Everything Totally Explained


Ask & we'll explain, totally!
2nd millennium
Totally Explained

  NEW! All the latest news in the worlds of computer gaming, entertainment, the environment,  
finance, health, politics, science, stocks & shares, technology and much, much, more.  

View this entry using RSS

Everything about the Second Millennium totally explained

The second millennium is a period of time which commenced on January 1, 1001 and ended on December 31, 2000 of the Gregorian calendar. This is the second period of one thousand years in the Common Era.
   This millennium is perhaps more popularly (albeit incorrectly) thought of as beginning and ending a year earlier, thus starting at the beginning of 1000 and finishing at the end of 1999. The inaccuracy stems from the assumption that there's a year zero, however this isn't the case for this calendar.

Summary

The 2nd millennium encompasses the High Middle Ages, the Renaissance, the Early Modern Age, the age of Colonialism, Industrialisation, the rise of nation states and democracy, and culminates in the 20th century with the impact of science, widespread education, and universal healthcare and vaccinations in many nations. The centuries of expanding large-scale warfare with high-tech weaponry (of the World Wars and nuclear bombs) are offset by growing peace movements from the United Nations, the Peace Corps, religious campaigns warning "violence begets violence" (Christianity, etc.), plus doctors/healthworkers crossing borders to reduce injuries or disease, and the return of the Olympics as contest without combat.
   From the 16th century, major population movements had set in, initially from Europe and Africa (via Atlantic slave trade) to the New World, with subsequent increased migration from Asia to the Americas, beginning the ever-accelerating process of globalization.
   Scientists (with Einstein) prevail in explaining intellectual freedom, and new technology is developed by governments, industry, and academia across the world, with education shared by many international conferences and journals. The development of moveable type, radio, television, and the Internet spread information worldwide, within minutes, in audio, video, and print-image format to educate, entertain, and alert billions of people by the end of the 20th century.
   As information spread, sophisticated stealth monitoring groups expanded to check access to dangerous technology, and many products became manufactured with built-in chemical indicators, micro-printing, or GPS/radio-locators to back-trace the origin or routing of those products.
   The interwoven international trade led to the formation of multi-national corporations, with home offices in multiple countries. International business ventures reduced the impact of nationalism in popular thought.
   The world population doubled over the first seven centuries of the millennium, (from 310 million in AD 1000 to 600 million in AD 1700), and later increased tenfold over its last three centuries, rising to 6070 million in AD 2000.

Some significant persons

1001–1500

1500–1800

  • Isabella of Castile (1451–1504) and Ferdinand II of Aragon (1452–1516) Spanish monarchs
  • Christopher Columbus (1451–1506), Italian explorer
  • Leonardo da Vinci (1452–1519), Italian artist, philosopher and scientist
  • Vasco da Gama (1469–1524), Portuguese navigator
  • Guru Nanak Dev (1469–1539), founder of Sikhism
  • Nicolaus Copernicus (1473–1543), astronomer and mathematician
  • Ferdinand Magellan (1480–1521), Portuguese explorer
  • Raphael (1483–1520), Italian artist
  • Krishnadevaraya (d. 1520), Vijayanagaran emperor
  • Babur (1483–1530), founder of India's Mughal Empire, descendant of Timur.
  • Martin Luther (1483–1546), German religious reformer.
  • Henry VIII (1491–1547), former Catholic king of England, founded Church of England
  • Suleiman the Magnificent (1495–1566), Turkish sultan, poet, patron
  • Jyeshtadeva (1500–1575), Indian mathematician and astronomer, writer of the world's first calculus text.
  • Elizabeth I (1533–1603), Queen of England
  • Akbar (1542–1605), considered the greatest of the Mughal emperors
  • Miguel de Cervantes (1547–1616), Spanish playwright and novelist
  • Xu Guangqi (1562–1633), Chinese agronomist, astronomer, and mathematician
  • Lope de Vega (1562–1635), Spanish playwright and poet
  • Christopher Marlowe (1564–1593), English playwright and poet
  • William Shakespeare (1564–1616), English playwright and poet
  • Galileo Galilei (1564–1642), Italian scientist/astronomer, father of modern physics
  • Jahangir (1569–1627), one of the greatest Mughal emperors
  • Xu Xiake (1587–1641), Chinese geographer and author
  • Thomas Hobbes (1588–1679), founder of modern Political Philosophy
  • Shah Jahan (1592–1666), one of the greatest Mughal emperors, builder of the Taj Mahal
  • René Descartes (1596–1650), French philosopher and mathematician
  • Oliver Cromwell (1599–1658), Lord Protector of England
  • Pedro Calderón de la Barca (1600–1681), Spanish playwright and poet
  • Molière (1622–1673), French playwright, actor and director
  • John Locke (1632–1704), English philosopher
  • Louis XIV (1638–1715), King of France
  • Jean Racine (1639–1699), French playwright
  • Sir Isaac Newton (1642–1727), physicist, astronomer, and inventor of calculus
  • Matsuo Basho (1644–1694), Japanese poet
  • William III (1650–1702) and Mary II (1662–1694), joint monarchs of England
  • John Churchill, 1st Duke of Marlborough (1650–1722), English general
  • Peter the Great (1672–1725), Russian Tsar
  • Robert Walpole (1676-1745), first Prime Minister of Great Britain.
  • Johann Sebastian Bach (1685 - 1750), German composer
  • Voltaire (1694–1778), French philosopher
  • John Wesley (1703–1791), early Methodist leader
  • Benjamin Franklin (1706–1790), American founding father and scientist
  • Samuel Johnson (1709-1784), British writer and literary critic
  • Qianlong Emperor of China (1711–1799), considered one of the greatest Chinese emperors
  • David Hume (1711–1776), Scottish philosopher
  • Frederick II (1712–1786), King of Prussia
  • Denis Diderot (1713–1784), French philosopher
  • Adam Smith (1723–1790), Scottish philosopher
  • Catherine the Great (1729–1796), Empress of Russia
  • George Washington (1732–1799), First American president
  • James Watt (1736–1819), Scottish inventor
  • Edward Jenner (1749–1823), English scientist, introduced the vaccine for smallpox
  • Johann Wolfgang von Goethe (1749–1832), German novelist, dramatist, poet, humanist, scientist, philosopher, politician
  • Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart (1756–1791), Austrian composer
  • Maximilien Robespierre (1758–1794) French revolutionary leader
  • Friedrich Schiller (1759–1805), German poet, philosopher, historian, and dramatist.
  • Hokusai (1760–1849), Japanese artist

    19th century

  • Thomas Jefferson (1743–1826), American founding father and president
  • Charles Maurice de Talleyrand-Périgord (1754–1838), French politician
  • Napoleon I of France (1769–1821), French conqueror and emperor
  • Arthur Wellesley, 1st Duke of Wellington (1769–1852)
  • Alexander von Humboldt (1769–1859), Prussian naturalist/explorer ("continental drift" & scientific holism)
  • Klemens Wenzel von Metternich (1773–1859), Austrian politician
  • José de San Martín (1778–1850), Argentine military leader
  • Simón Bolívar (1783–1830), South American revolutionary and politician
  • Shaka (c. 1787–1828) King of the Zulu Kingdom.
  • George Gordon Byron, 6th Baron Byron (1788–1824), Anglo-Scottish poet
  • Michael Faraday (1791–1867), British scientist and inventor
  • Abraham Lincoln (1809–1865), American president
  • Charles Darwin (1809–1882), British natural scientist
  • Franz Liszt (1811–1886), Hungarian pianist/composer, inventor of symphonic poems
  • Otto von Bismarck (1815–1898), German chancellor
  • Karl Marx (1818–1883), German political philosopher
  • Queen Victoria (1819–1901), Queen of England & Empress of India
  • Louis Pasteur (1822–1895), French microbiologist and chemist.
  • Empress Dowager Cixi (1835–1908), de facto ruler of Qing China
  • John D. Rockefeller (1839–1937), American legendary businessman, founder of Standard Oil company.
  • Claude Monet (1840–1926), French painter
  • Friedrich Nietzsche (1844–1900), German philosopher
  • Karl Benz (1844-1929), German engine designer and engineer, inventor of the automobile
  • Thomas Edison (1847–1931), American inventor
  • Cecil Rhodes (1853–1920), British mining magnate
  • Vincent van Gogh (1853–1890), Dutch painter
  • Arthur Rimbaud (1854–1891), French poet, adventurer, explorer, businessman
  • Sigmund Freud (1856–1939), Austrian psychoanalyst
  • Nikola Tesla (1856–1943), Serbian inventor
  • Mangal Pandey (d. 1857), considered to be responsible for the Indian Mutiny
  • Anton Chekhov (1860–1904), Russian playwright and author
  • Henry Ford (1863–1947), Industrialist
  • Henri Matisse (1869–1954), French artist

    20th century

  • David Lloyd George (1863–1945), British liberal prime minister
  • Marie Curie (1867–1934), French physicist of Polish origin
  • Mahatma Gandhi (1869–1948), Indian civil rights leader
  • Vladimir Lenin (1870–1924), First Soviet leader
  • Winston Churchill (1874–1965), British prime minister
  • Muhammad Ali Jinnah (1876–1948), Indian Muslim Leader; Father of Pakistan
  • Albert Einstein (1879–1955), German physicist
  • Joseph Stalin (1879–1953), Soviet leader
  • Mustafa Kemal Atatürk (1881–1938), Turkish soldier, revolutionary and politician
  • Béla Bartók (1881-1945), Hungarian composer
  • Ludwig von Mises (1881–1973), Austrian economist
  • Pablo Picasso (1881–1973), Spanish artist
  • Franklin D. Roosevelt (1882–1945), American president
  • Benito Mussolini (1883–1945), Italian dictator
  • Charles Chaplin (1889–1977), Silent film actor and director
  • Adolf Hitler (1889–1945), German dictator
  • Ho Chi Minh (1890–1969), Vietnamese leader
  • Mao Zedong (1893–1976), Chinese leader
  • Walt Disney (1901–1966), American film producer and animator
  • Dmitri Shostakovich (1906-1975), Russian composer
  • Bhagat Singh (1907–1931), one of the most famous martyrs of the Indian freedom struggle
  • Jacques-Yves Cousteau (1910-1997), French undersea explorer
  • Akira Kurosawa (1910-1998), Japanese film director
  • Ronald Reagan (1911–2004), American president
  • Jackson Pollock (1912-1956), American artist
  • Norman Borlaug (1914), father of the Green Revolution
  • Nelson Mandela (1918– ), President of South Africa
  • John Paul II (1920–2005), Pope of the Roman Catholic Church
  • P.R. Sarkar (1921–1990), Indian philosopher and spiritual leader
  • Murray Rothbard (1926–1995), American political philosopher, economist
  • Martin Luther King, Jr. (1929–1968), American civil rights leader
  • Mikhail Gorbachev (1931), last Soviet leader
  • Elvis Presley (1935-1977), American singer

    Inventions, discoveries, and introductions

  • Communication and Technology
  • Food and Drink
  • Mathematics and Business
  • Manufacturing
  • Medicine
  • Power
  • Science
  • Society
  • Transportation and Space exploration
  • Warfare

    Centuries and decades

    11th century 1000s 1010s 1020s 1030s 1040s 1050s 1060s 1070s 1080s 1090s
    12th century 1100s 1110s 1120s 1130s 1140s 1150s 1160s 1170s 1180s 1190s
    13th century 1200s 1210s 1220s 1230s 1240s 1250s 1260s 1270s 1280s 1290s
    14th century 1300s 1310s 1320s 1330s 1340s 1350s 1360s 1370s 1380s 1390s
    15th century 1400s 1410s 1420s 1430s 1440s 1450s 1460s 1470s 1480s 1490s
    16th century 1500s 1510s 1520s 1530s 1540s 1550s 1560s 1570s 1580s 1590s
    17th century 1600s 1610s 1620s 1630s 1640s 1650s 1660s 1670s 1680s 1690s
    18th century 1700s 1710s 1720s 1730s 1740s 1750s 1760s 1770s 1780s 1790s
    19th century 1800s 1810s 1820s 1830s 1840s 1850s 1860s 1870s 1880s 1890s
    20th century 1900s 1910s 1920s 1930s 1940s 1950s 1960s 1970s 1980s 1990s

    Further Information

    Get more info on 'Second Millennium'.


    External Link Exchanges

    Do you know how hard it is to get a link from a large encyclopaedia? Well we're different and will prove it. To get a link from us just add the following HTML to your site on a relevant page:

      <a href="http://2nd_millennium.totallyexplained.com">2nd millennium Totally Explained</a>

    Then simply click through this link from your web page. Our crawlers will verify your link, extract the title of your web page and instantly add a link back to it. If you like you can remove the words Totally Explained and embed the link in article text.
       As long as your link remains in place, we'll keep our link to you right here. Please play fair - our crawlers are watching. Your site must be closely related to this one's topic. Any kind of spamming, dubious practises or removing the link will result in your link from us being dropped and, potentially, your whole site being banned.



    • Copyright © 2007-8 totallyexplained.com | Licensed under the GNU Free Documentation License | Site Map
    This article contains text from the Wikipedia article 2nd millennium (History) and is released under the GFDL | RSS Version