Collapse of the Western Roman Empire (476) In 476 AD, a Germanic barbarian by the name of Odoacer took control of Rome. He became king of Italy and forced the last emperor of Rome, Romulus Augustulus, to give up his crown. With the fall of Rome, many changes occurred throughout Europe. Rome had provided a strong government, education, and culture. Reasons of the fall: -The politicians and rulers of Rome became more and more corrupt -Infighting and civil wars within the Empire -Attacks from barbarian tribes outside of the empire such as the Visigoths, Huns, Franks, and Vandals. -The Roman army was no longer a dominant force -The empire became so large it was difficult to govern
Beginning of the sui dynasty (581) In 581 AD, a general named Wen Ti succeeded in conquering the other two kingdoms and establishing a new dynasty in China, with emperors who ruled all of China like the Chin and the Han. This was the Sui Dynasty. Wen Ti made himself popular by trying to make the government better than it was during the Three Kingdoms. Wen Ti ordered that poor people in the countryside should pay less tax than they had before. He also decided to go back to the Han Dynasty way of picking his government officials, through examinations to find the smartest educated men.
Beginning of the tang dynasty (618) Yang Ti, the last ruler of the Sui Dynasty, was killed in 618 AD by his generals, who blamed him for the disastrous defeat of the Chinese army.. One of the generals at the time Li Shih-min took over ruling the empire and putting his father Li Yuan on the throne as emperor. When his father retire he took over being the emperor himself with the name of Tai Tsung. Under his rule, trade and cities began to become more important to China. The hijira (622) The hegira was the immigration of Muhammad to Medina from Mecca in 622. Muhammad heard the word of God while on a retreat in the hills outside Mecca. The angel Gabriel appeared to Muhammad and told him that he was God's chosen messenger. At first, Muhammad was ignored. But as his followers and respect grew, the leaders in Mecca tried to discourage Muhammad from preaching and led Muhammad to flee Mecca. People living in the city of Yathrib, invited Muhammad to live with them. The name of the city of Yathrib was changed to Medina the city of the prophet.
Reign of Charlemagne (800-814)
Treaty of Verdun (843) The Treaty of Verdun happened after Charlemagne and divided his empire into three parts. When Charlemagne's grandson Louis the Pious died, his oldest son Lothair said that he ruled his younger brothers and their lands. But his brothers Louis the German and Charles the Bald won the bottle of fontenay. Each of the brothers already had one kingdom. Lothair in Italy, Louis the Germann in Bavaria, and Charles the Bold in Aquitaine.
Beginning of the song (960) The Song dynasty followed the Five Dynasties and Ten Kingdoms period. It is famous for its many inventions and advances, but eventually collapsed and was conquered by the Mongol barbarians to the north. The history of the Song dynasty is usually divided up between the Northern Song and the Southern Song. Council of Clermont (1095) The Council of Clermont was a mixed assembly of ecclesiastics and laymen of the Catholic Church, which was held from November 18 to November 28 in 1095 at Clermont, France. Pope Urban II's speech on November 27 was the starting point of the First Crusade.
Collapse of abbasid dynasty (1258) The Abbasids dynasty suffered from personal loyalty to the Ruler. Local, religious and ethnic divisions constantly pulled their empire apart. Syrians, Iraqis, Persians, Khazars, Turks, Egyptians all had local loyalties and disliked their rule. Although originally Shia the Abbasids eventually became Sunni and that separated the Shia in Iraq and Persia. Arabs, Turks, Persians, Kurds etc had ethnic loyalties and by gradually assimilating in Iraq they dynasty lost their original Arab base. Still they suffered from constant problem of all ancient dynasties. Their best generals tried to create their own kingdoms, brothers fought over the succession and eventually the Caliph became a puppet ruler of his army, until the Mongol / Tartar invasion and destruction of Baghdad brought it all to an end.
Begging of the yuan dynasty (1271) In 1271 Kublai declared the start of the Yuan Dynasty of China, crowning himself as the first Yuan emperor. It still took five more years to completely conquer the Song Dynasty of the south, but by 1276 Kublai had united all of China under one rule. In order to run the large empire, Kublai combined many aspects of Mongol and Chinese administration. He also incorporated Chinese leaders into the government. The Mongols were good at fighting wars, but he knew they could learn a lot about running a large government from the Chinese. Black plague (1347-1750)/100years war (1337-1453) The Black plague was a terrible disease that spread throughout Europe. There was no cure for the disease and it was highly contagious. The disease was carried by fleas that lived on rats. Many people thought that the Black plague was punishment from God.
The Hundred Years War was fought between England and France and lasted from 1337 to 1453. The war was a series of battles with long periods of peace in between. Machiavelli writes the prince (1532) Machiavelli was working for the government in the city-state of Florence. Florence was smack in the middle of the Renaissance, which meant that everybody in Florence was thinking and talking about how cool ancient Rome was. After the Medicis tortured him and pushed him out of power. Machiavelli wrote a book called "The Prince." He proposed that governments, in order for their citizens to do well, sometimes should do things that would be wrong for individual people to do. Governments may have to kill people, or torture people, or take people's money, or lie to people. Machiavelli suggested that these bad things might really be good if they helped save a lot of people's lives by stopping a war or a rebellion.