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In Age of Empires II, you can command any one of 13 mighty civilizations. These include the Franks, Japanese, Byzantines, Vikings, Mongols, Celts and more. Each civilization has unique attributes, strengths and weaknesses, buildings and technologies, as well as a unique combat unit based on its historical counterpart. Be sure to try them all to find the civilization that best suits your playing style.

Following the withdrawal of the Roman legions to Gaul (modern France) around 400, the British Isles fell into a very dark period of several centuries from which almost no written records survive. The Romano-British culture which had existed under 400 years of Roman rule disappeared under relentless invasion and migration by barbarians. Celts came over from Ireland (a tribe called the Scotti gave their name to the northern part of the main island, Scotland). Saxons and Angles came from Germany, Frisians from modern Holland, and Jutes from modern Denmark. By 600, the Angles and Saxons controlled most of modern England. By 800, only modern Wales, Scotland, and West Cornwall remained in largely Celtic hands.


The new inhabitants were called Anglo-Saxon (from the Angles and Saxons). The Angles gave their name to the new culture (England from Angle land) and the Germanic language they brought with them, English, replaced the native Celtic and previously imported Latin. Despite further invasions and even a complete military conquest at a later date, the southern and eastern part of the largest British Isle has been called England (and its people and language English) ever since.

In 865 the relative peace of England was shattered by a new invasion. Danish Vikings who had been raiding France and Germany formed a Great Army and turned their attention on the English. Within ten years, most of the Anglo-Saxon kingdoms had fallen or surrendered. Only the West Saxons (modern Wessex) held out under Alfred, the only English ruler to be called 'the Great.'

England was divided between the Vikings, the West Saxons, and a few other Englishkingdoms for nearly 200 years. The Viking half was called the Danelaw (under Danish law). The Vikings collected a large payment, called the Danegeld (the Dane's gold), to be peaceful. The Danes became Christians and gradually became more settled. In time the English turned on the Danes and in 954 the last Viking king of York was killed. England was united for the first time under an English king from Wessex.
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In 1066 the Witan (king's council) offered the crown to Harold, son of the Earl of Wessex. Two others claimed the throne: Harald Hardrada (meaning 'the hard ruler'), King of Norway, and Duke William of Normandy. The Norwegian landed first, near York, but was defeated by Harold at the battle of Stamford Bridge. Immediately after the victory, Harold forced-marched his army south to meet William at Hastings. The battle see-sawed back-and-forth all day, but near dusk Harold was mortally wounded by an arrow in the eye. Over the next two years, William, now 'the Conqueror,' solidified his conquest of England.

During the remainder of the Middle Ages, the successors of William largely exhausted themselves and their country in a series of confrontations and wars attempting to expand or defend land holdings in France. The Hundred Year's War between England and France was an on-and-off conflict that stretched from 1337 to 1453. It was triggered by an English king's claim to the throne of France, thanks to family intermarriages. The war was also fought over control of the lucrative wool trade and French support for Scotland's independence. The early part of the war featured a string of improbable, yet complete, English victories, thanks usually to English longbowmen mowing down hordes of ornately armored French knights from long range.

The English could not bring the war to closure, however, and the French rallied. Inspired by Joan of Arc, a peasant girl who professed divine guidance, the French fought back, ending the war with the capture of Bordeaux in 1453. The English were left holding only Calais on the mainland (and not for long)

The Byzantines took their name from Byzantium, an ancient city on the Bosphorus, the strategic waterway linking the Black Sea to the Aegean Sea. The Roman Emperor Constantine had renamed this city Constantinople in the 4th century and made it a sister capital of his empire. This eastern partition of the Roman Empire outlived its western counterpart by a thousand years, defending Europe against invasions from the east by Persians, Arabs, and Turks. The Byzantines persevered because Constantinople was well defended by walls and the city could be supplied by sea. At their zenith in the middle 7th century, the Byzantines had recovered much of the original Roman Empire, lacking only the Iberian Peninsula (modern Spain), Gaul (modern France), and Britain. The Byzantines held the Middle East briefly, but their empire consisted mainly of the Balkans and modern Turkey.

The first great Byzantine Emperor was Justinian I (482-565). His ambition was to restore the old Roman Empire and he nearly succeeded. His instrument the greatest general of the age, Belisarius, who crisscrossed the empire defeating Persians to the East, Vandals in North Africa, Ostrogoths in Italy, and Bulgars and Slavs in the Balkans. In addition to military campaigns, Justinian laid the foundation for the future by establishing a strong legal and administrative system, and by defending the Christian Church.
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The Byzantine economy was the richest in Europe for many centuries because Constantinople was ideally sited on trade routes between Asia, Europe, the Black Sea, and the Aegean Sea. It was an important destination point for the Silk Road from China. The nomisma, the principal Byzantine gold coin, was the standard for money throughout the Mediterranean for 800 years. Constantinople's strategic position eventually attracted the envy and animosity of the Italian city-states.

A key strength of the Byzantine Empire was its generally superior army that drew on the best elements of Roman, Greek, Gothic, and Middle Eastern experience in war. The core of the army was a shock force of heavy cavalry supported by both light infantry (archers) and heavy infantry (armored swordsmen). The army was organized into units and drilled in tactics and maneuvers. Officers received an education in military history and theory. Although outnumbered usually by masses of untrained warriors, it prevailed thanks to intelligent tactics and good discipline. The army was backed by a network of spies and secret agents that provided information about enemy plans and could be used to bribe or otherwise deflect aggressors.

The Byzantine navy kept the sea-lanes open for trade and kept supply lines free so the city could not be starved into submission when besieged. In the 8th century a land and sea attack by Arabs was defeated largely by a secret weapon, Greek fire. This chemical weapon, its composition now unknown, was a sort of liquid napalm that could be sprayed from a hose. The Arab navy was devastated at sea by Greek fire.

In the 7th and 8th centuries, the Arabs overran Egypt, the Middle East, North Africa, and Spain, removing these areas permanently from Byzantine control. A Turkish victory at Manzikert in 1071 led to the devastation of Asia Minor, the empire's most important source of grain, cattle, horses, and soldiers. In 1204 crusaders led the Doge of Venice used treachery to sack Constantinople.

In the 14th century the Turks invaded Europe, capturing Adrianople and bypassing Constantinople. They settled the Balkans in large numbers and defeated a large crusader army at Nicopolis in 1396. In May of 1453, Turkish Sultan Mehmet II captured a weakly defended Constantinople with the aid of heavy cannon. The fall of the city brought the Byzantine Empire to an end.

The Celts (pronounced "kelts") were the ancient inhabitants of Northern Europe. Julius Caesar had battled them during his conquest of Gaul. The Romans eventually took most of Britain and Spain from them as well. At the end of the ancient Roman Empire, the Celts occupied only parts of northwest France, Ireland, Wales, and parts of Scotland. During the course of the Middle Ages, they strengthened their hold on Scotland and made several attempts to take more of England.

The Irish remained small bands during the early Middle Ages. By 800 the four provinces of Leinster, Munster, Connaught, and Ulster had risen to power under 'high kings.' Viking raids began in 795 and then Viking settlements were established in the middle 9th century. The most important of these was at Dublin. Brian Boru became the first high king of all Ireland around 1000. In 1014 the Irish defeated the Danes of Dublin at Clontarf, although Brian Boru was killed.

An Irish tribe called the Scotti invaded what is now southern Scotland during the early Middle Ages, settling permanently and giving the land its name. They pushed back and absorbed the native Picts that had harassed the Romans to the south. The Scottish kingdom took its present shape during the 11th century, but attracted English interference. The Scots responded with the "auld (old) alliance" with France that was the foundation of their diplomacy for centuries to come. Edward I of England ("longshanks" or the "Hammer of the Scots") annexed Scotland in 1296.
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William Wallace (Braveheart) led a revolt of Scotland, winning virtual independence at the battle of Stirling Bridge in 1297. Defeated the next year at Falkirk, Wallace waged a guerrilla war until he was betrayed, captured, and executed in 1305. Robert the Bruce declared himself king of Scotland after murdering his main rival. He drove out the English, winning the battle of Bannockburn in 1314. Edward III of England recognized Scotland's independence in 1328, but war between the Scots and English carried on for several centuries. The crowns of the two countries were united in 1603, long after the Middle Ages were over.

No prince in Wales proved strong enough to unite the country. In the late 13th century, Edward I took over the government of Gwynedd, one of the strongest Welsh principalities in Wales. He proceeded to build five great castles in Wales that effectively placed the country under English rule.

China was reunited in 581 AD after a long period of internal war by the founders of the Sui dynasty. For most of the 1,000 years that followed, China was the largest and most advanced civilization in the world. Because of its geographic isolation from the West, it was able to develop and maintain a unique culture that spread its influence over much of Asia.

Emperors generally held supreme power as the son of heaven. Natural disasters or other calamities were taken as proof that the mandate of heaven had been withdrawn, however, and could justify revolt. Mandarins were conservative civil servants who operated most of the government at the local, province, and imperial level. Mandarins earned their positions by passing detailed civil service examinations based mainly on the works of Confucius.

The T'ang dynasty ruled China from 618 to 907. China under the T'ang was large, wealthy, and powerful. There was extensive foreign trade and interest in the arts among the upper class. Printing and gunpowder were invented. The last 100 years of T'ang rule witnessed tumultuous peasant revolts, however, and wars between local military rulers that the imperial court could not end. The years from 907 to 960 were known as the Five Dynasties period. Northern China was held by barbarians and Southern China split into 10 rival states. From one of these an army general named Chao K'uang-yin seized power and unified the southern states, founding the Song dynasty. His descendants reunited China within 20 years.
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The Song dynasty ruled at least part of China until 1279. This was another period of cultural brilliance and it was considered the great age of Chinese landscape painting. There was a dramatic improvement in economic activity, including a large overseas trade. Population and cities grew, food production grew faster than population, a money economy developed, and industrial output increased. No city in Europe could approach the populations of Chang'ng, Beijing, and Canton, all with over 2 million inhabitants.

The wealth of China attracted enemies, however, and the Mongols began attacks in 1206. By 1279 they had completed the conquest of Song China and moved the capital to Beijing. The dramatic economic improvement of the Song dynasty ended with the Mongol conquests and the estimated 30 million deaths that they caused. The Mongol Yuan dynasty reunited China and reestablished it as a great military and world power. Chinese influence was spread into Asia. Hanoi was captured three times and tribute was extracted from Burma. Trade with India, Arabia, and the Persian Gulf was developed. Marco Polo visited China during this period.

Natural disasters and higher taxes in the 14th century caused rural rebellions. A Buddhist monk rose to be one of the leaders of the 'Red Turbans,' a secret society opposed to the emperor in Beijing. The rebels seized Nanking in 1356 and drove the Mongols from Beijing 12 years later, establishing the Ming dynasty. The Ming presided over another cultural flowering and established a political unity that lasted until the 20th century. The Ming clamped down a strict conservatism and isolation, however, discouraging change and innovation, banning foreign travel, and closing the Silk Road.

China is best remembered today for the technologies that were invented there, usually many centuries before a similar technology was invented in, or transmitted to, the West. Important Chinese inventions included the compass, wheelbarrow, calculator (abacus), horse harness, stirrup, clock, iron casting, steel, paper, moveable type (printing), paper money, gunpowder, and the stern-post rudder

The Franks were one of the German barbarian tribes known to the Romans. In the early part of the 5th century they began expanding south from their homeland along the Rhine River into Roman controlled Gaul (modern France). Unlike other German tribes, however, they did not move out of their homelands, but rather added to them. Clovis, a Frankish chieftan, defeated the last Roman armies in Gaul and united the Franks by 509, becoming the ruler of much of western Europe. During the next 1000 years, this Frankish kingdom gradually became the modern nation of France.

The kingdom of Clovis was divided after his death among his four sons, according to custom. This led to several centuries of civil warfare and struggle between successive claimants to the throne. By the end of the 7th century, the Merovingian kings (descendants of Clovis) were rulers in name only. In the early 8th century, Charles Martel became mayor of the palace, the ruler behind the throne. He converted the Franks into a cavalry force and fought so well that his enemies gave him the name of Charles the Hammer. In 732 the Frankish cavalry defeated Muslim invaders moving north from Spain at the battle of Tours, stopping forever the advance of Islam from the southwest.

Charles Martel's son, Pepin, was made king of the Franks by the Pope in return for helping to defend Italy from the Lombards. Pepin founded the dynasty of the Carolingians and the greatest of these rulers was Charles the Great, or Charlemagne, who ruled from 771 to 814. He expanded the Frankish kingdom into an empire and was responsible for a rebirth of culture and learning in the West. Charlemagne's empire was divided among his grandsons and thereafter coalesced into two major parts. The western part became the kingdom of France. Later kings gradually lost political control of France, however. Central authority broke down under the pressure of civil wars, border clashes, and Viking raids. Money and soldiers could be raised only by making concessions to landholders. Fiefs became hereditary and fief holders became feudal lords over their own vassals. By the 10th century, France had been broken into feudal domains that acted as independent states.
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In 987 the French nobility elected Hugh Capet their king, mainly because his fief centered on Paris was weak and he was thought to pose no threat. He founded the Capetian line of kings who worked slowly for two centuries regaining the power by making royal roads safe, adding land to their domain, encouraging trade, and granting royal charters for new towns and fiefs in vacant lands. By allying themselves with the church, the Capetians took a strong moral position and benefited from the church's cultural, political, and social influence. Royal administrators were made loyal to the king and more efficient by eliminating the inheritance of government offices.

Beginning with Philip II in 1180, three superior rulers established France as the most important nation in Europe. They improved the working of the government, encouraged a booming trade, collected fees efficiently, and strengthened their position atop the feudal hierarchy. Although a national assembly called the Estates General was established, it held no real power and was successfully ignored.

From 1337 to 1453 France and England fought the long conflict called the Hundred Year's War to decide ownership of lands in France that had been inherited by English kings. The eventual French victory confirmed the king as the most powerful political force in France.

The Goths were a Germanic tribe on the Danube River frontier known to the Romans from the 1st century AD. Pressured and then displaced when the Huns moved west out of Central Asia, the Goths moved west into Europe and over the Danube River to escape the oncoming hordes. After taking part in the fall of Rome, they vied with other barbarians for the leavings of the Western Roman Empire during the Early Middle Ages.

The Goths originated on the island of Gotland in the Baltic, to the best of our knowledge, and split into two groups as they migrated south across Central Europe. The Visigoths, or West Goths, settled in modern Romania during the 2nd century. The Ostrogoths, or East Goths, settled farther to the east on the northwest coast of the Black Sea. In 376 AD the Visigoths were driven from modern Romania by the Huns and moved south across the Danube. Their strength was estimated at 60,000 men, women, and children. They defeated a Roman army from Constantinople, settled briefly south of the Danube, and then pushed into Italy. In 409 they sacked Rome under their king Alaric and then moved north into Gaul. The Romans gave them southwestern Gaul. From their they eventually extended their rule into all of modern Spain.

The Ostrogoths broke away from Hunnish rule and followed their cousins into Italy late in the 5th century. They were encouraged to invade by the Eastern Emperor who wanted deposed the barbarian then ruling as viceroy. Under Theodric, king of modern Switzerland and the Balkans already, the Goths entered Italy in 488, completing its conquest in 493.

Theodric's kingdom did not last long following his death in 526. Using a struggle for succession as an excuse, the Byzantines sent an army to Italy in 536 led by their great general Belisarius. The Byzantines hoped to regain Italy and restore the old Roman Empire in the West.

The war dragged on, devastating the countryside in conjunction with plague and famine. In 552 the Ostrogoths were finally defeated in Italy. They ceased to exist as a separate group by the late 6th century when northern Italy was invaded by a new group of barbarians called the Lombards.
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The Visigoth kingdom in Spain lasted somewhat longer. In the late 5th century Clovis of the Franks pushed the Visigoths out of France and over the Pyrenees Mountains. Following the death of Clovis his kingdom fragmented and the Visigoths were left alone temporarily. In 711 a new threat appeared from the south. Islamic armies crossed over from North Africa and destroyed the last Gothic kingdom in four years.

The Goths are remembered for being the first to sack Rome and thereby beginning the final collapse of the ancient world order in Europe. Their admiration for Rome and attempts to preserve it, however, allowed much of the Roman culture to survive. For example, the modern languages of Italy, France, Spain, Portugal, and Romania are derived from Latin influenced by later settlers. They are not variations of German, as was the case in England.

Located 100 miles off the mainland of Asia, at its closest point, Japan was a land of mystery at the edge of civilization. Isolated at first by geography and later by choice, the Japanese developed a distinctive culture that drew very little from the outside world. At the beginning of what were the Middle Ages in Europe, the advanced culture of Japan was centered at the north end of the Inland Sea on the main island of Honshu. Across the Hakone Mountains to the east lay the Kanto, an alluvial plain that was the single largest rice growing area on the islands. To the north and east of the Kanto was the frontier, beyond that lived aboriginal Japanese, known as the Ainu, who had occupied the islands since Neolithic times.

By the 5th century AD, the Yamato court had become largely ceremonial. Independent clans, known as uji, held the real power behind the throne. Clan leaders formed a sort of aristocracy and vied with each other for effective control of land and the throne.

In 530 the Soga clan became predominant and produced the first great historical statesman, Prince Shotoku, who instituted reforms that laid the foundation of Japanese culture for the next 1000 years. In 644, power shifted from the Soga clan to the Fujiwara clan. The Fujiwara presided over most of the Heian period, 794-1185. The new leadership imposed the Taika Reform of 645 which attempted redistribute the rice growing land, establish a tax on agricultural production, and divide the country into provinces. Too much of the country remained outside imperial influence and control, however. Real power shifted to great families that rose to prominence in the rice growing lands. Conflict between these families led to civil war and the rise of the warrior class.

Similar to the experience of medieval Western Europe, the breakdown of central authority in Japan, the rise of powerful local nobles, and conflict with barbarians at the frontier combined to create a culture dominated by a warrior elite. These warriors became known as Samurai, 'those who serve,' who were roughly equivalent to the European knight. A military government replaced the nobility as the power behind the throne at the end of the 12th century. The head of the military government was the Shogun.
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Samurai lived by a code of the warrior, something like the European code of chivalry. The foundation of the warrior code was loyalty to the lord. The warrior expected leadership and protection. In return he obeyed his lord's commands without question and stood ready to die on his lord's behalf. A Samurai placed great emphasis on his ancestry and strove to carry on family traditions. He behaved so as to earn praise. He was to be firm and show no cowardice. Warriors went into battle expecting and looking to die. It was felt that a warrior hoping to live would fight poorly.

The Kamakura period (1185-1333) was named after a region of Japan dominated by a new ruling clan that took power after civil war. The Mongols attempted to invade Japan twice, in 1274 and 1281, but were repulsed both times. A fortuitous storm caused great loss to the second Mongol invasion fleet and became known as the Kamikaze, or 'divine wind.'

The Mongols were nomads from the steppes of Central Asia. They were fierce warriors who fought each other over pasture lands and raided developed civilizations to the east and south. At the beginning of the 13th century the Mongol clans united and began a campaign of foreign conquest. Following in the hoof prints of the Huns, their predecessors by a thousand years, they carved out the largest empire the world has yet seen. Cutting a wide swathe of death and destruction, the Mongols became known as the "devil's horsemen."

The Mongols inhabited the plains south of Lake Baikal in modern Mongolia. At its maximum, their empire stretched from Korea, across Asia, and into European Russia to the Baltic Sea coast. They held most of Asia Minor, modern Iraq, modern Iran, Afghanistan, Pakistan, Tibet, parts of India, parts of Burma, all of China, and parts of Vietnam.

The Mongol clans were united by Temujin, called Genghis Khan ('Mighty Ruler') in the early 13th century. His ambition was to rule all lands between the oceans (Pacific and Atlantic) and he nearly did so. Beginning with only an estimated 25,000 warriors, he added strength by subjugating other nomads and attacked northern China in 1211. He took Beijing in 1215 after a campaign that may have cost 30,000,000 Chinese lives. The Mongols then turned west, capturing the great trading city Bukhara on the Silk Road in 1220. The city was burned to the ground and the inhabitants murdered.

Following Genghis Khan's death in 1227, his son Ogedei completed the conquest of northern China and advanced into Europe. He destroyed Kiev in 1240 and advanced into Hungary. When Ogedei died on campaign in 1241, the entire army fell back to settle the question of succession. Europe was spared as Mongolian rulers concentrated their efforts against the Middle East and southern China. Hulagu, a grandson of Genghis, exterminated the Muslim "Assassins" and then took the Muslim capital of Baghdad in 1258. Most of the city's 100,000 inhabitants were murdered. In 1260 a Muslim army of Egyptian Mamelukes (warrior slaves of high status) defeated the Mongols in present day Israel ending the Mongol threat to Islam and its holy cities.
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Kublai Khan, another grandson of Genghis, completed the conquest of China in 1279, establishing the Yuan dynasty. Attempted invasions of Japan were thrown back with heavy loss in 1274 and 1281. In 1294 Kublai Khan died in China and Mongol power began to decline in Asia and elsewhere. In 1368 the Yuan dynasty in China was overthrown in favor of the Ming.

In the 1370s a Turkish-Mongol warrior claiming descent from Genghis Khan fought his way to leadership of the Mongol states of Central Asia and set out to restore the Mongol Empire. His name was Timur Leng (Timur "the Lame," Tamerlane to Europeans, and the "Prince of Destruction" to Asians). With another army of 100,000 or so horsemen, he swept into Russia and Persian, fighting mainly other Muslims. In 1398 he sacked Delhi, murdering 100,000 inhabitants. He rushed west defeating an Egyptian Mameluke army in Syria. In 1402 he defeated a large Ottoman Turk army near modern Ankara. On the verge of destroying the Ottoman Empire, he turned again suddenly. He died in 1405 while marching for China. He preferred capturing wealth and engaged in wholesale slaughter, without pausing to install stable governments in his wake. Because of this, the huge realm inherited by his sons fell apart quickly after his death.