History of Armenia
Chronology you must hold
Urartu (9th–6th centuries BC) → the Artaxiad dynasty with Tigran the Great (95–55 BC) → adoption of Christianity in 301 under Trdat III → the alphabet of Mesrop Mashtots in 405 → the Battle of Avarayr in 451 under Vardan Mamikonyan and the Treaty of Nvarsak in 484 → the Bagratuni kingdom from 885 (Ashot I; capital later at Ani) → the Cilician kingdom, whose Levon II was crowned in 1198 → the loss of Cilicia in 1375 → partition between Persia and the Ottoman Empire (Peace of Amasya 1555, Treaty of Zuhab 1639) → the Treaty of Turkmenchay 1828 → the genocide of 1915 → the May 1918 battles (Sardarapat, Bash Abaran, Karakilisa) and the First Republic on 28 May 1918 → Sovietisation in December 1920 → the Karabakh movement from 1988 and independence on 21 September 1991.
Themes
Expect questions on causes and consequences, not dates alone: why Christianity mattered politically, how the Bagratuni and Cilician states differed, what the 1918 battles saved, and how Soviet rule reshaped economy and society.
Traps
The commonest errors are Avarayr (451) mixed with Nvarsak (484); the First Republic (1918) confused with Sovietisation (1920); the Treaty of Sèvres (1920, never ratified) confused with Lausanne (1923); and Tigran the Great's empire placed in the wrong century.
Rule of thumb
Anchor on two fixed points - 301 for Christianity and 405 for the alphabet - and count forward or backward. An event described as after the alphabet cannot be earlier than the 5th century.