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Period: Jan 1, 1368 to
Ming Dynasty
Ming rule saw the construction of a vast navy and a standing army of one million troops. Much exploration occurred under the Muslim Zenghe. The Grand Canal and the Great Wall were both constructed under the Ming reign. An exam was issued so that any man could become a scholar gentry and improve his social class. Trade exponentially increased, and silver was the only method of payment. Rebellions led to the downfall of the Ming. -
Period: Mar 4, 1394 to Nov 13, 1460
Prince Henry the Navigator
He started a navigation school in Portugal, and was responsible for early development of European exploration and maritime trade with other continents. -
Period: Jan 1, 1405 to Dec 31, 1433
Voyages of Zhengehe
Zheng He led seven expeditions to what the Chinese called "the Western Ocean". He brought back to China many trophies and envoys from more than thirty kingdoms. He is well known for his enormous and unrivaled ships and fleets. -
Period: Jan 1, 1453 to
Ottoman Empire
The Ottomans took control of the Byzantine Empire and replaced the Mongol influence in the Middle East. A great military and gunpowder drove the Ottomans to power. Its capital city was Istanbul, formerly known as Constantinople, and the Hagia Sophia was converted into a grand mosque. The empire reached its peak in the mid-1600s but became too large to maintain, there was too much corruption. Two great rulers were Mehemed and Suleyman; they made a tightly centralized monarchy. -
Period: Nov 10, 1483 to Feb 18, 1546
Martin Luther
Martin Luther was the German priest that is credited with initiating the Protestant Reformation. Luther noticed the corruption in the Catholic Church and did not agree with many of their philosophies, so he posted his 95 Theses on the church door in Whittenberg. One of his main ideas was that salvation cannot be obtained through good works but only can be recieved through faith and God's grace. His refusal to recant his ideas led to his excommunication. -
Aug 3, 1492
Columbus's First Voyage
Columbus was the first man credited with discovering the New World. His first voyage in 1492 led him to islands in the caribbean, Cuba, and Hispanola. This paved the way for European exploration into unknown territories. He was sponsored by Spanish royalty, Ferdinand and Isabela. -
Jun 7, 1494
Treaty of Tordesillas
This was the Line of Demarcation made by the Pope that distinguished the Spanish trading empire from the Portugese. It gave the Old World to the Portugese and the New World to Spain. Spain got the better deal out of this treaty because they got to trade with and establish their empire in new unconquered lands. -
Period: Jul 10, 1509 to May 27, 1564
John Calvin
John Calvin was a French pastor during the Protestant Reformation, who later branched off the Roman Catholic Church to form the Calvinists. He believed in predestination and salvation directly through God. He then went to Geneva, which is now known as the home of Calvinism. John Calvin paved the way for most reformed modern religions, including Presbyterians, -
Period: Jan 1, 1523 to
Mughal India
Babur, a descendant of Turkic nomads, began his conquest of India in 1526, and his gradson Akbar became the next ruler of India. Akbar, a strong military leader, was very interested in uniting his empire, and it remained united under his successors Jahangir and Shah Jahan, until Aurangzeb. His attempt to control the whole of India was in vain because the government was neglected and corrupt, and the Mughal Empire was very weak. -
Period: Jan 1, 1534 to
Safavid Dynasty
This short-lived gunpowder empire was located in the Middle East, specifically Iran. It was ran by Shi'a Muslims. Abbas I was the great ruler of this dynasty, and ruled during its height (1587-1629). There was elaborate court ettiquette and a combination of Turkic, Persian, and Iranian cultures. Silks, textiles, rugs and carpets, and mosques were produced. The capital of this empire was Isfahan. However, its downfall was when Abbas I removed all of his suitable heirs because of jealousy and fear -
Aug 15, 1534
Foundation of the Society of Jesus
The Society of Jesus, or Jesuit, is a Catholic religious order that was founded by St. Ignatius Loyola. While the Catholics were still attempting violence in order to make the Protestants convert, the Jesuits were more peaceful and sent out missionaries, built schools, and took vows of poverty and chastity. -
Period: Dec 13, 1545 to Dec 4, 1563
Council of Trent
The Council of Trent was a series of 25 meetings in 3 periods. Its main purpose was to determine the definitive determination of the doctrines of the Church in answer to the heresies of the Protestants; the council also wanted reform and decided to take action by removing the numerous abuses that had developed in it. -
Sep 25, 1555
Peace of Augsburg
This treaty officially ended the religious struggle between Lutherans and Catholics by stating cuius regio, euis religio ("whose land, his religion".)This means that the ruler of a certain area decided what religion his domain would be. Residents were given a chance to move if they did not agree. -
Period: Feb 15, 1564 to
Galileo Galilei
Galileo Galilei was an Italian "renaissance man" that played a huge role in the Scientific Revolution. He was a physicist, mathematician, astronomer, and philosopher, and he favored the controversial heliocentric view on the solar system. In 1632, he was tried by the Roman Inquisition and was found guilty of "heresy", forced to recant, and spent the rest of his life on house arrest. -
Spanish Armada
This was the Spanish fleet that sailed against England. The fleet's mission was to sail to England from Spain and deliver an army in order to "Catholicise" Protestant England. However, they were defeated because of bad weather. -
Period: to
Time of Troubles
This was a period of political crisis that followed the demise of the Rurik Dynasty in Russia and ended with the establishment of the Romanov Dynasty. During this period, foreign intervention, peasant uprisings, and many attempts to seize the throne threatened to destory the state itself. -
Period: to
Tokugawa Shogunate
The Tokugawa Shogunate was a feudal regime of Japan established and ruled by the shoguns of the Tokugawa family.This period is known as the Edo period and gets its name from the capital city, Edo, which is now called Tokyo, after the name was changed in 1864. The Tokugawa shogunate ruled from Edo Castle from 1603 until 1868, when it was abolished during the Meiji Restoration. -
Period: to
Thirty Years' War
It was mainly fought in present-day, and there was a lot of naval warfare. Initially, the war was fought largely as a religious conflict between Protestants and Catholics, but it later evolved into a struggle for power balance in Europe. One result of this conflict was the Peace of Westphalia. -
Period: to
Aurangzeb
Shah Jahan's son seized the throne with a neglected and corrupt bureaucracy, and pushed to extend Muslim control to the whole of India. He also sought to rid India of all Hindu influences (bringing back the non-Muslim tax) to purify India's Islam. His many wars drained the treasury, and peasant uprisings and revolts by both Muslim and Hindu princes weakened the empire. -
Period: to
John Locke
John Locke is widely known as "the father of Liberalism," and also plays a key role in the social contract theory. Another theory of Locke's was of tabula rasa, or that everyone was born with a "blank slate." Each experience one gained in life would add to this "slate." Many of his theoretical contributions are reflected in the American Declaration of Independence. -
Period: to
Qing Dynasty
By the 1640s, the Ming dynasty had declined and taken over by a peasant army. A nomadic people form north east China, the Manchu, soon took over the peasants and the Qing dynasty. For the second time, China was ruled by foreigners. At first, the Manchu population didn't want to intermingle with the Chinese, but they were soon seduced by Chinese culture and began to blend with them. The last emperor was overthrown in the early 20th century. -
Period: to
Seven Years War
This was a global conflict that involved most of the world powers. The war was instigated by the British Empire and French over their borders. This war was characterized by seiges and open battles. The French and Indian War was the final conflict during these 7 years, and occurred in North America. Basically, this was the first real world war. -
Period: to
Pugachev's Rebellion
Pugachev's Rebellion was the principal revolt in a series of popular rebellions that took place in Russia after Catherine II seized power in 1762. It was several peasant revolts. Pugachev assumed leadership of an alternative government in the name of the assassinated Tsar Peter III and proclaimed an end to serfdom. Government forces failed to respond effectively, but the revolt was crushed towards the end of 1774. Pugachev was captured soon after and executed in Moscow in January 1775. -
Period: to
Boers and Cape Colony
Cape Colony became an important depot for ships of the Dutch East India Company as they travelled to and from the Spice Islands in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries. The Boers were farmers in the Cape, and they were controlled primarily by the British. England eventually replaced the dominant language as English and abolished slavery, angering the Boers because that was their culture. The Boers made a trek to move farther away from the British grasp only to discover the abundance of gold. -
End of British Slave Trade
This was the first act of parliament in order to abolish Atlantic slave trade. It abolished slave trade but not slavery itself (an act against slavery took place in 1833).
