Economy & Trade

Independent invention of agriculture at Kuk · Papua New Guinea

The Dilmun trading culture flourishes · Saudi Arabia

Egyptian trade with Punt begins · Somalia

Magan supplies copper to Mesopotamia · Oman

The frankincense trade flourishes in Dhofar · Oman

Pearling and fishing villages on the Gulf coast · Qatar

Hatshepsut's expedition to Punt · Somalia

Coast woven into Horn of Africa trade · Djibouti

The aflaj irrigation system at Hili · United Arab Emirates

Construction of the Great Dam of Marib · Yemen

The sandalwood trade · Timor-Leste

The harbour at its height · Monaco

Khor Rori and the incense ports · Oman

Silk Road trade routes open under Emperor Wu · China

Adulis named in the Periplus of the Erythraean Sea · Eritrea

Periplus of the Erythraean Sea · Somalia

Garamantes flourish in the Fezzan · Libya

Aksumite coinage · Eritrea

Aksum issues its own coinage · Ethiopia

Sogdians dominate Silk Road trade · Uzbekistan

Brunei trades with China as Po-ni · Brunei

The trading town of Birka · Sweden

Koumbi Saleh as a Saharan emporium · Mauritania

Dembeni phase and Indian Ocean trade · Comoros

Control of the coastal trade routes · Norway

Zeila flourishes as a trading emporium · Somaliland

Sofala recorded as a gold port · Mozambique

Ibn Hawqal records Ghana's wealth · Mali

Song dynasty and a commercial revolution · China

Silk Road towns of the south flourish · Kazakhstan

Rise of the Sultanate of Dahlak · Eritrea

Karakhanid Balasagun and the Burana tower · Kyrgyzstan

Swahili and Arab trade contacts · Madagascar

Apogee of the gold-and-salt trade · Mali

Zeila, Berbera and Mogadishu flourish · Somalia

The savannas join the trans-Saharan trade · Ivory Coast

Coastal trading towns flourish · Mozambique

The Flemish cloth boom · Belgium

Boni described as a wealthy maritime kingdom · Brunei

Hafsid dynasty rules from Tunis · Tunisia

Apex of the gold trade · Zimbabwe

Riga joins the Hanseatic League · Latvia

Reval joins the Hanseatic League · Estonia

Massawa grows as a leading port · Eritrea

Gold links the forest to the Sahel · Ghana

Kilwa controls the Sofala gold trade · Mozambique

Kilwa dominates the gold trade · Tanzania

Mansa Musa's pilgrimage makes Mali's gold legendary · Guinea

The Hanseatic Kontor at Bryggen · Norway

Loropéni's gold-trade fortresses flourish · Burkina Faso

Niumi commands the river mouth · Gambia

Zheng He's maritime voyages · China

Zheng He's fleet reaches Malindi · Kenya

Portuguese reach the Senegambian coast · Senegal

Trade at Ingombe Ilede · Zambia

Portuguese ships enter the Gambia · Gambia

The Republic of Ragusa (Dubrovnik) · Croatia

Spice sultanates of Ternate, Tidore and Aceh flourish · Indonesia

Malacca, the great entrepot of the strait · Malaysia

The salt caravans of Bilma · Niger

Portuguese and European contact · Comoros

The first sugar-slavery plantations · São Tomé and Príncipe

The sugar economy · Brazil

Silver discovered at Cerro Rico · Bolivia

Potosi feeds the Spanish empire · Bolivia

Baguirmi and the slave trade · Chad

Founding of the East India Company · United Kingdom

A cacao-and-slave economy · Venezuela

The Danish trade monopoly · Iceland

Founding of the VOC · Netherlands

Dhaka becomes the Mughal capital of Bengal · Bangladesh

Cattle turn the plains to wealth · Uruguay

Hohenems debts open the way · Liechtenstein

Dhaka muslin and the wealth of Bengal · Bangladesh

Peak of the slave trade through Loango · Congo

The engineered sugar coast · Guyana

The Slave Coast and the Atlantic trade · Togo

Purchase of the county of Vaduz · Liechtenstein

A slave-worked plantation economy · Mauritius

Bunce Island at its height · Sierra Leone

Peak of the Atlantic slave trade · Gabon

A pearling and trade entrepot · Kuwait

Zinder, a trans-Saharan hub · Niger

The Kula ring and the trading seas · Papua New Guinea

Wadai's commercial expansion · Chad

Sandalwood and bêche-de-mer trades · Fiji

Coffee arrives from Cuba · Costa Rica

Malta as a naval fortress · Malta

Sugar-and-slavery boom · Cuba

Coffee and cocoa introduced · São Tomé and Príncipe

The French indemnity · Haiti

The Cultivation System · Indonesia

Gamitto's mission to Kazembe · Zambia

Mindelo becomes an Atlantic coaling station · Cape Verde

Zanzibar becomes the Omani capital · Kenya

The Jumbe and the slave trade at Nkhotakota · Malawi

Said bin Sultan moves the capital to Zanzibar · Oman

The guano boom · Peru

Plantation economy and Tamil labour migration · Sri Lanka

Clove plantations and the caravan trade · Tanzania

Carlos Antonio Lopez modernises Paraguay · Paraguay

Entry into the Zollverein · Luxembourg

An economy of wrecking and sponging · Bahamas

From slaving to 'legitimate' trade · Togo

Gold rushes begin · Australia

British blockade of Dahomey's ports · Benin

Falkland Islands Company chartered · Falkland Islands

Panama Railroad completed · Panama

The Bowring Treaty · Thailand

Slave society on the islands · Comoros

Swahili-Arab and Chikunda slave trade · Zambia

Civil War blockade-running boom · Bahamas

Founding of the Société des Bains de Mer · Monaco

Collapse of the blockade boom · Bahamas

Monte-Carlo named · Monaco

Diamonds discovered at Kimberley · South Africa

Opening of the Suez Canal · Egypt

The Bismarckian empire and industrial rise · Germany

The Baku oil boom begins · Azerbaijan

Minor Keith and the banana railways · Costa Rica

The coffee economy · Guatemala

The independence debt paid off · Haiti

The cacao boom · Ecuador

Nickel mining begins · New Caledonia

French canal attempt fails · Panama

Communal lands abolished · El Salvador

First refrigerated meat shipment · New Zealand

Canadian Pacific Railway completed · Canada

Gold found on the Witwatersrand · South Africa

Gold on the Mambare · Papua New Guinea

The Uganda Railway is built · Uganda

Franco-Ethiopian Railway begun · Djibouti

Concessionary companies take over · Central African Republic

Rise of the fruit companies · Honduras

The age of the tin barons · Bolivia

Plantation economy · Comoros

Head tax and forced labour · Ivory Coast

Migrant labour to South Africa · Lesotho

A 'model colony' built on forced labour · Togo

Rise of the United Fruit Company · Guatemala

World's largest cocoa producer · São Tomé and Príncipe

Nevinson exposes 'A Modern Slavery' · São Tomé and Príncipe

Liberian labour treaty for the cocoa plantations · Equatorial Guinea

Panama Canal opens · Panama

Railway reaches Addis Ababa · Djibouti

Prohibition-era rum-running · Bahamas

Building the Congo-Ocean Railway · Congo

Oil gusher at Lake Maracaibo · Venezuela

Customs union with Switzerland and the Swiss franc · Liechtenstein

The Firestone rubber concession · Liberia

The Bulolo gold rush · Papua New Guinea

Copperbelt copper proven · Zambia

Oil struck at Seria · Brunei

Forced cotton cultivation and chibalo · Mozambique

Collectivisation and cotton · Turkmenistan

Collapse of the pearl trade · United Arab Emirates

The oil concession is granted · Saudi Arabia

Railway completed; Pointe-Noire opens as port · Congo

The oil concession is granted · Kuwait

First oil concession signed · Qatar

Copperbelt mineworkers' strike · Zambia

The Benelux customs convention · Luxembourg

First oil exports · Kuwait

First oil exports begin · Qatar

The banana boom · Ecuador

Tin nationalised, suffrage and land reform · Bolivia

The Kara-Kum Canal · Turkmenistan

Beirut, the Paris of the Middle East · Lebanon

Oil discovered near Port-Gentil · Gabon

Founding member of the EEC · France

Commercial oil discovered · Libya

The 'Ivorian miracle' · Ivory Coast

U.S. embargo made comprehensive · Cuba

Abu Dhabi exports its first oil · United Arab Emirates

Postwar economic miracle · Japan

Diamonds discovered at Orapa · Botswana

Oil exports begin · Oman

'Goulash communism' and the New Economic Mechanism · Hungary

Debswana partnership formed · Botswana

National park system created · Costa Rica

Nationalisation of oil and gas · Algeria

Nationalisation of the economy · Guyana

The New Economic Policy · Malaysia

Diversification beyond sugar · Mauritius

Uranium mining begins at Arlit · Niger

The oil era begins · Ecuador

Accession to the European Communities · Denmark

Commodity slump ends the boom · Ivory Coast

Itaipu dam begins generating · Paraguay

Hyperinflation and stabilisation · Bolivia

Fisheries licensing zone established · Falkland Islands

New Economic Mechanism reforms · Laos

Accession to the European Communities · Spain

Doi Moi reforms launched · Vietnam

Sankara's debt speech at the OAU · Burkina Faso

The Special Period begins · Cuba

Rapid post-war reconstruction · Kuwait

The herding collectives are dismantled · Mongolia

Plano Real ends hyperinflation · Brazil

NAFTA and the Zapatista uprising · Mexico

Zafiro oil field discovered · Equatorial Guinea

The Celtic Tiger · Ireland

Accession to the European Economic Area · Liechtenstein

Dollarisation · Ecuador

Wealth amid deep inequality · Equatorial Guinea

Panama administers the canal · Panama

Fast-track land reform · Zimbabwe

Economic and political crisis · Argentina

Dollarisation · El Salvador

Reconstruction and the oil boom · Angola

The euro in French Guiana · France

Offshore gas discovered in the Rovuma basin · Mozambique

Monetary agreement and the euro · Andorra

Euro monetary agreement · San Marino

The eurozone crisis reaches the island · Northern Cyprus

Africa's largest economy · Nigeria

First offshore oil discovery · Guyana

High-income tourism and tuna economy · Seychelles

Expanded canal opens · Panama

Sovereign debt default · Zambia

Bitcoin made legal tender · El Salvador

Laos-China Railway opens · Laos

Economic crisis and sovereign default · Sri Lanka

End of systemic forced labour in cotton · Uzbekistan

Association agreement with the EU · Andorra

Among the region's top economies · Dominican Republic

Nickel, still the ground everyone stands on · New Caledonia