HISTORY
OF THOUGHT AND ACTION

HISTORY FOR A JOURNEY IN BEING™

2022

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OUTLINE

TABLE OF CONTENTS

1	HISTORY: INTRODUCTION

1.1	REFERENCE

1.2	PURPOSES: HISTORY AS THE ‘STORY’ OF THOUGHT AND ACTION

1.3	PERIODS

1.4	WHITEHEAD’S CONCEPT OF HISTORY

2	HISTORY: A BRIEF OUTLINE

2.1	THE ANCIENT WORLD

2.2	THE WORLD: 500 – 1500

2.3	TOWARD MODERNITY

2.4	THE AGE OF REVOLUTION

2.5	THE MODERN WORLD

TABLE OF CONTENTS

TABLE OF CONTENTS	1

1	HISTORY: INTRODUCTION	6

1.1	REFERENCE	6

1.2	PURPOSES: HISTORY AS THE ‘STORY’ OF THOUGHT AND ACTION	6

1.3	PERIODS	7

1.4	WHITEHEAD’S CONCEPT OF HISTORY	7

1.4.1	Relativity and focus	7

1.4.2	History as interplay between ‘force’ and ‘inspiration’	7

1.4.3	Kinds of influence	7

1.4.4	Sociological function, change and ideas	7

1.4.5	Modern cosmology [metaphysics, world view] and how individuals experience their world	8

2	HISTORY: A BRIEF OUTLINE	8

2.1	THE ANCIENT WORLD	8

2.1.1	Before History	8

2.1.1.1	The Universe	8

2.1.1.2	Geological Evolution of Earth: Geochronology	8

2.1.1.3	Evolution of Life on Earth: Biochronology	8

2.1.1.4	Human Evolution	19

2.1.2	The Ancient Near East	20

2.1.2.1	Mesopotamia	20

2.1.2.2	Egypt	20

2.1.2.3	The New Levant: Syria and Palestine	20

2.1.3	Asian Civilization	21

2.1.3.1	Early India	21

2.1.3.1.1	Prehistoric India	21

2.1.3.1.2	Vedic Era	21

2.1.3.1.3	Rise of Jainism and Buddhism	21

2.1.3.2	Early China	21

2.1.3.3	The Chinese Empire: The Formative Period	21

2.1.4	Classical Antiquity: Jews and Greeks	22

2.1.4.1	Jews	22

2.1.4.2	The Great Divide [omitted]	22

2.1.4.3	The Century of Minor Powers [omitted]	22

2.1.4.4	Persia and Athens	22

2.1.4.5	The Fourth Century to the Death of Alexander	23

2.1.4.6	The Hellenistic World	23

2.1.5	Classical Antiquity: Rome	24

2.1.5.1	The Roman Republic	24

2.1.5.2	Julius Caesar	24

2.1.5.3	Augustan Empire	24

2.1.5.4	The Later Roman Empire	24

2.1.5.5	Late Roman society and culture [interaction of power, knowledge and faith]	24

2.2	THE WORLD: 500 – 1500	25

2.2.1	The Arabs	25

2.2.1.1	The Arabs and the Rise of Islam	25

2.2.1.2	The Disruption and Decline of the Arab Empire	25

2.2.1.3	Islamic Civilization	25

2.2.1.4	Jews in the Arab World	27

2.2.2	Asia and Africa	27

2.2.2.1	Sub-Saharan Africa	27

2.2.2.2	The Chinese Empire: The Great Era	28

2.2.2.3	The Chinese Empire: Foreign Powers	29

2.2.2.4	Early Japan	30

2.2.2.5	India	30

2.2.2.6	Southeast Asia	31

2.2.3	Medieval Europe	32

2.2.3.1	Early Middle Ages	32

2.2.3.1.1	Roman and Byzantine Emperors	32

2.2.3.1.2	Frankish Kings and Western Emperors [Since 800]	32

2.2.3.1.3	German Kings and Emperors	32

2.2.3.1.4	French Kings	32

2.2.3.1.5	Roman Pontiffs	32

2.2.3.1.6	Ecclesiastical Intellectuals	33

2.2.3.2	The High Middle Ages	33

2.2.3.2.1	Roman Pontiffs	33

2.2.3.2.2	German Emperors	33

2.2.3.2.3	English and French Princes	33

2.2.3.2.4	Orders of the Church	33

2.2.3.2.5	Churchmen and Intellectuals	34

2.2.3.2.6	Church Councils	34

2.2.3.3	The Late Middle Ages	34

2.2.3.3.1	Princes and Dynasties	34

2.2.3.3.2	Soldiers, Magistrates, Artists, and Businessmen	34

2.2.3.3.3	Intellectuals	34

2.2.3.4	The Jews in Medieval Europe	35

2.2.4	Byzantium	35

2.2.4.1	Early Byzantium	35

2.2.4.2	Later Byzantium	36

2.2.4.3	The Slavs and Early Russia	38

2.3	TOWARD MODERNITY	41

2.3.1	The Renaissance and Reformation in Europe	41

2.3.1.1	The State System of the Italian Renaissance	41

2.3.1.2	Humanism and Society	42

2.3.1.3	Renaissance Art	43

2.3.1.4	The Reformation: Doctrine	43

2.3.1.5	The Reformation: Society	44

2.3.1.6	The Counter Reformation	45

2.3.2	Building the Early Modern State	46

2.3.2.1	The Golden Age of Spain	46

2.3.2.2	The Rise of the Dutch Republic	47

2.3.2.3	The Collapse of France	47

2.3.2.4	Elizabethans and Puritans	49

2.3.2.5	The Thirty Years’ War	51

2.3.2.6	The Rise of Modern Political Thought	51

2.3.3	Toward One World	52

2.3.3.1	The Commercial Powers	52

2.3.3.2	The Ottoman Empire	53

2.3.3.3	European Voyages of Exploration	55

2.3.3.4	India: 1500-1700	56

2.3.3.5	Japan and China	56

2.3.3.6	Aztec and Inca Civilizations	57

2.3.3.7	Spain and Portugal in America	57

2.3.3.8	The Settlement of North America	58

2.3.4	The Enlightenment	60

2.3.4.1	The Scientific Revolution	60

2.3.4.2	Society and Politics	62

2.3.4.3	Science versus Theology	62

2.4	THE AGE OF REVOLUTION	63

2.4.1	Europe: The Great Powers	63

2.4.1.1	Forming Nation States	63

2.4.1.2	The Age of Louis XIV	64

2.4.1.3	Europe in the 18th Century	65

2.4.2	Revolution in the Western World	66

2.4.2.1	The American Revolution	66

2.4.2.2	The French Revolution	67

2.4.3	Reaction and Rebellion	68

2.4.3.1	The Napoleonic Era	68

2.4.3.2	The United States: 1789-1823	69

2.4.3.3	Liberation Movements in Europe	70

2.4.3.4	Liberation Movements in Latin America	70

2.4.3.5	The Near East	71

2.4.4	The Industrial Revolution	73

2.4.4.1	The Industrial Revolution in England	73

2.4.4.2	The Spread of Industrialization	74

2.4.4.3	A World Economy	74

2.4.5	New Forces, New Ideas	75

2.4.5.1	Romanticism and After	75

2.4.5.2	From Liberalism to Democracy	75

2.4.5.3	The Rise of Socialism	76

2.4.5.4	The Antislavery Impulse in America	77

2.4.5.5	Unification Movements	78

2.5	THE MODERN WORLD	79

2.5.1	Toward Disintegration	79

2.5.1.1	Imperialism in Africa	79

2.5.1.2	American Imperialism	80

2.5.1.3	China Under the Impact of the West	80

2.5.1.4	India Under British Rule	81

2.5.1.5	Darwin and Freud	81

2.5.1.6	The Great Powers to the Verge of War	82

2.5.2	The Great War: 1914–1945	84

2.5.2.1	World War I	84

2.5.2.2	The Russian Revolution and the Stalin Era	84

2.5.2.3	The United States: Prosperity and Depression	85

2.5.2.4	Modern China	86

2.5.2.5	Modernizing Japan	86

2.5.2.6	Nationalism in India	86

2.5.2.7	Europe Between the Wars	87

2.5.2.8	World War II	88

2.5.3	The Brooding Present	89

2.5.3.1	Europe Since World War II	89

2.5.3.2	The Cold War	90

2.5.3.3	Latin America in Ferment	91

2.5.3.4	The Middle East Since 1940	91

2.5.3.5	Africa since 1945	92

2.5.3.6	The New Asia	93

2.5.3.7	The United States Since Word War II	94

2.5.3.8	The State of Culture Today	95

HISTORY: INTRODUCTION

REFERENCE

The outline below is compiled and taken from John A. Garraty and Peter Gay, eds., The Columbia History of the World, 1972; and thus there is no present claim to originality in content or organization

In purpose, however, there is no explicit dependence on the above or other work; naturally, of course, I absorb and process existing thought, such as may have come to my attention

PURPOSES: HISTORY AS THE ‘STORY’ OF THOUGHT AND ACTION

To give a sense of the processes and forces involved with sufficient focus on:

Showing the interplay of ideas and action

Areas of consideration: religion, myth, art and literature; philosophy, humanities, and the study of history; technology, science, and mathematics; economic, exploration, commercial and trade; law, military and political; education, meaning, journey, and commitment

The general and the singular and their interplay in history and power

The general: populations that may be thought of as homogeneous for the purposes of the account, their processes and their interactions; patriarchalism

The singular: individuals and singular events or small focal groups of the same – especially those that are at focal points of history; charisma

Showing the dynamics without having to resort to explicit theory or concept; events and interactions will be selected to show the dynamics and trends as a picture… without requiring or denying any inference of pattern or predictability especially a principle of pattern or predictability that can be generalized to application to all history

An outline for History, a possible future work mentioned above

A framework for Journey in Being… especially the studies toward Journey in Being – see Design for a Journey in Being… for:

Philosophy

Knowledge; the academic disciplines

Influence – History, the present document, as a History of Influence

Being and its variety; Being and its Journey in Transformation

PERIODS

There was originally a section that characterized periods of history according to ‘sentiment’ e.g. the time from prehistory till 700 BC may have been labeled ‘myth,’ 700 BC to 300 AD ‘philosophy,’ 300 AD to 1500 AD ‘chaos,’ and 1500 AD till the present ‘exploration and science’

The intention was to use a suggestive character as a label. However, the labels are caricatures and the old system is abandoned

WHITEHEAD’S CONCEPT OF HISTORY

The source for this section is A. N. Whitehead, Adventures of Ideas, 1933

Relativity and focus

Whitehead emphasizes the commonplace acknowledgement of interpretation as relative and theoretical

He notes that Adventures of Ideas focuses on European History and its sources in Greek and Hebrew culture and civilization; the book is, in part, an attempt to identify the theoretical background of meaning and interpretation for the European tradition

History as interplay between ‘force’ and ‘inspiration’

[A special case of variation and selection]

Force is ‘blind’; inspiration includes ideas and criticism; no novelty is ever entirely novel: even within ‘force’ there is a constructive element

The history of civilization is the history (adventure) of ideas

Examples of force and ideas in European History: barbarians and Christianity; industrial revolution and democracy

Whitehead would put ‘barbarians’ in quotes for this designation is from the European perspective; objectively, for Europe, ‘barbarians’ functioned as ‘force’

Whitehead, notes this as an example of relativity of perspective in that the culture and ideas of the barbarians –e.g. the Goths and other invading peoples– were advanced and refreshing

Kinds of influence

Society, function, change in interaction with ideas

Modern cosmology or ‘world view’ influences how individuals experience their world

Sociological function, change and ideas

The human soul and the humanitarian ideal

Aspects of freedom; from force to persuasion

Foresight [and understanding which results in foresight] in social function

Modern cosmology [metaphysics, world view] and how individuals experience their world

Cosmology. Nature and the laws of nature; four types of cosmology: cosmology is expressed in laws or understanding of the patterns of nature regarding whose character there are four classic kinds of interpretation; these are the schools of immanence, of imposition, of mere description [positivism,] and of conventional interpretation; cosmology, science and faith

Philosophy. Objectivity and subjectivity; Cartesianism; time, coherences; appearance and reality; and philosophic method

Civilization. Truth, beauty, adventure, and peace

HISTORY: A BRIEF OUTLINE

THE ANCIENT WORLD

Before History

The Universe

Here, I omit details; the history of the universe may later be covered in Physics, below and subsequently

The idea of an initial singularity [big bang] may explain features of the known or visible universe; this does not imply that the history of the entire universe known and unknown is described by such a singularity. The domain of the unknown is, almost without doubt, much larger if not infinitely larger than that of the known. From physical cosmology it is understood that the known universe, almost homogeneous on a large scale, is, perhaps, a mere bubble in a much larger arena

From the sections on nothingness and general cosmology in Journey in Being, a foundation of the vast spatio-temporal extent and variety of larger arena, the one universe, may be seen in indeterminism and the void. From the non-spatiotemporal, acausal void arises space-time-actuality and causation and law; and law includes physics but is not restricted to the physics of the known universe and may be much more varied

Geological Evolution of Earth: Geochronology

Evolution of Life on Earth: Biochronology

ERA	PERIOD	EPOCH	TIME OF BEGINNING [millions of years ago]	GEO- AND BIOLOGICAL EVENTS
ARCHEOZOIC PROTEROZOID [primitive and soft life forms]	Precambrian periods	Numerous minor sub-divisions of only local application	4,600	Origin of earth and solar system
4,000 [?]	Origin of life in a reducing atmosphere leading later to production of oxygen
2,500 [?]	Photosynthetic oxygen; permitted first global oxidation of iron ores
1,500 [?]	First primitive soft-bodied animals; main types of invertebrates and some aquatic plants
700	Great Eocambrian Ice Age
PALEOZOIC [origin and rise of shelled invertebrates and vertebrates; abundance of fishes and amphibians; first reptiles]	Cambrian	600	Many aquatic, some land plants; trilobites, brachiopods and many other invertebrates; first shell-forming invertebrates – attributed to rising alkalinity of the ocean: shell fossils common
Ordovician	500	Ice Age in Africa Earliest known chordates; graptolites and corals widespread
Silurian	435	Caledonian mountain building Club mosses and other primitive land plants abundant; some arthropods may have invaded land
Devonian	395	Acadian mountain building Fishes abundant; first amphibians; many land arthropods; first horse-tails, ferns, liverworts
Carboniferous	Mississippian	345	Huge forests of primitive plants; great coal age, reduction of carbon dioxide and rise in atmospheric oxygen Age of amphibians
Pennsylvanian	310	Hercynian-Appalachian mountain building Reptiles appear
Permian	280	Ice age in South America, Africa, Australia, India and Antarctica Extinction of many Paleozoic organisms such as trilobites; amphibians decrease in influence
MESOZOIC [Age of Reptiles]	Triassic	230	Beginning of major continental drift; world-wide red beds Forests of conifers and cycads; Age of Reptiles begins: reptiles abundant and varied; first mammals
Jurassic	180	Age of Ammonites; mild world climate; first birds
Cretaceous	135	Age of Chalk [planktonic foraminifera;] extinction of dinosaurs and many other Mesozoic organisms; flowering plants appear
CENOZOIC [Age of Mammals]	Tertiary	Paleocene	67	Alpine mountain building world-wide and continuing through the Tertiary period Mammals abundant; first primates; flowering plants abundant
Eocene	58
Oligocene	36
Miocene	25	Evolution of grasses and modern type mammals and birds
Pliocene Earliest hominids	7	Increasing mountain glaciation Freezing of Antarctic begins 3 – 4 million years ago; 20 to 90 thousand year Milankovitch [Yugoslav scientist who worked out the mathematics of their prediction] cycles of glaciation and mild climate results in buildup of Antarctic ice since less ice melts than was formed each cycle, in drier climate and lower ocean levels Earliest known human [hominid] fossils 4 million years ago from the Omo River in Ethiopia; for purposes of demarcation, Man is defined as the primate that habitually makes and uses tools. The earliest hominids are collectively known as Australopithecines but there is speculation though no clear evidence that the earliest Australopithecines were associated with tools
Quaternary [Except for the Holocene, the dates are not known to be exact; and there is difficulty with correlation of glacial periods to the north and periods of intense rain in the tropical and subtropical belts]	Pleistocene	2	Great Ice Age, time of Stone Age man; growth of major deserts
Villafranchian or Early Pleistocene Earliest fossil evidence of hominids	2 [2,000,000]	The earliest evidence that at least some Australopithecines were human in character comes form Olduvai Gorge in Tanganyika: where fossils dated at 1,750,000 years old are associated with crude stone tools made for chopping. The Australopithecines form two major groups: Australopithecus –smaller and more delicate– and Paranthropus, larger, heavier boned, roughly the size of a gorilla. It has been speculated that Australopithecus was more modern and evolved, and provided the tools to Paranthropus who may have furnished part of Australopithecus’ diet The advance and retreat of glaciers pushes climate belts toward and away from the equator; drier conditions lead to thinning of sub-tropical belts and desertification; buildup of mountains due less erosion; and successive glaciations scoured deeper and deeper valleys; and consequent saltation along all the great rivers where numerous fossils ranging from ancestral horse to mammoth of the period are found The regular use and making of tools provides relative adaptive advantages but also increases importance of adaptation to the behavioral environment especially the flexible thumb and upright posture for the use of tools
Early Middle Pleistocene	0.6 [600,000]	Günz [Nebraskan in America] and Mindel [Kansan] Glaciations, First Interglacial period Paranthropus dies out but may have interbred with Australopithecus; thus the latter or both are at the root of Modern Man Hominids spread from tropical Africa, north to North Africa and Europe, east across southern Asia as far as China. The earlier fossils belong to the evolutionary stage Pithecanthropus, intermediate between Australopithecus and Paranthropus; they were successful hunters especially of deer, used fire, ate their dead; much is known about their skeletal remains but little about their tools which were primitive choppers and flakes
Late Middle Pleistocene	0.275 [275,000]	Second Interglacial and Riss [Illinoian] Glaciation Many human artifacts but few fossils from this period have been found – the Steinhem [Germany] and Swanscombe [England] skulls; brain size was comparable to that of modern man and show a combination of modern and primitive characteristics; use of primitive tools coexist with the Biphase tradition – chipped on both faces, spread throughout Africa, western and southern Europe, southern Asia as far as India, resulting in refinement of hand axes, new tool forms and techniques and an aesthetic element: this later technology required an opposable thumb but this does not mean that the different traditions were those of fundamentally different kinds of men Most uniquely human behavioral patterns were probably established by the end of this period if not earlier including: language and transmission of culture, permanent association of males and females in small food-getting and child-rearing units co-evolving with year round availability of the female
Late Pleistocene	0.095 [95,000]	Third Interglacial and Würm [Wisconsin] Glaciation; the last melting began hesitantly 17,000 years ago: sea levels rose about 10 feet a century – a likely source of the stories of the great flood Numerous hominid fossils, many belonging to modern man, Homo sapiens alongside “Neanderthal man,” more “primitive” in appearance but possessed of a larger brain than modern man. The most likely view is that the Neanderthal was a racial variant of and interbred with modern man; about 40,000 years ago the Neanderthals began to be replaced by completely modern man; Neanderthals may have lasted until the end of the Late Pleistocene Throughout Europe, North Africa and Southern Asia, the new peoples carried a new kind of culture called Upper Paleolithic characterized by: stone artifacts made on long, narrow flakes called blades, many specialized tools and weapons, use of bone and antlers in artifacts, stone tips for spears, traps, encircling of prey, a lunar calendar to predict movement of game, artificial shelters; burial of the dead and a highly developed art indicating a new richness of spiritual life Last great expansion of the human world into Australia and Siberia and from there across the Bering Strait in to the “New World”
Holocene	0.01 [10,000]	Recent development of agricultural, industrial, and literate man About 10,000 years ago, with the end of the last melting, thermal levels rose, glaciers retreated, sea levels rose, many watered areas began to dry out, the environments of the lower latitude became more diversified and impoverished, many large game animals became extinct. In response Human culture of the Holocene became much more regionally varied, plant and animal husbandry started and made possible: fixed year round settlements, growth of large dense populations, and civilization as we know it: urbanization, stratified, specialized, politically organized societies. Cultivation and domestication of animals began in two areas: from Mesopotamia to China, and America from Mexico to Peru Man’s impact on the environment becomes significant in the Milankovitch cycle and associated events such as desertification

Table 1 Bio-Geochronology of Earth. Compiled from The Columbia History of the World, 1972

Human Evolution

Further details are in the table above

BC	4M	Earliest known hominids

1.75	Stone tools

0.6	Pithecanthropus evolves

0.2	Possible Homo sapiens; use of fire

95K	Homo sapiens; burial of the dead

40K	Modern Homo sapiens; Upper Paleolithic culture

30K	Art

10K	Holocene epoch: end of last ice-age

9K	Beginnings of animal husbandry – domesticated sheep in the Tigris Valley, agriculture

The Ancient Near East

Mesopotamia

BC	10,000	Wooden reaping knives set with flint blades used in Palestine

9000	End of the Ice Age; domesticated sheep in the North Tigris valley

7700	Çatal Huyuk, Turkey; obsidian mined for tools; fertility cult

7000	Pottery

6500	Copper

3300	Writing, wheel, sailboats, animal plows in Sumer

3100	Hieroglyphic writing in Egypt

2350	Sargon I of Agade, first known empire

2100	Supremacy of Ur in Lower Mesopotamia; laws of Ur-Nammu of Ur, first known law book

1800	Assyrian temple for the Sumerian god, Enlil

Egypt

BC	1550-1200	Wheeled vehicles common, bronze, bellows and other labor saving tools

1375-1358	Amarna age; Ikhnaton’s religious reforms

The New Levant: Syria and Palestine

BC	2000-500	Establishment of desert religions

1550	Hyskos I expelled from Egypt; new model Egyptian army using chariots and composite bows

1525	Thutmose I claims Syria to the Euphrates

1500	Invention of alphabetic writing in Syria

1200	Iron use common

1100	Camel use common in North Arabia; lime plaster used to make watertight cisterns opens up dry areas for settlement

Asian Civilization

Early India

Prehistoric India

BC	3000-1500	Indus Valley Civilization

1500-1200	Aryan invasion; earliest hymns of the Rg-Veda

Vedic Era

BC	1200-900	Composition of Rg-Veda

900-500	Later Vedas, Brahmanas, Early Upanishads

Rise of Jainism and Buddhism

BC	c. 550	Birth of Mahavira and Gautama

185-100	Laws of Manu

Early China

BC	1523-1027	Shang dynasty [according to Bamboo Annals]

1027-771	Western Chou dynasty

770-256	Eastern Chou dynasty

551-479	Traditional dates of Confucius

c. 500	Beginning of Iron Age in China

403-221	Age of Warring States

223	Ch’in annihilates Ch’u

221-207	Ch’in dynasty

The Chinese Empire: The Formative Period

BC	214	First expansion of Chinese empire

213	Burning of the Books

210	Death of First Emperor

206	Destruction of Imperial Library

206-AD 9	Former Han dynasty

BC	191	Book Burning edict rescinded

141	Legalists excluded from government careers

124	Imperial Academy established

127-101	Second expansion of Chinese empire

87	Regency established

51	Peace between China and Hsiung-nu

AD	9-23	Interregnum of Wang Mang

25-220	Later Han dynasty

49	Peace between China and Southern Hsiung-nu

65	First Chinese reference to Buddhism

89	Regency reintroduced

184	Uprising of Yellow Turbans

220-265	China divided

265-316	Western Chin dynasty

316	Loss of northern China

317-589	China divided

Classical Antiquity: Jews and Greeks

Jews

BC	1250	Israelites invade Palestine

900	King Asa of Jordan bans worship of gods other than Yahweh

The Great Divide [omitted]

Some elements incorporated below

The Century of Minor Powers [omitted]

Persia and Athens

BC	780	Alphabet

776	Olympic Games

770	First Greek colony, Cumae, on Italian mainland

750-700	Iliad and Odyssey reach their present forms

585	Thales of Miletus, beginnings of natural philosophy

560	Pisistratus becomes tyrant of Athens

510	Pisistratus family expelled from Athens

540	Xenophanes, philosophic monism; “Second Isaiah,” nationalistic monotheism

525	Pythagoras, the philosophic life

499	Ionian cities, aided by Athens, revolt from Persia

490	Battle of Marathon

478	Athens creates the Delian League for liberation of Greece from Persia

475	Parmenides: opposition of reality [changeless] to appearance [changing]

458	Aeschylus’ Oresteia

447	Beginning of Parthenon

447	Sophist study of argument, rhetoric; Pindar [lyric poetry,] Sophocles [tragedy,] Herodotus [history,] Phidias [sculpture

431-74	Socrates [moral philosophy,] Hippocrates [rational medicine,] Democritus [atomism,] Aristophanes [comedy,] Euripides [tragedy,] Thucydides [history]

431-404	Peloponnesian war: defeat of Athenian fleet

The Fourth Century to the Death of Alexander

BC	404-37	Spartan hegemony in Greece

399	Trial and execution of Socrates

371-362	Plato teaching in Athens

359	Philip II: King of Macedonia, consequences of specialization in war

338	Aristotle, Diogenes, Demosthenes

336-323	Ascent to death, at age 32, of Alexander: conquest from the Macedonian Empire to Indus Valley

The Hellenistic World

BC	323-276	Wars of Alexander’s successors…

c. 290	The Colossus of Rhodes

275-215	Aristarchus, Archimedes, Eratosthenes, Theocritus, Apollonius Rhodius, Manetho and Berossus

c. 175	The great altar of Pergamum

Classical Antiquity: Rome

The Roman Republic

BC	387	Rome destroyed by the Celts

338	Rome in control of Latium

200-	Rome defeats Philip of Macedon; Leads to ascent of Rome, 800 years of stable power with basis in: granting of citizenship to slaves

197	and consequent loyalty to Rome and unification with other cities

67-62	Pompey: suppression of piracy; campaigns

Julius Caesar

BC	58	Conquest of Gaul [France, Belgium, parts of Holland, Germany and Switzerland;] flowering of Latin literature: Lucretius, Catullus, Cicero, and Caesar

48	Defeats Pompey at Pharsalus

48-47	In Egypt with Cleopatra VII

46	Reform of Roman Calendar

44	Assassinated

Augustan Empire

BC	31- AD 68	Classic age of Latin literature: Virgil, Horace, Livy, Ovid, Seneca, Petronius

AD	6	Judea taken over by Romans; revolutionary “Messianic” movements develop

30	Jesus crucified

75-100	Four Gospels written

The Later Roman Empire

Late Roman society and culture [interaction of power, knowledge and faith]

AD	250	Plotinus, Neoplatonism begins

381	Council of Constantinople; Doctrine of the Trinity completed

391	Theodosius I prohibits all pagan worship

410	Sack of Rome by Visigoths followed by Christian Apologetics, notably Augustine’s City of God

431	Council of Ephesus

451	Council of Chalcedon

496	Conversion of Franks to Christianity

534	Completion of Justinian’s law code

641	Death of Heraclius; Gospels have been translated into 10 languages; Christian missionaries working in China

THE WORLD: 500 – 1500

The Arabs

The Arabs and the Rise of Islam

The Disruption and Decline of the Arab Empire

BC	853	First reference to Arabs in an inscription of the Assyrian Shalmaneser

AD	24	Expedition of Aelius Gallus to South Arabia

530	Christian Abyssinia’s invasion of South Arabia

570	Birth of Muhammad in Mecca

622	Hijra [migration] of Muhammad from Mecca to Medina; beginning of the Islamic era

630	Mecca conquered by Muhammad and becomes the spiritual center of Islam

632	Death of Muhammad; succession of Abu Bakr as the first caliph

632-786	Ascent of Arab Empire

786	Accession of Harun al-Rashid; Abbasid courtly life at its best

786-c.1600	Disruption and decline of the Arab Empire

1639	Ottomans seize Iraq from Persia

Islamic Civilization

AD	500-622	Pre-Islamic poetry flourishes in Arabia

650	Official version of Koran

670	Great Mosque of Qayrawan in Tunisia

696	Arab coinage introduced by Abd al-Malik; Arabic becomes official administrative language of the empire

751	Arabs learn papermaking from captured Chinese prisoners; use of paper spreads westward in the empire

765	School of medicine founded in Baghdad

767	Death of Abu Hanifa, founder of Hanifite School of Law

785	Building of Great Mosque of Cordova by Abd al-Rahman

795	Death of Anas ibn Malik, founder of Malikite School of Law

813-833	Translation movement; Arabic science and learning flourishes; espousal of Mu’tazilism as the official theology

815	Death of Abu Niwas, celebrated poet of Abbasid court

820	Death of Shafi’i, founder of Shafi’ite School of Law

850	Death of Kindi, first Arab philosopher

855	Death of Ahmad ibn Hanbal, founder of Hanbalite School of Law

876	Building of ibn Tulun mosque in Cairo

877	Death of Hunayn ibn Ishaq, most prominent translator of Greek works

922	Execution of Hallaj, Sufi Mystic, for heresy

925	Death of Razi, physician and scientist

950	Death of Farabi, philosopher

965	Death of Mutanabbi, neoclassical poet

970	Mosque-University of al-Azhar built in Cairo by the Fatimids

1010	Firdawsi, Persian poet, completes his Epic of Kings

1030	Death of Biruni, physician, physicist, astronomer, mathematician, geographer, and historian

1037	Death of ibn Sina [Avicenna,] physician and philosopher

1067	Nizmiyya Madrasa academy established in Baghdad; Ash’arasim established as orthodox theology

1111	Death of Ghazali, mystic and theologian

1123	Death of Omar Khayyam, poet and astronomer

1198	Death of ibn Rushd [Averroes,] Aristotelian philosopher

1229	Death of Yaqut, geographer

1273	Death of Jalal al-Din al-Rumi, Persian mystic and poet

1325	Ibn Batuta begins his travels

1353	Completion of Alhambra in Granada

1390	Death of Hafiz, Persian lyric poet

1406	Death of ibn Khaldun, Arab historian

Jews in the Arab World

AD	500-550	Compilation of the Babylonian Talmud

c. 650	Beginning of Babylonian Gaonate

760-763	Gaonate of Yehudai

c. 760	Anan, religious leader

c. 800	Beginning of Karaite sect

882-942	Saadiah Gaon

c.950	Hasdai ibn Shaprut of Cordova, physician and scholar

968-1038	Gaonate of Sherira and Hai

992-1055	Samuel ibn Nagrela of Granada

c.1000-1148	Golden Age of Spanish Hebrew Literature

c.1075-1141	Judah ha-Levi, poet

1135-1204	Moses Maimonedes

1147-1148	Almohade conquest of Spain

Asia and Africa

Sub-Saharan Africa

AD	c. 3-4th cent.	Rise of empire of Ghana

4th cent.	Rise of Christian Kingdom of Axum [Ethiopia]

c. 800	Founding of kingdom of Kanem

c. 1040	Mission of Abdallah to the Goddala

c. 1075	Almoravid conquest of Ghana

c. 1090	Conversion to Islam of Mai of Kanem

11th-114th cents.	Building of “Great Zimbabwe” complex

c. 1100	Earliest evidence of stone mosques on East African coast; founding of Timbuktu

12th-16th cents.	Rule of Zagwe dynasty in Ethiopia

c. 1200	Rise of sultanate of Kilwa

1203	Sack of Ghana by Sumanguru of Susu

1230	Accession of sun Dyata of Mali

1235	Battle of Kirina

1324-1325	Pilgrimage to Mecca of Musa I, mansa of Mali

c. 1464	Accession of sonni Ali Ber of Songhai

1482	Building of Elmina Castle [São Jorge da Mina]

1488	Doubling of Cape of Good Hope by Bartholomeu Dias

1493	Accession of askiya Muhammad the Great of Songhai

1498	Arrival of Portuguese on East African coast

1590-1591	Moroccan invasion of the western Sudan

The Chinese Empire: The Great Era

AD	561-618	Sui dynasty

605-610	Grand Canal built

612-614	Korean campaigns

618-907	T’ang dynasty

627-649	Reign of T’ai-tsung

630	Defeat of Eastern Turks

656	Defeat of Western Turks

690-705	Reign of Empress Wu

713-755	Reign of Hsüan-tsung

751	Battle of Talas River

755	Rebellion of An Lu-shan

780	Tax reform

821	Peace between China and Tibet

840	Uighur empire destroyed

841-845	Religious persecutions

879	Looting of Canton

907-960	China divided

960-1126	Northern Sung dynasty

1004	Peace between China and Liao

1024	World’s first paper currency

1044	Peace between China and His-hsia

1069-1075	Wang An-shih in power

1125	Liao empire destroyed

1127-1279	Southern Sung dynasty

1130-1200	Chu Hsi

1135	Lin-an capital of Southern Sung

1141	Peace between China and Chin

The Chinese Empire: Foreign Powers

AD	c. 1167-1227	Chinggis Khan

1217	Mongols conquer Tarim Basin

1221	Mongols conquer West Turkestan and Afghanistan

1222	Chinggis Khan raids India

1227	Mongols conquer His-hsia

1229-1241	Ögödei Great Khan

1234	Mongols conquer Chin empire

1238	Mongols take Moscow

1251-1259	Möngke Great Khan

1252	Mongols conquer Nan-chao and eastern Tibet

1258	Mongols take Baghdad, conquer Korea

1260-1294	Khubilai Great Khan

1274	Mongols raid Kyūshū

1275-1292	Marco Polo in China

1279	Mongols conquer Southern Sung

1280-1367	Yüan dynasty

1281	Unsuccessful Mongol invasion of Kyūshū

1293	Unsuccessful Mongol invasion of Java

1268-1644	Ming dynasty

1336-1405	Timur [Tamerlane]

1424	Death of Yung-lo Emperor

1405-1433	Voyages of Cheng Ho

1419	Death of Tsong-kha-pa

1421	Peking capital of China

1428	Annam independent

1449	Oirats raid China

1514	Coming of the Westerners

1522	Tax reform

1550	Tatars raid China

1557	Portuguese gain possession of Macao

1607	Peace between China and Japan

1618	Outbreak of fighting between Manchus and China

1644	Suicide of last Ming emperor; Manchus enter Peking

Early Japan

AD	552	Traditional and approximate date for the introduction of Buddhism from Korea

710	First permanent capital at Nara

794	Capital at Heian-kyō [Kyoto]

1185	Minamoto clan victorious in struggle with Taira

1192	Minamoto Yoritomo receives title of Shogun

1274, 1281	Abortive attempts by Mongols under Khubilai Khan to invade Japan

1333	Overthrow of Kamakura shogunate

1338	Establishment of new shogunate dynasty, the Ashikaga

India

AD	500	Pandyas ruling at Madurai

c. 540	End of Gupta dynasty

c. 540	Rise of Chalukyas at Vatapi

c. 606-646	Harsha of Kanauj

700-800	Spread of Buddhism to Nepal and Tibet

711	Arab invasion of Sindh

c. 750	Rise of imperial Pratiharas; rise of Rashtrakutas

760	Palas in Bengal

c. 846	Rise of Cholas and defeat of Pallavis

c. 970	Reemergence of Chalukyan power and defeat of Rashtrakutas

1001	Beginning of raids by Turks under Mahmud of Ghazni

1024	Destruction of Somnath by Mahmud

1175	First Indian expedition by Muhammad Ghuri

1192	Defeat at Tarain of Prithvi Raja by the Turks

1206-1290	Slave dynasty [beginning of Delhi Sultanate]

1290-1320	Khalji Sultans

1320-1413	Tughluq Sultans

1336	Founding of Vijayanagar

1347	founding of Bahmani Sultanate

1398	Invasion of Timur

1414-1451	Sayyid Sultans

1451-1426	Lodi Sultans

1498	Arrival of Vasco da Gama

Southeast Asia

AD	c. 657-681	Reign of Jayavarman I [Khmer]

671	Visit to Srivijaya of pilgrim I-tsing

732	Accession of Sanjaya [Java]

929	Accession of Sindok [Java]

1002-1050	Reign of Suryavarman I [Khmer]

1044	Founding of Empire of Pagan [Burma]

c. 1222	Founding of Singosari [Java]

1268	Accession of Kertanagara [Java]

1287	Mongol conquest of Pagan [Burma]

1292	Visit of Marco Polo to Perlak [Sumatra]

1293	Mongol invasion of Java; founding of Empire of Majapahit

1330-1364	Rule of Gaja Mada, mapatih of Majapahit

1350	Founding of T’ai kingdom of Ayt’ia [Siam]

c. 1402	Founding of Malacca

1431	Fall of Angkor [Khmer]

1448-1488	Reign of Trailok [Siam]

1450	Promulgation of the “Palace Law” of Siam

1511	Portuguese conquest of Malacca

Medieval Europe

Early Middle Ages

Roman and Byzantine Emperors

AD	284-305	Diocletian

306-337	Constantine

527-565	Justinian I

717-741	Leo I the Isaurian

Frankish Kings and Western Emperors [Since 800]

416-751	Merovingian house

741-928	Carolingian house

768-814	Charlemagne

813-840	Louis the Pious

876-888	Charles III the Fat

German Kings and Emperors

919-1024	Saxon or Ottonian house

910-936	Henry I the Fowler

936-972	Otto I

983-1002	Otto III

1024-1137	Salian house

French Kings

888/987 ff.	Capetian house

Roman Pontiffs

392-496	Gelasius I

590-604	Gregory I

858-867	Nicholas I

1073-1085	Gregory VII

1088-1099	Urban II

1130-1143	Innocent II

Ecclesiastical Intellectuals

260-340	Lactantius

c. 340-420	Jerome

354-430	St. Augustine

816-840	Agobard, archbishop of Lyons

c. 810-c. 877	Johannes Scotus Erigena

847-882	Hincmar, archbishop of Reims

The High Middle Ages

Roman Pontiffs

AD	1198-1216	Innocent III

1294-1303	Boniface VIII

1316-1334	John XXII

German Emperors

1138-1268	Hohenstaufen house

1212-1250	Frederick II

1268	Death of Conradin

1314-1347	Louis of Bavaria, Wittelsbach

English and French Princes

1154 ff.	England’s Angevine house

987-1328	France’s Capetians

1285-1314	Philip IV the Fair

12566/1268 ff.	Anjou cadet line in Sicily-Naples

Orders of the Church

910	Cluny [reformed Benedictine]

1098	Cistercian order

1118/1128	Templars [military order]

1120	Premonstratensians [canons-regular]

1201	Humiliati [quasi-mendicant]

1209	Franciscans [mendicant]

1215	Dominicans [mendicant]

Churchmen and Intellectuals

1079-1142	Peter Abelard

1090-1153	Bernard of Clairvaux

1126-1198	Averroes

c. 1130-1202	Joachim of Fiore

1225-1274	Thomas Aquinas

Church Councils

1179	III Lateran

1215	IV Lateran

1245	I Lyon

1274	II Lyon

1311	Vienne

The Late Middle Ages

Princes and Dynasties

AD 1272/

1314/1438 ff.	Hapsburg Emperors

1328	French Capetians replaced by Valois

1485	English Angevins replaced by Tudors

Soldiers, Magistrates, Artists, and Businessmen

c. 1267-1337	Giotto, son of Bondone, of Florence

1313-1354	Cola, son of Rienzi

1394	Death of John Hawkwood

c. 1395-1456	Jacques Coeur

c.1394-1476	John Fortescue

Intellectuals

1221-1274	Bonaventure

1282	Death of Siger of Brabant

c. 1214-1292	Roger Bacon

1274-1208	John Duns Scotus

c. 1250-1312	Peter Dubois

c. 1240-1313	Arnold of Villanova

c.1235-1315	Raymond Lull

1265-1321	Dante Alighieri

1328	Death of John of Jandun

c. 1275-1342	Marsiglio of Padua

c. 1300-1349	William of Ockham

1304-1374	Francis Petrarch

c. 1329-1384	John Wycliffe

c. 1369-1415	John Hus

1483-1546	Martin Luther

The Jews in Medieval Europe

AD	c. 359	Jewish Calendar committed to writing by Hillel II

425	End of Jewish patriarchate

425-475	Compilation of Palestinian Talmud

613-711	Visigothic persecutions of the Jews in Spain

813-840	Reign of Louis the Pious; earliest known diplomas of privileges to Jews

1144	Death of William of Norwich; beginning of medieval blood accusation

1215	Fourth Lateran Council; yellow badge

1290	Expulsion of Jews from England

1306	Expulsion of Jews from France

1348	Black Death persecutions; beginning of ghettoization in Germany

1391	Pogroms in Spain; beginning of Marranism

1481	Inquisition proceedings begin in Spain

1492	Expulsion of Jews from Spain

1516	Establishment of ghetto in Venice

1648-1658	Chmielnicki uprisings and massacres in Ukraine and Poland

1666	Sabbetai Zevi’s abortive messianic movement collapses

Byzantium

Early Byzantium

AD	330	Dedication of the city of Constantinople

527-565	Reign of Justinian the Great

578	The Slavs reach the Peloponnese

610	Accession of Heraclius I

636	First Arab defeat of Byzantium; beginning of the conquest of Syria and Asia Minor

641	Arab conquest of Byzantine Egypt

717	Lifting of the last Arab siege of Constantinople by Leo III

717-796	Isaurian dynasty

726-730	Beginning of the Iconoclastic Controversy

763	Constantine V’s victory over the Bulgars at Anchialus

787	Restoration of images by the Second Council of Nicaea

796	Coup d’état of Irene

800	Coronation of Charlemagne at Rome

813	First Bulgar siege of Constantinople

815	Beginning of the second period of iconoclasm

820-867	Amorian dynasty

828	Arabs begin the conquest of Byzantine Sicily

838	Arabs take Amorium

843	Council of Orthodoxy ends the Iconoclastic Controversy

863	Michael III’s victory over the Arabs at Poson

863-864	Cyrillo-Methodian mission to the Slavs

864	Conversion of Boris-Michael of Bulgaria

867	Murder of Michael III; accession of Basil I the Macedonian

Later Byzantium

AD	867-1056	Macedonian dynasty

876	Byzantine recapture of the Cicilian gates; beginning of Byzantine reconquest of southern Italy

926	Second Bulgar siege of Constantinople

931	Beginning of Byzantine reconquest of Syria

944-959	Reign of Constantine VII of Porphyrogenitus

965	Byzantium retakes Crete and Cyprus

975	John I Tzimisces reconquers Syria and Palestine

976-1025	Reign of Basil II

1000	Basil II’s campaign in Transcaucasia

1014	Basil II’s annihilation of the First Bulgarian Empire

1041	Start of Norman conquest of southern Italy

1054	Great Schism between Rome and Constantinople

1071	Seljuk defeat of Byzantium at Manazkert

1081-1185	Comnenian dynasty

1082	Grant of commercial privileges to Venice

1097	Arrival of the First Crusade at Constantinople

1143-1180	Reign of Manuel I

1159	Manuel I’s entrance into Antioch

1176	Byzantine defeat at Myriokephalon

1182	Massacre of the Latins at Constantinople

1185-1204	Angeli dynasty

1204	Sack of Constantinople by the Latins

1204-1261	Latin Empire of Constantinople; Lascarid dynasty at Nicaea

1205	Defeat of the Latin Empire by the Bulgars

1230	Defeat of Epirus at Klokotnica

1259	Michael VIII’s defeat of the Latins at Pelagonia

1261	Michael VIII retakes Constantinople

1261-1453	Paleologue dynasty

1274	Union of Lyons

1282	Death of Michael VIII

1304	Revolt of the Catalan mercenaries

1346	Coronation of Stephen Dušan Czar of Serbia

1365	Ottoman capital shifted to Andrinople in Thrace

1369	Journey of John V Paleologus to the West

1389	Ottoman victory at Kossovo

1396	Failure of the Crusade of Nicopolis

1399-1400	Journey of Manuel II Paleologus to the West

1438-1439	Council of Union at Florence

1444	Failure of the Crusade at Varna

1453	Ottomans capture Constantinople

The Slavs and Early Russia

SOUTHERN SLAVS	WESTERN SLAVS	EASTERN SLAVS [RUSSIA]
c. 517 Slavic tribes begin to cross the Danube into the Balkans
c. 679 Bulgars cross Danube c. 680-1018 First Bulgarian Empire 813 First Bulgar siege of Constantinople	c. 628-658 Principality of Samo in Moravia	7th cent. Scandinavian infiltration of Russia begins
846-864 Reign of Rastislav in Great Moravia	c. 860 Riurik in Novgorod; first Russian raid on Constantinople
864 Baptism of Boris-Michael of Bulgaria	863-864 Cyrillo-Methodian mission to Moravia 906 Magyars Sack Great Moravia	c. 880-912 Rise of Kiev under Oleg
10th cent. Premyszlid dynasty in Bohemia; Piast dynast in Poland	c. 968 End of Khazar empire
992-1025 Reign of Boleslav the Brave in Poland	989 Baptism of Vladimir of Kiev
1035-1054 Zenith of Kiev under Laroslav the Wise; Metropolitan of Kiev created
1102-1138 Boleslav III of Poland	1113-1135 Reign of Vladimir Monmouth at Kiev
1140-1173 Vladimir II hereditary King of Poland	1157-1174 Reign of Andrei Bogolubskii at Suzdal
1168-1196 Stephen Nemanja founds the Serbian Empire	1169 Suzdal sacks Kiev
1176-1212 Vsevolod “Big Net” prince of Suzdal
1197-1207 John Asen [Kalojen] founds the second Bulgarian Empire 1217 Coronation of Stephen I as Czar of Serebia	1198-1205 Zenith of Galici under Roman of Smolensk
1218-1241 Zenith of Second Bulgarian Empire under John II Asen	1223 Mongol defeat of the Russian princes at Kalka
1241 Mongol sack of Second Bulgarian Empire	1241 Mongol sack of Poland	1242 Alexander Nevski’s victory over the Teutonic Knights at Lake Peipus; Golden Horde settles in southern Russia
1253-1258 Zenith of Bohemia under Ottokar the Great
1282 Mongols sack Galicia
1300 Wenceslas II of Bohemia king of Poland 1301 Wenceslass III of Bohemia crowned king of Hungary
1306 Accession of Luxemburg dynasty in Bohemia	1325-1341 Ivan I Kalita founds the Muscovite state
1336-1355 Zenith of Serbia under Stephen IV Dusan	1328 Metropolitan see moves from Kiev to Moscow
1333 Restoration of Poland under Casimir III 1347 Emperor Charles IV king of Bohemia
1371 Ottoman victory over Serbia on the Marica	1380 Dimitri Donskoi’s victory over the Mongols at Kulikovo
1389 Ottoman victory at the first Battle of Kossovo	1386 Marriage of Jadwiga of Poland to Jagiello of Lithuania 1410 Polish defeat of the Teutonic Knights at Tanenberg	1387 Galicia absorbed by Poland
1448 Ottoman victory at the second Battle of Kossovo; Ottoman domination of the Balkans	1447 Union of Poland and Lithuania
1446 Second Peace of Thorn	1480 Ivan III proclaimed Czar and Autocrat of Russia
1526 Ottoman victory at Mohács 1547 Hapsburgs become hereditary kings of Bohemia 1572 End of Jagiellonian dynasty in Poland	1533-1584 Reign of Ivan IV the Terrible 1552-1556 Russians take Kazan and Astrakhan 1598-1605 Boris Godunov Czar of Russia 1604-1613 “Time of Troubles;” Polish intervention in Russia 1613 Accession of Michael I Romanov in Russia
1620 Battle of White Mountain; end of Bohemian independence

TOWARD MODERNITY

The Renaissance and Reformation in Europe

The State System of the Italian Renaissance

AD	1250	Death of Frederick II and beginning of the imperial interregnum

1380	Removal of the papacy from Rome to Avignon

1321	Death of Dante

c. 1325	Beginning of regular sea traffic between Italy and northern Europe via the open Atlantic

1327	Earliest mention of an artillery piece in the documents

1342	Petrarch’s Italia mia

1347	Outbreak of the Black Death

1378	Beginning of the Great Schism

1385-1402	Reign of Gian Galeazzo Visconti, Duke of Milan

1404-1414	Reign of Ladislas of Durazzo, King of Naples

1414	Opening of the Council of Constance

1434	Accession to power in Florence of Cosimo de’ Medici

1450	Francesco Sforza becomes Duke of Milan

1457	Publication of the first surviving dated printed book

1469	Succession to power in Florence of Lorenzo the Magnificent

1494	First French invasion of Italy; fall of the Medici and reestablishment of the Florentine Republic

1497	Vasco da Gama reaches India by sea

1502	The Spanish conquer Naples

1513	Machiavelli’s Prince

1530	Fall of the last Florentine Republic; return of the Medici

1535	Charles V occupies Milan as an imperial fief

Humanism and Society

AD	1341	Petrarch crowned poet laureate on the Capitoline in Rome

1353	Boccaccio’s Decameron

1375	Coluccio Salutati appointed chancellor of the Florentine Republic

1404	Pier Paolo Vergerio’s Concerning Liberal Studies, the first humanist treatise on education

1414	Poggio Bracciolini discovers Quintillian’s De institutione oratoria in the library of the monastery of St. Gallen in Switzerland

1429	Leonardo Bruni finishes his History of Florence

1440	Lorenzo Valla’s On the True Good [or On Pleasure]

1450	Pope Nicholas V founds the Vatican Library

1456	Giannozzo Manetti enters the service of King Alfonso of Naples

1462	Establishment of the Platonic Academy in Florence

c. 1469	Marsilio Ficino finishes translating into Latin the dialogues of Plato, the first complete translation into any Western language

1469	Birth of Erasmus

1486	Pico della Mirandola, Oration on the Dignity of Man

1505	Erasmus publishes Valla’s Annotations on the New Testament

1516	Pietro Pomponazzi’s On the Immortality of the Soul

Renaissance Art

AD	c. 1255-1319	Duccio di Buoninsegna

c. 1276-1337	Giotto

1337-1466	Filippo Brunelleschi

c. 1386-1466	Donatello

1387-1455	Fra Angelico

1401-1428	Masaccio

1404-1472	Leon Battista Alberti

c. 1426-1492	Piero della Francesca

c. 1430-1516	Giovanni Bellini

1431-1506	Andrea Mantegna

1444-1510	Botticelli

1444-1514	Bramante

1452-1519	Leonardo da Vinci

1471-1528	Albrecht Dürer

1475-1564	Michelangelo

1477-1576	Titian

c. 1478-1510	Giorgione

1483-1520	Raphael

1494-1534	Correggio

1511-1574	Giorgio Vasari

1518-1590	Andrea Palladio

1518-1594	Tintoretto

1528-1588	Paolo Veronese

The Reformation: Doctrine

AD	1505	Martin Luther joins the Augustinian Order

1512	Luther appointed professor of Holy Scriptures at the University of Wittenberg

1516	First edition of the New Testament in Greek

1517	Luther’s theses against indulgences

1518	Zwingli called to be minister at Zurich

1520	Luther’s Open Letter to the Christian Nobility of the German Nation, The Babylonian Captivity of the Church, and On Christian Liberty; Luther’s excommunication

1521	Diet of Worms

1524	Erasmus defends the freedom of the will against Luther

1525	Conrad Grebel baptizes Georg Blaurock: the beginning of Anabaptism; the Reformation established in Zurich

1527	The Schleitheim Confession, first Anabaptist doctrinal statement

1529	Colloquy of Marburg

1531	Death of Zwingli at the Battle of Kappel

1534	First complete edition of Luther’s translation of the Bible

1546	Death of Martin Luther

1564	Death of John Calvin

The Reformation: Society

AD	1509-1547	Reign of Henry VIII of England

1515-1547	Reign of Francis I of France

1516	Concordat at Bologna

1519	Election of Charles V as Emperor

1521	Diet of Worms: beginning of Hapsburg-Valois wars

1524-1525	Peasant Revolt in Germany

1525	Battle of Pavia; Francis I taken prisoner

1526	Defeat of Hungarians by the Turks at the Battle of Mohács

1527	Sack of Rome by an imperial army

1528	Basel and Berne accept Reformation

1530	Diet of Augsburg; German Protestant princes declare faith in the Augsburg Confession

1534	Day of Placards; Act of Supremacy

1538	Geneva accepts the Reformation

1540	Society of Jesus approved by the pope

1542	Roman Inquisition established

1545	Opening of the Council of Trent

1546	Death of Martin Luther

1547	Battle of Milberg: Charles V defeats the Protestant Schmalkaldic League

1547-1553	Reign of Edward VI of England

1547-1559	Reign of Henry II of France

1553-1558	Reign of Mary of England

1555	Religious Peace of Augsburg on the principle of cuius regio, eius religio

1556	Abdication of Charles V in Spain and Empire; accession of Phillip II of Spain

1559	Peace of Cateau-Cambrésis: end of Hapsburg-Valois wars

The Counter Reformation

AD	1528	Founding of the Capuchin order

1536	Commission of Cardinals established by Pope Paul III to reform the papal court

1540	Founding of the Society of Jesus

1542	Roman Inquisition established by the papal bull Licot ab initio

1545-1547	First session of the Council of Trent

1548	Publication of the Spiritual Exercises by St. Ignatius of Loyola

1549	Death of Pope Paul III

1551-1552	Second session of the Council of Trent

1555	The Peace of Augsburg, religious-political settlement of Germany; Gian Caraffa elected as Pope Paul IV

1558	Diego Laynez elected general of the Society of Jesus

1559	Death of Pope Paul III

1560	Carlo Borromeo launches Catholic model reform as archbishop of Milan

1562	Neo-Scholasticism stimulated by publication of the Loci Theologici of Melchor Cano

1562-1563	Third and final session of the Council of Trent

1564	Revised Index of Prohibited Books promulgated by Pope Pius IV

1568	St. John of the Cross founds the discalced Carmelites

1572	St. Bartholomew’s Day Massacre in France

1573	Veronese called before the Inquisition to defend the orthodoxy of his painting

1575	St. Philip Neri reforms and extends the Oratory

1582	Death of St. Theresa of Avila

1584	Publication of the Jesuit educational program, the Ratio Studiorum

1586	Robert Bellarmine publishes Volume I of Disputation of the Heretics of Our Times

1609	St. Francis of Sales publishes the Introduction to the Devout Life

1629	Edict of Restitution restores much land to the Roman Church in Germany

1648	Peace of Westphalia

Building the Early Modern State

The Golden Age of Spain

AD	1545	Opening of Potosi mines, Bolivia

1556	Abdication of Charles V; his son, Philip II, becomes king of Spain

1557	Bankruptcy of Spanish Crown

1568	Outbreak of revolt in Netherlands

1571	Victory of Lepanto, against Turks; repression of revolt of the Moriscos

1575	El Greco arrives in Spain

1579	Disgrace and arrest of principal minister, Antonio Pérez

1584	Direct Spanish intervention into French civil wars

1587	Sir Francis Drake destroys Spanish fleet at Cádiz

1588	Defeat of the Spanish Armada

1591	Revolt of Aragon

1597	Bankruptcy of the Spanish Crown

1598	Death of Phillip II: Phillip III, his son, becomes king; Lope de Vega presents Arcadia

1605	Cervantes publishes Part I of Don Quixote

1609	Expulsion of the Meriscos

1612	Suárez publishes De Legibus ac Deo Legislatore

1616	Spanish forced to leave Japan

1621	Rise to power of Count Duke Olivares

1628	Zurbarán, the painting of St. Serapion

1630	Velázquez completes painting Vulcan’s Forge

1640	Revolt of Catalans and Portuguese

1643	Defeat of Spanish army by French at Rocroi

The Rise of the Dutch Republic

AD	1556	Abdication of Charles V of Hapsburg as Lord of the Netherlands; succession of Philip II of Spain

1559	Philip II leaves Netherlands and returns to Spain, which becomes center of his government; beginning of opposition of higher nobility against government of king’s confidants in the Netherlands

1566-1567	First outbreaks of large-scale revolts as well as iconoclastic movements against the Church; Philip II sends the Duke of Alva to suppress the uprising; William of Orange flees the country

1572	Successful attack of William of Orange, who occupies provinces of Holland and Zeeland

1576	Other provinces join the rebellion [Pacification of Ghent]

1579	Walloon nobility defects from the rebellion [Treaty of Arras]; Alexander of Parma commander of the Spanish troops

1581	Revolutionary Estates General depose Philip II as Lord of the Netherlands

1584	Assassination of William of Orange

1585	Parma takes Antwerp; rebels withdraw behind the great rivers

1588-1609	Dutch drive the Spanish out of northern Netherlands; attempts at liberation of the south fail

1609-1621	Truce between Republic of the United Netherlands and Spain

1625-1648	The Republic joins the anti-Spanish coalition

1648	Peace of Westphalia; de jure recognition of independence of the Republic

The Collapse of France

AD	1559	Peace of Cateau-Cambrésis; death of Henry II

1561	Colloquium of Poissy

1562	Outbreak of civil war between Protestants and royal troops

1572	St. Bartholomew’s Day Massacre

1574	Death of Charles IX; assembly of Millau, establishes firmer government for French Protestants

1576	Jean Bodin publishes Six Books for the Republic; Estates General of Blois, seeks religious compromise and fails

1578	Duke of Anjou invades Low Countries; founding of the Order of the Holy Spirit

1579	Publication of the Vindiciae contre Tyrannes

1580	Publication of the first edition of the Essays of Montaigne

1587	Battle of Coutras, first pitched battle won by the Protestants

1588	Revolt of Paris against Henry III

1589	Assassination of the Guises on Henry III’s orders; assassination of Henry III

1590	Battle of Ivey, victory of Henry IV against the Catholic League

1593	Henry IV abjures Protestantism

1595	Henry IV absolved of his heresy by Pope Clement VIII

1597	Siege of Amiens

1598	Treaty of Vervins, ends war between France and Spain; Edict of Nantes

Elizabethans and Puritans

AD	1485	Battle of Bosworth; accession of Henry VII

1509	Death of Henry VII; accession of Henry VIII

1529	Fall of Cardinal Wolsey

1529-1536	Reformation of Parliament

1536-1540	Execution of Thomas Cromwell

1547	Death of Henry VIII; accession of Edward VI

1553	Death of Edward VI; accession of Mary I

1558	Death of Mary I; accession of Elizabeth I

1563	Thirty-Nine Articles; Statute of Apprentices

1570	Elizabeth I excommunicated by Pope Pius V

1587	Execution of Mary, Queen of Scots

1588	Defeat of the Spanish Armada

1600	East India Company Chartered

1603	Death of Elizabeth I; accession of James I

1611	Authorized Version [King James Version] of the Bible

1618	Beginning of Thirty Years’ War

1625	Death of James I; accession of Charles I

1628	Petition of Right adopted; assassination of the Duke of Buckingham

1629-1640	Period of personal rule: the “Eleven Years’ Tyranny”

1640	Short Parliament [April-May]; Long Parliament convenes in November

1641	Execution of the Earl of Strafford; Irish Rebellion begins

1643	Death of John Pym

1642-1646	First Civil War

1645	Execution of William Laud, Archbishop of Canterbury

1648	Second Civil War; Pride’s Purge

1649	Execution of Charles I

1653-1658	Protectorate under Oliver Cromwell

1658	Death of Oliver Cromwell; succeeded as Lord Protector by his son Richard

1660	Restoration of Charles II

1662	Beginning of the “Bartholomew Ejections” following Act of Uniformity; expulsion of ministers creates English Nonconformity

1670	Secret Treaty of Dover between Charles II and Louis XIV

1678	Popish Plot

1679	Habeas Corpus Act

1679-1681	Exclusion crisis

1681-1685	Charles II rules without Parliament

1685	Death of Charles II; accession of James II

1688-1689	Glorious Revolution replaces James II with William of Orange and Mary; Bill of Rights; Mutiny Act; Toleration Act

1689-1697	War of the League of Augsburg [King William’s War]

1694	Bank of England chartered; Triennial Act; Death of Queen Mary

1697	Treaty of Ryswick

1701	Act of Settlement

1702	Death of William III; accession of Queen Anne

1702-1713	War of the Spanish Succession [Queen Anne’s War]

1707	Act of Union with Scotland

1713	Treaty of Utrecht

1714	Death of Queen Anne; accession of King George I

1721	Sir Robert Walpole becomes Prime Minister

The Thirty Years’ War

AD	1612	Ferdinand II becomes king of Hungary and Bohemia

1618	Defenestration of Prague

1620	Battle of White Mountain

1621	End of the Spanish-Dutch truce

1623	Maximilian of Bavaria receives electoral vote held previously by Palatinate

1624	Richelieu enters and soon dominates royal council; French-Dutch treaty

1626	Defeat pf Danish troops in Brunswick by Count Tilly

1629	Edict of Restitution

1630	Electoral Assembly of Regensburg insists on Wallenstein’s resignation; Gustavus Adolphus lands in northern Germany, is subsidized by France

1631	Capture and massacre of Magdeburg

1632	Battle of Lützen, Hapsburg defeat; death of Gustavus Adolphus

1634	Assassination of Wallenstein

1635	Treaty of Prague; French declaration of war against Spain

1636	Capture of Corbie by the Spanish

1639	Revolt of the Nu-Pieds in France

1640	Revolts of the Catalans and the Portuguese

1643	Defeat of the Spanish by the French at the Battle of Rocroi; war between Denmark and Sweden

1646	Invasion of Bavaria by Swedish and French troops

1648	Peace of Westphalia

The Rise of Modern Political Thought

AD	1494	Invasion of Italy by French troops

1513-1521	Niccolò Machiavelli writes The Prince and The Discourses on the First Ten Books of Livy

1517	Martin Luther posts 95 theses on church door at Wittenberg; Reformation usually dated from this moment

1525	Sack of Rome

1562-1594	Series of religious wars in France

1572	St. Bartholomew’s Day Massacre in Paris, slaughter of the Huguenots

1576	Jean Bodin publishes Six Books of the Republic

1594	Henry IV takes Paris

1610	Henry IV is assassinated

1618-1648	Thirty Years’ War

1642	Civil war begins in England

1649	Charles I of England beheaded

1651	Thomas Hobbes publishes Leviathan

1656	James Harrington publishes The Commonwealth of Oceana

1658	Oliver Cromwell dies

1660	Restoration of the monarchy in England; Charles II [1660-1685]

1661	Louis XIV of France assumes sole rule after Mazarin

1670	Baruch [Benedict de] Spinoza publishes, anonymously, Tractacus Theologico-Politicus

1685-1688	Reign of James II in England

1688-1689	Glorious Revolution; James II dethroned; William and Mary

1690	John Locke publishes Two Treatises of Civil Government, published ten years before

Toward One World

The Commercial Powers

AD	1494	Treaty of Tordesillas divides overseas world between Spain and Portugal

1570’s	First raids by English and Dutch on Spanish empire in South America; breakdown of Portuguese monopoly in the Indian Ocean

1600	Foundation of the English East India Company

1602	Foundation of the Dutch East India Company

1609	Foundation of the Bank of Amsterdam

1619	Foundation of the Bank of Hamburg

1621	Foundation of the Dutch West India Company

1624	Dutch drive English out of spice trade in the East Indies

1629	Dutch obtain rights to trade at Arkhangelsk

1635	Foundation of Compagnie française des îles d’Amerique

1639	English establish themselves in Madras

1651	Navigation Acts in England, directed against Dutch trade

1652-1674	Period of Anglo-Dutch wars; peace of 1674 results in division of colonial spheres between England and Holland, in which America goes to England and East Indies go to Holland

1689-1713	Period of Anglo-Dutch coalition wars against France of Louis XIV

1713	Peace of Utrecht gives England trading rights in Spanish American empire; decline of the Dutch

The Ottoman Empire

AD	1326-1359	Reign of Orkhan I

1359-1389	Reign of Murad I

1365	Ottoman capital shifted to Andrinople in Thrace

1371	Ottoman defeat of the Serbs on the Marica

1389	First Battle of Kossovo

1402	Defeat of Bajazet I Yilderim by Tamerlane

1444	Ottoman defeat of the Christian “Crusade” at Varna

1448	Second Battle of Kossovo

1451-1481	Reign of Muhammad II the Conqueror

1453	Ottoman capture of Constantinople by Muhammad II the Conqueror

1514	Ottoman defeat of the Safavids at Caldiran

1517	Ottoman capture of Cairo; surrender of Mecxa

1520-1566	Reign of Suleiman I the Magnificent[Kanuni]

1521	Ottoman capture of Belgrade

1522	Ottoman capture of Rhodes

1526	Ottoman defeat of the Hungarians at Mohács

1529	First Ottoman siege of Vienna; Ottomans acquire Algerian bases

1534	Ottoman capture of Tabriz and Iraq

1536	Ottoman alliance with Francis I of France

1547	Larger part of Hungary ceded to the Ottomans

1555	Ottoman-Safavid peace

1571	Battle of Lepanto

1606	Peace of Sitvartorok

1630	Memorandum of Koça Bey

1641-1687	Reign of Muhammad IV; abolition of the devşirme

1656-1676	Ottoman revival under Köprülü viziers

1683	Second Ottoman siege of Vienna

1696	Capture of Azov by Peter the Great

1697	Eugene of Savoy’s defeat of the Ottomans at Zenta

1699	Peace of Karlowitz

1703-1730	Cultural revival under Ahmed III

1718	Peace of Passarowitz

1724-1730	Victories of Nadir Shah in Transcaucasia

1757-1774	Reign of Mustafa III; Ayans granted official status

1774	Treaty of Kuçuk Kaynarca

1783	Russian annexation of the Crimea

1792	Treaty of Jassy

1793	Selim III proclaims the “New Order”

1798-1799	Napoleon’s campaign in Egypt

1801	Russian annexation of Georgia

1804	Serbian revolt

1822-1830	Greek war of independence

1826	Massacre of the Janissaries; Ottoman fleet sunk at Navarino

1829	Treaty of Andrinople

1833	Treaty of Unkiar-skellessi

1840	Treaty of London concedes Egypt to Muhammad Ali

1841	Straits Convention

1853-1856	Crimean War

1856	Hatt-i Humayun

1876	Mihrdat Pasa proclaims the Ottoman Constitution

1877	Ottoman Constitution allowed to lapse

1878	Congress of Berlin

1883	Creation of Public Debt Control

1908	Formation of the Committee of Union and Progress [Young Turks]; Constitution Restored

1909	Deposition of Abdul-Hamid II

European Voyages of Exploration

AD	1415	Portuguese capture of Ceuta

1433	Cape Bojador rounded by Gil Eannes

1482	Building of Elmina Castle [São Jorge de Mina]

1484	Discovery of Congo estuary by Diogo Cão

1488	Doubling of Cape of Good Hope by Bartolomeu Dias

1492	Discovery of America [Bahama Islands] by Christopher Columbus

1494	Treaty of Tordesillas

1497	Voyage to North America by John Cabot

1497-1498	Voyage to Calicut [India] by Vasco da Gama

1500	Discovery of Brazil by Pedro Cabral

1510	Portuguese capture of Goa

1513	First sighting of the Pacific by Núñez de Balboa

1519-1521	Conquest of Mexico by Hernán Cortéz

1519-1522	Circumnavigation of the world: begun by Ferdinand Magellan, completed by Sebastián del Cano

1529	Treaty of Zaragosa

1531-1648	Conquest of Peru by Francisco Pizarro

1534-1535	Exploration of Gulf of St. Lawrence by Jacques Cartier

1553	Voyage to Archangel by Richard Chancellor

1576-1578	Search for the Northwest Passage by Martin Frobisher

1585	Planting of first English colony in North America: Roanoke Island, North Carolina

1596	Voyage of William Barents to Novaya Zemlya

1600	Founding of the English East India Company

1602	Founding of the Netherlands East India Company

1606	Discovery of Australia by Willem Janszoon

1642	Discovery of Tasmania and New Zealand by Abel Tasman

India: 1500-1700

AD	1510	Portuguese capture of Goa

1526	Defeat of the Lodi Sultan by Babur

1526-1530	Reign of Babur

1530-1538	Reign of Humayun

1538	Death of Guru Nanak

1538-1555	Interregnum under Sur dynasty

1555-1556	Humayun restores Mughal authority

1556-1605	Reign of Akbar

1565	Fall of Vijayanagar

1600	British East India Company receives charter

1605-1627	Reign of Jehangir

1628-1658	Reign of Shah Jahan

1634	English begin trading in Bengal

1639	Founding of Fort St. George, Madras

1658-1707	Reign of Aurangzeb

1674	Shivaji crowned king of Marathas; French found Pondicherry

1690	Founding of Calcutta

1708	Death of Guru Govind Singh

1739	Nadir Shah raids Delhi

1742	Marathas raid Bengal

1744-1748	War between French and British in India

Japan and China

AD	1542	Portuguese merchants first reach Japan

1568	Oda Nobunaga in control of Kyoto

1582	Nobunaga assassinated; rise of Hideyoshi

1592, 1597	Abortive Japanese attempts to conquer Korea

1597	First persecution of Christians in Japan

1598	Death of Hideyoshi

1600	Tokugawa Ieyasu victor at Sekigahara

1603	Establishment of Tokugawa shogunate

1638	Suppression of Christian rebellion at Shimabara

1640	Seclusion and exclusion policies in effect

Early 17th cent.	Unification of Manchu tribes of China by Nurhachi

1644	Peking captured by Manchus and made capital of the Ch’ing Dynasty

1661-1722	Reign of K’ang-hsi Emperor in China

1675-1683	Ch’ing conquest of south China

1688-1704	Cultural brilliance during Genroku calendrical era in Japan

1736-1796	Reign of Ch’ien-lung Emperor in China

1793	Mission of Lord Macartney to Peking

1853	Perry expedition forces end of Japanese exclusion policy

1867	Abdication of last Tokugawa shogun

Aztec and Inca Civilizations

BC	5000	Beginnings of agriculture in Mexico

2000	First Peruvian ceremonial centers

900	Chavin unification of Peru

800	Olmec unification of Mesoamerica

AD	300-600	Teotihuacan empire

600-800	Huari and Tiahuanaco empires

900	Fall of classic Maya civilization

1400-1519	Aztec empire

1438-1538	Inca empire

Spain and Portugal in America

AD	1492	Columbus reaches the New World

1500	Cabral lays basis for Portugal’s claim by landing in Brazil on his way to India

1519	Cortéz begins his conquest of New Spain [Mexico]

1524	Council of the Indies established by Spain

1535	Antonio de Mendoza, first viceroy in Spanish America, begins rule in Mexico; Lima, Peru, is founded by Pizarro

1549	Permanent settlement of Brazil begun by Governor Thomé de Souza, and the Jesuits begin missionary labors

1550	Bartolomé de Las Casas and Juan Ginés Sepúlvada debate at Valladolid whether Indians are natural slaves according to Aristotle’s doctrine

1551	University charters granted for universities in Mexico and Peru

1580	Philip II annexes Portugal and her empire, a “captivity” lasting until 1640

1624	Dutch begin their 30-year rule in Pernambuco, Brazil

1680	Publication of the Spanish colonial code: Recopilación de Leyes de las Indias

1759	Jesuits expelled from Brazil

1767	Jesuits expelled from Spanish America

1780	Unsuccessful rebellion by Tupac Amaru against Spanish rule in Peru

The Settlement of North America

AD	1497	John Cabot reaches North America

1513	Ponce de Léon establishes Spanish claim to Florida

1524	Giovanni Verrazano explores coast of North America

1534	Jacques Cartier explores St. Lawrence River

1560’s	French attempts to settle in Florida thwarted by Spain

1565	Spanish found first permanent settlement north of Mexico at St. Augustine, Florida

1607	First permanent English outpost established at Jamestown, Virginia

1609	Henry Hudson claims part of North America for the United Provinces

1619	First Negroes brought to British America as forced labor; Virginia begins representative assembly

1620	Separatists found Plymouth Colony

1630	Great Migration to America begins; Massachusetts founded

1630’s	Connecticut, Rhode Island and New Haven colonies founded

1633	Colonization of Maryland begun

1636	Harvard College opened

1638	A Swedish settlement founded on the Delaware River

1640’s	Civil wars in England causes shift in migration patterns

1655	Dutch from New Netherlands conquer New Sweden

1660	Stuart Monarchy restored

1660’s	Legal definition of Negro slavery begun in Virginia

1663	Charles II grants Carolinas to eight proprietors

1664	British seize New Netherlands

1675-1676	Bacon’s rebellion in Virginia; King Philip’s War in New England

1682	William Penn founds Pennsylvania

1684-1689	Dominion of New England places several colonies under royal authority

1685	Revocation of the Edict of Nantes in France spurs Protestant migration to America

1689-1713	King William’s War

1691	New Massachusetts’s charter puts colony under royal authority; Plymouth Colony and Maine included in new Massachusetts boundaries

1693	College of William and Mary founded

1696	Parliamentary Act establishes vice-admiralty courts to try violators; Board of Trade created by the crown

1702-1713	Queen Anne’s War

1704	Boston News-Letter begins publication

1729	North and South Carolina become separate, royal colonies

1733	Colony of Georgia founded

1739	George Whitefield first visits America

1740-1748	King George’s War

1749-1752	Benjamin Franklin experiments with electricity

1751	Philadelphia Academy [later University of Pennsylvania] founded

1754	George Washington’s clash with French soldiers signals start of French and Indian War

1763	Treaty of Paris; French Canada and Spanish Florida ceded to Great Britain

The Enlightenment

The Scientific Revolution

BC	4th cent.	Establishment of the two major philosophical schools of Greek Antiquity by Plato [427-347 BC] and Aristotle [384-322 BC]

3rd cent.	Outstanding developments in mathematics, astronomy and physics, among others by Euclid of Alexandria [330-260 BC,] Aristech’s of Samoa [310-230 BC,] and Apollonius of Perga [c. 220 BC]

AD	2nd cent.	The synthesis of Greek astronomical thought, presented in his Almagest, by Claudius Ptolemy of Alexandria [AD 127-151]

8th-12th cents.	Development and spread of Arabic science and philosophy; eventually of the transmission of Aristotelian thought to the West by Islamic scholars, in particular by Averroes [1126-1198.] Origin of the base-10 number system in the work of Arabic and Hindu mathematicians of 8th-11th centuries

13th cent.	Assimilation of Aristotelian philosophy into Christian doctrine in the epochal writings of St. Thomas Aquinas. Beginning of modern number notation attributed Liber abaci published by Leonardo of Pisa [Fibonacci] in 1202

1543	Publication of De Revolutionibus Orbium Coelestium by Nicholas Copernicus, Mikolaj Kopernik in Polish [1473-1543,] and also of Concerning the Fabric of the Human Body by Andrea Vesalius, Andries Van Wesel in Flemish [1514-1564]

1600	Publication of Concerning the Magnet [De Magnete, Magneticisque Corporibus, et de Magno Magnete Tellure, “On the Magnet, Magnetic Bodies, and the Great Magnet of the Earth,”] by the English physician William Gilbert [1540-1603]

1603	Founding of the Accademia dei Lincei in Rome

1605	Publication of Advancement of Learning by Francis Bacon [1561-1626]

1609	Publication of Astronomia Nova by Johannes Kepler [1571-1630,] containing his statement of the first two laws of planetary motion

1610	Publication of Sidereal Messenger by Galileo Galilei [1564-1642,] describing his telescopic observations of the heavens

1619	Publication of Kepler’s Harmonia Mundia, announcing his discovery of the third law of planetary motion

1628	Publication of On the Motion of the Heart and Blood in Animals by the English physician William Harvey [1578-1657]

1632	Publication of Galileo’s Two Chief Systems of the World, in which Galileo argued [his conviction] for the Copernican system over the Ptolemaic and which resulted in a case being brought against him by the Inquisition

1637	Publication of the Discourse on Method by René Descartes [1596-1650]

1638	Publication of Galileo’s Discourses and Demonstrations Concerning Two New Sciences, in which he formulated an early and insightful though erroneous theory of solid mechanics [the bending and breaking of beams] and a theory with experiment of motion under uniform acceleration and of the pendulum which though limited to simple motions and dynamically incomplete was an important precursor to the work of Newton

1647	Revival of the ancient Epicurean atomic philosophy by Pierre Gassendi [1592-1655]

1657	Founding of the Accademia del Cimento in Florence

1660	Publication of New Experiments of Physico-Mechanical Touching the Spring of Air by the Anglo-Irish chemist and natural philosopher Robert Boyle [1627-1691]

1662	Founding of the Royal Society of London

1666	Founding of the French Academy of Science

1676	Determination of the finite velocity of light by the Danish astronomer Oleg Roemer [1644-1710]

1677	Discovery with the microscope of the existence of male spermatozoa by Anton von Leeuwenhoek [1632-1695]

1678	A wave theory of light proposed by Christian Huygens [1629-1695,] subsequently developed systematically in his Treatise on Light [1690]

1687	Publication of Principia Mathematica Philosophiae Naturalis by Isaac Newton [1642-1727]

1704	Publication of Newton’s Opticks, some of whose basic ideas had been communicated to the Royal Society in 1672

1789	Publication of Traité Elémentaire de Chimie by Antoine Lavoisier [1743-1794]

Society and Politics

AD	1713-1715	Peace of Utrecht; death of Louis XIV; Vanbrugh’s Blenheim Palace completed

1721	Bach’s Brandenburg Concertos completed; Montesquieu’s Persian Letters

1724	Fahrenheit’s thermometer devised

1734	Voltaire’s Philosophical Letters on the English

1748	Montesquieu’s Esprit des Lois

1750	The Encyclopédie begun; the Diplomatic Revolution

1752	Franklin shows that lightning is electricity

1756-1763	Seven Years’ War

1762	Rousseau’s Social Contract

1764	The Italian criminologist Beccaria’s On Crimes and Punishments, a celebrated volume on the reform of criminal justice

1765-1790	Enlightened despots in Austria, Germany, Spain, Portugal, and France

1776	Adam Smith’s Wealth of Nations; American Declaration of Independence

1778	Pierre Augustin Caron de Beaumarchais’ “private fleet” mustered I aid of rebelling Americans

1783	Beaumarchais’ Marriage of Figaro

1787-1788	Assembly of Notables; censorship lifted; Emmanuel-Joseph Sieyès’ What Is the Third Estate?

1789	Outbreak of revolution in France

Science versus Theology

AD	1687	Newton’s Principia Mathematica

1690	John Locke’s Essay Concerning Human Understanding

1697	Pierre Bayle’s Dictionnaire historique et critique

1704	Death of John Locke

1713	The papal bull Unigenitus condemning 101 theological propositions of the Jansenist writer Pasquier Quesnel contained in the book Réflexions morales; the war against the Jesuits

1733-1734	Alexander Pope’s Essay on Man

1736	Joseph Butler’s Analogy of Religion

1736	Voltaire’s Mahomet, on toleration, praised and rewarded by the pope

1747	Julien Offroy de La Mettrie’s L'Homme-machine [Man a Machine – a materialist interpretation of human and psychic phenomena, important in the modern history of materialism]

1748	Hume’s Essay on Miracles; Treaty of Aix-la-Chappelle; Montesquieu’s Esprit de Lois

1750 ff.	Georges-louis Leclerc De Buffon’s Natural History [evolutionary theory]

1750-1772	Denis Diderot and Jean le Rond d’Alembert’s Encyclopédie

1751	Voltaire’s Age of Louis XIV

1756	Voltaire’s Essay on the Customs and Manners of Nations

1760 ff.	Dictionnaire de Trévoux, Jesuit response to Encyclopédie

1762	Rousseau’s Confession of Faith of a Priest from Savoy

1764-1765	Voltaire’s Candide and Dictionairre philosophique portative

1778	Mesmer and mesmerism; death of Rousseau

1779	Hume’s posthumously published Dialogues on Natural Religion

THE AGE OF REVOLUTION

Europe: The Great Powers

Forming Nation States

AD	1581	Proclamation of Dutch independence from Spain

1594	Henry of Navarre crowned Henry IV of France

1603	Union of Scottish and English Crowns under the Stuart James I

1611-1614	Rebellion of the French princes

1624	Richelieu admitted to the Council of State

1625	Hugo Grotius publishes De Jure Belli et Pacis [international law]

1635	Founding of the French Academy, which establishes uniform grammar and usage for French language

1636-1637	Peasant revolts in southern and western France

1639	Nu-Pied, or Barefoot, Revolt in France

1640	Revolts of the Catalans, Portuguese, Irish and Neapolitans

1642	Outbreak of civil war in England

1648	Peace of Westphalia; sovereignty granted to the Swiss and Dutch states

1648-1652	Civil war in France

1649	Repression of the Irish by Cromwell

1652	Anglo-Dutch War

1653	Defeat of Brandenburg Estates

1655-1660	Northern War; Brandenburg gains sovereignty of Prussia

1660	Charles II declares the Declaration of Breda

1661	Beginning of the “personal” reign of Louis XIV

1663	Louis XIV occupies the Papal State of Avignon [Comtat Venaissin]

1678	Elector of Brandenburg attempts to suppress Wendish speech

1680-1683	Chambers of Reunion

1685	Revocation of the Edict of Nantes

The Age of Louis XIV

AD	1636	Corneal present Le Cid

1637	The current publishes the Discourse on Method

1638	Birth of Louis XIV

1642	Death of Richelieu

1643	Death of Louis XIII; Regency of Anne of Austria for Louis XIV; Battle of Rocroi

1648-1652	Civil Wars in France [the Frondes]

1656	Creation of the General Hospital, Paris

1660	Marriage of Louis XIV to Maria Theresa of Spain

1661	Death of Cardinal Mazarin, beginning of the “personal” reign of Louis XIV

1663	Le Nôtre designs the gardens of Versailles

1664	Molière presents Tartruffe; the play is banned

1664	Creation of the Compagnie des Indes

1665	Bernini visits Paris

1667	War of Devolution

1670	Promulgation of a reformed criminal code for France

1670	Treaty of Dover

1670	War with the Dutch; assassination of the De Witt brothers

1674	Invasion of the Franche Comté

1679	First fortress built by Vauban

1679	Bossuet publishes the Politique tirée de l’Ecriture Sainte

1679	La Fontaine publishes Books 7-11 of the Fables

1683	Death of Colbert

1685	Revocation of the Edict of Nantes

1688	War of the League of Augsburg; the Glorious Revolution in England; death of Frederick William the Great Elector

1691	Racine presents Athalie

1697	Bayle publishes Didtionnaire historique et critique

1700	Philip V proclaimed king of Spain

1702	Death of William III

1704	Battle of Blenheim

1713	Peace of Utrecht

1715	Death of Louis XIV

Europe in the 18th Century

AD	1709	Battle of Poltava [defeat of the Swedes by the Russians under Peter the Great]

1714	George of Hanover becomes king of England

1720	Collapse of Law’s Mississippi Scheme in France, and English South Sea Bubble

1721	Montesquieu publishes the Persian Letters

1721-1742	Administration of Robert Walpole

1726	Cardinal Fleury becomes prime minister in France

1734	Voltaire publishes Philosophical Letters on the English

1736	John Wesley begins to establish Methodist Societies

1740	Frederick II of Prussia invades Silesia

1741	Empress Maria Theresa rallies Hungarian nobles to fight the Prussians

1745	Battle of Fontenoy

1747	Richardson publishes Clarissa Harlowe

1748	Treaty of Aix-la-Chappelle

1750	Death of Johann Sebastian Bach; Voltaire begins his visit at the court of Frederick the Great; Diderot and collaborators publish first volume of the Encyclopédie

1756	Outbreak of the Seven Years’ War

1761	Resignation of William Pitt

1762	Catherine II becomes ruler of Russia; Rousseau publishes the Social Contract

1771	Parliaments abolished in France by Louis XV

1773	Diderot visits Catherine the Great in Russia

1774	Louis XVI becomes king of France and recalls the Parlements

1778	France intervenes in the War of American Independence

1781	Joseph II promulgates the Edict of Tolerance

1783	Russia annexes the Crimea; Beaumarchais presents Marriage of Figaro

Revolution in the Western World

The American Revolution

AD	1763	Treaty of Paris ending Seven Years’ War; Proclamation of 1763, restricting trans-Appalachian settlement; Patrick Henry’s argument in the Parson’s Cause

1764	Passage of the Sugar Act and Currency Acts

1765	Passage of the Stamp Act; Stamp Act Congress meets in New York and adopts Declaration of Rights and Grievances

1766	Repeal of the Stamp Act accompanied by passage of Declaratory Act

1767	Passage of Townshend Acts; revival of nonimportation agreements; publication of first of John Dickinson’s Farmers’ Letters

1768	Massachusetts House of Representatives adopts Circular Letter

1770	Townshend duties repealed in large part except for duties on tea

1772	Burning of the Gaspee; Committees of Correspondence organized by Samuel Adams

1773	Passage of the Tea Act; Boston Tea Party

1774	Passage of the “Intolerable Acts,” including the Quebec Act; First Continental Congress convenes at Philadelphia, defeats Galloway’s Plan of Union; adopts Declaration and Resolves and Continental Association

1775	Battles of Lexington and Concord; Second Continental Congress names Washington commander of the Continental forces; Battle of Bunker Hill

1776	Publication of Common Sense by Thomas Paine; Declaration of Independence; Battles of Long Island and Trenton

1777	Battles of Princeton and Germantown; Burgoyne’s surrender, Saratoga; Congress adopts Articles of Confederation

1778	Franco-American treaties of amity and commerce and of alliance with the United States

1779	Formal entry of Spain into the war against England

1780	Siege of Charleston and fall to the British; treason of Arnold

1781	Ratification of the Articles of confederation; surrender of the British at Yorktown to combined Franco-American forces

1782	Fall of Lord North’s ministry; signing of Preliminary Articles of Peace in Paris

1783	Signing of Definitive Treaty of Peace with Great Britain; British evacuate New York City

The French Revolution

AD	1789	Meeting of the Estates General; conversion of Estates General into National Assembly; fall of the Bastille; Decrees Abolishing the Feudal System

1790	Civil Constitution of the Clergy

1791	King forgiven after attempt to flee from France; Legislative Assembly convenes

1792	Beginning of war with Austria and Prussia; manifesto of the Duke of Brunswick; abolition of the Monarchy and establishment of the Republic

1793	Execution of Louis XVI; arrest of the leaders of the Girondins

1793-1794	The Reign of Terror

1794	Elimination of the Hébertists; elimination of the Dantonists; fall of the Robespierrists

1794-1795	The Thermidorian reaction

1795	Constitution establishing the Directory; dissolution of the Convention

1795-1799	The Directory

1706-1797	Italian campaign of Napoleon Bonaparte

1799	Overthrow of the Directory and establishment of the Napoleonic Consulate

Reaction and Rebellion

The Napoleonic Era

AD	1768	French take Corsica

1769	Napoleon Bonaparte born at Ajaccio, Corsica

1784	Napoleon enters the École Militaire

1789	Meeting of the Estates General; beginning of the French Revolution

1790	Edmund Burke’s Reflections on the Revolution in France published

1791-1792	Legislative Assembly

1792-1795	Convention

1793	Execution of Luis XIV; English evacuation of Toulon; Napoleon becomes brigadier general

1794	Fall of Robespierre

1795-1799	Directory

1796	Napoleon assumes command of the army of Italy

1797	Treaty of Campo Formio

1798	Napoleon sails from Toulon to begin Egyptian campaign; Battle of the Nile

1799-1804	Consulate

1800	Battle of Marengo; Battle of Hohenlinden

1801	Treaty of Lunéville; Alexander I becomes czar of Russia; French concordat with papacy

1802	Treaty of Amiens; Napoleon becomes life consul

1803	Bank of France founded

1804	Napoleon proclaimed emperor; Napoleonic Code promulgated

1805	Battle of Trafalgar; Battle of Austerlitz; Treaty of Pressburg

1806	Death of William Pitt; Battle of Jena; Berlin Decree, establishing the “Continental System”

1807	Great Britain abolishes the slave trade; Napoleon forces Ferdinand VII of Spain to abdicate and installs his brother Joseph as king of Spain; Battle of Friedland; Treaty of Tilsit; Milan Decree

1807-1808	J. G. Fichte delivers his Address to the German Nation

1809	Battle of Wagram; Treaty of Schönbrunn

1810	Napoleon marries Marie Louise of Austria

1811-1813	Luddite risings in Great Britain

1812	Napoleonic invasion of Russia

1813	Battle of Leipzig [Battle of the Nations]

1814	Napoleon abdicates; Treaties of Chaumont, establishing the Quadruple Alliance; First Treaty of Paris

1815	The Hundred Days; Conclusion of the Congress of Vienna; abdication of Napoleon; the Holy Alliance; Second Treaty of Paris

1821	Napoleon dies at St. Helena

The United States: 1789-1823

AD	1786	Annapolis Convention

1787	Philadelphia Convention

1789	George Washington inaugurated

1791	First Bank of the United States established

1795	Jay Treaty ratified

1796	Washington’s Farewell Address

1797	John Adams inaugurated

1798	Alien and Sedition acts; first Kentucky and Virginia Resolutions

1799	Second Kentucky resolution; undeclared naval war with France

1801	Thomas Jefferson inaugurated

1803	Louisiana Purchase

1804	Alexander Hamilton killed

1807	Embargo

1808	African slave trade ends

1809	Nonintercourse Act; James Madison inaugurated

1811	First Bank of the United States expires

1812	War of 1812

1814	Hartford Convention; Treaty of Ghent ends War of 1812

1816	Second Bank of the United States established

1817	James Monroe inaugurated

1820	Missouri Compromise

1823	Monroe Doctrine

Liberation Movements in Europe

AD	1814-1815	Congress of Vienna

1820-1821	Revolution in Naples; rising in Piedmont

1821-1830	Greek War of Independence

1823	The Monroe Doctrine proclaimed

1830	Greece recognized by the Powers; Otto of Bavaria king; revolution in Paris; Louis Philippe “king of the French;” rising in Brussels; proclamation of Belgian independence

1830-1831	Belgium recognized by the Powers; Leopold of Saxe-Coburg king

1831	Revolution in Warsaw; risings in central Italy

1819-1844	German Zollverein

1836	Palacký’s History of Bohemia

1837	Rebellion in Upper and Lower Canada

1839	Durham Report on the organization of Canada

1840	Union of Canada

1847-1848	Irish famine; Young Ireland

1848	Communist Manifesto; revolution in Paris; Second French Republic; revolutions in central Europe; Austro-Sardinian War; Piedmontese Statuto; Frankfurt Parliament; counterrevolution in France and in central Europe; Louis Napoleon elected President of the Republic

1849	Roman Republic; Austro-Sardinian War; Frankfurt constitution; Russian intervention in Hungary; the French in Rome

1867	British North America Act creates Dominion of Canada

Liberation Movements in Latin America

AD	1804	Haiti declares its independence

1808	Portuguese Court flees to Brazil

1810	Autonomous governments set up in Argentina, Chile, Colombia, and Venezuela

1815	Brazil declared a kingdom

1816	Bolívar issues a decree against slavery

1817	José de San Martin crosses the Andes to defeat Spaniards at Battle of Chacabuco

1821	Victory of Bolívar at Carabobo, last major engagement of war in Venezuela; Mexico wins its independence, followed by short-lived [1822-1823] rule of Emperor Agustín Iturbide

1822	Brazilian Empire declared independent under Pedro I

1824	Battle of Ayacucho, last major engagement in South America

1826	Congress of Panama, convoked by Bolívar

1830	Death of Bolívar

The Near East

AD	1774	Russo-Ottoman Treaty of Kuchuk Kainarji

1792-1793	Nizam-I Jedid; New Regulations reorganizing Ottoman military and civilian institutions

1794	Founding of Qajar dynasty in Iran

1804	Servian revolt against Ottoman rule

1804-1812	Russo-Persian war, ended by Treaty of Bulistan in 1813

1805	Muhammad Ali becomes governor of Egypt and founds dynasty

1807-1808	Revolt of Janissaries, murder of Selim III, succeeded by Mahmud II as Ottoman Sultan

1811	Muhammad Ali massacres Mamelukes and consolidates his rule

1820-1822	Muhammad Ali conquers Sudan

1821-1830	Greek war of independence

1825-1828	Russo-Persian war, ended by Treaty of Turkmanchai, 1828

1826	Mahmud II massacres Janissaries and reorganizes Ottoman army

1832-1833

& 1839-1840	Ottoman-Egyptian wars

1837-1838	Persian-Afghan war

1839	Hatt-I Sherif of Gulhane: reforms guaranteeing liberties of Ottoman subjects; British occupy Aden

1854-1856	Crimean War

1856	Hatt-I Humayun: extend rights grant by Hatt-I Sherif; Anglo-Persian war

1860-1861	Communal conflicts in Lebanon and Syria

1868-1876	Ottoman Civil Code

1869	Opening of Suez Canal

1875-1878	Balkan and Russo-Turkish wars

1876	Proclamation of Ottoman Constitution, accession of Abdul Hamid II

1881-1882	Arab revolt in Egypt, followed by British occupation

1883-1885	Mahdist revolt in Sudan ending Egyptian rule

1896	Assassination of Nasirudding Shah of Iran

1896-1898	Anglo-Egyptian reconquest of Sudan

1901	Oil concession granted to W. K. D’Arcy in Iran

1905-1909	Constitutional Revolution in Iran

1908-1909	Young Turk revolt restores constitution in Turkey; deposition of Abdul Hamid in 1909

1912-1913	Balkan wars

1914	Turkey enters war on side of Central Powers; Egypt becomes British protectorate

1916	Arab revolt against Turkey

1917	Balfour Declaration, promising Jewish national home in Palestine

1912-1922	Turkish war of liberation against Greek and Allied forces

1923	Treaty of Lausanne between Turkey and Allied Powers; deposition of sultan; Turkey proclaimed republic

1920	League of Nations assigns mandates to France over Lebanon and Syria and to Britain over Iraq, Palestine, and Transjordan

1921-1925	Riza Khan establishes control over Iran, deposes Ahmed Shah and founds Pahlavi dynasty

1922	Britain declares Egypt independent

1924	Ibn Saud conquers Hijaz and establishes rule over most of Arabian Peninsula

1932	Iraq granted independence

The Industrial Revolution

The Industrial Revolution in England

AD	1694	Founding of the Bank of England

1733	James Kay invents the flying shuttle

1769	Josiah Wedgwood opens pottery factory at Etruria, near Stoke-upon-Trent; James Watt patents the steam engine after years of experimentation; Richard Arkwright invents the water-powered spinning frame

1770	James Hargreaves patents the spinning Jenny

1776	Adam Smith publishes The Wealth of Nations, the classic of classical political economy

1784	James Watt patents a locomotive, two years after Oliver Evans patents a similar device

1785	Edmund Cartwright patents the power loom

1793	Eli Whitney invents the cotton gin

1798	Eli Whitney builds a factory for the mass production of firearms near New Haven

1811	Pittsburgh’s first rolling mill opens

1821	Great Britain adopts the gold standard

1822	First textile mills in Lowell, Massachusetts

1824-1825	Repeal of the Combination Acts in Great Britain, permitting trade unions to burgeon

1829	George Stephenson perfects the steam locomotive

1830	Railroad is put to first serious uses in the United States

1846	Great Britain repeals the Corn Laws

1849	Great Britain repeals the Navigation Acts

1858	Henry Bessemer (later Sir Henry) builds Bessemer Steel Works at Sheffield, using a new process that makes large-scale production possible

1869	Transcontinental railway across the United States is completed

The Spread of Industrialization

AD	1793	Alexander Hamilton, “Report on Manufactures”

1859	Value added by manufacturing exceeds value of agricultural products sold

1901	US Steel Corporation, first business capitalized at more than a billion dollars, formed

A World Economy

AD	1807	Robert Fulton sails from New York to Albany in steamboat Clermont

1816	Regular transatlantic service, in sailing ships, between Liverpool and New York

1819	Savannah crosses Atlantic, mostly under steam

1821	Adoption of gold standard in England

1825	Opening of Stockton and Darlington railroad, in England

1844	Electric telegraph opens between Washington and Baltimore

1846	Repeal of Corn Laws

1866	Laying of first transatlantic cable

1869	Opening of the Union and Pacific’s transcontinental railway; opening of Suez Canal

1876	Invention of telephone

1884	Invention of compound turbine in steam navigation

1887	Daimler’s internal combustion automobile

1901	Marconi’s first translantic radiotelegraphy message

1902	First transpacific cable

1903	Completion of trans-Siberian railway; airplane flight by Wright Brothers

1909	First cross-Channel flight by Louis Blériot

1914	Opening of Panama Canal

1919	First transatlantic flight by John Alcock and Arthur Brown

1924	First flight around the world by United States Army planes

1936	First television broadcast

New Forces, New Ideas

Romanticism and After

AD	1761-1762	Rousseau’s Émile and Nouvelle Héloϊse

1767-1769	Lessing’s Hamburgishce Dramaturgie

1774	Goethe’s Sorrows of Young Werther

1790	Goethe’s Faust: A fragment

1796	Erasmus Darwin’s Zoonomia (evolutionary theory)

1798	Wordsworth’s and Coleridge’s Lyrical Ballads

1803	Death of Herder; birth of Berlioz

1804	Beethoven’s Eroica Symphony

1807	Hegel’s Phenomenology of Mind

1814	George Stephenson’s first locomotive

1820-1830	Rediscovery of Diderot’s Rameau’s Nephew, The Memoirs of Benvenuto Cellini, the poems of François Villon, and the philosophy of Spinoza

1822	Stendhal’s Racine et Shakespeare

1824	Death of Byron in Greece; Delacroix’s first modern painting

1827	Victor Hugo’s Preface to his play Cromwell; death of Beethoven

1830	Berlioz’s Symphonie Fantastique; Revolution in Paris, Belgium, Italy, and the German Rhineland

1830-1842	Comte’s Positivist philosophy

1833-1839	Invention of photography

1835	David Strauss’s Life of Jesus; Tocqueville’s Democracy in America

1837	Pugin’s Contrasts; deaths of Leopardi and Pushkin

1839	Turner’s painting The Fighting Téméraire

1845	Alexander von Humboldt’s Cosmos

1848	Revolutions on the Continent; Chartism threatening in England

1850	Death of Wordsworth

From Liberalism to Democracy

AD	1815	Waterloo; Peace by Congress of Vienna

1819	Carlsbad Decrees against liberal youth and intellectuals

1829-1830	The Carbonari revolutionists in France and Italy

1821	Death of Napoleon

1822-1823	Congress of Verona and Spanish revolution put down by the French

1823	Monroe Doctrine

1824	Death of Byron at Missolonghi

1828	Jacksonian democracy in power in the United States

1829	The Greek Revolution succeeds and is ratified by the powers

1830	Revolutions in France, Belgium, the Rhineland, Italy, and Brazil

1832	The English Reform Bill passed after a near-revolution

1831-1834	Revolutions in Poland, Spain, and Italy

1840	Napoleon’s ashes brought to Paris

1840-1848	Socialism: Louis Blanc; Chartism and Parliamentary rule

1848	Revolutions in France, Germany, Austria, and Italy

1851	The Great Exhibition in London

1852	The Second French Empire: democracy, the welfare state, and dictatorship

The Rise of Socialism

AD	1795-1796	Babeuf leads the proto-communist “Conspiracy of Equals” in France

1813	Richard Owens publishes A New View of Society

1817	Ricardo’s Principle’s of Political Economy and Taxation published, the definitive statement of classical political economy

1818	Karl Marx born at Trier in the Rhineland

1832	Death of G. W. F. Hegel

1840	Proudhon publishes What is Property?

1844	Marx meets Friedrich Engels

1845	Engels publishes The Condition of the Working Class in England in 1844

1848	Marx and Engels publish the Communist Manifesto; European revolutions

1849	Marx settles in England

1864	Ferdinand Lassalle killed in a duel; International Working Men’s Association (First International) founded in London

1867	Marx publishes first volume of Capital

1871	Commune established in Paris following French defeat in Franco-Prussian War

1872-1876	Torn by internal divisions, the First International gradually disintegrates

1875	Social Democratic Party founded in Germany

1883	Fabian Society founded in London; Marx dies

1889	Second International founded; Eduard Bernstein proposes his “revisionist” departure from orthodox Marxism

1893	Independent Labour party founded in England

1900	Labour Representation Committee founded in England, leading to formation of the Labour party in 1906

1905	Russian Revolution

1908	Georges Sorel publishes Reflections on Violence

1914	Divisions in socialist parties on the question of the war result in general support of the war and collapse of Second International

The Antislavery Impulse in America

AD	1777	Vermont ends slavery

1804	New Jersey ends slavery

1808	Slave trade ends

1817	American Colonization Society established

1820	Missouri Compromise

1822	Denmark Vessey Conspiracy

1829	David Walker Appeal published

1831	The Liberator begins publication; Nat Turner rebellion

1833	Britain ends slavery

1836	Gag Rule

1840	Liberty party formed

1843	Repeal of Gag Rule

1845	Texas annexed; Methodist Church splits along sectional lines

1846	Mexican War; Wilmot Proviso

1848	Mexican War ends; Free Soil party organized

1850	Compromise of 1850

1854	Kansas-Nebraska Act

1857	Dred Scott decision

1860	Abraham Lincoln elected; South Carolina secedes

1861	Civil War begins

1863	Emancipation Proclamation

1865	End of Civil War, 13th Amendment ratified

Unification Movements

AD	1792-1815	The French Revolution and Napoleon; political rearrangements in central Europe; wars of liberation

1815	Settlement of Vienna

1815-1848	Italian Risorgimento; Metternichian system

1819-1844	German Zollverein

1846	Pius IX pope

1848	Piedmontese Statuto

1848-1849	Failure of revolutions in central Europe; Austro-Sardinian wars

1852	The Danish Duchies; London Protocol; Cavour prime minister of Sardinia

1854-1856	Congress of Paris

1858	Plombières agreement between Napoleon III and Cavour; Franco-Sardinian alliance

1859	War between Austria and France and Sardinia; Armistice of Villafranca

1860	Collapse of the Italian Structure; Garibaldi’s expedition

1860-1861	Insurrection in Syria; French expedition; Statute of the Lebanon

1861	Proclamation of the Kingdom of Italy

1862	Bismarck minister president of Prussia; union of Moldavia and Wallachia under Alexander Cuza

1863	Polish insurrection; Alvensleben Convention

1864	War of Prussia and Austria against Denmark; cession of Schleswig and Holstein by Denmark

1865	Gastein Convention between Austria and Prussia; Biarritz meeting of Napoleon III and Bismarck

1866	Austro-Prussian war; Treaty of Prague; Italy acquires Venetia

1866-1868	Cretan revolt

1867	North German Confederation; Austro-Hungarian Ausgleich

1868-1870	Hohenzollern candidacy to the Spanish throne

1870-1871	Ems dispatch; Franco-Prussian war

1871	Proclamation of the German Empire at Versailles; Treaty of Frankfurt; annexation of Alsace-Lorraine

THE MODERN WORLD

Toward Disintegration

Imperialism in Africa

AD	1805	Accession of Muhammad Ali, pasha of Egypt

1820	Egyptian conquest of Sudan

1830	French occupation of Algiers

1833	Abolition of slavery in the British Empire

1836-1837	Great Trek in South Africa

1859-1860	Spanish-Moroccan war

1861	British annexation of Lagos

1869	Opening of Suez Canal

1872	Internal self-government in South Africa

1873-1874	Anglo-Ashanti war

1876	Founding of International African Association; European control assumed over Egyptian finances

1882	British occupation of Egypt; Makoko Treaty (Congo)

1884-1885	Declaration of German African protectorates; Berlin West Africa Conference

1885	Founding of the Congo Independent State; fall of Khartoum and death of General Charles Gordon

1886	Discovery of Gold on the Witwatersrand; Anglo-German East African boundary agreement; grant of charter to Royal Niger Company

1889	Italo-Ethiopian Treaty of Wichale; grant of charter to British South Africa Company

1890	Anglo-German African boundaries agreement; British protectorate over Zanzibar and Pemba; “Pioneer Column” to Rhodesia

1893 ff.	French conquest of Dahomey

1894	British protectorate over Uganda; French occupation of Timbuktu

1894 ff.	French conquest of Madagascar

1895	Jameson raid in the Transvaal; British protectorate over East Africa (Kenya)

1896	Battle of Aduwa; British occupation of Ashanti

1896-1897	Revolts in Matabeleland and Mashonaland

1898	French defeat of Samori Tourè; Battle of Omdurman and “Fashoda Incident”

1899-1902	South African (Boer) war

1900-1903	British occupation of Northern Nigeria

1905-1907	Maji-Maji Rising (German East Africa)

1912	French Protectorate over Morocco

American Imperialism

AD	1867	Alaska purchased

1887	Pearl Harbor acquired

1898	U.S.S. Maine destroyed; McKinley’s war message; Battle of Manila Bay; Battles of El Caney and San Juan Hill; Spanish fleet destroyed; Hawaii annexed; Treaty of Paris (ratified 1899), ending war with Spain; Puerto Rico, Guam and Philippine Islands acquired

1902	End of Philippine insurrection

1904	Panama Canal Zone acquired on lease

1917	Danish West Indies purchased (renamed Virgin Islands)

China Under the Impact of the West

AD	1839-1842	Opium War

1850-1873	Taiping and other rebellions

1860’s-1870’s	Self-Strengthening movement

1894-1895	First Sino-Japanese War

1898	Hundred Days of Reform, under K’ang Yu-Wei

1900	Boxer Rebellion

1910	Annexation of Korea by Japan

1911	Revolution of 1911

India Under British Rule

AD	1757	Battle of Plassey; sack of Delhi by Afghans

1761	Marathas defeated at Panipat by Afghans and Mughals

1765	Grant of diwani to East India Company by Mughal Emperor

1784	Pitt’s India Act

1786-1793	Lord Cornwallis governor general

1792	Ranjit Singh comes to power

1793	Permanent settlement in Bengal

1798-1805	Lord Wellesley governor general

1799	Defeat of Tippu Sultan of Mysore

1817-1819	Final war against Marathas

1828-1835	Lord William Bentinck governor general

1835	Resolution on use of English for higher education

1839	Death of Ranjit Singh

1839-1842	First Afghan War

1843	Annexation of Sindh

1849	Annexation of Punjab

1853	First railway line opened

1857-1858	Rebellions and army mutinies

1858	Power transferred from East India Company to Crown

1880-1884	Lord Ripon governor general

1885	Organization of Indian National Congress

1892	India Councils Act

1899-1905	Lord Curzon governor general

Darwin and Freud

AD	1796	T. R. Malthus publishes An Essay on the Principles of Population

1801	Lamarck publishes Système des animaux sans vertèbres

1809	Charles Darwin is born

1820	Herbert Spencer is born

1830-1833	Charles Lyell publishes Principles of Geology

1848	Darwin’s theories are fully developed in unpublished papers

1856	Sigmund Freud is born

1859	Darwin publishes The Origin of the Species

1862	Spencer publishes First Principles

1871	Darwin publishes Descent of Man

1882	Darwin dies

1897	Freud discovers essential principles of psychoanalysis; undertakes his self-analysis

1899	Freud publishes The Interpretation of Dreams

1905	Freud publishes Three Essays on the Theory of Sexuality

1909	Freud, in the company of Jung, visits the United States to lecture at Clark University

1910	Founding of the International Psychoanalytical Society; Jung president

1911-1913	Falling out of Freud with Jung and Adler, mainly on the issue of infantile sexuality

1923 ff.	Freud publishes The Ego and the Id; period of the last works, including The Future of an Illusion, and Civilization and Its Discontents

1939	Freud dies

The Great Powers to the Verge of War

AD	1867	Second Reform Act in Great Britain

1871	Proclamation of William I as Emperor of Germany; Russia denounces the Black Sea clauses of the Treaty of Paris (1856)

1871-1875	Gradual emergence of Third Republic in France

1873	Onset of agricultural depression in western Europe

1876	“Bulgarian atrocities” committed by Turks in suppressing a revolt

1877	Russo-Turk war begins

1878	Treaty of San Stefano; Congress of Berlin

1879	Alliance of Germany and Austria

1881	Czar Alexander II assassinated

1882	Germany, Austria, and Italy form Triple Alliance; British invade and occupy Egypt

1884	Third Reform Act in Great Britain

1884-1885	Berlin Conference (On Africa)

1886	Introduction of First Home Rule Bill in British Parliament; its defeat followed by splitting of Liberal party

1887	Reinsurance Treaty between Germany and Russia

1888	Death of William I; accession of Frederick III; death of Frederick III; accession of William III

1890	Bismarck dismissed

1893-1894	Franco-Russian Alliance

1898	Fashoda Crisis; first Germany Navy Law begins naval race with Great Britain

1899	First Hague Peace Conference; Boer War between Great Britain and Transvaal begins

1902	Anglo-Japanese Alliance; Treaty of Vereeniging ends Boer War

1904	Anglo-French Entente concluded

1904-1905	Russo-Japanese War

1905	First Moroccan Crisis

1905-1906	Russian Revolution

1906	Algeciras Conference

1907	Second Hague Peace Conference; conclusion of Anglo-Russian Entente

1908	Austrian annexation of Bosnia and Herzegovina

1911	Second Moroccan Crisis

1912-1913	First Balkan War

1913	Second Balkan War

1914	Assassination of Archduke Francis Ferdinand at Sarajevo; Austrian ultimatum to Serbia; Russian mobilization; German and French mobilization; Germany declares war on Russia; Germany declares war on France; following German invasion of Belgium, Great Britain declares war on Germany

1915	Italy enters the war on the Allied side

The Great War: 1914–1945

World War I

AD	1914	German declaration of war on Russia; German declaration of war on France; British declaration of war on Germany; Battle of the Marne

1915	Lusitania sunk by German submarine, 139 Americans lost; Italy enters war on Allied side; Dardanelles operation

1916	British Parliament passes conscription; Battle of Verdun; Hindenburg appointed chief of staff with Ludendorff as quartermaster general; Lloyd George becomes prime minister of Great Britain

1917	Germany notifies U.S. that unrestricted submarine warfare will begin the next day; provisional Russian government established under Prince Lvov; Nicholas II abdicates; U.S. declares war on Germany; mutinies in French army; beginning of ill-fated Brusilov offensive; German Chancellor Bethmann Hollweg forced to resign and succeeded by Dr. Michaelis; real power in hands of Hindenburg and Ludendorff; beginning of Italian disaster at Caporetto; Bolshevik revolution; Clemenceau become prime minister in France; Bolshevik Russia concludes armistice with Central Powers

1918	Russia signs Brest Litovsk Treaty, ceding Poland, Lithuania, Ukraine, etc.; Germans begin great spring offensive in the west; Foch named commander in chief of Allied forces in France; first major, successful American engagement at Château-Thierry; Second Battle of the Marne; successful Allied counteroffensive in the west; Bulgaria receives armistice; new German government of Prince Max von Baden asks President Wilson for armistice based on Fourteen Points; armistice with Turkey; Allies sign armistice with Austria-Hungary; Germany accepts armistice and hostilities end everywhere

The Russian Revolution and the Stalin Era

AD	1904	Outbreak of Russo-Japanese War

1905	“Bloody Sunday,” beginning of 1905 Revolution

1914	Outbreak of First World War

1916	Murder of Rasputin

1917	March 8-15, “February Revolution”; April 16, Lenin returns to Russia; July 16-17, “July Days”; Sept. 9-14, Kornilov Affair; Nov. 7, Bolshevik seizure of power: “October Revolution”

1918	Treaty of Brest-Litovsk with Germany

1918-1920	Civil war and foreign intervention

1921	Kronstadt mutiny; beginning of New Economic Policy

1922	Stalin named Secretary General of Communist Party

1924	Death of Lenin

1926	Zinoviev, Trotsky, and Kamenev removed from Politburo

1928	Adoption of First Five-Year Plan

1929	Bukharin ousted from Politburo

1934	Assassination of Kirov; beginning of Great Purges

1936	Stalin Constitution approved

1939	Ribbentrop-Molotov Pact

1941	German invasion of U.S.S.R.

1953	Death of Stalin

The United States: Prosperity and Depression

AD	1918	End of World War I

1919	U.S. Senate rejects League of Nations treaty; Red Scare; 18th Amendment (Prohibition) ratified

1920	19th Amendment (Women’s Suffrage) ratified; Republicans returned to power; census reveals U.S. predominantly urban

1922	Nine-Power Treaty

1928	The Big Bull Market; Kellogg-Briand Pact

1929	Wall Street Crash

1932	Election of Franklin D. Roosevelt: Democrats new majority party

1933	Bank crisis; beginning of New Deal; the Hundred Days; recognition of U.S.S.R.

1935	Second Hundred Days; Social Security Act and welfare state; first neutrality legislation

1937	Sitdown strikes; Constitutional crisis; recession

1938	End of New Deal reforms

1939	Outbreak of World War II in Europe

Modern China

AD	1912-1916	Yüan Shih-k’ai first president of the Republic of China

1919	May Fourth Movement

1924	Reorganization of the Kuomintang

1926-1928	Northern Expedition, and reunification of China under the Kuomintang

1934-1935	Chinese Communists’ Long March

1937-1945	Second Sino-Japanese War

Modernizing Japan

AD	1868	New imperial government established at Edo, renamed Tokyo

1871-1876	Basic policies of centralization and liquidation of caste privilege

1873	Universal military conscription; dispute over Korean invasion resolved in favor of peace faction

1877	Satsuma Rebellion

1881	Date set on constitution and parliament

1889	Promulgation of Meiji Constitution

1890	First session of Imperial Diet

1894-1895	First Sino-Japanese War

1904-1905	Russo-Japanese War

1915	Japanese attempt to assert political and military dominance over China (Twenty-one Demands)

1918	Cabinet of Prime Minister Hara, first to be headed by a member of the House of Representatives

1930	World depression reaches Japan

1931	Mukden Incident, leading to Japanese conquest of Manchuria

1932	Abandonment of party cabinets

1936	Abortive “February Mutiny”

1937	Incident at Marco Polo Bridge brings all-out war with China

1941-1945	Japan at war with Western Allies

Nationalism in India

AD	1905	Partition of Bengal

1906	Founding of Muslim League

1909	Morley-Minto Reforms

1912	Delhi made capital of India

1917	Announcement by British Parliament of responsible government as Goal for India

1919	Montagu-Chelmsford Reforms

1920	M. K. Gandhi becomes leader of Indian National Congress

1921	First Noncooperation Movement

1927	Simon Commission

1930	Civil Disobedience Movement

1935	Government of India Act

1937	Inauguration of provincial autonomy

1939	Congress ministries resign on war issue

1942	Last civil disobedience movement; August uprisings

1946	Negotiations for transfer of power

1947	Lord Mountbatten governor general; partition and independence

Europe Between the Wars

AD	1919	Treaty of Versailles signed; Treaty of St. Germain with Austria; Treaty of Neuilly with Bulgaria

1920	U.S. Senate rejects League of Nations; Treaty of Trianon with Hungary; Treaty of Sèvres with Turkey

1921	New Economic Policy inaugurated in U.S.S.R.

1922	Mussolini’s March on Rome; Fascists take power

1922-1923	Washington Naval Conference

1923	French occupation of the Ruhr; Treaty of Lausanne with Turkey; Adolf Hitler stages Beer Hall Putsch in Munich

1924	Lenin’s death

1925	Locarno Treaties

1926	General Strike in Great Britain; Stalin establishes control in U.S.S.R.; Imperial Conference defines nature of British Commonwealth Nations

1928	Pact of Paris, Kellogg-Briand Pact, “outlawing war”

1929	Lateran Treaties between Italy and the papacy; stock market crashes in New York, ushering in world-wide depression

1930	Reichstag election marks emergence of Nazis as major party

1931	Incident at Mukden provides pretext for beginning of Japanese occupation of Manchuria; defeat of Labour party in general elections followed by formation of a National Government (a coalition) in Great Britain

1932	Japanese occupation of Shanghai; Reichstag elections, from which Nazis emerge as largest party but without a majority

1934	Purge of Nazi party

1935	Italy invades Ethiopia

1936	Germany reoccupies the Rhineland; Spanish Civil War begins

1938	Germany takes over Austria; Munich Conference

1939	End of Civil War in Spain; nonaggression pact between Russia and Germany; Germany invades Poland; Great Britain and France declare war on Germany

World War II

AD	1939	Nazi-Soviet Pact; Germany invades Poland; Britain and France declare war on Germany; partition of Poland between Germany and Russia

1939-1940	The “phony” war; first Russo-Finnish War

1940	Denmark and Norway overrun by Germany; Germany launches attack in the West; Churchill succeeds Chamberlain as prime minister; Battle and collapse of France; Dunkirk evacuation; French armistice; Vichy regime; De Gaulle launches Free French movement; Italy enters the war; Battle of Britain; destroyer-bases deal between U.S. and Britain; FDR elected for third term

1941	Central and eastern European arrangements; Lend-Lease legislation; Yugoslavia and Greece overrun; Hitler attacks Russia; Atlantic Charter; Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor

1941-1942	Germans reach Caucasus; Japanese spread over Southeast Asia, Indonesia and the Pacific

1942	Battle of the Coral Sea; Battle of Stalingrad; El Alamein; all France occupied; North African landings

1943	Russia withdraws recognition from Polish government in exile; French Committee of National Liberation in Algiers; invasion of Sicily; Italian armistice; collapse of Fascist regime, meeting of Allied foreign ministers in Moscow; Teheran conference of the Big Three; Cairo declaration re China

1944	Normandy landings; FCNL becomes provisional French government; Rome entered; Warsaw rising; liberation of Paris; Battle of the Bulge

1945	Yalta Conference of the Big Three; death of FDR; Harry S. Truman president; Germany surrenders; Hitler commits suicide; Potsdam Conference; first atomic bomb dropped on Hiroshima; Japan surrenders

The Brooding Present

Europe Since World War II

AD	1945	Surrender of Germany; San Francisco Conference; The United Nations; Potsdam Conference; Labour in office in Britain; surrender of Japan

1946	Fourth French Republic; Italy becomes a republic; Churchill’s “iron curtain” speech in Fulton, Missouri; De Gaulle “withdraws”

1947	Communists out of government in France and in Italy; Truman Doctrine; beginning of the Cold War; India and Pakistan emerge to independence; UN establishes state of Israel

1948	Communist coup in Prague; Marshall Plan and OEEC; Yugoslavia-Soviet break

1948-1949	The Berlin Blockade

1949	Signature of NATO Treaty; emergence of the West German Federal Republic; the German Democratic Republic

1950	The Korean War; Indonesian independence

1952	Elizabeth II Queen of the United Kingdom

1953	Death of Stalin; Eisenhower President of the U.S.; East Berlin rising; ECSC launched

1954	Geneva conference and agreement re French Indochina; EDC proposal defeated in French parliament

1955	Bandung meeting; Treaty of Peace with Austria; Warsaw Pact; emergence of Nikita Khrushchev in control

1956	Twentieth Party Congress of U.S.S.R.; independence of Tunisia and Morocco; Hungarian rising crushed by Soviet Intervention; Israeli attack on Egypt; Anglo-French intervention at Suez

1957	Sputnik

1958	Treaty of Rome launches the Common Market (EEC); De Gaulle called back to power; the Fifth French Republic; the Eisenhower Doctrine re the Middle East

1960	Abortive summit meeting in Paris; independence of the Belgian Congo; independence of French Black Africa; beginning of Sino-Soviet conflict

1962	Independence of Algeria; Cuban missile crisis

1963	France vetoes British application to Common Market

1964	Ouster of Khrushchev

1967	The Six-Day war between Israel and the Arab countries

1968	Student agitation strikes in France; Warsaw pact countries occupy Czechoslovakia

1969	De Gaulle quits office; Pompidou president; American moon landing

1970-1971	Issue of Britain’s adherence to the Common Market; Sino-American relations; problems of the American and world economies

The Cold War

AD	1939	German-Soviet nonaggression treaty

1941	Germany invades Soviet Union; Pearl Harbor

1943	Discovery of Katyn massacre; U.S.S.R. rupture with Polish government in exile; Teheran Conference

1944	Normandy landing; pro-Soviet Polish National Committee created; Warsaw uprising; Churchill-Stalin agreement in Moscow; civil conflict in Greece

1945	Yalta Conference; pro-Soviet Groza formed in Rumania; Potsdam Conference; first atomic bomb dropped, on Hiroshima; Moscow Conference

1946	Churchill’s “iron curtain” speech at Fulton, Missouri

1947	Announcement of “Truman Doctrine” for aid to Greece and Turkey; Marshall Plan launched; creation of Cominform

1948	Communist coup in Prague; Tito’s Yugoslavia expelled from Cominform; beginning of Berlin blockade

1949	North Atlantic Treaty signed; Chinese People’s Republic proclaimed

1950	North Korean invasion of South Korea; Atlantic Council agrees on measures of West German rearmament

1953	Death of Stalin

1956	Khrushchev denunciation of Stalin; Gomulka becomes First Secretary of Polish Communist party; abortive Hungarian uprising

1957	Khrushchev defeats “anti-Party group”; launching of first Soviet Sputnik

1959	Fidel Castro victory in Cuba

1960	Revelation of Sino-Soviet rift

1961	Abortive Bay of Pigs invasion in Cuba; erection of Berlin wall

1962	Cuban missile crisis

Latin America in Ferment

AD	1898	Spanish-American War

1910	Revolution begins in Mexico

1912	Universal compulsory male suffrage law passed in Argentina

1916	First popularly elected president in Argentina, Hipólito Iriyogen

1918	Student movement begins in Córdoba, Argentina

1930	Getúlio Vargas begins 15-year rule in Brazil; the depression comes to Latin America

1934-1940	Làzaro Càrdenas stabilizes Mexico, implements the revolution, expropriates foreign oil properties (1938)

1943-1955	Perón dominates Argentina

1952	Bolivian Revolution

1959	Fidel Castro triumphs in Cuba

1961	Bay of Pigs invasion of Cuba fails; Trujillo assassinated, ending 31-year dictatorship in the Dominican Republic

1962	Missile crisis between Russia and the United States

1965	First Pan-American Assembly on Population meets in Colombia; President Lyndon Johnson sends Marines to the Dominican Republic

1970	Salvador Allende elected president of Chile

The Middle East Since 1940

AD	1941	Anglo-Soviet troops occupy Iran; Riza Shah deposed and replaced by son

1945	Formation of Arab League

1945-1947	Azerbaijan crisis

1946	French troops evacuate Lebanon and Syria; Britain recognizes independence of Transjordan (Jordan)

1947	Truman Doctrine promising support to Greece and Turkey; United Nations partition of Palestine, evacuation of British Troops

1948	Proclamation of State of Israel

1948-1949	Arab-Israeli war

1949	First of seri3s of military revolts in Syria

1951	Nationalization of oil industry in Iran

1952	Military revolution in Egypt overthrows monarchy and establishes republic

1954	Anglo-Egyptian Treaty providing for evacuation of British troops

1955	Baghdad Pact

1958	Military revolt in Iraq ends monarchy

1962	Civil War in Yemen, overthrow of monarchy

1967	Arab-Israeli war

1968	Independence of Southern Yemen

Africa since 1945

AD	1944	Brazzavillle Conference of French Union

1945	Fifth Pan-African Conference, Manchester

1948	Nationalist Party comes to power in Union of South Africa

1952	Overthrow of King Farouk in Egypt; Mau Mau emergency proclaimed in Kenya

1954	Algerian war of independence begins

1955	Bandung conference

1956	Independence of Sudan, Tunisia, Morocco

1957	Independence of Ghana

1958	Referendum in French Africa; conference of Independent African States, Accra; All-African People’s Conference, Accra; independence of Guinea

1960	Year of Africa (independence of 17 states); Congo crisis breaks out; Katanga secession

1961	Creation of Casablanca and Monrovia groups; Angola rebellion begins (first in Portuguese Africa)

1962	Algeria gains independence; end of Katanga secession

1963	Creation of Organization of African Unity

1965	Unilateral Declaration of Independence by Southern Rhodesia

1966	Coups in Nigeria (death of Balewa) and Ghana (fall of Nkrumah)

1967	Secession of Biafra

1970	End of Biafra secession

The New Asia

AD	1945	Dropping of first atomic bombs; Soviet entry in the Pacific war; Japanese surrender and end of World War II in Asia

1946	Unsuccessful U.S. attempt to mediate Nationalist-Communist conflict in China and renewal of Chinese civil war; independence of the Philippines

1947	Independence of India and Pakistan

1948	Independence of Burma; outbreak of Communist-led rebellions in Burma and several other Southeast Asian countries; assassination of Gandhi in India

1949	Communist victory over Chiang Kai-shek’s regime in China and establishment of the People’s Republic of China under Mao Tse-tung; independence of Indonesia under Sukarno

1950	Sino-Soviet alliance; outbreak of Korean War

1951	Japanese peace treaty and U.S.-Japan security treaty; start of Korean peace negotiations at Panmunjom; India’s first Five-Year Plan

1953	Truce in Korea; China’s first Five-Year Plan; election of Magsaysay as president of the Philippines

1954	Geneva Conference and French withdrawal from Indochina; establishment of SEATO (Southeast Asia Treaty Organization)

1955	Bandung conference of Asian-African leaders; start of U.S.-China Geneva-Warsaw talks

1957	Malayan independence; Sukarno’s introduction of “guided democracy” in Indonesia; revolt in Sumatra and outer islands of Indonesia

1958	“Great Leap Forward” in China; “offshore islands” crisis on China coast

1959	Tibetan revolt; Chinese-Indian border incidents

1960	Open debate in Sino-Soviet relations; renewed conflict in Vietnam; revision of the U.S.-Japan security treaty

1962	China-India border conflict; Geneva Conference on Laos; Ne Win coup d’état in Burma

1964	China’s first nuclear test; death of Nehru; Indonesian “confrontation” with Malaysia

1965	Attempted communist coup in Indonesia, resulting in military control under Suharto; major U.S. intervention in Vietnam; India-Pakistan conflict over Kashmir

1966	“Great Proletarian Cultural Revolution” and purge of Liu Shao-chi in China; opening of Asian Development Bank; founding of ASPAC (Asian and Pacific Council)

1967	Founding of ASEAN (Association of Southeast Asian Nations)

1968	Cessation of U.S. bombing of North Vietnam and start of Paris negotiations on Vietnam

1969	Sino-Soviet border conflict; Nixon’s “Guam Doctrine”; U.S. agreement with Sato government on return of Okinawa to Japan; death of Ho Chi Minh in North Vietnam; growth of Japanese gross national product makes Japan third-largest economy in the world

1970	Overthrow of Sihanouk and U.S. military intervention in Cambodia

1971	Announcement of planned Nixon trip to Peking

The United States Since Word War II

AD	1946	Employment Act creates Council of Economic Advisors

1947	Truman Doctrine and the Marshall Plan

1949	North Atlantic Treaty Organization approved

1950	Outbreak of Korean War

1950-1960	Sale of television sets averages over 7 million a year by 1960, 88 per cent of all households have television

1954	Supreme Court declares racially segregated schools unconstitutional

1956	Martin Luther King, Jr., organizes Montgomery, Alabama, bus boycott

1958	First commercial jet airplanes in service

1962	Cuban missile crisis

1963	Assassination of President John F. Kennedy

1964	Student riots at the University of California, Berkeley

1965	President Lyndon B. Johnson “escalates” the Vietnamese War; Education Act provides first comprehensive aid to education; race riot in Watts district, Los Angeles, California

1968	Assassination of Martin Luther King, Jr.

1969	Astronauts land on the moon

The State of Culture Today

AD	1870	Education Acts passed in most countries of western Europe: free compulsory education; beginnings of industrial literacy

1871	End of Franco-Prussian War; beginning of armed diplomacy leading to 1914

1889	Paris World’s Fair: the Eiffel Tower and the triumph of machinery; London dockers’ strike

1890-1905	The new Romanticism: Symbolism; Art for Art’s sake; Decadence; Post-impressionism

1890-1910	Invention or discovery of: the automobile; serum therapy; Diesel engine; Kodak roll film; motion pictures; heavier-than-air flying machine; finger-printing; striptease; tuberculin; appendectomy; plastic surgery; color photography; wireless; artificial diamonds; spinal anesthesia; psychoanalysis; Mendelian genetics; histidine; radioactivity; vacuum tube; artificial insemination; organ transplant; quantum theory; relativity; Salvarsan for syphilis; anaphylaxis; artificial materials from resins and cellulose

1894-1906	The Dreyfus Affair; the intellectuals a new political force

1895-1917	The emergence of Marxism and Syndicalism; Reflections on Violence (1908); the suffragettes; the coming “century of the child”

1900	“The Yellow Peril”; Western envoys besieged in Peking and relieved by a European army under a German general

1900-1911	The century turns; Art Nouveau and the new democratic life – penny press; peace crusades, Balkan Wars, international crises

1905-1915	The Cubist Decade – innovation in all the arts, notably architecture

1914-1918	The Four Years War, ultimately the First World War, shatters European power

1919-1939	“Between Wars” – unrest and indifference under the sway of diminished intelligence; culture imitative, regressive and derisive of itself; second youth movement and yearning for peace

1929-1939	World-wide economic depression

1939-1945	The Second World War; military application of scientific power, culminating in atomic explosion at Hiroshima

1945 ff.	The Age of Anxiety; the Cold War in a divided world; local wars linked with decolonization and universal shrinkage of power; the race to reach the moon; ostentation and propaganda

1964	The cellular revolution: internal and external disorder, the third youth movement, and the second women’s liberation; decay and stasis of institutions; art against society; anti-art against the culture and the self; the absurd and the obscene in the effort at destruction or recovery; the drug experience and the experience of dissolution