Europe/Timelines
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The European heritage
- Ancient Greece
- The Roman Empire
- - Pax Romana[1], the first Europe-wide political system.
- Christendom
- - the Papacy: Rome's (limited) successor as a Europe-wide political influence, and
- - the monasteries: the means of preservering access to Christian teaching, and to ancient Greek and Roman culture.
- The Enlightenment
- - an intellectual movement that gave priority to the power of reason over the claims of authority (influenced by the writings of Denis Diderot, Thomas Hobbes, John Locke, Jean-Jacques Rousseau and others.)
The creation of the nation states
- 800: The creation of the Holy Roman Empire[2]
- - Germany, Austria, Bohemia, and Moravia, Switzerland, the Netherlands, sometimes northern Italy; and, (at first) France, Poland, Hungary, and Denmark..
- - the Pope confers the titie of Emperor on Charlemagne (Charles I, King of the Franks)
- 1648: Treaty of Westphalia
- - created the Wesphalian System of European sovereign states[1].
- 1713: Treaty of Utrecht
- - separates France from Spain; cedes the Spanish Netherlands to Austria; cedes Gibraltar and parts of Canada to Britain
- ~1750 The Industrial Revolution begins.
- - the transition from a predominantly agricultural to a predominately industrial economy that started in Britain with the development of the steam engine.
- 1789: French Revolution
- 1799-1815 Napoleonic Wars[3]
- 1806: Dissolution of the Holy Roman Empire and formation of the Federation of the Rhine.
- 1815: Congress of Vienna
- - redefined the territorial map of Europe following the defeat of Napoleon; including the creation of the Confederation of Germany
- 1867: Austro-Hungarian Compromise
- - united Austria with Hungary.
- 1914-18 First World War
- 1917: October Revolution
- - the seizure of power by Lenin's Bolshevics, from the provisional government that had been formed by the revolutionary uprising of of February 1917.
- 1918: The collapse of Austro-Hungary, and the proclamation of the separate republics of Austria and Hungary.
- 1919: Paris Peace Conference (1919-1920)
- - concluded the treaties of Versailles (with Germany), St Germain (with Austria), Trianon (with Hungary), Neuilly (with Bulgaria), Sèvres and Lausanne (with Turkey).
- 1929-35: Great Depression
- 1939-45 Second World War
- 1945: Partition of Germany
- 1946: Paris Peace Conference (1946-1947)
- - concluded peace treaties with Bulgaria, Finland, Hungary, Rumania and Italy.
The creation of a union of nation states
- 1949: Treaty of London - created the Council of Europe
- 1953: Convention for the Protection of Human Rights and Fundamental Freedoms
- 1954: Brussels Treaty - created the Western Union
- 1957: Treaty of Rome - created the European Common Market
- 1973: Conference on Security and Co-operation in Europe created the OSCE
- 1975: Signing of the Helsinki Final Act[4]
- 1989: Fall of the Berlin Wall
- 1990: German reunification
- 1991: Collapse of the Soviet Union
- 1992: Treaty of Maastricht - created the European Union
- 1994: Opening of the Channel tunnel
- 1997: Treaty of Amsterdam
- 2003: Treaty of Nice
- 2008-10: Great Recession
- 2009: Treaty of Lisbon
- 2010: Eurozone crisis