1st Millennium

Events in the 1st Millennium 55

• 753 BC – 476 The Roman Civilisation The Roman civilisation — kingdom, republic and empire — shaped Western law, language, architecture, religion and governance more profoundly than any other ancient civilisation. From the legendary founding of Rome by Romulus in 753 BC to the deposition of the last western emperor Romulus Augustulus in 476 AD, Rome endured for over twelve centuries, governing at its peak an empire of 70 million people stretching from Scotland to Mesopotamia.
• 300 BC – 1279 Chola dynasty (South India) A great maritime and temple-building power The Cholas of the Tamil south were one of the longest-ruling dynasties in history, rising from the Sangam age to a medieval maritime empire that projected naval power across the Bay of Bengal to Southeast Asia. They built magnificent temples such as the Brihadeeswarar at Thanjavur and patronised bronze sculpture and Tamil literature.
• 300 BC – 300 Yayoi period Rice farming, bronze and iron arrive from the mainland The Yayoi period brought wet-rice cultivation, bronze and iron metallurgy, and the potter's wheel to Japan from Korea and China. These innovations drove population growth and the emergence of stratified society and local chieftaincies — the foundations of the Japanese state.
• 247 BC – 224 Parthian Empire Persian revival; rival of Rome The Parthian (Arsacid) Empire restored native Iranian rule and became Rome's great rival in the east for nearly five centuries, its famed horse-archers and cataphracts repeatedly checking Roman expansion — most notably annihilating Crassus's legions at Carrhae in 53 BC.
• 202 BC – 220 Han Dynasty The golden age that defined what it means to be Chinese The Han dynasty ruled for over 400 years and is considered China's first golden age. It consolidated Confucianism as state ideology, expanded the empire into Central Asia, and opened the Silk Road. Paper was invented during the Han period. The ethnic majority of China still call themselves "Han people" after this dynasty. It fell to internal rebellion and warlordism — giving rise to the Three Kingdoms period immortalised in Chinese literature.
• 27 BC – 14 Augustus — the reign Augustus rules from 27 BC to 14 AD — 41 years — transforming Rome from a city of brick to a city of marble. He creates a standing army with fixed pay and terms, a praetorian guard, a professional civil service, and a system of provinces governed by his legates. He reforms taxation, builds roads, reorganises the calendar and patronises Virgil, Horace, Livy and Ovid. The Pax Augusta — Roman peace — begins. His succession is troubled: he outlives three designated heirs before Tiberius succeeds him.
• 9 Battle of Teutoburg Forest In September 9 AD, three Roman legions under Publius Quinctilius Varus are ambushed and annihilated in the forests of Germania by a coalition of Germanic tribes led by Arminius — a Romanised German who had served in the Roman army. Perhaps 20,000 Romans are killed over three days. Augustus, on hearing the news, repeatedly cried "Varus, give me back my legions!" The Rhine becomes Rome's permanent northern boundary; the Rhine-Danube line, not further conquest, defines the empire's northern edge for four centuries.
• 14 – 37 Tiberius — the second Emperor Tiberius, Augustus's stepson and reluctant successor, rules from 14 to 37 AD. A brilliant general and competent administrator, he is a suspicious and withdrawn ruler who increasingly governs through his Praetorian prefect Sejanus. The treason trials (maiestas) multiply; Sejanus falls in 31 AD, accused of plotting against Tiberius. Tiberius retires to Capri and never returns to Rome. He dies aged 77, possibly smothered by Caligula. "What a man, and how completely he has escaped notice!" — his own words about himself.
• 37 – 41 Caligula — madness and murder Gaius Caesar Germanicus — nicknamed Caligula (Little Boot) by his father's soldiers — begins promisingly but within a year descends into what contemporaries describe as insanity. He humiliates the Senate, appoints his horse Incitatus to the consulship (allegedly), proclaims himself a living god, and conducts arbitrary executions. He is assassinated by Praetorian officers on 24 January 41 AD after less than four years. The Senate briefly considers restoring the Republic; the Praetorians instead choose Claudius, found hiding behind a curtain.
• 41 – 54 Claudius — the unexpected emperor Claudius, considered a fool by his family because of his physical disabilities (a limp and a stammer), proves a capable and reforming emperor. He conquers Britain in 43 AD — the first Roman landing since Caesar's raids — annexes Mauretania and Thrace, extends citizenship rights and reforms the bureaucracy. His fourth wife Agrippina the Younger poisons him with mushrooms in 54 AD to secure the succession for her son Nero. His Histories and Etruscan studies are lost; his memoirs survive only in fragments.
• 43 Roman invasion of Britain In 43 AD, Emperor Claudius dispatches four legions under Aulus Plautius to invade Britain. The crossing of the Channel and the campaign up to the Thames are completed in weeks. Claudius himself arrives for the decisive battle at Camulodunum (Colchester), which becomes the first Roman capital of Britain. The province of Britannia is established; within a generation Rome controls most of what is now England and Wales, eventually pushing into southern Scotland.
• 54 – 68 Nero — art, fire and the end of the Julio-Claudians Nero, last of the Julio-Claudian dynasty, begins well under the guidance of Seneca and Burrus but deteriorates into a tyrant who murders his mother Agrippina (59 AD), his wife Octavia, and the philosopher Seneca. He fancies himself a great artist and performer — shameful for a Roman aristocrat. The Great Fire of Rome burns for six days in 64 AD; Nero blames the Christians, inaugurating the first persecution. He is deposed by the Senate in 68 AD and kills himself: "What an artist dies in me!"
• 69 Year of the Four Emperors Following Nero's death in 68 AD, four emperors seize power in quick succession in 69 AD — the Year of the Four Emperors. Galba is murdered by the Praetorians after seven months; Otho kills himself after 95 days when Vitellius's Rhine legions defeat him; Vitellius is dragged through Rome and killed when the Danube legions march on Rome for their general Vespasian. The lesson is brutal and definitive: emperors are made by armies, not by the Senate or birth.
• 70 Destruction of Jerusalem In 70 AD, Titus — son of Emperor Vespasian — besieges and destroys Jerusalem, ending the First Jewish-Roman War. The Second Temple is burned; the Arch of Titus in Rome commemorates the triumph with a relief of the Menorah being carried away. Perhaps 1.1 million Jews die in the siege and subsequent massacres; 97,000 are enslaved. The Jewish Diaspora — the dispersal of the Jewish people across the Mediterranean — accelerates dramatically. The Colosseum in Rome is built partly with the spoils of Jerusalem.
• 79 Eruption of Vesuvius — Pompeii destroyed On 24 August 79 AD, Mount Vesuvius erupts, burying the cities of Pompeii, Herculaneum and Stabiae under metres of ash and pumice. Pompeii's 20,000 inhabitants have perhaps 18 hours to flee; those who remain are killed by the pyroclastic surge. The cities are preserved almost perfectly under the ash — a time capsule of Roman life. Pliny the Elder, commanding the fleet at Misenum, dies attempting to rescue survivors. His nephew Pliny the Younger watches from shore and writes the first eyewitness account of a volcanic eruption in history.
• 80 The Colosseum opens The Flavian Amphitheatre — the Colosseum — opens in 80 AD under Emperor Titus with 100 days of games. Built by 60,000–100,000 Jewish slaves from the spoils of Jerusalem, it seats 50,000–80,000 spectators. The inaugural games reportedly involve 9,000 animals killed and 2,000 gladiatorial combats. The Colosseum remains the largest amphitheatre ever built and the most visited monument in the world — 6 million visitors annually. It stands as the enduring symbol of Roman engineering and Roman entertainment.
• 96 – 180 The Five Good Emperors — Rome at its peak The reigns of Nerva (96–98), Trajan (98–117), Hadrian (117–138), Antoninus Pius (138–161) and Marcus Aurelius (161–180) are considered the zenith of Roman imperial governance. Each (except Nerva) was adopted by his predecessor on merit rather than blood — the adoptive succession that Gibbon believed made this "the period in the history of the world during which the condition of the human race was most happy and prosperous." The empire reaches its greatest territorial extent under Trajan.
• 98 – 117 Trajan — greatest territorial extent Trajan, born in Spain — the first non-Italian emperor — expands the empire to its greatest territorial extent. He conquers Dacia (modern Romania, 101–102, 105–106 AD) and campaigns in the east, briefly annexing Mesopotamia. Trajan's Column in Rome records the Dacian campaigns in 2,662 figures spiralling around 23 scenes. He is the only emperor the Senate accorded the title "Optimus Princeps" — best of emperors. He also conducts the largest building programme since Augustus: markets, forum, column, harbour at Ostia.
• 117 – 138 Hadrian — the consolidator Hadrian abandons Trajan's eastern conquests, recognising they are indefensible, and devotes his reign to consolidating and fortifying the empire's frontiers. He builds Hadrian's Wall across northern Britain (122–128 AD) — 73 miles of stone — and travels personally to almost every province. A passionate philhellene, he rebuilds Athens and completes the temple of Olympian Zeus. He reorganises the bureaucracy, codifies Roman law and builds the Pantheon — still the best-preserved building of ancient Rome, its concrete dome unsurpassed for 1,300 years.
• 150 Ptolemy — Almagest The geocentric model that dominated for 1,400 years Around 150 AD, Claudius Ptolemy of Alexandria published the Almagest, a comprehensive mathematical treatment of the motions of the Sun, Moon, and five known planets using a geocentric (Earth-centred) model. Despite being fundamentally wrong, the Almagest's predictive accuracy was extraordinary and it remained the authoritative astronomical text in Europe and the Islamic world until Copernicus in 1543. Understanding what it got wrong was as important as understanding what it got right.
• 161 – 180 Marcus Aurelius — philosopher emperor Marcus Aurelius, the last of the Five Good Emperors, is the closest approximation to Plato's philosopher-king in history. He writes the Meditations — a private Stoic philosophical diary — while campaigning on the Danube. His reign is dominated by the Antonine Plague (165–180 AD), which kills perhaps five million people across the empire, and continuous warfare on the northern frontier. He breaks the adoptive succession by allowing his son Commodus to succeed him — a decision Gibbon calls the beginning of Rome's decline.
• 165 – 180 Antonine Plague The Antonine Plague — possibly smallpox or measles, brought back by soldiers returning from the Parthian campaign — spreads across the empire from 165 to 180 AD, killing an estimated two to five million people. At its peak it kills 2,000 people per day in Rome. It weakens the empire's military and economic capacity at a critical moment, reducing the tax base and forcing the recruitment of barbarians into the legions. The physician Galen, who witnesses the epidemic, provides the most detailed surviving ancient account.
• 180 – 192 Commodus — the gladiator emperor Commodus, Marcus Aurelius's son and biological successor, abandons his father's serious governance for games, vanity and cruelty. He renames Rome "Colonia Commodiana," renames the months after himself, and fights in the arena as a gladiator — a mortal insult to senatorial dignity. He kills hundreds of animals in the Colosseum and bills the treasury for each appearance. He is strangled in his bath on 31 December 192 AD by a palace conspiracy. His death triggers the Year of the Five Emperors (193 AD) and opens the age of military chaos.
• 193 Year of Five Emperors In 193 AD — the Year of the Five Emperors — Pertinax, Didius Julianus (who buys the throne at a Praetorian auction), Pescennius Niger, Clodius Albinus and Septimius Severus all claim the throne. Pertinax is murdered after 86 days; Julianus is executed after 66 days; Niger and Albinus are defeated by Severus in civil wars. Severus, a North African from what is now Libya, establishes the Severan dynasty and pointedly honours the memory of Commodus — signalling to the Senate that he despises their opinion.
• 212 Edict of Caracalla — citizenship extended In 212 AD, Emperor Caracalla issues the Constitutio Antoniniana, extending Roman citizenship to virtually all free inhabitants of the empire — an estimated 30–35 million people. The motive is likely fiscal: citizens paid inheritance tax. The effect is profound: the distinction between Roman and provincial is abolished; every free man in the empire is now a Roman. A Syrian, a Gaul, an Egyptian and a Spaniard are legally identical. Roman law becomes universal law.
• 224 – 651 Sasanian Empire — last pre-Islamic empire The longest-lived Persian imperial dynasty Founded by Ardashir I, the Sasanian Empire revived Persian power, made Zoroastrianism the state religion, and ruled as a superpower rivalling Rome and Byzantium for over four centuries. It was a golden age of Persian art, architecture and administration before falling to the Arab Muslim conquest.
• 235 – 284 Crisis of the Third Century From 235 to 284 AD — 49 years — the Roman Empire nearly collapses. Over 50 emperors claim the throne; most are murdered by their own troops within months. The empire simultaneously faces Persian invasion in the east (Shapur I captures Emperor Valerian in 260 AD — the only Roman emperor ever taken prisoner), Gothic raids across the Danube, plague, economic collapse and the secession of the Gallic Empire (260–274 AD) and Palmyrene Empire (263–273 AD). The currency is debased by 95%; trade collapses; population falls.
• 260 Emperor Valerian captured by Persia In 260 AD, Emperor Valerian is captured by the Sassanid Persian king Shapur I at the Battle of Edessa — the only Roman emperor ever taken prisoner by a foreign enemy. He dies in captivity, probably in 264 AD. Shapur commemorates the victory with rock-cut reliefs at Naqsh-e Rostam showing Valerian kneeling before him — images that will shock the Mediterranean world for centuries. The catastrophe triggers the final fragmentation of the empire into three competing states.
• 270 – 275 Aurelian — restorer of the world Lucius Domitius Aurelianus — "Restitutor Orbis" (Restorer of the World) — reunites the fragmented empire in five years (270–275 AD). He defeats the Palmyrene Empire (272 AD), capturing Queen Zenobia, and the Gallic Empire (274 AD). He builds the Aurelian Walls around Rome — still largely standing today — and introduces the cult of Sol Invictus as a unifying state religion. He is murdered by his own officers in 275 AD, but the empire he leaves behind is intact, a remarkable achievement in a century of dissolution.
• 284 – 305 Diocletian — the great reorganiser Diocletian ends the crisis of the third century by systematically reorganising the empire. He creates the Tetrarchy — four co-emperors (two Augusti and two Caesars) ruling different regions simultaneously. He doubles the size of the army, triples the bureaucracy, reforms taxation and the currency, and fixes prices in the Edict on Maximum Prices (301 AD) — the most ambitious price control in history. He conducts the Great Persecution of Christians (303–311 AD) — the last and worst. He retires voluntarily in 305 AD — the only emperor to do so.
• 300 – 538 Kofun period Giant keyhole tombs and the rise of Yamato The Kofun period is named for the massive keyhole-shaped burial mounds (kofun) built for powerful rulers. During this era the Yamato court in the Nara plain rose to dominance over rival polities, laying the basis for a unified Japanese state under the imperial line.
• 306 – 337 Constantine the Great Constantine I reunites the empire after defeating his rivals — culminating in the defeat of Maxentius at the Milvian Bridge (312 AD), where Constantine reportedly sees a cross in the sky with the words "In this sign, conquer." Whether genuine vision or political calculation, Constantine legalises Christianity with the Edict of Milan (313 AD), convenes the Council of Nicaea (325 AD) and founds Constantinople (330 AD) as the empire's new capital on the Bosphorus. His conversion transforms Western history.
• 312 Battle of Milvian Bridge On 28 October 312 AD, Constantine defeats his rival Maxentius at the Milvian Bridge over the Tiber north of Rome. Maxentius drowns in the river when the pontoon bridge collapses. Constantine reportedly attributes his victory to the Christian God, having ordered his soldiers to mark their shields with the Chi-Rho symbol. The battle ends the last civil war of the Tetrarchy and gives Constantine control of the western empire. Its consequences — the Christianisation of Rome — rank among the most significant in world history.
• 313 Edict of Milan — Christianity legalised In 313 AD, Constantine and his co-emperor Licinius issue the Edict of Milan, granting religious toleration throughout the empire and specifically restoring confiscated property to Christians. Christianity moves from a persecuted sect to a tolerated — and soon favoured — religion. Within decades it becomes the state religion. The Edict marks the beginning of the end of classical paganism and the beginning of Christendom. Its effects will shape the next 1,700 years of Western civilisation.
• 320 – 550 Gupta Empire — India's Golden Age Peak of science, mathematics, art and literature The Gupta Empire presided over a golden age of Indian civilisation. Scholars made landmark advances in mathematics and astronomy — including the concept of zero and the decimal place-value system — while Sanskrit literature, sculpture and temple architecture reached classical heights.
• 325 Council of Nicaea In 325 AD, Constantine convenes the first ecumenical council of the Christian church at Nicaea (modern Iznik, Turkey). Some 300 bishops attend. The council condemns Arianism — the belief that Christ is subordinate to God the Father — and produces the Nicene Creed, the foundational statement of Christian orthodoxy still recited in churches today. Constantine chairs sessions personally, wearing purple and gold, presiding over a theological dispute he barely understands. Church and state are now inextricably linked.
• 330 Constantinople founded On 11 May 330 AD, Constantine dedicates his new capital — Constantinople — on the site of the Greek city Byzantium, at the strategic junction of Europe and Asia. The city is designed as a new Rome: it has seven hills, a Forum, a Senate, a hippodrome and grain doles. Its position on the Bosphorus makes it almost impregnable by land and sea. Constantinople will serve as the capital of the Eastern Roman (Byzantine) Empire for 1,123 years — until its fall to the Ottomans in 1453.
• 360 – 363 Julian the Apostate — the last pagan emperor Julian II, nephew of Constantine, is the last Roman emperor to attempt to reverse the Christianisation of the empire. A gifted soldier and intellectual, he is raised a Christian but privately converts to Neoplatonism. On becoming emperor in 360 AD he restores pagan temples, removes Christian privileges and attempts to revive the old religion. He dies on campaign against Persia in 363 AD — pierced by a spear, possibly thrown by one of his own men. "Thou hast conquered, O Galilean" — his reported dying words, probably apocryphal.
• 376 – 382 Visigoths cross the Danube In 376 AD, the Visigoths — fleeing the Hunnic invasion from the east — are permitted by Emperor Valens to cross the Danube into Roman territory. They are promised land and food; instead Roman officials exploit and abuse them. They revolt. At the Battle of Adrianople (378 AD), the Visigoths annihilate the Roman eastern army and kill Emperor Valens — the worst Roman military defeat since Cannae. For the first time a major barbarian group settles permanently inside the empire's borders with their own leadership intact.
• 380 Edict of Thessalonica — Christianity becomes state religion In 380 AD, Emperor Theodosius I issues the Edict of Thessalonica, declaring Nicene Christianity the only legitimate religion of the Roman Empire. All subjects must profess the faith of the bishops of Rome and Alexandria. Heretics lose civil rights; pagan sacrifice is banned. In 391 AD Theodosius closes all pagan temples and outlaws pagan worship entirely. The Olympic Games — held every four years since 776 BC — are abolished in 393 AD as a pagan festival. Rome's millennium of gods is over.
• 395 Division of the Empire On the death of Theodosius I in 395 AD, the Roman Empire is permanently divided between his two sons: Arcadius takes the east (capital Constantinople), Honorius takes the west (capital Ravenna, later). This is not the first division — Diocletian and others had divided administration before — but it is the last. The two halves will never reunite. The Eastern Empire (Byzantine) will survive for another 1,058 years; the Western Empire has 81 years left.
• 406 Rhine crossing — barbarians flood into Gaul On the night of 31 December 406 AD, the Rhine freezes solid and vast numbers of Germanic peoples — Vandals, Suebi, Alans and Burgundians — cross into Roman Gaul. The Rhine frontier, Rome's western defence line for four centuries, collapses in a night. Within three years these peoples have spread across Gaul, Spain and North Africa. The western empire loses its tax base and its ability to defend its borders. The sequence of events that will end the empire has begun.
• 410 Sack of Rome by the Visigoths On 24 August 410 AD, Alaric and his Visigoths sack Rome — the first time the city has fallen to a foreign enemy in 800 years, since Brennus and the Gauls in 390 BC. The sack lasts three days. Though restrained by ancient standards (Alaric is a Christian and spares the churches), the psychological shock is immense. Jerome writes from Bethlehem: "My voice is choked, and sobs cut short my dictation. The city which had taken the whole world was itself taken." Augustine begins writing the City of God in response.
• 434 – 453 Attila the Hun Attila rules the Hunnic Empire from 434 to 453 AD, terrorising both halves of the Roman Empire. He devastates the Balkans repeatedly, extracts enormous tribute from Constantinople, and invades Gaul in 451 AD — defeated at the Catalaunian Plains by the Roman general Aetius and his Visigothic allies in one of the most consequential battles in history. He invades Italy in 452 AD, sacking Aquileia and threatening Rome, but withdraws — perhaps due to plague, perhaps due to Pope Leo I's legendary intervention. He dies in 453 AD, apparently of a nosebleed on his wedding night.
• 455 Sack of Rome by the Vandals In June 455 AD, the Vandals under King Gaiseric sack Rome for fourteen days — a more thorough plundering than Alaric's three-day raid of 410 AD. They strip the gilded roof tiles from the Temple of Jupiter Capitolinus and carry off the treasures of the Temple in Jerusalem (themselves looted by Titus in 70 AD). The Empress Eudoxia and her daughters are taken to Carthage. The word "vandalism" enters languages across the world. Rome will never recover its former wealth.
• 476 Fall of the Western Roman Empire On 4 September 476 AD, the Germanic chieftain Odoacer deposes Romulus Augustulus — the last emperor of the Western Roman Empire — at Ravenna. Romulus is a teenager, and his very name — combining the founder of Rome with the founder of the empire — gives the moment a bitter symmetry. Odoacer sends the imperial regalia to Constantinople, declaring there is no need for a separate western emperor. Edward Gibbon will later mark this date as the end of ancient history. The Eastern Empire — Byzantium — continues for another 977 years.
• 538 – 710 Asuka period Buddhism, writing and the first Japanese state The Asuka period saw Buddhism introduced from Korea, along with Chinese writing, architecture and statecraft. Prince Shotoku promoted the new faith and a Chinese-style bureaucracy, and the Taika Reforms of 645 strengthened imperial power — transforming Japan into a centralised state.
• 618 – 907 Tang Dynasty — China's cosmopolitan golden age Poetry, silk, Buddhism and the world's largest empire The Tang dynasty is widely considered China's cultural peak. Its capital Chang'an (modern Xi'an) was the world's largest city with over a million inhabitants, cosmopolitan with merchants, monks and diplomats from across Asia. The Tang produced China's greatest poets — Li Bai and Du Fu — and saw Buddhism flourish. Woodblock printing was invented. China's civil service examination system was refined into the model used for 1,300 years.
• 651 – 1501 Islamic Persia — caliphates, Seljuks and Mongols Centuries of Islamic rule and a Persian cultural flowering After the conquest, Persia was ruled successively by the Arab caliphates, Persian and Turkic dynasties, the Seljuk Turks, and — devastatingly — the Mongols under Genghis Khan and Hulagu in the 13th century. Yet this era produced a brilliant Persian cultural renaissance: the poetry of Ferdowsi, Rumi, Hafez and Omar Khayyam, and advances in science and mathematics.
• 690 – 705 Wu Zetian — China's only female emperor 690–705 AD — sole empress regnant in Chinese history Wu Zetian rose from concubine to become the only woman in Chinese history to assume the title of Empress Regnant, ruling in her own name from 690 to 705 AD. She expanded the civil service examination, promoted officials based on merit rather than birth, extended the empire, and commissioned major Buddhist works. She ruled effectively for 15 years before being forced to abdicate aged 80.
• 710 – 794 Nara period First permanent capital; Kojiki and Nihon Shoki written Empress Genmei established Japan's first permanent capital at Heijo-kyo (Nara), modelled on the Tang Chinese capital. The great chronicles Kojiki (712) and Nihon Shoki (720) were compiled, codifying Japan's founding myths, and Buddhism flourished under imperial patronage — including the great Todai-ji temple and its colossal bronze Buddha.
• 742 – 814 Charlemagne Father of Europe King of the Franks and first Holy Roman Emperor. He united much of Western Europe and sparked the Carolingian Renaissance.
• 794 – 1185 Heian period The golden age of classical Japanese culture When Emperor Kanmu moved the capital to Heian-kyo (Kyoto), he began nearly four centuries of peace and refinement remembered as the classical age of Japanese civilisation. The Fujiwara regents dominated the court, and aristocratic culture flowered — producing Murasaki Shikibu's The Tale of Genji, often called the world's first novel.
• 830 Al-Khwarizmi invents algebra Kitab al-mukhtasar fi hisab al-jabr — the word algebra is born Around 830 AD, Muhammad ibn Musa al-Khwarizmi, a scholar at the House of Wisdom in Baghdad, published his treatise on solving equations by balancing and completion. The Arabic title contained the word al-jabr, which became algebra in Latin. Al-Khwarizmi also introduced the Hindu-Arabic numeral system to the Islamic world and described algorithms systematically — the word algorithm derives from the Latin form of his name. His work was the foundation of all subsequent mathematics.
• 907 – 1279 Five Dynasties & Song Dynasty Gunpowder, printing, compass — China leads the world in technology The Song dynasty oversaw an economic and technological revolution. Gunpowder weapons, movable type printing (Bi Sheng, 1040), and the magnetic compass were all developed or perfected during this period. China's population reached 100 million. Despite never matching the Tang's military power and eventually losing northern China to the Jurchen Jin dynasty, the Song's commercial economy and urban culture were the most sophisticated in the world.