TimeMaps

Europe
2500BC

The period since about 3000 BC has seen nomadic peoples from the central Asian steppes, speaking Indo-European languages, coming into eastern and central Europe. Their domestication of horses has given them a military edge, and they seem to have imposed themselves upon the earlier populations as a ruling class.

Material progress has continued for the past thousand years. Long-range trade networks are becoming established throughout the continent, and copper is coming into use, starting in southern Europe and spreading into eastern and central areas of the continent.

Europe
1500BC

Europe is now coverd by a network of Bronze Age farming cultures, ruled for the most part by powerful chiefs and warrior elites. Much of eastern and central Europe is home to Indo-European speakers, ancestors of the Celts, Germans, Italians and Illyrians.

In the south east corner of the continent, in Greece, an important development in world history has taken place. Civilization has arrived from the Middle East, with its already ancient cities and empires, by way of Crete and the Aegean.

Europe
1000BC

The peoples of Europe have experienced widespread disruption as the peoples of the Tumulus cultures have expanded out from their central Europe homelands, just before 1200 BC. The train of migrations and invasions that this set in motion has had a huge impact on the wider world. It probably caused the fall of the first civilization on the European mainland, that of the Mycenaeans in Greece, and led to the violent eruption of the “Sea Peoples” from southern Europe into Middle Eastern history.

Within Europe itself, the peoples of the old Tumulus cultures are now distributed around western, central and southern parts of the continent, the ancestors of today's Celts, Slavs and Italians.

Europe
500BC

In southern Europe, the Greeks, Carthaginians and other peoples have colonized the coasts and islands of the Mediterranean sea, and hundreds of small city-states (among them the as-yet-insignificant city of Rome) have sprung up.

The emergence of the Classical city-state in the Mediterranean world has allowed one of the most brilliant civilizations in all human history to develop, that of ancient Greece. The small city-states are normally governed by republics rather than monarchies, and are fiercely competitive. They provide a fruitful environment for advances in many branches of endeavour, artistic, intellectual and political. In them, the foundations for future Western civilization are being layed.

To the north, the Celts now cover western Europe from Spain in the west to Britain in the north. Peoples closely related to them, both ethnicaly and culturally, dominate central Europe.

Europe
200BC

In the Mediterranean world, the city-states of Greece, where immense cultural achievements have been registered over the past three centuries, are now overshadowed by powerful new kingdoms to the north and east, carved out of the conquests of Alexander the Great. These kingdoms are home to a new cosmopolitan civilization, which modern scholars label "Hellenistic".

Similarly, to the west, a new power has made its appearance in history, Rome. She has risen to control Italy and, having defeated Carthage, that ancient and wealthy city on the north coast of Africa, now dominates the western Mediterranean.

In northern Europe, Celtic tribes, now experiencing the late Iron Age La Tene phase of their cutlure, continue to cover much of the continent, and have thrown out offshoots into northern Italy, the Balkans and even Asia Minor.

More TimeMaps history teaching resources:  History lesson plan to teach the History of the Ancient World. 

Europe
30BC

By this date, Rome dominates western Europe and the Mediterranean. After a long period of civil wars and campaigns of conquest under such famous generals as Pompey the Great and Julius Caesar, peace now prevails across its empire.

Graeco-Roman civilization is rapidly spreading throughout the Roman world. Along its northern frontiers the legions confront hostile German tribes, who will, within a very few years (AD 6) inflict on them a crushing defeat, effectively halting any plans the Romans may have for further expansion in this direction. Nevertheless the Roman state is now amongst the most populous, prosperous and stable empires of ancient history.

Europe
200AD

The Roman empire has expanded considerably over the past 200 years, and now covers all southern and western Europe, including much of what are now England and Germany.

The empire has brought peace to this vast region, bringing great and rare blessings to its fifty-million or so inhabitants. With peace and commerce, cities have prospered.

Beyond the imperial frontiers, the German peoples have been experiencing a period of major upheaval, which effects the Romans through a much increased pressure on their frontiers. Roman emperors are having to spend more and more of their time on campaign. This trend will only continue, and shortly the empire – and with it the Graeco-Roman civilization it shelters - will enter its long period of decline. For now, though, this period represents the acme of the ancient world in the west.

Europe
500AD

After a long period of decline, the Roman Empire is now confined to its eastern half. Here, the old Graeco-Roman cities continue to thrive, but their culture has seen great change, especially in the religious sphere. In the early fourth century the emperor Constantine had legalized Christianity; this religion is now the official religion of the empire, with the Christian church wielding huge influence at all levels of society.

The western provinces, meanwhile, have been overrun by German tribes, and a number of Germanic kingdoms have been established. Roman cultural influences remain strong, but civilization has taking a huge hit here. Trade has declined, towns have shrunk, villas have been destroyed, and roads have fallen into disrepair. In this time of upheaval, the Church has assumed greater influence than ever before, with bishops effectively ruling many of the towns and cities. The Church keeps much ancient learning alive, a vitally important function in a period in which literacy and learning is restricted to an ever narrower group of people.

Europe
750AD

The Franks, one of the German tribes which had established a kingdom within western Europe by 500, now dominate much of western Europe. The Franks have been greatly assisted in this by their close links with the Catholic Church. This has given them the support of the Catholic majority in the population, and has given them the administrative capacity to govern their expanding realm effectively. It has also caused the Church throughout western Europe to come increasingly under the spiritual leadership of the bishop of Rome (known throughout Christendom as “the pope”).

Warlike pagan tribes still inhabit most of central and eastern Europe, whilst most of Spain is now part of the huge Muslim Caliphate. In the eastern Mediterranean, the remaining provinces of the Roman Empire have been battered by Arab armies, as well as by peoples coming down from central Europe. Within the empire, Greek has now displaced Latin as the language of government, and, with Christianity as the empire's official religion, it is a very different state from that of earlier periods. Modern scholars to give it the label “Byzantine Empire”, to distinguish it from the Roman Empire of old.

Europe
979AD

In the late 8th century the Frankish kingdom expanded over most of western Europe, particularly under its vigorous king, Charlemagne (reigned as king, 768-800, and as emperor, 800-814). Charlemagne's empire began to break up under his successors, a process accompanied by destructive invasions from beyond its borders. Vikings from the north, Magyars from the east and Arabs from the south raided deep into European territory, and, brushing aside the feeble royal armies, made life for millions of Europeans chronically insecure.

It was in the chaos of this period, with the almost complete breakdown of civil government across much of western Europe, that the first castles appeared, as, in the absence of royal protection, nobles set out to protect their own localities. These small wooden affairs signalled the the rise of a new organization for society, which modern scholars have called feudalism

Despite all its troubles, Christendom continued to expand into new lands, as monks and bishops converted princes and their peoples to the Christian faith.

Europe
1215AD

Over the past two centuries, life has been getting more secure. With increased security has come expanding trade, rising prosperity, and growing towns. Much of the new wealth has gone into building magnificent churches and cathedrals: this is the age when the church, headed by the popes in Rome, is at the peak of its power and influence.

This is also the high age of feudalism in Europe. Kings rule their kingdoms in uneasy collaboration with their nobles - a collaboration often complicated by the intrusion of the church into politics. In some places (for example, France) this has strengthened royal power; in other places (Germany) it has gravely weakened it.

However, the past century and a half has seen religion and politics working together in the launching of a succession of great military expeditions, promoted by the popes and consisting of kings, nobles and knights drawn from all over Christendom. Their aim has been to push back the power of Islam in the Near East; in fact, however, their main result has been to fatally undermine the strength of the Byzantine empire, hitherto Christendom's main bulwark against Muslim power.

Europe
1453AD

The Black Death, which struck in the 1340s and 50s, had an enduring effect on European society. It loosened the grip of feudalism, and undermined respect for the Church, with its great wealth and power. Religious movements - for example the Hussites in Bohemia and the Lollards in England - sprung up, seeking to return Christians to a purer form of their faith. Completely new modes of thought also appeared, questioning all aspects of the received wisdom of the time. By this date the Italian Renaissance is well underway, with its revolutionary developments in all fields of learning; and Portuguese ships have sailed out into the wide Atlantic and down the coast of Africa. The first printing presses to be built in Europe will soon be spreading the new ideas and knowledge throughout the length and breadth of Europe.

In this year, 1453, the morale of Europeans is severely shaken by the fall of the historic Christian city of Constantinople to the Muslim Turks. However, the new technological and scientific discoveries that are already beginning to develop in Europe - which, it is important to note, are built on foundations laid in the Middle East, India and China - will soon lead to European power and influence reaching right across the world.

Europe
1648AD

Aided by new developments in printing, the Renaissance spread from Italy to the rest of Europe in the 15th and 16th centuries, transforming every aspect of European thought and culture. It also led to the Reformation. This widespread religious movement enabled the teaching of Christianity to touch the lives of millions of ordinary people in a new and more vital way; but it also opened the way to religious strife. This set in train a sequence of wars which would leave virtually no European nation untouched, and result in a continent divided into two religious camps, Protestants and Catholics.

Parallel to these developments, and linked with them, were the rise of powerful, centralized monarchies ruling over nation-states. At the same time voyages of discovery opened up overseas trade and colonization to Europeans, above all the settling of the Americas. Unparalleled economic expansion followed, which, interacting with the turbulent currents of western religion and philosophy, helped give rise to new developments in science. Dramatic advances in astronomy helped dethrone old notions of the universe, and so played a key role in the scientific revolution beginning to unfold.

Europe
1789AD

In the wake of the bitter religious strife of the previous age, a movement known as the Enlightenment has gathered pace since the later 17th century. This has sought to dethrone traditionally-received beliefs, based largely on religious doctrines, in favour of views of the universe based on reason alone. It has caused thinkers to look at everything in a new way, stimulating great advances in the sciences and, in social thought, undermining traditional views about how nations should be governed. These currents of thought have had a deep influence on events across the Atlantic, where the founders of the new USA designed an entire political system based upon them. This has is turn paved the way for the French Revolution, which would change Western government and politics for ever.

These developments have taken place against a background of increasing prosperity, caused by a huge growth in overseas trade. European powers, especially France, Holland and Britain, have found themselves competing for trade and territory around the world. This competition has led to several world-wide maritime wars, but also to further advances in scientific and geographical knowledge. By this time, moreover, the Industrial Revolution has started in Britain.  All these developments are helping lay the foundations for the future domination of the world by European nations.

Europe
1837AD

The French Revolution of 1789 posed a direct threat to the traditional ruling regimes of Europe, with their hereditary monarchies, powerful aristocracies and entrenched priesthoods. It led to more than twenty years of almost continual warfare. The revolutionary wars soon saw the rise of one of the greatest military commanders in world history, Napoleon Bonaparte. He seized control of France in 1799 and had himself crowned emperor of the French in 1804. His attempts to impose his will on the rest of Europe convulsed the entire continent, and were only ended in 1815, at the battle of Waterloo.

After Napoleon's defeat, governments set about restoring as much of the old political order as they could. Europe had changed, however. The French Revolution had awakened new political aspirations for democracy and national self-determination. The Industrial Revolution was now beginning to re-shape the economies and societies of much of Europe. New industrial cities were emerging, and with them an educated middle class, impatient with the old order.

Overseas, the Napoleonic wars left Britain in firm command of the oceans. She used this naval dominance to keep the seas free for the commerce of all countries, and as a result, world trade has continued to expand. This trade is mostly in the hands of westerners, and the global domination of the world by European nations is strengthening.

Europe
1871AD

Revolutionary movements, based on the twin ideals of democracy and nationalism, have led to the redrawing of the map of Europe with the appearance of a unified Germany and Italy. Both unifications have been at the expense of the Austro-Hungarian empire, whose very existence is threatened by the nationalist aspirations of its many different ethnic groups.

Society is also being reshaped by the quickening pace of industrialisation. Railway networks now connect the major towns and cities of the continent, greatly speeding travel, bringing down transport costs and promoting economic growth. They are also connecting the cities to the countryside in a new way, speeding the decline of traditional rural life. By this date, Britain and Germany can be properly described as industrial nations, and other Europeans are not far behind. The emergence of huge industrial cities, great urban working classes, trade unionism and socialism, is beginning to transform the politics of the more advanced countries.

European domination of the rest of the world is entering a new phase, as a handful of powers have started to use their industrialized military capabilities to acquire extensive overseas territories in Africa, Asia and the Pacific.

Europe
1914AD

By this date Europe is home to a new kind of economy, capable of generating far greater wealth than the agricultural societies of the past. Vast new industrial cities, with their mass working and middle classes, have transformed the face of the continent.

The European nations' industrialized armed forces, manifest in their ironclad battleships and maxim machine guns, give them a military strength which the countries of other continents cannot come near to matching. The European powers have indulged in a frenzied competition for overseas territory. Most of the world has become carved up amongst their empires, with Britain and France taking the lion's share. The tensions this has given rise to have been exacerbated by the appearance of a large and dynamic new state in Europe's midst, the German Empire. Anxiety amongst older powers such as Britain and France has led to a shifting system of alliances which, by this date, has hardened into two camps dividing Europe between them, with Germany and Austria against France, Britain and Russia. The international obligations which these alliances involve have now dragged Europe into the First World War (1914).

Europe
1960AD

The end of World War (1918) saw the map of Europe re-drawn, with the break-up of the Austro-Hungarian Empire, the redefining of Germany's frontiers (and its monarchy replaced by a republic) and the Russian Revolution having brought the Communist Soviet Union into being (1917). The Great Depression in the 1930s saw mass unemployment in Europe. This led inexorably to the rise of Adolf Hitler's Nazi party in Germany and the coming of World War 2 (1939-45). This war left Europe utterly ruined, and divided between an American-led west and a Communist-controlled east. The USA poured economic aid into western Europe, which has set the nations here on a path to recovery, and indeed unparalleled prosperity.

Overseas, the years since World War 2 have seen the withdrawal of European nations from most of their empires. Within the continent, a group of countries have formed the Common Marker, precursor to today's European Union.

Europe
2005AD

The years since 1960 have seen the completion of the European nations' withdrawal from empire. By 2005 only a few outposts, too small to form viable independent states in their own right, remain.

Whilst the western nations of Europe powered ahead economically, the Communist countries under Soviet control remained comparatively impoverished. This led ultimately to the fall of the Communist regimes in central Europe, and to the end of the Soviet Union itself, in the few years beginning in 1989.

By this period, the Common Market had morphed into the European Union (EU), and had become a powerful agent for the spread of democracy. Already authoritarian regimes in Spain, Portugal and Greece had given way to democratic ones under its influence, and now the ex-Communist countries of central Europe followed suit. With democracy has come economic growth and membership of the EU.

The collapse of the Communist system has not been without major troubles. In the Balkans, old ethnic conflicts, for decades kept in check by ruthless dictatorships, now flared up again. Bitter fighting between Serbs, Croats and others drew NATO (1999) into a short, sharp air campaign.