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Government
(1400-1960) (not at all complete but a general summary of some events)
By the end of the Middle Ages, most countries in Europe were ruled by monarchies in one form or another, with the exception of Florence and Venice, which were ruled by ruling councils of certain aristocratic families. Though monarchs nominally ruled the rest of Europe, it was the aristocracy that held the true power. Many more powerful nobles maintained private armies that could take on the monarch's forces. Regional government was controlled by the local lord much in the same was it had been for hundreds of years in the feudal system.
During the late fifteenth and entire sixteenth centuries, the "new" monarchs made a concerted effort to strengthen the power of the central government, with the exception of the Holy Roman Empire.
In England, Henry VII set up an efficient bureaucracy and the Star Chamber to
maintain order. Henry VIII 
Henry
VIII
then proceeded to strengthen the central government by breaking with the Catholic Church, isolating his country from outside political influences. He also established the Privy Council to help direct his administration.
In the legislative sector, the Parliament began to become more important, for it had the power to control the monarchy's finances.
In France, Louis XI, adeptly named "The Spider King," annexed the duchy of Burgundy and gained several other territorial possessions while also expanding the size of his army. Under Louis XII, France's administration boomed creating the need for increased revenue, providing by new taxes and the sales of offices. Francis I then won the right to appoint France's bishops and abbots, further increasing the power of the national government. He also created his own inner council and invoked the lit de justice to push laws through the parlements.
The Parlement of Paris was the most powerful judicial body while the Estates General and regional Estates met to approve taxation and other royal policies.
During the seventeenth century, England and France began to follow divergent paths in their forms of government. England moved towards parliamentary superiority beginning during the reign of James I and the "Apology" forced upon him by the Parliament. Parliamentary pressure increased with the Petition of Right filed by Parliament during the reign of Charles I. It demanded habeas corpus, a ban on martial law in peacetime, and a ban on billeting troops with civilians. With the victory of the New Model Army at Naseby and other successful battles by the Roundheads, the monarchy was abolished and a commonwealth was established in its place. Democracy seemed to be on track, but the Commonwealth as ruled by Cromwell turned out to be something like a military dictatorship. With the help of George Monck, the monarchy was restored in 1660 with Charles II. When James II ascended the throne in 1685, it was a disaster as he attempted to reinstitute Catholicism. The gentry then invited William III of Orange to invade and become king. With William's ascension to the throne in this Glorious Revolution of 1688, he willingly signed the Bill of Rights, effectively instituting a limited monarchy, and the Act of Toleration.
The governments of England and France continued their separate paths throughout the eighteenth century, the English Parliament gaining power and influence, while the monarchial absolutist policies continued in France under Louis XV and Louis XVI. During the French Revolution of 1789, the French government ceased to be a monarchy and made a hairpin turn to the left under the Jacobins. New civil rights were instituted and the government claimed to be revolutionary, yet it used rightist policies to oppress the monarchists. The French government then turned back toward the right with the Thermidorian Reaction of 1795 and came under the control of Napoleon with the Brumaire Coup of 1799. Napoleon moved the French government back to the right while maintaining the best of the revolutionary freedoms introduced in 1789.
After the fall of Napoleon, the governments of Europe
turned more toward the right, as demonstrated through their sending
representatives like Lord Castlereagh, Prince Talleyrand, and 
Prince
Talleyrand
Alexander I. The British clamped down on political freedoms with the Six Acts of 1819 while the Russians grew even more reactionary under the policies of Nicholas I, as did the French under Charles X.
Throughout the rest of the nineteenth century, each government in Europe became at least slightly more accommodating to change and liberalism. The British government repealed the Corn Laws in 1846 and passed Reform Bill of 1832, expanding suffrage, and the Poor Law of 1834, requiring the poor to work in workhouses. Over the next few decades, the British continued to expand the suffrage with other reform acts including the Third Reform Bill of 1885. The French continued to switch governments: after Charles X came Louis-Philippe, the bourgeosie king, who was toppled during the Revolutions of 1848. The Second Republic introduced another Napoleon, Napoleon III, and continued to support the revolutionary freedoms. The Third Republic was born in 1871 after the Germans in the Franco-Prussian War of 1870 defeated the French. The Chamber of Deputies during the Third Republic was elected by universal male suffrage, and the governments of the Third Republic typically deferred to safe middle class views. The Russian government began to become slightly more liberal with the freeing of the serfs in 1861.
In 1909, the House of Lords finally was relegated to a ceremonial position by David Lloyd George, leaving the House of Commons as the dominant power in Great Britain. In France, the government continued to expand but did not start many public works projects or programs in social welfare. The government also put restrictions on the Catholic Church and established mandatory state-run elementary schools. The Third Republic managed to survive the Dreyfus Affair, to install Georges Clemenceau in 1906 as prime minister. After World War I, France elected the conservative Raymond Poincaré who focused his energy on national honor and the franc, instead of raising taxes and concentrating of foreign policy. Post WWI, Lloyd George stayed in power but kept a conservative government. The Labour party briefly rose to power before being replaced by Conservative Stanley Baldwin. During the mid-1910s Ireland moved towards independence until 1922 when the British finally officially accepted the Irish Free State. In February 1917, Czar Nicholas II was overthrown in favor of a socialist provisional government, which was soon replaced by the Bolsheviks and Lenin in October 1917. After Lenin’s death in 1924, the now Soviet government turned more and more harshly communist under Joseph Stalin. The Soviet government seized control on heavy industry and rapidly industrialized the nation under several of Stalin’s Five-Year Plans.
In 1937, Neville Chamberlain became prime minister of Britain and tried earnestly to avoid war but was replaced at World War II’s inception with Winston Churchill. During the late 1930s, the Popular Front elected Leon Blum as premier of France. Blum worked for legislation improving working conditions and launched many public works projects. The French government ceased to exist on June 16, 1940 and was replaced by the Vichy administration, which was closely allied with the Nazis, and was led by Marshal Pétain and Pierre Laval.