AP World - 2.5 Cultural Consequences of Connectivity

what did the arrival of a new religion do?

* served to unify people
* provide justification for kingdom’s leadership
* influenced literary and artistic cultures
* in some places, coexisted with native religions

interactions from increased trade → technological innovations → helped shape era

chan buddhism

* buddhist doctrines fused with elements of daoist traditions
* song dynasty began to adopt this

japan and korea

* adopted buddhism and confucianism
* korea: elite studied confucian classics, peasants studied buddhist doctrines

neo-confucianism

* originated in china, tang dynasty
* combined rational thought with abstract ideas of daoism and buddhism
* became korea’s official state ideology

srivijaya empire

* on sumatra
* hindu kingdom
* sea-based

majapahit kingdom

* on java
* buddhist

sinhala dynasties

* south asian
* land-based
* in sri lanka
* centers of buddhist study
* many monasteries

khmer empire (aka angkor kingdom)

* present-day cambodia
* most successful in southeast asia
* lots of hindu artwork and sculptures
* when rulers became buddhist, added buddhist sculptures and artwork with hindu works

how did islam spread over africa, south asia, and southeast asia?

through merchants, missionaries, and conquests

what did islamic scholars do?

* translated greek classics into arabic
* brought back math texts from india
* brought techniques for paper making from china
* studied and made advances in medicine from ancient civilizations

improvements in agricultural efficiency

* champa rice spread from india-vietnam-china
* population grew → cities, industries grew

improvements in seafaring technology

* lateen sails
* stern rudder
* astrolabe
* magnetic compass
* production of gunpowder and guns

marco polo at hangzhou, china

* trade supported urbanization
* hangzhou was large
* center of culture in southern china and home of poets
* center of trade
* city grew and prospered as merchants exhanged goods → brought diversity and thriving community of arabs

samarkand and kashgar

* cities on trade routes that thrived
* known as centers of islamic scholarshop, busy marketes, and sources of fresh water and food for merchants

kashgar’s decline

* declined after series of conquests by nomadic invaders
* 1389-1390: destroyed by tamerlane

constantinople

* present-day turkey
* heavily walled
* crusader armies weakened this city
* bubonic plague killed many people
* 1453: fell to ottomans