13,000 BC–2025: Great Park Walkable Historical Timeline

13,000 BC–2025: Great Park

Walkable Historical Timeline Handbook

13,000 BC–2025: Great Park

Walkable Historical Timeline Handbook

by Dr. Keith L. Nelson and Dr. Spencer C. Olin Professors Emeriti of History University of California, Irvine

13,000 BC–2013: The Orange County Great Park Walkable Historical Timeline Handbook by Dr. Keith L. Nelson and Dr. Spencer C. Olin is published by the Orange County Great Park Corporation in celebration of the completion of the park’s 230 acre Western Sector development bisected by a 2,604 foot long Walkable Historical Timeline.

The Orange County Great Park Corporation was a non-profit corporation organized to plan, design, build and maintain the Orange County Great Park.

In 2021, the Great Park Board voted to change the name of the Orange County Great Park to the Great Park.

13,000 BC–2019: In January 2024, the City of Irvine hired Historical Research Associates, Inc. (HRA), to update the timeline and the handbook. In this case, HRA revised some of the interpretations of people and events in the original Walkable Historical Timeline. The revisions are intended to make these histories more relevant to current issues and more accessible and useful for contemporary audiences. This 2025 update effort adds new timeline entries to this handbook and to the physical timeline at the Great Park. This edition ends in 2019. As Dr. Nelson and Dr. Olin envisioned, the public history program at the Great Park will continue to grow. It will be shaped by the surrounding communities so as to tell their stories and celebrate their shared past. Future revisions of this text are welcome and inevitable. History is happening all around us, and the Great Park reflects an appreciation of the past and a shared commitment to the community’s future.

Irvine, CA 92618 yourgreatpark.org

Contents

FOREWORD | PAGE 5

POSTSCRIPT | PAGE 6

13,000 BC – 1937 | THE ORIGINS OF OUR TIME Pre-History and the Ancient World • PAGE 7 European Middle Ages, Renaissance, and Overseas Expansion • PAGE 10 The Early Modern Period • PAGE 13

Revolutions and Nation-Building • PAGE 16 American Civil War, Industrialization • PAGE 19 International Tension, Quickening Change • PAGE 22 From World War to World War • PAGE 25

1939 – 1949 | AN AGE OF GLOBAL WAR World War II • PAGE 28

California Transformed • PAGE 31 The Onset of Cold War • PAGE 33

1950 – 1990 | THE COLD WAR The Cold War at its Most Intense • PAGE 36 Efforts at Reform: New Frontier, Great Society • PAGE 39 The Vietnam War Years • PAGE 41 The Détente Years • PAGE 44 Renewed International Tension • PAGE 47 Astonishing Eighties • PAGE 50 1991 – 2019 | THE POST-COLD WAR ERA The Internet Age • PAGE 54 The New Millennium • PAGE 57 The Great Park Expands • PAGE 60

ABOUT THE AUTHORS | PAGE 63

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS | PAGE 64

Foreword

The Walkable Historical Timeline is a major component of a larger public history program at the Great Park that includes substantial archival and architectural preservation, an extensive oral history collection, and comprehensive photographic documentation of the former Marine Corps Air Station at El Toro. It serves as a strong intellectual “spine” for the entire Great Park and introduces visitors to significant events in global, national, state, and regional history. The Walkable Historical Timeline is presented in three sections: (1) “The Origins of Our Time,” which covers a vast span of human history from the arrival of our species in the Americas during roughly 13,000–11,000 BC to the troubled 1930s; (2) “An Age of Global War, 1939–1949,” which focuses on the decade during which the former Marine Corps Air Station at El Toro was established and fulfilled important wartime missions in World War II and the early Cold War; and (3) “The Cold War, 1950 to 1990,” which deals with the years of the increasingly intense conflict that developed after the Korean War between nations of the democratic world (led by the United States) and those of the communist world (of which the Soviet Union and People’s Republic of China were the most powerful). Interestingly, when the Cold War ended peacefully in 1990 (thus making the closure of Marine Corps Air Station El Toro possible), it marked one of the few times in world history that major powers terminated their struggles without waging armed conflict directly against each other. In selecting Timeline entries we have been guided by several considerations. The first is geographical, since we have chosen, especially in the third (more recent) section, to focus disproportionately upon events relating to our immediate Orange County region, California, and the United States. A second consideration relates to time. While the Timeline incorporates many significant developments from earlier times, it is structured to emphasize modern, and especially twentieth century, history. A third consideration is topical. We thought it important to select events that highlight social and cultural changes as well as economic, political, and military innovations. Our list of notable events is intended to be suggestive rather than exhaustive. We fully realize that anyone visiting the Timeline might make somewhat different selections, even if their criteria for choice were similar to our own. This is one reason we provide a Handbook Guide to accompany you as you explore the Timeline. It includes brief descriptions which we hope will clarify each entry’s significance while provoking further inquiry among its readers regarding the deeper meanings of these and alternative turning points in human history. Milestone headlines pertaining to Orange County are highlighted with this orange “OC“ icon: In future years the Walkable Historical Timeline will be expanded to include visual exhibits, artifacts, and interactive experiences such as music and film. It will thereby serve as yet another physical place within the Great Park that is accessible and attractive to everyone. We hope you enjoy and learn from the Timeline and invite you to watch it grow in coming years.

Keith L. Nelson and Spencer C. Olin Professors Emeriti of History University of California, Irvine

Postscript

Part of the purpose of history is to study events and people of the past — considering the motivations, interconnections, and consequences involved — to create an understanding that helps us contextualize our present and navigate our future. History is a field of knowledge that changes over time. Histories are commonly revised, sometimes to account for new facts, but more often to shift the focus on a historical event. These shifts often highlight a different perspective or examine different historical actors (sharing the stories of factory workers instead of bosses or politicians, for example). These revisions allow us to gain new meanings from history. As our ideas, values, and social contexts change over time, historians reexamine the past and write new histories to inform our new questions and interests. Dr. Keith L. Nelson and Dr. Spencer C. Olin began developing the Great Park Walkable Historical Timeline and its companion handbook in the early 2000s. They volunteered their time as professional academic advisors to the Orange County Great Park Corporation and the Great Park History Committee. The Great Park unveiled the physical timeline and the handbook in 2013. In January 2024, the City of Irvine hired Historical Research Associates, Inc. (HRA), to update the timeline and the handbook. In this case, HRA revised some of the interpretations of people and events in the original Walkable Historical Timeline. The revisions are intended to make these histories more relevant to current issues and more accessible and useful for contemporary audiences. This 2025 update effort adds new timeline entries to this handbook and to the physical timeline at the Great Park. This edition ends in 2019. As Dr. Nelson and Dr. Olin envisioned, the public history program at the Great Park will continue to grow. It will be shaped by the surrounding communities so as to tell their stories and celebrate their shared past. Future revisions of this text are welcome and inevitable. History is happening all around us, and the Great Park reflects an appreciation of the past and a shared commitment to the community’s future.

THE ORIGINS OF OUR TIME Pre-History and the Ancient World

312 AD Constantine Converts to Christianity

300–900 AD Mayan Civilization in Central America

CA 4 BC–26 AD Jesus of Nazareth

13,000–11,000 BC Humans Reach the Americas Anthropologists and geneticists tell us that, originating in Africa roughly 200,000 years ago, our species (homo sapiens) began migrations into the Eurasian continents about 70,000 years ago, reaching China and Australia 45,000 years ago and southern Europe 40,000 years ago. Our arrival in the Americas occurred after the last ice age, about 15,000 years ago. Researchers believe that Native American ancestors came from Asia in three waves of migration after the melting of the glaciers that blocked passage from Siberia to Alaska and before rising waters submerged a land bridge. Most native languages spoken in North and South America were derived from the mother tongue of the first migrants. Two later waves brought speakers of Eskimo- Aleut and Na-Dene, languages spoken by Chipewyans, Apaches, and Navajos. SEE FIGURE 1

Figure 1. Stone flints provided the ability to produce cooking fires on demand and this was essential to the welfare of the first human inhabitants of the Americas. Image courtesy of Matson Photo Service.

206 BC–220 AD Han Dynasty in China

490–404 BC Classic Greece at its Peak

509 BC–476 AD Roman Republic and Empire

563–483 BC 551–479 BC The Buddha in India Confucius in China

1400 BC Moses

Figure 2. The three great pyramids of Giza. Image courtesy of Library of Congress.

9000–5000 BC Agricultural Revolution

Following the last ice age, domestication of plants and animals evolved independently in various parts of the world and transformed migratory groups of hunter-gatherers into societies of agriculture and settlement. These in turn provided the organizational basis for storage of surplus food, population growth, trade, art, architecture, and centralized political structures. Cereals were common staples of early agriculture. By 9000 BC wheat and barley were domesticated in the Tigris-Euphrates valley and spread as crops into North Africa, Europe, and central and south Asia. In succeeding millennia broomcorn, millet, and rice were raised in China. Areas of Africa were known for millets and rice. In the Americas corn, beans, and squash were grown beginning about 7500 BC, but sedentary life based on farming did not develop until the second millennium BC.

2500 BC Pyramids Constructed in Egypt

2500 BC Pyramids constructed in Egypt

By 3000 BC, as the world’s first urban culture appeared in southern Mesopotamia, an equally complex civilization was forming along the Nile River. The world’s first pictographic writing had appeared in Sumer after 3300 BC and within 400 years evolved into a script called cuneiform. In Egypt, the early years of the third millennium BC were characterized by hieroglyphic writing, a sophisticated religion, and mummification of the dead. Egyptian society became strongly hierarchical, with kings believed to have been chosen by the gods as mediators between two worlds. Symbolic of this special status were 138 pyramids constructed as royal tombs in the middle centuries of the third millennia BC. The first of these, the step pyramid at Saqqara, dates

9000–5000 BC Agricultural Revolution

13,000–11,000 BC Humans reach the Americas

PRE-HISTORY AND THE ANCIENT WORLD

from 2650 BC. The three famous pyramids of Giza date from the 2500’s. The largest of the Giza pyramids is 481 feet high and contains 2.3 million stone blocks. Egyptian farmers rather than enslaved people probably provided the labor. SEE FIGURE 2

of the Buddha, was the first and most widely known Chinese philosopher. As a teacher, he stressed two worldly virtues: proper conduct and benevolent love.

509 BC–476 AD Roman Republic and Empire

1400 BC Moses

The empires of the Middle East after 3000 BC — in Mesopotamia, Egypt, Asia Minor, Persia, India — arose in river valleys and areas of regional trade. By contrast, the first and greatest empire in the west — the Roman — developed after 750 BC around the Mediterranean Sea. It took Rome 500 years to conquer Italy but only half that time to absorb Spain, Gaul, Britain, Germany, the Balkans, North Africa, and areas of western Asia. Organized as a republic in 509 BC, Rome featured consuls elected by patricians, a senate of elders, tribunes representing the people, and a legal code. Nevertheless, the republic was undermined by Rome’s huge expansion, concentration of wealth, constant wars, and a crisis in military manpower. Political violence flared after 91 BC, followed by civil wars among military leaders that culminated in the establishment of centralized authority under Augustus in 27 BC. For the next five centuries, until the western empire was overrun by barbarian invaders, Rome was ruled by emperors, some extraordinarily able, many brutal and ineffective. SEE FIGURE 3

The Jews, like other ethnic Semites including Arabs, trace their ancestry to Abram (Abraham), who lived during the second millennia BC. According to Hebrew scripture, Abram was summoned by God to take his family from Mesopotamia to the land of the Canaanites (modern day Israel and Palestine). Generations later, having been drawn into the Nile Delta by drought and famine, the Jews found themselves enslaved by the Egyptians. It was here that Moses, a Jew raised by Egyptian royalty, heeded a call from God to lead his people on an exodus through the Sinai — where God conveyed Ten Commandments and established a covenant with Israel. Moses died after years of wandering the desert, having brought the Jews within sight of the Promised Land. After 1400 BC, Joshua would lead the successful re-entry into Canaan and establish the Jews in the hill country, where under tribal leaders and kings, and balanced among competing powers, they maintained their independence for more than 600 years.

Figure 3. This heroic statue of Augustus Caesar is from the collection of the Vatican museum in the capital of the old Roman Empire. Image courtesy of Library of Congress.

563–483 BC The Buddha in India 551–479 BC Confucius in China Philosophy burst upon India and China

490–404 BC Classic Greece at its Peak

By the 8th century BC Greece had developed trading centers and an extended network of colonies in the Black Sea and western Mediterranean. This unusual expansion produced a unique culture, secular and individualistic, featuring speculation about nature and careful methods of observation and inference. In the 5th century BC, after the Persian Empire had expanded into Asia Minor, the cities of mainland Greece fought off Persian attack and emerged with astonishing victories. Afterwards Athens took the lead in organizing a defensive league, generating proceeds sufficient to support the world’s first democratic government, construction of the Parthenon, and military expansion in the Aegean. Sparta responded by leading an alliance of city-states against Athens in a 50 year war that ended in mutual exhaustion. Greek art, culture, and philosophy, reflected in the achievements of Socrates, Plato, and Aristotle, remained highly regarded. When Alexander the Great of Macedonia invaded and conquered Persia after 336 BC, he carried many Greek ideas with him to the Middle East.

simultaneously in the sixth century before the Christian era. In India a polytheistic worship based on sacred literature (Vedas) had become embedded in rituals conducted by and for a priestly class. This early Hindu orthodoxy was now challenged by ethical alternatives, especially Buddhism. Its founder, Siddhartha Gautama, was born a prince but in early life became pre-occupied with human suffering. Achieving enlightenment, i.e. becoming the Buddha, through meditation, he recognized a close connection between suffering and desire and sought to minimize the latter through self- discipline and restraint. This perspective was the root of a belief system that in succeeding centuries spread in various forms throughout India, Southeast Asia, China, Korea, and Japan. In the Chinese empire it encountered, temporarily replaced, and was ultimately supplanted by Confucian thought. Confucius, a contemporary

206 BC–220 AD Han Dynasty in China

A ruthless ruler of the Ch’in state achieved unification of China after 221 BC, but upon his death a new more moderate type of imperial rule emerged. Founded by the rebel leader Liu Bang (known as Emperor Gao) and spanning four centuries, the Han dynasty is considered a golden age in Chinese history. The first generations of Han China were mainly concerned with recovery from earlier civil wars. This changed with the ascendance of Emperor Wu (140–87 BC), who created an enduring bureaucracy and gave Confucians control of education and court politics. Wu also initiated an aggressive foreign policy, placing outposts in Central Asia and establishing a trade route (the Silk Road) that extended to the Roman Empire. After an interruption of 16 years, the Han dynasty returned to power after 25 AD, its rule now characterized by growing individual and regional independence. It was during the second Han period that Buddhism first gained widespread acceptance in China, achieving a popularity that would last several centuries.

Figure 4. The Last Supper by Leonardo da Vinci. Image courtesy of Wikimedia Commons.

shafts commemorating important dates, pyramids and platforms grouped around large courts, and monumental sculpture. The cities were not urban in our sense of the word but rather ceremonial centers occupied by a priesthood and ruling class. Religion was the most important factor in Mayan life, founded on an appreciation of orderliness and moderation. The Mayans were far ahead of other new world cultures in hieroglyphic writing. They led both old world and new in astronomy. Then, astonishingly, between 800 and 900 AD, the great cities of Yucatan and Guatemala were gradually abandoned. Among the explanations scholars have offered are soil exhaustion and disease, but the most probable explanation is that the common people revolted and drove out or massacred the priest-rulers. Lacking leadership, the peasant population reverted to a simpler life. 312 AD Constantine Converts to Christianity For almost 300 years, as Christians struggled to define their beliefs, they were confronted with persecution on the part of the Roman public and state. Twice in the third century successive emperors strove vigorously to stamp out the Christian faith. Early in the fourth century Diocletian initiated an extraordinarily sweeping persecution. All of this changed in 312 when the emperor Constantine, on the eve of a battle in which he established his political supremacy, had the vision to which he attributed his conversion to Christianity. In a development that proved to be a major turning point in European history, Constantine granted freedom of religion throughout the empire and encouraged the growth of the Christian church. In 325 he convened the Council of Nicea to formulate Christian doctrine and personally directed much of its work. In 337 he chose to be baptized on his deathbed in his new capital, Constantinople. Christianity’s status had been transformed.

CA 4 BC–26 AD Jesus of Nazareth

Scholars estimate that Jesus of Nazareth was born several years before the beginning of the Christian era (the calendar was erroneously calculated much later) and entered upon his ministry at about age 30. He grew up in Galilee in northern Palestine, where he preached, taught, and healed. Jesus’ beliefs had much in common with the ethical teachings of earlier Jews. He asserted that he had not come to set aside the Law and Prophets, but to fulfill their promise. Insisting that the Kingdom of God was at hand, he called for repentance and new emphasis on love of God and neighbor. He ran afoul of the religious leaders of his day, and when he dared to challenge them in Jerusalem, they had him executed by the Romans. Within days, however, his followers became convinced Jesus had risen from the dead. In succeeding years, belief in his divinity spread widely. Ardent missionaries such as the apostle Paul conveyed his gospel throughout the Roman Empire. SEE FIGURE 4 300–900 AD Mayan Civilization in Central America Following the collapse of early Guatemalan and Mexican kingdoms in the third century, the region witnessed the emergence of an impressive Mayan civilization. A number of cities appeared that shared three architectural features — stone

European Middle Ages, Renaissance, and Overseas Expansion

1549 Juan Cabrillo Claims California for Spain

1519 Hernan Cortéz Conquers Mexico

610 Islam Founded as a Religion

1517 Martin Luther Initiates Prostestant Reformation

Mohammed was born in 570 in Mecca, where he lived and worked and, in his fortieth year, began to receive divine revelations that were later collected in the Quran, the primary Muslim religious text. At age 43 he disclosed his revelations publicly, proclaiming that God was one and that submission (Islam) to God was necessary. Mohammed viewed himself as a prophet who had recovered the monotheism that Moses, Jesus, and others had preached but that their followers had lost. He was largely rejected by the Meccans, and in 622 (in what became the first year of the Muslim calendar) he and supporters fled to Medina, where he soon united the local tribes. In 630 his followers conquered Mecca, moving on from there to subdue most of the Arabian Peninsula. Shortly after Mohammed’s death in 632, Muslim armies penetrated Syria and defeated Byzantine forces, capturing Jerusalem in 638 and subsequently occupying Persia. In the following century the armies of the ruling caliphs extended Islamic rule as far as Spain and central Africa. 1066 Normans Conquer England Roman withdrawal from Britain from 410 to 442 was followed by a 150 year influx of Jutes, Angles, and Saxons that pushed the Celts back to Scotland, Wales, and Cornwall. By the early seventh century several relatively large Anglo- Saxon kingdoms developed, though these in turn were threatened after 850 by the arrival of Viking invaders from the Baltic. By the 11th century a relatively united kingdom emerged, first under Danish kings, then under monarchs of the Wessex line. The history of England took a massive turn in 1066, when William, Duke of Normandy, himself of Viking descent, crossed the Channel and defeated a defending army at the Battle of Hastings. The Normans introduced many changes, establishing a more systematic form of English feudalism, constructing garrison castles, imposing royal supervision of sheriffs, creating new governmental councils, and disciplining monastic orders.

1492 Christopher Columbus Crosses the Atlantic; Jews & Muslims Expelled from Spain

1453 Constantinople Falls to the Turks

1452–1519 Leonardo da Vinci Epitomizes Italian Renaissance

Figure 5. A 15th century print depicting the siege of Jerusalem by Crusaders is a vivid portrayal of an assault on the holy city by highly organized legions of believers. Image courtesy of Library of Congress.

1099–1291 Christian Crusades Seize the Holy Land

1200–1500 Aztec Empire in Mexico

The 1100s found Western Europe and the Arab world on different trajectories. Christian Western Europe was staging a remarkable economic, demographic, and intellectual comeback from the dark ages that followed the collapse of the Roman Empire. The second Muslim caliphate (the Abbasid) was suffering sectarian division and had clearly declined since the 9th, 10th and 11th centuries, when it led the world in philosophy, theology, astronomy, mathematics, and law. The Seljuk Turks were displacing the Arabs as the dominant Islamic culture, moving from the north into Persia, Armenia, and Asia Minor. In 1055 the Seljuks captured Baghdad and 16 years later won a military victory over the Christian Byzantines that prompted the Emperor in Constantinople to appeal to the West for assistance. In 1095 Pope Urban II responded by summoning the princes of his region to recapture the Holy Land. The first crusade reached and took Jerusalem in 1099, and for almost a century a Christian kingdom survived in that city. Smaller Christian fiefdoms, reinforced by subsequent crusades, survived Islamic counter- attack until 1291. SEE FIGURE 5

1162–1227 Genghis Khan & Mongols Overrun Asia

1099–1291 Christian Crusades Seize the Holy Land

1066 Normans Conquer England

610 Islam Founded as a Religion

EUROPEAN MIDDLE AGES, RENAISSANCE & OVERSEAS EXPANSION

1452–1519 Leonardo da Vinci Epitomizes Italian Renaissance

Figure 6 (left). In this monumental tribute to Genghis Kahn in Ulan Bator the Mongol warrior king sits astride a horse atop a massive podium replicating a colonnaded classical building and symbolizing his conquest of the Greco-Roman world. Image courtesy of Brucke-Osteruropa. Figure 7 (bottom). This carved calendar stone makes the power, complexity and spirit of the Aztec imagination evident at a glance. Image courtesy of William Henry Jackson. Figure 8 (below). Part scientific notation and part artwork, this page from Leonardo’s diary depicts his design for a flying machine and embodies his mastery of many creative disciplines. Image courtesy of Library of Congress.

Enriched by reviving commerce with the Middle East, Florence and Venice began to generate social groups in the late 1400s with surprising and, by medieval standards, almost heretical respect for human talent. This new confidence, reinforced by exposure to newly discovered Greek manuscripts, revealed itself in many forms but especially in art and architecture, where it was widely interpreted as a rebirth of classical culture. The ideas and style of this Italian “Renaissance” (a 19th century term) spread to neighboring regions of Europe during the next 200 years. It produced many notable thinkers and artists, among them the political theorist Niccolo Machiavelli (1469–1527), sculptor and architect Michelangelo (1475–1564), and the humanist Erasmus (1466–1536). However, no individual reflected the achievement of the Renaissance to a greater extent than Leonardo da Vinci (1452–1519), arguably the most diversely talented individual in human history. Raised and trained in Florence and renowned as the painter of the Mona Lisa, he was also a musician, mathematician and inventor who made important discoveries in anatomy, engineering, and optics. SEE FIGURE 8 1453 Constantinople Falls to the Turks The capture of Constantinople by Sultan Mehmed II and the Ottoman Turks in 1453 marked the end of what remained of the Roman empire and signified the end of the Middle Ages as well. Loss of the city was a serious blow to Christendom, freeing the Ottomans to advance into Europe, which they did in ensuing centuries, taking Budapest in 1541 and reaching the gates of Vienna in 1683. In the eleven centuries since its founding by the Emperor Constantine, the eastern imperial capital had been captured only once, during the Fourth Crusade in 1204. The city was re-captured by Byzantine forces in 1261 but never regained its earlier strength. By 1453 its holdings consisted of a few square miles around the city and the Peloponnesus in Greece. Yet it remained an important symbol of Christian power. The Emperor Constantine XI appealed to Pope Nicholas V for help against the Muslims and even promised in return to end the Orthodox schism with the Western Church. The Pope called for a crusade on behalf of the city, but no western leader responded. SEE FIGURE 9

1162–1227 Genghis Khan & Mongols Overrun Asia By the 13th century it was the Seljuk Turks’ turn to be overwhelmed, this time by a wave of horse-riding invaders, the Mongol armies of Genghis Khan. Spreading out from the Asian heartland, Mongols penetrated as far as Baghdad in 1258 and Palestine in 1260, but their stay in the Middle East was brief. It was noteworthy primarily because it enabled local leaders to come to power in Syria and Egypt and thus kept the Ottoman Anatolian Turks out of these areas even after the Ottomans captured Constantinople in 1453. In 1517 the Ottomans finally united the region under one ruler for the first time since the Abbasid caliphate of the 10th century. They kept control for 400 years. Farther north and east the Mongols remained a dominating force much longer than in the Middle East. It was not until 1480 that the principality of Moscow finally freed itself of their control. The Mongols ruled China from the 1200s until 1368. SEE FIGURE 6

1200–1500 Aztec Empire in Mexico

The Aztec tribe was a late arrival in Mexico, migrating from the north in the 12th century. However, it built on the religious and intellectual foundations of nearby cultures centered in Teotihuacan before 700 and Tula after 800. The Aztecs made enemies of neighboring tribes and quickly lost their independence, regaining it only about 1325, when they escaped into the swamps where Mexico City stands today. At this point they became more militaristic and expansionist, and with new allies they subdued much of the coastal region east and south of the city in the century subsequent to 1420. The Aztecs were an industrious people, their culture featuring jewelry, pottery, feather-work, and embroidery. Their wealth was greatly increased by trade and by heavy tribute imposed on conquered peoples. Religion was a central element of Aztec life and involved sacrificial ceremonies considered necessary to “re-clothe” the sun each day. Aztec sculpture and architecture were inspired by religion and reflected the grimness of sacrificial ceremonies. SEE FIGURE 7

driven by the desire of northern princes to enrich their treasuries by seizing monastic land. One result was the formation of national Protestant churches in England, Scotland, Scandinavia, Switzerland, and Holland. SEE FIGURE 10 1519 Hernan Cortés Conquers Mexico Hernan Cortés was foremost in the generation of conquistadors that began the Spanish colonization of the Americas. He arrived in Hispanola in 1504 and in 1511 participated in an expedition that conquered Cuba. In 1518 the governor of Cuba gave him command of the third Spanish expedition to the mainland, and he set out in February 1519 with 11 ships, 500 men, 15 horses, and several cannon. Landing south of present-day Veracruz, he scuttled his fleet, made alliances with Indigenous tribes, and marched on Tenochtitlan, where, after some hesitation, the Aztec ruler Moctezuma peacefully received him. In a daring action Cortés took Moctezuma hostage, attempting to govern the city through him. Forced to retreat after a subordinate massacred Aztec protesters, he recaptured Tenochtitlan in 1521, claiming the entire Aztec empire for Spain. In ensuing years he amassed considerable wealth and conducted numerous forays in the region, including one to Honduras. Disputes with royal officials compelled him to return to Spain more than once to defend his reputation. 1549 Juan Cabrillo Claims California for Spain A Portuguese sailing for Spain, Juan Cabrillo was the first European to navigate the coast of present-day California. In 1539, Cabrillo was commissioned by the Viceroy of New Spain (Mexico) to lead an expedition along the Pacific coast in search of trading opportunities. In June 1542 he set out from Jalisco with three ships, passing the tip of Baja (lower) California within a month, landing in San Diego Bay in September, and reaching Santa Catalina Island in October. The explorers sailed as far north as Point Reyes and the Russian River before returning to Catalina for the winter. On Christmas Eve Cabrillo splintered his shin in a fall and contracted gangrene. He died in January 1543. Because it was difficult for the small ships of the 16th and 17th centuries to sail north against the prevailing winds and currents of the Pacific Ocean, it would be another two centuries before a permanent Spanish settlement was established in Alta (Upper) California at San Diego in 1769.

1492 Christopher Columbus Crosses the Atlantic; Jews and Muslims Expelled from Spain

The late 15th century was transformative for Spain. In 1492, after King Ferdinand and Queen Isabella authorized Christopher Columbus to seek Asia by sailing west, he ushered in the first lasting European contact with the Americas, and a lengthy period of European exploration, conquest, and colonization. That same year, Spain’s sovereigns, whose marriage in the 1470s had united the thrones of Aragon and Castile, completed their conquest of Moorish Granada and embarked on an unprecedented effort at national unification. Spanish Jews and Muslims were ordered to convert to Christianity, and in July 1492 the entire Jewish community, 200,000 people, was expelled. Most fled to Turkey, North Africa, and other parts of Europe, where they became known as Sephardim — Sefarad being the Hebrew name for Spain. Somewhat later Isabella gave Spanish Muslims a similar ultimatum — expulsion or baptism. Thousands considered baptism the only practical option. Thus Spain became nominally united and entirely Christian, yet culturally poorer.

Figure 9. Built by Justinian as a Christian cathedral in 537AD, Hagia Sophia (Holy Wisdom) was transformed into a magnificent mosque after the fall of Constantinople. Image courtesy of Library of Congress.

1517 Martin Luther Initiates Prostestant Reformation When Martin Luther posted his 95 Theses regarding the sale of indulgences on a church door in Wittenberg in 1517, he sparked a wave of protest, especially in northern Europe, against the

doctrines, ritual, and structure of the Roman church. The efforts of reformers to return the church to its original simplicity grew into the Protestant Reformation and created a permanent schism within Western Christianity. Luther, John Calvin, and other Protestant leaders taught that salvation is not earned by good deeds (works) but achieved only as a gift of God. They challenged the authority of the pope and priesthood by teaching that the Bible is the primary source of divinely revealed knowledge. Much of the passion on the part of Protestants originated in the hostility of simpler cultures to an Italian clergy competing with a worldly Renaissance, but the Reformation was also

Figure 10. This print depicts Martin Luther causing consternation in the streets of Wittenberg by nailing demands for reform to the door the church. Image courtesy of Library of Congress.

The Early Modern Period

1776 Adam Smith Champions Free Market Economics

these years he not only created some of the most admired plays in Western literature (histories, comedies, tragedies), but he transformed English theater by expanding expectations about what could be accomplished through characterization, plot, language, and genre. Through soliloquies Shakespeare showed how a writer could explore a character’s motivations, fears, and disappointments. By mixing tragedy and comedy, he created an entirely new dramatic genre. Prior to Shakespeare’s time, the texture and rules of the English language were in constant flux. As his plays became popular, they contributed to the standardization of the language, enlargement of its vocabulary, and development of new grammatical structures. SEE FIGURE 11

1588 England Defeats Spanish Armada Philip II, king of Spain, Naples, and the Low Countries, was co-monarch of England until the death of his wife Mary in 1558. A devout Catholic, Philip considered Mary’s successor and half-sister Elizabeth a heretic and illegitimate, and he was deeply aggravated by Elizabeth’s support of Dutch Protestants in their revolt against Spain. After Elizabeth executed Philip’s ally Mary Queen of Scots in 1587, he became determined to overthrow her regime, organizing an armada of 151 ships, 8,000 sailors, and 18,000 soldiers which left Spain in May 1588, bound for the Spanish Netherlands, where it was to be reinforced. The armada ultimately anchored off Dunkirk but was attacked and dispersed. Retreating northward, it was continually harassed by smaller, more maneuverable English ships. Armada commanders decided to withdraw by sailing around Scotland and Ireland, but storms drove more than 24 Spanish vessels onto Irish coasts. Of the original fleet, almost 50 vessels did not return. 1592–1616 William Shakespeare Redefines Dramatic Literature An extraordinary playwright of the late Renaissance, William Shakespeare profoundly influenced both English theater and the English language. Born in Warwickshire in 1564 and appearing in London as an actor, poet and dramatist in 1592, he remained central to the literary scene until his death in 1616. During

1776 Franciscans Found Mission San Juan Capistrano

1761–1763 Britain Achieves Supremacy in India and Canada

1703 Peter the Great Establishes St. Petersburg

1687 Isaac Newton Promulgates Laws of Gravity

1643–1715 Louis XIV creates Centralized Absolutist Monarchy

1610 Galileo Galilei Invents Telescope

Figure 12. The look and feel of an early colony “Forte” was recreated for a history festival in Jamestown, Virginia circa 1957. Image courtesy of Virginia Chamber of Commerce.

1607 Jamestown Founded in Virginia

1607 Jamestown Founded in Virginia Defeat of the Spanish Armada emboldened the English to establish colonies in North America. As early as 1585–87 Sir Walter Raleigh, one of Queen Elizabeth’s favorites, had unsuccessfully attempted to found a settlement at Roanoke in what he called “Virginia” (actually North Carolina). Twenty years later, in April 1607, the first permanent English colony in the New World was established by the Virginia Company of London at Jamestown, Virginia. The small peninsula that the colonists chose to occupy was uninhabited and defensible, but it was also plagued by mosquitoes. The settlers arrived too late in the year to plant crops, and many were

1592–1616 William Shakespeare Redefines Dramatic Literature

1588 England Defeats Spanish Armada

THE EARLY MODERN PERIOD

Figure 11. William Shakespeare’s Old Globe Theatre was a London landmark where rich and poor alike gathered to enjoy comedies, tragedies and historical dramas. Image courtesy of Wenceslaus Hollar.

gentlemen unused to hard labor. By the “starving time” of 1609–1610, when Jamestown experienced a serious drought, only 61 of the 500 original colonists survived. But settlers continued to arrive, and the following year things began to improve as colonists expanded their planting areas. In 1614 John Rolfe successfully harvested tobacco and married Pocahontas, daughter of Chief Powhatan, establishing a personal tie that fostered better relations with the Powhatan people. SEE FIGURE 12 1610 Galileo Galilei Invents Telescope A physicist, astronomer and inventor, the Florentine Galileo Galilei (1564–1642) played a major role in the scientific revolution of the early modern era. In 1609, learning of Dutch advances in optics, he constructed the first telescope and turned it toward the heavens. His astonishing astronomical discoveries — that the moon’s surface is mountainous, that the planet Jupiter has at least four moons, that Venus has crescent phases — made him famous. Galileo showed, in effect, that the human senses could be enhanced in studying nature, that Aristotle was wrong in asserting that heavenly bodies are ethereal, and that planets did not revolve around earth. However, when in succeeding years he explicitly defended the heliocentric theories of Nicolaus Copernicus (1473–1543), he incurred the suspicion of the papacy and was called before the Inquisition, which in 1633 found him “suspect of heresy” for contradicting Scripture. Galileo was forced to recant and spent the rest of his life under house arrest. It was during these years that he wrote perhaps his finest work, summarizing his research on acceleration and strength of materials. SEE FIGURE 13

competing dynastic states, and changes associated with the rise of capitalism and international commerce. Absolute monarchs created national bureaucracies that reinforced them in confronting their most powerful institutional opponents, especially the nobility. Louis XIV, the Sun King, ruler of France for 72 years, was widely recognized as the perfect embodiment of absolutist principles. Many features of the modern state were created in France during his reign: centralized authority, a civil bureaucracy, a national judiciary, national tax collection, state control of culture, and a large standing army. SEE FIGURE 14

Figure 13. Galileo offering his telescope to the muses of invention while pointing to the heavens where his astronomical discoveries originated. Image courtesy of Library of Congress.

1687 Isaac Newton Promulgates Laws of Gravity

By formulating laws of gravity, defining light, color, and optics, and inventing the calculus, Isaac Newton revolutionized study of the physical world. A graduate of Cambridge University, Newton as a young man investigated the nature of light, observing that when a beam passes through a prism it spreads into a spectrum of colored rays. His experiments convinced him that such fracturing limits the effectiveness of lenses and led him to invent the reflecting telescope. After 1679 Newton returned to an earlier interest, the problems of planetary orbits and celestial mechanics. Hypothesizing that attraction within the solar system was the same force as terrestrial gravity, in 1687 he published Principia Mathematica , propounding a universal law of gravitation and three laws of motion that form the basis of classical mechanics. In 1704 Newton published a second great work, Optiks , in which he reiterated a theory of light and a spatial ether in which light moves. Internationally acclaimed, Newton was elected president of the Royal Society in 1703 and knighted in 1705.

1643–1715 Louis XIV Creates Centralized Absolutist Monarchy In the 17th and 18th centuries European nations became increasingly centralized,

1703 Peter the Great Establishes St. Petersburg

In the two centuries following the end of Tatar domination, Moscow faced two fundamental questions: (1) whether it was to be ruled by a feudal aristocracy or an autocratic tsar, and (2) whether it was to remain landlocked or reach the sea. It was during the reign of Tsar Peter the Great that these questions were answered. Coming to the throne in 1689, Peter waged war against Tatars and Turks, but with little success. In 1697, hoping to secure allies as well as obtain the latest knowledge about shipbuilding, he embarked on an 18 month tour of Western Europe. Finding no interest in a crusade against

territorialized, and bureaucratized. England was a partial exception to this rule, having overthrown its king, replaced him with a republic, and finally

Figure 14. Louis XIV, King of France was absolute monarch of all he surveyed from the

reinstalled a weakened monarch. But the rest of Europe saw steady growth in the power of kings, a development fueled by a desire to escape the chaos of post-Reformation religious violence, increasingly expensive warfare among

sparkling windows of his gilded palace at Versailles. Image courtesy of Goupil & Cie.

Turkey, he joined a coalition against Sweden, the objective of which was to end Sweden’s longstanding domination of the Baltic. This led to the Great Northern War, which lasted more than 20 years. Following initial setbacks, Peter reorganized his armed forces, founded a fortress at St. Petersburg on the Baltic, and ultimately defeated the Swedish king. In 1713, in conjunction with his efforts to reform Russia, he made St. Petersburg his country’s capital. It became Russia’s long-sought port and a window to the West.

1761–1763 Britain Achieves Supremacy in India and Canada

Throughout the 17th and 18th centuries Britain and France competed against each other, and with other countries like Portugal and Holland, in establishing colonies abroad and taking control of far-flung territories. This was the case not only in sparsely inhabited regions like North America but also in densely populated places like India and the East Indies. The object was to find and seize wealth directly, as Spain had done in Mexico and Peru, and to create and profit from trade in marketable items. Britain, despite having a smaller population than France, was more successful in competing due to a more efficient economy and more balanced form of government. After a long series of colonial conflicts, the British took Canada from France at the end of the Seven Years War in 1763. Two years earlier a British army crushed French forces in India, leaving the British East India Company in control of that country’s increasingly profitable textile and opium trades. 1776 Franciscans Found Mission San Juan Capistrano Spain had sought to convert Native Americans to Christianity from the time of its earliest explorations, but it was not until 1741, when Russian territorial ambitions in North America became known, that King Philip V decided that religious missions were necessary in Upper California. Almost three decades later, after the Jesuits, founders of 18 missions in Baja California, had been suppressed in Spain, the Spanish viceroy entrusted the Baja missions to the Dominican order so that priests of the Franciscan order could establish new missions farther north. An expedition under Father Junipero Serra and Gaspar de Portola founded the first of these in 1769 in San Diego, and additional missions were quickly established in Carmel, San Gabriel, San Luis Obispo, and San

Figure 15. Mission San Juan Capistrano is California’s oldest building still in use. Image courtesy of Henry F. Withey and Historic American Buildings Survey.

Francisco. The mission in San Juan Capistrano dates from November 1, 1776, and has the distinction of possessing the oldest building in California still in use, the only extant structure where Father Serra celebrated mass. Records indicate that almost 5,000 Native Americans were baptized at San Juan between 1776 and 1847. SEE FIGURE 15

1776 Adam Smith Champions Free Market Economics

The father of liberal economics (in the classic sense of the term), Adam Smith first established himself as a professor of moral philosophy at Glasgow University, where he became known for his conviction that moral sentiments arise from human empathy. In the 1760s his interests shifted to jurisprudence and economics, and in 1776 he published what was to become a classic of political economy, The Wealth of Nations . With this study Smith launched a vigorous attack on Mercantilism, the dominant economic theory of the previous two centuries, the doctrine that government control of the economy was necessary to ensure security of the state. Mercantilism taught that a positive balance of trade was essential and that this should be achieved by such means as subsidizing manufactures, placing tariffs on imports, and prohibiting a nation’s colonies from trading with other countries. Smith maintained that wealth, not security, should be a nation’s paramount objective and that self-interested individuals competing in a free market would, like an “invisible hand,” enrich society as a whole.

Revolutions and Nation-Building

1859 Charles Darwin Formulates Theory of Evolution

1849–1850 Gold Rush and California Statehood

Figure 17. This portrait after Gilbert Stuart

depicts the nation’s founder praised in his eulogy as “first in war, first in peace and first in the hearts of his countrymen.” Image courtesy of Library of Congress.

1848 Karl Marx & Friedrich Engels Publish Communist Manifesto

1848 U.S. Annexes Southwest

1846–1848 Mexican– American War

1787 U.S. Constitution 1789 George Washington President

1810–1822 Latin America Gains Independence from Europe

By the mid-1780s the government created under the Articles of Confederation had shown itself inadequate both in coping financially and in protecting the nation’s sovereignty. Congress was denied the power to tax as well as to regulate trade. Most decisions required unanimous approval of all 13 state legislatures. In face of this failure the Confederation Congress called a convention of state delegates at Philadelphia to formulate a new plan of government. Eventually 12 states were represented there by 55 men. The convention’s sessions ran from May to September 1787 and produced a number of artful compromises: e.g. a national government within a federal structure, an independent executive and judiciary, a bicameral legislature designed to protect large and small states, representation based on White and 3/5 of the Black population. The new Constitution was ratified by the ninth state (New Hampshire) in June of 1788. In February 1789 George Washington of Virginia was unanimously elected president. He took office in New York City on April 30,1789. SEE FIGURE 17 1789–1815 French Revolution and Revolutionary/Napoleonic Wars Revolution in France in 1789 ushered in two decades of unprecedented change that had a lasting impact on French and world history. In the process an absolute monarchy collapsed, the nation underwent profound transformation, and assumptions about tradition and hierarchy were

Figure 16. The Declaration of Independence authored by Thomas Jefferson provided a poetic philosophical framework for colonial resistance. Image courtesy of National Archives and Records Administration.

1803 United States Purchases Louisana from France

1776 American Declaration of Independence

1790–1850 Industrial Revolution in England

The expulsion of France from North America in 1763 had a number of unexpected consequences. It freed Britain’s colonies of a fear that had kept them extremely dependent on the Crown. Moreover, the colonies, which had spent heavily in manpower, money, and blood during the Seven Years War, now confronted a British government with a large postwar debt, heavy taxes at home, and the need to support an army in America. When Parliament sought to distribute this burden by enforcing the mercantilist Navigation Acts, imposing taxes like the Stamp Act (1765), and requiring assistance in quartering British troops, the American response was predictable, particularly after decades in which colonial governments went virtually unregulated. “No taxation without representation” became the cry as Americans organized boycotts of British goods. A vicious circle of anger ensued, and when Parliament sent troops to Boston following the Tea Party protest (1773), armed resistance to British military movements quickly developed. By July 4, 1776, a year of bloody conflict had persuaded leaders of the Continental Congress that independence from Britain was inevitable. SEE FIGURE 16

1789–1815 French Revolution & Revolutionary/ Napoleonic Wars

1789 George Washington President

1787 U.S. Constitution

1776 American Declaration of Independence

REVOLUTIONS AND NATION BUILDING

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