From these pages it can quickly be determined which person or entity held sway in Britain or East Asia (and more recently, the United States of America) in any given year, and how long they had been there prior to that. When, for example, the Mayflower set sail from Plymouth on 16th September 1620 with pilgrims bound for America, King James I had been on the throne for all of 18 years, Japan was the same distance into its isolationist Edo period, while over in China the Ming Dynasty was in its 253rd year. 

Should you wish to know more, simply locate the hyperlink in the initial year of the reign, era, dynasty, presidency, 
prime ministership or historical event you happen to be interested in. Links to many more defining episodes can easily be 'plugged' into the chart without having too much impact on its overall size, and this should further enhance its future usefulness.
  

Background

This project was first inspired by the realization that the average Englishman is at a complete loss as to the age of a late Ming dynasty vase, while the average Japanese has a hard time knowing off the cuff exactly how far back such and such an event took place because of that country's adherence to a system of temporary time-reckoning based on an incumbent emperor's reign. 

I have always had a keen interest in both history and current affairs, and believe the two are inextricably linked. Since the end of World War II we have witnessed the beginnings of a shift away from the old world order of economically driven colonization and subjugation of smaller nations toward growing ideals of independence and self-determination for all who aspire to them. Today we have come thus far that suppression of one ethnic group by another is widely seen as anachronistic, something totally at odds with the spirit of the times. Reasonably, therefore, world leaders seeking to maintain credibility can no longer simply look back and lambaste former colonial powers for their erstwhile domination of countries such as India or Indonesia, while they for reasons of expediency turn a blind eye to the modern-day plights of Chechnya, Tibet or Western Sahara, to name a few examples. All these cases merit a similar dictionary definition and need to be approached with consistency. 

Having said this, rulers of those nations that have fought hard for and actually won their independence, nations such as Burma or Zimbabwe, also owe it to their populations to set about building societies that are demonstrably less oppressive — not still more oppressive — than under colonialism.

I trust that this Referenced Time Chart of Reigns, Eras and Dynasties will help enable readers in both East and West to better relate to and draw useful lessons from the successes, failures and mistakes of what is a common past.

David Appleyard, editor