Born ThenLife in the 13th century
Be born somewhere between 1200 and 1299, weighted by real births, and live five lives from that year on.
The numbers
The world had about 389 million people around the middle of the 13th century. Life expectancy at birth was near 25 years, mostly because so many children died; people who reached adulthood often lived into their fifties or sixties. About 5% could read and 9% lived in towns. Most births happened in South China (16%), North India (14%), South India and Sri Lanka (8%), North China (7%), Central Europe (5%).
All numbers before 1800 are modelled from long-run population and life-expectancy estimates by region. How it works
What happened
- Indian Ocean slave trade 700–1799
- Song dynasty commercial revolution 960–1270
- Polynesian settlement of Hawaii 1000–1200
- The Crusades 1096–1291
- Thule migration across the Arctic 1200–1300
- Rise of Great Zimbabwe 1200–1450
- Mongol conquest of the Jin 1211–1234
- Mongol invasion of the Khwarazmian Empire 1219–1223
- Mongol invasion of Kievan Rus' 1237–1242
- Polynesian settlement of New Zealand 1250–1300
- Mongol sack of Baghdad 1258
- Mongol conquest of the Song 1268–1279