While Rome was pre-eminent at the dawn of the Christian era, its expansionist momentum was beginning to stall. The Parthians inflicted a crushing defeat in 53 BCE, the German tribes in 9 CE and Cush would prove too troublesome to subdue. The Han in China were also suffering from imperial... More
The second millennium dawned with few dominant imperial powers; the last pan-Muslim caliphate, the Abbasids, had long since fragmented into multiple dynasties, from the Zirids of Northwest Africa to the Qarakhanids of Central Asia. In China, the Khitan Empire, with its capital in Beijing, threatened prosperous Song dynasty. In Southeast... More
The Battle of Kadesh in 1274 BCE between the Egypt of Rameses II and the Hittites was a clash to determine supremacy in the Near East between the primary regional powers of the time. The result was inconclusive and over the next century the two rivals would increasingly be overshadowed... More
After the expulsion of the Mongols in 1368, the Ming Empire in China, with a standing army of a million troops and a population nearing 100 million, was probably the wealthiest and most powerful dominion worldwide. To the west, the empire of Timur was nearing the peak. In 1402, Timur... More
The fall of Constantinople to the Ottomans (1453) shocked Christian Europe, but its subsequent renaissance was not purely cultural. By the dawn of the 15th century, the Holy Roman Empire, France, England and Spain had all acquired strong, secure dynastic rule, while Hungary, under John Hunyadi and Matthew Corvinus, was... More
In the 16th century, the Portuguese had established the first pan-global trading empire with outposts from Brazil to Nagasaki, while the Spanish were extracting vast wealth from their viceroyalties of New Spain and Peru. The Ming were in steady decline in China, while the Mughals were at their peak in... More
There was a change in the European power balances in the 17th century, with the ground-breaking first colonizers from Iberia becoming increasingly outrivalled by the maritime powers of France, England and the Dutch. France under Louis XIV was also Europe’s dominant terrestrial power, but would soon be humbled, with its... More
In 1800, the European order dominated the world map with its rival, the Ottoman Empire, falling behind. In 1800, the United States was independent, but the southwest remained under Spanish control. Central and South America, in addition to the West Indies, were western European possessions. The British controlled much of... More
By 1850, the need for raw materials continued to drive the expansion of European empires. This generated a ‘scramble’ for land, particularly in Africa and Southeast Asia. This imperialist drive created the beginnings of globalization, but also acted as a catalyst for revolution and nationalist movements. Not only were there... More
In the period from the Treaty of Frankfurt in 1871 to the outbreak of World War I, the European powers were ostensibly at peace but locked in a fierce rivalry which found expression in the New Imperialism, a period of rapid colonial expansion. Spurred by a second industrial revolution, the... More
In 1942 the Axis powers were Germany, Italy and Japan, who had cemented their alliance in December 1941 by collectively declaring war on the US. Japan and Germany reached an agreement concerning their operational spheres, with a dividing line along the 70th meridian east line of longitude. By 1942, the... More
After World War II, the USA and Soviet Union were the foremost military powers. Israel was established in 1948 by partitioning Britain’s former Palestinian mandates. Britain’s empire was shrinking, especially after Indian independence in 1948; in 1950, the British were on the verge of losing Sudan, which Egypt claimed as... More