| Caribbean Event | Date | Events Elsewhere |
| 1400 | Chaucer dead (1340-) | |
| 1431 | Joan of Arc burned | |
| 1440 | caravel designed | |
| 1450 | printing in Europe | |
| 1453 | Muslims take Constantinople | |
| 1487 | Diaz sails to Cape of Good Hope | |
| Columbus' first voyage | 1492 | Jews expelled from Spain |
| Columbus' second voyage | 1493 | |
| Treaty of Tordesillas | 1494 | |
| Santo Domingo settled | 1496 | |
| Columbus' third voyage | 1498 | Savonarola dead (1452-) |
| 2,500 people from Spain to Hispaniola | 1500 | |
| Spanish settle Jamaica | 1509 | |
| first slaves to Hispaniola (gold mines) | 1510 | |
| Spanish settle Cuba | 1511 | Erasmus: In Praise of Folly |
| Spanish settle Puerto Rico | 1512 | |
| Balboa crosses Panama to the Pacific | 1513 | Machiavelli: The Prince |
| Ponce de Leon attempts to settle Florida | 1514 | |
| 1517 | Luther: 95 Theses (Reformation) | |
| Spanish license slave traders | 1518 | Cortes sails to Mexico |
| 1527 | LasCasas: Hist of Indies (to 1560) | |
| first French presence in Caribbean | 1530 | |
| 1543 | Copernicus: Revolution of Spheres | |
| LasCasas/Sepulveda debates | 1550 | |
| LeClerc burns Spanish ports | 1553 | |
| Hawkins: first English slaving voyage | 1562 | |
| Drake: illicit Caribbean trade | 1568 | |
| 1604 | French settle Acadia (Nova Scotia) | |
| English in St. Lucia (killed by Caribs) | 1605 | Cervantes: Don Quixote |
| 1607 | English settle Virginia (& disappear) | |
| 1608 | French found Quebec | |
| English fail settlement in Grenada | 1609 | Kepler: The New Astronomy |
| Dutch settle Essequibo | 1616 | Shakespeare dead (1564-) |
| 1618 | Thirty Years War begins | |
| 1619 | first slaves in Virginia | |
| 1620 | English at Plymouth, Mass. | |
| Dutch West India Company charter | 1621 | Burton: Anatomy of Melancholy |
| English settle St. Kitts & Barbados | 1624 | |
| Dutch settle Berbice | ||
| English fail to settle Tobago | 1625 | |
| English settle Nevis | 1628 | Harvey: Circulation of the Blood |
| English settle Montserrat & Antigua | 1632 | English settle Maryland |
| French settle Martinique & Guadeloupe | 1635 | |
| first sugar cane in Barbados | 1637 | |
| English again fail to settle St. Lucia | 1638 | Galileo: Two New Sciences |
| first cane factory on Guadeloupe | 1647 | |
| treaty: Dutch get Curacao, Saba, St. Maartin, St. Eustatius | 1648 | |
| Dutch expelled from Brazil | 1654 | |
| English take Jamaica | 1655 | |
| Company of Royal Adventurers chartered | 1663 | |
| treaty: Dutch get Surinam | 1667 | Milton: Paradise Lost |
| population all islands: 18,000 whites
27,000 slaves |
1687 | Newton: Principia |
| 1690 | English found Calcutta | |
| Spain cedes Saint-Domingue to French | 1697 | |
| population all islands: 18,000 whites
44,000 slaves |
1701 | |
| 1707 | Sloane: Voyage... (-1725) | |
| Martiniquan French settle St. Vincent | 1719 | Defoe: Robinson Crusoe |
| slave revolt in St. John | 1733 | Pope: Essay on Man |
| first Maroon War in Jamaica | 1734 | |
| War of Jenkins' Ear | 1739 | Hume: Treatise on Human Nature |
| first Moravian missionaries in Jamaica | 1754 | Rousseau: Origins of Inequality |
| French WI surpasses BWI in sugar exports
pop of Cuba: 170,000 |
1767 | |
| 1774 | Long: History of Jamaica | |
| 1776 | US revolution begins (-81) | |
| English take St. Lucia | 1778 | ackee introduced in Jamaica |
| French take St. Vincent & Grenada | 1779 | |
| French take Guianas, Tobago, Providencia | 1781 | Kant: Critique of Pure Reason |
| French taker St. Kitts | 1782 | |
| first Methodist mission in Jamaica | 1789 | French revolution begins |
| Haitian revolution begins | 1790 | |
| Spanish declare the slave trade open | 1791 | US Bill of Rights |
| 1793 | Edwards: History...West Indies | |
| second Maroon war, Jamaica | 1795 | |
| Fedon's Rebellion, Grenada; 2nd Black Carib War, St. V.; English take Demerara/Essiquibo (Guyana) | 1796 | Robert Burns dead (1759-) |
| Brigands' War, St. Lucia; English seize Trinidad | 1797 | |
| slave revolt, Surinam | 1798 | Malthus: Essay on Population |
| Scottish Missionary Society in Caribbean | 1800 | Ottawa founded |
| Essiquibo & Demarara back to Dutch | 1801 | |
| slave revolt, Dominica | 1802 | |
| 1803 | Dallas: Hist, Maroons, Ja. | |
| Haitian Independence | 1804 | Kant dead (1724-) |
| English & Danes abolish slave trade | 1807 | Hegel: Phenomenology |
| second Maroon war, Dominica | 1809 | |
| 1812 | war between US & Eng in Canada | |
| English Baptists in the Caribbean | 1814 | US Lewis & Clark expedition |
| slave uprising in Barbados; Dutch abolish sl trade | 1816 | |
| French abolish slave trade | 1818 | Mary Shelley: Frankenstein |
| first steam-driven cane mill in Cuba | 1819 | |
| Spain abolishes slave trade | 1820 | Spain suppresses Inquisition |
| Haiti takes Santo Domingo (-1844) | 1822 | PB Shelley dead (1792-) |
| US declares Monroe Doctrine | 1823 | |
| all British free people equal | 1828 | |
| all Fr. free people equal; Baptist War in Ja | 1831 | Nat Turner revolt, Virginia |
| cholera epidemic in Cuba | 1833 | |
| apprenticeship begins in British WI (-1938) | 1834 | McCormack reaper |
| peak year of slave import to Cuba | 1837 | rebellion, Lower Canada |
| full emancipation, British West Indies | 1838 | rebellion, Upper Canada |
| slave revolts in Cuba | 1843 | Maori revolts, New Zealand |
| end of British sugar preference | 1846 | |
| Dutch & French abolish slavery | 1848 | revolutions throughout Europe |
| failed invasion of Dom Rep by Haiti | 1849 | Carlyle: "Nigger Question" |
| heavy Indian immigration to BWI begins | 1850 | |
| Spain occupies Santo Domingo by invitation | 1861 | US Civil War begins (-65);
Sewell: Ordeal of Free Labor |
| Morant Bay uprisings, Jamaica;
slave import stopped in Cuba |
1865 | Ku Klux Klan founded, US;
Carroll: Alice in Wonderland |
| Crown Colony government, Jamaica | 1866 | Dostoyevsky: Crime & Punish |
| 1867 | Canadian confederation | |
| US senate won't annex Dominican Rep;
Ten Years War begins, Cuba |
1868 | Meiji Restoration, Japan;
first trade union congress |
| 1871 | Paris Commune | |
| 1885 | Europe divides up Africa | |
| Thomas: Froudacity | 1889 | |
| Cuban War of Independence from Spain (-98) | 1895 | |
| Spanish-American War; US occupies Cuba;
Platt Amendment; Puerto Rico ceded to US |
1898 | Wells: War of the Worlds |
| Heureaux assassinated, Dominican Republic | 1899 | Veblen: Theory of Leisure Class |
| Cuban independence | 1902 | Conrad: Heart of Darkness |
| Panama independent of Columbia; US begins Canal; volcanos erupt, Martinique & St. Vincent | 1903 | |
| armed rebellion in Cuba;
US intervenes, Dom Rep & Haiti |
1905 | Einstein: Special Relativity |
| US occupies Cuba (-09) | 1906 | |
| earthquake, Kngston Jamaica | 1907 | first Cubist exhibit, Paris |
| US troops in Cuba | 1912 | ANC founded, South Africa |
| Panama Canal opened; US occupies Haiti | 1914 | WWI starts (-18) |
| US occupies Dominican Republic (-24) | 1916 | Joyce: Portrait of the Artist |
| US occupies Cuba (-23) | 1917 | revolution in Russia |
| Garvey organizes Negro convention in NY | 1920 | Cabinet of Dr. Caligari |
| 1929 | Great Depression (-39) | |
| Trujillo dictator in Dominican Republic | 1930 | Haile Selassie crowned in Ethiopia |
| revolutionary government in Cuba | 1934 | Benedict: Patterns of Culture |
| Barbados & St. Vincent riots; sugar strike St. Kitts; oil workers strike in Trinidad; Trujillo kills 20,000 Haitians in Dom Rep | 1935 | |
| labour rebellions in Jamaica & Guyana | 1938 | Husserl dead |
| 1939 | WWII begins (-45) | |
| first Batista regime in Cuba (-44) | 1940 | O'Neill: Long Day's Journey |
| US military bases in British West Indies | 1941 | Herskovits: Myth of Negro Past |
| universal suffrage in Jamaica | 1944 | Williams: Capitalism and Slavery; World Bank & IMF founded |
| Fr Antilles made Depts of France | 1946 | UN founded |
| Munoz Marin elected in Puerto Rico | 1947 | Indian/Pakistani Independence |
| Organization of American States founded | 1948 | Gandhi assassinated (1869-) |
| constitutional riots in Puerto Rico | 1950 | Zobel: Black Shack Alley |
| second Batista regime in Cuba (-59) | 1952 | Mau Mau revolt in Kenya |
| Castro fails at Moncada barracks | 1953 | Lamming: In the Castle of My Skin; Allfrey: Orchid House |
| Dutch Antilles integrate with Holland | 1954 | Mais: Brother Man |
| Williams forms PNM in Trinidad | 1956 | Selvon: Lonely Londoners;
Steward: Peoples of Puerto Rico |
| Duvalier president for life in Haiti | 1957 | Clarke: Mother Who Fathered Me |
| West Indies Federation begun (-62) | 1958 | |
| Cuban Revolution, Castro | 1959 | Sputnik |
| 1960 | Smith, et al: Report...
on Rastafarianism... |
|
| Trujillo assassinated in Dom Rep;
US invades Cuba at Bay of Pigs; Alliance for Progress begun |
1961 | VS Naipaul: House for Mr. Biswas
Heller: Catch-22 |
| independence Ja & Trinidad; Cuban missile crisis;
racial violence in Guyana (-64) |
1962 | Levi-Strauss: Pensee Sauvage |
| Juan Bosch elected in Dominican Republic | 1963 | Kennedy shot; Dr. Strangelove |
| Burnham defeats Jagan in Guyana | 1964 | Patterson: Children of Sysyphus;
Beatles: Hard Day's Night |
| US invades Dominican Republic | 1965 | Smith: Plural Soc, BWI;
Malcolm X shot |
| Barbados & Guyana independent; Davis:
Problem of Slavery in Western Culture |
1966 | Red guards demonstrate in China |
| Brathwaite: Rites of Passage | 1967 | |
| riot in Curacao | 1969 | Curtin: Slave Trade, A Census |
| Black Power revolt in Trinidad;
Hodge: Crick, Crack Monkey |
1970 | 400 US universities on strike:
response toVietnam War |
| Brathwaite: Creole Society in Jamaica... | 1971 | |
| Manley elected in Jamaica (-80) | 1972 | Rodney: How Eur Underdev. Africa |
| independence for Bahamas | 1973 | military coup in Chile;
OPEC embargo |
| Grenada independent; Ja. vs bauxite cos. | 1974 | India has H-bomb; Nixon resigns |
| Suriname independent | 1975 | |
| Dominica independent; suicides in Guyana | 1978 | |
| St. Lucia, St. Vincent independence; revolution in
Grenada; Ja ends IMF talks |
1979 | revolution in Iran & Nicaragua;
3 Mile Island |
| Antigua & Belize independent | 1980 | actor is US president |
| US invades Grenada | 1983 | |
| US invades Panama | 1989 | Eastern Europe revolts |
| 1991 | Gulf War |