1220

Years: 1217 1218 1219 - 1220 - 1221 1222 1223
Decades: 1190s 1200s 1210s - 1220s - 1230s 1240s 1250s
Centuries: 12th century - 13th century - 14th century

Table of contents

1 The world in 1220

The world in 1220

In 1220, the Islamic lands of Central Asia were overrun by the armies of the Mongol invader Genghis Khan (ca. 1155-1227), who laid waste to many civilizations and created an empire that stretched from China to the Caspian Sea. But he failed to destroy the strength of Islam in Central Asia. In fact, by the end of the 13th century, Genghis Khan's descendants had themselves become Muslims. From the death of Genghis Khan in 1227 until the rise of Timur (Tamerlane) in the 1380s, Central Asia went through a period of fragmentation.

Mongols first invade Abbasid caliphate - Bukhara and Samarkand taken
End of the Kara-Khitan Khanate, destroyed by Genghis Khan's Mongolian cavalry
Dominican Order approved by Pope Honorius III
Frederick II crowned Holy Roman Emperor by Pope Honorius III
Conrad of Masovia drives out the heathen Prussians from a Masovian territory of Chelmno Land
Trial by ordeal abolished in England
The German Hohenstaufen dynasty which had ruled Sicily since 1194, adopts Palermo as its principal seat
Dordrecht receives city rights, making it the oldest city in the present-day Netherlands
Ljubljana receives its town rights

Gothic architecture in Europe
Rebuilding of the Cathedral of Chartres, which had been destroyed by a fire in 1194, is completed
Building of the York Minster begins
Building of the Salisbury Cathedral begins