ELI5: Explain Like I'm 5

Burgundian Circle

So, imagine that you and your friends have a very big playground, but sometimes it's hard to decide who gets to play where or what game to play. That's kind of like what happened in olden times in Europe.

In the 1500s, there were a lot of different territories and countries in Europe, like France and Germany, and they were often fighting with each other. But some of these territories were related to each other or had common interests, and they wanted to work together to keep the peace and protect their lands.

So they made a special group called the Burgundian Circle. It was like a club, but for important people who ruled different territories. They would meet and discuss how to protect their lands and how to help each other out if there was trouble.

The Burgundian Circle was named after a place called Burgundy, which was a region between France and Germany that many of the members of the group were from. They made a big circle on a map that included their territories, and that's how they decided who was in the group.

The Burgundian Circle lasted for a few hundred years until things changed and territories became countries with their own governments. But for a while, it was an important way for rulers to work together and keep things peaceful.