As a means of recording the passage of time, the 13th century was that century which lasted from 1201 through 1300 in accordance with the Julian calendar in the Christian/Common Era. In the history of European culture, this period is considered part of the High Middle Ages, and after its conquests in Asia the Mongol Empire stretched from Eastern Asia to Eastern Europe.

[edit] Events

Map of Eurasia circa 1200 C.E.

The Mongols, under the leadership of Genghis Khan, overran most of Asia, thus creating the second largest empire to ever exist, surpassed only by the British Empire. They achieved this success in large part due to their amazing horse archers.

• 1204 — Fourth Crusade sacks Byzantine Constantinople and creates the Latin Empire.
• 1204 — Fall of Normandy from Angevin hands to the French King, Philip Augustus, end of Norman domination of France.
• 1205 — Battle of Adrianople (1205): Tsar Kaloyan with his army crushed the (otherwise unbeaten) Fourth Crusade's knights and the soldiers of Emperor Baldwin I of Constantinople who was attacking Bulgarian lands with the goal to conquer them.
• 1206 — Mongols united under Temüjin, who is proclaimed "Genghis Khan".
• 1212 — The Battle of Las Navas de Tolosa in Iberia sees the beginning of a rapid Christian reconquest of the southern half of the Iberian peninsula, with the defeat of Moorish forces.
• 1215 — King John of England forced to sign Magna Carta at Runnymede.
• 1215 — Beijing is captured and torched by the Mongols under Genghis Khan, initiating the Yuan Dynasty in China.
• 1220 — The Islamic lands of Central Asia are overrun by the armies of the Mongol invader Genghis Khan.
• 1221 — The Maya of the Yucatán revolt against the rulers of Chichen Itza.
• 1222 — Andrew II of Hungary signs the Golden Bull which affirms the privileges of Hungarian nobility.
• 1227 — Genghis Khan dies during the prolonged siege of the Western Xia Dynasty capital (located in northwestern China), while the Tangut Western Xia Dynasty falls soon after.
• 1234 — the Jin Dynasty of northeastern China is conquered by the forces of the Mongol ruler Ögedei Khan.
• 1238 — The Thai Kingdom of Sukhothai is established, with Theravada Buddhism as the state religion. Later in the century it vassalises significant parts of modern Thailand, Laos, Burma, and Malaysia.
• 1249 — End of the Portuguese Reconquista against the Moors, when King Afonso III of Portugal reconquers the Algarve.
• 1250-1275 — the Arab or Persian born Muslim Pu Shougeng was appointed by the Song Dynasty Chinese government as the Commissioner of Merchant Shipping for Quanzhou.
• 1258 — Baghdad (Iraq), seat of the Muslim Abbasid dynasty, is besieged and burnt to the ground by the forces of the Mongol commander Hulagu Khan. The last Abbasid ruler Al-Musta'sim is executed by means of trampling horses.
• 1259 — the Mongol ruler Möngke Khan is killed in battle by a Chinese cannon blast at Fishing Town, Chongqing, located in southwestern China.
• 1260 — the Mongols are defeated by the Egyptian Mamluks in the Battle of Ain Jalut.
• 1270 — Restoration of Solomonic dynasty in Ethiopia, deposing the Zagwe dynasty.

Portrait of the Chinese Zen Buddhist Wuzhun Shifan, painted in 1238, Song Dynasty.

Hommage of Edward I (kneeling), to the Philippe le Bel (seated). As Duke of Aquitaine, Edward was a vassal to the French king.

• 1271 — Edward I of England and Charles of Anjou arrive in Acre, starting the Ninth Crusade against Baibars.
• 1271 — Kublai Khan establishes the Yuan Dynasty in China.
• 1276 — A severe 23-year drought begins to affect the Grand Canyon area, eventually forcing the agriculture-dependent Anasazi culture to migrate out of the region.
• 1277 — Sultan Baibars invades Anatolia and captures the emirates which once composed the Sultanate of Rüm.
• 1279, the Battle of Yamen marks the fall of the Chinese Song Dynasty and the rise of the Mongol-ruled Yuan Dynasty led by Kublai Khan.
• 1279 — The Chola Dynasty of South India falls under attacks by the Hoysala Empire and Pandyan kingdom.
• 1281 — Mamluk sultan Qalawun defeats an invasion of Syria by Mongol Ilkhan Abaqa Khan at the Second Battle of Homs.
• 1281 — The second Mongol invasion of Japan is foiled, as a large typhoon — famously called a kamikaze — destroys much of the combined Chinese and Korean fleet and forces.
• 1282 — Aragon acquires Sicily, after the Sicilian Vespers.
• 1283 — Kublai Khan's Yuan Dynasty invades the Khmer empire of present-day Cambodia; King Jayavarman VIII decides to pay tribute rather than fight the invasion.
• 1284 — Peterhouse, Cambridge founded by Hugo de Balsham, the Bishop of Ely.
• 1285 — Second Mongol raid against Hungary, led by Nogai Khan.
• 1291 — The Swiss Confederation is formed by Uri, Schwyz, and Unterwalden.
• 1291 — Mamluk Sultan of Egypt Khalil captures Acre, thus exterminating the Crusader Kingdom of Jerusalem (the final Christian landholding remaining from the Crusades).
• 1295 — Ghazan Khan of the Ilkhanate converts from Tantric Buddhism to Islam.
• Battle of Bouvines
• Bantu-speaking peoples arrive in modern Angola, partially displacing the original Khoisan inhabitants.
• Persian historian Rashid al-Din records eleven Buddhist texts circulating in Arabic translation.
• James I of Aragon takes control of Balearic Islands and Valencia.
• Marco Polo and his family reach China.
• Norway cedes the Isle of Man to Scotland, following the signing of the Treaty of Perth.
• Teutonic Knights begin activity in Eastern Europe.
• Theravada overtakes Mahayana as the dominant form of Buddhism in Cambodia.
• A period of civil unrest, . Sturlungaöld, leads to Iceland becoming part of the Kingdom of Norway.

• End of Hohenstaufen dynasty at the Battle of Tagliacozzo. The Kingdom of Sicily goes to French Anjou house.
• Fall of the Ghana Empire.
• Fall of the Hohenstaufen dynasty of Holy Roman Emperors. Sicily and Naples are acquired by the French count Charles I of Naples.
• Fifth through eighth crusades of western European kingdoms against Islam.
• Finland gets its first city, Turku.
• First European universities founded.
• Most of Asia and Eastern Europe is conquered and incorporated into the Mongol Empire. However, the Mongol Empire became split into four separate khanates by the end of this century.
• The Medieval Warm Period ends.
• The Utiguri Bulgar state on the Volga vanishes from history.
• Samoa gains its independence from the Tu'i Tonga Empire, and founds the Malietoa dynasty.

[edit] Significant people

Frescoes from the 13th century Boyana Church.

Queen Tamara.

• Genghis Khan, founder of Mongol Empire
• Batu Khan, Mongol ruler and the founder of the Golden Horde
• Haakon Haakonsson, king of Norway from 1217 to 1263. After the long civil war Norway would again prosper under his rule and come to dominate Scandinavian politics.
• Kaloyan, Emperor of Bulgaria
• Ivan Asen II, Emperor of Bulgaria
• Edward I of England, English King
• Ottokar II of Bohemia, King of Bohemia
• Baibars, Mameluk sultan of Egypt
• Ibn Taymiyyah, famous Hanbali, Salafi Scholar of Islam
• Dante Alighieri, Italian writer
• William Marshal, knight and statesman.
• Saint Thomas Aquinas, theologian
• Giotto di Bondone, Italian painter
• Cimabue, Florentine painter
• Sundiata Keita semi-historical founder of the Mali Empire
• Alexander of Hales, philosopher and theologian
• Albertus Magnus, German philosopher and theologian
• Francis of Assisi, founder of the Franciscan order
• Robert Grosseteste, English statesman, theologian, and scientist
• Roger Bacon, Franciscan, philosopher, and scientist
• Birger jarl, Swedish statesman, earl, and founder of Stockholm
• Bonaventure, Franciscan theologian
• Petrus Peregrinus, scientist
• Louis IX of France, St. Louis, French king and crusader
• Frederick II, emperor of the Holy Roman Empire
• Ramon Llull, Majorcan philosopher
• Kublai Khan, Khan ruler, founder of Yuan Dynasty in China
• Alexander Nevsky, Grand Prince of Novgorod and Vladimir
• Saadi Persian poet
• Snorri Sturluson, historian and saga-writer
• William Wallace, Scottish national leader
• Béla IV of Hungary rebuilder of Hungary after the devastating Mongol invasion
• Lembitu, Estonian ruler
• Queen Tamara, ruler of Georgia
• Lasha Giorgi, King Giorgi IV of Georgia
• Queen Rusudan, Queen Regnant of Georgia

[edit] Inventions, discoveries, introductions

• List of 13th century inventions
• The motet form originates out of the Ars antiqua tradition of Western European music.
• Manuscript culture develops out of this time period in cities in Europe, which denotes a shift from monasteries to cities for books.
• Pecia system of copying books develops in Italian university-towns and was taken up by the University of Paris in the middle of the century.
• Wooden movable type printing invented by the Chinese governmental minister Wang Zhen in 1298.
• The earliest known rockets, landmines, and handguns are made by the Chinese for use in warfare.
• The Chinese adopt the windmill from the Islamic world.

[edit] Decades and years

[edit] External links

• The Thirteenth: Greatest of Centuries by James J. Walsh, 1907