Saturday, March 28, 2015
RhinejourneymoduleD
Module D. (With Apologies in Advance): A Brief Historical Sketch of Western Europe, or:
Writing Good, Brief History is Like Asking For a Pocket-Sized Bible With Big Print!
Writing about history has proved to be a problem for me in these brief modules, because there’s just so much of it. Europe has been so important for so long, and it’s a very big place. (But I would like very much to whet your appetite for history, not destroy it by heaping more on your plate than you can digest in such a short time!)
Speaking of gigantic feasts: my old beloved one-volume history of Europe by the amazing Welsh scholar Norman Davies is huge: 1,365 very large pages long, and with very small print. It weighs about 10 pounds. It has taken me years to plow through (as well written and enjoyable as it is!) So, as much as I love it, I felt I must stay as far away as possible from such microscopic views of history. (And I’m no Norman Davies, either: I’m just a humble Professor Emeritus of German Studies who could some day be charged with practicing historiography without a license...)
In module C we did manage to touch on the Norman Invasion of England, at least... And in modules A and B I feel comfortable about having more or less adequately introduced matters up to about the Fall of the Roman Empire and the Migration of Barbarians into Roman lands.
And we randomly jumped about in history a bit during our discussion of cathedral architecture, without overwhelming anyone, I hope.
I still felt a need, however, to offer some kind of over-all sketch of Western European history, picking up about where we left off at the fall of the Roman Empire and proceeding to 2015.
I began several versions of this module, but after each attempt I saw that I was including so much detail that it was going to run into hundred of pages. I eventually decided that it is impossible to include as much detail as I was trying to and yet boil that much history down to a manageable size.
So I finally decided to use the shorthand format of a simple timetable. Such a timetable is admittedly very sketchy but may at least provide a skeleton for us to flesh out during later modules and during our anticipated discussions on board.
I picked up the story again with the Franks, that Germanic tribe which became so important for Western European history after the Migration of Barbarians.
I focused first and foremost on Germany, but I have also provided even briefer timetables for France, Switzerland, and the Netherlands for comparison and context. I apologize if it’s too sketchy, but hope you will find it both manageable and somewhat useful. (The important thing is that after such a meager meal, I hope you will feel free to order second helpings and even some dessert!):
481/482 Clovis I (Chlodovech = Ludwig = Louis) of the Merovingian dynasty, succeeds his father, Childeric, as the ruler of the Salian Franks from the east side of the Rhine. He converts to Catholic Christianity, as do the other Franks.
494 Clovis takes advantage of the disintegration of the Roman Empire, unites all the Franks – Salian, Ripuarian, and Chatti groups – (their common Christianity helps in this regard), and leads them in a series of campaigns, bringing all of northern Gaul under his rule.
507 Clovis drives southward, subduing the Visigoths who had established themselves in southern Gaul. A unified Frankish kingdom in northern Gaul was thus established and secured.
A map showing the growth of Frankish territory:
http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/1/16/Frankish_Empire_481_to_814-en.svg/1000px-Frankish_Empire_481_to_814-en.svg.png
Note that the area held in about 481 is called Austrasia (not to be confused with Australia, Australasia, or Austria, though it shares with the word Austria the idea that it was an eastern realm = cf. German Österreich – Eastern realm – for Austria). Neustria, meaning “new western land” is the territory in northern Gaul conquered by Clovis in the wake of the Battle of Soissons of 486.
622 Mohammed and his followers in Mecca migrate to Medina. This event, the Hijra, marks the beginning of Islam.
622-750 Islam spreads west as far as Spain:
http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/7/72/Map_of_expansion_of_Caliphate.svg/900px-Map_of_expansion_of_Caliphate.svg.png
687 During a period of particularly weak Merovingian kings, a Mayor of the Palace (a kind of glorified butler) to the kings, a certain Pippin or Pepin, takes upon himself the title Duke and Prince of the Franks.
715 Pepin is succeeded by his illegitimate son, Charles − Carolus – Martel, who went on to found a new line of the family named (after his first name, Carolus) the Carolingian dynasty. Martel began a series of military campaigns that re-established the Franks as the undisputed masters of all Gaul, subjugating Bavaria, Alemannia, and Frisia, defeating the Saxons, and halting the further Islamic advance into Western Europe at the Battle of Tours, deep inside present-day France, in 732. (Charles was appropriately nicknamed The Hammer) He did not call himself king, however, reserving that honor for his son Pepin the Short or Pepin the Younger, father of Charlemagne.
768 Martel’s illustrious grandson Charlemagne becomes king of the Franks.
774 Charlemagne also becomes king of Italy.
782 Charlemagne attacks the Saxons, forcing them at the point of the sword to convert to Christianity. He is responsible for a massacre of 4,500 pagan Saxons at Verden, a town in Lower Saxony on the Aller, a terrible blot on Charlemagne’s otherwise heroic record.
800 Charlemagne, crowned Roman Emperor by the pope on Christmas Day, became a powerful protector of the papacy, removing the anti-papal Lombards from power in northern Italy, and leading an incursion into Muslim Spain. He invited important scholars such as Alcuin of York to help him found an important school, and initiated what has been called the Carolingian Renaissance. (Scholars at Charlemagne’s school made beautiful manuscripts using clearly formed, easily legible lower-case letters called Carolingian Minuscules. The letters you are reading in this module evolved directly from them.):
https://s-media-cache-ak0.pinimg.com/originals/ea/78/53/ea7853a5e61797cba2247e92b290cab6.jpg
Portions of Charlemagne’s very impressive palace and Byzantine-style chapel still stand in Aachen, Germany, near the Dutch border:
http://faculty.cua.edu/pennington/mbs201crusades/LectureTwo/CharlemagnePalace.jpg
http://jfbradu.free.fr/mosaiques/germigny/palais-aix2.jpg
http://www.olympicwanderings.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/12/aachen-arches.jpg
(Charlemagne himself was very impressive):
http://www.route-charlemagne.eu/images/content/Karl/karl_ideal_header.jpg
814 Charlemagne dies. After his death and that of his son Louis the Pious, three of his grandsons fight over territory and his vast empire begins to break up. The eastern part becomes Germany under Louis the German, the western part France under Charles the Bald, the middle part Lothringen (Lothar’s realm = French: Lorraine), under Lothar, as on this map:
http://darkwing.uoregon.edu/~mapplace/EU/EU20_France/Maps/EU20_98PostCharlemagne.jpg
842 The Strasbourg Oaths were read by Louis and Charles to their troops as they conducted their wars while attempting to steal Lothar’s realm. Part of it is in Old French and is the oath cited by Charlemagne’s grandson Louis or Ludwig the German to the French-speaking troops of his brother Charles the Bald. It’s the oldest written document in any Romance language. Conversely, Charles the Bald read the Old High German version of the oaths to his brother’s German-speaking soldiers, (though this does not happen to be the oldest document in Old High German as it is for Old French.) This marks the distinction between the use of German mostly east of the Rhine and French mostly west of the river. Henceforth east of the Rhine is to become Germany, west is to become France and Belgium.
843 The Treaty of Verdun settles the fratricidal wars and gives Lothar his inheritance, though the old desire of his two brothers to carve up his realm has lingered, almost as a kind of curse over the land, down to the present. The borders of Lothar’s realm have become a sort of permanent political, cultural fault line dividing western Europe right down the middle between France and Germany.
911 One of Louis the German’s descendants, Louis the Child, died at age 12 without a male heir. The eastern Franks joined with their former enemies, the now Christian Saxons, to elect Conrad, the duke of Franconia, as the German king. Though not of the Carolingian line, Conrad was nevertheless still a Frank.
919 At Conrad’s death, however, Franks and Saxons join forces again, this time to elect a Saxon king, Henry I, the founder of the Saxon (soon to be called the Ottonian) dynasty.
936 Henry was succeeded by his son Otto I (the Great), after whom the Ottonian dynasty was then named. The rule of Otto the Great resulted in a revival and expansion of the eastern half of Charlemagne’s great empire.
955 Otto protected the eastern border of what now became known as the German Reich (empire) by a decisive victory against the Magyars of Hungary on a plain near the river Lech, south of Augsburg, north of Munich.
962 Otto is crowned king of the Lombards and Roman Emperor by the pope, the beginning of an unbroken line of Roman Emperors of the German Nation lasting for more than eight centuries.
1024 The male line of descent from Otto the Great died out. The princes elected Conrad, the duke of Franconia, descended from Otto in the female line, as the German king Conrad II. His dynasty was known either as Franconian (named after Franconia, the province of the Franks) or Salian (from the Salii, one of the main tribal groups of the Franks).
1046 Conrad II’s son, Henry III, was crowned Roman Emperor in Rome. When he insisted on installing his own man as pope, he launched two centuries of bitter conflict between German emperors and the papacy.
1095-1291 Crusaders, often from Germany, begin to attempt to free the holy sites in Palestine from Arab/Muslim control. Muslims and Jews in Spain are also targeted.
1096 Crusaders of the First, or German Crusade move north up the Rhine, systematically murdering an estimated 5,000 to 10,000 Jews, fully a third of all the Jews living in Northern Europe. Jews in Speyer, Trier, Metz, Regensburg, Cologne, Worms, Mainz and seven other locations were particularly targeted during this co-called Rhineland Massacre, a horrible harbinger of the Holocaust.
1125 Henry IV’s son, Henry V, dies without an heir.
1157 The Germanic Empire is called the Holy Roman Empire for the first time.
1190 German Emperor Frederick I dies while on a crusade.
1220 Frederick II becomes emperor. He was known as stupor mundi (wonder of the world) because of his brilliant mind. Speaking six languages (Latin, Sicilian, German, French, Greek and Arabic), for much of his reign Frederick II succeeded in controlling Germany, Italy and his favorite domain of Sicily, as well as going on a crusade, where he had himself crowned king of Jerusalem. Here’s his likeness:
http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/d/db/Frederick_II_and_eagle.jpg
1254-1273 The Great Interregnum (a period without an emperor)
1273 Rudolf of Habsburg finally becomes emperor, ending the interregnum. Much later, in 1438, the house of Hapsburg becomes the longest-lasting imperial dynasty by far – 480 years – ending only in 1918.
1349 The Black Death strikes Germany and kills about a third of the population.
1355 Charles (Karl) IV is crowned emperor in Rome.
1356 Charles issues the Golden Bull, a decree which excludes the pope from any further influence in the choice of emperors. He makes his capital in Prague, having inherited Bohemia as well as Luxembourg, bringing that city its first period of glory. The imperial designation remains in Charles’s family until 1438, when it is finally transferred to the Habsburgs. (It was called the Golden Bull because of the golden seal affixed to it):
http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/9/91/Goldene-bulle_1c-480x475.jpg
1386 Heidelberg University is founded.
1409 Leipzig University is founded.
1414 Sigismund, Charles’s son, is instrumental in bringing together the Council of Constance which finally ends the Great Schism (three competing popes at the same time) and restores a single pope to Rome.
1502 Wittenberg University is founded.
1517 Martin Luther begins the Reformation.
1522 The Diet of Worms (a meeting of the German states with the Emperor Charles V in charge), tries Luther for heresy. Martin Luther translates the New Testament into German while imprisoned by his friends for his own protection in the secluded Wartburg castle in Thuringia:
http://www.thueringen.de/imperia/md/images/freshup/english/history/wartburg_eisenach_570px.jpg
1525 The Peasants War (a peasants uprising) takes place in Germany. Luther calls for the peasants to be shot down like dogs.
1531 German Protestant princes form an alliance.
1555 The Diet of Augsburg decrees that each prince can decide which religion his people will follow.
1618 The Thirty Years War begins when Catholic emissaries are thrown out a window in the palace at Prague, landing in a manure pile. It is virtually a world war, with all major European powers weighing in, but mostly fought on German soil.
http://homepage.smc.edu/buckley_alan/ps7/30_years_war2.jpg
1648 The Peace of Westphalia. The Thirty Years War ends but Germany is left enormously devastated, with much of her population dead. Estimates range from 25% to 40%. Some regions were affected much more than others. For example, the state of Württemberg lost three-quarters of its population during the war. In the territory of Brandenburg, the losses amounted to half, while in some areas an estimated two-thirds of the population died. Overall, the male population of the German states was reduced by almost half:
http://www.clashofempires.ca/Blog/Tilly%20dying.jpg
1709-1710 The "Poor Palatines" were some 13,000 Germans who came to England between May and November 1709 and many moved on to the US the next year, as refugees from places like Heidelberg, which had been decimated by invasions of the French. In the US they became known as Pennsylvania Dutch (Deutsch or Deitsch):
http://pabook.libraries.psu.edu/palitmap/PADutch1934Picnic.jpg
http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/0/0f/Lancaster_County_Amish_03.jpg
1740 Frederick the Great becomes king of Prussia and invades Silesia. An enlightened despot and a good musician, he invites the Bachs, Jr. and Sr. as well as Voltaire to his court.
1741 The Prussians defeat the Austrians at Mollwitz.
1745 The war ends but Prussia is left with more territory.
1756 Prussia goes to war against a coalition of enemies.
1772 Prussia takes part of Poland.
1792 Prussia goes to war with France.
1793 Prussia takes more of Poland.
1795 Prussia makes peace with France.
1806 Napoleon temporarily ends the Holy Roman Empire. The French crush the Prussians at Jena.
1812 Napoleon defeated before Moscow. Of the 680,000 men in his Grande Armee, Napoleon lost 380,000 dead, 200,000 captured. Only 27,000 fit soldiers survived. The Russians lost 400,000 men. Of the Battle of Borodino just before Moscow, it has been said by historian Gwynn Dyer that the casualties there were the “equivalent of one fully loaded Jumbo Jet crashing onto the battlefield every three minutes from breakfast to sundown.”
1813 Prussia joins Russia against the remaining army of the retreating Napoleon at the Battle of Leipzig or Battle of Nations, the largest battle in European history before the First World War:
http://greatestbattles.iblogger.org/GB/Leipzig/p78.jpg
1815 A German Confederation is formed, a step toward unification.
1819 Count Metternich, main Habsburg hatchet man, introduces strict censorship with the Karlsbad decrees, rolls back all Napoleonic reforms and other Republican innovations.
1834 Prussia and other states form a customs union called the Zollverein, another step toward unification.
1835 The first steam railway in Germany is built, from Nürnberg to Fürth, six kilometers (3.6 miles):
http://kehilalinks.jewishgen.org/beckum/FurthEisenbahn1835.jpg
1848 Revolution sweeps Germany. An elected assembly representing all Germany, called the Frankfurt Parliament, meets.
1849 The rebellions are put down and the old order returns. Many disillusioned Germans emigrate to the US, such as the revolutionary Carl Schurz, who became Abraham Lincoln’s Secretary of the Interior, a Union Army General in the Civil War, and a senator from Missouri:
http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/f/f9/Carl-Schurz.jpg
1864 Prussia and Austria fight Denmark. Germany gains control over Schleswig-Holstein:
http://www.worldology.com/Europe/images/pre_war_german.jpg
1866 War between Prussia and Austria. Afterwards a North German Confederation is formed, dominated by Prussia.
1870 Prussia crushes France in the Franco-Prussian war.
1871 Prussia makes peace with France. The southern German states unite with the north.
1883 Arch-Conservative Prussian Chancellor Otto von Bismarck introduces universal health insurance in an attempt to blunt the demands of Socialists. (The term Bismarkcare does not catch on.)
1889 Bismarck introduces old age pensions for the same reason.
1890 Bismarck resigns:
https://encrypted-tbn3.gstatic.com/images?q=tbn:ANd9GcR3Hk8HXR_l_YgJ7dlPXvlif74K_YMPLwMY-US4T3TAsAKkoh8k1Q
1898 Germany begins to expand its navy. Nineteen battleships, 8 armored cruisers, 12 large and 30 light cruisers to be completed by 1904.
1900 Size of German fleet to be doubled to 38 battleships, 20 armored cruisers and 38 light cruisers.
1914 Archduke Franz Ferdinand of Austria is assassinated by a Serb, though in Bosnia, not in Serbia. Logically (!?) Austria declares war on Serbia. Russia backs Serbia and declares war on Austria. Germany hands Austria a “blank check” by declaring war on Russia, which is allied to Britain and to France, who then enter the war. The German army overruns Belgium on its way into France. The first mechanized war is a catastrophe of killing. Poison gas is used for the first time. A photo of Franz Ferdinand in his car just before the assassination of him and his wife, Sophie:
http://i.ytimg.com/vi/pBBOPsOhRaA/hqdefault.jpg
The car, with bullet holes and blood (not visible in this photo) in the war museum in Vienna:
http://blogs.forteana.org/system/files/482895.jpg
1917 Russia, having experienced the Bolshevik revolution, withdraws from the conflict. America enters the war on the western front.
1918 The Germans launch a final series of assaults in the trenches of France but fail to break through. From August on the Germans are pushed back. On November 11 at 11 am they sign a cease-fire, which becomes Armistice Day. Over ten million die in battle. Spread by the movement of troops, in a short time the “Spanish flu” [H1N1] kills as many as 100 million more world-wide. Trench warfare:
https://s-media-cache-ak0.pinimg.com/originals/eb/ed/7a/ebed7acb5f9d229bb257c9de375db8bb.jpg
1919 Germany is forced to sign the Treaty of Versailles. Germany has to pay enormous reparation costs. It loses control of the left bank of the Rhine and some of the right bank in the Rhineland. Germany is forbidden to have certain industrial capacity and any armaments, including airplanes. Communists try to seize power in Berlin but are defeated.
1920 Right wing extremist Dr. Wolfgang Kapp attempts a coup in Berlin but is defeated. The German Workers Party changes its name to the National Socialist German Workers Party.
1921 Hitler becomes head of the National Socialists.
1923 Hitler leads a coup attempt in Munich but is arrested and sentenced to prison. He uses the time to write his book, Mein Kampf (My Struggle):
http://www.diplomat.am/all-21/book_mein_kampf_verlag.jpg
1923 French and Belgian troops occupy the Ruhr. Hyper-inflation and hyper-unemployment ensue. Here’s a 200 billion-mark note:
http://www.oldenburg-dobbenviertel.com/PV/Inflationsgeld/200Milliarden-150dpi.jpg
Bundles of smaller denominations became children’s building blocks:
http://www.planet-wissen.de/bilder/mediendb/planetwissen/bilder/politik_geschichte/deutsche_geschichte/weimarer_republik/weimar_kindergeld_akg.jpg
1925 French and Belgian troops end their occupation of the Ruhr and eventually also of the Rhineland.
1929 Wall Street Crash in the USA leads to further unemployment and other turmoil in Germany.
1932 Unemployment in Germany reaches 6 million. The National Socialists become the largest party.
1933 Hitler becomes Chancellor of Germany. Later, after an arsonist sets the building on fire, the Nazis blamed it on the Communists and the Reichstag passes the enabling law, which gives Hitler absolute dictatorial powers.
1934 President Hindenburg dies. Hitler also takes over the President’s powers.
1935 Hitler announces that Germany has an air force. He also introduces conscription. Hitler institutes the Nuremberg Laws oppressing Jews in Germany.
1936 German troops enter the demilitarized zone in the Ruhr and across the Rhine. France, England, and the US do nothing to stop them.
1938 Anschluss (Annexation) of Austria by Nazi Germany, March 12.
1938 Germans attack Jews and Jewish property on Reichskristallnacht (“crystal night”), the night of broken glass, 9-10 November. Nearly all synagogues like this one in Baden-Baden are torched:
http://www.yadvashem.org/yv/en/exhibitions/kristallnacht/images/baden/photo03.jpg
1939 Germany invades Czechoslovakia, March 15.
1939 The Pact of Friendship and Alliance between Germany and Italy, informally called the “Pact of Steel” is signed by Hitler and Mussolini, May 22.
1939 Germany invades Poland, September 1.
1940 Germany invades Denmark, Norway, Holland, Belgium, and France. Troops are sent as well to aid the Italians in North Africa.
1941 Germany invades Yugoslavia, Greece, and then, fatefully, Russia.
1942 The Germans are defeated at El Alamein in Egypt.
1943 The Germans are resoundingly defeated at Stalingrad.
1944 Allied forces land at Normandy.
1945 Russia invades Germany from the east. Britain and the USA invade from the west and from the Mediterranean through Italy. Hitler commits suicide (April 30) and Germany surrenders (the capitulation agreement was signed May 7th and went into force on May 8th at 11:01 pm).
1945 Germany is divided by the French, British, Americans, and Russians into four zones.
The capital, Berlin, located in the Soviet zone, is also divided into four zones.
1948 USA sends Marshall Plan Aid to help rebuild the German economy.
1948 The USSR blockades surface routes to Berlin. The Berlin airlift takes place (Provo Mormon Gail Halvorsen becomes a hero dropping candy to German children):
http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/51KkjOEHhnL._SX258_BO1,204,203,200_.jpg
http://www.stripes.com/polopoly_fs/1.161707.1322258355!/image/982873814.jpg_gen/derivatives/landscape_804/982873814.jpg
1949 A new state, West Germany, is created with its provisional capital in Bonn, birthplace of Beethoven.
1951 The European Coal and Steel Community is formed, a free-trade agreement which marks the beginning of the evolution of the European Union.
1953 Strikes take place in Communist East Germany. The Russians send in tanks and violently put down the uprising.
1955 West Germany joins NATO.
1958 The European Economic Community is formed, another step on the way to the EU.
1961 East German Communists build the Berlin Wall to slow the flow of persons escaping their repressive regime:
http://adst.org/wp-content/uploads/2014/08/building-of-wall-1.jpg
1989 The Berlin Wall falls:
http://i.dailymail.co.uk/i/pix/2009/11/10/article-1226507-0021569C00000258-24_634x417.jpg
1990 Germany is reunited.
1993 The Maastricht Treaty established the European Union under its current name.
2002 Germany begins to use the Euro instead of the Deutschmark (DM) on January 1.
2005 East-German Physicist Angela Merkel [pronounced Mare- kul not Mur- kul] becomes the first woman chancellor:
http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/2/2d/Angela_Merkel_Juli_2010_-_3zu4.jpg
2007 The world-wide economic shock from the American housing bubble causes Germany under Merkel to adopt a policy of strict austerity. Fearing a repeat of the hyper-inflation which led Germans to vote for Hitler in 1933, Germany cut public spending and generally engaged in “belt-tightening” across the board. The result appears to have been a chronic stagnation of the economy – with certainly almost no inflation at all – which has begun to lead to a re-thinking of such austerity policies in Germany and in Europe generally (including England).
2014 Russia invades Ukraine, annexes the Crimea, and moves to conquer other places in Russian-speaking Eastern Ukraine, (though Vladimir Putin claims Russia is merely “supporting glorious Ukrainian patriots in their noble struggle for freedom,” etc.) Angela Merkel and Germany play a leading role in attempting to pressure President Putin to cease such aggressions. Alliances with Russian businesses and reliance on Russian natural gas, however, complicate the matter considerably.
2014 Anti-emigrant emotions flare up in Germany as in other European countries. Organizations such as PEGIDA are formed (Patriotic Europeans Against the Islamification of the West) which stage large demonstrations against Muslims. The history of anti-Semitism in Germany makes these demonstrations doubly painful. Counter demonstrations are often larger than the anti-emigrant demonstrations.
2015 Grievous financial problems in Greece and elsewhere in Europe threaten the stability of the Euro. Germany has become the particular target of Greek anger, not only because Angela Merkel is such a strong force in the European Central Bank – she does not want to be seen by voters as using German tax money to bail out Greek debts – but also because Greeks suddenly recalled being invaded by Germany and are now demanding additional reparations. Anti-German sentiment in Greece has risen markedly recently. Grexit, the exit of Greece from the Euro, seems a very troubling possibility. The Euro loses a considerable amount of its value (which is actually good for German exporters, bad for American exporters, but good for tourists).
Here’s an (even briefer) timeline for France:
6,000 BC Farming begins in France
c. 4,500 BC Menhirs (standing stones) are erected in France
2,000 BC Bronze is used in France
900 BC Celtic people migrate to France
600 BC The Greeks (who knew!) found Marseilles
121 BC The Romans conquer Provence
58 BC Julius Caesar begins to conquer the rest of France (Gaul)
52 BC Celtic leader Vercingetorix leads a rebellion against the Romans but is defeated
48 AD Gauls are allowed to become Roman senators
250 AD St Denis is beheaded
406 Germanic tribes invade France
481-511 Clovis rules the Franks
507 Clovis makes Paris his capital
732 Charles Martel wins the battle of Tours against the Arabs
751 Pepin the Short becomes king
800 Charlemagne is crowned emperor
838-877 Carolingian empire divided. Charles the Bald is king of France
911 Charles the Simple grants Normandy to the Viking chief, Rollo
987 Hugh Capet becomes king of France
1150 Paris University is founded
1204 The French king takes Normandy from the English
1225-1270 Louis IX rules France
1337 The Hundred Years War begins between England and France
1340 The English win the battle of Sluys
1346 The English win the battle of Crecy
1348 The Black Death reaches France
1356 The English win the battle of Poitiers
1358 French peasants rebel but are defeated
1396 Charles VI becomes insane
1415 The English win the battle of Agincourt
1429 Joan of Arc inspires the French who win the battle of Orleans
1453 The English are driven out of France apart from Calais
1482 Provence is absorbed into France
1523 Jean Valliere becomes the first Protestant martyr in France
1539 French is made the language of official documents instead of Latin
1562-1598 France is torn by a series of religious wars
1572 Thousands of French Protestants are murdered by Catholics in the St Bartholomew’s Day Massacre. Protestant Huguenots begin to emigrate, many invited to settle in Protestant northern Germany (including Friedrichsdorf, future site of the LDS Frankfurt temple where the residents, originally opposed, when reminded they were mostly descendants of Hugeunot refugees, changed their minds and voted to allow the building of the temple.)
1610 King Henry IV is assassinated by a fanatical Catholic
1624 Cardinal Richlieu becomes principal minister of France
1627 La Rochelle rebels
1628 La Rochelle surrenders
1642 Cardinal Richlieu dies
1635 France enters the Thirty Years’ War
1643 Louis XIV becomes king of France
1648-1652 A series of uprisings called the Fronde take place in France
1661 An academy of dance is founded
1666 An academy of sciences is founded
1682 Louis XIV moves to a new palace at Versailles
1685 Louis XIV revokes the Edict of Nantes, which gave Protestants toleration
1693-94 France suffers famine
1707-1710 Famine strikes again
1715 Louis XIV dies
1720-onward Trade in France grows rapidly. The middle class increase in numbers and wealth.
1763 After the Seven Years War France loses Canada and India
1778 France goes to war with Britain to support the American colonies who are rebelling
1788 The king calls the Estates-General
5 May 1789 The Estates-General meet
20 May 1789 Members take the tennis court oath
14 July 1789 The Bastille falls
4 August 1789 The feudal privileges of the nobility are abolished
26 August 1789 The declaration of the rights of man
6 October 1789 The king moves from Versailles to Paris
June 1791 The king attempts to flee from France
September 1791 A new constitution is introduced in France
April 1792 France goes to war with Austria
May 1792 France goes to war with Prussia
September 1792 A new government, the National Convention, meets
January 1793 The king is beheaded
February 1793 Conscription is introduced in France
March 1793 The Vendee rises in revolt
April 1793 The Committee for Public Safety is formed
September 1793 The Great Terror begins. Thousands are executed over the next 9 months.
October 1793 Queen Marie Antoinette is beheaded
December 1793 Captain Napoleon Bonaparte recaptures Toulon from the British
June 1794 The French defeat the Austrians at Fleurus
28 July 1794 Robespierre is executed
August 1794 A new constitution is drawn up
1795 Napoleon gives the Paris mob a “whiff of grapeshot”
1799 Napoleon becomes First Consul of France
1804 Napoleon becomes Emperor of France
1807 Napoleon is at his peak
1812 Napoleon is defeated before Moscow
1813 Napoleon is defeated at the battle of Leipzig
1815 Napoleon returns from exile for 100 days but is defeated at Waterloo
1820 The Duc de Berry is assassinated
1824 Charles X becomes king
1830 A revolution takes place. Louis Philippe becomes king of France.
1848 Another revolution takes place and Louis Philippe abdicates. France becomes a republic. In December Louis Napoleon is elected president.
1851 Louis Napoleon stages a coup. He becomes Napoleon III.
1854-56 France fights Russia
1859 France fights Austria
1867 Napoleon III makes his regime more liberal
1870 France is defeated by Prussia and Napoleon is forced to abdicate
1871 Paris rebels but the army crushes the revolt
1875 The Third Republic is created
1894 Captain Alfred Dreyfus, a Jew, is convicted of treason. Anti-Semitism runs high.
1906 Dreyfus is exonerated
1918 The First World War leaves France exhausted
1932 The Depression begins to affect France
1936 The left-wing Popular Front government is formed
1940 France surrenders to Germany
1944 France is liberated
1947 A new constitution is drawn up
1957 France helps Germany found the EU
1958 De Gaulle takes power in France. He draws up a new constitution.
1968 Rioting across France
1969 De Gaulle resigns
1981 Francois Mitterand becomes president of France
1995 Jacques Chirac becomes president
1999 France joins the Euro
2005 Riots take place in France
2014 Anti-emigrant sentiment clashes with Muslim extremism.
An even briefer timeline of Switzerland:
c 500 BC A Celtic people called the Helveti enter Switzerland
58 BC The Romans are in control of Switzerland
260 A tribe called the Alemanii raid Switzerland
c 400 The Roman army withdraws from Switzerland
5th Century: Peoples called the Alemans, Burgundians and Lombards settle in Switzerland
c 600 The Franks conquer Switzerland
9th Century The Franks rule most of Europe but their empire breaks up
13th Century The Habsburg family from Austria rule most of Switzerland. Meanwhile trade and commerce in Switzerland are booming and new towns are founded.
1291 The Swiss want their independence. Delegates from the cantons of Schwyz, Uri, and Unterwalden meet at Rütli Meadow and form an alliance. They create the nucleus of modern Switzerland.
1315 The Swiss defeat the army of Prince Leopold of Habsburg
1388 The Swiss defeat the Habsburgs again
1506 Pope Julius II forms the Swiss guard to be his bodyguard at the Vatican. They still function today with their uniforms from 1506:
http://extraordinaryintelligence.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/04/swiss-guard.jpg
1513 Switzerland now consists of 13 cantons
1515 The Swiss are defeated by the French and Venetians. Afterwards the Swiss adopt a policy of neutrality.
16th Century: Switzerland is rocked by the Reformation
1648 The Austrians formally recognize Swiss independence
1760 Clock and watch making flourish in Switzerland
1798 Napoleon invades Switzerland
1847 The Swiss fight a civil war
1890 Industry in Switzerland is growing rapidly
1918 A general strike takes place in Switzerland
1920 Switzerland joins the League of Nations
1971 Swiss women are allowed to vote (Finally! Good grief!)
2002 Switzerland joins the UN
Finally, a short timeline for the Netherlands:
1st century BC: Numerous tribes (mostly Frisians and Batavians) become the area’s first inhabitants.
4th century: Barbarians invade the area.
1275 Amsterdam is founded.
1421 Storm causes a flood that drowns approximately 10,000 inhabitants.
1516, Habsburg king of Spain Charles V inherits the Netherlands.
1521 Wooden buildings in Amsterdam are banned.
1578 Amsterdam abandons the Spanish and Catholic cause.
1579 The Union of Utrecht unites the northern Low Countries.
1581 The United Provinces declare their independence from Spain.
1602 The United East India Company is founded.
1609 The Dutch discover Manhattan Island.
1626 Peter Minuit (Director-General of the Dutch colony of New Netherlands) purchases Manhattan Island for the equivalent of 24 dollars.
1630 - 1654 The Dutch conquer Brazil.
1642 Rembrandt paints The Night Watch.
1642 - 1643 Abel Tasman reaches Tasmania and New Zealand.
1648 End of war with Spain; Dutch independence recognized.
1652 Jan van Riebeek reaches Cape Town; first Anglo-Dutch war.
1661 Brazil is sold to Portugal.
1665 - 1667 Second Anglo-Dutch war.
1672 - 1674 Third Anglo-Dutch war.
1795 Velvet Revolution; French occupy the Netherlands.
1806 - 1810 Louis Bonaparte (Napoléon’s brother) becomes king of the Netherlands.
1813 The Netherlands regains independence.
1814 The country becomes the Kingdom of the Netherlands headed by Willem I of the House of Oranje-Nassau.
1830 Belgium rebels against the Netherlands and breaks free.
1853 Vincent van Gogh is born.
1890 Vincent van Gogh commits suicide (maybe...)
1920 KLM launches the world’s first scheduled air service.
1922 Dutch women get the vote.
1928 Olympic Games are held in Amsterdam.
1940 Germany invades and conquers the Netherlands four days after the aerial bombardment of Rotterdam.
1941 February strike against deportation of the Jewish community.
1942 - 1945 Anne Frank and her family hide in Amsterdam. The refuge is betrayed and Anne dies at Bergen-Belsen concentration camp. She was 15.
1944 - 1945 Thousands die during the Hunger Winter.
1947 The Diary of Anne Frank is published.
1948 Benelux (Belgium Netherlands, Luxemburg) customs union takes effect.
1949 The Dutch East Indies receives its independence as Indonesia; the Netherlands joins NATO.
1952 The Netherlands are a founding member of European Coal and Steel Community.
1958 The Netherlands joins the European Economic Community.
1975 Amsterdam’s 700th anniversary; the Netherlands grants independence to Surinam; use of cannabis is decriminalized.
1980 Queen Juliana retired and was succeeded by her daughter Beatrix.
2001 The world’s first same-sex marriage takes place in Amsterdam.
2002 Euro replaces the Dutch guilder; regulated euthanasia is legalized.
2005 Dutch voters reject EU constitution.
2010 The Netherlands withdraws its soldiers from Afghanistan.
Writing Good, Brief History is Like Asking For a Pocket-Sized Bible With Big Print!
Writing about history has proved to be a problem for me in these brief modules, because there’s just so much of it. Europe has been so important for so long, and it’s a very big place. (But I would like very much to whet your appetite for history, not destroy it by heaping more on your plate than you can digest in such a short time!)
Speaking of gigantic feasts: my old beloved one-volume history of Europe by the amazing Welsh scholar Norman Davies is huge: 1,365 very large pages long, and with very small print. It weighs about 10 pounds. It has taken me years to plow through (as well written and enjoyable as it is!) So, as much as I love it, I felt I must stay as far away as possible from such microscopic views of history. (And I’m no Norman Davies, either: I’m just a humble Professor Emeritus of German Studies who could some day be charged with practicing historiography without a license...)
In module C we did manage to touch on the Norman Invasion of England, at least... And in modules A and B I feel comfortable about having more or less adequately introduced matters up to about the Fall of the Roman Empire and the Migration of Barbarians into Roman lands.
And we randomly jumped about in history a bit during our discussion of cathedral architecture, without overwhelming anyone, I hope.
I still felt a need, however, to offer some kind of over-all sketch of Western European history, picking up about where we left off at the fall of the Roman Empire and proceeding to 2015.
I began several versions of this module, but after each attempt I saw that I was including so much detail that it was going to run into hundred of pages. I eventually decided that it is impossible to include as much detail as I was trying to and yet boil that much history down to a manageable size.
So I finally decided to use the shorthand format of a simple timetable. Such a timetable is admittedly very sketchy but may at least provide a skeleton for us to flesh out during later modules and during our anticipated discussions on board.
I picked up the story again with the Franks, that Germanic tribe which became so important for Western European history after the Migration of Barbarians.
I focused first and foremost on Germany, but I have also provided even briefer timetables for France, Switzerland, and the Netherlands for comparison and context. I apologize if it’s too sketchy, but hope you will find it both manageable and somewhat useful. (The important thing is that after such a meager meal, I hope you will feel free to order second helpings and even some dessert!):
481/482 Clovis I (Chlodovech = Ludwig = Louis) of the Merovingian dynasty, succeeds his father, Childeric, as the ruler of the Salian Franks from the east side of the Rhine. He converts to Catholic Christianity, as do the other Franks.
494 Clovis takes advantage of the disintegration of the Roman Empire, unites all the Franks – Salian, Ripuarian, and Chatti groups – (their common Christianity helps in this regard), and leads them in a series of campaigns, bringing all of northern Gaul under his rule.
507 Clovis drives southward, subduing the Visigoths who had established themselves in southern Gaul. A unified Frankish kingdom in northern Gaul was thus established and secured.
A map showing the growth of Frankish territory:
http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/1/16/Frankish_Empire_481_to_814-en.svg/1000px-Frankish_Empire_481_to_814-en.svg.png
Note that the area held in about 481 is called Austrasia (not to be confused with Australia, Australasia, or Austria, though it shares with the word Austria the idea that it was an eastern realm = cf. German Österreich – Eastern realm – for Austria). Neustria, meaning “new western land” is the territory in northern Gaul conquered by Clovis in the wake of the Battle of Soissons of 486.
622 Mohammed and his followers in Mecca migrate to Medina. This event, the Hijra, marks the beginning of Islam.
622-750 Islam spreads west as far as Spain:
http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/7/72/Map_of_expansion_of_Caliphate.svg/900px-Map_of_expansion_of_Caliphate.svg.png
687 During a period of particularly weak Merovingian kings, a Mayor of the Palace (a kind of glorified butler) to the kings, a certain Pippin or Pepin, takes upon himself the title Duke and Prince of the Franks.
715 Pepin is succeeded by his illegitimate son, Charles − Carolus – Martel, who went on to found a new line of the family named (after his first name, Carolus) the Carolingian dynasty. Martel began a series of military campaigns that re-established the Franks as the undisputed masters of all Gaul, subjugating Bavaria, Alemannia, and Frisia, defeating the Saxons, and halting the further Islamic advance into Western Europe at the Battle of Tours, deep inside present-day France, in 732. (Charles was appropriately nicknamed The Hammer) He did not call himself king, however, reserving that honor for his son Pepin the Short or Pepin the Younger, father of Charlemagne.
768 Martel’s illustrious grandson Charlemagne becomes king of the Franks.
774 Charlemagne also becomes king of Italy.
782 Charlemagne attacks the Saxons, forcing them at the point of the sword to convert to Christianity. He is responsible for a massacre of 4,500 pagan Saxons at Verden, a town in Lower Saxony on the Aller, a terrible blot on Charlemagne’s otherwise heroic record.
800 Charlemagne, crowned Roman Emperor by the pope on Christmas Day, became a powerful protector of the papacy, removing the anti-papal Lombards from power in northern Italy, and leading an incursion into Muslim Spain. He invited important scholars such as Alcuin of York to help him found an important school, and initiated what has been called the Carolingian Renaissance. (Scholars at Charlemagne’s school made beautiful manuscripts using clearly formed, easily legible lower-case letters called Carolingian Minuscules. The letters you are reading in this module evolved directly from them.):
https://s-media-cache-ak0.pinimg.com/originals/ea/78/53/ea7853a5e61797cba2247e92b290cab6.jpg
Portions of Charlemagne’s very impressive palace and Byzantine-style chapel still stand in Aachen, Germany, near the Dutch border:
http://faculty.cua.edu/pennington/mbs201crusades/LectureTwo/CharlemagnePalace.jpg
http://jfbradu.free.fr/mosaiques/germigny/palais-aix2.jpg
http://www.olympicwanderings.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/12/aachen-arches.jpg
(Charlemagne himself was very impressive):
http://www.route-charlemagne.eu/images/content/Karl/karl_ideal_header.jpg
814 Charlemagne dies. After his death and that of his son Louis the Pious, three of his grandsons fight over territory and his vast empire begins to break up. The eastern part becomes Germany under Louis the German, the western part France under Charles the Bald, the middle part Lothringen (Lothar’s realm = French: Lorraine), under Lothar, as on this map:
http://darkwing.uoregon.edu/~mapplace/EU/EU20_France/Maps/EU20_98PostCharlemagne.jpg
842 The Strasbourg Oaths were read by Louis and Charles to their troops as they conducted their wars while attempting to steal Lothar’s realm. Part of it is in Old French and is the oath cited by Charlemagne’s grandson Louis or Ludwig the German to the French-speaking troops of his brother Charles the Bald. It’s the oldest written document in any Romance language. Conversely, Charles the Bald read the Old High German version of the oaths to his brother’s German-speaking soldiers, (though this does not happen to be the oldest document in Old High German as it is for Old French.) This marks the distinction between the use of German mostly east of the Rhine and French mostly west of the river. Henceforth east of the Rhine is to become Germany, west is to become France and Belgium.
843 The Treaty of Verdun settles the fratricidal wars and gives Lothar his inheritance, though the old desire of his two brothers to carve up his realm has lingered, almost as a kind of curse over the land, down to the present. The borders of Lothar’s realm have become a sort of permanent political, cultural fault line dividing western Europe right down the middle between France and Germany.
911 One of Louis the German’s descendants, Louis the Child, died at age 12 without a male heir. The eastern Franks joined with their former enemies, the now Christian Saxons, to elect Conrad, the duke of Franconia, as the German king. Though not of the Carolingian line, Conrad was nevertheless still a Frank.
919 At Conrad’s death, however, Franks and Saxons join forces again, this time to elect a Saxon king, Henry I, the founder of the Saxon (soon to be called the Ottonian) dynasty.
936 Henry was succeeded by his son Otto I (the Great), after whom the Ottonian dynasty was then named. The rule of Otto the Great resulted in a revival and expansion of the eastern half of Charlemagne’s great empire.
955 Otto protected the eastern border of what now became known as the German Reich (empire) by a decisive victory against the Magyars of Hungary on a plain near the river Lech, south of Augsburg, north of Munich.
962 Otto is crowned king of the Lombards and Roman Emperor by the pope, the beginning of an unbroken line of Roman Emperors of the German Nation lasting for more than eight centuries.
1024 The male line of descent from Otto the Great died out. The princes elected Conrad, the duke of Franconia, descended from Otto in the female line, as the German king Conrad II. His dynasty was known either as Franconian (named after Franconia, the province of the Franks) or Salian (from the Salii, one of the main tribal groups of the Franks).
1046 Conrad II’s son, Henry III, was crowned Roman Emperor in Rome. When he insisted on installing his own man as pope, he launched two centuries of bitter conflict between German emperors and the papacy.
1095-1291 Crusaders, often from Germany, begin to attempt to free the holy sites in Palestine from Arab/Muslim control. Muslims and Jews in Spain are also targeted.
1096 Crusaders of the First, or German Crusade move north up the Rhine, systematically murdering an estimated 5,000 to 10,000 Jews, fully a third of all the Jews living in Northern Europe. Jews in Speyer, Trier, Metz, Regensburg, Cologne, Worms, Mainz and seven other locations were particularly targeted during this co-called Rhineland Massacre, a horrible harbinger of the Holocaust.
1125 Henry IV’s son, Henry V, dies without an heir.
1157 The Germanic Empire is called the Holy Roman Empire for the first time.
1190 German Emperor Frederick I dies while on a crusade.
1220 Frederick II becomes emperor. He was known as stupor mundi (wonder of the world) because of his brilliant mind. Speaking six languages (Latin, Sicilian, German, French, Greek and Arabic), for much of his reign Frederick II succeeded in controlling Germany, Italy and his favorite domain of Sicily, as well as going on a crusade, where he had himself crowned king of Jerusalem. Here’s his likeness:
http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/d/db/Frederick_II_and_eagle.jpg
1254-1273 The Great Interregnum (a period without an emperor)
1273 Rudolf of Habsburg finally becomes emperor, ending the interregnum. Much later, in 1438, the house of Hapsburg becomes the longest-lasting imperial dynasty by far – 480 years – ending only in 1918.
1349 The Black Death strikes Germany and kills about a third of the population.
1355 Charles (Karl) IV is crowned emperor in Rome.
1356 Charles issues the Golden Bull, a decree which excludes the pope from any further influence in the choice of emperors. He makes his capital in Prague, having inherited Bohemia as well as Luxembourg, bringing that city its first period of glory. The imperial designation remains in Charles’s family until 1438, when it is finally transferred to the Habsburgs. (It was called the Golden Bull because of the golden seal affixed to it):
http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/9/91/Goldene-bulle_1c-480x475.jpg
1386 Heidelberg University is founded.
1409 Leipzig University is founded.
1414 Sigismund, Charles’s son, is instrumental in bringing together the Council of Constance which finally ends the Great Schism (three competing popes at the same time) and restores a single pope to Rome.
1502 Wittenberg University is founded.
1517 Martin Luther begins the Reformation.
1522 The Diet of Worms (a meeting of the German states with the Emperor Charles V in charge), tries Luther for heresy. Martin Luther translates the New Testament into German while imprisoned by his friends for his own protection in the secluded Wartburg castle in Thuringia:
http://www.thueringen.de/imperia/md/images/freshup/english/history/wartburg_eisenach_570px.jpg
1525 The Peasants War (a peasants uprising) takes place in Germany. Luther calls for the peasants to be shot down like dogs.
1531 German Protestant princes form an alliance.
1555 The Diet of Augsburg decrees that each prince can decide which religion his people will follow.
1618 The Thirty Years War begins when Catholic emissaries are thrown out a window in the palace at Prague, landing in a manure pile. It is virtually a world war, with all major European powers weighing in, but mostly fought on German soil.
http://homepage.smc.edu/buckley_alan/ps7/30_years_war2.jpg
1648 The Peace of Westphalia. The Thirty Years War ends but Germany is left enormously devastated, with much of her population dead. Estimates range from 25% to 40%. Some regions were affected much more than others. For example, the state of Württemberg lost three-quarters of its population during the war. In the territory of Brandenburg, the losses amounted to half, while in some areas an estimated two-thirds of the population died. Overall, the male population of the German states was reduced by almost half:
http://www.clashofempires.ca/Blog/Tilly%20dying.jpg
1709-1710 The "Poor Palatines" were some 13,000 Germans who came to England between May and November 1709 and many moved on to the US the next year, as refugees from places like Heidelberg, which had been decimated by invasions of the French. In the US they became known as Pennsylvania Dutch (Deutsch or Deitsch):
http://pabook.libraries.psu.edu/palitmap/PADutch1934Picnic.jpg
http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/0/0f/Lancaster_County_Amish_03.jpg
1740 Frederick the Great becomes king of Prussia and invades Silesia. An enlightened despot and a good musician, he invites the Bachs, Jr. and Sr. as well as Voltaire to his court.
1741 The Prussians defeat the Austrians at Mollwitz.
1745 The war ends but Prussia is left with more territory.
1756 Prussia goes to war against a coalition of enemies.
1772 Prussia takes part of Poland.
1792 Prussia goes to war with France.
1793 Prussia takes more of Poland.
1795 Prussia makes peace with France.
1806 Napoleon temporarily ends the Holy Roman Empire. The French crush the Prussians at Jena.
1812 Napoleon defeated before Moscow. Of the 680,000 men in his Grande Armee, Napoleon lost 380,000 dead, 200,000 captured. Only 27,000 fit soldiers survived. The Russians lost 400,000 men. Of the Battle of Borodino just before Moscow, it has been said by historian Gwynn Dyer that the casualties there were the “equivalent of one fully loaded Jumbo Jet crashing onto the battlefield every three minutes from breakfast to sundown.”
1813 Prussia joins Russia against the remaining army of the retreating Napoleon at the Battle of Leipzig or Battle of Nations, the largest battle in European history before the First World War:
http://greatestbattles.iblogger.org/GB/Leipzig/p78.jpg
1815 A German Confederation is formed, a step toward unification.
1819 Count Metternich, main Habsburg hatchet man, introduces strict censorship with the Karlsbad decrees, rolls back all Napoleonic reforms and other Republican innovations.
1834 Prussia and other states form a customs union called the Zollverein, another step toward unification.
1835 The first steam railway in Germany is built, from Nürnberg to Fürth, six kilometers (3.6 miles):
http://kehilalinks.jewishgen.org/beckum/FurthEisenbahn1835.jpg
1848 Revolution sweeps Germany. An elected assembly representing all Germany, called the Frankfurt Parliament, meets.
1849 The rebellions are put down and the old order returns. Many disillusioned Germans emigrate to the US, such as the revolutionary Carl Schurz, who became Abraham Lincoln’s Secretary of the Interior, a Union Army General in the Civil War, and a senator from Missouri:
http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/f/f9/Carl-Schurz.jpg
1864 Prussia and Austria fight Denmark. Germany gains control over Schleswig-Holstein:
http://www.worldology.com/Europe/images/pre_war_german.jpg
1866 War between Prussia and Austria. Afterwards a North German Confederation is formed, dominated by Prussia.
1870 Prussia crushes France in the Franco-Prussian war.
1871 Prussia makes peace with France. The southern German states unite with the north.
1883 Arch-Conservative Prussian Chancellor Otto von Bismarck introduces universal health insurance in an attempt to blunt the demands of Socialists. (The term Bismarkcare does not catch on.)
1889 Bismarck introduces old age pensions for the same reason.
1890 Bismarck resigns:
https://encrypted-tbn3.gstatic.com/images?q=tbn:ANd9GcR3Hk8HXR_l_YgJ7dlPXvlif74K_YMPLwMY-US4T3TAsAKkoh8k1Q
1898 Germany begins to expand its navy. Nineteen battleships, 8 armored cruisers, 12 large and 30 light cruisers to be completed by 1904.
1900 Size of German fleet to be doubled to 38 battleships, 20 armored cruisers and 38 light cruisers.
1914 Archduke Franz Ferdinand of Austria is assassinated by a Serb, though in Bosnia, not in Serbia. Logically (!?) Austria declares war on Serbia. Russia backs Serbia and declares war on Austria. Germany hands Austria a “blank check” by declaring war on Russia, which is allied to Britain and to France, who then enter the war. The German army overruns Belgium on its way into France. The first mechanized war is a catastrophe of killing. Poison gas is used for the first time. A photo of Franz Ferdinand in his car just before the assassination of him and his wife, Sophie:
http://i.ytimg.com/vi/pBBOPsOhRaA/hqdefault.jpg
The car, with bullet holes and blood (not visible in this photo) in the war museum in Vienna:
http://blogs.forteana.org/system/files/482895.jpg
1917 Russia, having experienced the Bolshevik revolution, withdraws from the conflict. America enters the war on the western front.
1918 The Germans launch a final series of assaults in the trenches of France but fail to break through. From August on the Germans are pushed back. On November 11 at 11 am they sign a cease-fire, which becomes Armistice Day. Over ten million die in battle. Spread by the movement of troops, in a short time the “Spanish flu” [H1N1] kills as many as 100 million more world-wide. Trench warfare:
https://s-media-cache-ak0.pinimg.com/originals/eb/ed/7a/ebed7acb5f9d229bb257c9de375db8bb.jpg
1919 Germany is forced to sign the Treaty of Versailles. Germany has to pay enormous reparation costs. It loses control of the left bank of the Rhine and some of the right bank in the Rhineland. Germany is forbidden to have certain industrial capacity and any armaments, including airplanes. Communists try to seize power in Berlin but are defeated.
1920 Right wing extremist Dr. Wolfgang Kapp attempts a coup in Berlin but is defeated. The German Workers Party changes its name to the National Socialist German Workers Party.
1921 Hitler becomes head of the National Socialists.
1923 Hitler leads a coup attempt in Munich but is arrested and sentenced to prison. He uses the time to write his book, Mein Kampf (My Struggle):
http://www.diplomat.am/all-21/book_mein_kampf_verlag.jpg
1923 French and Belgian troops occupy the Ruhr. Hyper-inflation and hyper-unemployment ensue. Here’s a 200 billion-mark note:
http://www.oldenburg-dobbenviertel.com/PV/Inflationsgeld/200Milliarden-150dpi.jpg
Bundles of smaller denominations became children’s building blocks:
http://www.planet-wissen.de/bilder/mediendb/planetwissen/bilder/politik_geschichte/deutsche_geschichte/weimarer_republik/weimar_kindergeld_akg.jpg
1925 French and Belgian troops end their occupation of the Ruhr and eventually also of the Rhineland.
1929 Wall Street Crash in the USA leads to further unemployment and other turmoil in Germany.
1932 Unemployment in Germany reaches 6 million. The National Socialists become the largest party.
1933 Hitler becomes Chancellor of Germany. Later, after an arsonist sets the building on fire, the Nazis blamed it on the Communists and the Reichstag passes the enabling law, which gives Hitler absolute dictatorial powers.
1934 President Hindenburg dies. Hitler also takes over the President’s powers.
1935 Hitler announces that Germany has an air force. He also introduces conscription. Hitler institutes the Nuremberg Laws oppressing Jews in Germany.
1936 German troops enter the demilitarized zone in the Ruhr and across the Rhine. France, England, and the US do nothing to stop them.
1938 Anschluss (Annexation) of Austria by Nazi Germany, March 12.
1938 Germans attack Jews and Jewish property on Reichskristallnacht (“crystal night”), the night of broken glass, 9-10 November. Nearly all synagogues like this one in Baden-Baden are torched:
http://www.yadvashem.org/yv/en/exhibitions/kristallnacht/images/baden/photo03.jpg
1939 Germany invades Czechoslovakia, March 15.
1939 The Pact of Friendship and Alliance between Germany and Italy, informally called the “Pact of Steel” is signed by Hitler and Mussolini, May 22.
1939 Germany invades Poland, September 1.
1940 Germany invades Denmark, Norway, Holland, Belgium, and France. Troops are sent as well to aid the Italians in North Africa.
1941 Germany invades Yugoslavia, Greece, and then, fatefully, Russia.
1942 The Germans are defeated at El Alamein in Egypt.
1943 The Germans are resoundingly defeated at Stalingrad.
1944 Allied forces land at Normandy.
1945 Russia invades Germany from the east. Britain and the USA invade from the west and from the Mediterranean through Italy. Hitler commits suicide (April 30) and Germany surrenders (the capitulation agreement was signed May 7th and went into force on May 8th at 11:01 pm).
1945 Germany is divided by the French, British, Americans, and Russians into four zones.
The capital, Berlin, located in the Soviet zone, is also divided into four zones.
1948 USA sends Marshall Plan Aid to help rebuild the German economy.
1948 The USSR blockades surface routes to Berlin. The Berlin airlift takes place (Provo Mormon Gail Halvorsen becomes a hero dropping candy to German children):
http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/51KkjOEHhnL._SX258_BO1,204,203,200_.jpg
http://www.stripes.com/polopoly_fs/1.161707.1322258355!/image/982873814.jpg_gen/derivatives/landscape_804/982873814.jpg
1949 A new state, West Germany, is created with its provisional capital in Bonn, birthplace of Beethoven.
1951 The European Coal and Steel Community is formed, a free-trade agreement which marks the beginning of the evolution of the European Union.
1953 Strikes take place in Communist East Germany. The Russians send in tanks and violently put down the uprising.
1955 West Germany joins NATO.
1958 The European Economic Community is formed, another step on the way to the EU.
1961 East German Communists build the Berlin Wall to slow the flow of persons escaping their repressive regime:
http://adst.org/wp-content/uploads/2014/08/building-of-wall-1.jpg
1989 The Berlin Wall falls:
http://i.dailymail.co.uk/i/pix/2009/11/10/article-1226507-0021569C00000258-24_634x417.jpg
1990 Germany is reunited.
1993 The Maastricht Treaty established the European Union under its current name.
2002 Germany begins to use the Euro instead of the Deutschmark (DM) on January 1.
2005 East-German Physicist Angela Merkel [pronounced Mare- kul not Mur- kul] becomes the first woman chancellor:
http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/2/2d/Angela_Merkel_Juli_2010_-_3zu4.jpg
2007 The world-wide economic shock from the American housing bubble causes Germany under Merkel to adopt a policy of strict austerity. Fearing a repeat of the hyper-inflation which led Germans to vote for Hitler in 1933, Germany cut public spending and generally engaged in “belt-tightening” across the board. The result appears to have been a chronic stagnation of the economy – with certainly almost no inflation at all – which has begun to lead to a re-thinking of such austerity policies in Germany and in Europe generally (including England).
2014 Russia invades Ukraine, annexes the Crimea, and moves to conquer other places in Russian-speaking Eastern Ukraine, (though Vladimir Putin claims Russia is merely “supporting glorious Ukrainian patriots in their noble struggle for freedom,” etc.) Angela Merkel and Germany play a leading role in attempting to pressure President Putin to cease such aggressions. Alliances with Russian businesses and reliance on Russian natural gas, however, complicate the matter considerably.
2014 Anti-emigrant emotions flare up in Germany as in other European countries. Organizations such as PEGIDA are formed (Patriotic Europeans Against the Islamification of the West) which stage large demonstrations against Muslims. The history of anti-Semitism in Germany makes these demonstrations doubly painful. Counter demonstrations are often larger than the anti-emigrant demonstrations.
2015 Grievous financial problems in Greece and elsewhere in Europe threaten the stability of the Euro. Germany has become the particular target of Greek anger, not only because Angela Merkel is such a strong force in the European Central Bank – she does not want to be seen by voters as using German tax money to bail out Greek debts – but also because Greeks suddenly recalled being invaded by Germany and are now demanding additional reparations. Anti-German sentiment in Greece has risen markedly recently. Grexit, the exit of Greece from the Euro, seems a very troubling possibility. The Euro loses a considerable amount of its value (which is actually good for German exporters, bad for American exporters, but good for tourists).
Here’s an (even briefer) timeline for France:
6,000 BC Farming begins in France
c. 4,500 BC Menhirs (standing stones) are erected in France
2,000 BC Bronze is used in France
900 BC Celtic people migrate to France
600 BC The Greeks (who knew!) found Marseilles
121 BC The Romans conquer Provence
58 BC Julius Caesar begins to conquer the rest of France (Gaul)
52 BC Celtic leader Vercingetorix leads a rebellion against the Romans but is defeated
48 AD Gauls are allowed to become Roman senators
250 AD St Denis is beheaded
406 Germanic tribes invade France
481-511 Clovis rules the Franks
507 Clovis makes Paris his capital
732 Charles Martel wins the battle of Tours against the Arabs
751 Pepin the Short becomes king
800 Charlemagne is crowned emperor
838-877 Carolingian empire divided. Charles the Bald is king of France
911 Charles the Simple grants Normandy to the Viking chief, Rollo
987 Hugh Capet becomes king of France
1150 Paris University is founded
1204 The French king takes Normandy from the English
1225-1270 Louis IX rules France
1337 The Hundred Years War begins between England and France
1340 The English win the battle of Sluys
1346 The English win the battle of Crecy
1348 The Black Death reaches France
1356 The English win the battle of Poitiers
1358 French peasants rebel but are defeated
1396 Charles VI becomes insane
1415 The English win the battle of Agincourt
1429 Joan of Arc inspires the French who win the battle of Orleans
1453 The English are driven out of France apart from Calais
1482 Provence is absorbed into France
1523 Jean Valliere becomes the first Protestant martyr in France
1539 French is made the language of official documents instead of Latin
1562-1598 France is torn by a series of religious wars
1572 Thousands of French Protestants are murdered by Catholics in the St Bartholomew’s Day Massacre. Protestant Huguenots begin to emigrate, many invited to settle in Protestant northern Germany (including Friedrichsdorf, future site of the LDS Frankfurt temple where the residents, originally opposed, when reminded they were mostly descendants of Hugeunot refugees, changed their minds and voted to allow the building of the temple.)
1610 King Henry IV is assassinated by a fanatical Catholic
1624 Cardinal Richlieu becomes principal minister of France
1627 La Rochelle rebels
1628 La Rochelle surrenders
1642 Cardinal Richlieu dies
1635 France enters the Thirty Years’ War
1643 Louis XIV becomes king of France
1648-1652 A series of uprisings called the Fronde take place in France
1661 An academy of dance is founded
1666 An academy of sciences is founded
1682 Louis XIV moves to a new palace at Versailles
1685 Louis XIV revokes the Edict of Nantes, which gave Protestants toleration
1693-94 France suffers famine
1707-1710 Famine strikes again
1715 Louis XIV dies
1720-onward Trade in France grows rapidly. The middle class increase in numbers and wealth.
1763 After the Seven Years War France loses Canada and India
1778 France goes to war with Britain to support the American colonies who are rebelling
1788 The king calls the Estates-General
5 May 1789 The Estates-General meet
20 May 1789 Members take the tennis court oath
14 July 1789 The Bastille falls
4 August 1789 The feudal privileges of the nobility are abolished
26 August 1789 The declaration of the rights of man
6 October 1789 The king moves from Versailles to Paris
June 1791 The king attempts to flee from France
September 1791 A new constitution is introduced in France
April 1792 France goes to war with Austria
May 1792 France goes to war with Prussia
September 1792 A new government, the National Convention, meets
January 1793 The king is beheaded
February 1793 Conscription is introduced in France
March 1793 The Vendee rises in revolt
April 1793 The Committee for Public Safety is formed
September 1793 The Great Terror begins. Thousands are executed over the next 9 months.
October 1793 Queen Marie Antoinette is beheaded
December 1793 Captain Napoleon Bonaparte recaptures Toulon from the British
June 1794 The French defeat the Austrians at Fleurus
28 July 1794 Robespierre is executed
August 1794 A new constitution is drawn up
1795 Napoleon gives the Paris mob a “whiff of grapeshot”
1799 Napoleon becomes First Consul of France
1804 Napoleon becomes Emperor of France
1807 Napoleon is at his peak
1812 Napoleon is defeated before Moscow
1813 Napoleon is defeated at the battle of Leipzig
1815 Napoleon returns from exile for 100 days but is defeated at Waterloo
1820 The Duc de Berry is assassinated
1824 Charles X becomes king
1830 A revolution takes place. Louis Philippe becomes king of France.
1848 Another revolution takes place and Louis Philippe abdicates. France becomes a republic. In December Louis Napoleon is elected president.
1851 Louis Napoleon stages a coup. He becomes Napoleon III.
1854-56 France fights Russia
1859 France fights Austria
1867 Napoleon III makes his regime more liberal
1870 France is defeated by Prussia and Napoleon is forced to abdicate
1871 Paris rebels but the army crushes the revolt
1875 The Third Republic is created
1894 Captain Alfred Dreyfus, a Jew, is convicted of treason. Anti-Semitism runs high.
1906 Dreyfus is exonerated
1918 The First World War leaves France exhausted
1932 The Depression begins to affect France
1936 The left-wing Popular Front government is formed
1940 France surrenders to Germany
1944 France is liberated
1947 A new constitution is drawn up
1957 France helps Germany found the EU
1958 De Gaulle takes power in France. He draws up a new constitution.
1968 Rioting across France
1969 De Gaulle resigns
1981 Francois Mitterand becomes president of France
1995 Jacques Chirac becomes president
1999 France joins the Euro
2005 Riots take place in France
2014 Anti-emigrant sentiment clashes with Muslim extremism.
An even briefer timeline of Switzerland:
c 500 BC A Celtic people called the Helveti enter Switzerland
58 BC The Romans are in control of Switzerland
260 A tribe called the Alemanii raid Switzerland
c 400 The Roman army withdraws from Switzerland
5th Century: Peoples called the Alemans, Burgundians and Lombards settle in Switzerland
c 600 The Franks conquer Switzerland
9th Century The Franks rule most of Europe but their empire breaks up
13th Century The Habsburg family from Austria rule most of Switzerland. Meanwhile trade and commerce in Switzerland are booming and new towns are founded.
1291 The Swiss want their independence. Delegates from the cantons of Schwyz, Uri, and Unterwalden meet at Rütli Meadow and form an alliance. They create the nucleus of modern Switzerland.
1315 The Swiss defeat the army of Prince Leopold of Habsburg
1388 The Swiss defeat the Habsburgs again
1506 Pope Julius II forms the Swiss guard to be his bodyguard at the Vatican. They still function today with their uniforms from 1506:
http://extraordinaryintelligence.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/04/swiss-guard.jpg
1513 Switzerland now consists of 13 cantons
1515 The Swiss are defeated by the French and Venetians. Afterwards the Swiss adopt a policy of neutrality.
16th Century: Switzerland is rocked by the Reformation
1648 The Austrians formally recognize Swiss independence
1760 Clock and watch making flourish in Switzerland
1798 Napoleon invades Switzerland
1847 The Swiss fight a civil war
1890 Industry in Switzerland is growing rapidly
1918 A general strike takes place in Switzerland
1920 Switzerland joins the League of Nations
1971 Swiss women are allowed to vote (Finally! Good grief!)
2002 Switzerland joins the UN
Finally, a short timeline for the Netherlands:
1st century BC: Numerous tribes (mostly Frisians and Batavians) become the area’s first inhabitants.
4th century: Barbarians invade the area.
1275 Amsterdam is founded.
1421 Storm causes a flood that drowns approximately 10,000 inhabitants.
1516, Habsburg king of Spain Charles V inherits the Netherlands.
1521 Wooden buildings in Amsterdam are banned.
1578 Amsterdam abandons the Spanish and Catholic cause.
1579 The Union of Utrecht unites the northern Low Countries.
1581 The United Provinces declare their independence from Spain.
1602 The United East India Company is founded.
1609 The Dutch discover Manhattan Island.
1626 Peter Minuit (Director-General of the Dutch colony of New Netherlands) purchases Manhattan Island for the equivalent of 24 dollars.
1630 - 1654 The Dutch conquer Brazil.
1642 Rembrandt paints The Night Watch.
1642 - 1643 Abel Tasman reaches Tasmania and New Zealand.
1648 End of war with Spain; Dutch independence recognized.
1652 Jan van Riebeek reaches Cape Town; first Anglo-Dutch war.
1661 Brazil is sold to Portugal.
1665 - 1667 Second Anglo-Dutch war.
1672 - 1674 Third Anglo-Dutch war.
1795 Velvet Revolution; French occupy the Netherlands.
1806 - 1810 Louis Bonaparte (Napoléon’s brother) becomes king of the Netherlands.
1813 The Netherlands regains independence.
1814 The country becomes the Kingdom of the Netherlands headed by Willem I of the House of Oranje-Nassau.
1830 Belgium rebels against the Netherlands and breaks free.
1853 Vincent van Gogh is born.
1890 Vincent van Gogh commits suicide (maybe...)
1920 KLM launches the world’s first scheduled air service.
1922 Dutch women get the vote.
1928 Olympic Games are held in Amsterdam.
1940 Germany invades and conquers the Netherlands four days after the aerial bombardment of Rotterdam.
1941 February strike against deportation of the Jewish community.
1942 - 1945 Anne Frank and her family hide in Amsterdam. The refuge is betrayed and Anne dies at Bergen-Belsen concentration camp. She was 15.
1944 - 1945 Thousands die during the Hunger Winter.
1947 The Diary of Anne Frank is published.
1948 Benelux (Belgium Netherlands, Luxemburg) customs union takes effect.
1949 The Dutch East Indies receives its independence as Indonesia; the Netherlands joins NATO.
1952 The Netherlands are a founding member of European Coal and Steel Community.
1958 The Netherlands joins the European Economic Community.
1975 Amsterdam’s 700th anniversary; the Netherlands grants independence to Surinam; use of cannabis is decriminalized.
1980 Queen Juliana retired and was succeeded by her daughter Beatrix.
2001 The world’s first same-sex marriage takes place in Amsterdam.
2002 Euro replaces the Dutch guilder; regulated euthanasia is legalized.
2005 Dutch voters reject EU constitution.
2010 The Netherlands withdraws its soldiers from Afghanistan.
