AP World History Unit 1 Test WCHS Mr. Banig

What does a state mean in the 1200-1450 time period?

A territory that is politically organized under a single government

Who were the main people in charge in China during this time period?

The Song Dynasty (960-1279)

What commodities predominated the Silk Roads and what non-material items spread along them?

Luxury goods (silk, spices, precious metals), as well as ideas, technologies, religions (Buddhism, Islam), and the plague

How did the Indian Ocean trade differ from the Silk Roads in goods and participants?

Indian Ocean carried bulk goods (timber, grain, textiles, porcelain) and involved maritime polities (Swahili city-states, Gujarat, Srivijaya, China), using monsoon knowledge and ship tech

What role did monsoon winds play in Indian Ocean trade?

Predictable seasonal winds allowed sailors to plan voyages, facilitating reliable two-way maritime trade and cultural contact

How did Islam expand across regions in Unit 1?

Through conquest, trade networks, Sufi missionaries, and conversion of elites — particularly across Dar al-Islam, West Africa, Indian Ocean port cities, and parts of South Asia

Define “Dar al-Islam”

Regions where Islam was the dominant cultural, legal, and political framework with extensive scholarly and commercial networks

What is the significance of the Abbasid Caliphate for this period?

The Abbasid golden age (decline by 1200) left a legacy of scholarship, trade, and Islamic institutions; regional successor states and Muslim merchants continued influence

What is Sufism and why was it important?

Mystical, devotional Islam emphasizing personal union with God; Sufi missionaries were crucial in converting populations through local, syncretic practices

Describe the political and economic characteristics of the Song Dynasty (China)

Highly commercialized economy, urbanization, advanced agricultural techniques (champa rice), technological innovations (printing, gunpowder), strong bureaucracy based on merit exams

What was champa rice and why did it matter?

Fast-maturing, drought-resistant rice from Champa (Vietnam) that allowed multiple harvests per year, boosting population and urbanization in Song China

How did Neo-Confucianism function in the Song era?

Revival of Confucian moral/philosophical thought that incorporated metaphysical ideas to counter Buddhism; reinforced social hierarchy and state exam ideology

Name three major Chinese technological contributions in this era

Printing, gunpowder, and improvements in shipbuilding and navigation

What economic and social changes accompanied increased long-distance trade?

Rise of merchant classes, growth of cities/market towns, monetization, and more pronounced social stratification in some areas

How did the Mongol conquests affect Eurasian exchange?

Created political stability across large territories (Pax Mongolica) facilitating trade, transmission of ideas, and also the spread of disease (Black Death)

What was the Pax Mongolica?

Period of relative peace/security across Eurasia under Mongol rule that allowed increased trade and communication along the Silk Roads

How did the Mongols govern culturally diverse territories?

Often used local administrators, religious tolerance, promoted trade and communication, and employed existing bureaucracies where useful

Explain the significance of the Mali Empire in West Africa

Wealthy state controlling gold trade across the Trans-Saharan route; famous rulers like Mansa Musa promoted Islam and learning (Timbuktu)

How did Trans-Saharan trade operate and what were the main goods?

Camels enabled Sahara crossing; traded gold, salt, slaves, and luxury goods between West Africa and North African/Mediterranean markets

What role did Timbuktu play in the 14th century?

Major center of Islamic learning, trade, and scholarship in Mali and later Songhai empires

Describe the Swahili city-states and their economic role

Coastal East African trading cities (Kilwa, Mombasa, Zanzibar) connecting African interior and Indian Ocean commerce; wealthy from gold, ivory, and trade taxes

How did Islam spread on the Swahili coast?

Through trade relations with Muslim merchants, intermarriage, and adoption by urban elites — creating Swahili culture blending African and Islamic elements

What is the Delhi Sultanate and its major impacts?

Muslim-ruled state in northern India (1206–1526) that introduced Islamic political institutions, stimulated Hindu-Muslim cultural interactions, and influenced trade and land systems

Contrast Islam’s spread in India with its spread in West Africa

n India, Islam often spread via conquest and elites in urban centers with substantial Hindu populations continuing; in West Africa, trade and Sufi missionaries led to gradual elite conversion and syncretism

What economic system dominated Europe in the early medieval period and how did it change in Unit 1?

Feudal manorialism was dominant; from 1200–1450 Europe saw urban revival, increased trade, merchant guilds, and nascent centralized states

What caused the rise of powerful centralized states in this period (e.g., England, France)?

Revenue from trade/taxes, bureaucratic expansion, military innovations, and consolidation of noble power under monarchs

How did the Crusades influence Eurasian interactions?

Increased contact between Europe and Middle East, stimulated trade, cultural transfers (knowledge, goods), and intensified religious conflict

What was the Byzantine Empire’s role in this era?

Eastern Mediterranean Christian state preserving Roman law/Greek culture; a commercial and religious center until its decline post-Fourth Crusade (1204)

What is the significance of the Black Death (bubonic plague) in Unit 1?

Pandemic in mid-14th century that decimated populations, disrupted economies, labor shortages, social unrest, and weakened some states

How did labor shortages after the Black Death affect social structures in Europe?

Peasants gained bargaining power, wages rose in some regions, contributing to decline of serfdom and social upheaval

Explain the role of trade diasporas (e.g., Jewish, Muslim, Indian merchant communities)

They maintained long-distance commercial networks, provided credit and financial instruments, and facilitated cultural exchange in port cities and trade hubs

What were some financial innovations that supported long-distance trade?

Bills of exchange, letters of credit, banking families, and improved accounting/bookkeeping methods

What is syncretism and give an example from Unit 1

Blending of religious/cultural practices — e.g., West African Islam incorporating local customs, or East African Swahili culture mixing Bantu and Islamic elements

How did the environment and geography shape empires and trade?

Mountain ranges, deserts, and seas determined trade routes; monsoons enabled Indian Ocean trade; savannas and Sahel shaped Trans-Saharan routes

Define “tributary system” and give an example

System where states acknowledged a more powerful state’s superiority, offering tribute in exchange for trade or protection — e.g., China’s relations with neighboring states

What role did women commonly play in these societies (general trends)?

Varied by region: patriarchal norms predominated, but women sometimes held significant roles (household economy, market activities, noble/political influence); norms could shift with religion and class

How did technological transfers occur between civilizations?

Through trade, warfare, missionaries, and movement of peoples—e.g., spread of gunpowder from China, navigation tech via Indian Ocean exchanges

What are examples of cultural/intellectual diffusion in this period?

Transmission of Islamic scholarship to Europe (via Spain and Crusader contacts), Indian mathematical concepts into the Islamic world, printing/woodblock in East Asia

What economic and political impacts did maritime trade centers have?

Port cities (e.g., Venice, Calicut, Guangzhou) became wealthy hubs, fostering merchant classes, state revenues, and cultural cosmopolitanism

How did urbanization trends change 1200–1450?

Cities increased in number and size, especially in commercial and administrative centers across China, the Islamic world, Europe, and parts of Africa/Asia

What caused increased demand for luxury goods across Eurasia?

Greater wealth among elites, expansion of courts and state elites, and improved trade networks connecting producers and consumers

Explain how slave systems functioned in Unit 1 and where they were prominent

Slavery existed in many places: Trans-Saharan and Indian Ocean slave trades, Mediterranean slavery, and servitude/domestic slavery in Islamic lands and parts of Africa and Asia; systems varied widely

What was the role of missionaries and religious scholars in cultural exchange?

Spread religious beliefs, literacies, legal codes, and often acted as cultural intermediaries (Christian missionaries, Sufi orders, Buddhist monks)

How did states legitimize authority in this period?

Through religion (divine sanction), bureaucracy, military conquest, lineage/kinship, monumental architecture, and law codes

Give an example of a regional state that incorporated existing elites to rule more effectively

Mongol rulers often retained local bureaucrats; Delhi Sultans used local elites for administration; many empires adapted local institutions

What economic effect did population growth in China have before the 14th century?

Increased agricultural production, specialization, urban growth, and greater internal market demand

Name a key clerical/intellectual center in the Islamic world that influenced learning

Baghdad (historically under Abbasids) and later centers like Cairo and Córdoba (earlier) plus Timbuktu in West Africa

How did trade networks contribute to the spread of disease?

Increased movement of people/goods along trade routes enabled pathogens (e.g., Yersinia pestis) to travel long distances, causing pandemics

What were the major cultural outcomes of contacts between Tang/Song China and neighboring regions?

Spread of Buddhism, adoption of Chinese administrative/technological models, and tributes/tribute relationships influencing East Asian states (Korea, Japan, Vietnam)

Summarize the central theme of Unit 1 in one sentence

Between 1200–1450, expanding trade networks, state transformations, and cross-cultural interactions reshaped regional societies through the movement of goods, people, ideas, and technologies

How did the Song Dynasty maintain and justify its rule?

• Strong Confucian bureaucracy

• Civil service exams

• Confucian values

• Mandate of Heaven (moral legitimacy in Heaven)

• Economic prosperity (increased trade and agricultural output from Champa rice)

• Neo-Confucianism

What belief system did the Song Dynasty revive from the Tang Dynasty, and how did it influence their rule?

They revived Confucianism, using it to strengthen government institutions, promote social order, and justify authority through moral governance and hierarchy, creating Neo-Confucianism

Neo-Confucianism

Sought to rid Confucian thought of the influence of Buddhism which had influenced it significantly in the prior centuries

Filial Piety

Emphasized the necessity and virtue of children obeying and honoring their parents, grandparents, and deceased ancestors

What did women in Song China face?

• Stripped of legal rights

• Endured social restrictions (access to limited education, food binding)

Describe the social status of men in Song Dynasty who took the civil service exam

It was open to men of all socio-economic status, but to study for the exam, they had to be rich enough to not work and devote himself to studying 

How did Korea, Japan, and Vietnam rise in power and prominence?

Their proximity to and close relationships with China

Similarities in beliefs between Buddhism and Hinduism

• Cycle of birth, death, and reincarnation

• The ultimate goal is to dissolve into the oneness of the universe

• Nirvana

Theravada Buddhism

Confined the practice of Buddhism to monks and monasteries doing their best to get enlightened due to the belief that people outside of monasteries were too occupied with the world to get a grasp of Buddhism

Mahayana Buddhism

Encouraged a broader participation in Buddhist practices, and bodhisattvas (those who had attained enlightenment), made it their aim to help others along the path to enlightenment

How did new branches of Buddhism emerge?

They emerged as Buddhism interacted with various Asian cultures

Economy in Song China

1. Commercialization of the economy (manufacturers and artisans began to produce more goods than were consumed, and sold excess goods in markets in China and across Eurasia, like porcelain and silk)

2. Agricultural innovation (champa rice)

3. Transportation innovations (expansion of the Grand Canal)

Monotheistic religions

1. Judaism (ethnic religion of the Jews)

2. Christianity (established by the Jewish prophet Jesus Christ)

3. Islam (founded by the prophet Muhammed)

How did Judaism, Christianity, and Islam influence the societies where they were practiced during 1200–1450?

Wherever Judaism, Christianity, or Islam were practiced, believers used their religious principles to shape laws, social structures, and cultural values

How did Islam emerge in the Abbasid Caliphate?

As power waned and the Abbasid Caliphate split up, new Islamic political entities arose, each dominated by Turkic people

What major shift occurred in Muslim political power between 1200 and 1450?

The dominance of Arab Muslim empires declined while Turkic Muslim empires rose to power, such as the Seljuk, Delhi Sultanate, and Ottoman states

How did the new empires dominated by Turkic people demonstrate continuity?

1. Military administered their states

2. Established sharia law (legal code based on the Quran)

Where was lots of literature established under the Abbasid Empire stored in Baghdad?

The House of Wisdom during the Golden Age of Islam

Who represented the center of world scholarship and wealth during the 1200-1450 time period?

Dar-al-Islam and Song China

How did Muslim rule expand throughout Afro-Eurasia?

1. Military expansion

2. Muslim merchants (trade and movement of merchants were stimulated in this time period)

3. Muslim missionaries (emphasized mystical experience)

What were the three main belief systems in South and Southeast Asia that profoundly shaped the regions?

1. Hinduism

2. Buddhism

3. Islam

What was the most widespread religion in India?

Hinduism, but Islam became the second most important and influential religion in the region

Bhakti movement

Began as an innovation on traditional polytheistic Hinduism and emphasized devotion to just one of the Hindu gods, which was much more attractive to ordinary believers who were tired of the complex Hindu hierarchies; it mounted challenges to social and gender hierarchies

Give an example of Hindu resistance against Muslim intrusion

Rajput kingdoms- a collection of rival and warring Hindu kingdoms that had existed before Muslim rule in Northern India, and managed to keep Muslim rule at bay 

Example of a sea-based empire 

Majapahit kingdom- a Buddhist kingdom that was one of the most powerful states in southeast Asia, and maintained its influence by controlling sea routes for trade

How did Majapahit decline?

It started declining when China started supporting its trading rival (Sultanate of Malacca)

Give an example of a land-based empire

Khmer empire- founded as a Hindu kingdom, but leadership eventually converted to Buddhist 

Angkor Wat

Built as a magnificent Hindu temple, but later, after the conversion, converted to Buddhism due to the addition of many Buddhist elements to the structure without removing the Hindu elements; it stands as a monument both to the kingdom’s religious continuity and its change over time

Where did majority of the population of the Americas live?

Mesoamerica & Andean civilizations

Aztec Empire

A giant empire founded in 1345 by the Meshika people with a capital city of Tenochtitlan, the largest city in the Americas before the Europeans arrived

Aztec administration

1. Created an elaborate system of tribute states (conquered people had to provide labor for the Aztecs and regular contributions of goods like food, animals, materials, etc.)

2. Enslaved people played a large role in their religion (many became candidates for human sacrifice)

Inca Empire

Maintained power in ways far more intrusive in the lives of the people they conquered 

Mit’a system

Required all people under their rule to provide labor on state projects like large state farms, mining, military service, state construction projects, etc.

How did the political structures of the Aztec and Inca empires differ between 1200 and 1450?

The Aztecs ruled through a mostly decentralized system, allowing conquered city-states to govern themselves as long as they paid tribute, while the Inca maintained a highly centralized government, directly controlling their empire through a strong bureaucracy, road networks, and state-administered labor

What was the first large-scale civilization in North America?

Mississippian culture

Mississippian power structure

Large towns dominated smaller, satellite settlements politically

Swahili civilization

1. Politically independent with common social hierarchy (put the merchant elite above commoners)

2. Deeply influenced by Muslim traders (new language, Swahili emerged)

How did Muslim influence affect the Swahili city-states and their role in trade?

Muslim influence led the Swahili city-states to rapidly adopt Islam, which strengthened cultural and religious ties and increased their integration into the larger Islamic trade network across the Indian Ocean

Who primarily converted to Islam in empires during 1200–1450, and what did the majority of the population practice?

Elite members and government officials were the main converts to Islam, using it to legitimize rule, while the majority of the population maintained indigenous beliefs and traditions

How did the Hausa Kingdom gain power?

They acted as brokers of the trans-S aharan trade

How did Great Zimbabwe’s economy change with increasing African and international trade?

As trade expanded through Great Zimbabwe, the city grew exceedingly wealthy and its economy shifted to focus mainly on gold exports, connecting it to regional and Indian Ocean trade networks

What religion did the rulers and people of Great Zimbabwe practice during 1200–1450?

Rulers and people of Great Zimbabwe did not convert to Islam; they maintained their indigenous shamanistic religion, even while participating in trade with Muslim merchants

Why did the Kingdom of Ethiopia flourish?

Due to trade with other states around the Mediterranean and the Arabian Peninsula

What sets Ethiopia apart from other kingdoms?

Their religion— Christianity; the one Christian state since most other African states were dominated by Islam and Indigenous belief systems, but their hierarchial power structures were very similar

Christianity in Europe

1. Eastern Orthodox (Byzantine Empire, Kievan Rus carried it on and united them)

2. Roman Catholicism (linked every state together in the region)

Both had significant influence over society and culture and politics

What religions influenced Europe?

Christianity, Muslims, and Jews

Were there any large empires in Europe

No

What was the nature of political organization in Europe during 1200–1450?

During this period, Europe experienced decentralization and political fragmentation, with power divided among local lords, monarchs, and city-states rather than being centralized under a single authority