This Timeline of European imperialism covers episodes of imperialism outside of Europe by western nations since 1400; for other countries, see .
Pre-1700
1402 Castillian invasion of Canary Islands. 1415 Portuguese conquest of Ceuta. 1420-1425 Portuguese settlement of Madeira. 1433-1436 Portuguese settlement of Azores. 1434 – rounding of Cape Bojador by Gil Eanes for Portugal. 1445 Portuguese construction of trading post on Arguin Island. 1450 Portuguese construction of trading post on Gorée Island. 1462 Portuguese settlement of Cape Verde islands. 1470 Portuguese settlement of Bioko island. 1474 Portuguese settlement of Annobón island. 1482 Portuguese construction of Elmina Castle. 1488 – rounding of the Cape of Good Hope by Bartolomeu Dias for Portugal. 1492 – first cross-Atlantic trip of Columbus for Spain. 1493 Portuguese settlement of São Tomé and Príncipe. 1498 – discovery of the direct maritime route from Europe to India by Vasco da Gama for Portugal. 1510 Portuguese conquest of Goa. 1511 Portuguese conquest of Malacca City. 1517 Portuguese conquest of Colombo. 1519-21 Spanish conquest of the Aztec Empire. 1532-36 Spanish conquest of the Inca Empire. 1556 Portuguese colonization of Timor. 1557 Portuguese construction of trading post in Macau. 1556-1599 Spanish conquest of Philippines. 1569 Portuguese are granted a permit to establish trading port in Nagasaki, effectively founding the city. 1598: Dutch established colony on uninhabited island of Mauritius; they abandon it in 1710.Perry J. Moree, A Concise History of Dutch Mauritius, 1598-1710: A Fruitful and Healthy Land (Routledge, 1998). 1608: Dutch opened their first trading post in India at Golconda.Om Prakash, The Dutch East India Company and the Economy of Bengal, 1630-1720 (2014) 1613: Dutch East India Company expands operations in Java.Leonard Blusse, An Insane Administration and Insanitary Town: The Dutch East India Company and Batavia (1619–1799) (Springer Netherlands, 1985). 1613–20: Netherlands becomes England's major rival in trade, fishing, and whaling. The Dutch form alliances with Sweden and the Hanseatic League; England counters with an alliance with Denmark.Jack S. Levy and Salvatore Ali. "From commercial competition to strategic rivalry to war: The evolution of the Anglo-Dutch rivalry, 1609-52." in Paul Diehl, ed. The dynamics of enduring rivalries (1998) pp29-63. 1623. The Amboyna massacre occurs in Japan with execution of English traders; England closes its commercial base opened in 1613 at Hirado. Trade ends for more than two centuries. 1664. French East India Company Chartered for trade in Asia and Africa.Donald C. Wellington, French East India companies: A historical account and record of trade (Hamilton Books, 2006)
Colonization of North America
1565 – St. Augustine, Florida – SpanishTheodore G. Corbett, "Migration to a Spanish imperial frontier in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries: St. Augustine." Hispanic American Historical Review (1974): 414–430 in JSTORCharles W. Arnade, "Cattle Raising in Spanish Florida, 1513–1763." Agricultural History (1961): 116–124. in JSTOR 1604 – Acadia – French 1605 – Port-Royal – French; in Nova Scotia 1607 – Jamestown, Virginia – English; established by Virginia Company 1607 – Popham Colony – English; failed effort in Maine 1608 – Quebec, Canada – French 1610 – Cuper's Cove, First English settlement in Newfoundland; abandoned by 1820 1610 – Santa Fe, New Mexico – Spanish 1612 – Bermuda – English; established by Virginia CompanyAddison Emery Verrill, The Bermuda Islands: Their Scenery, Climate, Productions, Physiography, Natural History and Geology: With Sketches of Their Early History and the Changes Due to Man (1902) onlineWesley Frank Craven, "An introduction to the history of Bermuda." William and Mary College Quarterly (1937): 318–362. in JSTOR 1615 – Fort Nassau – Dutch; became Albany New York 1620 – St. John's, Newfoundland – English; capital of Newfoundland 1620 – Plymouth Colony, absorbed by Massachusetts Bay– English; small settlement by Pilgrims 1621 – Nova Scotia – Scottish 1623 – Portsmouth, New Hampshire – English; becomes the Colony of New Hampshire 1625 – New Amsterdam – Dutch; becomes New York City 1630 – Massachusetts Bay Colony – English; The main Puritan colony.George F. Dow, Every Day Life in the Massachusetts Bay Colony (1935). 1632 – Williamsburgh – English; becomes the capital of Virginia. 1633 – Fort Hoop – Dutch settlement; Now part of Hartford Connecticut 1633 – Windsor, Connecticut – English 1634 – Maryland Colony – English Catholic colony
1634 – Wethersfield, Connecticut – First English settlement in Connecticut, comprising migrants from Massachusetts Bay.Liam Connell, "‘A Great or Notorious Liar’: Katherine Harrison and her Neighbours, Wethersfield, Connecticut, 1668–1670." Eras 12.2 (2011); Story of an accused witch put on trial but survived. online 1635 – Territory of Sagadahock – English 1636 – Providence Plantations – English; became Rhode Island* 1636 – Connecticut Colony – English 1638 – New Haven Colony – English; later merged into Connecticut colony 1638 – Fort Christina – Swedish; now part of Wilmington Delaware 1638 – Hampton, New Hampshire – English 1639 – San Marcos – Spanish 1640 – Swedesboro- Swedish 1651 – Fort Casimir – Dutch 1660 – Bergen – Dutch 1670 – Charleston, South Carolina – English 1682 – Pennsylvania – English Quakers; 1683? – Fort Saint Louis (Illinois)- French;John Francis McDermott, The French in the Mississippi Valley (1965) 1683 – East New Jersey – Scottish 1684 – Stuarts Town, Carolina – Scottish 1685 – Fort Saint Louis (Texas)- French 1698 – Pensacola, Florida – Spanish (colonized by Tomas Romero II) 1699 – Louisiana (New France) – French;Carl A. Brasseaux, "The Moral Climate of French Colonial Louisiana, 1699–1763." Louisiana History (1986): 27-41. in JSTOR
1700–1799 1704: Gibraltar captured by British on 4 August; becomes British naval bastion into the 21st centuryStetson Conn, Gibraltar in British diplomacy in the eighteenth century (1942). 1713: Treaty of Utrecht, ends War of the Spanish Succession and gives Britain territorial gains, especially Gibraltar, Acadia, Newfoundland, and the land surrounding Hudson Bay. The lower Great Lakes-Ohio area became a free trade zone. 1756–1763 Seven Years' War, Britain, Prussia, and Hanover against France, Austria, the Russian Empire, Sweden, and Saxony. Major battles in Europe and North America, where it was fought as the French and Indian War beginning i 1754; the East India Company also in involved in the Third Carnatic War (1756–1763) in India. Britain victorious and takes control of all of Canada; France seeks revenge.Fred Anderson, Crucible of War: The Seven Years' War and the Fate of Empire in British North America, 1754–1766 (2001)Julia Osman, online essay 1775–1783: American War of Independence as Thirteen Colonies revolt against Britain as it implements new policies to subordinate the colonies, ending salutary neglect. France allies with the United States, and France's ally Spain militarily aids the Americans. Britain has no major allies. It is the first successful colonial insurrection in European history.Edward Gray and Jane Kamensky, eds/ The Oxford Handbook of the American Revolution (2013) Wide-ranging overview by scholars. 1783: Treaty of Paris ends Revolutionary War; British give generous terms to US with boundaries as British North America on north, Mississippi River on west, Florida on south. Britain gives East and West Florida to SpainAndrew Stockley, Britain and France at the Birth of America: The European Powers and the Peace Negotiations of 1782-1783 (U. of Exeter Press, 2001) 1784: Britain allows trade with America but forbid some American food exports to West Indies; British exports to America reach £3.7 million, imports only £750,000 1784: Pitt's India Act re-organised the British East India Company to minimise corruption; it centralised British rule by increasing the power of the Governor-General
1793–1870
1792: In India, British victory over Tipu Sultan in Third Anglo-Mysore War; cession of one half of Mysore to the British and their allies.Denys Mostyn Forrest, Tiger of Mysore: The life and death of Tipu Sultan (1970) 1793–1815: Wars of the French Revolution, and Napoleonic Wars; French conquests spread Ideas of the French Revolution, including abolition of serfdom, modern legal systems, and of Holy Roman Empire; stimulate rise of nationalism 1804–1865: Russia expand across Siberia to Pacific.Mark Bassin, "Inventing Siberia: visions of the Russian East in the early nineteenth century." American Historical Review 96.3 (1991): 763-794. online 1804–1813: Uprising in Serbia against the ruling Ottoman Empire 1807: Britain makes the international slave trade criminal; Slave Trade Act 1807; United States criminalizes the international slave trade at the same time. 1810–1820s: Spanish American wars of independenceRory Miller, Britain and Latin America in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries (1993). 1810–1821: Mexican War of IndependenceBarbara A. Tenenbaum, "Merchants, Money, and Mischief the British in Mexico, 1821–1862." The Americas 35.03 (1979): 317-339. 1814–15: Congress of Vienna; Reverses French conquests; restores reactionaries to power. However, many liberal reforms persist; Russia emerges as a powerful factor in European affairs.Brian E. Vick, The Congress of Vienna: power and politics after Napoleon (Harvard UP, 2014). 1815–1817: Serbian uprising leading to Serbian autonomy 1819: Stamford Raffles founds Singapore as outpost of British Empire.Victoria Glendinning, Raffles and the Golden Opportunity (2012). 1821–1823: Greek War of Independence 1822: Independence of Brazil proclaimed by Dom Pedro IAlan K. Manchester, "The recognition of Brazilian independence." Hispanic American Historical Review 31.1 (1951): 80-96 in JSTOR. 1822–27: George Canning in charge of British foreign policy, avoids co-operation with European powers.H.W.V. Temperley, The Foreign Policy of Canning, 1822-1827: England, the Neo-Holy Alliance, and the New World (1925) online 1823: United States issues Monroe Doctrine to preserve newly independent Latin American states; issued in cooperation with Britain, whose goal is to prevent French & Spanish influence and allow British merchants access to the opening markets. American goal is to prevent the New World becoming a battlefield among European powers.Dexter Perkins, "Europe, Spanish America, and the Monroe Doctrine." American Historical Review (1922) 27#2 pp: 207–218. in JSTOR 1821–32: Greece wins Greek War of Independence against the Ottoman Empire; the 1832 Treaty of Constantinople is ratified at the London Conference of 1832. 1830: Start of the French conquest of Algeria 1833: Slavery Abolition Act 1833 frees slaves in British Empire; the owners (who mostly reside in Britain) are paid £20 million. 1839–42: Britain wages First Opium War against China 1842: Britain forces China to sign the Treaty of Nanking. It opens trade, cedes territory (especially Hong Kong), fixes Chinese tariffs at a low rate, grants extraterritorial rights to foreigners, and provides both a most favoured nation clause, as well as diplomatic representation.James S. Olson and Robert Shadle, eds. Historical dictionary of the British empire (1996) vol 1 p 47 1845: Oregon boundary dispute threatens war between Great Britain and the United States.Joseph Schafer, "The British Attitude toward the Oregon Question, 1815–1846." American Historical Review (1911) 16#2 pp: 273–299. in JSTOR