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Apr 6, 1453
Ottomans Capture Constantinople
-Occurred after a siege by the invading Ottoman Empire, under the command of 21-year-old Ottoman Sultan Mehmed II, against the defending army commanded by Byzantine Emperor Constantine XI Palaiologos. The siege lasted from Friday, 6 April 1453 until Tuesday, 29 May 1453, when the city fell and was finally conquered by the Ottomans. -
Jan 1, 1488
Dias Rounded Cape of Good Hope
King John II of Portugal appointed him, on 10 October 1487, to head an expedition to sail around the southern tip of Africa in the hope of finding a trade route to India. Dias was also charged with searching for the lands ruled by Prester John, who was a fabled Christian priest and ruler. -
Jan 1, 1492
Reconquista of Spain
The Reconquista is complete with the fall of Granada (The land of Granada was ruled by the Moors, however. Ferdinand and Isabella then turned their united forces on Grenada, taking it back in 1492 and ending the Reconquista.) -
Jan 1, 1502
FIrst Slaves to Americas
The first African slaves brought to the New World (Americas) arrive at the island of Hispaniola (modern-day Haiti and Dominican Republic). -
Oct 31, 1517
Martin Luther/95 theses
Luther posted the ninety-five theses, which he had composed in Latin, on the door of the Castle Church of Wittenberg. On the same day, Luther sent a hand-written copy, accompanied with honourable comments, to the archbishop, responsible for the practice of the indulgence sales, -
Jan 1, 1521
Cortez Conquered the Aztecs
Led by Hernando Cortes. It was a landmark victory for the European settlers. Following the Spanish arrival in Mexico, a huge battle erupted between the army of Cortes and the Aztec people under the rule of Montezuma. The events that occurred were crucial to the development of the American lands. -
Jan 1, 1533
Pizarro Toppled the Inca
168 Spanish soldiers under Francisco Pizarro and their native allies captured the Sapa Inca Atahualpa in the 1532 Battle of Cajamarca. It was the first step in a long campaign that took decades of fighting, but ended in Spanish victory and colonization of the region as the Viceroyalty of Peru. -
Oct 7, 1571
Battle of Lepanto (naval defeat of Ottomans)
Took place when a fleet of the Holy League, a coalition of southern European Catholic maritime states, defeated the main fleet of the Ottoman Empire in five hours of fighting on the northern edge of the Gulf of Corinth. -
Defeat of the Spanish Armada by the British
The Armad's aim was to overthrow Queen Elizabeth I of England and the Tudor establishment of Protestantism in England, with the expectation that this would put a stop to English interference in the Spanish Netherlands and to the harm caused to Spanish interests by English and Dutch privateering. -
Battle of Sekigahara - Beginning of Tokugawa
A decisive battle which cleared the path to the Shogunate for Tokugawa Ieyasu. -
Foundation of Jamestown
The founding of Jamestown was America’s first permanent English colony. The colony was sponsored by the Virginia Company of London, a group of investors who hoped to profit from the venture. -
30 Years War
A series of wars fought in Central Europe, involving most of the countries of Europe. It was one of the most destructive conflicts in European history, and one of the longest continuous wars in modern history. Religion was a motivation for war as Protestant and Catholic states, but gradually turned into conflict involvin greater powers of Europe. -
Unsuccessful Ottoman Siege of Vienna
The main army of the Ottoman Empire besieged Vienna. The town was nearing the end of its ability to resist: but just as the capture of Vienna was becoming only a matter of time, an army came to its rescue. In an open battle before Vienna, the Ottoman army was defeated, and the city escaped pillage and destruction. -
Glorious Revolution/English Bill of Rights
The Glorious Revolution was the overthrow of King James II of England by a union of English Parliamentarians with the Dutch stadtholder William III of Orange-Nassau. William's successful invasion of England with a Dutch fleet and army led to his ascending of the English throne.The Bill of Rights is an Act of the Parliament of England. It was a restatement in statutory form of the Declaration of Right presented by the Convention Parliament to William and Mary. -
7 Years’ War/French and Indian War
The French and Indian War was the North American conflict that was part of a larger imperial conflict between Great Britain and France known as the Seven Years’ War. The French and Indian War began in 1754 and ended with the Treaty of Paris in 1763. The war provided Great Britain enormous territorial gains in North America, but disputes over subsequent frontier policy and paying the war’s expenses led to colonial discontent, and ultimately to the American revolution. -
American Revolution/Smith writes Wealth of Nations
The American Revolution was a political upheaval that took place during which the Thirteen American Colonies broke from the British Empire and formed an independent nation, the United States of America. It was the result of a series of social, political. The Wealth of Nations is the magnum opus of the Scottish economist and moral philosopher Adam Smith. It offers one of the world's first collected descriptions of what builds nations' wealth. -
French Revolution
The French Revolution was a period of radical social and political upheaval in France that immensely affected French and modern history, marking the decline of powerful monarchies and churches and the rise of democracy and nationalism. -
Haitian Revolution
Dessalines proclaims Haiti’s independence, signaling the formation of the world’s first black republic. He publishes a Declaration of Independence, signed by himself and Christophe, and the colony “Saint-Domingue” is abolished forever. -
Congress of Vienna
The goal was to provide a long-term peace for Europe by settling critical issues arising from the French Revolutionary Wars and the Napoleonic Wars. The goal was not simply to restore old boundaries, but to resize the main powers so they could balance each other off and remain at peace. -
Independence in Latin America
The wars of independence in Latin America were watched with considerable interest in North America. U.S. sympathy for an independent Latin America was grounded in the view that the wars of independence reflected the same republican ideals of freedom and liberty that had animated the creation of the United States. -
First Opium War in China
Fought between Great Britain and China over their conflicting viewpoints on diplomatic relations, trade, and the administration of justice for foreign nationals. -
- European revolutions / Marx & Engles writeCommunist Manifesto
The Communist Manifesto is a short publication written by the political theorists Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels. It has since been recognized as one of the world's most influential political manuscripts. It presents an analytical approach to the class struggle and the problems of capitalism, rather than a prediction of communism's potential future forms. -
Commodore Perry Opens Japan
Commodore Matthew Perry of the United States Navy, commanding a squadron of two steamers and two sailing vessels, sailed into Tôkyô harbor aboard the frigate Susquehanna. Perry, on behalf of the U.S. government, forced Japan to enter into trade with the United States and demanded a treaty permitting trade and the opening of Japanese ports to U.S. merchant ships -
Sepoy Mutiny
The Indian Rebellion of 1857 began as a mutiny of sepoys of the East India Company's army in the cantonment of the town of Meerut, and soon escalated into other mutinies and civilian rebellions largely in the upper Gangetic plain and central India, with the major hostilities confined to present-day Uttar Pradesh, Bihar, northern Madhya Pradesh, and the Delhi region.The rebellion posed a considerable threat to East India Company power in that region -
End of Russian serfdom/Italian unification
The political and social movement that agglomerated different states of the Italian peninsula into the single state of the Kingdom of Italy in the 19th century. Many scholars agree that 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. -
Emancipation Proclamation in US
A presidential proclamation issued by President Abraham Lincoln as a war measure during the American Civil War, directed to all areas in rebellion and all segments of the Executive branch (including the Army and Navy) of the United States. It proclaimed the freedom of slaves in the ten states that were still in rebellion, applying to 3 million of the 4 million slaves in the U.S. at the time. -
German Unification
The formal unification of Germany into a politically and administratively integrated nation state officially occurred at the Versailles Palace's Hall of Mirrors in France. -
Berlin Conference
Regulated European colonisation and trade in Africa during the New Imperialism period, and coincided with Germany's sudden emergence as an imperial power -
Spanish-War America
A conflict in between Spain and the United States, the result of American intervention in the Cuban War of Independence. American attacks on Spain's Pacific possessions led to involvement in the Philippine Revolution and ultimately to the Philippine–American War. -
Boer War
Two wars fought during 1880–1881 and 1899–1902 by the British Empire against the settlers of two independent Boer republics, the Orange Free State and the Transvaal Republic. -
Russo-Japanese war
"the first great war of the 20th century." It grew out of rival imperial ambitions of the Russian Empire and the Empire of Japan over Manchuria and Korea. The major theatres of operations were Southern Manchuria, specifically the area around the Liaodong Peninsula and Mukden; and the seas around Korea, Japan, and the Yellow Sea. -
Mexican Revolution
A major armed struggle with an uprising led by Francisco I. Madero against longtime autocrat Porfirio Díaz, and lasted for the better part of a decade until around 1920. Over time the Revolution changed from a revolt against the established order to a multi-sided civil war with frequently shifting power struggles. -
Chinese Revolution
The Xinhai Revolution was a revolution that overthrew China's last imperial dynasty, the Qing Dynasty, and established the Republic of China. -
WWI
A global war centred in Europe that began on 28 July 1914 and lasted until 11 November 1918. More than 9 million combatants were killed; a casualty rate exacerbated by the belligerents' technological and industrial sophistication, and tactical stalemate. It was one of the deadliest conflicts in history. -
Russian Revolution
A series of revolutions in Russia in 1917, which dismantled the Tsarist autocracy and led to the creation of the Russian SFSR. The Emperor was forced to abdicate and the old regime was replaced by a provisional government during the first revolution of February 1917. -
Treaty of Versailles
One of the peace treaties at the end of World War I. It ended the state of war between Germany and the Allied Powers. It was signed on 28 June 1919, exactly five years after the assassination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand. The other Central Powers on the German side of World War I were dealt with in separate treaties
