24 key events that changed world history.

I will try to organize world history into 24 key events split into 5 categories ordered chronologically. I want to give a snapshot of wars, conflicts, religions, empires, freedom struggles of the various regions of the world. Like in every such organization it sure is to leave out some important events.

I Birth of Empires

550 BCE — The birth of the first world empire.
Impact: The Achaemenid Empire set up by Cyrus the Great of Persia would become the template for the empires to come in Greece, Rome, India and elsewhere. Its extensive road network and postal system would serve as an inspiration. Most importantly, its wars with Greece would shape European history.

331 BC — Battle of Gaugamela. Alexander wins Persia.
Impact: In a 20 year period, all ancient civilizations other than China would change through a domino reaction. In 343 BCE Egypt fell to the Persians who took over the territory and since then pushed around by many of the major empires around it — Greeks, Persians, Romans, Arabs, Turks, French, British…

In 331, Alexander would win the overextended Persians at Gaugamela and reach up to the borders of India. His arrival in Indus would anger a local professor who would help set up the biggest Indian empire. The resulting Mauryan Empire would popularize the Buddhist faith across Asia.

Persia would remain in Greek control for a while bringing a synthesis of the east and west until the Parthians would take control in the following century. Egypt would remain in the Hellenic world for a few more centuries until the Romans took over. Europe would change significantly with Alexander’s onslaught. Greeks and later Romans would rise to be a major power in the region.

221 BC — Unification of China after Qi falls to Qin.
Impact: In the century after the major events happening from Greece to India, a Chinese ruler named Ying Zheng set out to integrate the 7 states that made the China of that time — Qin, Qi, Han, Yan, Wei, Chu, Zhao. These warring states fell one by one to the Qin king and finally in 221 BCE the last of kingdoms fell to make Ying Zheng the victor over the 7 states and hence the first emperor of China [ Qin Shi Huang]. The empire’s standards — from its written system to empire boundaries would become the template for China for following 2000 years.

100 BC — Establishment of Teotihuacan
Impact: The Mayan culture has been populating the central American region for centuries before that time. However, its heights were reached in the centuries following the building of Teotihuacan around 100 BCE. It was probably the greatest metropolis of the western hemisphere of its time built with grand pyramids for sacrifice. The Mayans however didn’t develop a single empire over the entire region. It is possible that like the Indus Valley civilization there were a collection of independent entities with shared structure. It developed a huge economic network stretching across the Americas and its power lasted all the way to the Spanish conquest in the 16th century.

49 BC — Crossing the Rubicon by Julius Caesar
Impact: A victorious Roman general who won over Gaul was afraid of returning to Rome due to the possibility of facing war criminal charges for his atrocities on the Gauls. He thus took a bold move of committing treason against the Roman Republic — of crossing the river Rubicon and bringing his army into Rome. Civil war ensued that led to the establishment of the Roman Empire.

II Realignment of Religions

313 AD: Constantine decriminalizes Christianity
Religions around that time were more localized. Although Buddhism spread with a missionary zeal there were still 1000s of religions of across the world. Christianity was one of the many faiths that were trying for attention in the Mediterranean world. Its concepts ran counter to Roman ideals and thus it was persecuted for a century until Emperor Constantine decriminalized the religion and by various accounts even might have converted to Christianity. The adoption of Christianity by the Roman Emperor would profoundly change Europe and Christianity.

636 AD: Yarmouk and victory of Islam
Impact: During the last ten years of Prophet Muhammad’s life, Islam was still fighting in Arabia. Muhammad and his followers raided various caravans coming to Mecca and were able to instill fear. They were wedged between the two power empires of Eastern Romans and Sassanids of Persia. However, a key turning point came in the Battle of Yarmouk. In that battle, an inferior Arab force was able to win over a much superior Byzantine army. That resulted in Syria falling to the Arab Caliphate. In the following century, Arabs would build one of the most fascinating empires whose impact is still seen 1400 years in religion, politics and culture of the region.

650 AD: Establishment of Sri Vijaya Empire
Impact: At around the 650 AD came the establishment of the largest empire in South East Asia that would last for nearly six centuries including the lands in present day Indonesia, Malaysia, Thailand and Cambodia. Its origins are still clouded in mystery as it was unearthed less than a century ago. It is a Buddhist empire with traces of Hinduism that left vast roots of both religions across the region. Its domination over the Sunda and Malacca straits provided it a significant advantage in the spire route and it was in this period trade with south India and south China reached its peak. There were also plenty of artistic influence from north Indian empires such as those of the Guptas and Palas. Starting from the 11th century, the empire declined due to fighting with the south Indian kingdom of the Cholas.

The kingdom has significantly influenced the present Indonesian and Malay languages and influenced the cultures Thailand, Indonesia and Malaysia.

III Reshaping Nations

800 CE: Charlemagne is crowned as the Holy Roman Emperor
Impact: Western Roman Empire fell apart since the 4th century CE and had no official emperors since 476 CE. However, Pope Leo would make the kingmaker and would do the unprecedented thing — decide the Roman Emperor and crown the king of Franks — Charles as the Holy Roman Emperor. Charles is often titled as the Father of Europe as he brought much needed stability to Europe & would form the inspiration for many of the later European conquerors including Napoleon and Hitler. The remnants of his empire would last nearly 1000 years and its boundaries (such as between France and Germany) would inspire some of the greatest conflicts of the world.

1192: Battle of Tarrain (Taraori). India conquered for the first time.
Impact: For thousands of years, India proved an impossible to conquer nation. Even at their heights, Arabs, Greeks, Persians and Mongols led by conquerors like Genghis Khan, Alexander, Darius and were not able to get into India. However, starting from around 1000 CE, north India would become a constant target of raids by Afghan kings such as the Mahmud of Ghazni. In 1192, in the second battle of Tarrain, the Mahmud of Ghor would use a brilliant tactic to win his much bigger rival. Mahmud’s slave would appointed as Delhi’s first sultan and north India would have a first non-Indian emperor in a long time. South and East India would hold out for a few more centuries.

This would substantially change the religion, culture and language in much of India. India would be conquered a few more times and the subcontinent would become home to world’s one of the largest Muslim populations, despite Hinduism continuing to be the leading religion.

1206: Temujin crowned as Genghis Khan
Impact: The Mongols were in a state of unrest — constantly warring among the tribes. In 1206, a leader named Temujin would unite these tribes and would be crowned as the Khan, but with a very new title — Genghis — meaning universal or the Khan of the world. In the next few decades, he would embark on a campaign unrivalled in world history — capturing a territory stretching from Southeast Asia to eastern Europe.

1215: Magna Carta — inspiration for modern democracies
Impact: For about 600 years from about 1200 until 1805 CE various French and German houses ruling England such as the House of Plantagenet and House of Hanover warred their “cousins” across the English Channel, France. At the start of this 6 century conflict came a key moment in the history of democracy. Besieged with a civil war, King John of England agreed to a bill of rights proposed by his feudal lords that moved more of the king’s powers to the nobles and the church. Although this event by itself had nothing to do with democracy, the transfer of power proved to be an inspiration for a variety of legal systems and democracies of the future — including the one in present Britain and United States.

1235: Battle of Kirina — establishment of the Mali empire
Impact: In West Africa, for centuries there was a prosperous Ghana empire trading in gold and salt. For a variety of inexplicable reasons it collapsed in the 12th century leading to a period of confusion and infighting. In 1235, an ambitious local chieftain named Sundiata Keita would win over this rival Kaniaga clan in the battle of Kirina to setup the Mali empire — one of the biggest ever in Africa. A century later the empire would capture the key city of Timbuktu whose fabled riches would create a scramble among Europeans looking to discover them. Under the Mali empire, the Niger river became heavily populated with a variety of cities and for two centuries it would be among the richest and most powerful empires of its time.

1453: Capture of Constantinople by the Ottoman Turks
Impact: After the fall of the Western Roman Empire in 476 CE, the Eastern Roman Empire would survive for 1000 more years, although in its later states confined to the city of Constantinople. Constantinople stood at a key trading route between Europe and India. Its capture by the Turks meant that the Christian Europe had to deal with the Muslims to trade with the east. The revulsion of Muslims caused Europeans such as Christopher Columbus and Vasco da Gama to explore alternate routes that resulted in Europe discovering vast chunks of the world including Americas and sub Saharan Africa. This discovery is the single more important event in world history.

IV Fall of civilizations

1519: March on Tenochtitlan
Impact: For the first 3 cades post the discovery of the Americas, the Spanish were confined to the islands of the Caribbean, fearing the power of the great empires of the mainland. However, one renegade warrior named Hernan Cortes would ignore the warnings and boldly march into the Aztec capital of Tenochtitlan. Curiosity took the best of the Aztec king and Cortes was allowed to live in the Aztec capital. However, Cortes would betray the welcome by capturing and later executing the king. This would spark a riot leading to the hasty exit of Cortes and his troops. Left behind was a dead Spanish soldier infected with Smallpox.

A year later when Cortes returned he would find that most of the fabled Aztec empire was in ruins devastated by disease. He attributed to divine luck and would conquer the Aztec empire. We now know the devastating spread of Smallpox on people unexposed to the virus. Cortes would inspire later conquistadors such as Francisco Pizarro who would use the same template on the Inca empire. Within a couple of decades of Cortes’ march, most of Americas would fall to the Spanish empire dramatically changing world history.

1884: The Berlin Conference to colonize Africa
This is the one event inserted out of the chronological sequence. It critically changed the politics of Africa. Until then only about a tenth of Africa had been colonized. In the following two decades only a tenth would remain uncolonized. The Congo river basin of Central Africa had not been explored by the Europeans fully until that time and its exploration led to the realization that Africa was a full continent stretching from Mediterranean all the way down.

Organized by Otto von Bismarck, the chancellor of Germany, the conference led to a formalizing of agreements among various European powers to divide Africa. France took a lot of the Western Africa, while Britain built one large contiguous group from Egypt all the way to South Africa with only German East Africa inbetween. These divisions broke the natural tribal boundaries and divided people and cultures between artificially created borders whose effects are seen even now.

1644: Fall of the last Han empire.
Impact: After three centuries of glory the last of Ming emperors Zhu Youjian would sadly commit suicide unable to protect Beijing from the invading rebel leader named Li Zicheng. By that time the Ming leaders lost the respect of their people, unable to manage major famines striking China. The rebellion would be used by Manchu peoples of the north to capture China setting up the Qing empire. Although the Qing empire had a few high points, it was a period when China slowly lost its position in the world and by the time the Qing left 250 years later, China was among the poorest places in the world. Brutal civil wars in 19th century killed millions of Chinese and China became dominated by western powers.

1757: Battle of Plassey. British start their colonization of India.
Impact: In 1757, India was in a fluid state with the Maratha empire trying to consolidate the remnants of the Mughal empire that died a couple of decades before that. It was in this crucial stage that the British East India Company got a surprise victory over a much bigger Bengal army — a former vassal of the Mughal empire who had just broken free. While treason in the battlefield weakened the Bengal army they still had the upperhand until an afternoon shower in the middle of the battle caused the exposed Bengal guns to get wet. The English were smart enough to cover their guns. After the end of shower the battle resumed with Bengal guns misfiring — scaring the war elephants and slaughtering their own army. The rich province of Bengal would fall to the British.

This lucky break for the English would be followed by a strategic mistake of the Maratha empire by taking on the powerful Afghans in the north. These two events would help the colonization of India that would last for nearly two centuries. The access to massive Indian markets and the raw materials would give rise to the Industrial Revolution. With the exploding economy and a massive armed forces supplied by India, Pax Brittanica would rule the world.

V Financial Crises, Ending tyranny and Birth of Hope

Financial crisis leads to more taxes that lead to the creation of many of the modern states.

1776: American Declaration of Independence
Impact: While the luck was on the English side in India, things went south in the United States. Massive taxes on their American colonies following yet another war with France left the people fuming. The East India Company that was overextended in India needed financial support and there were new Tea taxes. In the winter of 1773, a bunch of rebels in Boston threw these Tea brought from India into the water. The ensuing alterations would keep escalating until July 4, 1776 when US would declare independence.

US independence would eventually setup the world’s most powerful nation in the 20th century and would also drastically change the history of Americas as the Spanish colonies too rose up in rebellion throwing out Spain.

1789: French Revolution
Impact: The 18th century France was stuck in a financial crisis for the same reason that Britain suffered. Constant wars took a toll and the increasing taxes again angered the people. The king called for a convention of the three estates [aristocrats, church and commoners] and began dragging foot after seeing the people coming together. With significant pain and suffering due to the economic crisis, the commoners revolted and threw away monarchy.

Although french revolution was quickly undone with dictatorship coming back, its themes of equality, liberty and fraternity reverberated throughout the world and became an inspiration for a variety of revolutions, independence and rights movements through the world.

1917: Russian revolution.
Just like in France and United States, economic crisis would spark off a revolution in Russia too. Tsar Nicholas became increasingly authoritarian and his participation in the First World War significantly impoverished Russia and lead to massive food shortages. People united under Lenin and there were worker and peasant riots across Russia. The Tsar tried brutal methods to quell the rebellion and these methods backfired. With one hand tried in the war effort, he could not crush the revolution. The Communists won and the Tsar and his family was executed.

Russia’s rise of one of the first major communist nations would spark alarm all over the Western world. Fear of communism led the West to be too late to react to Hitler. Later Communism would capture nearly two-thirds of the world population and would lead to a cold war between the capitalistic US and communist USSR, nearly ending life on earth.

1945: End of the three centuries of brutal wars in Europe.
Impact: For centuries, leaders in France and Germany tried to unify Europe and become the successor to Charlemagne. These attempts resulted in a series of increasingly violent wars starting from the late 18th century. Napoleonic wars was followed by the various Prussian wars that led to the unification of Germany, which in turn led to two major conflicts in the early 20th century. Interspersed by a few decades of peace here and there, it was a long three century war to dominate the central Europe. This culminated in what is termed the second world war and the total defeat of Germany.

The end of this series of wars brought massive peace dividends to Germany as it grew to become one of the most dominant economies by the early 21st century.

1947: Independence of India.
Impact: Like in the American war of independence and other revolutions, economic crisis was one of the motivators of the Indian freedom movement. The leader of the movement Mahatma Gandhi setup a template for a freedom struggle that would inspire a variety of other peace struggle across the world. The freedom movement that started in the late 19th century eventually encompassed the whole of India, the second largest nation. Strained by Gandhi’s civil disobedience movements and depleted finance in the world wars, England finally decided to leave India in 1947. The Indian republic would then form the Non-Aligned Movement with other leaders of the world to help end colonialism all over the world. This also ended the British Empire.

1989: Fall of the Berlin Wall
Impact: After the second world war, Germany was divided into an eastern and an western zone. It was a major center of the cold war. Finally in 1989, the wall was brought down and Germany was reunified. This and other actions eventually led to the fall of the Soviet Union two years later and the end of the cold war.

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