# World History Timeline: full text Every entry on https://entireworldhistorytimeline.com, by region and area. Format: name (dates), type, language family, capital. Description. ## Central and Southern Africa ### Lower Congo and Angola - Lower Congo hunter-gatherers (c. 3200 BCE to 500 CE), people or culture, Unknown or undeciphered. 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. https://entireworldhistorytimeline.com/southern-africa/lc-hunter-gatherers/ - Western Bantu-speaking farmers (c. 1000 BCE to 1400 CE), people or culture, Bantu. 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. https://entireworldhistorytimeline.com/southern-africa/western-bantu-farmers/ - Kingdom of Kongo (c. 1390 to 1914 CE), state, Bantu, capital Mbanza Kongo (São Salvador). 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. https://entireworldhistorytimeline.com/southern-africa/kongo/ - Tio Kingdom (Anziku) (c. 1500 to 1880 CE), state, Bantu, capital Mbe. 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. https://entireworldhistorytimeline.com/southern-africa/tio-kingdom/ - Kingdom of Ndongo (c. 1500 to 1671 CE), state, Bantu, capital Kabasa. 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. https://entireworldhistorytimeline.com/southern-africa/ndongo/ - Kingdom of Matamba (c. 1530 to 1744 CE), state, Bantu. 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. https://entireworldhistorytimeline.com/southern-africa/matamba/ - Kingdom of Loango (c. 1550 to 1883 CE), state, Bantu, capital Bwali. 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. https://entireworldhistorytimeline.com/southern-africa/loango/ - Portuguese Angola (1575 to 1975 CE), colony, Latin and Romance, capital Luanda. 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. https://entireworldhistorytimeline.com/southern-africa/portuguese-angola/ - Ovimbundu kingdoms (c. 1600 to 1902 CE), state, Bantu, capital Bailundo, Bié. 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. https://entireworldhistorytimeline.com/southern-africa/ovimbundu/ - Kingdom of Kasanje (c. 1620 to 1910 CE), state, Bantu. 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. https://entireworldhistorytimeline.com/southern-africa/kasanje/ - French Congo (1880 to 1910 CE), colony, Latin and Romance, capital Brazzaville. 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. https://entireworldhistorytimeline.com/southern-africa/french-congo/ - French Equatorial Africa (1910 to 1960 CE), colony, Latin and Romance, capital Brazzaville. 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. https://entireworldhistorytimeline.com/southern-africa/french-equatorial-africa/ - Republic of the Congo (1960 CE to the present), state, Bantu, capital Brazzaville. 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. https://entireworldhistorytimeline.com/southern-africa/republic-of-the-congo/ - Gabon (1960 CE to the present), state, Bantu, capital Libreville. 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. https://entireworldhistorytimeline.com/southern-africa/gabon/ - Equatorial Guinea (1968 CE to the present), state, Bantu, capital Malabo. 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. https://entireworldhistorytimeline.com/southern-africa/equatorial-guinea/ - Angola (1975 CE to the present), state, Bantu, capital Luanda. 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. https://entireworldhistorytimeline.com/southern-africa/angola/ - São Tomé and Príncipe (1975 CE to the present), state, Latin and Romance, capital São Tomé. 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. https://entireworldhistorytimeline.com/southern-africa/sao-tome-principe/ ### Congo Basin and Katanga - Central African forest foragers (c. 3200 BCE to the present), people or culture, Unknown or undeciphered. 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. https://entireworldhistorytimeline.com/southern-africa/forest-foragers/ - Bantu farmers of the Congo basin (c. 500 BCE to 1500 CE), people or culture, Bantu. 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. https://entireworldhistorytimeline.com/southern-africa/basin-bantu-farmers/ - Kisalian culture (c. 700 to 1300 CE), people or culture, Bantu. 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. https://entireworldhistorytimeline.com/southern-africa/kisalian/ - Luba Empire (c. 1585 to 1889 CE), state, Bantu. 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. https://entireworldhistorytimeline.com/southern-africa/luba/ - Kuba Kingdom (c. 1625 to 1900 CE), state, Bantu, capital Nsheng. 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. https://entireworldhistorytimeline.com/southern-africa/kuba/ - Lunda Empire (c. 1665 to 1887 CE), empire, Bantu, capital Musumba. 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. https://entireworldhistorytimeline.com/southern-africa/lunda/ - Kingdom of Kazembe (c. 1740 to 1899 CE), state, Bantu. 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. https://entireworldhistorytimeline.com/southern-africa/kazembe/ - Yeke Kingdom (Garanganze) (c. 1856 to 1891 CE), state, Bantu, capital Bunkeya. 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. https://entireworldhistorytimeline.com/southern-africa/yeke/ - Congo Free State (1885 to 1908 CE), colony, Latin and Romance, capital Boma. 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. https://entireworldhistorytimeline.com/southern-africa/congo-free-state/ - Belgian Congo (1908 to 1960 CE), colony, Latin and Romance, capital Boma, then Léopoldville. 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. https://entireworldhistorytimeline.com/southern-africa/belgian-congo/ - Congo (Léopoldville) (1960 to 1971 CE), state, Bantu, capital Léopoldville. 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. https://entireworldhistorytimeline.com/southern-africa/congo-leopoldville/ - State of Katanga (1960 to 1963 CE), state, Bantu, capital Élisabethville. 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. https://entireworldhistorytimeline.com/southern-africa/katanga/ - Central African Republic (1960 CE to the present), state, Niger-Congo, capital Bangui. 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. https://entireworldhistorytimeline.com/southern-africa/central-african-republic/ - Zaire (1971 to 1997 CE), state, Bantu, capital Kinshasa. 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. https://entireworldhistorytimeline.com/southern-africa/zaire/ - Democratic Republic of the Congo (1997 CE to the present), state, Bantu, capital Kinshasa. 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. https://entireworldhistorytimeline.com/southern-africa/dr-congo/ ### Great Lakes - Great Lakes hunter-gatherers (c. 3200 BCE to 500 CE), people or culture, Unknown or undeciphered. 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. https://entireworldhistorytimeline.com/southern-africa/lakes-hunter-gatherers/ - Eastern Bantu-speaking farmers (c. 1000 BCE to 1300 CE), people or culture, Bantu. 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. https://entireworldhistorytimeline.com/southern-africa/eastern-bantu-farmers/ - Urewe culture (c. 500 BCE to 600 CE), people or culture, Bantu. 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. https://entireworldhistorytimeline.com/southern-africa/urewe/ - Ntusi and Bigo culture (c. 1000 to 1500 CE), people or culture, Bantu. 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. https://entireworldhistorytimeline.com/southern-africa/ntusi-bigo/ - Kingdom of Buganda (c. 1300 to 1966 CE), state, Bantu, capital Mengo (Kampala). 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. https://entireworldhistorytimeline.com/southern-africa/buganda/ - Bunyoro-Kitara (c. 1400 to 1899 CE), state, Bantu. 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. https://entireworldhistorytimeline.com/southern-africa/bunyoro/ - Kingdom of Nkore (Ankole) (c. 1450 to 1967 CE), state, Bantu. 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. https://entireworldhistorytimeline.com/southern-africa/nkore/ - Kingdom of Karagwe (c. 1450 to 1890 CE), state, Bantu. 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. https://entireworldhistorytimeline.com/southern-africa/karagwe/ - Kingdom of Rwanda (c. 1500 to 1961 CE), state, Bantu, capital Nyanza. 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. https://entireworldhistorytimeline.com/southern-africa/rwanda-kingdom/ - Kingdom of Burundi (c. 1680 to 1966 CE), state, Bantu, capital Gitega. 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. https://entireworldhistorytimeline.com/southern-africa/burundi-kingdom/ - Uganda Protectorate (1894 to 1962 CE), colony, Germanic, capital Entebbe. 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. https://entireworldhistorytimeline.com/southern-africa/uganda-protectorate/ - Ruanda-Urundi (1916 to 1962 CE), colony, Latin and Romance, capital Usumbura. 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. https://entireworldhistorytimeline.com/southern-africa/ruanda-urundi/ - Uganda (1962 CE to the present), state, Bantu, capital Kampala. 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. https://entireworldhistorytimeline.com/southern-africa/uganda/ - Rwanda (1962 CE to the present), state, Bantu, capital Kigali. 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. https://entireworldhistorytimeline.com/southern-africa/rwanda/ - Burundi (1966 CE to the present), state, Bantu, capital Gitega (Bujumbura until 2019). 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. https://entireworldhistorytimeline.com/southern-africa/burundi/ ### Swahili Coast and East Africa - East African hunter-gatherers (c. 3200 BCE to the present), people or culture, Unknown or undeciphered. 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. https://entireworldhistorytimeline.com/southern-africa/ea-hunter-gatherers/ - Pastoral Neolithic herders (c. 3000 BCE to 700 CE), people or culture, Cushitic. 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. https://entireworldhistorytimeline.com/southern-africa/pastoral-neolithic/ - Coastal Bantu farmers (Kwale ware) (c. 100 to 800 CE), people or culture, Bantu. 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. https://entireworldhistorytimeline.com/southern-africa/kwale-farmers/ - Swahili city-states (c. 800 to 1700 CE), state, Bantu. 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. https://entireworldhistorytimeline.com/southern-africa/swahili-city-states/ - Kilwa Sultanate (c. 957 to 1513 CE), state, Bantu, capital Kilwa Kisiwani. 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. https://entireworldhistorytimeline.com/southern-africa/kilwa/ - Portuguese Swahili coast (1505 to 1698 CE), colony, Latin and Romance, capital Mombasa (Fort Jesus). 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. https://entireworldhistorytimeline.com/southern-africa/portuguese-swahili-coast/ - Maasai pastoralists (c. 1600 CE to the present), people or culture, Nilo-Saharan. 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. https://entireworldhistorytimeline.com/southern-africa/maasai/ - Omani East Africa (1698 to 1856 CE), empire, Arabic, capital Muscat, then Zanzibar (1840). 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. https://entireworldhistorytimeline.com/southern-africa/omani-east-africa/ - Sultanate of Zanzibar (1856 to 1964 CE), state, Arabic, capital Zanzibar Town. 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. https://entireworldhistorytimeline.com/southern-africa/zanzibar/ - German East Africa (1885 to 1919 CE), colony, Germanic, capital Dar es Salaam. 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. https://entireworldhistorytimeline.com/southern-africa/german-east-africa/ - British Kenya (1895 to 1963 CE), colony, Germanic, capital Mombasa, then Nairobi. 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. https://entireworldhistorytimeline.com/southern-africa/british-kenya/ - Tanganyika Territory (1919 to 1961 CE), colony, Germanic, capital Dar es Salaam. 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. https://entireworldhistorytimeline.com/southern-africa/tanganyika-territory/ - Tanzania (1961 CE to the present), state, Bantu, capital Dodoma, Dar es Salaam. 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. https://entireworldhistorytimeline.com/southern-africa/tanzania/ - Kenya (1963 CE to the present), state, Bantu, capital Nairobi. 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. https://entireworldhistorytimeline.com/southern-africa/kenya/ ### Zambezi and Zimbabwe Plateau - Khoisan hunter-gatherers (c. 3200 BCE to 1100 CE), people or culture, Khoisan. 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. https://entireworldhistorytimeline.com/southern-africa/khoisan-hunter-gatherers/ - Iron Age farmers of the Zambezi (c. 200 to 1000 CE), people or culture, Bantu. 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. https://entireworldhistorytimeline.com/southern-africa/zambezi-iron-age-farmers/ - Kingdom of Mapungubwe (c. 1075 to 1220 CE), state, Bantu, capital Mapungubwe Hill. 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. https://entireworldhistorytimeline.com/southern-africa/mapungubwe/ - Kingdom of Zimbabwe (c. 1220 to 1450 CE), state, Bantu, capital Great Zimbabwe. 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. https://entireworldhistorytimeline.com/southern-africa/great-zimbabwe/ - Mutapa Empire (c. 1430 to 1760 CE), empire, Bantu, capital Zvongombe. 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. https://entireworldhistorytimeline.com/southern-africa/mutapa/ - Kingdom of Butua (c. 1450 to 1683 CE), state, Bantu, capital Khami. 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. https://entireworldhistorytimeline.com/southern-africa/butua/ - Maravi Confederacy (c. 1480 to 1750 CE), state, Bantu, capital Mankhamba. 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. https://entireworldhistorytimeline.com/southern-africa/maravi/ - Portuguese Mozambique (1505 to 1975 CE), colony, Latin and Romance, capital Mozambique Island, then Lourenço Marques. 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. https://entireworldhistorytimeline.com/southern-africa/portuguese-mozambique/ - Rozvi Empire (c. 1660 to 1866 CE), empire, Bantu, capital Danangombe. 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. https://entireworldhistorytimeline.com/southern-africa/rozvi/ - Lozi Kingdom (Barotseland) (c. 1700 to 1964 CE), state, Bantu, capital Lealui. 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. https://entireworldhistorytimeline.com/southern-africa/lozi/ - Ndebele Kingdom (Mthwakazi) (1823 to 1894 CE), state, Bantu, capital Bulawayo. 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. https://entireworldhistorytimeline.com/southern-africa/ndebele-kingdom/ - Gaza Empire (c. 1824 to 1895 CE), empire, Bantu, capital Mandlakazi. 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. https://entireworldhistorytimeline.com/southern-africa/gaza/ - Company Rhodesia (1890 to 1923 CE), colony, Germanic, capital Salisbury. 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. https://entireworldhistorytimeline.com/southern-africa/company-rhodesia/ - Nyasaland (1891 to 1964 CE), colony, Germanic, capital Zomba. 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. https://entireworldhistorytimeline.com/southern-africa/nyasaland/ - Southern Rhodesia (1923 to 1965 CE), colony, Germanic, capital Salisbury. 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. https://entireworldhistorytimeline.com/southern-africa/southern-rhodesia/ - Northern Rhodesia (1924 to 1964 CE), colony, Germanic, capital Livingstone, then Lusaka. 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. https://entireworldhistorytimeline.com/southern-africa/northern-rhodesia/ - Zambia (1964 CE to the present), state, Bantu, capital Lusaka. Independent in 1964 under Kenneth Kaunda, who ran a one-party state until multiparty elections in 1991. Copper prices have shaped its economy throughout. https://entireworldhistorytimeline.com/southern-africa/zambia/ - Malawi (1964 CE to the present), state, Bantu, capital Zomba, then Lilongwe. Hastings Banda ruled independent Malawi from 1964, declaring himself president for life in 1971, until multiparty elections in 1994 voted him out. https://entireworldhistorytimeline.com/southern-africa/malawi/ - Rhodesia (1965 to 1979 CE), state, Germanic, capital Salisbury. 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. https://entireworldhistorytimeline.com/southern-africa/rhodesia/ - Mozambique (1975 CE to the present), state, Bantu, capital Maputo. 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. https://entireworldhistorytimeline.com/southern-africa/mozambique/ - Zimbabwe (1980 CE to the present), state, Bantu, capital Harare. 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. https://entireworldhistorytimeline.com/southern-africa/zimbabwe/ ### South Africa and Namibia - San hunter-gatherers (c. 3200 BCE to the present), people or culture, Khoisan. 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. https://entireworldhistorytimeline.com/southern-africa/san/ - Khoekhoe herders (c. 100 BCE to 1904 CE), people or culture, Khoisan. 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. https://entireworldhistorytimeline.com/southern-africa/khoekhoe/ - Iron Age farmers of South Africa (c. 300 to 1300 CE), people or culture, Bantu. 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. https://entireworldhistorytimeline.com/southern-africa/sa-iron-age-farmers/ - Sotho-Tswana chiefdoms (c. 1300 to 1830 CE), people or culture, Bantu. 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. https://entireworldhistorytimeline.com/southern-africa/sotho-tswana/ - Nguni chiefdoms (c. 1300 to 1820 CE), people or culture, Bantu. 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. https://entireworldhistorytimeline.com/southern-africa/nguni/ - Xhosa chiefdoms (c. 1550 to 1879 CE), people or culture, Bantu. 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. https://entireworldhistorytimeline.com/southern-africa/xhosa/ - Ovambo kingdoms (c. 1600 to 1917 CE), state, Bantu. 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. https://entireworldhistorytimeline.com/southern-africa/ovambo/ - Herero pastoralists (c. 1600 to 1904 CE), people or culture, Bantu. 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. https://entireworldhistorytimeline.com/southern-africa/herero/ - Pedi Kingdom (c. 1650 to 1879 CE), state, Bantu. 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. https://entireworldhistorytimeline.com/southern-africa/pedi/ - Dutch Cape Colony (1652 to 1806 CE), colony, Germanic, capital Cape Town. 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. https://entireworldhistorytimeline.com/southern-africa/dutch-cape/ - Swazi Kingdom (c. 1745 to 1903 CE), state, Bantu, capital Lobamba. 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. https://entireworldhistorytimeline.com/southern-africa/swazi-kingdom/ - British Cape Colony (1806 to 1910 CE), colony, Germanic, capital Cape Town. 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. https://entireworldhistorytimeline.com/southern-africa/british-cape/ - Zulu Kingdom (1816 to 1897 CE), state, Bantu, capital KwaBulawayo, later Ulundi. 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. https://entireworldhistorytimeline.com/southern-africa/zulu/ - Basotho Kingdom (c. 1822 to 1868 CE), state, Bantu, capital Thaba Bosiu. 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. https://entireworldhistorytimeline.com/southern-africa/basotho-kingdom/ - Natalia Republic (1839 to 1843 CE), state, Germanic, capital Pietermaritzburg. 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. https://entireworldhistorytimeline.com/southern-africa/natalia/ - Colony of Natal (1843 to 1910 CE), colony, Germanic, capital Pietermaritzburg. 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. https://entireworldhistorytimeline.com/southern-africa/colony-of-natal/ - South African Republic (Transvaal) (1852 to 1902 CE), state, Germanic, capital Pretoria. 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. https://entireworldhistorytimeline.com/southern-africa/south-african-republic/ - Orange Free State (1854 to 1902 CE), state, Germanic, capital Bloemfontein. 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. https://entireworldhistorytimeline.com/southern-africa/orange-free-state/ - Basutoland (1868 to 1966 CE), colony, Germanic, capital Maseru. 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. https://entireworldhistorytimeline.com/southern-africa/basutoland/ - German South West Africa (1884 to 1915 CE), colony, Germanic, capital Windhoek. 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. https://entireworldhistorytimeline.com/southern-africa/german-south-west-africa/ - Bechuanaland Protectorate (1885 to 1966 CE), colony, Germanic, capital Mafeking (outside the territory). 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. https://entireworldhistorytimeline.com/southern-africa/bechuanaland/ - British Swaziland (1903 to 1968 CE), colony, Germanic, capital Mbabane. 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. https://entireworldhistorytimeline.com/southern-africa/british-swaziland/ - Union of South Africa (1910 to 1961 CE), state, Germanic, capital Pretoria, Cape Town. 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. https://entireworldhistorytimeline.com/southern-africa/union-of-south-africa/ - South West Africa (1915 to 1990 CE), colony, Germanic, capital Windhoek. 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. https://entireworldhistorytimeline.com/southern-africa/south-west-africa/ - Republic of South Africa (apartheid era) (1961 to 1994 CE), state, Germanic, capital Pretoria. 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. https://entireworldhistorytimeline.com/southern-africa/apartheid-south-africa/ - Lesotho (1966 CE to the present), state, Bantu, capital Maseru. 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. https://entireworldhistorytimeline.com/southern-africa/lesotho/ - Botswana (1966 CE to the present), state, Bantu, capital Gaborone. 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. https://entireworldhistorytimeline.com/southern-africa/botswana/ - Eswatini (1968 CE to the present), state, Bantu, capital Mbabane, Lobamba. 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. https://entireworldhistorytimeline.com/southern-africa/eswatini/ - Namibia (1990 CE to the present), state, Bantu, capital Windhoek. 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. https://entireworldhistorytimeline.com/southern-africa/namibia/ - South Africa (1994 CE to the present), state, Bantu, capital Pretoria, Cape Town, Bloemfontein. 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. https://entireworldhistorytimeline.com/southern-africa/south-africa/ ### Madagascar and Indian Ocean Islands - Pre-settlement Madagascar (c. 3200 BCE to 400 CE), people or culture, Unknown or undeciphered. 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. https://entireworldhistorytimeline.com/southern-africa/pre-settlement-madagascar/ - Austronesian settlers of Madagascar (c. 400 to 1100 CE), people or culture, Austronesian. 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. https://entireworldhistorytimeline.com/southern-africa/first-malagasy/ - Malagasy chiefdoms and trading towns (c. 1000 to 1600 CE), people or culture, Austronesian. 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. https://entireworldhistorytimeline.com/southern-africa/malagasy-chiefdoms/ - Comorian sultanates (c. 1500 to 1912 CE), state, Bantu. 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. https://entireworldhistorytimeline.com/southern-africa/comoro-sultanates/ - Kingdom of Imerina (c. 1540 to 1817 CE), state, Austronesian, capital Ambohimanga, Antananarivo. 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. https://entireworldhistorytimeline.com/southern-africa/imerina/ - Sakalava kingdoms (c. 1650 to 1840 CE), state, Austronesian. 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. https://entireworldhistorytimeline.com/southern-africa/sakalava/ - Betsimisaraka Confederation (c. 1712 to 1817 CE), state, Austronesian. 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. https://entireworldhistorytimeline.com/southern-africa/betsimisaraka/ - Isle de France (French Mauritius) (1715 to 1810 CE), colony, Latin and Romance, capital Port Louis. 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. https://entireworldhistorytimeline.com/southern-africa/isle-de-france/ - British Mauritius (1810 to 1968 CE), colony, Germanic, capital Port Louis. After slavery ended in 1835, Britain brought about 450,000 indentured labourers from India to the sugar estates, making Indo-Mauritians the majority. https://entireworldhistorytimeline.com/southern-africa/british-mauritius/ - Merina Kingdom of Madagascar (1817 to 1897 CE), state, Austronesian, capital Antananarivo. 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. https://entireworldhistorytimeline.com/southern-africa/merina-kingdom/ - French Madagascar (1896 to 1960 CE), colony, Latin and Romance, capital Antananarivo. 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. https://entireworldhistorytimeline.com/southern-africa/french-madagascar/ - Madagascar (1960 CE to the present), state, Austronesian, capital Antananarivo. 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. https://entireworldhistorytimeline.com/southern-africa/madagascar/ - Mauritius (1968 CE to the present), state, Latin and Romance, capital Port Louis. 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. https://entireworldhistorytimeline.com/southern-africa/mauritius/ - Comoros (1975 CE to the present), state, Bantu, capital Moroni. 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. https://entireworldhistorytimeline.com/southern-africa/comoros/ - Seychelles (1976 CE to the present), state, Latin and Romance, capital Victoria. 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. https://entireworldhistorytimeline.com/southern-africa/seychelles/ ### Events in Central and Southern Africa - 1000 BCE: Bantu farmers reach the Great Lakes. 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. - 500 BCE: Iron smelting in the Great Lakes. Furnaces of the Urewe culture around Lake Victoria are producing iron by about 500 BCE, among the earliest ironworking south of the Sahara. - 50: The Periplus describes Azania. 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. - 1331: Ibn Battuta visits Kilwa. The Moroccan traveller Ibn Battuta visits Mombasa and Kilwa and calls Kilwa one of the most beautiful and well-built towns in the world. - 1350: Great Enclosure built at Great Zimbabwe. Builders raise the Great Enclosure, the largest ancient structure south of the Sahara, with mortarless granite walls up to 11 metres high. - 1483: Diogo Cão reaches the Congo River. The Portuguese navigator Diogo Cão sails into the mouth of the Congo and opens contact with the Kingdom of Kongo. - 1491: Kongo's king is baptised. 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. - 1498: Vasco da Gama on the Swahili coast. Da Gama's fleet calls at Mozambique, Mombasa and Malindi, where he hires a pilot to guide him across the Indian Ocean to Calicut. - 1505: Portuguese sack Kilwa and Mombasa. Francisco de Almeida's fleet storms Kilwa and burns Mombasa, beginning Portuguese domination of the Swahili coast. - 1652: Founding of Cape Town. 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. - 1665: Battle of Mbwila. Portuguese forces from Luanda defeat Kongo and kill King António I, setting off decades of civil war that split the kingdom. - 1698: Omanis take Fort Jesus. 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. - 1816: Shaka becomes Zulu king. 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. - 1836: The Great Trek begins. Thousands of Boer families leave the Cape Colony for the interior, founding the Natalia, Orange Free State and Transvaal republics. - 1879: Battle of Isandlwana. 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. - 1885: Berlin Conference ends. European powers meeting in Berlin set rules for claiming African territory and recognise Leopold II's Congo Free State, accelerating the Scramble for Africa. - 1886: Witwatersrand gold rush. Gold is found on the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg grows almost overnight, and the Transvaal becomes the world's leading gold producer. - 1896: Rinderpest sweeps southern Africa. A rinderpest epidemic moving south from the Horn of Africa kills around 90 percent of cattle in places, bringing famine to herding peoples. - 1899: Second Boer War begins. 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. - 1904: Herero and Nama genocide. German forces under Lothar von Trotha crush the Herero and Nama risings, driving survivors into the Omaheke desert and into concentration camps. - 1905: Maji Maji rebellion. Peoples of southern German East Africa rise against forced cotton growing. German scorched-earth reprisals cause famine that kills well over 100,000 people. - 1948: Apartheid becomes law. The National Party wins the South African election and begins passing laws for racial classification, segregated areas and separate institutions. - 1960: Congo independence and crisis. 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. - 1994: Rwandan genocide. Over about a hundred days, Hutu extremists kill around 800,000 Tutsi and moderate Hutu while the world fails to intervene. - 1994: Mandela elected president. 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. ## North and West Africa ### Maghreb - Amazigh (Berber) tribes (c. 3200 BCE to the present), people or culture, Berber. 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. https://entireworldhistorytimeline.com/northern-africa/berber-tribes/ - Libu and Meshwesh (c. 1250 to 945 BCE), people or culture, Berber. 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. https://entireworldhistorytimeline.com/northern-africa/libu-meshwesh/ - Carthage (c. 814 to 146 BCE), state, Semitic, capital Carthage. 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. https://entireworldhistorytimeline.com/northern-africa/carthage/ - Cyrene and the Greek Pentapolis (631 to 96 BCE), state, Greek, capital Cyrene. 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. https://entireworldhistorytimeline.com/northern-africa/cyrene/ - Mauretania (c. 300 BCE to 44 CE), state, Berber, capital Volubilis, Iol Caesarea. 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. https://entireworldhistorytimeline.com/northern-africa/mauretania/ - Masaesyli kingdom (c. 220 to 202 BCE), state, Berber, capital Siga, Cirta. 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. https://entireworldhistorytimeline.com/northern-africa/masaesyli/ - Numidia (202 to 46 BCE), state, Berber, capital Cirta. 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. https://entireworldhistorytimeline.com/northern-africa/numidia/ - Roman Africa (146 BCE to 439 CE), empire, Latin and Romance, capital Carthage. 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. https://entireworldhistorytimeline.com/northern-africa/roman-africa/ - Mauro-Roman Kingdom (c. 429 to 578 CE), state, Berber, capital Altava. 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. https://entireworldhistorytimeline.com/northern-africa/mauro-roman-kingdom/ - Vandal Kingdom (435 to 534 CE), state, Germanic, capital Carthage. 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. https://entireworldhistorytimeline.com/northern-africa/vandal-kingdom/ - Byzantine Africa (Exarchate) (534 to 698 CE), empire, Greek, capital Carthage. 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. https://entireworldhistorytimeline.com/northern-africa/byzantine-africa/ - Umayyad and Abbasid Ifriqiya (670 to 800 CE), empire, Arabic, capital Kairouan. 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. https://entireworldhistorytimeline.com/northern-africa/arab-ifriqiya/ - Barghawata (744 to 1058 CE), state, Berber. Berber confederation on Morocco's Atlantic plain that followed its own prophet and a Quran in Berber. The Almoravids destroyed it in the 1050s. https://entireworldhistorytimeline.com/northern-africa/barghawata/ - Rustamids (777 to 909 CE), state, Iranian, capital Tahert. 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. https://entireworldhistorytimeline.com/northern-africa/rustamids/ - Idrisids (788 to 974 CE), state, Arabic, capital Fez. 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. https://entireworldhistorytimeline.com/northern-africa/idrisids/ - Aghlabids (800 to 909 CE), state, Arabic, capital Kairouan. 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. https://entireworldhistorytimeline.com/northern-africa/aghlabids/ - Zirids (972 to 1148 CE), state, Berber, capital Kairouan, later Mahdia. 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. https://entireworldhistorytimeline.com/northern-africa/zirids/ - Hammadids (1014 to 1152 CE), state, Berber, capital Qal'at Beni Hammad, later Béjaïa. Branch of the Zirids that ruled central Algeria from a fortress capital, now a World Heritage site. The Almohads conquered it in 1152. https://entireworldhistorytimeline.com/northern-africa/hammadids/ - Almoravid dynasty (1040 to 1147 CE), empire, Berber, capital Marrakesh. 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. https://entireworldhistorytimeline.com/northern-africa/almoravids/ - Almohad Caliphate (1121 to 1269 CE), empire, Berber, capital Marrakesh, Seville. 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. https://entireworldhistorytimeline.com/northern-africa/almohads/ - Hafsids (1229 to 1574 CE), state, Berber, capital Tunis. 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. https://entireworldhistorytimeline.com/northern-africa/hafsids/ - Zayyanids (1235 to 1556 CE), state, Berber, capital Tlemcen. 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. https://entireworldhistorytimeline.com/northern-africa/zayyanids/ - Marinid Sultanate (1244 to 1465 CE), state, Berber, capital Fez. 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. https://entireworldhistorytimeline.com/northern-africa/marinids/ - Wattasids (1472 to 1554 CE), state, Berber, capital Fez. Berber dynasty related to the Marinids that ruled northern Morocco while Portugal seized Atlantic ports. The Saadis took Fez in 1554. https://entireworldhistorytimeline.com/northern-africa/wattasids/ - Saadi Sultanate (1510 to 1659 CE), state, Arabic, capital Marrakesh. 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. https://entireworldhistorytimeline.com/northern-africa/saadi-dynasty/ - Regency of Algiers (1516 to 1830 CE), state, Turkic, capital Algiers. 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. https://entireworldhistorytimeline.com/northern-africa/regency-of-algiers/ - Ottoman Tripolitania (1551 to 1911 CE), state, Turkic, capital Tripoli. 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. https://entireworldhistorytimeline.com/northern-africa/ottoman-tripolitania/ - Regency of Tunis (1574 to 1881 CE), state, Turkic, capital Tunis. 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. https://entireworldhistorytimeline.com/northern-africa/regency-of-tunis/ - Alaouite Sultanate of Morocco (1666 to 1912 CE), state, Arabic, capital Fez, Meknes, Marrakesh. 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. https://entireworldhistorytimeline.com/northern-africa/alaouite-sultanate/ - French Algeria (1830 to 1962 CE), colony, Latin and Romance, capital Algiers. 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. https://entireworldhistorytimeline.com/northern-africa/french-algeria/ - Emirate of Abdelkader (1832 to 1847 CE), state, Arabic, capital Mascara, later Tagdemt. 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. https://entireworldhistorytimeline.com/northern-africa/emirate-of-abdelkader/ - French protectorate of Tunisia (1881 to 1956 CE), colony, Latin and Romance, capital Tunis. 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. https://entireworldhistorytimeline.com/northern-africa/french-tunisia/ - Italian Libya (1911 to 1943 CE), colony, Latin and Romance, capital Tripoli. 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. https://entireworldhistorytimeline.com/northern-africa/italian-libya/ - French protectorate in Morocco (1912 to 1956 CE), colony, Latin and Romance, capital Rabat. 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. https://entireworldhistorytimeline.com/northern-africa/french-morocco/ - Spanish protectorate in Morocco (1912 to 1956 CE), colony, Latin and Romance, capital Tetouan. Strip of northern Morocco under Spain. Franco launched his 1936 coup from here with Moroccan troops. It was handed to independent Morocco in 1956. https://entireworldhistorytimeline.com/northern-africa/spanish-morocco/ - Republic of the Rif (1921 to 1926 CE), state, Berber, capital Ajdir. 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. https://entireworldhistorytimeline.com/northern-africa/rif-republic/ - Kingdom of Libya (1951 to 1969 CE), state, Arabic, capital Tripoli, Benghazi. 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. https://entireworldhistorytimeline.com/northern-africa/kingdom-of-libya/ - Tunisia (1956 CE to the present), state, Arabic, capital Tunis. 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. https://entireworldhistorytimeline.com/northern-africa/tunisia/ - Morocco (1956 CE to the present), state, Arabic, capital Rabat. 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. https://entireworldhistorytimeline.com/northern-africa/morocco/ - Algeria (1962 CE to the present), state, Arabic, capital Algiers. 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. https://entireworldhistorytimeline.com/northern-africa/algeria/ - Libya under Gaddafi (1969 to 2011 CE), state, Arabic, capital Tripoli. 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. https://entireworldhistorytimeline.com/northern-africa/gaddafi-libya/ - Libya (2011 CE to the present), state, Arabic, capital Tripoli. 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. https://entireworldhistorytimeline.com/northern-africa/libya/ ### Egypt - Naqada culture (c. 3200 to 3100 BCE), people or culture, Egyptian. 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. https://entireworldhistorytimeline.com/northern-africa/naqada-culture/ - Early Dynastic Egypt (c. 3100 to 2686 BCE), state, Egyptian, capital Memphis, Thinis. 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. https://entireworldhistorytimeline.com/northern-africa/early-dynastic-egypt/ - Old Kingdom of Egypt (c. 2686 to 2181 BCE), state, Egyptian, capital Memphis. 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. https://entireworldhistorytimeline.com/northern-africa/old-kingdom-egypt/ - First Intermediate Period (c. 2181 to 2055 BCE), state, Egyptian, capital Herakleopolis, Thebes. 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. https://entireworldhistorytimeline.com/northern-africa/first-intermediate-period/ - Middle Kingdom of Egypt (c. 2055 to 1650 BCE), state, Egyptian, capital Thebes, later Itjtawy. Reunified Egypt that drained the Faiyum, conquered Lower Nubia up to the Second Cataract and produced the classic works of Egyptian literature. https://entireworldhistorytimeline.com/northern-africa/middle-kingdom-egypt/ - Second Intermediate Period (c. 1650 to 1550 BCE), state, Egyptian, capital Thebes. 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. https://entireworldhistorytimeline.com/northern-africa/second-intermediate-period/ - Hyksos (Fifteenth Dynasty) (c. 1650 to 1550 BCE), state, Semitic, capital Avaris. 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. https://entireworldhistorytimeline.com/northern-africa/hyksos/ - New Kingdom of Egypt (c. 1550 to 1069 BCE), empire, Egyptian, capital Thebes, Amarna, Memphis, Pi-Ramesses. 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. https://entireworldhistorytimeline.com/northern-africa/new-kingdom-egypt/ - Third Intermediate Period (c. 1069 to 664 BCE), state, Egyptian, capital Tanis, Bubastis, Thebes. Divided Egypt ruled by priest-kings at Thebes, Libyan dynasties in the Delta and finally Kushite pharaohs, until Assyrian invasions in the 660s BCE. https://entireworldhistorytimeline.com/northern-africa/third-intermediate-period/ - Twenty-fifth Dynasty (Kushite) (c. 744 to 656 BCE), state, Nilo-Saharan, capital Memphis, Napata. 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. https://entireworldhistorytimeline.com/northern-africa/twenty-fifth-dynasty/ - Late Period of Egypt (664 to 332 BCE), state, Egyptian, capital Sais, Memphis. 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. https://entireworldhistorytimeline.com/northern-africa/late-period-egypt/ - Achaemenid Egypt (525 to 404 BCE), colony, Iranian, capital Memphis. 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. https://entireworldhistorytimeline.com/northern-africa/achaemenid-egypt/ - Ptolemaic Kingdom (305 to 30 BCE), state, Greek, capital Alexandria. 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. https://entireworldhistorytimeline.com/northern-africa/ptolemaic-kingdom/ - Roman Egypt (30 BCE to 395 CE), empire, Latin and Romance, capital Alexandria. 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. https://entireworldhistorytimeline.com/northern-africa/roman-egypt/ - Coptic Christians (c. 300 CE to the present), people or culture, Egyptian. 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. https://entireworldhistorytimeline.com/northern-africa/copts/ - Byzantine Egypt (395 to 641 CE), empire, Greek, capital Alexandria. 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. https://entireworldhistorytimeline.com/northern-africa/byzantine-egypt/ - Arab caliphal Egypt (641 to 868 CE), empire, Arabic, capital Fustat. 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. https://entireworldhistorytimeline.com/northern-africa/caliphal-egypt/ - Tulunids (868 to 905 CE), state, Turkic, capital al-Qata'i. 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. https://entireworldhistorytimeline.com/northern-africa/tulunids/ - Fatimid Caliphate (909 to 1171 CE), empire, Arabic, capital Mahdia, then Cairo. 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. https://entireworldhistorytimeline.com/northern-africa/fatimid-caliphate/ - Ikhshidids (935 to 969 CE), state, Turkic, capital Fustat. 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. https://entireworldhistorytimeline.com/northern-africa/ikhshidids/ - Ayyubid Sultanate (1171 to 1250 CE), state, Iranian, capital Cairo. 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. https://entireworldhistorytimeline.com/northern-africa/ayyubid-egypt/ - Mamluk Sultanate (1250 to 1517 CE), state, Turkic, capital Cairo. 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. https://entireworldhistorytimeline.com/northern-africa/mamluk-sultanate/ - Ottoman Egypt (1517 to 1867 CE), state, Turkic, capital Cairo. 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. https://entireworldhistorytimeline.com/northern-africa/ottoman-egypt/ - French occupation of Egypt (1798 to 1801 CE), colony, Latin and Romance, capital Cairo. 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. https://entireworldhistorytimeline.com/northern-africa/french-egypt/ - Muhammad Ali dynasty (Khedivate) (1805 to 1914 CE), state, Turkic, capital Cairo. 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. https://entireworldhistorytimeline.com/northern-africa/muhammad-ali-dynasty/ - British occupation of Egypt (1882 to 1922 CE), colony, Germanic, capital Cairo. 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. https://entireworldhistorytimeline.com/northern-africa/british-egypt/ - Sultanate of Egypt (1914 to 1922 CE), state, Turkic, capital Cairo. 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. https://entireworldhistorytimeline.com/northern-africa/sultanate-of-egypt/ - Kingdom of Egypt (1922 to 1953 CE), state, Arabic, capital Cairo. 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. https://entireworldhistorytimeline.com/northern-africa/kingdom-of-egypt/ - Egypt (1953 CE to the present), state, Arabic, capital Cairo. 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. https://entireworldhistorytimeline.com/northern-africa/egypt/ ### Nubia and Sudan - A-Group culture (c. 3200 to 2900 BCE), people or culture, Unknown or undeciphered. 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. https://entireworldhistorytimeline.com/northern-africa/a-group/ - Middle Nile herders and farmers (c. 3200 to 1000 BCE), people or culture, Nilo-Saharan. 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. https://entireworldhistorytimeline.com/northern-africa/middle-nile-herders/ - Kingdom of Kerma (c. 2500 to 1500 BCE), state, Nilo-Saharan, capital Kerma. 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. https://entireworldhistorytimeline.com/northern-africa/kerma/ - C-Group culture (c. 2400 to 1550 BCE), people or culture, Unknown or undeciphered. 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. https://entireworldhistorytimeline.com/northern-africa/c-group/ - Medjay, Blemmyes and Beja nomads (c. 2300 BCE to the present), people or culture, Cushitic. 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. https://entireworldhistorytimeline.com/northern-africa/beja-nomads/ - Egyptian Nubia (Viceroyalty of Kush) (c. 1500 to 1070 BCE), colony, Egyptian, capital Aniba, Napata. 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. https://entireworldhistorytimeline.com/northern-africa/egyptian-nubia/ - El-Kurru chiefdom (c. 1000 to 785 BCE), state, Nilo-Saharan, capital El-Kurru. 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. https://entireworldhistorytimeline.com/northern-africa/el-kurru/ - Kingdom of Kush (Napatan period) (c. 785 to 300 BCE), state, Nilo-Saharan, capital Napata. 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. https://entireworldhistorytimeline.com/northern-africa/napatan-kush/ - Kingdom of Kush (Meroitic period) (c. 300 BCE to 350 CE), state, Nilo-Saharan, capital Meroe. 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. https://entireworldhistorytimeline.com/northern-africa/meroitic-kush/ - Noba and the Ballana culture (c. 350 to 550 CE), people or culture, Nilo-Saharan. 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. https://entireworldhistorytimeline.com/northern-africa/noba/ - Nobatia (c. 400 to 700 CE), state, Nilo-Saharan, capital Faras. Northernmost Christian Nubian kingdom, converted by missionaries in the 540s. It merged with Makuria around 700. https://entireworldhistorytimeline.com/northern-africa/nobatia/ - Makuria (c. 450 to 1312 CE), state, Nilo-Saharan, capital Old Dongola. 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. https://entireworldhistorytimeline.com/northern-africa/makuria/ - Alodia (c. 500 to 1504 CE), state, Nilo-Saharan, capital Soba. Southernmost Christian Nubian kingdom, centred on Soba near modern Khartoum. Arab tribes and the Funj overran it around 1504. https://entireworldhistorytimeline.com/northern-africa/alodia/ - Arab tribes of Sudan (c. 1300 CE to the present), people or culture, Arabic. 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. https://entireworldhistorytimeline.com/northern-africa/sudan-arab-tribes/ - Shilluk Kingdom (c. 1490 to 1861 CE), state, Nilo-Saharan, capital Fashoda. 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. https://entireworldhistorytimeline.com/northern-africa/shilluk-kingdom/ - Funj Sultanate of Sennar (1504 to 1821 CE), state, Nilo-Saharan, capital Sennar. 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. https://entireworldhistorytimeline.com/northern-africa/funj-sultanate/ - Sultanate of Darfur (c. 1603 to 1916 CE), state, Nilo-Saharan, capital El Fasher. 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. https://entireworldhistorytimeline.com/northern-africa/darfur-sultanate/ - Turco-Egyptian Sudan (1821 to 1885 CE), colony, Turkic, capital Khartoum. 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. https://entireworldhistorytimeline.com/northern-africa/turco-egyptian-sudan/ - Mahdist State (1885 to 1899 CE), state, Arabic, capital Omdurman. 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. https://entireworldhistorytimeline.com/northern-africa/mahdist-state/ - Anglo-Egyptian Sudan (1899 to 1956 CE), colony, Germanic, capital Khartoum. 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. https://entireworldhistorytimeline.com/northern-africa/anglo-egyptian-sudan/ - Sudan (1956 CE to the present), state, Arabic, capital Khartoum. 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. https://entireworldhistorytimeline.com/northern-africa/sudan/ - South Sudan (2011 CE to the present), state, Nilo-Saharan, capital Juba. 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. https://entireworldhistorytimeline.com/northern-africa/south-sudan/ ### Horn of Africa - Cushitic-speaking pastoralists (c. 3200 BCE to the present), people or culture, Cushitic. 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. https://entireworldhistorytimeline.com/northern-africa/cushitic-pastoralists/ - Ethiopian highland farmers (c. 3000 to 980 BCE), people or culture, Unknown or undeciphered. Farming communities of the Ethiopian and Eritrean highlands who domesticated teff, finger millet and ensete, crops still central to the region's diet. https://entireworldhistorytimeline.com/northern-africa/highland-farmers/ - Land of Punt (c. 2500 to 980 BCE), state, Unknown or undeciphered. 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. https://entireworldhistorytimeline.com/northern-africa/punt/ - D'mt (c. 980 to 400 BCE), state, Semitic, capital Yeha. 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. https://entireworldhistorytimeline.com/northern-africa/dmt/ - Kingdom of Aksum (c. 100 to 940 CE), empire, Semitic, capital Aksum. 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. https://entireworldhistorytimeline.com/northern-africa/aksum/ - Sultanate of Shewa (c. 896 to 1285 CE), state, Semitic. Early Muslim sultanate in the eastern Ethiopian highlands under the Makhzumi dynasty. The Walashma of Ifat absorbed it in 1285. https://entireworldhistorytimeline.com/northern-africa/sultanate-of-shewa/ - Zagwe dynasty (c. 1137 to 1270 CE), state, Cushitic, capital Roha (Lalibela). 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. https://entireworldhistorytimeline.com/northern-africa/zagwe-dynasty/ - Ethiopian Empire (Solomonic dynasty) (1270 to 1974 CE), empire, Semitic, capital Mobile courts, Gondar, later Addis Ababa. 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. https://entireworldhistorytimeline.com/northern-africa/solomonic-ethiopia/ - Ifat Sultanate (1285 to 1415 CE), state, Semitic, capital Ifat. 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. https://entireworldhistorytimeline.com/northern-africa/ifat-sultanate/ - Ajuran Sultanate (c. 1300 to 1700 CE), state, Cushitic, capital Mareeg. 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. https://entireworldhistorytimeline.com/northern-africa/ajuran-sultanate/ - Adal Sultanate (1415 to 1577 CE), state, Semitic, capital Dakkar, later Harar. 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. https://entireworldhistorytimeline.com/northern-africa/adal-sultanate/ - Oromo Gadaa confederations (c. 1522 CE to the present), people or culture, Cushitic. 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. https://entireworldhistorytimeline.com/northern-africa/oromo-gadaa/ - Imamate of Aussa (1577 to 1672 CE), state, Cushitic, capital Aussa. 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. https://entireworldhistorytimeline.com/northern-africa/aussa-imamate/ - Emirate of Harar (1647 to 1887 CE), state, Semitic, capital Harar. 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. https://entireworldhistorytimeline.com/northern-africa/emirate-of-harar/ - Geledi Sultanate (c. 1700 to 1910 CE), state, Cushitic, capital Afgooye. 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. https://entireworldhistorytimeline.com/northern-africa/geledi-sultanate/ - Majeerteen Sultanate (c. 1750 to 1927 CE), state, Cushitic, capital Alula. Somali sultanate of the northeastern coast that profited from frankincense and salvage of wrecked ships. Italy conquered it in 1927. https://entireworldhistorytimeline.com/northern-africa/majeerteen-sultanate/ - Kingdom of Jimma (c. 1790 to 1932 CE), state, Cushitic, capital Jiren. 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. https://entireworldhistorytimeline.com/northern-africa/kingdom-of-jimma/ - French Somaliland (1883 to 1977 CE), colony, Latin and Romance, capital Djibouti. 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. https://entireworldhistorytimeline.com/northern-africa/french-somaliland/ - British Somaliland (1884 to 1960 CE), colony, Germanic, capital Berbera, later Hargeisa. 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. https://entireworldhistorytimeline.com/northern-africa/british-somaliland/ - Italian Somaliland (1889 to 1960 CE), colony, Latin and Romance, capital Mogadishu. 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. https://entireworldhistorytimeline.com/northern-africa/italian-somaliland/ - Italian Eritrea (1890 to 1941 CE), colony, Latin and Romance, capital Asmara. 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. https://entireworldhistorytimeline.com/northern-africa/italian-eritrea/ - Dervish State (1896 to 1920 CE), state, Cushitic, capital Taleh. 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. https://entireworldhistorytimeline.com/northern-africa/dervish-state/ - Italian East Africa (1936 to 1941 CE), colony, Latin and Romance, capital Addis Ababa. 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. https://entireworldhistorytimeline.com/northern-africa/italian-east-africa/ - Somalia (1960 CE to the present), state, Cushitic, capital Mogadishu. 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. https://entireworldhistorytimeline.com/northern-africa/somalia/ - Derg (People's Democratic Republic of Ethiopia) (1974 to 1991 CE), state, Semitic, capital Addis Ababa. 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. https://entireworldhistorytimeline.com/northern-africa/derg/ - Djibouti (1977 CE to the present), state, Cushitic, capital Djibouti. 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. https://entireworldhistorytimeline.com/northern-africa/djibouti/ - Ethiopia (1991 CE to the present), state, Semitic, capital Addis Ababa. 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. https://entireworldhistorytimeline.com/northern-africa/ethiopia/ - Somaliland (1991 CE to the present), state, Cushitic, capital Hargeisa. Self-declared republic in the former British protectorate that broke from Somalia in 1991. It holds regular elections but has no international recognition. https://entireworldhistorytimeline.com/northern-africa/somaliland/ - Eritrea (1993 CE to the present), state, Semitic, capital Asmara. 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. https://entireworldhistorytimeline.com/northern-africa/eritrea/ ### Sahara and Sahel - Saharan cattle pastoralists (c. 3200 to 1000 BCE), people or culture, Unknown or undeciphered. 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. https://entireworldhistorytimeline.com/northern-africa/saharan-pastoralists/ - Tichitt culture (c. 2200 to 400 BCE), people or culture, Niger-Congo. 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. https://entireworldhistorytimeline.com/northern-africa/tichitt-culture/ - Sahelian cereal farmers (c. 1500 BCE to the present), people or culture, Niger-Congo. 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. https://entireworldhistorytimeline.com/northern-africa/sahelian-farmers/ - Garamantes (c. 500 BCE to 700 CE), state, Berber, capital Garama. 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. https://entireworldhistorytimeline.com/northern-africa/garamantes/ - Jenne-Jeno (Middle Niger towns) (c. 250 BCE to 1400 CE), people or culture, Niger-Congo. 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. https://entireworldhistorytimeline.com/northern-africa/jenne-jeno/ - Saharan camel nomads (Sanhaja and Tuareg) (c. 300 CE to the present), people or culture, Berber. 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. https://entireworldhistorytimeline.com/northern-africa/camel-nomads/ - Ghana Empire (Wagadu) (c. 300 to 1200 CE), empire, Niger-Congo, capital Koumbi Saleh. 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. https://entireworldhistorytimeline.com/northern-africa/ghana-empire/ - Midrarids of Sijilmasa (758 to 976 CE), state, Berber, capital Sijilmasa. 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. https://entireworldhistorytimeline.com/northern-africa/midrarids/ - Kingdom of Gao (c. 800 to 1430 CE), state, Nilo-Saharan, capital Gao. 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. https://entireworldhistorytimeline.com/northern-africa/gao-kingdom/ - Takrur (c. 800 to 1285 CE), state, Niger-Congo, capital Takrur. 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. https://entireworldhistorytimeline.com/northern-africa/takrur/ - Sosso Kingdom (c. 1180 to 1235 CE), state, Niger-Congo, capital Sosso. Kingdom of the blacksmith-king Sumanguru Kante that took over Ghana's heartland. Sundiata Keita defeated him at Kirina in 1235. https://entireworldhistorytimeline.com/northern-africa/sosso-kingdom/ - Mali Empire (c. 1235 to 1670 CE), empire, Niger-Congo, capital Niani. 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. https://entireworldhistorytimeline.com/northern-africa/mali-empire/ - Sultanate of Agadez (c. 1449 to 1906 CE), state, Berber, capital Agadez. 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. https://entireworldhistorytimeline.com/northern-africa/agadez-sultanate/ - Mossi kingdoms (c. 1450 to 1896 CE), state, Niger-Congo, capital Ouagadougou, Ouahigouya. 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. https://entireworldhistorytimeline.com/northern-africa/mossi-kingdoms/ - Songhai Empire (1464 to 1591 CE), empire, Nilo-Saharan, capital Gao. 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. https://entireworldhistorytimeline.com/northern-africa/songhai-empire/ - Pashalik of Timbuktu (1591 to 1833 CE), state, Arabic, capital Timbuktu. 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. https://entireworldhistorytimeline.com/northern-africa/pashalik-of-timbuktu/ - Dendi Kingdom (1591 to 1901 CE), state, Nilo-Saharan, capital Lulami. Songhai rump state on the lower Niger founded by Askia princes who refused to submit to Morocco. France absorbed it around 1901. https://entireworldhistorytimeline.com/northern-africa/dendi-kingdom/ - Bambara Empire of Ségou (1712 to 1861 CE), state, Niger-Congo, capital Ségou. Bambara state built by Biton Coulibaly with a slave army on the middle Niger. Umar Tall's jihad conquered it in 1861. https://entireworldhistorytimeline.com/northern-africa/bambara-empire/ - Massina Empire (1818 to 1862 CE), state, Niger-Congo, capital Hamdullahi. 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. https://entireworldhistorytimeline.com/northern-africa/massina-empire/ - Toucouleur Empire (1861 to 1893 CE), empire, Niger-Congo, capital Ségou. Jihad state of El Hadj Umar Tall, who conquered Ségou and Massina. French columns took its cities in 1890 to 1893. https://entireworldhistorytimeline.com/northern-africa/toucouleur-empire/ - Wassoulou Empire (1878 to 1898 CE), empire, Niger-Congo, capital Bissandugu. Empire of Samori Ture, who armed his professional army with repeating rifles and fought France for nearly two decades before his capture in 1898. https://entireworldhistorytimeline.com/northern-africa/wassoulou-empire/ - Spanish Sahara (1884 to 1976 CE), colony, Latin and Romance, capital El Aaiún. 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. https://entireworldhistorytimeline.com/northern-africa/spanish-sahara/ - French West Africa (1895 to 1960 CE), colony, Latin and Romance, capital Saint-Louis, later Dakar. 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. https://entireworldhistorytimeline.com/northern-africa/french-west-africa/ - Mauritania (1960 CE to the present), state, Arabic, capital Nouakchott. 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. https://entireworldhistorytimeline.com/northern-africa/mauritania/ - Mali (1960 CE to the present), state, Niger-Congo, capital Bamako. 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. https://entireworldhistorytimeline.com/northern-africa/mali/ - Niger (1960 CE to the present), state, Chadic, capital Niamey. Landlocked uranium-producing republic whose largest group is the Hausa. Soldiers overthrew the elected president Mohamed Bazoum in 2023. https://entireworldhistorytimeline.com/northern-africa/niger/ - Burkina Faso (1960 CE to the present), state, Niger-Congo, capital Ouagadougou. 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. https://entireworldhistorytimeline.com/northern-africa/burkina-faso/ - Sahrawi Arab Democratic Republic (1976 CE to the present), state, Arabic, capital Tifariti (claimed), government in Tindouf camps. 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. https://entireworldhistorytimeline.com/northern-africa/sahrawi-republic/ ### Lake Chad basin - Lake Chad fishers and herders (c. 3200 to 1800 BCE), people or culture, Unknown or undeciphered. Fishers, hunters and herders around the shores of a far larger Lake Chad, which shrank as the Sahara dried after 3500 BCE. https://entireworldhistorytimeline.com/northern-africa/lake-chad-foragers/ - Gajiganna culture (c. 1800 to 800 BCE), people or culture, Unknown or undeciphered. Cattle herders who settled the clay plains southwest of Lake Chad and took up pearl millet farming, living in villages on raised mounds. https://entireworldhistorytimeline.com/northern-africa/gajiganna-culture/ - Chadic-speaking farmers (c. 1000 BCE to the present), people or culture, Chadic. Farmers speaking Chadic languages, including the ancestors of the Hausa, Kotoko and Mandara, who spread across the savanna south and west of Lake Chad. https://entireworldhistorytimeline.com/northern-africa/chadic-farmers/ - Sao culture (c. 500 BCE to 1600 CE), people or culture, Chadic. 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. https://entireworldhistorytimeline.com/northern-africa/sao-culture/ - Kanem Empire (c. 700 to 1387 CE), empire, Nilo-Saharan, capital Njimi. 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. https://entireworldhistorytimeline.com/northern-africa/kanem-empire/ - Hausa city-states (c. 1000 to 1808 CE), state, Chadic, capital Kano, Katsina, Zazzau, Gobir. 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. https://entireworldhistorytimeline.com/northern-africa/hausa-kingdoms/ - Bornu Empire (c. 1387 to 1893 CE), empire, Nilo-Saharan, capital Ngazargamu, later Kukawa. 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. https://entireworldhistorytimeline.com/northern-africa/bornu-empire/ - Kwararafa (Jukun) (c. 1500 to 1800 CE), state, Niger-Congo, capital Wukari. 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. https://entireworldhistorytimeline.com/northern-africa/kwararafa/ - Sultanate of Bagirmi (1522 to 1897 CE), state, Nilo-Saharan, capital Massenya. 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. https://entireworldhistorytimeline.com/northern-africa/bagirmi/ - Wadai Sultanate (1635 to 1912 CE), state, Nilo-Saharan, capital Ouara, later Abéché. 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. https://entireworldhistorytimeline.com/northern-africa/wadai-sultanate/ - Sokoto Caliphate (1804 to 1903 CE), empire, Niger-Congo, capital Sokoto. 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. https://entireworldhistorytimeline.com/northern-africa/sokoto-caliphate/ - German Kamerun (north) (1884 to 1916 CE), colony, Germanic, capital Buea (colonial capital). 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. https://entireworldhistorytimeline.com/northern-africa/german-kamerun-north/ - Rabih az-Zubayr's state (1893 to 1900 CE), state, Arabic, capital Dikwa. Warlord state of the Sudanese slaver Rabih az-Zubayr, who conquered Bagirmi and Bornu. He was killed fighting the French at Kousseri in 1900. https://entireworldhistorytimeline.com/northern-africa/rabih-state/ - Northern Nigeria Protectorate (1900 to 1914 CE), colony, Germanic, capital Zungeru. 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. https://entireworldhistorytimeline.com/northern-africa/northern-nigeria/ - French Chad (1900 to 1960 CE), colony, Latin and Romance, capital Fort-Lamy. 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. https://entireworldhistorytimeline.com/northern-africa/french-chad/ - Chad (1960 CE to the present), state, Nilo-Saharan, capital N'Djamena. 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. https://entireworldhistorytimeline.com/northern-africa/chad/ ### West Africa coast and forest - Tropical forest hunter-gatherers (c. 3200 to 1000 BCE), people or culture, Unknown or undeciphered. 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. https://entireworldhistorytimeline.com/northern-africa/forest-hunter-gatherers/ - Kintampo culture (c. 2500 to 1400 BCE), people or culture, Niger-Congo. 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. https://entireworldhistorytimeline.com/northern-africa/kintampo-culture/ - West African yam and oil palm farmers (c. 1500 BCE to the present), people or culture, Niger-Congo. 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. https://entireworldhistorytimeline.com/northern-africa/forest-farmers/ - Nok culture (c. 1500 BCE to 1 CE), people or culture, Unknown or undeciphered. 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. https://entireworldhistorytimeline.com/northern-africa/nok-culture/ - Igbo-Ukwu (c. 800 to 1100 CE), people or culture, Niger-Congo. 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. https://entireworldhistorytimeline.com/northern-africa/igbo-ukwu/ - Kingdom of Nri (c. 900 to 1911 CE), state, Niger-Congo, capital Igbo-Ukwu, later Agukwu. 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. https://entireworldhistorytimeline.com/northern-africa/kingdom-of-nri/ - Ife (c. 1000 to 1420 CE), state, Niger-Congo, capital Ile-Ife. 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. https://entireworldhistorytimeline.com/northern-africa/ife/ - Kingdom of Benin (c. 1180 to 1897 CE), state, Niger-Congo, capital Benin City (Edo). 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. https://entireworldhistorytimeline.com/northern-africa/benin-kingdom/ - Jolof Empire (c. 1350 to 1549 CE), empire, Niger-Congo, capital Linguère. Wolof empire of Senegal founded by Ndiadiane Ndiaye. Its coastal provinces profited from Portuguese trade and broke away after Cayor won independence in 1549. https://entireworldhistorytimeline.com/northern-africa/jolof-empire/ - Oyo Empire (c. 1400 to 1836 CE), empire, Niger-Congo, capital Oyo-Ile. 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. https://entireworldhistorytimeline.com/northern-africa/oyo-empire/ - Portuguese Cape Verde (1462 to 1975 CE), colony, Latin and Romance, capital Ribeira Grande, later Praia. 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. https://entireworldhistorytimeline.com/northern-africa/portuguese-cape-verde/ - Portuguese Gold Coast (Elmina) (1482 to 1642 CE), colony, Latin and Romance, capital São Jorge da Mina. 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. https://entireworldhistorytimeline.com/northern-africa/portuguese-elmina/ - Kaabu (1537 to 1867 CE), state, Niger-Congo, capital Kansala. 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. https://entireworldhistorytimeline.com/northern-africa/kaabu/ - Kingdom of Cayor (1549 to 1879 CE), state, Niger-Congo, capital Mboul. 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. https://entireworldhistorytimeline.com/northern-africa/cayor/ - Kingdom of Dahomey (c. 1600 to 1904 CE), state, Niger-Congo, capital Abomey. 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. https://entireworldhistorytimeline.com/northern-africa/dahomey/ - Dutch Gold Coast (1612 to 1872 CE), colony, Germanic, capital Elmina. 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. https://entireworldhistorytimeline.com/northern-africa/dutch-gold-coast/ - Denkyira (c. 1620 to 1701 CE), state, Niger-Congo, capital Abankeseso. Akan kingdom that controlled gold fields and trade with the coast. The Ashanti, once its tributaries, defeated it at Feyiase in 1701. https://entireworldhistorytimeline.com/northern-africa/denkyira/ - French Senegal (1659 to 1960 CE), colony, Latin and Romance, capital Saint-Louis, later Dakar. 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. https://entireworldhistorytimeline.com/northern-africa/french-senegal/ - Ashanti Empire (1701 to 1901 CE), empire, Niger-Congo, capital Kumasi. 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. https://entireworldhistorytimeline.com/northern-africa/ashanti-empire/ - Kong Empire (1710 to 1898 CE), state, Niger-Congo, capital Kong. 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. https://entireworldhistorytimeline.com/northern-africa/kong-empire/ - Imamate of Futa Jallon (1725 to 1896 CE), state, Niger-Congo, capital Timbo. Fula Islamic state in the highlands of Guinea founded after a jihad, ruled by alternating almamys from two families. France absorbed it in 1896. https://entireworldhistorytimeline.com/northern-africa/futa-jallon/ - Imamate of Futa Toro (1776 to 1861 CE), state, Niger-Congo, capital Thilogne. 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. https://entireworldhistorytimeline.com/northern-africa/futa-toro/ - Sierra Leone Colony (1808 to 1961 CE), colony, Germanic, capital Freetown. 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. https://entireworldhistorytimeline.com/northern-africa/sierra-leone-colony/ - British Gold Coast (1821 to 1957 CE), colony, Germanic, capital Cape Coast, later Accra. 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. https://entireworldhistorytimeline.com/northern-africa/british-gold-coast/ - Liberia (1847 CE to the present), state, Germanic, capital Monrovia. 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. https://entireworldhistorytimeline.com/northern-africa/liberia/ - Lagos Colony (1861 to 1906 CE), colony, Germanic, capital Lagos. 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. https://entireworldhistorytimeline.com/northern-africa/lagos-colony/ - Portuguese Guinea (1879 to 1974 CE), colony, Latin and Romance, capital Bolama, later Bissau. 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. https://entireworldhistorytimeline.com/northern-africa/portuguese-guinea/ - German Togoland (1884 to 1916 CE), colony, Germanic, capital Lomé. German colony run as a model plantation economy. Britain and France occupied it in 1914 and divided it, the French part becoming Togo. https://entireworldhistorytimeline.com/northern-africa/german-togoland/ - British Nigeria (1914 to 1960 CE), colony, Germanic, capital Lagos. 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. https://entireworldhistorytimeline.com/northern-africa/british-nigeria/ - Ghana (1957 CE to the present), state, Niger-Congo, capital Accra. 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. https://entireworldhistorytimeline.com/northern-africa/ghana/ - Guinea (1958 CE to the present), state, Niger-Congo, capital Conakry. 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. https://entireworldhistorytimeline.com/northern-africa/guinea/ - Senegal (1960 CE to the present), state, Niger-Congo, capital Dakar. Republic led first by the poet Léopold Sédar Senghor and one of Africa's most stable democracies, with no coup since independence. https://entireworldhistorytimeline.com/northern-africa/senegal/ - Nigeria (1960 CE to the present), state, Niger-Congo, capital Lagos, later Abuja. 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. https://entireworldhistorytimeline.com/northern-africa/nigeria/ - Côte d'Ivoire (1960 CE to the present), state, Niger-Congo, capital Abidjan, later Yamoussoukro. 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. https://entireworldhistorytimeline.com/northern-africa/cote-divoire/ - Benin (1960 CE to the present), state, Niger-Congo, capital Porto-Novo. 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. https://entireworldhistorytimeline.com/northern-africa/benin/ - Togo (1960 CE to the present), state, Niger-Congo, capital Lomé. Narrow republic ruled by Gnassingbé Eyadéma from 1967 to 2005 and then by his son Faure Gnassingbé. https://entireworldhistorytimeline.com/northern-africa/togo/ - Sierra Leone (1961 CE to the present), state, Germanic, capital Freetown. Diamond-producing state devastated by a civil war from 1991 to 2002 known for mass amputations. British and UN troops helped end it. https://entireworldhistorytimeline.com/northern-africa/sierra-leone/ - The Gambia (1965 CE to the present), state, Niger-Congo, capital Banjul. 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. https://entireworldhistorytimeline.com/northern-africa/gambia/ - Republic of Biafra (1967 to 1970 CE), state, Niger-Congo, capital Enugu, later Umuahia. Igbo-led secessionist state in southeastern Nigeria. A federal blockade caused a famine that killed perhaps a million people before Biafra surrendered in 1970. https://entireworldhistorytimeline.com/northern-africa/biafra/ - Guinea-Bissau (1973 CE to the present), state, Latin and Romance, capital Bissau. 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. https://entireworldhistorytimeline.com/northern-africa/guinea-bissau/ - Cape Verde (1975 CE to the present), state, Latin and Romance, capital Praia. 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. https://entireworldhistorytimeline.com/northern-africa/cape-verde/ ### Events in North and West Africa - 3500 BCE: The Green Sahara dries out. As monsoon rains shift south, the grassland Sahara turns to desert over centuries, pushing herders toward the Nile valley, the Sahel and Lake Chad. - 3100 BCE: Unification of Egypt. Narmer, king of Upper Egypt, brings the Nile valley and the Delta under one crown, shown on the Narmer Palette. Memphis becomes the capital. - 2560 BCE: Great Pyramid of Giza. Khufu's pyramid at Giza is completed, 146 metres high and the tallest human-made structure on Earth for nearly 4,000 years. - 1470 BCE: Hatshepsut's expedition to Punt. 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. - 1346 BCE: Akhenaten founds Amarna. Pharaoh Akhenaten moves the capital to a new city at Amarna devoted to the sun disc Aten, a religious revolution reversed after his death. - 814 BCE: Founding of Carthage. 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. - 728 BCE: Piye conquers Egypt. 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. - 500 BCE: Iron smelting in West Africa. 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. - 331 BCE: Founding of Alexandria. 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. - 146 BCE: Destruction of Carthage. 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. - 30 BCE: Death of Cleopatra. After defeat at Actium, Cleopatra VII and Mark Antony take their own lives. Octavian annexes Egypt, ending three centuries of Ptolemaic rule. - 330: Aksum adopts Christianity. King Ezana of Aksum converts under the influence of the Syrian bishop Frumentius, and his coins switch from pagan symbols to the cross. - 641: Arab conquest of Egypt. Amr ibn al-As takes Babylon fortress and then Alexandria, ending Byzantine rule. He founds Fustat, the nucleus of later Cairo. - 652: The Baqt treaty. 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. - 670: Founding of Kairouan. 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. - 969: Fatimids found Cairo. The Fatimid general Jawhar conquers Egypt and lays out al-Qahira, 'the victorious', next to Fustat. Al-Azhar mosque opens soon after. - 1050: Banu Hilal migration. Arab Bedouin tribes sent west by the Fatimids sweep into Ifriqiya, sacking Kairouan in 1057 and speeding the spread of Arabic in the Maghreb. - 1235: Battle of Kirina. Sundiata Keita defeats the Sosso king Sumanguru Kante, founding the Mali Empire, a story still told by griots in the Epic of Sundiata. - 1324: Mansa Musa's pilgrimage. 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. - 1347: Black Death reaches Egypt. Plague arrives in Alexandria and kills perhaps a third of Egypt's people, wrecking the Mamluk economy and irrigation system. - 1482: Portuguese build Elmina. Portugal builds the fortress of São Jorge da Mina on the Gold Coast, opening direct European trade in gold and later enslaved people. - 1529: Battle of Shimbra Kure. Imam Ahmad of Adal routs Emperor Lebna Dengel, beginning fourteen years of conquest across the Christian highlands of Ethiopia. - 1591: Battle of Tondibi. A Moroccan army of musketeers sent across the Sahara by Ahmad al-Mansur routs the Songhai, ending the last great Sahelian empire. - 1700: Peak of the Atlantic slave trade. 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. - 1798: Napoleon invades Egypt. Napoleon defeats the Mamluks at the Battle of the Pyramids. The short French occupation breaks Mamluk power and brings Egypt to European attention. - 1804: Usman dan Fodio's jihad. The Fula scholar Usman dan Fodio declares a holy war against the Hausa king of Gobir, founding the Sokoto Caliphate within a few years. - 1869: Suez Canal opens. The canal linking the Mediterranean and Red Sea opens under Khedive Ismail, cutting the sea route from Europe to India by thousands of kilometres. - 1884: Berlin Conference. European powers meet in Berlin to set rules for claiming African territory, accelerating the Scramble for Africa that left only Ethiopia and Liberia independent. - 1896: Battle of Adwa. Emperor Menelik II's army defeats an Italian invasion force, securing Ethiopia's independence through the colonial era. - 1954: Algerian War begins. The FLN launches coordinated attacks on 1 November. Eight years of war and terror end with Algerian independence in 1962. - 1956: Suez Crisis. Nasser nationalises the Suez Canal, and Britain, France and Israel invade. American and Soviet pressure forces them out, a blow to European imperial power. - 1957: Ghana wins independence. 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. - 1960: Year of Africa. Seventeen African countries win independence in a single year, including Nigeria, Mali, Senegal, Niger, Chad and Somalia. - 2011: Arab Spring. 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. ## Europe ### Scandinavia and the Baltic - Comb Ceramic culture (c. 3200 to 2000 BCE), people or culture, Unknown or undeciphered. 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. https://entireworldhistorytimeline.com/europe/comb-ceramic/ - Narva culture (c. 3200 to 1750 BCE), people or culture, Unknown or undeciphered. 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. https://entireworldhistorytimeline.com/europe/narva-culture/ - Pitted Ware culture (c. 3200 to 2300 BCE), people or culture, Unknown or undeciphered. 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. https://entireworldhistorytimeline.com/europe/pitted-ware/ - Battle Axe culture (c. 2800 to 2300 BCE), people or culture, Other Indo-European. 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. https://entireworldhistorytimeline.com/europe/battle-axe-culture/ - Nordic Bronze Age (c. 1700 to 500 BCE), people or culture, Germanic. 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. https://entireworldhistorytimeline.com/europe/nordic-bronze-age/ - Baltic Finnic tribes (c. 1500 BCE to 1250 CE), people or culture, Uralic. 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. https://entireworldhistorytimeline.com/europe/baltic-finns/ - Baltic tribes (c. 1000 BCE to 1290 CE), people or culture, Baltic. 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. https://entireworldhistorytimeline.com/europe/baltic-tribes/ - Sami people (c. 1000 BCE to the present), people or culture, Uralic. 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. https://entireworldhistorytimeline.com/europe/sami/ - Pre-Roman Iron Age (Scandinavia) (c. 500 BCE to 1 CE), people or culture, Germanic. 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. https://entireworldhistorytimeline.com/europe/pre-roman-iron-age-north/ - Roman Iron Age (Scandinavia) (c. 1 to 400 CE), people or culture, Germanic. 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. https://entireworldhistorytimeline.com/europe/roman-iron-age-north/ - Migration and Vendel periods (c. 400 to 793 CE), people or culture, Germanic. 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. https://entireworldhistorytimeline.com/europe/vendel-period/ - Viking Age Norse (793 to 1066 CE), people or culture, Germanic. 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. https://entireworldhistorytimeline.com/europe/viking-age/ - Kingdom of Norway (c. 872 to 1397 CE), state, Germanic, capital Trondheim, later Bergen and Oslo. 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. https://entireworldhistorytimeline.com/europe/kingdom-of-norway/ - Icelandic Commonwealth (930 to 1262 CE), state, Germanic, capital Thingvellir (Althing). 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. https://entireworldhistorytimeline.com/europe/icelandic-commonwealth/ - Kingdom of Denmark (c. 936 to 1397 CE), state, Germanic, capital Jelling, later Roskilde. 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. https://entireworldhistorytimeline.com/europe/kingdom-of-denmark/ - Kingdom of Sweden (c. 970 to 1397 CE), state, Germanic, capital Uppsala, later Stockholm. 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. https://entireworldhistorytimeline.com/europe/kingdom-of-sweden/ - North Sea Empire (1016 to 1035 CE), empire, Germanic, capital Winchester. Cnut the Great ruled England from 1016, Denmark from 1018 and Norway from 1028. The union fell apart soon after his death in 1035. https://entireworldhistorytimeline.com/europe/north-sea-empire/ - Terra Mariana (Livonia) (1207 to 1561 CE), state, Germanic, capital Riga. 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. https://entireworldhistorytimeline.com/europe/livonia/ - State of the Teutonic Order (1230 to 1525 CE), state, Germanic, capital Marienburg, later Konigsberg. 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. https://entireworldhistorytimeline.com/europe/teutonic-order-state/ - Grand Duchy of Lithuania (c. 1236 to 1795 CE), state, Baltic, capital Vilnius. 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. https://entireworldhistorytimeline.com/europe/grand-duchy-lithuania/ - Kalmar Union (1397 to 1523 CE), state, Germanic, capital Copenhagen. 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. https://entireworldhistorytimeline.com/europe/kalmar-union/ - Denmark-Norway (1523 to 1814 CE), state, Germanic, capital Copenhagen. 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. https://entireworldhistorytimeline.com/europe/denmark-norway/ - Kingdom of Sweden (Vasa) (1523 to 1611 CE), state, Germanic, capital Stockholm. 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. https://entireworldhistorytimeline.com/europe/sweden-vasa/ - Duchy of Courland and Semigallia (1561 to 1795 CE), state, Germanic, capital Mitau (Jelgava). 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. https://entireworldhistorytimeline.com/europe/duchy-of-courland/ - Swedish Empire (1611 to 1721 CE), empire, Germanic, capital Stockholm. 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. https://entireworldhistorytimeline.com/europe/swedish-empire/ - Kingdom of Sweden (1721 CE to the present), state, Germanic, capital Stockholm. 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. https://entireworldhistorytimeline.com/europe/sweden-modern/ - Grand Duchy of Finland (1809 to 1917 CE), state, Uralic, capital Helsinki. 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. https://entireworldhistorytimeline.com/europe/grand-duchy-finland/ - Kingdom of Denmark (1814 CE to the present), state, Germanic, capital Copenhagen. 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. https://entireworldhistorytimeline.com/europe/denmark-modern/ - Union of Sweden and Norway (1814 to 1905 CE), state, Germanic, capital Stockholm and Christiania. 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. https://entireworldhistorytimeline.com/europe/sweden-norway/ - Kingdom of Norway (1905 CE to the present), state, Germanic, capital Oslo. 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. https://entireworldhistorytimeline.com/europe/norway-modern/ - Republic of Finland (1917 CE to the present), state, Uralic, capital Helsinki. 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. https://entireworldhistorytimeline.com/europe/finland/ - Iceland (1918 CE to the present), state, Germanic, capital Reykjavik. 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. https://entireworldhistorytimeline.com/europe/iceland/ - Republic of Estonia (1918 to 1940) (1918 to 1940 CE), state, Uralic, capital Tallinn. 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. https://entireworldhistorytimeline.com/europe/estonia-first/ - Republic of Latvia (1918 to 1940) (1918 to 1940 CE), state, Baltic, capital Riga. 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. https://entireworldhistorytimeline.com/europe/latvia-first/ - Republic of Lithuania (1918 to 1940) (1918 to 1940 CE), state, Baltic, capital Kaunas. Restored in February 1918, interwar Lithuania lost Vilnius to Poland and governed from Kaunas. The Soviet Union annexed it in 1940. https://entireworldhistorytimeline.com/europe/lithuania-first/ - Lithuania (1990 CE to the present), state, Baltic, capital Vilnius. The first Soviet republic to declare independence, in March 1990, Lithuania won recognition in 1991 and joined the EU and NATO in 2004. https://entireworldhistorytimeline.com/europe/lithuania/ - Estonia (1991 CE to the present), state, Uralic, capital Tallinn. 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. https://entireworldhistorytimeline.com/europe/estonia/ - Latvia (1991 CE to the present), state, Baltic, capital Riga. 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. https://entireworldhistorytimeline.com/europe/latvia/ ### Russia and the Steppe - Cucuteni-Trypillia culture (c. 3200 to 3000 BCE), people or culture, Unknown or undeciphered. 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. https://entireworldhistorytimeline.com/europe/cucuteni-trypillia/ - Maykop culture (c. 3200 to 3000 BCE), people or culture, Unknown or undeciphered. 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. https://entireworldhistorytimeline.com/europe/maykop-culture/ - Volosovo culture (c. 3200 to 1800 BCE), people or culture, Unknown or undeciphered. 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. https://entireworldhistorytimeline.com/europe/volosovo/ - Yamnaya culture (c. 3200 to 2600 BCE), people or culture, Other Indo-European. 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. https://entireworldhistorytimeline.com/europe/yamnaya/ - Fatyanovo-Balanovo culture (c. 2800 to 2200 BCE), people or culture, Other Indo-European. 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. https://entireworldhistorytimeline.com/europe/fatyanovo/ - Catacomb culture (c. 2800 to 2200 BCE), people or culture, Other Indo-European. 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. https://entireworldhistorytimeline.com/europe/catacomb-culture/ - Srubnaya culture (c. 1800 to 1200 BCE), people or culture, Iranian. 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. https://entireworldhistorytimeline.com/europe/srubnaya/ - Volga Finnic peoples (c. 1800 BCE to 1100 CE), people or culture, Uralic. 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. https://entireworldhistorytimeline.com/europe/volga-finns/ - Cimmerians (c. 900 to 650 BCE), people or culture, Iranian. 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. https://entireworldhistorytimeline.com/europe/cimmerians/ - Scythians (c. 700 to 250 BCE), people or culture, Iranian. 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. https://entireworldhistorytimeline.com/europe/scythians/ - Bosporan Kingdom (c. 480 BCE to 370 CE), state, Greek, capital Panticapaeum. 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. https://entireworldhistorytimeline.com/europe/bosporan-kingdom/ - Sarmatians (c. 300 BCE to 375 CE), people or culture, Iranian. 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. https://entireworldhistorytimeline.com/europe/sarmatians/ - Chernyakhov culture (Gothic Oium) (c. 230 to 375 CE), people or culture, Germanic. 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. https://entireworldhistorytimeline.com/europe/chernyakhov/ - Hunnic Empire (c. 370 to 469 CE), empire, Unknown or undeciphered, capital Attila's camp on the Tisza plain. 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. https://entireworldhistorytimeline.com/europe/huns/ - Kutrigurs and Utigurs (c. 460 to 632 CE), people or culture, Turkic. 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. https://entireworldhistorytimeline.com/europe/bulgar-tribes/ - East Slavic tribes (c. 500 to 882 CE), people or culture, Slavic. 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. https://entireworldhistorytimeline.com/europe/east-slavs/ - Old Great Bulgaria (c. 632 to 668 CE), state, Turkic, capital Phanagoria. 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. https://entireworldhistorytimeline.com/europe/old-great-bulgaria/ - Khazar Khaganate (c. 650 to 969 CE), empire, Turkic, capital Atil. 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. https://entireworldhistorytimeline.com/europe/khazar-khaganate/ - Volga Bulgaria (c. 700 to 1236 CE), state, Turkic, capital Bolghar. 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. https://entireworldhistorytimeline.com/europe/volga-bulgaria/ - Pechenegs (c. 860 to 1091 CE), people or culture, Turkic. 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. https://entireworldhistorytimeline.com/europe/pechenegs/ - Kievan Rus (882 to 1240 CE), state, Slavic, capital Kiev. 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. https://entireworldhistorytimeline.com/europe/kievan-rus/ - Cumans (Kipchaks) (c. 1060 to 1237 CE), people or culture, Turkic. 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. https://entireworldhistorytimeline.com/europe/cumans/ - Novgorod Republic (1136 to 1478 CE), state, Slavic, capital Novgorod. 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. https://entireworldhistorytimeline.com/europe/novgorod-republic/ - Vladimir-Suzdal (c. 1157 to 1331 CE), state, Slavic, capital Vladimir. 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. https://entireworldhistorytimeline.com/europe/vladimir-suzdal/ - Galicia-Volhynia (1199 to 1349 CE), state, Slavic, capital Halych, later Lviv. 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. https://entireworldhistorytimeline.com/europe/galicia-volhynia/ - Golden Horde (1242 to 1502 CE), empire, Turkic, capital Sarai. 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. https://entireworldhistorytimeline.com/europe/golden-horde/ - Principality of Tver (1247 to 1485 CE), state, Slavic, capital Tver. 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. https://entireworldhistorytimeline.com/europe/tver/ - Grand Duchy of Moscow (1263 to 1547 CE), state, Slavic, capital Moscow. 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. https://entireworldhistorytimeline.com/europe/grand-duchy-moscow/ - Genoese Gazaria (c. 1266 to 1475 CE), colony, Latin and Romance, capital Caffa. 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. https://entireworldhistorytimeline.com/europe/genoese-gazaria/ - Khanate of Kazan (1438 to 1552 CE), state, Turkic, capital Kazan. 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. https://entireworldhistorytimeline.com/europe/kazan-khanate/ - Crimean Khanate (1441 to 1783 CE), state, Turkic, capital Bakhchysarai. 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. https://entireworldhistorytimeline.com/europe/crimean-khanate/ - Khanate of Astrakhan (1466 to 1556 CE), state, Turkic, capital Astrakhan. 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. https://entireworldhistorytimeline.com/europe/astrakhan-khanate/ - Tsardom of Russia (1547 to 1721 CE), state, Slavic, capital Moscow. 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. https://entireworldhistorytimeline.com/europe/tsardom-of-russia/ - Zaporozhian Sich (c. 1552 to 1775 CE), state, Slavic, capital the Sich on the Dnieper rapids. 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. https://entireworldhistorytimeline.com/europe/zaporozhian-sich/ - Kalmyk Khanate (c. 1630 to 1771 CE), state, Mongolic. 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. https://entireworldhistorytimeline.com/europe/kalmyk-khanate/ - Cossack Hetmanate (1648 to 1764 CE), state, Slavic, capital Chyhyryn, later Baturyn. 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. https://entireworldhistorytimeline.com/europe/cossack-hetmanate/ - Russian Empire (1721 to 1917 CE), empire, Slavic, capital Saint Petersburg. 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. https://entireworldhistorytimeline.com/europe/russian-empire/ - Russian Soviet Republic (1917 to 1922 CE), state, Slavic, capital Petrograd, then Moscow. 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. https://entireworldhistorytimeline.com/europe/soviet-russia/ - Ukrainian People's Republic (1917 to 1921 CE), state, Slavic, capital Kyiv. 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. https://entireworldhistorytimeline.com/europe/ukrainian-peoples-republic/ - Soviet Union (1922 to 1991 CE), empire, Slavic, capital Moscow. 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. https://entireworldhistorytimeline.com/europe/soviet-union/ - Russian Federation (1991 CE to the present), state, Slavic, capital Moscow. 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. https://entireworldhistorytimeline.com/europe/russian-federation/ - Ukraine (1991 CE to the present), state, Slavic, capital Kyiv. 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. https://entireworldhistorytimeline.com/europe/ukraine/ - Belarus (1991 CE to the present), state, Slavic, capital Minsk. Independent since 1991 and ruled by Alexander Lukashenko since 1994, Belarus is Russia's closest ally. https://entireworldhistorytimeline.com/europe/belarus/ ### Central Europe - Baden culture (c. 3200 to 2800 BCE), people or culture, Unknown or undeciphered. Copper Age farmers of Hungary, Austria and Moravia who left some of the earliest evidence of wheeled vehicles in Europe, including clay wagon models. https://entireworldhistorytimeline.com/europe/baden-culture/ - Funnelbeaker culture (c. 3200 to 2800 BCE), people or culture, Unknown or undeciphered. 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. https://entireworldhistorytimeline.com/europe/funnelbeaker/ - Corded Ware culture (c. 3000 to 2350 BCE), people or culture, Other Indo-European. 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. https://entireworldhistorytimeline.com/europe/corded-ware/ - Unetice culture (c. 2300 to 1600 BCE), people or culture, Unknown or undeciphered. 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. https://entireworldhistorytimeline.com/europe/unetice/ - Tumulus culture (c. 1600 to 1200 BCE), people or culture, Unknown or undeciphered. Middle Bronze Age peoples of southern Germany and the Danube basin who buried their dead under earth mounds with bronze swords and ornaments. https://entireworldhistorytimeline.com/europe/tumulus-culture/ - Urnfield culture (c. 1300 to 750 BCE), people or culture, Celtic. 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. https://entireworldhistorytimeline.com/europe/urnfield-culture/ - Lusatian culture (c. 1300 to 500 BCE), people or culture, Unknown or undeciphered. 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. https://entireworldhistorytimeline.com/europe/lusatian/ - Hallstatt culture (c. 800 to 450 BCE), people or culture, Celtic. 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. https://entireworldhistorytimeline.com/europe/hallstatt/ - Jastorf culture (c. 600 to 1 BCE), people or culture, Germanic. Iron Age culture of northern Germany and Jutland, usually linked with the early Germanic peoples. Urn cemeteries and bog iron working mark its sites. https://entireworldhistorytimeline.com/europe/jastorf/ - La Tene culture (c. 450 to 50 BCE), people or culture, Celtic. 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. https://entireworldhistorytimeline.com/europe/la-tene/ - Przeworsk culture (c. 300 BCE to 450 CE), people or culture, Germanic. 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. https://entireworldhistorytimeline.com/europe/przeworsk/ - Kingdom of Noricum (c. 200 to 15 BCE), state, Celtic, capital Noreia. 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. https://entireworldhistorytimeline.com/europe/noricum/ - Germanic tribes of Germania (c. 100 BCE to 500 CE), people or culture, Germanic. 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. https://entireworldhistorytimeline.com/europe/germanic-tribes/ - Wielbark culture (c. 1 to 400 CE), people or culture, Germanic. 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. https://entireworldhistorytimeline.com/europe/wielbark/ - Old Saxons (c. 100 to 804 CE), people or culture, Germanic. 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. https://entireworldhistorytimeline.com/europe/saxons/ - Alemanni (c. 213 to 746 CE), people or culture, Germanic. 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. https://entireworldhistorytimeline.com/europe/alemanni/ - Kingdom of the Gepids (454 to 567 CE), state, Germanic, capital Sirmium. 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. https://entireworldhistorytimeline.com/europe/gepids/ - West Slavic tribes (c. 500 to 1160 CE), people or culture, Slavic. 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. https://entireworldhistorytimeline.com/europe/west-slavs/ - Avar Khaganate (c. 567 to 822 CE), empire, Unknown or undeciphered. 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. https://entireworldhistorytimeline.com/europe/avar-khaganate/ - Samo's realm (c. 623 to 658 CE), state, Slavic. 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. https://entireworldhistorytimeline.com/europe/samo/ - Great Moravia (c. 833 to 907 CE), state, Slavic, capital Velehrad (probably Mikulcice). 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. https://entireworldhistorytimeline.com/europe/great-moravia/ - East Francia (843 to 962 CE), state, Germanic, capital Regensburg, Frankfurt. 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. https://entireworldhistorytimeline.com/europe/east-francia/ - Duchy of Bohemia (c. 870 to 1198 CE), state, Slavic, capital Prague. 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. https://entireworldhistorytimeline.com/europe/duchy-of-bohemia/ - Principality of Hungary (c. 895 to 1000 CE), state, Uralic, capital Esztergom. 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. https://entireworldhistorytimeline.com/europe/principality-of-hungary/ - Duchy of Poland (c. 960 to 1025 CE), state, Slavic, capital Gniezno. Mieszko I united the Polans and was baptised in 966. His son Boleslaw the Brave was crowned the first king of Poland in 1025. https://entireworldhistorytimeline.com/europe/duchy-of-poland/ - Holy Roman Empire (962 to 1806 CE), empire, Germanic, capital Aachen, Prague, later Vienna. 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. https://entireworldhistorytimeline.com/europe/holy-roman-empire/ - Kingdom of Hungary (1000 to 1526 CE), state, Uralic, capital Esztergom, Szekesfehervar, Buda. 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. https://entireworldhistorytimeline.com/europe/kingdom-of-hungary/ - Kingdom of Poland (Piast) (1025 to 1370 CE), state, Slavic, capital Krakow. 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. https://entireworldhistorytimeline.com/europe/poland-piast/ - Duchy of Austria (1156 to 1526 CE), state, Germanic, capital Vienna. 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. https://entireworldhistorytimeline.com/europe/duchy-of-austria/ - Margraviate of Brandenburg (1157 to 1618 CE), state, Germanic, capital Brandenburg, later Berlin. 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. https://entireworldhistorytimeline.com/europe/brandenburg/ - Bavaria (Wittelsbach) (1180 to 1918 CE), state, Germanic, capital Munich. 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. https://entireworldhistorytimeline.com/europe/bavaria/ - Kingdom of Bohemia (1198 to 1918 CE), state, Slavic, capital Prague. 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. https://entireworldhistorytimeline.com/europe/kingdom-of-bohemia/ - Old Swiss Confederacy (1291 to 1798 CE), state, Germanic. 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. https://entireworldhistorytimeline.com/europe/old-swiss-confederacy/ - Hanseatic League (c. 1356 to 1669 CE), state, Germanic, capital Lubeck. 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. https://entireworldhistorytimeline.com/europe/hanseatic-league/ - Kingdom of Poland (Jagiellonian) (1386 to 1569 CE), state, Slavic, capital Krakow. 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. https://entireworldhistorytimeline.com/europe/poland-jagiellon/ - Duchy of Prussia (1525 to 1618 CE), state, Germanic, capital Konigsberg. 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. https://entireworldhistorytimeline.com/europe/duchy-of-prussia/ - Habsburg Monarchy (1526 to 1804 CE), empire, Germanic, capital Vienna. 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. https://entireworldhistorytimeline.com/europe/habsburg-monarchy/ - Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth (1569 to 1795 CE), state, Slavic, capital Krakow, later Warsaw. 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. https://entireworldhistorytimeline.com/europe/polish-lithuanian-commonwealth/ - Principality of Transylvania (1570 to 1711 CE), state, Uralic, capital Gyulafehervar (Alba Iulia). 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. https://entireworldhistorytimeline.com/europe/transylvania/ - Brandenburg-Prussia (1618 to 1701 CE), state, Germanic, capital Berlin. 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. https://entireworldhistorytimeline.com/europe/brandenburg-prussia/ - Kingdom of Prussia (1701 to 1918 CE), state, Germanic, capital Berlin. 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. https://entireworldhistorytimeline.com/europe/kingdom-of-prussia/ - Liechtenstein (1719 CE to the present), state, Germanic, capital Vaduz. 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. https://entireworldhistorytimeline.com/europe/liechtenstein/ - Switzerland (1803 CE to the present), state, Germanic, capital Bern. 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. https://entireworldhistorytimeline.com/europe/switzerland/ - Austrian Empire (1804 to 1867 CE), empire, Germanic, capital Vienna. 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. https://entireworldhistorytimeline.com/europe/austrian-empire/ - Confederation of the Rhine (1806 to 1813 CE), state, Germanic, capital Frankfurt. 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. https://entireworldhistorytimeline.com/europe/confederation-of-rhine/ - Duchy of Warsaw (1807 to 1815 CE), state, Slavic, capital Warsaw. 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. https://entireworldhistorytimeline.com/europe/duchy-of-warsaw/ - German Confederation (1815 to 1866 CE), state, Germanic, capital Frankfurt. 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. https://entireworldhistorytimeline.com/europe/german-confederation/ - Austria-Hungary (1867 to 1918 CE), empire, Germanic, capital Vienna and Budapest. 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. https://entireworldhistorytimeline.com/europe/austria-hungary/ - German Empire (1871 to 1918 CE), empire, Germanic, capital Berlin. 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. https://entireworldhistorytimeline.com/europe/german-empire/ - Weimar Republic (1918 to 1933 CE), state, Germanic, capital Berlin. Germany's first democracy, burdened by the Versailles treaty, the hyperinflation of 1923 and the Depression. Hitler was appointed chancellor in January 1933. https://entireworldhistorytimeline.com/europe/weimar-republic/ - First Austrian Republic (1918 to 1938 CE), state, Germanic, capital Vienna. 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. https://entireworldhistorytimeline.com/europe/first-austrian-republic/ - Czechoslovakia (1918 to 1992 CE), state, Slavic, capital Prague. 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. https://entireworldhistorytimeline.com/europe/czechoslovakia/ - Second Polish Republic (1918 to 1939 CE), state, Slavic, capital Warsaw. 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. https://entireworldhistorytimeline.com/europe/second-polish-republic/ - Kingdom of Hungary (1920 to 1946) (1920 to 1946 CE), state, Uralic, capital Budapest. 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. https://entireworldhistorytimeline.com/europe/hungary-interwar/ - Nazi Germany (1933 to 1945 CE), empire, Germanic, capital Berlin. 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. https://entireworldhistorytimeline.com/europe/nazi-germany/ - Austria (1945 CE to the present), state, Germanic, capital Vienna. 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. https://entireworldhistorytimeline.com/europe/austria/ - Polish People's Republic (1947 to 1989 CE), state, Slavic, capital Warsaw. 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. https://entireworldhistorytimeline.com/europe/polish-peoples-republic/ - West Germany (1949 to 1990 CE), state, Germanic, capital Bonn. 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. https://entireworldhistorytimeline.com/europe/west-germany/ - East Germany (1949 to 1990 CE), state, Germanic, capital East Berlin. 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. https://entireworldhistorytimeline.com/europe/east-germany/ - Hungarian People's Republic (1949 to 1989 CE), state, Uralic, capital Budapest. 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. https://entireworldhistorytimeline.com/europe/hungarian-peoples-republic/ - Hungary (1989 CE to the present), state, Uralic, capital Budapest. A parliamentary republic since October 1989, Hungary joined NATO in 1999 and the EU in 2004. https://entireworldhistorytimeline.com/europe/hungary/ - Poland (1989 CE to the present), state, Slavic, capital Warsaw. 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. https://entireworldhistorytimeline.com/europe/poland/ - Germany (1990 CE to the present), state, Germanic, capital Berlin. Reunified on 3 October 1990, Germany is the largest economy in the European Union and moved its government back to Berlin in 1999. https://entireworldhistorytimeline.com/europe/germany/ - Czech Republic (1993 CE to the present), state, Slavic, capital Prague. The Czech successor of Czechoslovakia since 1 January 1993, a member of NATO since 1999 and of the EU since 2004. https://entireworldhistorytimeline.com/europe/czech-republic/ - Slovakia (1993 CE to the present), state, Slavic, capital Bratislava. Independent since the peaceful split of Czechoslovakia in 1993, Slovakia joined the EU and NATO in 2004 and adopted the euro in 2009. https://entireworldhistorytimeline.com/europe/slovakia/ ### British Isles - Neolithic Britain and Ireland (c. 3200 to 2500 BCE), people or culture, Unknown or undeciphered. Farmers who built causewayed enclosures, long barrows, the passage tomb of Newgrange and the first phases of Stonehenge, and made Grooved Ware pottery. https://entireworldhistorytimeline.com/europe/neolithic-britain/ - Beaker and Early Bronze Age Britain (c. 2500 to 1500 BCE), people or culture, Unknown or undeciphered. 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. https://entireworldhistorytimeline.com/europe/beaker-britain/ - Wessex culture (c. 2000 to 1400 BCE), people or culture, Unknown or undeciphered. Early Bronze Age chiefs of southern England buried with gold, amber and bronze daggers in barrows around Stonehenge, such as Bush Barrow. https://entireworldhistorytimeline.com/europe/wessex-culture/ - Middle and Late Bronze Age Britain (c. 1500 to 800 BCE), people or culture, Unknown or undeciphered. 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. https://entireworldhistorytimeline.com/europe/bronze-age-britain/ - Iron Age Britons (c. 800 BCE to 43 CE), people or culture, Celtic. 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. https://entireworldhistorytimeline.com/europe/ancient-britons/ - Gaelic Ireland (c. 500 BCE to 1607 CE), people or culture, Celtic, capital Tara (ceremonial). 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. https://entireworldhistorytimeline.com/europe/gaelic-ireland/ - Roman Britain (43 to 410 CE), colony, Latin and Romance, capital Camulodunum, later Londinium. 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. https://entireworldhistorytimeline.com/europe/roman-britain/ - Picts (c. 297 to 843 CE), people or culture, Celtic. 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. https://entireworldhistorytimeline.com/europe/picts/ - Sub-Roman Britain (c. 410 to 600 CE), people or culture, Celtic. 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. https://entireworldhistorytimeline.com/europe/sub-roman-britain/ - Kingdom of Strathclyde (c. 450 to 1030 CE), state, Celtic, capital Dumbarton Rock, later Govan. 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. https://entireworldhistorytimeline.com/europe/strathclyde/ - Kingdom of Gwynedd (c. 450 to 1216 CE), state, Celtic, capital Aberffraw. The strongest Welsh kingdom, in the north-west around Snowdonia and Anglesey. Llywelyn the Great made it the core of a principality of Wales. https://entireworldhistorytimeline.com/europe/gwynedd/ - Kingdom of Powys (c. 450 to 1160 CE), state, Celtic, capital Mathrafal. 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. https://entireworldhistorytimeline.com/europe/powys/ - Kingdom of Kent (c. 455 to 825 CE), state, Germanic, capital Canterbury. 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. https://entireworldhistorytimeline.com/europe/kent/ - Dal Riata (c. 500 to 850 CE), state, Celtic, capital Dunadd. 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. https://entireworldhistorytimeline.com/europe/dal-riata/ - Kingdom of Wessex (c. 519 to 927 CE), state, Germanic, capital Winchester. The West Saxon kingdom. Alfred the Great beat the Danes at Edington in 878, and his grandson Aethelstan united England in 927. https://entireworldhistorytimeline.com/europe/wessex/ - Kingdom of Mercia (c. 527 to 918 CE), state, Germanic, capital Tamworth. The Midland kingdom that dominated England under Penda and Offa, who built Offa's Dyke. After the Danish invasions it was absorbed by Wessex. https://entireworldhistorytimeline.com/europe/mercia/ - Kingdom of East Anglia (c. 550 to 918 CE), state, Germanic, capital Rendlesham. 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. https://entireworldhistorytimeline.com/europe/east-anglia/ - Kingdom of Northumbria (c. 604 to 954 CE), state, Germanic, capital Bamburgh, York. 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. https://entireworldhistorytimeline.com/europe/northumbria/ - Kingdom of Scotland (843 to 1707 CE), state, Celtic, capital Scone, later Edinburgh. 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. https://entireworldhistorytimeline.com/europe/kingdom-of-scotland/ - Norse Kingdom of Dublin (c. 853 to 1170 CE), state, Germanic, capital Dublin. 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. https://entireworldhistorytimeline.com/europe/kingdom-of-dublin/ - Earldom of Orkney (c. 875 to 1472 CE), state, Germanic, capital Birsay, later Kirkwall. 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. https://entireworldhistorytimeline.com/europe/earldom-of-orkney/ - Danelaw and Kingdom of York (878 to 954 CE), state, Germanic, capital York (Jorvik). 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. https://entireworldhistorytimeline.com/europe/danelaw/ - Kingdom of England (Anglo-Saxon) (927 to 1066 CE), state, Germanic, capital Winchester. 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. https://entireworldhistorytimeline.com/europe/england-anglo-saxon/ - Kingdom of England (Norman and Plantagenet) (1066 to 1485 CE), state, Germanic, capital London (Westminster). 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. https://entireworldhistorytimeline.com/europe/england-plantagenet/ - Angevin Empire (1154 to 1214 CE), empire, Latin and Romance, capital Chinon and Westminster. 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. https://entireworldhistorytimeline.com/europe/angevin-empire/ - Lordship of Ireland (1171 to 1542 CE), colony, Germanic, capital Dublin. 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. https://entireworldhistorytimeline.com/europe/lordship-of-ireland/ - Principality of Wales (1216 to 1283 CE), state, Celtic, capital Aberffraw. 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. https://entireworldhistorytimeline.com/europe/principality-of-wales/ - Tudor England (1485 to 1603 CE), state, Germanic, capital London. Henry VIII broke with Rome in 1534 and dissolved the monasteries. Elizabeth I's navy saw off the Spanish Armada in 1588. https://entireworldhistorytimeline.com/europe/tudor-england/ - Kingdom of Ireland (1542 to 1800 CE), colony, Germanic, capital Dublin. 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. https://entireworldhistorytimeline.com/europe/kingdom-of-ireland/ - Kingdom of England (Stuart) (1603 to 1707 CE), state, Germanic, capital London. 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. https://entireworldhistorytimeline.com/europe/stuart-england/ - Commonwealth of England (1649 to 1660 CE), state, Germanic, capital London. The republic proclaimed after the execution of Charles I, ruled by Oliver Cromwell as Lord Protector from 1653. The monarchy returned in 1660. https://entireworldhistorytimeline.com/europe/commonwealth-england/ - Kingdom of Great Britain (1707 to 1800 CE), state, Germanic, capital London. 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. https://entireworldhistorytimeline.com/europe/great-britain/ - United Kingdom (1801 CE to the present), state, Germanic, capital London. 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. https://entireworldhistorytimeline.com/europe/united-kingdom/ - Irish Free State (1922 to 1937 CE), state, Celtic, capital Dublin. 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. https://entireworldhistorytimeline.com/europe/irish-free-state/ - Ireland (1937 CE to the present), state, Celtic, capital Dublin. The 1937 constitution created the modern state, which left the Commonwealth as a republic in 1949 and joined the EEC in 1973. https://entireworldhistorytimeline.com/europe/ireland/ ### France and the Low Countries - Neolithic farmers of Gaul (c. 3200 to 2500 BCE), people or culture, Unknown or undeciphered. 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. https://entireworldhistorytimeline.com/europe/neolithic-gaul/ - Bell Beaker culture (c. 2800 to 1800 BCE), people or culture, Unknown or undeciphered. 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. https://entireworldhistorytimeline.com/europe/bell-beaker/ - Armorican Tumulus culture (c. 2000 to 1400 BCE), people or culture, Unknown or undeciphered. Bronze Age chiefs of Brittany buried under large mounds with bronze daggers and gold, linked by sea with the Wessex culture of southern England. https://entireworldhistorytimeline.com/europe/armorican-tumulus/ - Bronze Age Gaul (c. 1800 to 800 BCE), people or culture, Unknown or undeciphered. 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. https://entireworldhistorytimeline.com/europe/bronze-age-gaul/ - Atlantic Bronze Age (c. 1300 to 700 BCE), people or culture, Unknown or undeciphered. 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. https://entireworldhistorytimeline.com/europe/atlantic-bronze-age/ - Gauls (c. 800 to 50 BCE), people or culture, Celtic. 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. https://entireworldhistorytimeline.com/europe/gauls/ - Aquitani (c. 600 to 56 BCE), people or culture, Isolates and ancient. 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. https://entireworldhistorytimeline.com/europe/aquitani/ - Massalia (c. 600 to 49 BCE), state, Greek, capital Massalia (Marseille). 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. https://entireworldhistorytimeline.com/europe/massalia/ - Roman Gaul (50 BCE to 486 CE), colony, Latin and Romance, capital Lugdunum, later Trier and Arles. 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. https://entireworldhistorytimeline.com/europe/roman-gaul/ - Frankish tribes (c. 250 to 481 CE), people or culture, Germanic. Germanic peoples of the lower Rhine, the Salians and Ripuarians, who served Rome as federates and settled in northern Gaul as Roman rule weakened. https://entireworldhistorytimeline.com/europe/franks/ - Kingdom of the Burgundians (411 to 534 CE), state, Germanic, capital Worms, later Lyon and Geneva. 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. https://entireworldhistorytimeline.com/europe/burgundians/ - Visigothic Kingdom of Toulouse (418 to 507 CE), state, Germanic, capital Toulouse. 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. https://entireworldhistorytimeline.com/europe/visigoths-toulouse/ - Domain of Soissons (457 to 486 CE), state, Latin and Romance, capital Soissons. A Roman enclave in northern Gaul held by Aegidius and his son Syagrius after imperial control lapsed. Clovis defeated Syagrius in 486. https://entireworldhistorytimeline.com/europe/domain-of-soissons/ - Merovingian Kingdom (481 to 751 CE), state, Germanic, capital Paris, Soissons, Metz. 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. https://entireworldhistorytimeline.com/europe/merovingian-franks/ - Frisian Kingdom (c. 600 to 734 CE), state, Germanic, capital Dorestad, Utrecht. 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. https://entireworldhistorytimeline.com/europe/frisian-kingdom/ - Carolingian Empire (751 to 843 CE), empire, Germanic, capital Aachen. 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. https://entireworldhistorytimeline.com/europe/carolingian-empire/ - County of Toulouse (c. 778 to 1271 CE), state, Latin and Romance, capital Toulouse. 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. https://entireworldhistorytimeline.com/europe/county-of-toulouse/ - Middle Francia and Lotharingia (843 to 959 CE), state, Germanic, capital Aachen. 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. https://entireworldhistorytimeline.com/europe/middle-francia/ - West Francia (843 to 987 CE), state, Latin and Romance, capital Laon, Paris. 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. https://entireworldhistorytimeline.com/europe/west-francia/ - Kingdom and Duchy of Brittany (851 to 1532 CE), state, Celtic, capital Rennes, Nantes. 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. https://entireworldhistorytimeline.com/europe/brittany/ - County of Flanders (862 to 1795 CE), state, Germanic, capital Bruges, Ghent. 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. https://entireworldhistorytimeline.com/europe/county-of-flanders/ - Duchy of Normandy (911 to 1204 CE), state, Latin and Romance, capital Rouen. 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. https://entireworldhistorytimeline.com/europe/duchy-of-normandy/ - Kingdom of France (Capetian) (987 to 1328 CE), state, Latin and Romance, capital Paris. 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. https://entireworldhistorytimeline.com/europe/france-capetian/ - Monaco (1297 CE to the present), state, Latin and Romance, capital Monaco. 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. https://entireworldhistorytimeline.com/europe/monaco/ - Kingdom of France (Valois) (1328 to 1589 CE), state, Latin and Romance, capital Paris. 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. https://entireworldhistorytimeline.com/europe/france-valois/ - Burgundian State (1363 to 1477 CE), state, Latin and Romance, capital Dijon, Brussels. 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. https://entireworldhistorytimeline.com/europe/valois-burgundy/ - Habsburg Netherlands (1482 to 1581 CE), state, Germanic, capital Brussels, Mechelen. 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. https://entireworldhistorytimeline.com/europe/habsburg-netherlands/ - Dutch Republic (1581 to 1795 CE), state, Germanic, capital The Hague, Amsterdam. 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. https://entireworldhistorytimeline.com/europe/dutch-republic/ - Spanish Netherlands (1581 to 1714 CE), colony, Latin and Romance, capital Brussels. 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. https://entireworldhistorytimeline.com/europe/spanish-netherlands/ - Kingdom of France (Bourbon) (1589 to 1792 CE), state, Latin and Romance, capital Paris, Versailles. 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. https://entireworldhistorytimeline.com/europe/france-bourbon/ - Austrian Netherlands (1714 to 1797 CE), colony, Germanic, capital Brussels. 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. https://entireworldhistorytimeline.com/europe/austrian-netherlands/ - First French Republic (1792 to 1804 CE), state, Latin and Romance, capital Paris. 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. https://entireworldhistorytimeline.com/europe/first-french-republic/ - Batavian Republic (1795 to 1806 CE), state, Germanic, capital The Hague. 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. https://entireworldhistorytimeline.com/europe/batavian-republic/ - First French Empire (1804 to 1815 CE), empire, Latin and Romance, capital Paris. 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. https://entireworldhistorytimeline.com/europe/first-french-empire/ - Kingdom of the Netherlands (1815 CE to the present), state, Germanic, capital Amsterdam (government in The Hague). 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. https://entireworldhistorytimeline.com/europe/netherlands/ - Luxembourg (1815 CE to the present), state, Germanic, capital Luxembourg. 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. https://entireworldhistorytimeline.com/europe/luxembourg/ - Bourbon Restoration (1815 to 1830 CE), state, Latin and Romance, capital Paris. Louis XVIII and Charles X ruled under a charter after Napoleon's fall. The July Revolution of 1830 ended the senior Bourbon line. https://entireworldhistorytimeline.com/europe/bourbon-restoration/ - Belgium (1830 CE to the present), state, Germanic, capital Brussels. 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. https://entireworldhistorytimeline.com/europe/belgium/ - July Monarchy (1830 to 1848 CE), state, Latin and Romance, capital Paris. The liberal monarchy of Louis-Philippe of Orleans, which began the conquest of Algeria. The February Revolution of 1848 overthrew it. https://entireworldhistorytimeline.com/europe/july-monarchy/ - Second French Republic (1848 to 1852 CE), state, Latin and Romance, capital Paris. It introduced universal male suffrage and abolished slavery in the colonies. Its elected president, Louis-Napoleon Bonaparte, seized power in 1851. https://entireworldhistorytimeline.com/europe/second-french-republic/ - Second French Empire (1852 to 1870 CE), empire, Latin and Romance, capital Paris. Napoleon III rebuilt Paris and expanded French rule into Indochina and West Africa. Prussia captured him at Sedan in 1870. https://entireworldhistorytimeline.com/europe/second-french-empire/ - French Third Republic (1870 to 1940 CE), state, Latin and Romance, capital Paris. 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. https://entireworldhistorytimeline.com/europe/third-french-republic/ - Vichy France (1940 to 1944 CE), state, Latin and Romance, capital Vichy. 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. https://entireworldhistorytimeline.com/europe/vichy-france/ - French Fourth Republic (1946 to 1958 CE), state, Latin and Romance, capital Paris. A parliamentary republic of unstable coalitions that rebuilt France and co-founded the EEC, then foundered on the wars in Indochina and Algeria. https://entireworldhistorytimeline.com/europe/fourth-french-republic/ - French Fifth Republic (1958 CE to the present), state, Latin and Romance, capital Paris. 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. https://entireworldhistorytimeline.com/europe/fifth-french-republic/ ### Iberia - Megalithic farmers of western Iberia (c. 3200 to 2500 BCE), people or culture, Unknown or undeciphered. Farmers of Portugal and western Spain who raised dolmens and stone circles such as Almendres, and later built fortified copper-working towns like Zambujal. https://entireworldhistorytimeline.com/europe/megalithic-iberia/ - Los Millares culture (c. 3200 to 2200 BCE), people or culture, Unknown or undeciphered. Copper Age people of Almeria who built a walled town with bastions and outlying forts and buried their dead in vaulted tholos tombs. https://entireworldhistorytimeline.com/europe/los-millares/ - El Argar culture (c. 2200 to 1550 BCE), people or culture, Unknown or undeciphered. 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. https://entireworldhistorytimeline.com/europe/el-argar/ - Cogotas I culture (c. 1700 to 1100 BCE), people or culture, Unknown or undeciphered. Bronze Age herders and farmers of the central Spanish Meseta, known for incised and boquique-decorated pottery and seasonal hilltop camps. https://entireworldhistorytimeline.com/europe/cogotas/ - Talayotic culture (c. 1300 to 123 BCE), people or culture, Unknown or undeciphered. 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. https://entireworldhistorytimeline.com/europe/talayotic/ - Tartessos (c. 900 to 550 BCE), people or culture, Unknown or undeciphered. 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. https://entireworldhistorytimeline.com/europe/tartessos/ - Phoenician colonies in Iberia (c. 800 to 237 BCE), colony, Semitic, capital Gadir (Cadiz). Traders from Tyre founded Gadir, Malaka and Sexi to tap Tartessian silver. The colonies passed into the Carthaginian sphere from the 6th century BCE. https://entireworldhistorytimeline.com/europe/phoenician-iberia/ - Iberians (c. 600 to 19 BCE), people or culture, Isolates and ancient. 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. https://entireworldhistorytimeline.com/europe/iberians/ - Celtiberians (c. 600 to 72 BCE), people or culture, Celtic. 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. https://entireworldhistorytimeline.com/europe/celtiberians/ - Basques (Vascones) (c. 500 BCE to the present), people or culture, Isolates and ancient. 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. https://entireworldhistorytimeline.com/europe/basques/ - Carthaginian Iberia (237 to 206 BCE), colony, Semitic, capital Qart Hadasht (Cartagena). 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. https://entireworldhistorytimeline.com/europe/carthaginian-iberia/ - Roman Hispania (218 BCE to 472 CE), colony, Latin and Romance, capital Tarraco, Corduba, Emerita Augusta. 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. https://entireworldhistorytimeline.com/europe/roman-hispania/ - Vandals and Alans in Hispania (409 to 429 CE), state, Germanic. 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. https://entireworldhistorytimeline.com/europe/vandals-hispania/ - Kingdom of the Suebi (409 to 585 CE), state, Germanic, capital Bracara Augusta (Braga). Germanic settlers who founded the first post-Roman kingdom in the west, in Galicia and northern Portugal. The Visigoth Leovigild annexed it in 585. https://entireworldhistorytimeline.com/europe/suebi/ - Visigothic Kingdom of Toledo (507 to 711 CE), state, Germanic, capital Toledo. 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. https://entireworldhistorytimeline.com/europe/visigoths-toledo/ - Byzantine Spania (552 to 624 CE), colony, Greek, capital Cartagena. 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. https://entireworldhistorytimeline.com/europe/byzantine-spania/ - Al-Andalus under the Umayyad Caliphate (711 to 756 CE), colony, Arabic, capital Cordoba. 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. https://entireworldhistorytimeline.com/europe/al-andalus-umayyad/ - Kingdom of Asturias (c. 718 to 924 CE), state, Latin and Romance, capital Cangas de Onis, later Oviedo. 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. https://entireworldhistorytimeline.com/europe/asturias/ - Emirate of Cordoba (756 to 929 CE), state, Arabic, capital Cordoba. 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. https://entireworldhistorytimeline.com/europe/emirate-of-cordoba/ - Kingdom of Navarre (c. 824 to 1512 CE), state, Isolates and ancient, capital Pamplona. 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. https://entireworldhistorytimeline.com/europe/kingdom-of-navarre/ - County of Portugal (c. 868 to 1139 CE), state, Latin and Romance, capital Guimaraes. 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. https://entireworldhistorytimeline.com/europe/county-of-portugal/ - County of Barcelona (c. 878 to 1164 CE), state, Latin and Romance, capital Barcelona. 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. https://entireworldhistorytimeline.com/europe/county-of-barcelona/ - Kingdom of Leon (910 to 1230 CE), state, Latin and Romance, capital Leon. 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. https://entireworldhistorytimeline.com/europe/kingdom-of-leon/ - Caliphate of Cordoba (929 to 1031 CE), state, Arabic, capital Cordoba, Madinat al-Zahra. 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. https://entireworldhistorytimeline.com/europe/caliphate-of-cordoba/ - Kingdom of Castile (c. 931 to 1230 CE), state, Latin and Romance, capital Burgos, later Toledo. 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. https://entireworldhistorytimeline.com/europe/kingdom-of-castile/ - Taifa kingdoms (c. 1009 to 1091 CE), state, Arabic, capital Seville, Toledo, Zaragoza, Badajoz. 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. https://entireworldhistorytimeline.com/europe/taifas/ - Almoravid al-Andalus (1086 to 1147 CE), colony, Berber, capital Seville (ruled from Marrakesh). Berber Almoravids from Morocco crossed in 1086, beat Alfonso VI at Sagrajas and annexed the taifas. The Almohads displaced them. https://entireworldhistorytimeline.com/europe/almoravid-andalus/ - Kingdom of Portugal (1139 to 1910 CE), state, Latin and Romance, capital Coimbra, later Lisbon. 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. https://entireworldhistorytimeline.com/europe/kingdom-of-portugal/ - Almohad al-Andalus (1147 to 1238 CE), colony, Berber, capital Seville (ruled from Marrakesh). 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. https://entireworldhistorytimeline.com/europe/almohad-andalus/ - Crown of Aragon (1164 to 1516 CE), state, Latin and Romance, capital Zaragoza, Barcelona. 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. https://entireworldhistorytimeline.com/europe/crown-of-aragon/ - Crown of Castile (1230 to 1516 CE), state, Latin and Romance, capital Toledo, Valladolid. 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. https://entireworldhistorytimeline.com/europe/crown-of-castile/ - Emirate of Granada (1238 to 1492 CE), state, Arabic, capital Granada. 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. https://entireworldhistorytimeline.com/europe/emirate-of-granada/ - Andorra (1278 CE to the present), state, Latin and Romance, capital Andorra la Vella. 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. https://entireworldhistorytimeline.com/europe/andorra/ - Portuguese Empire (1415 to 1999 CE), empire, Latin and Romance, capital Lisbon. 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. https://entireworldhistorytimeline.com/europe/portuguese-empire/ - Spanish Empire (Habsburg Spain) (1516 to 1700 CE), empire, Latin and Romance, capital Madrid (from 1561). 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. https://entireworldhistorytimeline.com/europe/spanish-empire/ - Iberian Union (1580 to 1640 CE), state, Latin and Romance, capital Madrid. 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. https://entireworldhistorytimeline.com/europe/iberian-union/ - Bourbon Spain (1700 to 1808 CE), empire, Latin and Romance, capital Madrid. 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. https://entireworldhistorytimeline.com/europe/bourbon-spain/ - British Gibraltar (1713 CE to the present), colony, Germanic, capital Gibraltar. 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. https://entireworldhistorytimeline.com/europe/gibraltar/ - Kingdom of Spain (1814 to 1931) (1814 to 1931 CE), state, Latin and Romance, capital Madrid. 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. https://entireworldhistorytimeline.com/europe/kingdom-of-spain-19c/ - First Portuguese Republic (1910 to 1926 CE), state, Latin and Romance, capital Lisbon. 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. https://entireworldhistorytimeline.com/europe/first-portuguese-republic/ - Estado Novo (1926 to 1974 CE), state, Latin and Romance, capital Lisbon. 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. https://entireworldhistorytimeline.com/europe/estado-novo/ - Second Spanish Republic (1931 to 1939 CE), state, Latin and Romance, capital Madrid. 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. https://entireworldhistorytimeline.com/europe/second-spanish-republic/ - Francoist Spain (1939 to 1975 CE), state, Latin and Romance, capital Madrid. 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. https://entireworldhistorytimeline.com/europe/francoist-spain/ - Portugal (1974 CE to the present), state, Latin and Romance, capital Lisbon. Democracy came with the Carnation Revolution of 1974, and the African colonies became independent in 1975. Portugal joined the EEC in 1986. https://entireworldhistorytimeline.com/europe/portugal/ - Kingdom of Spain (1975 CE to the present), state, Latin and Romance, capital Madrid. 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. https://entireworldhistorytimeline.com/europe/spain/ ### Italy - Copper Age Italy (c. 3200 to 2200 BCE), people or culture, Unknown or undeciphered. 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. https://entireworldhistorytimeline.com/europe/copper-age-italy/ - Polada culture (c. 2200 to 1600 BCE), people or culture, Unknown or undeciphered. Early Bronze Age villagers of the Po valley and Lake Garda who built pile dwellings along lake shores and in marshes. https://entireworldhistorytimeline.com/europe/polada/ - Nuragic civilization (c. 1800 to 238 BCE), people or culture, Unknown or undeciphered. 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. https://entireworldhistorytimeline.com/europe/nuragic/ - Terramare culture (c. 1700 to 1150 BCE), people or culture, Unknown or undeciphered. Bronze Age villages of the Po plain built on raised mounds ringed by moats and embankments, abandoned suddenly around 1150 BCE. https://entireworldhistorytimeline.com/europe/terramare/ - Apennine culture (c. 1600 to 1150 BCE), people or culture, Unknown or undeciphered. Middle Bronze Age herders of central and southern Italy who moved flocks between mountain and lowland pastures. Mycenaean pottery reached their coastal sites. https://entireworldhistorytimeline.com/europe/apennine-culture/ - Proto-Villanovan culture (c. 1200 to 900 BCE), people or culture, Unknown or undeciphered. 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. https://entireworldhistorytimeline.com/europe/proto-villanovan/ - Italic peoples (c. 1000 to 88 BCE), people or culture, Latin and Romance. 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. https://entireworldhistorytimeline.com/europe/italic-peoples/ - Villanovan culture (c. 900 to 720 BCE), people or culture, Isolates and ancient. The earliest phase of Etruscan civilization, named after a site near Bologna and known for biconical cremation urns and hut-shaped urns. https://entireworldhistorytimeline.com/europe/villanovan/ - Roman Kingdom (c. 753 to 509 BCE), state, Latin and Romance, capital Rome. 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. https://entireworldhistorytimeline.com/europe/roman-kingdom/ - Magna Graecia (c. 750 to 272 BCE), state, Greek, capital Taras, Croton, Sybaris. Greek colonies of southern Italy, from Cumae and Taras to Croton, where Pythagoras taught. Rome took Taras in 272 BCE after Pyrrhus withdrew. https://entireworldhistorytimeline.com/europe/magna-graecia/ - Syracuse (c. 734 to 212 BCE), state, Greek, capital Syracuse. 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. https://entireworldhistorytimeline.com/europe/syracuse/ - Etruscan civilization (c. 720 to 90 BCE), state, Isolates and ancient, capital Veii, Tarquinia, Caere and other cities. 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. https://entireworldhistorytimeline.com/europe/etruscans/ - Carthaginian Sicily and Sardinia (c. 550 to 238 BCE), colony, Semitic, capital Motya, later Lilybaeum. 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. https://entireworldhistorytimeline.com/europe/carthaginian-sicily/ - Roman Republic (509 to 27 BCE), state, Latin and Romance, capital Rome. 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. https://entireworldhistorytimeline.com/europe/roman-republic/ - Cisalpine Gauls (c. 400 to 191 BCE), people or culture, Celtic. 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. https://entireworldhistorytimeline.com/europe/cisalpine-gauls/ - Roman Empire (27 BCE to 395 CE), empire, Latin and Romance, capital Rome, later Constantinople. 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. https://entireworldhistorytimeline.com/europe/roman-empire/ - San Marino (c. 301 CE to the present), state, Latin and Romance, capital San Marino. 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. https://entireworldhistorytimeline.com/europe/san-marino/ - Western Roman Empire (395 to 476 CE), empire, Latin and Romance, capital Milan, later Ravenna. 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. https://entireworldhistorytimeline.com/europe/western-roman-empire/ - Kingdom of Odoacer (476 to 493 CE), state, Germanic, capital Ravenna. The barbarian general Odoacer ruled Italy as king under nominal Byzantine overlordship. Theodoric the Ostrogoth besieged him in Ravenna and killed him in 493. https://entireworldhistorytimeline.com/europe/odoacer-italy/ - Ostrogothic Kingdom (493 to 553 CE), state, Germanic, capital Ravenna. Theodoric the Great ruled Italy with Roman officials such as Boethius and Cassiodorus. Justinian's generals destroyed the kingdom in a twenty-year war. https://entireworldhistorytimeline.com/europe/ostrogothic-kingdom/ - Byzantine Italy (Exarchate of Ravenna) (554 to 751 CE), colony, Greek, capital Ravenna. Justinian's reconquered Italy, governed from Ravenna. The Lombards took most of the interior from 568 and captured Ravenna in 751. https://entireworldhistorytimeline.com/europe/byzantine-italy/ - Lombard Kingdom (568 to 774 CE), state, Germanic, capital Pavia. 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. https://entireworldhistorytimeline.com/europe/lombard-kingdom/ - Duchy and Principality of Benevento (c. 571 to 1077 CE), state, Germanic, capital Benevento. 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. https://entireworldhistorytimeline.com/europe/benevento/ - Republic of Venice (c. 697 to 1797 CE), state, Latin and Romance, capital Venice. 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. https://entireworldhistorytimeline.com/europe/venice/ - Papal States (756 to 1870 CE), state, Latin and Romance, capital Rome. 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. https://entireworldhistorytimeline.com/europe/papal-states/ - Emirate of Sicily (831 to 1091 CE), state, Arabic, capital Palermo. 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. https://entireworldhistorytimeline.com/europe/emirate-of-sicily/ - Catepanate of Italy (970 to 1071 CE), colony, Greek, capital Bari. The Byzantine province of Apulia and Calabria, governed by a catepan from Bari. The Normans took Bari in 1071, ending Byzantine rule in Italy. https://entireworldhistorytimeline.com/europe/catepanate-italy/ - Republic of Pisa (c. 1000 to 1406 CE), state, Latin and Romance, capital Pisa. 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. https://entireworldhistorytimeline.com/europe/pisa/ - County and Duchy of Savoy (c. 1003 to 1720 CE), state, Latin and Romance, capital Chambery, later Turin. An Alpine dynasty holding the passes between France and Italy, made dukes in 1416. Emmanuel Philibert moved the capital to Turin in 1563. https://entireworldhistorytimeline.com/europe/savoy/ - Republic of Genoa (c. 1005 to 1797 CE), state, Latin and Romance, capital Genoa. 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. https://entireworldhistorytimeline.com/europe/genoa/ - Republic of Florence (1115 to 1532 CE), state, Latin and Romance, capital Florence. A wool and banking republic whose Medici rulers patronised Brunelleschi, Botticelli and Michelangelo. Charles V made the Medici hereditary dukes in 1532. https://entireworldhistorytimeline.com/europe/florence/ - Kingdom of Sicily (1130 to 1282 CE), state, Latin and Romance, capital Palermo. 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. https://entireworldhistorytimeline.com/europe/kingdom-of-sicily/ - Kingdom of Naples (1282 to 1816 CE), state, Latin and Romance, capital Naples. 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. https://entireworldhistorytimeline.com/europe/kingdom-of-naples/ - Kingdom of Sicily (island) (1282 to 1816 CE), state, Latin and Romance, capital Palermo. 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. https://entireworldhistorytimeline.com/europe/sicily-aragonese/ - Duchy of Milan (1395 to 1796 CE), state, Latin and Romance, capital Milan. 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. https://entireworldhistorytimeline.com/europe/duchy-of-milan/ - Order of Saint John in Malta (1530 to 1798 CE), state, Latin and Romance, capital Valletta. 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. https://entireworldhistorytimeline.com/europe/hospitaller-malta/ - Duchy and Grand Duchy of Tuscany (1532 to 1859 CE), state, Latin and Romance, capital Florence. 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. https://entireworldhistorytimeline.com/europe/tuscany/ - Kingdom of Sardinia (Piedmont-Sardinia) (1720 to 1861 CE), state, Latin and Romance, capital Turin. 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. https://entireworldhistorytimeline.com/europe/kingdom-of-sardinia/ - British Malta (1800 to 1964 CE), colony, Germanic, capital Valletta. 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. https://entireworldhistorytimeline.com/europe/british-malta/ - Kingdom of the Two Sicilies (1816 to 1861 CE), state, Latin and Romance, capital Naples. The Bourbon union of Naples and Sicily, the largest Italian state. Garibaldi's Thousand conquered it in 1860. https://entireworldhistorytimeline.com/europe/two-sicilies/ - Kingdom of Italy (1861 to 1946 CE), state, Latin and Romance, capital Turin, Florence, then Rome. 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. https://entireworldhistorytimeline.com/europe/kingdom-of-italy/ - Fascist Italy (1922 to 1943 CE), state, Latin and Romance, capital Rome. 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. https://entireworldhistorytimeline.com/europe/fascist-italy/ - Vatican City (1929 CE to the present), state, Latin and Romance, capital Vatican City. 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. https://entireworldhistorytimeline.com/europe/vatican-city/ - Italian Republic (1946 CE to the present), state, Latin and Romance, capital Rome. A founder of NATO and the EEC whose post-war economic miracle turned it into a major industrial power. https://entireworldhistorytimeline.com/europe/italian-republic/ - Malta (1964 CE to the present), state, Semitic, capital Valletta. 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. https://entireworldhistorytimeline.com/europe/malta/ ### Balkans and Greece - Cotofeni culture (c. 3200 to 2500 BCE), people or culture, Unknown or undeciphered. Copper Age herders and farmers of Romania and Serbia who settled caves and hilltops along the Danube and the Carpathians. https://entireworldhistorytimeline.com/europe/cotofeni/ - Cycladic culture (c. 3200 to 2000 BCE), people or culture, Unknown or undeciphered. Islanders of the Cyclades who carved white marble figurines and traded obsidian from Melos across the Aegean in longboats. https://entireworldhistorytimeline.com/europe/cycladic/ - Early and Middle Helladic Greece (c. 3200 to 1600 BCE), people or culture, Unknown or undeciphered. 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. https://entireworldhistorytimeline.com/europe/helladic/ - Minoan civilization (c. 3100 to 1450 BCE), state, Unknown or undeciphered, capital Knossos. 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. https://entireworldhistorytimeline.com/europe/minoan/ - Vucedol culture (c. 3000 to 2200 BCE), people or culture, Unknown or undeciphered. 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. https://entireworldhistorytimeline.com/europe/vucedol/ - Mycenaean Greece (c. 1600 to 1100 BCE), state, Greek, capital Mycenae, Pylos, Thebes. 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. https://entireworldhistorytimeline.com/europe/mycenaean-greece/ - Thracians (c. 1200 BCE to 46 CE), people or culture, Other Indo-European. 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. https://entireworldhistorytimeline.com/europe/thracians/ - Greek Dark Ages (c. 1100 to 800 BCE), people or culture, Greek. After the palaces fell, writing was lost and the population shrank. Iron came into use, and Greeks settled the Ionian coast of Anatolia. https://entireworldhistorytimeline.com/europe/greek-dark-ages/ - Illyrians (c. 1000 BCE to 9 CE), people or culture, Other Indo-European. 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. https://entireworldhistorytimeline.com/europe/illyrians/ - Sparta (c. 900 to 192 BCE), state, Greek, capital Sparta. 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. https://entireworldhistorytimeline.com/europe/sparta/ - Greek city-states (c. 800 to 338 BCE), state, Greek, capital Athens, Sparta, Corinth, Thebes. 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. https://entireworldhistorytimeline.com/europe/greek-city-states/ - Kingdom of Macedon (c. 700 to 168 BCE), state, Greek, capital Aigai, later Pella. 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. https://entireworldhistorytimeline.com/europe/kingdom-of-macedon/ - Athens (508 to 322 BCE), state, Greek, capital Athens. 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. https://entireworldhistorytimeline.com/europe/classical-athens/ - Getae and Dacians (c. 500 BCE to 106 CE), people or culture, Other Indo-European. Thracian-related peoples north of the lower Danube with gold and salt mines and hill sanctuaries. Herodotus described the Getae and their god Zalmoxis. https://entireworldhistorytimeline.com/europe/dacians/ - Odrysian Kingdom (c. 480 BCE to 46 CE), state, Other Indo-European, capital Seuthopolis. 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. https://entireworldhistorytimeline.com/europe/odrysian-kingdom/ - Empire of Alexander the Great (336 to 323 BCE), empire, Greek, capital Pella, later Babylon. 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. https://entireworldhistorytimeline.com/europe/alexander-empire/ - Kingdom of Epirus (c. 330 to 167 BCE), state, Greek, capital Ambracia. 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. https://entireworldhistorytimeline.com/europe/epirus/ - Achaean League (280 to 146 BCE), state, Greek, capital Aigion. A federation of Peloponnesian cities that grew to dominate southern Greece. Its war with Rome ended with the destruction of Corinth in 146 BCE. https://entireworldhistorytimeline.com/europe/achaean-league/ - Roman Macedonia and Achaea (146 BCE to 395 CE), colony, Latin and Romance, capital Thessalonica, Corinth. The Roman provinces of the southern Balkans, where Greek remained the language of the cities. Constantine built his new capital at Byzantium in 330. https://entireworldhistorytimeline.com/europe/roman-greece/ - Dacian Kingdom (c. 82 BCE to 106 CE), state, Other Indo-European, capital Sarmizegetusa. 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. https://entireworldhistorytimeline.com/europe/dacian-kingdom/ - Roman Dacia (106 to 275 CE), colony, Latin and Romance, capital Ulpia Traiana Sarmizegetusa. Trajan's province north of the Danube, settled by colonists and worked for its gold mines. Aurelian withdrew the army and settlers around 275. https://entireworldhistorytimeline.com/europe/roman-dacia/ - Visigoths in the Balkans (376 to 418 CE), people or culture, Germanic. 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. https://entireworldhistorytimeline.com/europe/visigoths-migration/ - Byzantine Empire (395 to 1453 CE), empire, Greek, capital Constantinople. 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. https://entireworldhistorytimeline.com/europe/byzantine-empire/ - South Slavic tribes (c. 550 to 850 CE), people or culture, Slavic. Slavs who crossed the Danube with and after the Avars and settled most of the Balkans, ancestors of the Serbs, Croats, Slovenes and Bulgarians. https://entireworldhistorytimeline.com/europe/south-slavs/ - First Bulgarian Empire (681 to 1018 CE), empire, Slavic, capital Pliska, later Preslav and Ohrid. 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. https://entireworldhistorytimeline.com/europe/first-bulgarian-empire/ - Kingdom of Croatia (c. 925 to 1102 CE), state, Slavic, capital Nin, Biograd, Knin. Tomislav was crowned the first Croatian king around 925. After the native line died out, Croatia entered a personal union with Hungary in 1102. https://entireworldhistorytimeline.com/europe/kingdom-of-croatia/ - Banate and Kingdom of Bosnia (c. 1154 to 1463 CE), state, Slavic, capital Jajce, Bobovac. A medieval state with its own Bosnian church that became a kingdom under Tvrtko I in 1377. The Ottomans conquered it in 1463. https://entireworldhistorytimeline.com/europe/bosnia/ - Grand Principality of Serbia (1166 to 1217 CE), state, Slavic, capital Ras. Stefan Nemanja united the Serbian lands and founded the Nemanjic dynasty, which ruled Serbia for two centuries. https://entireworldhistorytimeline.com/europe/serbia-raska/ - Second Bulgarian Empire (1185 to 1396 CE), empire, Slavic, capital Tarnovo. 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. https://entireworldhistorytimeline.com/europe/second-bulgarian-empire/ - Latin Empire (1204 to 1261 CE), state, Latin and Romance, capital Constantinople. Set up by the knights of the Fourth Crusade after they sacked Constantinople. The Byzantine Empire of Nicaea recaptured the city in 1261. https://entireworldhistorytimeline.com/europe/latin-empire/ - Principality of Achaea (1205 to 1432 CE), state, Latin and Romance, capital Andravida. 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. https://entireworldhistorytimeline.com/europe/principality-of-achaea/ - Despotate of Epirus (1205 to 1479 CE), state, Greek, capital Arta. 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. https://entireworldhistorytimeline.com/europe/despotate-of-epirus/ - Venetian Crete (1211 to 1669 CE), colony, Latin and Romance, capital Candia (Heraklion). 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. https://entireworldhistorytimeline.com/europe/venetian-crete/ - Kingdom of Serbia (1217 to 1346 CE), state, Slavic, capital Ras, later Skopje. 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. https://entireworldhistorytimeline.com/europe/kingdom-of-serbia-medieval/ - Ottoman Empire (1299 to 1922 CE), empire, Turkic, capital Bursa, Edirne, then Constantinople. 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. https://entireworldhistorytimeline.com/europe/ottoman-empire/ - Wallachia (1330 to 1859 CE), state, Latin and Romance, capital Curtea de Arges, later Bucharest. 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. https://entireworldhistorytimeline.com/europe/wallachia/ - Serbian Empire (1346 to 1371 CE), empire, Slavic, capital Skopje. 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. https://entireworldhistorytimeline.com/europe/serbian-empire/ - Moldavia (c. 1346 to 1859 CE), state, Latin and Romance, capital Suceava, later Iasi. 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. https://entireworldhistorytimeline.com/europe/moldavia/ - Republic of Ragusa (1358 to 1808 CE), state, Slavic, capital Ragusa (Dubrovnik). 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. https://entireworldhistorytimeline.com/europe/ragusa/ - Serbian Despotate (1402 to 1459 CE), state, Slavic, capital Belgrade, later Smederevo. The Serbian state left after the Battle of Kosovo in 1389, ruled by Stefan Lazarevic and Durad Brankovic. The Ottomans took Smederevo in 1459. https://entireworldhistorytimeline.com/europe/serbian-despotate/ - League of Lezhe (1444 to 1479 CE), state, Other Indo-European, capital Kruja. An alliance of Albanian princes led by Skanderbeg that beat back Ottoman armies for 25 years. Shkodra, the last holdout, fell in 1479. https://entireworldhistorytimeline.com/europe/league-of-lezhe/ - Montenegro (Prince-Bishopric to Kingdom) (1516 to 1918 CE), state, Slavic, capital Cetinje. 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. https://entireworldhistorytimeline.com/europe/montenegro-old/ - Principality and Kingdom of Serbia (1815 to 1918 CE), state, Slavic, capital Belgrade. 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. https://entireworldhistorytimeline.com/europe/principality-of-serbia/ - Kingdom of Greece (1832 to 1924 CE), state, Greek, capital Nafplio, then Athens. 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. https://entireworldhistorytimeline.com/europe/kingdom-of-greece/ - Romania (United Principalities and Kingdom) (1859 to 1947 CE), state, Latin and Romance, capital Bucharest. 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. https://entireworldhistorytimeline.com/europe/romania-kingdom/ - Principality and Tsardom of Bulgaria (1878 to 1946 CE), state, Slavic, capital Sofia. 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. https://entireworldhistorytimeline.com/europe/bulgaria-tsardom/ - Albania (1912 CE to the present), state, Other Indo-European, capital Tirana. 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. https://entireworldhistorytimeline.com/europe/albania/ - Kingdom of Yugoslavia (1918 to 1941 CE), state, Slavic, capital Belgrade. 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. https://entireworldhistorytimeline.com/europe/yugoslavia-kingdom/ - Second Hellenic Republic (1924 to 1935 CE), state, Greek, capital Athens. A republic proclaimed after the defeat in Anatolia, which resettled over a million refugees from Turkey. A rigged plebiscite restored the monarchy in 1935. https://entireworldhistorytimeline.com/europe/second-hellenic-republic/ - Kingdom of Greece (restored) (1935 to 1973 CE), state, Greek, capital Athens. 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. https://entireworldhistorytimeline.com/europe/kingdom-of-greece-restored/ - Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia (1945 to 1992 CE), state, Slavic, capital Belgrade. 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. https://entireworldhistorytimeline.com/europe/sfr-yugoslavia/ - People's Republic of Bulgaria (1946 to 1990 CE), state, Slavic, capital Sofia. One of the Soviet Union's most loyal allies, ruled by Todor Zhivkov from 1954 until 1989. https://entireworldhistorytimeline.com/europe/bulgaria-communist/ - Communist Romania (1947 to 1989 CE), state, Latin and Romance, capital Bucharest. 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. https://entireworldhistorytimeline.com/europe/romania-communist/ - Cyprus (1960 CE to the present), state, Greek, capital Nicosia. Independent from Britain in 1960, the island was divided after the Turkish invasion of 1974. The Republic of Cyprus joined the EU in 2004. https://entireworldhistorytimeline.com/europe/cyprus/ - Greece (1974 CE to the present), state, Greek, capital Athens. 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. https://entireworldhistorytimeline.com/europe/greece/ - Romania (1989 CE to the present), state, Latin and Romance, capital Bucharest. A democracy since the revolution of 1989, Romania joined NATO in 2004 and the EU in 2007. https://entireworldhistorytimeline.com/europe/romania/ - Bulgaria (1990 CE to the present), state, Slavic, capital Sofia. A parliamentary republic since 1990, Bulgaria joined NATO in 2004 and the EU in 2007. https://entireworldhistorytimeline.com/europe/bulgaria/ - Moldova (1991 CE to the present), state, Latin and Romance, capital Chisinau. 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. https://entireworldhistorytimeline.com/europe/moldova/ - Croatia (1991 CE to the present), state, Slavic, capital Zagreb. Croatia declared independence in 1991 and won its war against Serb forces in 1995. It joined the EU in 2013. https://entireworldhistorytimeline.com/europe/croatia/ - Slovenia (1991 CE to the present), state, Slavic, capital Ljubljana. Slovenia broke from Yugoslavia after a ten-day war in 1991 and joined the EU and NATO in 2004. https://entireworldhistorytimeline.com/europe/slovenia/ - North Macedonia (1991 CE to the present), state, Slavic, capital Skopje. Independent from Yugoslavia in 1991, it took the name North Macedonia in 2019 to settle a dispute with Greece and joined NATO in 2020. https://entireworldhistorytimeline.com/europe/north-macedonia/ - Serbia and Montenegro (1992 to 2006 CE), state, Slavic, capital Belgrade. The rump Federal Republic of Yugoslavia under Slobodan Milosevic, bombed by NATO over Kosovo in 1999. Montenegro voted for independence in 2006. https://entireworldhistorytimeline.com/europe/serbia-montenegro/ - Bosnia and Herzegovina (1992 CE to the present), state, Slavic, capital Sarajevo. 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. https://entireworldhistorytimeline.com/europe/bosnia-herzegovina/ - Serbia (2006 CE to the present), state, Slavic, capital Belgrade. Independent on its own after Montenegro left the union in 2006, Serbia rejects Kosovo's 2008 declaration of independence and is an EU candidate. https://entireworldhistorytimeline.com/europe/serbia/ - Montenegro (2006 CE to the present), state, Slavic, capital Podgorica. Independent after a referendum in 2006, Montenegro joined NATO in 2017. https://entireworldhistorytimeline.com/europe/montenegro/ - Kosovo (2008 CE to the present), state, Other Indo-European, capital Pristina. Under UN administration after the 1999 war, Kosovo declared independence from Serbia in 2008. About half of UN members recognise it. https://entireworldhistorytimeline.com/europe/kosovo/ ### Events in Europe - 3300 BCE: Otzi the Iceman dies in the Alps. 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. - 3000 BCE: Stonehenge begun. 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. - 1600 BCE: Thera eruption. 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. - 1200 BCE: Late Bronze Age collapse. Palaces at Mycenae, Pylos and Thebes burn and Linear B writing disappears as trade across the eastern Mediterranean breaks down. - 776 BCE: First Olympic Games. 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. - 753 BCE: Traditional founding of Rome. Roman writers dated the founding of the city by Romulus to 21 April 753 BCE, the starting point of their year count. - 508 BCE: Athenian democracy. Cleisthenes reorganises the citizens of Athens into ten tribes and gives power to the assembly, creating the first known democracy. - 480 BCE: Battle of Salamis. The Athenian-led Greek fleet destroys Xerxes' navy in the straits off Salamis, turning back the Persian invasion of Greece. - 334 BCE: Alexander invades Persia. Alexander crosses the Hellespont with about 40,000 men and begins the conquest of the Persian Empire. - 218 BCE: Hannibal crosses the Alps. The Carthaginian general leads his army and elephants from Spain over the Alps into Italy and wins at Trebia, Trasimene and Cannae. - 44 BCE: Assassination of Julius Caesar. 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. - 9: Battle of the Teutoburg Forest. Arminius of the Cherusci destroys three Roman legions under Varus, and Rome gives up the conquest of Germany beyond the Rhine. - 313: Edict of Milan. Constantine and Licinius grant Christians freedom of worship across the Roman Empire. - 330: Constantinople dedicated. Constantine dedicates his new capital on the site of Byzantium. It stays the seat of the eastern Roman Empire for over 1,100 years. - 410: Visigoths sack Rome. Alaric's Visigoths plunder Rome for three days, the first time in 800 years that the city falls to a foreign enemy. - 476: End of the Western Roman Empire. Odoacer deposes the boy emperor Romulus Augustulus and sends the imperial regalia to Constantinople. - 541: Plague of Justinian. Bubonic plague reaches Constantinople, killing perhaps a quarter of its people, and returns in waves across Europe for two centuries. - 732: Battle of Tours. Charles Martel's Franks defeat an Umayyad army from al-Andalus between Tours and Poitiers, ending Muslim raids deep into Gaul. - 793: Viking raid on Lindisfarne. Norse raiders sack the monastery of Lindisfarne off Northumbria, the conventional start of the Viking Age. - 800: Charlemagne crowned emperor. Pope Leo III crowns Charlemagne emperor of the Romans in Saint Peter's on Christmas Day, reviving the imperial title in the west. - 988: Baptism of the Rus. Vladimir I of Kiev adopts Orthodox Christianity from Byzantium and has the people of Kiev baptised in the Dnieper. - 1054: East-West Schism. Papal legates and the Patriarch of Constantinople excommunicate each other, splitting the Catholic and Orthodox churches. - 1066: Norman conquest of England. William of Normandy defeats Harold II at Hastings and is crowned king of England on Christmas Day. - 1095: First Crusade proclaimed. At Clermont, Pope Urban II calls on western knights to aid Byzantium and take Jerusalem, which the crusaders capture in 1099. - 1204: Crusaders sack Constantinople. Knights of the Fourth Crusade and the Venetian fleet storm and loot Constantinople and divide the Byzantine Empire among themselves. - 1215: Magna Carta. English barons force King John to seal a charter limiting royal power at Runnymede. - 1240: Mongols sack Kiev. Batu's army storms Kiev, completing the Mongol conquest of the Rus principalities, then strikes Poland and Hungary in 1241. - 1347: Black Death reaches Europe. Plague carried from the Black Sea reaches Sicily in 1347 and kills between a third and half of Europe's people by 1351. - 1450: Gutenberg's printing press. Johannes Gutenberg develops printing with movable metal type in Mainz. His Bible is finished around 1455. - 1453: Fall of Constantinople. Mehmed II breaches the Theodosian Walls after a 53-day siege, ending the Roman state that had lasted over 1,400 years. - 1492: Fall of Granada and Columbus's voyage. Ferdinand and Isabella take Granada, the last Muslim state in Iberia, and send Columbus west across the Atlantic. - 1517: Luther's Ninety-five Theses. Martin Luther attacks the sale of indulgences in Wittenberg, starting the Protestant Reformation. - 1648: Peace of Westphalia. Treaties at Munster and Osnabruck end the Thirty Years' War, recognise Dutch and Swiss independence and weaken the emperor. - 1683: Siege of Vienna. A Polish, Austrian and German army under Jan Sobieski routs the Ottoman army besieging Vienna, beginning the Ottoman retreat from Hungary. - 1769: Watt's steam engine. James Watt patents a separate condenser that makes steam engines far more efficient, powering the Industrial Revolution in Britain. - 1789: French Revolution. The storming of the Bastille on 14 July begins the revolution that abolishes feudal privileges and, in 1792, the monarchy. - 1815: Battle of Waterloo. British, Dutch and Prussian armies defeat Napoleon in Belgium, and the Congress of Vienna redraws the map of Europe. - 1871: Unification of Germany. After victory over France, Wilhelm I of Prussia is proclaimed German Emperor in the Hall of Mirrors at Versailles. - 1914: First World War begins. The assassination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand in Sarajevo sets off a war that kills about 17 million people and destroys four empires. - 1917: Russian Revolution. The tsar abdicates in March, and in November the Bolsheviks under Lenin seize power in Petrograd. - 1939: Second World War begins. 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. - 1957: Treaty of Rome. France, West Germany, Italy and the Benelux countries found the European Economic Community, forerunner of the European Union. - 1989: Fall of the Berlin Wall. East German border guards open the Wall on 9 November as communist regimes fall across eastern Europe. - 1991: Dissolution of the Soviet Union. After a failed coup in August the Soviet republics declare independence, and the USSR is formally dissolved on 26 December. - 2022: Russian invasion of Ukraine. Russia launches a full-scale invasion of Ukraine on 24 February, the largest war in Europe since 1945. ## Middle East ### Anatolia - Early Bronze Age Anatolian towns (c. 3200 to 2000 BCE), people or culture, Unknown or undeciphered. 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. https://entireworldhistorytimeline.com/middle-east/early-bronze-anatolia/ - Troy (c. 3000 to 1180 BCE), state, Unknown or undeciphered, capital Troy (Hisarlik). 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. https://entireworldhistorytimeline.com/middle-east/troy/ - Hattians (c. 2500 to 1650 BCE), people or culture, Isolates and ancient. 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. https://entireworldhistorytimeline.com/middle-east/hattians/ - Luwians (c. 2000 to 700 BCE), people or culture, Anatolian. 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. https://entireworldhistorytimeline.com/middle-east/luwians/ - Assyrian trading colonies (Kanesh) (c. 1950 to 1750 BCE), colony, Semitic, capital Kanesh (Kültepe). 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. https://entireworldhistorytimeline.com/middle-east/assyrian-karum-kanesh/ - Hittite Old Kingdom (c. 1650 to 1400 BCE), state, Anatolian, capital Hattusa. 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. https://entireworldhistorytimeline.com/middle-east/hittite-old-kingdom/ - Arzawa (c. 1500 to 1300 BCE), state, Anatolian, capital Apasa (Ephesus). 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. https://entireworldhistorytimeline.com/middle-east/arzawa/ - Kizzuwatna (c. 1500 to 1350 BCE), state, Anatolian, capital Kummanni. 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. https://entireworldhistorytimeline.com/middle-east/kizzuwatna/ - Hittite Empire (New Kingdom) (c. 1400 to 1180 BCE), empire, Anatolian, capital Hattusa, briefly Tarhuntassa. 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. https://entireworldhistorytimeline.com/middle-east/hittite-new-kingdom/ - Syro-Hittite states (c. 1180 to 710 BCE), state, Anatolian, capital Carchemish, Melid, Tabal. 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. https://entireworldhistorytimeline.com/middle-east/syro-hittite-states/ - Greek cities of Asia Minor (c. 1050 to 129 BCE), state, Greek, capital Miletus, Ephesus, Smyrna. 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. https://entireworldhistorytimeline.com/middle-east/ionian-cities/ - Phrygia (c. 900 to 695 BCE), state, Other Indo-European, capital Gordion. 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. https://entireworldhistorytimeline.com/middle-east/phrygia/ - Cimmerians (c. 714 to 600 BCE), people or culture, Iranian. 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. https://entireworldhistorytimeline.com/middle-east/cimmerians/ - Lydia (c. 680 to 546 BCE), state, Anatolian, capital Sardis. 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. https://entireworldhistorytimeline.com/middle-east/lydia/ - Achaemenid Anatolia (546 to 334 BCE), empire, Iranian, capital Sardis, Dascylium. 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. https://entireworldhistorytimeline.com/middle-east/persian-anatolia/ - Hecatomnid Caria (c. 395 to 334 BCE), state, Anatolian, capital Halicarnassus. 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. https://entireworldhistorytimeline.com/middle-east/hecatomnid-caria/ - Kingdom of Cappadocia (c. 331 BCE to 17 CE), state, Iranian, capital Mazaca. 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. https://entireworldhistorytimeline.com/middle-east/cappadocia-kingdom/ - Kingdom of Bithynia (297 to 74 BCE), state, Greek, capital Nicomedia. 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. https://entireworldhistorytimeline.com/middle-east/bithynia/ - Kingdom of Pergamon (282 to 133 BCE), state, Greek, capital Pergamon. 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. https://entireworldhistorytimeline.com/middle-east/pergamon/ - Kingdom of Pontus (281 to 63 BCE), state, Iranian, capital Amaseia, later Sinope. 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. https://entireworldhistorytimeline.com/middle-east/pontus/ - Galatia (278 to 25 BCE), state, Celtic, capital Ancyra. 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. https://entireworldhistorytimeline.com/middle-east/galatia/ - Lycian League (c. 168 BCE to 43 CE), state, Greek, capital Xanthos, Patara. 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. https://entireworldhistorytimeline.com/middle-east/lycian-league/ - Commagene (163 BCE to 72 CE), state, Iranian, capital Samosata. 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. https://entireworldhistorytimeline.com/middle-east/commagene/ - Roman Anatolia (133 BCE to 395 CE), empire, Latin and Romance, capital Ephesus, Nicomedia. 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. https://entireworldhistorytimeline.com/middle-east/roman-anatolia/ - Byzantine Empire (395 to 1453 CE), empire, Greek, capital Constantinople. 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. https://entireworldhistorytimeline.com/middle-east/byzantine-empire/ - Marwanids (990 to 1085 CE), state, Iranian, capital Mayyafariqin, Amid. 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. https://entireworldhistorytimeline.com/middle-east/marwanids/ - Oghuz Turkmen nomads (c. 1040 to 1600 CE), people or culture, Turkic. Pastoral Oghuz tribes who followed the Seljuks west and poured into Anatolia after 1071. Their warbands founded the Anatolian beyliks, including the Ottomans. https://entireworldhistorytimeline.com/middle-east/oghuz-turkmen/ - Danishmendids (c. 1071 to 1178 CE), state, Turkic, capital Sivas, Niksar. Turkmen dynasty of north-central Anatolia that captured Bohemond of Antioch in 1100. Its rival, the Seljuk Sultanate of Rum, absorbed it by 1178. https://entireworldhistorytimeline.com/middle-east/danishmendids/ - Sultanate of Rum (1077 to 1308 CE), state, Turkic, capital Iznik, later Konya. 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. https://entireworldhistorytimeline.com/middle-east/sultanate-of-rum/ - Armenian Kingdom of Cilicia (1080 to 1375 CE), state, Other Indo-European, capital Sis. 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. https://entireworldhistorytimeline.com/middle-east/armenian-cilicia/ - Empire of Nicaea (1204 to 1261 CE), state, Greek, capital Nicaea. Byzantine successor state formed in western Anatolia after the Fourth Crusade sacked Constantinople. Michael VIII Palaiologos retook the city from the Latins in 1261. https://entireworldhistorytimeline.com/middle-east/empire-of-nicaea/ - Empire of Trebizond (1204 to 1461 CE), state, Greek, capital Trebizond. 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. https://entireworldhistorytimeline.com/middle-east/empire-of-trebizond/ - Karamanids (c. 1250 to 1487 CE), state, Turkic, capital Karaman, Konya. 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. https://entireworldhistorytimeline.com/middle-east/karamanids/ - Ottoman Empire (1299 to 1922 CE), empire, Turkic, capital Bursa, Edirne, Istanbul. 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. https://entireworldhistorytimeline.com/middle-east/ottoman-empire/ - Republic of Turkey (1923 CE to the present), state, Turkic, capital Ankara. 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. https://entireworldhistorytimeline.com/middle-east/turkey/ ### Caucasus - Maykop culture (c. 3200 to 3000 BCE), people or culture, Unknown or undeciphered. 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. https://entireworldhistorytimeline.com/middle-east/maykop-culture/ - Kura-Araxes culture (c. 3200 to 2200 BCE), people or culture, Unknown or undeciphered. 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. https://entireworldhistorytimeline.com/middle-east/kura-araxes/ - Trialeti culture (c. 2200 to 1500 BCE), people or culture, Unknown or undeciphered. 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. https://entireworldhistorytimeline.com/middle-east/trialeti-culture/ - Colchian culture (c. 1700 to 600 BCE), people or culture, Kartvelian. 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. https://entireworldhistorytimeline.com/middle-east/colchian-culture/ - Hayasa-Azzi (c. 1500 to 1290 BCE), state, Unknown or undeciphered. 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. https://entireworldhistorytimeline.com/middle-east/hayasa-azzi/ - Nairi tribes (c. 1200 to 860 BCE), people or culture, Unknown or undeciphered. 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. https://entireworldhistorytimeline.com/middle-east/nairi/ - Urartu (c. 860 to 590 BCE), state, Isolates and ancient, capital Tushpa (Van). 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. https://entireworldhistorytimeline.com/middle-east/urartu/ - Colchis (c. 600 to 101 BCE), state, Kartvelian, capital Phasis, Vani. 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. https://entireworldhistorytimeline.com/middle-east/colchis/ - Orontid Armenia (c. 570 to 200 BCE), state, Other Indo-European, capital Armavir, Yervandashat. 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. https://entireworldhistorytimeline.com/middle-east/orontid-armenia/ - Kingdom of Iberia (Kartli) (c. 302 BCE to 580 CE), state, Kartvelian, capital Mtskheta, later Tbilisi. 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. https://entireworldhistorytimeline.com/middle-east/kingdom-of-iberia/ - Artaxiad Armenia (189 BCE to 12 CE), state, Other Indo-European, capital Artashat, Tigranocerta. 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. https://entireworldhistorytimeline.com/middle-east/artaxiad-armenia/ - Caucasian Albania (c. 150 BCE to 705 CE), state, Isolates and ancient, capital Qabala, later Partav. 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. https://entireworldhistorytimeline.com/middle-east/caucasian-albania/ - Arsacid Armenia (52 to 428 CE), state, Other Indo-European, capital Artashat, Vagharshapat, Dvin. 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. https://entireworldhistorytimeline.com/middle-east/arsacid-armenia/ - Lazica (Egrisi) (c. 100 to 697 CE), state, Kartvelian, capital Archaeopolis (Nokalakevi). 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. https://entireworldhistorytimeline.com/middle-east/lazica/ - Persian Armenia (Marzpanate) (428 to 646 CE), state, Other Indo-European, capital Dvin. 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. https://entireworldhistorytimeline.com/middle-east/sasanian-armenia/ - Principality of Iberia (588 to 888 CE), state, Kartvelian, capital Tbilisi. 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. https://entireworldhistorytimeline.com/middle-east/principality-of-iberia/ - Khazar Khaganate (c. 650 to 969 CE), empire, Turkic, capital Balanjar, later Atil. 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. https://entireworldhistorytimeline.com/middle-east/khazar-khaganate/ - Arminiya (Arab Armenia) (654 to 884 CE), state, Arabic, capital Dvin, Partav. 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. https://entireworldhistorytimeline.com/middle-east/arminiya/ - Emirate of Tbilisi (736 to 1122 CE), state, Arabic, capital Tbilisi. 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. https://entireworldhistorytimeline.com/middle-east/emirate-of-tbilisi/ - Kingdom of Abkhazia (c. 778 to 1008 CE), state, Kartvelian, capital Anacopia, later Kutaisi. 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. https://entireworldhistorytimeline.com/middle-east/kingdom-of-abkhazia/ - Tao-Klarjeti (c. 813 to 1008 CE), state, Kartvelian, capital Artanuji. 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. https://entireworldhistorytimeline.com/middle-east/tao-klarjeti/ - Shirvanshahs (861 to 1538 CE), state, Iranian, capital Shamakhi, later Baku. 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. https://entireworldhistorytimeline.com/middle-east/shirvanshahs/ - Bagratid Armenia (885 to 1045 CE), state, Other Indo-European, capital Bagaran, Shirakavan, Ani. 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. https://entireworldhistorytimeline.com/middle-east/bagratid-armenia/ - Alania (c. 900 to 1239 CE), state, Iranian, capital Maghas. 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. https://entireworldhistorytimeline.com/middle-east/alania/ - Kingdom of Vaspurakan (908 to 1021 CE), state, Other Indo-European, capital Van. 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. https://entireworldhistorytimeline.com/middle-east/vaspurakan/ - Shaddadids (951 to 1199 CE), state, Iranian, capital Ganja, later Ani. 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. https://entireworldhistorytimeline.com/middle-east/shaddadids/ - Kingdom of Georgia (1008 to 1490 CE), state, Kartvelian, capital Kutaisi, later Tbilisi. 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. https://entireworldhistorytimeline.com/middle-east/kingdom-of-georgia/ - Kingdom of Imereti (1260 to 1810 CE), state, Kartvelian, capital Kutaisi. 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. https://entireworldhistorytimeline.com/middle-east/kingdom-of-imereti/ - Kingdom of Kakheti (1465 to 1762 CE), state, Kartvelian, capital Gremi, later Telavi. 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. https://entireworldhistorytimeline.com/middle-east/kingdom-of-kakheti/ - Kingdom of Kartli (1484 to 1762 CE), state, Kartvelian, capital Tbilisi. 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. https://entireworldhistorytimeline.com/middle-east/kingdom-of-kartli/ - Kingdom of Kartli-Kakheti (1762 to 1801 CE), state, Kartvelian, capital Tbilisi. 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. https://entireworldhistorytimeline.com/middle-east/kartli-kakheti/ - Russian Caucasus (1801 to 1917 CE), empire, Slavic, capital Tiflis. 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. https://entireworldhistorytimeline.com/middle-east/russian-caucasus/ - Caucasian Imamate (1828 to 1859 CE), state, Isolates and ancient, capital Dargo, later Vedeno. 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. https://entireworldhistorytimeline.com/middle-east/caucasian-imamate/ - Democratic Republic of Georgia (1918 to 1921 CE), state, Kartvelian, capital Tbilisi. 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. https://entireworldhistorytimeline.com/middle-east/democratic-republic-of-georgia/ - First Republic of Armenia (1918 to 1920 CE), state, Other Indo-European, capital Yerevan. 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. https://entireworldhistorytimeline.com/middle-east/first-republic-of-armenia/ - Azerbaijan Democratic Republic (1918 to 1920 CE), state, Turkic, capital Ganja, later Baku. 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. https://entireworldhistorytimeline.com/middle-east/azerbaijan-democratic-republic/ - Soviet Transcaucasia (1920 to 1991 CE), empire, Slavic, capital Tbilisi, Yerevan, Baku. 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. https://entireworldhistorytimeline.com/middle-east/soviet-transcaucasia/ - Georgia (1991 CE to the present), state, Kartvelian, capital Tbilisi. 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. https://entireworldhistorytimeline.com/middle-east/georgia/ - Armenia (1991 CE to the present), state, Other Indo-European, capital Yerevan. 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. https://entireworldhistorytimeline.com/middle-east/armenia/ - Azerbaijan (1991 CE to the present), state, Turkic, capital Baku. 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. https://entireworldhistorytimeline.com/middle-east/azerbaijan/ - Nagorno-Karabakh Republic (Artsakh) (1991 to 2023 CE), state, Other Indo-European, capital Stepanakert. 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. https://entireworldhistorytimeline.com/middle-east/artsakh/ ### Levant - Canaanites (c. 3200 to 1150 BCE), people or culture, Semitic. 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. https://entireworldhistorytimeline.com/middle-east/canaanites/ - Ebla (c. 3000 to 1600 BCE), state, Semitic, capital Ebla (Tell Mardikh). 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. https://entireworldhistorytimeline.com/middle-east/ebla/ - Byblos (c. 2800 to 1200 BCE), state, Semitic, capital Byblos (Gubla). 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. https://entireworldhistorytimeline.com/middle-east/byblos/ - Amorites (c. 2400 to 1600 BCE), people or culture, Semitic. 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. https://entireworldhistorytimeline.com/middle-east/amorites/ - Qatna (c. 2000 to 1340 BCE), state, Semitic, capital Qatna. 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. https://entireworldhistorytimeline.com/middle-east/qatna/ - Yamhad (c. 1810 to 1517 BCE), state, Semitic, capital Halab (Aleppo). 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. https://entireworldhistorytimeline.com/middle-east/yamhad/ - Ugarit (c. 1800 to 1185 BCE), state, Semitic, capital Ugarit (Ras Shamra). 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. https://entireworldhistorytimeline.com/middle-east/ugarit/ - Egyptian Canaan (c. 1550 to 1130 BCE), colony, Egyptian, capital Gaza, Beth-Shean. 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. https://entireworldhistorytimeline.com/middle-east/egyptian-canaan/ - Phoenician city-states (c. 1200 to 332 BCE), state, Semitic, capital Tyre, Sidon, Byblos, Arwad. 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. https://entireworldhistorytimeline.com/middle-east/phoenician-cities/ - Israelite tribes (c. 1200 to 930 BCE), people or culture, Semitic. 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. https://entireworldhistorytimeline.com/middle-east/israelites/ - Philistines (c. 1175 to 604 BCE), state, Unknown or undeciphered, capital Gaza, Ashkelon, Ashdod, Ekron, Gath. 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. https://entireworldhistorytimeline.com/middle-east/philistines/ - Aramean kingdoms (c. 1100 to 720 BCE), state, Semitic, capital Hamath, Arpad, Til Barsip. 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. https://entireworldhistorytimeline.com/middle-east/aramean-states/ - Tyre (c. 1000 to 332 BCE), state, Semitic, capital Tyre. 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. https://entireworldhistorytimeline.com/middle-east/tyre/ - Moab (c. 1000 to 582 BCE), state, Semitic, capital Dibon. 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. https://entireworldhistorytimeline.com/middle-east/moab/ - Edom (c. 1000 to 552 BCE), state, Semitic, capital Bozrah. 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. https://entireworldhistorytimeline.com/middle-east/edom/ - Aram-Damascus (c. 950 to 732 BCE), state, Semitic, capital Damascus. 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. https://entireworldhistorytimeline.com/middle-east/aram-damascus/ - Kingdom of Israel (c. 930 to 720 BCE), state, Semitic, capital Shechem, later Samaria. 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. https://entireworldhistorytimeline.com/middle-east/kingdom-of-israel/ - Kingdom of Judah (c. 930 to 587 BCE), state, Semitic, capital Jerusalem. 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. https://entireworldhistorytimeline.com/middle-east/kingdom-of-judah/ - Achaemenid Transeuphratia (539 to 332 BCE), empire, Iranian, capital Damascus. 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. https://entireworldhistorytimeline.com/middle-east/achaemenid-levant/ - Seleucid Empire (312 to 63 BCE), empire, Greek, capital Seleucia on the Tigris, later Antioch. 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. https://entireworldhistorytimeline.com/middle-east/seleucid-empire/ - Ptolemaic Coele-Syria (301 to 200 BCE), empire, Greek, capital Alexandria (ruled from Egypt). 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. https://entireworldhistorytimeline.com/middle-east/ptolemaic-syria/ - Nabataean Kingdom (c. 168 BCE to 106 CE), state, Arabic, capital Petra. 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. https://entireworldhistorytimeline.com/middle-east/nabataean-kingdom/ - Hasmonean kingdom (140 to 37 BCE), state, Semitic, capital Jerusalem. 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. https://entireworldhistorytimeline.com/middle-east/hasmonean-kingdom/ - Roman Syria and Judaea (64 BCE to 395 CE), empire, Latin and Romance, capital Antioch. 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. https://entireworldhistorytimeline.com/middle-east/roman-syria/ - Palmyra (c. 50 BCE to 273 CE), state, Semitic, capital Palmyra (Tadmor). 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. https://entireworldhistorytimeline.com/middle-east/palmyra/ - Herodian Judea (37 BCE to 44 CE), state, Semitic, capital Jerusalem. 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. https://entireworldhistorytimeline.com/middle-east/herodian-kingdom/ - Ghassanids (c. 220 to 638 CE), state, Arabic, capital Jabiyah. 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. https://entireworldhistorytimeline.com/middle-east/ghassanids/ - Byzantine Syria and Palestine (395 to 640 CE), empire, Greek, capital Antioch, Jerusalem. 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. https://entireworldhistorytimeline.com/middle-east/byzantine-levant/ - Umayyad Caliphate (661 to 750 CE), empire, Arabic, capital Damascus. 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. https://entireworldhistorytimeline.com/middle-east/umayyad-caliphate/ - Hamdanids (890 to 1004 CE), state, Arabic, capital Mosul, Aleppo. 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. https://entireworldhistorytimeline.com/middle-east/hamdanids/ - Fatimid Syria and Palestine (970 to 1099 CE), empire, Arabic, capital Cairo (ruled from Egypt). 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. https://entireworldhistorytimeline.com/middle-east/fatimid-levant/ - County of Edessa (1098 to 1144 CE), state, Latin and Romance, capital Edessa. 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. https://entireworldhistorytimeline.com/middle-east/county-of-edessa/ - Principality of Antioch (1098 to 1268 CE), state, Latin and Romance, capital Antioch. Norman-led Crusader state founded by Bohemond after a long siege of Antioch. The Mamluk sultan Baybars destroyed the city in 1268. https://entireworldhistorytimeline.com/middle-east/principality-of-antioch/ - Kingdom of Jerusalem (1099 to 1291 CE), state, Latin and Romance, capital Jerusalem, later Acre. 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. https://entireworldhistorytimeline.com/middle-east/kingdom-of-jerusalem/ - County of Tripoli (1102 to 1289 CE), state, Latin and Romance, capital Tripoli. 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. https://entireworldhistorytimeline.com/middle-east/county-of-tripoli/ - Burids (1104 to 1154 CE), state, Turkic, capital Damascus. 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. https://entireworldhistorytimeline.com/middle-east/burids/ - Zengids (1127 to 1250 CE), state, Turkic, capital Mosul, Aleppo, Damascus. 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. https://entireworldhistorytimeline.com/middle-east/zengids/ - Ayyubid Sultanate (1171 to 1260 CE), state, Iranian, capital Cairo, Damascus. 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. https://entireworldhistorytimeline.com/middle-east/ayyubids/ - Mamluk Sultanate (Syria) (1260 to 1516 CE), state, Turkic, capital Cairo, with Damascus as provincial seat. 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. https://entireworldhistorytimeline.com/middle-east/mamluk-levant/ - Ottoman Syria and Palestine (1516 to 1918 CE), empire, Turkic, capital Damascus, Aleppo. 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. https://entireworldhistorytimeline.com/middle-east/ottoman-levant/ - Emirate of Mount Lebanon (c. 1516 to 1842 CE), state, Arabic, capital Deir al-Qamar, later Beiteddine. 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. https://entireworldhistorytimeline.com/middle-east/mount-lebanon-emirate/ - Arab Kingdom of Syria (1918 to 1920 CE), state, Arabic, capital Damascus. 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. https://entireworldhistorytimeline.com/middle-east/arab-kingdom-of-syria/ - French Mandate for Syria and Lebanon (1920 to 1946 CE), colony, Latin and Romance, capital Beirut, Damascus. 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. https://entireworldhistorytimeline.com/middle-east/french-mandate/ - Mandatory Palestine (1920 to 1948 CE), colony, Germanic, capital Jerusalem. 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. https://entireworldhistorytimeline.com/middle-east/mandatory-palestine/ - Emirate of Transjordan (1921 to 1946 CE), state, Arabic, capital Amman. 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. https://entireworldhistorytimeline.com/middle-east/transjordan/ - Lebanon (1943 CE to the present), state, Arabic, capital Beirut. 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. https://entireworldhistorytimeline.com/middle-east/lebanon/ - Syria (1946 CE to the present), state, Arabic, capital Damascus. 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. https://entireworldhistorytimeline.com/middle-east/syria/ - Jordan (1946 CE to the present), state, Arabic, capital Amman. 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. https://entireworldhistorytimeline.com/middle-east/jordan/ - Israel (1948 CE to the present), state, Semitic, capital Jerusalem (status disputed). 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. https://entireworldhistorytimeline.com/middle-east/israel/ - United Arab Republic (1958 to 1961 CE), state, Arabic, capital Cairo. Union of Egypt and Syria under Gamal Abdel Nasser, the high point of pan-Arabism. A Syrian army coup ended it in 1961. https://entireworldhistorytimeline.com/middle-east/united-arab-republic/ - State of Palestine (1994 CE to the present), state, Arabic, capital Ramallah (administrative). 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. https://entireworldhistorytimeline.com/middle-east/palestine/ ### Mesopotamia - Uruk period (c. 3200 to 3100 BCE), people or culture, Isolates and ancient. 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. https://entireworldhistorytimeline.com/middle-east/uruk-period/ - Sumerians (c. 3200 to 1800 BCE), people or culture, Isolates and ancient. 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. https://entireworldhistorytimeline.com/middle-east/sumerians/ - Jemdet Nasr period (c. 3100 to 2900 BCE), people or culture, Isolates and ancient. 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. https://entireworldhistorytimeline.com/middle-east/jemdet-nasr/ - Kish (c. 2900 to 2334 BCE), state, Semitic, capital Kish. 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. https://entireworldhistorytimeline.com/middle-east/kish/ - Uruk (c. 2900 to 2270 BCE), state, Isolates and ancient, capital Uruk. 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. https://entireworldhistorytimeline.com/middle-east/uruk/ - Mari (c. 2900 to 1761 BCE), state, Semitic, capital Mari (Tell Hariri). 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. https://entireworldhistorytimeline.com/middle-east/mari/ - Ur (First Dynasty) (c. 2600 to 2340 BCE), state, Isolates and ancient, capital Ur. 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. https://entireworldhistorytimeline.com/middle-east/ur/ - Umma (c. 2600 to 2334 BCE), state, Isolates and ancient, capital Umma. Sumerian rival of Lagash. Its king Lugalzagesi conquered Lagash, Uruk and most of Sumer before Sargon of Akkad defeated him around 2334 BCE. https://entireworldhistorytimeline.com/middle-east/umma/ - Lagash (c. 2500 to 2110 BCE), state, Isolates and ancient, capital Girsu. 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. https://entireworldhistorytimeline.com/middle-east/lagash/ - Hurrians (c. 2500 to 1000 BCE), people or culture, Isolates and ancient. 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. https://entireworldhistorytimeline.com/middle-east/hurrians/ - Akkadian Empire (c. 2334 to 2154 BCE), empire, Semitic, capital Akkad. 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. https://entireworldhistorytimeline.com/middle-east/akkadian-empire/ - Gutian dynasty (c. 2154 to 2112 BCE), state, Unknown or undeciphered. 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. https://entireworldhistorytimeline.com/middle-east/gutians/ - Third Dynasty of Ur (2112 to 2004 BCE), empire, Isolates and ancient, capital Ur. 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. https://entireworldhistorytimeline.com/middle-east/ur-iii/ - Eshnunna (c. 2028 to 1762 BCE), state, Semitic, capital Eshnunna. Kingdom of the Diyala valley that issued the Laws of Eshnunna a generation before Hammurabi. Babylon conquered it around 1762 BCE. https://entireworldhistorytimeline.com/middle-east/eshnunna/ - Larsa (c. 2025 to 1763 BCE), state, Semitic, capital Larsa. 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. https://entireworldhistorytimeline.com/middle-east/larsa/ - Old Assyrian city-state (c. 2025 to 1365 BCE), state, Semitic, capital Assur. 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. https://entireworldhistorytimeline.com/middle-east/old-assyria/ - Isin (c. 2017 to 1794 BCE), state, Semitic, capital Isin. 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. https://entireworldhistorytimeline.com/middle-east/isin/ - Old Babylonian Empire (1894 to 1595 BCE), empire, Semitic, capital Babylon. 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. https://entireworldhistorytimeline.com/middle-east/old-babylonian-empire/ - Sealand dynasty (c. 1732 to 1460 BCE), state, Semitic. Kingdom of the far southern marshes that broke away from Babylon after Hammurabi. The Kassites conquered it in the 15th century BCE. https://entireworldhistorytimeline.com/middle-east/sealand-dynasty/ - Kassite Babylonia (c. 1595 to 1155 BCE), state, Isolates and ancient, capital Babylon, Dur-Kurigalzu. 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. https://entireworldhistorytimeline.com/middle-east/kassite-babylonia/ - Mitanni (c. 1550 to 1260 BCE), state, Isolates and ancient, capital Washukanni. 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. https://entireworldhistorytimeline.com/middle-east/mitanni/ - Middle Assyrian Empire (1365 to 912 BCE), empire, Semitic, capital Assur. 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. https://entireworldhistorytimeline.com/middle-east/middle-assyria/ - Babylonia (Isin II and later dynasties) (c. 1155 to 626 BCE), state, Semitic, capital Babylon. 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. https://entireworldhistorytimeline.com/middle-east/post-kassite-babylonia/ - Aramaic-speaking Mesopotamians (c. 1100 BCE to 700 CE), people or culture, Semitic. 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. https://entireworldhistorytimeline.com/middle-east/aramaic-mesopotamians/ - Neo-Assyrian Empire (911 to 609 BCE), empire, Semitic, capital Assur, Nimrud, Nineveh. 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. https://entireworldhistorytimeline.com/middle-east/neo-assyria/ - Chaldeans (c. 900 to 539 BCE), people or culture, Semitic. Tribes of the southern marshes who led Babylonian resistance to Assyria. A Chaldean, Nabopolassar, founded the Neo-Babylonian dynasty in 626 BCE. https://entireworldhistorytimeline.com/middle-east/chaldeans/ - Neo-Babylonian Empire (626 to 539 BCE), empire, Semitic, capital Babylon. 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. https://entireworldhistorytimeline.com/middle-east/neo-babylonian-empire/ - Empire of Alexander the Great (334 to 312 BCE), empire, Greek, capital Babylon. 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. https://entireworldhistorytimeline.com/middle-east/macedonian-empire/ - Characene (c. 141 BCE to 222 CE), state, Iranian, capital Charax Spasinou. 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. https://entireworldhistorytimeline.com/middle-east/characene/ - Osroene (c. 132 BCE to 244 CE), state, Semitic, capital Edessa. 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. https://entireworldhistorytimeline.com/middle-east/osroene/ - Hatra (c. 117 to 241 CE), state, Semitic, capital Hatra. Fortified caravan city west of the Tigris whose Arab kings held off sieges by Trajan and Septimius Severus. The Sasanians destroyed it around 241. https://entireworldhistorytimeline.com/middle-east/hatra/ - Lakhmids (c. 300 to 602 CE), state, Arabic, capital al-Hira. 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. https://entireworldhistorytimeline.com/middle-east/lakhmids/ - Kurdish tribes and emirates (c. 640 CE to the present), people or culture, Iranian. 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. https://entireworldhistorytimeline.com/middle-east/kurdish-emirates/ - Abbasid Caliphate (750 to 1258 CE), empire, Arabic, capital Baghdad, briefly Samarra. 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. https://entireworldhistorytimeline.com/middle-east/abbasid-caliphate/ - Uqaylids (990 to 1096 CE), state, Arabic, capital Mosul. 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. https://entireworldhistorytimeline.com/middle-east/uqaylids/ - Artuqids (1102 to 1409 CE), state, Turkic, capital Hasankeyf, Mardin, Diyarbakır. 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. https://entireworldhistorytimeline.com/middle-east/artuqids/ - Jalayirids (1335 to 1432 CE), state, Mongolic, capital Baghdad, Tabriz. 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. https://entireworldhistorytimeline.com/middle-east/jalayirids/ - Kara Koyunlu (1374 to 1468 CE), state, Turkic, capital Van, later Tabriz. 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. https://entireworldhistorytimeline.com/middle-east/kara-koyunlu/ - Aq Qoyunlu (1378 to 1503 CE), state, Turkic, capital Diyarbakır, later Tabriz. 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. https://entireworldhistorytimeline.com/middle-east/aq-qoyunlu/ - Ottoman Iraq (1534 to 1918 CE), empire, Turkic, capital Baghdad, Mosul, Basra. 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. https://entireworldhistorytimeline.com/middle-east/ottoman-iraq/ - Mamluk dynasty of Iraq (1704 to 1831 CE), state, Turkic, capital Baghdad. 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. https://entireworldhistorytimeline.com/middle-east/mamluk-iraq/ - British Mandate of Mesopotamia (1920 to 1932 CE), colony, Germanic, capital Baghdad. 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. https://entireworldhistorytimeline.com/middle-east/british-mesopotamia/ - Kingdom of Iraq (1932 to 1958 CE), state, Arabic, capital Baghdad. 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. https://entireworldhistorytimeline.com/middle-east/kingdom-of-iraq/ - Republic of Iraq (1958 CE to the present), state, Arabic, capital Baghdad. 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. https://entireworldhistorytimeline.com/middle-east/iraq/ - Kurdistan Region (1992 CE to the present), state, Iranian, capital Erbil. 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. https://entireworldhistorytimeline.com/middle-east/kurdistan-region/ - Islamic State (2014 to 2019 CE), state, Arabic, capital Raqqa, Mosul. 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. https://entireworldhistorytimeline.com/middle-east/islamic-state/ ### Arabia - Arabian pastoral nomads (c. 3200 to 900 BCE), people or culture, Unknown or undeciphered. 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. https://entireworldhistorytimeline.com/middle-east/arabian-pastoralists/ - South Semitic peoples of Yemen (c. 3200 to 1000 BCE), people or culture, Semitic. Bronze Age farmers of the Yemeni highlands who terraced hillsides and built early irrigation works. Their descendants founded the incense kingdoms of South Arabia. https://entireworldhistorytimeline.com/middle-east/south-semitic-peoples/ - Hafit culture (c. 3200 to 2600 BCE), people or culture, Unknown or undeciphered. 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. https://entireworldhistorytimeline.com/middle-east/hafit-culture/ - Dilmun (c. 2800 to 544 BCE), state, Unknown or undeciphered, capital Qal'at al-Bahrain. 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. https://entireworldhistorytimeline.com/middle-east/dilmun/ - Umm an-Nar culture (c. 2600 to 2000 BCE), people or culture, Unknown or undeciphered. 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. https://entireworldhistorytimeline.com/middle-east/umm-an-nar/ - Wadi Suq culture (c. 2000 to 1300 BCE), people or culture, Unknown or undeciphered. Middle Bronze Age culture of Oman and the UAE with smaller settlements and long collective tombs, as the copper trade with Mesopotamia declined. https://entireworldhistorytimeline.com/middle-east/wadi-suq/ - Kingdom of Saba (c. 1000 BCE to 275 CE), state, Semitic, capital Marib. 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. https://entireworldhistorytimeline.com/middle-east/saba/ - Arab Bedouin tribes (c. 900 BCE to the present), people or culture, Arabic. 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. https://entireworldhistorytimeline.com/middle-east/arab-bedouin/ - Kingdom of Ma'in (c. 800 to 100 BCE), state, Semitic, capital Qarnaw. 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. https://entireworldhistorytimeline.com/middle-east/main/ - Kingdom of Qataban (c. 800 BCE to 200 CE), state, Semitic, capital Timna. Incense kingdom of the Wadi Bayhan, a major source of frankincense and myrrh. It was divided between Hadramawt and Himyar around 200 CE. https://entireworldhistorytimeline.com/middle-east/qataban/ - Kingdom of Hadramawt (c. 800 BCE to 300 CE), state, Semitic, capital Shabwa. Kingdom that controlled the frankincense groves of Dhofar and the port of Qana. Himyar conquered it around 300 CE. https://entireworldhistorytimeline.com/middle-east/hadramawt/ - Qedarites (c. 800 to 300 BCE), people or culture, Arabic. 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. https://entireworldhistorytimeline.com/middle-east/qedarites/ - Gerrha (c. 650 BCE to 300 CE), state, Arabic. 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. https://entireworldhistorytimeline.com/middle-east/gerrha/ - Dedan and Lihyan (c. 600 to 100 BCE), state, Arabic, capital Dedan (al-Ula). 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. https://entireworldhistorytimeline.com/middle-east/lihyan/ - Himyarite Kingdom (c. 110 BCE to 525 CE), state, Semitic, capital Zafar, later Sanaa. 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. https://entireworldhistorytimeline.com/middle-east/himyar/ - Kingdom of Kinda (c. 450 to 550 CE), state, Arabic. 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. https://entireworldhistorytimeline.com/middle-east/kingdom-of-kinda/ - Aksumite Yemen (Abraha) (c. 525 to 570 CE), state, Semitic, capital Sanaa. 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. https://entireworldhistorytimeline.com/middle-east/aksumite-yemen/ - Sasanian Yemen (c. 570 to 628 CE), colony, Iranian, capital Sanaa. A Persian force sent by Khosrow I expelled the Aksumites and ruled Yemen through governors. The last governor, Badhan, accepted Islam around 628. https://entireworldhistorytimeline.com/middle-east/sasanian-yemen/ - Muhammad's state at Medina (622 to 632 CE), state, Arabic, capital Medina. 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. https://entireworldhistorytimeline.com/middle-east/medina-state/ - Rashidun Caliphate (632 to 661 CE), empire, Arabic, capital Medina, later Kufa. 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. https://entireworldhistorytimeline.com/middle-east/rashidun-caliphate/ - Ibadi Imamate of Oman (c. 751 to 1154 CE), state, Arabic, capital Nizwa. 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. https://entireworldhistorytimeline.com/middle-east/ibadi-oman/ - Zaydi Imamate of Yemen (897 to 1918 CE), state, Arabic, capital Saada, later Sanaa. 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. https://entireworldhistorytimeline.com/middle-east/zaydi-imamate/ - Qarmatians of Bahrain (899 to 1077 CE), state, Arabic, capital al-Ahsa. 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. https://entireworldhistorytimeline.com/middle-east/qarmatians/ - Sharifate of Mecca (967 to 1925 CE), state, Arabic, capital Mecca. 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. https://entireworldhistorytimeline.com/middle-east/sharifate-of-mecca/ - Sulayhids (1047 to 1138 CE), state, Arabic, capital Sanaa, later Jibla. Ismaili dynasty allied to the Fatimids that united much of Yemen. Queen Arwa al-Sulayhi ruled it for about fifty years from Jibla. https://entireworldhistorytimeline.com/middle-east/sulayhids/ - Nabhani dynasty (c. 1154 to 1624 CE), state, Arabic, capital Bahla. 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. https://entireworldhistorytimeline.com/middle-east/nabhani-oman/ - Rasulids (1229 to 1454 CE), state, Arabic, capital Ta'izz, Zabid. 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. https://entireworldhistorytimeline.com/middle-east/rasulids/ - Tahirids of Yemen (1454 to 1517 CE), state, Arabic, capital Juban, Aden. Yemeni dynasty that succeeded the Rasulids and built mosques and schools in Zabid and Rada. Mamluk forces overthrew it in 1517. https://entireworldhistorytimeline.com/middle-east/tahirids-yemen/ - Portuguese Muscat and Gulf forts (1507 to 1650 CE), colony, Latin and Romance, capital Muscat. 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. https://entireworldhistorytimeline.com/middle-east/portuguese-gulf/ - Ottoman Hejaz and Yemen (1517 to 1918 CE), empire, Turkic, capital Mecca and Sanaa (provincial). 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. https://entireworldhistorytimeline.com/middle-east/ottoman-arabia/ - Ya'aruba dynasty (1624 to 1744 CE), state, Arabic, capital Rustaq, Nizwa. Omani imams who expelled the Portuguese and built a navy that took Mombasa and Zanzibar. Civil war and a Persian invasion ended their rule. https://entireworldhistorytimeline.com/middle-east/yaruba/ - Emirate of Diriyah (1727 to 1818 CE), state, Arabic, capital Diriyah. 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. https://entireworldhistorytimeline.com/middle-east/emirate-of-diriyah/ - Omani Empire (Al Bu Said) (1744 to 1856 CE), empire, Arabic, capital Muscat, later Zanzibar. 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. https://entireworldhistorytimeline.com/middle-east/busaidi-oman/ - Sheikhdom of Kuwait (c. 1752 to 1961 CE), state, Arabic, capital Kuwait City. 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. https://entireworldhistorytimeline.com/middle-east/sheikhdom-of-kuwait/ - Bahrain under the Al Khalifa (1783 to 1971 CE), state, Arabic, capital Manama. 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. https://entireworldhistorytimeline.com/middle-east/al-khalifa-bahrain/ - Trucial States (1820 to 1971 CE), colony, Germanic, capital Dubai (British agency). 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. https://entireworldhistorytimeline.com/middle-east/trucial-states/ - Emirate of Nejd (1824 to 1891 CE), state, Arabic, capital Riyadh. Second Saudi state, refounded at Riyadh by Turki ibn Abdullah. Family feuds weakened it, and the Rashidis of Ha'il captured Riyadh in 1891. https://entireworldhistorytimeline.com/middle-east/emirate-of-nejd/ - Emirate of Jabal Shammar (1836 to 1921 CE), state, Arabic, capital Ha'il. Rashidi emirate of northern Arabia, allied with the Ottomans, which for a time ruled all of Nejd. Ibn Saud conquered Ha'il in 1921. https://entireworldhistorytimeline.com/middle-east/jabal-shammar/ - British Aden (1839 to 1967 CE), colony, Germanic, capital Aden. 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. https://entireworldhistorytimeline.com/middle-east/aden-colony/ - Sultanate of Muscat and Oman (1856 to 1970 CE), state, Arabic, capital Muscat. 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. https://entireworldhistorytimeline.com/middle-east/muscat-and-oman/ - Sheikhdom of Qatar (1868 to 1971 CE), state, Arabic, capital Doha. 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. https://entireworldhistorytimeline.com/middle-east/sheikhdom-of-qatar/ - Emirate and Sultanate of Nejd (1902 to 1932 CE), state, Arabic, capital Riyadh. 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. https://entireworldhistorytimeline.com/middle-east/sultanate-of-nejd/ - Kingdom of Hejaz (1916 to 1925 CE), state, Arabic, capital Mecca. Kingdom proclaimed by Sharif Hussein during the Arab Revolt against the Ottomans. Ibn Saud conquered it in 1925. https://entireworldhistorytimeline.com/middle-east/kingdom-of-hejaz/ - Mutawakkilite Kingdom of Yemen (1918 to 1962 CE), state, Arabic, capital Sanaa, later Ta'izz. 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. https://entireworldhistorytimeline.com/middle-east/mutawakkilite-yemen/ - Saudi Arabia (1932 CE to the present), state, Arabic, capital Riyadh. 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. https://entireworldhistorytimeline.com/middle-east/saudi-arabia/ - Kuwait (1961 CE to the present), state, Arabic, capital Kuwait City. 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. https://entireworldhistorytimeline.com/middle-east/kuwait/ - Yemen Arab Republic (1962 to 1990 CE), state, Arabic, capital Sanaa. 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. https://entireworldhistorytimeline.com/middle-east/yemen-arab-republic/ - People's Democratic Republic of Yemen (1967 to 1990 CE), state, Arabic, capital Aden. 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. https://entireworldhistorytimeline.com/middle-east/south-yemen/ - Oman (1970 CE to the present), state, Arabic, capital Muscat. 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. https://entireworldhistorytimeline.com/middle-east/oman/ - Bahrain (1971 CE to the present), state, Arabic, capital Manama. 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. https://entireworldhistorytimeline.com/middle-east/bahrain/ - Qatar (1971 CE to the present), state, Arabic, capital Doha. 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. https://entireworldhistorytimeline.com/middle-east/qatar/ - United Arab Emirates (1971 CE to the present), state, Arabic, capital Abu Dhabi. 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. https://entireworldhistorytimeline.com/middle-east/uae/ - Republic of Yemen (1990 CE to the present), state, Arabic, capital Sanaa, Aden. 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. https://entireworldhistorytimeline.com/middle-east/yemen/ ### Iran - Proto-Elamite period (c. 3200 to 2700 BCE), people or culture, Isolates and ancient, capital Susa. Early state culture of southwest Iran with its own script, still undeciphered, used on tablets found from Susa to Shahr-i Sokhta. https://entireworldhistorytimeline.com/middle-east/proto-elamite/ - Helmand culture (Shahr-i Sokhta) (c. 3200 to 1800 BCE), people or culture, Unknown or undeciphered. 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. https://entireworldhistorytimeline.com/middle-east/shahr-i-sokhta/ - Zagros highland peoples (c. 3200 to 800 BCE), people or culture, Unknown or undeciphered. 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. https://entireworldhistorytimeline.com/middle-east/zagros-peoples/ - Jiroft culture (c. 3000 to 2200 BCE), people or culture, Unknown or undeciphered. 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. https://entireworldhistorytimeline.com/middle-east/jiroft-culture/ - Old Elamite period (c. 2700 to 1500 BCE), state, Isolates and ancient, capital Susa, Anshan. 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. https://entireworldhistorytimeline.com/middle-east/old-elam/ - Middle Elamite period (c. 1500 to 1100 BCE), state, Isolates and ancient, capital Susa, Al Untash-Napirisha. 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. https://entireworldhistorytimeline.com/middle-east/middle-elam/ - Iranian-speaking pastoralists (c. 1200 to 700 BCE), people or culture, Iranian. Herding tribes speaking Iranian languages spread across the plateau and appear in Assyrian records as Medes and Persians from the 9th century BCE. https://entireworldhistorytimeline.com/middle-east/early-iranian-peoples/ - Neo-Elamite period (c. 1100 to 539 BCE), state, Isolates and ancient, capital Susa. 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. https://entireworldhistorytimeline.com/middle-east/neo-elam/ - Mannaea (c. 850 to 616 BCE), state, Unknown or undeciphered, capital Izirtu. 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. https://entireworldhistorytimeline.com/middle-east/mannaea/ - Median kingdom (c. 678 to 550 BCE), state, Iranian, capital Ecbatana (Hamadan). 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. https://entireworldhistorytimeline.com/middle-east/medes/ - Achaemenid Empire (550 to 330 BCE), empire, Iranian, capital Pasargadae, Persepolis, Susa, Babylon. 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. https://entireworldhistorytimeline.com/middle-east/achaemenid-empire/ - Atropatene (c. 323 BCE to 226 CE), state, Iranian, capital Ganzak. 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. https://entireworldhistorytimeline.com/middle-east/atropatene/ - Kingdom of Persis (c. 280 BCE to 224 CE), state, Iranian, capital Istakhr. 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. https://entireworldhistorytimeline.com/middle-east/persis/ - Parthian Empire (247 BCE to 224 CE), empire, Iranian, capital Nisa, Hecatompylos, Ctesiphon. 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. https://entireworldhistorytimeline.com/middle-east/parthian-empire/ - Elymais (c. 147 BCE to 221 CE), state, Iranian, capital Susa. Semi-independent kingdom in the old Elamite lowlands of Khuzestan under Parthian overlordship, known for its rock reliefs and coins. Ardashir I conquered it. https://entireworldhistorytimeline.com/middle-east/elymais/ - Sasanian Empire (224 to 651 CE), empire, Iranian, capital Ctesiphon. 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. https://entireworldhistorytimeline.com/middle-east/sasanian-empire/ - Bavandids (651 to 1349 CE), state, Iranian, capital Sari, Amol. 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. https://entireworldhistorytimeline.com/middle-east/bavandids/ - Tahirids (821 to 873 CE), state, Iranian, capital Merv, later Nishapur. Persian governors of Khorasan who ruled almost independently while staying loyal to the Abbasid caliph. The Saffarids took Nishapur in 873. https://entireworldhistorytimeline.com/middle-east/tahirids/ - Saffarids (861 to 1003 CE), state, Iranian, capital Zarang. 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. https://entireworldhistorytimeline.com/middle-east/saffarids/ - Ziyarids (931 to 1090 CE), state, Iranian, capital Gorgan. Gilaki dynasty of Gorgan and Tabaristan. Qabus ibn Wushmgir built the 52-metre brick tower of Gonbad-e Qabus as his tomb in 1006. https://entireworldhistorytimeline.com/middle-east/ziyarids/ - Buyids (934 to 1062 CE), state, Iranian, capital Shiraz, Rayy, Baghdad. 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. https://entireworldhistorytimeline.com/middle-east/buyids/ - Great Seljuk Empire (1037 to 1194 CE), empire, Turkic, capital Nishapur, Rayy, Isfahan, Merv. 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. https://entireworldhistorytimeline.com/middle-east/seljuk-empire/ - Khwarazmian Empire (1077 to 1231 CE), empire, Turkic, capital Gurganj, later Samarkand. 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. https://entireworldhistorytimeline.com/middle-east/khwarazmian-empire/ - Nizari Ismaili state (1090 to 1256 CE), state, Iranian, capital Alamut. 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. https://entireworldhistorytimeline.com/middle-east/nizari-state/ - Kingdom of Hormuz (c. 1100 to 1622 CE), state, Iranian, capital Hormuz. 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. https://entireworldhistorytimeline.com/middle-east/kingdom-of-hormuz/ - Ilkhanate (1256 to 1335 CE), empire, Mongolic, capital Maragheh, Tabriz, Soltaniyeh. 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. https://entireworldhistorytimeline.com/middle-east/ilkhanate/ - Muzaffarids (1314 to 1393 CE), state, Iranian, capital Shiraz, Yazd. Dynasty of southern Iran whose capital Shiraz was home to the poet Hafez. Timur executed the princes of the family in 1393. https://entireworldhistorytimeline.com/middle-east/muzaffarids/ - Sarbadars (1332 to 1381 CE), state, Iranian, capital Sabzevar. 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. https://entireworldhistorytimeline.com/middle-east/sarbadars/ - Chobanids (1335 to 1357 CE), state, Mongolic, capital Tabriz. Mongol emirs who ruled northwest Iran through puppet khans after the Ilkhanate collapsed. Jani Beg of the Golden Horde took Tabriz in 1357. https://entireworldhistorytimeline.com/middle-east/chobanids/ - Timurid Empire (1370 to 1507 CE), empire, Turkic, capital Samarkand, later Herat. 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. https://entireworldhistorytimeline.com/middle-east/timurid-empire/ - Safavid Empire (1501 to 1736 CE), empire, Turkic, capital Tabriz, Qazvin, Isfahan. 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. https://entireworldhistorytimeline.com/middle-east/safavid-empire/ - Hotak rule in Iran (1722 to 1729 CE), state, Iranian, capital Isfahan. Pashtun Hotak chiefs from Kandahar defeated the Safavids at Gulnabad and starved Isfahan into surrender in 1722. Nader Afshar drove them out in 1729. https://entireworldhistorytimeline.com/middle-east/hotak-iran/ - Afsharid dynasty (1736 to 1796 CE), empire, Turkic, capital Mashhad. 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. https://entireworldhistorytimeline.com/middle-east/afsharids/ - Zand dynasty (1751 to 1794 CE), state, Iranian, capital Shiraz. 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. https://entireworldhistorytimeline.com/middle-east/zand-dynasty/ - Qajar dynasty (1789 to 1925 CE), state, Turkic, capital Tehran. 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. https://entireworldhistorytimeline.com/middle-east/qajar-dynasty/ - Pahlavi Iran (1925 to 1979 CE), state, Iranian, capital Tehran. 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. https://entireworldhistorytimeline.com/middle-east/pahlavi-iran/ - Islamic Republic of Iran (1979 CE to the present), state, Iranian, capital Tehran. 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. https://entireworldhistorytimeline.com/middle-east/islamic-republic-of-iran/ ### Events in Middle East - 3200 BCE: Writing invented at Uruk. 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. - 2334 BCE: Sargon founds the Akkadian Empire. Sargon defeats Lugalzagesi of Umma and unites the Sumerian cities with the north, creating the first known multi-ethnic empire. - 2004 BCE: Elamites sack Ur. 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. - 1754 BCE: Code of Hammurabi. 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. - 1595 BCE: Hittites sack Babylon. Mursili I marches 2,000 km down the Euphrates and sacks Babylon, ending Hammurabi's dynasty and opening the way for the Kassites. - 1274 BCE: Battle of Kadesh. 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. - 1177 BCE: Late Bronze Age collapse. Within a few decades Hattusa is abandoned, Ugarit is burned and Sea Peoples raid the coasts. The palace states of the eastern Mediterranean collapse. - 1050 BCE: Phoenician alphabet. Phoenician scribes use a 22-letter alphabet of consonants. Carried by traders, it becomes the ancestor of the Greek, Latin, Hebrew and Arabic scripts. - 853 BCE: Battle of Qarqar. 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. - 722 BCE: Assyria conquers Samaria. 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. - 612 BCE: Fall of Nineveh. Babylonians and Medes storm and burn the Assyrian capital. Within three years the Neo-Assyrian Empire is gone. - 587 BCE: Destruction of Jerusalem. Nebuchadnezzar II destroys Jerusalem and Solomon's Temple and deports the Judean elite to Babylon. The exile reshapes Jewish religion and scripture. - 539 BCE: Cyrus takes Babylon. 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. - 331 BCE: Battle of Gaugamela. Alexander defeats Darius III near Erbil. Babylon, Susa and Persepolis fall within months, and the Achaemenid Empire is finished. - 53 BCE: Battle of Carrhae. Parthian horse archers destroy the army of Marcus Licinius Crassus in Upper Mesopotamia, fixing the Euphrates as the frontier between Rome and Iran. - 30: Crucifixion of Jesus. 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. - 70: Romans destroy the Second Temple. Titus captures Jerusalem and burns the Temple, ending the Jewish revolt. Judaism reorganises around rabbis and synagogues. - 301: Armenia adopts Christianity. King Tiridates III, converted by Gregory the Illuminator, makes Armenia the first state to adopt Christianity as its official religion. - 622: The Hijra. Muhammad and his followers leave Mecca for Medina, founding the first Muslim community. The year becomes the start of the Islamic calendar. - 636: Battles of Yarmouk and Qadisiyyah. Arab armies crush the Byzantines at the Yarmouk River and then the Sasanians at Qadisiyyah, opening Syria and Iraq to Islamic rule. - 680: Battle of Karbala. Umayyad troops kill Husayn, grandson of Muhammad, and his small band at Karbala. His death becomes the central event of Shia Islam. - 762: Founding of Baghdad. 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. - 1071: Battle of Manzikert. Seljuk sultan Alp Arslan defeats and captures Emperor Romanos IV. Turkmen tribes pour into Anatolia, which slowly becomes Turkish. - 1099: Crusaders take Jerusalem. The First Crusade storms Jerusalem and massacres much of its population, founding the Latin Kingdom of Jerusalem. - 1187: Battle of Hattin. Saladin destroys the Crusader field army near Tiberias and retakes Jerusalem three months later. - 1258: Mongols sack Baghdad. Hulagu's army storms Baghdad, kills the caliph al-Musta'sim and many thousands of residents, ending the Abbasid caliphate in Iraq. - 1260: Battle of Ain Jalut. The Mamluks of Egypt defeat a Mongol army in Galilee, the first major Mongol defeat, and keep the Mongols out of Syria and Egypt. - 1514: Battle of Chaldiran. Ottoman cannon and muskets defeat the Safavid cavalry of Ismail I. The frontier between Sunni Ottoman lands and Shia Iran takes shape. - 1908: Oil struck at Masjed Soleyman. 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. - 1915: Armenian genocide. The Ottoman government deports and massacres its Armenian population. Between 600,000 and 1.5 million Armenians die. - 1916: Arab Revolt and Sykes-Picot. Sharif Hussein of Mecca rises against the Ottomans, while Britain and France secretly agree to divide the Arab provinces between them. - 1923: Treaty of Lausanne. The Allies recognise the Republic of Turkey within its present borders, and a population exchange uproots over a million Greeks and Turks. - 1948: Founding of Israel and the Nakba. Israel declares independence as Britain leaves Palestine. Arab states invade, and about 700,000 Palestinians flee or are expelled from their homes. - 1979: Iranian Revolution. Mass protests drive out the shah and Ayatollah Khomeini founds an Islamic Republic. Students seize the US embassy in Tehran that November. - 1991: Gulf War. A US-led coalition expels Iraqi forces from Kuwait after a six-week air campaign and a 100-hour ground war. - 2003: US-led invasion of Iraq. American and British forces overthrow Saddam Hussein in three weeks. Occupation, insurgency and sectarian war follow. - 2011: Arab Spring reaches Syria. 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. - 2024: Fall of the Assad regime. A rebel offensive led by Hayat Tahrir al-Sham takes Aleppo and then Damascus in December, ending 53 years of Assad family rule. ## South Asia ### Afghanistan and the northwest - Mehrgarh and Baluchistan farmers (c. 3200 to 2600 BCE), people or culture, Unknown or undeciphered. 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. https://entireworldhistorytimeline.com/south-asia/mehrgarh/ - Helmand culture (c. 3200 to 2000 BCE), people or culture, Unknown or undeciphered. 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. https://entireworldhistorytimeline.com/south-asia/helmand-culture/ - Bactria-Margiana culture (Dashly oasis) (c. 2300 to 1700 BCE), people or culture, Unknown or undeciphered. 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. https://entireworldhistorytimeline.com/south-asia/bmac-afghanistan/ - Gandhara grave culture (c. 1600 to 500 BCE), people or culture, Indo-Aryan. 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. https://entireworldhistorytimeline.com/south-asia/gandhara-grave-culture/ - Eastern Iranian peoples (c. 1500 BCE to 1000 CE), people or culture, Iranian. 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. https://entireworldhistorytimeline.com/south-asia/eastern-iranian-peoples/ - Achaemenid eastern satrapies (c. 535 to 330 BCE), empire, Iranian, capital Bactra (satrapal seat), ruled from Persepolis and Susa. 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. https://entireworldhistorytimeline.com/south-asia/achaemenid-east/ - Greco-Bactrian Kingdom (c. 256 to 120 BCE), state, Greek, capital Bactra, Ai-Khanoum. 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. https://entireworldhistorytimeline.com/south-asia/greco-bactrian/ - Yuezhi in Bactria (c. 130 BCE to 30 CE), people or culture, Unknown or undeciphered. 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. https://entireworldhistorytimeline.com/south-asia/yuezhi-bactria/ - Kushan Empire (c. 30 to 375 CE), empire, Iranian, capital Purushapura (Peshawar), Kapisa, Mathura. 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. https://entireworldhistorytimeline.com/south-asia/kushan/ - Kushano-Sasanian Kingdom (c. 230 to 365 CE), state, Iranian, capital Balkh. 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. https://entireworldhistorytimeline.com/south-asia/kushano-sasanian/ - Kidarites (c. 350 to 470 CE), state, Unknown or undeciphered, capital Balkh, later Gandhara. 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. https://entireworldhistorytimeline.com/south-asia/kidarites/ - Hephthalite Empire (c. 450 to 560 CE), empire, Unknown or undeciphered. 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. https://entireworldhistorytimeline.com/south-asia/hephthalites/ - Nezak Huns (c. 484 to 665 CE), state, Unknown or undeciphered, capital Kapisa, Kabul. 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. https://entireworldhistorytimeline.com/south-asia/nezak/ - Turk Shahis (c. 665 to 822 CE), state, Turkic, capital Kabul, Kapisa. 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. https://entireworldhistorytimeline.com/south-asia/turk-shahis/ - Hindu Shahis (c. 822 to 1026 CE), state, Indo-Aryan, capital Kabul, later Udabhandapura (Hund). 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. https://entireworldhistorytimeline.com/south-asia/hindu-shahis/ - Ghaznavid Empire (977 to 1186 CE), empire, Turkic, capital Ghazni, later Lahore. 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. https://entireworldhistorytimeline.com/south-asia/ghaznavid/ - Pashtun tribes (c. 1000 CE to the present), people or culture, Iranian. 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. https://entireworldhistorytimeline.com/south-asia/pashtun-tribes/ - Ghurid dynasty (1148 to 1215 CE), empire, Iranian, capital Firozkoh, Ghazni. 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. https://entireworldhistorytimeline.com/south-asia/ghurid/ - Kartid dynasty (1245 to 1381 CE), state, Iranian, capital Herat. 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. https://entireworldhistorytimeline.com/south-asia/kartids/ - Timurid Empire (1370 to 1507 CE), empire, Turkic, capital Samarkand, later Herat. 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. https://entireworldhistorytimeline.com/south-asia/timurid-herat/ - Hotaki dynasty (1709 to 1738 CE), state, Iranian, capital Kandahar. 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. https://entireworldhistorytimeline.com/south-asia/hotaki/ - Durrani Empire (1747 to 1823 CE), empire, Iranian, capital Kandahar, later Kabul. 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. https://entireworldhistorytimeline.com/south-asia/durrani/ - Emirate of Afghanistan (1823 to 1926 CE), state, Iranian, capital Kabul. 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. https://entireworldhistorytimeline.com/south-asia/emirate-afghanistan/ - Kingdom of Afghanistan (1926 to 1973 CE), state, Iranian, capital Kabul. 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. https://entireworldhistorytimeline.com/south-asia/kingdom-afghanistan/ - Republic of Afghanistan (1973 to 1978 CE), state, Iranian, capital Kabul. Mohammed Daoud Khan abolished the monarchy and ruled as president. Communist officers killed him in the Saur Revolution of April 1978. https://entireworldhistorytimeline.com/south-asia/republic-afghanistan/ - Democratic Republic of Afghanistan (1978 to 1992 CE), state, Iranian, capital Kabul. 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. https://entireworldhistorytimeline.com/south-asia/dra/ - Islamic State of Afghanistan (1992 to 2001 CE), state, Iranian, capital Kabul. 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. https://entireworldhistorytimeline.com/south-asia/islamic-state-afghanistan/ - Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan (first) (1996 to 2001 CE), state, Iranian, capital Kabul, Kandahar. 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. https://entireworldhistorytimeline.com/south-asia/taliban-emirate/ - Islamic Republic of Afghanistan (2001 to 2021 CE), state, Iranian, capital Kabul. 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. https://entireworldhistorytimeline.com/south-asia/islamic-republic-afghanistan/ - Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan (2021 CE to the present), state, Iranian, capital Kabul. 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. https://entireworldhistorytimeline.com/south-asia/taliban-emirate-2/ ### Indus, Punjab and Kashmir - Early Harappan phase (c. 3200 to 2600 BCE), people or culture, Unknown or undeciphered. 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. https://entireworldhistorytimeline.com/south-asia/early-harappan/ - Indus Valley Civilization (Mature Harappan) (c. 2600 to 1900 BCE), people or culture, Unknown or undeciphered, capital Mohenjo-daro, Harappa (largest cities). 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. https://entireworldhistorytimeline.com/south-asia/mature-harappan/ - Late Harappan phase (c. 1900 to 1300 BCE), people or culture, Unknown or undeciphered. 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. https://entireworldhistorytimeline.com/south-asia/late-harappan/ - Rigvedic tribes (c. 1500 to 1100 BCE), people or culture, Indo-Aryan. 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. https://entireworldhistorytimeline.com/south-asia/rigvedic-tribes/ - Indo-Aryan clans of the Punjab (c. 1100 to 320 BCE), people or culture, Indo-Aryan. 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. https://entireworldhistorytimeline.com/south-asia/punjab-clans/ - Gandhara (c. 600 to 518 BCE), state, Indo-Aryan, capital Taxila, Pushkalavati. 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. https://entireworldhistorytimeline.com/south-asia/gandhara/ - Indo-Greek Kingdom (c. 200 BCE to 10 CE), state, Greek, capital Taxila, Sagala (Sialkot). 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. https://entireworldhistorytimeline.com/south-asia/indo-greek/ - Kuninda Kingdom (c. 200 BCE to 300 CE), state, Indo-Aryan. 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. https://entireworldhistorytimeline.com/south-asia/kuninda/ - Indo-Scythians (c. 90 BCE to 30 CE), state, Iranian, capital Taxila. 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. https://entireworldhistorytimeline.com/south-asia/indo-scythians/ - Indo-Parthian Kingdom (c. 19 to 226 CE), state, Iranian, capital Taxila, later Kandahar. 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. https://entireworldhistorytimeline.com/south-asia/indo-parthians/ - Alchon Huns (c. 370 to 560 CE), state, Unknown or undeciphered, capital Sakala (Sialkot). 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. https://entireworldhistorytimeline.com/south-asia/alchon-huns/ - Karkota dynasty (c. 625 to 855 CE), state, Indo-Aryan, capital Srinagar, Parihasapura. 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. https://entireworldhistorytimeline.com/south-asia/karkota/ - Brahman dynasty of Sindh (c. 632 to 712 CE), state, Indo-Aryan, capital Aror. 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. https://entireworldhistorytimeline.com/south-asia/brahman-dynasty/ - Arab Sindh (c. 712 to 1025 CE), state, Arabic, capital Mansura, Multan. 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. https://entireworldhistorytimeline.com/south-asia/arab-sindh/ - Utpala dynasty (c. 855 to 939 CE), state, Indo-Aryan, capital Avantipura, Srinagar. 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. https://entireworldhistorytimeline.com/south-asia/utpala/ - Lohara dynasty (c. 1003 to 1320 CE), state, Indo-Aryan, capital Srinagar. 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. https://entireworldhistorytimeline.com/south-asia/lohara/ - Soomra dynasty (c. 1026 to 1351 CE), state, Indo-Aryan. A local Sindhi dynasty that ruled lower Sindh under loose Ghaznavid and then Delhi overlordship. The Samma tribe overthrew it in the 1350s. https://entireworldhistorytimeline.com/south-asia/soomra/ - Shah Mir Sultanate of Kashmir (1339 to 1561 CE), state, Indo-Aryan, capital Srinagar. 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. https://entireworldhistorytimeline.com/south-asia/shah-mir/ - Samma dynasty (1351 to 1524 CE), state, Indo-Aryan, capital Thatta. 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. https://entireworldhistorytimeline.com/south-asia/samma/ - Arghun and Tarkhan dynasties (1520 to 1591 CE), state, Turkic, capital Thatta. 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. https://entireworldhistorytimeline.com/south-asia/arghun-tarkhan/ - Kalhora dynasty (1701 to 1783 CE), state, Indo-Aryan, capital Khudabad, later Hyderabad. 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. https://entireworldhistorytimeline.com/south-asia/kalhora/ - Sikh Misls (c. 1716 to 1799 CE), state, Indo-Aryan. 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. https://entireworldhistorytimeline.com/south-asia/sikh-misls/ - Talpur dynasty (1783 to 1843 CE), state, Iranian, capital Hyderabad, Khairpur, Mirpur. 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. https://entireworldhistorytimeline.com/south-asia/talpur/ - Sikh Empire (1799 to 1849 CE), empire, Indo-Aryan, capital Lahore. 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. https://entireworldhistorytimeline.com/south-asia/sikh-empire/ - Jammu and Kashmir princely state (1846 to 1947 CE), state, Indo-Aryan, capital Srinagar, Jammu. 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. https://entireworldhistorytimeline.com/south-asia/jammu-kashmir/ - Pakistan (1947 CE to the present), state, Indo-Aryan, capital Karachi, later Islamabad. 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. https://entireworldhistorytimeline.com/south-asia/pakistan/ ### Rajasthan, Gujarat and Malwa - Microlithic hunter-gatherers (c. 3200 to 1000 BCE), people or culture, Unknown or undeciphered. 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. https://entireworldhistorytimeline.com/south-asia/microlithic-west/ - Ahar-Banas culture (c. 3000 to 1500 BCE), people or culture, Unknown or undeciphered. 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. https://entireworldhistorytimeline.com/south-asia/ahar-banas/ - Harappan Gujarat (c. 2600 to 1900 BCE), people or culture, Unknown or undeciphered. 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. https://entireworldhistorytimeline.com/south-asia/harappan-gujarat/ - Malwa culture (c. 1700 to 1300 BCE), people or culture, Unknown or undeciphered. 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. https://entireworldhistorytimeline.com/south-asia/malwa-culture/ - Iron Age villages of western India (c. 1200 to 200 BCE), people or culture, Unknown or undeciphered. 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. https://entireworldhistorytimeline.com/south-asia/iron-age-west/ - Avanti (c. 600 to 350 BCE), state, Indo-Aryan, capital Ujjayini, Mahishmati. 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. https://entireworldhistorytimeline.com/south-asia/avanti/ - Malava Republic (c. 150 BCE to 350 CE), state, Indo-Aryan, capital Malavanagara (Nagar). 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. https://entireworldhistorytimeline.com/south-asia/malava/ - Western Satraps (c. 35 to 415 CE), state, Iranian, capital Ujjain, Minnagara. 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. https://entireworldhistorytimeline.com/south-asia/western-satraps/ - Maitraka dynasty (c. 475 to 776 CE), state, Indo-Aryan, capital Valabhi. 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. https://entireworldhistorytimeline.com/south-asia/maitraka/ - Chahamanas of Shakambhari (c. 650 to 1194 CE), state, Indo-Aryan, capital Shakambhari, later Ajmer. 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. https://entireworldhistorytimeline.com/south-asia/chahamana/ - Kingdom of Mewar (c. 728 to 1949 CE), state, Indo-Aryan, capital Chittorgarh, later Udaipur. 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. https://entireworldhistorytimeline.com/south-asia/mewar/ - Paramara dynasty (c. 800 to 1305 CE), state, Indo-Aryan, capital Dhara, Ujjain. 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. https://entireworldhistorytimeline.com/south-asia/paramara/ - Chaulukya dynasty (c. 940 to 1244 CE), state, Indo-Aryan, capital Anahilapataka (Patan). 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. https://entireworldhistorytimeline.com/south-asia/chaulukya/ - Kingdom of Marwar (c. 1226 to 1949 CE), state, Indo-Aryan, capital Mandore, later Jodhpur. 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. https://entireworldhistorytimeline.com/south-asia/marwar/ - Malwa Sultanate (1392 to 1562 CE), state, Iranian, capital Dhar, later Mandu. 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. https://entireworldhistorytimeline.com/south-asia/malwa-sultanate/ - Gujarat Sultanate (1407 to 1573 CE), state, Indo-Aryan, capital Patan, later Ahmedabad. 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. https://entireworldhistorytimeline.com/south-asia/gujarat-sultanate/ - Baroda State (1721 to 1949 CE), state, Indo-Aryan, capital Vadodara. 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. https://entireworldhistorytimeline.com/south-asia/baroda/ - Jaipur State (1727 to 1949 CE), state, Indo-Aryan, capital Jaipur. 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. https://entireworldhistorytimeline.com/south-asia/jaipur/ - Gwalior State (1731 to 1948 CE), state, Indo-Aryan, capital Ujjain, later Lashkar (Gwalior). 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. https://entireworldhistorytimeline.com/south-asia/gwalior/ - Rajasthan (1949 CE to the present), state, Indo-Aryan, capital Jaipur. 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. https://entireworldhistorytimeline.com/south-asia/rajasthan/ - Gujarat (1960 CE to the present), state, Indo-Aryan, capital Gandhinagar. 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. https://entireworldhistorytimeline.com/south-asia/gujarat-state/ ### Gangetic plain and Nepal - Neolithic and Chalcolithic farmers of the Ganges (c. 3200 to 1000 BCE), people or culture, Unknown or undeciphered. 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. https://entireworldhistorytimeline.com/south-asia/ganges-neolithic/ - Ochre Coloured Pottery culture (c. 2000 to 1500 BCE), people or culture, Unknown or undeciphered. 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. https://entireworldhistorytimeline.com/south-asia/ocp/ - Painted Grey Ware culture (c. 1200 to 600 BCE), people or culture, Indo-Aryan. 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. https://entireworldhistorytimeline.com/south-asia/pgw/ - Kuru Kingdom (c. 1200 to 500 BCE), state, Indo-Aryan, capital Asandivat, later Hastinapura. 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. https://entireworldhistorytimeline.com/south-asia/kuru/ - Panchala (c. 1100 to 350 BCE), state, Indo-Aryan, capital Ahichchhatra, Kampilya. 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. https://entireworldhistorytimeline.com/south-asia/panchala/ - Northern Black Polished Ware culture (c. 700 to 200 BCE), people or culture, Indo-Aryan. 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. https://entireworldhistorytimeline.com/south-asia/nbpw/ - Kosala (c. 700 to 475 BCE), state, Indo-Aryan, capital Shravasti, Saketa (Ayodhya). 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. https://entireworldhistorytimeline.com/south-asia/kosala/ - Vajji confederacy (c. 700 to 468 BCE), state, Indo-Aryan, capital Vaishali. 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. https://entireworldhistorytimeline.com/south-asia/vajji/ - Shakya republic (c. 650 to 480 BCE), state, Indo-Aryan, capital Kapilavastu. 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. https://entireworldhistorytimeline.com/south-asia/shakya/ - Magadha (Haryanka dynasty) (c. 544 to 413 BCE), state, Indo-Aryan, capital Rajagriha, later Pataliputra. 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. https://entireworldhistorytimeline.com/south-asia/magadha-haryanka/ - Shishunaga dynasty (c. 413 to 345 BCE), state, Indo-Aryan, capital Rajagriha, Vaishali, Pataliputra. 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. https://entireworldhistorytimeline.com/south-asia/shishunaga/ - Nanda Empire (c. 345 to 322 BCE), empire, Indo-Aryan, capital Pataliputra. 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. https://entireworldhistorytimeline.com/south-asia/nanda/ - Maurya Empire (322 to 185 BCE), empire, Indo-Aryan, capital Pataliputra. 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. https://entireworldhistorytimeline.com/south-asia/maurya/ - Yaudheya confederacy (c. 200 BCE to 350 CE), state, Indo-Aryan, capital Rohitaka (Rohtak). 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. https://entireworldhistorytimeline.com/south-asia/yaudheya/ - Shunga Empire (185 to 73 BCE), state, Indo-Aryan, capital Pataliputra, Vidisha. 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. https://entireworldhistorytimeline.com/south-asia/shunga/ - Kanva dynasty (73 to 28 BCE), state, Indo-Aryan, capital Pataliputra. Four Brahmin kings who ruled a shrunken Magadha after the Shungas. The Puranas say the Satavahanas of the Deccan overthrew the last of them. https://entireworldhistorytimeline.com/south-asia/kanva/ - Gupta Empire (c. 320 to 550 CE), empire, Indo-Aryan, capital Pataliputra, Ujjain. 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. https://entireworldhistorytimeline.com/south-asia/gupta/ - Licchavi dynasty of Nepal (c. 400 to 750 CE), state, Indo-Aryan, capital Kathmandu valley. 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. https://entireworldhistorytimeline.com/south-asia/licchavi-nepal/ - Maukhari dynasty (c. 550 to 606 CE), state, Indo-Aryan, capital Kannauj. 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. https://entireworldhistorytimeline.com/south-asia/maukhari/ - Empire of Harsha (606 to 647 CE), empire, Indo-Aryan, capital Kannauj. 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. https://entireworldhistorytimeline.com/south-asia/harsha/ - Gurjara-Pratihara dynasty (c. 730 to 1036 CE), empire, Indo-Aryan, capital Ujjain, later Kannauj. 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. https://entireworldhistorytimeline.com/south-asia/pratihara/ - Thakuri dynasty (c. 750 to 1200 CE), state, Indo-Aryan, capital Kathmandu valley. A thinly documented line of kings in the Kathmandu valley after the Licchavis. The Nepal Sambat calendar began under their rule in 879. https://entireworldhistorytimeline.com/south-asia/thakuri/ - Chandela dynasty (c. 831 to 1315 CE), state, Indo-Aryan, capital Khajuraho, Mahoba, Kalinjar. 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. https://entireworldhistorytimeline.com/south-asia/chandela/ - Gahadavala dynasty (c. 1089 to 1194 CE), state, Indo-Aryan, capital Kannauj, Varanasi. Kings of Kannauj and Varanasi. Govindachandra endowed temples and scholars at Varanasi, and Jayachandra died fighting Muhammad of Ghor at Chandawar in 1194. https://entireworldhistorytimeline.com/south-asia/gahadavala/ - Malla dynasty of Nepal (1201 to 1769 CE), state, Tibeto-Burman, capital Bhaktapur, later Kathmandu and Patan. 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. https://entireworldhistorytimeline.com/south-asia/malla-nepal/ - Delhi Sultanate (1206 to 1526 CE), empire, Turkic, capital Delhi, briefly Daulatabad. 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. https://entireworldhistorytimeline.com/south-asia/delhi-sultanate/ - Mamluk dynasty of Delhi (1206 to 1290 CE), state, Turkic, capital Delhi. 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. https://entireworldhistorytimeline.com/south-asia/mamluk-delhi/ - Khalji dynasty (1290 to 1320 CE), state, Turkic, capital Delhi. 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. https://entireworldhistorytimeline.com/south-asia/khalji-delhi/ - Tughlaq dynasty (1320 to 1414 CE), state, Turkic, capital Delhi, briefly Daulatabad. 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. https://entireworldhistorytimeline.com/south-asia/tughlaq/ - Sayyid dynasty (1414 to 1451 CE), state, Arabic, capital Delhi. 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. https://entireworldhistorytimeline.com/south-asia/sayyid/ - Lodi dynasty (1451 to 1526 CE), state, Iranian, capital Delhi, Agra. 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. https://entireworldhistorytimeline.com/south-asia/lodi/ - Mughal Empire (1526 to 1857 CE), empire, Turkic, capital Agra, Fatehpur Sikri, Lahore, Delhi. 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. https://entireworldhistorytimeline.com/south-asia/mughal/ - Sur Empire (1540 to 1556 CE), empire, Iranian, capital Delhi. 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. https://entireworldhistorytimeline.com/south-asia/sur/ - Awadh (1722 to 1856 CE), state, Iranian, capital Faizabad, later Lucknow. 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. https://entireworldhistorytimeline.com/south-asia/awadh/ - Kingdom of Nepal (1768 to 2008 CE), state, Indo-Aryan, capital Kathmandu. 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. https://entireworldhistorytimeline.com/south-asia/kingdom-nepal/ - Rana regime (1846 to 1951 CE), state, Indo-Aryan, capital Kathmandu. 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. https://entireworldhistorytimeline.com/south-asia/rana/ - British Raj (1858 to 1947 CE), colony, Germanic, capital Calcutta, New Delhi from 1911. 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. https://entireworldhistorytimeline.com/south-asia/british-raj/ - Republic of India (1947 CE to the present), state, Indo-Aryan, capital New Delhi. 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. https://entireworldhistorytimeline.com/south-asia/india/ - Federal Democratic Republic of Nepal (2008 CE to the present), state, Indo-Aryan, capital Kathmandu. 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. https://entireworldhistorytimeline.com/south-asia/nepal-republic/ ### Bengal, Odisha and the northeast - Neolithic farmers of Bengal and Assam (c. 3200 to 1500 BCE), people or culture, Unknown or undeciphered. 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. https://entireworldhistorytimeline.com/south-asia/bengal-neolithic/ - Pandu Rajar Dhibi culture (c. 1600 to 750 BCE), people or culture, Unknown or undeciphered. 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. https://entireworldhistorytimeline.com/south-asia/pandu-rajar-dhibi/ - Munda-speaking peoples (c. 1500 BCE to the present), people or culture, Austroasiatic. 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. https://entireworldhistorytimeline.com/south-asia/munda-peoples/ - Tibeto-Burman hill peoples (c. 1000 BCE to the present), people or culture, Tibeto-Burman. 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. https://entireworldhistorytimeline.com/south-asia/hill-peoples/ - Kamarupa (c. 350 to 1140 CE), state, Indo-Aryan, capital Pragjyotishpura, later Haruppeshvara and Durjaya. 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. https://entireworldhistorytimeline.com/south-asia/kamarupa/ - Gauda Kingdom (c. 590 to 625 CE), state, Indo-Aryan, capital Karnasuvarna. 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. https://entireworldhistorytimeline.com/south-asia/gauda/ - Pala Empire (c. 750 to 1161 CE), empire, Indo-Aryan, capital Pataliputra, Gauda, Monghyr. 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. https://entireworldhistorytimeline.com/south-asia/pala/ - Sena dynasty (c. 1070 to 1230 CE), state, Indo-Aryan, capital Nabadwip, Lakhnauti. 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. https://entireworldhistorytimeline.com/south-asia/sena/ - Eastern Ganga dynasty (c. 1078 to 1434 CE), state, Indo-Aryan, capital Kalinganagara, later Cuttack. 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. https://entireworldhistorytimeline.com/south-asia/eastern-ganga/ - Kingdom of Manipur (c. 1110 to 1949 CE), state, Tibeto-Burman, capital Kangla (Imphal). 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. https://entireworldhistorytimeline.com/south-asia/manipur/ - Ahom Kingdom (1228 to 1826 CE), state, Kra-Dai, capital Charaideo, later Garhgaon and Rangpur. 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. https://entireworldhistorytimeline.com/south-asia/ahom/ - Dimasa Kachari Kingdom (c. 1250 to 1832 CE), state, Tibeto-Burman, capital Dimapur, Maibang, Khaspur. 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. https://entireworldhistorytimeline.com/south-asia/kachari/ - Bengal Sultanate (1352 to 1576 CE), state, Iranian, capital Pandua, Gaur, Tanda. 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. https://entireworldhistorytimeline.com/south-asia/bengal-sultanate/ - Twipra Kingdom (c. 1400 to 1949 CE), state, Tibeto-Burman, capital Udaipur, later Agartala. 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. https://entireworldhistorytimeline.com/south-asia/twipra/ - Bhutan under the Zhabdrung (1616 to 1907 CE), state, Tibeto-Burman, capital Punakha. 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. https://entireworldhistorytimeline.com/south-asia/bhutan-zhabdrung/ - Kingdom of Sikkim (1642 to 1975 CE), state, Tibeto-Burman, capital Yuksom, later Gangtok. 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. https://entireworldhistorytimeline.com/south-asia/sikkim/ - Nawabs of Bengal (1717 to 1765 CE), state, Iranian, capital Murshidabad. 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. https://entireworldhistorytimeline.com/south-asia/nawabs-bengal/ - Company rule in India (1757 to 1858 CE), colony, Germanic, capital Calcutta. 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. https://entireworldhistorytimeline.com/south-asia/company-rule/ - British Assam (1826 to 1947 CE), colony, Germanic, capital Shillong. 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. https://entireworldhistorytimeline.com/south-asia/british-assam/ - Kingdom of Bhutan (1907 CE to the present), state, Tibeto-Burman, capital Punakha, later Thimphu. 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. https://entireworldhistorytimeline.com/south-asia/bhutan/ - East Pakistan (1947 to 1971 CE), state, Indo-Aryan, capital Dhaka. 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. https://entireworldhistorytimeline.com/south-asia/east-pakistan/ - Bangladesh (1971 CE to the present), state, Indo-Aryan, capital Dhaka. 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. https://entireworldhistorytimeline.com/south-asia/bangladesh/ ### Deccan - Deccan hunter-gatherers (c. 3200 to 1500 BCE), people or culture, Unknown or undeciphered. 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. https://entireworldhistorytimeline.com/south-asia/deccan-foragers/ - Southern Neolithic (c. 3000 to 1200 BCE), people or culture, Dravidian. 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. https://entireworldhistorytimeline.com/south-asia/southern-neolithic/ - Jorwe culture (c. 1400 to 700 BCE), people or culture, Unknown or undeciphered. 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. https://entireworldhistorytimeline.com/south-asia/jorwe/ - Megalithic culture of the Deccan (c. 1200 to 100 BCE), people or culture, Dravidian. 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. https://entireworldhistorytimeline.com/south-asia/deccan-megalithic/ - Satavahana dynasty (c. 100 BCE to 220 CE), empire, Indo-Aryan, capital Pratishthana (Paithan), Amaravati. 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. https://entireworldhistorytimeline.com/south-asia/satavahana/ - Vakataka dynasty (c. 250 to 500 CE), state, Indo-Aryan, capital Nandivardhana, Vatsagulma. 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. https://entireworldhistorytimeline.com/south-asia/vakataka/ - Kadamba dynasty (c. 345 to 540 CE), state, Dravidian, capital Banavasi. 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. https://entireworldhistorytimeline.com/south-asia/kadamba/ - Western Ganga dynasty (c. 350 to 1000 CE), state, Dravidian, capital Kolar, later Talakad. 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. https://entireworldhistorytimeline.com/south-asia/western-ganga/ - Chalukyas of Badami (543 to 753 CE), empire, Dravidian, capital Vatapi (Badami). 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. https://entireworldhistorytimeline.com/south-asia/badami-chalukya/ - Eastern Chalukyas (c. 624 to 1070 CE), state, Dravidian, capital Vengi, later Rajahmundry. 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. https://entireworldhistorytimeline.com/south-asia/eastern-chalukya/ - Rashtrakuta dynasty (753 to 982 CE), empire, Dravidian, capital Manyakheta. 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. https://entireworldhistorytimeline.com/south-asia/rashtrakuta/ - Western Chalukyas (973 to 1189 CE), empire, Dravidian, capital Kalyani. 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. https://entireworldhistorytimeline.com/south-asia/western-chalukya/ - Hoysala Empire (c. 1026 to 1343 CE), state, Dravidian, capital Belur, later Halebidu. 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. https://entireworldhistorytimeline.com/south-asia/hoysala/ - Kakatiya dynasty (1163 to 1323 CE), state, Dravidian, capital Warangal. 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. https://entireworldhistorytimeline.com/south-asia/kakatiya/ - Seuna Yadava dynasty (1187 to 1317 CE), state, Indo-Aryan, capital Devagiri. 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. https://entireworldhistorytimeline.com/south-asia/yadava/ - Vijayanagara Empire (1336 to 1646 CE), empire, Dravidian, capital Vijayanagara (Hampi), later Penukonda and Chandragiri. 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. https://entireworldhistorytimeline.com/south-asia/vijayanagara/ - Bahmani Sultanate (1347 to 1527 CE), state, Iranian, capital Gulbarga, later Bidar. 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. https://entireworldhistorytimeline.com/south-asia/bahmani/ - Kingdom of Mysore (c. 1399 to 1950 CE), state, Dravidian, capital Mysore, Srirangapatna. 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. https://entireworldhistorytimeline.com/south-asia/mysore/ - Bijapur Sultanate (1490 to 1686 CE), state, Turkic, capital Bijapur. 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. https://entireworldhistorytimeline.com/south-asia/bijapur/ - Ahmadnagar Sultanate (1490 to 1636 CE), state, Indo-Aryan, capital Ahmadnagar. 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. https://entireworldhistorytimeline.com/south-asia/ahmadnagar/ - Portuguese Goa (1510 to 1961 CE), colony, Latin and Romance, capital Velha Goa, later Panaji. 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. https://entireworldhistorytimeline.com/south-asia/portuguese-goa/ - Golconda Sultanate (1518 to 1687 CE), state, Turkic, capital Golconda, later Hyderabad. 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. https://entireworldhistorytimeline.com/south-asia/golconda/ - Maratha Confederacy (1674 to 1818 CE), empire, Indo-Aryan, capital Raigad, later Satara and Pune. 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. https://entireworldhistorytimeline.com/south-asia/maratha/ - Hyderabad State (1724 to 1948 CE), state, Turkic, capital Aurangabad, later Hyderabad. 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. https://entireworldhistorytimeline.com/south-asia/hyderabad/ - Andhra Pradesh (1953 CE to the present), state, Dravidian, capital Kurnool, then Hyderabad, later Amaravati. 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. https://entireworldhistorytimeline.com/south-asia/andhra-pradesh/ - Karnataka (1956 CE to the present), state, Dravidian, capital Bengaluru. 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. https://entireworldhistorytimeline.com/south-asia/karnataka/ - Maharashtra (1960 CE to the present), state, Indo-Aryan, capital Mumbai. 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. https://entireworldhistorytimeline.com/south-asia/maharashtra/ ### Tamil south and Sri Lanka - Balangoda culture (c. 3200 to 900 BCE), people or culture, Unknown or undeciphered. 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. https://entireworldhistorytimeline.com/south-asia/balangoda/ - Early Dravidian-speaking peoples (c. 3200 to 1000 BCE), people or culture, Dravidian. Foragers, herders and early farmers of the far south who probably spoke ancestral Dravidian languages, the root of Tamil, Malayalam, Kannada and Telugu. https://entireworldhistorytimeline.com/south-asia/early-dravidian/ - Tamil Iron Age (c. 1000 to 300 BCE), people or culture, Dravidian. 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. https://entireworldhistorytimeline.com/south-asia/tamil-iron-age/ - Vedda people (c. 900 BCE to the present), people or culture, Unknown or undeciphered. 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. https://entireworldhistorytimeline.com/south-asia/vedda/ - Early Iron Age Sri Lanka (c. 900 to 377 BCE), people or culture, Unknown or undeciphered. 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. https://entireworldhistorytimeline.com/south-asia/early-iron-sri-lanka/ - Anuradhapura Kingdom (377 BCE to 1017 CE), state, Indo-Aryan, capital Anuradhapura. 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. https://entireworldhistorytimeline.com/south-asia/anuradhapura/ - Early Cholas (c. 300 BCE to 300 CE), state, Dravidian, capital Uraiyur, Puhar. 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. https://entireworldhistorytimeline.com/south-asia/early-chola/ - Early Pandyas (c. 300 BCE to 250 CE), state, Dravidian, capital Madurai. 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. https://entireworldhistorytimeline.com/south-asia/early-pandya/ - Early Cheras (c. 300 BCE to 300 CE), state, Dravidian, capital Vanchi (Karur), Muziris (port). 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. https://entireworldhistorytimeline.com/south-asia/early-chera/ - Kalabhra dynasty (c. 250 to 575 CE), state, Unknown or undeciphered. 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. https://entireworldhistorytimeline.com/south-asia/kalabhra/ - Pallava dynasty (c. 275 to 897 CE), state, Dravidian, capital Kanchipuram. 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. https://entireworldhistorytimeline.com/south-asia/pallava/ - Pandya dynasty (first empire) (c. 590 to 920 CE), state, Dravidian, capital Madurai. 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. https://entireworldhistorytimeline.com/south-asia/pandya-first/ - Chera Perumals of Makotai (c. 800 to 1124 CE), state, Dravidian, capital Makotai (Kodungallur). 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. https://entireworldhistorytimeline.com/south-asia/chera-perumal/ - Chola Empire (848 to 1279 CE), empire, Dravidian, capital Thanjavur, later Gangaikonda Cholapuram. 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. https://entireworldhistorytimeline.com/south-asia/chola/ - Kingdom of Polonnaruwa (1070 to 1232 CE), state, Indo-Aryan, capital Polonnaruwa. 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. https://entireworldhistorytimeline.com/south-asia/polonnaruwa/ - Zamorins of Calicut (c. 1124 to 1766 CE), state, Dravidian, capital Kozhikode. 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. https://entireworldhistorytimeline.com/south-asia/calicut/ - Jaffna Kingdom (c. 1215 to 1619 CE), state, Dravidian, capital Nallur. 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. https://entireworldhistorytimeline.com/south-asia/jaffna/ - Pandya dynasty (second empire) (c. 1216 to 1345 CE), state, Dravidian, capital Madurai. 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. https://entireworldhistorytimeline.com/south-asia/pandya-second/ - Dambadeniya kingdom (c. 1220 to 1345 CE), state, Indo-Aryan, capital Dambadeniya, Yapahuwa, Kurunegala. 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. https://entireworldhistorytimeline.com/south-asia/dambadeniya/ - Madurai Sultanate (1335 to 1378 CE), state, Arabic, capital Madurai. 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. https://entireworldhistorytimeline.com/south-asia/madurai-sultanate/ - Kingdom of Kotte (1412 to 1597 CE), state, Indo-Aryan, capital Sri Jayawardenepura Kotte. 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. https://entireworldhistorytimeline.com/south-asia/kotte/ - Kingdom of Kandy (1469 to 1815 CE), state, Indo-Aryan, capital Senkadagala (Kandy). 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. https://entireworldhistorytimeline.com/south-asia/kandy/ - Portuguese Ceylon (1505 to 1658 CE), colony, Latin and Romance, capital Colombo. 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. https://entireworldhistorytimeline.com/south-asia/portuguese-ceylon/ - Madurai Nayaks (1529 to 1736 CE), state, Dravidian, capital Madurai, later Tiruchirappalli. 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. https://entireworldhistorytimeline.com/south-asia/madurai-nayak/ - Dutch Ceylon (1640 to 1796 CE), colony, Germanic, capital Colombo. 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. https://entireworldhistorytimeline.com/south-asia/dutch-ceylon/ - French India (1674 to 1954 CE), colony, Latin and Romance, capital Pondicherry. 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. https://entireworldhistorytimeline.com/south-asia/french-india/ - Travancore (1729 to 1949 CE), state, Dravidian, capital Padmanabhapuram, later Thiruvananthapuram. 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. https://entireworldhistorytimeline.com/south-asia/travancore/ - British Ceylon (1796 to 1948 CE), colony, Germanic, capital Colombo. 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. https://entireworldhistorytimeline.com/south-asia/british-ceylon/ - Sri Lanka (1948 CE to the present), state, Indo-Aryan, capital Colombo, Sri Jayawardenepura Kotte. 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. https://entireworldhistorytimeline.com/south-asia/sri-lanka/ - Tamil Nadu (1950 CE to the present), state, Dravidian, capital Chennai. Madras State, renamed Tamil Nadu in 1969. Dravidian parties have governed it since 1967, after mass protests against making Hindi the sole official language. https://entireworldhistorytimeline.com/south-asia/tamil-nadu/ ### Events in South Asia - 2600 BCE: Indus cities reach their height. Mohenjo-daro and Harappa grow into planned cities of tens of thousands, with brick drains, granaries and standard weights shared across a huge area. - 1900 BCE: Indus cities decline. As rivers shift and rainfall drops, the large Indus cities empty out, the script disappears and people move east toward the Ganges plain. - 1500 BCE: Rigveda hymns composed. 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. - 1000 BCE: Iron spreads across the Ganges plain. Iron tools let farmers clear the forests of the middle Ganges, opening the way for the towns and kingdoms of the later Vedic age. - 483 BCE: Death of the Buddha. 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. - 326 BCE: Alexander at the Hydaspes. Alexander defeats King Porus on the Jhelum, but his exhausted army mutinies at the Beas and he turns back down the Indus. - 261 BCE: Ashoka's Kalinga war. 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. - 247 BCE: Buddhism reaches Sri Lanka. Mahinda, said to be Ashoka's son, converts King Devanampiya Tissa, and the Mahavihara monastery at Anuradhapura becomes the center of Theravada Buddhism. - 127: Kanishka becomes Kushan emperor. 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. - 499: Aryabhata writes the Aryabhatiya. The astronomer Aryabhata uses place-value numbers, gives pi as 3.1416 and argues that the earth spins on its axis. - 628: Brahmagupta's rules for zero. Working at Bhinmal in Rajasthan, Brahmagupta writes the first known rules for calculating with zero and negative numbers. - 712: Arab conquest of Sindh. The Umayyad general Muhammad bin Qasim defeats Raja Dahir and brings Sindh and Multan into the caliphate. - 1025: Mahmud of Ghazni sacks Somnath. Mahmud's army plunders the temple of Somnath on the Gujarat coast, the most famous of his seventeen raids into India. - 1025: Chola fleet raids Srivijaya. 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. - 1192: Second Battle of Tarain. Muhammad of Ghor defeats Prithviraj Chauhan north of Delhi, opening the Ganges plain to the rule of Turkic and Afghan sultans. - 1193: Nalanda sacked. Troops of Bakhtiyar Khalji destroy the Buddhist monastic university of Nalanda in Bihar around this time, and Buddhism fades from its Indian homeland. - 1398: Timur sacks Delhi. Timur defeats the Tughlaq sultan and massacres much of Delhi's population, leaving the sultanate broken into regional kingdoms. - 1498: Vasco da Gama reaches Calicut. The Portuguese fleet lands on the Malabar coast after sailing around Africa, opening a direct sea route from Europe to India. - 1526: First Battle of Panipat. Babur's smaller army, using field guns and cavalry flanking, defeats Ibrahim Lodi and founds the Mughal Empire. - 1565: Battle of Talikota. An alliance of Deccan sultanates crushes the army of Vijayanagara, and the victors spend months looting the capital at Hampi. - 1632: Taj Mahal begun. Shah Jahan starts building a white marble tomb at Agra for his wife Mumtaz Mahal, finished about twenty years later. - 1739: Nader Shah sacks Delhi. The Persian ruler routs the Mughal army at Karnal and carries off the Peacock Throne and the Koh-i-Noor diamond. - 1757: Battle of Plassey. Robert Clive's East India Company troops defeat the Nawab of Bengal after bribing his commander, starting British territorial rule in India. - 1761: Third Battle of Panipat. Ahmad Shah Durrani destroys the Maratha army north of Delhi in one of the largest battles of the 18th century. - 1857: Indian Rebellion. 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. - 1919: Jallianwala Bagh massacre. British troops under General Dyer fire on an unarmed crowd at Amritsar, killing hundreds and turning many moderates toward the independence movement. - 1930: Gandhi's Salt March. 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. - 1947: Independence and partition. 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. - 1971: Bangladesh Liberation War. After a brutal Pakistani army crackdown in East Pakistan, Bengali guerrillas and the Indian army win independence for Bangladesh in December. - 1979: Soviet intervention in Afghanistan. Soviet troops enter Afghanistan to prop up the communist government, starting a nine-year war that drove millions of refugees into Pakistan and Iran. - 1998: India and Pakistan test nuclear weapons. India's tests at Pokhran in May are answered within weeks by Pakistan's tests in the Chagai hills. - 2004: Indian Ocean tsunami. A tsunami from a Sumatran earthquake kills over 35,000 people in Sri Lanka and more than 10,000 in India on 26 December. - 2021: Taliban retake Kabul. As US forces withdraw, the Afghan republic collapses within weeks and the Taliban enter Kabul on 15 August. ## Central and North Asia ### Western Siberia and the Altai - Uralic hunter-fishers of western Siberia (c. 3200 BCE to 1000 CE), people or culture, Uralic. 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. https://entireworldhistorytimeline.com/central-asia/uralic-hunter-fishers/ - Afanasievo culture (c. 3200 to 2500 BCE), people or culture, Other Indo-European. 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. https://entireworldhistorytimeline.com/central-asia/afanasievo/ - Okunev culture (c. 2500 to 1800 BCE), people or culture, Unknown or undeciphered. Bronze Age herders and hunters of the Minusinsk basin on the upper Yenisei, known for carved stone stelae with masked faces and solar symbols. https://entireworldhistorytimeline.com/central-asia/okunev/ - Karasuk culture (c. 1500 to 800 BCE), people or culture, Unknown or undeciphered. 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. https://entireworldhistorytimeline.com/central-asia/karasuk/ - Tagar culture (c. 800 to 200 BCE), people or culture, Iranian. Scythian-type herders of the Minusinsk basin who built thousands of kurgans with stone walls and cast bronze daggers and animal-style ornaments. https://entireworldhistorytimeline.com/central-asia/tagar/ - Pazyryk culture (c. 600 to 250 BCE), people or culture, Iranian. 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. https://entireworldhistorytimeline.com/central-asia/pazyryk/ - Tashtyk culture (c. 100 BCE to 450 CE), people or culture, Unknown or undeciphered. Successors of the Tagar people in the Minusinsk basin, best known for plaster death masks laid over cremated remains in their tombs. https://entireworldhistorytimeline.com/central-asia/tashtyk/ - Yenisei Kyrgyz (c. 550 to 1207 CE), state, Turkic. 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. https://entireworldhistorytimeline.com/central-asia/yenisei-kyrgyz/ - Khanty, Mansi and Samoyedic peoples (c. 1000 CE to the present), people or culture, Uralic. 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. https://entireworldhistorytimeline.com/central-asia/khanty-mansi-nenets/ - Khanate of Sibir (c. 1468 to 1598 CE), state, Turkic, capital Qashliq (Isker). 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. https://entireworldhistorytimeline.com/central-asia/sibir/ - Russian Siberia (1582 to 1917 CE), colony, Slavic, capital Tobolsk, later Omsk and Irkutsk. 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. https://entireworldhistorytimeline.com/central-asia/russian-siberia/ - Russian State (Kolchak) (1918 to 1920 CE), state, Slavic, capital Omsk. 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. https://entireworldhistorytimeline.com/central-asia/kolchak-state/ - Soviet Union (1922 to 1991 CE), state, Slavic, capital Moscow. 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. https://entireworldhistorytimeline.com/central-asia/soviet-union/ - Russian Federation (1991 CE to the present), state, Slavic, capital Moscow. The successor of the Soviet Union, which still holds all of Siberia. Oil and gas from western Siberia fund most of its budget. https://entireworldhistorytimeline.com/central-asia/russian-federation/ ### Kazakh steppe and Semirechye - Botai culture (c. 3200 to 3100 BCE), people or culture, Unknown or undeciphered. 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. https://entireworldhistorytimeline.com/central-asia/botai/ - Yamnaya culture (Ural steppe) (c. 3200 to 2600 BCE), people or culture, Other Indo-European. 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. https://entireworldhistorytimeline.com/central-asia/yamnaya-east/ - Poltavka culture (c. 2700 to 2100 BCE), people or culture, Other Indo-European. Successors of the Yamnaya between the middle Volga and the Ural river, herders who began to mine copper in the southern Urals. https://entireworldhistorytimeline.com/central-asia/poltavka/ - Sintashta culture (c. 2100 to 1800 BCE), people or culture, Iranian. 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. https://entireworldhistorytimeline.com/central-asia/sintashta/ - Andronovo culture (c. 2000 to 900 BCE), people or culture, Iranian. 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. https://entireworldhistorytimeline.com/central-asia/andronovo/ - Saka (c. 800 BCE to 100 CE), people or culture, Iranian. 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. https://entireworldhistorytimeline.com/central-asia/saka/ - Massagetae (c. 600 to 100 BCE), people or culture, Iranian. 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. https://entireworldhistorytimeline.com/central-asia/massagetae/ - Kangju (c. 200 BCE to 450 CE), state, Iranian. 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. https://entireworldhistorytimeline.com/central-asia/kangju/ - Wusun (c. 160 BCE to 450 CE), state, Unknown or undeciphered, capital Chigu (near Issyk-Kul). 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. https://entireworldhistorytimeline.com/central-asia/wusun/ - Oghur and Hunnic tribes (c. 350 to 600 CE), people or culture, Turkic. 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. https://entireworldhistorytimeline.com/central-asia/oghur-tribes/ - Western Turkic Khaganate (603 to 742 CE), empire, Turkic, capital Suyab. 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. https://entireworldhistorytimeline.com/central-asia/western-turkic/ - Turgesh Khaganate (699 to 766 CE), state, Turkic, capital Suyab. 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. https://entireworldhistorytimeline.com/central-asia/turgesh/ - Kimek Khaganate (c. 743 to 1035 CE), state, Turkic, capital Imakiya (on the Irtysh). 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. https://entireworldhistorytimeline.com/central-asia/kimek/ - Oghuz Yabgu State (c. 750 to 1055 CE), state, Turkic, capital Yangikent. 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. https://entireworldhistorytimeline.com/central-asia/oghuz-yabgu/ - Karluk Yabghu (c. 756 to 940 CE), state, Turkic, capital Suyab. 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. https://entireworldhistorytimeline.com/central-asia/karluk/ - Cuman-Kipchak confederation (c. 1050 to 1241 CE), people or culture, Turkic. 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. https://entireworldhistorytimeline.com/central-asia/kipchak/ - Kara-Khitai (1124 to 1218 CE), empire, Mongolic, capital Balasagun. 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. https://entireworldhistorytimeline.com/central-asia/kara-khitai/ - Golden Horde (1242 to 1502 CE), empire, Mongolic, capital Sarai. 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. https://entireworldhistorytimeline.com/central-asia/golden-horde/ - Khanate of Abu'l-Khayr (1428 to 1468 CE), state, Turkic. 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. https://entireworldhistorytimeline.com/central-asia/uzbek-khanate/ - Kazakh Khanate (1465 to 1847 CE), state, Turkic, capital Turkistan. 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. https://entireworldhistorytimeline.com/central-asia/kazakh-khanate/ - Russian Kazakh Steppe (1822 to 1917 CE), colony, Slavic, capital Omsk, Orenburg. 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. https://entireworldhistorytimeline.com/central-asia/russian-steppe/ - Alash Autonomy (1917 to 1920 CE), state, Turkic, capital Semey. 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. https://entireworldhistorytimeline.com/central-asia/alash/ - Kazakh SSR (1920 to 1991 CE), state, Turkic, capital Orenburg, then Kyzylorda, later Almaty. 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. https://entireworldhistorytimeline.com/central-asia/kazakh-ssr/ - Kirghiz SSR (1924 to 1991 CE), state, Turkic, capital Frunze (Bishkek). 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. https://entireworldhistorytimeline.com/central-asia/kyrgyz-ssr/ - Kazakhstan (1991 CE to the present), state, Turkic, capital Almaty, Astana from 1997. 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. https://entireworldhistorytimeline.com/central-asia/kazakhstan/ - Kyrgyzstan (1991 CE to the present), state, Turkic, capital Bishkek. Independent in 1991, a mountainous republic of the Tian Shan where street uprisings overthrew presidents in 2005, 2010 and 2020. https://entireworldhistorytimeline.com/central-asia/kyrgyzstan/ ### Transoxiana and Khwarazm - Namazga culture (c. 3200 to 2000 BCE), people or culture, Unknown or undeciphered. 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. https://entireworldhistorytimeline.com/central-asia/namazga/ - Bactria-Margiana Archaeological Complex (c. 2300 to 1600 BCE), people or culture, Unknown or undeciphered. 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. https://entireworldhistorytimeline.com/central-asia/bmac/ - Yaz culture (c. 1500 to 500 BCE), people or culture, Iranian. 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. https://entireworldhistorytimeline.com/central-asia/yaz/ - Ancient Chorasmia (c. 600 BCE to 305 CE), state, Iranian, capital Kyzyl-kala, Toprak-kala. 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. https://entireworldhistorytimeline.com/central-asia/chorasmia/ - Bactria (Achaemenid satrapy) (c. 545 to 330 BCE), empire, Iranian, capital Bactra (Balkh). 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. https://entireworldhistorytimeline.com/central-asia/bactria/ - Sogdiana (c. 545 BCE to 722 CE), state, Iranian, capital Samarkand, Bukhara, Panjikent. 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. https://entireworldhistorytimeline.com/central-asia/sogdiana/ - Greco-Bactrian Kingdom (c. 256 to 125 BCE), state, Greek, capital Bactra, Ai-Khanoum. 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. https://entireworldhistorytimeline.com/central-asia/greco-bactrian/ - Kushan Empire (c. 30 to 375 CE), empire, Iranian, capital Bactra, later Purushapura. 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. https://entireworldhistorytimeline.com/central-asia/kushan/ - Afrighid dynasty (c. 305 to 995 CE), state, Iranian, capital Kath. 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. https://entireworldhistorytimeline.com/central-asia/afrighid/ - Hephthalite Empire (c. 450 to 560 CE), empire, Unknown or undeciphered. 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. https://entireworldhistorytimeline.com/central-asia/hephthalites/ - Umayyad and Abbasid Transoxiana (705 to 819 CE), empire, Arabic, capital Merv (governors of Khorasan). 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. https://entireworldhistorytimeline.com/central-asia/caliphal-transoxiana/ - Samanid Empire (819 to 999 CE), empire, Iranian, capital Bukhara. 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. https://entireworldhistorytimeline.com/central-asia/samanid/ - Kara-Khanid Khanate (c. 840 to 1212 CE), state, Turkic, capital Balasagun, Kashgar, Samarkand. 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. https://entireworldhistorytimeline.com/central-asia/kara-khanid/ - Seljuk Empire (Khorasan) (1037 to 1157 CE), empire, Turkic, capital Merv, Nishapur. 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. https://entireworldhistorytimeline.com/central-asia/seljuk/ - Khwarazmian Empire (1077 to 1231 CE), empire, Turkic, capital Gurganj, later Samarkand. 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. https://entireworldhistorytimeline.com/central-asia/khwarazmian/ - Turkmen tribes (c. 1100 to 1881 CE), people or culture, Turkic. 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. https://entireworldhistorytimeline.com/central-asia/turkmen-tribes/ - Chagatai Khanate (1225 to 1370 CE), state, Mongolic, capital Almaliq, Qarshi. 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. https://entireworldhistorytimeline.com/central-asia/chagatai/ - Timurid Empire (1370 to 1507 CE), empire, Turkic, capital Samarkand, later Herat. 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. https://entireworldhistorytimeline.com/central-asia/timurid/ - Khanate of Bukhara (1500 to 1785 CE), state, Turkic, capital Bukhara. 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. https://entireworldhistorytimeline.com/central-asia/bukhara-khanate/ - Khanate of Khiva (1511 to 1920 CE), state, Turkic, capital Khiva. 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. https://entireworldhistorytimeline.com/central-asia/khiva/ - Khanate of Kokand (1709 to 1876 CE), state, Turkic, capital Kokand. 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. https://entireworldhistorytimeline.com/central-asia/kokand/ - Emirate of Bukhara (1785 to 1920 CE), state, Turkic, capital Bukhara. 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. https://entireworldhistorytimeline.com/central-asia/bukhara-emirate/ - Russian Turkestan (1867 to 1917 CE), colony, Slavic, capital Tashkent. 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. https://entireworldhistorytimeline.com/central-asia/russian-turkestan/ - Turkestan ASSR (1918 to 1924 CE), state, Slavic, capital Tashkent. 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. https://entireworldhistorytimeline.com/central-asia/turkestan-assr/ - Bukharan People's Soviet Republic (1920 to 1924 CE), state, Turkic, capital Bukhara. A nominally independent republic run by the reformist Young Bukharans after the emir fell. Moscow dissolved it into the new Soviet republics in 1924. https://entireworldhistorytimeline.com/central-asia/bukharan-psr/ - Khorezm People's Soviet Republic (1920 to 1924 CE), state, Turkic, capital Khiva. The Soviet-backed republic that replaced the Khanate of Khiva. Its territory was divided among the Uzbek and Turkmen republics in 1924. https://entireworldhistorytimeline.com/central-asia/khorezm-psr/ - Uzbek SSR (1924 to 1991 CE), state, Turkic, capital Samarkand, later Tashkent. The most populous Soviet republic of Central Asia, turned into a vast cotton plantation whose irrigation drained the Aral Sea. https://entireworldhistorytimeline.com/central-asia/uzbek-ssr/ - Turkmen SSR (1924 to 1991 CE), state, Turkic, capital Ashgabat. 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. https://entireworldhistorytimeline.com/central-asia/turkmen-ssr/ - Tajik SSR (1929 to 1991 CE), state, Iranian, capital Dushanbe. 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. https://entireworldhistorytimeline.com/central-asia/tajik-ssr/ - Uzbekistan (1991 CE to the present), state, Turkic, capital Tashkent. 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. https://entireworldhistorytimeline.com/central-asia/uzbekistan/ - Turkmenistan (1991 CE to the present), state, Turkic, capital Ashgabat. 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. https://entireworldhistorytimeline.com/central-asia/turkmenistan/ - Tajikistan (1991 CE to the present), state, Iranian, capital Dushanbe. 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. https://entireworldhistorytimeline.com/central-asia/tajikistan/ ### Tarim basin and Dzungaria - Foragers of Xinjiang (c. 3200 to 2500 BCE), people or culture, Unknown or undeciphered. Small bands of hunter-gatherers around the oases and mountain valleys of the Tarim and Dzungaria, known from scattered stone tools before herders arrived. https://entireworldhistorytimeline.com/central-asia/tarim-foragers/ - Chemurchek culture (c. 2750 to 1900 BCE), people or culture, Unknown or undeciphered. Herders of Dzungaria, the Altai and western Mongolia who raised rectangular stone enclosures and carved stone figures over their graves. https://entireworldhistorytimeline.com/central-asia/chemurchek/ - Xiaohe culture (c. 2000 to 1300 BCE), people or culture, Unknown or undeciphered. 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. https://entireworldhistorytimeline.com/central-asia/xiaohe/ - Andronovo herders of Dzungaria (c. 1800 to 900 BCE), people or culture, Iranian. 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. https://entireworldhistorytimeline.com/central-asia/andronovo-dzungaria/ - Subeixi culture (c. 1000 to 100 BCE), people or culture, Other Indo-European. 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. https://entireworldhistorytimeline.com/central-asia/subeixi/ - Yuezhi (c. 400 to 130 BCE), people or culture, Unknown or undeciphered. 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. https://entireworldhistorytimeline.com/central-asia/yuezhi/ - Kingdom of Khotan (c. 200 BCE to 1006 CE), state, Iranian, capital Khotan. 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. https://entireworldhistorytimeline.com/central-asia/khotan/ - Jushi kingdom (c. 200 BCE to 450 CE), state, Other Indo-European, capital Jiaohe. 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. https://entireworldhistorytimeline.com/central-asia/jushi/ - Loulan (Shanshan) (c. 176 BCE to 445 CE), state, Other Indo-European, capital Loulan, later Wuni. 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. https://entireworldhistorytimeline.com/central-asia/loulan/ - Kingdom of Kucha (c. 100 BCE to 840 CE), state, Other Indo-European, capital Kucha. 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. https://entireworldhistorytimeline.com/central-asia/kucha/ - Han Protectorate of the Western Regions (c. 60 BCE to 107 CE), empire, Chinese, capital Wulei. 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. https://entireworldhistorytimeline.com/central-asia/han-protectorate/ - Gaochang kingdom (498 to 640 CE), state, Chinese, capital Gaochang. 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. https://entireworldhistorytimeline.com/central-asia/gaochang/ - Tang Protectorate General to Pacify the West (640 to 790 CE), empire, Chinese, capital Jiaohe, later Kucha. 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. https://entireworldhistorytimeline.com/central-asia/tang-anxi/ - Uyghur Kingdom of Qocho (c. 843 to 1335 CE), state, Turkic, capital Qocho (Gaochang), Beshbaliq. 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. https://entireworldhistorytimeline.com/central-asia/qocho/ - Moghulistan (c. 1347 to 1514 CE), state, Mongolic, capital Almaliq, Aksu. 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. https://entireworldhistorytimeline.com/central-asia/moghulistan/ - Yarkent Khanate (1514 to 1705 CE), state, Turkic, capital Yarkand. 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. https://entireworldhistorytimeline.com/central-asia/yarkent/ - Dzungar Khanate (1634 to 1758 CE), empire, Mongolic, capital Ghulja. 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. https://entireworldhistorytimeline.com/central-asia/dzungar/ - Qing Xinjiang (1759 to 1912 CE), empire, Tungusic, capital Ili (Huiyuan), later Urumqi. 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. https://entireworldhistorytimeline.com/central-asia/qing-xinjiang/ - Yettishar (1865 to 1877 CE), state, Turkic, capital Kashgar. 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. https://entireworldhistorytimeline.com/central-asia/yettishar/ - Xinjiang under the Republic of China (1912 to 1949 CE), state, Chinese, capital Urumqi. Ruled by warlord governors such as Yang Zengxin and Sheng Shicai, who were largely independent of Nanjing and for years relied on Soviet support. https://entireworldhistorytimeline.com/central-asia/roc-xinjiang/ - First East Turkestan Republic (1933 to 1934 CE), state, Turkic, capital Kashgar. An Islamic republic declared at Kashgar during a Uyghur and Hui uprising. Hui Muslim troops crushed it within months. https://entireworldhistorytimeline.com/central-asia/etr-first/ - Second East Turkestan Republic (1944 to 1949 CE), state, Turkic, capital Ghulja. 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. https://entireworldhistorytimeline.com/central-asia/etr-second/ - Xinjiang under the People's Republic (1949 CE to the present), state, Chinese, capital Urumqi. 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. https://entireworldhistorytimeline.com/central-asia/prc-xinjiang/ ### Mongolian plateau - Early foragers and herders of Mongolia (c. 3200 to 1400 BCE), people or culture, Unknown or undeciphered. 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. https://entireworldhistorytimeline.com/central-asia/mongolia-early/ - Deer stone and khirigsuur culture (c. 1400 to 700 BCE), people or culture, Unknown or undeciphered. 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. https://entireworldhistorytimeline.com/central-asia/deer-stone/ - Slab grave culture (c. 1100 to 300 BCE), people or culture, Unknown or undeciphered. 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. https://entireworldhistorytimeline.com/central-asia/slab-grave/ - Donghu (c. 700 to 209 BCE), people or culture, Unknown or undeciphered. 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. https://entireworldhistorytimeline.com/central-asia/donghu/ - Xiongnu Empire (c. 209 BCE to 93 CE), empire, Unknown or undeciphered, capital Longcheng (mobile court). 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. https://entireworldhistorytimeline.com/central-asia/xiongnu/ - Xianbei state (c. 93 to 234 CE), state, Mongolic. 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. https://entireworldhistorytimeline.com/central-asia/xianbei/ - Rouran Khaganate (330 to 555 CE), empire, Mongolic. 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. https://entireworldhistorytimeline.com/central-asia/rouran/ - First Turkic Khaganate (552 to 603 CE), empire, Turkic, capital Otuken. 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. https://entireworldhistorytimeline.com/central-asia/first-turkic/ - Eastern Turkic Khaganate (603 to 630 CE), empire, Turkic, capital Otuken. 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. https://entireworldhistorytimeline.com/central-asia/eastern-turkic/ - Xueyantuo (628 to 646 CE), state, Turkic. A Tiele tribal khaganate that dominated Mongolia after the fall of the Eastern Turks, until the Tang and the Uyghurs destroyed it in 646. https://entireworldhistorytimeline.com/central-asia/xueyantuo/ - Second Turkic Khaganate (682 to 744 CE), empire, Turkic, capital Otuken. 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. https://entireworldhistorytimeline.com/central-asia/second-turkic/ - Uyghur Khaganate (744 to 840 CE), empire, Turkic, capital Ordu-Baliq. 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. https://entireworldhistorytimeline.com/central-asia/uyghur-khaganate/ - Kyrgyz Khaganate (c. 840 to 924 CE), state, Turkic. The Yenisei Kyrgyz ruled the Mongolian plateau after destroying the Uyghurs, until the Khitans drove them back to the Yenisei in the 920s. https://entireworldhistorytimeline.com/central-asia/kyrgyz-khaganate/ - Liao dynasty (916 to 1125 CE), empire, Mongolic, capital Shangjing. 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. https://entireworldhistorytimeline.com/central-asia/liao/ - Kereit, Naiman, Tatar and Merkit tribes (c. 1000 to 1206 CE), people or culture, Mongolic. 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. https://entireworldhistorytimeline.com/central-asia/steppe-tribes/ - Khamag Mongol (c. 1130 to 1206 CE), people or culture, Mongolic. 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. https://entireworldhistorytimeline.com/central-asia/khamag-mongol/ - Mongol Empire (1206 to 1368 CE), empire, Mongolic, capital Karakorum, later Khanbaliq. 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. https://entireworldhistorytimeline.com/central-asia/mongol-empire/ - Northern Yuan (1368 to 1635 CE), state, Mongolic. 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. https://entireworldhistorytimeline.com/central-asia/northern-yuan/ - Four Oirat (1399 to 1634 CE), state, Mongolic. 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. https://entireworldhistorytimeline.com/central-asia/oirat/ - Qing rule in Mongolia (1691 to 1911 CE), empire, Tungusic, capital Uliastai, Urga. 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. https://entireworldhistorytimeline.com/central-asia/qing-mongolia/ - Bogd Khanate of Mongolia (1911 to 1924 CE), state, Mongolic, capital Niislel Khuree (Urga). 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. https://entireworldhistorytimeline.com/central-asia/bogd-khanate/ - Mongolian People's Republic (1924 to 1992 CE), state, Mongolic, capital Ulaanbaatar. 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. https://entireworldhistorytimeline.com/central-asia/mongolian-peoples-republic/ - Mongolia (1992 CE to the present), state, Mongolic, capital Ulaanbaatar. 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. https://entireworldhistorytimeline.com/central-asia/mongolia/ ### Eastern Siberia and the Far East - Baikal hunter-fishers (c. 3200 to 1000 BCE), people or culture, Unknown or undeciphered. 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. https://entireworldhistorytimeline.com/central-asia/baikal-neolithic/ - Belkachi culture (c. 3200 to 2200 BCE), people or culture, Unknown or undeciphered. Neolithic hunters and fishers of Yakutia, known for cord-marked pottery and bows and arrows, who ranged along the Lena and Aldan rivers. https://entireworldhistorytimeline.com/central-asia/belkachi/ - Ymyyakhtakh culture (c. 2200 to 1300 BCE), people or culture, Unknown or undeciphered. Late Neolithic hunters of northeast Siberia, with waffle-stamped pottery, whose ancestry later reached the Paleo-Eskimo peoples of Alaska and Greenland. https://entireworldhistorytimeline.com/central-asia/ymyyakhtakh/ - Yukaghir peoples (c. 1000 BCE to the present), people or culture, Isolates and ancient. 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. https://entireworldhistorytimeline.com/central-asia/yukaghir/ - Chukchi, Koryak and Itelmen peoples (c. 1000 BCE to the present), people or culture, Isolates and ancient. 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. https://entireworldhistorytimeline.com/central-asia/chukchi-koryak/ - Old Bering Sea culture (c. 200 BCE to 600 CE), people or culture, Eskimo-Aleut. Walrus and whale hunters on both shores of the Bering Strait, famous for ivory harpoon heads and figures carved with flowing curvilinear designs. https://entireworldhistorytimeline.com/central-asia/old-bering-sea/ - Evenki and Even reindeer herders (c. 500 CE to the present), people or culture, Tungusic. 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. https://entireworldhistorytimeline.com/central-asia/evenki/ - Okhotsk culture (c. 500 to 1200 CE), people or culture, Unknown or undeciphered. 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. https://entireworldhistorytimeline.com/central-asia/okhotsk/ - Kurykans (c. 550 to 1000 CE), people or culture, Turkic. 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. https://entireworldhistorytimeline.com/central-asia/kurykan/ - Punuk culture (c. 800 to 1300 CE), people or culture, Eskimo-Aleut. 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. https://entireworldhistorytimeline.com/central-asia/punuk/ - Buryats (c. 1200 CE to the present), people or culture, Mongolic. 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. https://entireworldhistorytimeline.com/central-asia/buryats/ - Sakha (Yakuts) (c. 1250 CE to the present), people or culture, Turkic. 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. https://entireworldhistorytimeline.com/central-asia/sakha/ - Russian Far East and Yakutia (1632 to 1917 CE), colony, Slavic, capital Yakutsk, Irkutsk. 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. https://entireworldhistorytimeline.com/central-asia/russian-far-east/ - Far Eastern Republic (1920 to 1922 CE), state, Slavic, capital Verkhneudinsk, later Chita. 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. https://entireworldhistorytimeline.com/central-asia/far-eastern-republic/ - Yakut ASSR and Sakha Republic (1922 CE to the present), state, Turkic, capital Yakutsk. 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. https://entireworldhistorytimeline.com/central-asia/sakha-republic/ ### Events in Central and North Asia - 3500 BCE: Horses tamed at Botai. 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. - 2000 BCE: First spoke-wheeled chariots. Sintashta warriors are buried with light two-wheeled chariots, a technology that spreads within centuries to Egypt, India and China. - 530 BCE: Cyrus the Great killed by the Massagetae. Herodotus says Cyrus died fighting Queen Tomyris east of the Caspian, who dipped his severed head in a skin full of blood. - 327 BCE: Alexander marries Roxana. After two years of hard fighting in Bactria and Sogdiana, Alexander marries the daughter of a Sogdian noble to secure the region. - 138 BCE: Zhang Qian travels west. 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. - 732: Orkhon inscriptions raised. Stone memorials for Kul Tigin and Bilge Khan in the Orkhon valley record the history of the Turks in their own runic script. - 751: Battle of Talas. An Abbasid army defeats Tang forces near the Talas river after the Karluks change sides, ending Chinese expansion into Central Asia. - 762: Uyghur khagan adopts Manichaeism. Bogu Khagan converts after meeting Manichaean priests in Luoyang, making the Uyghurs the only state ever to adopt the religion officially. - 1141: Battle of Qatwan. The Kara-Khitai defeat Sultan Sanjar near Samarkand, a defeat of a Muslim power that helped feed the European legend of Prester John. - 1206: Temujin proclaimed Genghis Khan. A great assembly on the Onon river names Temujin ruler of all the felt-tent peoples, founding the Mongol Empire. - 1220: Mongols sack Bukhara and Samarkand. Genghis Khan's armies storm the great cities of Transoxiana, killing or deporting much of their populations and destroying the Khwarazmian Empire. - 1428: Ulugh Beg's observatory. Timur's grandson builds a huge observatory at Samarkand, whose star catalog was the most accurate since Ptolemy. - 1578: Altan Khan names the Dalai Lama. 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. - 1582: Yermak takes Sibir. A Cossack band hired by the Stroganov merchants captures Qashliq, the capital of the Khanate of Sibir, opening Siberia to Russia. - 1689: Treaty of Nerchinsk. Russia and Qing China sign their first treaty, fixing the border north of the Amur. Jesuit priests interpret the negotiations in Latin. - 1755: Destruction of the Dzungars. The Qianlong emperor sends armies against the Dzungar Khanate. War, massacre and smallpox kill most of the Dzungar people by 1758. - 1865: Russia captures Tashkent. General Mikhail Chernyayev storms Tashkent, the largest city of Central Asia, starting Russia's conquest of the khanates. - 1908: Tunguska explosion. An exploding meteor flattens about 80 million trees over 2,000 square kilometers of Siberian forest near the Podkamennaya Tunguska river. - 1931: Kazakh famine. Forced collectivization and the seizure of livestock kill about 1.5 million Kazakhs between 1930 and 1933, perhaps 40 percent of the nation. - 1957: Sputnik launched from Baikonur. The Soviet Union launches the first artificial satellite from the Kazakh steppe, and in 1961 Yuri Gagarin's flight leaves from the same cosmodrome. - 1960: The Aral Sea begins to shrink. 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. - 1991: Central Asian republics become independent. As the Soviet Union dissolves, Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan, Turkmenistan, Kyrgyzstan and Tajikistan become sovereign states for the first time. ## East Asia ### Tibet and the west - Neolithic farmers of the Tibetan plateau (c. 3200 to 1000 BCE), people or culture, Unknown or undeciphered. 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. https://entireworldhistorytimeline.com/east-asia/tibet-neolithic/ - Majiayao culture (c. 3200 to 2000 BCE), people or culture, Unknown or undeciphered. 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. https://entireworldhistorytimeline.com/east-asia/majiayao/ - Qijia culture (c. 2200 to 1600 BCE), people or culture, Unknown or undeciphered. 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. https://entireworldhistorytimeline.com/east-asia/qijia/ - Qiang peoples (c. 1300 BCE to the present), people or culture, Tibeto-Burman. 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. https://entireworldhistorytimeline.com/east-asia/qiang/ - Zhangzhung (c. 500 BCE to 644 CE), state, Tibeto-Burman, capital Khyunglung. 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. https://entireworldhistorytimeline.com/east-asia/zhangzhung/ - Tuyuhun (c. 285 to 670 CE), state, Mongolic, capital Fuqi, near Qinghai Lake. 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. https://entireworldhistorytimeline.com/east-asia/tuyuhun/ - Tibetan Empire (618 to 842 CE), empire, Tibeto-Burman, capital Lhasa. 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. https://entireworldhistorytimeline.com/east-asia/tibetan-empire/ - Tibetan era of fragmentation (842 to 1264 CE), state, Tibeto-Burman. 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. https://entireworldhistorytimeline.com/east-asia/tibet-fragmentation/ - Guiyi Circuit (851 to 1036 CE), state, Chinese, capital Dunhuang. 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. https://entireworldhistorytimeline.com/east-asia/guiyi/ - Ganzhou Uyghur Kingdom (c. 894 to 1028 CE), state, Turkic, capital Ganzhou (Zhangye). 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. https://entireworldhistorytimeline.com/east-asia/ganzhou-uyghur/ - Guge kingdom (c. 967 to 1630 CE), state, Tibeto-Burman, capital Tsaparang. 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. https://entireworldhistorytimeline.com/east-asia/guge/ - Western Xia (1038 to 1227 CE), empire, Tibeto-Burman, capital Xingqing (Yinchuan). 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. https://entireworldhistorytimeline.com/east-asia/western-xia/ - Sakya rule in Tibet (1264 to 1354 CE), state, Tibeto-Burman, capital Sakya. 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. https://entireworldhistorytimeline.com/east-asia/sakya/ - Phagmodrupa dynasty (1354 to 1618 CE), state, Tibeto-Burman, capital Nedong. 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. https://entireworldhistorytimeline.com/east-asia/phagmodrupa/ - Tsangpa dynasty (1565 to 1642 CE), state, Tibeto-Burman, capital Shigatse. 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. https://entireworldhistorytimeline.com/east-asia/tsangpa/ - Khoshut Khanate (1642 to 1717 CE), state, Mongolic. 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. https://entireworldhistorytimeline.com/east-asia/khoshut/ - Ganden Phodrang (Dalai Lama government) (1642 to 1951 CE), state, Tibeto-Burman, capital Lhasa. 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. https://entireworldhistorytimeline.com/east-asia/ganden-phodrang/ - Tibet under the People's Republic (1951 CE to the present), state, Chinese, capital Lhasa. 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. https://entireworldhistorytimeline.com/east-asia/tibet-prc/ ### South China and Taiwan - Formosan Austronesian peoples (c. 3200 BCE to the present), people or culture, Austronesian. 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. https://entireworldhistorytimeline.com/east-asia/taiwan-austronesian/ - Qujialing and Shijiahe cultures (c. 3200 to 2000 BCE), people or culture, Unknown or undeciphered. 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. https://entireworldhistorytimeline.com/east-asia/qujialing-shijiahe/ - Liangzhu culture (c. 3200 to 2300 BCE), people or culture, Unknown or undeciphered. 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. https://entireworldhistorytimeline.com/east-asia/liangzhu/ - Baodun culture (c. 2700 to 1700 BCE), people or culture, Unknown or undeciphered. Rice farmers of the Chengdu plain in Sichuan who built walled towns of rammed earth, forerunners of the Sanxingdui civilization. https://entireworldhistorytimeline.com/east-asia/baodun/ - Maqiao culture (c. 1900 to 1200 BCE), people or culture, Unknown or undeciphered. Bronze Age farmers of the lower Yangtze and Lake Tai who followed Liangzhu after a long decline, making stamped pottery and early proto-porcelain. https://entireworldhistorytimeline.com/east-asia/maqiao/ - Sanxingdui culture (c. 1700 to 1150 BCE), people or culture, Unknown or undeciphered. 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. https://entireworldhistorytimeline.com/east-asia/sanxingdui/ - Shu kingdom (Jinsha) (c. 1150 to 316 BCE), state, Unknown or undeciphered, capital Jinsha, later Chengdu. 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. https://entireworldhistorytimeline.com/east-asia/shu/ - Chu (c. 1030 to 223 BCE), state, Chinese, capital Danyang, later Ying (Jiangling) and Shouchun. 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. https://entireworldhistorytimeline.com/east-asia/chu/ - Baiyue peoples (c. 1000 BCE to 200 CE), people or culture, Kra-Dai. 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. https://entireworldhistorytimeline.com/east-asia/baiyue/ - Wu (585 to 473 BCE), state, Chinese, capital Gusu (Suzhou). 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. https://entireworldhistorytimeline.com/east-asia/wu-state/ - Yue (c. 510 to 306 BCE), state, Kra-Dai, capital Kuaiji (Shaoxing). 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. https://entireworldhistorytimeline.com/east-asia/yue-state/ - Dian kingdom (c. 400 to 109 BCE), state, Unknown or undeciphered, capital near Lake Dian (Kunming). 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. https://entireworldhistorytimeline.com/east-asia/dian/ - Minyue (c. 334 to 110 BCE), state, Kra-Dai, capital Dongye (Fuzhou). 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. https://entireworldhistorytimeline.com/east-asia/minyue/ - Nanyue (204 to 111 BCE), state, Chinese, capital Panyu (Guangzhou). 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. https://entireworldhistorytimeline.com/east-asia/nanyue/ - Shu Han (221 to 263 CE), state, Chinese, capital Chengdu. 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. https://entireworldhistorytimeline.com/east-asia/shu-han/ - Eastern Wu (229 to 280 CE), state, Chinese, capital Jianye (Nanjing). 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. https://entireworldhistorytimeline.com/east-asia/eastern-wu/ - Eastern Jin (317 to 420 CE), state, Chinese, capital Jiankang (Nanjing). 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. https://entireworldhistorytimeline.com/east-asia/eastern-jin/ - Liu Song dynasty (420 to 479 CE), state, Chinese, capital Jiankang. 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. https://entireworldhistorytimeline.com/east-asia/liu-song/ - Southern Qi (479 to 502 CE), state, Chinese, capital Jiankang. A short southern dynasty under the Xiao family, overthrown by a relative who founded the Liang. https://entireworldhistorytimeline.com/east-asia/southern-qi/ - Liang dynasty (502 to 557 CE), state, Chinese, capital Jiankang. 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. https://entireworldhistorytimeline.com/east-asia/liang/ - Chen dynasty (557 to 589 CE), state, Chinese, capital Jiankang. 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. https://entireworldhistorytimeline.com/east-asia/chen/ - Nanzhao (738 to 902 CE), state, Tibeto-Burman, capital Taihe, later Yangjumie (Dali). 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. https://entireworldhistorytimeline.com/east-asia/nanzhao/ - Wu (Ten Kingdoms) (902 to 937 CE), state, Chinese, capital Yangzhou. 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. https://entireworldhistorytimeline.com/east-asia/wu-yang/ - Wuyue (907 to 978 CE), state, Chinese, capital Hangzhou. 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. https://entireworldhistorytimeline.com/east-asia/wuyue/ - Former Shu (907 to 925 CE), state, Chinese, capital Chengdu. 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. https://entireworldhistorytimeline.com/east-asia/former-shu/ - Min (909 to 945 CE), state, Chinese, capital Changle (Fuzhou). 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. https://entireworldhistorytimeline.com/east-asia/min/ - Southern Han (917 to 971 CE), state, Chinese, capital Xingwang (Guangzhou). 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. https://entireworldhistorytimeline.com/east-asia/southern-han/ - Later Shu (934 to 965 CE), state, Chinese, capital Chengdu. The second independent kingdom of Sichuan in this era, under the Meng family, which printed the Confucian classics. The Song annexed it in 965. https://entireworldhistorytimeline.com/east-asia/later-shu/ - Dali Kingdom (937 to 1253 CE), state, Tibeto-Burman, capital Dali. 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. https://entireworldhistorytimeline.com/east-asia/dali/ - Southern Tang (937 to 975 CE), state, Chinese, capital Jinling (Nanjing). 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. https://entireworldhistorytimeline.com/east-asia/southern-tang/ - Southern Song (1127 to 1279 CE), state, Chinese, capital Lin'an (Hangzhou). 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. https://entireworldhistorytimeline.com/east-asia/southern-song/ - Portuguese Macau (1557 to 1999 CE), colony, Latin and Romance, capital Macau. 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. https://entireworldhistorytimeline.com/east-asia/macau/ - Dutch Formosa (1624 to 1662 CE), colony, Germanic, capital Fort Zeelandia (Tainan). 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. https://entireworldhistorytimeline.com/east-asia/dutch-formosa/ - Southern Ming (1644 to 1662 CE), state, Chinese, capital Nanjing, then Fuzhou, Zhaoqing and others. 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. https://entireworldhistorytimeline.com/east-asia/southern-ming/ - Kingdom of Tungning (1661 to 1683 CE), state, Chinese, capital Tainan. 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. https://entireworldhistorytimeline.com/east-asia/tungning/ - British Hong Kong (1841 to 1997 CE), colony, Germanic, capital Victoria. 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. https://entireworldhistorytimeline.com/east-asia/hong-kong/ - Taiping Heavenly Kingdom (1851 to 1864 CE), state, Chinese, capital Tianjing (Nanjing). 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. https://entireworldhistorytimeline.com/east-asia/taiping/ - Japanese Taiwan (1895 to 1945 CE), colony, Japonic, capital Taihoku (Taipei). 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. https://entireworldhistorytimeline.com/east-asia/japanese-taiwan/ - Republic of China (mainland) (1912 to 1949 CE), state, Chinese, capital Nanjing, Beijing, wartime Chongqing. 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. https://entireworldhistorytimeline.com/east-asia/roc-mainland/ - Republic of China on Taiwan (1949 CE to the present), state, Chinese, capital Taipei. 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. https://entireworldhistorytimeline.com/east-asia/roc-taiwan/ ### North China - Yangshao culture (c. 3200 to 3000 BCE), people or culture, Unknown or undeciphered. 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. https://entireworldhistorytimeline.com/east-asia/yangshao/ - Dawenkou culture (c. 3200 to 2600 BCE), people or culture, Unknown or undeciphered. 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. https://entireworldhistorytimeline.com/east-asia/dawenkou/ - Longshan culture (c. 3000 to 1900 BCE), people or culture, Unknown or undeciphered. 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. https://entireworldhistorytimeline.com/east-asia/longshan/ - Xia dynasty (traditional) (c. 2070 to 1600 BCE), people or culture, Unknown or undeciphered. 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. https://entireworldhistorytimeline.com/east-asia/xia/ - Erlitou culture (c. 1900 to 1500 BCE), people or culture, Unknown or undeciphered. 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. https://entireworldhistorytimeline.com/east-asia/erlitou/ - Shang dynasty (c. 1600 to 1046 BCE), state, Chinese, capital Zhengzhou, later Yin (Anyang). 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. https://entireworldhistorytimeline.com/east-asia/shang/ - Western Zhou (1046 to 771 BCE), state, Chinese, capital Haojing (near Xi'an). 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. https://entireworldhistorytimeline.com/east-asia/western-zhou/ - Qi (c. 1046 to 221 BCE), state, Chinese, capital Linzi. 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. https://entireworldhistorytimeline.com/east-asia/qi-state/ - Yan (c. 1046 to 222 BCE), state, Chinese, capital Ji (Beijing). 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. https://entireworldhistorytimeline.com/east-asia/yan-state/ - Lu (c. 1042 to 249 BCE), state, Chinese, capital Qufu. 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. https://entireworldhistorytimeline.com/east-asia/lu-state/ - Jin (Zhou state) (c. 1033 to 376 BCE), state, Chinese, capital Jiang, later Xintian. 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. https://entireworldhistorytimeline.com/east-asia/jin-state/ - Eastern Zhou (770 to 256 BCE), state, Chinese, capital Luoyi (Luoyang). 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. https://entireworldhistorytimeline.com/east-asia/eastern-zhou/ - Qin (Zhou state) (c. 770 to 221 BCE), state, Chinese, capital Yong, later Xianyang. 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. https://entireworldhistorytimeline.com/east-asia/qin-state/ - Han (Zhou state) (403 to 230 BCE), state, Chinese, capital Xinzheng. 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. https://entireworldhistorytimeline.com/east-asia/han-state/ - Zhao (403 to 222 BCE), state, Chinese, capital Handan. 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. https://entireworldhistorytimeline.com/east-asia/zhao-state/ - Wei (403 to 225 BCE), state, Chinese, capital Anyi, later Daliang (Kaifeng). 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. https://entireworldhistorytimeline.com/east-asia/wei-state/ - Qin dynasty (221 to 206 BCE), empire, Chinese, capital Xianyang. 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. https://entireworldhistorytimeline.com/east-asia/qin-dynasty/ - Western Han (202 BCE to 9 CE), empire, Chinese, capital Chang'an. 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. https://entireworldhistorytimeline.com/east-asia/western-han/ - Xin dynasty (9 to 23 CE), state, Chinese, capital Chang'an. 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. https://entireworldhistorytimeline.com/east-asia/xin/ - Eastern Han (25 to 220 CE), empire, Chinese, capital Luoyang. 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. https://entireworldhistorytimeline.com/east-asia/eastern-han/ - Cao Wei (220 to 266 CE), state, Chinese, capital Luoyang. 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. https://entireworldhistorytimeline.com/east-asia/cao-wei/ - Western Jin (266 to 316 CE), state, Chinese, capital Luoyang, later Chang'an. 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. https://entireworldhistorytimeline.com/east-asia/western-jin/ - Han Zhao (304 to 329 CE), state, Unknown or undeciphered, capital Pingyang, later Chang'an. 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. https://entireworldhistorytimeline.com/east-asia/han-zhao/ - Later Zhao (319 to 351 CE), state, Unknown or undeciphered, capital Xiangguo, later Ye. 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. https://entireworldhistorytimeline.com/east-asia/later-zhao/ - Former Qin (351 to 394 CE), state, Unknown or undeciphered, capital Chang'an. 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. https://entireworldhistorytimeline.com/east-asia/former-qin/ - Northern Wei (386 to 535 CE), empire, Mongolic, capital Pingcheng, later Luoyang. 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. https://entireworldhistorytimeline.com/east-asia/northern-wei/ - Eastern Wei (534 to 550 CE), state, Mongolic, capital Ye. The eastern half of the divided Northern Wei, controlled by the general Gao Huan, whose son replaced it with the Northern Qi. https://entireworldhistorytimeline.com/east-asia/eastern-wei/ - Western Wei (535 to 557 CE), state, Mongolic, capital Chang'an. 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. https://entireworldhistorytimeline.com/east-asia/western-wei/ - Northern Qi (550 to 577 CE), state, Chinese, capital Ye. A dynasty of the Gao family in the northeast, known for unstable and cruel rulers. The Northern Zhou conquered it in 577. https://entireworldhistorytimeline.com/east-asia/northern-qi/ - Northern Zhou (557 to 581 CE), state, Mongolic, capital Chang'an. 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. https://entireworldhistorytimeline.com/east-asia/northern-zhou/ - Sui dynasty (581 to 618 CE), empire, Chinese, capital Daxing (Chang'an), Luoyang. 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. https://entireworldhistorytimeline.com/east-asia/sui/ - Tang dynasty (618 to 907 CE), empire, Chinese, capital Chang'an, Luoyang. 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. https://entireworldhistorytimeline.com/east-asia/tang/ - Wu Zhou (690 to 705 CE), state, Chinese, capital Luoyang (Shendu). 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. https://entireworldhistorytimeline.com/east-asia/wu-zhou/ - Later Liang (907 to 923 CE), state, Chinese, capital Kaifeng. The first of the Five Dynasties, founded by the rebel turned warlord Zhu Wen, who forced the last Tang emperor to abdicate. https://entireworldhistorytimeline.com/east-asia/later-liang/ - Later Tang (923 to 937 CE), state, Turkic, capital Luoyang. A dynasty of Shatuo Turkic origin that destroyed the Later Liang and conquered the Former Shu, before mutiny and civil war ended it. https://entireworldhistorytimeline.com/east-asia/later-tang/ - Later Jin (Five Dynasties) (936 to 947 CE), state, Turkic, capital Kaifeng. 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. https://entireworldhistorytimeline.com/east-asia/later-jin/ - Later Han (Five Dynasties) (947 to 951 CE), state, Turkic, capital Kaifeng. The shortest of the Five Dynasties, another Shatuo regime, overthrown by its general Guo Wei. https://entireworldhistorytimeline.com/east-asia/later-han/ - Later Zhou (951 to 960 CE), state, Chinese, capital Kaifeng. 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. https://entireworldhistorytimeline.com/east-asia/later-zhou/ - Northern Song (960 to 1127 CE), empire, Chinese, capital Kaifeng. 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. https://entireworldhistorytimeline.com/east-asia/northern-song/ - Jin dynasty (Jurchen) (1115 to 1234 CE), empire, Tungusic, capital Huining, later Zhongdu (Beijing) and Kaifeng. 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. https://entireworldhistorytimeline.com/east-asia/jin-jurchen/ - Mongol Empire (north China) (1215 to 1271 CE), empire, Mongolic, capital Karakorum. 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. https://entireworldhistorytimeline.com/east-asia/mongol-north-china/ - Yuan dynasty (1271 to 1368 CE), empire, Mongolic, capital Khanbaliq (Beijing), Shangdu. 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. https://entireworldhistorytimeline.com/east-asia/yuan/ - Ming dynasty (1368 to 1644 CE), empire, Chinese, capital Nanjing, Beijing from 1421. 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. https://entireworldhistorytimeline.com/east-asia/ming/ - Qing dynasty (1636 to 1912 CE), empire, Tungusic, capital Mukden, Beijing from 1644. 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. https://entireworldhistorytimeline.com/east-asia/qing/ - Beiyang government (1912 to 1928 CE), state, Chinese, capital Beijing. 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. https://entireworldhistorytimeline.com/east-asia/beiyang/ - People's Republic of China (1949 CE to the present), state, Chinese, capital Beijing. 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. https://entireworldhistorytimeline.com/east-asia/prc/ ### Manchuria - Amur and Ussuri foragers (c. 3200 to 1100 BCE), people or culture, Unknown or undeciphered. 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. https://entireworldhistorytimeline.com/east-asia/amur-foragers/ - Hongshan culture (c. 3200 to 2900 BCE), people or culture, Unknown or undeciphered. 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. https://entireworldhistorytimeline.com/east-asia/hongshan/ - Xiaoheyan culture (c. 3000 to 2200 BCE), people or culture, Unknown or undeciphered. 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. https://entireworldhistorytimeline.com/east-asia/xiaoheyan/ - Lower Xiajiadian culture (c. 2200 to 1600 BCE), people or culture, Unknown or undeciphered. 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. https://entireworldhistorytimeline.com/east-asia/lower-xiajiadian/ - Sushen and Yilou (c. 1100 BCE to 400 CE), people or culture, Tungusic. 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. https://entireworldhistorytimeline.com/east-asia/sushen-yilou/ - Upper Xiajiadian culture (c. 1000 to 600 BCE), people or culture, Unknown or undeciphered. 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. https://entireworldhistorytimeline.com/east-asia/upper-xiajiadian/ - Buyeo (c. 200 BCE to 494 CE), state, Koreanic, capital near Jilin. 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. https://entireworldhistorytimeline.com/east-asia/buyeo/ - Former Yan (337 to 370 CE), state, Mongolic, capital Longcheng, later Ye. 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. https://entireworldhistorytimeline.com/east-asia/former-yan/ - Mohe (c. 400 to 926 CE), people or culture, Tungusic. 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. https://entireworldhistorytimeline.com/east-asia/mohe/ - Balhae (698 to 926 CE), state, Koreanic, capital Sanggyeong (Shangjing). 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. https://entireworldhistorytimeline.com/east-asia/balhae/ - Liao dynasty (916 to 1125 CE), empire, Mongolic, capital Shangjing (Linhuang). 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. https://entireworldhistorytimeline.com/east-asia/liao/ - Jurchen tribes (c. 926 to 1616 CE), people or culture, Tungusic. 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. https://entireworldhistorytimeline.com/east-asia/jurchen-tribes/ - Eastern Xia (1215 to 1233 CE), state, Tungusic. 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. https://entireworldhistorytimeline.com/east-asia/eastern-xia/ - Later Jin (1616 to 1636 CE), state, Tungusic, capital Hetu Ala, later Mukden (Shenyang). 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. https://entireworldhistorytimeline.com/east-asia/later-jin-manchu/ - Manchuria under the Qing (1644 to 1907 CE), empire, Tungusic, capital Shengjing (Mukden), Jilin, Qiqihar. 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. https://entireworldhistorytimeline.com/east-asia/qing-manchuria/ - Han settlers of the Northeast (c. 1860 CE to the present), people or culture, Chinese. 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. https://entireworldhistorytimeline.com/east-asia/han-settlers/ - Russian Kwantung and the Chinese Eastern Railway (1898 to 1905 CE), colony, Slavic, capital Port Arthur, Harbin. 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. https://entireworldhistorytimeline.com/east-asia/russian-manchuria/ - Kwantung Leased Territory (1905 to 1945 CE), colony, Japonic, capital Port Arthur, Dairen (Dalian). 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. https://entireworldhistorytimeline.com/east-asia/kwantung/ - Fengtian clique (1916 to 1931 CE), state, Chinese, capital Mukden (Shenyang). 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. https://entireworldhistorytimeline.com/east-asia/fengtian/ - Manchukuo (1932 to 1945 CE), colony, Japonic, capital Hsinking (Changchun). 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. https://entireworldhistorytimeline.com/east-asia/manchukuo/ ### Korea - Jeulmun pottery period (c. 3200 to 1500 BCE), people or culture, Unknown or undeciphered. Fishers, shellfish gatherers and early millet farmers of Korea who made comb-patterned pottery and left large shell middens along the coasts. https://entireworldhistorytimeline.com/east-asia/jeulmun/ - Mumun pottery period (c. 1500 to 300 BCE), people or culture, Unknown or undeciphered. 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. https://entireworldhistorytimeline.com/east-asia/mumun/ - Gojoseon (c. 700 to 108 BCE), state, Koreanic, capital Wanggeom-seong (Pyongyang). 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. https://entireworldhistorytimeline.com/east-asia/gojoseon/ - Lelang Commandery (108 BCE to 313 CE), colony, Chinese, capital near Pyongyang. 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. https://entireworldhistorytimeline.com/east-asia/lelang/ - Samhan confederacies (c. 100 BCE to 350 CE), people or culture, Koreanic. 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. https://entireworldhistorytimeline.com/east-asia/samhan/ - Silla (57 BCE to 668 CE), state, Koreanic, capital Gyeongju. 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. https://entireworldhistorytimeline.com/east-asia/silla/ - Goguryeo (37 BCE to 668 CE), state, Koreanic, capital Jolbon, Gungnae, Pyongyang from 427. 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. https://entireworldhistorytimeline.com/east-asia/goguryeo/ - Baekje (18 BCE to 660 CE), state, Koreanic, capital Wiryeseong, Ungjin, Sabi. 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. https://entireworldhistorytimeline.com/east-asia/baekje/ - Gaya confederacy (c. 42 to 562 CE), state, Koreanic, capital Gimhae, later Goryeong. 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. https://entireworldhistorytimeline.com/east-asia/gaya/ - Unified Silla (668 to 935 CE), state, Koreanic, capital Gyeongju. 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. https://entireworldhistorytimeline.com/east-asia/unified-silla/ - Later Baekje and Taebong (892 to 936 CE), state, Koreanic, capital Wansan, Cheorwon. 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. https://entireworldhistorytimeline.com/east-asia/later-three-kingdoms/ - Goryeo (918 to 1392 CE), state, Koreanic, capital Gaegyeong (Kaesong). 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. https://entireworldhistorytimeline.com/east-asia/goryeo/ - Joseon (1392 to 1897 CE), state, Koreanic, capital Hanseong (Seoul). 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. https://entireworldhistorytimeline.com/east-asia/joseon/ - Korean Empire (1897 to 1910 CE), state, Koreanic, capital Hanseong (Seoul). King Gojong proclaimed an empire to assert independence from Qing China. Japan made it a protectorate in 1905 and annexed it in 1910. https://entireworldhistorytimeline.com/east-asia/korean-empire/ - Japanese Korea (1910 to 1945 CE), colony, Japonic, capital Keijo (Seoul). 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. https://entireworldhistorytimeline.com/east-asia/japanese-korea/ - North Korea (1948 CE to the present), state, Koreanic, capital Pyongyang. 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. https://entireworldhistorytimeline.com/east-asia/north-korea/ - South Korea (1948 CE to the present), state, Koreanic, capital Seoul. 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. https://entireworldhistorytimeline.com/east-asia/south-korea/ ### Japan - Jomon culture (c. 3200 to 300 BCE), people or culture, Unknown or undeciphered. 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. https://entireworldhistorytimeline.com/east-asia/jomon/ - Yayoi period (c. 300 BCE to 250 CE), people or culture, Japonic. 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. https://entireworldhistorytimeline.com/east-asia/yayoi/ - Epi-Jomon culture (c. 300 BCE to 700 CE), people or culture, Isolates and ancient. 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. https://entireworldhistorytimeline.com/east-asia/epi-jomon/ - Yamatai (c. 180 to 266 CE), state, Japonic. 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. https://entireworldhistorytimeline.com/east-asia/yamatai/ - Kofun period (c. 250 to 538 CE), state, Japonic. 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. https://entireworldhistorytimeline.com/east-asia/kofun/ - Asuka period (538 to 710 CE), state, Japonic, capital Asuka, Fujiwara-kyo. 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. https://entireworldhistorytimeline.com/east-asia/asuka/ - Emishi (c. 600 to 1100 CE), people or culture, Unknown or undeciphered. 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. https://entireworldhistorytimeline.com/east-asia/emishi/ - Satsumon culture (c. 700 to 1200 CE), people or culture, Isolates and ancient. 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. https://entireworldhistorytimeline.com/east-asia/satsumon/ - Nara period (710 to 794 CE), state, Japonic, capital Heijo-kyo (Nara). 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. https://entireworldhistorytimeline.com/east-asia/nara/ - Heian period (794 to 1185 CE), state, Japonic, capital Heian-kyo (Kyoto). 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. https://entireworldhistorytimeline.com/east-asia/heian/ - Kamakura shogunate (1185 to 1333 CE), state, Japonic, capital Kamakura. 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. https://entireworldhistorytimeline.com/east-asia/kamakura/ - Ainu (c. 1200 CE to the present), people or culture, Isolates and ancient. 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. https://entireworldhistorytimeline.com/east-asia/ainu/ - Sanzan kingdoms of Okinawa (c. 1314 to 1429 CE), state, Japonic. 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. https://entireworldhistorytimeline.com/east-asia/sanzan/ - Kenmu Restoration (1333 to 1336 CE), state, Japonic, capital Kyoto. 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. https://entireworldhistorytimeline.com/east-asia/kenmu/ - Muromachi shogunate (1336 to 1573 CE), state, Japonic, capital Kyoto. 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. https://entireworldhistorytimeline.com/east-asia/muromachi/ - Ryukyu Kingdom (1429 to 1879 CE), state, Japonic, capital Shuri. 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. https://entireworldhistorytimeline.com/east-asia/ryukyu/ - Sengoku period (c. 1467 to 1600 CE), state, Japonic. 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. https://entireworldhistorytimeline.com/east-asia/sengoku/ - Azuchi-Momoyama period (1568 to 1600 CE), state, Japonic, capital Azuchi, Osaka, Fushimi. 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. https://entireworldhistorytimeline.com/east-asia/azuchi-momoyama/ - Edo period (Tokugawa shogunate) (1603 to 1868 CE), state, Japonic, capital Edo (Tokyo). 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. https://entireworldhistorytimeline.com/east-asia/edo/ - Empire of Japan (1868 to 1947 CE), empire, Japonic, capital Tokyo. 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. https://entireworldhistorytimeline.com/east-asia/empire-of-japan/ - Allied occupation of Japan (1945 to 1952 CE), colony, Germanic, capital Tokyo. 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. https://entireworldhistorytimeline.com/east-asia/occupied-japan/ - Japan (postwar) (1947 CE to the present), state, Japonic, capital Tokyo. 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. https://entireworldhistorytimeline.com/east-asia/postwar-japan/ ### Events in East Asia - 3100 BCE: Liangzhu builds flood dams. 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. - 1250 BCE: Oracle bone writing at Anyang. Diviners of the Shang king Wu Ding carve questions to the ancestors on turtle shells and ox bones, the oldest surviving Chinese writing. - 1046 BCE: Battle of Muye. King Wu of Zhou defeats the last Shang king, who kills himself, and the Zhou claim the Mandate of Heaven. - 551 BCE: Birth of Confucius. 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. - 221 BCE: Qin unifies China. King Zheng of Qin conquers the last of the Warring States and takes the new title Huangdi, emperor. - 210 BCE: First Emperor buried with the Terracotta Army. 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. - 105: Cai Lun presents paper. 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. - 184: Yellow Turban rebellion. A Daoist millenarian movement rises across north China. The warlords who suppress it end up dividing the Han empire among themselves. - 372: Buddhism reaches Korea. Former Qin sends a monk with Buddhist images and scriptures to Goguryeo. Baekje accepts Buddhism in 384 and Silla in 527. - 609: Grand Canal completed. 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. - 645: Taika reforms. After a palace coup against the Soga clan, the Japanese court begins land and tax reforms modeled on Tang China. - 668: Silla unifies Korea. With Tang help Silla destroys Goguryeo, then fights the Tang until 676 to take control of the peninsula south of the Taedong river. - 755: An Lushan rebellion. 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. - 868: Diamond Sutra printed. A woodblock-printed copy of the Diamond Sutra, later found in the Dunhuang Library Cave, is the oldest dated printed book in the world. - 1044: Gunpowder formula recorded. The Song military manual Wujing Zongyao gives the first written recipes for gunpowder, used in fire arrows and bombs. - 1185: Battle of Dan-no-ura. The Minamoto destroy the Taira fleet in the Shimonoseki strait, and the child emperor Antoku drowns. Warrior rule in Japan begins. - 1281: Kamikaze wreck the Mongol fleet. A typhoon destroys most of Kublai Khan's second invasion fleet off Kyushu, remembered in Japan as the divine wind. - 1405: Zheng He's first voyage. 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. - 1446: Hangul proclaimed. King Sejong publishes the Korean alphabet, designed so that ordinary people could learn to read and write their own language. - 1592: Japanese invasion of Korea. 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. - 1600: Battle of Sekigahara. Tokugawa Ieyasu defeats the western daimyo coalition and becomes master of Japan, taking the title of shogun in 1603. - 1644: Fall of Beijing. 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. - 1839: First Opium War. After Lin Zexu destroys British opium at Canton, Britain goes to war and forces the Treaty of Nanjing, opening ports and taking Hong Kong. - 1853: Perry's black ships. US Commodore Matthew Perry sails into Edo Bay and demands that Japan open its ports, which it does in 1854. - 1868: Meiji Restoration. Samurai from Satsuma and Choshu overthrow the shogunate and restore power to the young emperor Meiji, launching a rapid modernization. - 1911: Xinhai Revolution. An army mutiny at Wuchang spreads across the provinces, and the last Qing emperor Puyi abdicates in February 1912. - 1937: War with Japan and the Nanjing massacre. 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. - 1945: Atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki. US atomic bombs destroy two Japanese cities in August, killing over 100,000 people, and Japan surrenders days later. - 1949: People's Republic proclaimed. Mao Zedong declares the People's Republic from Tiananmen on 1 October, and the Nationalist government retreats to Taiwan. - 1950: Korean War. 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. - 1959: Tibetan uprising. 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. - 1978: Reform and opening. Deng Xiaoping's leadership begins decollectivizing farms and opening China to foreign investment, starting four decades of rapid growth. - 2011: Tohoku earthquake and tsunami. A magnitude 9.0 earthquake and tsunami kill about 18,000 people in northeast Japan and cause meltdowns at the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant. ## Southeast Asia ### Burma - Hoabinhian foragers (c. 3200 to 2000 BCE), people or culture, Unknown or undeciphered. 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. https://entireworldhistorytimeline.com/southeast-asia/burma-hoabinhian/ - Neolithic and Bronze Age farmers of Burma (c. 2000 to 200 BCE), people or culture, Unknown or undeciphered. 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. https://entireworldhistorytimeline.com/southeast-asia/burma-early-farmers/ - Pyu city-states (c. 200 BCE to 1050 CE), state, Tibeto-Burman, capital Sri Ksetra, Beikthano, Halin. 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. https://entireworldhistorytimeline.com/southeast-asia/pyu/ - Pagan Kingdom (849 to 1297 CE), empire, Tibeto-Burman, capital Pagan (Bagan). 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. https://entireworldhistorytimeline.com/southeast-asia/pagan/ - Thaton Kingdom (c. 850 to 1057 CE), state, Austroasiatic, capital Thaton. 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. https://entireworldhistorytimeline.com/southeast-asia/thaton/ - Shan States (c. 1250 to 1959 CE), state, Kra-Dai. 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. https://entireworldhistorytimeline.com/southeast-asia/shan-states/ - Hanthawaddy Kingdom (1287 to 1539 CE), state, Austroasiatic, capital Martaban, then Pegu. 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. https://entireworldhistorytimeline.com/southeast-asia/hanthawaddy/ - Myinsaing, Pinya and Sagaing (1297 to 1364 CE), state, Tibeto-Burman, capital Myinsaing, Pinya, Sagaing. 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. https://entireworldhistorytimeline.com/southeast-asia/pinya-sagaing/ - Ava Kingdom (1364 to 1555 CE), state, Tibeto-Burman, capital Ava (Inwa). 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. https://entireworldhistorytimeline.com/southeast-asia/ava/ - Mrauk U Kingdom (Arakan) (1429 to 1785 CE), state, Tibeto-Burman, capital Mrauk U. 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. https://entireworldhistorytimeline.com/southeast-asia/mrauk-u/ - First Toungoo Empire (1510 to 1599 CE), empire, Tibeto-Burman, capital Toungoo, then Pegu. 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. https://entireworldhistorytimeline.com/southeast-asia/first-toungoo/ - Restored Toungoo dynasty (1599 to 1752 CE), state, Tibeto-Burman, capital Pegu, then Ava (1635). 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. https://entireworldhistorytimeline.com/southeast-asia/restored-toungoo/ - Restored Hanthawaddy Kingdom (1740 to 1757 CE), state, Austroasiatic, capital Pegu. 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. https://entireworldhistorytimeline.com/southeast-asia/restored-hanthawaddy/ - Konbaung dynasty (1752 to 1885 CE), empire, Tibeto-Burman, capital Shwebo, Ava, Amarapura, Mandalay. 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. https://entireworldhistorytimeline.com/southeast-asia/konbaung/ - British Burma (1826 to 1948 CE), colony, Germanic, capital Rangoon. 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. https://entireworldhistorytimeline.com/southeast-asia/british-burma/ - Japanese-occupied Burma (1942 to 1945 CE), colony, Japonic, capital Rangoon. 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. https://entireworldhistorytimeline.com/southeast-asia/japanese-burma/ - Myanmar (Burma) (1948 CE to the present), state, Tibeto-Burman, capital Rangoon, then Naypyidaw (2006). 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. https://entireworldhistorytimeline.com/southeast-asia/myanmar/ ### Thailand and Laos - Hoabinhian foragers (c. 3200 to 2000 BCE), people or culture, Unknown or undeciphered. 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. https://entireworldhistorytimeline.com/southeast-asia/thai-hoabinhian/ - Austroasiatic rice farmers (c. 2000 BCE to 500 CE), people or culture, Austroasiatic. 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. https://entireworldhistorytimeline.com/southeast-asia/thai-rice-farmers/ - Ban Chiang culture (c. 2000 BCE to 200 CE), people or culture, Unknown or undeciphered. 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. https://entireworldhistorytimeline.com/southeast-asia/ban-chiang/ - Plain of Jars culture (c. 500 BCE to 500 CE), people or culture, Unknown or undeciphered. 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. https://entireworldhistorytimeline.com/southeast-asia/plain-of-jars/ - Dvaravati (c. 550 to 1050 CE), state, Austroasiatic, capital Nakhon Pathom, U Thong. 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. https://entireworldhistorytimeline.com/southeast-asia/dvaravati/ - Haripunjaya (c. 660 to 1292 CE), state, Austroasiatic, capital Lamphun. 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. https://entireworldhistorytimeline.com/southeast-asia/haripunjaya/ - Tai muang chiefdoms (c. 900 to 1300 CE), people or culture, Kra-Dai. 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. https://entireworldhistorytimeline.com/southeast-asia/tai-muang/ - Sukhothai Kingdom (1238 to 1438 CE), state, Kra-Dai, capital Sukhothai. 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. https://entireworldhistorytimeline.com/southeast-asia/sukhothai/ - Lan Na (1292 to 1775 CE), state, Kra-Dai, capital Chiang Mai. 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. https://entireworldhistorytimeline.com/southeast-asia/lan-na/ - Ayutthaya Kingdom (1351 to 1767 CE), state, Kra-Dai, capital Ayutthaya. 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. https://entireworldhistorytimeline.com/southeast-asia/ayutthaya/ - Lan Xang (1353 to 1707 CE), state, Kra-Dai, capital Luang Prabang, then Vientiane. 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. https://entireworldhistorytimeline.com/southeast-asia/lan-xang/ - Kingdom of Luang Phrabang (1707 to 1893 CE), state, Kra-Dai, capital Luang Prabang. 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. https://entireworldhistorytimeline.com/southeast-asia/luang-prabang/ - Kingdom of Vientiane (1707 to 1828 CE), state, Kra-Dai, capital Vientiane. 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. https://entireworldhistorytimeline.com/southeast-asia/vientiane/ - Kingdom of Champasak (1713 to 1904 CE), state, Kra-Dai, capital Champasak. 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. https://entireworldhistorytimeline.com/southeast-asia/champasak/ - Thonburi Kingdom (1767 to 1782 CE), state, Kra-Dai, capital Thonburi. 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. https://entireworldhistorytimeline.com/southeast-asia/thonburi/ - Rattanakosin Kingdom (Siam) (1782 to 1932 CE), state, Kra-Dai, capital Bangkok. 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. https://entireworldhistorytimeline.com/southeast-asia/rattanakosin/ - French Laos (1893 to 1953 CE), colony, Latin and Romance, capital Vientiane. 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. https://entireworldhistorytimeline.com/southeast-asia/french-laos/ - Thailand (1932 CE to the present), state, Kra-Dai, capital Bangkok. 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. https://entireworldhistorytimeline.com/southeast-asia/thailand/ - Kingdom of Laos (1953 to 1975 CE), state, Kra-Dai, capital Vientiane, Luang Prabang. 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. https://entireworldhistorytimeline.com/southeast-asia/kingdom-of-laos/ - Lao People's Democratic Republic (1975 CE to the present), state, Kra-Dai, capital Vientiane. 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. https://entireworldhistorytimeline.com/southeast-asia/laos/ ### Cambodia - Hoabinhian foragers (c. 3200 to 2000 BCE), people or culture, Unknown or undeciphered. 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. https://entireworldhistorytimeline.com/southeast-asia/khmer-hoabinhian/ - Austroasiatic rice farmers of the Mekong (c. 2000 BCE to 100 CE), people or culture, Austroasiatic. 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. https://entireworldhistorytimeline.com/southeast-asia/mekong-rice-farmers/ - Funan (c. 68 to 550 CE), state, Austroasiatic, capital Vyadhapura. 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. https://entireworldhistorytimeline.com/southeast-asia/funan/ - Chenla (c. 550 to 802 CE), state, Austroasiatic, capital Isanapura (Sambor Prei Kuk). 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. https://entireworldhistorytimeline.com/southeast-asia/chenla/ - Khmer Empire (802 to 1431 CE), empire, Austroasiatic, capital Angkor (Yasodharapura). 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. https://entireworldhistorytimeline.com/southeast-asia/khmer-empire/ - Post-Angkor Cambodia (1431 to 1863 CE), state, Austroasiatic, capital Phnom Penh, Longvek, Oudong. 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. https://entireworldhistorytimeline.com/southeast-asia/post-angkor/ - French Cambodia (1863 to 1953 CE), colony, Latin and Romance, capital Phnom Penh. 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. https://entireworldhistorytimeline.com/southeast-asia/french-cambodia/ - Kingdom of Cambodia (Sihanouk era) (1953 to 1970 CE), state, Austroasiatic, capital Phnom Penh. 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. https://entireworldhistorytimeline.com/southeast-asia/sihanouk-cambodia/ - Khmer Republic (1970 to 1975 CE), state, Austroasiatic, capital Phnom Penh. 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. https://entireworldhistorytimeline.com/southeast-asia/khmer-republic/ - Democratic Kampuchea (Khmer Rouge) (1975 to 1979 CE), state, Austroasiatic, capital Phnom Penh. 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. https://entireworldhistorytimeline.com/southeast-asia/democratic-kampuchea/ - People's Republic of Kampuchea (1979 to 1993 CE), state, Austroasiatic, capital Phnom Penh. 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. https://entireworldhistorytimeline.com/southeast-asia/kampuchea-prk/ - Kingdom of Cambodia (1993 CE to the present), state, Austroasiatic, capital Phnom Penh. 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. https://entireworldhistorytimeline.com/southeast-asia/cambodia/ ### Vietnam - Neolithic cultures of northern Vietnam (c. 3200 to 2000 BCE), people or culture, Unknown or undeciphered. 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. https://entireworldhistorytimeline.com/southeast-asia/vietnam-early-cultures/ - Phung Nguyen and Dong Dau cultures (c. 2000 to 1000 BCE), people or culture, Unknown or undeciphered. 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. https://entireworldhistorytimeline.com/southeast-asia/phung-nguyen/ - Dong Son culture (c. 1000 BCE to 100 CE), people or culture, Austroasiatic. 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. https://entireworldhistorytimeline.com/southeast-asia/dong-son/ - Sa Huynh culture (c. 1000 BCE to 200 CE), people or culture, Austronesian. 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. https://entireworldhistorytimeline.com/southeast-asia/sa-huynh/ - Van Lang (c. 700 to 258 BCE), state, Austroasiatic. 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. https://entireworldhistorytimeline.com/southeast-asia/van-lang/ - Au Lac (257 to 179 BCE), state, Austroasiatic, capital Co Loa. 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. https://entireworldhistorytimeline.com/southeast-asia/au-lac/ - Nanyue (Nam Viet) (204 to 111 BCE), state, Chinese, capital Panyu (Guangzhou). 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. https://entireworldhistorytimeline.com/southeast-asia/nanyue/ - First Chinese domination (Han) (111 BCE to 40 CE), colony, Chinese, capital Luy Lau. 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. https://entireworldhistorytimeline.com/southeast-asia/first-chinese-domination/ - Trung sisters' kingdom (40 to 43 CE), state, Austroasiatic, capital Me Linh. 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. https://entireworldhistorytimeline.com/southeast-asia/trung-sisters/ - Second Chinese domination (43 to 544 CE), colony, Chinese. 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. https://entireworldhistorytimeline.com/southeast-asia/second-chinese-domination/ - Champa (c. 192 to 1832 CE), state, Austronesian, capital Indrapura, Vijaya, Panduranga. 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. https://entireworldhistorytimeline.com/southeast-asia/champa/ - Early Ly dynasty (Van Xuan) (544 to 602 CE), state, Austroasiatic. Ly Bi expelled the Liang governor and proclaimed the kingdom of Van Xuan in 544. The Sui dynasty reconquered it in 602. https://entireworldhistorytimeline.com/southeast-asia/early-ly/ - Third Chinese domination (Sui and Tang) (602 to 938 CE), colony, Chinese, capital Tong Binh (Hanoi). 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. https://entireworldhistorytimeline.com/southeast-asia/third-chinese-domination/ - Ngo dynasty (939 to 965 CE), state, Austroasiatic, capital Co Loa. 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. https://entireworldhistorytimeline.com/southeast-asia/ngo-dynasty/ - Dinh dynasty (968 to 980 CE), state, Austroasiatic, capital Hoa Lu. 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. https://entireworldhistorytimeline.com/southeast-asia/dinh-dynasty/ - Early Le dynasty (980 to 1009 CE), state, Austroasiatic, capital Hoa Lu. 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. https://entireworldhistorytimeline.com/southeast-asia/early-le/ - Ly dynasty (1009 to 1225 CE), state, Austroasiatic, capital Thang Long (Hanoi). 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. https://entireworldhistorytimeline.com/southeast-asia/ly-dynasty/ - Tran dynasty (1225 to 1400 CE), state, Austroasiatic, capital Thang Long. 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. https://entireworldhistorytimeline.com/southeast-asia/tran-dynasty/ - Ho dynasty (1400 to 1407 CE), state, Austroasiatic, capital Tay Do. 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. https://entireworldhistorytimeline.com/southeast-asia/ho-dynasty/ - Fourth Chinese domination (Ming) (1407 to 1427 CE), colony, Chinese. 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. https://entireworldhistorytimeline.com/southeast-asia/ming-domination/ - Later Le dynasty (1428 to 1789 CE), state, Austroasiatic, capital Thang Long. 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. https://entireworldhistorytimeline.com/southeast-asia/later-le/ - Mac dynasty (1527 to 1592 CE), state, Austroasiatic, capital Thang Long. 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. https://entireworldhistorytimeline.com/southeast-asia/mac-dynasty/ - Trinh lords (1545 to 1787 CE), state, Austroasiatic, capital Thang Long. 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. https://entireworldhistorytimeline.com/southeast-asia/trinh-lords/ - Nguyen lords (1558 to 1777 CE), state, Austroasiatic, capital Phu Xuan (Hue). 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. https://entireworldhistorytimeline.com/southeast-asia/nguyen-lords/ - Tay Son dynasty (1778 to 1802 CE), state, Austroasiatic, capital Phu Xuan, Quy Nhon. 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. https://entireworldhistorytimeline.com/southeast-asia/tay-son/ - Nguyen dynasty (1802 to 1945 CE), state, Austroasiatic, capital Hue. 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. https://entireworldhistorytimeline.com/southeast-asia/nguyen-dynasty/ - French Indochina (1887 to 1954 CE), colony, Latin and Romance, capital Saigon, then Hanoi. 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. https://entireworldhistorytimeline.com/southeast-asia/french-indochina/ - Japanese occupation of Indochina (1940 to 1945 CE), colony, Japonic. 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. https://entireworldhistorytimeline.com/southeast-asia/japanese-indochina/ - Democratic Republic of Vietnam (1945 to 1976 CE), state, Austroasiatic, capital Hanoi. 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. https://entireworldhistorytimeline.com/southeast-asia/democratic-republic-of-vietnam/ - State of Vietnam (1949 to 1955 CE), state, Austroasiatic, capital Saigon. 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. https://entireworldhistorytimeline.com/southeast-asia/state-of-vietnam/ - Republic of Vietnam (1955 to 1975 CE), state, Austroasiatic, capital Saigon. 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. https://entireworldhistorytimeline.com/southeast-asia/republic-of-vietnam/ - Socialist Republic of Vietnam (1976 CE to the present), state, Austroasiatic, capital Hanoi. 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. https://entireworldhistorytimeline.com/southeast-asia/vietnam/ ### Malay Peninsula and Sumatra - Hoabinhian foragers (c. 3200 to 2000 BCE), people or culture, Unknown or undeciphered. 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. https://entireworldhistorytimeline.com/southeast-asia/malaya-hoabinhian/ - Orang Asli (Semang and Senoi) (c. 2000 BCE to the present), people or culture, Austroasiatic. 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. https://entireworldhistorytimeline.com/southeast-asia/orang-asli/ - Austronesian peoples of Sumatra and Malaya (c. 1500 BCE to 500 CE), people or culture, Austronesian. 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. https://entireworldhistorytimeline.com/southeast-asia/malay-austronesians/ - Langkasuka (c. 100 to 1400 CE), state, Austronesian. 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. https://entireworldhistorytimeline.com/southeast-asia/langkasuka/ - Srivijaya (c. 650 to 1377 CE), empire, Austronesian, capital Palembang, later Jambi. 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. https://entireworldhistorytimeline.com/southeast-asia/srivijaya/ - Dharmasraya (Melayu) (c. 1183 to 1347 CE), state, Austronesian. 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. https://entireworldhistorytimeline.com/southeast-asia/dharmasraya/ - Samudera Pasai Sultanate (c. 1267 to 1521 CE), state, Austronesian. 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. https://entireworldhistorytimeline.com/southeast-asia/samudera-pasai/ - Pagaruyung Kingdom (1347 to 1833 CE), state, Austronesian. 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. https://entireworldhistorytimeline.com/southeast-asia/pagaruyung/ - Malacca Sultanate (c. 1400 to 1511 CE), state, Austronesian, capital Malacca. 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. https://entireworldhistorytimeline.com/southeast-asia/malacca-sultanate/ - Pattani Sultanate (c. 1457 to 1902 CE), state, Austronesian, capital Pattani. 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. https://entireworldhistorytimeline.com/southeast-asia/pattani/ - Aceh Sultanate (1496 to 1903 CE), state, Austronesian, capital Banda Aceh. 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. https://entireworldhistorytimeline.com/southeast-asia/aceh/ - Portuguese Malacca (1511 to 1641 CE), colony, Latin and Romance, capital Malacca. 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. https://entireworldhistorytimeline.com/southeast-asia/portuguese-malacca/ - Johor Sultanate (1528 to 1824 CE), state, Austronesian, capital Johor Lama, later Riau. 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. https://entireworldhistorytimeline.com/southeast-asia/johor/ - Dutch Malacca (1641 to 1824 CE), colony, Germanic, capital Malacca. 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. https://entireworldhistorytimeline.com/southeast-asia/dutch-malacca/ - Straits Settlements (1826 to 1946 CE), colony, Germanic, capital Singapore. 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. https://entireworldhistorytimeline.com/southeast-asia/straits-settlements/ - British Malaya (1874 to 1948 CE), colony, Germanic, capital Kuala Lumpur. 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. https://entireworldhistorytimeline.com/southeast-asia/british-malaya/ - Japanese occupation of Malaya (1942 to 1945 CE), colony, Japonic. 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. https://entireworldhistorytimeline.com/southeast-asia/japanese-malaya/ - Federation of Malaya (1948 to 1963 CE), state, Austronesian, capital Kuala Lumpur. 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. https://entireworldhistorytimeline.com/southeast-asia/federation-of-malaya/ - Malaysia (1963 CE to the present), state, Austronesian, capital Kuala Lumpur. 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. https://entireworldhistorytimeline.com/southeast-asia/malaysia/ - Singapore (1965 CE to the present), state, Chinese. 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. https://entireworldhistorytimeline.com/southeast-asia/singapore/ ### Java and Eastern Indonesia - Pre-Austronesian foragers (c. 3200 to 1500 BCE), people or culture, Unknown or undeciphered. 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. https://entireworldhistorytimeline.com/southeast-asia/pre-austronesian-foragers/ - Austronesian farmers of Java and Wallacea (c. 1500 BCE to 400 CE), people or culture, Austronesian. 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. https://entireworldhistorytimeline.com/southeast-asia/java-austronesians/ - Buni culture (c. 400 BCE to 500 CE), people or culture, Austronesian. 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. https://entireworldhistorytimeline.com/southeast-asia/buni/ - Tarumanagara (c. 358 to 669 CE), state, Austronesian. 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. https://entireworldhistorytimeline.com/southeast-asia/tarumanagara/ - Sunda Kingdom (c. 669 to 1579 CE), state, Austronesian, capital Pakuan Pajajaran. 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. https://entireworldhistorytimeline.com/southeast-asia/sunda-kingdom/ - Medang Kingdom (Mataram) (c. 732 to 1016 CE), state, Austronesian. 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. https://entireworldhistorytimeline.com/southeast-asia/medang/ - Sailendra dynasty (c. 750 to 850 CE), state, Austronesian. 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. https://entireworldhistorytimeline.com/southeast-asia/sailendra/ - Kediri Kingdom (1042 to 1222 CE), state, Austronesian, capital Daha. 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. https://entireworldhistorytimeline.com/southeast-asia/kediri/ - Singhasari (1222 to 1292 CE), state, Austronesian. 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. https://entireworldhistorytimeline.com/southeast-asia/singhasari/ - Majapahit Empire (c. 1293 to 1527 CE), empire, Austronesian, capital Trowulan. 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. https://entireworldhistorytimeline.com/southeast-asia/majapahit/ - Gowa Sultanate (Makassar) (c. 1300 to 1669 CE), state, Austronesian, capital Somba Opu. 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. https://entireworldhistorytimeline.com/southeast-asia/gowa/ - Balinese kingdoms (1343 to 1908 CE), state, Austronesian, capital Gelgel, later Klungkung. 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. https://entireworldhistorytimeline.com/southeast-asia/bali/ - Ternate and Tidore sultanates (c. 1450 to 1914 CE), state, Austronesian. 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. https://entireworldhistorytimeline.com/southeast-asia/ternate-tidore/ - Demak Sultanate (c. 1475 to 1554 CE), state, Austronesian, capital Demak. 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. https://entireworldhistorytimeline.com/southeast-asia/demak/ - Banten Sultanate (1527 to 1813 CE), state, Austronesian, capital Banten. 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. https://entireworldhistorytimeline.com/southeast-asia/banten/ - Mataram Sultanate (c. 1586 to 1755 CE), state, Austronesian, capital Kotagede, Plered, Kartasura. 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. https://entireworldhistorytimeline.com/southeast-asia/mataram-sultanate/ - Dutch East India Company (VOC) (1605 to 1799 CE), colony, Germanic, capital Batavia. 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. https://entireworldhistorytimeline.com/southeast-asia/voc/ - Portuguese Timor (1702 to 1975 CE), colony, Latin and Romance, capital Lifau, then Dili. 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. https://entireworldhistorytimeline.com/southeast-asia/portuguese-timor/ - Surakarta and Yogyakarta (1755 to 1950 CE), state, Austronesian, capital Surakarta, Yogyakarta. 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. https://entireworldhistorytimeline.com/southeast-asia/surakarta-yogyakarta/ - Dutch East Indies (1800 to 1949 CE), colony, Germanic, capital Batavia. 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. https://entireworldhistorytimeline.com/southeast-asia/dutch-east-indies/ - Japanese occupation of the Dutch East Indies (1942 to 1945 CE), colony, Japonic. 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. https://entireworldhistorytimeline.com/southeast-asia/japanese-east-indies/ - Indonesia (1945 CE to the present), state, Austronesian, capital Jakarta. 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. https://entireworldhistorytimeline.com/southeast-asia/indonesia/ - Indonesian occupation of East Timor (1975 to 1999 CE), colony, Austronesian, capital Dili. 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. https://entireworldhistorytimeline.com/southeast-asia/occupied-east-timor/ - Timor-Leste (2002 CE to the present), state, Austronesian, capital Dili. After UN administration from 1999, Timor-Leste became independent in 2002, the first new state of the 21st century. It joined ASEAN in 2025. https://entireworldhistorytimeline.com/southeast-asia/timor-leste/ ### Borneo and the Philippines - Philippine Negrito foragers (c. 3200 BCE to the present), people or culture, Unknown or undeciphered. 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. https://entireworldhistorytimeline.com/southeast-asia/philippine-negritos/ - Austronesian peoples (c. 2200 BCE to 900 CE), people or culture, Austronesian. 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. https://entireworldhistorytimeline.com/southeast-asia/austronesian-peoples/ - Dayak peoples of Borneo (c. 1000 BCE to the present), people or culture, Austronesian. 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. https://entireworldhistorytimeline.com/southeast-asia/dayak/ - Kutai Martadipura (c. 350 to 1605 CE), state, Austronesian. 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. https://entireworldhistorytimeline.com/southeast-asia/kutai/ - Barangay chiefdoms (c. 900 to 1565 CE), people or culture, Austronesian. 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. https://entireworldhistorytimeline.com/southeast-asia/barangays/ - Tondo (c. 900 to 1589 CE), state, Austronesian. 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. https://entireworldhistorytimeline.com/southeast-asia/tondo/ - Rajahnate of Cebu (c. 1300 to 1565 CE), state, Austronesian. 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. https://entireworldhistorytimeline.com/southeast-asia/cebu/ - Bruneian Sultanate (c. 1368 to 1888 CE), state, Austronesian. 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. https://entireworldhistorytimeline.com/southeast-asia/brunei-sultanate/ - Sultanate of Sulu (c. 1405 to 1915 CE), state, Austronesian, capital Jolo. 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. https://entireworldhistorytimeline.com/southeast-asia/sulu/ - Sultanate of Maguindanao (c. 1520 to 1905 CE), state, Austronesian. 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. https://entireworldhistorytimeline.com/southeast-asia/maguindanao/ - Spanish Philippines (1565 to 1898 CE), colony, Latin and Romance, capital Cebu, then Manila (1571). 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. https://entireworldhistorytimeline.com/southeast-asia/spanish-philippines/ - Raj of Sarawak (1841 to 1946 CE), state, Germanic, capital Kuching. 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. https://entireworldhistorytimeline.com/southeast-asia/sarawak/ - British North Borneo (1882 to 1963 CE), colony, Germanic, capital Sandakan, then Jesselton. A chartered company ran Sabah from 1882 until it became a crown colony in 1946. It joined Malaysia in 1963. https://entireworldhistorytimeline.com/southeast-asia/north-borneo/ - American Philippines (1898 to 1946 CE), colony, Germanic, capital Manila. 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. https://entireworldhistorytimeline.com/southeast-asia/american-philippines/ - First Philippine Republic (1899 to 1901 CE), state, Austronesian, capital Malolos. 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. https://entireworldhistorytimeline.com/southeast-asia/first-philippine-republic/ - Japanese occupation of the Philippines (1942 to 1945 CE), colony, Japonic, capital Manila. 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. https://entireworldhistorytimeline.com/southeast-asia/japanese-philippines/ - Philippines (1946 CE to the present), state, Austronesian, capital Manila. 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. https://entireworldhistorytimeline.com/southeast-asia/philippines/ - Brunei (1984 CE to the present), state, Austronesian, capital Bandar Seri Begawan. Brunei regained full independence from Britain in 1984 as an absolute monarchy under Sultan Hassanal Bolkiah, funded by oil found at Seria in 1929. https://entireworldhistorytimeline.com/southeast-asia/brunei/ ### Events in Southeast Asia - 2200 BCE: Austronesians reach the Philippines. Farmers from Taiwan cross the Luzon Strait with red-slipped pottery and rice, the first step of the Austronesian spread through the islands. - 500 BCE: Dong Son bronze drums. Red River valley smiths cast large decorated bronze drums, traded as prestige goods across mainland and island Southeast Asia. - 111 BCE: Han conquest of Nanyue. Han armies take the Nanyue capital at Panyu, bringing northern Vietnam under Chinese rule for most of the next thousand years. - 40: Trung sisters' revolt. Trung Trac and Trung Nhi drive out the Han governor and rule as queens for three years, later honoured as Vietnam's national heroines. - 671: Yijing studies at Srivijaya. The Chinese monk Yijing stops at Srivijaya on his way to India and advises pilgrims to study Sanskrit and Buddhist texts there first. - 825: Borobudur completed. The Sailendra dynasty completes Borobudur in central Java, a stepped stone mandala with 2,672 relief panels and 504 Buddha statues. - 938: Battle of Bach Dang. 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. - 1025: Chola raid on Srivijaya. Rajendra I's fleet from south India sacks Palembang, Kedah and other Srivijayan ports, breaking Srivijaya's hold on the straits. - 1113: Construction of Angkor Wat begins. Under Suryavarman II, who takes the throne this year, builders begin Angkor Wat, the largest religious monument in the world, dedicated to Vishnu. - 1287: Mongols invade Pagan. Yuan armies invade Burma after earlier clashes, and the Pagan kingdom breaks apart into rival successor states. - 1288: Dai Viet defeats the Mongols. Tran Hung Dao repeats Ngo Quyen's stake trap at the Bach Dang River and destroys the Yuan fleet, ending the third Mongol invasion. - 1293: Mongol expedition to Java. A Yuan fleet sent to punish Kertanegara is used by Raden Wijaya to crush his rivals and then driven out, and Majapahit is founded. - 1405: Zheng He's fleets reach Malacca. The Ming admiral's treasure fleets begin calling at Malacca, and Ming backing helps the young sultanate resist Siam. - 1431: Ayutthaya sacks Angkor. Siamese armies take Angkor, and the Khmer court soon moves south toward Phnom Penh. - 1471: Dai Viet conquers Vijaya. Le Thanh Tong takes the Cham capital Vijaya, killing or capturing tens of thousands and reducing Champa to a southern remnant. - 1511: Portuguese capture Malacca. Afonso de Albuquerque storms Malacca, giving Portugal control of the main gateway between the Indian Ocean and the South China Sea. - 1521: Magellan killed at Mactan. Ferdinand Magellan's expedition reaches the Philippines, converts the ruler of Cebu and loses Magellan in battle with Lapulapu on Mactan. - 1565: Manila galleon route opens. Andrés de Urdaneta finds the return route across the Pacific, opening the galleon trade that carried American silver to Asia for 250 years. - 1619: Batavia founded. Jan Pieterszoon Coen destroys Jayakarta and builds Batavia, the headquarters of the Dutch East India Company in Asia. - 1767: Fall of Ayutthaya. Konbaung armies sack and burn Ayutthaya after a long siege, ending a kingdom that had lasted over 400 years. - 1815: Eruption of Tambora. Mount Tambora on Sumbawa produces the largest eruption in recorded history, killing tens of thousands and causing the year without a summer in 1816. - 1824: Anglo-Dutch Treaty. Britain and the Netherlands divide the Malay world along the Strait of Malacca, roughly fixing the later border between Malaysia and Indonesia. - 1883: Krakatoa erupts. 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. - 1896: Philippine Revolution. The Katipunan secret society launches a revolt against Spain, and the execution of the writer Jose Rizal in December hardens the rebellion. - 1942: Fall of Singapore. About 80,000 British, Indian and Australian troops surrender to Japan, and Japanese forces occupy all of Southeast Asia within months. - 1945: Indonesia declares independence. Sukarno and Mohammad Hatta proclaim independence in Jakarta on 17 August, starting a four-year war against the returning Dutch. - 1954: Battle of Dien Bien Phu. The Viet Minh under Vo Nguyen Giap besiege and capture the French base at Dien Bien Phu, ending French rule in Indochina. - 1967: ASEAN founded. Indonesia, Malaysia, the Philippines, Singapore and Thailand sign the Bangkok Declaration, founding the Association of Southeast Asian Nations. - 1975: Fall of Saigon and Phnom Penh. The Khmer Rouge take Phnom Penh on 17 April and North Vietnamese tanks enter Saigon on 30 April, ending the Indochina wars. - 2004: Indian Ocean tsunami. An earthquake off Sumatra sends tsunamis across the Indian Ocean, killing about 230,000 people, over 160,000 of them in Aceh. ## North America ### Arctic and Greenland - Northern Archaic tradition (c. 3200 to 2000 BCE), people or culture, Unknown or undeciphered. 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. https://entireworldhistorytimeline.com/north-america/northern-archaic/ - Unangan (Aleut) peoples (c. 2500 BCE to the present), people or culture, Eskimo-Aleut. 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. https://entireworldhistorytimeline.com/north-america/unangan/ - Arctic Small Tool tradition (c. 2500 to 800 BCE), people or culture, Eskimo-Aleut. 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. https://entireworldhistorytimeline.com/north-america/arctic-small-tool/ - Saqqaq culture (c. 2500 to 800 BCE), people or culture, Eskimo-Aleut. 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. https://entireworldhistorytimeline.com/north-america/saqqaq/ - Pre-Dorset (c. 2500 to 500 BCE), people or culture, Eskimo-Aleut. 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. https://entireworldhistorytimeline.com/north-america/pre-dorset/ - Independence I culture (c. 2400 to 1800 BCE), people or culture, Eskimo-Aleut. 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. https://entireworldhistorytimeline.com/north-america/independence-i/ - Norton tradition (c. 1000 BCE to 800 CE), people or culture, Eskimo-Aleut. 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. https://entireworldhistorytimeline.com/north-america/norton/ - Dorset culture (c. 500 BCE to 1300 CE), people or culture, Eskimo-Aleut. 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. https://entireworldhistorytimeline.com/north-america/dorset/ - Birnirk culture (c. 600 to 1000 CE), people or culture, Eskimo-Aleut. Whaling communities on both sides of the Bering Strait around Point Barrow and Chukotka. The Thule culture grew directly out of them. https://entireworldhistorytimeline.com/north-america/birnirk/ - Norse Greenland (c. 985 to 1450 CE), colony, Germanic, capital Gardar (Igaliku). 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. https://entireworldhistorytimeline.com/north-america/norse-greenland/ - Thule culture (c. 1000 to 1600 CE), people or culture, Eskimo-Aleut. 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. https://entireworldhistorytimeline.com/north-america/thule/ - Inuit peoples (c. 1600 CE to the present), people or culture, Eskimo-Aleut. 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. https://entireworldhistorytimeline.com/north-america/inuit/ - Danish Greenland (1721 to 1979 CE), colony, Germanic, capital Godthab (Nuuk). 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. https://entireworldhistorytimeline.com/north-america/danish-greenland/ - Greenland (1979 CE to the present), state, Eskimo-Aleut, capital Nuuk. 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. https://entireworldhistorytimeline.com/north-america/greenland/ ### Canada and the Subarctic - Maritime Archaic (c. 3200 to 1000 BCE), people or culture, Unknown or undeciphered. 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. https://entireworldhistorytimeline.com/north-america/maritime-archaic/ - Shield Archaic (c. 3200 to 500 BCE), people or culture, Unknown or undeciphered. 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. https://entireworldhistorytimeline.com/north-america/shield-archaic/ - Laurel complex (c. 500 BCE to 1000 CE), people or culture, Unknown or undeciphered. 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. https://entireworldhistorytimeline.com/north-america/laurel/ - Dene (Northern Athabaskan) peoples (c. 500 BCE to the present), people or culture, North American families. 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. https://entireworldhistorytimeline.com/north-america/dene/ - Vinland (L'Anse aux Meadows) (c. 1000 to 1020 CE), colony, Germanic. 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. https://entireworldhistorytimeline.com/north-america/vinland/ - Beothuk (c. 1000 to 1829 CE), people or culture, Isolates and ancient. 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. https://entireworldhistorytimeline.com/north-america/beothuk/ - Cree peoples (c. 1000 CE to the present), people or culture, North American families. 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. https://entireworldhistorytimeline.com/north-america/cree/ - New France (1534 to 1763 CE), colony, Latin and Romance, capital Quebec. 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. https://entireworldhistorytimeline.com/north-america/new-france/ - Acadia (1604 to 1713 CE), colony, Latin and Romance, capital Port-Royal. 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. https://entireworldhistorytimeline.com/north-america/acadia/ - Rupert's Land (Hudson's Bay Company) (1670 to 1870 CE), colony, Germanic, capital York Factory. 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. https://entireworldhistorytimeline.com/north-america/ruperts-land/ - British North America (1763 to 1867 CE), colony, Germanic. 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. https://entireworldhistorytimeline.com/north-america/british-north-america/ - Province of Quebec (1763 to 1791 CE), colony, Germanic, capital Quebec. 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. https://entireworldhistorytimeline.com/north-america/province-of-quebec/ - Upper Canada (1791 to 1841 CE), colony, Germanic, capital York (Toronto). 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. https://entireworldhistorytimeline.com/north-america/upper-canada/ - Lower Canada (1791 to 1841 CE), colony, Germanic, capital Quebec. 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. https://entireworldhistorytimeline.com/north-america/lower-canada/ - Red River Colony (1812 to 1870 CE), colony, Germanic, capital Fort Garry. 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. https://entireworldhistorytimeline.com/north-america/red-river-colony/ - Province of Canada (1841 to 1867 CE), colony, Germanic, capital Kingston, Montreal, Quebec, Toronto, later Ottawa. 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. https://entireworldhistorytimeline.com/north-america/province-of-canada/ - Dominion of Canada (1867 to 1982 CE), state, Germanic, capital Ottawa. 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. https://entireworldhistorytimeline.com/north-america/dominion-of-canada/ - Dominion of Newfoundland (1907 to 1949 CE), state, Germanic, capital St. John's. 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. https://entireworldhistorytimeline.com/north-america/newfoundland/ - Canada (1982 CE to the present), state, Germanic, capital Ottawa. 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. https://entireworldhistorytimeline.com/north-america/canada/ ### Eastern Woodlands - Eastern Archaic hunter-gatherers (c. 3200 to 1000 BCE), people or culture, Unknown or undeciphered. 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. https://entireworldhistorytimeline.com/north-america/eastern-archaic/ - Watson Brake mounds (c. 3200 to 2800 BCE), people or culture, Unknown or undeciphered. 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. https://entireworldhistorytimeline.com/north-america/watson-brake/ - Poverty Point culture (c. 1700 to 1100 BCE), people or culture, Unknown or undeciphered. 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. https://entireworldhistorytimeline.com/north-america/poverty-point/ - Woodland period cultures (c. 1000 BCE to 1000 CE), people or culture, Unknown or undeciphered. 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. https://entireworldhistorytimeline.com/north-america/woodland-period/ - Adena culture (c. 500 BCE to 100 CE), people or culture, Unknown or undeciphered. 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. https://entireworldhistorytimeline.com/north-america/adena/ - Hopewell tradition (c. 100 BCE to 500 CE), people or culture, Unknown or undeciphered. 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. https://entireworldhistorytimeline.com/north-america/hopewell/ - Mississippian culture (c. 800 to 1600 CE), people or culture, Unknown or undeciphered. Maize-farming chiefdoms of the Mississippi valley and Southeast who built platform mounds around plazas. Drought, warfare and then European diseases broke them up. https://entireworldhistorytimeline.com/north-america/mississippian/ - Fort Ancient culture (c. 1000 to 1750 CE), people or culture, Unknown or undeciphered. Maize farmers of the middle Ohio valley who lived in palisaded circular villages. Many scholars link them to the historic Shawnee. https://entireworldhistorytimeline.com/north-america/fort-ancient/ - Cahokia (c. 1050 to 1350 CE), people or culture, Unknown or undeciphered. 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. https://entireworldhistorytimeline.com/north-america/cahokia/ - Moundville (c. 1120 to 1450 CE), people or culture, Unknown or undeciphered. 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. https://entireworldhistorytimeline.com/north-america/moundville/ - Natchez (c. 1200 to 1731 CE), people or culture, Isolates and ancient. 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. https://entireworldhistorytimeline.com/north-america/natchez/ - Coosa chiefdom (c. 1400 to 1600 CE), people or culture, North American families. Paramount chiefdom centered in northwest Georgia that Hernando de Soto visited in 1540. It controlled towns along several hundred kilometres of river valleys. https://entireworldhistorytimeline.com/north-america/coosa/ - Huron-Wendat Confederacy (c. 1400 to 1650 CE), people or culture, North American families. 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. https://entireworldhistorytimeline.com/north-america/huron-wendat/ - Iroquois Confederacy (Haudenosaunee) (c. 1450 CE to the present), people or culture, North American families, capital Onondaga. 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. https://entireworldhistorytimeline.com/north-america/iroquois/ - Cherokee (c. 1500 to 1794 CE), people or culture, North American families. 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. https://entireworldhistorytimeline.com/north-america/cherokee/ - Spanish Florida (1565 to 1821 CE), colony, Latin and Romance, capital St. Augustine. 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. https://entireworldhistorytimeline.com/north-america/spanish-florida/ - Powhatan Paramount Chiefdom (c. 1570 to 1646 CE), people or culture, North American families, capital Werowocomoco. 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. https://entireworldhistorytimeline.com/north-america/powhatan/ - Roanoke Colony (1585 to 1590 CE), colony, Germanic. 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. https://entireworldhistorytimeline.com/north-america/roanoke/ - Thirteen Colonies (1607 to 1776 CE), colony, Germanic, capital Williamsburg, Boston, Philadelphia and others. 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. https://entireworldhistorytimeline.com/north-america/thirteen-colonies/ - New Netherland (1614 to 1664 CE), colony, Germanic, capital New Amsterdam. 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. https://entireworldhistorytimeline.com/north-america/new-netherland/ - New Sweden (1638 to 1655 CE), colony, Germanic, capital Fort Christina. 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. https://entireworldhistorytimeline.com/north-america/new-sweden/ - Muscogee (Creek) Confederacy (c. 1650 to 1836 CE), people or culture, North American families. 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. https://entireworldhistorytimeline.com/north-america/muscogee/ - French Louisiana (1682 to 1762 CE), colony, Latin and Romance, capital Mobile, later New Orleans. 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. https://entireworldhistorytimeline.com/north-america/french-louisiana/ - United States (1776 CE to the present), state, Germanic, capital Philadelphia and New York, then Washington, D.C. from 1800. 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. https://entireworldhistorytimeline.com/north-america/united-states/ - Cherokee Nation (1794 to 1907 CE), state, North American families, capital New Echota, later Tahlequah. 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. https://entireworldhistorytimeline.com/north-america/cherokee-nation/ - Tecumseh's Confederacy (1808 to 1813 CE), people or culture, North American families, capital Prophetstown. 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. https://entireworldhistorytimeline.com/north-america/tecumseh-confederacy/ - Confederate States of America (1861 to 1865 CE), state, Germanic, capital Montgomery, then Richmond. 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. https://entireworldhistorytimeline.com/north-america/confederate-states/ ### Great Plains - Plains Archaic hunters (c. 3200 to 500 BCE), people or culture, Unknown or undeciphered. 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. https://entireworldhistorytimeline.com/north-america/plains-archaic/ - Plains Woodland cultures (c. 500 BCE to 900 CE), people or culture, Unknown or undeciphered. 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. https://entireworldhistorytimeline.com/north-america/plains-woodland/ - Caddo confederacies (c. 800 to 1859 CE), people or culture, North American families. 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. https://entireworldhistorytimeline.com/north-america/caddo/ - Plains Village tradition (c. 900 to 1500 CE), people or culture, North American families. 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. https://entireworldhistorytimeline.com/north-america/plains-village/ - Oneota culture (c. 1000 to 1650 CE), people or culture, Unknown or undeciphered. 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. https://entireworldhistorytimeline.com/north-america/oneota/ - Mandan and Hidatsa villages (c. 1300 to 1837 CE), people or culture, North American families. 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. https://entireworldhistorytimeline.com/north-america/mandan-hidatsa/ - Wichita peoples (Quivira) (c. 1450 CE to the present), people or culture, North American families. 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. https://entireworldhistorytimeline.com/north-america/wichita/ - Blackfoot Confederacy (c. 1600 CE to the present), people or culture, North American families. 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. https://entireworldhistorytimeline.com/north-america/blackfoot/ - Spanish Texas (1690 to 1821 CE), colony, Latin and Romance, capital Los Adaes, later San Antonio de Bexar. 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. https://entireworldhistorytimeline.com/north-america/spanish-texas/ - Lakota (Teton Sioux) (c. 1700 CE to the present), people or culture, North American families. 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. https://entireworldhistorytimeline.com/north-america/lakota/ - Comanche empire (Comancheria) (c. 1706 to 1875 CE), empire, Uto-Aztecan. 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. https://entireworldhistorytimeline.com/north-america/comancheria/ - Spanish Louisiana (1762 to 1801 CE), colony, Latin and Romance, capital New Orleans. 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. https://entireworldhistorytimeline.com/north-america/spanish-louisiana/ - Mexican Texas (1821 to 1836 CE), state, Latin and Romance, capital Saltillo (Coahuila y Tejas). 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. https://entireworldhistorytimeline.com/north-america/mexican-texas/ - Republic of Texas (1836 to 1845 CE), state, Germanic, capital Houston, then Austin. 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. https://entireworldhistorytimeline.com/north-america/republic-of-texas/ ### Southwest and Great Basin - Southwestern Archaic foragers (c. 3200 to 1500 BCE), people or culture, Unknown or undeciphered. 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. https://entireworldhistorytimeline.com/north-america/southwest-archaic/ - Early Agricultural period farmers (c. 2100 BCE to 50 CE), people or culture, Unknown or undeciphered. 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. https://entireworldhistorytimeline.com/north-america/early-agricultural/ - Basketmaker culture (c. 1500 BCE to 750 CE), people or culture, Unknown or undeciphered. 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. https://entireworldhistorytimeline.com/north-america/basketmaker/ - Fremont culture (c. 1 to 1300 CE), people or culture, Unknown or undeciphered. 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. https://entireworldhistorytimeline.com/north-america/fremont/ - Mogollon culture (c. 200 to 1450 CE), people or culture, Unknown or undeciphered. 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. https://entireworldhistorytimeline.com/north-america/mogollon/ - Hohokam (c. 300 to 1450 CE), people or culture, Unknown or undeciphered. 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. https://entireworldhistorytimeline.com/north-america/hohokam/ - Ancestral Puebloans (c. 750 to 1300 CE), people or culture, Unknown or undeciphered. 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. https://entireworldhistorytimeline.com/north-america/ancestral-puebloans/ - Chaco Canyon (Chacoan system) (c. 850 to 1150 CE), people or culture, Unknown or undeciphered. 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. https://entireworldhistorytimeline.com/north-america/chaco/ - Mimbres (c. 1000 to 1130 CE), people or culture, Unknown or undeciphered. 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. https://entireworldhistorytimeline.com/north-america/mimbres/ - Numic peoples (Shoshone, Paiute, Ute) (c. 1000 CE to the present), people or culture, Uto-Aztecan. 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. https://entireworldhistorytimeline.com/north-america/numic/ - Pueblo peoples (Hopi, Zuni, Rio Grande) (c. 1300 CE to the present), people or culture, North American families. 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. https://entireworldhistorytimeline.com/north-america/pueblo-peoples/ - Apache peoples (c. 1400 CE to the present), people or culture, North American families. 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. https://entireworldhistorytimeline.com/north-america/apache/ - O'odham peoples (c. 1450 CE to the present), people or culture, Uto-Aztecan. 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. https://entireworldhistorytimeline.com/north-america/oodham/ - Navajo (Diné) (c. 1500 CE to the present), people or culture, North American families. 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. https://entireworldhistorytimeline.com/north-america/navajo/ - Santa Fe de Nuevo México (1598 to 1821 CE), colony, Latin and Romance, capital Santa Fe from 1610. 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. https://entireworldhistorytimeline.com/north-america/nuevo-mexico/ - Mexican New Mexico (1821 to 1848 CE), state, Latin and Romance, capital Santa Fe. Mexican territory opened to American traders on the Santa Fe Trail. US forces occupied it in 1846 and Mexico ceded it in 1848. https://entireworldhistorytimeline.com/north-america/mexican-new-mexico/ ### Pacific Coast and California - Early Pacific period cultures (c. 3200 to 1800 BCE), people or culture, Unknown or undeciphered. 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. https://entireworldhistorytimeline.com/north-america/early-pacific/ - California Archaic hunter-gatherers (c. 3200 BCE to 500 CE), people or culture, Unknown or undeciphered. 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. https://entireworldhistorytimeline.com/north-america/california-archaic/ - Locarno Beach and Marpole cultures (c. 1800 BCE to 500 CE), people or culture, Unknown or undeciphered. 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. https://entireworldhistorytimeline.com/north-america/locarno-marpole/ - Pacific Northwest peoples (c. 500 CE to the present), people or culture, North American families. 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. https://entireworldhistorytimeline.com/north-america/northwest-coast/ - Chumash (c. 500 CE to the present), people or culture, North American families. 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. https://entireworldhistorytimeline.com/north-america/chumash/ - California peoples (Ohlone, Miwok, Pomo, Tongva) (c. 500 CE to the present), people or culture, North American families. 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. https://entireworldhistorytimeline.com/north-america/california-peoples/ - Alta California (1769 to 1821 CE), colony, Latin and Romance, capital Monterey. Spanish province founded with Junipero Serra's mission at San Diego in 1769. A chain of 21 missions eventually reached north to Sonoma. https://entireworldhistorytimeline.com/north-america/alta-california/ - Russian America (1799 to 1867 CE), colony, Slavic, capital Kodiak, then New Archangel (Sitka). 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. https://entireworldhistorytimeline.com/north-america/russian-america/ - Oregon Country (1818 to 1846 CE), colony, Germanic, capital Fort Vancouver. 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. https://entireworldhistorytimeline.com/north-america/oregon-country/ - Mexican California (1821 to 1848 CE), state, Latin and Romance, capital Monterey. 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. https://entireworldhistorytimeline.com/north-america/mexican-california/ - Colony of British Columbia (1858 to 1871 CE), colony, Germanic, capital New Westminster, then Victoria. 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. https://entireworldhistorytimeline.com/north-america/british-columbia/ ### Events in North America - 2500 BCE: Paleo-Eskimos settle the eastern Arctic. Arctic Small Tool tradition hunters cross from Alaska to Greenland in a few centuries, the first people to live in the Canadian high Arctic. - 2100 BCE: Maize reaches the Southwest. Maize from Mexico appears in Arizona and New Mexico, and within a millennium farmers in the Tucson Basin are digging irrigation canals. - 1600 BCE: Poverty Point earthworks built. Foragers in Louisiana raise six concentric ridges and Mound A, one of the largest earthworks in North America, without farming. - 100: Hopewell exchange network at its height. Ohio Hopewell earthworks such as Newark draw obsidian from Yellowstone, copper from Lake Superior and shells from the Gulf of Mexico. - 985: Erik the Red settles Greenland. About 14 ships of Icelandic settlers reach southwest Greenland and found the Eastern Settlement. - 1000: Norse reach Vinland. 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. - 1050: Cahokia grows into a city. 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. - 1276: The Great Drought. A drought of over 20 years helps drive the Ancestral Puebloans out of Mesa Verde and the Four Corners by 1300. - 1497: John Cabot reaches Newfoundland. 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. - 1540: De Soto and Coronado expeditions. 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. - 1607: Jamestown founded. The Virginia Company plants the first permanent English settlement in America inside Powhatan territory. Tobacco soon makes the colony profitable. - 1608: Champlain founds Quebec. Samuel de Champlain builds a trading post at Quebec, the seat of New France for the next 150 years. - 1680: Pueblo Revolt. Led by Popé of Ohkay Owingeh, the Pueblos kill about 400 colonists and drive the Spanish out of New Mexico for twelve years. - 1763: Treaty of Paris ends New France. France gives Canada and the lands east of the Mississippi to Britain and Louisiana to Spain, ending its North American empire. - 1776: Declaration of Independence. The Continental Congress declares the Thirteen Colonies independent of Britain. The war ends with British recognition in 1783. - 1803: Louisiana Purchase. The United States buys about 2.1 million square km west of the Mississippi from France for 15 million dollars, doubling its size. - 1838: Trail of Tears. The US Army forces about 16,000 Cherokee from their homeland to Indian Territory. Thousands die on the way. - 1848: Mexican Cession and California Gold Rush. Mexico cedes the Southwest and California in the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo, days after gold is found at Sutter's Mill. - 1861: American Civil War begins. Confederate guns fire on Fort Sumter. Four years of war end slavery in the United States through the Thirteenth Amendment of 1865. - 1867: Canadian Confederation and Alaska Purchase. Four British colonies unite as the Dominion of Canada on 1 July, and the United States buys Alaska from Russia in the same year. - 1876: Battle of the Little Bighorn. Lakota and Cheyenne warriors under Sitting Bull and Crazy Horse wipe out Custer's command in Montana, the high point of plains resistance. - 1969: Apollo 11 lands on the Moon. NASA astronauts Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin become the first people to walk on the Moon. - 1999: Nunavut created. Canada splits the Northwest Territories to create Nunavut, a territory of about 2 million square km with an Inuit majority. ## Mesoamerica and Caribbean ### Northern Mexico - Desert Archaic foragers (c. 3200 to 1000 BCE), people or culture, Unknown or undeciphered. Hunter-gatherers of the Chihuahuan and Sonoran deserts who lived on agave, mesquite, cactus fruit and small game, sheltering in caves and rock shelters. https://entireworldhistorytimeline.com/mesoamerica/desert-archaic/ - Early farmers of the northern deserts (c. 1500 BCE to 700 CE), people or culture, Unknown or undeciphered. 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. https://entireworldhistorytimeline.com/mesoamerica/northern-early-farmers/ - Chalchihuites culture (c. 200 to 1100 CE), people or culture, Unknown or undeciphered. 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. https://entireworldhistorytimeline.com/mesoamerica/chalchihuites/ - La Quemada (c. 500 to 900 CE), people or culture, Unknown or undeciphered. 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. https://entireworldhistorytimeline.com/mesoamerica/la-quemada/ - Trincheras tradition (c. 800 to 1450 CE), people or culture, Unknown or undeciphered. 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. https://entireworldhistorytimeline.com/mesoamerica/trincheras/ - Chichimeca peoples (c. 900 to 1600 CE), people or culture, Unknown or undeciphered. 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. https://entireworldhistorytimeline.com/mesoamerica/chichimeca/ - Yaqui, Mayo and Raramuri peoples (c. 1000 CE to the present), people or culture, Uto-Aztecan. 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. https://entireworldhistorytimeline.com/mesoamerica/yaqui-raramuri/ - Casas Grandes (Paquimé) (c. 1200 to 1450 CE), people or culture, Unknown or undeciphered. 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. https://entireworldhistorytimeline.com/mesoamerica/casas-grandes/ - Nueva Vizcaya (1562 to 1821 CE), colony, Latin and Romance, capital Durango. 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. https://entireworldhistorytimeline.com/mesoamerica/nueva-vizcaya/ ### Central and West Mexico - Archaic maize farmers (c. 3200 to 1200 BCE), people or culture, Unknown or undeciphered. 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. https://entireworldhistorytimeline.com/mesoamerica/central-archaic/ - Tlatilco culture (c. 1200 to 400 BCE), people or culture, Unknown or undeciphered. 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. https://entireworldhistorytimeline.com/mesoamerica/tlatilco/ - Cuicuilco (c. 800 BCE to 250 CE), people or culture, Unknown or undeciphered. 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. https://entireworldhistorytimeline.com/mesoamerica/cuicuilco/ - Cholula (c. 300 BCE to 1519 CE), state, Unknown or undeciphered. 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. https://entireworldhistorytimeline.com/mesoamerica/cholula/ - Teuchitlán tradition (c. 300 BCE to 900 CE), people or culture, Unknown or undeciphered. 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. https://entireworldhistorytimeline.com/mesoamerica/teuchitlan/ - Teotihuacan (c. 100 BCE to 550 CE), state, Unknown or undeciphered. 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. https://entireworldhistorytimeline.com/mesoamerica/teotihuacan/ - Xochicalco (c. 650 to 900 CE), state, Unknown or undeciphered. Fortified hilltop city in Morelos that rose after Teotihuacan fell. Its Temple of the Feathered Serpent mixes Maya, Zapotec and central Mexican styles. https://entireworldhistorytimeline.com/mesoamerica/xochicalco/ - Toltec state (Tula) (c. 900 to 1150 CE), state, Uto-Aztecan, capital Tula (Tollan). 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. https://entireworldhistorytimeline.com/mesoamerica/toltec/ - Tepanec state (Azcapotzalco) (c. 1300 to 1428 CE), state, Uto-Aztecan, capital Azcapotzalco. 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. https://entireworldhistorytimeline.com/mesoamerica/tepanec/ - Mexica city-state (Tenochtitlan) (1325 to 1428 CE), state, Uto-Aztecan, capital Tenochtitlan. The Mexica founded Tenochtitlan on an island in Lake Texcoco in 1325 and served the Tepanecs as mercenaries before overthrowing them. https://entireworldhistorytimeline.com/mesoamerica/tenochtitlan/ - Tlaxcala (c. 1350 to 1521 CE), state, Uto-Aztecan, capital Tlaxcala. 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. https://entireworldhistorytimeline.com/mesoamerica/tlaxcala/ - Tarascan state (c. 1350 to 1530 CE), state, Isolates and ancient, capital Tzintzuntzan. 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. https://entireworldhistorytimeline.com/mesoamerica/tarascan/ - Aztec Empire (Triple Alliance) (1428 to 1521 CE), empire, Uto-Aztecan, capital Tenochtitlan. 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. https://entireworldhistorytimeline.com/mesoamerica/aztec-empire/ - New Spain (1521 to 1821 CE), colony, Latin and Romance, capital Mexico City. 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. https://entireworldhistorytimeline.com/mesoamerica/new-spain/ - First Mexican Empire (1821 to 1823 CE), empire, Latin and Romance, capital Mexico City. Monarchy proclaimed at independence, with Agustín de Iturbide crowned emperor in 1822. It briefly annexed Central America and fell when Iturbide abdicated in 1823. https://entireworldhistorytimeline.com/mesoamerica/first-mexican-empire/ - Mexico (1823 CE to the present), state, Latin and Romance, capital Mexico City. 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. https://entireworldhistorytimeline.com/mesoamerica/mexico/ - Second Mexican Empire (1864 to 1867 CE), empire, Latin and Romance, capital Mexico City. 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. https://entireworldhistorytimeline.com/mesoamerica/second-mexican-empire/ ### Gulf Coast and Oaxaca - Archaic foragers of Oaxaca and the Gulf (c. 3200 to 1500 BCE), people or culture, Unknown or undeciphered. 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. https://entireworldhistorytimeline.com/mesoamerica/oaxaca-archaic/ - Olmec civilization (c. 1600 to 400 BCE), people or culture, Mixe-Zoque. 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. https://entireworldhistorytimeline.com/mesoamerica/olmec/ - San José Mogote (c. 1500 to 500 BCE), people or culture, Oto-Manguean. 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. https://entireworldhistorytimeline.com/mesoamerica/san-jose-mogote/ - San Lorenzo phase (Olmec) (c. 1400 to 900 BCE), people or culture, Mixe-Zoque, capital San Lorenzo Tenochtitlan. 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. https://entireworldhistorytimeline.com/mesoamerica/san-lorenzo/ - La Venta phase (Olmec) (c. 900 to 400 BCE), people or culture, Mixe-Zoque, capital La Venta. 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. https://entireworldhistorytimeline.com/mesoamerica/la-venta/ - Zapotec state (Monte Albán) (c. 500 BCE to 850 CE), state, Oto-Manguean, capital Monte Albán. 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. https://entireworldhistorytimeline.com/mesoamerica/monte-alban/ - Epi-Olmec culture (c. 300 BCE to 250 CE), people or culture, Mixe-Zoque, capital Tres Zapotes. 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. https://entireworldhistorytimeline.com/mesoamerica/epi-olmec/ - El Tajín (Classic Veracruz) (c. 600 to 1200 CE), state, Unknown or undeciphered. 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. https://entireworldhistorytimeline.com/mesoamerica/el-tajin/ - Zapotec city-states (Zaachila, Mitla) (c. 850 to 1521 CE), state, Oto-Manguean. 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. https://entireworldhistorytimeline.com/mesoamerica/zapotec-city-states/ - Huastec (Teenek) peoples (c. 900 to 1525 CE), people or culture, Mayan. 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. https://entireworldhistorytimeline.com/mesoamerica/huastec/ - Mixtec kingdoms (c. 900 to 1522 CE), state, Oto-Manguean, capital Tilantongo, Tututepec. 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. https://entireworldhistorytimeline.com/mesoamerica/mixtec/ - Totonac (Cempoala) (c. 1200 to 1519 CE), state, Isolates and ancient, capital Cempoala. Totonac lordships of central Veracruz, recently made Aztec tributaries. The ruler of Cempoala became Cortés's first major ally in 1519. https://entireworldhistorytimeline.com/mesoamerica/totonac/ - Zapotec, Mixtec and Mixe peoples (c. 1521 CE to the present), people or culture, Oto-Manguean. Indigenous communities of Oaxaca who kept their languages and village lands through Spanish rule. The Zapotec Benito Juárez became Mexico's president in 1858. https://entireworldhistorytimeline.com/mesoamerica/oaxaca-peoples/ ### Maya Lowlands and Highlands - Archaic peoples of the Maya region (c. 3200 to 1200 BCE), people or culture, Unknown or undeciphered. Foragers and early cultivators of the Yucatán and Guatemala who cleared forest for maize plots and lived along wetlands and coasts before settled villages. https://entireworldhistorytimeline.com/mesoamerica/maya-archaic/ - Mokaya culture (c. 1900 to 1000 BCE), people or culture, Mixe-Zoque. 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. https://entireworldhistorytimeline.com/mesoamerica/mokaya/ - Early Preclassic Maya villages (c. 1200 to 600 BCE), people or culture, Mayan. 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. https://entireworldhistorytimeline.com/mesoamerica/early-preclassic-maya/ - Kaminaljuyu (c. 800 BCE to 800 CE), state, Mayan. 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. https://entireworldhistorytimeline.com/mesoamerica/kaminaljuyu/ - Izapa (c. 600 BCE to 100 CE), people or culture, Mixe-Zoque. Ceremonial center near the Pacific coast of Chiapas with over 80 carved stelae showing myths that later appear in the Maya Popol Vuh. https://entireworldhistorytimeline.com/mesoamerica/izapa/ - El Mirador (c. 600 BCE to 150 CE), state, Mayan. 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. https://entireworldhistorytimeline.com/mesoamerica/el-mirador/ - Tikal (Mutal) (c. 90 to 900 CE), state, Mayan, capital Tikal. 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. https://entireworldhistorytimeline.com/mesoamerica/tikal/ - Classic Maya civilization (c. 250 to 900 CE), people or culture, Mayan. 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. https://entireworldhistorytimeline.com/mesoamerica/classic-maya/ - Caracol (331 to 859 CE), state, Mayan. 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. https://entireworldhistorytimeline.com/mesoamerica/caracol/ - Kaan kingdom (Calakmul) (c. 400 to 900 CE), state, Mayan, capital Dzibanche, then Calakmul. 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. https://entireworldhistorytimeline.com/mesoamerica/calakmul/ - Copan (426 to 822 CE), state, Mayan. 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. https://entireworldhistorytimeline.com/mesoamerica/copan/ - Palenque (Baakal) (431 to 799 CE), state, Mayan, capital Lakamha. 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. https://entireworldhistorytimeline.com/mesoamerica/palenque/ - Puuc cities (Uxmal) (c. 700 to 1000 CE), state, Mayan, capital Uxmal. 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. https://entireworldhistorytimeline.com/mesoamerica/puuc/ - Chichen Itza (c. 750 to 1200 CE), state, Mayan. 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. https://entireworldhistorytimeline.com/mesoamerica/chichen-itza/ - Mayapan (c. 1220 to 1441 CE), state, Mayan. 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. https://entireworldhistorytimeline.com/mesoamerica/mayapan/ - K'iche' kingdom (c. 1225 to 1524 CE), state, Mayan, capital Q'umarkaj (Utatlán). 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. https://entireworldhistorytimeline.com/mesoamerica/kiche/ - Yucatec Maya provinces (c. 1441 to 1546 CE), state, Mayan. 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. https://entireworldhistorytimeline.com/mesoamerica/yucatec-provinces/ - Itza kingdom (Nojpetén) (c. 1450 to 1697 CE), state, Mayan, capital Nojpetén. 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. https://entireworldhistorytimeline.com/mesoamerica/itza/ - Kaqchikel kingdom (c. 1470 to 1524 CE), state, Mayan, capital Iximche. 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. https://entireworldhistorytimeline.com/mesoamerica/kaqchikel/ - Maya peoples (colonial and modern) (c. 1524 CE to the present), people or culture, Mayan. 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. https://entireworldhistorytimeline.com/mesoamerica/maya-peoples/ - Captaincy General of Guatemala (1543 to 1821 CE), colony, Latin and Romance, capital Santiago de los Caballeros (Antigua), then Guatemala City. 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. https://entireworldhistorytimeline.com/mesoamerica/captaincy-general-guatemala/ - Baymen settlement of Belize (c. 1650 to 1862 CE), colony, Germanic, capital Belize Town. 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. https://entireworldhistorytimeline.com/mesoamerica/baymen-belize/ - Guatemala (1839 CE to the present), state, Latin and Romance, capital Guatemala City. 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. https://entireworldhistorytimeline.com/mesoamerica/guatemala/ - Republic of Yucatán (1841 to 1848 CE), state, Latin and Romance, capital Mérida. 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. https://entireworldhistorytimeline.com/mesoamerica/yucatan-republic/ - Chan Santa Cruz (1850 to 1901 CE), state, Mayan, capital Chan Santa Cruz. 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. https://entireworldhistorytimeline.com/mesoamerica/chan-santa-cruz/ - British Honduras (1862 to 1981 CE), colony, Germanic, capital Belize City. 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. https://entireworldhistorytimeline.com/mesoamerica/british-honduras/ - Belize (1981 CE to the present), state, Germanic, capital Belmopan. English-speaking country on the Caribbean coast that became independent in 1981 with British troops guarding it against Guatemala's territorial claim. https://entireworldhistorytimeline.com/mesoamerica/belize/ ### Lower Central America - Archaic foragers and gardeners of the isthmus (c. 3200 to 1000 BCE), people or culture, Unknown or undeciphered. 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. https://entireworldhistorytimeline.com/mesoamerica/isthmus-archaic/ - Monagrillo culture (c. 2500 to 1200 BCE), people or culture, Unknown or undeciphered. Shell-midden communities on Parita Bay in central Panama who made some of the oldest pottery in the Americas. https://entireworldhistorytimeline.com/mesoamerica/monagrillo/ - Guayabo de Turrialba (c. 1000 BCE to 1400 CE), people or culture, Chibchan. 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. https://entireworldhistorytimeline.com/mesoamerica/guayabo/ - Greater Nicoya cultures (c. 500 BCE to 1522 CE), people or culture, Unknown or undeciphered. 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. https://entireworldhistorytimeline.com/mesoamerica/greater-nicoya/ - Chibchan chiefdoms (Costa Rica and Panama) (c. 500 BCE to 1570 CE), people or culture, Chibchan. 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. https://entireworldhistorytimeline.com/mesoamerica/chibchan-chiefdoms/ - Gran Coclé chiefdoms (c. 1 to 1520 CE), people or culture, Chibchan. 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. https://entireworldhistorytimeline.com/mesoamerica/gran-cocle/ - Diquís culture (c. 500 to 1530 CE), people or culture, Chibchan. 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. https://entireworldhistorytimeline.com/mesoamerica/diquis/ - Nicarao chiefdom (c. 1200 to 1524 CE), people or culture, Uto-Aztecan. 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. https://entireworldhistorytimeline.com/mesoamerica/nicarao/ - Spanish Panama (Castilla de Oro) (1510 to 1821 CE), colony, Latin and Romance, capital Santa María la Antigua del Darién, then Panama City. 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. https://entireworldhistorytimeline.com/mesoamerica/spanish-panama/ - Mosquito Kingdom (c. 1638 to 1894 CE), state, Chibchan, capital Bluefields. 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. https://entireworldhistorytimeline.com/mesoamerica/mosquito-kingdom/ - Federal Republic of Central America (1823 to 1841 CE), state, Latin and Romance, capital Guatemala City, then San Salvador. 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. https://entireworldhistorytimeline.com/mesoamerica/federal-republic-central-america/ - Honduras (1838 CE to the present), state, Latin and Romance, capital Comayagua, then Tegucigalpa. 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. https://entireworldhistorytimeline.com/mesoamerica/honduras/ - Nicaragua (1838 CE to the present), state, Latin and Romance, capital Managua. 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. https://entireworldhistorytimeline.com/mesoamerica/nicaragua/ - Costa Rica (1838 CE to the present), state, Latin and Romance, capital San José. Coffee-exporting republic that abolished its army in 1948 after a short civil war and has held regular democratic elections since. https://entireworldhistorytimeline.com/mesoamerica/costa-rica/ - El Salvador (1841 CE to the present), state, Latin and Romance, capital San Salvador. 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. https://entireworldhistorytimeline.com/mesoamerica/el-salvador/ - Panama (1903 CE to the present), state, Latin and Romance, capital Panama City. 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. https://entireworldhistorytimeline.com/mesoamerica/panama/ - Panama Canal Zone (1903 to 1979 CE), colony, Germanic, capital Balboa Heights. Strip of land about 16 km wide around the canal, governed by the United States. The Torrijos-Carter Treaties abolished it in 1979. https://entireworldhistorytimeline.com/mesoamerica/panama-canal-zone/ ### Caribbean - Casimiroid culture (c. 3200 to 200 BCE), people or culture, Unknown or undeciphered. 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. https://entireworldhistorytimeline.com/mesoamerica/casimiroid/ - Ortoiroid culture (c. 3200 to 400 BCE), people or culture, Unknown or undeciphered. 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. https://entireworldhistorytimeline.com/mesoamerica/ortoiroid/ - Saladoid culture (c. 500 BCE to 600 CE), people or culture, Arawakan. 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. https://entireworldhistorytimeline.com/mesoamerica/saladoid/ - Ostionoid culture (c. 600 to 1200 CE), people or culture, Arawakan. Descendants of the Saladoid who spread to Hispaniola, Jamaica, eastern Cuba and the Bahamas. They built the first stone-lined ball plazas, or bateyes. https://entireworldhistorytimeline.com/mesoamerica/ostionoid/ - Lucayan Taíno (c. 800 to 1520 CE), people or culture, Arawakan. 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. https://entireworldhistorytimeline.com/mesoamerica/lucayan/ - Taíno chiefdoms (c. 1200 to 1550 CE), people or culture, Arawakan. 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. https://entireworldhistorytimeline.com/mesoamerica/taino/ - Island Caribs (Kalinago) (c. 1200 CE to the present), people or culture, Cariban. 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. https://entireworldhistorytimeline.com/mesoamerica/island-carib/ - Captaincy General of Santo Domingo (1493 to 1821 CE), colony, Latin and Romance, capital Santo Domingo. 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. https://entireworldhistorytimeline.com/mesoamerica/santo-domingo/ - Spanish Puerto Rico (1508 to 1898 CE), colony, Latin and Romance, capital San Juan. 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. https://entireworldhistorytimeline.com/mesoamerica/spanish-puerto-rico/ - Spanish Jamaica (1509 to 1655 CE), colony, Latin and Romance, capital Sevilla la Nueva, then Villa de la Vega. Small Spanish colony used for cattle ranching and supplies. An English expedition sent by Oliver Cromwell captured it in 1655. https://entireworldhistorytimeline.com/mesoamerica/spanish-jamaica/ - Spanish Cuba (1511 to 1898 CE), colony, Latin and Romance, capital Havana. 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. https://entireworldhistorytimeline.com/mesoamerica/spanish-cuba/ - British West Indies (1624 to 1983 CE), colony, Germanic. 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. https://entireworldhistorytimeline.com/mesoamerica/british-west-indies/ - Dutch Caribbean (1634 CE to the present), colony, Germanic, capital Willemstad. 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. https://entireworldhistorytimeline.com/mesoamerica/dutch-caribbean/ - French Antilles (1635 to 1946 CE), colony, Latin and Romance, capital Saint-Pierre, Basse-Terre. French sugar colonies of Martinique and Guadeloupe. Slavery was abolished in 1794, restored by Napoleon in 1802 and abolished for good in 1848. https://entireworldhistorytimeline.com/mesoamerica/french-antilles/ - Colony of Jamaica (1655 to 1962 CE), colony, Germanic, capital Spanish Town, then Kingston. 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. https://entireworldhistorytimeline.com/mesoamerica/colony-of-jamaica/ - Danish West Indies (1672 to 1917 CE), colony, Germanic, capital Charlotte Amalie and Christiansted. 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. https://entireworldhistorytimeline.com/mesoamerica/danish-west-indies/ - Saint-Domingue (1697 to 1804 CE), colony, Latin and Romance, capital Cap-Français, then Port-au-Prince. 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. https://entireworldhistorytimeline.com/mesoamerica/saint-domingue/ - Haiti (1804 CE to the present), state, Latin and Romance, capital Port-au-Prince. 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. https://entireworldhistorytimeline.com/mesoamerica/haiti/ - Kingdom of Haiti (1811 to 1820 CE), state, Latin and Romance, capital Cap-Henri. 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. https://entireworldhistorytimeline.com/mesoamerica/kingdom-of-haiti/ - Dominican Republic (1844 CE to the present), state, Latin and Romance, capital Santo Domingo. 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. https://entireworldhistorytimeline.com/mesoamerica/dominican-republic/ - Puerto Rico (US territory) (1898 CE to the present), colony, Germanic, capital San Juan. US territory since 1898. Puerto Ricans became US citizens in 1917, and the island became a self-governing commonwealth in 1952. https://entireworldhistorytimeline.com/mesoamerica/puerto-rico-us/ - Republic of Cuba (1902 to 1959 CE), state, Latin and Romance, capital Havana. 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. https://entireworldhistorytimeline.com/mesoamerica/republic-of-cuba/ - Guadeloupe and Martinique (French departments) (1946 CE to the present), colony, Latin and Romance, capital Basse-Terre, Fort-de-France. Former colonies that became overseas departments of France in 1946, sending deputies to Paris and forming part of the European Union. https://entireworldhistorytimeline.com/mesoamerica/french-departments/ - West Indies Federation (1958 to 1962 CE), colony, Germanic, capital Port of Spain. Union of ten British Caribbean colonies meant to become one independent state. It collapsed after Jamaica voted to leave in 1961. https://entireworldhistorytimeline.com/mesoamerica/west-indies-federation/ - Cuba (1959 CE to the present), state, Latin and Romance, capital Havana. 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. https://entireworldhistorytimeline.com/mesoamerica/cuba/ - Jamaica (1962 CE to the present), state, Germanic, capital Kingston. The largest English-speaking Caribbean island, independent in 1962. Its reggae music and Rastafari movement spread around the world from the 1970s. https://entireworldhistorytimeline.com/mesoamerica/jamaica/ - Trinidad and Tobago (1962 CE to the present), state, Germanic, capital Port of Spain. 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. https://entireworldhistorytimeline.com/mesoamerica/trinidad-and-tobago/ - Barbados (1966 CE to the present), state, Germanic, capital Bridgetown. Britain's oldest sugar island, independent in 1966. It replaced the British monarch with an elected president in 2021. https://entireworldhistorytimeline.com/mesoamerica/barbados/ - Bahamas (1973 CE to the present), state, Germanic, capital Nassau. 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. https://entireworldhistorytimeline.com/mesoamerica/bahamas/ - Grenada (1974 CE to the present), state, Germanic, capital St. George's. Spice island that became independent in 1974. After a revolutionary government killed its own leader Maurice Bishop in 1983, US forces invaded. https://entireworldhistorytimeline.com/mesoamerica/grenada/ - Dominica (1978 CE to the present), state, Germanic, capital Roseau. Mountainous volcanic island, independent in 1978, home to the Kalinago Territory and the last surviving Island Carib community. https://entireworldhistorytimeline.com/mesoamerica/dominica/ - Saint Lucia (1979 CE to the present), state, Germanic, capital Castries. Island that changed hands between France and Britain fourteen times before 1814. It became independent in 1979 and has produced two Nobel laureates. https://entireworldhistorytimeline.com/mesoamerica/saint-lucia/ - Saint Vincent and the Grenadines (1979 CE to the present), state, Germanic, capital Kingstown. Former Black Carib stronghold whose Garifuna people Britain deported to Central America in 1797. It became independent in 1979. https://entireworldhistorytimeline.com/mesoamerica/saint-vincent/ - Antigua and Barbuda (1981 CE to the present), state, Germanic, capital St. John's. Former sugar colony and site of Nelson's Dockyard, the Royal Navy's main Caribbean base. It became independent in 1981. https://entireworldhistorytimeline.com/mesoamerica/antigua-and-barbuda/ - Saint Kitts and Nevis (1983 CE to the present), state, Germanic, capital Basseterre. 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. https://entireworldhistorytimeline.com/mesoamerica/saint-kitts-and-nevis/ ### Events in Mesoamerica and Caribbean - 1650 BCE: Oldest known ballcourt built. 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. - 1200 BCE: San Lorenzo rises as the first Olmec center. Olmec rulers at San Lorenzo carve colossal basalt heads from stone dragged some 60 km from the Tuxtla Mountains. - 500 BCE: Monte Albán founded. Zapotec communities of the Valley of Oaxaca build a new capital on a mountaintop, one of the first cities in Mesoamerica. - 32 BCE: Early Long Count date at Tres Zapotes. Stela C at Tres Zapotes records a date in 32 BCE in the Long Count calendar, later used by the Classic Maya. - 200: Pyramid of the Sun completed. Teotihuacan finishes its largest monument, about 65 m tall, over a cave that was a sacred place before the city grew. - 378: Teotihuacan intervenes at Tikal. The warlord Siyaj K'ak' arrives at Tikal from Teotihuacan on the day its king dies and installs a new dynasty. - 695: Tikal defeats Calakmul. Jasaw Chan K'awiil of Tikal defeats Yich'aak K'ahk' of Calakmul, ending the dominance of the Snake kingdom in the southern lowlands. - 850: Classic Maya collapse. Over about a century, the southern lowland Maya cities stop raising monuments and lose most of their people, amid drought, warfare and failing kingship. - 1325: Tenochtitlan founded. The Mexica settle on an island in Lake Texcoco where, in their legend, an eagle perched on a cactus. - 1428: Triple Alliance formed. Tenochtitlan, Texcoco and Tlacopan defeat Azcapotzalco and form the alliance that becomes the Aztec Empire. - 1492: Columbus reaches the Caribbean. Columbus lands in the Bahamas on 12 October and goes on to Cuba and Hispaniola, beginning permanent contact between Europe and the Americas. - 1521: Fall of Tenochtitlan. 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. - 1545: Cocoliztli epidemic. A pestilence called cocoliztli kills a large part of the native population of New Spain between 1545 and 1548. - 1697: Fall of Nojpetén. Spanish forces storm the island capital of the Itza, the last independent Maya kingdom. - 1791: Haitian Revolution begins. Enslaved people in northern Saint-Domingue rise up. Under Toussaint Louverture and Dessalines they abolish slavery and win independence in 1804. - 1810: Grito de Dolores. The priest Miguel Hidalgo calls for revolt against Spanish rule, starting the Mexican War of Independence, won in 1821. - 1847: Caste War of Yucatán begins. Maya peasants rise against the Yucatecan elite and nearly take Mérida. Rebels hold eastern Yucatán for over 50 years. - 1848: Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo. Mexico cedes California, New Mexico and its claims to Texas to the United States, about half its territory. - 1910: Mexican Revolution. A revolt against Porfirio Díaz turns into a decade of civil war that kills about a million people and produces the Constitution of 1917. - 1914: Panama Canal opens. 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. - 1959: Cuban Revolution. Fidel Castro's guerrillas take Havana after Batista flees. Within two years Cuba is a socialist state allied with the Soviet Union. - 1962: Cuban Missile Crisis. 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. ## South America ### Northern Andes - Northern Andean Archaic peoples (c. 3200 to 1500 BCE), people or culture, Unknown or undeciphered. 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. https://entireworldhistorytimeline.com/south-america/northern-andes-archaic/ - Valdivia culture (c. 3200 to 1800 BCE), people or culture, Unknown or undeciphered. 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. https://entireworldhistorytimeline.com/south-america/valdivia/ - Machalilla culture (c. 1800 to 1100 BCE), people or culture, Unknown or undeciphered. Successors of Valdivia on the Ecuadorian coast who made some of the earliest stirrup-spout bottles, a vessel form later used across the Andes. https://entireworldhistorytimeline.com/south-america/machalilla/ - Chorrera culture (c. 1300 to 300 BCE), people or culture, Unknown or undeciphered. 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. https://entireworldhistorytimeline.com/south-america/chorrera/ - Tumaco-La Tolita culture (c. 600 BCE to 400 CE), people or culture, Unknown or undeciphered. 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. https://entireworldhistorytimeline.com/south-america/la-tolita/ - Zenú culture (c. 200 BCE to 1000 CE), people or culture, Unknown or undeciphered. 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. https://entireworldhistorytimeline.com/south-america/zenu/ - San Agustín culture (c. 1 to 900 CE), people or culture, Unknown or undeciphered. 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. https://entireworldhistorytimeline.com/south-america/san-agustin/ - Quimbaya culture (c. 1 to 1550 CE), people or culture, Unknown or undeciphered. 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. https://entireworldhistorytimeline.com/south-america/quimbaya/ - Tairona (c. 200 to 1600 CE), people or culture, Chibchan. 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. https://entireworldhistorytimeline.com/south-america/tairona/ - Cañari (c. 500 to 1532 CE), people or culture, Unknown or undeciphered. 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. https://entireworldhistorytimeline.com/south-america/canari/ - Tierradentro culture (c. 600 to 900 CE), people or culture, Unknown or undeciphered. Farmers of the Cauca highlands who dug underground tombs reached by spiral stairs and painted them with red and black geometric designs. https://entireworldhistorytimeline.com/south-america/tierradentro/ - Muisca Confederation (c. 800 to 1540 CE), people or culture, Chibchan, capital Bacatá and Hunza. 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. https://entireworldhistorytimeline.com/south-america/muisca/ - Manteño-Huancavilca culture (c. 800 to 1532 CE), people or culture, Unknown or undeciphered. 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. https://entireworldhistorytimeline.com/south-america/mantenos/ - Klein-Venedig (Welser Venezuela) (1528 to 1546 CE), colony, Germanic, capital Coro. 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. https://entireworldhistorytimeline.com/south-america/klein-venedig/ - New Kingdom of Granada (1538 to 1717 CE), colony, Latin and Romance, capital Santa Fe de Bogotá. 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. https://entireworldhistorytimeline.com/south-america/new-kingdom-of-granada/ - Province of Venezuela (1546 to 1777 CE), colony, Latin and Romance, capital Coro, then Caracas. Spanish province after the Welser grant ended. Caracas was founded in 1567, and cacao grown by enslaved Africans became its main export. https://entireworldhistorytimeline.com/south-america/province-of-venezuela/ - Real Audiencia of Quito (1563 to 1822 CE), colony, Latin and Romance, capital Quito. 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. https://entireworldhistorytimeline.com/south-america/audiencia-quito/ - Viceroyalty of New Granada (1717 to 1819 CE), colony, Latin and Romance, capital Santa Fe de Bogotá. Viceroyalty carved from Peru covering Colombia, Ecuador, Panama and Venezuela, suppressed in 1723 and restored in 1739. Creole juntas rose against it from 1810. https://entireworldhistorytimeline.com/south-america/viceroyalty-new-granada/ - Captaincy General of Venezuela (1777 to 1823 CE), colony, Latin and Romance, capital Caracas. Spanish captaincy that united the Venezuelan provinces under Caracas. Its congress declared independence in 1811, the first in Spanish America, opening a long war. https://entireworldhistorytimeline.com/south-america/captaincy-general-venezuela/ - Gran Colombia (1819 to 1831 CE), state, Latin and Romance, capital Bogotá. Republic proclaimed by Simón Bolívar at Angostura, uniting Colombia, Venezuela, Ecuador and Panama. Regional rivalries broke it apart in 1830, the year Bolívar died. https://entireworldhistorytimeline.com/south-america/gran-colombia/ - Venezuela (1830 CE to the present), state, Latin and Romance, capital Caracas. 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. https://entireworldhistorytimeline.com/south-america/venezuela/ - Ecuador (1830 CE to the present), state, Latin and Romance, capital Quito. 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. https://entireworldhistorytimeline.com/south-america/ecuador/ - Colombia (1831 CE to the present), state, Latin and Romance, capital Bogotá. 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. https://entireworldhistorytimeline.com/south-america/colombia/ ### Peruvian Coast - Archaic fishing villages of the Peruvian coast (c. 3200 to 1800 BCE), people or culture, Unknown or undeciphered. 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. https://entireworldhistorytimeline.com/south-america/coast-archaic/ - Caral-Supe (Norte Chico) (c. 3000 to 1800 BCE), people or culture, Unknown or undeciphered, capital Caral. 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. https://entireworldhistorytimeline.com/south-america/caral/ - Casma valley centers (Sechín) (c. 1800 to 900 BCE), people or culture, Unknown or undeciphered. 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. https://entireworldhistorytimeline.com/south-america/sechin/ - Cupisnique culture (c. 1500 to 500 BCE), people or culture, Unknown or undeciphered. 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. https://entireworldhistorytimeline.com/south-america/cupisnique/ - Paracas culture (c. 800 BCE to 100 CE), people or culture, Unknown or undeciphered. Society of the south coast whose mummy bundles in the Wari Kayan necropolis were wrapped in embroidered textiles. They practised skull elongation and trepanation. https://entireworldhistorytimeline.com/south-america/paracas/ - Nazca culture (c. 100 BCE to 800 CE), people or culture, Unknown or undeciphered. 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. https://entireworldhistorytimeline.com/south-america/nazca/ - Moche (Mochica) (c. 100 to 800 CE), state, Unknown or undeciphered, capital Huacas de Moche. 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. https://entireworldhistorytimeline.com/south-america/moche/ - Lima culture (c. 100 to 650 CE), people or culture, Unknown or undeciphered. 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. https://entireworldhistorytimeline.com/south-america/lima-culture/ - Sicán (Lambayeque) (c. 750 to 1375 CE), state, Unknown or undeciphered, capital Batán Grande. North coast state that produced arsenical bronze on an industrial scale and buried its lords with gold masks. The Chimu conquered it around 1375. https://entireworldhistorytimeline.com/south-america/sican/ - Chimú kingdom (Chimor) (c. 900 to 1470 CE), state, Unknown or undeciphered, capital Chan Chan. 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. https://entireworldhistorytimeline.com/south-america/chimu/ - Chancay culture (c. 1000 to 1470 CE), people or culture, Unknown or undeciphered. 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. https://entireworldhistorytimeline.com/south-america/chancay/ - Chincha kingdom (c. 1000 to 1476 CE), state, Unknown or undeciphered. 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. https://entireworldhistorytimeline.com/south-america/chincha/ - Governorate of New Castile (1532 to 1542 CE), colony, Latin and Romance, capital Lima from 1535. 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. https://entireworldhistorytimeline.com/south-america/new-castile/ - Viceroyalty of Peru (1542 to 1824 CE), colony, Latin and Romance, capital Lima. 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. https://entireworldhistorytimeline.com/south-america/viceroyalty-peru/ - Peru (1821 CE to the present), state, Latin and Romance, capital Lima. 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. https://entireworldhistorytimeline.com/south-america/peru/ ### Central Andean Highlands - Andean Archaic hunters and herders (c. 3200 to 1500 BCE), people or culture, Unknown or undeciphered. 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. https://entireworldhistorytimeline.com/south-america/highland-archaic/ - Kotosh religious tradition (c. 2300 to 1200 BCE), people or culture, Unknown or undeciphered. 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. https://entireworldhistorytimeline.com/south-america/kotosh/ - Chiripa culture (c. 1500 to 100 BCE), people or culture, Unknown or undeciphered. Farming villages on the southern shore of Lake Titicaca that built sunken stone courts and terraced platforms, the earliest temple tradition of the basin. https://entireworldhistorytimeline.com/south-america/chiripa/ - Chavín culture (c. 900 to 200 BCE), people or culture, Unknown or undeciphered, capital Chavín de Huántar. 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. https://entireworldhistorytimeline.com/south-america/chavin/ - Pukara culture (c. 400 BCE to 300 CE), people or culture, Unknown or undeciphered. 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. https://entireworldhistorytimeline.com/south-america/pukara/ - Recuay culture (c. 1 to 700 CE), people or culture, Unknown or undeciphered. Highland chiefdoms of the Callejón de Huaylas who built fortified hilltop settlements and stone sculptures of warriors and made white kaolin pottery. https://entireworldhistorytimeline.com/south-america/recuay/ - Tiwanaku (c. 400 to 1000 CE), state, Aymaran, capital Tiwanaku. 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. https://entireworldhistorytimeline.com/south-america/tiwanaku/ - Wari Empire (c. 600 to 1000 CE), empire, Unknown or undeciphered, capital Huari. 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. https://entireworldhistorytimeline.com/south-america/wari/ - Aymara kingdoms (Colla, Lupaca) (c. 1100 to 1450 CE), state, Aymaran, capital Hatuncolla, Chucuito. 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. https://entireworldhistorytimeline.com/south-america/aymara-kingdoms/ - Chanka confederation (c. 1100 to 1438 CE), people or culture, Unknown or undeciphered. 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. https://entireworldhistorytimeline.com/south-america/chanka/ - Kingdom of Cusco (c. 1200 to 1438 CE), state, Quechuan, capital Cusco. Small Inca chiefdom in the Cusco valley, founded by the legendary Manco Cápac. Eight rulers held it before Pachacuti turned it into an empire. https://entireworldhistorytimeline.com/south-america/kingdom-of-cusco/ - Inca Empire (Tawantinsuyu) (1438 to 1533 CE), empire, Quechuan, capital Cusco. 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. https://entireworldhistorytimeline.com/south-america/inca-empire/ - Quechua and Aymara peoples (c. 1533 CE to the present), people or culture, Quechuan. 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. https://entireworldhistorytimeline.com/south-america/quechua-aymara-peoples/ - Neo-Inca State of Vilcabamba (1537 to 1572 CE), state, Quechuan, capital Vilcabamba. 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. https://entireworldhistorytimeline.com/south-america/neo-inca/ - Charcas (Upper Peru) (1559 to 1825 CE), colony, Latin and Romance, capital La Plata (Sucre). 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. https://entireworldhistorytimeline.com/south-america/charcas/ - Bolivia (1825 CE to the present), state, Latin and Romance, capital Sucre and La Paz. 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. https://entireworldhistorytimeline.com/south-america/bolivia/ - Peru-Bolivian Confederation (1836 to 1839 CE), state, Latin and Romance, capital Tacna. 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. https://entireworldhistorytimeline.com/south-america/peru-bolivian-confederation/ ### Amazon and Guianas - Amazonian Archaic foragers (c. 3200 to 1000 BCE), people or culture, Unknown or undeciphered. 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. https://entireworldhistorytimeline.com/south-america/amazon-archaic/ - Mayo-Chinchipe culture (c. 3200 to 500 BCE), people or culture, Unknown or undeciphered. 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. https://entireworldhistorytimeline.com/south-america/mayo-chinchipe/ - Barrancoid culture (c. 1000 BCE to 1000 CE), people or culture, Arawakan. 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. https://entireworldhistorytimeline.com/south-america/barrancoid/ - Upano valley settlements (c. 500 BCE to 600 CE), people or culture, Unknown or undeciphered. 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. https://entireworldhistorytimeline.com/south-america/upano/ - Marajoara culture (c. 400 to 1400 CE), people or culture, Unknown or undeciphered. 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. https://entireworldhistorytimeline.com/south-america/marajoara/ - Arawakan peoples of the Amazon (c. 1000 CE to the present), people or culture, Arawakan. 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. https://entireworldhistorytimeline.com/south-america/arawakan-peoples/ - Carib peoples of the Guianas (c. 1000 CE to the present), people or culture, Cariban. Cariban speakers such as the Kalina, Wayana and Makuxi of the Guianas and the northern Amazon. Europeans named the Caribbean Sea after them. https://entireworldhistorytimeline.com/south-america/carib-peoples/ - Santarém culture (Tapajó) (c. 1000 to 1650 CE), people or culture, Unknown or undeciphered. 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. https://entireworldhistorytimeline.com/south-america/santarem/ - Dutch Essequibo, Berbice and Demerara (1616 to 1814 CE), colony, Germanic, capital Kyk-over-al, later Stabroek. 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. https://entireworldhistorytimeline.com/south-america/dutch-essequibo/ - State of Maranhão and Grão-Pará (1621 to 1823 CE), colony, Latin and Romance, capital São Luís, then Belém. Portuguese Amazon colony governed separately from Brazil and directly from Lisbon. Missionaries and slavers pushed up the rivers from Belém, founded in 1616. https://entireworldhistorytimeline.com/south-america/grao-para/ - French Guiana (1664 CE to the present), colony, Latin and Romance, capital Cayenne. 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. https://entireworldhistorytimeline.com/south-america/french-guiana/ - Dutch Suriname (1667 to 1975 CE), colony, Germanic, capital Paramaribo. 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. https://entireworldhistorytimeline.com/south-america/dutch-suriname/ - British Guiana (1814 to 1966 CE), colony, Germanic, capital Georgetown. 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. https://entireworldhistorytimeline.com/south-america/british-guiana/ - Guyana (1966 CE to the present), state, Germanic, capital Georgetown. 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. https://entireworldhistorytimeline.com/south-america/guyana/ - Suriname (1975 CE to the present), state, Germanic, capital Paramaribo. 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. https://entireworldhistorytimeline.com/south-america/suriname/ ### Brazil - Sambaqui shell-mound builders (c. 3200 BCE to 1000 CE), people or culture, Unknown or undeciphered. 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. https://entireworldhistorytimeline.com/south-america/sambaqui/ - Interior Archaic hunter-gatherers (c. 3200 to 500 BCE), people or culture, Unknown or undeciphered. 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. https://entireworldhistorytimeline.com/south-america/brazil-interior-archaic/ - Jê peoples (c. 1 CE to the present), people or culture, Unknown or undeciphered. 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. https://entireworldhistorytimeline.com/south-america/je-peoples/ - Tupi-Guarani peoples (c. 500 CE to the present), people or culture, Tupian. 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. https://entireworldhistorytimeline.com/south-america/tupi-guarani/ - Upper Xingu garden cities (c. 1250 to 1650 CE), people or culture, Cariban. 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. https://entireworldhistorytimeline.com/south-america/upper-xingu/ - Portuguese Brazil (1500 to 1815 CE), colony, Latin and Romance, capital Salvador, then Rio de Janeiro from 1763. 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. https://entireworldhistorytimeline.com/south-america/portuguese-brazil/ - France Antarctique (1555 to 1567 CE), colony, Latin and Romance, capital Fort Coligny. 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. https://entireworldhistorytimeline.com/south-america/france-antarctique/ - Quilombo dos Palmares (c. 1605 to 1694 CE), state, Bantu, capital Macaco. 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. https://entireworldhistorytimeline.com/south-america/quilombo-palmares/ - Dutch Brazil (New Holland) (1630 to 1654 CE), colony, Germanic, capital Mauritsstad (Recife). 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. https://entireworldhistorytimeline.com/south-america/dutch-brazil/ - United Kingdom of Portugal, Brazil and the Algarves (1815 to 1822 CE), state, Latin and Romance, capital Rio de Janeiro. 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. https://entireworldhistorytimeline.com/south-america/united-kingdom-portugal-brazil/ - Empire of Brazil (1822 to 1889 CE), empire, Latin and Romance, capital Rio de Janeiro. 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. https://entireworldhistorytimeline.com/south-america/empire-of-brazil/ - Riograndense Republic (1836 to 1845 CE), state, Latin and Romance, capital Piratini. 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. https://entireworldhistorytimeline.com/south-america/riograndense-republic/ - Brazil (1889 CE to the present), state, Latin and Romance, capital Rio de Janeiro, then Brasília from 1960. 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. https://entireworldhistorytimeline.com/south-america/brazil/ ### Southern Cone - Chinchorro culture (c. 3200 to 1500 BCE), people or culture, Unknown or undeciphered. 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. https://entireworldhistorytimeline.com/south-america/chinchorro/ - Pampas and Patagonian Archaic hunters (c. 3200 to 500 BCE), people or culture, Unknown or undeciphered. 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. https://entireworldhistorytimeline.com/south-america/southern-cone-archaic/ - Fuegian canoe peoples (Yaghan, Kawésqar) (c. 3200 BCE to the present), people or culture, Isolates and ancient. 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. https://entireworldhistorytimeline.com/south-america/fuegian-peoples/ - Formative cultures of northwest Argentina (c. 500 BCE to 600 CE), people or culture, Unknown or undeciphered. 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. https://entireworldhistorytimeline.com/south-america/nw-argentina-formative/ - Patagonian peoples (Tehuelche, Selk'nam) (c. 1 CE to the present), people or culture, Unknown or undeciphered. 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. https://entireworldhistorytimeline.com/south-america/patagonian-peoples/ - El Molle culture (c. 1 to 700 CE), people or culture, Unknown or undeciphered. 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. https://entireworldhistorytimeline.com/south-america/el-molle/ - Aguada culture (c. 600 to 900 CE), people or culture, Unknown or undeciphered. 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. https://entireworldhistorytimeline.com/south-america/aguada/ - Diaguita (c. 900 to 1667 CE), people or culture, Unknown or undeciphered. 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. https://entireworldhistorytimeline.com/south-america/diaguita/ - Mapuche (c. 1000 CE to the present), people or culture, Isolates and ancient. 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. https://entireworldhistorytimeline.com/south-america/mapuche/ - Charrúa (c. 1000 to 1831 CE), people or culture, Unknown or undeciphered. 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. https://entireworldhistorytimeline.com/south-america/charrua/ - Guaraní (c. 1000 CE to the present), people or culture, Tupian. 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. https://entireworldhistorytimeline.com/south-america/guarani/ - Governorate of the Río de la Plata (1536 to 1776 CE), colony, Latin and Romance, capital Asunción, later Buenos Aires. 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. https://entireworldhistorytimeline.com/south-america/governorate-rio-de-la-plata/ - Captaincy General of Chile (1541 to 1818 CE), colony, Latin and Romance, capital Santiago. 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. https://entireworldhistorytimeline.com/south-america/captaincy-general-chile/ - Araucanía (independent Mapuche lands) (1598 to 1883 CE), people or culture, Isolates and ancient. 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. https://entireworldhistorytimeline.com/south-america/araucania/ - Jesuit reductions (1609 to 1767 CE), colony, Latin and Romance. 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. https://entireworldhistorytimeline.com/south-america/jesuit-reductions/ - Viceroyalty of the Río de la Plata (1776 to 1814 CE), colony, Latin and Romance, capital Buenos Aires. 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. https://entireworldhistorytimeline.com/south-america/viceroyalty-rio-de-la-plata/ - United Provinces of the Río de la Plata (1810 to 1831 CE), state, Latin and Romance, capital Buenos Aires. 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. https://entireworldhistorytimeline.com/south-america/united-provinces/ - Paraguay (1811 CE to the present), state, Latin and Romance, capital Asunción. 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. https://entireworldhistorytimeline.com/south-america/paraguay/ - Cisplatina (1817 to 1828 CE), colony, Latin and Romance, capital Montevideo. 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. https://entireworldhistorytimeline.com/south-america/cisplatina/ - Chile (1818 CE to the present), state, Latin and Romance, capital Santiago. 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. https://entireworldhistorytimeline.com/south-america/chile/ - Uruguay (1828 CE to the present), state, Latin and Romance, capital Montevideo. 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. https://entireworldhistorytimeline.com/south-america/uruguay/ - Argentine Confederation (1831 to 1861 CE), state, Latin and Romance, capital Buenos Aires, then Paraná. 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. https://entireworldhistorytimeline.com/south-america/argentine-confederation/ - Falkland Islands (1833 CE to the present), colony, Germanic, capital Stanley. 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. https://entireworldhistorytimeline.com/south-america/falkland-islands/ - Argentina (1861 CE to the present), state, Latin and Romance, capital Buenos Aires. 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. https://entireworldhistorytimeline.com/south-america/argentina/ ### Events in South America - 3300 BCE: Earliest known use of cacao. People at Santa Ana-La Florida in the Ecuadorian Amazon use domesticated cacao, about 1,500 years before it appears in Mesoamerica. - 2600 BCE: Caral builds the first cities of the Americas. 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. - 900 BCE: Chavín de Huántar becomes a pilgrimage center. The temple at Chavín draws pilgrims from across the Andes, and its art becomes the first style shared over most of Peru. - 100: Nazca Lines drawn. The Nazca begin scraping huge animal figures and straight lines into the desert of southern Peru, many visible in full only from the air. - 600: Wari and Tiwanaku expand. Two highland states spread their power across the Andes, Wari through roads and administrative centers and Tiwanaku through colonies and trade. - 1438: Pachacuti defeats the Chanka. After saving Cusco from the Chanka, Pachacuti takes the throne and begins the conquests that create Tawantinsuyu. - 1500: Cabral lands in Brazil. Pedro Álvares Cabral's fleet, bound for India, reaches the coast of Bahia and claims Brazil for Portugal. - 1532: Pizarro captures Atahualpa at Cajamarca. 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. - 1542: Orellana descends the Amazon. Francisco de Orellana's party travels the length of the Amazon and reports dense populations along its banks, later emptied by disease. - 1545: Silver found at Potosí. The Cerro Rico of Potosí proves the richest silver deposit ever found. Its output fuels Spanish power and world trade for two centuries. - 1572: Execution of Tupac Amaru. Viceroy Francisco de Toledo has the last Inca ruler of Vilcabamba beheaded in the main square of Cusco. - 1598: Battle of Curalaba. Mapuche forces kill the governor of Chile and destroy the Spanish towns south of the Biobío, which stays the frontier for nearly 300 years. - 1694: Fall of Palmares. A colonial army led by bandeirante Domingos Jorge Velho destroys Macaco, capital of the largest runaway slave kingdom in Brazil. - 1780: Rebellion of Tupac Amaru II. The kuraka José Gabriel Condorcanqui leads the largest Indigenous revolt in colonial Spanish America. Tens of thousands die before he is executed in 1781. - 1808: Portuguese court arrives in Rio. Fleeing Napoleon, the Portuguese royal family moves to Rio de Janeiro, making it the capital of a European empire. - 1824: Battle of Ayacucho. Antonio José de Sucre defeats the last royalist army in Peru, ending Spanish rule on the South American mainland. - 1864: Paraguayan War begins. Paraguay fights Brazil, Argentina and Uruguay until 1870, the deadliest interstate war in Latin American history. - 1879: War of the Pacific. Chile defeats Peru and Bolivia over the nitrate deserts of Atacama. Bolivia loses its coast, and Peru loses Tarapacá. - 1888: Brazil abolishes slavery. Princess Isabel signs the Golden Law, freeing about 700,000 enslaved people. Brazil is the last country in the Americas to end slavery. - 1960: Brasília inaugurated. Brazil moves its capital to a planned city built in under four years on the central plateau, designed by Lúcio Costa and Oscar Niemeyer. - 1973: Coup in Chile. The armed forces overthrow President Salvador Allende, who dies in the presidential palace. Augusto Pinochet rules until 1990. ## Oceania ### Australia - Aboriginal Australian peoples (c. 3200 BCE to the present), people or culture, Aboriginal Australian. 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. https://entireworldhistorytimeline.com/oceania/aboriginal-australians/ - Tasmanian Aboriginal peoples (c. 3200 BCE to the present), people or culture, Aboriginal Australian. 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. https://entireworldhistorytimeline.com/oceania/tasmanian-aboriginal/ - Torres Strait Islanders (c. 500 BCE to the present), people or culture, Papuan. 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. https://entireworldhistorytimeline.com/oceania/torres-strait-islanders/ - Macassan trepangers (c. 1720 to 1907 CE), people or culture, Austronesian. 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. https://entireworldhistorytimeline.com/oceania/macassan-trepangers/ - Colony of New South Wales (1788 to 1901 CE), colony, Germanic, capital Sydney. 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. https://entireworldhistorytimeline.com/oceania/new-south-wales/ - Van Diemen's Land (Tasmania) (1825 to 1901 CE), colony, Germanic, capital Hobart. 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. https://entireworldhistorytimeline.com/oceania/van-diemens-land/ - Western Australia (Swan River Colony) (1829 to 1901 CE), colony, Germanic, capital Perth. 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. https://entireworldhistorytimeline.com/oceania/western-australia/ - Colony of South Australia (1836 to 1901 CE), colony, Germanic, capital Adelaide. 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. https://entireworldhistorytimeline.com/oceania/south-australia/ - Colony of Victoria (1851 to 1901 CE), colony, Germanic, capital Melbourne. 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. https://entireworldhistorytimeline.com/oceania/victoria/ - Colony of Queensland (1859 to 1901 CE), colony, Germanic, capital Brisbane. 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. https://entireworldhistorytimeline.com/oceania/queensland/ - Commonwealth of Australia (1901 CE to the present), state, Germanic, capital Melbourne, then Canberra (1927). 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. https://entireworldhistorytimeline.com/oceania/australia/ ### New Guinea and Melanesia - Papuan farmers and foragers (c. 3200 BCE to the present), people or culture, Papuan. 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. https://entireworldhistorytimeline.com/oceania/papuans/ - Kuk Swamp agriculture (c. 3200 to 500 BCE), people or culture, Papuan. 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. https://entireworldhistorytimeline.com/oceania/kuk/ - Lapita culture (c. 1600 to 500 BCE), people or culture, Austronesian. 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. https://entireworldhistorytimeline.com/oceania/lapita/ - Island Melanesian societies (c. 500 BCE to the present), people or culture, Austronesian. 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. https://entireworldhistorytimeline.com/oceania/island-melanesians/ - Fijian chiefdoms (c. 500 BCE to 1874 CE), people or culture, Austronesian. 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. https://entireworldhistorytimeline.com/oceania/fijian-chiefdoms/ - Dutch New Guinea (1828 to 1962 CE), colony, Germanic, capital Hollandia. 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. https://entireworldhistorytimeline.com/oceania/dutch-new-guinea/ - French New Caledonia (1853 CE to the present), colony, Latin and Romance, capital Nouméa. 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. https://entireworldhistorytimeline.com/oceania/new-caledonia/ - Colony of Fiji (1874 to 1970 CE), colony, Germanic, capital Levuka, then Suva. 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. https://entireworldhistorytimeline.com/oceania/colony-of-fiji/ - German New Guinea (1884 to 1914 CE), colony, Germanic, capital Finschhafen, later Rabaul. 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. https://entireworldhistorytimeline.com/oceania/german-new-guinea/ - British New Guinea and Territory of Papua (1884 to 1949 CE), colony, Germanic, capital Port Moresby. 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. https://entireworldhistorytimeline.com/oceania/british-new-guinea/ - British Solomon Islands Protectorate (1893 to 1978 CE), colony, Germanic, capital Tulagi, then Honiara. 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. https://entireworldhistorytimeline.com/oceania/british-solomons/ - New Hebrides Condominium (1906 to 1980 CE), colony, Germanic, capital Port Vila. 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. https://entireworldhistorytimeline.com/oceania/new-hebrides/ - Territory of New Guinea (1914 to 1949 CE), colony, Germanic, capital Rabaul, then Lae. 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. https://entireworldhistorytimeline.com/oceania/territory-of-new-guinea/ - Territory of Papua and New Guinea (1949 to 1975 CE), colony, Germanic, capital Port Moresby. Australia joined its two New Guinea territories under one administration in 1949 and granted self-government in 1973. https://entireworldhistorytimeline.com/oceania/territory-of-papua-and-new-guinea/ - Western New Guinea (Indonesia) (1963 CE to the present), state, Austronesian, capital Jayapura. 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. https://entireworldhistorytimeline.com/oceania/indonesian-papua/ - Fiji (1970 CE to the present), state, Austronesian, capital Suva. Independent in 1970, Fiji went through four coups between 1987 and 2006, driven largely by tension between indigenous Fijians and Indo-Fijians. https://entireworldhistorytimeline.com/oceania/fiji/ - Papua New Guinea (1975 CE to the present), state, Papuan, capital Port Moresby. 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. https://entireworldhistorytimeline.com/oceania/papua-new-guinea/ - Solomon Islands (1978 CE to the present), state, Austronesian, capital Honiara. 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. https://entireworldhistorytimeline.com/oceania/solomon-islands/ - Vanuatu (1980 CE to the present), state, Austronesian, capital Port Vila. 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. https://entireworldhistorytimeline.com/oceania/vanuatu/ ### Micronesia - Uninhabited (c. 3200 to 100 BCE), people or culture, Unknown or undeciphered. 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. https://entireworldhistorytimeline.com/oceania/micronesia-uninhabited/ - Pre-Latte Chamorro (c. 1500 BCE to 900 CE), people or culture, Austronesian. 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. https://entireworldhistorytimeline.com/oceania/pre-latte-chamorro/ - Eastern Micronesian islanders (c. 100 BCE to the present), people or culture, Austronesian. 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. https://entireworldhistorytimeline.com/oceania/eastern-micronesians/ - Latte period Chamorro (c. 900 to 1668 CE), people or culture, Austronesian. 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. https://entireworldhistorytimeline.com/oceania/latte-chamorro/ - Saudeleur dynasty (c. 1100 to 1628 CE), state, Austronesian, capital Nan Madol. 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. https://entireworldhistorytimeline.com/oceania/saudeleur/ - Nahnmwarki chiefdoms of Pohnpei (c. 1628 to 1887 CE), people or culture, Austronesian. 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. https://entireworldhistorytimeline.com/oceania/nahnmwarki/ - Spanish Marianas (1668 to 1898 CE), colony, Latin and Romance, capital Hagåtña. 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. https://entireworldhistorytimeline.com/oceania/spanish-marianas/ - Gilbert and Ellice Islands (1892 to 1979 CE), colony, Germanic, capital Tarawa. 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. https://entireworldhistorytimeline.com/oceania/gilbert-ellice/ - Guam (US territory) (1898 CE to the present), colony, Germanic, capital Hagåtña. 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. https://entireworldhistorytimeline.com/oceania/guam/ - South Seas Mandate (1914 to 1945 CE), colony, Japonic, capital Koror. 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. https://entireworldhistorytimeline.com/oceania/south-seas-mandate/ - Trust Territory of the Pacific Islands (1947 to 1994 CE), colony, Germanic, capital Saipan. 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. https://entireworldhistorytimeline.com/oceania/trust-territory/ - Nauru (1968 CE to the present), state, Austronesian, capital Yaren. 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. https://entireworldhistorytimeline.com/oceania/nauru/ - Kiribati (1979 CE to the present), state, Austronesian, capital South Tarawa. 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. https://entireworldhistorytimeline.com/oceania/kiribati/ - Federated States of Micronesia (1986 CE to the present), state, Austronesian, capital Palikir. Yap, Chuuk, Pohnpei and Kosrae became a sovereign federation in free association with the United States in 1986. https://entireworldhistorytimeline.com/oceania/fsm/ - Marshall Islands (1986 CE to the present), state, Austronesian, capital Majuro. 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. https://entireworldhistorytimeline.com/oceania/marshall-islands/ - Palau (1994 CE to the present), state, Austronesian, capital Ngerulmud. The last part of the Trust Territory to gain independence, Palau entered free association with the United States in 1994. https://entireworldhistorytimeline.com/oceania/palau/ ### Polynesia - Uninhabited (c. 3200 BCE to 1000 CE), people or culture, Unknown or undeciphered. 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. https://entireworldhistorytimeline.com/oceania/polynesia-uninhabited/ - Ancestral Polynesian society (c. 850 BCE to 1000 CE), people or culture, Austronesian. 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. https://entireworldhistorytimeline.com/oceania/ancestral-polynesians/ - Tu'i Tonga Empire (c. 950 to 1865 CE), empire, Austronesian, capital Mu'a. 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. https://entireworldhistorytimeline.com/oceania/tui-tonga/ - Samoan chiefdoms (c. 1000 to 1900 CE), people or culture, Austronesian. 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. https://entireworldhistorytimeline.com/oceania/samoan-chiefdoms/ - Society Islands chiefdoms (c. 1000 to 1788 CE), people or culture, Austronesian. 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. https://entireworldhistorytimeline.com/oceania/society-chiefdoms/ - Hawaiian chiefdoms (c. 1000 to 1795 CE), people or culture, Austronesian. 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. https://entireworldhistorytimeline.com/oceania/hawaiian-chiefdoms/ - Rapa Nui society (c. 1200 to 1888 CE), people or culture, Austronesian. 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. https://entireworldhistorytimeline.com/oceania/rapa-nui/ - Kingdom of Tahiti (c. 1788 to 1880 CE), state, Austronesian, capital Papeete. 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. https://entireworldhistorytimeline.com/oceania/kingdom-of-tahiti/ - Kingdom of Hawaii (1795 to 1893 CE), state, Austronesian, capital Lahaina, then Honolulu. 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. https://entireworldhistorytimeline.com/oceania/kingdom-of-hawaii/ - French Polynesia (1842 CE to the present), colony, Latin and Romance, capital Papeete. 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. https://entireworldhistorytimeline.com/oceania/french-polynesia/ - Kingdom of Tonga (1845 CE to the present), state, Austronesian, capital Nuku'alofa. 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. https://entireworldhistorytimeline.com/oceania/kingdom-of-tonga/ - Chilean Rapa Nui (1888 CE to the present), colony, Latin and Romance, capital Hanga Roa. 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. https://entireworldhistorytimeline.com/oceania/chilean-rapa-nui/ - Republic of Hawaii (1894 to 1898 CE), state, Germanic, capital Honolulu. 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. https://entireworldhistorytimeline.com/oceania/republic-of-hawaii/ - Territory of Hawaii (1898 to 1959 CE), colony, Germanic, capital Honolulu. 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. https://entireworldhistorytimeline.com/oceania/territory-of-hawaii/ - German Samoa (1900 to 1914 CE), colony, Germanic, capital Apia. 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. https://entireworldhistorytimeline.com/oceania/german-samoa/ - American Samoa (1900 CE to the present), colony, Germanic, capital Pago Pago. 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. https://entireworldhistorytimeline.com/oceania/american-samoa/ - Western Samoa (New Zealand) (1914 to 1962 CE), colony, Germanic, capital Apia. Under New Zealand rule the 1918 influenza killed about a fifth of Samoans, and police shot Mau independence protesters on Black Saturday in 1929. https://entireworldhistorytimeline.com/oceania/western-samoa/ - Samoa (1962 CE to the present), state, Austronesian, capital Apia. Samoa became the first Pacific island country to gain independence, in 1962. It moved to the west side of the date line in 2011. https://entireworldhistorytimeline.com/oceania/samoa/ - Tuvalu (1978 CE to the present), state, Austronesian, capital Funafuti. 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. https://entireworldhistorytimeline.com/oceania/tuvalu/ ### New Zealand - Uninhabited (c. 3200 BCE to 1280 CE), people or culture, Unknown or undeciphered. 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. https://entireworldhistorytimeline.com/oceania/new-zealand-uninhabited/ - Archaic Māori (moa-hunter period) (c. 1280 to 1500 CE), people or culture, Austronesian. 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. https://entireworldhistorytimeline.com/oceania/archaic-maori/ - Māori iwi (c. 1500 CE to the present), people or culture, Austronesian. 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. https://entireworldhistorytimeline.com/oceania/maori-iwi/ - Moriori (c. 1500 to 1835 CE), people or culture, Austronesian. 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. https://entireworldhistorytimeline.com/oceania/moriori/ - United Tribes of New Zealand (1835 to 1840 CE), state, Austronesian. 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. https://entireworldhistorytimeline.com/oceania/united-tribes/ - Colony of New Zealand (1841 to 1907 CE), colony, Germanic, capital Auckland, then Wellington (1865). 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. https://entireworldhistorytimeline.com/oceania/colony-of-new-zealand/ - Kīngitanga (Māori King Movement) (1858 CE to the present), people or culture, Austronesian. 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. https://entireworldhistorytimeline.com/oceania/kingitanga/ - New Zealand (1907 CE to the present), state, Germanic, capital Wellington. 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. https://entireworldhistorytimeline.com/oceania/new-zealand/ ### Events in Oceania - 1500 BCE: Seafarers settle the Marianas. Voyagers, probably from the Philippines, cross more than 2,000 km of open sea to settle the Marianas, the first people in Remote Oceania. - 1500 BCE: Dingoes reach Australia. Dogs brought by seafarers from island Southeast Asia arrive around this time and spread across the mainland, though they never reach Tasmania. - 1000 BCE: Lapita voyagers settle Vanuatu and Fiji. Lapita canoes cross from the Solomons into Remote Oceania and settle Vanuatu, New Caledonia and Fiji within a few generations. - 850 BCE: First settlers reach Tonga. Lapita voyagers found a settlement at Nukuleka on Tongatapu, the first human presence in Polynesia. - 1000: Polynesians settle East Polynesia. 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. - 1180: Building of Nan Madol. Megalithic construction at Nan Madol off Pohnpei expands under the Saudeleur, using basalt columns hauled from across the island. - 1280: Polynesians reach New Zealand. Canoes from East Polynesia land in New Zealand, the last major landmass on Earth to be settled by humans. - 1606: Duyfken lands in Australia. Willem Janszoon's Dutch ship Duyfken charts part of Cape York, the first recorded European landing on Australia. - 1642: Tasman reaches New Zealand. Abel Tasman sights Tasmania and New Zealand, where a clash with Māori at Golden Bay kills four of his crew. - 1778: Cook reaches Hawaii. James Cook's ships land on Kauai, opening Hawaii to European contact. Cook is killed at Kealakekua Bay the following year. - 1788: First Fleet lands at Sydney Cove. Eleven ships carrying about 750 convicts and their guards arrive at Port Jackson, beginning British colonisation of Australia. - 1840: Treaty of Waitangi. 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. - 1851: Australian gold rushes. 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. - 1893: Overthrow of the Hawaiian Kingdom. American businessmen backed by US Marines depose Queen Liliuokalani, leading to annexation by the United States in 1898. - 1893: Women's suffrage in New Zealand. New Zealand becomes the first self-governing country to give all adult women the vote, after petitions led by Kate Sheppard. - 1901: Federation of Australia. The six Australian colonies unite as the Commonwealth of Australia on 1 January 1901. - 1941: Attack on Pearl Harbor. Japanese carrier aircraft strike the US Pacific Fleet at Pearl Harbor on 7 December, bringing the United States into the Second World War. - 1942: Guadalcanal campaign. 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. - 1946: Nuclear tests at Bikini. The United States begins nuclear testing at Bikini Atoll, moving its people away. Testing in the Marshalls continues until 1958. - 1992: Mabo decision. Australia's High Court rules in favour of Eddie Mabo and the Meriam people, recognising native title and rejecting terra nullius.