World History · Era— 500 CE — 1450 CE —

Not the dark ages, actually.

Tang and Song China at the technological frontier. Dar al-Islam from Spain to India. Byzantium holding the line. Feudal Europe slowly rebuilding. The Mongols connecting it all.

What you need to know

While Western Europe slowly rebuilt from the Roman collapse, the rest of Eurasia did anything but stagnate. Tang and Song China invented gunpowder, movable type, the magnetic compass, and the world’s first paper currency. The Islamic Golden Age, from Baghdad to Cordoba, preserved and extended Greek philosophy, mathematics, medicine, and astronomy — and built the largest contiguous trade network the world had ever seen. Byzantium held the eastern Mediterranean for a thousand years. The Mongol conquests (1206–1368) connected Europe and East Asia for the first time, and brought, along with everything else, the Black Death (1347).

Key developments (6)

The era, topic by topic.

  • 1.

    Tang and Song China

    Gunpowder, movable type, the compass, paper money — the technological frontier.
  • 2.

    Dar al-Islam

    Baghdad, Cordoba, Cairo — faith and learning across three continents.
  • 3.

    Byzantium

    The Eastern Roman Empire holding the line for a thousand years after the West fell.
  • 4.

    Feudal Europe

    Manor, fief, cathedral, university — slow recovery and the High Middle Ages.
  • 5.

    The Mongol Eurasian network

    Pax Mongolica linked Europe and East Asia. The Black Death traveled the same roads.
  • 6.

    Sub-Saharan Africa

    Mali, Great Zimbabwe, the Swahili coast — wealth from gold, salt, and Indian Ocean trade.
Calling 500–1450 the ‘Middle Ages’ is a Western European point of view. Everywhere else it was the high tide of something.

Where this era shows up in your courses

APWH:Unit 1 covers 1200–1450 — the last 250 years of this era.

APUSH: not directly relevant.