The Western History Timeline

The western history timeline covers the vast geographical and temporal area that makes up most of the modern continental United States. This timeline is not a definitive history of the American West; it’s simply an overview of the key events that have marked the region’s development since European exploration began in the fifteenth century CE.

This is the age of Europe’s great empires. It was a time when nations expanded in size, wealth and autonomy and when national boundaries were hardened to form the countries we know today. It was also a time when Europeans were able to exploit the world’s resources and people for their own benefit – be it through African slave trade or the subjugation of the native peoples of the Americas.

But this era of Western power was also a time of revolutionary social change. The Renaissance spawned art, science, theater and philosophy that would transform the way we think. It was the first era in which the idea that European civilization was separate from and superior to other cultures took hold.

In the military sphere, innovations like gunpowder and rifles gave the West huge advantages over other armies and navies. The Western world was becoming an increasingly global force. Western trade networks extended around the globe; Christian missionaries challenged local beliefs and traditions; and even lands not directly ruled by Europe were influenced by its culture – think of Japanese culture, for example.

This expansion of the West came to a head in the 1860s. In a series of bloody conflicts, the American government fought to acquire land in what would become the states of Nebraska, Kansas and Arizona. Those conflicts set the stage for what would be a century of sectional conflict that would ultimately slow, then halt, the process of Westward expansion.

1865: The last of the Civil War hostilities between white and black Americans is concluded at Appomattox Court House in Virginia. Blacks are emancipated throughout the country. The Union Army captures Santa Fe, New Mexico. The U.S. telegraph connects New Orleans with Marshall, Texas. The Battle of the Little Bighorn takes place near present-day Glacier National Park. The Hayfield Fight occurs in Wyoming, when a civilian hay cutting crew and U.S. Army detachment, armed with the newly introduced rapid-fire breech-loading rifles, defeat several hundred Cheyenne, Arapaho and Lakota warriors. Nebraska is admitted as the 37th state.

Western history as we now understand it is the product of centuries of cultural evolution. It is difficult to pin down a beginning point, but historians generally agree that Western civilization’s origins lie in ancient Greece and Mesopotamia. The ancients developed systems of writing and organized religion that were influential throughout the world. By the end of the 15th century, European explorers had “discovered” the Americas (although the term is a bit misleading). But it was not until the Industrial Revolution that Europe’s technological and economic growth really took off. This was the era when ideas such as Darwin’s theory of evolution helped create a more secular outlook and a view of human beings that was less preoccupied with God.