Sui       

Started from 581 and ended in 618, the Sui Dynasty lasted for only 38 years and had only three emperors. With a tyrannical second emperor - Emperor Yang, the Sui Dynasty was often compared to the Qin Dynasty (221 BC - 206 BC). However, the whole nation was reunified and certain economic and political advances were achieved in the period.

Starting in 960 and ending in 1279, the Song Dynasty consisted of the Northern Song Dynasty (960-1127) and the Southern Song Dynasty (1127-1279). With a prosperous economy and radiant culture, the Song Dynasty was considered as another period of 'golden age' after the glorious Tang Dynasty (618 - 907).

Umayyads       

The Umayyad house was one of the major clans of the Quraysh tribe. Technically, Uthman, the third "Righteous Caliph", was the first Umayyad caliph. During his tenure (644-655), he appointed members of his clan to various posts; in particular, Muawiya b. Abi Sufyan was given the governorship of Syria. Upon the accession of Ali to the caliphate, Muawiya refused to pay him allegience, and in 658 the Syrians acknowledged Muawiya as caliph. That same year he gained control of Egypt; following Ali's death in 661, he subdued Iraq and then formally established himself as caliph.

Sultans            

Sultan (is a title with several historical meanings. Originally, it was an Arabic language abstract noun meaning "strength", "authority", "rulership", and "dictatorship", derived from the masdar, meaning "authority" or "power". Later, it came to be used as the title of certain rulers who claimed almost full sovereignty in practical terms (i.e. the lack of dependence on any higher ruler), without claiming the overall caliphate, or it was used to refer to a powerful governor of a province within the caliphate.

The first to bear the title of sultan was the Ghazni ruler Mahmud Ghaznawi (ruled 998 - 1030 CE). Later, "sultan" became the usual title of rulers of Seljuk and Ottoman Turks and Ayyubid and Mamluk rulers in Egypt. The religious validation of the title was illustrated by the fact that the shadow Caliph in Cairo bestowed the title sultan on Murad I, the third ruler of the emerging Ottoman Empire in 1383; its earlier sovereigns had been beys or emirs, a lower rank in the orders of protocol.

Islam was destined to become a world religion and to create a civilization which stretched from one end of the globe to the other. Already during the early Muslim caliphates, first the Arabs, then the Persians and later the Turks set about to create classical Islamic civilization. Later, in the 13th century, both Africa and India became great centers of Islamic civilization and soon thereafter Muslim kingdoms were established in the Malay-Indonesian world while Chinese Muslims flourished throughout China.

11th-century "Great Schism" between Eastern and Western Christendom. The separation was not sudden. For centuries there had been significant religious, cultural, and political differences between the Eastern and Western churches.

Religiously, they had different views on topics such as the use of images (icons), the nature of the Holy Spirit, and the date on which Easter should be celebrated.

Culturally, the Greek East has always tended to be more philosophical, abstract and mystical in its thinking, whereas the Latin West tends toward a more pragmatic and legal-minded approach. (According to an old saying, "the Greeks built metaphysical systems; the Romans built roads.")

Gunpowder     

Chinese taoist alchemists were the major force behind the early invention of gunpowder. Emperor Wu Di (156-87 B.C.) of the Han dynasty financed research done by the alchemists on the secrets of eternal life. The alchemists experimented with the sulphur and saltpeter heating the substances in order to transform them. The alchemist Wei Boyang wrote the Book of the Kinship of the Three detailing the experiments made by the alchemists.

During the 8th century Tang dynasty, sulphur and saltpeter were first combined with charcoal to create an explosive called huoyao or gunpowder. A substance that did not encourage eternal life, however, gunpowder was used to treat skin diseases and as a fumigant to kill insects before its advantage as a weapon was made clear.

Charlemagne (AD 768-814)

The only empire which has ever united France and Germany (apart from a few years under Napoleon) is the one established in the 8th century by Charlemagne, the grandson of Charles Martel and son of Pepin III.

On the death of his father in 768, Charles - whose name Charlemagne is a version of the LatinCarolus Magnus(Charles the Great) - inherits the western part of the Frankish empire, a coastal strip from southwest France up through the Netherlands into northern Germany. Three years later his brother Carloman dies. Charlemagne annexes Carloman's inheritance - central France and southwest Germany. By the time of his own death, in 814, he rules much of the rest of Germany together with northern Italy.

Charlemagne's campaign in northern Italy, in the first years of his reign, is carried out in alliance with the pope. From his boyhood his family has maintained a strong link with Rome. Charlemagne is twelve when he is annointed by the pope (Stephen II), together with his father and brother, at St Denis in 754 - an event which prompts his father to undertake two Italian campaigns against the Lombards.

Otto of Saxony

Otto I, also known as Otto the Great and Duke Otto II of Saxony, son of Henry the Fowler, was the first Holy Roman Emperor since Charlemagne. He consolidated the German Reich and made significant advances for secular influence in papal politics. His reign is generally considered to be the true beginning of the Holy Roman Empire.

Over the course of his reign, Otto defeated revolts by his half-brother, his younger brother and his son, and expanded the boundaries of his empire through constant war. He maneuvered Pope John XII into crowning him Emperor and later deposed him and set Pope Leo VIII in his place. He signed the treaty known as the Privilegium Ottonianum, probably once Leo was pope, which enabled the emperor to ratify papal elections. Though warfare was frequent, Germany was stable under Otto's rule and a small cultural renaissance flourished.

From the second century BC to the end of the fourteenth century AD, a great trade route originated from Chang'an (now Xian) in the east and ended at the Mediterranean in the west, linking China with the Roman Empire. Because silk was the major trade product which traveled on this road, it was named the Silk Road in 1877 by Ferdinand von Richthofen – a well-known German geographer. This ancient route not only circulated goods, but also exchanged the splendid cultures of China, India, Persia, Arabia, Greek and Rome.

Silk Road in Different Dynasties 

Silk Road in Western Han Dynasty (206 BC–24 AD) 
From 139 BC to 129 BC, Zhang Qian set out on his journey to the Western Regions twice, pioneering the world-famous Silk Road. Several successful wars against the Huns were commanded by Wei Qing and Huo Qubing (famous generals in Han Dynasty), which removed obstacles along this trade road. In 60 BC, Han Dynasty established the Protectorate of the Western Regions in Wulei (near now Luntai) to supervise this northwest area, which greatly protected the trade along this time-honored route.

Silk Road in Eastern Han Dynasty (25–220) 
Ban Chao and Ban Yong conducted several expeditions to the Western Regions to suppress rebellions and re-established the Protectorate of the Western Regions, ensuring peace and trade along this important Silk Road.

Silk Road in Tang Dynasty (618–907) 
With the establishment of the Tang Dynasty and great prosperity during this time, the Silk Road rose to its most flourishing period in history. Before the Anshi Rebellion (755–762) in the Tang Dynasty, this world-famous road experienced its "Golden Age" of development.

Justinian I (Flavius Anicius Justinianus), the nephew of Justin I, was born at Tauresium in Illyria, the son of a Slavonic peasant, and was originally called Sabbatius. Educated at Constantinople, in 521 Justinian was named consul and in 527 was proclaimed by Justin his colleague in the empire. Justin died the same year and Justinian, who was then proclaimed sole emperor, was crowned along with his wife, Theodora.

Justinian had the good sense to select the most able generals and under Narses and Belisarius his reign can be said to have restored the Roman Empire to its ancient limits, and to have reunited East and West. His first war (with Persia) ended with a treaty favorable to Justinian. But in 532 came the Nika Riots, an outburst of political turmoil that went as far as to elect a rival emperor. Justinian considered fleeing Constantinople but thanks to Narses, Belisarius and Theodora, the riots were contained (35,000 rioters were killed in one day). Through Belisarius, the Vandal kingdom of Africa as reannexed to the empire and Belisarius and Narses restored the imperial authority in Rome, Northern Italy and Spain.

Incas    

Tenochtitlan was founded in 1325 in the middle of the lake of Texcoco, were the ancient aztec people were indicated by their god Huitzilopochtli, the signal: An eagle eating a snake standing in a nopalli (a kind of cactus).

This was an small barren island, there the primitive aztecs started to build their new city. Because the island was small, they started to built new land, in that time they have invented the chinampas, the main infrastructure that nowdays it contiues being.

Prehispanic

The city was one of the biggest cities in the world (by its time) with more than 500,000 inh. All the city had the canal-based system that the modern city still has in its old district.

Machu Picchu             

The Incas started building the "estate" around AD 1400, but abandoned it as an official site for the Inca rulers a century later at the time of the Spanish Conquest

Machu Picchu was built around 1450, at the height of the Inca Empire. It was abandoned just over 100 years later, in 1572, as a belated result of the Spanish Conquest. It is possible that most of its inhabitants died from smallpox introduced by travelers before the Spanish conquistadors arrived in the area. The latter had notes of a place called Piccho, although there is no record of the Spanish having visited the remote city. The types of sacred rocks defaced by the conquistadors in other locations are untouched at Machu Picchu.

Mali     

Swahili is one of the Bantu languages (of which there are many including Zulu, Xhosa and Shona). It is spoken widely throughout East Africa (Kenya, Tanzania and Uganda) as a first language, and by many more as a second language.

It emerged sometime in early in the first century AD in its present location having spread from the Great Lakes. Its early speakers were involved in the coastal trade and the language began to spread and evolve into its current form.

Kilwa 

Kilwa Kisiwani was once the most famous trading post in East Africa.  In 9th century  the  Swahili wealth owner of the island sold it to a trader called Ali bin Al-Hasan, the founder of Shiraz Dynasty.  From 11th Century to early 15th Ali bin Al-Hasan managed to create a powerful city (Kilwa Kisiwani) and as major trading center along east African coast. He built a great mosque, established close trading links to interior of southern Africa as far as Nyasaland and Zimbabwe.

Visigoths         

The Visigoths established a kingdom for themselves within the collapsing Roman Empire in 418 AD. They took over most of south-western France (Aquitaine), a very fertile area which had been thickly settled by the Romans. The Visigoths at first acted more or less as representatives of the Roman government, keeping order for Rome in Aquitaine, but as time went on and Rome got weaker, the Visigoths began to act more on their own account. When the Vandals left Spain for Africa in 429 AD, the Visigoths began to take over Spain as well. They were better administrators than the Vandals had been.  

Franks             

The Franks were a group of Germanic tribes that, about the middle of the 3rd century AD, dwelt along the middle and lower Rhine River. The Franks appeared in the Roman provinces around 253 and soon thereafter established themselves in two principal groups, the Salian and the Ripuarian. The Salian Franks inhabited the territory along the lower stretches of the Rhine, and the Ripuarian Franks lived along the middle course of the river. The Salians were conquered by the Roman emperor Julian in 358 and became allies of Rome. During the early 5th century, when the Romans retired from the Rhine, the Salians established themselves in most of the territory north of the Loire River.

Hanseatic League

The Hanseatic League (also known as the Hanse or Hansa; Low German: Hanse, Dudesche Hanse, Latin: Hansa, Hansa Teutonica or Liga Hanseatica) was an economic alliance of tradingcities and their merchant guilds that dominated trade along the coast of Northern Europe. It stretched from the Baltic to the North Sea and inland during the Late Middle Ages and early modern period (c. 13th–17th centuries).

In 793 the monks on the island of Lindisfarne, off the northeast coast of England, are unpleasantly surprised by the arrival of violent raiders from the sea. Their misfortune is the first clearly dated event in the saga of the Vikings - the last and most dramatic exodus in the long story of migration from Scandinavia, the original home of the Goths and Vandals.

The name Viking is thought to derive fromvikingr, a word for 'pirate' in the early Scandinavian languages. It accurately describes the Norsemen who for two centuries raid the coasts of Britain and of northwest France. But in many places the Scandinavians also settle - in the islands of the north Atlantic, in the British Isles, in Normandy, in Sicily and in the very heart of Russia.

Tang

In 750 AD, the Umayyad caliphs were replaced by the Abbasid caliphs, who murdered all of the surviving Umayyad men but one. The Abbasids were less interested in the Mediterranean coast than the Umayyads had been, and the Abbasids therefore tended to concentrate more on the plains of Iraq and Iran, and less on the coast: Israel, Syria, and Lebanon, and Egypt.

The one surviving Umayyad man fled from Damascus around the Mediterranean to Spain, where he founded the Umayyad Caliphate of Spain, and he and his successors ruled Spain for many years. 

The Abbasids ruled all of West Asia and North Africa from 750 AD until about 1000, when they began to weaken.

Caliphs

Abu Bakr served as caliph from 632 until his death in 634. His first major accomplishment was to deal with the problem of the Bedouins (nomadic Arabs). Although some had converted under Muhammad, after his death they rejected Islam and refused to obey Abu Bakr. In 633, the caliph defeated the Bedouin revolt, known as the Ridda, and thereby secured the entire Arabian peninsula for Islam. The experience served to convince Abu Bakr that Islam needed to expand beyond Arabia in order to be secure. He set his sights on the two neighboring empires he viewed as threats to Islam: the Sassanid Empire to the east in Persia and Iraq, and the Byzantine Empire to the west in Europe, Syria, Egypt, and the Mediterranean Sea. He declared a jihad against the Byzantine Christians, but died before he was able to carry it out.

The second caliph was Umar, another father-in-law of Muhammad, who had been named by Bakr as his successor. His caliphate lasted from 634 to 644. One of his first contributions was to add "Commander of the Faithful" to his title, which was used by all subsequent caliphs. His primary contribution, though, was a series of military victories resulting in the rapid expansion of Islam. He conquered Damascus in 635 and Jerusalem in 637, both from Syria in the Byzantine Empire. Realizing the importance of loyalty in his new subjects, Umar instituted a policy of religious tolerance in his new lands. This was received gratefully by Jews and Christians, who had been persecuted under the Byzantines. He instituted two taxes, the kharaj for landowners with productive fields and thejizya, which non-Muslims paid in return for the privilege of practicing their religion.

Muhammad

Muhammad was the founder of the religion of Islam, and is considered by Muslims to be a messenger and prophet of God, the last law-bearer in a series of Islamic prophets, and, by most Muslims, the last prophet of God as taught by the Quran.Muslims thus consider him the restorer of an uncorrupted original monotheistic faith (islām) of Adam, Noah, Abraham, Moses, Jesus and other prophets 

Roman Catholicism

At this time Saul, originally one of the strongest persecutors of the early Jewish Christians, had a blinding vision of Jesus Christ on the road to Damascus, and became a Christian. Adopting the name Paul, he became the greatest evangelist of the early Christian church. Paul's ministry, also called Pauline Christianity, was directed mainly to Gentiles rather than Jews. In subtle ways, the early church was already becoming divided.

The Roman Empire legally recognized Pauline Christianity as a valid religion in 313 AD. Later in that century, in 380 AD, Roman Catholicism became the official religion of the Roman Empire. During the following 1000 years, Catholics were the only people recognized as Christians.

In 1054 AD, a formal split occurred between the Roman Catholic and Eastern Orthodox churches. This division remains in effect today.

Grand Canal (Sui Dynasty)

Grand Canal is built in the Sui Dynasty artificial river water, south from Hangzhou,

North arrived in Beijing, with communication Qiantang River, the Yangtze River, Huaihe River, Yellow River, Haihe River five Large river systems, the world's longest canal.

Printing

The earliest dated printed book known is the "Diamond Sutra", printed in China in 868 CE. However, it is suspected that book printing may have occurred long before this date.

Before Gutenberg, printing was limited in the number of editions made and nearly exclusively decorative, used for pictures and designs. The material to be printed was carved into wood, stone, and metal, rolled with ink or paint and transferred by pressure to parchment or vellum. Books were hand copied mostly by members of religious orders.

Johannes Gutenberg

Johannes Gutenberg was a German craftsman and inventor. Gutenberg is best known for the Gutenberg press, an innovative printing press machine that used movable type. It remained the standard until the 20th century. Gutenberg made printing cheap.

Paper Money

The banknote was first developed in China during the Tang and Song dynasties, starting in the 7th century. Its roots were in merchant receipts of deposit during the Tang Dynasty (618–907), as merchants and wholesalers desired to avoid the heavy bulk of copper coinage in large commercial transactions During the Yuan Dynasty, banknotes were adopted by the Mongol Empire. In Europe, the concept of banknotes was first introduced during the 14th century, with proper banknotes appearing in the 17th century.

Crusades

In 1095 an assembly of churchmen called by Pope Urban II met at Clermont, France. Messengers from the Byzantine Emperor Alexius Comnenus had urged the pope to send help against the armies of Muslim Turks. On November 27 the pope addressed the assembly and asked the warriors of Europe to liberate the Holy Land from the Muslims. The response of the assembly was overwhelmingly favorable. Thus was launched the first and most successful of at least eight crusades against the Muslim caliphates of the Near East.

The word "crusade" literally means "going to the Cross." Hence the idea at the time was to urge Christian warriors to go to Palestine and free Jerusalem and other holy places from Muslim domination. The first crusade was a grand success for the Christian armies; Jerusalem and other cities fell to the knights.

The second crusade, however, ended in humiliation in 1148, when the armies of France and Germany failed to take Damascus. The third ended in 1192 in a compromise between English king Richard the Lion-Hearted of England and the Muslim leader Saladin, who granted access to Christians to the holy places. The fourth crusade led to the sacking of Constantinople, where a Latin Kingdom of Byzantium was set up in 1204 and lasted for about 60 years.

The Children's Crusade of 1212 ended with thousands of children being sold into slavery, lost, or killed. Other less disastrous but equally futile crusades occurred until nearly the end of the 13th century. The last Latin outpost in the Muslim world fell in 1291.

Bubonic Plague

Bubonic plague was one of the most feared diseases of the ancient and medieval worlds. 

Nobody could tell what caused it, and most people who got it died within a few days, screaming in pain. And when one or two people in a village got it, usually it spread to everyone else, and many of them died.

 
Plague caused a fever, and black spots on your chest sometimes, and sometimes great big black swellings on your armpits and at the top of your legs. That's why they called it the Black Death. These swellings got hard like rocks and hurt, and then in a day or two people usually died. There was no effective treatment, though of course people tried all kinds of things, from magic to surgery. Sometimes people did get better on their own, if they had good nursing care and were very healthy to begin with.

Mexica

The Aztecs were a Pre-Columbian Mesoamerican people of central Mexico in the 14th, 15th and 16th centuries. They called themselves Mexica. The Republic of Mexico and its capital, Mexico City, derive their names from the word "Mexica".

Sundiata

Sundiata was the son of Nare Fa Maghan, king of the Mandingo, and Sogolon Conde. The union of Maghan and Sogolon was based on the prophecy that Sogolon would give Maghan a son who would be Mali's greatest king. 

Sassouma, Maghan's first wife, viewed Sundiata as a threat to her son Dankaran Touman's accession to the throne. She was relieved when Sogolon's son turned out to be sickly and lazy. He walked on all fours and was always eating. 

When Maghan died, Sassouma engineered her son's succession to the throne. Legend has it that Sundiata stood upright, with a herculean effort and the help of an iron rod, bending the rod in the process. Sogolon, sensing that Sundiata was now a real threat to Sassouma and Touman, went into exile with her son. 

During this exile, Sundiata travelled through the kingdoms of the savannah and blossomed into a mighty warrior. Meanwhile, Mali was conquered by the Sosso king, Sumaguru. 

Sundiata moved toward Mali, amassing an army of recruits from the kingdoms he visited during his exile. Finally, he defeated Sumaguru at Kirina. 

Kongo

The Kingdom of Kongo. This is not the present Democratic Republic of Congo but not the Republique de Congo (Brazzaville-Congo) either. These modern states are products of colonizing powers in the XIXth century. The dynasty of the Kingdom of Congo goes back to more than 500 years, and its traditional territory is the Atlantic coast and moderate interior of the present Democratic Republic of Congo & Northern Angola.

The Kongo Kingdom is a regular Kingdom for more than half a millennium. The new rulers are not necessarily the oldest son; he is elected by a Royal Council, from amongst the descendants of the Kimpanzu or the Kimulazu clans; an infante. The capital city is Mbanza Kongo.

Names in italics mean that we definitely know that the person did not originate from one of the two "canonical" clans. Data in italics indicate parallel rules, so probably pretenders. The numbers denote the place in the sequence of Manikongos, "rulers of Kongo".

The Kingdom of Kongo was composed of 6 provinces: Mpemba, Mbata, Nsundi, Mpangu, Mbemba and Soyo, plus 4 vassal Kingdoms: Loango, Cacongo and Ngoye, at the North of the N'Zari river, and Ndongo, at the South of the Congo river.

Mogadishu

Mogadishu is the largest city in Somalia and the nation's capital.

Located in the coastal Benadir region on the Indian Ocean, the city has served as an important port for centuries.

The name "Mogadishu" is held to be derived from the Arabic  Maq'ad Shah ("The seat of the Shah"), a reflection of the city's early Persian influence.

For many years, Mogadishu stood as the pre-eminent city in the  Bilad al Barbar ("Land of the Berbers"), which was the medieval Arabic term for the Horn of Africa.Following his visit to the city, the twelfth century Syrian historian Yaqut al-Hamawi wrote that it was inhabited by dark-skinned Berbers, the ancestors of the modern Somalis.

The Ostrogoths, like the Visigoths, were originally Indo-European. We first hear of them when they are living in Poland around 100 BC. Soon after that, some of them, along with their relatives the Visigoths, seem to have decided to migrate to the south, very gradually and slowly. Probably bad weather at home made it impossible to feed everyone, and so some people left looking for food. They slowly moved south through Slovakia, and settled along the north side of the Black Sea, to the east of the Visigoths.

The Ostrogoths took up farming and trading with the Romans and the Parthians, and lived there more or less peacefully for several hundred years, until in the 300s AD they began to be pushed southward and westward by new invaders, the Huns.

Equal Field System

The Tang Dynasty inherited the equal field system (juntianfa 均田法) that had been introduced by the Northern Wei Dynasty 北魏 (386-534) in the 5th century. Every male adult person (dingnan 丁男) was bestowed 80 "acres" (mu 亩 or 畝) state fields (koufentian 口分田; to be rendered back to the state after death) and 20 mu personal, inheritable fields (yongyetian 永業田). Old and sick people obtained 40 mu, widows 30 mu state fields, and as owner additionaly 20 mu inheritable fields. Buddhist priests or monks obtained 20mu state fields, craftsmen and merchants 10 mu each. Additionally, for each three persons and five slaves in a household one mu of orchard (yuanzhai 園宅) was given. The amount of lended field increased substantially depending on the rank of an official-aristocrat. An imperial prince for example obtained 100 "hectares" (qing 頃) of inheritable fields, down to officials of ninth grade who only obtained 2.5 qing. State fields were not allowed to be sold, and inheritable fields only after the death of the owner, and the amount of acquired fields was restricted. Substantial changes to the older equal fields systems of Northern Wei was the allotment of fields to slaves, but not to women. The importance of monasteries in the economical sphere can be seen from the allotment of fields to monks and nuns. 

Holy Roman Empire

In 799, for the third time in half a century, a pope is in need of help from the Frankish king. After being physically attacked by his enemies in the streets of Rome (their stated intention is to blind him and cut out his tongue, to make him incapable of office), Leo III makes his way through the Alps to visit Charlemagne at Paderborn. 

It is not known what is agreed, but Charlemagne travels to Rome in 800 to support the pope. In a ceremony in St Peter's, on Christmas Day, Leo is due to anoint Charlemagne's son as his heir. But unexpectedly (it is maintained), as Charlemagne rises from prayer, the pope places a crown on his head and acclaims him emperor. 
 

Charlemagne expresses displeasure but accepts the honor. The displeasure is probably diplomatic, for the legal emperor is undoubtedly the one in Constantinople. Nevertheless this public alliance between the pope and the ruler of a confederation of Germanic tribes now reflects the reality of political power in the west. And it launches the concept of the new Holy Roman Empire which will play an important role throughout the Middle Ages. 

The Holy Roman Empire only becomes formally established in the next century. But it is implicit in the title adopted by Charlemagne in 800: 'Charles, most serene Augustus, crowned by God, great and pacific emperor, governing the Roman empire.'

Mongols

The high plateau of Mongolia, east of the Altai mountains, is rivaled only by Scandinavia as a region from which successive waves of tribesmen have emerged to prey upon more sedentary neighbors. Mongolia is the original homeland of both Turks and Mongols, two groups much intermingled in history and loosely related in their languages.

Mongolia is an ideal starting point for the movement of nomadic tribes in search of new pastures, and for sudden excursions of a more predatory nature. It lies at the extreme end of an unbroken range of open grasslands, the steppes, which reach all the way to Europe. Horsemen can move fast along the steppes. South of this nomadic highway live rich settled communities.

Vandals