2nd millennium

Millennia:	1st millennium · 2nd millennium · 3rd millennium
Centuries:	11th century · 12th century · 13th century · 14th century · 15th century · 16th century · 17th century · 18th century · 19th century · 20th century

The 2nd millennium was the thousand-year period that commenced on January 1, 1001 and ended on December 31, 2000, encompasses the High Middle Ages, the Renaissance, the Early Modern Age, the age of Colonialism, industrialization, the rise of nation states, and culminates in the 20th century with the impact of science, widespread education, and universal health care and vaccinations in many nations. The centuries of expanding large-scale warfare with high-tech weaponry (of the World Wars and nuclear bombs) are offset by growing peace movements from the United Nations, the Peace Corps, religious campaigns warning against violence, plus doctors and health workers crossing borders to treat injuries and disease and the return of the Olympics as contest without combat.

Scientists prevail in explaining intellectual freedom; humans take their first steps on the Moon during the 20th century; and new technology is developed by governments, industry, and academia across the world, with education shared by many international conferences and journals. The development of movable type, radio, television, and the internet spread information worldwide, within minutes, in audio, video, and print-image format to educate, entertain, and alert billions of people by the end of the 20th century.

From the 16th century, humans migrated from Europe, Africa and Asia to, what was to them, the New World, beginning the ever-accelerating process of globalization. The interwoven international trade led to the formation of multi-national corporations, with home offices in multiple countries. International business ventures reduced the impact of nationalism in popular thought.

The world population doubled over the first seven centuries of the millennium, (from 310 million in AD 1000 to 600 million in AD 1700), and later increased tenfold over its last three centuries, exceeding to 6 billion in AD 2000.

Contents 1 Calendar 2 Civilizations 3 Events 4 Significant people 5 Inventions, discoveries, introductions 6 Centuries and decades 7 Notes 8 References

Calendar

The 2nd millennium was a period of time that commenced on January 1, 1001, and ended on December 31, 2000. This is the second period of one thousand years Anno Domini.

The Julian calendar was used in Europe at the beginning of the millennium, and all countries that once used the Julian calendar had adopted the Gregorian calendar by the end of it. So the end date is always calculated according to the Gregorian calendar, but the beginning date is usually according to the Julian calendar (or occasionally the Proleptic Gregorian calendar).

The current millennium is perhaps more popularly (albeit inaccurately) thought of as beginning and ending a year earlier, thus starting at the beginning of 1000 and finishing at the end of 1999. Many public celebrations for the end of the millennium were held on December 31, 1999–January 1, 2000^[1]—with few on the actual date a year later. The inaccuracy stems from the assumption that there is a year zero, however this is not the case for this calendar.

Civilizations

The civilizations in this section are organized according to the UN geoscheme.

Civilizations of the 2nd millennium AD

Africa	America	Asia	Europe	Oceania
Fatimid Empire Mamluk Sultanate Almoravid dynasty Almohad dynasty Saadi dynasty Mali Empire Songhai Empire Sokoto Caliphate Funj sultanate of Sinnar Ashanti Empire Kingdom of Dahomey Ife Oyo Empire Benin Empire Kongo Empire Merina Kingdom Buganda Empire Kingdom of Rwanda Kingdom of Burundi Empire of Kitara Mutapa Empire Maravi Empire Luba Empire Lunda Empire Zulu Empire	Aztec Empire Inca Empire	Punjab Empire Khmer Empire Pagan Kingdom Chola Dynasty Goryeo Song Dynasty Hoysala Empire Seljuks Mongol Empire Yuan Dynasty Ming Dynasty Vijayanagara Empire Qing Dynasty Mughal Empire	Byzantine Empire (330–1453) Kingdom of England Holy Roman Empire Kingdom of France French colonial empire (1605–1960) Kingdom of Hungary Crown of Aragon Crown of Castile Ottoman Empire (1299–1922) Second Bulgarian Empire (1185–1396) Kievan Rus(880-1150) Kingdom of Serbia (1217-1346) Serbian Empire (1346-1371) Kingdom of Poland Spanish Empire (1402–1975) Portuguese Empire (1415–1999) Austrian Empire (1526–1918) British Empire (1583–1997)

Events

The events in this section are organized according to the UN geoscheme.

Events of the 2nd millennium AD

	Africa	America	Asia	Europe	Oceania
11th Century	1043 Eze Nri Ìfikuánim becomes first king of Nri Kingdom 1054 Almoravid dynasty established[2] 1060 Kingdom of Kanem converts to Islam[2]	1000 Cahokia (present-day Illinois, USA) becomes regional chiefdom of Mississippian culture	1008 The Tale of Genji completed[3] 1005 Treaty of Shanyuan signed 1044 Gunpowder recipe published[3]	1054 The East-West Schism divides the Christian church 1088 The first university was founded[3] 1095 First Crusade[3]
12th Century	1143 Almohad dynasty take control from the Almoravids[2] 1171 Salah-ad-Din deposes Fatimid ruler of Egypt and establishes the Ayyubid dynasty[2] 1173 Ayyubids capture Qasr Ibrim in Nubia[2]	1100 Toltecs establish capital at Tula[4] 1124 Arnaldur appointed first bishop of Greenland[4] 1175 Destruction of Toltec civilization[4]	1117 The magnetic compass is used at sea[3] 1120 Meng Yuanlao describes four-star dining in Kaifeng[3] 1150 Construction of Angkor Wat[3]	1169 Averoes translates Aristotle[3]
	Africa	America	Asia	Europe	Oceania
13th Century	1200 Kingdom of Mwenemutapa established in Zimbabwe[2] 1203 Sumaguru Kante of Sosso conquers kingdom of Ghana [2] 1250 Mamluk soldiers take Egypt from the Ayyubids [2]	1200 Chichén Itzá abandoned[4] 1200 Kingdom of Cuzco founded [4] 1200 Expansion of Chimú state of Chimor [4]	1211 Genghis Khan Builds an Empire[3]	1215 Magna Carta[3] 1260 Dedication of the Cathedral at Chartres[3]	1200 Tahitians colonize Hawaii [4]
14th Century	1324 Musa's pilgrimage to Mecca[3] 1365 Crusade led by king of Cyprus sacks Alexandria[2] 1375 Kingdom of Songhai breaks away from Mali [2]	1315 Founding of Tenochtitlan[3] 1350 Norsemen abandon Greenland[4] 1350 War between Inca and Chimú[4]	1350 Coffee was first brewed[3] 1368 Zhu Yuanzhang ousts the Mongols from power[5]	1348 Black Plague[3] 1350 Emergence of fashion[3] 1382 Wyclif's Bible	1300 Polynesian immigration to New Zealand[6] 1300 Hawaiians develop class structure[7] 1300 Huge stone statues erected on Easter Island[7]
	Africa	America	Asia	Europe	Oceania
15th Century	1400 capital of Sayfawa Dynasty moved to Borno 1400 Funj settled Alodia 1496 Spain conquers Melilla, Morocco[2]	1470 Incas conquer Chimú empire [4] 1428 Aztecs conquer Atzcapotzalco, ally with Texcoco and Tlacopan, become the dominant state in Mexico[4] 1492 Voyages of Christopher Columbus[3]	1407 Work begins on Forbidden City, Beijing[5] 1431 Ayutthaya conquers Angkor [5]	1413 The invention of linear perspective[3] 1453 Ottoman conquest of Constantinople[3] 1455 Gutenberg Bible printed[3]	1400 Tongans build ceremonial centre at Mu'a[7]
16th Century	1546 Songhai Empire takes Niani 1509 African slaves arrive in the Americas[3] 1517 Ottomans capture Egypt[8] 1535 Holy Roman Emperor Charles V conquers Tunis[8]	1535 Europeans discover tobacco[3] 1537 Europeans discover potatoes[3] 1545 The discovery of silver in the Andes mountains[3]		1517 The Ninety-Five Theses published[3] 1543 Publication of On the Structure of the Human Body[3] 1596 Invention of the toilet[3]	1550 Maoris of New Zealand build fortified enclosures[9]
	Africa	America	Asia	Europe	Oceania
17th Century	1600 Kingdom of Rwanda founded 1600 Dahomey Kingdom founded 1644 Start of the Char Bouba[8]	1607 Virginia colony founded[10] 1624 Manhattan island purchased from Native Americans[10] 1697 Last Mayan resistance defeated [10]	1610 Tea spreads to the world[3] 1637 Japanese prohibition against European contact[11]	1603 First performance of Hamlet[3] 1610 Galileo publishes his observations of Jupiter[3] 1666 Discovery of gravitation[3]	1600 Tu'i Konokupolu dynasty take power in Tonga[9] 1642 Abel Tasman sights New Zealand[12]
18th Century	1700 Maravi Empire tears apart 1754 Usman Dan Fodio is born 1799 Discovery of the Rosetta Stone[3]	1742 Native American revolt against Spanish in Peru[3] 1776 United States Declaration of Independence published[3]	1751 Chinese occupy Tibet[11]	1722 Bach composed the Well-Tempered Clavier[3] 1769 Invention of the steam engine[3] 1796 The first vaccination[3]
	Africa	America	Asia	Europe	Oceania
19th Century	1869 The Suez Canal opens[3] 1896 Battle of Adwa 1879 Battle of Isandlwana	1821 Bolívar liberates Venezuela[3] 1876 Menlo Park opens[3] 1876 First telephone transmission[3]	1868 End of Japanese seclusion[3]	1830 First steam railway[3] 1859 Origin of Species[3] 1882 Germ theory proven[3]	1840 Treaty of Waitangi signed[13] 1845 New Zealand land wars[14]
20th Century	1956 Suez Crisis[15] 1967 Six-Day War[15] 1996 End of apartheid[15]	1903 First controlled, powered airplane flight[3] 1908 Ford builds the Model T[3] 1928 First television broadcast[3]	1917 The Russian Revolution[3] 1934 Mao's long march[3] 1945 Atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki[3]	1901 First transatlantic radio transmission[3] 1928 Discovery of penicillin[3] 1933 Adolf Hitler appointed Chancellor[3]	1915 Australians and New Zealanders serve in the Gallipoli Campaign 1985 Nuclear Free Zone established in New Zealand[16]

Significant people

The people in this section are organized according to the UN geoscheme.

Significant people of the 2nd millennium AD

	Africa	America	Asia	Europe	Oceania
11th Century	Humai ibn Salamna Eze Nri Ìfikuánim Yahya ibn Ibrahim		Shen Kuo Omar Khayyám	William the Conqueror[17] Basil II Samuel
12th Century	Abd al-Mu'min Saladin Dunama I	Sapa Inca	Minamoto no Yoritomo Bhaskara II Genghis Khan[17]	Richard I of England
13th Century	Sundiata Keita Dunama Dabbalemi Mansa Uli			Marco Polo	Roy Mata[7]
14th Century	Kato Kintu Ibn Khaldun Muhammad Ture	Acamapichtli	Yongle Emperor Madhava Timur	Johannes Gutenberg[17] Jan Hus
15th Century	Ilunga Tshibinda Sonni Ali Zara Yaqob	Moctezuma I	Hongxi Emperor Guru Nanak Dev Suleiman	Nicolaus Copernicus[17] Leonardo DaVinci
	Africa	America	Asia	Europe	Oceania
16th Century	Idris Aloma Orompoto Ahmad al-Mansur	Atahualpa	Xu Guangqi Shah Jahan	William Shakespeare[17] Ferdinand Magellan Christopher Columbus Otto Brunfels
17th Century	Wegbaja Osei Tutu Okomfo Anokye	Powhatan, Pocahontas Squanto	Matsuo Basho	Sir Isaac Newton[17] Peter the Great[17] Otto von Guericke
18th Century	Usman Dan Fodio Opoku Ware I Dossou Agadja	Benjamin Franklin Thomas Jefferson George Washington	Qianlong Emperor	Napoleon I of France[17] Catherine the Great Adam Smith Carl Linnaeus	Kamehameha I
19th Century	Moshoeshoe I Shaka Menelik II	Thomas Edison[17] Simón Bolívar[17] Abraham Lincoln	Empress Dowager Cixi Mangal Pandey	Charles Darwin[17] Nikola Tesla Karl Marx Ludwig van Beethoven	Te Kooti
20th Century	Mo Ibrahim Nelson Mandela Desmond Tutu Max Theiler	Martin Luther King, Jr. Franklin D. Roosevelt Harry S. Truman John F. Kennedy George Gershwin Pele Michael Jackson Jimi Hendrix Richard Nixon	Mao Zedong[17] Mahatma Gandhi Gamal Abdel Nasser[17] Mustafa Kemal Atatürk Ruhollah Khomeini	Albert Einstein[17] Winston Churchill Charles de Gaulle Joseph Stalin Adolf Hitler

See also

• Lists of people by nationality
• Category:People by century
• Category:People by nationality and period
• Gottlieb, Agnes Hooper; Henry Gottlieb, Barbar Bowers, Brent Bowers (1998). 1,000 Years, 1,000 People: Ranking the Men and Women Who Shaped the Millennium. Kodansha International. ISBN 1-56836-253-6. 

Inventions, discoveries, introductions

Inventions, discoveries and introductions

Communication and Technology	Math and Science	Manufacturing	Transportation and Space exploration	Warfare
Printing press[18][19] Telegraph[18] Photography[18] Telephone[18] Animation[18] Television[18] Computer[18] Transistor[18] Satellite Internet[18][19] Electrostatic generator	Calculus[18] Vaccination[19][20] Atomic theory[20] Anesthesia[19][20] Natural selection[20] Genetics[19][20] Special relativity[20] Penicillin[19][20] DNA[20] Quantum mechanics[20]	Canned food[18] Plastic[20] Assembly line[18] Sliced bread[18] Frozen food[18] Nuclear reactor[18] Food processor[18]	Bicycle Steam engine Steam turbine Internal combustion engine Steam locomotive Human flight Moon landing Space shuttle Space station GPS navigation	Longbow Rockets Aircraft carrier Nuclear weapon Submarine Tanks Firearms

Centuries and decades

11th century	1000s[note 1]	1010s	1020s	1030s	1040s	1050s	1060s	1070s	1080s	1090s
12th century	1100s	1110s	1120s	1130s	1140s	1150s	1160s	1170s	1180s	1190s
13th century	1200s	1210s	1220s	1230s	1240s	1250s	1260s	1270s	1280s	1290s
14th century	1300s	1310s	1320s	1330s	1340s	1350s	1360s	1370s	1380s	1390s
15th century	1400s	1410s	1420s	1430s	1440s	1450s	1460s	1470s	1480s	1490s
16th century	1500s	1510s	1520s	1530s	1540s	1550s	1560s	1570s	1580s	1590s
17th century	1600s	1610s	1620s	1630s	1640s	1650s	1660s	1670s	1680s	1690s
18th century	1700s	1710s	1720s	1730s	1740s	1750s	1760s	1770s	1780s	1790s
19th century	1800s	1810s	1820s	1830s	1840s	1850s	1860s	1870s	1880s	1890s
20th century	1900s	1910s	1920s	1930s	1940s	1950s	1960s	1970s	1980s	1990s

Millennia 1st · 2nd · 3rd · 4th · 5th · 6th · 7th · 8th · 9th · 10th · 11th and beyond 200th BC and prior  · 200th BC to 11th BC · 10th BC · 9th BC · 8th BC · 7th BC · 6th BC · 5th BC · 4th BC · 3rd BC · 2nd BC · 1st BC

Notes

References