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Period: Oct 12, 1492 to
Modern History
The Modern History is one of the Universal History's periods, situated between the Middle Ages and the Contemporary History. It's discussed by historians if its beggining is marked by the fall of Constantinople in 1453 or by the discovery of America in 1492, but there's an agreement about its ending: the French Revolution in 1789. During Modern History, theocentricism is be replaced by anthropocentrism, and this situation makes visible changes in culture, society, politics and economy. -
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Enclosure Acts
A series of laws called Enclosure Acts were passed by the British Parliament to authorise this process, which led to a concentration of land ownership. This reorganisation of land benefited the big landowners, who were able to produce more and increase their profits. -
John Kay’s flying shuttle
The machanisation process started with John Kay’s flying shuttle, which increased the speed of production and made it possible to weave wider fabrics. -
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First Industrial Revolution
The Industrial Revolution, now also known as the First Industrial Revolution, was the transition to new manufacturing processes in Europe and the United States, in the period from about 1760 to sometime between 1820 and 1840. This transition included going from hand production methods to machines, new chemical manufacturing and iron production processes, the increasing use of steam power and water power, the development of machine tools and the rise of the mechanized factory system. -
James Watt's steam engine
James Watt developed the design sporadically from 1763 to 1775 with support from Matthew Boulton. He started to look for ways to improve the Newcomen steam engine because of the amount of steam it wasted. He therefore created a much more efficient machine , which became the driving force behind industry and transport. -
Adam Smith publishes The Wealth of Nations
The Wealth of Nations, is the magnum opus of the Scottish economist and moral philosopher Adam Smith. First published in 1776, the book offers one of the world's first collected descriptions of what builds nations' wealth, and is today a fundamental work in classical economics. By reflecting upon the economics at the beginning of the Industrial Revolution, the book touches upon such broad topics as the division of labour, productivity, and free markets. -
Invention of the power loom
The last step was Edmund Cartwright's power loom, which dramatically increased fabric production and lowered its cost.For a mechanically driven loom to become a commercial success, either one person would have to be able to attend to more than one machine, or each machine must have a greater productive capacity than one manually controlled. -
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The Constitutional Monarchy
It was driven by the moderate bourgeoisie, who aspired to abolish the Ancien Régime, elect a parliament by selective suffrage and stablish a constitution. -
Estates-General meeting
The Estates-General met in Versailles in May 1789 to approve tax reform. The meeting had been summoned by Louis XVI (because of the social and economical crisis) and was composed of representatives of the three estates (watch image). The first two groups wanted to vote per estate, but the Third Estate wanted to vote per representative. The denial of the privileged made them finally leave the meeting. -
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Contemporary History
Contemporary history, in English-language historiography, is a subset of modern history that describes the historical period from approximately 1945 to the present. Contemporary history is either a subset of the late modern period, or it is one of the three major subsets of modern history, alongside the early modern period and the late modern period. The term contemporary history has been in use at least since the early 19th century. -
Tennis Court Oath (Proclamation of National Assembly)
On 20 June 1789, the members of the French Third Estate took the Tennis Court Oath, vowing "not to separate and to reassemble wherever necessary, until the Constitution of the kingdom is established". It was a pivotal event in the French Revolution. The Estates-General had been called to address the country's fiscal and agricultural crisis, but they had become bogged down in issues of representation immediately after convening in May 1789, particularly whether they would vote by order or by head -
Storming of the Bastille
The Storming of the Bastille occurred in Paris, France, on the afternoon of 14 July 1789. The medieval armory, fortress, and political prison known as the Bastille represented royal authority in the centre of Paris. The prison contained only seven inmates at the time of its storming but was seen by the revolutionaries as a symbol of the monarchy's abuse of power; its fall was the flashpoint of the French Revolution. -
Declaration of the Rights of Man and of the Citizen
The Declaration of the Rights of Man and of the Citizen, set by France's National Constituent Assembly in 1789, is a human civil rights document from the French Revolution. Influenced by the doctrine of "natural right", the rights of man are held to be universal: valid at all times and in every place. It became the basis for a nation of free individuals protected equally by the law. -
Women's March on Versailles
From Paris’ markets, thousands of angry women (due to high prices of food), marched to Versailles equiped with weapons and tools. They forced the king to abandon his palace and go to Tuileries Palace in Paris. -
First Fench Constitution
The short-lived French Constitution of 1791 was the first written constitution in France, created after the collapse of the absolute monarchy of the Ancien Régime. One of the basic precepts of the revolution was adopting constitutionality and establishing popular sovereignty. The National Assembly began the process of drafting a constitution. The Declaration offered sweeping generalizations about rights, liberty, and sovereignty. -
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The Social Republic
It was driven by radical bourgeoisie, encouraged by the working classes, proclaimed the Republic and began a transformation into a democratic and equal society with universal male suffrage and social laws. -
War of the First Coalition
The War of the First Coalition is a set of wars that several European powers fought between 1792 and 1797 against initially the constitutional Kingdom of France and then the French Republic that succeeded it. They were only loosely allied and fought without much apparent coordination or agreement; each power had its eye on a different part of France it wanted to appropriate after a French defeat, which never occurred. -
Storm of Tuileries Palace
The Insurrection of 10 August 1792 was a defining event of the French Revolution, when armed revolutionaries in Paris, increasingly in conflict with the French monarchy, stormed the Tuileries Palace and imprisoned the royal family. A republic was declared and the second phase of the Revolution (the Social Republic) began. On September 20, 1792, Tuileries became the meeting place of the National Convention, the group of 371 deputies that were to create a new constitution for the country. -
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Girondin Convention
From 1791 to 1793, the Girondins were active in the Legislative Assembly and the National Convention. Together with the Montagnards, they initially were part of the Jacobin movement. They dominated the movement until their fall in the insurrection of 31 May – 2 June 1793, which resulted in the domination of the Montagnards and the purge and mass execution of the Girondins. This event is considered to mark the beginning of the Reign of Terror. -
Execution of Louis XVI
The execution of Louis XVI by guillotine, a major event of the French Revolution, took place on 21 January 1793 at the Place de la Révolution in Paris. At a trial on 17 January 1793, the National Convention had convicted the king of high treason in a near-unanimous vote; while no one voted "not guilty", several deputies abstained. Ultimately, they condemned him to death by a simple majority. -
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Jacobin Convention
The Society of the Friends of the Constitution, renamed the Society of the Jacobins, Friends of Freedom and Equality after 1792 and commonly known as the Jacobin Club (Club des Jacobins) or simply the Jacobins French: was the most influential political club during the French Revolution of 1789. The period of its political ascendancy includes the Reign of Terror, during which time well over ten thousand people were put on trial and executed in France, many for political crimes. -
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Reign of Terror
The Reign of Terror, commonly The Terror, was a period of the French Revolution when, following the creation of the First French Republic, a series of massacres and numerous public executions took place in response to revolutionary fervour, anticlerical sentiment, and spurious accusations of treason by Maximilien Robespierre and the Committee of Public Safety. There is a consensus that it ended with the fall of Maximilien Robespierre in July 1794 and resulting Thermidorian Reaction. -
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The Conservative Republic
Despite the radicalisation of the French Revolution, the moderate bourgeoisie took power and implemented a new moderate liberalism -
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The Consulate
Napoleon was named consul, and the Consulate's rule began. This was a period of autocratic and authoritarian rule. Napoleon aspired to put an end to the political instability of the Revolution, consolidate some some of the revolutionary principles and promote economic recovery through a government that represented the interests of the bourgeoisie. -
Coup of 18th Brumaire
The Coup of 18 Brumaire brought General Napoleon Bonaparte to power as First Consul of France and in the view of most historians ended the French Revolution. This bloodless coup d'état overthrew the Directory, replacing it with the French Consulate. This occurred on 9 November 1799, which was 18 Brumaire, Year VIII under the French Republican calendar. -
Constitution of 1800
In the start the Consulate, the Constitution of 1800 of the new political system did not include the separation of powers or a declaration of rights. Liberties were limited and censorship was imposed to control public opinion. States were organized into departments, run by prefects. -
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The Napoleonic Empire
Napoleon began his conquest of Europe in 1803. In 1811, the Napoleonic Empire reached its zenith: it extended from Germany to Spain. France controlled most of Europe. The failure of his invasion to Russia in 1808 and the 1812 revolt in Spain against Joseph Bonaparte marked the decline of the Napoleonic Empire. In 1815, the imperial armies were finally defeated in Waterloo by Great Britain and Prussia and marked the end of the Napoleonic Empire. -
Napoleon crowned emperor
Napoleon was crowned Emperor of the French on Sunday, December 2, 1804, at Notre-Dame de Paris in Paris. It marked "the instantiation of modern empire" and was a "transparently masterminded piece of modern propaganda".The curule seat that was part of a set made for the reception of Napoleon by the corps legislatif after his coronation as emperor. -
Invasion of Spain and Joseph Bonaparte crowned king
Under the pretext of reinforcing the army that was occupying Portugal, France began sending imperial troops to Spain. In February 1808, Napoleon ordered the French commanders to seize the strategic Spanish military fortresses. It was the beginning of the war. Finally, Spain was invaded and Joseph Bonaparte, one of the emperor's brothers, was made king. -
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Luddite movement
It consisted of the violent destruction of machinery in the belief that it was responsible for low wages and unemployment. Some workers started to realise the need to form their own associations to defend their interests. The firs organisation were relief societies, which acted as resistance groups and helped workers in the events of illness or unemployement. These societies organised the first strikes and created contingency funds. -
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Congress of Vienna
The powers that defeated Napoleon met at the Congress of Vienna. There, they reshaped the European map to their advantage and established the ideological principles of Restoration -
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The Restoration of absolutism
Between 1814 and 1815 the powers that defeated Napoleon met at the Congress of Vienna to stop the spread of liberal ideas and to restore absolutism in Europe. As a consequence, they signed the Holy Alliance Treaty. Also, the four great powers (Russia, Britain, Prussia and Austria) reshaped the European map to their advantage, returned France to its borders of 1792 and divided the Napoleonic Empire among the victors. -
Battle of Waterloo
The Battle of Waterloo was fought on Sunday, 18 June 1815, near Waterloo in Belgium, part of the United Kingdom of the Netherlands at the time. A French army under the command of Emperor Napoleon Bonaparte was defeated by two of the armies of the Seventh Coalition, a British-led coalition consisting of units from the United Kingdom, the Netherlands, Hanover, Brunswick and Nassau. -
Congress of Vienna and Holy Alliance Treaty
The Congress of Vienna of 1814–1815 was one of the most important international conferences in European history. It remade Europe after the downfall of the French Emperor Napoleon I. It was a meeting of ambassadors of European states chaired by Austrian statesman Klemens von Metternich, and held in Vienna from November 1814 to June 1815. The Holy Alliance was a coalition linking the monarchist great powers of Austria, Prussia, and Russia. -
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Greek War of Independence
The Greek War of Independence, also known as the Greek Revolution, was a successful war of independence waged by Greek revolutionaries against the Ottoman Empire between 1821 and 1830. The Greeks were later assisted by Great Britain, France and Russia, while the Ottomans were aided by their North African vassals, particularly the eyalet of Egypt. The war led to the formation of modern Greece. The revolution is celebrated by Greeks around the world as independence day on 25 March. -
Abolishment of the Combination Acts
The Combinations of Workmen Act 1825 was an Act of Parliament of the United Kingdom, which prohibited trade unions from attempting to collectively bargain for better terms and conditions at work, and suppressed the right to strike. It was recommended for amendment by the majority report of the "Eleventh and Final Report of the Royal Commissioners appointed to Inquire into the Organisation and Rules of Trade Unions and Other Associations". It was wholly displaced by the Trade Union Act 1871. -
Stephenson's Steam locomotive
Pioneered by Stephenson, rail transport was one of the most important technological inventions of the 19th century and a key component of the Industrial Revolution. Built by George and his son Robert's company Robert Stephenson and Company, the Locomotion No. 1 is the first steam locomotive to carry passengers on a public rail line, the Stockton and Darlington Railway in 1825. -
The revolutionary wave of 1830
After 1815, liberalism became the two main opposition forces. The movement began in France and Louis Philippe I became the new constitutional monarch. In 1841, a revolt also broke out in Poland. -
Revolutions of 1830
This European revolutionary wave took place because the Congress of Vienna did not respect the liberal principles or the nationalist aspirations of some Europeans, so liberalism and nationalism, the two main opposition forces, prompted the revolutions. The movement began in France and insurrectos spread all over Europe, with a significant popular support. When the revolutions were succesful, absolutism was replaced by liberal political systems. However, if unsuccessful, absolutism was mantained. -
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The Belgian Revolution
The Belgian Revolution was the conflict which led to the secession of the southern provinces (mainly the former Southern Netherlands) from the United Kingdom of the Netherlands and the establishment of an independent Kingdom of Belgium. The people of the south were mainly Flemings (speakers of low Franconian dialects) and Walloons (speakers of langue d'oil dialects). Both peoples were traditionally Roman Catholic as contrasted with the largely Protestant (Dutch Reformed) people of the north. -
Zollverein
The Zollverein, or German Customs Union, was a coalition of German states formed to manage tariffs and economic policies within their territories. Organized by the 1833 Zollverein treaties, it formally started on 1 January 1834. However, its foundations had been in development from 1818 with the creation of a variety of custom unions among the German states. By 1866, the Zollverein included most of the German states. -
Grand National Consolidated Trades Union
The Grand National Consolidated Trades Union, which brought together different types of workers, was founded in 1834. Its first tasks were to defend the right of association, to reduce the working day, to improve wages and to regulate child labour -
Revolutions of 1848
Also called Spring of Nations, the revolutions happened because the rise of liberalism was accompained by the expansion of nationalism, as people lived under the rule of empires or were fragmented into various states, so they persuited independent nations free from the control of absolute powers. In France, where the revolutions started, a popular uprising proclaimed the Second Republic. In the Austrian Empire, the revolt was based on liberal principles, and there were nationalistic uprisings. -
Invention of the Bessemer converter
The Bessemer converter made it possible to manufacture steel (an alloy of iron and carbon). This was a more flexible material, ideal for constructing machinery, tools, buildings and public works.The Bessemer process was the first inexpensive industrial process for the mass production of steel from molten pig iron before the development of the open hearth furnace. The key principle is removal of impurities from the iron by oxidation with air being blown through the molten iron. -
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Italian Unification process
Italian unification, also known as the Risorgimento, was the 19th century political and social movement that resulted in the consolidation of different states of the Italian Peninsula into a single state, the Kingdom of Italy. Inspired by the rebellions in the 1820s and 1830s against the outcome of the Congress of Vienna, the unification process was precipitated by the revolutions of 1848, and reached completion in 1871, when Rome was officially designated the capital of the Kingdom of Italy. -
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German Unification process
The Unification of Germany into the German Empire, a Prussia-dominated state with federal features, was officially proclaimed on 18 January 1871 in the Hall of Mirrors at the Palace of Versailles in France. The new state replaced the German Confederation, a loose association of sovereign states, and the highly decentralized Holy Roman Empire. -
First International
At the initiative of Karl Marx, the International Workingmen's Association (First International) was created in 1864. Marxists, anarchists and trade unions joined, but the ideological differences between them made it unworkable and it split in 1876. -
Karl Marx publishes Das Kapital
It is a foundational theoretical text in materialist philosophy, economics and politics by Karl Marx. Marx aimed to reveal the economic patterns underpinning the capitalist mode of production in contrast to classical political economists such as Adam Smith, Jean-Baptiste Say, David Ricardo and John Stuart Mill. While Marx did not live to publish the planned second and third parts, they were both completed from his notes and published after his death by his colleague Friedrich Engels. -
Second International
In 1889, the Marxists founded the Second International to coordinate the various socialists parties. The Second International established some identity simbols of the labour movement, such as the anthem "The Internationale" and the 1 May holiday (International Workers' Day)
