The European Civil War is a term of historical argumentation in the form of an overarching construct tying a series of 19th and 20th century conflicts between sovereign nations in the now partially unified continent of Europe.
Some historians argue the period that started with the 1870 Franco-Prussian War and ended with World War II constituted an era they term the European Civil War, that notably included both world wars and many lesser wars. The earlier wars are regarded as causes for the wars that followed.
The term seeks to explain the rapid decline of Europe's global hegemony and the emergence of the European Union. By this self-mutilation, it is argued, Europe lost its position in the world, its hegemony, and caused itself to be divided into two spheres of influence: one "Western", and one Soviet.
Read more about European Civil War: Comparative Application of The 'European Civil War' Concept, The Supporting Case, The Opposing Case
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—Anonymous Antebellum Confederate Women. Previously quoted by Mary Boykin Chesnut in Mary Chesnut’s Civil War, edited by C. Vann Woodward (1981)
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—Herman Melville (1819–1891)
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—Zora Neale Hurston (1891–1960)
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—Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803–1882)
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—Anna Howard Shaw (1847–1919)