Introduction

The purpose of this page is to give you a brief outline of the key events and happenings covered throughout this book. Events that are specifically outlined in the text are linked to the proper place to allow you to quickly research them. Broader events and occurrences are not linked to specific sections since they are general conclusions that should be reached by having a background in European history that would come from reading the text.

This segment of the wikibook would serve as an excellent review or study guide for students enrolled in Advanced Placement or International Baccalaureate European History courses, as well as students enrolled in introductory European History courses at the collegiate level. Readers could use this page to ensure that they know all of the major occurrences of each era, and can then review specific areas in which they may be weak by simply clicking the link.

1400s, Age of Renaissance

• Feudalism and Serfdom
• Aristocracy is the dominant class
• Invention of Printing Press: 1450
• Italy dominant in trade and culture
• HRE/Austria dominant politically/militarily
• Growth of town life from manors
• Renaissance: 1350-1550
  • Da Vinci
  • Michelangelo
  • Petrarch and Boccacio, Italian Humanists
  • Diaz and da Gama, Portuguese Explorers
• Problems with Catholic Church
  • Great Schism
  • Simony and Nepotism
  • Corruption of Clergy
  • Sale of Indulgences
• Plague
• Humanism
• Rise of New Monarchies
  • Ferdinand and Isabella of Spain
  • Henry VII of England
  • Charles XI of France
• Southern vs. Northern Humanism - Northern had more education, science, Christianity; Southern had Civic Humanism, advocating involvement in politics, Greco-Roman secular thought
• Early Heretics: Jan Huss and Wycliffe
• Spain's 1492 Reconquista: pushed out Jews and Muslims under Ferdinand and Isabella

1500s, Age of Reformation

• Protestant Reformation 1517
• Austria slowly loses dominance to Spain
• Age of Exploration, Spain, Portugal and other European Powers
• New Monarchs prominent
• Church of England becomes Anglican under Henry VIII
• Martin Luther and Lutheranism
• Charles V of HRE/Austria
• Philip II of Spain
• Counter-Reformation and Council of Trent
• Spanish Armada 1588
• Dutch vs. Spanish Philip II vs. William of Orange, or "William the Silent"
• French Civil War: Valois vs. Guise vs. Bourbon - leads to Bourbon line in France
• Edict of Nantes 1598
• Peace of Augsburg ends Shmalkaldic War - princes can choose between Lutheranism and Catholicism
• Elizabeth and "Bloody" Mary Tudor
• Decline of Italy
• Calvinism, Zwingli

1600s, Age of Religious Wars and Absolutism

• Thirty Years' War, 1618–1648
• English Civil War, 1642–1649
• Age of Science
• Age of Absolutism, epitomized by Louis XIV, "Sun King"
• Stuart Dynasty in England, starting with James I and resulting in Glorious Revolution
• Peter the Great of Russia
• Rise of Prussia
• Gustavus Adolphus of Sweden
• Peace of Westphalia, 1648 - ends Thirty Years' War
• Oliver Cromwell's reign in England
• Cardinal Richelieu with Louis XIII
• End of Counter-Reformation
• Baroque Art
• Charles II, War of Spanish Succession result in end of Spanish rule by Hapsburg dynasty
• Strongest Nation: France
• English and Dutch on the Rise

1700s, Age of Enlightenment

• Enlightened Despotism
  • Catherine the Great
  • Joseph II
  • Frederick the Great
• War of Spanish Succession, ending in Peace of Utrecht, 1701–1713
• War of Austrian Succession, 1740–1748
• Diplomatic Revolution - Austria befriends France, Louis XVI and Marie Antoinette subsequently marry, 1748–1756
• French Revolution, 1789–1799
• Enlightenment Philosophes: Voltaire, Rousseau, Adam Smith
• Start of Industrial Revolution in Britain, 1750

1800s, Age of Revolutions

• Britain emerges as dominant nation
• Napoleon Bonaparte's Consulate and Directory
• French Bourbon Restoration
• Rise of Nationalism
• French Revolution of 1830, as a result of the July Ordinances and ending with the July Monarchy of Louis Philippe
• 1848 Revolution in France results in President Louis Napoleon Bonaparte and Emperor Napoleon III
• 1848 Revolutions Across Europe suppressed by the Old Regime and the Congress System
• Rise of New Ideologies such as capitalism, republicanism, liberalism, conservatism, socialism, communism and anarchism.
• Rise of Realpolitik
• Italian and German Unification
• Revolt of the Paris Commune
• Darwin's Theory of Evolution
• Rise of Imperialism
• Russia Struggling to Westernize
• Crimean War
• Victorian Age

1900s, The Modern Era

• United States and Soviet Union compete for supremacy
• Modern Art
• World War I pits the Triple Entente against the Triple Alliance
• Russian Revolution
• Victory in Europe Day occurs, as the armistice is signed at eleven o'clock on the eleventh day of the eleventh month of 1918
• The Treaty of Versailles is signed
• Weimar Republic is undermined by a general feeling among German citizens that they were "stabbed in the back"
• Rise of Pacifism and Isolation in the 1920s
• Challenges to Democracy in the 1930s
• Fascism in Germany and Italy
• Spanish Civil War, 1936-1939
• World War II
  • Yalta and Potsdam Conferences
• Rise and Fall of the Soviet Union
• Modern Britain with Attlee, Thatcher, Major and Blair
• French Fifth Republic occurs under President Charles DeGaulle, followed by Mitterand and Chirac
• Post-War Germany is divided and in 1991 reunited
• The European Union develops into a powerful organization