The First Millenium

[Vince]

798

In England, the Kingdom of Mercia seizes the Kingdom of Kent.

At the Battle of Bornhöved, Charlemagne allies with the Slavs to defeat Saxon immigrants who have settled in western Germany. Killing six thousand Saxons, Charlemagne orders a massive slaughter and deportation of Saxon survivors and allows the Slave to settle there. Also, Charlemagne establishes the boundary between the Frankish Empire and the Danish Kingdom, a boundary that lasts for almost 1,000 years. This is a smart move by the Franks. With the continental boundary secure, the Danes are free to raid Britain and Ireland, relieving any threat to the Franks' northern coast.

It's a bad year for Moslem Spain. Having failed a few years earlier in its jihad, Moslem Spain is invaded by Asturias, the Catholic kingdom of the north, which sacks Lisbon. Unable to hold their conquest, however, the Catholics withdraw, leaving the Moslems with a revolt within their own kingdom.

 

[Vince]

799 is a fairly quiet year.

The great Lombard historian, Paul the Deacon, dies.

Pope Leo III flees to Charlemagne after being overthrown by aristocrats, and Charlemagne forcibly restores him to the papacy.

 

[Vince]

It's the year 800, and welcome to the ninth century! We'll be here for a while.

The American Indians had been steadily increasing in population due to the invention of the bow and arrow centuries earlier. By 800, this hunting weapon had spread over the entire North American continent.

The central part of the US eastern coast has a moderate climate and is becoming heavily populated by various Indian tribes. The Mississippi Culture is replacing the Woodland Culture and will eventually produce larger, more permanent towns in the southeastern United States.

In Mexico, the Mayan Culture begins an unexplainable decline. Although it will still dominate southern Mexico and Central America throughout the ninth century, other nations begin developing in northern Mexico.

 

[Vince]

We return to the year 800.

During this time, western Africa is having an economic boom. Just south of the Sahara, the Kingdom of Ghana controls major trading routes and is a powerful kingdom. Moslem traders arrive and bring even more trade.

Central and southern Africa continue to have population increases with little warfare. Arab traders are dealing with Africans on the southeastern coast but do not attempt to conquer the land.

On western Africa’s Atlantic coast, the Igbo people start making first-rate bronze articles. They had already been involved in trade, but their culture expands rapidly and peacefully through trade and peaceful unification.

Also in western Africa, the Takrur Kingdom begins, lasting almost five centuries. It was founded by wealthy nobles looking for land, refugees from the Kingdom of Ghana, and local people.

 

[Vince]

The year 800 rolls on.

Sometime during this century, Eldad the Danite, a dark-skinned Jewish merchant, creates a stir by claiming to have been born and raised in a Jewish kingdom in Ethiopia. He claimed that remnants of the tribe of Dan had migrated to Ethiopia over a period of centuries after Babylon had conquered Israel. But there really were a lot of Ethiopian Jews, so where did they come from? It appears that after the destruction of Jerusalem by Nebuchadnezzar, some Jewish army fugitives had fled to Ethiopia. There were already Jews there, and over the centuries, Jews fleeing persecution or poverty also migrated to Ethiopia. It also appears, from other sources, that remnants of the tribe of Dan had fled to Ethiopia on different occasions over the centuries.

Centered around Iraq, about 2% of the world population is Moslem. During this century, it will increase to include about 3% of the world population in the year 900.

 

[Vince]

We're not finished with the year 800 yet!

Things are peaceful for this century in Vietnam. A Chinese province, its people slowly develop a language different than Chinese. A few small revolts fail, but the growth of the own language makes independence inevitable in the following century.

In modern Peru, the Wari Culture begins its decline. Founded three centuries earlier in the Peruvian highlands along the Pacific coast, the Wari had developed an extensive road system and terraced fields. About this time, however, they fall into internal warfare and no major construction of anything takes place. It takes another two centuries for the Wari culture to disappear completely.

Venice, a major city in northern Italy is operating a flourishing slave trade, selling Slavs from eastern Europe.

Seizing much of northern Scotland, the Vikings destroy various Pict kingdoms. When it is over, the Picts and Vikings are absorbed by the Scots.

It will take them several decades to do it, but the Magyars conquer and settle modern Hungary, where they remain to this day.

 

[Vince]

Around this time, the Itza people of Central America become independent of the declining Maya Empire. They build an empire that dominates Central America and southern Mexico for centuries before military defeats eventually leave them with nothing but their island capital. Nine hundred years after they are formed, they become the last Mayan descendents to surrender to the Spanish.

And now we are done introducing the ninth century.

 

[Vince]

This time we're in the year 800 for real.

Having restored the Pope to power, Charlemagne is crowned on Christmas Day. His empire includes most of modern France and Germany.

There is some question about what exactly Charlemagne was crowned as. He was already King of the Franks when the Pope crowned him “Holy Roman Emperor.†This does not refer to the Holy Roman Empire, which did not exist for another century. The Pope meant that Charlemagne was the king of the Western Roman Empire, which had ceased to exist centuries ago. But because his realm was part of the Holy Roman Empire, some sources state that this was the beginning of it. At any rate, the Empress in Constantinople, who still claimed to be ruler of the Roman Empire, was not happy about it, but she couldn’t do anything. Meanwhile, many sources list this date as the birth of Germany. For centuries, Germany had consisted of a variety of small kingdoms, but now it is a unified part of the Frankish Empire.

Earlier in the year, Charlemagne had proposed to Empress Irene and been turned down. He might have dreamed of reforming the Roman Empire with himself as head. Also, he might have had problems of legality: many of his subjects could claim that he had conquered them against their will, and their deposed rulers were still the legal rulers. As head of the state religion of the Roman Empire, the Pope's declaration would have given Charlemagne some legality.

 

[Vince]

At last we have reached the year 801.

The great Chinese scholar Du You completes his 200 volume encyclopedia. Working on it for 36 years, Du You had accumulated history, music, and laws that went back for ten centuries.

Charlemagne had made his son Louis the Pious the Duke of Aquitaine, a large section of France that bordered Spain. Marching unopposed through the Catholic kingdom of northern Spain, Louis invades Moslem-controlled southern Spain, seizing Barcelona on Spain's northeastern coast. Today, it is Spain's second-largest city and the largest European city that is actually on the Mediterranean coast. In later years, Louis will push his frontiers steadily southward into Spain.

 

[Vince]

A lot of things happen in the year 802.

Irene, the murderously cruel but competent Empress of Byzantium is overthrown and sent into exile by Nikephoros, the finance minister. An opponent of statue worship, the new Emperor has to rapidly raise taxes to deal with rebellions and invasions, and he soon has everyone against him.

The Moslems have problems of their own, as Zaragoza, in Moslem Spain, rebels.

The Vikings continue their expansion, sacking the island of Iona off Scotland's coast.

In Cambodia, the Khmer Empire had been a puppet state, but it breaks free, forming a kingdom that will last more than six centuries.

In England, the Queen of Wessex accidentally poisons her husband, grabs all the loot she can, and flees to Charlemagne. Egbert of Wessex takes the throne for the next 37 years. Struggling for twenty years to remain independent, he finally conquers his surrounding kingdoms and holds on to most of them.

Agriculture in Europe enters a decline that lasts for five centuries. Strangely, the decline and frequent famines are the result of the scientific process of crop rotation. With too much food to sell, farmers cut back on production, growing only enough to feed their own families and workers. When things go wrong, there are surpluses in storage, but there is not enough farmland in use to make up for bad years.

 

[Vince]

Let's see if things improve in 803.

Charlemagne signs a peace treaty with Nikephoros, the new Byzantine Emperor. They settle their boundaries and agree that Venice will be independent of both of them. But rebellion breaks out in Byzantium, as a general and his army try to seize the throne. The rebellion ends quickly as the populace sides with the Emperor.

In Germany, a new restaurant named Stiftskeller St. Peter opens for business. It is still open today, and is the oldest continuously operated restaurant in the world.

Harun, ruler of the Moslem empire, murders his wealthy friend, kills or imprisons his relatives, and seizes the vast wealth they had accumulated as administrators of the empire.

On Saint Patrick's Day (March 17) fierce storms hit western Ireland, killing nearly 1,000 people.

 

[Vince]

804 is now here.

The Japanese Emperor sends a Buddhist scholar to China, and what does the scholar bring back? Tea. No joke, it's a major event in Japanese history.

Charlemagne conquers the Saxons--again.

 

[Vince]

Welcome to the year 805!

Moslem Saracens (who live in Arabia but are not Arabs) win a massive victory over the Byzantine Empire.

Li Song, a kindly, educated man, takes the throne of China's tottering Tang Dynasty. He tries in vain to strengthen imperial power over local leaders and warlords, and he resigns after several months due to ill health.

Krum the Horrible, ruler of Bulgaria, destroys the last of the Avars and seizes their territory. Before his reign is over, he will have doubled the size of Bulgaria and laid the foundations of a nation that still exists.

Do you know what your parents were doing fifty years ago today? They were staring in fascination at their little black and white TV sets, or listening closely to the radio, as John Glenn blasted into orbit. A devout, born-again Christian, Glenn had to bring "Friendship 7" down after three orbits when his heat shield began coming off.

 

[Vince]

And now it is 806.

Heizei begins his three year reign as Emperor of Japan. He re-organizes his bodyguards but does little else. He resigns later due to illness.

In "The Day of the Trench," Moslems recapture Toledo, Spain and massacre over 700 civilians.

Once again, Vikings raid the island of Iona off the Scottish coast, and this time they massacre everybody.

The Byzantine Emperor appoints Nicephoros, a chaste, scholarly layman, as Patriarch of Constantinople. An excellent historian whose works are still valued today, the new Patriarch did whatever the Emperor told him to, until he was deposed nine years later.

 

[Vince]

Welcome to 807.

Danish Vikings invade the southwestern tip of Great Britain. Being Christians, they form an alliance with the local people against the pagan West Saxons.

Another revolt breaks out in Moslem Spain.

Irish monks complete The Book of Armagh. Containing earlier records of the life of St. Patrick and an almost complete New Testament, the book contains the oldest complete narratives in Old Irish. Most of it is written in Latin, however, and it is a symbol of authority that is kept in the Museum at Dublin in Trinity College.

European astronomers record sun spots for the first time. Without the uninvented telescope, they could observe the sun by aiming a pin-sized hole at the sun and then studying the light that comes through.

An Arab fleet has been making raids in the Mediterranean, and this year they attack the island of Rhodes in the eastern part of the sea.

 

[Vince]

808 is a year of upheavals.

The Moslem empire moves its capital 73 miles north from Baghdad to Samarra. The process actually takes almost three decades, before rioting in Baghdad forces them to complete the move.

Fez becomes the capital of the Shi’ite Dynasty in Morocco. Jews are granted relative freedom and several schools of Jewish learning develop there. Beginning as a city of tents, it soon becomes the cultural center of north Africa.

 

[Vince]

809 has arrived!

Harun al-Rashid, ruler of the Moslem empire and fictionalized ruler of the Arabian Nights, dies while putting down a rebellion. His death is followed by several years of revolts.

Civil war breaks out between Persian Moslems. Four years later, the winners end most persecution of non-Moslems.

Famine breaks out in Charlemagne's empire.

The Bulgarians besiege and capture the heavily walled and fortified city of Sofia in the center of the Balkan Peninsula. The Byzantines are startled at the loss of what is now Europe's fifteenth largest city. Over the next thirteen centuries the Bulgarians will occasionally lose it, but it is still their capital today.

 

[Vince]

Welcome to 810 AD!

A lone swordsman tries to assassinate Byzantine Emperor Nicephorus. At his trial, the man offers a bizarre and unusual defense: he claims insanity.

Struggling to recover from internal conflict, China's tottering Tang Dynasty demands that Tibet return all captured territory. It's a claim that China still makes today: if an area was ever part of China, it is still part of China.

In west central Spain, the city of Merida joins the revolt against their Moslem rulers. The rebels are also Moslems; they just don't like the way things are being run.

The Mayan kingdom of Tikal, in modern Guatemala, completes the Temple of the Jaguar Priest. Almost 25 stories high, it is the tallest surviving structure from Tikal.

Fresh from their conquest of Sofia last year, the Bulgarians destroy the last remnants of the Avars. Still smarting from the loss of Sofia, however, the Byzantines have assembled an army and they're getting ready to invade.

 

[Vince]

You have now reached the year 811!


Civil war breaks out between two brothers who claim the throne of the Moslem Empire. One leads a 50,000 man infantry army, while the other leads a 10,000 man army that has abundant cavalry. The Battle of Rayy (Yes, I spelled it correctly) in Iran is a turning point in Moslem history, because the smaller, faster cavalry defeated the larger, slower infantry force. Learning from this, Moslems begin training cavalry.

Gathering spare troops from the entire Byzantine Empire, Emperor Nicephorus personally invades Bulgaria. He sacks the Bulgarian capital, not realizing that the Bulgarians are blocking all the passes leading out. His troops are devastated and almost annihilated in a series of ambushes and night attacks, and the Emperor is killed. Krum the Horrible, Bulgaria's leader, has Nicephorus's skull encased in silver and uses it to drink wine. For the next 150 years, Bulgaria expands while the Byzantines leave them alone, except for when the Bulgarians invade Byzantium.

Badly wounded in the battle, Nicephorus's son is forced to abdicate to his brother-in-law Michael I. Michael begins persecuting those who oppose statue worship and is soon forced to deal with a Bulgarian invasion of Byzantium.

 

[Vince]

It is now 812.

The government of China begins issuing paper money.

Still dealing with a famine, Charlemagne orders certain crops to be planted on German farms.