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1469
Isabella & Ferdinand unify Spain
Ferdinand II of Aragon and Isabella of Castile initiated a confederation of the two kingdoms that became the basis for the unification of Spain. By their support of the explorations of Christopher Columbus, they also laid the foundations for Spain's colonies in the New World. -
1509
Henry VIII reigns in England
Henry VIII was the second son of Henry VII and Elizabeth of York. He became heir to the throne on the death of his elder brother, Prince Arthur. -
1558
Elizabeth I reigns England
Elizabeth succeeded to the throne after her half-sister's death. She was very well-educated and had inherited intelligence, determination, and shrewdness from both parents. Her 45-year reign is generally considered one of the most glorious in English history. -
Edict of Nantes
The Edict of Nantes, issued under Henry of Navarre after he ascended to the French throne as Henry IV, effectively ended the French Wars of Religion by granting official tolerance to Protestantism. -
Don Quixote is published
This book is considered by many to be the first modern novel and one of the greatest novels of all time. It was published by Miguel de Cervantes. -
Thirty Years' War
The Thirty Years' War began as a religious war, fought between Roman Catholics and Protestants in Germany. It developed into a political struggle between the Catholic Habsburgs of the Holy Roman Empire (Austria, most of the German princes, and occasionally Spain). -
Petition of Right signed
The Petition of Right sought recognition of four principles: no taxation without the consent of Parliament, no imprisonment without cause, no quartering of soldiers on subjects, and no martial law in peacetime. -
The Long Parliament
The Long Parliament ensured that Parliament met every three years and could not be dissolved without its own consent. It abolished the prerogative courts which were seen as challenging the supremacy of the law and declared the collection of non-parliamentary taxation, such as ship money, illegal. -
Louis XIV reigns as king of France
Born in 1638, Louis XIV succeeded his father, Louis XIII, as king at the age of five. He ruled for 72 years, until his death in 1715, making his reign the longest of any European monarch. -
Peace of Westphalia signed
The Peace of Westphalia. concluded in Münster (Germany), ended the Thirty Years' War, which started with an anti-Habsburg revolt in Bohemia in 1618 but became an entanglement of different conflicts concerning the constitution of the Holy Roman Empire, religion, and the state system of Europe. -
Thomas Hobbes publishes “Leviathan”
Leviathan, Hobbes's most important work and one of the most influential philosophical texts produced during the seventeenth century was written partly as a response to the fear Hobbes experienced during the political turmoil of the
English Civil Wars. -
Charles II reigns England
Charles ll was the eldest surviving son of Charles l. His political adaptability enabled him to guide his country through the religious unrest between Anglicans, Catholics, and dissenters that came to signify much of his reign. -
Peter the Great reigns as czar of Russia
Peter the Great adopted the title of Emperor in place of the old title of Tsar in 1721 and founded and developed the city of Saint Petersburg, which remained the capital of Russia until 1918. -
Glorious Revolution
The Glorious Revolution is the events leading to the deposition of James II and VII of England, Ireland, and Scotland in November 1688, and his replacement by his daughter Mary II and her husband and James's nephew William III of Orange, de facto ruler of the Dutch Republic. -
John Locke publishes “Two Treaties of Government”
Two Treatises of Government is a seminal work of political philosophy written by John Locke and published anonymously. -
English Bill of Rights signed
The 1689 English Bill of Rights was a British Law, passed by the Parliament of Great Britain that declared the rights and liberties of the people and settled the succession in William and Mary following the Glorious Revolution of 1688 when James II was overthrown. -
Sabastian Bach height of his career
Bach wrote beautiful religious works for organ and choirs. His skills playing the organ and harpsichord were recognized during his lifetime, but he is now generally regarded as one of the greatest composers in history. Bach was a master of counterpoint, a technique that weaves two or more independent melodies together to create a new harmony. -
Daniel Dafoe publishes “Robinson Crusoe”
The novel Robinson Crusoe tells the story of a young, impulsive Englishman who defies his parents' wishes and takes to the seas to seek adventure. The young Robinson Crusoe is shipwrecked and cast away on a remote tropical island for 28 years. -
Jonathan Swift publishes “Gulliver’s Travels”
Gulliver's Travels, originally titled Travels Into Several Remote Nations of the World, four-part satirical work by Anglo-Irish author Jonathan Swift, published anonymously in 1726 as Travels into Several Remote Nations of the World. -
Frederick II reigns Prussia
Frederick II led his nation through multiple wars with Austria and its allies. His daring military tactics expanded and consolidated Prussian lands, while his domestic policies transformed his kingdom into a modern state and formidable European power. -
Baron de Montesquieu publishes “The Spirit of Laws”
The Spirit of Laws was an Enlightenment political treatise, published in France, that compared three types of government: republic, monarchy, and despotism. -
Denis Diderot publishes his “Encyclopedia”
Diderot's Encyclopedia is a twenty-eight-volume reference book published by André Le Breton and edited by translator and philosopher Denis Diderot. -
Seven Years' War
The Seven Years' War was a conflict between France and Great Britain that began in 1754 as a dispute over North American land claims in the region around Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. This conflict eventually spread into other parts of the world, including Europe, Africa, and Asia. -
Voltaire publishes “Candide”
Candide is a novella by the French philosopher Voltaire. It tells the story of a young man named Candide who has a series of misadventures. While the text follows a narrative arc, it is also a philosophical argument. Voltaire was responding to another philosopher and his views on how the world worked. -
George lll reigns England
George lll became heir to the throne at just 22 years old on the death of his father in 1751, succeeding his grandfather. -
Catherine the Great reigns Russia
The reign of Catherine the Great marked a turning point in Russian history, it was helpful to bypass debates about the continuity between Imperial Russian and Soviet history and focus on the intermediate legacies of the Catherine period. -
Jean Jacques Rousseau publishes “Social Contract”
The Social Contract, with its famous opening sentence 'Man is born free, and he is everywhere in chains', stated instead that people could only experience true freedom if they lived in a civil society that ensured the rights and well-being of its citizens. -
Joseph II reigns Austria
He was the eldest son of Maria Theresa and her husband, Francis I. Joseph's reforms included abolishing serfdom, ending press censorship, and limiting the power of the Catholic Church. -
Boston Massacre
The Boston Massacre was a confrontation in Boston, in which a group of nine British soldiers shot five people of a crowd of three or four hundred who were harassing them verbally and throwing various projectiles. -
Boston Tea Party
The Boston Tea Party was a political protest that occurred at Griffin's Wharf in Boston, Massachusetts. American colonists were frustrated and angry at Britain for imposing “taxation without representation.” They dumped 342 chests of tea into the harbor. -
Intolerable Acts
The Coercive Acts, known as the Intolerable Acts in the American colonies, was a series of four laws passed by the British Parliament to punish the colony of Massachusetts Bay for the Boston Tea Party. -
Battle of Lexington & Concord
The Battles of Lexington and Concord were the first military engagements of the American Revolutionary War. -
Adam Smith publishes "Wealth of Nations"
The Wealth of Nations was published during the Scottish Enlightenment and the Scottish Agricultural Revolution. It influenced several authors and economists, as well as governments and organizations. -
Declaration of Independence signed
Thomas Jefferson was the main author and John Hancock was the first to sign this historic document. 56 delegates to the Continental Congress signed the Declaration of Independence. -
Battle of Yorktown
The Battle of Yorktown was the last great battle of the American Revolutionary War. The British Army surrendered and the British government began to consider a peace treaty. -
Treaty of Paris
The Treaty of Paris between the American colonies and Great Britain ended the American Revolution and formally recognized the United States as an independent nation. -
US Constitution ratified
The founders set the terms for ratifying the Constitution. They bypassed the state legislatures, reasoning that their members would be reluctant to give up power to a national government. Instead, they called for special ratifying conventions in each state. Ratification by 9 of the 13 states enacted the new government. -
Tennis Court Oath
The Tennis Court Oath was a key moment that set off the French Revolution. There, the men of the National Assembly swore an oath never to stop meeting until a constitution had been established. -
Storming of the Bastille
A state prison on the east side of Paris, known as the Bastille, was attacked by an angry and aggressive mob. The prison had become a symbol of the monarchy's dictatorial rule, and the event became one of the defining moments in the Revolution that followed. -
Declaration of the Rights of Man
The Declaration of the Rights of Man and the Citizen is an expression of universal human rights that served as one of the foundational documents of the French Revolution. -
Women's March on Versailles
The Women's March on Versailles was a riot that took place during this first stage of the French Revolution. It was spontaneously organized by women in the marketplaces of Paris. -
Declaration of the Rights of Woman
The Declaration of the Rights of Woman was written by French activist, feminist, and playwright Olympe de Gouges in response to the 1789 Declaration of the Rights of Man and of the Citizen. -
Mary Wollstonecraft publishes “A Vindication of the Rights of Woman”
Mary Wollstonecraft is best known for having written A Vindication of the Rights of Woman. In this book, Wollstonecraft delivers a pioneering and convincing argument for equality between men and women. -
Radical Phase (French Revolution)
The monarchy was abolished and a republic was established. War continued throughout Europe. After the radicals gained control, those who were against the revolution were subject to arrest or execution. -
National Convention Formed
The National Convention was a single-chamber assembly in France during the French Revolution. It succeeded the Legislative Assembly and founded the First Republic after the Insurrection of August 10, 1792. -
Committee of Public Safety created
The Committee of Public Safety was a committee of the National Convention that formed the provisional government and war cabinet during the Reign of Terror, a violent phase of the French Revolution. -
Reign of Terror (French Revolution)
The Reign of Terror was a climactic period of state-sanctioned violence during the French Revolution, which saw the public executions and mass killings of thousands of counter-revolutionary 'suspects'. -
Five Man Directory created
The Five Man Directory was the governing five-member committee in the French First Republic. It was overthrown by Napoleon Bonaparte in the Coup of 18 Brumaire and replaced by the Consulate. -
Napoleon Bonaparte becomes Emperor
Napoleon became Emperor of the French under the name of Napoleon I, and was the architect of France's recovery following the Revolution before setting out to conquer Europe, which led to his downfall. -
Battle of Trafalgar
The Battle of Trafalgar was a naval engagement between the British Royal Navy and the combined fleets of the French and Spanish Navies during the War of the Third Coalition of the Napoleonic Wars. -
Battle of Austerlitz
The Battle of Austerlitz was the first engagement of the War of the Third Coalition and one of Napoleon’s most significant victories. Napoleon’s 68,000 troops defeated 90,000 Russians and Austrians under General M.I. -
Battle of Leipzig
The Coalition armies of Austria, Prussia, Sweden, and Russia, led by Tsar Alexander I and Karl von Schwarzenberg, defeated French Emperor Napoleon I and his army. -
Congress of Vienna
The Congress of Vienna provided a long-term peace plan for Europe by settling critical issues arising from the French Revolutionary Wars and the Napoleonic Wars through negotiation. -
Napoleon exiled to Elba
Napoleon's broken forces gave up and Napoleon
offered to step down in favor of his son. When this offer
was rejected, he abdicated and was sent to Elba. -
Napoleon exiled to St. Helena
Napoleon had been exiled to St. Helena after he was defeated by the British at the Battle of Waterloo in 1815. Having escaped his previous exile from Elba, off the coast of Italy, the French emperor was a flight risk to his fellow European rulers who wanted rid of him.