The 2nd century BCE

Asia

1. 🇲🇲MMR

   Myanmar · Formation · c. 200 BCE

   Rise of the Pyu city-states

   Tibeto-Burman Pyu peoples establish walled, moated cities such as Beikthano, Halin and Sri Ksetra in the Irrawaddy basin, founding the region's first urban civilization.

   The Pyu City-States and the Coming of Buddhism

   Sources: Pyu Ancient Cities (UNESCO World Heritage Centre) · History of Myanmar (Encyclopaedia Britannica)

2. 🇱🇰LKA

   Sri Lanka · Culture & Ideas · from c. 2nd century BCE

   Hydraulic civilisation and South Indian invasions

   Anuradhapura's kings build vast reservoir-and-channel systems to irrigate the dry plain, while recurrent invasions from South India culminate in the Chola conquest and the abandonment of the capital around 1017.

   Anuradhapura and the Coming of Buddhism

   Sources: Anuradhapura, Sri Lanka (Encyclopædia Britannica) · Sacred City of Anuradhapura (UNESCO World Heritage Centre)

3. 🇹🇲TKM

   Turkmenistan · Culture & Ideas · 2nd century BCE

   Royal city of Nisa

   Old and New Nisa, near modern Ashgabat, served as an early capital and royal residence of the Parthian Empire, with palaces, temples and treasuries that fused Hellenistic and Iranian art.

   Ancient Oases: Margiana and Parthian Nisa

   Sources: Parthian Fortresses of Nisa (UNESCO World Heritage Centre) · Parthia (Encyclopædia Britannica)

Europe

1. 🇦🇱ALB

   Albania · War & Rupture · 2nd c. BCE

   Roman conquest of Illyria

   Rome conquered the Illyrians in the second century BCE and absorbed their lands; Butrint flourished under Roman rule with a forum, aqueduct and public buildings.

   Illyrians, Greeks, Rome and Byzantium

   Sources: Albania: Medieval Culture and Illyrian Tribes (Encyclopaedia Britannica) · Butrint (UNESCO World Heritage Centre)

Europe

1. 🇲🇰MKD

   North Macedonia · War & Rupture

   Macedonia becomes a Roman province

   After Rome defeated the last Macedonian claimant near Pydna, Macedonia was organised as a Roman province, beginning centuries of Roman and later Byzantine rule over the region.

   Ancient Macedon and the Classical Legacy

   Sources: Macedonia (region, Europe): Map, History & Facts (Encyclopaedia Britannica)

Africa

1. 🇹🇳TUN

   Tunisia · War & Rupture

   Rome destroys Carthage

   Roman armies raze Carthage in the Third Punic War; its lands become the province of Africa.

   Carthage & the Punic Wars

   Sources: Battle of Carthage (146 BCE) (Encyclopaedia Britannica) · Africa Proconsularis (Roman province) (UNRV Roman History)

Europe

1. 🇬🇷GRC

   Greece · War & Rupture

   Rome sacks Corinth and conquers Greece

   The Roman general Lucius Mummius destroyed Corinth and crushed the Achaean League, bringing Greece under Roman domination; it was later organized as the province of Achaea.

   Roman and Byzantine Greece

   Sources: Roman Greece (conquest and province of Achaea) (World History Encyclopedia) · Greece (country overview and history) (Encyclopaedia Britannica)

Asia

1. 🇨🇳CHN

   China · Economy & Trade · c. 138 BCE

   Silk Road trade routes open under Emperor Wu

   Emperor Wu's campaigns against the Xiongnu and missions into Central Asia open the overland Silk Road, linking China to India, Persia, and the Mediterranean in exchange of goods and ideas.

   Imperial Unification: Qin and Han

   Sources: Han dynasty (206 BCE-220 CE), Teaching China with the Smithsonian (Smithsonian National Museum of Asian Art) · Han Dynasty (206 B.C.-220 A.D.) (The Metropolitan Museum of Art)

Europe

1. 🇲🇨MCO

   Monaco · War & Rupture · from 137 BCE

   Portus Herculis Monoeci under Rome

   After Rome's conquest of the region the harbour became Portus Herculis Monoeci, a refuge on the route between Italy, Gaul and Hispania used by Roman expeditions.

   Monoikos: The Harbour of Hercules

   Sources: A port during Greek then Roman antiquity (Government of Monaco (gouv.mc))

Africa

1. 🇩🇿DZA

   Algeria · War & Rupture · 112–105 BCE

   The Jugurthine War

   Massinissa's grandson Jugurtha wars with Rome over control of Numidia; captured by treachery, he is led in Marius's triumph and executed at Rome in 104 BCE.

   Numidia, Carthage and Roman Africa

   Sources: Masinissa (Encyclopaedia Britannica) · Berber Kingdoms of Numidia and Mauretania (EBSCO Research Starters)

Asia

1. 🇻🇳VNM

   Vietnam · Colonisation

   Han conquest begins Chinese rule

   The Chinese Han dynasty conquers the region, opening more than a thousand years of direct Chinese administration, taxation, and cultural influence.

   Legendary Origins and a Thousand Years of Chinese Rule

   Sources: Vietnam (Encyclopaedia Britannica)

Asia

1. 🇾🇪YEM

   Yemen · Politics & Power · c. 110 BCE

   Rise of the Himyarite kingdom

   The Himyarites rose in the southern highlands and gradually absorbed Saba, Qataban and Hadramawt, uniting much of South Arabia under a single dynasty.

   Ancient South Arabia: The Incense Kingdoms

   Sources: Yemen: History (ancient kingdoms, Islam, the imamate, unification and war) (Encyclopaedia Britannica) · The Kingdoms of Aksum and Himyar (World History, Volume 1) (OpenStax, Rice University)

Asia

1. 🇰🇷KOR

   South Korea · War & Rupture

   Fall of Gojoseon to Han China

   The Han dynasty conquers Gojoseon and establishes commanderies in the north, fragmenting the peninsula into smaller competing states.

   Gojoseon and the Three Kingdoms

   Sources: Korea (history) (Encyclopaedia Britannica) · Gojoseon (World History Encyclopedia)