The History of the World 600 BC-1750CE
Early-Modern Era
The Post-Classical Age
The Classical Age
1450 C.E. - 1750 C.E.
600 C.E. - 1450 C.E.
600 B.C.E. -600 C.E.
The Battle of Lepanto: 1571
The Scientific Revolution:1600-1690CE
The Mongol Expansion: 1200-1300 CE
The Crusades: 1095-1272CE
The Adoption of Christianity by Constantine
Peloponnesian Wars
- In 1095, Pope Urban II calls for the First Crusade to recapture the Holy Land from the Turks
- The Christians launched several Crusades but first was the most successful as the Crusaders controlled the Holy Land for a century. However, in the 12th century, muslim general, Saladin defeats the crusaders and ends their century long control of Jerusalem
- Although failing miserably, the Crusades opened trade routes from Western Europe to the Middle East, exposing Western Europe to a transcontinental trading network
- Emperor Constantine adopted the religion of Christianity in 313 C.E. in an attempt to unify the Empire
- Before the adoption of Christianity in the Roman Empire Christians were persecuted as the
minority religion
- After Constantine adopted
the religion, the succeeding
Emperors became emperors
of the Empire and the church
- The Church also succeeded
because of financial help
from Constantine
- The Peloponnesian wars lasted from 431 to 404 B.C.E.
- The wars were a fight for dominance in Greece between Spartans and Athenians in which Sparta was victorious
- Although Sparta won the
war a strong political
structure was never
implemented and the turmoil
that plagued the government
and the people after the
war allowed for the conquest
of Greece by Phillip II.
- On October 7, 1571, a Christian fleet sailed south from he Gulf of Corinth to meet the mighty Ottoman fleet and protect Europe from further Ottoman expansion westward
- The two sides fought the Battle of Lepanto and after five hours of naval combat, the Christians decisively repelled the Ottoman advance
- The Battle of Lepanto is significant because it stopped the Ottoman expansion right in its tracks
- Had the Christians lost, the Ottomans would have continued pushing further and further west, gaining dominance over the Mediterranean and
- During the 17th century, scientists such as, Copernicus, Kepler, and Newton contemplated the world and formed theories that contradicted the church's long-standing scientific views. They claimed that the sun was the center of the world and that planets orbited the sun elliptically not circularly
- These clever scientists proved the church wrong
- This is so important because it placed trust in reason. In other words, it was no longer the churches power to tell you how the planets and stars worked or how the world worked. Instead, you could figure it out yourself with reason, math, and science. It revolutionized the way the people studied the world and it still persists today. In today's world, we get information about math and science Universities and Professors not the Church.
- United under Chinggis khan, the Mongols successfully swept across Eurasia, conquering and pillaging city after city.
- Using their elite solely horseback armies they pressed further and further west, defeating the Muslims and the Kievan Rus', getting as far west as the Balkans
- As ruthless and savage as the conquests were, the Mongol Expansion reopened Silk Road trading and influenced the beginning of a transcontinental commercial network
Punic Wars
The Seven Years War:1756-1763
The Fall of the Byzantine Empire: 1453 CE
- The Punic Wars were fought between Rome and Carthage from 264 to 146 B.C.E.
- The wars were a bloody fight for dominance between the two largest empires in the Mediterranean
- They were prompted due to a conflict of interest (Sicily)
between the expanding Roman Empire and the Powerful Carthaginian Empire
- Although Carthage was lead by one of the best military tacticians (Hannibal), they lacked the funds that the Romans had and the sheer numbers
- The Seven Years War or the French Indian War is commonly referred to as the first global war because it involved fighting in three different regions, Western Europe, India, and the New World
- A rise in colonial tension between Britain and France led to the British attacking French strongholds
- The war was settled in 1763 by the Treaty of Paris which granted Britain the entire New France colony. The French were given back their Caribbean sugar islands in exchange.
- In 1453, Turkish sultan Mehmed II, equipped with Hungarian artillery, conquered Constantinople
- The Fall of Constantinople is so significant in terms of world history because it was such a hub for culture, trade, technology, and learning
- Losing such an important asset in spreading Christianity and acquiring new ideas dealt an enormous blow to the spread of Christianity
- The significance in the impact of the Seven Years War deals more with how it was settled than how it was fought. The Treaty of Paris, by rearranging colonial holdings abroad, establishes a precedent that disputes between countries can have effects on colonial holdings abroad. This precedent becomes a recurring theme in the coming centuries.
- Brilliantly placed on the Bosphorus Strait, no other city provided such a profitable opportunity for trade, learning, and cultural exchange than Constantinople