Catholic monks and nuns - European religion Christians, Jews, and Muslims In 1500 AD, most people in Europe were Christians. A fair number of Europeans were Jewish, and some were Muslims, especially in Eastern [...]
René Descartes - Enlightenment philosopher How do we know what is true? All this fighting about religion and new ideas coming from Africa and the Americas, China and India meant that [...]
Niccolo Machiavelli When did Machiavelli live? Around 1500 AD, Machiavelli was working for the government in the city-state of Florence. Florence was smack in the middle of the Renaissance, which meant that everybody [...]
Catherine de Medici ruled France during the Protestant Reformation What was the Reformation? By the time Francis I of France and Henry VIII of England both died in 1547 AD, attacks by the Ottoman Empire were less [...]
King Louis XIV of France Louis XIV becomes king of France When Anne of Austria decided to retire, in 1661 AD, her son Louis XIV took over ruling France. Anne of Austria All [...]
Map of Europe after the Congress of Vienna (thanks to Wikipedia) What was the Congress of Vienna? An alliance of European armies finally defeated Napoleon in 1814. Then all the European countries [...]
French Revolution: French women revolutionaries march on the king's palace at Versailles Why did France want a revolution? All through the 1700s, Enlightenment philosophers in France had been figuring out new ways [...]
Henry IV of France Henry IV of France In 1589 AD, Catherine de Medici died in France, and her last son, Henry III, was killed a few months later. Henry III had [...]
Ferdinand (1556) Charles V made his brother Ferdinand the ruler of Austria-Hungary in 1556 AD. But when Ferdinand died in 1564, he divided Austria-Hungary among his three sons. Each of those [...]
Protestants throw Catholic officials out the window (Prague, 1618 AD) In the late 1500s AD, the Holy Roman Emperors were too weak to hold their empire together as one country. Instead, the [...]
