This timeline covers events relevant to the ongoing territorial disputes in the South China Sea.

3rd century BCE It has been claimed by the People's Republic of China that since 200 BCE Chinese fishermen have used the Spratly islands.

3rd–13th centuries Chinese author Wan Zhen of the Eastern Wu dynasty (222–280 CE) and a work titled Guangzhou Ji (Chronicles of Guangzhou) authored by Pei Yuan of the Jin dynasty (266–420 CE) described some southern islands, mainly Hainan. The local government exercised jurisdiction over Hainan by sending patrolling naval boats.

Naval forces of the Liu Song dynasty (420–479 CE) patrolled the southernmost island of Hainan. In the Tang dynasty (618–907 CE), Hainan was placed under the administration and authority of the Qiongzhou Prefecture (now Hainan Province). The Chinese administration of the South China Sea continued into the Song dynasty (960–1279 CE).

The archaeological record of the South China Sea islands indicates occupation by a variety of cultures over the past 1500 years, suggesting that no nation had consistent sovereignty over the high seas at these times and that trade among the many polities of the region occurred. Evidence includes Chinese-made pottery, porcelain and other historical relics from the Southern dynasties (420–589 CE), the Sui dynasty (581–619 CE), the Tang dynasty, the Song dynasty, the Yuan dynasty (1271–1368 CE), the Ming dynasty (1368–1644 CE), along with Austronesian materials, including by peoples from the Philippines, Indonesia, and others of the region.

18th century

1734 – The Spanish colonial government published the first edition of the Velarde map. According to the Philippines, this map shows the territories of the Philippines including actual sovereignty over the Scarborough Shoal (called Panacot in the map) and the Spratly Islands (referred as Los Bajos de Paragua) and is the earliest map showing sovereignty over the said territories. 1792 - The Spanish colonial government of the territory of the Philippines launched the first ever survey of Scarborough Shoal on 4 May 1792. The survey, Plano de la Navigacion, was taken by Alessandro Malaspina aboard the Sta. Lucia, with other Filipinos.

19th century 1802 – Annamese emperor Gia Long creates the "Dio Hoang Sa" (Company of the Paracels). 1816 – Gia Long orders a mapping survey of the Paracel Islands. The Annamese emperor never claimed any islands aside from the Paracels, where the Annamese flag was planted on Pattle Island. 1830 – The first maps are published by the Annamese kingdom under Emperor Minh Mạng that include "Thruong Sa" (Spratly) Islands as part of its territory. 1835 – Annam erects a pagoda in the Paracel Islands 1836 – Annam erects ten 5-metre steles with inscriptions claiming the Paracels. 1875 – According to the Philippines, the Spanish colonial government published the 1875 edition of the Carita General del Archipelago Filipino, showing the sovereign territory of the Philippines, which included Scarborough Shoal and the Spratly islands. 1876 – Guo Song Tao, China's ambassador to Europe, makes an unofficial claim to "Bailasu Dao" (the phonetic translation of the Paracel Island). (footnote 48) 1883 – During a German survey of the Spratlys and Paracels, China issues protests. 9 June 1885 – The Treaty of Tientsin, signed on 9 June 1885, officially ended the Sino-French War. The unequal treaty restated in greater detail the main provisions of the Tientsin Accord, signed between France and China on 11 May 1884. As Article 2 required China to recognise the French protectorate over Annam and Tonkin established by the Treaty of Hue in June 1884, implicitly abandoning China's own claims to suzerainty over Vietnam, the treaty formalised France's victory in the Sino-French War. 1885 – Chinese officials declare its rights to the Paracels. 1887 – In the 19th century, Europeans found that Chinese fishermen from Hainan annually visited the Spratly islands for part of the year, while in 1877 it was the British who launched the first modern legal claims to the Spratlys.ed. Kivimäki 2002, p. 9.Bateman, Emmers 2008, p. 43. 1887 – The Chinese–Vietnamese Boundary Convention (formally, the Convention Respecting the Delimitation of the Frontier Between China and Tonkin) between France and the Qing Empire set the land boundary between Tonkin and China and sovereignty of a few small islands in the Gulf of Tonkin. Some scholars, especially Chinese ones, try to argue that the 1887 convention recognised a Chinese claim over the Spratly and Paracel islands, because France relinquished its claims. This was disputed due to the fact that the 1887 convention set the coastal boundary in the Gulf of Tonkin, but did not state that China was the owner of the Spratly and Paracel islands, as these islands are not in the Gulf of Tonkin, but were associated with the realm of Annam in central Vietnam by France. 1898 – After the Spanish-American War, the Philippines were ceded by Spain to the United States in the Treaty of Paris. The treaty lines described in the treaty lacked precision, leading to the Spanish to retain sovereign control over the Spratly Islands, Scarborough Shoal, and parts of Tawi-Tawi. According to Filipino officials and commentators, this was later rectified in the 1900 Treaty of Washington, where the mentioned territories were formally ceded to the United States as part of the territory of the Philippines. 12 April 1898 – France seized the Chinese city of Guangzhouwan as a treaty port and quickly placed the city under the effective authority of the French Resident Superior in Tonkin (itself under the Governor General of French Indochina, also in Hanoi).Olson 1991: 349 1900 - The Treaty of Washington was signed on November 7, 1900, and came into effect on March 23, 1901, when the ratifications were exchanged. Before the treaty was signed, the territories of the Scarborough Shoal, the Spratly Islands, and parts of Tawi-Tawi continued to be under Spanish sovereignty due to the 1898 Treaty of Paris. The 1900 Washington Treaty added that "all islands belonging to the Philippine Archipelago, lying outside the lines described in Article III of [the 1898 Treaty of Paris] and particularly to the islands of Cagayan [Mapun], Sulu and Sibutu" were to be part of the formal cession by Spain to the United States. According to the Philippines, this included the Scarborough Shoal, the Spratly Islands, and the remaining parts of Tawi-Tawi within the country's sovereign territory.

1901–1937 1902 – China sends naval forces on inspection tours of the Paracel Islands to preempt French claims.Severino 2011, p. 76. Scholar François-Xavier Bonnet argued that per Chinese records, these expeditions never occurred and were backdated during the 1970s. 1907 – China sends another naval force, this time to plan for resource exploitation. 1909 – China reacted to Japanese interest in exploiting guano in the Paracel Islands by mapping them and stationing Chinese Navy personnel on them. 1912 – The newly formed Republic of China, successor state to the Qing dynasty, moves administration of the Paracel Islands to Hainan. 1917 – Japanese exploited phosphate deposits (guano) in the main Spratly island, Itu Aba. It was noted by Japan in July 1938 to the France's ambassador in Tokyo who was recalling the earlier annexation of the Spratlys by France. 1928 - According to Filipino judge Antonio Carpio, during the Island of Palmas case, the United States representing the territory of the Philippines reiterated in a memorandum that the 1875 Carta General del Archipielago Filipino "is both an American official and a Spanish official map" of Philippine territory, binding the United States on its recognition of the Scarborough Shoal and the Spratly Islands as Philippine territory. 1932 - France occupied the Paracels for the French Union. China sent a note verbale to France stating that the Paracels were the "southernmost" territory of China.The South China Sea in the Age of European Decline, Stein Tonnesson, Modern Asian Studies, p. 8, February 2006China's Claim to the Spratly Islands is Just a Mistake, Bill Hayton, CIMSEC, May 16, 2018Sovereignty over the Paracel and Spratly Islands, Monique Chemelier-Gendreau, Annex 10, Kluwer Law International, 2000 1933 - France claimed six islands in the Spratlys for the French Union. China did not protest the claim as it considered the Paracels as its southernmost territory through a 1932 note verbale sent by China to France. 1935 - The Philippines adopted the 1935 Philippine Constitution, which reiterates the territory of the Philippines as per the 1898 Treaty of Paris, the 1900 Treaty of Washington, and the 1930 US-UK Treaty to include Scarborough Shoal and the Spratly Islands. June 1937 – China sends Huang Qiang, the chief of Chinese military region No. 9 on a secret tour to four islands in the Amphitrite Group of the Paracels. His boat was loaded with 30 backdated sovereignty markers. Because the mission was confidential, Huang Qiang carried no markers dated to 1937. The team buried a total of 12 backdated sovereignty markers, including some actual old markers dating from the Qing dynasty, bearing the date 1902, which were gathered in the city of Guangdong. 1938 - Secretary Cordell Hull of the US State Department issued a Memorandum on 27 July 1938 to Harry Woodring, Secretary of War, stating that Scarborough Shoal "should be regarded as included among the islands ceded to the United States by the American-Treaty of November 7, 1900," referring to the 1900 Treaty of Washington.A CNA Occasional Paper, Philippine Claims in the South China Sea: A Legal Analysis, Mark E. Rosen, JD, LLM (citing Francois-Xavier Bonnet, The Geopolitics of Scarborough Shoal). (2014)

World War II 30 March 1939 – Japan invades the Spratly Islands and renames these to “Shinnan Shoto”. The islands are placed under the Japanese administration in Taiwan. 4 April 1939 – Japan invades the Paracels Islands, due to the ongoing Sino-Japanese War. The islands are placed under a Japanese protectorate. 1941 – Japan places the Paracels under the administration of Japanese Taiwan. 1943 - China published its "China Handbook (1937-1943)" about the country's situation during the Second Sino-Japanese War. It called "Triton Island of the Paracel Group" the southernmost territory of China.China Handbook (1937-1943). The Chinese Ministry of Information. 2 July 1945 – Woody Island surrendered to the USS Cabrilla submarine after having been attacked by US forces on 6 February and 8 March. The French tricolour and a white flag were both flying when the US crew arrived. 20 November 1945 – A US Navy reconnaissance mission landed on Itu Aba and found that the Japanese forces had already pulled out.

1945–1959

1945 – In accordance with the Cairo and Potsdam Declarations and with American help, the armed forces of the Republic of China government at Nanjing accepted the surrender of the Japanese garrisons in Taiwan, including the Paracel and Spratly Islands. Nanjing then declared both archipelagoes to be part of Guangdong Province.ed. Morley, Nishihara 1997, p. 124.Severino 2011, p. 74.