Just as a forewarning, anything written in a different color has been quoted directly from

the text as they are thematic annotations.

[Social]

[Political]

[Religious]

[Technological]

[Economic]

●​ 4.5 Billion Years Ago- ..... The earth is formed by a cloud of gas and dust that takes
several billions of years to condense. This occurs long before any forms of life or
human existence.

"...like those other, far bigger ones we can see today through our telescopes."

"For billions and trillions of years, without rocks, without water and without life, that swirling
cloud..."

"...there was no sun, no earth, no stars."

●​ c. 300,000 Years Ago- ..... Humans learn to create fire, fashion stone axes and
scrapers, paint masked animals on the walls of dark caves, and build pile dwellings
over lakes.

"He learned to shape stone into hand-axes and scrapers, and discovered how to make fire."

"They painted animals on the walls of dark caves and built pile dwellings over lakes."

"They hunted wild animals and gathered wild berries and nuts."

"...they made magic to help them hunt."

●​ c. 3100 BC- King Menes conquers Lower and Upper Egypt, resulting in the first unified
country in history.

"It was King Menes who first united Upper and Lower Egypt into a single kingdom under his
rule."

"The whole of Egypt was dependent on the flooding of the Nile to make its soil fertile."
"The Egyptians believed that the soul of a dead man needed a body to live in, so they preserved
his body as a mummy and built pyramids for their kings."

"They invented a system of picture-writing called hieroglyphs, and wrote on sheets made from
papyrus reeds."

●​ c. 2000 BC- Sumerians and Babylonians construct the highest ziggurats and document
a set of well-defined laws carved on stone pillars.

"King Hammurabi had his strict laws carved into great pillars of hard stone for all to read."

"They wrote with wedge-shaped instruments on tablets of soft clay, which were then baked hard
in ovens."

"They worshipped the sun and moon and stars, and named the seven days of the week after the
seven planetary gods."

●​ c. 1250 BC.- Moses leads the children of Israel out of captivity in Egypt, and brings down
the Ten Commandments from Mount Sinai to bring ethical monotheism to his people.

"They believed in only one God, invisible and almighty, whose commandments Moses brought
down from Mount Sinai."

"Under Saul, David and Solomon, the twelve tribes united to form a kingdom, which later split
into two."

●​ c. 1000 BC- The seafaring Phoenicians develop an alphabet.

"The Phoenicians invented an alphabet with twenty-two signs, each representing a single
sound."

"They were brave sailors who built trading posts and colonies all around the Mediterranean."

●​ c. 800 BC- Homer writes monumental poetry.

"In his great songs Homer remembered the heroic deeds of the Greek heroes who fought before
the walls of Troy."

"Greek tribes settled in independent valleys and coastal towns, founding self-governing
city-states and overseas colonies."

"They traded with foreign nations across the seas..."

●​ 490-479 BC- Greek city-states band together to fight off a much larger Persian force in
the battles of Marathon, Thermopylae, and Salamis.
"The Athenians all knew what was at stake- their freedom and their lives, and those of their
wives and children."

"The Greek fleet at Salamis ambushed the heavy Persian warships in a narrow strait and
destroyed them."

●​ c. 450 BC- Golden Age of Athens

"In the People's Assembly of Athens, every citizen had the right to speak and vote on matters of
state."

"In Athens there lived poets, sculptors, architects and philosophers whose works remain famous
to this day."

"They built magnificent marble temples to honour their gods on the Acropolis."

"Greek architects developed beautiful columns to support the stone roofs of their temples."

●​ c. 500 BC- Prince Gautama rejects his royal inheritance to seek truth, achieving
enlightenment under a tree and spreading the Middle Way.

"He became the Buddha, the Enlightened One, teaching that all suffering comes from desire,
and that release from suffering is Nirvana."

"He spoke to all people, regardless of whether they belonged to a high caste or a low one."

●​ c. 500 BC- Siddhartha renounces his throne to find answers and then discovers
enlightenment under a tree. He shares his insights on the Middle Way.

"Confucius taught that people must respect their parents and elders, and carefully observe
ancient customs."

"He set out guidelines for proper conduct between a ruler and his subjects, based on justice and
benevolence."

●​ 334–323 B. C.- Alexander the Great conquers Persia in a single triumphant campaign;
his troops march into Egypt and India, and Greek culture is disseminated throughout the
region. Alexander dies of a fever in Babylon at the age of thirty-two.

"Alexander conquered the Persian empire and created a vast realm stretching from Greece to
the borders of India."

"In Egypt he founded the great port of Alexandria, which became the international center for
trade and learning."

"Greek speech, art and thought spread throughout the Middle East."
 ●​ 264–146 B. C.- Rome conquers Carthage.

"After three long Punic Wars, Rome completely destroyed its great Mediterranean rival,
Carthage."

"The struggles between patricians and plebeians led to written laws displayed publicly on
Twelve Bronze Tablets."

●​ 221 BC- The first unifying emperor of China, Shih Huang-ti, puts an end to China's
history of warring states. He also buries thousands of ancient historical documents and
connects old fortifications into the Great Wall.

"...he wanted to wipe out every trace of how things had been done before, so he could build an
entirely new China – his China – starting from scratch."

"Today it is still a massive construction, a double wall made of stone with tall towers and
castellations, winding its symmetrical way over plains, through deep ravines and up steep
mountain slopes..."

"Scholars who disobeyed his commands were buried alive."

●​ 44 BC – 31 BC- Caesar is assassinated.

"With the death of Julius Caesar and the rise of Augustus, the Roman Republic came to an end
and the Roman Empire was born."

"The Romans built grand paved roads to connect their provinces, along with immense stone
aqueducts to carry water into their cities."

●​ c. AD 30- Jesus is preaching love and forgiveness throughout Galilee, resulting in the
creation of Christianity, even amidst severe Roman persecution of his followers.

"Jesus preached that God is love, that men should love their enemies, and that the kingdom of
God is in our hearts."

"The Roman authorities saw Christians as dangerous rebels because they refused to worship
the emperor as a god."

●​ AD 313- Constantine legalizes Christianity.

"By issuing the Edict of Milan, Constantine granted Christians full freedom to practice their
religion without fear."

"He moved his imperial court east to the city of Byzantium, which he renamed Constantinople."
 ●​ AD 476 – Germanic invasions put an end to the Western Roman Empire, as Odoacer
deposes the young Emperor Romulus Augustulus

"Romulus Augustulus, the last one, was deposed in 476. In his place, a German general called
Odoacer proclaimed himself king of the Germans in Italy."

"In Constantinople, Emperor Justinian gathered all the ancient Roman laws into a monumental
collection called the Pandects."

"Foreign Germanic tribes migrated into the territories of the crumbling empire."

●​ c. AD 500-800 – Christian monks safeguard literacy and Roman classics in monasteries

"In their quiet monasteries, Benedictine monks spent their days copying manuscripts,
preserving the knowledge of ancient times."

"With the fall of Rome, cities decayed, roads fell into ruin, and most people in Europe could
neither read nor write."

●​ AD 622- Muhammad goes to Medina during the Hegira, founds Islam, which spreads
with remarkable rapidity through the Middle East, North Africa, and Spain

"In the Koran it is written- 'Fight the infidel until all resistance is destroyed.'"

"Arab scholars made great discoveries in science and medicine, and introduced Arabic
numerals to Europe."

"Within a short time, Arab conquerors established a massive empire stretching from Spain to
Persia."

"They decorated their palaces and mosques with intricate patterns called arabesques."

●​ AD 800- Pope Leo III crowns the Emperor of Saxony Holy Roman Emperor on
Christmas Day in Rome

"On Christmas Day in the year 800, Pope Leo III placed an imperial crown upon Charlemagne's
head in Rome."

"Charlemagne founded schools, invited scholars to his court, and had old German songs and
heroic lays written down."

●​ AD 1077- Henry IV walks through the snow to Canossa

"For three days King Henry stood barefoot in the snow outside the castle gates of Canossa,
begging Pope Gregory VII for forgiveness."
 "In feudal society, serfs were tied to the land they farmed, bound to serve their feudal lords who
ruled from hilltop castles."

●​ AD 1095- Pope Urban II calls upon Christian knights to go east and reconquer
Jerusalem, sparking hundreds of years of holy wars.

"Pope Urban II called upon all Christians to join together and liberate the Holy Sepulchre in
Jerusalem from Muslim rule."

"A noble knight was expected to be brave, loyal to his lord, generous to the poor, and respectful
towards women."

"Crusaders set up Christian kingdoms in the Middle East."

●​ c. 1200- Italian trading towns flourish (eventually coming under the control of the
Habsburg dynasty), marking a new era in European history.

"Count Rudolf of Habsburg was elected king, and established his family's power by securing
control over Austria."

"These goods were sold off in the ports, to be sold again inland in cities like Florence, Verona
or Milan..."

●​ c. 1300-1400- The growth of cities reaches an especially high point in Western

"People who lived in towns grew richer and richer... They governed themselves, much as
people did in antiquity."

"Workmen and craftsmen formed guilds to protect their trades, and townspeople built immense
Gothic cathedrals."

"Powerful merchant families controlled the city councils."

●​ c. 1450- The invention of printing press makes it easier for people to communicate with
each other.

"Johannes Gutenberg invented the art of printing using movable metal letters, while gunpowder
changed how wars were fought."

"In the Renaissance, artists and thinkers turned away from medieval ways to rediscover the art
and wisdom of ancient Greece and Rome."

●​ 1492- Christopher Columbus sets up sail into the Atlantic Ocean with three small ships,
but discovers a new world which is subsequently called Americas and an era of
discoveries, international trade, conquests, and settlements begins.
"For in those far-off lands there might be treasures, undiscovered riches there for the taking."

"And, with the help of a compass, how much simpler it would be to sail across the ocean..."

"European monarchies claimed vast new lands overseas."

●​ 1517- Martin Luther protests against the corruption of the church by putting ninety five
theses on the walls of a castle church in Wittenberg, which leads to the Protestant
Reformation.

"Martin Luther nailed ninety-five statements against the sale of indulgences to the door of the
castle church in Wittenberg."

"He translated the Bible into German, allowing everyday people to read the Scriptures for
themselves."

●​ 1588- The English navy defeats the Spanish Armada.

"The smaller, faster English ships, aided by fierce storms, destroyed King Philip II's invincible
Spanish Armada."

"English merchants established trading posts across distant oceans, founding East India
Companies to conduct global trade."

●​ 1618-1648- The Thirty Years’ War tears Europe apart.

"...and after all these years of appalling suffering, the envoys of the various rulers finally met in
1648 and, after interminable and complicated discussions, agreed on a peace..."

"Scientists like Galileo began to examine nature directly, discovering mathematical laws that
govern the physical universe."

●​ About 1680- King Louis XIV builds Versailles, the palace in which he concentrates
absolute power over France, leaving his peasants to extreme taxation.

"Louis XIV made himself absolute master of France, famously declaring that he alone was the
state."

"To pay for his luxurious court life at Versailles and his endless foreign wars, heavy taxes were
heaped upon poor peasants."

"Nobles lived lavish lives at court while ordinary peasants starved."

●​ 1683- Vienna withstands the Turkish siege.

"King Jan Sobieski took up position on the heights above Vienna and from there charged down
upon the Turks."
 "Tsar Peter the Great constructed the new, modern city of St. Petersburg as a Russian window
facing Europe."

●​ c. 1750- The Enlightenment thinkers promote reason.

"...they fought a long and hard battle to win tolerance, reason and humanity."

"The American War of Independence was fought on the principle that all men have an equal
right to liberty."

●​ 1789- The French Revolution begins and overthrows the monarchy in France and
eventually spreads to the whole country.

"The people of Paris stormed the Bastille, overthrowing the royal power and proclaiming the
sovereignty of the nation."

"During the Reign of Terror, the Jacobins sent thousands of people to be executed at the
guillotine."

"Financial ruin and food shortages forced the King to call the Estates-General."

"Revolutionaries closed churches and attempted to replace traditional religious practices."

●​ 1804-1815- Napoleon dominates Europe.

"The emperor Francis gave up the title of German emperor, and that was the end of the Holy
Roman Empire of the German Nation..."

"First and foremost, he forbade anyone in the whole of Europe to have any business dealings
with France's enemies, the British."

●​ c. 1830-1848- Factories, steam engines, and railways lead to a massive new working
class who are treated poorly and whose plight leads to the development of radical
political theories.

"Steam engines, steamships, locomotives and mechanical looms radically altered how human
beings worked and travelled."

"There were just two sorts – or classes – of people- those who owned and those who didn't. Or
as he chose to call them, capitalists and proletarians..."

"Factory workers lived in squalor and worked long, grueling hours."

●​ c. 1850-1865- The Civil War is fought and is won by the Union.

"Under President Abraham Lincoln, the United States fought a bitter Civil War to preserve the
Union and end slavery."
"Japan modernized rapidly with foreign help, transforming its ancient feudal state into a
powerful modern power."

●​ 1871- Bismarck unifies Germany.

"Through a series of victorious wars, Otto von Bismarck successfully united the German states
into a single empire."

"He created organisations to give support to workers who were sick or had had accidents... so
that the worst poverty was reduced."

●​ 1914–1918- World War I is fought in Europe, with new weapons such as machine guns
and poison gas. This war leads to the downfall of four major empires, causes the
Bolshevik Revolution in Russia, and changes the world’s power structure.

"In Russia a revolution broke out in 1917... the factory workers, under the guidance of their
leader, Lenin, seized power."

"Instead, giant armies dug themselves in, and made their camps in endlessly long trenches
facing one another."

"Millions of soldiers lost their lives on the battlefields of Europe."

●​ 1939–1945- Another world war breaks out and causes chaos worldwide.

"In August 1945, the Japanese towns of Hiroshima and Nagasaki became the first victims of an
unimaginable catastrophe..."

"The horror of mass murder carried out against millions of European Jews remains the darkest
chapter of modern history."

"With the atomic bomb, an entirely new chapter in the history of the world began, for the
discovery of atomic energy might be likened to the discovery of fire."