Europeans - The Roots Of Identity

What's really shaped Europeans' identity? Historian Margaret MacMillan visits Amsterdam, exploring how a place bound to the sea and the globe developed its idea of Europe. Trade and consumption built up liberal values and the European 'way of life'. But how did a European colonial power relate to the outside world, and how does that history echo today?

Producer: Chris Bowlby
Editor: Bridget Harney.

How a place bound to the sea and the globe developed its idea of Europe.

Historian Margaret MacMillan explores what has really shaped Europeans' identity.

What has really shaped Europeans' identity? In the first of a new series, historian Margaret MacMillan visits Rome to explore the idea of 'universal' Europe , and the constant tension between unity and diversity. From imperial ambition to local life, roads to religion, maps to food she discovers a continent and a way of life in constant creation.

Producer: Chris Bowlby
Editor: Bridget Harney.

Margaret MacMillan visits Rome to explore the idea of 'universal' Europe.

Historian Margaret MacMillan explores what has really shaped Europeans' identity.

What's really shaped Europeans' identity? Historian Margaret MacMillan visits Estonia, exploring how a tiny Estonian nation has dramatised the question of where exactly Europe is, and where it ends in the east. She'll find traces of an extraordinary range of conquerors over the centuries, and the way in which old links - Germanic, trans Baltic - are reasserting themselves while links east to Russia decline. And she'll see how new kinds of history - through DNA analysis for example - are revealing why Europeans are such an extraordinary mix of languages, cultures, and migrations.

Producer: Chris Bowlby
Editor: Bridget Harney.

How a tiny nation has lived with conquest and constant tension on Europe's edge.

Historian Margaret MacMillan explores what has really shaped Europeans' identity.