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1453
Fall of Byzantine Empire
The buffer between Christian Europe and Muslim Middle East was gone.
Made power unable to be re-established in the Balkans
Big power shift over lots of territories from the Byzantine Empire to the Ottomans. -
1486
Oration on the Dignity of Man
Introduced new faith in human potential which was an exciting new idea at the time
It pushed the idea of humanism and choosing one's own destiny forward to a larger audience
It encouraged people to go and cultivate their own skills like painting or sculpting. -
1492
Columbus' First Voyage
Found new land that was unheard of to the European world
Got many people excited about exploring for new idyllic land
Laid claim to much more land for Spain -
1492
Most Important Event in the 15th Century
Columbus's first voyage is the most important event of the15th century because it established colonization in America and slavery into Europe once more. This expanded the economy of many European countries since they had more land which meant more opportunity for money making with things like exports and trade. Explorers also came and killed off lots of the natives causing colonies to lack workers so people were enslaved like with Cortex conquering the Aztecs. -
1517
95 Theses
Spread Luther's criticisms of the church to the masses
Caused peasants to cause social revolution which Luther condemned
Caused great religious warfare between countries over Catholicism and Lutheranism. -
1517
Most Important Event of the 16th Century
The most important event was Martin Luther publishing his 95 Thesis. This is because it caused people to question the Catholic Church which had been in power for centuries and made them think about alternatives. This gave way to Protestant religions that saw corruption in the church and wanted to practice a religion that focused on the teachings of the Bible which they felt the church wasn't doing. This led to the church losing more and more power and even to De-Christianisation later in time. -
1519
Cortes Conquers the Aztecs
Contributed to 24 million natives dying in Mexico between 1519 and 1605 as he was killing the Aztecs for his conquering and overworking the survivors
Contributed to the spread animal-borne diseases
Got sugar plantations that relied on slave labor going after Europeans discovered the flavor of sugar -
1534
Act of Supremacy
Placed the king as the supreme head of the church
Gave the church much less ruling power
Church of England became a separate church -
1543
On the Revolutions of the Heavenly Spheres
Introduced the idea of a heliocentric solar system
Giorono Bruno taught and expanded upon Copernicus' ideas
Caused Catholics and Protestants to denounce heliocentricity because it went against Christian teachings -
1545
Council of Trent
Led to the selling of indulgences being banned
Introduced methods to clean up clergy corruption
Reaffirmed traditional church practices and ideas like purgatory and transubstantiation -
1555
Peace of Augsburg
Allowed for Lutherian Churches to be established in Germany
Let princes decide if their state was Catholic or Lutherian
It split up the unity of the Catholic Church -
Edict of Nantes
Ended religious wars
Introduced religious tolerance to France
Temporarily ended ongoing violence due to religious intolerance -
Defenestration of Prague
Caused Ferdinand II to go to war to make Bohemia Catholic to prevent a power imbalance
Caused a civil war to start, that went international later
Introduced a new war of funding wars by taxing people who supported leaders that Albrecht Von Wallnstein came up with -
English Civil War
Men and women raised demands for social justice
Made England into a republic
Charles I got executed for treason -
Peace of Westphalia
Let German princes choose the religion of their state
Paved the way for how nations would solve political problems for centuries to come
Put an emphasis on the "balance of power" which was the idea of keeping countries equally strong -
Ottoman Siege of Vienna
Ottomans tried to attack the Austrian capital but failed and lost most of Hungary
Caused the Ottoman Empire to stop expanding
The Ottoman military tactics fell behind the rest of Europe -
Principia Mathmatica
Introduced the concept of gravity
Introduced the three laws of motion which are:
-Every object moves in a straight line unless acted upon by a force.
-The acceleration of an object is directly proportional to the net force exerted and inversely proportional to the object's mass.
-For every action, there is an equal and opposite reaction.
Introduced the idea that the universe was infinite with no center. -
Glorious Revolution
Parliament put power in the people's hands through representatives
Made England a constitutional monarchy so that laws were determined more by a written constitution and not the king
Secured faith in Protestantism in England since Catholics couldn't hold the throne. -
Most Important Event of the 17th Century
The Glorious Revolution was the most important event of the century because it allowed for a parliament to rule England and spread power more evenly. This would help things like the Industrial Revolution since Parliament allowed the free spread of ideas more than a king probably would which furthered innovation like the steam engine. -
Essay Concerning Human Understanding
Argued that humans are born as "blank slates" and info was taken in with sensory input
Argued that schools and social institutions should mold a person from childhood to adulthood
Rejected the idea that people were born with innate ideas -
Peace of Utrecht
Ended Louis XIV's ambition to create a partnership of French and Spanish monarchs
Led to Louis XIV having even less land holdings in North America
Lead Louis XIV to face a further decrease popularity among his subjects -
Seven Years War
Created an alliance between France, Austria, Russia.
Created an alliance between Prussia and Great Britain
Britain became Europe's greatest colonial power -
The Social Contract
Influenced democratic theories for the next two centuries
Provided a solution to the conflict of individual freedom clashing with societal restrictions where people give up individual freedom for the common good of society
Made some people see a participatory democracy was the right form of government while it made others see authoritarianism was the way to go -
Invention of the Steam Engine
Allowed factories to be made anywhere rather than near bodies of water
Lead to an increase in coal transport
Lead to the British government giving out subsidies for canal construction -
Most Important Event of 18th Century
The invention of the steam engine was the most important event of the 18th century because it allowed for factories to be placed anywhere instead of needing to be by bodies of water. This allowed for a sharply increased production of goods which kickstarted consumerism and the Industrial Revolution. -
Wealth of Nations
Pushed the idea that people could focus on their own economic self interests while benefiting society
Argued that nations should focus on industry over agriculture to go wealth
Was adopted by laissez-fair economists for financial guidance -
Tennis Court Oath
Created the National Assembly who claimed to be true representatives of the French people
Caused Louis XVI to recognize the National Assembly as a legitimate government body
Caused a rebel group called the sans-culottes to storm the Bastille -
Reign of Terror
Caused 16,000 Paris citizens to be guillotined
Robespierre who spearhead the Revolution was executed
Caused the Committee of Public Safety to form which protect France from foreigners and domestic rebellion -
Napoleon's Coup
Marked the end of the French Revolution era
Allowed France to dominant the continent of Europe to spread revolutionary ideas
Caused France's colonies to fight for independence -
Napoleon's Invasion of Russia
Gave way to the scorched earth policy which was when Russian soldiers would burn certain parts of land so the French soldiers couldn't live off it
Caused less than 40,000 out of 600,000 French soldiers to return home
Ended hegemony which was France's authority over others -
Congress of Vienna
Authorized Austria to put down an insurrection on Ferdinand I
Authorized France to suppress a liberal revolution
Supported Alexander's to send a Russian fleet to put down a revolt in Spanish colonies -
1848 Revolutions
Didn't allow for a united. liberal German nation since Fredrick William IV didn't accept the crown
Caused the death of 1,500 workingmen in the June Days
Lead to lots of division between the working and middle classes -
Crimean War
Caused the death of 250,000 people
Made Russia's military look much less powerful
Caused siege on Russias base of Sebastopol -
Franco-Prussian War
Lead to Napoleon III's capture
Liberals overthrew Second Empire and formed the Third French Republic
Lead Germany to be Europe's dominant power -
Second Industrial Revolution
Introduced the combustion engine to Europe
Put the idea of separate spheres where men went into the public work world while the women did work at home into full swing
Caused the production of steel to increase 50 fold since 1850 -
Berlin Conference
Established the guidelines for dividing up African land among European nations. Ended up causing the Scramble for Africa
Help spread the idea of the White Man's Burden into the minds of Europeans
Caused tension in many countries like India and China -
The Most Important Event of the 19th Century
The most important event of the 19th century was the Berlin Conference since it established guidelines for dividing up land in Africa. This caused the scramble for Africa which reignited interest in colonizing foreign land for European nations. This caused conflict and turmoil for many years. Eventually European nations began losing the land that they had worked for and these countries became independent. It also seemed to stagnate colonization everywhere else. -
Austro-Prussian War
Expelled Austria from German Confederation
Annexed several states into the German Confederation that had sided with Austria
Didn't allow Prussian king to annex Austrian territories -
Start of WWI
Begun the idea of trench warfare where soldiers fought in protected trenches that had machine guns, land mines, and barbed wire
Saw the introduction of tanks being used by the British
Saw the introduction of of the Dreadnought which was a big steel British warship that added lots of power to the armies it was in -
The Most Important Event in European History
The most important event is European history is WWI because its repercussions could be felt for the decades to come. Not only did it usher in the age of modern warfare with tech like the machine gun, but it also set the stage for future conflicts, especially WWII. WWII then started the Cold War but it all loops back to WWI. WWI also enabled the Soviet Union to be founded in 1922. -
End of WWI
Germany lost power after French General Foch sent lots of American troops to attack Germany
Caused the Austrian-Hungarian emperor to abdicate his throne
Caused the kaiser to flee Germany after its government collapsed -
Treaty of Versailles
Gave Japanese people rights in the Chinese mainland
Denied the Jews their Palestine homeland that the British promised
The Arabs did not gain their promised independence -
Great Depression
Caused stocks to lose 2/3 of their value
Caused thousands of banks and businesses to fall
and caused spending, employment, and income to drop sharply -
Hitler Being Appointed Chancellor
Caused Hitler to call for another round of parliamentary elections
Caused Hitler to use propaganda to frighten and confuse voters
Caused Hitler to accuse Communists of starting Reichstag Fire to suspend civil liberties and arrest many Communists -
Spanish Civil War
Caused Germans to attack Spanish town of Guernica
Inspired Pablo Picasso to paint Guernica which showed terror and despair of the war
Let Francisco Franco rule over Spain -
Nazi Invasion of Poland
Marked the start of WWII
Saw the blitzkrieg which was the rapid deployment of German forces to overwhelm Polish troops
Caused Germany to beat French and British armies -
Operation Barbossa
Caused the death of three million Soviet soldiers
Prevented Stalin from attacking Germany like he may have been planning
Caused some Soviet groups like Ukrainians to welcome Germany -
End of WWII
Paved the way for the Cold War to start
Caused the UN to form which promoted international peace and co operation
Caused the death of 70–85 million people total -
Berlin Airlift
Caused Soviets to back down on their attacks toward East Berlin
Caused West Europe to create the German Federal Republic in West Berlin
Caused Eastern Europe to create the German Democratic Republic in East Berlin -
Hungarian Rebellion
Caused Imre Nagy to be hanged
Caused Soviets to send in troops, killing thousands of Hungarian citizens
Showed other countries that wanted to break away from Moscow that they should cooperate or face harsh consequences -
Prague Spring
Caused Alexander Dubček to introduce many changes to Czechoslovakia like no censorship and democratic reforms
Caused Dubček and his supporters to be removed from power
Caused Leonid Brezhnev to establish the Brezhnev Doctrine -
Fall of the Berlin Wall
Caused East and West Germany to unite
Caused many Communist leaders to lose power in their nations
Enacted Democratic reforms in said nations -
End of the USSR
Brought job loss when the government closed inefficient state industries
Places like Prague and Czech Republic got increased tourism
Boris Yeltsin lost much of his popularity as Russia's economy suffered -
The Most Important Event of the 20th Century
The most important event of the 20th century was the fall of the USSR because it united Eastern Europe with the rest of the world for the first time in 70 years. It also let many countries that were previously part of the USSR rule themselves without the strict control of the Soviets.