<Li> 323 BC: Alexander the Great dies and his Macedonian Empire fragments . </Li> <Li> 44 BC: Julius Caesar is murdered . The Roman Republic enters its terminal crisis . </Li> <Li> 27 BC: Establishment of the Roman Empire under Octavian . </Li> <Ul> <Li> 45--55 (ca): First Christian congregations in mainland Greece and in Rome . </Li> <Li> 293: Diocletian reorganizes the Empire by creating the Tetrarchy . </Li> <Li> 330: Constantine makes Constantinople into his capital, a new Rome . </Li> <Li> 395: Following the death of Theodosius I, the Empire is permanently split into the Eastern Roman Empire (later Byzantium) and the Western Roman Empire . </Li> <Li> 476: Odoacer captures Ravenna and deposes the last Roman emperor in the west: traditionally seen as the end date of the Western Roman Empire . </Li> <Li> 527: Justinian I is crowned emperor of Byzantium . Orders the editing of Corpus Juris Civilis, Digest (Roman law). </Li> <Li> 597: Beginning of Roman Catholic Christianization of Anglo - Saxon England (missions and churches had been in existence well before this date, but their contacts with Rome had been loose or nonexistent) </Li> <Li> 600: Saint Columbanus uses the term "Europe" in a letter . </Li> <Li> 655: Jus patronatus . </Li> <Li> 681: Khan Asparukh leads the Bulgars and invades the Byzantine empire in the Battle of Ongal, and creates Bulgaria . </Li> <Li> 718: Tervel of Bulgaria helps the Byzantine Empire stop the Arabic invasion of Europe, and breaks the siege of Constantinople . </Li> <Li> 722: Battle of Covadonga in the Iberian Peninsula . Pelayo, a noble Visigoth, defeats a Muslim army that tried to conquer the Cantabrian coast . This helps establish the Christian Kingdom of Asturias, and marks the beginning of the Reconquista . </Li> <Li> 732: At the Battle of Tours, the Franks stop the advance of the Arabs into Europe . </Li> <Li> 800: Coronation of Charlemagne as Holy Roman Emperor . </Li> <Li> 813: Third Council of Tours: Priests are ordered to preach in the native language of the population . </Li> <Li> 843: Treaty of Verdun . </Li> <Li> 863: Saints Cyril and Methodius arrive in Great Moravia, initiating Christian mission among the Slav peoples . </Li> <Li> 864: Boris I of Bulgaria baptises the whole nation, converting the population from tengri, to Eastern Orthodox Christianity </Li> <Li> 872: Unification of Norway . </Li> <Li> 886: Cyril and Methodius students--Sava, Kliment, Naum, Gorazd, Angelariy--arrive in Bulgaria . The Cyrillic alphabet becomes the official Bulgarian alphabet . </Li> <Li> 895: Hungarian people led by Árpád start to settle in the Carpathian Basin . </Li> <Li> 917: In the Battle of Achelous (917) Bulgaria defeats the Byzantine empire, and Simeon I of Bulgaria is proclaimed as emperor, thus Bulgaria becomes an empire . </Li> <Li> 962: Otto I of East Francia is crowned as "Emperor" by the Pope, beginning the Holy Roman Empire . </Li> <Li> 988 Kievan Rus adopts Christianity, often seen as the origin of the Russian Orthodox Church - </Li> <Li> 1054: Start of the East--West Schism, which divides the Christian church for centuries . </Li> <Li> 1066: Successful Norman Invasion of England by William the Conqueror . </Li> <Li> 1095: Pope Urban II calls for the First Crusade . </Li> <Li> 12th century: The 12th century in literature saw an increase in the number of texts . The Renaissance of the 12th century occurs . </Li> <Li> 1128: Battle of São Mamede, formation of Portuguese sovereignty . </Li> <Li> 1250: Death of emperor Frederick II; end of effective ability of German emperors to exercise control in Italy . </Li> <Li> 1303: The period of the Crusades is over . </Li> <Li> 1309--1378: The Avignon Papacy </Li> <Li> 1315--1317: The Great Famine of 1315--1317 in Northern Europe </Li> <Li> 1341: Petrarch, the "Father of Humanism", becomes the first poet laureate since antiquity . </Li> <Li> 1337--1453: The Hundred Years' War between England and France . </Li> <Li> 1348--1351: Black Death kills about one - third of Europe's population . </Li> <Li> 1439: Johannes Gutenberg invents first movable type and the first printing press for books, starting the Printing Revolution . </Li> <Li> 1453: Fall of Constantinople to the Ottoman Turks . </Li> <Li> 1492: The Reconquista ends in the Iberian Peninsula . A Spanish expeditionary group, commanded by Christopher Columbus, lands in the New World . </Li> <Li> 1497: Vasco da Gama departs to India starting direct trade with Asia . </Li> <Li> 1498: Leonardo da Vinci paints The Last Supper in Milan as the Renaissance flourishes . </Li> <Li> 1508: Maximilian I the last ruling "King of the Romans" and the first "elected Emperor of the Romans". </Li> <Li> 1517: Martin Luther nails his 95 theses on indulgences to the door of the church in Wittenberg, triggering discussions which would soon lead to the Reformation </Li> <Li> 1519: Ferdinand Magellan and Juan Sebastián Elcano begin first global circumnavigation . Their expedition returns in 1522 . </Li> <Li> 1519: Hernán Cortés begins conquest of Mexico for Spain . </Li> <Li> 1532: Francisco Pizarro begins the conquest of Peru (the Inca Empire) for Spain . </Li> <Li> 1543: Nicolaus Copernicus publishes De revolutionibus orbium coelestium (On the Revolutions of the Celestial Spheres). </Li> <Li> 1547: The Grand Duchy of Moscow becomes the Tsardom of Russia . </Li> <Li> 1582: The introduction of the Gregorian calendar; Russia refuses to adopt it until 1918 . </Li> <Li> 1610: Galileo Galilei uses his telescope to discover the moons of Jupiter . </Li> <Li> 1618: The Thirty Years' War brings massive devastation to central Europe . </Li> <Li> 1648: The Peace of Westphalia ends the Thirty Years' War, and introduces the principle of the integrity of the nation state . </Li> <Li> 1687: Isaac Newton publishes Principia Mathematica, having a profound impact on The Enlightenment . </Li> <Li> 1699: Treaty of Karlowitz concludes the Austro - Ottoman War . This marks the end of Ottoman control of Central Europe and the beginning of Ottoman stagnation, establishing the Habsburg Monarchy as the dominant power in Central and Southeastern Europe . </Li> <Li> 1700: Outbreak of the War of the Spanish Succession and the Great Northern War . The first would check the aspirations of Louis XIV, king of France to dominate European affairs; the second would lead to Russia's emergence as a great power and a recognizably European state . </Li> <Li> 18th century: Age of Enlightenment spurs an intellectual renaissance across Europe . </Li> <Li> 1707: The Kingdom of Great Britain is formed by the union of the Kingdom of England and the Kingdom of Scotland . </Li> <Li> 1712: Thomas Newcomen invents first practical steam engine which begins Industrial Revolution in Britain . </Li> <Li> 1721: Foundation of the Russian Empire . </Li> <Li> 1775: James Watt invents a new efficient steam engine accelerating the Industrial Revolution in Britain . </Li> <Li> 1784: Immanuel Kant publishes Answering the Question: What Is Enlightenment? . </Li> <Li> 1789: Beginning of the French Revolution and end of the absolute monarchy in France . </Li> <Li> 1792--1802: French Revolutionary Wars . </Li> <Li> 1799: Napoleon comes to power as dictator of France . </Li> <Li> 1803--1815: Napoleonic Wars end in defeat of Napoleon . </Li> <Li> 1806: Napoleon abolishes the Holy Roman Empire . </Li> <Li> 1814--15: Congress of Vienna; Treaty of Vienna; France is reduced to 1789 boundaries; Reactionary forces dominate across Europe . </Li> <Li> 1825: George Stephenson opens the Stockton and Darlington Railway the first steam train railway for passenger traffic in the world . </Li> <Li> 1836: Louis Daguerre invents first practical photographic method, in effect the first camera . </Li> <Li> 1838: SS Great Western, the first steamship built for regularly scheduled transatlantic crossings enters service . </Li> <Li> 1848: Revolutions of 1848 and publication of The Communist Manifesto . </Li> <Li> 1852: Start of the Crimean War, which ends in 1855 in a defeat for Russia . </Li> <Li> 1859: Charles Darwin publishes On the Origin of Species . </Li> <Li> 1861: Unification of Italy after victories by Giuseppe Garibaldi . </Li> <Li> 1866: First commercially successful transatlantic telegraph cable is completed . </Li> <Li> 1860s: Russia emancipates its serfs and Karl Marx completes the first volume of Das Kapital . </Li> <Li> 1870: Franco - Prussian War and the fall of the Second French Empire . </Li> <Li> 1871: Unification of Germany under the direction of Otto von Bismarck . </Li> <Li> 1873: Panic of 1873 occurs . The Long Depression begins . </Li> <Li> 1885: Karl Benz invents Benz Patent - Motorwagen, the world's first automobile . </Li> <Li> 1885: First permanent citywide electrical tram system in Europe (in Sarajevo). </Li> <Li> 1895: Auguste and Louis Lumière begin exhibitions of projected films before the paying public with their cinematograph, a portable camera, printer, and projector . </Li> <Li> 1902: Guglielmo Marconi sends first transatlantic radio transmission . </Li> <Li> 1914: Archduke Franz Ferdinand of Austria is assassinated; World War I begins . </Li> <Li> 1917: Vladimir Lenin and the Bolsheviks seize power in the Russian Revolution . The ensuing Russian Civil War lasts until 1922 . </Li> <Li> 1918: World War I ends with the defeat of Germany and the Central Powers . Ten million soldiers killed; collapse of Russian, German, Austrian, and Ottoman empires . </Li> <Li> 1918: Collapse of the German Empire and monarchic system; founding of Weimar Republic . </Li> <Li> 1918: Worldwide Spanish flu epidemic kills millions in Europe . </Li> <Li> 1918: Austro - Hungarian Empire dissolves . </Li> <Li> 1919: Versailles Treaty strips Germany of its colonies, several provinces and its navy and air force; limits army; Allies occupy western areas; reparations ordered . </Li> <Li> 1920: League of Nations begins operations; largely ineffective; defunct by 1939 . </Li> <Li> 1921--22: Ireland divided; Irish Free State becomes independent and civil war erupts . </Li> <Li> 1922: Benito Mussolini and the Fascists take power in Italy . </Li> <Li> 1929: Worldwide Great Depression begins with stock market crash in New York City . </Li> <Li> 1933: Adolf Hitler and the Nazis take power in Germany . </Li> <Li> 1935: Italy conquers Ethiopia; League sanctions are ineffective . </Li> <Li> 1936: Start of the Spanish Civil War; ends in 1939 with victory of Nationalists who are aided by Germany and Italy . </Li> <Li> 1938: Germany escalates the persecution of Jews with Kristallnacht . </Li> <Li> 1938: Appeasement of Germany by Britain and France; Munich agreement splits Czechoslovakia; Germany seized the remainder in 1939 . </Li> <Li> 1939: Britain and France hurriedly rearm; failed to arrange treaty with USSR . </Li> <Li> 1939: Adolf Hitler and Joseph Stalin agree partition of Eastern Europe in Molotov--Ribbentrop Pact . </Li> <Li> 1939: Germany invades Poland, starting the Second World War . </Li> <Li> 1940: Great Britain under Winston Churchill becomes the last nation to hold out against the Nazis after winning the Battle of Britain . </Li> <Li> 1941: U.S. begins large - scale lend - lease aid to Britain, Free France, the USSR and other Allies; Canada also provides financial aid . </Li> <Li> 1941: Germany invades the Soviet Union in Operation Barbarossa; fails to capture Moscow or Leningrad . </Li> <Li> 1942: Nazi Germany commences the Holocaust--a Final Solution, with the murder of 6 million Jews . </Li> <Li> 1943: After Stalingrad and Kursk, Soviet forces begin recapturing Nazi - occupied territory in the East . </Li> <Li> 1944: U.S., British and Canadian armed forces invade Nazi - occupied France at Normandy . </Li> <Li> 1945: Hitler commits suicide, Mussolini is murdered . World War II ends with Europe in ruins and Germany defeated . </Li> <Li> 1945: United Nations formed . </Li> <Li> 1947: The British Empire begins a process of voluntarily dismantling with the granting of independence to India and Pakistan . </Li> <Li> 1947: Cold War begins as Europe is polarized East versus West . </Li> <Li> 1948--51: U.S. provides large sums to rebuild Western Europe through the Marshall Plan; stimulates large - scale modernization of European industries and reduction of trade restrictions . </Li> <Li> 1949: The NATO alliance is established . </Li> <Li> 1955: USSR creates a rival military coalition, the Warsaw Pact . </Li> <Li> 1950: The Schuman Declaration begins the process of European integration . </Li> <Li> 1954: The French Empire begins to be dismantled; Withdraws from Vietnam . </Li> <Li> 1956: Suez Crisis signals the end of the effective power of the British Empire . </Li> <Li> 1956: Hungarian Uprising defeated by Soviet military forces . </Li> <Li> 1957: Treaties of Rome establish the European Economic Community from 1958 . </Li> <Li> 1968: The May 1968 events in France lead France to the brink of revolution . </Li> <Li> 1968: The Prague Spring is defeated by Warsaw Pact military forces . The Club of Rome is founded . </Li> <Li> 1980: The Solidarność movement under Lech Wałęsa begins open, overground opposition to the Communist rule in Poland . </Li> <Li> 1985: Mikhail Gorbachev becomes leader of the Soviet Union and begins reforms which inadvertently leads to the fall of Communism and the Soviet Union . </Li> <Li> 1986: Chernobyl disaster occurs, the worst nuclear disaster in history . </Li> <Li> 1989: Communism overthrown in all the Warsaw Pact countries except the Soviet Union . Fall of the Berlin Wall (opening of unrestrained border crossings between east and west, which effectively deprived the wall of any relevance). </Li> <Li> 1990: Reunification of Germany . </Li> <Li> 1991: Breakup of Yugoslavia and the beginning of the Yugoslav Wars . </Li> <Li> 1991: Dissolution of the Soviet Union and the creation of the Commonwealth of Independent States . </Li> <Li> 1993: Maastricht Treaty establishes the European Union . </Li> <Li> 2002: End of European colonial empires with the independence of East Timor, formerly Portuguese Timor . </Li> <Li> 2004: Slovenia, Hungary, the Czech Republic, Slovakia, Poland, Lithuania, Latvia, Estonia, Cyprus and Malta join the European Union . </Li> <Li> 2007: Romania and Bulgaria join the European Union . </Li> <Li> 2008: The Great Recession begins . Unemployment rises in some parts of Europe . </Li> <Li> 2013: Croatia joins the European Union . </Li> <Li> 2014: Revolution in Ukraine and serious tensions between Russia, Ukraine and the European Union . </Li> <Li> 2015: European migrant crisis starts . </Li> <Li> 2016: United Kingdom votes to leave the European Union . </Li> </Ul>

What 3 groups made up europes feudal system