whap study guide unit 2.3

medieval period (like everything else in unit 2)

marco polos homeland is medical europe and medieval europe is poorer than the rest of afro eurasia

venice was the city that connected to the silk road during the crusades

bc pope bans loans cause interest so merchants are like oh no how are we supposed to do loan stuff so they find a loophole and make bills of exchange

economy of medieval europe

marco polo lived from 1253/4-1324 and his uncle and father was lowk gone for most of his childhood cause they were out traveling across central asia until they met kublai khan who gave them the golden passport so they’re like lol time to dip and when they return to marco his mom is already dead

when marco is 17 he’s like uncle and father lets go to china through the silk roads using that golden passport and then the polos go on a family roadtrip to china (no mom tho she’s still dead rip marco polos mom)

• they get to china in 1275 through the silk roads and then they’re like actually let’s go go antioch (ruled by mamluk sultans who defeated the mongols but respect merchants bc Mohammed) by ship

• after antioch they pass into the mongol ilkhanate but is protected by the golden passport

• spent time in ogodei khanate and marco is mesmerized by princess khutulan bc she’s so independent and cool

influence of mongols

marco polo reached beijing and khublai khan is there and hires marco polo as a top advisor person cause he don’t trust the chinese (stayed 17 yrs- tried to leave sooner but kublai khan is like lol no)

• in china marco saw very large cities than the ones in europe paper money and also believed that the wealth of mongol khans was the greatest

yuan dynasty

marco left china in 1288 and traveled thru the indian ocean

kublai khan dies so the golden passport expires so now the polos aren’t protected so they got robbed

they pass thru the black sea to constantineople bc lots of diasporic community of venetians there

• back in venice in 1295

marco polos return

medieval and early modern periods

marco polo told his stories to prisoners in prison and one is a novelist and is like let me just write this stuff down and publish it into the book named “millions” (not all the stories told by marco was true tho..)

• the book stimulated interest in reaching china and inspired columbus

long term impact of marco polo

medieval period

ibn battutas homeland is islamic north africa and he lived 1304-1369

he was a qadi but wanted to travel to learn how to be more connectedto/experience God

his first journey is his hajj in 1325 to find sufi mystics

• muslim gov protected travelers

• muslim travelers used methods of credit like checks

ibn battutas upbringing

wants to find sufi mystics to help guide him into experiencing God

in his hajj he travels across north africa and mamluk territory and gets to mecca in 1326

ibn battutas faith

ibn battutas second journey he goes to the ilkhanate in persia for the great library (atp it’s already burned by the mongols so ibn battutas like grrr mongols but also he’s like yay mongols bc they’re muslim now)

after no seeing a library he’s like time to go and he leaves to the east african coast kilwa

islams spread in in middle east and east africa

ibn battutas still on his second journey and he’s like if there’s no library then i’m gonna go look for the sufi mystics in sultanate of delhi but im gonna take the really long way tho

• goes to antonia/turkey and is like omg why are these turkish women having power i dont like that

• then goes to the black sea to crimea (islam spread to golden horde over russia and ukraine)

• then he’s in the byzantine empire because a mongol khan was like hey ibn battuta can u take my preggo concubine back to her home in constantinople when ibn battuta gets there he’s shocked by how weak the byzantine empire is now

• after dropping off the concubine he went to the central asian merchant cities of bohkhara and samarkand and he was protected by monhols and was also yet again like omg women have so much power i don’t like that

islams spread in east europe and central asia

ibn battuta starts his third journey after he’s lived in the sultanate of delhi from since 1333-1341 where he served as qadi and tried to replace local elites w foreners but when he finds out that the sultan of the sultanate of delhi torture and kills ppl daily he’s like oh no time to go

islams spread in south asia

ibn battutas third journey continues as he leaves sultanate of delhi and goes to yuan china through gujurat which is reich due to indian ocean trade

bc the indian ocean trade route was the richest trade route of the 1300s naval travel tech like dhows astrolabes and compasses are made and the monsoon winds allow for reliable sea travel

he travels to the maldives thru the indian ocean and served as qadi there and then he’s like time to keep traveling and goes to 2 non muslim places (sri lanka and myanmar)

continued to southeast asia and makes stops at the the sultanate of aceh (which has the easternmost muslim ruler) and mahajapit (not muslim) and also went to visit a princess warrior in the philippines or vietnam

after the sultanate of aceh he stayed at diasporic muslim communities but continued to china

• diasproic communities throughout the indian ocean include malay gujurathi chinease and muslim

islams spread in southeast asia and china

ibn battuta makes his fourth journey back home from china

• he left china by ship and escaped the plague in north china which killed a lot of people

• the plague also killed 30000 in demascus and 200000 in cairo

• the black death further weakened the remaining mongol empires

• it also began changed in the world

he gets back home in 1349

black death

in 1350 ibn battutas like i’m sick of being home let me start my fifth journey to the northern kingdom of grenada in spain

glorious al-andalus (muslim spain) was very tolerant in the 900s but after 980 there was more persecution of christian’s even tho christain scholars came there to learn from muslim scholars and greatly contributed to greek and muslim science and philosophy and after 1200s when the christian kingdoms began the reconquista they were tolerant

islams spread in spain

in 1353 ibn battuta joins a camel caravan which was traveling through the trans saharan and this starts his sixth journey to the mali empire

• when he got there he was very impressed by the muslim piety there but was worrying over women’s lack of clothes (gng maybe worry abt when ur wifes have a lack of clothing.. spreading ur sperm doesn’t have to be an international thing💔)

in 1354/5 returns back home to morocco

islams spread in west africa

around the 1300s global temps decreased for about 500 years

the little ice age

bc of declining temps there were a lot of ppl in the warden hemisphere that got the disease (started in yunnan region of southwest china and it kinda stayed in the region until monhols started connecting everything and merchants kept trading and spreading the disease)

however it didn’t really affect scandinavia region (too cold) india or sub saharan africa (not east africa tho)

causes of the bubonic plague aka black death

pop severely declined globally

in europe there is social unrest - poor want better conditions and they rebel which causes labor shortages and then the elites are like we gotta do something abt this so they try to reinstate serfdom in europe and soon they find a solution to stop rebellions but only after social disruption and loss of life

effects of bubonic plague

internal problems + plague = hundred years’ war between france and england

• during this war both of them used taxes as a source of finance but england didn’t have a permanent army they just organized forces in times of rebellion unlike france where king louis XI maintained a large army

the holy roman empire is now controlled by a german princess and italian city states

mongols get tribute from kiev place in russia for 250 yrs but when mongols fall increase in power for russia

state building is made of two elements- source of finance (like tax) and maintence of a army

italian city states use taxes and long term bonds (source of finance) to strengthen authority bc now they can afford the maintenance of large armys

in spain sale tax is the income for royals which they used to support the army also the reconquista happens during this time and is completed when grenada is absorbed in 1492

in russia ivan (the self proclaimed tsar/csar) centralized russia and modeled it after the byzantine empire

tech innovations like naval ones created stronger armies which allowed for opportunities to expand

europeans recovery

during recovery the renaissance happens

• artists like leonardo da vinci and michelangelo buonarotti develop a better understanding of anatomy to better their art

• the architecture is elegant and classic and resembles greek and greek and roman architecture

• rise of humanists- desiderius erasmus published the first edition of the greek new testament and also the latin translation and francesco petrarca/petrarch tracked throughout europe looking for manuscripts of classical works

• humanist moral thought represented the effort to adapt christain ethics/morals to the increasingly urban and commercial society

• some humanists like pico della mirandola refelecgdf the desire of europeans to understand cultures of the larger world that wasn’t christianity

europeans recovery during renaissance period