Events

• 1204 — Fourth Crusade sacks Byzantine Constantinople and creates the Latin Empire.
• 1205 — Battle of Adrianople (1205): Tsar Kaloyan with his army crushed the (otherwise unbeaten) Fourth Crusade's knights and the soldiers of Emperor Baldwin I of Constantinople who was attacking Bulgarian lands with the goal to conquer them.
• 1206 — Mongols united under Temüjin, who is proclaimed "Genghis Khan".
• 1212 — The Battle of Las Navas de Tolosa in Iberia sees the beginning of a rapid Christian reconquest of the southern half of the Iberian peninsula, with the defeat of Moorish forces.
• 1215 — King John of England forced to sign Magna Carta at Runnymede.
• 1215 — Beijing is captured and torched by the Mongols under Genghis Khan, initiating the Yuan Dynasty in China.
• 1220 — The Islamic lands of Central Asia are overrun by the armies of the Mongol invader Genghis Khan.
• 1221 — The Maya of the Yucatán revolt against the rulers of Chichen Itza.
• 1222 — Andrew II of Hungary signs the Golden Bull which affirms the privileges of Hungarian nobility.
• 1227 — Genghis Khan dies during the prolonged siege of the Western Xia Dynasty capital (located in northwestern China), while the Tangut Western Xia Dynasty falls soon after.
• 1234 — the Jin Dynasty of northeastern China is conquered by the forces of the Mongol ruler Ögedei Khan.
• 1238 — The Thai Kingdom of Sukhothai is established, with Theravada Buddhism as the state religion. Later in the century it vassalises significant parts of modern Thailand, Laos, Burma, and Malaysia.
• 1249 — End of the Portuguese Reconquista against the Moors, when King Afonso III of Portugal reconquers the Algarve.
• 1250-1275 — the Arab or Persian born Muslim Pu Shougeng was appointed by the Song Dynasty Chinese government as the Commissioner of Merchant Shipping for Quanzhou.
• 1258 — Baghdad (Iraq), seat of the Muslim Abbasid dynasty, is besieged and burnt to the ground by the forces of the Mongol commander Hulagu Khan. The last Abbasid ruler Al-Musta'sim is executed by means of trampling horses.
• 1259 — the Mongol ruler Möngke Khan is killed in battle by a Chinese cannon blast at Fishing Town, Chongqing, located in southwestern China.
• 1260 — the Mongols are defeated by the Egyptian Mamluks in the Battle of Ain Jalut.
• 1270 — Restoration of Solomonic dynasty in Ethiopia, deposing the Zagwe dynasty.
• 1271 — Edward I of England and Charles of Anjou arrive in Acre, starting the Ninth Crusade against Baibars.
• 1276 — A severe 23-year drought begins to affect the Grand Canyon area, eventually forcing the agriculture-dependent Anasazi culture to migrate out of the region.
• 1277 — Sultan Baibars invades Anatolia and captures the emirates which once composed the Sultanate of Rüm.
• 1279, the Battle of Yamen marks the fall of the Chinese Song Dynasty and the rise of the Mongol Yuan Dynasty led by Khublai Khan.
• 1279 — The Chola Dynasty of South India falls under attacks by the Hoysala Empire and Pandyan kingdom.
• 1281 — Mamluk sultan Qalawun defeats an invasion of Syria by Mongol Ilkhan Abaqa Khan at the Battle of Homs.
• 1281 — The second Mongol invasion of Japan is foiled, as a large typhoon — famously called a kamikaze — destroys much of the combined Chinese and Korean fleet and forces.
• 1282 — Aragon acquires Sicily, after the Sicilian Vespers.
• 1283 — Kublai Khan's Mongol Empire invades the Khmer empire of present-day Cambodia; King Jayavarman VIII decides to pay tribute rather than fight the invasion.
• 1284 — Peterhouse, Cambridge founded by Hugo de Balsham, the Bishop of Ely.
• 1285 — Second Mongol raid against Hungary, led by Nogai Khan.
• 1291 — The Swiss Confederation is formed by Uri, Schwyz, and Unterwalden.
• 1291 — Mamluk Sultan of Egypt Khalil captures Acre, thus exterminating the Crusader Kingdom of Jerusalem (the final Christian landholding remaining from the Crusades).
• Battle of Bouvines
• Bantu-speaking peoples arrive in modern Angola, partially displacing the original Khoisan inhabitants.
• Persian historian Rashid al-Din records eleven Buddhist texts circulating in Arabic translation.
• James I of Aragon takes control of Balearic Islands and Valencia.
• Marco Polo and his family reach China.
• Norway cedes the Isle of Man to Scotland, following the signing of the Treaty of Perth.
• Ögedei Khan establishes a Mongolian dynasty in China. Some Mongol leaders convert from Tantric Buddhism to Islam.
• Teutonic Knights begin activity in Eastern Europe.
• Theravada overtakes Mahayana as the dominant form of Buddhism in Cambodia.
• A period of civil unrest, . Sturlungaöld, leads to Iceland becoming part of the Kingdom of Norway.