Charles V is usually remembered as “the fifth” because he was the fifth Charles to be emperor of the Holy Roman Empire, which covered much of modern-day Germany, Austria, Switzerland, and northern Italy. The title was an elective one, and Charles V was chosen to be the next emperor in 1519 in no small part because the title was last held by his grandfather Maximilian. However, thanks to a series of lucky marriage alliances made by his dynasty, the Habsburgs, Charles V also became the hereditary ruler of territories covering Austria, Spain, Sicily, southern Italy, and much of what is now the modern-day Netherlands, Belgium, and Luxembourg in addition to the Spanish colonies in the Americas.

Charles V’s empire was the first global empire that spanned across oceans. Its size encouraged the idea that Charles V or his successors could be the universal emperor anticipated in religious hopes who would unite all of Europe and Christendom under one ruler, leading to the return of Jesus Christ. In fact, Ian Morris suggests that Charles V did come close to unifying Europe under one state. However, Charles V’s empire was a patchwork, and he constantly had to work through different states that all had distinctive languages, cultures, laws and rights, political traditions, and government institutions. The stress of managing such an empire may have been at least part of the reason why Charles V abdicated in 1556 and divided all of his titles and lands between his son, who became King Philip II of Spain, and his brother, Archduke Ferdinand I of Austria. He died one year later in Spain.

Born in 1736, James Watt was a Scottish scientist and engineer who greatly improved upon the previous design of the steam engine, making it much more energy efficient. The Watts steam energy first went into production in 1776. It was a device that could generate energy without relying on a stationary source of water like a river, providing a major step toward the Industrial Revolution. Still, because Morris argues that “[e]ach age gets the thought it needs” (568), he believes that such innovations would have been discovered eventually.

A king of the Assyrian Empire in the 8th century BCE, Tiglath-Pileser III’s reign saw major political reforms that centralized the Assyrian government and reversed the decline of Assyria. He defeated Assyria’s major rivals at the time, Babylon and Damascus. Tiglath-Pileser III is one of Morris’s examples of a major historical figure whose accomplishments were not necessarily because of their individual accomplishments, but because they benefited from a broader trend in social development.

The only woman to rule China in her own right, Wu Zeitan reigned as empress from 690 to 705 CE. Unusually highly educated for a woman of the time, she started gaining influence as an imperial concubine until she became the empress consort of the Sui dynasty emperor Gaozong. After Gaozong’s death, she ruled as empress regent in the name of her son Zhongzong, whom she had deposed, and then her son Ruizong. However, she had Ruizong deposed as well. Then she made herself empress and declared herself the first of a new dynasty called the Zhou.

A devout Buddhist, Wu Zeitan began to extend imperial support of the religion. She reformed the civil service examination system, giving more opportunities to men from outside the aristocracy. When she became severely ill in 705, she was deposed and her son Zhongzong was restored to the throne. She died shortly thereafter. Morris holds her life and reign up as an example of the “protofeminism” (340) that resulted from Buddhist attitudes and China’s relatively high level of social development in the era.