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Period: 1095 to 1291
Crusades were Fought
The Crusades were a series of religious wars fought between Christians and Muslims over control of the holy land. The war was very violent, killing many people. The Crusades were to told to take up arms to aid the Byzantines.The last Crusader city eventually fell to the Muslims. -
Period: 1185 to
Era of the Samurai
The samurai, members of a powerful military caste in feudal Japan, began as warriors before rising to power in the 12th century with the beginning of the country’s first military dictatorship, known as the shogunate. As servants of the daimyos, or great lords, the samurai backed up the authority of the shogun and gave him power over the mikado. The samurai would dominate Japanese government and society until the Meiji Restoration of 1868 led to the abolition of the feudal system. -
1300
Renaissance Begins
The Renaissance was a period in European history, from the 14th to the 17th century. Renaissance means "birth" in French. There was a rebirth of interest in ancient Greece and Rome. There was a surge of new and fresh ideas. Ideas such as learning and values. -
Period: 1337 to 1453
Hundred Years' War
War between England and France. They both wanted succesion over the French throne. 3.5 million people lost their lives in this war. Edward III did not attempt to conquer France, he led raids into the land. There was a small period of relief. -
1340
Black Death Begins in Europe
The Black Death arrived in Europe by sea when ships docked. Was a plague that would kill you in a week. It wiped out over 20 million people. 60% of Florence's population died from the plague. Symptoms included swollen lymph nodes, boils, fever, and coughing up blood. -
1431
Joan of Arc Burned at the Stake
At Rouen in English-controlled Normandy, Joan of Arc, the peasant girl who became the savior of France, is burned at the stake for heresy. Joan was born in 1412. She was the daughter of a tenant farmer at Domremy, on the borders of the duchies of Bar and Lorraine. -
1440
Johannes Gutenberg Printing Press
Johannes Gutenberg invented the printing press in year 1440. He made the world's first 42-line Bible. Many new technologies were made from inspiration of the printing press. He would create books with his press. It brought more ideas. -
1453
Fall of Constantinople
After ten centuries of wars, defeats, and victories, the Byzantine Empire came to an end when Constantinople fell to the Ottoman Turks in May 1453. The city’s fall sent shock waves throughout Christendom. It is widely quoted as the event that marked the end of the European Middle Ages. By the mid-fifteenth century the Byzantine Empire had long been in decline, but it remained an important bastion of Christian Europe facing Muslim Asia. -
1478
Start of the Spanish Inquisition
The Spanish Inquisition was established in 1478 as a court for the detection of heretics. The notorious hatred between Jews and Christians led the inquisitors to believe that their actions actually saved Jews from the hideous fate awaiting them in the underworld; since the Jews were dying at the hands of God's children, their spirits would be pervaded by the wisdom and knowledge of God's followers, and they would therefore be spared from hell and rise to heaven. -
1492
Christopher Columbus Lands in the New World
After sailing across the Atlantic Ocean, Italian explorer Christopher Columbus sights a Bahamian island, believing he has reached East Asia. His expedition went ashore the same day and claimed the land for Isabella and Ferdinand of Spain, who sponsored his attempt to find a western ocean route to China, India, and the fabled gold and spice islands of Asia. -
Period: 1492 to 1567
Columbian Exchange
The Columbian Exchange refers to a period of exchanges between the New and Old Worlds. Exchanges of plants, animals, diseases and technology transformed European and Native American ways of life. Beginning after Columbus' discovery in 1492 the exchange lasted throughout the years of expansion and discovery. The Columbian Exchange impacted the social and cultural makeup of both sides of the Atlantic. -
1503
Mona Lisa completed
The Mona Lisa is a half-length portrait painting by the Italian Renaissance artist Leonardo da Vinci. It took approximately four years to complete. It is such a famous painting that it has been stolen before. The subject is Lisa del Giocondo. People were fascinated by the smile. -
Period: 1509 to 1547
King Henry VIII Reign
Henry, son of Henry VII of England and Elizabeth York, was born at the royal residence, Greenwich Palace, on June 28, 1491. Following the death of his father, he became Henry VIII, king of England. He married six times, beheaded two of his wives and was the main instigator of the English Reformation. His only surviving son, Edward VI, succeeded him after his death on January 28, 1547. -
1512
Michelangelo begins painting the Sistine Chapel
The Sistine Chapel ceiling, painted by Michelangelo was made in 1512. -
1517
Martin Luther post 95 Theses
In 1517, Martin Luther and a priest nailed a piece of paper to a church door containing 95 revolutionary opinions that would begin the protestant reformation. In these theses, Luther condemned the excesses and corruption of the Roman Catholic Church. They asked for payment for the sins (indulgences). -
1521
Cortez Conquers the Aztecs
After a three-month siege, Spanish forces under Hernán Cortés captured the Aztec empire. Cortés’ men leveled the city and captured Cuauhtemoc, the Aztec emperor. In only one century, this civilization grew into the Aztec empire, largely because of its advanced system of agriculture. The empire came to dominate central Mexico and by the ascendance of Montezuma II in 1502 had reached its greatest extent, extending as far south as perhaps modern-day Nicaragua -
1532
The Prince
The Prince is a 16th-century political treatise by Niccolò Machiavelli. The printed version was not published until 1532, five years after Machiavelli's death. This was done with the permission of the Medici pope Clement VII, but "long before then, in fact since the first appearance of The Prince in manuscript, controversy had swirled about his writings". -
Period: 1533 to
Queen Elizabeth's Reign
Queen Elizabeth I was born on the September 7, 1533 in Greenwich England. She was a princess but declared illegitimate through political machinations. She eventually claimed the throne at the age of 25 and held it for 44 years, keeping England in the ascendant through wars, and political and religious turmoil. She died in 1603. -
Period: 1545 to 1563
Counter-Reformation
The Counter-Reformation was the period of Catholic resurgence initiated in response to the Protestant Reformation, beginning with the Council of Trent and ending at the close of the Thirty Years' War. -
William Shakespeare's Death
William Shakespeare died on April 23, 1616, his 52nd birthday. In truth, the exact date of Shakespeare’s death is not known, but assumed from a record of his burial two days later, 25 April 1616, at Holy Trinity Church. Stratford Upon Avon, where his grave remains. When Shakespeare retired from London around 1610, he spent the remainder of his life in his house which he had purchased as a family home in 1597. It is believed that Shakespeare’s death occurred in his home. -
Period: to
Slave Trade
The slave trade used trading ships that would set sail from Europe with a cargo of manufactured goods to the west coast of Africa. There, these goods would be traded, over weeks and months, for captured people provided by African traders. European traders found it easier to do business with African intermediaries who raided settlements far away from the African coast and brought those young and healthy enough to the coast to be sold into slavery. -
Lord George Macartney Expelled
George Macartney was a British statesman, colonial administrator and diplomat. He is often remembered for his observation following Britain's success in the Seven Years War and subsequent territorial expansion at the Treaty of Paris that Britain now controlled "a vast Empire, on which the sun never sets". The goals of the mission included the opening of new ports for British trade in China. -
Period: to
Opium War
The Opium Wars were two wars in the mid-19th century involving Anglo-Chinese disputes over British trade in China and China's sovereignty. It was marked a new stage in China’s relations with the West. The restrictions imposed under the Canton system were abolished. Opium, despite imperial prohibitions, now became a regular item of trade. As opium flooded into China, its price dropped, local consumption increased rapidly.
