Imperialism Timeline

  • East India Company

    The East India Company was an English and later British joint-stock company. It was formed to trade in the Indian Ocean region, initially with the East Indies, and later with Qing China.
  • Monroe Doctrine

    The best known U.S. policy toward the Western Hemisphere. Buried in a routine annual message delivered to Congress by President James Monroe.
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    Great Trek

    A movement of Dutch-speaking colonists up into the interior of southern Africa in search of land where they could establish their own homeland, independent of British rule.
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    Opium Wars

    Two wars waged between the Qing dynasty and Western powers in the mid-19th century.
  • Treaty of Nanjing

    The Treaty of Nanking was a peace treaty which ended the First Opium War between the United Kingdom and China. It was the first of what the Chinese later called the unequal treaties.
  • Matthew C. Perry in Japan

    American Commodor led his four ships into the harbor at Tokyo Bay, seeking to re-establish for the first time in over 200 years regular trade and discourse between Japan and the western world.
  • Treaty of Kanagawa

    Japan–US Treaty of Peace and Amity was a treaty signed between the United States and the Tokugawa shogunate.
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    Sepoy Rebellion

    First War of Independence, widespread but unsuccessful rebellion against British rule in India.
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    Suez Canal built

    A man-made waterway connecting the Mediterranean Sea to the Indian Ocean via the Red Sea. It enables a more direct route for shipping between Europe and Asia, effectively allowing for passage from the North Atlantic to the Indian Ocean without having to circumnavigate the African continent.
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    David Livingstone missionary work

    Livingstone became convinced of his mission to reach new peoples in the interior of Africa and introduce them to Christianity, as well as freeing them from slavery. It was this which inspired his explorations. He travelled across the Kalahari, on the second trip sighting the upper Zambezi River.
  • Queen Victoria crowned empress of India

    Benjamin Disraeli, Conservative Prime Minister, had Queen Victoria proclaimed as Empress of India. India was already under crown control after 1858, but this title was a gesture to link the monarchy with the empire further and bind India more closely to Britain.
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    Boer War

    Also known as the First Anglo-Boer War, the Transvaal War, or the Transvaal Rebellion. Fought between the United Kingdom and Boers of the Transvaal.
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    Panama Canal built

    An artificial 82 km waterway in Panama that connects the Atlantic Ocean with the Pacific Ocean. The canal cuts across the Isthmus of Panama and is a conduit for maritime trade.
  • Indian National Congress formed

    Was founded at Gokuldas Tejpal Sanskrit College in Bombay, with 72 delegates in attendance. Hume assumed office as the General Secretary, and Womesh Chunder Bonnerjee of Calcutta was elected President.
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    Open door policy

    The Open Door Policy is a term in foreign affairs initially used to refer to the policy that would allow for a system of trade in China open to all countries equally.
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    Boxer Rebellion

    The Boxer Rebellion, Boxer Uprising or Yihetuan Movement, was an anti-imperialist, anti-foreign and anti-Christian uprising in China towards the end of the Qing dynasty.
  • Roosevelt Corollary

    Stated that the United States would intervene as a last resort to ensure that other nations in the Western Hemisphere fulfilled their obligations to international creditors, and did not violate the rights of the United States.
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    Revolution of 1911

    The 1911 Revolution also known as the Chinese Revolution or the Xinhai Revolution, ended China's last imperial dynasty.
  • British Raj founded

    This system of governance was instituted after the Indian Rebellion of 1857, the rule of the British East India Company was transferred to the Crown in the person of Queen Victoria.