Years of Change

The forces of history may seem chaotic and devoid of all meaning to those living through it. Like a flood that washes away the memory of a bygone era. It is only when seeing through the eyes of the soldiers and kings, the statesmen and artisans who came before, that our conquest of liberty begins to rhyme and a mortal existence transforms into the eternity of a poem.

-3100

The Sumerians, a people of unknown origin, form the first city-states in the south of Mesopotamia, the land on the Euphrates and Tigris. They develop the first ever written form, cuneiform writing, which soon spread throughout the Middle East.

-3000

The wheel is invented independently in Europe and the Near East.

-2657

With the accession to power of the Ill dynasty, which includes Djoser, the builder of the step pyramid, the Old Kingdom begins in Egypt and will last until 2120 BC.

-2589

Snefru founds the IV Dynasty in Egypt, from which the pharaohs Khufu, Chephren and Menkaure, the builders of the pyramids of Giza, come from.

-2370

Sargon the Great founds the first Semitic empire in Mesopotamia, the Empire of Akkad. It will be destroyed by the Guteans around 2190 BC.

-2046

Pharaoh Mentuhotep II founds the Middle Kingdom in Egypt with the capital Thebes. It will reach the peak of its power during the XII Dynasty 70 years later.

-1850

The Epic of Gilgamesh is created in Mesopotamia, following older Sumerian predecessors, as the first major epic in world literature in the Babylonian language. However, it will only acquired its canonical form as a twelve-panel epic in the last third of the 2nd millennium BC.

-1813

Shamshi-Adad I takes office. He is considered the founder of the Assyrian Empire with its center in northern Mesopotamia.

-1792

Hammurabi takes over the government. Under his rule, the Old Babylonian Empire, centered in central Mesopotamia, reaches the peak of its power. His expansive Code of Hammurabi contains criminal-, family-, property- and commercial law for the complex Babylonian society. Hammurabi’s eye for an eye principle restricts the violence of vengeful people by calling for reciprocal justice.

-1766

According to a tradition that will be established later, the first dynasty Shang begins its rule in China, lasting until 1122 BC. The first Chinese writing is created during this time.

-1650

With the invasion of the Hyksos, who use spoked wheels for their chariots for the first time, the Middle Kingdom in Egypt ends.

-1550

Pharaoh Ahmose I, founder of the XVIII dynasty, the most important in Egyptian history, founds the New Kingdom.

-1468

The Egyptian pharaoh Thutmose III defeats a coalition of Syrian princes with the Mitanni king at Megiddo and then subjugates Syria, Palestine and Transjordan, which will remain under Egyptian influence until the late 12th century BC.

-1400

BC For unknown reasons, the Minoan culture dies out on Crete. It was the oldest written based civilisation in Europe. Knossos is destroyed.

-1351

Pharaoh Amenhotep IV, husband of Nefertiti, ascends the throne in Egypt. He temporarily introduces a sole imperial god, Aton, worshiped in the form of the sun.

-1323

The young Pharaoh Tutankhamun, who restored the traditional polytheism in Egypt, dies. His almost intact grave will be discovered in 1922 by the British archaeologist Howard Carter.

-1279

Pharaoh Ramses II, greatest of all Egyptian rulers, takes over the government.

-1250

Moses leads his people out of Egypt, receives God's revelation at Mount Sinai and, before he dies, sees the Promised Land from Mount Nebo.

-1200

The Hittite Empire in Asia Minor, which has existed since the 18th century BC, succumbs to the onslaught of the Sea Peoples.

-1200

The Phoenicians invent a new type of writing made up of letters.

-1100

The Mycenaean culture in the Peloponnese dies out as a result of the immigration of the Dorians.

-1070

The New Kingdom in Egypt ends with Ramses XI. The country then breaks up into small states.

-1004

David founds the Kingdom of Israel, the first state of the Jewish people.

-926

After the death of King Solomon, the Jewish kingdom splits into a northern state of Israel (capital Samaria) and a southern state of Judah (capital Jerusalem).

-814

Carthage is founded by the Phoenicians and will become one of the most important trading hubs of the Mediterranean.

-800

In Greece, Europe's first alphabet is developed from the Phoenician alphabet. All later European scripts will be derived from it. The first surviving epic poems in Europe, the Iliad and the Odyssey by Homer are also written around this time.

-776

The Olympic Games, which will be held every four years and play a crucial role in evoking the idea of the unity of Greece (regardless of its political fragmentation) are held for the first time. They will be held for the last time in 393.

-753

Rome is founded this year and is initially under the control of Etruscan kings.

-722

The Assyrians destroy the Jewish northern state of Israel under King Hosea.

-612

Nabopolassar, founder of the Neo-Babylonian Empire, conquers the Assyrian capital Nineveh. The Assyrian Empire ends three years later.

-600

Coins began to be minted in Lydia. From there the technology first spreads to the Greek colonies on the west coast of Asia Minor, and later throughout the Mediterranean region.

-595

Pharaoh Necho II dies. He is considered the initiator of the first circumnavigation of Africa by Phoenician sailors, which started in the Red Sea, and the builder of the first canal from the Nile to the Red Sea.

-587

The Neo-Babylonian King Nebuchadnezzar II conquers the Jewish southern state under King Zedekiah and has its upper class deported to Mesopotamia.

-547

King Cyrus the Great, founder of the Persian empire, defeats the Lydian king Croesus and annexes his empire. Afterwards, the Greek colonies on the west coast of Asia Minor also come under Persian rule.

-539

The Persian king Cyrus the Great destroys the Neo-Babylonian Empire. He allows the Jews who were deported to Babylonia to return home. The Second Temple is then built in Jerusalem.

-525

The Persian king Cambyses incorporates Egypt into his empire and thereby finally ends its great era.

-525

The philosopher Pythagoras of Samos develops theorems in geometry, astronomy and music theory.

-510

After the overthrow of its last king, Lucius Tarquinius Superbus, Rome becomes a republic.

-507

The development of popular rule (democracy) in Athens begins with Cleisthenes' constitutional reforms.

-490

The Athenians defeat the forces of the Persian king Darius the Great, which had advanced into Greece, at Marathon.

-480

Buddha (Sanskrit: the enlightened one) the Indian religious founder dies. The only missionary religion in Asia will develop from his teachings and spread throughout India, China and the world shaped by the latter culture (Korea, Japan, Vietnam, Tibet).

-479

With the double victory of Salamis at sea and Plataea on land, the Greeks defend their freedom against the Persian king Xerxes.

The Chinese philosopher Confucius dies. His teachings will only develop into the state doctrine of China and other East Asian empires long after his death. Confucianism represents a personalised ethic in which ancestor worship, integration of the individual into the community, achievement and a sense of duty have central importance. It will form the intellectual basis for the lead that East Asia maintains over all other civilisations in the world until the First Industrial Revolution, and also for the region's resurgence in the 21st century.

-472

The Persians by the Attic poet Aeschylus, the creator of modern tragedy, is performed for the first time.

-444

Heredotus of Halicarnassus, the "father of historiography" (according to Cicero), settles in the Attic colony of Thurii in southern Italy after extensive travels.

-438

After more than 10 years of construction, the Pantheon on the Acropolis of Athens is completed and will have a style-defining effect on the ancient world.

-431

In the year the war breaks out, Thucydides from Athens begins his work on the Peloponnesian War. This is the first record of contemporary political historiography.

-425

The first surviving comedy, The Acharnians from Aristophanes is performed in Athens.

-420

The work of Hippocrates of Kos, the most famous doctor of antiquity, reaches its climax. He is considered the founder of scientific medicine.

-404

The Peloponnesian War, which has been going on since 431 BC, ends in the total triumph of the land power Sparta over Athens, which until then had dominated the sea.

-396

Rome's expansion begins with the capture and destruction of the Etruscan rival city of Veii.

-386

Plato, a student of Socrates, who was executed in 399 BC, founds a school of philosophy, the Academy, in the sanctuary of the Hero Academus in Athens. It will be closed in 529 by Emperor Justinian

-342

Aristotle of Stageira, a student at Plato's Academy and the most influential philosopher up to modern times, becomes the teacher of the Macedonian Crown Prince Alexander.

-338

Philip II, King of the Macedonian, ends the independence of the Greek polis with his victory at Chaeronea.

-333

Alexander the Great, King of the Macedonians, wins his first major triumph at Issus on his "campaign of revenge" against the Persians.

-332

Alexander the Great conquers Egypt and founds Alexandria, the most important city of that name.

-330

After another victory over the Persian king at Gaugamela, Alexander the Great destroys the Persian Empire with the main residences of Susa, Ecbatana and Persepolis and becomes "King of Asia" himself. In doing so, he expands the European (Greek) cultural sphere to include the entire Middle East.

-326

Alexander the Great advances to India on his conquest, but is forced to turn back by his own army.

-323

Alexander the Great dies in Babylon. His empire collapses in the ensuing battle between his rival successors, the Diadochi. However, the Greek cultural influence will intensify throughout the entire Eastern Mediterranean (Hellenism).

-312

For strategic military reasons, the Romans build their first road from Rome to Capua in Campania (via Appia). It will later be extended via Benevento to Brindisi.

-305

With the acceptance of the title of king by two of the victorious Diadochi, the Ptolemaic Empire in Egypt (until 30 BC) and the Seleucid Empire in Syria and Mesopotamia (until 64 BC) emerged as the successor to the Alexander Empire.

-300

The mathematician Euclid, author of a textbook on geometry that has remained relevant to modern times, teaches in Alexandria, where the most famous library of antiquity will be founded a few years later.

-285

A bronze statue of the sun god is erected above the entrance to the harbour in Rhodes. As the Colossus of Rhodes, it is considered one of the Seven Wonders of the World alongside the Pyramids of Giza, the Hanging Gardens of Semiramis in Babylon, the Temple of Artemis in Ephesus, the statue of Zeus in Olympia, the Mausoleum of Halicarnassus and the Pharos of Alexandria

-268

Emperor Ashoka ascends the throne. Under him, the first Indian empire built by Chandragupta Maurya with its capital Pataliputra (Patna) reaches its peak. It covers the entire subcontinent except for the extreme south. The state religion is Buddhism.

-264

The First Punic War between Rome and Carthage was sparked by conflicts in Sicily.

-248

Eratosthenes, author of a work on the measurement of the earth and founder of the theory of the spherical shape of the earth, is appointed head of the library in Alexandria.

-241

The Romans win decisively over the Carthage fleet in the Aegates Islands, thus ending the First Punic War, which had lasted since 264 BC. They then acquire their first province, Sicily (excluding the Syracuse area). Four years later, Sardinia and Corsica will also become Roman.

-238

Arsaces I founds the Parthian Empire in Persia under the Arsacid dynasty, which will also include Mesopotamia after 129 BC. For centuries it will remain Rome's most powerful rival.

-221

Shihuangdi, founder of the Qin dynasty, becomes the first ruler to unify all of China by adopting the new title "Emperor", thereby establishing a tradition of the longest largely continuous empire in world history that will exist to this day. He standardises coins, measurements and writing and sets up a permanent capital in Xianyang. His grave with the famous army of 7,500 Terracotta Warriors will be fully opened until 1976.

-218

The Second Punic War between Rome and Carthage begins. On his way from Spain, the Carthaginian general Hannibal crosses the Alps with war elephants and achieves his first victory over the Roman contingent at the Trebbia.

-216

The Carthaginian general Hannibal defeats the Roman army at Cannae in Apulia. It is the worst defeat in Roman history up to that point.

-212

The Romans, who have since united all of Sicily under their rule, conquer Syracuse. The famous mathematician Archimedes gets killed in the process.

-202

Emperor Gaozu founds the Han Dynasty (capital Xian), which will rule China with only a short interruption until 202. During this period, the identity of the Chinese people is formed as being Han Chinese.

-201

After the victory of their general Scipio at Zama, the Romans end the Second Punic War victoriously. Carthage, which thereby loses its great power status, must hand over its fleet and vacate all positions on the Iberian Peninsula.

-197

The Romans establish two provinces on the Iberian Peninsula. The area is subsequently thoroughly latinised. The romanesque character of Spain and Portugal comes from here.

-168

The Romans defeat the last Macedonian king Perseus at Pydna. His empire is dissolved. By 146 BC, all of Greece (temporarily excluding Sparta and Thesaly) will be incorporated into the Roman Republic.

-146

At the end of the Third Punic War, Carthage is completely defeated. The Romans have the city destroyed and establish the Africa Province on former Carthaginian soil. For centuries this will be the granary of the Roman Civilisation.

-133

The Romans conquer the interior of the Iberian Peninsula and acquire the Pergamene Empire, where they will establish the Asia Province in 129 BC.

-111

With the acquisition of Guangzhou, China expands under the Han Emperor Wudi to the South China Sea. Two years later even Korea will be made tributary.

-104

The high priest of Jerusalem, a Hasmonean, assumes the title of king. This creates a new Jewish State.

-104

Marius, victor over the Cimbri and Teutons, carries out fundamental military reform in the Roman Republic as consul. The popular army is abolished in favour of a standing professional army.

-100

Trade between the Mediterranean world and Asia (India and China) is rapidly intensifying. Because Europe has almost no goods to offer in exchange, precious metal continues to flow out to Asia until the 18th century.

-64

The Romans under Pompey conquer the remnants of the Seleucid Empire and annex it as the province of Syria. They establish a protectorate over the Jewish state. In doing so, they complete the unity of the Mediterranean world under their rule.

-51

After a long struggle, Gaius Julius Caesar finally subjugates all of Gaul and incorporates it into the Roman Republic, which predetermines the Romanesque character of later France.

-45

After several victories over his republican opponents at Pharsalus, Thapsus and Munda, Gaius Julius Caesar de facto establishes the monarchy in the Roman Republic as dictator for life. He carries out a fundamental calendar reform based on the solar year (Julian calendar).

-44

Gaius Julius Caesar is assassinated in the Senate by opponents of his dictatorial rule in Rome on the Ides of March.

-42

As Caesar's heirs, Marcus Antonius and Gaius Julius Caesar Octavianus triumph over Caesar's murderers Brutus and Cassius near Philippi in Thrace.

-30

After a naval victory over Marcus Antonius and Queen Cleopatra's Egyptian fleet near Actium, Octavian victoriously enters Alexandria. This ends the age of civil wars in the Roman Republic. Octavian becomes sole ruler.

-27

The Senate gives Octavian the honorary name Augustus. The Republic becomes and Empire with a single ruler (Principate).

-19

The Roman poet Virgil dies and leaves behind the Aeneid, written since 29 BC. The traditional Roman heroic epic becomes the most widely received work of ancient poetry.

-8

The Roman poet Horace dies. His work, most notably the Odes, represents a highlight of Roman literature.

8

The important Roman poet Ovid is banished to the Black Sea by Emperor Augustus for reasons that are never clear.

9

There is a decisive battle in the Teutoburg Forest. The Germanic tribes under Arminius destroy three Roman legions (around 15,000 men). Rome then abandons its expansion, which had previously been carried out to the Elbe. The vast majority of Germania then remained outside the empire and was never romanised.

25

The main work of the Roman architect Vitruvius is published after his death. It will have a significant aftereffect, especially in the Renaissance.

30

In Jerusalem, Jesus of Nazareth is sentenced to death as the Messiah by the Roman governor Pontius Pilate. His followers, who believe in the resurrection, form a special group within Judaism that is soon subjected to bloody persecution.

43

The Roman Emperor Claudius conquers southern Britain at the head of four legions and has it established as a province the following year.

50

The apostle Paul to the Gentiles begins his missionary work on numerous journeys in the eastern Mediterranean. In doing so, he has founded the tradition of Christianity as a missionary religion. By negating central teachings of the Jewish faith and opening up Christianity to Greek paganism, Paul will turn a marginal Jewish sect into the nucleus of a world religion.

65

The Apostle Peter, disciple of Jesus and first leader of the Christian community in Rome, and the Apostle Paul are executed in Rome during the First Persecution of Christians under Emperor Nero.

68

Emperor Nero commits suicide. With it, the Julio-Claudian family of Augustus ends.

69

In the Year of the Four Emperors, several military commanders take turns on the throne. In the end, Vespasian of the Flavian family prevails.

70

Titus, son of Vespasian, conquers Jerusalem and has the temple destroyed. The last Jewish resistance will be broken in three years after the suicide of the defenders of Masada.

72

The construction of the Colosseum in Rome, the largest ancient amphitheatre, begins and will be finished in the year 80.

79

The cities of Pompeii, Herculaneum and Stabiae are buried by the eruption of Mount Vesuvius. Their future excavations (since 1745, systematically since 1860) will mark the beginning of modern archaeology.

85

Mark describes the life of Jesus in his gospel. He will be followed by the Gospels of Matthew (between 75 and 90), Luke (between 80 and 90) and John (around 125).

90

To protect Roman Germania, Emperor Domitian, son of Vespasian, has the Limes built from the left bank of the Rhine over the northern Wetterau to the Main and further through the Odenwald to the Neckar. This border fortification will later (around 145) be advanced onto the Saalburg - Miltenberg - Osterburken - Lorch line.

96

With the election of Nerva by the Senate, the era of adoptive emperorship begins in the Roman Empire.

105

Paper is invented in China. The Arabs will adopt the new writing material in the 8th century, the Europeans only in the 13th century.

106

Rome annexes the Arab Nabataean empire as Provincia Arabia. The capital is moved from Petra to Bosra.

107

Rome annexes the Dacian Empire north of the Danube, which is then thoroughly romanised. The Romanian language will continue to bear witness to this until the present.

109

The important Roman historian Tacitus concludes his Histories with an account of the Flavian period.

117

With the death of Emperor Trajan, the Roman Empire reached its greatest extent after the annexation of Armenia (114) and Mesopotamia (115). Trajan's successor is the traveling emperor Hadrian, builder of the imperial villa in Tivoli and the Castel Sant'Angelo in Rome.

121

Suetonius publishes his Vita Caesarum, which will have a lasting impact on our image of the early Roman period.

127

In northern Britain, Hadrian's Wall, begun in 122, is completed. It defends the Roman province from the Caledonians on the Solway-Tyne line.

135

After another uprising, the Jewish resistance is finally broken by the Romans. The Jews are expelled from Jerusalem, which they are not allowed to enter again until the Arab conquest in 638, and scatter into a diaspora.

175

The Equestrian Statue of Marcus Aurelius is erected on the Capitoline Hill in Rome. It will serve as a model for similar sculptures in modern Europe.

180

After the death of Emperor Marcus Aurelius, his son Commodus succeeds him. This ends the adoptive emperorship.

192

The assassination of Emperor Commodus is followed by a second year of four emperors in the Roman Empire, at the end of which Septimius Severus will prevail.

199

Galen, the last outstanding doctor of antiquity, dies in Rome.

200

The classic era of Maya culture begins with the establishment of a royal dynasty in Tikal (Guatemala). Further dynasties will rule in Copán (Honduras) from 360 and in Palenque (Chiapas, Mexico) from 390.

212

With the Constitutio Antoniniana, Emperor Caracalla grants Roman citizenship to all free residents of the provinces. The Roman Empire thereby becomes a legal entity, eliminating Italy's previously claimed primacy

220

The Han Dynasty is overthrown in China. For centuries, the empire will collapse into small states that fight each other bitterly. Nevertheless, the idea of imperial unity is adhered to.

224

The Parthian Empire is destroyed by the Sasanian victory over the Arsacids. With the new Sasanian Empire, Rome faces an even stronger enemy.

235

With the assassination of Emperor Severus Alexander, the era of barracks emperors created solely by the army begins in the Roman Empire. It is characterised by economic decline as well as intellectual and cultural exhaustion.

249

The Roman Emperor Decius systematically persecutes Christians in the Roman Empire for the first time.

259

The Germanic Franks break through the Limes and advance into Gaul and the Iberian Peninsula.

270

The Egyptian Antonios retreats into the desert as a hermit. Because of his ascetic, worldly lifestyle, he is considered the founder of monasticism.

274

The Roman Emperor Aurelian introduces the cult of the sun god Sol Invictus, whose birthday is set on December 25th.

284

When Emperor Diocletian comes to power, the era of barracks emperors in the Roman Empire ends. He implements fundamental reforms that stabilise the empire.

293

Diocletian introduces the Tetrarchy, which prescribes having an emperor (Augustus) in the east and in the west, each with a Caesar as deputy. This prepares the division of the empire in 295.

301

With the adoption of Christianity in Armenia, the oldest national church in history is created.

312

In the Battle of the Milvian Bridge, Constantine the Great defeats his rival in the west of the Roman Empire, Maxentius. A vision of the cross before the battle convinces him of the superiority of the Christian God.

314

Constantine the Great, who had already granted Christians religious freedom in 313, has the first Christian basilica (Lateran Church) built in Rome. It will determine the style of the later church building.

321

Constantine the Great introduces Sunday as a general day of rest in the Roman Empire.

324

After his victory over the Eastern Emperor Licinius, which made him sole ruler of the Roman Empire, Constantine the Great orders the construction of a new capital on the site of the old Byzantium. It will be called Constantinople.

325

At the First General Council of Nicaea, the Christological dispute between Arius and Athanasius of Alexandria is decided. With the elevation to church dogma, the latter's conception of Christ's equality with God prevails over the Arians' doctrine of God-likeness.

326

Helena, the mother of Constantine the Great, goes on a pilgrimage to Jerusalem, where she finds the Holy Cross and gives the order to build the Church of the Holy Sepulchre.

330

Under King Ezana, the Ethiopian Empire of Aksum reaches the height of its power. At the same time, the Coptic Christian Church is gaining ground here.

333

Constantine the Great designates the day of Sol Invictus (December 25th) as Christ's birthday and therefore Christmas Day.

337

It is only at his deathbed in Nicomedia that Constantine the Great gets baptised. After his death, the Roman Empire is divided among his three sons.

350

Ulfilas, Arian bishop of the Goths, translates the Bible into Gothic. The preserved relics will be considered the oldest evidence of a Germanic language.

261

Under Emperor Julian Apostate, a pagan reaction in the Roman Empire occurs. The old cults are temporarily renewed on the basis of Neoplatonism.

372

Martin of Savaria of Pannonia, the patron saint of France, becomes Bishop of Tours. The following year, Ambrose, one of the church fathers, becomes Bishop of Milan.

375

The Huns, who invade from Central Asia, drive out the Goths living north of the Black Sea and push them into the Balkans. This marks the beginning of the Migration Period.

381

At the Second General Council of Constantinople, Christianity is made the state religion in the Roman Empire and at the same time the doctrine of the equality of Christ with God gets reaffirmed, while Arianism, which was popular among the Germanic peoples, is banned. Legal measures against pagans, Jews and heretics follow.

383

Jerome of Stridon begins translating the Bible from the original languages. It will finally establish itself as the authoritative Latin translation (Vulgate) by the 8th century.

387

Augustine of Hippo is baptized in Milan by Bishop Ambrose. The Western Church thus gains its most important and powerful teacher.

395

Emperor Theodosius I, under whom the Roman Empire is united for the last time, dies in Milan. The empire is finally divided between his two sons into an eastern and a western half. The border drawn in the Balkans as a dividing line between the Catholic and Orthodox churches will continue to have an impact to the present day.

406

The Romans give up the Rhine and Limes borders in Germania and Britain. Germanic peoples such as the Vandals, Suebi, Burgundians and Alans advance far into the area on the left bank of the Rhine. From now on, Britain is left to its own devices. Romanisation does not produce lasting results here.

410

The Visigoths conquer and plunder Rome under their king Alaric.

418

After being expelled from Italy, the Visigoths form their first empire on both sides of the Pyrenees with the center in Toulouse (Visigothic Kingdom).

429

The Vandals cross the Strait of Gibraltar. They then conquer the North African coastal strip and form their own empire there.

438

The Codex Theodasianus is published as a collection of all imperial decrees issued since 312. It forms the basis of the creation of law in all later Romance and Germanic empires in Europe.

443

After losing their position on the Upper Rhine (the core of the later Nibelungenlied), the Burgundians form a new empire in the Rhone Valley and on Lake Geneva.

450

The Angles and Saxons living in Jutland respond to a call for help from the Britons to fend off the Celtic Picts and Scots and begin to settle on the main British island. This begins the Anglo-Saxon conquest of land in what will be called England.

451

In the Battle of the Catalaunian Plains in Champagne, the Huns under their King Attila, who have advanced there, are defeated and forced to retreat by the Roman military commander Flavius Aetius and his Germanic allies.

455

The Vandals conquer Rome and plunder it in a regular manner. However, Pope Leo I prevents them from causing much destruction.

476

The Germanic Sciri Odoacer is proclaimed king in Italy. He deposes the last Western Roman Emperor and thus formally brought about the end of the Western Roman Empire.

486

Clovis, King of the Franks from the Merovingian family, defeats the Roman Syagrius near Soissons and thereby establishes the Frankish Empire in Gaul.

493

Theodoric, King of the Ostrogoths, kills King Odoacer with his own hands in Ravenna and thus gains control of Italy.

495

The last Indian empire founded around 320 before the onset of Islam declines and fragments with the death of Budhagupta. The Gupta Empire is considered the high point of classical Indian culture with its Sanskrit literature and scientific developments.

496

The Frankish king Clovis defeats the Alemanni near Zülpich and pushes them south. He is then baptised as a Catholic in Reims and thereby founds a powerful tradition in conscious opposition to Arianism.

500

The Christianisation of Celtic Ireland is complete. In contrast to the continent, a monastic church develops in Ireland, initially largely independent of Rome.

507

In the Battle of Vouillé, the Visigoths are defeated by the Frankish king Clovis. The center of their empire subsequently moves from southern Gaul to the Iberian Peninsula with the capital Telodo.

525

Dionysius Exiguus calculates the Easter tables on behalf of the Pope. However, the continuous counting of the years after the birth of Christ (Anno Domini) will only become established in the 8th century.

529

Benedict of Nursia founds the first monastery in Europe on Monte Cassino. As the author of the rules for monastic life, the Order of Saint Benedict becomes the oldest of all.

534

As a first step towards the restoration of the Roman Empire, as desired by the Eastern Roman Emperor Justinian, his troops destroy the Vandal Empire under the command of the general Belisarius. The North African coastal fringe and the islands of the western Mediterranean are again incorporated into the Empire.

The final edition of the Code of Justinian appears as a legal collection of all laws since the time of Hadrian. Together with the previously enacted institutions and the excerpts from the writings of Roman jurists as well as later novellas, it forms the Corpus Juris Civilis and the basis for the reception of Roman law in Europe during the Middle Ages and modern times.

537

The Church of Wisdom (Hagia Sophia) in Constantinople, founded by Constantine the Great, receives its final form which will exist to the present day.

545

The Frankish king Theudebert I becomes the first non-Roman ruler in Europe to have coins minted with his image, thereby violating an imperial prerogative that had always been respected until then.

552

The general Narses subjugates the Ostrogoths in Italy and incorporates their territory into the Eastern Roman Empire. Italy thus briefly forms a unit again.

555

Knowledge of silk production is spied on in China. The imperial government in Constantinople develops a profitable state monopoly from this.

568

The Germanic Lombards advance across the Alps and conquer northern Italy. The center of the empire they form is initially Pavia. Unity of Italy is thereby destroyed and will only be restored in the 19th century. At the same time, the division of the country into north and south is structurally preformed.

581

Emperor Wendi once again unifies China, where Buddhism has gained significant influence since the 3rd century, and founds the short-lived Sui dynasty.

590

Gregory the Great is the first monk to become Pope in this office. During his pontificate he will assert the primacy of the papacy, at least in the West, against the claims of the Patriarch of Constantinople. He also establishes the tradition of Christianity of carrying out missions with fire and sword. The title servus servorum (Servant of the Servants of God) goes back to him.

596

Pope Gregory the Great sends the Roman abbot Augustine to England to evangelise the Anglo-Saxons. The mission begins in Kent. Canterbury therefore becomes the seat of the first bishop the following year.

598

The Teotihuacán Empire in central Mexico, which reached its peak in the 2nd century with the construction of the Pyramid of the Sun, dies out.

610

In Constantinople, Emperor Heraclius I ascends to the throne and establishes a new dynasty. Under their rule, the Eastern Roman Empire will transform into the Byzantine Empire of the Middle Ages. Roman imperial literature is abolished and Greek is made the official language.

618

Emperor Gaozu founds the Tang Dynasty, which would successfully rule the culturally flourishing China until 907. The capital is the city of Chang’an with over a million citizens. Under the Tang, China will reach its greatest expansion ever to the west (as far as present-day Kazakhstan).

622

The Prophet Mohammed, founder of Islam, a new monotheistic and missionary religion like Christianity, flees from Mecca to Medina in Arabia. This date will later be considered the beginning of the Islamic world.

630

In Tibet, which his father founded as an empire, Buddhism is introduced under the important ruler Songsten Gampo, which takes on a special form as Lamaism.

632

The Prophet Mohammed dies. Under his successors, the caliphs, Islam develops enormous expansion power.

636

Archbishop Isidore dies in Seville. As one of the greatest compilers of all time, he leaves behind the most important collection of knowledge of the Middle Ages with his 20 books Etymologiae.

636

In the decisive battle at Yarmuk, the main Byzantine army is defeated by the Muslim Arabs, who will then conquer Jerusalem (638) and the Nile Delta (642). The areas from Egypt to Mesopotamia, which Alexander the Great had won for Greek culture almost 1,000 years earlier, are from then on Arab and Muslim in character, and the unity of the Mediterranean world created by the Romans gets torn apart.

645

A coup marks the Taika Reform in Japan. The country, which received its first constitution in 604, is fundamentally reorganised according to the Chinese model and only then becomes a functioning state.

651

The Arabs assert themselves militarily in Iran, which they win over to Islam, and overthrow the rule of the Sasanians Empire.

661

Mu'awiya I becomes caliph and establishes the Umayyad Caliphate with the new capital of Damascus. From then on, the followers of the defeated and murdered caliph Ali form a special branch of Islam known as Shiites, which stand in stark contrast to the Sunni majority.

662

Invented in India, the number 0 and the decimal system are first reported in Syria. They will be adopted by the Arabs in the 8th century.

668

After the victory over Paekche (660), the Kingdom of Silla (capital Gyeongju), whose elites are influenced by Confucianism, subjugates the Kingdom of Koguryo. This creates a unified Korean state for the first time.

680

The Bulgarians, a nomadic people from the east, cross the Danube and form their first empire north of the Balan Mountains, which even threatens Byzantium.

687

In the Battle of Tertry, the mayor of the palace of Austrasia defeats the army of  and thus restores the unity of imperial power in the Frankish Empire. This date marks the rise of the Carolingians to de facto power in this empire.

697

The first Doge of Venice, Paolo Lucio Anafesto, is elected. The Republic of Venice, which is far ahead in terms of democracy, technology and culture will live on for 1100 years.

698

With the final conquest of Carthage by an army of the Caliph, the Muslim Arabs consolidate their rule throughout North Africa.

710

With Heijō-kyō, Japan receives a new capital based on the Chinese Chang'an. However, it is abandoned again in 784 due to the overwhelming influence of Buddhist monasteries.

711

A Muslim Berber army crosses the Strait of Gibraltar and decisively defeats the last Visigoth king, Roderic, before taking over Toledo. With the exception of Asturias, the entire Iberian Peninsula comes under Arab rule.

722

A modest military success of the Visigothic prince of Asturias at Covadonga is considered the prelude to the Reconquista of the Iberian Peninsula.

731

The Anglo-Saxon Bede, considered the greatest scholar of his time, writes his Ecclesiastical History of the English People which will play a key role in the development of an English national identity.

732

The Frankish mayor of the palace, Charles Martel, defeats a Muslim army between Tours and Poitiers, thus bringing the Arab expansion in Europe to a halt.

745

The Anglo-Saxon Boniface "Apostle of the Germans" becomes the personal missionary archbishop of Mainz, which will later, due to his authority, become the metropolitan seat in the east of the Frankish Empire.

750

The Umayyads are overthrown as caliphs by the Abbasids.

751

The Frankish mayor of the palace, Pippin the Younger, deposes the last Merovingian king with the approval of the Pope and is anointed king in his place. This marks the beginning of the Carolingian rule in the Frankish Empire.

755

The Donation of Constantine, the most famous forgery of the Middle Ages, “grants” the Pope dominion over the entire Western Roman Empire. For legitimacy, the papacy will refer to the document many times in the future. It will only be proven as a fake in the 15th century.

756

The Frankish king Pippin donates the Pope Rome and Latium, as well as the area around Ravenna, which had been taken from the Lombards, and thus initiates the development of the Papal States.

The Umayyads form an independent emirate on the Iberian Peninsula with its capital in Córdoba.

762

Under the new Abbasid dynasty, the capital of the caliphate is moved from Damascus to Baghdad.

774

The Frankish king Charlemagne conquers Pavia and puts an end to the Lombard Kingdom. He adds the formula gratia Dei (by the grace of God) to his extended title, which sets the style for all of Europe up to the modern era.

782

Charlemagne, King of the Franks and Lombards, subjugates Saxony, the area between Hellweg and Elbe, and incorporates it into the Frankish Empire.

786

Construction of the Palatine Chapel in Aachen and the Great Mosque (Mezquita) in Córdoba begins.

788

After the Duchy of Alamannia, the Duchy of Bavaria is also incorporated into the Frankish Empire.

793

The raid by Norwegian sailors on the Lindisfarne monastery in England marks the beginning of the Viking Age. They will plunder and establish settlements across Europe, especially the Frankish region, the Mediterranean and the area of ​​what would later become Russia.

794

After the abandonment of Heijō-kyō, Heian-kyō (Kyoto) becomes the permanent residence of the Japanese imperial court for more than 1000 years.

800

Charlemagne is crowned emperor by the Pope in Rome. The new Holy Roman Empire will last for more than 1000 years. Because of the competition with Byzantium, the Two-Emperor Problem will exist for centuries.

805

The diffused political power starts to become centralised in the newly established Danish, Norwegian and Swedish kingdoms.

809

Calif Harun al-Rashid whose reign began the Islamic Golden Age and who is famous for appearing in the One Thousand and One Nights folktales, dies in Persia.

814

Emperor Charlemagne dies in Aachen and is buried in the Palatine Chapel there. The successor is his son Ludwig I.

840

After the death of Emperor Ludwig I, a dispute over the throne broke out in the Frankish Empire between his sons Lothar, Ludwig and Charles.

842

Louis the German and Charles the Bald renew their alliance against their brother, Emperor Lothar, in the Oaths of Strasbourg The oaths taken by the vassals to confirm this are considered the oldest evidence of the French language and one of the oldest of the German language.

843

In Europe, the Kingdom of Scotland is created, as well as the first states of the Croats (who submit to the obedience of Rome) and the Serbs (who will be won over to the Eastern Church).

850

With the decline of Tikal after that of Copán (around 820) and Palenque (around 800), the classical era of Maya culture comes to an end.

860

The Viking (Varangian) Rurik forms the first empire in the north of Russia with Novgorod as its centre. He is considered the progenitor of the dynasty will rule Russia until 1598.

863

Cyril and Methodius, the "Apostles to the Slavs", continue their missionary work in Moravia (which later followed Roman obedience). They introduce their own Slavic script, based on the Greek model, which was called Cyrillic from the 10th century onwards.

864

The Bulgarian Khan Boris receives baptism according to the Greek rite.

866

In Japan, the absolute power of the emperor is severely curtailed. Actual governmental power passes to the Fujiwara regent family for more than 200 years.

871

Alfred the Great becomes King of Wessex. He gains a hegemonic position in the south of England and banishes the Danish threat.

872

After the Battle of Hafrsfjord, Harald Fairhair unites Norway into a kingdom. Trondheim will serve as its capital.

874

Norwegian Vikings establish the first permanent settlements in Iceland. The island subsequently becomes the destination of numerous emigrants from Norway.

882

Oleg the Wise unites the rule over Novgorod and Kiev and thus establishes the first Russian empire.

896

The Hungarians are the people of Eastern Europe to migrate to their present settlement areas under prince Árpád. From there, they begin to threaten their western neighbours.

900

The Zapotec culture, which has flourished since 300, with its centres in Monte Albán and Mitla (Oaxaca, Mexico), reaches its peak.

910

A monastery is founded in Cluny in Burgundy, from which the Cluniac reform movement originates. Focused on restoring the traditional monastic life, encouraging art and social aid, it will spread primarily to France, Spain, England and Italy.

911

The last Carolingian king dies in the East Frankish Empire. He is succeeded by Conrad I. His election is seen as an important milestone in the development from the East Frankish Empire to the German Empire.

913

With the coronation of Simeon the Great as emperor, the first Bulgarian Empire reaches the zenith of its power.

919

After the death of Conrad I, Henry the Fowler, Duke of Saxony, is elected king. He plays a crucial role in uniting territories of East Francia into one German Kingdom.

929

Abd al-Rahman III, Emir of Córdoba, assumes the title of Caliph. He rules one of the most civilised states of Europe for its time.

936

In the German Empire, Otto I succeeds his father Henry I on the throne. With his coronation in Aachen, he establishes a long-lasting tradition.

938

After the victory over Silla (935), the unity of Korea is once again completed with the capture of the island of Cheju as the Kingdom of Koryo. Buddhism, which had been widespread in Korea since the 4th century, becomes the state religion and Kaesong the capital.

951

The German King Otto I is elected King of Italy in Pavia. This establishes the connection between the German Empire and (Northern) Italy, which theoretically will last until the 18th century.

955

The German King Otto I decisively defeats the Hungarians on the Lechfeld near Augsburg and thus banishes the threat long posed.

959

As the second monarch, Edgar, King of Mercia and Northumbria, unites all of England under his rule. From now on the unity of the country remains permanent.

960

Emperor Taizu reunites China after decades of fragmentation and establishes the Song Dynasty with Kaifeng as its capital. Under their highly successful bureaucratic rule, the empire's economic focus shifts to the south. During the Song period, printing, compasses and gunpowder are used on a large scale for the first time, all completely unknown to Europeans.

962

The German King Otto I is crowned Emperor by the Pope in Rome, establishing the connection between the German monarchy and the western imperial dignity that will last until 1806. The ongoing ambition of the Holy Roman Emperors to rule over all of Western Europe, a goal they will never achieve, hinders the unification of Germany into a single nation for many centuries.

966

Mieszko I, Prince of Poland, adopts Latin Christianity. A few years later, the first missionary bishopric is established in Posen.

969

The Shiite Fatimids conquer Egypt and thus continue the special development of the country outside the caliphate initiated by the Tulunids in 868. They establish Cairo as their capital near the older settlement of Fustat.

982

The Norse explorer Erik Thorvaldsson discovers Greenland and initiates its settlement from Iceland.

987

With the death of their last king, the Carolingian rule in the West Frankish Empire also ends definitively. The Capetians succeed them on the throne. This change of throne has subsequently been interpreted as the birth of France.

988

Grand Duke Vladimir is baptised in his capital Kiev according to the rite of the Eastern Church. As a result, a Russian church organisation is established in dependence on the Patriarch of Constantinople.

990

Under strong Toltec influence, a new Mayan culture emerges in the north of Yucatán. One of the centres is Chichén Itzá until around 1240.

1000

The son of Erik Thorvaldsson, Leif Eiriksson becomes the first European to reach America. However he doesn’t establish a permanent settlement because of its harsh environment and hostile encounters with American Indians.

A separate archbishopric is established for Poland in Gniezno and for Hungary in Esztergom. Prince Stephen I of Hungary receives the royal crown from the Pope the following year.The two countries thus join the circle of European monarchies.

1009

In Annam, the Li Dynasty assumed the title of emperor and forms the First Vietnamese Empire, Dai Viet. It is the only one in Southeast Asia that is never subject to Indian influence, but always remains culturally oriented towards China.

1014

Emperor Basil II, under whom the medieval Byzantine Empire reached its peak, destroys the Bulgarian Empire.

1024

With Emperor Henry II, the Ottonian dynasty in the Holy Roman Empire dies out. His successor, King Conrad II, founds the Salian dynasty.

1025

Guido of Arezzo introduces the notation of melodies on lines spaced one third apart.

Mahmud of Ghazni, Turkic ruler of Iran, destroys the Hindu temple of Somnath (Gujarat) during one of his raids. With him, Islam successfully penetrates the subcontinent, which had previously been dominated by Hinduism (and at times by Buddhism).

1030

Emperor Conrad II lays the foundation stone for the cathedral in Speyer, one of the largest Romanesque churches and later the burial place of many Roman-German rulers.

1031

The last caliph from the House of Umayyad is expelled from Córdoba. Muslim Spain subsequently disintegrates into many small states.

1033

The Kingdom of Burgundy (Arelat) is united with the Holy Roman Empire. From now on, this consists of the triad of countries: Germany, northern Italy and Burgundy.

1035

From the legacy of the King of Pamplona emerge the three Christian kingdoms of Navarre, Aragon and Castile in northern Spain.

1037

The important philosopher Avicenna, whose works, translated into Latin, also have a great influence in Europe, dies in Hamadan (Persia).

1042

After the end of Danish rule, Edward the Confessor, an Anglo-Saxon, ascends the English throne. He founds Westminster Abbey.

1044

Anawrahta Minsaw founds the first Burmese Kingdom with its capital at Pagan.

1046

At the Synod of Sutri, Emperor Henry III deposes three rival popes. The power of medieval emperors thus reached its peak.

1054

The Pope and the Patriarch of Constantinople banish each other. This makes the long-prepared separation of the Roman Catholic Church of West and the Eastern Orthodox final.

1059

In southern Italy, states emerge under Norman rule as fiefdoms of the popes.

1062

Yusuf ibn Tashfin, first ruler of the Almoravid dynasty, founds Marrakesh as the new capital of his empire (present day Morocco).

1066

William I, Duke of Normandy, conquers England. The Norman nobility will prevail against the Anglo-Saxons until 1072. The events will be later recorded on the famous Bayeux Tapestry.

1074

In Kiev, the Pechersk Lavra, which sets the style for Russian religious architecture, is completed.

1076

In the Battle of Manzikert, Byzantium is decisively defeated by the Seljuks of Turkic origin. As a result, Asia Minor is lost to European (Greek) civilisation forever.

1076

The Almoravids conquer the capital of Ghana, the first known black African empire, which subsequently sinks into insignificance.

1077

The exiled German King Henry IV submits to Pope Gregory VII in the castle of Canossa. However, this does not resolve the dispute over the investiture of bishops in the Holy Roman Empire.

1081

With Alexios I, the first ruler from the Komnenos dynasty, under whom Byzantium will rise to become a great power for the last time, becamomes emperor in Constantinople.

1085

During the Reconquista, the Christian armies conquer Toledo, the old capital of the country.

1086

In England, the Domesday Book is created as a land register and property register for the entire kingdom. It will later become one of the most important social-historical sources of the Middle Ages.

1087

In Korea, the largest collection of Buddhist scriptures on woodblocks is completed (Tripitaka Koreana).

1094

After the relics of the Evangelist Mark are rediscovered, St. Mark's Church in Venice, which had already been completed around 1070, is re-consecrated.

1098

The Cistercian Order is founded in Citeaux (Burgundy) and soon exerts considerable influence in Europe.

1099

Jerusalem is conquered by the crusaders of the First Crusade under Godfrey of Bouillon. The local Muslim and Jewish populations are massacred without distinction. The following year, a Christian kingdom is founded in Jerusalem.

1102

After the extinction of the local royal dynasty, Croatia, as one of the countries of the Crown of Saint Stephen, is united with Hungary in personal union for more than 800 years.

1119

In Jerusalem, the Knights Templar is founded as the first of the three Christian knightly orders to protect pilgrims to Jerusalem.

1122

The Concordat of Worms have brought about a compromise in the investiture dispute between the emperor and the pope. However, it also effectively meant the end of the Ottonian-Salian imperial church system.

1125

With Emperor Henry V, the House of Salian in the Holy Roman Empire ceases to exist.

1126

The Jurchen conquer the Chinese capital Kaifeng and form a new dynasty in northern China under the name Jin.

1130

The Norman Roger II is crowned the first King of Sicily with the approval of the Pope. His state, which will last until 1860, also includes all of Lower Italy from 1139 onwards.

1138

Conrad III, the first Hohenstaufen dynasty member, is elected and crowned Roman-German king.

1139

Alfonso I Henriques, Count of Portugal, assumes the title of king and thus establishes the Kingdom of Portugal.

1140

In France, the Liber Sancti Jacobi is being published as a travel guide for pilgrims on the Way of St. James leading to Santiago de Compostela and the tomb of the Apostle James.

1144

Edessa (Urfa) is conquered by the Muslims. The Second Crusade, which is triggered by this and propagated by Bernard of Clairvaux, ends in disaster.

1150

In Angkor, the capital of the then flourishing Khmer Empire, the Hindu temple Angkor Wat is completed as the largest sacred building ever built on earth.

1152

Frederick I Barbarossa is crowned king in Aachen as the second Hohenstaufen dynasty member of the empire.

1153

The Jurchen-led Jin dynasty move their capital from Harbin to Zhongdu (Beijing).

1154

In England, Henry II, the first king from the House of Anjo-Plantagenet, ascends the throne.

1156

With the Privilegium Minus, Emperor Frederick I finally separates the Margraviate of Austria from Bavaria and elevated it to an independent duchy hereditary in the House of Babenberg.

1157

Margrave Albert the Bear conquers the Slavic Brandenburg. This marks the beginning of the systematic colonisation of the Margraviate of Brandenburg by German settlers.

1158

The University of Bologna is founded by imperial privilege as the oldest in the world and continues to operate thereafter.

1169

In Russia, the supremacy passes from Kiev to the Grand Dukes of Vladimir.

1170

The first early Gothic cathedral is built in Laon, followed by Notre-Dame in Paris. Around the same time, the Byzantine-inspired mosaics in the cathedral of Montreale near Palermo are created.

1171

In Egypt, the Shiite caliph dynasty of the Fatimids is overthrown by the Kurdish Ayyubids. Egypt 

becomes permanently Sunni again.

1176

The Byzantine Empire is shaken to its foundations by the defeat of Emperor Manuel I in the Battle of Myriocephalon against the Turkish Seljuks.

1179

Hildegard von Bingen, an author admired by her contemporaries and a spiritually and politically influential abbess of the Benedictines, dies in the Rupertsberg monastery she founded.

1180

Emperor Frederick I deposes Henry the Lion, Duke of Saxony and Bavaria, following a legal procedure under land and feudal law.

1187

Sultan Saladin of Egypt defeats the Crusaders at the Horns of Hattin and then conquers Jerusalem, thus triggering the Third Crusade.

1191

The crusaders under the English king Richard I the Lionheart conquer the port city of Acre, but are unable to regain Jerusalem.

1192

In Japan, Minamoto no Yoritomo, who effectively rules instead of the emperor assumes the title of shogun (military administrator). After the residence of the shoguns, the subsequent period until 1333 is called the Kamakura period.

1194

As the heiress' husband, Emperor Henry VI also becomes King of Sicily, thus uniting all of Italy under his rule. This gives rise to a permanent hostility between the papacy and the Hohenstaufen family.

1196

Emperor Henry VI's plan to transform the empire into a hereditary monarchy fails due to resistance from the Pope and the princes of the Holy Roman Empire. Germany thus remains an elective monarchy, unlike France and England.

1198

A fateful double election takes place in the Holy Roman Empire. The dispute over the throne between the Hohenstaufen and the Guelphs decisively weakens the empire's power.

1200

The Nibelungenlied is created.

1203

The only surviving document on the life of Walther von der Vogelweide, the most important Middle High German poet, dates from this year.

1204

The participants of the diverted Fourth Crusade under the Doge of Venice conquer Constantinople and temporarily establish a Latin Empire there. The climate between Franks and Greeks is thereby thoroughly and permanently poisoned.

1208

At the behest of Innocent III, the most important pope of the High Middle Ages, a "crusade" against alleged heretics (Albigensians, Cathars) is carried out in the south of France. This marks the beginning of an era of unprecedentedly violent persecution of heretics.

1214

In the Battle of Bouvines, Philip II Augustus, the most important French king in the Middle Ages, wins against the English and their allies. This not only collapses the rule of the English king on the mainland, but also decides the German throne dispute in favour of the Hohenstaufen Frederick II.

1215

The English King John Lackland issues the Magna Carta libertatum, a law for the legal protection of all free people, which is later reinterpreted as the first basic law of the liberal English constitution.

1216

With the founding of the Dominican Order which is entrusted with the persecution of heretics, a new type of mendicant order emerges.

1220

The Roman-German King Frederick II is crowned emperor in Rome. However he stays almost exclusively in the kingdom of Sicily, which he develops into a model state.

1223

The Pope confirms the Franciscan order founded by Francis of Assisi as the second mendicant order.

1224

Eike von Repgow conceives the Sachsenspiegel, the oldest and most influential German law book.

1227

Genghis Khan, the founder of the Mongolian Empire, dies near Yinchuan in China. His son Ögedei is his successor.

1231

The Teutonic Order, commissioned by a Polish prince, begins its work of conquest in the fight against the still pagan Prussians.

1232

Following the law in favour of the spiritual princes in the Holy Roman Empire, Emperor Frederick II issues a similar law for the secular princes with the Statutum in favorem principum. The development towards territorial rule is thus confirmed under imperial law and marks the basis of federalism in Germany.

1238

The Thai form their first empire with its centre at Sukothai in areas that had previously belonged to the Khmer Empire.

1240

The Mongols under Khan Batu conquer large parts of Russia (including Kiev). There they establish the empire of the Golden Horde, to which all Russian principalities are subject in tribute.

1248

In Cologne, the foundation stone is laid for the new (Gothic) cathedral based on the model of the cathedral in Amiens. At about the same time, the Sainte Chapelle in Paris and the hunting lodge Castel del Monte in Apulia are completed while the construction of the Alhambra in Granada is just beginning.

1249

With the conquest of Andalusia by Castile and the Algarve by Portugal, the Reconquista on the Iberian Peninsula comes to a provisional conclusion. Portugal's borders are henceforth permanently fixed as the oldest in Europe.

1250

In Egypt, the Ayyubid dynasty is overthrown. The Mamlukes (military slaves mostly of Turkish origin) take power.

Emperor Frederick II dies in Apulia. His son Conrad IV succeeds him as the last Hohenstaufen in the Holy Roman Empire.

1253

The Pope sends the mendicant monk William of Rubruk to the court of the Great Khan of the Mongols to persuade him to form an alliance against the Muslims. William will return two years later without results.

1258

The Mongols under Hulegu, founder of the Ilkhanate in Iran, conquer Baghdad, the capital of the Abaasid caliphs. Their rule thus comes to an end after a long agony.

1259

In the Treaty of Paris, the English king renounces all his mainland possessions in France, with the exception of Gascony.

1261

The Greeks reconquer Constantinople, putting an end to the Latin Empire. Michael VIII establishes the last Byzantine dynasty, the Palaiologos.

1268

Charles of Anjou finally becomes King of Sicily after his victory over the young Conradin at Tagliacozzo. Conradin is executed in Naples that same year. With him, the Hohenstaufen dynasty and the Duchy of Swabia die out.

1270

In Ethiopia, the only isolated Christian kingdom in Africa, a dynasty that will rule until 1974 and descends from the Bilbian King Solomon and the Queen of Sheba begins with Yekuno Amlak.

1273

With the election of Rudolf, Count of Habsburg, as Roman-German King, the Interregnum (the emperorless period since 1254) in the Holy Roman Empire ends.

1274

The Dominican Thomas Aquinas dies. His natural theology will influence followers centuries later

1279

The Mongols, who had ruled the north of China since 1234, also conquer the rich south of the country and drove out the Song Dynasty, which was still ruling there. Khublai Khan (as Emperor of China under the name Shizu) thus reunites the empire and founds the Yuan Dynasty with its capital in Beijing.

1281

The Japanese repel the attack of a huge Mongolian force for the second time since 1274. Khublai Khan, who commanded this largest maritime operation in history before the 20th century, fails for the first time in his expansionist goals.

1282

The Sicilian Vespers, a revolt supported by Aragon and Byzantium sweeps away the rule of Charles of Anjou, who from then on remains confined to southern Italy. The island itself will remain connected to Aragon and Spain until 1713.

1282

After his victory over King Ottokar II of Bohemia on the Marchfeld, the Roman-German King Rudolf I enfeoffes his sons with Austria, Styria and Carniola, thus laying the foundation for the territorial power of the Habsburgs.

1290

With Sultan Kaikubad, the first phase of Islamic rule in northern India under the Mamluk dynasty ends. It is followed by the dynasties of Childshi (1290-1320), Tughluk (1320-1414), Sayjd (1414-1451) and Lodi (1451-1526).

1291

With the conquest of Acre by the Mamlukes, the last stronghold of the Crusaders in the Holy Land falls.

1291

A union of the three valley communities of Uri, Schwyz and Unterwalden to maintain peace will later be interpreted as the founding act of the Swiss Confederation.

1293

With the tolerance of the Great Khan and Emperor, a Latin archbishopric for China is founded in Beijing.

1295

In England, the Model Parliament includes not only prelates and barons, but also representatives of knights, cities and the ordinary clergy.

1298

The bankruptcy of the Bonsignori ends the dominance of the Siena banks in Europe. It then passes to the Bardi, Peruzzi and Acciaiuoli houses in Florence. Modern banking is an Italian innovation of the 13th century, with repercussions on technical jargon up to the present.

1298

While in Genoese captivity, the Venetian Marco Polo dictates a report about his stay in China that is widely read throughout Europe.

1299

The Turkish Bey Osman I Ghazi begins his rule in a small area of ​​Bithynia and thus establishes the Ottoman Empire, which will expand rapidly after his death.

1301

In Hungary, the first royal family, the Árpáds, dies out. Except for the years 1458-1490, foreigners will wear the Holy Crown until 1918.

1302

With the bull Unam Sanctam, Pope Boniface VIII proclaims the doctrine of the supremacy of the Pope over all secular powers. At the instigation of the French king, he is taken prisoner and dies soon after. This marks the reversal of the papacy’s political power.

1304

A wheel clock is mentioned in Europe for the first time. However, clocks will only become widespread after decisive technical improvements in the early 16th century.

1308

After the murder of Albert I, Henry VII, Count of Luxembourg, is elected Roman-German King.

1309

The Pope moves his residence from Rome to Avignon, the Order of St. John from Cyprus to Rhodes and the Teutonic Order from Venice to Marienburg in Prussia

1310

After the extinction of the royal house of the Přemyslids in Bohemia, which has ruled there since the 9th century, the Roman-German King Henry VII enfeoffes his son John with this largest territory of the empire.

1312

At the instigation of Philip IV of France, the Knights Templar are abolished. To the extent that their property is not confiscated by the state, it passes to the Order of St. John, founded in 1137. In Portugal, the Order of Christ, will succeed them.

1319

In Norway, the most stable of the Nordic kingdoms at the time, the royal family dies out. The country is then ruled almost continuously in personal union with either Sweden or Denmark and thus remains a secondary country for most of its history.

1320

With the coronation of Wladislaw I Lokietek in Krakow, Poland is reunited. Under the last Piast, Casimir the Great, the country will experience a significant upswing.

1321

Dante Alighieri, creator of the Divine Comedy and Italy's most famous poet, dies in Ravenna.

1324

Mansa Musa, under whom the West African empire of Mali reaches its peak, undertakes the pilgrimage to Mecca at the head of 60,000 servants. He is thought to be the richest person of all time (around 400 billion dollars in modern terms). The lavish spending of gold on his pilgrimage causes inflation in the region.

1326

The Ottoman Sultan Orhan conquers Bursa and makes it his capital.

1326

The first firearms in Europe are developed.

1328

In France, the direct male branch of the Capetians, who rule the country since 987, is followed by the Valois branch. However King Edward III of England, as the grandson of Philip IV, also claims the throne.

1337

The painter and architect Giotto di Bondone, an important pioneer for the Renaissance, dies in Florence.

1338

In Japan, the Ashikaga family comes to power when they take over the shogunate. The time up to 1573 is also called the Muromachi period after their residence in Kyoto.

1339

The English king's claim to the French throne sparks the Hundred Years' War between England and France. It is of great importance for the development of a national identity in both countries.

1341

A Genoese rediscovers the Canary Islands. Soon after, the Azores and Madeira are also discovered. These islands subsequently become the "laboratory" for the development of the mechanisms of European colonial rule overseas.

The Italian early humanist Francesco Petrarca is crowned poet (poeta laureatus) in Rome. His poetry will be considered exemplary in Europe for centuries.

1346

With the assumption of the title of emperor by Stephen Dusan, the Serbian Empire reaches the peak of its power.

In the Holy Roman Empire, Charles IV of Luxembourg is elected as the new king. However, he only prevails after the death of Ludwig the Bavarian the following year.

The English win a decisive victory over the French at Crécy in the Hundred Years' War and soon conquer Calais.

1347

The first major wave of plague spreads across Europe from Sicily to Norway. With the exception of Poland and Bohemia, it leads to dramatic population losses everywhere, with social and political consequences.

1348

The first university in the Holy Roman Empire north of the Alps is founded in Prague.

1353

After Lucerne (1332), Zurich (1351), Glarus and Zug (1352), the important city of Bern becomes a member of the Swiss Confederation. Together with the three original cantons, these cities form the Eight Old Towns of Switzerland.

1354

The Turkish Ottomans conquer Gallipoli on the Dardanelles and thus their first European possession. In 1365 the capital is moved from Bursa to the European Adrianople (Edirne).

1356

Emperor Charles IV issues the Golden Bull, which confirms the College of Electors (which has de facto existed for a hundred years) consisting of seven privileged royal electors under imperial law.

1368

In China, Mongol rule is overthrown. Emperor Hongwu (Taizu) brings the last national ruling family to power - the Ming Dynasty. Under their rule in the 15th century, the Great Wall (6250 km), which had been built since the 3rd century BC, will take on its current shape and size.

1370

In the Peace of Stralsund, the Danish King Valdemar IV grants the Hanseatic cities complete freedom of trade in his kingdom. The peace is considered the high point in the history of the Hanseatic League.

With the death of Casimir III, the royal branch of the Piasts - the first Polish ruling house - dies out.

1371

The first Ming Emperor Hongwu expels the last Europeans from China. The archbishopric of Peking has to be abandoned. This ends the first attempt at a Christian mission in East Asia.

1377

Pope Gregory XI moves the seat of the Curia from Avignon back to Rome.

1378

After the death of Pope Gregory XI, the cardinals elect two popes in an ambiguous election, one of whom remains in Rome, while the other returns to Avignon. This leads to the Great Western Schism.

1384

Duke Philip II the Bold of Burgundy adds numerous other territories in the Holy Roman Empire and in France to his possessions through his wife's inheritance, thus forming the core of a new Burgundian “Middle Kingdom”.

1385

With the victory at Aljubarrota, John, Master of the Order of Avis, asserts his claim to the throne of Portugal against Castile after the extinction of the first ruling house (1383). The following year, Portugal's alliance with England, the oldest and most lasting in Europe, is confirmed by the Treaty of Windsor.

1386

The Swiss Confederation defends its freedom through the victory of Sempach over the Habsburgs.

1389

In the Battle of Kosovo, the Serbs, who will later become his vassals, are defeated by the Ottoman Sultan Murat I.

1391

Acamapichtli, the first Aztec ruler, dies. His successors will expand the small territory in the basin of Mexico into a great empire.

1392

The Koryo Empire in Korea falls. The Yi Dynasty establishes the new, strongly Confucian Choson Empire. Seoul will become the new capital in 1394.

1393

After the Ottomans occupied the Bulgarian capital Trnovo and dethroned the last Bulgarian tsar, they destroy the last Bulgarian state, the Tsardom of Vidin.

1395

The Central Asian conqueror Timur Lang, one of the greatest military leaders, defeats the Golden Horde of Mongols, which gives the Russian princes greater scope for independent politics.

1397

In the Kalmar Union, Queen Margaret I had her great-nephew crowned King of Denmark, Norway and Sweden in one act. However, the union only lasted unchallenged until 1448.

1402

Timur Lang defeats the Ottomans at Ankara and takes the Sultan prisoner. This gives the Byzantine Empire one last reprieve.

1410

In one of the largest knight battles, the Teutonic Order is defeated by the Polish-Lithuanian army at Tannenberg in Prussia. Grand Master Ulrich von Jungingen, almost all of the Grand dignitaries and 205 Order knights fall in the battle.

1414

On the initiative of the Roman-German King Sigismund, the Council meets in Constance, where the Great Western Schism will be overcome in 1418 with the deposition of three competing popes and the election of Martin V.

1415

The Holy Roman Emperor Sigismund grants the Burgrave of Nuremberg the title of margrave and elector in the Margraviate of Brandenburg. This marks the beginning of the Hohenzollern rule in the Margraviate and Prussia, which will last until 1918.

1415

The Czech reformer and critic of the church, Jan Hus, is condemned as a stubborn heretic and burned at the stake at the Council of Constance, despite being promised safe conduct. This triggers the Hussite Wars, which lasted until 1436.

1415

The King of Portugal and his sons conquered Ceuta on the African coast of the Strait of Gibralta. This was the beginning of the Portuguese voyages of discovery along the African coast, systematically carried out by Infante Henry.

The English King Henry V resumes the war in France and achieves a triumphant victory at Agincourt.

1416

The brothers Pol, Hermant and Jan von Lumburg, creators of the Book of Hours Très Riches Heures, die in Bourges, probably of the plague.

1420

In the Treaty of Troyes, the victorious English achieve recognition of their king's claim to the French throne. However, the French Dauphin Charles forms a rival government that is widely recognised south of the Loire.

1429

The peasant girl Joan of Arc from Lorraine appears before the Dauphin in Chinon to convince him of her divine vision for the liberation of France. She succeeds in lifting the siege of Orléans by the English and then leads the Dauphin to Reims for his rightful coronation as King of France.

Masaccio, who, together with Filippo Brunelleschi, is considered the discoverer of central perspective and founder of Renaissance painting, dies in Rome.

1431

After two unsuccessful sieges and being captured by Burgundians, Joan of Arc is burned at stake as a deterrent for others who might challenge English authority.

1431

The Thai conquer the Khmer capital Angkor, which will be abandoned in favour of Phnom Penh in 1434. Many of the Khmer cultural traditions are adopted by the Thai.

1432

The Ghent Altarpiece, the main work of the brothers Jan and Hubert van Eyck, ushers in a new era of painting north of the Alps.

1434

By imperial order, the Chinese seafarer Zheng He's voyages of discovery, which had reached the coasts of Arabia and East Africa, are stopped. In the same year, the Portuguese sailor Gil Eanes circumnavigates Cape Bojador (Western Sahara), which had until then been considered the outermost limit of sea travel. The success story of the greatest European expansion and world conquest begins.

1435

King Charles VII of France concludes a special peace with Burgundy at Arras and thus receives a free hand against the English, from whom he is able to regain Paris the following year.

1437

Emperor Sigismund dies. In the Holy Roman Empire and in his kingdoms of Hungary and Bohemia, he is succeeded by his son-in-law Albert II. With him, the House of Habsburg becomes the permanent head of the empire.

1438

Under the new ruler Pachacutec Yupanqui, the enormous expansion of the Inca Empire, the largest of all pre-Columbian Indian empires in South America, begins.

1440

In the Holy Roman Empire, the Habsburg Frederick III is elected king. As the last Roman-German ruler, he will receive the imperial crown from the Pope in 1452.

1441

The Portuguese sailor Nuno Tristão reaches Cabo Blanco in Mauritania. Black slaves are brought to Europe for the first time.

1442

King Alfonso V of Aragon conquers the Kingdom of Naples and overthrows the Angevins for good. From then on, the Aragonese crown dominates the western Mediterranean.

1448

The Nordic Union of Kings (Kalmar Union) ends. Only Denmark and Norway remain united in personal union under the new Oldenburg dynasty. Sweden goes its own way by electing native kings and rulers.

1453

The Ottoman Sultan Mehmet II Fatih conquers Constantinople and puts an end to Byzantine history. Since then, the Sultan has also holds the Persian imperial title of Padishah.

With the capitulation of Bordeaux, the Hundred Years' War ends without a formal peace agreement. From then on, the defeated English only hold Calais on the mainland.

1454

The Treaty of Lodi stabilises the Italian states Milan, Venice, Florence and Naples as a pentarchy.

1455

Johannes Gutenberg from Mainz, who develops the technique of printing with movable type between 1445 and 1450 and thereby sets in motion the First Media Revolution, prints his 42-line Bible.

1457

The Polish King Casimir IV moves into the Marienburg. The Grand Master of the Teutonic Order then moves his seat to Königsberg.

1466

In the Second Peace of Thorn, the Teutonic Order had to cede further territories (such as Ermland) to Poland. The remaining territory (East Prussia) was placed under Polish feudal sovereignty.

1467

A civil war begins in Japan. The power of the Ashikaga Shoguns continues to decline. The Sengoku era of fighting provinces will last until 1568.

1468

With the death of Skanderbeg, the Albanian national hero, the last resistance against Turkish rule in the Balkans dies out.

1474

The married couple Isabella of Castile and Ferdinand V of Aragon jointly assume the government in Castile and thus prepare the unification of the Iberian Peninsula (without Portugal).

1476

Regiomontanus (Johannes Müller), the most important European mathematician and astronomer since antiquity, dies in Rome.

1477

After defeats against the Swiss Confederates at Grandson and Murten (1476), Duke Charles the Bold of Burgundy gets killed in a battle in front of Nancy. To defend the inheritance, his daughter Maria marries Maximilian I, the son of the Holy Roman Empire.

1478

Pope Sixtus IV institutes the Spanish Inquisition. By the time it is abolished in 1834, more than 300,000 will have fallen victim to it.

1479

In the Treaty of Alcáçovas, Portugal and Castile demarcate their spheres of interest in the Atlantic. Of the islands, Castile only claims the Canary Islands, while Portugal receives a monopoly on all further discoveries in Africa.

1480

The Grand Prince of Moscow, Ivan III, finally shakes off the Tatar supremacy.

1482

The Portuguese establish the trading post and fort of São Jorge da Mina in what is now Ghana, which for centuries will be the most important base for the Europeans' transatlantic trade in African slaves.

1484

The Pope issues a bull legitimising the persecution of witches under canon law.

1485

In England, Henry VII, the first Tudor king, overthrows the House of York and thus ends the Wars of the Roses which have been going on since 1455.

1488

The Portuguese sailor Bartolomeu Dias becomes the first European to circumnavigate the southern tip of Africa and discovers the Cape of Good Hope on the return journey.

1490

Matthias Corvinus, last native king of Hungary and important promoter of humanism, dies in Vienna.

1492

After a long war, Isabella and Ferdinand of Castile accept the capitulation of Granada, the last Muslim state on the Iberian Peninsula. Soon after, they commission the Genoese Christopher Columbus to discover the sea route to East Asia and India in a westerly direction.

1492

Columbus lands on Guanahani (San Salvador), a small island in the Bahamas, and, without ever realising it himself, discovers a new world: America.

1493

Emperor Frederick III dies. He is succeeded in the Holy Roman Empire by his son Maximilian I, who is able to claim a large part of the Burgundian inheritance in the Treaty of Senlis.

1494

On the basis of a papal bull, Portugal and Castile demarcate their spheres of interest in the Atlantic in the Treaty of Tordesillas. Castile receives the exclusive right to explore beyond a pole-to-pole line 2,100 kilometers west of the Azores.

Citing inheritance claims, King Charles VIII of France intervenes in southern Italy. This opens a struggle between France, the Crown of Aragon and the House of Habsburg for supremacy in Italy which will last until 1559.

1495

At the Reichstag in Worms, the long-sought-for imperial reform is at least partially realised with the proclamation of a perpetual state peace, the establishment of an Imperial Chamber Court and the levying of a general imperial tax.

1496

The Habsburgs enter into a double marriage with the House of Castile which gives them a claim to the throne in Spain.

1497

The Genoese John Cabot reaches North America on English orders before the Spanish.

1498

The Portuguese Vasco da Gama becomes the first European to reach India by sea, travelling around the Cape of Good Hope.

1499

With the Treaty of Basel, Switzerland de facto leaves the Holy Roman Empire and becomes independent.

1500

Pedro Álvares Cabral discovers Brazil due to navigation errors and claims it for Portugal. He becomes the first human to set foot on four of the seven continents.

1502

Ismail, founder of the Safavid dynasty, takes the title of Shah of Shahs (Emperor). He is the creator of modern Iran, which he almost completely conquered until his death in 1524. Only under him and his successors were the Iranians permanently won over to the Shiite faith.

1503

A royal trading house with a monopoly on overseas trade is established in Seville and Lisbon.

Polymath Leonardo da Vinci begins painting the Mona Lisa and completes it three years later.

1505

In Poland, the king's power is drastically limited by a new constitutional law; the country turns into an aristocratic republic.

1506

Under the leadership of Bramante, the new construction of St. Peter's Basilica in Rome begins. Its dome has been under the supervision of Michelangelo since 1546, and the entire construction will be completed in 1626.

1510

The Portuguese conquer Goa in India and make it the center of all their possessions east of the Cape of Good Hope.

1511

The Portuguese conquer Malacca, the hub of trade between India and China. At the same time, the Spanish begin to settle Cuba.

1513

Vasco Núñez de Balboa is the first European to sight the Pacific Ocean of America after crossing the Isthmus of Panama.

Niccolò Machiavelli from Florence completes his Principe, in which reason of state is elevated to the highest principle.

1516

The lands of the crowns of Castile and Aragon are de facto united into the Kingdom of Spain under the rule of the Habsburg Charles I.

1517

Martin Luther published 95 theses in Wittenberg in which he criticised the papal indulgence system. They find a huge response in the Holy Roman Empire and quickly shake the authority of the church and the pope to its foundations.

1518

After the incorporation of Egypt and the Hejaz into the Ottoman Empire by Padishah Selim I Yavuz, the title of caliph (= head of the Sunni Muslims) is transferred to the Ottoman sultans.

1520

Martin Luther writes his three main Reformation writings, which will soon be established in many territories of the Holy Roman Empire, even though the author is excommunicated by the Pope in the following year.

1521

With the fall of Tenochtitlán, the Spanish Conquistador Hernán Cortes captures the Aztec Empire and renames the city Mexico City.

1522

After Ferdinand Magellan sailed the Southwest Passage between the South American mainland and Tierra del Fuego for the first time, Juan Sebasitán Elcano completed the first circumnavigation of the earth after Magellans violent death in the Philippines.

The Ottomans conquer Rhodes.

1523

With Gustav I, the House of Wasa came to the Swedish throne.

1524

In Spain, a separate central authority is set up to administer the colonies. It is a unique attempt in pre-industrial times to bureaucratically manage huge colonies from Europe according to uniform principles.

1525

The Grand Master of the Teutonic Order, a Hohenzollern, transforms the order's state into the secular Duchy of Prussia and carries out the Reformation there.

1526

After his victory over the Sultan of Delhi at Panipat, the Turkic general Babur from Samarkand became Shah in northern India and thus founded the rule of the Great Mughals, which reached its first climax under his grandson Akbar the Great.

The Ottomans defeated the Hungarian army at Mohács and annexed most of the lands of the Lands of the Crown of Saint Stephen by 1541.

King Frederick I of Denmark and Norway, Duke of Schleswig and Holstein and later his successor Christian III. carry out the Reformation in their countries. With the subsequent implementation of the new doctrine in Sweden-Finland, Northern Europe becomes closed Lutheran.

1527

Landgrave Philip the Magnanimous of Hesse founded the first Protestant university in Marburg.

1529

The Ottomans under Padischah Süleyman II Kanuni unsuccessfully besiege Vienna for the first time.

1532

Emperor Charles V elevates the Medici, who had effectively ruled the city since 1434, to the status of Dukes of Florence.

At the Regensburg Reichstag, the Carolina is put into effect as the penal code for the Holy Roman Empire. Among other things, it institutionalises torture as a means of finding out the truth.

In Geneva, Guillaume Farel carries out the Reformation according to the teachings of Jean Cauvin. The city thus becomes the starting point of another Reformation movement, which will primarily affect the north-west of Europe.

1533

After the Spanish conquistador Francisco Pizarro lands in Peru, he succeeds in conquering the Inca Empire with its headquarters in Cuzco by taking advantage of a dispute over the throne. Two years later he founds Ciudad de los Reyes (Lima).

1534

King Henry VIII of England frees the church of his country from the jurisdictional, dogmatic and liturgy-determining authority of the Pope without, however, carrying out the Reformation.

1540

The Jesuit order founded by Ignatius of Loyola receives papal confirmation and is entrusted with the mission of spreading the Catholic faith.

1542

Bartolomé de Las Casas writes a report for Emperor Charles V denouncing the crimes of the Spaniards in the New World. This is the first time that conscience about colonial exploitation is stirring in Europe. In the same year, Charles V issues the New Laws of the Indies for the Good Treatment and Preservation of the Indians.

1543

In the year of his death, the main work of the astronomer Nicolaus Copernicus is published. Drawing from teachings of antiquity, the geocentric system is abandoned in favour of the heliocentric system.

Portuguese sailors reach Japan for the first time. Trading will begin in two years.

Flemish doctor Andreas Vesalius founds modern anatomy with his De Humani Corporis textbook.

1545

Rich silver deposits are discovered in Potosi (in today's Bolivia), and the following year in Mexico. Most of the silver mined by Indians through forced labor ends up in Europe, where it causes long-lasting inflation, the Price Revolution.

The XIX General Council opens in Trent. At its meetings, which will be held until 1563, the reform of the Catholic Church is promoted in response to the Reformation.

1547

Grand Prince Ivan the Terrible takes the title of Tsar of All Russia.

The Reformation is taking place in England. However, the new Anglican High Church, which is subject to the authority of the king alone, remains committed to tradition in its liturgy.

1552

The capture of Kazan on the Volga marks the beginning of Russia's conquest of Siberia.

1555

In the Holy Roman Empire, the Peace of Augsburg recognizes the Lutheran faith and thus established biconfessionalism in Germany.

1556

Emperor Charles V abdicates and the Habsburgs split into a Spanish and an Austrian branch, which, however, will work closely together.

1557

With the approval of local authorities, the Portuguese take over Macao as the first permanent European base in China.

1559

In the Peace of Cateau-Cambrésis, the French king definitively renounces all claims in Italy, which is now entirely subject to Spanish hegemony.

1560

The systematic persecution of witches, which had been prepared for a long time, begins in Europe and would reach its peak in the first decades of the 17th century and only then slowly disappear. Not only women, but also young men and even children fall victim to it.

1565

The Hospitallers successfully repel the attack on Malta by a massive Ottoman force. The small island, for the defence of which enormous funds were raised from all over Europe, always remains Christian thereafter.

The Spanish start to conquer the Philippines and found Manila as their capital in 1671. Until the end of the 18th century, the islands will remain mainly connected in trade with Acapulco (Spanish Mexico).

1566

In the Netherlands, where numerous influential personalities already adhere to Calvinism, the uprising against Spanish rule begins.

1568

Oda Nobunaga, Japanese Daimyo (warlord), moves into Kyoto and takes power in the country. In 1573 he deposes the last Ashikaga shogun. The subsequent period of continued wars among the three great unifiers until 1600 is called the Azuchi-Momoyama-, the final phase of the Sengoku period.

1569

Poland and Lithuania are inextricably linked in the Union of Lublin becoming one of the largest countries of in Europe for 200 years. However only foreign policy and currency are common.

1570

Ottoman units begin to conquer Cyprus and completely subject the island to the rule of the Padishah.

1571

A Spanish-Venetian fleet wins a major naval victory over the Turks at Lepanto in the Gulf of Corinth.

1572

In Poland the House of Jagiellonian goes extinct. As a result, kings from various European dynasties are elected.

On St. Bartholomew's Night on August 24, thousands of Huguenots (= French Protestants) are killed in Paris and other French cities north of the Loire.

1576

Jean Bodin publishes his major work Six Livres de la République - a plea for a strong monarchical central power. In it, he defines the concept of sovereignty for the first time and theoretically justifies absolutism.

1578

In his adventurous attempt to decisively hit the Muslims in Morocco at Ksar el-Kebir, Portugal's youthful King Sebastian loses his life and his battle. After the death of Sebastian's great-uncle, Portugal is united with Spain in personal union under Philip II in 1580.

1581

The seven northern provinces, united in the Union of Utrecht in 1579, broke away from their sovereign, the Spanish king. From now on they form an independent Dutch Republic.

1582

Pope Gregory XIII announces a calendar reform that aligns the calendar year with the solar year. It is immediately adopted in Catholic countries, in the 18th century in Protestant countries and only in the 20th century in the Orthodox world.

1583

England takes possession of Newfoundland, which is economically important due to its rich fishing grounds, as the first colony in North America.

1584

The Daimyo Toyotomi Hideyoshi takes power in Japan and unifies the country again.

1588

The Spanish Armada, which set out to invade England after the execution of Maria Stuart, is defeated and almost destroyed by the English in the Channel.

1589

King Henry III is assassinated in France. The House of Valois ends with him. He is succeeded by the first Bourbon on the throne, Henry IV, King of Navarre. In order to assert his claim in Catholic France, he renounces his Calvinist faith in 1593 and is crowned in Reims in 1594.

1591

The Moroccan Sultan destroys Songhai (capital Gao), the last of the West African empires.

1598

In Russia, the Rurikid dynasty, which had ruled since the 9th century, ceases to exist. The Time of Troubles (Smuta) follows, in which various pretenders take turns on the throne.

The Edict of Nantes grants the Huguenots (Calvinist Protestants) in France the right to practice their religion without state persecution.

1599

Before the new century, numerous crops were introduced to Europe from America, including corn, tobacco, tomatoes and potatoes, which were initially mostly grown as ornamental plants and only gained economic importance in the 18th or 19th century. Conversely, crops such as sugar cane, wheat and oats as well as animals such as horses, cattle, pigs and poultry arrive in the New World from Europe.

1600

Iacopo Peri composes the first surviving opera, Euridice. However, it was Claudio Monteverdi with his opera L'Orfeo from 1607 that will have a significant impact.

The British East India Company is founded and will gain control of large parts of the Indian subcontinent and colonised parts of Southeast Asia and Hong Kong. It is the first multinational corporation and, at its peak will have an army of 260,000 soldiers (twice the size of the British army).

1602

In the Netherlands, the Dutch East India Company is founded in the new form of a stock corporation. For a long time it will be the most capitalized, powerful and successful of the European trading companies overseas, exceeding even the British East India Company.

1603

Tokugawa Ieyasu, the third of Japan's great unifiers and its de facto ruler since 1600, becomes Shogun. The Edo period begins and brings economic growth, a strict social order and isolationist foreign policies to the island. Under the Tokugawa, Edo (Tokyo) becomes one of the largest cities in the world.

Queen Elizabeth I of England dies. She is followed by James I, the son of Mary Stuart, King of Scotland since 1567. Since then, England and Scotland have been united in personal union.

1605

The Spanish poet Miguel de Cervantes publishes the first volume of his Don Quixote. The second part, which in a startlingly modern way references the impact of the first, follows in 1615.

1606

In the Peace of Zsitvatorok, the Ottoman Padisha recognizes the Habsburg emperor as an equal ruler for the first time. The peace concluded on the basis of the territorial status quo lasted until 1663 and enabled the Habsburg rulers to assert their power in the coming Thirty Years War.

1607

English settlers found Jamestown as the first permanent settlement in the new colony of Virginia in North America.

Protestants from England and Scotland are being settled in the Irish province of Ulster. This laid the seeds for the later Northern Ireland conflict.

1608

The French colonial pioneer Samuel de Champlain founds the city of Quebec as the nucleus of Nouvelle France.

1609

With the publication of his Mare liberum, the Dutchman Hugo Grotius provides the legal and theoretical justification for the invasion of the northwest European powers into the colonial spheres of interest of the Iberian countries.

1612

Christianity is banned in Japan. The missionaries are expelled in 1614. Systematic persecution begins in 1622, which will effectively lead to the extinction of Christianity in Japan by around 1640.

1613

In Moscow, the young Mikhail Romanov is elected Tsar. With his accession to the throne, the Time of Troubles ends.

1618

On May 23rd, Protestant opponents of Habsburg rule in Bohemia threw the two governors and their secretary out of the window of the Prague Hradčany, thus triggering the Thirty Years' War.

1620

With the lost battle of the White Mountain outside Prague, the rule of Elector Frederick V of the Palatinate in Bohemia collapsed. He is henceforth known as the Winter King.

The Pilgrim Fathers (Protestant dissidents) land in Massachusetts on the Mayflower. With the Plymouth Plantation, the settlement becomes the nucleus of New England.

1624

In France, Cardinal Richelieu effectively takes over the leadership of foreign policy.

1625

After Saint Kitts, England acquires the uninhabited island of Barbados as the first important base in the Caribbean - its wealth (tobacco, sugar cane) soon became a role model and incentive for other European powers to acquire property in the Caribbean.

King Christian IV of Denmark intervenes in the Thirty Years' War on behalf of the Protestants. Meanwhile, the emperor commissions the Bohemian military entrepreneur Albrecht von Wallenstein to build an army of mercenaries.

1626

The Dutch acquire the Manhattan peninsula and found New Amsterdam there. It will be renamed New York in 1664 under English rule.

1627

The Choson Empire of the Yi Dynasty in Korea becomes a vassal state of the Manchus and remains so after they came to power in China as the Qing Dynasty. Korea will be completely closed to European influences until the 19th century.

Wallenstein drives the Danish king out of the Holy Roman Empire and advances to the Baltic Sea.

1628

King Charles I of England and Scotland agrees to the English Parliament's Petition of Rights. In doing so, he renounces any special martial law or emergency law in the country.

1629

Shah Abbas the Great, the most important Safavid ruler in Iran, dies after having the new capital Isfahan magnificently expanded.

Emperor Ferdinand II issues the Edict of Restitution. It stipulates that all reformed dioceses and monasteries in the Holy Roman Empire since 1552 must be returned to the Catholics.

1630

Gustavus Adolphus, King of Sweden intervenes in the Thirty Years' War on behalf of the Protestants. In 1631 he defeates Tilly near Breitenfeld. The imperial position in northern Germany then collapses.

1632

The King of Sweden wins over Wallenstein at Lützen, but falls in the battle. His daughter Christina, who is still a minor, follows him on the Swedish throne.

1633

The astronomer and physicist Galileo Galilei has to renounce the "error" of the heliocentric system during an inquisition trial and is placed under house arrest.

1634

Wallenstein is murdered by imperial officers for alleged treason.

The Swedes get defeated by the imperial forces near Nördlingen, whereupon their previously strong position in southern Germany collapses.

1635

With the ban on Japanese people traveling abroad, the policy of systematically closing the country off to the outside world (sakoku) begins.

France openly enters the Thirty Years' War against the emperor and made itself the protector of smaller imperial estates, especially in Alsace.

1637

The French philosopher and mathematician René Descartes publishes his famous treatise on rational methods in science.

1639

The Portuguese are expelled from Japan. The Dutch will take their place in 1641, making their trading center in the port of Nagasaki the only place for European trade with Japan until 1853.

1640

Under the new Bragança dynasty and with English support, Portugal is able to break away from the personal union with Spain.

1641

The Dutch conquer the important Portuguese fortress and trading post Malacca in what is now Malysia.

1642

The Dutchman Rembrandt van Rijn paints his famous painting The Night Watch, which is however rejected by his clients.

The English Civil War begins with an attack on London ordered by the king, which is repelled by the Puritans.

1643

In France, Louis XIII is followed by Louis XIV who is still a minor. The actual head of politics is initially Cardinal Mazarin.

1644

The Ming Dynasty is overthrown in China. Chongzhen, the last emperor of Han Chinese origin commits suicide. The Manchu follow him in rule under the dynasty name Qing. The capital remains Beijing.

1645

In England, the parliamentary army decisively defeates the royal army at Naseby. King Charles I flees to Scotland the following year.

In the Peace of Brömsebro, Denmark-Norway had to cede Jämtland and Halland as well as the islands of Gotland and Ösel to the victorious Swedes.

1648

In the Peace of Münster, Spain recognizes the independence of the Netherlands.

In Münster and Osnabrück the treaties of the Peace of Westphalia are distinguished: most of the Protestant imperial estates are restituted. The Palatinate receives a new, eighth electoral vote. Bavaria retains the Upper Palatinate and the electoral vote transferred to it in 1623. Brandenburg receives a considerable increase in territory. In addition to the Catholic and Lutheran faiths, the Calvinist faith was also permitted in the Holy Roman Empire. With the acquisition of larger territories, Sweden becomes an important imperial state and a guarantor of peace. According to the Emperor's will, France, although also a guarantor power, is denied imperial status; however, it receives territories and rights in Alsace. With the Peace of Westphalia, the Netherlands and Switzerland finally left the imperial association. The consequences for Germany of the Thirty Years' War that ended with it were catastrophic.

1649

After the Civil War, King Charles I of England is executed and England becomes a de facto republic. Under the name Commonwealth, the country is lead by Oliver Cromwell who will take on the title Lord Protector.

1651

In England the Navigation Act is passed to eliminate the Dutch middleman trade.

The English philosopher Thomas Hobbes publishes his main work on church criticism, Leviathan, in which he further develops his doctrine of the contract of power to avoid war of all against all.

1652

The Dutch found Cape Town as a base for Asian trade and the nucleus of a white settlement colony at the southern tip of Africa.

1654

Queen Christina of Sweden abdicates and converts to Catholicism the following year. In Sweden, the House of Wittelsbach follows with the branch of the Palatine Zweibrücken (until 1720).

1658

Shah Jahan, builder of the Taj Mahal in Agra, is deposed. His son and successor Aurangzeb will unite almost all of India under his rule and lead the Mughal Empire to the pinnacle of power.

1659

In the Peace of the Pyrenees, Spain has to cede Roussillon and Arois to France after new military defeats.

1660

The newly elected parliament in England decides to restore the monarchy. Charles II then returns to London from exile.

After the death of Cardinal Mazarin, King Louis XIV takes over the reins of government in France himself. This begins a style-defining absolutist rule that finds its architectural expression in the construction of the Palace of Versailles.

1661

England acquires Bombay in India as a gift from a Portuguese princess.

1665

In Denmark, the Lex Regia, the Royal Law, is proclaimed as the only written constitutional document of European absolutism.

1666

The Alawi dynasty, which still reigns today, comes to power in Morocco and will experience its first peak under Moulay Ismail (1672-1727).

1667

With the Treaty of Breda, the Second Anglo-Dutch War, which had been going on since 1665, ends: the English give up their last base in the Malay Archipelago, the States General give up their entire North American possessions, but in return they finally receive Suriname.

1668

The Peace of Aachen ends the War of Devolution initiated by Louis XIV the year before. France acquires cities and fortresses in the southern (Spanish) Netherlands, including Lille and Valenciennes.

1670

The Hudson's Bay Company is founded in England for the fur trade north of the Great Lakes in North America. It is the oldest corporation in Canada and through a right of “sole trade and commerce” will function as a de facto government for nearly 200 years.

1673

The Dutch researcher Antonie van Leeuwenhoek discoveres red blood cells and, a few years later, bacteria and sperm using self-constructed microscopes.

1679

With the conclusion of the Treaties of Nijmegen, the Franco-Dutch War, which had been going on since 1972, ends. The Netherlands is asserting itself against France. However, Spain has to cede the Franche Comté, and the Holy Roman Empire, Freiburg to Louis XIV.

The English Parliament passes the Habeas Corpus Act, according to which an accused person can only be held in custody for a limited time without a court decision - an important milestone in the development of the rule of law.

1681

Charles II of England grants Pennsylvania as a colony to the Quaker William Penn, who will found Philadelphia there in 1683.

1683

After the defeat at Kahlenberg, the Turks have to break off the Second Siege of Vienna and retreat. Since then, the Ottoman Empire has found itself on a structural defensive.

1685

With the Edict of Fontainebleau, Louis XIV revokes the Edict of Nantes and thus drives many Huguenots into emigration. The brain drain affects France’s economy negatively.

1687

The English physicist Isaac Newton publishes his main work, in which he formulates the law of gravity, which he discovered in 1666, and the three axioms of mechanics named after him.

1688

In the Glorious Revolution on November 12th, the Catholic King James II of England and Scotland is overthrown. In his place, his Protestant son-in-law, the Dutch William of Orange ascends the throne in the following year. The Revolution confirms the primacy of Parliament over the Crown.

With the advance of French troops across the Rhine to protect alleged inheritance claims in the Palatinate, the First Continental War (Nine Years' War) begins.

1689

Emperor Leopold I, England, the Netherlands and Spain join together in the Grand Alliance against Louis XIV to restore the balance of power on the continent.

The Kangxi Emperor of China concludes the first treaty with a European power at Nerchinsk in Siberia. Russia recognises that the entire Amur region belongs to China.

Tsar Peter the Great overthrows the regent and takes power in Russia himself.

1691

Margrave Ludwig Wilhelm of Baden-Baden wins as imperial general over the Turks at Slankamen. Transylvania is then reunited with Habsburg Hungary.

1695

In England, pre-censorship of printed publications is abolished, thereby creating an important prerequisite for the development of a free press.

1697

In the Peace of Rijswijk which ends the First Continental War (Nine Years’ War), France has to recognise William III as King of England and renounce almost all conquests. Ludwig XIV cedes Freiburg to the Emperor of the Holy Roman Empire, but permanently retains Strasbourg. He also finally acquires the western part of the island of Hispaniola (Haiti), which he has claimed for decades.

1699

In the Peace of Karlowitz, the Ottoman Empire finally cedes all of Hungary (excluding the area of Timișoara) to the Holy Roman Emperor.

1701

Elector Frederick III of Brandenburg crowns himself - outside the Holy Roman Empire - in Königsberg as King Frederick I of Prussia.

The Holy Roman Emperor, England and the Netherlands unite against Louis XIV of France and his pretender to the Spanish throne. This begins the Second Continental War (War of the Spanish Succession, which is also fought overseas.

1703

Tsar Peter the Great founds Saint Petersburg, which will replace Moscow as the capital of Russia in 1712.

1704

The Austrian general Prince Eugene of Savoy and his English partner, the Duke of Marlborough, win at Blenheim over the allied French and Bavarians.

1706

The Duke of Marlborough is victorious over the French at Ramillies in the southern Netherlands, and Prince Eugene wins at Turin in northern Italy.

1707

The Acts of Union lead to the creation of a United Kingdom of England and Scotland henceforth known as Great Britain.

1708

Johann Friedrich Böttger in Saxony invents a process for producing white porcelain for the first time in Europe.

1709

In the Battle of Poltava, the Swedish King Charles XII is defeated by the tsar's troops.

After a new victory by the allied Austrians and British at Malplaquet in the southern Netherlands, France is on the brink of collapse.

1711

Emperor Joseph I dies unexpectedly; The heir is Charles VI, the Habsburg pretender to the Spanish throne. Since under him there is a threat of unification of the Austrian hereditary lands with the Spanish Empire, Great Britain stops fighting against England.

1712

The important German composer Georg Friedrich Handel finally settles in London.

1713

In the Peace of Utrecht, the Bourbon Philip V is recognised as King of Spain; However, the British retain Gibraltar and Menorca and also acquire a monopoly on the slave trade with the Spanish colonies.

Emperor Charles VI issues the Pragmatic Sanction. This stipulates the indivisibility of the Habsburg hereditary lands and the sole inheritance rights of the emperor's children - including those in the female line

1714

In the Treaty of Rastatt between France and the Austria, the latter gains the Italian and Dutch possessions from the Spanish inheritance.

Queen Anne, the last Stewart on the English throne, dies. According to the Act of Settlement of 1701, she is followed by George I, the first monarch of the House of Hanover.

1718

In the Treaty of Passarowitz, the Ottoman Empire cedes parts of Serbia, Bosnia, Wallachia and Banat to the House of Austria.

King Charles XII of Sweden is killed during the siege of a Norwegian fortress. Power then passes to the estates with which Sweden's Age of Liberty begins.

The German physicist Daniel Gabriel Fahrenheit invents the mercury thermometer in the Netherlands. As early as 1714 he introduces the scale named after him for measuring temperature.

1719

The first English novel Robinson Crusoe by Daniel Defoe is published, originally crediting the stranded character as the books author.

1720

The Habsburg Emperor renounces Sardinia in favour of the House of Savoy and receives Sicily in return.

1721

The Great Northern War ends with the Treaty of Nystad. Sweden has to cede Livonia, Estonia, Ingria and part of Karelia to Russia, but keeps Finland.

Tsar Peter the Great takes the title of Emperor of all Russia.

1723

Johann Sebastian Bach becomes St. Thomas cantor in Leipzig. His extensive compositional work will have a lasting impact throughout Europe.

1733

After the death of August the Strong, a dispute for the throne breaks out in Poland between the French candidate Stanislaus Leszcynski and August's son, who is supported by Austria and Russia, which results in the War of the Polish Succession.

1735

The Swedish naturalist Carl Linnaeus presents his treatise Systema Naturae, the basis of systematics in modern biology.

In the preliminary Peace of Vienna, the Saxon Wettiner August III is recognized as the Polish king. Stanislaus Leszcynski is resigned to the Duchy of Lorraine. Emperor Charles VI renounces Naples and Sicily in favour of the Bourbons, but receives Parma and Piacenza as well as the right of succession in Tuscany for his future son-in-law Franz Stephan in exchange with Lorraine, which will come into effect in 1737 when the Medici die out.

1736

Nadir Shah from the Afsharid family deposes the last Safavid ruler and becomes Shah of Iran himself. Two years later he would also sack Delhi, bringing the Mughal Empire to the brink of dissolution.

1739

After military failures, Austria has to cede the western part of Wallachia and the northern part of Serbia with Belgrade back to the Ottoman Empire in the Treaty of Belgrade.

1741

The Danish Asia researcher Vitus Bering reaches the coast of Alaska on a Russian assignment.

1742

Maria Theresa, head of the House of Austria, cedes most of Silesia in the Treaty of Berlin to Frederick II in Prussia, who had invaded the area two years earlier without legal grounds.

1747

The Berlin chemist Andreas Marggraf obtaines sugar from beetroot for the first time. However, it is his colleague Franz Carl Achard will developed an industrial process for the production of beet sugar as a replacement for the expensive cane sugar much later.

1748

Montesquieu publishes his work On the Spirit of Laws, in which, following John Locke, he develops the doctrine of separation of powers into the executive, legislative and judicial branches.

The Peace of Aachen ends the Third Continental War (War of the Austrian Succession), which has been going on since 1740, with the general recognition of Maria Theresa. The House of Habsburg only has to forego Parma and Piacenza.

1751

The first volume of the Encyclopédie, the definitive collection of the European Enlightenment, is published. The editors are Denis Diderot and Jean-Baptiste d’Alembert.

1756

Great Britain, which is in fierce colonial competition with France, joins forces with Prussia. France then changes its partner in the empire and enters into a defensive alliance with its traditional opponent, the House of Austria, which develops into an offensive one the next year. The reversal of alliances in Europe is considered the Diplomatic Revolution of the 18th century. With a preemptive strike against Saxony, Frederick II of Prussia opens the First Global War (Seven Years' War).

1757
The British under Robert Clive defeat the Nawab of Bengal at Plassey and thus become the undisputed strongest power in India.

1758

The Swiss Emer de Vattel publishes The Law of Nations which applies a natural law to international relations and modernises the whole field. After receiving three copies of the book, Benjamin Franklin passes it along members of congress as the principles of liberty and equality coincide with American ideals.


1760

After the British conquered Quebec the year before, Montreal also falls. France's position in North America is destroyed.

1761

Joseph Haydn, composer of new-style string quartets and symphonies, becomes Kapellmeister to Prince Esterhazy in Eisenstadt.

1762

After less than six months on the throne, Peter III recalls the Russian troops from the First Global War and concludes a special peace with Prussia, but is overthrown and inherited by his wife Catherine II.

In The Social Contract, Jean-Jacques Rousseau radically attacks the existing political and social order and thereby achieves great impact.

1763

The Peace of Paris ends the First Global War between Great Britain and France/Spain. France loses all of its colonial possessions in North America. In India, the French only get a few places back. Silesia ultimately remains with Prussia, which becomes a major European power.

1764

The Englishman James Hargreaves invents a spinning machine which, together with James Watt's improved steam engine the next year, marks the starting point of the First Industrial Revolution. This gives European civilisation a head start over the rest of the world.

1768

James Cook sets out on his first voyage to the South Seas on behalf of the British. He maps New Zealand and discovers the southeast coast of Australia.

1772

During the First Partition of Poland, Russia, Austria and Prussia appropriate large parts of Polish-Lithuanian territory.

Independently of each other, the Swedish German pharmacist Carl Wilhelm Scheele discovers oxygen the year before while the Scottish scientist Daniel Rutherford isolates nitrogen for the first time.

1773

After the last great subsistence crisis of the 18th century, potatoes become established as a cultivated product in Europe.

1774

In France, Louis XV is succeeded by his grandson Louis XVI. The state's financial crisis worsens dramatically under the new king's government.

1776

After years of military failures, the Sublime Porte (seat of the Grand Vizier in Constantinople) has to give up Crimea and the area between the Bug and the Dnieper in the Treaty of Küçük Kaynarca with Russia. The inferiority of the Ottoman Empire compared to the major European powers becomes obvious.

After years of disputes over taxation of the 13 British colonies in North America, they declare their independence from Great Britain in a declaration written by Thomas Jefferson. In the subsequent War of Independence, Americans lead by George Washington are initially inferior, but with French and Spanish support, will soon gain the upper hand.

With his main work The Wealth of Nations, the Scot Adam Smit founds modern liberal economic theory based on the idea of competition.

1780

Archduchess and Queen Maria Theresa dies. Her son, Emperor Joseph II, follows in the hereditary lands and initiates a radical reform program.

1781

The Königsberg philosopher Immanuel Kant publishes his Critique of Pure Reason.

1782

The social revolutionary play The Robbers by Swabian poet Friedrich Schiller is premiered at the Mannheim National Theater.

After the expulsion of the previously victorious Burmese, who had conquered the Thai capital Ayutthaya in 1767, General Phraya Chakri (later known as King Rama I) founds the third Thai empire with the new capital Bangkok.

1783

In the Treaty of Paris, Great Britain recognises the independence of the United States, whose western border is formed by the Mississippi. For the first time, an overseas territory populated by Europeans becomes independent. For almost a century and a half, it will be the destination of millions of European emigrants in search of freedom and prosperity.

The French chemist Antoine Lavoisier decodes the combustion process.

1786

Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, the most influential poet of German classicism, sets off on his legendary first trip to Italy.

1787

The fight against the enslavement of black Africans begins with the founding of the Society for the Abolition of the Slave Trade in Great Britain.

1788

British ships land with 700 prisoners on the southeast coast of Australia, where the new colony of New South Wales is created.

In the USA, the constitution comes into force, which will be supplemented by the Bill of Rights in 1792. It turns the previously loose federation of states into a federal state with strong central authority.

1789

George Washington becomes the first president of the United States.

On May 5, the Estates General meet in Versailles for the first time since 1614 to find solutions to the crisis in state finances. The bourgeois Third Estate is represented with twice the number of people. With no prospect of agreement on the voting method, the Third Estate declares itself the National Assembly on June 17th, and the Constituent Assembly is convened on July 9th. On July 14, the Parisian masses storm the Bastille, the old Paris city prison, which makes a lasting impression on the court. In August, the abolition of the feudal system and a declaration on human and civil rights are adopted. The French Revolution marks the beginning of the democratic movement in Europe, but also the starting point of modern nationalism.

1790

In France, the Constituent Assembly decreed the civil constitution of the clergy, a rationalist reorganisation into 83 departments and the issue of paper money.

1791

A few weeks after the premiere of his opera The Magic Flute, the innovative composer Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart dies in Vienna.

1792

Revolutionary France declares war on Prussia and Austria on April 20. The Allies who had moved into France are forced to retreat on September 20th by the Cannonade of Valmy in Champagne. During the French counteroffensive, General Custine captures Speyer and Mainz.

The French Convention declares France a republic and begins the trial against the king.

1793

King Louis XVI is executed in France, followed by his wife Marie Antoinette nine months later.

In a treaty, Russia and Prussia decide on the Second Partition of Poland. Russia gains the east between the Daugava and Dniester river, Prussia gains the entire southwest as well as the cities of Gdańsk and Toruń.

In France, anti-revolutionary uprisings are suppressed, the moderate Girondists eliminated, a mass conscription is ordered and a radically democratic constitution, that will never come into effect, is passed. The Convention's Welfare Committee de facto assumes the functions of a government. Its dominant figure is Maximilien de Robespierre.

1794

The École Polytechnique is founded in Paris as the oldest technical university in the world. In the same year, the world's first (optical) telegraph line is set up between Paris and Lille.

Maximilien de Robespierre establishes a regime of terror in France. He is therefore overthrown and executed with his supporters on July 27.

1795

After a national uprising, Russia, Austria and Prussia divide the country completely between themselves in the Third Partition of Poland. It disappears completely from the European map until 1918.

After the establishment of the Batavian Republic as a French satellite state, Great Britain took over almost all of the Dutch colonial possessions - including Cape Town, Ceylon and Malacca.

Emperor Qianlong announces his abdication on Chinese New Year. Under him, China reached its greatest territorial extent and experienced unprecedented growth in population and economy, so that it the country can still be considered the strongest power on earth at the end of the 18th century.

In France, a new constitution is promulgated and a five-member board of directors is elected. The radical phase of the revolution finally comes to an end.

The Scot Mungo Park becomes the first European to penetrate into the interior of Africa beginning at the Gambia River.

France is the first country in the world to introduce the metric system.

1796

The English doctor Edward Jenner gives the first smallpox vaccination. The disease, which was previously feared because of its high mortality, can henceforth be combated prophylactically.

1797

Under pressure from France, the last Doge of Venice is deposed. This ends the oldest (aristocratic) republic in Europe.

The First Coalition War ends with the Treaty of Campo Formio, in which Austria gives up the entire left bank of the Rhine but is compensated with the territory of the former Republic of Venice.

1798

The French general Napoleon Bonaparte conquers Malta and then Egypt. On July 21st he defeats the Mamelukes under the pyramids. However, his fleet is destroyed on August 1st near Abukir by the British under Admiral Nelson.

1799

Napoléon Bonaparte overthrows the Directory in France in order to take over the leadership of the state as First Consul at the head of a three-member body.

1800

The Italian physicist Alessandro Volta develops the pile named after him as the first usable source of electrical power.

1801

In the Treaty of Lunéville, the Rhine is recognized by the Holy Roman Empire as the border with France.

1803

In order to compensate secular princes who lost their territory west of the Rhine to France, the Principal Conclusion of the Extraordinary Imperial Delegation secularised most ecclesiastical states and mediatised most imperial cities. With it, the idea of the Reich lost its most important pillar.

France sells the huge Louisiana territory west of the Mississippi, which had only recently been reacquired from Spain, to the USA for 27 million dollars.

1804

After Napoleon's failed attempt to restore France's rule in Hispaniola, Haiti becomes the second independent state in the Americas and the first in which a slave population wins freedom and self-determination.

In France the Napoleonic Code comes into force. It exerts a strong influence on legislation in many countries on the continent.

Napoleon Bonaparte takes the title of Emperor of the French as Napoleon I. In the same year, the Holy Roman Emperor Francis II follows this example and becomes hereditary Emperor of Austria as Francis I.

1805

Great Britain, Russia and Austria form a triple alliance in the Third Coalition War against Napoleon. With the victory over the Franco-Spanish fleet at Cape Trafalgar, Admiral Nelson finally secures British dominance at sea. In contrast, Napoleon achieves his most brilliant victory on land over the allied Austrians and Russians in the Battle of the Three Emperors near Austerlitz. In the subsequent Treaty of Pressburg, Austria has to renounce all areas in Italy and the southwest of the empire.

1806

Napoleon founds the Confederation of the Rhine, which is subordinate to his protectorate and which, in addition to smaller parts of the empire, includes the medium-sized German states that he had greatly enlarged. In response, Emperor Franz II renounces the Roman-German imperial dignity on August 6th. The Holy Roman Empire dissolutes after more than 1000 years.

In the Fourth Coalition War, Prussia gets defeated by the French in the battle of Battle of Jena–Auerstedt. Napoleon then announces the continental blockade from Berlin, which is intended to prevent the import of British goods to the continent and the delivery of grain to Great Britain.

1807

Great Britain and the USA bann the slave trade and the import of African slaves with the beginning of the following year.

On the initiative of Baron vom Stein, the liberation of farmers is decreed in Prussia. This is the first important measure of the Prussian reforms that were only initiated by the military defeat.

1810

Wilhelm von Humboldt founds the University of Berlin and continues his measures to reform the education system in Prussia.

In Mexico, the independence movement under the priests Hidalgo and Morelos begins as a failed social revolution. Both of them will be executed in the next years. The independence movement against Spanish rule is also starting in New Granada (Colombia), Venezuela and the Rio de la Plata (Argentina), but for the time being without gaining traction.

In Prussia, freedom of trade is proclaimed and compulsory guilds are abolished.

1812

Spain receives a truly liberal constitution as the first country in Europe. However it will soon be repealed.

Napoleon's campaign against Russia, his last mainland enemy, which began in June, fails completely. With the Convention of Tauroggen, Prussia withdraws from the alliance with Napoleon.

The Frenchman Nicolas Appert founds the world's first canning factory. The new technology is revolutionising eating habits in industrialized countries by “capturing the seasons”.

1813

Russia, Prussia, Great Britain, Austria and Sweden form an alliance against Napoleon. France is crushed by the Allied armies in the Battle of Leipzig. As a result, the Confederation of the Rhine dissolves. The Napoleonic state formations in the center and north of Germany disappear from the map, whereas the states of southern Germany created by Napoleon remain.

1814

On New Year's Eve, the Prussian Marshal Blücher crosses the Rhine near Kaub. He takes the war to France itself.

In the Treaty of Kiel, Denmark left its neighbouring country Norway to the Swedish king who himself had lost Finland to Russia eight years earlier.

After the Allies enter Paris, Napoleon formally abdicated and retreats to Elba. Under Louis XVIII, Bourbon rule was restored in France with the addition of a constitution.

In England, a steam locomotive built by George Stephenson is used to transport coal for the first time.

1815

Napoleon unexpectedly returns to France from Elba. The powers gathered at the Congress of Vienna renew their alliance.

The southern Netherlands are united with the northern ones to form a kingdom.

At the Congress of Vienna, the German Confederation of 41 individual states is founded with the signing of the German Federal Act. Its highest body is the Bundestag in Frankfurt under the presidium of Austria.

The Final Act is signed at the Congress of Vienna. Prussia receives Posen, Swedish Pomerania, parts of Saxony and, above all, large areas in the west, which, because of their economic potential, establish the later structural superiority of the Hohenzollern Monarchy within the German Confederation. In contrast, Austria must finally give up its old positions on the Rhine, but receives in return northern Italy and parts of Poland. Russia gains core Poland as a kingdom. Britain retains most of the colonies it conquered during the Coalition Wars.

Napoleon is decisively defeated at Waterloo by the allied British under Wellington and Prussia under Blücher and abdicates a second time. He is banished to the remote British island of St. Helena in the Atlantic. France is returned to the borders of 1790 in a new peace agreement.

1816

The United States on the Rio de la Plata (later Argentina) declare their independence from Spain.

1817

The German fraternities celebrate a festival at Wartburg at which demands for national unity are raised.

1818

With the Congress of Aix-la-Chapelle, France returns to the European concert of powers as an equal member. The system of Pentarchy, that is, the dominance of Great Britain, Russia, France, Austria and Prussia in Europe, is now fully developed.

1819

After a ten-year struggle for independence, New Granada becomes independent as Greater Colombia. It includes Venezuela, Ecuador and Panama. The first president is Simon Bolivar.

After a political murder, the Carlsbad Decrees are passed in the German Bundestag. Among other things, they provide for a tightening of censorship and measures against "revolutionary activities" in the territory of the German Confederation.

Singapore is founded by the British as a rapidly emerging and soon to be the most important of their Straits Settlements.

1820

Under the Missouri Compromise, slavery is prohibited north of the 36.5 parallel in the United States. Missouri is admitted into the Union as a slave-owning state and Maine as a slave-free state. However, this cannot permanently suppress sectionalism and confrontation between North and South.

1821

At the Congress of Laibach, the conservative powers of Europe (Russia, Austria and Prussia) decide on armed intervention in Naples and Sardinia-Piedmont, where uprisings threaten monarchist legitimacy. However, this cannot permanently stifle the Risorgimento movement, which strives for a unified Italian nation state.

Under the leadership of the Creole upper class, Mexico becomes independent from Spain as an empire. It will become a republic in 1824. In the same year, Peru also declared its independence, which it will only be able to assert after the Spanish defeat at Ayacucho (1824) and the withdrawal of the last Spanish troops from the port of Callao (1826).

1822

Greece declares its independence. In the subsequent war with the Ottoman empire, a broad European public support the Greek fight for freedom

Brazil declares its independence from Portugal as an empire under a scion of the Portuguese House of Braganza.

1825

A gas piping system is being completed in London that will enable permanent interior lighting in rooms. It is the beginning of a ubiquitous artificial brightness that is revolutionising life in industrialised countries.

The world's first railway line opens between the English towns of Stockton and Darlington. The first passenger railway will run between Manchester and Liverpool in five years.

1827

A Franco-British-Russian fleet destroys the Ottoman-Egyptian force at Navarino, saving the Greek revolt. The Ottoman Porte will have to recognise Greece's independence two years later in the Treaty of Adrianople.

1828

Shaka, who shaped the Zulu people and built a tightly organised military state in South Africa, is murdered.

1830

France begins with the conquest of Algeria, where a French settlement colony is subsequently established.

King Charles X of France is overthrown by a popular uprising. Louis Philippe from the Orléans branch of the House of Bourbon is chosen as his successor. With him, the bourgeoisie comes to power. The July Revolution with its liberal ideals has repercussions almost everywhere in Europe.

A national congress proclaims the independence of Belgium (= the southern Netherlands) from the Kingdom of the Netherlands. It is soon recognised by the five major powers. The following year, the new state will receive an exemplary liberal constitution and, with Leopold I, a king from the House of Saxe-Coburg-Saalfeld.

1831

Giuseppe Mazzini, a champion of freedom and unity in Italy, founds the secret society La Giovana Italia in Marseille, which he unites with freedom groups from other countries to form Young Europe in 1834.

1832

30,000 participants gather in the Palatinate for the Hambach Festival. They demand, among other things, the recognition of popular sovereignty, the unity of Germany and the unification of Europe in a confederation of republics.

In Great Britain, the liberal Gray cabinet implemented the first parliamentary reform. It provides for a reform of the constituency division and an expansion of the circle of eligible voters.

1834

Slavery is abolished in the British colonial empire. As a result, primarily Indian, but also Chinese contract workers are recruited to replace the workforce.

1836

The Great Trek begins in South Africa. Thousands of Dutch Boers leave the British Cape Colony northwards. They will found Natal in 1839, the South African Republic (Transvaal) in 1857 and the Orange Free State in 1854.

1837

With Queen Victoria's accession to the throne in Great Britain, the personal union that existed with Hanover since 1714 ends.

The French painter Louis Daguerre invented the first photographic process - the Daguerreotype.

1838

The socially critical English novelist Charles Dickens publishes his first novel Oliver Twist.

1839

The American chemist Charles Goodyear invents rubber vulcanisation.

The SS Archimedes is build in Great Britain. It is the first steamship driven by a screw propeller.

1840

Great Britain annexes the South Island of New Zealand on the basis of the Discovery doctrine, the North Island on the basis of the Treaty of Waitangi concluded with the indigenous Maori. European settlement colonies subsequently emerged on both islands, accompanied by bloody conflicts with the Maori.

In a publication, the German chemist Justus von Liebig advocates artificial mineral fertilisation to increase agricultural production.

1841

With the 2nd London Convention between the five major European powers and the Ottoman Empire, the Oriental crisis, which had been ongoing since 1839, ended. The Sublime Porte recognises the de facto independence of Egypt under Mehmet Ali.

The Baptist preacher Thomas Cook conducts the first organised rail journey in England. This marks the beginning of the age of mass tourism.

1842

The Italian composer Giuseppe Verdi achieved his breakthrough to world fame with the opera Nabucco.

The Treaty of Nanjing between Great Britain and China ended the First Opium War that had broken out in 1839. The British receive Hong Kong as a colony and unrestricted access to five treaty ports. China's inferiority to the western industrialised countries becomes clear with this first of the "unequal treaties”.

Extreme crop failures for grain and potatoes are triggering the last subsistence crisis in Europe. The need is particularly great in Ireland, where mass deaths are occurring and emigration to America is increasing enormously.

1846

The annexation of Texas by the USA provokes Mexico to launch an offensive against the USA. However, it loses the war. In the Treaty of Guadelupe Hidalgo of 1848, Mexico has to cede large parts of its territory, including California, to the USA.

Import restrictions on grain will be abolished in Great Britain. England is the first country in the world to adopt the principle of free trade.

1847

In West Africa, the Republic of Liberia is proclaimed as the first modern black African state. Freed slaves from the USA, who have settled here since 1821, will rule it until 1980, before it sinks into anarchy.

1848

The Year of Revolution in Europe begins with an uprising in Palermo. The first result is a constitution for the Kingdom of the Two Sicilies.

In France, the citizen monarchy is overthrown. Louis Philippe goes into exile in England. The first reform measure is to proclaim the emancipation of slaves in the French colonial empire.

In Germany, the revolution begins in Baden and soon spreads to almost all federal branches. In Vienna, Court and State Chancellor Metternich is overthrown, a barricade fight rages in Berlin, and King Ludwig I abdicates in Bavaria. The main goal of the insurgents is the unification of Germany into a nation state based on Western models, with the liberals envisaging a constitutional monarchy as a form of government, while the radical democrats strive for a republic. The first all-German parliament meets as a national assembly in Frankfurt's Paulskirche on May 18 to draft a constitution. Prussia and Austria, where the revolution is crushed after just a few months, also receive popular representatives and constitutions based on the model of the southern German states.

The Communist Manifesto by Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels is published anonymously in London.

1849

After adopting an imperial constitution, the German National Assembly offers the imperial crown to the Prussian king. However, Frederick William VI refuses. The first attempt to create a German nation state fails completely.

In the Palatinate and Baden, where the Democrats briefly gained power, the radical revolution is finally crushed by Prussian troops.

The end of the revolutionary movement in Europe is marked by the surrender of the Hungarian army to the Russian intervention forces. The only lasting result throughout Europe is the abolition of the old agrarian constitution.

1851

The first World’s Fair opens in London in the specially built Crystal Palace.

With a coup, Louis Napoleon takes complete power in France. The following year he proclaims himself Emperor of the French.

1853

With Commodore Matthew Perry handing over a letter from the American President to the Shogun, Japan's forced opening to the West begins. The 220 year long Sakoku period ends formally with the Kanagawa Treaty the following year.

1854

Great Britain and France enter the war against Russia that began the year before on the side of the Ottoman Empire. They land large contingents of troops on the Crimean peninsula, where the Sevastopol fortress will be conquered in 1855. By winning the Crimean War, the integrity of the Ottoman Empire is guaranteed.

1857

The Società nationale is founded in Italy. It strives for a unification of Italy under the leadership of Sardinia-Piedmont, whose head of government, Count Cavour, takes a leading role. The German National Association will be founded two years later based on this model.

1858

With the India Act, the British East India Company is dissolved and its property was taken over by the Crown. At the same time, the shadow ruler of Delhi, the last great Mughal, is deposed.

1859

In the war with French-supported Sardinia-Piedmont, the Austrians suffer heavy defeats at Magenta and Solforino in June. They then have to cede Lobardy to Sardinia-Piedmont.

The British natural scientist Charles Darwin publishes his major work On the Origin of Species, with which he helps the theory of selection and thus the idea of development in modern biology to achieve a breakthrough.

The influential German composer Richard Wagner completes his musical drama Tristan and Isolde, in which the disintegration of harmony that is characteristic of modern music is already apparent.

1860

In the USA, Abraham Lincoln, an outspoken opponent of slavery, is elected president of the Republican Party, founded in 1854. This leads to South Carolina's secession.

1861

Eleven of the fifteen slaveholding states in the United States secede and make up the Confederate States of America. With the shelling of Fort Sumter in April, a bloody civil war between North and South begins.

Emperor Alexander II announces the liberation of peasants in Russia.

The Kingdom of Italy is proclaimed in Turin under Victor Emmanuel II. Apart from Lazio and Veneto, it includes all of Italy.

The self-taught German physicist Johann Philipp Reis demonstrates the first telephone he designed in Frankfurt.

1862

The principalities of Wallachia and Moldavia, which had been united the year before, became the unified state of Romania

In the middle of the constitutional conflict with the House of Representatives over army reform and budget law, King Wilhelm I appoints Otto von Bismarck as Prussian Prime Minister. He initially governs against the liberal chamber opposition with the help of the Lückentheorie.

1863

On the initiative of the Swiss merchant Henri Dunant, the International Red Cross is founded in Geneva.

1864

Austrian and Prussian troops defeat Denmark, which then has to give up Schleswig, Holstein and Lauenburg in the Treaty of Vienna.

The German inventor Siegfried Marcus builds the world's first automobile in Vienna.

1865

After decisive defeats at Gettysburg and Vicksburg, the Confederates finally surrendered at Apomattox Court House. With the occupation of the South by Union troops, the USA is reunited. Shortly afterwards, Abraham Lincoln becomes the first American president to be assassinated. Slavery is finally abolished throughout the United States with the 13th Amendment to the Constitution.

The first ascent of the Matterhorn by a British rope team marks the beginning of modern alpinism.

1866

German dualism culminates in the Austro-Prussian War. Prussia defeats Austria and its southern German allies, who then make a U-turn. The German Confederation is dissolved. Prussia unifies the north of Germany up to the Main line under its leadership in the North German Confederation. Austria is no longer part of the German world.

1867

Russia sells Alaska to the USA for 7.2 million dollar.

Canada becomes the first white dominion to become effectively independent from Great Britain. However, the inherited conflict between Anglo and Francophones will continue to question the country's unity.

With the Austro-Hungarian Compromise, the Habsburg Monarchy is reorganised. The Austrian and Hungarian halves of the empire receive their own governments and parliaments. The only things in common are foreign policy, defense and finance.

1868

After the resignation of the last Tokugawa shogun, Emperor Meiji Tenno takes power in Japan. The shogunate is abolished and the power of the feudal nobility will be broken until 1873. The emperor moves his residence from Kyoto to Tokyo.

1869

With the closure of the gap between the Central Pacific and Union Pacific Railroad in Utah, the first transcontinental railway from the Atlantic to the Pacific in the USA is completed.

The Suez Canal is opened by the French Empress Eugénie as a connection between the Mediterranean and the Red Sea. This shortens the sea route to India considerably. The bulk of the canal shares are French and British owned.

The German chemist Julius Meyer and the Russian chemist Dmitri Mendeleev developed the periodic table of elements simultaneously but independently of each other.

1870

At the I Vatican Council the dogma of the infallibility of the Pope in questions of faith and morals is proclaimed. The culture war between liberals and the Catholic Church intensifies throughout Europe.

France declares war on Prussia because of the possible candidacy of a Catholic Hohenzollern for the Spanish throne, in which it surprisingly quickly loses. Emperor Napoleon III is forced to abdicate. As a result of the French defeat, the Pope also has to renounce his secular rule over Rome and the Latinum. Its territories are incorporated into the Kingdom of Italy. Italy thus forms a political unit for the first time since Byzantine times. After Turin and Florence, Rome becomes the country's new capital.

1871

In the Hall of Mirrors at the Palace of Versailles, the Prussian King Wilhelm I is proclaimed German Emperor. This creates the first German nation state from the North German Confederation and the four southern German states of Bavaria, Württemberg, Baden and Hesse-Darmstadt under Prussian hegemony, many hundred years late compared to Western and Northern European countries. At the head of his government is Otto von Bismarck as Reich Chancellor.

In the Treaty of Frankfurt, France had to cede Alsace and northern Lorraine to Germany and pay war compensation.

The French government bloodily suppresses the social-revolutionary uprising of the Paris Commune.

1873

With the Vienna stock market crash, an intercontinental economic crisis begins, which will last into the 1890s. Mass emigration from Europe, especially to the USA, reach their absolute peak in these years.

The American industrialist Philo Remington is the first to begin industrial production of typewriters.

1874

The French Impressionists are organising their first joint exhibition.

The German engineer Carl Linde develops the first refrigeration machine. In the following decades, this new cooling technology will fundamentally change eating habits in industrialised countries.

1875

With the entry into force of several constitutional laws, France finally decides on the republican form of government, proclaiming the Third French Republic.

1876

The American Indians win a final victory over the US cavalry under General George Custer on the Little Big Horn River in Montana.

1877

With the withdrawal of all Union troops from the South, the era of Reconstruction in the USA ends. As a result, the living conditions and political rights of African Americans deteriorates significantly.

1878

After the defeat of the Ottoman Empire in the fight with Russia and the rebellious Balkan peoples, peace is concluded at the Berlin Congress. Russia wins Kars and Batumi, among others. Montenegro, Serbia and Romania become completely independent from the Ottoman Empire. Austria is allowed to occupy Bosnia-Herzegovina. Greece is expanded to include Thessaly and part of Epirus. Bulgaria is established as a tributary principality of the Sublime Porte. Great Britain takes over administration of Cyprus.

1879

The German Chancellor Otto von Bismarck enforces the Anti-Socialist Laws in the Reichstag.

1882

As a viceroyalty under Ottoman suzerainty, Egypt is de facto subjected entirely to British influence.

The German bacteriologist Robert Koch discovers the tubercle bacillus and two years later the causative agent of cholera.

The American inventor Thomas Alva Edison sets up the world's first power station in New York.

1884

The German Empire becomes a colonial power. It acquires Cameroon, Southwest Africa, Togo, northeastern New Guinea, the Marshall Islands and, in the following year, East Africa.

After the fixation of uniform times for larger regions, which is only enforced with railway traffic, standard time zones are established for the entire earth.

1885

The Court and Society Review is founded in Great Britain, featuring works by Robert Louis Stevenson and Oscar Wilde. It will however cease to publish in 1888, starting its century long hiatus.

1887

The German-American engineer Emile Berliner invents the gramophone for playing records.

1888

The German physicist Heinrich Hertz succeeds in generating and detecting electromagnetic waves.

Slavery is abolished in Brazil. As a result, the monarchy falls the following year.

1889

After the introduction of health insurance (1883) and accident insurance (1884) for workers, the highlight of Bismarck's social legislation, old-age and disability insurance, gets implemented in the German Empire.

Japan receives a constitution and a parliament. The East Asian Empire is the only non-European country that managed to adapt European standards without the intermediate stage of colonial dependency while maintaining its own identity and tradition.

1890

The German Emperor dismisses Chancellor Bismarck from office. The Anti-Socialist Laws will not be extended.

1891

Pope Leo XIII proclaims the Catholic Church's first encyclical on social issues.

Construction of the Trans-Siberian Railway begins in Russia, but it will not be completed for 25 years.

1892

Russia and France conclude an initially secret military convention to provide mutual military support in the event of a German attack.

1893

Women’s suffrage is first introduced in New Zealand.

1895

After losing the war, China must cede Taiwan and the Pescadores Islands to the victorious Japan and recognize Korean independence in the Treaty of Shimonoseki.

The German physicist Wilhelm Conrad Röntgen discovers X-rays.

Films are shown to audiences for the first time in Berlin and Paris.

1896

The boom phase begins in the German Empire. It makes the country, alongside the USA, the world's leading industrial power.

Theodor Herzl, founder of political Zionism, publishes his program pamphlet The Jewish State, in which he promotes the settlement of European Jews in Palestine.

The French physicist Antoine Henri Becquerel discovers the radioactive radiation emitted by uranium.

1897

With the Dingley Tariff, the highest in its history, protectionism in the USA, a still young industrial nation, reaches its peak.

1898

With the First Fleet Act, the German government is setting in motion a program to massively expand the fleet, triggering a European arms race, especially with Great Britain.

The rule of the Mahdi and their successors provokes British intervention in Sudan, which will henceforth be administered as a British-Egyptian condominium. A meeting between the British and French at Fashoda ends with the latter's withdrawal, a prerequisite for the future alliance between the two powers.

In the Spanish-American War, the United States, intervening on behalf of the Cuban uprising, wins an easy victory over Spain. Spain must cede the Philippines, Puerto Rico and Guam to the USA, which, as a former colony, becomes a colonial power itself.

Under massive pressure, China leases the New Territories opposite Hong Kong to Great Britain, Port Arthur to Russia, Jiaozhou to the German Empire and the Bay of Quanzhou to France.

1900

The intervention of Western powers (Great Britain, France, Germany, Austria-Hungary, Russia, Italy, USA), including Japan, provoked by a diplomatic assassination, leads to the occupation of the Chinese capital Beijing. The defeat of the xenophobic Boxer Rebellion marks a high point of European imperialism and a triumph over the once superior Chinese civilisation.

1901

Britain grants Australia self-government as the second white dominion.

1902

The Second Boer War ends with a British victory over the Boers. The Transvaal and the Orange Free State become British. However, together with the Cape Province and Natal they will form the independent South African Union in 1910.

The Austrian doctor Sigmund Freud, founder of psychoanalysis, gains his first students including Alfred Adler.

1903

The brothers Orville and Wilbur Wright achieve the first controlled, powered flight in the USA.

1904

Great Britain and France achieve a reconciliation of their colonial interests and join forces to form the Entente Cordiale.

1905

After its defeat in the war with Japan, Russia has to cede the lease rights in Port Arthur (China) and the southern part of the island of Sakhalin to Japan under the Treaty of Portsmouth (USA). The first major defeat of a European power by an Asian power in the modern era shakes Russia's political system. Emperor Nicholas II announces the convening of a parliamentary representation and the granting of civil liberties.

1907

Great Britain and Russia agree on the demarcation of their spheres of interest in Persia, Afghanistan and Tibet. This closes the alliance ring around the militarising Germany, increasing the tensions and complexity of the European diplomatic landscape.

New Zealand becomes the third white dominion to become independent from Great Britain.

1908

Bulgaria declares its complete independence from the Ottoman Empire as a kingdom. Austria-Hungary simultaneously annexes Bosnia-Herzegovina.

1909

The German chemists Fritz Haber and Carl Bosch develop the main procedure for the production of ammonia (Haber-Bosch process).

1910

Japan annexes Korea and subsequently makes it an object of exploitation and plunder.

1911

The British physicist Ernest Rutherford develops the atom model named after him.

The Norwegian Roald Amundsen was the first person to reach the South Pole, ahead of his competitor, the British Robert Falcon Scott, who will die on the way back from the Pole in the following year.

1912

Shaken by ongoing uprisings, imperial rule in China is overthrown after more than 2,000 years and the country is declared a republic. However, its founder Sun Yatsen has to make way for military commander Yuan Shikai as president that same year.

1913

In the First Balkan War, an alliance of Serbia, Bulgaria, Greece and Montenegro triumphs over the Ottoman Empire, which loses almost all of its possessions in Europe.

The Underwood-Simmons Act will drastically reduce import tariffs in the USA. American policy, which until then had been characterised by protectionism, has since then pursued the goals of free trade.

The first assembly line is installed in Henry Ford's automobile factory.

1914

Triggered by the murder of the Austrian heir to the throne Franz Ferdinand in Sarajevo and a subsequent chain reaction in the alliance systems, the Second Global War begins with the declaration of war by Germany and Russia, in which Europe will lose its absolute political-military dominance in the world. The Central Powers (Germany, Austria-Hungary, Ottoman Empire and Bulgaria) are opposed by the Entente (France, Great Britain, Italy, Russia, USA and Japan). In the West, the fighting will quickly turn into trench warfare.

The Panama Canal, which will be under US control until the very end of the 20th century, is opened as a connection between the Atlantic and Pacific.

1915

The German physicist Albert Einstein develops the general theory of relativity.

1916

The Battle of Verdun between Germany and France takes place and marks the longest battle in the Second Global War. Despite a huge effort that exacted a tremendous toll on the defenders, the breakthrough is ultimately not achieved after ten months.

1917

The monarchy is overthrown in Russia. Emperor Nicholas II abdicates. He and his family are killed by the Bolsheviks the following year.

Bolshevik units under the revolutionary Vladimir Lenin, who returned to Russia with German help, storm the Winter Palace in Petrograd and arrest the provisional Russian government (October Revolution).

1918

American President Woodrow Wilson announces his 14 points as the basis for a peace order.

After its allies left the war, the German Reich, which had been declared a republic days earlier, is also forced to surrender.

After the collapse of Austria-Hungary, Czechoslovakia and Yugoslavia (the Kingdom of Serbs, Croats and Slovenes) emerge as new states in Europe. Transylvania is united with Romania. In addition to Finland, Poland, Lithuania, Estonia and Latvia emerge as new states on former Russian territory.

1919

After the radical left is defeated, a national assembly is elected in Germany, which appoints the Social Democrat Friedrich Ebert as Reich President and draws up a new democratic constitution.

The League of Nations, initiated by President Wilson, is founded with its headquarters in Geneva. However, the USA does not participate in it.

In the Treaty of Versailles, Germany cedes Alsace-Lorraine to France, Posen and West Prussia to Poland, and other areas to Lithuania and Czechoslovakia. It also loses all colonies and later, after referendums, territories to Denmark, Poland and Belgium. Danzig becomes a free city, the Saarland is separated from Germany and economically connected to France. Tight restrictions apply to the German military. In the long term, however, the high reparations demands based on war guilt article 231 will be of greatest importance.

In the Treaty of St Germain-en-Laye, Austria has to recognise the independence of its new neighbours (Czechoslovakia, Hungary, Yugoslavia) and cede Tyrol up to the Brenner Pass to Italy.

1920

In the Treaty of Trianon, Hungary has to give up two thirds of its territory (Croatia, Transylvania, Slovakia, Banat, Burgenland).

Radio becomes commercial. The first live broadcast in Britain featured the famous soprano Nellie Melba.

1921

Great Britain gives Ireland independence as a dominion. Northern Ireland, with its Protestant majority, remains British.

The Austrian physiologist Ludwig Haberlandt develops the basic concept for hormonal contraception. However, it will only be decades later that the American Gegroy Puncus succeeds in implementing the birth control pill.

1922

The Central Committee of the Communist Party of Russia elects Joseph Stalin as General Secretary. This begins the rise of an unscrupulous power politician to absolute rule.

National Turkish troops defeat the Greeks militarily and initiate their mass expulsion from Asia Minor. They also occupy Constantinople, whereupon the last Padishah abdicates and leaves Turkey. The following year, under Mustafa Kemal, the Turkish Republic is founded as a European-style nation state, abolishing the caliphate soon thereafter.

In Italy, the fascists march to Rome under Benito Mussolini, who is subsequently appointed Prime Minister by the King.

At the First All-Union Congress in Moscow, the establishment of the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (USSR) is decided.

With his Suite op. 25, Arnold Schönberg completes the first work using the twelve-tone technique.

1925

At the Locarno Conference, Germany recognises the inviolability of its western borders. With regard to the eastern borders, it undertakes not to bring about change by force. The reconciliation policy, largely initiated by Foreign Minister Gustav Stresemann, culminates the following year with Germany's admission into the League of Nations.

1927

The American Charles Lindbergh crosses the Atlantic for the first time solo and non-stop from New York to Paris. However, passenger traffic between America and Europe will not begin until 1939.

The German physicist Werner Heisenberg develops the uncertainty principle, a fundamental concept in quantum mechanics.

1929

In the Lateran Treaty, the Pope gives up his resistance to the Italian state and in return receives sovereign ownership of the Vatican City State.

The Great Depression, which will last one decade, begins with the first crash on the New York Stock Exchange.

1930

Mahatma Gandhi, leader of the Indian freedom movement, launches a new non-violent campaign against British colonial rule in India.

1932

German President Paul von Hindenburg dismisses the unpopular Chancellor Brüning shortly before Germany's reparation obligations are lifted at the Lausanne Conference. However, the damage caused by reparations and the Great Depression has already destabilised the Weimar Republic and radicalised its citizens.

1933

President Hindenburg appoints the leader of the right-wing extremist National Socialists, Adolf Hitler as German Chancellor. Within a few months, he establishes a dictatorship that soon claims many victims in the first concentration camps.

When he took office, American President Franklin Roosevelt initiates an only partially successful program for the economic recovery of the USA with the New Deal.

The Arabian American Oil Company (ARAMCO) is founded in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia. The newly established country subsequently develops into the main producer of petrolium.

1934

During the “Night of the Long Knives” Hitler has potential opponents in his own ranks and outside murdered. After the death of Reich President Hindenburg, the German dictator consolidated all power in his hands.

The Soviet Union is accepted into the League of Nations and thus definitely recognised internationally.

1935

Germany lifts the arms restrictions of the Treaty of Versailles and introduces compulsory military service. This is tolerated by the Western powers.

Germany begins regular television broadcasting operated by the Reichspost. In Great Britain this will be followed in 1936 with the British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC), in the USA in 1939 by the National Broadcasting Company (NBC).

With the Nuremberg Laws, exceptional provisions against Jews come into force in Germany.

The Red Army of the Communist Party of China under the leadership of Mao Zedong reaches the northwestern province of Shaanxi after the Long March and thus avoids destruction by the troops of the Kuomintang under General Chiang Kai-shek.

1936

With a coup under General Francisco Franco, the civil war against the left-wing government begins in Spain, which the nationalists will win after three years. From then on, Franco will rule the country in a dictatorial manner until his death.

Germany concludes alliance agreements with Italy and Japan.

1937

Japanese units begin an open war of aggression against China and occupy large parts of the country. The Kuomintang and the communists then form an alliance of convenience that will collapse in 1945 after the Japanese surrender.

Walt Disney’s first feature film, Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs, establishes animation as a serious artistic medium, achieving both critical and commercial success.

1938

After an invasion of troops, Austria is annexed by the German Reich (Anschluss).

With the Munich Agreement, which France and Great Britain join alongside Italy, Czechoslovakia is forced to cede the Sudetenland to the German Reich.

During the Night of Broken Glass, Hitler and his propaganda minister Goebbels stage a pogrom against Jews and Jewish institutions in Germany.

The German chemist Otto Hahn, together with Fritz Straßmann, discovers the splitting of uranium nuclei under neutron irradiation.

1939

After concluding a non-aggression pact with the Soviet Union, German dictator Hitler unleashes the Third Global War with the attack on Poland on September 1st. Britain and France declare war on Germany in fulfilment of their alliance obligations to Poland. The Wehrmacht occupies Poland, which is incorporated into the German Empire as a general government. At the same time, eastern Poland is occupied by Soviet units. The Third Global War marks the last war for hegemony in Europe to date.

The fantasy musical film The Wizard of Oz introduces Technicolor to a mainstream audience and, through its iconic characters and music, remains culturally significant to this day.

1940

The German Wehrmacht occupies Denmark, Norway, the Netherlands, Belgium, Luxembourg and finally France.

In Great Britain, the conservative Winston Churchill forms a cabinet of national unity with the Labor Party to promote resistance to German aggression. In fact, Hitler's attempt to conquer Britain from the air fails in the Battle of Britain.

In defeated France, Marshal Philippe Pétain forms a government that collaborates with the Germans. Meanwhile, General Charles de Gaulle, who has escaped into exile, calls for resistance against the German occupation.

1941

German units, which have been operating in North Africa since February, are attacking Yugoslavia and Greece.

In a surprise attack, the German Wehrmacht also attacks the Soviet Union and achieves great initial success there. Great Britain and the USA then conclude a mutual assistance agreement with Stalin.

Japan enters the war with the attack on the American fleet in Pearl Harbor (Hawaii). On December 11, the German Reich also declares war on the USA..

The German engineer Konrad Zuse developes the Z3, the first programmable, fully automated digital computer.

1942

At the Wannsee Conference, the “Final Solution to the European Jewish Question” is announced to representatives of the highest German Reich authorities. In the years to come, millions of Jews and countless people of other origins will fall victim to the industrial mass murder motivated by National Socialist racial madness.

Japan, whose troops quickly advanced to New Guinea and Burma, finds itself on the defensive in the first year of the war (Battle of Midway, Battle of Guadalcanal).

The Italian physicist Enrico Fermi builds the first nuclear reactor in the USA. When the war ends, the United States will be the only nuclear power on earth. The Soviet Union (1949), Great Britain (1952), France (1960) and China (1964) will also build nuclear weapons in the future.

1943

At the Casablanca Conference, American President Roosevelt and British Prime Minister Churchill agree to continue the war until Germany, Italy and Japan surrender unconditionally.

The Battle of Stalingrad ends with a triumph for the Red Army. The German Reich Propaganda Minister Goebbels then propagates Total War.

Mussolini is deposed in Italy, but is later freed by the Germans to continue his rule in northern Italy. Meanwhile, the king and his new head of government go to the Allied camp in southern Italy, making the country effectively divided.

At the Tehran Conference, the Big Three (Stalin, Roosevelt, Churchill) in Tehran, the basic principles of a post-war order in Europe were laid down. The Curzon Line is envisaged as Poland's eastern border, the Oder-Neisse Line as its western border

1944

The Allies break through the Monte Cassino Front and conquer Rome. At the same time, by landing in Normandy, they open the second front in the fight against the German Wehrmacht that the Soviet Union had long demanded.

Hitler survives an assassination attempt by Count Claus Schenk von Stauffenberg with minor injuries. This means that the attempt by conservative circles to save the German Empire by removing its dictator fails.

In Bretton Woods (USA), a new world monetary system is established in which the US dollar serves as its reserve currency.

After entering Paris, Charles de Gaulle, leader of the French Resistance, forms a provisional government.

1945

The Big Three meet at the Yalta Conference. Stalin promises to enter the war against Japan. Against his resistance, France becomes involved in the occupation of Germany. The bipolar structure of the post-war order, the division of Europe into an American and a Soviet sphere of influence while externally maintaining the great power status of Great Britain and France, are becoming apparent.

Hitler commits suicide. The Red Army conquers Berlin. Mussolini is shot on April 28th while fleeing to Switzerland.

In May, the German armed forces capitulate to the Americans in Reims and to the Russians in Berlin-Karlshorst. Germany is completely occupied and divided into American, Russian, British and French zones.

The United Nations (UN) is founded in San Francisco and its charter gets signed by 51 states.

At the Potsdam Conference, the Big Three agree on essential principles for the treatment of post-war Germany. Especially the demilitarisation, denazification and democratisation of the country. The expulsion of millions of Germans from the East is also approved by the Western powers.

The USA is the first and so far only nation to use nuclear weapons in the war against Japan. Hiroshima and Nagasaki are destroyed by this new technology while the conventional bombing of Tokyo goes down as the most destructive bombing raid in human history. Japan surrenders on September 2nd.

Ho Chi Minh, leader of the Vietnamese communists, proclaims Vietnam's independence after Japan's defeat. However, it is not recognised by the former colonial power France and has to be fought for by force of arms until 1954.

1946

The USA and Great Britain unite their occupation zones in Germany to form a Bizone, the nucleus for the later Federal Republic.

1947

In a speech, the American Secretary of State announced a US-financed program for the economic reconstruction of Europe (Marshall Plan), which will actually begin in 1948.

Decolonisation begins. Great Britain grants independence to India, divided into a Muslim (Pakistan) and a Hindu state (Union of India).

One day before Britain's UN mandate for Palestine expires, Israel is established as a Jewish state on 77% of the country's territory according to the organisation's partition plan. It will assert itself in the subsequent Palestinian war until 1949.

1948

The Allies decree a currency reform in the western zones of Germany to get the economy going again. In response, the Soviet Union imposes a blockade of West Berlin, which will only be lifted in the following year and which has to be overcome by an airlift.

Two states are proclaimed in Korea. The Republic of Korea in the south and a communist People's Republic of Korea in the north. They are separated by a border along the 38th parallel.

In South Africa, the implementation of a program for systematic racial separation (Apartheid) is beginning. Among other things, it will prohibit mixed marriages and limit the freedom of movement for Non-Whites.

1949

In Washington, NATO is founded as a military defense alliance under American leadership. In addition to the USA and Canada, most Western European countries belong to it.

In West Germany, the Basic Law drawn up by the Parliamentary Council comes into force. This constitutes the Federal Republic of Germany. The first head of government of a bourgeois government will be Konrad Adenauer on September 15th.

After a long civil war in the wake of the Japanese surrender, the communists win in China. The country is declared a People's Republic by Mao Zedong. Chiang Kai-shek flees with the remnants of the Kuomintang troops to the island of Taiwan and establishes the Republic of China in the following year.

The German Democratic Republic (DDR) is founded in the Soviet occupied zone of Germany.

1950

French Foreign Minister Robert Schuman proposes the creation of a control authority for the production of coal and steel in France and the Federal Republic of Germany. This will lead to the creation of the European Coal and Steel Community (1951) and after its enlargement, the European Union (1993).

The Korean War begins with the attack by North Korean troops on South Korea. To defend itself, the UN sends troops (mainly Americans), who in return advance to the Chinese border, but are in turn pushed back south by Chinese units. The war will end in 1953 practically on the basis of the stasis quo ante.

1953

With the death of party leader Stalin, an era ends in the Soviet Union. Nikita Khrushchev wins the battle for succession.

Spontaneous strikes and demonstrations break out in various cities in the DDR. Soviet troops put down the uprising. In the Federal Republic of Germany, the day will be celebrated as a national holiday until reunification in 1990.

1955

At the first conference of the non-aligned Asian and African states in Bandung (Indonesia), the complete abolition of European colonial rule and the recognition of racial equality are called for.

1956

Britain and France attack Egypt over the nationalisation of the Suez Canal. However, they have to withdraw after just a few days, proving that European powers are no longer able to operate as great powers

In Hungary, a popular uprising against communist rule is bloodily suppressed by Soviet troops.

1957

The Soviet Union launches Sputnik, the first artificial Earth satellite, into space, causing a significant shock in the West. This event accelerates the already existing Space Race.

1959

The revolution is winning in Cuba. Fidel Castro becomes the new ruler. An attempt by Cuban exiles to overthrow him with American help will fail at the Bay of Pigs Invasion in 1961. Castro will lead Cuba for the next 52 years making him the longest-serving non-royal head of state.

1960

In the Year of Africa seventeen European colonies gain independence.

1961

The Soviet Union launches the first manned space flight with cosmonaut Yuri Gagarin.

The leadership of the DDR has a wall built in Berlin to prevent mass exodus from its territory. The attempt to overcome it subsequently demands many victims.

1962

The Cuban Missile Crisis brings the world to the brink of nuclear war. The danger is only averted when the Soviet Union accepts an American ultimatum and evacuates the missile positions it had recently set up in Cuba and which directly threatened the USA.

1963

President de Gaulle and Chancellor Adenauer sign the German-French Élysée Treaty, which will be the basis and axis of European integration in the following decades.

In the USA, President John Kennedy falls victim to an assassination attempt that remains unsolved.

1965

The USA sends combat troops to South Vietnam to support the war against the communist Viet Cong, who are supported by North Vietnam.

Singapore separates from Malaysia to become an independent and sovereign state led by prime minister Lee Kuan Yew until 1990.

1967

In the Six-Day War, Israel conquers the Sinai, the Golan Heights and the rest of Palestine (West Bank and Gaza).

South African surgeon Christiaan Barnard performs the first successful human heart transplant in Cape Town.

1968

With massive student unrest in Paris, the left-wing Protests of 1968 reach their climax.

Warsaw Pact troops stifle the Prague Spring. Under massive pressure from Moscow, the Czechoslovak leadership has to withdraw its reform measures.

1969

US astronauts Neil Armstrong and Edwin Aldrin are the first people to set foot on the moon.

1972

Richard Nixon is the first President of the USA to visit the People's Republic of China and thus initiates the break of the Bipolar World Order.

1973

The dollar exchange rate is released and has since fluctuated in value against other currencies. At times this leads to considerable tension in the international financial system.

In the Yom Kippur War, Israel comes into military trouble for the first time after an offensive by its Arab neighbours. However, the country is able to maintain its position. After the war, the first Oil Crisis leads to economic difficulties and social conflicts all over the world, contributing to the overthrow of numerous governments (e.g. Federal Republic of Germany, Ethiopia) and dictatorships (e.g. Portugal, Greece).

1975

With the capture of Saigon, the communist Viet Cong end the Vietnam War victoriously. North and South Vietnam are reunited the following year.

The Khmer Rouge led by Pol Pot take over Cambodia and begin the deadliest genocide since the Third Global War, killing a fourth of Cambodians over the next four years.

Steven Spielberg’s adventure film Jaws and subsequently George Lucas’ Star Wars (1977) introduce the summer blockbuster and incidentally reassert the power back to major film studios over independent New Hollywood directors.

1978

With Karol Wojtyla as John Paul II, a non-Italian is elected pope for the first time since the early 16th century.

1979

In Iran, the monarchy is overthrown by the Islamic revolution under the spiritual leader Ruhollah Khomeini. Shah Reza Pahlavi goes into exile where he dies the following year.

1983

Michael Jackson, the most influential entertainer of the modern era, performs his iconic Moonwalk during a television special for the first time.

1985

In the Soviet Union, Mikhail Gorbachov becomes the new party leader. Under the keywords Glasnost (transparency) and Perestroika (transformation), he initiates a policy of reforms that, however, cannot avert the consequences of a long-term overtaxing of the national economy.

1986

The biggest catastrophe in civilian nuclear power occurs at the Chernobyl reactor in Ukraine.

1989

In Tiananmen Square in Beijing, the Chinese opposition movement, which is mainly made up of students, is crushed by tanks.

At night, the DDR opens the border crossings to the Federal Republic and West Berlin, which are immediately crossed by thousands. Germany is gripped by national euphoria.

1990

The newly founded states of the DDR join the Federal Republic of Germany. A German nation state is restored much faster than expected.

1991

The Second Gulf War ends with the complete defeat of the Iraqi dictator Sadam Hussein in battle with the UN force consisting mainly of American and British soldiers. The sovereignty of oil-rich Kuwait, previously annexed by Saddam, is restored.

Slovenia's declaration of independence comes into force. This begins the complete disintegration of Yugoslavia, which leads to bloody conflicts in Croatia and Bosnia-Herzegovina that will last until 1995.

The Soviet Union is dissolved on Christmas Eve. The huge Russian empire falls apart and previous union republics, including the Russian Federation, gain full sovereignty.

1992

In the Maastricht Treaty, the twelve European member states establish the completion of the Economic and Monetary Union policies aimed at making the unification process irreversible.

1993

The single market comes into force in the EU.

1994

The North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA), consisting of Canada, the USA and Mexico, comes into force.

Hundreds of thousands of Tutsis are being slaughtered in Rwanda by the Hutu majority. The international community does not intervene and only later recognises it as genocide.

With the entry into force of a new constitution and the election of Nelson Mandela as president, the apartheid regime in South Africa ends. The black majority of the population gains full voting rights and political equality.

The railway tunnel under the English Channel between France and England is ceremoniously opened.

1997

With the handover of Hong Kong to China, Great Britain loses its last important colony. The British Empire is finally a thing of the past.

1999

The EURO is being introduced as the new common currency in almost all EU member states.

Because of the danger of a humanitarian catastrophe in Kosovo, NATO, led by the USA and with German participation, opens an air war against Serbia. After the attacks end, a UN peacekeeping force will be stationed in Kosovo.

2001

A long-planned terrorist attack on targets in New York (World Trade Center) and Washington (Pentagon) using hijacked commercial airliners on September 11 results in thousands of deaths. The US government has named the Saudi Arabian multimillionaire and Islamist Osama bin Laden as the mastermind of the act. President George Walker Bush launches the Global Military Campaign on Terror which will continue for the next 20 years spanning multiple wars.

2003

Without a mandate from the United Nations or other legitimacy under international law, troops from the USA and Great Britain, together with a "Coalition of the willing", eliminate Saddam Hussein's regime in Iraq in a short war of aggression without rebuilding the country. The legal system of the international community, established after the Third Global War with significant participation of the USA, is being shaken to its foundations.

2008

NASA confirms the presence of water ice on Mars. At the same time, a study of lunar rock samples reveals water molecules trapped in volcanic glass beads.

The opening ceremonies at the Summer Olympics in Beijing signal to the world, the re-emergence of China as a great power.

After the US bank Lehman Brothers files for bankruptcy, a global financial and banking crisis begins.

2009

James Cameron breaks his own record of the highest-grossing film Titanic (1997) with his science fiction epic Avatar that also introduces 3D technology to a mainstream audience.

2010

Due to the impending bankruptcy of Greece as a result of the international financial crisis, the common currency EURO is also in crisis. To deal with this, the EU is putting together huge rescue packages. After Greece, Portugal, Ireland and Cyprus will soon also be dependent on massive financial aid from these loan commitments.

2011

After weeks of unrest, the fall of Tunisian President Ben Ali in January marks the beginning of the Arab Spring, which successively sweeps away the regimes of Hosni Mubarak in Egypt, Muammar al-Gaddafi in Libya and Ali Abdullah Saleh in Yemen. In August, an uprising in Syria to overthrow Bashar al-Assad, quickly escalates into a civil war in which foreign powers will be involved until the present.

2013

For the first time since 1294, a pope, Benedict XVI, abdicates his office. His successor is the Archbishop of Buenos Aires, Jorge Bergoglio, who takes the name Francis for the first time.

In the USA, charges of betrayal of secrets have been brought against former secret service agent Edward Snowden because he informed the world public about the spying methods of the American (NSA) and British secret services (MI6). Subsequent initiatives to obtain information about the extent of American spying and guarantees for its end remain without tangible results.

2014

The overthrow of Ukraine's pro-Russian president by the Maidan popular uprising in Kiev leads to the secession of Crimea and Donbass from Ukraine. While Crimea, which was linked to Russia by Catherine the Great in 1783 and only transferred to the Ukrainian Soviet Socialist Republic in 1954, is annexed by Russia, the Ukrainian regions of Donetsk and Luhansk, which are also predominantly Russian-speaking, declare their independence. The West is reacting to these developments with light sanctions against Russia.

2015

The civil war in Syria and the proclamation of an Islamic State as a caliphate in the north of Syria and Iraq in June 2014 triggers a refugee movement of millions of people. They reach Central and Northern Europe via Turkey, the Aegean and the Balkan and Mediterranean routes. The reception and integration of these people presents governments and authorities with almost insoluble problem and are the main reason for the massive boost that populist movements and parties are receiving in many European countries.

2016

After a very close vote, Great Britain decides to leave the EU. Lengthy negotiations with the EU and heated arguments in the British House of Commons, will delay the exit until 2020.

2019

The Event Horizon Telescope captures the first image of a supermassive black hole in the center of the Milky Way Galaxy thereby proving Einsteins theories.

2020

After discovering water in the shadowed regions of the moon (2018), NASA also finds moon water on the sunlight regions. Water can therefore be distributed across the lunar surface.

Lengthy lockdowns due to the Global Covid Pandemic lead to profound negative economic impacts and protests in large parts of the population.

2021

An agreement with the Taliban ends the Global Military Campaign on Terror with a complete American troop withdrawal from Afghanistan.

2022

Russia launches a full-scale invasion of Ukraine which is able to defend itself with Western support. The inconclusive and ongoing trench warfare leads to large casualties on both sides.

2023

After a Hamas led surprise attack on Israel, the country responds with large scale bombings and ground invasions that destroy 62% of all buildings in Gaza. The forced starvation of civilians and rhetoric by Israeli ministers make the ongoing Gaza Genocide the most recent in history.

2024

Elon Musk’s company Neuralink conducts the first human experiments with computerised brain devices that promise telepathic abilities for paralysed patients and standard customers.

Due to rising sea levels, the capital of Indonesia is moved from Jakarta, located on Java, to Nusantara, which is currently under construction on the island of Borneo.

Civilization Applications

Niall Ferguson’s Civilisation Applications, introduced in 2012, sharpen our understanding of what makes modern societies rise and fall.

1. Competition

European decentralization fostered the growth of political and economic competition, birthing the nation-state and the rise of capitalism.

2. Science

While eastern Muslim powers slowed scientific progress in their own region, the Christian West advanced militarily and academically.

3. Property

Widespread land ownership and its ties to the democratic process gave the United States a more productive, stable footing than its neighbors to the south.

4. Modern Medicine

Developed and shared throughout colonial outposts in Africa and elsewhere, Western medicine has the power to double life expectancy and the future potential for reversing aging entirely.

5. Consumerism

The 20th century witnessed a new model of civilization centered around consumption, as American goods and fashion carried the message of Western freedom.

6. Work Ethic

Protestantism in America stressed hard work, saving, and literacy. As the workweek keeps receding in America and Europe, a nonreligious alternative hasn't been found yet.

Although perfected by the European powers since 1500, the Civilization Applications are universally applicable.

One can look at a divided country like Korea and notice which part made use of these functional complexes and which stayed in the Dark Ages of history.

Seperated since the end of the Korean War in 1953 at the 38th parallel, the peninsular is home to a stagnant North and a vibrant South. While one population is starving under an oppressive dictator, the other enjoys virtues of a liberal democracy and a booming economy.

Success therefore is not a matter of geography or heritage but of ideas and institutions in which every individual has the innate power to determine his destiny and unleash the winds of change onto the sail of his society.

Just as Pedro Álvares Cabral navigated to the New World in 1500, not knowing what unprecedented episodes he set in motion, so do we stand in front of an ocean of time that may bring death or paradise upon us.

We cannot find the meaning of history in any book or see its constellation on the night sky. To play the unwritten symphony of life is to march by the rhythm of one’s heart.

What shall keep us on a path to glory is the richness of our experience, the lucidity in our reason and the wisdom to know the difference.