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The first evidence of humans dates back to 2.5 million B.C.E.; early humans were tool users, as depicted in the Yuca fire story, Nomadic hunters, and gathers illustrated in the Lascaux cave painting. Germ of civilization (cooperation, domestication, use of tools)

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Early humans change from an age of only hunting and gathering to a sedentary lifestyle, new tools are created to help aid in farming, food famines arise, animals are domesticated for help in farms, some humans still hunt and gather 

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Egypt develops along the Nile River and also reaps the benefits of isolation. However, Egypt's location also provides inundation which brings farmland after floods. Egyptians accomplish many feats, the most important being the pyramids of Giza and the Rosetta stone. Rosetta stone depicted the developed writing systems in Egypt as it was written in three different languages.

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Many new civilizations arise in river valleys and reap the benefits of isolation and an indefinite water source. Safety from invaders and isolation allows they to further develop aspects of their society other than just militaristic things. 

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Rome develops in two main 500 year periods, 509 BC-27 AD as a republic and 27-476 AD. During its time as a republic, the Roman Empire developed new law systems, such as the twelve tables, and expanded rapidly, which would be a key fact to consider when entering its time as an empire, as an empire. The Roman Empire was extremely large; one of the rulers split the empire into 2 Diocletian. Most importantly, Constantinople turned the entire empire Christian with the edict of Milan. The empire experienced corrupt rulers, inflation, and invasions of Germanic tribes that all led to the fall and transition into the Byzantine Empire. 

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From 750-500 B.C., Greek city-states like Athens and Sparta changed from monarchies to aristocracies and eventually to democracies, especially in Athens. Leaders like Draco, Solon, Pisistratus, Cleisthenes, and Pericles made important changes in Athens, giving more people the chance to participate in government. Sparta became a strong military state, while Athens and Sparta teamed up to fight the Persians by 480 B.C. During the Golden Age, Greek culture grew with drama, art, and the Olympics, leading to the Peloponnesian Wars (431-404 B.C.) between Athens and Sparta. After Athens lost, Alexander the Great spread Greek culture across many areas, mixing Greek, Persian, and Egyptian ways of life. This movement was known as Hellenism.

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In 1095 CE, Pope Urban II launched the First Crusade, calling Christians to reclaim Jerusalem from Muslim control.The First Crusade resulted in the capture of Jerusalem in 1099 CE. Over the following centuries, several more Crusades were launched, but by 1187, Muslim leader Saladin successfully recaptured Jerusalem for the Muslims. The Crusades was very influential and had significant effects in both the Muslim and European worlds, for example the crusades increased cultural exchange between Europe and the Islamic world, the spread of new ideas, and the growth of trade between the East and West. By 1200, the Crusades had shaped relations between Christianity and Islam and European greed for Muslim and more Eastern products. Furthermore it also created a desire for money in Europeans and significantly influenced the upcoming Renaissance.

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Mesoamerica: The Rise of the Aztecs (1325)

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Mesoamerica: The Rise of the Aztecs (1325)

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After the fall of the Toltec Empire...

...a group of 10,000 Aztecs traveled southward to the shores of Lake Texcoco.

Aztecs and other peoples on the shores of Lake Texcoco acted like city-states, maneuvering politically and creating inconsistent alliances.

The Aztecs won power through their militaristic ethics, mercenary connections, and manipulation of alliances, along with connections to the Toltec culture, like the Nahuatl language.

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East Africa: Christianity (1221) and Muslim-African Syncretism

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East Africa: Christianity (1221) and Muslim-African Syncretism

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Egyptian Christians, known as Copts, based their translation of scripture from their traditional contact with Byzantium, although they split on political issues.

Coptic influence traveled down the Nile to the Kush kingdoms.

An important Christian output developed in Axum.

Muslims in Egypt tolerated Copts

Christian Kush kingdoms were left autonomous as invading Muslims faced stiff resistance.

Under constant threat from Red Sea Coast Muslims, the Ethiopians, influenced by Yemeni immigrants, turned inwards and converted, compromised with , and mobilized their population to form a Christian kingdom.

Swahili Coast:

Rulers were emigrated Muslim families.

Islam scarcely penetrated the hunters and pastoralists away from the major trading cities,

Muslim and African traditions combined, seen with the tracing of lineage to the mother and father and with the Swahili language.

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Expanded from modern-day Turkey to the Western part of the Mediterranean down to the Red Sea to the Gulf of Aden

Administration: Military aristocracy and a ruling monarch

Belief: Sunni Islam

Technological: Gunpowder, siege weapons

Exploration: No

Challenges to power: Safavid and Mughal empires, to a lesser extent Europe

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Between the Ottoman and the Mughal empires, over what is now Iran, going down into Afghanistan.

Administration: Military aristocracy and a ruling monarch

Belief: Shi’a Islam

Technological: Gunpowder, siege weapons

Exploration: No

Challenges to power: Safavid and Ottoman empires, mostly Ottoman because of disputes over Shi’a and Sunni Islam

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One of the only nations to have control over the Indian subcontinent

Administration: Military aristocracy Merged with the Hindu people and attempted to find common ground.

Belief: Sunni Islam

Technological: Gunpowder, siege weapons

Exploration: Attempted to take over the land in Eastern Asia but failed and were pushed more into India

Challenges to power: Safavid and Mughal empires, to a lesser extent Europe

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Same as it is today + Colonies in North America

Administration: Parliamentary Monarchy (Magna Carta)

Belief: Christianity

Technological: No?

Exploration: Became part of the fur trade in North America, established smaller colonies there

Challenges to power: Britain, a few wars with Spain, Native Americans

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Same as it is today + Colonies in North America

Administration: Absolute Monarch (Louis 14th)

Belief: Christianity

Technological: No?

Exploration: Became part of the fur trade in North America, established smaller colonies there

Challenges to power: Britain, a few wars with Spain, Native Americans

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Expanded Expanded into South America and the mainland of Spain is where it is today

Administration: Absolute Monarch

Belief: Christianity really really Christian, so Christian Isabel and Ferdinand forced everyone else to be Christian as well

Technological: Compasses, maps, and ships

Exploration: Yes, the first to find the new world as Cristopher Columbus was under Spanish funding.

Challenges to power: Held land in South America and used it to develop their government.

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Expansion: Basically where it is today, + Brazil, trading posts in Africa and the Indian Ocean

Administration: Absolute Monarchy (Henry the Navigator)

Belief: Christian

Technological: Compasses, maps, and ships

Exploration: Accidently found Brazil, trading posts established along the African coast going into the Indian Ocean, dominant power there for several years until dethroned by the Dutch

Challenges to power: Indigenous resistance in the Americas, Maintaining colonies in South America against other European powers

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Expansion: Exploring the new world plus trading posts in the Indian Ocean and around Africa, specifically the Cape of Good Hope

Administration: Absolute Monarchy

Belief: Christians

Technological: Most famously developing stock-biased trade companies (Dutch East India Trading Company)

Exploration: Americas and the Indian Ocean

Challenges to power: Britain, Frace, Spain, Portugal

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Expansion: More than where it is today, into Ukraine, also expanding into Alaska and Canada

Administration: Absolute Monarchy (Ivan the Great, Ivan the Terrible, Catherine the Great, Alexis Romonov, Michelle Romonoav)

Belief: Christian, wanted to be free of Mongol influences

Technological: Mostly from trade, nothing really of note.

Exploration: Went into North America, Alaska and Canada area to participate in the fur trade and dominated that

Challenges to power: Europe, Mongol influences left

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Expansion: Controlled almost all of Oceania, including Hawaii and New Zealand

Administration: Different Tribal based systems

Belief: Polytheistic

Technological: Good canoes

Exploration: All of the ocean

Challenges to power: None until colonialism

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Exchange of material goods like raw materials, gold and silver, slaves, and manufactured goods. Also non tangible things desasies, ideas, and culture.

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We color-coded everything by region. Then we broke down the larger time periods into smaller sections; for example, pre-1200 was broken down into early humans and hunter-gatherers, early and classical civilizations, and then around the time of the crusades. We also added general time periods at the bottom to give a better understanding of what was happening. Within each time period (like pre-1200) the proximity of the posts showed cause and effect. Cause and effect within regions were reinforced with colors.

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Writing systems such as cuneiform were developed in Mesopotamia; Metallurgy arose, and the use of copper and bronze tools and weapons. As well the invention of the wheel, and new formal governments came about; these new formal governments completely changed the nature of society as new codes of laws were introduced. The invention of the wheel allowed large cities to partake in more extensive trade and created new job opportunities; cuneiform revolutionized long-distance communication. 

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The movement of slaves from Africa to the New World as Europe needed new labor as the Natives were dying.

it caused large African diaspora and put double the amount of Africans in the New World than Europeans.

Destabilized Africa as they were all going to war in order to get people to sell into slavery.

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In 750 CE, the Abbasid Caliphate  overthrew the Umayyads and made Baghdad the intellectual center of the Islamic world. This would bring the Islamic world into its Golden Age. During the golden age the Abbasid Caliphate directly promoted arts, philosophy and scientific progress. Furthermore in 751 CE, the Abbasids won the Battle of Talas, which further reinforced their rule and position. However, over the 9th and 10th centuries, the caliphate became increasingly decentralized, with the Buyid and Fatimid dynasties gaining control of key regions. In the 11th century, the Seljuk Turks took control of Baghdad.

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1500s to 1700s

A development in science that challenged old ideas in favor of new ideas that would shape the centuries that are soon to come.

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1300s to 1600s

Changes to more secular learning that included development in the arts

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Late 1600s to early 1800s

A growth in humanism and the development of reasoning and that all things should be reasoned by your mind.

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Early 1500s to Mid 1600s

A distaste for the Catholic church that developed into a split away from it into new sects that are derived from personal interpretation of the bible.

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Mercenaries made Caliph succession increasingly bloody.

Civil Violence, Public works, Capital relocation dried out the treasury.

Peasant uprisings were enlarged by Shi'a groups.

Mongols invaded and razed Baghdad in 1258

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400s to 1400s

A period of fuedal lords and complete control in the hands of the church.

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Empires like Britain, France, Spain, and Portugal that ruled by sea power and established long-range colonies

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The initial invasions of the Sind (modern-day Pakistan) by Umayyad generals were repeated by Muslim military commanders from Afghanistan following successful Hindu resistance.

Although some conversions were made with outcast Hindu groups, declining, corrupt, and misdirected Indian Buddhism provided the most converts for charismatic Sufis.

Muslim rulers were at the top of a social hierarchy, and their armies and their state was staffed by Hindus who had little direct interaction from their Muslim overlords.

Muslims and Hindus were influenced by their neighbors: Muslim societies became divided by Hindu castes, and the role of women diminished.

However, Hindus found Muslims impossible to absorb. Hindus mobilized against this threat using bhaktic cults. Bhaktic cults were open to all, emphasized the the devotion and emotional connection to gods, and were effective in neutralizing Islam threat to the low-caste groups.

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Spread of Islam to Southeast Asia (starting 1200)

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Spread of Islam to Southeast Asia (starting 1200)

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From Sumatra, Southeast Asian Sufis, who infused Islam with Hinduism and animism, spread Islam to Malacca.

With the establishment of the Muslim Malacca trade empire, after the fall of a Buddhist empire, ports and traders, now had incentive to convert to Islam.

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THE SINGLE MOST IMPORTANT DEVELOPMENT IN WORLD HISTORY from 1200-1450.

The Mongols were a herding people. Their warriors acquired their dexterity with weapons and with their horse, as their herding economy required, from an early age.

Courage in battle determined male self-esteem.

Chinggis Khan, after the poisoning of his father and his enslavement and humiliation, is on the brink of extermination. He joins a more powerful chief allied with his father.

This chief gives permission to Chinggis Khan to take revenge, and Chinggis Khan builds his reputation as a commander. More chiefs attach themselves to the young warrior.

Mongol and other Nomadic rivals are defeated and Chinggis Khan is elected Khagan, or supreme leader.

The energy of Mongol warriors is focused on the world-dominating ambitions of Chinggis Khan, not tribal divisions.

The Mongol heavy cavalry, carrying lances and wearing some metal armor, and light cavalry undertook swift campaigns that prevented retreat.

The Mongols soon took hold of Chinese siege weapon technologies.

By 1227, the Mongol Empire stretched from East Persia, bordering the Caspian sea, across modern-day South Russia, and to the coasts of North China .

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East Asia during Mongol rule and collapse

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East Asia during Mongol rule and collapse

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China

The Mongol Yuan dynasty in China began with and peaked with Kubilai Khan.

The Yuan dynasty emphasized Mongol superiority and isolation. Chinese women could not marry Mongol rulers and Sino-Mongol friendship was discouraged.

A hierarchy that placed ethic Chinese at the bottom was created.

Yet Kubilai venerated Chinese culture, asking Confucian scholars to mentor his sons and making sacrifices to his ancestors in a traditional temple.

However, Kubilai's policies were viewed as blasphemous by the Confucian scholar-gentry, who were not allowed in the Mongol government.

Kubilai's prioritization of entertainers, artisans, and merchants angered the scholar-gentry.

Kubilai still cared for Chinese well-being and culture: He prohibited the creation of Mongol pastures from croplands.

An enraged peasantry and the open expression of Mongol hostility gave way to the Ming Dynasty.

Mongol influence was extinguished by Zhu Yuanzhang, or the Hongwu emperor.

Sensitive to the adversity of peasants, Zhu still censored the scholar-gentry although he reinstated the civil service exam.

Japan

Brief glimmer of nationalism to defend against Mongols was created by a nation dominated by local lords

Elite provincial families gained control of landed estates and denied the imperial court labor and land.

Local lords enforced law, held their own armies which were sometimes called by the emperor, and diminished the peasantry to serfdom.

The Minamoto family's network of allied provincial lords overwhelmed the Taira’s allies and leaders, leading to a Minamoto victory in the Gempei Wars.

Yoritomo was the leader of the victorious Minamoto at the end of the Gempei wars. Obsessive fear of his overthrow led to him murdering and exiling his family members, which subsequently led to Hojo faction's dominance.

Three tiered system developed: The emperor and Minamoto family were figureheads under the Hojo faction.

The Ashikaga Shogunate: replaced the Kamakura regime. They ruled from 1336 to 1573 and destroyed the previous imperial faction.

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Written history to 400s

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Before Written History

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Trans-Saharan Trade and the Mongol-Revived Silk Road

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Trans-Saharan Trade and the Mongol-Revived Silk Road

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Muslim merchants, prominent in the grassland empires like Mali, facilitated trade with gold from the southwest forest regions and dates from the Sahara. They also sold slaves.

With their rise, the Mongols created a huge empire of interlocking states. The political homogeneity of these states ensured the security of traders, and further Mongol policies, like the implementation of waystations, increased merchants' safety

The Trans-Saharan Trade and Mongol trade routes did not interact.