Timeline of European imperialism

This Timeline of European imperialism covers episodes of imperialism outside of Europe by western nations since 1400; for other countries, see Imperialism § Imperialism by country.

Pre-1700

1402 Castillian invasion of Canary Islands.
1415 Portuguese conquest of Ceuta.
1420-1425 Portuguese settlement of Madeira.
1433-1436 Portuguese settlement of Azores.
1445 Portuguese construction of trading post on Arguin Island.
1450 Portuguese construction of trading post on Gorée Island.
1462 Portuguese settlement of Cape Verde islands.
1470 Portuguese settlement of Bioko island.
1474 Portuguese settlement of Annobón island.
1482 Portuguese construction of Elmina Castle.
1493 Portuguese settlement of São Tomé and Príncipe.
1510 Portuguese conquest of Goa.
1511 Portuguese conquest of Malacca City.
1517 Portuguese conquest of Colombo.
1556 Portuguese colonization of Timor.
1557 Portuguese construction of trading post in Macau.
1556-1599 Spanish conquest of Philippines.
1598: Dutch established colony on uninhabited island of Mauritius; they abandon it in 1710.
1608: Dutch opened their first trading post in India at Golconda.
1613: Dutch East India Company expands operations in Java.
1613–20: Netherlands becomes England's major rival in trade, fishing, and whaling. The Dutch form alliances with Sweden and the Hanseatic League; England counters with an alliance with Denmark.
1623. The Amboyna massacre occurs in Japan with execution of English traders; England closes its commercial base opened in 1613 at Hirado. Trade ends for more than two centuries.
1664. French East India Company Chartered for trade in Asia and Africa.

Colonization of North America

Further information: Timeline of the European colonization of North America, British colonization of the Americas, French colonization of the Americas, Spanish colonization of the Americas, and Colonial history of the United States

1565 – St. Augustine, Florida – Spanish
1604 – Acadia – French
1605 – Port-Royal – French; in Nova Scotia
1607 – Jamestown, Virginia – English; established by Virginia Company
1607 – Popham Colony – English; failed effort in Maine
1608 – Quebec, Canada – French
1610 – Cuper's Cove, First English settlement in Newfoundland; abandoned by 1820
1610 – Santa Fe, New Mexico – Spanish
1612 – Bermuda – English; established by Virginia Company
1615 – Fort Nassau – Dutch; became Albany New York
1620 – St. John's, Newfoundland – English; capital of Newfoundland
1620 – Plymouth Colony, absorbed by Massachusetts Bay– English; small settlement by Pilgrims
1621 – Nova Scotia – Scottish
1623 – Portsmouth, New Hampshire – English; becomes the Colony of New Hampshire
1625 – New Amsterdam – Dutch; becomes New York City
1630 – Massachusetts Bay Colony – English; The main Puritan colony.
1632 – Williamsburgh – English; becomes the capital of Virginia.
1633 – Fort Hoop – Dutch settlement; Now part of Hartford Connecticut
1633 – Windsor, Connecticut – English
1634 – Maryland Colony – English

1634 – Wethersfield, Connecticut – First English settlement in Connecticut, comprising migrants from Massachusetts Bay.
1635 – Territory of Sagadahock – English
1636 – Providence Plantations – English; became Rhode Island*
1636 – Connecticut Colony – English
1638 – New Haven Colony – English; later merged into Connecticut colony
1638 – Fort Christina – Swedish; now part of Wilmington Delaware
1638 – Hampton, New Hampshire – English
1639 – San Marcos – Spanish
1640 – Swedesboro- Swedish
1651 – Fort Casimir – Dutch
1660 – Bergen – Dutch
1670 – Charleston, South Carolina – English
1682 – Pennsylvania – English Quakers;
1683? – Fort Saint Louis (Illinois)- French;
1683 – East New Jersey – Scottish
1684 – Stuarts Town, Carolina – Scottish
1685 – Fort Saint Louis (Texas)- French
1698 – Pensacola, Florida – Spanish (colonized by Tomas Romero II)
1699 – Louisiana (New France) – French;

1700 to 1799

1704: Gibraltar captured by British on 4 August; becomes British naval bastion into the 21st century
1713: Treaty of Utrecht, ends War of the Spanish Succession and gives Britain territorial gains, especially Gibraltar, Acadia, Newfoundland, and the land surrounding Hudson Bay. The lower Great Lakes-Ohio area became a free trade zone.
1756–1763 Seven Years' War, Britain, Prussia, and Hanover against France, Austria, the Russian Empire, Sweden, and Saxony. Major battles in Europe and North America; the East India Company also in involved in the Third Carnatic War (1756–1763) in India. Britain victorious and takes control of all of Canada; France seeks revenge.
1775–1783: American Revolutionary War as Thirteen Colonies revolt; Britain has no major allies. It is the first successful colonial revolt in European history.
- 1783: Treaty of Paris ends Revolutionary War; British give generous terms to US with boundaries as British North America on north, Mississippi River on west, Florida on south. Britain gives East and West Florida to Spain
1784: Britain allows trade with America but forbid some American food exports to West Indies; British exports to America reach £3.7 million, imports only £750,000
1784: Pitt's India Act re-organised the British East India Company to minimise corruption; it centralised British rule by increasing the power of the Governor-General

1793 to 1870

Further information: International relations (1814–1919); British Empire § Britain's Imperial Century, 1815–1914; and French colonial empire

1792: In India, British victory over Tipu Sultan in Third Anglo-Mysore War; cession of one half of Mysore to the British and their allies.
1793–1815: Wars of the French Revolution, and Napoleonic wars; French conquests spread Ideas of the French Revolution, including abolition of serfdom, modern legal systems, and of Holy Roman Empire; stimulate rise of nationalism
1804–1865: Russia expand across Siberia to Pacific.
1804–1813: Uprising in Serbia against the ruling Ottoman Empire
1807: Britain makes the international slave trade criminal; Slave Trade Act 1807; United States criminalizes the international slave trade at the same time.
1810–1820s: Spanish American wars of independence
1810–1821: Mexican War of Independence
1814–15: Congress of Vienna; Reverses French conquests; restores reactionaries to power. However, many liberal reforms persist; Russia emerges as a powerful factor in European affairs.
1815–1817: Serbian uprising leading to Serbian autonomy
1819: Stamford Raffles founds Singapore as outpost of British Empire.
1821–1823: Greek War of Independence
1822: Independence of Brazil proclaimed by Dom Pedro I
1822–27: George Canning in charge of British foreign policy, avoids co-operation with European powers.
1823: United States issues Monroe Doctrine to preserve newly independent Latin American states; issued in cooperation with Britain, whose goal is to prevent French & Spanish influence and allow British merchants access to the opening markets. American goal is to prevent the New World becoming a battlefield among European powers.
1821–32: Greece wins Greek War of Independence against the Ottoman Empire; the 1832 Treaty of Constantinople is ratified at the London Conference of 1832.
1830: Start of the French conquest of Algeria
1833: Slavery Abolition Act 1833 frees slaves in British Empire; the owners (who mostly reside in Britain) are paid £20 million.
1839–42: Britain wages First Opium War against China
1842: Britain forces China to sign the Treaty of Nanking. It opens trade, cedes territory (especially Hong Kong), fixes Chinese tariffs at a low rate, grants extraterritorial rights to foreigners, and provides both a most favoured nation clause, as well as diplomatic representation.
1845: Oregon boundary dispute threatens war between Great Britain and the United States.
1846: Oregon Treaty ends dispute with the United States. Border settled on the 49th parallel. The British territory becomes British Columbia and later joins Canada. The American territory becomes Oregon Territory and will later become the states of Oregon, Washington, and Idaho, as well as parts of Wyoming and Montana.
1846: The Corn Laws are repealed; free trade in grain strengthens the British economy By increasing trade with exporting nations.
1845: Republic of Texas voluntarily joins the United States. Annexation causes the Mexican–American War, 1846–48.
1848: United States victorious in Mexican–American War; annexes area from New Mexico to California
1848–49: Second Sikh war; the British East India Company subjugates the Sikh Empire, and annexes Punjab
1857: Indian Rebellion suppressed. It has major long-term impact on reluctance to grant independence to Indians.
1858: The government of India transferred from East India Company to the crown; the government appoints a viceroy. He rules portions of India directly, and dominates local princes in the other portions. British rule guarantees that local wars will not happen inside India.
1861–1867: French intervention in Mexico; United States demands French withdrawal after 1865; France removes its army, and its puppet Emperor is executed.
1862: Treaty of Saigon; France occupies three provinces in southern Vietnam.
1863: France establishes a protectorate over Cambodia.
1867: British North America Act, 1867 creates the Dominion of Canada, a federation with internal self-government; foreign and defence matters are still handled by London.

1870–1914

1874: Second Treaty of Saigon, France controls all of South Vietnam
1875–1900: Britain, France, Germany, Portugal and Italy join in the Scramble for Africa
1876: Korea signs unequal treaty with Japan
1878: Austria occupies Bosnia-Herzegovina while Ottoman Empire is at war with Russia
1878: Ottoman Empire wins main possessions in Europe; Treaty of Berlin recognising the independence of Romania, Serbia and Montenegro and the autonomy of Bulgaria
1882: Korea signs equal treaties with the United States and others
1884: France makes Vietnam a country .
1885: King Leopold of Belgium establishes the Congo Free State, under his personal control. There is a role for the government of Belgium until the King's financial difficulties lead to a series of loans; it takes over in 1908.

1893: France makes Laos a protectorate.
1893: Overthrow of the Hawaiian Kingdom
1895: Creation of French West Africa (AOF)
1896–1910: Japan takes full control of Korea.
1900: Fashoda Incident in Africa threatens war between France and Britain; Settled peacefully
1898: United States demands that Spain immediately reform its rule in Cuba; Spain procrastinates; US wins short Spanish–American War
1898: Annexation of the Republic of Hawaii as a United States territory via the Newlands Resolution
1898: In the Treaty of Paris, the United States obtains the Philippines, Guam, Puerto Rico, and makes Cuba a protectorate.
1899–1900: Anti-imperialist sentiment in the United States mobilizes but fails to stop the expansion.
1900-08: King Leopold is denounced worldwide for his maltreatment of rubber workers in Congo. The campaign is led by journalist E.D. Morel.
1908: Austria annexes Bosnia and Herzegovina; pays compensation and colonial issues. The chief pressure group was the Parti colonial, a coalition of 50 organizations with a combined total of 5,000 members.

1914–1936

1917: Jones Act gives full American citizenship to Puerto Ricans.
1918: Austrian Empire ends, Austria becomes a republic, Hungary becomes a kingdom, Czechoslovakia, Poland, and Yugoslavia become independent

League of Nations mandates in the Middle East and Africa: #1–5 ex–Ottoman Empire; #6–12 ex–German Empire.
1. Syria, 2. Lebanon, 3. Palestine, 4. Transjordan, 5. Mesopotamia, 6. British Togoland, 7. French Togoland, 8. British Cameroons, 9. French Cameroun, 10. Ruanda-Urundi, 11. Tanganyika and 12. South West Africa

League Mandates in the Pacific, All from the German Empire: 1. South Pacific Mandate, 2. Territory of New Guinea, 3. Nauru and 4. Western Samoa

1919: German and Ottoman colonies came under the control of the League of Nations, which distributed them as "mandates" to Great Britain, France, Japan, Belgium, South Africa, Australia and New Zealand.

1936: Italy in a few months (between spring 1935 and summer 1936) conquest the last independent territory in Africa: Ethiopia. In 1936 it is created the last european empire in History: the Italian Empire.

Maps

Notes

Perry J. Moree, A Concise History of Dutch Mauritius, 1598-1710: A Fruitful and Healthy Land (Routledge, 1998).
Om Prakash, The Dutch East India Company and the Economy of Bengal, 1630-1720 (2014)
Leonard Blusse, An Insane Administration and Insanitary Town: The Dutch East India Company and Batavia (1619–1799) (Springer Netherlands, 1985).
Jack S. Levy and Salvatore Ali. "From commercial competition to strategic rivalry to war: The evolution of the Anglo-Dutch rivalry, 1609-52." in Paul Diehl, ed. The dynamics of enduring rivalries (1998) pp29-63.
Donald C. Wellington, French East India companies: A historical account and record of trade (Hamilton Books, 2006)
Theodore G. Corbett, "Migration to a Spanish imperial frontier in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries: St. Augustine." Hispanic American Historical Review (1974): 414–430 in JSTOR
Charles W. Arnade, "Cattle Raising in Spanish Florida, 1513–1763." Agricultural History (1961): 116–124. in JSTOR
Griffiths, N.E.S. (2005). From Migrant to Acadian: A North American Border People, 1604-1755. McGill-Queen's University Press. ISBN 978-0-7735-2699-0.
Horgan, Paul (1994). The Centuries of Santa Fe. University of New Mexico Press. ISBN 9780826314918.
Addison Emery Verrill, The Bermuda Islands: Their Scenery, Climate, Productions, Physiography, Natural History and Geology: With Sketches of Their Early History and the Changes Due to Man (1902) online
Wesley Frank Craven, "An introduction to the history of Bermuda." William and Mary College Quarterly (1937): 318–362. in JSTOR
George F. Dow, Every Day Life in the Massachusetts Bay Colony (1935).
Olmert, Michael (2007). Official Guide to Colonial Williamsburg. Colonial Williamsburg Foundation. ISBN 9780879352349.
Liam Connell, "‘A Great or Notorious Liar’: Katherine Harrison and her Neighbours, Wethersfield, Connecticut, 1668–1670." Eras 12.2 (2011); Story of an accused witch put on trial but survived. online
Arnold, Samuel Greene (1859). History of the State of Rhode Island and Providence Plantations vol 1 1636–1700. Applewood Books. ISBN 9781429022774.
Joseph Dow (1894). History of the Town of Hampton, New Hampshire: From Its Settlement in 1638, to the Autumn of 1892. ISBN 9781548542160.
Fraser, Walter J. (1990). Charleston! Charleston!: The History of a Southern City. University of South Carolina Press. ISBN 9780872497979.
Illick, Joseph E. (1976). Colonial Pennsylvania: A History. Scribner. ISBN 9780684145655.
John Francis McDermott, The French in the Mississippi Valley (1965)
Carl A. Brasseaux, "The Moral Climate of French Colonial Louisiana, 1699–1763." Louisiana History (1986): 27-41. in JSTOR
Stetson Conn, Gibraltar in British diplomacy in the eighteenth century (1942).
R. Cole Harris; Geoffrey J. Matthews (1987). Historical Atlas of Canada: From the beginning to 1800. U. of Toronto Press. p. 102. ISBN 9780802024954.
Fred Anderson, Crucible of War: The Seven Years' War and the Fate of Empire in British North America, 1754–1766 (2001)
Julia Osman, online essay
Edward Gray and Jane Kamensky, eds/ The Oxford Handbook of the American Revolution (2013) Wide-ranging overview by scholars.
Andrew Stockley, Britain and France at the Birth of America: The European Powers and the Peace Negotiations of 1782-1783 (U. of Exeter Press, 2001)
Denys Mostyn Forrest, Tiger of Mysore: The life and death of Tipu Sultan (1970)
Mark Bassin, "Inventing Siberia: visions of the Russian East in the early nineteenth century." American Historical Review 96.3 (1991): 763-794. online
Rory Miller, Britain and Latin America in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries (1993).
Barbara A. Tenenbaum, "Merchants, Money, and Mischief the British in Mexico, 1821–1862." The Americas 35.03 (1979): 317-339.
Brian E. Vick, The Congress of Vienna: power and politics after Napoleon (Harvard UP, 2014).
Victoria Glendinning, Raffles and the Golden Opportunity (2012).
Alan K. Manchester, "The recognition of Brazilian independence." Hispanic American Historical Review 31.1 (1951): 80-96 in JSTOR.
H.W.V. Temperley, The Foreign Policy of Canning, 1822-1827: England, the Neo-Holy Alliance, and the New World (1925) online
Dexter Perkins, "Europe, Spanish America, and the Monroe Doctrine." American Historical Review (1922) 27#2 pp: 207–218. in JSTOR
Jennifer E. Sessions (2015). By Sword and Plow: France and the Conquest of Algeria. Cornell University Press. ISBN 9780801454462.
James S. Olson and Robert Shadle, eds. Historical dictionary of the British empire (1996) vol 1 p 47
Joseph Schafer, "The British Attitude toward the Oregon Question, 1815–1846." American Historical Review (1911) 16#2 pp: 273–299. in JSTOR
Richard W. Van Alstyne, "International Rivalries in Pacific Northwest." Oregon Historical Quarterly (1945): 185–218. in JSTOR
David M. Pletcher, The Diplomacy of Annexation: Texas, Oregon, and the Mexican War (1973).
Bernard Semmel, The Rise of Free Trade Imperialism: Classical Political Economy the Empire of Free Trade and Imperialism, 1750–1850 (2004)
Michael Adas, "Twentieth Century Approaches to the Indian Mutiny of 1857–58", Journal of Asian History (1971) 5#1 pp 1–19
Bhupen Qanungo, "A study of British relations with the native states of India, 1858–62." Journal of Asian Studies (1967) 26#2 pp: 251–265.
Donovan Williams, "The Council of India and the Relationship between the Home and Supreme Governments, 1858–1870." English Historical Review (1966): 56–73 in JSTOR.
Oscar Chapuis, The Last Emperors of Vietnam: From Tu Duc to Bao Dai (Greenwood, 2000). online
Donald Creighton, The Road to Confederation: The Emergence of Canada, 1863–1867 (1965).
Thomas Pakenham, Scramble for Africa: The White Man's Conquest of the Dark Continent from 1876–1912 (1991)
Adam Hochschild, King Leopold's Ghost (1998)
Martin Stuart-Fox, "The French in Laos, 1887–1945." Modern Asian Studies (1995) 29#1 pp: 111–139.
Peter Duus, The Abacus and the Sword: The Japanese Penetration of Korea, 1895–1910 (1995)
Thomas J. Osborne, "The Main Reason for Hawaiian Annexation in July, 1898," Oregon Historical Quarterly (1970) 71#2 pp. 161–178 in JSTOR
Fabian Hilfrich, Debating American Exceptionalism: Empire and Democracy in the Wake of the Spa (Palgrave Macmillan, 2012)
Christopher Lasch, "The Anti-Imperialists, the Philippines, and the Inequality of Man." Journal of Southern History (1958): 319–331. in JSTOR
Matthew G. Stanard, Selling the Congo: A History of European Pro-Empire Propaganda and the Making of Belgian Imperialism (U of Nebraska Press, 2012).
Anthony Adamthwaite, Grandeur And Misery: France's Bid for Power in Europe, 1914–1940 (1995) p 6
Willie Santana, "Incorporating the Lonely Star: How Puerto Rico Became Incorporated and Earned a Place in the Sisterhood of States." Tennessee Journal of Law and Policy 9 (2013) pp: 433+ online.
Nele Matz, "Civilization and the Mandate System under the League of Nations as Origin of Trusteeship." Max Planck Yearbook of United Nations Law (2005) 9#1 pp: 47–95. online

Misplaced Pages

Timeline of European imperialism

Pre-1700

Colonization of North America

1700 to 1799

1793 to 1870

1870–1914

1914–1936

Maps

See also

Notes

Further reading

Surveys

Africa

Asia

Atlantic world

Latin America

British Empire

French Empire

Decolonization

Primary sources