Middle Ages
Aztec Triple Alliance (1428): How the Aztec Empire Was Born
The defeat of the Tepanec state of Azcapotzalco created an alliance of three city-states that expanded into the tribute empire known as the Aztec Empire.
Era · c. 500 – 1500
Middle Ages
Kingdoms, crusades and plagues: the medieval world from the end of the Western Roman Empire to the fall of Constantinople.
Middle Ages
Joan of Arc: The Maid of Orléans, Her Trial and Her Legacy
Joan helped relieve Orléans and crown Charles VII, was executed for relapsed heresy in 1431, rehabilitated in 1456 and canonised in 1920.
Middle Ages
Mutapa Empire: Founding of the Kingdom of Mwene Mutapa
A Shona state centred on the northern Zimbabwe plateau took over much of the region's gold trade and became the main African power met by the Portuguese in south-east Africa.
Middle Ages
Fall of Angkor (1431): Ayutthaya and the Khmer Decline
Ayutthaya captured and plundered Angkor; the Khmer court soon moved south to the Phnom Penh area and Angkor ceased to be the royal capital.
Middle Ages
Nezahualcoyotl: Poet-King of Texcoco and Aztec Ally
Restored to the throne of Texcoco, Nezahualcoyotl made his city a partner in the Aztec Triple Alliance and its leading centre of law, learning and the arts.
Middle Ages
Ghent Altarpiece: Van Eyck's Masterpiece of Oil Painting
A landmark of early Netherlandish painting that survived iconoclasm, war, looting and theft, and is still displayed in Ghent.
Middle Ages
Zara Yaqob (1434-1468): Ethiopian Emperor and Church Reformer
Zara Yaqob strengthened the Solomonic monarchy and the Ethiopian Orthodox Church, ended the Sabbath dispute and defeated Adal, but ruled harshly and left a tense court to his son Baeda Maryam.
Middle Ages
Inca Road System: The Qhapaq Nan Across the Andes
A network of roads, bridges and way stations bound the Inca Empire together and remains one of the greatest engineering achievements of the pre-industrial world.
Middle Ages
Pachacuti and the Rise of the Inca Empire (c. 1438)
Pachacuti's victory over the Chanka and his seizure of power launched the expansion and reorganisation that created the Inca Empire, Tawantinsuyu.
Middle Ages
Ollantaytambo: Inca Town and Temple in the Sacred Valley
Ollantaytambo became a royal estate and ceremonial centre of the Inca, and its town plan survives as one of the best-preserved in the Andes.
Middle Ages
Sacsayhuaman: The Inca Stone Walls Above Cusco
Sacsayhuaman became the greatest monumental complex of the Inca capital; after the 1536 siege the Spanish quarried it for building stone.
Middle Ages
Moctezuma I (1440–1469): The Aztec Ruler Who Built an Empire
Moctezuma I turned the Triple Alliance into a far-reaching tributary empire and left Tenochtitlan with new waterworks, laws and temples.