Chronology of Western colonialism

This is a non-exhaustive chronology of colonialism-related events, which may reflect political events, cultural events, and important global events that have influenced colonization and decolonization. See also Timeline of imperialism.

Before the 15th century

1000: Norsemen are the first Europeans to discover America. The first American-born European child is Snorri Thorfinnsson. Norsemen are the first Europeans to have a hostile confrontation with the Native Americans. These Viking explorers are likely to have used America as a source of vital goods, such as timber, to sustain the colonies of Iceland and Greenland for centuries. The colony at L'Anse aux Meadows in Canada and the Maine Penny in the United States are the most reliable proof of Norse presence in America.

15th to 18th centuries

1402: Kingdom of Castile begins with the invasion of the Canary Islands
1415: The Portuguese empire begins with the capture of Ceuta (Morocco)
1419: The Portuguese discover Madeira
1427: The Portuguese discover Azores
1441: The first consignment of slaves is brought to Lisbon (Portugal)
1452: Papal Bull Dum diversas allows enslavement of pagans
1455: Papal Bull Romanus Pontifex grants a trade monopoly for newly discovered countries in Africa and Asia to the Portuguese.
1474: João Vaz Corte-Real, a Portuguese navigator, claims to have discovered the New Land of the Codfish, an unidentified island of which there is some speculation that it might be Newfoundland, in present-day Canada.
1481: Papal Bull Aeterni regis
1482: The Portuguese build the Elmina Castle as the first trading point in Ghana
1488: Bartolomeu Dias rounded the Cape of Good Hope for the Portuguese king.
1492: Discovery of the New World and symbolic date of the European Age of Exploration; beginning of the colonization of the Americas and of the Columbian Exchange
1493: Papal Bull Inter caetera on May 4
1494: Treaty of Tordesillas dividing the world outside of Europe in an exclusive duopoly between the Spanish and the Portuguese empires along a north–south meridian 370 leagues west of the Cape Verde islands (off the west coast of Africa), roughly 46° 36' W. (This boundary was known as the Line of Demarcation.) The lands to the east would belong to Portugal and the lands to the west to Spain.
1498: Vasco da Gama sets foot on Kozhikode, starting the Portuguese presence in India
1500: Pedro Álvares Cabral sails to Brazil for the Portuguese king
1511: The Portuguese capture Malacca, in present-day Malaysia
1515: Spanish Leyes de Burgos on January 25
1519: The Portuguese capture Ormus, in the Strait of Hormuz, in the Persian Gulf
1542: Spanish Leyes Nuevas ("New Laws")
1542: Creation of the Viceroyalty of Peru
1550–1552: Valladolid Controversy and publication of A Short Account of the Destruction of the Indies by Bishop of Chiapas Bartolomé de las Casas^[1]
1600: Queen Elizabeth I of England grants a Royal charter to the English East India Company
1602: Establishment of the Dutch East India Company
1607: The first permanent English settlement in North America at Jamestown, Virginia
1612-1615: The Portuguese captured Gamru Port and a few other places (like Hormuz Island ) in southern coast of Persia.
1615–1622: Abbas I, king of Persia, battled the Portuguese with the aid of the Royal Navy and the English East India Company and recaptured those lands.
1619: The first African slaves arrive in Jamestown, Virginia
1624: The English set foot in Surat
1625: Charles I of England receives Oldman, king of the Miskito Nation, who was taken to England by the Earl of Warwick.
1630: Puritans establish Massachusetts Bay Colony
1651-1664: Couronian colonization of Africa
1717: Creation of the Viceroyalty of New Granada
1775-1783: American War of Independence
1776: Creation of the Viceroyalty of the Río de la Plata
1776: The thirteen original colonies of the United States declare independence from Britain
1784: Britain passes Pitt's India Act
1787: Britain creates Sierra Leone.
1788: Britain claims and proceeds to settle the eastern half of the continent of Australia.
1791-1804: Haitian Revolution and abolition of slavery by the French First Republic (reestablished by Napoleon in 1804)
1795: Britain invades the Cape region of present-day South Africa
1798: French Invasion of Egypt

19th century to World War I

1804–1813: Uprising in Serbia against the presence of the Ottoman Empire
1810–1820s: Spanish American wars of independence
1810–1821: Mexican War of Independence
1815–1817: Serbian uprising leading to Serbian autonomy
1820: The American Colonization Society (private citizens in the United States) created Liberia
1821–1823: Greek War of Independence
1822: Independence of Brazil proclaimed by Dom Pedro I
1830: Start of the French conquest of Algeria
1833: British abolish slavery in the West Indies; The owners are reimbursed.
1834: Beginning of the Boers' Great Trek
1839: Papal Encyclical In Supremo Apostolatus, condemning the slave trade
1839–1842: First Opium War and First Anglo-Afghan War
1846–1848: Mexican–American War, which results in the Mexican Cession
1848: Decree-law Victor Schœlcher which abolish slavery (permanently) in the French colonial empire
1856–1860: Second Opium War
1857: Uprising in India against British occupation, which leads to the creation of the British Raj
1861–1867: French intervention in Mexico ordered by Napoleon III
1870: Franco-Prussian War
1870–1880s: Conquest of the Desert in Argentina, led by Julio Argentino Roca
1877–1878: War between Russia and the Ottoman Empire and March 3, 1878 Treaty of San Stefano
1878: Treaty of Berlin recognising the independence of Romania, Serbia and Montenegro and the autonomy of Bulgaria
1878–1881: Second Anglo-Afghan War
1879: Anglo-Zulu War
1880–81: First Boer War
1881: Indigenous Code in Algeria
1883: Publication of The Story of an African Farm by Olive Schreiner
1884–85: Berlin Conference (UK, France, Germany) which sets the right of conquest for the scramble for Africa
1885: Foundation of the Indian National Congress
1885: Treaty of Simulambuco (between Portugal and the N'Goyo Kingdom).
1887: France creates the Indochinese Union
1888: Lei Áurea ("Golden Law") on May 13 in Brazil which abolish slavery
1889: Foundation of the Republic of Brazil
1889: British South Africa Company of Cecil Rhodes chartered by the British government to seek treaties and administer territory between the Limpopo River and African Great Lakes.
1890: Cecil Rhodes sends the Pioneer Column into Mashonaland, starting the process of annexing the territory which became Southern Rhodesia
1891: The Stairs Expedition to Katanga kills its king, Msiri and obtains treaties from his successors for the territory to become the possession of Leopold II of Belgium
1895: Treaty of Shimonoseki between Japan and China and Triple Intervention
1895: Creation of French West Africa (AOF)
1895–1896: First Italo–Ethiopian War
1896: Anglo-Zanzibar War (on August 27)
1897: Punitive Expedition led by British Admiral Harry Rawson against Benin, which brings to an end the highly sophisticated West African Kingdom of Benin
1898: Fashoda Incident
1898: Spanish–American War. United States defeated Spain and seizes Cuba, Puerto Rico, and the Philippines.
1899: Publication of Rudyard Kipling's The White Man's Burden, as well as Joseph Conrad's Heart of Darkness^[2]
1899–1902: Second Boer War
1899–1913: Philippine–American War
1902: Anglo-Japanese Alliance: end of Britain's Splendid isolation
1904–05: Russo-Japanese War won by Japan
1904–07: Herero Genocide
1905: Partition of Bengal
1905: First Moroccan Crisis after the March 31, 1905 visit of Kaiser Wilhelm to Tangiers
1906: Algeciras Conference to mediate the Tangier Crisis between France and Germany
1910: Creation of French Equatorial Africa (AEF)
1911: Agadir Crisis
1911: Chinese Revolution
1912: France establish a full protectorate over Morocco
1912–1913: Italo-Turkish War (Tripolitania and Cyrenaica are transferred from the Ottoman Empire to Italy)
1914–1918: World War I
1916: May 16 Sykes-Picot Agreement
1916–1918: Arab Revolt initiated by Hussein bin Ali and Emir Faisal
1918: Woodrow Wilson's January 9 speech on the Fourteen Points

Interwar period

1919: Foundation of the League of Nations at the Paris Peace Conference and creation of the League of Nations Mandates (Iraq and Palestine — including Transjordan — are passed to Great Britain's control, Lebanon and Syria to France; the Cameroons and Togoland are split between the UK and France; Ruanda-Urundi goes to Belgium and Tanganyika to the UK; Nauru and New Guinea to Australia; the remainder of German New Guinea to Japan as the South Seas Mandate; Samoa to New Zealand and South West Africa to South Africa)
1919: Third Anglo-Afghan War
1919: Non-Cooperation Movement led by Mahatma Gandhi
1920: San Remo conference in April
1920: Treaty of Sèvres on August 10 between the Triple Entente (UK, France and Russia) and the Ottoman Empire; Mustafa Kemal leads the Turkish War of Independence leading to the 1923 Treaty of Lausanne
1922: Creation of the Soviet Union
1923: Proclamation of the Republic of Turkey by Mustafa Kemal on October 29
1924: British Empire Exhibition
1925: Foundation of the Algerian Star of North Africa by Messali Hadj
1921–1926: Rif War in Morocco, led by Abd el-Krim
1927: May 19 Treaty of Jeddah accords independence to Saudi Arabia led by King Abdul Aziz
1927–1928: Publication of André Gide's Voyage au Congo (Travels in the Congo).^[3]
1931: Paris Colonial Exposition
1931: Dominions of Australia, Canada, New Zealand, and South Africa gain independence from Britain
1932: Independence of Iraq
1930: Portuguese Colonial Act
1933: Publication of Gilberto Freyre's Casa-Grande & Senzala ("The Great House and the Slave Quarters" - 1933^[4])
1935: Aimé Césaire coins the word Négritude
1936: Franco-Syrian Treaty of Independence (never ratified by France)
1936–1939: Great Arab Revolt in the British Mandate of Palestine
1935–36: Second Italo-Abyssinian War

World War II, and Cold War until the Détente

World War II (1939-1945)
1941: Atlantic charter Endorsed by all the Allies of World War II; Calls for self-determination
1941: Foundation of the Viet Minh by Ho Chi Minh
1941: Syria proclaims its independence from Vichy France, which is recognized in 1944
1942: Quit India Movement called for by Gandhi on August 9
1943: Independence of Lebanon
1944: Nelson Mandela joins the African National Congress
1945:Allies of World War II form the United Nations in San Francisco
1945: Sétif massacre in Algeria on May 8
1945: Proclamation of the independence of Indonesia by Sukarno & Mohammad Hatta
1945: Proclamation of the independence of Vietnam by Ho Chi Minh
1945: Foundation of the Arab League on March 22 (Egypt, Iraq, Jordan, Lebanon, Saudi Arabia, Syria and Yemen)
1945: Fifty states sign the Charter of the United Nations on June 26
1945–1950: Chinese Civil War between the nationalist Kuomintang and the Communist Party led by Mao Zedong
1946–1954: First Indochina War
1947: Official start of the Cold War (see Cold War (1947-1953) and Cold War (1953-1962))
1947: Independence of India and of Pakistan (Pakistan came into being on August 14, and India on August 15)^[5]
1947: UN Resolution 181 on the partition of Palestine in favor of a Two-state solution.
1947: French repression of the Malagasy uprising. 90 to 100 000 killed.
1948: Declaration of the independence of the State of Israel on May 14 and first Arab-Israeli War
1948: Colonial exhibition in Belgium
1949: Proclamation of the People's Republic of China by Mao Zedong
1951: Publication of Hannah Arendt's The Origins of Totalitarianism (second section dedicated to imperialism)
1952: Alfred Sauvy coins the term "Third World"
1954: French establishments in India cease to exist after de facto transfer to the Republic of India (de jure union accomplished in 1962)
1954: Battle of Dien Bien Phu & 1954 Geneva Accords marks the end of French Indochina
1955: Bandung Conference
1956: Suez Crisis between Israel, the UK and France against Egypt, after Nasser's nationalisation of the Suez Canal Company
1957: Algerian independence militant Larbi Ben M'Hidi murdered in prison, early March
1957: First country sub-Saharan Africa (Ghana) regains independence.
1958: Foundation of the United Arab Republic as a first step toward a Pan-Arab nation; it is formed by Egypt and Syria (until 1961). Creation also of the short-term Arab Federation of Iraq and Jordan.
1959: Independence of Morocco and Tunisia
1960: Independence of French colonies in Africa; the UN reach 99 members states
1961: Assassination of Patrice Lumumba, first prime minister of the Democratic Republic of the Congo, on January 17
1961: Formation of the Conferência das Organizações Nacionalistas das Colónias Portuguesas on April 18 in Casablanca, Morocco (PAIGC, MPLA, FRELIMO and MLSTP)
1961: Creation of the Non-Aligned Movement
1961: Soviet premier Khrushchev declares that the Soviet Union would support all "national liberation movements"
1961: Publication of Frantz Fanon' The Wretched of the Earth
1961: October 17 Paris massacre
1961: Indian annexation of Goa ends Portuguese India (Goa, Dadra, Nagar Haveli, Daman and Diu).
1961–1974: Portuguese Colonial War; See also Angolan War of Independence (1961-1989)
1962: Évian Accords halts the Algerian War and puts end to French rule in North-Africa

1963 to the fall of the Berlin Wall

1963: Assassination of Sylvanus Olympio on January 13, first president of Togo; he is replaced by Gnassingbé Eyadéma, who ruled over Togo until his death in 2005
1965–1975: Vietnam War
1965: Assassination of Mehdi Ben Barka, leader of the UNPF and of the Tricontinental Conference
1965: Joseph Mobutu becomes the dictator of the Democratic Republic of Congo until his overthrow in 1997 by Laurent-Désiré Kabila
1969: Assassination of Eduardo Mondlane, leader of the FRELIMO
1970s: Independence of the former Portuguese colonies, following the April 25, 1974 Carnation Revolution and the Portuguese Colonial War
1971: Independence of Bangladesh following the war with Pakistan
1971: Publication of Eduardo Galeano's Open Veins of Latin America^[6]
1971: Publication of Gustavo Gutiérrez's A Theology of Liberation: History, Politics, Salvation^[7]
1973: Assassination of Amilcar Cabral, leader of the African Party for the Independence of Guinea and Cape Verde (PAIGC) on January 20
1973: The PAIGC proclaims the independence of Guinea-Bissau on September 24
1975: Portugal recognizes Mozambique's independence on June 25 and Angola on November 11
November 1975: Green March during which Morocco annexes Western Sahara, formerly part of Spanish Morocco.
1979: Soviet invasion of Afghanistan and start of the "Second Cold War"
1980: The UN reaches 154 member states
1980: Assassination of Óscar Romero, prelate archbishop of San Salvador and proponent of the Liberation theology, on March 24
1982: Latin American debt crisis (in particular in Mexico, Brazil and Argentina)
1988: Assassination of Dulcie September, member of the African National Congress
1989: Operation Just Cause against Manuel Noriega
1990: Independence of Namibia, the UN reaches 159 states.

1990s–2000s

1994: Nelson Mandela becomes president of South Africa in the nation's first all race election
2001: French law recognizing slavery and the Atlantic slave trade as crimes against humanity (Taubira Law)
2005: February 23 French law on the "positive aspects" of "French presence abroad, in particular in North Africa"
2006: Repeal of the February 23, 2005 French law, following criticisms of historical revisionism
2010: Dissolution of the Netherlands Antilles

References

^ "Mirror of the Cruel and Horrible Spanish Tyranny Perpetrated in the Netherlands, by the Tyrant, the Duke of Alba, and Other Commanders of King Philip II". World Digital Library. 1620. Retrieved 2013-08-25.
^ Sven Lindqvist, Exterminate all the brutes, 1992
^ Voyage au Congo suivi du Retour du Tchad Archived March 16, 2007, at the Wayback Machine, in Lire, July–August 1995 (in French)
^ Raízes de Gilberto Freyre by Thomas E. Skidmore in Journal of Latin American Studies (2002), 34: 1-20 Cambridge University Press
^ Hoshiar Singh, Pankaj Singh; Singh Hoshiar (2011). Indian Administration. Pearson Education India. p. 10. ISBN 978-81-317-6119-9. Retrieved 2 January 2013.
^ "Writer Without Borders" July 14, 2006 In These Times (in English)
^ Gustavo Gutiérrez gana premio Príncipe de Asturias Archived 2007-05-03 at the Wayback Machine, Agencia Peru, 30 April 2003 (in Spanish)