The Hallstatt era is named after the city Hallstatt in Austria, where the first artifacts were found. It lasted from about 1200 BC to about 275 BC. There were different periods, which today are mainly told apart by the kinds of brooches used at the time. These brooches changed rather rapidly, and can therefore give us good guesses at to what time they came from. Hallstatt culture sites have been found in the east of France, in Switzerland, in the south of Germany, in Austria, in Slovenia and Croatia, northwestern Hungary, southwestern Slovakia and southern Moravia. The culture can be divided into an eastern and a western one quite easily; the dividing line runs through the Czech Republic, and Austria, between longitudes 14 and 15 degrees east.
In this time, the social structure developed into a hierarchy. This can be documented by various things that were added to graves. In the Bronze Age, people used to live in big settlements. As iron became available, trade routes changed. A new richer class evolved. Unlike before, these richer class people liked to live in big houses in the countryside, as a demonstration of their wealth. Funerals also changed, from cremation burials, to burials with stone coffins. The new upper class used their wealth for import goods, mostly from the Mediterranean.
The La Tène culture is a culture that lasted from about 500 BC to about 100 AD. It is named after the city of "La Tène" (today, Marin-Epagnier, next to Neuchâtel). It was influenced a lot by the Roman and Greek cultures. There are two sources for this:
The Celts basically lived in clans. Each clan was headed by a leader, which came from the Druids or the Bards. Women were much better off than with the Romans, they were almost equal to men. There was polygamy and polyandry (A man could have several women, a woman could have several men).
Illyria is the part of west-south Balkan Peninsula populated by Illyrians whose descendants are Albanians.
Illyrians lived in tribunes such as Epirus, Dardania, Taulantia etc.
They had their own language, the Illyrian language that was different from the Greek language and Latin.
At the year 1000 BC the population of Illyria is estimated to be around 500,000.
What is known today as "Ancient Greece" is a very important period in history. Most people agree that it came after the Minoan and Mycenaean civilizations. It ended when the Romans invaded Greece, in 146 BC. Greek culture had a very powerful influence on later civilizations, especially the Romans. The Greeks developed what is now called a city-state, or a polis. There were many polises. Some of the more important ones were Athens, Sparta, Corinth and Thebes. The word "politics" comes from there. It literally means: things that are about the polis. Greek cities did not have much contact with each other, because of the mountains and many islands Greece is made up of. When a city no longer had enough food to care for all its citizens, some people were sent out to set up a new city. This was called a "colony". Each city was independent, and ruled by someone within that city. Colonies also looked to the city where they originally came from for guidance.
When Greece went to war (for example against the Persian Empire), there was an alliance of such city states, against the Persians. There were also many wars between different city states.
There were many artists and philosophers who lived in that period. Most of them are still important for philosophy today. A well-known artist was Homer. He wrote epics about the war against the Trojans, and the early history of Greece. Other well-known artists were Aristophanes and Sappho. Well-known philosophers include Socrates, Plato, and Aristotle. A well known mathematician of the time was Euclid. Statesmen of the time were Pericles and Alexander the Great.
Ancient Rome was a civilization that started in modern-day Italy, in the 8th Century before Christ. The civilization lasted for 12 centuries. It ended, when Mehmed II conquered Constantinople, on May 29, 1453. According to legend, the Roman civilization was founded by Romulus and Remus, in the year 753 BC. The Roman Empire developed in wars against Carthage and the Seleucid Empire. Julius Caesar conquered Gaul, modern France, and Augustus ended the Roman republic by becoming emperor. At its biggest extent, the empire covered all of the Mediterranean. Rome became so big, because it led war against other nations and then assimilated their culture.
In 293, Diocletian organized a separate administration of the western and the eastern part of the empire. The capital of the western part was Rome, the capital of the eastern part was Constantinople. Constantine I was the first to stop discrimination against Christians (313). Christianity became state religion under the reign of Theodosius I.
The western part of the empire had many problems with barbarians. In the 5th century, the Huns migrated westwards. This meant that the Visigoths moved into the empire, to seek protection. Rome was sacked by barbarians multiple times. On September 4, 476, the Germanic chief Odoacer forced the last Roman emperor in the west, Romulus Augustus, to quit. After about 1200 years, the rule of Rome in the West came to an end.
The eastern part had similar problems. Justinian I managed to conquer parts of North Africa and Italy. Shortly after he died, all that was left were parts of Southern Italy, and Sicily. In the east, the empire was threatened by the Sassanid Empire.
After the fall of Western Rome, the Germanic tribes that took over tried to learn from Roman civilization, but much was forgotten and up to the Renaissance not many achievements happened in Europe. But with the rise of Islam, many changes happened during the Islamic Golden Age. The Greek and Roman traditions were kept and further development took place. The Chinese civilization had a Golden Age during the Tang period, when their capital was the biggest in the world. During the Renaissance, Europe developed and made great advancements in many areas as well.
In Arabia, Muhammad founded Islam in 632. His followers rapidly conquered territories in Syria and Egypt. They soon were a danger to the Byzantine Empire. In the 8th and 9th centuries, the Byzantine Empire stopped Islamic expansion and reconquered some lost territories. In 1000 A.D. the eastern Empire was at its height: Basileios II reconquered Bulgaria and Armenia. Culture and trade flourished. In 1071 the Battle of Manzikert led the empire into a dramatic decline. For the Byzantine Empire this meant centuries of civil wars and Turkic invasions. The Muslim caliphate had an Golden Age under the Abbasids.
Their power forced Emperor Alexius I Comnenus of the Byzantine Empire to send a call for help to the West in 1095. The West sent the Crusades. These eventually led to the "Sack of Constantinople" in the Fourth Crusade in 1204. Because of this, what was left of the Empire broke into successor states. The winner of these disputes was that of Nicaea. After Constantinople was again conquered by imperial forces, the empire was little more than a Greek state on the Aegean coast. The Eastern Empire came to an end when Mehmed II conquered Constantinople on May 29, 1453. The Ottoman Empire took its place and from 1400 to 1600 was the most powerful empire in the Middle East and ruled at the southern and eastern coast of the Mediterranean Sea.
The Tang Dynasty (618–907), with its capital at Chang'an (today Xi'an), was the biggest city in the world at the time and is considered by historians as a high point in Chinese civilization as well as a golden age of cosmopolitan culture. The Ming Dynasty ruled from 1368 to 1644. The Ming built a vast army and navy.
From around the 6th–7th century. In South India, Chola kings ruled Tamil Nadu, and Chera kings ruled Kerala. They had trading relationships with the Roman Empire to the west and Southeast Asia to the east. In north India, Rajputs ruled in many kingdoms.