Period 2: Monarchical States to Napoleon (Reviewer All Dates)

Assassination of Henry IV

Galileo begins astronomical observations with his telescope

Galileo publishes Letters on Sunspots

William Harvey announces his discovery of the circulatory system

Johannes Kepler reveals his third and final law of planetary motion

Beginning of the Thirty Years’ War

Battle of White Mountain

Founding of Plymouth Colony

Francis Bacon publishes Novum Organum

Cardinal Richelieu becomes Louis XIII’s chief minister

Charles I becomes king upon death of James I

Petition of Right

Murder of Duke of Buckingham

Edict of Restitution

Personal Rule of Charles I begins and lasts 11 years

Gustavus Adolphus dies at the Battle of Lutzen

Galileo’s Dialogue on the Two Chief Systems of the World

Trial of Galileo

Murder of Albrecht von Wallenstein

France enters the Thirty Years’ War

Charles introduces the Book of Common Prayer into Scotland

René Descartes publishes Discourse on Method

Beginning of reign of Frederick William (Great Elector)

Charles forced to summon Parliament to deal with Scottish revolt

Rebellion in Ireland

Execution of Archbishop Laud

Peace of Westphalia

Beginning of the Fronde

Execution of Charles I and establishment of English republic

Oliver Cromwell becomes Lord Protector

Death of Cromwell

Restoration of Charles II

Thomas Hobbes publishes Leviathan

Death of Cardinal Mazarin; Louis XIV becomes his own chief minister

Royal Society established by Charles II

Chartering of the French East India Company

Louis XIV begins construction of the Palace of Versailles

Posthumous publication of Pascal’s Pensées

Beginning of the reign of Peter the Great

Rembrandt paints The Night Watch

Revocation of the Edict of Nantes

James II, a Catholic, becomes King of England

Newton publishes his Principia

John Locke’s Two Treatises on Government

Glorious Revolution

Act of Toleration

John Locke’s Essay on Human Understanding

Prussia becomes a kingdom

Act of Settlement passed to bypass potential Catholic kings

Cornerstone laid for the new city of St. Petersburg

Act of Union brings about political unification of England and Scotland

Treaty of Utrecht marks the end of the War of the Spanish Succession

George I becomes first Hanoverian King of England

End of the Great Northern War between Russia and Sweden

Start of Robert Walpole’s tenure as prime minister

Hume’s Inquiry into Human Nature

Frederick the Great becomes King of Prussia

Start of the War of the Austrian Succession

Battle of Culloden

Montesquieu’s Spirit of Laws

Treaty of Aix-la-Chapelle marks end of War of the Austrian Succession

The first volume of Diderot’s Encyclopédie appears

Lisbon earthquake

Maria Theresa carries out the “Diplomatic Revolution”

Beginning of the Seven Years’ War

Voltaire’s Candide

Rousseau’s The Social Contract

Rousseau’s Émile is published

Start of the reign of Catherine the Great

Voltaire pushes for reexamination in the trial of Jean Calas

Peace of Paris marks end of Seven Years’ War

Beccaria’s On Crime and Punishment

Stamp Act

Burke writes Thoughts on the Cause of the Present Discontent

Marriage of the future Louis XVI to Marie Antoinette

Louis XVI becomes King of France

First Continental Congress

Fighting begins between American colonists and British

Jefferson writes the Declaration of Independence

The first volume of Edward Gibbon’s The History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire is published

Adam Smith’s Wealth of Nations

France goes to war against Britain in support of the American colonies

Kant’s Critique of Pure Reason

Joseph II of Austria issues Edicts of Toleration

Calonne, finance minister to Louis XVI, informs him that the crown is bankrupt

Assembly of Notables meets

Louis XVI decides to call the Estates General

Abbé Siéyès writes What Is the Third Estate?

Estates General meets for the first time

Third Estate declares that it will meet only as a National Assembly

Tennis Court Oath

Storming of the Bastille

Lafayette selected as commander of the National Guard

Great Fear (July–August)

Renunciation of aristocratic privileges

Declaration of the Rights of Man is adopted by the Constituent Assembly (August 26)

Women’s march on Versailles

Jeremy Bentham’s Introduction to the Principles of Morals and Legislation

Civil Constitution of the Clergy

Edmund Burke’s Reflections on the Revolution in France