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11th century
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As a means of recording the passage of time, the 11th century is the period from 1001 to 1100 in accordance with the Julian calendar in the Christian/Common Era.
In the history of European culture, this period is considered the early part of the High Middle Ages. There was a sudden decline of Byzantine power and rise of Norman domination over much of Europe, along with the prominent role in Europe of notably influential popes. In what is now Northern Italy, a growth of population in urban centers gave rise to early organized capitalism and more sophisticated, commercialized culture by the late 11th century.
In Song Dynasty China and the classical Islamic world, this century marked the high point for both classical Chinese civilization, science and technology, and classical Islamic science, philosophy, technology and literature.
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As a means of recording the passage of time, the 11th century is the period from 1001 to 1100 in accordance with the Julian calendar in the Christian/Common Era.
In the history of European culture, this period is considered the early part of the High Middle Ages. There was a sudden decline of Byzantine power and rise of Norman domination over much of Europe, along with the prominent role in Europe of notably influential popes. In what is now Northern Italy, a growth of population in urban centers gave rise to early organized capitalism and more sophisticated, commercialized culture by the late 11th century.
In Song Dynasty China and the classical Islamic world, this century marked the high point for both classical Chinese civilization, science and technology, and classical Islamic science, philosophy, technology and literature. There was also a population explosion in China, doubling to the size of 100 million, and an economic revolution in China that spurred manufacture and production rates which rivaled even Great Britain's coal and iron output in the early Industrial Revolution. The Islamic world experienced a similar growth with the Muslim Agricultural Revolution, which led to greater mechanization and economic growth in the Islamic world.
Rivaling political factions at the Song Dynasty court created strife amongst the leading statesmen and ministers of the empire. For Chola-era India and Fatimid-era Egypt, they had reached their zenith in military might and international influence. The Western Chalukya Empire (the Chola's rival) also rose to power by the end of the century. In this century the Turkish Seljuk dynasty comes to power in the Middle East over the now fragmented Abbasid realm, while the first of the Crusades were waged towards the close of the century. In Japan the Fujiwara clan continued to dominate the affairs of state. In the Americas the Toltec and Mixtec civilizations flourished in central America, along with the Huari Culture of South America and the Mississippian culture of North America. In Russia, there was the golden age for the principality of Kievan Rus. In Korea the Goryeo Kingdom flourished and faced external threats from the Liao Dynasty. In Vietnam the Lý Dynasty began, while in Myanmar the Pagan Kingdom reached its height of political and military power.
Overview
In European history, the 11th century is regarded as the beginning of the High Middle Ages, an age subsequent to the Early Middle Ages. The century began while the translatio imperii of 962 was still somewhat novel and ended in the midst of the Investiture Controversy. It saw the final Christianisation of Scandinavia and the emergence of the Peace and Truce of God movements, the Gregorian Reforms, and the Crusades which revitalised a church and a papacy that had survived tarnished by the tumultuous tenth century. In 1054, the Great Schism rent the church in two, however.
In Germany, it was marked by the ascendancy of the Holy Roman Emperors, who hit their high watermark under the Salians.
In Italy, it opened with the integration of the kingdom into the empire and the royal palace at Pavia was sacked in 1024. By the end of the century, Lombard and Byzantine rule in the Mezzogiorno had been usurped by the Normans and the power of the territorial magnates was being replaced by that of the citizens of the cities in the north.
In Britain, it saw the transformation of Scotland into a single, more unified and centralised kingdom and the Norman conquest of England in 1066. The social transformations wrought in these lands brought them into the fuller orbit of European feudal politics.
In France, it saw the nadir of the monarchy and the zenith of the great magnates, especially the dukes of Aquitaine and Normandy, who could thus foster such distinctive contributions of their lands as the pious warrior who conquered Britain, Italy, and the East and the impious peacelover, the troubadour, who crafted out of the European vernacular its first great literary themes. There were also the first figures of the intellectual movement known as Scholasticism, which emphasized dialectic arguments in disputes of Christian theology as well as classical philosophy.
In Spain, the century opened with the successes of the last caliphs of Córdoba and ended in the successes of the Almoravids. In between was a period of Christian unification under Navarrese hegemony and success in the Reconquista against the taifa kingdoms which replaced the fallen caliphate.
In China, there was a triangular affair of continued war and peace settlements between the Song Dynasty, the Tanguts-led Western Xia in the northwest, and the Khitans of the Liao Dynasty in the northeast. Meanwhile, opposing political factions evolved at the Song imperial court of Kaifeng. The political reformers at court, called the New Policies Group (??, Xin Fa), were led by Emperor Shenzong of Song and the Chancellors Fan Zhongyan and Wang Anshi, while the political conservatives were led by Chancellor Sima Guang and Empress Dowager Gao, regent of the young Emperor Zhezong of Song. Heated political debate and sectarian intrigue followed, while political enemies were often dismissed from the capital to govern frontier regions in the deep south where malaria was known to be very fatal to northern Chinese people (see History of the Song Dynasty). This period also represents a high point in classical Chinese science and technology, with figures such as Su Song and Shen Kuo, as well as the age where the matured form of the Chinese pagoda was accomplished in Chinese architecture.
In India, the Chola Dynasty reached its height of naval power under leaders such as Rajaraja Chola I and Rajendra Chola I, dominating southern India, Sri Lanka, and regions of South East Asia. They also sent raids into what is now modern-day Thailand.
In Japan, the Fujiwara clan dominated central politics by acting as imperial regents, controlling the actions of the Emperor of Japan, who acted merely as a 'puppet monarch' during the Heian period.
In the Middle East, the Fatimid Empire reached its zenith only to face steep decline, much like the Byzantine Empire in the first half of the century. The Seljuks came to prominence while the Abbasid caliphs held traditional titles without real, tangible authority in state affairs.
In Korea, the rulers of the Goryeo Kingdom were able to concentrate more central authority into their own hands than in that of the nobles, and were able to fend off two Khitan invasions with their armies.
Events
- 1001-1008 - Japanese Lady Murasaki Shikibu writes the first novel, The Tale of Genji
- 1001 ± 40 years, Baitoushan volcano on what would be the Chinese-Korean border, erupts with a force of 6.5, the fourth largest Holocene blast.
- 1001, Mahmud of Ghazni, Muslim leader of Ghazni, begins a series of raids into Northern India; he finishes in 1027 with the destruction of Somnath.
- c. 1001, Vikings, led by Leif Eriksson, establish small settlements in and around Vinland in North America
- 1003, Robert II of France invades the Duchy of Burgundy, then ruled by Otto-William, Duke of Burgundy; the initial invasion is unsuccessful, but Robert II eventually gained the acceptance of the Church in 1016 and annexed Burgundy into his realm.
- 1004, the library and university Dar Al-Hekma is founded in Egypt under the Fatimids.
- 1005, the Treaty of Shanyuan was signed between the Chinese Song Dynasty and the Khitan Liao Dynasty.
- 1008, the Fatimid Egyptian sea captain Domiyat travels to the Buddhist pilgrimage site in Shandong, China, to seek out the Chinese Emperor Zhenzong of Song with gifts from his ruling Imam Al-Hakim bi-Amr Allah, successfully reopening diplomatic relations between Egypt and China that had been lost since the collapse of the Tang Dynasty.
- 1009, Lý Thái T? overthrew the Anterior Lę Dynasty of Vietnam, establishing the Lý Dynasty.
- 1009–1010, the Lombard known as Melus of Bari led an insurrection against the Byzantine Catepan of Italy, John Curcuas, as the latter was killed in battle and replaced by Basil Mesardonites, who brought Byzantine reinforcements.
- 1010, with the aid of scholars such as Song Zhun, Lu Duosun compiles a massive work of cartography in 1566 chapters, including the mapped topography of each provincial region in China down to the minute level of small towns and villages; this was an imperial compendium first issued by Emperor Taizu of Song in 971 AD.
- 1010–1011, the Second Goryeo-Khitan War; the Korean king was forced to flee the capital temporarily, but unable to establish a foothold and fearing a counterattack, the Khitan forces withdrew.
- 1011-1021, Ibn al-Haytham (Alhacen), a famous Iraqi scientist working in Egypt, feigned madness in fear of angering the Egyptian caliph Al-Hakim bi-Amr Allah, and was kept under house arrest from 1011 to 1021. During this time, he wrote his influential Book of Optics.
- 1014, the Byzantine armies of Basil II are victorious over Samuil of Bulgaria in the Battle of Kleidion.
- 1015, in the Battle of Nesjar in Oslofjord, Norway, the forces of Olav Haraldsson fought the forces of Sveinn Hákonarson, with a victory ofr Olav.
- 1018, the First Bulgarian Empire is conquered by the Byzantine Empire
- 1018, the Byzantine armies of Basil Boioannes are victorious at the Battle of Cannae against the Lombards under Melus of Bari.
- 1018, the Third Goryeo-Khitan War; the Korean General Gang Gam-chan inflicted heavy losses to Khitan forces at the Battle of Kwiju. The Khitan withdrew and both sides signed a peace treaty.
- 1014-1020 The Book of Healing, a vast philosophical and scientific encyclopaedia, is written by Avicenna, Persian Muslim scholar.
- 1020s, The Canon of Medicine, a medical encyclopedia, is written by Avicenna, Persian Muslim scholar.
- 1021, the ruling Fatimid Caliph Al-Hakim bi-Amr Allah disappears suddenly, possibly assassinated by his own sister Sitt al-Mulk, which leads to the open persecution of the Druze by Ismaili Shia; the Druze proclaimed that Al-Hakim went into hiding (ghayba), whereupon he would return as the Mahdi savior.
- 1025, the Chola Dynasty of India uses its naval powers to conquer the South East Asian kingdom of Srivijaya, turning it into a vassal.
- 1025, ruler Rajendra Chola I moves the capital city of the empire from Thanjavur to Gangaikonda Cholapuram
- 1028, the King of Srivijaya appeals to the Song Dynasty Chinese, sending a diplomatic mission to their capital at Kaifeng.
- 1030, the Battle of Stiklestad: Olav Haraldsson loses to his pagan vassals and is killed in the battle. He is later canonized and becomes the patron saint of Norway and Rex perpetuum Norvegiae ('the eternal king of Norway').
- 1035, Raoul Glaber chronicles a devastating three year famine induced by climatic changes in southern France
- 1035, Canute the Great dies, and his kingdom of present-day Norway, England, and Denmark was split amongst three rivals to his throne.
- 1035, William Iron Arm ventures to the Mezzogiorno
- 1037, Ferdinand I of León conquered the Kingdom of Galicia.
- 1040, Duncan I of Scotland slain in battle. Macbeth succeeds him.
- 1041, Samuel Aba became King of Hungary.
- 1042, the Normans establish Melfi as the capital of southern Italy.
- 1042, Bhoja, the Indian ruler, philosopher, and polymath of Malwa, completes the reconstruction of the temple of Somnath after its destruction by Mahmud of Ghazni.
- 1041–1048, Chinese artisan Bi Sheng invents ceramic movable type printing
- 1043, the Byzantine Empire and Kievan Rus engage in a naval confrontation, although a later treaty is signed between two parties that included the marriage alliance of Vsevolod I of Kiev to a princess daughter of Constantine IX Monomachos.
- 1043, the Byzantine General George Maniaces, who had served in Sicily back in 1038, was proclaimed emperor by his troops while he was catepan of Italy; he led an unsuccessful rebellion against Constantine IX Monomachos and was killed in battle in Macedonia during his march towards Constantinople.
- 1043, the Song Dynasty Chancellor of China, Fan Zhongyan, and prominent official and historian Ouyang Xiu introduce the Qingli Reforms, which would be rescinded by the court in 1045 due to partisan resistance to reforms.
- 1044, the Chinese Wujing Zongyao, written by Zeng Gongliang and Yang Weide, is the first book to describe gunpowder formulas; it also described their use in warfare, such as blackpowder-impregnated fuses for flamethrowers. It also described an early form of the compass, a thermoremanence compass.
- 1044, Henry III of the Holy Roman Empire defeats the Kingdom of Hungary in the Battle of Ménfo; Peter Urseolo captured Samuel Aba after the battle, executing him, and restoring his claim to the throne; the Kingdom of Hungary then briefly becomes a vassal to the Holy Roman Empire.
- 1045, the Zirids, a Berber dynasty of North Africa, break their allegiance with the Fatimid court of Egypt and recognize the Abbasids of Baghdad as the true caliphs.
- 1052, Fujiwara no Yorimichi converts the rural villa at Byodo-in into a famous Japanese Buddhist temple.
- 1053, the Norman commander Humphrey of Hauteville is victorious in the Battle of Civitate against the Lombards and the papal coalition led by Rudolf of Benevento; Pope Leo IX himself is captured by the Normans.
- 1054, the Great Schism, in which the Western and Eastern Orthodox churches separated from each other. Similar schisms in the past had been later repaired, but this one continues after nearly 1000 years.
- 1054, a large supernova is observed by astronomers, the remnants of which would form the Crab Nebula.
- 1054, the Battle of Atapuerca is fought between García V of Navarre and Ferdinand I of León
- 1055, the Seljuk Turks capture Baghdad, taking the Buyid Emir Al-Malik al-Rahim prisoner.
- 1056, Ferdinand I of León
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