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Europe is the second smallest continent in the world with a land area of only 4,000,000 square miles. Despite its relatively small size, Europe was the main location of several historical periods that made a huge impact on the world. It is also where some of the world’s greatest cultures and civilization originated.
See the fact file below for more information on the Ancient Europe or alternatively, you can download our 26-page Ancient Europe worksheet pack to utilise within the classroom or home environment.
Key Facts & Information
- Around 1.8 million years ago, the first human-like beings in Europe arrived from Africa. Soon after, homosapiens developed cultures in Central and Southwest Europe.
- During the 27th century B.C., the Minoan civilization began flourishing as a literate society. It was a Bronze-Age civilization that developed on the island of Crete.
- In 16,000 B.C., the Mycenaean society followed the Minoans. The Mycenaeans advanced through invasion. They constructed cities and had a structure of warrior aristocracy. It perished with the collapse of Bronze-Age civilizations on the eastern shores of the Mediterranean Sea.
- From a literate society, man advanced to an educated nation, with arts and social studies.
- Around the 7th century B.C., Ancient Greece emerged. Ancient Greece was a collection of city-states and it developed democracy. Athens was the most powerful city and a cradle of learning from the time of Pericles (a prominent Greek statesman). Citizen’s discussed and legislated policy of the state and brought forth great minds, like Socrates and Plato.
- King Philip II united the Greek states, and his son, Alexander the Great, extended the great culture to other states.
- After the death of Alexander the Great, the empire began to decline because of its inability to unite, and at the end of the 1st century B.C., the empire of Rome dawned.
- The Roman Empire had its center in the Mediterranean, governing all the countries on its shores. Under emperor Trajan, the empire gained much land surface and included Britain, Romania, and parts of Mesopotamia. It then suffered civil wars until, in the year 313, Emperor Constantine officially embraced the Christian Church.
- In the year 800, the Great Roman Empire was weakened by various conflicts. Charlemagne, a Frank ruler, became the Roman Emperor.
- Charlemagne effectively solidified his power in western Europe. His reign marked the beginning of a new Germanic Roman Empire in the west, the Holy Roman Empire, a multi-ethnic complex of territories in Central Europe.
- For the duration of the 6th century, the Eastern Roman Empire was embroiled in a series of deadly conflicts with the Persians and Muslim forces.
- The Middle Ages, or Medieval Period, is commonly dated from the fall of the Western Roman Empire in the 5th century to the beginning of the early modern period in the 16th century.
- It marked the rise of nation states, the division of Western Christianity in the Reformation, the rise of humanism in the Italian Renaissance, and the beginnings of European overseas expansion, which allowed for the Columbian Exchange.
- Early Middle Ages
- Population decline, invasion, and movement of people, which had begun early on, increased in the Early Middle Ages.
- In the 7th century, North Africa and the Middle East – once part of the Byzantine Empire – came under the rule of the Umayyad Caliphate, an Islamic empire, after their downfall by Muhammad’s successors.
- The Franks, under the Carolingian dynasty, briefly established the Carolingian Empire during the late 8th and early 9th century. It covered much of Western Europe, but later succumbed to the pressures of internal civil wars combined with external invasions: Vikings from the north, Magyars from the east, and Saracens from the south.
- High Middle Ages
- During the High Middle Ages, which started after year 1000, the population of Europe increased significantly as technological and agricultural innovations allowed trade to cultivate.
- Manorialism, the organization of peasants into villages that owed rent and labor services to the nobles, and feudalism, the political structure whereby knights and lower-status nobles owed military service to their overlords in return for the right to rent from lands and manors, were two of the methods in which civilization was structured in the High Middle Ages.
- The Late Middle Ages
- It was marked by complications and disasters including famine, plague, and war, which significantly weakened the population of Europe.
- Between 1347 and 1350, the Black Death (Great Plague) killed about a third of Europeans.
- Controversy, heresy, and the Western Schism within the Catholic Church paralleled the interstate conflict, civil conflict, and peasant revolts that happened within the kingdoms.
Early Modern Europe
- The early modern period crosses the centuries between the Middle Ages and the Industrial Revolution.
- It evolved around the importance of science and technological progress, secularized civic politics, and the economic theory of Mercantilism (maximizing the exports of a nation).
- This period also represents the decline of feudalism, serfdom, and the power of the Catholic Church.
- In the 14th century, the Renaissance period emerged. It spread to many countries and lasted until the 17th century. Philosophy, arts, science, and social studies were given importance. Michelangelo, Da Vinci, and Machiavelli are some of the great men that came from this era.
- During the 15th century, Europeans began exploring the world. Trade and mercantilism greatly flourished.
Revolutions and Wars
- In the period from about 1760 – 1820 and 1840, the Industrial Revolution emerged and brought significant changes to manufacturing and other developments. This transition replaced hand production methods with machines, new chemical manufacturing, and iron production processes, increasing use of steam power, the development of machine tools, and the rise of the factory system.
- The era of the French Revolution, which began in 1789, was by far the most critical upheaval of the whole revolutionary age. It marked the end of the old regime and the beginning of modern society. It was partly carried forward by Napoléon Bonaparte when he reformed the French legal system during the later expansion of the French Empire.
- From 1765 – 1783, a colonial revolt took place – The American Revolution. The American patriots in the thirteen colonies won independence in the American Revolutionary War from Great Britain. Its success intensified the idea of natural rights throughout the Western world and furthered the enlightened rationalist critique of an old order built around hereditary monarchy and an established church.
- The outbreak of the First World War (World War I) in 1914 was precipitated by the rise of nationalism in Southeastern Europe as the Great Powers (sovereign states that are recognized as having the expertise to influence on a global scale) took sides.
- The Nazi regime under Adolf Hitler came to power in 1933. He rearmed Germany and, along with Mussolini’s Italy, initiated the Second World War (World War II). The war ended with the defeat of the Axis Powers (Rome-Berlin-Tokyo-Axis), leaving the United States dominating Eastern and Western Europe.
- After World War II, a geopolitical tension between the Soviet Union, with its satellite states, and the United States arose. It began in 1946 and was called the Cold War. There was no large-scale fighting directly between the two sides, but they supported major regional wars known as Proxy Wars.
- In 1993, after the wars ended, Europe strove for a more united group of nations. Maastricht Treaty established the European Union. The neutral countries of Austria, Finland, and Sweden acceded to the EU (European Unions), and those that didn’t join were tied into the EU’s economic market via the European Economic Area. They also entered the Schengen Agreement which lifted border controls between member states. This cooperation continues to grow today, with more European countries enlisting as members.
Ancient Europe Worksheets
This is a fantastic bundle which includes everything you need to know about Ancient Europe across 26 in-depth pages. These are ready-to-use Ancient Europe worksheets that are perfect for teaching students about the Europe which is the second smallest continent in the world with a land area of only 4,000,000 square miles. Despite its relatively small size, Europe was the main location of several historical periods that made a huge impact on the world. It is also where some of the world’s greatest cultures and civilization originated.
Complete List Of Included Worksheets
- Ancient Europe Facts
- Trace the Ancestral Roots
- Greece vs. Rome
- Explore the Middle Ages
- What’s in the Puzzle
- Catch the Date!
- Great Contributions
- The Best of Two Empires
- Revolution to Evolution
- Worlds at War
- The Role of the Church
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Link will appear as Ancient Europe Facts & Worksheets: https://kidskonnect.com - KidsKonnect, November 12, 2018
Use With Any Curriculum
These worksheets have been specifically designed for use with any international curriculum. You can use these worksheets as-is, or edit them using Google Slides to make them more specific to your own student ability levels and curriculum standards.