←Back

AD (1) 2nd - 10th century 2nd century This is the world approximately a hundred years after the birth of Jesus Christ. The New Testament relating the words and deeds of Christ was compiled in the early 2nd century. By this time the Roman Empire had reached its zenith, and was trading huge volumes of goods via the Silk Road with the giant to the east, (Later) Han China. A Silk Road of the sea also developed, linking the Mediterranean to the Persian Gulf, across the Arabian Sea, through India and Southeast Asia to China, not only proving a tremendous aid to the flow of goods, but of religion and culture as well. India under the Kushan king Kanishka was home to flourishing Buddhist art influenced by Greek culture, i.e. Gandara art, which later made its way to Japan. In 184, the peasant uprising known as the Yellow Turban Rebellion erupted in China, toppling the Han Dynasty in 220 and ushering in what became known as the Three Kingdoms period. 5th century The huge migration of Germanic peoples beginning in the 4th century was to dramatically alter the political map of Europe. Numerous groups each led by their own king built a series of states that ultimately brought the demise of the Western Roman Empire. China meanwhile remained fragmented, and following the period of the Three Kingdoms, and the Five Dynasties and Sixteen Kingdoms/Eastern Jin, the 5th century ushered in the era of the Northern and Southern Dynasties. 7th century Following this long period of fragmentation, China began to tread the path toward unification again at the end of the 6th century, when the Sui crushed the Chen in the south and united the country for the first time in 300 years. Sui rule was short-lived, but 618 saw the birth of Tang China, and unification that was to last for three centuries. It was also during this period that the Tang monk Xuanzang (also known as Tripitaka) journeyed to India on a quest for Buddhist scriptures, and spent five years studying at the Narlanda Monastery. Meanwhile in the Islamic world, the merchant Muhammad, to whom the teachings of Allah had been revealed, overcame various obstacles to establish the religion of Islam. Following the death of Muhammad, followers of Islam founded the Umayyad Dynasty, destroyed the Sasanian Dynasty of Persia, took territory also from the Eastern Roman Empire (Byzantine Empire), and built a vast domain. 8th century In 750, revolution replaced the Umayyad with the Abbasid Dynasty, which chose as its new capital the present-day capital of Iraq, Baghdad. It was here that Islamic culture began to flower in earnest. The Kingdom of the Franks, which controlled most of Europe, defeated Muslim forces in 732 in the Battle of Tours/Poitier. The Carolingian Charles Martel who had played a prominent role in the war seized power, his grandson Charles becoming the first emperor of the Germans, charged with reviving the Western Roman Empire. 10th century In China the Tang Dynasty fell, ushering in the era of Five Dynasties and Ten Kingdoms. In the Islamic world, the Fatimids, a Shia offshoot of the Abbasids, constructed their capital Cairo in present-day Egypt. This, along with the flight of the later Ummayads to the Iberian Peninsula, pursued by the Abbasids, hastened the disintegration of the Islamic world. Meanwhile in Europe, in 962 the Eastern Frankish king Otto I was crowned, creating the Holy Roman Empire, a feudal state destined to last for 800 years.

←Back