European History

 Rd. Adityawarman

Regional Time Setting	Incident	Description
15th-16th century	The Reformation of Cristian Church	The reformation of the Christian Church, launched in 1517 by the Augustinian friar Martin Luther (1483–1546), had profound political, social, and economic as well as religious consequences that redounded throughout the entire period. Religious beliefs became conflated with national sentiment and political ambitions, with economic goals and perceived social injustices; and religious schism, civil and international wars, and domestic revolts ensued.
	Council of Trent	Pope Paul III and Charles V Hapsburg of Austria convened a general church council at Trent that met sporadically between 1545 and 1563. The Council reasserted the supremacy of clerics over the laity. It did, however, establish seminaries in each diocese to train priests. They reformed indulgences, though the process was continued. They did, however, eliminate pluralism, nepotism, simony, and other similar problems from the church.
	Peasant and urban workers' revolts	Peasant and urban workers' revolts erupted frequently between 1550 and 1650, cresting around 1648, because of bad harvests that led to widespread starvation, extraordinary royal and seigneurial taxation, and rampant pillaging by soldiers during the Thirty Years' War.
	Galileo Galilei (1564-1642)	Galileo is generally given credit for invention of the telescope; although the device itself is not of Galileo’s design, he was the first to use it for astronomy. With this tool, he proved the Copernican Theory of the Universe. Galileo spread news of his work through letters to friends and colleagues. Although the Church forced him to recant his ideas and spend the rest of his life under house arrest, his works had already been published and could not be disregarded.
	Thomas Hobbes (1588-1679)	Dies before the enlightenment, English Revolution shapes his political outlook. Leviathan (1651) - life is ”nasty, brutish, and short” - people are naturally bad and need a strong government to control them. may be considered to be the father of the enlightenment: because of all the opposition he inspired.
	The Thirty Years’ War	The Thirty Years’ War (1618-1648) was sparked by the Defenestration of Prague1, at which Protestants threw Catholic ambassadors out of a window in the city of Prague. The Thirty Years’ War had started as a war along religious frontlines. In the end it was no more a war of religion. The Catholic French funded and traded the Protestant Dutch, Protestant Princes in the Holy Roman Empire, as well as other non-Catholic nations such as Sweden, Denmark, and Turkey, since all of these nations were fighting the Hapsburgs. France, led by Cardinal Richelieu, regent for Louis XIII, desired to reduce the power of Austria by funding Austria’s enemies. The war was essentially a fight between the two powers to determine which would become the main power in Europe.
17th-18th century	Absolutism in Europe	The era of absolutism, exemplified by the ”Sun King” Louis XIV Bourbon of France, marks the rise of rulers throughout Europe who had absolute power over their nations. Mercantilism became the primary form of economy of the day, and the issue of religion disappeared in European wars, now replaced by the issue of the balance of power.
	Scientific Revolution and Enlightenment	The Age of Science of the 1600s and the Enlightenment of the 1700s, also dubbed the Age of Enlightenment, introduced countless new concepts to European society. These ideas continue to permeate modern society. Many modern institutions have much of their foundations in the ideals of these times.
	An Era of Enlightened Rulers	A new form of government began to replace absolutism across the continent. Whilst monarchs were reluctant to give up their powers, many also recognized that their states could potentially benefit from the spread of Enlightenment ideas. The most prominent of these rulers were Frederick II the Great Hohenzollern of Prussia, Joseph II Hapsburg of Austria, and Catherine II the Great Romanov of Russia.
	Catherine the Great 1762-1796	Catherine the Great came to power because Peter III failed to bear a male heir to the throne and was killed. Her enlightened reforms include: Restrictions on torture, Religious toleration, Education for girls, 1767 Legislative Commission, which reported to her on the state of the Russian people
	Frederick II the Great 1740-1786	Frederick II Hohenzollern of Prussia declared himself ”The First Servant of the State,” believing that it was his duty to serve the state and do well for his nation. He extended education to all classes, and established a professional bureaucracy and civil servants. He created a uniform judicial system and abolished torture. During his tenure, Prussia innovated agriculture by using potatoes and turnips to replenish the soil. Also, Frederick established religious freedom in Prussia.
	Joseph II Habsburg 1765-1790	Joseph II Habsburg (also spelled as Hapsburg) of Austria could be considered perhaps the greatest enlightened ruler, and he was purely enlightened, working solely for the good of his country. He was anti-feudalism, anti-church, and anti-nobility. He created equal punishment and taxation regardless of class, complete freedom of the press, toleration of all religions, and civil rights for Jews. Under Joseph II a uniform law code was established, and in 1781 he abolished serfdom and in 1789 ordered the General School Ordinance, which required compulsory education for Austrian children
	War of Austrian Succession	The war of Austrian Succession of 1740 to 1748 pitted Austria, England, and the Dutch against Prussia, France, and Spain. Upon Maria Theresa’s acquisition of the Austrian throne, Frederick the Great of Prussia attacked Silesia, and war broke out. In 1748 peace came at the Treaty of Aix la Chapelle. The treaty preserved the balance of power and the status quo ante bellum . Austria survived but lost Silesia, which began ”German Dualism” or the fight between Prussia and Austria over who would dominate and eventually unite Germany.
	The Seven Years War	The peace in 1748 was recognized as temporary by all, and in 1756 Austria and France allied in what was known as the Diplomatic Revolution. The reversal of the traditional France versus Austria situation occurred as a result of both nation’s fear of a rising, militant Prussia. To consummate the marriage, Louis XVI married Marie Antionette. The Seven Years War engaged Austria, France, Russia, Spain, Sweden, and Saxony against Prussia and England. The purpose of the war was to annihilate Prussia, and took place at a number of fronts: in Europe, in America (where American citizens know it as the French and Indian War) and in India. At the Peace of Paris in 1763, the war concluded, and Prussia retained all of its territory, including Silesia. France ceded Canada to Britain and the North American interior to Spain, and removed its armies from India. It did, however, get to keep its West Indies colonies. At this point, Great Britain became the supreme naval power and it began its domination of India.
	Isaac Newton (1642-1727)	Newton is often considered the greatest scientific mind in history. His Principia Mathematica (1687) includes Newton’s Law of Gravity, an incredibly ground-breaking study. Newton’s work destroyed the old notion of an Earth-centred universe. Newton also had a great influence outside of science. For example, he was to become the hero of Thomas Jefferson.
	John Locke (1632-1704)	Specifically refuted Hobbes,  humanity is only governed by laws of nature, man has right to life, liberty, and property. there is a natural social contract that binds the people and their government together; the people have a responsibility to their government, and their government likewise has a responsibility to its people. Two Treatises on Civil Government justified supremacy of Parliament.
The French Revolution	The French Revolution of 1789 is one of the most important events in both French and European history. It marks the rise of the 3rd class after centuries of paying high tax to the King. The revolution centred around (at its peak) the weak King Louis XVI and the immature Queen Marie Antoinette , as the public saw them, and their lavish lifestyle hidden away at Versailles. The people of France at the time of 1789 were being influenced by the media, which did not help the situation.
Storming of the Bastille	On July 14, 1789, the revolting Paris mob stormed the Bastille. While only seven prisoners were housed behind its walls, none of whom could be considered political in any way, this event was essential because it symbolized that the people were no longer standing for the power of the nobles and the king, or the rising of the people against the tyranny of absolutism. The fall of the Bastille was also the first time, but certainly not the last, during the Revolution that popular mobs would rise up and take action outside of the legislature. These later risings, known in French as journees, would prove to be both extremely influential on public opinion and a cause for major hand-wringing on the part of the legislature, who did not want to risk a massive popular revolution as opposed to the controlled ”bourgeois” revolution.
Napoleon Bonaparte and the Rise of Nationalism	Napoleon declared himself French Emperor and became a military dictator. Napoleon was undefeated against his three main continental enemies, defeating Austria, Russia, and Prussia multiple times. During his tenure, he took control of large amounts of mainland Europe. However, Napoleon failed to subdue England, and was defeated in his attempt to crush the English Navy at the Battle of Trafalgar by Admiral Nelson. As a result, Napoleon employed the Continental System, a method of economic warfare. He prohibited trade with the British by blockading all coasts of Europe from English export. Unfortunately for Napoleon, this failed, as the British still were able to smuggle goods into Europe, and were also able to trade with their colonies, Asia, and the United States. Napoleon eliminated the Holy Roman Empire, and in 1806 consolidated it into 40 states and named it the Confederation of the Rhine
The Congress of Vienna 1814-1815	The Quadruple Alliance assembled at the Congress of Vienna to create a post-Napoleonic Europe. Their representatives were Castlereagh of England, who assembled the Quadruple Alliance, Talleyrand of France, Metternich of Austria, and Alexander I of Russia. The Congress of Vienna was incredibly lenient toward France. It simply restored the old boundaries and restored Louis XVIII to the throne. It imposed no reparations. This was done because the allies desired a stable, prosperous France that would not threaten them with revolution or invasion.
Industrial Revolution	The shift that precipitated many of the conflicts of the early nineteenth century was the industrial revolution. The growing industrial base of many European countries was to encourage urbanization, often at the expense of the living conditions of the workers. This was coupled with new agrarian technologies which required fewer people to work the land, whilst producing greater agricultural yields. In some countries this precipitated an industrial revolution, where urban industry played an increasingly dominant role in the economy. This process was first seen in Britain, Prussia and the Netherlands in the late eighteenth and early nineteenth century whilst other countries, such as France, Italy and the United States of America were to industrialize in the late nineteenth century. Some states, such as Russia and Austria, failed to industrialize significantly in this period, a factor that would lead to later difficulties during the First World War.
Karl Marx (1818-1883)	Probably the most important socialist thinker of the nineteenth century was the German writer Karl Marx. Marx’s rise to prominence began in the Year of Revolutions, 1848, with the publication of The Communist Manifesto , a volume which he wrote with the help of Frederick Engels. The book was an attempt to create political tension between economic classes around the world. He also wrote Das Kapital , a critique of capitalism that argues as to why Marx believed capitalism should fail. He sought to incite the violent revolution of the proletariat against the bourgeois. The proletariat described the working class, while the bourgeois described the middle and upper classes that owned the means of production. This revolution would be caused by what Marx described as a historic class struggle between these two groups. After this revolution, Marx argued for the formation of a classless society, in which no private property, religion, or government existed.
19th-20th century	European Imperialism and Nationalism	The period between 1870 and 1914 saw a Europe that was considerably more stable than that of previous decades. To a large extent this was the product of the formation of new states in Germany and Italy, and political reformations in older, established states, such as Britain and Austria. This internal stability, along with the technological advances of the industrial revolution, meant that European states were increasingly able and willing to pursue political power abroad. Imperialism was not, of course, a concept novel to the nineteenth century. A number of European states, most notably Spain, Portugal and the Netherlands, had carved out large overseas empires in the age of exploration.
	Russo-Japanese War 1904–1905	In 1860, the Russians founded the city of Vladivostok on the Pacific Ocean, and began work on the Trans-Siberian Railroad to connect the East to the West. The Russo-Japanese war was caused by the imperialist ambitions of Russia and Japan in Manchuria and Korea. In a number of key battles, the war resulted in a surprise victory for Japan in a peace agreement brokered by U.S. President Theodore Roosevelt in 1905.
	The Revolution of 1905	Under Czar Nicholas II, who ruled from 1896 to 1917, the people believed that ”papa czar” could hear their grievances and he would fix them. However, the people soon learned that the czar could not be trusted. On what has become known as ”Bloody Sunday,” June 22, 1905, a peaceful march of thousands of St. Petersburg workers to the Winter Palace by Father Gapon took place.  As a result of Bloody Sunday, riots erupted throughout the country during 1905. Soviets formed the councils of workers in St. Petersburg and Moscow. Demands for representation increased, and the moral bond between the people and the czar was broken.
	Darwin’s Theory of Evolution	Darwin’s theory led to the rise of the concept of social Darwinism,  or ”survival of the fittest.” The theory was fathered by Herbert Spencer. Social Darwinism espoused the idea that consensual economic interaction and property rights enabled societies to progress by allowing productive members of society to flourish and unproductive members to be punished by poverty. Accordingly, the theory of social Darwinism had a large impact on classical liberal and libertarian theory.
	World War I	On June 28, 1914, Archduke Franz Ferdinand, heir to the Austria-Hungary throne, was assassinated in Sarajevo. As a result, Austria declared war on Serbia. Germany declared war on both Russia and France. On August 4, Germany invaded neutral Belgium before the French. This precipitated in Great Britain’s declaration of war on Germany.
	The Russian Revolution	The Russian Revolution marked the first outbreak of communism in Europe. Contrary to popular belief, however, there were in fact two specific and unique revolutions that took place during 1917 - a true Marxist revolution as well as a revolution led by Lenin that was not a true Marxist revolution.
	The Treaty of Versailles of 1919	At the Peace of Paris or Treaty of Versailles, the ”Big Four” convened to discuss what the result of the end of the war should be. The big four consisted of the United States, represented by President Woodrow Wilson; Britain, represented by Prime Minister LloydGeorge; France, represented by Clemenceau, who wanted most of all to get revenge against Germany; and Orlando of Italy. Germany and Russia were not invited, as Germany was defeated, and Russia had made a separate peace with Germany in 1917, and was feared because of the rise of the revolutionary Bolsheviks there.
	The Spanish Civil War 1936-1939	In 1923, a coup led by General Miguel Primo de Rivera formed a new government in alliance with King Alfonso XIII Bourbon. In 1930, opposition to Primo de Rivera’s right wing government led to his resignation. In July of 1936, rebellion broke out among a big part of army units. It was supported by conservative forces of all kinds of social background and the fighting began. The nation broke into two factions. The Republicans, or ”Loyalists,” consisted of communists, socialists, anarchists, and liberals, and received some international support as well as big military and financial aid from Stalin. The ”Nationalists” consisted of monarchists, angered Catholic believers, landowners, the army, members of the ”Falange” party, traditionalists and received a great deal of direct aid from Italy and Germany.
	World War II	After the invasion of Poland on September 1st 1939, between the fall of 1939 and the spring of 1940 the Allies did not directly attack Germany in the west, but rather they engaged in harassing operations which had become known as the ”phony war.” This allowed Germany to finish the mobilization of its forces. In April of 1940, Germany invaded Denmark and Norway. The next month Belgium, the Netherlands, and France were attacked. Within six weeks, France had surrendered. Up to On June 6, 1944, Allied forces landed on the beaches of Normandy on what has become known as D-Day. The offensive was successful for the Allies, and the Allies suffered far fewer casualties than expected. This marked the beginning of the end of the war. In December 1944, the Battle of the Bulge, the German’s last major offensive in Western Europe, took place in Belgium. The result of this battle was a victory for the Allies and the crushing of much of the remainder of Germany’s forces. On May 8, 1945, Victory in Europe Day occurred as the Russians took Berlin.
The Yalta Conference	The Yalta Conference began on February 11, 1945. In attendance were U.S. President Franklin D. Roosevelt, British Prime Minister Winston Churchill, and the Soviet leader Joseph Stalin. Yalta resulted in a number of essential provisions.The Yalta Conference began on February 11, 1945. In attendance were U.S. President Franklin D. Roosevelt, British Prime Minister Winston Churchill, and the Soviet leader Joseph Stalin. Yalta resulted in a number of essential provisions. Yalta called for a four part dismemberment of Germany, with a portion going to each the United Kingdom, France, the United States, and Russia. This was based upon the fact that while Germany was not unified it did not present nearly the threat that it did as a unified nation.
The Potsdam Conference	The Potsdam Conference took place from July to August of 1945. In attendance were President Harry S. Truman, replacing President Roosevelt as a result of Roosevelt’s death, British Prime Minister Attlee of the Labour party, who represented Britain after Churchill’s Conservative Party’s defeat in Britain, and Joseph Stalin. The Conference provided for German disarmament, demilitarization, and denazification. Poland was shifted to the west to reward the Soviet Union and to punish Germany, and as a result there was a massive post-war migration. Finally, Japan was threatened with destruction by a ”powerful new weapon” which turned out to be the atomic bomb.
Europe 1945-Present	As Europe enters a new era, with two world wars still residing in the collective memory, peace and prosperity seems likely to continue. The Soviet Union dissolved in 1991, resulting in a europe whose countries and borders have returned to their pre-WW2 state. Its nations, however, are faced with ageing populations and falling birthrates, making it increasingly challenging to sustain expensive programs of social services. As the twenty-first century began, the continent is redefining itself with multiculturalism, a strengthening of europe’s common economic policies and the formation of a European parliament. The Europe of Nations, whose nationalistic sentiments led to two world wars during the last century, is viewing the federalism of the USA as a possible solution to forging a United Europe.
The European Union	The Franco-Prussian War, World War I, and World War II have left an indelible mark on modern Europe. The ferocity and destruction of these wars has led to a concerted effort by european leaders to secure a lasting peace in Europe. At a political level it was agreed that the best method would be to unite the nations economically and politically. Thus began the European Union (EU)