Absolutism and Revolution Timeline

  • Isabella and Ferdinand unify Spain
    1469

    Isabella and Ferdinand unify Spain

    Incorporated a number of independent Spanish dominions into their kingdom and in 1478 introduced the Spanish Inquisition, a powerful and brutal force of homogenization in Spanish society.
  • Henry VIII resigns in England
    1532

    Henry VIII resigns in England

    He sent two of his wives, Anne Boleyn and Catherine Howard, to their deaths on the executioner's block at the Tower of London.
  • Period: 1558 to

    Elizabeth I reigns England

    During it a secure Church of England was established.
  • Edict of Nantes

    Edict of Nantes

    Effectively ended the French Wars of Religion by granting official tolerance to Protestantism.
  • Don Quixtoe is Published

    Don Quixtoe is Published

    Ferdinand and Isabel defeated the last Muslim strong-hold in Spain, the kingdom of Granada.
  • Thirty Years War

    Thirty Years War

    The actions of Emperor Ferdinand II in forcing the protestants into Catholicism.
  • Petition of Right signed

    Petition of Right signed

    The petition sought recognition of four principles: no taxation without the consent of Parliament, no imprisonment without cause, no quartering of soldiers on subjects, and no martial law in peacetime.
  • Period: to

    Louis XIV reigns as king of France

    He oversaw the administrative and financial reorganisation of his realm, and also set up manufactures and worked to boost trade.
  • The Long Parliament

    The Long Parliament

    To ensure that Parliament met every three years and could not be dissolved without its own consent.
  • Peace of Westphalia is signed

    Peace of Westphalia is signed

    Ended the Thirty and Eighty Years Wars and created the framework for modem international relations.
  • Thomas Hobbes publishes "Leviathan"

    Thomas Hobbes publishes "Leviathan"

    The work concerns the structure of society and legitimate government, and is regarded as one of the earliest and most influential examples of social contract theory.
  • Charles II regions England

    Charles II regions England

  • Period: to

    Peter the Great reigns as czar of Russia

    Peter the Great modernized Russia.
  • Period: to

    Glorious revolution

    The country was invaded by a foreign army and its King fled, as the Crown was offered by Parliament to his own nephew and son-in-law.
  • English Bill of Rights signed

    English Bill of Rights signed

    The Bill firmly established the principles of frequent parliaments, free elections and freedom of speech within Parliament.
  • John Locke publishes “Two Treaties of Government”

    John Locke publishes “Two Treaties of Government”

    Locke proposed that government emerges from the consent of the government to protect their natural rights, which is the thesis of what is now called social contract theory.
  • Daniel Dafoe published "Robinson Crusoe"

    Daniel Dafoe published "Robinson Crusoe"

    "Robinson Crusoe" tells the 'true story', narrated retrospectively in the first person, of a young Englishman who, against the wishes of his parents, sets sail on a dangerous sea voyage.
  • Jonathan Swift publishes “Gulliver’s Travels”

    Jonathan Swift publishes “Gulliver’s Travels”

    Narrated by the fictitious persona of Lemuel Gulliver, who tells the story of his extensive global voyages, the places he has been and the people (and other creatures) he met.
  • Period: to

    Fredrick II reigns Prussia

    Greatly enlarged Prussia's territories and made Prussia the foremost military power in Europe.
  • Baron de Montesquieu publishes “The Spirit of Laws”

    Baron de Montesquieu publishes “The Spirit of Laws”

    "The Spirit of Laws" was a comparative study of three types of governments: republic, monarchy, and despotism.
  • Period: to

    Denis Diderot published the "Encyclopedia"

    Shaping and spreading the kind of progressive thinking that eventually led to the French Revolution.
  • Seven Years War

    Seven Years War

    The war was driven by the commercial and imperial rivalry between Britain and France, and by the antagonism between Prussia (allied to Britain) and Austria (allied to France).
  • Voltaire publishes “Candid”

    Voltaire publishes “Candid”

    Candide is the illegitimate nephew of a German baron.
  • Period: to

    George III reigns England

    He pushed through a British victory in the Seven Years' War, led England's successful resistance to Revolutionary and Napoleonic France, and presided over the loss of the American Revolution.
  • Period: to

    Catherine the Great reigns Russia

    Catherine westernized Russia.
  • Period: to

    Joseph II reigns Austria

    He ordered the abolition of serfdom; by the Edict of Toleration he established religious equality before the law, and he granted freedom of the press.
  • Boston Massacre

    Boston Massacre

    Several colonists were killed and this led to a campaign by speech-writers to rouse the ire of the citizenry.
  • Boston Tea Party

    Boston Tea Party

    American colonists, frustrated and angry at Britain for imposing “taxation without representation,” dumped 342 chests of tea, imported by the British East India Company into the harbor.
  • Intolerable Acts

    Intolerable Acts

    Authorized the Royal Navy to blockade Boston Harbor because “the commerce of his Majesty's subjects cannot be safely carried on there.
  • Battle of Lexington and Concord

    Battle of Lexington and Concord

    Massachusetts colonists defied British authority, outnumbered and outfought the Redcoats, and embarked on a lengthy war to earn their independence.
  • Declaration of Independence signed

    Declaration of Independence signed

    Fighting for their independence from the English monarchy.
  • Adam Smith published "Wealth of Nations"

    Adam Smith published "Wealth of Nations"

    "Wealth of Nations" is about the benefits of the division of labor, competition, and trade.
  • Battle of Yorktown

    Battle of Yorktown

    British General Charles Cornwallis surrendered his army of some 8,000 men to General George Washington.
  • Treaty of Paris

    Treaty of Paris

    Ending the War of the American Revolution.
  • U.S. Constitution ratified

    U.S. Constitution ratified

    Informing the public of the provisions of the proposed new government.
  • Declaration of the Rights of Man

    Declaration of the Rights of Man

    An idea of the Constituent Assembly, which was formed by the assembly of the Estates General to draft a new Constitution, and precede it with a declaration of principles.
  • Tennis Court Oath

    Tennis Court Oath

    Fearing a royalist conspiracy.
  • Storming of the Bastille

    Storming of the Bastille

    Fears that King Louis XVI was about to arrest France's newly constituted National Assembly led a crowd of Parisians to successfully besiege the Bastille, an old fortress that had been used since 1659 as a state prison.
  • Women’s march on Versailles

    Women’s march on Versailles

    Prompted by the high price of bread, food scarcity, and by rumors that the Tricolor (French flag) of the revolution had been trampled on and derided by the royalist troops and Louis XVI on October 1 during a special reception for the King's guards.
  • Declaration of the Rights of Women

    Declaration of the Rights of Women

    In response to the 1789 "Declaration of the Rights of Man" because she wanted to assert women's rights as well as men's.
  • Mary Wollstonecraft publishes “A Vindication of the Rights of Woman”

    Mary Wollstonecraft publishes “A Vindication of the Rights of Woman”

    Wollstonecraft's work argued that the educational system of her time deliberately trained women to be frivolous and incapable.
  • National Convention Formed

    National Convention Formed

    The Convention came about when the Legislative Assembly decreed the provisional suspension of King Louis XVI and the convocation of a National Convention to draw up a new constitution with no monarchy.
  • Period: to

    Radical Phase (French Revolution)

    The upheaval was caused by disgust with the French aristocracy and the economic policies of King Louis XVI.
  • Committee of Public Safety created

    Committee of Public Safety created

    Members were elected and served for a period of one month.
  • Period: to

    Reign of Terror (French Revolution)

    Fears of foreign invasion, rumors about counter-revolutionary activity, assassination plots and zealots in the government were all contributing factors.
  • Five Man Directory created

    Five Man Directory created

    It was created in reaction to the puritanical dictatorship that had existed under the Reign of Terror of 1793–94, and it would end up yielding to the more disciplined dictatorship of Napoleon Bonaparte.
  • Napoleon Bonaparte becomes Emperor

    Napoleon Bonaparte becomes Emperor

    Napoleon reformed the French educational system, developed a civil code (the Napoleonic Code), and negotiated the Concordat of 1801.
  • Battle of Austerlitz

    Battle of Austerlitz

    Napoleons 68,000 troops defeated 90,000 Russians and Austrians under General M.I.
  • Battle of Traflagar

    Battle of Traflagar

    Nelson led Britain to victory over a combined French and Spanish fleet, but was shot and died during the battle.
  • Battle of Leipzig

    Battle of Leipzig

    Decisive defeat for Napoleon, resulting in the destruction of what was left of French power in Germany and Poland.
  • Period: to

    Congress of Vienna

    Established new borders and the main five countries were given different territories.
  • Period: to

    Napoleon exiled to Elba

    Napoleon's broken forces gave up and Napoleon offered to step down in favor of his son.
  • Napoleon exiled to St. Helena

    Napoleon exiled to St. Helena

    Napoleon had been exiled to St. Helena after he was defeated by the British at the Battle of Waterloo in 1815.
  • Jean Jacque Rousseau publishes “Social Contract”

    Jean Jacque Rousseau publishes “Social Contract”

    Stated instead that people could only experience true freedom if they lived in a civil society that ensured the rights and well-being of its citizens.