12th century

1101 – 1200 · 16 events

What happened around the world

1163–1345 Notre-Dame de Paris begun — Nearly two centuries of work on a model of French Gothic

1113 Vladimir Monomakh in Kiev — The last prince to whom all of Rus' submits
c. 1113 The Primary Chronicle — 'Whence came the Rus' land': the chief chronicle of Rus'
1136 The Novgorod Republic — Novgorod expels its prince and the veche takes power
1147 First mention of Moscow — Yuri Dolgoruky invites an ally to a future capital
c. 1165 Church of the Intercession on the Nerl — A white-stone church in a meadow, the emblem of Vladimir Rus'
1169 Andrey Bogolyubsky's army sacks Kiev — The heart of Rus' shifts from the Dnieper to the northeast
1185 Prince Igor's campaign — A failed raid becomes the subject of a great epic

1184 Reign of Queen Tamar — Georgia's golden age, from Caucasus power to Rustaveli's epic
1187 Battle of Hattin — Saladin defeats the crusaders and takes Jerusalem

c. 1200 Rock-hewn churches of Lalibela — Ethiopia carves a 'New Jerusalem' out of solid rock

c. 1113–1150 Construction of Angkor Wat — The Khmer raise the world's largest religious monument
1192–1333 First shogunate in Japan — Power shifts from court to samurai for nearly seven centuries

c. 1200 Thule migration across the Arctic — Inuit ancestors crossed from Alaska to Greenland in two centuries

c. 1180 Nan Madol, the stone city on water — A "Venice of the Pacific" stacked from basalt logs
c. 1200 Settlement of Easter Island — At the edge of the world, the culture of the moai is born

Rus and Russia: Sviatopolk II 1093 – 1113, Vladimir II Monomakh 1113 – 1125, Mstislav the Great 1125 – 1132, Yuri Dolgoruky 1132 – 1157, Andrey Bogolyubsky 1157 – 1174, Vsevolod the Big Nest 1176 – 1212
England and Britain: Henry I Beauclerc 1100 – 1135, Stephen of Blois 1135 – 1154, Henry II 1154 – 1189, Richard the Lionheart 1189 – 1199, John Lackland 1199 – 1216
Franks and France: Philip I 1060 – 1108, Louis VI the Fat 1108 – 1137, Louis VII the Young 1137 – 1180, Philip II Augustus 1180 – 1223
Holy Roman Empire & Austria: Henry IV 1056 – 1105, Henry V 1105 – 1125, Lothair III 1125 – 1137, Conrad III 1138 – 1152, Frederick Barbarossa 1152 – 1190, Henry VI 1190 – 1197, Philip of Swabia 1198 – 1208
China: dynasties: Song 960 – 1279
Japan: shoguns & emperors: Heian period (emperors and Fujiwara regents) 806 – 1185, Minamoto no Yoritomo 1192 – 1199, Hōjō regents (Kamakura shogunate) 1199 – 1333
Rome and Byzantium: Komnenoi 1081 – 1185