1st millennium explained

File:1st millennium montage.png|From top left, clockwise: Depiction of Jesus, the central figure in Christianity; The Colosseum, a landmark of the once-mighty Roman Empire; Kaaba, the Great Mosque of Mecca, the holiest site of Islam; Chess, a new board game, becomes popular around the globe; The Western Roman Empire falls, ushering in the Early Middle Ages; The skeletal remains of a young woman, known as the "ring lady", killed by the eruption of Mount Vesuvius in AD 79; Attila the Hun, leader of the Hunnic Empire, which takes most of Eastern Europe (Background: Reproduction of ancient mural from Teotihuacan, National Museum of Anthropology, Mexico City)|400px|thumbrect 9 6 182 173 Jesus Christrect 192 5 411 169 Roman Empirerect 420 16 560 101 Great Mosque of Meccarect 416 112 561 212 Chessrect 13 189 171 356 Attila the Hunrect 184 177 308 346 Eruption of Mount Vesuvius in 79 ADrect 313 222 559 352 Early Middle Agesrect 1 1 566 394 Teotihuacanrect 1 1 566 394 Pilate's courtThe 1st millennium of the anno Domini or Common Era was a millennium spanning the years 1 to 1000 (1st to 10th centuries; in astronomy: JD  - [1]). The world population rose more slowly than during the preceding millennium, from about 200 million in the year 1 to about 300 million in the year 1000.[2]

In Western Eurasia (Europe and Near East), the first millennium was a time of great transition from Classical Antiquity to the Middle Ages. The 1st century saw the peak of the Roman Empire, followed by its gradual decline during the period of Late Antiquity, the rise of Christianity and the Great Migrations. The second half of the millennium is characterized as the Early Middle Ages in Europe, and marked by the Viking expansion in the west, and the continuation of the Byzantine Empire (Eastern Roman Empire) in the east.

In East Asia, the first millennium was also a time of great cultural advances, notably the spread of Buddhism to East Asia. In China, the Han dynasty is replaced by the Jin dynasty and later the Tang dynasty until the 10th century sees renewed fragmentation in the Five Dynasties and Ten Kingdoms period. In Japan, a sharp increase in population followed when farmers' use of iron tools increased their productivity and crop yields. The Yamato court was established. The North Indian subcontinent was divided among numerous kingdoms throughout the first millennium, until the formation of the Gupta Empire. Islam expanded rapidly from Arabia to western Asia, India, North Africa and the Iberian Peninsula, culminating in the Islamic Golden Age (700–1200).

In Mesoamerica, the first millennium was a period of enormous growth known as the Classic Era (200–900). Teotihuacan grew into a metropolis and its empire dominated Mesoamerica. In South America, pre-Incan, coastal cultures flourished, producing impressive metalwork and some of the finest pottery seen in the ancient world. In North America, the Mississippian culture rose at the end of the millennium in the Mississippi and Ohio river valleys. Numerous cities were built; Cahokia, the largest, was based in present-day Illinois. The construction of Monks Mound at Cahokia was begun in 900–950.

In Sub-Saharan Africa, the Bantu expansion reaches Southern Africa by about the 5th century. The trans-Saharan slave trade spans the Sahara and the Swahili coast by the 9th century.

Civilizations, kingdoms and dynasties

Africa ! style="width:18%;text-align:center;"
Asia / OceaniaEuropePre-Columbian Americas
North Africa
East Africa
Sahara / West Africa
Central / Southern Africa
West Asia
East Asia
Central Asia
South Asia
Southeast Asia
Oceania
Southeastern Europe
Italy
--Exarchate of Ravenna, Catepanate of Italy-->
Iberia
Western / Central Europe
Eastern Europe
Northern Europe
Mesoamerica
South America
North America

Events

The events in this section are organized according to the United Nations geoscheme

 ! style="width:18%;text-align:center;"
AfricaAmericasAsiaEuropeOceania
1st centuryAD 70 Amanikhatashan sends Kushite cavalry to aid Roman Emperor in Jerusalem revolt[4]
AD 100 Rise of the Kingdom of Aksum
AD 100 Khoekhoe reach southern coast of Africa[5]
AD 1 Cahuachi established[6]
AD 50 Pyramid of the Sun began
AD 25 Han dynasty reestablished under Guangwu
AD 33 Christianity begins
AD 70 Jewish diaspora
AD 9 Rhine established as boundary between Rome and Germany[7]
AD 47 Londinium founded
AD 58 Alpes Cottiae becomes a Roman province
AD 79 Pompeii destroyed
AD 1 Caroline Islands colonized[8]
150 Rhapta, hint of pre-Swahili, Periplus of the Erythraean Sea
200 Bantu reach east Africa[9]
200 Nok culture ends
150 Cahuachi becomes dominant ceremonial site in southern Peru184 Yellow Turban Rebellion106 Dacia becomes a Roman province
166 Siege of Aquileia
180 End of the Macromannic Wars
 
212 Egyptians granted Roman citizenship
230 Aksum wars with Himyar and Saba alliance
300 Aksum prints own coins
250 Rise of Laguna de los Cerros
292 Stela 29 inscribed
300 TikĂ l conquers El Mirador
208 Battle of Red Cliffs during the decline of the Han dynasty
280 Jin reunifies China
212 Roman citizenship extended to all free people in the empire
214 Hispania divided into Gallaecia, Tarraconensis, Baetica and Lusitania
286 Diocletian divides the empire East and West
300 Eastern Polynesian culture develops[10]
333 Aksum converts to Christianity
350 Meroe comes to an end
350 King of Anwar, Kaja Maja
378 Teotihuacan conquers Waka, Tikal, and Uaxactun, the beginning of its conquest of the Maya[11] 319 Rise of Gupta Empire in South Asia
383 Battle of Fei River
393 Last Olympic Games
313 Edict of Milan
370 Huns invade Eastern Europe
396 Alaric and the Visigoths invade Greece
 
5th century401 c. camel main transport for trans-Sahara
429 Vandal invasion
500 Nubia split into Nobadia, Makuria, Alodia
 420 Northern and Southern dynasties period begins 407 Vandals enter Iberia[12]
421 Romans defeat Persians
476 Fall of the Western Roman Empire
520 Kaleb attacks Yemen
533 Belisarius invades Africa
540 Nubia converts to monophysite Christianity
538 Buddhism introduced in Japan.
570 Birth of the Islamic prophet Muhammad
507 Battle of Vouillé
535 Byzantine army invades Italy
585 Visigoths conquer Suevi kingdom
 
7th century641 Muslims invade Africa[14]
690 Za dynasty founded
697 Carthage destroyed
650 Settlement of Xochitecatl and Cacaxtla
700 Teotihuacan destroyed
618 Tang dynasty established
632 Rise of Islam
651 Islamic conquest of Persia
c.680 First Bulgarian Empire is founded700 Settlement of the Cook Islands
8th century702 Aksum attacks Arabia
706 Arabic in Egypt
789 Independent Morocco
738 Quiriguá becomes independent of Copan750 Sacred Cenote built at Chichén Itzá
780 Murals at Bonampak abandoned
738 Caliphate campaigns in India and invasion of India by Umayyad Caliphate is averted
755 An Shi Rebellion
717 Siege of Constantinople
718 Muslim conquest of the Iberian Peninsulac.722 Reconquista begins
 
9th century  801 c. Kanem Empire founded
801c. Aksum declines, capital moved to interior
900c. Igbo-Ukwu founded[15]
c.830 Classic Maya collapse835 Ganlu Incident872 Battle of Hafrsfjord helped unified Norway[16]
c.874 Settlement of Iceland
896 Hungarian conquest of the Carpathian Basin
10th century905 Tulunids ejected[17]
909 Fatimid established
969 Fustat captured
950 Great Serpent Mound constructed
990 Toltecs conquer Chichen Itza
907 Political upheaval of the Five Dynasties begins
960 Song dynasty established
958 Denmark unites
985 Erik the Red founds colony in Greenland
AD 1000 Polynesians build stone temples

Inventions, discoveries, introductions

Communication! style="width:18%;text-align:center;"
Math and ScienceAgricultureTransportationWarfare
  1. Woodblock printing
  2. Paper[18]
  3. Quipu[19]
  1. Algebra[20]
  2. Ptolemaic system
  3. Wootz steel[21]
  1. Coffee
  2. Hops
  1. Horseshoe[22]
  2. Stirrup
  3. Magnetic compass
    1. Greek fire Gunpowder<
-- c. 850 -->

Centuries and decades

1st century10s20s40s50s70s90s
2nd century110s120s140s150s170s190s
3rd century210s220s240s250s270s290s
4th century310s320s340s350s370s390s
5th century410s420s440s450s470s490s
6th century510s520s540s550s570s590s
7th century610s620s640s650s670s690s
8th century710s720s740s750s770s790s
9th century810s820s840s850s870s890s
10th century910s920s940s950s970s990s

Notes and References

  1. Web site: Julian Day Number from Date Calculator. keisan.casio.com .
  2. Klein Goldewijk, K., A. Beusen, M. de Vos and G. van Drecht (2011). The HYDE 3.1 spatially explicit database of human induced land use change over the past 12,000 years, Global Ecology and Biogeography20(1): 73-86. (pbl.nl).Goldewijk et al. (2011) estimate 188 million as of the year 1, citing a literature range of 170 million (low) to 300 million (high).Out of the estimated 188 million, 116 million are estimated for Asia (East Asia, South Asia, Southeast Asia, and Central Asia, excluding Western Asia),44 million for Europe and the Near East, 15 million for Africa (including Roman Egypt and Roman North Africa), 12 million for Mesoamerica and South America. North America and Oceania were at or below one million.For 1000, they estimate the world population at 295 million.https://geo.public.data.uu.nl/vault-hyde-data/HYDE%203.1%5B1655214378%5D/original/supplementary.zip
  3. Book: Aldenderfer, Mark . Discoveries in Western Tibet and the Western Himalayas: Essays on History, Literature, Archaeology and Art . Brill . 2007 . 978-90-04-15520-6 . Amy Heller and Giacomella Orofino . Tibetan Studies, Proceedings of the Tenth Seminar of the International Association for Tibetan Studies, Oxford, 2003 . Leiden . 1–22 . Defining Zhang Zhung ethnicity: an archaeological perspective from far western Tibet.
  4. Jr Ph D Grant Bishop Williams(2009). Abraham's Other Sons. AuthorHouse: pp. 50,51.
  5. Book: Ehret, Christopher . The civilizations of Africa: a history to 1800 . 2002 . Univ. Press of Virginia . 978-0-8139-2085-6 . 1. publ . Charlottesville, Va . 177.
  6. Web site: World Timeline of the Americas 200 BC - AD 600 . The British Museum . 2005 . 2009-04-01 . https://web.archive.org/web/20090227042137/http://www.worldtimelines.org.uk/world/americas/200BC-AD600 . 2009-02-27 . dead .
  7. Web site: World Timeline of Europe 200 BC-AD 400 Roman . The British Museum . 2005 . 2009-04-06 . https://web.archive.org/web/20090313034346/http://www.worldtimelines.org.uk/world/europe/200BC-AD400 . 2009-03-13 . dead .
  8. Web site: World Timeline of the Oceania 1500 BC-AD 1 . The British Museum . 2005 . 2009-04-02 . https://web.archive.org/web/20081121015652/http://www.worldtimelines.org.uk/world/oceania/1500BC-AD1 . 2008-11-21 . dead .
  9. Web site: World Timeline of Africa 332 BC-AD 400 . The British Museum . 2005 . 2009-04-02 . https://web.archive.org/web/20090224122826/http://www.worldtimelines.org.uk/world/africa/332BC-AD400 . 2009-02-24 . dead .
  10. Web site: World Timeline of Oceania AD 1-1100 . The British Museum . 2005 . 2009-04-02 . https://web.archive.org/web/20090529171108/http://www.worldtimelines.org.uk/world/oceania/AD1-1100 . 2009-05-29 . dead .
  11. Web site: National Geographic Magazine.
  12. Web site: World Timeline of Europe AD 400-800 Early medieval . The British Museum . 2005 . 2009-04-06 . https://web.archive.org/web/20090227014820/http://worldtimelines.org.uk/world/europe/AD400-800 . 27 February 2009 . dead .
  13. Web site: World Timeline of the Americas AD 600-1000 . The British Museum . 2005 . 2009-04-01 . https://web.archive.org/web/20090227034310/http://www.worldtimelines.org.uk/world/americas/AD600-1000 . 27 February 2009 . dead .
  14. Web site: World Timeline of Africa AD 600-1500. The British Museum. 2005. 2009-04-02. https://web.archive.org/web/20090313185620/http://www.worldtimelines.org.uk/world/africa/AD600-1500. 2009-03-13. dead.
  15. Coquery-Vidrovitch, Catherine. The History of African Cities South of the Sahara. Princeton: Markus Wiener Publishers, 2005, p. 45,
  16. Web site: Joys, Charles . Enander, Henrik . et al . 19 September 2017 . Norway: Earliest Peoples - The Vikings . 10 January 2018 . Encyclopedia Britannica.
  17. Web site: Ṭūlūnid Dynasty Arabic Caliphate, Abbasid Rule, Egypt Britannica . 2025-02-04 . www.britannica.com . en.
  18. Web site: Who Built it First . Ancient Discoveries . A&E Television Networks . 2008 . 2009-04-03 . https://web.archive.org/web/20090429202316/http://www.history.com/minisite.do?content_type=Minisite_Generic&display_order=5&content_type_id=60600&mini_id=52979 . 2009-04-29 . live .
  19. Urton, Gary. (2011). "Tying the Archive in Knots, or: Dying to Get into the Archive in Ancient Peru
  20. Web site: The Compendious Book on Calculation by Completion and Balancing - Wikisource, the free online library . 2025-02-04 . en.wikisource.org . en.
  21. News: Mahathevan . Iravatham . 24 June 2010 . An epigraphic perspective on the antiquity of Tamil . 31 October 2010 . . The Hindu Group.
  22. "Horseshoe." Encyclopædia Britannica. 15th edn. Vol. 20. 2005. 651–51. Print.