©2012 P Gersmehl Teachers may copy for use in their classrooms. Contact [email protected] regarding permission for any other use. Gersmehl Teachers ©2012 P Timeline of the "Promised Land" To help organize facts about a new community or region, it helps to make a timeline that shows the dates of a few key events. The timeline is a framework that can help you remember new information when you learn it. Here are 12 important events about the part of the world that some people call "the Crossroads of History." (During its long history, it has had many other names, including Retenu, Canaan, Philistia, Samaria, Judea, Palestine, Israel.) 7000 BCE. Jericho. This town near the Jordan River was one of the first walled cities in the entire world. 4000 BCE. Jericho (again!). For some reason, people abandoned this city. Did they catch a disease? starve to death? get killed by enemies? Who knows? 1900 BCE. Abraham. This man is considered the "grandfather" of several groups of people in Palestine and Israel. His grandson Jacob (also called Israel) was sold as a slave and taken to Egypt. 1215 BCE. Exodus. The "children of Israel" escaped from Egypt and traveled across the desert, back to "the Promised Land." They fought for many years to take the land away from the people living there (including Jericho again!) 608 BCE. Exile. Enemies defeated the tribe of Judah (the last of the "children of Israel"). Many were taken to Babylon. 538 BCE. Return. Many of the tribe of Judah (now called Jews) return to "the Promised Land." Others move to other places 49 BCE. Rome. The Roman army captured Jerusalem and made Judea part of the Roman empire. Many people move away. 622 CE. Islam. The Prophet Muhammad traveled from Mecca to Medina. Almost 20 years later, Arab armies conquered Judea. 1095 CE. Crusades. For nearly 200 years, armies from Europe tried to take Judea back from the Muslim rulers. 1492 CE. Expulsion. In the same year that Columbus sailed to America, Spanish rulers forced Jews to convert or leave Spain. 1933 CE. Holocaust. Nazis in Germany begin a long program to drive away or kill all of the Jewish people in central Europe. 1947 CE. Israel. After the defeat of Germany in World War II, the United Nations creates a country for Jewish people. Jews from all over the world move to Israel; many people living there were killed or moved away. Write the shorthand name for each event on the proper line. We already did two of them for you. Then write four sentences, each connecting two events, like "Jews were forced to leave Spain about 400 years after the start of the Crusades." Jericho 6000 4000 2000 1000 BCE-CE 500 1000 1500 2000 Exile.