A Timeline of World Literature & History
Prepared by Skylar H. Burris
This annotated timeline is meant to provide an organized overview of literature not written in English as well as important historical events that may have influenced that literature. It is not yet fully developed.
Occasionally, you will see a blank line ___ instead of a date. This generally means the exact date is unknown and I have not yet filedl in an estimate. The placement of these works and events, however, will give you a general idea of where they fall on the historical timeline. Many of the BC dates are based on scholarly speculation, and you may see different dates in other timelines. Footnotes will open at the bottom of the page.
Separate timelines are available for English and American literature and history. There may be some slight overlap in historical events among these three timelines.
BEFORE CHRIST
3_00 Sumerians develop Cuneiform, the earliest known form of writing
Egyptians develop
hieroglyphics
2700 Epic of Gilgamesh (Babylonian; often compared by scholars to the stories in Genesis)
2500 Pharaoh Cheops builds the Great Pyramid at Giza
2___ Tower of Babel built
2000 Age of the Patriarchs
1728 Hammurabi's Code (law code often compared by scholars to the Mosaic law)
1600 Israelites migrate into Egypt
1580 The Book of the Dead (Egyptian)
1500 Canaanites create the first alphabet
1366 Pharaoh Amenhotep IV practices a form of monotheism
1___ The Exodus of the Jews from Egypt
1200 Chinese writing system developed
1190 Egypt is invaded by Sea Peoples
1184 Trojan War ends with the siege of Troy
1___ Saul anointed first King of Israel
1___ David is King of Israel (author of many Psalms)
952 Solomon builds the Temple in Jerusalem (author of many Proverbs)
922 Israel divided into Southern (Judah) and Northern (Israel) kingdoms
800 Homer, The Iliad and The Odyssey
722 Israel falls to Assyria
716 Ethiopia begins rule of Egypt (50 years)
612 Fall of Nineveh
621 Deuteronomic Code rediscovered in the Jewish temple
600 Upanishads written in India
___ Babylonian empire gorws under Nebuchadnezzar (605-562)
586 Babylonian King Nebuchadnezzar destroys the Temple
550 Cyrus captures Babylon and founds the Persian Empire
538 Edict of Cyrus allows Jews to return to rebuild the temple
400 The Pentateuch, or Torah, is firmly established by this date
440 Sophocles, Ajax (author of Antigone, Oedipus, etc.)
438 Euripides, Alcestis (author of Andromache, etc.)
350 The Tao Te Ching composed by this date (oral tradition dates to 650 B.C.)
323 Alexander the Great of Macedonia
conquests Persia, Egypt, Mesopotamia, Israel, etc.
Hellenist Period
begins
Ptolemy rule
2__ The Septuagint
200 By this date, "Prophets" are widely accepted
as part of the Hebrew Bible
Pseudepigraphal writings begin
(through 200 A.D.)
167 Maccabean revolt
63 Romans capture Jerusalem; Hasmonaean rule
47 Julius Caesar attacks Alexandria, and its library is partly destroyed
37 Herod King of Judea
29 Virgil, The Aeneid
6 Jesus the Christ is born
19 Virgil dies
3_ Jesus crucified and resurrected
37 Josephus is born
59 Most of the apostle Paul's letters are in circulation by this date
65 Gospel of Mark is probably in circulation by this date
70 Temple destroyed by Titus
73 Masada falls
80 Gospel of Matthew is probably in circulation by this date
90 Gospel of John is probably in
circulation by this date
Hebrew Scriptural Canon established by
this date
105 Paper is invented in China
132 Bar Kokhba Revolt (Second Jewish Revolt)
150 The Apostle's Creed is drawn up in Rome
175 Marcus Aurelius, Meditations
185 Irenaeus writes Against the Heresies in reaction to Gnosticism
200 Rabbi Judah compiles and edits The Mishnah
The Hindu epic Mahabharata is completed
313 Constantine declares freedom of worship with the Edict of Milan
397 New Testament Cannon is established at the Council of Carthage
656 The Koran is established by this date
856-75 Viking raids are at their peak
1207 Rumi, mystical Islamic poet and teacher, is born
1280 Moses de Leon begins composition of The
Zohar
(Jewish mystical kabbalistic writings)
1310 Dante, Divine Comedy
1327 100 Years War Begins (Edward III's claim to crown of France)
1353 Boccacio finishes the Decameron
1374 Petrarch dies
1415 Battle of Agincourt (Henry V defeats the French)
1517 Reformation Begins
1546 Council of Trent explicitly announces the
cannon of the Catholic Bible,
including the
Apocrypha
1618 30 Years War begins in Europe
1648 30 Years War Ends
1713 Treaty of Utrecht ends the war with England and Louis XIV
1756 The Seven Years' War (French and Indian Wars) begins
1759 Voltaire's Candide
1763 Treaty of Paris ends the Seven Years War
1789 The French Revolution begins
1793 Bastille stormed. Louis XVI executed. Reign
of Terror under Robespierre.
England wars
with France; the Napoleonic Wars begin
1815 Napoleon defeated at Waterloo
1848 Marx and Engles publish Communist Manifesto
1870-1 Franco Prussian War
1875 Tolstoy, Anna Karenina
1880 Dostoevski, The Brother's Karamazov
1914 World War I
1928 Erich Maria Remauque, All Quiet On the Western Front
1930 The Great Depression
1936 Spanish Civil War Begins
1939 World War II
1947 Dead Sea Scrolls discovered
1955 Vladmir Nabokov, Lolita
[ Website
Table of Contents | Literary Resources
| GRE Help ]
Last Revised: Sunday January 02, 2005 10:45 AM -0500