This is the first chapter of the essay: "The quest for the world order." To read the following chapter, refer to the article: "The quest for the world order: The Middle East."

Chapter 1: Europe

I want to tell you a story that has only ever had one goal: "To achieve order." If you think about it, we all seek order in our lives, but this story is not about someone, nor a family neither a country, is about the world. A world that has shown us that order is hard to grasp, takes time to find, and it’s hidden in the past.

The first attempt to consolidate an order in the European continent came across the Roman Empire. Its leader, Caesar, considered that conquering the continent under an autocratic power would achieve such a feat. Unfortunately, the empire became so vast that it was impossible for him to have absolute control over all the territory. This resulted in internal power struggles and the fragmentation of the Empire; as a result, disorder and poverty was back, and the empire collapsed in 476 A.D. With the empire destroyed, the Catholic Church took the absolute power. Its leader, the Pope, proclaimed himself successor of Apostle Peter and the link between God and man. He sought to restore order in the continent, but he made it through the "divine salvation," meaning that only by building God’s Empire the order could be achieved. The problem was that this was not an easy task because the continent was divided in many regions. To reunite them, they first needed to bow to the church. In his eagerness to achieve this, the Pope crowned "Roman Emperors" and gave them divine rights to conquer Europe.
It was not until the 1500s that a Spanish prince was crowned Roman Emperor under the name of Charles V and with him, the territories, which are today Austria, Germany, Italy, Czech Republic, Slovakia, Hungary and Spain, converged into one empire. The new order imposed by the Pope seemed to have paid off 1000 years later; however, in the same period, "Protestantism," a religious phenomenon in opposition to the Catholic Church would manifest and claim its freedom of speech. Emperor Charles V would take this event as a blow to his beliefs and would resign in 1555 dividing the empire among his relatives.
Protestantism, led by Martin Luther, expressed that "divine salvation" was a concept between God and man; therefore, the Catholic Church had nothing to do with it. Throughout Europe, feudal rulers adopted Protestantism and expropriated lands that were controlled by the Catholic Church. The disorder was back in Europe, but this time, dividing Christianity into two parts, Catholics and Protestants. This disorder brought a period of 30 years of religious war, which ended with the Pact of Westphalia in 1648.

History had shown that consolidating an empire in Europe was not the right way to create order; the Caesar and the Pope had failed. Therefore, the notion of “nations with independent hegemony" emerged with the Pact of Westphalia, that is, the order would come by giving freedom to every nation to choose their kings and beliefs.
This view that Europe was taking marked the beginning of a period of wars where leaders sought to return to an imperialist order. The first attempt came when Louis XIV took control of the French crown in 1661 and developed a military power that was superior to any other European country. This prompted him to conquer Europe; however, England, Netherlands, Austria, Spain, Prussia, Denmark, and various German states stood to him, signing the Treaty of Utrecht in 1713. After the war, the second attempt came when Prussia emerged as a European power and its king, Frederick II, who took the throne in 1740, considered necessary to expand his domains. The Seven-Year War came in 1756, where Prussia and England fought against Austria, France, and Russia, being the latter, a mysterious country emerging from Asia that was to become many years later a European power.
After the fall of Prussia with the treaty of Hubertusburg in 1763, Europe redefined the concept of order that was born with the Pact of Westphalia. The last wars have shown that while the concept of "nations with independent hegemony" was positive, it had a flaw when an ambitious nation wanted to expand its domains. To fix this, the leaders of that time decided to establish strategic alliances seeking a balance of power; therefore, if any king would choose to expand his domains, alliances would halt him immediately. The way these alliances emerged was through marriages or inheritance between future heirs to the European thrones. Thanks to this new vision of order, Europe began to live a period of enlightenment, a time where rulers of one nationality exercised control over other nations. The order seemed to have reached perpetuity; unfortunately, this approach had a weak point that led to its failure with The French Revolution.

Monarchs had ruled the nations until then, that is, royal families with divine rights given by the Catholic Church, a church that although had lost absolute power in Europe, was still exerting a divine power over many nations. This resentment to the monarchy, or to the royal families who held a luxurious life while the nations were succumbing in poverty, exploded in France in 1789 and led to a revolutionary movement directed by the bourgeoisie and supported by the masses. This movement spread throughout Europe, and as a consequence the church lost its ultimate power and the monarchy came to an end.
A man, Napoleon Bonaparte, who gave a coup in France and became the new Consul of the Republic in 1799, shrewdly exploited this revolutionary movement. In 1804, he crowned himself Emperor and his desire to unify Europe in an empire without monarchies would receive the support of the masses. His cunning would take him to not make the same decisions of the former Roman Empire. He divided France into prefectures so that each region could have a local government and allowed each one to have its own religion. This division of power, which currently continues to be applied in France and in the rest of the world, allowed Napoleon to have a solid control over his empire and took a turn to the vision of a new order in the European continent. The order no longer would be based on "monarchies with independent hegemony," but rather in a revolutionary government separated in prefectures and led by Napoleon, but for this, France had to seize control over Europe. Napoleon came close to consolidate this vision of order, except for two enemies that undermined his plan, England and Russia. Perhaps the biggest mistake taken by Napoleon was to invade Russia, the giant who had mysteriously arrived from Asia and was already emerging as a European power. Napoleon failed on the east with Russia and on the west was England who allying with Spain and Portugal defeated him in the Battle of Waterloo in 1815. The same year, the Congress of Vienna sought to redefine a new order in Europe. Napoleon had shown that consolidating an empire, not of kings but of bourgeois, not autocratic but revolutionary would lead also to its own demise. But the human being is imperfect, and as such, will repeat the same mistakes, because one hundred years later, Adolf Hitler would repeat what Napoleon did, would face Russia in the east and England in the west, and would fail in its imperialist zeal.

In the Congress of Vienna the European leaders sought to understand what went wrong with the old order imposed in Westphalia. Why wars arose despite having given independent hegemony to the nations and taken out all power from the church? Why they were repeated even when the monarchies were abolished and alliances between nations were established strategically? The answer seemed to be hidden in this last question. Strategic alliances had a weak point! Central Europe had long been comprised of small territories, which were perfect for bigger countries to invade, so did Charles V and Napoleon Bonaparte. Europe was aware that sooner or later some imperialist leader would have to arise and the only way to prevent his imperialist task was to show him that there is no option to expand his domains. But to do so, territories, rather than forming strategic alliances, would have to be strong by themselves and for that they must be consolidated as great nations. Because of this desire, in the Congress of Vienna, the German territories joined in a Confederation, Prussia annexed Rhineland and Saxony, Netherlands seized Belgium, and Russia took control over Finland. Everything indicated that this distribution of powers and territories would strength Central Europe and bring a new order to the continent. However, there were two events that could not be predicted: i) The nationalist movement that began to spread gradually during the 19^th century. ii) The consolidation of a new world power, Russia, with a religious vision different from the European one, “the Orthodox Catholic.”

While small territories were annexed to large nations to maintain a balance of power, these eventually sought their independence based on a nationalist sentiment, so did Belgium from the Netherlands, Greece from the Ottoman Empire, and Finland from Russia. The nationalist movement in the 19^th century altered the balance of power in Europe and spread around the world, reaching South America where many of the territories that were European colonies achieved their independence. But there was something that reverberated like a déjà vu… the Crimean War.
By then, the Ottoman Empire had control over the Holy Land and the great conflict arose because Orthodox Catholics wanted to have the same privileges as European Catholics to access Jerusalem. The Ottoman Empire denied such privileges to Russia, and because of this, Russia declared war to the Ottoman Empire in 1853. Europe was plunged into a new religious war just like the one between Protestants and Catholics. This ended with the Treaty of Paris in 1856. However, the nationalist movement continued to have repercussions on the continent, causing the unification of Italy in 1870 and the birth of Germany as a nation, which came by annexing the confederation of German states to Prussia in 1871. Western Europe seemed to have taken a new order, where the great nations had consolidated under a nationalist sentiment and the new alliances had formed to benefit personal interests. However, these alliances showed another déjà vu... the wars focused on Central Europe.
Unlike before, Central Europe was now a great nation, Germany. And when it joined forces with Austria, both together became the great European power. Because of this, Central Europe became a territory to be feared, but at the same time, Central Europe was threatened from both sides, as Russia and France had formed an alliance. As a result, fear emerged among the nations and this motivated the continent to embark on unprecedented arms races. Meanwhile, Eastern Europe continued to experience the nationalist fervor claiming autonomy for its nations. For this reason Serbia, in an act of rebellion, assassinated the Austrian Archduke Franz Ferdinand in 1914. Russia and France supported Serbia, while Germany and the Ottoman Empire showed their support for Austria. The First World War had broken out and with that, most of the events mentioned previously would repeat, because as it was said before, the human being is an imperfect being, and as such, will repeat the same mistakes...

In 1919 the war ended with the Treaty of Peace at Versailles. What’s similar between this Treaty and the Congress of Vienna in 1815? Both mark the entry of a new power to Europe. In 1815 Russia was the great revelation, and in 1919, it was the United States who entered the game. On the other hand, as France had the French Revolution and the monarchy was abolished throughout Europe, Russia suffered a similar blow in 1917. The monarch, called the Czar was overthrown by the "Communist Party" whose ideology based on "all the power to the soviets (workers' council)," spread throughout the world. Russia was renamed The Soviet Union and major internal reforms enabled the country to regain its power in Europe. But the Treaty of Versailles was mediocre, all countries were weakened and nobody made an effort to generate a new vision of order in the continent. The Soviet Union chose to secede from the European plans and left to consolidate itself as a nation, Austria was destroyed and was never again the same, while Germany was excluded from any alliance on the continent, staying alone and resentful.
What mistake did the countries that won the war so Germany could regain its power years later? Didn’t they know that Germany was resentful and was soon to seek revenge? They actually knew, but the continent was destroyed and therefore the countries ended up worrying more about their personal interests. France, who signed the Treaty of Locarno in 1925, demonstrated this. In this treaty, Germany agreed to demilitarize the entire area that was on the border with France as long as France allow Germany to continue its military activities at the other side of the territory; that is, on the border with Poland. This was perhaps the biggest mistake that France may have ever committed, because Germany invaded Poland in 1939 and a year later conquered Paris. World War II had broken out, with a new vision of order based on a Nationalist Empire, where the top leader would be Adolf Hitler. But him, like Napoleon, failed in the attempt.

The war was over with the Treaty of Paris in 1947, and it is here that Europe reacted as a whole and returned to find a new continental order; Unfortunately, the leaders of that time realized with surprise that the European power had disappeared, the great powers that dominated the continent were no longer part of it. For 40 years Europe was governed by the United States and the Soviet Union, a period called the Cold War. The new order of the continent now depended on external factors, and what was worse, it depended on an ideological war, the American capitalism at one side and the Soviet socialism at the other. History was repeating itself at an ideological level, as were once the conflict between Protestantism and Catholicism at the theological level or between the monarchy and the bourgeoisie at the political level.
The Cold War ended with the dissolution of the Soviet Union in 1991 and the independence of a capitalist Europe, which resulted in the creation of the European Union in 1993. Europe had finally reached an order and had learned from its mistakes! Now European leaders were aware that empires, whether autocratic, revolutionary or nationalist, would only lead to disorder. They understood that the church must be relegated only to ecclesiastical duties, and that religious pluralism must be present in all nations. But above all, they realized, throughout history, that wars had arisen because alliances had divided the continent into war blocks. This was the reason why the European Union was created, to show that only encompassing the continent with a single ideology, rather than fragmenting it into blocks, the long-awaited order will come. It took them almost 1500 years to do it ... But they got it!

The big question is what is preventing us from achieving the world order? To understand this, we must immerse ourselves in the history of the Middle East, because it is in its history that the answer is hidden. But Europe has already given us a hint. We know now that religious conflicts will arise. We know that countries that are resentful will eventually seek any excuse to attack, and what is best, we know that sooner or later the monarchies of the world must be left behind…

Let's explore the next region that can give us more information in order to predict the future:

The Middle East