-
380 BCE
Geocentric Theory
In astronomy, the geocentric theory of the universe is the idea that the Earth is the center of the universe and other objects go around it. Belief in this system was common in ancient Greece. -
1400
Colonial Latin America
The colonial era in Latin America began in the 15th–16th centuries when explorers such as Christopher Columbus and Amerigo Vespucci made voyages of discovery to the New World. The conquistadors who followed, including Hernán Cortés and Francisco Pizarro, brought Spanish rule to much of the region. The region was under the control of Spain and Portugal. -
1450
The Gunpowder Empires
The Ottoman, Safavid, and Mughal Empires are called the Gunpowder Empires because they had strong military powers that utilized gunpowder and innovative artillery. That successfully helped them to expand and protect their territory. None of them really got along very well. -
1492
The Columbian Exchange
Columbus wanted to try and find India, but ended up finding North America instead and brought things to trade like sugar, horses, tobacco, etc. He and his followers brought a bunch of diseases with them that spread to a lot of the natives that were living there. The natives spread their diseases to Columbus and his men and they all got sick. -
1500
Protestant Reformation
The Protestant Reformation was a religious reform movement that swept through Europe in the 1500s. It resulted in the creation of a branch of Christianity called Protestantism, a name used collectively to refer to the many religious groups that separated from the Roman Catholic Church due to differences in doctrine. The main idea was that the Bible is the sole authority of all matters. -
1500
Scientific Revolution
The Scientific Revolution was a period of great advancements in science that changed the way people looked at the world around them. It took place in Europe during the 1500s and 1600s. -
1514
Triangular Trade
Mercantilism led to the emergence of what's been called the “triangular trade”: a system of exchange in which Europe supplied Africa and the Americas with finished goods, the Americas supplied Europe and Africa with raw materials, and Africa supplied the Americas with enslaved laborers. It was a bad system because they traded slaves. -
1515
The Spanish Wars of Religion
The Spanish invaded the Netherlands. The English support the Netherlands so they backed them up. Spain sent an armada to England but Elizabeth the Great defeated the armada. -
1517
The Middle Passage
The Middle Passage itself lasted roughly 80 days on ships ranging from small schooners to massive, purpose-built "slave ships." Ship crews packed humans together on or below decks without space to sit up or move around. Without ventilation or sufficient water, about 15% grew sick and died. -
1523
Atlantic Slave Trade
The Atlantic slave trade or transatlantic slave trade involved the transportation by slave traders of enslaved African people to the Americas. European slave ships regularly used the triangular trade route and its Middle Passage. It victimized millions of African men, women, and children. -
1543
Heliocentric Theory
heliocentrism, a cosmological model in which the Sun is assumed to lie at or near a central point (e.g., of the solar system or of the universe) while the Earth and other bodies revolve around it. -
1562
French Wars on Religion
The French Wars of Religion were a series of civil wars between French Catholics and Protestants (called Huguenots) from 1562 to 1598. Between two and four million people died from violence, famine or disease directly caused by the conflict, and it severely damaged the power of the French monarchy. There was a big massacre called the St. Bartholomew's Day Massacre. -
Tokugawa Shogunate
The Tokugawa Shogunate was notable for restoring order and unity to Japan, and it did this partly through upholding strict social hierarchies. This was in some ways influenced by the Confucian idea that society was made up of four social classes. From the top-down, they were: warrior, farmer, artisan, and merchant. -
The Ming Dynasty
Notable Ming achievements include the refurbishment of the Great Wall to its greatest glory, large naval expeditions, vibrant maritime trade, and the rise of a heavily monetized economy. They fell because they had crop failure and floods. They also had an epidemic that contributed to it. -
The Enlightment
Enlightenment, a European intellectual movement of the 17th and 18th centuries in which ideas concerning God, reason, nature, and humanity were synthesized into a worldview that gained wide assent in the West and that instigated revolutionary developments in art, philosophy, and politics. -
The English Bill of Rights
It is an original Act of the English Parliament and has been in the custody of Parliament since its creation. The Bill firmly established the principles of frequent parliaments, free elections and freedom of speech within Parliament – known today as Parliamentary Privilege. Took away the absolutism power of the king. -
The Toleration Acts
England's intervention in 1682 ended the corporal punishment of dissenters in New England. The Toleration Act, passed by the English Parliament in 1689, gave Quakers and several other denominations the right to build churches and to conduct public worship in the colonies. The English Toleration Act benefited protestants that had dissented from the Church of England and belonged to the Baptist Church and English Presbyterians. -
French Revolution
What was the French Revolution? The French Revolution was a period of major social upheaval that began in 1787 and ended in 1799. It sought to completely change the relationship between the rulers and those they governed and to redefine the nature of political power. -
The Qing Dynasty
The multi-ethnic Qing dynasty assembled the territorial base for modern China. It was the largest imperial dynasty in the history of China and in 1790 the fourth-largest empire in world history in terms of territorial size. Empire fell because there weren't enough jobs for all of the people living there. -
Napoleon's Grand Empire
The Napoleon's Grand Empire of France in Europe reshaped the continent's political boundaries and class system. Napoleon's conquests also led to the rise of modern economies, even outside of France. Napoleon's expansion helped introduce new law codes to areas across Europe.