This timeline is not for you to memorize the dates!! Context is key, know the basics of these events & how one led to the next. Make sure to focus extra on highlighted stuff cause they’re tested often. If you need more notes on any of these, here’s the full ap world study guide for all the units.

Period One : 700 to 1450

• 750-1258 : Abbasid Caliphate

  • Developments in Dar al-Islam (commonly tested) → notes on it

  • Islamic Empire with capital in Baghdad (modern day Iraq)

  • built around trade → used receipt and bill system

  • Abbasid Caliphate's decline led to rise of Turkic Muslim empires like the Seljuk Empire

• 960-1279 : Song Dynasty

  • Neo-Confucianism → emphasis on hierarchy & filial piety

  • women faced legal rights restrictions and social limitations, like foot binding.

  • Filial Piety (commonly tested) → practice of honoring one’s ancestors and parents, placed lowest importance to daughter in law

  • expansion of the imperial bureaucracy through merit-based bureaucratic jobs to maintain loyalty

  • economic Development through Champa rice, Grand Canal expansion & trade across Eurasia

• 1095-1291 : Crusades

  • military campaigns by European Christians to convert Muslims and non-Christians

• 1206-1526 : Delhi Sultanate

  • led to the spread of Islam in Southeast Asia

  • Rajput Kingdom resisted Muslim intrusion, maintaining Hindu influence

• 1206-1227 : Reign of Genghis Khan

  • Genghis Khan establishes Mongol Empire in 1206 (reign : 1206 - 1227)

    • unified the tribes in Mongolia to expand their authority over other societies

  • impact of Mongols :

    • Great diffusers of culture

    • Prevented Russia from culturally developing

    • World trade, cultural diffusion, global awareness grew as they spread through Europe, the als East, and Asia

  • ruthless fighters, organized and mobile

  • Importance of Trade in the Mongol Empire

    • Silk Roads (commonly tested)

      • establish by Han dynasty, also very influential to Mongol Empire

• 1215 : Magna Carta signed

  • right to a fair trial for citizens

• 1258 : Mongols overtook and destroyed Baghdad (end of the Abbasid Caliphate)

• 1279-1368 : Yuan Dynasty

  • the first foreign-ruled dynasty to commandeer all of China, led by Mongols

• 1299-1923 : Ottoman Empire

  • founded by Osman Bey as the Mongol Empire fell & expanded rapidly

  • Islamic, soldified rule over territory from Greece → Persia

  • adoption of gunpowder weapons crucial for expansion

  • devshirme → enslaved Christians from Balkans, converted them to Islam to form elite fighting force (Janissaries)

• 1324 : Mansa Musa's pilgrimage to Mecca

  • this pilgrimage introduced the wealth of Mali to the the rest of the Mediterranean

• 1325 : Tenochitlan founded

  • capital city of Aztec Empire → markets were established, commercialised

• 1325-1354 : Ibn Battuta's travels

  • travelled all over Dar al Aslam - > possible with trade routes

  • helped his readers understand the cultures across world

• 1346 - 1388: Black Death aka Bubonic Plague

  • Emerged in North China → spread rapidly across the Silk Roads and the Indian Ocean Trade routes

    • Indian Ocean Trade (commonly tested)

  • Middle East → Killed nearly 1/3 of their population

  • Europe → killed ½ of their population

  • very commonly shows up on the exam → notes

• 1368-1644 : Ming Dynasty

  • Came with the decline of Mongol rule in China

  • Established peace and order + expanded their borders with gunpowder

• 1405-1433 : Zheng He's voyages

  • Sent by the Ming Dynasty to go explore the Indian Ocean & enroll other states in China’s tributary system

• 1428-1521 : Aztec Empire - “Trade and Sacrifice”

  • Tenochtitlan: capital city (modern Mexico City) → more notes

    • Expansionist policy and professional, strict army

    • To secure their legitimacy as rulers → Mexica claimed heritage from older, more renowned Mesoamerican people

• 1438-1533 : Inca Empire - “My land is your land”

  • Expansionist - army, established bureaucracy, unified language, system of roads and tunnels

  • Established Mit’a System → required labor of everyone for a period of time each year to work on state projects

  • Inca roads (commonly tested) → more notes on Inca

• 1440 : Swahili state-building flourishes

• 1440 : Printing press invented

  • Johannes Gutenberg → inventor

  • made books easy to produce and affordable, and literacy more accessible to everyone

• 1400s : Caravel invented in Europe

• 1441 : Start of Atlantic slave trade → notes on it

  • transporting between 10 and 12 million enslaved Africans across the Atlantic Ocean

  • conditions were brutal, overcrowded, unsanitary

Period Two : 1450 to 1750

• 1453: Ottoman Empires conquers Constantinople

• 1450s-1480s: Russia breaks free from Mongol rule

• 1464-1591: Songhai Empire thrives (Islamic state)

• 1469: Birth of Sikhism

  • held onto significant doctrines from Islam & Hinduism

• 1491: Spain completes the Reconquista

  • Reconquista → effort to rid the Iberian Peninsula of Muslim rule

  • Re-established christianity as the official religion of the region

• 1492: Columbus voyages to the "New World"

  • marks start of Spanish colonization and the Columbian Exchange → notes

• 1497: Portugal starts colonization of the Americas

  • 1498 → Vasco da Gama reaches India

• 1501-1722: Safavid Empire emerges as the largest Shia empire

  • in conflict with the Sunni Ottoman Empire

• 1534: First enslaved Africans arrive in Americas

• 1517: Protestant Reformation starts

  • 95 Theses, MLK (shows up commonly)

• 1526-1748: Mughal Empire rises

  • Notable rules : Akbar and Aurangzeb

    • Akbar → religious tolerance and supports the arts (1556-1605)

    • Aurangzeb → persecution of Hindus and Sikhs

    • ended when last ruler Bahadur Shah II was sent into exile

  • Increasing Bhakti Movement & Sufism → commonly tested (notes here)

• 1545: Discovery of silver at Potosi mine

  • Silver was KING

• 1550-1700: Scientific Revolution

• 1552: Russian Empire emerge

  • Ivan the Terrible→ shows up often, notes

• 1595: Invention of the Fluyt

  • responsible for half of all europe’s shipping tonnage

• 1600: British East India Company established

• 1600-1868: Tokugawa Japan

  • strict government that instituted a rigid social class model

  • national seclusion policy

• 1602: Dutch East India Company established

• 1607: Jamestown

  • British Virginia company → role in funding exploration projects

• 1632: Taj Mahal construction start

• 1643-1715: Louis XIV's absolute monarchy reigns in France

• 1687: Newton's Principia published

• 1688-1911: Qing Dynasty governs China → shows up commonly!

  • Manchu Empire → commonly tested

  • expulsion, division between Manchu & Han, isolationism

• 1689-1725: Peter the Great modernizes Russia

• 1689: Glorious Revolution (England)

• 1715-1789: The Enlightenment flourishes

  • effects : major revolutions, expansion of suffrage, abolition of slavery, end of serfdom, calls for women’s suffrage

    • enlightenment is tested often → notes

      • Montesquieu

  • this ends up being the reason for many changes in period 3

Period Three : 1750 to 1900

• 1756-1763 : 7 Years' War

• 1757 : Beginning of English colonization in India

• 1760-1789 : First Industrial Revolution → really good notes (read them!!)

  • main engine → the Steam Engine (effects of steam engine)

  • understand WHY Britain came first, new advancements

  • important people to know : Charles Darwin, Adam Smith, Karl Marx

  • factory act of 1883

• 1765-1783: American Revolution → notes

  • provided a template for other nations

  • tested often!! → role of enlightenment in American revolution

• 1789-1795: French Revolution→ notes

  • causes : Social Inequality between the estates, economic hardships, enlightenment, weak leadership, food shortages

• 1791-1804: Haitian Revolution

• 1792: Beginning of feminism

  • Vindication of the Rights of Woman by Mary Wollstonecraft published

    • became a symbol for the feminist movements

• 1799-1815: Napoleon’s reign in France

• 1806-1826: Latin American Revolutions

  • Simon Bolivar → enlightenment ideas

• 1815: Congress of Vienna

• 1839-1860: Opium Wars

  • Treaty of Nanjing → notes on opium war

• 1839-1876: Tanzimat Reforms

  • steps towards industrialisation in Egypt

• 1845-1849: Irish Potato Famine

  • widespread famine + many died → caused Irish immigration westward

• 1848: Communist Manifesto published

• 1848: Seneca Falls Convention

  • call for a constitutional amendment that recognized women’s right to vote

• 1850-1864: Taiping Rebellion

  • Qing dynasty began to weaken

• 1857: Sepoy Mutiny in India

  • failed ; British then made all of India a crown colony

• 1859: Suez Canal built by Britain in Egypt

• 1860s-1870s : Social Darwinism begins to take shape

  • tested often! → notes

• 1861: Russian serfs emancipated

• 1863: Emancipation Proclamation in USA

• 1865-1909: King Leopold rules the Congo

  • commits human rights crimes to get rubber

• 1868: Meiji Restoration

  • era of Japanese westernization - Japan became a world power

  • cause → after Matthew Perry demanded Japan open to trade with the US, Japan realized its technological inferiority and adopted Western technology for self-protection.

• 1870-1914: Second Industrial Revolution → notes

• 1871: unification of Germany under Otto Von Bismarck

• 1882 : Chinese Exclusion Act

• 1885: Berlin Conference

  • beginning of the "scramble for Africa".

• 1890s: European spheres of influence in China

  • Manchu Dynasty still had authority

• 1898: Spanish-American War

  • U.S. acquires Guam, Philippines, Cuba, and Puerto Rico.

• 1899: United Fruit Company Established

  • played integer role in strengthening western rule in developing countries

• 1899-1901: Boxer Rebellion

Period Four : 1900 to Present

• 1906: Muslim League founded

  • supporters for a separate nation for the Muslims of India (Pakistan)

• 1910-1920: Mexican Revolution

  • peasant armies led by Poncho Villa and Emiliano Zapata → unsuccessful

• 1914-1918: World War 1

  • causes : militarism, alliances, imperialism, nationlism, assassination of Gavrilo Princip

  • “total war”, propoganda, trench warfare, Indian infantry

  • end → Paris peace conference, treaty of versailles

• 1915-1917: Armenian genocide

• 1917: Russian revolution of 1917

  • Russian citizens grew tired of Tsar regime

  • Bolsheviks

  1917: Zimmerman telegram

  • a secret telegram between German diplomats saying Mexico could regain territory taken by US if they joined forces

  • led to widespread American support for getting involved in WWI.

• 1920: League of Nations founded

  • has weak points that make it disintegrate later

• 1925 : Reza Shah Pahlavi's rise initiated Westernization in Iran

  • jump to “Iranian Revolution” to see how this is related

• 1929-1933: Great Depression

• 1933: New Deal by FDR

  • infrastructure projects, retirement program

• 1939-1945: World War 2

  • 1941-1945: The Holocaust (tested often)

    • desire to create a pure race

    • numerberg law, Auschwitz → notes

  • 1941-1953: Stalin in power

    • Industrialisation of UUSR → Five Year Plan

    • Nationalism and it’s role in facism

• 1943-1978: Green Revolution (tested often)

  • New disease-resistant and high-yielding varieties of crops were being developed

• 1945-1950: Chinese Communist Revolution

• 1945: Hiroshima and Nagasaki Bombing

• 1945: United Nations created

• 1946: Philippines

• 1947: Partition of India

  • Gandhi led peaceful protests for independence

  • Indian National Congress → notes

  1947: Japanese Empire ends

• 1947: Truman Doctrine

  • containment

• 1947/1948 : Beginning of Israeli-Palestinian Conflict

• 1948 : World Health Organization established

• 1947-1991: Cold War

  • Motives

    • US (capitalism) & Soviet Union (communism) did not want each other to spread its influence beyond their borders

    • arms race & proxy wars, like in Korea and Vietnam

  • 1948: Israel founded

  • 1948-1959 : Berlin Blockade

  • 1949: NATO established

    • a military alliance consisting of the United States and Western European countries

    • motive → provide collective defense against aggression and promote stability in the North Atlantic region

  • 1950-1953: Korean War

  • 1953-1959: Cuban Revolution

  • 1955: Warsaw Pact

  • 1955-1975: Vietnam War (commonly tested)

    • Communist North Vietnam launched an invasion on South Vietnam.

    • U.S. increased millitary support in South Vietnam as they feared a communist takeover in Vietnam would cause the rest of the region would become communist too

    • Ho Chi Minh

  • 1955: Polio vaccine approved

  • 1956: Khrushchev gains power in USSR

    • de-Stalinization

  • 1958-1962: Great Leap Forward

    • Mao Zedong's idea to boost Chinese economy

    • Combined farmers into small communes to achieve Marxist state

  • 1961: Dwight D. Eisenhower "military-industrial complex"

    • commonly tested

  • 1961: Bay of Pigs

  • 1962: Cuban Missile Crisis

  • 1966-1976: Cultural Revolution in China

    • Withdrawal of Soviet support

    • Mao Zedong's attempt to stop influence of capitalism.

      • Shipped many off to countryside for "re-education".

  • 1979: Iranian Revolution

    • overthrew the shah, due to dissatisfaction with modernisation

    • emerged wafs a new government that complied with the Islamic law (shariah)

    • Human rights advancements were reversed and women went back to traditional roles - Qu’ran became basis of legal system

  • 1989: Tiananmen Square Massacre

  • 1989: Fall of the Berlin Wall

  • 1991: Fall of USSR → End of the Cold War

• Early 1980s: Soviets send troops to Afghanistan under Marxist military leader Nur Muhammad Taraki.

• 1990 : Beginning of War in the Gulf → notes

  • Taliban, Al Qaeda, Osama bin Laden

  • 1990: Iraq invades Kuwait under Saddam Hussein's leadership to gain control of oil reserves.

  • Early 1991: United Nations sends forces to drive Iraqis out, leading to the Persian Gulf War.

    • UN liberates Kuwait and imposes severe limitations on Iraq’s military and economic activity, though Hussein remains in power for another decade.

• 1994 : NAFTA came into effect

  • eliminated most tariffs on products traded between Canada, Mexico and the US

• 2001: 9/11 terrorist attacks

  • Al Qaeda attacked US by hijacking 4 US planes and flying 2 of them into the World Trade Centre in New York, 1 into the Pentagon, and 1 into a field in Pennsylvania

  • Following this, US declares a war on terrorism and invades Afghanistan, removing the Taliban from power and killing Osama bin Laden, but Al Qaeda persists

  • 2003 : coalition of countries, mostly US and Britain invaded Iraq to oust Hussein - Hussein was captured in December 2003 and a democratic government was formed in 2005