The world in 1900
In 1900, the timeline shows 252 states, empires and colonies and 78 peoples across 12 regions. The most significant include Ethiopian Empire (Solomonic dynasty), Ottoman Empire, Portuguese Empire, Kingdom of Kongo, Qing dynasty, United States, United Kingdom and Haiti.
See 1900 on the interactive chart
Previous: 1815 The whole 19th century Next: 1914
What was happening around 1900
- Battle of the Little Bighorn, North America. Lakota, Northern Cheyenne and Arapaho warriors led by Crazy Horse and Gall, and inspired by Sitting Bull's visions, defeat the US 7th Cavalry in Montana Territory and kill Custer.
- Battle of Isandlwana, Central and Southern Africa. A Zulu army overruns a British camp at Isandlwana and kills over 1,300 troops, Britain's worst defeat by an indigenous foe with far inferior weapons. Britain still wins the war within months.
- War of the Pacific, South America. Chile defeats Peru and Bolivia over the nitrate deserts of Atacama. Bolivia loses its coast, and Peru loses Tarapacá.
- Krakatoa erupts, Southeast Asia. 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.
- Berlin Conference, North and West Africa. European powers meet in Berlin to set rules for claiming African territory, accelerating the Scramble for Africa that left only Ethiopia and Liberia independent.
- Berlin Conference ends, Central and Southern Africa. The General Act of Berlin sets a framework for recognising European 'effective occupation' of African coasts and confirms the lands of Leopold II's International Congo Society, named the Congo Free State months later.
- Witwatersrand gold rush, Central and Southern Africa. Gold is found on the Witwatersrand in 1886. Prospectors arrive from Australia to California, and within ten years Johannesburg has over 100,000 people.
- Brazil abolishes slavery, South America. Princess Isabel, acting as regent, signs the Golden Law of 13 May, abolishing slavery without conditions. Brazil is the last country in the Americas to end slavery.
- Wounded Knee Massacre, North America. US 7th Cavalry troops trying to disarm Spotted Elk's band of Lakota at Wounded Knee Creek on 29 December kill between 250 and 300 Lakota and wound 51, of whom 47 are women and children. Twenty-five soldiers are also killed.
- Overthrow of the Hawaiian Kingdom, Oceania. A Committee of Safety of foreign-born and Hawaiian-born residents, protected by US Marines, deposes Queen Liliuokalani. Its leaders sought annexation, which the United States carried out in 1898.
- Women's suffrage in New Zealand, Oceania. New Zealand becomes the first self-governing country to give all adult women the vote, after petitions led by Kate Sheppard.
- Rinderpest sweeps southern Africa, Central and Southern Africa. Rinderpest, spreading south from the Horn of Africa, crosses the Zambezi in 1896 and kills more than 5.2 million cattle south of the river. Famine follows across the region, killing an estimated two-thirds of the Maasai of Tanzania.
- Battle of Adwa, North and West Africa. Emperor Menelik II's army defeats an Italian invasion force, and Italy is forced to recognise Ethiopia's sovereignty in the Treaty of Addis Ababa.
- Philippine Revolution, Southeast Asia. The Katipunan, a secret society, rises against Spain after it is discovered in August. In December the Spanish execute Jose Rizal, the writer whose works had inspired the revolution.
- Spanish-American War, Mesoamerica and Caribbean. After the USS Maine sinks in Havana Harbor, the United States fights Spain and acquires Puerto Rico, Guam and the Philippines and a protectorate over Cuba, ending almost four centuries of Spanish presence in the Americas and Asia.
- Second Boer War begins, Central and Southern Africa. War between Britain and the Boer republics brings scorched-earth tactics and concentration camps, where 26,000 Boer civilians and about 20,000 interned Black Africans die of starvation and disease.
- Boxer Rebellion, East Asia. An uprising in North China against foreign influence lasts from 1899 to 1901. Boxers besiege Beijing's Legation Quarter for 55 days until an Eight-Nation Alliance relieves it; the 1901 Boxer Protocol imposes a 450 million tael indemnity.
- Federation of Australia, Oceania. The six Australian colonies unite as the Commonwealth of Australia on 1 January 1901.
- Wright brothers' first flight, North America. Orville and Wilbur Wright make the first controlled, sustained flight of an engine-powered, heavier-than-air aircraft near Kitty Hawk, North Carolina, on 17 December.
- Herero and Nama genocide, Central and Southern Africa. German forces under Lothar von Trotha crush the Herero and Nama risings, driving survivors into the Omaheke desert and into concentration camps.
- Russo-Japanese War, East Asia. Russia and Japan fight over rival ambitions in Manchuria and Korea, with land battles on the Liaodong Peninsula and near Mukden and naval battles in the Yellow Sea and Sea of Japan. The Treaty of Portsmouth ends the war in September 1905.
- Maji Maji rebellion, Central and Southern Africa. Peoples of southern German East Africa rise against forced cotton growing. By 1907, 75,000 to 300,000 people have died, mostly in a famine caused largely by German scorched-earth tactics.
- Oil struck at Masjed Soleyman, Middle East. 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.
- Tunguska explosion, Central and North Asia. An air burst, most likely from a meteor, flattens several million trees over more than 2,150 square kilometres of taiga near the Podkamennaya Tunguska river.
- Mexican Revolution, Mesoamerica and Caribbean. A revolt against Porfirio Díaz turns into a decade of civil war that kills about a million people and produces the Constitution of 1917.
- Xinhai Revolution, East Asia. An army mutiny at Wuchang spreads across the provinces, and the last Qing emperor Puyi abdicates in February 1912.
- First World War begins, Europe. The assassination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand in Sarajevo on 28 June sets off a war that causes 15 to 22 million deaths and ends with the collapse of four empires.
- Panama Canal opens, Mesoamerica and Caribbean. The canal, built by the United States after it took over the project in 1904, opens on 15 August 1914, giving ships a short route between the Atlantic and Pacific.
- Armenian genocide, Middle East. The Ottoman government deports and massacres its Armenian population. Between 600,000 and 1.5 million Armenians die.
- Arab Revolt and Sykes-Picot, Middle East. Sharif Hussein of Mecca rises against the Ottomans, while Britain and France secretly agree to divide the Arab provinces between them.
- Russian Revolution, Europe. The tsar abdicates in March, and in November the Bolsheviks under Lenin seize power in Petrograd.
- 1918 influenza pandemic, North America. The earliest probable cases are documented in Kansas in March, though the pandemic's origin is undetermined. An estimated 500 million people are infected worldwide, and estimates of deaths range from 17 to 50 million, possibly 100 million.
- Treaty of Versailles, Europe. Signed on 28 June, the treaty ends the state of war between Germany and most of the Allied Powers. Germany, barred from the negotiations, must disarm, make territorial concessions and pay reparations.
- Jallianwala Bagh massacre, South Asia. Troops of the British Indian Army under Brigadier-General Dyer fire on an unarmed crowd at Amritsar, killing an estimated 379 to 1,500 or more. Anger at the massacre fed the non-cooperation movement.
- Korean Provisional Government founded in Shanghai, East Asia. A government-in-exile formed in the Shanghai French Concession on 11 April 1919 after the March First Movement. It later settled in Chongqing and came to an end after Japan's surrender in 1945.
- Treaty of Lausanne, Middle East. The Allies make peace with Turkey and recognise it as the Ottoman successor state. A convention signed at Lausanne exchanges about 1.2 million Greek Orthodox Christians and up to 400,000 Muslims.
Central and Southern Africa
- Kingdom of Kongo
- Congo Free State
- Central African forest foragers
- San hunter-gatherers
- Khoekhoe herders
- Kingdom of Buganda
- Portuguese Mozambique
- Portuguese Angola
- Sultanate of Zanzibar
- British Cape Colony
- British Kenya
- French Madagascar
- South African Republic (Transvaal)
- German East Africa
- German South West Africa
- East African hunter-gatherers
- Kikuyu people
- Kingdom of Nkore (Ankole)
- Portuguese São Tomé and Príncipe
- Kingdom of Rwanda
- Herero pastoralists
- Maasai pastoralists
- Comorian sultanates
- Ovambo kingdoms
- Lozi Kingdom (Barotseland)
- Kingdom of Kasanje
- Kingdom of Burundi
- Kuba Kingdom
- Ovimbundu kingdoms
- Spanish Guinea
- Swazi Kingdom
- British Mauritius
- Tooro Kingdom
- Basutoland
- Bechuanaland Protectorate
- Nyasaland
- Uganda Protectorate
- Colony of Natal
- Orange Free State
- Company Rhodesia
- French Congo
North and West Africa
- Ethiopian Empire (Solomonic dynasty)
- Alaouite Sultanate of Morocco
- Ashanti Empire
- French Algeria
- Muhammad Ali dynasty (Khedivate)
- Sokoto Caliphate
- French West Africa
- Medjay, Blemmyes and Beja nomads
- Cushitic-speaking peoples
- Sahelian cereal farmers
- West African yam and oil palm farmers
- Amazigh (Berber) tribes
- Coptic Christians
- Saharan camel nomads (Sanhaja and Tuareg)
- Chadic-speaking farmers
- Kingdom of Nri
- Arab tribes of Sudan
- Kingdom of Bamum
- Portuguese Cape Verde
- Oromo Gadaa confederations
- Sultanate of Agadez
- Sultanate of Darfur
- Ottoman Tripolitania
- Dendi Kingdom
- Kingdom of Dahomey
- French Senegal
- Wadai Sultanate
- Aro Confederacy
- Geledi Sultanate
- Sultanate of Aussa
- Liberia
- Majeerteen Sultanate
- Sierra Leone Colony
- Gambia Colony and Protectorate
- Kingdom of Jimma
- British Gold Coast
- Portuguese Guinea
- French Somaliland
- Spanish Sahara
- British Somaliland
- French protectorate of Tunisia
- Italian Somaliland
- French Chad
- Anglo-Egyptian Sudan
- Italian Eritrea
- Sultanate of Hobyo
- Lagos Colony
- British occupation of Egypt
- German Kamerun (north)
- German Togoland
- German Kamerun (south)
- Dervish State
- Northern Nigeria Protectorate
- Rabih az-Zubayr's state
Europe
- Ottoman Empire
- Portuguese Empire
- United Kingdom
- Russian Empire
- German Empire
- Kingdom of Portugal
- Kingdom of Bohemia
- Kingdom of Sweden
- Kingdom of Prussia
- Kingdom of the Netherlands
- Kingdom of Spain (1814 to 1931)
- Kingdom of Greece
- Romania (United Principalities and Kingdom)
- Kingdom of Italy
- French Third Republic
- Austria-Hungary
- Sami people
- Basques
- San Marino
- Andorra
- Bavaria (Wittelsbach)
- Monaco
- Montenegro (Prince-Bishopric to Kingdom)
- British Gibraltar
- Liechtenstein
- Switzerland
- Kingdom of Denmark
- Luxembourg
- Belgium
- British Malta
- Kingdom of Galicia and Lodomeria
- Grand Duchy of Finland
- Principality and Kingdom of Serbia
- Congress Poland
- Union of Sweden and Norway
- British Cyprus
- Principality and Tsardom of Bulgaria
Middle East
- Ottoman Empire
- Zaydi Imamate of Yemen
- Ottoman Syria and Palestine
- Ottoman Iraq
- Qajar dynasty
- Russian Caucasus
- Arab Bedouin tribes
- Kurdish tribes and emirates
- Sharifate of Mecca
- Mahra Sultanate
- Ottoman Hejaz and Yemen
- Sheikhdom of Kuwait
- Bahrain under the Al Khalifa
- Trucial States
- British Aden
- Sultanate of Muscat and Oman
- Sheikhdom of Qatar
- Emirate of Jabal Shammar
South Asia
- British Raj
- Kingdom of Mysore
- Kingdom of Nepal
- Hyderabad State
- Munda-speaking peoples
- Tibeto-Burman hill peoples
- Vedda people
- Kingdom of Mewar
- Pashtun tribes
- Kingdom of Manipur
- Kingdom of Marwar
- Twipra Kingdom
- Portuguese Goa
- Koch dynasty and Cooch Behar
- Kingdom of Sikkim
- Bhutan under the Zhabdrung
- French India
- Bhopal State
- Baroda State
- Jaipur State
- Travancore
- Gwalior State
- Bahawalpur State
- British Ceylon
- British Assam
- Rana regime
- Emirate of Afghanistan
- Jammu and Kashmir princely state
- Maldives under British protection
Central and North Asia
- Russian Siberia
- Qing rule in Mongolia
- Qing Xinjiang
- Russian Turkestan
- Yukaghir peoples
- Chukchi, Koryak and Itelmen peoples
- Evenki and Even reindeer herders
- Khanty, Mansi and Samoyedic peoples
- Buryats
- Sakha (Yakuts)
- Khanate of Khiva
- Russian Far East and Yakutia
- Kumul Khanate
- Emirate of Bukhara
- Russian Kazakh Steppe
East Asia
- Qing dynasty
- Empire of Japan
- Ganden Phodrang (Dalai Lama government)
- Formosan Austronesian peoples
- Qiang peoples
- Ainu
- Portuguese Macau
- Manchuria under the Qing
- Han settlers of the Northeast
- British Hong Kong
- Japanese Taiwan
- Korean Empire
- Russian Kwantung and the Chinese Eastern Railway
Southeast Asia
- Dutch East Indies
- Sultanate of Sulu
- Aceh Sultanate
- Rattanakosin Kingdom (Siam)
- Nguyen dynasty
- British Burma
- British Malaya
- French Indochina
- American Philippines
- Philippine Negrito foragers
- Orang Asli (Semang and Senoi)
- Dayak peoples of Borneo
- Shan States
- Balinese kingdoms
- Pattani Sultanate
- Ternate and Tidore sultanates
- Portuguese Timor
- Surakarta and Yogyakarta
- Kingdom of Champasak
- Straits Settlements
- Raj of Sarawak
- British protectorate of Brunei
- French Cambodia
- Riau-Lingga Sultanate
- British North Borneo
- French Laos
- First Philippine Republic
North America
- United States
- Pacific Northwest peoples
- Pueblo peoples (Hopi, Zuni, Rio Grande)
- Iroquois Confederacy (Haudenosaunee)
- Navajo (Diné)
- Inuit peoples
- Lakota (Teton Sioux)
- Dominion of Canada
- Unangan (Aleut) peoples
- Dene (Northern Athabaskan) peoples
- Chumash
- California peoples (Ohlone, Miwok, Pomo, Tongva)
- Cree peoples
- Numic peoples (Shoshone, Paiute, Ute)
- Apache peoples
- Wichita peoples (Quivira)
- O'odham peoples
- Blackfoot Confederacy
- Danish Greenland
- Cherokee Nation
Mesoamerica and Caribbean
- Haiti
- British West Indies
- Colony of Jamaica
- Mexico
- Island Caribs (Kalinago)
- Zapotec, Mixtec and Mixe peoples
- Maya peoples (colonial and modern)
- Yaqui, Mayo and Raramuri peoples
- Dutch Caribbean
- French Antilles
- Danish West Indies
- Honduras
- Nicaragua
- Costa Rica
- Guatemala
- El Salvador
- Dominican Republic
- Puerto Rico (US territory)
- British Honduras
- Panama under Colombia
- Chan Santa Cruz
- Military Government of Cuba
South America
- Tupi-Guarani peoples
- Mapuche
- Peru
- Colombia
- Argentina
- Brazil
- Fuegian canoe peoples (Yaghan, Kawésqar)
- Jê peoples
- Patagonian peoples (Tehuelche, Selk'nam)
- Arawakan peoples of the Amazon
- Carib peoples of the Guianas
- Guaraní
- Quechua and Aymara peoples
- French Guiana
- Dutch Suriname
- Paraguay
- Chile
- Bolivia
- Uruguay
- Venezuela
- Ecuador
- Falkland Islands
- British Guiana
Oceania
- Aboriginal Australian peoples
- Māori iwi
- Papuan farmers and foragers
- Kuk Swamp agriculture
- Colony of New South Wales
- Colony of New Zealand
- German New Guinea
- Tasmanian Aboriginal peoples
- Torres Strait Islanders
- Island Melanesian societies
- Eastern Micronesian islanders
- Samoan chiefdoms
- Macassan trepangers
- French Polynesia
- Kingdom of Tonga
- French New Caledonia
- Kīngitanga (Māori King Movement)
- Chilean Rapa Nui
- Dutch New Guinea
- Guam (US territory)
- American Samoa
- Colony of Fiji
- Gilbert and Ellice Islands
- British Solomon Islands Protectorate
- Van Diemen's Land (Tasmania)
- Western Australia (Swan River Colony)
- Colony of South Australia
- British New Guinea and Territory of Papua
- Territory of Hawaii
- Colony of Victoria
- Colony of Queensland
- German Samoa
Questions
What countries existed in 1900?
The timeline shows 252 states, empires and colonies alive in 1900. Among the most significant: Ethiopian Empire (Solomonic dynasty), Ottoman Empire, Portuguese Empire, Kingdom of Kongo, Qing dynasty, United States, United Kingdom and Haiti. The full list by region is on this page.
What was happening in the world in 1900?
Within 25 years of 1900, the timeline records Battle of the Little Bighorn (1876), Battle of Isandlwana (1879), War of the Pacific (1879), Krakatoa erupts (1883), Berlin Conference (1884) and Berlin Conference ends (1885).
Which empires existed in 1900?
Ethiopian Empire (Solomonic dynasty), Ottoman Empire, Portuguese Empire, Qing dynasty, Russian Empire, Empire of Japan, German Empire, Ottoman Syria and Palestine, Ottoman Iraq and Qing rule in Mongolia.
Where do these dates come from?
Each row's dates were checked against the sources listed on that row's own page, mostly English Wikipedia articles, which cite the underlying scholarship. Dates that are uncertain are marked c.