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Apr 17, 1492
Discovery of America
In 1492, the Italian navigator Christopher Columbus introduced a project to Queen Isabella “The Catholic” of Spain, leading across the Atlantic to get to China and India. He dreamed of doing big business with the riches of Asia. The queen supported him and did sign a contract entitled “Surrender of Santa Fe” (April 17, 1492). Columbus prepared three ships (the Santa Maria, the Pinta and the Nina) and 90 men. -
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The Enlightenment.
The 17th and eighteenth century time period was a time for Europeans philosophers preaching their point of of the use of reason, as they believed it was "the best method for learning the truth."
Things such as experiments were developed, being more scientific methods. Middle Ages believed that religion was the answer to everything, and the thinkers of the Enlightenment believed that all humans had the ability to reason. This then challenged the Middle Ages' beliefs. -
Discovery of Electricity
Benjamin Franklin conducted an experiment in 1752 to prove that lightning was electrical. He went out into a thunderstorm and tied a metal key to the bottom of a kite and, as he suspected it would, electricity from the storm clouds flowed down the string, which was wet, and he received an electrical shock. This experiment was very dangerous, and he was lucky that all he received was a shock, but this turned out to be one of the most important experiments of all time. -
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Seven Years War
A power struggle in Europe, North America, and India that involved most of the nations of Europe. Prussia emerged from the war as a powerful state. Great Britain, victorious over France, became the world's greatest colonial power. -
Boston Massacre
ixty colonists taunted ten redcoats, clubbing them and throwing rocks and snowballs, provoking them to open fire. Eleven "innocent" colonists were killed, including Crispus Attucks, the leader of the mob and a runaway "mulatto" slave. Though both sides were partially to blame, this incident was used in revolutionary propaganda (pictured) and fueled the colonists' anger. -
Battle of Concord
Took place right after Battle of Lexington. British attempt to seize colonial gunpowder, capture Samuel Adams and John Hancock- leaders of rebellion. Colonists prepared after Lexington, hid behind walls and shot British, pushed back to Boston. Seventy British soldiers were killed, with 300 total British casualties. -
French Revolution
The Revolution took shape in France when the controller general of finances, Charles-Alexandre de Calonne, arranged the summoning of an assembly of “notables” (prelates, great noblemen, and a few representatives of the bourgeoisie) in February 1787 to propose reforms designed to eliminate the budget deficit by increasing the taxation of the privileged classes. -
Europeans Arrived in Australia.
In 1606, the first records of Europeam mariners settling into Australian waters occured, and includes their observations of the land known as Terra Australis Incognita (unknown southern land). The first ship and crew to chart the Australian coast and meet with Aboriginal people was the Duyfken captained by Dutchman, Willem Janszoon. -
First Fleet Arrives.
In Great Britain, on the 13th of May 1787, eleven ships left for Australia. The total number of free people was 348 and the total number of prisoners was 696, coming to a total of 1044 persons. The Fleet was sent to New South Wales (as named by Captain Cook) in order to begin European colonisation in Australia. -
Smallpox Outbreak.
In April 1789, just over fifteen months after the First Fleet of British convicts, sailors and marines had arrived in Port Jackson, the Aborigines of the Sydney region were seen to be dying in large numbers in the vicinity of the British settlement and up the harbour towards the Heads.
From the journals of the British in the First Fleet it is clear that they died from a smallpox virus, for the people of the First Fleet knew smallpox when they saw it. In Britain it was universsal. -
The Wiradjuri War - Bells Falls Gorge Massacre
The people of this region were the proud nation of the Wiradjuri. After the crossing of the Blue Mountains in 1813 the war moved into their territory. The Wiradjuri initially withdrew and observed the Europeans. However soon as in other areas tension grew as the rapid settlement of the area with cattle and sheep destroyed food supplies and limited access to water supplies. There were many incidents of Aboriginal women being raped and subsequent conflicts arising. -
Chinese Migration
Records show that in 1829 Moon Chow was the first Chinese to settle in Western Australia, it was not until 1847 that another 51 Chinese men arrived from Singapore as a source of cheap labour for the growing colony. They were employed as cooks and domestic servants in Perth, York, Albany and Bunbury.
Some positives are, cheap labours, sales increased, more cultures. Negatives include, diseases, opium possession, and taking jobs. -
Industrial Revolution
Period of massive economic, technological, social and cultural change which affected humans to such an extent that it's often compared to the change from hunter-gathering to farming. At simplest, a mainly 'agrarian' world economy based on manual labour was transformed into one of industry and manufacturing by machines. The exact dates vary by historian, but the 1760/80s to the 1830/40s are most common, with the developments beginning in Britain and then spreading to the rest of the world. -
Gold Rush.
The first gold rush May 1851 - Edward Hargraves discovered gold in NSW, this was the start of many discoveries.The gold rushes caused large influxes of people from overseas = mass international immigration. -
Boxer Rebellion.
Beginning in 1898, groups of peasants in northern China began to band together into a secret society known as I-ho ch'üan called the "Boxers" by Western press. Members of the secret society practiced boxing and calisthenic rituals (hence the nickname, the "Boxers") which they believed would make them impervious to bullets.
At first, the Boxers wanted to destroy the Ch'ing dynasty (which had ruled China for over 250 years) and wanted to rid China of all foreign influence. -
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Anglo-Japanese Alliance
An alliance that joined Japan and Britain assisting each other in safeguarding their respective interests in China and Korea. Directed against Russian expansionism in the Far East, it was a cornerstone of British and Japanese policy in Asia until after World War I. The alliance served Japan in the Russo-Japanese War (1904–05) by discouraging France, Russia’s European ally, from entering the war on the Russian side. It was renewed in 1905 and again in 1911 after Japan’s annexation of Korea. -
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Gallipoli Campaign
Joint military operation of the Allied Powers in the Gallipoli Peninsula in the erstwhile Ottoman Empire. The operations were undertaken to open up a third front in addition to the Eastern and Western Fronts. The campaign was also an attempt to secure control of the Dardanelles Strait, which was closed down by the Ottoman Empire following their entry into the war. The strait was an easy route connecting the Mediterranean Sea with the Black Sea, allowing France and Brritain access to Russia.
