AER Timeline

  • Oct 19, 1469

    Isabella & Ferdinand unify Spain

    Ferdinand of Aragon marries Isabella of Castile in Valladolid, thus beginning a cooperative reign that would unite all the dominions of Spain and elevate the nation to a dominant world power.
  • Period: Apr 22, 1506 to 1547

    Henry VIII resigns in England

    Henry Vlll was King of England from 22 April 1506 until his death in 1547.
  • Period: 1558 to

    Elizabeth 1st reigns England

    Elizabeth was succeeded tot he throne on her half-sister's death in November 1558
  • Edict of Nantes

    Edict of Nantes

    The Edict of Nantes effectively ended the French Wars of Religion by granting official tolerance to Protestantism.
  • Don Quixote is published

    Don Quixote is published

    On January 16, 1605, Miguel de Cervantes' El ingenioso hidalgo Don Quixote de la Mancha, better known as Don Quixote is published.
  • Period: to

    Louis XIV reigns as king of France

    His reign of 72 years and 110 days is the longest of any sovereign in history whose date is verifiable.
  • Peace of Westphalia is signed

    On 24 October 1648, the Treaty of Westphalia was signed, marking the end of the Thirty Years' War. Ratification of the Peace of Münster.
  • Period: to

    Charles II reign of England

    After Charles I's execution at Whitehall on 30 January 1649, at the climax of the English Civil War, the Parliament of Scotland proclaimed Charles II king on 5 February 1649.
  • Glorious Revolution

    The Glorious Revolution is the term first used in 1689 to summarise events leading to the deposition of James ll and Vll of England.
  • English Bill of Rights signed

    English Bill of Rights signed

    The English Bill of Rights was an act signed into law in 1689 by William III and Mary II, who became co-rulers in England after the overthrow of King James II.
  • John Locke publishes “Two Treaties of Government”

    Two Treatises of Government, major statement of the political philosophy of the English philosopher John Locke, published in 1689 but substantially composed some years before then.
  • Daniel Defoe Publishes " Robinson Crusoe"

    Daniel Defoe Publishes " Robinson Crusoe"

    Robinson Crusoe is a novel by Daniel Defoe, first published on 25 April 1719. The first edition credited the work's protagonist Robinson Crusoe as its author, leading many readers to believe he was a real person and the book a travelogue of true incidents.
  • Jonathan Swift publishes “Gulliver’s Travels”

    Gulliver's Travels, or Travels into Several Remote Nations of the World. In Four Parts. By Lemuel Gulliver, First a Surgeon, and then a Captain of Several Ships is a 1726 prose satire by the Anglo-Irish writer and clergyman Jonathan Swift, satirizing both human nature and the "travelers' tales" literary subgenre
  • Period: to

    Frederick II reigns Prussia

    His daring military tactics expanded and consolidated Prussian lands.
  • Spirit of Laws

    Spirit of Laws

    The Spirit of Laws is a comparative study of three governments, republic, monarchy, and despotism.
  • Denis Diderot publishes his “Encyclopedia”

    Denis Diderot publishes his “Encyclopedia”

    Diderot's Encyclopedia is a twenty-eight-volume reference book published between 1751 and 1772 by André Le Breton and edited by translator and philosopher Denis Diderot.
  • Period: to

    George III reigns England

    George lll was born on June 4th, 1738 in London, the eldest son of Frederick, Prince of Wales, and Princess Augusta of Saxe-Gotha.
  • Jean Jacque Rousseau publishes “Social Contract”

    A 1762 French-language book by the Genevan philosopher Jean-Jacques Rousseau.
  • Catherine the Great

    Catherine the Great

    Catherine II most commonly known as Catherine the Great was the reigning empress of Russia from 1762 to 1796
  • Period: to

    Joseph II reigns Austria

    He was thus the first ruler in the Austrian dominions of the union of the Houses of Habsburg and Lorraine, styled Habsburg-Lorraine.
  • Boston Massacre

    Boston Massacre

    The Boston Massacre was a confrontation in Boston on March 5, 1770, in which a group of nine British soldiers shot five people of a crowd of three or four hundred who were harassing them verbally and throwing various projectiles.
  • Boston Tea Party

    Boston Tea Party

    The Boston Tea Party was an American political and mercantile protest by the Sons of Liberty in Boston, Massachusetts, on December 16, 1773.
  • Intolerable Acts

    The Intolerable Acts were a series of punitive laws passed the British Parliament in 1774 after the Boston Tea Party.
  • Battles of Lexington and Concord

    Battles of Lexington and Concord

    The Battles of Lexington and Concord were the first military engagements of the American Revolutionary War.
  • Wealth of Nations

    Wealth of Nations

    The wealth of Nations was published during the Scottish Enlightenment and the Scottish Agricultural Revolution. It influenced several authors and economists.
  • Declaration of Independence Signed

    Declaration of Independence Signed

    The signing of the United States Declaration of Independence occurred primarily on August 2, 1776, at the Pennsylvania State House in Philadelphia.
  • Battle of Yorktown

    Battle of Yorktown

    The siege of Yorktown, also known as the Battle of Yorktown, the surrender at Yorktown, or the German battle because of the presence of Germans in all three armies, began September 28, 1781, and ended on October 19, 1781, in Yorktown, Virginia.
  • Declaration of the Rights of Man

    Declaration of the Rights of Man

    The Declaration of the Rights of Man and the Citizen, set by France's National Constituent Assembly in 1789, is a human civil rights document from the French Revolution.
  • Declaration of the Rights of Woman

    Declaration of the Rights of Woman

    The Declaration of the Rights of Woman and of the Female Citizen, also known as the Declaration of the Rights of Woman, was written on 14 September 1791 by French activist, feminist, and playwright Olympe de Gouges.
  • Mary Wollstonecraft publishes “A Vindication of the Rights of Woman”

    A Vindication of the Rights of Woman: with Strictures on Political and Moral Subjects, written by British philosopher and women's rights advocate Mary Wollstonecraft, is one of the earliest works of feminist philosophy
  • National Convention Formed

    The National Convention was the constituent assembly of the Kingdom of France for one day and the French First Republic for the rest of its existence during the French Revolution, following the two-year National Constituent Assembly and the one-year Legislative Assembly.
  • Committee of Public Safety

    Committee of Public Safety

    The Committee of Public Safety was created by the National Convention in 1793 with the intent to defend the nation against foreign and domestic enemies, as well as to oversee the new functions of the executive government.
  • Five Man Directory created

    Five Man Directory created

    Between 1795 and 1799, France was ruled by a five-man executive committee called the Directory and a legislature.
  • Napoleon Bonaparte becomes Emperor

    In May 1804, he became Emperor of the French under the name of Napoleon I, and was the architect of France's recovery following the Revolution before setting out to conquer Europe, which led to his downfall.
  • Battle of Trafalgar

    Battle of Trafalgar

    The Battle of Trafalgar was a naval engagement that took place on 21 October 1805 between the British Royal Navy and the combined fleets of the French and Spanish Navies during the War of the Third Coalition
  • Battle of Austerlitz

    Battle of Austerlitz

    Known as the Battle of the Three Emperors was one of the most important and decisive engagements of the Napoleonic Wars.
  • Battle of Leipzig

    Battle of Leipzig

    The Battle of Leipzig is known as the Battle of Nations. Austria, Prussia, Sweden, and Russia were led by Tsar Alexander 1 and Karl von Schwarzenberg.
  • Congress of Vienna

    Congress of Vienna

    The Congress of Vienna of 1814–1815 was a series of international diplomatic meetings to discuss and agree upon a possible new layout of the European political and constitutional order after the downfall of the French Emperor Napoleon Bonaparte.
  • Napoleon exiled to Elba

    Napoleon Bonaparte, emperor of France and one of the greatest military leaders in history, abdicates the throne, and, in the Treaty of Fontainebleau, is banished to the Mediterranean island of Elba.
  • Napoleon exiled to St. Helena

    This work has been selected by scholars as being culturally important, and is part of the knowledge base of civilization as we know it.