Timeline of Historical Events of German Interest   58 - 55 BC Julius Caesar campaigned against the German tribes in the "Gaulic Wars". 9 AD Germans under Arminius destroyed a Roman army, ending Rome's plans to annex Germany 55 - 116 AD Roman author Tacitus travels to central Europe and describes the German tribes.  He concludes that they must be native to the region because the climate is so harsh that no one would willingly migrate there. 376 - 600 German invaders conquered Rome's western provinces 771-814 Reign of Carlemagne 800 - 1806 First Reich begun by Charlemagne - Called the Holy Roman German Empire, and renewed in 962 by Otto 911 Conrad I of Franconia is elected King of Germania. 925 Lorraine (France) becomes a Germanic Duchy. 956 Life expectancy was 30 years with high infant mortality.  Houses were mainly primitive huts. Only royal palaces and churches were built to last. 750 - 1050 Old High German and Old Saxon dialects spoken.  Literacy largely confined to the clergy who wrote in Latin.  Feudalism developed. 1033 Burgundy (France) joined to Germany. 1056 - 1104 Church reforms include clerical celibacy. 1096 - 1099 The First Crusade. 1202-1204 The Fourth Crusade. 1250 A period of growth and expansion.  Increased cultivation due to the use of horses instead of oxen.  Crop rotation.  Increased trade.  Importance of money grew. Craftsmen organize guilds (trade unions).  Towns and cities emerge. 1200 - 1500 Middle ages - Hohenstarfen family maintains control of Germany 1348 - 1349 Black Plague kills one third of the population in Europe.  Concerns about the spread of disease limit travel between communities.  The Black Plague continued to be a problem for 200 years. 1455 Guttenburgs invent moveable type - Guttenburg Bible printed. 1492 Christopher Columbus sets sail for India and discovers the Caribbean Sea. 1517 Martin Luther publishes his 95 Thesises, giving impetus to the Reformation and splitting Germany along religious lines. 1521 Luther imprisoned for his own safety.  He begins to translate the New Testament into the German language, from the traditional Latin.  An outcome of the process was a standardized German language - New High German - rather than the regional dialects that had come to dominate the country.  (The terms High German and Low German refer to topographic elevation and not to class or status.) 1518 - 1524 The number of book titles in print increase from 150 to nearly a thousand during this period.  Communication between towns and regions was done by a large number of wandering traders and craftsmen.  While plying their trade of commerce, they told what was happening in other communities.  They also carried mail for a fee. 1525 The German Peasants Revolt. Large armies of 100,000 civilians fight for better treatment and personal rights. 1531 The oldest known family of Fettig's are living in Steinmauern, Germany 1541 John Calvin spreads the Reformation to Switzerland 1545-1563 Council of Trent mandates a Catholic Parish Register.  Some churches begin to log events in Latin - the official language of the church (most churches wait until after the Peace of Westphalia in 1648 to begin to document births, marriages and deaths). 1600 - 1615 A significant climate change occurred due to a reduction in solar energy.  Average temperatures dropped and shortened crop seasons occurred.  Known as a Little Ice Age.  Starvation and social unrest grew.  An increase in witchcraft persecutions occurred with women singled out as the scapegoats in a wide range of ills including theft, harvest failures, illness, etc.  (This parallels the Salem witchcraft incidents in America.) 1600 - 1650 Population declines by about 20% due to illnesses.  In rural areas, the migration to towns for safety resulted in declines of 45% in some areas. 1618-1648 The Thirty Years' War - mostly over religious issues.  Establishes the three main religions, Catholic, Lutheran and Reformed Lutheran.  The war strengthens feudalism. Very high death tolls in the fighting. 1674-1675 French invasion of the Palatinate area in west central Germany 1687-1697 French again invade the Palatinate.  The Cities of Mainz, Worms, Mannheim, Speyer and Heidelberg were burned in 1689. 1709-1710 The people of the Palatines (Baden, Wurtemburg, Rhineland) leave by way of the Rhine River to England and to America. 1729 Sophia Augusta Frederica was born in Germany.  She would later rule Russia as Catherine II aka "Catherine The Great". 1740-1786 Prussia rises to power 1756 - 1763 Seven Years' War - Central Germany is devastated 1763 Catherine II of Russia invites German colonists to settle in the southern region of Russia.  The settlers become known as the Volga Deutsch, after the Volga River that flowed through the area. 1792-1815 Napolonic Wars 1798 French occupation of Palatinate and Rhineland 1803 The Louisiana Purchase doubles the size of the United States. 1803 300 independent German states become 38. 1808 Alexander I of Russia (grandson of Catherine II) reissues the invitation for German settlers to emigrate to South Russia - the Ukraine area around the Black Sea near Odessa. 1806 Dissolution of Holy Roman German Empire to the Confederacy of the Rhine - encompassing Bavaria, Wurttemburg, Baden, Hesse, Darmstadt and the Duchy of Warsaw. 1807 13 Serfdoms abolished. 1812 Napoleon defeated by the Russian Army. 1814-15 The Peace of Vienna organized the German Confederation of the Rhineland.  Westphalia and part of Saxony went to Prussia, Bavaria received the Palatinate (Pfalz). 1818 Baden adopted a constitution. 1835 First German railroad begins.  Before that, travel was largely by river boats. 1846-47 Worldwide Famine.  More commonly known as the Irish Potato Famine of 1846- 1850. 1848-49 German Civil War - conflicts between artisans and peasants. A huge emigration to America begins.  A period of rapid industrialization also begins.  Trains and factories are built.  Commerce becomes more of a unifying force than revolution had been. 1850-1860 Large numbers of Germans immigrate to America. 1850 The Hamburg Lists (of passengers on ships leaving Germany) begin. 1860's Two more waves of German settlers immigrate to Russia (Volhynia). 1861-1865 The U.S. Civil War temporarily stems the flow of immigrants to North America. 1870 Franco-Prussian War.  France declared war and lost.  Germany takes the French areas of Alsace and Lorraine. 1871 Imperial Russian Government repeals the Manifestos of Catherine II and Alexander I, giving the German settlers ten more years before they lose the rights given to them as inducements to emigrate. 1871-1919 The New German Empire of Second Reich formed under Prussia. This was the first time that a unified Germany existed. 1874 Russia amends the 1871 decree, requiring military service for German colonists.  Many of the early colonists were Mennonites.  A mass exodus from Russia to North and South America begins. 1876 Civil registry of vital events begin (births, deaths, marriages). 1914-1918 First World War.  Germany defeated.1919 Alsace/Lorraine went back to France. 1920-1923 Famine in Russia.  Starvation claims 166,000 of the Volga German colonists. 1928-1940 German farms expropriated by Soviet government.  People forced to collective farming or to the cities. 1929-1931 World economic crisis, bank failures and high unemployment 1933 The International (Nazi) Party established the Third Reich. 1941 All Germans left in the Volga area of Russia (about 400,000) deported to Siberia. 1939-1945 Second World War.  Germany defeated .