7th century

This is the case from 601 to 700. To define this 100 years in a word, the age of cataclysm.

In the East , the Sui Dynasty , which emerged after 300 years of war following the fall of the Later Han Dynasty, collapsed in less than 50 years after expending national power through unreasonable foreign wars and civil engineering projects. Following this, he conquered the East for the second time, destroying Goguryeo and Baekje , and extended his power to the West, taking hegemony in East Asia and reigning as a superpower.

The Korean Peninsula was also swept up in this aftermath, ending the struggle between the three kingdoms that had lasted for hundreds of years , and defeating the final invasion of the Tang Dynasty. Unified Silla was established, and in Manchuria , Goguryeo refugees and Malgal tribes united to establish Balhae, creating a new order in Northeast Asia.

Japan also suppressed the Soga clan , which had power exceeding that of the royal family, and strengthened royal authority through the Taika Reform and Tenmu Reform, becoming a country with an ancient Ritsuryo system . Additionally, the influx of Baekje population groups into Japan contributed to the development of Asuka period culture.

The conflict between the Eastern Roman Empire and the Sassanid Empire intensified, and by the early 7th century, the Sassanid Empire brought the Eastern Roman Empire to the brink of destruction, and the Eastern Roman counteroffensive brought the Sasanian Dynasty to the brink of destruction.

The more this happened, the more social chaos grew. In the aftermath of this war, Muhammad , a merchant from Mecca who prospered through commerce, founded Islam in 610 and presented an alternative. Due to oppression by the ruling forces of Mecca, he fled to Medina ( Hegira ) in 622 , and later developed military force and conquered Mecca, ushering in the emergence of the Islamic Empire .

Muhammad died in 632, but Abu Bakr, who succeeded Muhammad , was recognized as the first caliph, ushering in the era of the orthodox caliphate of the Islamic Empire .

The Eastern Roman and Sasanian Empires regarded the values ​​of Chalcedonian Christianity and Zoroastrianism as absolute, respectively, and showed exclusivism by rejecting other religions. In particular, non-Chalcedonian Christians and Jews, who existed in significant numbers at the time, were oppressed by both the Eastern Romans and the Sassanians.

The Islamic Empire, well aware of this gap, called Christianity and Judaism the people of the book and allowed freedom of religion, and in return collected a poll tax called jizya . Non-Chalcedonians, and especially Jews who were good at business, judged that it was beneficial to pay jizya and maintain their religion, so many of them were appeased by the Islamic Empire.

In other words, the expansion of the Islamic Empire was not only influenced by the strength of the Islamic Empire's army, but also by the local people's calculation of profit and loss and their cooperation.

The Islamic Empire, waging a war of conquest at a fierce pace, entered Egypt in 641 with the cooperation of the Copts who occupied most of Egypt, and completely destroyed the Sasanian Empire in 651.

However, during the time of Muhammad's family and the fourth caliph, Ali ibn Abi Talib, the Islamic empire faced internal divisions, and eventually, after Ali's assassination, the Shiites considered that only Muhammad's blood relatives could become caliph , and who could become caliph if they had the ability. He was divided into Sunnis , who believed that anyone could become caliph .

After the assassination of Ali in 661, Muawiyah I became caliph, moved the center to Damascus, Syria, and passed the caliphate on to his blood relatives, giving rise to the Umayyad dynasty .

The expansion of a series of Islamic empires in the 7th century, from Muhammad to the orthodox caliphs to the Umayyads, determined to some extent the extent of what is today considered the 'Middle East'. And since most of the conquered areas were once areas influenced by Hellenism , Hellenistic knowledge flowed into the Islamic world , marking the beginning of the Islamic Golden Age .

The structure of the Eastern Roman Empire and the Germanic states entered a new phase with the threat of the Islamic Empire.

The gradual movement of population that had occurred since the 3rd century continued into the 7th century. Once the Germanic tribes had settled down to some extent, the Slavs moved.

In the Eastern Roman Empire , Mauricius was executed by Phocas in 602, and Phocas continued his tyranny for eight years before being executed by Iraclius in 610. The Heraklion dynasty that came into power afterward continued the war against the Sasanian Empire. Once he was driven to the brink of destruction by the Sassanid Empire, and once he reversed the situation and brought the Sasanian Empire to the brink of destruction.

However, in the aftermath of this fight, as the Islamic Empire, a third power, rapidly rose, the Sasanian Empire collapsed, and Eastern Rome also lost major territories such as Egypt, Jerusalem, and Syria. However, with its strong national power, it withstood the Islamic offensive, and the Western European world was able to avoid the Islamic threat thanks to Eastern Rome.