Common Historical Settings - TV Tropes

This is a list of historical (and pseudo-historical) periods, locations, and events inspired by Real Life, that are often used in fiction; sorted in (approximately) chronological order.

Also see Hollywood History.

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Timeline of historical settings:

• The Age of Dinosaurs (c. 252.2-66 MYA)
  • Age of Reptiles: A primordial period where reptiles ruled the Earth.
  • The Dinosaurs Had It Coming: The dinosaurs brought their extinction upon themselves.
  • The Day the Dinosaurs Died: The K-Pg extinction is often depicted in media for dramatic effect.
• Hollywood Prehistory (c. 3.4 MYA-c. 4000 BC)
  • The Discovery of Fire (c. 700,000 BC)
  • End of the Ice Age (c. 8000 BC)
  • Inventing the Wheel (c. 4000 BC)
  • Prehistoria
  • Stone Punk. Speculative Fiction set in this period depicting advanced technology being made with Stone Age materials.
  • Works Set in Prehistory
• The Time of Myths. The setting for tales of a distant past, real or imagined. When gods, demons, and monsters walk the earth. Inspired by actual Oral Tradition or modern takes on it.
  • Sword and Sandal. The setting covering Mythological tales, Biblical Epics, Ancient Greece, and Ancient Rome.
    • Sandal Punk. Speculative Fiction set in this setting.
• Bible Times
• Ancient Egypt (c. 3150-30 BC)
  • Ancient Egyptian History
• Ancient China (c. c.1600-221 BC)

  • Shang Dynasty (c.1600 BC – 1046 BC)
  • Zhou Dynasty (770 BC – 256 BC)

• Ancient Persia (c. 650 BC-650 AD)
  • The Achaemenid Empire (550-330 BC)
• Ancient Greece (c. 1200 BC-146 BC)
  • The Trojan War (c. 1194-1184 BC)
  • Greco-Persian Wars (499-449 BC). From the Ionian Revolt to the end of the Wars of the Delian League.
  • The Peloponnesian War (431-404 BC)
  • Macedonian Succession Wars (323/322-272 BC). From the death of Alexander the Great to the start of a stable period under the Antigonid dynasty in Macedon. The rest of the Hellenistic kingdoms were more or less stable.
  • The Maccabean Revolt (167/166-129 BC)
• Ancient Rome (753 BC-395 AD/476 AD/1453 AD)
  • The Glory That Was Rome
  • The Roman Kingdom (753-509 BC)
  • The Roman Republic (509-27 BC)
    • Punic Wars (264-241 BC, 218-201 BC, 149-146 BC)
    • Celtiberian Wars (181-133 BC)
    • Lusitanian Wars (155-139 BC)
    • Germanic Wars (113 BC-750)
  • The Roman Empire (Unified 27 BC-395 AD; Western Roman Empire 395-476/480)
    • Lost Roman Legion (53 BC, 9 CE, 117 AD)
    • Jewish Revolts (66-73, 115-117, 132-136)
    • Byzantine Empire (395-1453)
• Ancient Grome (an amalgamation of the two above)
• Early Imperial China
  • Qin Dynasty (221 BC – 206 BC)
  • Han Dynasty (Western period 202 BC – 9 AD, Eastern period 25–220)
  • The Three Kingdoms (220-280) Popular portrayals often mix real history with the semi-fictional but highly influential depictions in Romance of the Three Kingdoms
  • Jin Dynasty (Western period 266–316; Eastern period 317–420)
  • Southern and Northern Dynasties (420–589)
  • Wuxia
• The Middle Ages (476-1492)
  • The Dung Ages
  • Medieval European Fantasy
  • The Low Middle Ages (476-c.1050 AD)
    • Dark Age Europe (476-c.600 AD)
    • Anglo-Saxons (c. 450-1066)
    • History of English (c. 450-)
    • L'État, c'est moi. Full list and brief introduction of all French monarchs (c. 481-1792, 1804-1848, 1852-1870).
    • The House of Wessex (c. 519-1066)
    • Arthurian Legend (c. 6th century AD)
    • Sui Dynasty (581-618)
    • Tang Dynasty (618-907)
    • Moorish Spain (c. 711-1492)
    • Spanish Reconquista (722-1492)
    • The Papal States (754-1870)
    • The Viking Age (c. 787-1066)
    • Vikings In America (c. 1000 AD)
    • Holy Roman Empire (800/962-1806)
    • Kievan Rus' and successors (c. 864-1547)
    • Hollywood Medieval Japan (Pre-1868)
    • Jidaigeki (c. 794-1868)
    • Goryeo Dynasty (918-1392)
    • Five Dynasties and Ten Kingdoms Era (c. 907-960)
    • Song, Liao, Jurchen Jin, and Western Xia Dynasties (960-1279)
  • The High Middle Ages (c. 1050-1320 AD)
    • The House of Normandy (1066-1154)
    • The Cathars (1143-1321)
    • The Crusades (1096-1291). Subsequent Crusades were called but were fought far from the Holy Land.
    • The Knights Hospitallers (c. 1099-1798). Also known as Knights of Cyprus, Knights of Rhodes, and Knights of Malta. Based on the location of their headquarters at various points.
    • The Knights Templar (c. 1119-1312)
    • The House of Plantagenet (1154-1485)
    • The Teutonic Knights (c. 1190-1525)
    • Hanseatic League (c. 1241-1669)
    • The Travels of Marco Polo (1269-1293)
    • Yuan Dynasty (1271-1368)
    • Kamakura Shogunate (1192-1333)
    • Robin Hood (1191-1216)
    • The Habsburg Empire (Holy Roman Empire 1273-1291, 1298-1308, 1314-1330, 1438-1740, 1745-1806, Austrian Empire 1804–1867, Austria-Hungary 1867-1918)
  • The Late Middle Ages (c. 1320-1500 AD)
    • The Hundred Years War (1337-1453)
    • The Black Death (1346-1353)
    • Joseon Dynasty (1392-1910)
    • Ming Dynasty (1368-1644)
    • The House of Stuart (1371/1603-1714)
    • The Fall of Constantinople (1453)
    • Wars of the Roses (1455-1487)
    • The Kingdom of Spain (1479-) History of the Spanish monarchy.
    • Cossacks (Late 1400s-) Russian and Ukrainian cavalry tradition.
• Pre-Columbian Civilizations (pre-colonial indigenous American societies)
  • Mayincatec
  • Native Americans
• The Renaissance (c. 1400-1600 AD)
  • Clock Punk. Speculative Fiction set in this period.
  • The Spanish Inquisition (1478-1834)
  • Italian Wars (1494-1559)
  • New Spain (1521-1821)
  • Spanish Conquest of the Aztec Empire (1519-1525)
  • Spanish Conquest of the Maya (1524-1697)
  • The Protestant Reformation (1517-1648)
  • The House of Tudor (1485-1603)
  • Prussia (Duchy 1525–1701; Kingdom 1701-1918; Free State 1918–1947)
    • Prussian Kings & German Emperors
  • Tsarist Russia (Tsardom of Russia 1547-1721; Russian Empire 1721-1917)
    • Russians with Rifles
  • The Eighty Years' War (1568-1648)
  • Battle of Lepanto (1571)
  • Wooden Ships and Iron Men (c. mid-1400s - late 1800s)
    • The Golden Age of Piracy (c. 1650-1720)
  • The French Colonial Empire (c. 1534-1946)
  • The British Empire (c. 1576-1949) From the original colonizing efforts to the establishment of The Commonwealth of Nations in its modern form.
  • French Wars of Religion (1562-1598)
  • Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth (1569-1795)
  • The Lost Colony of Roanoke (1587-1590?)
  • Sengoku Period (c. 1467-1603)
• The Cavalier Years (c. 1600-1789)
  • The Dutch-Portuguese War (1602-1640)
  • Thirty Years' War (1618-1648)
  • English Civil War (1642-1649), a part of the Three Kingdoms Wars (1639-1653)
  • Qing Dynasty (1644-1912)
  • Anglo-Dutch Wars (1652-1784)
  • Siege of Vienna (1683)
  • Hanover-Stuart Wars (c. 1688-1746)
  • The Great Northern War (1700-1721)
  • War of the Spanish Succession (1701-1714)
  • The House of Hanover (1714-1901)
  • Georgian Era (1714-1837)
  • War of the Austrian Succession (1740-1748)
  • Seven Years' War (1754-1763)
  • The Enlightenment (c. 1650-1815)
  • The Thirteen American Colonies (1607-1783)
  • The American Revolution (c. 1770-1789)
  • The Illuminati (1776-1785/1787)
• Antebellum America (1789-1861)
  • Dawn of the Wild West (1783-1848)
• The French Revolution (1789-1799)
  • The French Revolution in Fiction
  • French Political System. Explains the changes in the political system of France, from 1792 onwards.
• The Napoleonic Wars (1798-1815)
  • The Napoleonic Era in Fiction
• The 19th century
  • Steampunk. Speculative Fiction set in this era.
  • Spanish American Wars of Independence (1808-1833)
  • Argentine Civil War (1814-1876)
  • All the Little Germanies (1806-1871)
  • Regency England (1811-1820)
  • Barbary Coast Wars (First 1801–1805; Second 1815)
  • War of 1812 (1812-1815)
  • War of the Confederation (1836-1839)
  • Victorian Britain (1837-1901)
    • Victorian London
  • A Foggy Day in London Town
  • The Opium Wars (First 1839-1842; Second 1856-1860)
  • Irish Potato Famine (1845-1849)
  • The Wild West (1848-1890)
    • The Western
  • Mexican-American War (1846-1848)
  • Revolutions of 1848 (1848-1849)
  • Wars of Italian Independence (First 1848–1849; Second 1859; Third 1866)
  • The Crimean War (1853-56)
  • Eureka Rebellion (1854)
  • The Raj (1858-1947)
    • Kipling's Finest
  • The American Civil War (1861-1865)
  • The Chincha Islands War (1864-1866)
  • War of the Triple Alliance (1864-1870)
  • The Shinsengumi (1864-1869)
  • The Gilded Age (1865-1901)
  • Austro-Prussian War (1866)
  • Meiji Restoration (1867-1912)
  • Imperial Japan (1868-1945/1947)
    • Katanas of the Rising Sun
  • Franco-Prussian War (1870-1871)
  • Imperial Germany (1871-1918)
  • Anglo-Zulu War (January-July 1879)
  • War of the Pacific (1879-1883)
  • The River War (1881-1898)
  • The Gay '90s (1890s)
  • An Immigrant's Tale (the classic version is c. 1890-1920)
  • Twilight of the Old West (c. 1890-1920)
  • First Sino-Japanese War (1894-1895)
  • Spanish-American War (1898)
  • The Second Boer War (1899-1902)
  • Philippine-American War (1899-1913)
• The 20th Century
  • The Edwardian Era (1901-1910/1914)
    • The Progressive Era (1901-1917)
    • The House of Windsor (As House of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha 1901-1917; renamed to Windsor 1917 onwards)
    • Russo-Japanese War (1904-1905)
    • Romanovs and Revolutions (1905-1917)
    • The Tunguska Event (1908)
    • The Mexican Revolution (1910-c. 1920)
    • No More Emperors. Covers the Republic of China and the Chinese Civil War (1912-1949).
    • Sinking of the RMS Titanic (1912)
  • World War I (1914-1918)
    • Works Set in World War I
    • The Armenian Genocide (1915–1917)
  • The Spanish Flu (1918-1920)
  • The Roaring '20s (1920s). Also covers the final years of the 1910s.
    • Diesel Punk (c. 1920-1950). Speculative Fiction stories set in this period.
    • Red October (Russian Revolution and Civil War; 1917-1922)
    • Weimar Republic (1918-1933)
    • Yugoslavia (1918/1929-2003/2006)
    • Genteel Interbellum Setting (1918-1939)
    • Polish-Soviet War (1919-1921)
    • The Irish Revolution (War of Independence 1919-1921; Civil War 1922-1923)
    • League of Nations (1920-1946)
    • Fascist Italy (Kingdom of Italy 1922-1943; Italian Social Republic 1943-1945)
    • Chinese Civil War (1927-1937 with a truce during the Second Sino-Japanese War, before continuing 1946-1949)
    • Soviet Union (a basic guide to the USSR, 1922-1991)
    • History of the USSR
    • Reds with Rockets
    • Glorious Mother Russia
  • The Great Depression (1929-1940)
    • The Emu War (1932)
    • The Chaco War (1932-1935)
    • The Holodomor (1932-1933)
    • Nazi Germany (1933-1945)
    • Spanish Civil War (1936-1939)
    • The Franco Regime (1939-1975)
    • The Hindenburg (1936-1937)
    • Chandler American Time (1936-1941)
  • World War II (1937/1939-1945)
    • Works Set in World War II
    • Prelude to War (1918-1937/1939)
    • Second Sino-Japanese War (1937-1945)
    • War in Europe and Africa (1939-1945)
    • Maginot Line (1940)
    • The Holocaust (1941-1945)
    • Volhynian Slaughter (1943-1945)
    • The Holocaust in Media
    • War in Asia and the Pacific (1941-1945)
    • Atomic Bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki (1945)
    • The Aftermath (after 1945)
  • The '40s (1940s)
    • Cold War (c. 1945-1991)
    • History of the Cold War
    • The Baby Boom (1946-1964)
    • Republican Italy (1946-)
    • Roswell That Ends Well (1947)
    • The Partition of India (1947-1948)
    • The Apartheid Era (1948-1994)
    • Arab–Israeli Conflict (1948-)
    • NATO (1949-)
    • Red China (Red and Nasty 1949-1978, Red and Rich 1978-)
    • East Germany (1949-1990)
    • West Germany (1949-1990)
  • The '50s (1950s)
    • The Korean War (1950-1953)
    • The Space Race (1957-1969)
    • Civil Rights Movement (c. 1955-1968)
    • The Vietnam War (1955-1975)
    • Warsaw Pact (1955-1991)
  • The '60s (1960s).
    • The Congo Crisis (1960-1965)
    • Bay of Pigs Invasion (1961)
    • Brazilian Military Regime (1964-1985)
    • The Troubles (c.1966-1998)
    • The Football War (1969)
  • The '70s (1970s)
    • National Reorganization Process (1976-1983)
    • Iranian Revolution (1978-1979)
    • Soviet Invasion of Afghanistan (1979-1989)
    • To Get Rich Is Glorious (1978-)
  • The '80s (1980s)
    • Iran–Iraq War (1980-1988), also known as the Gulf War.
    • The Falklands War (1982)
    • Sri Lankan Civil War (1983-2009)
    • Operation Urgent Fury (1983)
    • The Chernobyl disaster (1986)
    • Hole in Flag (1989-1991)
  • The '90s (1990s)
    • The Gulf War (1990-1991), also known as the Second Gulf War or the First Gulf War.
    • The Berlin Republic (1990-)
    • The New Russia (1991-)
    • The Yugoslav Wars (1991-2001)
    • The Congo Wars (1996-1997, 1998-2003)
• The 21st century
  • Turn of the Millennium (2000s)
    • The War on Terror (2001-)
  • The New '10s (2010s)
    • The Arab Spring (2010-)
    • COVID-19 Pandemic (2019-2023)
  • The New '20s (2020s)
• The Present Day
• The Future
  • Just Before the End
  • The End of the World as We Know It
  • After the End

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