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French Revolution

  • Isabella & Ferdinand unify Spain
    1469

    Isabella & Ferdinand unify Spain

    Isabella's marriage to Ferdinand in 1469 created the basis of the de facto unification of Spain.
  • Period: 1509 to 1547

    Henry VIII reigns in England

    He presided over the beginnings of the English Renaissance and the English Reformation
  • Period: 1516 to 1556

    Charles I reigns as king of Spain

    Charles I of Spain, born on February 24, 1500, was king of Spain from 1516 to 1556 and Holy Roman emperor, as Charles V, from 1519 to 1558.
  • Period: 1519 to 1556

    Charles V reigns as Holy Roman Emperor

    Was Holy Roman Emperor and Archduke of Austria from 1519 to 1556.
  • Hapsburg Empire divided
    1522

    Hapsburg Empire divided

    The Habsburg dynasty was divided into a Spanish and an Austrian line.
  • Act of Supremacy
    1534

    Act of Supremacy

    English act of Parliament that recognized Henry VIII as the “Supreme Head of Church of England”
  • Period: 1541 to

    El Greco (birth-death)

    Domḗnikos Theotokópoulos, most widely known as El Greco, was a Greek painter, sculptor and architect of the Spanish Renaissance.
  • Period: 1556 to

    Philip II reigns as king of Spain

    He served as king of the Spaniards from 1556 to 1598 and as king of the Portuguese (as Philip I) from 1580 to 1598. The Spanish empire under Philip prospered: it attained its greatest power, extent, and influence.
  • Period: 1558 to

    Elizabeth I reigns England

    often called the Elizabethan Age, when England asserted itself vigorously as a major European power in politics
  • Netherlands Revolution
    1566

    Netherlands Revolution

    was the revolt in the Low Countries against the rule of the Habsburg King Philip II of Spain, hereditary ruler of the provinces.
  • Battle of Lepanto
    Oct 7, 1571

    Battle of Lepanto

    A naval engagement that took place when the Holy League, a coalition of Catholic states arranged by Pope Pius V, inflicted a major defeat on the fleet of the Ottoman Empire.
  • St. Bartholomew’s Day Massacre
    Aug 24, 1572

    St. Bartholomew’s Day Massacre

    was a targeted group of assassinations and a wave of Catholic mob violence, directed against the Huguenots during the French Wars of Religion.
  • Period: to

    Spanish Armada defeated in the English Channel

    English guns damaged the Armada, and a Spanish ship was captured by Sir Francis Drake in the English Channel. The Armada anchored off Calais.
  • Period: to

    Henry IV reigns as king of France

    Henry IV granted religious freedom to Protestants by issuing the Edict of Nantes during his reign as king of France.
  • Edict of Nantes

    granted a large measure of religious liberty to Protestant subjects, the Huguenots
  • Period: to

    James I reigns England

    Who styled himself “king of Great Britain.” James was a strong advocate of royal absolutism.
  • Don Quixote is published

    The most comically iconic scene in the novel.
  • Defenestration of Prague

    Defenestration of Prague

    An incident of Bohemian resistance to Habsburg authority that preceded the beginning of the Thirty Years' War.
  • Thirty Years War

    Was a conflict fought largely within the Holy Roman Empire from 1618 to 1648.
  • Petition of Right Signed

    An English constitutional document setting out specific individual protections against the state, reportedly of equal value to Magna Carta and the Bill of Rights 1689.
  • Palace at Versailles built

    Is a former royal residence located in Versailles, about 12 miles west of Paris, France.
  • The Long Parliament

    The Long Parliament

    Was an English Parliament which lasted from 1640 until 1660.
  • Period: to

    English Civil War

    a series of civil wars and political machinations between Parliamentarians and Royalists
  • Louis XIV reigns as king of France

    Born in 1638, Louis XIV succeeded his father, Louis XIII, as king at the age of five. He ruled for 72 years, until his death in 1715, making his reign the longest of any European monarch.
  • Peace of Westphalia

    European settlements of 1648, which brought to an end the Eighty Years' War between Spain and the Dutch and the German phase of the Thirty Years' War
  • Charles I executed

    Charles I was King of England, Scotland, and Ireland from 27 March 1625 until his execution in 1649.
  • Thomas Hobbes publishes "Leviathan"

    Is a book written by Thomas Hobbes (1588–1679) and published in 1651 (revised Latin edition 1668).
  • Navigation Acts Passed

    Navigation Acts Passed

    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.
  • Period: to

    Charles II reigns England

    King of Great Britain and Ireland (1660–85), who was restored to the throne after years of exile during the Puritan Commonwealth.
  • English Bill of Rights signed

    English Bill of Rights signed

    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”

    Major statement of the political philosophy of the English philosopher John Locke, published in 1689 but substantially composed some years before then.
  • Peter the Great captures Azov

    Were two Russian military campaigns during the Russo-Turkish War of 1686–1700,
  • 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.
  • Period: to

    Philip V reigns as king of Spain

    Philippe, duc d'Anjou, (born December 19, 1683, Versailles, France—died July 9, 1746, Madrid, Spain), king of Spain from 1700 (except for a brief period from January to August 1724) and founder of the Bourbon dynasty in Spain.
  • Hohenzollern rulers create Prussia

    the state which led the unification of Germany and the creation of the German Empire in 1871
  • Huguenots flee France

    creating Huguenot settlements all over Europe, in the United States and Africa
  • Period: to

    The War of Spanish Succession

    Was a conflict involving many of the leading European powers that were triggered by the death in November 1700 of the childless Charles II of Spain.
  • St. Petersburg is built

    St. Petersburg is built

    A seaport in NW Russian Federation in Europe, in the Gulf of Finland, off the Baltic Sea
  • Treaty of Utrecht

    Treaty of Utrecht

    A series of treaties between France and other European powers
  • Daniel Dafoe publishes “Robinson Crusoe”

    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
  • Robert Walpole becomes Prime Minister of England

    Was a British statesman and Whig politician who is generally regarded as the de facto first Prime Minister of Great Britain.
  • Jonathan Swift publishes “Gulliver’s Travel

    a satire on the society of the day and a warning about human folly.
  • Period: to

    Frederick II reigns Prussia

    Leading his nation through multiple wars with Austria and its allies. His daring military tactics expanded and consolidated Prussian lands
  • Period: to

    Maria Theresa Rules the Hapsburg Empire

    Maria Theresa was an Austrian archduchess and Holy Roman Empress of the Habsburg Dynasty from 1740 to 1780.
  • Period: to

    War of Austrian Succession

    Was the last great power conflict with the Bourbon-Habsburg dynastic conflict at its heart.
  • Period: to

    Handel publishes “Messiah”

    an English-language oratorio composed in 1741 by George Frideric Handel, with a scriptural text compiled by Charles Jennens from the King James Bible
  • Baron de Montesquieu publishes “The Spirit of Laws”

    He discussed different governments throughout history in this text
  • Sabastian Bach height of his career

  • Denis Diderot publishes his “Encyclopedia”

    A twenty-eight volume reference book.
  • Period: to

    Seven Years War

    was a far-reaching conflict between European powers that lasted from 1756 to 1763.
  • Voltaire publishes "Candid"

    It 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

    He was the third Hanoverian monarch and the first one to be born in England and to use English as his first language.
  • Amadeus Mozart height of his career

    A six-year-old prodigy became an instant European prodigy and gained
  • Period: to

    Catherine Great reigns Russia

    Catherine II, also known as Catherine the Great, was an empress of Russia who ruled from 1762-1796, the longest reign of any female Russian leader.
  • Stamp Act Passed

    A law passed by the British Parliament requiring all publications and legal and commercial documents in the American colonies to bear a tax stamp (1765)
  • Period: to

    Joseph II reigns Austria

    Joseph II was Holy Roman Emperor from 1765 to 1790 and ruler of the Habsburg lands from 1780 to 1790. 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.
  • Boston Massacre

    Boston Massacre

    A confrontation in Boston on March 5, 1770, in which a group of nine British soldiers killed three people of a crowd of three or four hundred who were abusing them verbally and throwing various missiles.
  • Battle of Lexington

    Battle of Lexington

    Also known as the Battle of Lexington and Concord were the start of the American Revolutionary War
  • Period: to

    Partition of Poland

    three partitions of the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth that took place toward the end of the 18th century and ended the existence of the state, resulting in the elimination of sovereign Poland and Lithuania for 123 years.
  • Boston Tea Party

    An American political and mercantile protest by the Sons of Liberty in Boston, Massachusetts
  • First Continental Congress meets

    Met at Carpenters' Hall in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
  • Intolerable Acts

    Intolerable Acts

    In the American colonies, were a series of four laws passed by the British Parliament to punish the colony of Massachusetts Bay for the Boston Tea Party.
  • Battle of Concord

    Also known as the Battle of Lexington and Concord were the first military engagements in the American Revolutionary War.
  • Adam Smith publishes “Wealth of Nations”

    The Wealth of Nations argued that the free market and the natural forces of supply and demand should be allowed to operate and regulate business.
  • Declaration of Independence signed

    Declaration of Independence signed

    The greatest break-up letter in world history.
  • Period: to

    Battle of Saratoga

    The Battles of Saratoga marked the climax of the Saratoga campaign, giving a decisive victory to the Americans over the British in the American Revolutionary War.
  • Articles of Confederation signed “ratified”

    An agreement among the original states of the USA.
  • Period: to

    Battle of Yorktown

    Joint Franco-American land and sea campaign that entrapped a major British army on a peninsula at Yorktown, Virginia, and forced its surrender.
  • Treaty of Paris

    Ended the American Revolution and formally recognized the United States as an independent nation.
  • The 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.
  • Tennis Court Oath

    Was a pledge signed by 576 of the 577 members from the Third Estate who were locked out of a meeting of the Estates-General on 20 June 1789.
  • Storming 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. At the time, the Bastille represented royal authority in the center of Paris.
  • Great Fear

    a general panic that took place between 22 July to 6 August 1789, at the start of the French Revolution
  • Women's March on Versailles

    The October Days or simply The March on Versailles, was one of the earliest and most significant events of the French Revolution.
  • Declaration of the Rights of Woman

    LIBERTY, EQUALITY, FRATERNITY: EXPLORING THE FRENCH REVOLUTION.
  • Declaration of Pilnitz

    Holy Roman Emperor Leopold II and King Frederick William II of Prussia, urging European powers to unite to restore the monarchy in France
  • Mary Wollstonecraft publishes “A Vindication of the Rights of Woman

    was written in 1791 and published in 1792, with a second edition appearing that same year. It was sold as volume 1 of the work, but Wollstonecraft never wrote any subsequent volumes.
  • Period: to

    Radical Phase

    France was ruled by a Committee for Public Safety.
  • National Convention Formed

    Was a parliament of the French Revolution, following the two-year National Constituent Assembly and the one-year Legislative Assembly.
  • King Louis XVI executed

    Ultimately unwilling to cede his royal power to the Revolutionary government, Louis XVI was found guilty of treason and condemned to death. He was guillotined on January 21, 1793.
  • Committee of Public Safety created

    The Committee of Public Safety was set up on April 6, 1793, during one of the crises of the Revolution, when France was beset by foreign and civil war.
  • Reign of Terror

    Reign of Terror

    Was a period of the French Revolution when, following the creation of the First Republic, a series of massacres and numerous public executions took place
  • Marie Antoinette executed

    Marie Antoinette executed

    Marie-Antoinette was guillotined in 1793 after the Revolutionary Tribunal found her guilty of crimes against the state. The royal family had been compelled to leave Versailles in 1789 and live in captivity in Paris.
  • Five Man Directory created

    Five Man Directory created

    France was ruled by a five-man executive committee called the Directory and a legislature of two chambers
  • Napoleon Bonaparte becomes 1st Consulate

    Napoleon proclaimed himself First Consul for Life.
  • Period: to

    Napoleonic Wars

    Were a series of major global conflicts pitting the French Empire and its allies, led by Napoleon I, against a fluctuating array of European states formed into various coalitions.
  • Napoleon Bonaparte becomes emperor

    After seizing political power in France in a 1799 coup d'état, he crowned himself emperor in 1804.
  • Battle Austerlitz

    Battle Austerlitz

    Napoleon won a crushing victory against an Austro-Russian army of superior numbers.
  • Battle of Trafalgar

    Battle of Trafalgar

    The Battle of Trafalgar was a naval engagement between the British Royal Navy and the combined fleets of the French and Spanish Navies during the War of the Third Coalition of the Napoleonic Wars
  • Period: to

    Napoleon Invades Russia

    Also known as the Russian Campaign, the Second Polish War, the Second Polish Campaign, the Patriotic War of 1812, and the War of 1812, was begun by Napoleon to force Russia back into the Continental blockade of the United Kingdom
  • Period: to

    Battle of Leipzig

    Also known as the Battle of Nations
  • Period: to

    Congress of Vienna

    an international diplomatic conference to reconstitute the European political order after the downfall of the French Emperor Napoleon I.
  • Napoleon exiled to Elba

    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. The future emperor was born in Ajaccio, Corsica, on August 15, 1769.
  • Period: to

    Concert of Europe

    The Committee of Public Safety was set up on April 6, 1793, during one of the crises of the Revolution, when France was beset by foreign and civil war.
  • Napoleon returns to Paris

    Napoleon's return from eleven months of exile on the island of Elba to Paris on 20 March 1815 and the second restoration of King Louis XVIII on 8 July 1815 (a period of 110 days).
  • Napoleon exiled to St. Helena

    Napoleon exiled to St. Helena

    Napoleon was subsequently exiled to the island of Saint Helena off the coast of Africa.
  • Jean Jacque Rousseau publishes “Social Contract”

    Jean Jacque Rousseau publishes “Social Contract”

    or, Principles of Political Right (French: Du contrat social; ou Principes du droit politique) by Jean-Jacques Rousseau, is a 1762 book in which Rousseau theorized about the best way to establish a political community in the face of the problems of
  • Declaration of the Rights of Man

    Declaration of the Rights of Man

    intended to serve as a preamble to the French Constitution of 1791, which established a constitutional monarchy.