Both Venice and Genoa have employed Muslim…

Kublai had been elected Great Khan in 1260 and had consolidated his position four years later.

He begins construction in 1267 of his new Chinese capital, Daidu, next to the old Jin capital of Zhongdu (both are located in what will become modern Beijing).

Genoa's alliance with the restored Eastern Roman Empire under the 1261 Treaty of Ninfeo has paved the way for a great expansion in the Black Sea.

Kaffa (modern Feodosiya) becomes the capital of a broad stretch of the Crimean coast ruled by the Genoese from 1266.

Shvarn, following successful military campaigns, defeats his brother Mstislav in the battle of the Yaselda River in 1267, and captures Turov and …

…Pinsk.

Shvarn becomes the new Grand Duke in 1267 after Vaišvilkas returns to monastic life.

No details are known about Shvarn's rule over Lithuania and he probably did not gain a strong foothold in that country.

However, he is apparently fairly successful in expanding his borders.

The site of Ostrava, located about one hundred and seventy miles (two hundred and seventy-five kilometers) east of Prague, was an important crossroads of prehistoric trading routes, namely the Amber Road.

Archaeological finds have proved that the area around Ostrava has been permanently inhabited for twenty-five thousand years.

The Venus of Petřkovice was made here around 23,000 BCE; it is today in Archaeological Institute, Brno.

The Ostravice river marks the thirteenth-century border between the Silesian duchy of Opole and the March of Moravia under Bohemian suzerainty.

Two settlements have arisen on both sides of the river: Slezská Ostrava (Silesian Ostrava) was first mentioned in 1229, Moravská Ostrava (Moravian Ostrava) in 1267.

It is today the third largest city in the Czech Republic and the second largest urban agglomeration after Prague.

Jews have come to Poland since the tenth century from the west, from Khazaria in the east, and from the Eastern Roman Empire in the south.

Their presence had soon evoked the enmity of the Polish church: a synod convened in 1267 in Breslau (Wroclaw) outlines its anti-Jewish policy; its main aim is to isolate the Jews as far as possible from the Christians, not only from the communion of friendship and table but also to separate them in quarters surrounded by a wall or a ditch “for as up to now the land of Poland is newly grafted on to the Christian body, it is to be feared that the Christian people will more easily be misled by the superstitions and evil habits of the Jews that live among them.”

The leadership of Vienna in 1267 forces Jews to wear Pileum cornutum, a cone-shaped head dress, in addition to the yellow badges Jews are already forced to wear.

Father and son had on March 23, 1266, confirmed the peace in the Convent of the Blessed Virgin on the Nyulak szigete ('Rabbits' Island').

Shortly afterwards, Stephen V had led his army to Bulgaria and forced Despot Jakob Svetoslav of Vidin to accept his overlordship.

The "prelates and nobles" of the Kingdom of Hungary hold a joint assembly in Esztergom in 1267, and their decisions are confirmed by both Stephen and his father.

The forces of Michael VIII have, through small skirmishes and naval victories, and through astute diplomacy—including the reunion between the Roman Catholic and Eastern Orthodox churches—secured the revived Eastern Roman empire by 126, engendering a relative peace and the cessation of warfare in the immediate future.

However, the dominating influence on imperial policy for most of Michael's reign will be the threat of reconquest by the Western powers.

From the first, Michael's hold on the throne has been precarious, surrounded as it is on all sides by Latins desirous of restoring Latin rule.