European Chair

A Few Journeys That Shaped Europe – Norbert Ohler

The course and seminar focus on the journeys of the “great” and the “common people,” the barbarian invasions, specific well-documented individuals, and the anonymous men and women who helped shape Europe. The course material is explored in greater depth in the seminar through the reading of primary sources related to each lesson. The course and seminars therefore focus on the following topics:

• The advantages of geography and climate.
• Missions and missionaries of “Christianitas.”
• The invasions of the Franks, the Alemanni, the Huns, the Avars, the Hungarians, and the Mongols.
• The Viking invasions.
• The movements of kings and nobles.
• The canonical assemblies of church officials.
• From library to library.
• The journeys of journeymen.
• Trade “routes.”
• The organization of land clearing.
• The scope of the successive Crusades.
• Marco Polo and Christopher Columbus push back the frontiers.
• A Review of Human Geography.

Another complementary and central topic is addressed in the opening lecture, “The Contribution of Pilgrims to the Formation of Europe.”

Established in 1989, the European Annual Chair is designed to host, for one academic year, a prominent scholar from a member country of the European Economic Community.