State-Building and Maintenance: 1200 CE - 1450 CE

Flashcards about State-Building and its Maintenance from 1200 CE - 1450 CE

What is a state?

An organized political community under one government (like a country, empire, nation, etc.)

How did the Song Dynasty maintain and justify their rule?

The revival of Confucianism, or Neo-Confucianism helped to legitimize Song Dynasty rule due to its ancient history in China. The use of an imperial bureaucracy also helped. In order to be a part of the bureaucracy eligible men had to pass the Civil Service Exam which was based on Confucian classics.

What were some of the main ideas of Confucianism?

Society is hierarchical. There are superiors and inferiors. The State was superior to citizens. Men were superior to women, etc. Harmony depended on keeping the proper relationships. Filial piety was part of this. It emphasized the need for children to obey and honor their parents, grandparents, and deceased ancestors.

What was life like for women in Song China?

Women were always in a subordinate position and were stripped of legal rights. Women could not own property, remarry, etc. Women had limited access to education and in elite social circles the practice of footbinding became popular.

How did China influence its neighbors in East and Southeast Asia?

In Korea they used a civil service exam in order to join the bureaucracy. They also adopted Buddhism.

What are the basic tenets of Buddhism and what are some of the different forms of Buddhism?

Buddhism starts with the Four Noble Truths which acknowledge that there is suffering in the world and desire/craving is the cause. The way to stop suffering is the Eightfold Path. Buddhists believe in reincarnation, but the ultimate goal is to stop the cycle of reincarnation and achieve nirvana through enlightenment. Theravada Buddhism was the original form of Buddhism. Many Buddhist monks lived within monasteries to focus on attaining enlightenment. Mahayana Buddhism was a new form that traveled to East Asia. It encouraged broader participation and offered help to achieve nirvana from bodhisattvas.

What helped Song China to have such a strong economy?

Song rulers inherited the prosperity and growth started from previous dynasties like the Sui and Tang Dynasties. Between the 8th and 10th centuries the population doubled. The economy also commercialized, making goods that were sold across Eurasia like porcelain and silk. The expansion of the Grand Canal also helped to facilitate trade.

Why was the introduction of Champa Rice so important for the Song Dynasty?

It was a drought resistant crop that matured early, increasing the amount of food available in the empire, therefore increasing the population.

What is the Chinese Tribute System?

It was a way for countries to acknowledge China’s superiority and gain access to trade rights.

What is the connection between Islam, Judaism and Christianity?

All were practiced in Dar al-Islam and the prophet Mohammad claimed to be the final prophet in the line of God’s messengers stretched back through the Jewish and Christian scriptures. All three were monotheistic.

Describe the condition of the Abbasid caliphate c. 1200

By 1200 the Abbasid caliphate had begun to break up and lose its powerful position in the Muslim world. In 1258 their capital, Baghdad was conquered by the Mongols which was their end. They were dominated by ethnic Turks, not Arabs.

Describe the new Islamic political entities that replaced the declining Abbasid caliphate.

The Seljuks were Turks from Central Asia who the Abbasids tried to use to prop up their failing state. However, they created their own empire instead and became a dominant force in the region.

What practices in the new Islamic empires were borrowed from previous empires?

Sharia law, a legal code based on the Quran

What were some of the intellectual innovations of Dar al-Islam and their effects?

Nasir al-Din al-Tusi invented trigonometry. Muslim scholars in places like the House of Wisdom in Baghdad preserved the works of Greek philosophers like Plato and Aristotle, translating them into Arabic and commenting on them. These works eventually made it back to Europe, and would have been lost to history if not for their preservation by scholars in Dar al-Islam.

Describe the expansion of the Islamic World c. 1200-1450.

Empires spread through military expansion (like the Seljuks, Mamluks and Delhi Sultanate). Islam spread through the travels of Muslim merchants (for example, the Empire of Mali in West Africa). Islam also spread due to the work of missionaries like the Sufis who allowed for some local belief.

What religions could be found in South Asia and what effect did they have on society?

The 3 main religions were Hinduism, Islam, and Buddhism. By c. 1200 Buddhists in South Asia were mostly reduced to monastic communities. Most people in South Asia were Hindu. Bhakti Hinduism was a new movement that began in the Southern part of India and emphasized devotion to 1 Hindu god (Hindus are polytheistic). It challenged social and gender hierarchies in Hindu India. The establishment of the Delhi Sultanate made Islam the religion of the elite.

What religions could be found in Southeast Asia?

Buddhism and Islam. Islam was more widely practiced eventually but in states like Thailand and Cambodia Buddhism was established.

Describe the emergence of new states in South and Southeast Asia and how they kept power.

The Delhi Sultanate was in Northern India. They were Muslims but the majority population was Hindu. The Rajput kingdoms were rival warring Hindu Kingdoms who held the Delhi Sultanate back from conquering more land. The Vijayanagara Empire was a Hindu kingdom formed by brothers who had previously converted to Islam to serve the Delhi Sultanate. Their kingdom rivaled the Delhi Sultanate. The Majapahit Kingdom on Java was a Buddhist Kingdom who maintained influence by controlling sea routes for trade, but declined when China supported its rival the Sultanate of Malacca. The Khmer Empire began as a Hindu Empire, but eventually leadership adopted Buddhism. Art and architecture (like Angkor Wat) reflect both faiths.

Describe the development of the Aztec Civilization.

Founded in Mesoamerica in 1345 by the Mexica, their capital was the magnificent Tenochtitlan. In 1428 they began a program of expansion and created a huge empire. They were decentralized in how they ruled.

How did the Aztecs maintain control of their empire?

Conquered people were forced to pay tribute in goods or labor. Conquered people were also enslaved and sometimes sacrificed in religious rituals.

How did the Inca maintain and improve their empire?

The Inca had an elaborate bureaucracy throughout the Andean region to control conquered territories. They used the mit’a system as a source of labor for state projects like farms, mining, military service, and construction projects. They were highly centralized in how they ruled.

Describe Mississippian Culture.

Located in North America around the Mississippi River Valley, they focused on agriculture. Larger towns controlled smaller ones around them. They were known as mound builders, one of the largest was built by the Cahokia people & consisted of 80 burial mounds up to 100 feet tall.

Describe the development of the Swahili Civilization in East Africa.

Swahili city-states grew powerful due to Indian Ocean Trade. They were politically independent but very influenced by merchants from Dar al- Islam. The language Swahili is a combination of Bantu and Arabic.

Describe the development of the empires of West Africa (Ghana, Mali, and Songhay).

These were powerful and highly centralized. They also grew due to trade with Dar al-Islam. The elites of society converted to Islam, but most subjects held onto indigenous beliefs.

How was the Hausa Kingdom, also in West Africa, different from the empires there?

They were decentralized city-states, more like the Swahili civilization. They shared a common culture and grew powerful through trade because they acted as brokers for trans-Saharan trade.

Describe how the development of Great Zimbabwe in Southern Africa was similar and different from other African states in this time.

Its capital was built between 1250-1450 and contained massive structures. It had a population of 18,000. Like other African states, it became wealthy due to trade, farming and cattle herding. Its main source of wealth was the gold trade. It was different in that the rulers and people never adopted Islam but maintained their indigenous shamanistic faith.

Describe how the development of Ethiopia in East Africa was similar and different from other African states in this time.

Similarly it grew due to trade with the Mediterranean and Arabian peninsula. They had a monarch and strict hierarchy like other states. The big difference is that they were Christians.

Describe the belief systems of Europe and how they affected European society.

Christianity dominated Europe, but in the East the most powerful state, the Byzantine Empire, practiced Orthodox Christianity and shared it with Kievan Rus by 988. In the West, the Roman Catholic Church was the most powerful entity. Following the fall of Rome and the rise of small decentralized states, Roman Catholicism bound the region together culturally. Muslims were primarily in the Iberian Peninsula which they had conquered in the 8th century. Jews were a minority group who faced waves of anti-Semitism (persecution) and were forced to the outskirts of European life.

What was feudalism?

The political system of decentralized Europe where powerful lords and kings gained allegiance from lesser lords, who became their vassals. Vassals got land in exchange for military service.

What was manorialism and what was serfdom?

The economic system of decentralized Europe where peasants were bound to the land where they lived and worked in exchange for a lord’s protection. Those who were tied to the land were called serfs. They were not the property of the lords, but they could not leave the land without permission.