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Period: 200 to
Maya Civilization
The Maya is a Mesoamerican civilization, noted for the only known fully developed written language of the pre-Columbian Americas, as well as for its art, architecture, and mathematical and astronomical systems. Many Maya cities reached their highest state of development during the Classic period and continued throughout the Post-Classic period until the arrival of the Spanish. -
Period: 224 to Jan 1, 651
Sasanid Empire
The Sasanid Empire was the last pre-Islamic Persian Empire, ruled by the Sasanian Dynasty from 224 to 651. It succeeded the Parthian Empire, and was recognized as one of the two main powers in Western Asia and Europe, alongside the Roman Empire and its successor, the Byzantine Empire, for a period of more than 400 years. -
Period: 330 to Jan 1, 1453
Byzantine Empire
The Byzantine Empire was the predominantly Greek-speaking Eastern Roman Empire throughout Late Antiquity and the Middle Ages. Known simply as the Roman Empire or Romania by its contemporaries, the empire was centered on the capital of Constantinople and was ruled by emperors in direct succession to the ancient Roman emperors after the collapse of the Western Roman Empire. -
Period: 330 to Jan 1, 1453
Constantinople
Constantinople was the imperial capital of the Roman Empire, the Byzantine/Eastern Roman Empire, the Latin Empire and the Ottoman Empire. Throughout most of the Middle Ages, Constantinople was Europe's largest and wealthiest city. -
Apr 18, 622
Foundation of Islam
Islam is the monotheistic religion articulated by the Qur’an, a text considered by its adherents to be the word of God (Allah), Its holy prophet is named Muhammad. -
Period: Jan 1, 661 to Jan 1, 750
Umayyad Caliphate
The Umayyad Caliphate was the second of the four major Arab caliphates established after the death of Muhammad. Although the Umayyad family originally came from the city of Mecca, Damascus was the capital of their Caliphate. At its greatest extent, it covered more than five million square miles, making it one of the largest empires the world had yet seen, It was also the fifth largest contiguous empire ever to exist. -
Apr 18, 661
Split between Sunni and Shi'ite
The split between the two main branches of Islam is nearly 1,400 years old, and started with a fight over who should lead the faithful after thr prophet Muhammad's death in 632. One side believed that direct descendants of the prophet should take up the mantle of the caliph - the leader of the world's faithful. They were known as the Shiat-Ali, or "partisans of Ali," after the prophet's cousin and son-in-law Ali, whom they favored to become caliph. In time, they can simply to be known as Shi'ite -
Period: Apr 25, 711 to
Muslims conquer Spain
Islam in Spain has had a fundamental presence in the culture and history of the nation. The religion was present in modern Spanish soil under the rule of the Arabs and Moors of al-Andalus. -
Period: Apr 25, 742 to
Charlemagne
Charlemagne was King of the Franks from 768 and Emperor of the Romans from 800 to his death in 814. He expanded the Frankish kingdom into an empire that incorporated much of Western and Central Europe. -
Period: Jan 1, 750 to Apr 25, 1513
Abbasid Caliphate
The Abbasid caliphate or, more simply, the Abbasids, was the third of the Islamic caliphates. It was ruled by the Abbasid dynasty of caliphs, who built their capital in Baghdad after overthrowing the Umayyad caliphs from all but the Al Andalus region. -
Period: Jan 1, 1017 to Jan 1, 1325
Seljuk Turks
The Seljuq (also known as the Seljuk Turks), was a dynasty that ruled parts of Central Asia and the Middle East from the 11th to 14th centuries. They established an empire, the Great Seljuq Empire, which at its height stretched from Anatolia through Persia and was the target of the First Crusade. -
Period: Mar 1, 1095 to Jan 1, 1293
Crusades
The Crusades were a series of religiously sanctioned military campaigns, waged by much of Roman Catholic Europe, particularly the Franks of France and the Holy Roman Empire. The specific crusades to restore Christian control of the Holy Land were fought over a period of nearly 200 years. -
Period: Jan 1, 1138 to Mar 4, 1193
Saladin
Saladin was a muslim who became the first Ayyubid Sultan of Egypt and Syria. He led Muslim and Arab opposition to the Franks and other European Crusaders in the Levant. -
Period: Jan 1, 1162 to Jan 1, 1227
Genghis Khan
Genghis Khan was the founder, Khan (ruler) of the Mongol Empire, which became the largest contiguous empire in history after his death. He came to power by uniting many of the nomadic tribes of northeast Asia. After founding the Mongol Empire and being proclaimed "Genghis Khan", he started the Mongol invasions that would ultimately result in the conquest of most of Eurasia. -
Period: May 2, 1200 to May 2, 1573
Inca Civilization
The Inca civilization (or Inka) began as a tribe in the Cuzco area, where the legendary first Sapa Inca, Manco Capac, founded the Kingdom of Cuzco around 1200. Under the leadership of the descendants of Manco Capac, the Inca state grew to absorb other Andean communities. -
Period: Jan 1, 1206 to Jan 1, 1527
Delhi Sultanate
The Delhi Sultanate is a term used to cover five short-lived Islamic kingdoms or sultanates of Turkic origin in medieval India; the last being replaced by the Mughal dynasty. -
Period: Jan 1, 1206 to Jan 1, 1324
Mongol Invasion
The Mongol Empire emerged in the course of the 13th century by a series of conquests and invasions throughout Central and Western Asia, reaching Eastern Europe by the 1240s. Mongol invasions progressed throughout the 13th century, resulting in the vast Mongol Empire which covered much of Asia and Eastern Europe by 1300. -
Jun 15, 1215
Magna Carta
Magna Carta is an English charter, originally issued in the year 1215, and reissued later in the 13th century in modified versions that omit certain temporary provisions, including the most direct challenges to the monarch's authority. The charter first passed into law in 1225. -
Period: Apr 18, 1235 to Apr 18, 1493
Mali Kingdom
The Mali Empire or Mandingo Empire or Manden Kurufa was a West African empire of the Mandinka. It had many profound cultural influences on West Africa, allowing the spread of its language, laws and customs along the Niger River. -
Period: Apr 25, 1250 to Apr 25, 1517
Mamluks
Mamluks were soldiers of slave origin. Over time, mamluks became a powerful military caste in various Muslim societies such as Egypt and Iraq. -
Period: Apr 11, 1300 to
Aztec Civilization
The Aztec people were certain ethnic groups of central Mexico, particularly those groups who spoke the Nahuatl language and who dominated large parts of Mesoamerica in the 14th, 15th and 16th centuries, a period referred to as the late post-classic period in Mesoamerican chronology. -
Period: May 2, 1300 to
Renaissance
The Renaissance is a cultural movement that spanned roughly the 14th to the 17th century, beginning in Florence in the Late Middle Ages and later spreading to the rest of Europe. -
Period: Apr 18, 1312 to Apr 18, 1337
Mansa Musa
Mansa Musa, was the tenth mansa, which translates as "king of kings" or "emperor", of the Malian Empire. He was perhaps the wealthiest ruler of his day. -
Period: Apr 8, 1336 to Feb 18, 1405
Timur
Timur was a fourteenth-century conqueror of Western, South and Central Asia, founder of the Timurid Empire and Timurid dynasty in Central Asia, and great great grandfather of Babur, the founder of the Mughal Dynasty, which survived until 1857 as the Mughal Empire in India. -
Period: Jan 1, 1337 to Jan 1, 1453
Hundred Years War
The Hundred Years' War was a series of wars waged from 1337 to 1453 by the House of Valois and the House of Plantagenet, also known as the House of Anjou, for the French throne, which had become vacant upon the extinction of the senior Capetian line of French kings. The House of Valois claimed the title of King of France, while the Plantagenets claimed the thrones of both France and England. -
Period: Apr 18, 1368 to
Ming Empire
The Ming Dynasty followed the collapse after the Mongol - led, Yuan Dynasty. It is also the last dynasty to be ruled by the ethnic Hans. -
Period: Apr 18, 1371 to Apr 18, 1435
Zheng He
Zheng He, also known as Cheng Ho, was a Hui-Chinese mariner, explore, diplomat, and fleet admiral. He was also fluent in Arabic and Chinese. -
Jan 1, 1436
Gutenberg Press
Gutenberg was the first European to use movable type printing, in around 1439, and the global inventor of the printing press. -
Period: Jan 22, 1440 to Oct 27, 1505
Ivan III
Ivan III Vasilyevich (also known as Ivan the Great), was a Grand Prince of Moscow and "Grand Prince of all Rus". Sometimes referred to as the "gatherer of the Russian lands", he tripled the territory of his state, ended the dominance of the Golden Horde over the Rus, renovated the Moscow Kremlin, and laid the foundations of the Russian state. He was one of the longest-reigning Russian rulers in history. -
Period: Apr 18, 1493 to
Songhai Kingdom
The Songhai Empire,also known as the Songhay Empire, was a state located in western Africa. From the early 15th to the late 16th century, Songhai was one of the largest Islamic empires in history. -
Establishment of Holy Roman Empire
The Holy Roman Empire established itself after Charlemagne was crowned Emperor. -
Period: to Apr 11, 1279
Song Empire
The Song Empire was the first empire to issue banknotes or paper currency and the first Chinese governemnt to establish a permanent standing navy. They also invented gunpowder, as well at deciphering the true north by using a compass. The Song Empire fell when the Mongols conquered China. -
Period: to
Sui Empire
The Sui Dynasty was responsible for the re-unification of Northern and Southern China in the 6th century. The empire improved agriculture, the ruling of the government, and the refomation of laws. However, the empire's demise was due to the governments demands of people, such as taxes and labor. -
Period: to
Tang Empire
The Tang Dynasty preceded after the collapse of the Sui Dynasty. It was founded by the Li family, although the ruling of the Tang Empire was interrupted when Empress Wu Zetian seized the throne. The dynasty was widely known as the golden age of cosmopolitan culture. The fall of the Tang Empire began when the central government started to collapse due to the staggering population of China at the time. -
Period: to Apr 18, 1235
Ghana Kingdom
The earliest of the west African states to develop was Ghana. Ghana was to the north of the Upper Niger river on the trade routes that carried salt and gold across the Sahara to the Mediterranean Sea -
Period: to Apr 25, 1349
Kievan Russia
The Kievan Rus' was a medieval polity in Eastern Europe, from the late 9th to the mid 13th century, when it disintegrated under the pressure of the Mongol invasion. After its disintegration, the various East Slavic principalities were re-united under the Russian Empire in the 18th century.