History of Civilization: To 1500 Term Paper

The degree to which a state could develop a sense of solidarity revolving around homogenous factors contributed to the development of a centralized government in certain countries and the lack thereof in others. Homogenous factors can be found in areas of race, nationality, and in religion in particular, all of which contributes to a sense of a national identity that a centralized authority of government both represents and reinforces. The influence of Catholic Christianity, which was widely based upon the Holy Roman Empire, had the effect of organizing certain countries in Europe under similar forms of authority which were, of course, manifest in a central branch of government. Due to the fact that Christianity as it is widely practiced today, spanned from the authority of the Roman Empire in Italy, the Italian country has frequently had this influence as a centralizing agency upon it government (although it should be noted that this same influence was also responsible for numerous conflicts between church and state in this country).In conclusion, it has been demonstrated that the primary determinants for the centralizing of the respective governments throughout much of Western Europe revolved about the organization of the religion, as well as a history of centralized authority governing the respective populations, in addition to factors conducive to social isolation such as geography. Lastly, the reduction of feudal authority, which was particularly prevalent in England and France, led these countries to implement strong central governments in its….....