THE WORLD ATLAS

Chapter · Classical Antiquity

Han China Crumbles

The world in 200

In 200 CE the old order is cracking. In China the Han dynasty survives only in name: the boy Emperor Xian is a puppet, and warlords carve up the country.

This very year Cao Cao defeats his rival Yuan Shao at Guandu, laying the foundations of the Three Kingdoms era. Rome is more stable under Septimius Severus, a North African general who seized power after the chaotic Year of the Five Emperors and has just sacked the Parthian capital Ctesiphon. Parthia is weakened and within a generation will be overthrown by the Persian Sasanians. In India the Kushans hold the north and the Satavahanas are fading in the Deccan. Christianity is spreading quietly through Roman cities, and Buddhism is travelling along the Silk Roads into China. In the Americas, Teotihuacan is reaching its height as a metropolis of perhaps 100,000 people, and the Maya stand on the threshold of their Classic age.

Open the map in 200

The great powers

Region by region

Southern Africa

Bantu-speaking iron-working farmers continue to spread through eastern and southern Africa, settling as far south as present-day Mozambique and the edge of South Africa. Khoisan foragers and herders still occupy the drier south and west. Madagascar remains essentially unsettled.

Northern Africa

Roman North Africa is prosperous, and its native son Septimius Severus is lavishing monuments on his home city of Leptis Magna. The Kingdom of Kush still rules from Meroe on the Nile, though it is past its peak, while Axum is becoming a major Red Sea trading power. West African farming and iron-working communities are growing along the Niger and in the savanna.

Europe

The Roman Empire is ruled by Septimius Severus (r. 193–211), who strengthens the army and will campaign in Britain at the end of his reign. The frontiers on the Rhine and Danube still hold, though Germanic peoples such as the Alamanni and Goths are gathering beyond them. Eastern Europe is home to Slavic, Baltic and Sarmatian peoples, and the far north to Finno-Ugric and Sámi hunters.

Middle East & South Asia

Rome holds Anatolia, Syria and northern Mesopotamia after Severus sacked Ctesiphon in 197–198. The Parthian Empire, under Vologases V, is battered and divided, and the Persian prince Ardashir will overthrow it in 224. In India the Kushans under Vasudeva I hold the northwest and Mathura, the Satavahanas are in decline in the Deccan, and the Tamil kingdoms dominate the south; Himyar is the leading power in Yemen.

Northern & Central Asia

The Kushan Empire still controls Bactria, but the steppes are shifting. The Xianbei, who replaced the Xiongnu in Mongolia, have formed a loose confederation that raids China, while Saka, Kangju and other Iranian-speaking nomads live in Transoxiana. Siberia is home to scattered hunting and fishing peoples.

East Asia

The Han dynasty is collapsing. After the Yellow Turban Rebellion of 184, warlords took control, and Emperor Xian (r. 189–220) is held by Cao Cao at Xu, who defeats Yuan Shao at Guandu in 200. In Korea, Goguryeo under King Sansang is the strongest kingdom, alongside Baekje, Silla and Gaya, while in Japan the shaman-queen Himiko of Yamatai leads a federation of chiefdoms.

Southeast Asia

Funan has become the main trading kingdom of mainland Southeast Asia, its ports visited by Indian, Chinese and even Roman-era merchants. Northern Vietnam remains a Chinese-ruled province, while in central Vietnam the Cham people are on the verge of founding the kingdom of Linyi (c. 192). Austronesian farming and seafaring peoples live across the islands.

Northern North America

Paleo-Inuit Dorset hunters occupy the Canadian Arctic and Greenland, while cultures such as Ipiutak hunt sea mammals along the Alaskan coast. Subarctic forest hunters follow caribou and moose across Canada, and Pacific Northwest peoples build large plank-house villages.

Southern North America

Teotihuacan dominates central Mexico, its avenues and pyramids home to perhaps 100,000 people. Maya cities such as Tikal and Calakmul are growing, and the Zapotecs rule from Monte Albán in Oaxaca. In the eastern woodlands the Hopewell culture continues its mound-building and long-distance trade, and early Ancestral Puebloan (Basketmaker) farmers live in the Southwest.

Northern South America

The Moche state rules the river valleys of Peru's north coast, making superb pottery and gold work, while the Nazca culture flourishes on the south coast. Tiwanaku is growing on the shores of Lake Titicaca, and the Amazon and Orinoco basins are home to many farming and foraging peoples.

Southern Cone

There are no states in the Southern Cone. Foragers hunt guanaco and rhea on the pampas and in Patagonia, maritime peoples live in the far south, and village farmers cultivate maize and potatoes in the Andean valleys of Chile and northwest Argentina.

Australasia & Oceania

Aboriginal Australians live across the continent in diverse societies tied to their country through song, story and seasonal movement. New Guinea highlanders farm intensively, and Polynesians in Tonga and Samoa are developing their distinct culture. The remote islands of eastern Polynesia, Hawaii and New Zealand remain uninhabited.

Events

  1. Antonine Plague begins ravaging the Roman Empire
  2. Yellow Turban Rebellion erupts in China
  3. Year of the Five Emperors; Septimius Severus takes power
  4. Severus sacks the Parthian capital Ctesiphon
  5. Cao Cao defeats Yuan Shao at the Battle of Guandu
  6. Battle of Red Cliffs halts Cao Cao's advance south
  7. Caracalla grants Roman citizenship to all free men

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