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Aug 15, 1096
The First Crusade
The crusades were a series of Holy Wars. The first crusade was to drive the Muslims out of the Holy Land. Pope Urban II called for the Christians to join this war to regain their Holy Land back. When he did this he promised immediate forgivness of sins for those who died. They successfully captured Jerusalem, but Muslims got it back in 1187. -
Jan 1, 1337
100 Years War
The 100 Years War was a series of wars fought between the Kingdom of France and the Kingdom of England. It sparked when England gained the rule of France through marriage of Isabella of France and Edward II of England. The four major wars were Edwardian War, Caroline War, Landcastrian War, and the appearance of Joan of Arc. This war contained advanced weapons and new tactics, which introduced them to wars later on in history. -
Jan 1, 1348
The Black Death
The Black Death was time period named when the bubonic plague hit Europe. It was caused by a bag of grain that held infected rats and wiped out 30-60 percent of the European population. The plague altered European society and people's thoughts on religion. -
May 29, 1453
Fall of the Roman Empire
Once Constantine was put in power of the Roman Empire, he split the empire into the Western Roman Empire and the Eastern Roman Empire. When he did this the Western Roman Empire came to fall in 476, when the death of Romulus Augustus occurred. After that the Eastern Roman Empire continued on it path of stength in power, but slowly gaining more and more internal problems. Finally ending with the fall of Constantinople. -
May 10, 1512
Michelangelo finishes painting the Sistine Chapel
Pope Julius II created a program to have the ceiling painted of the Sistine Chapel in 1506, the lower walls of the Chapel has been painted twenty years earlier. The focus was lost when the war broke out in France. When the Pope came back to Rome victorius he gave Michelangelo no choice, but to paint the ceiling. The contract was signed on May 10, 1508. It was finished 4 years later including scenes from the Old Testament. -
Jan 1, 1517
The Reformation
The Protestant Reformation was started by Martin Luther, when he gained followers who believed that they needed their own churches and protested against the Roman Catholic Church rituals. This was sparked by the Black Death and Western Schism when people started to question the Church and begin to form new ideas. -
Age of Enlightenment
The Age of Enlightenment was a time where society began push cultural movement. It was started by philisophers Baruch Spinoza, John Locke, Pierre Bayle, and physicist Isaac Newton. They pushed society to look beyond their comfort zone and caused Europe to have a spike in knowledge. This knowledge spread so rapidly because of the invention of the printing press in 1440. The ideas from this time period go on to influence things like the Declaration of Independence. -
End of French Revolution
France was ruled by a monarchy for many years, but when the absolute monarchy collasped within three years, the people started to want equality, and started to question religious athority. The wars started in 1792, along with the execution of King Louis XVI. In 1793 the Commitee of Public Safety started a dictatorship from then until 1794 was known as the Reign of Terror because 16,000-40,000 people were killed. The revolution ended when the French State was overuled by the Consulate. -
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World War I
This was a major war located in central Europe between too opposing sides of Europe, known as the Allies and Central Powers. This war held weapons that no one had seen before which caused a huge spike in war deaths. The war opened when the Austro-Hungarians invaded Serbia, then Germany invading France. It ended when the League of Nations redrew the European map with many, many more smaller countries to prevent this sort of conflict again. -
Charlemagne
Charlemagne was the King of the Franks. He expanded the Frankish kingdom in an empire. He conquered Italy and was crowned by the Pope. He helped define the Western Europe and the Middle Ages. Pope John Paul II referred to him as the "Father of Europe"
