Absolutism & Revolution Timeline

By drew2
  • Isabella and Ferdinand unify Spain
    1469

    Isabella and Ferdinand unify Spain

    In terms of accomplishments, Isabella I unified Spain through her marriage to Ferdinand II of Aragon, and she financed the expedition of Christopher Columbus, leading to the discovery of the Americas.
  • Period: 1485 to 1509

    Henry VIII reigns in England

    Presiding over sweeping changes that brought his nation into the Protestant Reformation. He famously married a series of six wives in his search for political alliance.
  • Period: 1516 to 1556

    Charles I reigns as king of Spain

    Expanded Spain into the first truly international empire.
  • Period: Jun 28, 1519 to Aug 27, 1556

    Charles V reign Holy Roman Empire

    responsible for spreading faith to the Americas, fighting the protestant reformation, and stopping ottoman insurgence.
  • Act of Supremacy
    1534

    Act of Supremacy

    Gave King VIII the right to be the supreme head on earth of the church of England.
  • Period: Oct 1, 1541 to

    El Grecco

    Known for his tortuously elongated fingers painted in phantasmaporical pigmentation's.
  • Period: 1556 to

    Phillip II reigns as King of Spain

    Under Philip II, Spain reached the height of its influence and power, sometimes called the Spanish Golden Age, and ruled territories in every continent then known to Europeans.
  • Period: 1558 to

    Elizabeth I reigns England

    Defeated Spanish armada and saved England from invasion. Reinstated Protestantism and forged England as a strong and independent nation.
  • Hapsburg Empire divided
    1564

    Hapsburg Empire divided

    Charles hoped that Philip would eventually rule his whole empire, but the empire was too big to manage, Ferdinand and his son Maximilian refused to accept Philip's succession and the Habsburg dynasty split into Austrian and Spanish branches.
  • Netherlands Revolution
    1566

    Netherlands Revolution

    The revolt of the Netherlands against Spanish rule, also known as the Eighty Years' War, is traditionally said to have begun in June 1568, when the Spanish executed Counts Egmont and Horne in Brussels. The tensions that led to open revolt, however, had much earlier origins.
  • Battle of Lepanto
    Oct 7, 1571

    Battle of Lepanto

    Naval engagement in the water of of Greece between allied christian forces of the Holy league and Ottoman Turks during Ottoman campaign to acquire the Venetian island of Sipris.
  • St. Bartholomew's Day Massacre
    Aug 24, 1572

    St. Bartholomew's Day Massacre

    The attempted assassination of Coligny triggered the crisis that led to the massacre.
  • Spanish Armada defeated in the English Channel

    Spanish Armada defeated in the English Channel

    The Armada was difficult to attack because it sailed in a 'crescent' shape. While the Armada tried to get in touch with the Spanish army, the English ships attacked fiercely. However, an important reason why the English were able to defeat the Armada was that the wind blew the Spanish ships northwards.
  • Period: to

    Henry IV reigns as king of France

    He was the first monarch of France from the House of Bourbon, a cadet branch of the Capetian dynasty.
  • Edict of Nantes

    Edict of Nantes

    Granted unheard of religious rights to the french protestant minority
  • Period: to

    James I reigns England

    James helped people in England and in Scotland to study things such as science, literature, and art.
  • Don Quixote is published

    Don Quixote is published

    To undermine the influence of those vain and empty books of chivalry as well to provide some marry and original and sometimes prudent material.
  • Period: to

    Charles the II reigns England

    Founded the royal society and saw the rise of colonization and trade in India, also in the passage of navigation acts that secured Britain future as a sea power.
  • Defenestration of Prague

    Defenestration of Prague

    The throwing by protestant citizens of catholic officials from the windows of Hrdcany Castle.
  • Period: to

    Thirty Years War

    The Thirty Years War began as a religious war, fought between Roman Catholics and Protestants in Germany.
  • Petition of Rights signed

    Petition of Rights signed

    Petition of right, legal petition asserting a right against the English crown, the most notable example being the Petition of Right of 1628, which Parliament sent to Charles I complaining of a series of breaches of the law.
  • Palace of Versailles built

    Palace of Versailles built

    It was a small country residence and, according to the Maréchal de Bassompierre, “a mere gentleman would not have been overly proud of the construction.” Louis XIII decided to rebuild it in 1631. Construction continued until 1634 and laid the basis of the Palace we know today.
  • Period: to

    The Long Parliament

    During its first nine months, it brought down the king's advisers, swept away the machinery of conciliar government developed by the Tudors and early Stuarts, made frequent sessions of Parliament a statutory necessity, and passed an act forbidding its own dissolution without its members' consent.
  • Period: to

    English Civil War

    Disagreements about religion and discontent over the kings use of power and economic policies.
  • Period: to

    Louis XIV reigns as King of France

    His reign of 72 years and 110 days is the longest recorded of any monarch of a sovereign country in history.
  • Peace of Westphalia

    Peace of Westphalia

    Image result for what was the Peace of Westphalia
    The Peace of Westphalia recognized the full territorial sovereignty of the member states of the empire. They were empowered to contract treaties with one another and with foreign powers, provided that the emperor and the empire suffered no prejudice.
  • Charles I executed

    Charles I executed

    Convicted of Treason and executed
  • Navigation Act passed

    Navigation Act passed

    The Navigation Acts were acts of Parliament intended to promote the self-sufficiency of the British Empire by restricting colonial trade to England and decreasing dependence on foreign imported goods.
  • Thomas Hobbes publishes "Leviathan"

    Thomas Hobbes publishes "Leviathan"

    In Leviathan, Hobbes argued that the absolute power of the sovereign was ultimately justified by the consent of the governed, who agreed, in a hypothetical social contract, to obey the sovereign in all matters in exchange for a guarantee of peace and security.
  • Peter the Great becomes Czar of Russia

    Peter the Great becomes Czar of Russia

    Peter the Great was the 14th child of Czar Alexis by his second wife, Natalya Kirillovna Naryshkina. Having ruled jointly with his brother Ivan V from 1682, when Ivan died in 1696, Peter was officially declared Sovereign of all Russia.
  • Huguenots flee France

    Huguenots flee France

    Persecuted by the French Catholic government during a violent period Huguenots fled and created Huguenot settlements all over Europe, in the United States and Africa.
  • Period: to

    Glorious Revolution

    The Glorious Revolution involved the overthrow of the Catholic king James II, who was replaced by his Protestant daughter Mary and her Dutch husband, William of Orange.
  • English Bill of Rights signed

    English Bill of Rights signed

    Outlines specific constitutional and civil rights and ultimately gave parliament power over the monarchy.
  • John Locke publishes "Two Treaties of Government"

    John Locke publishes "Two Treaties of Government"

    The Treatises were written with this specific aim--to defend the Glorious Revolution. Locke also sought to refute the pro-Absolutist theories of Sir Robert Filmer, which he and his Whig associates felt were getting far too popular.
  • Peter the Great captures Azov

    Peter the Great captures Azov

    For seven years Azov was a seat of its own governorate, but with the growth of neighboring Rostov-on-the-Don it gradually declined in importance.
  • Period: to

    Phillip V reigns as King of Spain

    Philip's reign is noted primarily for the governmental and economic reforms instituted by his French and Italian advisers.
  • Hohenzollern rulers reign Prussia

    Hohenzollern rulers reign Prussia

    The Holy Roman Emperor gave them the land for helping defeat the Turks.
  • Period: to

    The War of Spanish Succession

    The War of Spanish Succession was a conflict that arose out of the disputed succession to the throne of Spain following the death of the childless Charles II, the last of the Spanish Habsburgs.
  • St. Petersburg is built

    St. Petersburg is built

    St. Petersburg is the second-largest city in Russia and is known as the cultural capital of Russia.
  • Treaty of Utrecht

    Treaty of Utrecht

    The treaty recognized Queen Anne as the legitimate sovereign of England and officially ended French support for the claims of the Jacobite party to the British throne.
  • Daniel Dafoe published "Robinson Crusoe"

    Daniel Dafoe published "Robinson Crusoe"

    About a young and impulsive Englishman defies his parents wishes and takes to the seas seeking adventure.
  • Period: to

    Robert Walpole is Prime Minister of England

    Dickinson sums up his historical role by saying that "Walpole was one of the greatest politicians in British history. He played a significant role in sustaining the Whig party, safeguarding the Hanoverian succession, and defending the principles of the Glorious Revolution.
  • Jonathan Swift publishes Gulliver's Travels

    Swift uses each country to satirize some aspect of politics, religion, or human nature; the theme in this, the first science-fiction-voyage tale, is that no human is beyond corruption.
  • Period: to

    Maria Theresa rules the Hapsburg Empire

    She was the only woman ruler in the 650 year history of the Habsburg dynasty.
  • Period: to

    Frederick II reigns Prussia

    Frederick II ruled Prussia leading his nation through multiple wars with Austria and its allies. His daring military tactics expanded and consolidated Prussian lands, while his domestic policies transformed his kingdom into a modern state and formidable European power.
  • Period: to

    War on Austrian Succession

    Group of related wars that took place after the death of Emperor Charles VI. At issue was the right of Charles's daughter Maria Theresa to inherit the Habsburg lands. The war began when Frederick II of Prussia invaded Silesia in 1740.
  • Handel publishes 'Messiah"

    The Messiah was an English-language oratorio that included scriptural texts complied by Charles Jennens.
  • Baron de Montesquieu publishes the Spirit of Laws

    Proposes a division of power within government between 3 branches
  • Period: to

    Seven Years War

    The Seven Years' War resulted from an attempt by the Austrian Habsburgs to win back the province of Silesia, which had been taken from them by Frederick the Great of Prussia.
  • Voltaire publishes Candide

    Candide is a savage denunciation of metaphysical optimism as espoused by the German philosopher Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz that reveals a world of horrors and folly.
  • Period: to

    George III reigns England

    During his 59-year reign, 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.
  • Jean Jacque Rousseau publishes "Social Contract"

    The main argument in the Social Contract is that government attains its right to exist and to govern by “the consent of the governed.”
  • Period: to

    Catherine the Great reigns Russia

    Westernized Russia, led her country into full participation into the political and cultural life of Europe.
  • Stamp Act passed

    The Stamp Act of 1765 was ratified by the British parliament under King George III. It imposed a tax on all papers and official documents in the American colonies, though not in England.
  • Boston Massacre

    Street fight between a patriot mob throwing things at a squad of British soldiers that ended in several patriots being killed.
  • Dennis Diderot publishes his encyclopedia

    Project for linking knowledge and establishing connections and interrelations to further knowledge.
  • Partition of Poland

    The basic causes leading to the three successive partitions (1772, 1793, 1795) that eliminated Poland from the map were the decay and the internal disunity of Poland and the emergence of its neighbors, Russia and Prussia, as leading European powers.
  • Boston Tea Party

    Political Protest where American Colonist frustrated against British taxation and dumped 342 chests of tea in the port.
  • First Continental Congress meets

    To consider its reaction the British restraints on trade and representative government after the Boston Tea party.
  • Intolerable Acts

    The intolerable acts were punitive laws passed by the British Parliament in 1774 after the Boston Tea Party.
  • Battle of Concord/Lexington

    Was the start of the American Revolution
  • Adam Smith published "Wealth of Nations"

    Wealth of Nations is a book that started free market economics.
  • Decloration of Independence signed

    To explain the colonist right to Revolution to declare the causes with impel them to separate from Britain.
  • Period: to

    Battle of Seratoga

    Helped persuade the French help the American Revolution with military support.
  • Period: to

    Joseph II reigns Austria

    He was the eldest son of Maria Theresa and her husband, Francis I and thus the first ruler in the Austrian dominions of the House of Lorraine, styled Habsburg-Lorraine.
  • Articles of Confederation signed

    Was the written document that established the functions of the national government of the United States
  • Period: to

    Battle of Yorktown

    Joint Franco American land and sea campaign that entrapped a major British army on a peninsula in Yorktown Virginia that forced surrender and ended military operations in the American Revolution.
  • Treaty of Paris

    The Treaty of Paris of ended the French and Indian War/Seven Years' War between Great Britain and France, as well as their respective allies
  • Amadeus Mozart height of career

    Mozart was one of the most popular influential and prolific composure of the classical period.
  • US Constitution ratified

    The Constitution became the official framework of the government of the United States of America when New Hampshire became the ninth of 13 states to ratify it.
  • Great Fear

    In the French Revolution, a period of panic and riot by peasants and others amid rumors of an “aristocratic conspiracy” by the king and the privileged to overthrow the Third Estate.
  • Period: to

    Radical Phase of French Revolution

    The Radical Phase of the French Revolution is when most atrocities took place. France was ruled by a Committee for Public Safety.
  • Tennis Court Oath

    Tennis Court Oath was a dramatic act of defiance by representatives of the non privileged classes of the French nation
  • Storming of the Bastille

    The Storming of the Bastille was an event that occurred in Paris, France, on the afternoon of 14 July 1789, when revolutionaries stormed and seized control of the medieval armory, fortress, and political prison known as the Bastille.
  • Declaration of The Right of Man

    Separation of power, right of freedom, right of religion, right of speech, and ideas of liberty.
  • Period: to

    Reign of Terror of French Revolution

    The Reign of Terror, also called the Terror, was a period of state-sanctioned violence and mass executions during the French Revolution.
  • Women's march of Versailles

    Concerned over the high price and scarcity of bread, women from the marketplaces of Paris led the March on Versailles on October 5, 1789. This became one of the most significant events of the French Revolution, eventually forcing the royals to return to Paris.
  • Decleration of Right of Women

    Urges women to recognize the unequal ways they are treated in society and take action to remedy the injustices against them.
  • National Assembly completes a constitution

    Its deputies had drafted a constitution they believed reflected the aims of the revolution. Feudalism, noble titles, and the Ancien Régime's other institutional inequalities had been abolished.
  • Declaration of Pilnitz

    Urged European powers to unite to restore the monarchy in France.
  • Mary Wollstonecraft publishes "A Vindication of the Right of Woman

    A Vindication of the Right of Woman was a trailblazing feminist work that argues that the educational system deliberately trained women to be frivolous and incapable and that if girls were allowed the same advantages as boys, women would be not only exceptional wives and mothers but also capable workers.
  • National Convention Formed

    The National Convention was elected to provide a new constitution for the country after the overthrow of the monarchy (August 10, 1792). The Convention numbered 749 deputies, including businessmen, tradesmen, and many professional men.Jan 11, 2022
  • King Louis XIV Executed

    After voting unanimously to find the King guilty, the deputies held a separate vote on his punishment. By a single vote, Louis was sentenced to death, "within twenty–four hours."
  • Commity of Public Saftey created

    to defend France against foreign and domestic enemies as well to oversee the new functions of the executive government.
  • Marie Antoinette Executed

    In July 1793, she lost custody of her young son, who was forced to accuse her of sexual abuse and incest before a Revolutionary tribunal. In October, she was convicted of treason and sent to the guillotine.
  • Five Man Directory created

    Group of five men who held the executive power in France according to the constitution of the year III (1795) of the French Revolution.
  • Period: to

    Napoleon Bonaparte is 1st Consulate

    Napoleon proclaimed himself First Consul for Life. A new constitution of his own devising legislated a succession to rule for his son (even though he had not yet fathered any children) and he had taken the major steps in creating a new regime in his own image.
  • Period: to

    Napoleonic Wars

    The French Revolution was the main reason for the Napoleonic wars because of the impact it had on the rest of Europe.
  • Napoleon become Emperor of France

    The Senate, who had all been chosen by Napoleon, passed a law making him Emperor of the French (he had rejected 'king' as both too close to the old royal government and not ambitious enough) and his family was made hereditary heirs.
  • Period: to

    Battle of Austerlitz

    The first engagement of the war of coalition and one of Napoleons biggest victories
  • Battle of Trafalgar

    Established naval supremacy for France for 100 years and shattered Napoleon plans to invade England.
  • Peak of Sebastian Bachs' career

    Johann Sebastian Bach had a prestigious musical lineage and took on various organist positions during the early 18th century, creating famous compositions like "Toccata and Fugue in D minor."
  • Period: to

    Napoleon invades russia

    Napoleon hoped to compel Tsar Alexander I of Russia to cease trading with British merchants through proxies in an effort to pressure the United Kingdom to sue for peace.
  • Period: to

    Battle of Leipzig

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

    Concert of Europe

    Established a set of principles, rules, and practices that helped to maintain balance between the major powers of the Napoleonic wars and to spare Europe from another broad conflict.
  • Period: to

    Congress of Vienna

    provided a long term peace plan for Europe by settling critical issues rising from the French Revolutionary War and the Napoleonic War.
  • Napoleon exiled to Elba

    Napoleon's broken forces gave up and Napoleon offered to step down in favor of his son. When this offer was rejected, he abdicated and was sent to Elba.
  • Napoleon exiled to St. Helena

    Napoleon's defeat came in June 1815 at the Battle of Waterloo. This time, the European powers were not going to take any chances on Napoleon's possible return.
  • Napoleon returns to Paris

    He returned to France in March 1815, rebuilt his army, and was finally defeated by Allied forces under the Duke of Wellington and Gebhard Leberecht von Blücher at Waterloo on June 18, 1815.