Open the app
  1. Home
  2. Lessons
  3. GCSE & IGCSE History
  4. Chronology: dates, centuries and periods

Chronology: dates, centuries and periods

🎬 The doodle video for this lesson is coming soon. Subscribe on YouTube to see it first.

History at GCSE jumps across hundreds of years. Being quick with dates, centuries and period names means you always know where you are on the timeline.

Dates and centuries

Chronology means putting events in time order.
A century is 100 years. The century number is one more than the first two digits of the year: 1066 is in the 11th century, and the 1800s are the 19th century. Years ending in 00 are the exception: 1900 is the last year of the 19th century.
A decade is 10 years, for example the 1960s.
c (short for circa) means 'about', so c1250 means 'around 1250'.
BC (or BCE) counts down to the birth of Christ; AD (or CE) counts up from it. There is no year 0: 1 BC is followed by AD 1.

The periods you will meet

GCSE thematic studies cover hundreds of years, split into periods. The exact start dates vary a little by topic.

Working out time spans

To find how long between two AD dates, take the earlier year from the later one: from the Black Death (1348) to the Great Plague of London (1665) is 1665 − 1348 = 317 years.
From a BC date to an AD date, add the two numbers, then take away 1 (because there is no year 0).
Historians also use words like short-term (days or months), long-term (years or decades) and turning point (a moment when things changed direction).
Worked example

Put these in chronological order: Gunpowder Plot, Battle of Hastings, Black Death, Magna Carta.

  1. Find each date: Hastings 1066, Magna Carta 1215, Black Death 1348, Gunpowder Plot 1605.
  2. Order them from earliest to latest.
  3. Check the centuries: 11th, 13th, 14th, 17th.

Answer: Battle of Hastings (1066), Magna Carta (1215), Black Death (1348), Gunpowder Plot (1605).

Key idea

Chronology is time order. Century = first two digits + 1 (1066 is the 11th century), except years ending in 00 (1900 is the 19th century). c means 'about'. Periods: medieval, early modern, 18th and 19th centuries, modern. Time span = later year − earlier year.

The interactive lesson includes the diagrams for this topic.

Check you have got it

Answer 7 quick questions with instant marking. If you get one wrong, GCSE-ready shows you why and gives you another go. It is free, and you do not need an account.

Practise this lesson free (7 questions)All GCSE & IGCSE History lessons