People have been consuming cocoa for a long time. As revered as cacao was in Meso-America (for 2000 years) sweet chocolate has only been around since the 16th century. Chocolate bars for even less than half that!

Our timeline will give you a brief look at the history of chocolate with some key points outlined its history. We’ve broken it further into three timelines:

• Technology: for innovations and inventions.
• Society: for things that impacted culture at large.
• People: for individuals and companies that played a role in chocolate.

Some of the exact dates and events may be still under some scrutiny. Regardless, they all contributed to the chocolate we have today.