Concise History of India

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India History Timeline & Facts

Concise History of India2500 BC The Dravidian civilization
1500 BC The Aryans invaded India and conquered the Dravidians
1400 BC The Vedas, the Hindu scripture, was written
800-600 BC The sacred scripture, the Upanishads, was written
518 BC Persians conquered Pakistan
500 BC Buddhism was founded in India by Siddhartha Gautama
500 BC Jainism was founded in India by Mahavira Jains
326 BC Alexander the Great and his Macedonian army moved into India
324 BC The Mauryan Empire was established by Chandragupta Maurya which included Afghanistan and parts of central Asia
272 BC Ashoka, the grandson of Chandragupta Maurya, became the emperor of India
185 BC The Maurya Empire ended
50 AD The Kushans established an empire in northern India
320 - The Gupta Indian dynasty reunited northern India initiating the "golden Age" of India
700s Muslim armies from Arabia invade India
1206 Qutb ub-din Aybak established the Delhi Sultanate
1398 Timur conquered India causing the decline of the Delhi Sultanate
1498 Vasco da Gama, of Portugal, became the first European explorer to reach India
1500 Christianity was introduced to India by the Europeans
Early 1500s Sikhism was founded by Nana
1526 Babur established the massive Mughal Empire
1600 Queen Elizabeth I, of the United Kingdom, granted a charter to the East India Company established trading posts in Bombay, Calcutta, and Madras
1628 Shah Jahan, the ruler of the Mughal Empire, built the Taj Mahal
1658 The Strict Muslim, Aurangzeb, ruled India and tried to force Hindus to convert to Islam
1757 The Battle of Plassey - Robert Clive, an agent of the East India Company, led forces which defeated the Mughal governor of Bengal
1774 Warren Hastings was appointed the first governor general of India by the East India Company
1857 The Sepoy Rebellion
1858 The British government ruled India through an Indian Viceroy- called the British Raj
1876 Queen Victoria was given the title Empress of India by the British Parliament
1885 Burma became an Indian province
1885 The Indian National Congress was formed
1905 The British government divided Bengal into separate Hindu and Muslim sections
1914 - 1918 First World War
13 April 1919 The Amritsar Massacre
1920 Mohandas K. Gandhi became the leader of the Indian independence movement and the Indian National Congress
1935 The Government of India Act created a new constitution
3 September 1939 The United Kingdom declared war on Germany beginning World War II
1940 Muhammad Ali Jinnah demanded that a new country be formed from India for the Muslims, which would be called Pakistan
1939 - 1945 WW11
August 1945 The United States dropped atomic bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki
1945 World War II ended
1946 The British government agreed to grant India independence if they could agree on a form of government
16 August 1946 Muslims held nation-wide demonstrations calling for the establishment of Pakistan
1947 British and Indian leaders agreed to divide the country into India and Pakistan
15 August 1947 India became independent
30 January 1948 Gandhi was assassinated
26 January 1950 A new Indian Constitution was ratified and Jawaharlal Nehru became the Indian first prime minister