Western Civilization: Chronology Chart
I Stone Age
2.5 million-10,000 Palaeolithic (Old Stone)
Homo sapiens, hunting/gathering, language, stone
tools, fire, magic and religion
10,000-6000 Mesolithic (Middle Stone)
transition, climatic change
6000-3000 Neolithic (New Stone)
food production, pottery, trade (eg, obsidian),
villages (Jericho, Jarmo), social specialization,
warfare
II Bronze Age: cities, writing, the state
Mesopotamia Egypt Palestine
Classical Sumer Old Kingdom
3200-2300 3100-2200
cuneiform pyramids
Gilgamesh hieroglyphs
Sumero-Accadian Empire Middle Kingdom Patriarchal Age
2300-2000 2050-1786 2000-1300
Semites, Sargon Abraham, Canaan
ziggurat Yahweh
Old Babylonian Empire
2000-1600
Hammurabi (1792-1749)
Mountain Peoples New Kingdom
1600-1200 1560-1087
Hittites, Kassites Akhnaton
III Iron Age
P e o p l e s o f t h e S e a
Assyrian Empire Classical Age
750-612 1300-587
monotheism,
Neo Babylonian Empire berith, Saul,
612-539 David, Solomon
Nebuchadnezzar (604-562) Kingdom of Israel
933-722
Kindom of Judah
933-586
prophets
Persia Exilic, Post Exilic
Cyrus the Great (559-529) 587-539-
diaspora
I Bronze Age 3000-1100
2000-1500 Minoan
Knossos
1600-1100 Mycenaeans
Mycenae, Pylos; wanax, tholos, Cyclopean; Linear B,
Schliemann
II Dark Age 1100-750
Homer, Iliad, Odyssey; writing; Panhellenism, polis
particularism; basileus, oikos, polis, demos; arete,
time; Geometric art
III Archaic Age 750-480
Athens, Sparta; aristocracy, tyranny, democracy;
colonization; hoplite phalanx; helots, hektemores,
Areopagus, archon, ekklesia, ostracism; Solon,
Peisistratus, Cleisthenes; Archaic art
IV Classical Age 480-323
490-479 Persian Wars
Marathon, Thermopylae, Salamis, Plataea; Herodotus
Delian League, Athenian Empire
431-404 Peloponnesian War
Pericles, Thucydides
Aeschylus, Sophocles, Euripides, Aristophanes;
Classical art, Parthenon; Socrates, Plato,
Aristotle
V Hellenistic Age 323-
Seleucids in Syria
Antigonids in Macedonia and Greece
Ptolemies in Egypt; Alexandria, Museum
I. Regal Period 753-509 BCE (trad.)
Etruscans
Rex, Senatus, Comitia
Fasces, lictors: imperium
Divination
II. Early and Middle Republic 509 (trad.)-133 BCE
Consuls (2): imperium
Gauls, Samnites
Carthage: Punic Wars 264-146
Macedon: Macedonian Wars 212-148
Plautus, Terence, Cato
III. Late Republic 133-27 BCE
Proconsuls: civil wars
C. Iulius Caesar
Cicero, Sallust, Catullus
IV. Principate 27 BCE-284 CE
C. Iulius Caesar Octavianus
Imperator Caesar Divi filius Augustus
Julio-Claudians 27 BCE-68 CE
Flavians 69-96
Antonines 98-l92
Severi l93-235
"Barracks Emperors"
Vergil, Horace, Livy, Tacitus
V. Dominate 284-641 CE
Diocletian, Constantine: Christianity
Constantinople
I. Late Antiquity (313-610)
Constantine (306-337): Christianity
Justinian (527-565): Corpus Iuris Civilis, Church of
St Sophia
Vandals, Goths: Sack of Rome, (4l0)
Monasticism, Deurbanization
St Augustine (354-430)
II. Early Middle Ages (610-1050)
Byzantium
Islam: Muhammad (ca 570-632)
Western Christianity: Charlemagne (768-814)
Holy Roman Empire
Schism between Roman and Eastern Orthodox Churches
(1054)
III. High Middle Ages (1050-1300)
Agricultural Revolution, Urbanization, Universities
Feudalism: manor, serf
Papal Monarchy
Investiture Controversy: Gregory VII (1073-1085)
and Henry IV (1056-1106)
Innocent III (ll98-1216)
Crusades
St. Thomas Aquinas (1225-1274), St Francis of
Assisi (1182-1226)
Romanesque Style (ca 1000- ca 1200), Gothic Style
(ca 1150-ca 1500)
Chartres Cathedral (begun 1194)
IV. Late Middle Ages (1300-1500)
National States: Plantagenets in England (1154-1399),
Wars of the Roses (1455-1485), Capetians and Valois
in France (1285-1589), Marriage of Ferdinand and
Isabella (1469)
Holy Roman Empire
Babylonian Captivity (1305-1378), Great Schism
(1378-1417)
Black Death (1348)
Hundred Years' War (1337-1453): Joan of Arc(1429-31)
Fall of Constantinople (1453)
I. The Renaissance (ca 1350-ca 1555)
Tudors in England (1485-1603)
Valois in France (1328-1589)
Hapsburgs in Holy Roman Empire (1438-1806)
Renaissance Popes (1447-1521)
Humanism and Letters: Petrarch (1304-1374), Machiavelli
(1469-1527), Erasmus (ca 1467-1536), Jean Bodin
(1530-96), Shakespeare (1564-1616)
Renaissance Art: Perspective, Classicism
Bramante (1444-1514), Leonardo da Vinci (1452-1519), Raphael
(1483-1520), Michelangelo (1475-1564)
Exploration: Prince Henry the Navigator, Dias (1487), Vasco
da Gama (1497- 99), Columbus (1492), Magellan (1519-
22), conquistadors (Cortes, Pizarro).
II. The Reformation
Martin Luther (1483-1546): the Indulgence Controversy and
the Ninety-Five Theses (1517)
Anabaptism
John Calvin (1509-1564): The Institutes of the Christian
Religion (1559)
Charles V (1519-64), Francis I (1515-47), Henry VIII (1509-
1547)
Reformation Popes (1534-90): Council of Trent (1545-63)
St Ignatius of Loyola (1491?-1556): Society of Jesus
Peace of Augsburg (1555): cuius regio, eius religio
Religious Wars in France (1562-98): Edict of Nantes
The Invincible Armada (1588): Elizabeth I (1558-1603)
Thirty Year's War (1618-48): Peace of Westphalia
Ferdinand II, Holy Roman Emperor (1619-37); Gustavus
Adolphus, King of Sweden (1611-32); Cardinal
Richelieu (1585-1642), Chief Minister of the King
of France
Peace of Westphalia, 1648
I The Age of Absolutism
Cardinal Richelieu and Louis XIV of France, 1624-1715
Peter the Great of Russia, 1682-1725
Elector Frederick William Brandenburg, 1640-88: Junker
Commonwealth and Protectorate in England, 1649-60: Cromwell,
Milton
Glorious Revolution in England, 1688
Centralization: L'état, c'est moi; bureaucracies and armies
Capitalism and Mercantilism: regulated, joint-stock, and
chartered companies; sugar and slaves
Intellectual Revolution: Bacon, Descartes, Locke, Newton
Baroque: Bernini, Borromini, Rubens, Rembrandt
II The Age of Enlightenment, ca 1700-ca 1790
Frederick William I and Frederick the Great of Prussia,
1713-86
Maria Theresa of Austria, 1740-80
Catherine the Great of Russia, 1762-96
American Revolution, 1776
French Revolution, 1789
Philosophes: Montesquieu, Voltaire, Diderot, Condorcet
The Encyclopedia
Rousseau, Kant
Classicism: Poussin, Jones, Wren
Rococo: Watteau, Fragonard, Zimmerman
Neoclassicism: David, Winkelmann, Ledoux
Augustans: Swift, Pope
The novel: Fielding, Austen
Bach, Handel, Haydn, Mozart
Economic upswing: corn and potatoes; enclosure; population
increase
Adam Smith, Wealth of Nations
I Political Revolution
American Revolution, 1775-83
Armed Neutrality
French Revolution, 1789-99
Dissolution of Monarchy, 1789-90
Interim, 1790-92
Legislative Assembly
Second Revolution, 1792-95: First Republic
National Convention: Robespierre; Reign of Terror,
1793-94
Declaration of Pillnitz, 1791
Directory, 1794-99
Treaty of Campo Formio, 1797
Burke, Paine
Napoleonic Europe, 1799-1815
Consulate, 1799-1804
Empire, 1804-1814, 1815
Continental System, 1806; Treaty of Tilsit, 1807
Iberian War, 1808-1813
Russian Campaign, 1812-13
Congress of Vienna, 1814-15
II Industrial Revolution
British Cotton, Coal, Banking
Steam engine, spinning jenny, cotton gin, blast furnace
railway, factory system
Population explosion, urbanisation, industrial proletariat
Classical Economics: Malthus, Ricardo, Bentham
Crystal Palace, 1851
I Liberalism in Britain
Peterloo Massacre, 1819
Political Revolution, 1830; Reform Bill, 1832; Repeal of
Corn Laws, 1846
Tories--Conservatives; Whigs--Liberals
Chartism, 1838-1848
Reform Bill, 1867: Disraeli, Gladstone
Queen Victoria (1837-1901)
II Repression in Russia
Decembrist Revolt, 1825: Nicholas I (1825-1855)
Crimean War, 1854-1856
Alexander II (1855-1881): reforms and repression
Alexander III (1881-1894), Nicholas II (1844-1917):
reaction and Russification
III Nationalism in Germany
Metternich and Austria: Carlsbad Decrees
Stein and Prussia: nationalism, Zollverein
1848: Frankfurt Assembly; Panslavism, Magyars
Unification of Germany, 1848-187l; Bismarck and the German
Empire
IV Republicanism in France
Bourbon restoration 1815
Revolution of 1830: Louis Philippe (1830-1848)
Revolution of 1848: Second Republic; Louis Napoleon (1851-
1870) and Second Empire
I Prelude to War
Triple Alliance, 1882: Bismarck's retirement 1890
Triple Entente, 1907
Crises: Morocco (1905, 1911); Bosnia (1908); Turkey (1908);
Balkans (1912-13)
II WW I
Assassination of Ferdinand of Austria, 28 June 1914
Schlieffen Plan: the Marne
Deadlock, 1915-16: trench warfare, the Somme; submarine
warfare
Collapse of Russia, Entry of US, 1917
Armistice, 11 Nov 1918; Peaces of Paris, 1919-20: Treaty of
Versailles
Wilson, Lloyd George, Clemenceau
III Russian Revolution
Lenin (1870-1924), Stalin (1879-1953), Trotsky (1879-1940)
Russo-Japanese War, 1904-5
Russian Revolution, 1905
Russian Revolution, 1917
IV Between the Wars
Weimar Republic
League of Nations, 1920-46
Mussolini's March on Rome, 1922: Fascism
Hitler's Beer Hall Putsch, 1923; Chancellor of Germany,
1933-45
Rome-Berlin Axis, 1936
Great Depression, 1929-40
New Deal 1933-40
Wittgenstein, Weber, Einstein, Keynes
Schoenberg, Stravinsky
Bauhaus, Lost Generation
(Impressionism, Expressionism), Cubism, Surrealism, Dadaism
I The Second World War, 1939-45
Appeasement: Rhineland, 1936; Austria and Czechoslovakia 1938; Poland, 1939
Battle of Britain, 1940
Entry of United States: Pearl Harbor, 7 December 1941
Battle of Stalingrad, 1942-43
Invasion of Normandy: D-Day, 6 June 1944
Hiroshima and Nagasaki, August 1945
II Post-War Europe
Yalta Conference, 1945: Stalin, Roosevelt, Churchill
United Nations, 1945
Truman Docrine, 1947; Marshall Plan, 1948
NATO, 1949; Warsaw Pact, 1955
Berlin Wall, 1961: Khrushchev (1894-1971)
Common Market, 1958; Comecon, 1949
III The Third World
Independence of India, 1947: Gandhi (1869-1948)
Communism in China, 1949: Mao Zedong (1893-1976)
African Independence, 1950s-60s
Korean War, 1950-53; Vietnam War, 1964-73
Arab-Israeli Wars: 1948-49, 1967, 1973
Civil Rights Movement, 1960-68: Martin Luther King, Jr
(1929-68)
Vatican II, 1962-65
IV The Last Generation
SALT, 1972
Invasion of Afghanistan, 1979-88
Glasnost and Perestroika: Gorbachev (1931- )
Solidarity in Poland, 1980-
Revolution in Europe, 1989-90
Civil War in the Balkans, 1992-
OPEC, 1973-
Egypt-Israeli Peace, 1979; Attack on Lebanon, 1982;
Palestinian Revolt, 1988-
Iranian Revolution, 1979: Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini
(1902-1989); Iran-Iraq War, 1980-88; Iraq War
1990-91
Revolution in El Salvador and Nicaragua, 1979; Invasion
of Grenada, 1983