A world history timeline

Jomon culture of Japan begins among the world's earliest pottery

A-Group Nubian culture flourishes along the upper Nile; early contact with predynastic Egypt

Predynastic Egypt's Naqada culture coalesces in the Nile Valley

Uruk Period world's first cities emerge in Mesopotamia; proto-cuneiform invented

Invention of cuneiform writing in Sumer one of the two oldest writing systems, with Egyptian hieroglyphs

Unification of Egypt under Narmer, founding the First Dynasty Upper and Lower Egypt merged

Minoan civilisation begins on Crete in its Prepalatial phase; Phoenician precursors at Byblos active

Indus Valley Civilisation peaks Harappa and Mohenjo-daro at full urban extent

Kerma Kingdom rises as first major Nubian polity; rivals Egypt for Nile trade

Old Kingdom Egypt begins the age of pyramid building, with Djoser's Step Pyramid around 2650 BCE

Great Pyramid of Giza completed under Khufu the largest pyramid ever built

Royal Tombs of Ur royal burials show Sumerian wealth and ritual

Sargon of Akkad conquers Sumer often called the first empire; Akkadian language spreads

Naram-Sin declares himself a god peak of Akkadian imperial ideology

Akkadian Empire collapses; Gutian interlude precedes Sumerian revival

Ur III Empire Sumerian revival; a large centralised bureaucracy

Middle Kingdom Egypt reunified; literary and artistic flowering; Nubian expansion

Ur III collapses under Amorite pressure; Old Babylonian period begins

Indus Valley Civilisation declines causes debated: climate, migration, internal collapse

Minoan palace civilisation at peak Knossos, Phaistos, Mallia; Linear A script in use

Hammurabi of Babylon unifies Mesopotamia; law code codified "eye for an eye" tradition

Hyksos conquer Lower Egypt Second Intermediate Period; horse and chariot introduced

Hittite Old Kingdom founded by Hattusili I; Anatolia's first major power

Mycenaean civilisation emerges on the Greek mainland; shaft graves at Mycenae

Mursili I of the Hittites sacks Babylon ends the Old Babylonian dynasty

New Kingdom Egypt founded by Ahmose I Hyksos expelled; Egypt becomes an empire

Vedic Period begins in India with Indo-Aryan migrations; Rigveda composed over centuries

Egyptian New Kingdom conquers Nubia and the Levant Thutmose III campaigns to the Euphrates

Battle of Megiddo Thutmose III's victory establishes Egyptian hegemony in Canaan

Mycenaean Greeks take Knossos Minoan palace culture ends, generations after the Theran eruption

Hittite New Kingdom under Suppiluliuma I destroys Mitanni empire; controls Syria

Akhenaten's religious revolution Aten cult imposed; Amarna built; abandoned after his death

Amarna Letters cuneiform diplomatic archive reveals interconnected Bronze Age world system

Battle of Kadesh Ramesses II against Muwatalli II; perhaps the largest chariot battle ever fought

Egyptian-Hittite Peace Treaty the earliest peace treaty to survive in both parties' versions

Bronze Age Collapse Mycenae, Hattusa, Ugarit destroyed; Sea Peoples disrupt eastern Mediterranean; Hittite Empire ends

Ramesses III repels Sea Peoples at the Battle of the Delta Egypt survives but weakened

Greek Dark Ages population collapse; writing lost; oral epic tradition preserves Mycenaean memory

Phoenician city-states emerge Tyre, Sidon, Byblos become Mediterranean commercial powers

Phoenician alphabet developed a 22-letter consonantal script, ancestor of the Greek and Latin alphabets

Neo-Hittite states survive in northern Syria; Luwian hieroglyphic tradition continues

Neo-Assyrian Empire rises military machine of mass deportation and palace terror

Napatan Kingdom of Kush consolidates around Jebel Barkal Amun of Napata its focus

Carthage founded by Tyrian settlers under legendary queen Dido future western hegemon

Archaic Greece a wave of colonisation; city-states; alphabetic writing revived via Phoenicia

First Olympic Games a shared Greek festival at Olympia

Homer's Iliad and Odyssey reach written form foundational texts of Western literature

Tiglath-Pileser III reorganises Assyria builds a standing army and a system of mass deportation

Piye of Kush conquers Egypt the Nubian Twenty-Fifth Dynasty rules Egypt

Sargon II destroys Israel population deported; "Ten Lost Tribes"

Sennacherib besieges Jerusalem Hezekiah pays tribute; city spared

Assyria conquers Egypt under Esarhaddon; Taharqa driven south

Assyrians expel Kushites from Egypt; the Late Period and its Saite renaissance begin

Ashurbanipal's Library at Nineveh a systematic royal library of some 30,000 tablets and fragments

Draco's law code in Athens Athens' first written laws

Fall of Nineveh Babylon and Medes destroy the Assyrian Empire

Phoenician circumnavigation of Africa reported by Herodotus, commissioned by Pharaoh Necho II

Solon's reforms in Athens debt relief, class reform; foundations of democracy

Mahajanapada Period in India sixteen kingdoms; intellectual ferment; Axial Age begins

Siddhartha Gautama, the Buddha, born the traditional date, though many scholars now prefer c. 480 BCE; Buddhism later transforms Asia

Cyrus the Great begins conquests Persian Empire founded; Lydia falls in 546 and Babylon in 539

Fall of Babylon Cyrus the Great takes the city; issues the Cyrus Cylinder

Mahavira, the last Jain Tirthankara, teaches in India ahimsa, non-violence, as the highest ethic

Pythagoras active in Greece mathematics, music theory, and the cosmos

Cambyses II conquers Egypt the first Persian occupation of Egypt, the Twenty-Seventh Dynasty

Darius I seizes power via coup; Behistun inscription records his legitimacy claim

Persepolis construction begins under Darius I ceremonial capital of the empire

Cleisthenes' reforms Athenian democracy formally instituted

Upanishadic thought takes shape in India philosophy of Brahman, Atman, karma

Ionian Revolt Greek cities of Asia Minor rebel against Persia; Marathon follows

Battle of Marathon Athens defeats Persian invasion; Greek confidence surges

Battle of Thermopylae, Leonidas and his 300, and Battle of Salamis Persian fleet destroyed

Battle of Plataea Persian land army defeated; Greece saved; Classical period begins

Confucius lived 551–479 BCE; founder of Confucian philosophy, which shapes Chinese civilisation

Pericles dominates Athens the Parthenon built 447–432 BCE; the height of Athenian power

Peace of Callias ends the Greco-Persian Wars if it happened; its existence is debated

Peloponnesian War begins Athens against Sparta; plague of Athens in 430 BCE; ends 404 BCE

Hippocrates practising rational medicine separates from religion

Death of Socrates executed by Athens; philosophy transformed by his martyrdom

King's Peace Persia dictates terms to Greek city-states; hegemony restored

Plato founds the Academy in Athens Platonic philosophy shapes Western thought

Battle of Leuctra Thebes defeats Sparta; Spartan hegemony ends

Aristotle active natural science, logic, politics; tutor to Alexander

Battle of Chaeronea Philip II of Macedon defeats Athens and Thebes; Greek autonomy ends

Panini systematises Sanskrit grammar the most systematic grammar of the ancient world

Alexander III becomes king of Macedon on Philip's assassination

Alexander the Great conquers Persia, Egypt, Central Asia, and northwest India

Alexander founds Alexandria in Egypt the largest city of the Hellenistic world

Fall of Persepolis Achaemenid Empire ends; Alexander burns the palace

Death of Alexander in Babylon succession crisis; Diadochi wars begin

Chandragupta Maurya founds Mauryan Empire first pan-Indian empire

Ptolemaic and Seleucid dynasties established as successor kingdoms

Euclid compiles the Elements at Alexandria systematic geometry

Pyrrhic Wars Pyrrhus of Epirus wins costly victories against Rome in Italy

Meroitic Kingdom of Kush moves capital south to Meroe independent African power

Library of Alexandria at full operation ancient sources claim up to 500,000 scrolls; the Mouseion a research institute

Ashoka reigns over Mauryan Empire converts to Buddhism; edicts propagate dharma across Asia

First Punic War begins Rome and Carthage fight for Sicily; Rome builds a navy

First Punic War ends Carthage cedes Sicily; Rome becomes a Mediterranean naval power

Eratosthenes calculates Earth's circumference accurate to within a few per cent

Hannibal crosses the Alps Second Punic War; invades Italy

Battle of Cannae Hannibal destroys a Roman army, with losses put at 50,000 to 70,000; Rome's worst tactical defeat

First Macedonian War Rome begins intervention in the Hellenistic East

Battle of Zama Scipio Africanus defeats Hannibal; Rome wins Second Punic War

Han Dynasty founded by Liu Bang, Emperor Gaozu, after the Qin collapse

Maya Preclassic cities flourishing El Mirador, Nakbe; writing and calendrics developing

Mauryan Empire collapses Shunga reaction; fragmentation of India

Battle of Pydna Rome defeats Macedon; Greece effectively under Roman control

Destruction of Carthage and Sack of Corinth Rome destroys two great cities in one year

Emperor Wu, Han Wudi, begins reign Silk Road opened; Xiongnu campaigns; Confucianism made state orthodoxy

Zhang Qian's missions open diplomatic contact with Central Asia; Silk Road established

Pompey annexes Syria final Seleucid territory absorbed; Hellenistic world ends

Roman Civil War Caesar crosses the Rubicon; defeats Pompey; becomes dictator

Assassination of Julius Caesar Ides of March; second civil war follows

Battle of Actium Octavian defeats Antony and Cleopatra VII; Egypt annexed; Hellenistic era ends

Augustus establishes the Principate Roman Empire begins; pax Augusta

Birth of Jesus of Nazareth founder of Christianity; executed c. 30 CE

Battle of Teutoburg Forest three Roman legions destroyed; Rhine becomes permanent frontier

Wang Mang's Xin interregnum Han dynasty briefly usurped; radical reform fails

Buddhism arrives in China first Buddhist texts and missionaries from India

Jewish War Roman siege of Jerusalem; Temple destroyed in 70 CE; Masada falls

Aksum emerges as kingdom in the Ethiopian highlands coins, stelae, Red Sea trade

Cai Lun improves papermaking in Han China paper begins to replace bamboo and silk

Hadrian's Wall built across northern Britain Rome defines its limits

Marcus Aurelius reigns Stoic emperor; Meditations; Antonine Plague kills millions

Yellow Turban Rebellion millenarian uprising begins fragmentation of Han

Han Dynasty falls Three Kingdoms period begins; China fragments for 360 years

Ardashir I overthrows Parthia Sasanian Empire founded; claims Achaemenid legacy

Shapur I captures Roman Emperor Valerian greatest Sasanian triumph over Rome

Meroitic Kingdom begins to decline; Aksum rising as rival regional power

Ghana Empire, or Wagadou, begins to coalesce in the western Sahel gold trade foundation

Constantine I converts to Christianity the Edict of Milan legalises Christianity in 313

Chandragupta I founds Gupta Empire classical golden age of India begins

Constantinople founded Roman capital moved east; the city rules for 1,123 years

Ezana of Aksum converts to Christianity one of the first Christian states

Aksum campaigns against Meroe Kingdom of Kush ends; Nubia converts to Christianity by 600 CE

Huns push Visigoths across the Danube large-scale migrations into the Roman empire begin

Chandragupta II, Vikramaditya, reigns peak of Gupta golden age; Kalidasa, Aryabhata

Roman Empire permanently divided into East and West

Yayoi transition in Japan complete rice agriculture, bronze, iron established; Kofun period

Maya Classic Period begins Tikal, Palenque, Copan; dynastic kingship flourishing

Sack of Rome by Visigoths psychological shock to the Roman world

Hephthalites, the White Huns, invade India Gupta Empire begins to crumble

Fall of Western Roman Empire Odoacer deposes last western emperor Romulus Augustulus

Justinian I reigns reconquest of Italy and North Africa; Hagia Sophia built in 537; plague from 541

Buddhism introduced to Japan from Korea transforms Japanese civilisation

Gupta Empire collapses regional kingdoms replace pan-Indian rule

Muhammad receives first revelation in Mecca Islam founded

The Hijra Muhammad's migration to Medina; Year 1 of the Islamic calendar

Muhammad conquers Mecca Arabia unified under Islam

Death of Muhammad Rashidun Caliphate begins; Abu Bakr first caliph

Arab Conquests Syria falls in 636, Egypt in 641, and Persia between 637 and 651

Taika Reform in Japan Tang Chinese administrative model adopted; centralised state

Fall of the Sasanian Empire Yazdegerd III killed; 400-year Persian dynasty ends

Umayyad Caliphate founded Damascus capital; Arab empire spans three continents

Battle of Karbala Husayn ibn Ali killed; the division between Sunni and Shia hardens

Nara Period begins in Japan first permanent capital; Buddhist temples; Kojiki compiled

Muslim armies cross into Spain, al-Andalus, and into the Indus Valley

Shinto and Buddhism coexist in Nara Japan shrines and temples share sites and a syncretic tradition develops

Abbasid Revolution Umayyads overthrown; Baghdad founded; golden age begins

Charlemagne King of the Franks; crowned emperor in 800; Carolingian Empire created

Viking Age begins raid on Lindisfarne; Norse expansion across Europe and Atlantic

Heian Period begins new capital Kyoto; peak of Japanese aristocratic court culture

Maya Classic Collapse southern lowland cities abandoned; drought and political failure

House of Wisdom, Bayt al-Hikma, in Baghdad a palace library, while translation of Greek, Persian and Indian works ran across the city

Ghana Empire at its height gold and salt trade; controls trans-Saharan routes

Macedonian Dynasty in Byzantium apogee of Byzantine power; reconquests begin

Hungarian Conquest Magyars under Árpád settle the Carpathian Basin, the last steppe people to found a lasting European kingdom

Chichen Itza rises as dominant Postclassic Maya power in the Yucatan

Battle of Lechfeld Otto I defeats the Magyars; the western raids end

Song Dynasty in China printing, gunpowder, compass; commercial revolution

Timbuktu founded becomes major commercial and Islamic intellectual hub

Basil II, the Bulgar-Slayer, reigns Byzantine Empire at its territorial maximum

Norse reach North America at Vinland first European contact with the Americas

Murasaki Shikibu writes The Tale of Genji often called the world's first novel

Stephen I crowned first king of Hungary the kingdom joins Latin Christendom

Great Schism Catholic and Orthodox churches formally split

Norman Conquest of England Harald Hardrada defeated at Stamford Bridge; Viking Age ends

Battle of Manzikert Seljuk Turks crush Byzantine army; Anatolia lost

First Crusade called by Pope Urban II Jerusalem taken in 1099

Ghana declines under Almoravid pressure; Mali power rises in its place

Gothic cathedrals begin Notre-Dame, Chartres; universities founded across Europe

Saladin retakes Jerusalem from the Crusaders Third Crusade follows

The Aztecs, or Mexica, begin migrating south toward the Valley of Mexico

Pre-imperial Inca lords at Cusco; Andean civilisations include Wari and Chimu

Fourth Crusade sacks Constantinople Latin Empire established; Byzantine state shattered

Genghis Khan unifies Mongol tribes at the Kurultai Mongol Empire proclaimed

Magna Carta English barons limit royal power; landmark in constitutional history

Golden Bull of Andrew II Hungarian nobles win written limits on royal power, seven years after Magna Carta

Death of Genghis Khan empire divided among sons; conquests continue

Sundiata Keita defeats Sumanguru at Kirina Mali Empire founded

Mongol invasion of Europe Poland and Hungary devastated; turns back on Ogedei's death

Mongols sack Baghdad the Abbasid Caliphate of Baghdad destroyed

Byzantine Greeks recapture Constantinople Palaiologian dynasty restored

Ottoman state emerges under Osman I in northwestern Anatolia

Fall of Acre Crusader states in the Holy Land extinguished

Aztecs found Tenochtitlan on an island in Lake Texcoco traditionally dated to 1325

Great Famine devastates northern Europe; populations collapse before the plague

Mansa Musa's pilgrimage to Mecca Mali Emperor's gold depresses Egyptian markets; Mali made famous

Hundred Years War begins between England and France, ending in 1453

Black Death arrives in Europe via Mongol trade networks 30–60% of European population dies by 1353

Ming Dynasty expels Mongols from China Yuan dynasty ends

Timur, or Tamerlane, begins campaigns neo-Mongol devastation of Central Asia and Persia

Aztec Triple Alliance of Tenochtitlan, Texcoco and Tlacopan conquers central Mexico

Pachacuti founds the Inca Empire, Tawantinsuyu the largest state of the pre-Columbian Americas

Council of Florence fails to reunite Catholic and Orthodox churches

Johannes Gutenberg's printing press printing spreads across Europe

Fall of Constantinople Mehmed II takes the city; Byzantine Empire ends after 1,123 years

Matthias Corvinus elected king Renaissance court at Buda and the Bibliotheca Corviniana

Machu Picchu built by Pachacuti a royal estate of Pachacuti

Sunni Ali seizes Timbuktu Songhai Empire eclipses Mali

Columbus reaches the Americas Columbian Exchange begins; Old and New Worlds connect

Vasco da Gama rounds Africa and reaches India European direct sea route to Asia established

Aztec Empire at peak Tenochtitlan holds 200,000–300,000 people, as large as the biggest cities in Europe

Safavid Empire founded in Persia Shia Islam made state religion; rival to Ottoman Sunni power

Selim I conquers Egypt the Ottomans begin to claim the caliphate

Spanish Conquest of the Aztec Empire Cortés, Tlaxcalan alliance, smallpox; Tenochtitlan falls

Suleiman the Magnificent begins reign Ottoman classical age; Belgrade in 1521, Rhodes in 1522, Hungary in 1526

Magellan's expedition, completed under Elcano, finishes the first circumnavigation of the globe

Battle of Mohács Louis II killed by Suleiman's army; the medieval kingdom of Hungary collapses

Sack of Rome by Charles V's troops a shock to Italy, often taken as the end of the High Renaissance

Spanish Conquest of the Inca Empire Pizarro; Cajamarca; Atahualpa captured and killed

Ottomans take Buda Hungary divided into Habsburg Royal Hungary, Ottoman Hungary and Transylvania

Akbar becomes Mughal Emperor integrates India under Islamic-Hindu synthesis

Battle of Lepanto Holy League defeats Ottoman navy; Ottoman Mediterranean expansion checked

Battle of Tondibi Moroccan muskets destroy Songhai army; Timbuktu manuscript tradition disrupted

Siege of Vienna fails Ottoman westward expansion permanently halted; the Treaty of Karlowitz follows in 1699

Buda retaken by the Holy League after 145 years of Ottoman rule

Tanzimat Reforms Ottoman modernisation programme; legal equality for non-Muslims attempted

Armenian Genocide Ottoman state systematically kills 1–1.5 million Armenians

Ottoman Empire dissolved Turkish Republic founded in 1923 by Mustafa Kemal Atatürk