Western Civilization 1400 CE - 1600 CE

The Printing Press

1440

This was a revolutionary invention created during the Renaissance by Johannes Gutenberg. This brought forth new ideas of mass production, and allowed those ideas to become reality. This would later be used by a man named Martin Luther to spread his ideas of the Reformation.

Gutenberg Bible

1455

This was the first true printed book to reach mass market as a result of the printing press. Due to Gutenberg's pioneering work the book was named "Gutenberg Bible" and became the first "best seller." This was the Bible used in traditional church, so this book questioned the teachings of the church pushing toward the Reformation.

Christopher Columbus

1492

Columbus voyaged out to find a new route to Asia but ultimately stumbled upon North America due to some miscalculations. This new found land opened up the world to new ideas, foods, items, and so much more, it interconnected the world like never before.

Martin Luther

1510

Martin Luther began to question the ideas of the church. He challenged the practices of the church by stating that salvation did not come from work, but grace, the never ending love of God achieved by faith. This made Luther find the flaws and his disagreement with the church and its values.

95 Theses

1517

This was the first official act of the Protestant Reformation against the church written by Martin Luther. This was wrote to the Pope to attack the indulgences of the church and people, and showed Luther's questions toward the church's practices.

Lutheranism

1530

Martin Luther's religious movement became known as Lutheranism. This was his ultimate push back against the church by forming his own religious community, and believed that even the Catholic Jews would want to join. Eventually the movement began to shift away in ways disapproved by Luther, there was nothing he could do and the religion, actions, and ideas of the movement carried on.

English Reformation

1534

As King Henry VIII wanted to act in new practices with his life, one of which being divorce, the Pope disagreed with him as it went against the church. Once he went through with his actions anyways the Pope began acting out towards the king which caused him to split the England Church from the Roman Catholic Church. This caused a major division in the church, but the people were still being taught similar but slightly different teachings.

Calvinism

1536

Calvinism was an important Protestant denomination that emerged after Lutheranism. Jean Calvin's ideas included God choosing who to save, God as divine intelligence, and the importance of scripture. As the new religion publicized it spread through Switzerland, France, Scotland, and so on. It is important to regard that Lutherans and Calvinists saw each other as rivals, rather than the fellow Protestants they should have.

The French Wars of Religion

1562

As religious conflict broke out all over Europe there became a French religious war. It was essentially a conflict between two separate families whom each supported a different religion and ruler. The battle became gory and was heard all across the country, and eventually resulted in people choosing a side of religion to end the fighting.

The Little Ice Age

1570

As the earth's climate began to drop there were wars breaking out all over Europe, especially those of religion. As people began to have bad crops and harvest ideas and power changed away from what they commonly knew. Angered people lashed out in violence commonly targeting other religious groups, resulting in Europe being in conflict 90 percent of the time during this period.