6.1: Chronology
410 CE Roman army abandons Britain
476 CE The general Odavacar deposes last Western Roman Emperor
496 CE The Frankish king Clovis converts to Christianity
500s CE Anglo-Saxons gradually take over Britain
533 CE Byzantine Empire conquers the Vandal kingdom in North Africa
535 – 554 CE Byzantine Empire conquers the Ostrogothic kingdom in Italy
560s CE Lombard invasions of Italy begin
580s CE The Franks cease keeping tax registers
597 CE Christian missionaries dispatched from Rome arrive in Britain
610 – 641 CE Heraclius is Byzantine emperor
636 CE Arab Muslims defeat the Byzantine army at the Battle of Yarmouk
670s CE Byzantine Empire begins to lose control of the Balkans to Avars, Bulgars, and Slavs
674 – 678 CE Arabs lay siege to Constantinople but are unsuccessful
711 CE Muslims from North Africa conquer Spain, end of the Visigothic kingdom
717 – 718 CE Arabs lay siege to Constantinople but are unsuccessful
717 CE Leo III becomes Byzantine emperor. Under his rule, the Iconoclast Controversy begins.
732 CE King Charles Martel of the Franks defeats a Muslim invasion of the kingdom at the Battle of Tours
751 CE The Byzantine city of Ravenna falls to the Lombards; Pepin the Short of the Franks deposes the last Merovingian king and becomes king of the Franks; King Pepin will later conquer Central Italy and donate it to the pope
750s CE Duke of Naples ceases to acknowledge the authority of the Byzantine emperor
770s CE Effective control of the city of Rome passes from Byzantium to the papacy
c. 780 – 840 CE The Carolingian Renaissance
782 CE Charlemagne crushes a Saxon rebellion
787 CE Second Council of Nicaea authorizes the use of icons in worship
793 CE Viking raids begin
800 CE Charlemagne crowned Roman emperor by Pope Leo III
830 CE Abbasid caliph Al-Mamun founds the House of Wisdom in Baghdad
843 CE In the Treaty of Verdun, Charlemagne’s three sons, Lothar, Louis, and Charles the Bald, divide his empire among themselves
843 CE Final resolution of the Iconoclast Controversy under Empress Theodora
846 CE Muslim raiders from Aghlabid North Africa sack the city of Rome
c. 843 – 900 CE Macedonian Renaissance
Mid-800s: CE Cyril and Methodius preach Christianity to the Slavic peoples
864 CE Conversion of the Bulgars to Christianity
867 CE Basil I murders the reigning Byzantine emperor and seizes control of the Empire
871 – 899 CE Alfred the Great is king of England. He defeats Norse raiders and creates a consolidated kingdom.
899 CE Defeated by the Pechenegs, the Magyars begin moving into Central Europe
955 CE Otto the Great, king of East Francia, defeats the Magyars in battle
976 – 1025 CE Basil II is Byzantine Emperor
988 CE Vladimir, Grand Prince of Kiev, converts to Christianity