Use this timeline on its own, or with our American Indian Boarding School Unit lessons that will be available soon on our website. Please see our List Version of events with footnotes for citations and credit to the sources we used in compiling our timeline (below & on our website at: http://www.sagchip.org/ziibiwing/planyourvisit/timeline/index.htm).
Chinese art, poetry specifically, witnesses a golden age under the Tang Dynasty.
Many of the eastern North Atlantic peoples were allied in a great confederacy: the Waabinakii Confederacy. Waabinakii means “people from the daybreak land” in the Ojibwe language. All of the Algonquin-language-speaking tribes or nations were part of this great confederacy. It is the earliest recorded history of the Anishinabek.
In China, Yangdi, second emperor of the Sui Dynasty, orders the construction of the Grand Canal. The 1,500 mile feat connected Beijing to Hangzhou. Although the costs of construction did much to undermine the short-lived Sui Dynasty, the lasting impact of the canal fueled much of the success of the following Tang Dynasty.
There were seven prophecies given to the Anishinabek, when we lived a peaceful life on the East Coast of North America. The prophecies were passed down from the prophets through our ancestors, and were carved in stone. In accordance with the prophecies, the Anishinabek began a Great Walk around 900 A.D. and continued on our journey for the next 500 years. Throughout our journey, the Anishinabek established new settlements at points marked by the sacred megis (cowrie) shell, finally stopping when we reached the “food that grows on the water,” our Manoomin (Wild Rice). Our seven stops on this journey are also called the seven fires.
The “Anasazi” began building their extensive cliff dwellings in what is now the southern Colorado Plateau, and continued to do so for hundreds of years. As we do not know the name of these early American Indians they are called “Anasazi,” which means “ancient ones” in Navajo. The Anasazi built over 500 cliff dwellings in the Mesa Verde region, some with over 100 rooms. Many more Anasazi cliff dwellings exist in current day Arizona, New Mexico, and Utah.
The was created by the Iroquois Confederacy around 1,000 years ago and is the oldest known constitution in North America. The Great Law of Peace outlined participatory democracy, a new way of governing, and much of the United States Constitution was based on ideas from the Iroquois.
Around 1000 A.D. Norsemen from Scandinavia visited the Western Hemisphere, almost 500 years before Columbus. They established settlements in Greenland, and made multiple trips to Newfoundland and the surrounding region over the next few hundred years.
The first compass is developed in China. It was comprised of a magnetized iron fish that floated in a bowl of water, indicating the direction of South.
The Song Dynasty in China publishes the formula for gunpowder. A Daoist text from the 9th Century had detailed the exact ingredients for making gunpowder, but did not specify the formula.
The first printing system that used movable type is invented in China by Bi Sheng. It allowed for much easier production of different books by the same printer.
A member of the Chinese scholar gentry (highly educated government officials), Wang Anshi, is commissioned by the Song Emperor Shenzong to draft and implement wide-ranging socio-economic reforms. His ‘New Policies’ revamped several aspects of Chinese society, which included the re-organization of the military, increased importance of education, challenges to tax evasion by wealthy families, and interest-free loans to poor peasants.
Sometime around 1200-1300 A.D. The Anishinabek formed the Three Fires Confederacy throughout what is now Michigan. The confederacy included the Ojibwe, Odawa, and Potawatomi, and each member of the confederacy has their own special tasks and duties in the confederacy.
Cahokia was a city located in what is now southern Illinois, and was one of the greatest cities of its time. At the height of its existence, it had a population of over 20,000 people. This was larger than London was at the time, and no North American city became larger until Philadelphia in the 18th Century. Cahokia also had a great pyramid and around 45 smaller pyramids and burial mounds, as well as a circular arrangement nicknamed “Woodhenge” by Archaeologists. “Woodhenge” was constructed around 1000 A.D., was 410 feet in diameter, and may have been a solar calendar.
In 1348 the Black Death, also known as the Bubonic Plague, began to spread in Europe. Over the next few years, it spread throughout the region. The plague killed around 30% of the population, but in some towns and villages up to 90% of the population died. The plague returned over the next several decades, but with less devastating effects.
The Gutenberg Printing Press revolutionized the way that information was recorded and distributed. Books became accessible to more people. Because information was more easily distributed, science, art, and ideas in general were able to spread around the world much more quickly.
Aztec power was at its height during the reign of Aztec Emperor Ahuizotl.
Estimates of the American Indian populations in the Western Hemisphere around 1492 range from a low 8.4 million to over 112 million people.
Columbus embarked on his first iconic journey to the New World from Palos, Spain.
King Ferdinand and Queen Isabella drive the Moors from Spain at the Battle of Granada.
The Italian Renaissance reached its peak around 1500. This important revolution of thought, and reshaping of intellectual critiques of the natural world, later spread through Europe.
The famed sculpture, “David,” is created by Michelangelo.
Leonardo da Vinci painted the "Mona Lisa".
Martin Luther publicly criticized the abuses and indulgences of the Catholic Church throuh his posting of 95 theses (writings) in Wittenberg, Germany. His writings began the period of Reformation when Protestants split from the Catholic church.
Ferdinand Magellan set sail from Seville and became the first explorer to circumnavigate the globe. Although he was killed on one of the Pacific islands of Ladrones, one of his ships, under the command of the Basque, Juan Sebastian del Cano, completed the voyage back to Seville.
With forces under Cortez moving north through Mexico, and forces of Pizarro moving South along the Western Andes, Spain conquered much of South America, Central America, and what would later become the Southern United States. A ruthless rule over these regions ensues.
Smallpox, the first Old World disease to reach the Americas, is estimated to have reached North America sometime between 1520 and 1524.
The first school for American Indians was founded in Texcoco, Mexico.
Under the command of Babur, the Moguls invaded India.
Ivan the Terrible ruled Russia from 1533-1584.
The city of Sao Paulo was founded in Brazil.
Elizabeth Tudor became Queen of England in November of 1558, and ruled until her death in 1603.
Tobacco from the Americas was introduced to the European market.
St. Augustine, Florida is founded by the Spanish.
English settlers establish a colony on Roanoke Island. When a supply ship returned in 1591, there was no trace of the colonists. All that was found was the word, “Croatoan,” carved into a tree.
William Shakespeare authored "Hamlet."
Tokugawa Ieyusu completes the unification of Japan, thereby ending the Sengoku Period (over a century of near-perpetual warfare) and established the Tokugawa Shogunate.
Jamestown, Virginia is founded by English settlers under the leadership of John Smith. He is allegedly taken prisoner by the Powhatan Tribe, then spared by the pleadings of the chief’s daughter, Pocahontas. After less than two decades of peace and assistance from the Powhatan Tribe, the settlers begin to systematically wipe them out.
The thirteen colonies were founded in what would later become the United States of America. Jamestown (in Virginia Colony) began the founding of the colonies, while the Charter for the colony of Georgia allowed for the establishment of the 13th colony in 1732.
Quebec, the first city in Canada, is established by Samuel de Champlain.
Formal government was established in Canada with Louis de Bourbon, nephew to French King Louis XIII, appointed as Governor of New France
Construction of the Blue Mosque was completed in Istanbul Turkey.
The Thirty Years War raged in Europe.
The Mayflower lands and Plymouth, Massachusetts is founded by English Pilgrims, led by William Bradford.
The Powhatan War rages in the region surrounding Jamestown, Virginia. By its conclusion, settlers had killed or driven away nearly all American Indians from their lands in the area.
Salem, Massachusetts is established by English Puritans under the leadership of John Winthrop.
Galileo Galilei published "A Dialogue on the Two Great Systems of the World," proving that the earth rotated around the sun. This caused a huge uproar in Europe. Galileo was forced to recant (take back) his findings by the Inquisition in Rome, and lived under house arrest for the rest of his life.
Boston becomes the capital of the Massachusetts Bay Colony, a strict Puritan theocracy.
George Calvert (aka, Lord Baltimore), a Catholic convert, establishes the colony of Maryland with the aim of creating a home for Catholics from Britain.
Harvard was founded through a vote of the Great and General Court of the Massachusetts Bay Colony in the year 1636.
Settlers slaughter nearly all Pequot peoples and seize their lands.
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