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Period: 1300 to
Renaissance
The cultural bridge between the Middle Ages and modern history. It started as a cultural movement in Italy in the Medieval period and later spread to the rest of Europe, marking the beginning of the Modern age.The Renaissance began in Florence, in the 14th century. -
1347
Black Death
The Black Death arrived in Europe by sea in October 1347 when 12 Genoese trading ships docked at the Sicilian port of Messina after a long journey through the Black Sea. Most of the sailors aboard the ships were dead, and those who were still alive were gravely ill. They were overcome with fever, unable to keep food down and delirious from pain. -
1505
Mona Lisa
"The best known, the most visited, the most written about, the most sung about, the most parodied work of art in the world". The Mona Lisa is also one of the most valuable paintings in the world. It holds the Guinness World Record for the highest known insurance valuation in history at $100 million in 1962, which is worth nearly $800 million in 2017. -
1508
Michelangelo paints roof of the Sistine Chapel
The Sistine Chapel is one of the most famous painted interior spaces in the world, and virtually all of this fame comes from the breathtaking painting of its ceiling from about 1508-1512. The chapel was built in 1479 under the direction of Pope Sixtus IV, who gave it his name “Sistine” derives from “Sixtus”. -
1519
Death of Leonardo de Vinci
The Death of Leonardo da Vinci is an painting by the French artist Jean Auguste Dominique Ingres, showing the painter Leonardo da Vinci dying, with Francis I of France holding his head. It was commissioned by the comte de Blacas, the French ambassador in Rome, and now hangs in the Petit Palais in Paris. -
Period: 1550 to
Age of Absolutism
The Age of Absolutism describes a period of European history in which monarchs successfully gathered the wealth and power of the state to themselves. Louis XIV is the poster image of the absolute monarch. -
Nov 17, 1558
Mary Tudor
Was the Queen of England and Ireland from July 1553 until her death. She is best known for her aggressive and bloody attempt to reverse the English Reformation, which had begun during the reign of her father, Henry VIII. Her pursuit of the restoration of Roman Catholicism in England and Ireland led to her denunciation as "Bloody Mary" by her Protestant opponents. -
Aug 7, 1571
Battle of Lepanto
A fleet of the Holy League of which the Venetian Empire and the Spanish Empire were the main powers, inflicted a major defeat on the fleet of the Ottoman Empire in the Gulf of Patras. Where the Ottoman forces sailing westwards from their naval station in Lepanto met the fleet of the Holy League sailing east from Messina, Sicily. -
Francis Bacon
An English philosopher, statesman, scientist, jurist, orator, and author. He served both as Attorney General and as Lord Chancellor of England. After his death, he remained extremely influential through his works, especially as philosophical advocate and practitioner of the scientific method during the scientific revolution. -
Oliver Cromwell
An English military and political leader. He served as Lord Protector of the Commonwealth of England, Scotland, and Ireland from 1653 until his death.Cromwell was born into the middle gentry, albeit to a family descended from the sister of King Henry VIII's minister Thomas Cromwell. -
Period: to
Enlightenment
The Enlightenment was an intellectual and philosophical movement that dominated the world of ideas in Europe during the 18th century, "The Century of Philosophy". -
The English Bill of Rights
The Bill creates separation of powers, limits the powers of the king and queen, enhances the democratic election and bolsters freedom of speech. -
Absolutism in Russia
Ruled by the hated ruler Ivan the Terrible Eventually Ivan passed power on to his son, Feodor When the childless Feodor died, Russia fell into The Time of Troubles A time of civil wars, foreign intervention, and famines. -
War of Spanish Succession
A major European conflict of the early 18th century, triggered by the death in 1700 of the last Habsburg King of Spain, the infirm and childless Charles II. Charles II had ruled over a vast global empire, and the question of who would succeed him had long troubled the governments of Europe. -
Robert Hooke
Natural philosopher,inventor, architect, chemist, mathematician and, a physicist engineer. He was was one of the most neglected natural philosopher of all time -
John Locke
An English philosopher and physician, widely regarded as one of the most influential of Enlightenment thinkers and commonly known as the "Father of Liberalism". Considered one of the first of the British empiricists, following the tradition of Sir Francis Bacon, he is equally important to social contract theory. -
Giovanni Cassini
An Italian mathematician, astronomer and engineer. Cassini was born in Perinaldo near Imperia, at that time in the County of Nice, part of the Savoyard state. Cassini is known for his work in the fields of astronomy and engineering. Cassini discovered four satellites of the planet Saturn and noted the division of the rings of Saturn; the Cassini Division was named after him. -
Period: to
American Revolution
The American Revolution was a colonial revolt that took place between 1765 and 1783. The American Patriots in the Thirteen Colonies won independence from Great Britain, becoming the United States of America. -
Spinning Jenny
James Hargreaves, a British carpenter and weaver, invents the spinning jenny. The machine spins more than one ball of yarn or thread at a time, making it easier and faster to make cloth. -
Boston Tea Party
The Boston Tea Party was a political protest by the Sons of Liberty in Boston, Massachusetts, on December 16, 1773. The demonstrators, some disguised as Native Americans, in defiance of the Tea Act of May 10, 1773, destroyed an entire shipment of tea sent by the East India Company. They boarded the ships and threw the chests of tea into Boston Harbor. -
Declaration of Independence
Statement adopted by the Second Continental Congress meeting at the Pennsylvania State House in Philadelphia on July 4, 1776, which announced that the thirteen American colonies, then at war with the Kingdom of Great Britain, regarded themselves as thirteen independent sovereign states, no longer under British rule. These states would found a new nation the United States of America. -
Battle of Saratoga
The climax of the Saratoga campaign, giving a decisive victory to the Americans over the British in the American Revolutionary War. British General John Burgoyne led a large invasion army southward from Canada in the Champlain Valley, hoping to meet a similar British force marching northward from New York City -
Voltaire
A French Enlightenment writer, historian, and philosopher famous for his wit, his attacks on the established Catholic Church and Christianity as a whole, and his advocacy of freedom of religion, freedom of speech, and separation of church and state. -
Surrender at Yorktown
The Surrender at Yorktown, German Battle or the Siege of Little York, ending on October 19, 1781, at Yorktown, Virginia, was a decisive victory by a combined force of American Continental Army troops led by General George Washington and French Army troops led by the Comte de Rochambeau over a British Army commanded by British peer and Lieutenant General Charles Cornwallis. -
Treaty of Paris
The Treaty of Paris, signed in Paris by representatives of King George III of Great Britain and representatives of the United States of America on September 3, 1783, ended the American Revolutionary War. -
Tennis Court Oath
A pledge made by the members of France's National Assembly in 1789, in which they vowed to continue meeting until they had drawn up a new constitution -
meeting of the estates general
meeting that opened at Versailles on May 5, 1789 to discuss political and economic reforms; cash problems, need of taxes, each estate had 1 vote, third estate wanted each deputy to have a vote -
storming the bastille
July 14th, 1789. There had been a rumor that the king had been planning a military coup against the national Assembly. The people decided to defend their city and marched to the Bastille prison for gunpowder. The governor of the prison refused them, so they fought until the prison surrendered. This saved the National Assembly. Is now called the "Bastille Day" and is France's Independence Day. -
Period: to
French Revolution
The French Revolution was a period of far-reaching social and political upheaval in France that lasted from 1789 until 1799, and was partially carried forward by Napoleon during the later expansion of the French Empire. -
declaration of the rights of man
Statement of fundamental political rights adopted by the French National Assembly at the beginning of the French Revolution. Claimed equal rights for men and access to public office based on talent, not status -
womens maren on versailles
On October 5, 1789 an angry mob of Parisian women stormed through Versailles demanding Louis XVI end the nationwide food shortage and that the royal family return to Paris with them. -
cotton Gin
a machine that quickly and easily separates cotton fibers from their seeds, allowing for much greater productivity than manual cotton separation. The fibers are then processed into various cotton goods such as linens, while any undamaged cotton is used largely for textiles like clothing -
first factory
Richard Arkwright is the person credited with being the brains behind the growth of factories. After he patented his spinning frame in 1769, he created the first true factory at Cromford, near Derby.
This act was to change Great Britain. Before very long, this factory employed over 300 people. Nothing had ever been seen like this before. -
consulate period
Enlightened Reform period; took power in 1799, w/ the constitution giving supreme power to Napoleon -
Period: to
Napoleonic Era
The Napoleonic era is generally classified as including the fourth and final stage of the French Revolution, the first being the National Assembly, the second being the Legislative Assembly, and the third being the Directory. -
careers open to talent
citizens theoretically were able to rise in govt. service purely according to their abilities; creation of new imperial nobility to reward most talented generals & officials -
concordat of 1801
this is the agreement between Pope Pius VII and Napoleon that healed the religious division in France by giving the French Catholics free practice of their religion and Napoleon political power -
Battle of Trafalgar
French & Spanish fleets were destroyed by the British navy under teh command of Lord Horatio Nelson off the Spanish coast; established supremacy of British navy for over a century; French invasion of Britain no longer feasible -
Period: to
Industrial Revolution
The Industrial Revolution was the transition to new manufacturing processes. This transition included going from hand production methods to machines, new chemical manufacturing and iron production processes, the increasing use of steam power, the development of machine tools and the rise of the factory system -
Napoleon Bonaparte
born of Italian descent; military genius; specialized in artillery; avid "child of the Enlightenment" & Revolution; associated w/ the Jacobins; eventually inspired a divided country during the Directory period into a unified nation -
steam engine
Thomas Newcomen invents the first steam engine. It is not very useful yet, but the idea of using steam to make machines go will be important to the Industrial Revolution. -
vaccines for diseases.
A chemist named Louis Pasteur believed that germs caused disease. Using this information, he created vaccines that helped prevent many common diseases, which helped people live longer. -
the first powered airplane flight.
Using an engine that they invented, Orville and Wilbur Wright invent the first plane that is not powered by wind. Orville flies the plane for 12 seconds over a beach in North Carolina.
