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Period: Nov 1, 1300 to
digital timeline
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Apr 4, 1399
The Manor System Causes the Seperation of People
The manor system rested on a set of rights and obligations between a lord and his serfs. The lord provided the serfs with housing, farmland, and protection from bandits. In return, serfs tended the lord's land, cared for the animals and performed other tasks to maintain the estate. All peasants, either free or serf, owed the lord certain duties. Peasants paid a large price to live on the lords land. They also paid taxes on marriage and owed the village priest a church tax. -
Jan 1, 1453
The End of Feudalism
Feudalism in Europe structured society like a pyramid. The king was at the top, followed by the wealthy landowners, then the knights, and at the bottom were the landless peasants or serfs. Eventually people were no longer happy living on the manors and tiny villages created by the feudal system, so many serfs ran away to towns to gain their freedom. When popularity of towns began to grow, the feudal system broke up and unified nations began to deveop. -
Aug 6, 1488
The Commercial Revolution Creates a Merchant Class
The merchants and craftspeople did not fit into the traditional medieval social order of noble, clergy, and peasant. At the beginning of the Commercial Revolution, towns came under the ruling of feudal lords who used their power to raise fees, taxes, and rents. As trade expanded, the merchant-class townspeople hated this interference in their trade. They organized themselves into the merchant class and demanded privileges; sometimes they fought against their landlords and won rights by force. -
Jul 16, 1509
Trading Networks Tie Tribes Together
Trading networks tying tribes together was a major factor linking and creating bonds between the groups of North America. Along the Columbia River in Oregon, the Chinook people established a marketplace that brought together trade goods from all over the West. The Mississippian trade network connected tribes from the Rocky Mountains to the Atlantic coast and from the Great Lakes to the Gulf of Mexico. The Iroquois alliance was an example of a connection creating cooperation among early tribes. -
May 4, 1524
Martin Luther's Ideas Cause the Peasants to Revolt
Although Martin Luther caused many changes in religon, people started to apply Luther's revolutionary ideas to society. The German peasants were one group who were especially influenced by his ideas. His idea about Christian freedom inspired many German peasants to demand an end to serfdom. The peasants revolted by raiding monasteries, stealing and buring the countryside. Although the revolt was put down, the ideas of serf freedom that Luther's ideas created lived on. -
Aug 25, 1542
Bartolomé de Las Casas
Bartolomé de Las Casas believed that the cruel way the Spanish were treating the Native Americans as their labor force in the encomienda system should stop. When the encomienda system was abolished, the Spanish needed a force of labor. Bartolomé de Las Casas suggested using the Africans. Thousands of Africans began to be shipped to the Americas, and because of his suggestion slavery would not end in the Americas until a few hundred years later. -
Formation of the National Assembly Causes Fall of the Estates
The National Assembly was created when the third estate felt that is was unfair for the first and second estates to have more power and more influence in the government then the third estate. Eventually, noblemen joined the National Assembly and took away the feudal privlages of the first and second estates. Commoners were then equal to the noblemen and clergy. The Old Regime and estates were finally over. -
Mary Wollstonecraft - "A Vindication of the Rights of Women"
Mary Wollstonecraft was a female author and advocate for women's rights. She wrote an essay called "A Vindication of the Rights of Women." In it she disagreed with previous beliefs that womens education should be secondary to mens. She argued that women need education to be virtuous and useful. Also, she encouraged women to enter male-dominated fields of medicine and politics. She believed that women's education would benefit not only women, but all of society. -
William Wilberforce
William Wilberforce was a very religious man who was also a member of Parliament. His morals inspired him to lead the fight for the abolition of slavery in Britain. For many years, Wilberforce attempted to end slavery in Britain, but the law was never passed by Parliament. Finally, on March 25, 1807, a bill to abolish the slave trade in the British West Indies became law. After Wilberforce retired, Parliament passed the Slavery Abolition Act which finally abolished slavery in Britain's empire. -
Alexis de Tocqueville - "Democracy in America"
Alexis de Tocqueville, a French writer, went to America to gain knowledge of a society that would make him qualified to help with France's political future. When researching for his book, "Democracy in America," he attempted to discover the essentials of American socitey and emphasize the American belief in equality.Through all of his work and his writings he explained that if a society was properly organized, the people could hope to keep liberty in a democratic social order. -
The Fight for Women's Rights
The Industrial Revolution provided both good and bad things for women. Factories provided higher wages then work done at home. However, women factory workers usually made one third as much money as men did. Women led reform movements to address this and other pressing social issues.The movement for women’s rights began in the United States as early as 1848. Women activists around the world joined to form the International Council for Women in 1888 to fight for the rights of women. -
Alexander II
Son of Czar Nicholas I, Alexander II decided to move toward modernization and social change. Alex and his advisers thought that his reforms would allow Russia to compete with Western Europe for world power. The first reform of Alex's was very bold. It was a decree to free the serfs in 1861. However, the freedom of serfs only went halfway. Peasants and their community only received about half the land and the nobles kept the other half. -
Europe Invades Africa
Before Europe invaded Africa, Africa was divided into many ethnic and linguistic groups. Europeans believed they were superior, so they met to discuss the rules for the dividing Africa at the Berlin Conference. They didn't think about how they were dividing the African groups: rivals were forced to unite and allies were separated. Many wars resulted both between the Africans and the invading Europeans, and soon the majority of Africa was under European control except for Liberia and Ethiopia.
