İzmir chronology
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| Date | Occurrence |
|---|---|
| circa 6000-4000 BC | İzmir region's first Neolithic and mid-Chalcolithic settlements in Yeşilova Höyük and the adjacent Yassıtepe Höyük within the boundaries of the present-day Bornova district at midway in the plain that extends starting from the tip of the Gulf of İzmir. |
| starting circa 3000 BC | First traces of settlement are attested in Bayraklı Höyük, within İzmir neighborhood of the same name (Bayraklı), later to become the location of Old Smyrna, at the northernmost corner of the tip of the Gulf of İzmir, situated slightly inland in our day. |
| 1440 BC | The first urban settlement that commands the Gulf of İzmir, associated with Tantalus in Greek mythology, possibly named "Naulochon" and deriving its wealth from the mines of the region, is founded on present-day Mount Yamanlar, a protrusion in appearance of the Mount Sipylus towards the gulf. Two monuments from that period near the crater lake on top of Mount Yamanlar (the "Tomb of Tantalus" and an altar named the "Throne of Pelops"), as well as a rock-cut carving in Karabel locality between Kemalpaşa and Torbalı, have reached our day and are, in fact, Hittite. |
| est. circa 1370 BC | The proto-Lydians led by Tyrrhenus, obliged to leave their land due to famine, build themselves ships in present-day İzmir and sail away in search of new homes and better sustenance, to finally arrive to Umbria where, according to one account (Herodotus), they lay the foundations of the future Etruscan civilization. |
| 1362 BC | Pelops, the son of Tantalus, abandons the city founded by his father. His sister Niobe remains associated with the "weeping stone" on Mount Sipylus, a national park today. |
| circa 1200 BC | First Hellenic colonists begin to appear along the western coasts of Anatolia. |
| est. circa 1194 BC – 1184 BC | Trojan War, some of whose wounds are healed in the thermal springs in present-day Balçova district of İzmir, Greeks under Agamemnon having been advised the baths by an oracle. The still highly popular "Agamemnon Baths" is also the place where, reportedly, Asclepius first began to prophetise. [1] |
| est. circa 688 BC | Refugees from the Ionian city of Colophon, admitted to Smyrna by its Aeolian inhabitants, chase the natives, by deceit according to Herodotus, and Smyrna becomes the thirteenth of the Ionian city-states. |
| circa 600 BC | Lydian king Alyattes II captures Smyrna along with several other Ionian cities and the city is sacked and destroyed, the inhabitants forced to move to the country. |
| 333 BC | Alexander the Great comes to Smyrna, moves the city from its rather isolated location at the end of the gulf to the southern shore, from where the future city will expand. |
| 323 - 280 BC | In the division of the provinces after Alexander's death, Antigonus I Monophthalmus receives Smyrna, along with Phrygia, Pamphylia and Lycia. It is his defeater, Lysimachus, King of Asia Minor between 301–281 BC, who displays an interest towards the city, starting widescale public works in the intention of transforming it into an international portuary and cultural center on a par with Alexandria and Ephesus. Lysimachus even names the city, for a time, under his daughter's name, "Euredikeia". |
| 280 BC | In the climate of uncertainty reigning between Lysimachus's death and the Seleucid Emperor Antiochus I Soter's takeover, Smyrniots declare their independence for a while. |
| 278 BC | Galatians, arriving from Thrace, capture Smyrna and ransack the city. Smyrna returns to Seleucid control after their defeat of the Gauls. |
| 241 BC | Smyrna adheres to Attalus I, King of Pergamon. |
| 190 BC | Smyrna is transferred under Roman authority along with Pergamon. Eager to cultivate Roman ties, Smyrna becomes the first city in Asia to build a temple to the honor of the goddess Roma. |
| 130 BC | With the death of last King of the Attalid dynasty of Pergamon, Smyrna is taken under direct Roman control. |
| 78 BC | Cicero visits Roman Smyrna. |
| 0 | . |
| 178 | A violent earthquake shakes Smyrna to its cores, causing immense damage and casualties. The city was rebuilt in a single year with the help of the emperor Marcus Aurelius, according to the orator Aelius Aristides. |
| 1079 | First Seljuk Turkish horsemen begin to appear along the western regions of Anatolia, a few years after the Seljuk sultan Alp Arslan's 1071 victory over the Byzantine Empire in the Battle of Malazgirt and following his designation of Anatolia for seizure by Süleyman I of Rûm, son of a former contender to his throne, Kutalmış. |
| 1081 | Turkish forces depending Süleyman Bey and under the command of Çaka Bey (Tzachos in Byzantine sources
[2]) capture İzmir (Smyrna) and immediately build a navy, the first ever recorded naval force in Turkish history, to harry the Aegean Sea and its coasts. |
| 1097 | The First Crusade siege of Nicaea (İznik) and the subsequent crusader victory in the First Battle of Dorylaeum allow the Byzantine forces under Alexios I Komnenos's brother-in-law John Doukas to recover much of western Anatolia, re-capturing Smyrna (İzmir), Chios, Rhodes, Mytilene, Samos, Ephesus, Philadelphia, and Sardis. |
| 1100 | Çaka Bey takes back İzmir (Smyrna). |
| 1102 | Çaka Bey dies and the Byzantine forces take back Smyrna (İzmir), in what becomes the starting point of a century of relative stability for the city and the region. |
| 1231-1235 | Emperor (of Nicaea) John III Doukas Vatatzes builds a new castle (Neon Kastron, later to be named "Saint Peter" by the Genoese, and "Okkale" by the Turks) that commands the now silted up inner bay of the city (present-day Kemeraltı bazaar zone). |
| 1261 | In the same year as his expulsion of the Latin Empire and re-capture of Constantinople, the Byzantine Emperor Michael VIII Palaiologos, seeking an ally against the danger posed by the Venetians and the papacy, signs the Treaty of Nymphaion with the Genoese and accords them considerable privileges within the empire's realm, commercial or otherwise, including that of setting up their own districts in the capital and in Smyrna. Galata quarter across the Golden Horn, to extend later on to the whole of Pera, present-day Beyoğlu, and Smyrna's core area along the inner bay with its castle become virtually independent Genoese possessions. |
| 1308 | Turkish ascendancy in Western Anatolia re-surges after two centuries and the Beylik of Aydınoğlu is founded with its capital in Birgi. |
| 1317 | Aydınoğlu Mehmet Bey captures İzmir's upper castle of Kadifekale from Byzantine forces. |
| 1329 | The Genoese merchants hand over the keys of the port castle (Okkale, Saint Peter) to Aydınoğlu Umur Bey. |
| 1333 | Ibn Battuta visits İzmir. |
| 1334-1345 | Umur Bey transforms the Beylik of Aydınoğlu into a serious naval power with base in İzmir and poses a threat particularly for Venetian possessions in the Aegean Sea. Venetians organize an alliance uniting several European parties (Sancta Unio), composed notably of the Knights Templar, which organizes five consecutive attacks on İzmir and the Western Anatolian coastline controlled by Turkish states. In between, it is the Turks who organize maritime raids directed at Aegean islands. [3]. |
| 1348 | Umur Bey dies and his brother and successor Hızır Bey concludes on 18 August an agreement with the Sancta Unio which, following its approval by the Pope, gives the the Knights Templar the right to control and use the port castle (Saint Peter, Okkale). |
| 1390 | Ottoman sultan Bayezid I (the Thunderbolt) comes to İzmir shortly after he ascends the throne and smoothly captures the upper castle of Kadifekale. İzmir becomes Ottoman partially, with the exception of the port castle, and for the time, temporarily, for a decade. |
| 1402 | Three months after his victory over the Ottomans in the Battle of Ankara, Tamerlane comes to İzmir, lays a six-week siege on the port castle (Okkale, Saint Peter) in the unique battle of his career against a Christian power, captures the castle and destroys it. He hands the city over to its former rulers, the Aydınoğlu, as he had done for other Anatolian lands taken over by the Ottomans. |
| 1416 | Aydınoğlu (cited more often as İzmiroğlu) Cüneyd Bey re-builds Okkale in the intention of turning it into his power base, at the same time as he uses every occasion to hamper the resurgence of Ottoman power. |
| 1425 | Ottoman sultan Murad II has İzmiroğlu Cüneyd Bey executed, puts an end to the Beylik of Aydınoğlu, and re-establishes Ottoman authority over İzmir, this time definite. For their aid in Cüneyd Bey's demise, the Knights Templar press the sultan for renewed authority over the port castle (Okkale), but the sultan refuses, giving them the permission to build another castle in Petronium (Bodrum) instead. |
| 1472 | On 13 September, a Venetian fleet under Pietro Mocenigo, one of the greatest Venetian admirals, captures and destroys İzmir in a surprise attack, along with Foça and Çeşme. The Ottoman investment into İzmir will remain hesitant for more than a century, until the 17th century building of Sancakkale castle at a key location commanding access to the city and assuring its security. |
| 1592 | Aydınoğlu Yakub Bey, a descendant of the formerly ruling dynasty, builds the oldest major Ottoman landmark in İzmir, the Hisar Mosque in Kemeraltı, adjacent to the decaying port castle of Okkale. |
| 1650-1665 | The construction by the Ottoman Empire of Sancakkale castle at a key location commanding access to the furthermost waters of the Gulf of İzmir, thus assuring İzmir's security and greatly improving its fortunes. |
| 1671 | Evliya Çelebi visits İzmir. |
| 1688 | Two successive earthquakes of great magnitude on 10 July and 31 July and a tsunami that ensued after the second causes great damage and shakes İzmir to its cores. The casualties number in the tens of thousands, the commercial activity in the city stops for years, and Sancakkale will have to be rebuilt. |
| Date | Occurrence |
|---|---|
| 1744 | The completion of the building of the still-standing caravanserai of Kızlarağası Han in Kemeraltı. |
| 1850 | Gustave Flaubert visits İzmir, noting, after having watched the sunset from Kadifekale, "qu'il n'en avait jamais vu de si belle". |
| 1856-1867 | The construction of the first railroad connection in the Ottoman Empire, between İzmir (in partance from the simultaneously built Alsancak train station) and Aydın (130 km), is contracted out to a British company who will finish it in eleven years. |
| 1863-1866 | The construction of the second railroad connection in the Ottoman Empire, between İzmir (in partance from the simultaneously built Basmane train station) and Turgutlu (93 km), contracted out at first to a British, then to a French company, who manages to finish it in three years, a few months before İzmir-Aydın line. |
| 1865 | The quarter of Karataş is opened for residential use and becomes, almost immediately and practically exclusively, İzmir's Jewish quarter. |
| 1867-1876 | Upon the destruction by a seismic wave of the previous quays built in wood, start of the construction of new port installations. With the project, completed in ten years by a French company and by British engineering, the wharf (Pasaport Wharf), as well as a 3250 m long combination of a landing stage, of a street served by a tram line and of an esplanade (Kordon) comes into existence, all built on land gained from the sea, and profoundly changing the city's look. The final remains of the old port castle (Okkale) and former yalı type residences along Kordon are demolished to provide space for the wharf and the street, along which new buildings of western tastes and styles will be rapidly built. The French customs house built within the project, reportedly designed by Gustave Eiffel, is today's Konak Pier upmarket shopping center. |
| 1886 | In a work of engineering of considerable scale for its time, the course of the River Gediz in its delta is shifted northwards, thus preventing it from joining the sea inside the Gulf of İzmir, where the shallows caused by the silt the river brought had started to jeopardize İzmir's portuary future. |
| 1902 | On the occasion of the 25th anniversary of Sultan Abdülhamid II's enthronement, the city of İzmir builts in his honor the Clock Tower in Konak Square, which will become the city's symbol. |
| 1936 | The fifth İzmir International Fair is the first that is held at its present location of "Kültürpark" where it acquires the proportions of an ongoing important annual commercial and cultural event of international scale. |
| 1954 | Start of the construction of the Port of Alsancak, still used, extended and discussed, notably with a view to its privatization, to this day. The privatization process is announced for completion by end-April 2007 according to the latest news. [4] |
| 1971 | İzmir hosts the Mediterranean Games. |
| 1990 | Aegean Free Zone, the first production-based free zone in Turkey and the leader among the 19 others, opens as a Turkish-U.S. joint-venture in İzmir, to reach a total portfolio of 302 notable companies by 2006, generating more than $4 billion annually in international trade. It also houses the world's fifth Space Camp. |
| 2005 | İzmir hosts the Summer World University Games (Universiade). |
[edit] Footnotes
- ^ George E. Bean. Aegean Turkey: An archaeological guide ISBN 978-0510032005, 1967 (in English). Ernest Benn, London.
- ^ Charles M. Brand. Dumbarton Oaks Papers Vol. 43, 1989 (1989), pp. 1-25 The Turkish Element in Byzantium, Eleventh-Twelfth Centuries (English).
- ^ Dr. Hans Theunissen. Section V of "Ottoman-Venetian diplomatics, the Ahd-Names" Venice and the Turcoman Begliks of Menteşe and Aydın (English). Leiden University, The Netherlands, 1998.
- ^ Referans Gazetesi (News in English) Izmir Harbor to privatize via tender (English).
