There are two necessary tools for learning history, one is the chronology and the other is the map. With them, events can be positioned on the coordinates of time and space, and the relationship and laws between events can be understood.
1. Chronology
The 3,000-year history from 1,000 BC to 2,000 AD is divided into six sections every 500 years. Each paragraph is summed up in two words, which are recorded as Greco-Roman, Christ and Muhammad, and darkness and light. This kind of notation can just represent 1000 years every 4 characters. Among the four characters of each 1000 years, the first two characters are the key points, and the last two characters are changes.
【Greek and Roman】
In the 1,000 years BC, the first 500 years focused on the development of Greek civilization, and the second 500 years focused on the Roman Republic to the Roman Empire, but the role of Greece in the last 500 years was equally important. It produced Socrates, Plato, and Aris. Dodd, these important scholars, also appeared such a well-known emperor as Alexander the Great.
【Holy Christ】
In the first 1,000 years AD, the first 500 years focused on the emergence, development, and legalization of Christianity until it became the state religion. During these 500 years, Germanic and Hunnic invasions also occurred. Under such pressure and anxiety, Christianity became To the comfort of the people, the Roman Empire was divided, and the Western Roman Empire soon perished after the division. The Christian Holy See in Rome, the new rulers of Europe, the Germanic barbarians, and the Greco-Roman academics left over from the last 1,000 years formed a wonderful combination: the Germanic barbarians became Christian knights, and the Greco-Roman academics supported Christian teachings. The last 500 years of the first 1,000 years focus on the birth and sweep of Islam, corresponding to the birth of Jesus Christ at the beginning of the first 500 years, Muhammad was born at the beginning of this 500 years, and the Islam he founded swept at an alarming speed He conquered the vast territory of Asia and Europe, and was not hindered until he met Charles the Hammer of the Frankish Kingdom. The descendants of Charles the Hammer were crowned emperor by the Pope, that is, Charlemagne, but after the death of Charlemagne, his Frankish Empire quickly split, and the Eastern Frankish Empire, at the end of this 500 years, evolved into the Holy Roman Empire.
【Dark Light】
In the second 1,000 years AD, the first 500 years are the darkest history—the late Middle Ages, which includes the painful memories of the Crusades, Mongolian invasion, Black Death, and the demise of Eastern Rome. In such darkness, dawn appeared, and at the end of this 500 years, the great Renaissance took place. In the next 500 years, the religious reform, the scientific revolution, the enlightenment movement, the romantic movement, and the industrial revolution, Europe entered a period of rapid development, and the corresponding price was looting, killing, slavery, and war. The dark clouds did not Dissipate completely.
2. Map
For the convenience of memory, I distorted the map of Europe and extracted it into 16 squares of 4*4.
Warp into a tabular map that's easy to draw and remember:
These 16 squares include a corner of Europe, North Africa, Asia Minor, and Arabia, and include the main places where European historical events took place. Among them, North Africa, Asia Minor and Arabia do not belong to Europe geographically, but they are inseparable from many important events in European history.
From the real map to the 16-grid map, there have been some distortions, the most obvious being the location and shape of several peninsulas, the UK that has been moved up, and the waters that have been simplified into sidelines. These distortions are necessary and acceptable.
In order to facilitate identification, a Chinese character is written in each square, indicating the main country of the place on the modern world map, such as Britain, France, Germany, Italy, Spain, Turkey, Ukraine, Poland, Egypt, some of which represent There are many countries where there are several countries, and a word of a representative country is used. For example, the word Rui means Northern Europe where Sweden is located, the word Greek means the Balkan Peninsula where Greece is located, and the word A means the Arabian Peninsula where Saudi Arabia is located. The two non- Words for West and North Africa. These Chinese characters are only used to help identify the place, so a discreet gray color is used.
3. Story
Now that the chronology and map are available, you can read the story.
1. Greece (first 500 years, 1000 BC to 500 BC)
The 500 years from 1000 BC to 500 BC
It belongs to the ancient period in history. Of course, before 1000 BC, civilization had already begun to develop, but that is not the content of this article (it will require a special article, which will be quite interesting). By the beginning of this 500-year period, people had cities, writing, agriculture, metallurgy, and a hierarchy, horses and camels had long been tamed, and iron tools had begun to be used.
In the 12th century BC, Greece fell into the "dark age" with the invasion of the Dorians, implementing tribalism and aristocratic politics. By the end of the 500 years, the rise of city-states allowed industry and commerce to play a role, and Greece's economy developed rapidly. At the same time, military and political changes have also taken place. Infantry replaced cavalry, and oligarchy replaced monarchy.
2. Rome (the second 500 years, from 500 BC to the first year of AD)
1. 5th century BC
At this time, the Persian Empire was the largest empire in the world. At the beginning of this century, the Persian Emperor Darius sent an expeditionary force to attack the Greek mainland, and the Persian War broke out. In the first Persian War, the Persians and the Athenians fought in Marathon. Athens, which was short of troops, won a big victory with fewer victories. The soldiers who returned to Athens for the victory ran 42.195 kilometers. After completing their mission, they died of exhaustion. Since then, the world has become more A sport called marathon running. In the second Persian War, the Persian army fought a bloody battle with the Spartans at Thermopylae. All the guarding Spartans were killed, but they left the Persians with nearly 20,000 corpses. This is the famous The story of the three hundred warriors of Sparta. After passing through Thermopylae, the Persians arrived in Athens, but found that the Athenians had withdrawn, leaving an empty city. The Persian emperor Xerxes burned the city in anger. At the same time, in Salamis In the Persian Strait, the Persian navy, which has an absolute superiority in numbers, was defeated by the Athenian navy after completing the encirclement of the Athenian navy. At this point, the Persians were exhausted and began to decline from then on until they were wiped out by Alexander the Great.
But on the side of Greece, the victor of the Persian War, the conflict between Athens and Sparta intensified. In 431 BC, the war between the Delian League (led by Athens) and the Peloponnesian League (led by Sparta) broke out ( Known as the Peloponnesian War in history), intermittent, several armistices, until the end of this century (404), the end of the war was declared with the dissolution of the Delian League and the surrender of Athens. In this war, all the city-states of Greece were involved, and the prosperity of ancient Greece was greatly damaged, and it has since turned from prosperity to decline.
2. 4th century BC
After both Athens and Sparta suffered losses, Thebes briefly dominated, but it was not stable. In 338 BC, King Philip II of Macedonia defeated the anti-Macedonian alliance of Athens and Thebes, forcing them to recognize Macedonian supremacy, but in 336 BC, Philip II was assassinated, and his 20-year-old son succession. The 20-year-old would go on to become known by a famous name: Alexander the Great.
After Alexander succeeded to the throne, he first quelled the uprising that attempted to get rid of the city-states controlled by Macedonia while the old king died, and then he started an expedition. His first goal was Persia. The hatred of Persia burning Athens in the last century is still in the hearts of the Greeks. Deeply rooted, Alexander charged Persia with the crime of being the messenger of the murderer who assassinated Philip II. He set off in 334 BC, and by 330 BC, the once prosperous Persian Empire was completely destroyed. , Egypt and Mesopotamia had been conquered by him as territories.
But he didn't stop, he continued to conquer, and by 327 B.C. he had reached India, an amazing distance from Greece to India, but by the time his generals and soldiers were weary to the core, they Strongly demanding to stop the offensive and return to his hometown, Alexander withdrew from India in 325 BC in desperation. In 324 BC, Alexander returned to Babylon and settled here. His 10-year expedition ended here. He was only 32 years old at this time. The most unexpected thing is that only one year later, Alexander suddenly fell ill and died at the age of only 33 years old, the cause of death is still unknown. History books describe that Alexander died of falciparum malaria, but many people tend to say that he died of drinking poisoned wine. The list of nominated suspected murderers includes his generals, wives and even his teacher-Aristotle.
After Alexander's death, his territory quickly broke up, but unlike the Mongol Empire that also expanded rapidly and then broke up, Alexander's expedition spread Greek culture throughout the Middle East and had a great impact on the integration of the West and the East. In historical evaluation, he is the head of the four famous generals in Europe (the other three are Hannibal, Caesar and Napoleon), and one of the four emperors in poker (the other three are David, Caesar and Charlemagne) , as the greatest military genius in European history, a student of Aristotle, and an admirer of Hercules and Achilles, his untimely death made countless posterity sigh, "If you give him more time", countless people have made such assumptions, but assumptions can only be assumptions.
3. 3rd century BC
After Alexander's death, his empire fell apart. At this time, an empire that would maintain its dominance for a long time was brewing. It was Rome. At this time, Rome was still a republic. In the 3rd century BC, Rome finally unified the Italian peninsula. , this achievement may seem insignificant, but if you look at the above map, you will find that even at the height of the Alexander Empire, they only occupied a small part of the Balkan Peninsula. ,
The Romans had now done a better job than the Greeks in unifying their peninsula, although of course they had the advantage that the mountains on the Italian peninsula were easily accessible. After the unification of the Italian peninsula, the contradiction between the Romans and the Carthaginians in North Africa became prominent, and they competed for Sicily. The war between the land power Rome and the sea power Carthage broke out. This is the Punic War mentioned in the history books.
The three Punic Wars were all won by Rome. In the end, Carthage was completely defeated, the city was massacred, and it withdrew from the stage of history, while Rome became the overlord of the Mediterranean. But among the participants in the three Punic Wars, the most famous and immortal one was the military commander of the losing side—the commander of Carthage, one of the four famous generals in Europe, and Han Han, who was revered as the "father of strategy". Nibal.
In the first Punic War, the Romans defeated the Carthaginians and captured Sicily, and Carthage turned to the Iberian Peninsula. In 218 BC, Hannibal led his army across the Alps to attack Rome, triggering In the Second Punic War, Hannibal led his army to intersperse guerrillas in Italy, and fought away for 15 years. Strategically, he pushed the front line of the war into enemy territory; tactically, he achieved a series of wonderful victories, including encircling Rome with 50,000 men and destroying Rome with 70,000 men at the Battle of Cannae. However, the centripetal force, mobilization force, and determination to fight to the end of the commercial empire Carthage were far from comparable to the agricultural empire Rome. Hannibal led a large number of mercenaries, and their combat effectiveness and loyalty were not strong. For him, because the command of the sea was in the hands of Rome, it was difficult to obtain supplies from Carthage. After the 50,000 reinforcements led by his younger brother were wiped out and his younger brother was killed, Hannibal finally reached his limit. In the end, the Roman general Scipio attacked the basic land of Carthage by "surrounding Wei and saving Zhao", and Hannibal was forced to return to help. Defeated Hannibal, which was Hannibal's first and last defeat on the battlefield. After the defeat of this battle, Carthage was forced to admit defeat and signed an extremely harsh treaty with Rome.
After the war, Hannibal was forced to go into exile because of the collusion between Carthage officials and Rome, and Hannibal was forced to go into exile after a short political experience. Ba took poison and committed suicide at the age of sixty-four.
4. 2nd century BC
After Hannibal, no one in Europe could stop the expansion of Rome. The third Punic War broke out, Carthage fell, and the Romans controlled the northern shore of the Mediterranean Sea, including the whole of Italy, the Iberian Peninsula, and the Greek Peninsula. , part of Asia Minor, and the coastal part of today's France.
5. 1st century BC
In the last century before the birth of Jesus, the Romans continued their conquest. In 58 BC, the Gaul War began. The initiator was Caesar, the Roman consul and governor of Gaul, who was called Caesar the Great in later generations. After the victory in the Gaul War, Caesar's strength increased greatly. At this time, among the two allies who formed the "Triple Alliance" with him, Crassus had been defeated and died, and Pompey had a strong fear of Caesar. The court colluded and called Caesar back to Rome. Caesar, who was unwilling to give up his strength, led the army back after consideration, which shocked the Senate and Pompey, and they fled in panic.
After Caesar asked the remaining members of the Senate to elect him as dictator, he started a war with Pompey. He defeated Pompey's army in Spain and Greece in succession. Caesar finally won the decisive Battle of Phasalo, and Pompey fled Egypt. Caesar pursued to Egypt, and Egyptian pharaoh Ptolemy XIII killed Pompey and dedicated it to Caesar, hoping that Caesar would help him get rid of his sister, Cleopatra VII, the famous Cleopatra. But Cleopatra's charm had an effect. Caesar instead announced that the Egyptian throne would be shared by Ptolemy XIII and Cleopatra. Secret XIII was killed and Cleopatra came to the throne. After conquering the Kingdom of Pantes and leaving behind the famous "Veni, Vidi, Vici" (I Come, I See, I Conquer), Caesar returned to Rome to carry out a series of internal affairs activities, and sent troops to North Africa and Spain in succession to pacify the The remnants of Pompey's party who fled to North Africa, Pompey's son in rebellion in Spain, were victorious.
In 44 BC, Caesar declared himself dictator for life. On March 15, Caesar was assassinated in the theater built by Pompey. Throughout his life, he did not proclaim himself emperor, but he was a veritable uncrowned king. As the founder of the Roman Empire, he was widely respected by later generations, and even many countries used "Caesar" as the title of emperor. He is not only an outstanding military commander and one of the four famous generals in Europe, but also an outstanding politician. Through a series of institutional changes, he established the general trend of the Roman Republic turning into the Roman Empire, although he himself did not see this transformation happen that day.
After Caesar's death, there was a brief split in Rome, which was finally reunified by Caesar's adopted son Octavian, who first allied with Antony and eliminated the republicans who murdered Caesar, and then defeated Antony, forcing Antony and his lover Egypt Cleopatra commits suicide. After the unification was completed, Octavian gained great real power with a series of superb political means. In 27 BC, Octavian implemented the head system and won the title of "Augustus", becoming the de facto emperor. His title "Augustus" and "Caesar" also became the title of the emperor. So far, although Rome is still a republic in name, it has actually become an empire, and Octavian is also recognized as the first emperor of the Roman Empire. Caesar's military achievements and Octavian's political achievements gave the Roman Empire a solid foundation. Both of them were included in the ranks of gods after their deaths.
3. Christ (the third 500 years, AD 1 to AD 500)
1. 1st century AD
In the first century AD, the Roman Empire continued to expand under Octavian's successors.
In the Middle East at the beginning of this century, Jesus was born. His story did not take place in Europe, but it had a huge impact on later Europe.
When Jesus was about 30 years old, he began to preach, claiming to be the Son of God. This threatened the Jewish leaders as a heretic, so they arrested and executed him. According to the "Bible" records, Jesus was resurrected on the third day after he was executed and appeared to his disciples. Only then did his disciples believe in him and began to preach everywhere. Eleven of the twelve disciples headed by St. Peter were killed by those in power. Made great contributions to the spread of Christianity St. Paul was also active during this period, but he was not among the twelve disciples. On the contrary, he had participated in the persecution of believers, but later he converted to Christianity, and his active missionary work was a great success, because He believes that Christianity is not just the religion of the Jews, but the religion of the whole world. In this way, Christianity spread far beyond Judaism. The works of St. Paul accounted for half of the New Testament, and he played a huge role in the spread of Christianity. In the end, St. Paul was also killed by those in power.
2. 2nd century AD
In this century, the development of the Roman Empire reached its golden age (Early Empire) and then began to decline (Later Empire). The rulers of Rome are very disgusted with Christianity and have been suppressing its development, but the love and hope in Christianity are widely loved by the lower class people, and the number of believers is increasing.
3. 3rd century AD
In the third century, the Roman Empire encountered a crisis. From 235 to 284, there were 24 emperors successively in Rome, only one of whom died of illness (disease), and all the others died of accidents. The incompetence of the emperor, the invasion of foreigners, the mutiny of soldiers, and the independence of localities made the Roman Empire crumbling. At the end of this century, Emperor Diocletian finally stabilized Rome, but his four-emperor system will evolve into a permanent division of the Roman Empire in the next century.
4. 4th century AD
At the beginning of this century, civil war broke out again in the divided Roman Empire, luckily, they ushered in Constantine the Great. In 312 AD he unified the Western Empire, and in 323 AD he unified the entire Roman Empire.
The worried Roman nobles finally converted to Christianity. In 313, Constantine promulgated the "Edict of Milan", declaring Christianity as a legal religion. By 380 at the end of this century, Christianity had become the state religion of the Roman Empire.
In 330, Constantine moved his capital from Rome to Byzantium, and his new capital was the famous Constantinople. After the death of Constantine, the empire was divided and unified many times, and finally in 395 at the end of this century, it was permanently divided. The capital of Western Rome was Rome, while the capital of Eastern Rome was Constantinople.
5. 5th century AD
The Huns invaded Europe, and the pressure of Attila, the "whip of God", forced the Germanic barbarians to invade the Roman Empire again. They were mercenaries of the Western Roman Empire at first, but later they occupied the magpie's nest. The Western Roman Empire was formally established in 476 AD. perished, and the Eastern Roman Empire was also in a miserable situation of lingering.
The Roman Empire had collapsed, and the Hunnic Empire also collapsed after Attila's death, so that the rulers of Europe became Germanic barbarians, but their culture was too backward to rule such a large territory, so Christianity became their Choose, they established a number of Christian countries, and retained the Christian Holy See. The Lombards entered Italy, the Vandals entered Spain, the Anglo-Saxons entered Britain, and the Franks controlled major parts of Europe.
The unified empire ceased to exist, and the land of Europe became a puzzle of small kingdoms. The classical era ended and the Middle Ages began. In the next 500 years, Muhammad and his religion will have a new impact on Europe, and the Germanic barbarians, the Vikings, who stayed in their hometown, will also increase the pressure on Europe in the next 500 years.
4. Prophet Muhammad (the fourth 500 years, from 500 AD to 1000 AD)
1. 6th century AD
Corresponding to Jesus' birth in the first century of the last 500 years, Muhammad was born in the first century of this 500 years. But his deeds are what happened in the next century. In this century, Emperor Justinian of the Eastern Roman Empire once captured the territory of Italy, Spain, and North Africa, making the Mediterranean Sea almost become an inner lake of an empire again.
2. 7th century AD
Muhammad was inspired by the apocalypse and founded Islam. So far, the "three religions of Abraham" have all emerged. The three religions are Judaism, Christianity (a general term for Catholicism, Orthodox Church, and Protestantism) and Islam in chronological order of appearance.
From the comparison of these three religions, it is not strictly speaking: Judaism believes in the "Hebrew Bible", that is, the Old Testament part of the "Bible"; Christianity believes in the "Old Testament" and "New Testament", and believes that Jesus is the Savior; Islam believes in the "Old Testament", "New Testament" and "Koran", and accepts the existence of Jesus, but does not believe that he is the Son of God. A Prophet and the last Prophet, the Qur'an is the last book after the Old and New Testaments.
These three religions are monotheistic and believe in the same god (Judaism is called "Yahweh", Christianity is called "Jehovah", and Islam is called "Allah"), and both Jews and Arabs recognize Abraham as their own. ancestors, and both consider Jerusalem a holy place for their own religion.
In this way, we can understand why Judaism is hostile to Christianity. In their eyes, Jesus is by no means the Messiah, but just a subversive with ulterior motives, a heresy that everyone can punish. As for the hatred between Christianity and Islam, let’s wait for the next five hundred years, the passage of the Crusades.
After Muhammad established his religion, he conquered the pagan tribes by force. At the time of Muhammad's death, Muslims had almost occupied the entire Arabian Peninsula. Muhammad's successors, the four caliphs, continued to expand.
At the beginning of this century, a large-scale war broke out between the Eastern Roman Empire and Sasanian Persia. As a result, the national strength of both countries declined greatly, unable to cope with the expansion of Arabia. In the end, the Eastern Roman Empire was hit hard by Arabia, and Sasanian Persia was completely destroyed.
3. 8th century AD
When the Arab Empire reached its peak, it not only owned the entire Arabian Peninsula, but also the vast territory of the Middle East, North Africa and Spain. The reason why it is said to be the heyday is because the expansion momentum of the Arabs was finally checked: in Tours, France, the Arabs were repelled by the ruler of the Frankish Kingdom, "Charles the Hammer". The rapid expansion of the Arabs so far, they have built a vast empire.
The story of the Arabs comes to an end, they have reached the most powerful period of the empire. In the last two centuries of the five hundred years, the protagonist of the story is the Frankish Kingdom, the descendants of Charles the Hammer, who restrained the expansion of the Arabs. In the 8th century, his descendants - Pepin the dwarf and Charlemagne - had established a powerful Frankish kingdom.
4. 9th century AD
In the first year of the 9th century AD, Charlemagne was crowned emperor by the Pope. The territory of his Carolingian Empire included part of what is now France, Germany and Italy. This is an unprecedented scale in Europe after the fall of Western Rome. of. He also became one of the four kings on playing cards (Spades K King David, Club K Alexander the Great, Diamonds K Caesar, Hearts K Charlemagne). Unfortunately, after his death, the Carolingian Empire split into three parts: the West Frankish Kingdom, the Middle Frankish Kingdom and the East Frankish Kingdom. The kingdoms were the predecessors of France and Germany respectively.
5. 10th century AD
The Frankish Kingdoms were divided and merged several times. In 962, King Otto I of the Eastern Frankish Kingdom was crowned emperor by the Pope in Rome, and the Holy Roman Empire was born. In the German population, it was called the "First German Empire".
In the 9th and 10th centuries AD, Europe was invaded by Viking pirates from Northern Europe for a long time. They were powerful, barbaric, and terrifying. Their activities are not limited to the waters along the coast, but can also go deep inland, thanks to their long boats, which can also travel on very shallow water, and when they need to walk, they carry the boat.
These pirates made various countries deeply troubled. In order to stop the Vikings, the Frankish king awarded their leader the title of Duke of Normandy. The Vikings settled down in this way and gradually became believers in Christianity. So far, the three groups of invaders, the Germans, Muslims and Vikings, have become history, and the worst days of Europeans seem to have passed.
5. Darkness
1. The 11th century AD
In the middle of the 11th century AD, William, the Duke of Normandy (a descendant of the Vikings who settled in France in the last century), conquered England, and the hereditary monarchy began in England. Also in the middle of the 11th century, the Pope of Rome and the Patriarch of Constantinople excommunicated each other, and Christianity split into Catholicism and Orthodox Church.
At the end of the 11th century AD, in order to help the Eastern Roman Empire fight against the Islamic Seljuk Empire (the Seljuk Empire had already occupied Asia Minor, which originally belonged to the Eastern Roman Empire), and recover the lost land occupied by Arabia, especially the "holy city" Jerusalem, Permitted by the Catholic Pope in Western Europe, the feudal lords and knights in Western Europe dispatched troops. The First Crusade began. This was the only victory in the Crusades. The Crusaders captured Jerusalem and established a series of countries.
2. 12th century AD
In this century, the Western Europeans carried out the second and third Crusades, but they failed to achieve their goals.
3. The 13th century AD
During the first three Eastern Expeditions, the Western Europeans and the Eastern Roman Empire had already had many conflicts. In the fourth Eastern Expedition, the Crusaders actually attacked Constantinople, the capital of Eastern Rome, under the instigation of the Venetians. After breaking through the city, they robbed and massacred. The motivation of the Crusades was originally a mixture of fanatical religious enthusiasm and realistic desire for profit. The characteristics of cruelty, violence, stupidity and greed were also reflected in all previous actions. Neither Christians nor Christians are immune, let alone their enemies, Muslims. Simultaneously with their ferocity and brutality, their military literacy is very poor, and they will even lose a lot of troops during the march. Among them, the combat effectiveness of the "civilian crusaders" (nothing more than some instigated mobs) is even weaker. . This fourth Eastern Expedition was the most notorious of all previous Eastern Expeditions. They pointed their blades at their ally, the Eastern Roman Empire, which also believed in Christ. From then on, the Eastern Roman Empire fell into a slump until its final complete demise in the five hundred years.
The fifth to eighth expeditions that followed all took place in this century, and each ended in failure. The reason is that the Crusaders had a chaotic composition, a mixture of knights and peasants, serious inconsistencies in weapons and combat effectiveness, and relatively low tactical literacy. Facing the mature armies of the Arabs and Turks, they were no match at all. Worse than all the failures of the last seven Eastern Crusades, the poor performance of the Crusaders caused conflicts between Christians and Muslims for thousands of years.
There were also Mongol invasions in this century, but for Europeans, the appearance of the Mongols was not a bad thing, because the Mongols did more damage to the Muslims than they did to them.
4. 14th century AD
Britain and France went to war, and the Hundred Years' War broke out. This period of war was forced to cease fighting for a period of time because of the Black Death. This terrible epidemic swept across Europe, causing 1/3 to 1/2 (a chilling figure) of population loss.
5. 15th century AD
The Ottoman Empire that rose in the last century (while the Grand Duchy of Moscow was also rising), continued to expand in this century. In 1453, they captured Constantinople, and the ancient Eastern Roman Empire perished. At the same time, the Hundred Years' War between Britain and France ended, and the victor France was on the verge of collapse, but Joan of Arc saved them.
After the war, France completed national unification, and Britain entered the Tudor dynasty after the Civil War and the War of the Roses. Both the Ottoman Empire and the Grand Duchy of Muscovy expanded rapidly, with the latter gradually gaining ground that astounded the world in the centuries that followed. With the expansion of the Ottoman Empire, countless scholars from the Eastern Roman Empire fled to Western Europe with works of art and books from ancient Greece and Rome. These works and books opened the eyes of Western Europeans who had less confidence in Christianity due to the outbreak of the Black Death—it turned out that there were such good times and works before the Christian rule! As a result, people under the rule of the church in the dark Middle Ages erupted with great power, the great Renaissance movement was launched, and European history has since come to modern times.
Six, bright
1. 16th century AD
The works of the "Three Masters of the Renaissance" Da Vinci, Raphael, and Michelangelo are still Christian figures and events - such as Da Vinci's "The Last Supper", Raphael's oil painting of the Virgin, Michelangelo Angelo's David. The Renaissance brought people back to thinking about human beings, and emphasized "humanity" instead of "divinity". shock.
Since becoming the state religion of Rome, the right to interpret the Bible has been firmly controlled by the church, and ordinary people have no possibility to even read the Bible. , so the church became the ruler, and the teachings in the "Bible" became a tool for politicians and liars in the church to seek personal gain. A huge success, the con artists of the church have fooled the stupid and pious believers for more than ten centuries. Finally, in the 16th century AD, Martin Luther appeared. He translated the "Bible" so that everyone could read the "Bible". He also emphasized that the "Bible" should be used as a guide, not the church. Guidance, his reform work with Zwingli, Calvin and others who followed up later broke the monopoly of the Holy See on Christianity. Protestantism, which was born from this, has also become the main branch of Christianity alongside Catholicism and Orthodox Church. The minds of Europeans were further liberated, and European countries also got rid of the control of the Holy See.
At this time, it was also the era of great geographical discovery with the vigorous development of navigation. In the latter part of the last century, Da Gama discovered a new route to India, while Columbus discovered America, and in the early part of this century, Magellan completed Sailing around the world. During this era, Spain and Portugal carried out colonial activities and carved up huge colonies outside Europe.
2. The 17th century AD
During the Renaissance period, people have been nostalgic for the past and the present, thinking that ancient Greece was perfect, and advocating efforts to be as perfect as the ancient Greeks. But the research conclusions of Galileo and Newton in the 17th century pointed out that the Greeks also made mistakes. During the scientific revolution, major breakthroughs were made in physics, astronomy, biology, medicine, and chemistry. Scientific ideas are deeply rooted in the hearts of the people, and science and technology are developing rapidly. In this century, the bourgeois revolution broke out in England, Charles I was beheaded, and Britain became a constitutional monarchy.
3. 18th century AD
During the Enlightenment, people called for reason to dispel darkness. This is another ideological liberation movement following the Renaissance and the Reformation, advocating rational and scientific thinking. The works of Montesquieu, Voltaire, Rousseau, Hobbes, Locke, and Kant are still shining today. Since then, reason has replaced ignorance, science has replaced superstition, and light has replaced darkness.
As one of the results of the Enlightenment, in the latter part of the century, the French Revolution broke out, and the monarchy and feudal system were destroyed. Unfortunately, France after the Great Revolution did not form a beautiful political system, but fell into violence and chaos. middle. European countries formed the Anti-French Alliance to fight against the emerging French Republic.
The Romantic Movement, which was paralleled in time with the Enlightenment, was dissatisfied with the tendency of the Enlightenment to ignore emotion, will and imagination, and advocated the importance of the individual and nature. This seems to be heading in the opposite direction of the Enlightenment: the Enlightenment advocates rationality , while the Romantic movement advocated sensuality, but the two have in common, that is, the abandonment of the authority of the church.
In the middle of this century, the British Watt improved the steam engine, the machine replaced the handwork, and the industrial revolution began.
4. 19th century AD
In the late last century, the French commander Napoleon won the war against the Anti-French Alliance through his strong military talents (after Alexander, Hannibal and Caesar in BC, the latest of the four major military commanders in Europe) victory. At the beginning of this century, Napoleon was crowned by the Pope and became emperor. After he smashed the anti-French alliance for the third time, the Holy Roman Emperor gave up his title, and the Holy Roman Empire perished. After that, he smashed the fourth and fifth anti-French alliances, brought the First French Empire to its peak, and almost the entire European continent became his territory. With his horseshoes, the spirit of the French Revolution and the Napoleonic Code 》 spread all over Europe, and the influence of the church was devastated.
Afterwards, Napoleon's expedition to Russia, although victorious all the way, paid heavy casualties. The Russian commander-in-chief Kutuzov resolutely abandoned Moscow, leaving the French army an empty city. In the following cold winter, the French army suffered heavy losses and was forced to withdraw.
After the war, European countries formed the Anti-French Alliance for the sixth time. Napoleon fought with it and won each other. In the end, Paris was captured, Napoleon surrendered, and he himself was exiled to the island. The First French Empire falls.
After Napoleon was exiled, Louis XVIII came to the throne, the Bourbon dynasty was restored, and the French people were very dissatisfied. Napoleon took the opportunity to escape and turned the French army that had stopped him to support him. Napoleon returned to Paris, and the Hundred Days Dynasty began. In Napoleon's war against the seventh anti-French alliance formed by European countries, the most important battle was the battle against the Duke of Wellington in Waterloo, that is, the Battle of Waterloo. Napoleon was defeated in this battle and the Hundred Days Dynasty ended. , Napoleon was exiled again.
Six years later, Napoleon died on the island, the cause of death is unknown.
Although Napoleon has faded out of the historical stage, his influence on Europe will not dissipate. Democratic ideas have been popularized and nationalism has risen. In this century, Germany and Italy have successively completed the unification. Before the iron-blooded Prime Minister Bismarck completed the unification of Germany, France and Germany experienced important events such as the Franco-Prussian War and the Paris Commune. The hatred formed by these two countries will break out in the world war of the next century. The Industrial Revolution brought advances in technology, economy, natural sciences and social sciences, and the growing European countries carried out colonization activities in other continents. In the middle of this century, the Communist Manifesto was published. These will profoundly affect the changes in the world in the next century.
5. 20th century AD
In the 20th century that has just passed, too many things happened, and these things are worthy of special time for research and special pen and ink for description, so in this text, I won’t say much.
time event table
