World map in 1300

Border history

The interactive map lets you inspect named territories in 1300 and compare them to earlier or later snapshots on the timeline.

Biographical context

Meet figures alive in, or close to, 1300 and move from political geography to the people connected to the period.

Era-based reading

The related chronicles below provide long-form reading tied closely to the medieval period.

1206 – 1368

Mongol Conquests

Mongol Empire vs Various kingdoms and empires

The largest contiguous land empire in history — Genghis Khan and his successors conquered from Korea to Hungary, killing tens of millions and connecting East and West through the Pax Mongolica.

Key battles and events: Siege of Beijing (1215); Siege of Baghdad (1258)

1296 – 1560

Anglo–Scottish Wars

Kingdom of England vs Kingdom of Scotland

Centuries of border warfare between England and Scotland, from Edward I's invasions through the Wars of Independence to ongoing border raids. The 'Auld Alliance' with France made Scotland a persistent strategic threat to England's northern flank.

Key battles and events: Battle of Stirling Bridge (1297); Battle of Bannockburn (1314)

1296 – 1357

Wars of Scottish Independence

Kingdom of Scotland (Wallace, Bruce) vs Kingdom of England (Edward I, II, III)

Scotland fought to maintain independence against English conquest. William Wallace's guerrilla campaign and Robert the Bruce's decisive victory at Bannockburn (1314) secured Scottish sovereignty, inspiring the Declaration of Arbroath — one of history's first statements of national self-determination.

Key battles and events: Battle of Stirling Bridge (1297); Battle of Falkirk (1298)

1293 – 1527

Wars of Majapahit

Majapahit Empire vs Srivijaya remnants, rival Javanese kingdoms

The Majapahit Empire unified most of the Indonesian archipelago under Gajah Mada's oath of Palapa. At its height it controlled Java, Sumatra, Borneo, and parts of the Malay Peninsula — the largest pre-colonial Southeast Asian empire.

Key battles and events: Mongol invasion of Java repulsed (1293); Gajah Mada's campaigns (1331–1364)

1282 – 1302

War of the Sicilian Vespers

Kingdom of Aragon, Sicilian rebels vs Angevin Kingdom of Naples, Papacy

A popular uprising against French Angevin rule in Sicily sparked a twenty-year war that split the Kingdom of Sicily and reshaped the balance of power in the Mediterranean.

Key battles and events: Sicilian Vespers massacre (1282); Battle of the Gulf of Naples (1284)

1235 – 1340

Mali Empire Conquests

Mali Empire (Sundiata Keita, Mansa Musa) vs Sosso Kingdom, neighbouring states

Sundiata Keita defeated the Sosso king Sumanguru at the Battle of Kirina, founding the Mali Empire — the richest state in medieval Africa. Under Mansa Musa, Mali controlled the trans-Saharan gold trade; Musa's 1324 pilgrimage to Mecca was so lavish it crashed gold prices across the Mediterranean.

Key battles and events: Battle of Kirina (1235); Conquest of Timbuktu (c. 1285)

1235 – 1599

Wars of the Mali Empire

Mali Empire (Sundiata, Mansa Musa) vs Sosso Kingdom, rival Sahelian states

Sundiata Keita defeated the Sosso at Kirina and founded the Mali Empire, which became the wealthiest state in the medieval world under Mansa Musa. At its peak it controlled the trans-Saharan gold and salt trade across West Africa.

Key battles and events: Battle of Kirina (1235); Sundiata's unification campaigns

1206 – 1398

Delhi Sultanate Wars

Delhi Sultanate (various dynasties) vs Hindu kingdoms, Mongol invaders

The Delhi Sultanate expanded Muslim rule across most of the Indian subcontinent through successive dynasties. It also successfully repelled multiple Mongol invasions that would have devastated India as they did Persia and Central Asia.

Key battles and events: Battle of Tarain (1192); Battle of Amroha (1305)

Florence

Dante Alighieri

c. 1265 – 1321

Author of the Divine Comedy, founder of the Italian literary language, poet of exile

Mali / West Africa

Mansa Musa

c. 1280 – c. 1337

Ruler of the Mali Empire, his 1324 hajj pilgrimage flooded Egypt and Arabia with gold and crashed prices across the Mediterranean world for a decade

Morocco / Global

Ibn Battuta

1304 – c. 1368

Greatest medieval traveller, author of the Rihla, visited 44 modern countries across three decades

Kingdom of Sicily / Paris / Rome

Thomas Aquinas

c. 1225 – 1274

Scholastic philosopher, theologian, author of the Summa Theologiae, synthesiser of Aristotle and Christianity

North Africa / Mamluk Egypt

Ibn Khaldun

1332 – 1406

The Muqaddimah, the cyclical theory of history, the concept of asabiyyah, founding sociology and historiography as disciplines

West Africa

Sundiata

c. 1217 – c. 1255

Founder of the Mali Empire, victor at the Battle of Kirina, father of the Manden Charter

Built 1300 · Oceania

Ahu Tongariki

Largest ceremonial platform on Rapa Nui, bearing a row of fifteen restored moai facing inland to honor ancestral chiefs.

Built 1296 · Europe

Florence Cathedral

Gothic-Renaissance cathedral crowned by Brunelleschi's revolutionary dome

Built 1280 · Oceania

Wairau Bar

New Zealand's most significant early Polynesian settlement site, with burials containing moa eggs, adzes, and whale tooth pendants

Built 1250 · Asia

Konark Sun Temple

Chariot-shaped 13th-century Hindu temple dedicated to Surya in Odisha

Built 1250 · Oceania

Lelu Ruins

Basalt-walled royal compound on Kosrae, Micronesia, a rival to Nan Madol with massive walls enclosing sacred royal residences

Built 1250 · Africa

Thulamela

Late Iron Age stone-walled settlement in Kruger National Park, linked to the Great Zimbabwe trade network in South Africa

Florence · Thinker

Dante Alighieri

The Poet Who Mapped the Afterlife

The Florentine poet who wrote the greatest work of medieval literature — a journey through Hell, Purgatory, and Paradise that mapped the entire moral universe of the Western world, and did it in exile, condemned to death by the city he loved.

Mali / West Africa · Leader

Mansa Musa

The King Who Broke the World's Gold Market

The ruler of the Mali Empire whose 1324 pilgrimage to Mecca flooded Cairo with gold and crashed the Egyptian economy for a decade — and who built Timbuktu into the greatest centre of Islamic learning in sub-Saharan Africa.

Morocco / Global · Explorer

Ibn Battuta

The Man Who Walked the World

The extraordinary life of the Moroccan scholar who spent 29 years wandering from Tangier to China, covering 75,000 miles across 44 modern countries — and whose Rihla remains the greatest travel narrative of the medieval world.

Kingdom of Sicily / Paris / Rome · Philosopher

Thomas Aquinas

The Angelic Doctor

The Dominican friar who reconciled ancient reason with Christian faith — kidnapped by his own family, silenced by a vision, and the author of the most systematic work of philosophy in the medieval world.