This course offers a general survey of the History of Europe in the twentieth century, focusing on major political and economic processes and events. It also considers the correlated national and international environments. It will shed light on the way in which European development influenced the national and international contexts and, inversely, document how national and international factors conditioned European dynamics. The analysis highlights the dynamics of European history from a world-scale perspective. The beginning of the twentieth century marked the crisis of empires and colonial powers. A second significant shift occurred after the Second World War with the emergence of a bi-polar world order, and the subsequent division of power between the USA and USSR. The third was registered in 1989-91, when, with the fall of the Soviet bloc, conditions for an American hegemony were eventually created (a mono-polar order was established). Attempts are now under way to open avenues to a functional global order.
