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476
Fall of the Roman Empire
Romulus, the last of the Roman emperors in the west, was overthrown by the Germanic leader Odoacer, who became the first Barbarian to rule in Rome. The order that the Roman Empire had brought to western Europe for 1000 years was no more. -
Period: 476 to 800
The Middle Ages (Dark Ages)
Dark time period before the Renaissance. The plague came and killed to about 20 million people. -
Period: 1095 to 1291
Crusades
The Crusades were a series of religious wars sanctioned by the Latin Church in the medieval period. A motley crew including children, adolescents, women, the elderly and the poor marched all the way from the Rhineland to Italy behind a young man named Nicholas, who said he had received divine instruction to march toward the Holy Land. -
Period: 1300 to
The Renaissance
The Renaissance was a period in European history, from the 14th to the 17th century, regarded as the cultural bridge between the Middle Ages and modern history. They followed the Middle Ages in Europe saw a great revival of interest in the classical learning and values of ancient Greece and Rome. -
Period: 1517 to
Protestant Reformation
The Protestant Reformation was the 16th-century religious, political, intellectual and cultural upheaval that splintered Catholic Europe, setting in place the structures and beliefs that would define the continent in the modern era. No reformer was more adept than Martin Luther at using the power of the press to spread his ideas. Between 1518 and 1525, Luther published more works than the next 17 most prolific reformers combined. -
Period: to
The Age of Enlightenment
The Enlightenment, also known as the Age of Reason, was a philosophical movement that took place primarily in Europe and, later, in North America, during the late 17th and early 18th century. The Age of Enlightenment led directly to the American Revolution and French Revolution and strongly influenced the Industrial Revolution. -
Period: to
Industrial Revolution
The Industrial Revolution was the transition to new manufacturing processes in the period from about 1760 to sometime between 1820 and 1840. James Watt from Scotland designs a more efficient steam engine. One of the most important inventions of the Industrial Revolution, steam engines power the first trains, steamboats, and factories. -
Period: to
French Revolution
The king and his wife was executed. Over 17,000 people were officially tried and executed during the Reign of Terror, and an unknown number of others died in prison or without trial. -
Period: to
WWI
The cause of WWI was the assassination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand of Austria-Hungary. The Allies won WWI which happened from 1914-1919. -
Period: to
WWI
Hitler invaded Poland from the west; two days later, France and Britain declared war on Germany, beginning World War II. The Soviet Union and the United States emerged as rival superpowers, setting the stage for the Cold War, which lasted for the next 46 years. -
Period: to
Cold War
The Cold War was a state of geopolitical tension after World War II between powers in the Eastern Bloc and powers in the Western Bloc. Ronald Reagan never claimed to have bested the Soviet Union and won the Cold War. -
Warsaw Pact
The treaty provided for a unified military command and for the maintenance of Soviet military units on the territories of the other participating states. The Warsaw Pact, so named because the treaty was signed in Warsaw, included the Soviet Union, Albania, Poland, Romania, Hungary, East Germany, Czechoslovakia, and Bulgaria as members. -
Fall of the Berlin Wall
On August 13, 1961, the Communist government of the German Democratic Republic began to build a barbed wire and concrete “Antifascistischer Schutzwall,” or “antifascist bulwark,” between East and West Berlin. John F. Kennedy expressed relief when the Berlin Wall was erected. The wall was torn down in 1989 because people from the East and West began moving from one side to the other. -
Collapse of the Soviet Union
On December 25, Gorbachev resigned as leader of the USSR. The Soviet Union ceased to exist on December 31, 1991. Political revolution in Poland in 1989 sparked other, mostly peaceful revolutions across Eastern European states and led to the toppling of the Berlin Wall. -
Creation of the European Union
It is a political and economic union between European countries which makes its own policies concerning the members' economies, societies, laws and to some extent security. Austria and Belgium were part of the history of the Creation of the European Union. -
NATO
The North Atlantic Treaty Organization, also called the North Atlantic Alliance, is an intergovernmental military alliance between several North American and European states based on the North Atlantic Treaty that was signed on 4 April 1949. Together with the Chairman of the NATO Military Committee and the Supreme Allied Commander the Secretary General is one of the foremost officials of NATO.