{"name":"World History Timeline","url":"https://entireworldhistorytimeline.com","span":[-3200,2025],"generated":"2026-11-08","families":[{"key":"egyptian","label":"Egyptian","group":"Afroasiatic","color":"#e9877c","note":"Ancient Egyptian, Coptic"},{"key":"semitic","label":"Semitic","group":"Afroasiatic","color":"#6f9fd8","note":"Akkadian, Amorite, Aramaic, Hebrew, Phoenician, Ge'ez, Amharic, Tigrinya"},{"key":"arabic","label":"Arabic","group":"Afroasiatic","color":"#27a8e0","note":"Arabic-speaking states"},{"key":"berber","label":"Berber","group":"Afroasiatic","color":"#c4943a","note":"Numidian, Tuareg, Amazigh dynasties"},{"key":"cushitic","label":"Cushitic","group":"Afroasiatic","color":"#d8ad7a","note":"Somali, Oromo, Beja, Afar"},{"key":"chadic","label":"Chadic","group":"Afroasiatic","color":"#a9844e","note":"Hausa"},{"key":"anatolian","label":"Anatolian","group":"Indo-European","color":"#d38fca","note":"Hittite, Luwian, Lydian, Lycian"},{"key":"greek","label":"Greek","group":"Indo-European","color":"#6e86ee","note":"Mycenaean, Classical, Hellenistic, Byzantine, modern Greek"},{"key":"romance","label":"Latin and Romance","group":"Indo-European","color":"#f3cf3a","note":"Latin, Italic, French, Spanish, Portuguese, Italian, Romanian"},{"key":"celtic","label":"Celtic","group":"Indo-European","color":"#4fa68b","note":"Gaulish, Irish, Welsh, Scottish Gaelic, Breton"},{"key":"germanic","label":"Germanic","group":"Indo-European","color":"#74c24f","note":"Gothic, Frankish, English, German, Dutch, Norse"},{"key":"baltic","label":"Baltic","group":"Indo-European","color":"#c79a52","note":"Lithuanian, Latvian, Old Prussian"},{"key":"slavic","label":"Slavic","group":"Indo-European","color":"#e45f7f","note":"Russian, Polish, Czech, Serbian, Bulgarian, Ukrainian"},{"key":"iranian","label":"Iranian","group":"Indo-European","color":"#4ed3b4","note":"Median, Persian, Parthian, Scythian, Sogdian, Pashto, Kurdish"},{"key":"indo-aryan","label":"Indo-Aryan","group":"Indo-European","color":"#4aa85e","note":"Vedic, Sanskrit, Prakrit, Hindi, Bengali, Marathi, Sinhala"},{"key":"ie-other","label":"Other Indo-European","group":"Indo-European","color":"#a3a8d8","note":"Armenian, Albanian, Thracian, Illyrian, Phrygian, Tocharian, Dacian"},{"key":"uralic","label":"Uralic","group":"Northern Eurasia","color":"#63c3db","note":"Finnish, Estonian, Hungarian, Sami, Samoyed"},{"key":"turkic","label":"Turkic","group":"Northern Eurasia","color":"#f28fbb","note":"Gokturk, Uyghur, Seljuk, Ottoman, Kazakh, Tatar"},{"key":"mongolic","label":"Mongolic","group":"Northern Eurasia","color":"#e6464f","note":"Mongol, Khitan, Oirat"},{"key":"tungusic","label":"Tungusic","group":"Northern Eurasia","color":"#df7a36","note":"Jurchen, Manchu, Evenki"},{"key":"koreanic","label":"Koreanic","group":"Northern Eurasia","color":"#d9c13c","note":"Korean kingdoms"},{"key":"japonic","label":"Japonic","group":"Northern Eurasia","color":"#ec7b76","note":"Japanese, Ryukyuan"},{"key":"kartvelian","label":"Kartvelian","group":"Northern Eurasia","color":"#b9cf5a","note":"Georgian"},{"key":"sinitic","label":"Chinese","group":"South and East Asia","color":"#a462e6","note":"Sinitic languages"},{"key":"tibeto-burman","label":"Tibeto-Burman","group":"South and East Asia","color":"#c58ae0","note":"Tibetan, Burmese, Newar, Pyu, Tangut"},{"key":"dravidian","label":"Dravidian","group":"South and East Asia","color":"#eba43e","note":"Tamil, Kannada, Telugu, Malayalam"},{"key":"kra-dai","label":"Kra-Dai","group":"South and East Asia","color":"#a2cf52","note":"Thai, Lao, Shan, Zhuang"},{"key":"austroasiatic","label":"Austroasiatic","group":"South and East Asia","color":"#c8743a","note":"Khmer, Mon, Vietnamese, Munda"},{"key":"austronesian","label":"Austronesian","group":"South and East Asia","color":"#e3508a","note":"Malay, Javanese, Cham, Tagalog, Malagasy, Polynesian, Maori"},{"key":"niger-congo","label":"Niger-Congo","group":"Africa","color":"#4cae72","note":"Mande, Yoruba, Akan, Fula, Wolof, Igbo (non-Bantu)"},{"key":"bantu","label":"Bantu","group":"Africa","color":"#3f84dc","note":"Kongo, Shona, Zulu, Swahili, Luba, Ganda"},{"key":"nilo-saharan","label":"Nilo-Saharan","group":"Africa","color":"#c88a4a","note":"Kanuri, Songhai, Nubian, Luo, Maasai"},{"key":"khoisan","label":"Khoisan","group":"Africa","color":"#cdb78c","note":"Khoekhoe, San"},{"key":"eskimo-aleut","label":"Eskimo-Aleut","group":"Americas","color":"#8fcbe6","note":"Inuit, Yupik, Aleut, Thule, Dorset (Paleo-Eskimo)"},{"key":"na-amerind","label":"North American families","group":"Americas","color":"#c99372","note":"Algonquian, Iroquoian, Siouan, Muskogean, Na-Dene, Caddoan, Salishan"},{"key":"uto-aztecan","label":"Uto-Aztecan","group":"Americas","color":"#ea5f58","note":"Nahuatl, Hopi, Comanche, Shoshone"},{"key":"mayan","label":"Mayan","group":"Americas","color":"#9a6ce0","note":"Classic and Postclassic Maya, K'iche'"},{"key":"oto-manguean","label":"Oto-Manguean","group":"Americas","color":"#f0a95e","note":"Zapotec, Mixtec, Otomi"},{"key":"mixe-zoque","label":"Mixe-Zoque","group":"Americas","color":"#c6a55f","note":"Olmec (probable), Epi-Olmec"},{"key":"chibchan","label":"Chibchan","group":"Americas","color":"#5fc093","note":"Muisca, Tairona, Kuna"},{"key":"arawakan","label":"Arawakan","group":"Americas","color":"#68b8b8","note":"Taino, Arawak"},{"key":"cariban","label":"Cariban","group":"Americas","color":"#b4c45e","note":"Kalinago, Carib"},{"key":"tupian","label":"Tupian","group":"Americas","color":"#8bc85c","note":"Tupi, Guarani"},{"key":"quechuan","label":"Quechuan","group":"Americas","color":"#4092e2","note":"Inca, Quechua"},{"key":"aymaran","label":"Aymaran","group":"Americas","color":"#e48d3c","note":"Aymara, Tiwanaku (probable)"},{"key":"australian","label":"Aboriginal Australian","group":"Oceania","color":"#d08e5c","note":"Pama-Nyungan and other Australian families"},{"key":"papuan","label":"Papuan","group":"Oceania","color":"#a8775e","note":"Trans-New Guinea and other Papuan families"},{"key":"isolate","label":"Isolates and ancient","group":"Other","color":"#9aa6dc","note":"Sumerian, Elamite, Hurrian, Urartian, Hattic, Kassite, Etruscan, Basque, Ainu"},{"key":"unknown","label":"Unknown or undeciphered","group":"Other","color":"#b3a58e","note":"Indus, Minoan, Moche, Nazca, Chavin, Jomon and other unattested languages"}],"regions":[{"id":"southern-africa","name":"Central and Southern Africa","groups":[{"id":"lower-congo-angola","name":"Lower Congo and Angola"},{"id":"congo-basin","name":"Congo Basin and Katanga"},{"id":"great-lakes","name":"Great Lakes"},{"id":"east-coast","name":"Swahili Coast and East Africa"},{"id":"zambezi","name":"Zambezi and Zimbabwe Plateau"},{"id":"south-africa-namibia","name":"South Africa and Namibia"},{"id":"madagascar","name":"Madagascar and Indian Ocean Islands"}],"entries":[{"id":"lc-hunter-gatherers","name":"Lower Congo hunter-gatherers","short":"Hunter-gatherers","start":-3200,"end":500,"approx":true,"family":"unknown","group":"lower-congo-angola","kind":"culture","tier":3,"desc":"Hunter-gatherers with microlithic stone tools held the savannas and forest margins south of the lower Congo until Bantu-speaking farmers settled among them and absorbed most of them."},{"id":"western-bantu-farmers","name":"Western Bantu-speaking farmers","short":"Western Bantu","start":-1000,"end":1400,"approx":true,"family":"bantu","group":"lower-congo-angola","kind":"culture","tier":1,"desc":"Bantu-speaking farmers moved south from the Cameroon grasslands through the rainforest, reaching the lower Congo by about 500 BCE with yams, oil palms, pottery and later iron. Their chiefdoms grew into the Kongo, Tio and Loango kingdoms."},{"id":"tio-kingdom","name":"Tio Kingdom (Anziku)","short":"Tio","start":1500,"end":1880,"approx":true,"family":"bantu","group":"lower-congo-angola","kind":"state","tier":3,"capital":"Mbe","desc":"The Teke kingdom north of Malebo Pool, called Anziku by the Portuguese, traded slaves, copper and raffia cloth. Its king Makoko Iloo I signed the 1880 treaty with Brazza that opened the way to French Congo.","next":["french-congo"]},{"id":"kongo","name":"Kingdom of Kongo","short":"Kongo","start":1390,"end":1914,"approx":true,"family":"bantu","group":"lower-congo-angola","kind":"state","tier":1,"capital":"Mbanza Kongo (São Salvador)","desc":"Founded by Lukeni lua Nimi, Kongo became a Christian kingdom after 1491 and traded with Portugal. Civil wars followed its defeat at Mbwila in 1665, and Portugal abolished the monarchy in 1914.","next":["portuguese-angola"]},{"id":"loango","name":"Kingdom of Loango","short":"Loango","start":1550,"end":1883,"approx":true,"family":"bantu","group":"lower-congo-angola","kind":"state","tier":3,"capital":"Bwali","desc":"A coastal kingdom north of the Congo mouth that traded ivory, copper, raffia cloth and later slaves to Dutch, English and French ships. France made it a protectorate in 1883.","next":["french-congo"]},{"id":"ndongo","name":"Kingdom of Ndongo","short":"Ndongo","start":1500,"end":1671,"approx":true,"family":"bantu","group":"lower-congo-angola","kind":"state","tier":2,"capital":"Kabasa","desc":"A Mbundu kingdom whose rulers held the title ngola, which gave Angola its name. It fought Portuguese invasion from 1579, and Portugal took its last fortress at Pungo Andongo in 1671.","next":["portuguese-angola"]},{"id":"matamba","name":"Kingdom of Matamba","short":"Matamba","start":1530,"end":1744,"approx":true,"family":"bantu","group":"lower-congo-angola","kind":"state","tier":2,"desc":"Queen Njinga took Matamba around 1631 and made it the base of her long war against Portugal. It stayed an independent trading power on the slave routes until a Portuguese campaign defeated it in 1744."},{"id":"kasanje","name":"Kingdom of Kasanje","short":"Kasanje","start":1620,"end":1910,"approx":true,"family":"bantu","group":"lower-congo-angola","kind":"state","tier":3,"desc":"An Imbangala warrior state on the Kwango River that controlled the slave trade between the Lunda interior and Portuguese Luanda. Portugal conquered it in the early 20th century."},{"id":"ovimbundu","name":"Ovimbundu kingdoms","short":"Ovimbundu","start":1600,"end":1902,"approx":true,"family":"bantu","group":"lower-congo-angola","kind":"state","tier":3,"capital":"Bailundo, Bié","desc":"Kingdoms of the central Angolan highlands such as Bailundo and Bié ran long-distance caravans for slaves, wax, ivory and rubber. Portugal crushed the Bailundo revolt of 1902 and ended their independence."},{"id":"portuguese-angola","name":"Portuguese Angola","short":"Port. Angola","start":1575,"end":1975,"family":"romance","group":"lower-congo-angola","kind":"colony","tier":2,"capital":"Luanda","desc":"Paulo Dias de Novais founded Luanda in 1575, and for three centuries the colony shipped millions of enslaved people to Brazil. Inland conquest came only around 1900, and a liberation war from 1961 ended with independence in 1975.","next":["angola"]},{"id":"angola","name":"Angola","start":1975,"end":2025,"family":"bantu","group":"lower-congo-angola","kind":"state","tier":2,"capital":"Luanda","desc":"Independent in 1975 under the MPLA, Angola fell into a civil war with UNITA and the FNLA that drew in Cuba and South Africa and lasted until 2002. Oil and diamonds dominate its economy."},{"id":"french-congo","name":"French Congo","start":1880,"end":1910,"family":"romance","group":"lower-congo-angola","kind":"colony","tier":3,"capital":"Brazzaville","desc":"Built on Brazza's 1880 treaties with the Tio king and coastal chiefs, the colony was carved up among concession companies that extracted rubber and ivory with forced labour.","next":["french-equatorial-africa"]},{"id":"french-equatorial-africa","name":"French Equatorial Africa","short":"French Eq Africa","start":1910,"end":1960,"family":"romance","group":"lower-congo-angola","kind":"colony","tier":2,"capital":"Brazzaville","desc":"A federation of Gabon, Middle Congo, Ubangi-Shari and Chad ruled from Brazzaville. It rallied to Free France in 1940, and its four territories became independent in 1960.","next":["republic-of-the-congo","gabon","central-african-republic"]},{"id":"republic-of-the-congo","name":"Republic of the Congo","short":"Congo-Brazza","start":1960,"end":2025,"family":"bantu","group":"lower-congo-angola","kind":"state","tier":3,"capital":"Brazzaville","desc":"Independent from France in 1960, it was a Marxist-Leninist people's republic from 1969 to 1992. Denis Sassou Nguesso has ruled for most years since 1979, financed by offshore oil."},{"id":"gabon","name":"Gabon","start":1960,"end":2025,"family":"bantu","group":"lower-congo-angola","kind":"state","tier":3,"capital":"Libreville","desc":"Independent in 1960, Gabon was ruled by Omar Bongo from 1967 to 2009 and then by his son Ali, until a military coup in 2023 ended the family's 56 years in power."},{"id":"sao-tome-principe","name":"São Tomé and Príncipe","short":"São Tomé","start":1975,"end":2025,"family":"romance","group":"lower-congo-angola","kind":"state","tier":3,"capital":"São Tomé","desc":"Uninhabited until Portuguese settlement in the 1490s, the islands became the first plantation sugar colony worked by enslaved Africans. They gained independence from Portugal in 1975."},{"id":"equatorial-guinea","name":"Equatorial Guinea","short":"Eq. Guinea","start":1968,"end":2025,"family":"bantu","group":"lower-congo-angola","kind":"state","tier":3,"capital":"Malabo","desc":"Spain's former colony of Fernando Po and Río Muni became independent in 1968. Francisco Macías Nguema's terror ended in 1979 when his nephew Teodoro Obiang seized power, which he still holds on oil revenue."},{"id":"forest-foragers","name":"Central African forest foragers","short":"Forest foragers","start":-3200,"end":2025,"approx":true,"family":"unknown","group":"congo-basin","kind":"culture","tier":2,"desc":"Ancestors of the Mbuti, Aka, Baka and Twa hunted and gathered in the equatorial rainforest long before farmers arrived, then traded forest goods with Bantu and Ubangian villagers whose languages they adopted."},{"id":"basin-bantu-farmers","name":"Bantu farmers of the Congo basin","short":"Basin Bantu","start":-500,"end":1500,"approx":true,"family":"bantu","group":"congo-basin","kind":"culture","tier":2,"desc":"Bantu-speaking villagers spread along the rivers of the inner basin from about 400 BCE (the Imbonga pottery tradition), later adding Asian bananas and iron tools. Their chiefdoms were the base for the Kuba, Luba and Lunda states."},{"id":"kisalian","name":"Kisalian culture","short":"Kisalian","start":700,"end":1300,"approx":true,"family":"bantu","group":"congo-basin","kind":"culture","tier":3,"desc":"Large cemeteries at Sanga in the Upemba Depression held copper ornaments, cross-shaped copper ingots and fine pottery. Archaeologists see the Kisalian as ancestral to the Luba kingdom."},{"id":"luba","name":"Luba Empire","short":"Luba","start":1585,"end":1889,"approx":true,"family":"bantu","group":"congo-basin","kind":"state","tier":2,"desc":"A sacred kingship in the Upemba region of Katanga whose rulers, the mulopwe, claimed descent from the hero Kalala Ilunga. It expanded through the 18th century before succession wars and Yeke and Swahili raids broke it up in the 1880s."},{"id":"lunda","name":"Lunda Empire","short":"Lunda","start":1665,"end":1887,"approx":true,"family":"bantu","group":"congo-basin","kind":"empire","tier":2,"capital":"Musumba","desc":"Founded when the Luba hunter Chibinda Ilunga married the Lunda queen Lueji, it grew under the Mwata Yamvo kings into a tributary empire from the Kwango to the Luapula. Chokwe invaders sacked its capital in 1887.","next":["congo-free-state"]},{"id":"kazembe","name":"Kingdom of Kazembe","short":"Kazembe","start":1740,"end":1899,"approx":true,"family":"bantu","group":"congo-basin","kind":"state","tier":3,"desc":"A Lunda offshoot on the Luapula River ruled by the Mwata Kazembe, it traded copper, ivory and slaves east to the Portuguese on the Zambezi. British South Africa Company forces occupied its capital in 1899."},{"id":"kuba","name":"Kuba Kingdom","short":"Kuba","start":1625,"end":1900,"approx":true,"family":"bantu","group":"congo-basin","kind":"state","tier":3,"capital":"Nsheng","desc":"Shyaam a-Mbul united the Bushoong and neighbouring peoples between the Kasai and Sankuru rivers around 1625. Known for raffia velvet textiles and royal portrait statues, it came under Congo Free State control around 1900."},{"id":"yeke","name":"Yeke Kingdom (Garanganze)","short":"Yeke","start":1856,"end":1891,"approx":true,"family":"bantu","group":"congo-basin","kind":"state","tier":3,"capital":"Bunkeya","desc":"Msiri, a Nyamwezi trader from the east, built a state in Katanga on copper, ivory and slaves. An officer of a Congo Free State expedition shot him in 1891, and Katanga passed to Leopold II.","next":["congo-free-state"]},{"id":"congo-free-state","name":"Congo Free State","short":"Free State","start":1885,"end":1908,"family":"romance","group":"congo-basin","kind":"colony","tier":1,"capital":"Boma","desc":"King Leopold II of Belgium ran the Congo as a private possession. Forced rubber collection enforced by hostage-taking and mutilation caused millions of deaths, and an international outcry made Belgium annex it in 1908.","next":["belgian-congo"]},{"id":"belgian-congo","name":"Belgian Congo","start":1908,"end":1960,"family":"romance","group":"congo-basin","kind":"colony","tier":2,"capital":"Boma, then Léopoldville","desc":"Belgium governed the Congo through the state, the Catholic missions and mining companies such as Union Minière in Katanga. Riots in Léopoldville in 1959 led to a rushed independence in June 1960.","next":["congo-leopoldville"]},{"id":"congo-leopoldville","name":"Congo (Léopoldville)","short":"Congo-Léo","start":1960,"end":1971,"family":"bantu","group":"congo-basin","kind":"state","tier":3,"capital":"Léopoldville","desc":"Independence in 1960 brought army mutiny, Katangan secession, UN intervention and the murder of Prime Minister Patrice Lumumba in 1961. Joseph-Désiré Mobutu took power in 1965.","next":["zaire"]},{"id":"katanga","name":"State of Katanga","short":"Katanga","start":1960,"end":1963,"family":"bantu","group":"congo-basin","kind":"state","tier":3,"capital":"Élisabethville","desc":"Moise Tshombe declared the copper province independent eleven days after Congo's independence, backed by Belgian mining interests and mercenaries. UN forces ended the secession in January 1963."},{"id":"zaire","name":"Zaire","start":1971,"end":1997,"family":"bantu","group":"congo-basin","kind":"state","tier":2,"capital":"Kinshasa","desc":"Mobutu Sese Seko renamed the country Zaire and ran a personal kleptocracy backed by the West during the Cold War. Rwandan and Ugandan-backed rebels under Laurent-Désiré Kabila drove him out in 1997.","next":["dr-congo"]},{"id":"dr-congo","name":"Democratic Republic of the Congo","short":"DR Congo","start":1997,"end":2025,"family":"bantu","group":"congo-basin","kind":"state","tier":2,"capital":"Kinshasa","desc":"The Second Congo War of 1998 to 2003 drew in nine African countries and caused millions of deaths. Fighting continues in the east, and the country supplies most of the world's cobalt."},{"id":"central-african-republic","name":"Central African Republic","short":"CAR","start":1960,"end":2025,"family":"niger-congo","group":"congo-basin","kind":"state","tier":3,"capital":"Bangui","desc":"The former Ubangi-Shari became independent in 1960. Jean-Bédel Bokassa crowned himself emperor from 1976 to 1979, and civil war since 2013 has left much of the country outside government control."},{"id":"lakes-hunter-gatherers","name":"Great Lakes hunter-gatherers","short":"Foragers","start":-3200,"end":500,"approx":true,"family":"unknown","group":"great-lakes","kind":"culture","tier":3,"desc":"Foragers fished the lakes and hunted the highlands of the Great Lakes region. Their descendants include the Batwa of Rwanda, Burundi and Uganda, pushed into forest margins as farmers cleared the land."},{"id":"eastern-bantu-farmers","name":"Eastern Bantu-speaking farmers","short":"Eastern Bantu","start":-1000,"end":1300,"approx":true,"family":"bantu","group":"great-lakes","kind":"culture","tier":1,"desc":"Bantu-speaking farmers reached the western Great Lakes around 1000 BCE, learned cattle keeping and grain farming from Central Sudanic and Cushitic neighbours, and began smelting iron. From here the Eastern Bantu spread to the coast and the Cape."},{"id":"urewe","name":"Urewe culture","short":"Urewe","start":-500,"end":600,"approx":true,"family":"bantu","group":"great-lakes","kind":"culture","tier":2,"desc":"An Early Iron Age culture named after a site in western Kenya, known for dimple-based pottery and some of the earliest iron smelting south of the Sahara, with furnaces in Rwanda, Burundi and Tanzania's Kagera region."},{"id":"ntusi-bigo","name":"Ntusi and Bigo culture","short":"Ntusi-Bigo","start":1000,"end":1500,"approx":true,"family":"bantu","group":"great-lakes","kind":"culture","tier":3,"desc":"Large settlements at Ntusi and the earthworks of Bigo bya Mugenyi in western Uganda point to a cattle-based chiefdom, which oral tradition links to the semi-legendary Chwezi rulers of Kitara."},{"id":"bunyoro","name":"Bunyoro-Kitara","short":"Bunyoro","start":1400,"end":1899,"approx":true,"family":"bantu","group":"great-lakes","kind":"state","tier":2,"desc":"The Babiito dynasty, of Luo origin, ruled this kingdom in western Uganda, once the strongest in the region. Omukama Kabalega fought British and Ganda forces for years before his capture in 1899.","next":["uganda-protectorate"]},{"id":"buganda","name":"Kingdom of Buganda","short":"Buganda","start":1300,"end":1966,"approx":true,"family":"bantu","group":"great-lakes","kind":"state","tier":2,"capital":"Mengo (Kampala)","desc":"A small state on Lake Victoria's north shore that overtook Bunyoro by the 19th century under its kabaka kings. Allied with Britain from 1894, it was abolished by Milton Obote in 1966 and restored as a cultural monarchy in 1993."},{"id":"nkore","name":"Kingdom of Nkore (Ankole)","short":"Nkore","start":1450,"end":1967,"approx":true,"family":"bantu","group":"great-lakes","kind":"state","tier":3,"desc":"A pastoral kingdom of south-western Uganda ruled by the Hinda dynasty, with a Hima cattle-keeping elite over Iru farmers. Uganda abolished it with the other kingdoms in 1967."},{"id":"karagwe","name":"Kingdom of Karagwe","short":"Karagwe","start":1450,"end":1890,"approx":true,"family":"bantu","group":"great-lakes","kind":"state","tier":3,"desc":"A Hinda kingdom west of Lake Victoria on the ivory and copper routes. King Rumanyika hosted the British explorers Speke and Grant in 1861, and the kingdom came under German rule in the 1890s."},{"id":"rwanda-kingdom","name":"Kingdom of Rwanda","short":"Rwanda","start":1500,"end":1961,"approx":true,"family":"bantu","group":"great-lakes","kind":"state","tier":3,"capital":"Nyanza","desc":"The Nyiginya dynasty built a centralised monarchy with a Tutsi aristocracy, expanding under Kigeli IV Rwabugiri in the late 19th century. German and Belgian rule hardened ethnic divisions, and the monarchy was abolished in 1961.","next":["rwanda"]},{"id":"burundi-kingdom","name":"Kingdom of Burundi","short":"Burundi","start":1680,"end":1966,"approx":true,"family":"bantu","group":"great-lakes","kind":"state","tier":3,"capital":"Gitega","desc":"Founded by Ntare I in the late 17th century, the kingdom was ruled by mwami kings over Ganwa princes, Tutsi and Hutu. It kept its monarchy through German and Belgian rule and into independence in 1962, until a coup in 1966.","next":["burundi"]},{"id":"ruanda-urundi","name":"Ruanda-Urundi","start":1916,"end":1962,"family":"romance","group":"great-lakes","kind":"colony","tier":3,"capital":"Usumbura","desc":"Belgian troops took Rwanda and Burundi from German East Africa in 1916, and the League of Nations made them a Belgian mandate. Belgium ruled through the Tutsi monarchies and issued ethnic identity cards in the 1930s.","next":["rwanda","burundi"]},{"id":"uganda-protectorate","name":"Uganda Protectorate","short":"British Uganda","start":1894,"end":1962,"family":"germanic","group":"great-lakes","kind":"colony","tier":3,"capital":"Entebbe","desc":"Britain declared a protectorate over Buganda in 1894 and extended it to Bunyoro, Toro, Ankole and the north. Ganda chiefs served as colonial agents, and cotton and coffee became the main cash crops.","next":["uganda"]},{"id":"uganda","name":"Uganda","start":1962,"end":2025,"family":"bantu","group":"great-lakes","kind":"state","tier":2,"capital":"Kampala","desc":"Independent in 1962, Uganda suffered the dictatorships of Milton Obote and Idi Amin, who expelled the Asian community in 1972. Yoweri Museveni has ruled since his rebel army took Kampala in 1986."},{"id":"rwanda","name":"Rwanda","start":1962,"end":2025,"family":"bantu","group":"great-lakes","kind":"state","tier":2,"capital":"Kigali","desc":"Hutu-led governments ruled from independence in 1962. In 1994 extremists killed about 800,000 Tutsi and moderate Hutu in a hundred days before the Rwandan Patriotic Front under Paul Kagame took power."},{"id":"burundi","name":"Burundi","start":1966,"end":2025,"family":"bantu","group":"great-lakes","kind":"state","tier":3,"capital":"Gitega (Bujumbura until 2019)","desc":"A republic since the 1966 coup, Burundi saw mass killings of Hutu in 1972 and a civil war from 1993 to 2005 that followed the assassination of its first Hutu president, Melchior Ndadaye."},{"id":"ea-hunter-gatherers","name":"East African hunter-gatherers","short":"Foragers","start":-3200,"end":2025,"approx":true,"family":"unknown","group":"east-coast","kind":"culture","tier":3,"desc":"Foraging peoples held the savannas of Kenya and Tanzania before herders and farmers arrived. The Hadza near Lake Eyasi, who speak a language isolate, still live largely by hunting and gathering."},{"id":"pastoral-neolithic","name":"Pastoral Neolithic herders","short":"Herders","start":-3000,"end":700,"approx":true,"family":"cushitic","group":"east-coast","kind":"culture","tier":2,"desc":"Cattle, sheep and goat herders moved south from the Turkana basin, where they built pillar sites around 3000 BCE, into the Rift Valley highlands. They probably spoke Southern Cushitic and later Nilotic languages."},{"id":"kwale-farmers","name":"Coastal Bantu farmers (Kwale ware)","short":"Kwale","start":100,"end":800,"approx":true,"family":"bantu","group":"east-coast","kind":"culture","tier":3,"desc":"Early Iron Age farmers making Kwale ware pottery settled the hills behind the Kenya and Tanzania coast around the 2nd century CE. Their descendants include the Swahili and the Mijikenda."},{"id":"swahili-city-states","name":"Swahili city-states","short":"Swahili coast","start":800,"end":1700,"approx":true,"family":"bantu","group":"east-coast","kind":"state","tier":1,"desc":"Muslim trading towns such as Mombasa, Malindi, Lamu, Pate and Kilwa lined some 3,000 km of coast, building in coral stone and exporting gold, ivory and slaves across the Indian Ocean. Their language, Swahili, is Bantu with many Arabic loans."},{"id":"kilwa","name":"Kilwa Sultanate","short":"Kilwa","start":957,"end":1513,"approx":true,"family":"bantu","group":"east-coast","kind":"state","tier":2,"capital":"Kilwa Kisiwani","desc":"Traditionally founded by Ali ibn al-Hasan, a prince from Shiraz, Kilwa controlled the gold trade from Sofala and the Zimbabwe plateau in the 13th and 14th centuries. The Portuguese sacked it in 1505 and it never recovered."},{"id":"portuguese-swahili-coast","name":"Portuguese Swahili coast","short":"Portuguese coast","start":1505,"end":1698,"family":"romance","group":"east-coast","kind":"colony","tier":3,"capital":"Mombasa (Fort Jesus)","desc":"Portugal forced tribute from the Swahili towns after sacking Kilwa and Mombasa in 1505 and built Fort Jesus at Mombasa in 1593. Omani forces took the fort after a 33-month siege in 1698, ending Portuguese power north of Mozambique.","next":["omani-east-africa"]},{"id":"omani-east-africa","name":"Omani East Africa","short":"Omani coast","start":1698,"end":1856,"family":"arabic","group":"east-coast","kind":"empire","tier":2,"capital":"Muscat, then Zanzibar (1840)","desc":"The Ya'rubi and then Busaidi rulers of Oman claimed the Swahili coast after 1698. Sultan Said bin Sultan moved his court to Zanzibar in 1840 and built a clove plantation economy worked by enslaved Africans.","next":["zanzibar"]},{"id":"zanzibar","name":"Sultanate of Zanzibar","short":"Zanzibar","start":1856,"end":1964,"family":"arabic","group":"east-coast","kind":"state","tier":2,"capital":"Zanzibar Town","desc":"Split from Oman on Said bin Sultan's death, Zanzibar ran East Africa's largest slave market until 1873 and became a British protectorate in 1890. The Arab-led sultanate fell to a revolution in January 1964.","next":["tanzania"]},{"id":"maasai","name":"Maasai pastoralists","short":"Maasai","start":1600,"end":2025,"approx":true,"family":"nilo-saharan","group":"east-coast","kind":"culture","tier":3,"desc":"Maa-speaking cattle herders spread south through the Rift Valley into central Kenya and northern Tanzania by the 17th and 18th centuries. Rinderpest and smallpox in the 1890s and colonial land seizures cost them much of their grazing."},{"id":"german-east-africa","name":"German East Africa","short":"German E. Africa","start":1885,"end":1919,"family":"germanic","group":"east-coast","kind":"colony","tier":2,"capital":"Dar es Salaam","desc":"Carl Peters' company treaties led to a German protectorate in 1885 over mainland Tanzania, Rwanda and Burundi. German forces crushed the Abushiri and Maji Maji revolts, and Lettow-Vorbeck's army held out until November 1918.","next":["tanganyika-territory","ruanda-urundi"]},{"id":"british-kenya","name":"British Kenya","start":1895,"end":1963,"family":"germanic","group":"east-coast","kind":"colony","tier":2,"capital":"Mombasa, then Nairobi","desc":"The East Africa Protectorate of 1895 became Kenya Colony in 1920. White settlers took the central highlands, and the Mau Mau uprising of 1952 to 1960 was crushed with mass detention before independence.","next":["kenya"]},{"id":"tanganyika-territory","name":"Tanganyika Territory","short":"Tanganyika","start":1919,"end":1961,"family":"germanic","group":"east-coast","kind":"colony","tier":3,"capital":"Dar es Salaam","desc":"Britain governed the former German mainland as a League of Nations mandate and then a UN trust territory. Julius Nyerere's TANU party led it peacefully to independence in December 1961.","next":["tanzania"]},{"id":"tanzania","name":"Tanzania","start":1961,"end":2025,"family":"bantu","group":"east-coast","kind":"state","tier":2,"capital":"Dodoma, Dar es Salaam","desc":"Independent Tanganyika merged with revolutionary Zanzibar in 1964. Under Nyerere it pursued ujamaa village socialism and made Swahili the national language, and its ruling party has governed without a break since independence."},{"id":"kenya","name":"Kenya","start":1963,"end":2025,"family":"bantu","group":"east-coast","kind":"state","tier":2,"capital":"Nairobi","desc":"Independent in 1963 under Jomo Kenyatta, Kenya was a one-party state from 1982 to 1991. Disputed elections in 2007 led to deadly violence and a new constitution in 2010."},{"id":"khoisan-hunter-gatherers","name":"Khoisan hunter-gatherers","short":"Khoisan foragers","start":-3200,"end":1100,"approx":true,"family":"khoisan","group":"zambezi","kind":"culture","tier":2,"desc":"San-related foragers painted the rock shelters of the Matobo hills and the Zimbabwe plateau. Iron Age farmers absorbed or displaced most of them during the first millennium CE."},{"id":"zambezi-iron-age-farmers","name":"Iron Age farmers of the Zambezi","short":"Iron Age farmers","start":200,"end":1000,"approx":true,"family":"bantu","group":"zambezi","kind":"culture","tier":2,"desc":"Bantu-speaking farmers brought iron, cattle, sorghum and millet to the Zambezi valley, Malawi and Mozambique from about 200 CE, making the pottery of the Nkope, Kalundu and Gokomere traditions."},{"id":"mapungubwe","name":"Kingdom of Mapungubwe","short":"Mapungubwe","start":1075,"end":1220,"approx":true,"family":"bantu","group":"zambezi","kind":"state","tier":2,"capital":"Mapungubwe Hill","desc":"The first known kingdom in southern Africa, on the Limpopo, whose rulers lived on a hilltop above commoners and were buried with gold objects such as the golden rhinoceros. It traded ivory and gold to the coast.","next":["great-zimbabwe"]},{"id":"great-zimbabwe","name":"Kingdom of Zimbabwe","short":"Great Zimbabwe","start":1220,"end":1450,"approx":true,"family":"bantu","group":"zambezi","kind":"state","tier":1,"capital":"Great Zimbabwe","desc":"Shona-speaking rulers built the dry-stone walls of Great Zimbabwe, home to perhaps 10,000 to 18,000 people, on the profits of the gold trade with Kilwa. The site was abandoned by about 1450 as power moved to Mutapa and Butua.","next":["mutapa","butua"]},{"id":"mutapa","name":"Mutapa Empire","short":"Mutapa","start":1430,"end":1760,"approx":true,"family":"bantu","group":"zambezi","kind":"empire","tier":2,"capital":"Zvongombe","desc":"Founded by Nyatsimba Mutota, who moved north from Great Zimbabwe, the Mwenemutapa kings ruled the northern plateau and the Zambezi valley. Portuguese traders and soldiers pressed in from the 16th century and made it a vassal in 1629."},{"id":"butua","name":"Kingdom of Butua","short":"Butua","start":1450,"end":1683,"approx":true,"family":"bantu","group":"zambezi","kind":"state","tier":2,"capital":"Khami","desc":"The Torwa dynasty ruled south-western Zimbabwe from Khami, whose terraced stone walls continue the Great Zimbabwe tradition. Changamire Dombo's Rozvi conquered it in the 1680s.","next":["rozvi"]},{"id":"rozvi","name":"Rozvi Empire","short":"Rozvi","start":1660,"end":1866,"approx":true,"family":"bantu","group":"zambezi","kind":"empire","tier":2,"capital":"Danangombe","desc":"Changamire Dombo built the state from the 1660s, took Butua and drove the Portuguese from the plateau in the 1690s. Nguni invasions in the 1830s and the arrival of the Ndebele broke its power.","next":["ndebele-kingdom"]},{"id":"maravi","name":"Maravi Confederacy","short":"Maravi","start":1480,"end":1750,"approx":true,"family":"bantu","group":"zambezi","kind":"state","tier":3,"capital":"Mankhamba","desc":"Phiri clan rulers under the Kalonga held the lands around Lake Malawi from the 15th century and fought the Portuguese for the Zambezi ivory trade. By the 18th century the confederacy had split into rival chiefdoms."},{"id":"lozi","name":"Lozi Kingdom (Barotseland)","short":"Barotseland","start":1700,"end":1964,"approx":true,"family":"bantu","group":"zambezi","kind":"state","tier":3,"capital":"Lealui","desc":"Litunga kings ruled the upper Zambezi floodplain. Kololo invaders held it from about 1840 to 1864, after which the Lozi restored their monarchy, which became a British protectorate and entered Zambia in 1964."},{"id":"gaza","name":"Gaza Empire","short":"Gaza","start":1824,"end":1895,"approx":true,"family":"bantu","group":"zambezi","kind":"empire","tier":3,"capital":"Mandlakazi","desc":"Soshangane, a Ndwandwe general fleeing Shaka, conquered southern Mozambique and parts of eastern Zimbabwe. Portugal captured his grandson Ngungunyane in 1895 and exiled him to the Azores.","next":["portuguese-mozambique"]},{"id":"ndebele-kingdom","name":"Ndebele Kingdom (Mthwakazi)","short":"Ndebele","start":1823,"end":1894,"family":"bantu","group":"zambezi","kind":"state","tier":2,"capital":"Bulawayo","desc":"Mzilikazi broke with Shaka in 1823, crossed the highveld and, driven out by the Boers, settled north of the Limpopo around 1840. His son Lobengula lost the kingdom to the British South Africa Company in 1893 to 1894.","next":["company-rhodesia"]},{"id":"portuguese-mozambique","name":"Portuguese Mozambique","short":"Port. Mozambique","start":1505,"end":1975,"family":"romance","group":"zambezi","kind":"colony","tier":2,"capital":"Mozambique Island, then Lourenço Marques","desc":"Portugal built forts at Sofala in 1505 and Mozambique Island in 1507 and ran the Zambezi valley through prazo estates. Effective control came only in the 1890s, and FRELIMO's war from 1964 won independence in 1975.","next":["mozambique"]},{"id":"mozambique","name":"Mozambique","start":1975,"end":2025,"family":"bantu","group":"zambezi","kind":"state","tier":2,"capital":"Maputo","desc":"Independent under FRELIMO in 1975, Mozambique fought a civil war against RENAMO, backed by Rhodesia and South Africa, until 1992. An Islamist insurgency has troubled Cabo Delgado province since 2017."},{"id":"company-rhodesia","name":"Company Rhodesia","short":"BSAC Rhodesia","start":1890,"end":1923,"family":"germanic","group":"zambezi","kind":"colony","tier":3,"capital":"Salisbury","desc":"Cecil Rhodes' British South Africa Company sent its Pioneer Column to Mashonaland in 1890, crushed the Ndebele and Shona risings of 1896 to 1897, and ruled both Rhodesias under royal charter.","next":["southern-rhodesia","northern-rhodesia"]},{"id":"southern-rhodesia","name":"Southern Rhodesia","short":"S. Rhodesia","start":1923,"end":1965,"family":"germanic","group":"zambezi","kind":"colony","tier":3,"capital":"Salisbury","desc":"A self-governing British colony run by its white settler minority, which kept most of the best farmland under the 1930 Land Apportionment Act. It led the Federation of Rhodesia and Nyasaland from 1953 to 1963.","next":["rhodesia"]},{"id":"rhodesia","name":"Rhodesia","start":1965,"end":1979,"family":"germanic","group":"zambezi","kind":"state","tier":3,"capital":"Salisbury","desc":"Ian Smith's white minority government declared independence from Britain in 1965 to avoid majority rule. International sanctions and the guerrilla war of ZANU and ZAPU forced a settlement in 1979.","next":["zimbabwe"]},{"id":"zimbabwe","name":"Zimbabwe","start":1980,"end":2025,"family":"bantu","group":"zambezi","kind":"state","tier":2,"capital":"Harare","desc":"Independent in 1980 under Robert Mugabe, whose army killed thousands of Ndebele civilians in the Gukurahundi massacres. Land seizures from 2000 brought economic collapse and hyperinflation, and a 2017 coup removed Mugabe."},{"id":"northern-rhodesia","name":"Northern Rhodesia","short":"N. Rhodesia","start":1924,"end":1964,"family":"germanic","group":"zambezi","kind":"colony","tier":3,"capital":"Livingstone, then Lusaka","desc":"A British protectorate from 1924 whose Copperbelt mines became some of the world's largest copper producers from the late 1920s. It joined the Federation of Rhodesia and Nyasaland in 1953.","next":["zambia"]},{"id":"zambia","name":"Zambia","start":1964,"end":2025,"family":"bantu","group":"zambezi","kind":"state","tier":3,"capital":"Lusaka","desc":"Independent in 1964 under Kenneth Kaunda, who ran a one-party state until multiparty elections in 1991. Copper prices have shaped its economy throughout."},{"id":"nyasaland","name":"Nyasaland","start":1891,"end":1964,"family":"germanic","group":"zambezi","kind":"colony","tier":3,"capital":"Zomba","desc":"Britain declared a protectorate over the Shire Highlands and Lake Malawi in 1891, partly at the urging of Scottish missions. John Chilembwe led a rising against settler planters in 1915.","next":["malawi"]},{"id":"malawi","name":"Malawi","start":1964,"end":2025,"family":"bantu","group":"zambezi","kind":"state","tier":3,"capital":"Zomba, then Lilongwe","desc":"Hastings Banda ruled independent Malawi from 1964, declaring himself president for life in 1971, until multiparty elections in 1994 voted him out."},{"id":"san","name":"San hunter-gatherers","short":"San","start":-3200,"end":2025,"approx":true,"family":"khoisan","group":"south-africa-namibia","kind":"culture","tier":2,"desc":"Ancestors of the San hunted and gathered across southern Africa for tens of thousands of years and painted rock shelters from the Drakensberg to Namibia. Groups such as the Ju/'hoansi of the Kalahari keep parts of this way of life today."},{"id":"khoekhoe","name":"Khoekhoe herders","short":"Khoekhoe","start":-100,"end":1904,"approx":true,"family":"khoisan","group":"south-africa-namibia","kind":"culture","tier":2,"desc":"Khoe-speaking herders brought sheep and later cattle into southern Africa around 2,000 years ago. Dutch land seizures and smallpox in 1713 broke the Cape Khoekhoe, and German forces crushed the Nama in Namibia from 1904."},{"id":"sa-iron-age-farmers","name":"Iron Age farmers of South Africa","short":"Iron Age farmers","start":300,"end":1300,"approx":true,"family":"bantu","group":"south-africa-namibia","kind":"culture","tier":2,"desc":"Bantu-speaking farmers crossed the Limpopo and settled the well-watered east of South Africa by about 300 CE, herding cattle and smelting iron. The Lydenburg Heads, terracotta masks from about 500 CE, come from one of their sites."},{"id":"sotho-tswana","name":"Sotho-Tswana chiefdoms","short":"Sotho-Tswana","start":1300,"end":1830,"approx":true,"family":"bantu","group":"south-africa-namibia","kind":"culture","tier":3,"desc":"Sotho and Tswana speakers built large stone-walled towns on the highveld, some such as Kaditshwene holding over 10,000 people by 1800. Their chiefdoms were scattered by the wars of the Difaqane in the 1820s."},{"id":"nguni","name":"Nguni chiefdoms","short":"Nguni","start":1300,"end":1820,"approx":true,"family":"bantu","group":"south-africa-namibia","kind":"culture","tier":3,"desc":"Nguni-speaking cattle herders lived in dispersed homesteads between the Drakensberg and the Indian Ocean in many small chiefdoms. Around 1800 these consolidated into rival states led by the Mthethwa, Ndwandwe and Ngwane.","next":["zulu"]},{"id":"xhosa","name":"Xhosa chiefdoms","short":"Xhosa","start":1550,"end":1879,"approx":true,"family":"bantu","group":"south-africa-namibia","kind":"culture","tier":3,"desc":"The southernmost Nguni people, the Xhosa fought nine frontier wars with the Cape Colony from 1779 to 1879. The cattle-killing of 1856 to 1857, inspired by the prophet Nongqawuse, left tens of thousands dead from famine."},{"id":"pedi","name":"Pedi Kingdom","short":"Pedi","start":1650,"end":1879,"approx":true,"family":"bantu","group":"south-africa-namibia","kind":"state","tier":3,"desc":"The Maroteng dynasty ruled the Pedi of the eastern Transvaal, reaching its height under Thulare around 1800. Sekhukhune I resisted the Boers and the British until a British and Swazi army stormed his capital in 1879."},{"id":"zulu","name":"Zulu Kingdom","short":"Zulu","start":1816,"end":1897,"family":"bantu","group":"south-africa-namibia","kind":"state","tier":1,"capital":"KwaBulawayo, later Ulundi","desc":"Shaka turned a small chiefdom into a military kingdom with regiments armed with short stabbing spears. The Zulu destroyed a British force at Isandlwana in 1879 yet lost the war, and Britain joined Zululand to Natal in 1897.","next":["colony-of-natal"]},{"id":"basotho-kingdom","name":"Basotho Kingdom","short":"Basotho","start":1822,"end":1868,"approx":true,"family":"bantu","group":"south-africa-namibia","kind":"state","tier":3,"capital":"Thaba Bosiu","desc":"Moshoeshoe I gathered refugees of the Difaqane on the mountain fortress of Thaba Bosiu and forged the Basotho nation. Losing land in wars with the Orange Free State, he asked for British protection in 1868.","next":["basutoland"]},{"id":"basutoland","name":"Basutoland","start":1868,"end":1966,"family":"germanic","group":"south-africa-namibia","kind":"colony","tier":3,"capital":"Maseru","desc":"A British protectorate that kept Lesotho out of the Boer republics and later the Union of South Africa, though most of its men worked in South African mines.","next":["lesotho"]},{"id":"lesotho","name":"Lesotho","start":1966,"end":2025,"family":"bantu","group":"south-africa-namibia","kind":"state","tier":3,"capital":"Maseru","desc":"Independent in 1966 as a monarchy under Moshoeshoe's line, Lesotho is entirely surrounded by South Africa and sells water to Gauteng through the Lesotho Highlands Water Project."},{"id":"swazi-kingdom","name":"Swazi Kingdom","short":"Swazi","start":1745,"end":1903,"approx":true,"family":"bantu","group":"south-africa-namibia","kind":"state","tier":3,"capital":"Lobamba","desc":"Ngwane III led the Dlamini clan into the lands of modern Eswatini in the mid-18th century, and Sobhuza I and Mswati II built a strong kingdom. It fell under Transvaal administration in 1894 and British protection after the Boer War.","next":["british-swaziland"]},{"id":"british-swaziland","name":"British Swaziland","start":1903,"end":1968,"family":"germanic","group":"south-africa-namibia","kind":"colony","tier":3,"capital":"Mbabane","desc":"Britain governed Swaziland as a High Commission territory while the Swazi monarchy kept its ceremonial role. King Sobhuza II, who reigned from 1921 to 1982, led it to independence.","next":["eswatini"]},{"id":"eswatini","name":"Eswatini","start":1968,"end":2025,"family":"bantu","group":"south-africa-namibia","kind":"state","tier":3,"capital":"Mbabane, Lobamba","desc":"Independent in 1968, the kingdom became an absolute monarchy when Sobhuza II suspended the constitution in 1973. King Mswati III renamed it Eswatini in 2018."},{"id":"dutch-cape","name":"Dutch Cape Colony","short":"Dutch Cape","start":1652,"end":1806,"family":"germanic","group":"south-africa-namibia","kind":"colony","tier":2,"capital":"Cape Town","desc":"The Dutch East India Company set up a supply station at Table Bay in 1652. Free burghers and enslaved people from Asia and Africa followed, and trekboer farmers pushed the frontier east to the Fish River.","next":["british-cape"]},{"id":"british-cape","name":"British Cape Colony","short":"British Cape","start":1806,"end":1910,"family":"germanic","group":"south-africa-namibia","kind":"colony","tier":2,"capital":"Cape Town","desc":"Britain took the Cape for good in 1806 and abolished slavery in 1834, one cause of the Great Trek. Diamonds at Kimberley and a property-based franchise open to all races marked its later decades before union in 1910.","next":["union-of-south-africa"]},{"id":"natalia","name":"Natalia Republic","short":"Natalia","start":1839,"end":1843,"family":"germanic","group":"south-africa-namibia","kind":"state","tier":3,"capital":"Pietermaritzburg","desc":"Voortrekkers founded this republic after defeating the Zulu at Blood River in 1838. Britain annexed it in 1843, and most of its Boers moved on to the highveld.","next":["colony-of-natal"]},{"id":"colony-of-natal","name":"Colony of Natal","short":"Natal","start":1843,"end":1910,"family":"germanic","group":"south-africa-namibia","kind":"colony","tier":3,"capital":"Pietermaritzburg","desc":"A British colony on the east coast whose sugar plantations brought indentured Indian labourers from 1860. Mohandas Gandhi began his political career there in the 1890s.","next":["union-of-south-africa"]},{"id":"orange-free-state","name":"Orange Free State","short":"Free State","start":1854,"end":1902,"family":"germanic","group":"south-africa-namibia","kind":"state","tier":3,"capital":"Bloemfontein","desc":"A Boer republic between the Orange and Vaal rivers, recognised by Britain in 1854 after the brief Orange River Sovereignty. Britain annexed it during the Second Boer War, which ended in 1902.","next":["union-of-south-africa"]},{"id":"south-african-republic","name":"South African Republic (Transvaal)","short":"Transvaal","start":1852,"end":1902,"family":"germanic","group":"south-africa-namibia","kind":"state","tier":2,"capital":"Pretoria","desc":"Recognised by the Sand River Convention in 1852, the Transvaal threw off a British annexation in 1881. The Witwatersrand gold rush of 1886 drew British miners and capital, leading to the Second Boer War and annexation in 1902.","next":["union-of-south-africa"]},{"id":"union-of-south-africa","name":"Union of South Africa","short":"Union of SA","start":1910,"end":1961,"family":"germanic","group":"south-africa-namibia","kind":"state","tier":2,"capital":"Pretoria, Cape Town","desc":"A self-governing British dominion formed from the Cape, Natal, Transvaal and Orange River colonies. The 1913 Natives Land Act reserved most land for whites, and the National Party began apartheid in 1948.","next":["apartheid-south-africa"]},{"id":"apartheid-south-africa","name":"Republic of South Africa (apartheid era)","short":"Apartheid SA","start":1961,"end":1994,"family":"germanic","group":"south-africa-namibia","kind":"state","tier":1,"capital":"Pretoria","desc":"A republic outside the Commonwealth from 1961, it enforced racial segregation, created nominally independent Bantustans and banned the ANC. Uprisings, sanctions and negotiations led to the first democratic election in 1994.","next":["south-africa"]},{"id":"south-africa","name":"South Africa","start":1994,"end":2025,"family":"bantu","group":"south-africa-namibia","kind":"state","tier":1,"capital":"Pretoria, Cape Town, Bloemfontein","desc":"Nelson Mandela became president after the 1994 election, and the 1996 constitution guarantees equal rights for all. The ANC governed alone until 2024, when it lost its majority and formed a coalition."},{"id":"ovambo","name":"Ovambo kingdoms","short":"Ovambo","start":1600,"end":1917,"approx":true,"family":"bantu","group":"south-africa-namibia","kind":"state","tier":3,"desc":"Farming kingdoms such as Ondonga and Oukwanyama on the floodplains of northern Namibia and southern Angola. The death of Mandume ya Ndemufayo, last king of the Kwanyama, fighting South African forces in 1917 ended their independence."},{"id":"herero","name":"Herero pastoralists","short":"Herero","start":1600,"end":1904,"approx":true,"family":"bantu","group":"south-africa-namibia","kind":"culture","tier":3,"desc":"Cattle-herding Herero chiefdoms dominated central Namibia in the 19th century under leaders such as Maharero. German troops killed most of the Herero after their 1904 uprising, now recognised as genocide."},{"id":"german-south-west-africa","name":"German South West Africa","short":"German SW Africa","start":1884,"end":1915,"family":"germanic","group":"south-africa-namibia","kind":"colony","tier":2,"capital":"Windhoek","desc":"Germany claimed the coast after Adolf Lüderitz bought land at Angra Pequena in 1883. Its army killed tens of thousands of Herero and Nama from 1904 to 1908, and South African troops conquered the colony in 1915.","next":["south-west-africa"]},{"id":"south-west-africa","name":"South West Africa","short":"SW Africa","start":1915,"end":1990,"family":"germanic","group":"south-africa-namibia","kind":"colony","tier":3,"capital":"Windhoek","desc":"South Africa ruled the territory under a League of Nations mandate and extended apartheid to it. SWAPO fought a guerrilla war from 1966, and a UN-supervised election led to independence in 1990.","next":["namibia"]},{"id":"namibia","name":"Namibia","start":1990,"end":2025,"family":"bantu","group":"south-africa-namibia","kind":"state","tier":3,"capital":"Windhoek","desc":"Independent in 1990 under SWAPO leader Sam Nujoma, Namibia is a stable democracy and a major producer of uranium and diamonds. SWAPO has won every national election since."},{"id":"bechuanaland","name":"Bechuanaland Protectorate","short":"Bechuanaland","start":1885,"end":1966,"family":"germanic","group":"south-africa-namibia","kind":"colony","tier":3,"capital":"Mafeking (outside the territory)","desc":"Tswana chiefs led by Khama III sought British protection against the Boers and Cecil Rhodes' company. Britain ruled the territory lightly from Mafeking, just outside its borders.","next":["botswana"]},{"id":"botswana","name":"Botswana","start":1966,"end":2025,"family":"bantu","group":"south-africa-namibia","kind":"state","tier":3,"capital":"Gaborone","desc":"Seretse Khama led Botswana to independence in 1966. Diamonds found in 1967 funded decades of steady growth, and the Botswana Democratic Party governed until it lost the 2024 election."},{"id":"pre-settlement-madagascar","name":"Pre-settlement Madagascar","short":"Pre-settlement","start":-3200,"end":400,"approx":true,"family":"unknown","group":"madagascar","kind":"culture","tier":3,"desc":"Madagascar's giant lemurs, elephant birds and pygmy hippos lived with few or no people. Cut-marked bones suggest brief visits by foragers, and lasting settlement came only in the first millennium CE."},{"id":"first-malagasy","name":"Austronesian settlers of Madagascar","short":"First Malagasy","start":400,"end":1100,"approx":true,"family":"austronesian","group":"madagascar","kind":"culture","tier":2,"desc":"Seafarers from southern Borneo, related to the Ma'anyan, settled Madagascar in the first millennium CE and mixed with Bantu-speaking migrants from the African coast. Malagasy is an Austronesian language with Bantu loanwords."},{"id":"malagasy-chiefdoms","name":"Malagasy chiefdoms and trading towns","short":"Malagasy chiefs","start":1000,"end":1600,"approx":true,"family":"austronesian","group":"madagascar","kind":"culture","tier":3,"desc":"Rice-growing and cattle-keeping chiefdoms spread over the island, while Muslim trading towns such as Mahilaka in the north-west exported chlorite schist bowls and slaves across the Indian Ocean."},{"id":"imerina","name":"Kingdom of Imerina","short":"Imerina","start":1540,"end":1817,"approx":true,"family":"austronesian","group":"madagascar","kind":"state","tier":2,"capital":"Ambohimanga, Antananarivo","desc":"A Merina highland kingdom traditionally founded by Andriamanelo in the 16th century. Andrianampoinimerina reunited its divided realms between about 1787 and 1810 and made Antananarivo his capital.","next":["merina-kingdom"]},{"id":"merina-kingdom","name":"Merina Kingdom of Madagascar","short":"Merina kingdom","start":1817,"end":1897,"family":"austronesian","group":"madagascar","kind":"state","tier":2,"capital":"Antananarivo","desc":"Radama I, recognised by Britain as king of Madagascar in 1817, built an army and conquered most of the island. Ranavalona I persecuted Christians, Ranavalona II converted, and France abolished the monarchy in 1897.","next":["french-madagascar"]},{"id":"sakalava","name":"Sakalava kingdoms","short":"Sakalava","start":1650,"end":1840,"approx":true,"family":"austronesian","group":"madagascar","kind":"state","tier":3,"desc":"The Maroserana dynasty founded Menabe in the west in the 17th century and Boina in the north-west around 1700, trading cattle and slaves with Arab and European ships. Merina armies conquered Boina between the 1820s and 1840s."},{"id":"betsimisaraka","name":"Betsimisaraka Confederation","short":"Betsimisaraka","start":1712,"end":1817,"approx":true,"family":"austronesian","group":"madagascar","kind":"state","tier":3,"desc":"Ratsimilaho, son of an English pirate and a Malagasy princess, united the clans of the east coast around 1712. The confederacy weakened after his death in 1750, and Radama I absorbed it in 1817."},{"id":"french-madagascar","name":"French Madagascar","short":"Fr. Madagascar","start":1896,"end":1960,"family":"romance","group":"madagascar","kind":"colony","tier":2,"capital":"Antananarivo","desc":"France took Antananarivo in 1895, annexed the island in 1896 and exiled the last queen, Ranavalona III. The uprising of 1947 was crushed with tens of thousands of deaths before independence in 1960.","next":["madagascar"]},{"id":"madagascar","name":"Madagascar","start":1960,"end":2025,"family":"austronesian","group":"madagascar","kind":"state","tier":2,"capital":"Antananarivo","desc":"Independent in 1960, Madagascar went through Didier Ratsiraka's socialist republic and repeated political crises, including military-backed seizures of power in 2009 and 2025."},{"id":"comoro-sultanates","name":"Comorian sultanates","short":"Comoro sultans","start":1500,"end":1912,"approx":true,"family":"bantu","group":"madagascar","kind":"state","tier":3,"desc":"Sultans claiming Shirazi descent ruled rival states on Anjouan, Grande Comore, Mohéli and Mayotte, trading with the Swahili coast and Madagascar. France took Mayotte in 1841 and annexed the other islands in 1912.","next":["comoros"]},{"id":"comoros","name":"Comoros","start":1975,"end":2025,"family":"bantu","group":"madagascar","kind":"state","tier":3,"capital":"Moroni","desc":"The Comoros declared independence from France in 1975, though Mayotte voted to stay French. Some 20 coups and attempted coups followed, several led by the French mercenary Bob Denard."},{"id":"isle-de-france","name":"Isle de France (French Mauritius)","short":"Isle de France","start":1715,"end":1810,"family":"romance","group":"madagascar","kind":"colony","tier":3,"capital":"Port Louis","desc":"Uninhabited until the Dutch tried and abandoned it, Mauritius was settled by France in 1715 and worked by enslaved Malagasy and Africans. Britain took it in 1810 during the Napoleonic Wars.","next":["british-mauritius"]},{"id":"british-mauritius","name":"British Mauritius","start":1810,"end":1968,"family":"germanic","group":"madagascar","kind":"colony","tier":3,"capital":"Port Louis","desc":"After slavery ended in 1835, Britain brought about 450,000 indentured labourers from India to the sugar estates, making Indo-Mauritians the majority.","next":["mauritius"]},{"id":"mauritius","name":"Mauritius","start":1968,"end":2025,"family":"romance","group":"madagascar","kind":"state","tier":3,"capital":"Port Louis","desc":"Independent in 1968 and a republic since 1992, Mauritius built a stable democracy on sugar, textiles, tourism and finance. Britain agreed in 2024 to hand it the Chagos Islands."},{"id":"seychelles","name":"Seychelles","start":1976,"end":2025,"family":"romance","group":"madagascar","kind":"state","tier":3,"capital":"Victoria","desc":"Uninhabited until French settlers arrived in 1770, the islands passed to Britain in 1814 and became independent in 1976. France-Albert René's coup in 1977 began a one-party era that lasted until 1993."}],"events":[{"year":-1000,"title":"Bantu farmers reach the Great Lakes","desc":"Around this time Bantu-speaking farmers moving east along the northern edge of the rainforest reach the Great Lakes, the start of the Eastern Bantu spread that later reaches the Cape.","tier":1,"group":"great-lakes","related":["eastern-bantu-farmers"]},{"year":-500,"title":"Iron smelting in the Great Lakes","desc":"Furnaces of the Urewe culture around Lake Victoria are producing iron by about 500 BCE, among the earliest ironworking south of the Sahara.","tier":2,"group":"great-lakes","related":["urewe"]},{"year":50,"title":"The Periplus describes Azania","desc":"A Greek merchant's guide, the Periplus of the Erythraean Sea, calls the East African coast Azania and names Rhapta as its southernmost market for ivory and tortoiseshell.","tier":2,"group":"east-coast"},{"year":1331,"title":"Ibn Battuta visits Kilwa","desc":"The Moroccan traveller Ibn Battuta visits Mombasa and Kilwa and calls Kilwa one of the most beautiful and well-built towns in the world.","tier":2,"group":"east-coast","related":["kilwa","swahili-city-states"]},{"year":1350,"title":"Great Enclosure built at Great Zimbabwe","desc":"Builders raise the Great Enclosure, the largest ancient structure south of the Sahara, with mortarless granite walls up to 11 metres high.","tier":2,"group":"zambezi","related":["great-zimbabwe"]},{"year":1483,"title":"Diogo Cão reaches the Congo River","desc":"The Portuguese navigator Diogo Cão sails into the mouth of the Congo and opens contact with the Kingdom of Kongo.","tier":2,"group":"lower-congo-angola","related":["kongo"]},{"year":1491,"title":"Kongo's king is baptised","desc":"Nzinga a Nkuwu is baptised as João I. His son Afonso I, who ruled from 1509 to 1542, made Catholicism the state religion and wrote letters to the kings of Portugal.","tier":2,"group":"lower-congo-angola","related":["kongo"]},{"year":1498,"title":"Vasco da Gama on the Swahili coast","desc":"Da Gama's fleet calls at Mozambique, Mombasa and Malindi, where he hires a pilot to guide him across the Indian Ocean to Calicut.","tier":2,"group":"east-coast","related":["swahili-city-states"]},{"year":1505,"title":"Portuguese sack Kilwa and Mombasa","desc":"Francisco de Almeida's fleet storms Kilwa and burns Mombasa, beginning Portuguese domination of the Swahili coast.","tier":2,"group":"east-coast","related":["kilwa","portuguese-swahili-coast"]},{"year":1652,"title":"Founding of Cape Town","desc":"Jan van Riebeeck lands at Table Bay to build a supply station for Dutch East India Company ships, the start of European settlement in South Africa.","tier":2,"group":"south-africa-namibia","related":["dutch-cape"]},{"year":1665,"title":"Battle of Mbwila","desc":"Portuguese forces from Luanda defeat Kongo and kill King António I, setting off decades of civil war that split the kingdom.","tier":2,"group":"lower-congo-angola","related":["kongo","portuguese-angola"]},{"year":1698,"title":"Omanis take Fort Jesus","desc":"After a siege of almost three years, Omani forces capture Fort Jesus at Mombasa and end Portuguese power on the Swahili coast north of Mozambique.","tier":2,"group":"east-coast","related":["portuguese-swahili-coast","omani-east-africa"]},{"year":1816,"title":"Shaka becomes Zulu king","desc":"Shaka takes power among the Zulu. The wars and migrations of the next two decades, the Mfecane or Difaqane, remade states from Natal to Lake Tanganyika.","tier":2,"group":"south-africa-namibia","related":["zulu","ndebele-kingdom","gaza","basotho-kingdom"]},{"year":1836,"title":"The Great Trek begins","desc":"Thousands of Boer families leave the Cape Colony for the interior, founding the Natalia, Orange Free State and Transvaal republics.","tier":2,"group":"south-africa-namibia","related":["british-cape","natalia","orange-free-state","south-african-republic"]},{"year":1879,"title":"Battle of Isandlwana","desc":"A Zulu army destroys a British column at Isandlwana, the worst defeat of a British force by an African army, though Britain wins the war within months.","tier":2,"group":"south-africa-namibia","related":["zulu"]},{"year":1885,"title":"Berlin Conference ends","desc":"European powers meeting in Berlin set rules for claiming African territory and recognise Leopold II's Congo Free State, accelerating the Scramble for Africa.","tier":1,"group":"congo-basin","related":["congo-free-state"]},{"year":1886,"title":"Witwatersrand gold rush","desc":"Gold is found on the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg grows almost overnight, and the Transvaal becomes the world's leading gold producer.","tier":2,"group":"south-africa-namibia","related":["south-african-republic"]},{"year":1896,"title":"Rinderpest sweeps southern Africa","desc":"A rinderpest epidemic moving south from the Horn of Africa kills around 90 percent of cattle in places, bringing famine to herding peoples.","tier":2,"related":["maasai","herero"]},{"year":1899,"title":"Second Boer War begins","desc":"War between Britain and the Boer republics leads to scorched-earth tactics and concentration camps where about 26,000 Boer women and children and many Black Africans die.","tier":2,"group":"south-africa-namibia","related":["orange-free-state","south-african-republic"]},{"year":1904,"title":"Herero and Nama genocide","desc":"German forces under Lothar von Trotha crush the Herero and Nama risings, driving survivors into the Omaheke desert and into concentration camps.","tier":2,"group":"south-africa-namibia","related":["german-south-west-africa","herero","khoekhoe"]},{"year":1905,"title":"Maji Maji rebellion","desc":"Peoples of southern German East Africa rise against forced cotton growing. German scorched-earth reprisals cause famine that kills well over 100,000 people.","tier":2,"group":"east-coast","related":["german-east-africa"]},{"year":1948,"title":"Apartheid becomes law","desc":"The National Party wins the South African election and begins passing laws for racial classification, segregated areas and separate institutions.","tier":1,"group":"south-africa-namibia","related":["union-of-south-africa"]},{"year":1960,"title":"Congo independence and crisis","desc":"Congo becomes independent on 30 June. Within weeks the army mutinies, Katanga secedes and UN troops arrive, a defining crisis of the Cold War in Africa.","tier":2,"group":"congo-basin","related":["congo-leopoldville","katanga"]},{"year":1994,"title":"Rwandan genocide","desc":"Over about a hundred days, Hutu extremists kill around 800,000 Tutsi and moderate Hutu while the world fails to intervene.","tier":1,"group":"great-lakes","related":["rwanda"]},{"year":1994,"title":"Mandela elected president","desc":"South Africa holds its first election open to all races, and Nelson Mandela becomes president after 27 years in prison and four years of negotiations.","tier":1,"group":"south-africa-namibia","related":["south-africa","apartheid-south-africa"]}]},{"id":"northern-africa","name":"North and West Africa","groups":[{"id":"maghreb","name":"Maghreb"},{"id":"egypt","name":"Egypt"},{"id":"nubia","name":"Nubia and Sudan"},{"id":"horn","name":"Horn of Africa"},{"id":"sahel","name":"Sahara and Sahel"},{"id":"lake-chad","name":"Lake Chad basin"},{"id":"west-africa","name":"West Africa coast and forest"}],"entries":[{"id":"berber-tribes","name":"Amazigh (Berber) tribes","short":"Berbers","start":-3200,"end":2025,"approx":true,"family":"berber","group":"maghreb","kind":"culture","tier":3,"desc":"Herders and farmers of North Africa from Libya to the Atlantic, called Libyans by Egyptians and Greeks. Berber tribes founded kingdoms and dynasties in every era and still make up much of the Maghreb's population."},{"id":"libu-meshwesh","name":"Libu and Meshwesh","short":"Libyan tribes","start":-1250,"end":-945,"approx":true,"family":"berber","group":"maghreb","kind":"culture","tier":3,"desc":"Libyan tribes west of Egypt who joined the Sea Peoples against Merneptah and Ramesses III. Meshwesh chiefs settled in the Delta, and one of them, Shoshenq I, became pharaoh in 945 BCE."},{"id":"carthage","name":"Carthage","start":-814,"end":-146,"approx":true,"family":"semitic","group":"maghreb","kind":"state","tier":1,"capital":"Carthage","desc":"Phoenician colony from Tyre that became the leading sea power of the western Mediterranean, ruling Sardinia, western Sicily and southern Spain. After three Punic Wars Rome razed the city in 146 BCE.","next":["roman-africa"]},{"id":"cyrene","name":"Cyrene and the Greek Pentapolis","short":"Cyrene","start":-631,"end":-96,"family":"greek","group":"maghreb","kind":"state","tier":3,"capital":"Cyrene","desc":"Greek colony in eastern Libya founded from Thera, which grew wealthy on grain, horses and the medicinal plant silphium. Ruled by the Ptolemies from 322 BCE, it was left to Rome in 96 BCE.","next":["roman-africa"]},{"id":"masaesyli","name":"Masaesyli kingdom","short":"Masaesyli","start":-220,"end":-202,"approx":true,"family":"berber","group":"maghreb","kind":"state","tier":3,"capital":"Siga, Cirta","desc":"Western Numidian kingdom of Syphax, who sided with Carthage in the Second Punic War. Masinissa and the Romans captured him in 203 BCE and took his lands.","next":["numidia"]},{"id":"numidia","name":"Numidia","start":-202,"end":-46,"family":"berber","group":"maghreb","kind":"state","tier":2,"capital":"Cirta","desc":"Berber kingdom united by Masinissa, Rome's ally against Carthage, who settled nomads as farmers. Jugurtha fought Rome from 112 to 105 BCE, and Caesar annexed it after Juba I backed Pompey.","next":["roman-africa"]},{"id":"mauretania","name":"Mauretania","start":-300,"end":44,"approx":true,"family":"berber","group":"maghreb","kind":"state","tier":3,"capital":"Volubilis, Iol Caesarea","desc":"Berber kingdom of today's northern Morocco and western Algeria. Bocchus I handed Jugurtha to Rome, and the learned Juba II ruled as a Roman client. Claudius annexed it around 44 CE.","next":["roman-africa"]},{"id":"roman-africa","name":"Roman Africa","start":-146,"end":439,"family":"romance","group":"maghreb","kind":"empire","tier":2,"capital":"Carthage","desc":"Rome's provinces from Cyrenaica to Mauretania, a breadbasket of olive oil and grain with cities like Leptis Magna and Timgad. Africa gave Rome the emperor Septimius Severus and Augustine of Hippo.","next":["vandal-kingdom"]},{"id":"vandal-kingdom","name":"Vandal Kingdom","short":"Vandals","start":435,"end":534,"family":"germanic","group":"maghreb","kind":"state","tier":2,"capital":"Carthage","desc":"Germanic kingdom founded when Gaiseric's Vandals crossed from Spain and took Carthage in 439. Its fleet sacked Rome in 455. Belisarius reconquered it for Byzantium in 533 to 534.","next":["byzantine-africa"]},{"id":"mauro-roman-kingdom","name":"Mauro-Roman Kingdom","short":"Mauro-Roman","start":429,"end":578,"approx":true,"family":"berber","group":"maghreb","kind":"state","tier":3,"capital":"Altava","desc":"Berber kingdom in western Algeria whose rulers styled themselves kings of Moors and Romans. It kept Latin inscriptions and Christian worship while fighting Vandals and Byzantines."},{"id":"byzantine-africa","name":"Byzantine Africa (Exarchate)","short":"Byzantine Africa","start":534,"end":698,"family":"greek","group":"maghreb","kind":"empire","tier":3,"capital":"Carthage","desc":"Reconquered Roman Africa, ruled from Carthage and from 590 as an exarchate. Heraclius sailed from here to seize the imperial throne in 610. The Arabs took Carthage in 698.","next":["arab-ifriqiya"]},{"id":"arab-ifriqiya","name":"Umayyad and Abbasid Ifriqiya","short":"Arab Ifriqiya","start":670,"end":800,"family":"arabic","group":"maghreb","kind":"empire","tier":3,"capital":"Kairouan","desc":"Uqba ibn Nafi founded Kairouan in 670 as the base for the conquest of the Maghreb. Berber resistance under Kahina and the Kharijite revolt of 740 slowed caliphal control.","next":["aghlabids"]},{"id":"barghawata","name":"Barghawata","start":744,"end":1058,"family":"berber","group":"maghreb","kind":"state","tier":3,"desc":"Berber confederation on Morocco's Atlantic plain that followed its own prophet and a Quran in Berber. The Almoravids destroyed it in the 1050s."},{"id":"rustamids","name":"Rustamids","start":777,"end":909,"family":"iranian","group":"maghreb","kind":"state","tier":3,"capital":"Tahert","desc":"Ibadi imamate in western Algeria founded by the Persian Abd al-Rahman ibn Rustam, with a Berber following. Tahert traded with the Sahara until the Fatimids took it in 909."},{"id":"idrisids","name":"Idrisids","start":788,"end":974,"family":"arabic","group":"maghreb","kind":"state","tier":3,"capital":"Fez","desc":"Dynasty founded by Idris I, a descendant of the Prophet who fled to Morocco after a failed revolt. His son built Fez, where the al-Qarawiyyin mosque was founded in 859."},{"id":"aghlabids","name":"Aghlabids","start":800,"end":909,"family":"arabic","group":"maghreb","kind":"state","tier":3,"capital":"Kairouan","desc":"Arab emirs of Ifriqiya, autonomous under the Abbasids, who rebuilt the Great Mosque of Kairouan and conquered Sicily from 827. The Fatimids overthrew them in 909."},{"id":"zirids","name":"Zirids","start":972,"end":1148,"family":"berber","group":"maghreb","kind":"state","tier":3,"capital":"Kairouan, later Mahdia","desc":"Sanhaja Berber governors left in charge when the Fatimids moved to Egypt. Their break with Cairo around 1048 brought the Banu Hilal invasion, and Norman Sicily took Mahdia in 1148."},{"id":"hammadids","name":"Hammadids","start":1014,"end":1152,"family":"berber","group":"maghreb","kind":"state","tier":3,"capital":"Qal'at Beni Hammad, later Béjaïa","desc":"Branch of the Zirids that ruled central Algeria from a fortress capital, now a World Heritage site. The Almohads conquered it in 1152."},{"id":"almoravids","name":"Almoravid dynasty","short":"Almoravids","start":1040,"end":1147,"family":"berber","group":"maghreb","kind":"empire","tier":1,"capital":"Marrakesh","desc":"Sanhaja Berber reform movement from the western Sahara that founded Marrakesh around 1070 and ruled from Senegal to Spain, crushing Castile at Sagrajas in 1086. The Almohads took Marrakesh in 1147.","next":["almohads"]},{"id":"almohads","name":"Almohad Caliphate","short":"Almohads","start":1121,"end":1269,"family":"berber","group":"maghreb","kind":"empire","tier":2,"capital":"Marrakesh, Seville","desc":"Masmuda Berber movement of Ibn Tumart that united the whole Maghreb and al-Andalus, where Averroes worked at its court. Defeat at Las Navas de Tolosa in 1212 began its collapse.","next":["marinids","hafsids","zayyanids"]},{"id":"hafsids","name":"Hafsids","start":1229,"end":1574,"family":"berber","group":"maghreb","kind":"state","tier":2,"capital":"Tunis","desc":"Almohad governors who made Tunis the leading city of the Maghreb, where Ibn Khaldun was born. Caught between Spain and the Ottomans, the last Hafsid lost Tunis in 1574.","next":["regency-of-tunis"]},{"id":"zayyanids","name":"Zayyanids","start":1235,"end":1556,"family":"berber","group":"maghreb","kind":"state","tier":3,"capital":"Tlemcen","desc":"Berber dynasty of Tlemcen that controlled a key terminus of the Saharan gold trade. Often besieged by the Marinids, it was absorbed by the Ottoman Regency of Algiers in 1556."},{"id":"marinids","name":"Marinid Sultanate","short":"Marinids","start":1244,"end":1465,"family":"berber","group":"maghreb","kind":"state","tier":2,"capital":"Fez","desc":"Zenata Berber dynasty that took Morocco from the Almohads and built madrasas across Fez. Ibn Battuta set out under their rule. Their Wattasid regents took over in 1465.","next":["wattasids"]},{"id":"wattasids","name":"Wattasids","start":1472,"end":1554,"family":"berber","group":"maghreb","kind":"state","tier":3,"capital":"Fez","desc":"Berber dynasty related to the Marinids that ruled northern Morocco while Portugal seized Atlantic ports. The Saadis took Fez in 1554."},{"id":"saadi-dynasty","name":"Saadi Sultanate","short":"Saadis","start":1510,"end":1659,"family":"arabic","group":"maghreb","kind":"state","tier":2,"capital":"Marrakesh","desc":"Arab sharifian dynasty from the Draa valley that crushed Portugal at the Battle of the Three Kings in 1578. Ahmad al-Mansur sent an army across the Sahara to destroy Songhai in 1591.","next":["alaouite-sultanate"]},{"id":"regency-of-algiers","name":"Regency of Algiers","short":"Algiers","start":1516,"end":1830,"family":"turkic","group":"maghreb","kind":"state","tier":2,"capital":"Algiers","desc":"Ottoman province founded by the corsair brothers Oruç and Hayreddin Barbarossa. Its corsairs raided European shipping for three centuries until France captured Algiers in 1830.","next":["french-algeria"]},{"id":"ottoman-tripolitania","name":"Ottoman Tripolitania","short":"Tripoli","start":1551,"end":1911,"family":"turkic","group":"maghreb","kind":"state","tier":3,"capital":"Tripoli","desc":"Ottoman province taken from the Knights of St John in 1551. The Karamanli dynasty ruled it as hereditary pashas from 1711 to 1835 and fought the Barbary Wars with the United States.","next":["italian-libya"]},{"id":"regency-of-tunis","name":"Regency of Tunis","short":"Tunis","start":1574,"end":1881,"family":"turkic","group":"maghreb","kind":"state","tier":3,"capital":"Tunis","desc":"Ottoman province ruled from 1705 by the Husainid beys, who abolished slavery in 1846 and issued the Arab world's first constitution in 1861. Debt led to a French protectorate in 1881.","next":["french-tunisia"]},{"id":"alaouite-sultanate","name":"Alaouite Sultanate of Morocco","short":"Alaouites","start":1666,"end":1912,"family":"arabic","group":"maghreb","kind":"state","tier":2,"capital":"Fez, Meknes, Marrakesh","desc":"Sharifian dynasty that reunited Morocco and still reigns. Moulay Ismail built Meknes with a slave army of tens of thousands. European pressure ended its independence in 1912.","next":["french-morocco","spanish-morocco"]},{"id":"french-algeria","name":"French Algeria","start":1830,"end":1962,"family":"romance","group":"maghreb","kind":"colony","tier":2,"capital":"Algiers","desc":"France conquered Algeria over decades, annexed it as French departments and settled a million Europeans. The war of independence from 1954 to 1962 killed hundreds of thousands.","next":["algeria"]},{"id":"emirate-of-abdelkader","name":"Emirate of Abdelkader","short":"Abdelkader","start":1832,"end":1847,"family":"arabic","group":"maghreb","kind":"state","tier":3,"capital":"Mascara, later Tagdemt","desc":"State built by the Sufi scholar Emir Abdelkader to resist the French conquest of western Algeria. He surrendered in 1847 and later saved thousands of Christians in Damascus in 1860."},{"id":"french-tunisia","name":"French protectorate of Tunisia","short":"French Tunisia","start":1881,"end":1956,"family":"romance","group":"maghreb","kind":"colony","tier":3,"capital":"Tunis","desc":"France kept the bey on his throne while French officials ran the country. Habib Bourguiba's Neo Destour party led the campaign for independence in 1956.","next":["tunisia"]},{"id":"italian-libya","name":"Italian Libya","start":1911,"end":1943,"family":"romance","group":"maghreb","kind":"colony","tier":3,"capital":"Tripoli","desc":"Italy seized Libya from the Ottomans in 1911 and fought a long war against the Sanusi resistance, hanging its leader Omar Mukhtar in 1931. British forces took the colony in 1943.","next":["kingdom-of-libya"]},{"id":"french-morocco","name":"French protectorate in Morocco","short":"French Morocco","start":1912,"end":1956,"family":"romance","group":"maghreb","kind":"colony","tier":3,"capital":"Rabat","desc":"Resident-General Lyautey ruled through the sultan and built new European cities beside the old medinas. Sultan Mohammed V's exile in 1953 fuelled the drive to independence.","next":["morocco"]},{"id":"spanish-morocco","name":"Spanish protectorate in Morocco","short":"Spanish Morocco","start":1912,"end":1956,"family":"romance","group":"maghreb","kind":"colony","tier":3,"capital":"Tetouan","desc":"Strip of northern Morocco under Spain. Franco launched his 1936 coup from here with Moroccan troops. It was handed to independent Morocco in 1956.","next":["morocco"]},{"id":"rif-republic","name":"Republic of the Rif","short":"Rif Republic","start":1921,"end":1926,"family":"berber","group":"maghreb","kind":"state","tier":3,"capital":"Ajdir","desc":"Berber republic of Abd el-Krim, who routed a Spanish army at Annual in 1921. A joint French and Spanish campaign using chemical weapons crushed it in 1926."},{"id":"kingdom-of-libya","name":"Kingdom of Libya","start":1951,"end":1969,"family":"arabic","group":"maghreb","kind":"state","tier":3,"capital":"Tripoli, Benghazi","desc":"Monarchy of the Sanusi leader Idris I, created by UN resolution after British and French administration. Oil was found in 1959, and Muammar Gaddafi overthrew the king in 1969.","next":["gaddafi-libya"]},{"id":"gaddafi-libya","name":"Libya under Gaddafi","short":"Gaddafi Libya","start":1969,"end":2011,"family":"arabic","group":"maghreb","kind":"state","tier":3,"capital":"Tripoli","desc":"Muammar Gaddafi ruled through his 'state of the masses', funding armed groups abroad and facing sanctions after the Lockerbie bombing. Rebels backed by NATO killed him in 2011.","next":["libya"]},{"id":"tunisia","name":"Tunisia","start":1956,"end":2025,"family":"arabic","group":"maghreb","kind":"state","tier":3,"capital":"Tunis","desc":"Bourguiba gave Tunisia secular family law and mass schooling. The 2010 revolution that ousted Ben Ali began the Arab Spring, and President Saied suspended parliament in 2021."},{"id":"morocco","name":"Morocco","start":1956,"end":2025,"family":"arabic","group":"maghreb","kind":"state","tier":2,"capital":"Rabat","desc":"Alaouite kingdom that regained independence in 1956. Hassan II ruled through the repressive 'years of lead', and the kingdom has held most of Western Sahara since the Green March of 1975."},{"id":"algeria","name":"Algeria","start":1962,"end":2025,"family":"arabic","group":"maghreb","kind":"state","tier":2,"capital":"Algiers","desc":"Africa's largest country, ruled by the FLN and the army since independence and funded by oil and gas. A civil war with Islamist rebels in the 1990s killed some 150,000 people."},{"id":"libya","name":"Libya","start":2011,"end":2025,"family":"arabic","group":"maghreb","kind":"state","tier":3,"capital":"Tripoli","desc":"After Gaddafi's fall Libya split between rival governments in Tripoli and the east under Khalifa Haftar, with militias and foreign powers backing each side."},{"id":"naqada-culture","name":"Naqada culture","short":"Naqada","start":-3500,"end":-3100,"approx":true,"family":"egyptian","group":"egypt","kind":"culture","tier":3,"desc":"Predynastic culture of Upper Egypt whose chiefdoms at Naqada, Hierakonpolis and Abydos grew into rival kingdoms. Early hieroglyphs appear in royal tombs at Abydos before 3200 BCE.","next":["early-dynastic-egypt"]},{"id":"early-dynastic-egypt","name":"Early Dynastic Egypt","short":"Early Dynastic","start":-3100,"end":-2686,"approx":true,"family":"egyptian","group":"egypt","kind":"state","tier":2,"capital":"Memphis, Thinis","desc":"The First and Second Dynasties, beginning with the unification of Upper and Lower Egypt under Narmer. Kings were buried at Abydos and the royal administration took shape.","next":["old-kingdom-egypt"]},{"id":"old-kingdom-egypt","name":"Old Kingdom of Egypt","short":"Old Kingdom","start":-2686,"end":-2181,"approx":true,"family":"egyptian","group":"egypt","kind":"state","tier":1,"capital":"Memphis","desc":"The age of the pyramids. Djoser's step pyramid and the Great Pyramid of Khufu at Giza were built by a strong central state. Drought and powerful provincial governors brought it down.","next":["first-intermediate-period"]},{"id":"first-intermediate-period","name":"First Intermediate Period","short":"1st Intermediate","start":-2181,"end":-2055,"approx":true,"family":"egyptian","group":"egypt","kind":"state","tier":3,"capital":"Herakleopolis, Thebes","desc":"Egypt split between rival dynasties at Herakleopolis in the north and Thebes in the south. Mentuhotep II of Thebes reunited the country around 2055 BCE.","next":["middle-kingdom-egypt"]},{"id":"middle-kingdom-egypt","name":"Middle Kingdom of Egypt","short":"Middle Kingdom","start":-2055,"end":-1650,"approx":true,"family":"egyptian","group":"egypt","kind":"state","tier":2,"capital":"Thebes, later Itjtawy","desc":"Reunified Egypt that drained the Faiyum, conquered Lower Nubia up to the Second Cataract and produced the classic works of Egyptian literature.","next":["second-intermediate-period","hyksos"]},{"id":"second-intermediate-period","name":"Second Intermediate Period","short":"2nd Intermediate","start":-1650,"end":-1550,"approx":true,"family":"egyptian","group":"egypt","kind":"state","tier":3,"capital":"Thebes","desc":"Egypt divided between the Hyksos in the Delta, Kerma in the south and a Theban dynasty in between. The Theban kings Seqenenre, Kamose and Ahmose fought to drive out the Hyksos.","next":["new-kingdom-egypt"]},{"id":"hyksos","name":"Hyksos (Fifteenth Dynasty)","short":"Hyksos","start":-1650,"end":-1550,"approx":true,"family":"semitic","group":"egypt","kind":"state","tier":3,"capital":"Avaris","desc":"Rulers of Levantine origin who took power in the Nile Delta and brought the horse-drawn chariot and composite bow to Egypt. Ahmose I captured their capital Avaris around 1550 BCE."},{"id":"new-kingdom-egypt","name":"New Kingdom of Egypt","short":"New Kingdom","start":-1550,"end":-1069,"approx":true,"family":"egyptian","group":"egypt","kind":"empire","tier":1,"capital":"Thebes, Amarna, Memphis, Pi-Ramesses","desc":"Egypt's imperial age, ruling Nubia and Canaan under pharaohs such as Hatshepsut, Thutmose III, Akhenaten, Tutankhamun and Ramesses II. It faded after the Sea Peoples and the loss of its empire.","next":["third-intermediate-period"]},{"id":"third-intermediate-period","name":"Third Intermediate Period","short":"3rd Intermediate","start":-1069,"end":-664,"approx":true,"family":"egyptian","group":"egypt","kind":"state","tier":3,"capital":"Tanis, Bubastis, Thebes","desc":"Divided Egypt ruled by priest-kings at Thebes, Libyan dynasties in the Delta and finally Kushite pharaohs, until Assyrian invasions in the 660s BCE.","next":["late-period-egypt"]},{"id":"twenty-fifth-dynasty","name":"Twenty-fifth Dynasty (Kushite)","short":"Kushite pharaohs","start":-744,"end":-656,"approx":true,"family":"nilo-saharan","group":"egypt","kind":"state","tier":3,"capital":"Memphis, Napata","desc":"Kushite kings from Napata who conquered Egypt under Piye and ruled as pharaohs, reviving old temple styles. Assyria drove Taharqa and Tanutamun back to Nubia by 656 BCE."},{"id":"late-period-egypt","name":"Late Period of Egypt","short":"Late Period","start":-664,"end":-332,"family":"egyptian","group":"egypt","kind":"state","tier":3,"capital":"Sais, Memphis","desc":"The Saite kings restored Egyptian independence and hired Greek mercenaries. Persia conquered Egypt in 525 BCE, and the last native pharaoh, Nectanebo II, fell to a second Persian invasion in 343 BCE.","next":["ptolemaic-kingdom"]},{"id":"achaemenid-egypt","name":"Achaemenid Egypt","short":"Persian Egypt","start":-525,"end":-404,"family":"iranian","group":"egypt","kind":"colony","tier":3,"capital":"Memphis","desc":"Persian satrapy after Cambyses II defeated Psamtik III at Pelusium. Darius I completed a canal from the Nile to the Red Sea. Egypt revolted in 404 BCE and was reconquered from 343 to 332 BCE."},{"id":"ptolemaic-kingdom","name":"Ptolemaic Kingdom","short":"Ptolemies","start":-305,"end":-30,"family":"greek","group":"egypt","kind":"state","tier":1,"capital":"Alexandria","desc":"Macedonian dynasty founded by Alexander's general Ptolemy. Alexandria's Library and Lighthouse made it the centre of Greek learning. Cleopatra VII's defeat at Actium made Egypt Roman in 30 BCE.","next":["roman-egypt"]},{"id":"roman-egypt","name":"Roman Egypt","start":-30,"end":395,"family":"romance","group":"egypt","kind":"empire","tier":2,"capital":"Alexandria","desc":"The emperor's personal province, shipping grain to feed Rome. Alexandria was the empire's second city, and Egypt became one of the first heartlands of Christianity and monasticism.","next":["byzantine-egypt"]},{"id":"copts","name":"Coptic Christians","short":"Copts","start":300,"end":2025,"approx":true,"family":"egyptian","group":"egypt","kind":"culture","tier":3,"desc":"Egyptian Christians who wrote the last stage of the Egyptian language in Greek letters. Coptic gave way to Arabic in daily life by about 1300, but the church remains about a tenth of Egypt's people."},{"id":"byzantine-egypt","name":"Byzantine Egypt","start":395,"end":641,"family":"greek","group":"egypt","kind":"empire","tier":3,"capital":"Alexandria","desc":"Eastern Roman Egypt, split by the quarrel between the Coptic church and Constantinople after the Council of Chalcedon in 451. Persia held it from 619 to 629, and the Arabs took Alexandria in 641.","next":["caliphal-egypt"]},{"id":"caliphal-egypt","name":"Arab caliphal Egypt","short":"Caliphal Egypt","start":641,"end":868,"family":"arabic","group":"egypt","kind":"empire","tier":3,"capital":"Fustat","desc":"Province of the Rashidun, Umayyad and Abbasid caliphs after Amr ibn al-As founded Fustat. Arabic slowly replaced Greek and Coptic, and Islam became the majority faith over several centuries.","next":["tulunids"]},{"id":"tulunids","name":"Tulunids","start":868,"end":905,"family":"turkic","group":"egypt","kind":"state","tier":3,"capital":"al-Qata'i","desc":"Ahmad ibn Tulun, a Turkic officer sent from Samarra, made Egypt and Syria independent and built the great mosque that still bears his name. The Abbasids retook Egypt in 905.","next":["ikhshidids"]},{"id":"ikhshidids","name":"Ikhshidids","start":935,"end":969,"family":"turkic","group":"egypt","kind":"state","tier":3,"capital":"Fustat","desc":"Turkic governor dynasty ruling Egypt and southern Syria, dominated in its last years by the Nubian-born regent Abu al-Misk Kafur. The Fatimids conquered Egypt in 969.","next":["fatimid-caliphate"]},{"id":"fatimid-caliphate","name":"Fatimid Caliphate","short":"Fatimids","start":909,"end":1171,"family":"arabic","group":"egypt","kind":"empire","tier":1,"capital":"Mahdia, then Cairo","desc":"Ismaili Shia caliphate founded in Ifriqiya in 909 that conquered Egypt in 969, founding Cairo and al-Azhar. At its height it ruled from Sicily to the Hejaz. Saladin abolished it in 1171.","next":["ayyubid-egypt"]},{"id":"ayyubid-egypt","name":"Ayyubid Sultanate","short":"Ayyubids","start":1171,"end":1250,"family":"iranian","group":"egypt","kind":"state","tier":2,"capital":"Cairo","desc":"Kurdish dynasty of Saladin, who built the Cairo Citadel and restored Sunni Islam in Egypt. Its slave soldiers defeated Louis IX's crusade in 1250 and then seized power.","next":["mamluk-sultanate"]},{"id":"mamluk-sultanate","name":"Mamluk Sultanate","short":"Mamluks","start":1250,"end":1517,"family":"turkic","group":"egypt","kind":"state","tier":1,"capital":"Cairo","desc":"Sultans drawn from Turkic and later Circassian slave soldiers, who stopped the Mongols and ended the Crusader states. Cairo became the largest city of the Islamic world until the Ottomans conquered it in 1517.","next":["ottoman-egypt"]},{"id":"ottoman-egypt","name":"Ottoman Egypt","start":1517,"end":1867,"family":"turkic","group":"egypt","kind":"state","tier":3,"capital":"Cairo","desc":"Ottoman province where Mamluk beys kept much local power. Napoleon's invasion of 1798 broke the Mamluks, and Muhammad Ali ruled as a near-independent governor from 1805.","next":["muhammad-ali-dynasty"]},{"id":"french-egypt","name":"French occupation of Egypt","short":"French Egypt","start":1798,"end":1801,"family":"romance","group":"egypt","kind":"colony","tier":3,"capital":"Cairo","desc":"Napoleon's expedition beat the Mamluks at the Pyramids, and its scholars found the Rosetta Stone. Nelson destroyed the French fleet at Aboukir, and the army surrendered to Britain in 1801."},{"id":"muhammad-ali-dynasty","name":"Muhammad Ali dynasty (Khedivate)","short":"Khedivate","start":1805,"end":1914,"family":"turkic","group":"egypt","kind":"state","tier":2,"capital":"Cairo","desc":"Muhammad Ali, an Albanian officer, built a conscript army, cotton plantations and factories and conquered Sudan. His grandson Ismail opened the Suez Canal in 1869 but ran up debts that led to British occupation.","next":["sultanate-of-egypt"]},{"id":"british-egypt","name":"British occupation of Egypt","short":"British Egypt","start":1882,"end":1922,"family":"germanic","group":"egypt","kind":"colony","tier":3,"capital":"Cairo","desc":"Britain occupied Egypt after defeating Urabi's revolt in 1882 and ruled through the khedives, guarding the Suez Canal. The 1919 revolution forced it to grant nominal independence in 1922.","next":["kingdom-of-egypt"]},{"id":"sultanate-of-egypt","name":"Sultanate of Egypt","start":1914,"end":1922,"family":"turkic","group":"egypt","kind":"state","tier":3,"capital":"Cairo","desc":"British protectorate declared at the start of the First World War, cutting Egypt's last legal ties to the Ottomans. It became the Kingdom of Egypt in 1922.","next":["kingdom-of-egypt"]},{"id":"kingdom-of-egypt","name":"Kingdom of Egypt","start":1922,"end":1953,"family":"arabic","group":"egypt","kind":"state","tier":3,"capital":"Cairo","desc":"Constitutional monarchy under Fuad I and Farouk, with British troops still guarding the canal. The Free Officers overthrew Farouk in 1952 and declared a republic in 1953.","next":["egypt"]},{"id":"egypt","name":"Egypt","start":1953,"end":2025,"family":"arabic","group":"egypt","kind":"state","tier":2,"capital":"Cairo","desc":"Republic led by Nasser, who nationalised the Suez Canal in 1956, then by Sadat, who made peace with Israel. The 2011 revolution ousted Mubarak, and Abdel Fattah el-Sisi has ruled since a 2013 coup."},{"id":"a-group","name":"A-Group culture","short":"A-Group","start":-3500,"end":-2900,"approx":true,"family":"unknown","group":"nubia","kind":"culture","tier":3,"desc":"Farmers and traders of Lower Nubia who exchanged ivory, ebony and incense with predynastic Egypt. Their chiefs at Qustul were buried with Egyptian goods. Egyptian raids ended the culture around 2900 BCE."},{"id":"middle-nile-herders","name":"Middle Nile herders and farmers","short":"Nile herders","start":-3200,"end":-1000,"approx":true,"family":"nilo-saharan","group":"nubia","kind":"culture","tier":3,"desc":"Cattle herders and sorghum farmers of the Nile valley above the cataracts and the Sudanese plains, ancestors of the peoples who built Kerma and Kush."},{"id":"beja-nomads","name":"Medjay, Blemmyes and Beja nomads","short":"Beja","start":-2300,"end":2025,"approx":true,"family":"cushitic","group":"nubia","kind":"culture","tier":3,"desc":"Nomads of the Eastern Desert between the Nile and the Red Sea, known as Medjay to the Egyptians, Blemmyes to the Romans and Beja to the Arabs. They still herd camels in eastern Sudan and Eritrea."},{"id":"c-group","name":"C-Group culture","short":"C-Group","start":-2400,"end":-1550,"approx":true,"family":"unknown","group":"nubia","kind":"culture","tier":3,"desc":"Cattle-herding people of Lower Nubia who buried their dead under round stone tumuli. They lived under Middle Kingdom forts and were absorbed into Egyptian Nubia after 1550 BCE."},{"id":"kerma","name":"Kingdom of Kerma","short":"Kerma","start":-2500,"end":-1500,"approx":true,"family":"nilo-saharan","group":"nubia","kind":"state","tier":2,"capital":"Kerma","desc":"First great kingdom of sub-Saharan Africa, centred above the Third Cataract, with huge mud-brick temples and royal tombs holding hundreds of sacrificed retainers. Thutmose I destroyed it around 1500 BCE.","next":["egyptian-nubia"]},{"id":"egyptian-nubia","name":"Egyptian Nubia (Viceroyalty of Kush)","short":"Egyptian Kush","start":-1500,"end":-1070,"approx":true,"family":"egyptian","group":"nubia","kind":"colony","tier":3,"capital":"Aniba, Napata","desc":"New Kingdom pharaohs ruled Nubia through a viceroy, the King's Son of Kush, taking its gold and building temples such as Abu Simbel. Egyptian rule withdrew around 1070 BCE.","next":["el-kurru"]},{"id":"el-kurru","name":"El-Kurru chiefdom","short":"El-Kurru","start":-1000,"end":-785,"approx":true,"family":"nilo-saharan","group":"nubia","kind":"state","tier":3,"capital":"El-Kurru","desc":"Local rulers buried at El-Kurru near Napata, whose tombs move from Nubian tumuli to Egyptian-style pyramids. They were the ancestors of the Kushite kings.","next":["napatan-kush"]},{"id":"napatan-kush","name":"Kingdom of Kush (Napatan period)","short":"Napatan Kush","start":-785,"end":-300,"approx":true,"family":"nilo-saharan","group":"nubia","kind":"state","tier":2,"capital":"Napata","desc":"Kushite kingdom whose rulers Piye and Taharqa conquered Egypt as the Twenty-fifth Dynasty and built pyramids at Nuri. After 656 BCE they ruled from Napata alone.","next":["meroitic-kush"]},{"id":"meroitic-kush","name":"Kingdom of Kush (Meroitic period)","short":"Meroe","start":-300,"end":350,"approx":true,"family":"nilo-saharan","group":"nubia","kind":"state","tier":2,"capital":"Meroe","desc":"Kush ruled from Meroe, a centre of iron smelting with over 200 pyramids and its own Meroitic script. Its warrior queens, the kandakes, fought Rome. Aksum raided it around 350 as it broke apart.","next":["noba"]},{"id":"noba","name":"Noba and the Ballana culture","short":"Noba","start":350,"end":550,"approx":true,"family":"nilo-saharan","group":"nubia","kind":"culture","tier":3,"desc":"Nubian-speaking Noba who settled the Nile valley as Meroe declined. Their kings were buried in great mounds at Ballana and Qustul with horses and silver crowns.","next":["nobatia","makuria","alodia"]},{"id":"nobatia","name":"Nobatia","start":400,"end":700,"approx":true,"family":"nilo-saharan","group":"nubia","kind":"state","tier":3,"capital":"Faras","desc":"Northernmost Christian Nubian kingdom, converted by missionaries in the 540s. It merged with Makuria around 700.","next":["makuria"]},{"id":"makuria","name":"Makuria","start":450,"end":1312,"approx":true,"family":"nilo-saharan","group":"nubia","kind":"state","tier":2,"capital":"Old Dongola","desc":"Christian Nubian kingdom that defeated Arab invaders in 652 and agreed the Baqt treaty, which kept peace with Egypt for six centuries. Mamluk interference and Arab migration broke it in the 14th century."},{"id":"alodia","name":"Alodia","start":500,"end":1504,"approx":true,"family":"nilo-saharan","group":"nubia","kind":"state","tier":3,"capital":"Soba","desc":"Southernmost Christian Nubian kingdom, centred on Soba near modern Khartoum. Arab tribes and the Funj overran it around 1504.","next":["funj-sultanate"]},{"id":"sudan-arab-tribes","name":"Arab tribes of Sudan","short":"Sudanese Arabs","start":1300,"end":2025,"approx":true,"family":"arabic","group":"nubia","kind":"culture","tier":3,"desc":"Bedouin tribes who moved south from Egypt after the fall of Makuria, among them the Ja'alin and the cattle-herding Baggara. They spread Arabic and Islam across northern and central Sudan."},{"id":"shilluk-kingdom","name":"Shilluk Kingdom","short":"Shilluk","start":1490,"end":1861,"approx":true,"family":"nilo-saharan","group":"nubia","kind":"state","tier":3,"capital":"Fashoda","desc":"Kingdom of the Nilotic Shilluk on the White Nile under a sacred king, the reth. Slave raiders and the Egyptian advance broke its independence in the 1860s."},{"id":"funj-sultanate","name":"Funj Sultanate of Sennar","short":"Funj","start":1504,"end":1821,"family":"nilo-saharan","group":"nubia","kind":"state","tier":2,"capital":"Sennar","desc":"Sultanate of the Blue Nile that converted to Islam and grew on trade in gold and slaves. Regents of the Hamaj clan held power from 1761 before Muhammad Ali's army conquered it in 1821.","next":["turco-egyptian-sudan"]},{"id":"darfur-sultanate","name":"Sultanate of Darfur","short":"Darfur","start":1603,"end":1916,"approx":true,"family":"nilo-saharan","group":"nubia","kind":"state","tier":3,"capital":"El Fasher","desc":"Fur sultanate of western Sudan that controlled the Forty Days Road caravan route to Egypt. Conquered by Egypt in 1874, revived in 1898, and annexed by Britain in 1916."},{"id":"turco-egyptian-sudan","name":"Turco-Egyptian Sudan","short":"Turkiyya","start":1821,"end":1885,"family":"turkic","group":"nubia","kind":"colony","tier":3,"capital":"Khartoum","desc":"Muhammad Ali conquered Sudan for gold and slaves and founded Khartoum. Heavy taxes and the slave trade fuelled the Mahdist uprising, which took Khartoum in 1885.","next":["mahdist-state"]},{"id":"mahdist-state","name":"Mahdist State","short":"Mahdiyya","start":1885,"end":1899,"family":"arabic","group":"nubia","kind":"state","tier":3,"capital":"Omdurman","desc":"Islamic state of Muhammad Ahmad, the self-proclaimed Mahdi, whose forces killed General Gordon at Khartoum. Kitchener's army destroyed it at Omdurman in 1898.","next":["anglo-egyptian-sudan"]},{"id":"anglo-egyptian-sudan","name":"Anglo-Egyptian Sudan","start":1899,"end":1956,"family":"germanic","group":"nubia","kind":"colony","tier":3,"capital":"Khartoum","desc":"Joint British and Egyptian rule, in practice British. Separate policies for the Arab north and the Christian and animist south laid the ground for later civil wars.","next":["sudan"]},{"id":"sudan","name":"Sudan","start":1956,"end":2025,"family":"arabic","group":"nubia","kind":"state","tier":3,"capital":"Khartoum","desc":"Republic shaken by coups and two north-south civil wars. Omar al-Bashir ruled from 1989 to 2019 and oversaw the Darfur genocide, and war between the army and the RSF has raged since 2023."},{"id":"south-sudan","name":"South Sudan","start":2011,"end":2025,"family":"nilo-saharan","group":"nubia","kind":"state","tier":3,"capital":"Juba","desc":"The world's newest country, independent after a 2011 referendum ended decades of war with the north. A civil war from 2013 to 2018 between Kiir and Machar's factions killed some 400,000 people."},{"id":"cushitic-pastoralists","name":"Cushitic-speaking pastoralists","short":"Cushitic herders","start":-3200,"end":2025,"approx":true,"family":"cushitic","group":"horn","kind":"culture","tier":3,"desc":"Herders of cattle, goats and later camels across the lowlands and highlands of the Horn, ancestors of the Somali, Afar, Oromo, Agaw and Beja peoples."},{"id":"highland-farmers","name":"Ethiopian highland farmers","short":"Highland farmers","start":-3000,"end":-980,"approx":true,"family":"unknown","group":"horn","kind":"culture","tier":3,"desc":"Farming communities of the Ethiopian and Eritrean highlands who domesticated teff, finger millet and ensete, crops still central to the region's diet.","next":["dmt"]},{"id":"punt","name":"Land of Punt","short":"Punt","start":-2500,"end":-980,"approx":true,"family":"unknown","group":"horn","kind":"state","tier":3,"desc":"Trading land on the southern Red Sea, probably in Eritrea, Sudan or Somalia, where Egyptian ships fetched incense, ebony and baboons. Queen Hatshepsut's expedition is carved at Deir el-Bahari."},{"id":"dmt","name":"D'mt","start":-980,"end":-400,"approx":true,"family":"semitic","group":"horn","kind":"state","tier":3,"capital":"Yeha","desc":"Kingdom of the northern Ethiopian highlands with strong ties to Saba across the Red Sea, known for the temple at Yeha and early inscriptions in a South Arabian script.","next":["aksum"]},{"id":"aksum","name":"Kingdom of Aksum","short":"Aksum","start":100,"end":940,"approx":true,"family":"semitic","group":"horn","kind":"empire","tier":1,"capital":"Aksum","desc":"Red Sea trading power that minted its own coins and raised giant stone stelae. King Ezana adopted Christianity around 330, and Aksum ruled Yemen in the 6th century before declining after the rise of Islam.","next":["zagwe-dynasty"]},{"id":"sultanate-of-shewa","name":"Sultanate of Shewa","short":"Shewa","start":896,"end":1285,"approx":true,"family":"semitic","group":"horn","kind":"state","tier":3,"desc":"Early Muslim sultanate in the eastern Ethiopian highlands under the Makhzumi dynasty. The Walashma of Ifat absorbed it in 1285.","next":["ifat-sultanate"]},{"id":"zagwe-dynasty","name":"Zagwe dynasty","short":"Zagwe","start":1137,"end":1270,"approx":true,"family":"cushitic","group":"horn","kind":"state","tier":2,"capital":"Roha (Lalibela)","desc":"Agaw dynasty that ruled the Christian highlands after Aksum. King Lalibela had a group of churches carved down into solid rock at his capital. Yekuno Amlak overthrew the dynasty in 1270.","next":["solomonic-ethiopia"]},{"id":"solomonic-ethiopia","name":"Ethiopian Empire (Solomonic dynasty)","short":"Ethiopia","start":1270,"end":1974,"family":"semitic","group":"horn","kind":"empire","tier":1,"capital":"Mobile courts, Gondar, later Addis Ababa","desc":"Christian empire whose kings claimed descent from Solomon and Sheba. It survived Adal's jihad, built castles at Gondar, beat Italy at Adwa in 1896 and ended with Haile Selassie's overthrow in 1974.","next":["derg"]},{"id":"ifat-sultanate","name":"Ifat Sultanate","short":"Ifat","start":1285,"end":1415,"family":"semitic","group":"horn","kind":"state","tier":3,"capital":"Ifat","desc":"Muslim sultanate of the Walashma dynasty that controlled trade from the Ethiopian interior to the port of Zeila. Defeated by the Solomonic emperor Yeshaq I in 1415, its rulers regrouped as Adal.","next":["adal-sultanate"]},{"id":"ajuran-sultanate","name":"Ajuran Sultanate","short":"Ajuran","start":1300,"end":1700,"approx":true,"family":"cushitic","group":"horn","kind":"state","tier":3,"capital":"Mareeg","desc":"Somali state that controlled the Shabelle and Jubba river valleys and the coastal trade of Mogadishu, building wells and stone cisterns. It held off Portuguese attacks before breaking up in the late 17th century."},{"id":"adal-sultanate","name":"Adal Sultanate","short":"Adal","start":1415,"end":1577,"family":"semitic","group":"horn","kind":"state","tier":2,"capital":"Dakkar, later Harar","desc":"Muslim sultanate whose imam Ahmad ibn Ibrahim al-Ghazi led Somali and Afar armies in a conquest of most of Ethiopia from 1529. His death at Wayna Daga in 1543, against Portuguese-backed forces, ended the jihad.","next":["emirate-of-harar","aussa-imamate"]},{"id":"oromo-gadaa","name":"Oromo Gadaa confederations","short":"Oromo","start":1522,"end":2025,"approx":true,"family":"cushitic","group":"horn","kind":"culture","tier":3,"desc":"Oromo groups governed by the Gadaa system of age grades, who expanded across southern and central Ethiopia in the 16th century. They are now Ethiopia's largest people."},{"id":"aussa-imamate","name":"Imamate of Aussa","short":"Aussa","start":1577,"end":1672,"family":"cushitic","group":"horn","kind":"state","tier":3,"capital":"Aussa","desc":"Successor of Adal in the Afar lowlands after the capital moved from Harar to the Aussa oasis. Its Afar sultans took over in the 18th century."},{"id":"emirate-of-harar","name":"Emirate of Harar","short":"Harar","start":1647,"end":1887,"family":"semitic","group":"horn","kind":"state","tier":3,"capital":"Harar","desc":"Walled city-state of the Harari people, a centre of Islamic scholarship and coffee trade. Egypt occupied it from 1875 to 1885, and Menelik II conquered it in 1887."},{"id":"geledi-sultanate","name":"Geledi Sultanate","short":"Geledi","start":1700,"end":1910,"approx":true,"family":"cushitic","group":"horn","kind":"state","tier":3,"capital":"Afgooye","desc":"Somali sultanate of the lower Shabelle valley that grew grain and cotton for the coastal ports. It became part of Italian Somaliland in the early 20th century."},{"id":"kingdom-of-jimma","name":"Kingdom of Jimma","short":"Jimma","start":1790,"end":1932,"approx":true,"family":"cushitic","group":"horn","kind":"state","tier":3,"capital":"Jiren","desc":"Largest of the Oromo Gibe kingdoms, a Muslim state that prospered on coffee, ivory and slaves. Under Abba Jifar II it paid tribute to Menelik, and Haile Selassie annexed it in 1932."},{"id":"majeerteen-sultanate","name":"Majeerteen Sultanate","short":"Majeerteen","start":1750,"end":1927,"approx":true,"family":"cushitic","group":"horn","kind":"state","tier":3,"capital":"Alula","desc":"Somali sultanate of the northeastern coast that profited from frankincense and salvage of wrecked ships. Italy conquered it in 1927."},{"id":"french-somaliland","name":"French Somaliland","start":1883,"end":1977,"family":"romance","group":"horn","kind":"colony","tier":3,"capital":"Djibouti","desc":"French coaling base at the mouth of the Red Sea, later linked by railway to Addis Ababa. Renamed the French Territory of the Afars and Issas in 1967, it became Djibouti in 1977.","next":["djibouti"]},{"id":"british-somaliland","name":"British Somaliland","start":1884,"end":1960,"family":"germanic","group":"horn","kind":"colony","tier":3,"capital":"Berbera, later Hargeisa","desc":"Protectorate that supplied meat to the British garrison at Aden. Britain fought the Dervish movement here for twenty years. It joined Italian Somalia to form Somalia in 1960.","next":["somalia"]},{"id":"italian-somaliland","name":"Italian Somaliland","start":1889,"end":1960,"family":"romance","group":"horn","kind":"colony","tier":3,"capital":"Mogadishu","desc":"Italian colony of southern Somalia, run as banana and cotton plantations. After British occupation in 1941 it returned to Italy as a UN trust territory from 1950 until independence.","next":["somalia"]},{"id":"italian-eritrea","name":"Italian Eritrea","start":1890,"end":1941,"family":"romance","group":"horn","kind":"colony","tier":3,"capital":"Asmara","desc":"Italy's first colony, whose capital Asmara was built in modernist style. Eritrean soldiers served in Italy's wars. British forces took it in 1941, and it was federated with Ethiopia in 1952.","next":["eritrea"]},{"id":"dervish-state","name":"Dervish State","short":"Dervishes","start":1896,"end":1920,"family":"cushitic","group":"horn","kind":"state","tier":3,"capital":"Taleh","desc":"Somali resistance state of Sayyid Mohammed Abdullah Hassan, which fought Britain, Italy and Ethiopia for two decades. British air raids destroyed its forts in 1920."},{"id":"italian-east-africa","name":"Italian East Africa","start":1936,"end":1941,"family":"romance","group":"horn","kind":"colony","tier":3,"capital":"Addis Ababa","desc":"Mussolini's colony formed after Italy invaded Ethiopia with poison gas in 1935. British, Commonwealth and Ethiopian forces liberated it in 1941 and restored Haile Selassie."},{"id":"derg","name":"Derg (People's Democratic Republic of Ethiopia)","short":"Derg","start":1974,"end":1991,"family":"semitic","group":"horn","kind":"state","tier":3,"capital":"Addis Ababa","desc":"Marxist military junta under Mengistu Haile Mariam that killed tens of thousands in the Red Terror. Famine in 1983 to 1985 and rebel advances brought it down in 1991.","next":["ethiopia"]},{"id":"somalia","name":"Somalia","start":1960,"end":2025,"family":"cushitic","group":"horn","kind":"state","tier":3,"capital":"Mogadishu","desc":"Union of British and Italian Somaliland, ruled by Siad Barre from 1969. His fall in 1991 led to civil war, and the federal government has since fought the al-Shabaab insurgency."},{"id":"ethiopia","name":"Ethiopia","start":1991,"end":2025,"family":"semitic","group":"horn","kind":"state","tier":2,"capital":"Addis Ababa","desc":"Federal republic organised by ethnic regions, one of Africa's most populous and fastest-growing economies. The Tigray war of 2020 to 2022 killed hundreds of thousands."},{"id":"eritrea","name":"Eritrea","start":1993,"end":2025,"family":"semitic","group":"horn","kind":"state","tier":3,"capital":"Asmara","desc":"Independent after a thirty-year war with Ethiopia and a 1993 referendum. Ruled by Isaias Afwerki ever since, with no elections and indefinite national service."},{"id":"djibouti","name":"Djibouti","start":1977,"end":2025,"family":"cushitic","group":"horn","kind":"state","tier":3,"capital":"Djibouti","desc":"Small port state on the Bab-el-Mandeb strait that handles most of Ethiopia's trade and hosts American, French, Chinese and other military bases."},{"id":"somaliland","name":"Somaliland","start":1991,"end":2025,"family":"cushitic","group":"horn","kind":"state","tier":3,"capital":"Hargeisa","desc":"Self-declared republic in the former British protectorate that broke from Somalia in 1991. It holds regular elections but has no international recognition."},{"id":"saharan-pastoralists","name":"Saharan cattle pastoralists","short":"Saharan herders","start":-3200,"end":-1000,"approx":true,"family":"unknown","group":"sahel","kind":"culture","tier":3,"desc":"Herders who painted cattle on the rocks of the Tassili n'Ajjer and Acacus while the Sahara was still grassland. As it dried after 3500 BCE they moved south toward the Sahel and the Nile."},{"id":"tichitt-culture","name":"Tichitt culture","short":"Tichitt","start":-2200,"end":-400,"approx":true,"family":"niger-congo","group":"sahel","kind":"culture","tier":3,"desc":"Stone-walled villages along the cliffs of Dhar Tichitt in Mauritania, where farmers grew pearl millet. Its people are thought to be ancestors of the Soninke who later founded Ghana."},{"id":"sahelian-farmers","name":"Sahelian cereal farmers","short":"Sahel farmers","start":-1500,"end":2025,"approx":true,"family":"niger-congo","group":"sahel","kind":"culture","tier":3,"desc":"Mande, Fula, Gur and Songhai-speaking villagers of the Niger bend and savanna, growing millet, sorghum and African rice and herding cattle. Their towns fed the trading empires of the Sahel."},{"id":"garamantes","name":"Garamantes","start":-500,"end":700,"approx":true,"family":"berber","group":"sahel","kind":"state","tier":3,"capital":"Garama","desc":"Saharan kingdom of the Fezzan in Libya that dug underground channels to irrigate oases and ran caravans to the Mediterranean. It declined as its fossil groundwater ran out."},{"id":"jenne-jeno","name":"Jenne-Jeno (Middle Niger towns)","short":"Jenne-Jeno","start":-250,"end":1400,"approx":true,"family":"niger-congo","group":"sahel","kind":"culture","tier":3,"desc":"One of the oldest towns south of the Sahara, in the inland Niger delta, which grew to perhaps 10,000 people trading iron, copper and rice without signs of a ruling palace. It was abandoned around 1400."},{"id":"camel-nomads","name":"Saharan camel nomads (Sanhaja and Tuareg)","short":"Camel nomads","start":300,"end":2025,"approx":true,"family":"berber","group":"sahel","kind":"culture","tier":3,"desc":"Berber-speaking camel nomads who spread across the Sahara once the camel arrived in the early centuries CE. As Sanhaja and Tuareg they guided and taxed the caravans that crossed the desert."},{"id":"ghana-empire","name":"Ghana Empire (Wagadu)","short":"Ghana","start":300,"end":1200,"approx":true,"family":"niger-congo","group":"sahel","kind":"empire","tier":1,"capital":"Koumbi Saleh","desc":"Soninke empire between the Senegal and Niger rivers that taxed the trade of gold for Saharan salt. Arab writers called it the land of gold. It declined after Almoravid pressure in the 11th century.","next":["sosso-kingdom"]},{"id":"gao-kingdom","name":"Kingdom of Gao","short":"Gao","start":800,"end":1430,"approx":true,"family":"nilo-saharan","group":"sahel","kind":"state","tier":3,"capital":"Gao","desc":"Songhai kingdom at the Niger bend whose ruler had converted to Islam by the 11th century. It fell under Mali for about a century before the Sunni dynasty broke free.","next":["songhai-empire"]},{"id":"midrarids","name":"Midrarids of Sijilmasa","short":"Sijilmasa","start":758,"end":976,"family":"berber","group":"sahel","kind":"state","tier":3,"capital":"Sijilmasa","desc":"Berber dynasty of the oasis city of Sijilmasa, the northern terminus of the gold road from Ghana. Sijilmasa minted much of the gold that reached the Mediterranean."},{"id":"takrur","name":"Takrur","start":800,"end":1285,"approx":true,"family":"niger-congo","group":"sahel","kind":"state","tier":3,"capital":"Takrur","desc":"Kingdom on the Senegal River whose king War Jabi adopted Islam around 1030, one of the first in West Africa. It became a province of Mali."},{"id":"sosso-kingdom","name":"Sosso Kingdom","short":"Sosso","start":1180,"end":1235,"approx":true,"family":"niger-congo","group":"sahel","kind":"state","tier":3,"capital":"Sosso","desc":"Kingdom of the blacksmith-king Sumanguru Kante that took over Ghana's heartland. Sundiata Keita defeated him at Kirina in 1235.","next":["mali-empire"]},{"id":"mali-empire","name":"Mali Empire","short":"Mali","start":1235,"end":1670,"approx":true,"family":"niger-congo","group":"sahel","kind":"empire","tier":1,"capital":"Niani","desc":"Mandinka empire founded by Sundiata Keita that controlled the gold fields of Bambuk and Bure. Mansa Musa's lavish pilgrimage of 1324 made it famous in Europe, and Timbuktu became a seat of learning.","next":["songhai-empire"]},{"id":"agadez-sultanate","name":"Sultanate of Agadez","short":"Agadez","start":1449,"end":1906,"approx":true,"family":"berber","group":"sahel","kind":"state","tier":3,"capital":"Agadez","desc":"Tuareg sultanate of the Aïr mountains whose capital, with its mud-brick minaret, was a caravan junction between the Hausa cities and North Africa. France occupied it in 1906."},{"id":"mossi-kingdoms","name":"Mossi kingdoms","short":"Mossi","start":1450,"end":1896,"approx":true,"family":"niger-congo","group":"sahel","kind":"state","tier":3,"capital":"Ouagadougou, Ouahigouya","desc":"Kingdoms of the Volta basin, including Ouagadougou and Yatenga, ruled by the Mogho Naba. Their cavalry raided Timbuktu and resisted conversion to Islam. France conquered them in 1896."},{"id":"songhai-empire","name":"Songhai Empire","short":"Songhai","start":1464,"end":1591,"family":"nilo-saharan","group":"sahel","kind":"empire","tier":1,"capital":"Gao","desc":"Largest empire in West African history, built by Sunni Ali and Askia Muhammad along the Niger. A Moroccan army with firearms routed it at Tondibi in 1591.","next":["pashalik-of-timbuktu","dendi-kingdom"]},{"id":"pashalik-of-timbuktu","name":"Pashalik of Timbuktu","short":"Pashalik","start":1591,"end":1833,"family":"arabic","group":"sahel","kind":"state","tier":3,"capital":"Timbuktu","desc":"Moroccan conquerors who ruled the Niger bend from Timbuktu. Their descendants, the Arma, soon cut ties with Morocco and governed as a local military caste."},{"id":"dendi-kingdom","name":"Dendi Kingdom","short":"Dendi","start":1591,"end":1901,"family":"nilo-saharan","group":"sahel","kind":"state","tier":3,"capital":"Lulami","desc":"Songhai rump state on the lower Niger founded by Askia princes who refused to submit to Morocco. France absorbed it around 1901."},{"id":"bambara-empire","name":"Bambara Empire of Ségou","short":"Ségou","start":1712,"end":1861,"family":"niger-congo","group":"sahel","kind":"state","tier":3,"capital":"Ségou","desc":"Bambara state built by Biton Coulibaly with a slave army on the middle Niger. Umar Tall's jihad conquered it in 1861."},{"id":"massina-empire","name":"Massina Empire","short":"Massina","start":1818,"end":1862,"family":"niger-congo","group":"sahel","kind":"state","tier":3,"capital":"Hamdullahi","desc":"Fula caliphate of the inland Niger delta founded by Seku Amadu, which settled herders and ran a strict Islamic government. Umar Tall's forces destroyed it in 1862."},{"id":"toucouleur-empire","name":"Toucouleur Empire","short":"Toucouleur","start":1861,"end":1893,"family":"niger-congo","group":"sahel","kind":"empire","tier":3,"capital":"Ségou","desc":"Jihad state of El Hadj Umar Tall, who conquered Ségou and Massina. French columns took its cities in 1890 to 1893."},{"id":"wassoulou-empire","name":"Wassoulou Empire","short":"Wassoulou","start":1878,"end":1898,"family":"niger-congo","group":"sahel","kind":"empire","tier":3,"capital":"Bissandugu","desc":"Empire of Samori Ture, who armed his professional army with repeating rifles and fought France for nearly two decades before his capture in 1898."},{"id":"spanish-sahara","name":"Spanish Sahara","start":1884,"end":1976,"family":"romance","group":"sahel","kind":"colony","tier":3,"capital":"El Aaiún","desc":"Spanish colony on the Atlantic coast of the Sahara, valued for its phosphate deposits. Spain left in 1975 to 1976, and Morocco and Mauritania moved in.","next":["sahrawi-republic"]},{"id":"french-west-africa","name":"French West Africa","start":1895,"end":1960,"family":"romance","group":"sahel","kind":"colony","tier":2,"capital":"Saint-Louis, later Dakar","desc":"Federation of eight French colonies from Senegal to Niger, governed from Dakar. Forced labour built railways and its soldiers, the tirailleurs, fought in both world wars.","next":["mali","niger","burkina-faso","mauritania"]},{"id":"mauritania","name":"Mauritania","start":1960,"end":2025,"family":"arabic","group":"sahel","kind":"state","tier":3,"capital":"Nouakchott","desc":"Islamic republic of Arab-Berber and Black African communities, ruled by soldiers for most of its history. In 1981 it became the last country to abolish slavery."},{"id":"mali","name":"Mali","start":1960,"end":2025,"family":"niger-congo","group":"sahel","kind":"state","tier":3,"capital":"Bamako","desc":"Republic named after the medieval empire. A Tuareg and jihadist revolt in 2012 split the north, and the army has ruled since coups in 2020 and 2021."},{"id":"niger","name":"Niger","start":1960,"end":2025,"family":"chadic","group":"sahel","kind":"state","tier":3,"capital":"Niamey","desc":"Landlocked uranium-producing republic whose largest group is the Hausa. Soldiers overthrew the elected president Mohamed Bazoum in 2023."},{"id":"burkina-faso","name":"Burkina Faso","start":1960,"end":2025,"family":"niger-congo","group":"sahel","kind":"state","tier":3,"capital":"Ouagadougou","desc":"Former Upper Volta, renamed 'land of upright people' by Thomas Sankara in 1984. Jihadist insurgency since 2015 has displaced millions, and the army seized power twice in 2022."},{"id":"sahrawi-republic","name":"Sahrawi Arab Democratic Republic","short":"Sahrawi Republic","start":1976,"end":2025,"family":"arabic","group":"sahel","kind":"state","tier":3,"capital":"Tifariti (claimed), government in Tindouf camps","desc":"State proclaimed by the Polisario Front in Western Sahara. It fought Morocco until a 1991 ceasefire and controls only a desert strip east of the Moroccan sand wall."},{"id":"lake-chad-foragers","name":"Lake Chad fishers and herders","short":"Chad fishers","start":-3200,"end":-1800,"approx":true,"family":"unknown","group":"lake-chad","kind":"culture","tier":3,"desc":"Fishers, hunters and herders around the shores of a far larger Lake Chad, which shrank as the Sahara dried after 3500 BCE."},{"id":"gajiganna-culture","name":"Gajiganna culture","short":"Gajiganna","start":-1800,"end":-800,"approx":true,"family":"unknown","group":"lake-chad","kind":"culture","tier":3,"desc":"Cattle herders who settled the clay plains southwest of Lake Chad and took up pearl millet farming, living in villages on raised mounds."},{"id":"chadic-farmers","name":"Chadic-speaking farmers","short":"Chadic peoples","start":-1000,"end":2025,"approx":true,"family":"chadic","group":"lake-chad","kind":"culture","tier":3,"desc":"Farmers speaking Chadic languages, including the ancestors of the Hausa, Kotoko and Mandara, who spread across the savanna south and west of Lake Chad."},{"id":"sao-culture","name":"Sao culture","short":"Sao","start":-500,"end":1600,"approx":true,"family":"chadic","group":"lake-chad","kind":"culture","tier":3,"desc":"Walled towns south of Lake Chad known for terracotta figures and bronze work. Kanem and Bornu wars absorbed them, and the Kotoko claim descent from them."},{"id":"kanem-empire","name":"Kanem Empire","short":"Kanem","start":700,"end":1387,"approx":true,"family":"nilo-saharan","group":"lake-chad","kind":"empire","tier":2,"capital":"Njimi","desc":"Kanuri state northeast of Lake Chad whose Sayfawa kings converted to Islam around 1085 and controlled the trans-Saharan route to the Fezzan. Bulala attacks drove the court west to Bornu in the late 14th century.","next":["bornu-empire"]},{"id":"hausa-kingdoms","name":"Hausa city-states","short":"Hausa states","start":1000,"end":1808,"approx":true,"family":"chadic","group":"lake-chad","kind":"state","tier":3,"capital":"Kano, Katsina, Zazzau, Gobir","desc":"Walled cities such as Kano, Katsina and Zazzau that grew on cloth dyeing, leatherwork and caravan trade. The Fula jihad of Usman dan Fodio conquered them from 1804.","next":["sokoto-caliphate"]},{"id":"bornu-empire","name":"Bornu Empire","short":"Bornu","start":1387,"end":1893,"approx":true,"family":"nilo-saharan","group":"lake-chad","kind":"empire","tier":2,"capital":"Ngazargamu, later Kukawa","desc":"The Sayfawa kingdom refounded west of Lake Chad. Idris Alooma used Ottoman musketeers to dominate the central Sudan. The al-Kanemi family ruled from 1846 until Rabih az-Zubayr conquered it in 1893.","next":["rabih-state"]},{"id":"kwararafa","name":"Kwararafa (Jukun)","short":"Kwararafa","start":1500,"end":1800,"approx":true,"family":"niger-congo","group":"lake-chad","kind":"state","tier":3,"capital":"Wukari","desc":"Jukun-led confederation of the Benue valley that raided Kano and Bornu in the 17th century. It broke up into smaller chiefdoms in the 18th century."},{"id":"bagirmi","name":"Sultanate of Bagirmi","short":"Bagirmi","start":1522,"end":1897,"family":"nilo-saharan","group":"lake-chad","kind":"state","tier":3,"capital":"Massenya","desc":"Muslim sultanate southeast of Lake Chad that raided its southern neighbours for slaves and paid tribute to Bornu and Wadai in turn. It accepted French protection in 1897."},{"id":"wadai-sultanate","name":"Wadai Sultanate","short":"Wadai","start":1635,"end":1912,"family":"nilo-saharan","group":"lake-chad","kind":"state","tier":3,"capital":"Ouara, later Abéché","desc":"Maba sultanate of eastern Chad that grew strong on the caravan trade to Benghazi and sacked Bagirmi's capital in 1871. France conquered it by 1912."},{"id":"sokoto-caliphate","name":"Sokoto Caliphate","short":"Sokoto","start":1804,"end":1903,"family":"niger-congo","group":"lake-chad","kind":"empire","tier":2,"capital":"Sokoto","desc":"Islamic state founded by the Fula scholar Usman dan Fodio, which united the Hausa cities under some thirty emirates. One of the largest African states of its age, it fell to British forces in 1903.","next":["northern-nigeria"]},{"id":"rabih-state","name":"Rabih az-Zubayr's state","short":"Rabih","start":1893,"end":1900,"family":"arabic","group":"lake-chad","kind":"state","tier":3,"capital":"Dikwa","desc":"Warlord state of the Sudanese slaver Rabih az-Zubayr, who conquered Bagirmi and Bornu. He was killed fighting the French at Kousseri in 1900."},{"id":"german-kamerun-north","name":"German Kamerun (north)","short":"Kamerun","start":1884,"end":1916,"family":"germanic","group":"lake-chad","kind":"colony","tier":3,"capital":"Buea (colonial capital)","desc":"Germany's colony reached Lake Chad by 1902, ruling Fula emirates such as Adamawa. British and French forces conquered it in the First World War."},{"id":"northern-nigeria","name":"Northern Nigeria Protectorate","short":"N. Nigeria","start":1900,"end":1914,"family":"germanic","group":"lake-chad","kind":"colony","tier":3,"capital":"Zungeru","desc":"Frederick Lugard conquered the Sokoto emirates and ruled through the emirs, a model of 'indirect rule'. It was merged with the south into Nigeria in 1914.","next":["british-nigeria"]},{"id":"french-chad","name":"French Chad","start":1900,"end":1960,"family":"romance","group":"lake-chad","kind":"colony","tier":3,"capital":"Fort-Lamy","desc":"Military territory and later colony of French Equatorial Africa. In 1940 it was the first colony to rally to de Gaulle's Free France under the Guianese-born governor Félix Éboué.","next":["chad"]},{"id":"chad","name":"Chad","start":1960,"end":2025,"family":"nilo-saharan","group":"lake-chad","kind":"state","tier":3,"capital":"N'Djamena","desc":"Republic torn by civil war between north and south and wars with Libya over the Aouzou Strip. Idriss Déby ruled from 1990 to 2021, followed by his son Mahamat."},{"id":"forest-hunter-gatherers","name":"Tropical forest hunter-gatherers","short":"Forest foragers","start":-3200,"end":-1000,"approx":true,"family":"unknown","group":"west-africa","kind":"culture","tier":3,"desc":"Foragers of the West African rainforest and its fringes who used stone tools, gathered oil palm nuts and yams, and began making pottery long before farming spread."},{"id":"kintampo-culture","name":"Kintampo culture","short":"Kintampo","start":-2500,"end":-1400,"approx":true,"family":"niger-congo","group":"west-africa","kind":"culture","tier":3,"desc":"Early farming and herding culture of central Ghana, with daub houses, polished stone tools and some of the first domestic goats and cattle in the forest margin."},{"id":"forest-farmers","name":"West African yam and oil palm farmers","short":"Forest farmers","start":-1500,"end":2025,"approx":true,"family":"niger-congo","group":"west-africa","kind":"culture","tier":3,"desc":"Kwa, Volta-Niger and Atlantic-speaking villagers who cleared the forest edge to grow yams, oil palm and later cassava, the base population of the Akan, Yoruba, Igbo and Wolof states."},{"id":"nok-culture","name":"Nok culture","short":"Nok","start":-1500,"end":1,"approx":true,"family":"unknown","group":"west-africa","kind":"culture","tier":2,"desc":"Farming culture of central Nigeria famous for life-size terracotta heads and among the first in West Africa to smelt iron, by about 500 BCE. Its language and fate are unknown."},{"id":"igbo-ukwu","name":"Igbo-Ukwu","start":800,"end":1100,"approx":true,"family":"niger-congo","group":"west-africa","kind":"culture","tier":3,"desc":"Site in southeast Nigeria where a burial and shrine held intricate cast bronzes and tens of thousands of glass beads, some traded from as far as the Middle East.","next":["kingdom-of-nri"]},{"id":"kingdom-of-nri","name":"Kingdom of Nri","short":"Nri","start":900,"end":1911,"approx":true,"family":"niger-congo","group":"west-africa","kind":"state","tier":3,"capital":"Igbo-Ukwu, later Agukwu","desc":"Igbo religious kingdom whose priest-kings, the Eze Nri, held ritual authority over a wide area without an army. The British ended its authority in 1911."},{"id":"ife","name":"Ife","start":1000,"end":1420,"approx":true,"family":"niger-congo","group":"west-africa","kind":"state","tier":2,"capital":"Ile-Ife","desc":"Sacred Yoruba city-state, held to be the place where the world was created, whose artists cast naturalistic heads in copper alloy. Its Ooni still reigns as a ritual leader."},{"id":"benin-kingdom","name":"Kingdom of Benin","short":"Benin","start":1180,"end":1897,"approx":true,"family":"niger-congo","group":"west-africa","kind":"state","tier":2,"capital":"Benin City (Edo)","desc":"Edo kingdom whose obas built massive earthworks and traded with Portugal from 1486. A British punitive expedition burned Benin City in 1897 and looted thousands of its bronzes."},{"id":"jolof-empire","name":"Jolof Empire","short":"Jolof","start":1350,"end":1549,"approx":true,"family":"niger-congo","group":"west-africa","kind":"empire","tier":3,"capital":"Linguère","desc":"Wolof empire of Senegal founded by Ndiadiane Ndiaye. Its coastal provinces profited from Portuguese trade and broke away after Cayor won independence in 1549.","next":["cayor"]},{"id":"oyo-empire","name":"Oyo Empire","short":"Oyo","start":1400,"end":1836,"approx":true,"family":"niger-congo","group":"west-africa","kind":"empire","tier":2,"capital":"Oyo-Ile","desc":"Yoruba empire whose cavalry dominated the savanna and forced Dahomey to pay tribute. Civil war, an Ilorin revolt and the Sokoto jihad led to the abandonment of Oyo-Ile around 1836."},{"id":"portuguese-elmina","name":"Portuguese Gold Coast (Elmina)","short":"Portuguese Mina","start":1482,"end":1642,"family":"romance","group":"west-africa","kind":"colony","tier":3,"capital":"São Jorge da Mina","desc":"Portugal built São Jorge da Mina in 1482 to buy Akan gold, the first European fort in sub-Saharan Africa. The Dutch took Elmina in 1637 and the last Portuguese forts by 1642.","next":["dutch-gold-coast"]},{"id":"portuguese-cape-verde","name":"Portuguese Cape Verde","start":1462,"end":1975,"family":"romance","group":"west-africa","kind":"colony","tier":3,"capital":"Ribeira Grande, later Praia","desc":"Uninhabited islands settled by Portugal in 1462 that became an early hub of the Atlantic slave trade. Repeated droughts killed tens of thousands in the 18th to 20th centuries.","next":["cape-verde"]},{"id":"kaabu","name":"Kaabu","start":1537,"end":1867,"family":"niger-congo","group":"west-africa","kind":"state","tier":3,"capital":"Kansala","desc":"Mandinka kingdom of Guinea-Bissau and the Gambia that broke from Mali and sold war captives to European traders. Futa Jallon's forces stormed Kansala in 1867."},{"id":"cayor","name":"Kingdom of Cayor","short":"Cayor","start":1549,"end":1879,"family":"niger-congo","group":"west-africa","kind":"state","tier":3,"capital":"Mboul","desc":"Wolof kingdom that broke from Jolof and grew strong on trade with Europeans. Its damel Lat Dior resisted French railway building until France annexed Cayor in 1879."},{"id":"dahomey","name":"Kingdom of Dahomey","short":"Dahomey","start":1600,"end":1904,"approx":true,"family":"niger-congo","group":"west-africa","kind":"state","tier":3,"capital":"Abomey","desc":"Fon kingdom that seized the port of Ouidah in 1727 and became a major supplier to the Atlantic slave trade, with a regiment of women soldiers. France conquered it in 1892 to 1894."},{"id":"dutch-gold-coast","name":"Dutch Gold Coast","start":1612,"end":1872,"family":"germanic","group":"west-africa","kind":"colony","tier":3,"capital":"Elmina","desc":"Dutch trading forts on the coast of Ghana, run by the West India Company, that shipped gold and enslaved people. The Netherlands sold them to Britain in 1872.","next":["british-gold-coast"]},{"id":"denkyira","name":"Denkyira","start":1620,"end":1701,"approx":true,"family":"niger-congo","group":"west-africa","kind":"state","tier":3,"capital":"Abankeseso","desc":"Akan kingdom that controlled gold fields and trade with the coast. The Ashanti, once its tributaries, defeated it at Feyiase in 1701.","next":["ashanti-empire"]},{"id":"ashanti-empire","name":"Ashanti Empire","short":"Ashanti","start":1701,"end":1901,"family":"niger-congo","group":"west-africa","kind":"empire","tier":2,"capital":"Kumasi","desc":"Akan empire founded by Osei Tutu around the Golden Stool, which grew on gold and slave trading. It fought Britain in a series of wars until annexation after the War of the Golden Stool in 1900.","next":["british-gold-coast"]},{"id":"kong-empire","name":"Kong Empire","short":"Kong","start":1710,"end":1898,"family":"niger-congo","group":"west-africa","kind":"state","tier":3,"capital":"Kong","desc":"Dyula trading state of northern Côte d'Ivoire, a centre of Islamic learning on the kola and gold routes. Samori Ture destroyed the city in 1897."},{"id":"futa-jallon","name":"Imamate of Futa Jallon","short":"Futa Jallon","start":1725,"end":1896,"family":"niger-congo","group":"west-africa","kind":"state","tier":3,"capital":"Timbo","desc":"Fula Islamic state in the highlands of Guinea founded after a jihad, ruled by alternating almamys from two families. France absorbed it in 1896."},{"id":"futa-toro","name":"Imamate of Futa Toro","short":"Futa Toro","start":1776,"end":1861,"family":"niger-congo","group":"west-africa","kind":"state","tier":3,"capital":"Thilogne","desc":"Fula Muslim state on the middle Senegal River that overthrew the Denianke kings and banned the sale of Muslims as slaves. France annexed it in stages from 1859."},{"id":"french-senegal","name":"French Senegal","start":1659,"end":1960,"family":"romance","group":"west-africa","kind":"colony","tier":3,"capital":"Saint-Louis, later Dakar","desc":"French trading post at Saint-Louis that grew into a colony under Faidherbe in the 1850s. Its Four Communes elected a deputy to Paris, starting with Blaise Diagne in 1914.","next":["senegal"]},{"id":"sierra-leone-colony","name":"Sierra Leone Colony","short":"British S. Leone","start":1808,"end":1961,"family":"germanic","group":"west-africa","kind":"colony","tier":3,"capital":"Freetown","desc":"Freetown was founded in 1792 for freed slaves and became a Crown colony in 1808, the base of the Royal Navy's anti-slavery squadron. A protectorate over the interior followed in 1896.","next":["sierra-leone"]},{"id":"british-gold-coast","name":"British Gold Coast","start":1821,"end":1957,"family":"germanic","group":"west-africa","kind":"colony","tier":3,"capital":"Cape Coast, later Accra","desc":"British colony that absorbed Danish and Dutch forts and then the Ashanti lands. It became the world's largest cocoa producer before independence as Ghana in 1957.","next":["ghana"]},{"id":"liberia","name":"Liberia","start":1847,"end":2025,"family":"germanic","group":"west-africa","kind":"state","tier":3,"capital":"Monrovia","desc":"Republic founded by freed African Americans and ruled by their descendants until a 1980 coup. Civil wars from 1989 to 2003 killed some 250,000, and Ellen Johnson Sirleaf became Africa's first elected woman president."},{"id":"lagos-colony","name":"Lagos Colony","start":1861,"end":1906,"family":"germanic","group":"west-africa","kind":"colony","tier":3,"capital":"Lagos","desc":"Britain annexed Lagos in 1861, claiming to suppress the slave trade, and made it a base for expansion into Yorubaland. It merged into Southern Nigeria in 1906.","next":["british-nigeria"]},{"id":"german-togoland","name":"German Togoland","start":1884,"end":1916,"family":"germanic","group":"west-africa","kind":"colony","tier":3,"capital":"Lomé","desc":"German colony run as a model plantation economy. Britain and France occupied it in 1914 and divided it, the French part becoming Togo.","next":["togo"]},{"id":"portuguese-guinea","name":"Portuguese Guinea","start":1879,"end":1974,"family":"romance","group":"west-africa","kind":"colony","tier":3,"capital":"Bolama, later Bissau","desc":"Portuguese colony on the Guinea coast. Amílcar Cabral's PAIGC fought a guerrilla war from 1963 that helped bring down the Lisbon dictatorship in 1974.","next":["guinea-bissau"]},{"id":"british-nigeria","name":"British Nigeria","start":1914,"end":1960,"family":"germanic","group":"west-africa","kind":"colony","tier":2,"capital":"Lagos","desc":"Lugard joined the northern and southern protectorates into one colony in 1914, binding together hundreds of peoples under indirect rule. It became independent in 1960.","next":["nigeria"]},{"id":"ghana","name":"Ghana","start":1957,"end":2025,"family":"niger-congo","group":"west-africa","kind":"state","tier":2,"capital":"Accra","desc":"First sub-Saharan colony to win independence, led by Kwame Nkrumah. After coups in the 1960s to 1980s it has held peaceful democratic elections since 1992."},{"id":"guinea","name":"Guinea","start":1958,"end":2025,"family":"niger-congo","group":"west-africa","kind":"state","tier":3,"capital":"Conakry","desc":"Voted no to de Gaulle's French Community in 1958 and became independent under Sékou Touré. A major bauxite exporter, it has been under military rule since a 2021 coup."},{"id":"senegal","name":"Senegal","start":1960,"end":2025,"family":"niger-congo","group":"west-africa","kind":"state","tier":3,"capital":"Dakar","desc":"Republic led first by the poet Léopold Sédar Senghor and one of Africa's most stable democracies, with no coup since independence."},{"id":"nigeria","name":"Nigeria","start":1960,"end":2025,"family":"niger-congo","group":"west-africa","kind":"state","tier":2,"capital":"Lagos, later Abuja","desc":"Africa's most populous country and a major oil producer. Coups and the Biafran War of 1967 to 1970 marked its early decades, and civilian rule has held since 1999."},{"id":"cote-divoire","name":"Côte d'Ivoire","start":1960,"end":2025,"family":"niger-congo","group":"west-africa","kind":"state","tier":3,"capital":"Abidjan, later Yamoussoukro","desc":"World's largest cocoa producer, ruled by Félix Houphouët-Boigny until 1993. Civil wars in 2002 and 2010 to 2011 split the country before Alassane Ouattara took power."},{"id":"benin","name":"Benin","start":1960,"end":2025,"family":"niger-congo","group":"west-africa","kind":"state","tier":3,"capital":"Porto-Novo","desc":"Former French Dahomey, a Marxist state under Mathieu Kérékou from 1972 to 1990, then one of the first African countries to hold a national conference and move to multiparty rule."},{"id":"togo","name":"Togo","start":1960,"end":2025,"family":"niger-congo","group":"west-africa","kind":"state","tier":3,"capital":"Lomé","desc":"Narrow republic ruled by Gnassingbé Eyadéma from 1967 to 2005 and then by his son Faure Gnassingbé."},{"id":"sierra-leone","name":"Sierra Leone","start":1961,"end":2025,"family":"germanic","group":"west-africa","kind":"state","tier":3,"capital":"Freetown","desc":"Diamond-producing state devastated by a civil war from 1991 to 2002 known for mass amputations. British and UN troops helped end it."},{"id":"gambia","name":"The Gambia","start":1965,"end":2025,"family":"niger-congo","group":"west-africa","kind":"state","tier":3,"capital":"Banjul","desc":"Mainland Africa's smallest country, a strip along the Gambia River inside Senegal. Yahya Jammeh ruled from 1994 until regional troops forced him out after he lost the 2016 election."},{"id":"biafra","name":"Republic of Biafra","short":"Biafra","start":1967,"end":1970,"family":"niger-congo","group":"west-africa","kind":"state","tier":3,"capital":"Enugu, later Umuahia","desc":"Igbo-led secessionist state in southeastern Nigeria. A federal blockade caused a famine that killed perhaps a million people before Biafra surrendered in 1970."},{"id":"guinea-bissau","name":"Guinea-Bissau","start":1973,"end":2025,"family":"romance","group":"west-africa","kind":"state","tier":3,"capital":"Bissau","desc":"Declared independent by the PAIGC in 1973 and recognised by Portugal in 1974. It has suffered repeated coups and became a transit point for cocaine bound for Europe."},{"id":"cape-verde","name":"Cape Verde","start":1975,"end":2025,"family":"romance","group":"west-africa","kind":"state","tier":3,"capital":"Praia","desc":"Island republic that won independence alongside Guinea-Bissau and has been a stable multiparty democracy since 1991, with more citizens living abroad than at home."}],"events":[{"year":-3500,"title":"The Green Sahara dries out","desc":"As monsoon rains shift south, the grassland Sahara turns to desert over centuries, pushing herders toward the Nile valley, the Sahel and Lake Chad.","tier":1,"group":"sahel","related":["saharan-pastoralists","lake-chad-foragers"]},{"year":-3100,"title":"Unification of Egypt","desc":"Narmer, king of Upper Egypt, brings the Nile valley and the Delta under one crown, shown on the Narmer Palette. Memphis becomes the capital.","tier":1,"group":"egypt","related":["early-dynastic-egypt","naqada-culture"]},{"year":-2560,"title":"Great Pyramid of Giza","desc":"Khufu's pyramid at Giza is completed, 146 metres high and the tallest human-made structure on Earth for nearly 4,000 years.","tier":1,"group":"egypt","related":["old-kingdom-egypt"]},{"year":-1470,"title":"Hatshepsut's expedition to Punt","desc":"Queen Hatshepsut sends five ships down the Red Sea to Punt. Reliefs at Deir el-Bahari show myrrh trees, incense and the queen of Punt.","tier":2,"group":"horn","related":["punt","new-kingdom-egypt"]},{"year":-1346,"title":"Akhenaten founds Amarna","desc":"Pharaoh Akhenaten moves the capital to a new city at Amarna devoted to the sun disc Aten, a religious revolution reversed after his death.","tier":2,"group":"egypt","related":["new-kingdom-egypt"]},{"year":-814,"title":"Founding of Carthage","desc":"Phoenician settlers from Tyre found Carthage on the Gulf of Tunis, according to tradition under Queen Dido. It becomes the leading city of the western Mediterranean.","tier":2,"group":"maghreb","related":["carthage"]},{"year":-728,"title":"Piye conquers Egypt","desc":"The Kushite king Piye sails down the Nile, takes Memphis and receives the submission of Egypt's rival kings, beginning a century of Nubian pharaohs.","tier":2,"group":"nubia","related":["napatan-kush","twenty-fifth-dynasty"]},{"year":-500,"title":"Iron smelting in West Africa","desc":"Furnaces at Nok sites in Nigeria and at Taruga smelt iron by about 500 BCE, one of the earliest iron industries south of the Sahara.","tier":2,"group":"west-africa","related":["nok-culture"]},{"year":-331,"title":"Founding of Alexandria","desc":"Alexander the Great founds Alexandria on the Mediterranean coast of Egypt. Under the Ptolemies it becomes the largest Greek city and home of the Great Library.","tier":2,"group":"egypt","related":["ptolemaic-kingdom"]},{"year":-146,"title":"Destruction of Carthage","desc":"Roman forces under Scipio Aemilianus storm and burn Carthage after a three-year siege, ending the Third Punic War. Its territory becomes the province of Africa.","tier":1,"group":"maghreb","related":["carthage","roman-africa"]},{"year":-30,"title":"Death of Cleopatra","desc":"After defeat at Actium, Cleopatra VII and Mark Antony take their own lives. Octavian annexes Egypt, ending three centuries of Ptolemaic rule.","tier":2,"group":"egypt","related":["ptolemaic-kingdom","roman-egypt"]},{"year":330,"title":"Aksum adopts Christianity","desc":"King Ezana of Aksum converts under the influence of the Syrian bishop Frumentius, and his coins switch from pagan symbols to the cross.","tier":2,"group":"horn","related":["aksum"]},{"year":641,"title":"Arab conquest of Egypt","desc":"Amr ibn al-As takes Babylon fortress and then Alexandria, ending Byzantine rule. He founds Fustat, the nucleus of later Cairo.","tier":2,"group":"egypt","related":["byzantine-egypt","caliphal-egypt"]},{"year":652,"title":"The Baqt treaty","desc":"After failing to take Dongola, an Arab army agrees a treaty with Makuria trading slaves for grain and cloth. It keeps the peace for some six centuries.","tier":2,"group":"nubia","related":["makuria","caliphal-egypt"]},{"year":670,"title":"Founding of Kairouan","desc":"Uqba ibn Nafi founds Kairouan in Tunisia as a garrison for the conquest of the Maghreb. Its Great Mosque becomes a centre of Islamic learning.","tier":2,"group":"maghreb","related":["arab-ifriqiya"]},{"year":969,"title":"Fatimids found Cairo","desc":"The Fatimid general Jawhar conquers Egypt and lays out al-Qahira, 'the victorious', next to Fustat. Al-Azhar mosque opens soon after.","tier":2,"group":"egypt","related":["fatimid-caliphate","ikhshidids"]},{"year":1050,"title":"Banu Hilal migration","desc":"Arab Bedouin tribes sent west by the Fatimids sweep into Ifriqiya, sacking Kairouan in 1057 and speeding the spread of Arabic in the Maghreb.","tier":2,"group":"maghreb","related":["zirids","fatimid-caliphate"]},{"year":1235,"title":"Battle of Kirina","desc":"Sundiata Keita defeats the Sosso king Sumanguru Kante, founding the Mali Empire, a story still told by griots in the Epic of Sundiata.","tier":2,"group":"sahel","related":["mali-empire","sosso-kingdom"]},{"year":1324,"title":"Mansa Musa's pilgrimage","desc":"Mansa Musa of Mali crosses Cairo on the way to Mecca with thousands of followers and so much gold that its price falls in Egypt for years.","tier":1,"group":"sahel","related":["mali-empire","mamluk-sultanate"]},{"year":1347,"title":"Black Death reaches Egypt","desc":"Plague arrives in Alexandria and kills perhaps a third of Egypt's people, wrecking the Mamluk economy and irrigation system.","tier":2,"group":"egypt","related":["mamluk-sultanate"]},{"year":1482,"title":"Portuguese build Elmina","desc":"Portugal builds the fortress of São Jorge da Mina on the Gold Coast, opening direct European trade in gold and later enslaved people.","tier":2,"group":"west-africa","related":["portuguese-elmina"]},{"year":1529,"title":"Battle of Shimbra Kure","desc":"Imam Ahmad of Adal routs Emperor Lebna Dengel, beginning fourteen years of conquest across the Christian highlands of Ethiopia.","tier":2,"group":"horn","related":["adal-sultanate","solomonic-ethiopia"]},{"year":1591,"title":"Battle of Tondibi","desc":"A Moroccan army of musketeers sent across the Sahara by Ahmad al-Mansur routs the Songhai, ending the last great Sahelian empire.","tier":2,"group":"sahel","related":["songhai-empire","saadi-dynasty","pashalik-of-timbuktu"]},{"year":1700,"title":"Peak of the Atlantic slave trade","desc":"In the 18th century over six million Africans are shipped from the West African coast to the Americas, much of the trade passing through Dahomey, Oyo and the Gold Coast forts.","tier":1,"group":"west-africa","related":["dahomey","oyo-empire","ashanti-empire"]},{"year":1798,"title":"Napoleon invades Egypt","desc":"Napoleon defeats the Mamluks at the Battle of the Pyramids. The short French occupation breaks Mamluk power and brings Egypt to European attention.","tier":2,"group":"egypt","related":["french-egypt","ottoman-egypt"]},{"year":1804,"title":"Usman dan Fodio's jihad","desc":"The Fula scholar Usman dan Fodio declares a holy war against the Hausa king of Gobir, founding the Sokoto Caliphate within a few years.","tier":2,"group":"lake-chad","related":["sokoto-caliphate","hausa-kingdoms"]},{"year":1869,"title":"Suez Canal opens","desc":"The canal linking the Mediterranean and Red Sea opens under Khedive Ismail, cutting the sea route from Europe to India by thousands of kilometres.","tier":1,"group":"egypt","related":["muhammad-ali-dynasty"]},{"year":1884,"title":"Berlin Conference","desc":"European powers meet in Berlin to set rules for claiming African territory, accelerating the Scramble for Africa that left only Ethiopia and Liberia independent.","tier":1,"group":"west-africa","related":["french-west-africa","german-togoland","german-kamerun-north"]},{"year":1896,"title":"Battle of Adwa","desc":"Emperor Menelik II's army defeats an Italian invasion force, securing Ethiopia's independence through the colonial era.","tier":1,"group":"horn","related":["solomonic-ethiopia","italian-eritrea"]},{"year":1954,"title":"Algerian War begins","desc":"The FLN launches coordinated attacks on 1 November. Eight years of war and terror end with Algerian independence in 1962.","tier":2,"group":"maghreb","related":["french-algeria","algeria"]},{"year":1956,"title":"Suez Crisis","desc":"Nasser nationalises the Suez Canal, and Britain, France and Israel invade. American and Soviet pressure forces them out, a blow to European imperial power.","tier":2,"group":"egypt","related":["egypt"]},{"year":1957,"title":"Ghana wins independence","desc":"Kwame Nkrumah leads the Gold Coast to independence as Ghana, the first sub-Saharan colony to break free and a model for the rest of Africa.","tier":2,"group":"west-africa","related":["ghana","british-gold-coast"]},{"year":1960,"title":"Year of Africa","desc":"Seventeen African countries win independence in a single year, including Nigeria, Mali, Senegal, Niger, Chad and Somalia.","tier":1,"group":"sahel","related":["french-west-africa","nigeria","mali","somalia","chad"]},{"year":2011,"title":"Arab Spring","desc":"Protests that began in Tunisia in December 2010 topple Ben Ali, then Mubarak in Egypt, and set off the war in Libya that ends Gaddafi's rule.","tier":1,"group":"maghreb","related":["tunisia","egypt","gaddafi-libya"]}]},{"id":"europe","name":"Europe","groups":[{"id":"scandinavia","name":"Scandinavia and the Baltic"},{"id":"russia-steppe","name":"Russia and the Steppe"},{"id":"central-europe","name":"Central Europe"},{"id":"british-isles","name":"British Isles"},{"id":"western-europe","name":"France and the Low Countries"},{"id":"iberia","name":"Iberia"},{"id":"italy","name":"Italy"},{"id":"balkans","name":"Balkans and Greece"}],"entries":[{"id":"pitted-ware","name":"Pitted Ware culture","short":"Pitted Ware","start":-3200,"end":-2300,"approx":true,"family":"unknown","group":"scandinavia","kind":"culture","tier":3,"desc":"Seal-hunting and fishing communities on the coasts of eastern Sweden, Aland and Gotland who lived alongside the farming Funnelbeaker people and later the Battle Axe culture."},{"id":"comb-ceramic","name":"Comb Ceramic culture","short":"Comb Ceramic","start":-3500,"end":-2000,"approx":true,"family":"unknown","group":"scandinavia","kind":"culture","tier":3,"desc":"Pottery-making hunter-gatherers of Finland, Karelia and Estonia, named for the comb-stamped decoration on their vessels. They lived by elk hunting, sealing and fishing."},{"id":"narva-culture","name":"Narva culture","short":"Narva","start":-3500,"end":-1750,"approx":true,"family":"unknown","group":"scandinavia","kind":"culture","tier":3,"desc":"Forest and lakeside foragers of Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania who made pottery and traded amber. Farming spread among them slowly during the third millennium BCE."},{"id":"battle-axe-culture","name":"Battle Axe culture","short":"Battle Axe","start":-2800,"end":-2300,"approx":true,"family":"ie-other","group":"scandinavia","kind":"culture","tier":3,"desc":"The Scandinavian branch of Corded Ware, known from single graves with stone shaft-hole axes. It probably brought Indo-European speech and steppe ancestry to Sweden, Norway and Finland.","next":["nordic-bronze-age"]},{"id":"nordic-bronze-age","name":"Nordic Bronze Age","short":"Nordic Bronze","start":-1700,"end":-500,"approx":true,"family":"germanic","group":"scandinavia","kind":"culture","tier":2,"desc":"Chiefdoms of Denmark, Sweden and Norway that traded amber for copper and tin and left rock carvings of ships, bronze lurs and the Trundholm sun chariot. Probably the cradle of Proto-Germanic.","next":["pre-roman-iron-age-north"]},{"id":"pre-roman-iron-age-north","name":"Pre-Roman Iron Age (Scandinavia)","short":"Pre-Roman Iron","start":-500,"end":1,"approx":true,"family":"germanic","group":"scandinavia","kind":"culture","tier":3,"desc":"A colder period when local bog iron replaced imported bronze in Denmark and Sweden. Tollund Man and the Hjortspring war canoe date from this time.","next":["roman-iron-age-north"]},{"id":"roman-iron-age-north","name":"Roman Iron Age (Scandinavia)","short":"Roman Iron Age","start":1,"end":400,"approx":true,"family":"germanic","group":"scandinavia","kind":"culture","tier":3,"desc":"Germanic chiefs in Denmark and Sweden traded with the Roman frontier for glass, silver and weapons, and sacrificed captured war gear in bogs. Runic writing appears in the 2nd century.","next":["vendel-period"]},{"id":"vendel-period","name":"Migration and Vendel periods","short":"Vendel period","start":400,"end":793,"approx":true,"family":"germanic","group":"scandinavia","kind":"culture","tier":3,"desc":"Petty kingdoms of Svear, Geats and Danes whose chiefs were buried with helmets and boats at Vendel, Valsgarde and Old Uppsala. Gold bracteates and the Gallehus horns belong to this age.","next":["viking-age"]},{"id":"viking-age","name":"Viking Age Norse","short":"Vikings","start":793,"end":1066,"family":"germanic","group":"scandinavia","kind":"culture","tier":1,"desc":"Norse raiders, traders and settlers who struck Lindisfarne in 793, settled Iceland, Normandy and the Danelaw, and traded down the Russian rivers to Constantinople and Baghdad.","next":["kingdom-of-denmark","kingdom-of-norway","kingdom-of-sweden"]},{"id":"baltic-finns","name":"Baltic Finnic tribes","short":"Baltic Finns","start":-1500,"end":1250,"approx":true,"family":"uralic","group":"scandinavia","kind":"culture","tier":3,"desc":"Ancestors of the Finns, Estonians, Karelians and Votes, farming and hunting around the Gulf of Finland. Danish, German and Swedish crusaders subjugated them in the 13th century."},{"id":"baltic-tribes","name":"Baltic tribes","short":"Balts","start":-1000,"end":1290,"approx":true,"family":"baltic","group":"scandinavia","kind":"culture","tier":3,"desc":"Prussians, Curonians, Semigallians, Latgalians and Lithuanians of the amber coast, the last pagans in Europe. The Teutonic and Livonian Orders conquered all but the Lithuanians by 1290.","next":["grand-duchy-lithuania"]},{"id":"sami","name":"Sami people","short":"Sami","start":-1000,"end":2025,"approx":true,"family":"uralic","group":"scandinavia","kind":"culture","tier":3,"desc":"Reindeer herders, fishers and hunters of northern Norway, Sweden, Finland and the Kola Peninsula. Their homeland, Sapmi, was divided among the Nordic states and Russia from the 1600s on."},{"id":"kingdom-of-norway","name":"Kingdom of Norway","short":"Norway","start":872,"end":1397,"approx":true,"family":"germanic","group":"scandinavia","kind":"state","tier":2,"capital":"Trondheim, later Bergen and Oslo","desc":"Harald Fairhair united the western coast after the battle of Hafrsfjord around 872. At its 13th-century peak Norway ruled Iceland, Greenland and the northern isles, then entered union with Denmark in 1380.","next":["kalmar-union"]},{"id":"icelandic-commonwealth","name":"Icelandic Commonwealth","short":"Iceland","start":930,"end":1262,"family":"germanic","group":"scandinavia","kind":"state","tier":3,"capital":"Thingvellir (Althing)","desc":"Norse settlers founded the Althing in 930, an assembly of chieftains with no king. Decades of feuding ended when the chieftains swore allegiance to King Haakon IV of Norway in 1262.","next":["kingdom-of-norway"]},{"id":"kingdom-of-denmark","name":"Kingdom of Denmark","short":"Denmark","start":936,"end":1397,"approx":true,"family":"germanic","group":"scandinavia","kind":"state","tier":2,"capital":"Jelling, later Roskilde","desc":"Gorm the Old and his son Harald Bluetooth, who made the Danes Christian, founded the realm. Valdemar I and Valdemar II made it the leading Baltic power before Margaret I joined it to Norway and Sweden.","next":["kalmar-union"]},{"id":"north-sea-empire","name":"North Sea Empire","short":"North Sea Emp.","start":1016,"end":1035,"family":"germanic","group":"scandinavia","kind":"empire","tier":2,"capital":"Winchester","desc":"Cnut the Great ruled England from 1016, Denmark from 1018 and Norway from 1028. The union fell apart soon after his death in 1035."},{"id":"kingdom-of-sweden","name":"Kingdom of Sweden","short":"Sweden","start":970,"end":1397,"approx":true,"family":"germanic","group":"scandinavia","kind":"state","tier":2,"capital":"Uppsala, later Stockholm","desc":"Eric the Victorious and his son Olof Skotkonung, the first Christian king, ruled the Svear and Gotar together. Sweden conquered Finland in the 12th and 13th centuries, and Stockholm was founded around 1252.","next":["kalmar-union"]},{"id":"kalmar-union","name":"Kalmar Union","short":"Kalmar Union","start":1397,"end":1523,"family":"germanic","group":"scandinavia","kind":"state","tier":2,"capital":"Copenhagen","desc":"Margaret I had her grand-nephew Eric of Pomerania crowned king of Denmark, Norway and Sweden at Kalmar in 1397. Swedish revolts ended the union when Gustav Vasa took the Swedish throne in 1523.","next":["denmark-norway","sweden-vasa"]},{"id":"denmark-norway","name":"Denmark-Norway","short":"Denmark-Norway","start":1523,"end":1814,"family":"germanic","group":"scandinavia","kind":"state","tier":2,"capital":"Copenhagen","desc":"The Oldenburg kings ruled Denmark, Norway, Iceland and the North Atlantic islands as one realm and turned Lutheran in 1536. Defeat on Napoleon's side cost Denmark Norway in 1814.","next":["denmark-modern","sweden-norway"]},{"id":"sweden-vasa","name":"Kingdom of Sweden (Vasa)","short":"Vasa Sweden","start":1523,"end":1611,"family":"germanic","group":"scandinavia","kind":"state","tier":3,"capital":"Stockholm","desc":"Gustav Vasa broke with Denmark and with Rome, seized church lands and made the crown hereditary. His sons fought Russia and Poland for Estonia and Livonia.","next":["swedish-empire"]},{"id":"swedish-empire","name":"Swedish Empire","short":"Swedish Empire","start":1611,"end":1721,"family":"germanic","group":"scandinavia","kind":"empire","tier":2,"capital":"Stockholm","desc":"Gustavus Adolphus made Sweden a great power in the Thirty Years' War, and its lands came to ring the Baltic from Finland to Bremen. Charles XII lost the Great Northern War to Peter the Great.","next":["sweden-modern"]},{"id":"sweden-modern","name":"Kingdom of Sweden","short":"Sweden","start":1721,"end":2025,"family":"germanic","group":"scandinavia","kind":"state","tier":2,"capital":"Stockholm","desc":"After the Great Northern War Sweden shrank to its present core, lost Finland to Russia in 1809 and has fought no war since 1814. It joined the EU in 1995 and NATO in 2024."},{"id":"denmark-modern","name":"Kingdom of Denmark","short":"Denmark","start":1814,"end":2025,"family":"germanic","group":"scandinavia","kind":"state","tier":3,"capital":"Copenhagen","desc":"Reduced to Denmark, Iceland, Greenland and the Faroes, it adopted a constitution in 1849 and lost Schleswig-Holstein to Prussia and Austria in 1864. Denmark joined the EEC in 1973."},{"id":"sweden-norway","name":"Union of Sweden and Norway","short":"Sweden-Norway","start":1814,"end":1905,"family":"germanic","group":"scandinavia","kind":"state","tier":3,"capital":"Stockholm and Christiania","desc":"Norway wrote its own constitution at Eidsvoll in 1814 but was forced into union under the Swedish king. The Storting dissolved the union peacefully in 1905.","next":["norway-modern"]},{"id":"norway-modern","name":"Kingdom of Norway","short":"Norway","start":1905,"end":2025,"family":"germanic","group":"scandinavia","kind":"state","tier":3,"capital":"Oslo","desc":"Independent since 1905 under King Haakon VII and occupied by Germany from 1940 to 1945. North Sea oil, found in 1969, made it one of the wealthiest countries in the world."},{"id":"grand-duchy-finland","name":"Grand Duchy of Finland","short":"Finland","start":1809,"end":1917,"family":"uralic","group":"scandinavia","kind":"state","tier":3,"capital":"Helsinki","desc":"Russia took Finland from Sweden in 1809 and ruled it as an autonomous grand duchy with its own senate, diet and currency. Finland declared independence in December 1917.","next":["finland"]},{"id":"finland","name":"Republic of Finland","short":"Finland","start":1917,"end":2025,"family":"uralic","group":"scandinavia","kind":"state","tier":3,"capital":"Helsinki","desc":"Independent after the Russian Revolution, Finland held off the Soviet Union in the Winter War of 1939 to 1940. It joined the EU in 1995 and NATO in 2023."},{"id":"iceland","name":"Iceland","short":"Iceland","start":1918,"end":2025,"family":"germanic","group":"scandinavia","kind":"state","tier":3,"capital":"Reykjavik","desc":"A sovereign kingdom in union with Denmark from 1918, Iceland became a republic in 1944 while Denmark was under German occupation. Its Althing is among the oldest parliaments in the world."},{"id":"teutonic-order-state","name":"State of the Teutonic Order","short":"Teutonic Order","start":1230,"end":1525,"family":"germanic","group":"scandinavia","kind":"state","tier":2,"capital":"Marienburg, later Konigsberg","desc":"German crusading knights conquered pagan Prussia from 1230 and ruled it as a monastic state. Defeat at Grunwald in 1410 broke their power, and Grand Master Albert secularised the state in 1525.","next":["duchy-of-prussia"]},{"id":"livonia","name":"Terra Mariana (Livonia)","short":"Livonia","start":1207,"end":1561,"family":"germanic","group":"scandinavia","kind":"state","tier":3,"capital":"Riga","desc":"Crusaders of the Sword Brothers, later the Livonian Order, ruled present Latvia and Estonia with the bishops of Riga. The Livonian War broke it up among Poland-Lithuania, Sweden and Denmark.","next":["duchy-of-courland"]},{"id":"grand-duchy-lithuania","name":"Grand Duchy of Lithuania","short":"Lithuania","start":1236,"end":1795,"approx":true,"family":"baltic","group":"scandinavia","kind":"state","tier":2,"capital":"Vilnius","desc":"Mindaugas united the Lithuanian tribes, and Gediminas and Vytautas expanded east to the Black Sea, making it the largest state in Europe. It converted in 1387 and joined Poland in the Commonwealth in 1569.","next":["polish-lithuanian-commonwealth"]},{"id":"duchy-of-courland","name":"Duchy of Courland and Semigallia","short":"Courland","start":1561,"end":1795,"family":"germanic","group":"scandinavia","kind":"state","tier":3,"capital":"Mitau (Jelgava)","desc":"A Polish-Lithuanian vassal carved from Livonia and ruled by Baltic German dukes. Duke Jacob briefly held colonies on Tobago and the Gambia River before Russia annexed the duchy in 1795."},{"id":"estonia-first","name":"Republic of Estonia (1918 to 1940)","short":"Estonia","start":1918,"end":1940,"family":"uralic","group":"scandinavia","kind":"state","tier":3,"capital":"Tallinn","desc":"Estonia won its independence against Soviet Russia and German forces in 1918 to 1920. The Soviet Union occupied and annexed it in 1940 under the Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact.","next":["estonia"]},{"id":"latvia-first","name":"Republic of Latvia (1918 to 1940)","short":"Latvia","start":1918,"end":1940,"family":"baltic","group":"scandinavia","kind":"state","tier":3,"capital":"Riga","desc":"Declared independent in November 1918, Latvia fought off Bolshevik and German forces before making peace with Russia in 1920. The Soviet Union annexed it in 1940.","next":["latvia"]},{"id":"lithuania-first","name":"Republic of Lithuania (1918 to 1940)","short":"Lithuania","start":1918,"end":1940,"family":"baltic","group":"scandinavia","kind":"state","tier":3,"capital":"Kaunas","desc":"Restored in February 1918, interwar Lithuania lost Vilnius to Poland and governed from Kaunas. The Soviet Union annexed it in 1940.","next":["lithuania"]},{"id":"estonia","name":"Estonia","short":"Estonia","start":1991,"end":2025,"family":"uralic","group":"scandinavia","kind":"state","tier":3,"capital":"Tallinn","desc":"Estonia restored its independence in August 1991 after the Singing Revolution. It joined the EU and NATO in 2004 and built one of the most digital governments in the world."},{"id":"latvia","name":"Latvia","short":"Latvia","start":1991,"end":2025,"family":"baltic","group":"scandinavia","kind":"state","tier":3,"capital":"Riga","desc":"Latvia restored its independence in 1991 after five decades of Soviet rule. It joined the EU and NATO in 2004 and adopted the euro in 2014."},{"id":"lithuania","name":"Lithuania","short":"Lithuania","start":1990,"end":2025,"family":"baltic","group":"scandinavia","kind":"state","tier":3,"capital":"Vilnius","desc":"The first Soviet republic to declare independence, in March 1990, Lithuania won recognition in 1991 and joined the EU and NATO in 2004."},{"id":"cucuteni-trypillia","name":"Cucuteni-Trypillia culture","short":"Cucuteni-Tryp.","start":-3500,"end":-3000,"approx":true,"family":"unknown","group":"russia-steppe","kind":"culture","tier":2,"desc":"Farmers of Romania, Moldova and Ukraine who painted spiral pottery and built mega-sites such as Talianki with over a thousand houses. They burned and rebuilt their villages on a regular cycle."},{"id":"maykop-culture","name":"Maykop culture","short":"Maykop","start":-3500,"end":-3000,"approx":true,"family":"unknown","group":"russia-steppe","kind":"culture","tier":3,"desc":"Bronze Age chiefdoms of the North Caucasus whose kurgans held gold and silver bulls and arsenical bronze. Maykop contacts carried metal and wheeled wagons onto the steppe."},{"id":"yamnaya","name":"Yamnaya culture","short":"Yamnaya","start":-3300,"end":-2600,"approx":true,"family":"ie-other","group":"russia-steppe","kind":"culture","tier":1,"desc":"Herders who used ox wagons and horses to roam the Pontic-Caspian steppe and buried their dead in pit graves under kurgans. Most linguists see them as speakers of Proto-Indo-European.","next":["catacomb-culture"]},{"id":"volosovo","name":"Volosovo culture","short":"Volosovo","start":-3500,"end":-1800,"approx":true,"family":"unknown","group":"russia-steppe","kind":"culture","tier":3,"desc":"Hunter-fisher-gatherers of the forests along the upper Volga and Oka who lived in pit houses and made porous pottery, long after farming reached their neighbours."},{"id":"fatyanovo","name":"Fatyanovo-Balanovo culture","short":"Fatyanovo","start":-2800,"end":-2200,"approx":true,"family":"ie-other","group":"russia-steppe","kind":"culture","tier":3,"desc":"The eastern offshoot of Corded Ware in the upper Volga forests, known from cemeteries with stone battle axes and copper ornaments. It brought herding and metal into central Russia."},{"id":"catacomb-culture","name":"Catacomb culture","short":"Catacomb","start":-2800,"end":-2200,"approx":true,"family":"ie-other","group":"russia-steppe","kind":"culture","tier":3,"desc":"Successors of Yamnaya on the steppe north of the Black Sea who buried their dead in side chambers cut off a kurgan shaft, sometimes modelling clay faces over the skull.","next":["srubnaya"]},{"id":"srubnaya","name":"Srubnaya culture","short":"Srubnaya","start":-1800,"end":-1200,"approx":true,"family":"iranian","group":"russia-steppe","kind":"culture","tier":3,"desc":"Also called the Timber Grave culture, after the log chambers under its kurgans. Its herders and copper miners spread from the Volga to the Dnieper and probably spoke an early Iranian language.","next":["cimmerians"]},{"id":"volga-finns","name":"Volga Finnic peoples","short":"Volga Finns","start":-1800,"end":1100,"approx":true,"family":"uralic","group":"russia-steppe","kind":"culture","tier":3,"desc":"Forest peoples of central Russia, makers of Textile Ware and Dyakovo pottery and ancestors of the Merya, Muroma, Mordvins and Mari. Slavic settlers absorbed the western groups into Rostov-Suzdal."},{"id":"cimmerians","name":"Cimmerians","short":"Cimmerians","start":-900,"end":-650,"approx":true,"family":"iranian","group":"russia-steppe","kind":"culture","tier":3,"desc":"Horse nomads of the Pontic steppe known from Assyrian and Greek sources. Driven south by the Scythians, they raided Urartu, Phrygia and Lydia in the 8th and 7th centuries BCE.","next":["scythians"]},{"id":"scythians","name":"Scythians","short":"Scythians","start":-700,"end":-250,"approx":true,"family":"iranian","group":"russia-steppe","kind":"culture","tier":2,"desc":"Iranian-speaking horse archers who held the steppe from the Danube to the Don, buried their kings in golden kurgans such as Solokha, and drove off Darius I around 513 BCE.","next":["sarmatians"]},{"id":"bosporan-kingdom","name":"Bosporan Kingdom","short":"Bosporus","start":-480,"end":370,"approx":true,"family":"greek","group":"russia-steppe","kind":"state","tier":3,"capital":"Panticapaeum","desc":"Greek cities on the Kerch Strait formed a kingdom around 480 BCE, and under the Spartocid dynasty shipped steppe grain to Athens. Later a Roman client, it fell to the Huns around 370."},{"id":"sarmatians","name":"Sarmatians","short":"Sarmatians","start":-300,"end":375,"approx":true,"family":"iranian","group":"russia-steppe","kind":"culture","tier":2,"desc":"Iranian nomads known for armoured lancers and women warriors who displaced the Scythians and fought Rome on the Danube. The Huns broke them, and their Alan branch joined the Vandals.","next":["huns"]},{"id":"chernyakhov","name":"Chernyakhov culture (Gothic Oium)","short":"Chernyakhov","start":230,"end":375,"approx":true,"family":"germanic","group":"russia-steppe","kind":"culture","tier":3,"desc":"The farming culture of Ukraine and Moldova under Gothic rule, home to the Greuthungi and Tervingi alongside Sarmatians and Slavs. The Hunnic onslaught around 375 ended it.","next":["visigoths-migration"]},{"id":"huns","name":"Hunnic Empire","short":"Huns","start":370,"end":469,"approx":true,"family":"unknown","group":"russia-steppe","kind":"empire","tier":1,"capital":"Attila's camp on the Tisza plain","desc":"Steppe nomads who crossed the Volga around 370, set off the Gothic migrations and under Attila extorted gold from both Roman empires. Their empire collapsed after Attila died in 453.","next":["bulgar-tribes"]},{"id":"bulgar-tribes","name":"Kutrigurs and Utigurs","short":"Kutrigurs","start":460,"end":632,"approx":true,"family":"turkic","group":"russia-steppe","kind":"culture","tier":3,"desc":"Oghuric Turkic tribes who filled the Pontic steppe after the Huns and raided the Balkans, until Avar and Turkic overlords subdued them and Kubrat united the Bulgars.","next":["old-great-bulgaria"]},{"id":"east-slavs","name":"East Slavic tribes","short":"East Slavs","start":500,"end":882,"approx":true,"family":"slavic","group":"russia-steppe","kind":"culture","tier":3,"desc":"Polans, Drevlians, Severians, Krivichs, Vyatichi and Ilmen Slavs who spread through the forests and river valleys from the Dnieper to Lake Ilmen, paying tribute to the Khazars or the Varangians.","next":["kievan-rus"]},{"id":"old-great-bulgaria","name":"Old Great Bulgaria","short":"Great Bulgaria","start":632,"end":668,"approx":true,"family":"turkic","group":"russia-steppe","kind":"state","tier":3,"capital":"Phanagoria","desc":"Khan Kubrat threw off Avar overlordship and united the Bulgars north of the Black Sea. After his death the Khazars scattered his sons, one founding Danube Bulgaria and another Volga Bulgaria.","next":["first-bulgarian-empire","volga-bulgaria"]},{"id":"khazar-khaganate","name":"Khazar Khaganate","short":"Khazaria","start":650,"end":969,"approx":true,"family":"turkic","group":"russia-steppe","kind":"empire","tier":2,"capital":"Atil","desc":"A Turkic khaganate between the Volga, the Don and the Caucasus that stopped Arab expansion northward. Its elite adopted Judaism in the 8th or 9th century. Sviatoslav of Kiev sacked Atil around 969."},{"id":"volga-bulgaria","name":"Volga Bulgaria","short":"Volga Bulgaria","start":700,"end":1236,"approx":true,"family":"turkic","group":"russia-steppe","kind":"state","tier":3,"capital":"Bolghar","desc":"A Bulgar state where the Volga meets the Kama that converted to Islam in 922 and lived off the fur trade between the forests and the Islamic world. The Mongols destroyed it in 1236."},{"id":"pechenegs","name":"Pechenegs","short":"Pechenegs","start":860,"end":1091,"approx":true,"family":"turkic","group":"russia-steppe","kind":"culture","tier":3,"desc":"Turkic nomads who took the Pontic steppe from the Magyars around 895 and killed Sviatoslav of Kiev in 972. A Byzantine and Cuman army annihilated them at Levounion in 1091.","next":["cumans"]},{"id":"cumans","name":"Cumans (Kipchaks)","short":"Cumans","start":1060,"end":1237,"approx":true,"family":"turkic","group":"russia-steppe","kind":"culture","tier":3,"desc":"A Kipchak Turkic confederation that ruled the steppe from the Volga to the Danube, raiding and intermarrying with the Rus princes. Fleeing the Mongols, many moved into Hungary.","next":["golden-horde"]},{"id":"kievan-rus","name":"Kievan Rus","short":"Kievan Rus","start":882,"end":1240,"family":"slavic","group":"russia-steppe","kind":"state","tier":1,"capital":"Kiev","desc":"Oleg of Novgorod took Kiev in 882 and founded a Varangian-led state of East Slavs. Vladimir I adopted Orthodox Christianity in 988. It split into rival principalities and fell to the Mongols in 1240.","next":["novgorod-republic","vladimir-suzdal","galicia-volhynia"]},{"id":"novgorod-republic","name":"Novgorod Republic","short":"Novgorod","start":1136,"end":1478,"family":"slavic","group":"russia-steppe","kind":"state","tier":2,"capital":"Novgorod","desc":"Novgorod expelled its prince in 1136 and became a merchant republic with an elected archbishop and a veche assembly, trading furs with the Hanse. Ivan III of Moscow annexed it in 1478.","next":["grand-duchy-moscow"]},{"id":"vladimir-suzdal","name":"Vladimir-Suzdal","short":"Vladimir","start":1157,"end":1331,"approx":true,"family":"slavic","group":"russia-steppe","kind":"state","tier":3,"capital":"Vladimir","desc":"Andrey Bogolyubsky moved his capital to Vladimir and sacked Kiev in 1169. Under Mongol rule its grand princely title passed to Tver and then to Moscow.","next":["grand-duchy-moscow"]},{"id":"galicia-volhynia","name":"Galicia-Volhynia","short":"Galicia-Volhynia","start":1199,"end":1349,"family":"slavic","group":"russia-steppe","kind":"state","tier":3,"capital":"Halych, later Lviv","desc":"Roman the Great joined Galicia and Volhynia in 1199, and his son Daniel was crowned king by a papal legate in 1253. Poland took Galicia and Lithuania took Volhynia in the 1340s."},{"id":"golden-horde","name":"Golden Horde","short":"Golden Horde","start":1242,"end":1502,"family":"turkic","group":"russia-steppe","kind":"empire","tier":2,"capital":"Sarai","desc":"Batu's Mongol khanate ruled the steppe from Sarai on the lower Volga and took tribute from the Rus princes for two centuries. Its Mongol elite adopted Islam and the Kipchak language.","next":["kazan-khanate","crimean-khanate","astrakhan-khanate"]},{"id":"tver","name":"Principality of Tver","short":"Tver","start":1247,"end":1485,"family":"slavic","group":"russia-steppe","kind":"state","tier":3,"capital":"Tver","desc":"Moscow's main rival for the grand princely title of Vladimir in the 14th century, at times backed by Lithuania. Ivan III annexed it in 1485.","next":["grand-duchy-moscow"]},{"id":"grand-duchy-moscow","name":"Grand Duchy of Moscow","short":"Muscovy","start":1263,"end":1547,"family":"slavic","group":"russia-steppe","kind":"state","tier":2,"capital":"Moscow","desc":"Founded as an appanage for Daniel, son of Alexander Nevsky, Moscow gathered the Russian lands as the Horde's tax collector. Ivan III ended tribute to the Horde in 1480 and tripled his territory.","next":["tsardom-of-russia"]},{"id":"genoese-gazaria","name":"Genoese Gazaria","short":"Gazaria","start":1266,"end":1475,"approx":true,"family":"romance","group":"russia-steppe","kind":"colony","tier":3,"capital":"Caffa","desc":"Genoa's trading colonies on the Crimean coast, led by Caffa, shipped grain, slaves and silk. Plague reached Europe from the Mongol siege of Caffa in 1346. The Ottomans took them in 1475."},{"id":"kazan-khanate","name":"Khanate of Kazan","short":"Kazan","start":1438,"end":1552,"family":"turkic","group":"russia-steppe","kind":"state","tier":3,"capital":"Kazan","desc":"A Tatar successor of the Golden Horde on the middle Volga that raided Muscovy and traded with Persia. Ivan the Terrible stormed Kazan in 1552."},{"id":"crimean-khanate","name":"Crimean Khanate","short":"Crimea","start":1441,"end":1783,"family":"turkic","group":"russia-steppe","kind":"state","tier":2,"capital":"Bakhchysarai","desc":"Founded by Haci Giray, it became an Ottoman vassal in 1478 and lived on slave raids into Poland and Russia, burning Moscow in 1571. Catherine the Great annexed it in 1783."},{"id":"astrakhan-khanate","name":"Khanate of Astrakhan","short":"Astrakhan","start":1466,"end":1556,"family":"turkic","group":"russia-steppe","kind":"state","tier":3,"capital":"Astrakhan","desc":"A Tatar khanate at the Volga delta that controlled the river trade to the Caspian. Muscovy conquered it in 1556, opening the whole Volga to Russia."},{"id":"tsardom-of-russia","name":"Tsardom of Russia","short":"Tsardom","start":1547,"end":1721,"family":"slavic","group":"russia-steppe","kind":"state","tier":2,"capital":"Moscow","desc":"Ivan IV took the title of tsar in 1547 and conquered Kazan and Astrakhan. After the Time of Troubles the Romanovs, from 1613, pushed across Siberia to the Pacific.","next":["russian-empire"]},{"id":"zaporozhian-sich","name":"Zaporozhian Sich","short":"Zaporozhia","start":1552,"end":1775,"approx":true,"family":"slavic","group":"russia-steppe","kind":"state","tier":3,"capital":"the Sich on the Dnieper rapids","desc":"A self-governing Cossack host below the Dnieper rapids that elected its leaders and fought Tatars, Turks and Poles. Catherine the Great's army destroyed the Sich in 1775."},{"id":"kalmyk-khanate","name":"Kalmyk Khanate","short":"Kalmyks","start":1630,"end":1771,"approx":true,"family":"mongolic","group":"russia-steppe","kind":"state","tier":3,"desc":"Oirat Mongols who migrated from Dzungaria to the lower Volga and served the tsars as cavalry. In 1771 most of them trekked back east, and Catherine the Great abolished the khanate."},{"id":"cossack-hetmanate","name":"Cossack Hetmanate","short":"Hetmanate","start":1648,"end":1764,"family":"slavic","group":"russia-steppe","kind":"state","tier":3,"capital":"Chyhyryn, later Baturyn","desc":"Bohdan Khmelnytsky's rising against Poland created a Cossack state in central Ukraine that accepted Russian protection in 1654. Catherine the Great abolished the office of hetman in 1764."},{"id":"russian-empire","name":"Russian Empire","short":"Russian Empire","start":1721,"end":1917,"family":"slavic","group":"russia-steppe","kind":"empire","tier":1,"capital":"Saint Petersburg","desc":"Peter the Great proclaimed the empire after defeating Sweden. It spanned Europe and northern Asia, beat Napoleon in 1812 and freed the serfs in 1861, then collapsed in revolution in 1917.","next":["soviet-russia","ukrainian-peoples-republic","finland","estonia-first","latvia-first","lithuania-first","second-polish-republic"]},{"id":"soviet-russia","name":"Russian Soviet Republic","short":"Soviet Russia","start":1917,"end":1922,"family":"slavic","group":"russia-steppe","kind":"state","tier":3,"capital":"Petrograd, then Moscow","desc":"The Bolsheviks seized power in October 1917, made peace with Germany at Brest-Litovsk and won the civil war against the Whites before founding the Soviet Union in 1922.","next":["soviet-union"]},{"id":"ukrainian-peoples-republic","name":"Ukrainian People's Republic","short":"Ukrainian PR","start":1917,"end":1921,"family":"slavic","group":"russia-steppe","kind":"state","tier":3,"capital":"Kyiv","desc":"Proclaimed by the Central Rada after the fall of the tsar, it fought Bolsheviks, Whites and Poles. The Red Army had taken most of Ukraine by 1921.","next":["soviet-union"]},{"id":"soviet-union","name":"Soviet Union","short":"USSR","start":1922,"end":1991,"family":"slavic","group":"russia-steppe","kind":"empire","tier":1,"capital":"Moscow","desc":"A one-party communist federation built by Lenin and Stalin through forced industrialisation and terror. It bore the heaviest losses in defeating Nazi Germany, led one side of the Cold War and dissolved in December 1991.","next":["russian-federation","ukraine","belarus","estonia","latvia","lithuania","moldova"]},{"id":"russian-federation","name":"Russian Federation","short":"Russia","start":1991,"end":2025,"family":"slavic","group":"russia-steppe","kind":"state","tier":2,"capital":"Moscow","desc":"The largest successor of the Soviet Union, led by Vladimir Putin since 2000. It annexed Crimea in 2014 and launched a full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022."},{"id":"ukraine","name":"Ukraine","short":"Ukraine","start":1991,"end":2025,"family":"slavic","group":"russia-steppe","kind":"state","tier":2,"capital":"Kyiv","desc":"Independent after a referendum in December 1991. Since 2014 it has fought Russian forces, first in Crimea and the Donbas and from 2022 against a full-scale invasion."},{"id":"belarus","name":"Belarus","short":"Belarus","start":1991,"end":2025,"family":"slavic","group":"russia-steppe","kind":"state","tier":3,"capital":"Minsk","desc":"Independent since 1991 and ruled by Alexander Lukashenko since 1994, Belarus is Russia's closest ally."},{"id":"baden-culture","name":"Baden culture","short":"Baden","start":-3500,"end":-2800,"approx":true,"family":"unknown","group":"central-europe","kind":"culture","tier":3,"desc":"Copper Age farmers of Hungary, Austria and Moravia who left some of the earliest evidence of wheeled vehicles in Europe, including clay wagon models."},{"id":"funnelbeaker","name":"Funnelbeaker culture","short":"Funnelbeaker","start":-3500,"end":-2800,"approx":true,"family":"unknown","group":"central-europe","kind":"culture","tier":3,"desc":"The first farmers of northern Germany, Poland and southern Scandinavia, named for their flared drinking vessels. They raised dolmens and passage graves across the North European Plain.","next":["corded-ware"]},{"id":"corded-ware","name":"Corded Ware culture","short":"Corded Ware","start":-3000,"end":-2350,"approx":true,"family":"ie-other","group":"central-europe","kind":"culture","tier":2,"desc":"Herders and farmers from the Rhine to the Volga who buried men on their right side and women on their left with cord-stamped beakers and stone axes. Their steppe ancestry points to an Indo-European migration.","next":["unetice"]},{"id":"unetice","name":"Unetice culture","short":"Unetice","start":-2300,"end":-1600,"approx":true,"family":"unknown","group":"central-europe","kind":"culture","tier":2,"desc":"Early Bronze Age culture of Bohemia, Saxony and Silesia that traded tin and copper across Europe. The Nebra sky disc and the princely mound at Leubingen belong to it.","next":["tumulus-culture"]},{"id":"tumulus-culture","name":"Tumulus culture","short":"Tumulus","start":-1600,"end":-1200,"approx":true,"family":"unknown","group":"central-europe","kind":"culture","tier":3,"desc":"Middle Bronze Age peoples of southern Germany and the Danube basin who buried their dead under earth mounds with bronze swords and ornaments.","next":["urnfield-culture"]},{"id":"urnfield-culture","name":"Urnfield culture","short":"Urnfield","start":-1300,"end":-750,"approx":true,"family":"celtic","group":"central-europe","kind":"culture","tier":2,"desc":"Late Bronze Age peoples who cremated their dead and buried the ashes in urn cemeteries across central Europe. Many scholars think they spoke an early form of Celtic.","next":["hallstatt"]},{"id":"lusatian","name":"Lusatian culture","short":"Lusatian","start":-1300,"end":-500,"approx":true,"family":"unknown","group":"central-europe","kind":"culture","tier":3,"desc":"Urnfield farmers of Poland and eastern Germany who built fortified settlements such as Biskupin, raised on its lake island around 740 BCE. Scythian raids hastened their decline."},{"id":"hallstatt","name":"Hallstatt culture","short":"Hallstatt","start":-800,"end":-450,"approx":true,"family":"celtic","group":"central-europe","kind":"culture","tier":2,"desc":"Named after a salt-mining town in Austria, this early Iron Age culture had princely hillforts such as the Heuneburg, whose lords drank imported Greek wine.","next":["la-tene"]},{"id":"la-tene","name":"La Tene culture","short":"La Tene","start":-450,"end":-50,"approx":true,"family":"celtic","group":"central-europe","kind":"culture","tier":2,"desc":"The Celtic Iron Age of central Europe, known for curving art, fortified oppida and fine swords. Celtic bands sacked Rome around 390 BCE and Delphi in 279 BCE before Rome and the Germans overran them."},{"id":"jastorf","name":"Jastorf culture","short":"Jastorf","start":-600,"end":-1,"approx":true,"family":"germanic","group":"central-europe","kind":"culture","tier":3,"desc":"Iron Age culture of northern Germany and Jutland, usually linked with the early Germanic peoples. Urn cemeteries and bog iron working mark its sites.","next":["germanic-tribes"]},{"id":"przeworsk","name":"Przeworsk culture","short":"Przeworsk","start":-300,"end":450,"approx":true,"family":"germanic","group":"central-europe","kind":"culture","tier":3,"desc":"Iron Age culture of southern and central Poland, often identified with the Vandals and Lugii. Its people smelted iron on a large scale in the Holy Cross Mountains."},{"id":"wielbark","name":"Wielbark culture","short":"Wielbark","start":1,"end":400,"approx":true,"family":"germanic","group":"central-europe","kind":"culture","tier":3,"desc":"Culture of Pomerania and the lower Vistula linked with the Goths and Gepids, whose people moved south-east toward the Black Sea from the late 2nd century.","next":["chernyakhov"]},{"id":"germanic-tribes","name":"Germanic tribes of Germania","short":"Germania","start":-100,"end":500,"approx":true,"family":"germanic","group":"central-europe","kind":"culture","tier":2,"desc":"Cherusci, Suebi, Chatti, Marcomanni and others east of the Rhine. Arminius destroyed three Roman legions in the Teutoburg Forest in 9 CE, and Rome never held Germany beyond the Rhine."},{"id":"noricum","name":"Kingdom of Noricum","short":"Noricum","start":-200,"end":-15,"approx":true,"family":"celtic","group":"central-europe","kind":"state","tier":3,"capital":"Noreia","desc":"A Celtic kingdom in the eastern Alps known for its steel, an ally of Rome until Augustus absorbed it as a province around 15 BCE."},{"id":"alemanni","name":"Alemanni","short":"Alemanni","start":213,"end":746,"approx":true,"family":"germanic","group":"central-europe","kind":"culture","tier":3,"desc":"A Germanic confederation on the upper Rhine, first named in 213, that pressed on Roman Gaul and Raetia. Clovis defeated them, and the Franks abolished their duchy after Cannstatt in 746."},{"id":"saxons","name":"Old Saxons","short":"Saxons","start":100,"end":804,"approx":true,"family":"germanic","group":"central-europe","kind":"culture","tier":3,"desc":"Pagan Germanic tribes between the Rhine and the Elbe, some of whom joined the settlement of Britain. Charlemagne subdued and forcibly converted them in wars from 772 to 804.","next":["east-francia"]},{"id":"gepids","name":"Kingdom of the Gepids","short":"Gepids","start":454,"end":567,"family":"germanic","group":"central-europe","kind":"state","tier":3,"capital":"Sirmium","desc":"Gothic kin who led the revolt that broke the Huns at the Nedao in 454 and ruled the Tisza plain and Transylvania. The Lombards and Avars destroyed them in 567."},{"id":"avar-khaganate","name":"Avar Khaganate","short":"Avars","start":567,"end":822,"approx":true,"family":"unknown","group":"central-europe","kind":"empire","tier":2,"desc":"Steppe nomads who settled in the Carpathian basin, ruled the local Slavs and besieged Constantinople in 626. Charlemagne's armies plundered their Ring in the 790s, and they vanish from the record after 822."},{"id":"west-slavs","name":"West Slavic tribes","short":"West Slavs","start":500,"end":1160,"approx":true,"family":"slavic","group":"central-europe","kind":"culture","tier":3,"desc":"Czechs, Polans, Vistulans, Sorbs, Obotrites and other Slavs who settled east of the Elbe from the 6th century. The Polabian groups held out longest, until German conquest and the Wendish Crusade."},{"id":"samo","name":"Samo's realm","short":"Samo","start":623,"end":658,"approx":true,"family":"slavic","group":"central-europe","kind":"state","tier":3,"desc":"The first known Slavic polity, led by the Frankish merchant Samo, who united Slavs against the Avars and beat a Frankish army at Wogastisburg around 631."},{"id":"great-moravia","name":"Great Moravia","short":"Great Moravia","start":833,"end":907,"approx":true,"family":"slavic","group":"central-europe","kind":"state","tier":2,"capital":"Velehrad (probably Mikulcice)","desc":"Mojmir I and Svatopluk built a Slavic realm across Moravia, Slovakia and Bohemia. Cyril and Methodius brought the Slavonic liturgy here in 863. Magyar attacks destroyed it around 907.","next":["duchy-of-bohemia"]},{"id":"east-francia","name":"East Francia","short":"East Francia","start":843,"end":962,"family":"germanic","group":"central-europe","kind":"state","tier":2,"capital":"Regensburg, Frankfurt","desc":"The eastern share of the Carolingian empire under the Treaty of Verdun. When the Carolingian line died out the Saxon dukes became kings, and Otto I crushed the Magyars at Lechfeld in 955.","next":["holy-roman-empire"]},{"id":"holy-roman-empire","name":"Holy Roman Empire","short":"HRE","start":962,"end":1806,"family":"germanic","group":"central-europe","kind":"empire","tier":1,"capital":"Aachen, Prague, later Vienna","desc":"Otto I's imperial coronation in 962 founded a loose empire of German, Italian and Bohemian lands under an elected emperor. The Reformation wars weakened it, and Francis II dissolved it in 1806.","next":["confederation-of-rhine","austrian-empire"]},{"id":"principality-of-hungary","name":"Principality of Hungary","short":"Magyars","start":895,"end":1000,"approx":true,"family":"uralic","group":"central-europe","kind":"state","tier":3,"capital":"Esztergom","desc":"Magyar tribes under Arpad crossed the Carpathians around 895 and raided as far as Spain until their defeat at Lechfeld in 955. Arpad's descendant Stephen took a royal crown in 1000.","next":["kingdom-of-hungary"]},{"id":"kingdom-of-hungary","name":"Kingdom of Hungary","short":"Hungary","start":1000,"end":1526,"family":"uralic","group":"central-europe","kind":"state","tier":2,"capital":"Esztergom, Szekesfehervar, Buda","desc":"Saint Stephen founded a Christian kingdom that joined Croatia in 1102, and Matthias Corvinus even held Vienna. The Ottomans destroyed its army at Mohacs in 1526 and split the country.","next":["habsburg-monarchy","transylvania"]},{"id":"duchy-of-bohemia","name":"Duchy of Bohemia","short":"Bohemia","start":870,"end":1198,"approx":true,"family":"slavic","group":"central-europe","kind":"state","tier":3,"capital":"Prague","desc":"The Premyslid dukes, among them Saint Wenceslas, built a Czech state around Prague that became part of the Holy Roman Empire. Ottokar I won a hereditary royal title in 1198.","next":["kingdom-of-bohemia"]},{"id":"kingdom-of-bohemia","name":"Kingdom of Bohemia","short":"Bohemia","start":1198,"end":1918,"family":"slavic","group":"central-europe","kind":"state","tier":2,"capital":"Prague","desc":"Charles IV made Prague an imperial capital and founded its university in 1348. The Hussite wars followed, and after defeat at White Mountain in 1620 the Habsburgs ruled Bohemia directly.","next":["czechoslovakia"]},{"id":"duchy-of-poland","name":"Duchy of Poland","short":"Poland","start":960,"end":1025,"approx":true,"family":"slavic","group":"central-europe","kind":"state","tier":3,"capital":"Gniezno","desc":"Mieszko I united the Polans and was baptised in 966. His son Boleslaw the Brave was crowned the first king of Poland in 1025.","next":["poland-piast"]},{"id":"poland-piast","name":"Kingdom of Poland (Piast)","short":"Piast Poland","start":1025,"end":1370,"family":"slavic","group":"central-europe","kind":"state","tier":2,"capital":"Krakow","desc":"The Piast realm split into duchies after 1138 and suffered the Mongol raid of 1241. Wladyslaw the Elbow-high reunited it in 1320, and his son Casimir the Great rebuilt it in stone.","next":["poland-jagiellon"]},{"id":"poland-jagiellon","name":"Kingdom of Poland (Jagiellonian)","short":"Jagiellon Poland","start":1386,"end":1569,"family":"slavic","group":"central-europe","kind":"state","tier":2,"capital":"Krakow","desc":"Queen Jadwiga married Jogaila of Lithuania in 1386, joining the two realms. Their army crushed the Teutonic Knights at Grunwald in 1410, and Copernicus studied in Krakow.","next":["polish-lithuanian-commonwealth"]},{"id":"polish-lithuanian-commonwealth","name":"Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth","short":"Commonwealth","start":1569,"end":1795,"family":"slavic","group":"central-europe","kind":"state","tier":2,"capital":"Krakow, later Warsaw","desc":"The Union of Lublin created one of Europe's largest states, a noble republic with an elected king and the liberum veto. Russia, Prussia and Austria partitioned it out of existence by 1795."},{"id":"duchy-of-austria","name":"Duchy of Austria","short":"Austria","start":1156,"end":1526,"family":"germanic","group":"central-europe","kind":"state","tier":3,"capital":"Vienna","desc":"Raised from a Babenberg march to a duchy in 1156, Austria passed to the Habsburgs in 1278. They used it as a base to win the imperial crown and, by marriage, Bohemia and Hungary.","next":["habsburg-monarchy"]},{"id":"habsburg-monarchy","name":"Habsburg Monarchy","short":"Habsburgs","start":1526,"end":1804,"family":"germanic","group":"central-europe","kind":"empire","tier":1,"capital":"Vienna","desc":"Ferdinand I added Bohemia and Hungary to Austria in 1526. Vienna held off the Turks in 1529 and 1683, and Maria Theresa defended the inheritance against Prussia in the 1740s.","next":["austrian-empire"]},{"id":"transylvania","name":"Principality of Transylvania","short":"Transylvania","start":1570,"end":1711,"family":"uralic","group":"central-europe","kind":"state","tier":3,"capital":"Gyulafehervar (Alba Iulia)","desc":"Formed from eastern Hungary after Mohacs, it was ruled by Hungarian princes under Ottoman suzerainty and legally tolerated four religions. The Habsburgs took control after 1690.","next":["habsburg-monarchy"]},{"id":"brandenburg","name":"Margraviate of Brandenburg","short":"Brandenburg","start":1157,"end":1618,"family":"germanic","group":"central-europe","kind":"state","tier":3,"capital":"Brandenburg, later Berlin","desc":"Albert the Bear founded the march on conquered Slavic land in 1157. The Hohenzollerns held it from 1415 as electors of the empire and inherited Prussia in 1618.","next":["brandenburg-prussia"]},{"id":"duchy-of-prussia","name":"Duchy of Prussia","short":"Prussia","start":1525,"end":1618,"family":"germanic","group":"central-europe","kind":"state","tier":3,"capital":"Konigsberg","desc":"The first Lutheran state, created when the last grand master of the Teutonic Order became a duke under Polish overlordship. It passed to the Brandenburg Hohenzollerns in 1618.","next":["brandenburg-prussia"]},{"id":"brandenburg-prussia","name":"Brandenburg-Prussia","short":"Brand.-Prussia","start":1618,"end":1701,"family":"germanic","group":"central-europe","kind":"state","tier":3,"capital":"Berlin","desc":"The Great Elector rebuilt the Hohenzollern lands after the Thirty Years' War with a standing army and won full sovereignty over Prussia from Poland in 1657.","next":["kingdom-of-prussia"]},{"id":"kingdom-of-prussia","name":"Kingdom of Prussia","short":"Prussia","start":1701,"end":1918,"family":"germanic","group":"central-europe","kind":"state","tier":2,"capital":"Berlin","desc":"Frederick the Great seized Silesia, and Prussia shared in the partitions of Poland. Under Bismarck it beat Austria and France and united Germany around itself.","next":["german-empire"]},{"id":"hanseatic-league","name":"Hanseatic League","short":"Hanse","start":1356,"end":1669,"approx":true,"family":"germanic","group":"central-europe","kind":"state","tier":2,"capital":"Lubeck","desc":"A league of up to 200 German merchant towns led by Lubeck that ran trade from London and Bruges to Novgorod. It beat Denmark in 1370 but faded as Dutch and English shipping grew."},{"id":"bavaria","name":"Bavaria (Wittelsbach)","short":"Bavaria","start":1180,"end":1918,"family":"germanic","group":"central-europe","kind":"state","tier":3,"capital":"Munich","desc":"The Wittelsbachs ruled Bavaria for over 700 years, as dukes, as electors from 1623 and as kings from 1806. It joined the German Empire in 1871, and the dynasty fell in 1918."},{"id":"old-swiss-confederacy","name":"Old Swiss Confederacy","short":"Swiss Conf.","start":1291,"end":1798,"family":"germanic","group":"central-europe","kind":"state","tier":3,"desc":"Uri, Schwyz and Unterwalden swore an alliance in 1291 and beat Habsburg armies at Morgarten and Sempach. Swiss pikemen became the most sought-after mercenaries in Europe.","next":["switzerland"]},{"id":"switzerland","name":"Switzerland","short":"Switzerland","start":1803,"end":2025,"family":"germanic","group":"central-europe","kind":"state","tier":3,"capital":"Bern","desc":"Restored as a confederation of cantons in 1803 after the French-imposed Helvetic Republic, it won recognised neutrality in 1815 and a federal constitution in 1848. It stayed out of both world wars."},{"id":"liechtenstein","name":"Liechtenstein","short":"Liechtenstein","start":1719,"end":2025,"family":"germanic","group":"central-europe","kind":"state","tier":3,"capital":"Vaduz","desc":"A principality created in 1719 for the Austrian Liechtenstein family. It survived the end of the Holy Roman Empire and has had no army since 1868."},{"id":"confederation-of-rhine","name":"Confederation of the Rhine","short":"Rhine Conf.","start":1806,"end":1813,"family":"germanic","group":"central-europe","kind":"state","tier":3,"capital":"Frankfurt","desc":"Napoleon's league of German client states, whose secession forced the dissolution of the Holy Roman Empire. It collapsed after the Battle of Leipzig in 1813.","next":["german-confederation"]},{"id":"german-confederation","name":"German Confederation","short":"German Conf.","start":1815,"end":1866,"family":"germanic","group":"central-europe","kind":"state","tier":3,"capital":"Frankfurt","desc":"A league of 39 German states set up at the Congress of Vienna under Austrian presidency. The Austro-Prussian War of 1866 broke it up."},{"id":"austrian-empire","name":"Austrian Empire","short":"Austria","start":1804,"end":1867,"family":"germanic","group":"central-europe","kind":"empire","tier":2,"capital":"Vienna","desc":"Francis II made himself emperor of Austria in 1804, two years before the Holy Roman Empire ended. Under Metternich it led conservative Europe, then lost to Prussia in 1866.","next":["austria-hungary"]},{"id":"austria-hungary","name":"Austria-Hungary","short":"Austria-Hungary","start":1867,"end":1918,"family":"germanic","group":"central-europe","kind":"empire","tier":2,"capital":"Vienna and Budapest","desc":"The Compromise of 1867 split the Habsburg lands into two states under one monarch. The assassination of its heir at Sarajevo in 1914 started the First World War, which destroyed it.","next":["first-austrian-republic","hungary-interwar","czechoslovakia","yugoslavia-kingdom"]},{"id":"german-empire","name":"German Empire","short":"German Empire","start":1871,"end":1918,"family":"germanic","group":"central-europe","kind":"empire","tier":1,"capital":"Berlin","desc":"Proclaimed at Versailles in 1871 under the Prussian king, it became Europe's leading industrial power and gained colonies in Africa and the Pacific. Defeat in 1918 ended the monarchy.","next":["weimar-republic"]},{"id":"weimar-republic","name":"Weimar Republic","short":"Weimar","start":1918,"end":1933,"family":"germanic","group":"central-europe","kind":"state","tier":2,"capital":"Berlin","desc":"Germany's first democracy, burdened by the Versailles treaty, the hyperinflation of 1923 and the Depression. Hitler was appointed chancellor in January 1933.","next":["nazi-germany"]},{"id":"nazi-germany","name":"Nazi Germany","short":"Third Reich","start":1933,"end":1945,"family":"germanic","group":"central-europe","kind":"empire","tier":1,"capital":"Berlin","desc":"Hitler's dictatorship rearmed Germany, started the Second World War in 1939 and murdered six million Jews in the Holocaust. It surrendered unconditionally in May 1945.","next":["west-germany","east-germany","austria"]},{"id":"west-germany","name":"West Germany","short":"West Germany","start":1949,"end":1990,"family":"germanic","group":"central-europe","kind":"state","tier":2,"capital":"Bonn","desc":"The Federal Republic, formed from the American, British and French zones. Its economic miracle made it Europe's largest economy and a founder of the EEC.","next":["germany"]},{"id":"east-germany","name":"East Germany","short":"East Germany","start":1949,"end":1990,"family":"germanic","group":"central-europe","kind":"state","tier":3,"capital":"East Berlin","desc":"The German Democratic Republic, a Soviet-bloc state that built the Berlin Wall in 1961. Mass protests opened the Wall in 1989, and it joined West Germany in 1990.","next":["germany"]},{"id":"germany","name":"Germany","short":"Germany","start":1990,"end":2025,"family":"germanic","group":"central-europe","kind":"state","tier":2,"capital":"Berlin","desc":"Reunified on 3 October 1990, Germany is the largest economy in the European Union and moved its government back to Berlin in 1999."},{"id":"first-austrian-republic","name":"First Austrian Republic","short":"Austria","start":1918,"end":1938,"family":"germanic","group":"central-europe","kind":"state","tier":3,"capital":"Vienna","desc":"The German-speaking remnant of the Habsburg empire, torn between socialists and conservatives and ruled by an authoritarian regime from 1933. Nazi Germany annexed it in the Anschluss of 1938.","next":["nazi-germany"]},{"id":"austria","name":"Austria","short":"Austria","start":1945,"end":2025,"family":"germanic","group":"central-europe","kind":"state","tier":3,"capital":"Vienna","desc":"Restored in 1945 and occupied by the four Allies until the State Treaty of 1955, which bound it to neutrality. Austria joined the EU in 1995."},{"id":"hungary-interwar","name":"Kingdom of Hungary (1920 to 1946)","short":"Hungary","start":1920,"end":1946,"family":"uralic","group":"central-europe","kind":"state","tier":3,"capital":"Budapest","desc":"Ruled by the regent Miklos Horthy in the name of an absent king, it lost two thirds of its land at Trianon and sided with Germany in the Second World War.","next":["hungarian-peoples-republic"]},{"id":"hungarian-peoples-republic","name":"Hungarian People's Republic","short":"PR Hungary","start":1949,"end":1989,"family":"uralic","group":"central-europe","kind":"state","tier":3,"capital":"Budapest","desc":"A Soviet-bloc communist state whose 1956 uprising was crushed by Soviet tanks. It opened its border with Austria in 1989, hastening the fall of the Iron Curtain.","next":["hungary"]},{"id":"hungary","name":"Hungary","short":"Hungary","start":1989,"end":2025,"family":"uralic","group":"central-europe","kind":"state","tier":3,"capital":"Budapest","desc":"A parliamentary republic since October 1989, Hungary joined NATO in 1999 and the EU in 2004."},{"id":"czechoslovakia","name":"Czechoslovakia","short":"Czechoslovakia","start":1918,"end":1992,"family":"slavic","group":"central-europe","kind":"state","tier":3,"capital":"Prague","desc":"Founded under Tomas Masaryk in 1918, it was carved up by Germany in 1938 to 1939 and ruled by communists from 1948 to 1989. It split peacefully at the end of 1992.","next":["czech-republic","slovakia"]},{"id":"czech-republic","name":"Czech Republic","short":"Czechia","start":1993,"end":2025,"family":"slavic","group":"central-europe","kind":"state","tier":3,"capital":"Prague","desc":"The Czech successor of Czechoslovakia since 1 January 1993, a member of NATO since 1999 and of the EU since 2004."},{"id":"slovakia","name":"Slovakia","short":"Slovakia","start":1993,"end":2025,"family":"slavic","group":"central-europe","kind":"state","tier":3,"capital":"Bratislava","desc":"Independent since the peaceful split of Czechoslovakia in 1993, Slovakia joined the EU and NATO in 2004 and adopted the euro in 2009."},{"id":"duchy-of-warsaw","name":"Duchy of Warsaw","short":"D. of Warsaw","start":1807,"end":1815,"family":"slavic","group":"central-europe","kind":"state","tier":3,"capital":"Warsaw","desc":"A Polish state that Napoleon created from Prussian and Austrian partition lands. After his fall the Congress of Vienna handed most of it to Russia as a kingdom under the tsar."},{"id":"second-polish-republic","name":"Second Polish Republic","short":"Poland","start":1918,"end":1939,"family":"slavic","group":"central-europe","kind":"state","tier":3,"capital":"Warsaw","desc":"Reborn in November 1918, Poland beat the Red Army before Warsaw in 1920. Germany and the Soviet Union invaded and divided it in September 1939.","next":["polish-peoples-republic"]},{"id":"polish-peoples-republic","name":"Polish People's Republic","short":"PR Poland","start":1947,"end":1989,"family":"slavic","group":"central-europe","kind":"state","tier":3,"capital":"Warsaw","desc":"A Soviet-bloc state shifted west to the Oder-Neisse line after the war. The Solidarity trade union, founded in 1980, forced the semi-free elections of 1989.","next":["poland"]},{"id":"poland","name":"Poland","short":"Poland","start":1989,"end":2025,"family":"slavic","group":"central-europe","kind":"state","tier":2,"capital":"Warsaw","desc":"A democratic republic since 1989 that joined NATO in 1999 and the EU in 2004, and now has one of the largest economies and armies in Europe."},{"id":"neolithic-britain","name":"Neolithic Britain and Ireland","short":"Neolithic","start":-3500,"end":-2500,"approx":true,"family":"unknown","group":"british-isles","kind":"culture","tier":3,"desc":"Farmers who built causewayed enclosures, long barrows, the passage tomb of Newgrange and the first phases of Stonehenge, and made Grooved Ware pottery.","next":["beaker-britain"]},{"id":"beaker-britain","name":"Beaker and Early Bronze Age Britain","short":"Beaker Britain","start":-2500,"end":-1500,"approx":true,"family":"unknown","group":"british-isles","kind":"culture","tier":3,"desc":"Bell Beaker incomers brought copper and gold working to Britain and Ireland and replaced most of the earlier farmers' ancestry. The Amesbury Archer was buried near Stonehenge around 2300 BCE."},{"id":"wessex-culture","name":"Wessex culture","short":"Wessex","start":-2000,"end":-1400,"approx":true,"family":"unknown","group":"british-isles","kind":"culture","tier":3,"desc":"Early Bronze Age chiefs of southern England buried with gold, amber and bronze daggers in barrows around Stonehenge, such as Bush Barrow."},{"id":"bronze-age-britain","name":"Middle and Late Bronze Age Britain","short":"Bronze Age","start":-1500,"end":-800,"approx":true,"family":"unknown","group":"british-isles","kind":"culture","tier":3,"desc":"Farmers who laid out field systems and roundhouses and threw bronze weapons into rivers as offerings. Flag Fen and the stilt village at Must Farm date from this period.","next":["ancient-britons"]},{"id":"ancient-britons","name":"Iron Age Britons","short":"Britons","start":-800,"end":43,"approx":true,"family":"celtic","group":"british-isles","kind":"culture","tier":2,"desc":"Brittonic-speaking tribes such as the Catuvellauni, Iceni and Brigantes, who built hillforts like Maiden Castle and later minted coins. Caesar raided them in 55 and 54 BCE.","next":["roman-britain"]},{"id":"gaelic-ireland","name":"Gaelic Ireland","short":"Gaelic Ireland","start":-500,"end":1607,"approx":true,"family":"celtic","group":"british-isles","kind":"culture","tier":2,"capital":"Tara (ceremonial)","desc":"A patchwork of Gaelic kingdoms under provincial kings and a nominal High King at Tara, never ruled by Rome. Its monks carried Christian learning to Scotland and Europe. The Flight of the Earls in 1607 ended Gaelic rule."},{"id":"roman-britain","name":"Roman Britain","short":"Britannia","start":43,"end":410,"family":"romance","group":"british-isles","kind":"colony","tier":2,"capital":"Camulodunum, later Londinium","desc":"Claudius invaded in 43, and Rome held England and Wales for nearly four centuries, building Hadrian's Wall in the 120s. The legions left, and in 410 Honorius told the cities to defend themselves.","next":["sub-roman-britain"]},{"id":"picts","name":"Picts","short":"Picts","start":297,"end":843,"approx":true,"family":"celtic","group":"british-isles","kind":"culture","tier":3,"desc":"The people of northern and eastern Scotland, first named by a Roman writer in 297 and known for their carved symbol stones. Their kingdom of Fortriu merged with the Gaels under Kenneth MacAlpin.","next":["kingdom-of-scotland"]},{"id":"dal-riata","name":"Dal Riata","short":"Dal Riata","start":500,"end":850,"approx":true,"family":"celtic","group":"british-isles","kind":"state","tier":3,"capital":"Dunadd","desc":"A Gaelic kingdom straddling Antrim and Argyll that brought the Irish language to Scotland. Saint Columba founded the monastery of Iona within it in 563.","next":["kingdom-of-scotland"]},{"id":"sub-roman-britain","name":"Sub-Roman Britain","short":"Sub-Roman","start":410,"end":600,"approx":true,"family":"celtic","group":"british-isles","kind":"culture","tier":3,"desc":"British kingdoms that emerged after Roman rule, such as Dumnonia, Elmet and Rheged, and fought the incoming Anglo-Saxons. The legend of Arthur grew from this period."},{"id":"strathclyde","name":"Kingdom of Strathclyde","short":"Strathclyde","start":450,"end":1030,"approx":true,"family":"celtic","group":"british-isles","kind":"state","tier":3,"capital":"Dumbarton Rock, later Govan","desc":"A Brittonic kingdom of the Clyde valley, once called Alt Clut, that outlived the other kingdoms of the Old North. It was absorbed into Scotland in the 11th century.","next":["kingdom-of-scotland"]},{"id":"gwynedd","name":"Kingdom of Gwynedd","short":"Gwynedd","start":450,"end":1216,"approx":true,"family":"celtic","group":"british-isles","kind":"state","tier":3,"capital":"Aberffraw","desc":"The strongest Welsh kingdom, in the north-west around Snowdonia and Anglesey. Llywelyn the Great made it the core of a principality of Wales.","next":["principality-of-wales"]},{"id":"powys","name":"Kingdom of Powys","short":"Powys","start":450,"end":1160,"approx":true,"family":"celtic","group":"british-isles","kind":"state","tier":3,"capital":"Mathrafal","desc":"A kingdom of mid Wales that lost its eastern lands to Mercia, behind Offa's Dyke. It split in two after Madog ap Maredudd died in 1160."},{"id":"principality-of-wales","name":"Principality of Wales","short":"Wales","start":1216,"end":1283,"family":"celtic","group":"british-isles","kind":"state","tier":3,"capital":"Aberffraw","desc":"Built by Llywelyn the Great and his grandson Llywelyn ap Gruffudd, whom Henry III recognised as Prince of Wales in 1267. Edward I conquered it in 1277 to 1283 and ringed it with castles.","next":["england-plantagenet"]},{"id":"kent","name":"Kingdom of Kent","short":"Kent","start":455,"end":825,"approx":true,"family":"germanic","group":"british-isles","kind":"state","tier":3,"capital":"Canterbury","desc":"The first English kingdom, settled by Jutes. King Aethelberht received Augustine's mission in 597, making Canterbury the seat of the English church. Wessex took it in 825."},{"id":"east-anglia","name":"Kingdom of East Anglia","short":"East Anglia","start":550,"end":918,"approx":true,"family":"germanic","group":"british-isles","kind":"state","tier":3,"capital":"Rendlesham","desc":"The kingdom of the North and South Folk, whose king Raedwald was probably buried in the Sutton Hoo ship around 625. The Danes killed King Edmund in 869."},{"id":"northumbria","name":"Kingdom of Northumbria","short":"Northumbria","start":604,"end":954,"approx":true,"family":"germanic","group":"british-isles","kind":"state","tier":3,"capital":"Bamburgh, York","desc":"Formed from Bernicia and Deira, it produced Bede and the Lindisfarne Gospels and suffered the first Viking raid in 793. The Danes took York in 866, and its last Norse king fell in 954."},{"id":"mercia","name":"Kingdom of Mercia","short":"Mercia","start":527,"end":918,"approx":true,"family":"germanic","group":"british-isles","kind":"state","tier":2,"capital":"Tamworth","desc":"The Midland kingdom that dominated England under Penda and Offa, who built Offa's Dyke. After the Danish invasions it was absorbed by Wessex."},{"id":"wessex","name":"Kingdom of Wessex","short":"Wessex","start":519,"end":927,"approx":true,"family":"germanic","group":"british-isles","kind":"state","tier":2,"capital":"Winchester","desc":"The West Saxon kingdom. Alfred the Great beat the Danes at Edington in 878, and his grandson Aethelstan united England in 927.","next":["england-anglo-saxon"]},{"id":"danelaw","name":"Danelaw and Kingdom of York","short":"Danelaw","start":878,"end":954,"family":"germanic","group":"british-isles","kind":"state","tier":3,"capital":"York (Jorvik)","desc":"Eastern and northern England under Danish law after the conquests of the Great Heathen Army. Eric Bloodaxe, the last Norse king of York, was expelled in 954.","next":["england-anglo-saxon"]},{"id":"kingdom-of-dublin","name":"Norse Kingdom of Dublin","short":"Dublin","start":853,"end":1170,"approx":true,"family":"germanic","group":"british-isles","kind":"state","tier":3,"capital":"Dublin","desc":"Vikings founded Dublin around 841 and made it a slave and silver market and a Norse-Gaelic kingdom. Anglo-Norman invaders captured it in 1170.","next":["lordship-of-ireland"]},{"id":"earldom-of-orkney","name":"Earldom of Orkney","short":"Orkney","start":875,"end":1472,"approx":true,"family":"germanic","group":"british-isles","kind":"state","tier":3,"capital":"Birsay, later Kirkwall","desc":"A Norse earldom over Orkney, Shetland and Caithness under the Norwegian crown. Pledged to Scotland as part of a royal dowry in 1468, it was annexed in 1472."},{"id":"kingdom-of-scotland","name":"Kingdom of Scotland","short":"Scotland","start":843,"end":1707,"family":"celtic","group":"british-isles","kind":"state","tier":2,"capital":"Scone, later Edinburgh","desc":"Kenneth MacAlpin united Picts and Scots in 843. Robert the Bruce secured independence from England at Bannockburn in 1314. James VI inherited England in 1603, and the parliaments merged in 1707.","next":["great-britain"]},{"id":"england-anglo-saxon","name":"Kingdom of England (Anglo-Saxon)","short":"England","start":927,"end":1066,"family":"germanic","group":"british-isles","kind":"state","tier":2,"capital":"Winchester","desc":"Aethelstan's realm, organised into shires with a strong royal coinage. Danish kings ruled it from 1016 to 1042, and William of Normandy took it at Hastings in 1066.","next":["england-plantagenet"]},{"id":"england-plantagenet","name":"Kingdom of England (Norman and Plantagenet)","short":"Med. England","start":1066,"end":1485,"family":"germanic","group":"british-isles","kind":"state","tier":2,"capital":"London (Westminster)","desc":"The Normans built castles and compiled the Domesday Book. Barons forced Magna Carta on King John in 1215. The Hundred Years' War and the Wars of the Roses ended with Henry Tudor's victory at Bosworth.","next":["tudor-england"]},{"id":"angevin-empire","name":"Angevin Empire","short":"Angevin Empire","start":1154,"end":1214,"family":"romance","group":"british-isles","kind":"empire","tier":2,"capital":"Chinon and Westminster","desc":"Henry II ruled England, Normandy, Anjou and, through his wife Eleanor, Aquitaine. His son John lost Normandy in 1204 and the rest of the northern French lands after Bouvines in 1214."},{"id":"tudor-england","name":"Tudor England","short":"Tudor England","start":1485,"end":1603,"family":"germanic","group":"british-isles","kind":"state","tier":2,"capital":"London","desc":"Henry VIII broke with Rome in 1534 and dissolved the monasteries. Elizabeth I's navy saw off the Spanish Armada in 1588.","next":["stuart-england"]},{"id":"stuart-england","name":"Kingdom of England (Stuart)","short":"Stuart England","start":1603,"end":1707,"family":"germanic","group":"british-isles","kind":"state","tier":2,"capital":"London","desc":"James I ruled England and Scotland in personal union. Civil war led to Charles I's execution in 1649, and the Glorious Revolution of 1688 put Parliament above the crown.","next":["great-britain"]},{"id":"commonwealth-england","name":"Commonwealth of England","short":"Commonwealth","start":1649,"end":1660,"family":"germanic","group":"british-isles","kind":"state","tier":3,"capital":"London","desc":"The republic proclaimed after the execution of Charles I, ruled by Oliver Cromwell as Lord Protector from 1653. The monarchy returned in 1660."},{"id":"lordship-of-ireland","name":"Lordship of Ireland","short":"Lordship","start":1171,"end":1542,"family":"germanic","group":"british-isles","kind":"colony","tier":3,"capital":"Dublin","desc":"Henry II claimed the lordship after Anglo-Norman knights invaded in 1169 to 1171. By the 15th century English control had shrunk to the Pale around Dublin.","next":["kingdom-of-ireland"]},{"id":"kingdom-of-ireland","name":"Kingdom of Ireland","short":"Ireland","start":1542,"end":1800,"family":"germanic","group":"british-isles","kind":"colony","tier":3,"capital":"Dublin","desc":"Henry VIII took the title King of Ireland. Plantations in Ulster and Cromwell's conquest gave land to Protestant settlers, and the Act of Union merged it into the United Kingdom.","next":["united-kingdom"]},{"id":"great-britain","name":"Kingdom of Great Britain","short":"Great Britain","start":1707,"end":1800,"family":"germanic","group":"british-isles","kind":"state","tier":2,"capital":"London","desc":"Formed by the union of England and Scotland. It won Canada and India in the Seven Years' War, lost the American colonies and began the Industrial Revolution.","next":["united-kingdom"]},{"id":"united-kingdom","name":"United Kingdom","short":"UK","start":1801,"end":2025,"family":"germanic","group":"british-isles","kind":"state","tier":1,"capital":"London","desc":"The union with Ireland in 1801 created the UK, which ruled the largest empire in history by 1920. Most of Ireland left in 1922, the empire was given up after 1945, and Britain left the EU in 2020.","next":["irish-free-state"]},{"id":"irish-free-state","name":"Irish Free State","short":"Irish Free St.","start":1922,"end":1937,"family":"celtic","group":"british-isles","kind":"state","tier":3,"capital":"Dublin","desc":"A self-governing dominion created by the Anglo-Irish Treaty after the War of Independence. The treaty split the nationalists and led to civil war in 1922 to 1923.","next":["ireland"]},{"id":"ireland","name":"Ireland","short":"Ireland","start":1937,"end":2025,"family":"celtic","group":"british-isles","kind":"state","tier":3,"capital":"Dublin","desc":"The 1937 constitution created the modern state, which left the Commonwealth as a republic in 1949 and joined the EEC in 1973."},{"id":"neolithic-gaul","name":"Neolithic farmers of Gaul","short":"Neolithic Gaul","start":-3500,"end":-2500,"approx":true,"family":"unknown","group":"western-europe","kind":"culture","tier":3,"desc":"Late Neolithic farmers such as the Seine-Oise-Marne and Artenac groups, who built gallery graves and went on using the older megalithic tombs and stone rows of Brittany.","next":["bell-beaker"]},{"id":"bell-beaker","name":"Bell Beaker culture","short":"Bell Beaker","start":-2800,"end":-1800,"approx":true,"family":"unknown","group":"western-europe","kind":"culture","tier":2,"desc":"A Europe-wide set of inverted-bell drinking cups, copper daggers and archers' wrist guards, spread from Iberia to Britain and Hungary by trade and by migration."},{"id":"armorican-tumulus","name":"Armorican Tumulus culture","short":"Armorican","start":-2000,"end":-1400,"approx":true,"family":"unknown","group":"western-europe","kind":"culture","tier":3,"desc":"Bronze Age chiefs of Brittany buried under large mounds with bronze daggers and gold, linked by sea with the Wessex culture of southern England."},{"id":"bronze-age-gaul","name":"Bronze Age Gaul","short":"Bronze Age Gaul","start":-1800,"end":-800,"approx":true,"family":"unknown","group":"western-europe","kind":"culture","tier":3,"desc":"Farming communities of Bronze Age France, from the Rhone culture of the early period to the urnfield groups of the east and the sword-making workshops of the Atlantic west.","next":["gauls"]},{"id":"atlantic-bronze-age","name":"Atlantic Bronze Age","short":"Atlantic Bronze","start":-1300,"end":-700,"approx":true,"family":"unknown","group":"western-europe","kind":"culture","tier":3,"desc":"A seaborne trading network from Portugal to Scotland that shared bronze swords, cauldrons and feasting gear, centred on the Atlantic coasts of France and Iberia."},{"id":"gauls","name":"Gauls","short":"Gauls","start":-800,"end":-50,"approx":true,"family":"celtic","group":"western-europe","kind":"culture","tier":2,"desc":"Celtic peoples such as the Arverni, Aedui, Belgae and Helvetii who built oppida and minted coins. Vercingetorix led the last great revolt against Caesar until his surrender at Alesia in 52 BCE.","next":["roman-gaul"]},{"id":"aquitani","name":"Aquitani","short":"Aquitani","start":-600,"end":-56,"approx":true,"family":"isolate","group":"western-europe","kind":"culture","tier":3,"desc":"Peoples of south-west Gaul between the Garonne and the Pyrenees whose language was an ancestor of Basque. Caesar's officer Crassus conquered them in 56 BCE."},{"id":"massalia","name":"Massalia","short":"Massalia","start":-600,"end":-49,"approx":true,"family":"greek","group":"western-europe","kind":"state","tier":3,"capital":"Massalia (Marseille)","desc":"Founded by Greeks from Phocaea around 600 BCE, it traded wine and pottery up the Rhone into Gaul. It sided with Pompey and fell to Caesar in 49 BCE."},{"id":"roman-gaul","name":"Roman Gaul","short":"Gallia","start":-50,"end":486,"family":"romance","group":"western-europe","kind":"colony","tier":2,"capital":"Lugdunum, later Trier and Arles","desc":"Caesar's conquest made Gaul a set of Roman provinces whose cities, roads and Latin speech outlasted the empire. Clovis took the last Roman enclave in 486.","next":["domain-of-soissons","merovingian-franks"]},{"id":"franks","name":"Frankish tribes","short":"Franks","start":250,"end":481,"approx":true,"family":"germanic","group":"western-europe","kind":"culture","tier":3,"desc":"Germanic peoples of the lower Rhine, the Salians and Ripuarians, who served Rome as federates and settled in northern Gaul as Roman rule weakened.","next":["merovingian-franks"]},{"id":"burgundians","name":"Kingdom of the Burgundians","short":"Burgundians","start":411,"end":534,"family":"germanic","group":"western-europe","kind":"state","tier":3,"capital":"Worms, later Lyon and Geneva","desc":"A Germanic kingdom on the Rhine at Worms, destroyed by Hunnic troops in 436 in the events behind the Nibelungenlied, then refounded in the Rhone valley. The Franks annexed it in 534."},{"id":"visigoths-toulouse","name":"Visigothic Kingdom of Toulouse","short":"Visigoths","start":418,"end":507,"family":"germanic","group":"western-europe","kind":"state","tier":2,"capital":"Toulouse","desc":"Rome settled the Visigoths in Aquitaine as federates in 418. They spread over southern Gaul and Spain until Clovis killed Alaric II at Vouille in 507.","next":["visigoths-toledo"]},{"id":"domain-of-soissons","name":"Domain of Soissons","short":"Soissons","start":457,"end":486,"family":"romance","group":"western-europe","kind":"state","tier":3,"capital":"Soissons","desc":"A Roman enclave in northern Gaul held by Aegidius and his son Syagrius after imperial control lapsed. Clovis defeated Syagrius in 486.","next":["merovingian-franks"]},{"id":"merovingian-franks","name":"Merovingian Kingdom","short":"Merovingians","start":481,"end":751,"family":"germanic","group":"western-europe","kind":"state","tier":2,"capital":"Paris, Soissons, Metz","desc":"Clovis united the Franks, became a Catholic and conquered most of Gaul. Real power passed to the mayors of the palace, and Pepin the Short deposed the last Merovingian king in 751.","next":["carolingian-empire"]},{"id":"frisian-kingdom","name":"Frisian Kingdom","short":"Frisia","start":600,"end":734,"approx":true,"family":"germanic","group":"western-europe","kind":"state","tier":3,"capital":"Dorestad, Utrecht","desc":"A North Sea trading kingdom along the Dutch coast under kings such as Redbad. Charles Martel conquered it after the Battle of the Boarn in 734."},{"id":"carolingian-empire","name":"Carolingian Empire","short":"Carolingians","start":751,"end":843,"family":"germanic","group":"western-europe","kind":"empire","tier":1,"capital":"Aachen","desc":"Pepin the Short's dynasty. His son Charlemagne conquered Saxony, Lombardy and Bavaria and was crowned emperor in Rome in 800. His grandsons divided the empire at Verdun in 843.","next":["west-francia","east-francia","middle-francia"]},{"id":"middle-francia","name":"Middle Francia and Lotharingia","short":"Lotharingia","start":843,"end":959,"family":"germanic","group":"western-europe","kind":"state","tier":3,"capital":"Aachen","desc":"Lothair I's middle kingdom from Frisia to Italy, which broke up after his death in 855. Its northern part, Lotharingia, was fought over by East and West Francia and split into two duchies in 959."},{"id":"west-francia","name":"West Francia","short":"West Francia","start":843,"end":987,"family":"romance","group":"western-europe","kind":"state","tier":2,"capital":"Laon, Paris","desc":"The western Carolingian kingdom, battered by Viking raids that ended with the grant of Normandy in 911. The election of Hugh Capet in 987 ended Carolingian rule.","next":["france-capetian"]},{"id":"brittany","name":"Kingdom and Duchy of Brittany","short":"Brittany","start":851,"end":1532,"family":"celtic","group":"western-europe","kind":"state","tier":3,"capital":"Rennes, Nantes","desc":"Nominoe's victory at Ballon in 845 freed the Bretons from the Franks, and his son Erispoe took a royal title in 851. Later a duchy, Brittany was united with France in 1532."},{"id":"duchy-of-normandy","name":"Duchy of Normandy","short":"Normandy","start":911,"end":1204,"family":"romance","group":"western-europe","kind":"state","tier":3,"capital":"Rouen","desc":"Founded when Charles the Simple granted land to the Viking chief Rollo. Duke William conquered England in 1066, and Philip II took Normandy from King John in 1204."},{"id":"county-of-flanders","name":"County of Flanders","short":"Flanders","start":862,"end":1795,"family":"germanic","group":"western-europe","kind":"state","tier":3,"capital":"Bruges, Ghent","desc":"Founded by Baldwin Iron Arm, Flanders prospered by weaving English wool in Bruges, Ghent and Ypres. It passed to Burgundy in 1384 and later to the Habsburgs."},{"id":"county-of-toulouse","name":"County of Toulouse","short":"Toulouse","start":778,"end":1271,"approx":true,"family":"romance","group":"western-europe","kind":"state","tier":3,"capital":"Toulouse","desc":"The Occitan counts of Toulouse ruled much of Languedoc and protected the Cathars. The Albigensian Crusade broke their power, and the county passed to the French crown in 1271."},{"id":"france-capetian","name":"Kingdom of France (Capetian)","short":"Capetians","start":987,"end":1328,"family":"romance","group":"western-europe","kind":"state","tier":2,"capital":"Paris","desc":"Hugh Capet's descendants built royal power outward from Paris. Philip II took Normandy and Anjou, and Louis IX led two crusades. The direct line died out in 1328.","next":["france-valois"]},{"id":"france-valois","name":"Kingdom of France (Valois)","short":"Valois","start":1328,"end":1589,"family":"romance","group":"western-europe","kind":"state","tier":2,"capital":"Paris","desc":"The Valois kings fought the Hundred Years' War with England, turned by Joan of Arc in 1429. They then fought the Habsburgs in Italy and faced the Wars of Religion.","next":["france-bourbon"]},{"id":"france-bourbon","name":"Kingdom of France (Bourbon)","short":"Bourbons","start":1589,"end":1792,"family":"romance","group":"western-europe","kind":"state","tier":1,"capital":"Paris, Versailles","desc":"Henry IV ended the Wars of Religion. Louis XIV made France the dominant power in Europe from Versailles, and the debts of Louis XVI brought on the Revolution of 1789.","next":["first-french-republic"]},{"id":"valois-burgundy","name":"Burgundian State","short":"Burgundy","start":1363,"end":1477,"family":"romance","group":"western-europe","kind":"state","tier":2,"capital":"Dijon, Brussels","desc":"The Valois dukes of Burgundy gathered Burgundy, Flanders, Brabant and Holland into a state that rivalled France. Charles the Bold was killed at Nancy in 1477.","next":["habsburg-netherlands"]},{"id":"habsburg-netherlands","name":"Habsburg Netherlands","short":"Habsburg NL","start":1482,"end":1581,"family":"germanic","group":"western-europe","kind":"state","tier":3,"capital":"Brussels, Mechelen","desc":"Mary of Burgundy's lands passed to the Habsburgs, and Charles V united the Seventeen Provinces. Philip II's persecution of Protestants set off the Dutch Revolt in 1568.","next":["dutch-republic","spanish-netherlands"]},{"id":"dutch-republic","name":"Dutch Republic","short":"Dutch Republic","start":1581,"end":1795,"family":"germanic","group":"western-europe","kind":"state","tier":1,"capital":"The Hague, Amsterdam","desc":"The northern provinces renounced Philip II in 1581 and built the leading trading economy of the 17th century, with the Dutch East India Company and the Amsterdam exchange. French armies ended it in 1795.","next":["batavian-republic"]},{"id":"spanish-netherlands","name":"Spanish Netherlands","short":"Spanish NL","start":1581,"end":1714,"family":"romance","group":"western-europe","kind":"colony","tier":3,"capital":"Brussels","desc":"The southern, Catholic provinces kept by Spain after the Dutch Revolt and a battlefield for the wars of Louis XIV. They passed to Austria at the Peace of Utrecht.","next":["austrian-netherlands"]},{"id":"austrian-netherlands","name":"Austrian Netherlands","short":"Austrian NL","start":1714,"end":1797,"family":"germanic","group":"western-europe","kind":"colony","tier":3,"capital":"Brussels","desc":"The former Spanish Netherlands under the Austrian Habsburgs. Revolutionary France overran the region in 1794 and annexed it, and Austria gave it up in 1797."},{"id":"batavian-republic","name":"Batavian Republic","short":"Batavian Rep.","start":1795,"end":1806,"family":"germanic","group":"western-europe","kind":"state","tier":3,"capital":"The Hague","desc":"A French sister republic set up after French armies and Dutch Patriots ended the old republic. Napoleon turned it into the Kingdom of Holland in 1806 and annexed it in 1810.","next":["netherlands"]},{"id":"netherlands","name":"Kingdom of the Netherlands","short":"Netherlands","start":1815,"end":2025,"family":"germanic","group":"western-europe","kind":"state","tier":2,"capital":"Amsterdam (government in The Hague)","desc":"Created at the Congress of Vienna with Belgium attached, it lost Belgium in 1830 and held the East Indies until 1949. It was a founder of the EEC."},{"id":"belgium","name":"Belgium","short":"Belgium","start":1830,"end":2025,"family":"germanic","group":"western-europe","kind":"state","tier":3,"capital":"Brussels","desc":"Born from a revolt against Dutch rule in 1830, it industrialised early and ruled the Congo. Germany occupied it in both world wars, and Brussels now hosts the EU and NATO."},{"id":"luxembourg","name":"Luxembourg","short":"Luxembourg","start":1815,"end":2025,"family":"germanic","group":"western-europe","kind":"state","tier":3,"capital":"Luxembourg","desc":"Made a grand duchy in personal union with the Netherlands in 1815, it was declared neutral in 1867 and got its own dynasty in 1890. Luxembourg was a founding member of the EEC."},{"id":"monaco","name":"Monaco","short":"Monaco","start":1297,"end":2025,"family":"romance","group":"western-europe","kind":"state","tier":3,"capital":"Monaco","desc":"The Grimaldi family seized the rock in 1297 and have ruled it, under French or Spanish protection, almost ever since. Its Monte Carlo casino opened in the 1860s."},{"id":"first-french-republic","name":"First French Republic","short":"1st Republic","start":1792,"end":1804,"family":"romance","group":"western-europe","kind":"state","tier":2,"capital":"Paris","desc":"Proclaimed after the fall of the monarchy, it executed Louis XVI, went through the Terror and the Directory and fought most of Europe. Napoleon took power as First Consul in 1799.","next":["first-french-empire"]},{"id":"first-french-empire","name":"First French Empire","short":"Napoleonic Emp.","start":1804,"end":1815,"family":"romance","group":"western-europe","kind":"empire","tier":1,"capital":"Paris","desc":"Napoleon crowned himself emperor in 1804 and dominated the continent from Spain to Poland after Austerlitz. The Russian disaster of 1812 and Waterloo in 1815 ended it.","next":["bourbon-restoration"]},{"id":"bourbon-restoration","name":"Bourbon Restoration","short":"Restoration","start":1815,"end":1830,"family":"romance","group":"western-europe","kind":"state","tier":3,"capital":"Paris","desc":"Louis XVIII and Charles X ruled under a charter after Napoleon's fall. The July Revolution of 1830 ended the senior Bourbon line.","next":["july-monarchy"]},{"id":"july-monarchy","name":"July Monarchy","short":"July Monarchy","start":1830,"end":1848,"family":"romance","group":"western-europe","kind":"state","tier":3,"capital":"Paris","desc":"The liberal monarchy of Louis-Philippe of Orleans, which began the conquest of Algeria. The February Revolution of 1848 overthrew it.","next":["second-french-republic"]},{"id":"second-french-republic","name":"Second French Republic","short":"2nd Republic","start":1848,"end":1852,"family":"romance","group":"western-europe","kind":"state","tier":3,"capital":"Paris","desc":"It introduced universal male suffrage and abolished slavery in the colonies. Its elected president, Louis-Napoleon Bonaparte, seized power in 1851.","next":["second-french-empire"]},{"id":"second-french-empire","name":"Second French Empire","short":"Second Empire","start":1852,"end":1870,"family":"romance","group":"western-europe","kind":"empire","tier":2,"capital":"Paris","desc":"Napoleon III rebuilt Paris and expanded French rule into Indochina and West Africa. Prussia captured him at Sedan in 1870.","next":["third-french-republic"]},{"id":"third-french-republic","name":"French Third Republic","short":"3rd Republic","start":1870,"end":1940,"family":"romance","group":"western-europe","kind":"state","tier":2,"capital":"Paris","desc":"The longest-lived French regime since 1789. It separated church and state, built a second colonial empire and won the First World War, then fell to the German invasion of 1940.","next":["vichy-france"]},{"id":"vichy-france","name":"Vichy France","short":"Vichy","start":1940,"end":1944,"family":"romance","group":"western-europe","kind":"state","tier":3,"capital":"Vichy","desc":"Marshal Petain's collaborationist state, which handed Jews over for deportation to Nazi camps. Germany occupied all of France in 1942, and the regime collapsed after the Allied landings of 1944.","next":["fourth-french-republic"]},{"id":"fourth-french-republic","name":"French Fourth Republic","short":"4th Republic","start":1946,"end":1958,"family":"romance","group":"western-europe","kind":"state","tier":3,"capital":"Paris","desc":"A parliamentary republic of unstable coalitions that rebuilt France and co-founded the EEC, then foundered on the wars in Indochina and Algeria.","next":["fifth-french-republic"]},{"id":"fifth-french-republic","name":"French Fifth Republic","short":"France","start":1958,"end":2025,"family":"romance","group":"western-europe","kind":"state","tier":2,"capital":"Paris","desc":"Charles de Gaulle's constitution gave the president strong powers. France gave up Algeria in 1962 and is a nuclear power, a permanent member of the UN Security Council and a core EU state."},{"id":"megalithic-iberia","name":"Megalithic farmers of western Iberia","short":"Megaliths","start":-3500,"end":-2500,"approx":true,"family":"unknown","group":"iberia","kind":"culture","tier":3,"desc":"Farmers of Portugal and western Spain who raised dolmens and stone circles such as Almendres, and later built fortified copper-working towns like Zambujal."},{"id":"los-millares","name":"Los Millares culture","short":"Los Millares","start":-3200,"end":-2200,"approx":true,"family":"unknown","group":"iberia","kind":"culture","tier":3,"desc":"Copper Age people of Almeria who built a walled town with bastions and outlying forts and buried their dead in vaulted tholos tombs.","next":["el-argar"]},{"id":"el-argar","name":"El Argar culture","short":"El Argar","start":-2200,"end":-1550,"approx":true,"family":"unknown","group":"iberia","kind":"culture","tier":2,"desc":"Perhaps the first Bronze Age state in western Europe, in south-east Spain, with hilltop towns such as La Bastida and an elite buried with silver diadems. It collapsed suddenly around 1550 BCE."},{"id":"cogotas","name":"Cogotas I culture","short":"Cogotas","start":-1700,"end":-1100,"approx":true,"family":"unknown","group":"iberia","kind":"culture","tier":3,"desc":"Bronze Age herders and farmers of the central Spanish Meseta, known for incised and boquique-decorated pottery and seasonal hilltop camps."},{"id":"talayotic","name":"Talayotic culture","short":"Talayotic","start":-1300,"end":-123,"approx":true,"family":"unknown","group":"iberia","kind":"culture","tier":3,"desc":"Islanders of Majorca and Minorca who built stone towers called talayots and T-shaped taula sanctuaries. Their slingers fought for Carthage. Rome conquered the islands in 123 BCE."},{"id":"tartessos","name":"Tartessos","short":"Tartessos","start":-900,"end":-550,"approx":true,"family":"unknown","group":"iberia","kind":"culture","tier":3,"desc":"A silver-trading society of the lower Guadalquivir that Greek writers placed at the edge of the known world. Herodotus says its king Arganthonios welcomed Phocaean traders. It faded in the 6th century BCE."},{"id":"phoenician-iberia","name":"Phoenician colonies in Iberia","short":"Phoenicians","start":-800,"end":-237,"approx":true,"family":"semitic","group":"iberia","kind":"colony","tier":3,"capital":"Gadir (Cadiz)","desc":"Traders from Tyre founded Gadir, Malaka and Sexi to tap Tartessian silver. The colonies passed into the Carthaginian sphere from the 6th century BCE.","next":["carthaginian-iberia"]},{"id":"carthaginian-iberia","name":"Carthaginian Iberia","short":"Barcid Iberia","start":-237,"end":-206,"family":"semitic","group":"iberia","kind":"colony","tier":3,"capital":"Qart Hadasht (Cartagena)","desc":"Hamilcar Barca, Hasdrubal and Hannibal built a Carthaginian dominion in southern Spain, the base for Hannibal's march on Rome. Scipio drove Carthage out by 206 BCE.","next":["roman-hispania"]},{"id":"iberians","name":"Iberians","short":"Iberians","start":-600,"end":-19,"approx":true,"family":"isolate","group":"iberia","kind":"culture","tier":3,"desc":"Peoples of the Mediterranean coast of Spain, such as the Edetani, Contestani and Ilergetes, who wrote in their own scripts and carved the Lady of Elche. Rome absorbed them."},{"id":"celtiberians","name":"Celtiberians","short":"Celtiberians","start":-600,"end":-72,"approx":true,"family":"celtic","group":"iberia","kind":"culture","tier":3,"desc":"Celtic-speaking tribes of the central Meseta who fought Rome for decades. Numantia held out until Scipio Aemilianus starved it into surrender in 133 BCE."},{"id":"basques","name":"Basques (Vascones)","short":"Basques","start":-500,"end":2025,"approx":true,"family":"isolate","group":"iberia","kind":"culture","tier":3,"desc":"Speakers of the only surviving pre-Indo-European language of western Europe, on both sides of the western Pyrenees. They kept their language through Roman, Visigothic, Frankish and Castilian rule."},{"id":"roman-hispania","name":"Roman Hispania","short":"Hispania","start":-218,"end":472,"family":"romance","group":"iberia","kind":"colony","tier":2,"capital":"Tarraco, Corduba, Emerita Augusta","desc":"Rome landed at Emporion in 218 BCE and took two centuries to conquer the whole peninsula. Hispania gave Rome the emperors Trajan and Hadrian and the writer Seneca.","next":["visigoths-toledo","suebi"]},{"id":"vandals-hispania","name":"Vandals and Alans in Hispania","short":"Vandals","start":409,"end":429,"family":"germanic","group":"iberia","kind":"state","tier":3,"desc":"Vandals, Alans and Suebi crossed the Pyrenees in 409 and shared out the provinces. Under Gaiseric the Vandals crossed to Africa in 429 and founded a kingdom at Carthage."},{"id":"suebi","name":"Kingdom of the Suebi","short":"Suebi","start":409,"end":585,"family":"germanic","group":"iberia","kind":"state","tier":3,"capital":"Bracara Augusta (Braga)","desc":"Germanic settlers who founded the first post-Roman kingdom in the west, in Galicia and northern Portugal. The Visigoth Leovigild annexed it in 585.","next":["visigoths-toledo"]},{"id":"visigoths-toledo","name":"Visigothic Kingdom of Toledo","short":"Visigoths","start":507,"end":711,"family":"germanic","group":"iberia","kind":"state","tier":2,"capital":"Toledo","desc":"After losing Gaul the Visigoths ruled Hispania from Toledo. Reccared turned Catholic in 589, and Isidore of Seville wrote his Etymologies here. Muslim armies destroyed the kingdom in 711.","next":["al-andalus-umayyad","asturias"]},{"id":"byzantine-spania","name":"Byzantine Spania","short":"Spania","start":552,"end":624,"family":"greek","group":"iberia","kind":"colony","tier":3,"capital":"Cartagena","desc":"A coastal province in the south-east that Justinian's forces seized during a Visigothic civil war. The Visigoths retook the last towns around 624."},{"id":"al-andalus-umayyad","name":"Al-Andalus under the Umayyad Caliphate","short":"Al-Andalus","start":711,"end":756,"family":"arabic","group":"iberia","kind":"colony","tier":3,"capital":"Cordoba","desc":"Tariq ibn Ziyad's Berber and Arab army conquered most of Iberia in 711 to 718. Governors answering to Damascus ruled until an Umayyad prince arrived after escaping the Abbasids.","next":["emirate-of-cordoba"]},{"id":"emirate-of-cordoba","name":"Emirate of Cordoba","short":"Emirate","start":756,"end":929,"family":"arabic","group":"iberia","kind":"state","tier":2,"capital":"Cordoba","desc":"Abd al-Rahman I, the last Umayyad prince to escape the Abbasid massacre, set up an independent emirate and began the Great Mosque of Cordoba.","next":["caliphate-of-cordoba"]},{"id":"caliphate-of-cordoba","name":"Caliphate of Cordoba","short":"Caliphate","start":929,"end":1031,"family":"arabic","group":"iberia","kind":"state","tier":2,"capital":"Cordoba, Madinat al-Zahra","desc":"Abd al-Rahman III proclaimed himself caliph in 929. Cordoba became the largest and most learned city in western Europe before civil war broke the state into taifas.","next":["taifas"]},{"id":"taifas","name":"Taifa kingdoms","short":"Taifas","start":1009,"end":1091,"approx":true,"family":"arabic","group":"iberia","kind":"state","tier":3,"capital":"Seville, Toledo, Zaragoza, Badajoz","desc":"Rival Muslim city-states that emerged from the caliphate's collapse and paid tribute to Christian kings. Toledo fell to Castile in 1085, and the Almoravids absorbed the rest.","next":["almoravid-andalus"]},{"id":"almoravid-andalus","name":"Almoravid al-Andalus","short":"Almoravids","start":1086,"end":1147,"family":"berber","group":"iberia","kind":"colony","tier":3,"capital":"Seville (ruled from Marrakesh)","desc":"Berber Almoravids from Morocco crossed in 1086, beat Alfonso VI at Sagrajas and annexed the taifas. The Almohads displaced them.","next":["almohad-andalus"]},{"id":"almohad-andalus","name":"Almohad al-Andalus","short":"Almohads","start":1147,"end":1238,"family":"berber","group":"iberia","kind":"colony","tier":3,"capital":"Seville (ruled from Marrakesh)","desc":"The Almohad caliphs from Morocco ruled Muslim Spain from Seville, where they built the Giralda. Defeat at Las Navas de Tolosa in 1212 opened the south to the Christian kingdoms.","next":["emirate-of-granada"]},{"id":"emirate-of-granada","name":"Emirate of Granada","short":"Granada","start":1238,"end":1492,"family":"arabic","group":"iberia","kind":"state","tier":2,"capital":"Granada","desc":"The last Muslim state in Iberia, ruled by the Nasrids, who built the Alhambra. Boabdil surrendered Granada to Ferdinand and Isabella on 2 January 1492."},{"id":"asturias","name":"Kingdom of Asturias","short":"Asturias","start":718,"end":924,"approx":true,"family":"romance","group":"iberia","kind":"state","tier":3,"capital":"Cangas de Onis, later Oviedo","desc":"Founded by Pelagius after his victory at Covadonga around 722, it was the first Christian kingdom of the Reconquista. Its kings moved their seat to Leon in the early 10th century.","next":["kingdom-of-leon"]},{"id":"kingdom-of-leon","name":"Kingdom of Leon","short":"Leon","start":910,"end":1230,"family":"romance","group":"iberia","kind":"state","tier":3,"capital":"Leon","desc":"The successor of Asturias, whose kings claimed the title of emperor of all Spain. Its cortes of 1188 is often called the first European parliament. It merged permanently with Castile in 1230.","next":["crown-of-castile"]},{"id":"kingdom-of-castile","name":"Kingdom of Castile","short":"Castile","start":931,"end":1230,"approx":true,"family":"romance","group":"iberia","kind":"state","tier":2,"capital":"Burgos, later Toledo","desc":"A frontier county that broke free of Leon under Fernan Gonzalez and became a kingdom in the 11th century. Alfonso VI took Toledo in 1085, and Alfonso VIII won at Las Navas de Tolosa in 1212.","next":["crown-of-castile"]},{"id":"crown-of-castile","name":"Crown of Castile","short":"Castile","start":1230,"end":1516,"family":"romance","group":"iberia","kind":"state","tier":2,"capital":"Toledo, Valladolid","desc":"The union of Castile and Leon under Ferdinand III, who took Cordoba and Seville. Isabella I married Ferdinand of Aragon, finished the Reconquista and backed Columbus in 1492.","next":["spanish-empire"]},{"id":"kingdom-of-navarre","name":"Kingdom of Navarre","short":"Navarre","start":824,"end":1512,"approx":true,"family":"isolate","group":"iberia","kind":"state","tier":3,"capital":"Pamplona","desc":"Founded around 824 by the Basque chief Inigo Arista as the Kingdom of Pamplona. Sancho III ruled most of Christian Spain around 1030. Castile annexed the lands south of the Pyrenees in 1512.","next":["crown-of-castile"]},{"id":"county-of-barcelona","name":"County of Barcelona","short":"Barcelona","start":878,"end":1164,"approx":true,"family":"romance","group":"iberia","kind":"state","tier":3,"capital":"Barcelona","desc":"Wilfred the Hairy made the county hereditary in 878, and his heirs led the Catalan counties. Ramon Berenguer IV's marriage to the heiress of Aragon created the Crown of Aragon.","next":["crown-of-aragon"]},{"id":"crown-of-aragon","name":"Crown of Aragon","short":"Aragon","start":1164,"end":1516,"family":"romance","group":"iberia","kind":"state","tier":2,"capital":"Zaragoza, Barcelona","desc":"A union of Aragon, Catalonia, Valencia and Majorca that built a Mediterranean empire in Sicily, Sardinia and Naples. Ferdinand II's marriage to Isabella of Castile created Spain.","next":["spanish-empire"]},{"id":"county-of-portugal","name":"County of Portugal","short":"Portugal","start":868,"end":1139,"approx":true,"family":"romance","group":"iberia","kind":"state","tier":3,"capital":"Guimaraes","desc":"A county of Leon founded when Vimara Peres took Porto in 868. Afonso Henriques defeated his mother's party and took the title of king after the Battle of Ourique in 1139.","next":["kingdom-of-portugal"]},{"id":"kingdom-of-portugal","name":"Kingdom of Portugal","short":"Portugal","start":1139,"end":1910,"family":"romance","group":"iberia","kind":"state","tier":2,"capital":"Coimbra, later Lisbon","desc":"Portugal took Lisbon in 1147, fixed its borders by 1249 and under the House of Aviz led the age of ocean exploration. The 1755 earthquake levelled Lisbon, and the monarchy fell in 1910.","next":["first-portuguese-republic"]},{"id":"portuguese-empire","name":"Portuguese Empire","short":"Port. Empire","start":1415,"end":1999,"family":"romance","group":"iberia","kind":"empire","tier":1,"capital":"Lisbon","desc":"Starting with the capture of Ceuta in 1415, Portugal built the first global seaborne empire, from Brazil to Goa, Malacca and Macau. It ended with the handover of Macau in 1999."},{"id":"iberian-union","name":"Iberian Union","short":"Iberian Union","start":1580,"end":1640,"family":"romance","group":"iberia","kind":"state","tier":3,"capital":"Madrid","desc":"Philip II of Spain claimed Portugal in 1580 after its young king died on campaign in Morocco, joining the two crowns and their empires. A revolt in Lisbon restored Portuguese independence in 1640."},{"id":"spanish-empire","name":"Spanish Empire (Habsburg Spain)","short":"Habsburg Spain","start":1516,"end":1700,"family":"romance","group":"iberia","kind":"empire","tier":1,"capital":"Madrid (from 1561)","desc":"Charles V and Philip II ruled Castile, Aragon, the Netherlands, much of Italy and the Americas, where Potosi silver paid for their wars. The line ended with Charles II in 1700.","next":["bourbon-spain"]},{"id":"bourbon-spain","name":"Bourbon Spain","short":"Bourbon Spain","start":1700,"end":1808,"family":"romance","group":"iberia","kind":"empire","tier":2,"capital":"Madrid","desc":"Philip V won the War of the Spanish Succession and centralised the kingdom. Charles III's reforms revived the American empire before Napoleon forced the royal family to abdicate in 1808.","next":["kingdom-of-spain-19c"]},{"id":"kingdom-of-spain-19c","name":"Kingdom of Spain (1814 to 1931)","short":"Spain","start":1814,"end":1931,"family":"romance","group":"iberia","kind":"state","tier":2,"capital":"Madrid","desc":"Restored after the Peninsular War, Spain lost its mainland American empire by 1825 and Cuba and the Philippines in 1898, amid civil wars and a short-lived republic in 1873 to 1874.","next":["second-spanish-republic"]},{"id":"second-spanish-republic","name":"Second Spanish Republic","short":"2nd Republic","start":1931,"end":1939,"family":"romance","group":"iberia","kind":"state","tier":3,"capital":"Madrid","desc":"Proclaimed when Alfonso XIII left in 1931, it pushed land reform and secular laws. The army revolt of 1936 began a civil war that Franco won in 1939.","next":["francoist-spain"]},{"id":"francoist-spain","name":"Francoist Spain","short":"Franco","start":1939,"end":1975,"family":"romance","group":"iberia","kind":"state","tier":3,"capital":"Madrid","desc":"Francisco Franco's dictatorship stayed out of the Second World War and later opened to American bases and mass tourism. He named Juan Carlos his successor.","next":["spain"]},{"id":"spain","name":"Kingdom of Spain","short":"Spain","start":1975,"end":2025,"family":"romance","group":"iberia","kind":"state","tier":2,"capital":"Madrid","desc":"Juan Carlos I steered the transition to democracy and the 1978 constitution. Spain joined the EEC in 1986, while Catalan and Basque nationalism shaped its politics."},{"id":"first-portuguese-republic","name":"First Portuguese Republic","short":"1st Republic","start":1910,"end":1926,"family":"romance","group":"iberia","kind":"state","tier":3,"capital":"Lisbon","desc":"An unstable republic that went through 45 governments in 16 years and sent troops to the First World War. A military coup ended it in 1926.","next":["estado-novo"]},{"id":"estado-novo","name":"Estado Novo","short":"Estado Novo","start":1926,"end":1974,"family":"romance","group":"iberia","kind":"state","tier":3,"capital":"Lisbon","desc":"The military dictatorship and Salazar's corporatist New State, which fought colonial wars in Angola, Mozambique and Guinea-Bissau. The Carnation Revolution overthrew it in 1974.","next":["portugal"]},{"id":"portugal","name":"Portugal","short":"Portugal","start":1974,"end":2025,"family":"romance","group":"iberia","kind":"state","tier":3,"capital":"Lisbon","desc":"Democracy came with the Carnation Revolution of 1974, and the African colonies became independent in 1975. Portugal joined the EEC in 1986."},{"id":"andorra","name":"Andorra","short":"Andorra","start":1278,"end":2025,"family":"romance","group":"iberia","kind":"state","tier":3,"capital":"Andorra la Vella","desc":"A Pyrenean co-principality created by the pareage of 1278, shared between the Bishop of Urgell and the Count of Foix, whose rights passed to the French head of state."},{"id":"gibraltar","name":"British Gibraltar","short":"Gibraltar","start":1713,"end":2025,"family":"germanic","group":"iberia","kind":"colony","tier":3,"capital":"Gibraltar","desc":"Captured by an Anglo-Dutch fleet in 1704 and ceded to Britain at Utrecht in 1713. Spain still claims the rock, which remains a British naval base."},{"id":"copper-age-italy","name":"Copper Age Italy","short":"Copper Age","start":-3500,"end":-2200,"approx":true,"family":"unknown","group":"italy","kind":"culture","tier":3,"desc":"The Remedello, Rinaldone and Gaudo groups, who buried warriors with copper daggers and halberds. Otzi the Iceman, who died in the Alps around 3300 BCE, carried a copper axe of this kind."},{"id":"polada","name":"Polada culture","short":"Polada","start":-2200,"end":-1600,"approx":true,"family":"unknown","group":"italy","kind":"culture","tier":3,"desc":"Early Bronze Age villagers of the Po valley and Lake Garda who built pile dwellings along lake shores and in marshes."},{"id":"nuragic","name":"Nuragic civilization","short":"Nuragic","start":-1800,"end":-238,"approx":true,"family":"unknown","group":"italy","kind":"culture","tier":2,"desc":"The people of Sardinia, who built around 7,000 stone towers called nuraghi and cast bronze figurines. Carthage took the coasts, and Rome seized the whole island in 238 BCE."},{"id":"terramare","name":"Terramare culture","short":"Terramare","start":-1700,"end":-1150,"approx":true,"family":"unknown","group":"italy","kind":"culture","tier":3,"desc":"Bronze Age villages of the Po plain built on raised mounds ringed by moats and embankments, abandoned suddenly around 1150 BCE."},{"id":"apennine-culture","name":"Apennine culture","short":"Apennine","start":-1600,"end":-1150,"approx":true,"family":"unknown","group":"italy","kind":"culture","tier":3,"desc":"Middle Bronze Age herders of central and southern Italy who moved flocks between mountain and lowland pastures. Mycenaean pottery reached their coastal sites.","next":["proto-villanovan"]},{"id":"proto-villanovan","name":"Proto-Villanovan culture","short":"Proto-Villanov.","start":-1200,"end":-900,"approx":true,"family":"unknown","group":"italy","kind":"culture","tier":3,"desc":"Late Bronze Age people of Italy who cremated their dead in urnfields like those north of the Alps. They form the background to the Villanovan and Latial cultures.","next":["villanovan"]},{"id":"villanovan","name":"Villanovan culture","short":"Villanovan","start":-900,"end":-720,"approx":true,"family":"isolate","group":"italy","kind":"culture","tier":3,"desc":"The earliest phase of Etruscan civilization, named after a site near Bologna and known for biconical cremation urns and hut-shaped urns.","next":["etruscans"]},{"id":"etruscans","name":"Etruscan civilization","short":"Etruscans","start":-720,"end":-90,"approx":true,"family":"isolate","group":"italy","kind":"state","tier":2,"capital":"Veii, Tarquinia, Caere and other cities","desc":"A league of city-states in Tuscany speaking a non-Indo-European language, who taught Rome much of its religion and engineering. Rome took their cities one by one, starting with Veii in 396 BCE."},{"id":"italic-peoples","name":"Italic peoples","short":"Italics","start":-1000,"end":-88,"approx":true,"family":"romance","group":"italy","kind":"culture","tier":3,"desc":"Latins, Umbrians, Sabines and the Oscan-speaking Samnites and Lucanians. Rome beat the Samnites in three wars and gave all Italians citizenship after the Social War of 91 to 88 BCE."},{"id":"magna-graecia","name":"Magna Graecia","short":"Magna Graecia","start":-750,"end":-272,"approx":true,"family":"greek","group":"italy","kind":"state","tier":3,"capital":"Taras, Croton, Sybaris","desc":"Greek colonies of southern Italy, from Cumae and Taras to Croton, where Pythagoras taught. Rome took Taras in 272 BCE after Pyrrhus withdrew."},{"id":"syracuse","name":"Syracuse","short":"Syracuse","start":-734,"end":-212,"approx":true,"family":"greek","group":"italy","kind":"state","tier":2,"capital":"Syracuse","desc":"A Corinthian colony that became the greatest Greek city in the west, crushed the Athenian expedition in 413 BCE and fought Carthage for Sicily. Rome took it in 212 BCE, killing Archimedes."},{"id":"carthaginian-sicily","name":"Carthaginian Sicily and Sardinia","short":"Punic Sicily","start":-550,"end":-238,"approx":true,"family":"semitic","group":"italy","kind":"colony","tier":3,"capital":"Motya, later Lilybaeum","desc":"Carthage held western Sicily and the Sardinian coast through Phoenician towns such as Motya and Panormus. It lost Sicily in the First Punic War and Sardinia in 238 BCE."},{"id":"cisalpine-gauls","name":"Cisalpine Gauls","short":"Cisalpine Gauls","start":-400,"end":-191,"approx":true,"family":"celtic","group":"italy","kind":"culture","tier":3,"desc":"Celtic Boii, Insubres and Senones who settled the Po valley. The Senones sacked Rome around 390 BCE. Rome had conquered the region by 191 BCE."},{"id":"roman-kingdom","name":"Roman Kingdom","short":"Rome","start":-753,"end":-509,"approx":true,"family":"romance","group":"italy","kind":"state","tier":2,"capital":"Rome","desc":"By tradition founded by Romulus in 753 BCE and ruled by seven kings, the last three of them Etruscan. The Romans expelled Tarquin the Proud and set up a republic.","next":["roman-republic"]},{"id":"roman-republic","name":"Roman Republic","short":"Roman Republic","start":-509,"end":-27,"family":"romance","group":"italy","kind":"state","tier":1,"capital":"Rome","desc":"Governed by two annual consuls and the Senate, Rome conquered Italy, destroyed Carthage and took Greece and Gaul. Its civil wars ended with Octavian as sole ruler.","next":["roman-empire"]},{"id":"roman-empire","name":"Roman Empire","short":"Rome","start":-27,"end":395,"family":"romance","group":"italy","kind":"empire","tier":1,"capital":"Rome, later Constantinople","desc":"Augustus turned the Republic into a monarchy in all but name. At its height under Trajan it ruled the whole Mediterranean basin. Theodosius I was the last emperor to rule both halves.","next":["western-roman-empire","byzantine-empire"]},{"id":"western-roman-empire","name":"Western Roman Empire","short":"Western Rome","start":395,"end":476,"family":"romance","group":"italy","kind":"empire","tier":2,"capital":"Milan, later Ravenna","desc":"The western half of the empire, run by weak emperors and Germanic generals while Goths, Vandals and Franks took its provinces. Odoacer deposed Romulus Augustulus in 476.","next":["odoacer-italy"]},{"id":"odoacer-italy","name":"Kingdom of Odoacer","short":"Odoacer","start":476,"end":493,"family":"germanic","group":"italy","kind":"state","tier":3,"capital":"Ravenna","desc":"The barbarian general Odoacer ruled Italy as king under nominal Byzantine overlordship. Theodoric the Ostrogoth besieged him in Ravenna and killed him in 493.","next":["ostrogothic-kingdom"]},{"id":"ostrogothic-kingdom","name":"Ostrogothic Kingdom","short":"Ostrogoths","start":493,"end":553,"family":"germanic","group":"italy","kind":"state","tier":2,"capital":"Ravenna","desc":"Theodoric the Great ruled Italy with Roman officials such as Boethius and Cassiodorus. Justinian's generals destroyed the kingdom in a twenty-year war.","next":["byzantine-italy"]},{"id":"byzantine-italy","name":"Byzantine Italy (Exarchate of Ravenna)","short":"Exarchate","start":554,"end":751,"family":"greek","group":"italy","kind":"colony","tier":3,"capital":"Ravenna","desc":"Justinian's reconquered Italy, governed from Ravenna. The Lombards took most of the interior from 568 and captured Ravenna in 751."},{"id":"lombard-kingdom","name":"Lombard Kingdom","short":"Lombards","start":568,"end":774,"family":"germanic","group":"italy","kind":"state","tier":2,"capital":"Pavia","desc":"The Lombards under Alboin invaded Italy in 568 and ruled the north and centre. Charlemagne conquered the kingdom in 774 at the Pope's request."},{"id":"benevento","name":"Duchy and Principality of Benevento","short":"Benevento","start":571,"end":1077,"approx":true,"family":"germanic","group":"italy","kind":"state","tier":3,"capital":"Benevento","desc":"A Lombard duchy in the south that survived Charlemagne's conquest of the north as an independent principality. The Normans took the last of it in 1077."},{"id":"papal-states","name":"Papal States","short":"Papal States","start":756,"end":1870,"family":"romance","group":"italy","kind":"state","tier":2,"capital":"Rome","desc":"Pepin the Short gave Pope Stephen II lands in central Italy in 756. The popes ruled as temporal princes until Italian troops took Rome in 1870.","next":["vatican-city"]},{"id":"vatican-city","name":"Vatican City","short":"Vatican","start":1929,"end":2025,"family":"romance","group":"italy","kind":"state","tier":3,"capital":"Vatican City","desc":"The world's smallest state, created by the Lateran Treaty between Pope Pius XI and Mussolini in 1929 and governed by the Pope as head of the Catholic Church."},{"id":"emirate-of-sicily","name":"Emirate of Sicily","short":"Emirate","start":831,"end":1091,"family":"arabic","group":"italy","kind":"state","tier":3,"capital":"Palermo","desc":"Aghlabid armies landed in 827 and took Palermo in 831. Muslim rule brought citrus, sugar cane and cotton to Sicily. The Normans completed their conquest in 1091.","next":["kingdom-of-sicily"]},{"id":"catepanate-italy","name":"Catepanate of Italy","short":"Catepanate","start":970,"end":1071,"family":"greek","group":"italy","kind":"colony","tier":3,"capital":"Bari","desc":"The Byzantine province of Apulia and Calabria, governed by a catepan from Bari. The Normans took Bari in 1071, ending Byzantine rule in Italy."},{"id":"venice","name":"Republic of Venice","short":"Venice","start":697,"end":1797,"approx":true,"family":"romance","group":"italy","kind":"state","tier":1,"capital":"Venice","desc":"Ruled by an elected doge from, by tradition, 697, Venice built a trading empire in the Adriatic and Aegean and steered the Fourth Crusade to Constantinople. Napoleon ended it in 1797."},{"id":"genoa","name":"Republic of Genoa","short":"Genoa","start":1005,"end":1797,"approx":true,"family":"romance","group":"italy","kind":"state","tier":2,"capital":"Genoa","desc":"A maritime republic with colonies from Crimea to Chios and Venice's great rival. Its bankers financed the Spanish crown in the 16th century. Napoleon turned it into the Ligurian Republic in 1797."},{"id":"pisa","name":"Republic of Pisa","short":"Pisa","start":1000,"end":1406,"approx":true,"family":"romance","group":"italy","kind":"state","tier":3,"capital":"Pisa","desc":"A Tuscan sea power that drove Muslim raiders from Sardinia and Corsica and built the Leaning Tower. Genoa crushed its fleet at Meloria in 1284, and Florence conquered it in 1406."},{"id":"florence","name":"Republic of Florence","short":"Florence","start":1115,"end":1532,"family":"romance","group":"italy","kind":"state","tier":2,"capital":"Florence","desc":"A wool and banking republic whose Medici rulers patronised Brunelleschi, Botticelli and Michelangelo. Charles V made the Medici hereditary dukes in 1532.","next":["tuscany"]},{"id":"tuscany","name":"Duchy and Grand Duchy of Tuscany","short":"Tuscany","start":1532,"end":1859,"family":"romance","group":"italy","kind":"state","tier":3,"capital":"Florence","desc":"The Medici duchy, raised to a grand duchy in 1569 and ruled by Habsburg-Lorraine from 1737. It voted to join the Kingdom of Sardinia in 1860.","next":["kingdom-of-italy"]},{"id":"duchy-of-milan","name":"Duchy of Milan","short":"Milan","start":1395,"end":1796,"family":"romance","group":"italy","kind":"state","tier":3,"capital":"Milan","desc":"The Visconti and then the Sforza ruled one of Italy's wealthiest states, where Leonardo painted the Last Supper. Spain held it from 1535 and Austria from 1714."},{"id":"kingdom-of-sicily","name":"Kingdom of Sicily","short":"Sicily","start":1130,"end":1282,"family":"romance","group":"italy","kind":"state","tier":2,"capital":"Palermo","desc":"Roger II united the Norman conquests in Sicily and southern Italy. The Hohenstaufen emperor Frederick II ruled from Palermo, and the Sicilian Vespers of 1282 drove out the Angevins.","next":["kingdom-of-naples","sicily-aragonese"]},{"id":"kingdom-of-naples","name":"Kingdom of Naples","short":"Naples","start":1282,"end":1816,"family":"romance","group":"italy","kind":"state","tier":2,"capital":"Naples","desc":"The mainland half of the old Sicilian kingdom, kept by the Angevins after 1282 and later ruled by Aragon, Spain and the Bourbons. Naples grew into one of Europe's largest cities.","next":["two-sicilies"]},{"id":"sicily-aragonese","name":"Kingdom of Sicily (island)","short":"Sicily","start":1282,"end":1816,"family":"romance","group":"italy","kind":"state","tier":3,"capital":"Palermo","desc":"After the Vespers the Sicilians chose Peter III of Aragon as king. The island was ruled from Spain, Savoy and Vienna before the Bourbons joined it to Naples.","next":["two-sicilies"]},{"id":"two-sicilies","name":"Kingdom of the Two Sicilies","short":"Two Sicilies","start":1816,"end":1861,"family":"romance","group":"italy","kind":"state","tier":3,"capital":"Naples","desc":"The Bourbon union of Naples and Sicily, the largest Italian state. Garibaldi's Thousand conquered it in 1860.","next":["kingdom-of-italy"]},{"id":"savoy","name":"County and Duchy of Savoy","short":"Savoy","start":1003,"end":1720,"approx":true,"family":"romance","group":"italy","kind":"state","tier":3,"capital":"Chambery, later Turin","desc":"An Alpine dynasty holding the passes between France and Italy, made dukes in 1416. Emmanuel Philibert moved the capital to Turin in 1563.","next":["kingdom-of-sardinia"]},{"id":"kingdom-of-sardinia","name":"Kingdom of Sardinia (Piedmont-Sardinia)","short":"Piedmont","start":1720,"end":1861,"family":"romance","group":"italy","kind":"state","tier":2,"capital":"Turin","desc":"The House of Savoy took the title of King of Sardinia in 1720. Under Cavour and Victor Emmanuel II it led the unification of Italy.","next":["kingdom-of-italy"]},{"id":"kingdom-of-italy","name":"Kingdom of Italy","short":"Italy","start":1861,"end":1946,"family":"romance","group":"italy","kind":"state","tier":2,"capital":"Turin, Florence, then Rome","desc":"Proclaimed in 1861 and completed with the capture of Rome in 1870, it fought on the winning side in the First World War. A referendum abolished the monarchy in 1946.","next":["italian-republic"]},{"id":"fascist-italy","name":"Fascist Italy","short":"Fascist Italy","start":1922,"end":1943,"family":"romance","group":"italy","kind":"state","tier":2,"capital":"Rome","desc":"Mussolini's dictatorship invaded Ethiopia in 1935 and allied with Hitler. After the Allied landings the king dismissed him in 1943, and he ran a German puppet state in the north until 1945."},{"id":"italian-republic","name":"Italian Republic","short":"Italy","start":1946,"end":2025,"family":"romance","group":"italy","kind":"state","tier":2,"capital":"Rome","desc":"A founder of NATO and the EEC whose post-war economic miracle turned it into a major industrial power."},{"id":"san-marino","name":"San Marino","short":"San Marino","start":301,"end":2025,"approx":true,"family":"romance","group":"italy","kind":"state","tier":3,"capital":"San Marino","desc":"By tradition founded by the stonemason Saint Marinus in 301, San Marino claims to be the oldest surviving republic. Its statutes of 1600 are still in force."},{"id":"hospitaller-malta","name":"Order of Saint John in Malta","short":"Knights of Malta","start":1530,"end":1798,"family":"romance","group":"italy","kind":"state","tier":3,"capital":"Valletta","desc":"Charles V gave Malta to the Knights Hospitaller, who held off the Ottoman Great Siege of 1565 and built Valletta. Napoleon took the island in 1798.","next":["british-malta"]},{"id":"british-malta","name":"British Malta","short":"British Malta","start":1800,"end":1964,"family":"germanic","group":"italy","kind":"colony","tier":3,"capital":"Valletta","desc":"Britain took Malta from the French in 1800 and made it a naval base. The island withstood heavy Axis bombing in 1940 to 1942 and was awarded the George Cross.","next":["malta"]},{"id":"malta","name":"Malta","short":"Malta","start":1964,"end":2025,"family":"semitic","group":"italy","kind":"state","tier":3,"capital":"Valletta","desc":"Independent in 1964 and a republic from 1974, Malta joined the EU in 2004. Maltese, descended from Sicilian Arabic, is the only Semitic language with official status in the EU."},{"id":"cotofeni","name":"Cotofeni culture","short":"Cotofeni","start":-3500,"end":-2500,"approx":true,"family":"unknown","group":"balkans","kind":"culture","tier":3,"desc":"Copper Age herders and farmers of Romania and Serbia who settled caves and hilltops along the Danube and the Carpathians."},{"id":"vucedol","name":"Vucedol culture","short":"Vucedol","start":-3000,"end":-2200,"approx":true,"family":"unknown","group":"balkans","kind":"culture","tier":3,"desc":"Copper Age people of Croatia and Serbia known for black polished pottery with white inlay, like the Vucedol Dove vessel, and for early copper smelting."},{"id":"cycladic","name":"Cycladic culture","short":"Cycladic","start":-3200,"end":-2000,"approx":true,"family":"unknown","group":"balkans","kind":"culture","tier":3,"desc":"Islanders of the Cyclades who carved white marble figurines and traded obsidian from Melos across the Aegean in longboats."},{"id":"helladic","name":"Early and Middle Helladic Greece","short":"Helladic","start":-3200,"end":-1600,"approx":true,"family":"unknown","group":"balkans","kind":"culture","tier":3,"desc":"Bronze Age farmers of mainland Greece who built corridor houses such as the House of Tiles at Lerna. Greek speakers probably arrived during this period.","next":["mycenaean-greece"]},{"id":"minoan","name":"Minoan civilization","short":"Minoans","start":-3100,"end":-1450,"approx":true,"family":"unknown","group":"balkans","kind":"state","tier":1,"capital":"Knossos","desc":"Europe's first palace civilization, on Crete, with Linear A writing, frescoes and multi-storey palaces at Knossos, Phaistos and Malia. Mycenaean Greeks took over Knossos around 1450 BCE.","next":["mycenaean-greece"]},{"id":"mycenaean-greece","name":"Mycenaean Greece","short":"Mycenaeans","start":-1600,"end":-1100,"approx":true,"family":"greek","group":"balkans","kind":"state","tier":2,"capital":"Mycenae, Pylos, Thebes","desc":"Greek-speaking palace kingdoms that wrote in Linear B, built the walls of Mycenae and Tiryns and traded with Egypt and Anatolia. The palaces burned in the Late Bronze Age collapse around 1200 BCE.","next":["greek-dark-ages"]},{"id":"thracians","name":"Thracians","short":"Thracians","start":-1200,"end":46,"approx":true,"family":"ie-other","group":"balkans","kind":"culture","tier":3,"desc":"Indo-European tribes between the Danube and the Aegean, horsemen and goldsmiths whose treasures were found at Panagyurishte and Rogozen. Rome made Thrace a province in 46 CE."},{"id":"greek-dark-ages","name":"Greek Dark Ages","short":"Dark Ages","start":-1100,"end":-800,"approx":true,"family":"greek","group":"balkans","kind":"culture","tier":3,"desc":"After the palaces fell, writing was lost and the population shrank. Iron came into use, and Greeks settled the Ionian coast of Anatolia.","next":["greek-city-states"]},{"id":"illyrians","name":"Illyrians","short":"Illyrians","start":-1000,"end":9,"approx":true,"family":"ie-other","group":"balkans","kind":"culture","tier":3,"desc":"Indo-European tribes of the western Balkans such as the Ardiaei, Dalmatae and Taulantii. Queen Teuta's raids on Adriatic shipping provoked Rome's first Illyrian War. Rome put down their last revolt in 9 CE."},{"id":"greek-city-states","name":"Greek city-states","short":"Greek poleis","start":-800,"end":-338,"approx":true,"family":"greek","group":"balkans","kind":"state","tier":1,"capital":"Athens, Sparta, Corinth, Thebes","desc":"Hundreds of independent poleis that founded colonies across the Mediterranean, beat Persia at Marathon and Salamis and produced philosophy, drama and democracy. Philip II of Macedon defeated them at Chaeronea in 338 BCE."},{"id":"sparta","name":"Sparta","short":"Sparta","start":-900,"end":-192,"approx":true,"family":"greek","group":"balkans","kind":"state","tier":2,"capital":"Sparta","desc":"A state of full-time citizen soldiers ruling helot serfs, leader of the Peloponnesian League. It beat Athens in 404 BCE, lost to Thebes at Leuctra in 371 and was forced into the Achaean League in 192."},{"id":"classical-athens","name":"Athens","short":"Athens","start":-508,"end":-322,"family":"greek","group":"balkans","kind":"state","tier":1,"capital":"Athens","desc":"Cleisthenes made Athens a democracy in 508 BCE. It led the Delian League, built the Parthenon and was home to Socrates and Plato. It lost the Peloponnesian War in 404 BCE and its democracy to Macedon in 322."},{"id":"kingdom-of-macedon","name":"Kingdom of Macedon","short":"Macedon","start":-700,"end":-168,"approx":true,"family":"greek","group":"balkans","kind":"state","tier":2,"capital":"Aigai, later Pella","desc":"The Argead kingdom north of Thessaly. Philip II built a professional army and mastered Greece. After Alexander the Antigonids ruled until Rome won at Pydna in 168 BCE.","next":["roman-greece"]},{"id":"alexander-empire","name":"Empire of Alexander the Great","short":"Alexander","start":-336,"end":-323,"family":"greek","group":"balkans","kind":"empire","tier":1,"capital":"Pella, later Babylon","desc":"Alexander III conquered the Persian Empire from Egypt to the Indus in eleven years. After his death in Babylon in 323 BCE his generals carved it into the Hellenistic kingdoms.","next":["kingdom-of-macedon"]},{"id":"odrysian-kingdom","name":"Odrysian Kingdom","short":"Odrysians","start":-480,"end":46,"approx":true,"family":"ie-other","group":"balkans","kind":"state","tier":3,"capital":"Seuthopolis","desc":"The largest Thracian kingdom, founded by Teres I after the Persian retreat from Europe. Later a Roman client, it was annexed as the province of Thrace in 46 CE."},{"id":"epirus","name":"Kingdom of Epirus","short":"Epirus","start":-330,"end":-167,"approx":true,"family":"greek","group":"balkans","kind":"state","tier":3,"capital":"Ambracia","desc":"The Molossian kingdom of north-west Greece, whose king Pyrrhus beat Rome in Italy at ruinous cost. Rome sacked Epirus and enslaved 150,000 people in 167 BCE."},{"id":"achaean-league","name":"Achaean League","short":"Achaean League","start":-280,"end":-146,"family":"greek","group":"balkans","kind":"state","tier":3,"capital":"Aigion","desc":"A federation of Peloponnesian cities that grew to dominate southern Greece. Its war with Rome ended with the destruction of Corinth in 146 BCE.","next":["roman-greece"]},{"id":"dacians","name":"Getae and Dacians","short":"Dacians","start":-500,"end":106,"approx":true,"family":"ie-other","group":"balkans","kind":"culture","tier":3,"desc":"Thracian-related peoples north of the lower Danube with gold and salt mines and hill sanctuaries. Herodotus described the Getae and their god Zalmoxis."},{"id":"dacian-kingdom","name":"Dacian Kingdom","short":"Dacia","start":-82,"end":106,"approx":true,"family":"ie-other","group":"balkans","kind":"state","tier":2,"capital":"Sarmizegetusa","desc":"Burebista united the Dacians around 82 BCE, and Decebalus later beat Roman armies. Trajan conquered Dacia in two wars, and Decebalus took his own life in 106.","next":["roman-dacia"]},{"id":"roman-dacia","name":"Roman Dacia","short":"Dacia","start":106,"end":275,"family":"romance","group":"balkans","kind":"colony","tier":3,"capital":"Ulpia Traiana Sarmizegetusa","desc":"Trajan's province north of the Danube, settled by colonists and worked for its gold mines. Aurelian withdrew the army and settlers around 275."},{"id":"roman-greece","name":"Roman Macedonia and Achaea","short":"Roman Greece","start":-146,"end":395,"family":"romance","group":"balkans","kind":"colony","tier":3,"capital":"Thessalonica, Corinth","desc":"The Roman provinces of the southern Balkans, where Greek remained the language of the cities. Constantine built his new capital at Byzantium in 330.","next":["byzantine-empire"]},{"id":"visigoths-migration","name":"Visigoths in the Balkans","short":"Visigoths","start":376,"end":418,"family":"germanic","group":"balkans","kind":"culture","tier":3,"desc":"Goths who fled the Huns across the Danube in 376, destroyed a Roman army at Adrianople in 378 and under Alaric sacked Rome in 410 before settling in Gaul.","next":["visigoths-toulouse"]},{"id":"byzantine-empire","name":"Byzantine Empire","short":"Byzantium","start":395,"end":1453,"family":"greek","group":"balkans","kind":"empire","tier":1,"capital":"Constantinople","desc":"The Greek-speaking, Orthodox eastern Roman Empire, which held the Balkans and Anatolia for centuries. Justinian retook Italy, and the empire survived Arab and Turkish sieges until the Ottomans took Constantinople in 1453.","next":["ottoman-empire"]},{"id":"south-slavs","name":"South Slavic tribes","short":"South Slavs","start":550,"end":850,"approx":true,"family":"slavic","group":"balkans","kind":"culture","tier":3,"desc":"Slavs who crossed the Danube with and after the Avars and settled most of the Balkans, ancestors of the Serbs, Croats, Slovenes and Bulgarians."},{"id":"first-bulgarian-empire","name":"First Bulgarian Empire","short":"1st Bulgaria","start":681,"end":1018,"family":"slavic","group":"balkans","kind":"empire","tier":2,"capital":"Pliska, later Preslav and Ohrid","desc":"Asparukh's Bulgars won Byzantine recognition in 681 and merged with the local Slavs. Boris I adopted Christianity, and Simeon I made it a centre of Slavic letters. Basil II conquered it by 1018.","next":["second-bulgarian-empire"]},{"id":"kingdom-of-croatia","name":"Kingdom of Croatia","short":"Croatia","start":925,"end":1102,"approx":true,"family":"slavic","group":"balkans","kind":"state","tier":3,"capital":"Nin, Biograd, Knin","desc":"Tomislav was crowned the first Croatian king around 925. After the native line died out, Croatia entered a personal union with Hungary in 1102.","next":["kingdom-of-hungary"]},{"id":"second-bulgarian-empire","name":"Second Bulgarian Empire","short":"2nd Bulgaria","start":1185,"end":1396,"family":"slavic","group":"balkans","kind":"empire","tier":2,"capital":"Tarnovo","desc":"Founded by the brothers Peter and Asen in a revolt against Byzantium. Ivan Asen II made it the leading Balkan power. The Ottomans took Tarnovo in 1393 and Vidin in 1396.","next":["ottoman-empire"]},{"id":"serbia-raska","name":"Grand Principality of Serbia","short":"Raska","start":1166,"end":1217,"family":"slavic","group":"balkans","kind":"state","tier":3,"capital":"Ras","desc":"Stefan Nemanja united the Serbian lands and founded the Nemanjic dynasty, which ruled Serbia for two centuries.","next":["kingdom-of-serbia-medieval"]},{"id":"kingdom-of-serbia-medieval","name":"Kingdom of Serbia","short":"Serbia","start":1217,"end":1346,"family":"slavic","group":"balkans","kind":"state","tier":3,"capital":"Ras, later Skopje","desc":"Stefan the First-Crowned received a royal crown in 1217, and his brother Sava founded the Serbian church. Silver mines paid for expansion south into Macedonia.","next":["serbian-empire"]},{"id":"serbian-empire","name":"Serbian Empire","short":"Serbian Empire","start":1346,"end":1371,"family":"slavic","group":"balkans","kind":"empire","tier":2,"capital":"Skopje","desc":"Stefan Dusan crowned himself emperor of the Serbs and Greeks in 1346 and issued a law code. The empire broke apart after the Ottomans won at the Maritsa in 1371.","next":["serbian-despotate"]},{"id":"serbian-despotate","name":"Serbian Despotate","short":"Despotate","start":1402,"end":1459,"family":"slavic","group":"balkans","kind":"state","tier":3,"capital":"Belgrade, later Smederevo","desc":"The Serbian state left after the Battle of Kosovo in 1389, ruled by Stefan Lazarevic and Durad Brankovic. The Ottomans took Smederevo in 1459.","next":["ottoman-empire"]},{"id":"bosnia","name":"Banate and Kingdom of Bosnia","short":"Bosnia","start":1154,"end":1463,"approx":true,"family":"slavic","group":"balkans","kind":"state","tier":3,"capital":"Jajce, Bobovac","desc":"A medieval state with its own Bosnian church that became a kingdom under Tvrtko I in 1377. The Ottomans conquered it in 1463.","next":["ottoman-empire"]},{"id":"latin-empire","name":"Latin Empire","short":"Latin Empire","start":1204,"end":1261,"family":"romance","group":"balkans","kind":"state","tier":3,"capital":"Constantinople","desc":"Set up by the knights of the Fourth Crusade after they sacked Constantinople. The Byzantine Empire of Nicaea recaptured the city in 1261.","next":["byzantine-empire"]},{"id":"principality-of-achaea","name":"Principality of Achaea","short":"Achaea","start":1205,"end":1432,"family":"romance","group":"balkans","kind":"state","tier":3,"capital":"Andravida","desc":"A French crusader state in the Peloponnese ruled by the Villehardouin family, known for its chivalric court. The Byzantine despots of the Morea took it back by 1432."},{"id":"despotate-of-epirus","name":"Despotate of Epirus","short":"Epirus","start":1205,"end":1479,"family":"greek","group":"balkans","kind":"state","tier":3,"capital":"Arta","desc":"A Byzantine successor state founded after 1204 that briefly took Thessalonica. It passed through Serbian and Italian hands before the Ottomans took its last fortresses in 1479."},{"id":"venetian-crete","name":"Venetian Crete","short":"Candia","start":1211,"end":1669,"family":"romance","group":"balkans","kind":"colony","tier":3,"capital":"Candia (Heraklion)","desc":"Venice ruled Crete for over 450 years, a centre of Cretan Renaissance painting where El Greco trained. The Ottomans took Candia in 1669 after a 21-year siege."},{"id":"ragusa","name":"Republic of Ragusa","short":"Ragusa","start":1358,"end":1808,"family":"slavic","group":"balkans","kind":"state","tier":3,"capital":"Ragusa (Dubrovnik)","desc":"A merchant republic on the Dalmatian coast that bought Ottoman protection with tribute and traded across the Mediterranean. Napoleon's marshal Marmont abolished it in 1808."},{"id":"ottoman-empire","name":"Ottoman Empire","short":"Ottomans","start":1299,"end":1922,"family":"turkic","group":"balkans","kind":"empire","tier":1,"capital":"Bursa, Edirne, then Constantinople","desc":"From Anatolia the Ottomans crossed into Europe at Gallipoli in 1354 and ruled the Balkans for five centuries, besieging Vienna in 1529 and 1683. Defeat in 1918 led to the sultanate's abolition in 1922.","next":["kingdom-of-greece","principality-of-serbia","bulgaria-tsardom","albania"]},{"id":"league-of-lezhe","name":"League of Lezhe","short":"Skanderbeg","start":1444,"end":1479,"family":"ie-other","group":"balkans","kind":"state","tier":3,"capital":"Kruja","desc":"An alliance of Albanian princes led by Skanderbeg that beat back Ottoman armies for 25 years. Shkodra, the last holdout, fell in 1479."},{"id":"wallachia","name":"Wallachia","short":"Wallachia","start":1330,"end":1859,"family":"romance","group":"balkans","kind":"state","tier":3,"capital":"Curtea de Arges, later Bucharest","desc":"Basarab I won independence from Hungary at Posada in 1330. Vlad III the Impaler fought the Ottomans, under whose suzerainty Wallachia lived until it united with Moldavia in 1859.","next":["romania-kingdom"]},{"id":"moldavia","name":"Moldavia","short":"Moldavia","start":1346,"end":1859,"approx":true,"family":"romance","group":"balkans","kind":"state","tier":3,"capital":"Suceava, later Iasi","desc":"A principality east of the Carpathians whose prince Stephen the Great held off the Ottomans in the late 15th century. Russia took Bessarabia in 1812, and the rest united with Wallachia in 1859.","next":["romania-kingdom"]},{"id":"montenegro-old","name":"Montenegro (Prince-Bishopric to Kingdom)","short":"Montenegro","start":1516,"end":1918,"family":"slavic","group":"balkans","kind":"state","tier":3,"capital":"Cetinje","desc":"Ruled by Orthodox prince-bishops, later of the Petrovic-Njegos family, who resisted the Ottomans in the mountains. Recognised in 1878, it became a kingdom in 1910 and merged into Yugoslavia in 1918.","next":["yugoslavia-kingdom"]},{"id":"principality-of-serbia","name":"Principality and Kingdom of Serbia","short":"Serbia","start":1815,"end":1918,"family":"slavic","group":"balkans","kind":"state","tier":3,"capital":"Belgrade","desc":"Revolts in 1804 and 1815 won autonomy from the Ottomans, independence came in 1878 and a kingdom in 1882. Austria-Hungary's attack on Serbia in 1914 began the First World War.","next":["yugoslavia-kingdom"]},{"id":"kingdom-of-greece","name":"Kingdom of Greece","short":"Greece","start":1832,"end":1924,"family":"greek","group":"balkans","kind":"state","tier":2,"capital":"Nafplio, then Athens","desc":"Independent after the War of Independence of 1821 to 1829, under the Bavarian prince Otto. It doubled in size in the Balkan Wars but lost the war with Turkey in 1922.","next":["second-hellenic-republic"]},{"id":"second-hellenic-republic","name":"Second Hellenic Republic","short":"2nd Republic","start":1924,"end":1935,"family":"greek","group":"balkans","kind":"state","tier":3,"capital":"Athens","desc":"A republic proclaimed after the defeat in Anatolia, which resettled over a million refugees from Turkey. A rigged plebiscite restored the monarchy in 1935.","next":["kingdom-of-greece-restored"]},{"id":"kingdom-of-greece-restored","name":"Kingdom of Greece (restored)","short":"Greece","start":1935,"end":1973,"family":"greek","group":"balkans","kind":"state","tier":3,"capital":"Athens","desc":"The restored monarchy went through the Metaxas dictatorship, the Axis occupation of 1941 to 1944 and a civil war that lasted until 1949. The military junta abolished it in 1973.","next":["greece"]},{"id":"greece","name":"Greece","short":"Greece","start":1974,"end":2025,"family":"greek","group":"balkans","kind":"state","tier":3,"capital":"Athens","desc":"The Third Hellenic Republic, founded after the fall of the junta in 1974. Greece joined the EEC in 1981 and went through a severe debt crisis from 2009."},{"id":"bulgaria-tsardom","name":"Principality and Tsardom of Bulgaria","short":"Bulgaria","start":1878,"end":1946,"family":"slavic","group":"balkans","kind":"state","tier":3,"capital":"Sofia","desc":"Created after the Russo-Turkish War of 1877 to 1878 and fully independent as a tsardom from 1908. It fought on the losing side in both world wars.","next":["bulgaria-communist"]},{"id":"bulgaria-communist","name":"People's Republic of Bulgaria","short":"PR Bulgaria","start":1946,"end":1990,"family":"slavic","group":"balkans","kind":"state","tier":3,"capital":"Sofia","desc":"One of the Soviet Union's most loyal allies, ruled by Todor Zhivkov from 1954 until 1989.","next":["bulgaria"]},{"id":"bulgaria","name":"Bulgaria","short":"Bulgaria","start":1990,"end":2025,"family":"slavic","group":"balkans","kind":"state","tier":3,"capital":"Sofia","desc":"A parliamentary republic since 1990, Bulgaria joined NATO in 2004 and the EU in 2007."},{"id":"romania-kingdom","name":"Romania (United Principalities and Kingdom)","short":"Romania","start":1859,"end":1947,"family":"romance","group":"balkans","kind":"state","tier":2,"capital":"Bucharest","desc":"Wallachia and Moldavia united under Alexandru Ioan Cuza in 1859, became independent in 1878 and a kingdom in 1881. Greater Romania gained Transylvania in 1918.","next":["romania-communist"]},{"id":"romania-communist","name":"Communist Romania","short":"Communist Rom.","start":1947,"end":1989,"family":"romance","group":"balkans","kind":"state","tier":3,"capital":"Bucharest","desc":"Under Nicolae Ceausescu from 1965 communist Romania kept a foreign policy apart from Moscow's and a harsh personality cult. Ceausescu was overthrown and shot in December 1989.","next":["romania"]},{"id":"romania","name":"Romania","short":"Romania","start":1989,"end":2025,"family":"romance","group":"balkans","kind":"state","tier":3,"capital":"Bucharest","desc":"A democracy since the revolution of 1989, Romania joined NATO in 2004 and the EU in 2007."},{"id":"moldova","name":"Moldova","short":"Moldova","start":1991,"end":2025,"family":"romance","group":"balkans","kind":"state","tier":3,"capital":"Chisinau","desc":"Independent from the Soviet Union in 1991. The breakaway region of Transnistria has been held by Russian-backed forces since 1992. Moldova is an EU candidate."},{"id":"yugoslavia-kingdom","name":"Kingdom of Yugoslavia","short":"Yugoslavia","start":1918,"end":1941,"family":"slavic","group":"balkans","kind":"state","tier":3,"capital":"Belgrade","desc":"Founded as the Kingdom of Serbs, Croats and Slovenes in 1918 and renamed in 1929 under King Alexander's dictatorship. The Axis invaded and dismembered it in 1941.","next":["sfr-yugoslavia"]},{"id":"sfr-yugoslavia","name":"Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia","short":"Yugoslavia","start":1945,"end":1992,"family":"slavic","group":"balkans","kind":"state","tier":2,"capital":"Belgrade","desc":"Tito's partisans liberated the country and built a federation of six republics that broke with Stalin in 1948. After Tito's death it fell apart in wars from 1991.","next":["serbia-montenegro","croatia","slovenia","bosnia-herzegovina","north-macedonia"]},{"id":"serbia-montenegro","name":"Serbia and Montenegro","short":"Serbia-Mont.","start":1992,"end":2006,"family":"slavic","group":"balkans","kind":"state","tier":3,"capital":"Belgrade","desc":"The rump Federal Republic of Yugoslavia under Slobodan Milosevic, bombed by NATO over Kosovo in 1999. Montenegro voted for independence in 2006.","next":["serbia","montenegro"]},{"id":"serbia","name":"Serbia","short":"Serbia","start":2006,"end":2025,"family":"slavic","group":"balkans","kind":"state","tier":3,"capital":"Belgrade","desc":"Independent on its own after Montenegro left the union in 2006, Serbia rejects Kosovo's 2008 declaration of independence and is an EU candidate."},{"id":"montenegro","name":"Montenegro","short":"Montenegro","start":2006,"end":2025,"family":"slavic","group":"balkans","kind":"state","tier":3,"capital":"Podgorica","desc":"Independent after a referendum in 2006, Montenegro joined NATO in 2017."},{"id":"croatia","name":"Croatia","short":"Croatia","start":1991,"end":2025,"family":"slavic","group":"balkans","kind":"state","tier":3,"capital":"Zagreb","desc":"Croatia declared independence in 1991 and won its war against Serb forces in 1995. It joined the EU in 2013."},{"id":"slovenia","name":"Slovenia","short":"Slovenia","start":1991,"end":2025,"family":"slavic","group":"balkans","kind":"state","tier":3,"capital":"Ljubljana","desc":"Slovenia broke from Yugoslavia after a ten-day war in 1991 and joined the EU and NATO in 2004."},{"id":"bosnia-herzegovina","name":"Bosnia and Herzegovina","short":"Bosnia","start":1992,"end":2025,"family":"slavic","group":"balkans","kind":"state","tier":3,"capital":"Sarajevo","desc":"Its 1992 independence led to a war of ethnic cleansing, the siege of Sarajevo and the Srebrenica genocide. The Dayton Agreement of 1995 divided it into two entities."},{"id":"north-macedonia","name":"North Macedonia","short":"N. Macedonia","start":1991,"end":2025,"family":"slavic","group":"balkans","kind":"state","tier":3,"capital":"Skopje","desc":"Independent from Yugoslavia in 1991, it took the name North Macedonia in 2019 to settle a dispute with Greece and joined NATO in 2020."},{"id":"albania","name":"Albania","short":"Albania","start":1912,"end":2025,"family":"ie-other","group":"balkans","kind":"state","tier":3,"capital":"Tirana","desc":"Declared independent of the Ottomans in 1912, Albania was ruled by King Zog and then by Enver Hoxha's isolated communist regime until 1991. It joined NATO in 2009."},{"id":"kosovo","name":"Kosovo","short":"Kosovo","start":2008,"end":2025,"family":"ie-other","group":"balkans","kind":"state","tier":3,"capital":"Pristina","desc":"Under UN administration after the 1999 war, Kosovo declared independence from Serbia in 2008. About half of UN members recognise it."},{"id":"cyprus","name":"Cyprus","short":"Cyprus","start":1960,"end":2025,"family":"greek","group":"balkans","kind":"state","tier":3,"capital":"Nicosia","desc":"Independent from Britain in 1960, the island was divided after the Turkish invasion of 1974. The Republic of Cyprus joined the EU in 2004."}],"events":[{"year":-3300,"title":"Otzi the Iceman dies in the Alps","desc":"A Copper Age man is killed by an arrow high in the Otztal Alps. His frozen body, found in 1991 with his clothes, bow and copper axe, is Europe's oldest natural human mummy.","tier":2,"group":"italy","related":["copper-age-italy"]},{"year":-3000,"title":"Stonehenge begun","desc":"The first phase of Stonehenge, a circular ditch and bank with a ring of pits, is dug on Salisbury Plain. The great sarsen stones are raised around 2500 BCE.","tier":2,"group":"british-isles","related":["neolithic-britain"]},{"year":-1600,"title":"Thera eruption","desc":"The volcano on Santorini buries the Minoan town of Akrotiri under metres of ash in one of the largest eruptions of the last 10,000 years.","tier":2,"group":"balkans","related":["minoan"]},{"year":-1200,"title":"Late Bronze Age collapse","desc":"Palaces at Mycenae, Pylos and Thebes burn and Linear B writing disappears as trade across the eastern Mediterranean breaks down.","tier":1,"group":"balkans","related":["mycenaean-greece","greek-dark-ages"]},{"year":-776,"title":"First Olympic Games","desc":"By tradition the first Olympic festival is held at Olympia in honour of Zeus. Greeks later counted years in four-year Olympiads from this date.","tier":2,"group":"balkans","related":["greek-city-states"]},{"year":-753,"title":"Traditional founding of Rome","desc":"Roman writers dated the founding of the city by Romulus to 21 April 753 BCE, the starting point of their year count.","tier":2,"group":"italy","related":["roman-kingdom"]},{"year":-508,"title":"Athenian democracy","desc":"Cleisthenes reorganises the citizens of Athens into ten tribes and gives power to the assembly, creating the first known democracy.","tier":1,"group":"balkans","related":["classical-athens"]},{"year":-480,"title":"Battle of Salamis","desc":"The Athenian-led Greek fleet destroys Xerxes' navy in the straits off Salamis, turning back the Persian invasion of Greece.","tier":2,"group":"balkans","related":["greek-city-states","classical-athens"]},{"year":-334,"title":"Alexander invades Persia","desc":"Alexander crosses the Hellespont with about 40,000 men and begins the conquest of the Persian Empire.","tier":1,"group":"balkans","related":["alexander-empire","kingdom-of-macedon"]},{"year":-218,"title":"Hannibal crosses the Alps","desc":"The Carthaginian general leads his army and elephants from Spain over the Alps into Italy and wins at Trebia, Trasimene and Cannae.","tier":2,"group":"italy","related":["roman-republic","carthaginian-iberia"]},{"year":-44,"title":"Assassination of Julius Caesar","desc":"Senators led by Brutus and Cassius stab Caesar, dictator for life, on the Ides of March, setting off the civil wars that end the Republic.","tier":1,"group":"italy","related":["roman-republic"]},{"year":9,"title":"Battle of the Teutoburg Forest","desc":"Arminius of the Cherusci destroys three Roman legions under Varus, and Rome gives up the conquest of Germany beyond the Rhine.","tier":2,"group":"central-europe","related":["germanic-tribes","roman-empire"]},{"year":313,"title":"Edict of Milan","desc":"Constantine and Licinius grant Christians freedom of worship across the Roman Empire.","tier":1,"group":"italy","related":["roman-empire"]},{"year":330,"title":"Constantinople dedicated","desc":"Constantine dedicates his new capital on the site of Byzantium. It stays the seat of the eastern Roman Empire for over 1,100 years.","tier":1,"group":"balkans","related":["roman-empire","byzantine-empire"]},{"year":410,"title":"Visigoths sack Rome","desc":"Alaric's Visigoths plunder Rome for three days, the first time in 800 years that the city falls to a foreign enemy.","tier":2,"group":"italy","related":["western-roman-empire","visigoths-migration"]},{"year":476,"title":"End of the Western Roman Empire","desc":"Odoacer deposes the boy emperor Romulus Augustulus and sends the imperial regalia to Constantinople.","tier":1,"group":"italy","related":["western-roman-empire","odoacer-italy"]},{"year":541,"title":"Plague of Justinian","desc":"Bubonic plague reaches Constantinople, killing perhaps a quarter of its people, and returns in waves across Europe for two centuries.","tier":2,"group":"balkans","related":["byzantine-empire"]},{"year":732,"title":"Battle of Tours","desc":"Charles Martel's Franks defeat an Umayyad army from al-Andalus between Tours and Poitiers, ending Muslim raids deep into Gaul.","tier":2,"group":"western-europe","related":["merovingian-franks","al-andalus-umayyad"]},{"year":793,"title":"Viking raid on Lindisfarne","desc":"Norse raiders sack the monastery of Lindisfarne off Northumbria, the conventional start of the Viking Age.","tier":2,"group":"british-isles","related":["viking-age","northumbria"]},{"year":800,"title":"Charlemagne crowned emperor","desc":"Pope Leo III crowns Charlemagne emperor of the Romans in Saint Peter's on Christmas Day, reviving the imperial title in the west.","tier":1,"group":"western-europe","related":["carolingian-empire"]},{"year":988,"title":"Baptism of the Rus","desc":"Vladimir I of Kiev adopts Orthodox Christianity from Byzantium and has the people of Kiev baptised in the Dnieper.","tier":2,"group":"russia-steppe","related":["kievan-rus","byzantine-empire"]},{"year":1054,"title":"East-West Schism","desc":"Papal legates and the Patriarch of Constantinople excommunicate each other, splitting the Catholic and Orthodox churches.","tier":1,"group":"balkans","related":["byzantine-empire","papal-states"]},{"year":1066,"title":"Norman conquest of England","desc":"William of Normandy defeats Harold II at Hastings and is crowned king of England on Christmas Day.","tier":2,"group":"british-isles","related":["england-anglo-saxon","england-plantagenet","duchy-of-normandy"]},{"year":1095,"title":"First Crusade proclaimed","desc":"At Clermont, Pope Urban II calls on western knights to aid Byzantium and take Jerusalem, which the crusaders capture in 1099.","tier":1,"group":"western-europe","related":["france-capetian","byzantine-empire"]},{"year":1204,"title":"Crusaders sack Constantinople","desc":"Knights of the Fourth Crusade and the Venetian fleet storm and loot Constantinople and divide the Byzantine Empire among themselves.","tier":2,"group":"balkans","related":["byzantine-empire","latin-empire","venice"]},{"year":1215,"title":"Magna Carta","desc":"English barons force King John to seal a charter limiting royal power at Runnymede.","tier":2,"group":"british-isles","related":["england-plantagenet"]},{"year":1240,"title":"Mongols sack Kiev","desc":"Batu's army storms Kiev, completing the Mongol conquest of the Rus principalities, then strikes Poland and Hungary in 1241.","tier":2,"group":"russia-steppe","related":["kievan-rus","golden-horde"]},{"year":1347,"title":"Black Death reaches Europe","desc":"Plague carried from the Black Sea reaches Sicily in 1347 and kills between a third and half of Europe's people by 1351.","tier":1,"group":"italy","related":["genoese-gazaria"]},{"year":1450,"title":"Gutenberg's printing press","desc":"Johannes Gutenberg develops printing with movable metal type in Mainz. His Bible is finished around 1455.","tier":1,"group":"central-europe","related":["holy-roman-empire"]},{"year":1453,"title":"Fall of Constantinople","desc":"Mehmed II breaches the Theodosian Walls after a 53-day siege, ending the Roman state that had lasted over 1,400 years.","tier":1,"group":"balkans","related":["byzantine-empire","ottoman-empire"]},{"year":1492,"title":"Fall of Granada and Columbus's voyage","desc":"Ferdinand and Isabella take Granada, the last Muslim state in Iberia, and send Columbus west across the Atlantic.","tier":1,"group":"iberia","related":["emirate-of-granada","crown-of-castile"]},{"year":1517,"title":"Luther's Ninety-five Theses","desc":"Martin Luther attacks the sale of indulgences in Wittenberg, starting the Protestant Reformation.","tier":1,"group":"central-europe","related":["holy-roman-empire"]},{"year":1648,"title":"Peace of Westphalia","desc":"Treaties at Munster and Osnabruck end the Thirty Years' War, recognise Dutch and Swiss independence and weaken the emperor.","tier":1,"group":"central-europe","related":["holy-roman-empire","dutch-republic","old-swiss-confederacy","swedish-empire"]},{"year":1683,"title":"Siege of Vienna","desc":"A Polish, Austrian and German army under Jan Sobieski routs the Ottoman army besieging Vienna, beginning the Ottoman retreat from Hungary.","tier":2,"group":"central-europe","related":["habsburg-monarchy","ottoman-empire","polish-lithuanian-commonwealth"]},{"year":1769,"title":"Watt's steam engine","desc":"James Watt patents a separate condenser that makes steam engines far more efficient, powering the Industrial Revolution in Britain.","tier":1,"group":"british-isles","related":["great-britain"]},{"year":1789,"title":"French Revolution","desc":"The storming of the Bastille on 14 July begins the revolution that abolishes feudal privileges and, in 1792, the monarchy.","tier":1,"group":"western-europe","related":["france-bourbon","first-french-republic"]},{"year":1815,"title":"Battle of Waterloo","desc":"British, Dutch and Prussian armies defeat Napoleon in Belgium, and the Congress of Vienna redraws the map of Europe.","tier":2,"group":"western-europe","related":["first-french-empire","netherlands"]},{"year":1871,"title":"Unification of Germany","desc":"After victory over France, Wilhelm I of Prussia is proclaimed German Emperor in the Hall of Mirrors at Versailles.","tier":2,"group":"central-europe","related":["german-empire","kingdom-of-prussia"]},{"year":1914,"title":"First World War begins","desc":"The assassination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand in Sarajevo sets off a war that kills about 17 million people and destroys four empires.","tier":1,"group":"balkans","related":["austria-hungary","german-empire","russian-empire","ottoman-empire"]},{"year":1917,"title":"Russian Revolution","desc":"The tsar abdicates in March, and in November the Bolsheviks under Lenin seize power in Petrograd.","tier":1,"group":"russia-steppe","related":["russian-empire","soviet-russia"]},{"year":1939,"title":"Second World War begins","desc":"Germany invades Poland on 1 September. The war in Europe kills tens of millions, including six million Jews murdered in the Holocaust, before Germany surrenders in May 1945.","tier":1,"group":"central-europe","related":["nazi-germany","second-polish-republic","soviet-union"]},{"year":1957,"title":"Treaty of Rome","desc":"France, West Germany, Italy and the Benelux countries found the European Economic Community, forerunner of the European Union.","tier":2,"group":"italy","related":["west-germany","italian-republic","fourth-french-republic","netherlands","belgium","luxembourg"]},{"year":1989,"title":"Fall of the Berlin Wall","desc":"East German border guards open the Wall on 9 November as communist regimes fall across eastern Europe.","tier":1,"group":"central-europe","related":["east-germany","west-germany"]},{"year":1991,"title":"Dissolution of the Soviet Union","desc":"After a failed coup in August the Soviet republics declare independence, and the USSR is formally dissolved on 26 December.","tier":1,"group":"russia-steppe","related":["soviet-union","russian-federation","ukraine"]},{"year":2022,"title":"Russian invasion of Ukraine","desc":"Russia launches a full-scale invasion of Ukraine on 24 February, the largest war in Europe since 1945.","tier":2,"group":"russia-steppe","related":["russian-federation","ukraine"]}]},{"id":"middle-east","name":"Middle East","groups":[{"id":"anatolia","name":"Anatolia"},{"id":"caucasus","name":"Caucasus"},{"id":"levant","name":"Levant"},{"id":"mesopotamia","name":"Mesopotamia"},{"id":"arabia","name":"Arabia"},{"id":"iran","name":"Iran"}],"entries":[{"id":"early-bronze-anatolia","name":"Early Bronze Age Anatolian towns","short":"EBA Anatolia","start":-3200,"end":-2000,"approx":true,"family":"unknown","group":"anatolia","kind":"culture","tier":3,"desc":"Walled farming towns such as Troy, Beycesultan and Alaca Höyük, whose royal tombs show a metalworking elite trading copper and tin long before any written records."},{"id":"troy","name":"Troy","start":-3000,"end":-1180,"approx":true,"family":"unknown","group":"anatolia","kind":"state","tier":3,"capital":"Troy (Hisarlik)","desc":"Fortified citadel guarding the Dardanelles, rebuilt in nine layers. Troy VI and VIIa, probably the Wilusa of Hittite texts, were destroyed around 1180 BCE, the event Greek epic remembered."},{"id":"hattians","name":"Hattians","start":-2500,"end":-1650,"approx":true,"family":"isolate","group":"anatolia","kind":"culture","tier":3,"desc":"Native people of central Anatolia who spoke the isolate Hattic. Their town Hattush became the Hittite capital, and Hittite kings kept Hattic gods, rituals and royal titles.","next":["hittite-old-kingdom"]},{"id":"assyrian-karum-kanesh","name":"Assyrian trading colonies (Kanesh)","short":"Karum Kanesh","start":-1950,"end":-1750,"approx":true,"family":"semitic","group":"anatolia","kind":"colony","tier":3,"capital":"Kanesh (Kültepe)","desc":"Merchants from Assur ran trading quarters in Anatolian cities, swapping tin and textiles for silver. Over 20,000 clay tablets from Kanesh are the oldest written records in Anatolia."},{"id":"luwians","name":"Luwians","start":-2000,"end":-700,"approx":true,"family":"anatolian","group":"anatolia","kind":"culture","tier":3,"desc":"Speakers of Luwian spread across western and southern Anatolia. Their hieroglyphic script outlived the Hittite Empire and was carved on the monuments of the Syro-Hittite kings."},{"id":"hittite-old-kingdom","name":"Hittite Old Kingdom","short":"Old Hittite","start":-1650,"end":-1400,"approx":true,"family":"anatolian","group":"anatolia","kind":"state","tier":2,"capital":"Hattusa","desc":"Hattusili I made Hattusa his capital and his grandson Mursili I raided as far as Babylon in 1595 BCE. Palace murders and succession wars then weakened the kingdom for over a century.","next":["hittite-new-kingdom"]},{"id":"hittite-new-kingdom","name":"Hittite Empire (New Kingdom)","short":"Hittite Empire","start":-1400,"end":-1180,"approx":true,"family":"anatolian","group":"anatolia","kind":"empire","tier":1,"capital":"Hattusa, briefly Tarhuntassa","desc":"Suppiluliuma I destroyed Mitanni and took northern Syria, making the Hittites Egypt's great rival. After Kadesh they signed the oldest known peace treaty, then Hattusa was abandoned around 1180 BCE.","next":["syro-hittite-states"]},{"id":"arzawa","name":"Arzawa","start":-1500,"end":-1300,"approx":true,"family":"anatolian","group":"anatolia","kind":"state","tier":3,"capital":"Apasa (Ephesus)","desc":"Luwian kingdom of western Anatolia that wrote to Pharaoh Amenhotep III as an equal. Mursili II broke it up around 1320 BCE into Hittite vassal states such as Mira and the Seha River Land."},{"id":"kizzuwatna","name":"Kizzuwatna","start":-1500,"end":-1350,"approx":true,"family":"anatolian","group":"anatolia","kind":"state","tier":3,"capital":"Kummanni","desc":"Kingdom in Cilicia with a mixed Luwian and Hurrian population that switched between Mitanni and the Hittites. Once absorbed, its Hurrian cults shaped Hittite royal religion."},{"id":"syro-hittite-states","name":"Syro-Hittite states","short":"Neo-Hittites","start":-1180,"end":-710,"approx":true,"family":"anatolian","group":"anatolia","kind":"state","tier":3,"capital":"Carchemish, Melid, Tabal","desc":"Luwian-speaking kingdoms such as Carchemish, Melid and Tabal that kept Hittite royal traditions alive after the empire fell. Sargon II of Assyria annexed the last of them around 710 BCE."},{"id":"phrygia","name":"Phrygia","start":-900,"end":-695,"approx":true,"family":"ie-other","group":"anatolia","kind":"state","tier":2,"capital":"Gordion","desc":"Kingdom of Balkan-born settlers in central Anatolia, remembered through King Midas, whose huge burial mound still stands at Gordion. Cimmerian raiders sacked the capital around 695 BCE.","next":["lydia"]},{"id":"cimmerians","name":"Cimmerians","start":-714,"end":-600,"approx":true,"family":"iranian","group":"anatolia","kind":"culture","tier":3,"desc":"Steppe horsemen from north of the Black Sea who swept through the Caucasus into Anatolia, sacking Gordion and Sardis. The Lydian king Alyattes drove out the last of them around 600 BCE."},{"id":"lydia","name":"Lydia","start":-680,"end":-546,"approx":true,"family":"anatolian","group":"anatolia","kind":"state","tier":2,"capital":"Sardis","desc":"Under the Mermnad kings Lydia struck the first known coins, from electrum. Its last king, the famously wealthy Croesus, lost Sardis to Cyrus the Great in 546 BCE.","next":["persian-anatolia"]},{"id":"ionian-cities","name":"Greek cities of Asia Minor","short":"Ionian Greeks","start":-1050,"end":-129,"approx":true,"family":"greek","group":"anatolia","kind":"state","tier":2,"capital":"Miletus, Ephesus, Smyrna","desc":"Greek city-states on the Aegean coast of Anatolia. Miletus produced the first Greek philosophers, and the Ionian Revolt of 499 BCE against Persia set off the Greco-Persian Wars."},{"id":"persian-anatolia","name":"Achaemenid Anatolia","short":"Persian Anatolia","start":-546,"end":-334,"family":"iranian","group":"anatolia","kind":"empire","tier":3,"capital":"Sardis, Dascylium","desc":"Persian satraps at Sardis and Dascylium governed Anatolia and collected tribute from Greek, Lydian and Carian subjects. Alexander's victory at the Granicus in 334 BCE ended Persian rule."},{"id":"hecatomnid-caria","name":"Hecatomnid Caria","start":-395,"end":-334,"approx":true,"family":"anatolian","group":"anatolia","kind":"state","tier":3,"capital":"Halicarnassus","desc":"Semi-independent dynasty of Persian satraps in Caria. Mausolus moved the capital to Halicarnassus, and his tomb, the Mausoleum, became one of the Seven Wonders of the World."},{"id":"lycian-league","name":"Lycian League","start":-168,"end":43,"approx":true,"family":"greek","group":"anatolia","kind":"state","tier":3,"capital":"Xanthos, Patara","desc":"Federation of about 23 Lycian cities, freed from Rhodian rule in the 160s BCE, where larger cities cast more votes. Emperor Claudius made Lycia a Roman province in 43 CE."},{"id":"pergamon","name":"Kingdom of Pergamon","short":"Pergamon","start":-282,"end":-133,"family":"greek","group":"anatolia","kind":"state","tier":2,"capital":"Pergamon","desc":"Attalid kingdom that broke away from the Seleucids and built a great library and the Pergamon Altar. Attalus III left his kingdom to Rome in his will in 133 BCE.","next":["roman-anatolia"]},{"id":"bithynia","name":"Kingdom of Bithynia","short":"Bithynia","start":-297,"end":-74,"family":"greek","group":"anatolia","kind":"state","tier":3,"capital":"Nicomedia","desc":"Kingdom of Thracian origin on the Sea of Marmara that adopted Greek culture and sheltered Hannibal in exile. Nicomedes IV bequeathed it to Rome in 74 BCE."},{"id":"pontus","name":"Kingdom of Pontus","short":"Pontus","start":-281,"end":-63,"family":"iranian","group":"anatolia","kind":"state","tier":2,"capital":"Amaseia, later Sinope","desc":"Black Sea kingdom ruled by a dynasty of Persian descent. Mithridates VI fought three wars with Rome and ordered the massacre of Romans across Asia in 88 BCE before Pompey crushed him."},{"id":"galatia","name":"Galatia","start":-278,"end":-25,"family":"celtic","group":"anatolia","kind":"state","tier":3,"capital":"Ancyra","desc":"Celtic tribes who crossed into Anatolia in 278 BCE and settled around Ancyra (Ankara). After the death of their last king Amyntas, Augustus made Galatia a Roman province in 25 BCE."},{"id":"cappadocia-kingdom","name":"Kingdom of Cappadocia","short":"Cappadocia","start":-331,"end":17,"approx":true,"family":"iranian","group":"anatolia","kind":"state","tier":3,"capital":"Mazaca","desc":"Inland kingdom ruled first by the Persian-descended Ariarathids, often a pawn between Pontus, Armenia and Rome. Tiberius annexed it as a Roman province in 17 CE."},{"id":"commagene","name":"Commagene","start":-163,"end":72,"family":"iranian","group":"anatolia","kind":"state","tier":3,"capital":"Samosata","desc":"Small Orontid kingdom on the upper Euphrates. Antiochus I built the mountaintop shrine of Nemrut Dağ with giant heads of mixed Greek and Persian gods. Vespasian annexed it in 72 CE."},{"id":"roman-anatolia","name":"Roman Anatolia","short":"Roman Asia","start":-133,"end":395,"family":"romance","group":"anatolia","kind":"empire","tier":2,"capital":"Ephesus, Nicomedia","desc":"Rome formed the province of Asia from Pergamon and absorbed the rest of Anatolia over two centuries. Its cities were among the richest in the empire, and Constantine founded Constantinople on its edge in 330.","next":["byzantine-empire"]},{"id":"byzantine-empire","name":"Byzantine Empire","short":"Byzantium","start":395,"end":1453,"family":"greek","group":"anatolia","kind":"empire","tier":1,"capital":"Constantinople","desc":"The eastern Roman Empire drew its soldiers and taxes from Anatolia and held off Persians and Arabs, then lost most of the plateau to the Turks after Manzikert in 1071. The Ottomans took Constantinople in 1453."},{"id":"marwanids","name":"Marwanids","start":990,"end":1085,"family":"iranian","group":"anatolia","kind":"state","tier":3,"capital":"Mayyafariqin, Amid","desc":"Kurdish dynasty ruling Diyarbakır and the upper Tigris. Under Nasr al-Dawla its court drew poets and scholars, until the Seljuks annexed the emirate in 1085."},{"id":"oghuz-turkmen","name":"Oghuz Turkmen nomads","short":"Turkmen","start":1040,"end":1600,"approx":true,"family":"turkic","group":"anatolia","kind":"culture","tier":3,"desc":"Pastoral Oghuz tribes who followed the Seljuks west and poured into Anatolia after 1071. Their warbands founded the Anatolian beyliks, including the Ottomans."},{"id":"danishmendids","name":"Danishmendids","start":1071,"end":1178,"approx":true,"family":"turkic","group":"anatolia","kind":"state","tier":3,"capital":"Sivas, Niksar","desc":"Turkmen dynasty of north-central Anatolia that captured Bohemond of Antioch in 1100. Its rival, the Seljuk Sultanate of Rum, absorbed it by 1178."},{"id":"sultanate-of-rum","name":"Sultanate of Rum","short":"Rum Seljuks","start":1077,"end":1308,"family":"turkic","group":"anatolia","kind":"state","tier":2,"capital":"Iznik, later Konya","desc":"Seljuk branch state that made Anatolia Turkish and Muslim. Konya filled with caravanserais, madrasas and the poetry of Rumi until the Mongols won at Köse Dağ in 1243 and reduced it to a vassal.","next":["karamanids","ottoman-empire"]},{"id":"armenian-cilicia","name":"Armenian Kingdom of Cilicia","short":"Cilician Armenia","start":1080,"end":1375,"family":"ie-other","group":"anatolia","kind":"state","tier":3,"capital":"Sis","desc":"Armenians fleeing the Seljuk conquest founded a principality in Cilicia that became a kingdom in 1198 and allied with the Crusaders and Mongols. The Mamluks took Sis in 1375."},{"id":"empire-of-nicaea","name":"Empire of Nicaea","short":"Nicaea","start":1204,"end":1261,"family":"greek","group":"anatolia","kind":"state","tier":3,"capital":"Nicaea","desc":"Byzantine successor state formed in western Anatolia after the Fourth Crusade sacked Constantinople. Michael VIII Palaiologos retook the city from the Latins in 1261."},{"id":"empire-of-trebizond","name":"Empire of Trebizond","short":"Trebizond","start":1204,"end":1461,"family":"greek","group":"anatolia","kind":"state","tier":3,"capital":"Trebizond","desc":"Black Sea Greek state founded by the Komnenos family that prospered on caravan trade from Tabriz. It was the last Byzantine successor to fall, to Mehmed II in 1461."},{"id":"karamanids","name":"Karamanids","start":1250,"end":1487,"approx":true,"family":"turkic","group":"anatolia","kind":"state","tier":3,"capital":"Karaman, Konya","desc":"Strongest of the Anatolian beyliks after the fall of Rum and the Ottomans' most stubborn Turkish rival. Its ruler declared Turkish the language of government in 1277. The Ottomans absorbed it by 1487."},{"id":"ottoman-empire","name":"Ottoman Empire","short":"Ottomans","start":1299,"end":1922,"family":"turkic","group":"anatolia","kind":"empire","tier":1,"capital":"Bursa, Edirne, Istanbul","desc":"From a small beylik in Bithynia the House of Osman built an empire on three continents, taking Constantinople in 1453 and most of the Arab world from 1516. It collapsed after defeat in the First World War.","next":["turkey"]},{"id":"turkey","name":"Republic of Turkey","short":"Turkey","start":1923,"end":2025,"family":"turkic","group":"anatolia","kind":"state","tier":2,"capital":"Ankara","desc":"Founded by Mustafa Kemal Atatürk after the War of Independence, with secular reforms including the Latin alphabet. A NATO member since 1952, governed by Recep Tayyip Erdoğan since 2003."},{"id":"maykop-culture","name":"Maykop culture","start":-3500,"end":-3000,"approx":true,"family":"unknown","group":"caucasus","kind":"culture","tier":3,"desc":"Bronze Age culture of the North Caucasus named for the great kurgan at Maykop, whose chief was buried under a canopy hung with gold bulls, beside silver and gold vessels."},{"id":"kura-araxes","name":"Kura-Araxes culture","start":-3500,"end":-2200,"approx":true,"family":"unknown","group":"caucasus","kind":"culture","tier":3,"desc":"Highland farmers and herders of the South Caucasus with distinctive black burnished pottery. Their way of life spread from Transcaucasia into eastern Anatolia, western Iran and as far as the Levant.","next":["trialeti-culture"]},{"id":"trialeti-culture","name":"Trialeti culture","start":-2200,"end":-1500,"approx":true,"family":"unknown","group":"caucasus","kind":"culture","tier":3,"desc":"Middle Bronze Age culture of Georgia and Armenia, named for the Trialeti plateau. Its chiefs were buried in large kurgans with wagons and finely worked gold cups."},{"id":"colchian-culture","name":"Colchian culture","start":-1700,"end":-600,"approx":true,"family":"kartvelian","group":"caucasus","kind":"culture","tier":3,"desc":"Bronze and Iron Age culture of western Georgia, known for bronze axes, hoes and ornaments. Its people are generally seen as ancestors of the Kartvelian-speaking Colchians.","next":["colchis"]},{"id":"hayasa-azzi","name":"Hayasa-Azzi","start":-1500,"end":-1290,"approx":true,"family":"unknown","group":"caucasus","kind":"state","tier":3,"desc":"Confederation of the Armenian Highlands known only from Hittite texts, which record treaties and wars with it in the 14th century BCE. It vanishes from the record after about 1290 BCE."},{"id":"nairi","name":"Nairi tribes","start":-1200,"end":-860,"approx":true,"family":"unknown","group":"caucasus","kind":"culture","tier":3,"desc":"Assyrian name for a loose league of tribes around Lake Van that Tiglath-Pileser I campaigned against. They coalesced into the kingdom of Urartu in the 9th century BCE.","next":["urartu"]},{"id":"urartu","name":"Urartu","start":-860,"end":-590,"approx":true,"family":"isolate","group":"caucasus","kind":"state","tier":2,"capital":"Tushpa (Van)","desc":"Kingdom of the Armenian Highlands that rivalled Assyria, building fortresses, canals and the city of Erebuni, today's Yerevan. It fell to the Medes and Scythians in the early 6th century BCE.","next":["orontid-armenia"]},{"id":"orontid-armenia","name":"Orontid Armenia","short":"Orontids","start":-570,"end":-200,"approx":true,"family":"ie-other","group":"caucasus","kind":"state","tier":3,"capital":"Armavir, Yervandashat","desc":"Armenian satrapy under the Medes and Achaemenids that became a kingdom after Alexander. The Orontid dynasty ruled until Artaxias, a Seleucid general, replaced it around 200 BCE.","next":["artaxiad-armenia"]},{"id":"colchis","name":"Colchis","start":-600,"end":-101,"approx":true,"family":"kartvelian","group":"caucasus","kind":"state","tier":3,"capital":"Phasis, Vani","desc":"Kingdom on the eastern Black Sea, the land of the Golden Fleece in Greek myth. Greek trading towns grew on its coast, and Mithridates VI of Pontus absorbed it around 101 BCE.","next":["lazica"]},{"id":"kingdom-of-iberia","name":"Kingdom of Iberia (Kartli)","short":"Iberia","start":-302,"end":580,"approx":true,"family":"kartvelian","group":"caucasus","kind":"state","tier":2,"capital":"Mtskheta, later Tbilisi","desc":"Eastern Georgian kingdom founded by Pharnavaz according to tradition. King Mirian III adopted Christianity in the 330s through St Nino, and the Sasanians abolished the monarchy in 580.","next":["principality-of-iberia"]},{"id":"artaxiad-armenia","name":"Artaxiad Armenia","short":"Artaxiads","start":-189,"end":12,"family":"ie-other","group":"caucasus","kind":"state","tier":2,"capital":"Artashat, Tigranocerta","desc":"Kingdom founded by Artaxias I. Tigranes the Great built a short-lived empire from the Caspian to Syria before submitting to Pompey in 66 BCE.","next":["arsacid-armenia"]},{"id":"caucasian-albania","name":"Caucasian Albania","start":-150,"end":705,"approx":true,"family":"isolate","group":"caucasus","kind":"state","tier":3,"capital":"Qabala, later Partav","desc":"Kingdom in today's Azerbaijan and southern Dagestan whose people spoke the ancestor of modern Udi. It became Christian in the 4th century and fell under Arab rule by the early 8th century."},{"id":"arsacid-armenia","name":"Arsacid Armenia","start":52,"end":428,"family":"ie-other","group":"caucasus","kind":"state","tier":2,"capital":"Artashat, Vagharshapat, Dvin","desc":"Kingdom ruled by a branch of the Parthian royal house and fought over by Rome and Persia. Under Tiridates III it became the first state to adopt Christianity, traditionally in 301.","next":["sasanian-armenia"]},{"id":"lazica","name":"Lazica (Egrisi)","short":"Lazica","start":100,"end":697,"approx":true,"family":"kartvelian","group":"caucasus","kind":"state","tier":3,"capital":"Archaeopolis (Nokalakevi)","desc":"Western Georgian kingdom whose Black Sea ports made it the prize of the Lazic War of 541 to 562 between Byzantium and Persia. Arab invasions ended it around 697.","next":["kingdom-of-abkhazia"]},{"id":"sasanian-armenia","name":"Persian Armenia (Marzpanate)","short":"Persarmenia","start":428,"end":646,"family":"ie-other","group":"caucasus","kind":"state","tier":3,"capital":"Dvin","desc":"After the Arsacid monarchy ended, Sasanian governors ruled eastern Armenia through Armenian nobles. Vardan Mamikonian's stand at Avarayr in 451 defended the Armenian church against forced Zoroastrianism.","next":["arminiya"]},{"id":"principality-of-iberia","name":"Principality of Iberia","start":588,"end":888,"family":"kartvelian","group":"caucasus","kind":"state","tier":3,"capital":"Tbilisi","desc":"Georgian princes with Byzantine titles governed Kartli after the kingship lapsed, while Arab emirs held Tbilisi from 736. The Bagratid Adarnase IV restored the royal title in 888.","next":["tao-klarjeti"]},{"id":"arminiya","name":"Arminiya (Arab Armenia)","short":"Arminiya","start":654,"end":884,"family":"arabic","group":"caucasus","kind":"state","tier":3,"capital":"Dvin, Partav","desc":"Caliphal province covering Armenia, eastern Georgia and Caucasian Albania. Arab governors relied on local princes, among whom the Bagratids rose to lead Armenia by the 9th century.","next":["bagratid-armenia"]},{"id":"khazar-khaganate","name":"Khazar Khaganate","short":"Khazars","start":650,"end":969,"approx":true,"family":"turkic","group":"caucasus","kind":"empire","tier":2,"capital":"Balanjar, later Atil","desc":"Turkic steppe empire north of the Caucasus that halted Arab expansion in the 8th century. Its ruling elite converted to Judaism. Sviatoslav of Kiev destroyed it around 969."},{"id":"emirate-of-tbilisi","name":"Emirate of Tbilisi","start":736,"end":1122,"family":"arabic","group":"caucasus","kind":"state","tier":3,"capital":"Tbilisi","desc":"Muslim emirate set up by Arab governors that often acted independently of Baghdad. David IV the Builder captured Tbilisi in 1122 and made it the Georgian capital."},{"id":"kingdom-of-abkhazia","name":"Kingdom of Abkhazia","short":"Abkhazia","start":778,"end":1008,"approx":true,"family":"kartvelian","group":"caucasus","kind":"state","tier":3,"capital":"Anacopia, later Kutaisi","desc":"Western Georgian kingdom that threw off Byzantine control under Leon II and used Georgian in its church and court. It merged into the united Georgian kingdom under Bagrat III.","next":["kingdom-of-georgia"]},{"id":"tao-klarjeti","name":"Tao-Klarjeti","start":813,"end":1008,"approx":true,"family":"kartvelian","group":"caucasus","kind":"state","tier":3,"capital":"Artanuji","desc":"Bagratid principality in southwest Georgia founded by Ashot I, famous for its monasteries. Its heir Bagrat III also inherited Abkhazia and Kartli and united Georgia in 1008.","next":["kingdom-of-georgia"]},{"id":"shirvanshahs","name":"Shirvanshahs","start":861,"end":1538,"family":"iranian","group":"caucasus","kind":"state","tier":3,"capital":"Shamakhi, later Baku","desc":"Long-lived Persianate dynasty of Shirvan in today's Azerbaijan, whose palace still stands in Baku's old city. Often a vassal of larger powers, it was annexed by the Safavids in 1538."},{"id":"bagratid-armenia","name":"Bagratid Armenia","start":885,"end":1045,"family":"ie-other","group":"caucasus","kind":"state","tier":2,"capital":"Bagaran, Shirakavan, Ani","desc":"Ashot I was recognised as king by both the caliph and the Byzantine emperor in 885. Ani, the city of 1,001 churches, prospered on trade until Byzantium annexed it in 1045."},{"id":"alania","name":"Alania","start":900,"end":1239,"approx":true,"family":"iranian","group":"caucasus","kind":"state","tier":3,"capital":"Maghas","desc":"Christian kingdom of the Iranian-speaking Alans in the North Caucasus, tied by marriage to Georgia and Byzantium. The Mongols took Maghas in 1239. The Ossetians descend from its people."},{"id":"vaspurakan","name":"Kingdom of Vaspurakan","short":"Vaspurakan","start":908,"end":1021,"family":"ie-other","group":"caucasus","kind":"state","tier":3,"capital":"Van","desc":"Artsruni kingdom around Lake Van, best known for the carved Church of the Holy Cross on Aghtamar island. Its king handed it to Byzantium in 1021 under Seljuk pressure."},{"id":"shaddadids","name":"Shaddadids","start":951,"end":1199,"family":"iranian","group":"caucasus","kind":"state","tier":3,"capital":"Ganja, later Ani","desc":"Kurdish dynasty that ruled Arran from Ganja and later governed Ani as Seljuk vassals. The last Shaddadids of Ani lost the city to Georgia around 1199."},{"id":"kingdom-of-georgia","name":"Kingdom of Georgia","short":"Georgia","start":1008,"end":1490,"family":"kartvelian","group":"caucasus","kind":"state","tier":2,"capital":"Kutaisi, later Tbilisi","desc":"United under the Bagratids, Georgia peaked under David IV and Queen Tamar, ruling from the Black Sea to the Caspian. Mongol and Timurid invasions wore it down until it split into rival kingdoms in 1490.","next":["kingdom-of-imereti","kingdom-of-kartli","kingdom-of-kakheti"]},{"id":"kingdom-of-imereti","name":"Kingdom of Imereti","short":"Imereti","start":1260,"end":1810,"family":"kartvelian","group":"caucasus","kind":"state","tier":3,"capital":"Kutaisi","desc":"Western Georgian kingdom that broke away during Mongol rule and became permanently separate in 1490. Often an Ottoman vassal, it was annexed by Russia in 1810.","next":["russian-caucasus"]},{"id":"kingdom-of-kakheti","name":"Kingdom of Kakheti","short":"Kakheti","start":1465,"end":1762,"family":"kartvelian","group":"caucasus","kind":"state","tier":3,"capital":"Gremi, later Telavi","desc":"Eastern Georgian kingdom on the silk routes, ravaged by Shah Abbas I in 1614 to 1617, who deported tens of thousands of its people to Iran. It merged with Kartli in 1762.","next":["kartli-kakheti"]},{"id":"kingdom-of-kartli","name":"Kingdom of Kartli","short":"Kartli","start":1484,"end":1762,"family":"kartvelian","group":"caucasus","kind":"state","tier":3,"capital":"Tbilisi","desc":"Central Georgian kingdom around Tbilisi, usually a vassal of Safavid Persia, whose kings often converted to Islam to keep their thrones. It merged with Kakheti in 1762.","next":["kartli-kakheti"]},{"id":"kartli-kakheti","name":"Kingdom of Kartli-Kakheti","short":"Kartli-Kakheti","start":1762,"end":1801,"family":"kartvelian","group":"caucasus","kind":"state","tier":3,"capital":"Tbilisi","desc":"United eastern Georgia under Erekle II, who placed it under Russian protection by the Treaty of Georgievsk in 1783. Persia sacked Tbilisi in 1795 and Russia annexed the kingdom in 1801.","next":["russian-caucasus"]},{"id":"russian-caucasus","name":"Russian Caucasus","start":1801,"end":1917,"family":"slavic","group":"caucasus","kind":"empire","tier":2,"capital":"Tiflis","desc":"Russia absorbed Georgia, took the khanates of Azerbaijan and Armenia from Persia by 1828, and subdued the North Caucasus by 1864, driving most Circassians into the Ottoman Empire. Baku's oil boom began in the 1870s.","next":["democratic-republic-of-georgia","first-republic-of-armenia","azerbaijan-democratic-republic"]},{"id":"caucasian-imamate","name":"Caucasian Imamate","short":"Imamate","start":1828,"end":1859,"family":"isolate","group":"caucasus","kind":"state","tier":3,"capital":"Dargo, later Vedeno","desc":"Islamic state of the mountain peoples of Dagestan and Chechnya that resisted Russian conquest for three decades. Its third imam, the Avar leader Shamil, surrendered at Gunib in 1859."},{"id":"democratic-republic-of-georgia","name":"Democratic Republic of Georgia","short":"DR Georgia","start":1918,"end":1921,"family":"kartvelian","group":"caucasus","kind":"state","tier":3,"capital":"Tbilisi","desc":"Menshevik-led republic declared after the Russian Revolution, with an elected parliament and land reform. The Red Army invaded and ended it in February 1921.","next":["soviet-transcaucasia"]},{"id":"first-republic-of-armenia","name":"First Republic of Armenia","short":"Armenia 1918","start":1918,"end":1920,"family":"ie-other","group":"caucasus","kind":"state","tier":3,"capital":"Yerevan","desc":"Independent Armenian state formed amid famine and a flood of refugees from the genocide. Squeezed between Turkish and Soviet forces, it fell to Soviet rule in December 1920.","next":["soviet-transcaucasia"]},{"id":"azerbaijan-democratic-republic","name":"Azerbaijan Democratic Republic","short":"ADR","start":1918,"end":1920,"family":"turkic","group":"caucasus","kind":"state","tier":3,"capital":"Ganja, later Baku","desc":"First secular parliamentary republic in the Muslim world, which gave women the vote. The Red Army took Baku and its oil fields in April 1920.","next":["soviet-transcaucasia"]},{"id":"soviet-transcaucasia","name":"Soviet Transcaucasia","short":"Soviet Caucasus","start":1920,"end":1991,"family":"slavic","group":"caucasus","kind":"empire","tier":2,"capital":"Tbilisi, Yerevan, Baku","desc":"Georgia, Armenia and Azerbaijan were joined as the Transcaucasian SFSR in 1922 and split into separate Soviet republics in 1936. All three became independent when the Soviet Union collapsed in 1991.","next":["georgia","armenia","azerbaijan"]},{"id":"georgia","name":"Georgia","start":1991,"end":2025,"family":"kartvelian","group":"caucasus","kind":"state","tier":3,"capital":"Tbilisi","desc":"Independent since 1991, Georgia lost control of Abkhazia and South Ossetia in wars in the early 1990s and against Russia in 2008. The Rose Revolution of 2003 turned it toward the West."},{"id":"armenia","name":"Armenia","start":1991,"end":2025,"family":"ie-other","group":"caucasus","kind":"state","tier":3,"capital":"Yerevan","desc":"Landlocked republic that won the first war over Nagorno-Karabakh in 1994. Defeats by Azerbaijan in 2020 and 2023 ended Armenian control of the region."},{"id":"azerbaijan","name":"Azerbaijan","start":1991,"end":2025,"family":"turkic","group":"caucasus","kind":"state","tier":3,"capital":"Baku","desc":"Caspian oil state ruled by the Aliyev family since 1993. It retook most of the Karabakh region in 2020 and the rest in a one-day offensive in September 2023."},{"id":"artsakh","name":"Nagorno-Karabakh Republic (Artsakh)","short":"Artsakh","start":1991,"end":2023,"family":"ie-other","group":"caucasus","kind":"state","tier":3,"capital":"Stepanakert","desc":"Breakaway Armenian-populated state inside Azerbaijan, recognised by no UN member. After Azerbaijan's 2023 offensive almost all of its 100,000 people fled and it dissolved."},{"id":"canaanites","name":"Canaanites","start":-3200,"end":-1150,"approx":true,"family":"semitic","group":"levant","kind":"culture","tier":3,"desc":"Semitic-speaking farmers and townspeople of the southern Levant, organised in walled city-states such as Megiddo, Hazor and Jericho. Their rulers appear in Egyptian texts and the Amarna letters."},{"id":"ebla","name":"Ebla","start":-3000,"end":-1600,"approx":true,"family":"semitic","group":"levant","kind":"state","tier":2,"capital":"Ebla (Tell Mardikh)","desc":"Syrian city-state whose palace archive of thousands of tablets from about 2350 BCE revealed a lost Semitic language and trade network. Destroyed by Akkad, rebuilt, and finally sacked by the Hittites around 1600 BCE."},{"id":"byblos","name":"Byblos","start":-2800,"end":-1200,"approx":true,"family":"semitic","group":"levant","kind":"state","tier":3,"capital":"Byblos (Gubla)","desc":"Port city that shipped Lebanese cedar to the pharaohs from the Old Kingdom onward. Its rulers wrote to Egypt in the Amarna letters, and it went on to become a leading Phoenician city.","next":["phoenician-cities"]},{"id":"amorites","name":"Amorites","start":-2400,"end":-1600,"approx":true,"family":"semitic","group":"levant","kind":"culture","tier":3,"desc":"Semitic-speaking pastoralists of the Syrian steppe whom the Sumerians called Martu. Their chiefs took power across Mesopotamia and Syria after 2000 BCE, founding dynasties at Babylon, Mari and Aleppo."},{"id":"qatna","name":"Qatna","start":-2000,"end":-1340,"approx":true,"family":"semitic","group":"levant","kind":"state","tier":3,"capital":"Qatna","desc":"Kingdom of central Syria with a huge palace and a royal tomb found intact in 2002. Caught between Egypt, Mitanni and the Hittites, it was destroyed by Suppiluliuma I around 1340 BCE."},{"id":"yamhad","name":"Yamhad","start":-1810,"end":-1517,"approx":true,"family":"semitic","group":"levant","kind":"state","tier":2,"capital":"Halab (Aleppo)","desc":"Amorite kingdom centred on Aleppo and one of the strongest powers of Syria in the age of Hammurabi. The Hittites sacked Aleppo and ended the dynasty by about 1517 BCE."},{"id":"ugarit","name":"Ugarit","start":-1800,"end":-1185,"approx":true,"family":"semitic","group":"levant","kind":"state","tier":3,"capital":"Ugarit (Ras Shamra)","desc":"Trading port on the Syrian coast whose scribes devised a 30-letter cuneiform alphabet. It was sacked around 1185 BCE in the Late Bronze Age collapse and never rebuilt."},{"id":"egyptian-canaan","name":"Egyptian Canaan","start":-1550,"end":-1130,"approx":true,"family":"egyptian","group":"levant","kind":"colony","tier":3,"capital":"Gaza, Beth-Shean","desc":"New Kingdom pharaohs ruled Canaan through garrisons and vassal kings after Thutmose III won at Megiddo around 1457 BCE. Egyptian control faded during the 12th century BCE."},{"id":"philistines","name":"Philistines","start":-1175,"end":-604,"approx":true,"family":"unknown","group":"levant","kind":"state","tier":3,"capital":"Gaza, Ashkelon, Ashdod, Ekron, Gath","desc":"Sea Peoples of Aegean origin who settled the southern coast of Canaan in a league of five cities. Nebuchadnezzar II destroyed Ashkelon in 604 BCE and the Philistines disappear as a people."},{"id":"phoenician-cities","name":"Phoenician city-states","short":"Phoenicia","start":-1200,"end":-332,"approx":true,"family":"semitic","group":"levant","kind":"state","tier":2,"capital":"Tyre, Sidon, Byblos, Arwad","desc":"Seafaring cities of the Lebanese coast that spread the alphabet and planted colonies across the Mediterranean, including Carthage. Alexander's siege of Tyre in 332 BCE ended their independence."},{"id":"tyre","name":"Tyre","start":-1000,"end":-332,"approx":true,"family":"semitic","group":"levant","kind":"state","tier":3,"capital":"Tyre","desc":"Island city that led Phoenicia under Hiram I, ally of Solomon. It founded Carthage, withstood a 13-year siege by Nebuchadnezzar II, and fell to Alexander after he built a causeway in 332 BCE."},{"id":"israelites","name":"Israelite tribes","short":"Israelites","start":-1200,"end":-930,"approx":true,"family":"semitic","group":"levant","kind":"culture","tier":3,"desc":"Hill-country villagers named on the Merneptah Stele around 1208 BCE. Biblical tradition places the united monarchy of Saul, David and Solomon at the end of this period, though its extent is debated.","next":["kingdom-of-israel","kingdom-of-judah"]},{"id":"aramean-states","name":"Aramean kingdoms","short":"Arameans","start":-1100,"end":-720,"approx":true,"family":"semitic","group":"levant","kind":"state","tier":3,"capital":"Hamath, Arpad, Til Barsip","desc":"Aramaic-speaking kingdoms such as Hamath, Bit Agusi and Bit Adini that spread across Syria after 1100 BCE. Assyria conquered them one by one, yet their language became the common tongue of the Near East."},{"id":"aram-damascus","name":"Aram-Damascus","start":-950,"end":-732,"approx":true,"family":"semitic","group":"levant","kind":"state","tier":3,"capital":"Damascus","desc":"Strongest of the Aramean kingdoms, which under Hazael dominated Israel in the 9th century BCE. Tiglath-Pileser III of Assyria captured Damascus in 732 BCE."},{"id":"kingdom-of-israel","name":"Kingdom of Israel","short":"Israel","start":-930,"end":-720,"approx":true,"family":"semitic","group":"levant","kind":"state","tier":2,"capital":"Shechem, later Samaria","desc":"Northern Israelite kingdom, a regional power under the Omride kings, who fought Assyria at Qarqar in 853 BCE. Assyria took Samaria in 722 BCE and deported much of its population."},{"id":"kingdom-of-judah","name":"Kingdom of Judah","short":"Judah","start":-930,"end":-587,"approx":true,"family":"semitic","group":"levant","kind":"state","tier":2,"capital":"Jerusalem","desc":"Southern kingdom ruled by the house of David from Jerusalem, where much of the Hebrew Bible took shape. Nebuchadnezzar II destroyed the city and its temple in 587 BCE and exiled its elite to Babylon."},{"id":"moab","name":"Moab","start":-1000,"end":-582,"approx":true,"family":"semitic","group":"levant","kind":"state","tier":3,"capital":"Dibon","desc":"Kingdom east of the Dead Sea. King Mesha's stele of about 840 BCE boasts of freeing Moab from Israel and is one of the longest Iron Age inscriptions from the Levant."},{"id":"edom","name":"Edom","start":-1000,"end":-552,"approx":true,"family":"semitic","group":"levant","kind":"state","tier":3,"capital":"Bozrah","desc":"Kingdom south of the Dead Sea that controlled copper mines and the incense road. The Babylonian king Nabonidus ended it around 552 BCE, and Arab Nabataeans later settled its land."},{"id":"achaemenid-levant","name":"Achaemenid Transeuphratia","short":"Eber-Nari","start":-539,"end":-332,"family":"iranian","group":"levant","kind":"empire","tier":3,"capital":"Damascus","desc":"Persian satrapy 'Beyond the River' covering Syria, Phoenicia and Palestine. Cyrus let exiled Judeans return to build the Second Temple, and Phoenician fleets fought for Persia against the Greeks."},{"id":"ptolemaic-syria","name":"Ptolemaic Coele-Syria","short":"Ptolemaic Syria","start":-301,"end":-200,"family":"greek","group":"levant","kind":"empire","tier":3,"capital":"Alexandria (ruled from Egypt)","desc":"Southern Syria, Phoenicia and Palestine under the Ptolemies of Egypt, fought over in a series of Syrian Wars. Antiochus III won the region for the Seleucids at Panium in 200 BCE."},{"id":"seleucid-empire","name":"Seleucid Empire","short":"Seleucids","start":-312,"end":-63,"family":"greek","group":"levant","kind":"empire","tier":2,"capital":"Seleucia on the Tigris, later Antioch","desc":"Largest successor state of Alexander, at first stretching from Anatolia to the Indus. It lost Iran and Mesopotamia to the Parthians and shrank to Syria before Pompey abolished it in 63 BCE.","next":["roman-syria"]},{"id":"hasmonean-kingdom","name":"Hasmonean kingdom","short":"Hasmoneans","start":-140,"end":-37,"family":"semitic","group":"levant","kind":"state","tier":3,"capital":"Jerusalem","desc":"Jewish state born of the Maccabean revolt against Seleucid rule, the origin of Hanukkah. Civil war drew in Pompey in 63 BCE, and Herod replaced the dynasty with Roman backing in 37 BCE.","next":["herodian-kingdom"]},{"id":"nabataean-kingdom","name":"Nabataean Kingdom","short":"Nabataeans","start":-168,"end":106,"approx":true,"family":"arabic","group":"levant","kind":"state","tier":2,"capital":"Petra","desc":"Arab caravan kingdom that prospered on the incense trade and carved the city of Petra from sandstone cliffs. Trajan annexed it as the province of Arabia Petraea in 106 CE."},{"id":"roman-syria","name":"Roman Syria and Judaea","short":"Roman Levant","start":-64,"end":395,"family":"romance","group":"levant","kind":"empire","tier":2,"capital":"Antioch","desc":"Pompey made Syria a province in 64 BCE. Rome crushed the Jewish revolts of 66 and 132 CE, and Antioch became one of the empire's great cities and an early centre of Christianity.","next":["byzantine-levant"]},{"id":"herodian-kingdom","name":"Herodian Judea","short":"Herodians","start":-37,"end":44,"family":"semitic","group":"levant","kind":"state","tier":3,"capital":"Jerusalem","desc":"Roman client kingdom of Herod the Great, who rebuilt the Second Temple on a vast scale. After his death it was divided among his sons, and Judea came under direct Roman rule for good in 44 CE.","next":["roman-syria"]},{"id":"palmyra","name":"Palmyra","start":-50,"end":273,"approx":true,"family":"semitic","group":"levant","kind":"state","tier":2,"capital":"Palmyra (Tadmor)","desc":"Oasis caravan city in the Syrian desert. Queen Zenobia broke from Rome in 270 and seized Egypt and much of Anatolia, until Aurelian captured her and sacked the city in 273."},{"id":"ghassanids","name":"Ghassanids","start":220,"end":638,"approx":true,"family":"arabic","group":"levant","kind":"state","tier":3,"capital":"Jabiyah","desc":"Christian Arab dynasty that guarded Byzantium's desert frontier against Persia and its Lakhmid allies. It collapsed during the Arab conquest after the Battle of Yarmouk."},{"id":"byzantine-levant","name":"Byzantine Syria and Palestine","short":"Byzantine Levant","start":395,"end":640,"family":"greek","group":"levant","kind":"empire","tier":2,"capital":"Antioch, Jerusalem","desc":"Christian provinces full of churches, monasteries and pilgrims bound for Jerusalem. Persia occupied them from 614 to 628, and the Arabs took them for good after Yarmouk in 636.","next":["umayyad-caliphate"]},{"id":"umayyad-caliphate","name":"Umayyad Caliphate","short":"Umayyads","start":661,"end":750,"family":"arabic","group":"levant","kind":"empire","tier":1,"capital":"Damascus","desc":"First hereditary caliphate, ruling from Damascus over lands from Spain to the Indus. It built the Dome of the Rock and made Arabic the language of government before the Abbasids overthrew it in 750.","next":["abbasid-caliphate"]},{"id":"hamdanids","name":"Hamdanids","start":890,"end":1004,"family":"arabic","group":"levant","kind":"state","tier":3,"capital":"Mosul, Aleppo","desc":"Arab dynasty of Mosul and Aleppo. Sayf al-Dawla's court at Aleppo hosted the poet al-Mutanabbi and the philosopher al-Farabi while he waged war on Byzantium."},{"id":"fatimid-levant","name":"Fatimid Syria and Palestine","short":"Fatimid Levant","start":970,"end":1099,"family":"arabic","group":"levant","kind":"empire","tier":3,"capital":"Cairo (ruled from Egypt)","desc":"The Ismaili Fatimids of Egypt ruled Palestine and southern Syria and contested Damascus and Aleppo. Caliph al-Hakim ordered the Church of the Holy Sepulchre destroyed in 1009. They lost Jerusalem to the Crusaders in 1099."},{"id":"county-of-edessa","name":"County of Edessa","short":"Edessa","start":1098,"end":1144,"family":"romance","group":"levant","kind":"state","tier":3,"capital":"Edessa","desc":"First Crusader state, founded by Baldwin of Boulogne among Armenian Christians on the upper Euphrates. Zengi's capture of Edessa in 1144 triggered the Second Crusade."},{"id":"principality-of-antioch","name":"Principality of Antioch","short":"Antioch","start":1098,"end":1268,"family":"romance","group":"levant","kind":"state","tier":3,"capital":"Antioch","desc":"Norman-led Crusader state founded by Bohemond after a long siege of Antioch. The Mamluk sultan Baybars destroyed the city in 1268."},{"id":"kingdom-of-jerusalem","name":"Kingdom of Jerusalem","short":"Jerusalem","start":1099,"end":1291,"family":"romance","group":"levant","kind":"state","tier":2,"capital":"Jerusalem, later Acre","desc":"Crusader kingdom founded after the First Crusade took Jerusalem. Saladin captured the city in 1187, the kingdom lived on along the coast, and the Mamluks took its last capital, Acre, in 1291."},{"id":"county-of-tripoli","name":"County of Tripoli","short":"Tripoli","start":1102,"end":1289,"family":"romance","group":"levant","kind":"state","tier":3,"capital":"Tripoli","desc":"Last Crusader state to be founded, on the Lebanese coast and guarded by castles such as Krak des Chevaliers. The Mamluk sultan Qalawun captured Tripoli in 1289."},{"id":"burids","name":"Burids","start":1104,"end":1154,"family":"turkic","group":"levant","kind":"state","tier":3,"capital":"Damascus","desc":"Turkic atabeg dynasty of Damascus that beat off the Second Crusade's siege of the city in 1148. Nur al-Din took Damascus in 1154."},{"id":"zengids","name":"Zengids","start":1127,"end":1250,"family":"turkic","group":"levant","kind":"state","tier":2,"capital":"Mosul, Aleppo, Damascus","desc":"Turkic dynasty founded by Imad al-Din Zengi, atabeg of Mosul. His son Nur al-Din united Muslim Syria against the Crusaders and sent Saladin to Egypt, opening the way for the Ayyubids.","next":["ayyubids"]},{"id":"ayyubids","name":"Ayyubid Sultanate","short":"Ayyubids","start":1171,"end":1260,"family":"iranian","group":"levant","kind":"state","tier":2,"capital":"Cairo, Damascus","desc":"Kurdish dynasty founded by Saladin, who united Egypt and Syria and retook Jerusalem after Hattin in 1187. Ayyubid princes held Syria until the Mongol invasion of 1260.","next":["mamluk-levant"]},{"id":"mamluk-levant","name":"Mamluk Sultanate (Syria)","short":"Mamluks","start":1260,"end":1516,"family":"turkic","group":"levant","kind":"state","tier":2,"capital":"Cairo, with Damascus as provincial seat","desc":"Slave-soldier sultans of Egypt who stopped the Mongols at Ain Jalut in 1260 and expelled the last Crusaders by 1291. Selim I ended Mamluk rule in Syria at Marj Dabiq in 1516.","next":["ottoman-levant"]},{"id":"ottoman-levant","name":"Ottoman Syria and Palestine","short":"Ottoman Syria","start":1516,"end":1918,"family":"turkic","group":"levant","kind":"empire","tier":2,"capital":"Damascus, Aleppo","desc":"Four centuries of Ottoman rule through governors in Damascus, Aleppo, Sidon and later Beirut. British and Arab forces took the region in 1917 and 1918 during the First World War.","next":["arab-kingdom-of-syria","french-mandate","mandatory-palestine"]},{"id":"mount-lebanon-emirate","name":"Emirate of Mount Lebanon","short":"Mount Lebanon","start":1516,"end":1842,"approx":true,"family":"arabic","group":"levant","kind":"state","tier":3,"capital":"Deir al-Qamar, later Beiteddine","desc":"Autonomous Druze and Maronite emirate under Ottoman rule, led by the Ma'n and then the Shihab families. Fakhr al-Din II briefly ruled much of the Levant before his execution in 1635."},{"id":"arab-kingdom-of-syria","name":"Arab Kingdom of Syria","short":"Arab Syria","start":1918,"end":1920,"family":"arabic","group":"levant","kind":"state","tier":3,"capital":"Damascus","desc":"Arab government under Faisal ibn Hussein after the Arab Revolt, proclaimed a kingdom in March 1920. France crushed it at the Battle of Maysalun in July 1920."},{"id":"french-mandate","name":"French Mandate for Syria and Lebanon","short":"French Mandate","start":1920,"end":1946,"family":"romance","group":"levant","kind":"colony","tier":2,"capital":"Beirut, Damascus","desc":"League of Nations mandate under which France carved Greater Lebanon out of Syria and fought the Great Syrian Revolt of 1925. French troops left both countries by 1946.","next":["syria","lebanon"]},{"id":"mandatory-palestine","name":"Mandatory Palestine","short":"British Mandate","start":1920,"end":1948,"family":"germanic","group":"levant","kind":"colony","tier":2,"capital":"Jerusalem","desc":"British mandate bound to the Balfour Declaration's promise of a Jewish national home. Jewish immigration and Arab revolt led to the 1947 UN partition plan, and Britain withdrew in May 1948.","next":["israel"]},{"id":"transjordan","name":"Emirate of Transjordan","short":"Transjordan","start":1921,"end":1946,"family":"arabic","group":"levant","kind":"state","tier":3,"capital":"Amman","desc":"Emirate created by Britain for Abdullah ibn Hussein east of the Jordan River under the Palestine mandate. It became the independent Hashemite Kingdom in 1946.","next":["jordan"]},{"id":"lebanon","name":"Lebanon","start":1943,"end":2025,"family":"arabic","group":"levant","kind":"state","tier":3,"capital":"Beirut","desc":"Republic built on a sectarian power-sharing pact between Christians and Muslims. A civil war from 1975 to 1990, repeated wars between Israel and Hezbollah and a financial collapse in 2019 have shaped it since."},{"id":"syria","name":"Syria","start":1946,"end":2025,"family":"arabic","group":"levant","kind":"state","tier":2,"capital":"Damascus","desc":"After repeated coups the Ba'ath Party seized power in 1963 and the Assad family ruled from 1970. Civil war from 2011 killed hundreds of thousands, and rebels overthrew Bashar al-Assad in December 2024."},{"id":"jordan","name":"Jordan","start":1946,"end":2025,"family":"arabic","group":"levant","kind":"state","tier":3,"capital":"Amman","desc":"Hashemite kingdom that held the West Bank from 1948 to 1967 and took in large numbers of Palestinian refugees. It made peace with Israel in 1994."},{"id":"israel","name":"Israel","start":1948,"end":2025,"family":"semitic","group":"levant","kind":"state","tier":2,"capital":"Jerusalem (status disputed)","desc":"Jewish state declared in May 1948, followed by war and the flight or expulsion of about 700,000 Palestinians. It took the West Bank, Gaza and Golan in 1967 and has fought in Gaza and Lebanon since 2023."},{"id":"united-arab-republic","name":"United Arab Republic","short":"UAR","start":1958,"end":1961,"family":"arabic","group":"levant","kind":"state","tier":3,"capital":"Cairo","desc":"Union of Egypt and Syria under Gamal Abdel Nasser, the high point of pan-Arabism. A Syrian army coup ended it in 1961."},{"id":"palestine","name":"State of Palestine","short":"Palestine","start":1994,"end":2025,"family":"arabic","group":"levant","kind":"state","tier":3,"capital":"Ramallah (administrative)","desc":"Palestinian self-government created by the Oslo Accords in 1994, split since 2007 between Fatah in the West Bank and Hamas in Gaza. Gaza was largely destroyed in the war that began in October 2023."},{"id":"uruk-period","name":"Uruk period","start":-3500,"end":-3100,"approx":true,"family":"isolate","group":"mesopotamia","kind":"culture","tier":2,"desc":"Age of the first cities in southern Mesopotamia, when Uruk grew to tens of thousands of people. Temple administrators there invented writing late in the period, and Uruk outposts reached Syria and Iran.","next":["jemdet-nasr"]},{"id":"sumerians","name":"Sumerians","start":-3200,"end":-1800,"approx":true,"family":"isolate","group":"mesopotamia","kind":"culture","tier":2,"desc":"Speakers of the isolate Sumerian in southern Mesopotamia, builders of the first cities, ziggurats and written literature. Sumerian died out as a spoken language around 1800 BCE but lived on in temples and schools."},{"id":"jemdet-nasr","name":"Jemdet Nasr period","start":-3100,"end":-2900,"approx":true,"family":"isolate","group":"mesopotamia","kind":"culture","tier":3,"desc":"Short phase after the Uruk expansion collapsed, when proto-cuneiform tablets spread to many Sumerian towns. Named after a site near Kish with painted pottery and administrative tablets."},{"id":"kish","name":"Kish","start":-2900,"end":-2334,"approx":true,"family":"semitic","group":"mesopotamia","kind":"state","tier":3,"capital":"Kish","desc":"Northern city whose rulers held such prestige that 'King of Kish' became the title of overlords of Sumer. Sargon served as cupbearer to a king of Kish before founding Akkad."},{"id":"uruk","name":"Uruk","start":-2900,"end":-2270,"approx":true,"family":"isolate","group":"mesopotamia","kind":"state","tier":3,"capital":"Uruk","desc":"Largest Sumerian city, home of the legendary king Gilgamesh, with walls almost 10 km long. Its kings competed with Kish and Ur until the Akkadians took the city."},{"id":"mari","name":"Mari","start":-2900,"end":-1761,"approx":true,"family":"semitic","group":"mesopotamia","kind":"state","tier":2,"capital":"Mari (Tell Hariri)","desc":"Euphrates trading city whose palace archive of about 25,000 tablets documents diplomacy under King Zimri-Lim. Hammurabi, once his ally, destroyed Mari in 1761 BCE."},{"id":"ur","name":"Ur (First Dynasty)","short":"Ur","start":-2600,"end":-2340,"approx":true,"family":"isolate","group":"mesopotamia","kind":"state","tier":3,"capital":"Ur","desc":"Sumerian city-state known for its Royal Tombs, where Queen Puabi was buried with gold, lyres and dozens of sacrificed attendants. Sargon of Akkad conquered it."},{"id":"umma","name":"Umma","start":-2600,"end":-2334,"approx":true,"family":"isolate","group":"mesopotamia","kind":"state","tier":3,"capital":"Umma","desc":"Sumerian rival of Lagash. Its king Lugalzagesi conquered Lagash, Uruk and most of Sumer before Sargon of Akkad defeated him around 2334 BCE.","next":["akkadian-empire"]},{"id":"lagash","name":"Lagash","start":-2500,"end":-2110,"approx":true,"family":"isolate","group":"mesopotamia","kind":"state","tier":3,"capital":"Girsu","desc":"Sumerian city-state whose long border war with Umma is recorded on the Stele of the Vultures. Urukagina issued early legal reforms, and Gudea later built dozens of temples."},{"id":"hurrians","name":"Hurrians","start":-2500,"end":-1000,"approx":true,"family":"isolate","group":"mesopotamia","kind":"culture","tier":3,"desc":"People of northern Mesopotamia, Syria and eastern Anatolia who spoke Hurrian, a relative of Urartian. They formed the population of Mitanni and shaped Hittite religion."},{"id":"akkadian-empire","name":"Akkadian Empire","short":"Akkad","start":-2334,"end":-2154,"approx":true,"family":"semitic","group":"mesopotamia","kind":"empire","tier":1,"capital":"Akkad","desc":"Sargon of Akkad united Sumer and northern Mesopotamia into the first known empire, and his grandson Naram-Sin proclaimed himself a god. Revolts, drought and Gutian raiders brought it down.","next":["gutians"]},{"id":"gutians","name":"Gutian dynasty","short":"Gutians","start":-2154,"end":-2112,"approx":true,"family":"unknown","group":"mesopotamia","kind":"state","tier":3,"desc":"Highlanders from the Zagros who took over much of Sumer after Akkad fell, remembered in later Sumerian texts as barbarians. Utu-hengal of Uruk expelled them.","next":["ur-iii"]},{"id":"ur-iii","name":"Third Dynasty of Ur","short":"Ur III","start":-2112,"end":-2004,"family":"isolate","group":"mesopotamia","kind":"empire","tier":2,"capital":"Ur","desc":"Sumerian revival under Ur-Nammu, who built the great ziggurat of Ur and issued the oldest surviving law code. Its bureaucracy left tens of thousands of tablets before Elamites sacked Ur in 2004 BCE.","next":["isin","larsa"]},{"id":"isin","name":"Isin","start":-2017,"end":-1794,"approx":true,"family":"semitic","group":"mesopotamia","kind":"state","tier":3,"capital":"Isin","desc":"Amorite dynasty that claimed the inheritance of Ur. King Lipit-Ishtar issued a law code in Sumerian. Rim-Sin of Larsa conquered Isin around 1794 BCE."},{"id":"larsa","name":"Larsa","start":-2025,"end":-1763,"approx":true,"family":"semitic","group":"mesopotamia","kind":"state","tier":3,"capital":"Larsa","desc":"Rival of Isin for southern Mesopotamia. Under Rim-Sin, who reigned some 60 years, it ruled most of Sumer until Hammurabi captured the city in 1763 BCE."},{"id":"eshnunna","name":"Eshnunna","start":-2028,"end":-1762,"approx":true,"family":"semitic","group":"mesopotamia","kind":"state","tier":3,"capital":"Eshnunna","desc":"Kingdom of the Diyala valley that issued the Laws of Eshnunna a generation before Hammurabi. Babylon conquered it around 1762 BCE."},{"id":"old-assyria","name":"Old Assyrian city-state","short":"Old Assyria","start":-2025,"end":-1365,"approx":true,"family":"semitic","group":"mesopotamia","kind":"state","tier":3,"capital":"Assur","desc":"City-state of Assur whose merchants ran the Anatolian tin trade. Shamshi-Adad I briefly built a kingdom of Upper Mesopotamia around 1800 BCE, and Assur later fell under Mitanni.","next":["middle-assyria"]},{"id":"old-babylonian-empire","name":"Old Babylonian Empire","short":"Old Babylon","start":-1894,"end":-1595,"family":"semitic","group":"mesopotamia","kind":"empire","tier":1,"capital":"Babylon","desc":"Amorite dynasty that Hammurabi made master of Mesopotamia, carving his law code on a basalt stele. The Hittite king Mursili I sacked Babylon in 1595 BCE.","next":["kassite-babylonia"]},{"id":"sealand-dynasty","name":"Sealand dynasty","short":"Sealand","start":-1732,"end":-1460,"approx":true,"family":"semitic","group":"mesopotamia","kind":"state","tier":3,"desc":"Kingdom of the far southern marshes that broke away from Babylon after Hammurabi. The Kassites conquered it in the 15th century BCE."},{"id":"mitanni","name":"Mitanni","start":-1550,"end":-1260,"approx":true,"family":"isolate","group":"mesopotamia","kind":"state","tier":2,"capital":"Washukanni","desc":"Hurrian kingdom of northern Mesopotamia whose kings bore Indo-Aryan names and swore by Vedic gods. It rivalled Egypt, then was broken by the Hittites and absorbed by Assyria by about 1260 BCE."},{"id":"kassite-babylonia","name":"Kassite Babylonia","short":"Kassites","start":-1595,"end":-1155,"approx":true,"family":"isolate","group":"mesopotamia","kind":"state","tier":2,"capital":"Babylon, Dur-Kurigalzu","desc":"Dynasty of Kassite origin that ruled Babylonia for over four centuries, longer than any other, and wrote to Egypt in the Amarna letters. An Elamite invasion ended it in 1155 BCE.","next":["post-kassite-babylonia"]},{"id":"middle-assyria","name":"Middle Assyrian Empire","short":"Middle Assyria","start":-1365,"end":-912,"family":"semitic","group":"mesopotamia","kind":"empire","tier":2,"capital":"Assur","desc":"Ashur-uballit I freed Assur from Mitanni, and Tukulti-Ninurta I sacked Babylon. The kingdom shrank during the Bronze Age collapse but held on to its Assyrian core.","next":["neo-assyria"]},{"id":"post-kassite-babylonia","name":"Babylonia (Isin II and later dynasties)","short":"Babylonia","start":-1155,"end":-626,"approx":true,"family":"semitic","group":"mesopotamia","kind":"state","tier":3,"capital":"Babylon","desc":"Babylon under a series of weak native dynasties. Nebuchadnezzar I brought Marduk's statue back from Elam, but Aramean and Chaldean tribes and later Assyrian kings dominated the land.","next":["neo-babylonian-empire"]},{"id":"aramaic-mesopotamians","name":"Aramaic-speaking Mesopotamians","short":"Arameans","start":-1100,"end":700,"approx":true,"family":"semitic","group":"mesopotamia","kind":"culture","tier":3,"desc":"Aramean tribes settled across Mesopotamia after 1100 BCE, and Aramaic replaced Akkadian as the everyday speech of the region. It remained the main language until Arabic spread after the Islamic conquest."},{"id":"chaldeans","name":"Chaldeans","start":-900,"end":-539,"approx":true,"family":"semitic","group":"mesopotamia","kind":"culture","tier":3,"desc":"Tribes of the southern marshes who led Babylonian resistance to Assyria. A Chaldean, Nabopolassar, founded the Neo-Babylonian dynasty in 626 BCE.","next":["neo-babylonian-empire"]},{"id":"neo-assyria","name":"Neo-Assyrian Empire","short":"Neo-Assyria","start":-911,"end":-609,"family":"semitic","group":"mesopotamia","kind":"empire","tier":1,"capital":"Assur, Nimrud, Nineveh","desc":"First empire to rule the whole Fertile Crescent and Egypt, using a standing army and mass deportations. Ashurbanipal gathered a great library at Nineveh, which Babylon and the Medes destroyed in 612 BCE.","next":["neo-babylonian-empire"]},{"id":"neo-babylonian-empire","name":"Neo-Babylonian Empire","short":"Neo-Babylon","start":-626,"end":-539,"family":"semitic","group":"mesopotamia","kind":"empire","tier":2,"capital":"Babylon","desc":"Nebuchadnezzar II rebuilt Babylon with the Ishtar Gate, destroyed Jerusalem and exiled the Judeans. Cyrus the Great took Babylon without a fight in 539 BCE.","next":["achaemenid-empire"]},{"id":"macedonian-empire","name":"Empire of Alexander the Great","short":"Alexander","start":-334,"end":-312,"family":"greek","group":"mesopotamia","kind":"empire","tier":1,"capital":"Babylon","desc":"Alexander of Macedon destroyed the Persian Empire in four years and died in Babylon in 323 BCE. His generals fought over the spoils until Seleucus secured Babylon in 312 BCE.","next":["seleucid-empire"]},{"id":"characene","name":"Characene","start":-141,"end":222,"approx":true,"family":"iranian","group":"mesopotamia","kind":"state","tier":3,"capital":"Charax Spasinou","desc":"Kingdom at the head of the Persian Gulf founded by Hyspaosines, a former Seleucid governor, which controlled sea trade with India under Parthian overlordship. Ardashir I conquered it."},{"id":"osroene","name":"Osroene","start":-132,"end":244,"approx":true,"family":"semitic","group":"mesopotamia","kind":"state","tier":3,"capital":"Edessa","desc":"Aramaic-speaking kingdom centred on Edessa, a cradle of Syriac Christianity and literature. Rome reduced it in stages and ended the dynasty in the 240s."},{"id":"hatra","name":"Hatra","start":117,"end":241,"approx":true,"family":"semitic","group":"mesopotamia","kind":"state","tier":3,"capital":"Hatra","desc":"Fortified caravan city west of the Tigris whose Arab kings held off sieges by Trajan and Septimius Severus. The Sasanians destroyed it around 241."},{"id":"lakhmids","name":"Lakhmids","start":300,"end":602,"approx":true,"family":"arabic","group":"mesopotamia","kind":"state","tier":3,"capital":"al-Hira","desc":"Arab dynasty at al-Hira that guarded the Sasanian frontier and fought the Ghassanids. Its court patronised early Arabic poetry until Khosrow II abolished it in 602."},{"id":"kurdish-emirates","name":"Kurdish tribes and emirates","short":"Kurds","start":640,"end":2025,"approx":true,"family":"iranian","group":"mesopotamia","kind":"culture","tier":3,"desc":"Iranian-speaking people of the Zagros and Taurus mountains, organised in tribes and emirates such as Soran, Baban and Bohtan until the Ottomans abolished them in the 19th century. They remain divided among four states."},{"id":"abbasid-caliphate","name":"Abbasid Caliphate","short":"Abbasids","start":750,"end":1258,"family":"arabic","group":"mesopotamia","kind":"empire","tier":1,"capital":"Baghdad, briefly Samarra","desc":"Caliphs who founded Baghdad in 762 and made it a centre of learning with the House of Wisdom. After 945 real power passed to Buyid and Seljuk sultans, and the Mongols killed the last caliph of Baghdad in 1258."},{"id":"uqaylids","name":"Uqaylids","start":990,"end":1096,"family":"arabic","group":"mesopotamia","kind":"state","tier":3,"capital":"Mosul","desc":"Bedouin Arab dynasty that ruled Mosul and the Jazira after the Hamdanids. The Seljuks pushed them out of Mosul by the end of the 11th century."},{"id":"artuqids","name":"Artuqids","start":1102,"end":1409,"family":"turkic","group":"mesopotamia","kind":"state","tier":3,"capital":"Hasankeyf, Mardin, Diyarbakır","desc":"Turkmen dynasty of Upper Mesopotamia, patrons of the engineer al-Jazari, who wrote his book of ingenious machines at their court. The Mardin branch fell to the Kara Koyunlu in 1409."},{"id":"jalayirids","name":"Jalayirids","start":1335,"end":1432,"family":"mongolic","group":"mesopotamia","kind":"state","tier":3,"capital":"Baghdad, Tabriz","desc":"Mongol successor dynasty of the Ilkhanate that ruled Iraq and Azerbaijan. Timur sacked Baghdad in 1401, and the Kara Koyunlu finished the dynasty off by 1432."},{"id":"kara-koyunlu","name":"Kara Koyunlu","short":"Black Sheep","start":1374,"end":1468,"family":"turkic","group":"mesopotamia","kind":"state","tier":2,"capital":"Van, later Tabriz","desc":"Turkmen confederation of the Black Sheep that ruled eastern Anatolia, Iraq and western Iran. Jahan Shah pushed east to Herat before Uzun Hasan of the Aq Qoyunlu killed him in 1467.","next":["aq-qoyunlu"]},{"id":"aq-qoyunlu","name":"Aq Qoyunlu","short":"White Sheep","start":1378,"end":1503,"family":"turkic","group":"mesopotamia","kind":"state","tier":2,"capital":"Diyarbakır, later Tabriz","desc":"Turkmen confederation of the White Sheep. Uzun Hasan defeated the Kara Koyunlu and the Timurids but lost to the Ottomans in 1473. Ismail I of the Safavids destroyed it by 1503.","next":["safavid-empire"]},{"id":"ottoman-iraq","name":"Ottoman Iraq","start":1534,"end":1918,"family":"turkic","group":"mesopotamia","kind":"empire","tier":2,"capital":"Baghdad, Mosul, Basra","desc":"Suleiman the Magnificent took Baghdad from the Safavids in 1534, and Persia held it again from 1623 to 1638. British forces captured Baghdad in 1917.","next":["british-mesopotamia"]},{"id":"mamluk-iraq","name":"Mamluk dynasty of Iraq","short":"Iraqi Mamluks","start":1704,"end":1831,"family":"turkic","group":"mesopotamia","kind":"state","tier":3,"capital":"Baghdad","desc":"Officers of Georgian slave origin who ruled Baghdad and Basra almost independently under Ottoman suzerainty. Sultan Mahmud II deposed the last of them, Dawud Pasha, in 1831."},{"id":"british-mesopotamia","name":"British Mandate of Mesopotamia","short":"British Iraq","start":1920,"end":1932,"family":"germanic","group":"mesopotamia","kind":"colony","tier":3,"capital":"Baghdad","desc":"League of Nations mandate, met at once by the Iraqi revolt of 1920. Britain installed Faisal I as king in 1921 and kept air bases and oil concessions after independence.","next":["kingdom-of-iraq"]},{"id":"kingdom-of-iraq","name":"Kingdom of Iraq","start":1932,"end":1958,"family":"arabic","group":"mesopotamia","kind":"state","tier":3,"capital":"Baghdad","desc":"Hashemite monarchy that joined the League of Nations in 1932 and grew on oil revenue. Army officers overthrew it in the 14 July Revolution of 1958 and killed the royal family.","next":["iraq"]},{"id":"iraq","name":"Republic of Iraq","short":"Iraq","start":1958,"end":2025,"family":"arabic","group":"mesopotamia","kind":"state","tier":2,"capital":"Baghdad","desc":"Republic ruled by the Ba'ath Party from 1968 and Saddam Hussein from 1979, who fought wars with Iran and over Kuwait. The 2003 US-led invasion toppled him and opened years of insurgency and sectarian war."},{"id":"kurdistan-region","name":"Kurdistan Region","start":1992,"end":2025,"family":"iranian","group":"mesopotamia","kind":"state","tier":3,"capital":"Erbil","desc":"Autonomous Kurdish region of northern Iraq that formed behind a Western no-fly zone after 1991 and was recognised in Iraq's 2005 constitution. Baghdad rejected its 2017 independence referendum."},{"id":"islamic-state","name":"Islamic State","short":"ISIS","start":2014,"end":2019,"family":"arabic","group":"mesopotamia","kind":"state","tier":3,"capital":"Raqqa, Mosul","desc":"Jihadist group that declared a caliphate across eastern Syria and northern Iraq in 2014 and committed genocide against the Yazidis. It lost its last territory at Baghuz in 2019."},{"id":"arabian-pastoralists","name":"Arabian pastoral nomads","short":"Arabian herders","start":-3200,"end":-900,"approx":true,"family":"unknown","group":"arabia","kind":"culture","tier":3,"desc":"Herders of sheep, goats and cattle moving between the steppe and the oases as the peninsula dried out. The camel was domesticated toward the end of this period and opened the deep desert.","next":["arab-bedouin"]},{"id":"south-semitic-peoples","name":"South Semitic peoples of Yemen","short":"South Semites","start":-3200,"end":-1000,"approx":true,"family":"semitic","group":"arabia","kind":"culture","tier":3,"desc":"Bronze Age farmers of the Yemeni highlands who terraced hillsides and built early irrigation works. Their descendants founded the incense kingdoms of South Arabia.","next":["saba"]},{"id":"hafit-culture","name":"Hafit culture","start":-3200,"end":-2600,"approx":true,"family":"unknown","group":"arabia","kind":"culture","tier":3,"desc":"Early Bronze Age culture of Oman and the UAE known for beehive-shaped stone tombs along the ridges. It began the copper mining that later supplied Mesopotamia.","next":["umm-an-nar"]},{"id":"umm-an-nar","name":"Umm an-Nar culture","short":"Umm an-Nar","start":-2600,"end":-2000,"approx":true,"family":"unknown","group":"arabia","kind":"culture","tier":3,"desc":"Bronze Age culture of southeast Arabia, probably the land of Magan in Mesopotamian texts, which exported copper smelted in the Hajar mountains. Its people built round stone towers and communal tombs.","next":["wadi-suq"]},{"id":"dilmun","name":"Dilmun","start":-2800,"end":-544,"approx":true,"family":"unknown","group":"arabia","kind":"state","tier":3,"capital":"Qal'at al-Bahrain","desc":"Trading kingdom on Bahrain and the nearby coast, middleman between Mesopotamia and the Indus. Sumerian myth called it a paradise, and it left tens of thousands of burial mounds."},{"id":"wadi-suq","name":"Wadi Suq culture","start":-2000,"end":-1300,"approx":true,"family":"unknown","group":"arabia","kind":"culture","tier":3,"desc":"Middle Bronze Age culture of Oman and the UAE with smaller settlements and long collective tombs, as the copper trade with Mesopotamia declined."},{"id":"saba","name":"Kingdom of Saba","short":"Saba","start":-1000,"end":275,"approx":true,"family":"semitic","group":"arabia","kind":"state","tier":2,"capital":"Marib","desc":"Biblical Sheba, the leading incense kingdom of South Arabia, whose Great Dam at Marib watered a vast oasis. Karib'il Watar dominated Yemen in the 7th century BCE. Himyar absorbed Saba around 275 CE.","next":["himyar"]},{"id":"arab-bedouin","name":"Arab Bedouin tribes","short":"Bedouin","start":-900,"end":2025,"approx":true,"family":"arabic","group":"arabia","kind":"culture","tier":3,"desc":"Camel-herding Arab tribes, first named in an Assyrian record of Gindibu's camels at Qarqar in 853 BCE. They ran the desert caravan routes and stayed a political force in Arabia into modern times."},{"id":"main","name":"Kingdom of Ma'in","short":"Ma'in","start":-800,"end":-100,"approx":true,"family":"semitic","group":"arabia","kind":"state","tier":3,"capital":"Qarnaw","desc":"Minaean kingdom of the Jawf valley whose merchants ran the incense caravans to the Mediterranean, with a trading colony at Dedan. Saba absorbed it around 100 BCE."},{"id":"qataban","name":"Kingdom of Qataban","short":"Qataban","start":-800,"end":200,"approx":true,"family":"semitic","group":"arabia","kind":"state","tier":3,"capital":"Timna","desc":"Incense kingdom of the Wadi Bayhan, a major source of frankincense and myrrh. It was divided between Hadramawt and Himyar around 200 CE."},{"id":"hadramawt","name":"Kingdom of Hadramawt","short":"Hadramawt","start":-800,"end":300,"approx":true,"family":"semitic","group":"arabia","kind":"state","tier":3,"capital":"Shabwa","desc":"Kingdom that controlled the frankincense groves of Dhofar and the port of Qana. Himyar conquered it around 300 CE."},{"id":"qedarites","name":"Qedarites","start":-800,"end":-300,"approx":true,"family":"arabic","group":"arabia","kind":"culture","tier":3,"desc":"North Arabian tribal confederation based at the oasis of Dumat al-Jandal, often led by queens such as Zabibe and Samsi. Assyrian kings fought them and took tribute in camels and spices."},{"id":"gerrha","name":"Gerrha","start":-650,"end":300,"approx":true,"family":"arabic","group":"arabia","kind":"state","tier":3,"desc":"Wealthy trading city on the Gulf coast of eastern Arabia that moved Indian and Arabian goods overland. Antiochus III spared it in 205 BCE in return for silver, frankincense and myrrh."},{"id":"lihyan","name":"Dedan and Lihyan","short":"Lihyan","start":-600,"end":-100,"approx":true,"family":"arabic","group":"arabia","kind":"state","tier":3,"capital":"Dedan (al-Ula)","desc":"Oasis kingdom of northwest Arabia on the incense road, whose kings left tombs and inscriptions at al-Ula. The Nabataeans took over the area and built Hegra nearby."},{"id":"himyar","name":"Himyarite Kingdom","short":"Himyar","start":-110,"end":525,"approx":true,"family":"semitic","group":"arabia","kind":"state","tier":2,"capital":"Zafar, later Sanaa","desc":"Kingdom that united all of Yemen by about 300 CE. Its rulers adopted Judaism, and Dhu Nuwas's massacre of Christians at Najran brought an Aksumite invasion that ended the kingdom in 525.","next":["aksumite-yemen"]},{"id":"kingdom-of-kinda","name":"Kingdom of Kinda","short":"Kinda","start":450,"end":550,"approx":true,"family":"arabic","group":"arabia","kind":"state","tier":3,"desc":"Tribal kingdom of central Arabia allied with Himyar that briefly led a confederation of Arab tribes. The poet Imru' al-Qays came from its royal family."},{"id":"aksumite-yemen","name":"Aksumite Yemen (Abraha)","short":"Abraha","start":525,"end":570,"approx":true,"family":"semitic","group":"arabia","kind":"state","tier":3,"capital":"Sanaa","desc":"The Aksumite general Abraha took power in Yemen and built a great church at Sanaa. Islamic tradition says he marched on Mecca with elephants in the year of Muhammad's birth.","next":["sasanian-yemen"]},{"id":"sasanian-yemen","name":"Sasanian Yemen","start":570,"end":628,"approx":true,"family":"iranian","group":"arabia","kind":"colony","tier":3,"capital":"Sanaa","desc":"A Persian force sent by Khosrow I expelled the Aksumites and ruled Yemen through governors. The last governor, Badhan, accepted Islam around 628."},{"id":"medina-state","name":"Muhammad's state at Medina","short":"Medina","start":622,"end":632,"family":"arabic","group":"arabia","kind":"state","tier":2,"capital":"Medina","desc":"Community founded when Muhammad moved from Mecca to Medina in 622. By his death in 632 it had taken Mecca and drawn most Arabian tribes into a single Muslim polity.","next":["rashidun-caliphate"]},{"id":"rashidun-caliphate","name":"Rashidun Caliphate","short":"Rashidun","start":632,"end":661,"family":"arabic","group":"arabia","kind":"empire","tier":1,"capital":"Medina, later Kufa","desc":"The first four caliphs conquered the Sasanian Empire and Byzantine Syria and Egypt in two decades. The murder of Uthman and Ali's civil war with Mu'awiya opened the split between Sunni and Shia.","next":["umayyad-caliphate"]},{"id":"ibadi-oman","name":"Ibadi Imamate of Oman","short":"Ibadi Oman","start":751,"end":1154,"approx":true,"family":"arabic","group":"arabia","kind":"state","tier":3,"capital":"Nizwa","desc":"Elected Ibadi imams ruled inner Oman from Nizwa in a series of imamates, often broken by Abbasid and Buyid invasions. The port of Sohar was a hub of Indian Ocean trade.","next":["nabhani-oman"]},{"id":"zaydi-imamate","name":"Zaydi Imamate of Yemen","short":"Zaydi Imamate","start":897,"end":1918,"family":"arabic","group":"arabia","kind":"state","tier":2,"capital":"Saada, later Sanaa","desc":"Shia imamate founded in the northern highlands by al-Hadi ila'l-Haqq. It drove the Ottomans out in 1635 and lasted, with breaks, for a thousand years until it became the Mutawakkilite Kingdom in 1918.","next":["mutawakkilite-yemen"]},{"id":"qarmatians","name":"Qarmatians of Bahrain","short":"Qarmatians","start":899,"end":1077,"family":"arabic","group":"arabia","kind":"state","tier":3,"capital":"al-Ahsa","desc":"Radical Ismaili state in eastern Arabia that raided pilgrim caravans and sacked Mecca in 930, carrying off the Black Stone for over twenty years. Local rebels ended it in 1077."},{"id":"sharifate-of-mecca","name":"Sharifate of Mecca","short":"Mecca","start":967,"end":1925,"family":"arabic","group":"arabia","kind":"state","tier":3,"capital":"Mecca","desc":"Descendants of the Prophet who governed Mecca and Medina under Fatimid, Mamluk and Ottoman overlords. Sharif Hussein led the Arab Revolt in 1916, and Ibn Saud took the Hejaz in 1925."},{"id":"sulayhids","name":"Sulayhids","start":1047,"end":1138,"family":"arabic","group":"arabia","kind":"state","tier":3,"capital":"Sanaa, later Jibla","desc":"Ismaili dynasty allied to the Fatimids that united much of Yemen. Queen Arwa al-Sulayhi ruled it for about fifty years from Jibla."},{"id":"nabhani-oman","name":"Nabhani dynasty","short":"Nabhanis","start":1154,"end":1624,"approx":true,"family":"arabic","group":"arabia","kind":"state","tier":3,"capital":"Bahla","desc":"Hereditary kings of inner Oman who built the great fort of Bahla. Their power faded as the Portuguese seized Muscat and the coast, and the Ya'aruba imams replaced them.","next":["yaruba"]},{"id":"rasulids","name":"Rasulids","start":1229,"end":1454,"family":"arabic","group":"arabia","kind":"state","tier":3,"capital":"Ta'izz, Zabid","desc":"Dynasty of Turkmen origin that took Yemen from the Ayyubids and prospered on Indian Ocean trade through Aden. Its sultans wrote treatises on farming and astronomy.","next":["tahirids-yemen"]},{"id":"tahirids-yemen","name":"Tahirids of Yemen","short":"Tahirids","start":1454,"end":1517,"family":"arabic","group":"arabia","kind":"state","tier":3,"capital":"Juban, Aden","desc":"Yemeni dynasty that succeeded the Rasulids and built mosques and schools in Zabid and Rada. Mamluk forces overthrew it in 1517."},{"id":"portuguese-gulf","name":"Portuguese Muscat and Gulf forts","short":"Portuguese Gulf","start":1507,"end":1650,"family":"romance","group":"arabia","kind":"colony","tier":3,"capital":"Muscat","desc":"Afonso de Albuquerque sacked Muscat in 1507, and Portugal held forts along the Omani coast and the Gulf to control trade. The Ya'aruba imams took Muscat in 1650."},{"id":"ottoman-arabia","name":"Ottoman Hejaz and Yemen","short":"Ottoman Arabia","start":1517,"end":1918,"family":"turkic","group":"arabia","kind":"empire","tier":3,"capital":"Mecca and Sanaa (provincial)","desc":"After conquering the Mamluks the Ottomans became protectors of Mecca and Medina and held Yemen in two periods. The Hejaz Railway reached Medina in 1908, shortly before the Arab Revolt."},{"id":"yaruba","name":"Ya'aruba dynasty","short":"Ya'aruba","start":1624,"end":1744,"family":"arabic","group":"arabia","kind":"state","tier":3,"capital":"Rustaq, Nizwa","desc":"Omani imams who expelled the Portuguese and built a navy that took Mombasa and Zanzibar. Civil war and a Persian invasion ended their rule.","next":["busaidi-oman"]},{"id":"emirate-of-diriyah","name":"Emirate of Diriyah","short":"1st Saudi State","start":1727,"end":1818,"family":"arabic","group":"arabia","kind":"state","tier":2,"capital":"Diriyah","desc":"First Saudi state, built on the 1744 pact between Muhammad ibn Saud and the preacher Muhammad ibn Abd al-Wahhab. It took Mecca in 1803 before an Egyptian army destroyed Diriyah in 1818.","next":["emirate-of-nejd"]},{"id":"busaidi-oman","name":"Omani Empire (Al Bu Said)","short":"Omani Empire","start":1744,"end":1856,"family":"arabic","group":"arabia","kind":"empire","tier":3,"capital":"Muscat, later Zanzibar","desc":"Ahmad bin Said founded the dynasty that still rules Oman. Said bin Sultan moved his court to Zanzibar and ran a trading empire on the Swahili coast until his realm was split in 1856.","next":["muscat-and-oman"]},{"id":"sheikhdom-of-kuwait","name":"Sheikhdom of Kuwait","start":1752,"end":1961,"approx":true,"family":"arabic","group":"arabia","kind":"state","tier":3,"capital":"Kuwait City","desc":"Trading port ruled by the Al Sabah family, which made Kuwait a British protectorate in 1899 to keep the Ottomans out. Oil was struck at Burgan in 1938.","next":["kuwait"]},{"id":"al-khalifa-bahrain","name":"Bahrain under the Al Khalifa","short":"Bahrain","start":1783,"end":1971,"family":"arabic","group":"arabia","kind":"state","tier":3,"capital":"Manama","desc":"The Al Khalifa took Bahrain from Persian control in 1783 and accepted British protection by treaty in the 19th century. It was the first Arab Gulf state to strike oil, in 1932.","next":["bahrain"]},{"id":"trucial-states","name":"Trucial States","start":1820,"end":1971,"family":"germanic","group":"arabia","kind":"colony","tier":3,"capital":"Dubai (British agency)","desc":"Sheikhdoms of the so-called Pirate Coast that signed truces with Britain from 1820, handing it control of their defence and foreign affairs. Oil exports from Abu Dhabi began in 1962.","next":["uae"]},{"id":"emirate-of-nejd","name":"Emirate of Nejd","short":"2nd Saudi State","start":1824,"end":1891,"family":"arabic","group":"arabia","kind":"state","tier":3,"capital":"Riyadh","desc":"Second Saudi state, refounded at Riyadh by Turki ibn Abdullah. Family feuds weakened it, and the Rashidis of Ha'il captured Riyadh in 1891.","next":["sultanate-of-nejd"]},{"id":"jabal-shammar","name":"Emirate of Jabal Shammar","short":"Rashidis","start":1836,"end":1921,"family":"arabic","group":"arabia","kind":"state","tier":3,"capital":"Ha'il","desc":"Rashidi emirate of northern Arabia, allied with the Ottomans, which for a time ruled all of Nejd. Ibn Saud conquered Ha'il in 1921."},{"id":"aden-colony","name":"British Aden","start":1839,"end":1967,"family":"germanic","group":"arabia","kind":"colony","tier":3,"capital":"Aden","desc":"Port seized by the East India Company in 1839 as a coaling station on the route to India. An insurgency from 1963 forced British withdrawal in 1967.","next":["south-yemen"]},{"id":"muscat-and-oman","name":"Sultanate of Muscat and Oman","short":"Muscat and Oman","start":1856,"end":1970,"family":"arabic","group":"arabia","kind":"state","tier":3,"capital":"Muscat","desc":"Sultanate under British influence after Zanzibar split off. Sultan Said bin Taimur kept the country closed, with three schools and almost no paved roads, until his son Qaboos deposed him in 1970.","next":["oman"]},{"id":"sheikhdom-of-qatar","name":"Sheikhdom of Qatar","start":1868,"end":1971,"family":"arabic","group":"arabia","kind":"state","tier":3,"capital":"Doha","desc":"Pearling coast where the Al Thani family emerged as rulers after an 1868 agreement with Britain. It became a British protectorate in 1916 and began exporting oil in 1949.","next":["qatar"]},{"id":"sultanate-of-nejd","name":"Emirate and Sultanate of Nejd","short":"Nejd","start":1902,"end":1932,"family":"arabic","group":"arabia","kind":"state","tier":3,"capital":"Riyadh","desc":"Abdulaziz ibn Saud retook Riyadh in a night raid in 1902 and, with the Ikhwan warriors, conquered Nejd, Ha'il and the Hejaz. He merged his lands into Saudi Arabia in 1932.","next":["saudi-arabia"]},{"id":"kingdom-of-hejaz","name":"Kingdom of Hejaz","short":"Hejaz","start":1916,"end":1925,"family":"arabic","group":"arabia","kind":"state","tier":3,"capital":"Mecca","desc":"Kingdom proclaimed by Sharif Hussein during the Arab Revolt against the Ottomans. Ibn Saud conquered it in 1925.","next":["saudi-arabia"]},{"id":"mutawakkilite-yemen","name":"Mutawakkilite Kingdom of Yemen","short":"Mutawakkilite","start":1918,"end":1962,"family":"arabic","group":"arabia","kind":"state","tier":3,"capital":"Sanaa, later Ta'izz","desc":"Zaydi kingdom of North Yemen after the Ottomans left, kept closed to the outside world by Imam Yahya and his son Ahmad. A republican coup in 1962 set off an eight-year civil war.","next":["yemen-arab-republic"]},{"id":"saudi-arabia","name":"Saudi Arabia","start":1932,"end":2025,"family":"arabic","group":"arabia","kind":"state","tier":2,"capital":"Riyadh","desc":"Absolute monarchy of the Al Saud and guardian of Islam's holiest cities. Oil, found in 1938, made it the world's leading exporter, and Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman has driven social and economic change since 2017."},{"id":"kuwait","name":"Kuwait","start":1961,"end":2025,"family":"arabic","group":"arabia","kind":"state","tier":3,"capital":"Kuwait City","desc":"Oil-exporting emirate with an elected parliament. Iraq invaded and annexed it in August 1990, and a US-led coalition liberated it in February 1991."},{"id":"yemen-arab-republic","name":"Yemen Arab Republic","short":"North Yemen","start":1962,"end":1990,"family":"arabic","group":"arabia","kind":"state","tier":3,"capital":"Sanaa","desc":"North Yemeni republic that won a civil war against Saudi-backed royalists with the help of Egyptian troops. Ali Abdullah Saleh ruled it from 1978 until unification in 1990.","next":["yemen"]},{"id":"south-yemen","name":"People's Democratic Republic of Yemen","short":"South Yemen","start":1967,"end":1990,"family":"arabic","group":"arabia","kind":"state","tier":3,"capital":"Aden","desc":"The only Marxist state in the Arab world, formed after British withdrawal from Aden. A short, bloody civil war in 1986 weakened it before unification with the north in 1990.","next":["yemen"]},{"id":"oman","name":"Oman","start":1970,"end":2025,"family":"arabic","group":"arabia","kind":"state","tier":3,"capital":"Muscat","desc":"Sultan Qaboos used oil revenue to build schools, hospitals and roads and ended the Dhofar rebellion by 1976. He ruled until his death in 2020, when his cousin Haitham succeeded him."},{"id":"bahrain","name":"Bahrain","start":1971,"end":2025,"family":"arabic","group":"arabia","kind":"state","tier":3,"capital":"Manama","desc":"Island kingdom with a Sunni monarchy over a largely Shia population. Saudi-led troops helped crush protests in 2011, and it normalised relations with Israel in 2020."},{"id":"qatar","name":"Qatar","start":1971,"end":2025,"family":"arabic","group":"arabia","kind":"state","tier":3,"capital":"Doha","desc":"Gas-exporting emirate with one of the highest incomes per person in the world. It founded Al Jazeera in 1996, faced a Saudi-led blockade from 2017 to 2021 and hosted the 2022 World Cup."},{"id":"uae","name":"United Arab Emirates","short":"UAE","start":1971,"end":2025,"family":"arabic","group":"arabia","kind":"state","tier":3,"capital":"Abu Dhabi","desc":"Federation of seven emirates formed as Britain left the Gulf. Oil wealth turned Dubai and Abu Dhabi into global hubs of trade, finance and aviation."},{"id":"yemen","name":"Republic of Yemen","short":"Yemen","start":1990,"end":2025,"family":"arabic","group":"arabia","kind":"state","tier":3,"capital":"Sanaa, Aden","desc":"Unified Yemen survived a secession war in 1994. The Houthi movement seized Sanaa in 2014, and a Saudi-led intervention from 2015 produced one of the worst humanitarian crises of the century."},{"id":"proto-elamite","name":"Proto-Elamite period","short":"Proto-Elamite","start":-3200,"end":-2700,"approx":true,"family":"isolate","group":"iran","kind":"culture","tier":3,"capital":"Susa","desc":"Early state culture of southwest Iran with its own script, still undeciphered, used on tablets found from Susa to Shahr-i Sokhta.","next":["old-elam"]},{"id":"shahr-i-sokhta","name":"Helmand culture (Shahr-i Sokhta)","short":"Shahr-i Sokhta","start":-3200,"end":-1800,"approx":true,"family":"unknown","group":"iran","kind":"culture","tier":3,"desc":"Bronze Age urban culture of Sistan. Its city of Shahr-i Sokhta, the Burnt City, traded lapis lazuli and has yielded one of the oldest known artificial eyes."},{"id":"zagros-peoples","name":"Zagros highland peoples","short":"Zagros peoples","start":-3200,"end":-800,"approx":true,"family":"unknown","group":"iran","kind":"culture","tier":3,"desc":"Mountain herders and villagers of the Zagros, among them the Lullubi, Gutians and Kassites known from Mesopotamian texts. Their raids and migrations repeatedly shaped lowland history."},{"id":"jiroft-culture","name":"Jiroft culture","start":-3000,"end":-2200,"approx":true,"family":"unknown","group":"iran","kind":"culture","tier":3,"desc":"Bronze Age culture of the Halil River valley in Kerman, known for carved chlorite vessels traded as far as Mesopotamia. Many scholars link it to the land of Marhashi in Akkadian texts."},{"id":"old-elam","name":"Old Elamite period","short":"Old Elam","start":-2700,"end":-1500,"approx":true,"family":"isolate","group":"iran","kind":"state","tier":2,"capital":"Susa, Anshan","desc":"Elam under the Awan, Shimashki and Sukkalmah dynasties, a constant rival of Sumer and Babylon. Elamites sacked Ur in 2004 BCE and ended the Third Dynasty of Ur.","next":["middle-elam"]},{"id":"middle-elam","name":"Middle Elamite period","short":"Middle Elam","start":-1500,"end":-1100,"approx":true,"family":"isolate","group":"iran","kind":"state","tier":2,"capital":"Susa, Al Untash-Napirisha","desc":"Elam at its height. Untash-Napirisha built the ziggurat of Chogha Zanbil, and Shutruk-Nahhunte carried Hammurabi's law stele off to Susa. Nebuchadnezzar I of Babylon defeated Elam around 1100 BCE.","next":["neo-elam"]},{"id":"early-iranian-peoples","name":"Iranian-speaking pastoralists","short":"Early Iranians","start":-1200,"end":-700,"approx":true,"family":"iranian","group":"iran","kind":"culture","tier":3,"desc":"Herding tribes speaking Iranian languages spread across the plateau and appear in Assyrian records as Medes and Persians from the 9th century BCE.","next":["medes"]},{"id":"neo-elam","name":"Neo-Elamite period","short":"Neo-Elam","start":-1100,"end":-539,"approx":true,"family":"isolate","group":"iran","kind":"state","tier":3,"capital":"Susa","desc":"A weakened Elam allied with Babylon against Assyria until Ashurbanipal sacked Susa around 646 BCE. The Persians absorbed what remained, though Elamite stayed a language of record at Persepolis.","next":["achaemenid-empire"]},{"id":"mannaea","name":"Mannaea","start":-850,"end":-616,"approx":true,"family":"unknown","group":"iran","kind":"state","tier":3,"capital":"Izirtu","desc":"Kingdom south of Lake Urmia, a buffer between Assyria and Urartu known mainly from Assyrian campaign records. The Medes absorbed it in the late 7th century BCE."},{"id":"medes","name":"Median kingdom","short":"Medes","start":-678,"end":-550,"approx":true,"family":"iranian","group":"iran","kind":"state","tier":2,"capital":"Ecbatana (Hamadan)","desc":"Iranian kingdom that under Cyaxares joined Babylon to destroy Assyria in 612 BCE. Cyrus the Persian overthrew his grandfather, the Median king Astyages, in 550 BCE.","next":["achaemenid-empire"]},{"id":"achaemenid-empire","name":"Achaemenid Empire","short":"Achaemenids","start":-550,"end":-330,"family":"iranian","group":"iran","kind":"empire","tier":1,"capital":"Pasargadae, Persepolis, Susa, Babylon","desc":"Cyrus the Great and his successors built the largest empire yet seen, from Egypt and Thrace to the Indus, joined by the Royal Road and run by satraps. Alexander destroyed it after Gaugamela.","next":["macedonian-empire"]},{"id":"atropatene","name":"Atropatene","start":-323,"end":226,"approx":true,"family":"iranian","group":"iran","kind":"state","tier":3,"capital":"Ganzak","desc":"Kingdom of northwest Iran founded by the Persian satrap Atropates after Alexander's death, which gave its name to Azerbaijan. It became a Parthian vassal and passed to the Sasanians."},{"id":"persis","name":"Kingdom of Persis","short":"Persis","start":-280,"end":224,"approx":true,"family":"iranian","group":"iran","kind":"state","tier":3,"capital":"Istakhr","desc":"Local Persian kings of Fars who kept Achaemenid traditions alive under Seleucid and Parthian overlords. Its last ruler, Ardashir, overthrew the Parthians and founded the Sasanian Empire.","next":["sasanian-empire"]},{"id":"parthian-empire","name":"Parthian Empire","short":"Parthia","start":-247,"end":224,"family":"iranian","group":"iran","kind":"empire","tier":1,"capital":"Nisa, Hecatompylos, Ctesiphon","desc":"Arsacid dynasty of horse archers from the northeast who took Iran and Mesopotamia from the Seleucids. They destroyed a Roman army at Carrhae in 53 BCE and controlled the Silk Road for four centuries.","next":["sasanian-empire"]},{"id":"elymais","name":"Elymais","start":-147,"end":221,"approx":true,"family":"iranian","group":"iran","kind":"state","tier":3,"capital":"Susa","desc":"Semi-independent kingdom in the old Elamite lowlands of Khuzestan under Parthian overlordship, known for its rock reliefs and coins. Ardashir I conquered it."},{"id":"sasanian-empire","name":"Sasanian Empire","short":"Sasanians","start":224,"end":651,"family":"iranian","group":"iran","kind":"empire","tier":1,"capital":"Ctesiphon","desc":"Persian dynasty that made Zoroastrianism a state church and fought Rome for four centuries. Exhausted by war with Byzantium from 602 to 628, it fell to the Arabs, and the last shah was killed in 651."},{"id":"bavandids","name":"Bavandids","start":651,"end":1349,"family":"iranian","group":"iran","kind":"state","tier":3,"capital":"Sari, Amol","desc":"Persian dynasty of Tabaristan on the Caspian coast, sheltered by the Alborz mountains, which held on to Zoroastrian and Persian traditions longer than most of Iran. Its branches survived until 1349."},{"id":"tahirids","name":"Tahirids","start":821,"end":873,"family":"iranian","group":"iran","kind":"state","tier":3,"capital":"Merv, later Nishapur","desc":"Persian governors of Khorasan who ruled almost independently while staying loyal to the Abbasid caliph. The Saffarids took Nishapur in 873."},{"id":"saffarids","name":"Saffarids","start":861,"end":1003,"family":"iranian","group":"iran","kind":"state","tier":3,"capital":"Zarang","desc":"Dynasty founded by Ya'qub the coppersmith of Sistan, who conquered most of Iran and marched on Baghdad. His court was among the first to favour poetry in New Persian."},{"id":"ziyarids","name":"Ziyarids","start":931,"end":1090,"family":"iranian","group":"iran","kind":"state","tier":3,"capital":"Gorgan","desc":"Gilaki dynasty of Gorgan and Tabaristan. Qabus ibn Wushmgir built the 52-metre brick tower of Gonbad-e Qabus as his tomb in 1006."},{"id":"buyids","name":"Buyids","start":934,"end":1062,"family":"iranian","group":"iran","kind":"state","tier":2,"capital":"Shiraz, Rayy, Baghdad","desc":"Shia Daylamite dynasty that took Baghdad in 945 and kept the Abbasid caliphs as puppets. Adud al-Dawla united Iran and Iraq, but the Seljuks displaced the Buyids by 1062."},{"id":"seljuk-empire","name":"Great Seljuk Empire","short":"Seljuks","start":1037,"end":1194,"family":"turkic","group":"iran","kind":"empire","tier":1,"capital":"Nishapur, Rayy, Isfahan, Merv","desc":"Oghuz Turks who took Baghdad in 1055, beat Byzantium at Manzikert in 1071 and ruled from Central Asia to Syria. The vizier Nizam al-Mulk founded madrasas across the empire, which fragmented after 1092.","next":["khwarazmian-empire","sultanate-of-rum"]},{"id":"khwarazmian-empire","name":"Khwarazmian Empire","short":"Khwarazm","start":1077,"end":1231,"family":"turkic","group":"iran","kind":"empire","tier":2,"capital":"Gurganj, later Samarkand","desc":"Turkic shahs of Khwarazm who replaced the Seljuks in Iran around 1194. Muhammad II's killing of Mongol envoys brought Genghis Khan's invasion of 1219, and the last shah died in 1231."},{"id":"nizari-state","name":"Nizari Ismaili state","short":"Nizaris","start":1090,"end":1256,"family":"iranian","group":"iran","kind":"state","tier":3,"capital":"Alamut","desc":"Network of mountain castles founded by Hasan-i Sabbah at Alamut, feared for targeted killings that gave Europe the word 'assassin'. Hulagu's Mongols took Alamut in 1256."},{"id":"kingdom-of-hormuz","name":"Kingdom of Hormuz","short":"Hormuz","start":1100,"end":1622,"approx":true,"family":"iranian","group":"iran","kind":"state","tier":3,"capital":"Hormuz","desc":"Trading kingdom at the mouth of the Gulf that moved to Hormuz island around 1300 and dominated Gulf commerce. A Portuguese vassal from 1515, it fell to Shah Abbas and the English in 1622."},{"id":"ilkhanate","name":"Ilkhanate","start":1256,"end":1335,"family":"mongolic","group":"iran","kind":"empire","tier":2,"capital":"Maragheh, Tabriz, Soltaniyeh","desc":"Mongol khanate founded by Hulagu, who sacked Baghdad in 1258. Ghazan converted to Islam in 1295 and his vizier Rashid al-Din wrote a history of the world. It broke apart after Abu Sa'id died in 1335.","next":["jalayirids","chobanids","muzaffarids"]},{"id":"muzaffarids","name":"Muzaffarids","start":1314,"end":1393,"family":"iranian","group":"iran","kind":"state","tier":3,"capital":"Shiraz, Yazd","desc":"Dynasty of southern Iran whose capital Shiraz was home to the poet Hafez. Timur executed the princes of the family in 1393."},{"id":"sarbadars","name":"Sarbadars","start":1332,"end":1381,"family":"iranian","group":"iran","kind":"state","tier":3,"capital":"Sabzevar","desc":"Rebel state of western Khorasan whose name means 'heads on gallows', led by a series of commanders allied with Shia dervishes. It submitted to Timur in 1381."},{"id":"chobanids","name":"Chobanids","start":1335,"end":1357,"family":"mongolic","group":"iran","kind":"state","tier":3,"capital":"Tabriz","desc":"Mongol emirs who ruled northwest Iran through puppet khans after the Ilkhanate collapsed. Jani Beg of the Golden Horde took Tabriz in 1357."},{"id":"timurid-empire","name":"Timurid Empire","short":"Timurids","start":1370,"end":1507,"family":"turkic","group":"iran","kind":"empire","tier":2,"capital":"Samarkand, later Herat","desc":"Timur's campaigns left towers of skulls from Delhi to Damascus. His son Shah Rukh ruled Iran from Herat, a centre of Persian painting and poetry, until the Uzbeks took it in 1507."},{"id":"safavid-empire","name":"Safavid Empire","short":"Safavids","start":1501,"end":1736,"family":"turkic","group":"iran","kind":"empire","tier":1,"capital":"Tabriz, Qazvin, Isfahan","desc":"Ismail I, leader of the Turkic Qizilbash, made Twelver Shia Islam the faith of Iran. Shah Abbas I rebuilt Isfahan around a vast square. Afghans took Isfahan in 1722, and Nader ended the dynasty in 1736.","next":["afsharids"]},{"id":"hotak-iran","name":"Hotak rule in Iran","short":"Hotaks","start":1722,"end":1729,"family":"iranian","group":"iran","kind":"state","tier":3,"capital":"Isfahan","desc":"Pashtun Hotak chiefs from Kandahar defeated the Safavids at Gulnabad and starved Isfahan into surrender in 1722. Nader Afshar drove them out in 1729."},{"id":"afsharids","name":"Afsharid dynasty","short":"Afsharids","start":1736,"end":1796,"family":"turkic","group":"iran","kind":"empire","tier":2,"capital":"Mashhad","desc":"Nader Shah, a general from the Turkic Afshar tribe, crowned himself in 1736 and sacked Delhi in 1739, carrying off the Peacock Throne. After his murder in 1747 his heirs held only Khorasan.","next":["qajar-dynasty"]},{"id":"zand-dynasty","name":"Zand dynasty","short":"Zand","start":1751,"end":1794,"family":"iranian","group":"iran","kind":"state","tier":3,"capital":"Shiraz","desc":"Karim Khan Zand ruled most of Iran from Shiraz as regent and never took the title of shah. After his death the Qajars defeated his successors and killed Lotf Ali Khan in 1794.","next":["qajar-dynasty"]},{"id":"qajar-dynasty","name":"Qajar dynasty","short":"Qajars","start":1789,"end":1925,"family":"turkic","group":"iran","kind":"state","tier":2,"capital":"Tehran","desc":"Turkic dynasty that made Tehran the capital and lost the Caucasus to Russia by 1828. The Constitutional Revolution of 1906 created a parliament, and Reza Khan deposed the last shah in 1925.","next":["pahlavi-iran"]},{"id":"pahlavi-iran","name":"Pahlavi Iran","short":"Pahlavi","start":1925,"end":1979,"family":"iranian","group":"iran","kind":"state","tier":2,"capital":"Tehran","desc":"Reza Shah and his son Mohammad Reza modernised the army, schools and roads by decree. A 1953 coup backed by the US and Britain restored the shah's power, and the 1979 revolution overthrew him.","next":["islamic-republic-of-iran"]},{"id":"islamic-republic-of-iran","name":"Islamic Republic of Iran","short":"Islamic Republic","start":1979,"end":2025,"family":"iranian","group":"iran","kind":"state","tier":2,"capital":"Tehran","desc":"Theocratic republic founded by Ayatollah Khomeini, which fought an eight-year war with Iraq from 1980 and has been led by Ali Khamenei since 1989. Israeli and US strikes hit its nuclear sites in June 2025."}],"events":[{"year":-3200,"title":"Writing invented at Uruk","desc":"Temple scribes at Uruk press accounting signs into clay tablets. Over the following centuries this proto-cuneiform grows into a full writing system used for 3,000 years.","tier":1,"group":"mesopotamia","related":["uruk-period","sumerians"]},{"year":-2334,"title":"Sargon founds the Akkadian Empire","desc":"Sargon defeats Lugalzagesi of Umma and unites the Sumerian cities with the north, creating the first known multi-ethnic empire.","tier":1,"group":"mesopotamia","related":["akkadian-empire","umma"]},{"year":-2004,"title":"Elamites sack Ur","desc":"An Elamite army destroys Ur and carries off its last king, Ibbi-Sin, ending the Third Dynasty of Ur. The Lament for Ur mourns the city's fall.","tier":2,"group":"mesopotamia","related":["ur-iii","old-elam"]},{"year":-1754,"title":"Code of Hammurabi","desc":"Hammurabi of Babylon has 282 laws carved on a basalt stele, from trade and family disputes to the principle of an eye for an eye.","tier":1,"group":"mesopotamia","related":["old-babylonian-empire"]},{"year":-1595,"title":"Hittites sack Babylon","desc":"Mursili I marches 2,000 km down the Euphrates and sacks Babylon, ending Hammurabi's dynasty and opening the way for the Kassites.","tier":2,"group":"mesopotamia","related":["hittite-old-kingdom","old-babylonian-empire","kassite-babylonia"]},{"year":-1274,"title":"Battle of Kadesh","desc":"Ramesses II and the Hittite king Muwatalli II fight one of the largest chariot battles in history in Syria. Both claim victory, and a peace treaty follows in 1259 BCE.","tier":2,"group":"levant","related":["hittite-new-kingdom"]},{"year":-1177,"title":"Late Bronze Age collapse","desc":"Within a few decades Hattusa is abandoned, Ugarit is burned and Sea Peoples raid the coasts. The palace states of the eastern Mediterranean collapse.","tier":1,"group":"levant","related":["hittite-new-kingdom","ugarit","philistines"]},{"year":-1050,"title":"Phoenician alphabet","desc":"Phoenician scribes use a 22-letter alphabet of consonants. Carried by traders, it becomes the ancestor of the Greek, Latin, Hebrew and Arabic scripts.","tier":1,"group":"levant","related":["phoenician-cities","byblos"]},{"year":-853,"title":"Battle of Qarqar","desc":"A coalition including Ahab of Israel and Hadadezer of Damascus checks Shalmaneser III. His inscription names Gindibu the Arab with 1,000 camels, the first record of Arabs.","tier":2,"group":"levant","related":["neo-assyria","kingdom-of-israel","aram-damascus","arab-bedouin"]},{"year":-722,"title":"Assyria conquers Samaria","desc":"Assyria takes Samaria after a three-year siege, ends the Kingdom of Israel and deports its people, the origin of the legend of the ten lost tribes.","tier":2,"group":"levant","related":["kingdom-of-israel","neo-assyria"]},{"year":-612,"title":"Fall of Nineveh","desc":"Babylonians and Medes storm and burn the Assyrian capital. Within three years the Neo-Assyrian Empire is gone.","tier":2,"group":"mesopotamia","related":["neo-assyria","neo-babylonian-empire","medes"]},{"year":-587,"title":"Destruction of Jerusalem","desc":"Nebuchadnezzar II destroys Jerusalem and Solomon's Temple and deports the Judean elite to Babylon. The exile reshapes Jewish religion and scripture.","tier":2,"group":"levant","related":["kingdom-of-judah","neo-babylonian-empire"]},{"year":-539,"title":"Cyrus takes Babylon","desc":"Cyrus the Great enters Babylon without a fight and allows deported peoples, including the Judeans, to go home. Persia now rules from the Aegean to Central Asia.","tier":1,"group":"mesopotamia","related":["achaemenid-empire","neo-babylonian-empire"]},{"year":-331,"title":"Battle of Gaugamela","desc":"Alexander defeats Darius III near Erbil. Babylon, Susa and Persepolis fall within months, and the Achaemenid Empire is finished.","tier":1,"group":"mesopotamia","related":["achaemenid-empire","macedonian-empire"]},{"year":-53,"title":"Battle of Carrhae","desc":"Parthian horse archers destroy the army of Marcus Licinius Crassus in Upper Mesopotamia, fixing the Euphrates as the frontier between Rome and Iran.","tier":2,"group":"mesopotamia","related":["parthian-empire"]},{"year":30,"title":"Crucifixion of Jesus","desc":"Jesus of Nazareth is executed in Jerusalem under the Roman prefect Pontius Pilate, around 30 to 33 CE. His followers spread a new religion across the empire.","tier":1,"group":"levant","related":["roman-syria"]},{"year":70,"title":"Romans destroy the Second Temple","desc":"Titus captures Jerusalem and burns the Temple, ending the Jewish revolt. Judaism reorganises around rabbis and synagogues.","tier":2,"group":"levant","related":["roman-syria"]},{"year":301,"title":"Armenia adopts Christianity","desc":"King Tiridates III, converted by Gregory the Illuminator, makes Armenia the first state to adopt Christianity as its official religion.","tier":2,"group":"caucasus","related":["arsacid-armenia"]},{"year":622,"title":"The Hijra","desc":"Muhammad and his followers leave Mecca for Medina, founding the first Muslim community. The year becomes the start of the Islamic calendar.","tier":1,"group":"arabia","related":["medina-state"]},{"year":636,"title":"Battles of Yarmouk and Qadisiyyah","desc":"Arab armies crush the Byzantines at the Yarmouk River and then the Sasanians at Qadisiyyah, opening Syria and Iraq to Islamic rule.","tier":1,"group":"levant","related":["rashidun-caliphate","byzantine-levant","sasanian-empire"]},{"year":680,"title":"Battle of Karbala","desc":"Umayyad troops kill Husayn, grandson of Muhammad, and his small band at Karbala. His death becomes the central event of Shia Islam.","tier":2,"group":"mesopotamia","related":["umayyad-caliphate"]},{"year":762,"title":"Founding of Baghdad","desc":"Caliph al-Mansur builds his round city on the Tigris. Within a century Baghdad is one of the largest cities in the world and home to the House of Wisdom.","tier":2,"group":"mesopotamia","related":["abbasid-caliphate"]},{"year":1071,"title":"Battle of Manzikert","desc":"Seljuk sultan Alp Arslan defeats and captures Emperor Romanos IV. Turkmen tribes pour into Anatolia, which slowly becomes Turkish.","tier":2,"group":"anatolia","related":["seljuk-empire","byzantine-empire","oghuz-turkmen"]},{"year":1099,"title":"Crusaders take Jerusalem","desc":"The First Crusade storms Jerusalem and massacres much of its population, founding the Latin Kingdom of Jerusalem.","tier":2,"group":"levant","related":["kingdom-of-jerusalem","fatimid-levant"]},{"year":1187,"title":"Battle of Hattin","desc":"Saladin destroys the Crusader field army near Tiberias and retakes Jerusalem three months later.","tier":2,"group":"levant","related":["ayyubids","kingdom-of-jerusalem"]},{"year":1258,"title":"Mongols sack Baghdad","desc":"Hulagu's army storms Baghdad, kills the caliph al-Musta'sim and many thousands of residents, ending the Abbasid caliphate in Iraq.","tier":1,"group":"mesopotamia","related":["ilkhanate","abbasid-caliphate"]},{"year":1260,"title":"Battle of Ain Jalut","desc":"The Mamluks of Egypt defeat a Mongol army in Galilee, the first major Mongol defeat, and keep the Mongols out of Syria and Egypt.","tier":2,"group":"levant","related":["mamluk-levant","ilkhanate"]},{"year":1514,"title":"Battle of Chaldiran","desc":"Ottoman cannon and muskets defeat the Safavid cavalry of Ismail I. The frontier between Sunni Ottoman lands and Shia Iran takes shape.","tier":2,"group":"iran","related":["ottoman-empire","safavid-empire"]},{"year":1908,"title":"Oil struck at Masjed Soleyman","desc":"William Knox D'Arcy's drillers find oil in southwest Iran, the first big strike in the Middle East. The Anglo-Persian Oil Company, later BP, is founded in 1909.","tier":2,"group":"iran","related":["qajar-dynasty"]},{"year":1915,"title":"Armenian genocide","desc":"The Ottoman government deports and massacres its Armenian population. Between 600,000 and 1.5 million Armenians die.","tier":1,"group":"anatolia","related":["ottoman-empire"]},{"year":1916,"title":"Arab Revolt and Sykes-Picot","desc":"Sharif Hussein of Mecca rises against the Ottomans, while Britain and France secretly agree to divide the Arab provinces between them.","tier":2,"group":"arabia","related":["kingdom-of-hejaz","ottoman-arabia","french-mandate","mandatory-palestine"]},{"year":1923,"title":"Treaty of Lausanne","desc":"The Allies recognise the Republic of Turkey within its present borders, and a population exchange uproots over a million Greeks and Turks.","tier":2,"group":"anatolia","related":["turkey","ottoman-empire"]},{"year":1948,"title":"Founding of Israel and the Nakba","desc":"Israel declares independence as Britain leaves Palestine. Arab states invade, and about 700,000 Palestinians flee or are expelled from their homes.","tier":1,"group":"levant","related":["israel","mandatory-palestine"]},{"year":1979,"title":"Iranian Revolution","desc":"Mass protests drive out the shah and Ayatollah Khomeini founds an Islamic Republic. Students seize the US embassy in Tehran that November.","tier":1,"group":"iran","related":["pahlavi-iran","islamic-republic-of-iran"]},{"year":1991,"title":"Gulf War","desc":"A US-led coalition expels Iraqi forces from Kuwait after a six-week air campaign and a 100-hour ground war.","tier":2,"group":"arabia","related":["kuwait","iraq"]},{"year":2003,"title":"US-led invasion of Iraq","desc":"American and British forces overthrow Saddam Hussein in three weeks. Occupation, insurgency and sectarian war follow.","tier":2,"group":"mesopotamia","related":["iraq"]},{"year":2011,"title":"Arab Spring reaches Syria","desc":"Protests against Bashar al-Assad are met with gunfire and turn into a civil war that kills over 500,000 people and displaces half the population.","tier":2,"group":"levant","related":["syria"]},{"year":2024,"title":"Fall of the Assad regime","desc":"A rebel offensive led by Hayat Tahrir al-Sham takes Aleppo and then Damascus in December, ending 53 years of Assad family rule.","tier":2,"group":"levant","related":["syria"]}]},{"id":"south-asia","name":"South Asia","groups":[{"id":"afghanistan","name":"Afghanistan and the northwest"},{"id":"indus-punjab","name":"Indus, Punjab and Kashmir"},{"id":"western-india","name":"Rajasthan, Gujarat and Malwa"},{"id":"gangetic","name":"Gangetic plain and Nepal"},{"id":"bengal","name":"Bengal, Odisha and the northeast"},{"id":"deccan","name":"Deccan"},{"id":"tamil-south","name":"Tamil south and Sri Lanka"}],"entries":[{"id":"mehrgarh","name":"Mehrgarh and Baluchistan farmers","short":"Mehrgarh","start":-3500,"end":-2600,"approx":true,"family":"unknown","group":"afghanistan","kind":"culture","tier":2,"desc":"Farming villages on the Kachi plain of Baluchistan, among the oldest in South Asia, with wheat, barley, cattle and mudbrick houses from about 7000 BCE. The site was abandoned as Harappan towns grew to the east."},{"id":"helmand-culture","name":"Helmand culture","short":"Helmand","start":-3200,"end":-2000,"approx":true,"family":"unknown","group":"afghanistan","kind":"culture","tier":3,"desc":"Bronze Age towns along the Helmand river, including Mundigak near Kandahar and Shahr-i Sokhta in Sistan, which traded lapis lazuli, shell and painted pottery between Iran and the Indus."},{"id":"bmac-afghanistan","name":"Bactria-Margiana culture (Dashly oasis)","short":"BMAC","start":-2300,"end":-1700,"approx":true,"family":"unknown","group":"afghanistan","kind":"culture","tier":3,"desc":"Fortified oasis towns of the Bronze Age Oxus civilization in northern Afghanistan, such as Dashly, with square walled compounds, bronze seals and the gold and silver cups of the Tepe Fullol hoard."},{"id":"gandhara-grave-culture","name":"Gandhara grave culture","short":"Swat culture","start":-1600,"end":-500,"approx":true,"family":"indo-aryan","group":"afghanistan","kind":"culture","tier":3,"desc":"Cemeteries in the Swat and Dir valleys with cremation and inhumation graves, horse gear and grey pottery. Many scholars link them to early Indo-Aryan speakers moving toward the Punjab."},{"id":"eastern-iranian-peoples","name":"Eastern Iranian peoples","short":"E. Iranians","start":-1500,"end":1000,"approx":true,"family":"iranian","group":"afghanistan","kind":"culture","tier":3,"desc":"Bactrians, Arachosians, Drangians and other Iranian-speaking herders and oasis farmers of the Hindu Kush. The Avesta names several of their lands, and Pashtuns and Tajiks count them among their ancestors."},{"id":"achaemenid-east","name":"Achaemenid eastern satrapies","short":"Achaemenids","start":-535,"end":-330,"approx":true,"family":"iranian","group":"afghanistan","kind":"empire","tier":2,"capital":"Bactra (satrapal seat), ruled from Persepolis and Susa","desc":"Cyrus the Great and Darius I annexed Bactria, Arachosia, Gandhara and Hindush, which paid tribute in gold dust. Alexander of Macedon conquered them between 330 and 326 BCE."},{"id":"greco-bactrian","name":"Greco-Bactrian Kingdom","short":"Greco-Bactria","start":-256,"end":-120,"approx":true,"family":"greek","group":"afghanistan","kind":"state","tier":2,"capital":"Bactra, Ai-Khanoum","desc":"Founded when the satrap Diodotus broke away from the Seleucids. Its kings minted fine silver coins, built the Greek city at Ai-Khanoum and crossed the Hindu Kush, until nomads from the north overran Bactria around 130 BCE.","next":["yuezhi-bactria","indo-greek"]},{"id":"yuezhi-bactria","name":"Yuezhi in Bactria","short":"Yuezhi","start":-130,"end":30,"approx":true,"family":"unknown","group":"afghanistan","kind":"culture","tier":3,"desc":"Nomads driven west from Gansu by the Xiongnu, the Yuezhi settled north of the Oxus and took Bactria. One of their five clans, the Kushan, later united the rest.","next":["kushan"]},{"id":"kushan","name":"Kushan Empire","short":"Kushan","start":30,"end":375,"approx":true,"family":"iranian","group":"afghanistan","kind":"empire","tier":1,"capital":"Purushapura (Peshawar), Kapisa, Mathura","desc":"Kujula Kadphises united the Yuezhi clans and his heirs ruled from the Oxus to the Ganges. Under Kanishka it sat at the hub of Silk Road trade and spread Mahayana Buddhism and Gandharan art. Sasanian Persia and the Guptas broke it up.","next":["kushano-sasanian"]},{"id":"kushano-sasanian","name":"Kushano-Sasanian Kingdom","short":"Kushanshahs","start":230,"end":365,"approx":true,"family":"iranian","group":"afghanistan","kind":"state","tier":3,"capital":"Balkh","desc":"Sasanian princes who ruled Bactria and Gandhara after Persia conquered the western Kushan lands, taking the title Kushanshah. The Kidarites displaced them in the mid 4th century.","next":["kidarites"]},{"id":"kidarites","name":"Kidarites","start":350,"end":470,"approx":true,"family":"unknown","group":"afghanistan","kind":"state","tier":3,"capital":"Balkh, later Gandhara","desc":"A Hunnic dynasty named after its first ruler Kidara, which took Bactria and Gandhara from the Sasanians and fought Persia for decades. The Hephthalites pushed it south into Gandhara and then destroyed it.","next":["hephthalites"]},{"id":"hephthalites","name":"Hephthalite Empire","short":"Hephthalites","start":450,"end":560,"approx":true,"family":"unknown","group":"afghanistan","kind":"empire","tier":2,"desc":"The White Huns ruled from Tokharistan over Sogdiana and parts of the Tarim, killed the Sasanian king Peroz in 484 and took tribute from Persia. A Gokturk and Sasanian alliance destroyed them around 560."},{"id":"nezak","name":"Nezak Huns","short":"Nezak","start":484,"end":665,"approx":true,"family":"unknown","group":"afghanistan","kind":"state","tier":3,"capital":"Kapisa, Kabul","desc":"A Hunnic dynasty of Kabul and Kapisa whose coins show a king wearing a crown topped with a buffalo head. They held off the first Arab raids before the Turk Shahis replaced them.","next":["turk-shahis"]},{"id":"turk-shahis","name":"Turk Shahis","start":665,"end":822,"approx":true,"family":"turkic","group":"afghanistan","kind":"state","tier":3,"capital":"Kabul, Kapisa","desc":"A Turkic dynasty of Kabul and Gandhara that resisted Arab expansion for over a century. The last king lost power to his Brahmin minister Kallar, who founded the Hindu Shahi line.","next":["hindu-shahis"]},{"id":"hindu-shahis","name":"Hindu Shahis","start":822,"end":1026,"approx":true,"family":"indo-aryan","group":"afghanistan","kind":"state","tier":3,"capital":"Kabul, later Udabhandapura (Hund)","desc":"Brahmin kings who ruled from Kabul and, after losing it, from Hund on the Indus. Jayapala and Anandapala fought Sabuktigin and Mahmud of Ghazni, and the dynasty was extinguished by 1026.","next":["ghaznavid"]},{"id":"ghaznavid","name":"Ghaznavid Empire","short":"Ghaznavids","start":977,"end":1186,"family":"turkic","group":"afghanistan","kind":"empire","tier":2,"capital":"Ghazni, later Lahore","desc":"Founded by the Turkic slave commander Sabuktigin. His son Mahmud raided India seventeen times and patronized the poet Firdawsi. After losing Khorasan to the Seljuks the dynasty held on in Punjab until the Ghurids took Lahore.","next":["ghurid"]},{"id":"ghurid","name":"Ghurid dynasty","short":"Ghurids","start":1148,"end":1215,"family":"iranian","group":"afghanistan","kind":"empire","tier":2,"capital":"Firozkoh, Ghazni","desc":"Chiefs from the mountains of Ghor who burned Ghazni around 1150. Muhammad of Ghor beat Prithviraj Chauhan at Tarain in 1192 and opened north India to Muslim rule; the Khwarazm Shah ended the dynasty in 1215.","next":["mamluk-delhi"]},{"id":"kartids","name":"Kartid dynasty","short":"Kartids","start":1245,"end":1381,"family":"iranian","group":"afghanistan","kind":"state","tier":3,"capital":"Herat","desc":"Tajik rulers of Herat who served as Mongol vassals and rebuilt the city after Genghis Khan's armies wrecked it. Timur annexed their kingdom in 1381.","next":["timurid-herat"]},{"id":"timurid-herat","name":"Timurid Empire","short":"Timurids","start":1370,"end":1507,"family":"turkic","group":"afghanistan","kind":"empire","tier":2,"capital":"Samarkand, later Herat","desc":"Timur's heirs made Herat their capital after 1405, and under Shah Rukh and Husayn Bayqara it led the Persian world in painting, poetry and architecture. The Uzbek Shaybanids took Herat in 1507."},{"id":"pashtun-tribes","name":"Pashtun tribes","short":"Pashtuns","start":1000,"end":2025,"approx":true,"family":"iranian","group":"afghanistan","kind":"culture","tier":3,"desc":"Pashto-speaking tribal confederations such as the Ghilji, Abdali (Durrani) and Yusufzai, organized by lineage and the Pashtunwali code. They supplied the Lodi, Sur, Hotaki and Durrani dynasties."},{"id":"hotaki","name":"Hotaki dynasty","short":"Hotaki","start":1709,"end":1738,"family":"iranian","group":"afghanistan","kind":"state","tier":3,"capital":"Kandahar","desc":"Mirwais Hotak, a Ghilji chief, threw off Safavid rule in Kandahar in 1709. His son Mahmud captured Isfahan in 1722 and ended the Safavid state, but Nader Shah retook Kandahar in 1738."},{"id":"durrani","name":"Durrani Empire","short":"Durrani","start":1747,"end":1823,"family":"iranian","group":"afghanistan","kind":"empire","tier":2,"capital":"Kandahar, later Kabul","desc":"Ahmad Shah Durrani, chosen at a tribal jirga after Nader Shah's death, built an empire from Khorasan to Kashmir and Punjab and crushed the Marathas at Panipat in 1761. Dynastic wars and Sikh expansion broke it apart.","next":["emirate-afghanistan"]},{"id":"emirate-afghanistan","name":"Emirate of Afghanistan","short":"Emirate","start":1823,"end":1926,"family":"iranian","group":"afghanistan","kind":"state","tier":3,"capital":"Kabul","desc":"The Barakzai state of Dost Mohammad Khan and his heirs, squeezed between British India and Russia. Two Anglo-Afghan wars left its foreign policy in British hands until Amanullah Khan won full independence in 1919.","next":["kingdom-afghanistan"]},{"id":"kingdom-afghanistan","name":"Kingdom of Afghanistan","short":"Kingdom","start":1926,"end":1973,"family":"iranian","group":"afghanistan","kind":"state","tier":3,"capital":"Kabul","desc":"Amanullah Khan took the title of king in 1926 and pushed reforms that provoked revolt. Zahir Shah reigned from 1933 for forty years until his cousin Mohammed Daoud Khan overthrew him.","next":["republic-afghanistan"]},{"id":"republic-afghanistan","name":"Republic of Afghanistan","short":"Daoud republic","start":1973,"end":1978,"family":"iranian","group":"afghanistan","kind":"state","tier":3,"capital":"Kabul","desc":"Mohammed Daoud Khan abolished the monarchy and ruled as president. Communist officers killed him in the Saur Revolution of April 1978.","next":["dra"]},{"id":"dra","name":"Democratic Republic of Afghanistan","short":"DRA","start":1978,"end":1992,"family":"iranian","group":"afghanistan","kind":"state","tier":3,"capital":"Kabul","desc":"The communist state of the People's Democratic Party. Soviet troops entered in December 1979 to prop it up and fought mujahideen rebels for nine years, and Najibullah's government fell soon after Soviet aid ended.","next":["islamic-state-afghanistan"]},{"id":"islamic-state-afghanistan","name":"Islamic State of Afghanistan","short":"Mujahideen","start":1992,"end":2001,"family":"iranian","group":"afghanistan","kind":"state","tier":3,"capital":"Kabul","desc":"The mujahideen government of Burhanuddin Rabbani, torn by civil war among factions that shelled Kabul. After 1996 it held only the northeast under Ahmad Shah Massoud while the Taliban ruled the rest.","next":["islamic-republic-afghanistan"]},{"id":"taliban-emirate","name":"Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan (first)","short":"Taliban","start":1996,"end":2001,"family":"iranian","group":"afghanistan","kind":"state","tier":3,"capital":"Kabul, Kandahar","desc":"The Taliban took Kabul in 1996 and imposed a harsh reading of sharia. They sheltered al-Qaeda, and a US-led invasion drove them from power after the attacks of 11 September 2001."},{"id":"islamic-republic-afghanistan","name":"Islamic Republic of Afghanistan","short":"Islamic Rep.","start":2001,"end":2021,"family":"iranian","group":"afghanistan","kind":"state","tier":3,"capital":"Kabul","desc":"The state built after the 2001 invasion, with an interim administration under Hamid Karzai and a constitution from 2004. It collapsed in August 2021 as US forces withdrew and the Taliban entered Kabul.","next":["taliban-emirate-2"]},{"id":"taliban-emirate-2","name":"Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan","short":"Taliban","start":2021,"end":2025,"family":"iranian","group":"afghanistan","kind":"state","tier":3,"capital":"Kabul","desc":"The restored Taliban government, led by Hibatullah Akhundzada from Kandahar. It has barred girls from secondary school and women from most jobs, and Russia became the first country to recognize it, in 2025."},{"id":"early-harappan","name":"Early Harappan phase","short":"Early Harappan","start":-3300,"end":-2600,"approx":true,"family":"unknown","group":"indus-punjab","kind":"culture","tier":2,"desc":"Farming towns of the Ravi, Kot Diji and Amri traditions spread across the Indus plain, with walled settlements, standardized bricks and the first signs of the Indus script.","next":["mature-harappan"]},{"id":"mature-harappan","name":"Indus Valley Civilization (Mature Harappan)","short":"Indus Valley","start":-2600,"end":-1900,"approx":true,"family":"unknown","group":"indus-punjab","kind":"culture","tier":1,"capital":"Mohenjo-daro, Harappa (largest cities)","desc":"The largest Bronze Age civilization by area, with planned cities on grid streets, covered drains, standard weights and an undeciphered script. It traded by sea with Mesopotamia, where it was probably called Meluhha.","next":["late-harappan"]},{"id":"late-harappan","name":"Late Harappan phase","short":"Late Harappan","start":-1900,"end":-1300,"approx":true,"family":"unknown","group":"indus-punjab","kind":"culture","tier":2,"desc":"As rivers shifted and the monsoon weakened, the big Indus cities emptied and the script fell out of use. Regional cultures such as Cemetery H in Punjab and Jhukar in Sindh carried on in smaller villages."},{"id":"rigvedic-tribes","name":"Rigvedic tribes","short":"Rigvedic","start":-1500,"end":-1100,"approx":true,"family":"indo-aryan","group":"indus-punjab","kind":"culture","tier":2,"desc":"Indo-Aryan cattle herders of the Sapta Sindhu, the land of seven rivers, whose priests composed the hymns of the Rigveda. Tribes such as the Bharatas and Purus fought the Battle of the Ten Kings on the Ravi.","next":["kuru"]},{"id":"punjab-clans","name":"Indo-Aryan clans of the Punjab","short":"Punjab clans","start":-1100,"end":-320,"approx":true,"family":"indo-aryan","group":"indus-punjab","kind":"culture","tier":3,"desc":"The Madras, Kekayas, Malavas, Kshudrakas and Kathas, many of them ruled by assemblies of warriors. Several fought Alexander's army in 326 to 325 BCE, and the Malavas wounded him at their citadel."},{"id":"gandhara","name":"Gandhara","start":-600,"end":-518,"approx":true,"family":"indo-aryan","group":"indus-punjab","kind":"state","tier":3,"capital":"Taxila, Pushkalavati","desc":"The Mahajanapada of the Peshawar valley and the Potohar plateau, whose capital Taxila became a famous center of learning. Darius I made it an Achaemenid province."},{"id":"indo-greek","name":"Indo-Greek Kingdom","short":"Indo-Greeks","start":-200,"end":10,"approx":true,"family":"greek","group":"indus-punjab","kind":"state","tier":2,"capital":"Taxila, Sagala (Sialkot)","desc":"Greek kings from Bactria who crossed into Gandhara and Punjab. Menander I, remembered in Buddhist texts as Milinda, raided deep into the Ganges plain; Scythian and Yuezhi invasions whittled the kingdom down to nothing."},{"id":"indo-scythians","name":"Indo-Scythians","start":-90,"end":30,"approx":true,"family":"iranian","group":"indus-punjab","kind":"state","tier":3,"capital":"Taxila","desc":"Saka nomads who came through Sistan and Arachosia. Maues took Taxila around 85 BCE, and his successors Azes I and Azes II ruled Gandhara and Punjab until the Indo-Parthians absorbed their lands.","next":["indo-parthians"]},{"id":"indo-parthians","name":"Indo-Parthian Kingdom","short":"Indo-Parthians","start":19,"end":226,"approx":true,"family":"iranian","group":"indus-punjab","kind":"state","tier":3,"capital":"Taxila, later Kandahar","desc":"Founded by Gondophares, the king who in Christian tradition received the apostle Thomas. The Kushans took Gandhara in the later 1st century and the kingdom shrank to Sistan and Arachosia, where it lasted until the Sasanians."},{"id":"kuninda","name":"Kuninda Kingdom","short":"Kuninda","start":-200,"end":300,"approx":true,"family":"indo-aryan","group":"indus-punjab","kind":"state","tier":3,"desc":"A Himalayan kingdom in the hills of the upper Sutlej, Beas and Yamuna, known mostly from its silver and copper coins bearing Brahmi and Kharosthi legends."},{"id":"alchon-huns","name":"Alchon Huns","short":"Alchon","start":370,"end":560,"approx":true,"family":"unknown","group":"indus-punjab","kind":"state","tier":3,"capital":"Sakala (Sialkot)","desc":"Huns who took Gandhara and Punjab from the Kidarites. Toramana and his son Mihirakula pushed into central India, Buddhist sources accuse Mihirakula of burning monasteries, and Yashodharman of Malwa defeated him around 528."},{"id":"brahman-dynasty","name":"Brahman dynasty of Sindh","short":"Chach dynasty","start":632,"end":712,"approx":true,"family":"indo-aryan","group":"indus-punjab","kind":"state","tier":3,"capital":"Aror","desc":"Founded by Chach, a Brahmin chamberlain who seized the throne of Sindh. His son Raja Dahir was killed fighting the Umayyad general Muhammad bin Qasim, and Sindh became a province of the caliphate.","next":["arab-sindh"]},{"id":"arab-sindh","name":"Arab Sindh","short":"Arab Sindh","start":712,"end":1025,"approx":true,"family":"arabic","group":"indus-punjab","kind":"state","tier":3,"capital":"Mansura, Multan","desc":"Sindh and Multan as an Umayyad and then Abbasid province. From the 850s the Habbari emirs of Mansura and the rulers of Multan acted on their own, until Mahmud of Ghazni took Multan and then Mansura."},{"id":"karkota","name":"Karkota dynasty","short":"Karkota","start":625,"end":855,"approx":true,"family":"indo-aryan","group":"indus-punjab","kind":"state","tier":3,"capital":"Srinagar, Parihasapura","desc":"Kashmiri kings known from Kalhana's chronicle, the Rajatarangini. Lalitaditya Muktapida campaigned across north India in the 8th century and built the sun temple at Martand.","next":["utpala"]},{"id":"utpala","name":"Utpala dynasty","short":"Utpala","start":855,"end":939,"approx":true,"family":"indo-aryan","group":"indus-punjab","kind":"state","tier":3,"capital":"Avantipura, Srinagar","desc":"Kashmiri dynasty founded by Avantivarman, whose engineer Suyya drained swamps and regulated the Jhelum to open new farmland. Palace guards and weak kings dominated its later reigns."},{"id":"lohara","name":"Lohara dynasty","short":"Lohara","start":1003,"end":1320,"approx":true,"family":"indo-aryan","group":"indus-punjab","kind":"state","tier":3,"capital":"Srinagar","desc":"Kashmiri dynasty descended from the family of Queen Didda. Kalhana finished the Rajatarangini under its rule in 1150, and a Mongol raid in 1320 brought it down.","next":["shah-mir"]},{"id":"shah-mir","name":"Shah Mir Sultanate of Kashmir","short":"Shah Mir","start":1339,"end":1561,"family":"indo-aryan","group":"indus-punjab","kind":"state","tier":3,"capital":"Srinagar","desc":"Founded when Shah Mir seized the throne from the last Hindu rulers of Kashmir. Sultan Zain-ul-Abidin (1418 to 1470) was known for religious tolerance and brought in Persian crafts such as papier-mache and carpet weaving."},{"id":"soomra","name":"Soomra dynasty","short":"Soomra","start":1026,"end":1351,"approx":true,"family":"indo-aryan","group":"indus-punjab","kind":"state","tier":3,"desc":"A local Sindhi dynasty that ruled lower Sindh under loose Ghaznavid and then Delhi overlordship. The Samma tribe overthrew it in the 1350s.","next":["samma"]},{"id":"samma","name":"Samma dynasty","short":"Samma","start":1351,"end":1524,"family":"indo-aryan","group":"indus-punjab","kind":"state","tier":3,"capital":"Thatta","desc":"Sindhi rulers whose capital Thatta prospered on the Indus river trade, and whose tombs fill the Makli necropolis. Shah Beg Arghun from Kandahar conquered Sindh between 1520 and 1524.","next":["arghun-tarkhan"]},{"id":"arghun-tarkhan","name":"Arghun and Tarkhan dynasties","short":"Arghun","start":1520,"end":1591,"family":"turkic","group":"indus-punjab","kind":"state","tier":3,"capital":"Thatta","desc":"Two related Turko-Mongol dynasties from Kandahar that ruled Sindh from Thatta. Akbar's general Abdul Rahim Khan-i-Khanan annexed Sindh to the Mughal Empire in 1591.","next":["mughal"]},{"id":"kalhora","name":"Kalhora dynasty","short":"Kalhora","start":1701,"end":1783,"family":"indo-aryan","group":"indus-punjab","kind":"state","tier":3,"capital":"Khudabad, later Hyderabad","desc":"Sufi-led rulers of Sindh who began as Mughal governors and founded Hyderabad on the Indus in 1768. Their Baloch Talpur generals overthrew them in 1783.","next":["talpur"]},{"id":"talpur","name":"Talpur dynasty","short":"Talpur","start":1783,"end":1843,"family":"iranian","group":"indus-punjab","kind":"state","tier":3,"capital":"Hyderabad, Khairpur, Mirpur","desc":"Baloch amirs who split Sindh among branches based at Hyderabad, Khairpur and Mirpur. Charles Napier defeated them at Miani in 1843 and annexed Sindh; the Khairpur branch survived as a princely state."},{"id":"sikh-misls","name":"Sikh Misls","short":"Misls","start":1716,"end":1799,"approx":true,"family":"indo-aryan","group":"indus-punjab","kind":"state","tier":3,"desc":"Twelve armed Sikh confederacies that rose after the Mughals executed Banda Singh Bahadur in 1716 and carved up Punjab as Mughal and Durrani power faded. Ranjit Singh of the Sukerchakia misl united them.","next":["sikh-empire"]},{"id":"sikh-empire","name":"Sikh Empire","start":1799,"end":1849,"family":"indo-aryan","group":"indus-punjab","kind":"empire","tier":2,"capital":"Lahore","desc":"Ranjit Singh took Lahore in 1799 and built a modern army with European officers, conquering Multan, Kashmir and Peshawar. After his death the British won two Anglo-Sikh wars and annexed Punjab in 1849.","next":["company-rule"]},{"id":"jammu-kashmir","name":"Jammu and Kashmir princely state","short":"J&K state","start":1846,"end":1947,"family":"indo-aryan","group":"indus-punjab","kind":"state","tier":3,"capital":"Srinagar, Jammu","desc":"The Dogra maharajas bought the Kashmir valley from the British in 1846 for 7.5 million rupees. In October 1947 Hari Singh acceded to India after a tribal invasion from Pakistan, starting the first Kashmir war."},{"id":"pakistan","name":"Pakistan","start":1947,"end":2025,"family":"indo-aryan","group":"indus-punjab","kind":"state","tier":2,"capital":"Karachi, later Islamabad","desc":"Created at partition in August 1947 as a homeland for South Asia's Muslims, with Muhammad Ali Jinnah as governor-general. It became an Islamic republic in 1956, lost its eastern wing in 1971 and has swung between civilian and military rule."},{"id":"microlithic-west","name":"Microlithic hunter-gatherers","short":"Microlithic","start":-3500,"end":-1000,"approx":true,"family":"unknown","group":"western-india","kind":"culture","tier":3,"desc":"Bands using tiny stone blades for arrows and sickles, known from sites such as Bagor in Rajasthan and Langhnaj in Gujarat. Some kept sheep and goats and traded with nearby farming villages."},{"id":"ahar-banas","name":"Ahar-Banas culture","short":"Ahar-Banas","start":-3000,"end":-1500,"approx":true,"family":"unknown","group":"western-india","kind":"culture","tier":3,"desc":"Copper-using farming villages in the Banas valley of southeast Rajasthan, with distinctive black and red pottery. They smelted local copper ore and traded with the Harappans."},{"id":"harappan-gujarat","name":"Harappan Gujarat","short":"Dholavira","start":-2600,"end":-1900,"approx":true,"family":"unknown","group":"western-india","kind":"culture","tier":2,"desc":"The southern wing of the Indus civilization, with the stone reservoirs of Dholavira in Kutch and the brick basin at Lothal often read as a dock. Bead workshops here shipped carnelian to the Persian Gulf and Mesopotamia."},{"id":"malwa-culture","name":"Malwa culture","short":"Malwa","start":-1700,"end":-1300,"approx":true,"family":"unknown","group":"western-india","kind":"culture","tier":3,"desc":"Chalcolithic farmers of the Narmada valley and Malwa plateau, best known from Navdatoli, who grew wheat, rice and lentils and painted their pottery black on red. Their settlements spread south into the Deccan."},{"id":"iron-age-west","name":"Iron Age villages of western India","short":"Iron Age","start":-1200,"end":-200,"approx":true,"family":"unknown","group":"western-india","kind":"culture","tier":3,"desc":"Farming communities using iron tools and black and red ware pottery across Malwa, Rajasthan and Gujarat, the base from which early historic towns such as Ujjain and Vidisha grew."},{"id":"avanti","name":"Avanti","start":-600,"end":-350,"approx":true,"family":"indo-aryan","group":"western-india","kind":"state","tier":3,"capital":"Ujjayini, Mahishmati","desc":"One of the four great Mahajanapadas, ruled from Ujjain by the Pradyota dynasty. Chanda Pradyota was a rival of Magadha in the Buddha's time, and Magadha's Shishunaga dynasty later annexed Avanti."},{"id":"malava","name":"Malava Republic","short":"Malava","start":-150,"end":350,"approx":true,"family":"indo-aryan","group":"western-india","kind":"state","tier":3,"capital":"Malavanagara (Nagar)","desc":"A tribal republic that moved from Punjab to northeast Rajasthan, where thousands of its tiny copper coins have turned up at Nagar. The Malavas paid tribute to Samudragupta, and the Vikrama calendar era was long called the Malava era."},{"id":"western-satraps","name":"Western Satraps","short":"W. Satraps","start":35,"end":415,"approx":true,"family":"iranian","group":"western-india","kind":"state","tier":2,"capital":"Ujjain, Minnagara","desc":"Saka governors who became independent kings of Gujarat, Malwa and Sindh. Rudradaman I left the first long Sanskrit inscription at Junagadh in 150 CE, and the Gupta emperor Chandragupta II ended their rule.","next":["gupta"]},{"id":"maitraka","name":"Maitraka dynasty","short":"Maitraka","start":475,"end":776,"approx":true,"family":"indo-aryan","group":"western-india","kind":"state","tier":3,"capital":"Valabhi","desc":"Kings of Saurashtra ruling from Valabhi, a port and Buddhist center whose monastic university was visited by Xuanzang and Yijing. Arab raids from Sindh are blamed for its fall around 776."},{"id":"chahamana","name":"Chahamanas of Shakambhari","short":"Chauhans","start":650,"end":1194,"approx":true,"family":"indo-aryan","group":"western-india","kind":"state","tier":3,"capital":"Shakambhari, later Ajmer","desc":"A Rajput dynasty of the Sambhar lake country that founded Ajmer and took Delhi in the 12th century. Prithviraj III beat Muhammad of Ghor at Tarain in 1191 and lost to him on the same field a year later."},{"id":"mewar","name":"Kingdom of Mewar","short":"Mewar","start":728,"end":1949,"approx":true,"family":"indo-aryan","group":"western-india","kind":"state","tier":3,"capital":"Chittorgarh, later Udaipur","desc":"The Guhila and Sisodia Rajput kingdom whose rulers lost Chittor to Alauddin Khalji in 1303, Bahadur Shah of Gujarat in 1535 and Akbar in 1568. Rana Pratap fought the Mughals at Haldighati in 1576, and Mewar joined India in 1949."},{"id":"paramara","name":"Paramara dynasty","short":"Paramara","start":800,"end":1305,"approx":true,"family":"indo-aryan","group":"western-india","kind":"state","tier":3,"capital":"Dhara, Ujjain","desc":"Rajput kings of Malwa. Bhoja, who reigned about 1010 to 1055, was a famous patron and the reputed author of Sanskrit works on poetry, architecture and astronomy. Alauddin Khalji's armies annexed Malwa in 1305."},{"id":"chaulukya","name":"Chaulukya dynasty","short":"Solanki","start":940,"end":1244,"approx":true,"family":"indo-aryan","group":"western-india","kind":"state","tier":3,"capital":"Anahilapataka (Patan)","desc":"The Solanki kings of Gujarat, who rebuilt the Somnath temple after Mahmud of Ghazni sacked it and raised the Modhera sun temple and the Rani ki Vav stepwell. Their Vaghela relatives replaced them in 1244."},{"id":"gujarat-sultanate","name":"Gujarat Sultanate","short":"Gujarat Sult.","start":1407,"end":1573,"family":"indo-aryan","group":"western-india","kind":"state","tier":3,"capital":"Patan, later Ahmedabad","desc":"Founded by Zafar Khan, a Delhi governor from a converted Rajput family, whose grandson Ahmad Shah built Ahmedabad in 1411. It controlled the Indian Ocean ports of Cambay and Diu until Akbar annexed it in 1573.","next":["mughal"]},{"id":"malwa-sultanate","name":"Malwa Sultanate","short":"Malwa Sult.","start":1392,"end":1562,"family":"iranian","group":"western-india","kind":"state","tier":3,"capital":"Dhar, later Mandu","desc":"Founded by Dilawar Khan, Delhi's governor of Malwa, as the Tughlaqs collapsed. Its sultans filled the hill fortress of Mandu with palaces and mosques, and Akbar's armies took it from Baz Bahadur in 1561 to 1562.","next":["mughal"]},{"id":"marwar","name":"Kingdom of Marwar","short":"Marwar","start":1226,"end":1949,"approx":true,"family":"indo-aryan","group":"western-india","kind":"state","tier":3,"capital":"Mandore, later Jodhpur","desc":"The Rathore Rajput kingdom of the Thar desert. Rao Jodha founded Jodhpur below the Mehrangarh fort in 1459, and the state served the Mughals as an ally before joining India in 1949."},{"id":"jaipur","name":"Jaipur State","short":"Jaipur","start":1727,"end":1949,"family":"indo-aryan","group":"western-india","kind":"state","tier":3,"capital":"Jaipur","desc":"The Kachwaha Rajputs of Amber were the Mughals' closest Rajput allies. Sawai Jai Singh II moved his court to the planned city of Jaipur in 1727 and built the Jantar Mantar observatories."},{"id":"baroda","name":"Baroda State","short":"Baroda","start":1721,"end":1949,"family":"indo-aryan","group":"western-india","kind":"state","tier":3,"capital":"Vadodara","desc":"A Maratha principality founded by the Gaekwad family in Gujarat. Sayajirao Gaekwad III, who ruled from 1875 to 1939, introduced free compulsory primary schooling and paid for the young B. R. Ambedkar's studies abroad."},{"id":"gwalior","name":"Gwalior State","short":"Gwalior","start":1731,"end":1948,"family":"indo-aryan","group":"western-india","kind":"state","tier":3,"capital":"Ujjain, later Lashkar (Gwalior)","desc":"The Maratha principality of the Scindia family, carved out of Malwa in the 1730s. Mahadji Scindia controlled the Mughal emperor in Delhi in the 1780s, and the state merged into India in 1948."},{"id":"rajasthan","name":"Rajasthan","start":1949,"end":2025,"family":"indo-aryan","group":"western-india","kind":"state","tier":3,"capital":"Jaipur","desc":"The Indian state formed in stages between 1948 and 1956 by merging the Rajput princely states of Rajputana. It is the largest state of India by area."},{"id":"gujarat-state","name":"Gujarat","start":1960,"end":2025,"family":"indo-aryan","group":"western-india","kind":"state","tier":3,"capital":"Gandhinagar","desc":"Split from the bilingual Bombay State along language lines in 1960. Its ports, refineries and textile mills make it one of the most industrial states of India."},{"id":"ganges-neolithic","name":"Neolithic and Chalcolithic farmers of the Ganges","short":"Ganges farmers","start":-3500,"end":-1000,"approx":true,"family":"unknown","group":"gangetic","kind":"culture","tier":3,"desc":"Village farmers at sites such as Lahuradewa, Chirand and Koldihwa, among the earliest rice growers of South Asia, who kept cattle and made cord-marked pottery before copper came into use."},{"id":"ocp","name":"Ochre Coloured Pottery culture","short":"OCP","start":-2000,"end":-1500,"approx":true,"family":"unknown","group":"gangetic","kind":"culture","tier":3,"desc":"Bronze Age farmers of the Ganges-Yamuna doab, associated with copper hoards of harpoons, swords and human-shaped plaques. Burials excavated at Sinauli in 2018 held wooden carts with copper fittings."},{"id":"pgw","name":"Painted Grey Ware culture","short":"PGW","start":-1200,"end":-600,"approx":true,"family":"indo-aryan","group":"gangetic","kind":"culture","tier":3,"desc":"Iron Age villages of the western Ganges plain with fine grey pottery painted in black, usually linked to the Kuru and Panchala tribes of the later Vedic texts."},{"id":"kuru","name":"Kuru Kingdom","short":"Kuru","start":-1200,"end":-500,"approx":true,"family":"indo-aryan","group":"gangetic","kind":"state","tier":2,"capital":"Asandivat, later Hastinapura","desc":"The first Vedic tribal union to work like a state, in the country around Kurukshetra and Delhi. Its priests arranged the Vedic hymns into fixed collections, and its memory shaped the Mahabharata."},{"id":"panchala","name":"Panchala","start":-1100,"end":-350,"approx":true,"family":"indo-aryan","group":"gangetic","kind":"state","tier":3,"capital":"Ahichchhatra, Kampilya","desc":"The eastern partner of the Kurus in the Ganges-Yamuna doab and later one of the sixteen Mahajanapadas. Its court hosted debates recorded in the Upanishads, and the Nandas absorbed it."},{"id":"nbpw","name":"Northern Black Polished Ware culture","short":"NBPW","start":-700,"end":-200,"approx":true,"family":"indo-aryan","group":"gangetic","kind":"culture","tier":3,"desc":"The second urbanization of the Ganges plain, named for a glossy black luxury pottery. Walled cities such as Kaushambi, Rajgir and Pataliputra, punch-marked coins and the Brahmi script all appear in this period."},{"id":"kosala","name":"Kosala","start":-700,"end":-475,"approx":true,"family":"indo-aryan","group":"gangetic","kind":"state","tier":3,"capital":"Shravasti, Saketa (Ayodhya)","desc":"A great Mahajanapada north of the Ganges whose king Prasenajit was a patron of the Buddha. His son Vidudabha destroyed the Shakya clan, and Magadha absorbed Kosala soon after.","next":["magadha-haryanka"]},{"id":"shakya","name":"Shakya republic","short":"Shakya","start":-650,"end":-480,"approx":true,"family":"indo-aryan","group":"gangetic","kind":"state","tier":3,"capital":"Kapilavastu","desc":"A clan oligarchy in the Himalayan foothills on today's India and Nepal border, the people of Siddhartha Gautama, the Buddha. Kosala conquered and massacred the Shakyas late in the Buddha's life."},{"id":"vajji","name":"Vajji confederacy","short":"Vajji","start":-700,"end":-468,"approx":true,"family":"indo-aryan","group":"gangetic","kind":"state","tier":3,"capital":"Vaishali","desc":"A league of clans led by the Licchavis of Vaishali and governed by an assembly that the Buddha praised. Ajatashatru of Magadha conquered it after a long war, building a fort at Pataligrama that grew into Pataliputra.","next":["magadha-haryanka"]},{"id":"magadha-haryanka","name":"Magadha (Haryanka dynasty)","short":"Haryanka","start":-544,"end":-413,"approx":true,"family":"indo-aryan","group":"gangetic","kind":"state","tier":2,"capital":"Rajagriha, later Pataliputra","desc":"Bimbisara and his son Ajatashatru made Magadha the strongest Mahajanapada by annexing Anga, Kosala and the Vajji league. Both were contemporaries of the Buddha and of Mahavira.","next":["shishunaga"]},{"id":"shishunaga","name":"Shishunaga dynasty","short":"Shishunaga","start":-413,"end":-345,"approx":true,"family":"indo-aryan","group":"gangetic","kind":"state","tier":3,"capital":"Rajagriha, Vaishali, Pataliputra","desc":"Founded by Shishunaga, an official who replaced the last Haryanka king. It conquered Avanti, and the Second Buddhist Council met at Vaishali under King Kalashoka.","next":["nanda"]},{"id":"nanda","name":"Nanda Empire","short":"Nanda","start":-345,"end":-322,"approx":true,"family":"indo-aryan","group":"gangetic","kind":"empire","tier":2,"capital":"Pataliputra","desc":"Mahapadma Nanda, said to be of low birth, built the first empire of the Ganges plain. Reports of its huge army helped push Alexander's troops to mutiny at the Beas, and Chandragupta Maurya overthrew it around 322 BCE.","next":["maurya"]},{"id":"maurya","name":"Maurya Empire","short":"Maurya","start":-322,"end":-185,"family":"indo-aryan","group":"gangetic","kind":"empire","tier":1,"capital":"Pataliputra","desc":"Chandragupta Maurya, advised by Chanakya, united nearly all of South Asia. His grandson Ashoka turned to Buddhism after the Kalinga war and carved edicts across the subcontinent; the last emperor was killed by his general Pushyamitra.","next":["shunga"]},{"id":"shunga","name":"Shunga Empire","short":"Shunga","start":-185,"end":-73,"family":"indo-aryan","group":"gangetic","kind":"state","tier":2,"capital":"Pataliputra, Vidisha","desc":"Founded by the Brahmin general Pushyamitra after he killed the last Maurya. The Shungas fought the Indo-Greeks, revived Vedic sacrifices and held the Ganges plain and Malwa until their minister Vasudeva Kanva took power.","next":["kanva"]},{"id":"kanva","name":"Kanva dynasty","short":"Kanva","start":-73,"end":-28,"family":"indo-aryan","group":"gangetic","kind":"state","tier":3,"capital":"Pataliputra","desc":"Four Brahmin kings who ruled a shrunken Magadha after the Shungas. The Puranas say the Satavahanas of the Deccan overthrew the last of them."},{"id":"yaudheya","name":"Yaudheya confederacy","short":"Yaudheya","start":-200,"end":350,"approx":true,"family":"indo-aryan","group":"gangetic","kind":"state","tier":3,"capital":"Rohitaka (Rohtak)","desc":"A warrior republic of Haryana and the Sutlej country, known from coins showing the war god Karttikeya. Rudradaman of the Western Satraps boasted of crushing them around 150 CE, and they later paid tribute to Samudragupta."},{"id":"gupta","name":"Gupta Empire","short":"Gupta","start":320,"end":550,"approx":true,"family":"indo-aryan","group":"gangetic","kind":"empire","tier":1,"capital":"Pataliputra, Ujjain","desc":"Chandragupta I, Samudragupta and Chandragupta II built an empire across north India. It is remembered for Kalidasa's Sanskrit poetry, Aryabhata's astronomy and the founding of Nalanda; Hun invasions and breakaway governors brought it down."},{"id":"maukhari","name":"Maukhari dynasty","short":"Maukhari","start":550,"end":606,"approx":true,"family":"indo-aryan","group":"gangetic","kind":"state","tier":3,"capital":"Kannauj","desc":"Rulers of Kannauj who fought the Huns and the Later Guptas after the Gupta collapse. Their last king Grahavarman was killed in 606, and his brother-in-law Harsha took over the kingdom.","next":["harsha"]},{"id":"harsha","name":"Empire of Harsha","short":"Harsha","start":606,"end":647,"family":"indo-aryan","group":"gangetic","kind":"empire","tier":2,"capital":"Kannauj","desc":"Harshavardhana of the Pushyabhuti family united much of north India from Kannauj, though Pulakeshin II stopped him at the Narmada. The Chinese monk Xuanzang described his court, and the empire died with him in 647."},{"id":"pratihara","name":"Gurjara-Pratihara dynasty","short":"Pratihara","start":730,"end":1036,"approx":true,"family":"indo-aryan","group":"gangetic","kind":"empire","tier":2,"capital":"Ujjain, later Kannauj","desc":"Rajput rulers who checked Arab expansion from Sindh in the 8th century and fought the Palas and Rashtrakutas for Kannauj in a three-way struggle. Under Mihira Bhoja it ruled most of north India."},{"id":"chandela","name":"Chandela dynasty","short":"Chandela","start":831,"end":1315,"approx":true,"family":"indo-aryan","group":"gangetic","kind":"state","tier":3,"capital":"Khajuraho, Mahoba, Kalinjar","desc":"Rajput kings of Bundelkhand who built the temples of Khajuraho between about 950 and 1050. They held the fort of Kalinjar against Mahmud of Ghazni before Delhi's armies wore them down."},{"id":"gahadavala","name":"Gahadavala dynasty","short":"Gahadavala","start":1089,"end":1194,"approx":true,"family":"indo-aryan","group":"gangetic","kind":"state","tier":3,"capital":"Kannauj, Varanasi","desc":"Kings of Kannauj and Varanasi. Govindachandra endowed temples and scholars at Varanasi, and Jayachandra died fighting Muhammad of Ghor at Chandawar in 1194."},{"id":"delhi-sultanate","name":"Delhi Sultanate","start":1206,"end":1526,"family":"turkic","group":"gangetic","kind":"empire","tier":2,"capital":"Delhi, briefly Daulatabad","desc":"Five dynasties of Turkic, Sayyid and Afghan origin ruled north India from Delhi for 320 years. They repelled the Mongols, spread Persian court culture and Indo-Islamic architecture, and under Muhammad bin Tughlaq reached the far south.","next":["mughal"]},{"id":"mamluk-delhi","name":"Mamluk dynasty of Delhi","short":"Mamluk","start":1206,"end":1290,"family":"turkic","group":"gangetic","kind":"state","tier":3,"capital":"Delhi","desc":"Founded by Qutb ud-Din Aibak, a slave general of Muhammad of Ghor. Iltutmish secured the sultanate, his daughter Razia ruled in her own name, and Balban fended off the Mongols.","next":["khalji-delhi"]},{"id":"khalji-delhi","name":"Khalji dynasty","short":"Khalji","start":1290,"end":1320,"family":"turkic","group":"gangetic","kind":"state","tier":3,"capital":"Delhi","desc":"Alauddin Khalji beat back repeated Mongol invasions, fixed grain prices in Delhi's markets and sent Malik Kafur to plunder the Deccan and Tamil kingdoms.","next":["tughlaq"]},{"id":"tughlaq","name":"Tughlaq dynasty","short":"Tughlaq","start":1320,"end":1414,"family":"turkic","group":"gangetic","kind":"state","tier":3,"capital":"Delhi, briefly Daulatabad","desc":"Muhammad bin Tughlaq moved the capital to Daulatabad for a time and issued token copper coins while ruling the largest area of any sultan. Firuz Shah built canals and towns, and Timur's sack of Delhi in 1398 broke the dynasty.","next":["sayyid"]},{"id":"sayyid","name":"Sayyid dynasty","short":"Sayyid","start":1414,"end":1451,"family":"arabic","group":"gangetic","kind":"state","tier":3,"capital":"Delhi","desc":"Founded by Khizr Khan, Timur's governor of Multan, who claimed descent from the Prophet. The Sayyids ruled little more than the country around Delhi until Bahlul Lodi took over.","next":["lodi"]},{"id":"lodi","name":"Lodi dynasty","short":"Lodi","start":1451,"end":1526,"family":"iranian","group":"gangetic","kind":"state","tier":3,"capital":"Delhi, Agra","desc":"The first Pashtun dynasty of Delhi. Sikandar Lodi made Agra a capital, and Ibrahim Lodi died fighting Babur at the First Battle of Panipat in 1526.","next":["mughal"]},{"id":"mughal","name":"Mughal Empire","short":"Mughal","start":1526,"end":1857,"family":"turkic","group":"gangetic","kind":"empire","tier":1,"capital":"Agra, Fatehpur Sikri, Lahore, Delhi","desc":"Founded by Babur, a Timurid prince from Fergana. Akbar, Jahangir, Shah Jahan and Aurangzeb ruled most of the subcontinent and built the Taj Mahal; after 1707 it shrank to a Delhi court that the British ended in 1857.","next":["british-raj"]},{"id":"sur","name":"Sur Empire","short":"Sur","start":1540,"end":1556,"family":"iranian","group":"gangetic","kind":"empire","tier":2,"capital":"Delhi","desc":"Sher Shah Suri, a Pashtun chief from Bihar, drove the Mughal emperor Humayun into exile. In five years he rebuilt the Grand Trunk Road, minted the silver rupee and reformed land revenue; Humayun returned in 1555.","next":["mughal"]},{"id":"awadh","name":"Awadh","start":1722,"end":1856,"family":"iranian","group":"gangetic","kind":"state","tier":3,"capital":"Faizabad, later Lucknow","desc":"A Mughal province that became a hereditary state under Persian Shia nawabs, who made Lucknow a center of Urdu poetry and court culture. The British annexed it in 1856, a grievance behind the 1857 rebellion."},{"id":"british-raj","name":"British Raj","start":1858,"end":1947,"family":"germanic","group":"gangetic","kind":"colony","tier":1,"capital":"Calcutta, New Delhi from 1911","desc":"Direct Crown rule after the 1857 rebellion, run by a viceroy over British provinces and about 560 princely states. Railways, famines and a mass nationalist movement led by Congress and Gandhi marked it until independence and partition in 1947.","next":["india","pakistan"]},{"id":"india","name":"Republic of India","short":"India","start":1947,"end":2025,"family":"indo-aryan","group":"gangetic","kind":"state","tier":1,"capital":"New Delhi","desc":"Independent in August 1947 and a republic from 1950 under a constitution drafted by a committee chaired by B. R. Ambedkar. It is the largest democracy in the world and since 2023 the most populous country."},{"id":"licchavi-nepal","name":"Licchavi dynasty of Nepal","short":"Licchavi","start":400,"end":750,"approx":true,"family":"indo-aryan","group":"gangetic","kind":"state","tier":3,"capital":"Kathmandu valley","desc":"Kings of the Kathmandu valley whose dated Sanskrit inscriptions begin with Manadeva in 464. They traded across the Himalaya, and a Licchavi princess is said to have married the Tibetan emperor Songtsen Gampo.","next":["thakuri"]},{"id":"thakuri","name":"Thakuri dynasty","short":"Thakuri","start":750,"end":1200,"approx":true,"family":"indo-aryan","group":"gangetic","kind":"state","tier":3,"capital":"Kathmandu valley","desc":"A thinly documented line of kings in the Kathmandu valley after the Licchavis. The Nepal Sambat calendar began under their rule in 879.","next":["malla-nepal"]},{"id":"malla-nepal","name":"Malla dynasty of Nepal","short":"Malla","start":1201,"end":1769,"family":"tibeto-burman","group":"gangetic","kind":"state","tier":3,"capital":"Bhaktapur, later Kathmandu and Patan","desc":"Kings of the Kathmandu valley under whom Newar artisans built the pagoda temples and palace squares of Kathmandu, Patan and Bhaktapur. The realm split into three after 1482, and Prithvi Narayan Shah conquered all three by 1769.","next":["kingdom-nepal"]},{"id":"kingdom-nepal","name":"Kingdom of Nepal","short":"Nepal","start":1768,"end":2008,"family":"indo-aryan","group":"gangetic","kind":"state","tier":2,"capital":"Kathmandu","desc":"The Shah state built by Prithvi Narayan Shah of Gorkha, which expanded until its war with the East India Company in 1814 to 1816. A Maoist insurgency and mass protests ended the monarchy in 2008.","next":["nepal-republic"]},{"id":"rana","name":"Rana regime","short":"Ranas","start":1846,"end":1951,"family":"indo-aryan","group":"gangetic","kind":"state","tier":3,"capital":"Kathmandu","desc":"Jung Bahadur Rana seized power in the Kot massacre of 1846, and his family held the office of prime minister by inheritance while the Shah kings were figureheads. A revolution backed by India restored royal power in 1951."},{"id":"nepal-republic","name":"Federal Democratic Republic of Nepal","short":"Nepal","start":2008,"end":2025,"family":"indo-aryan","group":"gangetic","kind":"state","tier":3,"capital":"Kathmandu","desc":"Declared when the Constituent Assembly abolished the monarchy in 2008, with a federal constitution adopted in 2015. Youth-led protests in September 2025 forced out the government of K. P. Sharma Oli."},{"id":"bengal-neolithic","name":"Neolithic farmers of Bengal and Assam","short":"E. Neolithic","start":-3500,"end":-1500,"approx":true,"family":"unknown","group":"bengal","kind":"culture","tier":3,"desc":"Rice farmers and forest foragers using polished stone axes, known from sites such as Daojali Hading in the hills of Assam. Their tools resemble those of Southeast Asia, and some scholars link them to early Austroasiatic speakers."},{"id":"munda-peoples","name":"Munda-speaking peoples","short":"Munda peoples","start":-1500,"end":2025,"approx":true,"family":"austroasiatic","group":"bengal","kind":"culture","tier":3,"desc":"Santal, Munda, Ho and related Austroasiatic-speaking communities of the Chota Nagpur plateau and western Bengal, farmers and forest dwellers who have kept their own languages to the present."},{"id":"hill-peoples","name":"Tibeto-Burman hill peoples","short":"Hill peoples","start":-1000,"end":2025,"approx":true,"family":"tibeto-burman","group":"bengal","kind":"culture","tier":3,"desc":"Bodo-Kachari, Garo, Naga, Mizo and Kuki peoples of the hills around the Brahmaputra valley, mostly organized in villages and chiefdoms until British annexation in the 19th century."},{"id":"pandu-rajar-dhibi","name":"Pandu Rajar Dhibi culture","short":"Pandu Rajar","start":-1600,"end":-750,"approx":true,"family":"unknown","group":"bengal","kind":"culture","tier":3,"desc":"Copper-using farmers of the Ajay river valley in West Bengal who grew rice and lived in mud-walled houses. The upper levels of the type site show early iron working."},{"id":"kamarupa","name":"Kamarupa","start":350,"end":1140,"approx":true,"family":"indo-aryan","group":"bengal","kind":"state","tier":3,"capital":"Pragjyotishpura, later Haruppeshvara and Durjaya","desc":"The first historical kingdom of Assam, ruled in turn by the Varman, Mlechchha and Pala dynasties. Bhaskaravarman allied with Harsha and hosted Xuanzang around 640."},{"id":"gauda","name":"Gauda Kingdom","short":"Gauda","start":590,"end":625,"approx":true,"family":"indo-aryan","group":"bengal","kind":"state","tier":3,"capital":"Karnasuvarna","desc":"Shashanka, the first independent king of Bengal, ruled from Karnasuvarna and killed Harsha's brother Rajyavardhana. Buddhist writers accused him of cutting down the Bodhi tree."},{"id":"pala","name":"Pala Empire","short":"Pala","start":750,"end":1161,"approx":true,"family":"indo-aryan","group":"bengal","kind":"empire","tier":2,"capital":"Pataliputra, Gauda, Monghyr","desc":"Gopala was chosen king by the chiefs of Bengal around 750. His successors Dharmapala and Devapala ruled Bengal and Bihar, fought for Kannauj and funded the Buddhist universities of Nalanda and Vikramashila.","next":["sena"]},{"id":"sena","name":"Sena dynasty","short":"Sena","start":1070,"end":1230,"approx":true,"family":"indo-aryan","group":"bengal","kind":"state","tier":3,"capital":"Nabadwip, Lakhnauti","desc":"Rulers from Karnataka who replaced the Palas and backed Brahmanical Hinduism. Lakshmana Sena fled Nabadwip when Bakhtiyar Khalji's cavalry rode in around 1204, and his heirs held east Bengal a few decades longer.","next":["bengal-sultanate"]},{"id":"eastern-ganga","name":"Eastern Ganga dynasty","short":"Eastern Ganga","start":1078,"end":1434,"approx":true,"family":"indo-aryan","group":"bengal","kind":"state","tier":3,"capital":"Kalinganagara, later Cuttack","desc":"Kings of Odisha who built the Jagannath temple at Puri under Anantavarman Chodaganga and the Sun Temple at Konark under Narasimhadeva I. Their minister Kapilendra Deva seized the throne in 1434 and founded the Gajapati dynasty."},{"id":"bengal-sultanate","name":"Bengal Sultanate","short":"Bengal Sult.","start":1352,"end":1576,"family":"iranian","group":"bengal","kind":"state","tier":2,"capital":"Pandua, Gaur, Tanda","desc":"Founded when Shamsuddin Ilyas Shah united Bengal's provinces. Its sultans profited from rice, cotton cloth and sea trade, raised brick mosques at Gaur and Pandua and patronized Bengali poetry; the Mughals took it from the Karrani Afghans in 1576.","next":["mughal"]},{"id":"ahom","name":"Ahom Kingdom","short":"Ahom","start":1228,"end":1826,"family":"kra-dai","group":"bengal","kind":"state","tier":2,"capital":"Charaideo, later Garhgaon and Rangpur","desc":"Founded by the Tai prince Sukaphaa, who crossed from upper Burma into the Brahmaputra valley. The Ahoms beat the Mughals at Saraighat in 1671 and ruled for six centuries until Burmese invasions and British annexation.","next":["british-assam"]},{"id":"kachari","name":"Dimasa Kachari Kingdom","short":"Kachari","start":1250,"end":1832,"approx":true,"family":"tibeto-burman","group":"bengal","kind":"state","tier":3,"capital":"Dimapur, Maibang, Khaspur","desc":"A Bodo-Kachari kingdom that ruled from Dimapur, where its carved stone pillars still stand, until Ahom attacks pushed it south to Maibang and Khaspur. The British annexed it in 1832."},{"id":"twipra","name":"Twipra Kingdom","short":"Tripura","start":1400,"end":1949,"approx":true,"family":"tibeto-burman","group":"bengal","kind":"state","tier":3,"capital":"Udaipur, later Agartala","desc":"The Manikya dynasty of the Tripura hills, whose court chronicle, the Rajmala, traces a long line of kings. It became a princely state under the British and merged into India in 1949."},{"id":"manipur","name":"Kingdom of Manipur","short":"Manipur","start":1110,"end":1949,"approx":true,"family":"tibeto-burman","group":"bengal","kind":"state","tier":3,"capital":"Kangla (Imphal)","desc":"The Meitei kingdom of the Imphal valley, ruled from the Kangla fort. It fought Burma repeatedly, became a British protectorate after the Anglo-Manipur War of 1891 and joined India in 1949."},{"id":"bhutan-zhabdrung","name":"Bhutan under the Zhabdrung","short":"Zhabdrung","start":1616,"end":1907,"family":"tibeto-burman","group":"bengal","kind":"state","tier":3,"capital":"Punakha","desc":"Ngawang Namgyal, a Drukpa lama who fled Tibet in 1616, unified the valleys of Bhutan under a network of dzong fortresses and a dual system of religious and civil rule.","next":["bhutan"]},{"id":"bhutan","name":"Kingdom of Bhutan","short":"Bhutan","start":1907,"end":2025,"family":"tibeto-burman","group":"bengal","kind":"state","tier":3,"capital":"Punakha, later Thimphu","desc":"Ugyen Wangchuck was chosen hereditary king in 1907. Bhutan opened slowly to the outside world, measures Gross National Happiness and became a constitutional monarchy with its first elections in 2008."},{"id":"sikkim","name":"Kingdom of Sikkim","short":"Sikkim","start":1642,"end":1975,"family":"tibeto-burman","group":"bengal","kind":"state","tier":3,"capital":"Yuksom, later Gangtok","desc":"Founded when three lamas crowned Phuntsog Namgyal as chogyal at Yuksom. Sikkim became a British and then an Indian protectorate, and a 1975 referendum made it a state of India."},{"id":"nawabs-bengal","name":"Nawabs of Bengal","short":"Bengal Nawabs","start":1717,"end":1765,"family":"iranian","group":"bengal","kind":"state","tier":3,"capital":"Murshidabad","desc":"Murshid Quli Khan turned the Mughal province into a hereditary state ruled from Murshidabad. Siraj ud-Daulah lost to Robert Clive at Plassey in 1757 when his commander Mir Jafar changed sides, and his successors became Company clients.","next":["company-rule"]},{"id":"company-rule","name":"Company rule in India","short":"Company rule","start":1757,"end":1858,"family":"germanic","group":"bengal","kind":"colony","tier":2,"capital":"Calcutta","desc":"The East India Company's army won Plassey in 1757 and the revenue rights of Bengal in 1765, then defeated Mysore, the Marathas and the Sikhs. After the 1857 rebellion Parliament transferred its territories to the Crown.","next":["british-raj"]},{"id":"british-assam","name":"British Assam","short":"Assam","start":1826,"end":1947,"family":"germanic","group":"bengal","kind":"colony","tier":3,"capital":"Shillong","desc":"Taken from Burma by the Treaty of Yandabo in 1826 and made a separate province in 1874. Tea plantations worked by indentured laborers from central India transformed the Brahmaputra valley."},{"id":"east-pakistan","name":"East Pakistan","short":"East Pakistan","start":1947,"end":1971,"family":"indo-aryan","group":"bengal","kind":"state","tier":3,"capital":"Dhaka","desc":"The eastern wing of Pakistan, separated from the west by 1,600 km of India. Resentment of Urdu as sole national language and of West Pakistani dominance led to the 1952 Language Movement and the 1971 war of independence.","next":["bangladesh"]},{"id":"bangladesh","name":"Bangladesh","start":1971,"end":2025,"family":"indo-aryan","group":"bengal","kind":"state","tier":2,"capital":"Dhaka","desc":"Independent after the 1971 Liberation War, led first by Sheikh Mujibur Rahman. A student uprising in 2024 ousted Sheikh Hasina after fifteen years in power, and Muhammad Yunus headed an interim government."},{"id":"deccan-foragers","name":"Deccan hunter-gatherers","short":"Foragers","start":-3500,"end":-1500,"approx":true,"family":"unknown","group":"deccan","kind":"culture","tier":3,"desc":"Microlith-using foragers of the Deccan plateau and its river valleys, who lived alongside the first herding and farming villages and traded forest goods with them."},{"id":"southern-neolithic","name":"Southern Neolithic","short":"Ash mounds","start":-3000,"end":-1200,"approx":true,"family":"dravidian","group":"deccan","kind":"culture","tier":3,"desc":"Cattle herders and millet farmers of Karnataka and Andhra who periodically burned huge dung heaps into the ash mounds of Utnur and Kupgal. Many archaeologists link them to early Dravidian speakers."},{"id":"jorwe","name":"Jorwe culture","short":"Jorwe","start":-1400,"end":-700,"approx":true,"family":"unknown","group":"deccan","kind":"culture","tier":3,"desc":"Chalcolithic farming villages of Maharashtra, with the large settlement at Inamgaon near Pune, where houses, granaries and urn burials beneath house floors have been excavated."},{"id":"deccan-megalithic","name":"Megalithic culture of the Deccan","short":"Megaliths","start":-1200,"end":-100,"approx":true,"family":"dravidian","group":"deccan","kind":"culture","tier":3,"desc":"Iron-using farmers and herders who buried their dead in stone circles, cists and dolmens across Vidarbha and Karnataka, with horse gear, iron weapons and black and red pottery in the graves."},{"id":"satavahana","name":"Satavahana dynasty","short":"Satavahana","start":-100,"end":220,"approx":true,"family":"indo-aryan","group":"deccan","kind":"empire","tier":2,"capital":"Pratishthana (Paithan), Amaravati","desc":"Deccan kings who ruled from Paithan and later Amaravati, issuing Prakrit inscriptions and lead coins. Gautamiputra Satakarni beat the Western Satraps around 125 CE, and the stupas of Amaravati and Sanchi grew under their patronage."},{"id":"vakataka","name":"Vakataka dynasty","short":"Vakataka","start":250,"end":500,"approx":true,"family":"indo-aryan","group":"deccan","kind":"state","tier":2,"capital":"Nandivardhana, Vatsagulma","desc":"Rulers of Vidarbha and the northern Deccan, tied by marriage to the Guptas through Queen Prabhavatigupta. The finest caves and paintings at Ajanta were made under the Vakataka king Harishena."},{"id":"kadamba","name":"Kadamba dynasty","short":"Kadamba","start":345,"end":540,"approx":true,"family":"dravidian","group":"deccan","kind":"state","tier":3,"capital":"Banavasi","desc":"Founded by Mayurasharma, a Brahmin who rebelled against the Pallavas. The Kadambas were the first rulers to use Kannada in inscriptions, as at Halmidi, before the Badami Chalukyas absorbed them.","next":["badami-chalukya"]},{"id":"western-ganga","name":"Western Ganga dynasty","short":"W. Ganga","start":350,"end":1000,"approx":true,"family":"dravidian","group":"deccan","kind":"state","tier":3,"capital":"Kolar, later Talakad","desc":"Rulers of southern Karnataka for over six centuries, often as Rashtrakuta allies. Their minister Chavundaraya raised the giant Jain statue of Gommateshvara at Shravanabelagola around 983, and the Cholas overran them."},{"id":"badami-chalukya","name":"Chalukyas of Badami","short":"Badami Chalukya","start":543,"end":753,"family":"dravidian","group":"deccan","kind":"empire","tier":2,"capital":"Vatapi (Badami)","desc":"Pulakeshin II stopped Harsha on the Narmada and built an empire across the Deccan, and the temples of Aihole and Pattadakal date from this dynasty. Their feudatory Dantidurga Rashtrakuta overthrew them in 753.","next":["rashtrakuta","eastern-chalukya"]},{"id":"eastern-chalukya","name":"Eastern Chalukyas","short":"Vengi Chalukyas","start":624,"end":1070,"approx":true,"family":"dravidian","group":"deccan","kind":"state","tier":3,"capital":"Vengi, later Rajahmundry","desc":"A branch of the Badami Chalukyas planted in coastal Andhra by Pulakeshin II. Telugu literature began at their court with Nannaya, and marriages with the Cholas merged the two houses under Kulottunga I in 1070.","next":["chola"]},{"id":"rashtrakuta","name":"Rashtrakuta dynasty","short":"Rashtrakuta","start":753,"end":982,"family":"dravidian","group":"deccan","kind":"empire","tier":2,"capital":"Manyakheta","desc":"Deccan rulers who fought the Palas and Pratiharas for Kannauj and raided the Ganges. They cut the Kailasa temple at Ellora from a single rock, and Arab travelers ranked their king among the four great rulers of the world.","next":["western-chalukya"]},{"id":"western-chalukya","name":"Western Chalukyas","short":"Kalyani Chalukya","start":973,"end":1189,"family":"dravidian","group":"deccan","kind":"empire","tier":2,"capital":"Kalyani","desc":"Tailapa II revived the Chalukya name by overthrowing the Rashtrakutas. The dynasty fought the Cholas for a century over the Tungabhadra doab and broke apart as the Hoysalas, Yadavas and Kakatiyas went their own way.","next":["hoysala","yadava","kakatiya"]},{"id":"hoysala","name":"Hoysala Empire","short":"Hoysala","start":1026,"end":1343,"approx":true,"family":"dravidian","group":"deccan","kind":"state","tier":2,"capital":"Belur, later Halebidu","desc":"Hill chiefs of the Western Ghats who became kings of southern Karnataka. They built the carved soapstone temples of Belur, Halebidu and Somanathapura, and the last king died fighting the Madurai Sultanate in 1343.","next":["vijayanagara"]},{"id":"yadava","name":"Seuna Yadava dynasty","short":"Yadava","start":1187,"end":1317,"family":"indo-aryan","group":"deccan","kind":"state","tier":2,"capital":"Devagiri","desc":"Rulers of the northern Deccan from Devagiri, in whose reign the poet-saint Dnyaneshwar wrote in Marathi. Alauddin Khalji's raid on Devagiri in 1296 made them tributaries, and Delhi annexed the kingdom in 1317."},{"id":"kakatiya","name":"Kakatiya dynasty","short":"Kakatiya","start":1163,"end":1323,"family":"dravidian","group":"deccan","kind":"state","tier":2,"capital":"Warangal","desc":"Telugu rulers who built the fort and stone gateways of Warangal and a network of irrigation tanks. Queen Rudramadevi ruled in her own right, and a Tughlaq army captured Warangal in 1323."},{"id":"vijayanagara","name":"Vijayanagara Empire","short":"Vijayanagara","start":1336,"end":1646,"family":"dravidian","group":"deccan","kind":"empire","tier":2,"capital":"Vijayanagara (Hampi), later Penukonda and Chandragiri","desc":"Founded by the brothers Harihara and Bukka. Under Krishnadevaraya it ruled the south from Hampi, one of the largest cities on earth; the Deccan sultanates crushed it at Talikota in 1565 and it faded by 1646.","next":["madurai-nayak","mysore"]},{"id":"bahmani","name":"Bahmani Sultanate","short":"Bahmani","start":1347,"end":1527,"family":"iranian","group":"deccan","kind":"state","tier":2,"capital":"Gulbarga, later Bidar","desc":"Founded by Alauddin Hasan Bahman Shah when Deccan nobles revolted against Muhammad bin Tughlaq. Its minister Mahmud Gawan built a great madrasa at Bidar, and after his execution in 1481 the governors broke away into five sultanates.","next":["bijapur","golconda","ahmadnagar"]},{"id":"bijapur","name":"Bijapur Sultanate","short":"Adil Shahi","start":1490,"end":1686,"family":"turkic","group":"deccan","kind":"state","tier":3,"capital":"Bijapur","desc":"The Adil Shahi kingdom founded by Yusuf Adil Shah, whose capital holds the Gol Gumbaz, one of the largest domes ever built. It joined the alliance that destroyed Vijayanagara in 1565 and fell to Aurangzeb in 1686.","next":["mughal"]},{"id":"golconda","name":"Golconda Sultanate","short":"Qutb Shahi","start":1518,"end":1687,"family":"turkic","group":"deccan","kind":"state","tier":3,"capital":"Golconda, later Hyderabad","desc":"The Qutb Shahi kingdom of Turkmen origin, enriched by the diamond mines of the Krishna valley. Muhammad Quli Qutb Shah founded Hyderabad and its Charminar in 1591, and Aurangzeb took Golconda in 1687.","next":["mughal"]},{"id":"ahmadnagar","name":"Ahmadnagar Sultanate","short":"Nizam Shahi","start":1490,"end":1636,"family":"indo-aryan","group":"deccan","kind":"state","tier":3,"capital":"Ahmadnagar","desc":"The Nizam Shahi kingdom of the western Deccan, founded by Malik Ahmad, son of a Brahmin convert. Chand Bibi defended its capital against Akbar's army in 1595, and the Mughals absorbed the rest by 1636.","next":["mughal"]},{"id":"portuguese-goa","name":"Portuguese Goa","short":"Goa","start":1510,"end":1961,"family":"romance","group":"deccan","kind":"colony","tier":3,"capital":"Velha Goa, later Panaji","desc":"Afonso de Albuquerque took Goa from Bijapur in 1510 and made it the capital of the Portuguese Estado da India. India annexed it in December 1961."},{"id":"maratha","name":"Maratha Confederacy","short":"Maratha","start":1674,"end":1818,"family":"indo-aryan","group":"deccan","kind":"empire","tier":2,"capital":"Raigad, later Satara and Pune","desc":"Shivaji crowned himself chhatrapati in 1674 after years of war with Bijapur and the Mughals. Under the Peshwas the Marathas took Malwa and Gujarat and controlled Delhi, until defeat at Panipat in 1761 and three wars with the British."},{"id":"hyderabad","name":"Hyderabad State","short":"Hyderabad","start":1724,"end":1948,"family":"turkic","group":"deccan","kind":"state","tier":2,"capital":"Aurangabad, later Hyderabad","desc":"Founded by the Mughal viceroy Asaf Jah I, the first Nizam. It became the largest and wealthiest princely state, and Indian troops annexed it in Operation Polo in September 1948."},{"id":"mysore","name":"Kingdom of Mysore","short":"Mysore","start":1399,"end":1950,"approx":true,"family":"dravidian","group":"deccan","kind":"state","tier":2,"capital":"Mysore, Srirangapatna","desc":"A Wodeyar kingdom that grew as Vijayanagara fell. Hyder Ali and his son Tipu Sultan seized power in 1761 and fought four wars with the British; after Tipu died in 1799 the Wodeyars ruled a princely state.","next":["karnataka"]},{"id":"maharashtra","name":"Maharashtra","start":1960,"end":2025,"family":"indo-aryan","group":"deccan","kind":"state","tier":3,"capital":"Mumbai","desc":"The Marathi-speaking state carved from Bombay State in 1960 after the Samyukta Maharashtra movement. Mumbai is the financial capital of India and the home of the Hindi film industry."},{"id":"andhra-pradesh","name":"Andhra Pradesh","start":1953,"end":2025,"family":"dravidian","group":"deccan","kind":"state","tier":3,"capital":"Kurnool, then Hyderabad, later Amaravati","desc":"Andhra State was carved from Madras in 1953 after Potti Sriramulu died fasting for a Telugu state, and absorbed the Telangana districts of Hyderabad in 1956. Telangana split off again in 2014."},{"id":"karnataka","name":"Karnataka","start":1956,"end":2025,"family":"dravidian","group":"deccan","kind":"state","tier":3,"capital":"Bengaluru","desc":"Formed in 1956 as Mysore State by uniting Kannada-speaking districts, and renamed Karnataka in 1973. Its capital Bengaluru grew into the technology hub of India."},{"id":"early-dravidian","name":"Early Dravidian-speaking peoples","short":"Dravidians","start":-3200,"end":-1000,"approx":true,"family":"dravidian","group":"tamil-south","kind":"culture","tier":3,"desc":"Foragers, herders and early farmers of the far south who probably spoke ancestral Dravidian languages, the root of Tamil, Malayalam, Kannada and Telugu."},{"id":"balangoda","name":"Balangoda culture","short":"Balangoda","start":-3500,"end":-900,"approx":true,"family":"unknown","group":"tamil-south","kind":"culture","tier":3,"desc":"Mesolithic hunter-gatherers of the rainforests and caves of Sri Lanka, such as Fa Hien and Batadombalena, who used tiny stone tools. The Vedda people are thought to descend partly from them.","next":["vedda"]},{"id":"vedda","name":"Vedda people","short":"Veddas","start":-900,"end":2025,"approx":true,"family":"unknown","group":"tamil-south","kind":"culture","tier":3,"desc":"The indigenous forest hunters of Sri Lanka, who kept up hunting and honey gathering in the eastern jungles into the 20th century. Most now speak Sinhala or Tamil."},{"id":"tamil-iron-age","name":"Tamil Iron Age","short":"Urn burials","start":-1000,"end":-300,"approx":true,"family":"dravidian","group":"tamil-south","kind":"culture","tier":3,"desc":"Iron-using farmers who buried their dead in large urns and stone circles, as at Adichanallur. Excavations at Keezhadi near Madurai show a brick-built town with Tamil-Brahmi graffiti on pottery."},{"id":"early-iron-sri-lanka","name":"Early Iron Age Sri Lanka","short":"Early Iron Age","start":-900,"end":-377,"approx":true,"family":"unknown","group":"tamil-south","kind":"culture","tier":3,"desc":"Settlements at Anuradhapura and elsewhere show iron, rice farming and horses from around 900 BCE. The Sinhalese chronicles tell of Prince Vijaya arriving from north India as the legendary founder of the Sinhalese.","next":["anuradhapura"]},{"id":"early-chola","name":"Early Cholas","short":"Early Chola","start":-300,"end":300,"approx":true,"family":"dravidian","group":"tamil-south","kind":"state","tier":3,"capital":"Uraiyur, Puhar","desc":"One of the three crowned kingdoms of Sangam Tamil poetry, centered on the Kaveri delta and named in Ashoka's edicts. Karikala Chola is credited with the Kallanai dam and the port of Puhar."},{"id":"early-pandya","name":"Early Pandyas","short":"Early Pandya","start":-300,"end":250,"approx":true,"family":"dravidian","group":"tamil-south","kind":"state","tier":3,"capital":"Madurai","desc":"The Sangam-age kings of Madurai who, by tradition, hosted the Tamil literary academies. Megasthenes and later Roman writers knew them for pearls from the Gulf of Mannar."},{"id":"early-chera","name":"Early Cheras","short":"Early Chera","start":-300,"end":300,"approx":true,"family":"dravidian","group":"tamil-south","kind":"state","tier":3,"capital":"Vanchi (Karur), Muziris (port)","desc":"Sangam-age kings of the Kerala coast and Kongu country, whose port of Muziris shipped pepper to Rome. The Patirruppattu anthology praises ten of their kings."},{"id":"kalabhra","name":"Kalabhra dynasty","short":"Kalabhras","start":250,"end":575,"approx":true,"family":"unknown","group":"tamil-south","kind":"state","tier":3,"desc":"Rulers of uncertain origin who displaced the Sangam kingdoms. Later Hindu inscriptions call their era a dark age, and Jain and Buddhist works in Tamil may date to their time."},{"id":"pallava","name":"Pallava dynasty","short":"Pallava","start":275,"end":897,"approx":true,"family":"dravidian","group":"tamil-south","kind":"state","tier":2,"capital":"Kanchipuram","desc":"Kings of Kanchipuram who carved the Shore Temple and rathas of Mamallapuram and whose Grantha script spread to Southeast Asia. Narasimhavarman I sacked the Chalukya capital Badami in 642, and the Cholas absorbed them in the late 9th century.","next":["chola"]},{"id":"pandya-first","name":"Pandya dynasty (first empire)","short":"Pandya","start":590,"end":920,"approx":true,"family":"dravidian","group":"tamil-south","kind":"state","tier":3,"capital":"Madurai","desc":"Kadungon ended the Kalabhra interlude around 590, and his successors fought the Pallavas and Sri Lanka for control of the far south. The Cholas took Madurai in the 10th century.","next":["chola"]},{"id":"chera-perumal","name":"Chera Perumals of Makotai","short":"Chera Perumal","start":800,"end":1124,"approx":true,"family":"dravidian","group":"tamil-south","kind":"state","tier":3,"capital":"Makotai (Kodungallur)","desc":"Kings of central Kerala ruling from Makotai near the old port of Muziris. Copper-plate grants to Syrian Christian and Jewish merchants record their trading guilds, and the kingdom broke into chiefdoms in the early 12th century.","next":["calicut","travancore"]},{"id":"chola","name":"Chola Empire","short":"Chola","start":848,"end":1279,"family":"dravidian","group":"tamil-south","kind":"empire","tier":1,"capital":"Thanjavur, later Gangaikonda Cholapuram","desc":"Rajaraja I and Rajendra I conquered the south, Sri Lanka and the Maldives, raided the Ganges, sent a fleet against Srivijaya in 1025 and built the Brihadeeswara temple at Thanjavur. Pandya and Hoysala pressure ended the dynasty in 1279.","next":["pandya-second"]},{"id":"pandya-second","name":"Pandya dynasty (second empire)","short":"Later Pandya","start":1216,"end":1345,"approx":true,"family":"dravidian","group":"tamil-south","kind":"state","tier":2,"capital":"Madurai","desc":"The Pandyas threw off Chola rule and under Jatavarman Sundara Pandyan dominated the south and northern Sri Lanka. Marco Polo visited their pearl coast, and Malik Kafur's raid in 1311 and civil war ended their power.","next":["madurai-sultanate"]},{"id":"madurai-sultanate","name":"Madurai Sultanate","short":"Madurai Sult.","start":1335,"end":1378,"family":"arabic","group":"tamil-south","kind":"state","tier":3,"capital":"Madurai","desc":"Founded when the Tughlaq governor Jalaluddin Ahsan Khan declared independence. Ibn Battuta, married to the founder's daughter, described its cruelties, and Vijayanagara's prince Kumara Kampana conquered it in 1378.","next":["vijayanagara"]},{"id":"calicut","name":"Zamorins of Calicut","short":"Calicut","start":1124,"end":1766,"approx":true,"family":"dravidian","group":"tamil-south","kind":"state","tier":3,"capital":"Kozhikode","desc":"Hindu rulers of the Malabar port of Calicut, who prospered on the pepper trade with Arab merchants. Vasco da Gama landed here in 1498, and Hyder Ali's invasion in 1766 ended the kingdom's independence."},{"id":"madurai-nayak","name":"Madurai Nayaks","short":"Madurai Nayak","start":1529,"end":1736,"family":"dravidian","group":"tamil-south","kind":"state","tier":3,"capital":"Madurai, later Tiruchirappalli","desc":"Telugu governors of Vijayanagara who became independent rulers of the southern Tamil country. Tirumala Nayak enlarged the Meenakshi temple and built his palace in Madurai, and Chanda Sahib ended the line in 1736."},{"id":"travancore","name":"Travancore","start":1729,"end":1949,"family":"dravidian","group":"tamil-south","kind":"state","tier":3,"capital":"Padmanabhapuram, later Thiruvananthapuram","desc":"Marthanda Varma built Travancore out of the old Venad kingdom and beat the Dutch at Colachel in 1741. As a princely state it reached some of the highest literacy rates in India before merging into Travancore-Cochin in 1949.","next":["tamil-nadu"]},{"id":"french-india","name":"French India","short":"Pondicherry","start":1674,"end":1954,"family":"romance","group":"tamil-south","kind":"colony","tier":3,"capital":"Pondicherry","desc":"French trading posts at Pondicherry, Karaikal, Mahe, Yanam and Chandernagore. Under Dupleix in the 1740s France came close to controlling the Carnatic, and the posts passed to India between 1950 and 1954."},{"id":"anuradhapura","name":"Anuradhapura Kingdom","short":"Anuradhapura","start":-377,"end":1017,"family":"indo-aryan","group":"tamil-south","kind":"state","tier":2,"capital":"Anuradhapura","desc":"The first Sinhalese kingdom, ruled from a city of huge stupas and irrigation reservoirs. Buddhism arrived under Devanampiya Tissa in the 3rd century BCE, and a Chola invasion took the capital in 1017.","next":["polonnaruwa"]},{"id":"polonnaruwa","name":"Kingdom of Polonnaruwa","short":"Polonnaruwa","start":1070,"end":1232,"family":"indo-aryan","group":"tamil-south","kind":"state","tier":3,"capital":"Polonnaruwa","desc":"Vijayabahu I drove out the Cholas in 1070 and ruled from Polonnaruwa. Parakramabahu I built the Parakrama Samudra reservoir and sent a fleet to Burma, and Kalinga Magha's invasion in 1215 wrecked the kingdom.","next":["dambadeniya"]},{"id":"dambadeniya","name":"Dambadeniya kingdom","short":"Dambadeniya","start":1220,"end":1345,"approx":true,"family":"indo-aryan","group":"tamil-south","kind":"state","tier":3,"capital":"Dambadeniya, Yapahuwa, Kurunegala","desc":"Sinhalese kings who moved the capital into the southwest to escape invaders, shifting it between Dambadeniya, Yapahuwa and Kurunegala. Parakramabahu II drove Kalinga Magha out of Polonnaruwa.","next":["kotte"]},{"id":"jaffna","name":"Jaffna Kingdom","short":"Jaffna","start":1215,"end":1619,"approx":true,"family":"dravidian","group":"tamil-south","kind":"state","tier":3,"capital":"Nallur","desc":"A Tamil kingdom of northern Sri Lanka, ruled by the Aryacakravarti dynasty from Nallur and enriched by pearl fishing. The Portuguese conquered it in 1619.","next":["portuguese-ceylon"]},{"id":"kotte","name":"Kingdom of Kotte","short":"Kotte","start":1412,"end":1597,"family":"indo-aryan","group":"tamil-south","kind":"state","tier":3,"capital":"Sri Jayawardenepura Kotte","desc":"Parakramabahu VI was the last king to rule all of Sri Lanka, from about 1450. The Portuguese made later kings their clients, and the last, Dharmapala, willed his kingdom to the king of Portugal in 1597.","next":["portuguese-ceylon"]},{"id":"kandy","name":"Kingdom of Kandy","short":"Kandy","start":1469,"end":1815,"family":"indo-aryan","group":"tamil-south","kind":"state","tier":2,"capital":"Senkadagala (Kandy)","desc":"The last independent Sinhalese kingdom, protected by the central highlands. It held off the Portuguese and Dutch and kept the Tooth Relic of the Buddha until its chiefs handed it to Britain in the Kandyan Convention of 1815.","next":["british-ceylon"]},{"id":"portuguese-ceylon","name":"Portuguese Ceylon","short":"Port. Ceylon","start":1505,"end":1658,"family":"romance","group":"tamil-south","kind":"colony","tier":3,"capital":"Colombo","desc":"Portugal arrived in 1505, fortified Colombo and by 1600 controlled the coastal lowlands and the cinnamon trade. The Dutch, allied with Kandy, took its last forts in 1658.","next":["dutch-ceylon"]},{"id":"dutch-ceylon","name":"Dutch Ceylon","start":1640,"end":1796,"family":"germanic","group":"tamil-south","kind":"colony","tier":3,"capital":"Colombo","desc":"The Dutch East India Company held the coasts and cinnamon lands for over a century, leaving forts at Galle and Jaffna and a Roman-Dutch legal code. Britain seized the colony in 1796.","next":["british-ceylon"]},{"id":"british-ceylon","name":"British Ceylon","short":"Ceylon","start":1796,"end":1948,"family":"germanic","group":"tamil-south","kind":"colony","tier":3,"capital":"Colombo","desc":"A Crown colony from 1802 that took Kandy in 1815 and covered the hills with coffee and then tea estates worked by Tamil laborers from India. Ceylon won independence peacefully in 1948.","next":["sri-lanka"]},{"id":"sri-lanka","name":"Sri Lanka","start":1948,"end":2025,"family":"indo-aryan","group":"tamil-south","kind":"state","tier":2,"capital":"Colombo, Sri Jayawardenepura Kotte","desc":"Independent as the Dominion of Ceylon and renamed Sri Lanka as a republic in 1972. A civil war with the Tamil Tigers lasted from 1983 to 2009, and an economic collapse in 2022 drove President Gotabaya Rajapaksa from office."},{"id":"tamil-nadu","name":"Tamil Nadu","start":1950,"end":2025,"family":"dravidian","group":"tamil-south","kind":"state","tier":3,"capital":"Chennai","desc":"Madras State, renamed Tamil Nadu in 1969. Dravidian parties have governed it since 1967, after mass protests against making Hindi the sole official language."}],"events":[{"year":-2600,"title":"Indus cities reach their height","desc":"Mohenjo-daro and Harappa grow into planned cities of tens of thousands, with brick drains, granaries and standard weights shared across a huge area.","tier":1,"group":"indus-punjab","related":["mature-harappan"]},{"year":-1900,"title":"Indus cities decline","desc":"As rivers shift and rainfall drops, the large Indus cities empty out, the script disappears and people move east toward the Ganges plain.","tier":2,"group":"indus-punjab","related":["mature-harappan","late-harappan"]},{"year":-1500,"title":"Rigveda hymns composed","desc":"Priests in the Punjab begin composing the Rigveda, the oldest text in any Indo-Aryan language, passed down orally for centuries before it was written.","tier":1,"group":"indus-punjab","related":["rigvedic-tribes"]},{"year":-1000,"title":"Iron spreads across the Ganges plain","desc":"Iron tools let farmers clear the forests of the middle Ganges, opening the way for the towns and kingdoms of the later Vedic age.","tier":2,"group":"gangetic","related":["pgw","kuru"]},{"year":-483,"title":"Death of the Buddha","desc":"Siddhartha Gautama dies at Kushinagar after decades of teaching in Magadha and Kosala. The traditional date is about 483 BCE, and many scholars now prefer about 400 BCE.","tier":1,"group":"gangetic","related":["shakya","magadha-haryanka","kosala"]},{"year":-326,"title":"Alexander at the Hydaspes","desc":"Alexander defeats King Porus on the Jhelum, but his exhausted army mutinies at the Beas and he turns back down the Indus.","tier":2,"group":"indus-punjab","related":["punjab-clans"]},{"year":-261,"title":"Ashoka's Kalinga war","desc":"Ashoka conquers Kalinga on the east coast. His own edicts record over 100,000 dead, and his remorse led him to promote Buddhism and dhamma across his empire.","tier":1,"group":"bengal","related":["maurya"]},{"year":-247,"title":"Buddhism reaches Sri Lanka","desc":"Mahinda, said to be Ashoka's son, converts King Devanampiya Tissa, and the Mahavihara monastery at Anuradhapura becomes the center of Theravada Buddhism.","tier":2,"group":"tamil-south","related":["anuradhapura","maurya"]},{"year":127,"title":"Kanishka becomes Kushan emperor","desc":"Kanishka's reign starts a new era. He patronizes Buddhism, and his empire links Rome, Parthia and Han China through the trade routes of Bactria and Gandhara.","tier":2,"group":"afghanistan","related":["kushan"]},{"year":499,"title":"Aryabhata writes the Aryabhatiya","desc":"The astronomer Aryabhata uses place-value numbers, gives pi as 3.1416 and argues that the earth spins on its axis.","tier":1,"group":"gangetic","related":["gupta"]},{"year":628,"title":"Brahmagupta's rules for zero","desc":"Working at Bhinmal in Rajasthan, Brahmagupta writes the first known rules for calculating with zero and negative numbers.","tier":1,"group":"western-india"},{"year":712,"title":"Arab conquest of Sindh","desc":"The Umayyad general Muhammad bin Qasim defeats Raja Dahir and brings Sindh and Multan into the caliphate.","tier":2,"group":"indus-punjab","related":["brahman-dynasty","arab-sindh"]},{"year":1025,"title":"Mahmud of Ghazni sacks Somnath","desc":"Mahmud's army plunders the temple of Somnath on the Gujarat coast, the most famous of his seventeen raids into India.","tier":2,"group":"western-india","related":["ghaznavid","chaulukya"]},{"year":1025,"title":"Chola fleet raids Srivijaya","desc":"Rajendra Chola sends a navy across the Bay of Bengal to sack Kedah and other ports of Srivijaya, the most distant expedition of any Indian state.","tier":2,"group":"tamil-south","related":["chola"]},{"year":1192,"title":"Second Battle of Tarain","desc":"Muhammad of Ghor defeats Prithviraj Chauhan north of Delhi, opening the Ganges plain to the rule of Turkic and Afghan sultans.","tier":2,"group":"gangetic","related":["ghurid","chahamana"]},{"year":1193,"title":"Nalanda sacked","desc":"Troops of Bakhtiyar Khalji destroy the Buddhist monastic university of Nalanda in Bihar around this time, and Buddhism fades from its Indian homeland.","tier":2,"group":"gangetic","related":["pala"]},{"year":1398,"title":"Timur sacks Delhi","desc":"Timur defeats the Tughlaq sultan and massacres much of Delhi's population, leaving the sultanate broken into regional kingdoms.","tier":2,"group":"gangetic","related":["tughlaq","timurid-herat"]},{"year":1498,"title":"Vasco da Gama reaches Calicut","desc":"The Portuguese fleet lands on the Malabar coast after sailing around Africa, opening a direct sea route from Europe to India.","tier":1,"group":"tamil-south","related":["calicut"]},{"year":1526,"title":"First Battle of Panipat","desc":"Babur's smaller army, using field guns and cavalry flanking, defeats Ibrahim Lodi and founds the Mughal Empire.","tier":2,"group":"gangetic","related":["lodi","mughal"]},{"year":1565,"title":"Battle of Talikota","desc":"An alliance of Deccan sultanates crushes the army of Vijayanagara, and the victors spend months looting the capital at Hampi.","tier":2,"group":"deccan","related":["vijayanagara","bijapur","golconda","ahmadnagar"]},{"year":1632,"title":"Taj Mahal begun","desc":"Shah Jahan starts building a white marble tomb at Agra for his wife Mumtaz Mahal, finished about twenty years later.","tier":2,"group":"gangetic","related":["mughal"]},{"year":1739,"title":"Nader Shah sacks Delhi","desc":"The Persian ruler routs the Mughal army at Karnal and carries off the Peacock Throne and the Koh-i-Noor diamond.","tier":2,"group":"gangetic","related":["mughal"]},{"year":1757,"title":"Battle of Plassey","desc":"Robert Clive's East India Company troops defeat the Nawab of Bengal after bribing his commander, starting British territorial rule in India.","tier":1,"group":"bengal","related":["nawabs-bengal","company-rule"]},{"year":1761,"title":"Third Battle of Panipat","desc":"Ahmad Shah Durrani destroys the Maratha army north of Delhi in one of the largest battles of the 18th century.","tier":2,"group":"gangetic","related":["durrani","maratha"]},{"year":1857,"title":"Indian Rebellion","desc":"Sepoys at Meerut mutiny and march on Delhi, setting off a revolt across north India. After its defeat the Crown takes over from the East India Company.","tier":1,"group":"gangetic","related":["company-rule","british-raj","mughal"]},{"year":1919,"title":"Jallianwala Bagh massacre","desc":"British troops under General Dyer fire on an unarmed crowd at Amritsar, killing hundreds and turning many moderates toward the independence movement.","tier":2,"group":"indus-punjab","related":["british-raj"]},{"year":1930,"title":"Gandhi's Salt March","desc":"Gandhi walks 390 km to Dandi on the Gujarat coast to make salt in defiance of the British salt tax, starting a mass civil disobedience campaign.","tier":2,"group":"western-india","related":["british-raj"]},{"year":1947,"title":"Independence and partition","desc":"British India splits into India and Pakistan. Around 15 million people cross the new borders and between several hundred thousand and two million die in communal violence.","tier":1,"group":"gangetic","related":["british-raj","india","pakistan"]},{"year":1971,"title":"Bangladesh Liberation War","desc":"After a brutal Pakistani army crackdown in East Pakistan, Bengali guerrillas and the Indian army win independence for Bangladesh in December.","tier":2,"group":"bengal","related":["east-pakistan","bangladesh","pakistan"]},{"year":1979,"title":"Soviet intervention in Afghanistan","desc":"Soviet troops enter Afghanistan to prop up the communist government, starting a nine-year war that drove millions of refugees into Pakistan and Iran.","tier":2,"group":"afghanistan","related":["dra"]},{"year":1998,"title":"India and Pakistan test nuclear weapons","desc":"India's tests at Pokhran in May are answered within weeks by Pakistan's tests in the Chagai hills.","tier":2,"group":"western-india","related":["india","pakistan"]},{"year":2004,"title":"Indian Ocean tsunami","desc":"A tsunami from a Sumatran earthquake kills over 35,000 people in Sri Lanka and more than 10,000 in India on 26 December.","tier":2,"group":"tamil-south","related":["sri-lanka","india"]},{"year":2021,"title":"Taliban retake Kabul","desc":"As US forces withdraw, the Afghan republic collapses within weeks and the Taliban enter Kabul on 15 August.","tier":2,"group":"afghanistan","related":["islamic-republic-afghanistan","taliban-emirate-2"]}]},{"id":"central-asia","name":"Central and North Asia","groups":[{"id":"west-siberia","name":"Western Siberia and the Altai"},{"id":"kazakh-steppe","name":"Kazakh steppe and Semirechye"},{"id":"transoxiana","name":"Transoxiana and Khwarazm"},{"id":"tarim","name":"Tarim basin and Dzungaria"},{"id":"mongolia","name":"Mongolian plateau"},{"id":"east-siberia","name":"Eastern Siberia and the Far East"}],"entries":[{"id":"uralic-hunter-fishers","name":"Uralic hunter-fishers of western Siberia","short":"Uralic foragers","start":-3500,"end":1000,"approx":true,"family":"uralic","group":"west-siberia","kind":"culture","tier":3,"desc":"Hunters, fishers and trappers of the Ob and Irtysh taiga, among whom the Uralic languages probably took shape. They lived in pit houses along the rivers and traded furs south to the steppe peoples.","next":["khanty-mansi-nenets"]},{"id":"khanty-mansi-nenets","name":"Khanty, Mansi and Samoyedic peoples","short":"Ob-Ugrians","start":1000,"end":2025,"approx":true,"family":"uralic","group":"west-siberia","kind":"culture","tier":3,"desc":"The Ob-Ugric Khanty and Mansi, called Yugra by Novgorod chroniclers from 1096, and the Samoyedic Nenets and Selkup reindeer herders of the tundra. Russian fur tribute and missionaries reached them from the 16th century."},{"id":"afanasievo","name":"Afanasievo culture","short":"Afanasievo","start":-3300,"end":-2500,"approx":true,"family":"ie-other","group":"west-siberia","kind":"culture","tier":2,"desc":"Herders of cattle, sheep and horses in the Altai and Minusinsk basin, genetically close to the Yamnaya of the far western steppe. Many linguists see them as the ancestors of the Tocharian speakers."},{"id":"okunev","name":"Okunev culture","short":"Okunev","start":-2500,"end":-1800,"approx":true,"family":"unknown","group":"west-siberia","kind":"culture","tier":3,"desc":"Bronze Age herders and hunters of the Minusinsk basin on the upper Yenisei, known for carved stone stelae with masked faces and solar symbols."},{"id":"karasuk","name":"Karasuk culture","short":"Karasuk","start":-1500,"end":-800,"approx":true,"family":"unknown","group":"west-siberia","kind":"culture","tier":3,"desc":"Late Bronze Age pastoralists of the Minusinsk basin and the Altai, makers of curved bronze knives with animal-head handles that resemble finds from Shang China and Mongolia."},{"id":"tagar","name":"Tagar culture","short":"Tagar","start":-800,"end":-200,"approx":true,"family":"iranian","group":"west-siberia","kind":"culture","tier":3,"desc":"Scythian-type herders of the Minusinsk basin who built thousands of kurgans with stone walls and cast bronze daggers and animal-style ornaments."},{"id":"pazyryk","name":"Pazyryk culture","short":"Pazyryk","start":-600,"end":-250,"approx":true,"family":"iranian","group":"west-siberia","kind":"culture","tier":2,"desc":"Saka horse nomads of the Altai whose frozen tombs preserved tattooed bodies, felt hangings, saddles and the oldest known pile carpet, along with Persian and Chinese imports."},{"id":"tashtyk","name":"Tashtyk culture","short":"Tashtyk","start":-100,"end":450,"approx":true,"family":"unknown","group":"west-siberia","kind":"culture","tier":3,"desc":"Successors of the Tagar people in the Minusinsk basin, best known for plaster death masks laid over cremated remains in their tombs."},{"id":"yenisei-kyrgyz","name":"Yenisei Kyrgyz","short":"Kyrgyz","start":550,"end":1207,"approx":true,"family":"turkic","group":"west-siberia","kind":"state","tier":3,"desc":"A Turkic people of the upper Yenisei who wrote runic inscriptions on stone. They destroyed the Uyghur Khaganate in 840, and after the Khitans pushed them back north they submitted to Genghis Khan's son Jochi in 1207.","next":["kyrgyz-khaganate"]},{"id":"sibir","name":"Khanate of Sibir","short":"Sibir","start":1468,"end":1598,"approx":true,"family":"turkic","group":"west-siberia","kind":"state","tier":3,"capital":"Qashliq (Isker)","desc":"A Tatar khanate on the Irtysh and Tobol rivers, a fragment of the Golden Horde. The Cossack Yermak took its capital Qashliq in 1582, and Russian forces defeated Khan Kuchum for good in 1598.","next":["russian-siberia"]},{"id":"russian-siberia","name":"Russian Siberia","short":"Russian Siberia","start":1582,"end":1917,"family":"slavic","group":"west-siberia","kind":"colony","tier":2,"capital":"Tobolsk, later Omsk and Irkutsk","desc":"Cossacks and fur traders pushed east from the Urals, building forts at Tyumen and Tobolsk and taking fur tribute from native peoples. Peasant settlers, exiles and the Trans-Siberian Railway from 1891 filled the south.","next":["soviet-union"]},{"id":"kolchak-state","name":"Russian State (Kolchak)","short":"Kolchak","start":1918,"end":1920,"family":"slavic","group":"west-siberia","kind":"state","tier":3,"capital":"Omsk","desc":"The White government of Admiral Alexander Kolchak, based at Omsk, which claimed all of Russia during the civil war. The Red Army drove it east in 1919, and Kolchak was shot at Irkutsk in February 1920."},{"id":"soviet-union","name":"Soviet Union","short":"USSR","start":1922,"end":1991,"family":"slavic","group":"west-siberia","kind":"state","tier":1,"capital":"Moscow","desc":"The communist state that ruled Siberia and Central Asia from Moscow. It built Gulag camps, industrial cities and oil fields across Siberia, collectivized the herders of the steppe and dissolved into fifteen republics in December 1991.","next":["russian-federation","kazakhstan","uzbekistan","turkmenistan","tajikistan","kyrgyzstan"]},{"id":"russian-federation","name":"Russian Federation","short":"Russia","start":1991,"end":2025,"family":"slavic","group":"west-siberia","kind":"state","tier":2,"capital":"Moscow","desc":"The successor of the Soviet Union, which still holds all of Siberia. Oil and gas from western Siberia fund most of its budget."},{"id":"botai","name":"Botai culture","short":"Botai","start":-3500,"end":-3100,"approx":true,"family":"unknown","group":"kazakh-steppe","kind":"culture","tier":3,"desc":"Villages of the northern Kazakh steppe whose people lived almost entirely off horses, which they hunted and probably herded and milked. Ancient DNA shows their horses were the ancestors of Przewalski's horses."},{"id":"yamnaya-east","name":"Yamnaya culture (Ural steppe)","short":"Yamnaya","start":-3300,"end":-2600,"approx":true,"family":"ie-other","group":"kazakh-steppe","kind":"culture","tier":2,"desc":"Wagon-driving herders who buried their dead under kurgans from the Danube to the Ural river. They are widely held to have spoken Proto-Indo-European, and their descendants spread across Europe and Asia.","next":["poltavka"]},{"id":"poltavka","name":"Poltavka culture","short":"Poltavka","start":-2700,"end":-2100,"approx":true,"family":"ie-other","group":"kazakh-steppe","kind":"culture","tier":3,"desc":"Successors of the Yamnaya between the middle Volga and the Ural river, herders who began to mine copper in the southern Urals.","next":["sintashta"]},{"id":"sintashta","name":"Sintashta culture","short":"Sintashta","start":-2100,"end":-1800,"approx":true,"family":"iranian","group":"kazakh-steppe","kind":"culture","tier":2,"desc":"Fortified copper-working settlements east of the southern Urals, whose graves hold the oldest known spoke-wheeled chariots. Their burial rites match those of the Rigveda, and they likely spoke early Indo-Iranian.","next":["andronovo"]},{"id":"andronovo","name":"Andronovo culture","short":"Andronovo","start":-2000,"end":-900,"approx":true,"family":"iranian","group":"kazakh-steppe","kind":"culture","tier":2,"desc":"Bronze Age herders and miners who spread from the Urals across Kazakhstan to the Yenisei and Tian Shan, usually identified with Indo-Iranian speakers moving toward Iran and India."},{"id":"saka","name":"Saka","start":-800,"end":100,"approx":true,"family":"iranian","group":"kazakh-steppe","kind":"culture","tier":2,"desc":"Scythian horse nomads of the eastern steppe, called Saka by the Persians. The Issyk kurgan near Almaty held the Golden Man, a warrior buried in armor of over 4,000 gold plates."},{"id":"massagetae","name":"Massagetae","start":-600,"end":-100,"approx":true,"family":"iranian","group":"kazakh-steppe","kind":"culture","tier":3,"desc":"Iranian-speaking nomads east of the Caspian and around the Aral Sea. According to Herodotus their queen Tomyris defeated and killed Cyrus the Great in 530 BCE."},{"id":"wusun","name":"Wusun","start":-160,"end":450,"approx":true,"family":"unknown","group":"kazakh-steppe","kind":"state","tier":3,"capital":"Chigu (near Issyk-Kul)","desc":"Nomads who drove the Yuezhi from the Ili valley and became Han China's allies against the Xiongnu, receiving Chinese princesses as brides. Rouran pressure pushed them into the Pamirs in the 5th century."},{"id":"kangju","name":"Kangju","start":-200,"end":450,"approx":true,"family":"iranian","group":"kazakh-steppe","kind":"state","tier":3,"desc":"A nomad confederation of the middle Syr Darya, known from Chinese records. It sheltered the Xiongnu chanyu Zhizhi, whom a Han army killed at his fort on the Talas river in 36 BCE."},{"id":"oghur-tribes","name":"Oghur and Hunnic tribes","short":"Oghurs","start":350,"end":600,"approx":true,"family":"turkic","group":"kazakh-steppe","kind":"culture","tier":3,"desc":"Nomads of the western Kazakh steppe in the age of the Huns. Priscus records that the Oghurs, Saragurs and Onogurs crossed into the Pontic steppe around 463 after other peoples drove them west."},{"id":"western-turkic","name":"Western Turkic Khaganate","short":"W. Turks","start":603,"end":742,"family":"turkic","group":"kazakh-steppe","kind":"empire","tier":2,"capital":"Suyab","desc":"The western half of the Gokturk realm, ruling the Ten Arrows tribes from Suyab in the Chu valley and taking tribute from the Sogdian cities. Tang China made it a protectorate in 657, and its tribes later broke away.","next":["turgesh"]},{"id":"turgesh","name":"Turgesh Khaganate","short":"Turgesh","start":699,"end":766,"family":"turkic","group":"kazakh-steppe","kind":"state","tier":3,"capital":"Suyab","desc":"A Turkic tribal state of Semirechye whose khagan Suluk fought the Arab armies in Transoxiana in the 720s and 730s. The Karluks took over its lands.","next":["karluk"]},{"id":"karluk","name":"Karluk Yabghu","short":"Karluks","start":756,"end":940,"approx":true,"family":"turkic","group":"kazakh-steppe","kind":"state","tier":3,"capital":"Suyab","desc":"Turkic tribes who switched sides at the Battle of Talas in 751 and then took Semirechye. Their leaders were among the founders of the Kara-Khanid state.","next":["kara-khanid"]},{"id":"oghuz-yabgu","name":"Oghuz Yabgu State","short":"Oghuz","start":750,"end":1055,"approx":true,"family":"turkic","group":"kazakh-steppe","kind":"state","tier":3,"capital":"Yangikent","desc":"Oghuz Turkic tribes on the lower Syr Darya and Aral steppe. The Seljuk clan broke away from them, converted to Islam and led the Oghuz into Iran and Anatolia; Kipchak pressure scattered the rest.","next":["seljuk"]},{"id":"kimek","name":"Kimek Khaganate","short":"Kimek","start":743,"end":1035,"approx":true,"family":"turkic","group":"kazakh-steppe","kind":"state","tier":3,"capital":"Imakiya (on the Irtysh)","desc":"A confederation of Turkic tribes on the Irtysh, described by Persian geographers. Its western tribe, the Kipchaks, took the lead and spread across the steppe.","next":["kipchak"]},{"id":"kipchak","name":"Cuman-Kipchak confederation","short":"Kipchaks","start":1050,"end":1241,"approx":true,"family":"turkic","group":"kazakh-steppe","kind":"culture","tier":2,"desc":"A loose union of Turkic nomads that ruled the steppe from the Irtysh to the Danube, which Muslim writers called the Dasht-i Kipchak. The Mongols crushed them between 1236 and 1241, and their language became the speech of the Golden Horde.","next":["golden-horde"]},{"id":"kara-khitai","name":"Kara-Khitai","short":"Kara-Khitai","start":1124,"end":1218,"family":"mongolic","group":"kazakh-steppe","kind":"empire","tier":2,"capital":"Balasagun","desc":"Founded by Yelü Dashi, a Khitan prince who fled west when the Jurchens destroyed the Liao. It beat the Seljuks at Qatwan in 1141 and ruled Central Asia until the Naiman prince Kuchlug usurped it and the Mongols took it in 1218.","next":["mongol-empire"]},{"id":"golden-horde","name":"Golden Horde","start":1242,"end":1502,"family":"mongolic","group":"kazakh-steppe","kind":"empire","tier":2,"capital":"Sarai","desc":"The Jochid khanate of the western steppe. Its eastern wing, the White Horde of Orda's descendants, ruled the Kazakh steppe; its khans adopted Islam and the Kipchak language, and the realm broke up in the 15th century.","next":["uzbek-khanate","sibir"]},{"id":"uzbek-khanate","name":"Khanate of Abu'l-Khayr","short":"Uzbek Khanate","start":1428,"end":1468,"family":"turkic","group":"kazakh-steppe","kind":"state","tier":3,"desc":"Abu'l-Khayr Khan united the nomadic Uzbeks of the eastern Kipchak steppe. Discontented clans under Janibek and Kerey broke away to found the Kazakh Khanate, and his grandson Muhammad Shaybani led the rest south.","next":["kazakh-khanate","bukhara-khanate"]},{"id":"kazakh-khanate","name":"Kazakh Khanate","short":"Kazakh Khanate","start":1465,"end":1847,"family":"turkic","group":"kazakh-steppe","kind":"state","tier":2,"capital":"Turkistan","desc":"Founded by Janibek and Kerey in Semirechye. It split into the Senior, Middle and Junior Zhuz, suffered terribly from Dzungar invasions in the 1720s, and fell under Russia after the revolt of Kenesary Khan ended in 1847.","next":["russian-steppe"]},{"id":"russian-steppe","name":"Russian Kazakh Steppe","short":"Russian Steppe","start":1822,"end":1917,"family":"slavic","group":"kazakh-steppe","kind":"colony","tier":3,"capital":"Omsk, Orenburg","desc":"Russia abolished the khans' authority in the Middle Zhuz in 1822 and ruled the steppe through forts and governors. Peasant settlers took the best pastures after 1890, a cause of the great revolt of 1916.","next":["alash"]},{"id":"alash","name":"Alash Autonomy","short":"Alash","start":1917,"end":1920,"family":"turkic","group":"kazakh-steppe","kind":"state","tier":3,"capital":"Semey","desc":"A Kazakh national government formed by the Alash party under Alikhan Bokeikhanov after the Russian revolution. The Bolsheviks dissolved it in 1920, and most of its leaders died in Stalin's purges.","next":["kazakh-ssr"]},{"id":"kazakh-ssr","name":"Kazakh SSR","short":"Kazakh SSR","start":1920,"end":1991,"family":"turkic","group":"kazakh-steppe","kind":"state","tier":3,"capital":"Orenburg, then Kyzylorda, later Almaty","desc":"A Soviet republic, first autonomous within Russia and a full union republic from 1936. Forced settlement of nomads caused the famine of 1930 to 1933, and Khrushchev's Virgin Lands campaign ploughed the northern steppe.","next":["kazakhstan"]},{"id":"kazakhstan","name":"Kazakhstan","start":1991,"end":2025,"family":"turkic","group":"kazakh-steppe","kind":"state","tier":2,"capital":"Almaty, Astana from 1997","desc":"Independent in December 1991 under Nursultan Nazarbayev, who ruled until 2019 and moved the capital to Astana. Oil from the Caspian made it the largest economy in Central Asia."},{"id":"kyrgyz-ssr","name":"Kirghiz SSR","short":"Kirghiz SSR","start":1924,"end":1991,"family":"turkic","group":"kazakh-steppe","kind":"state","tier":3,"capital":"Frunze (Bishkek)","desc":"Created as an autonomous region in the national delimitation of 1924 and made a union republic in 1936, with Frunze, today's Bishkek, as capital.","next":["kyrgyzstan"]},{"id":"kyrgyzstan","name":"Kyrgyzstan","start":1991,"end":2025,"family":"turkic","group":"kazakh-steppe","kind":"state","tier":3,"capital":"Bishkek","desc":"Independent in 1991, a mountainous republic of the Tian Shan where street uprisings overthrew presidents in 2005, 2010 and 2020."},{"id":"namazga","name":"Namazga culture","short":"Namazga","start":-3500,"end":-2000,"approx":true,"family":"unknown","group":"transoxiana","kind":"culture","tier":3,"desc":"Farming towns along the foot of the Kopet Dag in Turkmenistan, such as Namazga-Tepe and Altyn-Depe, which grew into proto-urban centers with temples and craft quarters by the 3rd millennium BCE.","next":["bmac"]},{"id":"bmac","name":"Bactria-Margiana Archaeological Complex","short":"BMAC","start":-2300,"end":-1600,"approx":true,"family":"unknown","group":"transoxiana","kind":"culture","tier":2,"desc":"The Oxus civilization of walled oasis towns such as Gonur Depe in Margiana, with palaces, temples, fine metalwork and seals. It traded with Elam and the Indus and absorbed steppe herders arriving from the north."},{"id":"yaz","name":"Yaz culture","short":"Yaz","start":-1500,"end":-500,"approx":true,"family":"iranian","group":"transoxiana","kind":"culture","tier":3,"desc":"Early Iron Age oasis farmers of Margiana and Bactria with fortified citadels and irrigation canals. Many scholars place the world of the Avesta and early Zoroastrianism among them."},{"id":"bactria","name":"Bactria (Achaemenid satrapy)","short":"Bactria","start":-545,"end":-330,"approx":true,"family":"iranian","group":"transoxiana","kind":"empire","tier":2,"capital":"Bactra (Balkh)","desc":"The great eastern province of the Persian Empire, conquered by Cyrus the Great and usually governed by a royal prince. Its satrap Bessus killed Darius III in 330 BCE, and Alexander spent three years subduing Bactria and Sogdiana.","next":["greco-bactrian"]},{"id":"sogdiana","name":"Sogdiana","start":-545,"end":722,"approx":true,"family":"iranian","group":"transoxiana","kind":"state","tier":2,"capital":"Samarkand, Bukhara, Panjikent","desc":"A Persian satrapy and later a cluster of city-states around Samarkand and Bukhara whose merchants ran the Silk Road caravan trade as far as China. The Arab conquest ended its independence, and the last ruler of Panjikent was executed in 722.","next":["caliphal-transoxiana"]},{"id":"chorasmia","name":"Ancient Chorasmia","short":"Chorasmia","start":-600,"end":305,"approx":true,"family":"iranian","group":"transoxiana","kind":"state","tier":3,"capital":"Kyzyl-kala, Toprak-kala","desc":"The irrigated delta of the Amu Darya south of the Aral Sea, an Achaemenid province that became independent in the 4th century BCE. Its fortified towns and canals are among the largest ancient works in Central Asia.","next":["afrighid"]},{"id":"afrighid","name":"Afrighid dynasty","short":"Afrighids","start":305,"end":995,"approx":true,"family":"iranian","group":"transoxiana","kind":"state","tier":3,"capital":"Kath","desc":"Native shahs of Khwarazm, whose history comes mainly from al-Biruni, a native of the region. They accepted Islam after the Arab conquest, and the emirs of Gurganj overthrew them in 995."},{"id":"greco-bactrian","name":"Greco-Bactrian Kingdom","short":"Greco-Bactria","start":-256,"end":-125,"approx":true,"family":"greek","group":"transoxiana","kind":"state","tier":2,"capital":"Bactra, Ai-Khanoum","desc":"A Greek kingdom founded when the satrap Diodotus broke away from the Seleucids. Euthydemus held off a Seleucid siege of Bactra, and the Yuezhi and Saka overran the kingdom around 130 BCE."},{"id":"kushan","name":"Kushan Empire","short":"Kushan","start":30,"end":375,"approx":true,"family":"iranian","group":"transoxiana","kind":"empire","tier":2,"capital":"Bactra, later Purushapura","desc":"Founded by the Kushan clan of the Yuezhi in northern Bactria. Its kings wrote Bactrian in Greek letters, controlled the crossing points of the Silk Road and spread Buddhism toward the Tarim basin."},{"id":"hephthalites","name":"Hephthalite Empire","short":"Hephthalites","start":450,"end":560,"approx":true,"family":"unknown","group":"transoxiana","kind":"empire","tier":2,"desc":"The White Huns ruled Tokharistan and Sogdiana, defeated and killed the Sasanian king Peroz in 484 and extended their power into the Tarim. The Gokturks and Sasanians partitioned their realm around 560.","next":["western-turkic"]},{"id":"caliphal-transoxiana","name":"Umayyad and Abbasid Transoxiana","short":"Caliphate","start":705,"end":819,"family":"arabic","group":"transoxiana","kind":"empire","tier":3,"capital":"Merv (governors of Khorasan)","desc":"Qutayba ibn Muslim conquered Bukhara, Samarkand and Khwarazm between 705 and 715. The Abbasid revolution began at Merv in 747, and the caliphs later ruled the region through local Persian families such as the Samanids.","next":["samanid"]},{"id":"samanid","name":"Samanid Empire","short":"Samanids","start":819,"end":999,"family":"iranian","group":"transoxiana","kind":"empire","tier":2,"capital":"Bukhara","desc":"Persian governors who made Bukhara a capital of learning, where Rudaki wrote the first great poetry in New Persian and the young Ibn Sina studied. Their slave-soldier trade brought Turks into the Islamic world, and the Kara-Khanids took Bukhara in 999.","next":["kara-khanid"]},{"id":"kara-khanid","name":"Kara-Khanid Khanate","short":"Kara-Khanids","start":840,"end":1212,"approx":true,"family":"turkic","group":"transoxiana","kind":"state","tier":2,"capital":"Balasagun, Kashgar, Samarkand","desc":"The first Turkic dynasty to convert to Islam, around 950, ruling from Kashgar and Balasagun and from 999 over Transoxiana. Mahmud al-Kashgari wrote his dictionary of Turkic under them; the Khwarazm Shah ended the last branch in 1212."},{"id":"seljuk","name":"Seljuk Empire (Khorasan)","short":"Seljuks","start":1037,"end":1157,"family":"turkic","group":"transoxiana","kind":"empire","tier":2,"capital":"Merv, Nishapur","desc":"Oghuz Turks led by Tughril and Chaghri, who beat the Ghaznavids at Dandanaqan in 1040 and went on to take Baghdad. Sultan Sanjar ruled the east from Merv until his defeat at Qatwan in 1141 and capture by Oghuz tribes.","next":["khwarazmian"]},{"id":"khwarazmian","name":"Khwarazmian Empire","short":"Khwarazm","start":1077,"end":1231,"family":"turkic","group":"transoxiana","kind":"empire","tier":2,"capital":"Gurganj, later Samarkand","desc":"Seljuk governors of Khwarazm who became shahs of an empire from the Aral to the Persian Gulf. Muhammad II provoked Genghis Khan by killing his envoys in 1218, and the Mongol invasion destroyed the state.","next":["mongol-empire"]},{"id":"chagatai","name":"Chagatai Khanate","short":"Chagatai","start":1225,"end":1370,"family":"mongolic","group":"transoxiana","kind":"state","tier":2,"capital":"Almaliq, Qarshi","desc":"The share of the Mongol Empire given to Genghis Khan's son Chagatai. Its khans converted to Islam in the 14th century, and the realm split into a settled west, taken over by Timur, and nomadic Moghulistan in the east.","next":["timurid","moghulistan"]},{"id":"timurid","name":"Timurid Empire","short":"Timurids","start":1370,"end":1507,"family":"turkic","group":"transoxiana","kind":"empire","tier":1,"capital":"Samarkand, later Herat","desc":"Timur conquered from Delhi to Ankara and filled Samarkand with blue-tiled mosques and madrasas. His grandson Ulugh Beg built an observatory there, and the Uzbeks under Muhammad Shaybani swept away the dynasty by 1507.","next":["bukhara-khanate"]},{"id":"bukhara-khanate","name":"Khanate of Bukhara","short":"Bukhara","start":1500,"end":1785,"family":"turkic","group":"transoxiana","kind":"state","tier":2,"capital":"Bukhara","desc":"Founded by the Uzbek Shaybanids, who took Samarkand in 1500, and ruled from 1599 by the Janid dynasty. Its madrasas made Bukhara a center of Sunni learning while Silk Road trade declined.","next":["bukhara-emirate"]},{"id":"khiva","name":"Khanate of Khiva","short":"Khiva","start":1511,"end":1920,"family":"turkic","group":"transoxiana","kind":"state","tier":3,"capital":"Khiva","desc":"An Uzbek khanate in the Khwarazm oasis, notorious for its slave market. Russia made it a protectorate in 1873, and the Red Army deposed the last khan in 1920.","next":["khorezm-psr"]},{"id":"kokand","name":"Khanate of Kokand","short":"Kokand","start":1709,"end":1876,"family":"turkic","group":"transoxiana","kind":"state","tier":3,"capital":"Kokand","desc":"An Uzbek khanate of the Fergana valley that expanded north to Tashkent and the Kazakh steppe. Russia took Tashkent in 1865 and annexed the rest of the khanate in 1876.","next":["russian-turkestan"]},{"id":"bukhara-emirate","name":"Emirate of Bukhara","short":"Emirate","start":1785,"end":1920,"family":"turkic","group":"transoxiana","kind":"state","tier":3,"capital":"Bukhara","desc":"The Manghit dynasty took the title of emir. Its rulers imprisoned and executed two British officers in 1842, became a Russian protectorate in 1868 and fled when the Red Army stormed Bukhara in 1920.","next":["bukharan-psr"]},{"id":"turkmen-tribes","name":"Turkmen tribes","short":"Turkmen","start":1100,"end":1881,"approx":true,"family":"turkic","group":"transoxiana","kind":"culture","tier":3,"desc":"Oghuz-descended tribes such as the Tekke, Yomut and Ersari who lived as herders and oasis farmers in the Karakum and raided Persia for captives. Russia broke their resistance at Geok Tepe in 1881."},{"id":"russian-turkestan","name":"Russian Turkestan","start":1867,"end":1917,"family":"slavic","group":"transoxiana","kind":"colony","tier":2,"capital":"Tashkent","desc":"The Governorate-General of Turkestan, ruled from Tashkent by Russian generals. Railways linked it to Russia, and cotton plantations spread across the Fergana valley to supply Russian mills.","next":["turkestan-assr"]},{"id":"turkestan-assr","name":"Turkestan ASSR","short":"Turkestan ASSR","start":1918,"end":1924,"family":"slavic","group":"transoxiana","kind":"state","tier":3,"capital":"Tashkent","desc":"The Bolshevik republic set up in Tashkent, which crushed the rival Kokand Autonomy in 1918 and fought the Basmachi rebels. Moscow split it along ethnic lines in 1924.","next":["uzbek-ssr","turkmen-ssr"]},{"id":"bukharan-psr","name":"Bukharan People's Soviet Republic","short":"Bukharan PSR","start":1920,"end":1924,"family":"turkic","group":"transoxiana","kind":"state","tier":3,"capital":"Bukhara","desc":"A nominally independent republic run by the reformist Young Bukharans after the emir fell. Moscow dissolved it into the new Soviet republics in 1924.","next":["uzbek-ssr"]},{"id":"khorezm-psr","name":"Khorezm People's Soviet Republic","short":"Khorezm PSR","start":1920,"end":1924,"family":"turkic","group":"transoxiana","kind":"state","tier":3,"capital":"Khiva","desc":"The Soviet-backed republic that replaced the Khanate of Khiva. Its territory was divided among the Uzbek and Turkmen republics in 1924.","next":["uzbek-ssr","turkmen-ssr"]},{"id":"uzbek-ssr","name":"Uzbek SSR","short":"Uzbek SSR","start":1924,"end":1991,"family":"turkic","group":"transoxiana","kind":"state","tier":3,"capital":"Samarkand, later Tashkent","desc":"The most populous Soviet republic of Central Asia, turned into a vast cotton plantation whose irrigation drained the Aral Sea.","next":["uzbekistan"]},{"id":"turkmen-ssr","name":"Turkmen SSR","short":"Turkmen SSR","start":1924,"end":1991,"family":"turkic","group":"transoxiana","kind":"state","tier":3,"capital":"Ashgabat","desc":"A Soviet republic of desert and oases, crossed by the Karakum Canal from the Amu Darya and sitting on huge gas reserves. An earthquake destroyed Ashgabat in 1948.","next":["turkmenistan"]},{"id":"tajik-ssr","name":"Tajik SSR","short":"Tajik SSR","start":1929,"end":1991,"family":"iranian","group":"transoxiana","kind":"state","tier":3,"capital":"Dushanbe","desc":"Separated from the Uzbek SSR in 1929 as the republic of the Persian-speaking Tajiks, though the old Tajik cities of Bukhara and Samarkand stayed in Uzbekistan.","next":["tajikistan"]},{"id":"uzbekistan","name":"Uzbekistan","start":1991,"end":2025,"family":"turkic","group":"transoxiana","kind":"state","tier":2,"capital":"Tashkent","desc":"Independent in 1991 and ruled by Islam Karimov until his death in 2016. His successor Shavkat Mirziyoyev ended forced labor in the cotton harvest and opened the economy."},{"id":"turkmenistan","name":"Turkmenistan","start":1991,"end":2025,"family":"turkic","group":"transoxiana","kind":"state","tier":3,"capital":"Ashgabat","desc":"Independent in 1991 under Saparmurat Niyazov, who built a personality cult around himself as Turkmenbashi. It exports gas mainly to China and remains one of the most closed states in the world."},{"id":"tajikistan","name":"Tajikistan","start":1991,"end":2025,"family":"iranian","group":"transoxiana","kind":"state","tier":3,"capital":"Dushanbe","desc":"Independent in 1991 and soon torn by a civil war that killed tens of thousands before a 1997 peace deal. Emomali Rahmon has led it since 1992."},{"id":"tarim-foragers","name":"Foragers of Xinjiang","short":"Foragers","start":-3500,"end":-2500,"approx":true,"family":"unknown","group":"tarim","kind":"culture","tier":3,"desc":"Small bands of hunter-gatherers around the oases and mountain valleys of the Tarim and Dzungaria, known from scattered stone tools before herders arrived.","next":["chemurchek"]},{"id":"chemurchek","name":"Chemurchek culture","short":"Chemurchek","start":-2750,"end":-1900,"approx":true,"family":"unknown","group":"tarim","kind":"culture","tier":3,"desc":"Herders of Dzungaria, the Altai and western Mongolia who raised rectangular stone enclosures and carved stone figures over their graves."},{"id":"xiaohe","name":"Xiaohe culture","short":"Xiaohe","start":-2000,"end":-1300,"approx":true,"family":"unknown","group":"tarim","kind":"culture","tier":3,"desc":"Bronze Age herders and farmers of the Tarim whose desert cemeteries preserved the Tarim mummies, buried in boat-shaped coffins. Ancient DNA shows a local population descended from ancient North Eurasians."},{"id":"andronovo-dzungaria","name":"Andronovo herders of Dzungaria","short":"Andronovo","start":-1800,"end":-900,"approx":true,"family":"iranian","group":"tarim","kind":"culture","tier":3,"desc":"Eastern outliers of the Andronovo culture in the Ili valley and Bortala, who raised cattle and sheep, mined copper and built stone-walled settlements on the northern side of the Tian Shan."},{"id":"subeixi","name":"Subeixi culture","short":"Subeixi","start":-1000,"end":-100,"approx":true,"family":"ie-other","group":"tarim","kind":"culture","tier":3,"desc":"Iron Age farmers and herders of the Turfan basin, known from well-preserved burials with felt hats, leather and woolen clothing. They are usually seen as forebears of the Jushi kingdom.","next":["jushi"]},{"id":"yuezhi","name":"Yuezhi","start":-400,"end":-130,"approx":true,"family":"unknown","group":"tarim","kind":"culture","tier":2,"desc":"Nomads of the Gansu corridor and the eastern Tarim who supplied jade to China. The Xiongnu defeated them around 176 BCE, and most moved west through the Ili valley to Bactria.","next":["kushan"]},{"id":"khotan","name":"Kingdom of Khotan","short":"Khotan","start":-200,"end":1006,"approx":true,"family":"iranian","group":"tarim","kind":"state","tier":2,"capital":"Khotan","desc":"A Saka Buddhist kingdom on the southern Silk Road, famous for jade and as the place where silk-making first spread west of China. The Muslim Kara-Khanids conquered it in 1006 after a long war.","next":["kara-khanid"]},{"id":"kucha","name":"Kingdom of Kucha","short":"Kucha","start":-100,"end":840,"approx":true,"family":"ie-other","group":"tarim","kind":"state","tier":3,"capital":"Kucha","desc":"A Buddhist oasis kingdom on the northern Silk Road where Tocharian B was written and the translator Kumarajiva was born. The Tang based their Anxi Protectorate here, and the Uyghurs absorbed it in the 9th century.","next":["qocho"]},{"id":"loulan","name":"Loulan (Shanshan)","short":"Loulan","start":-176,"end":445,"approx":true,"family":"ie-other","group":"tarim","kind":"state","tier":3,"capital":"Loulan, later Wuni","desc":"A kingdom by the Lop Nur lake, renamed Shanshan by the Han in 77 BCE. Its documents were written in Gandhari Prakrit on wooden tablets, and the Northern Wei conquered it in 445 as the lake dried."},{"id":"jushi","name":"Jushi kingdom","short":"Jushi","start":-200,"end":450,"approx":true,"family":"ie-other","group":"tarim","kind":"state","tier":3,"capital":"Jiaohe","desc":"The kingdom of the Turfan basin, fought over by the Han and the Xiongnu for its position at the gateway to the Tarim. Its capital Jiaohe stood on a river island, and the Northern Liang destroyed the kingdom around 450.","next":["gaochang"]},{"id":"han-protectorate","name":"Han Protectorate of the Western Regions","short":"Han Protectorate","start":-60,"end":107,"approx":true,"family":"sinitic","group":"tarim","kind":"empire","tier":3,"capital":"Wulei","desc":"The Han dynasty's military government over the oasis states, set up in 60 BCE. It lapsed during the Xin turmoil, was rebuilt by the general Ban Chao from 74 and was abandoned around 107."},{"id":"gaochang","name":"Gaochang kingdom","short":"Gaochang","start":498,"end":640,"family":"sinitic","group":"tarim","kind":"state","tier":3,"capital":"Gaochang","desc":"A Chinese-ruled kingdom in the Turfan basin under the Qu family, which hosted the pilgrim Xuanzang in 629. The Tang conquered it in 640.","next":["tang-anxi"]},{"id":"tang-anxi","name":"Tang Protectorate General to Pacify the West","short":"Tang Anxi","start":640,"end":790,"family":"sinitic","group":"tarim","kind":"empire","tier":3,"capital":"Jiaohe, later Kucha","desc":"The Tang military command over the Four Garrisons of Kucha, Khotan, Kashgar and Karashahr. It reached its peak before the defeat at Talas in 751, and the Tibetans overran its last garrisons around 790."},{"id":"qocho","name":"Uyghur Kingdom of Qocho","short":"Qocho","start":843,"end":1335,"approx":true,"family":"turkic","group":"tarim","kind":"state","tier":2,"capital":"Qocho (Gaochang), Beshbaliq","desc":"Founded by Uyghurs fleeing the fall of their khaganate. Its Manichaean and Buddhist courts left manuscripts and cave paintings at Bezeklik, and its rulers submitted to Genghis Khan in 1209 and served the Mongols as scribes.","next":["moghulistan"]},{"id":"moghulistan","name":"Moghulistan","start":1347,"end":1514,"approx":true,"family":"mongolic","group":"tarim","kind":"state","tier":3,"capital":"Almaliq, Aksu","desc":"The eastern Chagatai Khanate of nomadic Moghuls in Semirechye and the Tarim. Tughlugh Timur converted to Islam around 1353, and the khanate fought Timur repeatedly.","next":["yarkent"]},{"id":"yarkent","name":"Yarkent Khanate","short":"Yarkent","start":1514,"end":1705,"family":"turkic","group":"tarim","kind":"state","tier":3,"capital":"Yarkand","desc":"A Chagatayid khanate of the western Tarim founded by Sultan Said Khan. Rival Sufi khoja families came to dominate it, and the Dzungars made it a vassal from 1680.","next":["dzungar"]},{"id":"dzungar","name":"Dzungar Khanate","short":"Dzungar","start":1634,"end":1758,"family":"mongolic","group":"tarim","kind":"empire","tier":2,"capital":"Ghulja","desc":"The last great nomad empire, built by Oirat Mongols in Dzungaria. Galdan Boshugtu fought the Qing for Mongolia, and the Qianlong emperor destroyed the khanate in 1755 to 1758 in a campaign that killed most of the Dzungar people.","next":["qing-xinjiang"]},{"id":"qing-xinjiang","name":"Qing Xinjiang","short":"Qing Xinjiang","start":1759,"end":1912,"family":"tungusic","group":"tarim","kind":"empire","tier":2,"capital":"Ili (Huiyuan), later Urumqi","desc":"The Qing conquest of Dzungaria and the Tarim, named Xinjiang, the New Frontier. Ruled by military governors through local begs, it was rebuilt as a regular province in 1884 after Zuo Zongtang reconquered it.","next":["roc-xinjiang"]},{"id":"yettishar","name":"Yettishar","start":1865,"end":1877,"family":"turkic","group":"tarim","kind":"state","tier":3,"capital":"Kashgar","desc":"The state of Yaqub Beg, a Kokandi commander who seized Kashgar during the Muslim revolts against the Qing and won recognition from Britain and the Ottomans. Zuo Zongtang's army ended it after his death in 1877."},{"id":"roc-xinjiang","name":"Xinjiang under the Republic of China","short":"ROC Xinjiang","start":1912,"end":1949,"family":"sinitic","group":"tarim","kind":"state","tier":3,"capital":"Urumqi","desc":"Ruled by warlord governors such as Yang Zengxin and Sheng Shicai, who were largely independent of Nanjing and for years relied on Soviet support.","next":["prc-xinjiang"]},{"id":"etr-first","name":"First East Turkestan Republic","short":"First ETR","start":1933,"end":1934,"family":"turkic","group":"tarim","kind":"state","tier":3,"capital":"Kashgar","desc":"An Islamic republic declared at Kashgar during a Uyghur and Hui uprising. Hui Muslim troops crushed it within months."},{"id":"etr-second","name":"Second East Turkestan Republic","short":"Second ETR","start":1944,"end":1949,"family":"turkic","group":"tarim","kind":"state","tier":3,"capital":"Ghulja","desc":"A Soviet-backed republic in the Ili region of northern Xinjiang. Its leaders died in a plane crash in 1949 on their way to Beijing, and it was absorbed into the People's Republic."},{"id":"prc-xinjiang","name":"Xinjiang under the People's Republic","short":"PRC Xinjiang","start":1949,"end":2025,"family":"sinitic","group":"tarim","kind":"state","tier":3,"capital":"Urumqi","desc":"Made the Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region in 1955. Han Chinese migration grew under the Production and Construction Corps, and since 2017 Beijing has held large numbers of Uyghurs in detention camps."},{"id":"mongolia-early","name":"Early foragers and herders of Mongolia","short":"Early Mongolia","start":-3500,"end":-1400,"approx":true,"family":"unknown","group":"mongolia","kind":"culture","tier":3,"desc":"Hunter-gatherers of the Gobi and the northern forests who took up herding of sheep, goats and cattle after about 3000 BCE, when the first steppe pastoralists reached the plateau.","next":["deer-stone"]},{"id":"deer-stone","name":"Deer stone and khirigsuur culture","short":"Deer stones","start":-1400,"end":-700,"approx":true,"family":"unknown","group":"mongolia","kind":"culture","tier":3,"desc":"Bronze Age horse herders who set up carved standing stones covered in flying deer and built large stone burial mounds ringed by thousands of horse-head offerings."},{"id":"slab-grave","name":"Slab grave culture","short":"Slab graves","start":-1100,"end":-300,"approx":true,"family":"unknown","group":"mongolia","kind":"culture","tier":3,"desc":"Herders of eastern Mongolia and Transbaikalia who buried their dead in rectangular stone-lined graves. Ancient DNA links them to the later Xiongnu and Xianbei."},{"id":"donghu","name":"Donghu","start":-700,"end":-209,"approx":true,"family":"unknown","group":"mongolia","kind":"culture","tier":3,"desc":"The Eastern Barbarians of Chinese records, a nomad confederation of eastern Mongolia and western Manchuria. Modu Chanyu of the Xiongnu destroyed them, and their remnants became the Wuhuan and Xianbei.","next":["xiongnu","xianbei"]},{"id":"xiongnu","name":"Xiongnu Empire","short":"Xiongnu","start":-209,"end":93,"approx":true,"family":"unknown","group":"mongolia","kind":"empire","tier":1,"capital":"Longcheng (mobile court)","desc":"The first great steppe empire, founded by Modu Chanyu. It forced Han China to pay tribute for decades until the Han struck back; it split in 48 CE, and the Xianbei destroyed the northern Xiongnu by 93.","next":["xianbei"]},{"id":"xianbei","name":"Xianbei state","short":"Xianbei","start":93,"end":234,"approx":true,"family":"mongolic","group":"mongolia","kind":"state","tier":2,"desc":"Nomads of the eastern steppe who took over Xiongnu lands. Tanshihuai united them in the 150s, and after his death they split into groups that later founded the Northern Wei and other dynasties in China.","next":["rouran"]},{"id":"rouran","name":"Rouran Khaganate","short":"Rouran","start":330,"end":555,"family":"mongolic","group":"mongolia","kind":"empire","tier":2,"desc":"A steppe empire whose rulers were the first to use the title khagan. It fought the Northern Wei for two centuries, until its Turkic ironworking subjects rebelled under Bumin in 552.","next":["first-turkic"]},{"id":"first-turkic","name":"First Turkic Khaganate","short":"Gokturks","start":552,"end":603,"family":"turkic","group":"mongolia","kind":"empire","tier":1,"capital":"Otuken","desc":"Founded by Bumin of the Ashina clan, it stretched within twenty years from Manchuria to the Black Sea and traded silk with Byzantium and Persia. Civil war split it into eastern and western khaganates.","next":["eastern-turkic","western-turkic"]},{"id":"eastern-turkic","name":"Eastern Turkic Khaganate","short":"E. Turks","start":603,"end":630,"family":"turkic","group":"mongolia","kind":"empire","tier":3,"capital":"Otuken","desc":"The eastern half of the Gokturk realm, which raided China during the fall of the Sui. Tang Taizong's army captured its khagan Illig in 630."},{"id":"xueyantuo","name":"Xueyantuo","start":628,"end":646,"family":"turkic","group":"mongolia","kind":"state","tier":3,"desc":"A Tiele tribal khaganate that dominated Mongolia after the fall of the Eastern Turks, until the Tang and the Uyghurs destroyed it in 646."},{"id":"second-turkic","name":"Second Turkic Khaganate","short":"Second Turks","start":682,"end":744,"family":"turkic","group":"mongolia","kind":"empire","tier":2,"capital":"Otuken","desc":"Ilterish Khagan threw off Tang rule in 682. The Orkhon inscriptions raised for Kul Tigin and Bilge Khan in the 730s are the oldest long texts in a Turkic language; the Uyghurs overthrew the dynasty in 744.","next":["uyghur-khaganate"]},{"id":"uyghur-khaganate","name":"Uyghur Khaganate","short":"Uyghurs","start":744,"end":840,"family":"turkic","group":"mongolia","kind":"empire","tier":2,"capital":"Ordu-Baliq","desc":"A Turkic empire that saved the Tang from the An Lushan rebellion, traded horses for silk and adopted Manichaeism. It built a walled capital at Ordu-Baliq, and the Yenisei Kyrgyz sacked it in 840.","next":["kyrgyz-khaganate","qocho"]},{"id":"kyrgyz-khaganate","name":"Kyrgyz Khaganate","short":"Kyrgyz","start":840,"end":924,"approx":true,"family":"turkic","group":"mongolia","kind":"state","tier":3,"desc":"The Yenisei Kyrgyz ruled the Mongolian plateau after destroying the Uyghurs, until the Khitans drove them back to the Yenisei in the 920s."},{"id":"liao","name":"Liao dynasty","short":"Liao","start":916,"end":1125,"family":"mongolic","group":"mongolia","kind":"empire","tier":2,"capital":"Shangjing","desc":"The Khitan empire of Abaoji, which ruled Mongolia and Manchuria and took sixteen prefectures of north China. The Jurchens destroyed it in 1125, and its prince Yelü Dashi fled west to found Kara-Khitai.","next":["kara-khitai"]},{"id":"steppe-tribes","name":"Kereit, Naiman, Tatar and Merkit tribes","short":"Steppe tribes","start":1000,"end":1206,"approx":true,"family":"mongolic","group":"mongolia","kind":"culture","tier":3,"desc":"Rival tribal confederations of the plateau after the Khitans withdrew, some of them Nestorian Christian. Temujin defeated each of them in turn between 1196 and 1206.","next":["mongol-empire"]},{"id":"khamag-mongol","name":"Khamag Mongol","short":"Khamag Mongol","start":1130,"end":1206,"approx":true,"family":"mongolic","group":"mongolia","kind":"culture","tier":3,"desc":"A confederation of Mongol clans on the Onon and Kherlen rivers, first led by Khabul Khan, great-grandfather of Temujin, the future Genghis Khan. The Tatars and the Jin kept it weak and divided.","next":["mongol-empire"]},{"id":"mongol-empire","name":"Mongol Empire","short":"Mongols","start":1206,"end":1368,"family":"mongolic","group":"mongolia","kind":"empire","tier":1,"capital":"Karakorum, later Khanbaliq","desc":"Genghis Khan united the steppe in 1206, and he and his heirs conquered from Korea to Hungary, the largest land empire in history. After 1260 it split into the Yuan, Chagatai, Golden Horde and Ilkhanate.","next":["chagatai","golden-horde","northern-yuan"]},{"id":"northern-yuan","name":"Northern Yuan","start":1368,"end":1635,"family":"mongolic","group":"mongolia","kind":"state","tier":2,"desc":"The Mongol court that retreated to the steppe after the Ming took Beijing. Dayan Khan reunited the eastern Mongols around 1500, and Ligdan Khan's death in 1634 left them to the Manchus.","next":["qing-mongolia"]},{"id":"oirat","name":"Four Oirat","short":"Oirats","start":1399,"end":1634,"family":"mongolic","group":"mongolia","kind":"state","tier":3,"desc":"A confederation of western Mongol tribes. Its leader Esen Taishi captured the Ming emperor at Tumu in 1449, and the Choros clan later built the Dzungar Khanate.","next":["dzungar"]},{"id":"qing-mongolia","name":"Qing rule in Mongolia","short":"Qing Mongolia","start":1691,"end":1911,"family":"tungusic","group":"mongolia","kind":"empire","tier":2,"capital":"Uliastai, Urga","desc":"The Khalkha Mongol princes submitted to the Kangxi emperor at Dolon Nor in 1691 to escape the Dzungars. The Qing divided them into banners, while Tibetan Buddhist monasteries grew to hold a large share of the men.","next":["bogd-khanate"]},{"id":"bogd-khanate","name":"Bogd Khanate of Mongolia","short":"Bogd Khanate","start":1911,"end":1924,"family":"mongolic","group":"mongolia","kind":"state","tier":3,"capital":"Niislel Khuree (Urga)","desc":"A theocracy proclaimed under the Jebtsundamba Khutughtu, the Bogd Khan, as the Qing collapsed. Chinese troops and then the White general Ungern-Sternberg occupied it before Soviet-backed revolutionaries took over in 1921.","next":["mongolian-peoples-republic"]},{"id":"mongolian-peoples-republic","name":"Mongolian People's Republic","short":"Mongolian PR","start":1924,"end":1992,"family":"mongolic","group":"mongolia","kind":"state","tier":2,"capital":"Ulaanbaatar","desc":"The world's second communist state, proclaimed on the Bogd Khan's death in 1924. Under Khorloogiin Choibalsan purges killed tens of thousands of lamas and officials, and it stayed a Soviet ally until 1990.","next":["mongolia"]},{"id":"mongolia","name":"Mongolia","start":1992,"end":2025,"family":"mongolic","group":"mongolia","kind":"state","tier":2,"capital":"Ulaanbaatar","desc":"A parliamentary democracy since the peaceful revolution of 1990 and the constitution of 1992. Copper and coal mining in the Gobi have drawn herders into a fast-growing capital."},{"id":"baikal-neolithic","name":"Baikal hunter-fishers","short":"Baikal foragers","start":-3500,"end":-1000,"approx":true,"family":"unknown","group":"east-siberia","kind":"culture","tier":3,"desc":"The Serovo and Glazkovo peoples of Lake Baikal and the upper Lena and Angara, who hunted elk and seals, fished and buried their dead with nephrite rings and bone harpoons."},{"id":"belkachi","name":"Belkachi culture","short":"Belkachi","start":-3300,"end":-2200,"approx":true,"family":"unknown","group":"east-siberia","kind":"culture","tier":3,"desc":"Neolithic hunters and fishers of Yakutia, known for cord-marked pottery and bows and arrows, who ranged along the Lena and Aldan rivers.","next":["ymyyakhtakh"]},{"id":"ymyyakhtakh","name":"Ymyyakhtakh culture","short":"Ymyyakhtakh","start":-2200,"end":-1300,"approx":true,"family":"unknown","group":"east-siberia","kind":"culture","tier":3,"desc":"Late Neolithic hunters of northeast Siberia, with waffle-stamped pottery, whose ancestry later reached the Paleo-Eskimo peoples of Alaska and Greenland."},{"id":"yukaghir","name":"Yukaghir peoples","short":"Yukaghirs","start":-1000,"end":2025,"approx":true,"family":"isolate","group":"east-siberia","kind":"culture","tier":3,"desc":"Hunters of reindeer and elk who once held much of northeast Siberia between the Lena and the Anadyr. Evenki and Yakut expansion and Russian epidemics reduced them to a few small groups on the Kolyma."},{"id":"chukchi-koryak","name":"Chukchi, Koryak and Itelmen peoples","short":"Chukchi","start":-1000,"end":2025,"approx":true,"family":"isolate","group":"east-siberia","kind":"culture","tier":3,"desc":"Reindeer herders and sea-mammal hunters of Chukotka and Kamchatka, speaking Chukotko-Kamchatkan languages. The Chukchi fought off Russian conquest through much of the 18th century."},{"id":"old-bering-sea","name":"Old Bering Sea culture","short":"Old Bering Sea","start":-200,"end":600,"approx":true,"family":"eskimo-aleut","group":"east-siberia","kind":"culture","tier":3,"desc":"Walrus and whale hunters on both shores of the Bering Strait, famous for ivory harpoon heads and figures carved with flowing curvilinear designs.","next":["punuk"]},{"id":"punuk","name":"Punuk culture","short":"Punuk","start":800,"end":1300,"approx":true,"family":"eskimo-aleut","group":"east-siberia","kind":"culture","tier":3,"desc":"Whale hunters of Chukotka and St. Lawrence Island who used bone armor and iron tools traded from Asia. Their Siberian Yupik descendants still live on the Chukchi Peninsula."},{"id":"kurykan","name":"Kurykans","start":550,"end":1000,"approx":true,"family":"turkic","group":"east-siberia","kind":"culture","tier":3,"desc":"A Turkic people around Lake Baikal named in the Orkhon inscriptions as the Three Kurykans. They farmed, smelted iron and bred horses, and are often seen as ancestors of the Sakha."},{"id":"evenki","name":"Evenki and Even reindeer herders","short":"Evenki","start":500,"end":2025,"approx":true,"family":"tungusic","group":"east-siberia","kind":"culture","tier":3,"desc":"Tungusic hunters who rode and herded reindeer across the taiga from the Yenisei to the Pacific. Their word saman gave the world the term shaman."},{"id":"okhotsk","name":"Okhotsk culture","short":"Okhotsk","start":500,"end":1200,"approx":true,"family":"unknown","group":"east-siberia","kind":"culture","tier":3,"desc":"Sea-mammal hunters of Sakhalin, the Kurils and northern Hokkaido who built large pentagonal houses with bear-skull shrines. The Nivkh people likely descend in part from them."},{"id":"buryats","name":"Buryats","start":1200,"end":2025,"approx":true,"family":"mongolic","group":"east-siberia","kind":"culture","tier":3,"desc":"Mongol herders around Lake Baikal, among the forest peoples who submitted to Genghis Khan in 1207. They resisted Russian forts in the 17th century and adopted Tibetan Buddhism in the 18th."},{"id":"sakha","name":"Sakha (Yakuts)","short":"Sakha","start":1250,"end":2025,"approx":true,"family":"turkic","group":"east-siberia","kind":"culture","tier":3,"desc":"Turkic horse and cattle breeders who moved north from the Baikal region to the middle Lena, where they kept their herds alive through winters of minus 50 degrees."},{"id":"russian-far-east","name":"Russian Far East and Yakutia","short":"Russian Far East","start":1632,"end":1917,"family":"slavic","group":"east-siberia","kind":"colony","tier":3,"capital":"Yakutsk, Irkutsk","desc":"Cossacks founded Yakutsk in 1632 and reached the Pacific at Okhotsk in 1639. The Treaty of Nerchinsk kept them out of the Amur in 1689, until Russia took the Amur and the coast in 1858 to 1860 and founded Vladivostok.","next":["far-eastern-republic"]},{"id":"far-eastern-republic","name":"Far Eastern Republic","short":"FER","start":1920,"end":1922,"family":"slavic","group":"east-siberia","kind":"state","tier":3,"capital":"Verkhneudinsk, later Chita","desc":"A nominally independent buffer state set up by Moscow while Japanese troops occupied Vladivostok. It merged into Soviet Russia in November 1922, weeks after the Japanese left."},{"id":"sakha-republic","name":"Yakut ASSR and Sakha Republic","short":"Yakutia","start":1922,"end":2025,"family":"turkic","group":"east-siberia","kind":"state","tier":3,"capital":"Yakutsk","desc":"An autonomous republic covering three million square kilometers, the largest subdivision of any country. Its diamond, gold and coal mines and Gulag camps on the Kolyma shaped its Soviet history."}],"events":[{"year":-3500,"title":"Horses tamed at Botai","desc":"People of the Kazakh steppe build their lives around horses, leaving bits of wear on teeth and traces of mare's milk in pots, some of the earliest evidence of horse herding.","tier":2,"group":"kazakh-steppe","related":["botai"]},{"year":-2000,"title":"First spoke-wheeled chariots","desc":"Sintashta warriors are buried with light two-wheeled chariots, a technology that spreads within centuries to Egypt, India and China.","tier":1,"group":"kazakh-steppe","related":["sintashta"]},{"year":-530,"title":"Cyrus the Great killed by the Massagetae","desc":"Herodotus says Cyrus died fighting Queen Tomyris east of the Caspian, who dipped his severed head in a skin full of blood.","tier":2,"group":"kazakh-steppe","related":["massagetae"]},{"year":-327,"title":"Alexander marries Roxana","desc":"After two years of hard fighting in Bactria and Sogdiana, Alexander marries the daughter of a Sogdian noble to secure the region.","tier":2,"group":"transoxiana","related":["bactria","sogdiana"]},{"year":-138,"title":"Zhang Qian travels west","desc":"The Han envoy Zhang Qian sets out to find the Yuezhi. His reports of Fergana, Bactria and Parthia lead to the opening of the Silk Road.","tier":1,"group":"tarim","related":["yuezhi","wusun","han-protectorate"]},{"year":732,"title":"Orkhon inscriptions raised","desc":"Stone memorials for Kul Tigin and Bilge Khan in the Orkhon valley record the history of the Turks in their own runic script.","tier":2,"group":"mongolia","related":["second-turkic"]},{"year":751,"title":"Battle of Talas","desc":"An Abbasid army defeats Tang forces near the Talas river after the Karluks change sides, ending Chinese expansion into Central Asia.","tier":2,"group":"kazakh-steppe","related":["karluk","tang-anxi","caliphal-transoxiana"]},{"year":762,"title":"Uyghur khagan adopts Manichaeism","desc":"Bogu Khagan converts after meeting Manichaean priests in Luoyang, making the Uyghurs the only state ever to adopt the religion officially.","tier":2,"group":"mongolia","related":["uyghur-khaganate"]},{"year":1141,"title":"Battle of Qatwan","desc":"The Kara-Khitai defeat Sultan Sanjar near Samarkand, a defeat of a Muslim power that helped feed the European legend of Prester John.","tier":2,"group":"transoxiana","related":["kara-khitai","seljuk"]},{"year":1206,"title":"Temujin proclaimed Genghis Khan","desc":"A great assembly on the Onon river names Temujin ruler of all the felt-tent peoples, founding the Mongol Empire.","tier":1,"group":"mongolia","related":["mongol-empire","khamag-mongol"]},{"year":1220,"title":"Mongols sack Bukhara and Samarkand","desc":"Genghis Khan's armies storm the great cities of Transoxiana, killing or deporting much of their populations and destroying the Khwarazmian Empire.","tier":2,"group":"transoxiana","related":["khwarazmian","mongol-empire"]},{"year":1428,"title":"Ulugh Beg's observatory","desc":"Timur's grandson builds a huge observatory at Samarkand, whose star catalog was the most accurate since Ptolemy.","tier":2,"group":"transoxiana","related":["timurid"]},{"year":1578,"title":"Altan Khan names the Dalai Lama","desc":"The Tumed Mongol ruler Altan Khan meets the Tibetan lama Sonam Gyatso and gives him the title Dalai Lama, starting the Mongols' conversion to Tibetan Buddhism.","tier":2,"group":"mongolia","related":["northern-yuan"]},{"year":1582,"title":"Yermak takes Sibir","desc":"A Cossack band hired by the Stroganov merchants captures Qashliq, the capital of the Khanate of Sibir, opening Siberia to Russia.","tier":2,"group":"west-siberia","related":["sibir","russian-siberia"]},{"year":1689,"title":"Treaty of Nerchinsk","desc":"Russia and Qing China sign their first treaty, fixing the border north of the Amur. Jesuit priests interpret the negotiations in Latin.","tier":2,"group":"east-siberia","related":["russian-far-east"]},{"year":1755,"title":"Destruction of the Dzungars","desc":"The Qianlong emperor sends armies against the Dzungar Khanate. War, massacre and smallpox kill most of the Dzungar people by 1758.","tier":2,"group":"tarim","related":["dzungar","qing-xinjiang"]},{"year":1865,"title":"Russia captures Tashkent","desc":"General Mikhail Chernyayev storms Tashkent, the largest city of Central Asia, starting Russia's conquest of the khanates.","tier":2,"group":"transoxiana","related":["kokand","russian-turkestan"]},{"year":1908,"title":"Tunguska explosion","desc":"An exploding meteor flattens about 80 million trees over 2,000 square kilometers of Siberian forest near the Podkamennaya Tunguska river.","tier":2,"group":"east-siberia"},{"year":1931,"title":"Kazakh famine","desc":"Forced collectivization and the seizure of livestock kill about 1.5 million Kazakhs between 1930 and 1933, perhaps 40 percent of the nation.","tier":2,"group":"kazakh-steppe","related":["kazakh-ssr","soviet-union"]},{"year":1957,"title":"Sputnik launched from Baikonur","desc":"The Soviet Union launches the first artificial satellite from the Kazakh steppe, and in 1961 Yuri Gagarin's flight leaves from the same cosmodrome.","tier":1,"group":"kazakh-steppe","related":["soviet-union","kazakh-ssr"]},{"year":1960,"title":"The Aral Sea begins to shrink","desc":"Soviet cotton irrigation diverts the Amu Darya and Syr Darya, and within fifty years the fourth-largest lake in the world loses most of its area.","tier":2,"group":"transoxiana","related":["uzbek-ssr","kazakh-ssr"]},{"year":1991,"title":"Central Asian republics become independent","desc":"As the Soviet Union dissolves, Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan, Turkmenistan, Kyrgyzstan and Tajikistan become sovereign states for the first time.","tier":2,"group":"transoxiana","related":["soviet-union","kazakhstan","uzbekistan","turkmenistan","kyrgyzstan","tajikistan"]}]},{"id":"east-asia","name":"East Asia","groups":[{"id":"tibet-west","name":"Tibet and the west"},{"id":"south-china","name":"South China and Taiwan"},{"id":"north-china","name":"North China"},{"id":"manchuria","name":"Manchuria"},{"id":"korea","name":"Korea"},{"id":"japan","name":"Japan"}],"entries":[{"id":"tibet-neolithic","name":"Neolithic farmers of the Tibetan plateau","short":"Tibet Neolithic","start":-3500,"end":-1000,"approx":true,"family":"unknown","group":"tibet-west","kind":"culture","tier":3,"desc":"Millet and barley farmers and herders of the high valleys, known from the Karuo site near Chamdo and later Qugong near Lhasa, who adapted to life above 3,000 meters."},{"id":"majiayao","name":"Majiayao culture","short":"Majiayao","start":-3300,"end":-2000,"approx":true,"family":"unknown","group":"tibet-west","kind":"culture","tier":3,"desc":"Millet farmers of the upper Yellow River in Gansu and Qinghai, famous for pottery painted with spirals and dancing figures. Its people may have spoken early Sino-Tibetan languages.","next":["qijia"]},{"id":"qijia","name":"Qijia culture","short":"Qijia","start":-2200,"end":-1600,"approx":true,"family":"unknown","group":"tibet-west","kind":"culture","tier":3,"desc":"Farmers and herders of Gansu and Qinghai who made some of the earliest copper and bronze objects in China, probably learned from steppe neighbors. The Lajia site preserves a bowl of millet noodles buried by an earthquake."},{"id":"qiang","name":"Qiang peoples","short":"Qiang","start":-1300,"end":2025,"approx":true,"family":"tibeto-burman","group":"tibet-west","kind":"culture","tier":3,"desc":"Herders of the western frontier named in Shang oracle bones, often as sacrificial victims. Over three thousand years the name covered many Tibeto-Burman peoples of Gansu, Qinghai and Sichuan, and the modern Qiang live in western Sichuan."},{"id":"zhangzhung","name":"Zhangzhung","start":-500,"end":644,"approx":true,"family":"tibeto-burman","group":"tibet-west","kind":"state","tier":3,"capital":"Khyunglung","desc":"A kingdom of western Tibet around Mount Kailash, remembered in Bon religious tradition as its homeland. Songtsen Gampo's Tibetan Empire conquered it in the 640s.","next":["tibetan-empire"]},{"id":"tuyuhun","name":"Tuyuhun","start":285,"end":670,"approx":true,"family":"mongolic","group":"tibet-west","kind":"state","tier":3,"capital":"Fuqi, near Qinghai Lake","desc":"A kingdom founded by Xianbei migrants around Qinghai Lake, ruling Qiang subjects and the trade routes south of the Gansu corridor. The Tibetan Empire conquered it between 663 and 670."},{"id":"tibetan-empire","name":"Tibetan Empire","short":"Tibetan Empire","start":618,"end":842,"family":"tibeto-burman","group":"tibet-west","kind":"empire","tier":2,"capital":"Lhasa","desc":"Songtsen Gampo united the plateau, adopted a script from India and married Chinese and Nepali princesses. His heirs fought the Tang for the Tarim, briefly took Chang'an in 763 and broke apart after the murder of Langdarma in 842.","next":["tibet-fragmentation"]},{"id":"guiyi","name":"Guiyi Circuit","short":"Guiyi","start":851,"end":1036,"family":"sinitic","group":"tibet-west","kind":"state","tier":3,"capital":"Dunhuang","desc":"A self-governing Chinese enclave at Dunhuang, founded when Zhang Yichao expelled the Tibetans. The manuscripts of its Buddhist monasteries were sealed in the Library Cave around 1000 and found in 1900."},{"id":"ganzhou-uyghur","name":"Ganzhou Uyghur Kingdom","short":"Ganzhou Uyghurs","start":894,"end":1028,"approx":true,"family":"turkic","group":"tibet-west","kind":"state","tier":3,"capital":"Ganzhou (Zhangye)","desc":"A kingdom of Uyghurs who settled in the Gansu corridor after their khaganate fell. Their descendants are the Yugur people; the Western Xia conquered the kingdom in 1028."},{"id":"tibet-fragmentation","name":"Tibetan era of fragmentation","short":"Fragmentation","start":842,"end":1264,"family":"tibeto-burman","group":"tibet-west","kind":"state","tier":3,"desc":"After the empire's collapse, Tibet split among local lords and monasteries. The Indian teacher Atisha arrived in 1042, and new monastic orders such as the Kagyu and Sakya grew up in this period.","next":["sakya"]},{"id":"guge","name":"Guge kingdom","short":"Guge","start":967,"end":1630,"approx":true,"family":"tibeto-burman","group":"tibet-west","kind":"state","tier":3,"capital":"Tsaparang","desc":"A kingdom of western Tibet founded by descendants of the imperial line, which invited Atisha and built the temples of Tholing. Ladakh conquered it in 1630, soon after Jesuit missionaries had lived at its court."},{"id":"western-xia","name":"Western Xia","short":"Western Xia","start":1038,"end":1227,"family":"tibeto-burman","group":"tibet-west","kind":"empire","tier":2,"capital":"Xingqing (Yinchuan)","desc":"The Tangut empire of Ningxia and Gansu, which created its own script of over 6,000 characters and printed Buddhist books. Genghis Khan died during his final campaign against it, and the Mongols destroyed the Tangut state in 1227."},{"id":"sakya","name":"Sakya rule in Tibet","short":"Sakya","start":1264,"end":1354,"family":"tibeto-burman","group":"tibet-west","kind":"state","tier":3,"capital":"Sakya","desc":"Kublai Khan made the Sakya lama Phagpa head of Tibetan Buddhism and gave his order authority over Tibet under the Yuan. Phagpa also designed the square script used for Mongolian.","next":["phagmodrupa"]},{"id":"phagmodrupa","name":"Phagmodrupa dynasty","short":"Phagmodrupa","start":1354,"end":1618,"family":"tibeto-burman","group":"tibet-west","kind":"state","tier":3,"capital":"Nedong","desc":"Changchub Gyaltsen overthrew Sakya rule and restored a Tibetan kingship. Tsongkhapa founded the Gelug order in its time; after 1435 the Rinpungpa ministers took real power.","next":["tsangpa"]},{"id":"tsangpa","name":"Tsangpa dynasty","short":"Tsangpa","start":1565,"end":1642,"family":"tibeto-burman","group":"tibet-west","kind":"state","tier":3,"capital":"Shigatse","desc":"Kings of Tsang who ruled central Tibet from Shigatse and backed the Karma Kagyu against the Gelug. Gushri Khan's Khoshut Mongols overthrew them on behalf of the Fifth Dalai Lama.","next":["ganden-phodrang"]},{"id":"khoshut","name":"Khoshut Khanate","short":"Khoshut","start":1642,"end":1717,"family":"mongolic","group":"tibet-west","kind":"state","tier":3,"desc":"Oirat Mongols of Qinghai whose leader Gushri Khan made the Fifth Dalai Lama ruler of Tibet and kept the title of king. A Dzungar invasion killed his descendant Lhazang Khan in 1717."},{"id":"ganden-phodrang","name":"Ganden Phodrang (Dalai Lama government)","short":"Ganden Phodrang","start":1642,"end":1951,"family":"tibeto-burman","group":"tibet-west","kind":"state","tier":2,"capital":"Lhasa","desc":"The government of the Dalai Lamas, who built the Potala Palace. It was a Qing protectorate from 1720, expelled Chinese troops in 1912 and ruled as a de facto independent state until the People's Liberation Army arrived in 1950.","next":["tibet-prc"]},{"id":"tibet-prc","name":"Tibet under the People's Republic","short":"PRC Tibet","start":1951,"end":2025,"family":"sinitic","group":"tibet-west","kind":"state","tier":3,"capital":"Lhasa","desc":"Annexed under the Seventeen Point Agreement of 1951. The Dalai Lama fled to India after the failed 1959 uprising, and the Tibet Autonomous Region was set up in 1965."},{"id":"liangzhu","name":"Liangzhu culture","short":"Liangzhu","start":-3300,"end":-2300,"approx":true,"family":"unknown","group":"south-china","kind":"culture","tier":2,"desc":"Rice farmers of the Yangtze delta whose walled city near Hangzhou had palaces on an earthen platform and a system of dams to control floods. They carved jade cong tubes and bi discs with a masked god.","next":["maqiao"]},{"id":"maqiao","name":"Maqiao culture","short":"Maqiao","start":-1900,"end":-1200,"approx":true,"family":"unknown","group":"south-china","kind":"culture","tier":3,"desc":"Bronze Age farmers of the lower Yangtze and Lake Tai who followed Liangzhu after a long decline, making stamped pottery and early proto-porcelain."},{"id":"qujialing-shijiahe","name":"Qujialing and Shijiahe cultures","short":"Shijiahe","start":-3400,"end":-2000,"approx":true,"family":"unknown","group":"south-china","kind":"culture","tier":3,"desc":"Rice-growing societies of the middle Yangtze around Lake Dongting, whose walled town at Shijiahe covered over a square kilometer and held thousands of small clay figurines."},{"id":"baodun","name":"Baodun culture","short":"Baodun","start":-2700,"end":-1700,"approx":true,"family":"unknown","group":"south-china","kind":"culture","tier":3,"desc":"Rice farmers of the Chengdu plain in Sichuan who built walled towns of rammed earth, forerunners of the Sanxingdui civilization.","next":["sanxingdui"]},{"id":"sanxingdui","name":"Sanxingdui culture","short":"Sanxingdui","start":-1700,"end":-1150,"approx":true,"family":"unknown","group":"south-china","kind":"culture","tier":2,"desc":"A Bronze Age kingdom of the Chengdu plain whose sacrificial pits held bronze masks with protruding eyes, a life-size standing figure and bronze trees. It had no known writing and its culture differed sharply from the Shang.","next":["shu"]},{"id":"shu","name":"Shu kingdom (Jinsha)","short":"Shu","start":-1150,"end":-316,"approx":true,"family":"unknown","group":"south-china","kind":"state","tier":3,"capital":"Jinsha, later Chengdu","desc":"The ancient kingdom of the Chengdu plain, heir to Sanxingdui, known for the gold sun-bird disc found at Jinsha. Qin conquered it in 316 BCE and turned Sichuan into a granary for its wars."},{"id":"baiyue","name":"Baiyue peoples","short":"Baiyue","start":-1000,"end":200,"approx":true,"family":"kra-dai","group":"south-china","kind":"culture","tier":3,"desc":"The Hundred Yue of Chinese records, farmers and seafarers of the southeast coast who tattooed their bodies and cut their hair short. Most probably spoke Kra-Dai or Austroasiatic languages before Han conquest and settlement."},{"id":"taiwan-austronesian","name":"Formosan Austronesian peoples","short":"Formosans","start":-3500,"end":2025,"approx":true,"family":"austronesian","group":"south-china","kind":"culture","tier":3,"desc":"The indigenous peoples of Taiwan, such as the Amis, Atayal and Paiwan, whose languages form most of the primary branches of the Austronesian family. Their ancestors began the voyages that settled the Pacific and Madagascar."},{"id":"chu","name":"Chu","start":-1030,"end":-223,"approx":true,"family":"sinitic","group":"south-china","kind":"state","tier":2,"capital":"Danyang, later Ying (Jiangling) and Shouchun","desc":"The great southern state of the Zhou world, centered on the middle Yangtze, whose kings claimed the royal title early. Its shamanistic poetry survives in the Chu Ci of Qu Yuan, and Qin conquered it in 223 BCE."},{"id":"wu-state","name":"Wu","start":-585,"end":-473,"family":"sinitic","group":"south-china","kind":"state","tier":3,"capital":"Gusu (Suzhou)","desc":"A state of the lower Yangtze whose general Sun Tzu, by tradition the author of The Art of War, helped King Helu defeat Chu. Its old enemy Yue destroyed it in 473 BCE."},{"id":"yue-state","name":"Yue","start":-510,"end":-306,"approx":true,"family":"kra-dai","group":"south-china","kind":"state","tier":3,"capital":"Kuaiji (Shaoxing)","desc":"A coastal state of Zhejiang famous for fine bronze swords such as that of King Goujian, who conquered Wu in 473 BCE after years of humiliation. Chu broke it up in the late 4th century BCE.","next":["minyue"]},{"id":"dian","name":"Dian kingdom","short":"Dian","start":-400,"end":-109,"approx":true,"family":"unknown","group":"south-china","kind":"state","tier":3,"capital":"near Lake Dian (Kunming)","desc":"A Bronze Age kingdom of Yunnan whose cowrie-shell containers are topped with cast scenes of sacrifices, markets and battles. Its king submitted to the Han in 109 BCE and received a gold seal."},{"id":"minyue","name":"Minyue","start":-334,"end":-110,"approx":true,"family":"kra-dai","group":"south-china","kind":"state","tier":3,"capital":"Dongye (Fuzhou)","desc":"A Yue kingdom of Fujian founded by refugees from the fallen state of Yue. Emperor Wu of Han conquered it in 110 BCE and moved much of its population north."},{"id":"nanyue","name":"Nanyue","start":-204,"end":-111,"family":"sinitic","group":"south-china","kind":"state","tier":2,"capital":"Panyu (Guangzhou)","desc":"A kingdom founded by Zhao Tuo, a Qin general who took over Guangdong and northern Vietnam as the Qin collapsed. The tomb of his grandson holds a burial suit of jade plates; Han armies annexed it in 111 BCE."},{"id":"shu-han","name":"Shu Han","start":221,"end":263,"family":"sinitic","group":"south-china","kind":"state","tier":2,"capital":"Chengdu","desc":"The Three Kingdoms state of Liu Bei and his chancellor Zhuge Liang in Sichuan, which claimed to continue the Han. Cao Wei conquered it in 263."},{"id":"eastern-wu","name":"Eastern Wu","start":229,"end":280,"family":"sinitic","group":"south-china","kind":"state","tier":2,"capital":"Jianye (Nanjing)","desc":"The Three Kingdoms state of Sun Quan on the lower Yangtze, which with Liu Bei stopped Cao Cao at Red Cliffs in 208. It opened the south to settlement and fell to the Jin in 280."},{"id":"eastern-jin","name":"Eastern Jin","start":317,"end":420,"family":"sinitic","group":"south-china","kind":"state","tier":2,"capital":"Jiankang (Nanjing)","desc":"The Jin court in exile south of the Yangtze after the north fell to the Sixteen Kingdoms. It beat Former Qin at the Fei river in 383, and its age produced the calligrapher Wang Xizhi and the poet Tao Yuanming.","next":["liu-song"]},{"id":"liu-song","name":"Liu Song dynasty","short":"Liu Song","start":420,"end":479,"family":"sinitic","group":"south-china","kind":"state","tier":3,"capital":"Jiankang","desc":"The first of the Southern Dynasties, founded by the general Liu Yu. Its reign of Emperor Wen was a period of order in the south before palace killings weakened the dynasty.","next":["southern-qi"]},{"id":"southern-qi","name":"Southern Qi","start":479,"end":502,"family":"sinitic","group":"south-china","kind":"state","tier":3,"capital":"Jiankang","desc":"A short southern dynasty under the Xiao family, overthrown by a relative who founded the Liang.","next":["liang"]},{"id":"liang","name":"Liang dynasty","short":"Liang","start":502,"end":557,"family":"sinitic","group":"south-china","kind":"state","tier":3,"capital":"Jiankang","desc":"Emperor Wu of Liang reigned for 47 years and became a devout Buddhist patron. The rebellion of Hou Jing in 548 wrecked Jiankang and the dynasty.","next":["chen"]},{"id":"chen","name":"Chen dynasty","short":"Chen","start":557,"end":589,"family":"sinitic","group":"south-china","kind":"state","tier":3,"capital":"Jiankang","desc":"The last of the Southern Dynasties. The Sui crossed the Yangtze in 589 and captured its last emperor, reuniting China after nearly three centuries of division.","next":["sui"]},{"id":"nanzhao","name":"Nanzhao","start":738,"end":902,"family":"tibeto-burman","group":"south-china","kind":"state","tier":2,"capital":"Taihe, later Yangjumie (Dali)","desc":"A kingdom of Yunnan that united six principalities around Erhai lake, defeated Tang armies in the 750s and raided Sichuan and Pyu Burma. A minister's coup ended the royal line in 902.","next":["dali"]},{"id":"dali","name":"Dali Kingdom","short":"Dali","start":937,"end":1253,"family":"tibeto-burman","group":"south-china","kind":"state","tier":3,"capital":"Dali","desc":"The Buddhist kingdom of the Duan family in Yunnan, which traded horses with the Song. Kublai Khan conquered it in 1253 to outflank the Southern Song.","next":["yuan"]},{"id":"wu-yang","name":"Wu (Ten Kingdoms)","short":"Yang Wu","start":902,"end":937,"family":"sinitic","group":"south-china","kind":"state","tier":3,"capital":"Yangzhou","desc":"A kingdom between the Huai and the Yangtze founded by the warlord Yang Xingmi as the Tang collapsed. Its regent Xu Zhigao took the throne and founded the Southern Tang.","next":["southern-tang"]},{"id":"southern-tang","name":"Southern Tang","start":937,"end":975,"family":"sinitic","group":"south-china","kind":"state","tier":3,"capital":"Jinling (Nanjing)","desc":"The largest of the Ten Kingdoms, a center of painting and poetry whose last ruler Li Yu is one of China's great lyric poets. The Song conquered it in 975.","next":["northern-song"]},{"id":"wuyue","name":"Wuyue","start":907,"end":978,"family":"sinitic","group":"south-china","kind":"state","tier":3,"capital":"Hangzhou","desc":"A prosperous coastal kingdom of Zhejiang under the Qian family, which built sea walls at Hangzhou and printed Buddhist charms. Its last king surrendered peacefully to the Song in 978.","next":["northern-song"]},{"id":"former-shu","name":"Former Shu","start":907,"end":925,"family":"sinitic","group":"south-china","kind":"state","tier":3,"capital":"Chengdu","desc":"A kingdom of Sichuan founded by the general Wang Jian, whose court attracted refugee scholars from the north. The Later Tang conquered it in 925."},{"id":"later-shu","name":"Later Shu","start":934,"end":965,"family":"sinitic","group":"south-china","kind":"state","tier":3,"capital":"Chengdu","desc":"The second independent kingdom of Sichuan in this era, under the Meng family, which printed the Confucian classics. The Song annexed it in 965.","next":["northern-song"]},{"id":"southern-han","name":"Southern Han","start":917,"end":971,"family":"sinitic","group":"south-china","kind":"state","tier":3,"capital":"Xingwang (Guangzhou)","desc":"A kingdom of Guangdong grown wealthy on the sea trade at Guangzhou. It lost northern Vietnam at the Battle of Bach Dang in 938 and fell to the Song in 971.","next":["northern-song"]},{"id":"min","name":"Min","start":909,"end":945,"family":"sinitic","group":"south-china","kind":"state","tier":3,"capital":"Changle (Fuzhou)","desc":"A kingdom of Fujian founded by the Wang brothers, which expanded the ports of Fuzhou and Quanzhou before family feuds led to conquest by its neighbors in 945."},{"id":"southern-song","name":"Southern Song","start":1127,"end":1279,"family":"sinitic","group":"south-china","kind":"state","tier":2,"capital":"Lin'an (Hangzhou)","desc":"The Song court re-established at Hangzhou after the Jurchens took the north. It had the world's largest cities, a navy, paper money and Neo-Confucian scholarship, and the Mongols ended it at the sea battle of Yamen in 1279.","next":["yuan"]},{"id":"southern-ming","name":"Southern Ming","start":1644,"end":1662,"family":"sinitic","group":"south-china","kind":"state","tier":3,"capital":"Nanjing, then Fuzhou, Zhaoqing and others","desc":"Ming princes who kept up resistance in the south after Beijing fell. The last of them, the Yongli emperor, was hunted into Burma and executed in Kunming in 1662."},{"id":"macau","name":"Portuguese Macau","short":"Macau","start":1557,"end":1999,"family":"romance","group":"south-china","kind":"colony","tier":3,"capital":"Macau","desc":"A Portuguese trading post leased from the Ming in 1557, the base for trade with Japan and for Jesuit missions into China. Portugal returned it to China in December 1999."},{"id":"dutch-formosa","name":"Dutch Formosa","start":1624,"end":1662,"family":"germanic","group":"south-china","kind":"colony","tier":3,"capital":"Fort Zeelandia (Tainan)","desc":"The Dutch East India Company's colony in southwest Taiwan, which brought in Chinese settlers to grow sugar and rice. Koxinga's fleet forced it to surrender in 1662.","next":["tungning"]},{"id":"tungning","name":"Kingdom of Tungning","short":"Tungning","start":1661,"end":1683,"family":"sinitic","group":"south-china","kind":"state","tier":3,"capital":"Tainan","desc":"The Ming loyalist state of Koxinga and his heirs on Taiwan, the first Han Chinese government on the island. The Qing admiral Shi Lang conquered it in 1683.","next":["qing"]},{"id":"taiping","name":"Taiping Heavenly Kingdom","short":"Taiping","start":1851,"end":1864,"family":"sinitic","group":"south-china","kind":"state","tier":2,"capital":"Tianjing (Nanjing)","desc":"A rebel state led by Hong Xiuquan, who believed he was the younger brother of Jesus. It ruled much of the Yangtze valley from Nanjing, and the war to suppress it killed perhaps 20 million people."},{"id":"hong-kong","name":"British Hong Kong","short":"Hong Kong","start":1841,"end":1997,"family":"germanic","group":"south-china","kind":"colony","tier":3,"capital":"Victoria","desc":"Seized during the First Opium War and enlarged in 1860 and 1898. It grew into a free port and manufacturing and finance center, and Britain handed it back to China in July 1997."},{"id":"japanese-taiwan","name":"Japanese Taiwan","short":"Japanese Taiwan","start":1895,"end":1945,"family":"japonic","group":"south-china","kind":"colony","tier":3,"capital":"Taihoku (Taipei)","desc":"Ceded by the Qing after the First Sino-Japanese War. Japan built railways, schools and sugar mills and crushed resistance such as the Wushe uprising of 1930.","next":["roc-taiwan"]},{"id":"roc-mainland","name":"Republic of China (mainland)","short":"Rep. of China","start":1912,"end":1949,"family":"sinitic","group":"south-china","kind":"state","tier":2,"capital":"Nanjing, Beijing, wartime Chongqing","desc":"Proclaimed with Sun Yat-sen as provisional president after the 1911 revolution. Chiang Kai-shek's Nationalists reunified much of the country from Nanjing in 1928, fought Japan from 1937 and lost the civil war to the Communists.","next":["roc-taiwan","prc"]},{"id":"roc-taiwan","name":"Republic of China on Taiwan","short":"Taiwan","start":1949,"end":2025,"family":"sinitic","group":"south-china","kind":"state","tier":2,"capital":"Taipei","desc":"The Nationalist government retreated to Taiwan in 1949 and ruled under martial law until 1987. It became a democracy in the 1990s and a leading maker of semiconductors."},{"id":"yangshao","name":"Yangshao culture","short":"Yangshao","start":-3500,"end":-3000,"approx":true,"family":"unknown","group":"north-china","kind":"culture","tier":2,"desc":"Millet farmers of the middle Yellow River who lived in villages of round and square houses, such as Banpo, and made red pottery painted with fish and faces.","next":["longshan"]},{"id":"dawenkou","name":"Dawenkou culture","short":"Dawenkou","start":-3500,"end":-2600,"approx":true,"family":"unknown","group":"north-china","kind":"culture","tier":3,"desc":"Farmers of Shandong whose graves show growing differences in wealth, with jade, ivory and fine pottery. Some of their pots bear signs that may be forerunners of Chinese writing.","next":["longshan"]},{"id":"longshan","name":"Longshan culture","short":"Longshan","start":-3000,"end":-1900,"approx":true,"family":"unknown","group":"north-china","kind":"culture","tier":2,"desc":"The late Neolithic of the Yellow River, with walled towns such as Taosi and the stone city of Shimao, eggshell-thin black pottery and the first clear signs of kingship.","next":["erlitou"]},{"id":"xia","name":"Xia dynasty (traditional)","short":"Xia","start":-2070,"end":-1600,"approx":true,"family":"unknown","group":"north-china","kind":"culture","tier":2,"desc":"The first dynasty of Chinese tradition, founded by Yu the Great after he tamed the floods. No writing from the period confirms it, and many archaeologists identify it with the Erlitou culture.","next":["shang"]},{"id":"erlitou","name":"Erlitou culture","short":"Erlitou","start":-1900,"end":-1500,"approx":true,"family":"unknown","group":"north-china","kind":"culture","tier":2,"desc":"An early Bronze Age state near Luoyang with a palace compound, a grid of roads and the first bronze ritual vessels cast in piece molds. It is the leading candidate for the Xia capital.","next":["shang"]},{"id":"shang","name":"Shang dynasty","short":"Shang","start":-1600,"end":-1046,"approx":true,"family":"sinitic","group":"north-china","kind":"state","tier":1,"capital":"Zhengzhou, later Yin (Anyang)","desc":"The first Chinese dynasty confirmed by its own writing, on oracle bones used to ask the ancestors questions. Its kings cast great bronze vessels, made human sacrifices and fought with chariots, until the Zhou overthrew them.","next":["western-zhou"]},{"id":"western-zhou","name":"Western Zhou","start":-1046,"end":-771,"family":"sinitic","group":"north-china","kind":"state","tier":2,"capital":"Haojing (near Xi'an)","desc":"The Zhou overthrew the Shang at Muye and justified it with the Mandate of Heaven. They ruled through relatives given fiefs, until nomads and rebels sacked the capital in 771 BCE.","next":["eastern-zhou"]},{"id":"eastern-zhou","name":"Eastern Zhou","start":-770,"end":-256,"family":"sinitic","group":"north-china","kind":"state","tier":2,"capital":"Luoyi (Luoyang)","desc":"The Zhou kings at Luoyang, reduced to ritual figureheads as rival states fought through the Spring and Autumn and Warring States periods. This was the age of Confucius, Laozi and the Hundred Schools; Qin ended the line in 256 BCE."},{"id":"jin-state","name":"Jin (Zhou state)","short":"Jin","start":-1033,"end":-376,"approx":true,"family":"sinitic","group":"north-china","kind":"state","tier":3,"capital":"Jiang, later Xintian","desc":"The leading power of the Spring and Autumn period in Shanxi, whose ruler Duke Wen was hegemon. Its great ministerial families carved it into Han, Zhao and Wei, recognized by the Zhou king in 403 BCE.","next":["han-state","zhao-state","wei-state"]},{"id":"qi-state","name":"Qi","start":-1046,"end":-221,"approx":true,"family":"sinitic","group":"north-china","kind":"state","tier":3,"capital":"Linzi","desc":"A wealthy state of Shandong whose Duke Huan was the first hegemon, advised by Guan Zhong. Its Jixia Academy at Linzi gathered philosophers, and it was the last state to fall to Qin."},{"id":"lu-state","name":"Lu","start":-1042,"end":-249,"approx":true,"family":"sinitic","group":"north-china","kind":"state","tier":3,"capital":"Qufu","desc":"A small state of Shandong founded for the son of the Duke of Zhou, home of Confucius. Its court chronicle, the Spring and Autumn Annals, named the era; Chu annexed it in 249 BCE."},{"id":"yan-state","name":"Yan","start":-1046,"end":-222,"approx":true,"family":"sinitic","group":"north-china","kind":"state","tier":3,"capital":"Ji (Beijing)","desc":"The northernmost Zhou state, based near Beijing, which built long walls against the Donghu. Its crown prince Dan sent the assassin Jing Ke against the King of Qin, and Qin destroyed Yan in 222 BCE."},{"id":"qin-state","name":"Qin (Zhou state)","short":"Qin state","start":-770,"end":-221,"approx":true,"family":"sinitic","group":"north-china","kind":"state","tier":2,"capital":"Yong, later Xianyang","desc":"A frontier state of the Wei valley. The Legalist reforms of Shang Yang from 356 BCE turned it into a war machine, and King Zheng conquered the other six states between 230 and 221 BCE.","next":["qin-dynasty"]},{"id":"han-state","name":"Han (Zhou state)","short":"Han state","start":-403,"end":-230,"family":"sinitic","group":"north-china","kind":"state","tier":3,"capital":"Xinzheng","desc":"The smallest of the Warring States formed from Jin, home of the Legalist philosopher Han Feizi. It was the first of the six to fall to Qin."},{"id":"zhao-state","name":"Zhao","start":-403,"end":-222,"family":"sinitic","group":"north-china","kind":"state","tier":3,"capital":"Handan","desc":"A northern successor of Jin whose King Wuling adopted nomad dress and mounted archers. Qin killed its surrendered army after the Battle of Changping in 260 BCE."},{"id":"wei-state","name":"Wei","start":-403,"end":-225,"family":"sinitic","group":"north-china","kind":"state","tier":3,"capital":"Anyi, later Daliang (Kaifeng)","desc":"The strongest power of the early Warring States, reformed by the minister Li Kui. Qin flooded its capital Daliang by diverting the Yellow River in 225 BCE."},{"id":"qin-dynasty","name":"Qin dynasty","short":"Qin","start":-221,"end":-206,"family":"sinitic","group":"north-china","kind":"empire","tier":1,"capital":"Xianyang","desc":"Qin Shi Huang, the First Emperor, standardized script, coins, weights and axle widths, linked the northern walls and was buried with the Terracotta Army. Revolts broke out after his death and the dynasty fell within four years.","next":["western-han"]},{"id":"western-han","name":"Western Han","start":-202,"end":9,"family":"sinitic","group":"north-china","kind":"empire","tier":1,"capital":"Chang'an","desc":"Founded by the commoner Liu Bang. Emperor Wu made Confucianism the state ideology, fought the Xiongnu and pushed into Central Asia, Korea and Vietnam; the regent Wang Mang usurped the throne in 9 CE.","next":["xin"]},{"id":"xin","name":"Xin dynasty","short":"Xin","start":9,"end":23,"family":"sinitic","group":"north-china","kind":"state","tier":3,"capital":"Chang'an","desc":"Wang Mang's dynasty, which tried to nationalize land and abolish slavery. Yellow River floods and the Red Eyebrows rebellion brought it down, and Wang Mang was killed in 23.","next":["eastern-han"]},{"id":"eastern-han","name":"Eastern Han","start":25,"end":220,"family":"sinitic","group":"north-china","kind":"empire","tier":1,"capital":"Luoyang","desc":"Liu Xiu restored the Han at Luoyang. Paper, the seismometer of Zhang Heng and the arrival of Buddhism date from this era; court eunuchs, the Yellow Turban revolt and warlords tore it apart.","next":["cao-wei","shu-han","eastern-wu"]},{"id":"cao-wei","name":"Cao Wei","start":220,"end":266,"family":"sinitic","group":"north-china","kind":"state","tier":2,"capital":"Luoyang","desc":"The strongest of the Three Kingdoms, founded when Cao Cao's son Cao Pi forced the last Han emperor to abdicate. The Sima family took control and replaced it with the Jin.","next":["western-jin"]},{"id":"western-jin","name":"Western Jin","start":266,"end":316,"family":"sinitic","group":"north-china","kind":"state","tier":2,"capital":"Luoyang, later Chang'an","desc":"Sima Yan reunited China in 280, but the War of the Eight Princes exhausted the dynasty. Xiongnu forces sacked Luoyang in 311 and Chang'an in 316.","next":["eastern-jin","han-zhao"]},{"id":"han-zhao","name":"Han Zhao","start":304,"end":329,"family":"unknown","group":"north-china","kind":"state","tier":3,"capital":"Pingyang, later Chang'an","desc":"The first of the Sixteen Kingdoms, founded by the Xiongnu noble Liu Yuan. Its armies captured two Jin emperors, and its former general Shi Le destroyed it.","next":["later-zhao"]},{"id":"later-zhao","name":"Later Zhao","start":319,"end":351,"family":"unknown","group":"north-china","kind":"state","tier":3,"capital":"Xiangguo, later Ye","desc":"A kingdom founded by Shi Le of the Jie people, who rose from slavery to rule most of north China. It collapsed amid massacres after the general Ran Min seized power."},{"id":"former-qin","name":"Former Qin","start":351,"end":394,"family":"unknown","group":"north-china","kind":"state","tier":3,"capital":"Chang'an","desc":"A state of the Di people whose ruler Fu Jian united north China. His huge army was routed by the Eastern Jin at the Fei river in 383, and the empire fell apart."},{"id":"northern-wei","name":"Northern Wei","start":386,"end":535,"family":"mongolic","group":"north-china","kind":"empire","tier":2,"capital":"Pingcheng, later Luoyang","desc":"The Tuoba Xianbei dynasty that reunited north China in 439. It carved the Buddhist caves of Yungang and Longmen, and Emperor Xiaowen moved the court to Luoyang and adopted Chinese dress and names.","next":["eastern-wei","western-wei"]},{"id":"eastern-wei","name":"Eastern Wei","start":534,"end":550,"family":"mongolic","group":"north-china","kind":"state","tier":3,"capital":"Ye","desc":"The eastern half of the divided Northern Wei, controlled by the general Gao Huan, whose son replaced it with the Northern Qi.","next":["northern-qi"]},{"id":"western-wei","name":"Western Wei","start":535,"end":557,"family":"mongolic","group":"north-china","kind":"state","tier":3,"capital":"Chang'an","desc":"The western half of the Northern Wei, run by the Xianbei general Yuwen Tai, who created the militia system later used by the Sui and Tang.","next":["northern-zhou"]},{"id":"northern-qi","name":"Northern Qi","start":550,"end":577,"family":"sinitic","group":"north-china","kind":"state","tier":3,"capital":"Ye","desc":"A dynasty of the Gao family in the northeast, known for unstable and cruel rulers. The Northern Zhou conquered it in 577.","next":["northern-zhou"]},{"id":"northern-zhou","name":"Northern Zhou","start":557,"end":581,"family":"mongolic","group":"north-china","kind":"state","tier":3,"capital":"Chang'an","desc":"The Yuwen family's dynasty, which reunited the north by conquering the Northern Qi. Its regent Yang Jian took the throne in 581 as founder of the Sui.","next":["sui"]},{"id":"sui","name":"Sui dynasty","short":"Sui","start":581,"end":618,"family":"sinitic","group":"north-china","kind":"empire","tier":2,"capital":"Daxing (Chang'an), Luoyang","desc":"Reunited China in 589 after three centuries of division and built the Grand Canal linking the Yellow River and the Yangtze. Failed invasions of Goguryeo set off the revolts that ended it.","next":["tang"]},{"id":"tang","name":"Tang dynasty","short":"Tang","start":618,"end":907,"family":"sinitic","group":"north-china","kind":"empire","tier":1,"capital":"Chang'an, Luoyang","desc":"A cosmopolitan empire whose capital Chang'an was the largest city on earth, the age of the poets Li Bai and Du Fu and of woodblock printing. The An Lushan rebellion of 755 began a long decline, and warlords ended it in 907.","next":["later-liang"]},{"id":"wu-zhou","name":"Wu Zhou","start":690,"end":705,"family":"sinitic","group":"north-china","kind":"state","tier":3,"capital":"Luoyang (Shendu)","desc":"The dynasty proclaimed by Wu Zetian, the only woman to rule China as emperor in her own name. She promoted examination graduates and Buddhism, and the Tang was restored when she was forced out in 705."},{"id":"later-liang","name":"Later Liang","start":907,"end":923,"family":"sinitic","group":"north-china","kind":"state","tier":3,"capital":"Kaifeng","desc":"The first of the Five Dynasties, founded by the rebel turned warlord Zhu Wen, who forced the last Tang emperor to abdicate.","next":["later-tang"]},{"id":"later-tang","name":"Later Tang","start":923,"end":937,"family":"turkic","group":"north-china","kind":"state","tier":3,"capital":"Luoyang","desc":"A dynasty of Shatuo Turkic origin that destroyed the Later Liang and conquered the Former Shu, before mutiny and civil war ended it.","next":["later-jin"]},{"id":"later-jin","name":"Later Jin (Five Dynasties)","short":"Later Jin","start":936,"end":947,"family":"turkic","group":"north-china","kind":"state","tier":3,"capital":"Kaifeng","desc":"Founded by the Shatuo general Shi Jingtang with Khitan help, for which he ceded the Sixteen Prefectures around Beijing to the Liao. The Khitans later sacked Kaifeng.","next":["later-han"]},{"id":"later-han","name":"Later Han (Five Dynasties)","short":"Later Han","start":947,"end":951,"family":"turkic","group":"north-china","kind":"state","tier":3,"capital":"Kaifeng","desc":"The shortest of the Five Dynasties, another Shatuo regime, overthrown by its general Guo Wei.","next":["later-zhou"]},{"id":"later-zhou","name":"Later Zhou","start":951,"end":960,"family":"sinitic","group":"north-china","kind":"state","tier":3,"capital":"Kaifeng","desc":"The last of the Five Dynasties, whose Emperor Shizong began reuniting China. His general Zhao Kuangyin took the throne in a coup in 960 and founded the Song.","next":["northern-song"]},{"id":"northern-song","name":"Northern Song","start":960,"end":1127,"family":"sinitic","group":"north-china","kind":"empire","tier":1,"capital":"Kaifeng","desc":"A state run by examination-trained scholar officials, with paper money, movable type, gunpowder weapons and a commercial boom. It paid tribute to the Liao and Xia, and the Jurchens captured Kaifeng and two emperors in 1127.","next":["southern-song"]},{"id":"jin-jurchen","name":"Jin dynasty (Jurchen)","short":"Jin","start":1115,"end":1234,"family":"tungusic","group":"north-china","kind":"empire","tier":2,"capital":"Huining, later Zhongdu (Beijing) and Kaifeng","desc":"Founded by the Jurchen chief Aguda in Manchuria. It destroyed the Liao, took north China from the Song in 1127 and made Beijing a capital, until the Mongols conquered it in 1234.","next":["mongol-north-china"]},{"id":"mongol-north-china","name":"Mongol Empire (north China)","short":"Mongols","start":1215,"end":1271,"family":"mongolic","group":"north-china","kind":"empire","tier":2,"capital":"Karakorum","desc":"Genghis Khan's armies took the Jin capital Zhongdu in 1215, and Ogedei finished the Jin in 1234. Mongol khans ruled north China from Karakorum until Kublai adopted the dynastic name Yuan.","next":["yuan"]},{"id":"yuan","name":"Yuan dynasty","short":"Yuan","start":1271,"end":1368,"family":"mongolic","group":"north-china","kind":"empire","tier":1,"capital":"Khanbaliq (Beijing), Shangdu","desc":"Kublai Khan's dynasty, the first foreign rule over all of China. It built Khanbaliq, welcomed foreign merchants such as Marco Polo and failed twice to invade Japan; famine, plague and the Red Turban revolt drove it north in 1368.","next":["ming"]},{"id":"ming","name":"Ming dynasty","short":"Ming","start":1368,"end":1644,"family":"sinitic","group":"north-china","kind":"empire","tier":1,"capital":"Nanjing, Beijing from 1421","desc":"Founded by the peasant rebel Zhu Yuanzhang. The Yongle emperor built the Forbidden City and sent Zheng He's fleets to Africa, the brick Great Wall was rebuilt, and the rebel Li Zicheng took Beijing in 1644.","next":["qing","southern-ming"]},{"id":"qing","name":"Qing dynasty","short":"Qing","start":1636,"end":1912,"family":"tungusic","group":"north-china","kind":"empire","tier":1,"capital":"Mukden, Beijing from 1644","desc":"The Manchu dynasty that took Beijing in 1644 and doubled China's territory under the Kangxi, Yongzheng and Qianlong emperors. Opium wars, the Taiping rebellion and foreign concessions weakened it, and the 1911 revolution ended it.","next":["roc-mainland","beiyang"]},{"id":"beiyang","name":"Beiyang government","short":"Beiyang","start":1912,"end":1928,"family":"sinitic","group":"north-china","kind":"state","tier":3,"capital":"Beijing","desc":"The internationally recognized government of the Republic in Beijing, dominated by Yuan Shikai and then by rival warlord cliques. The Nationalist Northern Expedition ended it in 1928.","next":["roc-mainland"]},{"id":"prc","name":"People's Republic of China","short":"PRC","start":1949,"end":2025,"family":"sinitic","group":"north-china","kind":"state","tier":1,"capital":"Beijing","desc":"Proclaimed by Mao Zedong in October 1949. The Great Leap Forward famine and the Cultural Revolution were followed by Deng Xiaoping's market reforms from 1978, which made China the world's second-largest economy."},{"id":"amur-foragers","name":"Amur and Ussuri foragers","short":"Amur foragers","start":-3500,"end":-1100,"approx":true,"family":"unknown","group":"manchuria","kind":"culture","tier":3,"desc":"Fishers and hunters of the Amur, Ussuri and Songhua rivers who made some of the world's oldest pottery and lived in pit houses along the salmon runs.","next":["sushen-yilou"]},{"id":"hongshan","name":"Hongshan culture","short":"Hongshan","start":-3500,"end":-2900,"approx":true,"family":"unknown","group":"manchuria","kind":"culture","tier":2,"desc":"Farmers of western Liaoning and Inner Mongolia known for jade pig-dragons and the ritual complex at Niuheliang, with stone cairns, altars and a temple holding clay goddess statues."},{"id":"xiaoheyan","name":"Xiaoheyan culture","short":"Xiaoheyan","start":-3000,"end":-2200,"approx":true,"family":"unknown","group":"manchuria","kind":"culture","tier":3,"desc":"Successors of the Hongshan farmers in the Liao river basin, a little-studied culture of small villages known for painted pottery and polished stone tools."},{"id":"lower-xiajiadian","name":"Lower Xiajiadian culture","short":"Lower Xiajiadian","start":-2200,"end":-1600,"approx":true,"family":"unknown","group":"manchuria","kind":"culture","tier":3,"desc":"Early Bronze Age farmers of the Liao valley who lived in fortified stone villages on hilltops and traded with the Erlitou culture to the south."},{"id":"sushen-yilou","name":"Sushen and Yilou","short":"Sushen","start":-1100,"end":400,"approx":true,"family":"tungusic","group":"manchuria","kind":"culture","tier":3,"desc":"Forest hunters of eastern Manchuria who, Chinese texts say, brought the Zhou kings stone-tipped arrows as tribute. They raised pigs, lived in pit houses and are seen as early ancestors of the Jurchens.","next":["mohe"]},{"id":"upper-xiajiadian","name":"Upper Xiajiadian culture","short":"Upper Xiajiadian","start":-1000,"end":-600,"approx":true,"family":"unknown","group":"manchuria","kind":"culture","tier":3,"desc":"Bronze-using herders and farmers of the western Liao valley whose graves hold bronze daggers, horse gear and helmets, often linked to the Shanrong or Donghu of Chinese texts."},{"id":"buyeo","name":"Buyeo","start":-200,"end":494,"approx":true,"family":"koreanic","group":"manchuria","kind":"state","tier":3,"capital":"near Jilin","desc":"A kingdom of the Songhua plain in central Manchuria, allied with the Han against nomads. Goguryeo and Baekje traced their royal lines to Buyeo, and Goguryeo absorbed its remnant in 494.","next":["goguryeo"]},{"id":"former-yan","name":"Former Yan","start":337,"end":370,"family":"mongolic","group":"manchuria","kind":"state","tier":3,"capital":"Longcheng, later Ye","desc":"A kingdom of the Murong Xianbei in Liaoning, which sacked the Goguryeo capital in 342 and expanded into north China before Former Qin conquered it in 370."},{"id":"mohe","name":"Mohe","start":400,"end":926,"approx":true,"family":"tungusic","group":"manchuria","kind":"culture","tier":3,"desc":"Tungusic tribes of Manchuria, such as the Sumo and Heishui, who fought for Goguryeo and made up most of Balhae's population. The Heishui Mohe of the Amur were ancestors of the Jurchens.","next":["jurchen-tribes"]},{"id":"balhae","name":"Balhae","start":698,"end":926,"family":"koreanic","group":"manchuria","kind":"state","tier":2,"capital":"Sanggyeong (Shangjing)","desc":"Founded by Dae Jo-yeong, a former Goguryeo general, over Goguryeo refugees and Mohe tribes. It ruled Manchuria and northern Korea with a Tang-style capital and called itself heir to Goguryeo; the Khitans destroyed it in 926.","next":["liao"]},{"id":"liao","name":"Liao dynasty","short":"Liao","start":916,"end":1125,"family":"mongolic","group":"manchuria","kind":"empire","tier":2,"capital":"Shangjing (Linhuang)","desc":"The Khitan empire founded by Abaoji, which ruled Manchuria, Mongolia and sixteen prefectures of north China with separate systems for nomads and Chinese. The Song paid it tribute, and the Jurchens destroyed it in 1125.","next":["jin-jurchen"]},{"id":"jurchen-tribes","name":"Jurchen tribes","short":"Jurchens","start":926,"end":1616,"approx":true,"family":"tungusic","group":"manchuria","kind":"culture","tier":3,"desc":"Tungusic farmers, hunters and fur traders of the Manchurian forests. One branch built the Jin dynasty; the rest lived under Liao, Yuan and Ming overlordship until Nurhaci united them.","next":["jin-jurchen","later-jin-manchu"]},{"id":"eastern-xia","name":"Eastern Xia","start":1215,"end":1233,"family":"tungusic","group":"manchuria","kind":"state","tier":3,"desc":"A short-lived Jurchen state in eastern Manchuria founded by the Jin general Puxian Wannu as the Mongols overran the Jin. The Mongols captured him in 1233."},{"id":"later-jin-manchu","name":"Later Jin","start":1616,"end":1636,"family":"tungusic","group":"manchuria","kind":"state","tier":2,"capital":"Hetu Ala, later Mukden (Shenyang)","desc":"Nurhaci united the Jurchens, organized them into the Eight Banners and declared war on the Ming in 1618. His son Hong Taiji renamed his people Manchu and the state Qing in 1636.","next":["qing"]},{"id":"qing-manchuria","name":"Manchuria under the Qing","short":"Qing Manchuria","start":1644,"end":1907,"family":"tungusic","group":"manchuria","kind":"empire","tier":3,"capital":"Shengjing (Mukden), Jilin, Qiqihar","desc":"The Qing homeland, ruled by military governors and closed to Chinese farmers behind the Willow Palisade. Russia took the lands north of the Amur and east of the Ussuri in 1858 to 1860.","next":["fengtian"]},{"id":"han-settlers","name":"Han settlers of the Northeast","short":"Han settlers","start":1860,"end":2025,"approx":true,"family":"sinitic","group":"manchuria","kind":"culture","tier":3,"desc":"Millions of farmers from Shandong and Hebei who moved north once the Qing opened Manchuria, a migration known as Crashing into Guandong. They made the Northeast overwhelmingly Han Chinese and later a center of heavy industry."},{"id":"russian-manchuria","name":"Russian Kwantung and the Chinese Eastern Railway","short":"Russian Kwantung","start":1898,"end":1905,"family":"slavic","group":"manchuria","kind":"colony","tier":3,"capital":"Port Arthur, Harbin","desc":"Russia leased Port Arthur and built the Chinese Eastern Railway through Manchuria, founding Harbin. Defeat in the Russo-Japanese War handed the south to Japan.","next":["kwantung"]},{"id":"kwantung","name":"Kwantung Leased Territory","short":"Kwantung","start":1905,"end":1945,"family":"japonic","group":"manchuria","kind":"colony","tier":3,"capital":"Port Arthur, Dairen (Dalian)","desc":"Japan's leased territory at the tip of the Liaodong peninsula and base of the Kwantung Army, whose officers staged the Mukden incident in 1931 to seize all of Manchuria.","next":["manchukuo"]},{"id":"fengtian","name":"Fengtian clique","short":"Fengtian","start":1916,"end":1931,"family":"sinitic","group":"manchuria","kind":"state","tier":3,"capital":"Mukden (Shenyang)","desc":"The warlord government of Zhang Zuolin, who ruled Manchuria and for a time Beijing. The Kwantung Army blew up his train in 1928, and his son Zhang Xueliang lost Manchuria to Japan in 1931.","next":["manchukuo"]},{"id":"manchukuo","name":"Manchukuo","start":1932,"end":1945,"family":"japonic","group":"manchuria","kind":"colony","tier":3,"capital":"Hsinking (Changchun)","desc":"A Japanese puppet state with the last Qing emperor Puyi as its figurehead. Japan built mines and factories there, and Unit 731 ran germ warfare experiments near Harbin; the Soviet invasion of August 1945 ended it."},{"id":"jeulmun","name":"Jeulmun pottery period","short":"Jeulmun","start":-3500,"end":-1500,"approx":true,"family":"unknown","group":"korea","kind":"culture","tier":3,"desc":"Fishers, shellfish gatherers and early millet farmers of Korea who made comb-patterned pottery and left large shell middens along the coasts.","next":["mumun"]},{"id":"mumun","name":"Mumun pottery period","short":"Mumun","start":-1500,"end":-300,"approx":true,"family":"unknown","group":"korea","kind":"culture","tier":3,"desc":"Rice farmers who made plain undecorated pottery, built dolmens by the tens of thousands and lived in growing villages with ditches and palisades. Korea has more dolmens than any other country."},{"id":"gojoseon","name":"Gojoseon","start":-700,"end":-108,"approx":true,"family":"koreanic","group":"korea","kind":"state","tier":2,"capital":"Wanggeom-seong (Pyongyang)","desc":"The first Korean kingdom, traditionally founded by Dangun in 2333 BCE and attested in Chinese texts by the 7th century BCE. Wiman seized its throne around 194 BCE, and Emperor Wu of Han conquered it in 108 BCE.","next":["lelang"]},{"id":"lelang","name":"Lelang Commandery","short":"Lelang","start":-108,"end":313,"family":"sinitic","group":"korea","kind":"colony","tier":3,"capital":"near Pyongyang","desc":"The longest-lasting of the four Han commanderies set up after the fall of Gojoseon, a Chinese outpost whose tombs hold lacquerware and seals. Goguryeo took it in 313."},{"id":"samhan","name":"Samhan confederacies","short":"Samhan","start":-100,"end":350,"approx":true,"family":"koreanic","group":"korea","kind":"culture","tier":3,"desc":"The Mahan, Jinhan and Byeonhan leagues of walled towns in southern Korea, known for iron production that was traded to Lelang and Japan. Baekje grew out of Mahan, Silla out of Jinhan and Gaya out of Byeonhan."},{"id":"goguryeo","name":"Goguryeo","start":-37,"end":668,"family":"koreanic","group":"korea","kind":"state","tier":2,"capital":"Jolbon, Gungnae, Pyongyang from 427","desc":"A northern kingdom of Manchuria and Korea whose King Gwanggaeto conquered widely around 400. It defeated huge Sui and Tang invasions before a Tang and Silla alliance destroyed it in 668.","next":["balhae","unified-silla"]},{"id":"baekje","name":"Baekje","start":-18,"end":660,"family":"koreanic","group":"korea","kind":"state","tier":2,"capital":"Wiryeseong, Ungjin, Sabi","desc":"A kingdom of southwestern Korea that passed Buddhism, Chinese writing and craft skills to Japan. A Tang and Silla army took its capital in 660, and a Japanese relief fleet lost at Baekgang in 663.","next":["unified-silla"]},{"id":"gaya","name":"Gaya confederacy","short":"Gaya","start":42,"end":562,"approx":true,"family":"koreanic","group":"korea","kind":"state","tier":3,"capital":"Gimhae, later Goryeong","desc":"A league of small kingdoms on the Nakdong river that exported iron ingots across the Korea Strait. Silla absorbed its states in 532 and 562."},{"id":"silla","name":"Silla","start":-57,"end":668,"family":"koreanic","group":"korea","kind":"state","tier":2,"capital":"Gyeongju","desc":"A kingdom of southeastern Korea ruled through the bone-rank aristocracy, whose gold crowns came from its royal tombs. Allied with the Tang, it conquered Baekje and Goguryeo and then drove the Tang out.","next":["unified-silla"]},{"id":"unified-silla","name":"Unified Silla","start":668,"end":935,"family":"koreanic","group":"korea","kind":"state","tier":2,"capital":"Gyeongju","desc":"Silla ruled most of the peninsula after 668 and built the Bulguksa temple and Seokguram grotto. Rebellions split it into the Later Three Kingdoms, and its last king surrendered to Goryeo in 935.","next":["goryeo"]},{"id":"later-three-kingdoms","name":"Later Baekje and Taebong","short":"Later 3 Kingdoms","start":892,"end":936,"family":"koreanic","group":"korea","kind":"state","tier":3,"capital":"Wansan, Cheorwon","desc":"Rebel kingdoms of the Later Three Kingdoms period: Gyeon Hwon's Later Baekje in the southwest and Gung Ye's Taebong in the north. Taebong's general Wang Geon founded Goryeo and defeated Later Baekje in 936.","next":["goryeo"]},{"id":"goryeo","name":"Goryeo","start":918,"end":1392,"family":"koreanic","group":"korea","kind":"state","tier":2,"capital":"Gaegyeong (Kaesong)","desc":"The dynasty that gave Korea its western name, famous for celadon ware, the Tripitaka Koreana woodblocks and the first metal movable type. It became a Mongol vassal after 1270, and the general Yi Seong-gye overthrew it.","next":["joseon"]},{"id":"joseon","name":"Joseon","start":1392,"end":1897,"family":"koreanic","group":"korea","kind":"state","tier":2,"capital":"Hanseong (Seoul)","desc":"A Neo-Confucian kingdom of five centuries. King Sejong created the Hangul alphabet, Admiral Yi Sun-sin's ships beat the Japanese invasions of the 1590s, and the kingdom kept a policy of seclusion into the 19th century.","next":["korean-empire"]},{"id":"korean-empire","name":"Korean Empire","start":1897,"end":1910,"family":"koreanic","group":"korea","kind":"state","tier":3,"capital":"Hanseong (Seoul)","desc":"King Gojong proclaimed an empire to assert independence from Qing China. Japan made it a protectorate in 1905 and annexed it in 1910.","next":["japanese-korea"]},{"id":"japanese-korea","name":"Japanese Korea","start":1910,"end":1945,"family":"japonic","group":"korea","kind":"colony","tier":3,"capital":"Keijo (Seoul)","desc":"Korea under the Japanese Government-General. The March 1st Movement of 1919 was crushed, Koreans were forced to take Japanese names, and hundreds of thousands were mobilized as laborers, soldiers and sex slaves.","next":["north-korea","south-korea"]},{"id":"north-korea","name":"North Korea","start":1948,"end":2025,"family":"koreanic","group":"korea","kind":"state","tier":2,"capital":"Pyongyang","desc":"The Democratic People's Republic of Korea, ruled by Kim Il Sung, Kim Jong Il and Kim Jong Un. It invaded the south in 1950, suffered a famine in the 1990s and tested its first nuclear weapon in 2006."},{"id":"south-korea","name":"South Korea","start":1948,"end":2025,"family":"koreanic","group":"korea","kind":"state","tier":2,"capital":"Seoul","desc":"The Republic of Korea, which grew from war ruin into an industrial power under military rulers and became a democracy in 1987. President Yoon Suk Yeol's martial law declaration in 2024 led to his impeachment and removal."},{"id":"jomon","name":"Jomon culture","short":"Jomon","start":-3500,"end":-300,"approx":true,"family":"unknown","group":"japan","kind":"culture","tier":2,"desc":"Hunter-gatherers of the Japanese islands who made cord-marked pottery for over ten thousand years and lived in large villages such as Sannai-Maruyama. Their flame-rimmed vessels and clay dogu figures date from the middle period.","next":["yayoi","epi-jomon"]},{"id":"yayoi","name":"Yayoi period","short":"Yayoi","start":-300,"end":250,"approx":true,"family":"japonic","group":"japan","kind":"culture","tier":2,"desc":"Migrants from Korea brought wet-rice farming, bronze and iron to Kyushu and spread east, probably bringing the ancestor of Japanese. Radiocarbon dates suggest rice farming began in Kyushu several centuries before 300 BCE.","next":["kofun"]},{"id":"yamatai","name":"Yamatai","start":180,"end":266,"approx":true,"family":"japonic","group":"japan","kind":"state","tier":3,"desc":"The country of Queen Himiko, described in the Chinese Records of Wei as head of some thirty Wa states. She sent envoys to the Wei court in 239; its location, in Kyushu or the Nara basin, is still debated."},{"id":"kofun","name":"Kofun period","short":"Kofun","start":250,"end":538,"approx":true,"family":"japonic","group":"japan","kind":"state","tier":2,"desc":"The age of the Yamato kings, buried in giant keyhole-shaped mounds such as the Daisen Kofun near Osaka, one of the largest tombs on earth. Yamato built alliances with Baekje and took in Korean craftsmen.","next":["asuka"]},{"id":"asuka","name":"Asuka period","short":"Asuka","start":538,"end":710,"family":"japonic","group":"japan","kind":"state","tier":2,"capital":"Asuka, Fujiwara-kyo","desc":"Buddhism arrived from Baekje, Prince Shotoku built the Horyu-ji temple, and the Taika reforms of 645 began a Chinese-style centralized state under an emperor.","next":["nara"]},{"id":"nara","name":"Nara period","short":"Nara","start":710,"end":794,"family":"japonic","group":"japan","kind":"state","tier":2,"capital":"Heijo-kyo (Nara)","desc":"A grid-planned capital modeled on Chang'an. The court compiled the Kojiki and Nihon Shoki histories and the Man'yoshu poetry anthology and cast the Great Buddha of Todai-ji.","next":["heian"]},{"id":"heian","name":"Heian period","short":"Heian","start":794,"end":1185,"family":"japonic","group":"japan","kind":"state","tier":2,"capital":"Heian-kyo (Kyoto)","desc":"The court at Kyoto, dominated by the Fujiwara regents, produced kana script and Murasaki Shikibu's Tale of Genji. Provincial warrior clans grew powerful, and the Genpei War between the Taira and Minamoto ended the period.","next":["kamakura"]},{"id":"kamakura","name":"Kamakura shogunate","short":"Kamakura","start":1185,"end":1333,"family":"japonic","group":"japan","kind":"state","tier":2,"capital":"Kamakura","desc":"Minamoto no Yoritomo set up the first warrior government, later run by the Hojo regents. It beat back two Mongol invasions in 1274 and 1281, and Emperor Go-Daigo's supporters destroyed it in 1333.","next":["kenmu"]},{"id":"kenmu","name":"Kenmu Restoration","short":"Kenmu","start":1333,"end":1336,"family":"japonic","group":"japan","kind":"state","tier":3,"capital":"Kyoto","desc":"Emperor Go-Daigo's attempt to restore direct imperial rule, which collapsed when Ashikaga Takauji turned against him and split the court into northern and southern lines.","next":["muromachi"]},{"id":"muromachi","name":"Muromachi shogunate","short":"Muromachi","start":1336,"end":1573,"family":"japonic","group":"japan","kind":"state","tier":2,"capital":"Kyoto","desc":"The Ashikaga shoguns ruled from the Muromachi district of Kyoto. Under Yoshimitsu and Yoshimasa it produced Noh theater, the Golden and Silver Pavilions and Zen gardens, but after the Onin War of 1467 its authority collapsed.","next":["azuchi-momoyama"]},{"id":"sengoku","name":"Sengoku period","short":"Sengoku","start":1467,"end":1600,"approx":true,"family":"japonic","group":"japan","kind":"state","tier":3,"desc":"The age of warring states, when daimyo such as the Takeda, Uesugi and Mori fought for land with armies of peasant footsoldiers and, after 1543, Portuguese-style muskets."},{"id":"azuchi-momoyama","name":"Azuchi-Momoyama period","short":"Azuchi-Momoyama","start":1568,"end":1600,"family":"japonic","group":"japan","kind":"state","tier":3,"capital":"Azuchi, Osaka, Fushimi","desc":"Oda Nobunaga and then Toyotomi Hideyoshi unified Japan, built great castles and disarmed the peasants. Hideyoshi's invasions of Korea failed, and Tokugawa Ieyasu won the succession at Sekigahara in 1600.","next":["edo"]},{"id":"edo","name":"Edo period (Tokugawa shogunate)","short":"Edo","start":1603,"end":1868,"family":"japonic","group":"japan","kind":"state","tier":2,"capital":"Edo (Tokyo)","desc":"Two and a half centuries of peace under the Tokugawa shoguns, who restricted foreign trade to the Dutch and Chinese at Nagasaki and banned Christianity. Edo grew to a million people, with kabuki and ukiyo-e prints.","next":["empire-of-japan"]},{"id":"empire-of-japan","name":"Empire of Japan","short":"Imperial Japan","start":1868,"end":1947,"family":"japonic","group":"japan","kind":"empire","tier":1,"capital":"Tokyo","desc":"The Meiji Restoration built an industrial state with a conscript army that beat China in 1895 and Russia in 1905. Militarists led it into war with China and the United States, ending in defeat and the atomic bombings of 1945.","next":["occupied-japan","postwar-japan"]},{"id":"occupied-japan","name":"Allied occupation of Japan","short":"Occupation","start":1945,"end":1952,"family":"germanic","group":"japan","kind":"colony","tier":3,"capital":"Tokyo","desc":"General Douglas MacArthur's occupation authority disarmed Japan, broke up the zaibatsu, carried out land reform and oversaw a new pacifist constitution. It ended with the San Francisco treaty in 1952."},{"id":"postwar-japan","name":"Japan (postwar)","short":"Japan","start":1947,"end":2025,"family":"japonic","group":"japan","kind":"state","tier":2,"capital":"Tokyo","desc":"A constitutional monarchy under the 1947 constitution, dominated by the Liberal Democratic Party. Its economic miracle made it the world's second-largest economy until 2010; Sanae Takaichi became its first woman prime minister in 2025."},{"id":"epi-jomon","name":"Epi-Jomon culture","short":"Epi-Jomon","start":-300,"end":700,"approx":true,"family":"isolate","group":"japan","kind":"culture","tier":3,"desc":"Hunter-gatherers of Hokkaido and northern Tohoku who kept a Jomon way of life while rice farming spread to the south. They were probably ancestors of the Ainu.","next":["satsumon"]},{"id":"emishi","name":"Emishi","start":600,"end":1100,"approx":true,"family":"unknown","group":"japan","kind":"culture","tier":3,"desc":"Peoples of northern Honshu who resisted the Yamato state. The general Sakanoue no Tamuramaro, holding the title sei-i taishogun, defeated their leader Aterui in 802."},{"id":"satsumon","name":"Satsumon culture","short":"Satsumon","start":700,"end":1200,"approx":true,"family":"isolate","group":"japan","kind":"culture","tier":3,"desc":"Farmers, fishers and hunters of Hokkaido who used iron tools traded from Honshu and pottery scratched with brushed patterns. They developed into the Ainu culture.","next":["ainu"]},{"id":"ainu","name":"Ainu","start":1200,"end":2025,"approx":true,"family":"isolate","group":"japan","kind":"culture","tier":3,"desc":"The indigenous people of Hokkaido, Sakhalin and the Kurils, with bear ceremonies and the yukar oral epics. They fought the Japanese in Shakushain's revolt of 1669, and Japan recognized them as indigenous only in 2019."},{"id":"sanzan","name":"Sanzan kingdoms of Okinawa","short":"Sanzan","start":1314,"end":1429,"approx":true,"family":"japonic","group":"japan","kind":"state","tier":3,"desc":"The three rival kingdoms of Hokuzan, Chuzan and Nanzan on Okinawa, which each sent tribute to Ming China. Sho Hashi of Chuzan united them in 1429.","next":["ryukyu"]},{"id":"ryukyu","name":"Ryukyu Kingdom","short":"Ryukyu","start":1429,"end":1879,"family":"japonic","group":"japan","kind":"state","tier":3,"capital":"Shuri","desc":"A maritime kingdom that grew wealthy relaying trade between China, Japan and Southeast Asia. The Satsuma domain invaded in 1609 and made it a vassal while it still paid tribute to China; Japan annexed it as Okinawa in 1879."}],"events":[{"year":-3100,"title":"Liangzhu builds flood dams","desc":"The Liangzhu people raise a system of earthen dams and levees north of their city, among the oldest large water control works in the world.","tier":2,"group":"south-china","related":["liangzhu"]},{"year":-1250,"title":"Oracle bone writing at Anyang","desc":"Diviners of the Shang king Wu Ding carve questions to the ancestors on turtle shells and ox bones, the oldest surviving Chinese writing.","tier":1,"group":"north-china","related":["shang"]},{"year":-1046,"title":"Battle of Muye","desc":"King Wu of Zhou defeats the last Shang king, who kills himself, and the Zhou claim the Mandate of Heaven.","tier":2,"group":"north-china","related":["shang","western-zhou"]},{"year":-551,"title":"Birth of Confucius","desc":"Kong Qiu is born in the state of Lu. His teachings on ritual, family duty and good government become the foundation of East Asian political thought.","tier":1,"group":"north-china","related":["lu-state","eastern-zhou"]},{"year":-221,"title":"Qin unifies China","desc":"King Zheng of Qin conquers the last of the Warring States and takes the new title Huangdi, emperor.","tier":1,"group":"north-china","related":["qin-state","qin-dynasty","qi-state"]},{"year":-210,"title":"First Emperor buried with the Terracotta Army","desc":"Qin Shi Huang dies on tour and is buried near Xi'an, guarded by about 8,000 life-size clay soldiers rediscovered by farmers in 1974.","tier":2,"group":"north-china","related":["qin-dynasty"]},{"year":105,"title":"Cai Lun presents paper","desc":"The court eunuch Cai Lun reports a method of making paper from bark, hemp and rags to the Han emperor, and paper spreads across Asia.","tier":1,"group":"north-china","related":["eastern-han"]},{"year":184,"title":"Yellow Turban rebellion","desc":"A Daoist millenarian movement rises across north China. The warlords who suppress it end up dividing the Han empire among themselves.","tier":2,"group":"north-china","related":["eastern-han"]},{"year":372,"title":"Buddhism reaches Korea","desc":"Former Qin sends a monk with Buddhist images and scriptures to Goguryeo. Baekje accepts Buddhism in 384 and Silla in 527.","tier":2,"group":"korea","related":["goguryeo","former-qin"]},{"year":609,"title":"Grand Canal completed","desc":"The Sui finish a network of canals linking Hangzhou, the Yangtze, the Yellow River and the north, carrying southern grain to the capitals for over a thousand years.","tier":2,"group":"north-china","related":["sui"]},{"year":645,"title":"Taika reforms","desc":"After a palace coup against the Soga clan, the Japanese court begins land and tax reforms modeled on Tang China.","tier":2,"group":"japan","related":["asuka"]},{"year":668,"title":"Silla unifies Korea","desc":"With Tang help Silla destroys Goguryeo, then fights the Tang until 676 to take control of the peninsula south of the Taedong river.","tier":2,"group":"korea","related":["silla","goguryeo","unified-silla"]},{"year":755,"title":"An Lushan rebellion","desc":"The frontier general An Lushan rebels and takes both Tang capitals. Eight years of war cost millions of lives and leave the dynasty dependent on regional governors.","tier":2,"group":"north-china","related":["tang"]},{"year":868,"title":"Diamond Sutra printed","desc":"A woodblock-printed copy of the Diamond Sutra, later found in the Dunhuang Library Cave, is the oldest dated printed book in the world.","tier":1,"group":"tibet-west","related":["tang","guiyi"]},{"year":1044,"title":"Gunpowder formula recorded","desc":"The Song military manual Wujing Zongyao gives the first written recipes for gunpowder, used in fire arrows and bombs.","tier":1,"group":"north-china","related":["northern-song"]},{"year":1185,"title":"Battle of Dan-no-ura","desc":"The Minamoto destroy the Taira fleet in the Shimonoseki strait, and the child emperor Antoku drowns. Warrior rule in Japan begins.","tier":2,"group":"japan","related":["heian","kamakura"]},{"year":1281,"title":"Kamikaze wreck the Mongol fleet","desc":"A typhoon destroys most of Kublai Khan's second invasion fleet off Kyushu, remembered in Japan as the divine wind.","tier":2,"group":"japan","related":["yuan","kamakura"]},{"year":1405,"title":"Zheng He's first voyage","desc":"The eunuch admiral sails with over 200 ships and nearly 28,000 men, the first of seven voyages that reached India, Arabia and East Africa.","tier":1,"group":"south-china","related":["ming"]},{"year":1446,"title":"Hangul proclaimed","desc":"King Sejong publishes the Korean alphabet, designed so that ordinary people could learn to read and write their own language.","tier":2,"group":"korea","related":["joseon"]},{"year":1592,"title":"Japanese invasion of Korea","desc":"Toyotomi Hideyoshi sends some 150,000 troops into Korea. Ming armies, Korean guerrillas and Admiral Yi Sun-sin's fleet force a withdrawal by 1598.","tier":2,"group":"korea","related":["joseon","azuchi-momoyama","ming"]},{"year":1600,"title":"Battle of Sekigahara","desc":"Tokugawa Ieyasu defeats the western daimyo coalition and becomes master of Japan, taking the title of shogun in 1603.","tier":2,"group":"japan","related":["azuchi-momoyama","edo"]},{"year":1644,"title":"Fall of Beijing","desc":"Li Zicheng's rebels take Beijing and the last Ming emperor hangs himself. The general Wu Sangui lets the Manchus through the Great Wall and they seize the capital.","tier":2,"group":"north-china","related":["ming","qing"]},{"year":1839,"title":"First Opium War","desc":"After Lin Zexu destroys British opium at Canton, Britain goes to war and forces the Treaty of Nanjing, opening ports and taking Hong Kong.","tier":2,"group":"south-china","related":["qing","hong-kong"]},{"year":1853,"title":"Perry's black ships","desc":"US Commodore Matthew Perry sails into Edo Bay and demands that Japan open its ports, which it does in 1854.","tier":2,"group":"japan","related":["edo"]},{"year":1868,"title":"Meiji Restoration","desc":"Samurai from Satsuma and Choshu overthrow the shogunate and restore power to the young emperor Meiji, launching a rapid modernization.","tier":1,"group":"japan","related":["edo","empire-of-japan"]},{"year":1911,"title":"Xinhai Revolution","desc":"An army mutiny at Wuchang spreads across the provinces, and the last Qing emperor Puyi abdicates in February 1912.","tier":2,"group":"south-china","related":["qing","roc-mainland"]},{"year":1937,"title":"War with Japan and the Nanjing massacre","desc":"Fighting at the Marco Polo Bridge becomes full-scale war. Japanese troops take Nanjing in December and kill tens of thousands to hundreds of thousands of civilians and prisoners.","tier":2,"group":"south-china","related":["roc-mainland","empire-of-japan"]},{"year":1945,"title":"Atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki","desc":"US atomic bombs destroy two Japanese cities in August, killing over 100,000 people, and Japan surrenders days later.","tier":1,"group":"japan","related":["empire-of-japan"]},{"year":1949,"title":"People's Republic proclaimed","desc":"Mao Zedong declares the People's Republic from Tiananmen on 1 October, and the Nationalist government retreats to Taiwan.","tier":1,"group":"north-china","related":["prc","roc-mainland","roc-taiwan"]},{"year":1950,"title":"Korean War","desc":"North Korea invades the south. UN forces led by the United States and Chinese armies fight to a stalemate, and the 1953 armistice leaves Korea divided.","tier":2,"group":"korea","related":["north-korea","south-korea","prc"]},{"year":1959,"title":"Tibetan uprising","desc":"A revolt in Lhasa is crushed by the People's Liberation Army, and the 14th Dalai Lama escapes to India, where he sets up a government in exile.","tier":2,"group":"tibet-west","related":["tibet-prc"]},{"year":1978,"title":"Reform and opening","desc":"Deng Xiaoping's leadership begins decollectivizing farms and opening China to foreign investment, starting four decades of rapid growth.","tier":1,"group":"north-china","related":["prc"]},{"year":2011,"title":"Tohoku earthquake and tsunami","desc":"A magnitude 9.0 earthquake and tsunami kill about 18,000 people in northeast Japan and cause meltdowns at the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant.","tier":2,"group":"japan","related":["postwar-japan"]}]},{"id":"southeast-asia","name":"Southeast Asia","groups":[{"id":"burma","name":"Burma"},{"id":"thailand-laos","name":"Thailand and Laos"},{"id":"cambodia","name":"Cambodia"},{"id":"vietnam","name":"Vietnam"},{"id":"malaya-sumatra","name":"Malay Peninsula and Sumatra"},{"id":"java","name":"Java and Eastern Indonesia"},{"id":"borneo-philippines","name":"Borneo and the Philippines"}],"entries":[{"id":"burma-hoabinhian","name":"Hoabinhian foragers","short":"Hoabinhian","start":-3200,"end":-2000,"approx":true,"family":"unknown","group":"burma","kind":"culture","tier":3,"desc":"Hunter-gatherers making pebble tools in the Hoabinhian tradition lived in the caves and river valleys of mainland Southeast Asia, including Padah-lin cave in Shan State, before farming arrived."},{"id":"burma-early-farmers","name":"Neolithic and Bronze Age farmers of Burma","short":"Early farmers","start":-2000,"end":-200,"approx":true,"family":"unknown","group":"burma","kind":"culture","tier":3,"desc":"Rice farmers settled the dry zone of central Burma, and by about 1500 BCE villages such as Nyaunggan were casting bronze. Iron Age cemeteries of the Samon valley followed from about 500 BCE."},{"id":"pyu","name":"Pyu city-states","short":"Pyu","start":-200,"end":1050,"approx":true,"family":"tibeto-burman","group":"burma","kind":"state","tier":2,"capital":"Sri Ksetra, Beikthano, Halin","desc":"Walled brick cities in the Irrawaddy valley whose people adopted Buddhism and traded with India and China. Nanzhao raids in the 830s ruined them, and Pagan absorbed their lands.","next":["pagan"]},{"id":"thaton","name":"Thaton Kingdom","short":"Thaton","start":850,"end":1057,"approx":true,"family":"austroasiatic","group":"burma","kind":"state","tier":3,"capital":"Thaton","desc":"A Mon kingdom on the Gulf of Martaban whose early history survives mainly in chronicle tradition. Anawrahta of Pagan conquered it in 1057, bringing Mon monks, scriptures and craftsmen to his capital.","next":["pagan"]},{"id":"pagan","name":"Pagan Kingdom","short":"Pagan","start":849,"end":1297,"family":"tibeto-burman","group":"burma","kind":"empire","tier":2,"capital":"Pagan (Bagan)","desc":"Anawrahta united the Irrawaddy valley from 1044 and made Theravada Buddhism the state religion. Its kings built over 10,000 temples at Pagan before Mongol invasions in the 1280s broke the kingdom.","next":["pinya-sagaing","hanthawaddy"]},{"id":"pinya-sagaing","name":"Myinsaing, Pinya and Sagaing","short":"Pinya-Sagaing","start":1297,"end":1364,"family":"tibeto-burman","group":"burma","kind":"state","tier":3,"capital":"Myinsaing, Pinya, Sagaing","desc":"Three brothers took power in central Burma after Pagan's fall, and their successors split into rival kingdoms at Pinya and Sagaing. Shan raids destroyed both in 1364, and Thado Minbya founded Ava in their place.","next":["ava"]},{"id":"ava","name":"Ava Kingdom","short":"Ava","start":1364,"end":1555,"family":"tibeto-burman","group":"burma","kind":"state","tier":2,"capital":"Ava (Inwa)","desc":"The leading kingdom of Upper Burma for two centuries, Ava fought the Forty Years' War with Hanthawaddy from 1385 to 1424. Shan forces took it in 1527, and the Toungoo king Bayinnaung conquered it in 1555.","next":["first-toungoo"]},{"id":"hanthawaddy","name":"Hanthawaddy Kingdom","short":"Hanthawaddy","start":1287,"end":1539,"family":"austroasiatic","group":"burma","kind":"state","tier":2,"capital":"Martaban, then Pegu","desc":"Wareru founded this Mon kingdom of Lower Burma after Pagan's collapse. Under rulers such as Razadarit and Queen Shin Sawbu its ports traded across the Bay of Bengal, until Toungoo conquered it in 1539.","next":["first-toungoo"]},{"id":"restored-hanthawaddy","name":"Restored Hanthawaddy Kingdom","short":"Restored Pegu","start":1740,"end":1757,"family":"austroasiatic","group":"burma","kind":"state","tier":3,"capital":"Pegu","desc":"Mon rebels revived the Pegu kingdom against the Toungoo court in 1740 and sacked Ava in 1752. Alaungpaya of the new Konbaung dynasty destroyed it in 1757.","next":["konbaung"]},{"id":"mrauk-u","name":"Mrauk U Kingdom (Arakan)","short":"Mrauk U","start":1429,"end":1785,"family":"tibeto-burman","group":"burma","kind":"state","tier":3,"capital":"Mrauk U","desc":"Founded with Bengal Sultanate help by Min Saw Mon, Arakan's coastal kingdom grew strong on trade and on slave raids into Bengal with Portuguese mercenaries. Konbaung Burma conquered it in 1784 to 1785.","next":["konbaung"]},{"id":"shan-states","name":"Shan States","short":"Shan","start":1250,"end":1959,"approx":true,"family":"kra-dai","group":"burma","kind":"state","tier":3,"desc":"Tai-speaking Shan principalities ruled by hereditary saopha princes filled the hills east of the Irrawaddy. Often vassals of Burmese kings, they kept their rulers under British rule until the princes gave up their powers in 1959."},{"id":"first-toungoo","name":"First Toungoo Empire","short":"Toungoo","start":1510,"end":1599,"family":"tibeto-burman","group":"burma","kind":"empire","tier":2,"capital":"Toungoo, then Pegu","desc":"Tabinshwehti and Bayinnaung built from the small state of Toungoo the largest empire in Southeast Asian history, conquering Ava, the Shan states, Lan Na, Ayutthaya and Lan Xang. It fell apart soon after Bayinnaung's death in 1581.","next":["restored-toungoo"]},{"id":"restored-toungoo","name":"Restored Toungoo dynasty","short":"Restored Toungoo","start":1599,"end":1752,"family":"tibeto-burman","group":"burma","kind":"state","tier":2,"capital":"Pegu, then Ava (1635)","desc":"Nyaungyan and Anaukpetlun reunited most of Burma after the collapse of 1599 and moved the capital back to Ava in 1635. Manipuri raids and a Mon revolt brought it down in 1752.","next":["konbaung"]},{"id":"konbaung","name":"Konbaung dynasty","short":"Konbaung","start":1752,"end":1885,"family":"tibeto-burman","group":"burma","kind":"empire","tier":2,"capital":"Shwebo, Ava, Amarapura, Mandalay","desc":"Alaungpaya founded Burma's last dynasty, whose armies sacked Ayutthaya in 1767 and repelled four Chinese invasions. Three wars with Britain from 1824 cost it Arakan, Lower Burma and finally Mandalay in 1885.","next":["british-burma"]},{"id":"british-burma","name":"British Burma","start":1826,"end":1948,"family":"germanic","group":"burma","kind":"colony","tier":2,"capital":"Rangoon","desc":"Britain annexed Burma in three wars ending in 1885 and ruled it as a province of British India until 1937. Rice from the Irrawaddy delta made it the world's largest rice exporter.","next":["myanmar"]},{"id":"japanese-burma","name":"Japanese-occupied Burma","short":"Japanese Burma","start":1942,"end":1945,"family":"japonic","group":"burma","kind":"colony","tier":3,"capital":"Rangoon","desc":"Japan invaded in 1942 alongside Aung San's Burma Independence Army and set up the nominally independent State of Burma under Ba Maw in 1943. Allied forces retook the country in 1945."},{"id":"myanmar","name":"Myanmar (Burma)","short":"Myanmar","start":1948,"end":2025,"family":"tibeto-burman","group":"burma","kind":"state","tier":2,"capital":"Rangoon, then Naypyidaw (2006)","desc":"Independent in 1948, Burma came under military rule after Ne Win's 1962 coup. A partial democratic opening under Aung San Suu Kyi ended with the 2021 coup, which set off a nationwide civil war."},{"id":"thai-hoabinhian","name":"Hoabinhian foragers","short":"Hoabinhian","start":-3200,"end":-2000,"approx":true,"family":"unknown","group":"thailand-laos","kind":"culture","tier":3,"desc":"Hunter-gatherers using flaked pebble tools lived in caves such as Spirit Cave in north-west Thailand, where plant remains show the use of nuts, beans and gourds."},{"id":"thai-rice-farmers","name":"Austroasiatic rice farmers","short":"Rice farmers","start":-2000,"end":500,"approx":true,"family":"austroasiatic","group":"thailand-laos","kind":"culture","tier":2,"desc":"Farmers from southern China brought rice, millet, pigs and pottery to the Khorat Plateau and central Thailand from about 2000 BCE. They probably spoke Austroasiatic languages ancestral to Mon and Khmer."},{"id":"ban-chiang","name":"Ban Chiang culture","short":"Ban Chiang","start":-2000,"end":200,"approx":true,"family":"unknown","group":"thailand-laos","kind":"culture","tier":2,"desc":"A long-lived village and burial site in north-east Thailand, known for red-painted pottery and early bronze working, dated by different teams to between 2000 and 1000 BCE."},{"id":"plain-of-jars","name":"Plain of Jars culture","short":"Plain of Jars","start":-500,"end":500,"approx":true,"family":"unknown","group":"thailand-laos","kind":"culture","tier":3,"desc":"Iron Age people on the Xieng Khouang plateau of Laos carved thousands of stone jars, some up to 3 metres tall, used in funeral rituals."},{"id":"dvaravati","name":"Dvaravati","short":"Dvaravati","start":550,"end":1050,"approx":true,"family":"austroasiatic","group":"thailand-laos","kind":"state","tier":2,"capital":"Nakhon Pathom, U Thong","desc":"A Mon Buddhist civilisation of moated towns in the Chao Phraya basin, known from coins naming the lord of Dvaravati. Khmer expansion absorbed much of it by the 11th century."},{"id":"haripunjaya","name":"Haripunjaya","short":"Haripunjaya","start":660,"end":1292,"approx":true,"family":"austroasiatic","group":"thailand-laos","kind":"state","tier":3,"capital":"Lamphun","desc":"A Mon kingdom at Lamphun in northern Thailand, traditionally founded by Queen Camadevi in the 7th century. Mangrai of Lan Na captured it in 1292.","next":["lan-na"]},{"id":"tai-muang","name":"Tai muang chiefdoms","short":"Tai muang","start":900,"end":1300,"approx":true,"family":"kra-dai","group":"thailand-laos","kind":"culture","tier":3,"desc":"Tai-speaking rice farmers moved south-west from Guangxi and Yunnan into the valleys of Laos and northern Thailand, organised in muang, small chiefdoms centred on a fortified town."},{"id":"sukhothai","name":"Sukhothai Kingdom","short":"Sukhothai","start":1238,"end":1438,"family":"kra-dai","group":"thailand-laos","kind":"state","tier":2,"capital":"Sukhothai","desc":"Tai chiefs threw off Khmer rule and founded Sukhothai, which under Ram Khamhaeng (about 1279 to 1298) spread Theravada Buddhism and, by tradition, the Thai script. Ayutthaya absorbed it in 1438.","next":["ayutthaya"]},{"id":"lan-na","name":"Lan Na","short":"Lan Na","start":1292,"end":1775,"family":"kra-dai","group":"thailand-laos","kind":"state","tier":2,"capital":"Chiang Mai","desc":"Mangrai founded Chiang Mai in 1296 as capital of a northern Tai kingdom with its own script and Buddhist scholarship. Burma ruled it from 1558 until Siamese-backed lords drove the Burmese out in 1775.","next":["rattanakosin"]},{"id":"ayutthaya","name":"Ayutthaya Kingdom","short":"Ayutthaya","start":1351,"end":1767,"family":"kra-dai","group":"thailand-laos","kind":"state","tier":1,"capital":"Ayutthaya","desc":"Founded by Ramathibodi I on an island in the Chao Phraya, Ayutthaya sacked Angkor in 1431 and became one of Asia's great trading cities, home to Japanese, Persian, Dutch and French merchants. Burmese armies razed it in 1767.","next":["thonburi"]},{"id":"thonburi","name":"Thonburi Kingdom","short":"Thonburi","start":1767,"end":1782,"family":"kra-dai","group":"thailand-laos","kind":"state","tier":3,"capital":"Thonburi","desc":"Taksin, a general of part-Chinese descent, expelled the Burmese within months of Ayutthaya's fall and reunited Siam. His officers deposed and executed him in 1782.","next":["rattanakosin"]},{"id":"rattanakosin","name":"Rattanakosin Kingdom (Siam)","short":"Siam","start":1782,"end":1932,"family":"kra-dai","group":"thailand-laos","kind":"state","tier":2,"capital":"Bangkok","desc":"Rama I of the Chakri dynasty moved the capital across the river to Bangkok. Mongkut and Chulalongkorn modernised Siam and kept it the only Southeast Asian state never colonised, though it ceded Laos and other lands to France and Britain.","next":["thailand"]},{"id":"thailand","name":"Thailand","start":1932,"end":2025,"family":"kra-dai","group":"thailand-laos","kind":"state","tier":2,"capital":"Bangkok","desc":"The 1932 revolution made Siam a constitutional monarchy, renamed Thailand in 1939. Since then the army has staged about a dozen successful coups, most recently in 2014."},{"id":"lan-xang","name":"Lan Xang","short":"Lan Xang","start":1353,"end":1707,"family":"kra-dai","group":"thailand-laos","kind":"state","tier":2,"capital":"Luang Prabang, then Vientiane","desc":"Fa Ngum founded the Kingdom of a Million Elephants with Khmer backing in 1353. It peaked under Setthathirath and Sourigna Vongsa and split into rival kingdoms after a succession dispute in 1707.","next":["luang-prabang","vientiane","champasak"]},{"id":"luang-prabang","name":"Kingdom of Luang Phrabang","short":"Luang Phrabang","start":1707,"end":1893,"family":"kra-dai","group":"thailand-laos","kind":"state","tier":3,"capital":"Luang Prabang","desc":"The northern successor of Lan Xang, often a vassal of Siam. It accepted French protection in 1893, and its king Sisavang Vong went on to become king of all Laos.","next":["french-laos"]},{"id":"vientiane","name":"Kingdom of Vientiane","short":"Vientiane","start":1707,"end":1828,"family":"kra-dai","group":"thailand-laos","kind":"state","tier":3,"capital":"Vientiane","desc":"The central successor of Lan Xang, a Siamese vassal from 1779. King Anouvong's revolt against Bangkok in 1826 to 1828 ended with Siam razing Vientiane and deporting much of its population."},{"id":"champasak","name":"Kingdom of Champasak","short":"Champasak","start":1713,"end":1904,"family":"kra-dai","group":"thailand-laos","kind":"state","tier":3,"capital":"Champasak","desc":"The southern successor of Lan Xang on the Mekong, a Siamese vassal from 1778. France took most of it in 1904, and its royal house kept a role in Laotian politics.","next":["french-laos"]},{"id":"french-laos","name":"French Laos","start":1893,"end":1953,"family":"romance","group":"thailand-laos","kind":"colony","tier":3,"capital":"Vientiane","desc":"France took the lands east of the Mekong from Siam in 1893 and ran Laos as a thinly administered part of French Indochina. It gained full independence in 1953.","next":["kingdom-of-laos"]},{"id":"kingdom-of-laos","name":"Kingdom of Laos","start":1953,"end":1975,"family":"kra-dai","group":"thailand-laos","kind":"state","tier":3,"capital":"Vientiane, Luang Prabang","desc":"A constitutional monarchy torn by civil war between royalists, neutralists and the communist Pathet Lao. The United States dropped over two million tons of bombs on Laos from 1964 to 1973, and the Pathet Lao abolished the monarchy in 1975.","next":["laos"]},{"id":"laos","name":"Lao People's Democratic Republic","short":"Laos","start":1975,"end":2025,"family":"kra-dai","group":"thailand-laos","kind":"state","tier":3,"capital":"Vientiane","desc":"A one-party communist state since 1975, closely tied to Vietnam. It opened to markets from 1986 and finished a Chinese-built railway from Vientiane to the Chinese border in 2021."},{"id":"khmer-hoabinhian","name":"Hoabinhian foragers","short":"Hoabinhian","start":-3200,"end":-2000,"approx":true,"family":"unknown","group":"cambodia","kind":"culture","tier":3,"desc":"Foragers making Hoabinhian pebble tools used caves such as Laang Spean in north-west Cambodia, which people occupied on and off for tens of thousands of years."},{"id":"mekong-rice-farmers","name":"Austroasiatic rice farmers of the Mekong","short":"Rice farmers","start":-2000,"end":100,"approx":true,"family":"austroasiatic","group":"cambodia","kind":"culture","tier":2,"desc":"Neolithic farmers settled the Mekong lowlands around 2000 BCE, and Iron Age moated villages and cemeteries such as Phum Snay followed. They probably spoke early Khmer and related languages."},{"id":"funan","name":"Funan","short":"Funan","start":68,"end":550,"approx":true,"family":"austroasiatic","group":"cambodia","kind":"state","tier":2,"capital":"Vyadhapura","desc":"Known mostly from Chinese records, Funan controlled the Mekong delta and its port of Oc Eo, where Roman, Indian and Chinese goods have been found. Chenla, once its vassal, absorbed it in the 6th century.","next":["chenla"]},{"id":"chenla","name":"Chenla","short":"Chenla","start":550,"end":802,"approx":true,"family":"austroasiatic","group":"cambodia","kind":"state","tier":2,"capital":"Isanapura (Sambor Prei Kuk)","desc":"A Khmer kingdom of the middle Mekong that overtook Funan and built brick temples at Sambor Prei Kuk. Chinese sources record its split into Land Chenla and Water Chenla in the 8th century.","next":["khmer-empire"]},{"id":"khmer-empire","name":"Khmer Empire","short":"Angkor","start":802,"end":1431,"family":"austroasiatic","group":"cambodia","kind":"empire","tier":1,"capital":"Angkor (Yasodharapura)","desc":"Jayavarman II proclaimed himself universal monarch in 802. His successors built Angkor Wat and Angkor Thom and ruled much of mainland Southeast Asia, until Ayutthaya's sack of Angkor in 1431 moved the court south.","next":["post-angkor"]},{"id":"post-angkor","name":"Post-Angkor Cambodia","short":"Post-Angkor","start":1431,"end":1863,"family":"austroasiatic","group":"cambodia","kind":"state","tier":3,"capital":"Phnom Penh, Longvek, Oudong","desc":"Cambodian kings ruled from Phnom Penh, Longvek and Oudong, trading with Chinese, Japanese and European merchants. From the 17th century Siam and Vietnam fought over the kingdom and took its western provinces and the Mekong delta.","next":["french-cambodia"]},{"id":"french-cambodia","name":"French Cambodia","start":1863,"end":1953,"family":"romance","group":"cambodia","kind":"colony","tier":3,"capital":"Phnom Penh","desc":"King Norodom accepted a French protectorate in 1863 to escape Siamese and Vietnamese pressure. France recovered Battambang and Angkor from Siam in 1907 and ruled Cambodia within French Indochina.","next":["sihanouk-cambodia"]},{"id":"sihanouk-cambodia","name":"Kingdom of Cambodia (Sihanouk era)","short":"Sihanouk era","start":1953,"end":1970,"family":"austroasiatic","group":"cambodia","kind":"state","tier":3,"capital":"Phnom Penh","desc":"Norodom Sihanouk won independence from France in 1953 and governed through his Sangkum movement, trying to keep Cambodia neutral in the Vietnam War. Lon Nol deposed him in 1970.","next":["khmer-republic"]},{"id":"khmer-republic","name":"Khmer Republic","start":1970,"end":1975,"family":"austroasiatic","group":"cambodia","kind":"state","tier":3,"capital":"Phnom Penh","desc":"Lon Nol's US-backed republic fought North Vietnamese forces and the Khmer Rouge while American bombing hit the countryside. Phnom Penh fell to the Khmer Rouge on 17 April 1975.","next":["democratic-kampuchea"]},{"id":"democratic-kampuchea","name":"Democratic Kampuchea (Khmer Rouge)","short":"Khmer Rouge","start":1975,"end":1979,"family":"austroasiatic","group":"cambodia","kind":"state","tier":2,"capital":"Phnom Penh","desc":"Pol Pot's Khmer Rouge emptied the cities, abolished money and religion, and killed or starved around 1.5 to 2 million people, about a quarter of the population. A Vietnamese invasion drove them out in January 1979.","next":["kampuchea-prk"]},{"id":"kampuchea-prk","name":"People's Republic of Kampuchea","short":"PRK","start":1979,"end":1993,"family":"austroasiatic","group":"cambodia","kind":"state","tier":3,"capital":"Phnom Penh","desc":"A Vietnamese-installed government led by Khmer Rouge defectors such as Hun Sen fought a guerrilla coalition through the 1980s. The 1991 Paris Peace Accords led to UN-run elections in 1993.","next":["cambodia"]},{"id":"cambodia","name":"Kingdom of Cambodia","short":"Cambodia","start":1993,"end":2025,"family":"austroasiatic","group":"cambodia","kind":"state","tier":3,"capital":"Phnom Penh","desc":"The monarchy was restored under Sihanouk in 1993. Hun Sen held power from 1985 to 2023 and then handed the premiership to his son Hun Manet."},{"id":"vietnam-early-cultures","name":"Neolithic cultures of northern Vietnam","short":"Early cultures","start":-3200,"end":-2000,"approx":true,"family":"unknown","group":"vietnam","kind":"culture","tier":3,"desc":"Coastal shell-midden people of the Da But and Quynh Van cultures and inland foragers of the Hoabinhian and Bac Son traditions lived in northern Vietnam before rice farming spread from the north."},{"id":"phung-nguyen","name":"Phung Nguyen and Dong Dau cultures","short":"Phung Nguyen","start":-2000,"end":-1000,"approx":true,"family":"unknown","group":"vietnam","kind":"culture","tier":3,"desc":"The first rice farmers of the Red River valley made incised pottery and polished stone and jade ornaments (Phung Nguyen), then began casting bronze in the Dong Dau phase from about 1500 BCE.","next":["dong-son"]},{"id":"dong-son","name":"Dong Son culture","short":"Dong Son","start":-1000,"end":100,"approx":true,"family":"austroasiatic","group":"vietnam","kind":"culture","tier":2,"desc":"A Bronze Age culture of the Red River and Ma valleys famous for large bronze drums decorated with boats, birds and dancers, traded as far as eastern Indonesia. It is linked to the Lac Viet and the kingdom of Van Lang."},{"id":"sa-huynh","name":"Sa Huynh culture","short":"Sa Huynh","start":-1000,"end":200,"approx":true,"family":"austronesian","group":"vietnam","kind":"culture","tier":3,"desc":"Iron Age people of central and southern Vietnam buried their dead in large jars with glass and stone ornaments, including two-headed animal earrings also found in the Philippines and Taiwan. They were probably ancestors of the Cham.","next":["champa"]},{"id":"van-lang","name":"Van Lang","short":"Van Lang","start":-700,"end":-258,"approx":true,"family":"austroasiatic","group":"vietnam","kind":"state","tier":3,"desc":"The kingdom of the Hung kings in the Red River delta, dated by Vietnamese tradition to 2879 BCE but known only from much later chronicles. Historians link it to the Dong Son culture.","next":["au-lac"]},{"id":"au-lac","name":"Au Lac","short":"Au Lac","start":-257,"end":-179,"family":"austroasiatic","group":"vietnam","kind":"state","tier":3,"capital":"Co Loa","desc":"An Duong Vuong united the Lac Viet and Au Viet and built the spiral ramparts of Co Loa near Hanoi. Zhao Tuo of Nanyue conquered it in 179 BCE.","next":["nanyue"]},{"id":"nanyue","name":"Nanyue (Nam Viet)","short":"Nanyue","start":-204,"end":-111,"family":"sinitic","group":"vietnam","kind":"state","tier":3,"capital":"Panyu (Guangzhou)","desc":"A kingdom founded in Guangdong by the Qin general Zhao Tuo after the Qin collapsed. It ruled northern Vietnam from 179 BCE until the Han dynasty conquered it in 111 BCE.","next":["first-chinese-domination"]},{"id":"first-chinese-domination","name":"First Chinese domination (Han)","short":"Han rule","start":-111,"end":40,"family":"sinitic","group":"vietnam","kind":"colony","tier":2,"capital":"Luy Lau","desc":"The Han dynasty ruled northern Vietnam as the commanderies of Jiaozhi, Jiuzhen and Rinan, at first leaving local Lac lords in place. Rising Han settlement and taxes led to the Trung sisters' revolt.","next":["trung-sisters"]},{"id":"trung-sisters","name":"Trung sisters' kingdom","short":"Trung sisters","start":40,"end":43,"family":"austroasiatic","group":"vietnam","kind":"state","tier":3,"capital":"Me Linh","desc":"Trung Trac and Trung Nhi led a revolt that expelled the Han governor in 40 CE and ruled as queens. The Han general Ma Yuan crushed them in 43.","next":["second-chinese-domination"]},{"id":"second-chinese-domination","name":"Second Chinese domination","short":"Chinese rule","start":43,"end":544,"family":"sinitic","group":"vietnam","kind":"colony","tier":2,"desc":"Under the Han and the southern dynasties, Jiaozhou was governed directly from China and drawn into Chinese learning and Buddhism. Revolts were frequent, including Lady Trieu's in 248.","next":["early-ly"]},{"id":"early-ly","name":"Early Ly dynasty (Van Xuan)","short":"Early Ly","start":544,"end":602,"family":"austroasiatic","group":"vietnam","kind":"state","tier":3,"desc":"Ly Bi expelled the Liang governor and proclaimed the kingdom of Van Xuan in 544. The Sui dynasty reconquered it in 602.","next":["third-chinese-domination"]},{"id":"third-chinese-domination","name":"Third Chinese domination (Sui and Tang)","short":"Tang rule","start":602,"end":938,"family":"sinitic","group":"vietnam","kind":"colony","tier":2,"capital":"Tong Binh (Hanoi)","desc":"The Tang ruled the region as the Protectorate of Annam from 679. As Tang power collapsed, local Khuc and Duong families governed in China's name from 905 until Ngo Quyen's victory in 938.","next":["ngo-dynasty"]},{"id":"ngo-dynasty","name":"Ngo dynasty","short":"Ngo","start":939,"end":965,"family":"austroasiatic","group":"vietnam","kind":"state","tier":3,"capital":"Co Loa","desc":"Ngo Quyen defeated the Southern Han fleet at the Bach Dang River in 938 and proclaimed himself king, ending a thousand years of Chinese rule. After his death the realm broke up among twelve warlords.","next":["dinh-dynasty"]},{"id":"dinh-dynasty","name":"Dinh dynasty","short":"Dinh","start":968,"end":980,"family":"austroasiatic","group":"vietnam","kind":"state","tier":3,"capital":"Hoa Lu","desc":"Dinh Bo Linh defeated the twelve warlords and named his state Dai Co Viet in 968, with its capital at Hoa Lu. He was murdered in 979, and the general Le Hoan took the throne.","next":["early-le"]},{"id":"early-le","name":"Early Le dynasty","short":"Early Le","start":980,"end":1009,"family":"austroasiatic","group":"vietnam","kind":"state","tier":3,"capital":"Hoa Lu","desc":"Le Hoan repelled a Song invasion in 981 and attacked Champa the next year. The dynasty ended when the court chose the official Ly Cong Uan as king in 1009.","next":["ly-dynasty"]},{"id":"ly-dynasty","name":"Ly dynasty","short":"Ly","start":1009,"end":1225,"family":"austroasiatic","group":"vietnam","kind":"state","tier":2,"capital":"Thang Long (Hanoi)","desc":"Ly Thai To moved the capital to Thang Long, modern Hanoi, in 1010, and the country took the name Dai Viet in 1054. The Ly founded the Temple of Literature and defeated a Song invasion in 1077.","next":["tran-dynasty"]},{"id":"tran-dynasty","name":"Tran dynasty","short":"Tran","start":1225,"end":1400,"family":"austroasiatic","group":"vietnam","kind":"state","tier":2,"capital":"Thang Long","desc":"Led by the general Tran Hung Dao, Dai Viet defeated three Mongol invasions, the last at the Bach Dang River in 1288. Wars with Champa weakened the dynasty, and the regent Ho Quy Ly took the throne in 1400.","next":["ho-dynasty"]},{"id":"ho-dynasty","name":"Ho dynasty","short":"Ho","start":1400,"end":1407,"family":"austroasiatic","group":"vietnam","kind":"state","tier":3,"capital":"Tay Do","desc":"Ho Quy Ly introduced paper money and land reform and built the stone citadel of Tay Do. The Ming Yongle Emperor invaded on the pretext of restoring the Tran and annexed the country in 1407.","next":["ming-domination"]},{"id":"ming-domination","name":"Fourth Chinese domination (Ming)","short":"Ming rule","start":1407,"end":1427,"family":"sinitic","group":"vietnam","kind":"colony","tier":3,"desc":"The Ming ruled Dai Viet as the province of Jiaozhi and carried off books and craftsmen to China. Le Loi's ten-year uprising forced them out in 1427.","next":["later-le"]},{"id":"later-le","name":"Later Le dynasty","short":"Later Le","start":1428,"end":1789,"family":"austroasiatic","group":"vietnam","kind":"state","tier":2,"capital":"Thang Long","desc":"Le Loi founded the longest Vietnamese dynasty, and Le Thanh Tong conquered the Cham capital Vijaya in 1471. After 1533 the Le emperors reigned as figureheads while the Trinh and Nguyen lords ruled.","next":["tay-son"]},{"id":"mac-dynasty","name":"Mac dynasty","short":"Mac","start":1527,"end":1592,"family":"austroasiatic","group":"vietnam","kind":"state","tier":3,"capital":"Thang Long","desc":"The general Mac Dang Dung usurped the Le throne in 1527. Le loyalists led by the Trinh retook Thang Long in 1592, and Mac remnants held Cao Bang until 1677."},{"id":"trinh-lords","name":"Trinh lords","short":"Trinh","start":1545,"end":1787,"family":"austroasiatic","group":"vietnam","kind":"state","tier":3,"capital":"Thang Long","desc":"Hereditary lords who ruled northern Vietnam in the name of the Le emperors and fought the Nguyen lords from 1627 to 1672. The Tay Son ended their rule in 1786 to 1787.","next":["tay-son"]},{"id":"nguyen-lords","name":"Nguyen lords","short":"Nguyen lords","start":1558,"end":1777,"family":"austroasiatic","group":"vietnam","kind":"state","tier":3,"capital":"Phu Xuan (Hue)","desc":"Nguyen Hoang went south as governor of Thuan Hoa in 1558, founding a southern realm that conquered the last Cham lands and took the Mekong delta from Cambodia. The Tay Son overthrew it in 1777.","next":["tay-son"]},{"id":"tay-son","name":"Tay Son dynasty","short":"Tay Son","start":1778,"end":1802,"family":"austroasiatic","group":"vietnam","kind":"state","tier":3,"capital":"Phu Xuan, Quy Nhon","desc":"Three brothers from Tay Son rose in revolt in 1771, overthrew both the Nguyen and Trinh lords, and routed a Qing invasion at Dong Da in 1789. Nguyen Anh, the surviving Nguyen heir, defeated them in 1802.","next":["nguyen-dynasty"]},{"id":"nguyen-dynasty","name":"Nguyen dynasty","short":"Nguyen","start":1802,"end":1945,"family":"austroasiatic","group":"vietnam","kind":"state","tier":2,"capital":"Hue","desc":"Gia Long ruled all of Vietnam from a new citadel at Hue. France seized the south from 1858 and made the rest a protectorate in 1883 to 1885, and the last emperor, Bao Dai, abdicated in 1945.","next":["democratic-republic-of-vietnam"]},{"id":"champa","name":"Champa","short":"Champa","start":192,"end":1832,"approx":true,"family":"austronesian","group":"vietnam","kind":"state","tier":2,"capital":"Indrapura, Vijaya, Panduranga","desc":"Cham kingdoms on the central Vietnamese coast traded across the South China Sea, built the brick temples of My Son and sacked Angkor in 1177. Dai Viet took Vijaya in 1471, and Emperor Minh Mang annexed the last Cham principality in 1832."},{"id":"french-indochina","name":"French Indochina","short":"Indochina","start":1887,"end":1954,"family":"romance","group":"vietnam","kind":"colony","tier":2,"capital":"Saigon, then Hanoi","desc":"France joined Cochinchina, Annam, Tonkin and Cambodia into a federation in 1887, added Laos in 1893 and ran it for rubber, rice and taxes. Defeat at Dien Bien Phu in 1954 ended French rule.","next":["democratic-republic-of-vietnam","republic-of-vietnam"]},{"id":"japanese-indochina","name":"Japanese occupation of Indochina","short":"Japanese rule","start":1940,"end":1945,"family":"japonic","group":"vietnam","kind":"colony","tier":3,"desc":"Japan stationed troops in Indochina from 1940 while leaving the Vichy French administration in place, then overthrew it in March 1945. Famine in the north in 1944 to 1945 killed between 400,000 and 2 million people."},{"id":"democratic-republic-of-vietnam","name":"Democratic Republic of Vietnam","short":"North Vietnam","start":1945,"end":1976,"family":"austroasiatic","group":"vietnam","kind":"state","tier":2,"capital":"Hanoi","desc":"Ho Chi Minh proclaimed independence in Hanoi on 2 September 1945 and fought France until 1954, after which his state held the north. It backed the war in the south and reunified the country after Saigon fell in 1975.","next":["vietnam"]},{"id":"state-of-vietnam","name":"State of Vietnam","start":1949,"end":1955,"family":"austroasiatic","group":"vietnam","kind":"state","tier":3,"capital":"Saigon","desc":"France set up this state under the former emperor Bao Dai as a rival to the Viet Minh. Prime Minister Ngo Dinh Diem deposed Bao Dai through a rigged referendum in 1955.","next":["republic-of-vietnam"]},{"id":"republic-of-vietnam","name":"Republic of Vietnam","short":"South Vietnam","start":1955,"end":1975,"family":"austroasiatic","group":"vietnam","kind":"state","tier":2,"capital":"Saigon","desc":"Ngo Dinh Diem's US-backed republic fought the Viet Cong and North Vietnam. Diem was killed in a 1963 coup, US combat troops left in 1973, and Saigon fell to the North on 30 April 1975.","next":["vietnam"]},{"id":"vietnam","name":"Socialist Republic of Vietnam","short":"Vietnam","start":1976,"end":2025,"family":"austroasiatic","group":"vietnam","kind":"state","tier":2,"capital":"Hanoi","desc":"Reunified in 1976 under the Communist Party, Vietnam invaded Cambodia in 1978 and fought a border war with China in 1979. The Doi Moi reforms of 1986 opened the economy and made it a major manufacturing exporter."},{"id":"malaya-hoabinhian","name":"Hoabinhian foragers","short":"Hoabinhian","start":-3200,"end":-2000,"approx":true,"family":"unknown","group":"malaya-sumatra","kind":"culture","tier":3,"desc":"Hunter-gatherers using Hoabinhian pebble tools lived in the limestone caves of the Malay Peninsula and on the coast of northern Sumatra, where they left large shell middens."},{"id":"orang-asli","name":"Orang Asli (Semang and Senoi)","short":"Orang Asli","start":-2000,"end":2025,"approx":true,"family":"austroasiatic","group":"malaya-sumatra","kind":"culture","tier":3,"desc":"The Semang foragers and Senoi farmers of the peninsula's interior speak Aslian languages, probably brought by Neolithic farmers around 2000 BCE. Malay states and later Malaysia pressed them into the forest margins."},{"id":"malay-austronesians","name":"Austronesian peoples of Sumatra and Malaya","short":"Austronesians","start":-1500,"end":500,"approx":true,"family":"austronesian","group":"malaya-sumatra","kind":"culture","tier":2,"desc":"Austronesian-speaking farmers and seafarers settled the coasts of Sumatra and the Malay Peninsula, ancestors of the Malays, Minangkabau and Batak. By the first centuries CE they traded with India and China."},{"id":"langkasuka","name":"Langkasuka","short":"Langkasuka","start":100,"end":1400,"approx":true,"family":"austronesian","group":"malaya-sumatra","kind":"state","tier":3,"desc":"A Hindu-Buddhist trading kingdom near Pattani on the east coast of the peninsula, recorded in Chinese sources from the 2nd century. It later fell under Srivijaya and faded before the rise of Pattani.","next":["pattani"]},{"id":"srivijaya","name":"Srivijaya","short":"Srivijaya","start":650,"end":1377,"approx":true,"family":"austronesian","group":"malaya-sumatra","kind":"empire","tier":1,"capital":"Palembang, later Jambi","desc":"A Malay maritime empire based at Palembang that controlled the Strait of Malacca and was a centre of Buddhist learning. Chola raids in 1025 weakened it, power shifted to Jambi, and a Javanese attack in 1377 ended its last remnant.","next":["malacca-sultanate"]},{"id":"dharmasraya","name":"Dharmasraya (Melayu)","short":"Dharmasraya","start":1183,"end":1347,"approx":true,"family":"austronesian","group":"malaya-sumatra","kind":"state","tier":3,"desc":"The Melayu kingdom on the upper Batang Hari in Sumatra, which took over much of Srivijaya's role in the 12th and 13th centuries. Singhasari's Pamalayu expedition of 1275 brought it under Javanese influence.","next":["pagaruyung"]},{"id":"pagaruyung","name":"Pagaruyung Kingdom","short":"Pagaruyung","start":1347,"end":1833,"family":"austronesian","group":"malaya-sumatra","kind":"state","tier":3,"desc":"Adityawarman, a prince raised at the Majapahit court, founded this Minangkabau kingdom in the Sumatran highlands. It became a court of ritual prestige and ended during the Padri War, when the Dutch took control in 1833."},{"id":"samudera-pasai","name":"Samudera Pasai Sultanate","short":"Pasai","start":1267,"end":1521,"approx":true,"family":"austronesian","group":"malaya-sumatra","kind":"state","tier":3,"desc":"One of the first Muslim states in Southeast Asia, on the north coast of Sumatra, visited by Marco Polo in 1292 and Ibn Battuta in 1345. The Portuguese took it in 1521, and Aceh absorbed it soon after.","next":["aceh"]},{"id":"malacca-sultanate","name":"Malacca Sultanate","short":"Malacca","start":1400,"end":1511,"approx":true,"family":"austronesian","group":"malaya-sumatra","kind":"state","tier":1,"capital":"Malacca","desc":"Founded by Parameswara, a prince from Palembang, Malacca became the main port of the straits under Ming protection and spread Islam and Malay court culture through the archipelago. The Portuguese captured it in 1511.","next":["portuguese-malacca","johor"]},{"id":"portuguese-malacca","name":"Portuguese Malacca","short":"Port. Malacca","start":1511,"end":1641,"family":"romance","group":"malaya-sumatra","kind":"colony","tier":3,"capital":"Malacca","desc":"Afonso de Albuquerque took Malacca in 1511 and built the fortress of A Famosa. Attacks from Aceh and Johor and the flight of Muslim traders cut its trade, and the Dutch captured it in 1641.","next":["dutch-malacca"]},{"id":"dutch-malacca","name":"Dutch Malacca","start":1641,"end":1824,"family":"germanic","group":"malaya-sumatra","kind":"colony","tier":3,"capital":"Malacca","desc":"The Dutch East India Company took Malacca with Johor's help in 1641 but kept its main trade at Batavia. Britain received it in exchange for Bencoolen under the Anglo-Dutch Treaty of 1824.","next":["straits-settlements"]},{"id":"johor","name":"Johor Sultanate","short":"Johor","start":1528,"end":1824,"family":"austronesian","group":"malaya-sumatra","kind":"state","tier":2,"capital":"Johor Lama, later Riau","desc":"Malacca's royal line re-established itself on the Johor River and fought Portugal and Aceh for a century. Bugis nobles dominated its court from the 1720s, and the Anglo-Dutch Treaty of 1824 split it between British and Dutch spheres."},{"id":"aceh","name":"Aceh Sultanate","short":"Aceh","start":1496,"end":1903,"family":"austronesian","group":"malaya-sumatra","kind":"state","tier":2,"capital":"Banda Aceh","desc":"Founded at the northern tip of Sumatra, Aceh peaked under Iskandar Muda (1607 to 1636) as master of the pepper trade. It fought the Dutch in the Aceh War from 1873, and its last sultan surrendered in 1903.","next":["dutch-east-indies"]},{"id":"pattani","name":"Pattani Sultanate","short":"Pattani","start":1457,"end":1902,"approx":true,"family":"austronesian","group":"malaya-sumatra","kind":"state","tier":3,"capital":"Pattani","desc":"A Malay port kingdom on the east coast of the peninsula, ruled by a succession of queens in the late 16th and 17th centuries. Siam made it a tributary and annexed it in 1902, a root of the southern Thai insurgency.","next":["rattanakosin"]},{"id":"straits-settlements","name":"Straits Settlements","short":"Straits","start":1826,"end":1946,"family":"germanic","group":"malaya-sumatra","kind":"colony","tier":3,"capital":"Singapore","desc":"Britain joined Penang (1786), Malacca and Singapore (founded by Raffles in 1819) into one colony that dominated straits trade. It was dissolved in 1946, and Singapore became a separate colony.","next":["singapore"]},{"id":"british-malaya","name":"British Malaya","start":1874,"end":1948,"family":"germanic","group":"malaya-sumatra","kind":"colony","tier":2,"capital":"Kuala Lumpur","desc":"From the Pangkor Treaty of 1874 Britain placed residents in the Malay sultanates and grouped them into federated and unfederated states. Tin mined by Chinese migrants and rubber tapped by Indian labourers made it a leading world supplier of both.","next":["federation-of-malaya"]},{"id":"japanese-malaya","name":"Japanese occupation of Malaya","short":"Japanese Malaya","start":1942,"end":1945,"family":"japonic","group":"malaya-sumatra","kind":"colony","tier":3,"desc":"Japan overran Malaya and took Singapore in February 1942, the largest surrender in British history. The Sook Ching massacres killed tens of thousands of ethnic Chinese."},{"id":"federation-of-malaya","name":"Federation of Malaya","short":"Malaya","start":1948,"end":1963,"family":"austronesian","group":"malaya-sumatra","kind":"state","tier":3,"capital":"Kuala Lumpur","desc":"Formed in 1948 from the Malay states, Penang and Malacca, it fought a communist insurgency known as the Malayan Emergency and became independent under Tunku Abdul Rahman on 31 August 1957.","next":["malaysia"]},{"id":"malaysia","name":"Malaysia","start":1963,"end":2025,"family":"austronesian","group":"malaya-sumatra","kind":"state","tier":2,"capital":"Kuala Lumpur","desc":"Malaya joined with Singapore, Sarawak and Sabah in 1963, survived Indonesia's Konfrontasi and expelled Singapore in 1965. The Barisan Nasional coalition governed until its first defeat in 2018."},{"id":"singapore","name":"Singapore","start":1965,"end":2025,"family":"sinitic","group":"malaya-sumatra","kind":"state","tier":2,"desc":"Expelled from Malaysia in 1965, Singapore became a city-state under Lee Kuan Yew's People's Action Party, which has governed ever since. It grew into one of the world's busiest ports, with one of the highest incomes per head."},{"id":"pre-austronesian-foragers","name":"Pre-Austronesian foragers","short":"Foragers","start":-3200,"end":-1500,"approx":true,"family":"unknown","group":"java","kind":"culture","tier":3,"desc":"Foragers descended from the first modern humans in the islands, including the Toalean culture of south Sulawesi with its small stone arrowheads, lived across Java and Wallacea before Austronesian farmers arrived."},{"id":"java-austronesians","name":"Austronesian farmers of Java and Wallacea","short":"Austronesians","start":-1500,"end":400,"approx":true,"family":"austronesian","group":"java","kind":"culture","tier":2,"desc":"Austronesian-speaking farmers reached Sulawesi, Java and the Lesser Sunda Islands around 1500 BCE with pottery, rice, pigs and outrigger canoes, mixing with or replacing earlier foragers."},{"id":"buni","name":"Buni culture","short":"Buni","start":-400,"end":500,"approx":true,"family":"austronesian","group":"java","kind":"culture","tier":3,"desc":"A coastal culture of north-west Java known for burials with clay pottery, beads and gold, some showing contact with India by the early centuries CE."},{"id":"tarumanagara","name":"Tarumanagara","short":"Taruma","start":358,"end":669,"approx":true,"family":"austronesian","group":"java","kind":"state","tier":3,"desc":"A Hindu kingdom of west Java known from the 5th-century stone inscriptions of King Purnawarman, which record a canal and carvings of his footprints. The Sunda kingdom followed it.","next":["sunda-kingdom"]},{"id":"medang","name":"Medang Kingdom (Mataram)","short":"Medang","start":732,"end":1016,"approx":true,"family":"austronesian","group":"java","kind":"state","tier":2,"desc":"A Javanese Hindu-Buddhist kingdom founded by Sanjaya in central Java, where it built Prambanan in the 9th century. It moved to east Java around 929 and collapsed after an attack in 1016; Airlangga rebuilt the state as Kahuripan.","next":["kediri"]},{"id":"sailendra","name":"Sailendra dynasty","short":"Sailendra","start":750,"end":850,"approx":true,"family":"austronesian","group":"java","kind":"state","tier":2,"desc":"A Buddhist dynasty that ruled central Java in the late 8th and early 9th centuries and built Borobudur, the world's largest Buddhist monument. One branch later ruled Srivijaya."},{"id":"sunda-kingdom","name":"Sunda Kingdom","short":"Sunda","start":669,"end":1579,"approx":true,"family":"austronesian","group":"java","kind":"state","tier":3,"capital":"Pakuan Pajajaran","desc":"A Hindu kingdom of west Java with its capital at Pakuan Pajajaran near modern Bogor, trading pepper through the port of Sunda Kelapa. The Banten sultanate destroyed it in 1579.","next":["banten"]},{"id":"kediri","name":"Kediri Kingdom","short":"Kediri","start":1042,"end":1222,"family":"austronesian","group":"java","kind":"state","tier":2,"capital":"Daha","desc":"Formed when Airlangga divided his realm in the 1040s, Kediri absorbed Janggala and controlled the spice trade from Maluku in a high period of Old Javanese literature. Ken Arok overthrew it in 1222.","next":["singhasari"]},{"id":"singhasari","name":"Singhasari","short":"Singhasari","start":1222,"end":1292,"family":"austronesian","group":"java","kind":"state","tier":2,"desc":"Founded by Ken Arok, it expanded under Kertanegara, who sent the Pamalayu expedition to Sumatra and defied Kublai Khan. A Kediri rebel killed Kertanegara in 1292.","next":["majapahit"]},{"id":"majapahit","name":"Majapahit Empire","short":"Majapahit","start":1293,"end":1527,"approx":true,"family":"austronesian","group":"java","kind":"empire","tier":1,"capital":"Trowulan","desc":"Raden Wijaya used a Mongol invasion force to defeat his rivals and then drove it out in 1293. Under Hayam Wuruk and his minister Gajah Mada it claimed overlordship of most of the archipelago before declining against Demak.","next":["demak"]},{"id":"demak","name":"Demak Sultanate","short":"Demak","start":1475,"end":1554,"approx":true,"family":"austronesian","group":"java","kind":"state","tier":3,"capital":"Demak","desc":"The first Muslim sultanate on Java, on the north coast, which defeated Majapahit's remnant and attacked Portuguese Malacca in 1513. Its power passed inland after succession wars.","next":["mataram-sultanate"]},{"id":"banten","name":"Banten Sultanate","short":"Banten","start":1527,"end":1813,"family":"austronesian","group":"java","kind":"state","tier":3,"capital":"Banten","desc":"Founded by Muslim forces from Demak and Cirebon at the western tip of Java, Banten grew on the pepper trade with English, Dutch and Chinese merchants. The Dutch dominated it from 1682, and the British abolished it in 1813."},{"id":"mataram-sultanate","name":"Mataram Sultanate","short":"Mataram","start":1586,"end":1755,"approx":true,"family":"austronesian","group":"java","kind":"state","tier":2,"capital":"Kotagede, Plered, Kartasura","desc":"Under Sultan Agung (1613 to 1645) Mataram conquered most of Java and twice besieged Dutch Batavia. Wars of succession drew in the VOC, and the Treaty of Giyanti split it in 1755.","next":["surakarta-yogyakarta"]},{"id":"surakarta-yogyakarta","name":"Surakarta and Yogyakarta","short":"Solo and Yogya","start":1755,"end":1950,"family":"austronesian","group":"java","kind":"state","tier":3,"capital":"Surakarta, Yogyakarta","desc":"The Giyanti treaty divided Mataram into the Sunanate of Surakarta and the Sultanate of Yogyakarta under Dutch suzerainty. Yogyakarta's sultan backed the republic in 1945 to 1949, and it remains a special region governed by its sultan."},{"id":"bali","name":"Balinese kingdoms","short":"Bali","start":1343,"end":1908,"family":"austronesian","group":"java","kind":"state","tier":3,"capital":"Gelgel, later Klungkung","desc":"After Majapahit's conquest in 1343 the Gelgel dynasty ruled Bali, which later split into nine kingdoms such as Klungkung and Badung. Dutch conquest ended with the ritual mass suicides, puputan, of 1906 and 1908."},{"id":"ternate-tidore","name":"Ternate and Tidore sultanates","short":"Ternate-Tidore","start":1450,"end":1914,"approx":true,"family":"austronesian","group":"java","kind":"state","tier":3,"desc":"Rival Muslim sultanates in North Maluku, then the world's only source of cloves, which played Portuguese, Spanish and Dutch traders against each other. Ternate's Sultan Baabullah expelled the Portuguese in 1575."},{"id":"gowa","name":"Gowa Sultanate (Makassar)","short":"Gowa","start":1300,"end":1669,"approx":true,"family":"austronesian","group":"java","kind":"state","tier":3,"capital":"Somba Opu","desc":"The Makassar kingdom of south Sulawesi, Muslim from 1605, ran an open trading port that challenged the Dutch spice monopoly. The VOC and the Bugis prince Arung Palakka defeated it, forcing the Treaty of Bongaya in 1667."},{"id":"voc","name":"Dutch East India Company (VOC)","short":"VOC","start":1605,"end":1799,"family":"germanic","group":"java","kind":"colony","tier":2,"capital":"Batavia","desc":"The VOC seized Ambon in 1605 and founded Batavia in 1619, monopolising nutmeg, cloves and mace by force, including the massacre of the Banda islanders in 1621. It went bankrupt and was dissolved in 1799.","next":["dutch-east-indies"]},{"id":"dutch-east-indies","name":"Dutch East Indies","short":"Dutch E. Indies","start":1800,"end":1949,"family":"germanic","group":"java","kind":"colony","tier":1,"capital":"Batavia","desc":"The Dutch state took over the VOC's possessions, imposed the Cultivation System of forced cash crops on Java from 1830 and conquered the outer islands by about 1910. Indonesia's war of independence forced a transfer of sovereignty in 1949.","next":["indonesia"]},{"id":"japanese-east-indies","name":"Japanese occupation of the Dutch East Indies","short":"Japanese rule","start":1942,"end":1945,"family":"japonic","group":"java","kind":"colony","tier":3,"desc":"Japan took the islands in March 1942 for their oil, interned the Dutch and used huge numbers of Indonesians as forced labourers. It sponsored nationalists such as Sukarno, who declared independence two days after Japan's surrender."},{"id":"indonesia","name":"Indonesia","start":1945,"end":2025,"family":"austronesian","group":"java","kind":"state","tier":1,"capital":"Jakarta","desc":"Sukarno proclaimed independence on 17 August 1945. Suharto's New Order began with mass killings of alleged communists in 1965 to 1966 and lasted until 1998, after which Indonesia became the world's third-largest democracy."},{"id":"portuguese-timor","name":"Portuguese Timor","short":"Port. Timor","start":1702,"end":1975,"family":"romance","group":"java","kind":"colony","tier":3,"capital":"Lifau, then Dili","desc":"Portuguese traders came to Timor for sandalwood in the 16th century, and a governor was installed in 1702. Treaties with the Netherlands in 1859 and 1914 divided the island, leaving Portugal the east.","next":["occupied-east-timor"]},{"id":"occupied-east-timor","name":"Indonesian occupation of East Timor","short":"Occupied Timor","start":1975,"end":1999,"family":"austronesian","group":"java","kind":"colony","tier":3,"capital":"Dili","desc":"Indonesia invaded days after East Timor declared independence in 1975. Up to a fifth of the population died from violence, famine and disease before a UN-run referendum in 1999 chose independence.","next":["timor-leste"]},{"id":"timor-leste","name":"Timor-Leste","start":2002,"end":2025,"family":"austronesian","group":"java","kind":"state","tier":3,"capital":"Dili","desc":"After UN administration from 1999, Timor-Leste became independent in 2002, the first new state of the 21st century. It joined ASEAN in 2025."},{"id":"philippine-negritos","name":"Philippine Negrito foragers","short":"Negritos","start":-3200,"end":2025,"approx":true,"family":"unknown","group":"borneo-philippines","kind":"culture","tier":3,"desc":"Descendants of the earliest settlers of the islands, the Aeta, Agta, Ati and Batak lived by foraging in the forests. They adopted the Austronesian languages of farming neighbours, and many still live in Luzon and the Visayas."},{"id":"austronesian-peoples","name":"Austronesian peoples","short":"Austronesians","start":-2200,"end":900,"approx":true,"family":"austronesian","group":"borneo-philippines","kind":"culture","tier":1,"desc":"Rice and millet farmers from Taiwan crossed to northern Luzon around 2200 BCE with red-slipped pottery. Their descendants sailed on to Borneo, Indonesia, Madagascar and the Pacific, the widest spread of any language family before 1500."},{"id":"dayak","name":"Dayak peoples of Borneo","short":"Dayak","start":-1000,"end":2025,"approx":true,"family":"austronesian","group":"borneo-philippines","kind":"culture","tier":3,"desc":"Austronesian-speaking swidden rice farmers of Borneo's interior lived in longhouses along the rivers, alongside Penan foragers. Many kept headhunting traditions until colonial suppression in the early 20th century."},{"id":"barangays","name":"Barangay chiefdoms","short":"Barangays","start":900,"end":1565,"approx":true,"family":"austronesian","group":"borneo-philippines","kind":"culture","tier":3,"desc":"Philippine communities were organised into barangays led by datu chiefs over freemen and dependents, linked by sea trade with China and the Malay world. Spanish conquest after 1565 regrouped them into towns and parishes."},{"id":"tondo","name":"Tondo","short":"Tondo","start":900,"end":1589,"approx":true,"family":"austronesian","group":"borneo-philippines","kind":"state","tier":3,"desc":"A trading polity on the Pasig delta in Manila Bay, apparently named in the Laguna Copperplate Inscription of 900 CE, the oldest known Philippine document. Its last lords joined the failed Tondo conspiracy against Spain in 1587 to 1588."},{"id":"cebu","name":"Rajahnate of Cebu","short":"Cebu","start":1300,"end":1565,"approx":true,"family":"austronesian","group":"borneo-philippines","kind":"state","tier":3,"desc":"A Visayan port polity whose ruler Rajah Humabon received Magellan and was baptised in 1521. Lapulapu of Mactan killed Magellan that year, and Legazpi's expedition took Cebu in 1565.","next":["spanish-philippines"]},{"id":"sulu","name":"Sultanate of Sulu","short":"Sulu","start":1405,"end":1915,"approx":true,"family":"austronesian","group":"borneo-philippines","kind":"state","tier":2,"capital":"Jolo","desc":"A Muslim sultanate in the Sulu archipelago that grew strong on slave raiding and the trade in sea cucumbers and pearls, and held part of north Borneo. It resisted Spain for three centuries before the United States ended its political power in 1915."},{"id":"maguindanao","name":"Sultanate of Maguindanao","short":"Maguindanao","start":1520,"end":1905,"approx":true,"family":"austronesian","group":"borneo-philippines","kind":"state","tier":3,"desc":"Founded by Sharif Kabungsuwan, a Muslim preacher from Johor, on the Pulangi River in Mindanao. Under Sultan Kudarat in the 17th century it fought the Spanish to a standstill."},{"id":"spanish-philippines","name":"Spanish Philippines","short":"Spanish PH","start":1565,"end":1898,"family":"romance","group":"borneo-philippines","kind":"colony","tier":2,"capital":"Cebu, then Manila (1571)","desc":"Legazpi's settlement at Cebu in 1565 began 333 years of Spanish rule, run largely through Catholic friars. The Manila galleons linked Asia with Mexico from 1565 to 1815, carrying Chinese silk for American silver.","next":["first-philippine-republic","american-philippines"]},{"id":"first-philippine-republic","name":"First Philippine Republic","short":"Malolos Republic","start":1899,"end":1901,"family":"austronesian","group":"borneo-philippines","kind":"state","tier":3,"capital":"Malolos","desc":"Emilio Aguinaldo's revolutionary government declared independence in 1898 and set up the Malolos Republic in 1899. It fell in the Philippine-American War, and Aguinaldo was captured in 1901.","next":["american-philippines"]},{"id":"american-philippines","name":"American Philippines","short":"US Philippines","start":1898,"end":1946,"family":"germanic","group":"borneo-philippines","kind":"colony","tier":2,"capital":"Manila","desc":"The United States bought the islands from Spain in 1898 and defeated the Filipino republic in a war that killed hundreds of thousands. The Commonwealth of 1935 prepared for independence, which the Japanese invasion delayed.","next":["philippines"]},{"id":"japanese-philippines","name":"Japanese occupation of the Philippines","short":"Japanese rule","start":1942,"end":1945,"family":"japonic","group":"borneo-philippines","kind":"colony","tier":3,"capital":"Manila","desc":"Japan invaded in December 1941 and, after the fall of Bataan and Corregidor, ran a puppet republic under Jose P. Laurel. The battle for Manila in 1945 destroyed much of the city."},{"id":"philippines","name":"Philippines","start":1946,"end":2025,"family":"austronesian","group":"borneo-philippines","kind":"state","tier":2,"capital":"Manila","desc":"Independent on 4 July 1946, the Philippines lived under Ferdinand Marcos's martial law from 1972 until the People Power Revolution of 1986. Muslim and communist insurgencies have run for decades in Mindanao and the countryside."},{"id":"kutai","name":"Kutai Martadipura","short":"Kutai","start":350,"end":1605,"approx":true,"family":"austronesian","group":"borneo-philippines","kind":"state","tier":3,"desc":"The oldest known kingdom in Indonesia, in east Borneo, recorded in Sanskrit inscriptions of King Mulawarman from around 400 CE. The Muslim sultanate of Kutai Kartanegara absorbed it in 1605."},{"id":"brunei-sultanate","name":"Bruneian Sultanate","short":"Brunei","start":1368,"end":1888,"approx":true,"family":"austronesian","group":"borneo-philippines","kind":"state","tier":2,"desc":"Brunei's rulers adopted Islam by the 15th century and in the 16th century controlled the coasts of Borneo and parts of the Philippines. It lost Sarawak and Sabah in the 19th century and became a British protectorate in 1888.","next":["brunei"]},{"id":"sarawak","name":"Raj of Sarawak","short":"Sarawak","start":1841,"end":1946,"family":"germanic","group":"borneo-philippines","kind":"state","tier":3,"capital":"Kuching","desc":"The English adventurer James Brooke received Sarawak from the sultan of Brunei in 1841, and his family ruled as the White Rajahs for three generations until ceding it to Britain in 1946.","next":["malaysia"]},{"id":"north-borneo","name":"British North Borneo","short":"North Borneo","start":1882,"end":1963,"family":"germanic","group":"borneo-philippines","kind":"colony","tier":3,"capital":"Sandakan, then Jesselton","desc":"A chartered company ran Sabah from 1882 until it became a crown colony in 1946. It joined Malaysia in 1963.","next":["malaysia"]},{"id":"brunei","name":"Brunei","start":1984,"end":2025,"family":"austronesian","group":"borneo-philippines","kind":"state","tier":3,"capital":"Bandar Seri Begawan","desc":"Brunei regained full independence from Britain in 1984 as an absolute monarchy under Sultan Hassanal Bolkiah, funded by oil found at Seria in 1929."}],"events":[{"year":-2200,"title":"Austronesians reach the Philippines","desc":"Farmers from Taiwan cross the Luzon Strait with red-slipped pottery and rice, the first step of the Austronesian spread through the islands.","tier":1,"group":"borneo-philippines","related":["austronesian-peoples"]},{"year":-500,"title":"Dong Son bronze drums","desc":"Red River valley smiths cast large decorated bronze drums, traded as prestige goods across mainland and island Southeast Asia.","tier":2,"group":"vietnam","related":["dong-son"]},{"year":-111,"title":"Han conquest of Nanyue","desc":"Han armies take the Nanyue capital at Panyu, bringing northern Vietnam under Chinese rule for most of the next thousand years.","tier":2,"group":"vietnam","related":["nanyue","first-chinese-domination"]},{"year":40,"title":"Trung sisters' revolt","desc":"Trung Trac and Trung Nhi drive out the Han governor and rule as queens for three years, later honoured as Vietnam's national heroines.","tier":2,"group":"vietnam","related":["trung-sisters"]},{"year":671,"title":"Yijing studies at Srivijaya","desc":"The Chinese monk Yijing stops at Srivijaya on his way to India and advises pilgrims to study Sanskrit and Buddhist texts there first.","tier":2,"group":"malaya-sumatra","related":["srivijaya"]},{"year":825,"title":"Borobudur completed","desc":"The Sailendra dynasty completes Borobudur in central Java, a stepped stone mandala with 2,672 relief panels and 504 Buddha statues.","tier":1,"group":"java","related":["sailendra"]},{"year":938,"title":"Battle of Bach Dang","desc":"Ngo Quyen plants iron-tipped stakes in the Bach Dang River and wrecks the Southern Han fleet at low tide, ending Chinese rule over Vietnam.","tier":2,"group":"vietnam","related":["ngo-dynasty","third-chinese-domination"]},{"year":1025,"title":"Chola raid on Srivijaya","desc":"Rajendra I's fleet from south India sacks Palembang, Kedah and other Srivijayan ports, breaking Srivijaya's hold on the straits.","tier":2,"group":"malaya-sumatra","related":["srivijaya"]},{"year":1113,"title":"Construction of Angkor Wat begins","desc":"Under Suryavarman II, who takes the throne this year, builders begin Angkor Wat, the largest religious monument in the world, dedicated to Vishnu.","tier":1,"group":"cambodia","related":["khmer-empire"]},{"year":1287,"title":"Mongols invade Pagan","desc":"Yuan armies invade Burma after earlier clashes, and the Pagan kingdom breaks apart into rival successor states.","tier":2,"group":"burma","related":["pagan","pinya-sagaing","hanthawaddy"]},{"year":1288,"title":"Dai Viet defeats the Mongols","desc":"Tran Hung Dao repeats Ngo Quyen's stake trap at the Bach Dang River and destroys the Yuan fleet, ending the third Mongol invasion.","tier":2,"group":"vietnam","related":["tran-dynasty"]},{"year":1293,"title":"Mongol expedition to Java","desc":"A Yuan fleet sent to punish Kertanegara is used by Raden Wijaya to crush his rivals and then driven out, and Majapahit is founded.","tier":2,"group":"java","related":["singhasari","majapahit"]},{"year":1405,"title":"Zheng He's fleets reach Malacca","desc":"The Ming admiral's treasure fleets begin calling at Malacca, and Ming backing helps the young sultanate resist Siam.","tier":2,"group":"malaya-sumatra","related":["malacca-sultanate"]},{"year":1431,"title":"Ayutthaya sacks Angkor","desc":"Siamese armies take Angkor, and the Khmer court soon moves south toward Phnom Penh.","tier":2,"group":"cambodia","related":["khmer-empire","ayutthaya","post-angkor"]},{"year":1471,"title":"Dai Viet conquers Vijaya","desc":"Le Thanh Tong takes the Cham capital Vijaya, killing or capturing tens of thousands and reducing Champa to a southern remnant.","tier":2,"group":"vietnam","related":["later-le","champa"]},{"year":1511,"title":"Portuguese capture Malacca","desc":"Afonso de Albuquerque storms Malacca, giving Portugal control of the main gateway between the Indian Ocean and the South China Sea.","tier":1,"group":"malaya-sumatra","related":["malacca-sultanate","portuguese-malacca"]},{"year":1521,"title":"Magellan killed at Mactan","desc":"Ferdinand Magellan's expedition reaches the Philippines, converts the ruler of Cebu and loses Magellan in battle with Lapulapu on Mactan.","tier":1,"group":"borneo-philippines","related":["cebu"]},{"year":1565,"title":"Manila galleon route opens","desc":"Andrés de Urdaneta finds the return route across the Pacific, opening the galleon trade that carried American silver to Asia for 250 years.","tier":1,"group":"borneo-philippines","related":["spanish-philippines"]},{"year":1619,"title":"Batavia founded","desc":"Jan Pieterszoon Coen destroys Jayakarta and builds Batavia, the headquarters of the Dutch East India Company in Asia.","tier":2,"group":"java","related":["voc"]},{"year":1767,"title":"Fall of Ayutthaya","desc":"Konbaung armies sack and burn Ayutthaya after a long siege, ending a kingdom that had lasted over 400 years.","tier":2,"group":"thailand-laos","related":["ayutthaya","konbaung","thonburi"]},{"year":1815,"title":"Eruption of Tambora","desc":"Mount Tambora on Sumbawa produces the largest eruption in recorded history, killing tens of thousands and causing the year without a summer in 1816.","tier":1,"group":"java"},{"year":1824,"title":"Anglo-Dutch Treaty","desc":"Britain and the Netherlands divide the Malay world along the Strait of Malacca, roughly fixing the later border between Malaysia and Indonesia.","tier":2,"group":"malaya-sumatra","related":["johor","dutch-malacca","straits-settlements"]},{"year":1883,"title":"Krakatoa erupts","desc":"The explosion of Krakatoa in the Sunda Strait and its tsunamis kill over 36,000 people, and the blast is heard nearly 5,000 km away.","tier":2,"group":"java"},{"year":1896,"title":"Philippine Revolution","desc":"The Katipunan secret society launches a revolt against Spain, and the execution of the writer Jose Rizal in December hardens the rebellion.","tier":2,"group":"borneo-philippines","related":["spanish-philippines","first-philippine-republic"]},{"year":1942,"title":"Fall of Singapore","desc":"About 80,000 British, Indian and Australian troops surrender to Japan, and Japanese forces occupy all of Southeast Asia within months.","tier":2,"group":"malaya-sumatra","related":["japanese-malaya","straits-settlements"]},{"year":1945,"title":"Indonesia declares independence","desc":"Sukarno and Mohammad Hatta proclaim independence in Jakarta on 17 August, starting a four-year war against the returning Dutch.","tier":2,"group":"java","related":["indonesia","dutch-east-indies"]},{"year":1954,"title":"Battle of Dien Bien Phu","desc":"The Viet Minh under Vo Nguyen Giap besiege and capture the French base at Dien Bien Phu, ending French rule in Indochina.","tier":1,"group":"vietnam","related":["french-indochina","democratic-republic-of-vietnam"]},{"year":1967,"title":"ASEAN founded","desc":"Indonesia, Malaysia, the Philippines, Singapore and Thailand sign the Bangkok Declaration, founding the Association of Southeast Asian Nations.","tier":2},{"year":1975,"title":"Fall of Saigon and Phnom Penh","desc":"The Khmer Rouge take Phnom Penh on 17 April and North Vietnamese tanks enter Saigon on 30 April, ending the Indochina wars.","tier":1,"group":"vietnam","related":["republic-of-vietnam","democratic-kampuchea"]},{"year":2004,"title":"Indian Ocean tsunami","desc":"An earthquake off Sumatra sends tsunamis across the Indian Ocean, killing about 230,000 people, over 160,000 of them in Aceh.","tier":1,"group":"malaya-sumatra"}]},{"id":"north-america","name":"North America","groups":[{"id":"arctic","name":"Arctic and Greenland"},{"id":"subarctic","name":"Canada and the Subarctic"},{"id":"eastern-woodlands","name":"Eastern Woodlands"},{"id":"great-plains","name":"Great Plains"},{"id":"southwest","name":"Southwest and Great Basin"},{"id":"pacific","name":"Pacific Coast and California"}],"entries":[{"id":"northern-archaic","name":"Northern Archaic tradition","short":"Northern Archaic","start":-3500,"end":-2000,"approx":true,"family":"unknown","group":"arctic","kind":"culture","tier":3,"desc":"Forest and tundra hunters of interior Alaska and the Yukon who used side-notched points and hunted caribou. They held the interior before Paleo-Eskimo groups spread along the coasts."},{"id":"unangan","name":"Unangan (Aleut) peoples","short":"Unangan","start":-2500,"end":2025,"approx":true,"family":"eskimo-aleut","group":"arctic","kind":"culture","tier":3,"desc":"Sea mammal hunters of the Aleutian Islands who built semi-subterranean houses and skin kayaks. Russian fur traders forced them into service after 1750 and their numbers fell by about 80 percent."},{"id":"arctic-small-tool","name":"Arctic Small Tool tradition","short":"ASTt","start":-2500,"end":-800,"approx":true,"family":"eskimo-aleut","group":"arctic","kind":"culture","tier":2,"desc":"The first people to settle the eastern Arctic, spreading from Alaska to Greenland within a few centuries around 2500 BCE. They are known for tiny chipped stone blades and bow hunting.","next":["pre-dorset","saqqaq","independence-i"]},{"id":"independence-i","name":"Independence I culture","short":"Independence I","start":-2400,"end":-1800,"approx":true,"family":"eskimo-aleut","group":"arctic","kind":"culture","tier":3,"desc":"Musk ox hunters of Peary Land and Ellesmere Island, the northernmost people in the world at the time. They lived in tents with central box hearths and probably had no lamps."},{"id":"saqqaq","name":"Saqqaq culture","short":"Saqqaq","start":-2500,"end":-800,"approx":true,"family":"eskimo-aleut","group":"arctic","kind":"culture","tier":3,"desc":"The first people of southern and western Greenland. A 4,000-year-old hair sample from Qeqertasussuk gave the first ancient human genome ever sequenced, in 2010."},{"id":"pre-dorset","name":"Pre-Dorset","start":-2500,"end":-500,"approx":true,"family":"eskimo-aleut","group":"arctic","kind":"culture","tier":3,"desc":"Paleo-Eskimo hunters of the Canadian Arctic islands and Hudson Bay who lived in small mobile bands, hunting seal, caribou and musk ox with bows and harpoons.","next":["dorset"]},{"id":"norton","name":"Norton tradition","short":"Norton","start":-1000,"end":800,"approx":true,"family":"eskimo-aleut","group":"arctic","kind":"culture","tier":3,"desc":"Coastal villagers of western Alaska who made pottery and oil lamps and hunted seals at breathing holes. The Ipiutak site at Point Hope, with its carved ivory burials, belongs to this tradition."},{"id":"dorset","name":"Dorset culture","short":"Dorset","start":-500,"end":1300,"approx":true,"family":"eskimo-aleut","group":"arctic","kind":"culture","tier":2,"desc":"The Tuniit of Inuit legend, who lived across the eastern Arctic, carved small ivory and soapstone figures and built snow houses. They disappeared soon after the Thule arrived from Alaska."},{"id":"birnirk","name":"Birnirk culture","short":"Birnirk","start":600,"end":1000,"approx":true,"family":"eskimo-aleut","group":"arctic","kind":"culture","tier":3,"desc":"Whaling communities on both sides of the Bering Strait around Point Barrow and Chukotka. The Thule culture grew directly out of them.","next":["thule"]},{"id":"thule","name":"Thule culture","short":"Thule","start":1000,"end":1600,"approx":true,"family":"eskimo-aleut","group":"arctic","kind":"culture","tier":1,"desc":"Ancestors of the Inuit who left Alaska around 1200 with dog sleds, umiaks and bowhead whaling gear and crossed the whole Arctic to Greenland within about a century, replacing the Dorset.","next":["inuit"]},{"id":"norse-greenland","name":"Norse Greenland","short":"Norse Greenland","start":985,"end":1450,"approx":true,"family":"germanic","group":"arctic","kind":"colony","tier":2,"capital":"Gardar (Igaliku)","desc":"Icelandic farmers led by Erik the Red founded the Eastern and Western Settlements, at their peak about 2,000 people. They accepted Norwegian rule in 1261 and the last record dates from 1408.","next":["danish-greenland"]},{"id":"inuit","name":"Inuit peoples","short":"Inuit","start":1600,"end":2025,"approx":true,"family":"eskimo-aleut","group":"arctic","kind":"culture","tier":2,"desc":"Descendants of the Thule who live from Alaska to Greenland. Whalers, missionaries and traders reached them from the 1700s, and Canada created the Inuit territory of Nunavut in 1999."},{"id":"danish-greenland","name":"Danish Greenland","short":"Danish Greenland","start":1721,"end":1979,"family":"germanic","group":"arctic","kind":"colony","tier":3,"capital":"Godthab (Nuuk)","desc":"The missionary Hans Egede founded Godthab in 1721 and Greenland became a Danish trade monopoly colony. It was made a county of Denmark in 1953 and gained home rule in 1979.","next":["greenland"]},{"id":"greenland","name":"Greenland","start":1979,"end":2025,"family":"eskimo-aleut","group":"arctic","kind":"state","tier":3,"capital":"Nuuk","desc":"Self-governing Inuit-majority territory within the Kingdom of Denmark. It left the European Community in 1985 and gained wider self-rule in 2009, with Kalaallisut as the sole official language."},{"id":"maritime-archaic","name":"Maritime Archaic","start":-3500,"end":-1000,"approx":true,"family":"unknown","group":"subarctic","kind":"culture","tier":3,"desc":"Sea hunters of Labrador, Newfoundland and the Gulf of Maine who built longhouses and burial mounds. The L'Anse Amour mound in Labrador is one of the oldest funeral monuments in North America."},{"id":"shield-archaic","name":"Shield Archaic","start":-3500,"end":-500,"approx":true,"family":"unknown","group":"subarctic","kind":"culture","tier":3,"desc":"Caribou and fish hunters of the boreal forest of the Canadian Shield, from Keewatin to Labrador. They moved by canoe along lakes and rivers and left few traces beyond stone tools."},{"id":"laurel","name":"Laurel complex","short":"Laurel","start":-500,"end":1000,"approx":true,"family":"unknown","group":"subarctic","kind":"culture","tier":3,"desc":"The first pottery makers of the northern forest, living around Lake Superior, Rainy River and Manitoba. They built burial mounds such as Kay-Nah-Chi-Wah-Nung on the Rainy River."},{"id":"dene","name":"Dene (Northern Athabaskan) peoples","short":"Dene","start":-500,"end":2025,"approx":true,"family":"na-amerind","group":"subarctic","kind":"culture","tier":3,"desc":"Athabaskan-speaking hunters of the Mackenzie basin and western Subarctic, including the Chipewyan, Dogrib and Gwich'in. The Taltheilei tradition marks their ancestors on the barrenlands."},{"id":"vinland","name":"Vinland (L'Anse aux Meadows)","short":"Vinland","start":1000,"end":1020,"approx":true,"family":"germanic","group":"subarctic","kind":"colony","tier":2,"desc":"Norse camp at the tip of Newfoundland, the only confirmed Viking site in the Americas. Tree rings show wood was cut there in 1021, and the sagas say conflict with locals ended the venture."},{"id":"beothuk","name":"Beothuk","start":1000,"end":1829,"approx":true,"family":"isolate","group":"subarctic","kind":"culture","tier":3,"desc":"Hunters of Newfoundland who painted themselves with red ochre. Pushed from the coast by European fishermen, they died out when Shanawdithit, the last known Beothuk, died in 1829."},{"id":"cree","name":"Cree peoples","short":"Cree","start":1000,"end":2025,"approx":true,"family":"na-amerind","group":"subarctic","kind":"culture","tier":3,"desc":"Algonquian-speaking hunters spread from Quebec to Alberta, the largest First Nations group in Canada. They became the main partners of the Hudson's Bay Company in the fur trade."},{"id":"new-france","name":"New France","start":1534,"end":1763,"family":"romance","group":"subarctic","kind":"colony","tier":1,"capital":"Quebec","desc":"France claimed the St Lawrence after Jacques Cartier's 1534 voyage and Champlain founded Quebec in 1608. Its fur trade empire reached the Gulf of Mexico before Britain took it in the Seven Years' War.","next":["province-of-quebec","french-louisiana"]},{"id":"acadia","name":"Acadia","start":1604,"end":1713,"family":"romance","group":"subarctic","kind":"colony","tier":3,"capital":"Port-Royal","desc":"French colony in today's Nova Scotia and New Brunswick, founded at Saint Croix Island in 1604. Britain took peninsular Acadia in 1713 and deported most Acadians in 1755.","next":["british-north-america"]},{"id":"ruperts-land","name":"Rupert's Land (Hudson's Bay Company)","short":"Rupert's Land","start":1670,"end":1870,"family":"germanic","group":"subarctic","kind":"colony","tier":2,"capital":"York Factory","desc":"A royal charter of 1670 gave the Hudson's Bay Company the whole Hudson Bay watershed, about a third of modern Canada. The company sold it to the new Dominion of Canada in 1870.","next":["dominion-of-canada"]},{"id":"british-north-america","name":"British North America","short":"British NA","start":1763,"end":1867,"family":"germanic","group":"subarctic","kind":"colony","tier":2,"desc":"The British colonies north of the United States, including Nova Scotia, New Brunswick, Newfoundland and the Canadas. Loyalist refugees arrived after 1783 and the colonies federated in 1867.","next":["dominion-of-canada"]},{"id":"province-of-quebec","name":"Province of Quebec","short":"Quebec","start":1763,"end":1791,"family":"germanic","group":"subarctic","kind":"colony","tier":3,"capital":"Quebec","desc":"British colony formed from conquered New France. The Quebec Act of 1774 kept French civil law and the Catholic Church, which helped keep Quebec loyal during the American Revolution.","next":["upper-canada","lower-canada"]},{"id":"upper-canada","name":"Upper Canada","start":1791,"end":1841,"family":"germanic","group":"subarctic","kind":"colony","tier":3,"capital":"York (Toronto)","desc":"English-speaking colony on the Great Lakes, settled by Loyalists. It fought off American invasions in the War of 1812 and saw a failed rebellion in 1837.","next":["province-of-canada"]},{"id":"lower-canada","name":"Lower Canada","start":1791,"end":1841,"family":"germanic","group":"subarctic","kind":"colony","tier":3,"capital":"Quebec","desc":"French-speaking colony on the lower St Lawrence under a British governor. The Patriote Rebellion of 1837 to 1838 led Britain to merge it with Upper Canada.","next":["province-of-canada"]},{"id":"red-river-colony","name":"Red River Colony","short":"Red River","start":1812,"end":1870,"family":"germanic","group":"subarctic","kind":"colony","tier":3,"capital":"Fort Garry","desc":"Settlement founded by Lord Selkirk at the forks of the Red and Assiniboine rivers, home to a large Metis community. Louis Riel's resistance of 1869 to 1870 led to the creation of Manitoba."},{"id":"province-of-canada","name":"Province of Canada","short":"Prov. of Canada","start":1841,"end":1867,"family":"germanic","group":"subarctic","kind":"colony","tier":3,"capital":"Kingston, Montreal, Quebec, Toronto, later Ottawa","desc":"The merger of Upper and Lower Canada after the 1837 rebellions. It won responsible government in 1848 and its politicians drove the Confederation deal of 1867.","next":["dominion-of-canada"]},{"id":"dominion-of-canada","name":"Dominion of Canada","short":"Dominion","start":1867,"end":1982,"family":"germanic","group":"subarctic","kind":"state","tier":2,"capital":"Ottawa","desc":"Self-governing federation formed in 1867 from Ontario, Quebec, Nova Scotia and New Brunswick. It grew to the Pacific and Arctic and gained full legislative independence in 1931.","next":["canada"]},{"id":"newfoundland","name":"Dominion of Newfoundland","short":"Newfoundland","start":1907,"end":1949,"family":"germanic","group":"subarctic","kind":"state","tier":3,"capital":"St. John's","desc":"Britain's oldest North American colony became a dominion in 1907. Bankrupt in the Depression, it gave up self-rule in 1934 and voted narrowly to join Canada in 1949.","next":["canada"]},{"id":"canada","name":"Canada","start":1982,"end":2025,"family":"germanic","group":"subarctic","kind":"state","tier":2,"capital":"Ottawa","desc":"The Constitution Act of 1982 ended the last British legislative role and added the Charter of Rights and Freedoms. Quebec voted narrowly against independence in 1995."},{"id":"eastern-archaic","name":"Eastern Archaic hunter-gatherers","short":"Eastern Archaic","start":-3500,"end":-1000,"approx":true,"family":"unknown","group":"eastern-woodlands","kind":"culture","tier":3,"desc":"Foragers of the eastern forests who gathered nuts, fished and hunted deer, and began tending squash, sunflower and goosefoot. These plants made eastern North America an independent center of domestication."},{"id":"watson-brake","name":"Watson Brake mounds","short":"Watson Brake","start":-3500,"end":-2800,"approx":true,"family":"unknown","group":"eastern-woodlands","kind":"culture","tier":3,"desc":"An oval ring of eleven earth mounds in northern Louisiana, built by foragers around 3500 BCE. It is the oldest known mound complex in the Americas."},{"id":"poverty-point","name":"Poverty Point culture","short":"Poverty Point","start":-1700,"end":-1100,"approx":true,"family":"unknown","group":"eastern-woodlands","kind":"culture","tier":2,"desc":"Hunter-gatherers of the lower Mississippi who built six concentric earth ridges and huge mounds in northeast Louisiana. They traded copper, galena and stone from across the continent."},{"id":"woodland-period","name":"Woodland period cultures","short":"Woodland","start":-1000,"end":1000,"approx":true,"family":"unknown","group":"eastern-woodlands","kind":"culture","tier":3,"desc":"Village peoples of the eastern forests who adopted pottery, burial mounds, the bow and arrow and, late in the period, maize. Adena and Hopewell were its most visible traditions.","next":["mississippian"]},{"id":"adena","name":"Adena culture","short":"Adena","start":-500,"end":100,"approx":true,"family":"unknown","group":"eastern-woodlands","kind":"culture","tier":2,"desc":"Mound builders of the Ohio valley who buried their dead in log tombs beneath conical mounds, such as Grave Creek in West Virginia. They may have built the Great Serpent Mound.","next":["hopewell"]},{"id":"hopewell","name":"Hopewell tradition","short":"Hopewell","start":-100,"end":500,"approx":true,"family":"unknown","group":"eastern-woodlands","kind":"culture","tier":2,"desc":"A network of Ohio and Illinois communities that built vast geometric earthworks and traded obsidian from Wyoming, shells from the Gulf and mica from the Appalachians."},{"id":"mississippian","name":"Mississippian culture","short":"Mississippian","start":800,"end":1600,"approx":true,"family":"unknown","group":"eastern-woodlands","kind":"culture","tier":1,"desc":"Maize-farming chiefdoms of the Mississippi valley and Southeast who built platform mounds around plazas. Drought, warfare and then European diseases broke them up."},{"id":"cahokia","name":"Cahokia","start":1050,"end":1350,"approx":true,"family":"unknown","group":"eastern-woodlands","kind":"culture","tier":2,"desc":"The largest city north of Mexico, near modern St. Louis, with perhaps 15,000 people at its peak around 1100. Monks Mound covers about 6 hectares at its base. It was abandoned by about 1350."},{"id":"fort-ancient","name":"Fort Ancient culture","short":"Fort Ancient","start":1000,"end":1750,"approx":true,"family":"unknown","group":"eastern-woodlands","kind":"culture","tier":3,"desc":"Maize farmers of the middle Ohio valley who lived in palisaded circular villages. Many scholars link them to the historic Shawnee."},{"id":"moundville","name":"Moundville","start":1120,"end":1450,"approx":true,"family":"unknown","group":"eastern-woodlands","kind":"culture","tier":3,"desc":"Mississippian center on the Black Warrior River in Alabama, with 29 platform mounds around a plaza. It was the second largest Mississippian site after Cahokia."},{"id":"natchez","name":"Natchez","start":1200,"end":1731,"approx":true,"family":"isolate","group":"eastern-woodlands","kind":"culture","tier":3,"desc":"The last Mississippian-style chiefdom, ruled by a sacred chief called the Great Sun. After a revolt against the French in 1729 they were defeated, and many were sold into slavery."},{"id":"coosa","name":"Coosa chiefdom","short":"Coosa","start":1400,"end":1600,"approx":true,"family":"na-amerind","group":"eastern-woodlands","kind":"culture","tier":3,"desc":"Paramount chiefdom centered in northwest Georgia that Hernando de Soto visited in 1540. It controlled towns along several hundred kilometres of river valleys."},{"id":"huron-wendat","name":"Huron-Wendat Confederacy","short":"Huron-Wendat","start":1400,"end":1650,"approx":true,"family":"na-amerind","group":"eastern-woodlands","kind":"culture","tier":3,"desc":"Iroquoian farmers of about 25,000 people between Lake Simcoe and Georgian Bay and main trading partners of New France. Haudenosaunee attacks in 1649 dispersed them."},{"id":"iroquois","name":"Iroquois Confederacy (Haudenosaunee)","short":"Haudenosaunee","start":1450,"end":2025,"approx":true,"family":"na-amerind","group":"eastern-woodlands","kind":"culture","tier":2,"capital":"Onondaga","desc":"League of the Mohawk, Oneida, Onondaga, Cayuga and Seneca, joined by the Tuscarora around 1722. It held the balance between France and Britain until it split during the American Revolution."},{"id":"cherokee","name":"Cherokee","start":1500,"end":1794,"approx":true,"family":"na-amerind","group":"eastern-woodlands","kind":"culture","tier":3,"desc":"Iroquoian-speaking town dwellers of the southern Appalachians. They allied with Britain, fought the Anglo-Cherokee War of 1758 to 1761 and lost much land after 1776.","next":["cherokee-nation"]},{"id":"powhatan","name":"Powhatan Paramount Chiefdom","short":"Powhatan","start":1570,"end":1646,"approx":true,"family":"na-amerind","group":"eastern-woodlands","kind":"culture","tier":3,"capital":"Werowocomoco","desc":"Union of about 30 Algonquian peoples of tidewater Virginia built by Wahunsenacawh. Wars with the Jamestown colonists in 1622 and 1644 ended its independence by treaty in 1646."},{"id":"roanoke","name":"Roanoke Colony","short":"Roanoke","start":1585,"end":1590,"family":"germanic","group":"eastern-woodlands","kind":"colony","tier":3,"desc":"Walter Raleigh's English settlement on the Outer Banks of North Carolina. Supply ships returning in 1590 found it deserted, and the fate of its 115 colonists is unknown."},{"id":"thirteen-colonies","name":"Thirteen Colonies","short":"13 Colonies","start":1607,"end":1776,"family":"germanic","group":"eastern-woodlands","kind":"colony","tier":1,"capital":"Williamsburg, Boston, Philadelphia and others","desc":"British colonies from Massachusetts to Georgia, starting with Jamestown in 1607. Their population reached 2.5 million by 1775, and disputes over taxes led to the Revolution.","next":["united-states"]},{"id":"new-netherland","name":"New Netherland","start":1614,"end":1664,"family":"germanic","group":"eastern-woodlands","kind":"colony","tier":3,"capital":"New Amsterdam","desc":"Dutch fur-trading colony on the Hudson River, whose capital New Amsterdam stood on Manhattan. England seized it in 1664 and renamed it New York.","next":["thirteen-colonies"]},{"id":"new-sweden","name":"New Sweden","start":1638,"end":1655,"family":"germanic","group":"eastern-woodlands","kind":"colony","tier":3,"capital":"Fort Christina","desc":"Swedish colony on the Delaware River at modern Wilmington. Its settlers built the first log cabins in America. The Dutch took it over in 1655.","next":["new-netherland"]},{"id":"spanish-florida","name":"Spanish Florida","short":"La Florida","start":1565,"end":1821,"family":"romance","group":"eastern-woodlands","kind":"colony","tier":3,"capital":"St. Augustine","desc":"Spain founded St. Augustine in 1565, the oldest continuously inhabited European town in the United States. Britain held Florida from 1763 to 1783 and Spain sold it to the US in 1821.","next":["united-states"]},{"id":"muscogee","name":"Muscogee (Creek) Confederacy","short":"Muscogee","start":1650,"end":1836,"approx":true,"family":"na-amerind","group":"eastern-woodlands","kind":"culture","tier":3,"desc":"Alliance of Muskogean towns in Alabama and Georgia formed from Mississippian survivors. After the Creek War of 1813 to 1814 they lost most of their land and were removed west in 1836."},{"id":"french-louisiana","name":"French Louisiana","short":"Louisiana","start":1682,"end":1762,"family":"romance","group":"eastern-woodlands","kind":"colony","tier":2,"capital":"Mobile, later New Orleans","desc":"La Salle claimed the Mississippi basin for France in 1682 and New Orleans was founded in 1718. France gave the colony to Spain in 1762 to compensate for its losses in the Seven Years' War.","next":["spanish-louisiana"]},{"id":"united-states","name":"United States","short":"USA","start":1776,"end":2025,"family":"germanic","group":"eastern-woodlands","kind":"state","tier":1,"capital":"Philadelphia and New York, then Washington, D.C. from 1800","desc":"Federal republic that declared independence in 1776 and expanded to the Pacific by 1848. It survived civil war in the 1860s and became the leading world power after 1945."},{"id":"cherokee-nation","name":"Cherokee Nation","start":1794,"end":1907,"family":"na-amerind","group":"eastern-woodlands","kind":"state","tier":3,"capital":"New Echota, later Tahlequah","desc":"Cherokee republic with a written constitution from 1827 and Sequoyah's syllabary. Forced west on the Trail of Tears in 1838, it was dissolved when Oklahoma became a state in 1907."},{"id":"tecumseh-confederacy","name":"Tecumseh's Confederacy","short":"Tecumseh","start":1808,"end":1813,"family":"na-amerind","group":"eastern-woodlands","kind":"culture","tier":3,"capital":"Prophetstown","desc":"Pan-tribal alliance led by the Shawnee brothers Tecumseh and Tenskwatawa to stop US expansion into the Old Northwest. It collapsed when Tecumseh was killed at the Thames in 1813."},{"id":"confederate-states","name":"Confederate States of America","short":"Confederacy","start":1861,"end":1865,"family":"germanic","group":"eastern-woodlands","kind":"state","tier":2,"capital":"Montgomery, then Richmond","desc":"Eleven slaveholding southern states that seceded after Lincoln's election. Defeated in the Civil War, which killed about 620,000 soldiers, it surrendered in April 1865.","next":["united-states"]},{"id":"plains-archaic","name":"Plains Archaic hunters","short":"Plains Archaic","start":-3500,"end":-500,"approx":true,"family":"unknown","group":"great-plains","kind":"culture","tier":3,"desc":"Bison hunters of the grasslands who drove herds over cliffs and into arroyos, as at Head-Smashed-In in Alberta, used from about 3600 BCE. They hunted on foot with dart throwers."},{"id":"plains-woodland","name":"Plains Woodland cultures","short":"Plains Woodland","start":-500,"end":900,"approx":true,"family":"unknown","group":"great-plains","kind":"culture","tier":3,"desc":"Eastern plains peoples who adopted pottery, burial mounds and small gardens from the Woodland cultures to the east, while still relying on bison and wild plants."},{"id":"caddo","name":"Caddo confederacies","short":"Caddo","start":800,"end":1859,"approx":true,"family":"na-amerind","group":"great-plains","kind":"culture","tier":3,"desc":"Caddoan-speaking farmers of east Texas, Louisiana and Arkansas who built mound centers such as Spiro and Crenshaw. The Hasinai and Kadohadacho alliances were removed to Oklahoma in 1859."},{"id":"plains-village","name":"Plains Village tradition","short":"Plains Village","start":900,"end":1500,"approx":true,"family":"na-amerind","group":"great-plains","kind":"culture","tier":3,"desc":"Farmers who settled in earth-lodge villages along the Missouri and its tributaries, growing maize and hunting bison. The Middle Missouri and Central Plains traditions led to the Mandan and Pawnee.","next":["mandan-hidatsa"]},{"id":"oneota","name":"Oneota culture","short":"Oneota","start":1000,"end":1650,"approx":true,"family":"unknown","group":"great-plains","kind":"culture","tier":3,"desc":"Village farmers and bison hunters of the prairies of Iowa, Wisconsin and Minnesota. They are thought to be ancestors of Siouan peoples such as the Ioway, Oto and Ho-Chunk."},{"id":"mandan-hidatsa","name":"Mandan and Hidatsa villages","short":"Mandan-Hidatsa","start":1300,"end":1837,"approx":true,"family":"na-amerind","group":"great-plains","kind":"culture","tier":3,"desc":"Siouan-speaking farmers of fortified earth-lodge towns on the upper Missouri and a hub of plains trade. Lewis and Clark wintered with them in 1804, and smallpox in 1837 killed most Mandan."},{"id":"wichita","name":"Wichita peoples (Quivira)","short":"Wichita","start":1450,"end":2025,"approx":true,"family":"na-amerind","group":"great-plains","kind":"culture","tier":3,"desc":"Caddoan farmers of grass-lodge towns in Kansas and Oklahoma, the Quivira that Coronado reached in 1541 looking for gold. They later moved south under Osage pressure."},{"id":"blackfoot","name":"Blackfoot Confederacy","short":"Blackfoot","start":1600,"end":2025,"approx":true,"family":"na-amerind","group":"great-plains","kind":"culture","tier":3,"desc":"Algonquian-speaking Siksika, Kainai and Piikani bison hunters of Alberta and Montana. Horses and guns made them the strongest power of the northwestern plains in the 1700s."},{"id":"spanish-texas","name":"Spanish Texas","short":"Tejas","start":1690,"end":1821,"family":"romance","group":"great-plains","kind":"colony","tier":3,"capital":"Los Adaes, later San Antonio de Bexar","desc":"Spanish province founded with missions to block French Louisiana. It never had more than a few thousand settlers and passed to Mexico at independence in 1821.","next":["mexican-texas"]},{"id":"lakota","name":"Lakota (Teton Sioux)","short":"Lakota","start":1700,"end":2025,"approx":true,"family":"na-amerind","group":"great-plains","kind":"culture","tier":2,"desc":"Siouan-speaking people who moved onto the plains in the 1700s and became mounted bison hunters. They destroyed Custer's force at Little Bighorn in 1876 and were confined to reservations by 1890."},{"id":"comancheria","name":"Comanche empire (Comancheria)","short":"Comancheria","start":1706,"end":1875,"approx":true,"family":"uto-aztecan","group":"great-plains","kind":"empire","tier":2,"desc":"Horse-mounted Comanche bands that dominated the southern plains, raided deep into Mexico and took tribute from Spanish New Mexico and Texas. Quanah Parker's band surrendered in 1875."},{"id":"spanish-louisiana","name":"Spanish Louisiana","start":1762,"end":1801,"family":"romance","group":"great-plains","kind":"colony","tier":3,"capital":"New Orleans","desc":"The vast Louisiana territory west of the Mississippi under Spanish rule. Spain handed it back to France in secret in 1800, and Napoleon sold it to the United States in 1803.","next":["united-states"]},{"id":"mexican-texas","name":"Mexican Texas","start":1821,"end":1836,"family":"romance","group":"great-plains","kind":"state","tier":3,"capital":"Saltillo (Coahuila y Tejas)","desc":"Part of the Mexican state of Coahuila y Tejas. Mexico invited American settlers, who soon outnumbered Tejanos and revolted in 1835 over slavery and centralist rule.","next":["republic-of-texas"]},{"id":"republic-of-texas","name":"Republic of Texas","short":"Texas","start":1836,"end":1845,"family":"germanic","group":"great-plains","kind":"state","tier":3,"capital":"Houston, then Austin","desc":"Independent republic founded after Sam Houston defeated Santa Anna at San Jacinto in 1836. Its annexation by the United States in 1845 triggered the Mexican-American War.","next":["united-states"]},{"id":"southwest-archaic","name":"Southwestern Archaic foragers","short":"SW Archaic","start":-3500,"end":-1500,"approx":true,"family":"unknown","group":"southwest","kind":"culture","tier":3,"desc":"Desert hunter-gatherers of the Colorado Plateau and Great Basin who wove sandals and baskets and gathered seeds and pine nuts. Dry caves preserved their split-twig animal figurines."},{"id":"early-agricultural","name":"Early Agricultural period farmers","short":"Early farmers","start":-2100,"end":50,"approx":true,"family":"unknown","group":"southwest","kind":"culture","tier":3,"desc":"The first maize growers of the Southwest, who dug irrigation canals in the Tucson Basin by about 1200 BCE. Sites such as Las Capas show early village life along the Santa Cruz River."},{"id":"basketmaker","name":"Basketmaker culture","short":"Basketmaker","start":-1500,"end":750,"approx":true,"family":"unknown","group":"southwest","kind":"culture","tier":3,"desc":"Early Ancestral Puebloan farmers of the Four Corners who lived in pithouses and stored maize in slab-lined cists. Pottery, beans and the bow arrived during the later Basketmaker III phase.","next":["ancestral-puebloans"]},{"id":"fremont","name":"Fremont culture","short":"Fremont","start":1,"end":1300,"approx":true,"family":"unknown","group":"southwest","kind":"culture","tier":3,"desc":"Part-time farmers and foragers of Utah and Nevada known for clay figurines, moccasins made from deer hocks and trapezoidal rock art figures. They faded during the droughts of the 1200s."},{"id":"mogollon","name":"Mogollon culture","short":"Mogollon","start":200,"end":1450,"approx":true,"family":"unknown","group":"southwest","kind":"culture","tier":2,"desc":"Mountain farmers of southwest New Mexico and southeast Arizona who built pithouses and later pueblos such as Grasshopper. Their Mimbres branch is famous for painted bowls."},{"id":"hohokam","name":"Hohokam","start":300,"end":1450,"approx":true,"family":"unknown","group":"southwest","kind":"culture","tier":2,"desc":"Desert farmers of the Phoenix basin who dug over 500 km of irrigation canals along the Salt and Gila rivers and built ballcourts and platform mounds. Their society collapsed around 1450."},{"id":"ancestral-puebloans","name":"Ancestral Puebloans","short":"Anasazi","start":750,"end":1300,"approx":true,"family":"unknown","group":"southwest","kind":"culture","tier":1,"desc":"Farmers of the Four Corners who built multi-storey pueblos and cliff dwellings such as Cliff Palace at Mesa Verde. The Great Drought of 1276 to 1299 drove them south to the Rio Grande and Hopi mesas.","next":["pueblo-peoples"]},{"id":"chaco","name":"Chaco Canyon (Chacoan system)","short":"Chaco","start":850,"end":1150,"approx":true,"family":"unknown","group":"southwest","kind":"culture","tier":2,"desc":"Ritual and trade center in northwest New Mexico with great houses such as Pueblo Bonito, which had about 650 rooms. Roads linked it to over 150 outlying communities."},{"id":"mimbres","name":"Mimbres","start":1000,"end":1130,"approx":true,"family":"unknown","group":"southwest","kind":"culture","tier":3,"desc":"Branch of the Mogollon in the Mimbres valley of New Mexico. Its black-on-white bowls, painted with fish, birds and people, were buried with the dead after being pierced."},{"id":"numic","name":"Numic peoples (Shoshone, Paiute, Ute)","short":"Numic peoples","start":1000,"end":2025,"approx":true,"family":"uto-aztecan","group":"southwest","kind":"culture","tier":3,"desc":"Uto-Aztecan speakers who spread across the Great Basin around 1000 CE. Their Shoshone branch gave rise to the Comanche, and the Ute traded and fought with Spanish New Mexico."},{"id":"pueblo-peoples","name":"Pueblo peoples (Hopi, Zuni, Rio Grande)","short":"Pueblos","start":1300,"end":2025,"approx":true,"family":"na-amerind","group":"southwest","kind":"culture","tier":2,"desc":"Town-dwelling farmers of New Mexico and Arizona who speak Tanoan, Keresan, Zuni and Hopi. They drove out the Spanish in the 1680 Pueblo Revolt and still live in about 20 pueblos."},{"id":"apache","name":"Apache peoples","short":"Apache","start":1400,"end":2025,"approx":true,"family":"na-amerind","group":"southwest","kind":"culture","tier":3,"desc":"Athabaskan-speaking bands who migrated from the north and raided Spanish and Mexican settlements for two centuries. Geronimo's surrender in 1886 ended their armed resistance."},{"id":"oodham","name":"O'odham peoples","short":"O'odham","start":1450,"end":2025,"approx":true,"family":"uto-aztecan","group":"southwest","kind":"culture","tier":3,"desc":"Uto-Aztecan farmers of the Sonoran Desert, including the Tohono O'odham and Akimel O'odham (Pima), probably descended in part from the Hohokam. Father Kino founded missions among them from 1687."},{"id":"navajo","name":"Navajo (Diné)","short":"Navajo","start":1500,"end":2025,"approx":true,"family":"na-amerind","group":"southwest","kind":"culture","tier":2,"desc":"Athabaskan herders and farmers who adopted sheep and weaving from the Spanish and Pueblos. After the Long Walk of 1864 they returned to a reservation that is now the largest in the United States."},{"id":"nuevo-mexico","name":"Santa Fe de Nuevo México","short":"Nuevo Mexico","start":1598,"end":1821,"family":"romance","group":"southwest","kind":"colony","tier":3,"capital":"Santa Fe from 1610","desc":"Spanish province founded by Juan de Oñate in 1598. The Pueblo Revolt expelled the colonists from 1680 to 1692, and the province passed to Mexico in 1821.","next":["mexican-new-mexico"]},{"id":"mexican-new-mexico","name":"Mexican New Mexico","short":"Mexican NM","start":1821,"end":1848,"family":"romance","group":"southwest","kind":"state","tier":3,"capital":"Santa Fe","desc":"Mexican territory opened to American traders on the Santa Fe Trail. US forces occupied it in 1846 and Mexico ceded it in 1848.","next":["united-states"]},{"id":"early-pacific","name":"Early Pacific period cultures","short":"Early Pacific","start":-3500,"end":-1800,"approx":true,"family":"unknown","group":"pacific","kind":"culture","tier":3,"desc":"Fishers and shellfish gatherers of the Northwest Coast who began storing salmon and leaving large shell middens along the Strait of Georgia and the Fraser River."},{"id":"california-archaic","name":"California Archaic hunter-gatherers","short":"Calif. Archaic","start":-3500,"end":500,"approx":true,"family":"unknown","group":"pacific","kind":"culture","tier":3,"desc":"Foragers of the California coast and valleys who ground acorns and seeds with mortars and milling stones and fished from shell-mound villages around San Francisco Bay."},{"id":"locarno-marpole","name":"Locarno Beach and Marpole cultures","short":"Marpole","start":-1800,"end":500,"approx":true,"family":"unknown","group":"pacific","kind":"culture","tier":3,"desc":"Salmon-fishing villagers of the Fraser delta and Strait of Georgia who built plank houses and developed ranked societies, the basis of later Coast Salish life.","next":["northwest-coast"]},{"id":"northwest-coast","name":"Pacific Northwest peoples","short":"NW Coast peoples","start":500,"end":2025,"approx":true,"family":"na-amerind","group":"pacific","kind":"culture","tier":2,"desc":"Tlingit, Haida, Tsimshian, Kwakwaka'wakw, Nuu-chah-nulth and Coast Salish salmon fishers known for cedar plank houses, totem poles and the potlatch. Canada banned the potlatch from 1885 to 1951."},{"id":"chumash","name":"Chumash","start":500,"end":2025,"approx":true,"family":"na-amerind","group":"pacific","kind":"culture","tier":3,"desc":"Maritime people of the Santa Barbara Channel who built plank canoes called tomols and used shell bead money. Spanish missions from 1772 sharply reduced their numbers."},{"id":"california-peoples","name":"California peoples (Ohlone, Miwok, Pomo, Tongva)","short":"Calif. peoples","start":500,"end":2025,"approx":true,"family":"na-amerind","group":"pacific","kind":"culture","tier":3,"desc":"Several hundred small tribelets speaking languages from many families, living on acorns, fish and game. Missions, then the Gold Rush killings and disease, cut their numbers from about 300,000 to 30,000 by 1870."},{"id":"alta-california","name":"Alta California","start":1769,"end":1821,"family":"romance","group":"pacific","kind":"colony","tier":3,"capital":"Monterey","desc":"Spanish province founded with Junipero Serra's mission at San Diego in 1769. A chain of 21 missions eventually reached north to Sonoma.","next":["mexican-california"]},{"id":"russian-america","name":"Russian America","short":"Russian America","start":1799,"end":1867,"family":"slavic","group":"pacific","kind":"colony","tier":2,"capital":"Kodiak, then New Archangel (Sitka)","desc":"Alaska under the Russian-American Company, chartered in 1799 after fur traders settled Kodiak in 1784. It reached south to Fort Ross in California and was sold to the US in 1867 for 7.2 million dollars.","next":["united-states"]},{"id":"oregon-country","name":"Oregon Country","start":1818,"end":1846,"family":"germanic","group":"pacific","kind":"colony","tier":3,"capital":"Fort Vancouver","desc":"Pacific Northwest under joint British and American occupation, run in practice by the Hudson's Bay Company. The Oregon Treaty of 1846 split it along the 49th parallel.","next":["united-states","british-columbia"]},{"id":"mexican-california","name":"Mexican California","start":1821,"end":1848,"family":"romance","group":"pacific","kind":"state","tier":3,"capital":"Monterey","desc":"Mexican territory where the missions were secularized in the 1830s and their lands turned into ranchos. US forces took it in 1846 and Mexico ceded it in 1848, days after gold was found.","next":["united-states"]},{"id":"british-columbia","name":"Colony of British Columbia","short":"British Columbia","start":1858,"end":1871,"family":"germanic","group":"pacific","kind":"colony","tier":3,"capital":"New Westminster, then Victoria","desc":"Colony founded during the Fraser River gold rush and merged with Vancouver Island in 1866. It joined Canada in 1871 on the promise of a transcontinental railway.","next":["dominion-of-canada"]}],"events":[{"year":-2500,"title":"Paleo-Eskimos settle the eastern Arctic","desc":"Arctic Small Tool tradition hunters cross from Alaska to Greenland in a few centuries, the first people to live in the Canadian high Arctic.","tier":2,"group":"arctic","related":["arctic-small-tool","saqqaq","independence-i"]},{"year":-2100,"title":"Maize reaches the Southwest","desc":"Maize from Mexico appears in Arizona and New Mexico, and within a millennium farmers in the Tucson Basin are digging irrigation canals.","tier":2,"group":"southwest","related":["early-agricultural"]},{"year":-1600,"title":"Poverty Point earthworks built","desc":"Foragers in Louisiana raise six concentric ridges and Mound A, one of the largest earthworks in North America, without farming.","tier":2,"group":"eastern-woodlands","related":["poverty-point"]},{"year":100,"title":"Hopewell exchange network at its height","desc":"Ohio Hopewell earthworks such as Newark draw obsidian from Yellowstone, copper from Lake Superior and shells from the Gulf of Mexico.","tier":2,"group":"eastern-woodlands","related":["hopewell"]},{"year":985,"title":"Erik the Red settles Greenland","desc":"About 14 ships of Icelandic settlers reach southwest Greenland and found the Eastern Settlement.","tier":2,"group":"arctic","related":["norse-greenland"]},{"year":1000,"title":"Norse reach Vinland","desc":"Leif Erikson's voyages bring the first Europeans to North America, about 500 years before Columbus. The camp at L'Anse aux Meadows was found in 1960.","tier":1,"group":"subarctic","related":["vinland"]},{"year":1050,"title":"Cahokia grows into a city","desc":"Within a generation Cahokia expands from a village into a planned city with a Grand Plaza and Monks Mound, the largest earthwork in the Americas.","tier":2,"group":"eastern-woodlands","related":["cahokia","mississippian"]},{"year":1276,"title":"The Great Drought","desc":"A drought of over 20 years helps drive the Ancestral Puebloans out of Mesa Verde and the Four Corners by 1300.","tier":2,"group":"southwest","related":["ancestral-puebloans","pueblo-peoples"]},{"year":1497,"title":"John Cabot reaches Newfoundland","desc":"Sailing for Henry VII of England, Cabot lands on the coast of Newfoundland or Cape Breton and reports cod so thick they could be caught in baskets.","tier":2,"group":"subarctic"},{"year":1540,"title":"De Soto and Coronado expeditions","desc":"Hernando de Soto marches through the Southeast from 1539 to 1542 and Coronado searches the Southwest and plains for golden cities. Epidemics follow in their wake.","tier":2,"related":["coosa","wichita"]},{"year":1607,"title":"Jamestown founded","desc":"The Virginia Company plants the first permanent English settlement in America inside Powhatan territory. Tobacco soon makes the colony profitable.","tier":2,"group":"eastern-woodlands","related":["thirteen-colonies","powhatan"]},{"year":1608,"title":"Champlain founds Quebec","desc":"Samuel de Champlain builds a trading post at Quebec, the seat of New France for the next 150 years.","tier":2,"group":"subarctic","related":["new-france"]},{"year":1680,"title":"Pueblo Revolt","desc":"Led by Popé of Ohkay Owingeh, the Pueblos kill about 400 colonists and drive the Spanish out of New Mexico for twelve years.","tier":2,"group":"southwest","related":["pueblo-peoples","nuevo-mexico"]},{"year":1763,"title":"Treaty of Paris ends New France","desc":"France gives Canada and the lands east of the Mississippi to Britain and Louisiana to Spain, ending its North American empire.","tier":2,"related":["new-france","british-north-america","province-of-quebec"]},{"year":1776,"title":"Declaration of Independence","desc":"The Continental Congress declares the Thirteen Colonies independent of Britain. The war ends with British recognition in 1783.","tier":1,"group":"eastern-woodlands","related":["thirteen-colonies","united-states"]},{"year":1803,"title":"Louisiana Purchase","desc":"The United States buys about 2.1 million square km west of the Mississippi from France for 15 million dollars, doubling its size.","tier":2,"group":"great-plains","related":["spanish-louisiana","united-states"]},{"year":1838,"title":"Trail of Tears","desc":"The US Army forces about 16,000 Cherokee from their homeland to Indian Territory. Thousands die on the way.","tier":2,"group":"eastern-woodlands","related":["cherokee-nation"]},{"year":1848,"title":"Mexican Cession and California Gold Rush","desc":"Mexico cedes the Southwest and California in the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo, days after gold is found at Sutter's Mill.","tier":2,"group":"pacific","related":["mexican-california","mexican-new-mexico","united-states"]},{"year":1861,"title":"American Civil War begins","desc":"Confederate guns fire on Fort Sumter. Four years of war end slavery in the United States through the Thirteenth Amendment of 1865.","tier":1,"group":"eastern-woodlands","related":["confederate-states","united-states"]},{"year":1867,"title":"Canadian Confederation and Alaska Purchase","desc":"Four British colonies unite as the Dominion of Canada on 1 July, and the United States buys Alaska from Russia in the same year.","tier":2,"related":["dominion-of-canada","russian-america"]},{"year":1876,"title":"Battle of the Little Bighorn","desc":"Lakota and Cheyenne warriors under Sitting Bull and Crazy Horse wipe out Custer's command in Montana, the high point of plains resistance.","tier":2,"group":"great-plains","related":["lakota"]},{"year":1969,"title":"Apollo 11 lands on the Moon","desc":"NASA astronauts Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin become the first people to walk on the Moon.","tier":1,"group":"eastern-woodlands","related":["united-states"]},{"year":1999,"title":"Nunavut created","desc":"Canada splits the Northwest Territories to create Nunavut, a territory of about 2 million square km with an Inuit majority.","tier":2,"group":"arctic","related":["inuit","canada"]}]},{"id":"mesoamerica","name":"Mesoamerica and Caribbean","groups":[{"id":"northern-mexico","name":"Northern Mexico"},{"id":"central-mexico","name":"Central and West Mexico"},{"id":"gulf-oaxaca","name":"Gulf Coast and Oaxaca"},{"id":"maya","name":"Maya Lowlands and Highlands"},{"id":"lower-central-america","name":"Lower Central America"},{"id":"caribbean","name":"Caribbean"}],"entries":[{"id":"desert-archaic","name":"Desert Archaic foragers","short":"Desert Archaic","start":-3500,"end":-1000,"approx":true,"family":"unknown","group":"northern-mexico","kind":"culture","tier":3,"desc":"Hunter-gatherers of the Chihuahuan and Sonoran deserts who lived on agave, mesquite, cactus fruit and small game, sheltering in caves and rock shelters."},{"id":"northern-early-farmers","name":"Early farmers of the northern deserts","short":"Northern farmers","start":-1500,"end":700,"approx":true,"family":"unknown","group":"northern-mexico","kind":"culture","tier":3,"desc":"Maize spread north through Sonora and Chihuahua by about 2000 BCE. Around 1250 BCE people at Cerro Juanaqueña in Chihuahua built hundreds of stone terraces on a hillside."},{"id":"chalchihuites","name":"Chalchihuites culture","short":"Chalchihuites","start":200,"end":1100,"approx":true,"family":"unknown","group":"northern-mexico","kind":"culture","tier":3,"desc":"Farmers and miners of Zacatecas and Durango on the northern frontier of Mesoamerica. Their center at Alta Vista was aligned to the Tropic of Cancer and they mined blue-green stone for trade."},{"id":"la-quemada","name":"La Quemada","start":500,"end":900,"approx":true,"family":"unknown","group":"northern-mexico","kind":"culture","tier":3,"desc":"Fortified hilltop city in Zacatecas with a Hall of Columns, terraces and roads. Burned human bones found there suggest warfare or display of enemy dead before it was burned and abandoned."},{"id":"trincheras","name":"Trincheras tradition","short":"Trincheras","start":800,"end":1450,"approx":true,"family":"unknown","group":"northern-mexico","kind":"culture","tier":3,"desc":"Farmers of northern Sonora who built stone-walled terraces on volcanic hills, as at Cerro de Trincheras. They traded shell from the Gulf of California to the Hohokam."},{"id":"chichimeca","name":"Chichimeca peoples","short":"Chichimeca","start":900,"end":1600,"approx":true,"family":"unknown","group":"northern-mexico","kind":"culture","tier":3,"desc":"The name Nahua speakers gave to the nomadic peoples of the north, such as the Guachichil, Zacateco and Pame. They fought the Spanish silver frontier in the Chichimeca War of 1550 to 1590."},{"id":"yaqui-raramuri","name":"Yaqui, Mayo and Raramuri peoples","short":"Yaqui, Raramuri","start":1000,"end":2025,"approx":true,"family":"uto-aztecan","group":"northern-mexico","kind":"culture","tier":3,"desc":"Uto-Aztecan farmers of Sonora and the Sierra Madre. The Yaqui fought Mexican governments until 1929, and many were deported to Yucatán plantations under Porfirio Díaz."},{"id":"casas-grandes","name":"Casas Grandes (Paquimé)","short":"Paquimé","start":1200,"end":1450,"approx":true,"family":"unknown","group":"northern-mexico","kind":"culture","tier":2,"desc":"Adobe town in Chihuahua with multi-storey room blocks, ballcourts and pens for breeding scarlet macaws. It traded copper bells, shell and feathers across the Southwest before it was burned."},{"id":"nueva-vizcaya","name":"Nueva Vizcaya","start":1562,"end":1821,"family":"romance","group":"northern-mexico","kind":"colony","tier":3,"capital":"Durango","desc":"Northern province of New Spain founded by Francisco de Ibarra, covering Chihuahua and Durango. Silver strikes such as Parral in 1631 drove settlement, and it passed to Mexico in 1821.","next":["mexico"]},{"id":"central-archaic","name":"Archaic maize farmers","short":"Archaic farmers","start":-3500,"end":-1200,"approx":true,"family":"unknown","group":"central-mexico","kind":"culture","tier":3,"desc":"Seasonal foragers of the Tehuacán Valley and the Balsas basin who slowly turned teosinte into maize, alongside squash, beans and chile. Settled villages appeared only after about 1800 BCE."},{"id":"tlatilco","name":"Tlatilco culture","short":"Tlatilco","start":-1200,"end":-400,"approx":true,"family":"unknown","group":"central-mexico","kind":"culture","tier":3,"desc":"Farming villages on the shores of Lake Texcoco, known from hundreds of graves filled with clay figurines of women and pottery bearing Olmec-style designs."},{"id":"cuicuilco","name":"Cuicuilco","start":-800,"end":250,"approx":true,"family":"unknown","group":"central-mexico","kind":"culture","tier":3,"desc":"Early town in the southern Basin of Mexico with a large circular stepped platform. Eruptions of the Xitle volcano buried it in lava, and its people moved north toward Teotihuacan."},{"id":"cholula","name":"Cholula","start":-300,"end":1519,"approx":true,"family":"unknown","group":"central-mexico","kind":"state","tier":3,"desc":"Holy city of Puebla built around the Great Pyramid, the largest monument by volume in the world. Cortés massacred thousands of its people in 1519."},{"id":"teuchitlan","name":"Teuchitlán tradition","short":"Teuchitlán","start":-300,"end":900,"approx":true,"family":"unknown","group":"central-mexico","kind":"culture","tier":3,"desc":"West Mexican society of Jalisco that built circular stepped pyramids at Guachimontones and buried its dead in deep shaft tombs with clay figures of houses and people."},{"id":"teotihuacan","name":"Teotihuacan","start":-100,"end":550,"approx":true,"family":"unknown","group":"central-mexico","kind":"state","tier":1,"desc":"The largest city of the Americas in its time, with perhaps 100,000 people around 450, laid out on the Avenue of the Dead with the Pyramids of the Sun and Moon. Its center was burned around 550."},{"id":"xochicalco","name":"Xochicalco","start":650,"end":900,"approx":true,"family":"unknown","group":"central-mexico","kind":"state","tier":3,"desc":"Fortified hilltop city in Morelos that rose after Teotihuacan fell. Its Temple of the Feathered Serpent mixes Maya, Zapotec and central Mexican styles."},{"id":"toltec","name":"Toltec state (Tula)","short":"Toltec","start":900,"end":1150,"approx":true,"family":"uto-aztecan","group":"central-mexico","kind":"state","tier":2,"capital":"Tula (Tollan)","desc":"Nahua-speaking power centered on Tula in Hidalgo, famous for its Atlantean warrior columns. The Aztecs claimed descent from the Toltecs, whose city was sacked around 1150."},{"id":"tepanec","name":"Tepanec state (Azcapotzalco)","short":"Tepanec","start":1300,"end":1428,"approx":true,"family":"uto-aztecan","group":"central-mexico","kind":"state","tier":3,"capital":"Azcapotzalco","desc":"The leading power of the Basin of Mexico under Tezozomoc, with the Mexica as its vassals. The Mexica and their allies destroyed it in 1428."},{"id":"tenochtitlan","name":"Mexica city-state (Tenochtitlan)","short":"Mexica","start":1325,"end":1428,"family":"uto-aztecan","group":"central-mexico","kind":"state","tier":3,"capital":"Tenochtitlan","desc":"The Mexica founded Tenochtitlan on an island in Lake Texcoco in 1325 and served the Tepanecs as mercenaries before overthrowing them.","next":["aztec-empire"]},{"id":"tlaxcala","name":"Tlaxcala","start":1350,"end":1521,"approx":true,"family":"uto-aztecan","group":"central-mexico","kind":"state","tier":3,"capital":"Tlaxcala","desc":"Confederation of four Nahua city-states that the Aztecs surrounded and never conquered. Its warriors joined Cortés in 1519 and were the core of the army that took Tenochtitlan.","next":["new-spain"]},{"id":"tarascan","name":"Tarascan state","short":"Tarascan","start":1350,"end":1530,"approx":true,"family":"isolate","group":"central-mexico","kind":"state","tier":2,"capital":"Tzintzuntzan","desc":"Purépecha kingdom of Michoacán, skilled in copper and bronze work, that crushed an Aztec army in 1479. Its last ruler submitted to Spain and was executed by Nuño de Guzmán in 1530.","next":["new-spain"]},{"id":"aztec-empire","name":"Aztec Empire (Triple Alliance)","short":"Aztec Empire","start":1428,"end":1521,"family":"uto-aztecan","group":"central-mexico","kind":"empire","tier":1,"capital":"Tenochtitlan","desc":"Alliance of Tenochtitlan, Texcoco and Tlacopan that took tribute from about 38 provinces. Tenochtitlan held some 200,000 people when Cortés and his Tlaxcalan allies captured it in 1521.","next":["new-spain"]},{"id":"new-spain","name":"New Spain","start":1521,"end":1821,"family":"romance","group":"central-mexico","kind":"colony","tier":1,"capital":"Mexico City","desc":"Spanish viceroyalty created in 1535 on the ruins of the Aztec Empire, reaching from California to Central America and the Philippines. Its silver mines supplied much of the world's money.","next":["first-mexican-empire"]},{"id":"first-mexican-empire","name":"First Mexican Empire","short":"Mexican Empire","start":1821,"end":1823,"family":"romance","group":"central-mexico","kind":"empire","tier":3,"capital":"Mexico City","desc":"Monarchy proclaimed at independence, with Agustín de Iturbide crowned emperor in 1822. It briefly annexed Central America and fell when Iturbide abdicated in 1823.","next":["mexico","federal-republic-central-america"]},{"id":"mexico","name":"Mexico","start":1823,"end":2025,"family":"romance","group":"central-mexico","kind":"state","tier":2,"capital":"Mexico City","desc":"Federal republic that lost half its territory to the United States in 1848, went through the Revolution of 1910 to 1920 and was ruled by one party, the PRI, from 1929 to 2000."},{"id":"second-mexican-empire","name":"Second Mexican Empire","short":"2nd Mex. Empire","start":1864,"end":1867,"family":"romance","group":"central-mexico","kind":"empire","tier":3,"capital":"Mexico City","desc":"Monarchy set up by Napoleon III's invasion with the Austrian archduke Maximilian as emperor. When French troops left, Benito Juárez's republicans captured and shot Maximilian at Querétaro.","next":["mexico"]},{"id":"oaxaca-archaic","name":"Archaic foragers of Oaxaca and the Gulf","short":"Archaic Oaxaca","start":-3500,"end":-1500,"approx":true,"family":"unknown","group":"gulf-oaxaca","kind":"culture","tier":3,"desc":"Small bands who camped in caves such as Guilá Naquitz, where squash was domesticated about 8000 BCE and some of the oldest known maize cobs date to about 4300 BCE."},{"id":"olmec","name":"Olmec civilization","short":"Olmec","start":-1600,"end":-400,"approx":true,"family":"mixe-zoque","group":"gulf-oaxaca","kind":"culture","tier":1,"desc":"The first complex society of Mesoamerica, in the swamps of Veracruz and Tabasco. The Olmec carved colossal basalt heads, worked jade and played the rubber ball game.","next":["epi-olmec"]},{"id":"san-jose-mogote","name":"San José Mogote","short":"San José Mogote","start":-1500,"end":-500,"approx":true,"family":"oto-manguean","group":"gulf-oaxaca","kind":"culture","tier":3,"desc":"The largest village of the Valley of Oaxaca before Monte Albán. A carved stone of about 600 BCE showing a sacrificed captive bears one of the earliest calendar glyphs in Mesoamerica.","next":["monte-alban"]},{"id":"san-lorenzo","name":"San Lorenzo phase (Olmec)","short":"San Lorenzo","start":-1400,"end":-900,"approx":true,"family":"mixe-zoque","group":"gulf-oaxaca","kind":"culture","tier":2,"capital":"San Lorenzo Tenochtitlan","desc":"The first great Olmec center, on a raised plateau above the Coatzacoalcos River. Ten colossal heads were found there. It declined around 900 BCE as La Venta rose.","next":["la-venta"]},{"id":"la-venta","name":"La Venta phase (Olmec)","short":"La Venta","start":-900,"end":-400,"approx":true,"family":"mixe-zoque","group":"gulf-oaxaca","kind":"culture","tier":2,"capital":"La Venta","desc":"Olmec capital on an island in the Tabasco swamps with a clay pyramid over 30 m tall and buried offerings of tonnes of serpentine blocks. It was abandoned around 400 BCE."},{"id":"monte-alban","name":"Zapotec state (Monte Albán)","short":"Monte Albán","start":-500,"end":850,"approx":true,"family":"oto-manguean","group":"gulf-oaxaca","kind":"state","tier":2,"capital":"Monte Albán","desc":"Zapotec capital built on a flattened mountaintop above the Valley of Oaxaca, with carved stones of slain captives called Danzantes. It held about 20,000 people before declining after 700."},{"id":"epi-olmec","name":"Epi-Olmec culture","short":"Epi-Olmec","start":-300,"end":250,"approx":true,"family":"mixe-zoque","group":"gulf-oaxaca","kind":"culture","tier":3,"capital":"Tres Zapotes","desc":"Successors of the Olmec in southern Veracruz. The La Mojarra stela and Tuxtla statuette carry Long Count dates of the 100s CE in the Isthmian script, probably an early form of Zoquean."},{"id":"el-tajin","name":"El Tajín (Classic Veracruz)","short":"El Tajín","start":600,"end":1200,"approx":true,"family":"unknown","group":"gulf-oaxaca","kind":"state","tier":3,"desc":"City of northern Veracruz with the Pyramid of the Niches and at least 17 ballcourts, more than any other Mesoamerican site. Its carvings show ballgame sacrifice."},{"id":"zapotec-city-states","name":"Zapotec city-states (Zaachila, Mitla)","short":"Zapotec states","start":850,"end":1521,"approx":true,"family":"oto-manguean","group":"gulf-oaxaca","kind":"state","tier":3,"desc":"Kingdoms that followed Monte Albán, ruled from Zaachila and later Tehuantepec, with Mitla as the religious center famous for its stone fret mosaics. They held off the Aztecs at Guiengola."},{"id":"huastec","name":"Huastec (Teenek) peoples","short":"Huastec","start":900,"end":1525,"approx":true,"family":"mayan","group":"gulf-oaxaca","kind":"culture","tier":3,"desc":"Mayan-speaking people of northern Veracruz and San Luis Potosí, separated from the other Maya for millennia. The Aztecs conquered part of their lands and Spain the rest by 1525."},{"id":"mixtec","name":"Mixtec kingdoms","short":"Mixtec","start":900,"end":1522,"approx":true,"family":"oto-manguean","group":"gulf-oaxaca","kind":"state","tier":2,"capital":"Tilantongo, Tututepec","desc":"Small kingdoms of the Oaxaca highlands and coast, famous for painted codices and goldwork. Lord Eight Deer Jaguar Claw united much of the region in the 11th century. Tututepec stayed free of the Aztecs."},{"id":"totonac","name":"Totonac (Cempoala)","short":"Totonac","start":1200,"end":1519,"approx":true,"family":"isolate","group":"gulf-oaxaca","kind":"state","tier":3,"capital":"Cempoala","desc":"Totonac lordships of central Veracruz, recently made Aztec tributaries. The ruler of Cempoala became Cortés's first major ally in 1519."},{"id":"oaxaca-peoples","name":"Zapotec, Mixtec and Mixe peoples","short":"Oaxacan peoples","start":1521,"end":2025,"approx":true,"family":"oto-manguean","group":"gulf-oaxaca","kind":"culture","tier":3,"desc":"Indigenous communities of Oaxaca who kept their languages and village lands through Spanish rule. The Zapotec Benito Juárez became Mexico's president in 1858."},{"id":"maya-archaic","name":"Archaic peoples of the Maya region","short":"Maya Archaic","start":-3500,"end":-1200,"approx":true,"family":"unknown","group":"maya","kind":"culture","tier":3,"desc":"Foragers and early cultivators of the Yucatán and Guatemala who cleared forest for maize plots and lived along wetlands and coasts before settled villages."},{"id":"mokaya","name":"Mokaya culture","short":"Mokaya","start":-1900,"end":-1000,"approx":true,"family":"mixe-zoque","group":"maya","kind":"culture","tier":3,"desc":"Early village society of the Soconusco coast of Chiapas, among the first pottery makers in Mesoamerica. Paso de la Amada has the oldest known ballcourt, built around 1650 BCE."},{"id":"early-preclassic-maya","name":"Early Preclassic Maya villages","short":"Early Maya","start":-1200,"end":-600,"approx":true,"family":"mayan","group":"maya","kind":"culture","tier":3,"desc":"The first Maya farming villages in the lowlands, such as Cuello in Belize and Ceibal in Guatemala, where a ceremonial plaza was built around 1000 BCE."},{"id":"kaminaljuyu","name":"Kaminaljuyu","start":-800,"end":800,"approx":true,"family":"mayan","group":"maya","kind":"state","tier":3,"desc":"Highland Maya city on the site of Guatemala City that controlled the El Chayal obsidian source and dug large irrigation canals. In the 400s it built in the style of Teotihuacan."},{"id":"izapa","name":"Izapa","start":-600,"end":100,"approx":true,"family":"mixe-zoque","group":"maya","kind":"culture","tier":3,"desc":"Ceremonial center near the Pacific coast of Chiapas with over 80 carved stelae showing myths that later appear in the Maya Popol Vuh."},{"id":"el-mirador","name":"El Mirador","start":-600,"end":150,"approx":true,"family":"mayan","group":"maya","kind":"state","tier":2,"desc":"The largest Preclassic Maya city, in northern Guatemala, linked by raised causeways to Nakbe and other towns. Its La Danta pyramid rises about 70 m. It was abandoned around 150 CE."},{"id":"tikal","name":"Tikal (Mutal)","short":"Tikal","start":90,"end":900,"approx":true,"family":"mayan","group":"maya","kind":"state","tier":2,"capital":"Tikal","desc":"Leading Classic Maya kingdom of the Petén, whose dynasty was founded by Yax Ehb Xook in the first century. It was defeated by Caracol in 562, recovered under Jasaw Chan K'awiil, and raised its last monument in 869."},{"id":"classic-maya","name":"Classic Maya civilization","short":"Classic Maya","start":250,"end":900,"approx":true,"family":"mayan","group":"maya","kind":"culture","tier":1,"desc":"Dozens of rival divine kingdoms that recorded their history in the best understood writing system of the ancient Americas and tracked time with the Long Count. Most lowland cities were abandoned by 900."},{"id":"caracol","name":"Caracol","start":331,"end":859,"family":"mayan","group":"maya","kind":"state","tier":3,"desc":"Kingdom in the Maya Mountains of Belize that defeated Tikal in 562 as an ally of Calakmul. It may have had 100,000 people around 650, spread across farm terraces."},{"id":"calakmul","name":"Kaan kingdom (Calakmul)","short":"Calakmul","start":400,"end":900,"approx":true,"family":"mayan","group":"maya","kind":"state","tier":2,"capital":"Dzibanche, then Calakmul","desc":"The Snake kingdom, Tikal's great rival, which moved its seat to Calakmul around 635. Under Yuknoom the Great it led a network of vassals until Tikal defeated it in 695."},{"id":"copan","name":"Copan","start":426,"end":822,"family":"mayan","group":"maya","kind":"state","tier":3,"desc":"Southernmost great Maya kingdom, in western Honduras, founded by Yax K'uk' Mo' in 426. Its Hieroglyphic Stairway holds the longest Maya inscription. Its king was beheaded by Quirigua in 738."},{"id":"palenque","name":"Palenque (Baakal)","short":"Palenque","start":431,"end":799,"family":"mayan","group":"maya","kind":"state","tier":3,"capital":"Lakamha","desc":"Kingdom in the Chiapas foothills ruled by K'inich Janaab' Pakal from 615 to 683. His jade-masked tomb inside the Temple of the Inscriptions was found in 1952."},{"id":"puuc","name":"Puuc cities (Uxmal)","short":"Puuc","start":700,"end":1000,"approx":true,"family":"mayan","group":"maya","kind":"state","tier":3,"capital":"Uxmal","desc":"Cities of the Puuc hills of Yucatán, such as Uxmal, Kabah and Sayil, known for stone mosaic facades of rain god masks. They grew as the southern lowland cities emptied."},{"id":"chichen-itza","name":"Chichen Itza","start":750,"end":1200,"approx":true,"family":"mayan","group":"maya","kind":"state","tier":2,"desc":"The dominant city of northern Yucatán, with the stepped pyramid of Kukulcan, the largest ballcourt in Mesoamerica and the Sacred Cenote, where offerings and people were thrown."},{"id":"mayapan","name":"Mayapan","start":1220,"end":1441,"approx":true,"family":"mayan","group":"maya","kind":"state","tier":2,"desc":"Walled capital of the League of Mayapan, ruled by the Cocom family, with about 15,000 people. A revolt led by the Xiu destroyed it around 1441.","next":["yucatec-provinces"]},{"id":"kiche","name":"K'iche' kingdom","short":"K'iche'","start":1225,"end":1524,"approx":true,"family":"mayan","group":"maya","kind":"state","tier":2,"capital":"Q'umarkaj (Utatlán)","desc":"The strongest highland Maya state, at its height under K'iq'ab in the 1400s. Pedro de Alvarado defeated its army near Quetzaltenango in 1524 and burned its capital. The Popol Vuh is its sacred book."},{"id":"yucatec-provinces","name":"Yucatec Maya provinces","short":"Yucatec states","start":1441,"end":1546,"approx":true,"family":"mayan","group":"maya","kind":"state","tier":3,"desc":"About sixteen independent Maya provinces that formed after Mayapan fell, such as Mani and Sotuta. The Montejos needed twenty years to conquer them, founding Mérida in 1542."},{"id":"itza","name":"Itza kingdom (Nojpetén)","short":"Itza","start":1450,"end":1697,"approx":true,"family":"mayan","group":"maya","kind":"state","tier":3,"capital":"Nojpetén","desc":"The last independent Maya kingdom, on an island in Lake Petén Itzá. It held out for over 170 years after the conquest until Martin de Ursúa stormed Nojpetén in 1697."},{"id":"kaqchikel","name":"Kaqchikel kingdom","short":"Kaqchikel","start":1470,"end":1524,"approx":true,"family":"mayan","group":"maya","kind":"state","tier":3,"capital":"Iximche","desc":"Highland Maya kingdom that broke away from the K'iche' around 1470. It allied with Alvarado in 1524, then rebelled against Spanish demands and held out until 1530."},{"id":"maya-peoples","name":"Maya peoples (colonial and modern)","short":"Maya peoples","start":1524,"end":2025,"approx":true,"family":"mayan","group":"maya","kind":"culture","tier":3,"desc":"About six million speakers of some 30 Mayan languages in Guatemala, southern Mexico and Belize. They suffered forced labour under Spain and mass killings in Guatemala's civil war."},{"id":"captaincy-general-guatemala","name":"Captaincy General of Guatemala","short":"Guatemala (Sp.)","start":1543,"end":1821,"family":"romance","group":"maya","kind":"colony","tier":2,"capital":"Santiago de los Caballeros (Antigua), then Guatemala City","desc":"Spanish kingdom within New Spain covering Chiapas to Costa Rica, set up as an audiencia in 1543. Earthquakes in 1773 forced the capital to move to the new Guatemala City.","next":["first-mexican-empire"]},{"id":"baymen-belize","name":"Baymen settlement of Belize","short":"Baymen","start":1650,"end":1862,"approx":true,"family":"germanic","group":"maya","kind":"colony","tier":3,"capital":"Belize Town","desc":"English logwood cutters and their enslaved Africans who settled the Belize River from the mid 1600s. They beat off a Spanish fleet at St George's Caye in 1798.","next":["british-honduras"]},{"id":"guatemala","name":"Guatemala","start":1839,"end":2025,"family":"romance","group":"maya","kind":"state","tier":3,"capital":"Guatemala City","desc":"Republic that left the Central American federation under Rafael Carrera. A US-backed coup in 1954 led to a civil war from 1960 to 1996 that killed about 200,000 people, most of them Maya."},{"id":"yucatan-republic","name":"Republic of Yucatán","short":"Yucatán","start":1841,"end":1848,"family":"romance","group":"maya","kind":"state","tier":3,"capital":"Mérida","desc":"Breakaway republic of the Yucatán peninsula. Facing defeat in the Caste War against its Maya peasants, it rejoined Mexico in 1848 in return for military aid.","next":["mexico"]},{"id":"chan-santa-cruz","name":"Chan Santa Cruz","start":1850,"end":1901,"family":"mayan","group":"maya","kind":"state","tier":3,"capital":"Chan Santa Cruz","desc":"Independent Maya state of eastern Yucatán formed during the Caste War around the shrine of the Talking Cross. It traded guns with British Honduras until the Mexican army took its capital in 1901."},{"id":"british-honduras","name":"British Honduras","start":1862,"end":1981,"family":"germanic","group":"maya","kind":"colony","tier":3,"capital":"Belize City","desc":"British colony formalised in 1862 from the Belize settlement. Guatemala claimed the territory, which delayed independence. After Hurricane Hattie in 1961 the capital moved inland to Belmopan.","next":["belize"]},{"id":"belize","name":"Belize","start":1981,"end":2025,"family":"germanic","group":"maya","kind":"state","tier":3,"capital":"Belmopan","desc":"English-speaking country on the Caribbean coast that became independent in 1981 with British troops guarding it against Guatemala's territorial claim."},{"id":"isthmus-archaic","name":"Archaic foragers and gardeners of the isthmus","short":"Isthmus Archaic","start":-3500,"end":-1000,"approx":true,"family":"unknown","group":"lower-central-america","kind":"culture","tier":3,"desc":"Peoples of Panama and Costa Rica who were already growing maize, manioc and arrowroot in forest clearings before 5000 BCE, as starch grains from Aguadulce shelter show."},{"id":"monagrillo","name":"Monagrillo culture","short":"Monagrillo","start":-2500,"end":-1200,"approx":true,"family":"unknown","group":"lower-central-america","kind":"culture","tier":3,"desc":"Shell-midden communities on Parita Bay in central Panama who made some of the oldest pottery in the Americas."},{"id":"guayabo","name":"Guayabo de Turrialba","short":"Guayabo","start":-1000,"end":1400,"approx":true,"family":"chibchan","group":"lower-central-america","kind":"culture","tier":3,"desc":"Chiefdom center on the slopes of the Turrialba volcano in Costa Rica with stone causeways, mound platforms and aqueducts that still carry water. It was abandoned before the Spanish arrived."},{"id":"greater-nicoya","name":"Greater Nicoya cultures","short":"Greater Nicoya","start":-500,"end":1522,"approx":true,"family":"unknown","group":"lower-central-america","kind":"culture","tier":3,"desc":"Farming chiefdoms of Guanacaste and Pacific Nicaragua known for jade pendants and polychrome pottery. From about 800 CE Chorotega and later Nicarao migrants from Mexico settled the region."},{"id":"chibchan-chiefdoms","name":"Chibchan chiefdoms (Costa Rica and Panama)","short":"Chibchan chiefs","start":-500,"end":1570,"approx":true,"family":"chibchan","group":"lower-central-america","kind":"culture","tier":2,"desc":"Ranked societies of the Caribbean slope and highlands, led by chiefs who wore cast gold and tumbaga pendants. The Spanish conquered most of them between 1510 and the 1570s."},{"id":"gran-cocle","name":"Gran Coclé chiefdoms","short":"Gran Coclé","start":1,"end":1520,"approx":true,"family":"chibchan","group":"lower-central-america","kind":"culture","tier":3,"desc":"Chiefdoms of central Panama whose leaders were buried with heaps of gold plaques, as at Sitio Conte and El Caño. The chief Parita was found lying in state by the Spanish in 1519."},{"id":"diquis","name":"Diquís culture","short":"Diquís","start":500,"end":1530,"approx":true,"family":"chibchan","group":"lower-central-america","kind":"culture","tier":3,"desc":"Chiefdoms of the Diquís delta in southern Costa Rica who carved hundreds of near-perfect stone spheres, some over 2 m across, and placed them in front of chiefly houses."},{"id":"nicarao","name":"Nicarao chiefdom","short":"Nicarao","start":1200,"end":1524,"approx":true,"family":"uto-aztecan","group":"lower-central-america","kind":"culture","tier":3,"desc":"Nahua-speaking chiefdom between Lake Nicaragua and the Pacific. Its ruler met the Spanish explorer Gil González Dávila in 1522 and the country is named after him."},{"id":"spanish-panama","name":"Spanish Panama (Castilla de Oro)","short":"Spanish Panama","start":1510,"end":1821,"family":"romance","group":"lower-central-america","kind":"colony","tier":3,"capital":"Santa María la Antigua del Darién, then Panama City","desc":"First Spanish mainland colony, from which Balboa crossed to the Pacific in 1513. Peruvian silver crossed the isthmus to Portobelo. It joined Gran Colombia at independence in 1821."},{"id":"mosquito-kingdom","name":"Mosquito Kingdom","short":"Mosquito Coast","start":1638,"end":1894,"approx":true,"family":"chibchan","group":"lower-central-america","kind":"state","tier":3,"capital":"Bluefields","desc":"Miskito kingdom on the Caribbean coast of Nicaragua and Honduras, whose kings were crowned under British protection. Britain withdrew in 1860 and Nicaragua annexed the reserve in 1894.","next":["nicaragua"]},{"id":"federal-republic-central-america","name":"Federal Republic of Central America","short":"Central America","start":1823,"end":1841,"family":"romance","group":"lower-central-america","kind":"state","tier":2,"capital":"Guatemala City, then San Salvador","desc":"Union of Guatemala, El Salvador, Honduras, Nicaragua and Costa Rica formed after leaving Mexico. Civil wars between liberals and conservatives broke it apart from 1838, and Francisco Morazán was shot in 1842.","next":["guatemala","el-salvador","honduras","nicaragua","costa-rica"]},{"id":"honduras","name":"Honduras","start":1838,"end":2025,"family":"romance","group":"lower-central-america","kind":"state","tier":3,"capital":"Comayagua, then Tegucigalpa","desc":"Republic whose economy came to be dominated by US banana companies in the early 1900s. It fought the brief Football War with El Salvador in 1969."},{"id":"nicaragua","name":"Nicaragua","start":1838,"end":2025,"family":"romance","group":"lower-central-america","kind":"state","tier":3,"capital":"Managua","desc":"Republic seized by the American adventurer William Walker in 1856 and occupied by US Marines from 1912 to 1933. The Sandinistas overthrew the Somoza family dictatorship in 1979."},{"id":"costa-rica","name":"Costa Rica","start":1838,"end":2025,"family":"romance","group":"lower-central-america","kind":"state","tier":3,"capital":"San José","desc":"Coffee-exporting republic that abolished its army in 1948 after a short civil war and has held regular democratic elections since."},{"id":"el-salvador","name":"El Salvador","start":1841,"end":2025,"family":"romance","group":"lower-central-america","kind":"state","tier":3,"capital":"San Salvador","desc":"Smallest and most densely populated Central American country. The army killed thousands of peasants in the Matanza of 1932, and a civil war from 1980 to 1992 killed about 75,000."},{"id":"panama","name":"Panama","start":1903,"end":2025,"family":"romance","group":"lower-central-america","kind":"state","tier":3,"capital":"Panama City","desc":"Seceded from Colombia in 1903 with US backing so the canal could be built. The US invaded in 1989 to remove Manuel Noriega and handed over the canal in 1999."},{"id":"panama-canal-zone","name":"Panama Canal Zone","short":"Canal Zone","start":1903,"end":1979,"family":"germanic","group":"lower-central-america","kind":"colony","tier":3,"capital":"Balboa Heights","desc":"Strip of land about 16 km wide around the canal, governed by the United States. The Torrijos-Carter Treaties abolished it in 1979.","next":["panama"]},{"id":"casimiroid","name":"Casimiroid culture","short":"Casimiroid","start":-3500,"end":-200,"approx":true,"family":"unknown","group":"caribbean","kind":"culture","tier":3,"desc":"The first settlers of Cuba and Hispaniola, who arrived around 4000 BCE, probably by canoe from Central America. They made long flint blades, fished and hunted manatee."},{"id":"ortoiroid","name":"Ortoiroid culture","short":"Ortoiroid","start":-3500,"end":-400,"approx":true,"family":"unknown","group":"caribbean","kind":"culture","tier":3,"desc":"Shellfish gatherers and fishers who moved from Trinidad, where Banwari Trace dates to about 5000 BCE, up the Lesser Antilles to Puerto Rico by about 2000 BCE."},{"id":"saladoid","name":"Saladoid culture","short":"Saladoid","start":-500,"end":600,"approx":true,"family":"arawakan","group":"caribbean","kind":"culture","tier":2,"desc":"Pottery-making manioc farmers from the Orinoco who canoed through the Lesser Antilles to Puerto Rico around 500 BCE. They are known for white-on-red painted pottery.","next":["ostionoid"]},{"id":"ostionoid","name":"Ostionoid culture","short":"Ostionoid","start":600,"end":1200,"approx":true,"family":"arawakan","group":"caribbean","kind":"culture","tier":3,"desc":"Descendants of the Saladoid who spread to Hispaniola, Jamaica, eastern Cuba and the Bahamas. They built the first stone-lined ball plazas, or bateyes.","next":["taino","lucayan"]},{"id":"lucayan","name":"Lucayan Taíno","short":"Lucayan","start":800,"end":1520,"approx":true,"family":"arawakan","group":"caribbean","kind":"culture","tier":3,"desc":"Taíno settlers of the Bahamas who met Columbus at Guanahani in October 1492. Spanish slavers carried off nearly all of them to Hispaniola's mines by 1520."},{"id":"taino","name":"Taíno chiefdoms","short":"Taíno","start":1200,"end":1550,"approx":true,"family":"arawakan","group":"caribbean","kind":"culture","tier":1,"desc":"Chiefdoms of the Greater Antilles led by caciques, with five paramount chiefdoms on Hispaniola alone. Spanish forced labour, war and smallpox wiped out most Taíno within two generations of 1492."},{"id":"island-carib","name":"Island Caribs (Kalinago)","short":"Kalinago","start":1200,"end":2025,"approx":true,"family":"cariban","group":"caribbean","kind":"culture","tier":3,"desc":"Seafaring people of the Lesser Antilles who resisted European colonisation on Dominica and St Vincent into the 1700s. A Kalinago Territory was set aside on Dominica in 1903."},{"id":"santo-domingo","name":"Captaincy General of Santo Domingo","short":"Santo Domingo","start":1493,"end":1821,"family":"romance","group":"caribbean","kind":"colony","tier":2,"capital":"Santo Domingo","desc":"The first Spanish colony in the Americas, with the first cathedral and university. Spain ceded it to France in 1795, recovered it in 1809, and lost it in 1821.","next":["haiti"]},{"id":"spanish-puerto-rico","name":"Spanish Puerto Rico","short":"Spanish PR","start":1508,"end":1898,"family":"romance","group":"caribbean","kind":"colony","tier":3,"capital":"San Juan","desc":"Colonised by Juan Ponce de León from 1508, it guarded the entrance to the Caribbean with the fortress of El Morro. Spain ceded it to the United States after the war of 1898.","next":["puerto-rico-us"]},{"id":"spanish-jamaica","name":"Spanish Jamaica","start":1509,"end":1655,"family":"romance","group":"caribbean","kind":"colony","tier":3,"capital":"Sevilla la Nueva, then Villa de la Vega","desc":"Small Spanish colony used for cattle ranching and supplies. An English expedition sent by Oliver Cromwell captured it in 1655.","next":["colony-of-jamaica"]},{"id":"spanish-cuba","name":"Spanish Cuba","start":1511,"end":1898,"family":"romance","group":"caribbean","kind":"colony","tier":2,"capital":"Havana","desc":"Conquered by Diego Velázquez from 1511, Havana gathered the treasure fleets bound for Spain. A sugar boom after 1790 relied on enslaved Africans, and wars of independence began in 1868.","next":["republic-of-cuba"]},{"id":"british-west-indies","name":"British West Indies","short":"British WI","start":1624,"end":1983,"family":"germanic","group":"caribbean","kind":"colony","tier":2,"desc":"English and later British islands, beginning with St Kitts in 1624 and Barbados in 1627. Sugar plantations worked by enslaved Africans made them Britain's richest colonies until slavery ended in 1834."},{"id":"dutch-caribbean","name":"Dutch Caribbean","short":"Dutch Caribbean","start":1634,"end":2025,"family":"germanic","group":"caribbean","kind":"colony","tier":3,"capital":"Willemstad","desc":"Curaçao, Aruba, Bonaire and the northern islands of Sint Eustatius, Saba and Sint Maarten. Curaçao was a hub of the slave trade. Aruba, Curaçao and Sint Maarten are now countries within the Dutch kingdom."},{"id":"french-antilles","name":"French Antilles","start":1635,"end":1946,"family":"romance","group":"caribbean","kind":"colony","tier":3,"capital":"Saint-Pierre, Basse-Terre","desc":"French sugar colonies of Martinique and Guadeloupe. Slavery was abolished in 1794, restored by Napoleon in 1802 and abolished for good in 1848.","next":["french-departments"]},{"id":"colony-of-jamaica","name":"Colony of Jamaica","short":"Jamaica (Br.)","start":1655,"end":1962,"family":"germanic","group":"caribbean","kind":"colony","tier":2,"capital":"Spanish Town, then Kingston","desc":"Britain's largest sugar colony, first a base for buccaneers at Port Royal. The slave revolt of 1831 hastened abolition, and the Morant Bay rebellion of 1865 led to direct crown rule.","next":["jamaica"]},{"id":"danish-west-indies","name":"Danish West Indies","short":"Danish W. Indies","start":1672,"end":1917,"family":"germanic","group":"caribbean","kind":"colony","tier":3,"capital":"Charlotte Amalie and Christiansted","desc":"Danish sugar colony on St Thomas, St John and St Croix. Denmark ended slavery there after a revolt in 1848 and sold the islands to the United States for 25 million dollars in 1917."},{"id":"saint-domingue","name":"Saint-Domingue","start":1697,"end":1804,"family":"romance","group":"caribbean","kind":"colony","tier":2,"capital":"Cap-Français, then Port-au-Prince","desc":"French western Hispaniola, the richest colony in the world by 1789, producing about 40 percent of Europe's sugar with some 500,000 enslaved people. The revolution of 1791 destroyed it.","next":["haiti"]},{"id":"haiti","name":"Haiti","start":1804,"end":2025,"family":"romance","group":"caribbean","kind":"state","tier":1,"capital":"Port-au-Prince","desc":"The first state founded by formerly enslaved people, after a revolt that defeated French, Spanish and British armies. France forced it to pay a huge indemnity from 1825, and US Marines occupied it from 1915 to 1934."},{"id":"kingdom-of-haiti","name":"Kingdom of Haiti","short":"Kingdom of Haiti","start":1811,"end":1820,"family":"romance","group":"caribbean","kind":"state","tier":3,"capital":"Cap-Henri","desc":"Northern Haitian monarchy of Henri Christophe, who built the Sans-Souci palace and the Citadelle Laferrière. After his suicide in 1820 the north rejoined the republic.","next":["haiti"]},{"id":"dominican-republic","name":"Dominican Republic","start":1844,"end":2025,"family":"romance","group":"caribbean","kind":"state","tier":3,"capital":"Santo Domingo","desc":"Independent from Haiti in 1844 after 22 years of Haitian rule. Spain reannexed it from 1861 to 1865, and Rafael Trujillo ruled as dictator from 1930 to 1961."},{"id":"puerto-rico-us","name":"Puerto Rico (US territory)","short":"Puerto Rico","start":1898,"end":2025,"family":"germanic","group":"caribbean","kind":"colony","tier":3,"capital":"San Juan","desc":"US territory since 1898. Puerto Ricans became US citizens in 1917, and the island became a self-governing commonwealth in 1952."},{"id":"republic-of-cuba","name":"Republic of Cuba","start":1902,"end":1959,"family":"romance","group":"caribbean","kind":"state","tier":3,"capital":"Havana","desc":"Republic created after US occupation, with the Platt Amendment giving Washington a right to intervene and a base at Guantánamo. Fulgencio Batista dominated it from 1933 until 1959.","next":["cuba"]},{"id":"french-departments","name":"Guadeloupe and Martinique (French departments)","short":"French Antilles","start":1946,"end":2025,"family":"romance","group":"caribbean","kind":"colony","tier":3,"capital":"Basse-Terre, Fort-de-France","desc":"Former colonies that became overseas departments of France in 1946, sending deputies to Paris and forming part of the European Union."},{"id":"west-indies-federation","name":"West Indies Federation","short":"W. Indies Fed.","start":1958,"end":1962,"family":"germanic","group":"caribbean","kind":"colony","tier":3,"capital":"Port of Spain","desc":"Union of ten British Caribbean colonies meant to become one independent state. It collapsed after Jamaica voted to leave in 1961.","next":["jamaica","trinidad-and-tobago"]},{"id":"cuba","name":"Cuba","start":1959,"end":2025,"family":"romance","group":"caribbean","kind":"state","tier":2,"capital":"Havana","desc":"Socialist state formed after Fidel Castro's revolution of 1959. It allied with the Soviet Union, defeated the Bay of Pigs invasion in 1961 and hosted the missiles that caused the 1962 crisis."},{"id":"jamaica","name":"Jamaica","start":1962,"end":2025,"family":"germanic","group":"caribbean","kind":"state","tier":3,"capital":"Kingston","desc":"The largest English-speaking Caribbean island, independent in 1962. Its reggae music and Rastafari movement spread around the world from the 1970s."},{"id":"trinidad-and-tobago","name":"Trinidad and Tobago","short":"Trinidad","start":1962,"end":2025,"family":"germanic","group":"caribbean","kind":"state","tier":3,"capital":"Port of Spain","desc":"Two-island country led to independence by Eric Williams in 1962. Oil and natural gas made it the richest state in the Caribbean, home to the steelpan and calypso."},{"id":"barbados","name":"Barbados","start":1966,"end":2025,"family":"germanic","group":"caribbean","kind":"state","tier":3,"capital":"Bridgetown","desc":"Britain's oldest sugar island, independent in 1966. It replaced the British monarch with an elected president in 2021."},{"id":"bahamas","name":"Bahamas","start":1973,"end":2025,"family":"germanic","group":"caribbean","kind":"state","tier":3,"capital":"Nassau","desc":"Archipelago of about 700 islands, once a haven for pirates and blockade runners, independent in 1973 and now living mainly from tourism and offshore banking."},{"id":"grenada","name":"Grenada","start":1974,"end":2025,"family":"germanic","group":"caribbean","kind":"state","tier":3,"capital":"St. George's","desc":"Spice island that became independent in 1974. After a revolutionary government killed its own leader Maurice Bishop in 1983, US forces invaded."},{"id":"dominica","name":"Dominica","start":1978,"end":2025,"family":"germanic","group":"caribbean","kind":"state","tier":3,"capital":"Roseau","desc":"Mountainous volcanic island, independent in 1978, home to the Kalinago Territory and the last surviving Island Carib community."},{"id":"saint-lucia","name":"Saint Lucia","start":1979,"end":2025,"family":"germanic","group":"caribbean","kind":"state","tier":3,"capital":"Castries","desc":"Island that changed hands between France and Britain fourteen times before 1814. It became independent in 1979 and has produced two Nobel laureates."},{"id":"saint-vincent","name":"Saint Vincent and the Grenadines","short":"St Vincent","start":1979,"end":2025,"family":"germanic","group":"caribbean","kind":"state","tier":3,"capital":"Kingstown","desc":"Former Black Carib stronghold whose Garifuna people Britain deported to Central America in 1797. It became independent in 1979."},{"id":"antigua-and-barbuda","name":"Antigua and Barbuda","short":"Antigua","start":1981,"end":2025,"family":"germanic","group":"caribbean","kind":"state","tier":3,"capital":"St. John's","desc":"Former sugar colony and site of Nelson's Dockyard, the Royal Navy's main Caribbean base. It became independent in 1981."},{"id":"saint-kitts-and-nevis","name":"Saint Kitts and Nevis","short":"St Kitts & Nevis","start":1983,"end":2025,"family":"germanic","group":"caribbean","kind":"state","tier":3,"capital":"Basseterre","desc":"The first English colony in the Caribbean, settled in 1624. It was the last of the British West Indies to gain independence, in 1983, and is the smallest state in the Americas."}],"events":[{"year":-1650,"title":"Oldest known ballcourt built","desc":"Villagers at Paso de la Amada on the Chiapas coast build a court for the rubber ball game, a sport played across Mesoamerica for the next 3,000 years.","tier":2,"group":"maya","related":["mokaya"]},{"year":-1200,"title":"San Lorenzo rises as the first Olmec center","desc":"Olmec rulers at San Lorenzo carve colossal basalt heads from stone dragged some 60 km from the Tuxtla Mountains.","tier":2,"group":"gulf-oaxaca","related":["olmec","san-lorenzo"]},{"year":-500,"title":"Monte Albán founded","desc":"Zapotec communities of the Valley of Oaxaca build a new capital on a mountaintop, one of the first cities in Mesoamerica.","tier":2,"group":"gulf-oaxaca","related":["monte-alban","san-jose-mogote"]},{"year":-32,"title":"Early Long Count date at Tres Zapotes","desc":"Stela C at Tres Zapotes records a date in 32 BCE in the Long Count calendar, later used by the Classic Maya.","tier":2,"group":"gulf-oaxaca","related":["epi-olmec"]},{"year":200,"title":"Pyramid of the Sun completed","desc":"Teotihuacan finishes its largest monument, about 65 m tall, over a cave that was a sacred place before the city grew.","tier":2,"group":"central-mexico","related":["teotihuacan"]},{"year":378,"title":"Teotihuacan intervenes at Tikal","desc":"The warlord Siyaj K'ak' arrives at Tikal from Teotihuacan on the day its king dies and installs a new dynasty.","tier":2,"group":"maya","related":["tikal","teotihuacan"]},{"year":695,"title":"Tikal defeats Calakmul","desc":"Jasaw Chan K'awiil of Tikal defeats Yich'aak K'ahk' of Calakmul, ending the dominance of the Snake kingdom in the southern lowlands.","tier":2,"group":"maya","related":["tikal","calakmul"]},{"year":850,"title":"Classic Maya collapse","desc":"Over about a century, the southern lowland Maya cities stop raising monuments and lose most of their people, amid drought, warfare and failing kingship.","tier":1,"group":"maya","related":["classic-maya","tikal","copan","calakmul"]},{"year":1325,"title":"Tenochtitlan founded","desc":"The Mexica settle on an island in Lake Texcoco where, in their legend, an eagle perched on a cactus.","tier":2,"group":"central-mexico","related":["tenochtitlan"]},{"year":1428,"title":"Triple Alliance formed","desc":"Tenochtitlan, Texcoco and Tlacopan defeat Azcapotzalco and form the alliance that becomes the Aztec Empire.","tier":2,"group":"central-mexico","related":["aztec-empire","tepanec"]},{"year":1492,"title":"Columbus reaches the Caribbean","desc":"Columbus lands in the Bahamas on 12 October and goes on to Cuba and Hispaniola, beginning permanent contact between Europe and the Americas.","tier":1,"group":"caribbean","related":["lucayan","taino"]},{"year":1521,"title":"Fall of Tenochtitlan","desc":"After a siege of about 80 days, Cortés and tens of thousands of Tlaxcalan and other allies capture the Aztec capital, already ravaged by smallpox.","tier":1,"group":"central-mexico","related":["aztec-empire","new-spain","tlaxcala"]},{"year":1545,"title":"Cocoliztli epidemic","desc":"A pestilence called cocoliztli kills a large part of the native population of New Spain between 1545 and 1548.","tier":2,"group":"central-mexico","related":["new-spain"]},{"year":1697,"title":"Fall of Nojpetén","desc":"Spanish forces storm the island capital of the Itza, the last independent Maya kingdom.","tier":2,"group":"maya","related":["itza"]},{"year":1791,"title":"Haitian Revolution begins","desc":"Enslaved people in northern Saint-Domingue rise up. Under Toussaint Louverture and Dessalines they abolish slavery and win independence in 1804.","tier":1,"group":"caribbean","related":["saint-domingue","haiti"]},{"year":1810,"title":"Grito de Dolores","desc":"The priest Miguel Hidalgo calls for revolt against Spanish rule, starting the Mexican War of Independence, won in 1821.","tier":2,"group":"central-mexico","related":["new-spain","first-mexican-empire"]},{"year":1847,"title":"Caste War of Yucatán begins","desc":"Maya peasants rise against the Yucatecan elite and nearly take Mérida. Rebels hold eastern Yucatán for over 50 years.","tier":2,"group":"maya","related":["yucatan-republic","chan-santa-cruz"]},{"year":1848,"title":"Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo","desc":"Mexico cedes California, New Mexico and its claims to Texas to the United States, about half its territory.","tier":2,"group":"northern-mexico","related":["mexico"]},{"year":1910,"title":"Mexican Revolution","desc":"A revolt against Porfirio Díaz turns into a decade of civil war that kills about a million people and produces the Constitution of 1917.","tier":2,"group":"central-mexico","related":["mexico"]},{"year":1914,"title":"Panama Canal opens","desc":"The US-built canal links the Atlantic and Pacific after ten years of work, cutting about 13,000 km off the voyage from New York to San Francisco.","tier":1,"group":"lower-central-america","related":["panama","panama-canal-zone"]},{"year":1959,"title":"Cuban Revolution","desc":"Fidel Castro's guerrillas take Havana after Batista flees. Within two years Cuba is a socialist state allied with the Soviet Union.","tier":2,"group":"caribbean","related":["republic-of-cuba","cuba"]},{"year":1962,"title":"Cuban Missile Crisis","desc":"A standoff over Soviet nuclear missiles in Cuba brings the United States and the Soviet Union close to nuclear war for thirteen days in October.","tier":1,"group":"caribbean","related":["cuba"]}]},{"id":"south-america","name":"South America","groups":[{"id":"northern-andes","name":"Northern Andes"},{"id":"peru-coast","name":"Peruvian Coast"},{"id":"central-highlands","name":"Central Andean Highlands"},{"id":"amazon-guianas","name":"Amazon and Guianas"},{"id":"brazil","name":"Brazil"},{"id":"southern-cone","name":"Southern Cone"}],"entries":[{"id":"northern-andes-archaic","name":"Northern Andean Archaic peoples","short":"N. Andes Archaic","start":-3500,"end":-1500,"approx":true,"family":"unknown","group":"northern-andes","kind":"culture","tier":3,"desc":"Foragers and early cultivators of Colombia and Ecuador. At San Jacinto and Puerto Hormiga in the Colombian Caribbean lowlands they made some of the oldest pottery in the Americas, from about 4000 BCE."},{"id":"valdivia","name":"Valdivia culture","short":"Valdivia","start":-3500,"end":-1800,"approx":true,"family":"unknown","group":"northern-andes","kind":"culture","tier":2,"desc":"Village farmers of coastal Ecuador, among the first pottery makers in the Americas, known for small stone and clay female figurines. Real Alto had houses set around a central plaza.","next":["machalilla"]},{"id":"machalilla","name":"Machalilla culture","short":"Machalilla","start":-1800,"end":-1100,"approx":true,"family":"unknown","group":"northern-andes","kind":"culture","tier":3,"desc":"Successors of Valdivia on the Ecuadorian coast who made some of the earliest stirrup-spout bottles, a vessel form later used across the Andes.","next":["chorrera"]},{"id":"chorrera","name":"Chorrera culture","short":"Chorrera","start":-1300,"end":-300,"approx":true,"family":"unknown","group":"northern-andes","kind":"culture","tier":3,"desc":"Farmers of coastal and highland Ecuador known for whistling bottles and fine polished pottery shaped like animals and fruit. Their styles spread along the coast toward Peru."},{"id":"la-tolita","name":"Tumaco-La Tolita culture","short":"La Tolita","start":-600,"end":400,"approx":true,"family":"unknown","group":"northern-andes","kind":"culture","tier":3,"desc":"Coastal society of the Ecuador and Colombia border whose goldsmiths were the first in the world to work platinum, sintering it with gold. Its ceremonial center stood on La Tolita island."},{"id":"zenu","name":"Zenú culture","short":"Zenú","start":-200,"end":1000,"approx":true,"family":"unknown","group":"northern-andes","kind":"culture","tier":3,"desc":"Farmers of the San Jorge and Sinú floodplains of northern Colombia who built a vast system of ridged fields and canals to manage floods. Their goldsmiths made fine cast filigree ornaments."},{"id":"san-agustin","name":"San Agustín culture","short":"San Agustín","start":1,"end":900,"approx":true,"family":"unknown","group":"northern-andes","kind":"culture","tier":3,"desc":"People of the upper Magdalena valley in Colombia who carved over 500 stone statues of guardians, animals and deities to stand over their burial mounds."},{"id":"quimbaya","name":"Quimbaya culture","short":"Quimbaya","start":1,"end":1550,"approx":true,"family":"unknown","group":"northern-andes","kind":"culture","tier":3,"desc":"Chiefdoms of the middle Cauca valley known for cast gold figures. The Quimbaya Treasure, found in 1890, was given by Colombia to Spain in 1893 and is now in Madrid."},{"id":"tairona","name":"Tairona","start":200,"end":1600,"approx":true,"family":"chibchan","group":"northern-andes","kind":"culture","tier":3,"desc":"Chibchan towns of the Sierra Nevada de Santa Marta linked by stone paths and terraces, including Ciudad Perdida, founded around 800. Their descendants, the Kogi, still live in the mountains."},{"id":"canari","name":"Cañari","start":500,"end":1532,"approx":true,"family":"unknown","group":"northern-andes","kind":"culture","tier":3,"desc":"Highland people of southern Ecuador who resisted the Inca for years. Tupac Inca Yupanqui built Tumebamba over their capital, and the Cañari later sided with the Spanish."},{"id":"tierradentro","name":"Tierradentro culture","short":"Tierradentro","start":600,"end":900,"approx":true,"family":"unknown","group":"northern-andes","kind":"culture","tier":3,"desc":"Farmers of the Cauca highlands who dug underground tombs reached by spiral stairs and painted them with red and black geometric designs."},{"id":"muisca","name":"Muisca Confederation","short":"Muisca","start":800,"end":1540,"approx":true,"family":"chibchan","group":"northern-andes","kind":"culture","tier":2,"capital":"Bacatá and Hunza","desc":"Chibchan chiefdoms of the Bogotá highlands led by the zipa of Bacatá and the zaque of Hunza. Their gold offerings at Lake Guatavita gave rise to the legend of El Dorado. Jiménez de Quesada conquered them by 1540."},{"id":"mantenos","name":"Manteño-Huancavilca culture","short":"Manteño","start":800,"end":1532,"approx":true,"family":"unknown","group":"northern-andes","kind":"culture","tier":3,"desc":"Seafaring traders of the Ecuadorian coast who sailed balsa rafts carrying Spondylus shell along the Pacific coast, possibly as far as western Mexico. Spanish pilot Bartolomé Ruiz captured one of their rafts in 1526."},{"id":"klein-venedig","name":"Klein-Venedig (Welser Venezuela)","short":"Klein-Venedig","start":1528,"end":1546,"family":"germanic","group":"northern-andes","kind":"colony","tier":3,"capital":"Coro","desc":"Charles V leased the province of Venezuela to the Welser banking house of Augsburg to pay his debts. Its German governors spent the grant hunting for El Dorado until Spain revoked it.","next":["province-of-venezuela"]},{"id":"new-kingdom-of-granada","name":"New Kingdom of Granada","short":"New Granada","start":1538,"end":1717,"family":"romance","group":"northern-andes","kind":"colony","tier":3,"capital":"Santa Fe de Bogotá","desc":"Spanish colony founded on the conquered Muisca lands with Bogotá in 1538. It was governed under the Viceroyalty of Peru, with emeralds and gold from Antioquia as its main wealth.","next":["viceroyalty-new-granada"]},{"id":"province-of-venezuela","name":"Province of Venezuela","start":1546,"end":1777,"family":"romance","group":"northern-andes","kind":"colony","tier":3,"capital":"Coro, then Caracas","desc":"Spanish province after the Welser grant ended. Caracas was founded in 1567, and cacao grown by enslaved Africans became its main export.","next":["captaincy-general-venezuela"]},{"id":"audiencia-quito","name":"Real Audiencia of Quito","short":"Quito","start":1563,"end":1822,"family":"romance","group":"northern-andes","kind":"colony","tier":3,"capital":"Quito","desc":"Spanish judicial and administrative district on the former northern Inca lands, first under Peru and from 1739 under New Granada. Its Quito school of painting and sculpture was famous across the colonies.","next":["gran-colombia"]},{"id":"viceroyalty-new-granada","name":"Viceroyalty of New Granada","short":"Vic. New Granada","start":1717,"end":1819,"family":"romance","group":"northern-andes","kind":"colony","tier":2,"capital":"Santa Fe de Bogotá","desc":"Viceroyalty carved from Peru covering Colombia, Ecuador, Panama and Venezuela, suppressed in 1723 and restored in 1739. Creole juntas rose against it from 1810.","next":["gran-colombia"]},{"id":"captaincy-general-venezuela","name":"Captaincy General of Venezuela","short":"Venezuela (Sp.)","start":1777,"end":1823,"family":"romance","group":"northern-andes","kind":"colony","tier":3,"capital":"Caracas","desc":"Spanish captaincy that united the Venezuelan provinces under Caracas. Its congress declared independence in 1811, the first in Spanish America, opening a long war.","next":["gran-colombia"]},{"id":"gran-colombia","name":"Gran Colombia","start":1819,"end":1831,"family":"romance","group":"northern-andes","kind":"state","tier":2,"capital":"Bogotá","desc":"Republic proclaimed by Simón Bolívar at Angostura, uniting Colombia, Venezuela, Ecuador and Panama. Regional rivalries broke it apart in 1830, the year Bolívar died.","next":["colombia","venezuela","ecuador"]},{"id":"colombia","name":"Colombia","start":1831,"end":2025,"family":"romance","group":"northern-andes","kind":"state","tier":2,"capital":"Bogotá","desc":"Republic called New Granada until 1858. It lost Panama in 1903 and suffered La Violencia from 1948 to 1958 and a long guerrilla war, partly ended by the 2016 peace deal with the FARC."},{"id":"venezuela","name":"Venezuela","start":1830,"end":2025,"family":"romance","group":"northern-andes","kind":"state","tier":3,"capital":"Caracas","desc":"Republic ruled by caudillos through the 1800s. Oil found at Lake Maracaibo made it a major exporter from the 1920s. Hugo Chávez took power in 1999 and the economy collapsed in the 2010s."},{"id":"ecuador","name":"Ecuador","start":1830,"end":2025,"family":"romance","group":"northern-andes","kind":"state","tier":3,"capital":"Quito","desc":"Republic named for the equator that left Gran Colombia in 1830. It exports bananas and oil, owns the Galápagos Islands, and adopted the US dollar in 2000."},{"id":"coast-archaic","name":"Archaic fishing villages of the Peruvian coast","short":"Coastal Archaic","start":-3500,"end":-1800,"approx":true,"family":"unknown","group":"peru-coast","kind":"culture","tier":3,"desc":"Villages of the desert coast that lived on anchovies, shellfish and sea lions and grew cotton for nets and gourds for floats, as at Huaca Prieta in the Chicama valley."},{"id":"caral","name":"Caral-Supe (Norte Chico)","short":"Caral","start":-3000,"end":-1800,"approx":true,"family":"unknown","group":"peru-coast","kind":"culture","tier":1,"capital":"Caral","desc":"The oldest known civilization in the Americas, with over 20 towns in the Supe, Pativilca and Fortaleza valleys. Caral had platform mounds and sunken circular plazas by 2600 BCE, before pottery reached the region."},{"id":"sechin","name":"Casma valley centers (Sechín)","short":"Sechín","start":-1800,"end":-900,"approx":true,"family":"unknown","group":"peru-coast","kind":"culture","tier":3,"desc":"Early temple centers of the Casma valley. Sechín Alto was one of the largest structures in the Americas around 1500 BCE, and Cerro Sechín is lined with carvings of warriors and dismembered captives."},{"id":"cupisnique","name":"Cupisnique culture","short":"Cupisnique","start":-1500,"end":-500,"approx":true,"family":"unknown","group":"peru-coast","kind":"culture","tier":3,"desc":"Temple-building society of the north coast known for stirrup-spout pottery and feline and spider deities, sharing much of the imagery later seen at Chavín de Huántar."},{"id":"paracas","name":"Paracas culture","short":"Paracas","start":-800,"end":100,"approx":true,"family":"unknown","group":"peru-coast","kind":"culture","tier":2,"desc":"Society of the south coast whose mummy bundles in the Wari Kayan necropolis were wrapped in embroidered textiles. They practised skull elongation and trepanation.","next":["nazca"]},{"id":"nazca","name":"Nazca culture","short":"Nazca","start":-100,"end":800,"approx":true,"family":"unknown","group":"peru-coast","kind":"culture","tier":2,"desc":"South coast people who drew the Nazca Lines, giant figures and straight lines scraped into the desert, and dug underground aqueducts called puquios. Cahuachi was their ceremonial center."},{"id":"moche","name":"Moche (Mochica)","short":"Moche","start":100,"end":800,"approx":true,"family":"unknown","group":"peru-coast","kind":"state","tier":1,"capital":"Huacas de Moche","desc":"North coast kingdoms famous for portrait vessels, metalwork and the adobe Huaca del Sol. The Lord of Sipán tomb was found intact in 1987. Floods and droughts weakened them after about 600."},{"id":"lima-culture","name":"Lima culture","short":"Lima","start":100,"end":650,"approx":true,"family":"unknown","group":"peru-coast","kind":"culture","tier":3,"desc":"Central coast society that built adobe pyramids such as Huaca Pucllana in modern Lima and the first temple at Pachacamac, later the great oracle of the coast."},{"id":"sican","name":"Sicán (Lambayeque)","short":"Sicán","start":750,"end":1375,"approx":true,"family":"unknown","group":"peru-coast","kind":"state","tier":3,"capital":"Batán Grande","desc":"North coast state that produced arsenical bronze on an industrial scale and buried its lords with gold masks. The Chimu conquered it around 1375."},{"id":"chimu","name":"Chimú kingdom (Chimor)","short":"Chimú","start":900,"end":1470,"approx":true,"family":"unknown","group":"peru-coast","kind":"state","tier":2,"capital":"Chan Chan","desc":"Coastal kingdom stretching about 1,000 km along northern Peru, ruled from Chan Chan, the largest adobe city in the Americas. The Inca conquered it around 1470 and took its goldsmiths to Cusco."},{"id":"chancay","name":"Chancay culture","short":"Chancay","start":1000,"end":1470,"approx":true,"family":"unknown","group":"peru-coast","kind":"culture","tier":3,"desc":"Central coast society north of Lima known for black-on-white pottery, cuchimilco figurines and fine gauze textiles. It came under Inca rule in the late 1400s."},{"id":"chincha","name":"Chincha kingdom","short":"Chincha","start":1000,"end":1476,"approx":true,"family":"unknown","group":"peru-coast","kind":"state","tier":3,"desc":"South coast lordship of merchants and seafarers who traded by raft along the coast. It joined the Inca Empire peacefully, and its lord was carried in a litter beside Atahualpa at Cajamarca."},{"id":"new-castile","name":"Governorate of New Castile","short":"New Castile","start":1532,"end":1542,"family":"romance","group":"peru-coast","kind":"colony","tier":3,"capital":"Lima from 1535","desc":"Francisco Pizarro's conquest grant over the former Inca lands. Its first decade was consumed by wars between the Pizarro and Almagro factions until the crown created a viceroyalty.","next":["viceroyalty-peru"]},{"id":"viceroyalty-peru","name":"Viceroyalty of Peru","short":"Vic. of Peru","start":1542,"end":1824,"family":"romance","group":"peru-coast","kind":"colony","tier":1,"capital":"Lima","desc":"Spanish viceroyalty that ruled nearly all of Spanish South America until the 1700s. Silver from Potosí, mined by forced Indigenous labour, flowed through it to Spain and on to China. Its last army surrendered at Ayacucho.","next":["peru"]},{"id":"peru","name":"Peru","start":1821,"end":2025,"family":"romance","group":"peru-coast","kind":"state","tier":2,"capital":"Lima","desc":"José de San Martín proclaimed independence in Lima in 1821. Chile occupied Lima in the War of the Pacific, and the internal war with the Shining Path from 1980 to 2000 killed about 70,000 people."},{"id":"highland-archaic","name":"Andean Archaic hunters and herders","short":"Andean Archaic","start":-3500,"end":-1500,"approx":true,"family":"unknown","group":"central-highlands","kind":"culture","tier":3,"desc":"Hunters of vicuña and guanaco on the high puna who domesticated the llama and alpaca by about 3500 BCE, and farmers of the Titicaca basin who domesticated the potato and quinoa."},{"id":"kotosh","name":"Kotosh religious tradition","short":"Kotosh","start":-2300,"end":-1200,"approx":true,"family":"unknown","group":"central-highlands","kind":"culture","tier":3,"desc":"Highland temples with sunken fire pits for burnt offerings, such as the Temple of the Crossed Hands at Kotosh near Huánuco, built before pottery came into use there."},{"id":"chiripa","name":"Chiripa culture","short":"Chiripa","start":-1500,"end":-100,"approx":true,"family":"unknown","group":"central-highlands","kind":"culture","tier":3,"desc":"Farming villages on the southern shore of Lake Titicaca that built sunken stone courts and terraced platforms, the earliest temple tradition of the basin."},{"id":"chavin","name":"Chavín culture","short":"Chavín","start":-900,"end":-200,"approx":true,"family":"unknown","group":"central-highlands","kind":"culture","tier":1,"capital":"Chavín de Huántar","desc":"Religious tradition centered on the temple of Chavín de Huántar, whose stone galleries hold the Lanzón idol. Its feline and serpent art spread across much of Peru as the first Andean horizon."},{"id":"pukara","name":"Pukara culture","short":"Pukara","start":-400,"end":300,"approx":true,"family":"unknown","group":"central-highlands","kind":"culture","tier":3,"desc":"The first large center of the northern Titicaca basin, with stepped stone platforms, sunken courts and carved stelae. Its styles shaped the later art of Tiwanaku."},{"id":"recuay","name":"Recuay culture","short":"Recuay","start":1,"end":700,"approx":true,"family":"unknown","group":"central-highlands","kind":"culture","tier":3,"desc":"Highland chiefdoms of the Callejón de Huaylas who built fortified hilltop settlements and stone sculptures of warriors and made white kaolin pottery."},{"id":"tiwanaku","name":"Tiwanaku","start":400,"end":1000,"approx":true,"family":"aymaran","group":"central-highlands","kind":"state","tier":1,"capital":"Tiwanaku","desc":"Highland state near Lake Titicaca at 3,850 m, with the Akapana pyramid and the Gateway of the Sun. Raised fields fed its people and colonies reached Moquegua and Atacama. Drought brought it down around 1000."},{"id":"wari","name":"Wari Empire","short":"Wari","start":600,"end":1000,"approx":true,"family":"unknown","group":"central-highlands","kind":"empire","tier":2,"capital":"Huari","desc":"The first Andean empire, ruled from near Ayacucho, with provincial centers such as Pikillacta near Cusco linked by roads. It may have pioneered the khipu cords later used by the Inca."},{"id":"aymara-kingdoms","name":"Aymara kingdoms (Colla, Lupaca)","short":"Aymara kingdoms","start":1100,"end":1450,"approx":true,"family":"aymaran","group":"central-highlands","kind":"state","tier":3,"capital":"Hatuncolla, Chucuito","desc":"Rival Aymara lordships around Lake Titicaca with large llama herds, who buried their elites in stone towers called chullpas. The Inca conquered them in the mid 1400s."},{"id":"chanka","name":"Chanka confederation","short":"Chanka","start":1100,"end":1438,"approx":true,"family":"unknown","group":"central-highlands","kind":"culture","tier":3,"desc":"Warlike alliance of the Andahuaylas region. According to Inca tradition their attack on Cusco around 1438 was beaten off by the future Pachacuti, who then began the Inca conquests."},{"id":"kingdom-of-cusco","name":"Kingdom of Cusco","short":"Cusco","start":1200,"end":1438,"approx":true,"family":"quechuan","group":"central-highlands","kind":"state","tier":3,"capital":"Cusco","desc":"Small Inca chiefdom in the Cusco valley, founded by the legendary Manco Cápac. Eight rulers held it before Pachacuti turned it into an empire.","next":["inca-empire"]},{"id":"inca-empire","name":"Inca Empire (Tawantinsuyu)","short":"Inca Empire","start":1438,"end":1533,"family":"quechuan","group":"central-highlands","kind":"empire","tier":1,"capital":"Cusco","desc":"The largest empire of the Americas, reaching from Ecuador to central Chile with about 10 million people and 40,000 km of roads. Weakened by smallpox and civil war, it fell to Pizarro after Atahualpa's capture in 1532.","next":["neo-inca","new-castile"]},{"id":"neo-inca","name":"Neo-Inca State of Vilcabamba","short":"Vilcabamba","start":1537,"end":1572,"family":"quechuan","group":"central-highlands","kind":"state","tier":3,"capital":"Vilcabamba","desc":"Inca kingdom in the jungle mountains founded by Manco Inca after his siege of Cusco failed. The Spanish captured the last ruler, Tupac Amaru, and beheaded him in Cusco in 1572."},{"id":"quechua-aymara-peoples","name":"Quechua and Aymara peoples","short":"Quechua, Aymara","start":1533,"end":2025,"approx":true,"family":"quechuan","group":"central-highlands","kind":"culture","tier":3,"desc":"Andean communities who kept their languages through colonial forced labour and rose in the great revolts of Tupac Amaru II and Tupac Katari in 1780 to 1782. Quechua has about 8 million speakers today."},{"id":"charcas","name":"Charcas (Upper Peru)","short":"Charcas","start":1559,"end":1825,"family":"romance","group":"central-highlands","kind":"colony","tier":3,"capital":"La Plata (Sucre)","desc":"Spanish audiencia covering modern Bolivia, home of the silver mountain of Potosí, found in 1545. Potosí grew to over 100,000 people, fed by the mita labour draft.","next":["bolivia"]},{"id":"bolivia","name":"Bolivia","start":1825,"end":2025,"family":"romance","group":"central-highlands","kind":"state","tier":3,"capital":"Sucre and La Paz","desc":"Republic named after Bolívar. It lost its coast to Chile in the War of the Pacific and the Chaco to Paraguay in 1935. Evo Morales became its first Indigenous president in 2006."},{"id":"peru-bolivian-confederation","name":"Peru-Bolivian Confederation","short":"Peru-Bolivia","start":1836,"end":1839,"family":"romance","group":"central-highlands","kind":"state","tier":3,"capital":"Tacna","desc":"Union of Peru and Bolivia created by the Bolivian president Andrés de Santa Cruz. Chile and Argentina saw it as a threat, and a Chilean army destroyed it at Yungay in 1839.","next":["peru","bolivia"]},{"id":"amazon-archaic","name":"Amazonian Archaic foragers","short":"Amazon Archaic","start":-3500,"end":-1000,"approx":true,"family":"unknown","group":"amazon-guianas","kind":"culture","tier":3,"desc":"Fishers and foragers of the Amazon floodplain. Shell mounds at Taperinha near Santarém hold pottery from about 5000 BCE, among the oldest in the Americas."},{"id":"mayo-chinchipe","name":"Mayo-Chinchipe culture","short":"Mayo-Chinchipe","start":-3300,"end":-500,"approx":true,"family":"unknown","group":"amazon-guianas","kind":"culture","tier":3,"desc":"People of the upper Amazon in southern Ecuador. Residues in vessels at Santa Ana-La Florida show they were using domesticated cacao by about 3300 BCE, the earliest known."},{"id":"barrancoid","name":"Barrancoid culture","short":"Barrancoid","start":-1000,"end":1000,"approx":true,"family":"arawakan","group":"amazon-guianas","kind":"culture","tier":3,"desc":"Manioc farmers of the lower Orinoco named after the site of Barrancas in Venezuela, known for modelled and incised pottery. Their trade links reached Trinidad and the Guianas coast."},{"id":"upano","name":"Upano valley settlements","short":"Upano","start":-500,"end":600,"approx":true,"family":"unknown","group":"amazon-guianas","kind":"culture","tier":3,"desc":"Garden cities in the Ecuadorian Amazon below the Sangay volcano. Lidar survey published in 2024 revealed thousands of earth platforms joined by long straight roads."},{"id":"marajoara","name":"Marajoara culture","short":"Marajoara","start":400,"end":1400,"approx":true,"family":"unknown","group":"amazon-guianas","kind":"culture","tier":2,"desc":"Mound-building society of Marajó Island at the mouth of the Amazon, known for large painted burial urns. Its earth mounds, some 10 m high, kept houses above the seasonal floods."},{"id":"arawakan-peoples","name":"Arawakan peoples of the Amazon","short":"Arawakan peoples","start":1000,"end":2025,"approx":true,"family":"arawakan","group":"amazon-guianas","kind":"culture","tier":3,"desc":"Speakers of the most widespread language family of South America, including the Lokono, Ashaninka and Wapishana. The rubber boom of 1879 to 1912 brought enslavement and mass death to many groups."},{"id":"carib-peoples","name":"Carib peoples of the Guianas","short":"Carib peoples","start":1000,"end":2025,"approx":true,"family":"cariban","group":"amazon-guianas","kind":"culture","tier":3,"desc":"Cariban speakers such as the Kalina, Wayana and Makuxi of the Guianas and the northern Amazon. Europeans named the Caribbean Sea after them."},{"id":"santarem","name":"Santarém culture (Tapajó)","short":"Santarém","start":1000,"end":1650,"approx":true,"family":"unknown","group":"amazon-guianas","kind":"culture","tier":3,"desc":"Dense chiefdom at the meeting of the Tapajós and Amazon rivers, known for ornate caryatid vessels and dark fertile soils. Portuguese slaving raids in the 1600s destroyed it."},{"id":"dutch-essequibo","name":"Dutch Essequibo, Berbice and Demerara","short":"Dutch Guiana W.","start":1616,"end":1814,"family":"germanic","group":"amazon-guianas","kind":"colony","tier":3,"capital":"Kyk-over-al, later Stabroek","desc":"Dutch plantation colonies on the rivers of modern Guyana. Enslaved Africans led by Coffy nearly took Berbice in the revolt of 1763. Britain took the colonies for good in 1814.","next":["british-guiana"]},{"id":"grao-para","name":"State of Maranhão and Grão-Pará","short":"Grão-Pará","start":1621,"end":1823,"family":"romance","group":"amazon-guianas","kind":"colony","tier":3,"capital":"São Luís, then Belém","desc":"Portuguese Amazon colony governed separately from Brazil and directly from Lisbon. Missionaries and slavers pushed up the rivers from Belém, founded in 1616.","next":["empire-of-brazil"]},{"id":"french-guiana","name":"French Guiana","start":1664,"end":2025,"family":"romance","group":"amazon-guianas","kind":"colony","tier":3,"capital":"Cayenne","desc":"French colony at Cayenne, used as a penal colony with the prison of Devil's Island from 1852 to 1953. It became an overseas department in 1946 and hosts Europe's spaceport at Kourou."},{"id":"dutch-suriname","name":"Dutch Suriname","short":"Suriname (Du.)","start":1667,"end":1975,"family":"germanic","group":"amazon-guianas","kind":"colony","tier":3,"capital":"Paramaribo","desc":"The Dutch kept Suriname in 1667 in exchange for New Amsterdam. Maroons who fled its sugar plantations won peace treaties in the 1760s. After slavery ended in 1863, workers came from India and Java.","next":["suriname"]},{"id":"british-guiana","name":"British Guiana","start":1814,"end":1966,"family":"germanic","group":"amazon-guianas","kind":"colony","tier":3,"capital":"Georgetown","desc":"British sugar colony formed from the Dutch river colonies and united in 1831. After emancipation, indentured workers from India came to outnumber the African population.","next":["guyana"]},{"id":"guyana","name":"Guyana","start":1966,"end":2025,"family":"germanic","group":"amazon-guianas","kind":"state","tier":3,"capital":"Georgetown","desc":"The only English-speaking country in South America, independent in 1966. Offshore oil production since 2019 has made its economy one of the fastest growing in the world."},{"id":"suriname","name":"Suriname","start":1975,"end":2025,"family":"germanic","group":"amazon-guianas","kind":"state","tier":3,"capital":"Paramaribo","desc":"Dutch-speaking country independent since 1975. Dési Bouterse seized power in a coup in 1980, and an interior war with Maroon rebels followed in 1986 to 1992."},{"id":"sambaqui","name":"Sambaqui shell-mound builders","short":"Sambaqui","start":-3500,"end":1000,"approx":true,"family":"unknown","group":"brazil","kind":"culture","tier":3,"desc":"Fishing peoples of the southern Brazilian coast who raised shell mounds up to 30 m high in Santa Catarina and Paraná, using them as cemeteries and landmarks for thousands of years."},{"id":"brazil-interior-archaic","name":"Interior Archaic hunter-gatherers","short":"Interior Archaic","start":-3500,"end":-500,"approx":true,"family":"unknown","group":"brazil","kind":"culture","tier":3,"desc":"Hunter-gatherers of the Brazilian plateau and savannas who painted thousands of rock shelters, as at Serra da Capivara, and buried their dead in the caves of Lagoa Santa."},{"id":"je-peoples","name":"Jê peoples","short":"Jê","start":1,"end":2025,"approx":true,"family":"unknown","group":"brazil","kind":"culture","tier":3,"desc":"Macro-Jê speakers of the central plateau such as the Kayapó, Xavante and Kaingang, who built circular villages around a central plaza. In the south their ancestors lived in pit houses."},{"id":"tupi-guarani","name":"Tupi-Guarani peoples","short":"Tupi-Guarani","start":500,"end":2025,"approx":true,"family":"tupian","group":"brazil","kind":"culture","tier":2,"desc":"Tupian farmers who spread from the southern Amazon along the Atlantic coast. The Tupinambá met the Portuguese in 1500, and a Tupi-based lingua geral was the common tongue of colonial Brazil."},{"id":"upper-xingu","name":"Upper Xingu garden cities","short":"Upper Xingu","start":1250,"end":1650,"approx":true,"family":"cariban","group":"brazil","kind":"culture","tier":3,"desc":"Clusters of ditched towns linked by wide straight roads in the forests of Mato Grosso, built by ancestors of the Kuikuro. European diseases emptied them after 1500."},{"id":"portuguese-brazil","name":"Portuguese Brazil","short":"Colonial Brazil","start":1500,"end":1815,"family":"romance","group":"brazil","kind":"colony","tier":1,"capital":"Salvador, then Rio de Janeiro from 1763","desc":"Portuguese colony claimed by Cabral in 1500. Sugar and then gold drew in about 4.9 million enslaved Africans, more than any other place in the Americas.","next":["united-kingdom-portugal-brazil"]},{"id":"france-antarctique","name":"France Antarctique","start":1555,"end":1567,"family":"romance","group":"brazil","kind":"colony","tier":3,"capital":"Fort Coligny","desc":"French colony on an island in Guanabara Bay founded by Villegaignon with Huguenot settlers. The Portuguese founded Rio de Janeiro nearby and drove the French out by 1567."},{"id":"quilombo-palmares","name":"Quilombo dos Palmares","short":"Palmares","start":1605,"end":1694,"approx":true,"family":"bantu","group":"brazil","kind":"state","tier":3,"capital":"Macaco","desc":"Kingdom of escaped slaves in the hills of Alagoas, home to many thousands of people. It defeated dozens of expeditions until its capital fell in 1694. Its leader Zumbi was killed in 1695."},{"id":"dutch-brazil","name":"Dutch Brazil (New Holland)","short":"Dutch Brazil","start":1630,"end":1654,"family":"germanic","group":"brazil","kind":"colony","tier":3,"capital":"Mauritsstad (Recife)","desc":"The Dutch West India Company seized the sugar coast of Pernambuco in 1630. Johan Maurits of Nassau built Mauritsstad, but Portuguese planters drove the Dutch out in 1654."},{"id":"united-kingdom-portugal-brazil","name":"United Kingdom of Portugal, Brazil and the Algarves","short":"UK Portugal-BR","start":1815,"end":1822,"family":"romance","group":"brazil","kind":"state","tier":3,"capital":"Rio de Janeiro","desc":"The Portuguese court fled Napoleon to Rio de Janeiro in 1808 and raised Brazil to a kingdom equal with Portugal in 1815. John VI returned to Lisbon in 1821.","next":["empire-of-brazil"]},{"id":"empire-of-brazil","name":"Empire of Brazil","short":"Empire of Brazil","start":1822,"end":1889,"family":"romance","group":"brazil","kind":"empire","tier":2,"capital":"Rio de Janeiro","desc":"Monarchy founded when Prince Pedro declared independence in 1822. Pedro II reigned for 58 years. Brazil abolished slavery in 1888, the last country in the Americas, and the army ended the monarchy in 1889.","next":["brazil"]},{"id":"riograndense-republic","name":"Riograndense Republic","short":"Riograndense","start":1836,"end":1845,"family":"romance","group":"brazil","kind":"state","tier":3,"capital":"Piratini","desc":"Breakaway republic of the gaucho ranchers of Rio Grande do Sul during the Ragamuffin War, in which Giuseppe Garibaldi fought. It rejoined the Empire by treaty in 1845.","next":["empire-of-brazil"]},{"id":"brazil","name":"Brazil","start":1889,"end":2025,"family":"romance","group":"brazil","kind":"state","tier":2,"capital":"Rio de Janeiro, then Brasília from 1960","desc":"Federal republic, the largest country in South America. Getúlio Vargas ruled from 1930 to 1945, the capital moved to Brasília in 1960 and a military regime held power from 1964 to 1985."},{"id":"chinchorro","name":"Chinchorro culture","short":"Chinchorro","start":-3500,"end":-1500,"approx":true,"family":"unknown","group":"southern-cone","kind":"culture","tier":2,"desc":"Fishers of the Atacama coast of northern Chile and southern Peru who began making artificial mummies around 5000 BCE, about two thousand years before the Egyptians."},{"id":"southern-cone-archaic","name":"Pampas and Patagonian Archaic hunters","short":"Southern Archaic","start":-3500,"end":-500,"approx":true,"family":"unknown","group":"southern-cone","kind":"culture","tier":3,"desc":"Guanaco and rhea hunters of the pampas and Patagonian steppe who used bolas and left hand stencils on cave walls, as at the Cueva de las Manos in Santa Cruz."},{"id":"fuegian-peoples","name":"Fuegian canoe peoples (Yaghan, Kawésqar)","short":"Fuegian peoples","start":-3500,"end":2025,"approx":true,"family":"isolate","group":"southern-cone","kind":"culture","tier":3,"desc":"Sea nomads of the channels of Tierra del Fuego who hunted sea lions from bark canoes. Darwin met them in 1832, and the last fluent speaker of Yaghan died in 2022."},{"id":"nw-argentina-formative","name":"Formative cultures of northwest Argentina","short":"NW Argentina","start":-500,"end":600,"approx":true,"family":"unknown","group":"southern-cone","kind":"culture","tier":3,"desc":"The first farming villages of the Andean valleys of Argentina, such as Tafí with its carved standing stones and Condorhuasi with its painted pottery figures."},{"id":"patagonian-peoples","name":"Patagonian peoples (Tehuelche, Selk'nam)","short":"Tehuelche","start":1,"end":2025,"approx":true,"family":"unknown","group":"southern-cone","kind":"culture","tier":3,"desc":"Guanaco hunters of Patagonia and Tierra del Fuego who took up horses in the 1700s. Argentina's Conquest of the Desert and the Selk'nam killings of the 1880s and 1890s broke their independence."},{"id":"el-molle","name":"El Molle culture","short":"El Molle","start":1,"end":700,"approx":true,"family":"unknown","group":"southern-cone","kind":"culture","tier":3,"desc":"The first potters and farmers of the semi-arid valleys of north-central Chile, such as the Elqui and Limarí, known for lip plugs and petroglyphs."},{"id":"aguada","name":"Aguada culture","short":"Aguada","start":600,"end":900,"approx":true,"family":"unknown","group":"southern-cone","kind":"culture","tier":3,"desc":"Society of Catamarca and La Rioja in Argentina that cast bronze plaques and painted pottery with jaguar and warrior images, with ceremonial centers such as Ambato."},{"id":"diaguita","name":"Diaguita","start":900,"end":1667,"approx":true,"family":"unknown","group":"southern-cone","kind":"culture","tier":3,"desc":"Farmers of the Andean valleys of Chile and Argentina, conquered by the Inca in the late 1400s. The Calchaquí Diaguita fought Spain until 1667, when the Quilmes were deported to Buenos Aires."},{"id":"mapuche","name":"Mapuche","start":1000,"end":2025,"approx":true,"family":"isolate","group":"southern-cone","kind":"culture","tier":2,"desc":"Farmers and warriors of central and southern Chile who stopped the Inca at the Maule River and killed the conquistador Pedro de Valdivia in 1553. The Arauco War against Spain lasted nearly three centuries."},{"id":"charrua","name":"Charrúa","start":1000,"end":1831,"approx":true,"family":"unknown","group":"southern-cone","kind":"culture","tier":3,"desc":"Hunter-gatherers of Uruguay who became horse riders after the Spanish arrived. Uruguay's first president Fructuoso Rivera had most of the remaining Charrúa killed at Salsipuedes in 1831."},{"id":"guarani","name":"Guaraní","start":1000,"end":2025,"approx":true,"family":"tupian","group":"southern-cone","kind":"culture","tier":3,"desc":"Tupi-Guarani farmers of Paraguay and the Paraná basin. Their language survived Spanish rule and is now an official language of Paraguay, spoken by most of its people."},{"id":"governorate-rio-de-la-plata","name":"Governorate of the Río de la Plata","short":"Río de la Plata","start":1536,"end":1776,"family":"romance","group":"southern-cone","kind":"colony","tier":3,"capital":"Asunción, later Buenos Aires","desc":"Spanish colony of the Plata basin governed from Asunción after the first Buenos Aires was abandoned in 1541. Buenos Aires was refounded in 1580 and became a separate governorate in 1617.","next":["viceroyalty-rio-de-la-plata"]},{"id":"captaincy-general-chile","name":"Captaincy General of Chile","short":"Chile (Sp.)","start":1541,"end":1818,"family":"romance","group":"southern-cone","kind":"colony","tier":3,"capital":"Santiago","desc":"Spanish colony founded when Pedro de Valdivia established Santiago in 1541. Its southern frontier on the Biobío River was held against the Mapuche by a standing army.","next":["chile"]},{"id":"araucania","name":"Araucanía (independent Mapuche lands)","short":"Araucanía","start":1598,"end":1883,"family":"isolate","group":"southern-cone","kind":"culture","tier":3,"desc":"Mapuche territory south of the Biobío that stayed independent after the Mapuche victory at Curalaba in 1598. Spain recognised the frontier in treaties, and Chile occupied it between 1861 and 1883."},{"id":"jesuit-reductions","name":"Jesuit reductions","short":"Reductions","start":1609,"end":1767,"family":"romance","group":"southern-cone","kind":"colony","tier":3,"desc":"About thirty mission towns where Jesuits gathered over 100,000 Guarani in Paraguay, Argentina and Brazil, protected from slave raiders by armed militias. They declined after the Jesuits were expelled in 1767."},{"id":"viceroyalty-rio-de-la-plata","name":"Viceroyalty of the Río de la Plata","short":"Vic. Río Plata","start":1776,"end":1814,"family":"romance","group":"southern-cone","kind":"colony","tier":2,"capital":"Buenos Aires","desc":"Spanish viceroyalty created to guard the Plata against Portugal and Britain, taking in Potosí's silver. Militia in Buenos Aires beat off British invasions in 1806 and 1807, and the May Revolution of 1810 began its breakup.","next":["united-provinces","paraguay","uruguay"]},{"id":"paraguay","name":"Paraguay","start":1811,"end":2025,"family":"romance","group":"southern-cone","kind":"state","tier":3,"capital":"Asunción","desc":"Republic isolated under José Gaspar Rodríguez de Francia. In the Paraguayan War of 1864 to 1870 it lost much of its population. It won the Chaco War in 1935, and Alfredo Stroessner ruled from 1954 to 1989."},{"id":"united-provinces","name":"United Provinces of the Río de la Plata","short":"United Provinces","start":1810,"end":1831,"family":"romance","group":"southern-cone","kind":"state","tier":3,"capital":"Buenos Aires","desc":"State born from the May Revolution, which declared independence at Tucumán in 1816. San Martín's Army of the Andes liberated Chile from here, while provinces fought Buenos Aires in civil wars.","next":["argentine-confederation"]},{"id":"cisplatina","name":"Cisplatina","start":1817,"end":1828,"family":"romance","group":"southern-cone","kind":"colony","tier":3,"capital":"Montevideo","desc":"The Banda Oriental, occupied by Portugal in 1817 and made a province of Brazil. The Thirty-Three Orientals revolted in 1825, and the war ended with Uruguay's independence in 1828.","next":["uruguay"]},{"id":"chile","name":"Chile","start":1818,"end":2025,"family":"romance","group":"southern-cone","kind":"state","tier":3,"capital":"Santiago","desc":"Republic that won the nitrate coast in the War of the Pacific. Salvador Allende's socialist government was overthrown by Augusto Pinochet's coup in 1973, and democracy returned in 1990."},{"id":"uruguay","name":"Uruguay","start":1828,"end":2025,"family":"romance","group":"southern-cone","kind":"state","tier":3,"capital":"Montevideo","desc":"Buffer state between Argentina and Brazil created by British mediation in 1828. It built an early welfare state under José Batlle y Ordóñez and was a military dictatorship from 1973 to 1985."},{"id":"argentine-confederation","name":"Argentine Confederation","short":"Arg. Confed.","start":1831,"end":1861,"family":"romance","group":"southern-cone","kind":"state","tier":3,"capital":"Buenos Aires, then Paraná","desc":"Loose league of provinces dominated by Juan Manuel de Rosas until his defeat at Caseros in 1852. Buenos Aires broke away after the 1853 constitution and rejoined after Pavón in 1861.","next":["argentina"]},{"id":"falkland-islands","name":"Falkland Islands","start":1833,"end":2025,"family":"germanic","group":"southern-cone","kind":"colony","tier":3,"capital":"Stanley","desc":"British territory since 1833, claimed by Argentina as the Islas Malvinas. Argentina's invasion in 1982 was reversed by a British task force after a ten-week war."},{"id":"argentina","name":"Argentina","start":1861,"end":2025,"family":"romance","group":"southern-cone","kind":"state","tier":2,"capital":"Buenos Aires","desc":"Republic that took in millions of European immigrants and grew wealthy on beef and grain. Juan Perón dominated the mid 1900s, and the military junta of 1976 to 1983 made thousands of people disappear."}],"events":[{"year":-3300,"title":"Earliest known use of cacao","desc":"People at Santa Ana-La Florida in the Ecuadorian Amazon use domesticated cacao, about 1,500 years before it appears in Mesoamerica.","tier":2,"group":"amazon-guianas","related":["mayo-chinchipe"]},{"year":-2600,"title":"Caral builds the first cities of the Americas","desc":"Platform mounds and sunken plazas rise at Caral in the Supe valley, part of a network of towns that traded cotton and fish between coast and valley.","tier":1,"group":"peru-coast","related":["caral"]},{"year":-900,"title":"Chavín de Huántar becomes a pilgrimage center","desc":"The temple at Chavín draws pilgrims from across the Andes, and its art becomes the first style shared over most of Peru.","tier":2,"group":"central-highlands","related":["chavin"]},{"year":100,"title":"Nazca Lines drawn","desc":"The Nazca begin scraping huge animal figures and straight lines into the desert of southern Peru, many visible in full only from the air.","tier":2,"group":"peru-coast","related":["nazca"]},{"year":600,"title":"Wari and Tiwanaku expand","desc":"Two highland states spread their power across the Andes, Wari through roads and administrative centers and Tiwanaku through colonies and trade.","tier":2,"group":"central-highlands","related":["wari","tiwanaku"]},{"year":1438,"title":"Pachacuti defeats the Chanka","desc":"After saving Cusco from the Chanka, Pachacuti takes the throne and begins the conquests that create Tawantinsuyu.","tier":2,"group":"central-highlands","related":["kingdom-of-cusco","inca-empire","chanka"]},{"year":1500,"title":"Cabral lands in Brazil","desc":"Pedro Álvares Cabral's fleet, bound for India, reaches the coast of Bahia and claims Brazil for Portugal.","tier":2,"group":"brazil","related":["portuguese-brazil","tupi-guarani"]},{"year":1532,"title":"Pizarro captures Atahualpa at Cajamarca","desc":"About 170 Spaniards seize the Inca emperor, fresh from victory in a civil war. Atahualpa is executed in 1533 despite paying a room full of gold.","tier":1,"group":"central-highlands","related":["inca-empire","new-castile"]},{"year":1542,"title":"Orellana descends the Amazon","desc":"Francisco de Orellana's party travels the length of the Amazon and reports dense populations along its banks, later emptied by disease.","tier":2,"group":"amazon-guianas","related":["santarem"]},{"year":1545,"title":"Silver found at Potosí","desc":"The Cerro Rico of Potosí proves the richest silver deposit ever found. Its output fuels Spanish power and world trade for two centuries.","tier":1,"group":"central-highlands","related":["charcas","viceroyalty-peru"]},{"year":1572,"title":"Execution of Tupac Amaru","desc":"Viceroy Francisco de Toledo has the last Inca ruler of Vilcabamba beheaded in the main square of Cusco.","tier":2,"group":"central-highlands","related":["neo-inca"]},{"year":1598,"title":"Battle of Curalaba","desc":"Mapuche forces kill the governor of Chile and destroy the Spanish towns south of the Biobío, which stays the frontier for nearly 300 years.","tier":2,"group":"southern-cone","related":["mapuche","araucania","captaincy-general-chile"]},{"year":1694,"title":"Fall of Palmares","desc":"A colonial army led by bandeirante Domingos Jorge Velho destroys Macaco, capital of the largest runaway slave kingdom in Brazil.","tier":2,"group":"brazil","related":["quilombo-palmares"]},{"year":1780,"title":"Rebellion of Tupac Amaru II","desc":"The kuraka José Gabriel Condorcanqui leads the largest Indigenous revolt in colonial Spanish America. Tens of thousands die before he is executed in 1781.","tier":2,"group":"central-highlands","related":["quechua-aymara-peoples","viceroyalty-peru"]},{"year":1808,"title":"Portuguese court arrives in Rio","desc":"Fleeing Napoleon, the Portuguese royal family moves to Rio de Janeiro, making it the capital of a European empire.","tier":2,"group":"brazil","related":["portuguese-brazil","united-kingdom-portugal-brazil"]},{"year":1824,"title":"Battle of Ayacucho","desc":"Antonio José de Sucre defeats the last royalist army in Peru, ending Spanish rule on the South American mainland.","tier":1,"group":"central-highlands","related":["viceroyalty-peru","peru","gran-colombia"]},{"year":1864,"title":"Paraguayan War begins","desc":"Paraguay fights Brazil, Argentina and Uruguay until 1870, the deadliest interstate war in Latin American history.","tier":2,"group":"southern-cone","related":["paraguay","empire-of-brazil","argentine-confederation"]},{"year":1879,"title":"War of the Pacific","desc":"Chile defeats Peru and Bolivia over the nitrate deserts of Atacama. Bolivia loses its coast, and Peru loses Tarapacá.","tier":2,"group":"southern-cone","related":["chile","peru","bolivia"]},{"year":1888,"title":"Brazil abolishes slavery","desc":"Princess Isabel signs the Golden Law, freeing about 700,000 enslaved people. Brazil is the last country in the Americas to end slavery.","tier":2,"group":"brazil","related":["empire-of-brazil"]},{"year":1960,"title":"Brasília inaugurated","desc":"Brazil moves its capital to a planned city built in under four years on the central plateau, designed by Lúcio Costa and Oscar Niemeyer.","tier":2,"group":"brazil","related":["brazil"]},{"year":1973,"title":"Coup in Chile","desc":"The armed forces overthrow President Salvador Allende, who dies in the presidential palace. Augusto Pinochet rules until 1990.","tier":2,"group":"southern-cone","related":["chile"]}]},{"id":"oceania","name":"Oceania","groups":[{"id":"australia","name":"Australia"},{"id":"melanesia","name":"New Guinea and Melanesia"},{"id":"micronesia","name":"Micronesia"},{"id":"polynesia","name":"Polynesia"},{"id":"new-zealand","name":"New Zealand"}],"entries":[{"id":"aboriginal-australians","name":"Aboriginal Australian peoples","short":"Aboriginal","start":-3500,"end":2025,"approx":true,"family":"australian","group":"australia","kind":"culture","tier":1,"desc":"Aboriginal Australians have lived on the continent for at least 50,000 years in hundreds of language groups, shaping the land with fire and recording law and country in song, story and rock art. Colonisation from 1788 brought war, disease and dispossession."},{"id":"tasmanian-aboriginal","name":"Tasmanian Aboriginal peoples","short":"Tasmanians","start":-3500,"end":2025,"approx":true,"family":"australian","group":"australia","kind":"culture","tier":3,"desc":"Cut off from the mainland by rising seas about 10,000 years ago, Tasmanians lived in isolation until British settlement. The Black War of the 1820s and removal to Flinders Island in the 1830s nearly destroyed them, and their descendants survive today."},{"id":"torres-strait-islanders","name":"Torres Strait Islanders","short":"Torres Strait","start":-500,"end":2025,"approx":true,"family":"papuan","group":"australia","kind":"culture","tier":3,"desc":"Gardening and seafaring people of the islands between Cape York and New Guinea, linked by trade to both. Eddie Mabo, from Mer, won the 1992 High Court case that overturned the doctrine of terra nullius."},{"id":"macassan-trepangers","name":"Macassan trepangers","short":"Macassans","start":1720,"end":1907,"approx":true,"family":"austronesian","group":"australia","kind":"culture","tier":3,"desc":"Fleets from Makassar in Sulawesi sailed each year to Arnhem Land and the Kimberley to gather and cure trepang (sea cucumber) for China, trading with Yolngu people. South Australia stopped the visits in the first decade of the 20th century."},{"id":"new-south-wales","name":"Colony of New South Wales","short":"New South Wales","start":1788,"end":1901,"family":"germanic","group":"australia","kind":"colony","tier":2,"capital":"Sydney","desc":"Founded as a penal colony when the First Fleet landed at Sydney Cove in January 1788. About 80,000 convicts were sent there before transportation ended in 1840, and free settlers and the wool trade took over.","next":["australia"]},{"id":"van-diemens-land","name":"Van Diemen's Land (Tasmania)","short":"Tasmania","start":1825,"end":1901,"family":"germanic","group":"australia","kind":"colony","tier":3,"capital":"Hobart","desc":"Settled from 1803 and a separate colony from 1825, it received many of the later convict transports. Renamed Tasmania in 1856, it joined the Commonwealth in 1901.","next":["australia"]},{"id":"western-australia","name":"Western Australia (Swan River Colony)","short":"W. Australia","start":1829,"end":1901,"family":"germanic","group":"australia","kind":"colony","tier":3,"capital":"Perth","desc":"Founded as a free settlement on the Swan River in 1829, it struggled until it accepted convicts from 1850. Gold rushes at Coolgardie and Kalgoorlie in the 1890s brought rapid growth.","next":["australia"]},{"id":"south-australia","name":"Colony of South Australia","short":"South Australia","start":1836,"end":1901,"family":"germanic","group":"australia","kind":"colony","tier":3,"capital":"Adelaide","desc":"Planned as a free colony without convicts and founded at Adelaide in 1836. In 1894 it gave women the vote and became the first place to let them stand for parliament.","next":["australia"]},{"id":"victoria","name":"Colony of Victoria","short":"Victoria","start":1851,"end":1901,"family":"germanic","group":"australia","kind":"colony","tier":3,"capital":"Melbourne","desc":"Separated from New South Wales in 1851, just as gold was found at Ballarat and Bendigo. The gold rush made Melbourne one of the largest cities in the British Empire.","next":["australia"]},{"id":"queensland","name":"Colony of Queensland","short":"Queensland","start":1859,"end":1901,"family":"germanic","group":"australia","kind":"colony","tier":3,"capital":"Brisbane","desc":"Separated from New South Wales in 1859, its sugar plantations used tens of thousands of South Sea Islander labourers, many recruited by deception or force in the practice called blackbirding.","next":["australia"]},{"id":"australia","name":"Commonwealth of Australia","short":"Australia","start":1901,"end":2025,"family":"germanic","group":"australia","kind":"state","tier":1,"capital":"Melbourne, then Canberra (1927)","desc":"The six colonies federated in 1901 under a White Australia policy that lasted into the 1970s. Australia fought in both world wars, recognised native title after the Mabo case of 1992, and is a major exporter of minerals."},{"id":"papuans","name":"Papuan farmers and foragers","short":"Papuans","start":-3500,"end":2025,"approx":true,"family":"papuan","group":"melanesia","kind":"culture","tier":2,"desc":"Descendants of people who reached New Guinea about 50,000 years ago speak hundreds of Papuan languages. Highland farmers grew taro, bananas and later sweet potato in densely settled valleys that outsiders did not see until the 1930s."},{"id":"kuk","name":"Kuk Swamp agriculture","short":"Kuk","start":-3500,"end":-500,"approx":true,"family":"papuan","group":"melanesia","kind":"culture","tier":2,"desc":"Drained gardens at Kuk Swamp in the Wahgi valley show taro and banana cultivation from about 7000 BCE and ditch systems by 2000 BCE, making New Guinea one of the world's independent centres of farming."},{"id":"lapita","name":"Lapita culture","short":"Lapita","start":-1600,"end":-500,"approx":true,"family":"austronesian","group":"melanesia","kind":"culture","tier":1,"desc":"Austronesian voyagers known for dentate-stamped pottery spread from the Bismarck Archipelago to Vanuatu, New Caledonia, Fiji, Tonga and Samoa between about 1350 and 850 BCE, the first people to settle Remote Oceania.","next":["island-melanesians","fijian-chiefdoms","ancestral-polynesians"]},{"id":"island-melanesians","name":"Island Melanesian societies","short":"Island Melanesia","start":-500,"end":2025,"approx":true,"family":"austronesian","group":"melanesia","kind":"culture","tier":3,"desc":"After Lapita, the peoples of the Solomons, Vanuatu and New Caledonia developed hundreds of local languages and societies led by big men and chiefs, linked by exchange networks of shell valuables and pigs."},{"id":"fijian-chiefdoms","name":"Fijian chiefdoms","short":"Fiji chiefdoms","start":-500,"end":1874,"approx":true,"family":"austronesian","group":"melanesia","kind":"culture","tier":3,"desc":"Fiji's chiefdoms, grouped into confederacies such as Bau, Rewa and Cakaudrove, fought frequent wars and traded with Tonga and Samoa. Bau's chief Cakobau rose to dominance with muskets and in 1871 formed a short-lived kingdom.","next":["colony-of-fiji"]},{"id":"colony-of-fiji","name":"Colony of Fiji","start":1874,"end":1970,"family":"germanic","group":"melanesia","kind":"colony","tier":3,"capital":"Levuka, then Suva","desc":"Cakobau, crippled by debt, ceded Fiji to Britain in 1874. From 1879 to 1916 Britain brought over 60,000 indentured labourers from India to its sugar plantations, creating the Indo-Fijian community.","next":["fiji"]},{"id":"fiji","name":"Fiji","start":1970,"end":2025,"family":"austronesian","group":"melanesia","kind":"state","tier":3,"capital":"Suva","desc":"Independent in 1970, Fiji went through four coups between 1987 and 2006, driven largely by tension between indigenous Fijians and Indo-Fijians."},{"id":"dutch-new-guinea","name":"Dutch New Guinea","short":"Dutch N. Guinea","start":1828,"end":1962,"family":"germanic","group":"melanesia","kind":"colony","tier":3,"capital":"Hollandia","desc":"The Netherlands claimed western New Guinea in 1828 and set up lasting posts only in 1898. It kept the territory after Indonesian independence until US pressure led to a UN-brokered handover in 1962 to 1963.","next":["indonesian-papua"]},{"id":"indonesian-papua","name":"Western New Guinea (Indonesia)","short":"Indonesian Papua","start":1963,"end":2025,"family":"austronesian","group":"melanesia","kind":"state","tier":3,"capital":"Jayapura","desc":"Indonesia took control in 1963 and confirmed it through the 1969 Act of Free Choice, in which about a thousand selected delegates voted. A low-level independence insurgency has continued since."},{"id":"german-new-guinea","name":"German New Guinea","short":"German N. Guinea","start":1884,"end":1914,"family":"germanic","group":"melanesia","kind":"colony","tier":2,"capital":"Finschhafen, later Rabaul","desc":"Germany claimed north-east New Guinea and the Bismarck Archipelago in 1884, later adding the northern Solomons, Nauru and Micronesia. Australian troops took it in 1914.","next":["territory-of-new-guinea","south-seas-mandate"]},{"id":"british-new-guinea","name":"British New Guinea and Territory of Papua","short":"Papua","start":1884,"end":1949,"family":"germanic","group":"melanesia","kind":"colony","tier":3,"capital":"Port Moresby","desc":"Britain declared a protectorate over south-east New Guinea in 1884 after Queensland tried to annex it, and handed it to Australia as the Territory of Papua in 1906.","next":["territory-of-papua-and-new-guinea"]},{"id":"territory-of-new-guinea","name":"Territory of New Guinea","short":"New Guinea Terr.","start":1914,"end":1949,"family":"germanic","group":"melanesia","kind":"colony","tier":3,"capital":"Rabaul, then Lae","desc":"Australia ruled former German New Guinea under a League of Nations mandate from 1920. Gold prospectors entered the populous highlands in the 1930s, and the territory was a major battlefield in the Second World War.","next":["territory-of-papua-and-new-guinea"]},{"id":"territory-of-papua-and-new-guinea","name":"Territory of Papua and New Guinea","short":"TPNG","start":1949,"end":1975,"family":"germanic","group":"melanesia","kind":"colony","tier":3,"capital":"Port Moresby","desc":"Australia joined its two New Guinea territories under one administration in 1949 and granted self-government in 1973.","next":["papua-new-guinea"]},{"id":"papua-new-guinea","name":"Papua New Guinea","short":"PNG","start":1975,"end":2025,"family":"papuan","group":"melanesia","kind":"state","tier":2,"capital":"Port Moresby","desc":"Independent in 1975 with over 800 languages, Papua New Guinea fought a secessionist war on Bougainville from 1988 to 1998. Bougainville voted for independence in a 2019 referendum."},{"id":"british-solomons","name":"British Solomon Islands Protectorate","short":"British Solomons","start":1893,"end":1978,"family":"germanic","group":"melanesia","kind":"colony","tier":3,"capital":"Tulagi, then Honiara","desc":"Britain declared a protectorate in 1893 partly to control labour recruiting. The Guadalcanal campaign of 1942 to 1943 was a turning point of the Pacific War.","next":["solomon-islands"]},{"id":"solomon-islands","name":"Solomon Islands","start":1978,"end":2025,"family":"austronesian","group":"melanesia","kind":"state","tier":3,"capital":"Honiara","desc":"Independent in 1978, the Solomons suffered ethnic conflict on Guadalcanal from 1998, ended by an Australian-led intervention force that stayed from 2003 to 2017."},{"id":"new-hebrides","name":"New Hebrides Condominium","short":"New Hebrides","start":1906,"end":1980,"family":"germanic","group":"melanesia","kind":"colony","tier":3,"capital":"Port Vila","desc":"Britain and France ruled the islands jointly from 1906, with two police forces, two legal systems and two currencies. It became independent as Vanuatu in 1980.","next":["vanuatu"]},{"id":"vanuatu","name":"Vanuatu","start":1980,"end":2025,"family":"austronesian","group":"melanesia","kind":"state","tier":3,"capital":"Port Vila","desc":"Independent in 1980 after a brief secession attempt on Espiritu Santo was put down. Its more than 100 languages give it the most languages per head of any country."},{"id":"new-caledonia","name":"French New Caledonia","short":"New Caledonia","start":1853,"end":2025,"family":"romance","group":"melanesia","kind":"colony","tier":3,"capital":"Nouméa","desc":"France annexed New Caledonia in 1853, used it as a penal colony and mined its nickel. Independence referendums in 2018, 2020 and 2021 kept it French, and deadly riots broke out in 2024."},{"id":"micronesia-uninhabited","name":"Uninhabited","start":-3200,"end":-100,"approx":true,"family":"unknown","group":"micronesia","kind":"culture","tier":3,"desc":"Micronesia had no people until seafarers reached the Marianas around 1500 BCE, one of the longest open-sea crossings of the ancient world. The Carolines and Marshalls stayed empty until about 2,000 years ago."},{"id":"pre-latte-chamorro","name":"Pre-Latte Chamorro","short":"Pre-Latte","start":-1500,"end":900,"approx":true,"family":"austronesian","group":"micronesia","kind":"culture","tier":3,"desc":"The first settlers of the Marianas, probably from the Philippines, made red-slipped pottery with lime-filled designs and later grew rice, a crop found nowhere else in Remote Oceania.","next":["latte-chamorro"]},{"id":"latte-chamorro","name":"Latte period Chamorro","short":"Latte Chamorro","start":900,"end":1668,"approx":true,"family":"austronesian","group":"micronesia","kind":"culture","tier":3,"desc":"Chamorro villages raised chiefly houses on latte, stone pillars with capstones up to 5 metres tall. Spanish missionaries arrived in 1668, and war and disease cut the population by over 90 percent.","next":["spanish-marianas"]},{"id":"eastern-micronesians","name":"Eastern Micronesian islanders","short":"Micronesians","start":-100,"end":2025,"approx":true,"family":"austronesian","group":"micronesia","kind":"culture","tier":3,"desc":"Settlers from island Melanesia reached the Carolines, Marshalls and Kiribati around 2,000 years ago. Their navigators sailed between atolls using star compasses and stick charts of ocean swells."},{"id":"saudeleur","name":"Saudeleur dynasty","short":"Saudeleur","start":1100,"end":1628,"approx":true,"family":"austronesian","group":"micronesia","kind":"state","tier":2,"capital":"Nan Madol","desc":"The first centralised state on Pohnpei, ruling from Nan Madol, a complex of nearly 100 artificial islets of stacked basalt. Tradition says the hero Isokelekel overthrew the last Saudeleur.","next":["nahnmwarki"]},{"id":"nahnmwarki","name":"Nahnmwarki chiefdoms of Pohnpei","short":"Nahnmwarki","start":1628,"end":1887,"approx":true,"family":"austronesian","group":"micronesia","kind":"culture","tier":3,"desc":"After the Saudeleur fell, Pohnpei was divided among chiefdoms each led by a Nahnmwarki, a system that survives in ceremonial form. Spanish rule began in the 1880s."},{"id":"spanish-marianas","name":"Spanish Marianas","start":1668,"end":1898,"family":"romance","group":"micronesia","kind":"colony","tier":3,"capital":"Hagåtña","desc":"Jesuit missionaries and soldiers subdued the Chamorro in the Spanish-Chamorro Wars, and Guam became a stop for the Manila galleons. Spain lost Guam to the United States in 1898 and sold its other islands to Germany in 1899.","next":["guam"]},{"id":"guam","name":"Guam (US territory)","short":"Guam","start":1898,"end":2025,"family":"germanic","group":"micronesia","kind":"colony","tier":3,"capital":"Hagåtña","desc":"Taken by the United States in 1898, Guam was occupied by Japan from 1941 to 1944 and is now a US territory with major military bases."},{"id":"south-seas-mandate","name":"South Seas Mandate","short":"Japanese Mandate","start":1914,"end":1945,"family":"japonic","group":"micronesia","kind":"colony","tier":3,"capital":"Koror","desc":"Japan seized Germany's Micronesian islands in 1914 and governed them under a League of Nations mandate, settling tens of thousands of Japanese and Okinawans. US forces took them in 1944 to 1945.","next":["trust-territory"]},{"id":"trust-territory","name":"Trust Territory of the Pacific Islands","short":"Trust Territory","start":1947,"end":1994,"family":"germanic","group":"micronesia","kind":"colony","tier":3,"capital":"Saipan","desc":"The United States ran Micronesia for the UN and tested nuclear weapons at Bikini and Enewetak. It split into the Marshall Islands, the Federated States of Micronesia, Palau and the Northern Marianas.","next":["fsm","marshall-islands","palau"]},{"id":"fsm","name":"Federated States of Micronesia","short":"Micronesia FSM","start":1986,"end":2025,"family":"austronesian","group":"micronesia","kind":"state","tier":3,"capital":"Palikir","desc":"Yap, Chuuk, Pohnpei and Kosrae became a sovereign federation in free association with the United States in 1986."},{"id":"marshall-islands","name":"Marshall Islands","short":"Marshalls","start":1986,"end":2025,"family":"austronesian","group":"micronesia","kind":"state","tier":3,"capital":"Majuro","desc":"Site of 67 US nuclear tests from 1946 to 1958, the Marshall Islands became independent in free association with the United States in 1986. Rising seas threaten its low atolls."},{"id":"palau","name":"Palau","start":1994,"end":2025,"family":"austronesian","group":"micronesia","kind":"state","tier":3,"capital":"Ngerulmud","desc":"The last part of the Trust Territory to gain independence, Palau entered free association with the United States in 1994."},{"id":"gilbert-ellice","name":"Gilbert and Ellice Islands","short":"Gilbert & Ellice","start":1892,"end":1979,"family":"germanic","group":"micronesia","kind":"colony","tier":3,"capital":"Tarawa","desc":"A British protectorate from 1892 and a colony from 1916. US Marines fought the Battle of Tarawa there in 1943, and the Ellice Islands split off as Tuvalu in 1978.","next":["kiribati","tuvalu"]},{"id":"kiribati","name":"Kiribati","start":1979,"end":2025,"family":"austronesian","group":"micronesia","kind":"state","tier":3,"capital":"South Tarawa","desc":"The former Gilbert Islands became independent as Kiribati in 1979. Its 33 atolls and islands are spread over 3.5 million square km of ocean, and in 1995 it moved the date line to put them all on the same day."},{"id":"nauru","name":"Nauru","start":1968,"end":2025,"family":"austronesian","group":"micronesia","kind":"state","tier":3,"capital":"Yaren","desc":"German from 1888 and later run by Australia, Nauru became independent in 1968. Phosphate mining gave it one of the highest incomes per head in the 1970s before the deposits ran out."},{"id":"polynesia-uninhabited","name":"Uninhabited","start":-3200,"end":1000,"approx":true,"family":"unknown","group":"polynesia","kind":"culture","tier":3,"desc":"No people lived anywhere in Polynesia until Lapita voyagers reached Tonga and Samoa around 850 BCE. Hawaii, Tahiti, the Marquesas and Rapa Nui stayed empty until about 1000 to 1200 CE."},{"id":"ancestral-polynesians","name":"Ancestral Polynesian society","short":"Early Polynesia","start":-850,"end":1000,"approx":true,"family":"austronesian","group":"polynesia","kind":"culture","tier":2,"desc":"Lapita settlers in Tonga and Samoa developed the language, crops and customs of Polynesian culture during a pause of well over a thousand years before voyaging further east.","next":["samoan-chiefdoms","tui-tonga","society-chiefdoms","hawaiian-chiefdoms","rapa-nui"]},{"id":"samoan-chiefdoms","name":"Samoan chiefdoms","short":"Samoa","start":1000,"end":1900,"approx":true,"family":"austronesian","group":"polynesia","kind":"culture","tier":3,"desc":"Samoa's matai chiefs and districts competed for paramount titles, and tradition tells of the expulsion of Tongan overlords by the Malietoa line. Rival chiefs drew Germany, Britain and the United States into civil wars in the late 19th century.","next":["german-samoa","american-samoa"]},{"id":"tui-tonga","name":"Tu'i Tonga Empire","short":"Tu'i Tonga","start":950,"end":1865,"approx":true,"family":"austronesian","group":"polynesia","kind":"empire","tier":2,"capital":"Mu'a","desc":"Sacred kings of Tonga, ruling from Mu'a, extended their influence to Samoa, Uvea and parts of Fiji by the 13th century. Real power later passed to the Tu'i Ha'atakalaua and Tu'i Kanokupolu lines, and the title lapsed in 1865.","next":["kingdom-of-tonga"]},{"id":"kingdom-of-tonga","name":"Kingdom of Tonga","short":"Tonga","start":1845,"end":2025,"family":"austronesian","group":"polynesia","kind":"state","tier":3,"capital":"Nuku'alofa","desc":"George Tupou I united Tonga in 1845 and gave it a constitution in 1875. It was a British protected state from 1900 to 1970 and kept its own monarchy throughout."},{"id":"society-chiefdoms","name":"Society Islands chiefdoms","short":"Society Islands","start":1000,"end":1788,"approx":true,"family":"austronesian","group":"polynesia","kind":"culture","tier":3,"desc":"Settled around 1000 CE, Tahiti and its neighbours became a centre of East Polynesia with large marae temples, ranked chiefs and the 'arioi society. Taputapuatea marae on Raiatea was a sacred hub for voyagers.","next":["kingdom-of-tahiti"]},{"id":"kingdom-of-tahiti","name":"Kingdom of Tahiti","short":"Tahiti","start":1788,"end":1880,"approx":true,"family":"austronesian","group":"polynesia","kind":"state","tier":3,"capital":"Papeete","desc":"Pomare I used European muskets and visiting sailors to unite Tahiti from about 1788. France imposed a protectorate on Queen Pomare IV in 1842 and annexed the kingdom in 1880.","next":["french-polynesia"]},{"id":"french-polynesia","name":"French Polynesia","short":"Fr. Polynesia","start":1842,"end":2025,"family":"romance","group":"polynesia","kind":"colony","tier":3,"capital":"Papeete","desc":"France built its Pacific holdings around Tahiti from 1842 and tested 193 nuclear weapons at Moruroa and Fangataufa from 1966 to 1996. It is now a self-governing overseas collectivity."},{"id":"hawaiian-chiefdoms","name":"Hawaiian chiefdoms","short":"Hawaii chiefdoms","start":1000,"end":1795,"approx":true,"family":"austronesian","group":"polynesia","kind":"culture","tier":3,"desc":"Polynesians settled Hawaii around 1000 to 1200 CE, and its population grew to several hundred thousand under rival island kingdoms ruled through a strict kapu system of sacred law.","next":["kingdom-of-hawaii"]},{"id":"kingdom-of-hawaii","name":"Kingdom of Hawaii","short":"Hawaii","start":1795,"end":1893,"family":"austronesian","group":"polynesia","kind":"state","tier":2,"capital":"Lahaina, then Honolulu","desc":"Kamehameha I conquered the main islands by 1795 and won Kauai by agreement in 1810. American sugar planters forced the 1887 Bayonet Constitution and overthrew Queen Liliuokalani in 1893.","next":["republic-of-hawaii"]},{"id":"republic-of-hawaii","name":"Republic of Hawaii","start":1894,"end":1898,"family":"germanic","group":"polynesia","kind":"state","tier":3,"capital":"Honolulu","desc":"The planter-led government that overthrew the queen declared a republic under Sanford Dole in 1894 and sought annexation, which the United States granted in 1898.","next":["territory-of-hawaii"]},{"id":"territory-of-hawaii","name":"Territory of Hawaii","short":"Hawaii (US)","start":1898,"end":1959,"family":"germanic","group":"polynesia","kind":"colony","tier":3,"capital":"Honolulu","desc":"Annexed by the United States in 1898, Hawaii became a plantation and military territory. Japan's attack on Pearl Harbor in 1941 brought the United States into the Second World War, and Hawaii became the 50th state in 1959."},{"id":"rapa-nui","name":"Rapa Nui society","short":"Rapa Nui","start":1200,"end":1888,"approx":true,"family":"austronesian","group":"polynesia","kind":"culture","tier":3,"desc":"Polynesians settled Easter Island around 1200 CE and carved nearly 1,000 moai statues. Deforestation, Peruvian slave raids in 1862 and disease cut the population to 111 people by 1877.","next":["chilean-rapa-nui"]},{"id":"chilean-rapa-nui","name":"Chilean Rapa Nui","start":1888,"end":2025,"family":"romance","group":"polynesia","kind":"colony","tier":3,"capital":"Hanga Roa","desc":"Chile annexed Easter Island in 1888 and leased most of it as a sheep ranch, confining the Rapa Nui people to Hanga Roa until 1966."},{"id":"german-samoa","name":"German Samoa","start":1900,"end":1914,"family":"germanic","group":"polynesia","kind":"colony","tier":3,"capital":"Apia","desc":"The Tripartite Convention of 1899 split Samoa and gave the western islands to Germany. New Zealand troops occupied them without a fight in August 1914.","next":["western-samoa"]},{"id":"western-samoa","name":"Western Samoa (New Zealand)","short":"Western Samoa","start":1914,"end":1962,"family":"germanic","group":"polynesia","kind":"colony","tier":3,"capital":"Apia","desc":"Under New Zealand rule the 1918 influenza killed about a fifth of Samoans, and police shot Mau independence protesters on Black Saturday in 1929.","next":["samoa"]},{"id":"samoa","name":"Samoa","start":1962,"end":2025,"family":"austronesian","group":"polynesia","kind":"state","tier":3,"capital":"Apia","desc":"Samoa became the first Pacific island country to gain independence, in 1962. It moved to the west side of the date line in 2011."},{"id":"american-samoa","name":"American Samoa","start":1900,"end":2025,"family":"germanic","group":"polynesia","kind":"colony","tier":3,"capital":"Pago Pago","desc":"The eastern Samoan islands, ceded to the United States by their chiefs in 1900 and 1904, house a former naval station and remain an unincorporated US territory."},{"id":"tuvalu","name":"Tuvalu","start":1978,"end":2025,"family":"austronesian","group":"polynesia","kind":"state","tier":3,"capital":"Funafuti","desc":"The Polynesian Ellice Islands voted to separate from the Micronesian Gilberts and became independent as Tuvalu in 1978. Its highest point is about 4.6 metres above sea level."},{"id":"new-zealand-uninhabited","name":"Uninhabited","start":-3200,"end":1280,"approx":true,"family":"unknown","group":"new-zealand","kind":"culture","tier":3,"desc":"New Zealand was the last large landmass settled by humans. Moa, the giant Haast's eagle and other birds lived with no land mammals except bats until Polynesians arrived around 1280."},{"id":"archaic-maori","name":"Archaic Māori (moa-hunter period)","short":"Archaic Māori","start":1280,"end":1500,"approx":true,"family":"austronesian","group":"new-zealand","kind":"culture","tier":2,"desc":"East Polynesian settlers arriving around 1280 hunted moa and seals and grew kumara. Within about a century the moa were extinct, and life shifted toward gardening, fishing and fortified villages.","next":["maori-iwi","moriori"]},{"id":"maori-iwi","name":"Māori iwi","short":"Māori","start":1500,"end":2025,"approx":true,"family":"austronesian","group":"new-zealand","kind":"culture","tier":1,"desc":"Classic Māori society was organised in iwi and hapu, with fortified pa on hilltops and carved meeting houses. The Musket Wars of 1807 to 1837 and British colonisation transformed it, and Māori make up about 17 percent of New Zealanders today."},{"id":"moriori","name":"Moriori","short":"Moriori","start":1500,"end":1835,"approx":true,"family":"austronesian","group":"new-zealand","kind":"culture","tier":3,"desc":"Descendants of Polynesian settlers on the Chatham Islands followed a code of peace laid down by the chief Nunuku. Invading Taranaki Māori killed or enslaved most of them from 1835."},{"id":"united-tribes","name":"United Tribes of New Zealand","short":"United Tribes","start":1835,"end":1840,"family":"austronesian","group":"new-zealand","kind":"state","tier":3,"desc":"Northern Māori chiefs signed a Declaration of Independence in 1835 with British encouragement. Most of its signatories went on to sign the Treaty of Waitangi in 1840.","next":["colony-of-new-zealand"]},{"id":"colony-of-new-zealand","name":"Colony of New Zealand","short":"Colony of NZ","start":1841,"end":1907,"family":"germanic","group":"new-zealand","kind":"colony","tier":2,"capital":"Auckland, then Wellington (1865)","desc":"Britain annexed New Zealand after the Treaty of Waitangi and made it a separate colony in 1841. The New Zealand Wars of the 1840s to 1870s led to large confiscations of Māori land.","next":["new-zealand"]},{"id":"kingitanga","name":"Kīngitanga (Māori King Movement)","short":"Kīngitanga","start":1858,"end":2025,"family":"austronesian","group":"new-zealand","kind":"culture","tier":3,"desc":"Waikato and allied iwi chose Pōtatau Te Wherowhero as Māori king in 1858 to halt land sales. British forces invaded the Waikato in 1863, and the monarchy continues under Kuini Nga wai hono i te po, crowned in 2024."},{"id":"new-zealand","name":"New Zealand","start":1907,"end":2025,"family":"germanic","group":"new-zealand","kind":"state","tier":2,"capital":"Wellington","desc":"A dominion from 1907 and fully sovereign from 1947, New Zealand had already become the first self-governing country to give women the vote, in 1893. It has been nuclear-free by law since 1987."}],"events":[{"year":-1500,"title":"Seafarers settle the Marianas","desc":"Voyagers, probably from the Philippines, cross more than 2,000 km of open sea to settle the Marianas, the first people in Remote Oceania.","tier":2,"group":"micronesia","related":["pre-latte-chamorro"]},{"year":-1500,"title":"Dingoes reach Australia","desc":"Dogs brought by seafarers from island Southeast Asia arrive around this time and spread across the mainland, though they never reach Tasmania.","tier":2,"group":"australia","related":["aboriginal-australians"]},{"year":-1000,"title":"Lapita voyagers settle Vanuatu and Fiji","desc":"Lapita canoes cross from the Solomons into Remote Oceania and settle Vanuatu, New Caledonia and Fiji within a few generations.","tier":1,"group":"melanesia","related":["lapita"]},{"year":-850,"title":"First settlers reach Tonga","desc":"Lapita voyagers found a settlement at Nukuleka on Tongatapu, the first human presence in Polynesia.","tier":2,"group":"polynesia","related":["ancestral-polynesians"]},{"year":1000,"title":"Polynesians settle East Polynesia","desc":"After a long pause in Tonga and Samoa, voyagers reach the Society Islands and within a few centuries Hawaii, the Marquesas, Rapa Nui and New Zealand.","tier":1,"group":"polynesia","related":["society-chiefdoms","hawaiian-chiefdoms","rapa-nui"]},{"year":1180,"title":"Building of Nan Madol","desc":"Megalithic construction at Nan Madol off Pohnpei expands under the Saudeleur, using basalt columns hauled from across the island.","tier":2,"group":"micronesia","related":["saudeleur"]},{"year":1280,"title":"Polynesians reach New Zealand","desc":"Canoes from East Polynesia land in New Zealand, the last major landmass on Earth to be settled by humans.","tier":1,"group":"new-zealand","related":["archaic-maori"]},{"year":1606,"title":"Duyfken lands in Australia","desc":"Willem Janszoon's Dutch ship Duyfken charts part of Cape York, the first recorded European landing on Australia.","tier":2,"group":"australia"},{"year":1642,"title":"Tasman reaches New Zealand","desc":"Abel Tasman sights Tasmania and New Zealand, where a clash with Māori at Golden Bay kills four of his crew.","tier":2,"group":"new-zealand"},{"year":1778,"title":"Cook reaches Hawaii","desc":"James Cook's ships land on Kauai, opening Hawaii to European contact. Cook is killed at Kealakekua Bay the following year.","tier":2,"group":"polynesia","related":["hawaiian-chiefdoms"]},{"year":1788,"title":"First Fleet lands at Sydney Cove","desc":"Eleven ships carrying about 750 convicts and their guards arrive at Port Jackson, beginning British colonisation of Australia.","tier":1,"group":"australia","related":["new-south-wales","aboriginal-australians"]},{"year":1840,"title":"Treaty of Waitangi","desc":"Over 500 Māori chiefs and the British Crown sign a treaty whose English and Māori texts differ on sovereignty, the founding document of New Zealand.","tier":1,"group":"new-zealand","related":["colony-of-new-zealand","maori-iwi"]},{"year":1851,"title":"Australian gold rushes","desc":"Gold finds in New South Wales and Victoria draw hundreds of thousands of migrants and more than double Australia's colonial population within a decade.","tier":2,"group":"australia","related":["victoria","new-south-wales"]},{"year":1893,"title":"Overthrow of the Hawaiian Kingdom","desc":"American businessmen backed by US Marines depose Queen Liliuokalani, leading to annexation by the United States in 1898.","tier":2,"group":"polynesia","related":["kingdom-of-hawaii","republic-of-hawaii"]},{"year":1893,"title":"Women's suffrage in New Zealand","desc":"New Zealand becomes the first self-governing country to give all adult women the vote, after petitions led by Kate Sheppard.","tier":1,"group":"new-zealand","related":["colony-of-new-zealand"]},{"year":1901,"title":"Federation of Australia","desc":"The six Australian colonies unite as the Commonwealth of Australia on 1 January 1901.","tier":2,"group":"australia","related":["australia"]},{"year":1941,"title":"Attack on Pearl Harbor","desc":"Japanese carrier aircraft strike the US Pacific Fleet at Pearl Harbor on 7 December, bringing the United States into the Second World War.","tier":1,"group":"polynesia","related":["territory-of-hawaii"]},{"year":1942,"title":"Guadalcanal campaign","desc":"US forces land on Guadalcanal in August and, after six months of fighting on land and sea, force Japan into its first major retreat of the Pacific War.","tier":2,"group":"melanesia","related":["british-solomons"]},{"year":1946,"title":"Nuclear tests at Bikini","desc":"The United States begins nuclear testing at Bikini Atoll, moving its people away. Testing in the Marshalls continues until 1958.","tier":2,"group":"micronesia","related":["marshall-islands","trust-territory"]},{"year":1992,"title":"Mabo decision","desc":"Australia's High Court rules in favour of Eddie Mabo and the Meriam people, recognising native title and rejecting terra nullius.","tier":2,"group":"australia","related":["torres-strait-islanders","australia"]}]}]}