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A Detailed Timeline of Veganism: 2,600 Years of History, Philosophy and Ethics
From the Pythagoreans of antiquity to the legal recognition of sentience — the full journey of the movement, the ideas and the laws that made veganism the logical conclusion of a long moral refinement.
Veganism was not born in modern times: it is the destination of a long journey. It is rooted in ancient non-violence (the Pythagoreans, Buddhism, Jainism), passes through the rationalist "objectification" of animals from Aristotle to Descartes, is reborn as a pure plant-based diet with Dr William Lambe (1806), gains its own name in 1944 with Donald Watson and The Vegan Society, acquires a philosophical foundation with Singer (1975) and Regan (1983), becomes nutritionally viable once vitamin B12 is produced by microorganisms (1948), and culminates — from 2012 onward — in the scientific and legal recognition of sentience. This timeline weaves together four threads: the movement, philosophy, law and science.
Act I — c. 600 BCE to 1700
Ancient and Medieval Roots: Reverence and Reification
Long before the word "vegan" existed, entire cultures already championed non-violence toward animals. In parallel, however, Classical Philosophy and Roman Law built the opposite idea: the animal as a mere "thing". The two threads are born together here.
Akhenaten's Egypt and the cult of Bastet
The "Hymn to Aten" expresses an ecumenical love for creation. Egyptian zoolatry raised animals to sacred status — cats were embalmed and protected by strict law.
Pythagoras and the Orphic communities
In Greece (and in groups across India), abstaining from meat rests on metempsychosis — the transmigration of souls. Sources such as Ovid and Porphyry describe Pythagoras as lacto-vegetarian; for centuries, "vegetarian" was simply called Pythagorean. Read more about Pythagoras, his life, philosophy and influence on vegetarianism.
Buddhism and Jainism: the principle of ahimsa
Siddhartha Gautama preaches boundless benevolence; Mahavira consolidates radical non-violence toward all living beings "whether they move or stand still", founding the first animal sanctuaries.
Plato imagines a city without meat
In "The Republic", Plato describes an ideal society that lives on plants — though there is no record that he practised it himself.
Aristotle and the teleological hierarchy
Plants would serve animals, and animals would serve man. The possession of logos (reason) becomes the barrier that justifies moral exclusion — an idea that would persist for two thousand years.
Liu An and the invention of tofu
In the 2nd century BCE, tradition credits the invention of tofu to Prince Liu An (c. 179–122 BCE) of the Han dynasty — philosopher and editor of the Huainanzi. Made from soybeans, this protein-rich food would become enormously popular in the 20th and early 21st centuries, turning into a staple cherished by vegans for its protein content and culinary versatility. A vegan diet is possible without tofu, but tofu helps — enormously — in every sense. See the remarkable journey of tofu, from ancient China to global tables.
Roman Law: the self-moving res
Distinguishing homo from persona, Rome classifies animals as "things that move themselves" — objects of property without legal capacity. It is the root of the "self-moving good" that still inhabits civil codes today.
Clement of Alexandria against meat
He proposes a diet of vegetables, roots, olives, herbs and fruit, arguing against meat-eating at the dawn of Christianity.
Porphyry debates the use of animals
The Greek philosopher discusses the ethics of using milk, wool and honey — anticipating, in the 3rd century, questions that veganism would only fully formulate 1,700 years later.
Thomas Aquinas Christianises anthropocentrism
Following Aristotle, he argues that only the human soul has intellect and will, consigning animals to the instrumental benefit of man.
Al-Ma'arri, the "vegan" poet of Baghdad
During the Islamic Golden Age, the blind poet of Baghdad argues, on ethical grounds, for refusing meat, fish, milk, eggs and honey — a vegan diet almost a thousand years before the term existed.
Descartes and the animal-machine
The "Discourse on the Method" institutionalises the animal-automaton: beings without soul or sensation. Mechanism would silence the "moral noise" of animal suffering for centuries.
Roger Crab, the "English Hermit"
He publishes "The English Hermit", describing a life of abstinence from butter and cheese and an essentially vegan diet of leaves and grains.
Act II — 1806 to 1837
The Awakening of the Pure Plant-Based Diet
In the early 19th century, the strictly plant-based diet detaches from religious mysticism and stands on two modern pillars: scientific legitimacy and ethical consistency. Eating becomes a manifesto.
Dr William Lambe, the father of vegan nutrition
A Fellow of the Royal College of Physicians, Lambe adopts an exclusively plant-based diet and distilled water at the age of 40, making the first clear statement against eggs, milk, cheese and fish — on physiological and principled grounds.
John Frank Newton, Return to Nature
A patient of Lambe, he expands his mentor's medical ideas to include ethical values of protection for all animals.
Shelley and the first "vegan commune"
The poet Percy Bysshe Shelley lives by principles of abstinence from animal products in Bracknell and defends the "natural diet" in "A Vindication of Natural Diet" — the first celebrity vegan.
Lewis Gompertz and the refusal of the animal-resource
An animal-rights advocate who rejected leather and silk, he co-founds the SPCA (later the RSPCA). In "Moral Inquiries", he anticipates the modern concept of animal rights.
Dr John Snow adopts the plant-based diet at 17
Influenced by Newton, he keeps a 100% plant-based diet throughout his career — the very one that would make him the father of modern epidemiology.
Act III — 1838 to 1850
Alcott House and the Terminological Dispute
Alcott House Academy was the experimental epicentre of an integral way of life. It was there that the word "vegetarian" was coined — which, originally, meant exactly what we now call vegan.
Greaves founds Alcott House Academy
At Ham Common, near London, a community is born around a pure plant-based diet, dress reform and absolute animal ethics.
Schopenhauer and the animals
The German philosopher Arthur Schopenhauer placed compassion (Mitleid) as the foundation of all morality — and, unlike Kant, extended it explicitly to animals. A frequently forgotten philosophical root of the ethics that underpins veganism.
Read the full article →The word "vegetarian" is born — meaning purely plant-based
The term appears in "The Healthian", the Alcott House journal, to describe those who lived strictly on plants, with no animal by-products whatsoever. Its origin is "vegetable + arian".
Bronson Alcott founds Fruitlands
In the USA, Alcott establishes the short-lived "Fruitlands" community in Massachusetts on ethical vegan principles.
"Sago Pudding" and the first vegan journal
William Horsell turns "The Truth Tester" into a vegan journal and publishes the recipe for "Sago Pudding" — the oldest known deliberately vegan recipe.
Founding of the Vegetarian Society (Ramsgate)
The world's first vegetarian society is born from a "Great Merger" between the vegans of Alcott House and the Bible Christian Church, which allowed dairy and eggs. To unite the strands, its aim was diluted to "abstaining from the flesh of animals".
The first vegan cookbooks
Horsell publishes "Kitchen Philosophy for Vegetarians"; the following year, the American Vegetarian Society is founded, with Sylvester Graham as vice-president.
Act IV — 1851 to 1907
Resistance, Ethics and Consolidation
A period of "latent veganism": the practice survives under names such as "dietary reform" and "natural hygiene". Cookbooks keep the flame alive, while Darwin shakes the metaphysical justification of human superiority and animal ethics gains its first great theorists.
Russell Trall goes radically 100% plant-based
The naturopathic physician changes the diet at his New York establishment to exclusively plant-based food and water.
Francis Newman and the "partial vegetarians"
As president of the Vegetarian Society, he proposes renaming it the "Dietetic Reform Society" and classifies egg and milk consumers as "partial vegetarians" — anticipating the distinction that would only come in 1944. The proposals are blocked.
The first registered vegan cookbook
Dr Russell Trall publishes "The Hygeian Home Cook-Book", eliminating milk, eggs and animal fats.
Schlickeysen invokes Darwin
In "Fruit and Bread", he uses the theory of evolution to argue that humans are naturally frugivorous and that milk is harmful to adults.
The "Vegetus Myth"
To justify consuming eggs and milk, advocates of partial vegetarianism falsely claim the term derives from the Latin vegetus (vigorous) — ignoring the real "vegetable + arian" origin from Alcott House.
The Victorians who dared to skip the roast
How Britain's first vegetarians in the Victorian era challenged the habits of Empire and became a real "problem" for the established order — the social history behind the Vegetarian Society.
Read the full article →Gandhi becomes a vegetarian by choice
Reading "A Plea for Vegetarianism" by Henry Salt converts Gandhi from a vegetarian by birth into a vegetarian by ethical conviction.
Henry Salt, Animals' Rights
A seminal work of the movement, it establishes the modern ethical foundation by questioning animal exploitation broadly. Salt would influence Gandhi and generations of activists.
Act V — 1908 to 1950
The Invention of "Vegan" and the Movement's Independence
The 20th century brings the definitive break and the conquest of an identity of its own. The moral catalyst was Gandhi; the linguistic masterstroke, Donald Watson's.
Founding of the IVU in Dresden
The International Vegetarian Union is born on 18 August 1908, bringing together societies from different countries to unite the global dietary-reform movements.
Lefèvre coins the term "végétalien"
In France, Dr Jules Lefèvre coins "végétalien" for the exclusively plant-based diet — a sign that the need for a name of its own was growing in several languages.
Gandhi's speech in London
At the London Vegetarian Society, Gandhi states that the basis of vegetarianism must be moral, not physical, and calls milk consumption "the tragedy of his life" — encouraging non-dairy vegetarians to seek consistency.
Brazil — Decree No. 24,645 (Vargas Era)
It establishes direct state guardianship over animals and makes the Public Prosecutor's Office and protection societies their legal assistants.
Donald Watson coins "vegan" and founds The Vegan Society
In November 1944, the word and the society are born, with the first issue of "The Vegan News". By joining the beginning and end of veg-etari-an, Watson symbolised that veganism is "the beginning and end of vegetarianism" — its logical and complete conclusion.
The Vegan Society joins the IVU
Donald Watson speaks on "Veganism" at the 11th World Vegetarian Congress, securing immediate international representation for the new movement.
The first Vegan Society in the Americas
Dr Catherine Nimmo and Rubin Abramowitz form a vegan society in California, planting the seed that would flourish with Jay Dinshah.
Vitamin B12 is isolated — and produced by microorganisms
In 1948, vitamin B12 is isolated independently by Rickes and colleagues (Merck, USA) and by E. Lester Smith (Glaxo, UK). In the same study, Rickes reveals a novel source: the bacterium Streptomyces griseus — the first production of the vitamin by microorganisms. In the following years, strain-screening studies (such as Saunders, Otto and Sylvester, 1952, at Abbott) optimise industrial fermentation. This is the missing piece: since no plant reliably synthesises B12, without microbial fermentation a vegan world would not be nutritionally viable.
Act VI — 1951 to 2010
Global Expansion, Philosophy and Legal Landmarks
Veganism ceases to be an English niche and becomes global. Leadership shifts toward the developing world, philosophy gains its great names, and — in Brazil and worldwide — the law finally begins to ban cruelty.
The Vegan Society redefines veganism
The new definition is no longer merely dietary: it becomes the doctrine of living while excluding the exploitation of animals in all its forms.
Jay Dinshah founds the American Vegan Society
He introduces the concept of ahimsa (non-violence) to the West and joins the IVU from the outset.
Brazil — Law No. 5,197 (Hunting Code)
Wildlife becomes "property of the State", banning persecution and destruction — still under a logic of resource control.
Peter Singer, Animal Liberation
He introduces the Principle of Equal Consideration of Interests and the fight against "speciesism". The same year, the IVU Congress in Maine (USA) propels the movement in North America with 100% plant-based food.
International (UNESCO) — Universal Declaration of Animal Rights
Proclaimed in Paris under the auspices of UNESCO, it gives form to the idea of equality before life.
Brazil — Law No. 6,938 (National Environmental Policy)
It includes wildlife as a protected environmental resource, shifting the focus to ecological balance.
Tom Regan, The Case for Animal Rights
He defines animals as "subjects-of-a-life", endowed with inherent value and deontological inviolability — the most robust philosophical tool for constitutional change. Discover 5 surprising lessons from the booklet that redefined animal rights.
Brazil — Federal Constitution, Art. 225 §1, VII
The great watershed in Brazil: it expressly bans cruelty and elevates animal protection to an autonomous duty of the State.
The word "vegano" is born in Spanish
Francisco Martín founds the Asociación Vegana Española and coins the terms "vegano/vegana/veganismo", expanding the movement across the Hispanic world.
European Union — Treaty of Amsterdam
It formally recognises animals as sentient beings, shaping legal interpretation worldwide.
Brazil — Law No. 9,605 (Environmental Crimes Law) and the IVU vegan mandate
In Brazil, animal cruelty is criminalised. The same year, the IVU formalises that all food at its congresses must be 100% plant-based — recognising veganism as the logical end of vegetarianism.
Brazil — Supreme Court (ADI 1856), cockfighting
It suspends laws in Rio de Janeiro that authorised cockfighting: the constitutional ban on cruelty prevails over the cultural argument.
Germany — Constitutional reform (Art. 20a)
It includes animal protection as a fundamental principle of the State, safeguarding the foundations of life for future generations.
Brazil — Supreme Court (ADI 2514)
It strikes down the Santa Catarina law regulating cockfighting: cruelty is an absolute limit, regardless of tradition.
Official nutrition recognises: vegan suits all life stages
The Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics (then the American Dietetic Association) sets out the position — reaffirmed in 2016 — that well-planned vegetarian and vegan diets are nutritionally adequate and appropriate for all stages of life: pregnancy, lactation, infancy, childhood, adolescence and athletic performance. It is the most cited professional endorsement in the world.
Gary Francione and abolitionism
As long as the animal is classified as "property", Francione argues, any welfarism will be insufficient — the owner's interests will always prevail.
Act VII — 2011 to the Present
The Age of Global Consciousness
Neuroscience and law converge. Sentience ceases to be intuition and becomes scientific consensus, and animal dignity moves from ethical aspiration to an expanding legal category.
Latin American leadership in the IVU
Marly Winckler becomes the first Latin American president of the IVU International Council — a landmark in the movement's new geography.
The IVU World Vegfest in California
The 40th world gathering, in San Francisco and Los Angeles, marks the transition to annual, more open, multi-venue events.
The Cambridge Declaration on Consciousness
A scientific consensus validating the presence of neurological substrates of consciousness in non-human animals — removing the last technical barrier to recognising full sentience.
Jane Goodall, the revolutionary
By observing the chimpanzees of Gombe, the primatologist tore down the boundary that separated humans from animals — tool use, emotions, personalities — and redefined our ethical responsibility toward other species.
Read the full article →Colombia and Portugal recognise sentience
Colombia's Law 1774 turns animals into "sentient beings" in the Civil Code; in Portugal, Law 27/2016 ("the end of culling") bans euthanasia for population control.
Portugal — Law No. 8/2017
It creates a distinct legal status for animals, formally distinguishing them from "things".
Canada redesigns the national plate
Canada's new Food Guide (Health Canada) drops the traditional "meat" and "dairy" groups, recommends prioritising plant-based proteins and makes water — not milk — the default drink. It is the first major G7 power to reorganise its official guidelines around plant foods.
Brazil — Law No. 15,434 (Rio Grande do Sul)
It recognises domestic animals as sentient beings and depersonalised subjects of rights — perhaps the most advanced concept in Brazilian federalism.
Brazil — Law No. 10,831 (Rio Grande do Norte)
It systematises the State Code for Animal Defence and Protection, with strict rules against abuse.
Naconecy, Barroso and Sarlet: dignity beyond the species
Naconecy proposes seeing animal advocacy as a cable of many fibres, not a chain that breaks at its weakest link. Jurists such as Barroso and Sarlet debate dignity as an attribute of conscious life — not a privilege of Homo sapiens.
A global institutional consensus: 50+ institutions, 25+ countries
Over two decades a wave of official statements has formed, recognising well-planned 100% plant-based diets as adequate: from Australia's national guidelines (2013) to the British Dietetic Association (2017) and Brazil's Federal Council of Nutritionists (2022), all the way to climate laws such as Taiwan's (2023), which made the promotion of plant-based diets a matter of state policy. We have gathered more than 50 institutions, across more than 25 countries and regions, in the detailed list of endorsements of a 100% plant-based diet.
The Conclusion of a Long Moral Refinement
The journey begun by Lambe and consolidated by names such as Watson, Dinshah and the Brazilian and Indian leaderships shows that veganism is not a fad: it is the conclusion of a historical process of scientific and moral refinement. In law, three critical conclusions emerge from this journey:
- 1
Overcoming the dogma of the "thing"Sentience has become the defining criterion for attributing rights. The animal is no longer a mere object of property.
- 2
The institutional role of the public prosecutorIts function as the legal guardian of these new subjects has been consolidated — taking to court those who cannot speak proves the depersonalised nature of these rights.
- 3
The urgent harmonisation of the lawPrivatist civil codes must be reconciled with biocentric constitutional protection. Portugal and Rio Grande do Sul point the way toward a special legal statute.
From the Pythagorean to the redemptive constitutionalism of our age, the shift from absolute exploitation to respect for sentience is, at once, a victory for animals and a necessary refinement for humanity itself.
| Year | Country / Region | Milestone | What changed |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1934 | Brazil | Decree 24,645 | Direct state guardianship; public prosecutor as legal assistant |
| 1967 | Brazil | Law 5,197 (Hunting Code) | Wildlife becomes "property of the State" |
| 1978 | International (UNESCO) | Universal Declaration of Animal Rights | Equality before life, internationally |
| 1981 | Brazil | Law 6,938 (Environmental Policy) | Wildlife as a protected environmental resource |
| 1988 | Brazil | Federal Constitution, Art. 225 | Bans cruelty; animal protection as a state duty |
| 1997 | European Union | Treaty of Amsterdam | Animals recognised as sentient beings |
| 1998 | Brazil | Law 9,605 (Environmental Crimes) | Criminalises animal cruelty |
| 2000 / 2005 | Brazil | Supreme Court (ADI 1856 & 2514) | Cruelty as an absolute limit over "tradition" |
| 2002 | Germany | Constitutional reform (Art. 20a) | Animal protection as a fundamental state principle |
| 2012 | International | Cambridge Declaration | Scientific consensus on animal consciousness |
| 2016 | Colombia | Law 1774 | Animals as sentient beings in the Civil Code |
| 2016 / 2017 | Portugal | Laws 27/2016 & 8/2017 | Distinct legal status: animals are not "things" |
| 2020 / 2021 | Brazil | Laws 15,434 (RS) & 10,831 (RN) | Animals as depersonalised subjects of rights |
- Pythagoras: the revered Greek polymath, his life, philosophy and influence on vegetarianism
- From ancient China to global tables: the remarkable journey of tofu
- Confirmations of the expounded basis of morality — Schopenhauer (1839–1840)
- The Victorians who dared to skip the roast: how Britain's first vegetarians became a problem for Empire
- Beyond Humane: 5 surprising lessons from the booklet that redefined animal rights (Tom Regan)
- Jane Goodall: the revolutionary who redefined the relationship between humans and animals
- Detailed list of global endorsements of a 100% plant-based diet (50+ institutions, 25+ countries)
Cast of Characters
The people behind the milestones — pioneers, scientists, philosophers and activists who, over two centuries, gave a face and a voice to the idea of a life without animal exploitation.
Dr William Lambe
English physician who, in 1806, adopted an exclusively plant-based diet. The "father of vegan nutrition".
John Frank Newton
A patient of Lambe; in "Return to Nature" he expanded his ideas toward animal ethics and influenced Shelley.
Percy Bysshe Shelley
Poet and "first celebrity vegan"; he lived in a vegan commune and wrote "A Vindication of Natural Diet".
Lewis Gompertz
Jewish animal-rights advocate, co-founder of the RSPCA and author of "Moral Inquiries".
Sylvester Graham
American minister and reformer who popularised the "plant-based diet" in the USA and the UK.
Dr John Snow
Father of modern epidemiology; he adopted a vegan diet at 17 and discovered how cholera spreads.
James P. Greaves
Radical educator who founded Alcott House Academy (1838), the cradle of the word "vegetarian".
Bronson Alcott
American reformer of ethical vegan diet; he founded the "Fruitlands" community.
Henry David Thoreau
Writer and naturalist of Walden Pond; his ideas influenced Gandhi.
William Horsell
Editor who promoted "veganism" in London and was the first secretary of the Vegetarian Society.
Russell T. Trall
Naturopathic physician; he published "The Hygeian Home Cook-Book" (1874), the first vegan cookbook.
Prof. Francis Newman
President of the Vegetarian Society who tried to redefine it as an exclusively plant-based diet.
Gustav Schlickeysen
Author of "Fruit and Bread" (1875), he defended frugivorism on the basis of Darwinian evolution.
Henry Salt
The "father of animal rights"; his "Animals' Rights" (1894) was seminal and influenced Gandhi.
Mahatma Gandhi
He gave vegetarianism a moral basis and called milk "the tragedy of his life".
Donald Watson
He coined the word "vegan" in 1944 and founded The Vegan Society, the basis of the modern movement.
Jay Dinshah
He founded the American Vegan Society (1960) and was a central figure of veganism in North America.
Freya Dinshah
Co-founder of the American Vegan Society, keeping alive the work begun with Jay.
Alex Hershaft
Founder of FARM and a key figure in the early organised animal-rights movement in the USA.
Francisco Martín
Founded the Asociación Vegana Española and coined "vegano/vegana/veganismo" in Spanish (1993).
Marly Winckler
Brazilian activist; first Latin American president of the IVU Council and host of the 2004 congress.
Shankar Narayan
President of the Indian Vegan Society; a promoter of veganism in India and the Middle East.
John Davis
IVU manager and historian, author of "World Veganism" and the principal narrator of this chronology.
Sources and references
- John Davis — "World Veganism – Past, Present and Future" (IVU)
- Peter Singer — Animal Liberation (1975); Tom Regan — The Case for Animal Rights (1983); Gary Francione — abolitionist theory
- Henry Salt — Animals' Rights (1894); Arthur Schopenhauer — On the Basis of Morality
- Carlos Naconecy — pluralistic pragmatism; Chalfun and Lacerda — Philosophy of Law; Barroso and Sarlet — dignity beyond the species
- Vitamin B12 production: Rickes, Brink, Koniuszy, Wood & Folkers — "Comparative Data on Vitamin B12 From Liver and From a New Source, Streptomyces griseus" (Science, 1948); E. Lester Smith (Nature, 1948); Saunders, Otto & Sylvester — "The Production of Vitamin B12 by Various Strains of Actinomycetes" (Journal of Bacteriology, 1952).
- Institutional endorsements (2005–2025): compilation by the International Vegetarian Union (IVU) — positions of the Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics (USA), the British Dietetic Association, Brazil's Federal Council of Nutritionists, Health Canada, the NHMRC (Australia), Taiwan's Climate Response Act and others; see the detailed list of endorsements of a 100% plant-based diet.
- Legal instruments cited: Brazil's Federal Constitution (1988); Laws 5,197/67, 6,938/81, 9,605/98, 15,434/20 (RS), 10,831/21 (RN); Decree 24,645/34; Supreme Court rulings ADI 1856 and 2514; legislation of Portugal, Colombia and Germany.
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