100 Most Important People/Events in European History
Louis XV
"Après moi le deluge" Louis returned the Austrian Netherlands, ceded New France in North America to Spain and Great Britain (Seven Years' War) in 1763, and added Lorraine and Corsica. He damaged the power of France, weakened the treasury, discredited the absolute monarchy, and made it more vulnerable to distrust and destruction, as happened in the French Revolution.
Act of Supremacy
1534 it was passed in England - Henry VIII becomes head of the Anglican Church
British and Dutch East India Companies
1600-1602 they were joint-stock companies formed to pursue trade with the East Indies, but which ended up trading mainly with the Indian subcontinent and Qing China.
Tudor Dynasty Ends and the Stuart Dynasty Begins
1603 marks the death of Elizabeth I and the beginning of the reign of James I
Charles I is executed
1649 begins the interregnum and start of the Restoration. During the Interregnum England was under various forms of republican government, for which see the commonwealth of England and Oliver Cromwell's rule as Lord Protector.
Peace of Utrecht
1713-1715 saw a series of individual peace treaties, signed by the belligerents in the War of the Spanish Succession. The war itself started by the death in 1700 of the last Habsburg King of Spain, Charles II.
Maria Theresa
1740-1780 = her reign of Austria as the only female ruler of the Habsburg dominions and the last of the House of Habsburg. Her father, Emperor Charles VI, used the Pragmatic Sanction of 1713 to solidify her holdings, but Saxony, Prussia, Bavaria, and France all repudiated the sanction invading the Habsburg province of Silesia, sparking a nine-year conflict known as the War of the Austrian Succession. Maria Theresa would later unsuccessfully try to reconquer Silesia during the Seven Years' War.
The Seven Years War
1756-1763 the two major sides were Great Britain and France (the French and Indian War) when the British attacked disputed French positions in North America and seized hundreds of French merchant ships.
The French Revolution
1789-1799 was an influential period of social and political upheaval in France inspired by liberal and radical ideas, triggering the global decline of theocracies and absolute monarchies while replacing them with republics and democracies. Through the Revolutionary Wars, it unleashed a wave of global conflicts that extended from the Caribbean to the Middle East. Stages: Constitutional monarchy (1789-1792), Radical republic (1793-1795) (committee of public safety/reign of terror/Robespierre/Thermidorian reaction), The Directory (1795-1799) (corrupt/Whiff of Grapeshot/Napoleon crosses the Alps/Battle of the Nile Vs. Nelson), Consulate (1799-1804) (3 consuls), Empire (napoleon rules)
"Prague Spring"
1968 a period of political liberalization in Czechoslovakia during the era of its domination by the Soviet Union after World War II, but it was crushed by the Soviets; Student Revolts worldwide
The Congress of Vienna
1814-1815 was a conference of ambassadors of European states to provide a long-term peace plan for Europe by settling issues from the French Revolutionary Wars and the Napoleonic Wars. The goal was to resize the main powers so they could balance each other off and remain at peace. France lost all its recent conquests, while Prussia, Austria and Russia made major territorial gains. Prussia added smaller some smaller holdings; Austria gained Venice and much of northern Italy. Russia gained parts of Poland. Main principles: Legitimacy, Conservatism, Compensation & Balance of Power
Frankfurt Assembly
1850, It was the first freely elected parliament for all of Germany and unified it with the goal of a liberal German state: elected gov, lassie-faire, constitution, property
Alexander II
1861 the most successful Russian reformer since Peter the Great, emancipated serfs in Russia
Bloody Sunday
1905 in St Petersburg, Russia, where unarmed demonstrators were fired upon by soldiers of the Imperial Guard as they marched towards the Winter Palace to present a petition to Tsar Nicholas II of Russia, showing disregard for ordinary people which undermined the state. The events in St. Petersburg provoked public outrage and a series of massive strikes that spread quickly throughout the industrial centres of the Russian Empire.
Berlin Conference
1884-1885 "Scramble for Africa" regulated European colonization and trade in Africa during the New Imperialism period, and coincided with Germany's sudden emergence as an imperial power. The conference ushered in a period of heightened colonial activity by European powers, which eliminated or overrode most existing forms of African autonomy and self-governance.
Treaty of Brest-Litovsk
1918 is signed Russia withdraws from ww1 between the new Bolshevik government of Russia and the Central Powers
The Treaty of Versailles
1919, where the League of Nations was formed with the aim of preventing any repetition of such an appalling conflict. This aim, however, failed with weakened states, economic depression, renewed European nationalism, and the German feeling of humiliation contributing to the rise of Nazism.
Mussolini
1922 an Italian politician, journalist, and leader of the National Fascist Party, ruling until 1943. He ruled constitutionally until 1925, when he dropped all pretense of democracy and set up a legal dictatorship. Known as Il Duce Mussolini, he established the 1st Fascist government
Munich Conference
1938 Munich Conference ("Peace in our time" - Neville Chamberlain) a settlement permitting Nazi Germany's annexation of portions of Czechoslovakia. It was a failed act of appeasement toward Germany.
Winston Churchill
A British politician who became the Prime Minister of the United Kingdom from 1940 to 1945 and again from 1951 to 1955. He was also an officer in the British Army, a historian, a writer and a talented artist. He led Britain to the victory over Nazi Germany as a Prime Minister.
Cold war
1945-1991 a state of political and military tension after World War II between powers in the Western Bloc. Winston Churchill gives the "Iron Curtain" speech; Berlin Airlift; NATO formed
Decolonization
1946 - European colonies become independent - followed World War II, when colonized peoples agitated for independence and colonial powers withdrew their administrators from Africa.
Nikita Khrushchev
1953 Stalin dies and is succeeded by him. Responsible for the de-Stalinization of the Soviet Union, for backing the progress of the early Soviet space program, and for several relatively liberal reforms in areas of domestic policy. Khrushchev's party colleagues removed him from power in 1964, replacing him with Leonid Brezhnev.
Helsinki Accords
1975 - height of detente - officially ended the cold war
Berlin Wall
1989 brought this down. The "Velvet Revolution" occurs in Czechoslovakia - Vaclav Havel becomes President The Soviet Union withdraws its forces from Afghanistan. Reagan asks Gorbachev to tear it down.
End of the U.S.S.R
1991; Boris Yeltsin becomes President of Russia - former 15 republics of the Soviet
Moroccan crisises
1st one: brought about by the visit of Kaiser Wilhelm II to Tangier in Morocco on March 31, 1905 and his subsequent speech in which he favored Moroccan independence.This was a challenge to France's mandate of the country, and was designed to split the Entente Cordiale between Britain and France (signed in 1904) 2nd one: the German demand for large areas of French Equatorial Africa to compensate for Germany's loss during the First Moroccan Crisis.
Erasmus
A Dutch Renaissance humanist, Catholic priest, social critic, teacher, and theologian, who was called "the prince of humanists." He wrote On Free Will, The Praise of Folly, and Julius Exclusus. Erasmus liked a middle way, respecting traditional faith, piety and grace, not faith alone.
Franco
A Fascist Spanish general and dictator of Spain from 1939 until his death in 1975. HE came to power violently and terribly, but once he was in power he remains relatively stable.
Gutenberg
A German blacksmith, goldsmith, printer, and publisher who invented mechanical movable type printing (1454) starting the Printing Revolution, which developed into the Renaissance, Reformation, the Age of Enlightenment, and the Scientific revolution, which spread knowledge and ideas.
Martin Luther
A German friar, priest and professor of theology who began the Protestant Reformation with his Ninety-Five Theses in 1517. He strongly disagreed with indulgences and salesman Johann Tetzel over the claim that people could erase their sins with money. Preached faith alone.
Peter the Great
A Russia's Tsar who replaced many medieval social and political systems with modern and scientific system based on the Enlightenment in 17th century. He expanded Russian holdings through wars and established his territory as the major European power. He ordered people to shave their beards and dress in modern clothing as a part of his reformation! 1682-1725 = his reign
Hundred Years' War
A series of conflicts waged from 1337 to 1453 between the House of Plantagenet, rulers of the Kingdom of England, against the House of Valois, rulers of the Kingdom of France, for control of the latter kingdom.
Wars of the Roses
A series of dynastic wars for the throne of England.
Eighty Years' War
A war in 1566-1648 between Spain and the Netherlands that began as a revolt of the Seventeen Provinces against the political and religious hegemony of Philip II of Spain, the sovereign of the Habsburg Netherlands.
Oliver Cromwell
An English military and political leader and later Lord Protector of the Commonwealth of England, Scotland and Ireland. He took England during the interregnum and persecuted Catholics, until he died naturally and Charles II came to power.
Sir Isaac Newton
An English physicist and mathematician who, during the scientific revolution, invented Calculus, the laws of motion, universal gravitation, and many more. Principia Mathematica
Machiavelli
An Italian historian, politician, diplomat, philosopher, humanist, and writer based in Florence during the Renaissance. In 1513, he writes The Prince, on the importance of a strong ruler who was not afraid to be harsh with his subjects and enemies.
Michelangelo
An Italian sculptor, painter, architect, poet, and engineer of the High Renaissance who exerted an unparalleled influence on the development of Western art. In 1508-1512, he paints the Sistine Chapel. He also made the Pietà and David.
Napoleon Bonaparte
As emperor of the French, he realized various liberal reforms across Europe, including the spread of religious tolerance and the end of feudalism. He pioneered the French Revolution and seized control over most of Europe. After being exiled to Elba and escaping in 100 days, he was finally defeated at the Battle of Waterloo in 1815.
Holly Alliance
Austria France Russia and Prussia Goals: to intervene when Republicanism breaks out
Liberalism
Business man/laissez-faire/free trade
Opium wars
Chinese officials began to confiscate opium leading to these wars in the 1840s and 1860s. This resulted in British domination of their trade imports with huge opiate addiction.
Pope Leo X
Following the death of Pope Julius II, he was elected pope. He is remembered for granting indulgences for those who donated to reconstruct St. Peter's Basilica, which practice was challenged by Martin Luther's 95 Theses. He seems not to have taken seriously the array of demands for church reform that would quickly grow into the Protestant Reformation. His Papal Bull of 1520, Exsurge Domine, simply condemned Luther.
Adolf Hitler
Founder of the Nazi Party, he was the chancellor of Germany from 1933 to 1945 and became the dictator of Nazi Germany in 1934. He joined the German Workers' Party in 1919 and wrote Mein Kampf. After he invaded Poland, World War two began a gruesome fight with 6 million dead in concentration camps that ended in his defeat by the Red Army and the Western Allies in 1945.
Ignatius of Loyola
Founder of the Society of Jesus (jesuits)
Napoleon III
Fried of the worker, expand France
The Thirty Years' War
From 1618-1648, it was a war between Protestant and Catholic states in the fragmenting Holy Roman Empire that gradually developed into a more general conflict involving most of the great powers of Europe, becoming less about religion and more a continuation of the France-Habsburg rivalry for European political pre-eminence, ending with the Peace of Westphalia, which established sovereign states, balance of power, and staying out of other state's affairs.
Louis XIV
From 1643-1715, The Sun King created a centralized state governed, sought to eliminate the remnants of feudalism, by compelling many members of the nobility to inhabit his lavish Palace of Versailles, succeeded in pacifying the aristocracy, Quoted with saying: l'etat c'est moi, I am the state; "perhaps I have warred too much." The fronde = noble mob.
The Renaissance
From the 14th to the 17th century, it is considered the bridge between the Middle Ages and modern history. It started as a cultural movement in Italy in the Late Medieval period and later spread to the rest of Europe. began with the great schism, the crusades, rediscovering greco-roman culture, the printing press, and end of the HRE. North: pious, protestant, ruler/patrons, literary (erasmus, More, Luther, Rablais, Calvin), gruesome (Dürer), universities, invidual relationship with god South: catholic, wealthy/pope/patrons, sculpture, more optimistic, ninja turtles (Raphael, Leonardo da vinchi, Donatello, Michalangelo), Petrarch (Father of humanism), greek/roman, human body glorification, secular
Volkgeist
German nationalism/spirt of the people Examples: Father Jahn (boy scouts), Fichte (Germany's is better), Herder (promotes world spirit), Grimm Brothers
Karl Marx
German philosopher, sociologist, economist, journalist, historian, and revolutionary socialist, Karl Marx, is known for Marxism and his books, The Communist Manifesto and Das Kapital. He constructed the basic ideas of Socialism because he believed capitalism produces internal tension, which only leads people to poverty.
Phillip II
He was King of Spain, Portugal, and, during his marriage to Queen Mary I (1554-58), he was also King of England and Ireland. During his reign, Spain reached the height of its influence and power. This is sometimes called the Golden Age. A devout Catholic, Philip is also known for organising a huge naval expedition against Protestant England in 1588, known usually as the Spanish Armada.
Otto Von Bismarck
He was a conservative Prussian chancellor who dominated German and European affairs from the 1860s until 1890. He engineered a series of wars (Denmark, Austria, and France) that unified the German states into a powerful German Empire under Prussian leadership. When he was fired by Wilhelm II, all hell broke loose.
Darwin
He was an English naturalist and geologist, known for his evolutionary theory. He said that all species of life have descended over time from common ancestors and that nature is survival of the fittest. His theory was later applied to humans in social Darwinism.
Henry IV
He was the first French monarch of the House of Bourbon. He promulgated the Edict of Nantes in 1598, which guaranteed religious liberties to Protestants, thereby effectively ending the Wars of Religion. He was assassinated by a fanatical Catholic, and was succeeded by his son Louis XIII. "Paris is worth a mass"
John Calvin
He was the founder of Calvinism, aspects of which include the predestination and the absolute sovereignty of God in salvation of the human soul from death and eternal damnation. In 1536, he wrote Institutes of the Christian Religion.
Charles V
He was the ruler of the Holy Roman Empire from 1519 and, as Charles I, of the Spanish Empire from 1516. He vigorously persecuted heretics and opposed the Protestant Reformation.
Frederick II (the Great)
He was the third Hohenzollern king, reigning over the Kingdom of Prussia from 1740 until 1786. Had many military victories, reorganized Prussian armies, was a patron of the Arts and the Enlightenment, and won the Seven Years' War. Wanted to run away with his gay lover, but his daddy stopped him, and made him become king.
Dante
He wrote the Divine Comedy, which made Tuscan Italian the dominant dialect in Italy and the basis of modern Italian and influenced writing.
Council of Trent
Held between 1545 and 1563, it was one of the Roman Catholic Church's councils prompted by the Protestant Reformation; it has been described as the embodiment of the Counter-Reformation.
Hobbes
His 1651 book Leviathan established social contract theory, the foundation of most later Western political philosophy.
Pope Julius II
His papacy was marked by an active foreign policy, ambitious building projects, and patronage for the arts—he commissioned the destruction and rebuilding of St. Peter's Basilica, plus Michelangelo's decoration of the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel.
Gorbachev
His policies of glasnost ("openness") and perestroika ("restructuring") as well as summit conferences with United States President Ronald Reagan and his reorientation of Soviet strategic aims contributed to the end of the Cold War, removed the constitutional role of the Communist Party in governing the state, and inadvertently led to the dissolution of the Soviet Union.
St. Bartholomew's Day Massacre
In 1572, a targeted group of assassinations, followed by a wave of Catholic mob violence, was directed against the Huguenots, during the French Wars of Religion. Believed to have been instigated by Catherine de' Medici, the massacre took place five days after the wedding of the king's sister Margaret to the Protestant Henry III of Navarre, for which many prominent Huguenots had gathered for in Catholic Paris.
War of the Three Henrys
In 1585-1589 in France, this war ended Wars of Religion in France. The war was fought between the royalists, led by Henry III of Poland and France; the Huguenots, led by the heir-presumptive Henry of Navarre; and the Catholic League, led by Henry I, Duke of Guise and funded and supported by Philip II of Spain.
Spanish Armada destroyed by the English
In 1588, England crushed the infamous Spanish Armada and became the world premier sea power. Supposedly, "The Protestant Wind" was the storm that defeated them.
Edict of Nantes
In 1598, signed by Henry IV of France, it granted the Calvinist Protestants of France substantial rights in a nation still considered essentially Catholic. In the Edict, Henry aimed primarily to promote civil unity, separate civil from religious unity, treat some Protestants amicably and open a path for secularism and tolerance.
Glorious Revolution
In 1688, William and Mary of Orange replaced James II as the monarchs of England, in a peaceful exchange of power. After his policies of religious tolerance, close ties with France, and the birth of the his catholic son.
Adam Smith
In 1776, he wrote the Wealth of Nations offers one of the world's first collected descriptions of what builds nations' wealth and is today a fundamental work in classical economics.
World War I
It was a global war mostly centered in Europe that began on 28 July 1914 and lasted until 11 November 1918. Started because of militarism, entangling alliances, nationalism, and imperialism in Europe and the murder of Franz-Ferdinand by Serbian nationalists. The two sides were: the Allies, based on the Triple Entente of the United Kingdom, France and the Russian Empire, and the Central Powers of Germany and Austria-Hungary. Italy switched sides. This war introduced new technology such as flamethrowers, mustard gas, machine guns, trenches, tanks, civilian bombs, U-boats, aircraft carriers, and submarines.
Peace of Augsburg
It was a treaty between Charles V and the forces of the Schmalkaldic League, an alliance of Lutheran princes (1555). It ended the religious struggle between the two groups and made the legal division of Christendom permanent within the Holy Roman Empire. "Cuius regio, eius religio" - whose region, his religion.
Protestant reformation
It was the schism within Western Christianity initiated by Martin Luther, John Calvin, Huldrych Zwingli and other early Protestant Reformers, after Luther posted his Ninety-Five Theses.
Colombian exchange
It was the widespread transfer of animals, plants, culture, human populations, communicable diseases, technology and ideas between the American and Afro-Eurasian hemispheres in the 15th and 16th centuries, related to European colonization and trade after Christopher Columbus' 1492 voyage.
The Stuart Dynasty
James I - moons and lectures parliament - Jacobus Pacificus - divine - crazy taxes Charles I - stutter - suspends parliament - catholic tolerance - divine - head cut off Interregnum 1660 Stuart Restoration through Charles II James II
Unification of Italy
King Victor Emanuel - first king of united Italy after the a war with Garibaldi's army (who wanted peace and republic) and Piedmont's army (king) in the 19th century. The process began in 1815 with the Congress of Vienna and the end of Napoleonic rule, and ended in 1871 when Rome became the capital of the Kingdom of Italy.
Henry VIII
King of England and ruler of the Kingdom of France and Ireland, he was the second monarch of the Tudor dynasty. He wanted to divorce Queen Catherine of Aragon, so he separated from the Roman Catholic Church, creating the Church of England. Also he had a rivalry with both Habsburg Emperor Charles V and Francis I of France. He married: Catherine of Aragon (Mary Tudor), Anne Boleyn (Elizabeth I), Jane Seymour (Edward VI), Anne of Cleves, Catherine Howard, and Catherine Parr.
Joseph Stalin
Leader of the Soviet Union, he dictated the concept of "socialism in one country" and replaced Lenin's New Economic Policy. While establishing Russia as a major Industrial power, he declared imprisonment of millions of opposing people in correctional labor camps and deported many others to remote areas. He and his red army were instrumental in the defeat of the Nazis in World War two.
The Enlightenment/Scientific Revolution
Locke; Rousseau (social contract/father of romanticism), Diderot (encyclopedia), Montesquieu, Voltaire (crush infamy), Copernicus (heliocentric theory), Brahe (studied stars alone), Kepler (elliptical orbit), Galileo (Law of falling bodies/prove heliocentric theory), DesCartes (slope-intercept), Newton (Gravity/Principa Naturae/Calculus), Darwin (origin of species)
WW1 battles
Marme: taxi battle - general Joffre Somme: brits help bombard - 20,000 dead by morning Verdun: German concentrated attack - "bleed France white" - Phillipe Pertain "they shall not pass"
John Locke
One of the most influential of Enlightenment thinkers and known as the "Father of Classical Liberalism." In 1689, he wrote "Two Treatises on Government," established life, liberty and property, and supported the tabula rasa theory.
Labor the Industrial era
Orphans were the first source of labor in industry Then the families worked together Then it was just men and women (1830s) Then appeared the notion that women couldn't do work or be unsupervised, so they were pushed out of the workforce into jobs such as maid, nurse, teacher, prostitute, or governess.
Religious wars
Post-Luther wars that resulted in the deaths of thousands.
Isabella and Ferdinand
Queen Isabella I of Castile and King Ferdinand II of Aragon united Spain, sent Christopher Columbus to America, expelled al Jews and Muslims and introduced the Inquisition to Spain, killing many non-Catholics and creating a homogenous population in Spain.
Lenin and Trotsky
Russian communist revolutionaries who orchestrated the October Revolution in 1917, which led to the overthrow of the Provisional Government and the establishment of the Russian Socialist Federative Soviet Republic. Homosexuality and abortion were legalized; No-fault divorce was also legalized, along with universal free healthcare and free education. The Bolsheviks fought in the Russian Civil War during which Lenin's government carried out the Red Terror.
Catherine the Great
She was an enlightened despot, the longest-ruling female leader of Russia, created a golden age, came to via coup d'état and the assassination of her husband, Peter III, westernized Russia, and gained recognition as one of the great powers of Europe.
Treaty of Versailles
Signed in 1919 as one of the peace treaties at the end of World War I. Germany would have military restrictions, try war criminals, and lose it's colonies.
Sepoy Rebellion
in 1857 the Indian Army was mad at the British for wrapping bullet cartridges in pig and cow fat
World War II
Starts with Germany's invasion of Poland. Ends with V-E Day - May 8, 1945 and V-J Day - August 15, 1945 and led to the creation of the UN.
Elizabeth I
The "Virgin Queen" was the Queen of England and Ireland, who was childless, the fifth monarch of the Tudor dynasty, daughter of Anne Boleyn, established an English Protestant church, was tolerant and avoided systematic persecution, watched England's defeat of the Spanish Armada, supported flourishing of English drama, and using Francis Drake to steal from Spain.
Metternich
The Austrian Empire's Foreign Minister in 1809 and Chancellor from 1821 until the liberal revolutions of 1848 forced his resignation. One of his first tasks was to engineer a détente with France that included the marriage of Napoleon to the Austrian archduchess Marie Louise. Soon after, however, he engineered Austria's entry into the War of the Sixth Coalition (to drive out Napoleon) on the Allied side, signed the Treaty of Fontainebleau that sent Napoleon into exile and led the Austrian delegation at the Congress of Vienna which divided post-Napoleonic Europe between the major powers.
Ivan the Terrible
Transformed Russia into a multiethnic and multi-continental state spanning almost one billion acres. He was described as intelligent and devout, yet given to rages and prone to episodic outbreaks of mental illness, he even killed the heir to the throne.
Franco-Prussian war
Wilhelm I was offered the Spanish crown but did not accept it, but a French ambassador was sent to get him signed promise to not become the Spanish king, but Bismarck intercepted a telegram to make it seem like William I was rude to the ambassador, making Napoleon III unhappy, so it caused a war. Ended with the Treaty of Frankfurt in 1871, where France lost Alsace and Lorraine
The Big Four
Woodrow Wilson of the United States, David Lloyd George of Britain, Vittorio Emanuele Orlando of Italy, and Georges Clemenceau of France.
Copernicus
a Renaissance mathematician and astronomer who formulated a model of the universe that placed the Sun rather than the Earth at its center. In 1543, he wrote On the Revolution of the Heavenly Orbs
Bolshevik Revolution
a seizure of state power instrumental in the larger Russian Revolution of 1917.