How united was Europe in the MA?

Hello y'all,

This is more of a reflexion than an actual AH, but eh, still interesting!

So, in the pre-Revolution age (and yeah I know it's a while after the Middle Ages but it was easier for the title) we have a lot of countries sharing mostly the same religion (Christianity, especially before Luther), a same scholarly language (Latin), same cultural references (the Greco-Roman classics and the Bible), a network of university and para-state organisations (the Church, the Fairs, etc...) and interbred royalties.

From a European centric point of view, we are wildly different countries, France is not Italy, Spain is not England, etc... Yet there are similar movements swiping across Europe, like the Renaissance, the age of discoveries, etc... Basically my question is as thus: can we consider Europe in pre-modern times as one (semi-federated) entity in the midst of a semi-constant civil war (like WWI and WWII are sometimes called European Civil Wars) or were those actually different countries? To be clear, I'm not saying or proposing it was a proto-EU.

I ask you to consider a non-Eurocentric point of view on this one :)
 
Probably depends on who you are talking to.

To the clergy, Europe is Christendom. So they would probably see it more as the realm of Christendom, though sorely unruly and disunited. So for them, they probably did view Europe as mostly united. "If only Christians would stop killing each other."

Then the Kings and the nobility, probably less so but there. There focuses are still somewhat worldly, but more clan based and fealty based loyalties.

When you hit the peasantry, you'd get the whole "you know what foreigners you should watch out for, those weirdos down the river/over the hill. Can't trust them."

It also depends on when during the Middle Ages and where you are. Places on the periphery like Ireland, Russia, and the Nordic countries were probably more different culturally then say the Latin countries. At the local level, a lot of pre Christian beliefs lived on in the form of local superstition, fairies, spirits and so on.

A lot of celebrations in each area were holdovers from the past, and they varied from place to place.
 
When you hit the peasantry, you'd get the whole "you know what foreigners you should watch out for, those weirdos down the river/over the hill. Can't trust them."
Precisely, they wouldn't consider themselves as part of a larger entity anyway, would they? So they wouldn't naturally be pitted against some other group, like France/Italy?


It also depends on when during the Middle Ages and where you are. Places on the periphery like Ireland, Russia, and the Nordic countries were probably more different culturally then say the Latin countries. At the local level, a lot of pre Christian beliefs lived on in the form of local superstition, fairies, spirits and so on.

Well, Russia wouldn't be catholic so it would be separated anyway :)
For Ireland, I don't know, I read several things saying they basically kickstarted an early Renaissance around the XIth century due to the amount of books in the monasteries having escaped the turmoil of the continent. So, if anything, the Latin Countries were just the peripheries of Ireland :D
 
Precisely, they wouldn't consider themselves as part of a larger entity anyway, would they? So they wouldn't naturally be pitted against some other group, like France/Italy?

Well, the fact that they wouldn't be able to speak Latin does mean that there would be a very high suspicion of foreigners above and beyond that, so that while they might not get along with the people a few miles away (though trade links means that can be overstated), but would agree that any foreign jobbies in the area were much worse.
 
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