Timeline (Columbus Sails for England)

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Pre-1000

6th Century

501 - The Maya settlement of Tikal receives an influx of settlers from the north, and becomes the leading center of Maya civilization
550 - What had been Roman-ruled Britain is largely divided among illiterate Anglo-Saxon warlords, surrounded by men who are preoccupied with fighting, valor and loyalty. They look with contempt upon the what they see as the defeated God of the defeated Christians.
581 - In China, Yang Jian proclaims that heaven and earthly signs indicate that he, being virtuous and wise, has been designated by heaven as the rightful successor. He takes the name Emperor Wen, and to eliminate rivalry he has fifty-nine people murdered. The Sui Dynasty has begun.
588 - Visigoths in the Iberian Peninsula adopt Catholicism as their official religion
594 - Buddhism becomes the state religion and is called upon to protect the Japanese nation.

7th Century

603 - Khosrau II of Persia declares war on Constantinople following the overthrow of Emperor Maurice, who he considered a friend.
610 - The army of Phocas of Constantinople has been occupied by war with Persia, and Avars and Slavs have been advancing through Constantinople's empire in Europe. Constantinople's governor in Egypt, Heraclius, sails with a small army to Constantinople, and with Phocas having lost much of his support, Heraclius easily defeats him. Phocas is executed and Heraclius became emperor.
613 - Muhammad has begun preaching publicly in his hometown, Mecca, and he is being ignored or is thought to be crazy.
618 - With flooding and famine in China have come rebellion and civil war. The victor, the Duke of Tang, becomes Emperor Gao-zu. The Sui Dynasty has ended and the Tang Dynasty has begun.
622 - Pilgrims from Yathrib visiting Mecca (a holy city before the existence of Islam) are favorably impressed by Muhammad and invite him to return with them to their town. The town has no unifying governmental authority. Muhammad is fifty-two and becomes recognized in Yathrib as a religious leader and someone to go to for settling disputes.
623 - Yathrib has a large Jewish community, and its leaders reject Muhammad's claim to be a leader of Judaism. Muhammad and his followers stop bowing toward Jerusalem and begin bowing toward Mecca, and Muhammad abandons Saturday as the Sabbath and makes Friday his special day of the week.
630 - In Muhammad's war with Mecca he emerges victorious. People in Mecca see Muhammad's strength as the power of his god, and they see the other gods as having become powerless. There is a mass conversion to Islam, and Muhammad adds Mecca's army to his own. Muhammad conquers the rest of Arabia, puts down others claiming to be prophets.
630 - The Persian army has overthrown Khosrau II. His son is crowned Khavad II and signs a peace treaty with Constantinople and returns Egypt, Palestine, Asia Minor and western Mesopotamia to Constantinople's empire.
632 - Death of Muhammad.
646 - The empires of Constantinople and Persia have been weakened by war and lack of support, and Muslim warriors have conquered as far north as Syria, much of Mesopotamia and all of Egypt.
650 - A mid-eastern people of mixed race, the Khazars, expand westward along the north shore of the Black Sea and push Bulgars from east of the Dniester River. The Bulgars migrate south, across the Danube River, and found the kingdom that in modern times is called Bulgaria.
652 - The Muslims have conquered Persia.
654 - Christian missionaries from Ireland are beginning to evangelize across England. The king of Essex, Sigebert, has been influenced by Northumbria and has just converted to Christianity. Northumbria defeats the pagan king of Mercia, gains possession of Mercia and its king becomes overlord of England's southern kingdoms. With pagans, Catholicism has won prestige with the military victory – a look of the Christian god's superior power. Mercia converts to Christianity.
660 - The Koran, as an arranged book and considered complete, is published for the first time. Muhammad's main concern after his conquest of Mecca was resistance by recalcitrant tribes in Arabia and claims by rival prophets among the resisters. Reflecting this struggle, the Koran describes non-believers as evil and people who can expect war from God (3.151). But the Koran also advocates peace with enemies who are inclined toward it (8.61). Muhammad wanted people within his realm, including Christians and Jews, to get along. He wanted to tax Christians and Jews, and in the Koran are verses about Christians and Jews not fearing or grieving (2.62). Drawing as Muhammad did from the biblical tradition that had entered Arabia, the Koran mentions biblical figures and repeats the biblical message of God's love and grace. (5.54).

8th Century

708 - In China, boiled water is safer to drink than untreated water, and tea becomes popular.
711 - A Muslim army crosses the Strait of Gibraltar and begins a conquest of Spain. Jews welcome them as liberators.
717 - Arabs have conquered eastward across land to the western border of China. They have conquered Lisbon and in the Caucasus, including Armenia.
722 - Emperor Leo III forces conversion of Constantinople's Jews.
731 - English historian and theologian, Bede, writes his Ecclesiastical History. He beings numbering the years from the time of Christ rather than from the reign of kings – his numbering to be divided between BC and AD (or BCE and CE).
750 - Sometime around this year, the great Maya city of Teotihuacan is destroyed and left in ruins, its great palaces burned to the ground. The majority of the city's remaining population move south to the newer Maya settlements.
750 - Arabian mathematicians begin using numbers that originated in India, are an advance of Roman numerals and that Muslims will pass to Europeans.
751 - The last Merovingian king of the Franks, Childeric III, is deposed. The Merovingians had ruled as they pleased, including enforcing what they thought was their right to deflower a commoner's bride before he was allowed to consummate his marriage. A new dynasty, the Carolingians, is begun by Pepin the Short, the son of Charles Martel.
772 - Charles, King of the Franks, eventually to be known as Charles the Great (Charlemagne in French), begins thirty years of conquest and rebuilding the empire of the Franks, with an infantry carrying axes, spears and shields of wood and leather.
787 - Charlemagne, king of the Franks, is learning to read, and he reproaches ecclesiastics for their uncouth language and "unlettered tongues." In hope of creating an educated clergy he orders every cathedral and monastery to establish a school where clergy and laity can learn to read. His rule includes land for nobles who provide him with military service.
793 - By boat, Scandinavians reach the island of Lindisfarne, Scotland. They kill monks and loot the monastery there. It is the first recorded raid by those to be called Vikings.
800 - Charlemagne is crowned by Pope Leo III, who hails him as "Augustus, crowned of God …emperor of the Romans."

9th Century

825 - The kingdom of Wessex wins in war and becomes the dominate power in England.
841 - Vikings land and build a settlement on the south bank of the River Liffey, founding what will eventually be the city of Dublin.
858 - Christian missionaries develop the Cyrillic alphabet from written Greek – an alphabet that in modern times is used in Russian, Serbian, Bulgarian and other languages.
860 - Vikings have attacked at Constantinople.
861 - Vikings voyage up the river Seine and attack at Paris, up the Rhine to Cologne, and they attack at Aix-la-Chapelle.
862 - Scandinavians have begun moving to less densely populated areas and settling down. Rurik of Scandinavia has established a dynasty at Novgorod.
865 - In England, an Army of Danes has overthrown the kingdoms of Northumbria, Mercia and East Anglia.
870 - A Sufi, Tayfur Abu Yazid al-Bistami (Bayazid), has been spreading his wisdom. A change has been taking place in Islam, as religion had when the Roman Empire was disintegrating. Muslims are no longer looking with hope to a god that is a glorious conqueror. Instead they are looking for a sense of well-being through a personal relationship with Allah. The Sufi movement is bringing Allah down from his heights and sees Him as a loving friend – the way Christians saw Jesus.
874 - Vikings settle in Iceland.
899 - King Alfred the Great of Wessex has rallied England against Viking attacks. Vikings are settled and remain in Northumbria and East Anglia while a Viking army has sailed back to the continent.

10th Century

911 - The King of France, Charles III, gives Normandy to Vikings in return for the Viking leader, Rollo, a Norwegian, pledging his allegiance to him – the Treaty of Saint-Clair-sur-Epte. Rollo and his Vikings (mostly Danes) are to defend his part of the coast of France from attacks by other Vikings.
912 - Rollo and his Vikings become Christian.
927 - Prince Caslov drives away the Bulgarians and expands his kingdom, uniting what today is Serbia, Montenegro, East Herzegovina (Hercegovina) and Bosnia, then called Raska, Duklja, Travunija and Bosnia. This is said by Serbians to be the founding of Serbia. Orthodox Christianity is the state religion.
960 - In China, palace guards surround their commander and demand that he become emperor. The commander agrees but only if they vow to obey him and not plunder, not harm citizens and not harm the ruling family they are overthrowing. The troops agree. The new emperor is Taizu, who will begin the Song Dynasty.
970 - Córdoba, on the Iberian Peninsula, is Europe's intellectual center and the world's most populous city. Constantinople is the only other European city in the top ten of the world's most populous cities. Córdoba is a Muslim city. Caliph al Hakam II has been in power since 961 and is contributing to the building of Cordoba's libraries. Córdoba has Europe's best university, with a spirit of free inquiry. It has medical schools. Work is being done also in math and astronomy. The city is tolerant toward its Jewish and Christian minority.
975 - Europeans begin to use Arabic numerals (1, 2, 3, et cetera), which are more convenient in arithmetic than Roman numerals.
982 - Erik the Red has been expelled from Iceland. He leads a group in the exploration of Greenland.
985 - Erik the Red has returned to Iceland. With 25 ships filled with people and their belongings he heads back to Greenland. The more than 1000 people in the ships landed at a small Inuit settlement called Nuuk, which today is the Greenland capital city.
988 - In Kiev, Prince Vladimir I adopts the religion of the Byzantine Empire as the state religion.

1000-1400

11th Century

1002 - From Greenland, Leif Ericson (Erikson) son of the Eric the Red, has led an expedition with a crew of 34 men to the coast of North America, where they found Markland.
1008 - Sweden converts to Christianity.
1015 - A 21-year-old Dane, to be known as Canute the Great (Cnut I), has invaded England with a powerful fleet.
1017 - Canute has conquered much of England. He marries the widow of the king of Wessex, Ethelred (Aethelred II) – a devout Christian. Canute converts to Christianity and proclaims his intention to rule in a Christian fashion, and he strengthens political and commercial ties between England and Normandy.
1019 - Canute's brother Harald, king of Denmark, dies, and Canute becomes king of Denmark.
1022 - Leif Ericson leads another party of settlers. This time, the found the Icelandic colony of Vinland.
1044 - Rulers in China have failed to keep China strong militarily. Tangut (Tibetan) warriors have been making incursions into China. The Tangut occupy China's ethnically diverse northwest, and China buys peace by agreeing to make tribute payments to them as well as to the Khitan of Manchuria, who are still ruling at Beijing.
1050 - The globe is warming, which is improving crop production and increasing populations. In Europe the "High Middle Ages" begins.
1054 - In a doctrinal dispute, the Church in Rome accuses the Christians in Constantinople of allowing priests to marry, re-baptizing Roman Christians and deleting "and the Son" from the Nicene Creed." The last of these accusations was untrue. The Church in Rome excommunicates the Church in Constantinople, and the Church of Constantinople excommunicates the Church in Rome. The schism between Roman Catholicism and Eastern Orthodoxy has become final.
1066 - William I, Duke of Normandy, ends Anglo-Saxon rule and becomes the first Norman king of England.
1085 - Christianity has been expanding against Muslims since Charlemagne took Barcelona in 801. The Christian king of Castile and Galicia, Alfonso VI, has been inviting Christians in Islamic Spain to his kingdom. Now he expands militarily to Toledo, in central Spain. The Christian reconquest of Spain is underway.
1091 - Normans conquer Sicily, ending two centuries of Muslim rule there. Arabs are allowed to continue working in public administration.
1095 - The Seljuk Turks have been expanding against the empire centered at Constantinople. They have conquered Jerusalem. The Turks were also Muslims, however they did not allow Christians to visit their holy sites. Pope Urban II responds to a call for help from the emperor at Constantinople and organizes what was to become known as the First Crusade. Urban II announces that Christ will lead any army that goes to rescue the Holy Land.
1099 - Jerusalem falls to the Crusaders, who slaughter the city's Jewish and Muslim inhabitants.

12th Century

1117 - Slavery is abolished in Iceland and its colonies of Greenland, Markland and Vinland.
1139 - Portugal is forming. Count Afonso Henriques, 29, has been allied with discontented nobles in the northeast corner of the Iberian Peninsula. He has been fighting the kings of León and Castile, and he has defeated a small army belonging to his mother and has driven her to León. He now defeats the Moors in battle and declares his lands independent of Moorish rule.
1143 - The Church arranges the Treaty of Zamora between Afonso Henriques and the King of Castile. The treaty places the lands of Afonso Henriques under the protection of the Church and secures recognition of his title, King of Portugal.
1147 - The taking of Edessa by Zangi is seen in Europe as a move against Jerusalem, which is controlled by Europeans. The German emperor, Conrad II, and French monarch, Louis VII, lead hundreds of thousands on a crusade – the Second Crusade – to retake the Edessa for Christendom. The crusade stimulates a response from the Seljuk Turks who battle the crusaders. Another group of crusaders sail to the Iberian Peninsula and help King Afonso's move southward against the Muslims at Lisbon. Afonso captures Lisbon, which is to become the capital of Portugal.
1168 - The first classes begin at Oxford University.
1170 - Thomas Becket, Archbishop of Canterbury, is hacked to death at the altar of his church by knights – agents of England's king, Hentry II.
1177 - Horsemen led by the Anglo-Norman adventurer John de Courcy defeats Celtic foot soldiers and builds a fort, founding what will become the city of Belfast.
1182 - Philip Augustus of France has been in need of money to hold on to his throne and to combat feudal barons. He has accused Jews of ritual murder and has confiscated their wealth, and now he confiscates their land and buildings and banishes them from his realm.
1187 - Saladin retakes Palestine, including Jerusalem, for Islam. There is no pillaging or slaughter of non-combantants – as there had been when the Crusaders took Jerusalem in 1099. There are now about 1,000 Jewish families in all of Palestine. Before the Christian crusaders and their killings the Jews numbered about 300,000. Saladin is to acquire a reputation in Europe as a chivalrous knight.
1189 - Jews are massacred at the coronation of England's Richard the First.
1189 - In response to Saladin taking Jerusalem in 1887, the Third Crusade begins.

1191 - Crusaders arrive at and besiege the port city of Acre, on the coast of Lebanon. Richard I arrives in June. Saladin fails to break the siege and in July the city falls to the crusaders. In August, Richard the First (the "Lion-hearted") slaughters 4,000 Muslim prisoners. Richard then takes the coastal town of Jaffa. 1192 - Saladin holds off Richard's advance against Jerusalem. Richard and Saladin sign a treaty that leaves Jerusalem under Muslim control and allows Christian pilgrims to visit. Some coastal towns and Cyprus are left in Christian hands. Richard leaves for England. The Third Crusade is over, and many will see it as a failure because Jerusalem remains in the hands of Muslims rather than Christians.

1192 - The imperial court confers on Yoritomo the title of Shogun. He rules from the village of Kamakura (eventually to be a part of Tokyo). Japan's Kamakura era begins, to last until 1250. The emperor, still in Kyoto, is to be a puppet of the Shogun, a relationship to last until the middle of the19th century.

13th Century

1201 - In the mountainous Andes region in South America, the Inca ruler, Manco Capac, oversees the construction of the city-state of Cuzco.
1202 - The Fourth Crusade is underway, Pope Innocent III responding to the failure of the Third Crusade to recover Jerusalem.
1204 - Another crusade fails to work out as planned. Constantinople has revolted against the presence of the Crusaders, and the Crusaders have retaliated, seizing the city in a three-day orgy of rape and the plundering of palaces and Eastern Orthodox convents and churches. Fire has destroyed much of the city. Constantinople's emperor has fled. Helping the Crusaders are the Venetians with whom the Crusaders have made an agreement to share the booty. Pope Innocent III is delighted by the news of the fall of Constantinople to Roman Christianity. When he hears of the atrocities that have attended the victory he is shocked, but he continues to approve of the conquest. Soon in Constantinople, Latin (Roman) prelates will replace Greek (Eastern Orthodox) prelates. The schism between Roman Catholicism and Eastern Orthodox Christianity is complete. Jerusalem continues to be in the hands of Muslims.
1204 - On marshland at a dam on the Amstel River, people have started the village that will one day be Amsterdam.
1205 - A Japanese, Eisai (1141-1215), has returned from China. He is a reformer, a Zen Buddhist, and has been driven from the city of Kyoto to Kamakura (later Tokyo). At Kamakura he has gained the patronage of the military government. In 1205 he completes the first temple, Kenninji, dedicated solely to Zen Buddhism. Zen is to become the choice of the practitioners of warfare – the samurai.
1212 - Thousands of children with a few adults and clerics, fired up by preaching against heretics, start for Jerusalem to rescue the Holy Land from Muslims. They are deficient in money and organization but believe that as children they are favored by God and could work miracles that adults cannot. Before the year is over it ends in disaster. Many children die or are sold into slavery.
1214 - Genghis Khan and his army overrun Beijing. They ravage the countryside, gathering information and booty. Then they pull back to northern frontier passes.
1215 - The Church's Fourth Lateran Council meets in Rome to enact legislation as to what is heresy and what is not. The Council decides that all Catholics are to confess their sins at least once a year, that clergy is to remain celibate, sober and to refrain from gambling, hunting, engaging in trade, going to taverns or wearing bright or ornate clothing. The Council decrees that marriage will be a Church affair and that Jews will wear a yellow label.
1223 - Genghis Khan has pushed into Persia, Azerbaijan and Armenia, defeating Christian knights and capturing a Genoese trading fortress in the Crimea. He has invaded Russia, and on his way back home in 1223 he routes a Slavic army at the battle of Kalka River.
1227 - Genghis Khan, at the age of 65, falls off his horse while fighting against the Tangut in northwestern China. And he dies. (August 18).

1229 - Emperor Frederick II, while on crusade, signs a ten-year truce and an alliance with the Sultan of Egypt, al-Kamil, who is struggling against Muslim opponents. Al-Kamil recognizes Frederick as King of Jerusalem and cedes to him Bethlehem and Nazareth, but Frederick is not allowed to rebuild the walls of Jerusalem, destroyed by Saladin in 1187.

1231 - The institution known as the Inquisition begins. Pope Gregory IX is taking responsibility for orthodoxy away from bishops and putting inquisitors under jurisdiction of the papacy.
1234 - Khan Ogedei completes this conquest of northern China.
1238 - Khan Ogedei's army, without Odogei, has pushed into Russia and overruns the cities of Vladimir, Kolmna and Moscow.
1240 - Ogedei's army destroys Kiev, and deeper into Europe, at Liegnitz, although outnumbered, the Mongols destroy a German army of heavily armored knights.
1241 - Ogedei's army reaches Vienna. It withdraws because Ogedei has died and they need to participate in choosing a new leader.
1248 - The Mexica people, who would become known as the Aztecs, settle the area that would eventually become Louisville, capital of Mexique (OTL Mexico City).
1252 - Khan Mongke makes official the worship of his grandfather, Genghis Khan, while people continue to be free to worship as they please. Under Mongke, Buddhism, Islam and Christianity flourish.
1258 - An army that includes Christians and Shia, led by Mongke's brother, Hulegu, attacks Baghdad, the spiritual capital of the Sunni Muslims. The Abbasid caliphate there comes to an end.
1259 - Hulegu's army enters Damascus, and Christians there greet the Mongol army with joy. Meanwhile, Mongke has led an army into China's Sichuan province, and there he dies in battle.
1274 - Another grandson of Genghis Khan, to be known as Kubilai Khan, is conquering in the Far East. He has sent a force from Korea to Japan, but a typhoon makes his stay there impossible. The Japanese believe that God is on their side and give credit to God's wind (Kami kaze).
1276 - Kubilai Khan completes a sixteen year drive to conquer China.
1278 - Tribes in Austria had been warring over the lands of the late Duke Friedrich, whose family, the Babenbergers, had controlled Austria for 300 years. Duke Friedrich had died childless. By 1278, Rudolf I Habsburg, Holy Roman Emperor, gains control over what had been the Babenberger dynasty, beginning Habsburg control over Austria, which would last to the second decade of the 20th century.
1290 - King Edward I of England expels all Jews (between 4 and 16 thousand). Many go to France and Germany.
1291 - The Crusaders give up the last of their territory in the Middle East, on the shore of the Mediterranean Sea, driven out by the Mamluks, who capture the city of Acre. Crusaders have been in the Middle East almost 200 years. Many of these years were peaceful and with amicable relations with Muslims. There was trade, and the crusaders learned from the Muslims. This, including a lot of death, is the sum of the results of an effort to save the Holy Land for Christianity. Added are those of mixed offspring the Crusaders leave behind, a legacy to appear in the blond hair and blue eyes of some in modern times in Lebanon, Syria and Palestine.
1291 - The League of the Three Forest Cantons forms for mutual defense – a beginning of Switzerland.

14th Century

1307 - Templars, expelled from the Holy Land, have arrived in France. They are wealthy, and King Philip accuses them of magic and heresy – the only way he can lawfully seize Templar assets. For good measure the Templars are accused also of sodomy and of being in league with the Muslims. Philip has the Templars arrested on Friday the 13th (giving Friday the13th its reputation as a day of bad luck). Some Templars are tortured and executed.
1320 - The Mexica (Aztecs) found the city of Tenochtitlan, where Louisville is one day to develop.
1326 - The Ottoman Turks are expanding from their base in the northwest of Asia Minor. They conquer to the city of Burs, about fifty miles south of Constantinople. And Ottoman warriors cross into Thrace (into Europe) to plunder. The Ottoman sultan, Orhan, allies himself with one of the Christian contenders for the throne in Constantinople, John Cantacuzemus, and marries his daughter, Theodora.
1328 - In France, King Charles IV (r.1322-28) dies. He is succeeded by Philip of Valois, who takes the title Philip VI. It is the end of the Capet dynasty and beginning of the Valois dynasty.
1340 - Tatars are ravaged by the bubonic plague – the black death – and they pass the disease on to Genoese merchants returning from China.
1346 - Edward III of England invades France, beginning in earnest the Hundred Years' War. His army of 10,000 men, using the longbow, crush France's cavalry at the Battle of Crécy.
1348 - The black death reaches France, Denmark, Norway and Britain, striking at a population weakened by nearly two generations of malnutrition due to flood-caused famine. Around one-third of the people in affected areas are to die.
1351 - The plague reaches as far east as Russia, and reaches Iceland.
1356 - Rebellion against Mongol rule has spread through much of China, accompanied by anarchy. Rebels capture the city of Nanjing, which they make their capital. The warring is to last more than thirty years.
1356 - In Korea, thirty-six years of chaos begin when the royal Koryo family launches a rebellion against Mongol rule.
1357 - The plague reaches the Icelandic colonies where it wreaks havoc among both the colonials and their native neighbors. Ultimately, the disease spreads from Markland and Vinland down the eastern coast of North America, and from there it goes westward across the continent.
1370 - The warrior Timur, at the age of thirty-four, has become the dominant power in Transoxiana. His army is modeled after the armies of Genghis Khan, but with more foot soldiers and his warriors were more from settled families than they were nomadic horsemen. It is an army whose loyalty is to its commander rather than to a nation, an army that finds glory in Timur's reputation as a great warrior. Timur has new walls for the city of Samarkand built on the foundation of those destroyed by the Mongols – walls surrounded by a deep moat. He has the market place improved, and it will be said that he has great gardens created and palaces built. Samarkand's magnificence and prosperity will be said to have caused envy in Cairo and Baghdad.
1387 - The leader of the rebellion against Mongol rule has liberated all of China. He considers himself has having the Mandate of Heaven. He takes the title Hong-wu, and he founds a new dynasty – the Ming.

15th Century

1401 - Timur conquers Damascus and reconquers Baghdad.
1402 - Timur wins a great battle at Angora (Ankara). He is concerned about having helped Christians by defeating a Muslim army. He sends envoys to the Christian knights ruling Smyrna and demands that the knights convert to Islam or pay tribute. They refuse both, and Timur attacks and orders the city's entire population, including women and children, annihilated. The heads of the defeated, it would be said, are displayed in a pyramid.
1408 - John Wyclif's England language bible has been published.
1410 - A Germanic force, the Teutonic Knights, are trying to gain control of Poland. The knights are allied with the kings of Bohemia and Hungary. Their army has volunteer "crusaders" and numbers around 27,000. An army of 39,000 fighting for the Polish king, Wladyslaw Jagiello, includes Lithuanians, Ruthenians and Tatars in addition to Poles, and they defeat the Germans. The Teutonic Knights decline in power and Eastern Europe does not become a German colony.
1419 - The Portuguese, while exploring waters off the coast of northern Africa, explore and lay claim to the island of Madiera.
1420 - The Portuguese are fighting inhabitants of the Canary Islands, south of Madiera.
1421 - In Austria, Jews are imprisoned and expelled.
1429 - The Hundred Years' War is still on, and, in May, Joan of Arc defeats the English at Orleans. In August she enters Paris in triumph.
1431 - The Mexica (Aztecs) have won a three-year war with the Tepaneca, who have been dominant in central Mexique and to whom the Mexica have been paying tribute. The Mexica have conquered the Tepaneca city, Azcapotzalco. The Mexica establish an alliance with the Acolhua, of the city Texcoco, and the Tepaneca, of Tlacopan. This alliance is to be the foundation of a Mexica empire.
1433 - The Songhai have rebelled against the Mali Empire and are disrupting Mali's trade on the Niger River. Mali is in decline. The Songhai are able to sack and occupy Timbuktu.
1438 - The Chanca tribe attacks the Inca city-state of Cusco from the north. In defense, the Inca begin to reorganize their governmental system, to expand their alliances and with force to build the Tahuantinsuyu Empire.
1488 - On a small island known as Arguin (Arguim), rougly 700 kilometers south of Cape Bojador, the Portuguese build a castle and establish the first European trading post in Africa.
1453 - Constantinople has been declining economically, in population and military strength. Using European artillery and experts, the Ottoman Turks break through Constantinople's walls. Disciplined Muslim forces capture the city. This ends Constantinople as the center of Eastern Orthodox Christianity and the heart of the remains of the Roman Empire.
1453 - The French capture Bordeaux, the last place the English hold except for the port city of Calais, on the English channel. The Hundred Years' War ends without a formal treaty signed and no renouncing of rights to the French throne by an English king.
1456 - The Ottoman Turks overrun Athens, begin a stay that will last 400 years, and they turn the Parthenon into a mosque.
1459 - The Ottoman Turks have taken control of all Serbia.
1461 - Two families, both descended from King Edward III (who reigned from 1327 to 1377 and was of the Plantagenet dynasty) have been at war for years. One family is the House of York the other the House of Lancaster. This is the War of the Roses. Edward, from the House of York, defeats the Lancastrians at Mortimor's Cross. He is proclaimed king and ascends the throne as Edward IV.
1464 - The Songhai and Mali Empire fight over Timbuktu, with great loss of life. The Songhai win and the Mali Empire is more obviously in decline.
1469 - Ferdinand of Aragon marries Isabella of Castile.
1471 - After having secured much of what today is central and northern Peru, the Inca have expanded their empire into Ecuador. With a new king, Tupac Inca, they begin to expand southward into Chile, Bolivia and Argentina.
1479 - Venice is defeated militarily by the Ottoman Empire, and gives up that part of its empire, along the Adriatic Sea, that the Ottoman Turks occupy.
1480 - Moscow's Ivan III feels strong enough to refuse to pay tribute to the Mongols.
1482 - Portuguese have founded new trading settlements on Africa's "Gold Coast." They are trading ironware, firearms, textiles and food for gold, ivory, food and slaves.
1483 - Edward IV of England has died. His son succeeds him as Edward V, and he is murdered. The Duke of Gloucester, the youngest brother of Edward IV, usurps the throne and is crowned Richard III.
1485 - Henry Tudor, a relative of the Lancaster family, defeats Richard III at the Battle of Bosworth. The Tudor family takes power and is crowned Henry VII. He marries Elizabeth of York, uniting the Lancaster and York families. The War of Roses is over.
1485 - Christopher Columbus presented his plans to King John II of Portugal. He proposed that the king equip three sturdy ships and grant Columbus one year's time to sail out into the Atlantic, search for a western route to the Orient, and return. Columbus also requested he be made "Great Admiral of the Ocean", appointed governor of any and all lands he discovered, and given one-tenth of all revenue from those lands. The king submitted Columbus's proposal to his experts, who rejected it.
1488 - In 1488, Columbus appealed to the court of Portugal once again and, once again, John II invited him to an audience. That meeting also proved unsuccessful, in part because not long afterwards Bartolomeu Dias returned to Portugal with news of his successful rounding of the southern tip of Africa (near the Cape of Good Hope). With an eastern sea route to Asia apparently at hand, King John was no longer interested in Columbus's far-fetched project.
1489 - Columbus visits Genoa and Venice with his proposal (he is turned down). He sends his brother, Bartholomew, to visit the court of Henry VII of England, who accepts the proposal.
1492 - Spain's monarchs, Ferdinand and Isabella, do their part in a war against Islam – they annex Granada. Also they give Jews three months to convert to Christianity if they are to avoid banishment from the country.
1492 - Columbus departs from England with a fleet of three ships (the Prince Arthur, the Tudor Rose and the Cornwall) having been promised that, if successful in discovering land which could be claimed for England, Columbus' would be named Viceroy of those lands. After being blown southward by an unexpected storm, he and his fleet arrived, in October of 1492, in what is now New Jersey, where they established a settlement which they dubbed Elizabethtown (OTL Atlantic City) in honour of Henry's Queen. Peaceful contact is made with the natives. Columbus returns to England to report on the discovery.
1493 - King Henry was pleased with Columbus' discovery, and returned him to the new world, naming him Baron, and Governor of New England. Columbus' ships were re-fit, and returned to Elizabethtown, this time carrying families to settle in the "New World". Henry called for the outfitting of additional ships, and encouraged families to migrate to the new world. Since, unlike in OTL, there was no religious pressure driving folks to colonize, the crown offered grants of land to anyone (noble or common) who made the voyage.
1496 - An English exploratory ship entered the Gulf of St. Lawrence, and encountered ships from Vinland and Markland. Shocked at first to discover that not only were they not the first Europeans to settle the new world, but that the Iclandic settlements had existed for several centuries, the English quickly moved to determine who had jurisdiction over what territories.
1500 - By this year, six settlements had been planted in the New England Colony (which encompassed OTL New York, New Jersey, Delaware, Maryland and Virginia).

16th Century

1501 - A military Sufi order in Persia known as the Safavids have survived Timur (Tamerlane) and have adopted the Shia branch of Islam. They have been eager to advance Shi'ism by military means. They seize Tabriz in western Iran and make it their capital. They believe in the glory of their king (shah) and in the old tradition of passing rule and religious righteousness from father to son.
1501 - Henry VII authorized the creation of two more colonies: New Cymru (OTL North & South Carolina and Georgia) and Nova Scotia (OTL New England, New Brunswick, Prince Edward Island and Nova Scotia).
1501 - Marriage of Arthur, Prince of Wales, and Catherine of Aragon, daughter of Ferdinand and Isabella.
1502 - Death of Arthur, Prince of Wales.
1506 - A treaty is signed between King Henry VII of England, and King Christian I of Norway and Iceland (and the American territories), which set the boundaries between the colonies of the two nations: Everything south of the St. Lawrence would be English, everything north, including Vinland (OTL Newfoundland) would be Norwegian/Icelandic.
1506 - Death of Christopher Columbus.
1509 - Death of Henry VII. His second son becomes Henry VIII and marries his brother's widow, Catherine of Aragon.
1510 - Portuguese ships are heavily armed with cannon and dominate the Indian Ocean. Indian ships are smaller and held together with coconut fiber ropes, instead of iron nails. Portuguese Catholics establish a presence at the port at Goa on India's western coast, a point from which Muslims had been debarking for pilgrimages to Arabia. Goa begins to serve as Portugal's port and capital town in Asia. India these days has a population of around 105 million – about one-twelfth the number of people in Pakistan and India today.
1512 - Michelangelo finishes the Sistine Chapel.
1517 -The Ottoman sultan, Selim, with superior weaponry, routes the Mamluks. It is the end of Egypt's Mamluk sultans. The last of them is hanged. Selim appoints a viceroy to rule Egypt as pasha. Egypt will now acknowledge Ottoman suzerainty and pay annual tribute to the Ottoman sultan.
1517 - An Augustinian friar and professor of theology, Martin Luther, lists his 95 theses.
1521 - Charles V has been elected as the Holy Roman Emperor, and Pope Leo X allies himself with Charles against Martin Luther. Francis of France does not like Charles – a Habsburg. The Italian War begins with Francis invading Navarre and the low countries. Francis is allied with the Republic Venice. England's Henry VIII sides with Charles and the Papal States.
1521 - French explorers, eager for a share of what is now being called the New World, arrive on the eastern coast of Mexique. They encounter the Mexica (Aztec) people, and are horrified to learn about their traditions of human sacrifice. French troops advance upon Tenochtitlan (Louisville) armed with canons and guns, neither of which the Mexica have, and aided by natives who oppose the Mexica. They are killed by the thousands, and defeated.
1526 - Suleiman the Great defeats an army led by King Louis II of Hungary and Bohemia, near Mohács, about 150 kilometers south of Buda and Pest. King Louis falls under his horse into a river and drowns.
1527 - Smallpox travels south from Mexique into the Maya city states, and from there south into the Inca Empire. Because of contact between the various tribes of North America, and their contact with the Icelanders, the disease is not as deadly as it was OTL since some immunity had already been generated.
1529 - Suleiman sends an army from Hungary against Vienna: 325,000 men, 90,000 camels and 500 artillery pieces. Thousands of camels are lost because of the spring rains and 200 of the heavier artillery pieces are sent back. Suleiman's force finally arrives in late September. Their attempts to get past Vienna's walls fail, and in mid-October they withdraw.
1529 - Portuguese and Spanish ships begin exploring the new world.
1530 - The Portuguese settle Guiana, and claim the entire continent on behalf of Portugal
1531 - The Spanish establish two colonies in South America: Venezuela and New Spain. They quickly come into contact (and conflict) with the Portuguese.
1532 - On the verge of war, the Portuguese and Spanish appeal to the Pope to help settle their dispute. The Treaty of Sevilla, negotiated by Pope Clement VII, declares that the land east of the Andes and north of the Amazon River shall go to Portugal, with the rest going to Spain.
1532 - French explorers enter the Mississippi river. The claim the land on the west bank and call it Louisiana.
1535 - Henry VIII breaks with Rome and declares himself head of the English church. He divorces Catherine of Aragon and marries Anne Boleyn. British colonists in the new world are less than pleased.
1536 - Henry VIII charges his second wife, Anne Boleyn, with adultery. He has her beheaded and marries her lady-in-waiting Jane Seymour.
1536 - Spanish and Portuguese explorers come into contact with the Inca Empire. Peaceful cooperation is established, and Incas volunteer to serve as guides and translators for the Europeans.
1537 - Birth of Henry VIII sole legitimate son (the future Edward VI) and the death of his wife, Jane.
1538 - At Preveza (on the coast of western Greece, 200 kilometers southeast of the Italian peninsula), a Barbary pirate, Barbarossa, employed by the Ottoman Empire, destroys the combined Christian fleets of the Pope, Venice and Spain. The Ottoman Empire dominates the Mediterranean Sea.
1540 - Henry VIII Marries Anne of Cleves. He divorces her later that same year and marries Catherine Howard.
1540 - By this year, the various Caribbean islands have been settled by the English, Spanish, French and Dutch (the Dutch sole colonial center was a few islands in the eastern Caribbean).

1542 - Henry VIII has Catherine Howard executed for adultery.
1543 - Henry VIII marries Catherine Parr (his last wife).
1547 - Death of Henry VIII. His son takes the throne as King Edward VI
1551 - In France, the works of Martin Luther, John Calvin and others considered heretics are prohibited. In the cites of Paris, Toulouse, Grenoble, Rouen, Bordeaux and Agners, various heretics and those selling forbidden books have been burned at the stake. Another massacre of Protestants occurs. More than 3,000 Protestants are to be reported as having been killed and 763 houses, 89 stables and 31 warehouses destroyed.
1553 - Ivan (The Terrible) now of age and no longer under the regency of his mother, takes the title Tsar Ivan IV.
1553 - Death of Edward VI. His half sister takes the throne as Mary I, and reinstates Roman Catholicism as the state religion.
1554 - Protestatns begin leaving England to settle in the new world. They found the colonies of New York and King Edward Island (OTL Prince Edward Island)
1555 - French Protestants (Huguenots), running from persecution, settle in Florida, which was a mostly uninhabited (by Europeans) French posession, where the founded the city of New Orleans (OTL Tampa Bay). A second group settled on the island of Jamaïque, and founded Bouganville (OTL Kingston).
1558 - Queen Mary dies and is succeeded by her half-sister, Elizabeth, the daughter of Henry VIII and his second wife, Anne Boleyn. Elizabeth re-establishes Anglican Protestantism as the state religion.
1560 - Queen Elizabeth authorizes a colonial voyage. The settlers establish the colony of Virginia.
1560 - The Spanish found the town of Rio Enero (OTL Rio de Janeiro) in their colony of Brasil.
1568 - Civil wars have been ravaging Japan. Oda Nobunaga, lord of Nagoya Castle, is one feudal lord who can afford to buy muskets in significant number. Japan has been ready for the rise of a unifying power. Nobunaga gains control of the region around Kyoto, Japan's capital city, where the Ashikaga family has held power as shoguns. The Ashikaga period of Japan's history has come to an end. The emperor, in Kyoto, remains elevated by Shinto godly connection, above politics and war.
1581 - Seven northern provinces of the Netherlands, including Holland, renounce their allegiance to Philip II. They form the United Provinces of the Netherlands.
1587 - Philip II of Spain has been plotting to replace Elizabeth I of England with Mary Stuart, the Queen of Scotland and a Catholic. Mary has been a rallying point for all in England opposed to Elizabeth. Elizabeth solves her problem with Mary by having her beheaded.
1591 - Toyotomi Hideyoshi (successor to Odo Nobunaga) expands his rule to all of Japan.

17th Century

1603 - A frail Queen Elizabeth dies at age 69. She is succeeded by a Calvinist and devout Presbyterian, King James VI of Scotland, eldest son of Elizabeth's cousin, Mary I, Queen of Scots. James becomes James I, King of England, Ireland and Scotland. Scotland is no longer independent.
1605 - A plot by extremist Catholics (including Guy Fawkes) to blow up the Britain's Parliament fails. The perpetrators are hanged.
1606 - The Dutch "discover" northern Australia – at what today is called Cape York Peninsula.
1609 - The Jesuit priest, Matteo Ricci, is surprised to find in China an attitude toward homosexuality different from that in Christendom. He finds homosexuality not illegal and people not reluctant to speak of it in public.
1614 - The first barrels of cured tobacco reach England from the colony of Virginia.
1617 - Shogun Tokugawa Ieyasu has been succeeded by his son, Tokugawa Hitetada. At Edo he establishes a district for hedonistic impulses that are outside the shogun's code of Confucian conduct. The district provides theater, musical and sexual entertainment to anyone who can afford it. There a new genre of paintings, prints, literature and theater rises.
1617 - Ships are carrying 50,000 pounds of cured tobacco annually from Virginia to England. Smoking has become a fad in England, with King James describing it as "loathsome," harmful to the brain and dangerous to the lungs.
1618 - Word of the English, French and Spanish (as well as Icelandic/Norwegian) settlements in the Americas reaches Russia and China via trade routes. The two empires send out explorers of their own, who sail up the east coast of Asia, "discover" Alyeska, and voyage down the west coast of North America.
1618 - The pious Catholic Habsburg, King Ferdinand II, closes some Protestant churches in Prague. His Protestant subjects there rebel. Siding with Ferdinand are Maximilian, the Catholic monarch of Bavaria, and Philip III, King of Spain. Siding with the Protestants are some German princes. It is the beginning of the Thirty Years' War.
1619 - To work their tobacco fields, colonists in Virginia buy 20 blacks from a Dutch ship that arrives for supplies.
1620 - The Russian Empire founds a colony in Alyeska at Vostogavani (OTL Nome).
1632 - Galileo publishes his ideas about the universe. Intellectuals across Europe applaud. The Church prohibits further sales of the book, and Galileo is ordered to appear before the Inquisition in Rome.
1632 - Catholic colonists from England found the settlement of Boston, and establish the Massachusetts Colony.
1635 - Shogun Tokugawa Iemitsu forbids travel abroad, except for restricted voyages by ships to China and Korea. Books from abroad are banned except for those on science, technology and military tactics. A trading post near Nagasake remains after the Dutch there agree to restrictions regarding trading and an end of signs of Christianity. The Dutch enjoy seeing their trading rivals, the Spanish and Portuguese, expelled.
1636 - Roger Williams arrives in what today is Rhode Island, where he is to established a settlement with twelve "loving friends and neighbors."
1642 - King Charles I, King of England, Scotland and Ireland, son of King James, has been ruling since 1625 and is considered too friendly towards Catholicism. He is in conflict with his Calvinist and Puritan subjects and with Parliament. Civil war has erupted. On one side is the king and his army, on the other is Parliament and its army.
1642 - British colonists in America declare that they will take no sides in the civil war going on in England. They will, they say, supply neither troops nor supplies. They do make it clear, however, that they support the King... at least verbally.
1642 - The Mughal emperor in India, Jahan, has the Taj Mahal built for one of his wives.
Rebels overthrow the Ming Emperor Chongzhen, who hangs himself. A Manchu army takes power in the capital city, Beijing. Ming supporters flee to Taiwan. The Manchu Qing family begins its rule in China, to last into the 20th century, although the Manchus are never to be more than two percent of the population in China.
1649 - In Britain, King Charles I and his army have been defeated. Charles is beheaded. England is a republic, a commonwealth without a House of Lords and run by the victors of the civil war – parliament. Parliament sends the Puritan Oliver Cromwell to Ireland to subdue rebellious Catholics. He massacres the populations of Drogheda and Wexford.
1649 - Unanimously, the colonists declare their support for the son of the deceased Charles I, and hail him as King Charles II. A number of disaffected nobles from England relocate to the colonies and found the Carolina colony, named in honour both Charleses.
1653 - Oliver Cromwell dissolves parliament and his army makes him Lord Protector – a dictator.
1657 - Edo burns, Japan's biggest urban fire. About 100,000 people die.
1658 - Cromwell dies and the English are relieved. They have had their fill of Puritanism.
1660 - England's parliament restores the monarchy to the eldest son of Charles I, Charles II, who arrives from France three weeks later amid great celebration. Colonial leaders travel from America to witness his coronation.
1665 - Two-thirds of London is evacuated to avoid the Black Plague, but nearly 70,000 die of the disease in one week.
1667 - The war between Russia and Poland, which began in 1654, ends after three years of negotiations. Russia has won possession of most of the Ukraine. Russia's army has moved closer toward becoming a permanent (standing) force. Russia has become a more significant force in East Europe. The Ukraine is split between its Roman Catholic west and an Eastern Orthodox east.
1682 - Tsar Theodor III dies without a son. Peter, age 10, is made tsar, with his mother as regent. A war within the royal family ensues, with Peter witnessing the murder of his mother's family. A council of nobles, trying to settle matters, makes Peter a co-tsar with his unhealthy sixteen-year-old brother, Ivan.
1683 - Japan is benefiting from an era of peace, order and prosperity. Food production has risen. The use of money has spread to Japan's farmers. Merchant values such as thrift and prudence in all things mixes with Confucianism's regard for order.
1683 - The Ottoman Empire is trying to resume its conquests of centuries before. An Ottoman army penetrates the outer fortifications of Vienna – during what is to be known as the Second Siege of Vienna. An army of 70,000 Habsburg and Polish troops are on their way to rescue the city.
1684 - Around what today is OTL Zimbabwe (ATL the northeastern part of the Union of South Africa), following the breakdown of other African empires, cattle owners have been competing for power, and the cattle owner who emerges supreme has been Changamire Dombo, who controls gold mining and, backed by warriors, collects tributes. He is building an empire and begins expelling the Portuguese.
1687 - The Ottomans are falling back. The Austrians push them from Hungary and the city of Budapest.
1688 - Hostility to Catholicism and to King James II results in a rebellion against his rule. Parliament has invited a European royal, William of Orange, to rule. William lands with an army and defeats the army of James II – whose overthrow is called the Glorious Revolution. The American colonists support this move. Ex-King James relocates to France.
1689 - Parliament creates a Bill of Rights and the Toleration Act. Freedom of speech is guaranteed. People have the right to petition government. They are to be free from cruel and unusual punishments. They are not to be compelled to become members of the Church of England (which wasn't happening in America anyway).
1697 -Tsar Peter has been building Russia's naval strength is ready to take on the Ottomans. He drives them out of Azov. And that year the Austrians defeat the Ottomans at Zenta, about 100 hundred miles southwest of Budapest.
1698 - With an entourage and sometimes disguised as a commoner, Tsar Peter is visiting Western Europe to examine the international situation, to strengthen a coalition against the Ottomans and to learn about the economies and cultures of Western Europe.
1699 - Under diplomatic pressure from the Dutch, British and Venetians, the Ottomans sign the Treaty of Karlowitz – a dictated treaty. Hungary and Transylvania are ceded to Austria. Podolia, occupied by the Ottomans in 1672, is returned to Poland. The Ottomans give up Morea (the Peloponnesian Peninsula) and most of Dalmatia.

18th Century

1701 - The last Habsburg king of Spain dies childless and without an heir. The War of Spanish Succession follows. England, the Dutch Republic and the Holy Roman Emperor oppose the king of France also becoming the king of Spain, and they form an anti-French alliance.
1701 - The Habsburg Holy Roman Emperor, King of Hungary and Bohemia and Archduke of Austria, Joseph I, gives permission to the Elector of Brandenburg to be crowned Frederick I, King of Prussia. A new and powerful state under Hohenzollern kings is in the making.
1702 - The French and English battle at St. Augustine in Florida, the War of Spanish Succession in the Americas to be called Queen Anne's War – Anne being the Queen of England. In the Americas both sides use Indians as allies.
1703 - sar Peter (to be known as Peter the Great) would like a port at Riga in order to supplant his port at Archangel in the frozen far north. Riga is still held by the Swedes, so he starts building on marshland that will eventually become the city of St. Petersburg.
1707 - Scotland and England become the United Kingdom of Great Britain on May 1, shortly after the parliaments of Scotland and England ratified the Treaty of Union of 1706.
1713 - The Treaties of Utrecht end the War of Spanish Succession and Queen Anne's War. France and Britain are exhausted, and Britain signs after fearing an alliance between Spain and Austria. The British receive Florida from France, which they organize into an official colony. Philip V, grandson of France's Bourbon king, Louis XIV, is recognized as King of Spain. Spain's loses much of its empire, with Savoy getting Sicily and part of Milan, Naples, Sardinia, part of Milan and possession of what had been the Spanish Netherlands (Belgium). The latter passes to the Habsburg Holy Roman Emperor, Charles VI of Austria and becomes the "Austrian Netherlands." British acquire control of Gibraltar. The French are now to view Austria as their nation's primary rival on the European continent.
1713 - Spain and Britain sign a 30-year contract in which Britain is to have a monopoly in supplying Spain with slaves for the Americas.
1715 - The Ottoman Turks take advantage of the weakness of Venice and reconquer Morea (the Peloponnesian Peninsula Peninsula) lost by the Turks with the Treaty of Karlowitz in the year 1699. People in Morea are glad to be rid of the Venetians, who taxed them more than the Ottomans.
1717 - The Carolina Colony is divided into North and South Carolina due to political differences between the settlers.
1719 - The British, Dutch and Austrians have teamed up against Spain's move into Sardinia and Sicily. The British sink the Spanish navy. Austria has settled with the Ottomans, gaining northern Bosnia, Banat, Belgrade, much of Serbia and a part of Walachia. Morea is to remain under the Ottomans.
1721 - Sweden makes peace with Russia, recognizing territory lost to Russia. Russia is now the dominant power in the Baltic region. Peter the Great declares himself an emperor.
1721 - Mongols invade Tibet and sack Lhasa. A military force sent by the Qing emperor, Kangxi, is hailed as liberators, It drives the Mongols out and re-establishes Qing authority. The Qing install Kesang Gyatso as the 7th Dalai Lama.
1722 - Russian colonists found the Alyeskan city of Novy Petrograd (OTL Anchorage), which they make the capital of the territory.
1725 - The "Golden Age of Piracy," centered in the Caribbean Islands, comes to an end. Peace and sailors out of work had contributed to it. Pirates had turned against the British government for interfering with their freedom to pursue their business. War between the pirates and the British government is won by the British government.
1727 - In Brasil, Europeans begin planting coffee.
1730 - King Agaja of Dahomey is in competition with the kingdom of Oyo for captives to be sold as slaves to Europeans. King Agaja has been a leading exporter of slaves and an importer of firearms. Oyo has invaded his territory and Agaja agrees to pay tribute to Oyo.
1731 - The University of Bologna appoints Laura Bassi, 21, as professor of anatomy, Europe's first professorship for a woman. She is from a wealthy family, and while a teen her brilliance was recognized by Cardinal Prospero Lambertini, who encouraged her scientific work.
1732 - Benjamin Franklin's agricultural handbook, Poor Richard's Almanac, is published.
1733 - The colony of Georgia is founded as a debtors' asylum.
1738 - A Chinese expedition founds the settlement of Huángdì Wā (OTL San Francisco) as the capital of their overseas territory, which they name Dongguo.
1750 - The Manchu Chinese capture the town of Lhasa and take power in Tibet.
1750 - The Chinese found the settlement of Chéng Lóng (OTL Los Angeles).
1750 - A Japanese venture explores the Pacific northwest of North America, and founds the towns of Anzena Minato (OTL Vancouver) and Sanshi (OTL Seattle). They call their new territory Shinihon.
1761 - At the Third Battle of Panipat, in January, armies of more than 100,000, face off: the Hindu Maratha Empire against a coalition force that includes the King of Afghanistan, Ahmad Shah Durrani, to be considered the founder of modern Afghanistan. It will be described as the biggest battle in the 1700s and killing perhaps 40,000 on each side. The battle halts the advance of the Marathas. The Marathas were using French supplied artillery. This is in the far north of the sub-continent, about 90 kilometers north of Delhi. Two days later on the eastern side of the southern tip of the sub-continent a British force takes Pondichéry from the French.
1763 - Many nataive tribes in North America's Great Lakes region are fed up with the policies of Britain's General Jeffrey Amherst begin to attack British forts and the settlements of colonists, to be called Pontiac's War. (Chief Pontiac of the Ottawa tribe is but one player.) At Fort Pitt, British officers attempt to infect the Indians with smallpox using blankets that had been exposed to the virus. In October, a royal proclamation by King George III attempts to stabilize the region by it forbidding settlers from moving beyond the Appalachian Mountains. This angered colonial land speculators.
1764 - A French trading company establishes a trading post just below the junction of the Mississippi and Missouri Rivers, to be known as St. Louis.
1766 - Wars have left Britain in debt and its military still in the Americas, to protect the colonists from Indian uprisings. Britain expects the colonists to help with taxes to pay for its commitments in the Americas. Parliament's Stamp Act, aimed at acquiring more revenue from the colonies, is resisted and rioting occurs. Parliament repeals the Stamp Act but passes the Declaratory Act, asserting its authority in the colonies "in all cases whatsoever." Colonists remain disturbed by their lack of political power and taxation without representation.
1768 - Sugar consumption, which began among the Arabs and has been limited to Europe's wealthy, is growing in popularity, common Europeans becoming more familiar with sweet taste. Islands in the Caribbean are the great producers of sugar, the labor supplied by slaves. Demand for sugar has elevated its price, and planters are trying to increase production. Sugar refining uses the first modern factory-like production system. A sugar mill in Jamaica becomes the first to use a steam engine.
1770 - Captain Cook sails to New Zealand, arriving unaware of the presence of French explorer, Jean-François-Marie de Surville, who is anchored there. Cook claims the area for King George III and sails to Australia.
1773 - Tea selling businessmen in Boston are upset because the British East India Company has been given the right to sell tea directly to the colonists and at a cheaper price. The business men have begun a boycott of the East India Company's tea along the Atlantic coast. They disguise themselves as Indians and throw 342 chests of tea into Boston harbor – to be known as the Boston Tea Party.
1774 - King George III of Britain decides to punish lawbreakers in the colonies. He closes Boston Harbor and expands the powers of his governor in Massachusetts. Local elections in Massachusetts are curtailed. Town meetings are forbidden and colonists are obliged to pay for the tea dumped into the bay. Many throughout the colonies feel threatened. Delegates from the colonies meet at the "First Continental Congress" to discuss grievances. The Congress drafts a letter that is sent to the king.
1775 - Concerned about colonist violence, a contingent of 2,000 "redcoat" soldiers is sent to the town of Concord to confiscate munitions. They are shot at and shoot back. The soldiers suffer 72 dead and the colonists 49. Emotions among the colonists flare. Fighting erupts in New York colony and in Massachusetts at Breeds Hill, to be known as the Battle of Bunker Hill.
1776 - A second Continental Congress meets and on July 4 declares independence. The declaration is recognized in Britain as an act of rebellion. Ranking members of the Church in the colonies remain loyal, as do many wealthy businessmen and humble farmers and shopkeepers.
1777 - The French have remained neutral regarding the rebellion in Britain's colonies, but they have been supplying the rebels with guns and gunpowder. French volunteers begin joining the ranks of the revolutionaries.
1778 - France signs an alliance with the American rebel force and recognizes the United States of America as a sovereign nation on February 5. On July 5, France's king, Louis XVI, declares war on Britain.
1778 - Two ships under the command of Captain James Cook, sailing from Tahiti, arrive in the Hawaiian Islands, perhaps the first Europeans to visit these islands. Cook finds a tribal and religious people. He was already experienced with Polynesians and thought of them as generally intelligent. Cook and company find the Hawaiians with a different sense of property than Europeans, what Europeans would describe as thievery.
1782 - Britain's parliament advises King George III to make peace with the rebels in America. In Paris informal talks begin. The Dutch recognize the independence of the former colonies. Formal negotiations begin.
1783 - King George has declared the colonies "free and independent." France and Spain sign articles of peace with Britain. In Paris, delegates from the colonies sign the Treaty of Peace. The new United States of America includes all land east of the Mississippi river, north to the Great Lakes and the Kanawakie River (OTL St. Lawrence River).
1788 - Britain's prisons have been overcrowded, and having lost its colonies in the Americas it can no longer send convicts there. Instead it sends eleven ships with 1,372 people, including 732 of its more unruly convicts, to a place in Australia named after Lord Sydney, secretary of state for Britain's colonies.
1789 - Frustrated French commoners have created a new National Assembly and are joined by some clergy and nobles. Parisians storm the Bastille. The National Assembly declares an end to feudal rights and proclaims The Declaration of Rights of Man and Citizen. A constitution is in the making, and an intimidated Louis XVI agrees to become a constitutional monarch.
1792 - In France, amnesty has been offered those who fled the country and the revolution. Few return and parliament votes in favor of declaring all émigres as plotting against the revolution – a capital offense. An ultimatum is sent to Austria, demanding the expulsion of those Frenchmen hostile to the revolution. The brother of Marie-Antoinette, Leopold II of Austria, does not cooperate. France declares war. Prussia joins Austria against France and captures Verdun just inside France. In France is war fever and people are afraid of the German invasion. Parisians go on a five-day rampage, to monasteries and from prison to prison, killing political prisoners, priests and nobles. The dead are counted at around 1,500.
1793 - Louis XVI, accused of conspiring against the nation, is executed. France is proclaimed a republic. The British, Dutch and Spanish go to war against the French Revolution. In the United States, Thomas Jefferson supports France, Alexander Hamilton supports England and President Washington chooses neutrality.
1793 -Catherine the Great of Russia, Joseph of Austria, and Frederick William II of Prussia take advantage of the turmoil in France to confiscate more Polish lands, in what was called the Second Partition of Poland.
1795 - Russia, Austria and Prussia participate in the Third Partition of Poland. Poland is removed from the map of Europe.