https://antipodeanobservations.org/categories/europe/Recent content in Europe on Antipodean ObservationsHugoen-ushello@example.comhello@example.comThu, 02 Apr 2026 23:02:52 +1100https://antipodeanobservations.org/posts/european-century-of-humiliation/Tue, 31 Mar 2026 19:23:00 +1100hello@example.comhttps://antipodeanobservations.org/posts/european-century-of-humiliation/How the continent that ruled the world learned to call its decline a philosophy. A fading empire’s relics sit quietly as the world that once stood outside the glass now walks freely through it, no longer in awe but in possession. Europe did not lose its place in the world. It abdicated — and then constructed a philosophy to explain why abdication was sophistication. This essay traces that arc from Suez, where two European powers were told by Washington and Moscow to go home and went, through the unlearned lessons of 1973, the comfortable vassalage of the Gulf Wars, the self-immolation of German energy policy, and the digital continent that invented the web and built none of its infrastructure.