Buddhism History

Buddha Siddharta Gautama was born at the beginning of the Magadha period in Nepal. The first Buddhist council was held soon after the death of the Buddha under the patronage of King Ajatsatru in Rajgir. The point of the council was to record the Buddha’s sayings and codify monastic rules.
The second Buddhist council was convened by King Kalasoka and held at Vaisali. It occured because of the conflict between the traditional schools who considered the Buddha as a human being who reached enlightenment, and the secessionist Mahasangikas who looked at this as being individualistic and selfish.
King Ashoka convened the third Buddhist council around 250 BCE at Patna. The objective of the council was to reconcile the different schools of Buddhism, to purify the Buddhist movement, and to organize the dispatch of Buddhist missionaries throughout the known world.
Buddhism was expanding quickly into Asia and starting with Sri Lanka, then moving on to central Asia.
The Sunga Dynasty was established in 185 BCE, about 50 years after Ashoka died. The rise of Mahayana Buddhism from the 1st century BCE was accompanied by complex political changes in northwestern India. The new form of Buddhism was characterized by an almost God-like treatment of the Buddha, by the idea that all beings have a Buddha-nature and should aspire to Buddhahood.
The Fourth Council was convened by Kanishka around 100 CE at Kashmir. Theravada Buddhism had its own Fourth Council in Sri Lanka. Therefore there are two Fourth Councils. From that point on, and in the space of a few centuries, Mahayana was to flourish and spread in the East from India to South East Asia, and towards China, Korea, and lastly Japan in 538 CE. After the end of the Kushans, Buddhism flourished in India during the dynasty of the Guptas.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Timeline_of_Buddhism
http://www.ahistoryofbuddhism.com/History-of-Siddhartha-Gautama.html
http://www.ahistoryofbuddhism.com/Buddhism-Outside-Asia.html
http://www.ahistoryofbuddhism.com/Buddhist-Councils.html
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_Buddhism