History • Change • Connection
Travel through thousands of years of South American history. Explore ancient societies, empires, colonisation, independence, migration, political change and the continent today. Use the country filters to follow one place, or explore the connections that cross modern borders.
Explore the timeline
View the whole story or choose a place to follow its journey through the wider history of South America.
Era
Long before modern countries existed, communities across South America developed different ways of living in rainforests, mountains, grasslands, deserts and along the coast.
More than 12,000 years ago
Human communities were living across South America thousands of years before the modern countries on our maps existed.
From c. 8000 BCE
People gradually domesticated plants and animals that would become important far beyond South America.
c. 3000–1800 BCE
Large ceremonial and urban centres developed on Peru's Pacific coast thousands of years before the Inca.
Era
Complex societies developed across the Andes and beyond, creating cities, art, farming systems, trade networks and powerful states.
c. 1000–500 BCE
Chavín religious imagery and artistic styles spread across parts of the central Andes.
c. 100–800 CE
Powerful cultures flourished along Peru's Pacific coast, creating extraordinary art, engineering and ceremonial landscapes.
c. 400–1100 CE
Two major powers developed in the Andes and influenced territories far beyond their main centres.
c. 1150–1470
The Chimú built a powerful coastal kingdom centred on the enormous adobe city of Chan Chan.
Era
During the 1400s, the Inca state expanded across a huge area of western South America and connected many different peoples.
1438–1532
From its centre at Cusco, the Inca state expanded across much of the Andes.
c. 1450
A remarkable Inca settlement was constructed high in the Andes above the Urubamba Valley.
1400s–1500s
Thousands of kilometres of roads helped connect communities across mountains, deserts and valleys.
Era
European conquest transformed the continent, while Indigenous communities resisted, adapted and survived. Millions of enslaved Africans were also forcibly brought across the Atlantic.
1494
Spain and Portugal agreed to divide claims to newly encountered lands through the Treaty of Tordesillas.
1500
Pedro Álvares Cabral's expedition reached the coast of what is now Brazil.
1532–1542
Spanish forces entered an Inca world already weakened by civil conflict and devastating disease.
1500s–1800s
Millions of Africans were forcibly transported to South America as part of the transatlantic slave trade.
1600s
Palmares became one of the best-known communities created by people escaping slavery in colonial Brazil.
Era
During the early nineteenth century, independence movements challenged Spanish and Portuguese colonial rule and new states emerged.
1810–1826
Revolutionary movements challenged Spanish rule across much of the continent.
1810s–1820s
Bolívar became one of the most influential leaders in independence campaigns across northern South America.
1817–1822
José de San Martín led an army across the Andes as part of campaigns against Spanish rule.
1822
Brazil separated from Portugal and became an independent empire.
Era
The new countries faced conflicts over borders, government, slavery, land, resources and national identity.
1864–1870
Paraguay fought a devastating war against an alliance of Brazil, Argentina and Uruguay.
1879–1884
Chile fought Peru and Bolivia in a conflict centred on territory and valuable resources in the Atacama region.
1888
The Lei Áurea, or Golden Law, formally abolished slavery in Brazil.
1889
The Brazilian monarchy was overthrown one year after the abolition of slavery.
Era
The twentieth and twenty-first centuries brought rapid urban growth, migration, political upheaval, democratic change and increasing regional cooperation.
1900s
South America became increasingly urban as millions of people moved into rapidly expanding towns and cities.
1960s–1980s
Several South American countries experienced military governments and severe political repression.
1980s–1990s
Across much of South America, military governments gave way to elected civilian governments.
1991
Argentina, Brazil, Paraguay and Uruguay signed the Treaty of Asunción and created a new regional integration project.
Late 1900s–today
Indigenous organisations and environmental movements have become increasingly visible in debates about land, resources and development.
Today
More than 430 million people live across a continent shaped by thousands of years of movement, creativity, conflict and cultural exchange.