Throughout the years we used connected computer paper (from those early days of the computer age). I had a great big stack of it that I hoarded just for this purpose. I would let each strip of paper (11 inches) equal 200 years. This gives one plenty of room for the events of ancient times, but when you get to the Modern Age, suddenly you are a bit cramped. With 5.5 inches for each century, what are you going to do about the 1800s or the 1900s??

This is why most publishers of timelines throw in the towel when it comes to keeping it to scale. We didn't throw in the towel, and therefore we gained a more accurate vision of the relative lengths of time for each major civilization. We gained an accurate perspective on how long the Roman civilization persisted compared to others, and therefore, realize why it has left such a huge imprint on Western Civilization. And at the same time, we saw how relatively short the Greek civilization was, so we wondered and thought about the great influence it has had on our civilization in spite of that!

If you take a length of paper and let each 11" section be 200 years, there would be 5.5 inches per century. Starting at about 3400 BC this would cause the total length of your timeline to be just under 25 feet. This would enable the strip to fit around three sides of a large room. If you have a nice large area for your homeschooling, then you might want to make it with the longer side of the paper connecting and let each century be 8.5 inches. Then the total length of your timeline will be just over 38 feet. So you see, if your area is about 12 x 12, then you will use three lengths of wall. I always put it up high so that it would go over the windows and be sort of like a wallpaper border. This forces you to use it for the highlights and not get into lots of detail on it.

Remember, try not to use this for all the many important details of each civilization. For that let the students make a fold-out notebook timeline. Or, make another wall timeline (with a much larger scale) that you can put up temporarily during our study of a particular civilization. For example, when studying Greece, tape about 5 sheets of paper together end to end and let each length be 100 years. As you study the events fill them in with their dates and either fold it up into a notebook or hang it just below that section of the main timeline, and graphically demonstrate which portion of it you are magnifying.

We picked 3400 BC as a logical starting point, since the definition of history is the written record of civilization. And they estimate that the first writing, cuneiform, began about 3400 BC. After this the first "key date" is 3100 when Menes united Upper and Lower Egypt.

*NOTE* About Egyptian Dates: Don't get hyper about the exact date of an event in this era. Historians do not know exactly when things happened. Every publisher seems to have a different theory! You can find the latest one in Bauer's new book, History of the Ancient World from WW Norton. Just stick with whatever version your curricula uses, if you want to. We can start being a stickler for 'the accurate date' after about 800 BC. Before this it really is just a guessing game. But it is good to memorize these theoretical dates so that one can keep things in perspective and know what came first. We do have a pretty good idea about the chronology of the events.

I've divided the timeline into four eras....

Four Major Eras

Egyptian Antiquity

Classical Antiquity

Middle Ages

Modern Times

This gives one a basic framework within which to fit all the of the other events and details of history that need to be mastered.

MORE TIPS

Be sure to utilize the corners for major turning points in history. For instance, let the Fall of the Roman Empire or the Reformation, which starts the Modern Era, happen at the corners of the room. This adds a great new dimension to the visual effect!

Other tips for a great effects...

When we first started our timeline, I went ahead and put up the whole strip of paper, with centuries marked off, so that while we were developing the Egyptian section we saw the white space that separated the present day from those VERY ancient times. One year after having studied up through the Greeks, we wanted to do a unit on American history--you know, just in case a relative asked the kids who George Washington was to test the validity of our homeschooling. We saw graphically how many centuries we were skipping over to get to the study of American history. Many times throughout the year we would look back at all those white pages with the blank line running through them with great wonder. Then the following two years, as we went back and filled in all that space with Roman soldiers and Knights from the Medieval Times, it was like solving a big mystery getting solved.

We put up a couple of key dates for us in the 1900's. Say for example, Grandma's birthdate, or a big event in our family's life. This really gives the timeline a new dimension of meaning for your child.

This is a graphic aid to study Western history: the written record of Western Civilization. It doesn't have to elaborate on every issue! This is a lesson that I learned the hard way throughout the years. When we first started making our wall timelines, they ended up getting very busy and confusing looking after awhile. I longed to simplify it, so that it would remain a great visual aid to have up on the wall.

This comprehensive but simplified timeline of all of Western Civilization's history will enable you to unify your study of history over the years, regardless of which curriculum you use.

Key Events

The dates most essential for the timeline (and good to memorize) are printed in bold. (But these are subject to revision! If you are a history buff, you probably have some different dates that stand out to you.)

Egyptian Antiquity

cc. 3400 - 1st known writing: Sumerian Cuneiform

c. 3100 - Menes unites Upper & Lower Egypt

c. 2686 - Old Kingdom begins

c. 2550 - The Great Pyramid of Giza completed

c. 2340 - Sargon of Akkad unites Mesopotamia

c. 2100 - Call of Abram

c. 2055 - Mentuhotep begins the Middle Kingdom

cc. 2800 - Epic of Gilgamesh

c. 1792 - Code of Hammurabi of Babylon

c. 1446 - The Exodus

c. 1333 - King Tut comes to the throne

c. 1250 - The Trojan War

c. 1085 - End of the New Kingdom in Egypt

c. 1020 - Saul becomes 1st King of Israel

c. 1000 - David becomes King of Israel

c. 970 - Solomon becomes King of Israel

c. 850 - Homer writes Iliad and Odyssey

Classical Antiquity

776 - First Olympics

753 - Legendary founding of Rome

594 - Solon reforms Draco's Laws

586 - Babylonians conquer Jerusalem

508 - Cleisthenes starts Democracy /510 Roman Republic begins

480 - Greeks win the Battle of Salamis- End of Persian Wars

461- Pericles "Golden Age of Greece"

430 - Pelopponesian Wars

399 - Socrates is sentences to death

323 - Alexander the Great dies

264 - 1st Punic War

146 - 3rd Punic War ends in destruction of Carthage

44 - Julius Caesar is assassinated

27 B.C. - Augustus Caesar begins Roman Empire (Pax Romana lasts 200 years)

B.C. = Before Christ (We used the symbol of the Cross to mark this turning point.)

From this point on you have A.D.= Anno Domini (in the year of the Lord)

68 A.D. - Nero died

70 - Destruction of the Jewish Temple by Romans

180 - Marcus Aurelius Dies (last of the "5 Good Emperors")

284 - Diocletian strengthens empire

313 - Constantine / Edict of Milan

430 - St. Augustine Dies / St. Patrick begins his Irish Mission

476 - Fall of Rome

Middle Ages

481 - Clovis (a Frankish king) begins the Merovingian dynasty

530 - Justinian's Code - of the Byzantine Empire

622 - Mohammed flees Medina

800 - Charlemagne crowned Holy Roman Emperor

890 - Alfred the Great - 1st King of England- beginning of Saxon dynasty

800's - Vikings invading

1066 - Battle of Hastings /William the Conqueror

1095 - The First Crusade

1215 - Magna Charta -King John signs

1270 - The Last Crusade

1305 -William Wallace, Scottish patriot (a.k.a. Braveheart) is captured & executed

1337 - Beginning of the 100 Years War between England & France

1348 - The Black Death

1430 - Joan of Arc

1455 - War of the Roses begins in England

1455 - The Bible is printed by Gutenberg

Modern Times

1517 - Martin Luther begins Reformation

1522 -Magellan cirumnavigates the globe

1607 - Jamestown 1st English Settlement in America

1622 - Mayflower Compact - New England settled

1776 - Declaration of Independence

1789 - Constitution of the US

1789 - Fall of the Bastille /French Revolution

1812 - War of 1812

1815- Battle of Waterloo/Napoleon Defeated

1859 - Darwin publishes Origin of Species

1861 - US Civil War Began

1914 - WW I starts

1917 - Bolshevic Revolution

1939 - WW II starts: Hitler invades Poland

1945 – Hiroshima

Though, of course, there are many different opinions as to exactly which date should be the turning point, some historians consider the 1980s definitely the Beginning of the

POSTMODERN ERA or “POMO”

1989 - Berlin Wall comes down: End of Cold War! (END of the Modern Era?)

1989 - World Wide Web is created

2001 - Twin Towers come down

©2007 Elisabeth W. Harvey