Chronograph

Chronograph shows what was happening across the world at the same moment. Pick a year, a decade or a century, and a 3D globe and a timeline show every event of that period by region — with causes and consequences, the paths of people and states, and what else was going on elsewhere.

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Centuries

Years with the most events

Threads

• Eastern Europe and Rus’ before the Baptism (1st–10th c.) 200 BC – AD 1015 · 46 events

  From the Sarmatians, Goths and Huns to the Antes, the Khazars and the Varangians, and from the first Rus’ princes to Vladimir’s baptism of Kyiv: ten centuries in the lands of the future Rus’ and their neighbours.

• Europe in the Roman age (1st–5th c.) 9–508 · 38 events

  From the Teutoburg Forest and the death of Augustus to the deposition of the last western emperor and the baptism of Clovis: five centuries of the Roman Empire in Europe and the Mediterranean — its height, its crisis, its conversion to Christianity and the rise of the barbarian kingdoms.

• Early medieval Europe (500–1000) 529–1001 · 45 events

  Five centuries between Rome and the High Middle Ages: Justinian’s reconquest and plague, the Lombards and Avars, the Arab sieges of Constantinople and the conquest of Spain, Charlemagne’s empire and its partition, the Vikings and Magyars, the conversion of the Slavs, and the new Christian kingdoms of the year 1000.

• Asia, Africa and the Americas in the 13th century 1181–1299 · 12 events

  The world beyond the Mongol campaigns and the wars of Europe: the Delhi Sultanate and the Mali Empire, the stone temples of Angkor and the rock-hewn churches of Lalibela, the rise of Majapahit and of the Solomonic dynasty, the founding of Cusco and the Ancestral Puebloan departure from Mesa Verde.

• Europe and the Mediterranean in the 13th century 1204–1295 · 16 events

  From the crusaders’ sack of Constantinople in 1204 to the fall of Acre in 1291: the later crusades, the Reconquista, Magna Carta, scholasticism, the Sicilian Vespers and the travels of Marco Polo.

• Mongol conquests 1206–1294 · 21 events

  From the kurultai of 1206, which proclaimed Temüjin Genghis Khan, to the death of Kublai in 1294: Mongol campaigns into China, Central Asia, Rus’ and Central Europe, Anatolia and the Middle East, Japan and Java.

• Rus’ in the 13th century 1216–1283 · 17 events

  From the Battle of Lipitsa to Batu’s invasion, Alexander Nevsky’s victories in the northwest, the establishment of dependence on the Horde and the emergence of the Principality of Moscow.

• History of Portugal since the Battle of Aljubarrota 1385–1999 · 41 events

  Six centuries of Portugal and its overseas empire — from the victory at Aljubarrota and the capture of Ceuta through the Iberian Union and the independence of Brazil to the Carnation Revolution and the handover of Macau in 1999.

• Age of Discovery and the New World 1420–1543 · 21 events

  From Dias’s voyage around Africa and Columbus’s expedition to the first circumnavigation of the globe, the fall of the Aztec and Inca empires, expeditions into the interior of North America and the arrival of the Portuguese in Japan.

• Asia and Africa in the 15th and 16th centuries 1449–1550 · 20 events

  The Ming, Songhai, Safavid and Mughal empires, the Sengoku period in Japan, new states in the steppes of Central Asia and in Indochina, and the arrival of the Portuguese in the Indian Ocean.

• Europe and the Ottoman Empire: the end of the Middle Ages 1453–1543 · 19 events

  From the fall of Constantinople and the end of the Hundred Years’ War to the Reformation, the empire of Charles V and the Ottoman victories at Chaldiran, Ridaniya and Mohács.

• Muscovy 1462–1556 · 16 events

  From the “gathering of the Russian lands” under Ivan III and liberation from dependence on the Horde to Ivan IV’s coronation as tsar and the annexation of Kazan and Astrakhan.

• Russia at the turn of the 19th century 1783–1815 · 28 events

  The last years of Catherine the Great, the reign of Paul I and the first fifteen years of Alexander I: wars with the Ottoman Empire, Sweden, Persia and Napoleon, the partitions of Poland, the first Russian voyage around the world and Russian America.

• The world in the Age of Revolution 1783–1816 · 32 events

  While Europe lived through revolution and the Napoleonic Wars: the birth of the United States and Haiti, Latin America on the eve of independence, China, Korea and Vietnam, India, Egypt and Africa, the Balkans and Oceania, scientific discoveries and the climate catastrophe of 1815–1816.

• French Revolution and Napoleonic Wars 1789–1821 · 37 events

  From the storming of the Bastille to Waterloo, the Congress of Vienna and Napoleon’s death on Saint Helena: the revolution in France and a quarter-century of wars that redrew the map of Europe.

Guided views

• 117 — the Roman Empire at its greatest extentThe year of Trajan’s death: the empire stretches from northern Britain to the Persian Gulf, Dacia has just been conquered and Armenia and Mesopotamia annexed; his successor Hadrian will soon give up the eastern conquests and begin his wall in Britain.
• 476 — the end of the Western Roman EmpireOdoacer deposes Romulus Augustulus at Ravenna. Much of the West is already divided among barbarian kingdoms — Visigoths, Vandals, Burgundians, Franks — while the Eastern Roman Empire rules on from Constantinople.
• 800 — an emperor in the WestChristmas 800: Pope Leo III crowns Charlemagne in Rome while Empress Irene rules in Constantinople and the Umayyad emir in Córdoba; the Avar khaganate has just been broken, and the Vikings have begun to raid the coasts of Britain.
• 860s — the Rus’ enter historyThe decade that brought the Rus’ into the light of written history: their fleet attacks Constantinople in 860, the chronicle places the calling of Rurik in 862, and Patriarch Photius reports their first baptism; in the same years Constantine (Cyril) debates at the court of the Khazar khagan before setting out for Moravia, and Bulgaria accepts Christianity.
• 988 — the Baptism of Rus’The year of Vladimir’s alliance with Basil II: six thousand Rus’ warriors fight for the emperor against Bardas Phokas, Vladimir marches on Chersonesus to claim Anna Porphyrogenita, and the people of Kyiv are baptised in the Dnieper.
• 1000 — Europe at the millenniumAround the year 1000: Stephen is crowned King of Hungary, the Althing makes Iceland Christian, Leif Erikson reaches Vinland, Otto III and Sylvester II dream of a renewed Roman Empire, and Basil II fights for Bulgaria.
• 1241 — the Mongols at the gates of EuropeSpring 1241: within two days the Mongol armies crushed the Poles at Legnica and the Hungarians at Mohi; Kyiv lies in ruins, while in northwestern Rus’ Alexander Nevsky is preparing for the Battle on the Ice.
• 13th century — the Mongol ageFrom the kurultai of 1206 to the death of Kublai: the Mongol Empire from Korea to Hungary, the Crusades and the fall of Acre, Magna Carta, the travels of Marco Polo, the birth of the Mali Empire, and the temples of Angkor and the churches of Lalibela.
• 1290s — from Acre to JavaOne decade at opposite ends of the world: the Mamluks take Acre, the Yuan fleet leaves Java, where Majapahit is born, Kublai dies, Marco Polo returns to Venice, Alauddin Khalji takes the throne in Delhi, and across the ocean the Ancestral Puebloans live through the last years of the Great Drought far from the Mesa Verde they have left behind.
• 1453 — the end of the Middle AgesA single year: the fall of Constantinople and the end of Byzantium, and the Battle of Castillon, which ended the Hundred Years’ War; in Mainz, Gutenberg is preparing his Bible for the press.
• 1470s — from Novgorod to VijayaOne decade across Eurasia and Africa: Ivan III subjugates Novgorod, Mehmed II crushes Uzun Hasan at Otlukbeli, the Kazakh Khanate takes shape on the steppe, Đại Việt destroys Champa, the Ōnin War rages in Kyoto, Songhai holds Timbuktu, and Afanasy Nikitin returns from India by way of Persia and Trebizond.
• 1492 — the world on the eve of contactThe year of the fall of Granada and Columbus’s first voyage: Europe, the Aztec and Inca empires and Asia still know nothing of one another.
• 1520s — the first circumnavigationThe decade of the Magellan–Elcano voyage: the fall of Tenochtitlan, the Reformation in Germany, Mohács and the siege of Vienna, Panipat and the birth of the Mughal Empire.
• 1789–1815 — the Age of RevolutionFrom the storming of the Bastille and Washington’s inauguration to Waterloo and the eruption of Tambora: a quarter-century of revolutions and wars on every continent.
• 1804 — one year on four continentsHaiti’s declaration of independence and Napoleon’s coronation, the Napoleonic Code, the start of the First Serbian Uprising and of Usman dan Fodio’s jihad, the Lewis and Clark Expedition, the Balmis smallpox vaccine expedition in Spanish America and Rezanov’s embassy at Nagasaki.
• June 1812 — the world in one monthOn 18 June the United States declared war on Great Britain, and on 24 June the Grande Armée crossed the Neman: two wars on opposite sides of the Atlantic began six days apart.
• 1812 — a year of warNapoleon’s invasion of Russia, Borodino and the burning of Moscow, the war between the United States and Britain, the Treaty of Bucharest and the founding of Fort Ross in California — one year on every continent.

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