Political and social conflicts during recent years in Europe - such as immigration and terrorism - have guided humanities issues today. Regarding Middle Age research, many works and projects present a debate on European cultural diversity, which lay the foundations since the Middle Ages through interaction and cultural exchanges between Christians, Jews and Muslims. Within the discussion, is the criticism to the idea of center and periphery within Europe itself and the world, as well as the consideration of concepts such as europeanization and africanization, used by European historiography, from the first half of the twentieth century until a few years ago. This article presents criticism to the concepts of europeanization, africanization, center, periphery, and cultural unity in the Middle Ages, in light of the New German Cultural History (Neue Kulturgeschichte), issues that inflame the debate in Germany today.
Europeanization; Africanization; Medieval Spain; New German Cultural History