Curated category
Former kingdoms
- Indo-Greek KingdomIn about 200 BC, Demetrius I of Bactria led an army south across the Hindu Kush mountains into the Indian subcontinent. This invasion marked the beginning of…
- UrukIn the mid-4th millennium BC, a small Ubaid settlement named Unug merged with its neighbor Kullaba to form Uruk. This new city grew from scattered…
- HittitesThe ancestors of the Hittites arrived in Anatolia between 4400 and 4100 BC. Recent genetic research indicates that Proto-Anatolian speakers entered this…
- Kingdom of EnglandOn the 12th of July 927, monarchs from across Britain gathered at Eamont Bridge in Cumbria to recognize a single ruler. They acknowledged Aethelstan as king…
- NorthumbriaIn 651, the last independent king of Deira, Oswine, was murdered by his cousin Oswiu. This violent act ended decades of conflict between two separate…
- Kingdom of Italy (Napoleonic)Napoleon I stood before the Milan Cathedral on the 23rd of May 1805 to receive the Iron Crown of Lombardy. This moment marked the official birth of the…
- Kingdom of PrussiaIn 1518, the House of Hohenzollern took control of the Margraviate of Brandenburg. This marked the beginning of a long political journey that would…
- Kingdom of RomaniaOn the 24th of January 1859, Alexandru Ioan Cuza was elected prince of both Moldavia and Wallachia. This event united two distinct territories under a single…
- Kingdom of SerbiaOn the 6th of March 1882, Milan I stood before a crowd in Belgrade and accepted the crown that transformed Serbia from a principality into a kingdom.
- Kingdom of FranceThe Treaty of Verdun in 843 divided the Carolingian Empire into three parts, leaving Charles the Bald to rule West Francia.
- Kingdom of Great BritainOn the 1st of May 1707, the separate Parliaments of England and Scotland ceased to exist. They were replaced by a single Parliament of Great Britain sitting…
- Hanthawaddy kingdomKing Wareru established the Hanthawaddy kingdom in 1287 after the collapse of the Pagan kingdom. This new polity ruled lower Burma as a nominal vassal state…
- EphesusHumans had begun inhabiting the area surrounding Ephesus by the Neolithic Age, about 6000 BC. Excavations at the nearby höyük of Arvalya and Cukurici have…
- Ayutthaya KingdomIn 1351, King Uthong established the Ayutthaya Kingdom on an island in the Chao Phraya River. This new state emerged from a merger of three maritime…
- Kingdom of JerusalemThe Council of Clermont in 1095 set the stage for a movement that would reshape the Levant. Pope Urban II called for an army to assist the Byzantine Empire…
- Kingdom of GreeceIn 1832, the Treaty of Constantinople officially established the Kingdom of Greece as a successor to the First Hellenic Republic.
- Kingdom of Hungary (1920–1946)On the 1st of March 1920, Miklós Horthy took the oath as Regent of Hungary. He was the last commanding admiral of the Austro-Hungarian Navy.
- Kingdom of ItalyOn the 17th of March 1861, Victor Emmanuel II of Sardinia was proclaimed King of Italy in Turin. This event marked the birth of a new state from decades of…
- Sukhothai KingdomIn 1238, a coalition of Siamese forces led by Bang Klang Hao recaptured the city of Sukhothai and re-established it as an autonomous polity.
- MycenaeMycenae rises 215 meters above sea level on a hill in the Argolis region of north-eastern Peloponnese, Greece. The site sits about 120 kilometers south-west…
- Kingdom of East AngliaThe first king of the East Angles was Wehha, listed in genealogies that trace his lineage back to Woden via Caesar. This kingdom formed during the first or…
- Kingdom of PortugalOn the 26th of July 1139, Afonso Henriques stood before his troops and was acclaimed King of the Portuguese. This moment followed a battle that some…
- TroyThe hill of Hisarlık rises 31.2 meters above the plain and 38.5 meters above sea level in present-day Canakkale, Turkey.
- United Kingdom of Great Britain and IrelandOn the first of January 1801, a new sovereign state emerged from the merger of Great Britain and Ireland. The Acts of Union brought two kingdoms together…
- Kingdom of MysoreIn 1399, two brothers named Yaduraya and Krishnaraya established a small state near the modern city of Mysore. This territory began as a feudal vassal under…
- Kingdom of HungaryOn Christmas Day 1000, a man named Vajk stood before the people of Hungary and accepted baptism. He took the name Stephen I that day at the cathedral in…
- Kingdom of NaplesIn 1282, the island of Sicily erupted in a violent uprising known as the War of the Sicilian Vespers. This rebellion forced King Charles I of Anjou to…
- MauretaniaIn the early 1st century, the geographer Strabo recorded a people called Maûroi by Greeks and Mauri by Romans. This name described a populous nation situated…
- MaldivesThe Maldives stretches across the equator from Ihavandhippolhu Atoll in the north to Addu Atoll in the south. This chain of 26 atolls covers roughly 90,000…
- Kingdom of Hungary (1301–1526)Andrew III died on the 14th of January 1301. His death created a power vacuum that allowed about a dozen lords to seize control of royal castles and counties.
- Kingdom of KhotanThe Taklamakan Desert stretches north of the ancient city of Yotkan, a place where water flows from the Yurung-kàsh and Kara-kàsh rivers.
- Bosporan KingdomThe year 540 BC marks the founding of Phanagoria, a colony established by settlers from Teos on the eastern shore of the Cimmerian Bosporus.