During the Medieval period, Italy was a highly decentralized and urbanized part of Europe. People in that time period would not have recognized the concept of “Italy” and would instead have viewed themselves as members of independent city-states. The most influential during this period were Florence and Venice in the northeast, Milan in the northwest, and Naples in the south.

During the High Middle Ages, the Catholic church was locked in an interminable battle with the various monarchs of Europe over who should have ultimate secular authority. The Catholic church argued that Europe was one Christian civilization and that the Pope should have supreme power over Christendom, and thus, all the monarchs of Europe. This, naturally, led to a great deal of conflict and squabbling between Europe’s monarchs and the Papacy.

During the Middle Ages (before the emergence of the dominant Hapsburg family in the fifteenth century), the Holy Roman Emperor was elected by a committee of nobles from within the empire. This was in stark contrast to most other European states at this time where authority was hereditary.

Despite the name of one of Britain's colonies being British Honduras, the nation that is now Honduras was never part of the British Empire. It was part of the Spanish Empire until its independence. British Honduras is actually what is known today as Belize. 

Akbar the Great, whose name literally means Great, so Great the Great, was the third ruled of the Mughal empire and expanded it's influence over the majority o the Indian subcontinent and it' cultural importance well beyond the borders of India.

The League of Augsburg was formed in 1689 and consisted of several German states (the country of Germany did not yet exist), Sweden, the United Provinces of the Netherlands, and Spain. These countries came together to form the League in order to combine their armies to oppose King Louis XIV of France, who had taken over the city of Strasbourg (a German region) in 1681. The League was determined to keep Louis out of the German and Netherlands regions, despite past concessions and territorial gains that Louis had received by invading these areas in the recent past. The members of the League resolved to make a final stand and stop Louis’s territorial incursions once and for all. Louis’s army and the League’s forces fought each in the Nine Years’ War (1689-1697), with Leopold I, the Hapsburg Emperor, extending support to the League during the final years. By 1697, the League was able to achieve a decisive victory and force Louis out of the Netherlands and the German region for good. These terms were finalized in the Peace of Ryswick, which formally ended the conflict and was especially focused on banning Louis from ever again attempting to invade any German territories.

The concept of a European Balance of Power first emerged in the aftermath of the Thirty Years’ War. Although it is worth noting it was reinforced by the Napoleonic Wars and was part of the cause for the Crimean War and for World War One. The European Balance of Power essentially states that in order to preserve peace and prosperity on the continent no one power can be allowed to grow more powerful than the other states. At various times France, Germany (and Prussia), Britain, Russia, Austria, and Spain have threatened to upset this balance.

During the 1860s and 1870s, the modern nations of Italy and Germany were established from a historical patchwork of polities, kingdoms, and states.  Ethno-nationalism was a large factor in driving the creation of both of these states.

The Great Purge was a series of mass murders of people considered by Joseph Stalin to be threats to his power. The purges eliminated much of the leadership of the Communist Party, as well as many leading military figures. Nikolai Bukharin, a Politburo opponent of Stalin's prior to Stalin's rise to power, was executed in 1938.  Mikhail Tukhachevsky was the Marshall General of the Soviet Army until his imprisonment and execution in 1937. Gregory Zinoviev was another member of the Politburo who was executed in 1936.

The Congress of Vienna was held in 1815, shortly after the end of the Napoleonic Wars. The primary goals of the Congress of Vienna were to restore the balance of power in Europe; and to limit the growth of nationalism and republicanism. The French Revolution was viewed as particularly troublesome by the conservative factions in attendance at the Congress of Vienna. The Bourbon monarchy was restored to the throne in France in one of many attempts to prevent the spread of republicanism and nationalism around the autocratic empires of Europe.