600BC

Greek colonists settle on northeast coast of Spain.

228 BC

Carthaginians occupy southeast Spain.

200 BC

Romans reach Cadiz after driving Carthaginians out of Southern Spain.

75 BC

Pompey founds Pompaelo ( Pamplona ).

74 AD

Emperor Vespasian grants Latin status to all towns in Spain completing process of Romanization.

313

Edict of Milan restores Christian property and freedom of worship in the Roman Empire under Constantine, the first Christian emperor.

330

Constantinople dedicated as the capital of the Roman Empire.

376

Goths cross the Danube.

410-14

The Visigoths capture Rome; finding Italy too poor to support them, they eventually move across the Gaul and into Spain.

415

Visigoths establish their court at Barcelona.

420

Jutish and Anglo-Saxon landings in Britain.

429-39

Vandals invade North Africa and conquer Carthage.

451

Attila the Hun invades Gaul.

455

Vandals sack Rome.

476

The last independent Roman Emperor of the west, Romulus Augustulus, is dethroned by invading Germanic tribes, leading to the end of the Western Roman Empire.

481

Clovis I founds the Merovingian dynasty. By uniting the Franks, embracing Christianity, making Paris his base of operations, and ending Roman domination over the Gaul, he laid the foundation for the French Monarchy.

572

Lombards invade northern Italy and settle, greatly reducing Byzantine power.

589

Visigothic King Reccared converts from Arianism to Catholicism at Third Council of Toledo.

640

Library of Alexandra, "The Center of Western Culture" with 300,000 ancient papyrus scrolls, is completely destroyed.

687

Pepin of Heristal, a Merovingian ruler, re-unites the Frankish territories.

711

Berber Muslims (Moors) under Tariq ibn-Ziyad defeat the Visigoth King Roderick at the battle of Rio Barbate - Iberia soon falls to Moor rule.

718

Pelayo, a noble Visigoth, defeats the Muslin Army in Alcama, beginning the Christian Reconquest of Iberia.

726

Byzantine Emperor Leo III begins the "Iconoclastic Controversy" by banning the worship of religious images (or icons).

733

Charles Martel defeats Muslims at Poiters, halting Muslim conquest at the Pyrenees.

744

Christians under Alfonso I of Asturias take Leon.

751

The Carolingians, descendents of Charles Mantel, end the Merovingian dynasty with the election of Pepin III as the French King.

756

Abd-ar-Rahman founds a powerful independent Umayyad emirate at Cordoba , breaking from the Muslims of North Africa.
Pepin III defeats the Lombards and establishes the future Papel States by granting Ravenna to "St. Peter".

768

Cardus Magnus (Charlemagne) becomes King of the Franks and promotes the "Carolingian Renaissance".

774

Charlemagne conquerors the Lombards.

778

The army of Charlemagne suffers defeat while crossing the Pyrenees at Roncesvalles.

787

The Second Nicean Council allows the veneration, but not worship, of icons.

793

Raiders attack the monastery on the Holy Isle of Lindisfarne, beginning the Viking era.

800

Charlemagne is crowned Holy Roman Emperor by Pope Leo III.

813

Tomb of St. James is supposedly discovered at Santiago de Compostela.

827-902

Sicily falls to the Arabs and becomes a base for raids along the coast and into the interior.

836

A Viking settlement is established in Dublin, Ireland.

843

Charlemagne's empire is divided between his grandsons in the Treaty of Verdun and the Eastern Franks, under Louis the German, emerge as the nucleus of the German State.

860

King Harald unites Norway and rules for seventy years.

860

Vikings sack Constantinople.

865

Vikings launch a full invasion of England, but are confined to the area of Danelaw by King Alfred of Wessex.

867

Basil I forms the Macedonian dynasty when he becomes king of the Byzantine Empire.

871

King Alfred the Great of England lays the ground work for the latter unification of Anglo-Saxon states and codifies English law.

874

Vikings settle Iceland.

885 - 86

Vikings besiege Paris.

905

Emergent Navarra becomes Christian Kingdom under Sancho I.

910

Leon becomes an independent Christian state.
King Edward, son of Alfred the Great, kills the Danish King Halfdan and brings a halt to Viking power in England.

911

Charles III of France is forced to acknowledge the Viking Chieftan Rollo's conquest of the lower Seine River, an area later known as Normandy. In return, Rollo converts to Christianity.

919

Henry 'the Fowler', Duke of Saxony, becomes king of the eastern Franks (Germans), beginning the Ottonian rule.

932

Fernan Gonzalez becomes the first King of Castile.

936

Otto I becomes King of the Franks, becoming the first great leader of Germany since Charlemagne as he unites the independent principalities and molded them into the German Holy Roman Empire.

941

Vikings attempt to sack Constantinople, but are driven back by the invention of fire ships by the Byzantine army.

955

Battle of Lechfeld: Otto I (the Great) defeats the Magyars and ends Magyar raids into Western Europe.

962

Otto I is crowned Emperor by Pope John XII after obtaining possession of North Italy and the Lombard crown. This creates the Hony Roman Empire - "Holy" because of its consecration by the Pope and "Roman" in recollection of the time when Europe had enjoyed unity.

970

The Magyars invade Byzantine but are defeated at Arcadiopolis, ending Hungarian expansion.

972

In a political act, King Geza of Hungary announces his conversation to Christianity.

981

Eirik the Red discovers Greenland.

987

Hugue Capet begins the Capetian Dynasty as the last Carolingian king dies.

988

Vladimir, King of the Rus, converts to Eastern Orthodox Christianity.

997

Upon the death of Geza, Vajk (Saint Stephan) becomes king of Hungary.

996

Olaf Trygvesson is proclaimed King of Norway and instigates a conversion of the Norwegian Vikings to Christianity.

999

Gerbert of Aurillac becomes the first French Pope, Sylvester II.

1000-35

Under Sancho III Garcés the Navarrese established a brief hegemony over all of Christian Spain.

1020

Death of Leif Ericsson.

1053

German Princes elect Henry IV, heir to the Saxon line, King.

1099

The Crusaders take Jerusalem massacring the inhabitants. Godfrey of Bouillon becomes ruler.

1134

Navarre and Argon split, becoming separate Kingdoms once again.

1137

Ramon Berenguer IV of Catalonia marries Petronila of Aragon, uniting the two kingdoms under their son, Alfonso II.

1139

The Second Lateran Council makes celibacy mandatory.

1143

Portugal becomes a separate Kingdom.

1147

Almohads arrive in Al Andalus and make Seville their capital.
The Second Crusade is called after the Turks retake the Christian county of Edessa.

1154

Henry II, son of Geoffrey Plantagent, Count of Anjou, becomes King of England. His marriage to Eleanor of the Aquitaine creates a large kingdom encompassing England and Northwestern France.

1158

Establishment of the Order of Calatrava, the first military order of knights in Spain.

1170

Archbishop Thomas Becket murdered in Canterbury.

1187

Lead by a great General, Saladin, Moslems capture Jerusalem. This provokes the Third Crusade, lead by Philip Augustus, Richard the Lion Heart, and Frederick Barbarossa.

1189

Richard the Lion Heart becomes King of England.

1199

John becomes King of England.

1204

The army of the Fourth Crusade sacks Constantinople, thus setting a precedent of crusades against fellow Christians.

1212

Combined Christian forces defeat Almohads at battle of Las Navas de Tolosa
Magna Carta signed
Venice conquers Crete
Frederick II elected German King and makes Bohemia a hereditary kingdom;
Children's Crusade; Rheims Cathedral 1212-1311
Tiles replace thatched and wooden roofs of London houses

Phillip II Augustus of France dies, succedded by Louis VIII 1223-1226
Mongols invade Russia, battle at the Kalka River