European History Timeline
This timeline is designed to help you put Modern European history events into context and
perspective. Memorizing the dates isn’t the point (although you may want to memorize them).
Seeing how each event causes the changes that develop is more important than naming each event
and when it happened. Try to figure out how these dates and events tell the “story” of the history
of Europe.
The dates below are especially important because they set a time period in mind. Try to match
them with the event(s) that happened during these dates.
1453
1492
1517
1603
1648
1715
1776
1789
1815
1848
1870
1914
1939
1945
1954
1968
1980
1989
1992
1400 1600 - Italian Renaissance
1455 - Printing Press
1452 - 1519 - Leonardo da Vinci lives in Florence and France
1492 – Columbus discovery of the New World
1500 1520 - The Protestant Reformation
1530 - Spanish Conquistadors in South America
1543 - On the Revolutions of the Heavenly Orbs by Copernicus published after his death
1555 - Peace of Augsburg stating that each ruler could choose the religion of his region of the
HRE
1561 - 1650 - Bacon and Descartes describe inductive and deductive thinking (respectively)
1600 1800 - Mercantilism and the East India Companies bring cash to Europe
1609 - Galileo Constructs a Telescope
1618 - 1648 - Thirty Years War
1630 - 1640 - Puritans Settle in New England forced out by increased Anglicanization of
England
1643 - Louis XIV Takes Throne of France
1648 - Peace of Westphalia ends 30 Years War
1649 – Charles I is executed by Cromwell’s Parliament in England
1651 - Hobbes and Locke describe new ways to think about government
1657 - Formation of Prussia as a Kingdom
1660 - English Restoration
1682 - Peter the Great in Russia
1687 - Mathematical Principles of Natural Philosophy by Newton is published
1688 - Glorious Revolution kicks out James II and brings in William and Mary
1713 - War of Spanish Succession and the Peace of Utrecht
1713 - Pragmatic Sanction
1720 - The Breaking of the financial ‘Bubbles’
1733 - 1763 - Austrian Succession, French and Indian War and 7 Years War
1751 - 1772 - The Encyclopedia is published by Diderot
1762 - Catherine the Great rules Russia
1763 - Peace of Paris ends 7 Years War
1763 - Steam Engine first used in England
1772 – 1st Partition of Poland
1775 - The American Revolution
1776 - Wealth of Nations by Adam Smith explains capitalism
1789 - The French Revolution
1791 - Declaration of Pillnitz and the Coalitions
1792 - The Terror
1799 - Napoleon Takes Power
1800 - 1850 - The Rise of Germanic Nationalism
1809 - Defeat of Austria by Napoleon
1812 - War of 1812
1812 - The 1st Defeat of Napoleon
1814 - The Congress of Vienna restates Conservatism in Europe
1815 - The Hundred Days and the Escape of Napoleon
1818 - Congress of Aix-la-Chapelle
1819 - 1850s - The Isms
1820s - Latin American Independence
1823 - The Monroe Doctrine
1830s - Revolutions of Europe
1839 - Opium Wars in China
1845 - Mexican American War
1848 - February Revolution
1848 - Louis Napoleon Bonaparte
1848 - March Days and the German Revolutions
1848 - The Frankfurt Assembly
1848 - The Communist Manifesto and Marxism
1848 - Communist Manifesto
1850s - Ottoman Empire Collapsing
1850 - 1940 - Migration from Europe
1854 - 1856 - Crimean War
1859 - Italian Unification
1859 - Origin of the Species by Charles Darwin
1867 - Dominion of Canada separates from Great Britain
1871 - Bismarck dominates the German Empire
1871 - Paris Commune
1877 - Russo-Turkish War and Congress of Berlin
1880ish - Rise of Imperialism
1904 - Russo Japanese War
1905 - Revolution of 1905 and Bloody Sunday in Russia
1914 - Assassination of Francis Ferdinand leads to WWI
1917 - Zimmerman Telegram
1917 - Lusitania Sinking brings the US into WWI
1917 - Revolution of 1917 brings Communism to Russia
1918 - Treaty of Brest-Litovsk takes Russia out of WWI
1919 - Treaty of Versailles and Wilson’s 14 Points
1922 - Formation of USSR
1922 - Italian Fascism and Mussolini
1924 - Rise of Stalin
1924 - Dawes Plan
1925 - Locarno Pact
1926 - English General Strike
1928 – Stalin’s Purges and 5 Year Plans
1929 - Great Depression begins
1932 - FDR Elected
1933 - Reichstag Fire and Rise of the Nazi Party
1935 - Nuremburg Laws
1936 - The Spanish Civil War
1938 - Munich Crisis and appeasement
1941 - Lend-Lease Begins
1943 - Stalingrad
1944 - D-Day
1945 - Potsdam Conference
1945 - Formation of the United Nations
1945 - Central American Growth
1947 - Marshall Plan
1947 - End of British rule in India
1948 - Berlin Blockade
1948 – Israel is created by the UN
1948 - The Mess in the Middle East
1950 - The Korean War
1953 - The Death of Stalin and Hardening of the Cold War
1960s - African Pullout
1962 - Cuban Missile Crisis
1963 - Nuclear Arms Treaty
1965 - The Vietnam War
1969 - Moon Landing
1975 - Helsinki Conference
1986 - Chernobyl
1989 - The Berlin Wall falls and Communism ends
1991 - Gulf War