- — South America:
The Aymara lordships
After Tiwanaku's decline, Aymara-speaking kingdoms dominate the highlands around Lake Titicaca until the rise of the Inca.
Era: Tiwanaku, the Aymara, and the Inca
Sources: Bolivia: Early period · Encyclopaedia Britannica
- — Asia:
Malla dynasty rules the valley
The Mallas govern the Kathmandu Valley, codifying Hindu-influenced law and patronising the Newar temple architecture for which the valley becomes famous.
Era: The Malla City-States and the Valley of Art
Sources: Malla era · Encyclopædia Britannica, Nepal — History (Himalayas, Monarchy, Unification) · Encyclopædia Britannica
- — Asia:
Founding of the Delhi Sultanate
Qutb al-Din Aibak establishes independent rule at Delhi, beginning a 320-year succession of Islamic dynasties that reshape the politics and culture of northern India.
Era: The Delhi Sultanate and the Mughal Empire
Sources: Qutb ud-Din Aibak · Wikipedia, Delhi Sultanate · Wikipedia
- — Asia:
The army organised in tens, hundreds, thousands and ten-thousands
Chinggis Khan organises his people into units of ten, a hundred, a thousand and ten thousand, dispersing the members of joining tribes through the units; the head of a unit of ten thousand has a strong personal relationship with him.
Era: Chinggis Khan and the Birth of the Mongol Nation
Sources: The Mongols in World History: Conquests · Asia for Educators, Columbia University
- — Asia:
Rise of the Delhi Sultanate
Muslim dynasties ruling from Delhi extend their dominion over the Indus plains, deepening the region's Islamic culture over three centuries.
Era: Islam, the Sultans and the Mughals
Sources: Pakistan: A Country Study · Library of Congress, Federal Research Division
- — Africa:
Zenith under Dunama Dibalemi
Mai Dunama Dibalemi brought Kanem to its peak, projecting power from the Fezzan to the southern savanna and deepening trade and diplomatic ties with North Africa and Egypt.
Era: Kanem and Kanem-Bornu
Sources: Kanem-Bornu Empire · Wikipedia, Mai Dunama Dibbalemi · EBSCO Research Starters
- — Europe:
Golden Bull of Sicily and the Kingdom of Bohemia
The Golden Bull of Sicily, issued by Emperor Frederick II, confirmed the royal title of the Premyslid rulers as hereditary, formally raising Bohemia from a duchy to a kingdom within the Holy Roman Empire.
Era: Great Moravia, Saint Wenceslas and the Premyslid Dukes
Sources: Otakar II (Kingdom of Bohemia) · Encyclopaedia Britannica
- — Europe:
Magna Carta sealed at Runnymede
Rebel barons compelled King John to seal Magna Carta, asserting that the monarch was bound by law; though soon annulled, it became a lasting symbol of limits on royal power.
Era: The Norman Conquest and medieval England
Sources: The British Library: history and collections · The British Library, Magna Carta · Encyclopaedia Britannica
- — Europe:
Stefan the First-Crowned becomes king
Stefan Nemanjić obtained recognition as king, raising the grand principality of Raška to the rank of a kingdom and earning the name Prvovenčani, the 'First-Crowned'.
Era: The Medieval Serbian State under the Nemanjić Dynasty
Sources: Stephen II Nemanja (Stefan the First-Crowned) · Encyclopaedia Britannica, Nemanjić Dynasty · Encyclopaedia Britannica
- — Europe:
Ivan Asen II and the Second Empire's apogee
Under Tsar Ivan Asen II Bulgaria reached its greatest extent and prosperity, dominating the Balkans and patronising an Orthodox cultural flowering centred on Tarnovo.
Era: The Second Bulgarian Empire and the Ottoman Conquest
Sources: History of Bulgaria · Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Republic of Bulgaria
- — Europe:
Nemanjic rule and the Serbian Church
The Nemanjic dynasty consolidated its hold over the region, which became a centre of the medieval Serbian state and of the autocephalous Serbian Orthodox Church seated at the Patriarchate of Pec.
Era: The Medieval Serbian Heartland and the Battle of Kosovo
Sources: History of Kosovo (ancient Dardania to the medieval period) · Encyclopaedia Britannica, Kosovo: History · Encyclopaedia Britannica
- — Asia:
Death of Chinggis Khan
Chinggis Khan dies in August 1227 during a campaign against the Tangut Xixia kingdom, leaving an empire reaching from northern China to the Caspian Sea and a realm divided among his four sons.
Era: Chinggis Khan and the Birth of the Mongol Nation
Sources: Genghis Khan · Encyclopaedia Britannica
- — Asia:
Ögedei extends the yam relay system
During his reign, Ögedei greatly extends the yam, the Mongol messenger system of rest stations across Mongolia, and develops passports that let messengers claim entitlements at the stations. World History Encyclopedia notes that relay stations for couriers already existed under Chinggis Khan.
Era: The Great Empire: Karakorum, Kublai, and the Yuan
Sources: Ögedei Khan · World History Encyclopedia, Genghis Khan · World History Encyclopedia
- — Asia:
Karakorum becomes the imperial capital
Great Khan Ögödei walls the city of Karakorum in the Orkhon valley and builds a palace there, establishing a fixed capital for the Mongol Empire on the Mongolian steppe.
Era: The Great Empire: Karakorum, Kublai, and the Yuan
Sources: Karakorum · Encyclopaedia Britannica, Orkhon Valley Cultural Landscape (World Heritage List) · UNESCO World Heritage Centre
- — Asia:
The Golden Horde rules the western steppe
The lands of present-day Kazakhstan pass to the line of Jochi, forming the western wing of the Mongol empire known as the Golden Horde, where Turks outnumber Mongols and Islam becomes the prevailing faith.
Era: The Mongol Conquest and the Golden Horde
Sources: Golden Horde · Encyclopædia Britannica, History of Kazakhstan · Encyclopædia Britannica
- — Europe:
First Captains Regent
The republic adopted its signature institution, two Captains Regent serving jointly for six-month terms; since the late-thirteenth-century statute their office has alternated every six months without interruption.
Era: The Commune, the Statutes and the Captains Regent
Sources: The Institutions of the Republic of San Marino · Consulate of San Marino to the UK, History of San Marino · Visit San Marino (official tourism site)
- — Europe:
End of the Babenberg line
Duke Frederick II 'the Quarrelsome' was killed fighting the Hungarians, leaving no male heir; the extinction of the Babenbergs left the duchy of Austria contested among neighbouring powers.
Era: Ostarrîchi: The Babenberg March and Duchy
Sources: Ostarrîchi: Austria under the Babenbergs · Die Welt der Habsburger (The World of the Habsburgs)
- — Africa:
Mamluks seize power
The slave-soldier Mamluks overthrow the last Ayyubid ruler and establish a sultanate that will govern Egypt and Syria for over two and a half centuries.
Era: Islamic Egypt: Caliphs, Fatimids and Mamluks
Sources: Egypt: The Ayyubid dynasty (1171–1250) · Encyclopaedia Britannica
- — Asia:
Mamluk rule over Syria
The Mamluks supplant the Ayyubids and govern Syria from Egypt for over two centuries, halting the Mongols and presiding over a flourishing of trade and architecture in Damascus and Aleppo.
Era: Saladin, the Mamluks and Ottoman Rule
Sources: Mamluk dynasty — rulers of Egypt and Syria (1250–1517) · Encyclopaedia Britannica
- — Europe:
The earliest Statutes
San Marino set down its first written statutes, with a fuller body of state law following by 1295, formalising the self-government of the mountain commune.
Era: The Commune, the Statutes and the Captains Regent
Sources: History of San Marino · Visit San Marino (official tourism site)
- — Asia:
The empire breaks into four khanates
Great Khan Möngke dies on 11 August 1259, and Kublai and his brother Ariq Böke each declare themselves khan. World History Encyclopedia describes the empire as four separate and often competing khanates by the end of the 1260s: the Ilkhanate, the Chagatai Khanate, the Golden Horde and the Yuan.
Era: The Great Empire: Karakorum, Kublai, and the Yuan
Sources: Mongol Empire · World History Encyclopedia, Kublai Khan · World History Encyclopedia, Ilkhanate · World History Encyclopedia
- — North America:
Submission to the Norwegian crown
The Greenlanders accepted the sovereignty of the king of Norway, tying the colony to the Scandinavian crowns and, through later unions, ultimately to Denmark.
Era: Erik the Red and the Norse Colony
Sources: Greenland: History · Encyclopædia Britannica
- — Europe:
The Old Covenant (Gamli sáttmáli)
Worn down by civil strife and pressed by King Haakon IV, the Icelandic chieftains swore allegiance to the Norwegian crown, ending the independent Commonwealth and beginning centuries of foreign rule.
Era: Christianity, the Sagas and the Old Covenant
Sources: The Age of the Sturlungs · Medievalists.net, Iceland: History · Encyclopaedia Britannica
- — Europe:
Assassination of Mindaugas and pagan reversion
Mindaugas was murdered amid noble rivalry; Lithuania abandoned the royal title and Christianity, returning to paganism and to rule by grand dukes for more than a century.
Era: The Pagan Kingdom and the Rise of the Grand Duchy
Sources: Mindaugas · Encyclopaedia Britannica, Grand Duchy of Lithuania · Encyclopaedia Britannica
- — Europe:
Treaty of Badajoz: Castile gives up the Algarve
Alfonso X of Castile renounced his claim to the Algarve in a treaty of friendship and mutual aid with Afonso III, fixing the south-western frontier.
Era: From County to Kingdom: Afonso Henriques and the Reconquista
Sources: O Reino do Algarve de pleno direito faz hoje 750 anos · Barlavento (Algarve newspaper)
- — Africa:
Fall of the Almohads
The Marinids capture Marrakesh, ending Almohad rule and inaugurating a new Berber dynasty centred on Fez.
Era: The Berber Empires: Almoravids and Almohads
Sources: Marinid dynasty · Encyclopaedia Britannica
- — Africa:
Marinids master Morocco from Fez
Having taken Fez in 1248 and Marrakesh in 1269, the Marinids rule Morocco from Fez, endowing the city with famous madrasas.
Era: Marinids, Saadians and the Three Kings
Sources: Marinid dynasty · Encyclopaedia Britannica
- — Europe:
The national law of Magnus the Lawmender
King Magnus VI codified a national law for the whole kingdom, one of the most advanced legal codes in medieval Europe and a mark of the consolidated Christian monarchy.
Era: The Christian Kingdom, St Olaf and Hanseatic Bergen
Sources: Norway: The Treaty of Kiel · Encyclopaedia Britannica
- — Asia:
Reign of Ramkhamhaeng the Great
Sukhothai reaches its zenith under Ramkhamhaeng, who expands its reach, opens relations with China, and champions Theravada Buddhism.
Era: Tai Origins and the Sukhothai Kingdom
Sources: Ramkhamhaeng · Encyclopædia Britannica, Sukhothai kingdom · Encyclopædia Britannica
- — Europe:
Rule under Sicily and Aragon
As part of the Kingdom of Sicily, Malta passed through Norman, Swabian, Angevin and Aragonese hands, governed by feudal lords and a local council, until 1530.
Era: Arabs, Normans and Medieval Malta
Sources: History of Malta · Encyclopaedia Britannica
- — Africa:
Sultanate of Ifat dominant on the routes
The Walashma-ruled Sultanate of Ifat, with Zeila as its principal port, commands the trade routes between the Ethiopian highlands and the Red Sea, spreading Muslim political power into the region.
Era: The Afar, the Issa and the Muslim Sultanates
Sources: History of Djibouti · Wikipedia, Djibouti (country and history) · Encyclopaedia Britannica
- — Africa:
- — Europe:
The questia tribute and neutrality
Andorra rendered a symbolic annual tribute, the questia, to each co-prince as an act of homage; the settlement was understood to recognise the valleys' neutrality.
Era: The Paréage of 1278 and the Making of the Co-Principality
Sources: Andorra: History, Facts & Points of Interest · Encyclopaedia Britannica, Andorra: Member state · Council of Europe
- — Asia:
Mamluk rule established
The Mamluk sultanate of Egypt expelled the last Crusaders from the Levant and governed Palestine until the Ottoman conquest.
Era: Islamic Palestine: Conquest, Caliphates, Crusades, and Mamluks
Sources: Palestine - region, history · Encyclopaedia Britannica
- — Asia:
Tributary ties to Majapahit
Brunei comes under the cultural and political influence of the Hindu Javanese empire of Majapahit, to which it pays tribute, while maintaining its long-standing relationship with China.
Era: Early Borneo: Trade, Tribute, and the Rise of Po-ni
Sources: History of Brunei · Encyclopaedia Britannica, Majapahit empire · Encyclopaedia Britannica
- — Europe:
Self-government affirmed within papal Romagna
As the Papal States consolidated their hold over the surrounding Romagna, San Marino preserved its autonomy by diplomacy and the recognition of its rights, the strategy of survival that kept the commune free among far greater powers.
Era: The Commune, the Statutes and the Captains Regent
Sources: History of San Marino · Visit San Marino (official tourism site), San Marino (Napoleon, Congress of Vienna, 1862 treaty) · New World Encyclopedia
- — Europe:
Treaty of Alcanices
King Dinis and Ferdinand IV of Castile confirmed Portuguese possession of the Algarve and fixed the frontier, creating one of the oldest stable borders in Europe.
Era: From County to Kingdom: Afonso Henriques and the Reconquista
Sources: Treaty of Alcanices (1297) · Encyclopaedia Britannica, Dinis, king of Portugal · Encyclopaedia Britannica
Politics & PowerThe 13th century
Politics & Power in the 13th century
Every event in the Terralore archive tagged politics and power — dynasties, constitutions, revolutions and changes of regime, narrowed to the 13th century — 37 of them, drawn from 29 nations, running from 1200 to 1297. Each entry keeps the sources it was verified against and links back to the chronicle it came from.
- Events
- 37
- Nations
- 29
- Earliest
- 1200
- Latest
- 1297
- Europe
- 16
- Asia
- 13
- Africa
- 6
- North America
- 1
- South America
- 1
Every entry below is the same record, with the same sources, as the one on its nation’s chronicle.