One of the earliest urban civilizations; cuneiform, city-states like Uruk.

Pharaonic dynasties along the Nile; pyramids, hieroglyphs, centralized rule.

Planned cities like Mohenjo-daro and Harappa; advanced sanitation and trade.

Crete-based maritime culture; palaces like Knossos; vibrant art and trade.

City-states, astronomy, calendars, monumental architecture in Mesoamerica.

Oracle bones, bronze casting, early Chinese state formation.

Fortified palace centers; Linear B; antecedents to classical Greek culture.

Imperial roads, satrapies, and administrative sophistication; conquered by Alexander.

Law, engineering, roads, and a vast multi-ethnic empire around the Mediterranean.

Athens, Sparta, philosophy, drama, democracy; ends around Alexander's death.

Ashoka's reign, spread of Buddhism, centralized administration.

Consolidation of imperial China; Silk Road expansion; Confucian bureaucracy.

Classical age of Indian art, science, and mathematics.

Eastern Roman Empire; Orthodox Christianity; Constantinople falls in 1453.

Cosmopolitan empire; poetry, painting, and Silk Road connectivity.

Rapid expansion from Iberia to Central Asia; Arabic as administrative language.

Golden Age in Baghdad; advancements in science, philosophy, and trade.

Commercial revolution, printing, gunpowder, compass navigation.

Largest contiguous land empire; trade/security via Pax Mongolica.

Multiethnic empire bridging Europe and Asia; peak under Suleiman the Magnificent.

Maritime voyages (Zheng He), Great Wall rebuilding, arts and ceramics.

Triple Alliance in central Mexico; Tenochtitlan; conquered by Spain.

Andean road systems; Cusco and Machu Picchu; centralized labor (mita).

Perso-Islamic culture; Akbar's syncretism; monumental architecture like Taj Mahal.

Global colonial network; industrial power; decolonization after WWII.

Edo period peace, isolation (sakoku), urban culture, samurai bureaucracy.

Manchu rule; territorial peak; encounters with Western powers in the 19th c.

Tsarist expansion; 1917 revolution; Soviet Union to 1991 dissolution.

Constitutional republic; industrialization, global influence in 20th–21st c.

Communist state; reform & opening; major 21st‑century economic power.

Single market with shared institutions; expansion and integration since 1990s.