Chronological Table - Short History of the World by Herbert Wells
About the year 1000 B.C. the Aryan peoples were establishing themselves in the peninsulas of Spain, Italy and the Balkans, and they were established in North India; Cnossos was already destroyed and the spacious times of Egypt, of Thothmes III, Amenophis III and Rameses II were three or four centuries away. Weak monarchs of the XXIst Dynasty were ruling in the Nile Valley. Israel was united under her early kings; Saul or David or possibly even Solomon may have been reigning. Sargon I (2750 B.C.) of the Akkadian Sumerian Empire was a remote memory in Babylonian history, more remote than is Constantine the Great from the world of the present day. Hammurabi had been dead a thousand years. The Assyrians were already dominating the less military Babylonians. In 1100 B.C. Tiglath Pileser I had taken Babylon. But there was no permanent conquest; Assyria and Babylonia were still separate empires. In China the new Chow dynasty was flourishing. Stonehenge in England was already some hundreds of years old.
The next two centuries saw a renascence of Egypt under the XXIInd Dynasty, the splitting up of the brief little Hebrew kingdom of Solomon, the spreading of the Greeks in the Balkans, South Italy and Asia Minor, and the days of Etruscan predominance in Central Italy. We begin our list of ascertainable dates with
B.C.
800.
The building of Carthage.
790.
The Ethiopian conquest of Egypt (founding the XXVth Dynasty).
776.
First Olympiad.
753.
Rome built.
745.
Tiglath Pileser III conquered Babylonia and founded the New Assyrian Empire.
722.
Sargon II armed the Assyrians with iron weapons.
721.
He deported the Israelites.
680.
Esarhaddon took Thebes in Egypt (overthrowing the Ethiopian XXVth Dynasty).
664.
Psammetichus I restored the freedom of Egypt and founded the XXVIth Dynasty (to 610).
608.
Necho of Egypt defeated Josiah, king of Judah, at the battle of Megiddo.
606.
Capture of Nineveh by the Chaldeans and Medes.
Foundation of the Chaldean Empire.
604.
Necho pushed to the Euphrates and was overthrown by Nebuchadnezzar II.
(Nebuchadnezzar carried off the Jews to Babylon.)
550.
Cyrus the Persian succeeded Cyaxares the Mede.
Cyrus conquered Crœsus.
Buddha lived about this time.
So also did Confucius and Lao Tse.
539.
Cyrus took Babylon and founded the Persian Empire.
521.
Darius I, the son of Hystaspes, ruled from the Hellespont to the Indus.
His expedition to Scythia.
490.
Battle of Marathon.
480.
Battles of Thermopylï and Salamis.
479.
The battles of Platea and Mycale completed the repulse of Persia.
474.
Etruscan fleet destroyed by the Sicilian Greeks.
431.
Peloponnesian War began (to 404)
401.
Retreat of the Ten Thousand.
359.
Philip became king of Macedonia.
338.
Battle of Chïronia.
336.
Macedonian troops crossed into Asia. Philip murdered.
334.
Battle of the Granicus.
333.
Battle of Issus.
331.
Battle of Arbela.
330.
Darius III killed.
323.
Death of Alexander the Great.
321.
Rise of Chandragupta in the Punjab.
The Romans completely beaten by the Samnites at the battle of the Caudine Forks.
281.
Pyrrhus invaded Italy.
280.
Battle of Heraclea.
279.
Battle of Ausculum.
278.
Gauls raided into Asia Minor and settled in Galatia.
275.
Pyrrhus left Italy.
264.
First Punic War. (Asoka began to reign in Behar—to 227.)
260.
Battle of Mylï.
256.
Battle of Ecnomus.
246.
Shi-Hwang-ti became King of Ts’in.
220.
Shi-Hwang-ti became Emperor of China.
214.
Great Wall of China begun.
210.
Death of Shi-Hwang-ti.
202.
Battle of Zama.
146.
Carthage destroyed.
133.
Attalus bequeathed Pergamum to Rome.
102.
Marius drove back Germans.
100.
Triumph of Marius. (Chinese conquering the Tarim valley.)
89.
All Italians became Roman citizens.
73.
The revolt of the slaves under Spartacus.
71.
Defeat and end of Spartacus.
66.
Pompey led Roman troops to the Caspian and Euphrates. He encountered the Alani.
48.
Julius Cïsar defeated Pompey at Pharsalos.
44.
Julius Cïsar assassinated.
27.
Augustus Cïsar princeps (until 14
A.D.
).
4.
True date of birth of Jesus of Nazareth.
A.D.
Christian Era began.
14.
Augustus died. Tiberius emperor.
30.
Jesus of Nazareth crucified.
41.
Claudius (the first emperor of the legions) made emperor by pretorian guard after murder of Caligula.
68.
Suicide of Nero. (Galba, Otho, Vitellus, emperors in succession.)
69.
Vespasian.
102.
Pan Chau on the Caspian Sea.
117.
Hadrian succeeded Trajan. Roman Empire at its greatest extent.
138.
(The Indo-Scythians at this time were destroying the last traces of Hellenic rule in India.)
161.
Marcus Aurelius succeeded Antoninus Pius.
164.
Great plague began, and lasted to the death of M. Aurelius (180). This also devastated all Asia.
(Nearly a century of war and disorder began in the Roman Empire.)
220.
End of the Han dynasty. Beginning of four hundred years of division in China.
227.
Ardashir I (first Sassanid shah) put an end to Arsacid line in Persia.
242.
Mani began his teaching.
247.
Goths crossed Danube in a great raid.
251.
Great victory of Goths. Emperor Decius killed.
260.
Sapor I, the second Sassanid shah, took Antioch, captured the Emperor Valerian, and was cut up on his return from Asia Minor by Odenathus of Palmyra.
277.
Mani crucified in Persia.
284.
Diocletian became emperor.
303.
Diocletian persecuted the Christians.
311.
Galerius abandoned the persecution of the Christians.
312.
Constantine the Great became emperor.
323.
Constantine presided over the Council of Nicïa.
337.
Constantine baptized on his deathbed.
361-3.
Julian the Apostate attempted to substitute Mithraism for Christianity.
392.
Theodosius the Great emperor of east and west.
395.
Theodosius the Great died. Honorius and Arcadius redivided the empire with Stilicho and Alaric as their masters and protectors.
410.
The Visigoths under Alaric captured Rome.
425.
Vandals settling in south of Spain. Huns in Pannonia, Goths in Dalmatia. Visigoths and Suevi in Portugal and North Spain. English invading Britain.
439.
Vandals took Carthage.
451.
Attila raided Gaul and was defeated by Franks, Alemanni and Romans at Troyes.
453.
Death of Attila.
455.
Vandals sacked Rome.
470.
Odoacer, king of a medley of Teutonic tribes, informed Constantinople that there was no emperor in the West. End of the Western Empire.
493.
Theodoric, the Ostrogoth, conquered Italy and became King of Italy, but was nominally subject to Constantinople. (Gothic kings in Italy. Goths settled on special confiscated lands as a garrison.)
527.
Justinian emperor.
529.
Justinian closed the schools at Athens, which had flourished nearly a thousand years. Belisarius (Justinian’s general) took Naples.
531.
Chosroes I began to reign.
543.
Great plague in Constantinople.
553.
Goths expelled from Italy by Justinian. Justinian died. The Lombards conquered most of North Italy (leaving Ravenna and Rome Byzantine).
570.
Muhammad born.
579.
Chosroes I died.
(The Lombards dominant in Italy.)
590.
Plague raged in Rome. Chosroes II began to reign.
610.
Heraclius began to reign.
619.
Chosroes II held Egypt, Jerusalem, Damascus, and armies on Hellespont. Tang dynasty began in China.
622.
The Hegira.
627.
Great Persian defeat at Nineveh by Heraclius. Tai-tsung became Emperor of China.
628.
Kavadh II murdered and succeeded his father, Chosroes II.
Muhammad wrote letters to all the rulers of the earth.
629.
Muhammad returned to Mecca.
632.
Muhammad died. Abu Bekr Caliph.
634.
Battle of the Yarmuk. Moslems took Syria. Omar second Caliph.
635.
Tai-tsung received Nestorian missionaries.
637.
Battle of Kadessia.
638.
Jerusalem surrendered to the Caliph Omar.
642.
Heraclius died.
643.
Othman third Caliph.
655.
Defeat of the Byzantine fleet by the Moslems.
668.
The Caliph Moawija attacked Constantinople by sea.
687.
Pepin of Hersthal, mayor of the palace, reunited Austrasia and Neustria.
711.
Moslem army invaded Spain from Africa.
715.
The domains of the Caliph Walid I extended from the Pyrenees to China.
717-18.
Suleiman, son and successor of Walid, failed to take Constantinople.
732.
Charles Martel defeated the Moslems near Poitiers.
751.
Pepin crowned King of the French.
768.
Pepin died.
771.
Charlemagne sole king.
774.
Charlemagne conquered Lombardy.
786.
Haroun-al-Raschid Abbasid Caliph in Bagdad (to 809).
795.
Leo III became Pope (to 816).
800.
Leo crowned Charlemagne Emperor of the West.
802.
Egbert, formerly an English refugee at the court of Charlemagne, established himself as King of Wessex.
810.
Krum of Bulgaria defeated and killed the Emperor Nicephorus.
814.
Charlemagne died.
828.
Egbert became first King of England.
843.
Louis the Pious died, and the Carlovingian Empire went to pieces. Until 962 there was no regular succession of Holy Roman Emperors, though the title appeared intermittently.
850.
About this time Rurik (a Northman) became ruler of Novgorod and Kieff.
852.
Boris first Christian King of Bulgaria (to 884).
865.
The fleet of the Russians (Northmen) threatened Constantinople.
904.
Russian (Northmen) fleet off Constantinople.
912.
Rolf the Ganger established himself in Normandy.
919.
Henry the Fowler elected King of Germany.
936.
Otto I became King of Germany in succession to his father, Henry the Fowler.
941.
Russian fleet again threatened Constantinople.
962.
Otto I, King of Germany, crowned Emperor (first Saxon Emperor) by John XII.
987.
Hugh Capet became King of France. End of the Carlovingian line of French kings.
1016.
Canute became King of England, Denmark and Norway.
1043.
Russian fleet threatened Constantinople.
1066.
Conquest of England by William, Duke of Normandy.
1071.
Revival of Islam under the Seljuk Turks. Battle of Melasgird.
1073.
Hildebrand became Pope (Gregory VII) to 1085.
1084.
Robert Guiscard, the Norman, sacked Rome.
1087-99.
Urban II Pope.
1095.
Urban II at Clermont summoned the First Crusade.
1096.
Massacre of the People’s Crusade.
1099.
Godfrey of Bouillon captured Jerusalem.
1147.
The Second Crusade.
1169.
Saladin Sultan of Egypt.
1176.
Frederick Barbarossa acknowledged supremacy of the Pope (Alexander III) at Venice.
1187.
Saladin captured Jerusalem.
1189.
The Third Crusade.
1198.
Innocent III Pope (to 1216). Frederick II (aged four), King of Sicily, became his ward.
1202.
The Fourth Crusade attacked the Eastern Empire.
1204.
Capture of Constantinople by the Latins.
1214.
Jengis Khan took Pekin.
1226.
St. Francis of Assisi died. (The Franciscans.)
1227.
Jengis Khan died. Khan from the Caspian to the Pacific, and was succeeded by Ogdai Khan.
1228.
Frederick II embarked upon the Sixth Crusade, and acquired Jerusalem.
1240.
Mongols destroyed Kieff. Russia tributary to the Mongols.
1241.
Mongol victory in Liegnitz in Silesia.
1250.
Frederick II, the last Hohenstaufen Emperor, died. German interregnum until 1273.
1251.
Mangu Khan became Great Khan. Kublai Khan governor of China.
1258.
Hulagu Khan took and destroyed Bagdad.
1260.
Kublai Khan became Great Khan.
1261.
The Greeks recaptured Constantinople from the Latins.
1273.
Rudolf of Habsburg elected Emperor. The Swiss formed their Everlasting League.
1280.
Kublai Khan founded the Yuan dynasty in China.
1292.
Death of Kublai Khan.
1293.
Roger Bacon, the prophet of experimental science, died.
1348.
The Great Plague, the Black Death.
1360.
In China the Mongol (Yuan) dynasty fell, and was succeeded by the Ming dynasty (to 1644).
1377.
Pope Gregory XI returned to Rome.
1378.
The Great Schism. Urban VI in Rome, Clement VII at Avignon.
1398.
Huss preached Wycliffism at Prague.
1414-18.
The Council of Constance.
Huss burnt (1415).
1417.
The Great Schism ended.
1453.
Ottoman Turks under Muhammad II took Constantinople.
1480.
Ivan III, Grand Duke of Moscow, threw off the Mongol allegiance.
1481.
Death of the Sultan Muhammad II while preparing for the conquest of Italy.
1486.
Diaz rounded the Cape of Good Hope.
1492.
Columbus crossed the Atlantic to America.
1498.
Maximilian I became Emperor.
1498.
Vasco da Gama sailed round the Cape to India.
1499.
Switzerland became an independent republic.
1500.
Charles V born.
1509.
Henry VIII King of England.
1513.
Leo X Pope.
1515.
Francis I King of France.
1520.
Suleiman the Magnificent, Sultan (to 1566), who ruled from Bagdad to Hungary. Charles V Emperor.
1525.
Baber won the battle of Panipat, captured Delhi, and founded the Mogul Empire.
1527.
The German troops in Italy, under the Constable of Bourbon, took and pillaged Rome.
1529.
Suleiman besieged Vienna.
1530.
Charles V crowned by the Pope.
Henry VIII began his quarrel with the Papacy.
1539.
The Society of Jesus founded.
1546.
Martin Luther died.
1547.
Ivan IV (the Terrible) took the Title of Tsar of Russia.
1556.
Charles V abdicated. Akbar, Great Mogul (to 1605). Ignatius of Loyola died.
1558.
Death of Charles V.
1566.
Suleiman the Magnificent died.
1603.
James I King of England and Scotland.
1620.
Mayflower
expedition founded New Plymouth. First negro slaves landed at Jamestown (Va.).
1625.
Charles I of England.
1626.
Sir Francis Bacon (Lord Verulam) died.
1643.
Louis XIV began his reign of seventy-two year’s.
1644.
The Manchus ended the Ming dynasty.
1648.
Treaty of Westphalia. There-by Holland and Switzerland were recognized as free republics and Prussia became important. The treaty gave a complete victory neither to the Imperial Crown nor to the Princes.
War of the Fronde; it ended in the complete victory of the French crown.
1649.
Execution of Charles I of England.
1658.
Aurungzeb Great Mogul. Cromwell died.
1660.
Charles II of England.
1674.
Nieuw Amsterdam finally became British by treaty and was renamed New York.
1683.
The last Turkish attack on Vienna defeated by John III of Poland.
1689.
Peter the Great of Russia. (To 1725.)
1701.
Frederick I first King of Prussia.
1707.
Death of Aurungzeb. The empire of the Great Mogul disintegrated.
1713.
Frederick the Great of Prussia born.
1715.
Louis XV of France.
1755-63.
Britain and France struggled for America and India. France in alliance with Austria and Russia against Prussia and Britain (1756-63); the Seven Years’ War.
1759.
The British general, Wolfe, took Quebec.
1760.
George III of Britain.
1763.
Peace of Paris; Canada ceded to Britain. British dominant in India.
1769.
Napoleon Bonaparte born.
1774.
Louis XVI began his reign.
1776.
Declaration of Independence by the United States of America.
1783.
Treaty of Peace between Britain and the new United States of America.
1787.
The Constitutional Convention of Philadelphia set up the Federal Government of the United States. France discovered to be bankrupt.
1788.
First Federal Congress of the United States at New York.
1789.
The French States-General assembled. Storming of the Bastille.
1791.
Flight to Varennes.
1792.
France declared war on Austria. Prussia declared war on France. Battle of Valmy. France became a republic.
1793.
Louis XVI beheaded.
1794.
Execution of Robespierre and end of the Jacobin republic.
1795.
The Directory. Bonaparte suppressed a revolt and went to Italy as commander-in-chief.
1798.
Bonaparte went to Egypt. Battle of the Nile.
1799.
Bonaparte returned to France. He became First Consul with enormous powers.
1804.
Bonaparte became Emperor. Francis II took the title of Emperor of Austria in 1805, and in 1806 he dropped the title of Holy Roman Emperor. So the “Holy Roman Empire” came to an end.
1806.
Prussia overthrown at Jena.
1808.
Napoleon made his brother Joseph King of Spain.
1810.
Spanish America became republican.
1812.
Napoleon’s retreat from Moscow.
1814.
Abdication of Napoleon. Louis XVIII.
1824.
Charles X of France.
1825.
Nicholas I of Russia. First railway, Stockton to Darlington.
1827.
Battle of Navarino.
1829.
Greece independent.
1830.
A year of disturbance. Louis Philippe ousted Charles X. Belgium broke away from Holland. Leopold of Saxe-Coburg-Gotha became king of this new country, Belgium. Russian Poland revolted ineffectually.
1835.
The word “socialism” first used.
1837.
Queen Victoria.
1840.
Queen Victoria married Prince Albert of Saxe-Coburg-Gotha.
1852.
Napoleon III Emperor of the French.
1854-56.
Crimean War.
1856.
Alexander II of Russia.
1861.
Victor Emmanuel First King of Italy. Abraham Lincoln became President, U. S. A. The American Civil War began.
1865.
Surrender of Appomattox Court House. Japan opened to the world.
1870.
Napoleon III declared war against Prussia.
1871.
Paris surrendered (January). The King of Prussia became “German Emperor.” The Peace of Frankfort.
1878.
The Treaty of Berlin. The Armed Peace of forty-six years began in western Europe.
1888.
Frederick II (March), William II (June), German Emperors.
1912.
China became a republic.
1914.
The Great War in Europe began.
1917.
The two Russian revolutions. Establishment of the Bolshevik regime in Russia.
1918.
The Armistice.
1920.
First meeting of the League of Nations, from which Germany, Austria, Russia and Turkey were excluded and at which the United States was not represented.
1921.
The Greeks, in complete disregard of the League of Nations, make war upon the Turks.
1922.
Great defeat of the Greeks in Asia Minor by the Turks.