The 8th century

Africa

1. 🇰🇲COM

   Comoros · Peoples & Migration · by the 8th century CE

   Earliest settlement of the islands

   Austronesian seafarers and Bantu-speaking peoples from the African mainland settle the archipelago, occupying the islands no later than the eighth century CE and embedding them in Swahili-coast networks.

   Settlement and the Coming of Islam

   Sources: History of the Comoros (Wikipedia) · Comoros (Wikipedia) · A history of Grande Comore (Ngazidja) ca. 700–1900 (African History Extra)

2. 🇪🇷ERI

   Eritrea · Politics & Power · c. 7th century CE

   Decline of Aksum and Adulis

   Shifting trade routes and the rise of Islam on the Arabian shore erode Red Sea commerce; Adulis fades and Aksum's power contracts inland.

   Aksum, Adulis and the Red Sea Trade

   Sources: Aksumite Empire (New World Encyclopedia) · Massawa (Encyclopaedia Britannica)

3. 🇪🇹ETH

   Ethiopia · Politics & Power · c. 7th century CE

   Decline of Aksum

   The rise of Islam and the loss of Red Sea trade erode Aksum's wealth; the kingdom contracts and its centre of gravity shifts inland and southward.

   The Kingdom of Aksum and Early Christianity

   Sources: Aksum — World Heritage Centre (UNESCO) · Kingdom of Aksum (World History Encyclopedia)

4. 🇲🇬MDG

   Madagascar · Peoples & Migration · 1st millennium CE

   Bantu African arrivals

   Migrants from the East African mainland mix with Austronesian settlers, forming the Malagasy people and language.

   Settlement & the Making of the Malagasy

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

5. 🇲🇷MRT

   Mauritania · Formation · c. 8th century

   Ghana Empire dominates the trade routes

   The Soninke kingdom of Ghana (Wagadou) controls the trans-Saharan gold-and-salt trade, with its influence reaching into the south of present-day Mauritania.

   The Ghana Empire and the Sanhaja Sahara

   Sources: Mauritania (Encyclopaedia Britannica) · History of Mauritania (Wikipedia)

6. SOL

   Somaliland · Religion · early medieval period

   Islam takes root on the Gulf of Aden coast

   Merchants and seafarers crossing the narrow Gulf of Aden carried Islam to the northern Somali shore very early, making it one of the oldest centres of Muslim life in Africa, with Zeila among its earliest mosque towns.

   An Ancient Coast: Zeila, Islam and Adal

   Sources: Zeila (Wikipedia) · A complete history of Zeila (Zayla), a medieval city in Somaliland (African History Extra) · The Sultanates of Somalia (World Civilization) (Lumen Learning)

Asia

1. 🇧🇹BTN

   Bhutan · Religion · 7th century

   First Buddhist temples founded

   Tibetan tradition credits King Songtsen Gampo with building the earliest Buddhist temples in the Bhutanese valleys, including Kyichu Lhakhang at Paro, as Buddhism spread south from Tibet.

   Buddhism and the Valleys of the Thunder Dragon

   Sources: Nepal and Bhutan: Country Studies (Federal Research Division, Library of Congress) · Bhutan — History (Encyclopaedia Britannica)

2. 🇰🇭KHM

   Cambodia · Politics & Power · late 8th century CE

   Fragmentation of Chenla

   Chenla splits into a Land Chenla and a Water Chenla and loses cohesion, leaving the Khmer lands divided on the eve of the Angkorian unification.

   Funan and Chenla: The Indianized Kingdoms

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

3. 🇱🇦LAO

   Laos · Peoples & Migration · 1st millennium CE

   Tai-Lao settlement of the Mekong

   Tai-speaking peoples migrating southward settle the middle Mekong valley, organizing into numerous small principalities (muang) such as Muang Swa, the future Luang Prabang.

   Mekong Settlement and the Older Civilizations

   Sources: Laos: History (Encyclopaedia Britannica) · Lan Xang (Encyclopaedia Britannica)

North America

1. 🇧🇸BHS

   Bahamas · Peoples & Migration · by c. 700 CE

   Lucayan settlement of the islands

   The Lucayans, a Taíno (Arawakan) people, migrated from Hispaniola and Cuba and settled the Bahamian archipelago, eventually numbering perhaps 40,000 across dozens of islands.

   The Lucayans and Columbus's landfall

   Sources: How Archaeologists Are Unearthing the Secrets of the Bahamas' First Inhabitants (Smithsonian Magazine) · Bahamas: Local History and Genealogy — Research Guide (Library of Congress) · The Bahamas — British colonization (History) (Encyclopaedia Britannica)

2. 🇧🇿BLZ

   Belize · Culture & Ideas · c. 600–800 CE

   Height of the Classic Maya cities

   Caracol, Xunantunich, Lamanai, Altun Ha and others flourished as ceremonial and political centres, with monumental architecture, hieroglyphic inscriptions and populations in the tens of thousands sustained by intensive agriculture.

   The land of the Maya

   Sources: Caracol Archaeological Project — History of the Site (Caracol Archaeological Project) · History of Belize (Encyclopædia Britannica) · Our History (Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Government of Belize)

Asia

1. 🇯🇵JPN

   Japan · Politics & Power · 710 CE

   Capital established at Nara

   The court founds Japan's first permanent capital, Heijo-kyo (Nara), modeled on the Tang Chinese capital, beginning the Nara period.

   Nara and Heian: The Classical Age

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

Asia

1. 🇵🇰PAK

   Pakistan · Religion · 711 CE

   Muhammad ibn Qasim conquers Sindh

   An Umayyad army under Muhammad ibn Qasim conquers Sindh and southern Punjab, bringing Islam to the Indus lands for the first time.

   Islam, the Sultans and the Mughals

   Sources: Pakistan: A Country Study (Library of Congress, Federal Research Division)

Europe

1. 🇪🇸ESP

   Spain · War & Rupture · 711 CE

   Umayyad conquest and the Battle of Guadalete

   An Umayyad army under Tariq ibn Ziyad defeated and killed the Visigothic king Roderic, opening the way to the rapid Muslim conquest of most of the peninsula and the creation of Al-Andalus.

   Al-Andalus and the Reconquista

   Sources: Al-Andalus (Encyclopaedia Britannica) · The Art of the Umayyad Period in Spain (711–1031) (The Metropolitan Museum of Art)

Asia

1. 🇺🇿UZB

   Uzbekistan · Religion · c. 706–712 CE

   Arab conquest of Bukhara and Samarkand

   The Umayyad commander Qutaybah ibn Muslim takes Bukhara and Samarkand and annexes Transoxiana, beginning the Islamisation of the region beyond the Oxus.

   The Arab Conquest and the Samanid Golden Age

   Sources: Qutaybah ibn Muslim (Encyclopaedia Britannica) · Bukhara — Uzbekistan, Map, History & Facts (Encyclopaedia Britannica)

Asia

1. 🇸🇾SYR

   Syria · Religion · 705–715 CE

   The Great Mosque of Damascus

   Under Caliph al-Walid the Umayyads build the Great (Umayyad) Mosque of Damascus, one of the oldest and grandest mosques in the world, on a site holy to Roman, Christian and Muslim worship.

   Islam and the Umayyad Caliphate of Damascus

   Sources: Great Mosque of Damascus (Encyclopaedia Britannica) · Ancient City of Damascus — UNESCO World Heritage List (UNESCO World Heritage Centre)

Asia

1. 🇯🇴JOR

   Jordan · Culture & Ideas · early 8th century CE

   Quseir Amra is built

   An Umayyad prince raised the bath-house and pleasure palace of Quseir Amra, whose figurative murals make it one of the most important survivals of early Islamic art; UNESCO inscribed it in 1985.

   Islam, the Caliphates and Four Centuries of Ottoman Rule

   Sources: Quseir Amra (UNESCO World Heritage Centre)

2. 🇳🇵NPL

   Nepal · Formation · 723 CE

   Traditional founding of Kathmandu

   Tradition credits Raja Gunakamadeva with founding the town of Kathmandu during the Licchavi period; it would later give its name to the valley and the nation's capital.

   Ancient Kingdoms: Kirata and Licchavi

   Sources: Nepal — History (Himalayas, Monarchy, Unification) (Encyclopædia Britannica)

Africa

1. 🇪🇷ERI

   Eritrea · Peoples & Migration · c. 8th century

   Beja ascendancy on the coast

   After the fall of Aksum, Beja confederacies dominate the caravan routes and coastal trade of what is now Eritrea, holding sway in the Massawa region for centuries.

   The Beja, the Dahlak Sultanate and the Muslim Coast

   Sources: Massawa (Wikipedia) · Massawa (Encyclopaedia Britannica)

Asia

1. 🇲🇳MNG

   Mongolia · Politics & Power · c. 744 CE

   Uyghur khaganate in the Orkhon valley

   Turkic Uyghurs establish a khaganate centred on the Orkhon River, building the city of Khar Balgas; the valley remains the political and ceremonial heart of the eastern steppe.

   Lords of the Steppe: The Xiongnu and Early Nomads

   Sources: Orkhon Valley Cultural Landscape (World Heritage List) (UNESCO World Heritage Centre) · History of Mongolia (Encyclopaedia Britannica)

Europe

1. 🇸🇮SVN

   Slovenia · Politics & Power · c. 745

   Carantania under Frankish overlordship

   Allied with Bavaria against the Avars, Carantania was drawn into the Frankish realm and gradually Christianised, ending its independence and binding the region to the Holy Roman Empire.

   Carantania and the Slavic Settlement of the Eastern Alps

   Sources: Our past (Slovenia.si (Government Communication Office)) · History of Slovenia (Government of Slovenia (gov.si))

Asia

1. 🇧🇹BTN

   Bhutan · Religion · 8th century

   Guru Rinpoche brings Buddhism to Bhutan

   The tantric master Guru Padmasambhava (Guru Rinpoche) is said to have travelled into Bhutan, blessing sites such as Bumthang and the Taktsang cliff at Paro and marking the proper advent of Buddhism in the country.

   Buddhism and the Valleys of the Thunder Dragon

   Sources: Padmasambhava (Guru Rinpoche) (Encyclopaedia Britannica) · Nepal and Bhutan: Country Studies (Federal Research Division, Library of Congress)

Asia

1. 🇧🇩BGD

   Bangladesh · Formation · c. 750 CE

   Gopala founds the Pala dynasty

   Gopala is raised to power amid disorder and founds the Pala dynasty, a Buddhist imperial line that would rule Bengal and Bihar for some four centuries and spread Buddhism as far as Tibet.

   Buddhist and Hindu Bengal: the Pala and Sena Dynasties

   Sources: Pala dynasty (Encyclopædia Britannica)

2. 🇮🇷IRN

   Iran · Politics & Power · 750 CE

   Abbasid Revolution and the rise of Baghdad

   Backed by support from Persian Khorasan, the Abbasids overthrow the Umayyads and found Baghdad, drawing heavily on Persian administrative and intellectual traditions.

   The Arab Conquest and Islamic Persia — the Golden Age

   Sources: House of Wisdom (Wikipedia) · The Phases, History, and Legacy of the Arab Conquests (632–750 CE) (TheCollector)

3. 🇴🇲OMN

   Oman · Religion · c. 750 CE

   The first Ibadi imamate

   Around 750 CE the Ibadis established their first imamate in Oman under al-Julanda ibn Masud, an elected imam uniting temporal and religious authority and giving Oman a distinctive political identity.

   Islam and the Ibadi Imamate

   Sources: Oman: History of Oman - The Imamates (Fanack) · Ibadiyyah, Islamic sect (Encyclopaedia Britannica)

Europe

1. 🇸🇪SWE

   Sweden · Economy & Trade · c. 750–970

   The trading town of Birka

   Birka on the island of Björkö in Lake Mälaren flourished as a key Baltic trading settlement, connecting Scandinavia by river route to the Byzantine Empire and the Islamic world, before its abandonment in the late tenth century.

   Vikings, Birka and the Coming of Christianity

   Sources: Birka and Hovgården (UNESCO World Heritage Centre) · Sweden: History (Encyclopaedia Britannica)

Asia

1. 🇴🇲OMN

   Oman · Religion · 8th century onward

   Ibadism becomes Oman's defining school

   The Ibadi school of Islam took root across the Omani interior, making Oman its principal home and shaping a tradition of imams chosen for learning and piety rather than heredity.

   Islam and the Ibadi Imamate

   Sources: Ibadiyyah, Islamic sect (Encyclopaedia Britannica) · Oman: History of Oman - The Imamates (Fanack)

2. 🇰🇷KOR

   South Korea · Culture & Ideas · c. 751 CE

   Bulguksa and Seokguram built

   Unified Silla constructs the Bulguksa temple and the Seokguram grotto near Gyeongju, masterpieces of Buddhist art later inscribed as UNESCO World Heritage.

   Unified Silla and Goryeo

   Sources: Unified Silla dynasty (Encyclopaedia Britannica) · Seokguram Grotto and Bulguksa Temple (UNESCO World Heritage Centre)

3. 🇺🇿UZB

   Uzbekistan · War & Rupture · 751 CE

   Battle of Talas

   Abbasid Arab forces defeat the army of Tang China at the Battle of Talas, confirming Islam's hold on Central Asia and, by tradition, spreading papermaking westward.

   The Arab Conquest and the Samanid Golden Age

   Sources: Qutaybah ibn Muslim (Encyclopaedia Britannica)

North America

1. 🇭🇳HND

   Honduras · Culture & Ideas · c. 755 CE

   Hieroglyphic Stairway completed

   The fifteenth ruler finishes the great stairway, whose roughly 1,200 carved glyphs form the longest known Maya inscription.

   Copán and the First Peoples

   Sources: Hieroglyphic Stairway (Encyclopaedia Britannica) · Maya Site of Copán (UNESCO World Heritage Centre)

Europe

1. 🇻🇦VAT

   Vatican City · Formation

   The Donation of Pepin creates the Papal States

   After Pepin the Short forced the Lombards to surrender their conquests, he restored the lands of central Italy to the pope, creating the Papal States and the basis of papal temporal power.

   The Rise of Temporal Power and the Papal States

   Sources: Papal States (Encyclopaedia Britannica) · Papal States (summary) (Encyclopaedia Britannica)

Asia

1. 🇮🇶IRQ

   Iraq · Formation · 762 CE

   Al-Mansur founds Baghdad

   The Abbasid caliph al-Mansur founds Baghdad on the Tigris as his 'City of Peace', a circular capital that swiftly becomes one of the world's largest and wealthiest cities.

   Abbasid Baghdad and the Islamic Golden Age

   Sources: al-Manṣūr — Abbasid caliph (Encyclopædia Britannica) · Iraq — The Abbasid Caliphate (Encyclopædia Britannica)

Asia

1. 🇮🇩IDN

   Indonesia · Religion · c. 780–850 CE

   Construction of Borobudur

   Under the Sailendra dynasty in central Java the great Buddhist monument of Borobudur is built; the world's largest Buddhist temple, it is today a UNESCO World Heritage Site.

   Early Peoples and the Hindu-Buddhist Kingdoms: Srivijaya and Majapahit

   Sources: Borobudur (World History Encyclopedia) · Borobudur Temple Compounds (UNESCO World Heritage Centre)

Africa

1. 🇲🇦MAR

   Morocco · Formation · c. 788

   Idris I and the founding of the dynasty

   Idris ibn Abdallah, a sharif fleeing Abbasid persecution, wins the allegiance of the Awraba Berbers near Walila and founds the Idrisid dynasty, Morocco's first Muslim state.

   Islam and the Idrisid Dynasty

   Sources: Idrisid dynasty (Encyclopaedia Britannica) · Idrisid dynasty (New World Encyclopedia)

Europe

1. 🇦🇩AND

   Andorra · Formation · c. 788–790

   The Charlemagne tradition and the Marca Hispanica

   Andorran tradition, recalled in the anthem 'El Gran Carlemany', credits Charlemagne with freeing the valleys from the Moors and granting their charter; the region lay within the Carolingian frontier zone of the Marca Hispanica.

   Charlemagne, the Marca Hispanica and the Bishops of Urgell

   Sources: El Gran Carlemany: National Anthem of Andorra and the Charlemagne tradition (nationalanthems.info) · Andorra: History, Facts & Points of Interest (Encyclopaedia Britannica)

Asia

1. 🇯🇵JPN

   Japan · Politics & Power · 794 CE

   Capital moved to Heian-kyo (Kyoto)

   Emperor Kanmu relocates the capital to Heian-kyo, the site of Kyoto, opening the Heian period and a long era of aristocratic court culture.

   Nara and Heian: The Classical Age

   Sources: Heian period (Encyclopaedia Britannica)

Europe

1. 🇮🇪IRL

   Ireland · War & Rupture

   First Viking raids on Ireland

   Scandinavian raiders struck Rathlin Island in 795, beginning decades of assaults on the rich coastal monasteries recorded with alarm in the Irish annals.

   Vikings, Brian Boru and the Battle of Clontarf

   Sources: The Vikings in Ireland (World History Encyclopedia) · How the Vikings Shaped Ireland (TheCollector)