APEURO THEMATIC TIMELINE REVIEW: “Organizing a Sense of History”

Date / Political History / Social History / Economic History / Religious History / Intellectual History / Warfare / Cultural History
1450-1650 / Feudal monarchy declines in western Europe; rise of the “new monarchs” and national monarchies. / Beginning of national consciousness; agrarian aristocracy dominant; most people were peasants; the commercial revolution that begin with the Dutch in the 17th century led to a rising middle class that was increasing in size and wealth. / Manorialism and guild towns declined in the West; Age of Explorations; rise of entrepreneurs; Commercial revolution. / Protestant Reformation broke up the Universal Church; religious wars followed; emergence of national churches (like England’s Anglican Church); intolerance / Renaissance, rise of individualism, secularism, and humanism; beginning of Scientific Revolution / Feudal-noble fighting; inter-religious wars; use of mercenaries / Renaissance art and literature
1650-1789 / Modern sovereign state; 1650-1789 will usher in a time where limited monarchy spreads and divine right began to be questioned but this is the still the era of absolutism and autocratic governments / Policies of national mercantilism; global economy; bubble schemes failed; early Industrial Revolution; king’s debt becomes public debt in countries like England (but not France) / Development of tolerances as a result of Enlightenment philosophy; Pietism vs. Deism; Catholic baroque culture / Scientific Revolution continued; inductive thinking and the growth of the Enlightenment; natural laws; natural rights; society based on reason / Commercial wars, limited wars, wars for empire all limited in scope, purpose, and duration so less destructive than previous wars; warfare’s expense led it to become a monopoly of the state / Baroque culture, rococo, neoclassical art and architecture, flowering of music; development of the opera; symphonic music
1789-1815 / Republicanism emerges; French Revolution celebrates “Liberty, Equality, and Fraternity” and attempts to spread them abroad / Emergence of industrial proletariat; new sense of equality and idea that people are the nation; classes were national rather than international. / Development of intolerance / French Revolution / France’s use of the levee en masse led use of conscription as a matter of national survival and independence. / Romanticism, stirrings of national music; development of the novel; operetta
1815-1848 / Congress of Vienna ushered in a period of conservatism and reaction. However, liberalism, nationalism, and republicanism continued to grow leading to revolts in the 1820s, 1830s, and 1848. / Workers, students, nationalists, and the middle class struggled for power and their own vision of a nation state. Often faced opposition from those already in power. Most gains made in the late 19th century.
Workers, students, nationalists, and the middle class struggle for power and their own vision of a nation state / Industrial Revolution continues and spreads; laissez-faire capitalism becomes dominant; capitalism comes under attack from utopian socialists and Marxist socialists.
Industrial Revolution continues; laissez-faire capitalism; rise of socialism / Growth of secularism; nationalism and communism developed into secular religions; ultramontanism; Oxford Movement Developed; fundamental piety
Growth of secularism; nationalism and communism develop into secular religions; ultramontanism; Oxford Movement developed; fundamental piety / Utopian Socialism, romanticism / Science of war to determine policy (Clausewitz); national liberation wars (revolutionaries and radicals)
1848-1870 / Nation-states were created. Italy and Germany unified disrupting the balance of power. / Nationalism and the idea of a nation-state / Wars of national unification / Romanticism, stirrings of national music; development of the novel; operetta
1870-1914 / System of alliances created for security (example: Bismarck’s system of alliances to keep France isolated); civilizing mission led to the growth of “new imperialism” in Africa and Asia; democracy continued its evolution with the rise of mass politics. / Workers organized themselves into parties and trade unions ; emergence of urban civilization; moves to organize the masses / 2nd Industrial Revolution shifts economic focus to heavy industry; international monetary system formed; development of the concept of the welfare state (particularly in Germany) to combat socialist critics. / Rerurm Novarum; materialism, skepticism, and agnosticism common among many intellectuals; disillusioned proletariat became irreligious / Trade unions and socialism for individual security and happiness; pragmatism; Charles Darwin, Sigmund Freud, and Albert Einstein’s ideas form basis for belief in irrational, accidental world in which everything is relative / Wars to advance imperialism; arms race / Impressionism; post-impressionism, cubism, expressionism; circus; vaudeville; movies
1914-1918 / World War I decimates Europe; Russia Revolution transforms the autocracy into a communist state / Masses were organized horizontally (communists’ worldwide revolution) and vertically (nationalists or fascists) as well as democratically by political parties / Governments bankrupted in World War I / World War I = a war of nations
1918-1939 / rise of totalitarian governments to replace variety of democracies attempted in the 1920s like Weimar in Germany; Popular Front in France; war outlawed in the 1920s and appeasement in the 1930s. / Expansion of industry; beginning of Five Year Plans in Russia; crash of 1929 and beginning of the Depression; continued development of welfare states; development of totalitarian economies (everything subservient to the state) / Atheistic and anti-religious totalitarianism; secular democratic societies / Increased reliance on science; explosion of all scientific categories / War restricted, then outlawed in the 1920s; fascist aggression from the 1930s on / Surrealism; jazz; talking pictures; radio, musical theater
1939-1945 / World War II / World War II revived world economies / Total war and atomic war
1945-1972 / Cold War (Left vs. Center); NATO vs. Warsaw Pact; Cold War hot spots: Eastern Europe; Korea, Middle East, Africa, Vietnam, Latin America; decolonization movement; atomic era begins / Battle for the human mind between the Left vs. Center / Wartime economies continue; Marshall Plan rebuilt Europe; rise of Common Market and European Union after 1950; rebuilding of Germany; Soviet planned economy collapsed in the 1980s; movement toward global market economy in the late 20th and early 21st century / Vatican II, end of the Reformation; dialogue among religious groups; end of anti-religious programs in many former communist state / Existentialism; science became universal base for civilization / Search for security; search to regulate nuclear weapons; wars in the Middle East, Vietnam, Africa, Latin America; conventional wars never ceased as superpowers contested for world domination; growth of international terrorism in the late 20th and early 21st centuries / Abstract art; rock and roll; continuance of jazz; television; mass culture
1972-present / Détente in the 1970s cools Cold War tensions; Cold War ends in the late 1980s; Soviet Union collapses in the 1990s and with it the control it had over its satellite nations; war on terrorism begins in 2000s.
Date / Religious History / Intellectual History / Warfare / Cultural History
1450-1650 / Protestant Reformation broke up the Universal Church; religious wars followed; emergence of national churches (like England’s Anglican Church); intolerance / Renaissance, rise of individualism, secularism, and humanism; beginning of Scientific Revolution / Feudal-noble fighting; inter-religious wars; use of mercenaries / Renaissance art and literature
1650-1789 / Development of tolerances as a result of Enlightenment philosophy; Pietism vs. Deism; Catholic baroque culture / Scientific Revolution continued; inductive thinking and the growth of the Enlightenment; natural laws; natural rights; society based on reason / Commercial wars, limited wars, wars for empire all limited in scope, purpose, and duration so less destructive than previous wars; warfare’s expense led it to become a monopoly of the state / Baroque culture, rococo, neoclassical art and architecture, flowering of music; development of the opera; symphonic music
1789-1815 / Development of intolerance / French Revolution / France’s use of the levee en masse led use of conscription as a matter of national survival and independence. / Romanticism, stirrings of national music; development of the nobel; operetta
1815-1848 / Growth of secularism; nationalism and communism developed into secular religions; ultramontanism; Oxford Movement Developed; fundamental piety / Utopian Socialism, romanticism / Science of war to determine policy (Clausewitz); national liberation wars (revolutionaries and radicals)
1848-1870 / Nationalism and the idea of a nation-state / Wars of national unification
1870-1914 / Rerurm Novarum; materialism, skepticism, and agnosticism common among many intellectuals; disillusioned proletariat became irreligious / Trade unions and socialism for individual security and happiness; pragmatism; Charles Darwin, Sigmund Freud, and Albert Einstein’s ideas form basis for belief in irrational, accidental world in which everything is relative / Wars to advance imperialism; arms race / Impressionism; post-impressionism, cubism, expressionism; circus; vaudeville; movies
1914-1918 / World War I = a war of nations
1918-1939 / Atheistic and anti-religious totalitarianism; secular democratic societies / Increased reliance on science; explosion of all scientific categories / War restricted, then outlawed in the 1920s; fascist aggression from the 1930s on / Surrealism; jazz; talking pictures; radio, musical theater
1939-1945 / Total war and atomic war
1945-1972 / Vatican II, end of the Reformation; dialogue among religious groups; end of anti-religious programs in many former communist state / Existentialism; science became universal base for civilization / Search for security; search to regulate nuclear weapons; wars in the Middle East, Vietnam, Africa, Latin America; conventional wars never ceased as superpowers contested for world domination; growth of international terrorism in the late 20th and early 21st centuries / Abstract art; rock and roll; continuance of jazz; television; mass culture
1972-present