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Thomas Hobbes’ Birthdate
Thomas Hobbes was a very influential enlightenment thinker. He believed people were naturally selfish and greedy. He believed in absolute monarchy because people needed the government to impose order. -
The Gunpowder Plot
A group of Catholics plotted to blow up Parliament and the King because they didn't think they were being treated fairly. The organizer of the plot was Robert Catesby, but the most famous member is Guy Fawkes. The plot was discovered and all the plotters were either captured and executed or killed while resisting capture. -
John Locke’s Birthdate
John Locke was another one of the influential enlightenment thinkers. Contrary to Thomas Hobbes, he believed people were naturally good. He believed in natural law, meaning everyone had the right to life, liberty, and property. -
Charles I Beheaded
After the roundheads won the English Civil War, Charles I was to be tried and executed. He was the leader of the Royalists and the King of England. It was the first public execution of a former monarch. -
England becomes a Commonwealth
After the Parliament supporters (roundheads) won the English Civil War, they became a commonwealth. Their appointed leader was Oliver Cromwell, the leader of the roundhead's military. The commonwealth eventually turned into a military dictatorship run by Cromwell who enforced strict religious rule on the people. -
Voltaire’s Birthdate
Voltaire was an enlightenment thinker from France. He was very outspoken about his ideas and got imprisoned twice and exiled once. He believed in freedom of speech and separation of church and state. -
Spinning Jenny Invented
James Hargreaves invented the spinning Jenny, which is a loom. It is supposedly named after his daughter. It made the production of cloth and tapestry much more efficient and much easier. -
Estates-General Meeting
King Louis XVI had trouble paying his debt off, so he called the Estates-General to vote on taxes. The 3rd Estate wanted to vote by population, but the King decided to do it the traditional way, which boosted the 1st and 2nd Estates. The 3rd declared themselves the National Assembly and got locked out. They ended up meeting at a tennis court and writing a constitution. -
Bastille Stormed
The French people stormed the Bastille in order to obtain the gunpowder stored there. 18 people were killed in the process. All 7 prisoners being held in the Bastille were set free. Then the people burned the Bastille to the ground. -
Women’s Bread March
Common women in France were angry about the high prices of bread, which was about the only food they could afford. So they organized a march on the Palace of Versailles, because they linked the high prices to the monarchs. They ended up bringing the royal family back to Paris with them. -
King Louis XVI Executed
King Louis XVI was brought to Paris with his family by the Women’s Bread March. He still lived in a palace, but he was under house arrest. He tried to escape with his family, but was recognized in Varennes, and returned to Paris. He was the first in his family to be executed by beheading, but Marie Antoinette was behead 9 months later. Their son died in prison. -
Eli Whitney Invents Cotton Gin
Eli Whitney invented the Cotton Gin. He didn’t make much money off of it. It also made slavery more valuable because the slaves could separate the seeds from the cotton quicker. -
Maximillian Robespierre Executed
Maximillian Robespierre became a leader in France during the reign of terror, earning the title of Head of Committee of Public Safety. He said, “Terror is nothing other than justice, prompt, severe, inflexible.” He was beheaded, an event that now signals the end of the reign of terror. -
Napoleon Crowned Emperor of France
Napoleon successfully launched a coup d’etat in France on November 9, 1799, which means he overthrew the government. He declared himself “First Consul”, then “Consul for Life”. The Pope crowned him Emperor, and legend says he took the crown from the Pope and crowned himself. This was to show that the he was above the church. -
Battle of Trafalgar
This was another conflict between the British and the French, who were both sea powers. The British Naval Commander, Horatio Nelson, had already defeated Napoleon in the Battle of the Nile. Nelson handed Napoleon and the French another major loss. -
Abolition of Slave Trade Act
The Abolition of Slave Trade Act is passes, making it illegal to buy or sell people. Slavery was still legal, you just weren’t allow to buy or sell them. This act was passed largely due to the work of William Wilberforce. -
Battle of Leipzig
The army of the 6th Coalition battled Napoleon and won. The Coalition forces took Paris. Napoleon was exiled to the island of Elba, but he later escaped. After the “Hundred Days” war, he was exiled again to the island of St. Helena. -
The 1832 Reform Act
The Chartists were fighting for more voting rights, including the vote for all men and secret ballots. The Reform Act of 1832 doubled the population who were eligible to vote, even though it only became 18% of all men. The Reform Acts of 1867 and 1884 earned more people voting rights. -
Abolition of Slavery Act
The Abolition of Slavery Act makes slavery illegal. The slaves were not immediately freed, as only slaves under 6 years old were set free in 1833. Most slaves were freed by the 1840s. William Wilberforce had retired from Parliament, but got to watch his life’s work be a success in the end. He died three days after the Act is passed. -
Queen Victoria Takes Crown
Queen Victoria took the crown of England when she was 18 years old. Her reign lasted over 63 years, which isn’t second only to Queen Elisabeth II. She became the world’s most powerful woman, but didn’t support women’s rights. She also became an icon of motherhood, but hated pregnancy, childbirth, and babies. The world followed what she did, especially in their mourning practices. -
Electric Telegraph is Patented
Samuel Morse invented the telegraph, and Morse code to go along with it. It greatly improved the speed of communication. Before you would have to use the mail service to communicate with people, but the Telegraph allowed long distance communication. -
Treaty of Nanjing Signed
The Treaty of Nanjing stopped the first Opium War between Britain and China. It gave rights to the British in China and opened China to the west. It gave Britain control of Hong Kong, legalized the opium trade, and brought Christian missionaries to China. -
2nd French Republic is Formed
After the revolution in France in 1848, the king was overthrown and a new constitution was out in place. There would be a President and a one-house legislature. Louis Napoleon Bonaparte won the December election and became the President. Then he declared a hereditary 2nd French Empire and took the title Napoleon III, Emperor of France. -
June Days Uprising
Worker groups in France were unhappy, so they created an uprising. They used barricades n the streets to fight. New liberal-conservative coalition formed to oppose this lower class radicalism. -
First Cholera Case in the 1848-49 Cholera Outbreak
The 1848-1849 cholera outbreak killed about 15,000 people in London. It happened because people were being buried too close to water sources and seeped into the water. A graveyard was built outside of London called the London Necropolis because all the graveyards in London were full. -
The Crystal Palace Opens
The Crystal Palace was a British building meant to show new inventions. At the time it was the largest enclosed space in the world. It was made of about 300,000 pages of glass, but it burned down in 1936. -
Sepoy Mutiny
The British used pig and cow fat to seal cartridges. This offended the Sepoys because pig was untouchable for Muslims and cow was holy to Hindi people. They were imprisoned, but once released they killed British officers and marched on the capitol, Delhi. The British government put it down and took over control from the British East India Company. -
Suez Canal Opens
The Suez Canal connects the Mediterranean with the Red Sea. It was built on Egyptian soil by France, but Britain controlled it after 1868. This was Britain taking part in imperialism by leasehold imperialism. -
First Phone Call
Alexander Graham Bell invented the telephone. It used electricity to transmit sounds over a large distance. The telephone completely changed the communication landscape, helping us move away from telegraphs. -
Berlin Conference Start Date
The Berlin Conference was a meeting among European leaders to discuss regulating European colonization and trade in Africa. No African leaders were invited to the conference. No attention was paid to ethnic boundaries, all that mattered was size and water access. I did stop the slave trade within Africa. -
First Wright Brother’s Flight
Orville and Wilbur Wright flew a gas powered machine at Kitty Hawk, North Carolina. It was a 59 second flight. This led to transportation being revolutionized, making it much easier to cover long distances quicker once the airplane was further developed. -
Treaty of Portsmouth Signed
The Treaty of Portsmouth ended the Russo-Japanese War. It was mediated by Teddy Roosevelt in Portsmouth, New Hampshire. Japan destroyed Russia in the war and became recognized as a world power. -
Model T Invented
The Model T was invented by Henry Ford and was intended to make the car affordable for everybody. It was a plain, slow, ugly car that was difficult to drive, but it was affordable, at just $295 by 1928. By 1929 Ford was producing more than one car per minute. -
Archduke Frank Ferdinand Assassinated
Gavrilo Princip shot Archduke Frank Ferdinand while he was in Sarajevo. This was the spark that started World War One. It was turned into a world war instead of a local one because of the complex alliance system. -
1st Battle of the Marne Starts
The Germans had the Schlieffen Plan to invade France quickly, but met more resistance than expected. They were pushed back and dug in at the Marne River. Both side dug 6 foot trenches, which started trench warfare. The frontline barely moved over the course of the whole war. -
Sinking of the Lusitania
The Lusitania was a British passenger ship that was sunk by a German submarine. It had American citizens on-board which made America mad. It was a major reason America ended up joining the war in 1917. -
Edith Cavell Executed
Edith Cavell was a British nurse who saved hundreds of lives. She saved all wounded soldiers, regardless of which side of the war they were on. She was arrested and accused of treason by the Germans, and shot by a firing squad. -
Zimmerman Telegram Sent
The Zimmerman Note was a telegram from Germany to Mexico, but it was intercepted by the British. Germany was promising Mexico Texas back from the United States. It was the catalyst that ultimately led to America joining WWI. -
Protests in Petrograd
The people in Russia were tired of the rule of Nicholas II and the royal family. They rioted in the streets, and the soldiers were ordered to shoot rioters. But the soldiers refused, and the Czar ended up abdicated his throne because no one obeyed his orders and he had no control. -
Czar Nicholas II Abdicates the Throne
The last Czar of Russia’s popularity was falling well before 1917. There was a revolution in Russia in 1905 that was put down, and Russia had lost the Russo-Japanese war in 1904. Support for WWI efforts was extremely low because of the high number of casualties. After riots and protests in the streets, Nicholas abdicated the throne. -
Red Guard Attacks the Provisional Government
The Bolshevik party and Communist supporters became known as the Red Guard, or Red Army. After the throne was abdicated, the Duma established a temporary government called the Provisional Government, led by Aleksander Kerensky. People were unhappy with this new government, so the Red Guard attacked it and took over. -
Treaty of Brest-Litovsk
After the Bolshevik party took over Russia under Lenin, they tried to get out of World War One as quick as possible. Lenin sent Leon Trotsky to negotiate peace. To get peace, they had to give up a lot of land, which they did. -
Russian Royal Family Executed
After Nicholas II abdicated the throne of Russia, his family was taken hostage by the Bolshevik party. They were constantly moved to different cities, and eventually taken to the “House of Special Purposes” in Yekaterinburg. Early in the morning the family was rushed down into the cellar, where they were read their execution orders and killed by a firing squad. -
Armistice Signed to End WWI Fighting
Germany was running out of resources, and casualties were mounting on both sides. They realized they weren’t going to win the war, so an armistice was signed to stop the fighting. The Treaty of Versailles the official end of the war. Over 37 million had died or been wounded during the war. -
Kronstadt Revolt
In Russia peasants were starving and over 4 million had died by 1921. Sailors at Kronstadt Naval Base joined peasants in a violent revolt. The Red Army was sent in to put the revolt down, but there were about 20,000 casualties. -
Vladimir Lenin Dies
Vladimir Lenin was the leader of the Communist Bolshevik Party and the first Communist dictator in Russia. He rose to power through the 1917 revolutions in Russia. He was able to stay in control because he abandoned the Constituent Assembly, he had the Cheka, the Treaty of Brest-Litovsk, he won the Civil War of 1918-1919, the Czar’s family was executed, war communism, the Kronstadt revolt was put down, and his new economic policy had success. -
Collectivization Introduced
Stalin was able to seize control of Russia after Lenin died, beating out Leon Trotsky. He wanted to make the entire country communist quickly, so he introduced collectivization. Collectivization is joining farms so the former owners work together to produce crops to feed workers. This failed because nobody wanted to work because it wasn’t their profit anymore. About 5 to 10 million people died as a result. -
Reform a Act of 1928 Enacted
The Reform Act of 1928 allowed women over the age of 21 to vote in Britain. This followed the Representation of the People Act in 1918, which allowed women over 30 and all men to vote. The Women’s Social and Political Union wanted equal pay for equal work, equal marriage and divorce laws, equality of rights and opportunities in public services, and a national system of maternity benefits.
