Period 2: Monarchical States to Napoleon (Reviewer All Dates)

1610

Assassination of Henry IV

1610

Galileo begins astronomical observations with his telescope

1613

Galileo publishes Letters on Sunspots

1616

William Harvey announces his discovery of the circulatory system

1618

Johannes Kepler reveals his third and final law of planetary motion

1618

Beginning of the Thirty Years’ War

1620

Battle of White Mountain

1620

Founding of Plymouth Colony

1620

Francis Bacon publishes Novum Organum

1624

Cardinal Richelieu becomes Louis XIII’s chief minister

1625

Charles I becomes king upon death of James I

1628

Petition of Right

1628

Murder of Duke of Buckingham

1629

Edict of Restitution

1629

Personal Rule of Charles I begins and lasts 11 years

1632

Gustavus Adolphus dies at the Battle of Lutzen

1632

Galileo’s Dialogue on the Two Chief Systems of the World

1633

Trial of Galileo

1633

Murder of Albrecht von Wallenstein

1633

France enters the Thirty Years’ War

1637

Charles introduces the Book of Common Prayer into Scotland

1637

René Descartes publishes Discourse on Method

1640

Beginning of reign of Frederick William (Great Elector)

1640

Charles forced to summon Parliament to deal with Scottish revolt

1641

Rebellion in Ireland

1642

Execution of Archbishop Laud

1648

Peace of Westphalia

1649

Beginning of the Fronde

1649

Execution of Charles I and establishment of English republic

1653

Oliver Cromwell becomes Lord Protector

1659

Death of Cromwell

1660

Restoration of Charles II

1660

Thomas Hobbes publishes Leviathan

1661

Death of Cardinal Mazarin; Louis XIV becomes his own chief minister

1662

Royal Society established by Charles II

1664

Chartering of the French East India Company

1669

Louis XIV begins construction of the Palace of Versailles

1669

Posthumous publication of Pascal’s Pensées

1682

Beginning of the reign of Peter the Great

1682

Rembrandt paints The Night Watch

1685

Revocation of the Edict of Nantes

1685

James II, a Catholic, becomes King of England

1687

Newton publishes his Principia

1688

John Locke’s Two Treatises on Government

1688

Glorious Revolution

1689

Act of Toleration

1690

John Locke’s Essay on Human Understanding

1701

Prussia becomes a kingdom

1701

Act of Settlement passed to bypass potential Catholic kings

1703

Cornerstone laid for the new city of St. Petersburg

1707

Act of Union brings about political unification of England and Scotland

1713

Treaty of Utrecht marks the end of the War of the Spanish Succession

1714

George I becomes first Hanoverian King of England

1721

End of the Great Northern War between Russia and Sweden

1721

Start of Robert Walpole’s tenure as prime minister

1739

Hume’s Inquiry into Human Nature

1740

Frederick the Great becomes King of Prussia

1740

Start of the War of the Austrian Succession

1746

Battle of Culloden

1748

Montesquieu’s Spirit of Laws

1748

Treaty of Aix-la-Chapelle marks end of War of the Austrian Succession

1751

The first volume of Diderot’s Encyclopédie appears

1755

Lisbon earthquake

1756

Maria Theresa carries out the “Diplomatic Revolution”

1756

Beginning of the Seven Years’ War

1759

Voltaire’s Candide

1762

Rousseau’s The Social Contract

1762

Rousseau’s Émile is published

1762

Start of the reign of Catherine the Great

1763

Voltaire pushes for reexamination in the trial of Jean Calas

1763

Peace of Paris marks end of Seven Years’ War

1764

Beccaria’s On Crime and Punishment

1765

Stamp Act

1770

Burke writes Thoughts on the Cause of the Present Discontent

1770

Marriage of the future Louis XVI to Marie Antoinette

1774

Louis XVI becomes King of France

1774

First Continental Congress

1775

Fighting begins between American colonists and British

1776

Jefferson writes the Declaration of Independence

1776

The first volume of Edward Gibbon’s The History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire is published

1776

Adam Smith’s Wealth of Nations

1778

France goes to war against Britain in support of the American colonies

1781

Kant’s Critique of Pure Reason

1781

Joseph II of Austria issues Edicts of Toleration

1786

Calonne, finance minister to Louis XVI, informs him that the crown is bankrupt

1787

Assembly of Notables meets

1788

Louis XVI decides to call the Estates General

1788

Abbé Siéyès writes What Is the Third Estate?

May 5, 1789

Estates General meets for the first time

June 17, 1789

Third Estate declares that it will meet only as a National Assembly

June 20, 1789

Tennis Court Oath

July 14, 1789

Storming of the Bastille

1789

Lafayette selected as commander of the National Guard

1789

Great Fear (July–August)

August 24, 1789

Renunciation of aristocratic privileges

August 26, 1789

Declaration of the Rights of Man is adopted by the Constituent Assembly (August 26)

October 5, 1789

Women’s march on Versailles

1789

Jeremy Bentham’s Introduction to the Principles of Morals and Legislation

1790

Civil Constitution of the Clergy

1790

Edmund Burke’s Reflections on the Revolution in France