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 |