1. World History Unit 4 Review

2. Janissaries (1300s-1600s)
They were soldiers within the Ottoman Empire, created to protect and serve the sultan.  Many of them were Christian boys from the Balkan region and forced into service.  As part of their service, they had to accept Islam and pledge loyalty to the sultan.  As it might be imagined, working so close to the sultan earned them great power and eventually, attempts at great influence. 

3. Renaissance (1300s-1500s)
It was a cultural movement that stood as a re-creation of the Greek and Roman cultures from the 1300s to the 1500s.  The movement touched on several artistic endeavors; humanism (a focus on earthly matters), individualism (a move away from church doctrine and the embrace of secularism), art (more natural and life like work that focused on the human body and nature as it is) and architecture that was characterized by classical Greek and Roman styles with the introduction of domes. 

4. Ming Dynasty ( )
The Ming Dynasty was a period of stable, native rule nestled between two periods of foreign rule; the Mongols and the Manchus.  It is best known for its economic expansion and various social and cultural changes.  On the latter account, the Ming restored the civil service system as well as Confucian ideals and their prominence in Chinese society, the practice of footbinding and the proliferation of poetry, fiction writing and philosophy.  Economically, the Ming greatly expanded as its population did.  New crops were brought in from the Americas, overseas trading increased with the efforts of Zheng He and because of that, the merchant class grew in wealth and political power.

5. Johannes Gutenberg
The German inventor who revolutionized and altered Western civilization. The fact that his invention emerged on the scene along with the Protestant Reformation and its call for people to develop a personal relationship with God (through having their own Bible) helped cement his importance in world history. Though there is a nice picture to the right, what he looked like is a bit of a mystery. He was born in Mainz and in all likelihood, died there, spending the last years of his life in the ancient city of nearby Eltville.

6. European Expansion (1400s-1700s)
Europeans took advantage of the absence of the Chinese and Arabs on the world's waves to begin their own economic and political expansion.  Their moves were due in part to the desire to find a more efficient water route to the Asian markets so as to avoid the Arab-controlled overland routes.  Other lands also held the promise of providing cash crops, something desperately needed because of a booming population.  They wanted to spread Christianity.  Additionally, they saw the acquisition of territories as a symbol of power and prestige.  To make these explorations, new technologies were required.  Items like sails, astrolabes, magnetic compasses, more accurate maps and faster, more durable ships allowed the expansion to take place.

7. The Monument to the Discoveries in Lisbon, Portugal
European Explorers
Major explorers included Bartholomeu Dias from Portugal (he rounded the Cape of Good Hope in 1488), Vasco da Gama from Portugal (he continued Dias' route and continued along the eastern coast of Africa to India), Christopher Columbus from Portugal (the Americas) and Ferdinand Magellan from...you guessed it...Portugal who was the first European to cross the Pacific. 
The Monument to the Discoveries in Lisbon, Portugal

8. Columbian Exchange (1400s-1600s)

9. Joint-stock Companies (1400s-1800s)
This was a company that represented a collection of investors who grouped together and shared the costs of the creation of colonies and companies as well as the risks associated with such ventures.  While privately controlled, such companies received support from their governments.  The most profitable and consequently the most known were the Dutch East India Company and the British East India Company.

10. A hacienda in El Salvador
The haciendas were large plantations in Latin America while the continent was under Spanish rule.  It was responsible for the production of cash crops as well as some livestock.  The peasants that worked the land were known as peons. Many of the peons were former landowners prior to European expansion into the Americas. 
A hacienda in El Salvador

11. African Diaspora (1400s-1800s)
Africans in servitude were scattered throughout the world from the Americas, Europe and the Middle East.  Wherever Africans went, they brought their culture. The focus of the slave trade differed based on the region; the Atlantic slave trade was based on finding men to work fields and mines where the slave trade out of east Africa sought women for domestic duties.

12. Mercantilism (1400s-1900s)
The business of colonies is business – the
view from a very busy port as ships bring in
goods from the empire hinterlands
It was the economic theory held to by colonizing Europeans who sought to create a favorable trade balance by exporting more than they imported.  Colonies represented a source of raw materials the country could produce into manufactured products and then sell again in the colonial markets.  Adam Smith, in his book, Wealth of Nations, rejected this theory as unsustainable. 

13. The Forbidden City in Beijing – at night and looking pretty cool.
It served as  the capital of both the Ming and Qing dynasties in the city of Beijing.  It was the residence of the court.  The size and ornateness represented to visitors the wealth and power of the courts.
The Forbidden City in Beijing – at night and looking pretty cool.

14. Moctezuma II
He was the 9th emperor of the Aztecs, taking over for his uncle an empire of over 6 million people. His approach to Hernán Cortés was based on him thinking that the conquistador was the reincarnation of the god Quelzalcóatl. That approach allowed Cortés to more quickly take over the empire. Moctezuma was jailed and died while in custody.

15. Babur
He was the founder of the Mughal Dynasty in India. A descendant of Chinggis and Timur, he grew in power by grabbing Kabul (in modern-day Afghanistan) in 1504 and Delhi (modern-day India) in Surrounded by enemies, he was able to convince his military to stand against the onslaught and for four years, they defeated all comers. He often tried to conquer his homeland, Ferghana in southern Uzbekistan, but met with one defeat after another. He was a poet and a surrounded himself with gardens. His work also led to the creation of magnificent and artful mosques. His grandson, Akbar, would pull the empire together.

16. Henry VIII of England
As head of England, he is likely best known for having many wives as he is being the head of the Church of England or the Anglican Church.  He created the church in response to the pope, who would not allow an annulment of his marriage.  He created his own church, he nullified the authority of the Catholic Church in his country.  He was also a trained musician. 
Hans The Younger Holbein’s famous portrait of the robust English monarch

17. Süleyman the Magnificent
Rising to prominence in the early 1500s with the military defeats of Hungary and a failed attempt at Vienna, he became the sultan of the Ottoman Empire and, along with his military exploits, was responsible for the building of mosques and an increased infrastructure.  His achievements in restructuring the legal system earned him the title, "the law-giver" but he is equally known for his cultural pursuits and patronage.
Sultan Süleyman the Magnificent during the siege of Rhodes

18. Demak ( )
The city was a major trading center along the northern coast of the island of Java and arguably, the most powerful. It was from this port that Islam spread to other Javanese ports. It would further spread from Demak to the Celebes and the eastern part of the Indonesian archipelago
and the Philippines.

19. Northern Renaissance (1500s)
The Northern Renaissance occurred a
good century after the Italian
Renaissance, emerging in the
16th-century. It focused on the
northern European countries as well
as Poland and Hungary. The
humanism movement in the north
did not distance from Christianity to
the extent seen in the southern part
of the continent. Additionally, the
northern variety saw a great deal
more political change as a result
than what was seen in Italy, with northern leaders gaining more state powers. However, like in Italy, the extent to which the Renaissance influenced the region was limited to social class with most people unaffected by the movement.
Northern Renaissance art, like Peasant Dance by Pieter Breughel (above), placed an emphasis on showing ordinary life.

20. Protestant Reformation (1500s)
Started by the German monk Martin Luther, the Reformation was an attempt to break away from the Catholic Church when attempts to reform it failed.  The Reformation, began in Germany, soon spread to England where King Henry VIII created his own church, the Anglican Church (though not based on purely religious reasons) and Switzerland where John Calvin expanded Luther's idea to include the notion of pre-determination.  The Catholic Church responded to the movement with the Counter-Reformation where it attempted to reform itself.
Martin Luther’s posting of his 95 Theses upon the church doors in Wittenberg.

21. Lucas Cranach’s (German painter – 1472-1553) portrait of Martin Luther
He was a German monk who, through a lifetime of study, felt the Catholic Church had certain practices wrong.  His ninety-five theses were a collection of these arguments, including his problem with the selling of indulgences, the exclusive printing of the Bible in Latin rather than the vernacular and the notion that salvation was only possible through works rather than through faith, as professed by Paul.  His ideas led to his excommunication by the Church but also created a movement that then led to the development of the Protestant sect of Christianity. 
Lucas Cranach’s (German painter – ) portrait of Martin Luther

22. The arrival of the conquistadors to the Americas
Spanish Conquest
The largest concentration of Spanish conquest was in the Americas with the arrival of conquistadors who sought gold, converts and glory.  Some of the first, most known conquistadors were Hernán Cortes (who took out the Aztecs in modern-day Mexico) and Francisco Pizarro (who conquered the Incas in modern-day Peru).  Their conquests were aided by the fact that natives possessed no immunity to the diseases carried by the Europeans, most notably smallpox.  The Spanish also took the Philippines in Southeast Asia, looking for economic and spiritual opportunities.  By taking over Manila, the Spanish ensured themselves control of trade with the Chinese and other nearby civilizations.
The arrival of the conquistadors to the Americas

23. Spain’s American Empire
Spain maintained an empire of the entirety of central and south America with two major centers of authority in Mexico and Peru.  These areas were overseen by a viceroy, answerable only to the king and they set out to enforce imperial rule.  Society was broken down by one's connection to Spain.  Peninsulares were the highest class and represented those born in Spain.  They were followed by creoles, those born in the Americas to people born in Spain.  The mestizos were people of mixed Spanish and native parentage.  At the bottom of the social ladder were the natives and people of African descent.  Missionaries represented the king as well as God and were tasked with converting the native masses (those still alive after disease killed many).  Many natives took Christianity and blended it with their indigenous beliefs.  Today, the majority of people in Latin America are Roman Catholic - a direct result of missionary work.  The economy of the region rested on two major products: sugar and natural resources (gold and silver).  Sugar was more prevalent in Portuguese Brazil but was also common in many Caribbean islands.  Many slaves taken out of Africa were destined for sugar plantations.  Silver was mainly mined in Mexico and Peru.  Spanish silver would make its way into every major commercial center in the world.  While it temporarily made Spain rich, the flood of silver on the world market devalued it and Spain suffered as a result. 

24. A very jaunty and kinda creepy painting of Louis XIV of France
Absolutism (1500s-1600s)
It was the idea that the power of monarchs was complete and blessed by God.  The monarch made the laws as well as directed domestic and foreign policies.  These developments solidified the notion of the modern-day nation-state. It was most prevalent during the 16th and 17th centuries.  French King Louis XIV was the personification of the philosophy as he overturned the Edict of Nantes and spent much of the French treasury on palaces, such as Versailles.  It was England that began to challenge the notion during the 17th-century.
A very jaunty and kinda creepy painting of Louis XIV of France

25. Encomienda System (1500s-1700s)
This was a decree by the Spanish king that Spanish landowners could use native populations for labor as long as they were looked after.  Being so far from the king, landowners were more keen to work the natives to death than to look after them.  The result was an increasingly shrinking labor force which precipitated using African labor.  Christian missionaries were one group who fought against the decree, horrified at the treatment of the natives.
Illustration of how the first part of the law was observed but not so much the second part

26. Safavid Empire ( )
A family that, after a fight with the Ottomans in the early 1500s, consolidated power over modern-day Iran and they ruled until the early 1700s.  The official religion of the empire was the Shi'ite sect of Islam.  Shah Abbas the Great, who ruled from the late 1500s to the early 1600s, moved the capital to Isfahan, modernized his army and established trade links that flourished and expanded.  However, the Safavid were the victims of geography, with the Ottomans to the west, the Russians to the north and the Moghuls to the south.  As these empires continued to get stronger, the Safavid suffered towards decline.

27. Mogul (Mughal) Empire (1526-1857)
Started as a Muslim empire but heavily influenced by Persians, the Moguls ruled India from the 1500s to the 1600s.  Their empire was the result of the defeat of the Delhi Sultanate.  Akbar unified much of the subcontinent under a strong centralized government.  The empire's golden age represented a high point for Islamic art and architecture, epitomized by the Taj Mahal.  The empire began to decline as it departed from its religious toleration origins and the arrival of the Europeans. 

28. A painting showing the great Mughal leader
Akbar the Great
Considered one of the greatest of the Mughal rulers, Akbar descendent from Timur and Chinggis Khan.  Even though he was a Muslim, he included Hindus in the highest levels of his government and worked to reduce discrimination against other non-Muslims.  As he conquered more territory, he strengthened the central government, took a hand in appointing top military officials and was a serious and regular patron of the arts.  His government was a hallmark and example of future governments, displaying benevolence, tolerance, strength and an enlightened attitude.
A painting showing the great Mughal leader
“Although he (Akbar) seems to have been no more than five feet seven inches tall, he impressed observers as a dominating personality. Clearly, although he was illiterate, he had a powerful and original mind.”

29. Victor Vasnetsov’s portrait of Ivan IV
Ivan the Terrible
He was the Grand Prince of Moscow and the first Russian ruler to take the title czar.  He also began his rule in contrast to his eventual, historical name.  He was known for the centralization of the government, an organization and bureaucratic reform of the Orthodox Church, established the first parliament-like assembly and limited the power of the nobles (boyars).  However, the latter half of his reign was characterized by a growing suspicion of those around him and he soon detached from day-to-day affairs.  He also began a Russian version of a "reign of terror" by having killed thousands of boyars, the destruction of Novgorod and personally killing his son, who he feared was conspiring against him.
Victor Vasnetsov’s portrait of Ivan IV

30. Times of Troubles (1500s-1600s)
With the death of Ivan IV (“the Terrible”), the boyars of Russian society attempted to grab power originally held by the czar. That as well as the attacks by the Swedes and Poles brought about a period of chaos in Russia. However, by 1613, the boyars finally decided on a new royal family – choosing the Romanov family, who would rule over Russia until the revolution of 1917.
Pavel Ryzhenko’s “The Time of Troubles” 2003

31. Slave Trade (Atlantic)
The European usage of Africans slaves stemmed from a lack of labor in the Americas and the need for workers in the sugar plantations in the Caribbean, the silver mines in South America and cash crop plantations in North America.  It absorbed some 11 million Africans before most European countries outlawed the practice by the 19th-century.
Slaves transported to the
New World

32. Slavery (Africa)
Africans took and sold their fellow Africans in the interior of the continent to Europeans who hung out on the coast in heavily fortified “slave” forts – the largest and most prominent being El Mina.  Since most captives were men, the trade destroyed families though it did not diminish the continent's population.
Defeated tribesmen and their families being taken to slave traders on the coast by victorious warriors

33. Scientific Revolution (1550-1700)
The movement was borne out of the wave of questioning brought about by the Renaissance and the Reformation.  The movement would eventually lead to a greater secularization in Europe.  One of the first ideas challenged was the notion of universe being centered around the earth (geocentric theory); an idea supported by the church and first conceived by the Greeks and the Romans.  Nicolaus Copernicus argued that the universe was heliocentric, meaning centered around the sun.  Not surprisingly, the church and other orthodox figures rejected these notions but it did inspire more questioning.  Galileo Galilee was a mathematician and astronomer who constructed a telescope to consider Copernicus' ideas.  Isaac Newton, yet another mathematician, used his skills to formulate the universal gravitation theory.  Rene Descartes championed the use of reason to discover truth.  The idea of truth being discovered through a combination of reason, observation and experimentation became known as the Scientific Method.

34. Counter-Reformation (1560-1648)
A reaction to the Protestant
Reformation and an attempt at
self-policing, the Catholic Church
sought to slow the Protestant
momentum as well as win back
those who left the Church.  At
the Council of Trent, church
officials sought to clearly define
the doctrine of the Church, created new religious orders to proselytize and defend the new doctrine and reform the Church from within.  Some of the new orders included the Society of Jesus (the Jesuits). 
The Council of Trent and the search for reform

35. battle of Lepanto (1571)
This was a naval battle pitting the Christian forces of Venice and Spain against the Ottomans off the coast of Lepanto, Greece. While, in a practical sense, it did not prove impactful (the Venetians would give up Cyprus to the Turks a couple of years later), it worked to build the morale of Europeans. The Ottoman navy was utterly destroyed but the Ottoman land forces were intact and the navy was quickly rebuilt and their supremacy restored though their reputation of being invincible was destroyed.

36. Azuchi-Momoyama ( )
This is the period of unification following the civil war period of Japanese history. It revolves around the leadership of Oda Nobunaga and Toyotomi Hideyoshi. Nobunaga fought to unify the country, battling the militant Tendai Buddhist monks among other rival daimyos. Both rulers made economic reforms to break the hold guilds and temples had on trade and such. The two also brought in Christian missionaries to offset the power of Buddhists. However, the latter ruler would eventually limit their activities.

37. Toyotomi Hideyoshi
Hideyoshi was one of three leaders responsible uniting Japan, along with Oda Nobunaga and Tokugawa Ieyasu after the Japanese warring period. Following the death of Nobunaga, he set up a structure of society with the warriors and the rest, following the Chinese model. His worst maneuvers involved twice attempting to invade Korea. Domestically, he revised the tax codes and encouraged foreign trade. He also invited the first Christian missionaries into the country to check the power and influence of the Buddhists, then, suspicious of the Christians’ influence, he began limiting their activities and persecuting others. Upon his death, power shifted to Ieyasu.

38. Edict of Nantes (1598)
Coming out of the Wars of Religion and signed by Henry IV of France, the document granted religious and civil rights for the Protestant Huguenots. Protestant ministers would be paid by the state, allowed to conduct services throughout the country but not in Paris. The Catholic Church reacted strongly. Cardinal de Richelieu nullified some of the edict’s political components and Louis XIV nullified the entire document in 1685.

39. Deism
It was a thought that there was a powerful God out there that created everything however, he now looks on in indifference to what is going on and allows the earth to develop in accordance to its own natural laws.  The school of thought was borne out of the Scientific Revolution and heavily influenced scientists and scholars during the 1600s and 1700s.

40. A portrait of Tokugawa Ieyasu by Kano Ryotaku
Tokugawa Period ( )
Beginning in 1603 with the rise to shogun status of Tokugawa Ieyasu, it was a military governorship that lasted for the next two and a half centuries.  The shoguns were military rulers who secured their rule by way of centralized authority and stability.  This was in contrast to the previously decentralized period of Japanese feudalism.  The Tokugawa eliminated foreign contact in an attempt to preserve Japanese culture from the recently arrived Christian missionaries the century before.  By the 1640s, these isolation moves extended to foreign trade and visitors.  The subsequent period was known as Pax Tokugawa.  This period of peace also brought about social and economic changes.  The former tops of the social ladder under feudalism, the samurai and daimyo classes, redirected their military activities towards the arts.  New crops led to an increase in population, as seen in China.  As population grew, so did the merchant class.
A portrait of Tokugawa Ieyasu by Kano Ryotaku

41. A map of Edo (Tokyo) in the 1840s
Founded and named by a local warlord, it was first fortified with a castle in the mid-1400s. In 1590, the castle was passed to Ieyasu Tokugawa who in turn, made the city the capital of the province in 1590 and thirteen years later when Ieyasu was named shogun, he made Edo the his capital. However, the imperial capital remained Kyoto. Because of the shoguns, the city became a commercial and cultural center. However, as the shoguns weakened, so did the city’s prominence. When the last of the Tokugawa shogun surrendered to the emperor in 1868, the emperor renamed the city Tokyo and made it the new imperial capital.
A map of Edo (Tokyo) in the 1840s

42. The Russian Empire ( )
The beginnings of the empire was due to Muscovite princes after the defeat of the Mongols in the late 1400s.  In doing so, the princes absolved the authority of local princes.  Ivan III used the Cossacks, the Russian version of the American western settlers, to expand and take over additional land.  Meanwhile, Ivan solidified a centralized rule and claimed divine ordination.  He proclaimed Moscow to be the new capital of the new empire.

43. The coat of arms for the Romanov family
The Romanovs ( )
They were a dynastic family who ruled Russia from the early 1600s to 1917.  The first Romanov to rise to power was Mikhail after a period of internal unrest.  The family continued many of the practices and traditions of earlier czars and emphasized allegiance to the Eastern Orthodox Church.
The coat of arms for the Romanov family

44. Thirty Years’ War ( )
It was a conflict over religion as the emperor of the Holy Roman Empire attempted to bring his subjects back to the Church.  It was fought during the first half of the 1600s and included much of Europe.  The Peace of Westphalia brought the war to an end but left the Holy Roman Empire much weaker.  German states were given independence with Prussia proving to be the most powerful.  Switzerland also earned its independence and France was granted more territories.  The most significant aspect of the treaty was the beginning of the European nation-state.

45. Louis XIV of France
In explanation of the idea of absolutism, he once said, “I am the state.” His government would sponsor the advances of education and the sciences. He expanded his country’s economy by lowering internal tariffs and raising external ones, in line with mercantilism theory. He and his chief minister, Cardinal Richelieu, were responsible for creating a highly centralized government where he sat at the top, ordained by God.  One of the most telling parts of his rule was the opulence he surrounded himself with, such as his palace in Versailles.  Compelling his nobles to live at the palace, he and his ministers ran the country.  By the time he died, France was as well off as it ever was but his rule is negatively referred to by his refusal to call the Estates General into session and revoking the Edict of Nantes.

46. English Civil War ( )
It was based on a conflict between Charles I, who supported the notion of an absolute monarchy, and the English Parliament, who sought to limit the power of the king.  In need of money, the king initially agreed to the Petition of Rights that limited his power in the areas of taxation and policing to placate the Parliament but once he disbanded the legislative body, he ignored the petition.  Needing money again, he called up the Parliament in 1640 but two years later, the king, tired of the obdurate and demanding legislative members, brought in the military to arrest his biggest opponents.  The civil war commenced.  The Parliament established a constitutional monarchy, executed Charles I and, after a brief rule by Oliver Cromwell, placed Charles II upon the throne who served in a limited capacity having agreed to the writ of habeas corpus, protecting ordinary citizens from the arbitrary use of power by the government.  Later, Parliament was able to pass the English Bill of Rights.

47. Qing Dynasty ( )
The name given to the Manchu rulers of the last dynastic family in China, the Qing ruled from the mid-1600s until 1911.  They upheld the Confucian ideals of their predecessors as well as the Ming's penchant for highly centralized, bureaucratic rule.  During their rule, the Qing increased foreign contact and trade due, in part, to the high demand for silk and porcelain.

48. treaty of Westphalia (1648)
In an agreement that ended the Thirty Years’ War, the Habsburg recognized the independence of Switzerland as well as the sovereignty of the German states. In doing so, the Holy Roman Emperor had to accept that Germany would never be a Catholic domain. Sweden gained control over the Baltic Sea, France gain a recognized eastern border, along the Rhine and the United Provinces of the Netherlands gained their independence from Spain.

49. Sor Juana Ines de la Cruz
She was a poet, playwright, scholar, nun and an early feminist. Of modest origins, her intelligence garnered attention in Mexico City but she turned her attentions elsewhere. She became a nun and remained cloistered for the rest of her life. Her most famous work includes Primer Sueño (First Dream) in 1692, which speaks of a soul’s quest for knowledge and Respuesta a Sor Filotea (The Reply to Sister Filotea of the Cross) in 1691, defending a woman’s right to knowledge. Her writings were extensive and it is said that she had one of the largest private libraries in the western world.

50. The Taj Mahal outside of Agra, India
Mogul emperor Shah Jahan built it as a tomb in memory of his wife, who died during childbirth.  It is the most famous example of Islamic/Hindu architecture.
The Taj Mahal outside of Agra, India

51. He is considered most responsible for the beginning of Russia's turn away from its agrarian past and towards the modernization of western Europe.  He experienced the region himself once czar by touring it, sometimes as a foreign ruler but other times as a common worker in disguised.  Much of the reforms (military, social and political) were instituted once he returned in order to be more like Europe, in particularly Germany.  He sent Russians to Europe to learn the latest in military strategies and industrial methods as well as mandating court officials to shave their beards and appear more western in clothing.  His largest external threats were the Turks of the Ottoman Empire and the Swedes.  He re-established the capital to St. Petersburg, along the Baltic.  He died from complications of his rescue of some drowning sailors.
Peter the Great
French painter Hippolyte Delaroche’s ( ) portrait of the Russian monarch

52. Coming out of the ideas of the Scientific Revolution and the methodology of the Scientific Method, social and political scholars began considering that reason could also be applied to their fields.  John Locke pushed ideas such as natural rights and that the government was bound to protect these.  If they failed or refused, such governments could and should be ousted by the people.  Baron de Montesquieu suggested that government would work more responsibly if there were different branches with their own power, as well as power to check the other branches.  Voltaire (right) argued for free speech and religious toleration.  Jean-Jacques Rousseau put forth the idea of the Social Contract; the idea that people must accept the loss of some self-interests for the good of the many in forming governments.
Enlightenment (1700s)
Francois Marie Arouet (Voltaire) was a writer and political theorist who drove the French monarchy mad.

53. Nationalism (1700s-1800s)
In a dictionary sense, it means an excessive pride in one's country or culture.  The various independent and unification movements during the 1700s and 1800s were based on this concept.  It was prevalent during the French revolution, the Zionist movement, the Indian National Congress, the unification movements of Germany and Italy and the independence of Latin American states.

54. Frederick the Great
The great Prussian leader was able to expand upon his predecessors with regards to the military and bureaucratic organization. He also provided greater religious freedom as well as economic power of the state. As an “enlightened despot,” he promoted Enlightenment ideas with better agricultural methods, pushed for greater economic equality and toned down the harsher punishments of the past.
“Diplomacy without arms is like music without instruments.”

55. Catherine the Great “I will live to make myself not feared.”
For the daughter of an unimportant German prince, she made a great deal out of herself.  She entered the court as the wife of Peter III but soon disposed of him.  As czar, she started out with great intentions (the diminishing of the centralized authority she declared inhumane and the emancipation of the serfs) but none of those good ideas ever manifested themselves.  She believed in change as long as it did not interfere with her power. She is known for the extension of the Russian empire (incorporating Poland and the Crimea) and with connecting and interacting with western Europe.  She is also known as the "enlightened despot" for her efforts in building schools and hospitals as well as a general religious toleration.
Aleksei Petrovich Antropov’s portrait of Catherine II

56. The British conquest of French Canada
Seven Years’ War ( )
The term refers to a series of conflicts that waged from 1756 to 1763.  The war was a product of economic rivalries that existed in Europe over the treasures of the Americas.  The wars were seen in India, the West Indies (Caribbean) and North America.  As a result of the conflict, the French lost their empire in North America and the British would create more control over the contested regions, squeezing the French out in the process.
The British conquest of French Canada

57. battle of Plassey (1757)
The growth of the British Raj played itself throughout India but one of the bigger conflicts of the struggle occurred in Plassey, in modern-day Bangladesh. In it, less than 3,000 British and Indian sepoys, under the command of famed British general Robert Clive, defeated an Indian army of some 50,000, under the leadership, as it were, of a teenage local ruler in Bengal named Siraj ud-daula. Beyond the staggering defeat of so many at the hands of so few, Clive was well aware of the other army through bribery and spies. Additionally, the British were funded by Hindu bankers upset at unpaid Muslim debts. The defection of portions of the Indian army did not hurt Clive’s cause either.

58. The Catherine Palace in St. Petersburg, Russia
Peter the Great established this city, along the Baltic Sea, as the capital of Russia.  Of course, he named it for himself.  Wouldn't you?  St. Petersburg was seen as the epitome of Russian modernization efforts and was known as the "window to the west." 

59. American Revolution (1775-1783)
Britain's American colonies, in the mid-1700s, began to resist against parliamentary tax legislation and its violation of English rights.  The colonies created a continental congress to begin formulating those things required for a separation, including an army and military leadership.  On 4 July 1776, the colonies declared their independence.  The thinking that lay behind the declaration was firmly rooted in Enlightenment thinking such as inalienable rights and government based on the consent of the governed.  It was France that would provide the needed supplies and money for the Americans to win the war and Britain did surrender in 1781. 
The subsequent democratic
government based on the will of
the people influenced many other
revolutions and uprisings in the
decades and centuries to come. 
Washington and his men cross the Delaware to face Hessians on the other side.

60. Louis XVI of France
He presided, along with his Austrian wife Marie Antoinette, over the devolution of the French monarchy at the hands of angry peasant mobs. In 1788, he attempted to raise money through tax reforms through a new parliament but the Enlightenment-influenced members set out to create a real parliament with voting powers and not the tool that the king hoped they would be. By 1789, the revolution was under way. While the king attempted to appease the peasants with limited reforms, it was not enough. While European monarchs and aristocrats (as well as church leaders) voiced their opposition to the revolution, the leaders of the movement grew more radical. In 1793, the radicals abolished the monarchy and Louis and his wife were decapitated at the guillotine. The executions ushered in the Reign of Terror.

61. National Assembly (late 1700s)
This was the creation of the Third Estate, who broke away from the Estates General, the legislative body during the monarchial period of French history.  The Third Estate was heavily influenced by Enlightenment thinking and the success and ideals of the American revolution.  Operating under the idea of "life, liberty and fraternity," they pushed Enlightenment ideas and adopted a new constitution in 1791 which created a constitutional monarchy.  However, the Assembly could not last and it could not control the excesses of the movement and could not fulfill all of their ideals.

62. Declaration of the Rights of Man and the Citizen (1789)
Declared by the French National Assembly prior to the revolution, it would be the basis of the Constitution of It declared that all men were born free and equal with regards to rights. The major rights mentioned include liberty and private property. It also detailed freedoms with regards to religion and speech. It stood in direct opposition to the king (Louis XVI) particularly and the monarchial system in general.

63. The French Revolution (La Révolution)
It was a revolution that began in 1789 and led to the immediate trial and execution of King Louis XVI and Marie Antoinette. The rule of France passed to the radical Jacobins who initiated the “reign of terror.” The subsequent instability and government incompetence led to the rise of Napoléon Bonaparte.
C'était une révolution qui a commencé en 1789 et a causé le procès immédiat et l'exécution du Roi Louis XVI et de Marie Antoinette. L’autorité de la France a passé aux Jacobins radicaux qui ont lancé le "règne de terreur.” L'instabilité qui a suivi et l'incompétence gouvernementale ont causé l'ascension de Napoléon Bonaparte.

64. Napoléon Bonaparte
He was a French general who led a coup d'état in 1799.  He crowned himself emperor by 1804 with a new constitution.  He initiated political and social reforms that created a certain level of stability.  His civil code of laws created universal male enfranchisement and pushed for religious toleration.  Militarily, he conquered much of Europe.  He made a huge mistake in invading Russia in 1812 and between the Russians and the horrible Russian winter, suffered a humiliating and total defeat.  The British would later exile him. 
Jacques-Louis David’s famous painting, Napoléon at the Saint-Bernard Pass

65. Congress of Vienna ( )
In session from 1814 to 1815, it comprised representatives of those countries who defeated Napoléon Bonaparte.  Their objective was to restore Europe to its pre-French Revolution condition.  It was led by Prince Metternich of Austria and their particular goals were to restore the French monarchy and create a balance of power to ensure this type of instability would not happen again.  While not perfect, Europe would not face another major war until World War I. 
Yet another gathering of European leaders, this time to decide the fate of France.