A great number of decisive political wars and revolutions took place in the last two centuries; struggles for independence and liberation, industrialisation, nationalism and European integration. Take look at some of the landmark events that changed Europe in Modern history.
| Year | Event |
|---|---|
| 1789 | Fall of the Bastille: start of the French Revolution |
| 1804 | Napoleon crowned Emperor of France |
| 1815 | Battle of Waterloo: Napoleon exiled to St Helena |
| 1829 | Greece wins independence from Ottoman Empire |
| 1833 | Slavery abolished in British Empire |
| 1848 | Revolutions across Europe |
| 1854–6 | Crimean War |
| 1860–1 | Unification of Italy |
| 1861 | Alexander II emancipates Russian serfs |
| 1870–1 | Franco-Prussian War; proclamation of German empire |
| 1914–18 | First World War |
| 1917 | Russian Revolution |
| 1919 | Treaty of Versailles |
| 1936–9 | Spanish Civil War |
| 1939–45 | Second World War |
| 1941 | Operation Barbarossa: German invasion of Russia |
| 1949 | Formation of NATO |
| 1956 | Soviet invasion of Hungary; Suez crisis |
| 1957 | Treaty of Rome founds the European Economic Community |
| 1975 | Democracy restored in Spain |
| 1985 | Mikhail Gorbachev in power in Russia |
| 1989 | Fall of the Berlin Wall: anti-communist revolutions across eastern Europe |
| 1992 | Yugoslavia civil war starts |
| 2002 | Adoption of the Euro |
| 2004 | European Union enlarges to 25 member states |