Timeline of World History, 300-1500 CE (AD)

When the Mayan, the Aztec, and Incan civilizations flourished, what was occurring
elsewhere in the world?
The Maya 300 1000
The Inca 1438 1532
The Aztecs 1440 - 1521
CENTURY

CIVILIZATION

EVENT

Ancient

Egypt

Zero
30 A.D.
50 AD.

The Roman Empire

Pyramids
Hieroglyphics
365-day calendar
Caesar Augustus was the first Emperor of the Roman Empire.
Jesus was crucified by the Romans.
St. Paul the Apostle organized little Christian churches throughout
the Mediterranean Sea.
the Roman Empire reached its greatest size.
Network of roads - united the empire.
Paper - The Chinese invented paper around 100 A.D.
In 800, the manufacture of paper spreads to the Islamic Empire.
In 1100, as a result of the Crusades, Europeans began to manufacture writing paper

100 A.D.
100

China

When it came to technology, China was always CENTURIES ahead of

Europe.

300 The Americas The Maya

300
600

900
o
o
o
o
o
o
o
o

o
o
o
India

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(Peak: 300 to 900 A.D.) in Central America.

The civilization reached its peak from the 300s to 900 A.D.
the Maya lived in the rainforest of Guatemala.
King Pacal ruled the city of Palenque.
He lived at the same time as Mohammed.
He was buried deep within a pyramid, like ancient pharaohs
of Egypt.
People migrated north to the Yucatan Peninsula.
Many cities: Tikal, Palenque, Bonampak, Chichen Itza on the Yucatan
Peninsula.
Pyramids
Murals - painted the walls.
Astronomy - Earth moves around the sun.
365-day calendar - more accurate than the European calendar of that
time.
Zero - The Maya invented zero.
Maize - Corn was the main food.
Hieroglyphs - the first in the Americas to develop a system of writing.
The hieroglyphs were picture symbols that expressed ideas. Using
tree bark, they made paper and wrote books.
Popol Vuh was the sacred book of the Maya:
It contains ancient myths about the creation of the universe.
The Maya lacked draft animals, the wheel, and iron weapons.
Golden Age of India
(The Gupta Empire: 320 - 500 A.D.)
Hindu-Arabic numerals (1, 2, 3).
Zero - The Hindus invented zero.
Steel - Metallurgists were the first to invent steel.

CENTURY

CIVILIZATION

EVENT

300

The Roman Empire

Roman Empire, 330.

Emperor Constantine made Constantinople the new capital of the

500
600

Japan
Medieval Europe

Christianity (350) became the official religion of the Roman Empire.

Japan adopted the Chinese writing system and religion (Buddhism).
Saint Augustine- In Northern Europe, Christian monks converted
the pagan barbarians to Christianity.
St. Augustine converted England to Christianity.
Muhammad was the founder of the religion of Islam.
Mecca became the center of the Muslim world.
Muslim armies conquer Saudi Arabia.
Imperial China The Golden Age of China (The Tang dynasty: 600 900 A.D.)
The Silk Road financed the Golden Age of China.
China exported silk, porcelain, and tea to the Middle East.
Silk - Invented by the Chinese. Porcelain - Invented by the Chinese.
Confucianism: The official philosophy: Scholar-officials run the government. Civil
service test and merit system: Government officials were chosen by ability, not birth

The Islamic Empire

By 750

The Islamic Empire

Islamic Empire covered the Middle East, Central Asia,

North Africa, and Spain (the only Muslim country in Europe).
Moors invaded Spain. They ruled it for 700 years (711 to 1492).
They tried and failed to take Western Europe.
Muslim armies conquer North Africa. West Africa The Trans-Sahara trade
begins:
Merchants from North Africa carry salt in camel caravans.
They cross the Sahara Desert and travel to the savanna (grasslands) of
West Africa.
This was the first great kingdom of West Africa.
Its wealth was based on the trans-Sahara gold trade.
The black Kingdom of Ghana controls the gold trade.

In 711

700 -1000 A.D. Kingdom of Ghana

Muslim merchants trade their salt for gold.

Muslim merchants spread the religion of Islam to West Africa.
800-1100

The Islamic Empire

The Golden Age of Islam,:

What financed the Golden Age of Islam? Trade along the Silk Road!
The Caliph of Baghdad (described in Arabian Knights) ran the Islamic Empire.
Magnificent cities with great universities. (There were no universities in Europe.)
Muslim scholars: Brilliant in art, literature, astronomy, medicine, math.
Algebra, Astrolabe - geographers used it to determine latitude and longitude.
Muslim Spain became the intellectual center of Europe. A multicultural society
where Jews and Muslims lived together in peace and harmony. Muslim scholars
conducted a massive project: To translate all the classical writings from ancient
Greece and Rome.

Medieval Europe

The rise of feudalism. Feudalism provided political order and local

government.
The Lord-Vassal System: The vassal swore to protect his lord, in return for land.
The Feudal Contract: If the vassal did not fulfill military service, he lost the land.
Land was power: If you owned land, you were a nobleman.
Local: Each lord ruled his estate as if it were a little kingdom

o
o
o
o

The Norman Conquest William the Conqueror invaded England in 1066.

The French duke defeated the Anglo-Saxons and became the King of
England. Being a foreigner, he made nobles swear allegiance directly to
him! The Bayeux Tapestry chronicled the Norman Conquest.
Kings in England and France began building strong central govt.

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CENTURY

CIVILIZATION

EVENT
English legal system King of England, Henry II set up the English legal system:
Common Law - Judges made law. Law was based on past precedent.
Circuit courts - Judges rode from town to town. Replaced the lord ruling his own
manor.

~1175

Trial by jury - replaced trial by combat (French) and trial by ordeal (Anglo-Saxon).
Habeas Corpus - A judge decides whether a man should have been arrested.
An independent judiciary - Judges are on their way to being independent of the King!
1200

1271

1300

1324

1347-1350

1488
1498

The Kingdom of Mali was founded in 1230 by Sundiata.

Sundiata was the great warrior-king.
West Africans had an oral tradition - that is, they were great storytellers.
The griots (oral historians) sang an epic story about Sundiatas life.
He firmly controlled the Trans-Sahara gold and salt trade.
Medieval Europe
The Magna Carta, 1215
The Magna Carta was the beginning of Constitutional Government
King John of England broke every law in the book.
Marco Polo travelled to China in 1271. He travelled 15,000 miles to visit the Middle
East, Central Asia, India, and China.
His book inspired Europeans to trade with China.
He reopened the ancient Silk Road . . . between China and Europe.
Imperial China
Genghis Khan crossed the Great Wall and conquered China.
The Mongols were barbarians on horseback who swept across Asia.
The Mongol Empire stretched from China to Russia.
The Mongols rule China (The Yuan dynasty: 1279 - 1368 A.D.)
West Africa
The Kingdom of Mali reached its peak in the 1300s.
Mansa Musa rules from 1307 to 1337.
He makes Timbuktu his capital city. It becomes a center for trade.
Its wealth was based on the trans-Sahara gold trade.
West African mines were the most important single source of gold for Europe. Gold
from the Kingdom of Mali became the foundation of Europes economy.
Timbuktu became a center of Muslim learning:
Muslims scholars studied government, law, and religion.
Muslim merchants spread the religion of Islam and the Arabic language to
West Africa.
Muslims taught many people how to read and write - in Arabic.
Pilgrimage to Mecca-- Mansa Musa, a practicing Muslim, made a fantastic
pilgrimage to Mecca. His entourage: 60,000 people. Each of the 500 slaves carried a
four-pound bar of gold.
The Islamic Empire
Ibn Battuta made a pilgrimage to Mecca in 1325.
He travelled 75,000 miles to visit all of the Muslim countries:
North Africa, the Middle East, Central Asia, India, China.
In 1353, he visited the Kingdom of Mali.
The Black Death The bubonic plague killed 25% of Europes population. (50% in the
cities.)
China ended all overseas voyages in 1433.
Confucian scholars convinced the Ming emperor to end the voyages.
From then on, it was against the law to make maritime expeditions.
Because of their experience with the Mongols, the Ming looked down on
all foreigners. The Ming became isolationist: They wanted nothing to do
with the outside world.
Prince Henry the Navigator sailed to the Indian Ocean.
Vasco da Gama sailed to India. (Zheng He reached it in 1433.)
West Africa

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King Ferdinand and Queen Isabella 1492 was a busy year for Spain:
1. The Reconquista - conquered the ............Muslims
2. Expulsion of the .......................................Jews
3. The Spanish Inquisition - persecuted ......Christians
People were tortured to extract confessions.
Those who refused to confess were burned at the stake.
Columbus landed in the Americas and claimed it for Spain.

CENTURY CIVILIZATION

1440-1521 The Americas

EVENT

The Aztec civilization (Peak: 1440 - 1521) in Mexico.

In the 1200s, the ancestors of the Aztecs settled in the Valley of
Mexico. Within 200 years, they had conquered all of central Mexico.
Tenochtitlan: The capital was built around 1350. (Today, it is
Mexico City.) It had 100,000 people.
It was as large as any city in Europe.
It was 8,000 feet above sea level.
It was built on an island in Lake Texcoco.
o Canals - Like Venice, canals ran through the city.
o Causeways - Roads connected the island city to the mainland.
o Pyramids
o 365-day calendar
o Hieroglyphs - system of writing. Pictographs: Pictures symbolized
objects.
o Cotton
o Irrigation
o Tacos and tortillas
o Avocado
o Chocolate
o Continuous warfare:

The Aztecs made war on their neighbors.

The conquered peoples were enslaved and used as human
sacrifice.
Montezuma became Emperor in 1502.
Cortes conquered the Aztecs in 1519.
He was able to do so because the conquered peoples of Mexico supported
him.
The Aztecs lacked draft animals, the wheel, and iron weapons.

1438-1532 The Americas

The Inca Empire (Peak: 1438 - 1532) in South America.

As of 1492, it was the largest empire on the face of the earth.
It stretched for 3,000 miles high in the Andes Mountains.
Cusco : The capital was 11,000 feet above sea level.
(Denver, our highest city, is 5,000 feet above sea level.)

The empire was centered in Peru, Ecuador, and Chile

The empire extended 3,000 miles along the west coast of S. America.

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1438-1532 The Americas

The Inca were outstanding engineers who built great public works:
o Network of roads - Like the Romans, they built roads to unite the
empire.
o Suspension bridges
o Aqueducts
o Terrace farming
o Irrigation
o Cotton
o The Potato - a wonderful gift to the world!
o Centralized government
o The Welfare State - No personal freedom, but the government fed
everybody.
o An all-powerful emperor and a highly structured society.
o Laws administered by judges.
o Tightly organized agricultural system.
o Effective communication system- messengers over a road system.
Extremely wealthy in silver and gold.
The Inca lacked draft animals, the wheel, and iron weapons.
No writing system whatsoever, but the Inca counted by 10s. (As we do.)
In 1527, the Inca ruler died. There was a civil war between his two
sons:
Husascar, the older brother was heir to the throne.
Atahualpa, the younger brother, won the war, but weakened the Inca
empire.
Pizarro conquered the Inca in 1532.
He was able to do so because he killed the Inca ruler, Atahualpa.
The Inca empire was highly centralized: It could not run without the emperor.

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