13th century

1201 – 1300 · 32 events

What happened around the world

1202 Fibonacci's Liber Abaci — Hindu–Arabic numerals begin to replace Roman ones
1204 Sack of Constantinople — Byzantium shatters and never regains its former strength
1215 Magna Carta — Barons curb the king — a root of the rule of law
c. 1238 Alhambra begun — Spain's last Muslim rulers build a palace-fortress
1261 Byzantium retakes Constantinople — After 57 years of Latin rule, the last dynasty begins
c. 1300 Onset of the Little Ice Age — Glaciers advance and Greenland's Viking farms fade

1223 Battle of the Kalka River — Rus' first clash with the Mongols ends in a crushing defeat
1237–1240 Mongol invasion of Rus' — Russian principalities fall under the Golden Horde
1240 Batu Khan takes Kiev — The Mongols destroy the ancient capital of Rus'
1240 Battle of the Neva — Victory over the Swedes earns Prince Alexander his epithet
c. 1242 The Golden Horde is founded — A capital on the Volga; Rus' pays tribute for nearly 240 years
1242 Battle on the Ice — Alexander Nevsky halts the Livonian Order
1253 Mindaugas crowned King of Lithuania — The Grand Duchy of Lithuania is born

1258 Mongol sack of Baghdad — The last caliph dies: a symbolic end to Islam's golden age
1260 Battle of Ain Jalut — The Mamluks deal the Mongols their first major field defeat
c. 1299 Osman I founds the Ottoman state — A small beylik seeds an empire that will last six centuries

c. 1235 Battle of Kirina and rise of Mali — As the griots tell it, Sundiata's victory births an empire
c. 1250 Rise of Great Zimbabwe — A mortarless stone city grows rich on gold
1270 Yekuno Amlak founds the Solomonic dynasty — Kings claiming descent from Solomon rule until 1974
c. 1300 Golden age of Kilwa and the Swahili coast — Gold and ivory tie East Africa to Arabia, India and China

1206 Temüjin proclaimed Genghis Khan — The birth of history's largest land empire
1206 Founding of the Delhi Sultanate — Three centuries of Muslim rule over northern India begin
c. 1251 The Tripitaka Koreana — 81,000 woodblocks carved as a prayer against the Mongols
1257 Samalas eruption — Blast wipes out Pamatan and leaves traces at both poles
1271 Kublai Khan founds the Yuan dynasty — All of China falls under foreign rule for the first time
1271–1295 Travels of Marco Polo — 17 years at Kublai's court open Asia to European eyes
1281 Kamikaze, the divine wind — Typhoons twice scatter Kublai Khan's fleets off Japan
1288 Battle of Bạch Đằng — Stakes hidden in a riverbed wreck Kublai Khan's fleet
1293 Founding of Majapahit — A Javanese empire sketches the outline of future Indonesia

1276–1299 Great Drought and the Pueblo exodus — A long drought empties the cliff palaces of Mesa Verde

c. 1250 The moai of Easter Island — Nearly a thousand stone ancestors gaze inland
c. 1280 Polynesians settle New Zealand — Humans reach the last large landmass left unsettled

Rus and Russia: Vsevolod the Big Nest 1176 – 1212, Yuri II of Vladimir 1212 – 1238, Yaroslav II of Vladimir 1238 – 1246, Alexander Nevsky 1252 – 1263, Daniel of Moscow 1263 – 1303
England and Britain: John Lackland 1199 – 1216, Henry III 1216 – 1272, Edward I Longshanks 1272 – 1307
Franks and France: Philip II Augustus 1180 – 1223, Louis VIII the Lion 1223 – 1226, Saint Louis (Louis IX) 1226 – 1270, Philip III the Bold 1270 – 1285, Philip IV the Fair 1285 – 1314
Holy Roman Empire & Austria: Philip of Swabia 1198 – 1208, Otto IV 1208 – 1215, Frederick II 1215 – 1250, Conrad IV 1250 – 1254, Interregnum 1254 – 1273, Rudolf I 1273 – 1291, Adolf of Nassau 1292 – 1298, Albert I 1298 – 1308
Ottoman Empire: Osman I 1299 – 1324
China: dynasties: Song 960 – 1279, Yuan 1271 – 1368
Japan: shoguns & emperors: Hōjō regents (Kamakura shogunate) 1199 – 1333
India: empires: Delhi Sultanate 1206 – 1526
Rome and Byzantium: Latin Empire 1204 – 1261, Palaiologoi 1261 – 1453