Charles V was Emperor of the Holy Roman Empire (which spanned central Europe and, most notably, Germany) and had significant influence in Europe. When Luther was summoned to appear at the Diet of Worms, he initially refused because he believed that the church would arrest him on his way there; that is what the church had done before with people who vocally opposed it. Frederick of Saxony advocated on Luther’s behalf and convinced Charles to provide Luther with an escort to the Diet under the Emperor’s flag, meaning that he would be completely safe. It was only through Charles’ protection that Luther agreed to appear before church and secular leaders.

The Reign of Terror was a period of time during the French Revolution when violence and summary executions took place throughout France. The guillotine became synonymous with the Revolution, as tens of thousands of people were sent to their deaths.

1848 is known as the "Year of Revolutions" in European history. A series of ad hoc coalitions in several different European countries formed. They sought the overthrow of the established political order and the implementation of a more liberal and democratic system of government. The revolutions were unsuccessful, at least in the immediacy, as the reactionary forces were able to defeat the revolutions pretty much everywhere. There were lasting consequences and real concessions in some places, however. More importantly, from a progressive-narrative approach to history, the revolutions were one of the most significant movements from absolutism to republicanism in European history.

The Corn Laws were introduced in England in 1815 and were immediately controversial and widely despised. The Corn Laws raised the price of importing corn and were intended to protect the interests of the landed aristocracy; however, they had the negative effect of making it very difficult for the poorest to afford enough food to feed themselves. This led to an outbreak of rioting and political unrest until the laws were repealed in 1846.

The Reform Bill of 1832 was enacted by the British government in response to widespread political unrest in urban areas during the early 1830s. The Reform Bill extended suffrage to the urban middle class and restructured constituencies to reflect the population shift to urban areas. As such, the urban middle class was greatly empowered by the Reform Bill of 1832.

The years 1789 through 1848 were extremely tumultuous and varied in France. The French Revolution ushered in a wave of unprecedented liberalism that was quickly submerged by the emerging reactionaries. Following the defeat of Napoleon and the Congress of Vienna, the French Bourbon monarch Louis XVIII assumed the throne and reverted the French government almost back to pre-revolution levels of absolutism. Liberalism and democracy were quashed in the years between 1815 and 1848, until popular discontent flared up again in the Revolutions of 1848.

The Revolutions of 1848 were a popular uprising against the conservative, reactionary, and absolutist governments of Europe. The summer of 1848 was a time of great upheaval across the European continent. The only two countries to be spared were England and Russia. England avoided revolution because the government had already responded to popular sentiment and become more liberal, whereas Russia was insufficiently developed to even have an organized working class which could effect such a revolution.

The French political situation in the nineteenth century was highly volatile and variable. A series of contrasting governments were established and then overthrown. This would persist until the First World War, by which time the French political situation had stabilized significantly.

The Austrian Empire (at this time probably more accurately called the Habsburg Empire) suffered immensely from the Revolutions of 1848. The Habsburg Empire had a different set of problems than the other empires of Europe; they were able to contain liberalism, but rampant nationalism spread throughout the diverse ethnic groups of the Habsburg dominion. By the time the revolutions were dying down, the Habsburgs presided over a dramatically weakened and less-centralized empire. This would have direct consequences leading to the outbreak of World War One.

The British and French experiences of democracy and government were very different in the nineteenth century. Whereas the British government continued uninterrupted throughout this period, the French government collapsed and was reformed on several occasions. Whereas the British tended to experience gradual change and a progressive growth of suffrage rights, the French tended to experience violent upheaval followed by violent repression; nonetheless, by the outbreak of the First World War, both nations had healthy and liberal societies where the vast majority of white men could vote.