12th century

(11th century - 12th century - 13th century - other centuries)

• The Anasazi Native American civilization emerges
• Song dynasty loses power over Northern China
• First, Second, and Third Crusades of western European kingdoms against Islam
• Pope Adrian IV granted overlordship of Ireland to Henry II of England.
• Suger rebuilds the abbey church at St Denis north of Paris, seen as first Gothic building
• Portugal declares independence from the kingdom of Leon and Castille in 1139
• Nalanda, the great Indian Buddhist educational centre, was destroyed.

Significant people

• Peter Abelard, one of the first scholastic philosophers
• Bernard of Clairvaux, French abbot influential in church politics
• Saladin, ruler of Egypt and Syria who resisted the Crusaders
• Hugh of St. Victor, French scholar
• Richard of St. Victor, theologian
• Alfonso I Henriques, first King of Portugal
• Maimonides, leading Jewish philosopher

Inventions, Discoveries, Introductions

Decades and Years