Middle Ages in the Eastern World

The Sui Dynasty reunifies China

581

he founder of the Sui dynasty was Yang Jian, also known as Wendi or Emperor Wen. He was ethnically Chinese but had married into a non-Chinese military family. In 581 Wendi deposed the child emperor of the Northern Zhou dynasty and secured his position by killing 59 princes of the Zhou royal house. He then sought to legitimate his position by presenting himself as a Buddhist cakravartin king, a monarch who uses force to defend the Buddhist faith.

The Indian Gupta Empire is destroyed by White Huns.

Feb 1, 606

Their rule begins in the 5th cent CE, but they lingered on in the region for a substantial amount of time after their kingdom fell and eventually integrated so well into the Indian culture that their practices and traditions became a full part of it.

The Tang Dynasty rules China

Feb 1, 618

Viewing the Chinese history record, you will find the Tang Dynasty was the most glistening historic period in China's history. Founded in 618 and ending in 907, the state, under the ruling of the Tang Emperors, became the most powerful and prosperous country in the world.

Muslims conquer much of the Middle East

Feb 1, 629

The Muslim conquests brought about the collapse of the Sassanid Empire and a great territorial loss for the Byzantine Empire. The reasons for the Muslim success are hard to reconstruct in hindsight, primarily because only fragmentary sources from the period have survived. Most historians agree that the Sassanid Persian and Byzantine Roman empires were militarily and economically exhausted from decades of fighting one another.

The Khmer Empire is founded in Cambodia.

Feb 1, 802

The beginning of the era of the Khmer Empire is conventionally dated to 802 AD. In this year, King Jayavarman II had himself declared chakravartin ("king of the world", or "king of kings") on Phnom Kulen. The empire ended with the fall of Angkor in the 15th century.

Feudal Lords dominate Japan

Feb 1, 1100

Although Japan and Europe did not have any direct contact with one another during the medieval and early modern periods, they independently developed very similar socio-political systems. Often, these systems are labeled as feudal.

The Mongol Empire reaches its Peak

Feb 1, 1206

The Mongol Empire emerged from the unification of nomadic tribes in the Mongolia homeland under the leadership of Genghis Khan, who was proclaimed ruler of all Mongols in 1206. The empire grew rapidly under his rule and then under his descendants, who sent invasions in every direction.

 The Mongols invade Afghanistan, Persia, Russia, parts of Eastern Europe and China.

Feb 1, 1219

The Mongols were a tribe of nomads from Central/North Asia. They lived on the steppe of that region, relying on a nomadic lifestyle of constant movement as a way of life. They were forever dependent on and attached to their horses, which was their main mode of transportation. Religiously, they were polytheistic animists. They never established a large, organized empire, and instead stayed as a loose coalition of tribes north of China.

The Ming Dynasty is founded in China.

Feb 1, 1368

In 1368, Zhu Yuanzhang officially proclaimed himself emperor in Yingtian and founded the Ming Dynasty. In the same year, the Ming army captured Dadu (currently Beijing), the capital city of Yuan, and rid China of most of the remaining Mongols, ultimately ending Yuan.