Islamic North Africa: Kairouan mosque (ca. 800 AD) The Eastern Roman reconquest of North Africa in the 530s AD ended the Vandal kingdom there. But trade declined until the Islamic invasions of North [...]
History of Brazil: The Tapuia people, ca. 1650 (by Albert Eckhout) Tupi war with Tapuia In the late 1400s AD, the Tupi people had just won a big war with the Tapuia people. [...]
History of gold - a bust of the Egyptian pharaoh Tutankhamon When did people first use gold? People have been using gold to make jewelry since the Stone Age. You can find it [...]
Nicholas hands the purses through the window to the poor girls (Chartres Cathedral, about 1200 AD) St. Nicholas is a Christian saint who is one source for the idea of Santa Claus. According [...]
Ohlone people crossing San Francisco Bay, with a European wool blanket (Louis Choris, 1816 AD) Native people in California In 1500 AD, California was a popular place to live. About [...]
The Apache get horses: an Apache rock painting, ca. 1800 AD Who were the Apache? Like their Navajo cousins, the Apache people were Athabascan. They moved south into the south-west part of North America [...]
Philip II of Spain Philip II of Spain As the great-grandson of Isabella, who had sent Columbus to America, and the son of Isabella of Portugal, Philip II ruled Spain starting [...]
Grasslands of Central Asia - the steppe homeland of the Avars Ruled by the Rouran The Avars were a mostly Turkic group of people. We first hear of them living [...]
Maybe the skull cup was something like this? Nicephorus deposed the Empress Irene in 802 AD and made himself emperor. He refused to pay tribute to the Islamic caliph, and therefore lost still more Roman [...]
Medieval economy: A carpenter works in his shop. Collapse of trade After the fall of Rome, people in Europe used money less than they had before. Instead they mostly lived on what they [...]
