Civilization : Byzantines

     The Byzantines took their name from Byzantium, an ancient city on the Bosphorus, the strategic waterway linking the Black Sea to the Aegean Sea. The Roman Emperor Constantine had renamed this city Constantinople in the 4th century and made it a sister capital of his empire. This eastern partition of the Roman Empire outlived its western counterpart by a thousand years, defending Europe against invasions from the east by Persians, Arabs, and Turks. The Byzantines persevered because Constantinople was well defended by walls and the city could be supplied by sea. At their zenith in the middle 7th century, the Byzantines had recovered much of the original Roman Empire, lacking only the Iberian Peninsula (modern Spain), Gaul (modern France), and Britain. The Byzantines held the Middle East briefly, but their empire consisted mainly of the Balkans and modern Turkey.

     The first great Byzantine Emperor was Justinian I (482-565). His ambition was to restore the old Roman Empire and he nearly succeeded. His instrument the greatest general of the age, Belisarius, who crisscrossed the empire defeating Persians to the East, Vandals in North Africa, Ostrogoths in Italy, and Bulgars and Slavs in the Balkans. In addition to military campaigns, Justinian laid the foundation for the future by establishing a strong legal and administrative system, and by defending the Christian Church.

     The Byzantine economy was the richest in Europe for many centuries because Constantinople was ideally sited on trade routes between Asia, Europe, the Black Sea, and the Aegean Sea. It was an important destination point for the Silk Road from China. The nomisma, the principal Byzantine gold coin, was the standard for money throughout the Mediterranean for 800 years. Constantinople's strategic position eventually attracted the envy and animosity of the Italian city-states.

     A key strength of the Byzantine Empire was its generally superior army that drew on the best elements of Roman, Greek, Gothic, and Middle Eastern experience in war. The core of the army was a shock force of heavy cavalry supported by both light infantry (archers) and heavy infantry (armored swordsmen). The army was organized into units and drilled in tactics and maneuvers. Officers received an education in military history and theory. Although outnumbered usually by masses of untrained warriors, it prevailed thanks to intelligent tactics and good discipline. The army was backed by a network of spies and secret agents that provided information about enemy plans and could be used to bribe or otherwise deflect aggressors.

     The Byzantine navy kept the sea-lanes open for trade and kept supply lines free so the city could not be starved into submission when besieged. In the 8th century a land and sea attack by Arabs was defeated largely by a secret weapon, Greek fire. This chemical weapon, its composition now unknown, was a sort of liquid napalm that could be sprayed from a hose. The Arab navy was devastated at sea by Greek fire.

     In the 7th and 8th centuries, the Arabs overran Egypt, the Middle East, North Africa, and Spain, removing these areas permanently from Byzantine control. A Turkish victory at Manzikert in 1071 led to the devastation of Asia Minor, the empire's most important source of grain, cattle, horses, and soldiers. In 1204 crusaders led the Doge of Venice used treachery to sack Constantinople.

    In the 14th century the Turks invaded Europe, capturing Adrianople and bypassing Constantinople. They settled the Balkans in large numbers and defeated a large crusader army at Nicopolis in 1396. In May of 1453, Turkish Sultan Mehmet II captured a weakly defended Constantinople with the aid of heavy cannon. The fall of the city brought the Byzantine Empire to an end.

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Civilization : Japanese

    Located 100 miles off the mainland of Asia, at its closest point, Japan was a land of mystery at the edge of civilization. Isolated at first by geography and later by choice, the Japanese developed a distinctive culture that drew very little from the outside world. At the beginning of what were the Middle Ages in Europe, the advanced culture of Japan was centered at the north end of the Inland Sea on the main island of Honshu. Across the Hakone Mountains to the east lay the Kanto, an alluvial plain that was the single largest rice growing area on the islands. To the north and east of the Kanto was the frontier, beyond that lived aboriginal Japanese, known as the Ainu, who had occupied the islands since Neolithic times.

By the 5th century AD, the Yamato court had become largely ceremonial. Independent clans, known as uji, held the real power behind the throne. Clan leaders formed a sort of aristocracy and vied with each other for effective control of land and the throne.

     In 530 the Soga clan became predominant and produced the first great historical statesman, Prince Shotoku, who instituted reforms that laid the foundation of Japanese culture for the next 1000 years. In 644, power shifted from the Soga clan to the Fujiwara clan. The Fujiwara presided over most of the Heian period, 794-1185. The new leadership imposed the Taika Reform of 645 which attempted redistribute the rice growing land, establish a tax on agricultural production, and divide the country into provinces. Too much of the country remained outside imperial influence and control, however. Real power shifted to great families that rose to prominence in the rice growing lands. Conflict between these families led to civil war and the rise of the warrior class.

     Similar to the experience of medieval Western Europe, the breakdown of central authority in Japan, the rise of powerful local nobles, and conflict with barbarians at the frontier combined to create a culture dominated by a warrior elite. These warriors became known as Samurai, 'those who serve,' who were roughly equivalent to the European knight. A military government replaced the nobility as the power behind the throne at the end of the 12th century. The head of the military government was the Shogun.

     Samurai lived by a code of the warrior, something like the European code of chivalry. The foundation of the warrior code was loyalty to the lord. The warrior expected leadership and protection. In return he obeyed his lord's commands without question and stood ready to die on his lord's behalf. A Samurai placed great emphasis on his ancestry and strove to carry on family traditions. He behaved so as to earn praise. He was to be firm and show no cowardice. Warriors went into battle expecting and looking to die. It was felt that a warrior hoping to live would fight poorly.

     The Kamakura period (1185-1333) was named after a region of Japan dominated by a new ruling clan that took power after civil war. The Mongols attempted to invade Japan twice, in 1274 and 1281, but were repulsed both times. A fortuitous storm caused great loss to the second Mongol invasion fleet and became known as the Kamikaze, or 'divine wind.'

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Civilization : The Franks

     The Franks were one of the German barbarian tribes known to the Romans. In the early part of the 5th century they began expanding south from their homeland along the Rhine River into Roman controlled Gaul (modern France). Unlike other German tribes, however, they did not move out of their homelands, but rather added to them. Clovis, a Frankish chieftan, defeated the last Roman armies in Gaul and united the Franks by 509, becoming the ruler of much of western Europe. During the next 1000 years, this Frankish kingdom gradually became the modern nation of France.

     The kingdom of Clovis was divided after his death among his four sons, according to custom. This led to several centuries of civil warfare and struggle between successive claimants to the throne. By the end of the 7th century, the Merovingian kings (descendants of Clovis) were rulers in name only. In the early 8th century, Charles Martel became mayor of the palace, the ruler behind the throne. He converted the Franks into a cavalry force and fought so well that his enemies gave him the name of Charles the Hammer. In 732 the Frankish cavalry defeated Muslim invaders moving north from Spain at the battle of Tours, stopping forever the advance of Islam from the southwest.

     Charles Martel's son, Pepin, was made king of the Franks by the Pope in return for helping to defend Italy from the Lombards. Pepin founded the dynasty of the Carolingians and the greatest of these rulers was Charles the Great, or Charlemagne, who ruled from 771 to 814. He expanded the Frankish kingdom into an empire and was responsible for a rebirth of culture and learning in the West. Charlemagne's empire was divided among his grandsons and thereafter coalesced into two major parts. The western part became the kingdom of France. Later kings gradually lost political control of France, however. Central authority broke down under the pressure of civil wars, border clashes, and Viking raids. Money and soldiers could be raised only by making concessions to landholders. Fiefs became hereditary and fief holders became feudal lords over their own vassals. By the 10th century, France had been broken into feudal domains that acted as independent states.

Dark Age

Feudal Age

Castle Age

Imperial Age

     In 987 the French nobility elected Hugh Capet their king, mainly because his fief centered on Paris was weak and he was thought to pose no threat. He founded the Capetian line of kings who worked slowly for two centuries regaining the power by making royal roads safe, adding land to their domain, encouraging trade, and granting royal charters for new towns and fiefs in vacant lands. By allying themselves with the church, the Capetians took a strong moral position and benefited from the church's cultural, political, and social influence. Royal administrators were made loyal to the king and more efficient by eliminating the inheritance of government offices.

     Beginning with Philip II in 1180, three superior rulers established France as the most important nation in Europe. They improved the working of the government, encouraged a booming trade, collected fees efficiently, and strengthened their position atop the feudal hierarchy. Although a national assembly called the Estates General was established, it held no real power and was successfully ignored.

     From 1337 to 1453 France and England fought the long conflict called the Hundred Year's War to decide ownership of lands in France that had been inherited by English kings. The eventual French victory confirmed the king as the most powerful political force in France.

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Civilization : The Spanish (712 On)

     The history of Spain in the Middle Ages is written in three principal chapters: the creation of Visigothic Spain, then Muslim Spain, and then Reconquista, the reconquest of Spain by Christians.

     The Iberian peninsula was an appendage of the Roman Empire that was discarded as the empire disintegrated because it could not be defended in the face of barbarian invasions that brought devastation to the streets of Rome itself. The peninsula was occupied in large part by one of the migrating barbarian groups, the Visigoths, who had come most recently from the southwestern plains of modern Russia, displaced by the Huns. The Visigoths became Christian and occupied the center of the peninsula for several centuries.

     When one of the Visigoth lords appealed to Muslims in North Africa in the 8th century for aid against the king, the door was opened for Muslim expansion across the Straits of Gibraltar. Within 50 years the Muslims had taken most of the peninsula, leaving only small areas in the mountains and to the north outside their control. Muslim, or Moorish, Spain quickly developed into one of the most advanced European civilizations of the Middle Ages. It prospered in relative peace thanks to good agriculture, trade, coinage, and industry. It benefited from the spread of learning throughout the Muslim world. Cordoba became the largest and most sophisticated city in Europe after Constantinople, featuring a population of over 500,000, wonderful architecture, great works of art, a fabulous library, and important centers of learning.

     Peace and prosperity were disrupted by internal disruption, however, as important local rulers competed for overall power, and by external attack, both from the Christian north and Muslim North Africa. By the middle of the 13th century, Muslim Spain was reduced to a single kingdom centered on Granada. The Christian kingdoms of the north gradually ate away at Muslim power, though their effort was often dispersed when they fought with each other. Portugal split off and created a separate kingdom. Muslim Granada survived for several centuries thanks to liberal tribute paid to the Christians to its north and to clever diplomacy that played their enemies against each other. In 1469, however, Isabel I of Castile married Fernando II of Aragon, uniting the two competing Christian kingdoms and foreshadowing the end of Muslim Spain.

     Spain of the Middle Ages was a world of contrasts. It featured the great advantages of a multi-ethnic society, merging Latin, Jewish, Christian, Arab, and Muslim influences into a unique and rich culture. At the same time, however, many of these same cultural forces clashed violently. When two different cultures clash, the result is often grim. The reconquest dragged on for eight centuries, mirroring the Crusades in the holy land and creating an atmosphere that became increasingly pitiless and intolerant. The Christian warriors who eventually expelled the Muslims earned a reputation for being among the best fighters in Europe.

     Granada fell to the forces of Aragon and Castile at the start of 1492, a momentous year, as under the patronage of Queen Isabel, Christopher Columbus subsequently discovered for Europeans the great continents of the New World and their native populations.

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Civilization : The Koreans (400 on)

     When Europe fell into its Dark Age, Korea had been divided into three competing kingdoms: Koguryo to the north, Paekche to the southwest, and Shilla to the southeast. In alliance with China, Shilla conquered the other two kingdoms in the 7th century and then expelled their erstwhile Chinese ally. The central authority of Shilla disintegrated in the 8th-9th centuries, however, under pressure from local lords. Korea was unified once again as Koryo in the 10th century and after that, recovered territory reaching up to the Amnok River border with China in 993. The civilian nobility was thrown out of power by a military coup in 1170 and military rule then lasted for sixty years.

     The Mongols invaded in 1231, initiating a 30-year struggle. The Mongols were often distracted by their wars in China and elsewhere but eventually brought enough power to bear that Koryo made peace with the invaders in 1258. Under the Mongols the Koryo maintained their distinct culture and were inspired to demonstrate their superiority to their conquerors through a burst of artistic accomplishment.

     Land reform, the rise of a new bureaucracy, the diminishment of Buddhism, and the rise of Confucianism around 1400 were part of the creation of a new kingdom, the Choson, that would rule Korea until the 20th century. China heavily influenced the Choson politically and culturally. Korea became an important center of learning, aided by the invention of movable type and the woodblock technique of publishing around 1234.

     The greatest test of the Choson dynasty was invasion by samurai armies from Japan in 1592 that ostensibly planned to conquer China. Although seven years of fighting left much of the Korean peninsula devastated, the Japanese were forced to withdraw because their fleets could not keep open sea lines of supply and reinforcement back to Japan. The great Korean admiral Yi Sun-Shin defeated the Japanese at sea. One key to the Korean naval victories was their innovative turtle ships, the first cannon-bearing armored ships in history. The Japanese had no answer for these slow but powerful weapons.

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Civilization : The Mayans (250-1546)

      The Mayans occupied the Yucatan peninsula, modern Honduras, and modern Guatemala. They date back perhaps to the second millennium BC, but peaked between 600 and 900 AD. Though they lived on lands of marginal agricultural value, they created monuments and ceremonial centers nearly as impressive as those in Egypt. The extent of the ceremonial building is surprising because their religion was relatively simple. Their architecture was also less developed, though undeniably impressive, compared to contemporary advances made elsewhere in the world. They invented a unique written language that is only being deciphered today. Three Mayan books survive to the present, the remnants of a much larger number destroyed by Europeans who feared they contained heresy.

     The Mayans were very proficient in mathematics and astronomy. The understanding and predictability of star and planet movements was critical to the calculation of their calendar and the dating of important ceremonies. They lived in small hamlets that have not survived but congregated at their centers for important events. Noble warriors and priests controlled their society.

     The Mayans went into decline in the tenth century, perhaps due to earthquake or volcanic eruption. Many of their important ceremonial sites were thereafter abandoned. Warriors from central Mexico then invaded their territory and they broke into small town groupings in the rain forest. The last Mayan center was captured by the Spanish in the 17th century, but as many as two million people of Mayan descent reside in the Yucatan today.

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Civilization : The Aztecs (1325-1521)

      Political control of the populous and agriculturally rich central valley of Mexico fell into confusion after 1100. Gradually assuming ever-greater power were the Aztecs, probably a northern tribe that had migrated to the valley and occupied a minor town on the shore of the great central lake. They were a society that valued the skills of warriors above all others, and this emphasis gave them an advantage against rival tribes in the region. By the end of the 15th century, the Aztecs controlled all of central Mexico as a military empire that collected tribute from rivals.

     The Aztec culture drew upon the experience of those that came before it and invented little that was new. They had an advanced agriculture that supported a very large population. They built immense buildings of grand design and flourished in many arts. They were adept metal workers, but had no iron. Lacking any suitable draft animal, they made no motive use of the wheel.

     One of the distinctive features of the Aztec culture was its penchant for sacrifice. Aztec myths dictated that human blood be fed to the Sun to give it the strength to rise each day. Human sacrifices were conducted on a grand scale; several thousand in a single day were not uncommon. Victims were often decapitated or flayed, and hearts were cut from living victims. Sacrifices were conducted at the top of tall pyramids to be close to the sun and blood flowed down the steps. Although the Aztec economy was based primarily on corn (or maize), the people believed that crops depended on the regular provision of sacrificial blood.

     The incessant demand for sacrificial victims meant that the Aztecs tolerated loose control over satellite cities because frequent revolts offered opportunities for capturing new victims. During times of peace, "garland wars" were arranged strictly as contests of courage and warrior skill, and for the purpose of capturing victims. They fought with wooden clubs to maim and stun, rather than kill. When fighting to kill, the clubs were studded with obsidian blades.

     Despite their great agriculture and arts, the Aztecs appear in retrospect to have been a waning society. They passed on no significant technology or ideas of religion or political theory. Their civilization was brought to an abrupt end by the arrival of the Spanish in the early 16th century. Already devastated by European disease passed by early traders, they fell to a small Spanish army armed with steel weapons, firearms, and riding a few horses. The cruelty of the Aztecs contributed to their downfall by making it easy for the Spanish to enlist allies among the non-Aztecs in Mexico.

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Civilizations: The Huns (408-453)

     The Huns were a nomadic people from around Mongolia in Central Asia that began migrating toward the west in the third century, probably due to climatic change. They were a horse people and very adept at mounted warfare, both with spears and bows. Moving with their families and great herds of horses and domesticated animals they migrated in search of new grasslands to settle. Due to their military prowess and discipline, they proved unstoppable, displacing all in their path. They set in motion a tide of migration before them as other peoples moved to get out of their way. This domino effect of large populations passed around the hard nut of Constantinople and the Eastern Roman Empire to spill over the Danube and Rhine Rivers, and ultimately overwhelm the Western Roman Empire by 476.

     Finding lands to their liking, the Huns settled on the Hungarian plain in Eastern Europe, making their headquarters at the city of Szeged on the Tisza River. They needed large expanses of grasslands to provide forage for their horses and other animals. From this area of plains the Huns controlled through alliance or conquest an empire eventually stretching from the Ural Mountains in Russia to the Rhône River in France.

     The Huns were superb horsemen, trained from childhood, and some believe they invented the stirrup, critical for increasing the fighting power of a mounted man charging with a couched lance. They inspired terror in enemies due to the speed at which they could move, changing ponies several times a day to maintain their advance. A second advantage was their recurved composite bow, far superior to anything used in the West. Standing in their stirrups, they could fire forward, to the sides, and to the rear. Their tactics featured surprise, lightning attacks, and the ensuing terror. They were an army of light cavalry and their political structure required a strong leader to hold them to a purpose.

     The peak of Hun power came during the rule of Attila, who became a leader of the Huns in 433 and began a series of raids into south Russia and Persia. He then turned his attention to the Balkans, causing sufficient terror and havoc on two major raids to be bribed to leave. In 450 he turned to the Western Empire, crossing the Rhine north of Mainz with perhaps 100,000 warriors. Advancing on a front of 100 miles, he sacked most of the towns in what is now northern France. The Roman general Aetius raised a Gallo-Roman army and advanced against Attila, who was besieging the city of Orleans. At the major battle of Chalôns, Attila was defeated, though not destroyed.

     The defeat at Chalôns is considered one of the decisive battles of history, one that could have meant collapse of the Christian religion in Western Europe and perhaps domination of the area by Asian peoples.

      Attila then invaded Italy, seeking new plunder. As he passed into Italy, refugees escaped to the islands off the coast, founding, according to tradition, the city of Venice. Though Roman forces were depleted and their main army still in Gaul, the Huns were weak as well, depleted by incessant campaigns, disease, and famine in Italy. At a momentous meeting with Pope Leo I, Attila agreed to withdraw.

     The Hun empire disintegrated following the death of Attila in 453 with no strong leader of his ability to hold it together. Subject peoples revolted and factions within their group fought each other for dominance. They eventually disappeared under a tide of new invaders, such as the Avars, and disappeared from history.

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Age of Empires II: The Conquerors Expansion

Age of Empires II: The Conquerors Expansion is the official add-on to the award-winning, best-selling real-time strategy game Age of Empires® II: The Age of Kings®.

Focusing on legendary leaders, The Conquerors will challenge veterans and novices to wage war on an epic scale with all-new civilizations, unique units and technologies, and campaigns based on infamous conquerors such as Attila the Hun, El Cid and Montezuma.

Age of Empires II: The Conquerors Expansion is developed by Ensemble Studios and features the expertise of Bruce Shelley, co-designer of Age of Empires.

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