# Featured > Maciamo's Blog >  xx14, the true turn of century in European history

## Maciamo

Having a look at European history, it is startling to see that a great number of wars, revolutions, peace treaties or other major events took place in (or around) the year 14 of each century.

1914 : start of the First World War, the single bloodiest war in European history.
1917 : Bolshevik Revolution starts in Russia. Foundation of the world's first communist state, which will lead to the Cold War.
1918 : End of WWI.
1919 : Redrawing of the borders of Europe. End of the Habsburg, German and Ottoman Empires.

1814 : collapse of the Napoleonic Empire, abdication of Napoleon I, and opening of the Congress of Vienna to redraw the borders of Europe.
1815 : return of Napoleon I to power, defeat at Waterloo, and forced exile to St Helena.

1714 : Treaty of Utrecht, put and end to the War of the Spanish Succession. which had opposed all the major European powers for over a decade. Recognition of the Bourbon dynasty as kings of Spain, which they have remained up to this day.
1715 : death of Louis XIV of France (the "Sun King"), the most powerful ruler of his time, who asserted France as the European leader in the arts, politics and diplomacy, imposing French as the new lingua franca of Europe until the aftermath of WWII.

1618 : start of the Thirty Years' War, Europe's worse war of religion, which eventually led to the recognition of the independence of the Netherlands and Switzerland, as well as the incorporation of Alsace and Lorraine to France. 

1515 : Francis I of France starts to rule and becomes the sponsor of the French Renaissance.
1516 : Charles V of Habsburg, Duke of Burgundy and sovereign of the Netherlands, becomes king of Spain. He would become the greatest monarch in Europe since Charlemagne and until Napoleon.
1517 : Martin Luther publishes his 95 Theses, starting the Protestant Reformation.
1519 : Cortes conquers the Aztec Empire for Spain.

1415 : Portugal conquers the city of Ceuta from the Moors, initiating the Portuguese Empire and European expansion and colonial era.
1417 : Avignon Pope Benedict XIII is deposed, bringing to an end the Great Western Schism.

1314 : Battle of Bannockburn. Scottish forces led by Robert the Bruce defeated Edward II of England. Scotland regains its independence.
1315 : start of the Great Famine of 1315–1322 across Europe.

1215 : Frederick II Hohenstaufen deposes Otto IV and becomes Holy Roman Emperor and one of the most important German emperors in history.
1217 : start of the 5th Crusade.

1015 : Canute the Great, Viking King of Scandinavia, invades England.

914 : Vikings conquer much of Ireland
919 : Henry I the Fowler is elected king of the Germans (considered the first real king of Germany, as opposed to East Francia)

814 : Death of Charlemagne.
817 : Louis the Pious divides his empire among his sons. Louis the German becomes king of East Francia, Lothar I becomes co-emperor. The foundations of the medieval kingdoms of France and Germany are laid.

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## Maciamo

A study suggests that the Anthropocene - a new geological time period that marks the "Age of man" - began in 1610. 

_Scientists believe that the arrival of Europeans in the Americas had an unprecedented impact on the planet, marking the dawn of this new epoch.

"We saw these species jump continents, which is a geologically unprecedented impact, setting Earth off on a new evolutionary trajectory."
_

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Do you agree that 1610 is the best 'turning point' date in human history ? In any case it fits nicely in the above list.

If the trend holds, a major historical event is unfolding now or about to unfold. We may not recognize it as such until we get dome hindsight though. What do you think it could be ? The advent of robots ?

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## Maleth

Personally I am more inclined to believe that it was the industrial revolution that was a turning point in Human history. It also triggered a number of situations, events and needs that has seen some of the most dramatic changes in science and technology that lead us were we are today.

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## Aberdeen

> A study suggests that the Anthropocene - a new geological time period that marks the "Age of man" - began in 1610. 
> 
> _Scientists believe that the arrival of Europeans in the Americas had an unprecedented impact on the planet, marking the dawn of this new epoch.
> 
> "We saw these species jump continents, which is a geologically unprecedented impact, setting Earth off on a new evolutionary trajectory."
> _
> 
> ----
> 
> ...


If we could look at events from the point of view of the megafauna of the Americas, such as the mammoth, which seemed to become extinct after the arrival of Amerindians, that event would seem very important, in a negative way. But Amerindians do view the arrival of Europeans as a kind of apocalypse. My own view is that there have been a number of important turning points that are leading us to the day when humans become extinct because we've gradually destroyed the environment we depend on.

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## LeBrok

> Personally I am more inclined to believe that it was the *industrial revolution* that was a turning point in Human history. It also triggered a number of situations, events and needs that has seen some of the most dramatic changes in science and technology that lead us were we are today.


I agree and I would add that it didn't just happen by itself. First the Renaissance unleashed forces of free thought, art and sciences, and the sciences unleashed energy of steam and electricity. Also, industrial revolution would be a very miserable without capital investments. For this we have to thank Italians and their Jews for setting up modern capital investment banking system. 
It is extremely hard to set a fixed date when it all started, and I don't think it was a revolution, but more like evolution of our knowledge and systems through last few hundred years. I'd say it all started in 1500 AD with Renaissance, when most of building blocks of our modern free, egalitarian and well off society were invented.

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## Maleth

> I agree and I would add that it didn't just happen by itself. First the Renaissance unleashed forces of free thought, art and sciences, and the sciences unleashed energy of steam and electricity. Also, industrial revolution would be a very miserable without capital investments. For this we have to thank Italians and their Jews for setting up modern capital investment banking system. 
> It is extremely hard to set a fixed date when it all started, and I don't think it was a revolution, but more like evolution of our knowledge and systems through last few hundred years. I'd say it all started in 1500 AD with Renaissance, when most of building blocks of our modern free, egalitarian and well off society were invented.


Indeed, but as you mentioned, evolution would have started even prior to this, fueled into this period with the excellent preservation of Greek texts in the massive Libraries in Cordoba (and Palermo) (during the Muslim era in Southern Europe) which had become at that time the main learning place in building higher education in Astronomy Maths, arts, sciences and architecture unmatched anywhere in the world during that period. 

http://www.webpages.uidaho.edu/engl2...on_renaiss.htm

One cannot not mention Tuscan Leonardo in the 1400's and his amazing knowledge in Science and engineering besides his amazing painting skills for that time.

However the real explosion of (fast) change happened in Britian at the height of its huge empire, having an impact on a more or less global scale. This came with less rigid interference of Religion with a fusion of more free thinking in regards to capital investments and more (maybe) efficient book keeping and business practices to go with it.

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## LeBrok

> Indeed, but as you mentioned, evolution would have started even prior to this, fueled into this period with the excellent preservation of Greek texts in the massive Libraries in Cordoba (and Palermo) (during the Muslim era in Southern Europe) which had become at that time the main learning place in building higher education in Astronomy Maths, arts, sciences and architecture unmatched anywhere in the world during that period. 
> 
> http://www.webpages.uidaho.edu/engl2...on_renaiss.htm
> 
> One cannot not mention Tuscan Leonardo in the 1400's and his amazing knowledge in Science and engineering besides his amazing painting skills for that time.


Right. We are always falling a victim to human compartmentalization nature. We tend to need complete definitions, exact names, and defined time periods. In reality everything is more like a spectrum, constructs of less defined elements, overlapping trends, and a long process of changes. What is the end date of Roman Empire? Visigoth invasion? Perhaps when byzantium fell to Ottomans? Or maybe Ottomans just took it over as one more Roman dynasty and continued till 1918? We can get as many different answers here as members of Eupedia. Interesting thing is that everyone will want to define it, to sort of find a solution and closure to this questions. That's our nature.

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## Maleth

> Right. We are always falling a victim to human compartmentalization nature. We tend to need complete definitions, exact names, and defined time periods. In reality everything is more like a spectrum, constructs of less defined elements, overlapping trends, and a long process of changes. What is the end date of Roman Empire? Visigoth invasion? Perhaps when byzantium fell to Ottomans? Or maybe Ottomans just took it over as one more Roman dynasty and continued till 1918? We can get as many different answers here as members of Eupedia. Interesting thing is that everyone will want to define it, to sort of find a solution and closure to this questions. That's our nature.


Very true and well explained

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## Maciamo

Here are a few more dates. These are all major events that can be seen as turning points in the history of the Roman Empire or in the later development of particular regions (France, Iberia, Balkans).

14 : Death of Emperor Augustus. 
117 : The Roman Empire reaches its maximum extent at the end of Trajan's reign.
212 : The Edict of Caracalla extends Roman citizenship to all free inhabitants of the Roman Empire.
311 : Edict of Serdica ends persecutions against Christians in the Roman Empire.
313 : With the Edict of Milan, Christians are to be treated benevolently within the Roman Empire.
410 : Roman Britannia is officially abandoned by the Romans.
509 : Clovis I becomes the first Catholic king of the Franks, uniting all the Frankish tribes under his rule. 
615: The Balkans are freely overrun by the Slavs.
711-718: Umayyad conquest of Hispania.

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## Ownstyler

I agree on the industrial revolution, Renaissance and the banking system, but all of them had existed before in different forms. The main date for me is 1453, the capture of Costandinople. That drove European powers to seek ways to India, which led to the "discovery" of America, which brought unthinkable wealth to the Kings/Queens, but most of all to the traders , explorers and commanders. The nacsent banking system wouldn't have accounted for much without this fresh never new capital coming from the Americas. The consequent bourgeoisie class used their wealth to fund their liberal and industrial revolutions in the 17th-19th centuries, which created the world we live in now.

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## Maciamo

> I agree on the industrial revolution, Renaissance and the banking system, but all of them had existed before in different forms. The main date for me is 1453, the capture of Costandinople. That drove European powers to seek ways to India, which led to the "discovery" of America, which brought unthinkable wealth to the Kings/Queens, but most of all to the traders , explorers and commanders. The nacsent banking system wouldn't have accounted for much without this fresh never new capital coming from the Americas. The consequent bourgeoisie class used their wealth to fund their liberal and industrial revolutions in the 17th-19th centuries, which created the world we live in now.


1453 was merely the last step in the very long and slow Turkish conquest of the Byzantine Empire. It was just a formality after having conquered all the rest of the empire. Most of the dates I propose were single events (treaties, edicts) or _starts_ of events (wars, reigns) that had long lasting consequences.

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## Ownstyler

> 1453 was merely the last step in the very long and slow Turkish conquest of the Byzantine Empire.


Yes but without capturing the city they couldn't enforce their tariffs on the passing trade between Europe and India.

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## exceededminimumso..

Reminds me of
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Short_twentieth_century
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Long_nineteenth_century
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Long_eighteenth_century

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