This comprehensive account analyses the people, places and issues at the heart of modern Europe's major historical events. All the major themes, personalities and issues during this period of great upheaval and change are analysed. An ideal reference guide to the period, this book highlights the various developments and changes that have occurred in Europe during the last 200 years and examines the participation of the major European powers in each. Major topics include the Napoleonic era, the unification of Italy and Germany, Victorian England, Fascism and Nazism, the Cold War, and the expansion and consolidation of the European Union.