- 1784-1830s Early Trade with China
- 1784, The Empress of China sailed to China
- 1790-1840 The Second Awakening and the Protestant Revival
- 1810- The American Board of Commissioners for Foreign Missions ABCFM
- 1829-1861, Elijah Bridgment (1801-1861; BA Amherst College in 1825) went to Canton, China as the first American missionary (ABCFM)
- 1934-1855, Peter Parker (1804-1888; BA Yale in 1831) went to Canton, China in 1834 as the first medical missionary (ABCFM)
- 1839-1841 The First Opium War and the Treaty of Nanjing
- 1844 Treaty of Wanxia (Caleb Cushing, the US Envoy to China)
- 1860 The Second Opium War and the Treaty of Tianjin
- 11 more treaty ports opened
- 1850-1864 The Taiping Rebellion
- Issachar Roberts (Baptist missionary, influence on Hong Xiuquan)
- Frederick Townsend Ward (helped the Qing quelled the Taiping Rebellion)
- 1860-1895 Tongzhi Restoration
- 1861 Zongli Yamen (总理衙门, Foreign Affair Office)
- 1862 Tongwen Guan (同文馆, School of Combined Learning) and W.A.P. Martin (丁韙良 as head instructor, 1864-1900)
- 1865-1989 Adele Fielde (1839-1916) arrived in China and the Swatow Mission
- 1869-1875 Denominational Women’s Mission Boards were established (Congregational, Methodist, Baptist, Presbyterian)
- The rise of single women missionaries in foreign fields
- 1871-1882 The first Chinese Education Mission (CEM)
- 1882 The Chinese Exclusion Act
- 1886-1920s The Student Volunteer Movement for Foreign Missions (SVM)
- Social Gospel and medical/educational missions in China
- YMCA and YWCA at American campus and in China (1895-1950)
- 1895 The first Sino-Japan War
- 1900 The Boxer Rebellion
- 1909-1940s The Boxer Indemnity Scholarship
- Chinese students studying abroad in the US and modernization of China
- 1911 The Republican Revolution
- 1916-1926 The Warlord Period
- 1919-1920s The May Fourth Movement
- The rise of nationalism; anti-Christian movement; China’s sovereignty
- Mr. Science （赛先生) and Mr. Democracy (德先生)
- 1921 The founding of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP)
- 1924-1927 The First United Front of the Nationalists (KMT) and the CCP
- Purging of the CCP in April 1927
- 1927-1937 The Nanjing Decade
- 1934-35 The CCP’s Long March and Yen’an as the headquarters of the CCP
- 1934-37 New Life Movement
- 1937-1945 The Second Sino-Japan War
- The Second United Front between the KMT and the CCP
- 1937-1938 The Nanjing Massacre
- 1941 Dec. 7 The Pacific War and the US Military Support for China
- Missionary schools and hospitals relocated or shut down
- 1946-1949 The Civil War-the defeat of the KMT
- Missionary work and schools/hospitals reopened
- 1950-1952 the PRC and the Korea War
- 1952, foreign missions shut down