Culture

Between 1347 and 1351, the bubonic plague killed between one third and one half of Europe's entire population, destroying the old social order and inadvertently paving the way for a new world.

Flourishing in the city-states of 14th to 17th century Italy, the Renaissance produced Leonardo da Vinci, Michelangelo, Galileo, and a transformation in how humanity understood itself and the natural world.

The Kingdom of Benin in present-day Nigeria produced some of the most sophisticated bronze and ivory artworks of the medieval world, centuries before European contact.

Between 793 and 1066 CE, Norse seafarers from Scandinavia transformed the political and cultural map of Europe, reaching from North America to Constantinople.