European History Timeline
(1450 – 2014)
1400s
1450s 1450s – Peak of the Italian Renaissance
1450 – Guttenberg invents the Printing Press
1453 – End of the 100 Years War
1453 – Fall of Constantinople (Ottoman Empire)
1460s 1469 – Isabella and Ferdinan get married – “the Catholic Monarchs” – made Spain (Spain)
1470s 1478 – Assassination at Mass by Pazi family – Guilianno died but Lorenzo survived (Italy)
1478 – beginning of Spanish Inquisition
1480s 1487 – Dias rounds the Cape of Good Hope (Portugal)
1490s 1492 – End of the Reconquista b/c they took Grenada (Spain)
1492 – Spain truly comes into existence w/ the defeat of the Moors at Grenada
1492 – Exile of the Jews who do not convert to Catholicism (Spain)
1492 – Columbus reaches the New World (Spain)
1492 – Beginning of Columbian Exchange, Triangular Trade, etc.
1494 – Florentine Republic established (Italy)
1494 – first French invasion of Italy under Charles VIII
1494 – beginning of the Hapsburg-Valois War – war for control of Italy (Hapsburg – German,
1394 – Valois – French)
1494 – Line of Demarcation (Spain & Portugal)
1494 – Treaty of Tordesillas (Spain & Portugal) – wouldn’t matter after 1517
1498 – Vasco de Gama reaches India – opens India Ocean to European merchants (Portugal)
1500s
1500s 1502 – Exile of the Muslims that did not convert to Catholicism (Spain)
1503 – Michelangelo sculpts David – symbol of Florentine Renaissance (Italy)
1509 – Marriage of Catherine of Aragon and Henry VIII – needed papal approval (Spain &
1509 – England)
1510s 1512 – Massacre of Prato (Italy)
1512 – the Medici return to power (Italy)
1513 – Giovanni de Medici becomes Pope Leo X
1513 – Machiavelli publishes The Prince – reason d’etat
1516 – death of Ferdinan – Charles I becomes monarch (Spain)
1517 – Martin Luther posted his “95 Theses” (“Germany”)
1519 – Charles V (Charles I of Spain) becomes Holy Roman Emperor – he was a Hapsburg
1520s 1520 – Luther wrote a book criticizing the church
1520 – “Exsurge Domine” – papal bull – told Luther to recant (HRE)
1520 – Field at the Cloth of Gold – meeting b/w Henry VIII and Francis I, excludes Charles V
1521 – “Decet Pontificen Romanum” – excommunicate/label Luther a heretic (HRE)
1521 – (May) – Luther an official secular outlaw
1521 – Diet of Worms & Edict of Worms (HRE)
1521 – beginning of Protestant Reformation
1521 – Henry VIII wrote the Defense of the Seven Sacraments (England)
1522 – Magellan circumnavigates the globe (Portugal)
1527 – Sack of Rome
1529 – Marburg Colloquially – Luther and Zwingli meet
1529 – Reformation Parliament – move away from Catholic Church so Henry could get a divorce
1530s 1530 – Diet of Augsburg – protestants and catholics
1530 – Augsburg Confession
1531 – Schmalkaldic League formed – defensive alliance of Protestants
1532 – The Act in Restraint of Appeals – Catholic clergy under royal jurisdiction (England)
1533 – Beginning of English Reformation
1534 – the Act of Succession – Ann Boleyn’s child would get the throne (England)
1534 – Act of Supremacy – the Convocation –recognized Henry as head of Church of England
1535 – Thomas Moore executed – Henry VIII cares more about his power than his friends
1535 – (England)
1536 – the Ten Articles – confiscated Catholic monastery lands (England)
1539 – the Six Articles – “the Whip with Six Stings/Tails” (England)
1540s 1541 – the Great Bible
1545 – or 1546 – Council of Trent called into session (ends 1563)
1545 – Beginning of Catholic/Counter Reformation
1547 – King Edward VI comes into power – regent was Duke of Somerset who was Zwingli and
1547 – Calvinist
1549 – The Book of Common Prayer (England)
1550s 1552 – Peace of Passau – ended the Schmalkaldic War of 1547 (HRE)
1552 – Forty Two Articles of Faith (England)
1553 – Mary I comes into power – “Bloody Mary” (England)
1555 – Peace of Augsburg
1557 – France Spain declares bankruptcy from Hapsburg-Valois war (were using bullion to pay
1557 – for the wars
1558 – Charles V abdicated and split empire b/w Spanish and Austrian lines/religious lines
1558 – Philip II takes over half of the empire
1558 – Elizabeth I comes into power – sometimes called the Elizabethan Renaissance
1559 – Treaty of Cateau-Cambresis – ended the Hapsburg-Valois War
1559 – Act of Uniformity
1560s 1652 – January Edict – protestants can openly worship – really to collect and kill them (France)
1566 – the Netherlands revolt
1570s 1570 – Map of Europe completely rounded
1572 – St. Bartholomew’s Day Massacre – Catholics v Protestants (France)
1580s 1585 – Roanoke Island – not successful
1587 – Mary Staurt Queen of Scots executed by Elizabeth I (England)
1588 – The Spanish Armada & the defeat of the Spanish Armada (Spain & England)
1589 – Henry of Navarre comes into power (France)
1590s 1590 – French Wars of Religion – (Spain v. French Hugenots)
1593 – The Conventicle Act of 1593 – religious extremists faced exile or death (Enlgand)
1594 – Henry of Navarre crowned King – boubon line is now in France (France)
1598 – Edict of Nantes – limited religious tolerance – would be revoked by Louis XIV (France)
1600s
1600s 1603 – James I comes into power – protestant (England)
1606 – Virginia Company Charter (England)
1607 – Jamestown settlement – tobacco
1610s 1610 – Louis XIII comes into power (France)
1618 – Beginning of 30 Years War
1620s 1625 – Charles I comes into power – wanted to be an absolutist (England)
1627 – The Siege of Rochelle – under the guide of Reichlieu, attacked – biggest fortress-city for
1627 – the Hugenots
1628 – the Petition of Right – limits the rights of the king
1629 – Peace of Alais – after the siege of Rochelle – no more fortified structures (France)
1630s 1632 – Charles issues charter for Maryland (England)
1640s 1641 – Grand Remonstrance – grand list of grievances (England)
1642 – Beginning of the English Civil War (England)
1643 – Louis XIV comes into power (France)
1648 – Treaty of Westphalia – End of the 30 Years War – reaffirmed peace of augsburg
1648 – The Fronde – revolt of the Nobles
1649 – Charles I executed and there can never be divine right absolutism in England
1649 – Beginning of Cromwell’s Commonwealth – 1649-1660 (England)
1649 – “free” Russians made serfs (Russia)
1650s 1651 – Hobbes wrote the Leviathan
1652 – British Navigation Acts – create mercantile system (Great Britain)
1652 – three Anglo-Dutch wars
1653 – Beginning of Cromwell’s Protectorate – 1653-1660 (England)
1659 – treaty of Pyrennes – ended extended war between France and Spain
1660s 1660 – Charles II returns to the throne – restored Stuarts to throne (England)
1665 – the Great Plague (England)
1666 – the Fire of London
1667 – The War of Devolution against the Dutch (France & Spain)
1668 – the Treaty of Aix-la-Chapelle – ended the War of Devolution
1670s 1672 – The Test Act – James II openly Catholic but Catholics not supposed to be monarchs
1672 – (England)
1680s 1682 – Peter the Great comes into power – wanted to westernize Russia (Russia)
1685 – James II comes into power (England)
1685 – Louis XIV revoked the Edict of Nantes (France)
1688 – the Glorious Revolution – overthrow of James II – protestant parliament v Catholic James
1689 – English Bill of Rights
1689 – the Toleration Act – William III and Mary II – tolerated all faiths except Catholicism
1689 – (England)
1690s 1694 – Bank of England – William and Mary brought paper money from Netherlands
1695 – Lapse of the Licensing Act – copy rights can now be broken
1700s
1700s 1700 – Philip of Anjou became the monarch of Spain – would lead to the Spanish War of 1700 1700 – Succession
1701 – the Act of Settlement – brings House of Hanover (protestant) to England (England)
1701 – War of Spanish Succession
1701 – Jethro Tull invented the seed drill – helped spur on the Agricultural Revolution (England)
1707 – The Act of Union – makes Scotland part of England
1710s 1713 – The Pragmatic Sanction – said that Maria Theresa would get the throne after Charles VI
1713 – (Austria)
1713 – Peace of Utrecht – Britain wins parts of Canada from France and control of African Slave
1713 – trade from Spain
1714 – King George I comes into power (England)
1720s 1720 – the Mississippi Bubble popped
1722 – Table of Ranks – changed status of nobles – now aristocrats could rise through the ranks
1722 – (Russia)
1730s 1739 – War of Jenkins’ Ear
1740s 1740 – Frederick the Great comes into power – “First Servant of the State” – Hohenzollern
1740 – Family (Prussia)
1740 – the War of Austrian Succession – violation of the Pragmatic Sanction
1750s 1756 – Beginning of the Seven Years War – Britain wins
1760s 1761 – (1761-1792) the First Enclosure Acts (England)
1763 – Treaty of Paris – ends the Seven Years War – Britain wins territory from France and
1763 – dominance in India
1764 – Catherine the Great comes into power (Russia)
1769 – James Watt’s Steam Engine replaced the water wheel(England)
1780s 1781 – Edict of Toleration – free worship for Protestants (Austria)
1789 – Catherine the Great censored the press (Russia)
1789 – (July 14) – Storming of the Bastille – Beginning of the French Revolution
1790s 1794 – the Thermindorian Reaction – radical phase of the French Rev
1800s
1800s 1804 – The Corn Laws first introduced (really a tariff at this point) (Great Britain)
1807 – abolition of slave trade (Great Britain)
1810s 1814 – The Congress of Vienna – led by Metternich
1814 – George Stephenson invents the locomotive (Enlgand)
1815 – Battle of Waterloo – Beginning of the end of Napoleon
1815 – Holy Alliance – Russia, Prussia and Austria
1815 – Balance of Power in Europe
1819 – Peterloo Massacre – peaceful gathering of the working class – attacked by Calvary (Great
1819 – Britain
1819 – Carlesbad Decrees – no student unions (German Confederation)
1820s 1820 – Revolutions in Spain and Naples
1821 – Start of Greek independence – against Turkey/Ottomans
1825 – Decembrist Revolt (Russia)
1829 – Treaty of Andrianople (Greece)
1829 – Catholic emancipation Act – ended Protestant control of Parliament
1830s 1830 – French Revolution of 1830 – institutes Louis Philippe
1830 – Greece is formally recognized
1831 – Belgium declares its independence
1832 – Great Reform Bill of 1832 (Great Britain)
1833 – English Factory Act of 1833 – children under 9 cannot be employed, children 9 to 13 have
1833 – to be educated (Great Britain)
1834 – Poor Law Amendment Act (Great Britain)
1834 – Zollverin – German customs union that excluded Austria
1839 – the Dutch recognized Belgium as a country
1840s 1845 – Irish Potato Famine – GB’s Corn Laws made it worse (Ireland)
1846 – Repeal of the Corn Laws (England)
1847 – 10-hour Law – limited work hours
1848 – the Revolutions of 1848 (France, Austria & Hungary, Italy, etc.)
1848 – Louis Napoleon elected president of the Second Republic
1848 – Karl Marx and Engels wrote the Communist Manifesto
1850s 1850 – Humiliation of Olmutz – ended Prussian hopes of unification
1853 – the Crimean War – homefront now just as important as battlefield
1856 – End of the Crimean War – self interest truly driving domestic and foreign policy
1856 – End of the Concert of Europe
1858 – Charles Darwin – publishes “On the Origin of Species by Natural Selection”
1860s 1861 – Emancipation Edict – Alexander II – “abolished” serfdom (Russia)
1862 – Bismarck gives his “Blood and Iron Speech”
1863 – Suppression of Polish rebellion (Russia)
1864 – Danish War – Prussia goes to war against Denmark
1866 – Austro-Prussian War – removed Austria from “German” politics
1867 – North German Confederation formed
1867 – Second Reform Act – extended franchise to more of the working class (Great Britain)
1867 – Ausgleich – formed the Austro-Hungarian Empire
1867 – British North American Act
1870s 1870 – Italian unification complete
1870 – (1870-1871) Franco-Prussian War – Ems Dispatch – Bismarck “mistranslates” letter from
1870 – Napoleon III
1870 – Education Act of 1870 – state provided elementary education (Great Britain)
1871 – Proclamation of Germany Empire at Versailles – Prussia becomes Germany
1871 – Paris Commune – crushed in May – red = communism for the blood shed
1872 – introduction of the secret ballot (Great Britain)
1873 – Three Emperor’s League – Germany, Austria-Hungary and Russia
1875 – The Gotha Program – representation of the proletariat (Germany)
1875 – Artisan Dwelling Act of 1875 – maintain proper housing for the working class (Great
1875 – Britain)
1876 – (1876 – 1878) – Uprisings in Bulgaria – triggers the Russo-Turkish War (Bulgaria)
1877 – Russo-Turkish War – Russia is destroyed, the Three Emperor’s League ends (Balkans)
1878 – Congress of Berlin – Bismarck (the “honest broker”) doesn’t want the Balkans
1880s – 1880 – SDP emerged (Germany)
1881 – Alexander III becomes Tsar – censorship and secret police (Russia)
1884 – Representation of the Peoples Act – almost universal male suffrage (Great Britain)
1884 – Berlin Conference – how to address the Scramble for Africa – met to prevent war
1887 – Reassurance Treaty – runs out in 1890 (Russia and Germany)
1889 – French World Fair – Exposition to show the grandeur of Paris
1890s 1890 – Wilhelm II forced Bismarck to step down
1890 – Erfurt Program – by the SDP – promised imminent death of capitalism (German)
1894 – Beginning of the Dreyfus Affair
1900s
1900s 1903 – Bolsheviks formed – radical – opposite of the Menshaviks
1904 – Beginning of the Russo-Japanese War – ends in 1905 – shows Russia is not ready to go to
1904 – war
1905 – fist Moroccan Crisis (Second Moroccan Crisis in 1911) – France goes to quell but
1905 – Germany shows up with a gunboat
1905 – Russian Revolution of 1905 – forced to create the National Assembly the DUMA
1905 – “Bloody Sunday” – peaceful petition to Tsar Nicolas II was fired upon (Russia)
1908 – Bosnian Crisis and the Young Turks – Austria-Hungary declares annexation of Bosnia and
1908 – Herzegovina from Ottoman Empire
1910s 1911 – Parliament Act – took away power from the House of Lords (upper chamber of
1911 – Parliament) (Great Britain)
1912 – First Balkan War (Balkans)
1913 – Second Balkan War (Balkans)
1914 – Blank Check – Germany issues a blank check to Austria-Hungary to guarantee support
1914 – the July Crisis – June 28 – Assassination of Archduke Ranz
1914 – the July Crisis – July 28 – Austria-Hungary declared war against Serbia
1914 – the July Crisis – July 30 – Russian mobilization
1914 – the July Crisis – July 31 – French, Austrian and German mobilization
1914 – the July Crisis – August 1 – Germany declared war on Russia
1914 – the July Crisis – August 3 – Germany declares war on France
1914 – the July Crisis – August 4 – German invasion of (neutral) Belgium; Britian declares war on
1914 – the July Crisis – Germany
1915 – First use of poison gas at the Battle of Ypres
1917 – March (or February) Russian Revolution
1917 – April of 1917 – Lenin gives his “Peace Breed Land” Speech (part of the April thesis)
1917 – (Russia)
1917 – November (or October) Revolution – aka the Bolshevik Revolution – a coup (Russia)
1917 – Provisional Government established in Petrograd – socialist government (Russia)
1917 – Balfour Declaration – promised land to Jews and Palestinians (Great Britain)
1917 – Zionist Movement (Great Britain)
1918 – November 11, 1918 at 11am – Armistice
1918 – March 3, 1918 – Treaty of Brest-Litovsk – ended Russian participation in WWI
1918 – War Communism – economic policy of Lenin (Russia)
1919 – The Paris Peace Conference – The Big Four – the Treaty of Versailles
1919 – Nazi party founded (Germany)
1919 – Fasci di Combattimento –black shirts – recently unemployed men – led by Mussolini
1919 – (Italy)
1919 – The Weimar Republic established (Germany)
1919 – Comitern (third international) established (Russia)
1920s 1922 – March on Rome – the black shirts
1923 – (November) – Beer Hall Putsch – attempted military coup (Germany)
1924 – Dawes Plan – reduce German reparations (US)
1924 – Stephan Karpov – “Friendship of the People” – “real” exhibition (USSR)
1928 – The Great Depression – “best thing to happen to the Nazis”
1928 –5 year plan (1928-1933, 1933-1938, ect.) & collectivization – Stalin (Russia)
1929 – October 29, 1929 – Stock Market crashed (US)
1930s 1933 – Germany left the League of Nations
1933 – January 31, 1933 – Hitler Sworn in as Chancellor (Germany)
1933 – (February) Reichstag Fire – way to get rid of communists and turn public in favor of
1933 – Nazis (Germany)
1933 – (February) Article 48 – gave Hindenburg the power to give Hitler power (Germany)
1933 – (March) – Enabling Act – Hitler’s power now superseded the Weimar Republic
1934 – the Popular Front in France (until 1948)
1934 – Night of the Long Knives – Blood Purge – military swear personal oath to Hitler
1934 – (Germany)
1934 – Hindenburg dies; Hitler becomes Der Fuhrer (Germany)
1936 – Germany reoccupies and remilitarizes the Rhineland
1936 – (1936-1938) – Cometime – Great Terror
1936 – (1936-1969) – Spanish Civil War
1936 – The Berlin Olympics
1936 – (1936-1938) – Stalin – Great Purges (Russia)
1938 – Anschluss with Austria – partition of the Sudetenland – appeasement
1938 – November 9 and 10, 1939 – Kristallnacht – “Knight of Broken Glass” (Germany)
1939 – Germany occupied Prague; Britain guaranteed Polish independence
1939 – Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact (Non-Aggression Pact – b/w Germany and USSR
1939 – September 1, 1939 – Germany invaded Poland and WWII began
1940s 1940 – Battle of Dunkirk (Great Britain, France and USSR)
1940 – Battle for Britain – the Blitz (Great Britain and USSR)
1941 – Operation Barbarossa (USSR and Russia)
1941 – Communist Revolt in Vichy, France led by Ho Chi Minh (France)
1942 – Second Battle of El Alamein – North African dessert (Great Britain)
1943 – Stalin dissolves the Comitern (Russia)
1944 – Operation Overlord – D-Day – invasion of Normandy (USA)
1944 – (1944-1945) – Battle of the Bulge (USA and USSR)
1945 – February – Yalta Conference – Big Three: Stalin, Churchill and FDR
1945 – July – Potsdam Conference – new Big Three: Stalin, Atlee and Truman
1945 – France is the last remaining Fascist (Spain)
1945 – (1945-1946) – Nuremburg Trials
1945 – Fall of Berlin (Germany)
1945 – Germany divided in four zones of occupation
1945 – (1945-1990) – Socialist Federation Republic of Yugoslavia – communist (Yugoslavia)
1945 – beginning of the Cold War (some will say 1948)
1946 – Churchill makes his “Iron Curtain” Speech
1947 – Truman Doctrine (USA)
1947 – Partition of Palestine and India
1948 – Yugoslavia becomes independent of the USSR (Yugoslavia)
1948 – Founding of Isreal
1949 – NATO formed
1949 – Commonwealth of Nations established – British ties with former territories (Great
1949 – Britain)
1949 – Federal Republic of Germany (West) and the German Democratic Republic (East)
1949 – (Germany)
1950s 1951 – European Coal and Steel Company (ECSC)
1953 – Stalin dies (USSR)
1953 – Malenkov replaces Stalin as Prime Minister (USSR)
1953 – USSR explodes the first Hydrogen Bomb (USSR)
1955 – Warsaw Pact
1955 – Imre Nagy forced to resign from Prime Minister position (Hungary)
1956 – Suez Crisis – didn’t get backing from US – proved that there were two world
1956 – superpowers: the US and the USSR (Great Britain, US and Egypt)
1956 – Imre Nagy, the Hungarian Revolts and the Sixteen Points
1957 – The Treaty of Rome establishes the EEC (common market)
1957 – Sputnik (USSR)
1958 – Khrushchev becomes Prime Minister (USSR)
1960s 1960 – USSR shoots down the U2 spy plane (USA and USSR)
1961 – Non-Aligned Movement – organization of developing countries – largely influence by Tito
1961 – Berlin Wall constructed (Germany)
1963 – Test Ban Treaty (USA and USSR)
1964 – Brezhnev replaces Khrushchev (USSR)
1964 – Yuri Gagann becomes the first man in space (USSR)
1968 – Dubcek and the Prague Spring – “Human face” on socialism (Czechoslovakia)
1968 – Brezhnev Doctrine – help Warsaw Pact countries threatened by capitalism (USSR)
1968 – Student Revolts of 1968 – begin in Paris – student unions that were joined by labor
1968 – unions – de Gaulle bans all student unions
1970s 1972 – SALT-1 signed – arms control agreement (USA and USSR)
1972 – beginning of Détente
1977 – Brezhnev elected President under the new constitution (USSR)
1979 – SALT-2 signed (USA and USSR)
1980s 1980 – Tito dies – the economy will slowly start to decline (Yugoslavia)
1981 – Solidarity Movement – originally a union but turns into a political party (Poland)
1983 – SDI (Strategic Defense Initiative) adopted (USA)
1985 – Gorbachev becomes General Secretary of the Communist Party
1985 – Glasnost – “openness” – personal freedoms (USSR)
1986 – Perestroika – “reconstruction” – economic reform (USSR)
1987 – INTERMEDIATE Range Nuclear Forces Treaty signed
1988 – Gorbachev becomes President (USSR)
1989 – First non-communist government formed (Poland)
1989 – November 9 – Tearing down of the Berlin Wall (Germany)
1989 – November 9 – Revolutions across Eastern Europe
1989 – November 17 – Velvet Revolutions begin (Czechoslovakia)
1989 – November 30 – all top leaders of Communist party resign
1989 – December 3 – Malta Summit – Bush and Gorbachev announce a lasting peace
1989 – December 29 – Havel becomes the first freely elected President of Czechoslovaks
1989 – December 29 – (Czechoslovakia)
1990s 1990 – Lech Walesa becomes the first freely elected President (Poland)
1990 – Yeltsin becomes President of Russia (Russia)
1990 – German Re-unification
1991 – Slovenia and Croatia secede
1991 – USSR dissolved
1991 – Yeltsin becomes the first Russia President (Russia)
1991 – Military Coup in Russia – Yeltsin opposes (Russia)
1992 – Treaty of Maastricht establishes the EU and the Euro
1992 – Slovenia and Croatia recognized as independent countries
1993 – Maastricht Treaty enters into force
1993 – Czech Republic and Slovakia exist separately
1995 – Dayton Accords – stop war/killing in Bosnia
1995 – Srebrenica Massacre of 1995
1999 – Vladimir Putin becomes President (Russia)
1999 – Second invasion of Chechnya (Russia)
2000s
2000s 2008 – Dmitry Medvedev becomes president and Putin becomes Prime Minister (Russia)
2009 – (2009-present) – economic crisis in the Eurozone – starts with PIIGS countries
2012 – Putin reelected President (Russia)
2013 – EU surpasses the US as the world’s largest economy
2014 – Russia annexes the Crimea from the Ukraine