European History ‑ Countries, Facts & Timeline

Great Awakening

First Great Awakening In the 1700s, a European philosophical movement known as the Enlightenment, or the Age of Reason, was making its way across the Atlantic Ocean to the American colonies. Enlightenment thinkers emphasized a scientific and logical view of the world, while downplaying religion. In many ways, religion was becoming more formal and less […]

English Bill of Rights

Glorious Revolution The Glorious Revolution, which took place in England from 1688‑1689, involved the ousting of King James II. Both political and religious motives sparked the revolution. Many English citizens were distrustful of the Catholic king and disapproved of the monarchy’s outright power. Tensions were high between Parliament and the king, and Catholics and Protestants […]

KGB

What Is the KGB? KGB stands for Komitet Gosudarstvennoy Bezopasnosti, which translates to “Committee for State Security.” The KGB headquarters occupied what is now a famous structure at Lubyanka Square—and not Red Square—in Moscow. That same building is now home to the FSB, or Federal Security Service of the Russian Federation, which serves a similar […]

Glorious Revolution

King James II King James II took the throne in England in 1685, during a time when relations between Catholics and Protestants were tense. There was also considerable friction between the monarchy and the British Parliament. James, who was Catholic, supported the freedom of worship for Catholics and appointed Catholic officers to the army. He […]

Church of England

Church of England Facts Church of England History The Church of England’s earliest origins date back to the Roman Catholic Church’s influence in Europe during the 2nd century. However, the church’s official formation and identity are typically thought to have started during the Reformation in England of the 16th century. King Henry VIII (famous for […]

Pogroms

RUSSIAN POGROMS BEGIN Pogrom came into frequent use as a term around 1881 after anti‑Semitic violence erupted following the assassination of Czar Alexander II. Anti‑Jewish groups claimed the government had approved reprisals against Jews. The first violence broke out in Yelizavetgrad, Ukraine, and then spread to 30 other towns, including Kiev. During Christmas of the […]

Weimar Republic

Germany After World War I Germany didn’t fare well in the years following World War I, as it was thrown into troubling economic and social disorder. After a series of mutinies by German sailors and soldiers, Kaiser Wilhelm II lost the support of his military and the German people, and he was forced to abdicate […]

Who Were Celts

Where Did The Celts Come From? By the third century B.C., the Celts controlled much of the European continent north of the Alps mountain range, including present‑day Ireland and Great Britain. It is these islands off Europe’s western coast in which Celtic culture was allowed to survive and thrive, as the Roman Empire expanded on […]

Eugenics

Francis Galton Eugenics literally means “good creation.” The ancient Greek philosopher Plato may have been the first person to promote the idea, although the term “eugenics” didn’t come on the scene until British scholar Sir Francis Galton coined it in 1883 in his book, Inquiries into Human Faculty and Its Development. In one of Plato’s […]

Romanov Family

Peter the Great The Romanovs were high‑ranking aristocrats in Russia during the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries. In 1613, Mikhail Romanov became the first Romanov czar of Russia, following a fifteen‑year period of political upheaval after the fall of Russia’s medieval Rurik dynasty. He took the name Michael I. Michael I’s grandson Peter I, also known […]

Soviet Union

The Soviet Union was the world’s first Marxist‑Communist state and was one of the biggest and most powerful nations in the world. It lasted from 1922 until its fall in 1991.

British Parliament

Parliament’s Humble Beginnings The present‑day Parliament is a bicameral (“two chambers”) legislature with a House of Lords and a House of Commons. These two houses, however, weren’t always joined, and had their earliest beginnings in the Anglo‑Saxon council governments of the 8th century. The Witan was a small council of clergymen, land‑owning barons and other […]