World 1215 CE
China has become the great powerhouse of economic and technological development. Chinese inventions will be key to humanity’s progress in the coming centuries.
Subscribe for more great content – and remove ads
Civilizations
Subscribe for more great content – and remove ads
World history in 1215 - the high medieval world
East Asia
East Asia has seen great economic and technological progress over the past two centuries or so. Chinese inventions such as the compass, gunpowder and printing are of key significance to global history. Song Dynasty China is, by a stretch, the wealthiest and most technologically advanced society on earth. The Koreans are also a dynamic and innovative culture, whilst the Japanese experience centuries of on-off civil war, in which Samurai warriors will come to prominence in Japanese society.
Islamic expansion
Islamic civilization has continued to make great strides, with discoveries in mathematics, physics, astronomy, medicine and other branches of knowledge. This knowledge has been spreading west into Europe, where it will soon bear fruit in extraordinary ways.
As a religion, Islam has continued to expand – down into sub-Saharan Africa, where West African kingdoms are proliferating; into East Africa, where a string of small Muslim states have sprung up along the Indian Ocean coast, and now even to South East Asia. It has also established itself in northern India, where the first great Muslim-ruled sultanate has appeared.
Europe
Europe is recovering from the turmoil of the Dark Ages, with the emergence of the feudal system. This is a political-social system based on the sharing of power between rulers and nobles. It has brought a higher level of order to European society. Population is increasing, as is wealth and trade.
This is the age when many of the great cathedrals of Europe are being built. This testifies to the power of the Church, and this period sees a fierce struggle between the Church and secular rulers. This struggle will lead to different outcomes in different countries, with the rise of strong monarchies in some and the undermining of central royal power in others.
Another manifestation of the power of the Church has been the launching a series of great military campaigns, called “crusades”, against the Muslim world to reclaim the pilgrimage center of Jerusalem and surrounding lands from Islamic control. These have been a woeful failure. However, one result has been a great upswing in Mediterranean trade. This is dominated by north Italian merchants, and the wealth this trade brings will, in following centuries, help bring about the great cultural movement known as the Italian Renaissance, and all that flows from it.
The Byzantine empire, that last remnant of the great Roman empire of old, has fared badly during the crusades; it is now temporarily divided amongst a group of Crusader rulers.
Russia
To the north, the Russians have come into the Christian fold, looking to Constantinople for religious leadership. They are developing a unique culture of their own, drawing largely on Byzantine models.
The Steppes
On the steppes of central Asia, these centuries have seen large-scale movements of peoples westward. A branch of the Turks migrated west and then, converting to Islam, conquered a huge empire in the Middle East. They are known to history as the Seljuqs.
These movements of steppe peoples have therefore contributed to the continued politically fragmentation in the Middle East, and to the rise of Turkish peoples from central Asia as the dominant political group. Most Middle Eastern rulers, however, still owe a vague allegiance to the Caliph in Baghdad.
Some of the Uygurs also migrated west to the Transoxus region, to form the Uzbek kingdoms; and a group of Khitans have founded the powerful Karakhitai khanate.
On the eastern steppes, a power-vacuum in Mongolia has now been filled by the vigorous activities of one of the greatest conquerors in all world history, Genghis Khan.
South Asia, South East Asia, and Oceania
In South Asia, Buddhism has been extinguished as a major faith in the region.
In South East Asia, the Khmer kingdom of Cambodia has reached its height, its power and wealth expressed dramatically in the huge temple mountain of Angkor Wat.
In the Pacific, a small group of Polynesians discover and settle New Zealand about now.
The Americas and Greenland
In North America, the towns of the Mississippi valley have continued to prosper and grow; whilst to the south, the ancestors of the Aztec are establishing themselves in central Mexico.
In South America, the Chimor empire is at the height of its power, but a new people, the Inca, are expanding their realm in the high Andes. Further east, the cultures of the Amazon basin have continued to advance.
One development which is of interest to us today, but which in fact led to no long-term outcomes, was the establishment of small Viking colonies in Greenland. It is also very likely that these Vikings visited the mainland of North America. In any event, these were the first people to bridge the divide between the Eastern and Western Hemispheres. Sometime in the following centuries, however, this far outpost of European civilization was abandoned, and so this first bridge in world history between the Eastern and Western Hemispheres bore no lasting fruit.
Dig Deeper
The Steppe peoples of Central Asia
For details of the different civilizations, click on the relevant timeline above.
More ‘Dig Deeper’ links may be found in the regional maps. To access, click on the markers in the world map.
Premium Units
Subscribe for more great content – and remove ads
Civilizations of the world
3500BCE - 300BCE Ancient Mesopotamia 3000BCE - 300BCE Ancient Egypt Civilization 2700BCE - 550CE Ancient Indian civilization 1766BCE - 1912CE History of China 1700BCE - 200CE The civilization of Ancient China 1300BCE - 550BCE Ancient Israel 1000BCE - 1550CE Pre-Columbian Civilization of Central and South America 800BCE - 50BCE Ancient Greek Civilization 750BCE - 500CE Ancient Rome: civilization and society 500CE - 1450CE Medieval Europe 550CE - 1750CE Medieval India 600CE - 1850CE West African kingdoms 600CE - 1250CE Islamic Caliphate 1200CE - 1450CE The Mongol Empire 1350CE - 1900CE Ottoman Empire 1400CE - 2000CE Western Civilization 1950CE - 2000CE A Global CivilizationSubscribe for more great content – and remove ads
What else is happening in the rest of the world...

Ancient Middle East II: Age of Empire history 950BCE
In the late 13th century BCE, population movements in Europe caused groups to take to the sea and raid the coasts of the eastern Mediterranean. These groups appeared in the records as the “Sea Peoples”. Their impact was devastating. By the end of the century the Hittite empire had been destroyed. Several Indo-European groups such […]
The Classical Age of China history 500BCE
The decline of the Zhou kingdom In northern China, kings of the Zhou dynasty came to power in the 11th century BCE. Their kingdom expanded over an ever-larger area of China. To help them govern their growing realm, the Zhou kings divided it into many districts, each under a powerful local lord. These lords served […]
Greece and Persia history 585BCE
The Middle East In 585 BCE the Assyrian Empire, which had dominated the region for centuries, had been replaced by three large states. These were the Babylonian Empire, ruled by the famous king Nebuchadnezzar; the empire of the Medes, an Indo-European speaking people who had come down from central Asia and settled in Iran; and […]
The Classical Age of India history 500BCE
The Indus Valley civilization vanished over a thousand years before this date. Since then, Aryan tribes have been spreading out across northern India. The Indus Valley civilization This civilization flourished between about 2700 to 1800 BCE (see the Premium Unit Early Civilizations). After that time, it vanished. Modern scholars do not understand the reasons for […]
Lost your way? See a list of all maps
Subscribe for more great content – and remove ads