In their wars with the Arabs, the Khazars are driven north of the Black Sea and Caucasus Mountains. They will control the area from the mouth of the Volga River at the Caspian Sea in the East, to the Carpathian Mountains in the West, including the city of Kiev.
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800 Vikings Attack the North
The seafaring Vikings subjugate much of Northern Europe, seeking new territory for their expanding population. These fearsome Northerners bring iron tools to Northern Europe, facilitating plowing, forest clearing, and shipbuilding. The Vikings trade extensively in everything from slaves to booty gathered from monasteries. They also impose a single legal system on conquered peoples from Dublin to Kiev.
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1100 The Medieval Commune
A new form of government is emerging in the towns of medieval Europe. The so-called communes are self-governing towns, with their own legal systems, and the right to collect their own taxes and regulate trade. Citizens of these communes enjoy a higher degree of personal liberty than in the feudal communities that prevail elsewhere in the continent. In England, France and the Low Countries, communes are recognized as free cities in charters granted by the king, or by the local count. In Italy, communes are sworn associations of townsmen who have united to overthrow a feudal lord or a dictatorial bishop. At first, the Italian communes are governed by consuls elected by the town's richer citizens. These communes grow more democratic over the years, but peasants and laborers will be excluded from political participation for centuries to come.
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1100 Cistercian Contributions
The Cistercians, a monastic order, contributes greatly to the development of secular English society as well as religious life. They build their monasteries in secluded areas around which they cultivate the land and raise flocks of sheep. The sheep thrive and soon England becomes the major supplier of good quality wool to the Lowlands and Italy. The wool trade is taxed, providing the backbone revenue of the medieval English economy.
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1115 Commune of Florence
After centuries of domination by Etruscans, Romans, Goths, Byzantine Greeks and Lombards, the city of Florence achieves independence as a free commune. Once independent, Florence develops as a commercial power and attains an unprecedented level of political, cultural, and economic influence. A center of trade and industry, Florence is ruled by an oligarchy of bankers and merchants who come to control the outlying areas of Tuscany.
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1200 Russian Postal Service
Old Roman postal routes are revived in Russia.
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1204 Latin Empire
Venice and the Byzantine Empire have long been trade rivals. Both Venice and Constantinople, the Byzantine capital, are major way stations for Crusaders on their way to Palestine. During the Fourth Crusade, Enrico Dandolo, the blind Doge of Venice, persuades Crusaders to attack Constantinople. On April 13, an invading force of Franks, Venetians and other Italians occupy Constantinople and environs, establishing a Latin Empire of Constantinople. The Byzantine Emperor and his supporters flee to Nicaea. Venice takes control of the Eastern Mediterranean and becomes the center of east-west trade.
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1227 Genghis Khan's Tactics.
Before he dies at the age of 60, Genghis Khan and his raiders have forced their way into Iran, Hungary, through the Caucassus Mountains and into Southern Russia and Crimea. He has claimed the greatest joy was "to cut my enemies to pieces, drive them before me, seize their possessions, witness the tears of those dear to them, and embrace their wives and daughters." He has done just that, on a scale exceeding anything known in modern times. His last orders are to kill a vassal king who had surrendered under amnesty.
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1275 Marco Polo
The Venetian merchant Marco Polo crosses Asia. He reaches Peking (Beijing) and the court of Kublai Khan. Polo opens trade routes with the East which will further enrich his native city.
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1300 Polo Stories
Europeans are attracted by the pepper, spices, and silks that Arab traders import from the Orient. The Venetian merchant Marco Polo publishes an account of his travels to the court of Kublai Khan in China. Although many Europeans do not believe Polo's tales, the work does stimulate European interest in the far east.
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1302 Battle of the Golden Spurs
Robert of Courtrai single-handedly creates a military disaster when he orders his troops to make a cavalry charge across marshy ground surrounded by streams and moats. His professional force of French and patrician Flemish cavalry lose the Battle of the Golden Spurs (aka the Battle of Courtrai) to an untrained and ill-armed militia consisting mostly of craft guild members. The battle gets its name from the spurs supposedly taken from the defeated army. This amazing defeat ends the threat of French annexation of Flanders and makes the weavers' guild a political power in the urban centers.
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1347 Plague Hits Germany
Bubonic Plague, the Black Death, ravages the German states of the Holy Roman Empire, slowing but not stopping the growth of new commercial centers.
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1350 Hanseatic League
In exception to the prevailing trend of disintegration in Germany under the Holy Roman Empire, the major trading cities of northern Germany recover quickly from the ravages of the plague. These commercial centers band together in the Hanseatic League, centered in Lubeck.
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1366 Nijni Novgorod
One of the world's first trade fairs is held at Nijni Novgorod in Russia. Accounts of the great gathering date back to 1366, although the fair may have existed long before that. Famous the world over, it begins when impoverished monks make the well-situated town a site for religious meetings.
Attendance is high, as Nijni Novgorod is situated in Eastern Central Russia, at the intersection of the great Volga and Oka rivers, a favorite stop for Siberian caravans. Monks will continue to collect tolls at the exposition until the fair is taken over by the Russian state in 1751.
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1453 Post-Byzantine World
After the fall of Constantinople, the Ottoman Turks quickly overrun Greece and Albania. They now control all trade between Europe and the Orient and can impose high tariffs on trade ships and caravans. Without the central authority of the Byzantine Emperor, the Eastern Orthodox Church splinters, leaving the Roman Catholic Pope without unified competition for leadership of the world's Christians.
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1472 Orthodox Empire Expands
Ivan III, Tsar of Russia, marries Sophia, niece of the last Byzantine Emperor, cementing relations between the two bastions of the Eastern Orthodox Church.
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1553 Muscovy Company
Veteran explorer Sebastian Cabot is appointed director for life of a British concern called the Muscovy Company. Its aim is to open a new trade route with Russia. The Company funds a number of unsuccessful expeditions to find a Northeast passage from Atlantic to Pacific by sailing north of the Eurasian land mass. Although men and ships are lost in these futile attempts, the Muscovy Company does succeed in opening trade between England and Russia.
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1585 Northwest Passage
Explorers under the auspices of Elizabeth I investigate the coasts of Northern Europe, searching for the Northwest Passage to expedite trade with China and the Far East. In the process, direct trade routes to Russia are discovered. The Russian Tsar grants the English the privilege of conducting trade with the Russians from Persia to the Caspian Sea.
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1587 Russia Expands Into Asia
Russia begins its expansion into Northern and Central Asia. A fortified base is established at Tobolsk.
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1600 Famine and Turmoil in Russia
Famine sweeps Russia, adding to the troubles plaguing the short reign of Boris Godunov, who has been elected to the throne by a national assembly upon the death of Tsar Fyodor I. Fyodor, the son of Ivan IV, was unable to perform his duties himself and Godunov served as Regent for most of Fyodor's reign. Boris himself will die as an insurgent army approaches Moscow, led by the False Dimitri, a pretender who claims to be a lost son of Ivan IV. The real Dimitri died in childhood. A period of chaos called the Time of Troubles follows the death of Boris.
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1604 Russia Spreads East
The Russian Empire expands eastward into Central Asia. A fortified base is established at Tomsk.
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1649 Russians Cross Asia
The Russian Empire continues its drive to the east, almost doubling in size as it crosses Asia, finally reaching the seaport of Okhotsk.
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1661 Russia Fortifies Irkutsk
Russia continues its expansion in Central Asia. Turning southward, the Russians establish a base at Irkutsk. They are approaching the Chinese border.
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1683 Turks Threaten Vienna
A Turkish army invades Austria and threatens the gates of Vienna before it is driven away. Threatened by Muslim invasion from without and restless ethnic minorities within, Austria, like her neighbors Russia and Prussia, becomes a model of ruthless absolutism.
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1689 Peter the Great
Peter I becomes Tsar of Russia. He moves quickly to modernize the army and break the power of the feudal nobility, concentrating power in his own hands. He will travel abroad to study western technology, and try to bring modern industry to Russia
