THE WORLD ATLAS

Chapter · Classical Antiquity

Trajan's Rome, Han China

The world in 100

Around 100 CE two giant empires anchor opposite ends of Eurasia. Rome, under the soldier-emperor Trajan, rules every shore of the Mediterranean and is about to conquer Dacia beyond the Danube, pushing the empire towards its greatest size.

Han China, under the young Emperor He, has just smashed the Northern Xiongnu and controls the oasis cities of the Tarim Basin through its general Ban Chao. Between them, the Parthians hold Iran and Mesopotamia, and the Kushans rule a rich crossroads empire from Bactria into northern India. Silk, spices, glass and gold move along the Silk Roads and across the Indian Ocean, where monsoon winds carry Roman ships to Tamil ports. Most of the world's people are farmers, but huge areas of Africa, the Americas, Siberia and Australia are home to herders, foragers and village societies. In Mexico, the great city of Teotihuacan is rising, and in Peru the Moche and Nazca cultures are flourishing.

Open the map in 100

The great powers

Region by region

Southern Africa

Most of Africa south of the equator is home to Khoisan-speaking foragers and herders. Bantu-speaking farmers who work iron are spreading south and east from the Great Lakes region, reaching the coasts of East Africa and moving towards present-day Zambia and Mozambique. Madagascar is still uninhabited or barely visited.

Northern Africa

Rome rules the entire North African coast, with Egypt and the province of Africa serving as the empire's breadbaskets. Up the Nile, the Kingdom of Kush rules from Meroe, famous for its iron-working and its ruling queens, while the trading kingdom of Axum is rising in the Ethiopian highlands. In the Sahara the Garamantes control oasis routes, and in West Africa farming towns such as Jenne-jeno are growing along the Niger.

Europe

The Roman Empire stretches from Britain and Spain to the Black Sea, with its frontier along the Rhine and Danube. Trajan (r. 98–117) is about to fight the Dacian Wars (101–106) against King Decebalus, turning Dacia into a Roman province. Beyond the frontier live Germanic peoples, Balts and Slavs in the forests, Sarmatians and Alans on the steppe, and Finno-Ugric and Sámi hunters in the far north.

Middle East & South Asia

Rome holds Anatolia, Syria and Judea, and will annex the Nabataean kingdom of Petra in 106. The Parthian Empire under the Arsacid kings, with Pacorus II facing rival claimants, rules Mesopotamia and Iran from Ctesiphon, with Armenia a contested buffer between the two powers. In India the Kushans rule the northwest, the Satavahanas govern the Deccan, Saka satraps hold the west coast, and the Tamil kingdoms of the Cheras, Cholas and Pandyas trade pepper and pearls with Roman merchants.

Northern & Central Asia

The Kushan Empire controls Bactria and the routes across the Hindu Kush, while Saka and Kangju peoples herd on the steppes of Transoxiana. After Han victories in 89–91 CE, the Northern Xiongnu confederation has collapsed, and the Xianbei are moving into its old pastures. Siberia is inhabited by scattered hunting, fishing and reindeer-herding peoples.

East Asia

The Eastern Han dynasty rules China from Luoyang under Emperor He (r. 88–106), whose reign sees eunuchs and empresses' families compete for power. Han armies and the general Ban Chao dominate the Tarim Basin, and Han commanderies still hold northern Korea. In Korea the kingdoms of Goguryeo, Baekje and Silla and the Gaya confederacy are forming, while Japan is in the Yayoi period of rice-farming chiefdoms that send envoys to the Han court.

Southeast Asia

Northern Vietnam is ruled as a Han Chinese province after the defeat of the Trung sisters' revolt in 43 CE. In the Mekong delta, the trading kingdom of Funan is emerging around the port of Oc Eo, linking Indian and Chinese sea trade. Pyu city-states are forming in Burma, and Austronesian peoples farm and sail throughout the islands of Indonesia and the Philippines.

Northern North America

The Arctic is home to Paleo-Inuit (early Dorset) hunters of seals and walrus, while Ipiutak and Norton cultures live along the Alaskan coast. The vast boreal forest is home to subarctic hunter-gatherers, and the Pacific Northwest coast supports rich fishing societies living off salmon and cedar.

Southern North America

In central Mexico the city of Teotihuacan is growing fast; the Pyramid of the Sun has just been completed and the city will soon be one of the largest in the world. Maya city-states fill the Yucatán lowlands as the great Preclassic centre of El Mirador begins to decline, and the Zapotecs rule Oaxaca from Monte Albán. Further north, the Hopewell culture builds great earthwork mounds in the Ohio valley and trades across much of the continent.

Northern South America

On the north coast of Peru the Moche are building adobe pyramids, irrigated fields and a powerful warrior state, while on the south coast the Nazca are drawing their giant lines in the desert. Around Lake Titicaca, early Tiwanaku is growing into a ceremonial centre. The Amazon basin and the Guianas are home to many farming and foraging peoples whose earthworks and villages are only now being studied.

Southern Cone

The Southern Cone is home to hunter-gatherers and early farmers rather than states. Guanaco hunters roam the pampas and Patagonia, shellfish and sea-mammal hunters live along the channels of Tierra del Fuego, and village farmers grow maize and quinoa in the valleys of northwest Argentina and central Chile.

Australasia & Oceania

Aboriginal Australians, with tens of thousands of years of history, live across the whole continent in hundreds of language groups, and Tasmanians have been isolated since the end of the Ice Age. Farmers in the New Guinea highlands grow taro and bananas. Descendants of the Lapita seafarers live in Fiji, Tonga and Samoa, but eastern Polynesia, Hawaii and New Zealand are still unsettled.

Events

  1. Han armies crush the Trung sisters' revolt in Vietnam
  2. Romans destroy the Temple in Jerusalem
  3. Mount Vesuvius buries Pompeii
  4. Han China defeats the Northern Xiongnu
  5. Han envoy Gan Ying is sent west to seek Rome
  6. Trajan becomes Roman emperor
  7. Trajan launches the First Dacian War
  8. Cai Lun presents improved papermaking to the Han court

Moments of this period

More chapters

Sources