Constantine summoned a council of all major Christian community leader to meet in Nicaea with a goal of establishing a universal statement of what it meant to be Christian. Prior to the Nicene Creed the beliefs of Christianity as a whole were very vague, and many people had very different ideas of what it meant to be a Christian. This creed worked to bring everyone together, and effectively turned the multiple Christianities into a single Christianity.
Constantine recognized the Eastern portion of their empire to be the more important half. He decided to build a new capital on the site of Byzantium. This was a major action in further distancing the Eastern half of the empire from the West.
The Frankish territories prior to Clovis were a very divided region. Clovis was the first Frankish King to unite them together, and in the year 500 he was officially converted to Christianity via baptism. Clovis was the first major Christian ruler in this region, and this conversion not only helped strengthen the religion, but it also helped strengthen the region Clovis ruled over.
At the age of 40, Muhammad recieved the first of his many visions which would continue late into his life. The visions told him that he was the final prophet of the One True God, and these messages are known to us today as the Qur'an. The significance of this event is obvious, as it sparked the enourmous religion of Islam that is a huge part of the world still today.
The people of Mecca did not take kindly to Muhammad's call to end the Pagan cults, and so he and his small company was drove from the City. From there, they started the famous march to Medina. This march is now known as the Hijrah, and is commemorated by Islamic people still today.
On Christmas day of the year 800, Charlemagne was crowned augustus by Pope Leo III. This moment marked an important shift from using the old system of dates to the now standard anno-Domini system. This coronation was also significant as it essentially was declaring the Carolingian court independent of the Greek East, and established a way to pass the imperial title to future generations.
1066 was a very eventful year in England, and the Battle of Hastings marked the Climax of that eventful year. England under Harold II fought against Normandy under William the Conquerer, and after a long and bloody fight Normandy were the victors. This was a devastating outcome that few would have ever seen coming a year prior, and it marked the only time England would ever be completely taken over.
1095 marks the date that the first of many Crusades began. The Crusades were a wars blessed by the Church under the motivation of taking back the holy land. While religion very often plays a role in wars, the Crusades had a unique religious aspect in that they were the primary motivation. There were of course other motivations such as the overbearing conflict of East versus the West and the struggle to control the Mediterranean, but the idea of fighting for the sake of Christianity was a novel idea that had widespread influence.
Huge reform took place in the papacy after a number of travesties in the system, such as the pope being imprissoned in Italy. This change happened through the Concordat of Worms which was signed in in 1122. It required that the pope now be elected through the College of Cardinals; this type of change was huge for the church reform movement. The significance here lies in the efforts to end the curroptiuon in the connection of church and state; no longer could secular rulers have large influence over who the religious rulers were.
Prior to the Crusaders reaching Constantinople in 1202, it was a struggling empire; merely a shadow of its former glory. By the time the Crusaders did arrive there was little they could do to protect themselves, the Crusaders motivated by a brewing hatred toward the Byzantines. This sacking of the Byzantine capital marked another huge step towards the inevitable fall of the once great empire.
Genghis Khan is responsible for buidling one of the strongest armies in the world, and it was only 3 years after this important date that he began his first foreign war into China. His reign was characterized by widespread violence and brutality, and eventually he had aquired an area of conquered land similar to that of Alexander the Great. Also, because of Khan's sexual activity it was estimated in 2003 that 1 in 200 men today are related to him.
British Noblemen found the rule of King Richard I to be far too tyrant-like, so they took it upon themselves to limit the power of the king and grant the citizens some basic rights. This had huge influence on the historical process of constitutional law and was very revolutionary for its time.
Under the Haluga, the Mongols reached Baghdad and destroyed it in 1258. Sources say as many as 200,000 people were killed over a week long period. Of the most significant events, the royal library was destroyed, surely putting an end to many important books, and the Abbasid caliph al-Musta'sim was killed, putting an end to a line of Abbasids being the accepted heads of the Sunni muslums (a tradition lasting 5 centuries).
After Edward III made claim to the French throne and the French instead found an alternate leader, the longest war in western history began. Throughout the years of the war the French countryside was left in ruins. While the English were outnumbered, they fought in short bursts, terrorizing the country and leaving before the large French army could retalliate. The method of fighting by the English was revolutionary and forever changed how wars were fought. The war also inspired new weapons and helped grow nationalism on both sides.
In 1347, a plague that likely started in Asia finally made its way into Europe, and its spread led to the single worst natural disaster in Western History. An estimated 77 million people died from this disease, which is hugely important in its own right, but even aside from the physical deaths there was a mental effect. Fear and dread haunted the people of the West for many many years after the plague had passed.
Prior to 1440, books were hand written, so it is easy to see why they were reserved for the wealthy or scholars, but thanks to Gutenburg's invention of the printing press hand writing was no longer required. After 1440 books became much more popular, and as books became widespread, so did the information they contained.
Pope Sixtus IV established the Spanish Inquisition in order to punish Heretics. The Spanish Inquisition is notoriously known for its use of torture and violence in the name of religion and repressing anyone who had beliefs outside of orthadox christianity. Later in the 17th and 18th centuries artists and writers took issue with the Inquisition as it repressed their creativity, and still today it is considered a large blight in the history of the Catholic church.
Columbus, using the funding he got from promises of vast wealth, traveled to America in 1492 wherein he found little wealth. Instead of riches, Columbus brought back syphilis to Europe, and in exchange gave the people of the New World smallpox and measles. The native Americans had no immunities to these diseases, and it their spread led to widespread death and suffering. There were huge cultural impacts because of these diseases, both in Europe and the New World.
Thomas More in 1516 wrote a book intended as a satire called Utopia. Although it was not much of a satire in reality, it proved to be a very important book, and is still read by many today because of the insight it gave to More's mind. It was also appreciated by people of that time period as it inspired them to think about what attributes a perfect world would have.
Frustrated by many of the practices in the Roman Catholic church, namely the indulgences, Martin Luther posted a series of arguments where all could read them. This led to many controversies including Luther being excommunicated and later kidnapped, but the ultimate significance is that it inspired a huge reform in the church. We still see the effects of this reform today as there are not only Catholic churches but also many variations of Protestant churches.
Large numbers of German peasants were persuaded by radicals to rise up against the landlords. Over the course of the war around 100,000 people had died, and it was significant in that it brought economic problems to the attention of those in charge, and it showed that the poor needed to be taken seriously.
After the protestant reform the religious climate was characterized by frequent fighting and bickering about whose views were correct. German wars of religion between Protestants from the North and Catholics from the South. As a result the Peace of Augsburg was established in 1555. Lutheranism was established as a legal choice, but every territory's religion was established by the territory's lord. This caused some problems for the people living there, as they had to either convert, move out of the territory, face the punishment, or practice their forbidden religion in secret.
Many Huguenot leaders came to Paris in August of 1572 to celebrate the wedding of Henri de Navarre. The marriage had an intention of uniting the warring Catholic and Protestant people, but instead a week long spree of violence took place in which thousands of Protestants were killed. The massacre marked an important turning point in the French Wars of Religion for a few reasons, most obviously being that most of the prominent Hugenot leaders had been killed. It also reinforced many Protestants' perception of Catholics being a violent and brutal people.
Henri IV, after some controversy over his conversion to Catholicism, promulgated the Edict of Nantes, which guaranteed religious freedom under certain restrictions. This was a huge step forward after all of the warring over which religious sect was superior. This led to a brief period of peace between constant fighting. This helped to show that a European nation could thrive while being religiously tolerant.
The Thirty Years' War was a bloody religious war, again between the Protestants and the Catholics. The war had devastating effects, resulting in one fifth of the German population dying. This was the very first European-wide war, and was the first war to use modern gunpowder based weapons.
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