NY Regents 9.9: Transformation of Western Europe and Russia

Runnymede is a flat meadow on the southern bank of the River Thames in England, sitting on the island of Great Britain just west of London — exactly the kind of quiet riverside ground where a king…

This is Ryazan, a medieval city in what is now Russia, sitting on the Oka River — a major tributary of the Volga — deep in the flat forest-steppe heartland of eastern Europe, well east of the…

This is Crécy-en-Ponthieu, in northern France — on the flat coastal plain of Ponthieu just inland from where the Somme river empties into the English Channel, directly across the water from southern…

This achievement took place in Palma, on the island of Mallorca, Spain — sitting in the western Mediterranean, west of Italy and north of the African coast across a narrow sea. In 1375, Abraham…

This is Orléans, a city in north-central France sitting on a sweeping bend of the Loire River — the longest river in France — roughly midway between the Atlantic coast and the Rhine valley, deep in…

This battle took place at Castillon, in the Dordogne river valley of southwestern France — on the Atlantic-facing lowlands of the Iberian Peninsula's northern neighbor, exactly where the source…

This is Constantinople, now called Istanbul, in modern Turkey — sitting precisely on the Bosphorus strait where Europe and Asia are separated by less than a kilometre of water, exactly the narrow…

This standoff took place at the Ugra River, a tributary feeding into the Oka River system in what is now western Russia — deep in the forested interior of Europe's eastern edge, well west of the Ural…

The Italian peninsula — the boot-shaped landmass extending southward into the Mediterranean Sea, with the Alps sealing it off from the rest of Europe to the north — became the battleground of the…

Florence, Italy — a city on the Arno River in the northern half of the Italian peninsula, cradled between the Apennines and the Tyrrhenian coast — is where Niccolò Machiavelli wrote The Prince in…

On 31 October 1517, the German monk and theology professor Martin Luther nailed a list of 95 arguments — known as the 95 Theses — to the door of the Castle Church in Wittenberg, Germany. The list…

This event took place in Wittenberg, Germany — a small town sitting on the Elbe River, on the broad North European Plain that stretches from France to Russia with few natural barriers to slow the…

The city is Worms, Germany, sitting on the western bank of the Rhine River as it flows northward across the broad central European plain toward the North Sea. In 1521, the religious reformer Martin…

Bad Frankenhausen sits in the Kyffhäuser lowlands of what is now Thuringia, Germany — east of the Rhine valley and just north of the forested Thuringian highlands that form a natural barrier across…

In Westminster, England — on the north bank of the Thames just inland from the channel that separates the island from the continent — Parliament passed the Act of Supremacy in 1534, declaring King…

This event unfolded in Münster, a city in what is now northwestern Germany — sitting in the flat lowlands east of the Rhine delta, well inland from the North Sea coast. In 1535, Anabaptist radicals…

This uprising took place in and around York, in northern England — a region of broad valleys and moorland hills sitting between the Pennine hills to the west and the North Sea coast to the east. In…

This event took place in Rome, Italy — the city on the Tiber River at the heart of the Italian peninsula, south of the Alps and surrounded by the Mediterranean world. In 1540, Pope Paul III…

In 1541 the French-born reformer John Calvin returned to Geneva and, through his Ecclesiastical Ordinances, reorganised the city as a Reformed Protestant republic governed by scripture. Geneva sits…

In 1543, Polish astronomer Nicolaus Copernicus published De Revolutionibus Orbium Coelestium, arguing that the Sun — not the Earth — sits at the centre of the universe, and that all planets…

This was Trent, a city in what is now northern Italy, sitting in the Adige River valley just south of the Brenner Pass — the great Alpine gateway connecting the Italian peninsula to central Europe…

The battle took place at Mühlberg, a small town on the Elbe River in what is now eastern Germany — sitting in the wide, flat North European Plain that stretches from France to Russia, east of the…

This event took place in London, England — on the large island of Great Britain, separated from continental Europe by the English Channel to the south and the North Sea to the east. In 1549, the…

This is Kazan, Russia — a fortified city sitting on the Volga River, roughly where the great Eurasian plain stretches east toward the Ural Mountains. In 1552, Ivan the Terrible led a massive Russian…

This event took place in London, England — a city on the River Thames in the southeast of the island of Great Britain, separated from continental Europe by the narrow English Channel. In 1552, the…

Augsburg, in present-day Germany, sits on the Lech River just north of where the Alps rise from the Bavarian plateau — exactly the central European heartland the title clue described. In 1555, the…

This event unfolded in London, England — on the large island of Great Britain, sitting off the northwestern edge of continental Europe and separated from France by the narrow English Channel. In…

This event took place in Nantes, a city in western France where the Loire River — the country's longest river — empties into the Atlantic Ocean. In 1598, King Henry IV issued the Edict of Nantes…

Prague, in the modern Czech Republic, sits at the heart of Central Europe where the Vltava River winds through Bohemian hills before feeding into the Elbe and draining toward the North Sea — exactly…

This conflict erupted across England, the southern and largest part of Great Britain — the large island sitting northwest of mainland Europe, separated from France by the narrow English Channel and…

This was Münster, in the Westphalia region of what is today northwestern Germany, sitting on the broad North European Plain between the Rhine to the south and the North Sea coast to the northwest. In…

Fontainebleau, a town in north-central France roughly 55 kilometres south of Paris, is where Louis XIV signed the Edict of Fontainebleau in 1685, revoking the religious protections that French…

Moscow, Russia — a fortress city on the Moskva River, which feeds into the Oka and then the Volga, sitting west of the Ural Mountains in the vast country that straddles both Europe and Asia, exactly…