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Start of the French Revolution
A watershed event in modern European history that began in 1789 and ended in the late 1790s with the ascent of Napoleon Bonaparte and where French citizens razed and redesigned their country's political landscape, uprooting centuries-old institutions such as absolute monarchy and feudal system. -
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Toussaint L'Ouverture leads slave revolt
L'Ouverture a jacobin began his military career as a leader of the 1791 slave rebellion in the French colony of Saint-Domingue, and last fought and won the battle of Vertieres in November 18, 1803 which led Haiti to its independence in January 1, 1803. -
Haiti wins independence
An anti-slavery and anti-colonial insurrection by self-liberated slaves, which Toussaint L'Ouverture emerged as Haiti's hero, that led the only slave uprising and to the founding of a state which was both free from slavery, and ruled by non-whites and former captives. -
Napoleon becomes emperor of France
Napoleon dominated European and global affairs for more than a decade while leading France against a series of coalitions in the Napoleonic Wars, which of those many he won, building a large empire that ruled over continental Europe before its final collapse in 1815. -
Father Miguel Hidalgo inspires revolution in Mexico
Father Miguel Hidalgo inspired and kicks off Mexico's war for independence from Spain on September 16, 1810, when he issued his famous "Cry of Dolores" which he encouraged Mexicans to fight for a free tyranny country, which almost for a year, Hidalgo led the independence movement, battling all over central Mexico. -
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Simon Bolivar Liberates Venezuela, Colombia, Ecuador, Peru, & Bolivia
Bolivar first fought against the French when they invaded Spain and then against Napoleon Bonaparte in order to wrest control of Venezuela away from the France. Bolivar became the Dictator of Peru in 1821, and the Gran Columbia was formed, consisting of what is now most of Venezuela, Colombia, Panama and Ecuador. -
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Jose de San Martin liberates Argentina and Chile
San Martín took charge of the patriot forces and met the Spanish at the Battle of Maipu on April 5, 1818 that resulted in a victory that marked the liberation of Chile. In January and February 1817, Argentine José de San Martín led a force of more than 4,000 troops over the Andes to liberate Chile from Spanish rule. -
Mexico gains independence
An armed conflict, and the pinnacle of a political and social process, The Treaty of Córdoba established Mexican independence from Spain at the conclusion of the Mexican War of Independence signed on August 24, 1821 in Córdoba, Veracruz, Mexico. -
Guisseppi Mazzini creates "Young Italy"
Young Italy’s chief goal was the liberation of Italy from foreign oppression and the creation of an independent, unified republic with a political movement for Italian youth (under age 40) founded in 1831 by Giuseppe Mazzini. -
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Zollverein
A coalition of German states formed to manage tariffs and economic policies within their territories, which formally started on 1 January 1834. However, its foundations had been in development from 1818 with the creation of a variety of custom unions among the German states. -
Camillo Cavour becomes Prime Minister
Cavour a Piedmontese statesman, was a conservative whose his utilization of international rivalries and of revolutionary movements brought the unification of Italy (1861), with himself as the first prime minister of the new kingdom. -
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Italian Role in the Crimean War
Austria, having sided with Great Britain and France, lost the support of Russia in central European affairs. Austria became dependent on Britain and France, which failed to support the country, leading to the Austrian defeats in 1859 and 1866 that, in turn, led to the unification of Italy and of Germany. -
Victor Emmanuel II is crowned King of Unified Italy
Emmanuel II was crowned king of Italy in 1861, which under his supervisions, was finally a united land when winning the province of Venetia during the Austro-Prussian War and Rome during the Franco-Prussian War. -
Garibaldi's Red Shirts capture Sicily
In May 1860, a political upheaval, Garibaldi landed in Sicily with his followers, known as the "Thousand Red Shirts.", which with them he defeated the Neapolitan troops, conquering the island. -
Bismarck becomes Prime Minister
Bismarck was 47 when he became prime minister and no man has taken supreme office with a background of experience such as his, although he had never been a minister and had spent only a few months of rebellious youth in the bureaucracy nearly twenty years before. -
Blood and Iron Speech
A letter given by Bismarck in 1862 about the unification of the German territories which a spoken phrase that Bismarck uttered near the end of the speech had become one of his most widely known quotations. -
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Prussia's War with Denmark
Denmark fought the Kingdom of Prussia and the Austrian Empire. Like the First Schleswig War (1848–52), it was fought for control of the duchies of Holstein and Lauenburg, due to the succession disputes concerning them when the Danish king died without an heir acceptable to the German Confederation. -
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Austro-Prussian War
Seven Weeks’ War, also called Austro-Prussian War, (1866), war between Prussia on the one side and Austria, Bavaria, Saxony, Hanover, and certain minor German states on the other. It ended in a Prussian victory, which meant the exclusion of Austria from Germany. -
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Franco-Prussian War
A war in 1870-1871 lost by France to the German states under the leadership of Prussia. Causes of the conflict was the determination Otto von Bismarck to unify Germany under Prussian control and, as a step toward this goal, to eliminate French influence over Germany. -
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The Second Reich
The Hohenzollern Germany, from the unification of Germany following the Franco-Prussian War and crowning of Wilhelm I as German Emperor at the Palace of Versailles, with Otto von Bismarck as the first "Reichskanzler", leading to the abdication of Wilhelm II in 1919 following the German defeat in the First World War.
