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Jan 1, 1300
Commercial Revolution
The Commercial Revolution was a period of European economic expansion, colonialism, and mercantilism which lasted from approximately the late 13th century until the early 18th century. It was succeeded in the mid-18th century by the Industrial Revolution. -
Jan 1, 1529
Ottoman siege of Vienna
The Siege of Vienna in 1529 was the first attempt by the Ottoman Empire, led by Suleiman the Magnificent, to capture the city of Vienna, Austria. -
The "Golden Age" of the Netherlands
The Dutch Golden Age was a period in Dutch history, roughly spanning the 17th century, in which Dutch trade, science, military, and art were among the most acclaimed in the world. -
The Baroque Period in art and music
The Baroque is often thought of as a period of artistic style that used exaggerated motion and clear, easily interpreted detail to produce drama, tension, exuberance, and grandeur in sculpture, painting, architecture, literature, dance, theater, and music. -
Consumer Revolution
The term Consumer revolution refers to the period from approximately 1600 to 1750 in England in which there was a marked increase in the consumption and variety of "luxury" goods and products by individuals from different economic and social backgrounds. -
The Trial of Galileo
The Galileo affair was a sequence of events, beginning around 1610, culminating with the trial and condemnation of Galileo Galilei by the Roman Catholic Inquisition in 1633 for his support of heliocentrism (Italian: il processo a Galileo Galilei). ... Galileo was kept under house arrest until his death in 1642. -
Reign of Louis XIV
Louis XIV (5 September 1638 – 1 September 1715), known as Louis the Great (Louis le Grand) or the Sun King (le Roi-Soleil), was a monarch of the House of Bourbon who ruled as King of France from 1643 until his death in 1715. -
Peace of Westphalia ends the Thirty Years War
The peace was negotiated, from 1644, in the Westphalian towns of Münster and Osnabrück. The Spanish-Dutch treaty was signed on January 30, 1648. -
Thomas Hobbes Publishes The Leviathan
The work concerns the structure of society and legitimate government, and is regarded as one of the earliest and most influential examples of social contract theory. Leviathan ranks as a classic western work on statecraft comparable to Machiavelli's The Prince. -
The English Monarchy Restored
King Charles II, the first monarch to rule after the English Restoration. The Restoration of the English monarchy began in 1660 when the English, Scottish and Irish monarchies were all restored under Charles II after the Interregnum that followed the Wars of the Three Kingdoms. -
Oliver Cromwell’s Navigation Acts
The Navigation Act 1660 (passed on 13 September) added a twist to Oliver Cromwell's Act: ships' crews had to be three-quarters English, and "enumerated" products not produced by the mother country, such as tobacco, cotton, and sugar were to be shipped from the colonies only to England or other English colonies. -
Reign of Peter the Great
Peter the Great was born Pyotr Alekseyevich on June 9, 1672 in Moscow, 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. -
Test Act in England
The Test Acts were a series of English penal laws that served as a religious test for public office and imposed various civil disabilities on Roman Catholics and nonconformists. -
Revocation of the Edict of Nantes
The Edict of Fontainebleau (22 October 1685) was an edict issued by Louis XIV of France, also known as the Revocation of the Edict of Nantes. The Edict of Nantes (1598) had granted the Huguenots the right to practice their religion without persecution from the state. -
Newton’s publication of the Principia Mathematica
Philosophiæ Naturalis Principia Mathematica, often referred to as simply the Principia, is a work in three books by Isaac Newton, in Latin, first published 5 July 1687. -
The “Glorious Revolution”
Also called the Revolution of 1688, was the overthrow of King James II of England (James VII of Scotland and James II of Ireland) by a union of English Parliamentarians with the Dutch stadtholder William III of Orange-Nassau (William of Orange). -
John Locke published Two Treatises of Government
The First Treatise attacks patriarchalism in the form of sentence-by-sentence refutation of Robert Filmer's Patriarcha, while the Second Treatise outlines Locke's ideas for a more civilized society based on natural rights and contract theory. -
The Rococo Period in art and music
Rococo, less commonly roccoco, or "Late Baroque", is an 18th-century artistic movement and style, affecting many aspects of the arts including painting, sculpture, architecture, interior design, decoration, literature, music, and theatre. -
Enclosure Movement
In the early 1700s, there was an "enclosure movement" that was a cause of the industrial revolution in England. The enclosure movement was this: wealthy farmers bought land from small farmers, then benefited from economies of scale in farming huge tracts of land -
Height of Mercantilism in Europe
Mercantilism was a popular economic philosophy in the 17th and 18th centuries. In this system, the British colonies were moneymakers for the mother country. The British put restrictions on how their colonies spent their money so that they could control their economies. -
War of Spanish Succession
The War of the Spanish Succession (1701-14) was the first world war of modern times with theatres of war in Spain, Italy, Germany, Holland, and at sea. Charles II, king of Spain, died in 1700 without an heir. In his will he gave the crown to the French prince Philip of Anjou. -
Last appearance of Bubonic plague in Western Europe
Europe's last major epidemic occurred in 1720 in Marseille. -
War of Austrian Succession
The War of the Austrian Succession (1740–1748) involved most of the powers of Europe over the question of Maria Theresa's succession to the realms of the House of Habsburg. -
Reign of Maria Theresa of Austria
Maria Theresa (1717-1780), archduchess of Austria, Holy Roman Empress, and queen of Hungary and Bohemia, began her rule in 1740. She was the only woman ruler in the 650 history of the Habsburg dynasty. -
Reign of Frederick the Great of Prussia
Frederick the Great. Frederick II (German: Friedrich; 24 January 1712 – 17 August 1786) was King of Prussia from 1740 until 1786, the longest reign of any Hohenzollern king. ... Prussia had greatly increased its territories and became a leading military power in Europe under his rule. -
The Classical Period in art and music
The First Viennese School is a name mostly used to refer to three composers of the Classical period in late-18th-century Vienna: W. A. Mozart, Haydn, and Beethoven. Franz Schubert is occasionally added to the list. In German speaking countries, the term Wiener Klassik (lit. Viennese classical era/art) is used. -
Seven Years War
The Seven Years' War was a war fought between 1754 and 1763, the main conflict occurring in the seven-year period from 1756 to 1763. -
Diplomatic Revolution
The Diplomatic Revolution of 1756 was the reversal of longstanding alliances in Europe between the War of the Austrian Succession and the Seven Years' War. -
Jean Jacques Rousseau publishes The Social Contract
A Discourse on the Moral Effects of the Arts and Sciences, also known as Discourse on the Sciences and Arts and commonly referred to as The First Discourse, is an essay by Genevan philosopher Jean-Jacques . -
Reign of Catherine the Great of Prussia
Catherine II, often called Catherine the Great, was born on May 2, 1729, in Stettin, Prussia (now Szczecin, Poland), and became the Russian empress in 1762. Under her reign, Russia expanded its territories and modernized, following the lead of Western Europe. -
American Revolution
The American Revolution was a political upheaval that took place between 1765 and 1783 during which colonists in the Thirteen American Colonies rejected the British monarchy and aristocracy, overthrew the authority of Great Britain, and founded the United States of America. -
First Partition of Poland
The First Partition of Poland took place in 1772 as the first of three partitions that ended the existence of the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth by 1795. Growth in the Russian Empire's power, threatening the Kingdom of Prussia and the Habsburg Austrian Empire, was the primary motive behind this first partition. -
Adam Smith published The Wealth of Nations
An Inquiry into the Nature and Causes of the Wealth of Nations, generally referred to by its shortened title The Wealth of Nations, is the magnum opus of the Scottish economist and moral philosopher Adam Smith. -
The Enlightenment
European intellectual movement of the late 17th and 18th centuries emphasizing reason and individualism rather than tradition. It was heavily influenced by 17th-century philosophers such as Descartes, Locke, and Newton, and its prominent exponents include Kant, Goethe, Voltaire, Rousseau, and Adam Smith. -
French Revolution
The French Revolution is a period in the History of France, covering the years 1789-1799, in which the monarchy was overthrown and radical restructing was forced upon the Roman Catholic Church. -
Reign of Napoleon Bonaparte
Napoleon Bonaparte (1769-1821), also known as Napoleon I, was a French military leader and emperor who conquered much of Europe in the early 19th century. Born on the island of Corsica, Napoleon rapidly rose through the ranks of the military during the French Revolution (1789-1799). -
Slave Revolt in Haiti
Haitian Revolution (1791-1804) The Haitian Revolution has often been described as the largest and most successful slave rebellion in the Western Hemisphere. Slaves initiated the rebellion in 1791 and by 1803 they had succeeded in ending not just slavery but French control over the colony. -
Mary Wollstonecraft publishes A Vindication on the Rights of Women
A Vindication of the Rights of Woman: with Strictures on Political and Moral Subjects, written by the 18th-century British proto-feminist Mary Wollstonecraft, is one of the earliest works of feminist philosophy. -
Edward Jenner’s Smallpox Vaccination
Smallpox vaccine, the first successful vaccine to be developed, was introduced by Edward Jenner in 1796. -
The Agricultural Revolution
The Agricultural Revolution of the 18th century paved the way for the Industrial Revolution in Britain. New farming techniques and improved livestock breeding led to amplified food production. This allowed a spike in population and increased health. -
Congress of Vienna
The Congress of Vienna was convened in 1815 by the four European powers which had defeated Napoleon. The first goal was to establish a new balance of power in Europe which would prevent imperialism within Europe, such as the Napoleonic empire, and maintain the peace between the great powers. -
The English Civil War
The English Civil War was a series of armed conflicts and political machinations between Parliamentarians and Royalists over, principally, the manner of England's government.
