F ew institutions have possessed as enduring importance in Europe's history as the Holy Roman Empire. Dating its foundation to Charlemagne's coronation in 800, it survived for a millennium, being dissolved only in 1806 in the face of the overwhelming threat from Napoleonic imperialism. Its geographical extent was equally remarkable: at its peak, imperial territory stretched eastward from the North Sea as far as Poland, and southward from the shores of the Baltic deep into the Italian Peninsula. Around 1800, shortly before its nemesis, the Empire was Europe's second largest polity, with a territorial area of around 687,000 square kilometers. It was eclipsed only by Russia, which during the later-seventeenth and eighteenth century had expanded spectacularly. Its population too was impressive: with around twenty-nine million inhabitants, its only rivals were France and Russia. Claiming descent from ancient Rome, the Empire long embodied the idea of a unified Christendom, while its defensive role against Ottoman expansion from the late fifteenth century onward sustained its religious mission even after the Protestant Reformation. Yet it is often squeezed out of accounts of Europe's past, an exclusion which is particularly evident for the early modern centuries.

中文翻译：

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神圣罗马帝国的变脸

在欧洲历史上，很少有机构像神圣罗马帝国一样具有持久的重要性。它的基础可以追溯到 800 年查理曼大帝的加冕典礼，它存活了一千年，直到 1806 年才在面对拿破仑帝国主义的压倒性威胁时才解散。它的地理范围同样引人注目：在鼎盛时期，帝国领土从北海向东延伸至波兰，从波罗的海沿岸向南延伸至意大利半岛。大约在 1800 年，即在它的克星之前不久，帝国是欧洲第二大政体，领土面积约为 687,000 平方公里。只有在 17 世纪后期和 18 世纪后期扩张得惊人的俄罗斯才使它黯然失色。它的人口也令人印象深刻：大约有 2900 万居民，它唯一的竞争对手是法国和俄罗斯。帝国自称是古罗马的后裔，长期以来体现了统一基督教世界的理念，而从 15 世纪后期开始，其防御奥斯曼帝国扩张的角色甚至在新教改革之后仍维持其宗教使命。然而，它经常被排除在欧洲过去的叙述之外，这种排斥在近代早期尤为明显。