Christianity was introduced to China during 627 AD as recorded on the Bible Timeline. The following article explains how this event occurred.
Nestorian Christianity
Taught by the Persian monk and former Patriarch of Constantinople Nestorius in the fourth century, the doctrine of Nestorianism had long experienced persecution after it was considered a heresy in 431 AD. Nestorianism taught that Christ had two separate natures: one that was distinctly human (Man) and the other one distinctly divine (Logos). Nestorius considered the Virgin Mary the Christotokos or “bearer of Christ”, but not the Theotokos or “God-bearer” which was the position the Patriarchs in Constantinople supported.
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It was first opposed by Cyril of Alexandria and the Council of Ephesus in 431 AD which resulted in the condemnation of Nestorianism as heretical. As additional punishment, the council removed Nestorius from his position as Patriarch and exiled him in Upper Egypt where he died in 451 AD. However, Nestorius’ exile and the anathematization of his theological position did not deter his followers from spreading his ideas throughout Mesopotamia, Persia, and India. Because of the Nestorian missionaries, Christianity eventually made its way to China in the early 7th century.
Alopen and the Nestorian Stele
A massive stele (carved stone monument) was discovered by some workers in China’s former capital of Xi’an in 1625 AD. The limestone stele weighed two tons, stood ten feet high, and measured one meter wide with Chinese text inscribed on the front, as well as a tortoise-shaped carving at the bottom that functioned as its pedestal. The presence of another script inscribed with the Chinese text made the stele an object of mystery. Foreign scholars who later examined it realized the script was Syriac. How did it get there and what was its relationship to Christianity?
“Epitaph of a Nestorian, unearthed at Chifeng, Inner Mongolia”
The stele was a remnant of China’s very brief relationship with Christianity which started nearly 1,000 years after the inscribed stone’s discovery. It was carved and erected in 781 AD during Christianity’s peak in China with inscriptions that celebrated the arrival of the new religion in the empire. The names of the Assyrian missionaries who served during that time were also inscribed on the stele. One inscription that stood out was the name of Alopen (named Olopun in some texts), a 7th century Persian Nestorian monk and missionary who first entered China in 635 AD. The Syriac-speaking monk was probably an envoy from Khotan near China’s western frontier or perhaps he came directly from Persia (specifically Bukhara in Sogdia) after the Tang army defeated the Western Turks and allowed Middle Eastern merchants to pass east into China.
When news of the arrival of a prominent Persian envoy/missionary reached him, the Tang Dynasty Emperor Taizong sent his own minister of the state to come and escort Alopen to his court in Xi’an. He was a tolerant emperor who allowed Alopen to preach to his people. Christianity was soon accepted by many people in the empire (Taizong also allowed other religions, such as Buddhism and Zoroastrianism, to flourish during his reign). The emperor became so pleased with Alopen that he ordered a Nestorian monastery to be built in the Persian and the Central Asian quarter (I-ning) of Xi’an with 21 monks in residence. Christianity was further elevated during the reign of Emperor Gaozong, and Alopen was promoted as a Spiritual Lord of the court by an Imperial Decree. Many Christian monasteries were built all over China during the reign of early Tang Dynasty emperors.
However, the Tang Dynasty’s glorious era would slowly and violently come to an end after the An Lushan rebellion between 755 and 763 AD. Christianity continued to flourish in China for more than 150 years after Alopen’s arrival. It suffered a reversal of fortunes during the reign of Emperor Wuzong. He started the persecution of the followers of “foreign” religions (Buddhism, Nestorianism, Manichaeism, and Zoroastrianism) and only allowed the practice of native religions, such as Confucianism and Taoism, to flourish under his rule. The emperor’s intolerance sent Nestorian Christianity from its more than 200-year golden age in China to a complete decline by 845 AD.
On October 22, 1685, King Louis XIV had the Edict of Nantes revoked and replaced it with the repressive Edict of Fontainebleau. This royal decree made the persecution of Huguenots a state policy and started the decline of Protestantism in France. This event is recorded on the Bible Timeline with World History during that time period.
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The Edict of Nantes granted multiple freedoms to the Protestants of France.
The Edict of Nantes was a royal decree signed by King Henry IV on April 13, 1598. The aim of the decree was to unite the kingdom which had been wracked by the Wars of Religions since 1562. It granted the Huguenots the freedom of conscience, as well as the freedom to worship in Protestant towns except in Paris or in areas near the city.
The Huguenots would then allow the Catholics to worship in Protestant towns without fear of harassment. Huguenots were also allowed to hold public offices, as well as elect their own representative in the Parliament. The state itself would pay the pastors with an annual grant, and allow them to maintain their own strongholds.
The Edict gave limited freedom to Protestants, but Pope Clement VIII and much of France’s Roman Catholic clergy did not rejoice when it was issued. Queen Elizabeth I, the Protestant queen of England, became furious, while Spain’s Philip II was happy with the issuance of the decree.
The Edict of Fontainebleau 1685 (Revocation of the Edict of Nantes)
The Edict of Nantes was ratified “perpetual and irrevocable,” but the irrevocable part was only valid during Henry’s lifetime. He died on May 14, 1610, and his son, Louis XIII, succeeded soon after his father’s assassination. A devout Catholic, it was not long before Louis moved to undo his father’s legacy.
Catholics were still the overwhelming majority in 17th-century France. The influential Marie de’ Medici (Louis XIII’s mother) herself was a devout Catholic, so it was no wonder that many clauses of the Edict were not enforced. Huguenot rebellions flared up once again in 1620, and tensions continued until the signing of the Peace of Ales in 1629. Cardinal Richelieu, Louis’s chief minister, disregarded some clauses of the Edict of Nantes and offered what was left to the Huguenots in exchange for amnesty.
The persecution and economic repression of the Huguenots intensified during the reign of King Louis XIV. The king forbade them from working in certain professions, while the salaries of their pastors went unpaid. The authorities also closed down Huguenot schools and churches. They were not allowed to construct new churches while existing ones were soon demolished. The Huguenots were also forbidden to move anywhere within their own homeland.
The king also sent dragoons to live in Huguenot houses and harass the families so they would be forced to convert to Catholicism. It didn’t take long for many Huguenots to give in to pressure and convert. Others, meanwhile, chose to leave France for New France, Switzerland, Germany, England, and Protestant-friendly European states than forsake their beliefs. On October 22, 1685, King Louis XIV made his anti-Huguenot stance an official state policy by having the Edict of Nantes revoked and replaced with the Edict of Fontainebleau.
Protestant churches were burned or demolished, while children born from Huguenot parents were forcibly baptized into Catholicism. Protestant men who tried to flee the kingdom to avoid forced conversions were sent to galleys as slaves. Female fugitives, on the other hand, were sent to prisons. It was illegal for Protestants to leave France, but thousands still chose to become exiles. The few Huguenots who chose to remain in France, meanwhile, were mostly confined to the rugged southeastern portion of the kingdom. Some chose to convert publicly, but remained Protestants in their own homes for fear of execution.
References:
Picture by: Henry IV – Grands Documents de l’Histoire de France, Archives Nationales, Public Domain, Link
Cathal, J. Nolan. Wars of the Age of Louis XIV, 1650-1715: An Encyclopedia of Global Warfare and Civilization. Westport, CT: Greenwood Press, 2008.
Long, Kathleen P. Religious Differences in France: Past and Present. Kirksville: Kirksville, Mo., 2006.
“Revocation of the Edict of Nantes, October 22, 1685.” Internet History Sourcebooks. Accessed August 30, 2017. https://sourcebooks.fordham.edu/mod/1685revocation.asp.
The French explorer Rene-Robert Cavelier, Sieur de la Salle, was the first known European to explore the Mississippi River all the way to the Gulf of Mexico in 1682. La Salle’s parents intended him to serve as a Jesuit priest, but his personality made him unsuitable for the job. He left the Jesuits and followed his brother to New France after he receiving a land grant. Adventurous, independent, and bullheaded, La Salle started to explore the Great Lakes area in 1669. He came close to his dream of exploring the Mississippi River and finding an opening to the Pacific Ocean but failed in his first attempt. In 1682 and after many difficulties, La Salle’s dream of exploring the Mississippi River finally came true. This event is recorded on the Bible Timeline with World History during that time.
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Rene-Robert Cavelier, Sieur de La Salle, was born on November 21, 1643, in the parish of St. Herbland in the city of Rouen. He was the son of the wealthy landowner Jean Cavelier by his wife, Catherine Geest. His parents were devout Christians, and they had wanted Rene-Robert and his older brother Jean to become priests even when they were young. Jean entered the Order of Saint Sulpice at a young age, while Rene-Robert enrolled at the Lycée Pierre-Corneille in Rouen at age nine.
The young Rene-Robert excelled in academics at the Jesuit-led school. He was also known for his athleticism, independence, and willfulness as a child which made him unsuitable for a life as a priest. He later joined the Jesuits in Paris and in La Fleche. He asked the Jesuits to send him to a mission in China and in Portugal, but he was refused on both instances. He later decided that he did not want to serve as a priest.
The elder Jean Cavelier died in 1666, and unfortunately for Rene-Robert, his father did not leave him an inheritance. Finding himself penniless, Rene-Robert renounced his vows and decided to follow instead his older brother who had emigrated to New France. With the help of an uncle who had become a member of the Company of One Hundred Associates, the young Rene-Robert made his passage to New France in mid to late 1667. He also received a land grant in Montreal from the Sulpicians, and soon adopted the title Sieur de La Salle.
A New Life in New France
La Salle led a modest life as a landowning gentleman in Montreal. He befriended the natives in the area, learned their language, and soon engaged in the fur trade. These natives told him about the presence of the Ohio River which flowed into another body of water. This body of water was the Mississippi River, but La Salle initially believed that it was the Pacific and that it would eventually lead to China.
He became curious and soon grew restless. He yearned for an adventure, but his resources were limited. To fund this adventure, La Salle sold a portion of the land he received to the Sulpicians (from whom he received the land grant) in January of 1669. He then traveled to Quebec to inform the governor of his goal and secure the necessary permit. The governor was only too happy to grant the permit to expand the borders of New France. La Salle, however, was forced by the governor to team up with the Sulpician missionaries Francois Dollier de Casson and Rene de Brehart de Galinee.
First Attempt
Nine canoes bearing La Salle and his companions left Montreal in July 1669. All were novice explorers who were ill prepared and poorly equipped, so they were off to a dismal start. Their lack of knowledge of the natives’ language also made the journey more difficult. The party finally reached Lake Ontario on August 2, and soon encountered the Seneca people which lived on the lower shore of the lake. The tribe was friendly, and they invited the weary and sick travelers to their village to rest.
La Salle then asked the Seneca people to provide him with a guide for the continuation of their journey. This request alarmed the Seneca leaders. If they provided La Salle and his companions a guide, the Frenchmen would then be able to continue their journey. They would then encounter the natives from which the Seneca acquired fur and other products to trade to the Frenchmen. Hence, they would no longer be able to play as the middlemen in the thriving fur trade between other natives and the colonists.
For this reason, the Seneca did not provide a guide to La Salle and discouraged the party from further exploration. The French explorers were delayed for a month until an Iroquois man passed by and offered to guide them from Lake Ontario to Lake Erie. La Salle and his companions, however, were once again delayed when he was bitten by a snake when they arrived near Burlington Bay. They stayed in the area for some time until they encountered the party led by another Frenchman named Louis Jolliet near what is now Hamilton, Ontario.
La Salle told his companions that he would return to Montreal because of his ill health. The men were divided between him and the Sulpician missionaries who proceeded to explore the Great Lakes region. When they parted ways, La Salle then announced to the remaining men that they would continue south to the Ohio River.
In Limbo
The French explorer Rene-Robert Cavelier, Sieur de La Salle, was born on November 21, 1643.
The discovery of the Ohio and Mississippi Rivers was still a far-off dream. La Salle travelled all over Montreal and Quebec between 1670 and 1672, and not—as some contemporaries and biographers claimed—anywhere near the Mississippi River. He returned to Montreal in 1673 and became friends with Governor Louis de Baude Frontenac.
Frontenac wanted to build a fort in the part where the St. Lawrence River flowed into Lake Ontario but did not have the necessary permit from the French king. Instead, he sent La Salle back to France between 1674 and 1675 to obtain the permit. While in the king’s court, La Salle met the politician Jean-Baptiste Colbert who was a friend of King Louis XIV. Colbert convinced the king to support La Salle who soon received the land grant he requested. Louis XIV also gave La Salle the right to manage the fur trade in the area for five years and fund the defenses of the fort with the money derived from the trade.
La Salle returned to New France and took up his new position in the fort which he named after his friend, Governor Frontenac. His ambition led him to become one of the most powerful men in the colony, but this did not sit well with his neighbors. The power and the status, however, did not satisfy him and the expedition to find the Mississippi River stayed on his mind.
The Exploration of the Mississippi River and the Foundation of French Louisiana
La Salle returned to France in 1677 with bigger and bolder requests. He asked Louis XIV to allow him to build forts at the entrance of Lake Erie and Lake Michigan. He also requested that he be allowed to explore further south and claim any land he “discovered” for France, including those abandoned by the natives. Louis XIV eagerly granted the request on March 12, 1678.
La Salle arrived in Quebec on September 15 with Dominique La Motte de Luciere and Henri de Tonti who later became his most trusted lieutenant. He also brought with him several seamen and craftsmen who built a barque for the expedition. The 45-ton boat was named Le Griffon and launched on the 7th of August, 1679. Thirty men, three Recollect missionaries, and a pilot completed Le Griffon’s crew.
The Griffon sailed the Lake Erie and entered Lake Huron after 20 days. La Salle and his crew stayed in the St. Ignace Mission on Mackinac Island and left for Green Bay on the 12th of September. They then engaged in the fur trade with the natives which forced La Salle to send the Griffon back to the French settlement in Niagara with its cargo. The Griffon, however, met with a mysterious end as it disappeared soon after.
La Salle then took 14 men with him and switched to canoes. They paddled from Green Bay to the southeast portion of Lake Michigan until they reached the entrance of the St. Joseph River on the 1st of November. La Salle decided to stay in the area until the arrival of Henri de Tonti on the 20th of November. His men built a crude fort on the bank of the river while La Salle toyed with the idea of waiting for the Griffon to catch up. However, he grew restless, so they continued by paddling upriver until they reached the Kankakee in Illinois.
From the Kankakee, La Salle’s group entered the Illinois River and reached the village of Pimitoui (near present-day Peoria) on January 15, 1680. La Salle befriended the natives and told them that he wanted to build a fort and a barque in the area. The natives agreed but soon changed their minds when an allied Mascouten (Algonquian) chief arrived and convinced them that the Frenchmen were allies of the Iroquois. The villagers then discouraged La Salle and his men from continuing the journey. Some of his men abandoned the group for fear of the dangers upriver, but La Salle remained determined.
The Frenchmen left Pimitoui and paddled upriver until they reached the area that is now Creve Coeur on January 15. La Salle and his men built a fort there and stayed in the area for more than a month waiting for the Griffon to catch up. (He was still unaware that the Griffon was lost—perhaps sunk by one of his hired men who then stole the pelts).
By the end of February, La Salle became restless once again. He sent the Recollect missionary Father Hennepin and two other men ahead of him to the junction of the Illinois and Mississippi Rivers. He and his remaining men went back to the mouth of the St. Joseph River to look for his ill-fated barque. No one had heard of or seen the Griffon at St. Joseph, so he and his men were forced to make the difficult overland journey back to Lake Erie on foot. It was the dead of winter, so many of La Salle’s companions fell ill during the journey.
The men arrived in the Niagara area on April 21, 1680, but to his disappointment, they found that the fort had been destroyed and the Griffon was nowhere in sight. They continued to Fort Frontenac and arrived there on the 6th of May so he could settle some of his debts. He later received news that the fort he built in Creve Coeur had been destroyed by the men he left there. They were also on the way back to Fort Frontenac so they could kill him. La Salle preempted the attack and ambushed them before they arrived at the fort.
Any hope that he could recoup his losses disappeared along with the Griffon. La Salle had no choice but to continue the search for the passage to the Pacific in hopes that this would bring him the wealth and fame he so desired. On August 10, 1680, he set out on another journey along with 25 men he hired. La Salle’s fleet entered the Humber River after sailing in Lake Ontario, and from there entered Lake Simcoe. They then entered the Severn River and crossed the Georgian Bay to arrive at the Sault Ste. Marie area on September 16.
The group hastened to Fort St. Joseph and paddled upriver to the village of Pimitoui. They arrived on the 1st of December but found the village sacked and its inhabitants massacred by Iroquois warriors. La Salle worried that his lieutenant and close friend Henri Tonti was one of the victims. The company raced upriver to look for survivors and found that the Iroquois had also rampaged in the surrounding area. La Salle was disheartened when he failed to find his friend and had to return to Fort St. Joseph in January 1681 to wait for further news. He sent a letter addressed to Tonti to the Saint Ignatius mission on Mackinac Island just in case Tonti had ventured there.
News that Tonti was safe and had been spotted with the Potawatomi people reached him later on. He sent Tonti a message and told him to meet him at Michilimackinac in May. By the end of May, the two friends were finally reunited. Tonti, however, told him that Father La Ribourde (one of the missionaries who joined La Salle’s expedition) was murdered by some Kickapoo warriors. La Salle was later summoned by Governor Frontenac and together, they traveled back to Montreal.
La Salle spent the rest of 1680 and the greater part of 1681 in Montreal and Quebec. He was hounded by creditors, so he drew up a will and specified that he would leave any asset he had just in case he died in the expedition. He increasingly felt alienated in both colonies when he was accused as the instigator of the war that flared out between the Iroquois and the Algonquian-speaking Illiniwek people after he traded with the Outaouais (Odawa).
He set out on another expedition in late 1681 with a crew composed of 41 Frenchmen and natives. He met Henri Tonti at the fort along the St. Joseph River on December 19 and the group paddled their canoes upriver until they reached Creve Coeur one month later. On February 6, 1682, La Salle finally realized his dream when he and his companions entered the Mississippi River. They, however, were forced to camp out for some time along its bank because of the river had turned to ice.
La Salle and his men continued their journey after one week but were forced to break the ice along the way so they could continue. Icy conditions forced them once again to set up a camp when they reached the junction of the Mississippi and Missouri Rivers. They broke camp sometime later and rowed once again until they reached the confluence of the Ohio and Mississippi Rivers.
They stayed for ten days in present-day Memphis to wait for one of the men who lost his way while looking for food. La Salle, always restless, directed his men to build a fort which he later named Prudhomme. They continued their journey on the 5th of March but were forced to stop when they heard war cries and drums from the Arkansas side of the Mississippi River. To La Salle’s relief, the tribe which flocked along the banks of the Mississippi turned out to be friendly. He befriended them and they stayed briefly in their camp. He then claimed the land for his patron, King Louis XIV.
The members of the tribe were so friendly and affectionate to La Salle and his crew that they were forced to tear themselves away from them just to continue their journey. Two members of the tribe accompanied La Salle and his crew down the Mississippi, and they soon came upon its confluence with the Arkansas River.
On the 22nd of March, La Salle’s group camped out with the friendly Taensa (Tensaw) people. They continued their journey after staying with Taensa for some time. They soon came across the Koroa people who told them that the ocean was only a few days away from the camp. They left the Koroa camp on the 29th of March and finally arrived in the Mississippi River delta on the 6th of April, 1682. On April 9, La Salle claimed the land for France and named it “Louisiana” in honor of King Louis XIV.
Busbee, Westley F., Jr. Mississippi: A History. 2nd ed. Chichester, West Sussex, UK: John Wiley & Sons, 2015.
Carsten, F. L., ed. The New Cambridge Modern History. Vol. 5. The New Cambridge Modern History. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1961. doi:10.1017/CHOL9780521045445.
Dupre, Celine. “Biography – CAVELIER DE LA SALLE, RENÉ-ROBERT – Volume I (1000-1700) – Dictionary of Canadian Biography.” Home – Dictionary of Canadian Biography. Accessed August 15, 2017. http://www.biographi.ca/en/bio/cavelier_de_la_salle_rene_robert_1E.html.
Galloway, Patricia Kay. La Salle and His Legacy: Frenchmen and Indians in the Lower Mississippi Valley. Jackson: University Press of Mississippi, 2012.
Hannan, Caryn. Illinois Biographical Dictionary. Hamburg, MI: State History Publications, 2008.
The Catholic tradition dominated the Low Countries from the 3rd century AD up to the reign of the House of Habsburg. The explosion of the Reformation during the early 16th century threatened Catholic power over the Low Countries. Repressions followed the spread of Protestantism, but Rome and the Habsburg rulers found that it could not be contained. Despite the unrelenting repressions, the Dutch Reformed Church was finally created in 1571. It became one of the dominant churches in the Netherlands from the start of the Reformation and into the early 20th century. This event is recorded on the Bible Timeline with World History during that time.
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The Low Countries, the Holy Roman Empire, and Christianity
The Romans brought Christianity to the Low Countries (Belgium and Netherlands) in the early 3rd century AD. Bishoprics were soon established in cities such as Tournai and Tongeren as the new religion spread. Christianity later declined with the arrival of pagan Germanic tribes in the area in the mid-3rd century. The religion experienced a revival upon the conversion to Catholicism of the Frankish king Clovis I in AD 496. Except for the region inhabited by the fiercely independent Frisians, Christianity once again dominated the Low Countries.
The pagan Frisians soon became Christians during the reign of the Carolingian king Charlemagne. The Carolingian kingdom was divided between Charlemagne’s sons after his death, but the arrival of the Vikings disrupted their domination in the Low Countries. The Vikings soon converted to Catholicism and Christianity continued to be the dominant religion in the Low Countries.
Although the Low Countries were always dominated by their neighbors, local princes soon emerged as independent rulers of their own cities. In 1369, Duke Philip II of Burgundy (related to the French House of Valois) married Margaret Dampierre, the daughter of the count of Flanders. This marriage brought Flanders into the orbit of France and the Burgundian ties to the Low Countries would be strengthened later on by Philip the Good’s expansion to Holland, Zeeland, Hainaut, and Friesland.
In 1477, the Low Countries was folded in the territory of the Holy Roman Empire with the marriage of Mary of Burgundy to Maximilian I. Their son, Philip the Handsome, married Joanna I of Castile which further expanded the Holy Roman Empire. The royal couple’s eldest son, Charles V, was born in 1500. The prince inherited the Low Countries when his father died in 1506, and succeeded to the Spanish throne ten years later. The staunchly Catholic monarch became the Holy Roman Emperor in 1519 and was largely responsible for stemming the tide of the Reformation during the early 16th century.
The Reformation and the Creation of the Dutch Reformed Church
In 1566, iconoclasm swept through the Catholic churches in the Netherlands.
During the late 1300s, Geert Groote, Florentius Radewyns, and their disciples created the Brethren of the Common Life. It was a community which devoted itself to charitable works and education. The Brethren may have paved the way for the Reformation more than a century later because of their insistence on reading the Bible in Latin and in Dutch. Intellectual giants such as Thomas a Kempis, Rodolphus Agricola, Alexander Hegius von Heek, and Desiderius Erasmus were among the Netherlands’ famous residents who were also Reformation forerunners. It was no wonder that it was the Dutch who were the first ones to embrace the Reformation.
By the time Martin Luther released the Ninety-Five Theses in 1517, the cities of the Low Countries were already vibrant centers of the Renaissance and humanism. Luther’s then-radical theses did not sit well the Catholic authorities. He was later forced to recant, but his refusal to renounce his beliefs later resulted in his excommunication in 1521. Despite the Pope and Charles V’s opposition to Luther’s ideas, the Reformation still spread to other parts of Germany and even outside its borders.
The Wittenberg-educated Hendrik van Zutphen was possibly the first person to introduce the evangelical movement in the Netherlands. His activities centered in the city of Dordrecht, but Catholic opposition and fear for his life drove him back to Wittenberg in 1519. Book-burnings and persecutions became the norm during that time. These acts, however, did not stop the spread of the Reformation in the Netherlands starting in the 1520s.
In 1522, Charles V went after the “heretics” when he established the Inquisition in the Low Countries. Two of the Inquisition’s first victims were Zutphen’s followers Henry Voes and John Esch. Both men were condemned to be burned at the stake and were executed in Antwerp or Brussels in 1523. Charles passed harsher laws against the “heretics” over the years, but the numbers of those who broke away from the Catholic Church only increased.
The arrival of the radical Anabaptists in the Netherlands only intensified the repressions against the dissenters. Despite the dangers to their lives, the Dutch Anabaptists produced prominent Reformation personalities such as John of Leiden and Menno Simons (founder of the Mennonites). Calvinism eventually overtook other versions of Protestantism (including Lutheranism) in the Low Countries. It also became the foundation of the French-speaking Walloon Churches in Southern Netherlands.
In 1556, the Habsburg prince Philip II rose to the Spanish throne and inherited the provinces of the Low Countries. He then named William (Prince of Orange-Nassau) as the governor (stadtholder) of Zeeland, Utrecht, and Holland in 1559. A German native, William was raised by his parents as a Lutheran. He later received a Catholic education as a condition for inheriting the principality of Orange.
The king, however, was unaware that William’s sympathy with the Protestants remained although he claimed to be a Catholic. His resentment of Spanish rule rose especially during the height of the Inquisition in the Netherlands. In 1564, William started to openly attack Spain’s restrictive rule and its cruel persecution of Protestants. The unrest in the Netherlands intensified over the years, and William himself supported the Dutch rebels financially.
As expected, Philip II soon declared William an enemy of Spain and of Catholicism. William only dug his heels in and even became the leader of Dutch rebels. The intense battles which started in 1568 ignited the Eighty Years’ War between the Dutch Protestant provinces and Spain.
In the midst of this bloody conflict bloomed a new church geared primarily for the Dutch-speaking Protestants of Northern Netherlands. Between the 4th and 14th of October in 1571, 29 exiled members of the Walloon Church came together in the German city of Emden and held a synod. Before it ended, the Walloon Church had already breathed life to the Dutch Reformed Church (Hervormde Kerk).
This church, just like its southern counterpart, also accepted the Calvinist Reformed Confessions of Faith which included the Belgic Confessions of 1561 and the Heidelberg Catechism of 1563. Unlike the Lutherans, however, the Dutch Reformed Church is presbyterian in administration (led by elders).
Cerny, Gerald. Theology, Politics and Letters at the crossroads of European civilization: Jacques Basnage and the Baylean Huguenot refugees in the Dutch Republic. Springer Science & Business Media, 2012.
Lindsay, Thomas M. A History of the Reformation. New York: C. Scribners Sons, 1914.
The last Lusignan king of Cyprus, James II, died in Cyprus in 1473. His son by the Venetian Catherine Cornaro died in the following year. Catherine Cornaro ruled the island for some years until the Venetian rulers forced her to relinquish the island to their control. She did so in 1489, and the island belonged to the Venetians from that time onward. Their rule would abruptly end when Cyprus was ceded to Turkey by Venice in 1571. This event is recorded on the Bible Timeline with World History during that time.
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Venice and the Ottoman Empire had been at each other’s throats since the Ottoman conquest of Morea in 1460. Venice lost a great part of its Mediterranean colonies during the first three Ottoman-Venetian Wars. To add insult to injury, Venice was forced each time to sue for peace with the Ottomans in the last three wars. The peace treaty signed by Venice and the Ottoman Empire in 1540 lasted for only 30 years until war flared up again.
Piracy was a common problem in 16th century Mediterranean. While Ottoman Corsairs dominated the Barbary Coast, European pirates also preyed on ships in different parts of the Mediterranean. Some of them attacked the Ottoman merchant ships that plied the waters between Istanbul and Egypt. This disrupted communication and trade between the Ottoman province of Egypt and the capital. Venice landed in hot water once again when the Ottomans learned that its administrators in Cyprus sheltered these European pirates.
Sultan Selim II
The Venetians and the Ottomans had signed a treaty right after Sultan Selim II’s rise to the throne. With the Venetian protection of the pirates, Selim and his court agreed to break the treaty and occupy Cyprus once and for all. Preparations to attack the island started in 1569 with Lala Mustafa Pasha as the commander the Ottoman army. The inexperienced Muezzinzade Ali Pasha led the Ottoman fleet, and he was assisted by the veteran admiral Piyale Pasha.
News of Ottoman attack against Cyprus trickled to Venice soon after, so the Venetians hastily repaired their fortifications on the island. The Venetian rulers had few allies to turn to as they prepared their defense. Their administrators in Cyprus were corrupt which made them unpopular among the locals. The Habsburg rulers were also reluctant to help Venice as there was no incentive for them to join an alliance. Besides, Venice had not been helpful in the past when Austria and Hungary were at war with the Ottomans.
The pope came to the rescue when he convinced the Habsburg rulers to help Venice. However, they would only help defend the island if the Venetians would also help them crush the Ottomans in the Barbary Coast. Venice had no choice but to agree.
It seemed that the alliance was too late. The Ottomans easily breached and occupied Famagusta on the eastern part of the island on August 1, 1571. Nicosia on the central part of the island fell in September 1571. The Habsburg fleet led by Philip II of Spain and his half-brother Don Juan of Austria sailed from Italy to Greece in the same month.
In the early days of October 1571, the Ottoman fleet led by Muezzinzade Ali Pasha sailed back to Greece and docked off the coast of Lepanto (Nafpaktos). Don Juan’s fleet encountered the Ottoman navy in the Gulf of Patras and a fierce naval battle ensued. The Habsburg fleet defeated the Ottoman navy on the 7th of October 1571. Thousands of Ottoman seamen died in the Battle of Lepanto, including Admiral Muezzinzade Ali Pasha.
Incredibly, a decisive Venetian-Habsburg victory did not happen even after the Battle of Lepanto. Fighting continued off the coast of Morea, however there was no clear winner. Venice was worn out, and it finally gave up its claims to Cyprus in 1573. The Venetian representative in Istanbul negotiated a peace treaty with the Ottomans in the same year.
References:
Picture by: By Belli değil – http://www.unitedamericanmuslim.org/padisahlar/11.jpg, Public Domain, Link
Carsten, F. L., ed. The New Cambridge Modern History, The Ascendancy of France: 1648-88. Vol. 1. Cambridge University Press, 1961.
Faroqhi, Suraiya, ed. The Cambridge History of Turkey: The Later Ottoman Empire, 1603–1839. Vol. 3. Cambridge U Press, 2006.
Finkel, Caroline. Osman’s Dream: The Story of the Ottoman Empire, 1300-1923. NY, NY: Basic Books, 2007.
Kia, Mehrdad. The Ottoman Empire. Westport, CT: Greenwood Press, 2008.
Shaw, Stanford Jay. History of the Ottoman Empire and Modern Turkey : Empire of the Gazis: The Rise and Decline of the Ottoman Empire, 1280-1808. Vol. 1. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1977.
The city of Constantinople was built on the shores of the Bosphorus so the enemies of the Byzantine Empire would have a hard time invading it. Many of those enemies tried to invade the city over the years, but none succeeded. It was only breached by the soldiers of the Fourth Crusade in 1204. It was then ruled by western Europeans for more than fifty years. The Byzantines took back Constantinople in 1261. Another powerful threat lurked in the horizon: the Ottomans. They expanded their territory in Anatolia near the end of the thirteenth century and launched the first siege of Constantinople in 1422 where it is recorded on the Bible Timeline with World History during that time.
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Constantinople: The Jewel of the Eastern Roman Empire
On the 11th of May 330, Emperor Constantine founded a new city on the European shore of the Bosphorus. He called it Constantinople, and it became the capital of the Eastern Roman Empire for the next 1,100 years. During the Medieval Period, Avars, Persians, Arabs, Bulgarians, and Russians all tried to conquer the great city but none of them succeeded. It endured for hundreds of years. However, the Byzantines never expected that it would fall to the soldiers of the Fourth Crusade in 1204.
“Map of Constantinople (modern-day Istanbul), designed in 1422 by Florentine cartographer Cristoforo Buondelmonti. This is the oldest surviving map of the city, and the only surviving map which predates the Turkish conquest of 1453. The Bosphorus is visible along the right hand side of the map, wrapping vertically around the historic city.”
The Byzantine rulers took it back from the Latin Empire in 1261, but the rise of the Ottomans became a potent threat to the city. Bayezid, the great Turkish sultan, started the plans to conquer it in 1396. He was captured by the Timur-e Lang (Tamerlane) in 1402. Bayezid’s sons Mehmed I, Suleyman, and Isa all escaped captivity during the Battle of Ankara in 1402. Another son called Musa, however, was taken to Timur’s capital of Samarkand with his father. Their loss threw the Ottoman Empire into a brief period of decline (1402-1413). It was followed by a civil war when his heirs fought against each other for domination of the Ottoman throne.
Emperor Manuel II Palaiologos seized the opportunity to weaken the Ottoman Empire by using the Turkish princes against each other. In 1413, Mehmed I finally succeeded in getting rid of his brothers to claim the title of Ottoman Sultan. Mehmed I died in 1421 after a riding accident but not before reviving the glory days of the Ottoman Empire. His successor, Murad II, immediately besieged Constantinople in 1422 after he was declared the new Sultan. The defenders of Constantinople successfully defended it. This failure did not deter the Ottomans. They tried to besiege the city again more than thirty years later. Constantinople finally fell to them in 1453.
References:
Picture By Cristoforo Buondelmonti – Liber insularum Archipelagi (1824), version available at the Bibliothèque nationale de France, Paris, Public Domain, Link
Finkel, Caroline. Osman’s Dream: The Story of the Ottoman Empire, 1300-1923. New York: Basic Books, 2006.
Mikaberidze, Alexander. Conflict and Conquest in the Islamic World: A Historical Encyclopedia. ABC-CLIO Interactive, 2011.
Turnbull, Stephen R. The Walls of Constantinople: AD 324-1453. Oxford: Osprey, 2004.
Uyar, Mesut, and Edward J. Erickson. A Military History of the Ottomans: From Osman to Atatürk. Santa Barbara, CA: Praeger Security International/ABC-CLIO, 2009.
King Acamapichtli was chosen as the king of the Aztecs (Mexica) in the 1370s where he is recorded on the Bible Timeline with World History. He then started to rule the city of Tenochtitlan around 1375/1376. The Mexicas built the city of Tenochtitlan in 1325. However, they were still far from independent under the powerful Tepanec overlords. Acamapichtli was the first Mexica king that ruled while they were under Tepanec domination.
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The Establishment of Aztec City of Tenochtitlan 1325
After leaving their mythical homeland of Aztlan and the seven caves of Chicomoztoc, the Mexica had no choice but to wander in the Valley of Mexico. Since they did not have a land of their own, they served the Colhua people as peasants. The two tribes were on good terms until the Mexica chief asked for the hand of a Colhua princess in marriage. The Colhua king agreed to arrange the marriage of his daughter to the Mexica chief. However, instead of a wedding ceremony, the Mexicas dragged the princess into their temple and killed her in hopes of turning her into a war goddess.
The Mexica priest then took her skin and wore it during the ceremony. They invited the Colhua bride’s father in the ceremony, and there he saw what they had done to his daughter. In their anger, the Colhua people attacked the Mexica and drove them off their land. Landless once again, the Mexica wandered in the Valley of Mexico until they came to an uninhabited island on the shore of Lake Texcoco. There they built their city of Tenochtitlan in 1325 and at last, they had a land to call their own.
“Acamapichtli as depicted in the Tovar Codex.”
Acamapichtli Mexica’s First King
The Mexica remained as hunters and gatherers even after they built the city of Tenochtitlan. They later farmed the land using the chinampa system and traded with neighboring towns. They lived near the powerful kingdom of the Azcapotzalco, but its Tepanec citizens did not like the Mexicas. One day, the Tepanecs asked their King Tezozomoc to impose heavy taxes on the Mexica traders after they saw that they had flourished. He listened to their suggestion and ordered the Mexica to pay higher taxes. The payment of heavy taxes took a heavy toll on the Mexica until they could no longer bear it. They sent some men to the Tepanec King Tezozomoc for him to lower their taxes. The request only angered the king. He increased the taxes the Mexicas needed to pay as part of their punishment.
They were still fresh from their defeat from the Colhua people, so the Mexicas had no other choice but to submit. The Mexicas waited for the right time and built alliances through marriage with other tribes. In this way, their people increased and expanded their territory. Priests and wise elders ruled the Mexicas during that time, but they realized that they needed a king to lead them. The council of elders met and decided that they should look for a brave young man from their own people to be their king.
Years before the elders came to this agreement, a Mexica captain named Opochtzin Iztahuatzin lived to Colhuacan and married a princess named Atotoztli. The princess gave birth to their son, and they named him Acamapichtli. The boy grew up to be a handsome and brave warrior whose courage impressed his Mexica elders. They decided that he was fit to lead their people, so they sent some men to his cousin, the King Teuchtlamacazque Nauhyolth of Colhuacan. They asked the king to send his cousin back with them to Tenochtitlan so he could be their king. King Teuchtlamacazque could not give them his permission as his cousin was not in his palace anymore.
He sent them instead to King Acolmiztli who was the ruler of the neighboring Coatl Ichan. His sister, Queen Ilancueitl, had taken Acamapichtli to their city and educated the young man there. When King Acolmiztli heard of the envoys’ request, he immediately gave them Acamapichtli so he could be proclaimed as their king. Acamapichtli also married Queen Ilancueitl, and he started to rule as their king in 1375/1376. Queen Ilancueitl and Acamapichtli did not have children, so he took eight wives with whom he had sons and daughters. His sons included Huitzilihuitl, Itzcoatl, Cuatlacuatl, Tlacahuepan, Tlatolzaca, Epcoatl Ilhuitemoc, and Tlacocochtoc.
The years of Acamapitchli’s reign were peaceful and prosperous. He chose to build alliances through marriages instead of fighting other tribes. He also chose to pay the Tepanec king Tezozomoc the tribute he demanded so that his people could avoid wars. He died in 1395 at the age of 70.
References:
References By Tovar, Juan de, circa 1546-circa 1626 – http://dl.wdl.org/6718.pngGallery: http://www.wdl.org/en/item/6718/, Public Domain, Link
Aguilar-Moreno, Manuel. Handbook to Life in the Aztec World. New York: Facts on File, 2006.
Chimalpahin Quauhtlehuanitzin, Domingo Francisco De San Antón Muñón. Codex Chimalpahin: Society and Politics in Mexico Tenochtitlan, Tlatelolco, Texcoco, Culhuacan, and Other Nahua Altepetl in Central Mexico: The Nahuatl and Spanish Annals and Accounts Collected and Recorded by Don Domingo De San Antón Muñón Chimalpahin Quauhtlehuanitzin. Translated by Arthur J. O. Anderson and Susan Schroeder. Vol. 1. Norman, OK: University of Oklahoma Press, 1997.
Apart from his grandfather Genghis Khan, no other Mongol ruler matched the accomplishments of Kublai Khan. His branch of the Mongol royal family was not expected to rule. But because of his strength and intelligence, Kublai became the Mongols’ Great Khan. Khublai Khan ruled China as its first Mongol Emperor in 1271 after he defeated the Southern Song Dynasty. He then established the Yuan Dynasty which ruled China from 1271 to 1368. Kublai Khan is recorded on the Bible Timeline with World History between 1234-1305.
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The Mongol Conquest From Genghis Khan to Kublai Khan
When Kublai was born in 1215, Genghis Khan had already conquered the Jin Dynasty of Northern China. At that time, the Mongols were also the undisputed masters of Asia and to some extent, Russia. The Mongol Empire stretched from Korea to Iraq, while their armies even ventured as far as Eastern Europe. They also destroyed the Abbasid Dynasty in 1258 and ended the Khwarezmian Dynasty of Persia in 1220.
The whole family disagreed on which son would inherit the role of Khagan (Great Khan) when he died in 1227. Because of the disagreement, it took the Mongols two years before they elected Genghis’s third son Ogedei as his successor. This compromise also led to the division of the Mongol Empire. Batu, Genghis’ grandson through Jochi, became the ruler of the Golden Horde in Russia and West Asia. Chagatai, Genghis Khan’s second son, ruled Central Asia. Tolui, Kublai’s father and youngest of Genghis’ sons, ruled the northern part of China and their Mongolian homeland.
In 1234, Ogedei completely crushed the Jin resistance in Northern China. The Mongols then turned Korea, Armenia, Georgia, Tibet, and Russia into tributaries. They even ventured as far as Poland and Hungary in 1241. They later withdrew and hurried back to Mongolia when Ogedei died on December 11, 1241.
Early Life
Kublai Khan was born on September 23, 1215. Kublai’s father was Tolui. He was Genghis Khan’s youngest son, by his Keraite wife, Sorghaghtani Beki. His brothers were Mongke, Hulagu, and Ariq Boke. Little is known about his early life as they were just another branch of the royal family and were not expected to rule the Mongols.
Sorghaghtani Beki and Her Sons
The Christian Keraite princess Sorghaghtani Beki was one of the most prominent women who married into Genghis Khan’s family. Kublai’s father, Tolui, was always away on military campaigns, so she was left to raise her four boys without him. She was also responsible for their education, and she made sure that her sons learned how to ride, shoot, and hunt at a young age. Kublai also learned how to read and write Mongolian because of his mother’s insistence. The boy, however, never learned to read and write Chinese, so he had to rely on interpreters and translators for much of his reign as emperor.
Tolui died of alcoholism between 1231 and 1232. The Mongol Khagan Ogedei offered to arrange the marriage between his widowed sister-in-law and his own son Guyuk. Sorghaghtani, however, politely declined the Kagan’s offer. She told Ogedei that she would rather devote her time to her sons.
“The Yuan Dynasty of China, c. 1294”
Kublai as a Young Mongol Ruler
Sorghaghtani later asked Ogedei to give her an appanage (a piece of land). This request was granted in 1236. Ogedei gave her Zhengding County in Hubei Province. It was ruled by her son Kublai soon after. Kublai also received his own land to rule in Hubei later on. However, he stayed in Mongolia, so he was unaware that his Mongol administrators oppressed the Chinese farmers who lived in his appanage. The Chinese farmers were forced to leave the area because of the oppression and settled in areas where Mongols did not rule.
When Kublai learned of the situation in his appanage, he immediately replaced the corrupt Mongol administrators with Chinese officials. He also reformed the administration to ease the farmers’ burden. By 1240, many of those who left returned to their own land and worked as farmers again.
Kublai had four principal wives, but it was his second wife and chief consort named Chabi who became influential in his court. He married her before 1240, and she gave birth to their oldest son, Dorji, in 1241. It was also the year when the Khagan Ogedei died. Ogedei wanted his grandson Shiremun to succeed him as Khagan. But his wife, Toregene Khatun, wanted the Mongols to elect her son Guyuk. While he was away on a military campaign, Toregene bribed and schemed so her son would get elected as Khagan. However, she fell out of favor with some Mongol ruling families because of her schemes.
Sorghaghtani also worked hard to maneuver her sons to success. She became friends with Guyuk’s enemy, Batu Khan of the Golden Horde of Russia. However, this was not powerful enough to challenge her sister-in-law. Guyuk finally became Khagan in 1246, and the Mongols under his rule continued to expand their domain in Asia and Europe.
In 1247, the hostility between Batu Khan and Guyuk came to a head. Guyuk gathered his men and headed west to attack Batu. When Sorghaghtani learned of his plans, she immediately sent messengers to Batu to tell him of Guyuk’s plan, but the khagan died on the way. Her loyalty pleased Batu Khan. He assured her afterward that he would support one of her sons as the next khagan in the Mongol assembly.
Batu and the other Mongol rulers hurried back to their homeland to elect a new khagan in 1251. Although it was not without opposition, the Mongol leaders elected Kublai’s brother Mongke as the new khagan. Sorghaghtani died in early 1252. Her sons honored her with a commemorative tablet in Beijing. They also had her portrait displayed in a Nestorian church in Mongolia.
The Rise of the Tolui’s Sons
The fight for the position of khagan continued as the sons of Ogedei and Chagatai did not acknowledge Mongke as khagan. Guyuk’s widow, Oghul Qaimish, also sided with the rival faction. Mongke was swift in getting rid of opposition, and he ordered the execution of many of them, including Guyuk’s widow. As a typical Mongol ruler, Mongke was tolerant of other religions. He also lowered taxes and expanded the Mongol realm. Some of his most important achievements were the fall of the Ismaili sect known as the Order of the Assassins in Persia and the Sack of Baghdad. His younger brother, Hulagu, was promoted as commander of the Mongol army because of these conquests.
Mongke prepared an invasion against the Southern Song as early as 1252. He assigned his younger brother, Kublai, as commander of the army that would besiege Hangzhou, the capital of Southern Song. The brothers knew that a direct attack from the north would not weaken the Southern Song. So they tried to soften the eastern and southwestern fronts of the Empire. Their first target was the Kingdom of Dali.
The Dali Campaign
One of Kublai’s most reliable general in the Dali campaign was General Subotai’s son Uriyangkadai. They led the march south in 1253 and immediately sent the Mongols’ usual “submit-or-else” message to the chief minister of the Kingdom of Dali. This message was sent through Mongol envoys, but the chief minister executed them upon hearing the Mongols’ demand.
Because of the chief minister’s refusal to submit, Kublai and his troops started the invasion in October 1253. The Mongols quickly subdued the kingdom and executed the officials who defied them. Kublai left behind Mongol administrators who shared power with Dali’s ruling family. General Uriyangkadai, meanwhile, continued his campaigns in the southwest with Kublai’s blessing. The general even ventured as far as North Vietnam (Annam) which became the Mongols’ tributary.
In Northern China and The Trouble with Mongke
After the Dali campaign, Kublai was free to rule his land in northern China. The khan’s land now stretched from Hunan to Shaanxi. He ruled it with the help of Chinese and Mongol officials. He cultivated a close relationship with the Chinese adviser Liu Bingzhong who later helped him choose a site for his new city. They decided to build it near the former Jin capital Zhongdu (modern Beijing) and named the new city Dadu/Khanbaliq. Liu Bingzhong was also the architect of Kublai Khan’s summer capital called Shangdu (Xanadu).
The Mongol nobility did not like Kublai’s adoption of Chinese values and lifestyle. It seemed to them that Kublai was abandoning the Mongol values and way of life for a sedentary Chinese life. After the Dali campaign, Kublai also became famous, and because of this, Mongke became envious of his brother.
In 1257, Mongke sent his own men to investigate the collection of taxes in Kublai’s land. But it was only a scheme against his own brother. After inspecting the books, Mongke’s men gathered Kublai’s Chinese officials and had them all killed. Some were lucky enough to escape the purge only because they were under the protection of Mongol noble families who lived in China. Mongke then forbade Kublai from collecting taxes from his own land.
Kublai became angry, but he could not risk the stability of the Mongol Empire by rebelling against his own brother. His Chinese advisers instead told him to submit to his brother by sending envoys of his own to Karakorum, the Mongol capital. It was useless as Mongke did not listen to his envoys, so Kublai was forced to go to his brother’s court himself. Kublai’s submission was effective, and they reconciled. Mongke joined his brother in leading the army in the invasion of the Southern Song in 1258.
The First Invasion of Southern Song
Mongke’s invasion of Southern Song encountered fierce opposition from the Mongol leaders. They insisted that the venture would fail as southern China was a breeding ground for diseases and that their horses would find it difficult to navigate the swampy and rugged terrain. Mongke was insistent, and the march of the Mongol army to conquer Southern Song started in early 1258. The Khagan left behind their youngest brother, Ariq Boke, to rule the Mongol homeland while he was away.
The Mongols were great horsemen, and their use of cavalry in previous wars always gave them an advantage. They chose to use bombards and foot soldiers instead as their horses would find the terrain difficult. The large Mongol army led by Mongke and Kublai crossed the Yellow River in 1258. They soon captured a Southern Song stronghold in Sichuan. The army then marched to Chengdu and crossed the Yangtze River where they met with Uriyangkadai’s troops from Yunnan.
Mongke was not meant to finish the campaign as he died of cholera or dysentery while besieging a town in Chongqing in 1259. His death sent the campaign into a sudden halt. The Mongols returned Mongke’s remains to Mongolia, while Kublai stayed behind. They buried him alongside his father and grandfather. The Southern Song would remain free of Mongol rule for a few more years.
Mongol Civil War
When news of the khagan’s death reached Ariq Boke, he immediately gathered his troops and marched to Kublai’s domain in Northern China. Kublai’s wife Chabi heard of Ariq Boke’s approach, so she immediately sent a messenger to her husband to hurry back to Northern China. Kublai returned to his land with his troops when news of the invasion reached him in 1260. He traveled to Karakorum in the same year to join the assembly there.
Their brother, Hulagu, also left his campaign in Syria and came back to Karakorum to elect a leader. Hulagu was secure in his own domain in West Asia, so he was not interested in being khagan. Both Kublai and Ariq Boke wanted to become the Great Khan, but most of the Mongol leaders sided with Kublai. Hulagu himself supported his older brother, and Kublai accepted the position on May 5, 1260.
Ariq Boke, along with his conservative Mongol allies, were unhappy with the results of the election. His allies declared him as the rightful khagan in June 1260. He was supported by Hulagu’s enemy Berke Khan of the Golden Horde, as well as by Alghu of the Chagatai Khanate. Kublai was left without an ally when Berke and Hulagu’s hostility finally escalated to war in 1262.
The Southern Song also used the civil war to attack the Mongol garrisons in the south. Kublai could not afford to be distracted from his war against Ariq Boke, so he left the Song alone temporarily. Meanwhile, he blocked his younger brother’s supply route so Ariq Boke could not receive provisions in his base in Karakorum. Kublai then led his troops and attacked the Mongol capital in the fall of 1260. Ariq Boke was forced to retreat deeper into Central Asia while Kublai occupied the capital.
In November 1261, the rival brothers and their troops finally faced off in the Battle of Shimutai. Kublai overpowered Ariq Boke’s army at first, but the younger brother tried hard to keep his army intact. They met once again when Ariq Boke attacked Kublai’s army near the Khingan Mountain. Kublai easily crushed Ariq Boke’s troops, but his rebellious brother escaped.
But Ariq Boke food was about to run out, so he sent his envoys to the Chagatai khan Alghu to collect some provisions. Alghu saw that Ariq Boke’s cause was hopeless, so the Chagatai khan ordered the execution of the envoys. Angered because of the death of his envoys, Ariq Boke attacked Alghu’s stronghold in Almalikh and ruled it when the Chagatai khan fled.
Ariq Boke became increasingly cruel with his people when he saw that his war against his brother was hopeless. He finally surrendered to Kublai in 1264 and appeared in his court in the same year. It seemed that all was well again between the two. But Kublai ordered Ariq Boke not to appear in his presence for a full year as punishment.
Mongol custom, however, dictated a harsher punishment for Ariq Boke’s rebellion. Kublai knew that he needed to do it soon, so he invited other Mongol khans to attend an assembly to come up with a fitting punishment for his brother. Hulagu and Berke did not attend as they were in the middle of a war against each other. Alghu Khan sent an unenthusiastic reply. Kublai’s problems were solved in 1266 when Alghu, Hulagu, and Berke died. Ariq Boke also died sometime in 1266, so there was no need for Kublai to punish him. Whether he died of an illness or foul play, Kublai’s path to ruling as the sole khagan was clear.
Kublai: Khan of Khans and Ruler of North China
While the civil war with Ariq Boke was raging, Kublai also made overtures to Southern Song officials. He rewarded Southern Song defectors to encourage others to side with the Mongols. Now that his position as Khagan was secure, he could focus on ruling Northern China and renew the conquest of the Southern Song. His desire to conquer the south was only natural as its land was more fertile than the north. It was also the gateway to the lucrative sea trade with Southeast Asia, India, and the Middle East.
Preparations for a renewed invasion of the Southern Song went on between 1261 and 1264. He enlisted the help of Jurchen, Mongol, and Chinese troops. These soldiers were led by Chinese, Uighur, Mongol, and Persian generals. Kublai knew that he needed to build a navy to counter the Southern Song, but this was one skill that the Mongols did not have. Instead, he ordered his Jurchen, Korean, and Northern Chinese men to build the Mongols a fleet.
Before the invasion started, Kublai first sent an envoy to the Southern Song royal court in Hangzhou to demand the emperor’s submission. The Southern Song ministers did not learn anything from the Siege of Baghdad or the Dali campaign, so they imprisoned the khan’s envoys after hearing their message. Kublai Khan immediately ordered his army to march south when he heard of the fate of his envoys.
The Battle of Xiangyang
In 1265, the Mongols defeated the Southern Song defenders in the battle at Diaoyu Fortress in Chongqing. It was the first major clash between the two, and the Mongols later seized more than a hundred Song ships which he added to his fleet. In 1267, they besieged the Southern Song cities of Xiangyang and Fancheng in Hubei. Both cities were located on the banks of the Han River, so the Mongols blocked all ships that tried to ferry supplies into the city. The defenders of Fancheng and Xiangyang continued to hold out even though they were low on food and other provisions.
While he was in the middle of the siege in 1271, an adviser suggested that the Khan should name his own dynasty. The adviser suggested the name “Yuan” which means “origin” in Chinese. Kublai was pleased, and he adopted it as the name of China’s new dynasty.
In 1271, the khan finally became impatient to break the siege of Fancheng and Xiangyang. He sent a message to Ilkhan Abaqa in Persia to help him. The Ilkhan sent Kublai two Muslim engineers named Ismail and Al al-Din in 1272. The two then designed and built a mangonel (catapult) that battered the walls of Fancheng and Xiangyang. Ismail and Al al-Din’s mangonel was effective. The defenders of Xiangyang and Fancheng finally surrendered the Southern Song stronghold to Kublai’s forces in 1273.
The Fall of the Southern Song
After the fall of Xiangyang and Fancheng, Kublai assigned the Turkic general Bayan as commander of the troops bound for Hangzhou. Bayan and his soldiers conquered Southern Song towns along the way. They also engaged the Southern Song defenders in land and naval battles in Hankou (Hubei) in 1275. The defenders, however, were heavily outgunned. They were defeated when the Mongols once again used their mangonel.
The people and the officials of the Southern Song panicked when they heard that Xiangyang fell and that the Mongols were on their way to Hangzhou. Emperor Duzong also died in 1274. He only had young sons as his successors. This situation added to hopelessness felt by the Southern Song royal family. The officials hastily proclaimed the young Prince Zhao Xian as his father’s successor. His grandmother, Empress Dowager Xie, stood as his regent.
Many of the Southern Song officials either died or defected to Kublai Khan’s side some years before, so the Empress had no one to turn to for help. The Empress made a last-ditch effort to convince General Bayan that they would submit to the Mongols if only they would turn back. Victory was on the horizon, so Bayan thought it was unreasonable to abandon the conquest. He ignored the Empress Dowager’s pleas until she had no choice but to send the royal family’s seal to the general as a sign of her family’s submission.
The End of the Song
General Bayan accepted the Empress Dowager’s submission. Before the invasion, Kublai told him to refrain from unnecessary violence toward the Chinese people. The Khagan also forbade him from destroying Hangzhou. Bayan followed his orders, and the general himself escorted the child emperor, his mother, and his grandmother to Kublai’s capital.
Kublai received them in his court, and they were treated very well. The Yuan Emperor, however, demoted the former Song Emperor to the position of the Duke of Ying. Zhao Xian lived in Kublai’s court until he went into exile in Tibet and became a monk in 1296. His mother and grandmother were placed under the care of Kublai’s chief consort Chabi. They, too, were treated very well until their deaths.
The Mongols captured Hangzhou, but pockets of resistance still existed in some parts of Southern China where some Song loyalists fled. Some of them crowned Zhao Xian’s young brother as the new emperor in Fuzhou. This emperor later died on May 8, 1278—on the run and pursued relentlessly by Mongol warriors. Another brother was also proclaimed as emperor after his brother’s death, but he drowned and died a year later while on the run as well.
Kublai as Emperor of China
With the Southern Song out of his way, Kublai set about in proving that he was the legitimate ruler of China and that he was on the side of the Chinese people. He discouraged his Mongol officials from oppressing the Chinese so they could continue their occupations. He understood that the land was destroyed by many years of war, so he wanted as little disruption in their lives as possible. His policy of toleration led to China’s prosperity, while his Mongol homeland was also stable.
Kublai’s concern for his subjects was obvious on the policies and projects he started during his reign. These policies and projects included:
* The grant of tax relief so the people could recover from wars. He also established a fixed tax system which made the payment of taxes easier for the people. This system helped curb the corruption and abuses of local officials. All taxes went directly to the central government, and the revenue would then be divided between the appanage and Kublai’s government.
* Lighter taxes for those whose mulberry trees and silkworms were damaged during the wars.
* The distribution of paper money as an aid for the people during times of disaster.
* The distribution of grains to orphans and widows.
* The reduction of corvée labor for peasants.
* The prohibition of the conversion of farmlands into pastures. Many Mongol noble families wanted to convert the Chinese farmlands into pastures. But Kublai Khan thought that this would lessen the grains that they could harvest from the farms.
* The extension of the Grand Canal.
* The establishment of post offices all over the Mongol Empire. The post offices made the relay of messages across the empire faster and more efficient. The post offices were also valuable for merchants who passed through the Silk Road (such as the Polo brothers and Niccolò’s son, Marco) as these doubled as hostels along the trade routes.
* The extensive use of paper money in the Yuan Empire. Kublai told the people to surrender all their coins, and he replaced them with paper money.
* The favor he gave to the artisans and the merchants of China. Trade flourished under the Yuan Dynasty so that the Chinese were able to import goods from and export their products to India, the Middle East, and Southeast Asia.
Kublai Khan, however, was not too fond of landowning families which produced China’s scholars and officials. Since he generally favored non-Chinese advisers and he did not revive the civil service examinations, these scholars became unemployed. Some of them were forced to switch careers as poets and monks, while others became bitter and joined other Song loyalists.
Khublai Khan retained his grandfather’s use of the elite Mongolian bodyguards called kheshig. He also required all adult males in his realm aged seventy and below to serve in the military. His concern for the Chinese was balanced with caution. He knew that it was still possible that they would rebel against him, so he did not allow them to cultivate bamboo. He did this so that the plant would not be used as weapons (bows and arrows) against the Mongols. He also ordered that all horses owned by the Chinese should be surrendered to him. Those who hid their horses faced severe punishments from the Mongols.
Later Years and Death
His favorite wife, Chabi, died in 1281. He took her death really hard, and he began to withdraw from the court. The death of his heir, Zhenjin, also added to Kublai’s depression in his later years. He was already obese in his later life, but he continued to turn to food and alcohol to deal with these personal blows. He proclaimed Zhenjin’s son Temur as his successor before his death on February 18, 1294. Kublai Khan was 78 when he passed away.
References:
Picture By Ian Kiu – Own work, CC BY 3.0, Link
Man, John. Kublai Khan: From Xanadu to Superpower. London: Bantam Press, 2006.
May, Timothy Michael. The Mongol Empire: A Historical Encyclopedia. Santa Barbara, CA: ABC-CLIO, an imprint of ABC-CLIO, LLC, 2017.
Nicolle, David, and Richard Hook. The Mongol Warlords: Genghis Khan, Kublai Khan, Hülegü, Tamerlane. London: Brookhampton Press, 1998.
Robinson, David M. Empire’s Twilight: Northeast Asia Under the Mongols. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Asia Center for the Harvard-Yenching Institute, 2009.
Rossabi, Morris. Khubilai Khan: His Life and Times. Berkeley: University of California Press, c1988 1988. http://ark.cdlib.org/ark:/13030/ft6g5006zc/
Wang Anshi initiated some of China’s first reform programs in the eleventh century. Some of these were continued by the Southern Song emperors well into the twelfth century. Although things did not work out well for him despite his good intentions and radical ideas, Wang Anshi’s reputation recovered. His political reforms were recorded in the Bible Timeline Poster with World History between 1100 and 1200.
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Wang Anshi implemented reforms called the “New Policies” during the reign of the Emperor Shenzong (1065-1085) after he was promoted to the position of Chief Councillor. The reforms, however, failed after the program encountered stiff opposition from the landowners, aristocrats, and entrenched bureaucrats whose careers (and profits) he had endangered. However, it was the loan and tax reform programs that he implemented for the farmers that unraveled all his efforts. This occurred after a drought had wiped out the farmers’ production and made them unable to pay the debts they owed to the government.
“Wang Anshi”
Wang Anshi left the capital in disgrace, and despite his good intentions, his name was demonized for nearly a thousand years until it was hailed by communists as the first of the socialist reforms in China. He died in 1086, but a number of reform policies were revived by Emperor Zhenzong (1085-1100) when he curbed the power of Wang Anshi’s opponent and influential Song Chancellor Sima Guan. His successor and younger brother, the ill-fated Emperor Huizong, was an ardent supporter of Wang Anshi’s reforms. He implemented these initiatives during his reign between 1100 and 1126. During Huizong’s reign, however, Wang Anshi’s reform programs were nothing but slogans that were used by opportunistic politicians against their rivals. Corruption was so widespread during this period that the common people were forced to launch rebellions.
The twelfth century was a tumultuous period for China after the invasion of the Jurchen nomads, the mass migration of Song refugees from north to south China, and the establishment of the city of Lin’an (present-day Hangzhou) as the Southern Song (1127-1279) capital. The baojia system, a community-based law enforcement program, was among Wang Anshi’s reform programs which flourished during the Southern Song dynasty until China was folded into the Mongols’ Yuan Dynasty in the late thirteenth century.
References:
Picture by Public Domain, Link
Fairbank, John King, and Merle Goodman. China: A New History. Cambridge, MA: Belknap Press of Harvard University Press, 1992.
Grousset, Rene虂. The Empire of the Steppes: A History of Central Asia. New Brunswick, NJ: Rutgers University Press, 1970.
Mote, Frederick W. Imperial China, 900-1800. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1999.
Ropp, Paul S. China in World History. New York: Oxford University Press, 2010.
The Seljuk Turks were a force to be reckoned for much of the tenth and twelfth century. But the Europeans learned that they were not as invincible when they scored three successful combats against the Turks in AD 1118 (this event is recorded on the Bible Timeline with World History during that time). These victories included:
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* The Georgian King David IV the Builder’s capture of the Kingdom of Lori from the Seljuk Turks
* Joscelin I of Edessa successful capture of the town of Azaz (in present-day Syria)
* The capture of Sardis (present-day Manisa Province, Turkey) by the Byzantine general Philocales
* Georgia Recaptured
Located between the coasts of the Black Sea and the Caspian Sea, the tiny Kingdom of Georgia was a battleground for foreign powers. It was united for the first time when Bagrat III became the first king of Georgia in 1008. However, his descendants still had to contend with the Seljuk Turks when they poured out of Central Asia and into Asia Minor and the Levant.
It was not until the reign of King David IV the Builder in 1089 that the Georgians started to fight back against the Seljuks. They reclaimed one by one, the lands once conquered by the Turks. In 1118, King David IV recovered the kingdom of Lori (Tashir-Dzoraget) from the Seljuk Turks. He also resettled thousands of allied Kipchak warriors to keep the land from being invaded once again by the Seljuks.
“Joscelin I, Count of Edessa”
Joscelin I of Edessa Captured the Town of Azaz
The Frankish nobleman Joscelin of Courtenay arrived in the Levant in 1101 and his cousin, Count Baldwin II of Edessa, gave him the fortress of Turbessel (Tell Bashir) as his tiny domain. Their relationship broke down in 1113, and Joscelin was driven out of Turbessel in the same year. He fled to Jerusalem where he was granted the title of Prince of Galilee. He later helped capture Aleppo’s satellite town of Azaz from its Seljuk atabeg in 1118.
Philocales Captured Sardis
Just like the Kingdom of Georgia, the former Lydian capital of Sardis changed hands many times as years passed because of its strategic location. It was conquered by the Seljuk Turks some time in the eleventh century and was under the Sultanate of Rum’s (a Seljuk vassal) domination during the early part of the twelfth century. The Byzantine general Philocales wrested the city of Sardis from the Turks in 1118.
References:
Picture By Édouard Odier (1800-1887) – Unknown, Public Domain, Link
Napier, Gordon. The Pocket A – Z of the Knights Templar: A Guide to Their History and Legacy. Stroud: Spellmount, 2014. Print.
“See of Sardis.” Wikipedia. Accessed November 09, 2016. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/See_of_Sardis.
West, Barbara A. Encyclopedia of the Peoples of Asia and Oceania. New York: Facts On File, 2009. Print.
