Clovis and Charlemagne were important rulers in the Frankish Empire. Clovis I founded the Frankish Empire in 496 CE and Charlemagne the Great extended the territory of the Frankish Empire and formed what is known as the Carolingian Empire in the ninth century.

The grandson of Genghis Khan, Hulagu Khan, seized and conquered the jewel of Islam in February 1258. The civilian population of Baghdad suffered terribly. The city was looted and raised including the epicenter of Islamic intellect- the grand library of Baghdad. This effectively ended the Islamic Golden Age, causing the recentering of Muslim culture to the Mamluk capitol of Cairo. 

The Mongol warlord Timur reigned over the Jagatai Khanate from 1370 to 1405. During this time he led a series of military conquests against Persia, Russia, the Middle East, Central Asia, and the Indian subcontinent. Notably he sacked the city of Delhi and led to the weakening of the Delhi Sultanate. Timur could probably be considered to be the last of the great Mongol warlords.

The Inca ruled over a vast swathe of land on the Pacific coast of South America before the arrival of the Spanish in the sixteenth century. The Inca practiced terrace farming and constructed an elaborate road network stretching for thousands of miles along the coast and through the Andean foothills. They are also well-known for their extremely stratified and hierarchical society. However, they did not possess a system of writing. Instead they employed the knot-tying system known as quipu.

The Mayan civilization emerged in Mesoamerica during the classical period of American history. They are renowned for their art and architecture and their mastery, for the time period, of astronomy and the motion of celestial objects. The decline of the Mayan civilization began in the ninth century C.E., but it is not known what exactly caused the downfall. The Mayan people continued to live in small communities until eventually eradicated or assimilated during the Spanish conquest of Latin America.

The Tang dynasty, which ruled from 618 - 906 CE, was the most powerful Chinese dynasty of the classical period. The Tang ruled over the largest stretch of the land of all these dynasties; including parts of Central Asia, Tibet, Manchuria, and southeast Asia.

After the division of the Mongol Empire, Kublai Khan ruled over the largest stretch of territory. He controlled Karakorum and the Mongol homeland, the entirety of China and Korea, parts of southeast Asia, Tibet, and parts of Central Asia.

The Mamluk Sultanate was founded in Egypt in the thirteenth century. It began with the overthrow of the Abbasid Caliphate. The Mamluks ruled over most of Egypt and the Levant for a few centuries before being conquered by the growing Ottoman Empire in the sixteenth century.

In 1398, the Central Asian Mongol-Turkic warlord Timur invaded the Delhi Sultanate and sacked the city of Delhi. This contributed greatly to the weakening of the Delhi Sultanate, which would never again rule with the same authority. The Sultanate would come to an end in the early sixteenth century when it was conquered by the Mughals.

The Toltec civilization emerged in pre-Columbian Mexico in the 800s CE. They were a warrior society and grew wealthy and powerful on the back of military conquest. They were not contemporaries of the Olmecs (who preceded them by more than a thousand years), but they were contemporaries of the Aztecs.