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Period: Jan 1, 1415 to
Discovering the New World: The Rise of Western Colonial Empires
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Feb 3, 1450
Portuguese develop the Caravel type ship
8 A caravel is a small, highly maneuverable sailing ship developed in the 15th century by the Portuguese to explore along the West African coast and into the Atlantic Ocean. The lateen sails gave her speed and the capacity for sailing to windward (beating). Caravels were much used by the Portuguese for the oceanic exploration voyages during the 15th and 16th centuries in the age of discovery. -
Feb 3, 1488
Bartolomeu Dias - The Good Hope Cape - South Africa
8 First European to round the southern tip of Africa -
Nov 25, 1491
End of the Reconquista
8 Treaty of Granada ends the several century conflict. The Reconquista ("reconquest") is a period of approximately 781 years in the history of the Iberian Peninsula, after the Islamic conquest in 711-718 to the fall of Granada, the last Islamic state on the peninsula, in 1492. It comes before the discovery of the New World, and the period of the Portuguese and Spanish colonial empires which followed. -
Oct 10, 1492
Cristopher Columbus discovers the New World
8 Cristopher Columbus and his three ships: the Niña, the Pinta, and the Santa María after setting out on 2/8/1492. Begins the start of conquest and trade in the New World. -
May 20, 1498
Vasco Da Gama - First European landing at Calacta Harbor in India
8 First European to succesfully navigate and land in India. -
Apr 22, 1500
Pedro Álvares Cabral lands in Brazil
8He was appointed to head an expedition to India in 1500, following Vasco da Gama's newly opened route around Africa.His fleet of 13 ships sailed far into the western Atlantic Ocean, perhaps intentionally, where he made landfall on what he initially assumed to be a large island. As the new land was within the Portuguese sphere according to the Treaty of Tordesillas, Cabral claimed it for the Portuguese Crown. He explored the coast, realizing that the large land mass was probably a continent. -
Feb 3, 1513
Balboa finds the route of the Panama Canal
8 Was a Spanish explorer, governor, and conquistador. He is best known for having crossed the Isthmus of Panama to the Pacific Ocean in 1513, becoming the first European to lead an expedition to have seen or reached the Pacific from the New World. -
Feb 3, 1517
Martin Luther
8 The rise of the Protestant Church and the translation of the Bible into German (1517). A nation could be united and disciplined under God and religion. Luther lays the corner stone for the rise of Modern German. -
Feb 3, 1519
Cortez invades Mexico
8 The Spanish conquest of the Aztec Empire was one of the most significant events in the Spanish colonization of the Americas. The campaign began in February 1519, and was declared victorious on August 13, 1521, when a coalition army of Spanish forces and native Tlaxcalan warriors led by Hernán Cortés and Xicotencatl the Younger captured the capital of the Aztec Empire. Moctezuma was convinced that Cortes was a god. -
Feb 3, 1522
Ferdinand Megellan completes his voyage around the world
8 Was a Portuguese explorer Magellan's expedition of 1519–1522 became the first expedition to sail from the Atlantic Ocean into the Pacific Ocean (then named "peaceful sea" by Magellan; the passage being made via the Strait of Magellan), and the first to cross the Pacific. His expedition completed the first circumnavigation of the Earth. Magellan did not complete the entire voyage, as he was killed during. -
Feb 3, 1532
Pesaro invades Peru
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Feb 3, 1576
Jean Bodin - Les Six livres de la République
8 The rise of modern state administration. In Six Books of the Republic , Jean Bodin developing the key concept of the State which modern existence is defined by the sovereignty whose main attribute is the " power to give and break the law . " It also updates a new classification of political regimes ( democracy , monarchy , aristocracy , etc). -
Period: to
Era of Revolutions
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The Thirty Years War
8 Was a series of wars principally fought in Central Europe, involving most of the countries of Europe. It was one of the longest and most destructive conflicts in European history, and one of the longest continuous wars in modern history. Initially, religion was a motivation for war as Protestant and Catholic states battled it out even though they all were inside the Holy Roman Empire. -
Francis Bacon - The Inductive Approach
8 The inductive method (usually called the scientific method) is the deductive method "turned upside down". The deductive method starts with a few true statements (axioms) with the goal of proving many true statements (theorems) that logically follow from them. The inductive method starts with many observations of nature, with the goal of finding a few, powerful statements about how nature works (laws and theories). -
Rene Decart - "Cogito Ergo Sum"
8 "I think, therefore I am" is a philosophical proposition by René Descartes. The simple meaning of the Latin phrase is that thinking about one’s existence proves—in and of itself—that an "I" exists to do the thinking. -
The Peace of Westphalia
8 The Peace of Westphalia was a series of peace treaties signed between May and October 1648 in Osnabrück and Münster. These treaties ended the Thirty Years' War (1618–1648) in the Holy Roman Empire, and the Eighty Years' War (1568–1648) between Spain and the Dutch Republic, with Spain formally recognizing the independence of the Dutch Republic. Created the Sovereign State. -
Thomas Hobbes 'Leviathan' is written
8 The state has complete monopoly on the use of violence in and outside the state. -
Isaac Newton - Write the rules of Physics: Principia
8 The Principia states Newton's laws of motion, forming the foundation of classical mechanics, also Newton's law of universal gravitation, and a derivation of Kepler's laws of planetary motion (which Kepler first obtained empirically). The Principia is "justly regarded as one of the most important works in the history of science" -
John Locke - Invents the concept of "Tabula Rasa" and writes the The Mass on the Human Mind
8 All men are born Tabula Rasa (a clean board). -
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First Industrial Revolution
The Industrial Revolution was the transition to new manufacturing processes in the period from about 1760 to sometime between 1820 and 1840. This transition included going from hand production methods to machines, new chemical manufacturing and iron production processes, improved efficiency of water power, the increasing use of steam power and the development of machine tools. It also included the change from wood and other bio-fuels to coal. It began in Great Britain -
Voltaire - Attacks the Church. Coins the phrase "Ecrasez L'infame"
8François-Marie Arouet (21 November 1694 – 30 May 1778), known by his nom de plume Voltaire was a French Enlightenment writer, historian and philosopher famous for his wit, his attacks on the established Catholic Church, and his advocacy of freedom of religion, freedom of expression, and separation of church and state. Voltaire was a versatile writer, producing works in almost every literary form, including plays, poems, novels, essays, and historical and scientific works. -
Holbach - The idea of God is the source of fear and superstition
8Paul-Henri Thiry, Baron d'Holbach (French: [dɔlbak]; was a French-German author, philosopher, encyclopedist and a prominent figure in the French Enlightenment. He was born Paul Heinrich Dietrich in Edesheim, near Landau in the Rhenish Palatinate, but lived and worked mainly in Paris, where he kept a salon. He was well known for his atheism[2] and for his voluminous writings against religion, the most famous of them being The System of Nature (1770). -
The Declaration of Independence - Continental Congress declares independence from Britain
8 The Declaration of Independence is a statement adopted by the Continental Congress on July 4, 1776, which announced that the thirteen American colonies, then at war with Great Britain, regarded themselves as independent states, and no longer a part of the British Empire. Instead they formed a union that would become a new nation—the United States of America. -
Christian Wilhelm von Dohm published the Über die Bürgerliche Verbesserung der Juden
8 Although a Christian, he was a staunch advocate for Jewish emancipation. In 1781, at the suggestion of his friend Moses Mendelssohn, Dohm published a two-volume work entitled Über die Bürgerliche Verbesserung der Juden ("On the Civil Improvement of the Jews"), which argued for Jewish political equality on humanitarian grounds. It was widely praised by the Jewish communities in Berlin, Halberstadt, and Surinam. -
French Revolution
8 The French Revolution (French: Révolution française) was a period of radical social and political upheaval in France from 1789 to 1799 that profoundly affected French and modern history, marking the decline of powerful monarchies and churches, and the rise of democracy and nationalism. It was a highly controversial instance of the Atlantic Revolutions of the era. -
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Napoleonic Wars
The Napoleonic Wars (1803–1815) were a series of wars between Napoleon's French Empire and opposing coalitions led by Great Britain. As a continuation of the wars sparked by the French Revolution of 1789, they revolutionised European armies and played out on an unprecedented scale, mainly owing to the application of modern mass conscription. French power rose quickly as Napoleon's armies conquered much of Europe but collapsed rapidly after France's disastrous invasion of Russia in 1812. -
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War of 1812
The War of 1812 was between the United States of America and the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland, its North American colonies and its Indian allies.The United States declared war in 1812 for several reasons, including trade restrictions brought about by Britain's continuing war with France, the impressment of American merchant sailors into the Royal Navy, British support of American Indian tribes against American expansion, outrage over insults to honour after humiliations on the sea -
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Second Industrial Revolution
The Second Industrial Revolution, also known as the Technological Revolution,[1] was a phase of the larger Industrial Revolution corresponding to the latter half of the 19th century until World War I. It is considered to have begun around the time of the introduction of Bessemer steel in the 1860s and culminated in early factory electrification, mass production and the production line. -
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U.S. Civil War
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Zionism
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Unification of Germany by Bismarck
8 The formal unification of Germany into a politically and administratively integrated nation state officially occurred on 18 January 1871 at the Versailles Palace's Hall of Mirrors in France. Princes of the German states gathered there to proclaim Wilhelm of Prussia as Emperor Wilhelm of the German Empire after the French capitulation in the Franco-Prussian War. -
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La Belle Époque
"Beautiful Era" - A period in French and Belgian history. It was a period characterized by optimism, peace at home and in Europe, new technology and scientific discoveries. The peace and prosperity in Paris allowed the arts to flourish, and many masterpieces of literature, music, theater, and visual art gained recognition. -
The Dreyfus Affair
8Sparks the Zionist spirit in Herzl. Was a political scandal that divided France from the affair's inception in 1894 until its resolution in 1906. The affair is often seen as a modern and universal symbol of injustice for reasons of state and remains one of the most striking examples of a complex miscarriage of justice where a major role was played by the press and public opinion. -
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The Arms Race
Between Britain and Germany under Kaiser Wilhelm -
The First Moroccan Crisis (Tangier Crisis)
8 Germany tries to challenge French interests and hegemony in North Africa and its "Cordial agreement" with Britain. -
Second Moroccan crisis (Agadir Crisis)
8 Following the official French takeover of Morocco, Germany demands concessions by annexing parts of French Congo to German Cameroon. -
Assasination of Archduke Ferdinand
WikiOn 28 June 1914, Archduke Franz Ferdinand of Austria, heir presumptive to the Austro-Hungarian throne, and his wife, Sophie, Duchess of Hohenberg, were shot dead in Sarajevo, by Gavrilo Princip, one of a group of six assassins (five Serbs and one Bosnian Muslim), coordinated by Danilo Ilić. The political objective of the assassination was to break off Austria-Hungary's south-Slav provinces so they could be combined into a Greater Serbia or a Yugoslavia. The assassins' motives were consistent wit -
Decleration of War by Austria
As a result of the assassination, the Austrians seized the moment and gave Serbia an ultimatum which was followed by a war decleration on July 7th, 1914. -
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World War 1
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Russia declares General Mobilization
Unlike before, Russia decides to help Serbia and declares general mobilization on July 30th, 1914. -
Germany declares War
Demands Russia to stop its troop mobilization in 12 hours, and finally, on August 1st, 1914, declares war on Russia together with Austria. In the meantime Germany turns to France, questioning the French position and if it were to stay neutral, and finally declares war on France on August 3rd, 1914. On August 4th, 1914, Germany invaded Belgium. -
Germany's Schlieffen Plan collapses after the Battle of the Marne.
8 Since Bismarck, Germany tried to refrain from fighting on two fronts at the same time (Russian and French), therefore attempted to defeat the French army in one blow by attacking from Belgium. The failure of this move, followed by the French victory to save Paris during the Battle of the Marne rsulted with a bloody trench war which laster 4 years. -
British land in Iraq
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The British and ANZAC Disaster at Gallipoli
British troopers + ANZAC (Australian - New Zealand Corps) are defeated by the Turks while trying to break the siege on the Bosporus and the Dardanelle straights. -
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The Arab Revolt
8 Since most of the British army was deployed in France Britain need allies in the Middle East which was a side show in the war. While Thomas Edward Laurence was sent to recruit the Sharif Hussein of Mecca's family to join Britain in its effort to throw the Turks out of Saudi Arabia and the region, promising in return "The united states of the Arab states". -
U.S. enters World War One
At the beginning of 1917 Germany decided to resume all-out submarine warfare on all commercial ships headed toward Britain, realizing that this decision would almost certainly mean war with the United States. Germany also offered a military alliance to Mexico, as intercepted and decoded by the British in the Zimmerman Telegram, and publication of that offer outraged Americans just as German U-boats (submarines) started sinking American ships in the North Atlantic. Wilson asked Congress for a war -
Balfour Declaration
8 The Balfour Declaration (dated 2 November 1917) was a letter from the United Kingdom's Foreign Secretary Arthur James Balfour to Baron Rothschild (Walter Rothschild, 2nd Baron Rothschild), a leader of the British Jewish community, for transmission to the Zionist Federation of Great Britain and Ireland. -
The Bolshevik Revolution (October Revolution)
8 Was a seizure of state power instrumental in the larger Russian Revolution of 1917. It took place with an armed insurrection in Petrograd -
The beginning of the Mandate system.
8 After almost 3 years of marshal law in Palestine (since December 1916) the British and French decide to move to a civil government system, monitored by the League of Nations. The first British High Commissioner to Palestine was Sir Herbert Samuel. -
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The Munich Agreement
The Munich Agreement was a settlement permitting Nazi Germany's annexation of portions of Czechoslovakia along the country's borders mainly inhabited by German speakers, for which a new territorial designation "Sudetenland" was coined. The agreement was negotiated at a conference held in Munich, Germany, among the major powers of Europe, without the presence of Czechoslovakia -
The Ribbentrop – Molotov agreement
The division of Poland between Russia and Germany. Hitler gains a free hand in Poland and Russia in the Baltic's. -
World War 2 begins. Hitler invades Poland.
8 Poland falls after 3 weeks and is divided with Russia. On September 3rd, UK and France declare war on Germany. -
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World War 2
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First nuclear weapon is created and exploded in the U.S. (Trinity)
8 the code name of the first detonation of a nuclear weapon, conducted by the United States Army on July 16, 1945, as a result of the Manhattan Project. The new test site, named the White Sands Proving Ground, was built in the Jornada del Muerto desert about 56 km southeast of Socorro, New Mexico, at the Alamogordo Bombing and Gunnery Range (now part of the White Sands Missile Range). Trinity test is usually considered to be the beginning of the Atomic Age. -
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Cold War
8 The Cold War was a sustained state of political and military tension between powers in the Western Bloc (the United States with NATO and others) and powers in the Eastern Bloc (the Soviet Union and its allies in Warsaw Pact). -
Israeli Decleration of Independence
8 Was made on 14 May 1948, the British Mandate terminating soon afterwards at midnight Palestine time. David Ben-Gurion, the Executive Head of the World Zionist Organization and the chairman of the Jewish Agency for Palestine,declared the establishment of a Jewish state in Eretz-Israel, to be known as the State of Israel. -
First Soviet Nuclear weapon exploded
8 The RDS-1 (Russian: РДС-1), also known as Izdeliye 501 (article 501) and First Lightning (Первая молния, Pervaya molniya), was used in the Soviet Union's first nuclear weapon test. The United States assigned it the code-name Joe-1, in reference to Joseph Stalin. It was exploded on 29 August 1949 at 7 in the morning, at Semipalatinsk, Kazakh SSR, after a top-secret R&D project. -
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Korean War
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Vietnam War
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Cuban Missile Crisis
8 The crisis is generally regarded as the moment in which the Cold War came closest to turning into a nuclear conflict and is also the first documented instance of mutual assured destruction (MAD) being discussed as a determining factor in a major international arms agreement -
Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons
8 The Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons, commonly known as the Non-Proliferation Treaty or NPT, is an international treaty whose objective is to prevent the spread of nuclear weapons and weapons technology, to promote cooperation in the peaceful uses of nuclear energy and to further the goal of achieving nuclear disarmament and general and complete disarmament. -
Anothony D. Smith writes 'Ethnic Origins of Nations'
8 Anthony D. Smith is best-known contributions to the field are the distinction between 'civic' and 'ethnic' types of nations and nationalism, and the idea that all nations have dominant 'ethnic cores'. While Smith agrees with other authors that nationalism is a modern phenomenon, he insists that nations have pre-modern origins.
