European History

Starting in the sixteenth century, but really picking up steam in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, the Spanish and the French greatly expanded their overseas colonies in the Americas....

When contrasting the Renaissance with the Medieval Era that preceded it, one of the most powerful transformations lay in the impact of Humanism and its vision of the human condition. Medieval...

It is believed that Maximilien Robespierre was the first to use the phrase "liberty, equality, fraternity" (liberté, equalité, fraternité) during a 1790 speech entitled "On the Organization of the...

There were many inequalities that contributed to the French Revolution. In France, there were three groups or estates of people. The first group was the clergy, the second estate was made up of...

One of Napoleon's main domestic policies was to sign a concordat with the Catholic Church that, while restoring some of the church's power, meant that the church gave up its ability to control...

Spain was considered to have as three main goals behind its expeditions to North America: the expansion of its empire, the attainment of wealth, and the spread of Christianity. It is easily...

Napoleon dominated Europe from about 1800 to 1815. He was the dictator of France and conqueror of much of Europe. His years in power marked the second part of the French Revolution, which began in...

The early part of Louis' personal reign (after the death of Mazarin in 1661) was marked by several controversial changes to the government and council. The period was highly successful in terms of...

Toward the end of the Middle Ages, the Catholic Church was rife with corruption. The church was split by the Great Schism (From 1378-1417 there were three simultaneous popes, each claiming to be...

Spain settled in the Caribbean, as previously noted, early in the 1500's and continued to expand its empire throughout North, South, and Central America. Although Christianizing the heathen has...

First, European nations developed or acquired, earlier than other peoples around the world, many of the technologies necessary for colonization. These included nautical innovations like the caravel...

As with most great artists from over the millennium, Michelangelo di Lodovico Buonarroti Simoni, known simply as Michelangelo, is remembered for his most famous works of art, especially for his...

The Edict of Milan was a mandate authorized in 313 A.D. by the Roman emperors Constantine and Licinius declaring the practice of Christianity legal in the Roman empire. The full text of this edict...

The name of Maximilien Robespierre has come to be associated with the most violent phase of the French Revolution, The Reign of Terror. It is this particular phase that tends to epitomize the...

There were a few factors that led to Columbus' exploration. The Portuguese were the first to find a new trade route to India when Vasco da Gama successfully navigated around the Cape of Good Hope....

In addition to fighting during the Crusades, trade was an important component as new goods and ideas were exchanged. They came into contact with empires that were in many ways more advanced than...

In the thousand years after the fall of Rome, Eastern and Western Europe went down two different paths. Despite their differences, they still retained a number of similarities. Let's look at some...

The Reconquista (or "reconquest") was a period of Spanish history which lasted for 770 years, beginning with the Battle of Covadonga, which marked the first victory by Christian armed forces since...

The defeat of the Byzantine Empire by the Muslim Ottoman Empire was a great blow to European trade with Asia. The Byzantines, who had been friendly towards European traders and charged reasonable...

I think that you will experience different answers to this question. In my mind, the immediate effect of the French Revolution was the dissolution of the French Royal Monarchy and the forcible...

Napoleon Bonaparte was a well-known ruler and military strategist. He served as a French military commander at a base in Italy. Following his homecoming after the revolution, Napoleon found a...

The Great Schism can refer to two separate events. The first is the East-West Schism of 1054. The second is the Western Schism of 1378-1417. The effects of the Great Schism of 1054 had a profound...

The difference between the Elizabethan Age and Renaissance is that while the Renaissance era is considered to be the transition from the middle Ages to modern history in Europe, the Elizabethan Age...

In addition to the answers included by the other Educators, I will mention that King Ferdinand and Queen Isabella of Spain hoped to find a route to the Spice Islands that did not directly compete...

In order to examine any of Napoleon’s specific foreign policy initiatives, one must first understand his overarching political goal, which was to control the entire European continent. All of...

Whatever their original motives, the Crusades gave Westerners a taste for foreign goods. Items unavailable at home such as fine silks, spices, and precious metals were eagerly snapped up by the...

Intellectual periodis tend to be influenced and shaped by the periods which preceded them. In this respect, the Enlightenment is no different. Renaissance Humanism, the Reformation, and the...

The name "France" derives from the invasion and conquest of Roman Gaul by Germanic tribes known as the Franks. By 486 A.D., these tribes united under a monarchy that replaced the Roman...

Voltaire had several valid points when he made this statement. The Holy Roman Empire was not the center of the Church; rather, that was the Vatican, which was the Pope's city. Most of what would be...

There were many factors that led to the European Age of Exploration. Three of the major ones had to do with the advent and adoption of new technologies, a desire to improve trade by discovering new...

This account was written in 1628 by a Spanish priest, Antonio Vázquez de Espinosa; it details working conditions in a silver mine in the West Indies. The most astounding detail, in my opinion, is...

The Great Schism, or the schism between the Roman Catholic Church and the Eastern Orthodox Church, is a complex issue that started well before the mutual ex-communications in 1054 CE. Before we get...

The Age of Exploration relied on the creation or improvement of many forms of technology. Cartography, or the making of maps, became more accurate during this time period, which guided navigators...

It is difficult to suggest that there was any one cause of the French Revolution. The purpose, however, was clear: overthrow of the monarchy. The gradual growth of a revolutionary movement was the...

By the time Napoleon Bonaparte overthrew the Directory government headed by Barras to become the leader of France, the French Catholic church had undergone severe annihilation. The...

Although many factors led up to the French Revolution, the peasants—part of the citizenry making up the Third Estate—significantly influenced the government's overthrow. The peasants' largest...

Columbus's pride is very much on display in the fourth of his letters to Ferdinand and Isabella. Columbus devotes a lot of time in the letter to complaining about the lack of recognition of what he...

This is the second of several documents in the Document-Based Question (DBQ) from the 2006 AP World History exam. Tomas de Mercado was a Spanish scholar writing in 1571, a time when the...

European countries engaged in imperialism for various reasons. One of the reasons for doing so was to fulfill economic needs. The Industrial Revolution led to advancements in science and...

The increase in trade helped enlarge towns and cities in Europe because it gave the towns and cities an economic base upon which to grow. When there was very little trade in Europe, there was very...

An early advocate of fundamental changes in the way children are taught, John Amos Comenius (originally, Jan Amos Komensky, in his native Czech) had a major impact on the manner in which students...

The beginning of the Renaissance in the mid-fourteenth century was marked by a turn from medieval life and values dominated by the Church toward the philosophical principles of humanism. The...

The Renaissance was the period of time following the Middle Ages where a dramatic cultural shift began in Italy and spread across Europe. "Renaissance" means "rebirth," referring to the newfound...

The Enlightenment led to rational ideas about government. Kings no longer ruled by divine right; rather, government was to be rational. For some people, this meant a rise in republican...

On the whole, one would have to say no. That's not to say that the famous rubric was a complete sham. A corrupt, bankrupt system was replaced by one in which there was far greater participation by...

It's fair to say that Marie Antoinette's accomplishments don't exactly leap out of the pages of the history books. Although it's unlikely that she did actually say "Let them eat cake" about the...

King Arthur is a legendary ruler from Saxon England, meaning he ruled before the Norman invasion of 1066 and after the Romans withdrew from the territory. To be legendary means to be part...

The Renaissance and Reformation mark the end of the Middle Ages, although the people who lived back then could not point to a specific date as the beginning of the Renaissance. During the Middle...

Some basic principles of the Enlightenment and Scientific Revolution are the belief in reason over superstition. This belief in reason was behind the changes in political theory and ideas of...

During World War II (1939–1945) Great Britain had a constitutional monarchy. Just as it is today, the government was headed by the prime minister, who was appointed under the auspices of the ruling...