>I don't agree. Why didn't the Germans rise up to stop
>Hitler? In general, regular folk's morale was so low and I
>am sure many (not all) secretely hoped that Hitler would
>succeed and bring the country back into the game as a world
>power after WWI.

so youre saying that peoples of the 14th and 15th centuries thought of themselves, collectively as europeans? whoa, i cant agree with that. if they did in fact think of themselves collectively as europeans, dont you think the turks would have been handled in a more timely fashion?

of course one of the reasons hitler rose to power was because the german people wanted to rise to the top again. after wwi, they got the shaft, big time. but i dont see how we go from 14th/15th cen to the 20th, *shrugs*.