poorly represented in existing datasets. The book shows how Europe was remade in a process of internal settlement that set the stage for later overseas colonization.