On the second page you will find important events of the time starting with the birth of Jesus up to the 20th century.

---

6 B.C.-30 ? Jesus or Jeshua a carpenter from Nazareth gives hope to people feeling oppressed and after getting crucified his ideas remain, mainly due to the resurrection by

St. Paul 10-64 Saul of Taurus a zealous Diaspora Jew. He stops persecuting the first Christians but rather uses his Latin name Paul, gives Jesus’ ideas a system and cooperate identity and in contrast to CEO Peter opens it up to new target groups. He names them Christians (Greek Christos=Messiah).

434-453 Attila king of the Huns (Latin: Scourge of God) pushes Barbarians onto Rome that finally leads to the end of the roman empire in 476.

The Christian era, now used almost exclusively throughout the Western world for civil chronology, is first used in 525 by the Christian monk Dionysius Exiguus, (Denis the little) who fixes the birth of Christ (wrongly).

570-632 Muhammad starts Islam, another spin off of the Judean-Christian religion. As all three are people of the book and part of the Umma (community) they are protected in their religious freedom, rights and properties. "There shall be no compulsion in religion" Koran 2:256.

Rising cost of government make money payment more attractive to the feudal lords. Due to their inflexibility they are not able to keep up with the merchants and the increased urbanization leads to an agricultural crisis in the
14th century. The more expensive labor and cheap land further boosts the change to a money market and decline of feudalism. Further social changes are caused by

1400-1468 Johannes Gutenberg (Gensfleisch zur Laden) improvement of the printing technique. The rise of humanism is best seen in Renaissance Italy with artists like

1452-1519 Leonardo da Vinci. One of the greatest genius not only of his time he not only paints the Mona Lisa but as a "senior military architect and general engineer" he also meets

1489-1527 Niccolo Machiavelli. As a political theorist he is his best example of fortune and virtù. His most famous work "Il principe" shows the difference between private and public morality.

1483-1546 Martin Luther and 1509-1564 John Calvin are two popular reformists who force the church to find a new role in society.

1649 Charles I gets executed and eventually it leads
1688 to the Glorious Revolution.

1736-1819 James Watt devises an efficient steam engine. As economic wealth is closely related to cheap energy this also becomes the start of the industrial revolution.

1723 - 1790 Adam Smith writes March 1776 "(An inquiry into the nature and causes of) The Wealth of Nations". With this he supports the change from mercantilism to the free market. The invisible hand of the free market uses the strongest motives in the best possible way.
It's the same year that the pursuit of happiness gets included as an unalienable right in the Declaration of Independence.

1809 -1882 Charles Robert Darwin, the naturalist whose discovery of the theory of evolution by natural selection revolutionize biology. Already returning 1836 from his studies it is not until 1859 that he dares to publish the abstract, "On the Origin of Species by Means of Natural Selection, or The Preservation of Favored Races in the Struggle for Life".

1815-1898 Otto von Bismarck the master tactician is forced to resign as chancellor of Prussia in 1890 by William II. Bismarck was a last representative of the world of the ancien régime and cabinet diplomacy. William II (1859-1941), the grandson of Britain's queen Victoria is not able to rule his empire and starts WW I.

Back|Next page (20th century and later)

Top of Page