Why does everyone say Minish Cap came first in The Legend Of Zelda timeline?

Well its the first time Link is presented his trademark green cap after completing the game, so thats why some believe it was the first in the time line, although whether there even is a time line is itself debatable, only Majoras Mask, Zelda 2 and Phantom Hourglass(possibly Links Awakening) are direct sequels but whether all the games story lines are connected or not, Nintendo has never given a definitive answer to this.

Very excellent question. I very much look into the zelda timeline, and i love to answer questions like this.

Usually, ocarina of time could be said to be the first in the timeline. Firstly because it's the first mention of ganon and the hero of time. But in minish cap, there is no ganon or hero of time. Infact, it could be the beginning of the hero of time. In the beginning it describes a hero of men, who carried the picori sword, or the four sword. Not the master sword. So, you can assume that this is the first link who is not a hero of men because he is hatless in the beginning, but gains a hat in the game. The game might have been made just to describe where the hat came from. it says in the game that the hat "suits link" and he is destined to wear it forever. But, all of this can be argued. It could be just that this link happens to have no hat and gets a new one. The best evidence supporting it is that the four swords series seems to not fit into anything in the other games. The minish cap and four swords adventures fit no where except the distant past, before anything else. The only flaw with this is ganon appears in four swords adventures, which is confusing because that could be ganon's first appearance. Also, the creator of minish cap also said that it is the first in the timeline, BUT it is not miyamoto, the true creator of zelda, so we cannot be sure if this is true. Do not believe everyone who say things about the zelda timeline, hardly anyone is right. There is no right timeline at all, not until miyamoto himself reveals one. There are only theories, theories that hardly ever work but help us have some kind of understanding of the order of the games. k, hope this helped.

I totally agree with Triforce & think he deserves the points for answering. Now the REAL first game that starts the "Legend" even comfirmed by the creator Satoshi Miyamoto, not me, is: " The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time".

b/c it pretty much tells the beginning but it's not actually the first one