The 1st century

Africa

1. 🇧🇼BWA

   Botswana · Peoples & Migration · c. 2,000 years ago

   Herders and farmers arrive

   Peoples bringing cattle, sheep and pottery move into present-day Botswana, beginning the long shift from hunter-gathering toward herding and farming societies.

   Hunters, Herders and the Painted Hills

   Sources: History of Botswana (Wikipedia) · Botswana — History (Encyclopaedia Britannica)

2. 🇬🇦GAB

   Gabon · Culture & Ideas · early settlement sites

   Settlement and iron-working at Lopé-Okanda

   The Lopé-Okanda landscape along the Ogooué preserves dense habitation sites, iron-working remains and about 1,800 rock engravings, recording the successive passage of peoples through the river corridor.

   Forest peoples and the Bantu migrations

   Sources: Ecosystem and Relict Cultural Landscape of Lopé-Okanda (UNESCO World Heritage Centre) · Ecosystem and Relict Cultural Landscape of Lopé-Okanda — World Heritage Datasheet (UNEP-WCMC)

3. 🇲🇼MWI

   Malawi · Peoples & Migration · c. 1st–4th centuries CE

   Bantu-speaking farmers settle the plateau

   Bantu-speaking peoples moved into the Lake Malawi region during the early centuries of the Common Era, introducing ironworking and settled agriculture and absorbing or displacing earlier hunter-gatherer communities.

   Bantu farmers and the rock-painters of Chongoni

   Sources: History of Malawi (Wikipedia) · Malawi (country overview and history) (Encyclopaedia Britannica)

Asia

1. 🇰🇭KHM

   Cambodia · Formation · 1st century CE

   Rise of Funan

   Funan emerges around the Mekong delta as the first major Hinduized kingdom of Southeast Asia, prospering on maritime trade between India and China.

   Funan and Chenla: The Indianized Kingdoms

   Sources: Funan (Encyclopaedia Britannica)

South America

1. 🇦🇷ARG

   Argentina · Culture & Ideas · 1st millennium CE

   Diaguita and Guarani societies

   Settled Diaguita farmers flourish in the northwest within the Andean world, while Guarani-speaking peoples cultivate the riverine northeast.

   Indigenous Peoples and the Spanish Rio de la Plata

   Sources: Argentina (Encyclopaedia Britannica)

2. 🇧🇷BRA

   Brazil · Peoples & Migration · 1st millennium CE

   Tupi-Guarani expansion

   Tupi-Guarani-speaking peoples spread across the Atlantic coast and into the interior, developing the farming and village societies later encountered by Europeans.

   Indigenous Peoples Before Contact

   Sources: Brazil (Encyclopaedia Britannica)

Europe

1. 🇭🇷HRV

   Croatia · Formation · c. 9 CE

   Dalmatia and Pannonia become Roman provinces

   After the crushing of the great Illyrian (Pannonian) revolt, Rome organised the eastern Adriatic and its hinterland into the provinces of Dalmatia and Pannonia, beginning centuries of Roman rule and urban life along the coast.

   Roman Dalmatia, Pannonia and the Coming of the Croats

   Sources: Croatia: History (Encyclopaedia Britannica)

2. 🇩🇪DEU

   Germany · War & Rupture · 9 CE

   Battle of the Teutoburg Forest

   Germanic tribes under Arminius destroyed three Roman legions commanded by Varus, ending Roman attempts to conquer Germania east of the Rhine and securing the river as a permanent frontier.

   Germania, Rome and the Frankish Inheritance

   Sources: Battle of the Teutoburg Forest (Encyclopaedia Britannica)

Asia

1. 🇱🇧LBN

   Lebanon · Culture & Ideas · 1st–3rd century CE

   Baalbek becomes Roman Heliopolis

   Refounded as a Roman colony, Baalbek is endowed over more than two centuries with colossal temples to Jupiter, Bacchus and Venus, becoming one of the most famous sanctuaries of the Roman world.

   Roman Heliopolis and the Rise of Christianity

   Sources: Baalbek (UNESCO World Heritage Centre) · Baalbek (Baalbeck) (Encyclopaedia Britannica)

Africa

1. 🇲🇦MAR

   Morocco · Colonisation · c. 40–44 CE

   Roman annexation of Mauretania

   Rome annexes the kingdom of Mauretania and the emperor Claudius organises the western part as the province of Mauretania Tingitana, governed from Tingis (Tangier).

   Amazigh Mauretania and Roman Volubilis

   Sources: Exploring Roman Morocco (World History Encyclopedia) · Archaeological Site of Volubilis (UNESCO World Heritage Centre)

Asia

1. 🇻🇳VNM

   Vietnam · War & Rupture · 40-43 CE

   Revolt of the Trung sisters

   Trung Trac and Trung Nhi lead a rebellion that briefly drives out the Chinese before being defeated in 43 CE; they become lasting symbols of Vietnamese resistance.

   Legendary Origins and a Thousand Years of Chinese Rule

   Sources: Trung Sisters (Encyclopaedia Britannica) · Vietnam (Encyclopaedia Britannica)

Europe

1. 🇬🇧GBR

   United Kingdom · War & Rupture · AD 43

   Roman conquest of Britain begins

   The emperor Claudius launched the Roman invasion of Britain, beginning nearly four centuries of Roman rule over the province of Britannia, with its towns, roads, and the frontier of Hadrian's Wall.

   Roman Britain and the Anglo-Saxon kingdoms

   Sources: Roman Britain (Encyclopaedia Britannica) · Story of England: 1066 and the Norman Conquest (English Heritage)

Asia

1. 🇨🇾CYP

   Cyprus · Religion · c. 45–47 CE

   Paul and Barnabas convert the proconsul

   On their journey across Cyprus the apostles Paul and Barnabas reached the Roman proconsul Sergius Paulus at Paphos, an early instance of a senior Roman official embracing Christianity.

   Roman and Byzantine Cyprus: An Early Christian Island

   Sources: Cyprus: History (Encyclopaedia Britannica)

Asia

1. 🇲🇳MNG

   Mongolia · War & Rupture · c. 48 CE

   Break-up of the Xiongnu empire

   After prolonged war with China and internal division, the Xiongnu confederation fractures; some tribes are absorbed into China while others scatter, ending the first great steppe empire centred on Mongolia.

   Lords of the Steppe: The Xiongnu and Early Nomads

   Sources: Xiongnu (Encyclopaedia Britannica)

Africa

1. 🇪🇷ERI

   Eritrea · Economy & Trade · mid-1st century CE

   Adulis named in the Periplus of the Erythraean Sea

   The Greek navigational handbook describes Adulis as the principal, legally regulated port serving the Aksumite hinterland, trading ivory, rhinoceros horn, tortoise shell and other goods.

   Aksum, Adulis and the Red Sea Trade

   Sources: The Ancient Red Sea Port of Adulis, Eritrea (Eritro-British Expedition report) (JSTOR) · Aksumite Empire (New World Encyclopedia)

Africa

1. 🇸🇴SOM

   Somalia · Economy & Trade · c. 1st century CE

   Periplus of the Erythraean Sea

   A Greek mariner's handbook describes ports along the Horn coast trading frankincense, myrrh, ivory and tortoiseshell with Egypt, Arabia and India, documenting the region's role in Indian Ocean commerce.

   The Land of Punt and the Ancient Incense Coast

   Sources: Somalia (country and history) (Encyclopaedia Britannica) · Somali maritime history (Wikipedia)

Europe

1. 🇲🇹MLT

   Malta · Religion · c. 60 CE

   The shipwreck of the Apostle Paul

   Christian tradition, drawing on the Acts of the Apostles, holds that Paul was shipwrecked on Malta around 60 CE, welcomed by the islanders and the leading man Publius, and stayed three months, beginning the islands' conversion.

   Phoenicians, Carthage, Rome and the Coming of Christianity

   Sources: Feast of St. Paul's Shipwreck (Malta) (EBSCO Research Starters)

Europe

1. 🇻🇦VAT

   Vatican City · Religion · c. 64

   Martyrdom of Saint Peter

   According to tradition the apostle Peter was martyred in Rome during the persecution under Nero and buried on the Vatican Hill beside the circus, around 64 CE.

   The Tomb of Peter and the First Basilica

   Sources: The Tomb of Saint Peter (Fabbrica di San Pietro / basilicasanpietro.va) · Papacy (Encyclopaedia Britannica)

Europe

1. 🇳🇱NLD

   Netherlands · War & Rupture · 69–70 CE

   The Batavian Revolt

   Julius Civilis leads the Batavians and allied tribes in a revolt against Rome during the chaos after Nero's death; it is suppressed after roughly a year.

   The Low Countries: Romans, Frisians and Medieval Counties

   Sources: Netherlands (Encyclopaedia Britannica) · The Netherlands in Roman Times (Rijksmuseum van Oudheden (National Museum of Antiquities))

Europe

1. 🇮🇹ITA

   Italy · Culture & Ideas · 80 CE

   Completion of the Colosseum

   The Flavian Amphitheatre, the Colosseum, was inaugurated in Rome, a monument to the engineering and civic spectacle of the imperial city.

   The Roman Republic and Empire

   Sources: Ancient Rome (World History Encyclopedia)