Timeline IV

Timeline IV (c. 1700 to 2000)

This timeline is the fourth in a set of comparative timelines that run across the chapter. It covers roughly three centuries, from 1720 to 2000, and is organised region-wise — Africa, Europe, Asia, South Asia, the Americas, and Australia/Pacific Islands. The left-hand column gives the chronological reference periods, and these differ from the other timelines in the book because the events relevant to each region cluster in different centuries. The timeline is not a mere list of dates; it is a visual argument about how the modern world took shape

— through colonisation, slavery, nationalism, war, and decolonisation.

Africa

The African section opens with King Agaja of Dahomey (ruled 1724–34) in West Africa, who briefly stopped the slave trade, though it was reintroduced in the 1740s. In 1755, the first outbreak of smallpox, brought by sailors, struck Cape Town in South Africa. The peak of the international slave trade came in this period, with all colonial powers involved; several hundred thousand Black Africans were taken across the Atlantic every year, and as many as two-thirds died on board ship itself.

From 1805 to 1848, Mohammed Ali ruled Egypt, and Egypt broke away from the Ottoman Empire. Liberia was founded in 1822 in West Africa as a home for freed slaves. Abdal-Kadir led Arab resistance (1832–47) against French presence in Algeria. The Suez Canal — one of the most important trade routes in the world — opened in 1869, followed by the beginning of the European ‘Scramble for Africa’.

In 1906, Mahatma Gandhi advocated satyagraha to resist racist laws in South Africa. In 1913, South Africa introduced laws reserving 87 per cent of land for whites. The first trans-African railway, from Angola to Mozambique, was completed in 1931. The Afrikaner National Party won power in South Africa in 1948, and the policy of Apartheid was put in place. Ghana became the first country in sub-Saharan Africa to become independent in 1957. The Organisation of African Unity was founded in 1963. Nelson Mandela was freed in South Africa in 1990, and the process of dismantling Apartheid began.

Europe

In 1735, Carolus Linnaeus invented a taxonomic system to classify plants and animals. Emelian Pugachev headed a peasant uprising (1773–75) that swept across Russia. The French Revolution began in 1789. Louis Braille developed a system of finger reading in 1823, and passenger trains were introduced in England in 1825. Liberal and socialist movements spread across several European countries in 1848.

Russian serfs were freed in 1861. Germany and Italy emerged as unified nation-states. The first film was made in 1895, and the modern Olympics were held for the first time in Athens in 1896. The First World War (1914–1918) and the Russian Revolution of 1917 followed. Turkey became a republic under Mustapha Kemal in 1923. Hitler captured power in Germany in 1933, and the Second World War followed (1939–45). Britain recognised Irish independence in 1949. The discovery of DNA and the launch of the Soviet spacecraft Sputnik both came in 1957. Protest movements swept Europe in 1968. Mikhail Gorbachev became leader of the USSR in 1985, and the worldwide web began in 1989. In 1997, scientists cloned the sheep Dolly, raising new debates about the limits of genetic engineering.

Asia

The Manchu ruler of China, Kangxi, commissioned the Gujin tushu jicheng — the largest encyclopaedia ever printed. In 1758, Aoki Konyo, a Japanese scholar, compiled a Dutch–Japanese dictionary. British export of opium from India to China expanded dramatically. A Javanese revolt against the Dutch took place in 1825–30. Ottoman sultan Abdul Majid started a programme of modernisation in 1839. King Rama IV ruled Thailand and opened the country to foreign trade in 1853. The French began to occupy Indo-China (Southeast Asia) in 1862. The first Japanese railway, from Tokyo to Yokohama, opened in 1872. Britain annexed Burma (Myanmar) in 1885–86.

The Japanese navy defeated the Russian fleet in 1905. The Balfour Declaration of 1917 promised a homeland for Jews in Palestine. A British oil pipeline from Iraq to Syria opened in 1934. In 1945, the USA dropped atom bombs on the Japanese cities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, killing approximately 120,000 civilians; many more were to die later through the effects of radiation. The People’s Republic of China was formed in 1949. The Bandung Conference of 1955 strengthened the Non-Aligned Movement. Arab leaders set up the Palestine Liberation Organisation in 1964 to unite Palestinian refugees, and the war in Vietnam ran from 1965 to 1973. The Shah of Iran was overthrown in 1979. Mass demonstrations for democracy took place in Tiananmen Square, Beijing, China, in 1989. The Gulf War was fought between Iraq, Kuwait and the USA.

South Asia

The Marathas extended control over northern India. Robert Clive defeated Siraj-ud-daula, the Nawab of Bengal, at the Battle of Plassey in 1757. Ranjit Singh founded the Sikh kingdom in Punjab in 1799. The practice of sati was made illegal in 1829. The railway and telegraph line were introduced in 1853, and the Great Revolt followed in 1857. A famine in the Deccan, southern India (1876–78), killed over 5 million people. The Indian National Congress was founded in 1885.

The Non-Cooperation Movement was launched by Mahatma Gandhi in 1921, and E. V. Ramaswamy Naicker launched the Self-Respect Movement in Tamil Nadu in 1925. Alam Ara by Ardeshir Irani (1931) was the first Indian talkie. The Berlin–Baghdad Railway linking Baghdad to Istanbul began operation in 1940. The Quit India Movement came in 1942, and India and Pakistan became independent in 1947. India became a republic in 1950. Sirimavo Bandaranaike became the world’s first woman prime minister in 1960. Bangladesh emerged as an independent nation in 1971. A leak at the Union Carbide pesticides plant in Bhopal in 1984 led to one of the worst industrial disasters in history, with thousands dying. India and Pakistan conducted nuclear tests in 1998.

Americas

The Portuguese introduced coffee in Brazil in 1727. The Stono Slave Rebellion, led by a literate slave named Jemmy, took place in 1739. Juan Santos, also called Atahualpa II, led Native Americans of Peru in an unsuccessful revolt in 1742. Chief Pontiac of the Ottawa tribe led a protest against the British in 1763. The US Declaration of Independence came in 1776. The US Constitution was drawn up in 1787, and dollars were first used as American currency the same year. Simon Bolivar led Venezuela to independence in 1821. In 1838, the Trail of Tears saw thousands of eastern Native Americans forced to move west, many dying on the way. A meeting in Seneca Falls, New York, in 1848 called for equal rights for American women.

The Civil War in the USA (1861–65) ended with the Thirteenth Amendment to the Constitution outlawing slavery. The telephone, record-player and electric bulb were invented. Coca-Cola was invented in 1886. The Wright brothers invented the aeroplane in 1903. Henry Ford began assembly line production of cars in 1913, and the Panama Canal linking the Atlantic and Pacific opened in 1914. The US Wall Street Stock Exchange crashed in 1929, and the Great Depression followed; by 1932, 12 million were out of work. The US entered the Second World War. Fidel Castro came to power after the Cuban Revolution in 1958. The Civil Rights movement in the USA peaked in 1963, and the US Civil Rights Act of 1964 banned racial discrimination. Civil Rights leader Martin Luther King was assassinated in 1968, and US astronauts landed on the moon the same year. In 1972, the US Congress passed the Equal Opportunity Act in response to the women’s movement.

Australia and Pacific Islands …