Medieval Technology and American History

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Medieval & Early Modern Europe Timeline

Compiled by Brigitte Weinsteiger

14^th century	1309-1377 • The Papacy is at Avignon.
	1314 • At the Battle of Bannockburn, Scotland regains independence under Robert the Bruce.
	1321 • Death of Dante.
	1325 • The Renaissance begins in Italy. • Muslim culture in Spain reaches its peak. • The small cannon is in use.
	1331 • Nicaea falls to the Ottomans.
	1337-1453 • During the Hundred Years' War, English and French kings fight for control of France.
	1340 • Edward III, King of England assumes the French crown.
	1347-1351 • At least 25 million people die in Europe's "Black Death" (bubonic plague). The Plague reaches Genoa from Crimea. • Calais is sieged and captured by Edward III.
	1353 • Boccaccio's Decameron is written.
	1354 • Turks invade Gallipoli.
	1358 • Peasants rise up in France.
	1360 • Edward III renounces the French crown.
	1361 • The second wave of the Plague.
	c1370-1444 • Life of Leonardo Bruni.
	1374 • Petrarch dies.
	1376-1382 • John Wycliffe, pre-Reformation religious reformer, and followers translate the Bible from Latin into English.
	1377-1446 • Life of Filippo Brunelleschi.
	1378-1455 • Life of Lorenzo Ghiberti.
	1378-1417 • The Great Schism has rival popes in Rome and Avignon fighting for control of the Roman Catholic Church. The papacy returns to Rome later that year from Avignon.
	1386-1466 • Life of Donatello.
	c1387 • Chaucer's Canterbury Tales is written.
	1395-1441 • Life of Jan van Eyck.
	1397 • Norway, Denmark and Sweden are united by the Union of Kalmar. • Medici bank is founded.
	1397-1475 • Life of Paolo Uccello.
15^th century	1400 • Chaucer dies.
	1404 • The University of Turin is founded.
	1406 • Florence conquers Pisa.
	1407 • Casa di San Giorgio, one of the first public banks, is founded in Genoa.
	1409 • The University of Leipzig is founded.
	1412-1431 • Life of Joan of Arc.
	1415 • Henry V defeats the French at the Battle of Agincourt. Jan Hus, Bohemian preacher and follower of Wycliffe, is burned at the stake in Constance as a heretic.
	1418-1460 • Portugal's Prince Henry the Navigator sponsors exploration of Africa's coast.
	1420 • Brunelleschi begins work on the Duomo in Florence.
	1428 • Joan of Arc leads the French against the English, is captured by the Burgundians (1430) and turned over to the English, and burned at the stake as a witch after an ecclesiastical trial (1431).
	1434 • Cosimo de Medici begins his 30-year domination of Florence.
	1435-1488 • Life of Andrea del Verrocchio.
	1442 • Naples and Sicily come under the rule of the Spanish House of Aragon.
	c1444-1510 • Life of Sandro Botticelli.
	1444-1514 • Life of Donato Bramante.
	1447 • The Vatican Library is founded.
	c1450 • Gutenberg invents the moveable type printing press.
	1450 • Florence becomes the center of Renaissance arts and learning under the Medicis. • Francesco Sforza conquers Milan.
	1452-1519 • Life of Leonardo da Vinci.
	1453 • Constantinople falls to the Turks, under Mehmed II, ending the Byzantine Empire and beginning the Ottoman Empire.
	1455 • The Wars of the Roses, civil wars between rival noble factions, begin in England (to 1485). • Johann Gutenberg completes first printed Bible.
	1456 • Ottoman Turks capture Athens.
	1462 • The Platonic Academy is founded. Ivan the Great rules Russia until 1505 as the first czar and ends payment of tribute to the Mongols.
	1463 • Venice begins a 16-year war with the Turks.
	1469-1522 • Life of Nicolo Machiavelli.
	1471 • The University of Genoa is founded.
	1473-1543 • Life of Nicolaus Copernicus.
	1475-1564 • Life of Michelangelo Buonarroti.
	1478 • Pope Sixtus IV authorizes the Spanish Inquisition.
	1479 • Venice is defeated by the Turks.
	1483-1520 • Life of Raphael.
	c1488-1576 • Life of Titian.
	1492 • The troops of Ferdinand and Isabella conquer the Moors in Spain. • Columbus becomes the first European to encounter the Caribbean islands, and returns to Spain (1493). • His second voyage is to Dominica, Jamaica, Puerto Rico (1493-1496). • His third voyage is to Orinoco (1498). • His fourth voyage is to Honduras and Panama (1502-1504).
	1494 • Charles VIII invades Italy; Medici is driven from Florence.
	1494-1534 • Life of Corregio.
	1497 • Vasco da Gama sails around Africa and discovers a sea route to India (1498). • He establishes a Portuguese colony in India (1502). • John Cabot, employed by England, reaches and explores the Canadian coast. • Michelangelo sculpts the Bacchus.
16^th century	1503-1566 • Life of Nostradamus.
	c1503 • Leonardo da Vinci paints the Mona Lisa.
	1504 • Spain conquers the Kingdom of Naples. Michelangelo sculpts the David.
	1506-1626 • St. Peter's Church in Rome is constructed, designed and decorated by such artists and architects as Bramante, Michelangelo, da Vinci, Raphael, and Bernini.
	1509 • Michelangelo paints the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel. • Erasmus" Praise of Folly is written.
	1512 • Medici power is restored in Florence.
	1513 • Balboa becomes the first European to encounter the Pacific Ocean. • Machiavelli writes The Prince.
	1515 • Sir Thomas More writes Utopia.
	1517 • Martin Luther posts his 95 theses denouncing church abuses in Wittenberg, starting the Reformation in Germany.
	1519 • Ulrich Zwingli begins the Reformation in Switzerland. • Hernando Cortes conquers Mexico for Spain. • Charles I of Spain is chosen as Holy Roman Emperor. • Portuguese explorer Ferdinand Magellan sets out to circumnavigate the globe.
	1520 • Luther is excommunicated by Pope Leo X. Suleiman I ("the Magnificent") becomes Sultan of Turkey, invades Hungary (1521), Rhodes (1522), attacks Austria (1529), annexes Hungary (1541), Tripoli (1551), makes peace with Persia (1553), destroys Spanish fleet (1560), dies (1566). Magellan reaches the Pacific and is killed by Philippine natives (1521). One of his ships under Juan Sebastián del Cano continues around the world and reaches Spain (1522).
	1522 • Magellan's ship returns from circumnavigation of the globe.
	1527 • Troops of the Holy Roman Empire attack Rome, imprison Pope Clement VII, ending the Italian Renaissance. • Castiglione writes The Courtier. • The Medici family is expelled from Florence.
	1530 • Medici is restored.
	1532 • Machiavelli's The Prince is published posthumously.
	1535 • Reformation begins as Henry VIII makes himself head of the English Church after being excommunicated by the pope. Sir Thomas More is executed as a traitor for his refusal to acknowledge the king's religious authority.
	1536 • Henry VIII executes his second wife, Anne Boleyn. • John Calvin establishes the Reformed and Presbyterian forms of Protestantism in Switzerland and writes his Institutes of the Christian Religion. • Danish and Norwegian Reformations take place. • Michelangelo completes his Last Judgment. • Guicciardini writes The History of Italy.
	1541 • John Knox leads the Reformation in Scotland and establishes the Presbyterian church there (1560).
	1543 • On the Revolution of Heavenly Bodies by Polish scholar Nicolaus Copernicus is published, giving his theory that the earth revolves around the sun. • Vesalius writes The Fabric of the Human Body.
	1545 • The Council of Trent meets intermittently until 1563 to define Catholic dogma and doctrine and reiterate papal authority.
	1547 • Ivan IV ("the Terrible") is crowned as czar of Russia, begins the conquest of Astrakhan and Kazan (1552), battles nobles (boyars) for power (1564), kills his son (1580), dies, and is succeeded by his son, Fyodor I.
	1553 • Roman Catholicism is restored in England by Queen Mary I.
	1548 • The University of Messina is founded.
	1556 • Akbar the Great becomes Mogul emperor of India, conquers Afghanistan (1581), and continues wars of conquest (until 1605).
	1558 • Queen Elizabeth I restores Protestantism and establishes the state Church of England (Anglicanism). • The Renaissance will reach its height in England: Shakespeare, Marlowe, Spenser.
	1561 • The Edict of Orleans attempts to end persecution of the Huguenots in France. French religious wars begin again with the massacre of Huguenots at Vassy. At the St. Bartholomew's Day Massacre, thousands of Huguenots are murdered (1572). Amnesty is granted (1573). Persecution continues periodically until the Edict of Nantes (1598) gives Huguenots religious freedom (until 1685).
	1568 • Protestant Netherlands revolts against Catholic Spain; independence will be acknowledged by Spain in 1648.
	1570 • Queen Elizabeth I is excommunicated by the pope. • Turks attack Cyprus and war on Venice. The Turkish fleet is defeated at the Battle of Lepanto by Spanish and Italian fleets (1571). Peace of Constantinople (1572) ends Turkish attacks on Europe.
	1580 • Francis Drake returns to England after circumnavigating the globe and is knighted by Queen Elizabeth I (1581). • Montaigne's Essays are published.
	1582 • Pope Gregory XIII implements the Gregorian calendar.
	1583 • William of Orange rules the Netherlands; he is assassinated on orders of Philip II of Spain (1584).
	1587 • Mary, Queen of Scots, is executed for treason by order of Queen Elizabeth I. • Monteverdi composes the First Book of Madrigals.
	1588 • The Spanish Armada is defeated by the English. • Henry, King of Navarre and Protestant leader, is recognized as Henry IV, first Bourbon king of France. He converts to Roman Catholicism in 1593 in attempt to end religious wars.
	1590 • Henry IV enters Paris, wars on Spain (1595), marries Marie de Medici (1600), and is assassinated (1610). • Spenser writes The Faerie Queen. • El Greco paints St. Jerome. • Galileo experiments with falling objects.
	1598 • Boris Godunov becomes the Russian czar. • Tycho Brahe describes his astronomical experiments.
17^th century	1600 • Giordano Bruno is burned as a heretic. • The English East India Company established.
	1603 • Shakespeare writes Hamlet.
	1605 • Cervantes writes Don Quixote de la Mancha, the first modern novel.
	1609 • The Relation, the first newspaper, debuts in Germany.
	1610 • Galileo sees the moons of Jupiter through his telescope.
	1611 • Gustavus Adolphus is elected King of Sweden. • The King James Version of the Bible published in England. • Rubens paints his Descent from the Cross.
	1614 • John Napier discovers logarithms.
	1618 • The Thirty Years' War begins as Protestants revolt against Catholic oppression; Denmark,Sweden, and France will invade Germany in later phases of the war. • Kepler proposes the last of the three laws of planetary motion.
	1633 • The inquisition forces Galileo to recant his belief in Copernican theory.
	1642 • The English Civil War begins, pitting the Cavaliers, supporters of Charles I, against the Roundheads, parliamentary forces. Oliver Cromwell defeats the Royalists (1646). Parliament demands reforms. Charles I offers concessions, is brought to trial (1648) and beheaded (1649). Cromwell becomes Lord Protector (1653). • Rembrandt paints his Night Watch.
	1644 • Descartes writes his Principles of Philosophy.
	1648 • The Thirty Years' War ends with the German population about half of what it was in 1618 because of war and pestilence.
	1660 • English Parliament calls for the restoration of the monarchy and invites Charles II to return from France.
	1661 • Charles II is crowned King of England. Louis XIV begins his personal rule as absolute monarch and starts to build Versailles.
	1664 • The English limit "Nonconformity" with the reestablished Anglican Church. • Isaac Newton experiments with gravity.
	1665 • The Great Plague in London kills 75,000.
	1666 • The Great Fire of London. Molière writes Misanthrope.
	1667 • Milton writes Paradise Lost, widely considered the greatest epic poem in English.
	1683 • The war of European powers against the Turks (to 1699) begins. Vienna withstands a three-month Turkish siege at the high point of Turkish advance in Europe.
	1684 • Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz's calculus is published.
	1687 • James II calls for freedom of conscience. Protestants fear the restoration of Catholicism and demand a "Glorious Revolution." William of Orange is invited to England and James II escapes to France (1688). William III and his wife, Mary, are crowned. • In France, the Edict of Nantes of 1598, granting freedom of worship to Huguenots, is revoked by Louis XIV, forcing thousands of Protestants to flee.
	1689 • Peter the Great becomes Czar of Russia and attempts to westernize the nation and build Russia as a military power. He defeats Charles XII of Sweden at Poltava (1709).
	1690 • William III of England defeats the former king James II and Irish rebels at the Battle of the Boyne in Ireland. • John Locke writes Human Understanding.
18^th century	1701 • The War of the Spanish Succession begins, the last of Louis XIV's wars for domination of the continent. The Peace of Utrecht (1714) will end the conflict and mark the rise of the British Empire. Called Queen Anne's War in the colonies, it ends with the British taking New Foundland, Acadia, and the Hudson's Bay Territory from France, and Gibraltar and Minorca from Spain.
	1704 • Bach writes his first cantata.
	1707 • The United Kingdom of Great Britain is formed, as England, Wales, and Scotland are joined by the parliamentary Act of Union.
	1729 • Bach writes the St. Matthew Passion. • Isaac Newton's Principia is translated from Latin into English.
	1740 • Captain Vitus Bering, a Dane employed by Russia, discovers Alaska. • Frederick II "the Great" is crowned king of Prussia.
	1746 • The British defeat the Scots under the Stuart Pretender, Prince Charles, at Culloden Moor, the last battle fought on British soil.
	1751 • Publication of the Encyclopédie, the "bible" of the Enlightenment, begins in France.
	1755 • Samuel Johnson's Dictionary is first published. • A great earthquake in Lisbon, Portugal kills over 60,000.
	1757 • The British Empire in India begins, as Robert Clive, British commander, defeats Nawab of Bengal at Plassey.
	1759 • Voltaire writes Candide. • Haydn composes Symphony No. 1.
	1762 • Catherine II ("the Great") becomes the czarina of Russia. • Jean Jacques Rousseau writes his Social Contract. • Mozart tours Europe as a six-year-old prodigy.
	1765 • James Watt invents the steam engine.
	1769 • Sir William Arkwright patents a spinning machine, an early step in the Industrial Revolution.
	1772 • Joseph Priestley and Daniel Rutherford independently discover nitrogen. • Austria, Prussia and Russia divide the land and people of Poland in 1772, 1793, and 1795, ending its independence.
	1775 • Priestley discovers hydrochloric and sulfuric acids.
	1776 • Adam Smith writes Wealth of Nations. • Edward Gibbon writes The Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire. • Fragonard paints Washerwoman. • Mozart composes the Haffner Serenade.
	1778 • Franz Mesmer uses hypnotism.
	1781 • Immanuel Kant writes Critique of Pure Reason. Herschel discovers Uranus.
	1783 • William Blake writes his poetry. • Beethoven's works are first printed.
	1784 • Crimea is annexed by Russia. • John Wesley writes Deed of Declaration, the basic work of Methodism.
	1785 • Russians settle the Aleutian Islands.
	1787 • Lavoisier completes his work on chemical nomenclature. • Mozart composes Don Giovanni.
	1788 • The French Parlement presents grievances to Louis XVI, who agrees to the convening of the Estates-General in 1789, not called since 1613. • Goethe writes Egmont. • Laplace writes Laws of the Planetary System.
	1789-1799 • The French Revolution begins with the storming of the Bastille.
	1790 • The H.M.S. Bounty mutineers settle on Pitcairn Island. • Aloisio Galvani experiments on electrical stimulation of the muscles. • Lavoisier formulates Table of 31 chemical elements.
	1791 • Boswell writes Life of Johnson.
	1792 • Mary Wollstonecraft writes Vindication of the Rights of Woman.
	1793 • Louis XVI and Marie Antoinette are executed. The Reign of Terror begins in France.
	1794 • Kosciusko's uprising in Poland is quelled by the Russians. • The Reign of Terror ends with the execution of Robespierre.
	1796 • Napoléon Bonaparte, a French general, defeats the Austrians. • Edward Jenner introduces the smallpox vaccination.
	1798 • Napoléon extends French conquests to Rome and Egypt.
	1799 • The Rosetta Stone is discovered in Egypt. • Napoléon leads a coup that overthrows the Directory, establishes the Consulate, and becomes the First Consul, one of three who rule France together.

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