Geography: A Historical Background

2300 B.C. The first city map was created in stone for Lagash, Mesopotamia

450 Herodotus compiled a map of the known world

334 Alexander the Great began conquering the Middle East and India

240 Eratosthenes calculated the circumference of the earth

45 Julian calendar established20 A.D. Strabo published his 17 volume Geography77 Pliny the Elder wrote his encyclopedia of geography

79 Mount Vesuvius erupted and Pompeii was destroyed

150 Ptolemy published his Geography and included a map of the world with places labeled with a coordinate grid system

271 The magnetic compass was in use in China

326 Helena, Constantine's mother, traveled to the Holy Land to identify places sacred to Christianity

476 The Fall of Rome

632 Muhammed died and Muslim expansion began982 Eric the Red reached Baffin Island in North America

995 Leif Ericson established a colony in Newfoundland1095 The first Crusade began1154 Edrisi's book of world geography was published1271 Marco Polo headed for China1325 Tenochtitlan founded by Aztecs

1347 Bubonic Plague, "Black Death," in Europe, 30 million die

1377 ibn-Khaldun completed his history of the world

1405-1433

China ruled the seas through the seven voyages of Cheng Ho's Treasure Fleet

1410 A translation of Ptolemy's Geography was published in Europe

1418 Prince Henry the Navigator established the Sagres research institute

1455 Gutenberg invents the printing press

1492 Columbus reached the West Indies

1494 Treaty of Tordesillas established Spanish and Portuguese control over new discoveries

1500 Pedro Alvarez Cabral discovered Brazil1505 Portugal established trading posts in East Africa1517 Martin Luther begins Protestant Reformation1519 Magellan began his circumnavigation of the earth

1543 Copernicus published his On the Revolution of Heavenly Spheres

1569 Gerardus Mercator created his map

1582 Gregorian calendar established

1602 The Dutch East India company was founded

1620 Pilgrims landed in New England

1675 The Royal Observatory was established at Greenwich, England

1714 The British government offered a 20,000 pound reward to the person who could accurately determine longitude at sea

1761 John Harrison's chronometer was perfected, allowing determination of longitude at sea

1768-1779 James Cook explored the earth

1769 Alexander von Humboldt was born

1776 British colonies in America declare independence

1779 Carl Ritter was born

1788 Hutton's theory of uniformitarianism was introduced ("no vestige of a beginning, no prospect of an end")

1789 French Revolution1798 Thomas Malthus' first essay on population

1803 Thomas Jefferson completed the Louisiana Purchase

1804-1806 Lewis and Clark explored the western United States

1817 The first volume of Ritter's Die Erkunde was published

1821 Simon Bolivar gains independence for Venezuela, sparking widespread independence in South America

1825 Erie Canal completed

1830 The Royal Geographical Society was formed in London

Lyell published his Principles of Geology1831 Charles Darwin began his travels

1840 The Geological Survey of Canada was established

1845 The first volume of von Humboldt's Kosmos was published

1848 Gold was discovered in Calfornia

1850 The first use of the camera for mapping takes place in FranceWilliam Morris Davis was born

1851 The American Geographical Society was formed

1855 Maury's The Physical Geography of the Sea was published

1859 von Humboldt and Ritter died

1864 George Perkins Marsh's Man and Nature was published

1867 The USGS was established

1869 Japan opened to western influence and trade

1869 Transcontinental railroad established in United States

The Suez Canal opened

1874The first Department of Geography was established in Germany (the Prussian government established a Chair of Geography in every Prussian university)

1884-1885

Berlin Conference divides Africa among European colonial powers

1888 The National Geographic Society was formed1895 The first Times Atlas of the World was published

1903 University of Chicago established first American Department of Geography

1904 The Association of American Geographers was establishedMackinder proposed his Heartland Theory

1909 Peary reached the North Pole

1911 Amundsen reached the South Pole

1912 Wegener proposed his theory of continental drift

1913 Greenwich is accepted as 0° longitude

1914-1918 World War I

1914 The Panama Canal opened

1922 The Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (USSR) was established

1923-1957 Carl O. Sauer taught at the University of California, Berkeley

1931 Commonwealth of Nations founded1933 Walter Christaller introduces Central Place Theory1934 William Morris Davis died

1939-1945 World War II

1945 The United Nations was founded

1946 First Levittown

1949 Peoples Republic of China formed

1953 Hillary and Norgay reached the top of Mount Everest

1957-1958 The International Geophysical Year

1961 Antarctic Treaty established1970 The first Earth Day1979 China established One-Child rule1989 Berlin Wall tumbled down

1990 Reunification of Germany

1991 The end of the USSR and YugoslaviaPersian Gulf War

1992 The end of the Cold War

1994 Channel Tunnel (Chunnel) opened, linking Great Britain to Europe

1997 Geography at About.com site established (formerly called Geography at The Mining Company)Hong Kong returned to China

1999 Euro established as currency in 11 European countriesMacau returned to China

2000 U.S. President Clinton orders GPS Selective Availability turned off, instantly making GPS more accurate

2001 New millenium beganSouthern Ocean established by the International Hydrographic Organization

2002 East Timor gains independence