HST112W  CHRONOLOGY FOR MEDIEVAL & RENAISSANCE SURVEY COURSE    O'Neil
     (BC = Before Christ / AD = After Christ (Anno Domini) / CE = Common Era)

Classical World
Greece:     5th Century BC: Plato, Aristotle -- classical Greek philosophy

Rome:       Republic ends with Julius Caesar's "crossing the Rubicon" 49 BC
                  Empire established by Octavian Augustus 31 BC - 14 AD

           313 AD conversion of Emperor Constantine, Christianity legalized
                  capital moved to Constantinople (formerly Byzantium)

            380 AD Christianity becomes official religion of Roman Empire

            410 AD Sack of Rome by Alaric the Visigoth
                   St. Augustine City of God: Christian view of history

            476 AD Fall of Roman Empire in the West to Germanic invaders

            Eastern (Byzantine) Empire survives until 1453 AD

Middle Ages (approx. 5th C. to 15th C AD)

5-8th C. conversion of north European tribes to Christianity

800 Charlemagne crowned Holy Roman Emperor of German Nation

11-12th C. rise of towns, universities

1095 First Crusade

13th C.     heretical groups: Cathars & Waldensians

mendicant orders: Dominicans & Franciscans
medieval (episcopal) Inquisition founded
universities & scholasticism: Thomas Aquinas (1224-1270)

14th C. Black Death (bubonic plague): first struck in 1348
            remains endemic in Europe through 17th C.

1453 Eastern Byzantine Empire falls to Ottoman Turks
            (capital renamed Istanbul)

Renaissance  (revival of Greek & Latin art, architecture, learning)

      15th Century in Italy;      16th Century in northern Europe
      1460's translation of Plato's Dialogues from Greek to Latin (Ficino)
      1492 Columbus' first voyage to New World; start of European expansion

Reformation 16th C.

1517 Luther's 95 Theses: start of German Reformation
1521 Luther excommunicated by Pope; condemned by Emperor at Diet of Worms
1534 Henry VIII breaks with Rome; origin of Anglican church
1536 Calvin begins reform of Geneva, Switzerland
1555 Peace of Augsburg: political settlement of German Reformation

Scientific Revolution 16th - 17th C.  (HIST112 ends at this point)

      1543 Copernicus proposed heliocentric theory:
            (On the Revolutions of the Heavenly Spheres)
      1630-3 trial of Galileo by Roman Inquisition in Italy
              found guilty on charges of Copernicanism; house arrest for life
      1687 Newton's Principia Mathematica: 3 laws of motion, gravity

HIST113 on Modern Europe covers 18-20th C.

Enlightenment 18th C. (Voltaire, Diderot, Encyclopedia)
      cultural movement stressing reason, natural law, power of man
      over nature through science & technology

1789 French Revolution:
application of Enlightenment principles in political sphere
(e.g. Declaration of Rights of Man, constitutional government)
= beginning of "modern" European history