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1469
Isabella & Ferdinand unify Spain
When they got married they brought together their two kingdoms which unified Spain. -
Period: 1509 to 1547
Henry VIII resigns in England
Henry VIII (28 June 1491 – 28 January 1547) was King of England from 22 April 1509 until his death in 1547. -
Period: 1558 to
Elizabeth I reigns England
Elizabeth succeeded to the throne on her half-sister's death in November 1558. Her 45-year reign is generally considered one of the most glorious in English history. -
Edict of Nantes
granted religious tolerance and equality to the Huguenots (French Protestants) and ended the French Wars of Religion. -
Don Quixote is published
Miguel de Cervantes' El ingenioso hidalgo Don Quixote de la Mancha is published. The book is considered to be the first modern novel and one of the greatest novels of all time. -
Period: to
Thirty Years' War
A series of wars fought by various nations for various reasons, including religious, dynastic, territorial, and commercial rivalries -
Petition of Right signed
an English constitutional document setting out specific individual protections against the state -
Period: to
The Long Parliament
Long Parliament English Parliament initially summoned by Charles I in November 1640 to raise revenue to combat Scotland in the 'Bishop's Wars. -
Period: to
Louis XIV reigns as king of France
Louis the Great. His verified reign of 72 years and 110 days is the longest of any sovereign. -
Peace of Westphalia is signed
The document was signed to end the Thirty Years' War in Europe. -
Thomas Hobbes publishes “Leviathan”
Leviathan, Hobbes's most important work and one of the most influential philosophical texts produced during the seventeenth century, was written partly as a response to the fear Hobbes experienced during the political turmoil of the English Civil Wars -
Period: to
Charles II regions England
He became known as “the Merry Monarch” for his lifting of Puritan restrictions on entertainment. -
Period: to
Glorious Revolution
The Glorious Revolution is the sequence of events that led to the deposition of James II and VII in November 1688. -
Period: to
Peter the Great reigns as czar of Russia
He was determined that Russia become and remain a great European power and carried forward the Westernizing policies in a radical and uncompromising manner. -
John Locke publishes “Two Treaties of Government”
John Locke's Two Treatises of Government were published anonymously. -
English Bill of Rights signed
An Act declaring the Rights and Liberties of the Subject, and settling the Succession of the Crown. -
Daniel Dafoe published “Robinson Crusoe"
Robinson Crusoe is an English adventure novel by Daniel Defoe, first published on 25 April 1719. -
Jonathan Swift publishes “Gulliver’s Travels”
Gulliver's Travels is an adventure story (in reality, a misadventure story) involving several voyages of Lemuel Gulliver, a ship's surgeon, who, because of a series of mishaps en route to recognized ports, ends up, instead, on several unknown islands. -
Johann Sebastian Bach
A German composer and musician. -
Baron de Montesquieu publishes “The Spirit of Laws"
A treatise on political theory, as well as a pioneering work in comparative law -
Period: to
Denis Diderot publishes his “Encyclopedia”
A twenty-eight volume reference book published between 1751 and 1772 by André Le Breton and edited by translator and philosopher Denis Diderot. -
Period: to
Seven Years' War
The Seven Years' War was a global conflict involving most of the European great powers, fought primarily in Europe and the Americas. -
Voltaire publishes “Candide”
It was written between July and December 1758 and published simultaneously in Geneva, Paris and Amsterdam -
Period: to
George III reigns England
George III, who ruled between 1760 and 1820, was the first truly British monarch of the Hanoverian kings. Ruling Britain was his first priority and he never visited his family's home in Hanover. -
Jean Jacque Rousseau publishes “Social Contract”
Was originally published as On the Social Contract -
Period: to
Catherine Great reigns Russia
She came to power after overthrowing her husband, Peter III. -
Period: to
Joseph II reigns Austria
Holy Roman Emperor -
Boston Massacre
A street fight that occurred on March 5, 1770, between a "patriot" mob, throwing snowballs, stones, and sticks, and a squad of British soldiers. -
Period: to
Frederick II reigns Prussia
Frederick II was King in Prussia from 1740 until 1772 and King of Prussia from 1772 until his death in 1786. -
Boston Tea Party
An American political and mercantile protest on December 16, 1773, by the Sons of Liberty in Boston in colonial Massachusetts. -
Intolerable Acts
The Coercive Acts of 1774, known as the Intolerable Acts in the American colonies, were a series of four laws passed by the British Parliament to punish the colony of Massachusetts Bay for the Boston Tea Party. -
Battle of Lexington & Concord
The Battles of Lexington and Concord was the first major military campaign of the American Revolutionary War, resulting in an American victory and outpouring of militia support for the anti-British cause. -
Adam Smith published “Wealth of Nations”
An Inquiry into the Nature and Causes of the Wealth of Nations, generally referred to by its shortened title The Wealth of Nations, is the magnum opus of the Scottish economist and moral philosopher Adam Smith. -
Declaration of Independence signed
The 13 colonies declared their independence from Britain. -
Period: to
Battle of Yorktown
The Battle of Yorktown and the surrender at Yorktown, began September 28, 1781, and ended on October 19, 1781, at exactly 10:30 am in Yorktown, Virginia. -
Treaty of Paris
The Treaty of Paris was signed by U.S. and British Representatives on September 3, 1783, ending the War of the American Revolution. -
US Constitution ratified
The Constitution of the United States is the supreme law of the United States. -
Tennis Court Oath
An oath to meet until a constitution had been established. -
Storming of the Bastille
Revolutionary insurgents attempted to storm and seize control of the medieval armoury, fortress and political prison known as the Bastille -
Declaration of the Rights of Man
The Declaration of the Rights of Man and of the Citizen, set by France's National Constituent Assembly in 1789, is a human civil rights document from the French Revolution. -
Women's march on Versailles
The march was about the overpriced bread in markets and was one of the earlier events of the French Revoultion -
Declaration of the Rights of Woman
The Declaration of the Rights of Woman was written on 14 September 1791 by French activist, feminist, and playwright Olympe de Gouges in response to the 1789 Declaration of the Rights of Man and of the Citizen. -
National Convention Formed
The National Convention was established to replace the previous legislative bodies after the end of the monarchy. -
Mary Wollstonecraft publishes “A Vindication of the Rights of Woman”
It is one of the first texts by a female author that presented women's educational as an issue of universal human rights. -
Period: to
Radical Phase
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Committee of Public Safety created
The Committee of Public Safety was a committee of the National Convention which formed the provisional government and war cabinet during the Reign of Terror. -
Period: to
Reign of Terror
The Reign of Terror was a period of the French Revolution when, following the creation of the First Republic, a series of massacres and numerous public executions took place in response to revolutionary fervour, anticlerical sentiment, and accusations of treason by the Committee of Public Safety. -
Five Man Directory created
Served as an executive branch of government. -
Battle Austerlitz
Known as the Battle of the Three Emperors. Around 158,000 troops were involved, of which around 24,000 were killed or wounded -
Napoleon Bonaparte becomes Emperor
He became Emperor of the French under the name of Napoleon I, and was the architect of France's recovery following the Revolution before setting out to conquer Europe, which led to his downfall. -
Battle of Trafalgar
The Battle of Trafalgar was a naval engagement that took place on 21 October 1805 between the British Royal Navy and the combined fleets of the French and Spanish Navies -
Period: to
Battle of Leipzig
The Coalition armies of Austria, Prussia, Sweden, and Russia, led by Tsar Alexander I and Karl von Schwarzenberg, decisively defeated the Grande Armée of French Emperor Napoleon Bonaparte. -
Napoleon exiled to Elba
The coalition invaded France and captured Paris, forcing Napoleon to abdicate. -
Period: to
Congress of Vienna
The first of a series of international meetings that came to be known as the Concert of Europe, an attempt to forge a peaceful balance of power in Europe. -
Napoleon exiled to St. Helena
Napoleon had been exiled to St. Helena after he was defeated by the British at the Battle of Waterloo.