The Columbian Exchange describes the widespread exchange of animals, human populations, cultures, religions, diseases, and plants between the Old World of Europe, North Africa, and Asia and the New World of North and South America. It took place, primarily from the late fifteenth century through the seventeenth century and changed the very nature of the human experience.

Napoleon III was defeated and captured by the Prussians in the battle of Sedan in 1870, and was formally removed from office several days later. Both Waterloo and Leipzig were battles fought by Napoleon I over five decades earlier. Sebastopol was a battle fought in the Crimean War in the 1850s. Verdun was a battle fought in World War I, long after the downfall of Napoleon III.

In the Franco-Prussian War of 1870-71, the German states led by Prussia defeated France, and in the peace negotiations that followed, the German states all agreed to unite under the Prussian monarchy. The Seven Years' War occurred over a century before, and simply saw Prussia secure its position as a major European power. The Congress of Vienna in 1815 concluded the Napoleonic Wars, and saw Prussia merely re-establish a powerful position in European affairs. The Revolutions of 1848, including German nationalistic uprisings, all ended in failure, and did not lead to unification. World War I was fought in the 1910s, long after Germany had united under Prussia.

While Louis XIV was an absolutist monarch who sought to curtail the power of the nobility, he was only successful in this to a degree, and did not abolish their special privileges (that, namely, kept them largely exempt from royal taxes). Louis and his ministers did, however, enact a number of military and administrative reforms designed to strengthen both the French military and the French royal government. Louis also had the impressive Palace of Versailles built, where he not only kept most of his government but his lavish court, which he used to distract the nobility from interfering with his ambitions. With the conquest of Alsace and other areas to the east, Louis also extended French territory to the Rhine river, and oversaw expansion of the French colonial empire, mainly in North America, India, and the Caribbean.

While the Thirty Years' War was a major victory for Protestant European states and confirmed the principle that sovereign rulers could decide the official religion of their state without outside interference, it did not cause all of the German states to adopt Protestantism, as many of them (such as Austria and Bavaria) remained Catholic. In confirming the principle that states should be free from foreign interference in religious affairs, the war was the last major European conflict in which religion was a major factor, and from this point international affairs and conflicts were focused mainly on secular matters such as territorial expansion, the balance of power, and colonial rivalries. As the war saw the defeat of the Catholic Habsburg states by France and its Protestant allies, namely Sweden, it led to the further decline of Habsburg power, France replacing Spain as the dominant military power in Europe, and Sweden securing its position as a major European power.

Despite his short reign, Selim I is famous for his massive military expansion of the Ottoman Empire, including Egypt, Palestine, Syria, and the Hejaz region (which included Mecca and Medina).

The Battle of Lepanto (1571) pitted the naval forces of the Ottoman Empire against a combined naval force led by the Spanish Hapsburg Empire. It resulted in victory for the "Holy League" forces of the Spanish and prevented further Ottoman expansion into the Mediterranean. 

The rise of the Ottoman Empire was swift. In the fifteenth century, under Mehmet II, the Ottomans conquered Constantinople (now Istanbul) and shortly after pushed up as far as Bosnia in the Balkans (a country north of Greece). The whole of European Christendom began to grow wary and soon terrified of the Ottoman invasion as they continued up through the Balkans into central Europe, conquering modern-day Albania, Serbia, Montenegro, Croatia, Hungary, and other areas. But once the Ottomans made it to Budapest, they would struggle to get much further. They were repelled time and again by the forces of Christendom and the Hapsburg Empire of Austria at the city of Vienna or in the surrouding territory.

The Battle of Mohacs is a crucial point in the history of the Ottoman Empire, Eastern Europe, and the Kingdom of Hungary. The battle was fought in 1526 between the Kingdom of Hungary, led by Louis II, and the Ottoman Empire, led by Suleiman the Magnificent. It ended in defeat for the Hungarian forces and the loss of Hungarian independence for centuries and the extension of Ottoman rule into Central Europe.

The Ottoman Empire, led by Mehmed II, finally conquered Constantinople in 1453 C.E. bringing to an end the thousand year reign of the Byzantine Empire. The Byzantine Empire emerged from the Eastern Roman Empire, which survived the fall of Rome in the fifth century. For hundreds of years the Byzantine Empire, and the city of Constantinople, was one of the most power and wealthy places in the world. However, with the Fall of Constantinople, the rise of the Ottomans as the preeminent power in the region was complete and the Byzantines were no more.