The World Is a Pear - Don't Know Much About Geography - page 21

117 Death of the Roman emperor Trajan; the Roman Empire is at its greatest extent.
127-145 Claudius Ptolemy, mathematician, astronomer, and cartographer, publishes his major
works in Alexandria.
271 The magnetic compass is used in China.
Late 3rd century The first Chinese silk maps with rectangular grid coordinates appear.
c. 350 The Peutingerian table, a Roman route map, is drawn. This road map, showing the known
world at the height of the Roman Empire, is a long, narrow strip measuring one inch by twenty-
one inches. Tracing a network of seventy thousand miles of Roman roads, it depicted spas, staging
routes, and towns both large and small. But all roads were drawn in a straight line; there was no
attempt to depict scale, although distances between certain points were written on the map.
410 Visigoths invade Italy, sack Rome, and overrun Spain.
6th century The time of Cosmas Indicopleustes, a traveler and Christian topographer whose vision
of the world relies on biblical scripture instead of scientific accuracy.
632 The death of Mohammed; Arab expansion begins.
760 Arabs adopt Indian numerals and develop algebra and trigonometry.
800 Charlemagne is crowned emperor in Rome, marking the beginning of a new Western (later Holy
Roman) Empire.
c. 1000 Vikings colonize Greenland and “discover” America, establishing a colony in Newfound-
land. Their stay in North America is brief and leaves no lasting impact on the history of the contin-
ent.
1095 Pope Urban II calls for the First Crusade, aimed at recovering Christian holy places in
Palestine from the Muslims. In 1099, Jerusalem is captured by a combined European army that
slaughters Jews and Muslims there. The crusaders set up a Latin kingdom in Jerusalem, which falls
to Saladin in 1187. Quickly losing sight of religious zeal in exchange for territorial conquest, the
crusaders continue to assault the Muslim strongholds through 1270. Although a military failure, the
crusades profoundly affect Europe by expanding European contact with the East, stimulating trade
and contact with the far more developed cultures of the Middle East, China, and India.
1206 Mongols under Genghis Khan begin their conquest of Asia.
1275 Marco Polo arrives in China, enters the service of Kublai Khan. Polo's account of his experi-
ences in China and the East appears in 1299.