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Chronology of World Events
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| 330 | Roman Emperor Constantine founds the city of Constantinople (present-day Istanbul, Turkey), which becomes the capital of the Eastern (Byzantine) Empire. | | 476 | Romulus Augustus, the last Roman emperor of the West, is deposed by Odoacer, a barbarian chieftain of Italy. | | 622 | The Muslim era begins with the Hegiraas the Prophet Muhammad flees, with afew adherents, from Mecca to Medina. | | 768 | Charlemagne (Charles the Great) begins his reign as king of the Franks. | | 778 | Charlemagne's nephew Roland is killed inthe battle of Roncevalles in the Pyrenees as Charlemagne's army returns from an unsuccessful campaign in Spain against the Saracens. This event serves as the basis for the most famous heroic poem in French literature. | | 800 | Charlemagne is crowned emperor of the West by Pope Leo III in Rome. | | c. 810–c. 820 | Vikings begin to settle in the Faroe Islands. | | 814 | Al-Ma'mun, the seventh Abbāsid caliph of the Muslim Empire, establishes the House of Knowledge in Baghdad. Scholars there translate Greek, Syriac, Persian, and Sanskrit works of philosophy, science, and literature, and make discoveries in astronomy, mathematics, and medicine. |
| The reign of Emperor Louis the Pious, son of Charlemagne, begins, bringing with it the beginning of the disintegration of the Carolingian empire. | | 837 | Byzantine forces begin invasions of the Abbāsid Muslim Empire. | | 838 | Muslim naval forces prepare to lay siege to Constantinople, but their fleet is destroyed in a storm. | | 843 | The iconoclastic controversy in Byzantine Christianity comes to an end, and the useof icons is restored. | | The Treaty of Verdun formalizes the division of the Carolingian realm among the three sons of Louis the Pious: Charles the Bald (western section, roughly equivalent to modern France), Louis the German (eastern section), and Lothair (middle section, later called Lotharingia). | | 847 | Arabs sack Rome. | | Ruling from Samarra, north of Baghdad, the weakened Abbāsid caliph al-Mutawakkil begins persecutions of Christians, Jews, and unorthodox Muslim Shiites. |
| 849 | An Arab fleet is defeated off the coast of Italy by the forces of an alliance formed by Pope Leo IV. | | c. 850 | Arabs invent the astrolabe, which allows mariners to use celestial navigation to determine latitude. | | c. 860 | Viking explorers discover Iceland. | | 866 | Japan begins a period of clan dominance known as the Fujiwara period, which lasts until 1160. | | c. 866 | The Abbāsid caliphs begin to lose the eastern provinces of their empire as the Saffarid Dynasty is established in what is now eastern Iran. | | 869 | The Saffarid Dynasty expands to include parts of modern-day Afghanistan and Pakistan. | | 870 | Al-Kindī dies. He was the first Islamic thinker to try to reconcile Greek philosophy with Muslim beliefs. | | When Lothair II dies, the Treaty of Mersen divides Lotharingia (Burgundy and northern Italy) between Louis the German and Charles the Bald. | | 876 | Saffarid troops fail to conquer Baghdad, but in 879 their leader is recognized by the Abbāsid caliph as governor of the eastern provinces of the Muslim empire. | | 877 | Charles the Bald dies, effectively ending the era of Carolingian supremacy on the Continent. | | 878 | King Alfred the Great of England (r. 871–899) defeats the Danes in a major battle and ends Viking invasions of England by recognizing an area of northeast England (known as Danelaw) as Danish territory. | | 882 | Oleg, Varangian (Viking) ruler of Russia, captures Kiev and makes it his capital. |
| 894 | The emperor of Japan is convinced that contact with the T'ang Dynasty in China is undesirable because of growing influence from the Near East and breaks off diplomatic relations, ending three centuries of Chinese influence on Japanese culture. | | c. 900 | Norse (Viking) explorers settle in Iceland. | | Rulers of the powerful Ghanian kingdom of Africa adopt Islam. | | The lowland cities of the Mayan empire, which comprised a total population of about two million people in present-day Guatemala, Honduras, southern Mexico, Belize, and El Salvador, are abandoned in favor of the highland cities of the Yucatan peninsula. | | 902 | The Abbāsid ruler al-Muqtafi begins his rule, during which he will regain control of Egypt and repulse an attack by the Byzantines. | | 907 | The T'ang Dynasty falls in China, ending a golden age of Chinese culture and leading to the break-up of China into separate kingdoms. | | 909 | The famous Benedictine monastery of Cluny is founded. | | The Fātimid, Dynasty is founded when Al-Mahdi–, a member of a family claiming descent from Fatimah, daughter of the Prophet Muhammad, declares himself caliph of Tunis and begins his family's gradual conquest of all of North Africa. | | 910 | Following a period of Berber-Arab invasions that had begun in 711, the Muslim Umayyad Dynasty controls all but the northwest corner of Spain. | | 911 | French King Charles III the Simple (r. 898–922) concludes an arrangement with Rollo the Dane that allows the Vikings to control the area of northern France known as Normandy (Norman meaning "north man"). |
| 936 | Otto I (the Great) becomes king of Germany (r. 936–983) and begins expeditions to Italy during which he intervenes in Italian and papal affairs, leading eventually to unification of Germany and Italy under his rule. | | 939 | Vietnam gains its independence from China. | | 947 | The Khitans of northeastern China proclaim the Liao Dynasty, which rules until 1125. | | 950 | A French bishop named Gotescalc is among the early pilgrims to travel to the town of Santiago de Compostela, which by the twelfth and thirteenth centuries is visited by hundreds of thousands of pilgrims from all parts of Christendom. | | c. 950 | Harold Bluetooth begins his reign as king of Denmark, during which Christianity will be introduced. | | 958 | The maritime city of Genoa, Italy, is refounded after being destroyed by Muslim raids from North Africa in 934–935; it emerges in 1099 as a medieval commune ruled by an association of citizens and six neighborhood consuls. | | 960 | The newly proclaimed Sung Dynasty begins reunifying China and establishing trade in porcelain and steel. | | 961 | Hugh Capet becomes duke of Francia and Aquitaine, with landholdings that make him more powerful than King Lothair I (954–986), allowing him eventually to take the throne as the first king (987–996) in the Capetian Dynasty of France. | | Establishment of German Ottonian rule in northern Italy allows the city of Verona to use its strategic position at the base of Brenner Pass to negotiate for privileges and rights in return for allegiance. | | 962 | German ruler Otto I is crowned emperor of the Romans, establishing the Ottonians as the successors to the Carolingians and reestablishing strong ties between Church and State. |
| 968 | The Fātimids establish themselves in Egypt, founding Cairo, and shifting the center of Islamic culture away from Baghdad. The dynasty lasts until 1171. | | 972 | The Chinese begin printing with movable type. | | 975 | Al-Aziz becomes caliph of the Fātimid Dynasty, during which he will conquer Syria and extend Fātimid influence from the Atlantic Ocean in the west to the Euphrates River in the east. | | 977 | A former Turkish slave in modern-day Afghanistan establishes the Ghaznavid Dynasty, rejecting control by the Muslim Sāmānids and expanding eastward to the border of India. | | c. 980 | By this date, Arabs and Persians have settled the east coast of Africa and begin founding major cities, such as Mogadishu (tenth century) and Mombasa (eleventh century), and establishing trade routes for ivory, gold, and slaves from the interior of Africa to India and the Arabian peninsula. | | c. 986 | Icelanders led by Erik the Red establish settlements in Greenland and make the first known sighting of the North American continent. | | 992 | Subject to the Eastern, rather than the Western, Roman Empire, Venice is granted relief from port taxes by Byzantine emperors, the first of many privileges that will give Venice an advantage over all other traders in the Mediterranean region. | | 997 | Stephen I (St. Stephen) begins his reign as king of Hungary, during which he is instrumental in establishing Latin-rite Christianity as the religion of Hungary. | | 998 | Under the Great Mahmud of Ghazna, son of the dynasty's founder, the Ghaznavids, now extending into northern India, adopt Sunnite Islam. | | 1000 | Christianity is introduced to Iceland. |
| c. 1000 | Seljuk Turks, originally from Central Asia, become Sunnite Muslims and begin westward expansion. | | Persian scientist and court physician Avicenna writes The Canon of Medicine, the best known single book in the history of medicine. | | The Incan civilization begins to develop in the Andean region of South America. | | The West African citystate of Benin, in what is now Nigeria, begins its development into a powerful cultural center renowned for metalwork. | | Navajo and Apache peoples from the far north arrive in the American southwest. | | 1001 | The troops of Mahmud of Ghazna (in present-day Afghanistan) begin incursions into India, spreading Islam. | | 1004 | An expedition of about 130 people from Greenland land on the North American continent and settle in an area they call Vinland, probably on the Gulf of the St. Lawrence River. Three years later, they abandon the settlement. | | 1014 | The Cola Empire of southern India begins expansions that will extend the borders northward and include all of Ceylon and portions of the Malay peninsula. | | 1016 | After a renewal of Viking invasions in England, Danish King Cnut (r. 1016–1035) ascends the throne of England, but misgovernance by his heirs results in a return to Anglo-Saxon rule in 1042. | | 1019 | Yaroslav begins his reign of Kievan Russia, during which the oldest Russian law code, the "Russian Truth," is written. | | 1042 | The Anglo-Saxon Edward the Confessor becomes king of England following a period of Danish rule, but he dies childless in 1066. | | 1046 | Henry III, king of Germany, begins his reign as emperor of the West. The Latin Empire is at its height, extending into Hungary, Poland, and Bohemia. |
| c. 1050 | Pueblo peoples in the American South-west begin building cliff houses and other apartment-like dwellings. | | 1054 | The schism between the Eastern (Orthodox) and Western (Roman) Christian churches is formalized. | | 1055 | Seljuk Turks conquer Baghdad and the Abbāsid caliph recognizes the Seljuk Toghrīl Beg as Sultan. | | 1056 | Henry IV, king of Germany and emperor of the West, begins his reign, during which he struggles with the papacy overlay appointment and investiture of bishops and abbots, resulting in rebellions among those nobles who support the power of the Pope. | | 1061 | The Almoravids, a Berber Dynasty, begin their conquest of Morocco and western Algeria. | | 1066 | William I of Normandy (William the Conqueror) invades England, defeating the Anglo-Saxon King Harold Godwinson (r. 1066) at the Battle of Hastings and establishing the Anglo-Norman dynasty. | | 1071 | At the Battle of Manzikert, the Seljuk Turks seize most of Asia Minor from the Byzantine Empire. | | 1074 | Byzantine Emperor Michael II enlists the aid of the Seljuk Turks against his uncle, who is making a claim to the throne, allowing the Seljuks, in return, to establish themselves in Anatolia (the Asian portion of present-day Turkey). | | 1075 | Responding to the investiture controversy, the Dictatus Papae declares Rome's supreme authority in all religious matters. | | 1076 | The Seljuks take Damascus from the Fātimids. | | The Almoravids extend their influence into the Ghanian empire of Africa, establishing Islam in the area that is now Mali. | | 1081 | Rodrigo Díaz de Vivar, whose exploits won him the title Mio Cid, or "My Lord," is banished for the first time as an outlaw by Alfonso VI, king of León, an event that figures in Spain's great heroic poem, The Poem of the Cid. |
| 1085 | Christians reconquer Toledo from the Muslims in Spain. | | 1086 | The Domesday survey is undertaken in England by King William I (r. 1066–1087), creating surprisingly accurate records of all landed property for tax purposes. | | 1088 | Construction begins on the third abbey church of Cluny (Burgundy), the largest church in Christendom. | | 1089 | The Almoravids begin their conquest of Spain. | | c. 1090 | A small Shiite minority sect in northern Persia organizes into a secret band of political murderers known as the Assassins (a name derived from the word for hashish); they operate out of a fortress in the mountains, sending out missionaries to convert Sunni Muslims and, if that does not work, dispatching terrorist agents to murder key figures and subvert the power of the Seljuks. | | The last Muslim stronghold in Sicily falls to the Normans, who rule Sicily for the next 100 years. | | 1095 | Under threat of invasion by the Seljuks, Byzantine Emperor Alexius I calls on Pope Urban II for assistance. | | 1096 | Responding to Alexius's call, Pope Urban II launches the First Crusade to regain the Holy Land from the Muslims. | | 1098 | The Cistercian Order is founded in an attempt to reform the abuses of medieval monasticism and return to a purer interpretation of the Benedictine Rule. | | 1099 | The Fātimids lose Jerusalem to the Crusaders, who establish Christian kingdoms there and in Edessa, Antioch, and Tripoli. | | c. 1100 | Inuits from North America settle in northern Greenland. |
| Use of the stirrup, horseshoe, and saddle with cantle has become common in France, making heavy cavalry engaging in mounted shock combat the dominant force in medieval European armies. | | 1106 | Henry I of England (r. 1110–1135) gains control of Normandy by defeating his brother, Duke Robert, at Tinchebrai. He is later involved in a struggle with the Church, headed by St. Anselm of Canterbury, over lay investiture. | | 1110 | Seljuks invade the Byzantine portion of Anatolia. | | c. 1113 | The Order of the Hospitallers, which originated as a brotherhood that served poor or sick pilgrims in the city of Jerusalem, is given a charter from Pope Paschal II establishing them as a unique order to be supervised by their own master and answerable only to the pope. | | 1121 | The Seljuks lose southwestern Anatolia to Byzantine forces. | | 1122 | The lay investiture controversy is settled through a compromise at the Concordat of Worms. | | 1123 | The Juchen conquer the Liao Dynasty in northern China and proclaim the Chin Dynasty. | | 1125 | The feud between the Guelphs (supporters of Lothair, Duke of Saxony, of the Welf family) and the Ghibellines (supporters of Frederick of Hohenestaufen, whose family are called the Waiblings) begins after Emperor Henry V dies without a direct heir. | | 1128 | The order of the Knights Templar is established to protect pilgrims and settlers in the Holy Land following the ousting of Muslim rulers by Crusaders. | | 1130 | Fātimid caliph al-Amir is murdered by the Assassins. | | 1135 | The Jewish quarter in Muslim Córdova, Spain, is sacked, causing some Jewish merchants to move from Islamic into Christian areas, where they played a key role in trade in the later Middle Ages. |
| 1138 | The city of Florence is governed as a commune by a consulate made up mainly of knights and a few merchants who serve for one year and preside over an assembly of the people and a grand council. | | c. 1140 | The rebuilding of the Abbey of St-Denis outside of Paris marks the beginning of the Gothic style of architecture. | | 1143 | Alfonso I Henriques begins his rule as the first king of Portugal, which had previously been a province of León. | | 1144 | Muslims recapture Edessa, leading to the Second Crusade. | | 1147 | King Roger II of Sicily forcibly transports Greek and Jewish silk workers from Thebes and Corinth to Palermo in order to improve the quality of fabrics manufactured in his royal workshop. | | 1149 | The Second Crusade ends, and European troops leave having accomplished little. | | 1152 | After her divorce from King Louis VII of France (r. 1137–1180), Eleanor of Aquitaine marries Henry, count of Anjou and Duke of Normandy, who within two years becomes Henry II of England (r. 1154–1189), shifting the immense territories of Aquitaine from France to England. As both queen of France and queen of England, Eleanor acts as an important patron of the arts. | | 1157 | The earliest Italian sumptuary law dealing with clothing is enacted in Genoa, initiating a series of such laws enacted for economic purposes (to enhance trade and reinforce the social hierarchy) but often expressed in moral terms. | | 1160 | The Taira Kiyomori establish control of the entire country of Japan. | | The Hanse, an association of German merchants, begin securing transnational trading concessions that, over the next 300 years, make it the most influential socioeconomic phenomenon in northernEurope, facilitating trade in everything from amber, beer, furs, and timber to linens, wines, and woolens. |
| 1169 | Averroës, an Islamic philosopher in Córdova, Spain, completes the first of his commentaries on Aristotle. | | Saladin becomes commander of Syrian troops in Egypt, orders the assassination of the Faātimid vizier, and is appointed to replace him. | | 1170 | Thomas Becket is assassinated at Canterbury Cathedral in England by four house-hold knights of Henry II (r. 1154–1189) following a clash over royal and ecclesiastical rights. | | 1171 | Saladin abolishes the Shiite Fātimid caliphates in Egypt and proclaims himself the ruler of a new Sunnite state, establishing the Ayyubid Dynasty. | | As many as 10,000 Venetians are residing in Constantinople to assist in business negotiations and carry out trade transactions. | | 1174 | Saladin begins a twelve-year military and diplomatic campaign to unite the Muslim territories of Egypt, Syria, Palestine, and northern Mesopotomia under his rule. | | 1175 | The English monk and scholar Alexander Neckham provides the first European account of sailors using a compass to establish direction on cloudy days. | | 1177 | William II of Sicily (d. 1189) convinces German Emperor Frederick I Barbarossa to end his opposition to a Sicilian monarchy held in fee of the papacy. | | 1180 | Philip II Augustus (1165–1223) becomes king of France and begins an expansion of domains and influence that establishes France as a leading power in Europe. | | Bruno of Cologne founds the Carthusian Order of hermits in the Alps north of Grenoble, combining the communal (cenobitic) lifestyle with solitary (eremitic) practice. |
| 1187 | Saladin captures the Christian kingdom of Jerusalem, leading to the Third Crusade. | | 1189 | Richard I (Lionheart) begins his ten-year reign of England, which will be spent almost entirely abroad, on crusades and in conflict against Philip Augustus of France. | | 1191 | Forces led by Richard Lionheart of England (r. 1189–1199) and Philip II August us of France (r. 1180–1223) conquer Acre, in the kingdom of Jerusalem, and slaughter the inhabitants. | | 1192 | After Christian forces fail to retake Jerusalem, the Third Crusade ends with a three-year truce. Saladin allows the Crusaders to retain a small strip of coastal land and access to Jerusalem. | | 1198 | Pope Innocent III, the last powerful medieval pope, begins a pontificate in which he restores some Italian territories to direct papal control, initiates the Fourth Crusade (1202) and the Albigensian Crusade (1208), and approves the founding of the Franciscan and Dominican orders. | | 1199 | King John of England (c. 1167–1216) begins his reign, which is marked by loss of English possessions to France, a dispute with Pope Innocent III over the election of the archbishop of Canterbury, and the granting of Magna Carta (1215). | | c. 1200 | The major city-state of Great Zimbabwe is founded in southern Africa by the Shona tribe, who dominate trade in gold, slaves, and ivory between inland areas and the Indian Ocean coast. | | Europeans become aware of the Chinese invention of gunpowder, probably by way of the Mongols who have brought it with them. | | By this date, Paris has become the leading center in Europe for the study of the liberal arts and theology, with an academic community that may have included as many as 4,000 people. | | The Ghanian empire is weakened when it is invaded by desert nomads, making it susceptible to attack, in 1203, by Sumanguru, leader of the Susu kingdom of Kaniaga. |
| 1204 | At the end of the Fourth Crusade (begun in 1202), Christian knights capture and brutally sack Constantinople. The Crusaders establish a Latin kingdom that controls Constantinople until 1261. | | Philip Augustus of France quadruples the size of his domain by conquering all English land holdings north of the Loire. | | 1206 | Chinggis (Genghis) Khan, ruler of the Mongols, convenes a national assembly declaring him supreme ruler and begins military campaigns that lead to the conquest of Tibet, parts of northern China, Manchuria, and Korea. | | 1208 | Pope Innocent III (1198–1216) proclaims the Albigensian Crusade against the heretics of southern France, causing a long period of conflict that brings an end to the great cultural flowering of Provence. | | 1209 | The Franciscan Order of Friars is founded in Italy by Francis of Assisi. | | 1212 | A French boy, Stephen of Cloyes, leads the Children's Crusade, as a result of which thousands of children who travel to Marseilles are sold into slavery, while many German children traveling eastward die of hunger and disease. | | 1215 | The Fourth Lateran Council convenes and implements major reforms for secular clergy. | | The Poor Clares, a Franciscan order for women, is formed. | | Magna Carta (The Great Charter) is issued by King John of England, granting privileges to "all the free men of our realm," and establishing precedent for such modern practices as due process of the law and trial by jury. | | Chinggis Khan's army takes Beijing. | | Peter Lombard's Books of the Sentences or Quattuor libri sententiarum (1155–1157)—a comprehensive work arranging the opinions of the Church Fathers, especially Augustine, into a system with a logical order of development—is legislated into the curriculum of all theology students at the University of Paris, where it remains until the sixteenth century. |
| 1216 | The Dominican Order of Friars Preachers is founded by the Castilian canon Dominic of Calaruega. | | 1218 | The Fifth Crusade, the most carefully planned and multinational of all the Christian expeditions to the Holy Land, begins its siege of Damietta in Egypt, but by 1220 has failed due to postponements in the arrival of reinforcements. | | 1220 | Frederick II (1194–1250), king of Sicily and Germany, becomes Holy Roman Emperor and enters a long dispute with the papacy over control of Italy and Rome. | | Mongols under Chinggis Khan conquer Persia and other areas of western Asia, and large numbers of Persians are massacred. | | 1221 | Crusaders fail to conquer Cairo and sign an eight-year truce with the Egyptians. | | 1223 | Chinggis Khan's son Jochi defeats the Russians and claims the Russian steppes for himself and his descendants. | | c. 1230–c. 1250 | The Ebstorf World Map, measuring 12 feet in diameter, is created in Germany. Based on the writings of Gervase of Tilbury, the map depicts a round earth surrounded by ocean, with over 1200 legends identifying geographical features, cities, monasteries, and curiosities, including monsters at the edges of the earth. | | 1231 | Holy Roman Emperor Frederick II issues legislation to rebuild royal authority in Sicily, eventually deporting 20,000 disaffected Muslims. | | 1233 | Pope Gregory IX establishes the Inquisition for the investigation of the Albigensian Heresy, which is undertaken by members of the Dominican order. |
| 1236 | Alexander Nevski begins his reign as prince of Novgorod (he is later also prince of Vladimir), during which he gains fame for great victories over the Swedes (1240) and the Teutonic Knights (1242). | | 1240 | The Islamic empire of Mali establishes its domination of West Africa, which lasts until 1464. | | 1241 | The Mongol army under Ögödei Khan completes the conquest of nearly all Russian cities and princes just before Ögödei's death. | | Louis IX of France (r. 1226–1270) begins building the Sainte-Chapelle in Paris to house a large collection of relics of Christ he purchased from the emperor of Constantinople. | | 1242 | The Mongol threat to Western Europe ends when Batu Khan (nephew of Ögödei) withdraws his troops to Russian territory and establishes the capital of his khanate (the Golden Horde) at Sarai on the lower Volga River, where his descendants continue to rule for the next 250 years. | | 1245 | In response to the recent threat of a Mongol invasion, Innocent IV sends John of Plano Carpini, a first-generation Franciscan friar, on a mission to Karakorum, capital city of the Mongols, a trip of 3,000 miles that was accomplished in only 106 days. On his return, John writes an ethnographic study of the Mongols, Historia Mongalorum. | | 1249 | Oxford University is founded. | | 1250 | Mamluks, members of a class of military slaves, seize control of Egypt and Syria from the Ayyubid Dynasty, establishing a dynasty that lasts until the state is conquered by Ottomans in 1517. | | A Guelf army defeats a Ghibelline army outside of Florence, and the Guelfs establish the regime of the popolo, allowing upwardly mobile, prosperous, non-nobles (mainly merchants and guildsmen) to hold political office. |
| 1252 | Genoa and Florence introduce the first regular gold coinage in the west, with the Florentine florin soon dominating the coinage of northern Italy. | | 1254 | Upon returning in defeat from the Seventh Crusade, Louis IX of France, later canonized as Saint Louis, begins a series of governmental reforms intended to put into practice his notion of the ideal Christian ruler. | | 1258 | Mongol invaders under Hülegü (younger brother of Khublai Khan) take Baghdad, massacre the inhabitants, and kill the last Abbāsid caliph, ending the rule of the Seljuks and establishing Mongol rule in Persia. | | 1260 | Muslim Mamluk Turks defeat a small garrison force of Mongols in Palestine, ending the advance of the Mongols, who now control all of the Middle East except Egypt. | | 1271 | Khublai Khan declares the Yüan Dynasty in China. | | c. 1273 | Thomas Aquinas writes his Summa Theologica, a massive statement of the whole of Christian theology that becomes the basis of medieval clerical education. | | 1275 | Marco Polo, who left Venice in 1271, arrives at the court of Khublai Khan in Mongolia and lives in his domains for the next seventeen years. | | 1279 | Khublai Khan conquers the Sung kingdom in southern China and reunifies all of China under Mongol rule. | | 1281 | In response to the actions of Japanese authorities who executed Khublai Khan's envoys in 1276, a large army of Mongols, Chinese, and Koreans invades Japan. The Mongols withdraw after a typhoon destroys many of their ships and drowns thousands of their warriors. | | 1285 | Philip IV (the Fair) becomes king of France and expands royal power by dominating both the ecclesiastical and the secular affairs of Western Europe. |
| 1289 | Osman I begins his reign as the first Ottoman Turkish sultan. | | 1290 | The Jews are expelled from England by Edward I (r. 1272–1307). | | 1291 | Acre, the last Christian stronghold in the Levant, falls to the Mamluks. | | 1295 | The "Model Parliament" of England, called by Edward I (r. 1272–1307), is the first to represent all classes of society. | | 1300 | By this date, Venice is exporting its own high grade silk fabrics to England and Spain, replacing more expensive imported silks from the East. | | 1302 | The Ottoman Expansion begins. | | Philip IV (the Fair) of France (1268–1314) calls the first of several assemblies of nobles, clergy, and town representatives to solidify support for his ecclesiastical policies, anticipating the "Estates General" that later become part of French government. | | 1306 | Philip IV of France expels the Jews and confiscates their property. | | 1309 | The seat of the papacy moves from Rome to Avignon when Clement V (1305–1314), originally from Bordeaux, acquiesces to the will of Philip IV (the Fair) of France. | | 1317 | Famine strikes Europe, lowering resistance to disease and disrupting social institutions. | | 1325 | Ibn Battuta leaves Tangiers for thirty years of travel in Asia and Africa, providing a major source of information to Western readers. | | Mansa Musa, emperor of Mali, annexes the Songhai kingdom of Gao, and continues his transformation of key African cities into important religious and cultural centers with mosques, libraries, and schools. | | 1326 | War begins in Poland against the Teutonic Knights, continuing until 1333, when the Teutonic Knights are victorious. |
| c. 1330 | The Bubonic Plague, or Black Death, begins killing people in northeastern China and is carried westward by traders, travelers, and nomadic peoples. | | The medieval galley, with the maneuverability of a warship, is widened to provide room for additional rowers and cargo space, and it is soon adopted by Venice and Genoa for shipping their most valuable goods. | | 1335 | The Sultanate of Delhi dominates most of the Indian subcontinent. | | 1336 | The Ashikaga family (Shoguns) takes control of Japan, ushering in an era of constant warfare accompanied by economic growth. | | 1338 | The Hundred Years' War between England and France begins, precipitated by a dispute involving English interests in the Flemish wool trade, though the underlying cause was a disagreement over control of Aquitaine (held by the English) and Normandy (to which the English claimed rights), and Edward III's ongoing assertion of his claim to the French throne. | | 1344 | The Canary Islands, located off the African coast in the Atlantic Ocean and once colonized by the Romans, are granted to Castile (Spain) by papal bull after being rediscovered by a Genoese explorer operating for the Portuguese in 1341. | | 1345 | Ottoman Turks extend their conquest of Byzantine territory into Europe. | | 1346 | Bubonic Plague reaches the Golden Horde, precipitating the disintegration of Mongol rule in Russia. | | Outnumbered English longbowmen defeat mounted French knights at the Battle of Crécy, signaling a shift from chivalric to modern warfare. | | 1349 | Bubonic Plague reaches Austria, Hungary, Switzerland, Germany, and the Low Countries. | | 1350 | Bubonic Plague reaches Scandinavia and the Baltic lands. |
| 1356 | At the Battle of Poitiers, the English, under Edward the Black Prince, defeat the French, whose king, John II, is taken prisoner, not to be ransomed until 1360. | | 1358 | A peasant revolt in France called the Jacquerie, protesting mainly against unfair taxation, is suppressed by the royal army. | | 1360 | The Peace of Brétigny ends the first period of the Hundred Years' War when Edward III of England (r. 1327–1377) renounces his claim to the throne of France in exchange for control of Aquitaine, Poitou, and Calais. | | 1368 | The Mongol Yüan Dynasty in China is overthrown by the Ming Dynasty, contributing to the closing of the trade routes that have provided silk and spices to Western Europe and leaving remaining trade in the hands of Muslim middlemen. | | 1378 | Gian Galeazzo Visconti begins his rule of Milan, during which he will extend his influence over Padua, Verona, and Vicenza, though ultimately failing to control Florence and create a kingdom of northern Italy. | | The Great Schism begins when cardinals opposed to the Italian pope in Rome elect a French pope who rules from Avignon, thus establishing two lines of popes who are supported by various European states according to political affiliations. | | 1380 | Charles VI becomes king of France but, because of his insanity, the country is in an almost constant state of civil war, thus opening the door for Henry V of England (r. 1413–1422) to be named regent in 1420. | | 1381 | The Peasants' Revolt takes place in England when large numbers of peasants, led by Wat Tyler, march on London to protest a poll tax. The young king Richard II (r. 1377–1399) stops the revolt by promising to meet the crowd's demands, but does not keep his word. | | 1382 | The Vulgate Bible is translated into English under the guidance of religious reformer John Wyclif, whose teachings, rejecting transubstantiation and supporting vernacular Bibles, are condemned. |
| 1396 | The Crusade of Nicopolis ends when a European army under Sigismund of Hungary is annihilated by the Ottoman Turks under Bayezid I. | | 1399 | Richard II of England is deposed by his cousin Henry Bolingbroke, who is crowned Henry IV (r. 1399–1413). | | 1401 | Mongols under Timur (Tamerlane) capture Baghdad, slaughter the inhabitants, and destroy the city. | | 1402 | The westward expansion of the Ottoman Turks is halted when the Turks are defeated by invading Mongols under Timur (Tamerlane), who captures Bayezid at the battle of Ankara. | | 1405 | Admiral Zheng He of China begins maritime expeditions that visit Champa (Vietnam), Indonesia, and southern India, and eventually round the tip of India, reaching the Persian Gulf and the eastern coast of Africa. | | 1409 | The Council of Pisa, called to end the Great Schism, elects a new pope, but when the popes in Rome and Avignon refuse to resign, there are three popes. | | 1415 | The Portuguese Expansion begins with the conquest of Morocco and continues with the discovery of the Azores, the circumnavigation of Cape Bojador, and exploration of the western coast of Africa, reaching Gambia by 1446. | | The English win an important battle at Agincourt in the Hundred Years' War. | | 1416 | The Czech reformer Jan Hus, a follower of Wyclif's teachings who preached against clerical corruption, is burned as a heretic. |
| 1417 | The Council of Constance brings to an end the Great Schism (1378) which had created two lines of popes. | | 1420 | The Hussite Wars begin in Bohemia, involving both issues of religious reform (the teachings of Jan Hus) and issues of nationalism. | | 1422 | Henry V of England (r. 1413–1422) dies, leaving his infant son Henry VI (r. 1422–1461 and 1470–1471) and France's Charles VII as claimants to both the English and the French thrones. | | 1429 | Galvanized by the leadership of Joan of Arc at the siege of Orléans and the subsequent coronation of Charles VII (r. 1422–1461), the French begin winning battles, leading to the eventual defeat of the English in the Hundred Years' War in 1453. | | 1431 | Joan of Arc is burned at the stake in Rouen, France. | | 1438 | The Pragmatic Sanction of Bourges, issued by Charles VII of France, asserts the autonomy of the Church in France against the authority of the Pope. | | Albert II (Hapsburg) becomes emperor of Germany, and, from this time on, the imperial title becomes, in practice, hereditary. | | 1453 | The Turks, under Mohammed the Conqueror, breach the walls of Constantinople and capture it, bringing the Byzantine Empire, which has lasted 1,000 years, to an end. | | The expulsion of the English from Aquitaine marks the end of the Hundred Years' War. | | 1455 | The Gutenberg Bible is printed in Germany using movable type, effectively ending the predominance of hand-copied manuscripts and making books accessible to ordinary people. |
Chronology of World Events By Kristen Mossler Figg
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Chronology of World Events from Arts and Humanities Through the Eras. ©2005-2006 Thomson Gale, a part of the Thomson Corporation. All rights reserved.
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