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document updated 15 years ago, on Jun 26, 2009

ocean exploration
- 40,000 YBP: humans begin to fish, which means that they're finally drawn to settle near the shore
- 40,000 YBP: humans arrive at Australia, the earliest evidence we have of ocean-going boats
- 3000 BC - 500 AD: humans explore all of Polynesia, ultimately settling Hawaii sometime between 300 - 800 AD, and Rapa Nui (Easter Island) in 300-400 AD.
- 874 AD: humans arrive at Iceland, one of the last major islands settled
transportation innovations
- 5000 BC: earliest wheel
- non-human transportation (before this, humans spread over continents on foot alone)
  - 4000 BC: domestication of the horse and donkey, which probably led quickly to the first animal-drawn cart
  - 3500 BC: earliest sailling (before this, humans moved solely by muscle power)
- 4000 BC: earliest roads
- 3000 BC: earliest galleys (oar-and-sail powered, square-rigged ships)
- 1788 AD: the first steamboat used for commercial service (before this, humans moved by muscle and wind only)
- 1812: the first successful steam-powered railway
- 1818: the first production automobile
- 1910: the first commercial airplane cargo flight
- 1961: the first human in space
early international trade
- earliest overland trade routes
  - Trans-Saharan route, prehistoric
  - Silk Road, portions existed as early as 6000 BC
  - 300 BC: Incense Route, Egypt to India
- earliest maritime trade
  - 2700 BC: Mediterranean trade
  - 200 BC: Chinese trade in the South China Sea and Indian Ocean
8th - 13th centuries: Islamic Age of Discovery
- Muslim Agricultural Revolution, sometimes called the "globalization of crops".
- Age of Navigation
1648: the "Peace of Westphalia", the beginning of state sovereignty
15th - 17th centuries: European Age of Discovery and the First European colonization wave
- 1492: Columbian Exchange, ENORMOUS exchange of domesticated plants, domesticated animals, and diseases
- 1714 - 1764: Longitude Prize, a major advance in international shipping
1789 - 1815: French Revolution and Napoleonic Wars
- the first time mass conscription was used for war
- 1809: canning invented, allowing larger armies to march further
telecommunications innovations
- prehistoric: smoke signals
- 2400 BC: organized foot couriers
- ?old?: relay riders
- 1000 BC: homing pigeon
- 405 BC: heliograph
- 1792: optical telegraph
- 1844: first inter-city electrical telegraph
- 1866: first transatlantic telegraph cable
- 1958: first communications satellite
1840 - 1900: development of railway time, one of the earliest efforts to standarize timezones
economic standarization
- 8 - 12th centuries: first monetary economy
- the silver standard was established a while ago
- 1566: first foreign exchange market
- 1717 - 1900: establishment of the gold standard
- 1944: Bretton Woods system: all currencies were pegged to the U.S.Dollar, though with allowances for revaluations if/when necessary
- 1973: gold standard and fixed exchange rates abolished, currencies allowed to float relative to each other
drug trade
- 1839-1860, the Opium Wars, efforts by the British to force China into a less isolationist trade policy by promoting the one item that was most easy to stimulate demand for: opium.
- 1912: the first of several international treaties controlling the manufacture and distribution of illicit drugs
- 20 - 21st century: United States gives large amounts of military hardware to Latin American and Asian countries where drug cartels exert a large political influence