World History: Europe

Great epidemic of plague, mainly the bubonic variant, that ravaged Europe in the mid-14th century. Contemporary estimates that it killed between one-third and half of the population (about 75 million people) are probably accurate.

Series of wars undertaken by European Christians between the 11th and 14th cent. to recover the Holy Land from the Muslims.

Tribunal of the Roman Catholic Church established for the investigation of heresy.

Period in European cultural history that began in Italy around 1400 and lasted there until the end of the 1500s. Elsewhere in Europe it began later, and lasted until the 1600s.

The Enlightenment, a philosophical movement in eighteenth-century Europe, rejected traditional social, religious, and political ideas and adopted rational thinking as a way to develop new theories accounting for human behavior and feelings. These new explanations were then applied to the social and political spheres, changing the way people viewed and thought about government, and directly influencing the development of the modern world.

Extension of political and economic control over an area by a state whose nationals have occupied the area and usually possess organizational or technological superiority over the native population.

Scheme of action adopted by Napoleon I in his economic warfare with England from 1806 to 1812.

Political or social philosophy in which the welfare of the nation-state as an entity is considered paramount.

From Encyclopedia of Human Geography
The development of supranational political entities such as the European Union, as well as the diffusion of common cultural practices by the processes of globalization, offers substance to the argument that identity is being negotiated at a higher geographic scale, and in a less territorialized form, than the nation-state.

Diet or national assembly in which the chief estates (see estate) of a nation—usually clergy, nobles, and towns (or commons)—were represented as separate bodies.

In politics, the theory that the best way of ensuring international order is to have power so distributed among states that no single state is able to achieve a dominant position.

Acceleration of technical and economic development that took place in Britain and the United States in the second half of the 18th century.

Use of the young as workers in factories, farms, and mines. Child labor was first recognized as a social problem with the introduction of the factory system in late 18th-century Great Britain.

Period in English history following the defeat (1066) of King Harold of England by William, duke of Normandy, who became William I of England. The conquest was formerly thought to have brought about broad changes in all phases of English life. More recently historians have stressed the continuity of English law, institutions, and customs, but the subject remains one of controversy.

Or Magna Charta [Lat., = great charter], the most famous document of British constitutional history, issued by King John at Runnymede. In later centuries the Magna Carta became a symbol of the supremacy of the constitution over the king, as opponents of arbitrary royal power extracted from it various "democratic" interpretations.

1337–1453, conflict between England and France. Its basic cause was a dynastic quarrel that originated when the conquest of England by William of Normandy created the state of Guienne, lying on both sides of the English Channel.

English poet, noted for his narrative skill, humour, and insight, particularly in his most famous work, The Canterbury Tales. Chaucer made a crucial contribution to English literature in using English at a time when much court poetry was still written in Anglo-Norman or Latin. His confidence in the English language encouraged his followers and imitators also to write in English and speeded the transition from French as the language of literature.

From The Columbia Encyclopedia
Traditional name given to the intermittent struggle (1455–85) for the throne of England between the noble houses of York (whose badge was a white rose) and Lancaster (later associated with the red rose).

Religious and political movement in 16th-century Europe to reform the Roman Catholic Church, which led to the establishment of the Protestant churches.

English dramatist and poet, b. Stratford-on-Avon. He is widely considered the greatest playwright who ever lived.

Fleet sent by Philip II of Spain against England in 1588. Consisting of 130 ships, it sailed from Lisbon and carried on a running.

From The Columbia Encyclopedia
Conspiracy to blow up the English Parliament and King James I on Nov. 5, 1605, the day set for the king to open Parliament.

1642–48, The conflict between King Charles I of England and a large body of his subjects, generally called the "parliamentarians".

From Brewer's Britain and Ireland
(2 July 1644). One of the most decisive engagements in the Civil Wars, in which the Royalists under Prince Rupert and the Earl of Newcastle were defeated by the Parliamentarians under the Earl of Manchester and Lord Fairfax and their Scots allies under Lord Leven.

In English history, the events of 1688–89 that resulted in the deposition of James II and the accession of William III and Mary II to the English throne. It is also called the Bloodless Revolution.

From The Columbia Encyclopedia
1600–1874, company chartered by Queen Elizabeth I for trade with Asia. The original object of the group of merchants involved was to break the Dutch monopoly of the spice trade with the East Indies.

From The Reader's Companion to Military History
The first Anglo-Dutch conflict originated when the aggressive new Republican regime in Britain, following victory in the English Civil Wars, began to stop and search any merchant ship, even if neutral, and to confiscate any Royalist goods found aboard.

Empire covering, at its height in the 1920s, about a sixth of the landmass of the Earth, all of its lands recognizing the United Kingdom (UK) as their leader.

Struggle by which the Thirteen Colonies on the Atlantic seaboard of North America won independence from Great Britain and became the United States.

British navigator and explorer who commanded three major voyages of discovery, charting and naming many islands of the Pacific Ocean.

British admiral. The most famous of Britain's naval heroes, he is commemorated by the celebrated Nelson Column in Trafalgar Square, London.

A war between Great Britain and the U.S., fought chiefly along the Canadian border (1812-14).

From Dictionary of British History
(21 Oct 1805) A naval battle of the Napoleonic War, a major British victory. During the course of the fighting, 17 French and Spanish ships were captured and one sunk, and some 7000 casualties inflicted, without the loss of a single British vessel.

British naturalist who revolutionized the study of biology with his theory of evolution based on natural selection.

English author, born in Portsmouth, one of the world's most popular, prolific, and skilled novelists. His most famous works include A Christmas Carol, Great Expectations, Oliver Twist, David Copperfield, A Tale of Two Cities and Hard Times.

Or Reform Bills, in British history, name given to three major measures that liberalized representation in Parliament in the 19th century.

From The Columbia Encyclopedia
king of England (978–1016), called Æthelred the Unready. He was the son of Edgar and the half brother of Edward the Martyr, whom he succeeded.

From The Hutchinson Unabridged Encyclopedia
King of England from 25 December 1066. He was the illegitimate son of Duke Robert the Devil whom he succeeded as Duke of Normandy in 1035.

King of England (1272-1307); son of Henry III. He conquered Wales (1284) but failed to subdue Scotland.

King of England (1307-27); son of Edward I. He invaded Scotland but was defeated by Robert Bruce at Bannockburn (1314). He was deposed by his wife Isabella and Roger Mortimer; died in prison.

Eldest son of Edward III of England. He was created duke of Cornwall in 1337, the first duke to be created in England, and prince of Wales in 1343. It was apparently the French who called him the Black Prince, perhaps because he wore black armor; the name was not recorded in England until the 16th century.

King of England (1461-70; 1471-83); son of Richard, duke of York. He defeated Henry VI in the Wars of the Roses and became king (1461).

1491–1547, king of England (1509–47), second son and successor of Henry VII.

Second queen consort of Henry VIII and mother of Elizabeth I. She was the daughter of Sir Thomas Boleyn, later earl of Wiltshire.

King of England (1547–53), son of Henry VIII and Jane Seymour. Edward succeeded his father to the throne at the age of nine.

Queen of England (1558-1603); daughter of Henry VIII and Anne Boleyn. Endowed with immense personal courage and a keen awareness of her responsibility as a ruler, she commanded throughout her reign the unwavering respect and allegiance of her subjects.

From Chamber's Biographical Dictionary
Mary was the daughter of James V of Scotland by his second wife, Mary of Guise. She was born at Linlithgow, while her father lay on his deathbed at Falkland. She became queen when she was a week old.

Charles was born in Dunfermline, the son of James VI of Scotland (later James I of England) and Anne of Denmark. He suffered from childhood frailty, which meant he had to crawl on his hands and knees until the age of seven, but overcame this to become a skilled tilter and marksman.

King of England, Scotland, and Ireland (1685-88). Second surviving son of Charles I and Henrietta Maria, he was created duke of York in 1634.

From Dictionary of British History
King of England, Scotland, and Ireland (1660-85). After the execution of his father Charles I in 1649 he was crowned at Scone by the Scots.

Claimant to the British throne, son of James II and Mary of Modena; called the Old Pretender. His birth, falsely rumored by Whigs at the time to be supposititious (i.e., of other parents than professed), helped to precipitate the Glorious Revolution of 1688.

From The Routledge Companion to British History
Was the second daughter of James D. of York (later James II) and Anne Hyde, who died in 1671.

From The Columbia Encyclopedia: Queen of Great Britain and Ireland (1837–1901) and empress of India (1876–1901).

Located in the center of Europe, it borders the Netherlands, Belgium, Luxembourg, and France on the west; Switzerland and Austria on the south; the Czech Republic and Poland on the east; Denmark on the north; and the Baltic Sea on the northeast.

Martin Luther, the sixteenth-century leader of the Protestant Reformation, was a German monk who began to preach against the Catholic Church’s doctrines and practices, especially the legitimacy of indulgences, the Mass as a representation of Christ’s sacrifice, and vows of celibacy required for priests. Martin Luther initiated a movement of criticism that extended beyond the scope of his own reform efforts, especially during the Enlightenment.

King of Prussia (1797-1840).

The union of German states from 1815-66, provided for at the Congress of Vienna to replace the old Holy Roman Empire, which had been destroyed during the French Revolutionary and Napoleonic Wars.

German statesman, known as the Iron Chancellor. Born of an old Brandenburg Junker family, he studied at Göttingen and Berlin, and after holding minor judicial and administrative offices he was elected (1847) to the Prussian Landtag [parliament].

The conflict between the German government under Otto von Bismarck and the Roman Catholic Church.

The chief member of the German Empire (1871-1918) and a state of the Weimar Republic (1919-33), Prussia occupied more than half of all Germany and the major part of N Germany.

From 1870-71, a conflict between France and Prussia that signaled the rise of German military power and imperialism. It was provoked by Otto von Bismarck (the Prussian chancellor) as part of his plan to create a unified German Empire.

Catherine II or Catherine the Great, 1729-96, czarina of Russia (1762-96).

Ivan the Terrible, 1530-84, grand duke of Moscow (1533-84), the first Russian ruler to assume formally the title of czar.

Agreement among the emperors of Russia and Austria and the king of Prussia, signed on Sept. 26, 1815. Specifically, it accomplished nothing, since it was merely a vague agreement that the sovereigns would conduct themselves in consonance with Christian principles.

The problem of European territory controlled by the decaying Ottoman Empire in the 18th, 19th, and early 20th cent.

General European conflict, fought in N and E Europe at the same time that the War of the Spanish Succession was fought in the west and the south. It arose chiefly from the desire of the neighbors of Sweden to break Swedish supremacy in the Baltic area, and from the conflicting ambitions of Peter I of Russia and Charles XII of Sweden.

From 1853-56, a war between Russia on the one hand and the Ottoman Empire, Great Britain, France, and Sardinia on the other.

From The Columbia Encyclopedia:
Last Czar of Russia (1894-1917).

two short wars occurring between 1912 and 1913, fought for the possession of the European territories of the Ottoman Empire.

From The Columbia Encyclopedia:
1904-5, imperialistic conflict that grew out of the rival designs of Russia and Japan on Manchuria and Korea.

The Russian Revolution of 1917 was an event of enormous significance in twentieth-century world history. It marked the end of the distinctive society of czarist Russia, the world’s largest country at the time, and the beginning of the first large-scale effort to construct a modern socialist society.

Russian novelist. Remarkable for their profound psychological insight, Dostoevsky's novels have greatly influenced Russian writers, and since the beginning of the 20th century have been increasingly influential abroad.

1872-1916, Russian "holy man," a notorious figure at the court of Czar Nicholas II.

Count Leo Nikolayevich Tolstoy (1828–1910) moved from being a novelist with social concerns to being a Christian ANARCHIST who wrote polemics.

Russian composer, pianist, and conductor.

Russian composer.

A towering figure in Russian music and one of the most popular composers in history.

As increasingly urban, educated, and secular populations became dissatisfied with medieval values—first (circa 1350) in the Italian republics and principalities and then later north of the Alps—they sought to recover the knowledge and wisdom of the ancient world. A new and remarkable self-confidence in human agency resulted, and it sparked an intellectual, cultural, and artistic revolution known as the Renaissance.

Donato di Niccolò di Betto Bardi was the greatest sculptor of the early Renaissance in Italy and one of the most versatile of all time, unmatched in his technical and expressive range.

Galileo’s fame rests partly on the discoveries he made with the telescope, an instrument which he did not invent but was certainly the first to exploit successfully. His discovery of heavenly bodies that were so demonstrably not circling Earth, together with his open public support for the Copernican heliocentric cosmology, was to bring him into conflict with the Church.

The mass of notes and drawings in which da Vinci recorded his ideas and experiments are not just revealing of the workings of his own mind, but vital for any understanding of the meaning of the Renaissance.

Michelangelo di Lodovico Buonarroti Simoni is universally recognized as one of the greatest artists in history, perhaps the greatest. He excelled as a sculptor, painter, architect, and poet of the Italian High Renaissance. During his long life, Michelangelo created some of the world's most recognizable works of art.

French Actor and Dramatist of the Renaissance era.

Major artist and painter of the Renaissance era.

Term applied to the mainstream of thought of 18th-century Europe and America. The scientific and intellectual developments of the 17th century.

In philosophy, a theory that holds that reason alone, unaided by experience, can arrive at basic truth regarding the world.

Modern epistemology is the theory of how knowledge is possible, and is especially important in the history of science, where different paradigms of knowledge (Kuhn 1970) correspond to different scientific epoques: the age of Newton, the age of Einstein and quantum mechanics.

The work of the French Encyclopedists, or philosophes.

An epistemologist and political philosopher.

French philosopher and writer who won early fame as a playwright and poet and later was an influential popularizer of Newtonian natural philosophy.

Viscount St. Albans, politician, author, and natural historian.

With enough modest inherited wealth to live as he chose, he spent his life in travel, on his work in philosophy, mathematics, physics and physiology and as a soldier serving in Holland, Bohemia and Hungary.

English physicist and mathematician who is regarded as one of the greatest scientists ever to have lived.

Country in southern Europe, bounded north by Switzerland and Austria, east by Slovenia, Croatia, and the Adriatic Sea, south by the Ionian and Mediterranean seas, and west by the Tyrrhenian and Ligurian seas and France. It includes the Mediterranean islands of Sardinia and Sicily.

The cultural, financial, and transportation center of Italy; printing and publishing; chemicals; motion-picture production; tourism; in ancient times of the Roman Empire (q.v.) and later of the Papal States.

Lo Stato della Chiesa, from 754 to 1870 an independent territory under the temporal rule of the popes, also called the States of the Church and the Pontifical States.

Independent state within the city of Rome, Italy, and the residence of the pope, who is its absolute ruler.

Niccolò Machiavelli has exerted an extraordinary influence on modern thought and practice throughout the world. His writings and career are subject to varied interpretations, but the most common have given rise to a word found in most languages, Machiavellianism, suggesting deceit, tyranny, and the dictum that the end justifies the means.

In 19th-century Italian history, period of cultural nationalism and of political activism, leading to unification of Italy.

King of Sardinia (1849-61) and first king of united Italy (1861-78).

Venice is a tourist, commercial, and industrial center, located within a lagoon in the Gulf of Venice (an arm of the Adriatic Sea).

Italian historian and statesman. His major work Storia d'Italia/History of Italy (1561) – covering events from the first French invasion to the death of Pope Clement VII (in other words 1494–1534)–represents an important advance in historical scholarship, especially in the scrupulously critical use of sources. Its psychological depth reflects his own very wide experience of Italian political life.

apital of Tuscany, northern Italy, on the River Arno. It has printing, engineering, and optical industries; many crafts, including leather, gold and silver work, and embroidery; and its art and architecture attract large numbers of tourists. Notable medieval and Renaissance citizens included the writers Dante and Boccaccio, and the artists Giotto, Leonardo da Vinci, and Michelangelo.

Italian merchant prince, first of the Medici family to rule Florence.

Italian merchant prince, called Lorenzo il Magnifico [the magnificent]. One of the towering figures of the Italian Renaissance, he was an astute politician, firm in purpose, yet pliant and tolerant; a patron of the arts, literature, and learning; and a reputable scholar and poet.

From 1494-1559, a series of regional wars brought on by the efforts of the great European powers to control the small independent states of Italy.

Officially Kingdom of Spain, constitutional monarchy (2005 est. pop. 40,341,000), 194,884 sq mi (504,750 sq km), including the Balearic and Canary islands, SW Europe. It consists of the Spanish mainland (190,190 sq mi/492,592 sq km), which occupies the major part of the Iberian Peninsula; of the Balearic Islands in the Mediterranean Sea; and of the Canary Islands in the Atlantic Ocean.

Isabella I or Isabella the Catholic, 1451-1504, Spanish queen of Castile and León (1474-1504).

Tribunal of the Roman Catholic Church established for the investigation of heresy.

The Spaniards who participated in the conquests in the Americas.

Italian by birth, hired by the Spanish in 1492 by the Catholic monarchs of Spain, Isabella and Ferdinand for a transatlantic expedition.

Spanish explorer after whom the continent of America was named.

Spanish soldier and explorer. He is believed to have sailed to the Americas with Christopher Columbus in 1493, and served in Hispaniola 1502–04. He conquered Puerto Rico in 1508, and was made governor in 1509. In 1513 he was the first European to reach Florida.

Spanish Conquistador and conqueror of Mexico.

Spanish explorer and conquistador.

Fleet sent by Philip II of Spain against England in 1588. Consisting of 130 ships, it sailed from Lisbon and carried on a running.

From 1701-14, the last of the general European wars caused by the efforts of King Louis XIV to extend French power.

From 1808-14, a war fought by France against Great Britain, Portugal, Spanish regulars, and Spanish guerrillas in the Iberian Peninsula.

The civil war in Spain from 1936 to 1939 in which insurgent nationalists, led by General Franco, succeeded in overthrowing the republican government.

Spanish general and caudillo [leader].

From The Columbia Encyclopedia
Brief conflict between Spain and the United States arising out of Spanish policies in Cuba. It was, to a large degree, brought about by the efforts of U.S. expansionists.

Holy Roman emperor (1433-37), German king (1410-37), king of Hungary (1387-1437) and of Bohemia (1419-37), elector of Brandenburg (1376-1415), son of Holy Roman Emperor Charles IV.

Holy Roman emperor (1612-19), king of Bohemia (1611-17) and of Hungary (1608-18), son of Holy Roman Emperor Maximilian II.

Austrian archduchess, queen of Bohemia and Hungary (1740-80), consort of Holy Roman Emperor Francis I and dowager empress after the accession (1765) of her son, Joseph II.

Holy Roman emperor (1765-90), king of Bohemia and Hungary (1780-90), son of Maria Theresa and Holy Roman Emperor Francis I, whom he succeeded. He was the first emperor of the house of Hapsburg-Lorraine (see Hapsburg).

Bohemia, Czech Čechy, historic region (20,368 sq mi/52,753 sq km) and former kingdom, in W and central Czech Republic. Bohemia is bounded by Austria in the southeast, by Germany in the west and northwest, by Poland in the north and northeast, and by Moravia in the east. Its natural boundaries are the Bohemian Forest, the Erzgebirge ("ore mountains") chain, the Sudetes, and the Bohemian-Moravian heights.

Country in central Europe, bounded north by the Slovak Republic, northeast by Ukraine, east by Romania, south by Serbia and Croatia, and west by Austria and Slovenia.

Republic of Austria, federal republic (2005 est. pop. 8,185,000), 32,374 sq mi (83,849 sq km), central Europe. It is bounded by Slovenia and Italy (S), Switzerland and Liechtenstein (W), Germany and the Czech Republic (N), and Slovakia and Hungary (E). Its capital and by far its largest city is Vienna.

The name given to a number of European alliances formed during the 15th Century , 16th Century , and 17th Century.

From 1618-48, a general European war fought mainly in Germany.

The war broke out when, on the strength of the pragmatic sanction of 1713, the Austrian archduchess Maria Theresa succeeded her father, Holy Roman Emperor Charles VI, as ruler of the Hapsburg lands. The elector of Bavaria, Charles Albert, advanced counterclaims to the succession while Philip V of Spain and Augustus III of Poland and Saxony advanced weak claims of their own. Frederick II of Prussia, on even less tenable grounds claimed part of the province of Silesia.

France is bordered by the English Channel (N), the Atlantic Ocean and the Bay of Biscay (W), Spain and Andorra (SW), the Mediterranean Sea (S), Switzerland and Italy (SE), and Germany, Luxembourg, and Belgium (NE).

Queen consort first of Louis VII of France and then of Henry II of England. Daughter and heiress of William X, duke of Aquitaine.

Both a historical and mythical figure, Joan of Arc (Jeanne d'Arc, also known as Jeanne la pucelle) was a peasant maid who guided the weak and contested dauphin Charles, son of Charles VI who submitted to English rule in France, into regaining the French crown and territory during the Hundred Years War between France and England (approximate dates, 1337–1457).

Originally the name for the inhabitants of walled towns in medieval France; as artisans and craftsmen, the bourgeoisie occupied a socioeconomic position between the peasants and the landlords in the countryside. The term was extended to include the middle class of France and subsequently of other nations. The word bourgeois has also long been used to imply an outlook associated with materialism, narrowness, and lack of culture.

French Protestants, followers of John Calvin. The term is derived from the German Eidgenossen, meaning sworn companions or confederates.

French novelist, poet, and dramatist.

French landscape painter; the leading exponent of impressionism. His interest in the effect of light on colour led him to paint series of pictures of the same subject at different times of day.

Charlemagne’s influence in both political and social spheres was so great that historians have nicknamed him the “father of Europe.” His use of military force and ability to improvise new systems expanded a struggling western Europe into a strong empire. Additionally, his emphasis on learning created a Carolingian Renaissance that helped form cultural identity in western Europe and laid the groundwork on which the Middle Ages flourished.

King of France (1643-1715), son and successor of King Louis XIII.

From 1678 Versailles was the principal residence of the kings of France until 1793, and the seat of government from 1682 to 1789.

Napoleon III (Louis Napoleon Bonaparte), 1808-73, emperor of the French (1852-70), son of Louis Bonaparte (see under Bonaparte, family), king of Holland.

king of the French (1830-48), known before his accession as Louis Philippe, duc d'Orléans.

French military leader and emperor.

Fiscal crises and years of feudal repression were among factors leading to a revolution in France (1789–1799) marked by the storming of the Bastille, the guillotining of Louis XVI, and the Reign of Terror. Although the revolution abolished legal privilege based on birth and guaranteed freedom of religion, its legacy is ambiguous; gains must be seen in the context of the suffering produced by denunciations, purges, executions, and war.

Patriotic political club of the French Revolution.

Wars occurring in the era of the French Revolution and the beginning of the Napoleonic era, the decade of 1792-1802. The wars began as an effort to defend the Revolution and developed into wars of conquest under the empire

Queen of France, wife of King Louis XVI and daughter of Austrian Archduchess Maria Theresa and Holy Roman Emperor Francis I.

Swiss-born French Revolutionary leader, physician, and journalist.

French statesman and one of the leading figures of the French Revolution.

Leader of the Jacobins and one of the leading figures of the French Revolution.

From 1793-94, a period of the French Revolution characterized by a wave of executions of presumed enemies of the state. Directed by the Committee of Public Safety, the Revolutionary government's Terror was essentially a war dictatorship, instituted to rule the country in a national emergency.