History
History of Politics
A factual, cited timeline. Every entry below links back to its source — check them, and tell us if something needs correcting.
c. 2600 BCE
The city-states of Sumer in southern Mesopotamia are among the earliest known societies with centralized governments and secular rulers, with royal palaces dated to at least this period.
Source: Encyclopaedia Britannica
508 BCE
The Athenian statesman Cleisthenes reorganized the citizen body of Athens and created institutions, including the Council of Five Hundred, that are widely regarded as the foundation of Athenian democracy.
Source: Encyclopaedia Britannica
509 BCE
Following the overthrow of Rome's last king, Lucius Tarquinius Superbus, the Romans replaced their monarchy with a system of elected magistrates, founding the Roman Republic.
Source: Encyclopaedia Britannica
1215 CE
King John of England sealed Magna Carta at Runnymede, establishing for the first time that the monarch's power could be limited by law and that certain legal rights belonged to free subjects.
Source: The National Archives (UK)
c. 500–1200 CE
A decentralized political and social order took hold across much of medieval Europe, in which local lords granted land to vassals in exchange for military service and loyalty, in the absence of strong central states.
Source: Encyclopaedia Britannica
1648
The treaties ending the Thirty Years' War, known as the Peace of Westphalia, established the principle that each state holds sovereignty over its own territory, laying groundwork for the modern system of nation-states.
Source: Encyclopaedia Britannica
1689
English philosopher John Locke published his Two Treatises of Government, arguing that legitimate government rests on the consent of the governed and the protection of natural rights — a work that shaped later Enlightenment political thought.
Source: Encyclopaedia Britannica
July 4, 1776
The Second Continental Congress adopted the Declaration of Independence, announcing the separation of the thirteen American colonies from Great Britain.
Source: National Archives (US)
1789
Adopted during the French Revolution, the Declaration of the Rights of Man and of the Citizen set out natural rights including liberty, property, and security, along with the principle of equality before the law.
Source: Encyclopaedia Britannica
1893
New Zealand became the first self-governing country in the world in which all women had the right to vote in parliamentary elections.
Source: NZHistory (New Zealand Ministry for Culture and Heritage)
August 18, 1920
The 19th Amendment to the US Constitution was ratified, prohibiting the denial of the right to vote on the basis of sex and extending suffrage to women nationwide in the United States.
Source: National Archives (US)
1945
Representatives of 50 countries signed the Charter of the United Nations in San Francisco, establishing an international organization intended to maintain peace and security among nations.
Source: United Nations
December 10, 1948
The UN General Assembly adopted the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, setting out fundamental rights and freedoms to be universally protected regardless of race, religion, sex, or political opinion.
Source: United Nations
1989–1991
The opening of the Berlin Wall in November 1989 and the formal dissolution of the Soviet Union in December 1991 marked the end of the Cold War and the collapse of the Soviet one-party political system, giving rise to fifteen independent states.
Source: Encyclopaedia Britannica