Essential Events Before 1900

The arrival of Portuguese traders in Africa marked the onset of the Atlantic Slave Trade. European countries profited from the forced displacement and enslavement of at least twelve million Africans over three centuries. European powers gained wealth and expanded their empires in part by leveraging the profits generated through enslaved labor. The Atlantic Slave Trade laid the foundation for new economies throughout the Americas and the Caribbean. This trade system also contributed to the development of societal hierarchies in the New World that were based on race. Meanwhile this system shaped the demographic and economic trajectory of countries across Africa for centuries to come.

The publication of the Gutenberg Bible, the first book to be produced on Johannes Gutenberg’s newly invented printing press, signified a seismic shift in how people accessed news and knowledge. The invention of the printing press made, the dissemination of ideas faster, cheaper, and easier than ever before. Beyond creating the first global news network, the invention of the printing press cranked the Renaissance into high gear. Revolutionary printing technology enabled the re-emergence of rediscovered ancient Greek and Roman works. The copying and distribution of ancient literature and scientific works enabled radical scientific developments during the Renaissance. Nicolaus Copernicus, for example, used printed astrological information to inform his theory that the earth rotates around the sun.

Christopher Columbus began an era of European exploration, leading to the colonization of the Americas. Columbus’s arrival also kicked off the Columbian Exchange, a transfer of goods, people, and ideas between previously unconnected parts of the world. This exchange changed the trajectory of the world economy and radically reshaped societies on both sides of the Atlantic Ocean. From the Old World, travelers brought livestock, people, and plants to the Americas. European settlers also introduced diseases like smallpox, which decimated indigenous populations. From the New World, commodities like tobacco and chocolate and new foods like potatoes found their way to Europe, enabling its populations and economies to rapidly expand. However, high demand for New World goods, fortified a system of trade predicated on the labor of enslaved people.

Leonardo da Vinci’s famous painting is an iconic symbol of the Renaissance, a period of scientific, artistic, and philosophical exploration in fourteenth century Europe. Coinciding with the Age of Exploration, the Renaissance changed the world forever. The boundaries of European influence expanded into new continents, while the figurative size of the planet shrank, as distant places were brought closer than ever before. Often called a “Renaissance Man,” da Vinci—whose interests spanned art, science, nature, and beyond—epitomized the period and its focus on humanism.

In 1602, the Dutch government gave the newly incorporated Dutch East India Company a monopoly on global Dutch trade. This wide-reaching arrangement also gave the private joint-stock company the ability to wage war, enforce legal rulings, and create colonial settlements throughout Asia. Corporations were guided by the economic theory of mercantilism. This idea equated control of trade with power and fueled ventures like the Dutch East India Company and the British East India Company. As these multinational corporations grew in size, they went abroad in search of raw materials and new markets. Joint-stock companies transformed raw materials in the New World into finished goods back in Europe and sold these products to finance imperial expansion. Mercantilism would come to define Europe's relationship with much of the world for centuries. 

In the early 1600s, Galileo Galilei perfected his telescope. The astronomical observations it allowed lent support to Copernicus’s earlier theories, claiming the earth revolves around the sun. Called the “father of modern science” and the “father of scientific method,” Galileo’s contributions, which were based on evidence he observed, were controversial during his time; in fact, he was placed under house arrest by the Catholic Church. But ultimately, his findings led to a world in which scientific discoveries follow universal processes of trial and confirmation.

The Peace of Westphalia was a multilateral agreement which ended the Thirty Years’ War. This peace treaty helped lead to a new understanding of sovereignty, furthering the idea that countries have the right to control what happens within their own borders without fear of foreign interference. The Peace of Westphalia was an important step toward building today’s world, divided into countries whose borders are recognized internationally.

At the peak of its powers in the 1500s, the Ottoman Empire spanned large chunks of Africa, Europe, and Asia. Its many contributions, from mathematical advances to early surgical practices, shaped the world for centuries. But in the 1600s, Ottoman economic and military dominance began to wane as strengthening European powers posed a formidable counterweight. The Battle of Vienna, a matchup between Ottoman forces and the Holy Roman Empire, is generally recognized as the beginning of the end for the Ottoman Empire’s geopolitical influence. The Holy Roman Empire's successful defense of Vienna in 1683 marked the start of Christian Europe’s rise to prominence.

Originating in Europe during the 18th century, the Enlightenment movement promoted individualism and rational thought. This intellectual movement marked a profound shift in the way people thought about politics, religion, science, and life in general. In the most basic terms, people began looking to fellow human beings instead of God for solutions. This shift directly undermined the previously absolute authority of the Catholic Church and European monarchies. Big ideas about human rights, the nature of freedom, and the role of government were born during the Enlightenment. These ideas would go on to inspire political, religious, and societal revolutions, although many would struggle to attain the equality and freedom promised by the movement. 

Winston Churchill referred to Seven Years' War as the first "world war." This wide-ranging conflict was the first to spread across Europe, North America, the Indian subcontinent, West Africa, and the Philippines. Fought between France and Great Britain, and their respective allies, the war had several important geopolitical implications. First, the conflict completely reconfigured Europe’s balance of power by weakening France and strengthening Great Britain. The Seven Years' War also scrambled territorial claims in the Americas (Britain gained control of Florida, Spain gained Louisiana, and the French were expelled from Canada). Finally, and perhaps most consequentially, war spending left both France and Great Britain deep in debt, setting the stage for the American and French Revolutions several decades later.

Between 1750 and the 1900s, countries around the world experienced rapid industrialization. The transition from agrarian to machine manufacturing economies fundamentally changed life in the 18th century. Known as the Industrial Revolution, this transformative period of history coincided with an agricultural revolution that made possible the production of larger quantities of food for urban dwellers; urbanization and the birth of the middle class soon followed, as the demand for workers in city factories increased. Industrialization also changed the ways wars were fought. In addition, it coincided with increased international trade and innovation: new technologies like the steam engine, railroad, internal combustion engine, and telegraph revolutionized economies and lives around the world.

After winning their independence from the British during the Revolutionary War, the thirteen American colonies embarked on creating a new form of government. Even though "of the people, by the people, for the people" generally meant white male property owners, the overthrow of British rule in America sparked a new era of spreading self-governance. One of the important documents informing the values of this new government was the Declaration of Independence, which established Enlightenment ideals as central to the creation of a democratic republic. In 1789, a similarly inspired revolution upended France, as the people overthrew their monarchy in the name of liberty, equality, and fraternity. Two years later, hundreds of thousands of enslaved Haitians began demanding these same Enlightenment-inspired rights, leading to the world’s first Black-led republic in 1804.

In 1800, global life expectancy was estimated to be just twenty-nine years, infectious diseases were a major cause of premature death. Humanity’s centuries-long quest for disease immunity got a crucial boost in 1796 when a British doctor used cowpox to stop a child from contracting the deadly smallpox virus. This innovation—which came to be called vaccination—has become standard health-care practice in the modern world. The revolutionary innovation in 1796 eventually led to the eradication of smallpox in the 1970s. Vaccinations represent one of several medical advances, including the acceptance of germ theory and modern innovations in surgery, that improved health care and led global life expectancies to soar.

Sovereignty norms established by the Peace of Westphalia could not prevent the destruction and instability wrought by the Napoleonic Wars. After the conflict, representatives of several European powers met in Vienna to settle the international disturbances brought about by Napoleon’s rise to power. The meetings that followed, helped establish a structure for relative peace among the big forces in Europe. This arrangement, known as the Concert of Europe, prevented major conflict on the European continent until the outbreak of the First World War. It also created a diplomatic template to follow for future international institutions such as the League of Nations and the United Nations.

Great Britain’s victory in the First Opium War (1839–42) granted Britain special trading rights in China and led to Hong Kong becoming a British colony. This defeat marked the beginning of a period referred to in China as the “century of humiliation.” During this period, foreign powers forcibly opened Chinese ports for trade, extracted reparations, and took possession of Chinese territory following military defeats. Though Mao Zedong declared the end of this period with the creation of the People’s Republic of China in 1949, the "century of humiliation" continues to shape Chinese behavior on the world stage. With European exploitation fresh in the national memory, China deflects international criticism of domestic human rights abuses and strives to reunite former Chinese territories.

The Communist Manifesto is a critique of the shortcomings of capitalist society. Inspired by the lack of workers' rights during the Industrial Revolution, this political ideology advanced the idea that all of history is defined by class struggles. As a result, the solution to such conflict was for the working class to rise up and revolt. Marx called for communist revolutions around the world and believed that the victory of the proletariat, or working-class people, would destroy class-based societies. These ideas would prove electrifying for millions of people, inspiring a generational clash between communist and capitalist ideologies.

After initially welcoming Portuguese and Dutch traders and missionaries, Japan cut off all ties with the Western world for two hundred years. Japanese leaders rejected Western influence to ensure that foreign culture would not dilute traditional Japanese culture. This period of isolation ended abruptly in 1853, when U.S. Commodore Matthew Perry arrived in Japan. Perry demanded trading rights, sparking a period of modernization and industrialization in Japan known as the Meiji Restoration. This period saw the end of feudalism and introduced a constitutional monarchy with strict military conscription. The Meiji Restoration also inspired the development of critical infrastructure, and instituted government subsidization of industry. Japan's modernization unfolded during a period of history when many of the world’s biggest powers rapidly industrialized, changing global power dynamics forever. 

Germany was not always a unified nation. In 1871, Prince Otto Von Bismarck, successfully combined political pragmatism (known as realpolitik) with a growing sense of German nationalism to consolidate ethnic Germans into one state. German nationalism would continue to grow in Germany from its founding in 1871, developing into a root cause for both world wars.

The ongoing Industrial Revolution left the world’s imperial powers scrambling for natural resources—especially in Africa. Motivated by a desire to avoid a power struggle among themselves, representatives from fourteen countries met in Berlin to draw up colonial boundaries in Africa. The Berlin Conference decided on matters ranging from trade rights to control over major rivers, all without a single African representative present. Although many Africans resisted the ensuing colonization of their region, Europeans stoked existing political divisions among the continent’s kingdoms. As a result of internal discord, Europeans powers quickly assumed control of the continent. Imperial expansion was also aided by a significant technological advantage: ready access to guns. By 1914, with World War I on the horizon, European powers controlled almost 90 percent of the African continent.