Europe: every state, empire and people from 3200 BCE to today
The Europe section of the timeline follows 382 states, empires, colonies and peoples from 3200 BCE to today, in 8 areas: Scandinavia and the Baltic, Russia and the Steppe, Central Europe, British Isles, France and the Low Countries, Iberia, Italy and Balkans and Greece. Among the most significant are Minoan civilization, Republic of Venice, Byzantine Empire, Holy Roman Empire, Yamnaya culture and Ottoman Empire.
Open Europe on the interactive timeline
Scandinavia and the Baltic
- Comb Ceramic culture
- Narva culture
- Pitted Ware culture
- Battle Axe culture
- Nordic Bronze Age
- Baltic Finnic tribes
- Baltic tribes
- Sami people
- Pre-Roman Iron Age (Scandinavia)
- Roman Iron Age (Scandinavia)
- Migration and Vendel periods
- Viking Age Norse
- Kingdom of Norway
- Icelandic Commonwealth
- Kingdom of Denmark
- Kingdom of Sweden
- North Sea Empire
- Terra Mariana (Livonia)
- State of the Teutonic Order
- Grand Duchy of Lithuania
- Kalmar Union
- Denmark-Norway
- Kingdom of Sweden (Vasa)
- Duchy of Courland and Semigallia
- Swedish Empire
- Kingdom of Sweden
- Grand Duchy of Finland
- Kingdom of Denmark
- Union of Sweden and Norway
- Kingdom of Norway
- Republic of Finland
- Iceland
- Republic of Estonia (1918 to 1940)
- Republic of Latvia (1918 to 1940)
- Republic of Lithuania (1918 to 1940)
- Lithuania
- Estonia
- Latvia
Russia and the Steppe
- Cucuteni-Trypillia culture
- Maykop culture
- Volosovo culture
- Yamnaya culture
- Fatyanovo-Balanovo culture
- Catacomb culture
- Srubnaya culture
- Volga Finnic peoples
- Cimmerians
- Scythians
- Bosporan Kingdom
- Sarmatians
- Chernyakhov culture (Gothic Oium)
- Hunnic Empire
- Kutrigurs and Utigurs
- East Slavic tribes
- Old Great Bulgaria
- Khazar Khaganate
- Volga Bulgaria
- Pechenegs
- Kievan Rus
- Cumans (Kipchaks)
- Novgorod Republic
- Vladimir-Suzdal
- Galicia-Volhynia
- Golden Horde
- Principality of Tver
- Grand Duchy of Moscow
- Genoese Gazaria
- Khanate of Kazan
- Crimean Khanate
- Khanate of Astrakhan
- Tsardom of Russia
- Zaporozhian Sich
- Kalmyk Khanate
- Cossack Hetmanate
- Russian Empire
- Russian Soviet Republic
- Ukrainian People's Republic
- Soviet Union
- Russian Federation
- Ukraine
- Belarus
Central Europe
- Baden culture
- Funnelbeaker culture
- Corded Ware culture
- Unetice culture
- Tumulus culture
- Urnfield culture
- Lusatian culture
- Hallstatt culture
- Jastorf culture
- La Tene culture
- Przeworsk culture
- Kingdom of Noricum
- Germanic tribes of Germania
- Wielbark culture
- Old Saxons
- Alemanni
- Kingdom of the Gepids
- West Slavic tribes
- Avar Khaganate
- Samo's realm
- Great Moravia
- East Francia
- Duchy of Bohemia
- Principality of Hungary
- Duchy of Poland
- Holy Roman Empire
- Kingdom of Hungary
- Kingdom of Poland (Piast)
- Duchy of Austria
- Margraviate of Brandenburg
- Bavaria (Wittelsbach)
- Kingdom of Bohemia
- Old Swiss Confederacy
- Hanseatic League
- Kingdom of Poland (Jagiellonian)
- Duchy of Prussia
- Habsburg Monarchy
- Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth
- Principality of Transylvania
- Brandenburg-Prussia
- Kingdom of Prussia
- Liechtenstein
- Switzerland
- Austrian Empire
- Confederation of the Rhine
- Duchy of Warsaw
- German Confederation
- Austria-Hungary
- German Empire
- Weimar Republic
- First Austrian Republic
- Czechoslovakia
- Second Polish Republic
- Kingdom of Hungary (1920 to 1946)
- Nazi Germany
- Austria
- Polish People's Republic
- West Germany
- East Germany
- Hungarian People's Republic
- Hungary
- Poland
- Germany
- Czech Republic
- Slovakia
British Isles
- Neolithic Britain and Ireland
- Beaker and Early Bronze Age Britain
- Wessex culture
- Middle and Late Bronze Age Britain
- Iron Age Britons
- Gaelic Ireland
- Roman Britain
- Picts
- Sub-Roman Britain
- Kingdom of Strathclyde
- Kingdom of Gwynedd
- Kingdom of Powys
- Kingdom of Kent
- Dal Riata
- Kingdom of Wessex
- Kingdom of Mercia
- Kingdom of East Anglia
- Kingdom of Northumbria
- Kingdom of Scotland
- Norse Kingdom of Dublin
- Earldom of Orkney
- Danelaw and Kingdom of York
- Kingdom of England (Anglo-Saxon)
- Kingdom of England (Norman and Plantagenet)
- Angevin Empire
- Lordship of Ireland
- Principality of Wales
- Tudor England
- Kingdom of Ireland
- Kingdom of England (Stuart)
- Commonwealth of England
- Kingdom of Great Britain
- United Kingdom
- Irish Free State
- Ireland
France and the Low Countries
- Neolithic farmers of Gaul
- Bell Beaker culture
- Armorican Tumulus culture
- Bronze Age Gaul
- Atlantic Bronze Age
- Gauls
- Aquitani
- Massalia
- Roman Gaul
- Frankish tribes
- Kingdom of the Burgundians
- Visigothic Kingdom of Toulouse
- Domain of Soissons
- Merovingian Kingdom
- Frisian Kingdom
- Carolingian Empire
- County of Toulouse
- Middle Francia and Lotharingia
- West Francia
- Kingdom and Duchy of Brittany
- County of Flanders
- Duchy of Normandy
- Kingdom of France (Capetian)
- Monaco
- Kingdom of France (Valois)
- Burgundian State
- Habsburg Netherlands
- Dutch Republic
- Spanish Netherlands
- Kingdom of France (Bourbon)
- Austrian Netherlands
- First French Republic
- Batavian Republic
- First French Empire
- Kingdom of the Netherlands
- Luxembourg
- Bourbon Restoration
- Belgium
- July Monarchy
- Second French Republic
- Second French Empire
- French Third Republic
- Vichy France
- French Fourth Republic
- French Fifth Republic
Iberia
- Megalithic farmers of western Iberia
- Los Millares culture
- El Argar culture
- Cogotas I culture
- Talayotic culture
- Tartessos
- Phoenician colonies in Iberia
- Iberians
- Celtiberians
- Basques (Vascones)
- Carthaginian Iberia
- Roman Hispania
- Vandals and Alans in Hispania
- Kingdom of the Suebi
- Visigothic Kingdom of Toledo
- Byzantine Spania
- Al-Andalus under the Umayyad Caliphate
- Kingdom of Asturias
- Emirate of Cordoba
- Kingdom of Navarre
- County of Portugal
- County of Barcelona
- Kingdom of Leon
- Caliphate of Cordoba
- Kingdom of Castile
- Taifa kingdoms
- Almoravid al-Andalus
- Kingdom of Portugal
- Almohad al-Andalus
- Crown of Aragon
- Crown of Castile
- Emirate of Granada
- Andorra
- Portuguese Empire
- Spanish Empire (Habsburg Spain)
- Iberian Union
- Bourbon Spain
- British Gibraltar
- Kingdom of Spain (1814 to 1931)
- First Portuguese Republic
- Estado Novo
- Second Spanish Republic
- Francoist Spain
- Portugal
- Kingdom of Spain
Italy
- Copper Age Italy
- Polada culture
- Nuragic civilization
- Terramare culture
- Apennine culture
- Proto-Villanovan culture
- Italic peoples
- Villanovan culture
- Roman Kingdom
- Magna Graecia
- Syracuse
- Etruscan civilization
- Carthaginian Sicily and Sardinia
- Roman Republic
- Cisalpine Gauls
- Roman Empire
- San Marino
- Western Roman Empire
- Kingdom of Odoacer
- Ostrogothic Kingdom
- Byzantine Italy (Exarchate of Ravenna)
- Lombard Kingdom
- Duchy and Principality of Benevento
- Republic of Venice
- Papal States
- Emirate of Sicily
- Catepanate of Italy
- Republic of Pisa
- County and Duchy of Savoy
- Republic of Genoa
- Republic of Florence
- Kingdom of Sicily
- Kingdom of Naples
- Kingdom of Sicily (island)
- Duchy of Milan
- Order of Saint John in Malta
- Duchy and Grand Duchy of Tuscany
- Kingdom of Sardinia (Piedmont-Sardinia)
- British Malta
- Kingdom of the Two Sicilies
- Kingdom of Italy
- Fascist Italy
- Vatican City
- Italian Republic
- Malta
Balkans and Greece
- Cotofeni culture
- Cycladic culture
- Early and Middle Helladic Greece
- Minoan civilization
- Vucedol culture
- Mycenaean Greece
- Thracians
- Greek Dark Ages
- Illyrians
- Sparta
- Greek city-states
- Kingdom of Macedon
- Athens
- Getae and Dacians
- Odrysian Kingdom
- Empire of Alexander the Great
- Kingdom of Epirus
- Achaean League
- Roman Macedonia and Achaea
- Dacian Kingdom
- Roman Dacia
- Visigoths in the Balkans
- Byzantine Empire
- South Slavic tribes
- First Bulgarian Empire
- Kingdom of Croatia
- Banate and Kingdom of Bosnia
- Grand Principality of Serbia
- Second Bulgarian Empire
- Latin Empire
- Principality of Achaea
- Despotate of Epirus
- Venetian Crete
- Kingdom of Serbia
- Ottoman Empire
- Wallachia
- Serbian Empire
- Moldavia
- Republic of Ragusa
- Serbian Despotate
- League of Lezhe
- Montenegro (Prince-Bishopric to Kingdom)
- Principality and Kingdom of Serbia
- Kingdom of Greece
- Romania (United Principalities and Kingdom)
- Principality and Tsardom of Bulgaria
- Albania
- Kingdom of Yugoslavia
- Second Hellenic Republic
- Kingdom of Greece (restored)
- Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia
- People's Republic of Bulgaria
- Communist Romania
- Cyprus
- Greece
- Romania
- Bulgaria
- Moldova
- Croatia
- Slovenia
- North Macedonia
- Serbia and Montenegro
- Bosnia and Herzegovina
- Serbia
- Montenegro
- Kosovo
Key events
- Otzi the Iceman dies in the Alps. A Copper Age man is killed by an arrow high in the Otztal Alps. His frozen body, found in 1991 with his clothes, bow and copper axe, is Europe's oldest natural human mummy.
- Stonehenge begun. The first phase of Stonehenge, a circular ditch and bank with a ring of pits, is dug on Salisbury Plain. The great sarsen stones are raised around 2500 BCE.
- Thera eruption. The volcano on Santorini buries the Minoan town of Akrotiri under metres of ash in one of the largest eruptions of the last 10,000 years.
- Late Bronze Age collapse. Palaces at Mycenae, Pylos and Thebes burn and Linear B writing disappears as trade across the eastern Mediterranean breaks down.
- First Olympic Games. By tradition the first Olympic festival is held at Olympia in honour of Zeus. Greeks later counted years in four-year Olympiads from this date.
- Traditional founding of Rome. Roman writers dated the founding of the city by Romulus to 21 April 753 BCE, the starting point of their year count.
- Athenian democracy. Cleisthenes reorganises the citizens of Athens into ten tribes and gives power to the assembly, creating the first known democracy.
- Battle of Salamis. The Athenian-led Greek fleet destroys Xerxes' navy in the straits off Salamis, turning back the Persian invasion of Greece.
- Alexander invades Persia. Alexander crosses the Hellespont with about 40,000 men and begins the conquest of the Persian Empire.
- Hannibal crosses the Alps. The Carthaginian general leads his army and elephants from Spain over the Alps into Italy and wins at Trebia, Trasimene and Cannae.
- Assassination of Julius Caesar. Senators led by Brutus and Cassius stab Caesar, dictator for life, on the Ides of March, setting off the civil wars that end the Republic.
- Battle of the Teutoburg Forest. Arminius of the Cherusci destroys three Roman legions under Varus, and Rome gives up the conquest of Germany beyond the Rhine.
- Edict of Milan. Constantine and Licinius grant Christians freedom of worship across the Roman Empire.
- Constantinople dedicated. Constantine dedicates his new capital on the site of Byzantium. It stays the seat of the eastern Roman Empire for over 1,100 years.
- Visigoths sack Rome. Alaric's Visigoths plunder Rome for three days, the first time in 800 years that the city falls to a foreign enemy.
- End of the Western Roman Empire. Odoacer deposes the boy emperor Romulus Augustulus and sends the imperial regalia to Constantinople.
- Plague of Justinian. Bubonic plague reaches Constantinople, killing perhaps a quarter of its people, and returns in waves across Europe for two centuries.
- Battle of Tours. Charles Martel's Franks defeat an Umayyad army from al-Andalus between Tours and Poitiers, ending Muslim raids deep into Gaul.
- Viking raid on Lindisfarne. Norse raiders sack the monastery of Lindisfarne off Northumbria, the conventional start of the Viking Age.
- Charlemagne crowned emperor. Pope Leo III crowns Charlemagne emperor of the Romans in Saint Peter's on Christmas Day, reviving the imperial title in the west.
- Baptism of the Rus. Vladimir I of Kiev adopts Orthodox Christianity from Byzantium and has the people of Kiev baptised in the Dnieper.
- East-West Schism. Papal legates and the Patriarch of Constantinople excommunicate each other, splitting the Catholic and Orthodox churches.
- Norman conquest of England. William of Normandy defeats Harold II at Hastings and is crowned king of England on Christmas Day.
- First Crusade proclaimed. At Clermont, Pope Urban II calls on western knights to aid Byzantium and take Jerusalem, which the crusaders capture in 1099.
- Crusaders sack Constantinople. Knights of the Fourth Crusade and the Venetian fleet storm and loot Constantinople and divide the Byzantine Empire among themselves.
- Magna Carta. English barons force King John to seal a charter limiting royal power at Runnymede.
- Mongols sack Kiev. Batu's army storms Kiev, completing the Mongol conquest of the Rus principalities, then strikes Poland and Hungary in 1241.
- Black Death reaches Europe. Plague carried from the Black Sea reaches Sicily in 1347 and kills between a third and half of Europe's people by 1351.
- Gutenberg's printing press. Johannes Gutenberg develops printing with movable metal type in Mainz. His Bible is finished around 1455.
- Fall of Constantinople. Mehmed II breaches the Theodosian Walls after a 53-day siege, ending the Roman state that had lasted over 1,400 years.
- Fall of Granada and Columbus's voyage. Ferdinand and Isabella take Granada, the last Muslim state in Iberia, and send Columbus west across the Atlantic.
- Luther's Ninety-five Theses. Martin Luther attacks the sale of indulgences in Wittenberg, starting the Protestant Reformation.
- Peace of Westphalia. Treaties at Munster and Osnabruck end the Thirty Years' War, recognise Dutch and Swiss independence and weaken the emperor.
- Siege of Vienna. A Polish, Austrian and German army under Jan Sobieski routs the Ottoman army besieging Vienna, beginning the Ottoman retreat from Hungary.
- Watt's steam engine. James Watt patents a separate condenser that makes steam engines far more efficient, powering the Industrial Revolution in Britain.
- French Revolution. The storming of the Bastille on 14 July begins the revolution that abolishes feudal privileges and, in 1792, the monarchy.
- Battle of Waterloo. British, Dutch and Prussian armies defeat Napoleon in Belgium, and the Congress of Vienna redraws the map of Europe.
- Unification of Germany. After victory over France, Wilhelm I of Prussia is proclaimed German Emperor in the Hall of Mirrors at Versailles.
- First World War begins. The assassination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand in Sarajevo sets off a war that kills about 17 million people and destroys four empires.
- Russian Revolution. The tsar abdicates in March, and in November the Bolsheviks under Lenin seize power in Petrograd.
- Second World War begins. Germany invades Poland on 1 September. The war in Europe kills tens of millions, including six million Jews murdered in the Holocaust, before Germany surrenders in May 1945.
- Treaty of Rome. France, West Germany, Italy and the Benelux countries found the European Economic Community, forerunner of the European Union.
- Fall of the Berlin Wall. East German border guards open the Wall on 9 November as communist regimes fall across eastern Europe.
- Dissolution of the Soviet Union. After a failed coup in August the Soviet republics declare independence, and the USSR is formally dissolved on 26 December.
- Russian invasion of Ukraine. Russia launches a full-scale invasion of Ukraine on 24 February, the largest war in Europe since 1945.