European History

Political/Military

Beginnings of representative assemblies in England, Spain, the German Empire

1250 - 1450

Hundred Years' War

1337 - 1453

English victory over the French at Crécy

1346

English smash the French at Agincourt

1415

Charles VII revives France and monarchy

1422 - 1461

French victory at Orléans; Charles VII crowned king

1429

Joan of Arc declared a heretic and burned at the stake

1431

Medici family in power in Florence

1434 - 1494

Reign of Ivan III in Russia

1462 - 1505

Marriage of Isabella of Castile and Ferdinand of Aragon

1469

Union of Burgundy and Habsburg dynasties

1477

Invasion of Italy by Charles VIII of France

1494

Spanish under Cortés conquer Mexico

1519 - 1522

Charles V's wars against Valois kings

1521 - 1555

Turkish victory at Mohács leads to spread of Protestantism in Hungary

1526

Spanish under Pizarro conquer Peru

1531 - 1536

Reign of Ivan the Terrible in Russia

1533 - 1584

Reign of Mary Tudor and temporary restoration of Catholicism in England

1553 - 1558

Peace of Augsburg

1555

Reign of Elizabeth and the "Elizabethan Settlement" in England

1558 - 1603

Treaty of Cateau-Cambrésis

1559

Civil war in Netherlands

1568 - 1578

Mary, Queen of Scots, is beheaded for plot to assassinate Elizabeth

1587

Spanish Armada defeated

1588

Henry IV in France

1589 - 1610

Thirty Years' War

1618 - 1648

Growth of absolutism in Austria and Prussia

1620 - 1740

Reign of Fredrick William in Prussia

1640 - 1671

English civil war ends with execution of Charles I

1642 - 1649

Louis XIV in France

1643 - 1715

British Navigation Acts

1651 - 1663

Anglo-Dutch wars; rise of British mercantilism

1652 - 1674

Military rule in England under Oliver Cromwell

1653 - 1658

Treaty of the Pyrenees marks end of Spanish imperial dominance

1659

Restoration of English Monarchy under Charles II

1660

Cossack revolt led by Razin

1670 - 1671

Habsburgs defend Vienna; win war with Ottoman Turks

1683 - 1718

Glorious revolution in England

1688 - 1689

Mercantilist wars of empire

1701 - 1763

War of the Spanish Succession

1701 - 1713

Growth of Prussian military

1713 - 1740

Peace of Utrecht

1713

Reign of Frederick the Great of Prussia

1740 - 1786

Reign of Maria Theresa in Austria

1740 - 1780

War of Austrian Succession

1740 - 1748

Enlightened absolutists

1750 - 1790

Seven Years' War

1756 - 1763

Fall of Quebec

1759

Height of parliamentary enclosure in England

1760 - 1815

Reign of Catherine the Great of Russia

1762 - 1796

Boston Tea Party

1773

American Revolution

1775 - 1783

Reign of Joseph II of Austria

1780 - 1790

French Revolution

1789 - 1799

Ratification of U.S. Constitution

1789

Storming of the Bastille

1789

Execution of Lous XVI

1793

Robespierre's Reign of Terror

1793 - 1794

Robespierre deposed and executed

1794

Thermidorian reaction

1794 - 1799

Napoleonic era

1799 - 1815

Napoleon invades Russia

1812

Napoleon defeated and exiled

1814 - 1815

Social/Economic

Famine in northern Europe

1315 - 1322

Black Death arrives in mainland Europe

1348

Jacquerie peasant uprising in France

1358

Peasants' Revolt in England

1381

Re-emergence of serfdom in eastern Europe

1400 - 1650

Flow of Balkan slaves to E Mediterranean; African slaves to W Mediterranean

1420 - 1485

Biosocial exchange between Europe and the Americas

1510 - 1650

Peasants' Revolt in Germany

1525

Height of the European witch-hunt

1560 - 1660

Much of Europe hit by price inflation

1560 - 1600

Dutch East India Company founded

1602

Food riots common across Europe

1605 - 1715

Agricultural improvement and revolution

1650 - 1850

Growth of Atlantic economy

1650 - 1790

Royal Society of London founded

1662

Jean-Baptiste Colbert applies mercantilism to France

1665 - 1683

Construction of baroque palaces

1680 - 1750

Expansion of rural industry in Europe

1700 - 1790

Growth of book publishing

1700 - 1789

Height of Atlantic slave trade

1700 - 1790

Peter the Great founds St. Petersburg

1702

Government-run foundling homes established

1720 - 1780

Growth of European population

1720 - 1789

Rococo style in art and decoration

1720 - 1780

Last of bubonic plague in Europe

1721 - 1722

Salons led by elite women

1740 - 1780

Illegitimacy explosion

1750 - 1850

Rise of economic liberalism

1750 - 1790

Madame du Coudray, Manual on the Art of Childbirth

1757

Financial crisis in France

1786 - 1789

Feudalism abolished in France

1789

Economic controls to help poor in France

1793 - 1794

Jenner performs first smallpox vaccination

1796

British slave trade abolished

1807

Intellectual/Religious

Babylonian Captivity; papacy in Avignon

1309 - 1376

Dante, Divine Comedy

1310 - 1320

Marsiglio, Defensor Pacis

1324

Great Schism

1378 - 1417

Chaucer, Canterbury Tales

1387 - 1400

Invention of movable type

1454

Gutenberg's Bible

1456

High Renaissance (Leonardo, Raphael, Michelangelo)

1500 - 1527

Pope Julius II begins work on Saint Peter's Basilica

1506

Michelangelo paints ceiling of Sistine Chapel

1508 - 1512

Machiavelli, The Prince

1513

Erasmus publishes Greek New Testament

1516

More, Utopia

1516

Martin Luther, "Ninety-five Theses on the Power of Indulgences"

1517

Diet of Worms

1521

Henry VIII asks Pope Clement VII to annul his marriage to Catherine of Aragon

1527

Castiglione, The Courtier

1528

Scientific revolution

1540 - 1690

John Calvin, Genevan Catechism

1541

Sacred Congregation of the Holy Office and Roman Inquisition

1542

Copernicus, On the Revolutions of the Heavenly Spheres

1543

Council of Trent

1545 - 1563

Peace of Augsburg officially recognizes Lutheranism

1555

Life of Galileo

1564 - 1642

Life of William Shakespeare

1564 - 1616

Life of Kepler

1571 - 1630

Saint Bartholomew's Day massacre

1572

Edict of Nantes

1598

Publication of King James Bible

1611

Habsburgs crush Protestantism in Bohemia

1620

Birth of French Academy

1635

Golden Age of Dutch art (Vermeer, Van Steen, Rembrandt)

1640 - 1680

Nikon reforms Russian Orthodox church

1652

Charles II agrees to re-Catholicize England in secret agreement with Louis XIV

1670

Edict of Nantes revoked

1685

Newton, Principia & law of universal gravitation

1687

Enlightenment

1690 - 1780

Locke, Essay Concerning Human Understanding

1690

Life of Voltaire

1694 - 1778

Attendance at elementary schools mandatory in Prussia

1717

Wesley preaches revival in England

1750 - 1790

Diderot & d'Alembert, Encyclopedia

1751 - 1765

Rousseau advocates child care in Emile

1762

Rousseau, The Social Contract

1762

Paine, Common Sense

1775

Smith, Wealth of Nations

1776

Burke, Reflections on the Revolution in France

1790

Wollsonecraft, A Vindication of the Rights of Women

1792