The 6th century

Africa

1. 🇨🇬COG

   Congo · Peoples & Migration · 1st millennium CE

   Bantu peoples settle the region

   Bantu-speaking farmers and ironworkers settled the forests and savannas of the modern Congo over the first millennium CE, founding the Kongo, Teke, Vili, Mboshi and other communities that make up the country's peoples.

   Bantu peoples, Loango, and the Teke kingdom

   Sources: Congo-Brazzaville — Early History (GlobalSecurity.org) · Republic of the Congo (Encyclopædia Britannica) · History of the Republic of the Congo (Wikipedia)

2. 🇲🇬MDG

   Madagascar · Peoples & Migration · c. 5th–7th century CE

   Austronesian settlement of Madagascar

   Seafarers from the Borneo region cross the Indian Ocean and become the island's first lasting inhabitants.

   Settlement & the Making of the Malagasy

   Sources: Madagascar (Encyclopædia Britannica) · History of Madagascar (Wikipedia) · Malagasy peoples (Wikipedia)

3. 🇳🇦NAM

   Namibia · Peoples & Migration · c. 500 CE onward

   Bantu-speaking peoples settle the north

   Over the past fifteen hundred years Bantu-speaking Ovambo, Kavango and Herero peoples migrated into the north and centre, bringing iron-working, agriculture and cattle pastoralism.

   First peoples: the San, Khoekhoe, Damara and the engravings of Twyfelfontein

   Sources: Namibia (country, history and government) (Encyclopaedia Britannica) · History of Namibia (Wikipedia)

Asia

1. 🇰🇭KHM

   Cambodia · Politics & Power · 6th century CE

   Chenla supplants Funan

   Chenla, ruled by princes descended from the kings of Funan, absorbs Funan's territory and becomes the dominant power in the region.

   Funan and Chenla: The Indianized Kingdoms

   Sources: Chenla (Encyclopaedia Britannica) · Funan (Encyclopaedia Britannica)

2. 🇱🇦LAO

   Laos · Religion · from the 5th century CE

   The sacred landscape of Vat Phou

   Around the Champasak plain in the south, a planned Hindu landscape develops around the Vat Phou temple, growing over a millennium largely under Khmer influence; it is now a UNESCO World Heritage site.

   Mekong Settlement and the Older Civilizations

   Sources: Vat Phou and Associated Ancient Settlements within the Champasak Cultural Landscape (UNESCO World Heritage Centre)

3. 🇳🇵NPL

   Nepal · Culture & Ideas · c. 500–700 CE

   Licchavi stone inscriptions

   Dense Licchavi-era inscriptions and chronicles make the valley one of the best-documented early states of the Himalayas, recording Hindu and Buddhist patronage alike.

   Ancient Kingdoms: Kirata and Licchavi

   Sources: Licchavi era (Encyclopædia Britannica)

4. 🇹🇯TJK

   Tajikistan · Culture & Ideas · 5th–8th centuries CE

   Sogdian merchants dominate the Silk Road

   Sogdian traders from Samarkand and Penjikent become the principal caravan merchants of the Silk Road, and the Sogdian language serves as the commercial lingua franca of Central Asia.

   Sogdiana, Bactria and the Silk Road

   Sources: Sogdiana — Central Asia, Silk Road, Persian Empire (Encyclopædia Britannica) · Kazakstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, and Uzbekistan: Country Studies (Federal Research Division, Library of Congress)

5. 🇺🇿UZB

   Uzbekistan · Economy & Trade · 5th–8th centuries CE

   Sogdians dominate Silk Road trade

   Sogdian merchants from Samarkand and Bukhara become the leading caravan traders of the Silk Road, their language a lingua franca of Inner Asian commerce and culture.

   Sogdiana, Bactria and the Silk Road

   Sources: Sogdiana — Central Asia, Silk Road, Persian Empire (Encyclopaedia Britannica)

North America

1. 🇨🇷CRI

   Costa Rica · Culture & Ideas · c. 500-1500 CE

   Diquis chiefdoms and the stone spheres

   Chiefdom societies in the Diquis delta carve more than 300 near-perfect stone spheres and build settlements of mounds and paved precincts.

   Chiefdoms and the Stone Spheres

   Sources: Precolumbian Chiefdom Settlements with Stone Spheres of the Diquis (UNESCO World Heritage Centre) · A Stone Sphere from Costa Rica (The Metropolitan Museum of Art)

South America

1. 🇧🇴BOL

   Bolivia · Formation · c. 500-900 CE

   Tiwanaku reaches its apogee

   The city of Tiwanaku near Lake Titicaca flourishes as the spiritual and political centre of a powerful Andean culture, building the monumental complex later inscribed by UNESCO.

   Tiwanaku, the Aymara, and the Inca

   Sources: Tiwanaku: Spiritual and Political Centre of the Tiwanaku Culture (UNESCO World Heritage Centre) · Bolivia: Early period (Encyclopaedia Britannica)

Asia

1. 🇧🇳BRN

   Brunei · Economy & Trade · 6th century CE

   Brunei trades with China as Po-ni

   Chinese sources record a trading kingdom on the north coast of Borneo, called Po-ni, exchanging tribute and goods with the Chinese empire from around the 6th century.

   Early Borneo: Trade, Tribute, and the Rise of Po-ni

   Sources: History of Brunei (Encyclopaedia Britannica) · Brunei (Encyclopaedia Britannica)

Europe

1. 🇲🇰MKD

   North Macedonia · Catastrophe · 518 CE

   Destruction of Scupi

   A devastating earthquake destroyed the Roman city of Scupi near present-day Skopje, an event marking the late-antique decline of the region's classical urban life on the eve of Slavic settlement.

   Ancient Macedon and the Classical Legacy

   Sources: North Macedonia: History (Ancient, Ottoman, Yugoslav) (Encyclopaedia Britannica)

Africa

1. 🇪🇹ETH

   Ethiopia · War & Rupture · c. 525 CE

   Aksumite intervention in Arabia

   Aksum sends forces across the Red Sea into Himyarite South Arabia, the high-water mark of its power before trade routes and the rise of Islam begin its decline.

   The Kingdom of Aksum and Early Christianity

   Sources: Kingdom of Aksum (World History Encyclopedia)

Asia

1. 🇾🇪YEM

   Yemen · War & Rupture · c. 525 CE

   Aksumite conquest and the viceroy Abraha

   An Ethiopian (Aksumite) invasion overthrew the Himyarite kingdom; the Christian viceroy Abraha later ruled from Yemen before the Sasanian Persians seized the region around 570.

   Ancient South Arabia: The Incense Kingdoms

   Sources: Abraha (Himyarite kingdom, Christian ruler of Yemen) (Encyclopaedia Britannica) · Yemen: History (ancient kingdoms, Islam, the imamate, unification and war) (Encyclopaedia Britannica)

Africa

1. 🇩🇿DZA

   Algeria · War & Rupture · 533–534

   Byzantine reconquest

   Justinian's general Belisarius lands in 533 and within a year destroys the Vandal kingdom, restoring Byzantine imperial rule over coastal North Africa.

   Vandals, Byzantines and the Coming of Islam

   Sources: Battle of Tricamarum (World History Encyclopedia) · North Africa: The Vandal conquest (Encyclopaedia Britannica)

Africa

1. 🇹🇳TUN

   Tunisia · War & Rupture · 533–534 CE

   Byzantine reconquest

   Belisarius restores Carthage to the Eastern Roman Empire, ending Vandal rule.

   Roman Africa, Christianity & the Vandals

   Sources: History of Tunisia (Wikipedia)

Asia

1. 🇹🇷TUR

   Türkiye · Religion · 537 CE

   Justinian completes the Hagia Sophia

   Emperor Justinian I inaugurated the great domed church of Hagia Sophia in Constantinople, the masterpiece of Byzantine architecture and for centuries the largest cathedral in the world.

   Greek, Roman and Byzantine Anatolia

   Sources: Byzantine Empire (Encyclopædia Britannica)

Asia

1. 🇯🇵JPN

   Japan · Religion · c. 538-552 CE

   Introduction of Buddhism

   Buddhism reaches Japan from the Korean kingdom of Baekje, traditionally dated to 552; it is championed by the Soga clan over conservative opposition.

   Yamato and Asuka: The Birth of the State

   Sources: Asuka period (Encyclopaedia Britannica) · Japan (Encyclopaedia Britannica)

Africa

1. 🇸🇩SDN

   Sudan · Religion · 6th century CE

   Nubia converts to Christianity

   Nobatia, Makuria and Alodia adopt Christianity, partly through missions linked to the Byzantine court; the Nubian Nile becomes a Christian realm.

   The Christian Kingdoms of Nubia

   Sources: Nubia (Christian kingdoms: Nobatia, Makuria, Alodia) (Wikipedia) · Christian Nubia and Muslim Egypt Sign Treaty (EBSCO Research Starters)

Asia

1. 🇦🇫AFG

   Afghanistan · Religion · 6th century CE

   The Bamiyan Buddhas carved

   Monks carve two colossal Buddhas, about 55 and 38 metres high, into the cliffs of the Bamiyan Valley, a great centre of Buddhist pilgrimage on the routes through the Hindu Kush.

   Bactria, Gandhara and the Buddhist Age

   Sources: Cultural Landscape and Archaeological Remains of the Bamiyan Valley (UNESCO World Heritage Centre) · Bamiyan — Afghanistan, History, Buddha Statues (Encyclopaedia Britannica)

Europe

1. 🇦🇱ALB

   Albania · Religion · 6th c. CE

   Early Christian Butrint

   Butrint became an episcopal seat with an early Christian basilica and a baptistery whose mosaic floor survives, marking the spread of Christianity in the region under Byzantium.

   Illyrians, Greeks, Rome and Byzantium

   Sources: Butrint (UNESCO World Heritage Centre)

Asia

1. 🇰🇿KAZ

   Kazakhstan · Peoples & Migration · 6th century CE

   Turkic khaganates dominate the steppe

   Turkic-speaking confederations, beginning with the Türk (Göktürk) Khaganate and later the Karakhanids, take control of the region; Zhetysu becomes a heartland of the Western Turkic realm, fixing the Turkic language and spreading Islam.

   The Saka and the Turkic Steppe

   Sources: History of Kazakhstan (Encyclopædia Britannica) · Kazakhstan (Encyclopædia Britannica)

North America

1. 🇧🇿BLZ

   Belize · War & Rupture · 562 CE

   Caracol defeats Tikal

   Caracol, allied with Calakmul, won a decisive "Star War" victory over Tikal in 562 CE; the defeated city carved no monuments for over a century, marking Caracol's rise as a great power of the southern lowlands.

   The land of the Maya

   Sources: Caracol Archaeological Project — History of the Site (Caracol Archaeological Project) · History of Belize (Encyclopædia Britannica)

Europe

1. 🇮🇪IRL

   Ireland · Religion

   Columba founds Iona

   The Irish monk Columba established the monastery of Iona off western Scotland, a launching point for the spread of Christianity and Irish learning into Scotland and Northumbria.

   Gaelic Ireland and the Monastic Golden Age

   Sources: Ireland Converts to Christianity (EBSCO Research Starters)

Europe

1. 🇮🇹ITA

   Italy · Peoples & Migration · 568 CE

   Lombard invasion of Italy

   The Lombards swept into Italy, fragmenting the peninsula into a patchwork of Lombard duchies and Byzantine territories and shaping its long political division.

   Medieval Italy: Papacy, Communes and Normans

   Sources: Italy (country overview and history) (Encyclopaedia Britannica)

Asia

1. 🇸🇦SAU

   Saudi Arabia · Religion · c. 570 CE

   Birth of Muhammad in Mecca

   Muhammad was born in Mecca into the Banu Hashim clan of the Quraysh, the tribe that controlled the pilgrimage sanctuary of the Kaaba.

   The Birth of Islam: Muhammad, Mecca and Medina

   Sources: Hijrah: History, Definition, and Importance (Encyclopaedia Britannica) · Muhammad (Wikipedia)

Asia

1. 🇨🇳CHN

   China · Politics & Power · 589 CE

   Sui dynasty reunifies China

   The Sui (581-618) reunite north and south and build the Grand Canal, restoring a centralized empire after centuries of division and setting the stage for the Tang golden age.

   Division, Reunification, and the Tang-Song Golden Age

   Sources: China (Encyclopaedia Britannica)

Europe

1. 🇪🇸ESP

   Spain · Religion · 589 CE

   Visigothic kingdom of Toledo turns Catholic

   At the Third Council of Toledo, King Reccared and the Visigoths converted from Arian to Catholic Christianity, binding the ruling Germanic elite to the Hispano-Roman Catholic population.

   Iberia: Celts, Phoenicians, Rome and the Visigoths

   Sources: Visigoth (Encyclopaedia Britannica)