As part of the Visual Timeline series
711: Muslim Arabs invade Spain
732: Franks under Charles Martel defeat Muslims at Battle of Poitiers and Tours; stopping expansion of Islam into Europe, and setting the foundations of the Carolingian Empire.
771: Charlemagne becomes ruler of Frankish kingdom; conquering Aquitine and inheriting territory as his younger brother dies.
774: Franks conquer Lombard Kingdom of Italy
778: Frankish rearguard under Charlemagne ambushed by Muslims at Battle of Roncesvalles (Spain)
800: First Holy Roman Emperor Charlemagne; crowned by Pope Leo III on Christmas Day
814: Charlemagne dies from illness; disputes over succession.
843: Frankish Civil War ends; Treaty of Verdun divides Frankish Carolingian empire into 3; among grandsons
845: Norse Vikings besiege Paris; Franks pay them off
889: Final breakup of Carolingian Empire.
911: Franks grant Norse Vikings land in northern France, Normandy
962: Holy Roman Empire founded in Germany; king Otto I starts reign
1047: Normans conquer southern Italy and Sicily (1031-1090)
1054: East-West Schism between Orthodox Patriarch of Constantinople and Catholic Church in Rome; Pope excommunicates the patrich of Constantinople
1066: Norman Conquest of England; William the Conqueror (duke of Normandy) (r.1066-1086) defeats King Harold II at Battle of Hastings
1095: First Crusade (1095-1099); Crusaders capture and massacre Jerusalem
1098: Cistercian monastic movement founded (by abbot Robert of Molesme)
1122: Concordat of Worms ends Investiture Controversy between papacy (Pope Calixtus II) and Holy Roman emperor (Henry V) over control of church offices; scholars’ attention drawn to inconsistencies in scripture; leads to renewed interests in Greek classics
1147: Second Crusade (1147-1150) to recapture Edessa is failure for Christians
1187: Saladin victorious at Battle of Hattin, Muslims recapture Jerusalem
1189: Third Crusade (1189-1192) fails to re-take Jerusalem but captured Cyprus, Acre and Jaffa; results in treaty; under Richard I
1204: Fourth Crusade captures and plunders Byzantine Constantinople
1209: Cathar (Albigensian) Crusade (1209-1229); Pope Innocent III calls to eliminate competing Christian movement (Cathari) in France
1212: Christian coalition defeats Arabs at Battle of Las Navas de Tolosa in Spain; important turning point in Reconquista
1215: Magna Carta; sealed by king John of England; limits monarchic power
1241: Mongols overrun Eastern Europe, defeating Poles at Battle of Legnica and the Hungarians at Battle of Mohi
1248: Seventh Crusade into Egypt (1248-1254); led by Louis IX
1295: Scotland-France forms Auld Alliance against English
1309: Papacy moves from Rome to Avignon (France) (1309-1378)
1337: Hundred Years War (1337-1453) against England; 4 wars over 116 years (Edwardian War 1337-1360, Carolin War 1369-1389, Lancastrian War 1415-1420, Second Lancastrian War 1420-1453)
1346: English (under Edward III) long bows devastates French (under Philip VI) at Battle of Crecy (part of Hundred Years War); 3x fire rate of crossbow and deadly impact at 300m
1347: Black Death (Bubonic Plague) kills 1/3 of Europe (1347-1351)
1375: War of the Eight Saints (1375-1378); Pope Gregory XI vs Italian coalition; ends in return of papacy from Avignon (France) to Rome
1415: English victory over French at Battle of Agincourt (Hundred Years War) (immortalized in Shakespeare’s Life of Henry the Fifth)
1429: Teenage heroine St Joan of Arc (“Maid of Orleans”) relieves Siege of Orleans; turning point in Hundred Years War
1431: Joan of Arc burned by English at Rouen
1438: Habsburg dynasty begins in Austria
1453:
– Hundred Years War (1337-1453) ends with French victory; English driven out of most of France by House of Valois; England only holds onto Calais
– Ottomans capture Constantinople.
[1453-1789 work in progress]
See French Revolution and Napoleonic Wars (1789-1815) for more on this period.
1795: France conquers mainland Dutch empire; setting up puppet Batavian Republic
1804: Napoleon crowns himself emperor
1814: Napoleon defeated and exiled to Elba. Netherlands established
1815: Napoleon finally defeated at Waterloo. Congress of Vienna.
[1815-1948 work in progress]
1948:
(Feb) Communist coup in Czechoslovakia
– Berlin Airlift (1948-1949); Allies overcome Soviets land blockade to west Berlin, Soviets abandon blockade in 1949
1949:
– Allies unite occupied Germany into West Germany
– (Aug 29) Soviet Union becomes nuclear armed
1951: European Coal and Steel Community formed; pre-cursor to 1957 European Economic Community
1954:
– (May 7th) Communist Viet Minh (under general Vo Nguyen Giap) victory over French at Battle of Dien Bien Phu; Vietnam, Laos, Cambodia gain independence from France
– (Jul 21st) Vietnam split by 17th parallel Geneva Accords
– European Economic Commission est. at Treaty of Rome
– Algerian National Front declares war on France
1955:
– West Germany regains sovereignty from Allies; joins NATO; Warsaw Pact (May1955-July1991) between Soviet Union and Central Eastern Europe in reaction
1956:
– (Jul) Suez Crisis: Egyptian president Nasser nationalizes Suez Canal
– (Oct) UK-France-Israel invade Egypt; US & Soviet pressure forces withdrawal; Suez canal closed Nov56 to May57.
– (Mar-Apr) Morocco and Tunisia independence from France
1958:
– French president de Gaulle returns to power after Algerian crisis
– European Economic Community (EEC) begins operations
1962:
– (Jul) Algeria gains independence from France; after fighting since 1954
1968:
– (May) students riots in Paris; liberalization of French social values
1973:
– UK joins European Economic Community (French president de Gaulle vetoed first two applications in 1961 and 1967)
1979:
– (May) Margaret Thatcher becomes UK PM; begins privatization of state-firms and deregulation of financial markets
1985:
– (Mar 11th) Gorbachev takes office; reforms Soviet Union to greater political, economic and social openness
1986:
– (Apr) Chernobyl disaster (Soviet Union/Ukraine)
1989:
– (Sep 11th) Hungary opens borders to Austria; many Eastern Bloc citizens flee to West
– (Nov 9th) fall of Berlin wall; East Germans cross over to West
– first democratic elections in Eastern Europe
1990:
– (Jul) West German chancellor meets Soviet president Gorbachev, offering him financial aid to tolerate German reunification under NATO
– (Oct) East Germany dissolved; Germany reunified
1991:
– (Dec 25th) Gorbachev resigns and announces dissolution of Soviet Union into 15 states.
– (Dec) Soviet Union dissolved; Russian federation established
1993:
– (Jan) Czechoslovakia splits into Czech Republic and Slovakia
– (Nov) European Community becomes EU
1994:
– (May) UK-France Channel Tunnel completed
1995:
– (Nov) Balkan Peace Accord ends Bosnian War (Apr92-Dec95), one of the ongoing Yugoslav Wars (Mar91-Nov01).
1996:
– EU bans British beef exports amid Mad Cow Disease fears
1997:
– (Aug) Princess Diana of Wales killed in car accident in Paris
– (Jul) Asian Financial Crisis
– (Jul) China regains sovereignty over HK from UK; One country two systems
1998:
– (Aug) Russia defaults on its bonds
– (Nov) International Space Station launched
1999:
– (Jan) Euro introduced; physical cash circulates Jan02.
– Kosovo War (Feb98 – Jun99)
2000:
– DotCom bubble bursts: Mar00 investors start to sell; NASDAQ drops 52% by end of 2000; by Oct02 NASDAQ has dropped 78% since Mar00 peak.
2001:
– Yugoslav Wars (Mar91 – Nov01) in Balkans ends; Yugoslavia is broken up.
– (Sep) 9/11 Attacks on World Trade Center
2002:
– (Jan) Physical Euro currency launched
2003:
– (Mar) H.W. Bush US invades Iraq to find “weapons of mass destruction”; none found; many years sectarian violence to come.
2004:
– (May) 10 former Soviet satellites join EU
2008:
– (Sep 15th) GFC: Lehman Brothers goes bankrupt, triggering wave of global panic
2015:
– (Nov) ISIS terror attacks in Paris
2016:
– (Jun) Brexit, UK votes to leave the EU
2020: COVID
See also: