Under intense political pressure from the Sasanian Empire, the Persian church declared its independence from the Roman Church in 424 CE. Four years later Nestorius was appointed patriarch of Constantinople and soon provoked a doctrinal storm by challenging the established church position that Mary was a theotokos (God-bearer), declaring that... More
From 1572, Spanish armies, initially under the Duke of Alba, conducted a ruthless suppression of Dutch rebels. The revolt had been provoked by autocratic rule, high taxation and the suppression of the Protestant religion. In 1576, in the Pacification of Ghent, the rebels, previously divided, agreed a common front. However,... More
In 1555, the Holy Roman Emperor Charles V abdicated and King Phillip II of Spain acquired the German and Spanish empires, including the Low Countries. Catholic rebellion in the Netherlands led to the persecution and execution of Protestants under the Duke of Alba and his Council of Troubles (also known... More
In 1587, Maurice of Nassau (son of William of Orange) was made Captain General of the Dutch rebel army in the Spanish Netherlands. With its navy shattered by the destruction of the Armada, an enfeebled, and soon bankrupt, Spain suffered reverse after reverse at Maurice’s hands, its unpaid troops frequently... More
From 1609, a truce subsisted for twelve years between the Spanish and Dutch. However, war would eventually reignite because neither side would commit to religious tolerance in the areas they controlled, and because of growing conflict between their respective colonial and commercial interests. In 1621, hostilities resumed; a Spanish attack... More
A provisional government, the Driemanschap, took over the Netherlands after its liberation from the French by Prussian and Russian forces in 1813. The principality of the United Netherlands was declared and the exiled William Frederick was made ‘Sovereign Prince’ and granted extensive powers. In 1815 the union of the United... More
The Dutch Revolt began in protest against the Spanish ruling monarch, Philip II. The Dutch throne had become one of the many hereditary seats of power that were amassed under the Habsburg Empire. When Charles V began the process of abdication, his son Philip II became king of Spain and... More
Charles V became Holy Roman Emperor in 1506 at the age of six, ruling until 1515 through the regency of his aunt, Margaret of Austria. The empire soon became embroiled in war with France, with one issue being Charles’s requirement for the provinces of Flanders, Artois, and Tournai to pay... More
The New (or Neo) Babylonian Empire was created from the ashes of the old Babylonian empire, ruled by Assyrian kings. In 626 BCE, Nabopolassar, a governor of Babylonia, was determined to claim the title of ‘king of Babylonia’. He succeeded in overthrowing the Assyrian rulers and established himself as king.... More
Established after the Middle Kingdom (c. 2000–1523 BCE) the era of the New Kingdom (c. 1523–712 BCE) was when the Egyptian empire peaked. This was the time of the warrior pharaohs and began with the defeat of the foreign Hyksos kings. Thebes became Egypt’s new capital. There was a programme... More
The wave of national self-determination which swept eastern Europe started with Bolshevik revolution in Russia, and Lenin’s declaration of the people's ‘general right of self-determination’. Finland promptly declared independence in December 1917, which Soviet Russia confirmed. After declaring independence in 1918, Estonia and Latvia had to fight both Baltic Germans... More
The Treaty of Sèvres (1920) ceded Ottoman territory in Arab Asia and North Africa to the Allies; in 1923, the Turkish War of Independence finally saw off the Allied occupation. Armenia was made independent and Kurdistan (Kars) declared autonomous. The Ankara Agreement replaced this treaty in 1921, when France ceded... More