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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. -
1547
Henry VIII resigns in England
Henry VIII (28 June 1491 – 28 January 1547) was King of England from 22 April 1509 until his death in 1547. -
Period: Nov 17, 1558 to
Elizabeth I reigns England
Queen of England and Ireland from 17 November 1558 until her death in 1603. She was the last monarch of the House of Tudor. -
Edict of Nantes
Edict of Nantes, a law promulgated at Nantes in Brittany on April 13, 1598, by Henry IV of France, granted a large measure of religious liberty to his Protestant subjects, the Huguenots. -
Don Quixote is published
Miguel de Cervantes' El Ingenioso Hidalgo Don Quixote de la Mancha, better known as Don Quixote, is published. -
Period: to
Thirty Years War
The Thirty Years' War was one of the longest and most destructive conflicts in European history, lasting from 1618 to 1648. -
Petition of Right signed
The Petition of Rights passed on 7 June 1628, is an English constitutional document setting out specific individual protections against the state, reportedly of equal value to the Magna Carta and the Bill of Rights 1689. -
Period: to
The Long Parliament
The Long Parliament was an English Parliament which lasted from 1640 until 1660. It followed the fiasco of the Short Parliament. -
Period: to
Louis XIV reigns as king of France
Louis XIV (Louis-Dieudonné; 5 September 1638 – 1 September 1715), also known as Louis the Great (Louis le Grand) or the Sun King (le Roi Soleil), was King of France from 1643 until his death in 1715. His verified reign of 72 years and 110 days is the longest of any sovereign. -
Peace of Westphalia is signed
On October 24, 1648, the Peace of Westphalia formally ended the Thirty Years' War in Europe. -
Period: to
Charles II regions England
King of Scotland from 1649 until 1651 and King of England, Scotland, and Ireland from the 1660 Restoration. -
Thomas Hobbes Publishes ¨ Leviathan¨
Leviathan or The Matter, Forme, and Power of a Commonwealth Ecclesiastical and Civil, commonly referred to as Leviathan is a book written by Thomas Hobbes (1588–1679) and published in 1651 (revised Latin edition 1668). Its name derives from the biblical Leviathan. -
Sabastian Bach height of his career
Johann Sebastian Bach[n 1] (31 March [O.S. 21 March] 1685 – 28 July 1750) was a German composer and musician of the late Baroque period. -
Glorious Revolution
The Glorious Revolution is the sequence of events that led to the deposition of James II and VII in November 1688. -
John Locke publishes ¨Two Treaties of Government¨
John Locke's Two Treatises of Government were published anonymously in 1689. In it, Locke proposed that government emerges from the consent of the government to protect their natural rights, which is the thesis of what is now called social contract theory. -
English Bill of Rights signed
An Act declaring the Rights and Liberties of the Subject, and settling the Succession of the Crown. Date. December 1689. Medium. -
Daniel Dafoe publishes “Robinson Crusoe”
Robinson Crusoe is an English adventure novel by Daniel Defoe, first published on 25 April 1719. -
Peter the Great reigns as czar of Russia
The reign of Peter I (1682–1725) was a turning point in Russian history. He was determined that Russia become and remain a great European power and carried forward the Westernizing policies in a radical and uncompromising manner. -
Jonathan Swift publishes “Gulliver’s Travels”
The four-part novel relates ship captain Lemuel Gulliver's voyages to fanciful countries such as Lilliput and Brobdingnag, where he meets both tiny and giant inhabitants. -
Period: to
Frederick II reigns Prussia
Frederick II (1712-1786) ruled Prussia from 1740 until his death, leading his nation through multiple wars with Austria and its allies. -
Baron de Montesquieu publishes “The Spirit of Laws”
It is a comparative study of three types of government: republic, monarchy, and despotism. -
Period: to
Seven Years War
The Seven Years' War (1756–1763) was a global conflict involving most of the European great powers, fought primarily in Europe and the Americas. -
Voltaire publishes “Candid”
All this makes Voltaire's Candide even more of an extraordinary case. It was written between July and December 1758 and published simultaneously in Geneva, Paris, and Amsterdam in January 1759. -
Period: to
George III reigns England
George III, who ruled between 1760 and 1820, was the first truly British monarch of the Hanoverian kings. Ruling Britain was his first priority and he never visited his family's home in Hanover. -
Jean Jacque Rousseau publishes ¨Social Contract¨
The Social Contract was originally published as On the Social Contract; or, Principles of Political Right. -
Period: to
Catherine Great reigns Russia
She came to power after overthrowing her husband, Peter III. -
Boston Massacre
British sentries guarding the Boston Customs House shot into a crowd of civilians, killing three men and injuring eight, two of them mortally. -
Boston Tea Party
The Boston Tea Party was an American political and mercantile protest on December 16, 1773, by the Sons of Liberty in Boston in colonial Massachusetts. -
Intolerable Acts
A series of four laws was passed by the British Parliament to punish the colony of Massachusetts Bay for the Boston Tea Party. -
Battle of Lexington & Concord
British troops march into the small town of Lexington at about 5:00 a.m. to find themselves faced by a militia company of more than 70 men led by Capt. -
Adam Smith Publishes "Wealth of Nations"
An Inquiry into the Nature and Causes of the Wealth of Nations—commonly referred to simply as The Wealth of Nations. -
Declaration of Independence signed
One of the most important but least celebrated days in American history was when 56 members of the Second Continental Congress started signing the Declaration of Independence in Philadelphia. -
Period: to
Joseph II reigns Austria
He was co‐regent of Austria with his mother Maria Theresa from 1765 and sole ruler from 1780 to 1790. -
Period: to
Battle of Yorktown
The Battle of Yorktown proved to be the decisive engagement of the American Revolution. The British surrender forecast the end of British rule in the colonies and the birth of a new nation—the United States of America. -
Treaty of Paris
The Treaty of Paris was signed by U.S. and British Representatives on September 3, 1783, ending the War of the American Revolution. Based on a 1782 preliminary treaty, the agreement recognized U.S. independence and granted the U.S. significant western territory. -
US Constitution ratified
Written in 1787, ratified in 1788, and in operation since 1789, the United States Constitution is the world's longest-surviving written charter of government. Its first three words – “We The People” – affirm that the government of the United States exists to serve its citizens. -
Mary Wollstonecraft publishes “A Vindication of the Rights of Woman”
Mary Wollstonecraft's A Vindication of the Rights of Woman (1792) made a pioneering and durably influential argument for women's equality. -
Tennis Court Oath
Elected deputy from Paris to the Estates-General, he was chosen president of the Third Estate on May 5, 1789, and led the famous proceedings in the Tennis Court on June 20, in which the Third Estate deputies took an oath not to separate until a written constitution had been established for France. -
Storming of the Bastille
The Storming of the Bastille occurred in Paris, France, on 14 July 1789, when revolutionary insurgents attempted to storm and seize control of the medieval -
Declaration of the Rights of Man
A society in which the observance of the law is not assured, nor the separation of powers defined, has no constitution at all. -
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, on the morning of October 5, 1789. They complained over the high price and scant availability of bread, marching from Paris to Versailles. -
Declaration of the Rights of Woman
17 articles outlining the basic rights that should be extended to women. -
National Convention Formed
The National Convention was established in 1792 during the French Revolution to replace the previous legislative bodies after the end of the monarchy. -
Period: to
Radical Phase (French Revolution).
What happened in the radical phase of the French Revolution? During the radical phase of the French Revolution, France was made a republic, abolishing the monarchy and executing the king. The Reign of Terror when supposed enemies of the revolution were tried for treason and executed also occurred. -
Committee of Public Safety Created
The Committee of Public Safety was created by the National Convention in 1793 with the intent to defend the nation against foreign and domestic enemies. -
Period: to
Reign of Terror (French Revolution)
The Reign of Terror (French: la Terreur) was a period of the French Revolution when, following the creation of the First Republic, a series of massacres and numerous public executions took place in response to revolutionary fervor, anticlerical sentiment, and accusations of treason by the Committee of Public Safety. -
Five Man Directory created
The Directory, a five-member committee that governed France from November 1795 to November 1799, failed to reform the disastrous economy, relied heavily on army and violence, and represented another turn towards dictatorship during the French Revolution. -
Denis Diderot publishes his “Encyclopedia”
The Encyclopédie, Ou Dictionnaire Raisonné Des Sciences, Des Arts Et Des Métiers, often referred to simply as Encyclopédie or Diderot's Encyclopedia, is a twenty-eight-volume reference book published between 1751 and 1772 by André Le Breton and edited by translator and philosopher Denis Diderot. -
Napoleon Bonaparte becomes Emperor
In May 1804, he 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 naval battle of Trafalgar, which took place in the Atlantic Ocean off the southwest coast of Spain, was a pivotal moment in the Napoleonic wars that helped seal Napoleon's eventual downfall and established England as a dominant naval power. -
Battle Austerlitz
Napoleon's 68,000 troops defeated almost 90,000 Russians and Austrians under Russia's Alexander I and Mikhail Kutuzov. -
Battle of Leipzig
Decisive defeat for Napoleon, resulted in the destruction of what was left of French power in Germany and Poland. -
Napoleon exiled to Elba
The coalition invaded France and captured Paris, forcing Napoleon to abdicate in April 1814. He was exiled to the island of Elba, between Corsica and Italy. In France, the Bourbons were restored to power. -
Period: to
Congress of Vienna
The Congress was chaired by Austrian statesman Klemens von Metternich and was held in Vienna from September 1814 to June 1815. -
Napoleon Exiled to St. Helena
Not that it was his home by choice. 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.