Acta Scientiarum. Education
On-line version ISSN 2178-5201
Abstract
MAINKA, Peter Johann. Os fundamentos da identidade européia na antiguidade, na idade média e nos tempos modernos. Acta Scientiarum. Education [online]. 2011, vol.33, n.01, pp.57-69. ISSN 2178-5201.
The process of European unification started immediately after the II World War. It comprised all the areas of State and society (legislation, jurisdiction, politics, economy, institutions and others) in the twenty-seven countries, highly different in their traditions and history and which now make up the European Community. Which are the intellectual bases and the cultural values, which are the ideas and memories that give Europe a coherent identity shared, at least theoretically, by the European population of approximately 500 million people? Europe’s intellectual bases go back to Antiquide, to the Middle Ages and to Modernity. Current essay will provide some of Europe’s common principles posited in the Middle Ages and in Modernity (for instance, Christianity, Humanism and Illuminism) and will discuss their importance within Euopean identity.
Keywords : Europe; European Identity; European History.