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ABK;Abkhazia;x
ABK_DESC;In 9th century, Abkhazia was a powerful state, able to exert power over much of Georgia. 200 years later however, they were dynastically absorbed by the Bagratids. As a part of Georgian Kingdom, it was given to the house of Shirvashidze, which retained their title of princes of Abkhazia well into 19th century.;x
ADA;Adal;x
ADA_DESC;Of the medieval centralized state systems of Somali history, Adal was prominent. During the sixteenth century, its borders extended from Zeila, its capital, through the fertile valleys of the Jijiga and the Harer plateau to the Ethiopian highlands. Adal was founded by the former people of Ifat, a sultanate destroyed by Ethiopians in the 14th century. Holding true to this legacy, Adal is famous for its conflicts with the expansionist Ethiopians. Eventually, this would prove to be its undoing.;x
ADE;Aden;x
ADE_DESC;Aden's strategic location and its importance as a commercial center long made it a coveted conquest for its rapacious neighbors. Muslim Arabs held the region from the 7th to the 16th centuries. The Portuguese, desiring more bases for further exploration and trade in the Indian Ocean, failed in an attempt to capture it in 1513, but in 1538 it fell to the Ottoman Empire. At the end of the 18th century Aden's importance as a strategic post grew as a result of British policy to contain French expansion in the region.;x
AFG;Afghanistan;x
AFG_DESC;During the collapse of the Timurid Empire, various Afghani chiefs ruled in the environs between Kabul and the Indus River. In the 18th century the Persian ruler, Nadir Shah, extended his rule to the North of the Hindu Kush. The first Afghan state in the modern sense arose after Nadir's death in 1747 under his lieutenant Ahmad Shah - an Afghan tribal leader who forged a united state covering most of present-day Afghanistan. His dynasty gave the Afghans a name (Durrani) that they themselves frequently use.;x
AHM;Ahmadnagar;x
AHM_DESC;Ahmadnagar was a succesor state to the Bahamani Kingdom that arose from the breakup of the Sultanate of Delhi. Ahmadnagar remained independent until conquered by Akbar in 1599.;x
AKK;Ak Koyunlu;x
AKK_DESC;The Ak Koyunlu (Turkish: White Sheep) were a Turkmen tribal federation that ruled northern Iraq, Azerbaijan and eastern Anatolia. In constant tension with the Ottomans and lesser Turkish principalities in Anatolia, as well as their cousins to the south - the Kara Koyunlu (Black Sheep) - the Ak Koyunlus first sided with Timur and then attacked his successors. Though for a time their lands grew to include modern-day Iraq and most of Persia, they finally succumbed to the Shi'a heretics under the great Ismail Safavid, their last territories conquered by the Ottomans in the early 16th century.;x
ALB;Albania;x
ALB_DESC;After Dušan's death in 1355, Albania was ruled by native chieftains until the Ottoman Empire sought new conquests in the 15th century. The son of a prominent chieftain was given as hostage to the Sultan and converted to Islam. Serving the Turks well, he received the title Iskender Bey (Lord Alexander), which in Albanian became Skanderbeg. Skanderbeg eventually renounced Islam and reconverted to Christianity, leading his countrymen in successful resistance to Turkish domination. After his death in 1468 he was immortalized as Albania's national hero. Supported by Venice and Naples, Albania continued to struggle against the Ottomans until 1478 when the country finally succumbed to the Muslim threat.;x
ALD;Algiers;x
ALD_DESC;After the 'Reconquista', many of the Moors expelled from Granada in 1492 settled in the city of Al-jaza'ir (Algiers). Trying to stem their incessant piracy, the Spanish occupied the island of Peñon in the Bay of Algiers, but they were driven out when Turkish corsair Barbarossa captured Algiers for the Ottoman Empire in 1529. Algiers became an important base for the Muslim fleet that preyed upon Christian commerce in the Mediterranean. Under the Ottomans the city's population reached 100,000. The ruling Turkish officials in Algeria, the Deys of Algiers, finally made themselves virtually independent of Istanbul in the 18th and 19th century.;x
ANG;Angoche;x
ANG_DESC;Angoche was founded by refugees from Kilwa during the 15th Century. Like Kilwa it produced little itself, but served as a entrepôt for gold and ivory from Zimbabwe and Monomotapa. The arrival of the Portuguese greatly disrupted the existing trading networks and Angoche suffered severely. Development of the French colonies of Réunion and Mauritius during the 18th Century spurred the growth of the slave trade to meet the demand of the French plantations and Angoche prospered mightily as a consequence. It was finally conquered by the Portuguese in 1861.;x
ANN;Annam;x
ANN_DESC;The name 'Annam' was given to the region by the Chinese when they conquered it in 111 B.C. It meant 'Pacified South' - a name that was much resented by its inhabitants. The Annamese drove out the Chinese in 939 and renamed their country Dai Co Viet and later Dai Viet. It remained independent except for a brief period of Chinese occupation from 1407-1428. In 1558 Dai Viet found itself divided between two great families: the Trinh and the Nguyens. The Trinh ruled from Tonkin (present-day Hanoi) as far south as Porte d'Annam. The Europeans called this area Tonkin when they arrived in the 1600s. The Nguyens ruled from the city of Hue over territory that extended south from Porte d'Annam to Quy Nhon. In 1802 the two halves, Tonkin-Dai Viet and Annam-Dai Viet, were united by Nguyen-Anh and renamed Vietnam.;x
ARA;Hedjaz;x
ARA_DESC;Following the fall of the Caliphate of Baghdad in 1258, Hedjaz came under the control of the Mamluk dynasty in Egypt. In 1517 it came under Turkish suzerainty, although nominal rule remained in the hands of the Hashemite sharifs of Mecca until the religious upheavals at the beginning of the 19th century, when the holy cities were raided by the fundamentalist Wahhabis.;x
ARG;Aragon;x
ARG_DESC;The Crown of Aragon was created in 1137 when the Count of Barcelona, Ramon Berenguer, married Peronella of Aragon when she was only 2 years old. The two nations became united and began their drive to the south to expel the Moors from Spain, conquering Valencia and the Balearic Islands. In 1412 Martí l'Humà, the last Catalan King of the Barcelona dynasty died heirless and the nobles gathered to elect Ferran I d'Antequera, putting a Castillian King on the Aragonese throne for the first time in history in spite of strong Catalan opposition. John II of Aragon (1458–79), countered residual Catalan resistance by arranging for his heir, Ferdinand, to marry the heiress of Henry IV of Castile - Isabella. In 1479, upon John II's death, the Kingdoms of Aragon and Castile were finally united to form the Kingdom of Spain.;x
ARK;Arakan;x
ARK_DESC;Arakan, or Rakhine, extends along the Bay of Bengal and lies at the foot of the Arakan Yoma mountain range. The Arakanese were of Burmese heritage with Indian and Muslim influences. The region was geographically isolated and in the 15th century was the seat of a powerful Kingdom. Their capital was a strongly fortified city called Mrohaung. The Arakanese sold rice and slaves to the Dutch and the Portuguese, allying with the latter when the Mughal Empire threatened their freedom and the rich trade. The Arakanese ceased to be a power in 1666 when the Mughals defeated them in a decisive battle. In 1783 they were finally absorbed into Burma. Part of their cultural legacy was the construction of a colossal image of Buddha.;x
ASH;Ashanti;x
ASH_DESC;Sometime prior to the 13th century, Akani tribes migrated into the forests of present-day Ghana, establishing small states in the hilly country near modern Kumasi. By the late 17th century the states had been welded together by the Oyoko clan into the Ashanti confederation, with its capital at Kumasi and the Oyoko chieftain as King. After subduing various neighboring states the confederation eventually came into conflict with British settlers on the coast, although treaties of friendship were negotiated in 1817 and 1820.;x
AST;Astrakhan;x
AST_DESC;The Astrakhan Khanate was a splinter of the Golden Horde that existed as an independent state from 1459 to 1556, when it was conquered by Ivan the Terrible and incorporated into Russia. In 1608 it was conquered by the Kalmyks, migrating west from their homeland in Dzungaria. The Kalmyk Khanate lasted until 1771, when it was finally reclaimed by Russia.;x
ATH;Athens;x
ATH_DESC;Following the creation of the Latin Empire of Constantinople in 1204, the Athens region passed to Othon de la Roche - a French nobleman from Franche-Comté who was made megaskyr (great lord) of Athens and Thebes. His nephew and successor Guy I obtained the ducal title and the Duchy of Athens under Guy I and his successors enjoyed great prosperity while becoming thoroughly French in its institutions. In 1311 the duchy was captured by a band of Catalan adventuring soldiers who offered the ducal title to the house of Aragón. Members of the house of Aragón carried the title until its conquest in 1388 by the Florentine noble Nerio I Acciajuoli. Under the Acciajuoli family's rule numerous Florentine merchants established themselves in Athens. However, the fall of the Acropolis to the Ottoman Turks in 1458 marked the beginning of nearly four centuries of Ottoman rule and Athens once more declined. Venice, which had held Athens from 1394 to 1402, recovered it briefly from the Turks in 1466 and besieged it in 1687-88. During this siege the Parthenon was used by the Turks as a powder magazine was terribly damaged in the bombardment.;x
ATJ;Atjeh;x
ATJ_DESC;In the Northern region of Sumatra the Sultanate of Atjeh was founded near the end of the 15th century. A powerful Islamic state in the 16th and 17th centuries, it fought for control of the Malacca Straits against the Portuguese and the Dutch. The colonial Dutch finally annexed the Sultanate in 1874.;x
AYU;Ayutthaya;x
AYU_DESC;The city of Ayutthaya was founded by Phya U-Thong in 1350. After consolidating his power he proclaimed himself King Ramathibodi I. Over the next 80 years the Ayutthayans expanded their territory, and in 1431 they captured Angkor - capital of the Khmer empire. The Ayutthayan Kings adopted Khmer cultural influences and assumed the title devaraja, or god-King. The city of Ayutthaya became one of the wealthiest cities in the known world. By the 18th century the Ayutthayans had established trade with the Portuguese and diplomatic relations with several other western countries. In 1767 the Burmese captured Ayutthaya, although she regained her independence shortly thereafter.;x
AZT;Aztec Empire;x
AZT_DESC;The Aztecs arrived in the Valley of Mexico from the north toward the end of the 12th century, and until the founding of their capital Tenochtitlán around 1325, were a poor nomadic tribe adopting the culture of nearby states. For the next century they maintained a precarious political autonomy while paying tribute to neighboring tribes, but by alliance, treachery and conquest during the 15th and early 16th centuries they became a powerful political and cultural group. In the north they established hegemony over the Huastec, in the south over the Mixtec and Zapotec, even venturing as far as Guatemala. Their subjugation of the people of Tlaxcala in the mountains to the east was bloody but intermittent and the Tlaxcala people later became allies of the Spanish against the Aztecs. Only in the west where the Tarascan Indians severely defeated them did the Aztec completely fail to conquer.;x
BAD;Baden;x
BAD_DESC;The Baden region was a confusing jigsaw puzzle of petty margraviates and ecclesiastical states until it was united through the influence of Napoléon Bonaparte. The Breisgau belonged to the Habsburgs and the Mannheim-Heidelberg area to the Rhenish Palatinate. In 1771 the margraviates of Baden-Baden and Baden-Durlach were united as Baden under the same branch of the house of Zähringen. Charles Frederick of Baden rose to the rank of elector at the beginning of the 19th century, joined the Confederation of the Rhine in 1806 with the title of grand duke and by 1810 had acquired, with the aid of Napoléon, the entire state of Baden.;x
BAL;Baluchistan;x
BAL_DESC;Lying outside the monsoon zone and with few rivers usable for irrigation, Baluchistan is largely desert basins with inarable hills and mountains. Pastoral nomads who speak languages related to Persian constitute most of the sparse population. Some cotton is raised. On the coast there is trade in fish and salt. The Baluchi themselves did not arrive in the region until the 14th century, displaced, like so many other peoples, by the movements and conquests of the Mongol Hordes.;x
BAN;Timbuktu;x
BAN_DESC;In 1433, Timbuktu declared its independence from Mali. The town had been founded by Berbers around 1096 but became any important town only in the 14th century when it became a center of trans-Saharan trade for the Mali Empire. Taken over by Songhai, during the reign of Sunni Ali Ber, the city would regain its autonomy following its conquest by Morocco. At first the pashas, appointed by the sultan of Morocco, went along with the desires of the sultan but by middle to the late years of the 17th century, the pashas declared complete independence from Morocco. Eventually the city would fall prey to raiders, specifically the Bambara, Tuareg, and Fulani.;x
BAS;Basrah;x
BAS_DESC;No description available.;x
BAY;Bavaria;x
BAY_DESC;Bavaria is a small duchy founded by the Baiuoarii in the 6th century. Later it became a part of the Holy Roman Empire under Charlemagne. From the 9th to the 12th centuries the Bavarian dukes were at the center of the rebellions of the great German princes against the imperial authority. In 1180 the Holy Roman emperor Frederick I Barbarossa gave Bavaria to the count palatine Otto of Wittelsbach. This marked the start of the Wittelsbach dynasty, which was to rule Bavaria until 1918 when it was seized by communists and made into a short-lived Soviet(!) Republic. For centuries, Bavaria was one of the richest and most powerful of the German states, probably the most influential, next to Austria and Prussia.;x
BEI;Brunei;x
BEI_DESC;A native Sultanate was established in Brunei in the 15th century. At one time the sultan controlled nearly all of Borneo, but by the 19th century his power had declined and Brunei had become little but a haven for pirates.;x
BEN;Benin;x
BEN_DESC;Benin served as the capital of a Kingdom that was probably founded in the 13th century, and flourished from the 14th through the 17th century. The Kingdom was ruled by the Oba and a sophisticated bureaucracy. From the late 15th century, Benin traded slaves as well as ivory, pepper and cloth to the Europeans. In the early 16th century the Oba sent an ambassador to Lisbon and the King of Portugal dispatched missionaries to Benin. The Kingdom soon entered a long period of decline, but was revitalized in the 19th century by the development of the trade of palm products with the Europeans.;x
BGL;Bengal;x
BGL_DESC;Up until the 12th century, Bengal was ruled by the Buddhist Pala dynasty, based in neighbouring the Bihar province. After about 1200 it came under the control of a succession of Muslim dynasties as an independent Sultanate, but was finally conquered by the Mughal Empire in 1576. When Mughal power declined in the 18th century, a separate dynasty emerged once again in Bengal. Its rulers, known as the nawabs of Bengal, soon came into conflict with the British, who had established themselves at Calcutta in western Bengal in 1690 and who took possession of the nawabs' realm in 1757–64.;x
BIJ;Bijapur;x
BIJ_DESC;No description available.;x
BIM;Bima;x
BIM_DESC;Unlike many other princely states in Indonesia, Dutch rule and supervision over Bima remained relatively light handed throughout the colonial period. Conflict between the sultanate and the colonial authorities never materialised, no sultan deposed or exiled, and little or no interference with the line of succession of local customs. Even the Japanese occupation seems to have endured without incident. Perhaps an indication of how the Bimanese had learned to bend with the wind in order to protect their customs and rights since the days of the Makassarese empire.;x
BJR;Banjar;x
BJR_DESC;Banjar was originally part of the powerful Majapahit Empire, but gained self-rule after the empire fell apart in the late 15th century. The Kingdom converted to Islam in the 17th century, and became a power in Borneo, controlling most of the southern region of the island. Its acceptance of the Dutch, however, would prove to be its downfall, as the Dutch formally integrated Banjar into the Dutch East Indies in the late 19th century.;x
BLI;Bali;x
BLI_DESC;Hindu Java began to spread its influence into Bali during the reign of King Airlangga from 1019 to 1042. At this time the courtly Javanese language known as Kawi came into use amongst the royalty of Bali, and the rock-cut memorials seen at Gunung Kawi near Tampaksiring are a clear architectural link between Bali and 11th century Java. After Airlangga's death Bali retained its semi-independent state until Kertanegara became King of the Singasari dynasty in Java two centuries later. Artists, dancers, musicians and actors fled to Bali and the island experienced an explosion of cultural activities. The final great exodus to Bali took place in 1478. In 1710 the capital of the Gelgel Kingdom was shifted to nearby Klungkung but local discontent was growing, lesser rulers were breaking away from Gelgel rule and the Dutch began to move in using the old policy of divide and conquer.;x
BLK;Balkh;x
BLK_DESC;In the mid 11th century the Qarakhanid Empire split into two: one ruling over Western Turkestan or Transoxiana, the other over the Uyghur Region. Transoxiana came under the sway of the Seljuk turks and then in 1194 under the rule of the Turkic Khwarezims. Genghis Khan's Mongols in the 13th centur, and ultimately the Timurid Empire came to control it. Timur the Lame started his campaigns from the city of Transoxiana, and so Transoxiana became part of the Timurid Empire until its break up into its independent parts.;x
BMD;Bahmanid Empire;x
BMD_DESC;Ruling over the region of the Deccan, the Bahmanis rose to power in 1347, revolting against the central authority imposed by the Tughlaqs of Delhi. The Bahmani Empire was founded by Alauddin Bahman Shah with the support of Deccani and foreign nobles. The political rivalries between the two founding groups would eventually lead to the empire's demise in the latter portion of the 15th century.;x
BOH;Bohemia;x
BOH_DESC;The legendary founders of Bohemia, or Cechy, were Premysl and the princess Libuse of the Czechs, who was told to marry a man she would see building a threshold (Praha) in the middle of the forest. Bohemia became a part of the Holy Roman Empire in 950 but kept internal freedom and still enjoyed the status of Kingdom inside the Empire. The Golden Age of Bohemia came with the reign of the Emperor Charles IV (1346-78) who made Praha his residence. Bohemia saw the first serious attempt of religious reformation with the Hussite wars in 1434. The Habsburgs acquired the throne of Bohemia in 1526, beginning the process of assimilation that would end with the Thirty Years War and the full annexation of Bohemia to the lands of Austria.;x
BOS;Bosnia;x
BOS_DESC;In the early 11th century the Eastern Roman Empire lost its grip on Bosnia, which became a vasal state of Hungary. During the 12th century the rulers of Bosnia started acting independently, which caused subsequent Hungarian raids of the country. The next century saw Bosnia gaining independence from Hungary and enter a period of great territorial expansion. However, In 1419 Bosnia had once more entered a period of decline. Hungarians to the north and the west of the country wanted to regain territories that they had lost during the reign of Bosnian King Tvrtko I, while the Ottoman Empire was rapidly expanding to the east and south of the country. Between 1448 and 1463 Bosnia was swallowed up piecemeal by the Muslim behemoth.;x
BOU;Bourbonnais;x
BOU_DESC;The counts (later dukes) of Bourbon held Bourbonnais as an appanage until 1527, when François Ier of France confiscated it upon the death of the traitor constable Charles of Bourbon.;x
BRA;Brandenburg;x
BRA_DESC;In the 10th century the German Kings organized the North March - a small area on the Elbe which was bestowed on Albert the Bear in 1134. Albert expanded his territory and in 1150 he inherited the principality of Brandenburg from its last Wendish prince. The March of Brandenburg, as Albert's land was called, was thoroughly colonized by Germans and became Christianized. Albert's descendants, the Ascanians, ruled Brandenburg until 1320. They were eventually succeeded by the Hohenzollerns, under whose rule Brandenburg remained a rather powerful, if unremarkable, margraviate and electorate until its union with Ducal Prussia in 1618. Frederick III had himself crowned King Frederick I of Prussia in 1701, an advent that marked the rise of a new Great Power.;x
BRE;Bremen;x
BRE_DESC;Bremen is Germany's oldest port city. It was made an archbishopric in 845 which, under Archbishop Adalbert (1043–72), included all of Scandinavia, Iceland and Greenland. The archbishops held temporal sway over a large area between the Weser and Elbe rivers but the city of Bremen itself remained virtually independent as its importance grew. In 1358 it became one of the leading members of the Hanseatic League. It accepted the Reformation in 1522 and in 1646 it was made a free imperial city. It stubbornly fought to preserve this status even after the archbishopric had been given to Sweden in the Peace of Westphalia, and was later ceded (1719) by Sweden to the elector of Hanover (George I of England).;x
BRG;Berg;x
BRG_DESC;The Berg dynasty, named after its castle Berge an der Dhün, emerged in the second part of the 11th century, acquiring vast holdings between the Sieg and Lippe rivers. Originally closely related to the Archbishopric of Cologne, with five Archbishops coming from the Berg family, the Counts of Berg were among the primary princes in Low Rhine area in the late Middle Ages, despite several hereditary divisions and two counts dying without a male heir, causing their holdings to pass first to the Counts of Limburg in 1225 and to a sidebranch of Jülich in 1348. Berg rose to further prominence by being raised to a Duchy in 1380 and inheriting Jülich 1423, however it failed to secure the successions to Guelders and Bar, both of which it claimed and attempted to get in the 15th century. A hereditary union with Kleve in 1496 led to the unification of Kleve, Mark, Jülich, Berg and Ravensberg, creating a hegemonial power in the area and even endangering the Habsburgs' position in the Netherlands when Guelders and Zutphen were about to join the Unified Duchies in 1538, which was only prevented by a determined campaign of Emperor Charles V and the lack of support. The united Duchies were dissolved again in 1609, after Duke Johann Wilhelm's death without a son, and Jülich-Berg passed to the Palatinate-Neuburg dynasty. The new Wittelsbach Dukes managed to form a big territorial complex, with Berg's old residence Düsseldorf its capital, by inheriting the Rhine Palatinate in 1685. The reign of Johann Wilhelm II, or Jan Wellem, is kindly remembered as an age of prosperity for Berg and especially the city of Düsseldorf. When in 1716 Jan Wellem's successor moved his residence to Mannheim, Berg again became a sidecountry. For a last time Berg acquired independence as the Grand Duchy granted to Joachim Murad, one of Napoléon's generals. The Congress of Vienna made Berg and Jülich part of the Prussian Rhine province.;x
BRI;Brittany;x
BRI_DESC;Brittany was an important and semi-autonomous duchy that had been a bone of contention between the English and French crowns ever since is was conquered by Henry I in 1113 and made a part of the 'Angevin Empire'. During the Hundred Years War, the dukes of Montfort tried to secure Brittany's neutrality between France and England. The unsuccessful rebellion of Duke Francis II against the French crown finally led to the absorption of Brittany into France after the accession of his daughter Anne of Brittany in 1488. King François Ier formally incorporated the duchy in 1532.;x
BRM;Burma;x
BRM_DESC;Ava was a Burmese Shan Kingdom that succeeded an earlier Kingdom based on the city of Pagan. The city of Ava was founded in 1364. The location allowed the Shans to control the rice supply from the Kyaukse irrigated area to the south, which became vital after the traditional rice-growing area in southern Myanmar had been lost to a Mon Kingdom. The Kingdom of Ava flourished until it was destroyed by a rival group of Shans in 1527. In 1634 the city became the capital of the Taungu dynasty which had united the Ava and Taungu Kingdoms in 1531.;x
BRZ;Brazil;x
BRZ_DESC;Whether or not Brazil was known to Portuguese navigators in the 15th century is still an unsolved mystery, but the coast was visited by the Spanish mariner Vicente Yáñez Pinzón before the Portuguese under Pedro Alvares Cabral formally claimed the land in 1500, which came within the Portuguese sphere as defined in the Treaty of Tordesillas. The area was heavily colonized during the following centuries, and at the time of its independence in 1822, Brazil was a huge nation rich in raw materials.;x
BTH;Buryat Horde;x
BTH_DESC;The Buryat Horde occupied the region around Lake Baikal, where Genghis Khan originally came from and formed the local tribes together into his army of conquest. With the threat of the Manchu Empire from the East the Buryat Horde appealed to Russia for aid in the 17th century and became a part of the Russian Empire.;x
BTN;Banten;x
BTN_DESC;Banten was the maritime capital of the only Muslim state to remain independent of the Javanese power, Mataram, but today this capital is little more than a fishing village. Towards the end of the 16th century Banten was 'discovered' by Europeans and in 1596 the Dutch made their first appearance in Banten. Then by 1600 the English had established the East India Trading post and two years later the Dutch formed the VOC, a counterpart company. Banten became the centre of fierce Anglo-saxon competition which chased the Dutch away and they then seized Jakarta instead, making Batavia their capital.;x
BUK;Bukhara;x
BUK_DESC;No description available.;x
BUL;Bulgaria;x
BUL_DESC;The history of the Bulgarians begins in the 7th Century, when a group of tribes of Turk-Altaic origin established a Kingdom in the old Roman province of Thracia. At its height the Bulgarian Kingdom rivaled the Byzantine Empire, but it fell into decline in the 10th Century and was eventually conquered by the Byzantines in 1018. Although the Bulgars successfully revolted in 1185 and established a new Kingdom, they never quite managed to regain their former power. Weakened by Tartar incursions and internal strife, the last independent Bulgarian Kingdom fell to the Ottomans in 1396. Although there were numerous uprisings over the next centuries Bulgaria did not regain her independence until 1878.;x
BUR;Burgundy;x
BUR_DESC;John II of France gave the duchy of Burgundy to his son Philip the Bold in 1361. The line of Valois-Bourgogne thrived and greatly expanded Burgundy, gaining Franche-Comté and Flanders under Philip and his son John the Fearless, who was assassinated in 1419. Burgundy played a major role in the Hundred Years War, siding with England until the Peace of Arras in 1435. By the time of Charles the Bold's death in 1477 Burgundy had expanded by marriage and conquest to include most of the Netherlands and north-eastern France. Killed on the field of battle at Nancy, most of Charles' lands came under the control of Maximillian I of Habsburg, save Picardie and the Duchy of Burgundy itself, which were French fiefs and thus reverted to the French crown.;x
BUT;Butung;x
BUT_DESC;The island Kingdom of Butung was founded by migrants from Johore who established a Hindu state in the late 14th century. While often dominated by greater powers, it survived and even thrived well into the 20th century.;x
BYZ;Byzantine Empire;x
BYZ_DESC;Constantinople was founded in 330 at the site of the ancient city of Byzantium as the new capital of the Roman Empire by Constantine I, after whom it was named. The largest and most splendid European city of the Middle Ages, Constantinople shared the glories and vicissitudes of the Byzantine Empire, which in the end was reduced to the city and its immediate environs. Although besieged innumerable times by various armies it was taken only three times - in 1204 by the army of the Fourth Crusade, in 1261 by Michael VIII, and in 1453 by the Ottoman Sultan Muhammad II. Constantinople had a great wealth of artistic and literary treasures before it was sacked in 1204 and 1453. Virtually depopulated when it fell to the Ottoman Turks, the city recovered rapidly. The Ottoman sultans whose court was called the 'Sublime Porte' cherished the great city and embellished it with many beautiful mosques, palaces, monuments, fountains, baths, aqueducts and other public buildings.;x
CAM;Cambodia;x
CAM_DESC;In 1419 Cambodia was a part of the mighty but waning Khmer Empire that lasted until 1431 when the capital city of Angkor was sacked by an invading Thai army. Much of her history up until that point had seen the country wedged between the empires of Ayutthaya and Dai Viet, forcing her to side with one country against the other for survival. From 1432 to 1859 Cambodia entered a dark age from which few historical records have survived. Prior to that, under the Khmer rulers, Cambodia enjoyed an unparalleled period of prosperity that saw the construction of the great temples of Angkor Wat and Bayon and fantastic sculptures like the Aspara.;x
CAN;Candar;x
CAN_DESC;Candar was established in the closing years of the 13th century by Yaman Candar - a chieftain of the Turkic tribes who had settled the northwestern Black Sea coasts of Asia Minor. Vassalized but never annexed by the Ottomans before the arrival of Timur in Anatolia, Candar regained much of its lost territory when pretenders to the Ottoman throne engaged in a civil war that lasted for eleven years. However, despite the best military and diplomatic efforts of Isfendiyar Beg, Ottoman forces finally conquered the Candar state in 1462.;x
CAS;Castile;x
CAS_DESC;The Castilian Kingdom started its existence as a rebellious duchy of the older Christian Kingdom of León in the 9th century. However, the dynastic marriages and the need for a united front against the Moors soon united the two Kingdoms again and in the 13th century that union was made permanent. The Reconquista against the Moors culminated with the battle of the Navas de Tolosa (1212) that crushed the Almohade Empire soon after the biggest cities of Al-Andalus (Cordoba Seville) were conquered, leaving the little vassal Kingdom of Granada as the last vestige of Muslim presence in Iberia. The practical end of the fight against the Moors meant that there was a big and rebellious aristocracy with too much time on their hands, and Castile was plagued by chronic instability during the 14th and 15th centuries. Castile's internal strife continued unabated until a civil war erupted between the partisans of princess Juana (supported by the Portuguese) and the those of her sister Isabella (married to Fernando de Aragón and backed by the Aragonese), at the death of King Enrique IV. The victory of the latter faction resulted in the union of the Castilian and Aragonese Kingdoms as the new Kingdom of Spain.;x
CAT;Catalonia;x
CAT_DESC;The 'Marca Hispanica' had been part of the Carolingian Empire as a protection against the Moors of Spain since 800. The grateful Carolingian Emperor relieved the Count of Barcelona from his vassalage in 988, and thus Catalonia was born. Catalonia merged with the Kingdom of Aragon in 1137, creating the political entity that would become a superpower in the Mediterranean during the 14th century. In 1412 the last Catalan King died heirless and the electors of the non-Catalan lands voted to elect a Castillian King against the Catalan candidate. Catalonia lost its primacy inside the Crown of Aragon as the new Castillian dynasty drifted the Kingdom more and more towards a merging with Castile.;x
CHA;Champa;x
CHA_DESC;Champa was the Kingdom of the Chams, which flourished in southern Vietnam from the 2nd century to the 17th. At its greatest extent it occupied Annam as far north as central Vietnam. Its culture was strongly affected by Hindu influences. Champa repeatedly waged war on its stronger neighbor Dai Viet, and it was sometimes allied and sometimes opposed to the Khmer Empire. In the 12th century the Chams invaded Cambodia and sacked Angkor. Subsequently they fell for a time under Khmer rule. Decisively defeated by the forces of Dai Viet in 1472, the Chams were forced to yield most of their territory North of Da Nang. In the 17th century, the rest of the Cham Kingdom fell to Dai Viet, and the remnants of their people were scattered.;x
CHG;Chagatai Khanate;x
CHG_DESC;Following Genghis Khan's death in 1227, his vast empire was divided between his two sons Ogodei and Chagatai. Ogodei became Great Khan after his father's death and thus controlled most of the Mongol Empire. Chagatai however, was also given a small area of Central Asia to control while maintaining allegiance to Ogodei as Great Khan. The region under Chagatai's control was populated mostly by Turkish nomads, many of whom had already converted to Islam. The great Central Asian cities of Bukhara and Samarkand, both of which were influential centers of Islamic scholarship, also fell within Chagatai's sphere. During the 1330s and '40s the Khanate split into a western and an eastern half. The former quickly adopted Islam and eventually passed under the control of Timur in the late 14th century. The eastern half survived for centuries more, but as weak shadow of its former greatness, puppet to surrounding, more vital tribes.;x
CHI;China;x
CHI_DESC;Even before the blood had dried on the rebellion of Zhu Yuanzhang, the Han Chinese of the Ming Dynasty began to make the might of the Middle Kingdom known to the rest of East Asia. In 1398 Korea become a puppet to the Chinese government and soon afterwards Dai Viet fell to Ming troops. Zheng He made his glorious voyages, discovering faraway lands in Africa and Arabia. Emperor Cheng Zu, a usurper, came to the throne early in the 15th century. A cruel but able administrator, Cheng Zu established an absolute rule over the Empire, and by 1419 the Ming had reached a new age of might and glory.;x
CHM;Chimú;x
CHM_DESC;A people heavily influenced by the Tiahuanaco culture, the Chimu rose to power in modern-day Peru around 1200. They were urban dwellers that built magnificent cities, had a powerful military and a complex social system. They remained a great power in the region until they were finally absorbed by the Inca Empire in 1460.;x
CLC;Calicut;x
CLC_DESC;The State of Calicut, ruled by an ambitious dynasty known as the Samoothiris (Samorins to Europeans) came to control the bulk of India's Malabar coastline during a series of expansionist wars in the fourteenth and early fifteenth centuries. Europe would gain its first holdings in India by expoliting Calicut's envious vassal states, but the efforts of the Samoothiri to thwart European aims would be a major stumbling block for the earliest colonizers of India.;x
CMP;Champassak;x
CMP_DESC;Souligna Vongsa contributed to the fall of Lan Xang by refusing to stay the execution of his only son. Upon the King's death in 1694, there was a struggle for succession that destroyed the unity of the Kingdom. Three Lao states emerged from competition for the throne. Souligna Vongsa's nephew controlled from Vientiane a considerable area on both sides of the middle Mekong, under the suzerainty of Annam, which had helped him get the throne. A separate Kingdom was established at Luang Prabang in 1707 by Souligna Vongsa's grandsons. This area remained independent of the Vietnamese. A third Kingdom, Champassak, which controlled the southernmost provinces on both sides of the Mekong, was established in 1713 by another prince. This Kingdom was increasingly influenced by Siam. Its existence continued through to the middle of the 20th century when it became part of Laos.;x
COC;Cochin;x
COC_DESC;A Small Principality dominated by neighboring Calicut, Cochin gained historical importance by using Portuguese aid in breaking free of Calicut's dominance, thereby providing Europe's first toehold in India.;x
COL;Colombia;x
COL_DESC;Prior to the Spanish conquest, Colombia was inhabited by sub-Andean Chibcha and Caribbean peoples all of whom lived in organized agricultural communities. After the Spanish conquest which began in 1525 the area of present-day Colombia formed the nucleus of the province of New Granada. The struggle for independence was, as in all of the old Spanish-American provinces, precipitated by the Napoleonic invasion of Spain. However, the revolution was foreshadowed by the rising of the 'comuneros'. Prominent among the first revolutionary leaders was Antonio Nariño who took part in the uprising at Bogotá on July 20 1810. The revolution was to last nine years before the victory of Simón Bolívar at Boyacá in 1819 secured the independence of Greater Colombia. The new state Bolívar created included what is now Venezuela, Panama and Ecuador as well as Colombia.;x
CON;Connaught;x
CON_DESC;The westernmost Irish tribal Kingdom. In the late 12th century the ruler of Connaught, Rory O'Connor, was recognized as King of Ireland, but the Anglo-Norman settlement of the mid-12th century disrupted this power. Rory's brother, Cathal Crovderg, was King of Connaught until his death in 1224, but in 1227 the English King Henry III granted Connaught to the Norman baron Richard de Burgh (or de Burgo). His descendants held the lordship of Connaught from then on.;x
COR;Corsica;x
COR_DESC;After centuries of conquest and rule by various invaders including Ostrogoths, Vandals, Byzantines, Lombards, and Saracens Corsica was entrusted to the city of Pisa by Pope Gregorious VII in 1077. In 1284 the island was taken by Genoa, the arch rival of Pisa, and held for five hundred years. The island suffered invasions from the Aragonese and the French during the Genoese occupation and underwent countless insurrections from the disgruntled population. In the 1600s they were a constant target of pirate raids from the Barbary Coast. In 1768 the Genoese sold the island to France, which soon lost it to the British (1794).;x
CRD;Córdoba;x
CRD_DESC;No description available.;x
CRG;Uighuristan;x
CRG_DESC;Following Genghis Khan's death in 1227, his vast empire was divided between his two sons Ogodei and Chagatai. Ogodei became Great Khan after his father's death and thus controlled most of the Mongol Empire. Chagatai however, was also given a small area of Central Asia to control while maintaining allegiance to Ogodei as Great Khan. The region under Chagatai's control was populated mostly by Turkish nomads, many of whom had already converted to Islam. The great Central Asian cities of Bukhara and Samarkand, both of which were influential centers of Islamic scholarship, also fell within Chagatai's sphere. During the 1330s and '40s the Khanate split into a western and an eastern half. The former quickly adopted Islam and eventually passed under the control of Timur in the late 14th century. During the course of the 15th century, the Khanate would further dissolve into competing camps based in Moghulistan and Uighuristan.;x
CRI;Crimea;x
CRI_DESC;Part of the Roman Empire during the first millennium, the Crimean peninsula was overrun by Ostrogoths, Huns, Khazars, Cumans, and the Mongols of the Golden Horde while the Byzantine Empire kept trying to project some kind of power over it. The Genoans renewed trade with the region in the 13th century, and with the destruction of the Golden Horde in 1475 it became an independent Khanate. In the 15th century the Ottomans vassalised the Tatars and first called the peninsula 'Crimea'. The Khanate still remained powerful, and became a constant scourge for Russia and Poland, even going so far as to raid Moscow in 1572. The Khanate retained its independent status until Russia finally annexed it in 1783.;x
CRO;Croatia;x
CRO_DESC;Croatia's power reached its peak in the 11th century, but internecine strife facilitated its conquest in 1091 by King Ladislaus I of Hungary. In 1102, a pact between his successor and the Croatian tribal chiefs established a personal union of Croatia and Hungary under the Hungarian monarch. Although Croatia remained linked with Hungary for eight centuries the Croats were sometimes able to choose their rulers independently of Budapest. In personal union with Hungary, Croatia retained its own diet and was governed by a Ban, or Viceroy. After the battle of Mohács in 1526 most of Croatia came under Turkish rule. In 1527 the Croatian feudal lords agreed to accept the Habsburgs as their overlords in return for protection from the Ottomans and retention of their privileges. During the following century Croatia served as a Habsburg outpost, protecting central Europe from the Turkish onslaught.;x
CYP;Cyprus;x
CYP_DESC;The Island Kingdom of Cyprus, once a Roman province, was placed under the control of crusading knights by Richard the Lionheart in 1192, during the third crusade. The crusaders couldn't keep peace on the island so they sold it to the King of Jerusalem. Cyprus and Jerusalem shared royal house until 1359, when Islam finally forced the last Christian King out of the Holy Land. Cyprus was a land of serfs, so the King incited French nobles to come and help improve the domestic infrastructure. In 1489 Queen Caterina Cornero married into the Venetian nobility and Cyprus became another Venetian holding.;x
DAH;Dahomey;x
DAH_DESC;In the early 17th century, a quarrel between three brothers with a right to the throne of Great Ardra led to one retaining that small nation and the other two forging their own. One of these was Dahomey, centered around the town of Abomey, while the other was Ajatche (called Porto Novo by the Portuguese). By the end of the century Dahomey was in control of the slave trade on the Bight of Benin. Using their remarkable female soldiers (called Amazons by outsiders) the Kingdom grew rapidly in all directions.;x
DAI;Dai Viet;x
DAI_DESC;The people of what is now Vietnam, but was then scornfully labeled 'Annam' by the Chinese overlords, finally drove out the occupiers in 939 and renamed their country Dai Co Viet and later Dai Viet. It remained independent except for another brief period of Chinese occupation from 1407-1428. In 1558 Dai Viet found itself divided between two great families: the Trinh and the Nguyens. The Trinh ruled from Tonkin (present-day Hanoi) as far south as Porte d'Annam. The Europeans called this area Tonkin when they arrived in the 1600s. The Nguyens ruled from the city of Hue over territory that extended south from Porte d'Annam to Quy Nhon. In 1802 the two halves, Tonkin-Dai Viet and Annam-Dai Viet, were united by Nguyen-Anh and renamed Vietnam.;x
DAN;Denmark;x
DAN_DESC;One of the oldest Kingdoms in Europe, Denmark has its roots in the little known age prior to the Viking era. Its destiny was always intertwined with those of its brother nations of Norway and Sweden, and the three Kingdoms sometimes allied and sometimes bitterly fought each other. In 1419, Denmark was the dominant Kingdom and a Danish King ruled over all three in the 'Union of Kalmar'. In 1448 Christian I became King and established on the Danish throne the house of Oldenburg. In 1460, he incorporated Schleswig and Holstein into the Danish crown. Denmark was now at the apex of its power, rivalling the days of King Canute (Knut), but the malcontents in Sweden were already causing much grief. When Sweden finally broke away from the union in 1523, Denmark was still the most powerful realm in the North, getting rich off the Sound due, but the balance of power was to shift during the coming century. The two nations fought innumerable wars with varying outcomes, until Denmark finally got demolished by Charles X of Sweden in 1658, who, with his veterans from the 30 years war forced Denmark to cede almost half its territory to Sweden. Charles shortly renewed the war, and Denmark came within a hairsbreadth of being absorbed into the Swedish Great Power, but escaped that fate by heroically defending Copenhagen (and thanks to the help of England and the Netherlands). An serious attempt was made to gain the lost territory back in 1676, but the plans were thwarted at the battle of Lund on Dec 4th. The battle lasted for 20 hours and was the bloodiest in Scandinavian history - even worse than the battle of Poltava. Of the 18,000 participants, about half fell and many more were wounded. Denmark now entered a period of decline, but so did Sweden a few decades later.;x
DAS;Da Shun;x
DAS_DESC;The Ming Dynasty's incompetence and disruption of politics by eunuchs, officials forming opposing parties, corruption plus external pressures caused the decline in Ming power. This resulted in increasing strain on the people burdened by heavy taxes, famine, displacement from farmlands, etc. The Ming forces found it increasingly difficult to deal with the ever increasing peasant uprisings. By 1635, leaders from various resistance groups and camps gathered in a meeting which resulted in agreement to coordinate their efforts to overthrow of Ming. In the following years rebel forces advanced through Henan, Hubei, Anhui, Shaanxi, Gansu, and Sichuan. On the first month of 1644, Li Zi Cheng declared the establishment of the new Da Shun state.;x
DAU;Dauphiné;x
DAU_DESC;Taking advantage of betrayal, the Burgundians became masters of Paris in the night between May 28th and 29th, leaving the Armagnacs unable to organize resistance. The Connétable Bernard d'Armagnac tried to hide in the city, but was arrested. Tanguy du Chastel managed to help the Dauphin Charles flee, carrying him to the Bastille and organizing his escape to Melun. Charles would not see his capital again for 19 years. Meanwhile, he controlled the domains in the south that had remained loyal to him from his residence in Bourges. He was often referred to as the 'King of Bourges'.;x
DAX;Da Xi;x
DAX_DESC;The Ming Dynasty's incompetence and disruption of politics by eunuchs, officials forming opposing parties, corruption plus external pressures caused the decline in Ming power. This resulted in increasing strain on the people burdened by heavy taxes, famine, displacement from farmlands, etc. The Ming forces found it increasingly difficult to deal with the ever increasing peasant uprisings. By 1635, leaders from various resistance groups and camps gathered in a meeting which resulted in agreement to coordinate their efforts to overthrow of Ming. In the following years rebel forces advanced through Henan, Hubei, Anhui, Shaanxi, Gansu, and Sichuan. On the first month of November 1644, Zhang Xian Zhong declared the establishment of the new Da Xi state.;x
DES;Desmond;x
DES_DESC;The southernmost and last to be conquered of the Irish tribal Kingdoms. In 1329 Maurice Fitzgerald was created earl of Desmond, and his descendants became almost independent rulers during the 15th century.;x
DLH;Delhi;x
DLH_DESC;In 1192 the legions of the Afghan warrior Muhammad of Ghor captured the Rajput town of Delhi, and the Muslim Delhi Sultanate was established in 1206. The invasion of Delhi by Timur in 1398 initiated a long period of decline for the Sultanate, and Lodis, the last of the Delhi Sultans, gave way to Bâbur, who after the battle of Panipat in 1526 founded the Mughal Empire on its remains.;x
DUL;Dulkadir;x
DUL_DESC;A large independent Turkish principality in south-eastern Asia Minor, the Beylik of Dulkadir fought against both the Timurids and the Mamluks and were largely unsuccessful against both. A buffer state between stronger nations, the Dulkadirs passed from the world stage in 1522 when they were finally absorbed by the Ottomans.;x
EGY;Egypt;x
EGY_DESC;Egypt;x
EIR;Ireland;x
EIR_DESC;Eire, the Emerald Island, had a long and mysterious history in the legendary times preceding the Christian era. When the Vikings began their bloody raids all over northern Europe, they came to fancy Ireland so much that many of them stayed there, settling down chiefly in the Dublin region (which was ruled by a Norse King). The Irish problems did not end with the Vikings however, as the island was invaded by the Normans from England in the 12th century. Ireland remained an English vassal, if usually a rebellious one, until well into the 20th century, even if the attempts by the English Kings in the 16h and 17th centuries to enforce protestantism sparked several serious rebellions that could have resulted in freedom for the Green Island.;x
ENG;England;x
ENG_DESC;The Norman Invasion of England in 1066 is one of the most important events in English History. The Norman lords built castles, instituted laws and organized a feudal system, which, while oppressive, was more in line with continental Europe. Their ties with Normandy and France also brought England into the highlight from having been little more than a Danish playground. In 1419, England was ruled by the Lancaster King Henry V, a very able man who, had he lived longer, might very well have become the ruler of a united France and England. However, he died in 1422, and England soon started to lose its grip on France, having lost everything but Calais by 1453. The War of the Roses followed, fought between House Lancaster and York, ending only with the death of Richard III at Bosworth field in 1485. The Tudors ruled England from 1485 to 1603 - a period that saw the Reformation under Henry VIII and a golden age under Queen Elizabeth I. Then came the Stuart Kings and the Civil War between Parlamentarians and Royalists that started in 1642 and ended only when Charles I was beheaded on Jan. 30, 1649, at the order of the Lord Protector, Oliver Cromwell. Cromwell's death in 1658 initiated the collapse of his strange new rule and Charles II was restored to power in 1660. The Stuarts were followed by the House of Hanover in 1714, uniting England with the German electorate. From this time onward, England's power grew explosively, seeing great expansion of the navy, trade and colonial involvement.;x
ETH;Ethiopia;x
ETH_DESC;Legend states that the Ethiopian royal line comes from the son of King Solomon and Queen of Sheba in the Bible. Isolated for many centuries after the decline of the Roman Empire, Ethiopia remained Christian, and the Europeans thought they had found the mythical Kingdom of Prester John in Ethiopia in the 16th century, which would help the Catholics destroy the Muslims forever and gain the Holy Land back. However, the ancient Ethiopian Empire was always on the defensive by 1419 and continued to fight for its life when in 1535 Portuguese explorers helped out with new technology to beat the Muslims back. The Catholic Europeans, however, were ultimately rejected by the Coptic Ethiopian rulers. Ethiopia amazingly survived well past 1820 - perhaps a miracle surpassing its own mythical origins.;x
FAR;Fars;x
FAR_DESC;No description available.;x
FIN;Finland;x
FIN_DESC;From the mid 11th century Christian missionaries from Sweden were active in Finland, and in 1249 the Swedish King Birger Jarl mounted a 'crusade' against the wild men of the forests, which was more of an expedition of conquest. Finland soon became an integrated part of Sweden, and the frontier was constantly pushed further east, until the Swedes came into conflict with Great Novgorod. For almost six centuries, Sweden fought off the constant encroachments of Novgorod and later Muscovy and Russia, but the defeat in the Great Northern War initiated a period of decline that was to cost Sweden its eastern half in 1809. Finland now became a Russian Grand Duchy with a certain measure of independence in order to avoid offending the bitter Swedes too much.;x
FOI;Foix;x
FOI_DESC;The origins of the Counts of Foix trace back to the High Middle Age and particularly to the Counts of Carcassone and Comminges. In 1012, a count of Foix is mentioned for the first time. During the crusade against Catharisme they were compelled to acknowledge the sovereignty of the Kings of France. They truly rose to importance by becoming Vicounts of Béarn in 1302. Despite a dynastic switch to the sidebranch of Foix-Grailly in 1398 when the main branch had become extinct and being between the Kings of England and France, the Counts emerged substantially strengthened from the Hundred Years War. They acquired the crown of Navarre in 1479, however lost the main part of their new Kingdom to Aragon in 1512. Having united with the Albrets in 1483 and with the Bourbons in 1555, the Counts of Foix and Kings of Navarre obtained a much greater dignity in the end of the Wars of Religion: Henri III of Navarre became King of France. Until 1607 Foix and Béarn kept an autonomous status within the French Kingdom, then they were merged with the royal possessions.;x
FPR;Huguenots;x
FPR_DESC;Prior to Calvin's publication in 1536 of his Institutes of the Christian Religion a reform movement already existed in France. Despite persecution the movement grew. Under King Henry II reprisals became more severe. Nevertheless in 1559 the first French national synod was held and a Presbyterian church modeled on Calvin's reform in Geneva was founded. The adherence of a large number of the nobility to the movement gave it political meaning and added fuel to persecution.;x
FRA;France;x
FRA_DESC;It is by no means easy to date France's birth as a nation. Was it 496 AD when King Clovis converted to Christianity, or 987 - the coronation of Hugh Capet, founder of the Capetian dynasty which was to reign for nine hundred years, or 1789 - the year of the Revolution in which France declared itself to be a nation as well as a state? Neither historians nor ordinary citizens seem able to agree, and all three occasions are celebrated by the French. Suffice it to say that France is one of the oldest states in Europe, which has gone through a great number of terrible crisis and usually emerged stronger. In 1419 France as an independent nation was threatened by complete annihilation. Henry V of England forcefully pressed his claim on the French throne, supported by a significant number of French nobles, notably the Duke of Burgundy. Against all odds, France rallied, defeating the English invaders and seeing the destruction of Burgundy in 1477. However, France was soon completely surrounded by the Habsburg dominions of Spain and the Holy Roman Empire. Through skillful diplomacy and numerous wars, this threat was finally neutralized in 1648 with the end of the 30 Years War. A golden age ensued, but the worst times were yet to come. The Enlightenment planted the seeds of rebellion, and the French Revolution in 1789 cast the nation into bloody anarchy, only to be followed by the disastrous reign of Napoléon. In 1820 France had lost her importance as a colonial nation, and had been humbled on the continent.;x
FRG;Ferghana;x
FRG_DESC;No description available.;x
FRI;Friesland;x
FRI_DESC;In the early Middle Ages Friesland extended from the Scheldt River in the south to the Weser in the east. Later it was partly conquered by the counts of Holland. When Holland passed (1433) to the house of Burgundy the authority of the Burgundian dukes was not recognized by the independent-minded Frisians. In 1498 Emperor Maximilian I bestowed all of Friesland on Duke Albert of Saxony. Albert was unable to establish his authority and in 1515 his son, for a large sum, restored Friesland to Maximilian. Maximilian's grandson Emperor Charles V reduced the province by force in 1523. Friesland joined (1579) in the Union of Utrecht against Spanish domination but it continued to appoint its own stadtholders until 1748 when Prince William IV of Orange became the sole and hereditary stadtholder of all the United Provinces of the Netherlands.;x
FUC;French Catholics;x
FUC_DESC;The French Ultra Catholics represent the faction led by the Dukes of Guise, who hated the huguenotts and were at times prepared to seize power in order to end the protestant threat.;x
GEL;Guelders;x
GEL_DESC;The Duchy of Guelders (Gelre) was the part of the Netherlands that held out the longest against the unification process started by the Dukes of Burgundy. When Karl V added it to his possessions in 1543 the territorial unification process was completed. The Provinces of the Netherlands were united at last. It was conquered before in 1473 by Charles the Bold of Burgundy but after his death in 1477 it regained its independence. It passed to the House of Habsburg in 1543 and joined (1579) the Union of Utrecht of the Netherlands against Spain. It was part of the Dutch Republic which gained its independence from Spain. Part of Guelders including Geldern, the ducal capital, was ceded in 1715 by the Netherlands to Prussia.;x
GEN;Genoa;x
GEN_DESC;The Crusades brought Genoa great wealth and the Republic acquired possessions and trading privileges in areas from Spain to the Crimea. Genoa's expansion and its military defenses were largely financed by a group of merchants who in 1408 organized a powerful bank - the Banco San Giorgio. Genoese policy in the eastern Mediterranean clashed with the ambitions of Venice and long wars resulted ending with the Peace of Turin (1381) which slightly favored Venice. In 1339 the first doge (chief magistrate) for life was elected. As Genoa gradually gained control of the cities of Liguria it lost its outlying possessions. Rival factions in the city resorted to foreign aid. From the late 14th to the 16th century France and Milan in turn controlled the city although nominal independence was preserved. The power of Genoa was revived by the seaman and statesman Andrea Doria who wrote a new constitution in 1528. Later the city came under Spanish French and Austrian control. The Austrians were expelled by a popular uprising in 1746 but in 1768 Genoa had to cede Corsica - its last outlying possession to France. In 1797 French military pressure resulted in the end of aristocratic rule and the formation of the Ligurian Republic which Napoléon Ier formally added to France in 1805. The Congress of Vienna united (1814) Genoa and Liguria with the Kingdom of Sardinia.;x
GEO;Georgia;x
GEO_DESC;In the 15th century King Alexander I divided Georgia into three Kingdoms (Imertia, Kakhetia and Karthlia) among his sons and a period of decline set in. In the 16th century Georgia became an object of struggle between Turkey and Persia. In 1555 western Georgia passed under Turkish suzerainty and eastern Georgia (Kakhetia and Karthlia) under Persian rule. In the 18th century the Kings of Kakhetia tried to unite Georgia, but, losing against the Turks and the Persians, accepted vassalage to Russia in 1783 in exchange for assistance. The last King, George XIII, threatened by Persia, abdicated in 1801 in favor of the Czar and ceded Kakhetia and Karthlia to Russia. Between 1803 and 1829 Russia also acquired from Turkey the western parts of Georgia (Abkhazia, Mingrelia, Imeritia and Guria).;x
GER;Germany;x
GER_DESC;No description available.;x
GHR;Ghara;x
GHR_DESC;The Tribe of the Banu Ghafir rose to central prominence in Omani politics during the Omani Civil War of 1718-48, in which the Ghafir were ultimately defeated in their attempt to gain the ascendancy in Oman. From then on, Gharra was ruled as vassal state of Oman. This situation continued until 1971, when the tribal state was finally annexed by Oman.;x
GIN;Gingee;x
GIN_DESC;No description available.;x
GOL;Golconda;x
GOL_DESC;In modern times the central Deccan has always been home to a succession of some of the most powerful nations in southern India. In the 15th century this nation was the Bahmanid Sultanate, in the 16th and 17th centuries Golconda dominated the area, while Hyderabad was the great nation in the area during the 18th century. In Europa Universalis II, Hyderabad represents this succession of nations, from the Sultans of Bahmanid Dynasty in 1419 to the Nizams of Hyderabad in 1820.;x
GON;Gondwana;x
GON_DESC;No description available.;x
GOT;Gotland;x
GOT_DESC;Since the 10th century, Gotland had been a part of Sweden, paying an annual tax for protection but otherwise remaining an independent peasant community. Early on Gotland became a commercial center and by the 12th century Gotland dominated the routes between Russia and Western Europe. Until the mid-14th century most of the Novgorod trade passed through the island. They became Christianised in the 12th century, brought by a Norwegian King, on the run from his own people. In 1361 the Danish King Valdemar IV Atterdag conquered Gotland after which the trade routes shifted and Gotland declined. For the next three centuries Denmark, Hanseatic League, pirates, and Teutonic Knights variously controlled it, until in 1645 it came again under Swedish rule.;x
GRA;Granada;x
GRA_DESC;Heir to the splendid Kaliphate of Cordoba, the province of Granada became in 1238 the seat of the Kingdom of Granada - last refuge of the Moors whom the Christian reconquest had driven south. The concentration of Moorish civilization in Granada gave the city great splendor and made it a center of commerce, industry, art and science. However, the Kingdom was weakened by continuous feuds among noble families which prevented any attempt at restoring the Moorish power in the peninsula. It was conquered by Ferdinand V and Isabella I during the reign of Boabdil. With the surrender in January 1492 of the city of Granada the Moors lost their last hold in Spain and the Kingdom was united with Castile.;x
GRE;Greece;x
GRE_DESC;The restored Byzantine Empire (1261-1453) recovered only parts of Greece, most of which continued on under the rule of French and Italian princes until conquered by the Ottoman Turks (completed in 1456). Genoa held Khíos until 1566, Venice retained Crete until 1669 and the Ionian Islands until 1797. In its numerous wars with the Ottomans Venice also held Athens, Évvoia and several other ports and islands for brief intermittent periods prior to 1718. Under the Ottoman Empire Greece was merely one of many exploited territories. The Turks practiced religious tolerance but otherwise their regime was grasping and oppressive. Many Greek families (notably the Phanariots) were important in the administration of the Empire and the Greek merchants living in Constantinople and in the ports of Asia Minor, notably Izmir (Smyrna), were very prosperous, but Greece itself languished in obscurity and poverty.;x
GUJ;Gujarat;x
GUJ_DESC;Gujarat became an independent Sultanate in 1390. Its immense wealth invited attack and in 1509 the ever-enterprising Portuguese wrested the colony of Diu from the Sultan. In 1572 the Sultanate was annexed by the Mughal Empire. The Marathas were powerful in the area in the first half of the 18th century, but the British East India Company took over control of the region in 1818. Under the British overlords much of the region retained its various local princely rulers.;x
GZI;Ghazi;x
GZI_DESC;No description available.;x
HAA;Al-Haasa;x
HAA_DESC;Hugging the eastern edge of the Arabian peninsula, Al-Haasa managed to attain a fair level of prosperity despite threats from hostile foreign powers across the waters and unruly Bedouin in the interior. The eastern coast of Arabia was also a major center of Shi'ism from the arrival of the Qarmathians at the end of the Ninth Century until the Wahhabi movement at the end of the Eighteenth Century.;x
HAB;Austria;x
HAB_DESC;In 1419 Austria was not so much a nation as a political entity. Since the Privilegium Majus charter of the Habsburg Duke Rudolf IV in 1359, it was ruled by an Archduke, but essentially Austria simply represented the hereditary lands of the House of Habsburg. The 15th century saw the Habsburgs gaining ever more power. Albert V was elected Hungarian King in 1438 (but the title was lost again) and Maximilian I married the Burgundian heiress in 1477, thus aquiring the rich Low Countries. Though the last years of the century were hard for the Habsburgs, the next would see them more powerful than ever. The son of Maximilian, Philip, was married to the daughter of Ferdinand and Isabella of Spain in 1496, and their son Charles became King of Spain in 1516, thus adding that nation to the Habsburg realm. In 1526, the Habsburg Archduke Ferdinand I was elected King of Bohemia and King of Hungary. House Habsburg was now the incomparably most powerful dynasty in Europe. However, the event of the reformation and the uncompromising catholicism of the Habsburgs brought Austria no end of trouble, eventually resulting in the catastrophic 30 Years War.;x
HAD;Hadramut;x
HAD_DESC;The region surrounding the Wadi Hardamut in modern-day Yemen has seen a host of rulers throughout the years. Pacified by the Rasulid Dynasty of Yemen in the Thirteenth Century, the Hadramut broke away once agin under the Kathiri dyansty in 1488-89 and remained seperate from the Yemen up until the Modern Age.;x
HAI;Haiti;x
HAI_DESC;The island of Hispaniola was inhabited by the Arawaks prior to the arrival of Columbus in 1492. Disease, ill treatment and genocide by the Spaniards decimated the Arawaks who gave Haiti (land of mountains) its name. While establishing plantations in eastern Hispaniola (now the Dominican Republic) the Spanish largely ignored the western part of the island which by the 17th century became a base for French and English buccaneers. Gradually French colonists importing African slaves developed sugar plantations on the northern coast. Unable to support its claim to the region Spain ceded Haiti (then called Saint-Dominque) to France in 1697. When the English invaded Haiti in 1793 during the Napoleonic Wars they maintained an uneasy alliance with the mulatto André Rigaud and cooperated with the remnant of French governmental authority. In 1795 Spain ceded its part of the island to France and in 1801 Toussaint conquered it, abolished slavery, and proclaimed himself governor-general of an autonomous government over all Hispaniola. Napoléon sent his brother-in-law Charles Leclerc with a huge punitive force to restore order in 1802 but he was unable to completely subdue the interior.;x
HAM;Ha Mi;x
HAM_DESC;No description available.;x
HAN;Hanover;x
HAN_DESC;The city of Hanover was first mentioned in documents from the 12th century. It was chartered in 1241 and joined the Hanseatic League in 1386. In 1386 it joined the Hanseatic League, and in 1692 it became the capital of the Electorate of Hanover, which was soon joined to England in dynastic union.;x
HAS;Hausa;x
HAS_DESC;The first seven Hausa cities were Biram, Daura, Kano, Zaria, Gobir, Rano, and Katsina. Eventually, the states of Zamfara, Kebbi, Nupe, Gwari, Yauri, Kororofa, and Illorin were added once Hausa influence spread. Despite the richness of their folklore and the existence of chronicles of the Kings of Kano and Katsina dating to 1100, little is known of this early period. During the fifteenth century Kano was the most important of the Hausa states, although its rulers paid tribute to the Kingdom of Bornu. In the sixteenth century, Hausaland became a battleground among Bornu, Songhai, and the Junkun empire. Partially due to this, Kano lost its economic supremacy to the rival city of Katsina. Eventually in the early nineteenth century, Usuman dan Fodio created the first united empire in Hausaland.;x
HAU;Brabant;x
HAU_DESC;In 1190, the duchy of Brabant emerged from the duchy of Lower Lorraine. The territory had expanded with the counties of Holland, Zeeland and Hainault in April 10th, 1418 due to the marriage between the cousins Jan IV of Brabant and Jacqueline of Bavaria, who, in fact, was the real owner of the provinces. In 1430 it passed to Philip the Good of Burgundy and in 1477 it was inherited by the Habsburgs. Like the rest of the southern Low Countries, Brabant owed its extraordinary prosperity during the Middle Ages to its wool and other textile industries and to the commercial enterprises of the inhabitants of its cities and towns. Brabant's greatest city, Antwerp, was for a time the financial capital of Europe.;x
HEL;Switzerland;x
HEL_DESC;The Franks conquered Helvetia in the 5th century and the Burgundians in the early 6th. The Franks introduced a new civilization based largely on Christianity. On the dissolution of the Frankish Carolingian Empire in the 9th century most of Switzerland became part of the duchy of Alemannia or Swabia, one of the great feudal states of the German Kingdom. In 1276 Holy Roman Emperor Rudolf I of the Habsburg dynasty attempted to assert feudal rights in Switzerland, making his power a threat to the traditional liberties of the Swiss. To resist Rudolf's aggression the three so-called forest cantons — Uri, Schwyz, and Unterwalden — around the Lake of Lucerne entered a league for mutual defense in 1291. In 1474 the Habsburgs, unable to cope with the militant Swiss mountaineers, abandoned their attempts to acquire the region as a family appanage, and the Swiss confederation became directly dependent on the Empire.;x
HES;Hesse;x
HES_DESC;Hesse emerged in 1247 as a landgraviate immediately subject to the emperor under a branch of the house of Brabant. Landgrave Philip the Magnanimous, a leading figure in the German Reformation, was responsible for reuniting a territory that had been torn asunder by border disputes with neighboring principalities. At his death in 1567, Philip's lands were divided among his four sons with Kassel, Marburg, Rheinfels, and Darmstadt their respective capitals. Upon the demise shortly afterward of the Rheinfels (1583) and Marburg (1648) lines, the whole territory was held by the two remaining lines of Hesse-Kassel and Hesse-Darmstadt.;x
HOL;Netherlands;x
HOL_DESC;The counts of Holland emerged as the most powerful medieval lords of the region next to their southern neighbors, the dukes of Brabant and the counts of Flanders. In the 14th and 15th centuries Flanders, Holland, Zeeland, Guelders and Brabant passed to the powerful dukes of Burgundy who controlled virtually all the Low Countries. Though the Dutch towns and ports were slower in economic development than the flourishing commercial and industrial centers of Flanders and Brabant they began to rival them in the 15th century. They nearly all belonged to the Hanseatic League and enjoyed vast autonomous privileges. When the Dutch Republic finally gained its independence from the Spanish, the province of Holland, with Amsterdam as capital, became the center of power.;x
HSP;Habsburg Spain;x
HSP_DESC;No description available.;x
HUN;Hungary;x
HUN_DESC;After the death of King Louis I a series of foreign monarchs ruled Hungary: Sigismund and Albert II of Austria and Ladislaus III of Poland (Uladislaus I of Hungary). During their reigns the Ottoman Turks began to advance through the Balkans, defeating the Hungarians and their allies at Kosovo (1389), Nikopol (1396), and Varna (1444). The great John Hunyadi, acting after 1444 as regent for Albert II's son Ladislaus V, gave Hungary a brief respite through his victory at Belgrade in 1456. The reign of Hunyadi's son Matthias Corvinus, elected King in 1458, was a glorious period in Hungarian history. The period of relative peace was not to last. Louis II was defeated and killed by the Turks under Sulayman the Magnificent in the battle of Mohács in 1526. The date is commonly taken to mark the beginning of Ottoman domination over Hungary. Ferdinand of Austria, as brother-in-law of Louis II, claimed the Hungarian throne and was elected King by a faction of nobles while another faction chose Zapolya as John I.;x
HUS;Hussites;x
HUS_DESC;The news of the death of King Wenceslaus of Bohemia produced the greatest commotion among the people of Prague and the followers of Jan Hus, now known as the Hussites. A revolution swept over the country, churches and monasteries were destroyed, and the ecclesiastical possessions were seized by the Hussite nobility. The Emperor Sigismund could get possession of his Kingdom only by force of arms. Pope Martin V called upon all Christians to take up arms against the Hussites, and there followed twelve years of warfare. The Hussites initially campaigned defensively, but after 1427 they assumed the offensive. Apart from their religious aims, they fought for the national interests of the Czechs. The moderate and radical parties of the Hussites were united and they not only repelled the attacks of the army of crusaders, but entered the neighboring countries.;x
HYA;Haihaya;x
HYA_DESC;No description available.;x
IKK;Ikkeri;x
IKK_DESC;No description available.;x
IMR;Imereti;x
IMR_DESC;The western Georgian Kingdom of Imereti is said to be the direct successor state of the ancient Kolkhis, whereto Jason and the Argonauts travelled for the golden fleece. When the centralized Georgia fell apart, Imereti became it's successor as the overlord over many tribal principalities like Abkhazia, Mingreli and Svaneti. All of them had their own dynasties, which became the nemesis of Imereti, as the King became dependant on his powerful nobles, so that in the end of 17th century, the country was in a state of a perpetual civil war until Solomon the Great ascended the throne. He reorganized the Kingdom, and joined an alliance with Kartli-Kakheti to be able to resist the Turks.;x
INC;Inca Empire;x
INC_DESC;It was not until the reigns of Pachacuti (1440-1471) and his son Topa Inca or Tupac Yupanqui (died in 1493) that the Inca made their great conquests. Present-day Ecuador (then the Kingdom of Quito) was subjugated by Huayna Capac, giving the empire its greatest extent and power ever. At his death it was divided between his sons Huáscar and Atahualpa, and a long civil war ensued from which Atahualpa emerged triumphant just as Francisco Pizarro landed on the shores of Peru and the Spanish conquest began.;x
IRA;Irak;x
IRA_DESC;Iraq had been the site of a number of flourishing civilizations, including the Sumer, which developed one of the earliest known writing systems, Akkad, Babylonia, and Assyria. The capital of the Abbasid Caliphate was established at Baghdad in the 8th century and the city became a famous center for learning and the arts. However, the entire city was razed and the Caliphate crushed when the Mongol hordes arrived in 1258. Subsequently, the region was dominated by the Ilkhanate, the Timurids, the Kara Koyunlu, the Ak Koyunlu, the Persians and the Ottoman Empire.;x
ITA;Italy;x
ITA_DESC;The notion of Italy dates back to the Greek colonization in the sixth century BC, and in those days referred to what is now Calabria in the South, while in Roman Empire times Italian provinces were roughly what we consider Italy now. In the Middle Ages, the crown of Italy was basically referring to the area north of the Papal Territory. After Frankish conquest of the Lombard Kingdom in 774 the Crown of Italy was held by Carolingian rulers until Berengar I of Friuli restored an almost autonomous Italian Kingdom. He reigned between 888 and 922, with other Kings crowned in the period 891-905, and after 915 he was also Emperor. The Emperor Otto I in 961 killed Berengar II of Ivrea, last independent King of Italy, and since then the title of King of Italy was an attribute of the Holy Roman Emperor, even if the actual rule of the German emperors in Italy was always very loose and the political shape of the peninsula was highly fragmented. By the fifteenth century Italy was composed of small independent states owing no more than nominal allegiance to the Emperor. The Peace of Lodi in 1454 formalized the balance of power between the largest of these states. This balance was shattered by the invasion of Charles VIII of France in 1494. After this invasion Italy became the main theatre of the Franco-Spanish wars for supremacy. These wars ultimately ended in 1559 in Spanish domination of Italy, and was replaced by Austrian domination after 1700. The title of King of Itay was restored by Napoléon in 1805 and again the Kingdom included only a small part of the peninsula, notably Lombardy, Venice, Trent, Emilia, Romagna and Marche (roughly the area limited by the Alps and the Appennines). In any case the notion of Italy and its cultural identity was clear to everybody at least after Dante's Comedy (1300), but the country remained politically divided so that Matternich at the Vienna congress could say that it was just a geographical notion. The modern Italy was born in 1861 under the Savoy dynasty.;x
JAI;Jaunpur;x
JAI_DESC;No description available.;x
KAB;Kabul;x
KAB_DESC;No description available.;x
KAK;Kakheti;x
KAK_DESC;When Georgia disintegrated in 15th century, the King fled to Kakheti, his easternmost province, which became one of the three successor Kingdoms along with Kartli and Imereti. The rest of 15th century it was fighting Kartli, until Ottoman and Persian Empire started to interfere in kakhetine policy, and invading the country. The Kings of Kakheti were forced to pay tribute and seeked protection from the growing orthodox Russia, but never received much. In 18th century, when both Persia and Turkey weakened, the Kakhetines managed to unite eastern Georgia. Their glory did not last however, as their Russian 'allies' soon were eager to add the Kingdom to the Tsar's domains.;x
KAR;Karaman;x
KAR_DESC;The greatest Turkish principality to emerge from the ruins of the Seljuk Empire, the Beylik of Karaman was often in conflict with the upstart Ottomans whose initial subjugation of them was ended with the Ottoman defeat at Ankara in 1402 by the forces of Tamerlane. While the Ottoman defeat and subsequent civil wars allowed the Karamans to regain most of their previously lost territories in Anatolia, the Beylik never regained the upper hand and by 1470 was reduced to a province of the resurgent Ottoman Empire.;x
KAZ;Kazan;x
KAZ_DESC;The Khanate of Kazan was a splinter faction of the Golden Horde that broke off in 1437 and became a power to be reckoned with in its own right. It lasted until Yadigar Muhammad's army was crushed by the forces of Ivan the Terrible in 1552.;x
KHI;Khiva;x
KHI_DESC;The khanate of Khiva was founded by nomadic Uzbeks who conquered Khwarazm in 1511 undertwo sultans, Ilbars and Balbars, founders of the Arabshid dynasty. They maintained the political traditions of the steppe, dividing the khanate into appanages granted to all male members (sultans) of the ruling clan. The supreme ruler, the Khan, was the oldest member elected by the sultans. In the reign of Arab Muhammad Khan (1603-1622) Khiva finally become a capital. During the 16th century the khanate included, besides Khwarazm, the oases in the northern rim of Khorasan and the nomadic Turkmen tribes in the Kara Kum desert as well. Until the beginning of the 17th century the whole Khanate was a loose confederation of nearly independent principalities under one nominal ruler. The economic weakness of the khanate was reflected in the fact, that it did not have its own currency before the end of the 18th century. The Uzbeks formed a military estate in the khanate, while the old sedentary population, the Sarts, formed the class of taxpayers. The authority of the khans and sultans depended on military support of the Uzbek tribes. To counterbalance them, the Uzbek rulers often recruited Turkmens, As a result, the importance of the Turkmens in the political life of the khanate was growing, and they started to settle in Khwarazm. By the end of 16th century, after a series of internecine wars, the system of appanages ceased to exist. The reigns of the famous khan-historian Abu al Ghazi (1643-63), and his son Anusha constituted a period of relative political stability and economic progress. But the country was still poor, and the khans had to fill the empty treasury with the booty obtained in marauding raids against neighbors. The Arabashid dynasty became extinct at the end of 18th century, by that time the power of the Uzbek tribal chiefs had greatly increased, and they began to invite Chingisid sultans from the Kazakh steppes to be enthroned as khans. The actual authority passed into the hands of Uzbek chieftains. Through most of the 18th century Khiva was in a state of turmoil, and was for a while conquered by Persia. Not until 1804 was a new dynasty, the Qongrats firmly established.;x
KHO;Khorasan;x
KHO_DESC;Khorasan was occupied by Arabs in the mid-7th century and Abu Muslim used Khorasan as his poer base to attack the Umayyad Caliphate. It contributed to the power of the early Abbasid Caliphate but was severely devestated by Turkish invasions in the mid 12th century, the Mongols from 1220-1222 and Timur in 1383. With the fall of the Timurid Empire Khorasan has again asserted its power as a possible Succesor Kingdom to Timur's failing empire.;x
KIL;Kilwa;x
KIL_DESC;The people known as the Zanj (a name given to them by the early Arab traders) have dominated the eastern African coastline for centuries, long before the arrival of Islam. The early tribal peoples and clans that make up this region are better known as the Swahili, which derives its name from the Arabic word 'sawahil' meaning 'the coast people'. From around 1200 to 1500, powerful Swahili city-states, most of them from the native Bantu tribes, began to emerge as thriving centers of commerce in the east African trade. Kilwa became the most important coastal trading center by 1000 A.D. In the 13th century, it captured Sofala whose gold resources made it the most prosperous Zanj state. By 1490, the decline in gold trade and its rivalry with Mombasa would remove Kilwa's glory permanently During the 1500s, the Portuguese began occupying areas of the Zanj coastline, starting with Kilwa.;x
KLE;Cleves;x
KLE_DESC;The town of Kleve was the seat of the counts of Cleves from the 11th century. It was chartered in 1242. The county passed to the counts of La Marck in 1368 and was made a duchy in 1417. It expanded again in 1521 by acquiring the duchies of Jülich and Berg. Anne of Cleves, daughter of Duke John, was the fourth wife of Henry VIII of England. The town passed to the electors of Brandenburg by the Treaty of Xanten in 1614. Held by the French during the Revolution and the Napoleonic Wars, it passed to Prussia in 1815.;x
KNI;Order of St. John;x
KNI_DESC;The Order of the Hospital of Saint John of Jerusalem originated in the Eleventh Century as a monastic brotherhood caring for the needs of Latin pilgrims in the Holy Land. Inevitably as the Crusader States found themselves in a state of perpetual war, the brethren of the Order were soon serving as medics and then as combatants, becoming (along with their rivals the Knights Templar) the most disciplined Christian military force in Holy Land and the mediæval equivalent of a multinational corporation. Following the ultimate failure of the Crusades the Order was relocated first to the Aegean and then to Malta, preying on Muslim trade. The Knights anachronistically kept control of Malta into the era of the French Revolution and still exist as a tiny nation in Rome.;x
KOL;Cologne;x
KOL_DESC;Cologne was self-governing after 1288, became a free imperial city in 1475 and as a member of the Hanseatic League flourished as a commercial center until the 16th century. Its decline was hastened by the expulsion of the Jews in the 15th century and the restrictions imposed on Protestants in the following century. Cologne was seized by the French in 1794 and the archbishopric was officially secularized in 1801.;x
KON;Kongo;x
KON_DESC;In the 15th century the Kingdom of Kongo stretched from the Congo River in the north to the Loje River in the south and from the Atlantic Ocean in the west to beyond the Kwango River in the east. Several smaller autonomous states to the south and east paid tribute to it. Kongo was ruled by the manikongo or King and was divided into six provinces each administered by a governor appointed by the manikongo. When the Portuguese arrived in the first years of the 16th century, the King of Kongo was so impressed that he took a Portuguese name (a custom upheld by all subsequent Kings) and adopted Christianity. Of course, the 'Christianity' practised by the people would hardly have been called that by the Pope, but the Portuguese didn't bother to interfere.;x
KOR;Korea;x
KOR_DESC;Squeezed in between China, Japan, and the warlike Manchu tribes, Korea was always in peril of becoming swallowed up by one of its great neighbors. Despite this precarious situation, Korea managed to survive and thrive under the Choson dynasty that was established in 1392 and lasted till 1910, although they did pay tribute to the Chinese Emperor. The peace was shattered in 1592, when Toyotomi Hideyoshi, the Japanese Shogun who had just reunified Japan, sent a large force to Korea in an alleged attempt to invade China. The Korean land forces suffered a series of defeats, but Korean naval forces, led by Admiral Yi Sun-shin, secured full control of the sea. With the help of China, the Japanese were finally driven out in 1598. The next serious threat appeared when the nomadic Manchu violated the borders of both Ming China and Korea in the early 17th century. Ming Chinese and Korean punitive attacks on Manchu strongholds in 1619 were beaten back, and in 1627 the Manchu overran northern Korea, forcing them to pay tribute to them instead of the Ming dynasty.;x
KSH;Punjab;x
KSH_DESC;The Punjab region, situated athwart the main approaches to the Indian subcontinent, formed one of the centers of the prehistoric Indus valley civilization , and after c.1500 BC it was the site of the earliest Aryan settlements. The Punjab was occupied by Alexander the Great and then by the Maurya empire. Muslims occupied W Punjab by the 8th cent. and firmly implanted Islam. Not until the late 12th cent. did they conquer E Punjab, which even afterward remained predominantly Hindu. Under the Mughal empire the Punjab reached its cultural height. When the empire declined in the late 18th cent., the Sikhs rose to dominance. By the early 19th cent. their territorial aggrandizement brought conflict with the British, who emerged victorious in the two Sikh Wars (1846, 1849) and in 1849 annexed most of the Punjab and made it a province, though some of the princely states were retained.;x
KUR;Courland;x
KUR_DESC;The early Baltic tribes who inhabited the region, the Letts and Kurs, were subjugated in the 13th century by the Livonian Brothers of the Sword. In 1561 the Order disbanded and its grand master became the first duke of Courland and Semigalia under the Polish suzerainty. The Duchy of Courland became quite active under Duke Jakob and even established a few colonies - one at the mouth of the River Gambia in Africa and one in Tobago in the Caribbean. However, the further development of the small duchy was stopped by wars. In 1657 Courland was occupied by the Swedes during their war with Poland-Lithuania. In the Northern War (1700-21) it was taken (1701) again by Charles XII. Empress Anna who was by marriage duchess of Courland before her accession in Russia forced (1737) the nobles of Courland to elect her favorite Ernst Johann von Biron their duke. Russian influence became paramount and with the third partition of Poland (1795) the duchy finally passed to Russia.;x
KUT;Kutei;x
KUT_DESC;Kutei (Kutai Karta Negara) is one of the most ancient Hindu states in South-East Asia. The oldest available yupa (sacrificial pole) dates from about 400 AD, and mentions both Maharaja Mula Varman and his son Acwa Varman. Thereafter, the state virtually disappears from the view of the outside world. Little is heard about the state or its ruling dynasty until 1365, when brief mention is made in the epic Javanese historical poem Negarakartagama. The ruler converted to Islam in 1565. Contact with the outside world gradually expanded thereafter. The Dutch first visited the area in 1635 under Gerrit Thomassen Pool, but achieved little and retired. Bugis mariners arrived in 1721, defeated the ruler, established a permanent settlement at Samaranda and took control of the principality of Pasir. In time, they intermarried with the local Malays and Dayaks. They became a permanent feature of the state and served as the ruler's soldiers and policemen. Under Bugis influence, Islam took a more prominent role in state affairs. The ruler assumed the Islamic title of Sultan ca. 1732 and implemented a number of religious decrees. Nevertheless, traditional Hindu practices continued to enjoy a pre-eminent place in cultural affairs. The arrival of the British during the Raffles administration increased European interest in Kutei. Explorers and military officers visited and wrote about its unique culture. However, it wasn't until 1825 that permanent relations were established with the Sultan. In the meantime, commercial relations had progressed quite rapidly with British traders in Singapore. Rattan, gutta-percha and bees-wax were amongst the major exports. This did not please the Dutch and they appointed a local civil administrator in 1846.;x
KZK;Kazakhs;x
KZK_DESC;The Kazakhs were (and are) a people of Turkish and Mongol ancestry with a Khan descended from the Mongol conqueror Chenghis Khan. Originally part of the White Horde which inhabited the steppes of what is today northern Kazakhstan, they split with the group later known as the Uzbeks because of a dispute over the leadership of the White Horde, causing the disintegration of that Mongol Horde. The Kazakhs later settled in all parts of modern Kazakhstan and eventually became divided into three hordes - the Small, the Middle, and the Great, with the leaders of the Great and Middle Hordes fighting each other for overall supremacy.;x
LAP;La Plata;x
LAP_DESC;When Carlos III rose to the throne in Spain a great reform of the Spanish American possessions was started. One of those reforms was the division of the 'Virreynato del Perú' for political reasons, creating a new Virreynato called 'de la Plata' with its capital in Buenos Aires. The new Virreynato included the territories of Charcas Tucumán Cuyo Paraguay and Buenos Aires. Later, in 1810 when Napoléon Bonaparte invaded Spain and replaced Carlos V with his brother José Bonaparte, several 'juntas' were created in Spain and Spanish America to govern in the name of the true King. One of those was the 'Primera Junta' of Buenos Aires. First they swore loyalty to Fernando VII, the heir of Carlos V, but later they broke their links with Spain and declared independence in July 1816.;x
LAT;Teutonic Order;x
LAT_DESC;The Teutonic Order was a German military and religious order founded in 1190 during the siege of Acre in the Third Crusade. Under Hermann von Salza, its grand master in the early 13th century, the order moved to eastern Europe and rose to prominence. After a brief period in Transylvania the order responded to a call (1226) of the Polish Duke Conrad of Masovia for a crusade against the Slavic and heathen Prussians. Holy Roman Emperor Frederick II granted it vast privileges and Conrad invested it with conquered lands. The disciplined and centralized Teutonic Knights colonized its new lands with Germans and laid the foundation of the German Prussian state. The Knights administered their lands from Marienburg, but they granted considerable freedom to their cities, many of which joined the Hanseatic League. The fatal blow to the order was delivered in 1525 by its own grand master, Albert of Brandenburg, who embraced the Reformation, declared Prussia a secular duchy and was invested as a vassal duke by Sigismund I of Poland.;x
LAX;Lan Xang;x
LAX_DESC;Lan Xang is the name of a conglomerate of Thai city-states that covered roughly the area of modern north Thailand between the thirteenth and sixteenth centuries. Mostly under the leadership of the city-state of Chiang Mai, Lan Xang's influence reached far into the neighboring regions.;x
LCH;Lu Chuan;x
LCH_DESC;No description available.;x
LEI;Leinster;x
LEI_DESC;The Southeastern Irish tribal Kingdom. The arrival of the Anglo-Normans occured in Leinster in 1169, at the invitation of the ousted King of Leinster, Dermat MacMurrough. English Earldoms were established in Kildare (Fitzgeralds) and Ormond (Butlers). The area of English control around Dublin, referred to as the Pale, expanded into the province of Leinster first with settlements and fortifications by the new Anglo-Norman lords. By the 17th century, the Cromwellian campaigns supplanted these with English rule and land ownership.;x
LEO;Léon;x
LEO_DESC;No description available.;x
LIT;Lithuania;x
LIT_DESC;The pagan Liths, or Lithuanians, may have settled along the Nemen as early as 1500 B.C. In the 13th century the Livonian Brothers of the Sword and the Teutonic Knights conquered the region now comprising Estonia, Latvia, and parts of Lithuania. To protect themselves against the Knights who encroached from the north and the south the Lithuanians formed a strong unified state. Lithuania became one of the largest states of medieval Europe, including all of what is now Belarus, a large part of Ukraine, and sections of European Russia, touching the Black Sea at its furthest extent. Grand Duke Jagiello became King of Poland in 1386 as Ladislaus II through his marriage with Jadwiga, daughter of Louis I of Poland and Hungary. He converted to Christianity and made it the state religion in the Lithuanian part of the new Commonwealth as well.;x
LIV;Livonian Order;x
LIV_DESC;First German attempts to penetrate into Baltic region can be traced back to the second half of the XII century, when German merchants began to establish numerous trading posts on the Baltic coast. German missionaries came right after them and tried to thrust a new religion - Christianity on the local tribes of Livs, Estes and Kurs. In 1201 Germans founded the first city in the conquered lands - Riga, which later became the main citadel of German colonization in the area. Pope Innocentius III declared a special crusade against the pagans, Livs, Kurs and other neighboring tribes. A special order, called Livonian Order or Swordbrothers' Order (in accordance with a depiction of a sword on the capotes of the brethern). The statute of newly established Order was copied after those in Palestine. In 20-30s of XIII century Livs, Kurs and other neighboring tribes were already conquered and force-converted. The Order imposed a heavy duty on the peasants in favor of the Church. Political power was shared by the Archbishops of Riga and Grandmasters of the Order. As time passed by, the Order was losing its possessions and fully disintegrated towards the beginning of the Livonian War 1558-1583. The last Grandmaster of the Order, Gotthard Kettler, seculirized the Order after the Ergem battle of 1560, and formed an independent Duchy of Courland.;x
LNA;Lan Na;x
LNA_DESC;The first Thai King to control territory in northern Thailand had as his capital the town of Chiang Saen, established in 733 AD, on the banks of the Maekhong. Over the next two centuries, Chiang Saen was destroyed by an earthquake and seized for short periods by the Khmers and later by the Vietnamese, who were driven out and, in turn, had their territory seized by Chiang Saen, which also at times controlled most of Laos and Cambodia. In succeeding centuries, the royal families of Chiang Saen came to establish principalities in Phayao and Chiang Rai, the territory of northern Thailand was held by a powerful tribe, the Mons, who controlled large areas of Southeast Asia. In the 13th century, a Thai King, Mengrai, drove the Mons from their northern bastions, the empire known as Haripunchai, and extended his Kingdom south to Lampang and the Haripunchai capital of Lamphun. He called his new enlarged Kingdom 'Lan-Na-Thai', meaning 'land of a million rice fields', and brought prosperity and stability to the whole area. Many towns and temples were built, and arts and crafts were encouraged. Administration was organized around rice growing. Each person was given enough land to grow 5 muen of rice (about 60 kilos). Nobles were given more land, a prince 1000 rice fields. Princes were given new lands on the edge of established territories and so acted as a bulwark against external attack. At the height of his power, Mengrai controlled a large Kingdom in North Thailand and received tributes from many other Kingdoms in Southeast Asia. He is said to have been killed at the age of eighty by a lightning bolt whilst visiting his son in Chiang Mai, the site marked by a statue which can still be seen in the centre of the city. Over the next centuries, the fortunes of Lan-Na-Thai waxed and waned, with a long list of battles with neighbouring states, led by heroic Kings and princes mounted on elephants. Military might, deceit and treachery determined the outcome of these confrontations, aided or abetted by supernatural talismans and spirits. Despite these squabbles, Lan-Na continued to enjoy prosperity, the wars of the nobility usually affected the average inhabitant but little. Lan-Na enlarged, absorbing Phayao, Phrae and Nan, and resisting domination from the emerging state of the central plains - the Ayutthaya empire. However, in the 14th century the Kingdom of Luang Prabang in Laos took territory from Lan-Na-Thai along the Maekhong, including the city of Chiang Khong, and caused the official capital of Lan-Na-Thai to be moved to Chiang Mai in 1345. The 15th century was the golden age of Chiang Mai, when Lan-Na art and power reached its peak during the reign of King Tilokaraja. He was a great warlord and a devout Buddhist, able in 1455 AD to arrange the eighth world Bhuddist council in Chiang Mai. The fact that this was feasible attests to the power, wealth, safety and communications that Lan-Na enjoyed. It was not to last long, though. Squabbling between pretenders to the throne by a succession of Kings and princes weakened the nobility. In 1545 AD Chiang Mai suffered a devastating earthquake, and in 1558 AD Chiang Mai was taken by the Burmese empire of Pegu. Most of Lan-Na remained under Burmese control for over 200 years.;x
LNK;Lanka;x
LNK_DESC;The traditional first King of Lanka is Vijaya. His grandmother, Suppadevi, according to the legend was the daughter of the King of Vanga (Bengal) by a princess of Kalinga (Orissa). She ran away from home and in the country of Lala or Lada, the modern Gujarat, mated with a lion (sinha), whence the names of her children and ultimately that of Sinhala, the designation of Lanka and of the Sinhala. Lanka converted to Buddhism under the reign of Devanampiya Tissa in the 3rd century BC, and remained the westernmost bastion of Buddhism for the rest of its history. Virtually upon its foundation, Lanka has been plagued by fighting amongst petty Kingdoms, rival princes, and ethnic and religious turmoil that goes on to this day. Still, it produced great works of art and wonder for almost a thousand years. Lanka attracted Portuguese and later Dutch attention for the cinnamon the island produces, which would eventually lead to the downfall of the island. First it passed to the Portuguese, then to the Dutch, and finally to the English.;x
LOR;Lorraine;x
LOR_DESC;Lorraine, or Lothringen, as its name indicates, was originally part of the Kingdom of Lotharingia, and became a duchy under the Holy Roman Empire. In 1048 it passed to the house of Alsace which then became the house of Lorraine and ruled the duchy until 1738. René II of Lorraine helped to defeat Charles the Bold of Burgundy at Nancy in 1477, successfully keeping his realm separate from Burgundy and bringing about its final downfall. In the 16th century a cadet branch of the house of Lorraine, the Guise family, gained tremendous influence in France while Lorraine itself enjoyed a period of relative order and prosperity amid a Europe torn by religious and imperialistic strife. Lorraine was occupied by France during the Thirty Years War (1618-48) and Duke Charles IV spent most of his life trying to recover his lands, but neither he nor his successor Charles V managed to recover the duchy. At last, in the Treaty of Ryswick in 1697, Leopold I was recognized in possession of the duchy.;x
LUA;Luang Prabang;x
LUA_DESC;The city of Luang Prabang was named after a sacred gold Buddha called 'Pra Bang' which was a gift from the Khmer court to Fa Ngum. Fa Ngum was a Lao prince raised in the court of Angkor Wat who carved out the Kingdom of Lan Xang in 1353. It encompassed all of present-day Laos and most of northeast Thailand. Luang Prabang became the centre of Lao culture trade and religion for the next 200 years. When King Souligna Vongsa died in 1694 without an heir the leadership of Lan Xang was contested. In 1713 the nation split into three Kingdoms: Luang Prabang, Vientiane and Champassak. This division attracted outside aggressors, and by the 1800s most of Lan Xang had become a satellite state of Siam, with the exception of Luang Prabang, which held on to a the remnants.;x
LUW;Luwu;x
LUW_DESC;Luwu is the oldest of the Kingdoms of Sulawesi, having been founded in the 9th century. The Kingdom rose quickly to prominance, and for a time dominated Sulawesi, though eventually losing the spotlight to the rising power of Gowa. Luwu allied with the Dutch to bring down Gowa during the 17th century, though this led to their own demise, as their Kingdom soom become a part of the Dutch East Indies.;x
LUX;Luxemburg;x
LUX_DESC;The city of Luxemburg was founded in the 10th century on the ruins of a Roman settlement. In the 14th century the Dukes of Luxemburg rose to become the most powerful noble family in Germany by acquiring Bohemia, Brandenbug, and Hungary. From 1347 on the family also held the office of Holy Roman Emperor. In 1437 Luxemburg's glory came to an abrupt end with the death of Sigismund, the last ruler of the House of Luxemburg. The city itself was soon conquered by Philip of Burgundy. In 1477 Burgundy and with it Luxemburg were inherited by Maximilian of Habsburg and the city remained under Habsburg control for the next three centuries. In 1795 Luxembourg was conquered by the armies of revolutionary France but in 1815 the Grand Duchy of Luxembourg was reestablished ruled by the Kings of the Netherlands.;x
MAA;Mayas;x
MAA_DESC;The Spanish conquistadors found a number of small cities in northern Yucatán, but on their march into Central America encountered few inhabitants. The introduction of new diseases by the Spanish greatly contributed to the ongoing decimation of Maya population, leaving the region still more sparsely settled. For the remaining groups the Spanish conquest led to the imposition of Catholicism and the establishment of various European forms of political organization. Although this imposition was not completely effective, Spaniards either eliminated or incorporated the indigenous elite into the new colonial system leaving the Maya-speaking population a relatively undifferentiated mass of rural peasants. For the most part the Maya region was peripheral to the Spanish American colonies because of the lack of mineral wealth, the relatively sparse population and the lack of land suitable for the cultivation of export crops.;x
MAD;Madurai;x
MAD_DESC;No description available.;x
MAH;Maratha Empire;x
MAH_DESC;By the middle of the 16th century the Maharashtra region of India was fragmented among several independent Muslim rulers, who fought each other endlessly but paid tribute to either the Mughals, Bijapur or Golconda. It was in the midst of this chaos that a great leader, Sivaji Bhonsle, was born in 1627. Sivaji was outraged at the oppression that the mainly Hindu people had to suffer at the hands their Muslim overlords. In a long series of campaigns, he showed astonishing prowess, and eventually founded a large Maratha Empire that would shake the Mughal Empire to its foundations. During the 18th century almost all of western and central India, as well as large segments of the north and east, had been brought under Maratha suzerainty.;x
MAI;Mainz;x
MAI_DESC;In 746, the city of Mainz was made the seat of the first German archbishop - St. Boniface. Subsequent archbishops acquired considerable territory around Mainz and in Franconia on both sides of the Main which they ruled as princes of the Holy Roman Empire. Very early on they received a vote in the imperial elections and had precedence over the other electors - they crowned the Kings of Germany. From the 16th century the Archbishops-Elector of Mainz was the ex officio archchancellor of the Holy Roman Empire. Under the rule of the Archbishops-Electors Mainz flourished as a commercial and cultural center. Johann Gutenberg (1397–1468) lived in Mainz which he founded the first printing enterprise in Europe.;x
MAL;Mali;x
MAL_DESC;The African medieval empire of Mali was a powerful state and one of the world's chief gold suppliers. It attained its peak in the early 14th century under Mansa Musa (1312-1337), who made a famous pilgrimage to Mecca in 1324 laden with gold and slaves to proclaim Mali's prosperity and power. During his rule Muslim scholarship reached new heights in Mali and such cities as Timbuktu and Djenné became important centers of trade, learning and culture. For various reasons, the Mali empire disintegrated and was succeeded by the Songhai Empire of Gao, which rose to great power in the late 15th century.;x
MAM;Mamluks;x
MAM_DESC;Since 1250, Egypt had been ruled by the great Mamluk dynasty, but toward the end of the 15th century they became embroiled in a devastating war with the Ottoman Turks, who captured Cairo in 1517. The Ottoman Sultan, Selim, put an end to the Mamluk Sultanate and established a small Ottoman garrison in Egypt. However he did not destroy the Mamluks as a class. They were allowed to keep their lands, and Mamluk governors remained in control of the Egyptian provinces. In 1769 one of their number, Ali Bey, even proclaimed himself Sultan and independent of Constantinople. Although he fell in 1772, the Ottomans felt compelled to concede an ever greater measure of autonomy to the Mamluks, appointing a series of them as governors of Egypt. The Mamluks were defeated by Napoléon Ier during his invasion of Egypt in 1798 but their power as a class was ended only in 1811 by Muhammad Ali.;x
MAN;Mantua;x
MAN_DESC;Originally an Etruscan settlement, Mantua later became a Roman town and then a free commune. It flourished under the Gonzaga family (1328–1708), who were magnificent patrons of the arts. Mantua passed to Austria in 1708, was taken by Napoléon Ier in 1797, was retaken by Austria in 1815 and was finally returned to Italy in 1866 after the Risorgimento had succeeded in uniting most of the other Italian states. The Gonzaga palace is among the largest and finest in Europe, and contains marvellous frescoes by Mantegna and Giulio Romano and numerous other works of art.;x
MAS;Masovia;x
MAS_DESC;The history of Masovia can be traced back to the first half of the 11th century when one of the Polish nobles, called Maslaw, declared Masovia his own state. It lasted only about two decades. The Duchy of Masovia was created in 1138 when Poland was broken down into 4 princedoms. In theory the Grand Duke was the ruler of all Polish provinces but he met strong opposition led by other remnants of the Piast dynasty. The feudal process of dividing the country into small political entities progressed, granting independence to the strongest of the princedoms. During the renewal of the Kingdom of Poland in the late 13th century and early 14th century, part of Masovia was vassalized by the Bohemian King, Jan Luxembourg, in 1329. The remaining part became a vassal of Poland in 1351. The Masovian princes were in a dire position. All surrounding forces - the Teutonic Order, Poland, and Bohemia - were interested in annexing these terrains. Moreover, Lithuania was not an easy neighbour and some wars were fought. Playing a delicate political game, Masovia maintained its independence into the 15th century, allying with Poland against the Teutons during the Great War of 1409-1411. The last Masovian princes led the happy life of squanderers. The parts of Masovia, like Duchy of Plock (once a vassal of Bohemia), County of Rawa, and others, were annexed by Poland at the deaths of their rulers in the second half of the 15th century. The whole line eventually died out in 1526 and the main Duchy of Czersk-Warsaw was annexed by Poland.;x
MCH;Manchus;x
MCH_DESC;The Manchu people were related to the Tungus and were descended from the Jurchen - a tribe known in Asia since the 7th century. They were first called Manchus in the early 17th century, when they began to threaten their neighbors in China and Korea. Originally pastoral nomads in Manchuria, the Manchus swept into northern China in the early 12th century but were forced by the Mongols to withdraw in the mid-13th century. The Manchus settled in the Songhua River valley and developed an agrarian civilization. Under the emperor Nurhachi (1559-1626) they secured the allegiance of many tribes and increased their territory. The sons of Nurhachi invaded China in the mid 17th century and established the Ch'ing dynasty.;x
MEC;Mecklenburg;x
MEC_DESC;In 1621, the Duchy of Mecklenburg, was divided into two different duchies: Mecklenburg-Schwerin and Mecklenburg-Guestrow. The Westfalian peace contract from 1648 regulated that Wismar came under the power of Sweden, further splintering the old duchy. Two duchies of Mecklenburg were reformed once again as a result of the treaty of Hamburg in 1701, leaving Mecklenburg-Schwerin and Mecklenburg-Strelitz. In 1803 Wismar was returned to Mecklenburg. Both of the duchies joined the Rhine Federation in 1808. At the congress in Vienna the two duchies of Mecklenburg were reunited as a Grand Duchy.;x
MEI;Meissen;x
MEI_DESC;The Margraviate of Meissen was the nucleus of modern Saxony. In 1123 Count Konrad of Wettin managed to seize and successfully defend it from the Emperor. Henceforth the Wettin dynasty ruled Meissen permanently until 1918. Originally a slawic vilage, Dresden became the economic and political center of the Wettin possessions that were very soon expanded and consolidated. The most important step on the dynasty's way to greatness was the acquisition of Sachsen-Wittenberg that was connected with the Electorate of Saxony in 1422. When Friedrich of Meissen was officially awarded the electoral dignity by the emperor in 1425, all his possessions became known as Saxony. However, Meissen was restored as a separate territory by the partition of Leipzig in 1485 that ceded the Margraviate to the Elector's younger brother Albrecht and his successors. This Albertine branch became the superior Wettin branch 50 years later by conquering Saxony in 1548, thus assuming the electoral dignity.;x
MER;Mercenaries;x
MER_DESC;No description needed.;x
MEX;Mexico;x
MEX_DESC;Most of present-day Mexico and the former Spanish holdings in what is now the United States were occupied early. At the end of the 16th century California was thoroughly explored, but it was not until the middle and late 18th century that north-eastern Mexico and Texas were occupied by Europeans in large numbers. Many of the administrative evils were ended by the reforms (especially that of 1786) of José de Gálvez, but discontentment with Spanish rule continued to grow among the creoles. Mexican independence (recognized in 1821) came about almost by accident when constitutionalists in Spain led a rebellion that, in 1820, forced Ferdinand VII to reinstate the liberal constitution of 1812.;x
MGL;Mongolia;x
MGL_DESC;After Zhu Yuan Zhang defeated the Mongols and founded the Ming dynasty, the Mongols were forced back to their homeland around the Gobi desert. However, it was to these harsh areas that Ming influence and control cannot reach. The Mongols were basically divided into 3 major groups. But having benefited from the wealth and learning the sophisticated organisation of the Chinese society, its technologies and ideas, the Mongols still posed a big threat to China after its retreat to the Gobi desert. The Chinese dealt with the Mongols through either diplomatic manoeuvres that induce internal conflict or direct invasion. Emperor Zhu Yuan Zhang launched 8 expeditions to weaken the Mongols. His son Emperor Zhu Di launched a further 6 expeditions. However, the resilience of the Mongol tribes proved too strong. By mid 15th century it was reunited again under Chancellor Esen, who then defeated the half million strong Ming forces, capturing the Ming Emperor Zhu Qi Zhen. Thereafter the Mongols were in the ascendancy in the border areas. However, the coming of Buddhism, internal division and warmer Chinese attitudes contributed to decreased conflict with outside powers. By the 18th century, Oirat Mongols in Dsungaria conquered the areas both north and south of Tian Shan, moved to the Qaidam Pendi and later invaded Tibet. However they were forced to submit to the Manchus to the east who were even more powerful, having just conquered China and founded the Qing dynasty. The Dsungar Oirats resisted several times, but were defeated. Mongolia, the Tian Shan area and Tibet all became part of the Qing Empire by 1750.;x
MGU;Mogadishu;x
MGU_DESC;The people known as the Zanj (a name given to them by the early Arab traders) have dominated the eastern African coastline for centuries, long before the arrival of Islam. The early tribal peoples and clans that make up this region are better known as the Swahili, which derives its name from the Arabic word 'sawahil' meaning 'the coast people'. From around 1200 to 1500, powerful Swahili city-states, most of them from the native Bantu tribes, began to emerge as thriving centers of commerce in the east African trade. Next to Kilwa, Mogadishu was the next powerful Zanj state. It derived its influence from its location in the north giving it contacts with the Arab world. Mogadishu rose in the 13th and 14th centuries only to gradually decline in the 15th century in comparison to the increasing importance of Kilwa and Mombasa.;x
MKS;Makassar;x
MKS_DESC;By the 16th century Makassar had become Sulawesi's major port and the center of the powerful Gowa and Tallo sultanates which between them held a series of 11 fortresses and strongholds and a fortified sea wall which extended along the coast. The arrival of the Dutch in the early 17th century altered events dramatically. The Dutch first objective was to create a hegemony over the spice trade, and their first move was to capture the fort of Makassar in 1667, which they rebuilt and renamed Fort Rotterdam. The Dutch proceeded to destroy the strongholds of the Sultan of Gowa who was forced to live in exile on the outskirts of Makassar. Prince Diponegoro, the national hero born in 1785 to Sultan Hamengkubuwono III of Yogyakarta put up a great resistance against the Dutch in the Java wars of 1825-30. After his capture he was exiled to Fort Rotterdam until his death in 1855.;x
MLC;Malacca;x
MLC_DESC;Until the 17th century Malacca was one of the leading commercial centers of East Asia. It was founded around 1400 by a Malay prince who had been driven from Singapore after a brief reign there. The city quickly gained wealth as a center of trade with China, Indonesia, India and the Middle East. Its sultans, aided by the decline of the Madjapahit empire of Java and by the friendship of China, extended their power over the nearby coast of Sumatra and over the Malay Peninsula as far north as Kedah and Pattani. More importantly Gujarati traders introduced Islam to the Malay world through Malacca. In 1511 Malacca was captured by the Portuguese under Alfonso de Albuquerque. The Sultan fled first to Pahang and then to Johor. When the Dutch arrived in the early 17th century, they allied themselves with Johor and captured Malacca in 1641 after a drawn out siege.;x
MLI;Malindi;x
MLI_DESC;The people known as the Zanj (a name given to them by the early Arab traders) have dominated the eastern African coastline for centuries, long before the arrival of Islam. The early tribal peoples and clans that make up this region are better known as the Swahili, which derives its name from the Arabic word 'sawahil' meaning 'the coast people'. From around 1200 to 1500, powerful Swahili city-states, most of them from the native Bantu tribes, began to emerge as thriving centers of commerce in the east African trade. The city of Malindi was founded about the same time as Mombasa and the two were always bitter rivals. However, Malindi never thrived as prosperously as Mombasa. When Portugal invaded in the late 15th century, Malindi gladly aided the Portuguese in destroying Mombasa.;x
MLO;Milan;x
MLO_DESC;In 1395 Galeazzo Visconti received the title of duke of Milan from the Holy Roman Emperor and under him the duchy became one of the most powerful states in Italy. Following the death of the last Visconti in 1447, the Sforzas took over as dukes of Milan. The city flourished, harboring great artists and thinkers like Leonardo Da Vinci until it became involved in the Italian Wars and passed under Spanish domination in 1535. At the end of the War of the Spanish Succession in 1713, Austrian rule of Milan was established and lasted until Napoléon made the city the capital of the Cisalpine Republic in 1797. In 1815 Milan again came under Austrian rule.;x
MLW;Malwa;x
MLW_DESC;Following the decline of the Guptas in the 10th century, Malwa was ruled by King Bhoja II of the Paramaras. Internal rivalry between the various tribes and frequent wars with the Rajputs made it easy for the Muslims to establish their rule, which lasted until 1401. In 1562 Akbar made Malwa a part of the Mughal Empire and so it remained until the 18th century. The tribal Gonds gained control of Malwa after the decline of the Mughals, and then the region was shaped into the Maratha State of Indore from 1690. Though this area too fell under the British jurisdiction, it was administered by the Marathas, who ceded it to the British completely by 1817.;x
MND;Magindanao;x
MND_DESC;The Sultanate of Magindanao managed to avoid the fate of their northern bretheren in Maynilad though some political maneuvers, but mostly through stubborn armed resistance to European domination. Still, it eventually succumbed to the weight of the Spanish Empire after several centuries of bloody struggles.;x
MOD;Modena;x
MOD_DESC;Following the beginning of the construction of the Cathedral in 1099 and the first signs of a city government that led to the communal Modena, the city was ruled by the Estensi family and in 1598 it became the capital city and saw the completion of the Ducal Palace in 1634. In 1796 French troops entered Modena and started a dominion that lasted until 1814. From that year on the Austro-Este dukes Francesco IV and Francesco V ruled the state until 1859 when, declining the Este sovereignty, the city formed part of the new Italian Reign.;x
MOG;Mughal Empire;x
MOG_DESC;The great Mongol heir Bâbur, founder of the Mughal Empire, was indeed very qualified for conquest. Descended from Timur by his father and from Genghis Khan by his mother he ruled the remains of the Timurid Empire from his capital in Kabul, constantly trying, and failing, to recapture the old capital of Samarkand from the Uzbeks. Disappointed, he turned to India, divided between several small Kingdoms and sultanates which were constantly at each others necks. He took advantage of the situation and before his death in 1530 he had established a powerful Empire in northern India on the ruins of the Sultanate of Delhi. The Empire continued to grow until it dominated almost all of India at the beginning of the 17th century, before its long period of decline set in.;x
MOL;Moldavia;x
MOL_DESC;Originally Moldova was part of the greater region of Moldavia but it has spent much of its history being the skinny kid pushed around by the bigger boys. It lies directly between the rock of Russia and the hard place of Romania and has always been the focal point for border disputes and expansionist policies. Prior to its tenuous unification it had been overrun, split up, reunited, conquered, annexed, renamed and taken back again more times than you can shake a stick at. It's been a long and bloody journey from the principality of Moldavia to the republic of Moldova and it seems fitting that the flag includes a band of red signifying the blood spilled in defending the country. During the mid-14th century, under the leadership of Stefan cel Mare (or Stephen the Great), the principality of Moldavia flourished, but by the time his son succeeded him the Turkish army had become too strong and Moldavia was subsumed under the Ottoman Empire. It remained under Turkish suzerainty until 1711 when the Russians appeared on the Moldavian borders for the first time. Although the Russian army was initially repelled, the next century saw Russia and Turkey going at it hammer and tongs. Annexations, partitions, skirmishes, invasions, and wars were the order of the day. Moldavia changed hands more times than a bent coin. In 1774 Austria acquired northern Moldavia, renaming it Bucovina in exchange for brokering a peace treaty between the warring Russians and Turks. In 1812 hostilities between Turkey and Russia were temporarily suspended by the signing of the Bucharest Treaty which gave the eastern half of Moldavia to the Russians (who renamed the region Bessarabia) and the rest of Moldavia and Wallachia to Romania.;x
MOM;Mombasa;x
MOM_DESC;The people known as the Zanj (a name given to them by the early Arab traders) have dominated the eastern African coastline for centuries, long before the arrival of Islam. The early tribal peoples and clans that make up this region are better known as the Swahili, which derives its name from the Arabic word 'sawahil' meaning 'the coast people'. From around 1200 to 1500, powerful Swahili city-states, most of them from the native Bantu tribes, began to emerge as thriving centers of commerce in the east African trade. Mombasa was found in the 12th century and rose in power because of its exportation of slaves and ivory. Its good harbor and flourishing trade with India helped it to rise to prominence in the 15th century. Although rivaled by Kilwa and Malindi, it would manage to become greater than the latter and survive longer against the Portuguese than the former.;x
MON;Mon;x
MON_DESC;Pegu was the center of one of the three chief states of Myanmar (Ava, Taungu and Pegu) from the 14th to the late 15th century. In the 16th century it became the capital of a united Burmese Kingdom, but when it was destroyed in 1564 and again in 1599, the Burmese moved their capital to Ava. In the 18th century the Talaings rebelled against the Burmese and set up their capital at Pegu. The city was destroyed by the Burmese in 1757 but was later rebuilt as the center of a Burmese province. The city and province came under British rule in 1852.;x
MOR;Morocco;x
MOR_DESC;As the many prehistoric remains show, Morocco has been inhabited since very early prehistoric times. Then came the Phoenicians, Carthaginians, Berbers, Romans, Byzantines and Vandals before the final Arab invasion which took place in the 8th century. Morocco's strategic location has shaped its history. Beginning with the Phoenicians many foreigners have come to the area - some to trade or settle others as invaders sweeping the land and dominating it. Arab forces began occupying Morocco in the seventh century, bringing with them Arab culture and Islam. Other invasions followed. The Alaouite dynasty which has ruled Morocco since 1649 claims descent from the Prophet Muhammad. Morocco's location and resources led to early competition among European powers in Africa, beginning with the successful Portuguese efforts to control the Atlantic coast in the 15th century.;x
MOS;Muscovy;x
MOS_DESC;The city of Moscow was probably founded on a strategic site on the Moskva River as a military outpost of Vladimir-Suzdal. By the mid-12th century, when its existence is first mentioned in Russian chronicles, it had become a walled town. In 1271, the dukes of Vladimir-Suzdal took up residence in the city and assumed the title Grand Dukes of Muscovy. The adjacent areas were subdued or acquired one by one and Moscow's importance inexorably continued to increase, particularly under Dmitri Donskoi (1359–89), who was the first to bear the title Grand Duke of Moscow. Dmitri's successors, above all Ivan III and Vasily III, laid the foundation of Muscovite absolutism, built the most powerful Russian state, and broke free of their vassalage to the Golden Horde. When Novgorod was conquered in 1478, Muscovy had achieved its total supremacy of the Russian people.;x
MRA;Mahra;x
MRA_DESC;Mahra was one of the more signifcant polities dotting the southern shore sof Central Arabia in the Early Modern Period. The region was a nest for Arab piracy on the Indian Ocean and the rulers of Mahra held the island of Socotra as a place to evacuate to when the situation one the peninsula grew dangerous.;x
MRE;Morea;x
MRE_DESC;The Despotate of Morea came into being in 1348, with the first Despot, Manuel Kantakouzenos, son of the Emperor John VI. Later, in 1384, the Palaiologoi came and succeeded in expanding the Despotate virtually throughout the Peloponnese. However, the disaster which dogged the sovereign was not slow in reaching here as well and so when Konstantinos Palaiologos, Despot of Mystras, left for the capital wearing the martyred crown of the last emperor, his brother Demetrios, who succeeded him after the legendary Fall of Constantinople in 1453, surrendered to the Turks in 1460.;x
MSH;Musha'sha';x
MSH_DESC;The Caliph was the heir of Muhammad and the political and religious head of Islam. The title was instituted after Muhammad's death and the dispute for power that caused the Islamic schism between Sunni and Shi'a. Under the Omeya Caliphs and later the Abassides, the Caliphate was taken to the height of its power, spanning from Spain to Persia. In 1258 the Mongols took Baghdad and slaughtered its population, marking the definitive end to the already decadent Caliphate. However, the dream of a reunited Islamic Empire was far from dead and several Muslim nations attempted to revive it - the Ottoman Empire being the only power that almost achieved it.;x
MSS;Mossi;x
MSS_DESC;Five Mossi states existed between the Volta River and the great bend of the Niger river. During the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries, the Mossi ranged far beyond the boundaries of their states. In 1338, they ravaged Timbuktu and thereafter prevented the expansion of Mali and Songhai while continuing to threaten the rich trading cities of the north. In 1480, the Mossi had reached as far as Walata and caused considerable trouble for the great conqueror Sunni Ali. Although pressured by Songhai, from the north, and the Ashanti confederation, from the south, the Mossi states maintained their religion, system of government, and a large area of stability in the open savannah lands south of the Niger until the coming of the French in the latter nineteenth century.;x
MTR;Mataram;x
MTR_DESC;Despite the fact that Mataram was Islamic it still followed most of the Indo-Javanese traditions of the Hindu Kingdoms of Java. In the royal palaces (kraton) of the reigning dynasties of Mataram an original model was developed combining animistic and Islamic rites and even European values. Mataram eventually had to face two new powers in order to unify the island: Banten, the last coastal Sultanate, and the Dutch, who had landed for the first time on Java in 1596. The Dutch goal was mainly to gain control of the sealanes and ports of Java and Indonesia to thwart their main enemies - the Spanish and the Portuguese.;x
MUB;Mu Bang;x
MUB_DESC;Mu Bang is a tribe of the Shan people, people of Thai Chinese stock, who came to Burma (the name was changed to Myanmar in 1989) from Yunnan in southwest China after the 12th century. Mu Bang was a strong tribe and ruled this region of northern Burma, called the Shan States, until the 16th century, when King Bayinnaung established Burmese control over all of the Shan States. This continued until the annexation of Burma to India by Britain in 1885.;x
MUS;The Pope;x
MUS_DESC;No description available.;x
MYG;Meng Yang;x
MYG_DESC;No description available.;x
MYS;Mysore;x
MYS_DESC;In 1313 Mysore was conquered by the Delhi Sultanate but it was soon lost again to the rising power of the Kingdom of Vijayanagar. Although vassal to Vijayanagar until that state dissolved in 1565, and then to other nations, Mysore remained largely autonomous until the independence and unification of India in 1947.;x
NAP;Naples;x
NAP_DESC;After the Sicilian Vespers insurrection in 1282, Sicily proper passed to the house of Aragón and the Italian peninsula south of the Papal States became known as the Kingdom of Naples. The state remained independent until it too fell to the ruler of Sicily, Alfonso V of Aragon, who in 1443 assumed the title 'King of the Two Sicilies'. For centuries, Naples remained in foreign hands: Spanish, French, Spanish again, Austrian, French and Austrian, until it was finally united with the other Italian states in the 19th century.;x
NAT;Natives;x
NAT_DESC;No description available.;x
NAV;Navarre;x
NAV_DESC;Between 1512 and 1515 Castile successfully invaded and annexed the southern half of the old Kingdom of Navarre. The King moved his administration north but in 1589 France annexed that part as well. Though there were (and are) many rebellions in the Basque territories of Spain, Navarre would never again resurface as a nation.;x
NIP;Japan;x
NIP_DESC;The Yamato clan unified central and western Nippon in the 5th century, around the same time Buddhism was introduced. In 1192, after his final victory over his brother Yoshitsune, Minamoto Yoritomo was awarded the title Shogun, roughly meaning 'barbarian quelling generalissomo'. The title stuck, and the Shogun would be the real ruler of Nippon for seven centuries. 1542 marked the opening of Japan to western powers like Portugal, England, Spain and the Dutch. The Jesuits arrived, and gained an ever growing number of converts, but decrees prohibiting Christianity were promulgated in 1612 and 1614, and the persecution of its adherents began immediately thereafter. Persecution became much more severe, until, at length, it became official policy to stamp out Christianity even at the sacrifice of trade. This policy became manifest with the seclusion orders of the 1630s. Thus, in 1635 Japanese were forbidden to make overseas voyages or to return to Japan from overseas, which was a severe blow to Japan's traders. Nippon now entered a period of total isolationalism that would last well into the middle of the 19th century.;x
NOR;Norway;x
NOR_DESC;The Kingdom of Norway, united in the Viking era, reached its greatest strength in the 13th century, when Iceland and several islands in the North Sea were still under Norwegian rule. However, after the ravages of the Black Plague in 1349 and 1350, the population in Norway was greatly reduced. The Norwegian nobility was greatly weakened by the catastrophe, and became international rather than national in its orientation. In 1397 Norway entered the Union of Kalmar as Queen Margrete became Queen of Norway following the death of the last Norwegian King Olav IV. Together with the other two nations, Norway was at war with the Hansa in the 1420s and gradually succumbed to Danish influence and rule as the taxes from Norway were spent abroad. The Norwegian 'Riksraad' continued to elect foreign princes as Kings including Christopher of Bavaria and finally Christian II of Denmark. By this time, the Union of Kalmar was just an empty name and Norway had become an integral part of Denmark.;x
NUB;Nubia;x
NUB_DESC;The Christian nation of Nubia succeeded in freeing itself from control of Egypt when the latter became an independent Mohammedan Kingdom in 969, but in 1173 Saladin's brother Schems Eddawalah Turanschah advanced from Yemen, destroyed the churches, and carried off the bishop and 70 000 Nubians. In 1275 the Mamluk sultan Djahn Beibars sent an army from Egypt into Nubia. Dongola was conquered, the Christian King David was obliged to flee and the churches were plundered. The inhabitants escaped forcible conversion to Mohammedanism only by payment of a head-tax. Nubia began dissolving into petty states, chief of which was Sennar, which was founded in 1484 by the Funj dynasty. From the Middle Ages there is little information as to the position of Christianity, as Islam became supreme partly by force partly by the amalgamation of the native with the Arabian tribes, but in the mid-16th century the Funji rulers converted to Islam, ending the era of Christianity in Nubia for good. For some time Sennar ruled Shendi, Berber and Dongola. In the eighteenth century the King of Sennar also obtained, for a time, the province of Kordofan.;x
NVG;Novgorod;x
NVG_DESC;Novgorod is one of the oldest cities in Russia and was a major commercial and cultural center of medieval Europe. It obtained autonomy in 997 and achieved independence from Kiev in 1136 when it became the capital of a merchant republic - Sovereign Great Novgorod - that embraced the whole of northern Russia to the Urals. The 14th century witnessed the start of Novgorod's long struggle with Muscuvy for supremacy. Internecine disputes among the republic's leaders weakened it in the face of growing Muscovite strength. Although it became a vassal of Moscow after the Muscovite invasions in 1456 and 1470, Novgorod was allowed to remain independent until 1478, when it came under Moscow's complete control. Opposition by its citizens to the absolutist rule of Moscow continued until Ivan the Terrible had most of them massacred and the rest deported in 1570.;x
OHI;Iroquois;x
OHI_DESC;The Iroquois were undoubtedly the fiercest warriors to roam the St. Lawrence and the northern New York state. They called themselves the Haudenosunee, meaning people of the long house, but their enemies referred to them as the Iroqu, an insult meaning 'rattlesnakes'. The French added 'ois' to make it Iroquois. The Iroquois Confederacy consisted of six nations: Mohawk, Oneida, Onondaga, Cayuga, Seneca, and Tuscarora. They maintained a wide trade network which the Europeans found useful, and subsequently became leading in the fur trade. The Iroquois village of Stadacona became the site of the first French trading post and later became known as Quebec. The Iroquois village of Hochelaga would become the site of Montreal. When the American Revolution came, the Iroquois sided with the British - a gamble that they unfortunately lost. Many were driven into Southern and Eastern Ontario and Quebec, and their power was forever broken. Despite their passion for war the Iroquois were primarily agrarian.;x
OLD;Oldenburg;x
OLD_DESC;The history of the county of Oldenburg is mainly of dynastic significance, since the county itself never achieved any particular prominence. Originally a part of Saxony, Oldenburg became a separate state in the 12th century, when the counts became princes of the Holy Roman Empire. In 1448 Count Christian of Oldenburg became King of Denmark as Christian I, while his younger brother Gerard and his successors retained Oldenburg independently. On the extinction of the German line, Oldenburg passed to Christian V of Denmark in 1676. In 1773 Christian VII exchanged Oldenburg for ducal Holstein with Grand Duke Paul I of Russia. Paul gave Oldenburg to his maternal great uncle Frederick Augustus of Holstein-Gottorp, bishop of Lübeck, who assumed the ducal title in 1777. Peter I of Oldenburg, nephew and successor of Frederick Augustus, lost the duchy to Napoléon but recovered it in 1813 and subsequently acquired Birkenfeld and obtained the title grand duke.;x
OMA;Oman;x
OMA_DESC;Virtually cut off from the rest of the Arabian Peninsula by vast deserts, the Omani became prominent sailors and acquired an early maritime tradition. As they traveled and traded, the Omanis spread the message of Islam as well as Arab culture and language, leaving a deep impact on eastern Africa and reaching as far east as China. In the early 16th century, after the Portuguese under Vasco de Gama had discovered the sea route round the Cape of Good Hope to India they occupied Mascate for a century and a half in order to dominate the trade which had until then been an Omani monopoly. The Portuguese were expelled from Mascate in 1650 by Sultan bin Saif al-Yarubi, reaffirming for a time the the Omani power in the region.;x
ORI;Orissa;x
ORI_DESC;In the 13th and 14th centuries, when much of India was overrun by the Muslims, independent Orissa remained a citadel of Hindu religion, philosophy, art, and architecture. Under the Surya dynasty (1435-1568), Orissa flourished and expanded its territory at the expense of its Muslim neighbors, but when King Mukunda was killed by his own countrymen, Orissa lost its independence to the Afghan rulers of Bengal and was subsequently conquered by the Mughal Emperor Akbar in 1592.;x
ORM;Ormuz;x
ORM_DESC;The Princes of Ormuz ran one of Medieval Islam's richest trading emporia from their base on the southern edge of Persia at the entrance to Gulf throughout the tumultous changes wracking the Islamic World. When the Mongols came to Perisa, Ormuz retained its indepence so long as tribute was payed to the Mongol overlords. This system lasted until 1300, when the Prince picked up and his city and moved it lock, stock, and barrell to the barren island of Jahrun in the Persian Gulf. Despite the forbidding environment, Ormuz retianed its position as key trading center until the arrival of the Portuguese in the early Sixteenth Century.;x
OYO;Oyo;x
OYO_DESC;Located in modern-day Niger, a settlement existed at Oyo around 1100 A.D. It appears to have developed into a small Kingdom in the late 14th century or early 15th century. Throughout the 16th century, Oyo was in a constant state of war with rivaling states of Nupe and Borgu. At one point, Nupe took and destroyed Oyo forcing the Oyo to flee, only to return when they grew stronger. In the late 17th century, the armies of Oyo proceeded to bring all of Yorubaland under the control of the alafin, or King, of Oyo. From 1747 to 1818 the Kings of Dahomey paid annual tribute to the alafin. Eventually the Oyo empire collapsed due to the growing authoritarianism of the alafin's court combined with a breakdown in central administration.;x
PAK;Perak;x
PAK_DESC;As with the other Malay states in the north, Perak was constantly under threat from regional powers. During the 16th century, the Chinese and the Dutch was the main cause of concern due to Perak's monopoly of tin. In the 18th Century, Perak was then threatened by the Bugis and Siamese. Under the Siamese influence, Sultan Kedah was forced to remove the Sultan of Perak to ensure compliance by the Perak state.;x
PAL;Palembang;x
PAL_DESC;Palembang succeeded the glorious Kingdom of Srivijaya, once the greatest power in Indonesia. At one time the unquestioned center for trade, culture and commerce, it declined rapidly during the 14th century, and by the 15th century it was a shadow of its former glory, barely capable of breaking away from the disintegrating Majapahit Empire. Palembang only began recovering after the introduction of Islam in the early 16th century, though it wasn't enough to save them from the invasion of treasure-hunting Europeans. The city and Kingdom of Jambi in central Sumatra is positioned on the busy sea route between China and India, and it played a major part in early maritime trade. Records show Jambi to have been the original capital of the Malaya Kingdom. The ancient Hindu - Buddhist Kingdom of Sriwijaya also had its capital in Jambi at one time. The relationship between Melayu and Sriwijaya was a very close one, although there were some clearly period of Malay independence when Sriwijaya was based in nearby Palembang. As well as functioning as an entreport, Jambi also produced its own exports including a variety of tree resins for use as incense, as well as cloves, tortoise-shell, gardenia flowers and cardamom. From Arab traders it imported cotton, fabrics and sword blades, from China silk gauzes and thread, the latter possibly used in the manufacturer of silk brocades decorated in gold supplementary weft, the songket for which the Malay world later became famous.;x
PAP;Papal States;x
PAP_DESC;'Lo Stato della Chiesa', or the Papal States, was from 754 to 1870 an independent territory under the temporal rule of the popes, also called the States of the Church and the Pontifical States. The territory varied in size at different times, but began a period of growth in the 16th century when Cesare Borgia, son of Pope Alexander VI, conquered the petty states of the Romagna and Marche. In the early 16th century, Pope Julius II consolidated papal power by abolishing local autonomies and by participating effectively in the Italian Wars. The last principalities to lose their autonomy to the popes were Ferrara (1598) and Urbino (1631). The duchy of Castro was added in 1649. Parma and Piacenza were alienated (1545) through the nepotism of Pope Paul III.;x
PAR;Parma;x
PAR_DESC;Parma was founded in 183 B.C. by 2000 Roman citizens as part of a colonization project in which the nearby towns of Piacenza, Modena and Bologna were also established. The city has been involved with every major artistic period and cultural institution since then. In the Byzantine period, Parma became known as Chrysopolis -- 'golden city' -- due either to the richness of its soil or its administrative seat of the Treasury. During the Imperial Age, Parma had a Roman forum, a theater, an ampitheater, public baths and a basilica. The flourishing town saw the rule of the Visconti, the Sforza, the French and the Papacy from the 14th to 16th Centuries, and in 1545 Pope Paul III established a Duchy with his son Pier Luigi Farnese as its ruler (a dynasty that lasted almost 200 years). The years between 1802 and 1814 were a time of Napoleonic rule, following with the important period when the city's administration was passed to Bonaparte's second wife, Maria Luigia of Austria, whose influencial power lasted until her death in 1847. After the Bourbons regained control for a short period, Parma was joined in the Kingdom of Italy with a plebiscite on March 18, 1860.;x
PER;Safavid Empire;x
PER_DESC;Persia, or Iran ('land of the Aryans'), is a nation with a history long enough to rival the Greek, and like the Greeks, the Persian people were oppressed by foreign powers for centuries. The old Persian Empire quickly fell to the fanatic Muslims hordes that rode out of the Arabian peninsula in the 7th century, and Persia remained a part of the Caliphate until its fall to the Mongols in the mid 13th century. The Mongols ruled Persia as part of the Ilkhanate until Tamerlane conquered that in the late 14th century. The Timurid realm proved unstable, and the Persians soon found themselves governed by the Ak Koyunlu, whose realm in turn crumbled when the great Ismail Safavid, himself of Turkish origin, rebelled and took control of the whole region. Despite his suppression of sunni Muslims and despite his Turkish background, Ismail was hailed as a saviour by the Persians. Safavid Persia endured until 1736, despite the incessant internal and external pressure.;x
PFA;Palatinate;x
PFA_DESC;The Rhenish Palatine was established in the 12th Century. The power of its rulers rarely extended far beyond the valley of the middle Rhine, but they nevertheless enjoyed great prestige as Imperial Electors. The capital at Heidelberg became one of the centers of Reformation and Renaissance in Germany. The Counts of the Palatinate were among the leading Protestant Princes of Germany. This led to the selection of Elector Frederick V as King of Bohemia in 1619, but he was quickly driven out by Catholic forces. The country suffered heavily in the Thirty Years War, and although the Counts Palatinate were reestablished in their country in 1648 they never again played an important role in German politics.;x
PIR;Pirates;x
PIR_DESC;No description available.;x
POL;Poland;x
POL_DESC;During a period of disunity the Teutonic Knights gained a foothold in the then pagan north of Poland. Their power was only broken by their defeat at the hands of Polish-Lithuanian forces at Tannenberg in 1410 and by the second treaty of Torun in 1466 they became vassals of the Polish Kings. Jadwiga, daughter to Louis I of Hungary and Queen of Poland, then married Ladislaus Jagiello, the Grand Duke of Lithuania who became King of Poland as Ladislaus II. The nations of Poland and Lithuania were now united under one King and one religion as the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth. The Commonwealth was an immensely powerful state, which would probably have pacified all of eastern Europe had it not been for its great inherent instability. It was an elective monarchy where all of the great nobles had the right of veto in the Sejm. This 'liberum veto' effectively paralyzed Poland-Lithuania at times when it could not afford it, and led to its eventual destruction at the hands of the Russians, Prussians and Austrians in the three partitions of Poland.;x
POM;Pomerania;x
POM_DESC;The history of Pomerania is complicated and diversified. The first Polish rulers of the Piast dynasty, Mieszko I and Boleslaw the Brave, accomplished the political unification of this land that had been divided among local nobles in the 10th century. At the beginning of the second millennium Poland's ties with Western Pomerania loosened since she was unable to maintain her rule there. The destiny of Eastern Pomerania followed another path - the local ducal dynasty related to the Piasts stayed in Power in its capitals in Slawno Swiecie and Gdansk and recognised Polish hegemony. Another attempt to unite all of the Pomeranian lands was made by Boleslaw the Wrymouth, who, at the beginning of the 12th century succeeded in making the entire region between the Vistula Odra and Notec one politically and territorially integrated realm. There were considerable differences in terms of its integration with Poland however. While Eastern Pomerania became one of the provinces of the Polish state, the local dynasty in Western Pomerania remained in power with Duke Warcislaw residing in Kamien Pomorski. The latter, however, obligated himself to accept baptism and military assistance and recognized Polish hegemony. Until the 17th century, Polish dukes ruled western and central Pomerania (the duchies of Wolgast and Stettin) under the suzerainty of the Holy Roman Empire. The elector of Brandenburg acquired these duchies in 1637, when the last Polish duke, Boguslaw XIV, who had united them, died without issue, but Sweden received Western Pomerania by the Peace of Westphalia in 1648.;x
POR;Portugal;x
POR_DESC;Portugal emerged as a nation state in the early 12th century and ranks as one of the world's longest established countries. In 1143 Portugal was raised to the status of a Kingdom. Dom Afonso Henriques became King of an independent Portugal. He had taken three quarters of the present day Portugal from the Muslims, including Lisbon. After his death in 1185 the conquest was completed by his successors. Afonso III expanded this Kingdom southward to the Algarve in 1249 and under João I Portuguese sailors began to explore the African coast and the Atlantic. Its boundaries have been unchanged since the 13th century. The Fifteenth Century was Portugal's Age of Discovery. First it was Madeira Island then the Azores Cape Bojador and Cape Verde. Then the Portuguese explorers reached Africa, rounded the Cape of Good Hope, and gave Portugal its own route to India. Vasco de Gama reached India establishing Portuguese colonies and Pedro Cabral discovered Brazil. Other Portuguese explorers reached the Far East China and Japan. For that brief moment in time Portugal was the richest country in Europe.;x
PRO;Provence;x
PRO_DESC;Since 1032 the county of Provence was fief of the Holy Roman Empire and for the major part of its territory held by the houses of Aragón and of Barcelona until 1246, when it eventually became a fief of the French Crown under the rule of the second House of Anjou. Upon the death of Charles du Maine in 1481, Provence was willed to Louis XI, King of France, and its union to the crown was effected on the condition that Provence kept its administrative autonomy, however as a result of this union Provence was definitively incorporated into the French royal domain in 1486. Significant enclaves existed within Provence for many years afterwards: Orange, that remained under the control of the House of Orange-Nassau until 1672, the Comtat Venaissin, centred on Avignon, that was under Papal rule until 1791 and the territories of Nice and Menton, whose harbours gave the House of Savoy importants connections to seatrade routes until their cession to France in 1860.;x
PRU;Prussia;x
PRU_DESC;The area known as Prussia was inhabited in early times by West Slavic tribes, ancestors of the modern Poles in the West and Baltic tribes closely related to Lithuanians in the East. Sometime after the seventh century the area was invaded and settled by pagan Germanic tribes later known as Prussians. The Protestant Reformation in the early to mid 1500s saw most Prussians convert to Protestantism whereas Poland remained and still remains solidly Roman Catholic. In 1525 Ducal Prussia became a hereditary duchy under Albrecht Hohenzollern, the last grand master of the Teutonic Knights. In 1657 after an invasion by the Swedes, Poland completely surrendered sovereignty over Ducal Prussia to the Hohenzollerns of Brandenburg. With both Brandenburg and Prussia under his control, Friedrich Hohenzollern had himself crowned King of Prussia on Jan. 18, 1701. Prussia's power grew and in 1772, under King Friedrich II (Frederick the Great) it consisted of the provinces of Brandenburg, Pomerania, Danzig, West Prussia, and East Prussia.;x
PSK;Pskov;x
PSK_DESC;The city of Pskov was founded as an outpost of Novgorod in 903. However, Pskov won its independence from Novgorod in 1348. The city followed Novgorod's example by severely restricting the power of its prince. The principality produced a code of law in 1397 that was used throughout Russia. Although it was closer to Novgorod it often looked to Muscovy for protection from the expansionist powers of the Baltic rim, especially the Teutonic Knights. It was finally absorbed into Muscovy in 1511.;x
PUR;Puritans;x
PUR_DESC;Puritanism was a particularly strict branch of protestantism inclined more towards Calvinism than Lutherism and was mostly concerned with the belief in hard work and pure natural life. It emerged in England in the early 1600s and quickly found support in the South-East. However, due to a number of reasons many Puritans emigrated to the New World. The Puritan Faction was also a significant branch of the Parliamentary forces during the English Civil War, and it was Oliver Cromwell, a Puritan, who came to be Lord Protector of England.;x
QAR;Kara Koyunlu;x
QAR_DESC;The Kara Koyunlu (Turkish: Black Sheep) were a Turkmen tribal federation that ruled Azerbaijan and Iraq, originally vassals of the Jalayirids of Baghdad and Tabriz. Routed by Tamerlane the Kara Koyunlus re-established themselves in Tabriz from 1406. Baghdad was captured in 1410 and there was expansion into Persia. In 1468, however, the Kara Koyunlu had been defeated and overrun by their mortal enemies from the north - the Ak Koyunlu.;x
QUE;Quebec;x
QUE_DESC;The French explorer Jacques Cartier first sailed up the St. Lawrence River in 1534 and arrived in the land that would later bear the name New France. Settlement of the region did not begin until the early 17th century, when Samuel Champlain founded Quebec ('where the river narrows') - the first permanent French settlement in the New World. Over the next century the French gradually settled along the banks of the St. Lawrence, where their long-lot settlement pattern exists to this day. In 1759 Quebec was lost to the British on the Plains of Abraham - an event that would ensure British hegemony in North America and indirectly lead to the American revolution.;x
RAJ;Rajputana;x
RAJ_DESC;Rajputana was a region in north-western India made up of multiple principalities warring with both themselves and their neigbors. The Rajputanian religion, although Hindu in orgin, is considered by the Rajputs to be above the other Hindu religons which caused constant rebellion, espicially amongst the nobility. During the 15th century they acheived their greatest height of military power, greater than any other in the region until the arrival of the Mughal Empire under Babur.;x
RAM;Ramazan;x
RAM_DESC;In 1352 Ramazan, founder of the dynasty, was recognized by the Mamluk sultan of Egypt as the ruler of the Yzok branch of Oguz Turkmen in Cilicia. After a period of attempts to overthrow Mamluk suzerainty, the dynasty's principality about 1418 came under direct Mamluk control and lost its significance. With the extension of Ottoman territories to the Taurus Mountains and after an Ottoman-Mamluk war in 1485-90, the Ramazan territory assumed strategic importance for the Ottomans. In 1514 the Ramazan ruler Mahmud was deposed by the Mamluks and sought refuge with the Ottoman sultan Selim I, who the next year defeated the Mamluks in Syria and restored the principality to Mahmud. Mahmud's successor Piri was appointed by the Ottomans. He assisted them in suppressing Turkmen revolts in central and southern Anatolia (1526) and enjoyed the favour of Sultan Suleyman I the Magnificent. Cilicia was incorporated into the Ottoman Empire (1608), and thereafter members of the Ramazan dynasty continued to serve as governors of Ottoman provinces in Asia and in the Balkans.;x
REB;Rebel Scum;x
REB_DESC;No description available.;x
ROM;Romanists;x
ROM_DESC;The news of the death of King Wenceslaus of Bohemia produced the greatest commotion among the people of Prague and the followers of Jan Hus, now known as the Hussites. A revolution swept over the country, churches and monasteries were destroyed, and the ecclesiastical possessions were seized by the Hussite nobility. The part of Bohemia that was not seized by the Hussites was the Pro-Emperor or Pro-Austrian side known as Romanist Bohemia. The Emperor Sigismund could get possession of his Kingdom only by force of arms. Pope Martin V called upon all Christians to take up arms against the Hussites, and there followed twelve years of warfare. The Hussites initially campaigned defensively, but after 1427 they assumed the offensive. Apart from their religious aims, they fought for the national interests of the Czechs. The moderate and radical parties of the Hussites were united and they not only repelled the attacks of the army of crusaders, but entered the neighboring countries.;x
ROY;Royalists;x
ROY_DESC;When Parliament had been dissovled by Charles I in 1642 in reaction to the rise of the gentry and the burghers and their higher demands for power, most of the lords rallied to the Royal Standard of the King to protect their own interests and privileges. From these days, even after the execution of Charles I in 1649, the English Monarchs had a large group of supporters for a more powerful monarchy, which transformed with the coming of the even more extremist James II and took the name of Jacobites.;x
RUS;Russia;x
RUS_DESC;In 862 the political entity known as Kievan Rus was established by Vikings from Sweden along their trade route in what is now Ukraine. In the 10th century Christianity became the state religion under Vladimir, who studied both Churches, but chose to adopt the Greek Orthodox rites. The Mongol invasion in the 13th century shattered Kievan Rus and its people were made thralls to the invaders and cruelly oppressed. As Mongol unity dissolved over the next two centuries, Muscovy gradually became the dominant principality and was able through diplomacy and conquest to establish suzerainty over European Russia. Ivan III (1462-1505) married the Byzantine princess Zoe Paleologus in a diplomatic move aimed at gaining prestige for his country. He could now refer to Russia as the Third Rome, and heir to the Byzantine tradition (even if the Kings and princes of Europe were not impressed). As century later the famous Romanov dynasty was established at the end of the Time of Troubles by Tsar Mikhail in 1613. During Peter the Great's reign (1689-1725) Russia began a process of modernization and European influences spread in Russia. Peter created Western-style military forces, subordinated the Russian Orthodox Church hierarchy to the Tsar, reformed the entire governmental structure and established the beginnings of a Western-style education system.;x
RYA;Ryazan;x
RYA_DESC;Ryazan was one of the many principalities that emerged from the ruins of Kievian Rus in the aftermath of the Mongol invasions of the 13th century. For most of its history it remained a vassal state to the Kahn of the Golden Horde. It was unfortunate in that it lay near the invasion routes to Moscow and the other northern principalities, thus making it more willing to negotiate than fight, even after the Grand Duchy of Muscovy declared independence from the Khan. Ivan III, Grand Prince of Muscovy, inherited half of the principality in 1500. The other half was absorbed by the tsar in 1511 and Ryazan became part of the new Russian nation.;x
SAC;Saxony;x
SAC_DESC;In 1356 the duke of Saxe-Wittenberg was granted the permanent rank of Elector. Electoral Saxony, as his territory was called, was a relatively small area along the middle Elbe. To the south of Electoral Saxony extended the margraviate of Meissen, ruled by the increasingly powerful house of Wettin. The margraves of Meissen acquired, in the 13th and 14th centuries, the larger parts of Lower Lusatia, Thuringia and the intervening territories and in 1423 Margrave Frederick the Warlike also added Electoral Saxony, becoming Elector Frederick I. In 1485 the lands of House Wettin were partitioned between two sons of Elector Frederick II and the division came to be permanent. Ernest, founder of the Ernestine branch of Wettin, received Electoral Saxony with Wittenberg and most of the Thuringian lands. Albert, founder of the Albertine branch, received ducal rank and the Meissen territories including Dresden and Leipzig. Duke Maurice of Saxony, a grandson of Albert and a Protestant, received the Electoral title in the 16th century and it was held by the Albertine branch until the dissolution of the Holy Roman Empire in 1806.;x
SAV;Savoy;x
SAV_DESC;The surprisingly resilient state of Savoy was forged by Humbert the Whitehanded, a lord of Arles, out of the various feudal territories in the region. Under Amadeus VIII in the early 15th century, Savoy became a powerful duchy extending far into France, Italy, and Switzerland. By the beginning of the 16th century the rule of the dukes had weakened, and Savoy fell under Swiss and French dominance. The great duke Emmanuel-Philibert (Ironhead) greatly restored the territory and fortunes of the border duchy and moved the ducal residence to Turin in 1559, making Savoy more of an Italian than a French state. When Vittorio Amedeo II acquired the title King of Sardinia in 1713, Savoy became a part of a united Kingdom. Annexed by France in 1792, Savoy was returned to Sardinia in 1815.;x
SCO;Scotland;x
SCO_DESC;Scotland as a national entity arose through the union of the Kingdoms of Alba and Strathclyde in the mid-11th century. Ever since that time, Scotland's history has been one of action and reaction against her more powerful neighbor England. In 1174 Scotland became a vassal of England but broke loose a few years later. Unfortunately the terms of the release were vague and the Kings of England retained a tenuous - and sometimes not so tenuous - hold on their northern neighbour, which had to struggle in the face of near impossible odds to retain its independence. Scottish independence, or at least semi-autonomy, came to a final end in 1707, when its lords accepted the Act of Union and formed Great Britain together with England.;x
SEI;Styria;x
SEI_DESC;Sitting astride the Mur River, the Duchy of Styria has long been important as a trading center, and has had considerable strategic importance owing to the easily fortified Schloßberg at its principal city of Graz. In the late middle ages, Bavarian colonists settled the area which is very favorably situated on several old trade routes. The settlement developed primarily in the second quarter of the twelfth century, after the Styrian prince, Margrave Ottokar III of the Traungau family took possession of the province, enlarged it and made it his administrative center. Between the 10th and 13th centuries, during the period of Babenberg control, Styria was contested by the Pope and the Holy Roman Empire on several occasions in the battle for control of the German church. Meanwhile, the reformists gained ground, founding the monasteries of Gottweig, Lambach, and Admont in Styria. Apart from brief interruptions, the Babenbergs maintained their sovereignty over the duchy of Styria, expanding them north and south. New settlements were made by clearing the forests and moving into mountain areas. The colonization process changed the distribution of the German-speaking population and apart from some Alpine regions, the Slavs were gradually assimilated, as were the remnants of Roman population in Salzburg and the northern Tyrol. The expansion of the German language was also encouraged by the attraction the Babenburg court held for the leading German poets. Following the death of Frederick II, the Babenbergs' dominions were coveted by their neighbors. The main beneficiary was Premysl Otakar II of Bohemia, until Rodolfo IV of Habsburg came to the German throne in 1273 and pushed him out with the help of the Hungarians. As was custom in the Holy Roman Empire, a father divided his lands among his sons. Albrecht II, duke of all Upper and Lower Austria gave Upper Austria to his older son Albrecht III (founder of the Albrechtian branch of Habsburgs,) and Lower Austria went to his younger son Leopold III (founder of the Leopoldian branch of Habsburgs). Leopold's decendents became the rulers of Styria, and in time became the sole rulers of all of Upper and Lower Austria come the reign of Maximilian I.;x
SER;Serbia;x
SER_DESC;Under Stephen Dušan, who became King in 1331 and czar in 1346, Serbia became the most powerful empire in the Balkan Peninsula, much of which it absorbed. Its might contrasted sharply with the decadence and fading strength of the Byzantine Empire. Unfortunately, with Stephen's passing in 1355, the nation started to decay and eventually fell victim to the unstoppable forces of the Ottoman Turks. From 1389 Serbia was a Turkish vassal, and in 1459 most of the nation was annexed into Ottoman proper by Sultan Muhammad II. Belgrade, which was then held by Hungary, fell to the Turks in 1521. In 1804, after many Turkish reverses on the battlefield, a liberation movement took form when Karageorge (Black George) led a rebellion that eventually freed the pashalik (province) of Belgrade from the Turks. The Treaty of Bucharest in 1812 forced Turkish recognition of Serbian autonomy, but Russian preoccupation with Napoléon's invasion allowed the Turks to renew their tyranny in Serbia. A revolt flared in 1815 under Miloš Obrenovic who in 1817 procured the assassination of his rival Karageorge and became Prince of Serbia.;x
SHI;Shirvan;x
SHI_DESC;Shirvan, a region north of Azerbaijan that first became independent during the 9th century. The region would be dominated by many foreign conquerors, including the Sejluks and Mongols until 1382 when Ibrahim I would re-establish its independence. The region would remain, for the most part silent, until 1538 when it was annexed by the Safavids. Later, after a Russian conquest, a Khanate by the name of Baku would be founded and flourish until re-annexed less than a century later. In short, Shirvan's history is full of brief periods of independence followed by short periods of foreign rule.;x
SHL;Holstein;x
SHL_DESC;The Duchy of Holstein was originally created in 1111 as a county of the Holy Roman Empire and given to Adolf of Schauenburg. Since Lübeck and Hamburg were controlled by the Hanseatic League, Kiel and Rendsburg were the chief cities. In 1459 Holstein's Christian I, a Danish heir to the throne, established a personal union with Denmark to the great displeasure of the German majority in the region. In 1474, Emperor Frederick III raised Holstein to the status of duchy under the immediate suzerainty of the Holy Roman Empire (as distinct from Schleswig, which was outside the imperial jurisdiction). Holstein remained independent, if often involved in wars between Sweden and Denmark, until 1866, when it was annexed by Prussia in the Peace of Prague.;x
SIA;Siak;x
SIA_DESC;An integral part of the ancient Malacca-Johor Empire, Siak became a separate state of its own in 1723. The founder of the sultanate, Sultan 'Abdu'l-Jalil Rahmat Shah alias Raja Kechil, was the putative posthumous child of Sultan Mahmud II of Johor. Although he had managed to seize the throne of Johor in 1718, his hold over the throne remained tenuous. Constant disputes forced him to remove his capital to Riau in 1719. Three years later, the Bugis princes defeated and expelled him from that place. He then moved his court to Siak. Stalemate over the contest for the throne eventually resulted in Siak developing into a separate sultanate. His infirmity in old age prompted a succession dispute between his sons. Raja Alam, the elder son by a commoner, allied himself with the Dutch and seized the throne in 1740. A dual system of government failed to resolve disputes over the succession. The contest for the throne was only resolved with the deposition of the Johor Dynasty. Al-Sayyid Sharif 'Ali, a nobleman of Arab descent and son of a princess, had been increasing his power and influence by allying himself to the Dutch. He assisted them in conquering Selangor, then returned with men and weapons and seized power in 1784. Initially satisfied with the regency, he tired of this subordinate role, deposed Sultan Yahya and established a new dynasty in 1797.;x
SIB;Sibir;x
SIB_DESC;Often thought to be an early splinter state to the Golden Horde, the Khanate of Sibir was actually a successor state of the various Tartar Kingdoms that formed in the wake of the White Horde's demise. Intially it was centered around the city of Tyumen, and then later its capital was the city of Sibir, near modern Tobolsk. Although Russian traders from Novgorod crossed the Urals as early as the 13th century to trade in furs with the various Tartar Kingdoms, the actual Russian conquest began much later. Czar Ivan IV's capture of the Kazan Khanate in 1552 opened the way for Russian expansion into Siberia. A band of Cossacks in the service of the Czar under Yermak crossed the middle Urals and took the city of Sibir in 1581. Russia's conquest of the Sibir Khanate was completed in 1598, and during the following century Russia started to colonize western Siberia.;x
SIC;Sicily;x
SIC_DESC;Sicily is the largest island in the Mediterranean, marking the corner of three seas: the Ionian, the Tyrrhenian, and the Mediterranean. In 965 the island, held by the East Roman Empire, fell to Arab conquest from North Africa, and in 1060 to Normans, who progressively Latinized the island. In the 12th and 13th centuries the island formed a part of the Kingdom of the Two Sicilies, the other 'Sicily' being Naples. As with Naples, the island was later dominated by a succession of foreign rulers. Aragonese, Spanish, French, and Austrians alternated in their control of the region until the Kingdom of the Two Sicilies was eventually incorporated into the united Italy in the 19th century.;x
SIE;Siena;x
SIE_DESC;In the 12th century Siena became a self-governing commune. Economic rivalry and territorial conflict with neighbouring Florence, which was anti-imperial or Guelf, made Siena the center of pro-imperial Ghibellinism in Tuscany. The Sienese reached the peak of political power on Sep. 4, 1260 when their army crushed the Florentines at the Battle of Montaperti. Between 1355 and 1557 Siena endured the two most troubled centuries in its history: a long period of economic and demographic decline of social conflict and of increasing instability and tension in political life. In 1487 an exiled aristocrat, Pandolfo Petrucci, seized power and ruled with brutal tyranny through a period of French and Spanish invasions until his death in 1512. His regime was continued by his family until 1524. After a long and heroic defense, Siena surrendered to the Spaniards in 1555, and two years later Philip II of Spain ceded the city to Florence.;x
SIN;Sindh;x
SIN_DESC;No description available.;x
SMI;Southern Ming;x
SMI_DESC;With the fall of the capital to Li Zi Cheng and the subsequent Manchu invasion in the north, a new administration was setup in Nanjing. The Southern Ming loyalist forces were continuously defeated and pursued by Manchu forces towards the south and their Kings had to be successively replaced to continue the resistance movement against Manchu occupation of China. The resistance movement eventually moved to Taiwan, where the famous general Koxinga managed to prolong the fighting for a few more decades. It was not until 20 years after his death in 1683 that his grandson finally surrendered to the Manchu-Qing Empire.;x
SON;Songhai;x
SON_DESC;Songhai was the largest of the great empires in the western Sudan region of northern Africa. The state was founded around 700 by Berbers on the Middle Niger in what is now central Mali. The rulers accepted Islam around 1000 A.D. Songhai's power was greatly expanded by Sonni Ali (1464-92), who occupied Timbuktu (which was held by the empire of Mali) in 1468. Songhai reached its greatest extent under Askia Muhammad I (1493-1528). However, he was deposed by his son, and in the subsequent conflicts among his successors the empire slowly began to decline. The breakup of the state was accelerated by a Moroccan invasion in 1591.;x
SPA;Spain;x
SPA_DESC;Spain and Portugal were the two greatest colonial powers of the 15th, 16th and 17th centuries, dividing the world into two spheres of influence by the Treaty of Tordesillas. Almost all of South America, Central America, southern North America, and the Philippines were added to the Spanish world empire in the 16th century. Gold and silver, the primary objectives of the conquistadores, flowed into Spain in fabulous quantities. The Spain of the 16th century (the Golden Century) was the unparalleled world super power, with an empire on which the sun never set, with fleets on every sea and with a brilliant cultural, artistic and intellectual life. By its triumph over France in the Italian Wars (1494-1559), Spain could add Sicily, Naples and Milan to its dependencies. However, the increasing rivalry on the high seas between Spain and England culminated in the attempted conquest of England by the Spanish Armada in 1588, and its complete failure was an immensely costly fiasco that weakened Spain for a decade. Deeper problems soon manifested themselves, and Spain commenced a long and inexorable slide into decline.;x
STE;Golden Horde;x
STE_DESC;The Golden Horde was one of the successor states to Gengis Khan's enormous empire. It occupied most of the Mongols' European territory and held all of the Russian principalities save Novgorod in vassalage. The state went through a slow but steady decline and its mainly Russian population became vassals in little more than name. The great Timur's attack on the Horde in the 1390's weakened the state sufficiently that Moscow's rise to greatness could commence. The Khan attempted to crush the rebellions of his Russian subjects but with the establishment of the splinter Khanates of Crimea in 1430, Kazan in 1436, and Astrakhan in 1466, the Horde was but a shadow of its former greatness. The last surviving remnant of the Golden Horde was destroyed by the Crimean Khan in 1502.;x
STR;Strasburg;x
STR_DESC;After becoming part of the Holy Roman Empire in 923, Strasbourg with the surrounding rural area came under the temporal rule of its bishops. Its location at the crossroads of Flanders, Italy, France and central Europe made it an important commercial center. In 1262 after some struggles with the bishops the burghers secured the status of a free imperial city for the city proper. It was mainly Protestant after the Reformation but cautiously avoided the religious conflicts of the Thirty Years' War (1618–48). In 1681 Louis XIV of France seized the city in peacetime and obtained ratification for his arbitrary action by the Treaty of Rijswijk in 1697. The city retained its special privileges until the French Revolution.;x
STT;Stettin;x
STT_DESC;The history of Pomerania is complicated and diversified. The first Polish rulers of the Piast dynasty, Mieszko I and Boleslaw the Brave, accomplished the political unification of this land that had been divided among local nobles in the 10th century. At the beginning of the second millennium Poland's ties with Western Pomerania loosened since she was unable to maintain her rule there. The destiny of Eastern Pomerania followed another path - the local ducal dynasty related to the Piasts stayed in Power in its capitals in Slawno Swiecie and Gdansk and recognised Polish hegemony. Another attempt to unite all of the Pomeranian lands was made by Boleslaw the Wrymouth, who, at the beginning of the 12th century succeeded in making the entire region between the Vistula Odra and Notec one politically and territorially integrated realm. There were considerable differences in terms of its integration with Poland however. While Eastern Pomerania became one of the provinces of the Polish state, the local dynasty in Western Pomerania remained in power with Duke Warcislaw residing in Kamien Pomorski. The latter, however, obligated himself to accept baptism and military assistance and recognized Polish hegemony. Until the 17th century, Polish dukes ruled western and central Pomerania (the duchies of Wolgast and Stettin) under the suzerainty of the Holy Roman Empire. The elector of Brandenburg acquired these duchies in 1637, when the last Polish duke, Boguslaw XIV, who had united them, died without issue, but Sweden received Western Pomerania by the Peace of Westphalia in 1648.;x
SUL;Sulu;x
SUL_DESC;The Sultanate of Sulu was founded in the 15th century in the Archipelago of Sulu between Borneo and the Philippines. The Spanish made several attempts to suppress the Sultanate, but met with little success. The Sultanate gained Sabah in Northern Borneo in 1658 from aiding in a dynastic struggle in Brunei, and held it until it became part of Johore later in the 19th century. The Sultanate of Magindanao managed to avoid the fate of their northern bretheren in Maynilad though some political maneuvers, but mostly through stubborn armed resistance to European domination. Still, it eventually succumbed to the weight of the Spanish Empire after several centuries of bloody struggles.;x
SUS;Sus;x
SUS_DESC;The Sus region houses the important city of Taroudant. Taroudant was a trading post that developed remarkably during the 11th century. In the 16th century, it was the capital of the Saadian dynasty. The Sus region was also home to rebel princes and various southern tribes. Although it was hardly a nation in its own right, it was the birthplace of power for various Moroccan factions.;x
SWE;Sweden;x
SWE_DESC;Sweden is a very old nation with its roots in the misty times preceding the Viking era. In 1419 the country had recently been joined to Norway and Denmark in the Union of Kalmar, but the Swedes soon proved uncomfortable with having a Danish King. Most of the 15th century was spent vacilitating between staying in the union and leaving it. The final bloody farewells were said in 1521, when the Swedish nobleman Gustav Vasa forced the Danes to accept a totally independent Sweden. Both Danes and Swedes kept eyeing each other with deep mistrust however, and each nation dreamed of conquering the other. Gustav Vasa's reign was long and prosperous. Sweden went from being desperately poor and undeveloped to having good finances and a decent army. His death saw renewed strife as Sweden became embroiled in a long war against Russia for supremacy over Estonia, followed by a civil war between Duke Charles and King Sigismund that evolved into war with Poland. In 1617 the wars had been won and Sweden had gained more lands from Russia during the Time of Troubles. Gustav II Adolf was the greatest King Sweden has ever known, and with the help of his chancellor Axel Oxenstierna he totally reformed the country and beat the imperials in the 30 Years War. Sweden was now the Great Power of Northern Europe - a position she would hold until 1718, when the hero King Charles XII died in battle, having failed in his defense of Sweden from her ravenous neighbors. The country faded once more into the periphery of European politics...;x
TER;Ternate;x
TER_DESC;Ternate, the most prominent of the four Moluccan sultanates, dates its foundation to 1257 AD with the arrival of the Muslim sage, Sayyid Ja'afar Sadiq. Ternate shares a unique history with the neighbouring states of Jailolo, Tidore and Bacan. Ternate forms the most important unit and its ruler is termed the Kolano ma-Luku (ruler of the Moluccas). Modern history, however, suggests that Ternate's position owes its place due to military triumphs, successfully concluded when it vanquished Tidore and Jailolo in 1380. Located in the midst of the Spice Islands, Ternate attracted the early attention of European explorers and merchants during the sixteenth century. The Portuguese were the first on the scene and began interfering into local politics and religious affairs almost immediately. They constructed a strong fortress in 1522 and controlled affairs with utter ruthlessness. They deposed or killed rulers, poisoned heirs, and removed whole families to Malacca. St. Francis Xavier visited the island, looking for converts in 1546. The murder of Sultan Khair ul-Jamal, shortly after the conclusion of a treaty of peace, finally stirred the Moluccans into open revolt in 1574. The new Sultan's forces stormed the fortress of Sao Joao Bautista, took it on St. Stephen's Day 1575, and expelled the Portuguese. This substantial victory was not easily forgotten by the Portuguese, or their Spanish successors. The latter sent a strong naval force, which retook the fort in 1606 and removed Sultan Said to Manila. They then set about converting the Sultan and his family to Catholicism. The arrival of Dutch in 1599 proved fortuitous to Kaicili Muzaffar, the youngest son of Sultan Said. He forged an alliance with the VOC, which enabled him to secure the throne in 1607. The grateful Sultan granted the VOC a lucrative contract with an exclusive spice concession in 1609. However, the embrace of the VOC proved too constricting, especially after they intervened in a succession dispute in 1650. Although a serious conflict erupted in 1683, the Dutch were now firmly established at Amboina, and defeat was inevitable. Thereafter, Ternate effectively became a Dutch protectorate. Although relations with the Dutch remained peaceful, continuing rivalry with the Tidore resulted in sporadic outbreaks of conflict into the nineteenth century. The British took over control of the Dutch East Indies during the Napoleonic Wars. Having recognised 'Nuku' as Sultan of Tidore, they were able to mediate an effective peace treaty between the two island rivals. However, this peace between the two has never been more than an uneasy one and rivalries continue into the present day.;x
THO;Theodoros;x
THO_DESC;The miniscule Taurian principality of Theodoros played a disproportionate role in the history of Crimea as both the last Christian bastion to fall to the Muslims, and taking with it the last remainder of Gothic civilization (Thus their other name, Gothica). Together with the Genoans they put up a fierce resistance to the Ottoman Empire, but in the end they were vanquished.;x
TIB;Tibet;x
TIB_DESC;Tibet emerged from an obscure and mostly unknown history to flourish in the 7th century as an independent Kingdom with its capital at Lhasa. In the 13th century Tibet fell under Mongol influence, but reverted to independence in 1368 when the Mongols were also evicted from China. In 1270 Kublai Khan, emperor of China, was converted to Buddhism by the abbot of the Sakya lamasery. The abbot returned to Tibet to found the Sakya dynasty (1270-1340) and to become the first priest-king of Tibet. In 1578 the Dge-lugs-pa, or Yellow Hat Sect, asked the Tümed Mongol leader Altan Khan to renew the relationship that had existed in the days of Kublai. In 1642, with exemplary devotion, Güüshi Khan enthroned the Dalai Lama as ruler of Tibet, marking the end of the reign of the old Kings. The Chinese invaded in 1720, fearing a Tibet controlled by hostile Mongols. After an initial reverse, their armies drove out the Mongols and were welcomed at Lhasa as deliverers, all the more because they brought with them the new Dalai Lama, Bskal-bzang-rgya-mtsho. For the next 200 years there was no more fighting between Tibetans and Chinese.;x
TIM;Timurid Empire;x
TIM_DESC;Originally the western half of the Chagatai Khanate, the Timurids derived their name from the Great Khan known to history as Tamerlane (Timur Lenkh in Persian) who died in 1405. Tamerlane was one of those few military leaders who seemed to be blessed by the gods. He never lost a battle, and expanded his realm to reach from the frontiers of Byzantium to the gates of Delhi. However, by 1419 the Timurids had already begun their swift decline and their remaining power was concentrated in Afghanistan and Amu Darya. Though their realm was greatly reduced, the fame of the empire was still great and the magnificent cities of Samarkhand and Bukhara were long a by-word for wealth and learning. Their story ended with Bâbur, who transformed the ailing Timurids remnants into the great and vibrant Mughal Empire in the early 16th century.;x
TLE;Tlemcen;x
TLE_DESC;The Zayyanid Dynasty founded its capital at Tlemcen (in the modern-day state of Algeria). For over 300 years, the Zayyanids had a tenuous hold on central Maghrib. The regime was plagued by frequent rebellions but learned to survive as the vassal of the Merinids and later the Hafsids. At one time Tlemcen acted as an ally of Spain. Many coastal cities defied the ruling dynasties and asserted their autonomy as municipal republics. They were governed by their merchant oligarchies, by tribal chieftains from the surrounding countryside, or by the privateers who operated out of their ports. Nonetheless, Tlemcen prospered as a commercial center and was called the 'pearl of the Maghrib'. Tlemcen would eventually be devastated by the Spanish and later, conquered by the Ottomans.;x
TOS;Tuscany;x
TOS_DESC;Under the fabulously wealthy Medici family, Florence went from being a small but rich city state to becoming the Grand Duchy of Tuscany (1569). Only the Republic of Lucca and the duchy of Massa and Carrara remained independent. After the extinction of the Medici line, Tuscany passed (1737) to ex-duke Francis of Lorraine (later Holy Roman Emperor Francis I), who was succeeded by Grand Duke Leopold I (1765-90, later Emperor Leopold II) and then by Ferdinand III (1790-1801, 1814-24). The French Revolutionary armies invaded Tuscany in 1799 and it was briefly included in the Kingdom of Etruria (1801-7) and was ruled under the duchy of Parma before it was annexed to France by Napoléon Ier, who set up his sister to rule it from Lucca.;x
TRA;Transylvania;x
TRA_DESC;The region of Transylvania was one of the earliest targets of German colonization. The Germans, who were mainly merchants, lived side by side with Hungarians and Romanians, although the three groups never blended well. Up until the mid-16th century the fortunes of Transylvania (called Siebenbürgen in German) was closely tied to those of Hungary, and the two states alternated in control of each other. Following conquest by the Ottoman Turks however, Transylvania was greatly reduced, and made into a puppet Kingdom. Over time this state became more and more independent, to the point that it virtually managed its own destiny by the mid-17th century. Following the reconquest of the area by the Austrian Empire, the region was revitalized by new German emigrants arriving from the early 18th century on.;x
TRE;Trebizond;x
TRE_DESC;When the treacherous army of the Fourth Crusade overthrew the Byzantine Empire and established the Latin Empire of Constantinople in 1204, several Greek successor states sprang up around it. The Empire of Trebizond was one of them. After the Mongol invasion the empire experienced tremendous economic prosperity, as it became the crossroad of trade routes leading to Russia, the Mediterranean and the Middle East. With the decline of Mongol power after 1320, Trebizond suffered increasingly from attacks by various Turkish clans and states, civil wars, and domestic intrigues, until it eventually fell in 1461 after leading a coalition of Greek powers against the Sultan, in a last-ditch attempt to restore the Byzantine Empire. At the height of its wealth and power the court of the Grand Comneni was a great artistic and cultural center and made Trebizond the last refuge of Hellenistic civilization.;x
TRI;Tripoli;x
TRI_DESC;After its conquest by the Muslim armies in the 7th century, Tripolitania became subject to various Arab and Berber dynasties, among them the Aghlabids, the Fatimids, and the Hafsids. In 1510 Tripoli was captured by the forces of Ferdinand the Catholic of Spain, who turned it over to the Knights of St. John in 1530. The latter lost the region only 21 years later to the Ottoman Turks, who ruled it either directly or through suzerains for the next 360 years. In 1711 the local governor, Ahmad Karamanli, won recognition from the Ottomans as hereditary pasha (governor), and his dynasty ruled Tripolitania for all but a few years until 1835.;x
TRV;Travancore;x
TRV_DESC;A small principality hugging the southern tip of India in 1419, Travancore would grow to be the most imposing native regional opponent of the onrushing European conquest of India during the eighteenth century by annexing several of its smaller neighbors in an expansionist campaign which included victories over the Dutch.;x
TUN;Tunisia;x
TUN_DESC;In 1159 Tunisia was conquered by the Almohad Caliphs of Morocco. The Almohads were succeeded by the Berber Hafsids under whom Tunisia prospered. In the last years of the Hafsid reign Spain seized many of the coastal cities, but they were recovered for Islam by the Ottoman Turks in 1574. Under the beys appointed by the Ottoman Sultan, Tunisia attained virtual independence. In the late 16th century most of the coast became a pirate stronghold. The Hussein dynasty of beys achieved almost complete independence in 1705 and lasted until 1957.;x
TUR;Ottoman Empire;x
TUR_DESC;The first phase of expansion of the heirs of the great Osman was checked and partially reversed by their huge defeat in 1402 at the hands of Tamerlane. The remaining Ottoman possessions were beset by civil war, which gradually cooled down under Mehmet I. Then the Ottomans had a stroke of great fortune: five successive Sultans of exceptional ability, who expanded the empire, enriched its merchants and patronized the arts and sciences. In 1453, Constantinople was conquered, and the Ottomans assumed increasingly imperial trappings. The Mamluks were overrun in 1517. By the end of the reign of Süleyman I ('the Magificent') in 1566, the Ottomans, the acknowledged leaders of the Islamic world, were, together with the populous Chinese and the globe-spanning Spanish empires, one of the greatest powers of that age. Subsequent internal politics and increasing conservatism led to the loss of their pre-eminence, though the Ottomans remained a great power until the late 18th century. By the early 19th century, their economy weakened by near-continuous wars, the loss of trade, their fossilized institutions, and their corrupt army, the Ottomans were ripe for reform.;x
TVE;Tver;x
TVE_DESC;Tver grew into a town in the 12th century out of a small outpost in Northwestern Russia. After the Mongol invasion the small principality became a vassal of the Khan. In the 1300s it began a struggle with Muscovy over who would become the Grand Prince of Russia - a title appointed by the Khan. After wars and intrigue and the second devastation of Tver by Mongols in 1327, it was clear that Moscowy had the upper hand. Although it made an alliance with Lithuania in 1368, and ravaged the city of Moscow twice, it was soon made to rely on its Lithuanian ally. In 1485 it was finally annexed by its old rival.;x
TYR;Tyrol;x
TYR_DESC;Bordering on Germany in the north and on Italy and Switzerland in the south, Tyrol is an almost wholly Alpine region, traversed by the Inn River. It was invaded (6th cent. A.D.) by Teutonic tribes, the Baiovarii and the Lombards, and later by the Franks, who held all Tyrol by the 8th cent. Large parts of S Tyrol (now in Italy) were ruled from the 11th cent. to 1802-3 by the bishops of Trent and by the bishops of Brixen (see Bressanone). The two bishoprics were secularized and fell to Austria in consequence of the Peace of Lunéville (1801) between France and Austria. The northern section (constituting the present Tyrol), first divided into petty counties, was united under the counts of Tyrol and passed, with the abdication (1363) of Margaret Maultasch, to Austria and the Habsburgs. In 1805 the Treaty of Pressburg awarded all Tyrol to Napoléon's ally, Bavaria, but when war broke out (1809) between France and Austria the Tyrolean peasants, led heroically by Andreas Hofer, rose in revolt and stubbornly defied the French and Bavarian troops. In 1810, Napoléon, at variance with Maximilian I of Bavaria, attached most of S Tyrol to Italy. Both parts were restored (1815) to Austria by the Congress of Vienna.;x
UKR;Ukraine;x
UKR_DESC;In the mid-14th century Lithuania began to expand eastward and southward, supplanting the Tatars in Ukraine. The dynastic union between Poland and Lithuania in 1386 also opened the Ukraine to Polish expansion. The region had flourished under Lithuanian rule and its language had become that of the state, but after the dynastic union of Poland and Lithuania in 1569, Ukraine came under Polish rule. Enserfment of the Ukrainian peasants proceeded apace and the Ukrainian Orthodox Church suffered severe persecution. In 1596 the Ukrainian Orthodox bishops, confronted with the power of Polish Catholicism, established the Uniate or Greek Catholic faith, which recognized papal authority but retained the Orthodox rite. Meanwhile, the Black Sea shore, previously ruled by the Khans of Crimea, was absorbed into the Ottoman Empire in 1478. Over the centuries, the Tatars of Ukraine rebelled frequently against their various overlords, and at times, like under Mazepa, enjoyed brief periods of autonomy.;x
ULS;Ulster;x
ULS_DESC;The Northeastern Irish tribal Kingdom. In 1205 the English King, John Plantagenet, took control and created an earldom of Ulster. Meanwhile, the O'Neills and the O'Donnells had become virtually supreme in much of Ulster. These two Roman Catholic clans were involved in a serious rebellion against Queen Elizabeth I from 1594 to 1601, caused in part by attempts to impose the English Reformation on the Irish. The failure of negotiations with James I led to the flight of the northern earls, and many others in 1607.;x
USA;United States;x
USA_DESC;The first permanent settlement in the present United States was Saint Augustine, founded in 1565 by the Spaniard Pedro Menéndez de Avilés. Spanish control came to be exercised over present-day Florida, Texas and a large part of the Southwest including California. The French meanwhile established strongholds on the St. Lawrence River (Quebec and Montreal) and spread their influence over the Great Lakes country and along the Mississippi. But in the end it was the English that would emerge triumphant in the colonial struggle for North America. From their prosperous colonies in New England and Carolina, the English gained supremacy over most of the east coast and defeated the French in the the French and Indian War (1754–63), gaining control of Canada. Yet, in their own greed, the British raised the colonial taxes while still refusing to grant their American colonies representation in Parliament, and just as their hegemony in North America had appeared assured, it collapsed from within. Open fighting broke out between the British and Americans in 1775, and the next year the American colonies declared their independence from Britain. Peace was concluded in 1783 by the Treaty of Paris, costing the British all their lands south of Canada and east of the Mississippi.;x
UZB;Uzbeks;x
UZB_DESC;The Uzbeks are a Turkic tribe formerly known as Sarts, who in the early 16th century invaded the Timurid realm from the northwest, led by the brilliant Muhammad Shaybânî. A remnant of the empire of the Golden Horde, the Uzbeks took their name from Uzbeg Khan, from whom their dynasty claimed descent. Later in the 16th century, the Uzbek Khan Abdullah extended his domain over parts of Persia, Afghanistan, and the Chagatai Khanate, but the empire soon broke up into separate principalities - notably Khiva, Kokand and Bukhara.;x
VEN;Venice;x
VEN_DESC;Though Venice can trace its origins back to the Ligurians of the Roman era, it wasn't until the Italian invasion of Attila the Hun in 452 that the groundwork of the city was established. In 727 Orso Ipato was elected as the first Doge. This practice would continue for over 1000 years, making Venice the longest lasting Republic in history. Venice was the greatest port of the late Medieval and Renaissance era and, after its final defeat of its bitter rival Genoa in 1381, the premier maritime power of the Mediterranean. Over the next century, the star of Venice shone brightly, with several key ports and islands brought under the control of 'La Serenissima'. However, their interests in the eastern trade brought them into frequent and increasingly desperate conflicts against the Ottoman Turks. Venice struggled on however, and together with her allies crushed the Turkish navy at Lepanto in 1571, only to lose Cyprus the same year. After a long campaign between 1645 and 1669 Venice also lost Crete, her last possession in the eastern Mediterranean. One more brilliant campaign remained in her history however - that of the brilliant general Francesco Morosini, who in 1684–88 conquered Morea from the Turks. But the conquest proved profitless and became an expensive burden, and in 1718 it was returned to the Ottomans. The end of the Republic came at the hands of Napoléon. The Peace of Leoben left Venice without an ally, and Ludovico Manin, the last doge, was deposed on May 12, 1797.;x
VIE;Vientiane;x
VIE_DESC;When King Souligna Vongsa died in 1694 without an heir, the Laotian Kingdom of Lan Xang was thrown into turmoil that resulted in the creation of three separate Kingdoms by 1713. Vientiane occupied the central portion of Laos and was ruled by Souligna's nephew. Much of its short history saw it in conflict with Luang Prabang and outside forces like Dai Viet. The Siamese captured Vientiane in 1778-79 and made it a vassal state. When Vientiane revolted, it was finally destroyed in 1827-28.;x
VIJ;Vijayanagar;x
VIJ_DESC;The Hindu Kingdom of Vijayanagar ('City of Victory') was established in 1336 by two Telugu Princes, Harihar and Bukka, in order to check the advance of Islam in the Deccan. By 1404, the whole of the Deccan plateau and southern India had been unified by the forces of Vijayanagar. However, the continued conflicts with Islamic Sultanates to the north turned into a stalemate at best. Invaded by all of her Muslim neighbors, Vijayanagar collapsed in 1565, dragged down by the overwhelming forces arrayed against her, thus paving the way for the Mughal Empire and its vassals to occupy its former territory.;x
WAL;Wallachia;x
WAL_DESC;Wallachia is traditionally considered to have been founded in 1290 by Radu Negru ('Ralph the Black'), a Romanian vaivode (military governor) of Fagaras in southern Transylvania. Basarab I (1330–52) defeated the Hungarian King Charles I Robert in 1330 and secured Wallachian independence. However, it proved short-lived. In 1391 Prince Mircea the Old (1386–1418) was obliged to pay tribute to the Turks, and in 1417 he acknowledged Ottoman suzerainty. Wallachia was allowed to retain its own dynasty, territory and religion but was obliged to pay tribute to the Sultan and act in accordance with his wishes. However, some of its subsequent princes revived Wallachia's resistance - notably Vlad III the Impaler ('Dracula') and Michael the Brave (1593–1601), who briefly united Wallachia with Moldavia and Transylvania.;x
WLS;Wales;x
WLS_DESC;The Welsh, like their close kin the Irish and Scots, are a Celtic people with a separate tradition from that of its Belgae-Celtic neighbors in present-day England. The Anglo-Saxon conquest of eastern Britain in the late 5th century did not seriously affect the Welsh, and neither did the Viking invasions. Not even the Normans could bring the hardy Cymry to their knees, who clung to their freedom until 1283. The Welsh language, however, remained alive and well in Wales for five centuries more.;x
WUR;Wirtemberg;x
WUR_DESC;The Wirtembergs (Württembergs), a local dynasty of counts dating back to the late 11th century, began to extend their control over large sections of Swabia from the mid-12th century. By the time Württemberg was made a duchy in 1495, the Estates had come to play an important role in its government. Duke Ulrich, who became a Habsburg vassal in 1534, introduced Lutheranism into the duchy and confiscated church lands. Duke Frederick (1593–1608) secured the duchy's release from Habsburg overlordship and was a pillar of the Evangelical Union of Lutheran and Calvinist Princes (1608). Württemberg was devastated in the Thirty Years' War (1618–48) and fell prey to French invasions from 1688 until 1693 during the War of the Grand Alliance, yet somehow managed to prosper. The duchy was an ally of France from 1802 to 1813 and was rewarded by Napoléon with large grants of territory, including many Habsburg lands in Swabia and numerous free imperial cities and ecclesiastical territories. These additions doubled Württemberg's size by 1810, and the duchy was successively raised to the status of an Electorate (1803) and a Kingdom (1806), which it remained even after Napoléon's downfall.;x
YEM;Yemen;x
YEM_DESC;The Zaidi Imamate was founded in the mountainous northern regions of the Yemen as early as 793 AD. Subject to perpetual ebb and flow in the size of its territory and its influence in the region, the state would nonetheless endure until the Twentieth Century.;x
ZAN;Zanzibar;x
ZAN_DESC;The island Sultanate of Zanzibar attracted Muslim traders interested in using its harbors as a base from which to trade with the tribesmen of the East African coast. They intermarried with the indigenous population to form a trade-oriented culture that competed with Kilwa to dominate the trade along the East African coast. The arrival of the Portuguese in 1499 virtually destroyed Zanzibar's profitable trade between the gold-exporting city of Sofala and ports in India and the Arabian Peninsula. It wouldn't recover until it was conquered by the Omanis in 1698 and became the capital for their overseas possessions.;x
ZAP;Zapotecs;x
ZAP_DESC;An indigenous nation located in the south of what is now Mexico, the Zapotecs were an agricultural people who were highly religious. Eventually the Mixtecs would come from the North and push out the Zapotecs, but both the Mixtecs and the Zapotecs would find themselves fighting against the mighty Aztec Empire until the fateful arrival of Cortez and his Conquistadores.;x
ZHO;Zhou;x
ZHO_DESC;Wu San Gui, a general of the collapsing Ming dynasty, chose to side with the Manchus when he heard the news of the fall of Beijing to Li Zi Cheng and helped the Manchus defeat opposing forces. In recognition of the importance of his contribution, the Qing Emperor Shunzi appointed him Lord of the Pacified West, residing in Yunan province in the west, the most powerful out of the 3 tributories created to reward important former Ming generals. By the time Qing emperor Kangxi was firmly in power, the central dynastic administration decided to curb the increasing power of the 3 tributories. Ironically, this caused Wu San Gui, to switch his allegiance and revolt in the name of overthrowing the Qing and restoring the Ming Dynasty.;x
ZIM;Zimbabwe;x
ZIM_DESC;Modern archaeological evidence has shown that Zimbabwe was first occupied by the earliest Iron Age people in the 3d century. It was abaneoned sometime thereafter until it was reoccupied in the late 9th or early 10th centuries. The remaining ruins include a massive wall constructed in the 11th century, a strong fortress, nearby dwellings and an elliptically shaped enclosure commonly called the Temple. The buildings were once richly decorated with stone carvings and gold and copper ornaments.;x
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