THE WORLD ATLAS

Chapter · High Middle Ages

The Mongol Peace

The world in 1300

In 1300 the Mongol khanates span most of Asia and eastern Europe, and the Pax Mongolica lets merchants, missionaries and ideas travel from China to the Mediterranean. Kublai Khan's grandson Temür rules Yuan China; Ghazan, who has converted to Islam, rules the Ilkhanate in Iran; Toqta rules the Golden Horde; and Duwa and Kaidu control Central Asia.

Marco Polo, captured in a war between Venice and Genoa, has just dictated his famous account of Asia. In India, Alauddin Khalji has beaten back Mongol invasions and is building the Delhi Sultanate into an empire. The Mamluks rule Egypt and Syria and have expelled the last crusaders from Acre (1291). In western Anatolia, a minor Turkish chieftain named Osman has founded a small state that will become the Ottoman Empire. Europe is at its medieval peak of population, and Pope Boniface VIII proclaims the first Jubilee in Rome, but famine and plague lie ahead.

Open the map in 1300

The great powers

Region by region

Southern Africa

Great Zimbabwe is the capital of a wealthy state on the Zimbabwe plateau, with great stone walls built without mortar, and it exports gold through the Swahili coast. Kilwa is the leading Swahili city-state. Madagascar has Malagasy kingdoms emerging, and Khoisan peoples live in the southwest.

Northern Africa

The Mamluk Sultanate rules Egypt and Syria under the young al-Nasir Muhammad, while the Marinids rule Morocco and are besieging the Zayyanid capital Tlemcen, and the Hafsids rule Tunisia. The Solomonic dynasty rules Ethiopia, Makuria is declining under Mamluk pressure, and Kanem controls Lake Chad. The Mali Empire, ruled by the Keita dynasty, is one of the largest states in Africa, and Mansa Musa will come to power around 1312.

Europe

Philip IV the Fair rules France and is about to clash with Pope Boniface VIII, who proclaims the Jubilee of 1300. Edward I of England is at war with Scotland, Albert I of Habsburg rules the Holy Roman Empire, and Wenceslaus II of Bohemia becomes king of Poland. The Byzantine Empire of Andronikos II is shrinking, the Golden Horde dominates the Rus principalities, including the small but growing principality of Moscow under Daniel, and Lithuania under Vytenis is expanding.

Middle East & South Asia

The Ilkhanate under Ghazan (r. 1295–1304) rules Iran and Iraq, and has just defeated the Mamluks at Wadi al-Khaznadar (1299) and briefly taken Damascus. Anatolia is fragmenting into Turkish beyliks, among them that of Osman in Bithynia. In India, Alauddin Khalji (r. 1296–1316) rules the Delhi Sultanate and is about to conquer Rajasthan and raid the Deccan, while the Pandyas, Hoysalas, Kakatiyas and Yadavas still rule the south.

Northern & Central Asia

The Golden Horde under Toqta rules the western steppe from Sarai, having just defeated his rival Nogai. Central Asia is controlled by the Chagatai Khan Duwa and the Ögedeid Kaidu, who are at war with the Yuan; Kaidu will die in 1301. Siberia is home to forest and tundra peoples.

East Asia

The Yuan dynasty rules China, Mongolia and Tibet under Temür Khan (Emperor Chengzong, r. 1294–1307), from Dadu (Beijing). Goryeo Korea is a Yuan vassal whose kings marry Mongol princesses. Japan, under the Kamakura shogunate and the Hōjō regents, survived Mongol invasions in 1274 and 1281 thanks to its defences and the storms later called kamikaze.

Southeast Asia

The kingdom of Majapahit, founded in 1293 by Raden Wijaya after expelling a Mongol fleet, is rising in Java. Pagan's empire has collapsed after Mongol invasions, and Burma is divided; in Thailand, Sukhothai and the new kingdom of Lan Na (Chiang Mai, founded 1296) are powerful. The Khmer Empire under Indravarman III is still wealthy, as the Chinese visitor Zhou Daguan recorded in 1296–97, and Đại Việt under the Trần dynasty has defeated three Mongol invasions.

Northern North America

Thule Inuit occupy the Arctic from Alaska to Greenland, where the Norse colony survives but faces a cooling climate. Athabaskan, Algonquian, Innu and Beothuk peoples live in the subarctic forests.

Southern North America

Mississippian chiefdoms such as Moundville, Etowah and Spiro dominate the Southeast, while Cahokia is in decline. Ancestral Puebloans have left the Four Corners and are moving to the Rio Grande and Hopi mesas. In central Mexico, the Mexica are living under the rule of Culhuacan, and will found Tenochtitlan in 1325; Mayapan leads Yucatán, and the Mixtecs and Zapotecs rule Oaxaca.

Northern South America

The Chimú kingdom rules Peru's north coast, Aymara kingdoms rule the Titicaca basin, and the Inca are still a local power around Cusco. The Muisca rule the Colombian highlands, and Tupi and Arawak peoples live along the coasts and rivers.

Southern Cone

Diaguita farmers live in northwest Argentina, Mapuche in central Chile, and Guarani in Paraguay and southern Brazil. Hunter-gatherers roam the pampas and Patagonia, and canoe peoples live in Tierra del Fuego.

Australasia & Oceania

Māori ancestors are settling New Zealand, hunting the giant moa. The Tu'i Tonga rule a maritime chiefdom, the Saudeleur dynasty rules Pohnpei from Nan Madol, and Rapa Nui islanders are carving moai. Aboriginal Australians live across the continent.

Events

  1. Mamluks capture Acre, ending the crusader states
  2. Majapahit founded in Java
  3. Ilkhan Ghazan converts to Islam
  4. William Wallace wins at Stirling Bridge
  5. Osman founds the Ottoman state (traditional date)
  6. Alauddin Khalji repels a Mongol army at Kili
  7. Pope Boniface VIII proclaims the first Jubilee
  8. Osman defeats the Byzantines at Bapheus

Moments of this period

Wars of this period

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Sources