Europe/Timelines

The European heritage

 * Ancient Greece
 * - the philosophy of Plato and Aristotle and the concept of democracy as a system of government
 * - the poetry of Homer (the Iliad and the Odyssey)
 * - Euclid
 * The Roman Empire
 * - the rule of law and Pax Romana :
 * - the poetry of Virgil (the Aeneid)
 * Christianity
 * - the teachings of Augustine of Hippo and the other patristic philosophers :  a doctrine of passive obediance to  authority
 * - the art of Michelangelo and Benini
 * - the politics of the Holy Roman Empire and the reign of Charlemagne
 * The Enlightenment
 * - the philosophical writings of Denis Diderot, Thomas Hobbes, John Locke, Jean-Jacques Rousseau that gave priority to  the power of reason over the claims of authority.
 * - the scientific method: Galileo on the importance of observation, and Isaac Newton on the  rules of reasoning.

The development of the nation states

 * 1648: Treaty of Westphalia
 * - created the Westphalian System of European sovereign states.
 * 1689: Glorious Revolution
 * 1690: John Locke Two Treatises of Government
 * 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
 * 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 development 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
 * 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