The History of the World in Bite-Sized Chunks

The Enlightenment, or Age of Reason, was a cultural and philosophical movement underpinned by a belief in the power of reason

The drastic population decline brought about by the Black Death also brought huge social and economic changes. A shortage of labour and more available land, particularly in Western Europe, increased the bargaining power of the peasant worker. Uprisings among the peasantry increased and by the sixteenth century, serfdom (a type of bonded labour) had largely disappeared in places like England, although it remained a feature of Eastern Europe and Russia, areas less affected by the Black Death

Increasing theological and political differences between the Byzantine Eastern Churches and the Western Roman Church led to a final and permanent separation between the two in 1054, a watershed in Church history known as the Great Schism (or East–West Schism).

fter his death in 814, Charlemagne’s empire fell apart after it was split between his three grandsons into the separate kingdoms of France, Italy and Germany.

While Barbarian invaders ravaged the Western Roman Empire (see here), the Eastern Roman Empire and its capital of Constantinople (now Istanbul) thrived. Its first emperor Constantine (reigned AD 324–37) had promoted religious tolerance and made Christianity the Eastern Empire’s official religion

The Gupta dynasty is often called the ‘Golden Age of India’, as art, architecture and literature flourished during long periods of peace and prosperity. Wonderful palaces and temples were built and major literature written in Sanskrit, including the epic stories of the Mahrabharata and the Ramayana, crucial to the development of Hinduism, which are still retold and re-enacted across south-east Asia today.

Carthage was then re-founded as a Roman city, during which time it prospered, later becoming a centre of Christianity. In AD 533 it was incorporated into the Byzantine Empire, and was eventually destroyed by the Arabs in AD 705, and replaced by Tunis.

The Sāssānid Empire, established by Ardashīr I in AD 224, is considered to be one of the most important and influential periods in Iranian history, when ancient Persian culture (prior to the Muslim conquests) reached its peak.

It was around this time that the ancient Persian religion of Zoroastrianism became more established. Originally developing from Iran c. 600 BC, its concepts of resurrection, the final judgment, and heaven and hell would also influence the world religions of Islam, Judaism and Christianity

Indus settlements were also marked by some of the most advanced plumbing and drainage systems in the world