Editing History of the European Union (section)

===Roman Europes===
The European landmass was populated and territorialized by many long before its conceptualization as a coherent continent. But the [[Roman Empire]], an empire built on the [[Hellenistic world]] and [[Alexandrian Empire]], [[Ancient Egypt]], the [[Levant]] and [[North Africa]], became the first state to control the whole [[Mediterranean Basin]] and also large parts, particularly the [[Southern Europe|Southern]] and [[Western Europe|Western parts]] of the European landmass. This historic prominence in the Mediterranean Basin and Europe has been invoked by states that came after it, claiming succession to Roman authority and to legitimate their rule over lands throughout the former Roman [[Ecumene#Rome|eucomene]], and therefore also in Europe, particularly in Western Europe, the lands of the later [[Western Roman Empire]] of [[latin]] [[Rome]]. The latter established Western Europe as a coherent and independent political area of Europe, which has taken sometimes prominence, as simply [[Western world|the West]], over the concept of Europe. Similarly other concepts for Europe as a coherent political space have been used, such as for example [[Frangistan]].

[[File:Frankish Empire 481 to 814-en.svg|thumb|left|upright=1|The Frankish Empire at its greatest extent, ca. 814 AD]]

The claims for the succession of the control over the West, after [[Fall of the Western Roman Empire|the fall of Western Rome in 476]] developed into the concept of ''[[translatio imperii]]'' ("transfer of rule") through the [[King of Italy]], enabling claims by the [[Goths]], [[Lombards]], [[Frankish Empire]] (481/800–843) and [[Holy Roman Empire]] (800/962–1806).{{efn|The Frankish Empire has had a symbolic relevance for the building of Europe since the 20th century: [[Charlemagne]] is often regarded as the "Father of Europe" and a similarity between the borders of Charlemagne's Empire and that of the [[European Economic Community]] was made explicit during the 1965 Aachen exhibition sponsored by the Council of Europe.<ref>{{cite book|last=Story|first=Joanna|title=Charlemagne: Empire and Society|date=2005|publisher=Manchester University Press|isbn=978-0-7190-7089-1|pages=2–3}}</ref> Kikuchi Yoshio (菊池良生) of&nbsp;[[Meiji University]]&nbsp;suggested that the notion of&nbsp;[[Holy Roman Empire]]&nbsp;as a federal political entity influenced the later structural ideas of the European Union.<ref>{{cite book |last=Kikuchi (菊池) |first=Yoshio (良生) |title=神聖ローマ帝国 |year=2003 |page=264 |publisher=講談社 |isbn=978-4-06-149673-6}}</ref>|name=|group=}}
Furthermore, during and after the Roman Empire the concept ''[[renovatio imperii]]'' ("restoration of the empire") was employed,<ref>{{cite encyclopedia|first=Patrick|last=Corbet|title=Renovatio imperii romanorum|encyclopedia=Oxford Encyclopedia of the Middle Ages|editor=Vauchez|publisher=James Clarke & Co.|url=https://www.oxfordreference.com/view/10.1093/acref/9780227679319.001.0001/acref-9780227679319-e-2403|date=2002|editor-first=André|editor-link=André Vauchez|isbn=978-0-227-67931-9}}</ref> particularly in the forms of the religiously inspired ''Imperium Christianum'' ("christian empire"),<ref>{{cite book|last=Folz|first=Robert|title=The concept of empire in Western Europe from the fifth to the fourteenth century|date=1969|publisher=Edward Arnold|isbn=978-0-7131-5451-1|location=London|pages=65|oclc=59622}}</ref><ref>{{cite journal|last1=Gorp|first1=Bouke Van|last2=Renes|first2=Hans|date=2007|title=A European Cultural Identity? Heritage and shared histories in the European Union|journal=Tijdschrift voor Economische en Sociale Geografie|volume=98|issue=3|page=411|doi=10.1111/j.1467-9663.2007.00406.x|s2cid=55529057 |issn=1467-9663|url=https://research.vu.nl/ws/files/2331638/208641.pdf |archive-url=https://ghostarchive.org/archive/20221009/https://research.vu.nl/ws/files/2331638/208641.pdf |archive-date=2022-10-09 |url-status=live|quote=For the last two thousand years, the Christian church has attempted to unify Europe in cultural terms. Christianity did not originate in Europe but, building upon the organisation of the Roman Empire, has tried throughout the Middle Ages to become a Europe-wide organisation.}}</ref> and later the ''Reichsidee'' ("imperial idea"),<ref>{{cite book|last=Schramm|first=Percy E.|title=Kaiser, Rom und Renovatio; Studien zur Geschichte des römischen Erneuerungsgedankens vom Ende des karolingischen Reiches bis zum Investiturstreit.|date=1957|publisher=Wissenschaftliche Buchgesellschaft|location=Darmstadt|pages=143|language=de|oclc=15021725}}</ref> to establish and sustain a coherent political region. As such the position and extent of influence of the [[Holy See|Papacy]] over a range of European lands has been a force, while not exclusively European, capable of rallying European powers under a common Christian identity.{{sfn|Pagden|Hamilton|2002|p=89}}{{sfn|Mather|2006|pp=16–18}}<ref>{{Cite book|last1=Nelsen|first1=Brent F.|title=Religion and the Struggle for European Union: Confessional Culture and the Limits of Integration|last2=Guth|first2=James L.|publisher=Georgetown University Press|year=2015|isbn=978-1-62616-070-5|pages=[https://books.google.com/books?id=Kj64CAAAQBAJ&pg=PA48 48–49]}}</ref><ref>{{Cite book|last=Perkins|first=Mary Anne|url=https://archive.org/details/christendomeurop0000perk|title=Christendom and European Identity: The Legacy of a Grand Narrative Since 1789|date=2004|publisher=Walter de Gruyter|isbn=978-3-11-018244-6|page=[https://archive.org/details/christendomeurop0000perk/page/341 341]|url-access=registration}}</ref>
That said, some European powers, such as [[France]] (after the installment of the [[Holy Roman Empire]] with [[East Francia]]) and the [[Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth]] challenged the Western Roman authority through the [[Western Schism]] and the [[Italian Wars]], while [[England]], the [[Dutch Republic]], [[Prussia]], the [[Swedish Empire]] and [[Denmark–Norway]] also challenged the Papal one with [[Protestant Reformation]].

The Greek [[Eastern Rome]], also called Byzantine Empire, remained long after the dissolution of the Western Roman Empire, sustaining a coherent political space also over large areas of Europe, particularly of (South-) [[Eastern Europe]], or simply [[Eastern world|the East]], giving rise to the other major particular Europe. With the [[fall of the Eastern Roman Empire]] in 1453, the [[Ottoman Empire]] and the [[Russian Tsardom]], and ultimately the [[Russian Empire|Empire]] (1547–1917), with Moscow as the so-called [[Moscow, third Rome|Third Rome]], used claims of inheritance of the eastern Roman Empire to legitimate their rule over larger areas of Europe, though not exclusively.<ref>{{Cite book|last=Skolimowska|first=Anna|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=wQB-DwAAQBAJ&pg=PT103|title=Perceptions of the European Union's Identity in International Relations|date=2018|publisher=Routledge|isbn=978-1-351-00560-9}}</ref>

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