World History Timeline for UPSC Exam ( 1000–1899 (A.D.) World History )

1000–1099 (A.D.) World History

c. 1000–1300

Classic Pueblo period of Anasazi culture; cliff dwellings.

c. 1000

Hungary and Scandinavia converted to Christianity. Viking raider Leif Eriksson discovers North America, calls it Vinland. Beowulf, Old English epic.

c. 1008

Murasaki Shikibu finishes The Tale of Genji, the world's first novel.

1009

Muslims destroy Holy Sepulchre in Jerusalem.

1013

Danes control England. Canute takes throne (1016), conquers Norway (1028), dies (1035); kingdom divided among his sons: Harold Harefoot (England), Sweden (Norway), Hardecanute (Denmark).

1040

Macbeth murders Duncan, king of Scotland.

1053

Robert Guiscard, Norman invader, establishes kingdom in Italy, conquers Sicily (1072).

1054

Final separation between Eastern (Orthodox) and Western (Roman) churches.

1055

Seljuk Turks, Asian nomads, move west, capture Baghdad, Armenia (1064), Syria, and Palestine (1075).

1066

William of Normandy invades England, defeats last Saxon king, Harold II, at Battle of Hastings, crowned William I of England (“the Conqueror”).

1068

Construction on the cathedral in Pisa, Italy, begins.

1073

Emergence of strong papacy when Gregory VII is elected. Conflict with English and French kings and German emperors will continue throughout medieval period.

1095

At Council of Clermont, Pope Urban II calls for a holy war to wrest control of Jerusalem from Muslims, which launches the First Crusade (1096), one of at least 8 European military campaigns between 1095 and 1291 to regain the Holy Land. (For detailed chronology, see The Crusades.)

1100–1199 (A.D.) World History

1100–1300

Construction of Cathedral at Chartres, France.

1144

Second Crusade begins.

c. 1150

Angkor Wat is completed.

1150–1167

Universities of Paris and Oxford founded in France and England.

1162

Thomas á Becket named Archbishop of Canterbury, murdered by Henry II's men (1170). Troubadours (wandering minstrels) glorify romantic concepts of feudalism.

1169

Ibn-Rushd begins translating Aristotle's works.

1189

Richard I (“the Lionhearted”) succeeds Henry II in England, killed in France (1199), succeeded by King John. Third Crusade.

1200–1299 (A.D.) World History

1200–1204

Fourth Crusade.

1211

Genghis Khan invades China, captures Peking (1214), conquers Persia (1218), invades Russia (1223), dies (1227).

1212

Children's Crusade.

1215

King John forced by barons to sign Magna Carta at Runneymede, limiting royal power.

1217

Fifth Crusade.

1228

Sixth Crusade.

1231

The Inquisition begins as Pope Gregory IX assigns Dominicans responsibility for combating heresy. Torture used (1252). Ferdinand and Isabella establish Spanish Inquisition (1478). Tourquemada, Grand Inquisitor, forces conversion or expulsion of Spanish Jews (1492). Forced conversion of Moors (1499). Inquisition in Portugal (1531). First Protestants burned at the stake in Spain (1543). Spanish Inquisition abolished (1834).

1241

Mongols defeat Germans in Silesia, invade Poland and Hungary, withdraw from Europe after Ughetai, Mongol leader, dies.

1248

Seventh Crusade.

1251

Kublai Khan governs China, becomes ruler of Mongols (1259), establishes Yuan dynasty in China (1280), invades Burma (1287), dies (1294).

1260

Chartres cathedral consecrated.

1270

Eighth Crusade.

1271

Marco Polo of Venice travels to China, in court of Kublai Khan (1275–1292), returns to Genoa (1295) and writes Travels.

1273

Thomas Aquinas stops work on Summa Theologica, the basis of all Catholic theological teaching; never completes it.

1295

English King Edward I summons the Model Parliament.

1300–1399 (A.D.) World History

1312–1337

Mali Empire reaches its height in Africa under King Mansa Musa.

c. 1325

The beginning of the Renaissance in Italy: writers Dante, Petrarch, Boccaccio; painter Giotto. Development of Noh drama in Japan. Aztecs establish Tenochtitlán on site of modern Mexico City. Peak of Muslim culture in Spain. Small cannon in use.

1337–1453

Hundred Years' War—English and French kings fight for control of France.

1347–1351

At least 25 million people die in Europe's “Black Death” (bubonic plague).

1368

Ming Dynasty begins in China.

1376–1382

John Wycliffe, pre-Reformation religious reformer, and followers translate Latin Bible into English.

1378

The Great Schism (to 1417)—rival popes in Rome and Avignon, France, fight for control of Roman Catholic Church.

c. 1387

Chaucer's Canterbury Tales.

1398

Tamerlane, the Mongol conqueror, begins last great conquest—Delhi.

1400–1499 (A.D.) World History

1407

Casa di San Giorgio, one of the first public banks, founded in Genoa.

1415

Henry V defeats French at Agincourt. Jan Hus, Bohemian preacher and follower of Wycliffe, burned at stake in Constance as heretic.

1418–1460

Portugal's Prince Henry the Navigator sponsors exploration of Africa's coast.

1420

Brunelleschi begins work on the Duomo in Florence.

1428

Joan of Arc leads French against English, captured by Burgundians (1430) and turned over to the English, burned at the stake as a witch after ecclesiastical trial (1431).

1438

Incas rule in Peru.

1450

Florence becomes center of Renaissance arts and learning under the Medicis.

1453

Turks conquer Constantinople, end of the Byzantine empire, beginning of the Ottoman empire.

1455

The Wars of the Roses, civil wars between rival noble factions, begin in England (to 1485). Having invented printing with movable type at Mainz, Germany, Johann Gutenberg completes first Bible.

1462

Ivan the Great rules Russia until 1505 as first czar; ends payment of tribute to Mongols.

1492

Moors conquered in Spain by troops of Ferdinand and Isabella. Columbus becomes first European to encounter Caribbean islands, returns to Spain (1493). Second voyage to Dominica, Jamaica, Puerto Rico (1493–1496). Third voyage to Orinoco (1498). Fourth voyage to Honduras and Panama (1502–1504).

1497

Vasco da Gama sails around Africa and discovers sea route to India (1498). Establishes Portuguese colony in India (1502). John Cabot, employed by England, reaches and explores Canadian coast. Michelangelo's Bacchus sculpture.

1500–1599 (A.D.) World History

1501

First black slaves in America brought to Spanish colony of Santo Domingo.

c. 1503

Leonardo da Vinci paints the Mona Lisa. Michelangelo sculpts the David (1504).

1506

St. Peter's Church started in Rome; designed and decorated by such artists and architects as Bramante, Michelangelo, da Vinci, Raphael, and Bernini before its completion in 1626.

1509

Henry VIII ascends English throne. Michelangelo paints the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel.

1513

Balboa becomes the first European to encounter the Pacific Ocean. Machiavelli writes The Prince.

1517

Turks conquer Egypt, control Arabia. Martin Luther posts his 95 theses denouncing church abuses on church door in Wittenberg—start of the Reformation in Germany.

1519

Ulrich Zwingli begins Reformation in Switzerland. Hernando Cortes conquers Mexico for Spain. Charles I of Spain is chosen Holy Roman Emperor Charles V. Portuguese explorer Ferdinand Magellan sets out to circumnavigate the globe.

1520

Luther excommunicated by Pope Leo X. Suleiman I (“the Magnificent”) becomes Sultan of Turkey, invades Hungary (1521), Rhodes (1522), attacks Austria (1529), annexes Hungary (1541), Tripoli (1551), makes peace with Persia (1553), destroys Spanish fleet (1560), dies (1566). Magellan reaches the Pacific, is killed by Philippine natives (1521). One of his ships under Juan Sebastián del Cano continues around the world, reaches Spain (1522).

1524

Verrazano, sailing under the French flag, explores the New England coast and New York Bay.

1527

Troops of the Holy Roman Empire attack Rome, imprison Pope Clement VII—the end of the Italian Renaissance. Castiglione writes The Courtier. The Medici family expelled from Florence.

1532

Pizarro marches from Panama to Peru, kills the Inca chieftain, Atahualpa, of Peru (1533). Machiavelli's The Prince published posthumously.

1535

Reformation begins as Henry VIII makes himself head of English Church after being excommunicated by Pope. Sir Thomas More executed as traitor for refusal to acknowledge king's religious authority. Jacques Cartier sails up the St. Lawrence River, basis of French claims to Canada.

1536

Henry VIII executes second wife, Anne Boleyn. John Calvin establishes Reformed and Presbyterian form of Protestantism in Switzerland, writes Institutes of the Christian Religion. Danish and Norwegian Reformations. Michelangelo's Last Judgment.

1541

John Knox leads Reformation in Scotland, establishes Presbyterian church there (1560).

1543

Publication of On the Revolution of Heavenly Bodies by Polish scholar Nicolaus Copernicus—giving his theory that the earth revolves around the sun.

1545

Council of Trent to meet intermittently until 1563 to define Catholic dogma and doctrine, reiterate papal authority.

1547

Ivan IV (“the Terrible”) crowned as czar of Russia, begins conquest of Astrakhan and Kazan (1552), battles nobles (boyars) for power (1564), kills his son (1580), dies, and is succeeded by his weak and feeble-minded son, Fyodor I.

1553

Roman Catholicism restored in England by Queen Mary I.

1556

Akbar the Great becomes Mogul emperor of India, conquers Afghanistan (1581), continues wars of conquest (until 1605).

1558

Queen Elizabeth I ascends the throne (rules to 1603). Restores Protestantism, establishes state Church of England (Anglicanism). Renaissance will reach height in England—Shakespeare, Marlowe, Spenser.

1561

Persecution of Huguenots in France stopped by Edict of Orleans. French religious wars begin again with massacre of Huguenots at Vassy. St. Bartholomew's Day Massacre—thousands of Huguenots murdered (1572). Amnesty granted (1573). Persecution continues periodically until Edict of Nantes (1598) gives Huguenots religious freedom (until 1685).

1568

Protestant Netherlands revolts against Catholic Spain; independence will be acknowledged by Spain in 1648.

1570

Japan permits visits of foreign ships. Queen Elizabeth I excommunicated by Pope. Turks attack Cyprus and war on Venice. Turkish fleet defeated at Battle of Lepanto by Spanish and Italian fleets (1571). Peace of Constantinople (1572) ends Turkish attacks on Europe.

1580

Francis Drake returns to England after circumnavigating the globe; knighted by Queen Elizabeth I (1581). Montaigne's Essays published.

1582

Pope Gregory XIII implements the Gregorian calendar.

1583

William of Orange rules the Netherlands; assassinated on orders of Philip II of Spain (1584).

1587

Mary, Queen of Scots, executed for treason by order of Queen Elizabeth I. Monteverdi's First Book of Madrigals.

1588

Defeat of the Spanish Armada by English. Henry, King of Navarre and Protestant leader, recognized as Henry IV, first Bourbon king of France. Converts to Roman Catholicism in 1593 in attempt to end religious wars.

1590

Henry IV enters Paris, wars on Spain (1595), marries Marie de Medici (1600), assassinated (1610). Spenser's The Faerie Queen. El Greco's St. Jerome. Galileo's experiments with falling objects.

1598

Boris Godunov becomes Russian czar. Tycho Brahe describes his astronomical experiments.

1600–1699 (A.D.) World History

1600

Giordano Bruno burned as a heretic. English East India Company established.

1603

Ieyasu rules Japan, moves capital to Edo (Tokyo). Shakespeare's Hamlet.

1605

Cervantes's Don Quixote de la Mancha, the first modern novel.

1607

Jamestown, Virginia, established—first permanent English colony on American mainland. Pocahontas, daughter of Chief Powhatan, saves life of John Smith.

1609

Samuel de Champlain establishes French colony of Quebec. The Relation, the first newspaper, debuts in Germany.

1610

Galileo sees the moons of Jupiter through his telescope.

1611

Gustavus Adolphus elected King of Sweden. King James Version of the Bible published in England. Rubens paints his Descent from the Cross.

1614

John Napier discovers logarithms.

1618

Start of the Thirty Years' War > Protestants revolt against Catholic oppression; Denmark, Sweden, and France will invade Germany in later phases of war. Kepler proposes last of three laws of planetary motion.

1619

A Dutch ship brings the first African slaves to British North America.

1620

Pilgrims, after three-month voyage in Mayflower, land at Plymouth Rock. Francis Bacon's Novum Organum.

1623

New Netherland founded by Dutch West India Company.

1630

Massachusetts Bay Colony.

1632

Maryland founded by Lord Baltimore.

1633

Inquisition forces Galileo (astronomer) to recant his belief in Copernican theory.

1642

English Civil War. Cavaliers, supporters of Charles I, against Roundheads, parliamentary forces. Oliver Cromwell defeats Royalists (1646). Parliament demands reforms. Charles I offers concessions, brought to trial (1648), beheaded (1649). Cromwell becomes Lord Protector (1653). Rembrandt paints his Night Watch.

1643

Taj Mahal completed.

1644

End of Ming Dynasty in China—Manchus come to power. Descartes's Principles of Philosophy.

1648

End of the Thirty Years' War. German population about half of what it was in 1618 because of war and pestilence.

1658

Cromwell dies; son Richard resigns and Puritan government collapses.

1660

English Parliament calls for the restoration of the monarchy; invites Charles II to return from France.

1661

Charles II is crowned King of England. Louis XIV begins personal rule as absolute monarch; starts to build Versailles.

1664

British take New Amsterdam from the Dutch. English limit “Nonconformity” with reestablished Anglican Church. Isaac Newton's experiments with gravity.

1665

Great Plague in London kills 75,000.

1666

Great Fire of London. Molière's Misanthrope.

1667

Milton's Paradise Lost, widely considered the greatest epic poem in English.

1682

Pennsylvania founded by William Penn.

1683

War of European powers against the Turks (to 1699). Vienna withstands three-month Turkish siege; high point of Turkish advance in Europe.

1684

Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz's calculus published.

1685

James II succeeds Charles II in England, calls for freedom of conscience (1687). Protestants fear restoration of Catholicism and demand “Glorious Revolution.” William of Orange invited to England and James II escapes to France (1688). William III and his wife, Mary, crowned. In France, Edict of Nantes of 1598, granting freedom of worship to Huguenots, is revoked by Louis XIV; thousands of Protestants flee.

1689

Peter the Great becomes Czar of Russia—attempts to westernize nation and build Russia as a military power. Defeats Charles XII of Sweden at Poltava (1709). Beginning of the French and Indian Wars (to 1763), campaigns in America linked to a series of wars between France and England for domination of Europe.

1690

William III of England defeats former king James II and Irish rebels at Battle of the Boyne in Ireland. John Locke's Human Understanding.

1700–1799 (A.D.) World History

1701

War of the Spanish Succession begins—the last of Louis XIV's wars for domination of the continent. The Peace of Utrecht (1714) will end the conflict and mark the rise of the British Empire. Called Queen Anne's War in America, it ends with the British taking New Foundland, Acadia, and Hudson's Bay Territory from France, and Gibraltar and Minorca from Spain.

1704

Deerfield (Mass.) Massacre of English colonists by French and Indians. Bach's first cantata. Jonathan Swift's Tale of a Tub. Boston News Letter—first newspaper in America.

1707

United Kingdom of Great Britain formed—England, Wales, and Scotland joined by parliamentary Act of Union.

1729

Bach's St. Matthew Passion. Isaac Newton's Principia translated from Latin into English.

1732

Benjamin Franklin begins publishing Poor Richard's Almanack. James Oglethorpe and others found Georgia.

1735

John Peter Zenger, New York editor, acquitted of libel in New York, establishing press freedom.

1740

Capt. Vitus Bering, Dane employed by Russia, discovers Alaska. Frederick II “the Great” crowned king of Prussia.

1746

British defeat Scots under Stuart Pretender Prince Charles at Culloden Moor. Last battle fought on British soil.

1751

Publication of the Encyclopédie begins in France, the “bible” of the Enlightenment.

1755

Samuel Johnson's Dictionary first published. Great earthquake in Lisbon, Portugal—over 60,000 die. U.S. postal service established.

1756

Seven Years' War (French and Indian Wars in America) (to 1763), in which Britain and Prussia defeat France, Spain, Austria, and Russia. France loses North American colonies; Spain cedes Florida to Britain in exchange for Cuba. In India, over 100 British prisoners die in “Black Hole of Calcutta.”

1757

Beginning of British Empire in India as Robert Clive, British commander, defeats Nawab of Bengal at Plassey.

1759

British capture Quebec from French. Voltaire's Candide. Haydn's Symphony No. 1.

1762

Catherine II (“the Great”) becomes czarina of Russia. Jean Jacques Rousseau's Social Contract. Mozart tours Europe as six-year-old prodigy.

1765

James Watt invents the steam engine. Britain imposes the Stamp Act on the American colonists.

1769

Sir William Arkwright patents a spinning machine—an early step in the Industrial Revolution.

1770

The Boston Massacre.

1772

Joseph Priestley and Daniel Rutherford independently discover nitrogen. Partition of Poland—in 1772, 1793, and 1795, Austria, Prussia, and Russia divide land and people of Poland, end its independence.

1773

The Boston Tea Party.

1774

First Continental Congress drafts “Declaration of Rights and Grievances.”

1775

The American Revolution begins with battle of Lexington and Concord. Second Continental Congress. Priestley discovers hydrochloric and sulfuric acids.

1776

Declaration of Independence. Gen. George Washington crosses the Delaware Christmas night. Adam Smith's Wealth of Nations. Edward Gibbon's Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire. Thomas Paine's Common Sense. Fragonard's Washerwoman. Mozart's Haffner Serenade.

1778

Capt. James Cook discovers Hawaii. Franz Mesmer uses hypnotism.

1781

Immanuel Kant's Critique of Pure Reason. Herschel discovers Uranus.

1783

Revolutionary War ends with Treaty of Paris. William Blake's poems. Beethoven's first printed works.

1784

Crimea annexed by Russia. John Wesley's Deed of Declaration, the basic work of Methodism.

1785

Russians settle Aleutian Islands.

1787

The Constitution of the United States signed. Lavoisier's work on chemical nomenclature. Mozart's Don Giovanni.

1788

French Parlement presents grievances to Louis XVI who agrees to convening of Estates-General in 1789—not called since 1613. Goethe's Egmont. Laplace's Laws of the Planetary System.

1789

French Revolution begins with the storming of the Bastille. (For detailed chronology, see French Revolution (1789–1799).) In U.S., Washington elected president with all 69 votes of the Electoral College, takes oath of office in New York City. Vice President: John Adams. Secretary of State: Thomas Jefferson. Secretary of Treasury: Alexander Hamilton.

1790

H.M.S. Bounty mutineers settle on Pitcairn Island. Aloisio Galvani experiments on electrical stimulation of the muscles. Philadelphia temporary capital of U.S. as Congress votes to establish new capital on Potomac. U.S. population about 3,929,000, including 698,000 slaves. Lavoisier formulates Table of 31 chemical elements.

1791

U.S. Bill of Rights ratified. Boswell's Life of Johnson.

1792

Mary Wollstonecraft's Vindication of the Rights of Woman.

1793

Louis XVI and Marie Antoinette executed. Reign of Terror begins in France. Eli Whitney invents the cotton gin, spurring the growth of the cotton industry and helping to institutionalize slavery in the U.S. South.

1794

Kosciusko's uprising in Poland quelled by the Russians. In U.S., Whiskey Rebellion in Pennsylvania as farmers object to liquor taxes. Reign of Terror ends with execution of Robespierre.

1796

Napoléon Bonaparte, French general, defeats Austrians. In the U.S., Washington's Farewell Address (Sept. 17); John Adams elected president; Thomas Jefferson, vice president. Edward Jenner introduces smallpox vaccination.

1798

Napoleon extends French conquests to Rome and Egypt. U.S. Navy Department established.

1799

Rosetta Stone discovered in Egypt. Napoleon leads coup that overthrows Directory, establishes the Consulate, becomes First Consul—one of three who rule France together.

1800–1899 (A.D.) World History

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