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139 BCE
Silk routes emerged connecting trade between the Mediterranean Basin and Asia.
Ancient Trading Route Between Europe and Asia. The Silk Road is a name given to the many trade routes that connected Europe and the Mediterranean with the Asian world. The route is over 6,500 km long and got its name because the early Chinese traded silk along it. -
4
Jesus was the founder of the Christian religion.
However one chooses to fit Jesus into the mosaic of first-century Judaism, faith in Jesus is Jewish at its root. We say “faith in Jesus” because while followers of Jesus were called “Christians” in the first few centuries of their belief, it is incorrect to call the faith “Christianity” -- a label that did not emerge until later. -
105
Paper was invented by the Chinese.
The Han dynasty Chinese court official Cai Lun is credited as the inventor of a method of papermaking using rags and other plant fibers in 105 CE. -
700
Mohammad founded the Islamic religion.
Muhammad was the founder of Islam and the proclaimer of the Qurʾān, Islam's sacred scripture. He spent his entire life in what is now the country of Saudi Arabia, from his birth about 570 CE in Mecca to his death in 632 in Medina. -
1100
The Songhai Empire was established in Africa.
The Songhai people founded Gao around 800 A.D. and established it as their capital in the 11th century during the reign of Dia Kossoi. As the city and region grew in importance, the Malian Empire incorporated both as it expanded across the West African savanna. -
1200
The Inquisition was used to reinforce Catholic doctrine.
The Inquisition helped maintain power by getting rid of the people who would spread anti-Catholic ideas, so they could keep the followers they had. Also, people would be scared to speak their heretic beliefs, so no new ideas were spreading. -
1372
John Wycliffe argued the Bible was the highest religious authority – not the Pope.
Wycliffe argued that the Church had fallen into sin and that it ought therefore to give up all its property and that the clergy should live in complete poverty. The tendency of the high offices of state to be held by clerics was resented by many of the nobles. -
1400
The Renaissance began in the Italian city-states and spread to Northern Europe.
The movement first expanded to other Italian city-states, such as Venice, Milan, Bologna, Ferrara and Rome. Then, during the 15th century, Renaissance ideas spread from Italy to France and then throughout western and northern Europe. -
Jul 6, 1415
Jan Huss was burned at the stake for being a heretic.
When he refused, he was put back in prison. On 6 July 1415, he was burned at the stake for heresy against the doctrines of the Catholic Church. He could be heard singing Psalms as he was burning. -
1440
Johannes Gutenberg invented the printing press.
Image result for Johannes Gutenberg invented the printing press.
Goldsmith and inventor Johannes Gutenberg was a political exile from Mainz, Germany when he began experimenting with printing in Strasbourg, France in 1440. He returned to Mainz several years later and by 1450, had a printing machine perfected and ready to use commercially: The Gutenberg press. -
1481
The Ottoman Empire spread to Africa, the Middle East and Southern Europe.
The foreign relations of the Ottoman Empire were characterized by competition with the Persian Empire to the east, Russia to the north, and Austria to the west. The control over European minorities began to collapse after 1800, with Greece was the first to break free, followed by Serbia. Egypt was lost in 1798–1805. -
1492
Christopher Columbus reached the Americas.
The explorer Christopher Columbus made four trips across the Atlantic Ocean from Spain: in 1492, 1493, 1498 and 1502. He was determined to find a direct water route west from Europe to Asia, but he never did. Instead, he stumbled upon the Americas. -
1498
Leonardo da Vinci painted the Last Supper.
Last Supper, Italian Cenacolo, one of the most famous artworks in the world, painted by Leonardo da Vinci probably between 1495 and 1498 for the Dominican monastery Santa Maria delle Grazie in Milan. -
1499
Michelangelo sculpted the Pieta.
The Pietà is a work of Renaissance sculpture by Michelangelo Buonarroti, housed in St. Peter's Basilica, Vatican City. It is the first of a number of works of the same theme by the artist. -
1500
Erasmus spread the idea of “humanism.”
He embraced the humanistic belief in an individual's capacity for self-improvement and the fundamental role of education in raising human beings above the level of brute animals. The thrust of Erasmus' educational programme was the promotion of docta pietas, learned piety, or what he termed the “philosophy of Christ”. -
1503
Leonardo da Vinci painted the Mona Lisa.
Mona Lisa, oil painting on a poplar wood panel by Leonardo da Vinci, probably the world’s most famous painting. -
1504
Michelangelo sculpted the statue of David.
David, marble sculpture executed from 1501 to 1504 by the Italian Renaissance artist Michelangelo. The statue was commissioned for one of the buttresses -
1512
Michelangelo painted the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel.
The Sistine Chapel ceiling, painted by Michelangelo between 1508 and 1512, is a cornerstone work of High Renaissance art. -
Aug 31, 1517
Martin Luther nailed 95 Theses to a church door
Five hundred years ago, on Oct. 31, 1517, the small-town monk Martin Luther marched up to the castle church in Wittenberg and nailed his 95 Theses to the door, thus lighting the flame of the Reformation — the split between the Catholic and Protestant churches. -
1519
The Hapsburg family was the most powerful family in Europe.
House of Habsburg, also spelled Hapsburg, also called House of Austria, royal German family, one of the principal sovereign dynasties of Europe from the 15th to the 20th century. -
1519
Ferdinand Magellan’s crew was the first to circumnavigate the globe.
The Portuguese explorer Ferdinand Magellan is often credited as being the first person to have circumnavigated the globe, but the reality of his journey is a bit more complicated. -
Jul 7, 1520
. Hernan Cortez defeated the Aztecs.
Hernan Cortés invaded Mexico in 1519 and conquered the Aztec Empire. Hernán Cortés was a Spanish conquistador, or conqueror, best remembered for conquering the Aztec empire in 1521 and claiming Mexico for Spain. -
1521
Pope Leo X excommunicated Martin Luther.
In January 1521, Pope Leo X excommunicated Luther.Three months later, Luther was called to defend his beliefs before Holy Roman Emperor Charles V at the Diet of Worms, where he was famously defiant. For his refusal to recant his writings, the emperor declared him an outlaw and a heretic. -
1524
Vaso da Gama sailed around the southern tip of Africa en route to India.
Dias sailed with the da Gama expedition as far as the Cape Verde Islands, and then returned to Guinea. Da Gama's ships reached their goal of India in May 1498, nearly a decade after Dias' historic trip around the tip of Africa. -
1526
The Mughal Empire began in Northern India.
Mughal dynasty, Mughal also spelled Mogul, Persian Mughūl, Muslim dynasty of Turkic-Mongol origin that ruled most of northern India from the early 16th to the mid-18th century. After that time it continued to exist as a considerably reduced and increasingly powerless entity until the mid-19th century. -
Feb 11, 1531
Henry VIII became the head of the Anglican Church.
The church in England recognised Henry VIII as supreme head of the Church of England on 11 February 1531. This finally allowed Thomas Cranmer, the new Archbishop of Canterbury, to issue Henry's annulment; and upon procuring it, Henry married Anne Boleyn. Pope Clement VII excommunicated Henry VIII in 1533. -
Nov 16, 1532
Francisco Pizarro defeated the Incas.
On November 16, 1532, Francisco Pizarro, the Spanish explorer and conquistador, springs a trap on the Incan emperor, Atahualpa. ... Pizarro's men massacre the Incans and capture Atahualpa, forcing him to convert to Christianity before eventually killing him. Pizarro's timing for conquest was perfect. -
1533
Henry VIII broke from the Church in Rome and divorced his wife.
In 1533, Henry VIII broke from the church and married the now pregnant Anne Boleyn in a secret ceremony. This solved his heir problem, but Henry was excommunicated by the Pope . The English Reformation had begun. Thomas Cromwell became Henry's chief minister. -
1534
The Jesuit Order spread the Catholic faith.
Ignatius studied in Paris. There, with a small group of followers, he founded the Society of Jesus in 1534. Its goal was to defend and spread the Catholic faith throughout the world. Jesuit missionaries spread the Catholic faith to Africa, Asia, and the Americas. -
1534
Jacques Cartier sailed the St. Lawrence River and discovered Montreal.
French navigator Jacques Cartier becomes the first European explorer to discover the St. Lawrence River in present-day Quebec, Canada. In 1534, Cartier was commissioned by King Francis I of France to explore the northern American lands in search of riches and the rumored Northwest Passage to Asia. -
1539
John Calvin developed the idea of predestination.
Calvin's religious teachings emphasized the sovereignty of the scriptures and divine predestination—a doctrine holding that God chooses those who will enter Heaven based His omnipotence and grace -
1545
Catholic leaders met at the Council of Trent.
The Council of Trent was the formal Roman Catholic reply to the doctrinal challenges of the Protestant Reformation. It served to define Catholic doctrine and made sweeping decrees on self-reform, helping to revitalize the Roman Catholic Church in the face of Protestant expansion. -
Dec 13, 1577
Sir Francis Drake circumnavigated the globe.
The Famous Voyage: The Circumnavigation of the World, 1577-1580. Drake was noted in his life for one daring feat after another; his greatest was his circumnavigation of the earth, the first after Magellan's. He sailed from Plymouth on Dec. 13, 1577. -
1578
Elizabeth I sponsored Sir Francis Drake’s exploration to the New World.
In 1577, Queen Elizabeth commissioned Drake to lead an expedition around South America through the Straits of Magellan.Drake's 100-ton flagship, the Pelican (which he later renamed the Golden Hind), was the only vessel to reach the Pacific. -
Queen Elizabeth I defeated Philip II’s Spanish Armada.
The Spanish Armada was an enormous 130-ship naval fleet dispatched by Spain in 1588 as part of a planned invasion of England. Following years of hostilities between Spain and England, King Philip II of Spain assembled the flotilla in the hope of removing Protestant Queen Elizabeth I from the throne and restoring the Roman Catholic faith in England. -
Henry IV issued the Edict of Nantes.
The Edict of Nantes, signed in April 1598 by King Henry IV of France, granted the Calvinist Protestants of France substantial rights in the nation, which was still considered essentially Catholic at the time. -
Cardinal Richelieu got France involved in the Thirty Years’ War.
Richelieu was instrumental in redirecting the Thirty Years' War from the conflict of Protestantism versus Catholicism to that of nationalism versus Habsburg hegemony, which allowed France to emerge from it as the most powerful state in continental Europe. Richelieu's tenure was a crucial period of reform for France.
