This is a timeline of events in maritime history.
Prehistory
1.5 – 1,000,000 BP: stone tool evidence at the Calio site in Sulawesi shows that hominins made an early deep sea crossing at least 1.04 million years ago. About 45,000 BC: first humans arrive in the islands of Southeast Asia, Papua New Guinea, and Australia via the now sunken Sundaland and Sahul land bridges. These migrations still required crossing expanses of water. They had no advanced watercraft technology, so it is presumed they crossed the Wallace Line via primitive floats or rafts. About 6,000 BC: Earliest evidence of dugout canoes. 5th millennium BC: Earliest known depiction of a shallow-water sailing boat made from bundled reeds from the Ubaid period of Mesopotamia in the Persian Gulf. About 3000 BC, the Austronesian people migrate from Taiwan to the Philippines, starting the sea-borne Austronesian expansion, which at its furthest extent reached Island Southeast Asia, Micronesia, Polynesia, Island Melanesia, and Madagascar. About 2,000 BC, Hannu dispatches a fleet along the Red Sea coast to the Land of Punt 1575–1520 BC Dover Bronze Age Boat, oldest known recovered plank vessel About 1500 BC: Austronesians colonize the Marianas Islands from the island of Luzon in the Philippines. The first long-distance ocean crossing in human history and the first humans to reach Remote Oceania. Austronesians in Island Southeast Asia establish the Austronesian maritime trade network with Southern India and Sri Lanka, resulting in an exchange of material culture, including boat and sailing technologies and crops like sugarcane, coconuts, and various spices. It is the precursor to both the Indian Ocean spice trade and maritime silk road. About 1300 to 1200 BC: The Austronesian Lapita people, the direct ancestors of the Polynesians, reach and colonize the Schouten Islands, the Bismarck Archipelago, and the Solomon Islands.
Antiquity About 1175 BC: Battle of the Delta, one of the first recorded naval battles, during Ancient Egypt's war against the Sea Peoples. 1194–1174 BC: Supposed timespan for the events of Homer's Iliad and Odyssey. About 1000 BC: Austronesians from Island Southeast Asia develop the tanja sail and junk sail. Austronesians from either the Philippines or Eastern Indonesia colonize Palau and Yap. About 900 BC: The Austronesian Lapita people reach Samoa and Tonga, which remained the furthest extent of the Austronesian expansion into Polynesia for the next 1,600 years. Around 600 BC: According to Herodotus, Necho II sends Phoenician expedition to circumnavigate Africa. 6th century BC: Canal of the Pharaohs is built in Egypt. 542 BC: First written record of a trireme. 5th century BC: Hanno the Navigator explores the coast of West Africa. 480 BC: Battle of Salamis, arguably the largest naval battle in ancient times. 256 BC: Battle of Cape Ecnomus, one of Ancient Rome's first major naval victories over Carthage during the First Punic War 247 BC: Lighthouse of Alexandria completed. 214 BC: Lingqu Canal built. 31 BC: Battle of Actium decides the Final War of the Roman Republic. 50 AD: Austronesians reach and colonize Madagascar from Borneo, crossing the entirety of the Indian Ocean. There is evidence of multiple back-and-forth crossings. 150 AD: Large Austronesian ships called K'un-lun po or Kolandiaphonta is noted to be trading with China and India from Island Southeast Asia, linking China to the trade routes in South Asia.
Middle Ages 654: Battle of the Masts between the Byzantine Empire and the Rashidun Caliphate About 700: Austronesians (Javanese and Malay people) reach Ghana in West Africa. Austronesians (Polynesians) from Samoa and Tonga start the second expansion phase into Polynesia, by rapidly colonizing the Cook Islands, the Society Islands, the Tuamotus, and the Marquesas. 793: The raid of Lindisfarne, first recorded Viking raid 851: Javanese Sailendras stage a surprise attack on the Khmers by approaching the capital from the river, after a sea crossing from Java. About 900: Austronesians (Polynesians) colonize Hawaii 916: A polity called Zabag (presumably Java) invaded the Khmer empire, using 1000 "medium-sized" vessels, which results in victory. The head of Khmer's king was then brought to Zabag. 931: Black labor was imported to Javanese Mataram kingdom from Jenggi (Zanzibar), Pujut (Australia), and Bondan (Papua). 945: Malay people from Srivijaya or Javanese people from Mataram attack the coast of Tanganyika and Mozambique with 1000 boats in an attempt to take the citadel of Qanbaloh. 984: Pound locks used in China; See Technology of the Song dynasty 986: Bjarni Herjolfsson crossed the Labrador Sea and saw North America. About 1000: Leif Ericson crossed the Labrador Sea to reach North America. Austronesians (Polynesians) colonize Easter Island and possibly made contact with South America. 1025: Chola invasion of Srivijaya 1088: Dream Pool Essays by Shen Kuo, first description of a magnetic compass. 12th century: Chinese people adopted the junk rig from Southeast Asian Austronesian traders visiting their southern coast. 1159: Lübeck is rebuilt, and the Hanseatic League is founded. About 1190: Alexander Neckam writes the first European description of a magnetic compass. 13th century: Portolan charts are introduced in the Mediterranean. About 1280: Austronesians (Polynesians) colonize New Zealand, the last major landmass to be populated. 1274: First Mongol invasion of Japan. 1325–1354: Ibn Battuta visits much of Africa and Asia 1350: Majapahit invades Samudera Pasai, with 400 jong. 1380: The nearly completed Bremen cog was wrecked, leaving an example of a ship type that was a mainstay of trade in the Hanseatic League 1398: Majapahit invades Kingdom of Singapura, with 300 jong and no less than 200,000 men. 1405: Zheng He's expeditions begins.
Age of Discovery
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