Political History - AP European History

The Battle of Wagram took place in the War of the Fifth Coalition, and cemented the idea of total French superiority in the mind of Napoleon thus leading to his decision to invade Russia.

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.

After the Napoleonic Wars were over an Austrian politician, Klemens Wenzel von Metternich, hosted a meeting of the major powers of Europe to decide how the redraw the map of Europe so as to avoid further wars like the Napoleonic Wars, which had brought Europe to the point of exhaustion.

The Anglo-Spanish War was fought over England's interference with Spanish ships attempting to subdue the Dutch Revolution as well as piracy on the part of English citizens who attacked Spanish galleons. The Anglo-Spanish War started in 1585 and lasted until 1604, when the Treaty of London called a halt to the conflict.

The war of Dutch Independence raged for eight decades, and at one point or another involved several nations fighting with or against the Dutch cause. The war ended in 1648 with the Spanish Netherlands being divided into the newly independent Dutch Republic and the Spanish controlled Southern Netherlands.

In the First Russo-Turkish War, Russia won a large portion of territory on the Black Sea, including the port city of Azov.

The Partitions of Poland took place from 1772-95, dividing the nation of Poland between these three more powerful nations.

The Battle of Grunwald is often seen as the turning point in the Polish-Lithuanian-Teutonic War. The decisive victory by Poland and Lithuania caused so much damage to the Teutonic Order that it would never return to being a major power in Eastern Europe.

The many German Principalities served as the hosting grounds for armies from across Europe as the small regional dispute over religion devolved into a war over what nations would be the pre-eminent powers of Europe.

Sweden intervened in order to protect the interests of the Protestant regions of Germany. When the major powers of Europe became involved in the war and Sweden was able to fight them off it served as a signal that Sweden as one of the major powers of the time.

The voyage of Christopher Columbus was funded by the Spanish monarchy of Isabella and Ferdinand. Hence Columbus, who was Italian, “discovered” the New World for the Spanish. Isabella and Ferdinand had recently united the Spanish houses of Castile and Aragon and expelled the Moors (the Arab population of Spain at the time) and Jews from the Iberian Peninsula. The newly formed Christian country of Spain sought the opportunity to become an Empire and looked West for opportunities for exploration.

The territory that comprises the state of Virginia was “discovered” by Sir Walter Raleigh in the late sixteenth century (presumably the city of Raleigh in North Carolina is named for him). When Raleigh returned and informed Elizabeth that she ruled a territory with a Native American name she reportedly changed it to “Virginia” to reflect her famous status as the “Virgin Queen” of England.

The phrase "White Man's Burden" comes from a poem with that title written by Rudyard Kipling in 1899, which commented on the United States' war in the Philippines and Cuba against Spain. The poem urges "white men" to take "civilization" to non-white peoples around the globe for their benefit. This idea was then taken up by many Europeans in their colonization efforts throughout Africa and Asia.

Henry was a Portuguese prince who lived from 1394 to 1460 and who believed in the importance of exploring foreign lands. He helped to set up a school to train explorers and also was interested in exploring the coast of Africa. His efforts helped to make Portugal a powerful and rich nation due to its ability to gain resources, conquer lands, and engage in global commerce.

The New Imperialism of the second half of the nineteenth century and early twentieth century differed from the style of imperialism that came before it in a few noticeable ways. Most significantly, in the earlier period of imperialism and overseas colonization, the European powers focused a lot of their efforts on establishing trading posts and ruling through proxy control of the local powers. The New Imperialism model was focused a lot more heavily on using military force to establish direct control over other territories. Although a lot of this New Imperialism was focused on the African continent, it was also practiced in Asia and South America. Religion played a deeply important role in both periods of European imperialism.

The nineteenth century witnessed a noticeable resurgence of Christian thinking that led to a global mission project to convert all the people of the world to Christianity. This was particularly pronounced in the African continent. On numerous occasions missionaries would try to establish contact with native populations only to be rebuffed and attacked. This gave public support to politicians in the mother country who were then able to establish military control over a new territory with the backing of the people.

The Suez Canal was built through Egypt to allow ships to pass from the Arabian Sea into the Mediterranean. Previously ships had had to sail around the Southern horn of Africa in order to bring goods from the Far East to Europe. The construction of the Suez Canal dramatically shortened the time needed to transport goods and thus increased the flow of trade between Europe and the Far East.

Algeria, Tunisia, and Morocco all came under French administration in the time period mentioned. Algeria, in particular, would have profound implications for the French imperial experience for the next several decades.

Having once been a part of the Ottoman Empire, Libya was colonized by the Italians in the 1910s. The Italians would also forcibly occupy Ethiopia before their failures in the Second World War cost them their African colonies.

The Belgian King Leopold II wanted Belgium to be a major imperial power like many other European nations and so carved out for himself a personal fiefdom in Central Africa. The Belgian Congo was several times larger than Belgium itself and ruled under the personal control of Leopold until his manifest crimes caught up to him. The Congo provided extremely lucrative quantities of rubber as well as many other raw resources; however, it was administered with profound cruelty and apathy towards the safety and health of the local population. Some modern estimates put the number of people who died during Belgian control of the Belgian Congo in the tens of millions.