dates to know

1348 - The Black Plague hits Europe. Drives up the price of people. Disrupts the heck out

of social, political, economic and religious activity.

1453 - Turks take Constantinople. End of 100 Years War. France Wins.

1455 - Bible printed.

1469 – Ferdinand and Isabella marry and begin unification of Spain

1485 - War of the Roses ends. Henry Tudor becomes Henry VII.

1492 - Columbus sailed the ocean blue.

1517 - Luther nails up his 95 Theses.

1519 - Charles V becomes HRE. Europe scared of Hapsburg hegemony.

(Period of Hapsburg supremacy lasts from 1519-1656)

1521 - Diet of Worms.

1527 - Rome sacked by HRE. Machiavelli dies. Two good reasons to call this year the

end of the Renaissance.

1529 - Siege of Vienna by the Turks. A close call for Christian Europe.

1545 - Council of Trent starts the Catholic Reformation.

Potosi Silver mines in Peru discovered.

1555 - Peace of Augsburg: religion of the prince is religion of the people.

1556 - Charles V abdicates as HRE, goes to live in a monastery.

1588 - Spanish Armada defeated by England.

1589 - Henry IV becomes the first Bourbon king of France.

1598 - Edict of Nantes.

1618-1648 - Thirty Years War. Last of the Religious wars. Leaves Germany in shambles.

France is the strongest country in Europe. Richelieu, working for Louis XIII,

demonstrates the workings of the Balance of Power. Ends in Peace of Westphalia.

1642-1648 - English Civil War. Oliver Cromwell takes control.

1643-1715 - Louis XIV, The Sun King, rules with the help of Mazarin.

1660 - Restoration of the Stuarts in England.

1688 - Glorious Revolution.

1701-1714 - War of Spanish Succession, ends in Peace of Utrecht, which creates the

Kingdom of Prussia. France severely weakened; England emerges as strongest European

country.

1720 - "Bubbles" burst in England and France

1740 - Frederick II "The Great" begins reign.

1740-1748 - War of Austrian Succession, in which Frederick II seizes Silesia, even

though Maria Theresa of Austria gets to keep her throne.

1756-1763 - Seven Years War, ends in Peace of Paris.

1772- First Partition of Poland.

1776 - American Revolution begins and Adam Smith writes Wealth of Nations.

1789 - French Revolution begins.

1793 - Second Partition of Poland.

1795 - Third Partition of Poland.

1804 - Napoleon proclaims himself Emperor.

1806 - HRE bites the dust.

1815 - Congress of Vienna restructures Europe after Napoleonic Wars.

1830 - July Revolution removes Bourbons from France and replaces them with Louis

Philippe, Orleans family.

1832 - First English Reform Bill.

1846 - Corn Laws repealed in England.

1848 - 1) Lots of European revolutions. Metternich flees to England. 2) Louis Phillipe

ousted, replaced by Louis Napoleon Bonaparte beginning of Second Republic. 3) Karl

Marx writes the Communist Manifesto.

1852-1870 - French Second Empire

1854-1856 - Crimean War

1859 - Darwin's Origin of Species

1861 - 1) Alexander II frees the serfs in Russia

2) Italian unification completed, except for Rome

1867 - 1) Formation of the Dual Monarchy

2) Austro-Prussian War; aka the Seven Weeks War.

1870 - Franco-Prussian War; German unification completed. Start of the French Third

Republic.

1878 - Berlin Congress settles problems between Russia and Ottoman Empire.

1885 - Berlin Conference. European powers carve up Africa.

1890 - Bismarck fired by Kaiser William II.

1894-1906 - Dreyfus Case.

1899-1902 - Boer War

1904-1905 - Russo-Japanese War.

1905 - Russian Revolution of 1905.

1906 - Algiciras Conference.

1911 - Agadir Crisis.

1912-1913 - First and Second Balkan Wars.

1914-1918 - World War I.

1917 - 1) Russian Revolution. Civil war continues until 1920.

2) Balfour Declaration.

1922 - Mussolini takes over Italy

1929 - The Great Depression.

1933 - Hitler appointed German Chancellor.

1935 - Nuremberg Laws.

1936 - Spanish Civil War.

1939 - World War Two begins.

December 7, 1941 - A day that will live in infamy. Japan bombs Pearl Harbor.

June 6, 1944, D-DAY

1945 - FDR dies. World War Two ends. Atomic bomb dropped on Hiroshima and

Nagasaki.

1947 - Marshall Plan. India and Pakistan gain independence.

1948 - Israel created. Apartheid instituted in South Africa.

1949 - Communist Chinese win civil war. NATO organized.

1950-1953 - Korean War.

1954- Defeat at Dien Bien Phu leads to French departure from Vietnam. Enter the USA.

1961 - Berlin Wall Built.

1989 - End of Communist regimes in Eastern Europe.

1991 - Dissolution of the Soviet Union and Treaty of Maastricht