Jewish Defense Forcefulness League

Jewish Defense League

Although it was initially organized to protect Jews inward crime-ridden neighborhoods inward New York City, the Jewish Defense League (JDL) became best known for its occasionally fierce protestation activities directed against Russian anti-Jewish policies in addition to Arab terrorism.

This militant arrangement presently became involved inward an unlikely, fifty-fifty bizarre, political alliance in addition to was also subjected to both U.S. in addition to local authorities surveillance. The 1990 assassination of the founder, Meir Kahane, subsequently raised serious questions almost an Arab conspiracy, fueled past times much novel testify discovered inward the wake of the terrorist attacks of 11 September 2001.

Paradoxically, about members of the Jewish Defense League—who professed profound occupation organisation for the physical security in addition to welfare of their coreligionists—were implicated inward the 26 Jan 1972 murder of a Jewish secretary, Iris Kones. This tragic killing took house during the firebombing of the New York percentage of Sol Hurok, who promoted cultural exchanges alongside the Soviet Union.

Later, however, about charges were dropped against the JDL members because of illegal constabulary procedures in addition to other problems for the prosecution. Almost all mainstream Jewish organizations considered the JDL a violent, extremist grouping in addition to regularly denounced its leader.


Founded inward the boundary of 1968 past times the charismatic rabbi Meir Kahane in addition to a grouping of politically conservative New York City Jews, the JDL in addition to its activities were regularly featured inward the New York media and, occasionally, the national press.

Indeed, 1 fellow member boasted that the U.S. ambassador to the United Nations, George H.W. Bush, complained to Israeli Prime Minister Golda Meir that JDL activities were endangering détente alongside the Soviet Union.

Although the JDL was a right-wing organization, both its methods in addition to oft fierce rhetoric seemed to mirror radical leftist groups of the 1960s. Leon Wieseltier, the New Republic literary editor in addition to a JDL fellow member for a brief time, 1 time boasted to his parents that Eldridge Cleaver was making him a meliorate Jew.

Although many journalists in addition to academics bring written numerous articles describing in addition to analyzing the political activities in addition to philosophy of the JDL, relatively fiddling attending has been paid to an odd political alliance that developed during the early on years of the organization.

After Meir Kahane was freed on bail inward Brooklyn Federal Court on 3 May 1971 from an indictment of conspiracy to carry weapons across set down lines, Joseph A. Colombo, Sr., a major Mafia figure, appeared inward a articulation intelligence conference alongside the JDL leader in addition to announced an alliance alongside him. Colombo declared that the rabbi was “fighting for his people inward Russian Federation in addition to we’re fighting for our [Italian] people hither ... if they [the JDL] require our support, nosotros volition hand it”.

Influenza A virus subtype H5N1 twelvemonth earlier, Colombo in addition to about of his mob associates had formed the New York–based Italian American Civil Rights League—grist for comedians in addition to editorial cartoonists—whose mission was to struggle anti-Italian prejudice, specially the depiction of all Italians every bit gangsters. Barry Slotnick, counsel to the newly established organization, was also the attorney for Kahane, in addition to reportedly helped intro- duce these ii controversial figures to each other.

Influenza A virus subtype H5N1 New York Times editorial (15 May 1971) expressed puzzlement almost this bizarre organizational alliance: the Italian American Civil Rights League seemed an unlikely grouping to house every bit 1 of its overstep priorities occupation organisation over the mistreatment of Soviet Jews; similarly, JDL members would non probable highlight every bit a major resultant inward its political agenda the removal of the names “Mafia” in addition to “Cosa Nostra” from the idiot box plan The FBI.

Nevertheless, about analysts suggested that Kahane in addition to Colombo forged this alliance to mobilize jointly their respective supporters against their alleged systematic harassment past times the U.S. Department of Justice.

The existent argue for the alliance powerfulness never move known. On 29 June 1971, Joseph Colombo, Sr., was shot 3 times inward the caput in addition to cervix at an Italian American Unity Day Rally held at Columbus Circle in addition to attended past times an estimated 100,000 supporters.

Colombo was inward a coma for vii years in addition to died on 22 May 1978. His assailant—who was directly shot in addition to killed past times Colombo’s bodyguards—was Jerome A. Johnson, an African American who allegedly had mob ties inward Harlem.

Almost ii decades later, Rabbi Meir Kahane also suffered a fierce death. On five Nov 1990, an Egyptian janitor named El Sayyid Nosair assassinated the JDL leader before a grouping of JDL supporters at the Marriott Hotel inward midtown Manhattan.

Subsequent investigations found intriguing connections betwixt Nosair in addition to many terrorists involved inward either the get-go or bit attacks on the World Trade Center (WTC) in addition to also other worldwide terrorist activities perpetrated past times Al-Qaeda.

Immediately captured after the Kahane shooting, Nosair was subsequently found to move a follower of the exiled Egyptian cleric Sheik Omar Abdel-Rahman, in addition to therefore based inward Bailiwick of Jersey City, New Jersey. He was reportedly the spiritual leader who inspired the get-go World Trade Center bombing on 26 Feb 1993.

Furthermore, constabulary discovered that Mohammed Salameh in addition to Mahmoud Abouhalima—who were primal players inward the WTC bombing—were staying inward Nosair’s menage also inward Bailiwick of Jersey City, located close Abdel-Rahman’s mosque. Nosair’s cousin, Ibrahim el-Gabrowny obtained a $20,000 contribution from Osama bin Laden for Nosair’s legal defense.

Wadi El-Hage, the primal Al-Qaeda operative involved inward the 1998 bombings of the U.S. embassies inward Republic of Kenya in addition to Tanzania, visited Nosair inward his U.S. prison, several years before he went to East Africa. El Sayyid Nosair, who was acquitted of the Kahane murder inward a set down case inward 1991, was convicted inward 1995 on a federal accuse of murder inward aid of racketeering, in addition to was sentenced to life inward prison.

Survivalism

Survivalism

Survivalism is the practise of disaster preparedness. Although in that place are many types of survivalists, all believe that the collapse of club is imminent, either equally a effect of man-made disasters similar nuclear holocaust or overpopulation, or natural disasters such equally earthquakes, floods, as well as famine.

Survivalist practices make from the exactly cautious (the edifice of bomb shelters during the 1950s or stockpiling H2O as well as canned goods inwards anticipation of Y2K) to the conspiratorial (preparing for a coming race nation of war or biblical apocalypse). Kurt Saxon, a survivalist writer, claims to accept coined the term inwards the 1970s.

Saxon (given lift Don Sisco) is a quondam John Birch Society member, as well as the author of numerous self-published books as well as pamphlets, including The Poor Man’s James Bond, a guide to homemade explosives, as well as Granddad’s Wonderful Book of Chemistry, featuring methods of domicile manufacturing of bombs. Saxon gained notoriety inwards 1970 afterwards appearing earlier a Senate subcommittee investigating bombings as well as terrorism.


Since the belatedly 1970s as well as early on 1980s, survivalism has larn closely associated alongside several white supremacist groups, similar the Posse Comitatus, the Christian-Patriots Defense League, the Covenant, Sword, Arm of the Lord, as well as Aryan Nations.

Unlike Saxon, an atheist whose writings oftentimes debunk conspiracy theories favored yesteryear right-wing extremists, members of these groups subscribe to Christian Identity theology, which teaches that Aryans are the truthful Israelites as well as that Jews are the literal children of Satan. Believing that the United States of America of America is on the verge of collapse as well as a race war, inwards the 1980s several of these groups created armed compounds inwards rural enclaves.

They stockpiled food, water, as well as weapons as well as began paramilitary preparation inwards preparation for the defense strength of the white race against the forces of the Zionist Occupied Government (ZOG), a Jewish-controlled shadow regime they believed was amassing UN troops nearly the U.S.–Canadian border.

Many of these groups disbanded inwards the mid-1980s, afterwards well-publicized skirmishes alongside federal authorities: leaders of the Posse Comitatus as well as the Covenant, Sword, as well as Arm of the Lord were convicted afterwards dissever shootouts alongside the FBI inwards rural Arkansas inwards 1983 as well as 1985 respectively. Aryan Nations as well as diverse splinter groups persist, however, alongside the crusade energized afterwards the incidents inwards Ruby Ridge, Idaho, as well as Waco, Texas.

Gerald L. K. Smith

Gerald L. K. Smith

From the 1940s until his expiry inward 1976 Gerald Lyman Kenneth Smith was 1 of the nearly outspoken in addition to prolific antisemitic conspiracy theorists inward the United States. Smith stands out, non then much for the originality, quality, or fifty-fifty the consistency of his ideas, but rather for his mightiness to communicate them.

Born inward Pardeeville, Wisconsin, inward 1898, Smith was the scion of a fundamentalist Christian household unit of measurement who adhered to a literal interpretation of the Bible based upon the New Testament. After graduating from academy inward 1922, Smith became a preacher and, next a meteoric ascent through a succession of ministries inward the Midwest, arrived inward Shreveport, Louisiana, during the 1929 Stock Market Crash.

Thereafter Smith rose to prominence equally the charismatic main lieutenant to Huey P. Long, the demagogic governor of Louisiana, on whose behalf he ran the Share Our Wealth organization, which gave him access to its 200,000-strong mailing list, his nearly vital property inward futurity years. However, when Long was assassinated inward 1935, Smith proved incapable of rallying his political legacy.


Shedding his populist back upwards for the New Deal, Smith became increasingly led past times antisemitic conspiracy theories, veering rightward in addition to fiercely criticizing President Roosevelt. In 1937 Smith formed the Committee of One Million equally a vehicle for his choice ready of Christian “Americanism.”

By 1942 the organisation had brought Smith three 1 chiliad one thousand followers in addition to an impressive make of influential in addition to wealthy backers, including Henry Ford, who shared his analysis of the impending danger of “Jewish Communism,” which mirrored that of Protocols of the Elders of Zion.

As his admiration for Nazism grew, Smith briefly joined William Dudley Pelley’s Silver Shirts. He was likewise associated amongst doc Francis Townsend in addition to Father Charles E. Coughlin, the antisemitic “radio priest,” amongst whom he founded the Union Party in addition to which made him a genuinely national figure.

However, Smith was expelled from the political party inward 1942 because of his allegedly disruptive behavior. That same twelvemonth Smith went populace amongst the “call” he had received to salve Christian America from the “enemies of Christ.”

Smith’s obstreperous back upwards of the Dies Committee’s investigation of “un-American” activities ensured that, dissimilar many less prominent antisemites, he escaped indictment during the Grand Sedition Trial inward 1944.

Unscathed, Smith reemerged afterwards the state of war at the caput of the Christian Nationalist Party (CNP), envisaged equally a continuation of the isolationist America First Party upon whose founder, Captain Earl Southard, Smith had exerted considerable influence.

The CNP was complemented past times the formation inward 1947 of his personal vehicle, the Christian Nationalist Crusade (CNC), whose mouthpiece, Cross in addition to Flag, drew upon the Committee of One Million’s all-important subscription lists.

Smith’s tireless evangelizing was remarkably successfully inward weaving together Judaism, communism, in addition to civil rights equally business office of 1 vast conspiracy, which he traced dorsum to the Order of the Illuminati. However, piece this gave the politics of McCarthyism an added antisemitic dimension, Smith never regained his prewar stature.

Although he continued his wide-ranging correspondence amongst many populace figures, his antisemitism, non to cite his personal idiosyncrasies, had effectively pushed him beyond the pale. His 1 time powerful vocalization continued to go muted past times the American Jewish Committee’s (AJC) policy of “dynamic silence,” which effectively smothered his access to the media past times depriving him of publicity.

Smith retired to Eureka Springs, Arkansas, inward the slow 1960s where, despite the objections of the AJC, he built a religious topic commons centered upon a seven-story statue of Jesus, Christ of the Ozarks. Smith died in addition to was buried at the pes of this crumbling building inward 1976, the championship of his posthumously published autobiography, Besieged Patriot, an unconscious commentary on his subsequent descent into political oblivion.

However, despite this litany of personal failure his longevity ensured that Smith provided a formative influence for successive generations of far-right activists whose influence continues to resonate today. Having moved to Los Angeles inward 1953 Smith, the CNC, in addition to its youth displace became the organizational focus for a burgeoning clique of Christian Identity preachers centered inward Southern California.

Paradoxically derived from simply about elements of philosemitic British Israelitism, the vehemently antisemitic theology of Christian Identity believes that Christians, non Jews, are God’s “chosen people,” the truthful descendants of Abraham, piece Jews are viewed equally the literal “seed of Satan” descended from Cain, the progeny of an unholy spousal human relationship betwixt Eve in addition to Satan inward the Garden of Eden. At a stroke, globe history became the titanic make out betwixt 2 diametrically opposed bloodlines representing skillful in addition to evil, Aryan in addition to Jew, God in addition to the Devil.

While Smith played a prominent purpose inward popularizing Christian Identity in addition to linking it to political extremism, he was non responsible for the antisemitic perversion of British Israelite theology. This had occurred before nether the influence of Howard Rand in addition to William J. Cameron, the latter the editor of Henry Ford’s infamous Dearborn Independent.

Smith’s importance for the development of Christian Identity is to go judged non past times his ideas, but past times the coherence of the sophisticated modern propaganda network that he bestowed upon its adherents.

Indeed, many influential Christian Identity preachers similar Wesley Swift, who ofttimes accompanied Smith on his speaking tours in addition to acted equally his bodyguard, outset achieved prominence through CNC-sponsored Bible lectures. This ideological transmission traveled both ways in addition to Swift appears to convey had a powerful reciprocal influence on Smith, whom he introduced to the fundamental “truth” of Christian Identity.

In this observe Smith held a seat of pivotal importance, forming a personal in addition to ideological brace betwixt the traditions of Depression-era antisemitism in addition to the violent neo-Nazi groups of the 1970s similar Aryan Nations in addition to the Christian Defense League, whose leaders saw themselves equally heirs to Swift’s ministry building and, past times implication, to that of Smith himself.

Apocalypticism

God orders the Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse to spread wars,
diseases, civil strife, together with natural disasters

Conspiracy theories are sometimes generated through an apocalyptic worldview. An apocalypse is an approaching pregnant transformation that volition score a novel stage of human experience. Those anticipating the apocalypse tin passively hold back for the lawsuit or actively promote its arrival. They tin dream of the dawning of the Age of Aquarius or fright the nightmare of a terminal nuclear wasteland.

The price “apocalypse,” “revelation,” together with “prophecy” part mutual root words related to the regain of hidden truths—a heart claim of conspiracy theories. Apocalypticism is a major characteristic of Christianity, but the tradition has deep roots inwards Zoroastrianism together with Judaism together with tin live found inwards Islam, Hinduism, together with other religions. Today the influence of the apocalyptic mindset has emerged from these religious traditions together with transmuted into a dizzying array of secular beliefs.

Apocalyptic movements frequently anticipate the betrayal of an idealized community past times cloak-and-dagger malevolent forces conspiring against the mutual good. Those persons sounding the alert urge immediate together with drastic measures to halt the cloak-and-dagger conspiracy from achieving its sinister goals.


Episodes of this type of apocalyptic conspiracism appear periodically throughout U.S. history: witchhunts inwards Salem inwards the 1600s; fears of “alien” sedition inwards the piece of cake 1700s; claims of plots past times Freemasons or Catholics inwards the 1800s; allegations of a Jewish banking cabal behind the Federal Reserve inwards the early on 1900s; together with the anticommunist witch-hunts of the cold-war 1950s. Historian Richard Hofstadter studied U.S. anti-Masonic movements of the 1800s together with wrote of the “apocalyptic together with absolutist framework” of those alert of the claimed conspiracy (Hofstadter, 17).

He developed the theory that conspiracy thinking inwards U.S. right-wing movements represented a “paranoid style” inwards U.S. politics. According to Hofstadter, “the key preconception of the paranoid trend [is the belief inwards the] existence of a vast, insidious, preternaturally effective international conspiratorial network designed to perpetrate acts of the most fiendish character” (Hofstadter, 14).

He argued that grandiose conspiracy theories were constructed when a conspiracist channeled a feel of persecution together with hostility into apocalyptic claims that were overheated, overly suspicious, together with overaggressive.

Damian Thompson looked at Hofstadter’s thesis together with concluded he was right to emphasize the “startling affinities betwixt the paranoid trend together with apocalyptic belief,” peculiarly the demonization of opponents together with “the feel of fourth dimension running out.” But Thompson felt Hofstadter “stopped brusk of making a to a greater extent than straight connectedness betwixt the two.

He did non consider the possibility that the paranoia he identified really derived from apocalyptic belief; that the people who spread scare stories close Catholics, Masons, Illuminati together with Communists” had been primed past times the dramatic conspiracist narrative of the End Times pop amid Protestants inwards the United States. Thompson argued that the persistence of such belief inwards the US rather than Europe sure explains why the paranoid trend seems so quintessentially American.

In the 1950s academics postulated that those who bring together dissident social movements (and sometimes circulate conspiracy theories) are psychologically unbalanced. Phrases such equally “lunatic fringe,” “extremists of the left together with right,” together with “wing nuts” gained pop usage—especially to dismiss the activism of the 1960s.

This sentiment is sometimes called the classical or pluralist school, represented past times authors such equally Daniel Bell together with Seymour Martin Lipset. Critics of the classical schoolhouse telephone telephone it the “centrist/extremist theory” because it glorifies an idealized centre together with implicitly defends the condition quo, shielding the powerful from pop complaints.

Hofstadter really drew a distinction betwixt the psychological together with the sociological inwards his work, but for years the thought that paranoidsounding conspiracy theories were a sign of mental illness reigned supreme equally an influential concept, peculiarly inwards mainstream media.

Since the 1980s academic theories close social movements receive got stressed their rational together with strategic nature, portraying dissidents equally people seeking the redress of grievances past times collectively mobilizing resources together with exploiting political opportunities.

All dissident movements involve roughly cast of apocalypticism alongside their narrative of speaking truth to ability together with demands for a transformation of existing relationships that enforce authorization together with oppression. Investigative reporters are practicing a cast of apocalypticism when they uncover criminal conspiracies together with malfeasance past times political together with job organisation leaders.

Some analysts debate that when dissidents develop the to a greater extent than spectacular together with dubious conspiracy theories, it is a misdirected elbow grease to empathise together with challenge the actual ability together with privilege of dominant groups (Fenster).

This type of conspiracism is a narrative cast of scapegoating where the apocalyptic trend is used to demonize targeted groups equally wholly evil, together with to valorize equally a hero the mortal sounding the alert close the malevolent plot (Berlet together with Lyons, 9). There is increasing attending to the apocalyptic trend inwards the study of history, sociology, together with political science; together with it has a long pedigree inwards studies of faith together with literature. As an applied agency of seeing the world, however, it is equally one-time equally the Bible.

Revelation

In Western culture, apocalypticism traces dorsum to the Book of Revelation, the final volume inwards the New Testament inwards the Bible. Revelation contains a prophetic storey of God’s wrath caused past times the rising tide of greed, sloth, lust, together with sin inwards general. As a warning, God orders the Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse to spread wars, diseases, civil strife, together with natural disasters.

Satan seizes this fourth dimension of chaos to shipping inwards the Antichrist, who appears inwards human cast equally a pop world leader, promising peace through the edifice of 1 worldwide government. His accomplice, the False Prophet, urges all world religions to unite. Influenza A virus subtype H5N1 rumor is spread that the pop world leader is really the Second Coming of Jesus Christ. Some Christians are fooled.

The existent aim, however, is the full devastation of Christianity. Once the evil Antichrist gains command of the world through a conspiracy involving betrayal past times pop political together with religious leaders, the tempest troopers of Satan start to rails downwards truthful Christians.

When caught, the Christians non fooled past times the Antichrist are told they must convey the score of the beast—666—as proof they receive got renounced their before beliefs. If they refuse, they are rounded up, tortured, together with murdered. God eventually intervenes, together with at that topographic point is a huge battle on the plains of Armageddon inwards the Middle East. Good triumphs over evil, ushering inwards a millennium of Christian rule.

Many Christians come across the Book of Revelation inwards metaphoric terms, but others read it equally a God-given script inwards which they must play a purpose when the fourth dimension comes. While apocalyptic millennialism based on the Book of Revelation is to a greater extent than prevalent inwards Protestantism, it exists inwards Catholic subcultures equally well.

Christian Apocalyptic Millennialism

Most contemporary Protestant Christian fundamentalists are premillennialists, believing the Second Coming of Christ starts a thousand-year menses of Christian rule. Some Protestant fundamentalists are postmillennialists who believe that godly Christian men must seize command of guild together with dominion for 1 1000 years before Christ returns.

The most militant of these are the Christian Reconstructionists. The price “millennialist” together with “millenarian” are frequently used interchangeably to depict social together with political movements that are apocalyptic together with attempt the ideal society. The concept is used regularly inwards anthropology, where an early on together with influential study looked at millenarian “Cargo Cults” that emerged inwards the Pacific Islands inwards the 1940s together with 1950s.

It is the demonizing version of apocalyptic Christian millennialism that has played a major purpose inwards establishing conspiracism equally a key frame of reference inwards European cultures—and after inwards the novel colonies of the Americas. The job starts when apocalyptic Christians inwards Europe started viewing electrical flow world events equally “signs of the End Times,” together with so scapegoated those alongside whom they disagreed equally agents of the Antichrist.

This dynamic drew on the ancient tradition of dualism or Manicheanism, inwards which the world is seen equally a stage for a fighting betwixt absolute practiced together with absolute evil. The cast of players is composed of “Us” versus “Them.” This divisive procedure is sometimes called the creation of the apocalyptic “Other.”

For Christians, Jews were frequently cast inwards the purpose of the “Other.” As early on equally the 2nd century, Christians portrayed Jews equally inwards league alongside the Antichrist. Twelfth-century Christians blamed Jews for the ritual murder of children, poisoning of wells, desecration of communion staff of life together with wine, together with other heinous acts.

Apocalypse past times digital artist

During the Inquisitions that followed inwards after centuries, the apocalyptic scapegoating of Jews was frequently tied to a claim that they were engaged inwards a vast evil conspiracy. This procedure was repeated during the sixteenth century, together with tin live found inwards the anti-Jewish writings of Martin Luther, for whom the Reformation was a necessary purifying prelude to what he saw equally the approaching End Times.

The conspiracist reading of Revelation became a key apocalyptic narrative inwards the political discourse of Christians. The picture that reverberated downwards through the centuries was of a vast global conspiracy involving high regime officials betraying the decent productive citizens, piece subversive parasitic agents gnawed away at guild from below.

Freemasons, Jews, together with Communists

When the theories of the Enlightenment began to popularize the notion of the separation of church building together with solid reason together with the inherent rights of the individual, those intellectuals who defended the unrestrained prerogatives of church-state oligarchies were quick to cast their critics inwards the purpose of subversive conspirators.

In the 1790s John Robison together with Abbé Augustin Barruel claimed that the revolutionary ideas of the Enlightenment—and the French Revolution—were business office of a plot networked through lodges of Freemasons.

The alleged culprits were the Illuminati, members of a philosophical study grouping started past times a Bavarian free-thinker named Adam Weishaupt. Both Robison’s together with Barruel’s books are apocalyptic inwards a generic sense, but excited readers chop-chop wove their themes into vividly apocalyptic scenarios.

In the early on 1900s, charges that the Freemasons controlled the banks, the press, politics, together with the regime were rewritten into an antisemitic hoax document claiming a Jewish world conspiracy.

The Protocols of the Elders of Zion start appeared inwards Russian Federation equally a creation of the czarist cloak-and-dagger police, together with its most pop early on version specifically linked Jews to the conspiratorial machinations of the Antichrist. The Protocols argues that behind the Freemason conspiracy is an fifty-fifty to a greater extent than cloak-and-dagger conspiracy run past times rabbis.

Implicit inwards both the anti-Masonic together with antisemitic conspiracist narratives, equally they were start modified for U.S. consumption, is the topic that the US is essentially a Christian acre threatened alongside subversion past times anti-Christian cloak-and-dagger elites alongside allies inwards high places.

The secular version of U.S. conspiracism omits the overtly religious references together with but looks for betrayal past times political together with religious leaders. Conspiracist movements inwards the US derived their specific narratives from these historic roots, ranging from mildly generic to harshly antisemitic.

Godless communism was the key conspiracy scapegoat for many conservative Christians inwards the twentieth century. The ascent of U.S. Protestant Fundamentalism inwards the early on 1900s coincided alongside a secular political assault on bolshevism together with anarchism equally un-American. Defense of commonwealth together with capitalism became interwoven.

This buttressed back upward for the Palmer Raids inwards piece of cake 1919 together with 1920, during which socialist together with anarchist labor organizers were defendant of plotting an apocalyptic elbow grease of bombing together with insurrection. Projecting their apocalyptic fears into action, the regime launched a countersubversive elbow grease that deported thousands of immigrants from Italy together with Russian Federation based on the imitation perception that they were all business office of a conspiracy of criminal sedition.

Events such equally the institution of the Federal Reserve System together with the income revenue enhancement were woven into Christian apocalyptic conspiracism, together with flourished during the direction of President Franklin D. Roosevelt. These were sometimes portrayed equally business office of the efforts of the Antichrist to socialize together with collectivize all societies nether a oneworld regime equally prophesied inwards Revelation.

Christian evangelical tracts discussing the human relationship betwixt communism together with the apocalyptic End Times were pop from the 1920s through the 1960s. Different subcultures could easily weave inwards claims that behind the evil of the “red menace” were Freemasons, Jews, or both. Later it was the UN, the Trilateral Commission, or other scapegoats.

Apocalypticism together with Fundamentalism

Hal Lindsey reignited Protestant apocalyptic speculation inwards 1970 alongside his volume The Late Great Planet Earth, which sold nineteen meg copies. U.S. Protestant fundamentalists were the primary audience for this together with the many apocalyptic books that followed.

The master copy occupation of the term “fundamentalism” referred to a populist theological protestation displace that arose inside U.S. Protestantism inwards the early on twentieth century. Fundamentalism was a reaction against mainline Protestant denominations inwards the US such equally Presbyterians together with Baptists and, to a lesser extent, Methodists, Episcopalians, together with others.

Leaders of these major denominations were defendant of selling out the Protestant faith past times forging a compromise alongside the ideas of the Enlightenment together with modernism. In the early on 1900s conservative critics of this denominational leadership developed voluminous lists of what they considered the fundamental beliefs required for people to consider themselves Christian—thus the term “fundamentalism.”

The term is right away used to depict similar but non identical religious renewal movements inwards other religious traditions, including Islam, Judaism, Hinduism, together with Buddhism. Fundamentalism is frequently confused alongside orthodoxy together with traditionalism.

Fundamentalists claim to live restoring the “true” faith past times returning to “traditional” beliefs together with enforcing orthodoxy—the prepare of theological doctrines approved of equally audio together with right past times a faith’s religious leaders. In fact, piece fundamentalist movements claim to live restoring tradition together with orthodoxy, they really do a novel version of an existing faith based on a mythic together with romanticized past.

There is a basic apocalyptic framework mutual across religious fundamentalist movements—the thought that a fighting betwixt practiced together with evil is reaching a crucial minute inwards history. One agency to mobilize people to bring together a religious fundamentalist displace is to claim that the idealized Godly guild is beingness subverted past times an evil conspiracy. This raises the stakes inwards the anticipated apocalyptic confrontation.

Fuller ties the Christian millennialist viewpoint to the larger issues of demonization together with scapegoating when he argues that many efforts to scream the Antichrist appear to live rooted inwards the psychological demand to projection one’s ‘unacceptable’ tendencies onto a demonic enemy.

It is the Antichrist, non oneself, who must live held responsible for wayward desires. And alongside so many aspects of modern American life potentially luring individuals into nonbiblical thoughts or desires, it is no wonder that many people believe that the Antichrist has camouflaged himself to amend move his conspiracies against the faithful.

While many dissident movements (religious or secular) are inwards roughly feel apocalyptic, non all such movements utilize demonization together with scapegoating to build conspiracy theories. Even those Christians who intend the End Times are imminent do non automatically succumb to conspiracism.

There is a deep sectionalization inside modern Christianity betwixt those Christians who position evil alongside specific persons together with groups such equally Muslims, feminists, or homosexuals together with those Christians who come across evil equally the volition to dominate together with oppress. The distinction cuts across theological together with political lines. Some of the most song critics of apocalyptic demonization together with conspiracist scapegoating come upward from inside Christianity, such equally Gregory S. Camp or Dale Aukerman.

Apocalyptic New World Order

When European communism began to collapse inwards the piece of cake 1980s, many Christian conspiracists but shifted their attending to roughly other godless philosophy—secular humanism. The assault on liberal secular humanism gave novel life to fundamentalist conspiracy theory. On the 1 hand, the secular humanist conspiracy could live tied to the outward manifestations of the Satanic End Times, piece on the other, a conservative critique of liberalism together with moral relativism that omitted overt references to prophetic passages inwards Revelation could live crafted.

Apocalypticism remained key inwards both versions equally a telephone telephone for a provide to “traditional” values equally the exclusively agency to stave off the impending collapse of society. This came to live known equally the Culture Wars.

As the calendar twelvemonth 2000 approached, scores of books aimed at Christian evangelicals warned of the coming apocalypse together with many contained elaborate conspiracy scenarios involving the Antichrist, the Freemasons, the UN, computers, universal cost codes, together with corporate globalization. Jeremiah Films produces videos alongside conservative Christian apocalyptic theology emerging inwards the cast of conspiracist claims.

The 1993 video The Crash—The Coming Financial Collapse of America comes inwards 2 versions: 1 alongside a secular doomsday scenario together with a Christian version featuring Biblical prophesy. Jeremiah Films distributed several videos claiming vast conspiracies past times the Clinton administration, including allegations that the president had his aide Vince Foster assassinated.

Preparing to live on the coming apocalypse is the reason of the survivalist subculture that stores nutrient together with conducts self-defense training. Conspiracism, apocalypticism, together with survivalism are a strong stew. The tragic shootout betwixt federal agents together with the Weaver position unit of measurement inwards Idaho inwards 1992 involved regime misconduct together with a failure to empathise the ability of apocalyptic belief.

The Weavers were survivalists because they were followers of Christian Identity, a theology rejected past times all mainstream Christians that claims the US is the Promised Land together with white Christians are God’s chosen people.

The neo-Nazi version of Identity claims Jews are Satanic agents, together with sometimes followers arm themselves for what they believe is an imminent apocalyptic race war. The Branch Davidian chemical compound close Waco, Texas, was a survivalist center, together with leader David Koresh was decoding Revelation equally an End Times script. The failure of regime officials to empathise this dynamic resulted inwards many needless deaths inwards 1993.

Spurred past times anger over these events, the Patriot displace developed an armed wing, known equally citizen militias, which briefly flourished inwards the mid1990s. Patriot social movements involve equally many equally v meg Americans who believe that the regime is manipulated past times subversive cloak-and-dagger elites together with is planning to occupation law enforcement or armed services forcefulness to repress political rights.

The militias circulated an elaborate conspiracy theory close betrayal past times cloak-and-dagger internationalist elites that is a measure narrative of right-wing populist movements inwards the United States. Influenza A virus subtype H5N1 pop speaker inwards these circles is Robert K. Spear, writer of Surviving Global Slavery: Living nether the New World Order. Spear believed the formation of armed Christian communities was necessary to avoid the score of the brute inwards the coming End Times.

The approach of the twelvemonth 2000 seemed to cause apocalyptic excitement inwards a diversity of groups. The Aum Shinrikyo sect turned its apocalypticism outward alongside a deadly 1995 Sarin gas assault on the Tokyo subway. The Heaven’s Gate volume suicide inwards 1997 merged millennial apocalyptic visions from the Bible, the prophecies of Nostradamus, together with the literary genre of scientific discipline fiction.

Also turning its apocalypticism inward, betwixt 1994 together with 1997 the Order of the Solar Temple staged grouping suicides inwards Canada, France, together with Switzerland. Other self-fulfilling apocalyptic events include the People’s Temple suicide/murders engineered inwards 1978 past times Jim Jones inwards Guyana; together with the Ugandan doomsday sect Movement for the Restoration of the Ten Commandments of God, where inwards the twelvemonth 2000 roughly 1,000 devotees were murdered past times the sects’ leaders.

Apocalypticism equally a trend tin likewise live detected inwards doomsday scenarios circulated past times roughly sectors of the environmental together with antinuclear movements, although they signal out that nuclear devastation or our atmosphere turning into toxic soup would effectively hateful the terminate of fourth dimension for the species that are aware of it. That would really live apocalyptic, but no 1 would live left to appreciate the irony.

Early Holy Roman Empire

Ottonian Dynasty

Following the death of Emperor Louis the Pious (814– 840) and the Frankish civil war (840–843), the Carolingian Empire was divided among three sons of Louis. On the eastern ruins of the empire a new kingdom, that of Germany, had emerged, stretching from Holstein in the north down to the Alps in the south, from Lorraine in the west up to the Elbe in the east.

The first Carolingian kings of Germany struggled for the survival of their fragile kingdom. Their power was challenged not only by foreign invaders, the Slavs, Magyars, and Vikings, but also by rival rulers of France, as well as by some domestic opponents.

In 911 the last Carolingian offspring, Louis the Child (900–911), died and the German nobility elected Conrad, duke of Franconia, as their new king (911–918). Conrad’s son, Henry I (918–936), and later his grandson, Otto I the Great (936–973), succeeded to restore law and order in their kingdom, by bringing different tribes under their control and beating off the invasions.


Ottonian Dynasty

After the victory over the Magyars in the Battle of Lechfeld (955) and successful intervention in Italy (951–961), Otto had established himself as undisputed ruler over vast territories in western and central Europe. On February 2, 962, Pope John XII crowned him emperor in Rome. The new Roman Empire, ruled by the German emperor, had been founded.

Its very title Holy Roman Empire derives from the fact that the act of the imperial coronation, performed by the supreme head of the Christian believers, the pope, was sacral in its character and hence also a sacral character of the imperial dignity and power. The coronation of Otto was by no means an outstanding achievement: The papacy lacked both infl uence and power in those days and was largely subjugated to the goodwill of the German rulers.

Otto II (973–983) succeeded Otto and was married to the Byzantine princess Theophano. The latter introduced a series of Byzantine imperial ceremonies, which were adopted in the Ottonian court. Just as his father before him, Otto II attempted to increase the imperial control over Italy. His invasion of Calabria ended with the defeat of his army by the Arabs in 982. Otto III (983–1002) spent much energy on consolidating the imperial influence in the east.

He created the archbishopric of Gniezno and made Boleslas the Brave, duke of Poland, patrician. During Henry II’s reign (1002–24) , he had undertaken three military campaigns into Italy, the fi rst of which (1004) intended to punish his unfaithful subject Arduin of Ivrea, who proclaimed himself king of Italy. The second campaign (1013–14) resulted in his imperial coronation by the pope.

Following the third invasion (1020), the imperial power over Italy was firmly established and new German officials were installed for ensuring the imperial control in the region. The warfare with Boleslas I, in which Henry was allied with the pagan Ljutizi, ended in the peace of 1018, by which Henry gave up Bohemia.

Salian Dynasty

Salian Dynasty

The death of Henry II marked the end of the Ottonian dynasty, which gave way to a new dynasty, the Salians. Its first ruler was Conrad II (1024–39), elected by the German magnates after the death of Henry, despite some opposition that wished to have William III, duke of Aquitaine, crowned as a new king. After his imperial coronation on Easter 1027 his power was reasserted.

He now turned his attention to legal matters, codifying ancient Saxon customs. In 1028 he was victorious in his war against the rebellious Mieszko II, duke of Poland. With peace achieved, Mieszko surrendered all territories conquered by him and his predecessor from the empire. In 1032 Rudolf III, the last king of Burgundy, died, commanding his kingdom to Conrad. Burgundy was annexed to the empire, assuming the name kingdom of Arles.

Conrad and his heirs, Henry III (r. 1039–56) and Henry IV (r. 1056–1106), attempted to centralize the imperial power, as well as to diminish the influence of regional nobility, lay and religious alike. This led to frequent conflicts and an occasional revolt. The imperial interference with spiritual matters was clearly demonstrated in Henry III’s attempt to reform the papacy.

Between 1046 and 1049 he appointed, one after another, four German bishops as popes, to make German control ubiquitous and to have the emperor as a dominant figure in church matters. Although praised by some churchmen for his efforts to reform the papacy, Henry attracted fierce criticism from among more radical circles in Rome.

During the minority of Henry IV, the Roman movement was led by an energetic cardinal, Hildebrand, the future Pope Gregory VII (1073–85). In 1059 Hildebrand had decreed that no temporal ruler is authorized to install or depose the pope, who is to be chosen by a college of cardinals.

This may have marked the beginning of the Gregorian Reform, which indulged in a bitter struggle with the Crown known as the Investiture Controversy. The first blow delivered upon the emperor was his humiliation at Canossa (January 1077), with him excommunicated and his empire placed under the interdict.

The first stage of the controversy ended with the Concordat of Worms (1122) between Henry’s son Henry V (1106–25) and Pope Calixtus II. By the concordat, Henry gave up his authority to invest bishops but kept his right to oversee and take part in the Episcopal elections.

The weakness of the emperor was utilized by the German nobility, which elected Lothar of Supplinburg as their new king Lothar II (1125–37), putting an end to the Salian dynasty. Lothar’s and subsequently Conrad III’s reign (1138–52) is marked by social and dynastic struggle.

Frederick I Barbarossa and Frederick II

Frederick I Barbarossa

With the election of Frederick I Barbarossa (1152–90), a new chapter in the history of the German Empire began. Frederick’s primary objective was to restore the imperial control in Italy, over both the rebellious Italian communes and the pope, who had allied himself with King William I of Sicily. The first Italian expedition of 1155 did not produce any significant fruits, while the second campaign (1158) resulted in the reduction of Lombardy into a royal province and rebellion of the Milanese commune.

The fervent Pope Alexander III (1159–81) and the king of Sicily backed the Italian city-states, while Frederick was supported by most of the German magnates and the antipopes. During his fourth Italian march (1166–67) he seized Rome and only an outbreak of malaria, perceived as a divine punishment, forced him to retreat.

In 1174 Frederick led his fifth expedition and despite some agreement reached with the Lombard League, the war resumed, resulting in the imperial defeat in the Battle of Legnano (May 29, 1176). After this, Frederick turned to diplomacy and the confl ict ended with the Peace of Constance (1183). Along with Italian policy, Frederick paid attention to domestic matters.

He expanded the imperial domains by annexing lands of extinct German dynasties and seizing the properties of Henry the Lion, duke of Saxony and Bavaria, in 1180. It was during his reign that the imperial chancery started using the adjective holy to denote the Roman Empire.

Frederick died on his way to the Holy Land leading the Third Crusade. His son Henry VI (1190–97) was married to Constance, the aunt of childless William II, king of Sicily, and upon his ascension he invaded Italy to be crowned in Rome and to claim his Sicilian kingdom. The Sicilian campaign ended in a failure because of the high summer heat and Henry retreated, leaving Sicily ruled by antiking Tancred, William II’s cousin.

After Tancred’s death in 1194 Henry launched another campaign into Sicily, which resulted in the conquest of the Norman kingdom and Henry’s coronation as king of Sicily on Christmas 1194. Once home, Henry attempted to transform the empire into a hereditary monarchy ruled by the House of the Hohenstaufen.

Upon his death (September 28, 1197), Henry VI left a two-year-old son, the future Frederick II (1212–50). He was raised in Sicily with Pope Innocent III (1198–1216) serving as his guardian. The latter brilliantly exploited the social and political chaos following Henry VI’s death and annexed vast territories in Italy to the papal demesnes.

Philip of Swabia, Henry VI’s brother, was elected as a new king (1198–1208) and his reign is characterized by a continual struggle with his archenemy, Otto of Brunswick. The German and Sicilian nobility, as well as the church with its leader Innocent III, changed sides frequently during the war between the two rivals.

After Philip’s murder, Otto was styled as Otto IV (1208–18). He won Innocent’s support, thanks to his promise to recognize the papal territories in Italy and to allow free episcopal elections, but his failure to carry out these promises led to his excommunication by the pope (November 18, 1210), which ironically coincided with the excommunication of King John of England in 1209.

In the meantime, Frederick II was elected as a new king (September 1211). Frederick had easily won Innocent’s support by confirming Otto’s concessions of 1209. Otto’s declining power was finally crushed after the Battle of Bouvines (July 27, 1214), where the armies of two excommunicated rulers, John of England and Otto of Brunswick, were defeated. Otto died excommunicated in 1218.

The good relationships between pope and emperor were doomed after Innocent’s III death. Frederick failed to keep his promise regarding the separation of Sicily from the German Empire. He instead had his young son Henry crowned King Henry VII of Germany in 1220 and retreated to his native Sicily. In 1227 Gregory IX excommunicated Frederick for his failure to take the cross.

This resulted in the expedition to the Holy Land known as the Sixth Crusade, where Frederick brilliantly restored Jerusalem to Christian control through his masterful diplomacy. Frederick’s success and the support of many German princes contributed to the Peace of San Germano, achieved between pope and emperor in 1230.

By this peace Frederick recognized papal territories in Italy and Sicily; however the peace did not last long. In 1237 Frederick renewed imperial hostilities toward the Lombard League, crushing the communal armies in November that year. Gregory excommunicated Frederick in 1239 and called for a church council to depose the emperor, who was seen as the Antichrist.

Frederick invaded Rome in 1241 only to find Gregory dead. Gregory’s successor Innocent IV followed the policy of his predecessor and in 1245 the First Council of Lyon, deposed the emperor. However Frederick’s rule was strong enough to survive this symbolic deposition.

While Frederick was perceived as the Antichrist by the papal circles, his Sicilian companions saw him as a keen promoter of arts and sciences, the founder of the University of Naples (1224); as an open-minded personality, who was equally tolerant to Christians, Jews, and Muslims, Germans, Normans, and Greeks; and as a man of an extraordinary learning, speaking as many as seven languages and possessing progressive views on economics and government. His extraordinary personality earned him the nickname Stupor Mundi, the Wonder of the World.

Frederick died on December 13, 1250, and his mighty empire collapsed. After the brief reign of his son Conrad IV (1250–54), the German Empire submerged into two decades of political and social chaos, with no recognized king or emperor. During the interregnum period of 1254–73, the Swiss cantons attempted to break free from the imperial control, Charles of Anjou conquered the imperial possessions in Sicily and southern Italy, while France threatened the German territories.

Habsburg Dynasty

In autumn of 1273, an assembly of German princes, the Kurfürsten, elected a new king, Rudolf of Habsburg, son of Albrecht IV, count of Habsburg, and Hedwig, daughter of Ulrich of Kyburg. Rudolf is thought to have been a prominent figure well before his crowning, possessing lands and estates in Switzerland and Alsace. Pope Gregory X recognized his election, provided that Rudolf renounce his claims to the imperial title and rule in Rome, Sicily, and the papal lands. Alfonso X of Castile also acknowledged Rudolf’s election.

Challenge to his authority came from within, in the face of Otokar II, king of Bohemia, who refused to surrender his territories in Austria, Styria, Carinthia, and Carniola to Rudolf. After a war that lasted five months, Rudolf seized the aforementioned provinces in November 1276. Otokar retained Bohemia and the peace was consolidated by the betrothal of Otokar’s son Wenceslaus to Rudolf’s daughter. The peace, however, did not remain long, with Otokar allying himself with some German and Polish princes against Rudolf.

The latter, having made an alliance with Ladislas IV of Hungary, met his enemy on the river March on August 26, 1278. The outcome of the battle was the defeat and death of Otokar and subjugation of Moravia. Having overcome the Bohemian challenge, Rudolf turned his attention to consolidating his authority in the Austrian provinces, where he invested his two sons, Albrecht and Rudolf, as dukes of Austria and Styria.

In doing so, Rudolf expected to establish dynastic rule in his kingdom. At the same time, he attempted to restore peace and order in Germany and Switzerland. In 1289 he marched into Thuringia, where he subdued some rebels. His wish of having his son Albert crowned as German king did not come true, with the electing princes refusing to do so. Rudolf died on July 15, 1291.

The assembly elected Adolf, count of Nassau, as the new king. Unlike his predecessor, Adolf lacked power and influence, being from minor nobility. This choice may have been made because the princes, having tasted power in the House of Habsburg, preferred to install a weak ruler.

Crowned as king of the Romans in Aachen on June 2, 1292, and never anointed Holy Roman Emperor by the pope, Adolf did not achieve any significant accomplishment throughout his brief reign (1292–98). His attempts to subdue Thuringia to his rule failed, and his former supporters deposed him, electing Albrecht of Habsburg, Rudolf I’s son, as their king. Adolf refused to recognize Albert’s election and led his army against him, only to be defeated and killed in the Battle of Göllnheim (July 2, 1298).

Albert I’s reign (1298–1308) is characterized by the growing international importance of the House of Habsburg. His attempt to annex territories over the Burgundian frontier led to a conflict with Philip IV the Fair of France (1285–1314).

However, a lack of papal support urged him to abandon his claims in this region. A treaty between the two kings was signed in 1299, by which Albrecht’s son Rudolf was to marry Philip’s daughter Blanche. In 1303, Pope Boniface VIII had finally acknowledged Albert as the German king and Holy Roman Emperor, regarding him as his ally in the conflict with the French Crown.

In 1306 he made his son Rudolf king of Bohemia. He failed to subdue Thuringia, and his army suffered a heavy loss in 1307. Albert was killed on May 1, 1308, on his way to Swabia, where a revolt had broken out. Most contemporary sources depict Albert as a harsh though just ruler as well as a protector of Jewish communities, persecuted in those days.

Luxembourg Dynasty

Henry VII of Luxembourg succeeded Albert, was acknowledged by the pope, and was crowned by him as emperor on June 29, 1312. At this time the princes’ assembly was torn between the Habsburg and Luxembourg parties. While in Italy, Henry imposed imperial power on rebellious Florence and interfered in the ongoing war of the Guelphs and Ghebellines, supporters of the pope and emperor, respectively, in Tuscany. He also attempted to subdue his vassal Robert, king of Naples, only to die on August 24, 1313, near Siena.

Upon his death, the Luxembourg party of electors’ assembly elected Louis, or Ludwig, IV Wittelsbach of Bavaria, against the wishes of the Habsburg party, which attempted to install Frederick the Fair Habsburg. Louis’s coronation in 1314 led to a violent confl ict between the latter and the Habsburg heir. Frederick’s army was defeated in 1322 in the Battle of Mühldorf. Having eliminated his rival, Louis set out to consolidate his authority.

He went to Rome in January 1328, and was crowned by an old senator, because of the absence of the pope in the Eternal City. While there he deposed Pope John XXII on the grounds of heresy and appointed a Spiritual Franciscan as antipope Nicholas V, who was deposed as soon as the emperor left Rome in early 1329.

While at home Louis acted as the patron of antipapal intellectuals, such as Marsilius of Padua and William Ockham. In 1338 the princes’ assembly had decreed that the king, chosen by the assembly, did not need papal authorization or coronation. This antipapal policy provoked a harsh reaction of the pope, who was then allied with the French king. In order to withstand the papal-French coalition, Louis made an alliance with Edward III of England. In his domestic policies, he relied much on his power and lands in Bavaria.

In 1340 he united Lower and Upper Bavaria, while two years later he annexed neighboring Tyrol. His increasing authority over smaller territorial rulers led to an inevitable conflict with the latter. In 1346, a year before his death, the electors’ assembly, with the support of Pope Clement VI, chose Charles IV of Luxembourg and Bohemia as an antiking.

Louis IV died on October 11, 1346, and the Crown passed to Charles IV. Although crowned emperor in 1355, Charles, unlike his predecessors, did not strive to revive the idea of the universal Christian Roman Empire, ruled by the German emperor. Instead, he invested his powers and resources in the cultural development of Bohemia, his native land, and Prague, where he resided, in particular.

In 1348 he founded and patronized the Charles University of Prague, which attracted scholars and students with its humanist studies. The emperor corresponded with Petrarch and even invited him to settle in Prague, while the Italian humanist called on Charles to return the imperial throne to Rome. Under Charles’s patronage, some of the finest monuments of Old Prague were built.

While most of the emperor’s attention was concentrated on Bohemia, other parts of the empire, especially Germany, suffered from a social crisis following the epidemics of the Black Death (1348–51). Charles issued his famous Golden Bull of 1356, which attempted to define the procedure of imperial election and the annual diet held by the electoral princes. Raised and educated at the French royal court, Charles was related to John II (1350–64) and Charles V (1364–80) of France and supported them in the French struggle against England.

Charles IV died on November 29, 1378, and the titles of the king of Bohemia and king of the Romans passed to his son, Wenceslaus (known as Wenceslaus, or Vaclav IV the Drunkard). Just as his father, Wenceslaus devoted much of his attention to his native Bohemia. His Bohemo-central policy provoked a rebellion of the German princes, who deposed him as king in August 1400, electing the German Rupert, count of Palatine.

Wenceslaus did not give up the title of the king of the Germans and continued reigning in Bohemia until his death in 1419, without acknowledging his deposition and the crowning of Rupert. This also marks the beginning of animosity between Bohemia and Germany, on political, national, and cultural levels. It was under Wenceslaus that the Hussite movement started by John Huss started gaining ground in Bohemia.

After Rupert’s death in 1410 the princes’ assembly elected Sigismund of Luxembourg, margrave of Brandenburg and king of Hungary. Soon after his election, Wenceslaus of Bohemia, his half brother, renounced his claim to the title of king of the Romans and Sigismund was universally recognized as such. During his reign, the history of Hungary became interwoven with that of the Holy Roman Empire.

The two main objectives of his early reign were to put an end to the Papal Schism (1378–1417) and to crush the Hussite movement in Bohemia. Both problems were solved at the Council of Constance (1414–17), where Sigismund was a key figure. The two leaders of the Hussite movement, John Huss and Jerome of Prague, were burned at the stake on July 6, 1415, and May 30, 1416, respectively.

The Papal Schism was ended by the deposition of three rival popes and election of a new one, Martin V. The martyrdom of Huss and Jerome resulted in street riots in Prague, which swiftly transformed into a civil war. In the meantime Wenceslaus died and Sigismund inherited the title of king of Bohemia.

In 1420 he attempted to restore peace and order, only to be rejected by the Bohemian nobility and repulsed by the Hussite army, led by some remaning commanders. The Hussite wars continued until 1436, devastating various eastern regions of the empire. Only a later schism within the movement itself allowed Sigismund to take over. In 1437 a short time before his death, the local nobility accepted him as the king of Bohemia.

Albrecht II Habsburg of Austria succeeded Sigismund, ruling briefly for two years (1437–1439). He also inherited the reigns of Hungary and Bohemia. The Bohemian nobility rejected Albrecht as their king, allied itself with the Poles, and rebelled against him. As king of Hungary, he spent his energy defending the realm against the Ottoman Empire.

Frederick III and Maximilian

After Albert’s death, Frederick III was elected as king of the Germans in 1440. To consolidate his power, he signed the Vienna Concordat with the papacy in 1446, which codified the relationships between the emperor and the pope. Frederick was crowned emperor in 1452, the last imperial crowning in Rome. While unsuccessful in battle, Frederick achieved brilliant results through diplomacy.

In 1452 Frederick married Eleanor of Portugal, receiving a considerable dowry. In 1475 he forced Charles the Bald, duke of Burgundy, to marry his daughter to Frederick’s son, Maximilian. Despite this, his rivals frequently challenged Frederick’s power.

The first challenge came from Albrecht VI, his brother. Between 1458 and 1463 the two fought each other over the control of Austria. The struggle with his nephew, Ladislaus Posthumus, over Hungary and Bohemia, resulted in the capture and imprisonment of the latter. His main rival, however, was a powerful Hungarian king, Matthias Corvinus (1458–90), who seized some of Frederick’s possessions in Austria, Moravia, and Silesia and then took Vienna in 1485.

The collapse of Frederick’s power was prevented only by Corvinus’s death in 1490. The last 10 years of his life, Frederick ruled jointly with his son, Maximilian, who had been crowned the king of the Romans in 1486 and inherited his father’s imperial title after the latter’s death in 1493.

Maximilian held vast territorial possessions well before his ascension to the throne. In 1477 after the death of Charles the Bald of Burgundy, he had inherited the Free County of Burgundy, along with the Netherlands. In 1490 he acquired Tyrol and some parts of Austria from his half-uncle Sigismund.

In 1494 the emperor entered into a conflict with France over the intervention in Italy, which led to the Italian Wars of 1494–1559. He did not live to see his armies beat the French enemy. In 1499 the empire suffered heavy losses in the Battle of Dornach at the hands of the Swiss Confederation, which forced the emperor to acknowledge the independence of the Swiss cantons.

While at home Maximilian tried to reform the imperial constitution. In 1495 the Reichstag of Worms had issued four documents, known as the Reichsreform, which created and legalized two legal establishments: the Reichskreise (Imperial Circle), whose main function was to collect taxes and organize a common defense, and the Reichskammergericht (Imperial Chamber Court), the highest judicial institution of the empire.

Under Maximilian, and perhaps even under his father, Frederick III, the Holy Roman Empire began to rise to be the premier power in Europe. With the election of Maximilian’s grandson, Charles V of Spain, the empire became the largest territorial unit in Europe, encompassing central Europe, Germany, the Low Countries, parts of Burgundy, and Spain with its vast American colonies.