ALL EVENTS + YEARS

Middle Ages in Western Europe (Feudalism & Manorialism)

500–1400

Song Dynasty in China (Confucianism)

960–1279

First Use of Paper Money (Song China)

1120

Abbasid Caliphate fragments into Turkish states

1258

Yuan Dynasty in China (Mongol rule)

1279–1368

Marco Polo writes Travels of Marco Polo

1298

Mansa Musa makes pilgrimage to Mecca

1324

Black Death reaches Europe

1347

Dawn of gunpowder weapons in Europe

1350

Ibn Battuta writes chronicle of travels

1355

Ming Dynasty in China

1368–1644

Ming voyages of Zheng He end

1433

Ottoman Turks take Constantinople

1453

Columbus sails; Jews & Muslims expelled from Spain

1492

Vasco da Gama reaches India

1498

Sikhism begins in western India

1500

Safavid Empire begins in Iran

1501

Martin Luther posts 95 Theses

1517

Aztecs conquered by Cortés

1521

Mughal rule begins in India

1526

Atlantic slave trade begins

1526

East India Company founded

1600

Galileo publishes heliocentric findings

1632

Tokugawa Japan expels foreigners (isolation begins)

1637

Qing (Manchu) Empire in China

1644–1911

Louis XIV moves government to Versailles

1682

The Enlightenment era

1700s

Industrial Revolution begins in Britain

1750

Seven Years’ War ends (British victory)

1763

American Revolution begins

1776

Adam Smith publishes Wealth of Nations

1776

First fleet arrives in Australia

1788

French Revolution begins

1789

Haiti gains independence

1804

Britain outlaws trans Atlantic slave trade

1807

Latin American independence movements completed

1825

First working railroad opens in Britain

1830

Britain wins Opium War

1842

Irish Potato Famine begins

1845

Mexican American War

1846–1848

Marx writes Communist Manifesto

1848

Commodore Perry opens Japan

1853

Indian Sepoy Rebellion

1857

End of serfdom in Russia

1861

American Civil War

1861–1865

Suez Canal opens

1869

Second Industrial Revolution begins

1870s

Italian & German unification

1870–1871

Scramble for Africa

1880–1900

Chinese Exclusion Act (US)

1882

Spanish American War

1898

Boxer Rebellion

1900

Russo Japanese War

1904–1905

Mexican Revolution begins

1910

Collapse of Qing Dynasty

1911

World War I

1914–1918

Russian Communist Revolution

1917

Women gain suffrage in US

1920

Great Depression begins

1929

World War II

1939–1945

Green Revolution begins

1940s

India & Pakistan independence

1947

Creation of Israel

1948

NATO created

1949

Communist victory in China

1949

Korean War

1950–1953

De Stalinization begins

1956

Fidel Castro takes power in Cuba

1959

Most African colonies independent

1964

African Americans gain voting rights (US)

1965

Vietnam War

1965–1975

Mao dies; Deng reforms begin

1976

Islamic Revolution in Iran

1979

Soviet occupation of Afghanistan

1979–1989

Fall of Berlin Wall

1989

Tiananmen Square crackdown

1989

Breakup of USSR

1991

End of Apartheid in South Africa

1994

Rwandan genocide

1994

9/11 attacks

2001

US invades Iraq

2003