The 5th century BCE

Africa

1. 🇳🇦NAM

   Namibia · Peoples & Migration · 1st millennium BCE

   Khoekhoe and Damara herders

   Khoekhoe pastoralists, including the Nama, and the Damara established themselves across central and southern Namibia, herding cattle and sheep and speaking Khoekhoe click languages.

   First peoples: the San, Khoekhoe, Damara and the engravings of Twyfelfontein

   Sources: Namibia (country, history and government) (Encyclopaedia Britannica) · History of Namibia (Wikipedia)

2. 🇹🇿TZA

   Tanzania · Peoples & Migration · late 1st millennium BCE

   Bantu farmers reach the coast

   Iron-using Bantu-speaking farmers settle the Tanzanian coast and interior, part of the wider Bantu expansion that reshaped eastern and southern Africa.

   Bantu Settlers and the Swahili Coast

   Sources: History of Tanzania (Wikipedia) · Swahili language (Wikipedia)

3. 🇺🇬UGA

   Uganda · Peoples & Migration · c. 1st millennium BCE

   Bantu farmers settle the lakes region

   Iron-using Bantu-speaking agriculturalists spread into the interlacustrine region north and west of Lake Victoria, establishing the banana-farming societies that underlie the later kingdoms.

   Peoples and the Great Lakes Kingdoms

   Sources: History of Uganda (Wikipedia) · Uganda: Bunyoro and Buganda (Encyclopaedia Britannica)

Asia

1. 🇮🇳IND

   India · Religion · c. 500 BCE

   Rise of the Buddha and Mahavira

   Siddhartha Gautama (the Buddha) founds Buddhism and Mahavira reforms Jainism, launching two enduring religions amid a wider questioning of Vedic ritual.

   The Vedic Age and the Great Religions

   Sources: Mahavira, Jaina teacher (Encyclopaedia Britannica)

2. 🇸🇦SAU

   Saudi Arabia · Formation · c. 5th century BCE

   The kingdom of Lihyan rises at Dadan

   The Lihyanite kingdom, centered on Dadan in the AlUla region, grew wealthy from the incense trade and tribute, developing its own language, script, and irrigated agriculture.

   Ancient Arabia and the Caravan Kingdoms

   Sources: Lihyan (Wikipedia) · The Arabian Peninsula: A cradle of ancient kingdoms (Al Majalla)

3. 🇱🇰LKA

   Sri Lanka · Formation · c. 5th century BCE

   Sinhalese settlement and the founding of Anuradhapura

   By tradition Prince Vijaya's followers settle the island; the kingdom of Anuradhapura is founded under Pandukabhaya and grows into the strongest Sinhalese state, capital for over a thousand years.

   Anuradhapura and the Coming of Buddhism

   Sources: Sri Lanka: History (Encyclopædia Britannica) · Anuradhapura, Sri Lanka (Encyclopædia Britannica)

4. 🇹🇱TLS

   Timor-Leste · Economy & Trade · Antiquity onward

   The sandalwood trade

   Timor's prized aromatic sandalwood is traded across maritime Asia to China, India, and beyond, drawing Malay, Chinese, and other merchants and giving the island wide renown.

   The Liurai and the Sandalwood Trade

   Sources: East Timor (Encyclopaedia Britannica)

Oceania

1. 🇫🇯FJI

   Fiji · Politics & Power · 1st millennium BCE onward

   Rise of Fijian chiefdoms

   Fijian society develops into a hierarchy of competing chiefdoms bound by lineage, land and warfare, at the crossroads of Melanesia and Polynesia.

   Lapita Voyagers & the Sea-Going Chiefdoms

   Sources: Fiji — History (Melanesian, Colonialism, Independence) (Encyclopædia Britannica) · Fiji — Countries (A Guide to the History of Recognition, Diplomatic, and Consular Relations) (U.S. Department of State, Office of the Historian)

2. 🇳🇨NCL

   New Caledonia · Peoples & Migration · 1st millennium BCE onward

   Emergence of the Kanak

   Successive waves of Melanesian migrants intermarried with the Lapita settlers, giving rise to the Kanak, the Melanesian people indigenous to New Caledonia, with a clan-based society organised around chiefs, yam cultivation and ancestral land.

   The Lapita and the Kanak

   Sources: New Caledonia — History (Encyclopaedia Britannica) · New Caledonia (Encyclopaedia Britannica)

Europe

1. 🇬🇷GRC

   Greece · War & Rupture

   Battle of Marathon

   Athenian hoplites defeated the first Persian invasion on the plain of Marathon, a landmark victory that became central to Athenian self-confidence and identity.

   Archaic and Classical Greece

   Sources: Battle of Marathon (Encyclopaedia Britannica) · Battle of Marathon (World History Encyclopedia)

Europe

1. 🇬🇷GRC

   Greece · War & Rupture

   Battle of Salamis

   A Greek coalition fleet destroyed the navy of the Persian king Xerxes in the straits of Salamis, the decisive naval victory of the second Persian invasion; victory at Plataea in 479 BCE ended the threat.

   Archaic and Classical Greece

   Sources: Battle of Marathon (Encyclopaedia Britannica) · Ancient Greece (World History Encyclopedia)

Europe

1. 🇬🇷GRC

   Greece · War & Rupture · 431–404 BCE

   The Peloponnesian War

   A protracted war between Athens and Sparta and their allies ended in Athens' defeat, exhausting the leading city-states and chronicled by the historian Thucydides.

   Archaic and Classical Greece

   Sources: Ancient Greece (World History Encyclopedia)