Timelines of key dates in global political economy
Pre 1945
| 1497 | Portuguese fleet pass Cape of Good Hope, southern Africa on route to India |
| 1519–21 | Spanish Conquest of the Aztec Empire (Mexico) |
| 1500 | Transatlantic slave trade begins |
| 1603 | Dutch East India Company (VOC) establishes a base in Indonesia |
| 1652 | Dutch establish a base at the Cape, South Africa |
| 1700–1800 | Height of the Atlantic Slave trade |
| 1757 | British East India Company takes over Bengal, India |
| 1760–1840 | Industrial Revolution in Britain |
| 1858 | British Government takes control of India from British East India Company |
| 1881–1941 | Scramble for Africa |
| 1839–42 | First Opium War |
| 1856–1860 | Second Opium War |
| 1868 | Meiji Restoration and Japanese industrial revolution |
| 1860–71 | Height of the international gold standard |
| 1905 | Japanese victory over Russia |
| 1914–18 | First World War |
| 1917 | Russian Revolution |
| 1929 | US stock market crash |
| 1929–39 | Great Depression |
| 1939–45 | Second World War |
Post 1945
| 1944 | Bretton Woods Conference (IMF and IBRD founded) |
| 1948 | Indian independence |
| 1948 | Chinese revolution |
| 1948 | First GATT agreement |
| 1957 | European Economic Community created |
| 1971 | Nixon shock, end of dollar – gold standard |
| 1973 | First oil crisis |
| 1979 | China begins economic opening to the West |
| 1979 | Second oil crisis |
| 1981 | IBM Personal Computer released |
| 1982 | Beginning of Third World Debt Crisis |
| 1985 | Microsoft Windows released |
| 1989 | Collapse of the Soviet Union |
| 1995 | Founding of WTO |
| 1995 | Euro introduced |
| 1997 | East Asian Financial Crisis |
| 2002 | Walmart becomes world’s largest TNC |
| 2007 | I-Phone released 2007 |
| 2008 | Oil hits a high of $145.00 per barrel |
| 2008 | US Credit Crisis |
| 2009 | First BRIC summit |
| 2010 | Beginning of European Sovereign Debt Crisis |
| 2015 | Chinese sponsored Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank created |
| 2015 | COP 21 sets climate change target of 2C warmer than industrial revolution |
| 2016 | Trans Pacific Partnership signed |
| 2017 | US withdraws from the Trans-Pacific Partnership |
| 2018 | NAFTA renegotiated as the US-Mexican Canadian Trade Agreement |
| 2018 | Comprehensive and Progressive Agreement for the Trans-Pacific Partnership comes into effect |
| 2019 | School strike for the climate becomes a global movement |
| 2020 | UK leaves the European Union (future relationship to be negotiated) |
| 2020 | Spread of Covid 19 / coronavirus threatens global health and the global economy |