TOWARDS Modernisation

( C . TO ) T HEMES IN W ORLD H ISTORY DATES - - - - - - - - - - - - - - AFRICA King Agaja of Dahomey ( - ), West Africa, stops slave trade * ; it is reintroduced in the 1740s The first outbreak of smallpox ( ) brought by sailors, in Cape Town, South Africa Peak of international slave trade, all the colonial powers are involved in it. Several hundred thousand Black Africans are taken across the Atlantic every year. As many as two-thirds die on board ship itself Mohammed Ali rules Egypt, - ; Egypt breaks away from Ottoman empire Liberia founded ( ) in West Africa as home for freed slaves Abd-al-Kadir leads Arab resistance ( - ) against French presence in Algeria EUROPE Carolus Linnaeus invents a taxonomic system * to classify plants and animals ( ) Emelian Pugachev heads a peasant uprising ( – ) that sweeps across Russia The beginning of the French Revolution * ( ) Louis Braille develops a system of finger reading * ( ); passenger trains introduced in England ( ) Liberal and socialist movements in several European countries ( ) DATES - - - - - - - - - - - - - - AFRICA Suez Canal * , one of the most important trade routes in the world, opens ( ) Beginning of the European “Scramble for Africa” Mahatma Gandhi * advocates satyagraha to resist racist laws ( ) South Africa introduces laws to reserve per cent of land for whites ( ) First trans-African railway from Angola to Mozambique completed ( ) Afrikaner National Party wins power in South Africa ( ).

The policy of Apartheid is put in place Ghana is the first country in sub-Saharan Africa to become independent ( ) Organisation of African Unity founded ( ) Nelson Mandela * freed in South Africa ( ); process of dismantling apartheid begins EUROPE Russian serfs are freed ( ) Germany and Italy emerge as unified nation-states The making of the first film ( ); the modern Olympics are held for the first time in Athens ( ) World War I ( - ); the Russian Revolution of Turkey becomes a republic under Mustapha Kemal ( ) Hitler captures power in Germany ( ) World War II ( - ) Britain recognises Irish independence ( ) Discovery of DNA; Russia launches the spacecraft Sputnik ( ) Protest movements in Europe ( ) Mikhail Gorbachev, leader of the USSR ( ) Beginning of the world wide web ( ) Scientists clone the sheep Dolly ( ) raising new debates about the limits of genetic engineering T IMELINE - IV T HEMES IN W ORLD H ISTORY DATES - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - ASIA Gujin tushu jicheng * , the largest encyclopaedia ever printed, commissioned by Kangxi, the Manchu ruler of China Aoki Konyo, a Japanese scholar compiles a Dutch/Japanese dictionary ( ) The British export of opium * from India to China expands dramatically Javanese revolt against Dutch ( - ) Ottoman sultan Abdul Majid starts a programme of modernisation ( ) King Rama IV rules Thailand; opens the country to foreign trade ( ) French begin to occupy Indo-China (Southeast Asia) ( ) Opening of the first Japanese railway, Tokyo to Yokohama ( ) Britain annexes Burma (Myanmar) ( - ) SOUTH ASIA The Marathas extend control over northern India Robert Clive defeats Siraj ud daula, Nawab of Bengal, at Battle of Plassey Ranjit Singh * founds Sikh kingdom in Punjab ( ) Practice of sati made illegal ( ) Railway and telegraph line introduced ( ), the Great Revolt * ( ) Famine in the Deccan, southern India ( - ); over five million die Foundation of Indian National Congress * ( ) T IMELINE - IV DATES - - - - - - - - - - ASIA Japanese navy defeats Russian fleet ( ) Balfour Declaration promises homeland for Jews in Palestine ( ) Opening of British oil pipeline from Iraq to Syria ( ) United States of America drops atomic bombs on Japanese cities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki * ( ) killing approximately , civilians. Many more were to die later on through the effects of radiation; formation of People’s Republic of China ( ) Bandung Conference ( ) strengthens the Non-Aligned Movement Arab leaders set up Palestine Liberation Organisation to unite Palestinian refugees ( ); war in Vietnam ( - ) The Shah of Iran is overthrown ( ) Mass demonstrations for democracy in Tiananmen Square, Beijing, China ( ) The Gulf War between Iraq, Kuwait and the United States of America SOUTH ASIA Non-Cooperation movement ( ) launched by Mahatma Gandhi; E V Ramaswamy Naicker launches the Self- Respect movement in Tamil Nadu ( ) Alam Ara by Ardeshir Irani ( )is the first Indian talkie Quit India Movement ( ); India and Pakistan become independent ( ) India becomes a republic * ( ) Sirimavo Bandarnaike * becomes the world’s first woman prime minister ( ) Bangladesh emerges as an independent nation ( ) A leak at the Union Carbide pesticides plant in Bhopal ( ) leads to one of the worst industrial disasters in history, thousands die India and Pakistan conduct nuclear tests ( ) T HEMES IN W ORLD H ISTORY DATES - - - - - - - - - - - - - - AMERICAS The Portuguese introduce coffee in Brazil ( ) The Stono Slave Rebellion led by a literate slave Jemmy ( ) Juan Santos also called Atahualpa II, leads Native Americans of Peru in unsuccessful revolt ( ) Chief Pontiac of the Ottawa tribe leads protest against the British ( ) US Declaration of Independence ( ) US Constitution drawn up; dollars are first used as American currency ( ) Simon Bolivar * leads Venezuela to independence ( ) Trail of Tears; in the USA, thousands of eastern Native Americans are forced to move west, many dying on the way ( ) Meeting in Seneca Falls, New York, calls for equal rights for American women ( ) AUSTRALIA/PACIFIC ISLANDS Dutch navigator Roggeveen reaches Samoa Islands and Easter Island in the Pacific ( ) First of British Captain James Cook’s three voyages to Pacific * ( - ) First British convicts shipped to Botany Bay, Australia ( ) Matthew Flinders circumnavigates, then names, Australia; it means “southern” ( - ) Charles Darwin sets out on voyage to Pacific, Galapagos Islands ( ), leading to the development of the theory of evolution British and Maoris in New Zealand sign Treaty of Waitangi ( ). This was followed by a series of Maori uprisings ( - ) Beginning of the first regular steamship service between Australia and England ( ) DATES - - - - - - - - - - - - - - AMERICAS Civil War in USA ( - ); Thirteenth Amendment to the Constitution outlaws slavery Invention of telephone, record-player, electric bulb Invention of Coca-cola * ( ) Wright brothers invent the aeroplane ( ) Henry Ford begins assembly line production of cars ( ); Panama Canal linking the Atlantic and Pacific opened ( ) US Wall Street Stock Exchange crashes ( ); Great Depression follows; by , million are out of work The US enters World War II Fidel Castro comes to power after the Cuban Revolution ( ) Civil Rights movement in the USA ( ) * , US Civil Rights Act ( ) bans racial discrimination. Civil Rights leader Martin Luther King is assassinated ( ); US astronauts land on the moon ( ) US Congress passes Equal Opportunity Act in response to women’s movement ( ) AUSTRALIA/PACIFIC ISLANDS Transportation of prisoners to Australia from Britain ends ( ) Votes for women in New Zealand ( ) Influenza epidemic kills one fifth of population of Western Samoa ( ) Uprising of Mau people of Samoa against New Zealand government ( ) Tonga and Fiji gain independence from Britain ( ).

Papua New Guinea gains independence from Australia ( ) New Zealand declared a nuclear -free zone ( ); Treaty of Rarotonga sets up South Pacific Nuclear-Free Zone ( ) ACTIVITY If you compare the four timelines given in the book, you will find that the chronological reference periods in the left- hand column differ. Can you think of the reasons for this? Try and design a timeline of your own, giving reasons for your selections. T IMELINE - IV T HEMES IN W ORLD H ISTORY