Europe VI - Early Modern Europe 1550-1815

Ottoman Empire in Europe 1453-1683

Ottoman Empire was the states created by Turkish tribes in Anatolia that grew to be one of the most powerful empire during the 15th and 16th centuries.  The Ottomans were leaders of the Turkish warriors (ghazis) for the faith of Islam, who fought against the shrinking Christian Byzantine state.  The Ottoman period spanned more than 600 years and came to an end only in 1922.

The ancestors of Osman I, the founder of empire, had entered Anatolia along with a mass of Turkmen Oğuz nomads migrating from Central Asia.  They established themselves as the Seljuq dynasty in Iran and Mesopotamia in the mid-11th century, overwhelmed Byzantium and occupied eastern and central Anatolia after the Battle of Manzikert in 1071.

The ghazis fought against the Byzantines and then the Mongols, who invaded Anatolia following the establishment of the Il-Khanid empire in the last half of the 13th century.  With the disintegration of Seljuq power and its replacement by Mongol suzerainty, enforced by direct military occupation of much of eastern Anatolia, independent Turkmen principalities—one of which was led by Osman—emerged in the remainder of Anatolia.

Starting from sultan Mehmed II conquered Constantinople (today Istanbul) in 1453, the state grew into a mighty empire.  Mehmed II (r. 1451-1481) advanced toward Eastern Europe as far as Belgrade in 1456.  Hungarian commanders successfully defended the city and Ottomans retreated with heavy losses but at the end, Ottomans occupied nearly all of Serbia.  In 1463, after a dispute over the tribute paid annually by the Bosnian kingdom, Mehmed invaded and conquered Bosnia.

The Christian Orthodox city of Constantinople was now under Ottoman control.  When Mehmed II finally entered Constantinople through the Gate of Charisius (today known as Adrianople Gate), he immediately rode his horse to the Hagia Sophia, where after the doors were axed down.

Symbols of Christianity were everywhere vandalized or destroyed, including the crucifix of Hagia Sophia which was paraded through the sultan's camps.  He ordered to transform the Orthodox cathedral into a Muslim mosque, solidifying Islamic rule in Constantinople.

Ottoman Expansion into Europe 1453-1683

The Empire reached its apex under Suleiman the Magnificent (r. 1520-1566), when he captured Belgrade in 1521, conquered the southern and central parts of the Kingdom of Hungary, after his historical victory in the Battle of Mohács in 1526.  Transylvania, Wallachia and Moldavia became tributary principalities of the Ottoman Empire.  In the east, he took Baghdad from the Persians in 1535, gaining control of Mesopotamia and naval access to the Persian Gulf.

However, the Battle of Vienna in 1683 marked the end of Ottoman expansion into Europe.  It took place after the imperial city of Vienna had been besieged by the Ottomans for two months.  It was a battle of the Holy Roman Empire in league with the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth (Holy League) versus the Muslim Ottoman force.  It lasted until 1698, when the Turks lost almost all of Hungary to Emperor Leopold I.

Tsardom of Russia and the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth 1547-1795

Tsardom of Russia 1547-1721

From 1550 to 1700, Russia grew 35,000 km2 per year.  The period includes the upheavals of the transition from the Rurik (862-1598) to the Romanov (1613-1917) dynasties, conquered the lands east of the Dnieper, including Kiev from the Polish-Lithuanian as well as the Russian conquest of Siberia, leading up to the 42-year reign of Peter the Great, who ascended in 1682 and transformed the Tsardom into a major European power.

After the marriage of Sophia Palaiologina, the niece of Constantine XI Palaiologos, to Ivan III the Great (r. 1462-1505), the Moscow court adopted Byzantine terms, rituals and emblems such as the double-headed eagle, which survives as the Coat of Arms of Russia.  By the 16th century, the Russian rulers had emerged as a powerful Tsar.  By assuming that title, the sovereign of Moscow tried to emphasize that he was a major ruler on par with the Byzantine emperor or the Mongol khan.

Ivan IV the Terrible (r. 1533-1584) was crowned Tsar in 1547 and thus was recognized, at least by the Russian Orthodox Church, as Emperor.  Philotheus of Pskov, head of a monastery in the Eastern Orthodox, claimed that after Constantinople fell to the Ottoman Empire in 1453, the Russian Tsar was the only legitimate Orthodox ruler, and that Moscow was the Third Rome because it was the final successor to Rome and Constantinople, the centers of Christianity in earlier periods.

Tsars of Russia 1547-1721

Name	Reign Start	Reign End	Notes
Ivan IV the Terrible	26 January 1547	28 March 1584	Assume the title Tsar of All Rus' in 1547
Feodor I the Blessed	28 March 1584	21 February 1598	Son of Ivan the Terrible and the last of the Rurik dynasty Russia fell into a succession crisis.
Boris	21 February 1598	313 April 1605	Brother-in-law of Feodor I
Feodor II	13 April 1605	10 June 1605	Son of Boris Godunov. Murdered
Time of Troubles	20 June 1605	November 1612	Devastated by famine, rule under Boris descended into anarchy. The Time of Troubles is considered to have ended with the election of Michael Romanov to the throne in February 1613.
Michael Romanov	26 July 1613	12 July 1645	Founder of Romanov Dynasty First cousin once removed of Feodor I
Alexis	12 July 1645	29 January 1676	Son of Michael
Feodor III	29 January 1676	7 May 1682	Son of Alexis
Ivan V	7 May 1682	8 February 1696	Son of Alexis Younger brother of Feodor III
Peter I	7 May 1682	2 November 1721	Son of Alexis Younger half-brother of Feodor III

Following the death of the Feodor I in 1598, the son of Ivan the Terrible and the last of the Rurik dynasty, Russia fell into a succession crisis.  The Time of Troubles came to a close with the election of Michael Romanov as Tsar in 1613.  Michael officially reigned as Tsar, though his father, the Patriarch Philaret (died 1633) initially held the real power.  Peter the Great (r. 1682-1725), a grandson of Michael Romanov, reorganized the Russian state along more Western lines, establishing the Russian Empire in 1721.

Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth 1569-1795

Formally the Kingdom of Poland and the Grand Duchy of Lithuania, after 1791 the Commonwealth of Poland, was a dualistic state, a bi-confederation, of Poland and Lithuania ruled by a common monarch, who was both the King of Poland and the Grand Duke of Lithuania.

The Union possessed many features unique among contemporary states.  Its political system was characterized by strict checks upon monarchical power.  These checks were enacted by a legislature (sejm) controlled by the nobility (szlachta).  This idiosyncratic system was a precursor to modern concepts of democracy, constitutional monarchy, and federation.

Poland and Lithuania underwent an alternating series of wars and alliances during the 14th century.  Several agreements between the two (Union of Kraków and Vilna, Union of Krewo, Union of Grodno, and Union of Horodło) were struck before the permanent 1569 Union of Lublin.  This agreement was one of the signal achievements of Sigismund II Augustus, last monarch of the Jagiellon dynasty.  Sigismund believed he could preserve his dynasty by adopting elective monarchy.  His death in 1572 was followed by a three-year interregnum during which adjustments were made to the constitutional system; these adjustments significantly increased the power of the Polish nobility and established a truly elective monarchy.

The Commonwealth reached its Golden Age in the early 17th century.  Its powerful parliament was dominated by nobles who were reluctant to get involved in the Thirty Years' War; this neutrality spared the country from the ravages of a political-religious conflict which devastated most of contemporary Europe.  The Commonwealth was able to hold its own against Sweden, the Tsardom of Russia, and vassals of the Ottoman Empire.

In 1648 Bohdan Khmelnytsky's Cossacks triumphantly entered Kiev in the course of their uprising establishing the rule of their Cossack Hetmanate in the city.  Kiev was to become the capital of the Grand Duchy of Ruthenia on the limited federate rights within the Commonwealth.  However, because of the strong resistance of Polish society, the proposal was completely abandoned.

The Russo-Polish War of 1654-1667 was a conflict triggered by the Khmelnytsky Rebellion of Zaporozhian Cossacks against the Commonwealth.  Bohdan Khmelnytsky derived his main foreign support from Tsar Alexis of Russia and promised his allegiance in recompense.

The Commonwealth initially won several decisive battles, however, its plundered economy was not able to fund the long conflict.  Facing internal crisis and civil war, the Commonwealth was forced to sign a truceand the fortress of Smolensk and Ukraine on the left bank of the Dnieper River (including Kiev) were ceded to Russia.  The war marked the beginning of the rise of Russia as a great power in Eastern Europe.

Dutch Republic and Habsburg Netherlands 1581-1795

United Provinces of the Netherlands

The republic was established after several Dutch provinces revolted against rule by Spain during the Dutch War for Independence (1568-1648).  The provinces formed a mutual alliance against Spain in 1579 (the Union of Utrecht) and declared their independence in 1581 (the Act of Abjuration).  It comprised the northern provinces of Groningen, Frisia, Overijssel, Guelders, Utrecht, Holland and Zeeland.

The title stadtholder was used for the official tasked with maintaining peace and provincial order in the early Dutch Republic and, at times, became de facto head of state of the republic during the 16th to 18th centuries.

William the Silent (c. 1533-1584), also known as William I of Orange, was the main leader of the Dutch Revolt against the Spanish Habsburgs that set off the Eighty Years' War (1568-1648) and resulted in the formal independence of the United Provinces.  Born into the House of Nassau, he became Prince of Orange in 1544 and is thereby the founder of the Orange-Nassau branch and the ancestor of the monarchy of the Netherlands.

The coastal provinces of Holland and Zeeland had been important hubs of the European maritime trade network for centuries prior to Spanish rule.  Their geographical location provided convenient access to the markets of France, Scotland, Germany, England and the Baltic.  The war with Spain led many financiers and traders to emigrate from Antwerp, a major city in Flanders and then one of Europe's most important commercial centres, to Dutch cities, particularly Amsterdam, which became Europe's foremost centre for shipping, banking, and insurance.

Although the state was small and contained only around 1.5 million inhabitants, it controlled a worldwide network of seafaring trade routes.  Through its trading companies (the Dutch East and West India Companies), it established a Dutch colonial empire.  The income from this trade allowed the republic to compete militarily against much larger countries.  It amassed a huge fleet of 2,000 ships, initially larger than the fleets of England and France combined.  

In the 1590s, Dutch ships began to trade with Brazil and the Dutch Gold Coast of Africa, towards the Indian Ocean, and the lucrative spice trade.  This brought the Dutch into direct competition with Portugal, which had established colonial outposts on the coasts of the region for several decades.  From 1580, after the death of the King Sebastian I of Portugal and much of the Portuguese nobility in the Battle of Alcácer Quibir, the Portuguese crown had been joined to that of Spain in an "Iberian Union" under Philip II of Spain.  By attacking Portuguese overseas possessions, the Dutch forced Spain to divert financial and military resources away from its attempt to quell Dutch independence.  Thus began the long Dutch-Portuguese War (1602-1663).

Dutch Colonial Empire

The Dutch East India Company (Dutch: Verenigde Oost-Indische Compagnie, VOC) was founded in 1602.  The charter awarded to the Company by the States-General granted it sole rights, for an initial period of 21 years, to Dutch trade and navigation east of the Cape of Good Hope and west of the Straits of Magellan.  The directors of the company were given the legal authority to establish "fortresses and strongholds", to sign treaties, to enlist both an army and a navy, and to wage defensive war.  The company itself was founded as a joint stock company, similarly to its English rival that had been founded two years earlier, the English East India Company.  

Dutch Empire. Light green the Dutch East India Company, in dark green is the Dutch West India Company. Orange dots were trading posts.

In 1621, the Dutch West India Company was set up and given a 25-year monopoly to those parts of the world not controlled by its East India counterpart: the Atlantic, the Americas and the west coast of Africa.  The Dutch also established a trading post in Ayutthaya, modern day Thailand during the reign of King Naresuan, in 1604.

Major conflicts were fought later in four Anglo-Dutch Wars; three against the Kingdom of England and a fourth against the Kingdom of Great Britain: (1652-1654, 1665-1667, 1672-1674 and 1780-1784); the Franco-Dutch War (1672-1678) and War of the Grand Alliance (1688-1697) against the Kingdom of France.

Spanish Netherlands 1585-1714

The Spanish Habsburgs could only retain the rule over the partly Catholic Southern Netherlands, completed after the Fall of Antwerp in 1585.

Better times came, when in 1598 the Spanish Netherlands passed to Philip's daughter Isabella Clara Eugenia and her husband Archduke Albert VII of Austria.  The couple's rule brought a period of much-needed peace and stability to the economy, which stimulated the growth of a separate South Netherlandish identity and consolidated the authority of the Habsburg reconciling previous anti-Spanish sentiments.  In the early 17th century, there was a flourishing court at Brussels.

Austrian Netherlands 1714-1793

Under the Treaty of Rastatt (1714), following the War of the Spanish Succession, the Spanish Netherlands was ceded to Austria and thus became known as the Austrian Netherlands or Belgium Austriacum.

However, the Austrians themselves generally had little interest in the region, and the fortresses along the border (the Barrier Fortresses) were, by treaty, garrisoned with Dutch troops.  The area had, in fact, been given to Austria largely at British and Dutch insistence, as they feared potential French domination of the region.

In the 1780s, opposition emerged to the liberal reforms of Emperor Joseph II, which were perceived as an attack on the Catholic Church and the traditional institutions.  Resistance, focused in the autonomous and wealthy Estates of Brabant and Flanders, grew.  In the aftermath of rioting and disruption, known as the Small Revolution, in 1787, many of opponents took refuge in the neighboring Dutch Republic where they formed a rebel army.

Second Portuguese Empire 1640-1808

Portuguese Restoration War 1640-1668

A consequence of the personal union with Spain was the loss of the Portuguese monopoly of the Indian Ocean.  English, French and Dutch conquered Portuguese possessions in Asia.

Portugal's status was maintained under the first two kings of the Philippine Dynasty, Philip I and his son Philip II of Portugal (Philip II and III of Spain).  Both monarchs gave excellent positions to Portuguese nobles in the Spanish courts, and Portugal maintained independent laws, currency, and government.

However, the joining of the two crowns deprived Portugal of a separate foreign policy, and Spain's enemies became Portugal's.  The war with England led to a deterioration of relations with Portugal's oldest ally (since the Treaty of Windsor in 1386).

Being united with Spain involved Portugal in the Eighty Years War, which began with the Dutch rebelling against Spanish rule in their own north European territory, but soon developed into the Dutch Republic becoming a major new maritime power and attacking the Spanish colonies.

This campaign directly impacted Portuguese colonies as well, many of which were invaded by the Dutch - leading to the Dutch-Portuguese War.  In Asia, Portuguese Ceylon (modern Sri Lanka) - where the Portuguese had long controlled the coastal regions (though not the whole island) - was lost to the Dutch, as were Portuguese colonies in the East Indies (today's Indonesia).

When Philip II died in 1598, his successors (Philip III and IV of Spain) took a different approach to Portuguese issues.  They raised taxes, which mainly affected Portuguese merchants.  The Portuguese nobility began to lose its importance at the Spanish Cortes, and government posts in Portugal were occupied by Spaniards.

This situation culminated in a revolution by the Portuguese nobility and high bourgeoisie in December 1640.  The support of the people became apparent almost immediately and soon John, 8th Duke of Braganza, was acclaimed King John IV of Portugal (r.1640-1656).

House of Braganza and their Brazil Empire 1640-1808

The house was founded by Afonso I, 1st Duke of Braganza, illegitimate son of King John I of the House of Aviz.  The Braganzas came to rule the Kingdom of Portugal and the Algarves after successfully deposing the Philippine Dynasty in the Restoration War in 1640.  The Braganzas ruled the Portuguese Empire from 1640 and with the creation of the United Kingdom of Portugal, Brazil and the Algarves, in 1815, and the subsequent independence of the Empire of Brazil, in 1822, the Braganzas came to rule as the monarchs of Brazil.

King John IV was succeeded by his son Afonso VI.  Afonso's reign (1643-1683) saw the end of the Restoration War in 1668 and Spain's recognition of Portugal's independence.

In 1693, gold was discovered at Minas Gerais in Brazil.  Major discoveries of gold and, later, diamonds in Minas Gerais, Mato Grosso and Goiás led to a "gold rush", with a large influx of migrants.

The gold rush considerably increased the revenue of the Portuguese crown.  Diversion and smuggling were frequent, along with altercations between Paulistas (residents of São Paulo) and Emboabas (immigrants from Portugal and other regions in Brazil), so a whole set of bureaucratic controls began in 1710 with the captaincy of São Paulo and Minas Gerais.  By 1718, São Paulo and Minas Gerais became two captaincies, with eight vilas created in the latter.

Unlike Spain, Portugal did not divide its colonial territory in America.  The captaincies created there functioned under a centralized administration in Salvador, which reported directly to the Crown in Lisbon.

Name	Reign Start	Reign End	Notes
João IV	1640	1656	First Braganza monarch of Portugal King of Portugal and the Algarves
Afonso VI	1656	1683	died without heir King of Portugal and the Algarves
Pedro II	1683	1706	Brother of Afonso VI King of Portugal and the Algarves
João V	1706	1750	King of Portugal and the Algarves
José I	1750	1777	King of Portugal and the Algarves
Maria I and Pedro III	1777	1816	Queen and King of Portugal, Brazil, and the Algarves
João VI	1816	1826	King of Portugal and the Algarves Titular Emperor of Brazil

The Royal Family had the right to collecting one-fifth of the gold mined in Brazil, growing rich and recovering the prestige of the previous centuries.  The gold rush also caused emigration to Brazil and deprived Portugal of a large part of its population.  The population was denuded to such an extent that John V (r. 1706-1750) prohibited emigration in 1709.  It was also during this period that the America-Indians gained total freedom, a decision that contrasted with the growing slave trade.

European Colonization of North America 1606-1776

The invasion of the North American continent and its peoples began with the Spanish in 1565 at St. Augustine, Florida, then British in 1587 when the Plymouth Company established a settlement in present-day Virginia, although it was unsuccessful.

French explorers included Giovanni da Verrazzano in 1524; Jacques Cartier (1491-1557), and Samuel de Champlain (1567-1635), who explored the region of present day Quebec province and reestablished as New France.  From there, the French founded the Quebec city in 1608, then the Dutch started a colony called New Netherland in 1609 in present-day New York.

While Native Americans resisted European efforts to amass land and power during this period, they struggled to do so while also fighting new diseases introduced by the Europeans and the slave trade.

In 1606, King James I granted a charter with the purpose of discovering the riches at their first permanent settlement in Jamestown, Virginia in 1607.  They were sponsored by common stock companies financed by wealthy Englishmen who exaggerated the economic potential of the land.

Following the success of the Jamestown Colonies, several more English groups established colonies in the region that became known as New England.  In 1629, another group of Puritans led by John Winthrop established the Massachusetts Bay Colony, and by 1635 roughly ten thousand English settlers lived in the region between the Connecticut River and the Kennebec River.  Following the Anglo-Dutch Wars (1652-1674), England captured the Dutch colony of New Netherland (today New York and New Jersey).

New France 1650-1760

The vast territory of New France consisted of five colonies at its peak in 1712, each with its own administration: Canada, the most developed colony, was divided into the districts of Québec, Trois-Rivières, and Montréal; Hudson's Bay; Acadie in the northeast; Plaisance on the island of Newfoundland; and Louisiane. In the 16th century, the lands were used primarily to draw from the wealth of natural resources such as furs through trade with the various indigenous peoples.

During the first decades of the colony's existence, the French population numbered only a few hundred, while the English colonies to the south were much more populous and wealthy. Cardinal Richelieu, adviser to Louis XIII (r. 1610-1643), wished to make New France as significant as the English colonies.  In 1627, he founded the Company of One Hundred Associates to invest in New France, promising land parcels to hundreds of new settlers and to turn Canada into an important mercantile and farming colony.  Richelieu forbade non-Roman Catholics from living there.  Protestants were required to renounce their faith prior to settling in New France; many therefore chose instead to move to the English colonies.

At the same time the English colonies to the south began to raid the St. Lawrence valley and, in 1629, Quebec itself was captured and held by the English until 1632..  In 1663, New France finally became more secure when Louis XIV made it a royal province, taking control away from the Company of One Hundred Associates.

The French extended their territorial claim to the south and to the west of the American colonies late in the 17th century, naming it for King Louis XIV, as Louisiana (La Louisiane).  In 1682, René-Robert Cavelier, Sieur de La Salle explored the Ohio River Valley and the Mississippi River Valley, and he claimed the entire territory for France as far south as the Gulf of Mexico.  Other parts of Louisiana were settled and developed with success, such as New Orleans and southern Illinois, leaving a strong French influence in these areas.

The fight for control over Ohio Country led to the French and Indian War, which began as the North American phase of the Seven Years' War (1754-1763).  The war began with the defeat of a Virginia militia contingent led by Colonel George Washington by the French troupes de la marine in the Ohio valley.  As a result of that defeat, the British decided to prepare the conquest of Quebec City, the capital of New France.  The British defeated France in Acadia in the Battle of Fort Beausejour (1755) and then Île Royale (Cape Breton Island) with the Siege of Louisbourg (1758).

Thirteen British Colonies 1625-1776

The Thirteen British Colonies, or later as the United Colonies, were a group of British colonies on the Atlantic coast of North America.  Founded in the 17th and 18th centuries, they began fighting the American Revolutionary War in 1775 and formed the United States of America by declaring full independence in 1776.

Thirteen Colonies: Dark Red = New England colonies. Bright Red = Middle Atlantic colonies. Red-brown = Southern colonies.

The colonial population grew from to about 2.4 million between 1625 and 1775, displacing Native Americans.  This population included people subject to a system of slavery which was legal in the colonies prior to the American Revolutionary War.

The colonies had a high degree of self-governance and active local elections, and they resisted London's demands for more control.  The French and Indian War against France and its Indian allies led to growing tensions between Britain and the colonies.  During the 1750s, the colonies began collaborating with one another instead of dealing directly with Britain.  These inter-colonial activities cultivated a sense of shared American identity and led to calls for protection of the colonists' "Rights as Englishmen", especially the principle of "no taxation without representation".

American Revolutionary War 1775-1783

The American Revolutionary War (April 1775–September 1783) secured a United States of America independent from Great Britain.  Fighting began on April 19, 1775, followed by the Declaration of Independence on July 4, 1776.  The American Patriots were supported by France and Spain, conflict taking place in North America, the Caribbean, and Atlantic Ocean.  It ended on September 3, 1783 when Britain accepted American independence in the Treaty of Paris, while the Treaties of Versailles resolved separate conflicts with France and Spain.

Established by Royal charter in the 17th and 18th centuries, the American colonies were largely autonomous in domestic affairs and commercially prosperous, trading with Britain and its Caribbean colonies, as well as other European powers via their Caribbean entrepôts.  After British victory in the Seven Years' War in 1763, tensions arose over trade, colonial policy in the Northwest Territory and taxation measures, including the Stamp Act and Townshend Acts.

Kingdoms of France and Spain, House of Bourbon 1589-1808

The House of Bourbon is a European royal house of French origin, a branch of the Capetian dynasty. They originated in 1268, when the heiress of the lordship of Bourbon married a younger son of King Louis IX. The house continued for three centuries as a cadet branch, until Henry IV became the first Bourbon king of France in 1589.

House of Bourbon in France 1589-1791

Upon the death of his brother-in-law and distant cousin Henry III of France in 1589, Henry IV was called to the French succession by the Salic law.  He initially kept the Protestant faith and had to fight against the Catholic League, which denied that he could wear France's crown as a Protestant.

To obtain mastery over his kingdom, after four years of stalemate, he found it prudent to abjure the Calvinist faith.  As a pragmatic politician, he displayed an unusual religious tolerance for the era.  Notably, he promulgated the Edict of Nantes in 1598, which guaranteed religious liberties to Protestants, thereby effectively ending the Wars of Religion.

In the French colonial regions, the focus of economy was on sugar plantations in Caribbean.  In Canada the fur trade with the natives was important.  About 16,000 French men and women became colonizers, the great majority became subsistence farmers along the St. Lawrence River.

Name	King From	King Until	Relationship with Predecessor(s)	Title
Henry IV, Good King Henry, the Green Gallant	2 Aug 1589	14 May 1610	Tenth generation descendant of Louis IX in the male line; By first marriage son in law of Henry II; Brother in law of Francis II, Charles IX and Henry III	King of France and of Navarre
Louis XIII the Just	14 May 1610	14 May 1643	Son of Henry IV	King of France and of Navarre
Louis XIV the Great, the Sun King	14 May 1643	1 Sept 1715	Son of Louis XIII	King of France and of Navarre
Louis XV the Beloved	1 Sept 1715	10 May 1774	Great-grandson of Louis XIV	King of France and of Navarre
Louis XVI	10 May 1774	21 Sept 1791	Grandson of Louis XV	King of France and of Navarre

Louis XIV 1643-1715

Louis XIV, known as the "Sun King", although his strongest period of personal rule did not begin until 1661 after the death of his Italian chief minister Cardinal Mazarin.

He believed in the divine right of kings and continued his predecessors' work of creating a centralized state governed from Paris, sought to eliminate remnants of feudalism in France, and subjugated and weakened the aristocracy.

Under Louis XIV, France pursued an expansionist policy and frequently held control of territories in the Southern Netherlands.  He fought the War of Devolution against Spain in 1667.  France's defeat of Spain and invasion of the Spanish Netherlands alarmed England and Sweden.  Louis XIV agreed to a peace at Aachen and gain Lille.

War broke out again between France and the Dutch Republic in the Franco-Dutch War (1672-78).  This result in the Treaties of Nijmegen, and France annexed France-Comté (Country of Burgundy) and acquired further concessions in the Spanish Netherlands.

From 1670, Louis XIV introduced Chambers of Reunion to investigate if France had been granted all the territory that it had been owed.  Three of these territories seized by France were Alsace, Strasbourg and Luxembourg in 1681.  However, seize of Luxembourg was not successful after the War of Reunions (1683-84) with the Habsburg.

On 6 May 1682, the royal court moved to the lavish Palace of Versailles, which Louis XIV had greatly expanded.  Louis XIV compelled many members of the nobility, especially the noble elite, to inhabit Versailles.  He controlled the nobility with an elaborate system of pensions and privileges, and replaced their power with himself.

Louis XIV 1715-1774

Louis XIV died in 1715 and was succeed by his grandson Louis XIV at the age of five.  Most scholars believe Louis XIV's decisions damaged the power of France, weakened the treasury, discredited the absolute monarchy, and made it more vulnerable to distrust and destruction, as happened in the French Revolution, which broke out 15 years after his death.

In the North American theater, France was allied with Native American peoples during the war and, despite a temporary success, French forces were defeated at the disastrous battle in Quebec.  At sea, naval defeats against British fleets at Lagos and Quiberon Bay in 1759 and a crippling blockade forced France to keep its ships in port.

Finally peace was concluded in 1763 and Louis XIV ceded New France in North America to Spain and Great Britain at the conclusion of the Seven Years' War.

Britain's success in the war had allowed them to eclipse France as the leading colonial power.  France sought revenge for this defeat, and under Choiseul France started to rebuild.  In 1766 the French Kingdom annexed Lorraine and the following year bought Corsica from Genoa.

Age of Enlightenment 1715-1789

French historians place the Enlightenment between 1715, the year that Louis XIV died, and 1789, the beginning of the French Revolution.  The Age of Enlightenment (also known as the Age of Reason) was an intellectual and philosophical movement that dominated Europe in the 17th and 18th centuries.  The Enlightenment included a range of ideas centered on the value of human happiness, the pursuit of knowledge obtained by means of reason and the evidence of the senses, and ideals such as liberty, progress, toleration, fraternity, constitutional government, and separation of church and state.

Philosophers and scientists of the period widely circulated their ideas through meetings at scientific academies, Masonic lodges, literary salons, coffeehouses and in printed books, journals, and pamphlets.  The ideas of the Enlightenment undermined the authority of the monarchy and the Catholic Church and paved the way for the political revolutions of the 18th and 19th centuries.

In France, the central doctrines of the Enlightenment philosophers were individual liberty and religious tolerance, in opposition to an absolute monarchy and the fixed dogmas of the Church.  Paris became the center of an explosion of philosophic and scientific activity challenging traditional doctrines and dogmas.

In several nations, rulers welcomed leaders of the Enlightenment at court and asked them to help design laws and programs to reform the system, typically to build stronger states.  These rulers are called "enlightened despots" by historians.  They included Frederick the Great of Prussia, Catherine the Great of Russia, Leopold II of Tuscany and Joseph II of Austria.  Joseph was over-enthusiastic, announcing many reforms that had little support so that revolts broke out and his regime became a comedy of errors and nearly all his programs were reversed.

House of Bourbon in Spain 1700-1808

In 1700 Charles II of Spain (House of Habsburg) died.  Charles II fixed the entire Spanish inheritance on Philip, Duke of Anjou, the second-eldest grandson of King Louis XIV of France.  Louis XIV had good reasons for accepting his grandson on the Spanish thrones, but he subsequently made a series of controversial moves: he sent troops to secure the Spanish Netherlands (the buffer zone between France and the Dutch Republic); and he refused to remove Philip from the French line of succession, thereby opening the possibility of France and Spain uniting under a single monarch at a future date.

To counter Louis XIV's growing dominance, England, the Dutch Republic, and Austria (with their allies in the Holy Roman Empire) to support Emperor Leopold I's claim to the Spanish inheritance for his second son, Archduke Charles of Austria.

War of the Spanish Succession 1700-1714

After a long council meeting where the Dauphin spoke up in favour of his son's rights, it was agreed that Philip would ascend the throne.  The War of the Spanish Succession broke out and Archduke Charles was proclaimed king of Spain, as Charles III in opposition to Philip V.  He was proclaimed in Vienna and in Madrid in the years 1706 and 1710.

After the war, the treaty of Utrecht recognized Philip, Duke of Anjou, Louis XIV's grandson, as King Philip V of Spain, thus confirming the succession stipulated in the will of the Charles II of Spain.  However, Philip was compelled to renounce for himself and his descendants any right to the French throne.

Austria had confirmed its position as a major power, yet the Habsburg dynasty had fallen short of its full war aims: Spain had been lost to Philip V and Sicily lost to the Duke of Savoy.  Although Sardinia was exchanged for Sicily in 1720, together with the acquisitions of the Spanish Netherlands and Naples.  All these had extended the Monarchy's responsibilities beyond their traditional interests and commitments, an overextension which made the Habsburg territories more vulnerable at their periphery, particularly without the assistance of the Maritime Powers.

Philip V 1700-1746

The ideas of the Enlightenment in France came to Spain following the establishment of the Bourbon dynasty in Spain in 1715.  Philip V did not come into effective power until 1715 and began implementing administrative reforms to try to stop the decline of the Spanish Empire.

He signed the Decreto de Nueva Planta in 1715.  This new law revoked most of the historical rights and privileges of the different kingdoms that formed the Spanish Crown, especially the Crown of Aragon, unifying them under the Laws of Castile, where the Castillian Cortes Generales had been more receptive to the royal wish.

He strengthened the central authorities relative to the provinces.  The Nueva Planta decrees (1716) dismantled the composite system of rule in Spain, and replaced it with central rule from Madrid and unitary Castilian values.  Also eliminated with the Bourbon dynasty was the Hapsburg system of conciliar government, replacing councils with four secretariats, later evolving into ministries.

Name	Reign start	Reign end	Notes
Philip V the Spirited	16 Nov 1700	14 Jan 1724 (abdicated)	Great-grandson of Philip IV
Louis I the Beloved and the Liberal	14 Jan 1724	31 Aug 1724	Son of Philip V
Philip V the Spirited	6 Sept 1724	9 July 1746	Father of Louis I
Ferdinand VI the Learned	9 July 1746	10 Aug 1759	Son of Philip V
Charles III the Enlightened and the King-Mayor	10 Aug 1759	14 Dec 1788	Son of Philip V
Charles IV the Hunter	14 Dec 1788	19 Mar 1808 (abdicated)	Son of Charles III
Ferdinand VII	19 Mar 1808	6 May 1808 (abdicated)	Son of Charles IV

Charles III and IV 1759-1808

The period of reform and 'enlightened despotism' focused on centralizing and modernizing the Spanish government.  It began with the rule of King Charles III and the work of his minister, José Moñino, count of Floridablanca.  In the political and economic sphere, the crown implemented a series of changes, known as the Bourbon reforms, which were aimed at making the overseas empire more prosperous to the benefit of Spain.

The Bourbon Reforms transitioned Spain's economic policy to be increasingly mercantilist, an economic policy in which countries maximize their exports and minimize their imports to secure greater portion of wealth from a fixed amount in the world.  This wealth was measured in the quantity that ended up in imperial treasuries.

Land reform and agricultural reform alienated both clergymen and landed elites in Spain.  Charles III chose to ally with the merchantmen of his country and a growing middle class that came with a new prosperity during his rule.  An advocate of free trade, Charles reduced the tariff barriers that had been the core of Spanish trade policy for centuries.

King Charles III died in December 1788.  Seven months later, French revolutionaries stormed the Bastille, launching the French Revolution.  His second eldest son, Charles IV was seen as being as uninterested in politics.  His chief interest upon his arrival in Spain (he had grown up in Naples) was hunting, and for all of his rule were dominated by the will of his wife Maria Luisa of Parma.

However, Maria Luisa relationship with Manuel Godoy (First Secretary of State) and influence over the King made them unpopular among the people and aristocrats.  The spirit of reform that had made the reign of Charles III an era of renewed prosperity for Spain was extinguished in the reign of Charles IV.

Kingdom of The Great Britain, House of Stuart 1603-1714

Following the death of Elizabeth I in 1603 without issue, her cousin, James VI, King of Scots, succeeded to the English throne as James I in the Union of the Crowns.  James was descended from the Tudors through his great-grandmother, Margaret Tudor, the eldest daughter of Henry VII.  In 1604, he adopted the title King of Great Britain.

House of Stuart, 1603-1714

Name	King From	King Until	Claim	Death
James I	24 Mar 1603	27 Mar 1625	Great-great-grandson and heir general of Henry VII Son of Henry Stuart, Lord Darnley and Mary I, Queen of Scots	Aged 58
Charles I	27 Mar 1625	30 Jan 1649	Son of James I (cognatic primogeniture)	Aged 48 (beheaded)

The first English Civil War broke out in 1642, as a result of a series of conflicts between Charles I and Parliament.  The defeat of the Royalist army by the New Model Army of Parliament in June 1645 effectively destroyed the king's forces.  He escaped, and the second English Civil War began, with the New Model Army quickly secured the country.  The capture and subsequent trial of Charles led to his beheading in January 1649 at Whitehall Gate in London, making England a republic.

The trial and execution of Charles by his own subjects shocked the rest of Europe (the king argued to the end that only God could judge him).  No monarch reigned between the execution of Charles I in 1649 and the restoration of Charles II in 1660.  Instead the following individuals from 1653 held power as Lords Protector, during the period known as the Protectorate:

Oliver Cromwell, 16 December 1653-1658;

Richard Cromwell, 3 September 1658-7 May 1659.

Although the monarchy was restored in 1660, no stable settlement proved possible until the Glorious Revolution of 1688, when Parliament passed legislation prohibiting Roman Catholics from succeeding to the throne.

Name	King From	King Until	Claim	Death
Charles II	1660	6 Feb 1685	Great-great-grandson and heir general of Henry VII; Son of Charles I; (cognatic primogeniture; English Restoration)	Aged 54
James II	6 Feb 1685	23 Dec 1688 (deposed)	Son of Charles I (cognatic primogeniture)	16 Sept 1701 aged 67
Mary II and William of Orange	13 Feb 1689	8 Mar 1702	Daughter of James II (Mary); Stadtholder William III in the Dutch Republic (William); Grandchildren of Charles I; (offered the crown by Parliament)	28 Dec 1694 aged 32; 8 Mar 1702 aged 51
Anne	8 Mar 1702	1 May 1707	Daughter of James II (cognatic primogeniture; Bill of Rights 1689)	1 Aug 1714 aged 49

In 1680, the Exclusion crisis occurred due to widespread objections to a Catholic serving as the King of England, since the Catholic James was the heir presumptive to King Charles II.  After the death of Charles II in 1685, his Catholic brother James II was crowned.  From that point, there were various factions pressing for his Protestant daughter Mary and her husband, Prince William III of Orange, to replace him in what became known as the Glorious Revolution.

In parts of Scotland and Ireland, Catholics loyal to James remained determined to see him restored to the throne, and there followed a series of bloody though unsuccessful uprisings.  As a result, any failure to pledge loyalty to the victorious King William was severely dealt with.

Kingdom of Great Britain 1707

The Acts of Union between the Kingdoms of England and Scotland were a pair of Parliamentary Acts passed by both parliaments in 1707, which dissolved them in order to form a Kingdom of Great Britain governed by a unified Parliament according to the Treaty of Union.

The two countries had shared a monarch since the Union of the Crowns in 1603, when King James VI of Scotland inherited the English throne from Queen Elizabeth I.  Although described as a Union of Crowns, until 1707 there were in fact two separate Crowns resting on the same head.  There had been attempts in 1606, 1667, and 1689 to unite the two countries by Acts of Parliament, but it was not until the early 18th century that the idea had the will of both political establishments behind them.

Queen Anne had been queen of England, Scotland and Ireland since March 1702, and became Queen of the Great Britain upon the union in 1707.

Habsburg Monarchy and Kings of Prussia 1648-1806

The second son of Emperor Ferdinand III, Leopold became heir apparent in 1654 by the death of his elder brother Ferdinand IV.  Elected in 1658, Leopold I ruled the Holy Roman Empire until his death in 1705, becoming the longest-ruling Habsburg emperor (46 years and 9 months).  He was both a composer and considerable patron of music.

House of Habsburg 1648-1740

Name	House	King	Emperor	Ended	Notes
Ferdinand III	Habsburg	22 Dec 1636	15 Feb 1637 Emperor-elect	2 April 1657	Son of Ferdinand II
Ferdinand IV	Habsburg	31 May 1653	–	9 July 1654	Son of Ferdinand III; King of Germany under his father
Leopold I	Habsburg	18 July 1658	18 July 1658 Emperor-elect	5 May 1705	Son of Ferdinand III
Joseph I	Habsburg	23 Jan 1690	5 May 1705 Emperor-Elect	17 April 1711	Son of Leopold I; King of Germany under his father 1690-1705
Charles VI	Habsburg	27 Oct 1711	27 Oct 1711 Emperor-Elect	20 Oct 1740	Son of Leopold I

Leopold's reign is known for conflicts with the Ottoman Empire in the Great Turkish War (1683-1699).  After more than a decade of warfare, Leopold emerged victorious in the east thanks to the military talents of the commander Prince Eugene of Savoy.  By the Treaty of Karlowitz, Leopold recovered almost all of the Kingdom of Hungary, which had fallen under Turkish power in the years after the 1526 Battle of Mohács.

The Habsburgs gradually occupied and dominated Southern Hungary and Transylvania after 1700.

Leopold fought the War of the Grand Alliance (1688-1697) and the War of the Spanish Succession (1700-1714) against Louis XIV of France.  In this last, Leopold sought to give his younger son Charles the entire Spanish inheritance, disregarding the will of the late Charles II of Spain.

Joseph I continued the war, in a fruitless attempt to make his younger brother Charles (later Emperor Charles VI) King of Spain.  In the process.  However, owing to the victories won by Prince Eugene of Savoy, he did succeed in establishing Austrian hegemony over Italy.  The subsequent Treaty of Utrecht (1713) and Rastatt (1714) passed control of much of Italy (Milan, Naples and Sardinia) from Spain to Habsburg Austria, while Sicily was ceded to the Duchy of Savoy.

Savoy Kingdom of Sardinia 1720-1796

Bourbon King Philip V of Spain tried again to retake territories in Italy and to claim the French throne in the War of the Quadruple Alliance (1718-1720), but was again defeated.

As a result of the Treaty of The Hague, Spain agreed to abandon its Italian claims, while Duke Victor Amadeus II of Savoy agreed to exchange Sicily with Austria Habsburgs, for the island of Sardinia, after which he was known as the King of Sardinia.

The Savoyards united the island of Sardinia with their historical possessions on the Italian mainland, which included, besides Savoy and Aosta, dynastic possessions like the Principality of Piedmont and the County of Nice (over both of which the Savoyards had been exercising their control since the 13th century and 1388, respectively).

This newly formed Kingdom of Sardinia was also referenced to as either Savoy-Sardinia, Piedmont-Sardinia, or the Kingdom of Piedmont to emphasise that the island of Sardinia had always been of secondary importance to the monarchy.

While the traditional capital of the Sardinia had always been Cagliari, it was the Piedmontese city of Turin the de facto chosen seat of power under Savoyard rule, until they were conquered by the Napoleon French force in 1796.

War of the Austrian Succession 1740-1748

Charles VI succeeded his elder brother, Joseph I in 1711.  Faced with his lack of male heirs, Charles provided for a male-line succession failure with the Pragmatic Sanction of 1713, to left the throne to his yet unborn daughter, Maria Theresa.  The Emperor favoured his own daughter over those of his elder brother and predecessor, Joseph I.

Charles sought the other European powers' approval.  Great Britain, France, Saxony-Poland, the Dutch Republic, Spain, Venice, States of the Church, Prussia, Russia, Denmark, Savoy-Sardinia, Bavaria, and the Diet of the Holy Roman Empire recognised the sanction.  However, France, Spain, Saxony-Poland, Bavaria and Prussia later reneged.

Charles VI died in 1740 and sparked the War of the Austrian Succession, which plagued his successor for eight years.  Charles Albert, Elector of Bavaria and son-in-law of Emperor Joseph I, rejected the Pragmatic Sanction and claimed the German territories as Charles VII, while Prussia proceeded to invade the affluent Habsburg province of Silesia.

Maria Theresa was backed by Britain, the Dutch Republic, Hanover and fought successfully for recognition of her succession to the throne.  However, she had to cede most of Silesia to Frederick the Great after the two Silesian Wars (1740-42 and 1744-45) and the Treaty of Aachen in 1748 by which she was confirmed as Archduchess of Austria and Queen of Hungary.

Prussia won recognition as a great power, thus launching a century-long rivalry with Austria (German dualism) for the leadership of the German peoples.

Brandenburg-Prussia 1618-1740

As in 1618, Albert Frederick, Duke of Prussia, had no surviving male heirs, allowed his son-in-law, Elector John Sigismund of the Hohenzollern branch in Brandenburg, to become the duke's legal successor, thereafter ruling Brandenburg and Ducal Prussia in personal union.

Brandenburg, being a fief of the Holy Roman Empire, and Ducal Prussia, being a Polish fief, made a cross-border real union legally impossible.  However, Brandenburg and Ducal Prussia were more and more ruled as one, and colloquially referred to as Brandenburg-Prussia, which was the predecessor of the Kingdom of Prussia (1701-1871).

The government was seated in Brandenburg's capital Berlin, mostly appeared under the higher ranking titles of Prussian government.  Frederick William , grandson of Elector John Sigismund, is popularly known as "the Great Elector” because of his military and political achievements.  He wished to acquire Royal Prussia from Kingdom of Poland in order to territoriality connect his two fiefs.  His shrewd domestic reforms gave Prussia a strong position for elevation of Prussia from duchy to kingdom, which was achieved under his son Frederick III.

King in Prussia 1701-1740

Elector Frederick III of Brandenburg crowned himself "King in Prussia" at Königsberg as Frederick I in 1701.  Frederick persuaded Emperor Leopold I to allow Prussia to be elevated to a kingdom.  This agreement was given in exchange for an alliance against King Louis XIV in the War of the Spanish Succession.  Frederick argued that Prussia had never been part of the Holy Roman Empire; the royal title was only valid in the Prussian lands outside the Empire.

Kings of Prussia 1740-1861

Frederick I's grandson, Frederick II, became known as Frederick the Great.  His achievements included his military victories, his reorganization of Prussian armies, his patronage of the Arts and the Enlightenment in Prussia, and his final success against great odds in the Seven Years' War.

Name	Reign start	Reign end	Notes	Family
Frederick I	18 Jan 1701	25 Feb 1713	Elector Frederick III of Brandenburg- Prussia	Hohenzollern
Frederick William I	25 Feb 1713	31 May 1740	Son of Frederick I	Hohenzollern
Frederick II the Great	31 May 1740	17 Aug 1786	Son of Frederick William I	Hohenzollern
Frederick William II	17 Aug 1786	16 Nov 1797	Nephew of Frederick II	Hohenzollern
Frederick William III	16 Nov 1797	7 June 1840	Son of Frederick William II	Hohenzollern
Frederick William IV	7 June 1840	2 Jan 1861	Son of Frederick William III	Hohenzollern

Frederick II the Great 1740-1786

Upon ascending to the Prussian throne, Frederick II stunned Europe by launching a surprise invasion of the wealthy region of Silesia of Habsburg Austria.  This action triggered the War of the Austrian Succession, which lasted eight years and brought Frederick's diplomatic and military skills to the fore.  

Starting 1772, he took the lead in the partitions of Poland, with Austria and Russia splitting the rest.  Prussia occupied the western territories of the former Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth that surrounded existing Prussian holdings.

When Frederick I ascended the throne as "King in Prussia" in 1740, Prussia consisted of scattered territories, including Cleves and Ravensberg in the west of the Holy Roman Empire; Brandenburg and Pomerania in the east of the Empire; and the Kingdom of Prussia.  After 1772, Frederick II was to declare himself "King of Prussia".

Partitions of Poland 1772-1795

It were three partitions of the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth that took place toward the end of the 18th century and resulted in the elimination of sovereign Poland and Lithuania for 123 years.

In February 1772, the agreement of partition was signed in Vienna among the Habsburg Monarchy, the Kingdom of Prussia and the Russian Empire.  Early in August, their troops occupied the provinces agreed upon among themselves.

Frederick II was elated with his success; Prussia took most of Royal Prussia that stood between its possessions in the Kingdom of Prussia and the Margraviate of Brandenburg.  Empress Catherine II of Russia was also satisfied in spite of the loss of Galicia to the Habsburg Monarchy.  Russia came into possession of Livonia and eastern Belarus embracing the counties of Vitebsk, Polotsk and Mstislavl.

By this partition, the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth lost about 30% of its territory and half of its population, of which a large portion had not been ethnically Polish.  By seizing northwestern Poland, Prussia instantly gained control over 80% of the Commonwealth's total foreign trade.  Through levying enormous customs duties, Prussia accelerated the collapse of the Commonwealth.

Two decades later, Russian and Prussian troops entered the Commonwealth again and the Second Partition was signed on January 23, 1793.  The Third Partition took place on October 24, 1795, in reaction to the unsuccessful Polish Kościuszko Uprising the previous year.  With this partition, the Commonwealth ceased to exist.

House of Habsburg-Lorraine 1740-1806

Maria Theresa was the only female ruler; and the last of the House of Habsburg.  During her 40-year reign (1740-1780), she was the sovereign of Austria, Hungary, Croatia, Bohemia, Transylvania, Milan, Galicia, the Austrian Netherlands and Parma.

By marriage, she was Duchess of Lorraine, Grand Duchess of Tuscany and Holy Roman Empress.  The House of Habsburg-Lorraine succeeded the Medici of Florence rule in the Grand Duchy of Tuscany in 1737.

Maria Theresa and her husband, Emperor Francis I, had sixteen children, including the two Emperors, Joseph II and Leopold II.  Though she was expected to cede power to Francis and Joseph, both of whom were officially her co-rulers in Austria and Bohemia.  Maria Theresa was the absolute sovereign who ruled by the counsel of her advisers.

Name	House	King	Emperor	Ended	Notes
Charles VII	Wittelsbach	14 Jan 1742	14 Jan 1742 Emperor-elect	20 Jan 1745	Great-great-grandson of Ferdinand II; Husband of Maria Amalia, daughter of Joseph I
Francis I	Lorraine	13 Sept 1745	13 Sept 1745 Emperor-elect	18 Aug 1765	Great-grandson of Ferdinand III; Husband of Maria Theresa, daughter of Charles VI
Joseph II	Habsburg-Lorraine	27 Mar 1764	18 Aug 1765 Emperor-elect	20 Feb 1790	Son of Francis I and Maria Theresa; King of Germany under his father 1764–1765
Leopold II	Habsburg-Lorraine	30 Sept 1790	30 Sept 1790 Emperor-Elect	1 Mar 1792	Son of Francis I and Maria Theresa
Francis II	Habsburg-Lorraine	7 July 1792	7 July 1792 Emperor-Elect	6 Aug 1806	Son of Leopold II; Dissolved the Holy Roman Empire; Emperor of Austria Francis I 1804–1835.

Classical Music period 1730-1820

The Classical period falls between the Baroque and the Romantic periods. Classical music has a lighter, clearer texture than Baroque music, but a more sophisticated use of form. The best-known composers from this period are Haydn, Mozart, Beethoven and Schubert.  The period is sometimes referred to as the era of Viennese Classicism (First Viennese School , German: Wiener Klassik), since they all worked in Vienna.

Joseph Haydn (1732-1809) was instrumental in the development of chamber music such as the string quartet and piano trio.  His contributions led him to be called "Father of the Symphony" and "Father of the String Quartet".  

Haydn was born in Rohrau, Austria, a village that at that time stood on the border with Hungary.  He spent much of his career as a court musician for the wealthy Esterházy family at their Eszterháza Castle in Hungary.

Mozart and Haydn were friends.  They had met sometime around 1784 in Vienna, the two composers occasionally played in string quartets together.  The elder Haydn acted, in at least a minor capacity, as a mentor to Mozart.  Mozart evidently returned the esteem, as seen in his dedication of a set of six quartets, now called the "Haydn" quartets, to his friend.

Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart (1756-1791) was a prolific and influential composer of the Classical period.  Despite his short life, his rapid pace of composition resulted in more than 800 works of virtually every genre of his time.

He born in Salzburg, (at that time the Prince-Archbishopric of Salzburg, a state of the Holy Roman Empire), Mozart showed prodigious ability from his earliest childhood.  At 17, Mozart was engaged as a musician at the Salzburg court but grew restless and travelled in search of a better position.  He resigned his position at Salzburg in August 1777, with visits to Augsburg, Mannheim, Paris and Munich.

While visiting Vienna in 1781, he chose to stay in Vienna, where he achieved fame but little financial security.  During his final years in Vienna, he composed many of his best-known symphonies, concertos, and operas, and portions of the Requiem, which was largely unfinished at the time of his early death at the age of 35.

Ludwig van Beethoven (1770-1827) was a German composer (born in Bonn) and pianist.  Beethoven remains one of the most admired composers in the history of Western music; his works span the transition from the Classical period to the Romantic era in classical music.

Beethoven left Bonn for Vienna in November 1792, amid rumours of war spilling out of France.  Over the next few years, Beethoven responded to the widespread feeling that he was a successor to the recently deceased Mozart by writing works with a distinctly Mozartian flavour.

Perhaps the most important relationship in Beethoven's early life, was the young pianist's tutorship under the Austrian composer Joseph Haydn.  Working under Haydn's direction, he sought to master counterpoint.

With Haydn's departure for England in 1794, Beethoven was expected by the Elector ( Archbishop-Elector of Cologne) to return home to Bonn.  He chose instead to remain in Vienna, continuing his instruction in counterpoint with Johann Albrechtsberger and other teachers.  In any case, by this time it must have seemed clear to his employer that Bonn would fall to the French Empire, as it did in October 1794, effectively leaving Beethoven without a stipend or the necessity to return.

Seven Years' War 1756-1763

It is widely considered to be the first global conflict in history, and was a struggle for world supremacy between Great Britain and France.  Long-standing colonial rivalries pitting Britain against France and Spain in North America and the Caribbean islands were fought on a grand scale with consequential results.

In Europe, the conflict arose from issues left unresolved by the Treaty of Aachen in 1748.  Maria Theresa resented Austria's exclusion from the talks, and blamed Britain for forcing her to accept concessions, while British politicians felt they had received little benefit for the financial subsidies paid to her.  The combination of factors led to the strategic realignment in 1756 and the war broke out over territorial disputes between Prussia and Austria, which wanted to regain Silesia.

In a realignment of the Diplomatic Revolution of 1756, Prussia became part of a coalition led by Britain (House of Hanover).  At the same time, Austria ended centuries of conflict by allying with Louis XV of France, along with Saxony, Sweden and Russia.  Spain aligned formally with France in 1762.

In 1756 Frederick the Great pre-emptively struck Saxony and quickly overran it.  The result caused uproar across Europe.  Reluctantly, by following the Imperial diet of the Holy Roman Empire, which declared war on Prussia in January 1757, most of the states of the empire joined Austria's cause.  The Anglo-Prussian alliance was joined by a few German states within the empire (most notably the Electorate of Hanover).

In May 1757 Prussia invaded Bohemia.  In the Battle of Prague they defeated the Habsburgs and subsequently occupied Prague.  More than one quarter of Prague was destroyed and the St. Vitus Cathedral suffered heavy damage.  In the Battle of Kolín in June, however, Frederick lost and had to gave up the siege of Prague as well as his planned march on Vienna and retreated to Saxony.

In 1762 Russia, France, and Austria were on the verge of crushing Prussia, when the Anglo-Prussian Alliance was saved by the Miracle of the House of Brandenburg.  The war ended with two separate treaties dealing with the two different theaters of war.  The Treaty of Paris between France, Spain and Great Britain ended the war in North America and for overseas territories taken in the conflict.  The 1763 Treaty of Hubertusburg ended the war between Saxony, Austria and Prussia.

Prussia solidified its position as a newer European great power.  Although Austria failed to retrieve the territory of Silesia from Prussia (its original goal), its military prowess was also noted by the other powers.

The war was successful for Great Britain, which gained the bulk of New France in North America, Spanish Florida, some individual Caribbean islands in the West Indies, the colony of Senegal on the West African coast, and superiority over the French trading outposts on the Indian subcontinent.

The involvement of Portugal and Sweden did not return them to their former status as great powers.  France was deprived of many of its colonies and had saddled itself with heavy war debts that its inefficient financial system could barely handle.  Spain lost Florida but gained French Louisiana and regained control of its colonies, e.g., Cuba and the Philippines, which had been captured by the British during the war.

Russian Empire 1721-1815

Peter the Great 1682-1725

Peter I, the Great was destined to bring the Tsardom of Russia, which had little contact with Europe and was mostly seen as a regional power, into the mainstream of European culture and politics.

He became impressed with what he saw and was awakened to the backwardness of Russia, a nation that resembled a Mongol khanate more than a European monarchy.  Peter began requiring the nobility to wear Western clothing and shave off their beards, an action that the boyars protested bitterly.  Arranged marriages among nobility were banned and the Orthodox Church brought under state control.

The Great Northern War (1700-1721) against Sweden consumed much of Peter's attention for years, and the Swedes were eventually defeated and peace agreed in 1721.  Russia acquired four provinces situated south and east of the Gulf of Finland from Sweden, securing access to the Baltic coast, there he built the new model city of Saint Petersburg, according to Western design.  He proclaimed the Russian Empire in 1721 and move the capital from Moscow to Saint Petersburg.

This relocation expressed his intent to adopt European elements for his empire.  Many of the government and other major buildings were designed under Italianate influence.  In 1722, he turned his aspirations toward increasing Russian influence in the Caucasus and the Caspian Sea at the expense of the weakened Safavid Persians.

Emperors of Russia 1721-1825

Name	Reign Start	Reign End	Notes
Peter I the Great	2 November 1721	8 February 1725	Son of Alexis Younger half-brother of Feodor III Younger brother of Ivan V First Emperor of Russia
Catherine I	8 February 1725	17 May 1727	Wife of Peter I
Peter II	18 May 1727	30 January 1730	Grandson of Peter I Last of the direct male Romanov line.
Anna	15 February 1730	28 October 1740	Daughter of Ivan V
Ivan VI	28 October 1740	6 December 1741	Great-grandson of Ivan V Deposed as a baby, imprisoned and later murdered
Elizabeth	6 December 1741	5 January 1762	Daughter of Peter I and Catherine I usurped the throne.
Peter III	9 January 1762	9 July 1762	Grandson of Peter I Nephew of Elizabeth, murdered
Catherine II the Great	9 January 1762	17 November 1796	Wife of Peter III
Paul I	17 November 1796	23 March 1801	Son of Peter III and Catherine II Assassinated
Alexander I the Blessed	23 March 1801	1 December 1825	Son of Paul I First Romanov King of Poland and Grand Duke of Finland

Empress Elizabeth 1741-1762

The second-eldest daughter of Peter the Great (r. 1682-1725), Elizabeth lived through the confused successions of her father's descendants following her half-brother Alexei's death in 1718.  The throne first passed to her mother Catherine I of Russia (r. 1725-1727), then to her nephew Peter II, who died in 1730 and was succeeded by Elizabeth's first cousin Anna.  After the brief rule of Anna's infant great-nephew, Ivan VI, Elizabeth seized the throne with the military's support and declared her own nephew, the future Peter III, her heir.

During her reign Elizabeth continued the policies of her father and brought about a remarkable Age of Enlightenment in Russia.  Her domestic policies allowed the nobles to gain dominance in local government while shortening their terms of service to the state.

Elizabeth led the Russian Empire during the two major European conflicts: the War of Austrian Succession (1740-48) and the Seven Years' War (1756-63).  She and diplomat Aleksey Bestuzhev-Ryumin solved the first event by forming an alliance with Austria and France, but indirectly caused the second.  Russian troops enjoyed several victories and briefly occupied Berlin, but when Frederick the Great was finally considering surrender in January 1762, the Russian Empress died.  She was the last agnatic member of the House of Romanov to reign over the Russian Empire.

Catherine the Great 1761-1796

Catherine II, the Great presided over a golden age.  She expanded the nation rapidly by conquest, colonization and diplomacy.  She continued Peter the Great's policy of modernization along West European lines.

She was a German princess who married Peter III, the German heir to the Russian crown.  After the death of Empress Elizabeth, Peter I's daughter, Catherine effected a coup d'état against her unpopular husband and she came to power.  She contributed to the resurgence of the Russian nobility that began after the death of Peter the Great, abolishing state service and granting them control of most state functions in the provinces.

She extended Russian political control over the lands of the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth.  Then, by plotting with the rulers of Austria and Prussia, she incorporated territories of the Commonwealth during the Partitions of Poland, pushing the Russian frontier westward into Central Europe.

By the time of her death in 1796, Catherine's expansionist policy had turned Russia into a major European power.  This continued with Alexander I's wresting of Finland from the weakened kingdom of Sweden in 1809 and of Bessarabia from the Principality of Moldavia, ceded by the Ottomans in 1812.

British Empire, House of Hanover 1714-1820

The Hanoverian succession came about as a result of the Act of Settlement 1701, passed by the Parliament of England, which excluded "Papists" (Roman Catholics) from the succession.

After the death of Queen Anne with no living children, George I, the son of Sophia of Hanover, granddaughter of James I of England through his daughter Elizabeth of Bohemia, was the closest heir to the throne who was not a Roman Catholic.

A series of Jacobite rebellions broke out in an attempt to restore the Stuart monarchy, but all ultimately failed.  Several planned French Invasions were attempted, also with the intention of placing the Stuarts on the throne.

House of Hanover 1714-1832

George I (r. 1714-1727), Elector of Hanover (r. 1708-1727) within the Holy Roman Empire, paid more attention to Hanover and surrounded himself with Germans.  George mainly lived in Great Britain after 1714, although in total George spent about one fifth of his reign as king in Germany.  During George's reign, the powers of the monarchy diminished and Britain began a transition to a mordern government led by a prime minister.

However he did created a more stable political system in Britain and helped bring peace to northern Europe.  Jacobite factions seeking a Stuart restoration remained strong; they instigated a revolt in 1715-1716, when the son of James II planned to invade England.

Name	King From	King Until	Claim	Death
George I	1 August 1714	11 June 1727	Great-grandson of James VI and I, Act of Settlement, eldest son of Sophia of Hanover	Aged 67
George II	11 June 1727	25 October 1760	Son of George I	Aged 76
George III	25 October 1760	29 January 1820	Grandson of George II	Aged 81
George IV	29 January 1820	26 June 1830	Son of George III, Prince Regent since 1811	Aged 67
William IV	26 June 1830	20 June 1837	Son of George III	Aged 71

George II enhanced the stability of the constitutional system, with a government run by Sir Robert Walpole during the period 1730-42.  He built up the first British Empire, strengthening the colonies in the Caribbean and North America.  In coalition with the rising power Prussia, defeated France in the Seven Years' War (1756-1763), and won full control of Canada.

George III was born in Britain, never visited Hanover, and spoke English as his first language.  He was the last king to dominate government and politics, his long reign is noted for losing the first British Empire with a loss in the American Revolutionary War in 1783, as France sought revenge by aiding the Americans, resulting to the independent of United States of America.

United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland 1800

The Acts of Union 1800 united the Kingdom of Great Britain and the Kingdom of Ireland (previously in personal union) to create the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland.

Before these Acts, Ireland had been in personal union with England since 1541, when the Irish Parliament had passed the Crown of Ireland Act 1542, proclaiming King Henry VIII of England to be King of Ireland.  Since the 12th century, the King of England had been technical overlord of the Lordship of Ireland, a papal possession.

The Irish Parliament was subject to a certain restrictions that made it subordinate to the Parliament of England and after then, to the Parliament of Great Britain; however, Ireland gained effective legislative independence from Great Britain through the Constitution of 1782.

Frustration at the lack of reform among the Catholic majority, the new constitutional arrangements proved short-lived in consequence of the 1798 uprising by the Society of United Irishmen, who were influenced by the ideas of the American independence and French revolutions, against the Protestant British rule in Catholic Ireland.

The British government seized on the rebellion.  In 1800 the Irish legislature was abolished in favour of a United Kingdom parliament at Westminster.

Revolutionary France 1789-1804

The underlying causes of the revolution are generally seen as arising from the failure of the Ancien Régime to manage social and economic inequality.  Rapid population growth and the inability to adequately finance government debt resulted in economic depression, unemployment and high food prices.  It resulted in a crisis Louis XVI proved unable to manage.

French Revolution 1789-1790

The immediate trigger was Louis XVI's attempts to solve the government's worsening financial situation.  When Louis XV died in 1774 he left his grandson Louis XVI, "A heavy legacy, with ruined finances, and a faulty and incompetent government."   Regardless, the people still had confidence in royalty, and the accession of Louis XVI was welcomed with enthusiasm.

The recent Seven Years' War (1756-63) and American Revolutionary War (1775-83) had effectively bankrupted the state.  In February 1787 his finance minister, Charles Alexandre de Calonne, convened an Assembly of Notables, a group of nobles, clergy, bourgeoisie, and bureaucrats selected in order to bypass the local parliaments.  This group was asked to approve a new land tax that would include a tax on the property of nobles and clergy.  In August 1788 the King agreed to convene the Estates-General in May 1789.

While the Third Estate demanded and was granted "double representation" so as to balance the First and Second Estate, votes of the Third Estate were to be weighted, effectively canceling the double representation.  This eventually led to the Third Estate breaking away from the Estates-General and joined by members of the other estates, proclaiming the creation of the National Assembly, an assembly not of the Estates but of "the People".

After the king fired the finance minister for giving his support to the Third Estate, worries surfaced that the legitimacy of the newly formed National Assembly might be threatened by royalists.  Paris was soon in a state of anarchy.  It was consumed with riots and widespread looting.  The royal leadership essentially abandoned the city and the mobs soon had the support of the French Guard.

On 14 July 1789, the insurgents set their eyes on the large weapons and ammunition cache inside the Bastille fortress, which also served as a symbol of royal tyranny.  Insurgents seized the Bastille prison, killing the governor and his guards.  By late July, the spirit of popular sovereignty had spread throughout France.

On 4 and 11 August the National Constituent Assembly abolished privileges and feudalism, in what became known as the August Decrees.  On 26 August the Declaration of the Rights of Man and of the Citizen was published.

On 6 October 1789, the King and the royal family moved from Versailles under the "protection of the National Guards", thus legitimizing the National Assembly.

The Civil Constitution of the Clergy was passed on 12 July 1790.  This established an election system for parish priests and bishops and set a pay rate for the clergy.  Many Catholics objected to the system because it denied the authority of the Pope in Rome over the French Church.  On 14 July and for several days following, crowds in the Champ de Mars celebrated the anniversary of the fall of the Bastille; participants swore an oath of "fidelity to the nation, the law, and the king"; the King and the royal family actively participated.

Kingdom of the French 1791-1792

With most of the Assembly still favoring a constitutional monarchy rather than a republic, the various groupings reached a compromise.  The Constitution of 1791 abolished the nobility of France and created all men equal before the law, and France would function as a constitutional monarchy with Louis XVI as little more than a figurehead as King of the French.

Meanwhile, in August 1791, a new threat arose from abroad: the King's brother-in-law Emperor Leopold II, King Frederick William II of Prussia, and the King's brother Count Charles of Artois, issued the Declaration of Pillnitz, declaring their intention to bring the French king in the position "to consolidate the basis of a monarchical government" and hinting at an invasion of France on the King's behalf.

Name	King From	King Until	Relationship with Predecessor(s)	Title
Louis XVI the Restorer of French Liberty	3 September 1791	21 September 1792	Grandson of Louis XV	King of the French
Louis XVII (Claimant)	21 January 1793	8 June 1795	Son of Louis XVI	King of France and of Navarre
Louis XVIII	11 April 1814	20 March 1815	Younger Brother of Louis XVI	King of France and of Navarre

These noblemen also required the Assembly to be dissolved through threats of war, but, instead of cowing the French, it infuriated them.  The borders were militarized as a consequence.

Louis XVI reluctantly declared war on Austria in April 1792 bowing to the assembly's wishes and France invaded the Austrian Netherlands.  Prussia joined the war, in July Austria and Prussia began an invasion of France, hoping to occupy Paris.

Louis XVI was suspected of treason and taken along with his family from the Tuileries Palace in August 1792 by insurgents supported by a new revolutionary Paris Commune.  The King and Queen ended up prisoners, and a rump session of the Legislative Assembly suspended the monarchy.

The role of the King in France in a Revolution gone berserk, was finally brought to a shattering end with the "guillotined" execution (beheading) in the public square of the "Place de la Revolution" of Louis XVI on January 21, 1793.

From 21 January 1793 to 8 June 1795, Louis XVI's son Louis-Charles was the titular King of France as Louis XVII; in reality, however, he was imprisoned in the temple throughout this duration, and power was held by the leaders of the Republic.  Upon Louis XVII's death, his uncle (Louis XVI's brother) Louis-Stanislas claimed the throne, as Louis XVIII, but only became de facto King of France in 1814.

French First Republic 1792-1804

France declared war on Prussia and Austria (the First Coalition), which responded with a coordinated invasion of the country that was eventually turned back at the Battle of Valmy on 20 September 1792.  After the first great victory of the French revolutionary troops, the French First Republic was proclaimed on 21 September 1792.  The victory rejuvenated the French nation and emboldened the National Convention to abolish the monarchy.  The new French Republican Calendar was then legally enforced.

A series of victories abruptly ended with defeat at Neerwinden in the spring of 1793.  The remainder of the year witnessed additional defeats for the French, and these difficult times allowed the Jacobins to rise to power and impose the Reign of Terror as a method of attempting to unify the nation.

In 1794, the situation improved dramatically for the French, as huge victories at Fleurus against the Austrians and at the Black Mountain against the Spanish signaled the start of a new stage in the wars.  By 1795, the French had captured the Austrian Netherlands and knocked Spain and Prussia out of the war with the Peace of Basel.

A hitherto unknown general called Napoleon Bonaparte began his first campaign in Italy in April 1796.  In less than a year, French armies under Napoleon decimated the Habsburg forces, evicted them from the Italian peninsula.  With French forces marching towards Vienna, the Austrians sued for peace and agreed to the Treaty of Campo Formio, ending the First Coalition against the Republic.

Napoleon Bonaparte

Napoleon Bonaparte was born on 15 August 1769 in Corsica ( the same year the Republic of Genoa transferred Corsica to France) to a relatively modest Italian family from minor nobility.

When he turned 9 years old, he moved to the French mainland and transferred with a scholarship to a military academy at Brienne-le-Château.  In his youth he was an outspoken Corsican nationalist and supported the state's independence from France.  Napoleon spoke and read Corsican (as his mother tongue) and Italian (as the official language of Corsica).  He began learning French in school at around age 10.

He was serving as an artillery officer in the French army when the French Revolution erupted in 1789.  He rapidly rose through the ranks of the military, seizing the new opportunities presented by the Revolution and becoming a general at age 24.

Napoleon invaded Italy in 1792 with the aims of forcing the Austrians to withdraw from Italy.  The Kingdom of Sardinia and the other states of the Savoy Crown joined the First Coalition against the French Republic, but was beaten in 1796 and forced to conclude the disadvantageous Treaty of Paris, giving the French army free passage through Piedmont.  On 15 May the French general entered Milan, where he was welcomed as a liberator.  On 6 December 1798 Joubert occupied Turin and forced Charles Emmanuel IV of Savoy to abdicate and leave for the island of Sardinia.

Napoleon conquered most of Italy by 1799.  He consolidated old units and split up Austria's holdings.  He set up a series of new republics, complete with new codes of law and abolition of old feudal privileges.  Napoleon's Cisalpine Republic was centred on Milan.  Genoa the city became a republic while its hinterland became the Ligurian Republic.  The Roman Republic was formed out of the papal holdings and the pope was sent to France.

In 1798, he led a military expedition to Egypt (the Second Coalition) that served as a springboard to political power.  Napoleon's forces annihilated a series of Egyptian and Ottoman armies at the battles of the Pyramids, Mount Tabor and Abukir.  The conquest of Egypt further enhanced Napoleon's popularity back in France; he returned in the fall of 1799 to cheering throngs in the streets.

Batavian-French Era in Netherlands 1795-1813

By the end of the 18th century, the Netherlands found themselves in a deep economic crisis, caused by the devastating Fourth Anglo-Dutch War.  Like in much of Europe, the people of the Netherlands grew increasingly discontent with the authoritarian regime of the Stadtholder, William V of Orange.

During this time, the banks of the Dutch Republic held much of the world's capital.  The government sponsored banks owned up to 40% of Great Britain's national debt.  This concentration of wealth (and the connections the government had to the House of Stuart) led to the formation of the Dutch Patriots by a minor Dutch noble.

Thus, the division emerged between the Orangists, who supported the stadtholder, and the Patriots who, inspired by the ideals of the Enlightenment, desired a more democratic government and a more equal society.

In 1789 the French Revolution began, which embraced many of the political ideas that the Patriots had espoused in their own revolt.  The Patriots enthusiastically supported the Revolution and joined in the French revolutionary armies, hoping to liberate their own country from its authoritarian yoke.

By 1795, the French captured Austrian Netherlands and broke the resistance of the forces of the Stadtholder, and his Austrian and British allies.  In many cities revolution broke out even before the French arrived and Revolutionary Committees took over the governments.  The revolutions ended with the proclamation of the Batavian Republic in 1795.  William was forced to flee to England.

Several coups followed in 1798, 1801 and 1805 which brought different groups of Patriots to power.  Though the French presented themselves as liberators, the Batavian Republic ended in 1806, when the Kingdom of Holland was founded, with Napoleon's brother, Louis Napoleon as King of Holland.

Napoleon's Invasion of Iberia 1795-1808

After the execution of Bourbon King Louis XVI of France in 1793, the Spanish army were mobilized and marched to the French border, however, they were ill-equipped and ill-trained to cope with a French invasion.  Navarre was quickly seized by the French.  Godoy, unimpressed with Spain's military effectiveness, decided to signe the Treaty of Basel for peace with the new French Republic in 1795 with the cession of Santo Domingo to the republic.

The Portuguese, who opposed the French, continued to trade with the British in spite of a series of French demands that they close their ports to British ships.  In 1801, the Spanish delivered an ultimatum on behalf of France, and in the following border war, occupied the town of Olivenza (Olivença) before the Portuguese agreed to the Spanish and French demands.

A major Franco-Spanish fleet was lost at the Battle of Trafalgar in 1805, prompting the vacillating king of Spain to reconsider his difficult alliance with Napoleon.  Spain temporarily broke off from the Continental System, and Napoleon, always suspicious of the Bourbons, doubted the trustworthiness of any Spanish royalty.

In 1808 Prince Ferdinand traveled to France, and rumors spread that he was asking for Napoleon to oust Godoy from power; the Spanish King sided with his favorite.  Riots broke out in the country against Godoy, and he was arrested by a mob.  To save him, Charles IV abdicated in favor of his son Ferdinand.

Napoleon, however, had lost confidence in the Spanish monarchy and when Ferdinand arrived to France to obtain the French emperor's support, Napoleon pressured Ferdinand to abdicate.  He was replaced by Joseph Bonaparte, Napoleon's brother.

Austrian Empire and Confederation of the Rhine 1804-1813

Emperor of Austria

In August 1804 Emperor Francis II, who was also ruler of the lands of the Habsburg Monarchy, founded the Empire of Austria (1804-1918), in which all his lands were included.  In doing so he created a formal overarching structure for the monarchy, which had functioned as a composite monarchy for about three hundred years.

He did so because he foresaw either the end of the Holy Roman Empire, or the eventual accession as Holy Roman Emperor of Napoleon, who had earlier that year adopted the title of an Emperor of the French.  To safeguard his dynasty's imperial status he adopted the additional hereditary title of Emperor of Austria.

Name	Lifespan	Reign start	Reign end	Notes	Family
Francis I	12 Feb 1768 – 2 March 1835	11 August 1804	2 March 1835	Son of Leopold II, Holy Roman Emperor; Francis II, Holy Roman Emperor	Habsburg-Lorraine
Ferdinand I the Benign	19 April 1793 – 29 June 1875	2 March 1835	2 Dec 1848 (abdicated)	Son of Francis I	Habsburg-Lorraine

End of Holy Roman Empire 1806

For two years (1804-06), Francis carried two imperial titles: being Holy Roman Emperor Francis II and "by the Grace of God" Emperor Francis I of Austria, until he declared the Holy Roman Empire dissolved and to lay down the Imperial Crown created in the 10th century (today displayed at the Treasury of Hofburg Palace in Vienna) in August 1806.

The fall of the Holy Roman Empire was accelerated by French intervention in September 1805.  Napoleon's army won the war at Austerlitz and the victorious Napoleon proceeded to dismantle the Empire (which at this time was only a powerless confederation) by motivating or pressuring several German princes to enter the separate Confederation of the Rhine with their lands in July 1806.

Confederation of the Rhine 1806-1813

On 12 July 1806, on signing the Treaty of the Confederation of the Rhine (German: Rheinbundakte) in Paris, 16 German states joined together in a confederation.  The "Protector of the Confederation" was a hereditary office of the Emperor of the French, Napoleon.  On 1 August, the members of the confederation formally seceded from the Holy Roman Empire, and following an ultimatum by Napoleon, Francis II declared the Holy Roman Empire dissolved on 6 August.

In return for their support of Napoleon, some rulers were given higher statuses: Baden, Hesse, Cleves, and Berg were made into grand duchies, and Saxony, Westphalia, Württemberg and Bavaria became kingdoms.

Member monarchy

Grand Duchy of Baden, Co-founder; former margraviate;

Kingdom of Bavaria, Co-founder; former duchy;

Grand Duchy of Berg, Co-founder; former landgraviate;

Grand Duchy of Hesse-Darmstadt, Co-founder; former margraviate;

Principality of Regensburg, Co-founder; formerly Prince-Archbishopric and Electorate; after 1810 the Grand Duchy of Frankfurt;

Kingdom of Saxony, Former electorate;

Kingdom of Westphalia, Napoleonic creation;

Kingdom of Württemberg, Co-founder; former duchy;

Grand Duchy of Würzburg, Napoleonic creation.

After Prussia lost to France in 1806, Napoleon cajoled most of the secondary states of Germany into the confederation.  Eventually, an additional 23 German states joined the confederation.  It was at its largest in 1808, when it included 36 states : 4 kingdoms, 5 grand duchies, 13 duchies, 17 principalities and the free cities of Hamburg, Lübeck, and Bremen.

Under the hegemony of the French Empire (1806-13), popular German nationalism thrived in the reorganized German states; various justifications emerged to identify "Germany" as a single entity.  The experience of German-speaking people contributed to a sense of common cause to remove the French invaders and reassert control over their own lands.

Napoleon and his French Empire 1804-1815

The "Constitution of the Year III" was created by a national plebiscite of the French Republic and took effect in September 1795.  The new constitution created the Directory and the first bicameral legislature in French history.  The Directory lasted until 1799 when Napoleon Bonaparte returned to France, staged a coup and installed The Consulate.  Napoleon became head of the government as the First Consul.

House of Bonaparte 1804-1815

The first republic lasted until the declaration of the First Empire in 1804.  The Consulate was replaced by the French Empire, established by Napoleon Bonaparte, who was declared Emperor of the French on 18 May 1804.  Napoleon's coronation, officiated by Pope Pius VII, took place at Notre Dame de Paris, on 2 December 1804.  Napoleon was also crowned King of Italy at the Cathedral of Milan on 26 May 1805.

Name	King From	King Until	Relationship with Predecessor(s)	Title
Napoleon I, the Great	18 May 1804; 20 March 1815	11 April 1814; 22 June 1815	–	Emperor of the French; King of Italy (1805-1814); Protector of the Confederation of the Rhine (1806-1813)
Louis Bonaparte	1806	1810	Younger brother of Napoleon I	King of Holland
Joseph Bonaparte	1806	1813	Older brother of Napoleon I	King of Naples (1806-1808); King of Spain (1808-1813)
Napoleon II	22 June 1815	7 July 1815	Son of Napoleon I	Emperor of the French

Third Coalition 1804-1805

The War of Third Coalition came to full fruition in 1804-05 as Napoleon's actions in Italy (crowning himself with the Iron Crown of Lombardy) and Germany (notably the arrest and execution of the Duc d'Enghien) spurred Austria and Russia into joining Britain against France.  In the Battle of Austerlitz (2 December 1805), the widely regarded as the greatest victory achieved by Napoleon, the French defeated a larger Russian and Austrian army led by Tsar Alexander I and Emperor Francis II.  The battle effectively brought the Third Coalition to an end.

On 26 December 1805, Austria and France signed the Treaty of Pressburg.  The treaty confirmed the Austrian cession of lands in Italy and Bavaria to France and Napoleon's German allies.  The Confederation of the Rhine, a collection of German states and intended as a buffer zone between France and central Europe, was also created.  As a results, the Holy Roman Empire ceased to exist when Emperor Francis II abdicated the Imperial throne, emerging as Emperor of Austria Francis I.

Kingdom of Holland (1806-1810) was set up as a puppet kingdom for his third brother, Louis Bonaparte, for better control the Netherlands.  The new king was unpopular and Napoleon forced his abdication in 1810 and incorporated the Netherlands directly into the French empire.

Duchy of Warsaw was a Polish state established by Napoleon I in 1807 from the Polish lands ceded by the Kingdom of Prussia.

Peninsular War against the French 1808-1812

The Peninsular War was a military conflict for control of the Iberian Peninsula, waged between Napoleon's France Empire and the allied powers of Spain, the United Kingdom and Portugal.  It started when French and Spanish armies, then allied, occupied Portugal in 1807, and escalated in 1808 when France turned on Spain, its former ally.  The Peninsular War overlaps with what the Spanish-speaking world calls the Spanish War of Independence.

In Spain, the Spanish people rallied around the cause of Prince Ferdinand, who, even as a prisoner in France, was made into a national hero in what became a "war of independence" for Spain.  Godoy, Charles IV, and his wife retired first to France, and left Spanish politics permanently.

The installation of Joseph Bonaparte as King of Spain sparked a revolution.  A revolt in Madrid was bloodily suppressed by the French army in May 1808.  The incident and the perceived brutality of the French response created a rallying point for Spanish revolutionaries.  The Spanish army pronounced itself in favor of Ferdinand and joined the British and Portuguese in a united front against the French.  The first modern Spanish constitution was created in March 1812, this constitution was provided for a separation of the powers of the executive and the legislative branches of government.

The royal family of Portugal and its entire court fled to the colony of Brazil in 1808, and the United Kingdom of Portugal, Brazil and the Algarves was declared in 1816.

Desperate for a legitimate heir, Napoleon divorced Empress Joséphine in January 1810 and started looking for a new wife.  Hoping to cement the recent alliance with Austria through a family connection, Napoleon married the 18-years old Marie Louise, Duchess of Parma, daughter of Francis II.  Marie Louise gave birth to a baby boy in March 1811, whom Napoleon made heir apparent and bestowed the title of King of Rome.  Historians often refer to his son as Napoleon II.

In 1808, Napoleon and Tsar Alexander met at the Congress of Erfurt to preserve the Russo-French alliance.  By 1811, however, tensions had increased and Alexander was under pressure from the Russian nobility to break off the alliance.  By 1812, advisers to Alexander suggested the possibility of an invasion of the French Empire and the recapture of Poland.

Napoleon expanded his army, ignored repeated advice against an invasion of the Russian heartland and prepared for an offensive campaign; on 24 June 1812 the invasion commenced.

Invasion of Russia 1812

The Russians avoided Napoleon's objective of a decisive engagement and instead retreated deeper into Russia.  A brief attempt at resistance was made at Smolensk in August; the Russians were defeated and Napoleon resumed his advance.  Owing to the Russian army's scorched earth tactics, the French found it increasingly difficult to forage food for themselves and their horses.

The Russians eventually offered battle outside Moscow on 7 September, the Battle of Borodino resulted in approximately 44,000 Russian and 35,000 French dead, wounded or captured, and may have been the bloodiest day of battle in history up to that point in time.

The Russian army withdrew and retreated past Moscow.  Napoleon entered the city, assuming its fall would end the war.  However, Moscow was burned on orders of the city's governor.  Napoleon and his army left after five weeks.  In early November Napoleon got concerned about loss of control back in France after the Malet coup of 1812.  His army walked through snow up to their knees, and nearly 10,000 men and horses froze to death on the night of 8/9 November alone.

After the defeat at the Battle of Berezina (26-29 November), Napoleon managed to escape but had to abandon much of the remaining artillery and baggage train.  On 5 December, Napoleon left the army in a sledge.

The Sixth Coalition 1813-1814

Heartened by France's loss in Russia, Prussia joined with Austria, Sweden, Russia, Great Britain, Spain and Portugal in the Sixth Coalition.  Napoleon assumed command in Germany and inflicted a series of defeats on the Coalition culminating in the Battle of Dresden in August 1813.

Despite these successes, the numbers continued to mount against Napoleon, and the French army was pinned down by a force twice its size and lost at the Battle of Leipzig in October 1813 by the coalition armies, led by Tsar Alexander I of Russia and Karl Philipp, Prince of Schwarzenberg.  This was by far the largest battle of the Napoleonic Wars and cost more than 90,000 casualties in total.

The Allies offered peace terms in the Frankfurt proposals in November 1813.  Napoleon would remain as Emperor of France, but it would be reduced to its "natural frontiers" : France could retain control of Belgium, Savoy and the Rhineland (the west bank of the Rhine River), while giving up all the rest in Spain, the Netherlands, Italy and Germany.  Austria's Metternich's motivation was to maintain France as a balance against Russian threats, while ending the highly destabilizing series of wars.

Napoleon refused the proposal and withdrew back into France, his army reduced to 70,000 soldiers.  The French were surrounded by British armies and other Coalition forces positioned to attack from the German states.  Napoleon won a series of victories in the Six Days' Campaign, though these were not significant enough to turn the tide. The leaders of Paris surrendered to the Coalition in March 1814.

Napoleon abdicated on 11 April 1814.  In the Treaty of Fontainebleau, the Allies exiled Napoleon to Elba, an island of 12,000 inhabitants in the Mediterranean off the Tuscan coast.  He was separated from his wife and son, who had returned to Austria.

On the verge of Napoleon's defeat, the Four Great Powers, Austria, Prussia, Russia and the United Kingdom, which formed the core of the Sixth Coalition, outlined their common position in the Treaty of Chaumont (March 1814), and later negotiated the Treaty of Paris (May 1814, the confirmation of France's loss of the territories annexed between 1795-1810) with the Bourbons during their restoration.

Congress of Vienna 1814-1815

The Congress of Vienna was held from November 1814 to June 1815, a conference of ambassadors of European states chaired by Metternich of Austria.  The participating nations had very different and conflicting goals: Tsar Alexander of Russia had expected to absorb much of Poland (the Duchy of Warsaw); the renewed Prussian state demanded all of the Kingdom of Saxony; Austria expected to regain control of northern Italy.

Austria was represented by Prince Metternich, the Foreign Minister.  As the Congress's sessions were in Vienna, Emperor Francis was kept closely informed.

Britain was represented first by its Foreign Secretary, Viscount Castlereagh; then by the Duke of Wellington, after February 1815.

Tsar Alexander I controlled the Russian delegation which was formally led by the foreign minister, Count Karl Robert Nesselrode.

Prussia was represented by Prince Karl August von Hardenberg, the Chancellor.  King Frederick William III of Prussia was also in Vienna, playing his role behind the scenes.

France was represented by its foreign minister, Talleyrand, as well as the Minister Plenipotentiary the Duke of Dalberg.  Talleyrand had already negotiated the Treaty of Paris (1814) for Louis XVIII of France; the king, however, distrusted him and was also secretly negotiating with Metternich.

Hundred Days

Napoleon escaped from Elba, in the brig Inconstant on 26 February 1815 with 700 men.  Two days later, he landed on the French mainland at Golfe-Juan and started heading north.  Napoleon arrived in Paris on 20 March and governed for a period now called the Hundred Days, from Napoleon's return to Paris until the second restoration of King Louis XVIII on 8 July 1815 (a period of 111 days).

Napoleon returned while the Congress of Vienna was sitting.  On 13 March, seven days before Napoleon reached Paris, the powers at the Congress of Vienna declared him an outlaw, and on 25 March, the four Great Powers bound themselves to put 150,000 men each into the field to end his rule.

By the start of June the armed forces available to Napoleon had reached 200,000, and he decided to go on the offensive to attempt to drive a wedge between the oncoming British and Prussian armies.  Napoleon's forces fought two Coalition armies, commanded by the British Duke of Wellington and the Prussian Prince Blücher, at the Battle of Waterloo on 18 June 1815.  This defeat ended Napoleon's rule as Emperor of the French.

He abdicated on 22 June in favour of his son Napoleon II.  On 25 June Napoleon left Paris for the final time and left for the coast hoping to reach the United States of America.  In the meantime, the Provisional Government deposed his son and tried to negotiate a conditional surrender with the Coalition powers.  They failed to obtain any significant concessions from the Coalition who insisted on a military surrender and the restoration of Louis XVIII.  Finally Napoleon surrendered to Captain Frederick Maitland on 15 July 1815.