The 4th century

Africa

1. 🇿🇦ZAF

   South Africa · Peoples & Migration · early centuries CE

   Bantu-speaking farmers spread south

   Bantu-speaking communities bringing iron-working, cattle and cultivated crops settled the eastern half of southern Africa, ancestors of the region's Nguni, Sotho-Tswana, Venda and Tsonga peoples.

   Early peoples: San, Khoekhoe and the Bantu-speaking kingdoms

   Sources: South Africa (country, history and government) (Encyclopaedia Britannica) · Cradle of Humankind (South African History Online)

2. 🇿🇲ZMB

   Zambia · Peoples & Migration · from c. 300 CE

   Bantu farmers settle the plateau

   Bantu-speaking migrants bringing iron-working, cattle, and agriculture spread across the region over the first millennium CE, gradually settling land held by Khoisan and Batwa hunter-gatherers.

   Iron Age farmers and the Bantu migrations

   Sources: History of Zambia (Encyclopaedia Britannica) · History of Zambia (Wikipedia)

Asia

1. 🇯🇵JPN

   Japan · Formation · c. 3rd-4th century CE

   Rise of the Yamato state

   Clan leaders on the Yamato plain consolidate power, build monumental kofun tombs, and establish the imperial lineage claiming descent from the sun goddess Amaterasu.

   Yamato and Asuka: The Birth of the State

   Sources: Jimmu (Encyclopaedia Britannica) · Japan (Encyclopaedia Britannica)

Asia

1. 🇦🇲ARM

   Armenia · Religion · c. 301 CE

   Armenia adopts Christianity

   King Tiridates III proclaimed Christianity the religion of his kingdom after his conversion by Gregory the Illuminator, making Armenia the first nation to adopt Christianity as its state religion.

   The First Christian Nation and the Alphabet

   Sources: The Early Christianization of Armenia (World History Encyclopedia) · Cathedral and Churches of Echmiatsin and the Archaeological Site of Zvartnots (UNESCO World Heritage Centre) · Tiridates III, king of Armenia (Encyclopædia Britannica)

Europe

1. 🇸🇲SMR

   San Marino · Politics & Power · by tradition

   'I leave you free from both men'

   Marinus is said to have left his followers the words 'Relinquo vos liberos ab utroque homine', freedom from both emperor and pope, enshrined as the founding ideal of Sammarinese liberty.

   Saint Marinus and the Mountain Commune

   Sources: Origins of San Marino - the world's oldest Republic (SanMarinoSite)

2. 🇸🇲SMR

   San Marino · Formation · AD 301 (traditional)

   Foundation by Saint Marinus

   By tradition the stonemason Marinus, fleeing Diocletian's persecution of Christians, founded a free community on Mount Titano on 3 September 301, the act from which San Marino dates its existence.

   Saint Marinus and the Mountain Commune

   Sources: Origins of San Marino - the world's oldest Republic (SanMarinoSite) · History of San Marino (Visit San Marino (official tourism site)) · The World's Oldest Continuous Republic (WorldAtlas) · History of San Marino (Encyclopaedia Britannica)

Asia

1. 🇦🇲ARM

   Armenia · Religion · 301–303 CE

   Mother Cathedral of Echmiatsin

   The earliest of Armenia's great domed churches, the Mother Cathedral of Echmiatsin, was traditionally built by Tiridates III and Gregory the Illuminator; it remains the seat of the Armenian Apostolic Church.

   The First Christian Nation and the Alphabet

   Sources: Cathedral and Churches of Echmiatsin and the Archaeological Site of Zvartnots (UNESCO World Heritage Centre)

Europe

1. 🇭🇷HRV

   Croatia · Culture & Ideas · c. 305

   Diocletian's Palace at Split

   The Dalmatian-born emperor Diocletian built an immense fortified palace near Salona around the turn of the fourth century; the historic core of Split later grew within its walls, today the most complete surviving Roman palace.

   Roman Dalmatia, Pannonia and the Coming of the Croats

   Sources: Historical Complex of Split with the Palace of Diocletian (UNESCO World Heritage Centre) · Croatia: History (Encyclopaedia Britannica)

Asia

1. 🇦🇿AZE

   Azerbaijan · Religion · 4th century CE

   Caucasian Albania adopts Christianity

   King Urnayr made Christianity the state religion of Caucasian Albania, which kept its own church and alphabet as a Sasanian province until the Arab conquests.

   Gobustan, Caucasian Albania and the land of fire

   Sources: Armenia, Azerbaijan, and Georgia: Country Studies (ed. Glenn E. Curtis) (Library of Congress, Federal Research Division)

Europe

1. 🇮🇹ITA

   Italy · Religion · 313 CE

   Edict of Milan and the rise of Christianity

   Constantine and Licinius granted toleration to Christianity, beginning its transformation from a persecuted faith into the dominant religion of the Roman world.

   The Roman Republic and Empire

   Sources: Italy (country overview and history) (Encyclopaedia Britannica)

Asia

1. 🇮🇳IND

   India · Culture & Ideas · c. 320 CE

   Gupta golden age

   The Gupta Empire presides over a classical flowering of Sanskrit literature, mathematics and astronomy, including the works of Kalidasa and Aryabhata and the maturing of the decimal system.

   Classical Empires: Maurya and the Gupta Golden Age

   Sources: Gupta Empire (Wikipedia) · Gupta dynasty (Encyclopaedia Britannica)

Asia

1. 🇵🇸PSE

   Palestine · Religion · 4th century CE

   A Christian holy land

   Following Constantine's conversion, Palestine became a centre of Christian pilgrimage; churches were built over sites venerated as those of Jesus's life, death, and resurrection.

   Roman, Byzantine, and the Name "Palaestina"

   Sources: Palestine - region, history (Encyclopaedia Britannica)

Africa

1. 🇪🇹ETH

   Ethiopia · Religion · c. 330 CE

   King Ezana adopts Christianity

   Ezana converts to Christianity, reportedly under the influence of Frumentius; his coins replace pagan emblems with the cross, making Aksum one of the world's earliest Christian states.

   The Kingdom of Aksum and Early Christianity

   Sources: African Christianity in Ethiopia (The Metropolitan Museum of Art) · King Ezana of Axum (?–360 CE) (BlackPast.org)

Asia

1. 🇹🇷TUR

   Türkiye · Formation · 11 May 330 CE

   Constantine refounds Constantinople

   Constantine the Great dedicated the rebuilt city of Byzantium as Constantinople, a new Christian capital on the Bosporus that would anchor the Roman and then Byzantine state for over a millennium.

   Greek, Roman and Byzantine Anatolia

   Sources: Constantine I, Roman emperor (Encyclopædia Britannica) · Byzantine Empire (Encyclopædia Britannica)

Europe

1. 🇬🇷GRC

   Greece · Formation · 330 CE

   Foundation of Constantinople

   Constantine refounded Byzantium as Constantinople, the new capital that shifted the Roman Empire's centre eastward and became the heart of the Greek-speaking Byzantine world.

   Roman and Byzantine Greece

   Sources: Byzantine Empire (Encyclopaedia Britannica) · Greece (country overview and history) (Encyclopaedia Britannica)

2. 🇻🇦VAT

   Vatican City · Religion · c. 330

   Constantine builds Old St Peter's Basilica

   The emperor Constantine raised a great basilica over the traditional tomb of Peter on the Vatican Hill, enclosing the shrine and making the site the chief sanctuary of Western Christendom.

   The Tomb of Peter and the First Basilica

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

Asia

1. 🇬🇪GEO

   Georgia · Religion · c. 337

   Iberia adopts Christianity

   Through the preaching of St Nino, King Mirian III of Iberia adopted Christianity as the state religion, making Georgia one of the world's oldest Christian states.

   The Conversion of Iberia and an Early Christian State

   Sources: Saint Nino (Encyclopaedia Britannica) · Historical Monuments of Mtskheta (UNESCO World Heritage Centre) · History of Georgia (Encyclopaedia Britannica)

Asia

1. 🇰🇷KOR

   South Korea · Religion · c. 372 CE

   Introduction of Buddhism

   Buddhism is officially adopted in Goguryeo and spreads through the kingdoms, becoming a major force in art, statecraft, and religious life.

   Gojoseon and the Three Kingdoms

   Sources: Three Kingdoms period (Encyclopaedia Britannica) · Korea (history) (Encyclopaedia Britannica)

Europe

1. 🇻🇦VAT

   Vatican City · Religion · c. 1st–5th c.

   The bishops of Rome and apostolic succession

   The popes were regarded as successors of Peter as bishops of Rome, a claim founded on the doctrine of apostolic succession that linked their authority to the apostle buried at the Vatican.

   The Tomb of Peter and the First Basilica

   Sources: Papacy (Encyclopaedia Britannica) · Apostolic succession (Encyclopaedia Britannica)

Europe

1. 🇦🇱ALB

   Albania · Politics & Power · from late 4th c. CE

   Byzantine rule begins

   After the division of the Roman Empire the Albanian lands passed to the Byzantine Empire, remaining a contested Christian borderland for much of the following eight centuries.

   Illyrians, Greeks, Rome and Byzantium

   Sources: Albania: Medieval Culture and Illyrian Tribes (Encyclopaedia Britannica) · Albania (Encyclopaedia Britannica)

Africa

1. 🇩🇿DZA

   Algeria · Religion · c. 395–430 CE

   Augustine, bishop of Hippo

   Augustine serves as bishop of Hippo Regius from about 395 until his death in 430, writing the Confessions and City of God and shaping Western Christian thought.

   Numidia, Carthage and Roman Africa

   Sources: History of Algeria (Encyclopaedia Britannica) · The Splendours of Roman Algeria (World History Encyclopedia)