1. Politics Before Nations: Feudalism
   1. Manorial system
   2. Feudalism
2. The Rise of the Territorial State
   1. Conflict between the Pope and the Holy Roman Emperor
   2. The resurgence of long-distance trade and the emergence of new actors: the Burghers
      1. Merchants
      2. Urban craftsman
3. Evolution of the State
   1. The Reformation, Counter-Reformation, and Thirty Years’ War (1618-48)
   2. 1648: Peace of Westphalia
4. From Westphalia to the Napoleonic Wars
   1. Classical balance of power system: 1648-1789
      1. System Level
         1. Decentralized system
         2. Small number of relatively equal powers
         3. Flexible, non-ideological wartime alliances
         4. Reciprocal compensation
      2. Domestic Level
         1. Authoritarian governments relatively free of popular constraints
         2. Shared commitment to preserve state system and avoid hegemony
         3. Shared culture of Christianity
      3. Individual Level
         1. Individual monarchs worried about dynastic prospects and succession issues
   2. Classical Balance of Power
   1. War of the Spanish Succession (1702-13)
      1. Peace of Utrecht, 1713
   2. War of the Austrian Succession (1740-48)
   3. The Seven Years' War (1756-63)

5. The Old Order Crumbles
   1. American Revolution (1775-81) and Rise of Liberalism, Anti-colonialism
   2. French Revolution (1789) and the Rise of Nationalism and Liberalism
   3. Napoleonic Wars (1804-15) and the end of the classical balance of power
      1. The War of the First Coalition, 1792-97
      2. The War of the Second Coalition, 1798-1801
      3. The War of the Third Coalition, 1805-07
      4. Peninsular War, 1807-14
      5. War of 1812
      6. Wars of Liberation, 1813-14
6. The Concert of Europe
1. The Congress of Vienna (1814-15)
   1. The Quadruple Alliance
   2. The Holy Alliance
   3. The German Confederation
2. The impact of economic, social and political changes
   1. nationalism
   2. industrialization
   3. urbanization
   4. conservatism v. liberalism v. socialism
   5. the Revolutions of 1848
7. Triumph of Nationalism
   1. Bismarck and the Wars of German Unification
      1. Danish War, 1864
      2. Seven Week's War, 1866
      3. Franco-Prussian War, 1870-71
   2. Bismarck’s synthesis
      1. Domestically
      2. Internationally
      3. Collapse of Bismarckian system