Information taken from the Atlas of World History,  Rand McNally and Company (1992) and Britannica.com
(Note:  Before 700 BC, the dates listed are approximate calculations.)
14th Century BC  Assyria (Northern Iraq/South-eastern Turkey) emerges as an independent state
6000 BC Dry farming developed in Mesopotamian hills
6000-4000 BC Tigres-Euphrates plains colonized
6000-3000 BC Farming communities spread from S.E. to N.W. Europe
3500 BC Sumerian civilization has developed in the southeast of the Tigres-Euphrates river area. Akkadian civilization has developed in the northwest area.  The two engage in continual warfare.
3000 BC Bronze age begins in Greece and China.
3000 BC Egyptian civilization has developed.
3000 BC Minoan civilization appears in Crete.
2800 BC  Sumer city-states united together for the first time.
2500 BC Harrapan civilization in Indus valley has developed.
2230 BC Guti people sweep through Babylonia and overthrow the Akkadian empire.
2130 BC Guti driven out of Mesopotamia.
2000 BC Sumerian civilization falls.
2000 BC Advanced state societies develop in Crete (Minoan), Greece (Mycenaen) and Turkey (Hittite)
2000 BC Assyrian empire establishs a colony in Anatolia (Turkey) in order to send metals (especially copper) back to Mesopotamia. Hittites build a capital city with 4 miles of massive defensive walls; Hittites also master iron production and defeat the Babylonians to the east and Egyptians to the south in battle.
1900 BC Amorites conquer all of Mesopotamia including the remanents of the Sumerian civilization.
1850 BC Babylonian civilization rises to political prominence under the Amorites.
1700 BC Harrapan civilization falls to outside attacks.
1760-1520 BC Chinese Shang dynasty founded; warlike culture.  Jade fittings utilized in weapons.
1450 BC Mycenaens of mainland Greece take control of Crete.
1299 BC Battle of Kadesh occurs between Egypt and the Hittites over control of Syria but the result is indecisive.
1250 or 1180 BC Mycenaean raiders under Agamemnon sack the city of Troy.
1200 BC Iron Age begins.  Iron weapons spread among the mass of people and help trigger widespread migrations.
1193 BC Hittite empire collapses.
1100 BC Mycanean and Minoan civilizations are destroyed by invading Dorians. Dorians are a primitive people from northern/northwestern Greece who introduce the iron slashing sword to warfare in the region.  They spread throughout Greece and Anatolia.
1027 BC Chou dynasty replaces Shang dynasty in China.  Noble rulers owed their land to the king and gave him military service in return.
1000 BC Knowledge of iron making has been widely spread across Anatolia and Asia minor.
1000 BC Athens begins to organize re-occupation of the Ionian coats and islands.  (Athens is the first center of Iron-Age culture in Greece)
1000 BC  Jewish kingdom arose under King David following the decline of Egyptian power in 1075 BC.
1000 BC Aryan peoples conquer the Indus Valley area.
880 BC Also, Assyrian empire had controlled the trade routes between the Mesopotamian world and the mediterranean world since about 880 BC.  Assyrians maintained a very centralized and brutal government.  Engaged in mass murder, deportation and enslavement.  Utilized a professional and internationally
recruited army.
800 BC  The noble warrior caste of China had assumed the responsibility of organizing the government and conducting the worship of its ancestors according to traditional rites.
Eighth century BC  Tyre falls to the Assyrians & Carthage becomes the leader of the Western Phoenicians.
700 BC Achaemenids begin ruling Persia.
680-669 BC  Assyrians conquered Egypt.
7th century BC  There is much conflict in the Huang-ho valley of China  followed by conquest of southern areas.
612-609 BC Medes of Persia and Chaldeans overthrow Assyrians and destroyed their capital of Ninevah.
600 BC Iron begins to replace bronze in China.
587 BC Jerusalem destroyed by Nebuchadnezzar and Jewish communities are dispersed.
550 BC Cyrus I (559-529 BC) rebels against Medes and captures their capital in Ecbatana. Over time he extends his rule to the Jaxartes and Lydia whgere he extracts tribute from the Greeks on the Ionian and Aegean coasts.
540 BC  Estruscans and Carthaginians ally together at the battle of Alalia.
539 BC  The Persians under Cyrus the Great capture Babylonia.
Darius I (521-486 BC) extends the Achaemenid empire further.  His empire was divided into satrapies.  It was a complex beauracracy with a standing army and a large labour force which he used to build cities, roads, temples, vast irrigation networks and palaces.  Zoroasterianism is the religion of the state but other religions are tolerated.
500 BC  Civilization centered around the Middle East and Anatolia on one end (Persians) and the Mediterranean (settled by colonists from the Levant- land at the eastern end of the Mediterranean, and the Aegean) or Greek world on the other end.
499-494 BC  Persia brutally suppresses revolts of Ionian cities.
481 BC Age of Warring States in China begins
Graeco-Persian wars
Conquests of Alexander the Great
331 BC  Alexander the Great takes Babylonia and plans to make it the seat of his empire.
322 BC  Alexander the Great dies and his empire breaks apart.  Ptolemies take Egypt and Seleucids take Syria-Iran
321 BC  Chandragupta Maurya develops an empire in the Ganges and Indus river valley areas
272-231 BC Ashoka expands the Maurya empire in the Ganges and Indus river valley areas.  Empire extends west slightly past the Indus river, east past the Ganges river, north to the Hindu-Kush and Himilayan mountains and south deep into the Indian sub-continent.  Empire promotes religious tolerance
221 BC  Age of Warring States in China ends when the warrior state Ch’in predominates all others.  Ch’in destroys power of warrior nobles- creates administrative centers.  Peasants freed, nobles dispersed, private libraries destroyed, uniform weights and measures, simpler script introduced.  Great Wall of China is built to keep out northern barbarian horsemen.
209 BC  Shih Huang Ti, emperor of China dies, rebellion begins.
207 BC  Han dynasty supplants the Ch’in in China.  Adopt the principles of Confucius.  China united by language and a legalistic basis of government.  China is isolated from other advanced cultures by distance and immense physical barriers.
146 BC  Roman Empire destroys the empire of Carthage.
64 BC  Roman empire overthrows the Seleucid empire.
30 BC  Roman empire overthrows the Ptolemies.

 To Be Continued…………………...........