HISTORY
OF THOUGHT AND ACTION

HISTORY FOR A JOURNEY IN BEING™

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OUTLINE

Table of Contents

1        History: Introduction

1.1        Reference

1.2        Purposes: History as the ‘Story’ of Thought and Action

1.3        Periods

1.4        Whitehead’s Concept of History

2        History: a Brief Outline

2.1        The Ancient World

2.2        The World: 500 – 1500

2.3        Toward Modernity

2.4        The Age of Revolution

2.5        The Modern World

Most Recent Update


TABLE OF CONTENTS

1        History: Introduction  5

1.1        Reference  5

1.2        Purposes: History as the ‘Story’ of Thought and Action  6

1.3        Periods  6

1.4        Whitehead’s Concept of History  6

1.4.1        Relativity and Focus  6

1.4.2        History as Interplay Between ‘Force’ and ‘Inspiration’ 6

1.4.3        Kinds of Influence  7

1.4.4        Sociological Function, Change and Ideas  7

1.4.5        Modern Cosmology [Metaphysics, World View] and how Individuals Experience their World  7

2        History: A Brief Outline  7

2.1        The Ancient World  7

2.1.1        Before History  7

2.1.1.1        The Universe  7

2.1.1.2        Geological Evolution of Earth: Geochronology  7

2.1.1.3        Evolution of Life on Earth: Biochronology  7

2.1.1.4        Human Evolution  11

2.1.2        The Ancient Near East 11

2.1.2.1        Mesopotamia  11

2.1.2.2        Egypt 11

2.1.2.3        The New Levant: Syria and Palestine  11

2.1.3        Asian Civilization  12

2.1.3.1        Early India  12

2.1.3.1.1        Prehistoric India  12

2.1.3.1.2        Vedic Era  12

2.1.3.1.3        Rise of Jainism and Buddhism   12

2.1.3.2        Early China  12

2.1.3.3        The Chinese Empire: The Formative Period  12

2.1.4        Classical Antiquity: Jews and Greeks  13

2.1.4.1        Jews  13

2.1.4.2        The Great Divide [Omitted] 13

2.1.4.3        The Century of Minor Powers [Omitted] 13

2.1.4.4        Persia and Athens  13

2.1.4.5        The Fourth Century to the Death of Alexander 13

2.1.4.6        The Hellenistic World  14

2.1.5        Classical Antiquity: Rome  14

2.1.5.1        The Roman Republic  14

2.1.5.2        Julius Caesar 14

2.1.5.3        Augustan Empire  14

2.1.5.4        The Later Roman Empire  14

2.1.5.5        Late Roman Society and Culture [Interaction of Power, Knowledge and Faith] 14

2.2        The World: 500 – 1500  15

2.2.1        The Arabs  15

2.2.1.1        The Arabs and the Rise of Islam   15

2.2.1.2        The Disruption and Decline of the Arab Empire  15

2.2.1.3        Islamic Civilization  15

2.2.1.4        Jews in the Arab World  16

2.2.2        Asia and Africa  16

2.2.2.1        Sub-Saharan Africa  16

2.2.2.2        The Chinese Empire: the Great Era  17

2.2.2.3        The Chinese Empire: Foreign Powers  18

2.2.2.4        Early Japan  19

2.2.2.5        India  19

2.2.2.6        Southeast Asia  19

2.2.3        Medieval Europe  20

2.2.3.1        Early Middle Ages  20

2.2.3.1.1        Roman and Byzantine Emperors  20

2.2.3.1.2        Frankish Kings and Western Emperors [Since 800] 20

2.2.3.1.3        German Kings and Emperors  20

2.2.3.1.4        French Kings  20

2.2.3.1.5        Roman Pontiffs  20

2.2.3.1.6        Ecclesiastical Intellectuals  21

2.2.3.2        The High Middle Ages  21

2.2.3.2.1        Roman Pontiffs  21

2.2.3.2.2        German Emperors  21

2.2.3.2.3        English and French Princes  21

2.2.3.2.4        Orders of the Church  21

2.2.3.2.5        Churchmen and Intellectuals  21

2.2.3.2.6        Church Councils  22

2.2.3.3        The Late Middle Ages  22

2.2.3.3.1        Princes and Dynasties  22

2.2.3.3.2        Soldiers, Magistrates, Artists, and Businessmen  22

2.2.3.3.3        Intellectuals  22

2.2.3.4        The Jews in Medieval Europe  22

2.2.4        Byzantium   23

2.2.4.1        Early Byzantium   23

2.2.4.2        Later Byzantium   24

2.2.4.3        The Slavs and Early Russia  25

2.3        Toward Modernity  27

2.3.1        The Renaissance and Reformation in Europe  27

2.3.1.1        The State System of the Italian Renaissance  27

2.3.1.2        Humanism and Society  27

2.3.1.3        Renaissance Art 28

2.3.1.4        The Reformation: Doctrine  28

2.3.1.5        The Reformation: Society  29

2.3.1.6        The Counter Reformation  29

2.3.2        Building the Early Modern State  30

2.3.2.1        The Golden Age of Spain  30

2.3.2.2        The Rise of the Dutch Republic  31

2.3.2.3        The Collapse of France  31

2.3.2.4        Elizabethans and Puritans  33

2.3.2.5        The Thirty Years’ War 34

2.3.2.6        The Rise of Modern Political Thought 35

2.3.3        Toward One World  35

2.3.3.1        The Commercial Powers  35

2.3.3.2        The Ottoman Empire  36

2.3.3.3        European Voyages of Exploration  37

2.3.3.4        India: 1500-1700  38

2.3.3.5        Japan and China  38

2.3.3.6        Aztec and Inca Civilizations  39

2.3.3.7        Spain and Portugal in America  39

2.3.3.8        The Settlement of North America  40

2.3.4        The Enlightenment 41

2.3.4.1        The Scientific Revolution  41

2.3.4.2        Society and Politics  42

2.3.4.3        Science Versus theology  43

2.4        The Age of Revolution  43

2.4.1        Europe: the Great Powers  43

2.4.1.1        Forming Nation States  43

2.4.1.2        The Age of Louis Xiv  44

2.4.1.3        Europe in the 18th Century  45

2.4.2        Revolution in the Western World  45

2.4.2.1        The American Revolution  45

2.4.2.2        The French Revolution  46

2.4.3        Reaction and Rebellion  46

2.4.3.1        The Napoleonic Era  46

2.4.3.2        The United States: 1789-1823  47

2.4.3.3        Liberation Movements in Europe  48

2.4.3.4        Liberation Movements in Latin America  48

2.4.3.5        The Near East 49

2.4.4        The Industrial Revolution  50

2.4.4.1        The Industrial Revolution in England  50

2.4.4.2        The Spread of Industrialization  51

2.4.4.3        A World Economy  51

2.4.5        New Forces, New Ideas  51

2.4.5.1        Romanticism and After 51

2.4.5.2        From Liberalism to Democracy  52

2.4.5.3        The Rise of Socialism   52

2.4.5.4        The Antislavery Impulse in America  53

2.4.5.5        Unification Movements  54

2.5        The Modern World  54

2.5.1        Toward Disintegration  54

2.5.1.1        Imperialism in Africa  54

2.5.1.2        American Imperialism   55

2.5.1.3        China Under the Impact of the West 55

2.5.1.4        India Under British Rule  56

2.5.1.5        Darwin and Freud  56

2.5.1.6        The Great Powers to the Verge of War 57

2.5.2        The Great War: 1914–1945  58

2.5.2.1        World War I 58

2.5.2.2        The Russian Revolution and the Stalin Era  58

2.5.2.3        The United States: Prosperity and Depression  59

2.5.2.4        Modern China  59

2.5.2.5        Modernizing Japan  59

2.5.2.6        Nationalism in India  60

2.5.2.7        Europe Between the Wars  60

2.5.2.8        World War II 61

2.5.3        The Brooding Present 62

2.5.3.1        Europe Since World War II 62

2.5.3.2        The  Cold War 62

2.5.3.3        Latin America in Ferment 63

2.5.3.4        The Middle East Since 1940  63

2.5.3.5        Africa Since 1945  64

2.5.3.6        The New Asia  64

2.5.3.7        The United States Since Word War II 65

2.5.3.8        The State of Culture Today  66

Most Recent Update  67


1           HISTORY: INTRODUCTION

1.1         REFERENCE

The outline below is compiled and taken from John A. Garraty and Peter Gay, eds., The Columbia History of the World, 1972; and thus there is no present claim to originality in content or organization

In purpose, however, there is no explicit dependence on the above or other work; naturally, of course, I absorb and process existing thought, such as may have come to my attention

1.2         PURPOSES: HISTORY AS THE ‘STORY’ OF THOUGHT AND ACTION

To give a sense of the processes and forces involved with sufficient focus on:

Showing the interplay of ideas and action

Areas of consideration: religion, myth, art and literature; philosophy, humanities, and the study of history; technology, science, and mathematics; economic, exploration, commercial and trade; law, military and political; education, meaning, journey, and commitment

The general and the singular and their interplay in history and power

The general: populations that may be thought of as homogeneous for the purposes of the account, their processes and their interactions; patriarchalism

The singular: individuals and singular events or small focal groups of the same – especially those that are at focal points of history; charisma

Showing the dynamics without having to resort to explicit theory or concept; events and interactions will be selected to show the dynamics and trends as a picture… without requiring or denying any inference of pattern or predictability especially a principle of pattern or predictability that can be generalized to application to all history

An outline for History, a possible future work mentioned above

A framework for Journey in Being… especially the studies toward Journey in Being – see Design for a Journey in Being… for:

Philosophy

Knowledge; the academic disciplines

Influence – History, the present document, as a History of Influence

Being and its variety; Being and its Journey in Transformation

1.3         PERIODS

There was originally a section that characterized periods of history according to ‘sentiment’ e.g. the time from prehistory till 700 BC may have been labeled ‘myth,’ 700 BC to 300 AD ‘philosophy,’ 300 AD to 1500 AD ‘chaos,’ and 1500 AD till the present ‘exploration and science’

The intention was to use a suggestive character as a label. However, the labels are caricatures and the old system is abandoned

1.4         WHITEHEAD’S CONCEPT OF HISTORY

The source for this section is A. N. Whitehead, Adventures of Ideas, 1933

1.4.1        Relativity and focus

Whitehead emphasizes the commonplace acknowledgement of interpretation as relative and theoretical

He notes that Adventures of Ideas focuses on European History and its sources in Greek and Hebrew culture and civilization; the book is, in part, an attempt to identify the theoretical background of meaning and interpretation for the European tradition

1.4.2        History as interplay between ‘force’ and ‘inspiration’

[A special case of variation and selection]

Force is ‘blind’; inspiration includes ideas and criticism; no novelty is ever entirely novel: even within ‘force’ there is a constructive element

The history of civilization is the history (adventure) of ideas

Examples of force and ideas in European History: barbarians and Christianity; industrial revolution and democracy

Whitehead would put ‘barbarians’ in quotes for this designation is from the European perspective; objectively, for Europe, ‘barbarians’ functioned as ‘force’

Whitehead, notes this as an example of relativity of perspective in that the culture and ideas of the barbarians –e.g. the Goths and other invading peoples– were advanced and refreshing

1.4.3        Kinds of influence

Society, function, change in interaction with ideas

Modern cosmology or ‘world view’ influences how individuals experience their world

1.4.4        Sociological function, change and ideas

The human soul and the humanitarian ideal

Aspects of freedom; from force to persuasion

Foresight [and understanding which results in foresight] in social function

1.4.5        Modern cosmology [metaphysics, world view] and how individuals experience their world

Cosmology. Nature and the laws of nature; four types of cosmology: cosmology is expressed in laws or understanding of the patterns of nature regarding whose character there are four classic kinds of interpretation; these are the schools of immanence, of imposition, of mere description [positivism,] and of conventional interpretation; cosmology, science and faith

Philosophy. Objectivity and subjectivity; Cartesianism; time, coherences; appearance and reality; and philosophic method

Civilization. Truth, beauty, adventure, and peace


2           HISTORY: A BRIEF OUTLINE

2.1         THE ANCIENT WORLD

2.1.1        Before History

2.1.1.1         The Universe

Here, I omit details; the history of the universe may later be covered in Physics, below and subsequently

The idea of an initial singularity [big bang] may explain features of the known or visible universe; this does not imply that the history of the entire universe known and unknown is described by such a singularity. The domain of the unknown is, almost without doubt, much larger if not infinitely larger than that of the known. From physical cosmology it is understood that the known universe, almost homogeneous on a large scale, is, perhaps, a mere bubble in a much larger arena

From the sections on nothingness and general cosmology in Journey in Being, a foundation of the vast spatio-temporal extent and variety of larger arena, the one universe, may be seen in indeterminism and the void. From the non-spatiotemporal, acausal void arises space-time-actuality and causation and law; and law includes physics but is not restricted to the physics of the known universe and may be much more varied

2.1.1.2         Geological Evolution of Earth: Geochronology

2.1.1.3         Evolution of Life on Earth: Biochronology

ERA

PERIOD

EPOCH

TIME OF BEGINNING
[millions of years ago]

GEO- AND BIOLOGICAL EVENTS

ARCHEOZOIC

PROTEROZOID

[primitive and soft life forms]

Precambrian periods

Numerous minor sub-divisions of only local application

4,600

Origin of earth and solar system

4,000 [?]

Origin of life in a reducing atmosphere leading later to production of oxygen

2,500 [?]

Photosynthetic oxygen; permitted first global oxidation of iron ores

1,500 [?]

First primitive soft-bodied animals; main types of invertebrates and some aquatic plants

700

Great Eocambrian Ice Age

PALEOZOIC

[origin and rise of shelled invertebrates and vertebrates; abundance of fishes and amphibians; first reptiles]

Cambrian

 

600

Many aquatic, some land plants; trilobites, brachiopods and many other invertebrates; first shell-forming invertebrates – attributed to rising alkalinity of the ocean: shell fossils common

Ordovician

 

500

Ice Age in Africa

Earliest known chordates; graptolites and corals widespread

Silurian

 

435

Caledonian mountain building

Club mosses and other primitive land plants abundant; some arthropods may have invaded land

Devonian

 

395

Acadian mountain building

Fishes abundant; first amphibians; many land arthropods; first horse-tails, ferns, liverworts

Carboniferous

Mississippian

345

Huge forests of primitive plants; great coal age, reduction of carbon dioxide and rise in atmospheric oxygen

Age of amphibians

Pennsylvanian

310

Hercynian-Appalachian mountain building

Reptiles appear

Permian

 

280

Ice age in South America, Africa, Australia, India and Antarctica

Extinction of many Paleozoic organisms such as trilobites; amphibians decrease in influence

MESOZOIC

[Age of Reptiles]

Triassic

 

230

Beginning of major continental drift; world-wide red beds

Forests of conifers and cycads; Age of Reptiles begins: reptiles abundant and varied; first mammals

Jurassic

 

180

Age of Ammonites; mild world climate; first birds

Cretaceous

 

135

Age of Chalk [planktonic foraminifera;] extinction of dinosaurs and many other Mesozoic organisms; flowering plants appear

CENOZOIC

[Age of Mammals]

Tertiary

Paleocene

67

Alpine mountain building world-wide and continuing through the Tertiary period

Mammals abundant; first primates; flowering plants abundant

Eocene

58

 

Oligocene

36

 

Miocene

25

Evolution of grasses and modern type mammals and birds

Pliocene

Earliest hominids

7

Increasing mountain glaciation

Freezing of Antarctic begins 3 – 4 million years ago; 20 to 90 thousand year Milankovitch [Yugoslav scientist who worked out the mathematics of their prediction] cycles of glaciation and mild climate results in buildup of Antarctic ice since less ice melts than was formed each cycle, in drier climate and lower ocean levels

Earliest known human [hominid] fossils 4 million years ago from the Omo River in Ethiopia; for purposes of demarcation, Man is defined as the primate that habitually makes and uses tools. The earliest hominids are collectively known as Australopithecines but there is speculation though no clear evidence that the earliest Australopithecines were associated with tools

Quaternary

[Except for the Holocene, the dates are not known to be exact; and there is difficulty with correlation of glacial periods to the north and periods of intense rain in the tropical and subtropical belts]

Pleistocene

2

Great Ice Age, time of Stone Age man; growth of major deserts

Villafranchian or Early Pleistocene

Earliest fossil evidence of hominids

2 [2,000,000]

The earliest evidence that at least some Australopithecines were human in character comes form Olduvai Gorge in Tanganyika: where fossils dated at 1,750,000 years old are associated with crude stone tools made for chopping. The Australopithecines form two major groups: Australopithecus –smaller and more delicate– and Paranthropus, larger, heavier boned, roughly the size of a gorilla. It has been speculated that Australopithecus was more modern and evolved, and provided the tools to Paranthropus who may have furnished part of Australopithecus’ diet

The advance and retreat of glaciers pushes climate belts toward and away from the equator; drier conditions lead to thinning of sub-tropical belts and desertification; buildup of mountains due less erosion; and successive glaciations scoured deeper and deeper valleys; and consequent saltation along all the great rivers where numerous fossils ranging from ancestral horse to mammoth of the period are found

The regular use and making of tools provides relative adaptive advantages but also increases importance of adaptation to the behavioral environment especially the flexible thumb and upright posture for the use of tools

Early Middle Pleistocene

0.6 [600,000]

Günz [Nebraskan in America] and Mindel [Kansan] Glaciations, First Interglacial period

Paranthropus dies out but may have interbred with Australopithecus; thus the latter or both are at the root of Modern Man

Hominids spread from tropical Africa, north to North Africa and Europe, east across southern Asia as far as China. The earlier fossils belong to the evolutionary stage Pithecanthropus, intermediate between Australopithecus and Paranthropus; they were successful hunters especially of deer, used fire, ate their dead; much is known about their skeletal remains but little about their tools which were primitive choppers and flakes

Late Middle Pleistocene

0.275 [275,000]

Second Interglacial and Riss [Illinoian] Glaciation

Many human artifacts but few fossils from this period have been found – the Steinhem [Germany] and Swanscombe [England] skulls; brain size was comparable to that of modern man and show a combination of modern and primitive characteristics; use of primitive tools coexist with the Biphase tradition – chipped on both faces, spread throughout Africa, western and southern Europe, southern Asia as far as India, resulting in refinement of hand axes, new tool forms and techniques and an aesthetic element: this later technology required an opposable thumb but this does not mean that the different traditions were those of fundamentally different kinds of men

Most uniquely human behavioral patterns were probably established by the end of this period if not earlier including: language and transmission of culture, permanent association of males and females in small food-getting and child-rearing units co-evolving with year round availability of the female

Late Pleistocene

0.095 [95,000]

Third Interglacial and Würm [Wisconsin] Glaciation; the last melting began hesitantly 17,000 years ago: sea levels rose about 10 feet a century – a likely source of the stories of the great flood

Numerous hominid fossils, many belonging to modern man, Homo sapiens alongside “Neanderthal man,” more “primitive” in appearance but possessed of a larger brain than modern man. The most likely view is that the Neanderthal was a racial variant of and interbred with modern man; about 40,000 years ago the Neanderthals began to be replaced by completely modern man; Neanderthals may have lasted until the end of the Late Pleistocene

Throughout Europe, North Africa and Southern Asia, the new peoples carried a new kind of culture called Upper Paleolithic characterized by: stone artifacts made on long, narrow flakes called blades, many specialized tools and weapons, use of bone and antlers in artifacts, stone tips for spears, traps, encircling of prey, a lunar calendar to predict movement of game, artificial shelters; burial of the dead and a highly developed art indicating a new richness of spiritual life

Last great expansion of the human world into Australia and Siberia and from there across the Bering Strait in to the “New World”

Holocene

0.01 [10,000]

Recent development of agricultural, industrial, and literate man

About 10,000 years ago, with the end of the last melting, thermal levels rose, glaciers retreated, sea levels rose, many watered areas began to dry out, the environments of the lower latitude became more diversified and impoverished, many large game animals became extinct. In response Human culture of the Holocene became much more regionally varied, plant and animal husbandry started and made possible: fixed year round settlements, growth of large dense populations, and civilization as we know it: urbanization, stratified, specialized, politically organized societies. Cultivation and domestication of animals began in two areas: from Mesopotamia to China, and America from Mexico to Peru

Man’s impact on the environment becomes significant in the Milankovitch cycle and associated events such as desertification

Table 1 Bio-Geochronology of Earth. Compiled from The Columbia History of the World, 1972

2.1.1.4         Human Evolution

Further details are in the table above

BC                4M     Earliest known hominids

                  1.75     Stone tools

                    0.6     Pithecanthropus evolves

                    0.2     Possible Homo sapiens; use of fire

                   95K     Homo sapiens; burial of the dead

                   40K     Modern Homo sapiens; Upper Paleolithic culture

                   30K     Art

                   10K     Holocene epoch: end of last ice-age

                     9K     Beginnings of animal husbandry – domesticated sheep in the Tigris Valley, agriculture

2.1.2        The Ancient Near East

2.1.2.1         Mesopotamia

BC           10,000     Wooden reaping knives set with flint blades used in Palestine

                 9000     End of the Ice Age; domesticated sheep in the North Tigris valley

                 7700     Çatal Huyuk, Turkey; obsidian mined for tools; fertility cult

                 7000     Pottery

                 6500     Copper

                 3300     Writing, wheel, sailboats, animal plows in Sumer

                 3100     Hieroglyphic writing in Egypt

                 2350     Sargon I of Agade, first known empire

                 2100     Supremacy of Ur in Lower Mesopotamia; laws of Ur-Nammu of Ur, first known law book

                 1800     Assyrian temple for the Sumerian god, Enlil

2.1.2.2         Egypt

BC     1550-1200     Wheeled vehicles common, bronze, bellows and other labor saving tools

         1375-1358     Amarna age; Ikhnaton’s religious reforms

2.1.2.3         The New Levant: Syria and Palestine

BC       2000-500     Establishment of desert religions

                 1550     Hyskos I expelled from Egypt; new model Egyptian army using chariots and composite bows

                 1525     Thutmose I claims Syria to the Euphrates

                 1500     Invention of alphabetic writing in Syria

                 1200     Iron use common

                 1100     Camel use common in North Arabia; lime plaster used to make watertight cisterns opens up dry areas for settlement

2.1.3        Asian Civilization

2.1.3.1         Early India

2.1.3.1.1        Prehistoric India

BC     3000-1500     Indus Valley Civilization

         1500-1200     Aryan invasion; earliest hymns of the Rg-Veda

2.1.3.1.2        Vedic Era

BC       1200-900     Composition of Rg-Veda

            900-500     Later Vedas, Brahmanas, Early Upanishads

2.1.3.1.3        Rise of Jainism and Buddhism

BC            c. 550     Birth of Mahavira and Gautama

            185-100     Laws of Manu

2.1.3.2         Early China

BC     1523-1027     Shang dynasty [according to Bamboo Annals]

           1027-771     Western Chou dynasty

            770-256     Eastern Chou dynasty

            551-479     Traditional dates of Confucius

               c. 500     Beginning of Iron Age in China

            403-221     Age of Warring States

                   223     Ch’in annihilates Ch’u

            221-207     Ch’in dynasty

2.1.3.3         The Chinese Empire: The Formative Period

BC               214     First expansion of Chinese empire

                   213     Burning of the Books

                   210     Death of First Emperor

                   206     Destruction of Imperial Library

           206-AD 9     Former Han dynasty

BC               191     Book Burning edict rescinded

                   141     Legalists excluded from government careers

                   124     Imperial Academy established

            127-101     Second expansion of Chinese empire

                     87     Regency established

                     51     Peace between China and Hsiung-nu

AD              9-23     Interregnum of Wang Mang

              25-220     Later Han dynasty

                     49     Peace between China and Southern Hsiung-nu

                     65     First Chinese reference to Buddhism

                     89     Regency reintroduced

                   184     Uprising of Yellow Turbans

            220-265     China divided

            265-316     Western Chin dynasty

                   316     Loss of northern China

            317-589     China divided

2.1.4        Classical Antiquity: Jews and Greeks

2.1.4.1         Jews

BC             1250     Israelites invade Palestine

                   900     King Asa of Jordan bans worship of gods other than Yahweh

2.1.4.2         The Great Divide [omitted]

Some elements incorporated below

2.1.4.3         The Century of Minor Powers [omitted]

2.1.4.4         Persia and Athens

BC               780     Alphabet

                   776     Olympic Games

                   770     First Greek colony, Cumae, on Italian mainland

            750-700     Iliad and Odyssey reach their present forms

                   585     Thales of Miletus, beginnings of natural philosophy

                   560     Pisistratus becomes tyrant of Athens

                   510     Pisistratus family expelled from Athens

                   540     Xenophanes, philosophic monism; “Second Isaiah,” nationalistic monotheism

                   525     Pythagoras, the philosophic life

                   499     Ionian cities, aided by Athens, revolt from Persia

                   490     Battle of Marathon

                   478     Athens creates the Delian League for liberation of Greece from Persia

                   475     Parmenides: opposition of reality [changeless] to appearance [changing]

                   458     Aeschylus’ Oresteia

                   447     Beginning of Parthenon

                   447     Sophist study of argument, rhetoric; Pindar [lyric poetry,] Sophocles [tragedy,] Herodotus [history,] Phidias [sculpture

              431-74     Socrates [moral philosophy,] Hippocrates [rational medicine,] Democritus [atomism,] Aristophanes [comedy,] Euripides [tragedy,] Thucydides [history]

            431-404     Peloponnesian war: defeat of Athenian fleet

2.1.4.5         The Fourth Century to the Death of Alexander

BC          404-37     Spartan hegemony in Greece

                   399     Trial and execution of Socrates

            371-362     Plato teaching in Athens

                   359     Philip II: King of Macedonia, consequences of specialization in war

                   338     Aristotle, Diogenes, Demosthenes

            336-323     Ascent to death, at age 32, of Alexander: conquest from the Macedonian Empire to Indus Valley

2.1.4.6         The Hellenistic World

BC         323-276     Wars of Alexander’s successors…

               c. 290     The Colossus of Rhodes

            275-215     Aristarchus, Archimedes, Eratosthenes, Theocritus, Apollonius Rhodius, Manetho and Berossus

               c. 175     The great altar of Pergamum

2.1.5        Classical Antiquity: Rome

2.1.5.1         The Roman Republic

BC               387     Rome destroyed by the Celts

                   338     Rome in control of Latium

                  200-     Rome defeats Philip of Macedon; Leads to ascent of Rome, 800 years of stable power with basis in: granting of citizenship to slaves

                   197     and consequent loyalty to Rome and unification with other cities

                67-62     Pompey: suppression of piracy; campaigns

2.1.5.2         Julius Caesar

BC                 58     Conquest of Gaul [France, Belgium, parts of Holland, Germany and Switzerland;] flowering of Latin literature: Lucretius, Catullus, Cicero, and Caesar

                     48     Defeats Pompey at Pharsalus

                48-47     In Egypt with Cleopatra VII

                     46     Reform of Roman Calendar

                     44     Assassinated

2.1.5.3         Augustan Empire

BC      31- AD 68     Classic age of Latin literature: Virgil, Horace, Livy, Ovid, Seneca, Petronius

AD                  6     Judea taken over by Romans; revolutionary “Messianic” movements develop

                     30     Jesus crucified

              75-100     Four Gospels written

2.1.5.4         The Later Roman Empire

2.1.5.5         Late Roman society and culture [interaction of power, knowledge and faith]

AD               250     Plotinus, Neoplatonism begins

                   381     Council of Constantinople; Doctrine of the Trinity completed

                   391     Theodosius I prohibits all pagan worship

                   410     Sack of Rome by Visigoths followed by Christian Apologetics, notably Augustine’s City of God

                   431     Council of Ephesus

                   451     Council of Chalcedon

                   496     Conversion of Franks to Christianity

                   534     Completion of Justinian’s law code

                   641     Death of Heraclius; Gospels have been translated into 10 languages; Christian missionaries working in China

2.2         THE WORLD: 500 – 1500

2.2.1        The Arabs

2.2.1.1         The Arabs and the Rise of Islam

2.2.1.2         The Disruption and Decline of the Arab Empire

BC               853     First reference to Arabs in an inscription of the Assyrian Shalmaneser

AD                 24     Expedition of Aelius Gallus to South Arabia

                   530     Christian Abyssinia’s invasion of South Arabia

                   570     Birth of Muhammad in Mecca

                   622     Hijra [migration] of Muhammad from Mecca to Medina; beginning of the Islamic era

                   630     Mecca conquered by Muhammad and becomes the spiritual center of Islam

                   632     Death of Muhammad; succession of Abu Bakr as the first caliph

            632-786     Ascent of Arab Empire

                   786     Accession of Harun al-Rashid; Abbasid courtly life at its best

        786-c.1600     Disruption and decline of the Arab Empire

                 1639     Ottomans seize Iraq from Persia

2.2.1.3         Islamic Civilization

AD        500-622     Pre-Islamic poetry flourishes in Arabia

                   650     Official version of Koran

                   670     Great Mosque of Qayrawan in Tunisia

                   696     Arab coinage introduced by Abd al-Malik; Arabic becomes official administrative language of the empire

                   751     Arabs learn papermaking from captured Chinese prisoners; use of paper spreads westward in the empire

                   765     School of medicine founded in Baghdad

                   767     Death of Abu Hanifa, founder of Hanifite School of Law

                   785     Building of Great Mosque of Cordova by Abd al-Rahman

                   795     Death of Anas ibn Malik, founder of Malikite School of Law

            813-833     Translation movement; Arabic science and learning flourishes; espousal of Mu’tazilism as the official theology

                   815     Death of Abu Niwas, celebrated poet of Abbasid court

                   820     Death of Shafi’i, founder of Shafi’ite School of Law

                   850     Death of Kindi, first Arab philosopher

                   855     Death of Ahmad ibn Hanbal, founder of Hanbalite School of Law

                   876     Building of ibn Tulun mosque in Cairo

                   877     Death of Hunayn ibn Ishaq, most prominent translator of Greek works

                   922     Execution of Hallaj, Sufi Mystic, for heresy

                   925     Death of Razi, physician and scientist

                   950     Death of Farabi, philosopher

                   965     Death of Mutanabbi, neoclassical poet

                   970     Mosque-University of al-Azhar built in Cairo by the Fatimids

                 1010     Firdawsi, Persian poet, completes his Epic of Kings

                 1030     Death of Biruni, physician, physicist, astronomer, mathematician, geographer, and historian

                 1037     Death of ibn Sina [Avicenna,] physician and philosopher

                 1067     Nizmiyya Madrasa academy established in Baghdad; Ash’arasim established as orthodox theology

                 1111     Death of Ghazali, mystic and theologian

                 1123     Death of Omar Khayyam, poet and astronomer

                 1198     Death of ibn Rushd [Averroes,] Aristotelian philosopher

                 1229     Death of Yaqut, geographer

                 1273     Death of Jalal al-Din al-Rumi, Persian mystic and poet

                 1325     Ibn Batuta begins his travels

                 1353     Completion of Alhambra in Granada

                 1390     Death of Hafiz, Persian lyric poet

                 1406     Death of ibn Khaldun, Arab historian

2.2.1.4         Jews in the Arab World

AD        500-550     Compilation of the Babylonian Talmud

               c. 650     Beginning of Babylonian Gaonate

            760-763     Gaonate of Yehudai

               c. 760     Anan, religious leader

               c. 800     Beginning of Karaite sect

            882-942     Saadiah Gaon

                c.950     Hasdai ibn Shaprut of Cordova, physician and scholar

           968-1038     Gaonate of Sherira and Hai

           992-1055     Samuel ibn Nagrela of Granada

      c.1000-1148     Golden Age of Spanish Hebrew Literature

      c.1075-1141     Judah ha-Levi, poet

         1135-1204     Moses Maimonedes

         1147-1148     Almohade conquest of Spain

2.2.2        Asia and Africa

2.2.2.1         Sub-Saharan Africa

AD c. 3-4th cent.     Rise of empire of Ghana

            4th cent.     Rise of Christian Kingdom of Axum [Ethiopia]

               c. 800     Founding of kingdom of Kanem

              c. 1040     Mission of Abdallah to the Goddala

              c. 1075     Almoravid conquest of Ghana

              c. 1090     Conversion to Islam of Mai of Kanem

11th-114th cents.     Building of “Great Zimbabwe” complex

              c. 1100     Earliest evidence of stone mosques on East African coast; founding of Timbuktu

   12th-16th cents.     Rule of Zagwe dynasty in Ethiopia

              c. 1200     Rise of sultanate of Kilwa

                 1203     Sack of Ghana by Sumanguru of Susu

                 1230     Accession of sun Dyata of Mali

                 1235     Battle of Kirina

         1324-1325     Pilgrimage to Mecca of Musa I, mansa of Mali

              c. 1464     Accession of sonni Ali Ber of Songhai

                 1482     Building of Elmina Castle [São Jorge da Mina]

                 1488     Doubling of Cape of Good Hope by Bartholomeu Dias

                 1493     Accession of askiya Muhammad the Great of Songhai

                 1498     Arrival of Portuguese on East African coast

         1590-1591     Moroccan invasion of the western Sudan

2.2.2.2         The Chinese Empire: The Great Era

AD        561-618     Sui dynasty

            605-610     Grand Canal built

            612-614     Korean campaigns

            618-907     T’ang dynasty

            627-649     Reign of T’ai-tsung

                   630     Defeat of Eastern Turks

                   656     Defeat of Western Turks

            690-705     Reign of Empress Wu

            713-755     Reign of Hsüan-tsung

                   751     Battle of Talas River

                   755     Rebellion of An Lu-shan

                   780     Tax reform

                   821     Peace between China and Tibet

                   840     Uighur empire destroyed

            841-845     Religious persecutions

                   879     Looting of Canton

            907-960     China divided

           960-1126     Northern Sung dynasty

                 1004     Peace between China and Liao

                 1024     World’s first paper currency

                 1044     Peace between China and His-hsia

         1069-1075     Wang An-shih in power

                 1125     Liao empire destroyed

         1127-1279     Southern Sung dynasty

         1130-1200     Chu Hsi

                 1135     Lin-an capital of Southern Sung

                 1141     Peace between China and Chin

2.2.2.3         The Chinese Empire: Foreign Powers

AD c. 1167-1227     Chinggis Khan

                 1217     Mongols conquer Tarim Basin

                 1221     Mongols conquer West Turkestan and Afghanistan

                 1222     Chinggis Khan raids India

                 1227     Mongols conquer His-hsia

         1229-1241     Ögödei Great Khan

                 1234     Mongols conquer Chin empire

                 1238     Mongols take Moscow

         1251-1259     Möngke Great Khan

                 1252     Mongols conquer Nan-chao and eastern Tibet

                 1258     Mongols take Baghdad, conquer Korea

         1260-1294     Khubilai Great Khan

                 1274     Mongols raid Kyūshū

         1275-1292     Marco Polo in China

                 1279     Mongols conquer Southern Sung

         1280-1367     Yüan dynasty

                 1281     Unsuccessful Mongol invasion of Kyūshū

                 1293     Unsuccessful Mongol invasion of Java

         1268-1644     Ming dynasty

         1336-1405     Timur [Tamerlane]

                 1424     Death of Yung-lo Emperor

         1405-1433     Voyages of Cheng Ho

                 1419     Death of Tsong-kha-pa

                 1421     Peking capital of China

                 1428     Annam independent

                 1449     Oirats raid China

                 1514     Coming of the Westerners

                 1522     Tax reform

                 1550     Tatars raid China

                 1557     Portuguese gain possession of Macao

                 1607     Peace between China and Japan

                 1618     Outbreak of fighting between Manchus and China

                 1644     Suicide of last Ming emperor; Manchus enter Peking

2.2.2.4         Early Japan

AD               552     Traditional and approximate date for the introduction of Buddhism from Korea

                   710     First permanent capital at Nara

                   794     Capital at Heian-kyō [Kyoto]

                 1185     Minamoto clan victorious in struggle with Taira

                 1192     Minamoto Yoritomo receives title of Shogun

        1274, 1281     Abortive attempts by Mongols under Khubilai Khan to invade Japan

                 1333     Overthrow of Kamakura shogunate

                 1338     Establishment of new shogunate dynasty, the Ashikaga

2.2.2.5         India

AD               500     Pandyas ruling at Madurai

               c. 540     End of Gupta dynasty

               c. 540     Rise of Chalukyas at Vatapi

         c. 606-646     Harsha of Kanauj

            700-800     Spread of Buddhism to Nepal and Tibet

                   711     Arab invasion of Sindh

               c. 750     Rise of imperial Pratiharas; rise of Rashtrakutas

                   760     Palas in Bengal

               c. 846     Rise of Cholas and defeat of Pallavis

               c. 970     Reemergence of Chalukyan power and defeat of Rashtrakutas

                 1001     Beginning of raids by Turks under Mahmud of Ghazni

                 1024     Destruction of Somnath by Mahmud

                 1175     First Indian expedition by Muhammad Ghuri

                 1192     Defeat at Tarain of Prithvi Raja by the Turks

         1206-1290     Slave dynasty [beginning of Delhi Sultanate]

         1290-1320     Khalji Sultans

         1320-1413     Tughluq Sultans

                 1336     Founding of Vijayanagar

                 1347     founding of Bahmani Sultanate

                 1398     Invasion of Timur

         1414-1451     Sayyid Sultans

         1451-1426     Lodi Sultans

                 1498     Arrival of Vasco da Gama

2.2.2.6         Southeast Asia

AD     c. 657-681     Reign of Jayavarman I [Khmer]

                   671     Visit to Srivijaya of pilgrim I-tsing

                   732     Accession of Sanjaya [Java]

                   929     Accession of Sindok [Java]

         1002-1050     Reign of Suryavarman I [Khmer]

                 1044     Founding of Empire of Pagan [Burma]

              c. 1222     Founding of Singosari [Java]

                 1268     Accession of Kertanagara [Java]

                 1287     Mongol conquest of Pagan [Burma]

                 1292     Visit of Marco Polo to Perlak [Sumatra]

                 1293     Mongol invasion of Java; founding of Empire of Majapahit

         1330-1364     Rule of Gaja Mada, mapatih of Majapahit

                 1350     Founding of T’ai kingdom of Ayt’ia [Siam]

              c. 1402     Founding of Malacca

                 1431     Fall of Angkor [Khmer]

         1448-1488     Reign of Trailok [Siam]

                 1450     Promulgation of the “Palace Law” of Siam

                 1511     Portuguese conquest of Malacca

2.2.3        Medieval Europe

2.2.3.1         Early Middle Ages

2.2.3.1.1        Roman and Byzantine Emperors

AD        284-305     Diocletian

            306-337     Constantine

            527-565     Justinian I

            717-741     Leo I the Isaurian

2.2.3.1.2        Frankish Kings and Western Emperors [Since 800]

            416-751     Merovingian house

            741-928     Carolingian house

            768-814     Charlemagne

            813-840     Louis the Pious

            876-888     Charles III the Fat

2.2.3.1.3        German Kings and Emperors

           919-1024     Saxon or Ottonian house

            910-936     Henry I the Fowler

            936-972     Otto I

           983-1002     Otto III

         1024-1137     Salian house

2.2.3.1.4        French Kings

        888/987 ff.     Capetian house

2.2.3.1.5        Roman Pontiffs

            392-496     Gelasius I

            590-604     Gregory I

            858-867     Nicholas I

         1073-1085     Gregory VII

         1088-1099     Urban II

         1130-1143     Innocent II

2.2.3.1.6        Ecclesiastical Intellectuals

            260-340     Lactantius

         c. 340-420     Jerome

            354-430     St. Augustine

            816-840     Agobard, archbishop of Lyons

     c. 810-c. 877     Johannes Scotus Erigena

            847-882     Hincmar, archbishop of Reims

2.2.3.2         The High Middle Ages

2.2.3.2.1        Roman Pontiffs

AD     1198-1216     Innocent III

         1294-1303     Boniface VIII

         1316-1334     John XXII

2.2.3.2.2        German Emperors

         1138-1268     Hohenstaufen house

         1212-1250     Frederick II

                 1268     Death of Conradin

         1314-1347     Louis of Bavaria, Wittelsbach

2.2.3.2.3        English and French Princes

             1154 ff.     England’s Angevine house

           987-1328     France’s Capetians

         1285-1314     Philip IV the Fair

   12566/1268 ff.     Anjou cadet line in Sicily-Naples

2.2.3.2.4        Orders of the Church

                   910     Cluny [reformed Benedictine]

                 1098     Cistercian order

         1118/1128     Templars [military order]

                 1120     Premonstratensians [canons-regular]

                 1201     Humiliati [quasi-mendicant]

                 1209     Franciscans [mendicant]

                 1215     Dominicans [mendicant]

2.2.3.2.5        Churchmen and Intellectuals

         1079-1142     Peter Abelard

         1090-1153     Bernard of Clairvaux

         1126-1198     Averroes

     c. 1130-1202     Joachim of Fiore

         1225-1274     Thomas Aquinas

2.2.3.2.6        Church Councils

                 1179     III Lateran

                 1215     IV Lateran

                 1245     I Lyon

                 1274     II Lyon

                 1311     Vienne

2.2.3.3         The Late Middle Ages

2.2.3.3.1        Princes and Dynasties

AD 1272/

     1314/1438 ff.     Hapsburg Emperors

                 1328     French Capetians replaced by Valois

                 1485     English Angevins replaced by Tudors

2.2.3.3.2        Soldiers, Magistrates, Artists, and Businessmen

     c. 1267-1337     Giotto, son of Bondone, of Florence

         1313-1354     Cola, son of Rienzi

                 1394     Death of John Hawkwood

     c. 1395-1456     Jacques Coeur

      c.1394-1476     John Fortescue

2.2.3.3.3        Intellectuals

         1221-1274     Bonaventure

                 1282     Death of Siger of Brabant

     c. 1214-1292     Roger Bacon

         1274-1208     John Duns Scotus

     c. 1250-1312     Peter Dubois

     c. 1240-1313     Arnold of Villanova

      c.1235-1315     Raymond Lull

         1265-1321     Dante Alighieri

                 1328     Death of John of Jandun

     c. 1275-1342     Marsiglio of Padua

     c. 1300-1349     William of Ockham

         1304-1374     Francis Petrarch

     c. 1329-1384     John Wycliffe

     c. 1369-1415     John Hus

         1483-1546     Martin Luther

2.2.3.4         The Jews in Medieval Europe

AD           c. 359     Jewish Calendar committed to writing by Hillel II

                   425     End of Jewish patriarchate

            425-475     Compilation of Palestinian Talmud

            613-711     Visigothic persecutions of the Jews in Spain

            813-840     Reign of Louis the Pious; earliest known diplomas of privileges to Jews

                 1144     Death of William of Norwich; beginning of medieval blood accusation

                 1215     Fourth Lateran Council; yellow badge

                 1290     Expulsion of Jews from England

                 1306     Expulsion of Jews from France

                 1348     Black Death persecutions; beginning of ghettoization in Germany

                 1391     Pogroms in Spain; beginning of Marranism

                 1481     Inquisition proceedings begin in Spain

                 1492     Expulsion of Jews from Spain

                 1516     Establishment of ghetto in Venice

         1648-1658     Chmielnicki uprisings and massacres in Ukraine and Poland

                 1666     Sabbetai Zevi’s abortive messianic movement collapses

2.2.4        Byzantium

2.2.4.1         Early Byzantium

AD               330     Dedication of the city of Constantinople

            527-565     Reign of Justinian the Great

                   578     The Slavs reach the Peloponnese

                   610     Accession of Heraclius I

                   636     First Arab defeat of Byzantium; beginning of the conquest of Syria and Asia Minor

                   641     Arab conquest of Byzantine Egypt

                   717     Lifting of the last Arab siege of Constantinople by Leo III

            717-796     Isaurian dynasty

            726-730     Beginning of the Iconoclastic Controversy

                   763     Constantine V’s victory over the Bulgars at Anchialus

                   787     Restoration of images by the Second Council of Nicaea

                   796     Coup d’état of Irene

                   800     Coronation of Charlemagne at Rome

                   813     First Bulgar siege of Constantinople

                   815     Beginning of the second period of iconoclasm

            820-867     Amorian dynasty

                   828     Arabs begin the conquest of Byzantine Sicily

                   838     Arabs take Amorium

                   843     Council of Orthodoxy ends the Iconoclastic Controversy

                   863     Michael III’s victory over the Arabs at Poson

            863-864     Cyrillo-Methodian mission to the Slavs

                   864     Conversion of Boris-Michael of Bulgaria

                   867     Murder of Michael III; accession of Basil I the Macedonian

2.2.4.2         Later Byzantium

AD       867-1056     Macedonian dynasty

                   876     Byzantine recapture of the Cicilian gates; beginning of Byzantine reconquest of southern Italy

                   926     Second Bulgar siege of Constantinople

                   931     Beginning of Byzantine reconquest of Syria

            944-959     Reign of Constantine VII of Porphyrogenitus

                   965     Byzantium retakes Crete and Cyprus

                   975     John I Tzimisces reconquers Syria and Palestine

           976-1025     Reign of Basil II

                 1000     Basil II’s campaign in Transcaucasia

                 1014     Basil II’s annihilation of the First Bulgarian Empire

                 1041     Start of Norman conquest of southern Italy

                 1054     Great Schism between Rome and Constantinople

                 1071     Seljuk defeat of Byzantium at Manazkert

         1081-1185     Comnenian dynasty

                 1082     Grant of commercial privileges to Venice

                 1097     Arrival of the First Crusade at Constantinople

         1143-1180     Reign of Manuel I

                 1159     Manuel I’s entrance into Antioch

                 1176     Byzantine defeat at Myriokephalon

                 1182     Massacre of the Latins at Constantinople

         1185-1204     Angeli dynasty

                 1204     Sack of Constantinople by the Latins

         1204-1261     Latin Empire of Constantinople; Lascarid dynasty at Nicaea

                 1205     Defeat of the Latin Empire by the Bulgars

                 1230     Defeat of Epirus at Klokotnica

                 1259     Michael VIII’s defeat of the Latins at Pelagonia

                 1261     Michael VIII retakes Constantinople

         1261-1453     Paleologue dynasty

                 1274     Union of Lyons

                 1282     Death of Michael VIII

                 1304     Revolt of the Catalan mercenaries

                 1346     Coronation of Stephen Dušan Czar of Serbia

                 1365     Ottoman capital shifted to Andrinople in Thrace

                 1369     Journey of John V Paleologus to the West

                 1389     Ottoman victory at Kossovo

                 1396     Failure of the Crusade of Nicopolis

         1399-1400     Journey of Manuel II Paleologus to the West

         1438-1439     Council of Union at Florence

                 1444     Failure of the Crusade at Varna

                 1453     Ottomans capture Constantinople

2.2.4.3         The Slavs and Early Russia

SOUTHERN SLAVS

WESTERN SLAVS

EASTERN SLAVS [RUSSIA]

c. 517 Slavic tribes begin to cross the Danube into the Balkans

c. 679 Bulgars cross Danube

c. 680-1018 First Bulgarian Empire

813 First Bulgar siege of Constantinople

c. 628-658 Principality of Samo in Moravia

7th cent. Scandinavian infiltration of Russia begins

 

846-864 Reign of Rastislav in Great Moravia

c. 860 Riurik in Novgorod; first Russian raid on Constantinople

864 Baptism of Boris-Michael of Bulgaria

863-864 Cyrillo-Methodian mission to Moravia

906 Magyars Sack Great Moravia

c. 880-912 Rise of Kiev under Oleg

10th cent. Premyszlid dynasty in Bohemia; Piast dynast in Poland

c. 968 End of Khazar empire

992-1025 Reign of Boleslav the Brave in Poland

989 Baptism of Vladimir of Kiev

 

1035-1054 Zenith of Kiev under Laroslav the Wise; Metropolitan of Kiev created

 

1102-1138 Boleslav III of Poland

1113-1135 Reign of Vladimir Monmouth at Kiev

 

1140-1173 Vladimir II hereditary King of Poland

1157-1174 Reign of Andrei Bogolubskii at Suzdal

1168-1196 Stephen Nemanja founds the Serbian Empire

 

1169 Suzdal sacks Kiev

 

 

1176-1212 Vsevolod “Big Net” prince of Suzdal

1197-1207 John Asen [Kalojen] founds the second Bulgarian Empire

1217 Coronation of Stephen I as Czar of Serebia

 

1198-1205 Zenith of Galici under Roman of Smolensk

1218-1241 Zenith of Second Bulgarian Empire under John II Asen

 

1223 Mongol defeat of the Russian princes at Kalka

1241 Mongol sack of Second Bulgarian Empire

1241 Mongol sack of Poland

1242 Alexander Nevski’s victory over the Teutonic Knights at Lake Peipus; Golden Horde settles in southern Russia

 

1253-1258 Zenith of Bohemia under Ottokar the Great

 

 

 

1282 Mongols sack Galicia

 

1300 Wenceslas II of Bohemia king of Poland

1301 Wenceslass III of Bohemia crowned king of Hungary

 

1306 Accession of Luxemburg dynasty in Bohemia

1325-1341 Ivan I Kalita founds the Muscovite state

1336-1355 Zenith of Serbia under Stephen IV Dusan

 

1328 Metropolitan see moves from Kiev to Moscow

 

1333 Restoration of Poland under Casimir III

1347 Emperor Charles IV king of Bohemia

 

1371 Ottoman victory over Serbia on the Marica

 

1380 Dimitri Donskoi’s victory over the Mongols at Kulikovo

1389 Ottoman victory at the first Battle of Kossovo

1386 Marriage of Jadwiga of Poland to Jagiello of Lithuania

1410 Polish defeat of the Teutonic Knights at Tanenberg

1387 Galicia absorbed by Poland

1448 Ottoman victory at the second Battle of Kossovo; Ottoman domination of the Balkans

1447 Union of Poland and Lithuania

 

 

1446 Second Peace of Thorn

1480 Ivan III proclaimed Czar and Autocrat of Russia

 

1526 Ottoman victory at Mohács

1547 Hapsburgs become hereditary kings of Bohemia

1572 End of Jagiellonian dynasty in Poland

1533-1584 Reign of Ivan IV the Terrible

1552-1556 Russians take Kazan and Astrakhan

1598-1605 Boris Godunov Czar of Russia

1604-1613 “Time of Troubles;” Polish intervention in Russia

1613 Accession of Michael I Romanov in Russia

 

1620 Battle of White Mountain; end of Bohemian independence

 

2.3         TOWARD MODERNITY

2.3.1        The Renaissance and Reformation in Europe

2.3.1.1         The State System of the Italian Renaissance

AD             1250     Death of Frederick II and beginning of the imperial interregnum

                 1380     Removal of the papacy from Rome to Avignon

                 1321     Death of Dante

              c. 1325     Beginning of regular sea traffic between Italy and northern Europe via the open Atlantic

                 1327     Earliest mention of an artillery piece in the documents

                 1342     Petrarch’s Italia mia

                 1347     Outbreak of the Black Death

                 1378     Beginning of the Great Schism

         1385-1402     Reign of Gian Galeazzo Visconti, Duke of Milan

         1404-1414     Reign of Ladislas of Durazzo, King of Naples

                 1414     Opening of the Council of Constance

                 1434     Accession to power in Florence of Cosimo de’ Medici

                 1450     Francesco Sforza becomes Duke of Milan

                 1457     Publication of the first surviving dated printed book

                 1469     Succession to power in Florence of Lorenzo the Magnificent

                 1494     First French invasion of Italy; fall of the Medici and reestablishment of the Florentine Republic

                 1497     Vasco da Gama reaches India by sea

                 1502     The Spanish conquer Naples

                 1513     Machiavelli’s Prince

                 1530     Fall of the last Florentine Republic; return of the Medici

                 1535     Charles V occupies Milan as an imperial fief

2.3.1.2         Humanism and Society

AD             1341     Petrarch crowned poet laureate on the Capitoline in Rome

                 1353     Boccaccio’s Decameron

                 1375     Coluccio Salutati appointed chancellor of the Florentine Republic

                 1404     Pier Paolo Vergerio’s Concerning Liberal Studies, the first humanist treatise on education

                 1414     Poggio Bracciolini discovers Quintillian’s De institutione oratoria in the library of the monastery of St. Gallen in Switzerland

                 1429     Leonardo Bruni finishes his History of Florence

                 1440     Lorenzo Valla’s On the True Good [or On Pleasure]

                 1450     Pope Nicholas V founds the Vatican Library

                 1456     Giannozzo Manetti enters the service of King Alfonso of Naples

                 1462     Establishment of the Platonic Academy in Florence

              c. 1469     Marsilio Ficino finishes translating into Latin the dialogues of Plato, the first complete translation into any Western language

                 1469     Birth of Erasmus

                 1486     Pico della Mirandola, Oration on the Dignity of Man

                 1505     Erasmus publishes Valla’s Annotations on the New Testament

                 1516     Pietro Pomponazzi’s On the Immortality of the Soul

2.3.1.3         Renaissance Art

AD c. 1255-1319     Duccio di Buoninsegna

     c. 1276-1337     Giotto

         1337-1466     Filippo Brunelleschi

     c. 1386-1466     Donatello

         1387-1455     Fra Angelico

         1401-1428     Masaccio

         1404-1472     Leon Battista Alberti

     c. 1426-1492     Piero della Francesca

     c. 1430-1516     Giovanni Bellini

         1431-1506     Andrea Mantegna

         1444-1510     Botticelli

         1444-1514     Bramante

         1452-1519     Leonardo da Vinci

         1471-1528     Albrecht Dürer

         1475-1564     Michelangelo

         1477-1576     Titian

     c. 1478-1510     Giorgione

         1483-1520     Raphael

         1494-1534     Correggio

         1511-1574     Giorgio Vasari

         1518-1590     Andrea Palladio

         1518-1594     Tintoretto

         1528-1588     Paolo Veronese

2.3.1.4         The Reformation: Doctrine

AD             1505     Martin Luther joins the Augustinian Order

                 1512     Luther appointed professor of Holy Scriptures at the University of Wittenberg

                 1516     First edition of the New Testament in Greek

                 1517     Luther’s theses against indulgences

                 1518     Zwingli called to be minister at Zurich

                 1520     Luther’s Open Letter to the Christian Nobility of the German Nation, The Babylonian Captivity of the Church, and On Christian Liberty; Luther’s excommunication

                 1521     Diet of Worms

                 1524     Erasmus defends the freedom of the will against Luther

                 1525     Conrad Grebel baptizes Georg Blaurock: the beginning of Anabaptism; the Reformation established in Zurich

                 1527     The Schleitheim Confession, first Anabaptist doctrinal statement

                 1529     Colloquy of Marburg

                 1531     Death of Zwingli at the Battle of Kappel

                 1534     First complete edition of Luther’s translation of the Bible

                 1546     Death of Martin Luther

                 1564     Death of John Calvin

2.3.1.5         The Reformation: Society

AD     1509-1547     Reign of Henry VIII of England

         1515-1547     Reign of Francis I of France

                 1516     Concordat at Bologna

                 1519     Election of Charles V as Emperor

                 1521     Diet of Worms: beginning of Hapsburg-Valois wars

         1524-1525     Peasant Revolt in Germany

                 1525     Battle of Pavia; Francis I taken prisoner

                 1526     Defeat of Hungarians by the Turks at the Battle of Mohács

                 1527     Sack of Rome by an imperial army

                 1528     Basel and Berne accept Reformation

                 1530     Diet of Augsburg; German Protestant princes declare faith in the Augsburg Confession

                 1534     Day of Placards; Act of Supremacy

                 1538     Geneva accepts the Reformation

                 1540     Society of Jesus approved by the pope

                 1542     Roman Inquisition established

                 1545     Opening of the Council of Trent

                 1546     Death of Martin Luther

                 1547     Battle of Milberg: Charles V defeats the Protestant Schmalkaldic League

         1547-1553     Reign of Edward VI of England

         1547-1559     Reign of Henry II of France

         1553-1558     Reign of Mary of England

                 1555     Religious Peace of Augsburg on the principle of cuius regio, eius religio

                 1556     Abdication of Charles V in Spain and Empire; accession of Phillip II of Spain

                 1559     Peace of Cateau-Cambrésis: end of Hapsburg-Valois wars

2.3.1.6         The Counter Reformation

AD             1528     Founding of the Capuchin order

                 1536     Commission of Cardinals established by Pope Paul III to reform the papal court

                 1540     Founding of the Society of Jesus

                 1542     Roman Inquisition established by the papal bull Licot ab initio

         1545-1547     First session of the Council of Trent

                 1548     Publication of the Spiritual Exercises by St. Ignatius of Loyola

                 1549     Death of Pope Paul III

         1551-1552     Second session of the Council of Trent

                 1555     The Peace of Augsburg, religious-political settlement of Germany; Gian Caraffa elected as Pope Paul IV

                 1558     Diego Laynez elected general of the Society of Jesus

                 1559     Death of Pope Paul III

                 1560     Carlo Borromeo launches Catholic model reform as archbishop of Milan

                 1562     Neo-Scholasticism stimulated by publication of the Loci Theologici of Melchor Cano

         1562-1563     Third and final session of the Council of Trent

                 1564     Revised Index of Prohibited Books promulgated by Pope Pius IV

                 1568     St. John of the Cross founds the discalced Carmelites

                 1572     St. Bartholomew’s Day Massacre in France

                 1573     Veronese called before the Inquisition to defend the orthodoxy of his painting

                 1575     St. Philip Neri reforms and extends the Oratory

                 1582     Death of St. Theresa of Avila

                 1584     Publication of the Jesuit educational program, the Ratio Studiorum

                 1586     Robert Bellarmine publishes Volume I of Disputation of the Heretics of Our Times

                 1609     St. Francis of Sales publishes the Introduction to the Devout Life

                 1629     Edict of Restitution restores much land to the Roman Church in Germany

                 1648     Peace of Westphalia

2.3.2        Building the Early Modern State

2.3.2.1         The Golden Age of Spain

AD             1545     Opening of Potosi mines, Bolivia

                 1556     Abdication of Charles V; his son, Philip II, becomes king of Spain

                 1557     Bankruptcy of Spanish Crown

                 1568     Outbreak of revolt in Netherlands

                 1571     Victory of Lepanto, against Turks; repression of revolt of the Moriscos

                 1575     El Greco arrives in Spain

                 1579     Disgrace and arrest of principal minister, Antonio Pérez

                 1584     Direct Spanish intervention into French civil wars

                 1587     Sir Francis Drake destroys Spanish fleet at Cádiz

                 1588     Defeat of the Spanish Armada

                 1591     Revolt of Aragon

                 1597     Bankruptcy of the Spanish Crown

                 1598     Death of Phillip II: Phillip III, his son, becomes king; Lope de Vega presents Arcadia

                 1605     Cervantes publishes Part I of Don Quixote

                 1609     Expulsion of the Meriscos

                 1612     Suárez publishes De Legibus ac Deo Legislatore

                 1616     Spanish forced to leave Japan

                 1621     Rise to power of Count Duke Olivares

                 1628     Zurbarán, the painting of St. Serapion

                 1630     Velázquez completes painting Vulcan’s Forge

                 1640     Revolt of Catalans and Portuguese

                 1643     Defeat of Spanish army by French at Rocroi

2.3.2.2         The Rise of the Dutch Republic

AD             1556     Abdication of Charles V of Hapsburg as Lord of the Netherlands; succession of Philip II of Spain

                 1559     Philip II leaves Netherlands and returns to Spain, which becomes center of his government; beginning of opposition of higher nobility against government of king’s confidants in the Netherlands

         1566-1567     First outbreaks of large-scale revolts as well as iconoclastic movements against the Church; Philip II sends the Duke of Alva to suppress the uprising; William of Orange flees the country

                 1572     Successful attack of William of Orange, who occupies provinces of Holland and Zeeland

                 1576     Other provinces join the rebellion [Pacification of Ghent]

                 1579     Walloon nobility defects from the rebellion [Treaty of Arras]; Alexander of Parma commander of the Spanish troops

                 1581     Revolutionary Estates General depose Philip II as Lord of the Netherlands

                 1584     Assassination of William of Orange

                 1585     Parma takes Antwerp; rebels withdraw behind the great rivers

         1588-1609     Dutch drive the Spanish out of northern Netherlands; attempts at liberation of the south fail

         1609-1621     Truce between Republic of the United Netherlands and Spain

         1625-1648     The Republic joins the anti-Spanish coalition

                 1648     Peace of Westphalia; de jure recognition of independence of the Republic

2.3.2.3         The Collapse of France

AD             1559     Peace of Cateau-Cambrésis; death of Henry II

                 1561     Colloquium of Poissy

                 1562     Outbreak of civil war between Protestants and royal troops

                 1572     St. Bartholomew’s Day Massacre

                 1574     Death of Charles IX; assembly of Millau, establishes firmer government for French Protestants

                 1576     Jean Bodin publishes Six Books for the Republic; Estates General of Blois, seeks religious compromise and fails

                 1578     Duke of Anjou invades Low Countries; founding of the Order of the Holy Spirit

                 1579     Publication of the Vindiciae contre Tyrannes


                 1580     Publication of the first edition of the Essays of Montaigne

                 1587     Battle of Coutras, first pitched battle won by the Protestants

                 1588     Revolt of Paris against Henry III

                 1589     Assassination of the Guises on Henry III’s orders; assassination of Henry III

                 1590     Battle of Ivey, victory of Henry IV against the Catholic League

                 1593     Henry IV abjures Protestantism

                 1595     Henry IV absolved of his heresy by Pope Clement VIII

                 1597     Siege of Amiens

                 1598     Treaty of Vervins, ends war between France and Spain; Edict of Nantes

2.3.2.4         Elizabethans and Puritans

AD             1485     Battle of Bosworth; accession of Henry VII

                 1509     Death of Henry VII; accession of Henry VIII

                 1529     Fall of Cardinal Wolsey

         1529-1536     Reformation of Parliament

         1536-1540     Execution of Thomas Cromwell

                 1547     Death of Henry VIII; accession of Edward VI

                 1553     Death of Edward VI; accession of Mary I

                 1558     Death of Mary I; accession of Elizabeth I

                 1563     Thirty-Nine Articles; Statute of Apprentices

                 1570     Elizabeth I excommunicated by Pope Pius V

                 1587     Execution of Mary, Queen of Scots

                 1588     Defeat of the Spanish Armada

                 1600     East India Company Chartered

                 1603     Death of Elizabeth I; accession of James I

                 1611     Authorized Version [King James Version] of the Bible

                 1618     Beginning of Thirty Years’ War

                 1625     Death of James I; accession of Charles I

                 1628     Petition of Right adopted; assassination of the Duke of Buckingham

         1629-1640     Period of personal rule: the “Eleven Years’ Tyranny”

                 1640     Short Parliament [April-May]; Long Parliament convenes in November

                 1641     Execution of the Earl of Strafford; Irish Rebellion begins

                 1643     Death of John Pym

         1642-1646     First Civil War

                 1645     Execution of William Laud, Archbishop of Canterbury

                 1648     Second Civil War; Pride’s Purge

                 1649     Execution of Charles I

         1653-1658     Protectorate under Oliver Cromwell

                 1658     Death of Oliver Cromwell; succeeded as Lord Protector by his son Richard

                 1660     Restoration of Charles II

                 1662     Beginning of the “Bartholomew Ejections” following Act of Uniformity; expulsion of ministers creates English Nonconformity

                 1670     Secret Treaty of Dover between Charles II and Louis XIV

                 1678     Popish Plot

                 1679     Habeas Corpus Act

         1679-1681     Exclusion crisis

         1681-1685     Charles II rules without Parliament

                 1685     Death of Charles II; accession of James II

         1688-1689     Glorious Revolution replaces James II with William of Orange and Mary; Bill of Rights; Mutiny Act; Toleration Act

         1689-1697     War of the League of Augsburg [King William’s War]

                 1694     Bank of England chartered; Triennial Act; Death of Queen Mary

                 1697     Treaty of Ryswick

                 1701     Act of Settlement

                 1702     Death of William III; accession of Queen Anne

         1702-1713     War of the Spanish Succession [Queen Anne’s War]

                 1707     Act of Union with Scotland

                 1713     Treaty of Utrecht

                 1714     Death of Queen Anne; accession of King George I

                 1721     Sir Robert Walpole becomes Prime Minister

2.3.2.5         The Thirty Years’ War

AD             1612     Ferdinand II becomes king of Hungary and Bohemia

                 1618     Defenestration of Prague

                 1620     Battle of White Mountain

                 1621     End of the Spanish-Dutch truce

                 1623     Maximilian of Bavaria receives electoral vote held previously by Palatinate

                 1624     Richelieu enters and soon dominates royal council; French-Dutch treaty

                 1626     Defeat pf Danish troops in Brunswick by Count Tilly

                 1629     Edict of Restitution

                 1630     Electoral Assembly of Regensburg insists on Wallenstein’s resignation; Gustavus Adolphus lands in northern Germany, is subsidized by France

                 1631     Capture and massacre of Magdeburg

                 1632     Battle of Lützen, Hapsburg defeat; death of Gustavus Adolphus

                 1634     Assassination of Wallenstein

                 1635     Treaty of Prague; French declaration of war against Spain

                 1636     Capture of Corbie by the Spanish

                 1639     Revolt of the Nu-Pieds in France

                 1640     Revolts of the Catalans and the Portuguese

                 1643     Defeat of the Spanish by the French at the Battle of Rocroi; war between Denmark and Sweden

                 1646     Invasion of Bavaria by Swedish and French troops

                 1648     Peace of Westphalia

2.3.2.6         The Rise of Modern Political Thought

AD             1494     Invasion of Italy by French troops

         1513-1521     Niccolò Machiavelli writes The Prince and The Discourses on the First Ten Books of Livy

                 1517     Martin Luther posts 95 theses on church door at Wittenberg; Reformation usually dated from this moment

                 1525     Sack of Rome

         1562-1594     Series of religious wars in France

                 1572     St. Bartholomew’s Day Massacre in Paris, slaughter of the Huguenots

                 1576     Jean Bodin publishes Six Books of the Republic

                 1594     Henry IV takes Paris

                 1610     Henry IV is assassinated

         1618-1648     Thirty Years’ War

                 1642     Civil war begins in England

                 1649     Charles I of England beheaded

                 1651     Thomas Hobbes publishes Leviathan

                 1656     James Harrington publishes The Commonwealth of Oceana

                 1658     Oliver Cromwell dies

                 1660     Restoration of the monarchy in England; Charles II [1660-1685]

                 1661     Louis XIV of France assumes sole rule after Mazarin

                 1670     Baruch [Benedict de] Spinoza publishes, anonymously, Tractacus Theologico-Politicus

         1685-1688     Reign of James II in England

         1688-1689     Glorious Revolution; James II dethroned; William and Mary

                 1690     John Locke publishes Two Treatises of Civil Government, published ten years before

2.3.3        Toward One World

2.3.3.1         The Commercial Powers

AD             1494     Treaty of Tordesillas divides overseas world between Spain and Portugal

               1570’s     First raids by English and Dutch on Spanish empire in South America; breakdown of Portuguese monopoly in the Indian Ocean

                 1600     Foundation of the English East India Company

                 1602     Foundation of the Dutch East India Company

                 1609     Foundation of the Bank of Amsterdam

                 1619     Foundation of the Bank of Hamburg

                 1621     Foundation of the Dutch West India Company

                 1624     Dutch drive English out of spice trade in the East Indies

                 1629     Dutch obtain rights to trade at Arkhangelsk

                 1635     Foundation of Compagnie française des îles d’Amerique

                 1639     English establish themselves in Madras

                 1651     Navigation Acts in England, directed against Dutch trade

         1652-1674     Period of Anglo-Dutch wars; peace of 1674 results in division of colonial spheres between England and Holland, in which America goes to England and East Indies go to Holland

         1689-1713     Period of Anglo-Dutch coalition wars against France of Louis XIV

                 1713     Peace of Utrecht gives England trading rights in Spanish American empire; decline of the Dutch

2.3.3.2         The Ottoman Empire

AD     1326-1359     Reign of Orkhan I

         1359-1389     Reign of Murad I

                 1365     Ottoman capital shifted to Andrinople in Thrace

                 1371     Ottoman defeat of the Serbs on the Marica

                 1389     First Battle of Kossovo

                 1402     Defeat of Bajazet I Yilderim by Tamerlane

                 1444     Ottoman defeat of the Christian “Crusade” at Varna

                 1448     Second Battle of Kossovo

         1451-1481     Reign of Muhammad II the Conqueror

                 1453     Ottoman capture of Constantinople by Muhammad II the Conqueror

                 1514     Ottoman defeat of the Safavids at Caldiran

                 1517     Ottoman capture of Cairo; surrender of Mecxa

         1520-1566     Reign of Suleiman I the Magnificent[Kanuni]

                 1521     Ottoman capture of Belgrade

                 1522     Ottoman capture of Rhodes

                 1526     Ottoman defeat of the Hungarians at Mohács

                 1529     First Ottoman siege of Vienna; Ottomans acquire Algerian bases

                 1534     Ottoman capture of Tabriz and Iraq

                 1536     Ottoman alliance with Francis I of France

                 1547     Larger part of Hungary ceded to the Ottomans

                 1555     Ottoman-Safavid peace

                 1571     Battle of Lepanto

                 1606     Peace of Sitvartorok

                 1630     Memorandum of Koça Bey

         1641-1687     Reign of Muhammad IV; abolition of the devşirme

         1656-1676     Ottoman revival under Köprülü viziers

                 1683     Second Ottoman siege of Vienna

                 1696     Capture of Azov by Peter the Great

                 1697     Eugene of Savoy’s defeat of the Ottomans at Zenta

                 1699     Peace of Karlowitz

         1703-1730     Cultural revival under Ahmed III

                 1718     Peace of Passarowitz

         1724-1730     Victories of Nadir Shah in Transcaucasia

         1757-1774     Reign of Mustafa III; Ayans granted official status

                 1774     Treaty of Kuçuk Kaynarca

                 1783     Russian annexation of the Crimea

                 1792     Treaty of Jassy

                 1793     Selim III proclaims the “New Order”

         1798-1799     Napoleon’s campaign in Egypt

                 1801     Russian annexation of Georgia

                 1804     Serbian revolt

         1822-1830     Greek war of independence

                 1826     Massacre of the Janissaries; Ottoman fleet sunk at Navarino

                 1829     Treaty of Andrinople

                 1833     Treaty of Unkiar-skellessi

                 1840     Treaty of London concedes Egypt to Muhammad Ali

                 1841     Straits Convention

         1853-1856     Crimean War

                 1856     Hatt-i Humayun

                 1876     Mihrdat Pasa proclaims the Ottoman Constitution

                 1877     Ottoman Constitution allowed to lapse

                 1878     Congress of Berlin

                 1883     Creation of Public Debt Control

                 1908     Formation of the Committee of Union and Progress [Young Turks]; Constitution Restored

                 1909     Deposition of Abdul-Hamid II

2.3.3.3         European Voyages of Exploration

AD             1415     Portuguese capture of Ceuta

                 1433     Cape Bojador rounded by Gil Eannes

                 1482     Building of Elmina Castle [São Jorge de Mina]

                 1484     Discovery of Congo estuary by Diogo Cão

                 1488     Doubling of Cape of Good Hope by Bartolomeu Dias

                 1492     Discovery of America [Bahama Islands] by Christopher Columbus

                 1494     Treaty of Tordesillas

                 1497     Voyage to North America by John Cabot

         1497-1498     Voyage to Calicut [India] by Vasco da Gama

                 1500     Discovery of Brazil by Pedro Cabral

                 1510     Portuguese capture of Goa

                 1513     First sighting of the Pacific by Núñez de Balboa

         1519-1521     Conquest of Mexico by Hernán Cortéz

         1519-1522     Circumnavigation of the world: begun by Ferdinand Magellan, completed by Sebastián del Cano

                 1529     Treaty of Zaragosa

         1531-1648     Conquest of Peru by Francisco Pizarro

         1534-1535     Exploration of Gulf of St. Lawrence by Jacques Cartier

                 1553     Voyage to Archangel by Richard Chancellor

         1576-1578     Search for the Northwest Passage by Martin Frobisher

                 1585     Planting of first English colony in North America: Roanoke Island, North Carolina

                 1596     Voyage of William Barents to Novaya Zemlya

                 1600     Founding of the English East India Company

                 1602     Founding of the Netherlands East India Company

                 1606     Discovery of Australia by Willem Janszoon

                 1642     Discovery of Tasmania and New Zealand by Abel Tasman

2.3.3.4         India: 1500-1700

AD             1510     Portuguese capture of Goa

                 1526     Defeat of the Lodi Sultan by Babur

         1526-1530     Reign of Babur

         1530-1538     Reign of Humayun

                 1538     Death of Guru Nanak

         1538-1555     Interregnum under Sur dynasty

         1555-1556     Humayun restores Mughal authority

         1556-1605     Reign of Akbar

                 1565     Fall of Vijayanagar

                 1600     British East India Company receives charter

         1605-1627     Reign of Jehangir

         1628-1658     Reign of Shah Jahan

                 1634     English begin trading in Bengal

                 1639     Founding of Fort St. George, Madras

         1658-1707     Reign of Aurangzeb

                 1674     Shivaji crowned king of Marathas; French found Pondicherry

                 1690     Founding of Calcutta

                 1708     Death of Guru Govind Singh

                 1739     Nadir Shah raids Delhi

                 1742     Marathas raid Bengal

         1744-1748     War between French and British in India

2.3.3.5         Japan and China

AD             1542     Portuguese merchants first reach Japan

                 1568     Oda Nobunaga in control of Kyoto

                 1582     Nobunaga assassinated; rise of Hideyoshi

        1592, 1597     Abortive Japanese attempts to conquer Korea

                 1597     First persecution of Christians in Japan

                 1598     Death of Hideyoshi

                 1600     Tokugawa Ieyasu victor at Sekigahara

                 1603     Establishment of Tokugawa shogunate

                 1638     Suppression of Christian rebellion at Shimabara

                 1640     Seclusion and exclusion policies in effect

   Early 17th cent.     Unification of Manchu tribes of China by Nurhachi

                 1644     Peking captured by Manchus and made capital of the Ch’ing Dynasty

         1661-1722     Reign of K’ang-hsi Emperor in China

         1675-1683     Ch’ing conquest of south China

         1688-1704     Cultural brilliance during Genroku calendrical era in Japan

         1736-1796     Reign of Ch’ien-lung Emperor in China

                 1793     Mission of Lord Macartney to Peking

                 1853     Perry expedition forces end of Japanese exclusion policy

                 1867     Abdication of last Tokugawa shogun

2.3.3.6         Aztec and Inca Civilizations

BC             5000     Beginnings of agriculture in Mexico

                 2000     First Peruvian ceremonial centers

                   900     Chavin unification of Peru

                   800     Olmec unification of Mesoamerica

AD        300-600     Teotihuacan empire

            600-800     Huari and Tiahuanaco empires

                   900     Fall of classic Maya civilization

         1400-1519     Aztec empire

         1438-1538     Inca empire

2.3.3.7         Spain and Portugal in America

AD             1492     Columbus reaches the New World

                 1500     Cabral lays basis for Portugal’s claim by landing in Brazil on his way to India

                 1519     Cortéz begins his conquest of New Spain [Mexico]

                 1524     Council of the Indies established by Spain

                 1535     Antonio de Mendoza, first viceroy in Spanish America, begins rule in Mexico; Lima, Peru, is founded by Pizarro

                 1549     Permanent settlement of Brazil begun by Governor Thomé de Souza, and the Jesuits begin missionary labors

                 1550     Bartolomé de Las Casas and Juan Ginés Sepúlvada debate at Valladolid whether Indians are natural slaves according to Aristotle’s doctrine

                 1551     University charters granted for universities in Mexico and Peru

                 1580     Philip II annexes Portugal and her empire, a “captivity” lasting until 1640

                 1624     Dutch begin their 30-year rule in Pernambuco, Brazil

                 1680     Publication of the Spanish colonial code: Recopilación de Leyes de las Indias

                 1759     Jesuits expelled from Brazil

                 1767     Jesuits expelled from Spanish America

                 1780     Unsuccessful rebellion by Tupac Amaru against Spanish rule in Peru

2.3.3.8         The Settlement of North America

AD             1497     John Cabot reaches North America

                 1513     Ponce de Léon establishes Spanish claim to Florida

                 1524     Giovanni Verrazano explores coast of North America

                 1534     Jacques Cartier explores St. Lawrence River

               1560’s     French attempts to settle in Florida thwarted by Spain

                 1565     Spanish found first permanent settlement north of Mexico at St. Augustine, Florida

                 1607     First permanent English outpost established at Jamestown, Virginia

                 1609     Henry Hudson claims part of North America for the United Provinces

                 1619     First Negroes brought to British America as forced labor; Virginia begins representative assembly

                 1620     Separatists found Plymouth Colony

                 1630     Great Migration to America begins; Massachusetts founded

               1630’s     Connecticut, Rhode Island and New Haven colonies founded

                 1633     Colonization of Maryland begun

                 1636     Harvard College opened

                 1638     A Swedish settlement founded on the Delaware River

               1640’s     Civil wars in England causes shift in migration patterns

                 1655     Dutch from New Netherlands conquer New Sweden

                 1660     Stuart Monarchy restored

               1660’s     Legal definition of Negro slavery begun in Virginia

                 1663     Charles II grants Carolinas to eight proprietors

                 1664     British seize New Netherlands

         1675-1676     Bacon’s rebellion in Virginia; King Philip’s War in New England

                 1682     William Penn founds Pennsylvania

         1684-1689     Dominion of New England places several colonies under royal authority

                 1685     Revocation of the Edict of Nantes in France spurs Protestant migration to America

         1689-1713     King William’s War

                 1691     New Massachusetts’s charter puts colony under royal authority; Plymouth Colony and Maine included in new Massachusetts boundaries

                 1693     College of William and Mary founded

                 1696     Parliamentary Act establishes vice-admiralty courts to try violators; Board of Trade created by the crown

         1702-1713     Queen Anne’s War

                 1704     Boston News-Letter begins publication

                 1729     North and South Carolina become separate, royal colonies

                 1733     Colony of Georgia founded

                 1739     George Whitefield first visits America

         1740-1748     King George’s War

         1749-1752     Benjamin Franklin experiments with electricity

                 1751     Philadelphia Academy [later University of Pennsylvania] founded

                 1754     George Washington’s clash with French soldiers signals start of French and Indian War

                 1763     Treaty of Paris; French Canada and Spanish Florida ceded to Great Britain

2.3.4        The Enlightenment

2.3.4.1         The Scientific Revolution

BC         4th cent.     Establishment of the two major philosophical schools of Greek Antiquity by Plato [427-347 BC] and Aristotle [384-322 BC]

             3rd cent.     Outstanding developments in mathematics, astronomy and physics, among others by Euclid of Alexandria [330-260 BC,] Aristech’s of Samoa [310-230 BC,] and Apollonius of Perga [c. 220 BC]

AD        2nd cent.     The synthesis of Greek astronomical thought, presented in his Almagest, by Claudius Ptolemy of Alexandria [AD 127-151]

     8th-12th cents.     Development and spread of Arabic science and philosophy; eventually of the transmission of Aristotelian thought to the West by Islamic scholars, in particular by Averroes [1126-1198.] Origin of the base-10 number system in the work of Arabic and Hindu mathematicians of 8th-11th centuries

          13th cent.     Assimilation of Aristotelian philosophy into Christian doctrine in the epochal writings of St. Thomas Aquinas. Beginning of modern number notation attributed Liber abaci published by Leonardo of Pisa [Fibonacci] in 1202

                 1543     Publication of De Revolutionibus Orbium Coelestium by Nicholas Copernicus, Mikolaj Kopernik in Polish [1473-1543,] and also of Concerning the Fabric of the Human Body by Andrea Vesalius, Andries Van Wesel in Flemish [1514-1564]

                 1600     Publication of Concerning the Magnet [De Magnete, Magneticisque Corporibus, et de Magno Magnete Tellure, “On the Magnet, Magnetic Bodies, and the Great Magnet of the Earth,”] by the English physician William Gilbert [1540-1603]

                 1603     Founding of the Accademia dei Lincei in Rome

                 1605     Publication of Advancement of Learning by Francis Bacon [1561-1626]

                 1609     Publication of Astronomia Nova by Johannes Kepler [1571-1630,] containing his statement of the first two laws of planetary motion

                 1610     Publication of Sidereal Messenger by Galileo Galilei [1564-1642,] describing his telescopic observations of the heavens

                 1619     Publication of Kepler’s Harmonia Mundia, announcing his discovery of the third law of planetary motion

                 1628     Publication of On the Motion of the Heart and Blood in Animals by the English physician William Harvey [1578-1657]

                 1632     Publication of Galileo’s Two Chief Systems of the World, in which Galileo argued [his conviction] for the Copernican system over the Ptolemaic and which resulted in a case being brought against him by the Inquisition

                 1637     Publication of the Discourse on Method by René Descartes [1596-1650]

                 1638     Publication of Galileo’s Discourses and Demonstrations Concerning Two New Sciences, in which he formulated an early and insightful though erroneous theory of solid mechanics [the bending and breaking of beams] and a theory with experiment of motion under uniform acceleration and of the pendulum which though limited to simple motions and dynamically incomplete was an important precursor to the work of Newton

                 1647     Revival of the ancient Epicurean atomic philosophy by Pierre Gassendi [1592-1655]

                 1657     Founding of the Accademia del Cimento in Florence

                 1660     Publication of New Experiments of Physico-Mechanical Touching the Spring of Air by the Anglo-Irish chemist and natural philosopher Robert Boyle [1627-1691]

                 1662     Founding of the Royal Society of London

                 1666     Founding of the French Academy of Science

                 1676     Determination of the finite velocity of light by the Danish astronomer Oleg Roemer [1644-1710]

                 1677     Discovery with the microscope of the existence of male spermatozoa by Anton von Leeuwenhoek [1632-1695]

                 1678     A wave theory of light proposed by Christian Huygens [1629-1695,] subsequently developed systematically in his Treatise on Light [1690]

                 1687     Publication of Principia Mathematica Philosophiae Naturalis by Isaac Newton [1642-1727]

                 1704     Publication of Newton’s Opticks, some of whose basic ideas had been communicated to the Royal Society in 1672

                 1789     Publication of Traité Elémentaire de Chimie by Antoine Lavoisier [1743-1794]

2.3.4.2         Society and Politics

AD     1713-1715     Peace of Utrecht; death of Louis XIV; Vanbrugh’s Blenheim Palace completed

                 1721     Bach’s Brandenburg Concertos completed; Montesquieu’s Persian Letters

                 1724     Fahrenheit’s thermometer devised

                 1734     Voltaire’s Philosophical Letters on the English

                 1748     Montesquieu’s Esprit des Lois

                 1750     The Encyclopédie begun; the Diplomatic Revolution

                 1752     Franklin shows that lightning is electricity

         1756-1763     Seven Years’ War

                 1762     Rousseau’s Social Contract

                 1764     The Italian criminologist Beccaria’s On Crimes and Punishments, a celebrated volume on the reform of criminal justice

         1765-1790     Enlightened despots in Austria, Germany, Spain, Portugal, and France

                 1776     Adam Smith’s Wealth of Nations; American Declaration of Independence

                 1778     Pierre Augustin Caron de Beaumarchais’ “private fleet” mustered I aid of rebelling Americans

                 1783     Beaumarchais’ Marriage of Figaro

         1787-1788     Assembly of Notables; censorship lifted; Emmanuel-Joseph Sieyès’ What Is the Third Estate?

                 1789     Outbreak of revolution in France

2.3.4.3         Science versus Theology

AD             1687     Newton’s Principia Mathematica

                 1690     John Locke’s Essay Concerning Human Understanding

                 1697     Pierre Bayle’s Dictionnaire historique et critique

                 1704     Death of John Locke

                 1713     The papal bull Unigenitus condemning 101 theological propositions of the Jansenist writer Pasquier Quesnel contained in the book Réflexions morales; the war against the Jesuits

         1733-1734     Alexander Pope’s Essay on Man

                 1736     Joseph Butler’s Analogy of Religion

                 1736     Voltaire’s Mahomet, on toleration, praised and rewarded by the pope

                 1747     Julien Offroy de La Mettrie’s L'Homme-machine [Man a Machine – a materialist interpretation of human and psychic phenomena, important in the modern history of materialism]

                 1748     Hume’s Essay on Miracles; Treaty of Aix-la-Chappelle; Montesquieu’s Esprit de Lois

             1750 ff.     Georges-louis Leclerc De Buffon’s Natural History [evolutionary theory]

         1750-1772     Denis Diderot and Jean le Rond d’Alembert’s Encyclopédie

                 1751     Voltaire’s Age of Louis XIV

                 1756     Voltaire’s Essay on the Customs and Manners of Nations

             1760 ff.     Dictionnaire de Trévoux, Jesuit response to Encyclopédie

                 1762     Rousseau’s Confession of Faith of a Priest from Savoy

         1764-1765     Voltaire’s Candide and Dictionairre philosophique portative

                 1778     Mesmer and mesmerism; death of Rousseau

                 1779     Hume’s posthumously published Dialogues on Natural Religion

2.4         THE AGE OF REVOLUTION

2.4.1        Europe: The Great Powers

2.4.1.1         Forming Nation States

AD             1581     Proclamation of Dutch independence from Spain

                 1594     Henry of Navarre crowned Henry IV of France