Seminar Week 1
868 first dated block print book in China (moveable type: 1040)
c.1040 'rediscovery' of the Digest: new era of Roman law opens
1088 University of Bologna founded: first university in Europe
1347-1351 Black Death in Europe
1368 rise of the Ming Dynasty, China
1420 pope returns to Rome after end of the Great Western Schism (1417/18)
c.1430-1591 islamic Songhai Empire dominates West Africa
1439/1440 Lorenzo Valla reveals the Donatio Constantini as a forgery
c.1440 rise of the Inca Empire in Peru
1453 Ottoman conquest of Constantinople
1454/1455 Gutenberg Bible printed with printing press, moveable type in Mainz
1492 in search of a sea-route to Asia, Christopher Columbus reaches
America in search of sea-route to Asia → rise of the Ottoman empire
block the traditional route to Asia, so they try to find another way, by
sea
1494-1559 Italian Wars weaken late-medieval city states
1498 Vasco da Gama reached Calicut, India via Cape of Storms/Cape of
Good Hope
c.1500 continent-wide postal system emerges in Europe
,1501 rise of the shi'ite Safavid Dynasty in Persia
1516 Erasmus publishes a critical version of the Greek New Testament
1517 start of the Trans-Atlantic slave trade
1519 Charles V Habsburg elected Holy Roman Emperor. As monarch of
Spain, the Spanish possessions in the Americas, the Netherlands,
Naples, Sicily, and Austria, Charles ruled over a vast collection of
territories and peoples → son of different dynasties: he received a
huge estate
1519/1532 Spanish 'conquistador' Hernán Cortés and his allies defeat the Aztecs
in Mexico; Francisco Pizarro defeats the Incas in Peru
1520 key Lutheran treatises published
1521 Fall of Belgrade opens way for Ottoman expansion in Central Europe
1526 rise of the Mughal Dynasty, India
1527 Sack of Rome by imperial soldiers, mercenaries
1543 Copernicus' De revolutionibus [On the revolutions] printed; Vesalius
publishes his De humani corporis fabrica [On the fabric of the human
body]
1605 first printed newspaper in Strasbourg
1609: Spain’s → they were the Muslims that after the conquest of Granada were
Expulsion of allowed to remain in the city, but Charles V decided that they had to
Moriscos convert, but they were expelled also after they had been converting
, 1618-1648 Thirty Years' War ends with the Peace of Westphalia (1648) → last
religion war in Europe and the start of the European system we
inherited
1598: Edict → Religion tension (international and national), protestant, heir of the
of Nantes throne, killed by a Catholic
→ they were the Muslims that after the conquest of Granada were
1609: Spain’s
allowed to remain in the city, but Charles V decided that they had to
Expulsion of
convert, but they were expelled also after they had been converting
Moriscos
1644 fall of the Ming Dynasty, rule of the Qing Dynasty begins in China
1682: Peter → he expanded Russia and had economic reforms to westernize and
the Great Tsar modernize Russia - Bring Russia to an European context
of Russia
1699 Peace of Karlowitz ends Ottoman power in Central Europe
c.1750-1800 Agricultural and Industrial Revolutions transform European societies
1789-1799 French Revolution ends with Napoleon's seizure of power (1799)
1806 end of the Holy Roman Empire
1814-1815 fall of Napoleon; Congress of Vienna reorders European balance of
power
B. Concepts:
● Feudalism = A pyramid of personal of unequal standing development in the Middle
Ages, in which lords grant their tenants lands and resources, in return for advice,
dues, labour services and general support
● Absolutism = The view that the ruler was a source of law and so not legally subject to
it.
● City States = Originated as a socio-political unit in the ancient world and revived in
the Middle Ages.
