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Period: 224 to Apr 8, 651
Sassanid Empire
A Persian Empire, ruled by the Sasanian Dynasty. It was a main power in Western Asia and Europe alongside the Roman Empire. It was based in today's Iran, Afghanistan, Iraq, Syria, southwestern Central Asia, part of Turkey, certain coastal parts of the Arabian Peninsula, the Persian Gulf area, and areas of southwestern Pakistan, even stretching into India. -
Period: 250 to
Maya Civilization
It reached it's highest state of development between 250 and 900C.E. It fully developed writing, epigraphy, and the calendar. Located in parts of Southern Mexico, the Yucatan Peninsula, and Northern Central America. -
Period: 306 to May 8, 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[1] and wealthiest city. -
Period: 330 to Apr 8, 1453
Byzantine Empire
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: May 8, 610 to May 8, 632
Foundation of Islam
Muhammad started receiving revelations that he believed to be from God. The content of these revelations, known as the Qur'an, was memorized and recorded by his companions. During this time, Muhammad preached to the people of Mecca, imploring them to abandon polytheism. After 12 years of preaching, Muhammad and the Muslims performed the Hijra ("emigration") to the city of Medina in 622. -
Apr 8, 632
Sunni Shi'ite Split
After the Death of Muhammad, Muslims were in debate over who would become leader of the Islam religion. The Shi'ites chose Ali, Muhammad's son-in-law. The Sunni's disagreed. -
Period: Apr 8, 661 to Apr 8, 750
Umayyad Caliphate
Second of the Islam Caliphates. Ruled by the Umayyad dynasty. Overthrown by the Abbasid Caliphate. -
Period: Apr 8, 711 to
Muslim Conquest of Spain
Most of the Iberian Peninsula was brought under Muslim occupation, except for the mountainous areas in the northwest and the largely Basque regions in the Pyrenees. The conquered territory, under the Arabic name al-Andalus, became part of the expanding Umayyad empire. -
Period: Apr 8, 750 to Apr 8, 1513
Abbasid Caliphate
Third of the Islam Caliphates. Created the Mamluks. Rule was briefly ended for three years in 1258, when Hulagu Khan, the Mongol khan, sacked Baghdad. -
Period: Apr 8, 1071 to Apr 8, 1325
Seljuk Turks
Ruled parts of Central Asia and the Middle East. Regarded as the cultural ancestors of the Western Turks. -
Period: Apr 8, 1095 to Apr 8, 1291
Crusades
The Crusades originally had the goal of recapturing Jerusalem and the Holy Land from Muslim rule and their campaigns were launched in response to a call from the Christian Byzantine Empire for help against the expansion of the Muslim Seljuk Turks into Anatolia. -
Period: Apr 8, 1174 to Apr 8, 1193
Saladin
Founded the Ayyubid dynasty. He became a celebrated example of the principles of chivalry. -
Period: Apr 11, 1200 to Apr 11, 1573
Inca Civilization
The Inca Civilizaition began as a tribe in the Cuzco, Peru area. Under the leadership of the descendants of Manco Capac, the Inca state grew to absorb other Andean communities. He founded the Inca Empire or Tahuantinsuyo, which became the largest empire in pre-Columbian America. Inca cultural traditions remain strong among surviving indigenous descendants, such as the Quechua and Aymara people. -
Period: Apr 8, 1206 to Apr 8, 1324
Mongol Invasions
These invasions resulted in the Mongol Empire which covered much of Asia and Eastern Europe by 1300. -
Period: Apr 8, 1206 to Apr 8, 1227
Genghis Khan
Started the Mongol Invasions. He also promoted religious tolerance in the Mongol Empire, and created a unified empire from the nomadic tribes of northeast Asia. Present-day Mongolians regard him highly as the founding father of Mongolia. -
Period: Apr 8, 1206 to Apr 8, 1526
Delhi Sultanate
Five short-lived Islamic kingdoms or sultanates of Turkic origin in medieval India. The sultanates ruled from Delhi between 1206 and 1526, when the last was replaced by the Mughal dynasty. The five dynasties that were the Mamluk dynasty (1206–90), the Khilji dynasty (1290–1320), the Tughlaq dynasty (1320–1413), the Sayyid dynasty (1414–51), and the Lodi dynasty (1451–1526). -
Apr 8, 1215
Magna Carta
The Charter required King John of England to proclaim certain liberties, and accept that his will was not arbitrary, for example by explicitly accepting that no "freeman" (in the sense of non-serf) could be punished except through the law of the land. -
Period: Apr 8, 1230 to
Mali Empire
A West African empire. It contained three immense gold mines within its borders unlike the Ghana Empire, which was only a transit point for gold. -
Period: Apr 8, 1250 to Apr 8, 1517
Mamluks
Soldiers of slave origin. The "Mamluk Phenomenon" was of great political importance and was extraordinarily long-lived, lasting from the 9th to the 19th century AD. Most notably, mamluk factions seized the sultanate for themselves in Egypt and Syria in a period known as the Mamluk Sultanate (1250–1517). The Mamluk Sultanate famously beat back the Mongols and fought the Crusaders. -
Period: Apr 8, 1300 to
Renaissance
As a cultural movement, it encompassed a resurgence of learning based on classical sources, the development of linear perspective in painting, and gradual but widespread educational reform. Traditionally, this intellectual transformation has resulted in the Renaissance being viewed as a bridge between the Middle Ages and the Modern era. Although the Renaissance saw revolutions in many intellectual pursuits, as well as social and political upheaval, it is perhaps best known for its artistic devel -
Period: Apr 8, 1312 to Apr 8, 1337
Mansa Musa
Tenth ruler of the Mali Empire. -
Period: Apr 11, 1325 to Apr 11, 1521
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. -
Period: Apr 8, 1337 to Apr 8, 1453
Hundred Years' War
A series of wars by the House of Valois and the House of Plantagenet, for the French throne, which had become vacant upon the extinction of the senior Capetian line of French kings.The final outcome was a victory for the house of Valois, which succeeded in recovering early gains made by the Plantagenets and expelling them from the majority of France by the 1450s. -
Period: Apr 8, 1340 to
Songhai Empire
In 1340, the Songhai took advantage of the Mali Empire's decline and successfully asserted its independence. Disputes over succession weakened the Mali Empire. The Songhai made Gao their capital and began an imperial expansion of their own throughout the western Sahel. -
Period: Apr 8, 1368 to
Ming Dynasty
It was the last dynasty in China ruled by ethnic Hans. Preceded by Yuan Dynasty, followed by Qing and Shun Dynastys. China became involved in a new global trade of goods, plants, animals, and food crops known as the Columbian Exchange. Trade with European powers and the Japanese brought in massive amounts of silver, which then replaced copper and paper banknotes as the common medium of exchange in China. -
Period: Apr 8, 1370 to Apr 8, 1405
Timur
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, -
Period: Apr 8, 1405 to Apr 8, 1433
Zheng He
A was a Muslim Hui-Chinese mariner, explorer, diplomat and fleet admiral, who commanded voyages to Southeast Asia, South Asia, the Middle East, and East Africa, collectively referred to as the Voyages of Zheng He or Voyages of Cheng Ho from 1405 to 1433. -
Apr 8, 1439
Gutenberg's Press
The Gutenberg press with its wooden and later metal movable type printing brought down the price of printed materials and made such materials available for the masses. -
Period: Apr 8, 1462 to Apr 8, 1505
Ivan III
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. -
Establishment of the Holy Roman Empire
The coronation of Otto I by pope John XII in 962 marks a revival of the concept of a Christian emperor in the west. It is also the beginning of an unbroken line of Holy Roman emperors lasting for more than eight centuries. -
Period: to
Sui Dynasty
The unification of Northern And Southern China, Ruled by Emporers Wen and Yang. Followed by the Tang dynasty. -
Period: to
Tang Dynasty
After Sui Dynasty. Largely Incorporated in the Silk Trade. Ruled by Empress Wu Zetian. -
Period: to Apr 8, 1279
Song Dynasty
It was followed by the Yuan Dynasty. It was the first government in world history to issue banknotes or paper money, and the first Chinese government to establish a permanent standing navy. This dynasty also saw the first known use of gunpowder, as well as first discernment of true north using a compass. -
Period: to Apr 8, 1235
Ghana Empire
Introduced the Camel to trade, and for the first time, the extensive gold, ivory trade, and salt resources of the region could be sent north and east to population centers in North Africa, the Middle East and Europe in exchange for manufactured goods. -
Period: to
Charlemange
(Charles the Great) King of the Franks and King of the Lombards untill 800, when he was crowned Emperor of the Romans, which he stayes as until 814, his death. -
Period: to Apr 8, 1237
Kievan Russia
A medieval polity in Eastern Europe, from the late 9th to the mid 13th century. The state declined beginning in the later 11th and during the 12th century, disintegrating into various rival regional powers. It was further weakened by economic factors such as the collapse of Rus' commercial ties to Byzantium due to the decline of Constantinople and the falling off of trade routes, and it finally fell to the Mongol invasion of the 1230s.