Untitled Flashcards Set

The Mongols - January 7th, 2025

• The empire covered the most contiguous territory in history

• Lasted from 1206-1368

• Created the first great free trade zone

• Founded by Temujin (son of a Mongol chief, married to Olta)

  • Rich hated him but poor loved him

  • Provided strength as a warrior; united Mongol tribes after a civil war

  • Made use of two innovations in warfare

    • Promoted people based on merit rather than family position

    • Brought lower classes of people into his own tribe; removed leaders of conquered people

    • He changed his name to Genghis Khan (“universal ruler”)

• United Mongolia’s tribes

• Supported China’s peasant economy by stabilizing taxes and helping rural citizens

• Supported Trade and religious freedom

• Relied on new technological and tactical innovations from conquered people

• Adopted advanced technology

The Mongol Empire…

• Engaged in 162 years of aggressive expansion

• At peak, controlled up to 12 million square miles

• Engaged in “Pax Mongolica” or Mongol Peace 

• (1279-end of empire) period of peace, stability, trade, and protected travel

WHY THEY MIGHT BE AWESOME-

• Revived the Silk Road for trade and taxation 

• Developed a system for mail delivery (yam system)

• A precursor to modernity?

• Forcibly relocated people to where needed in empire (artists and musicians)

WHY THEY MIGHT NOT BE AWESOME-

• Brutal conquerors estimated to have killed millions 😱

• Empire didn’t last…replaces by the Ming Dynasty in China

• Did not leave behind art or architecture

• Some believe they were responsible for the spreading of the Black Death (probably didn’t)

• Promoted diversity, peace, trade

But..

• Also promoted slaughter 

Africa - January 8th, 2025

• King Mansa Musa

• West African empire of Mali

• Around 1324, made a pilgrimage to Mecca (Hajj)

  • Believed to have traveled with over 1,000 people and 100 camel loads of gold

*Spent so much gold in Alexandria, Egypt that it caused runaway inflation

• As he traveled, people began to talk of his wealth

Why important?

• Undermines stereotype that African tribes were always poor and ruled by chiefs

• Musa was Muslim and devout

  • West Africa more connected to world than we realize

What did his kingdom look like? How did he come to convert to Islam?

• Islamization of Mali

  • Berbers (pastoral North Africans)

    • Traded with West Africans (salt for gold)

    • Berbers spread Islam along North and West African trade routes

    • Mali traders were first converts followed by kings

*Islam became a religion of the elites

• Muslim kings extended power over non-Muslims

  • Would often blend traditional religion with Islam

**First kings to adopt Islam were from Ghana (Considered as First Africa)

• Replaced by Mali whose kings tried to increase knowledge of Islam

**We know about Mali because of writings of Ibn Battuta (Moroccan scholar)

• Mali eventually fell to the Songhai empire

Moving to Eastern Africa…

• East coast Swahili States (network of trade ports)

  • Typically ruled by kings

  • Independent, but linked by language, trade, and religion

• Swahili language is part of a language called Bantu

*Moved West to East bringing agriculture and ironworks

• Islam arrived in Swahili states in 8th century with traders

• Exported ivory, animal hides, timber, luxury items (gold, silk, books), and slaves

  • Old bookshelves found built into houses due to the export of books

The Fall of Rome - January 13th, 2025

Traditional View

• Barbarians conquered Rome in 476 GE

Anti-Imperialistic View

• Rome was doomed to fall because too much expansion made it too hard to govern

• Two ways to overcome governance problem:

  • Strict rule with violence

    • The challenge for Romans due to the idea of justice that prevented unjust violence

    • Bring conquered people into the empire more fully

      • Worked well, but led to the traditional view of the fall of Rome (Barbarians)

• The Decline of Rome started with the decline of the legions (army)

  • Decision made to incorporate Germanic warriors into the Roman army

    • Usually loyal to Rome, but became only loyal to commanders and riches

    • Civil war between commanders to be emperor

*286 CE

• Emperor Diocletian divided Rome into two to stabilize the empire

*395 CE

• Rome finally became Western and Eastern empires

• Eastern Roman Empire = Byzantine Empire

  • Capital was Constantinople

• Emperor Constantine

  • Rule marked the transition from the Classical Age to the Middle Ages

  • First Roman emperor to convert to Christianity

    • Attempted to get all Christians to believe the same thing

• Changes and continuities between Western and Eastern empires

  • Both were ruled by a single emperor with absolute military power

  • Constant warfare

  • Both focused on trade and agriculture

  • East was more urban

• Both followed Roman law 

*533 CE

• Emperor Justinian and the Digest (condensing of Latin law books) and the Institute (curriculum for Roman law schools)

Emperor Justinian

• Became emperor in 527 CE

• Ruled for 30  years

• Recaptured Roman lands controlled by foreigners

• Built the Hagia Sophia

• Religion

  • Byzantines = Eastern or Greek Orthodox

  • West ruled by the Pope; East ruled by the Patriarch

*Caesaropapism

• Caesar over the Pope

The Catholic Church - January 15th, 2025

Apostolic Succession: Christian denominations consider the ministry of the Christian church to be derived by the apostles by a continuous succession

Papal Infallibility: Papal infallibility is a dogma of the Catholic Church stating that, in virtue of Jesus' promise to Peter, the Pope, when he speaks ex-cathedra, is preserved from the possibility of an error on doctrine "initially given to the apostolic Church and handed down in Scripture and tradition."

313 CE - The Edict of Milan: ceased the persecution of Christianity, granted legal recognition to the faith, and restored seized property to its practitioners

325 CE- First Council of Nicaea: The Council of Nicaea was the first council in the Christian church's history intended to address the entire body of believers. It was convened by the emperor Constantine to resolve the controversy of Arianism, a doctrine that held that Christ was not divine but was a created being.

382 CE- The Vulgate Bible: Vulgate The Vulgate is the first Latin translation of the Bible. It is largely the work of St. Jerome who, in 382, had been commissioned by Pope Damasus I to revise the Vetus Latina Gospels used by the Roman Church.

1054- Great Schism: Differences in practices between East and West. The break of communion between the Catholic Church and the Eastern Orthodox Church.

Catholic Architecture - January 16th, 2025

• Church: a building used for public Christian worship. The people, not the building.

• Chapel: a small building for Christian worship, typically one attached to an institution or private house. Can be at an airport, hospital, etc. Doesn’t have to be connected to a specific religion.

• Cathedral: the principal church of a diocese, with which the bishop is officially associated. More regional, less local. Built for the bishop. Can be founded by the catholic church.

• Basilica: A building similar to a Roman basilica, used as a Christian church. The name given to certain churches granted special privileges by the Pope. Any building can be a basilica, as long as the pope decides the building is a basilica, it is a basilica. Size, location, etc. doesn't matter.

• Monastery: a building or buildings occupied by a community of monks living under religious vows.

How did Catholics build?

• Romanesque Architecture

  • The name means “like the Romans”

  • The style was, unsurprisingly, like the Romans

    • Round arches

  • Floorplan of Latin cross (early versions “tau” cross)

Basilica of St. Sernin in Toulouse completed c. 1200

Why did Catholics build?

While smaller structures and monasteries were often built for strictly practical purposes (needing a place to meet) Cathedrals were usually more than that.

• Desire to display wealth?

• Desire to honor God?

• Desire to flex on neighbors?

• Desire to avoid purgatory?

• Desire to demonstrate piety?

“Bigger is better”

The Gothic style began with practical choices needed to accomplish the “lofty” goals of cathedral patrons.

Gothic Architecture & Style

Notre Dame de Paris completed, 1260

• Pointed Arches - Distribute weight, build taller walls

• Flying Buttresses- Hold up walls, let in light

• Larger Windows - Let in light, display beauty

• Gargoyles, Grotesques - Divert water, communicate

Illuminated Manuscripts - January 17th, 2025

Purpose of the Illuminated Manuscripts?

• To show the value of the contents inside

• Held prayer books for private worship

• Giant hymnals meant to be seen from yards away

• Illustrations relate to the piety of the text being copied

• Not only used for Christian worship

Purpose of weird Illustrations?

• Monks got bored

• Purposeful symbol of the way the world tries to distract you from being holy

Dante’s Inferno - January 22nd - 23rd, 2025

Hell is divided into different parts…

• Circle 1: Limbo

• Circle 2: The Lustful

• Circle 3: The Gluttons

• Circle 4: The Avarice

• Circle 5: The Wrathful

• Circle 6: The Heretics

• Circle 7: The Violent

  • Against others

  • Against oneself

  • Against God

• Circle 8: The Fraudulent

• Circle 9: The Traitors

  • Betrayal of Family

  • Betrayal of Lord

  • Betrayal of Country

  • Betrayal of Guest

• Contrapasso: For every sinner's crime there must be an equal and fitting punishment. Think about the people with their heads turned back for trying to look towards the future.

Indian Ocean Trade - January 30th, 2025

• Trade routes connected Swahili coast cities, Middle East, India, China, SE Asia, and NOT Europe

• Reliance on monsoon winds

  • Occur regularly

  • Predictable

    • Lower risk = more trade

• Trade dominated by Muslim merchants

  • Had the money to build ships

• Allowed for trade in bulk and the creation of a mass market

**Africa

• Timber, animal hides, ivory, gold

**China

• Silk and porcelain

**India

• Cotton cloth

**SE Asia

• Spices

**Islamic World

• Coffee, books, weapons

Technology

• China

  • Magnetic compass

• Muslim sailors

  • Astrolabe made navigation possible by stars

• Islamic world

  • Triangular lateen sail allowed ships to use wind to propel ships forward

• Islam spread via the Indian Ocean Trade

Medieval Era (400-1450 CE)

• Rise of Umayyad (661-750 CE) and Abbasid (750-1258) Dynasties – Religious-political governments on the Arabian Peninsula

  • Provided a powerful Western structure for trade routes

• Tang (618-907) and Song (960-1279) China

  • Encouraged maritime trade

  • Song created a navy to control piracy

• Chola Empire (3rd century BC-1279 CE) (Southern India)

  • Grew in wealth and luxury due to trade

• Srivijaya Empire (7th-13th Century)

  • Boomed based solely on taxing trade vessels

• Angkor civilization (800-1327)

• 1498

  • Portuguese Vasco de Gama in Indian Ocean

  • Portuguese enter as pirates rather than traders due to lack of items to trade

    • Seize ports and rob foreign merchant ships

• 1602

  • Dutch East India Company

    • Desired total monopoly on spices

• 1680

  • British East India Company 

    • Challenged the Dutch for control of the trade routes

** Goods began to move solely to Europe while Asian markets collapsed

The Poetry of Tang China - February 4th, 2025

Golden Age of Chinese Poetry

• Li Po (Li Bai) is widely considered the greatest of all Chinese poets

  • Living from 701-762

  • He was revered in his lifetime throughout China 

  • His poetry is still taught in Chinese textbooks today

  • He was good friends with Tu Fu - Widely considered the other great of Chinese poetry

  • Legend claims he died by falling into the Yangtze River trying to grab the moon’s reflection in the water

• Tu Fu (Du Fu) is known as the “poet-historian” and “poet-sage” of China

  • Living from 712-770

  • He aspired to serve his country as a civil servant but failed the civil service exam. He became revered for his poetry

  • The last 15 years of his life were a period of great unrest in China, and this troubled Fu a great deal

  • First diabetic recorded in history

Phrases or Words from poems

• at least you can marry a daughter to the neighbor

• but a son is born only to die

• The frontier posts run with blood enough to fill an ocean

• Where the wall stands, down to the Han Dynasty, the beacon fires are still burning

Comparing and contrasting

• They both talk about war

• The first one has long lines and a detailed compact stanza

• The second one is shorter and more separated by stanzas

• Both talk about white bones

• Talks about geography

• The first one uses a lot of imagery 

Middle English - February 6th, 2025

Geoffrey Chaucer

• Born c. 1340

• Example of “upward mobility”

  • Great-grandfather ran a tavern, grandfather was a wine merchant, dad had a royal appointment as a wine merchant

• Also spent time as a soldier, astronomer, philosopher, and civil servant

• Died c. 1400

  • May have been murdered?

• Buried in Westminster Abbey

  • One of the first poets buried in Poets’ Corner

• Old English AD 650-1100

• Middle English AD 1100-1500

• Modern English AD Early: 1500-1800 CE Late: 1800 CE-Today

Russia - February 12th, 2025

• Before the Russian Empire…

  • Kievan Rus

  • Kiev was a powerful city

    • Believed to have been settled by Slavic people from around the Black Sea

    • Trade important to Kiev

      • Wars ended with concession treaties

      • Law codes focused on commerce

  • Importance of agriculture

    • Relationship to land determined social status and tax burden

    • Tax debt?

      • Bonded to land you farmed for life

• The ruler was called the Grand Prince

  • Model for future Russian kings

  • Became Byzantine Christians

• Mongol Rule

  • Known as Appanage (Princedom) Russia

  • Established Khanate of the Golden Horde (Mongol empire established in the 12th century that encompassed Russia)

  • Isolated Russia from Byzantines and Europe

** How did Mongols create prominence for Moscow and its princes?

• Muscovite (Moscow) princes given title of Grand Prince

  • Grande Princes able to collect tribute on behalf of Khan

    • Money = increased influence

  • Fought enemies on behalf of Russians

  • Moscow able to defeat Mongols in late 14th Century

    • Victory strengthened idea of a unified Russia; added stability

**Muscovite princes usually had sons

• 15th Century Muscovite civil war

  • Basil ll vs Basil the cross-eyed (Basil the blind)

  • Basil ll wins

• Rule followed by Ivan lll (Ivan the Great)

  • Asserted Russian independence

  • Expanded Russian power

• Ivan lV “Ivan the Terrible”

  • Beginning of Russian autocracy

• Beginning of rule…

  • Reformed the army

  • Established a council of representatives

  • He was cool !!

• Second half of rule…

  • Goal to break power of nobility (Boyars)

  • Established secret police, hunt down and destroy enemies

  • Established absolute monarchy

  • He was awful !!

    • Possibly because of wife's death

The Renaissance - February 19th, 2025

A period in European history, primarily spanning the 14th to 16th centuries, marked by a cultural rebirth that saw a revival of classical Greek and Roman art, literature, and philosophy, signifying a transition from the Middle Ages to the modern era

• Introduction of Humanism

  • A non-religious philosophy that emphasizes the value of humans and their ability to lead ethical lives

  • Belief that people can understand the world through reason and experience

  • People are equal in moral worth, and everyone has a right to the greatest possible freedom

• Renaissance was born in Italy

  • Italian city-states were wealthy

    • Industrial powers that specialized in particular products

      • Florence = cloth

      • Milan = weapons

      • Venice and Genoa = trade

  • Venice became wealthiest city-state due to trade with Ottomans

• The Muslim world was the source of many writings studied by Renaissance thinkers

• The fall of Constantinople to the Ottomans in 1453 further spread Greek ideas

  • Byzantine scholars fled to Italy

*Was there really a Renaissance?

• Time! No one was aware they were changing history

• Renaissance was only experienced by the richest people

• Rediscovery of ancient works did not change the way people were living

Medieval to Renaissance Art - February 20th, 2025

Medieval Art

• Lacks depth or perspective

• Figures are stiff and elongated

• Facial expressions lack emotions

• Background frequently a solid color

• All the babies look like adults 😰

  • One belief about Jesus was the idea that he was unchanging and perfect, which is why when he was born, he was a little man 

The Life of St. Denis 1317

• Flat

• 2D

• Lack of depth

• Hard to tell the sequence of the story

• Everything crammed in

• Emphasis on revelation

The Bayeux

• Tells of William the Conqueror in the Battle of the Hastings in 1066

Giotto (1267-1337)

• The granddaddy of the renaissance

• Has added depth

• Still medieval elements

• He’s trying

Masaccio (1401-1428)

• The first great Renaissance painter

• Turns art into a science

• Foreground and depth

• Clarity of line

• Concern for perspective

• Psychological states evident

• Emotions on the face start to become more evident

Renaissance Art

• Use of perspective

• Realistic figures that convey emotions

• Natural landscapes as background

• Looking back to classical Greek and Roman art

• Renaissance artists had high status because having patrons was an upper-class symbol

• Wealth was less about mobility and more about markets and money

• Byzantine art was challenged by the new realism of Italian artists

• Florence was most culturally influential because of commerce

Vittore Carpaccio, The Vision of St. Augustine (1502)

• Realistic figures convey emotions

Donatello (1386 - 1466)

• Florentine sculptor

• Wood, bronze, and marble

• First free-standing statues of the Renaissance

Da Vinci (1452-1519)

• Florentine artist

• Anatomical studies

• Dissected cadavers (which were viewed as devilish and bordering on witchcraft and sorcery at this time)

• Mechanical studies

Michelangelo (1476-1564)

• Carved from 1501-1504

• Realistic

• Idolized beauty

• Symbolized Florence’s civic power

Raphael (1483-1520)

• The School of Athens is the most famous piece because it looks back to the classics: philosophy, education, and architecture all represented

• Plato holds Timaeus and points to the heavens

• Aristotle holds Ethics and points towards the Earth

• Pythagoras calculates on a slate

• Ptolemy holds a globe

• Raphael looks to the viewer

The Northern Renaissance Artists

Jan Van Eyck (1390-1441)

• Flemish painter

• Painted in Bruges

• The Arnolfini marriage commemorated his witnessing of the 1434 marriage of a Florentine representative of the Medici bank 

• Exquisite technique

• Symbolism 

• Microscopic attention to detail

Hieronymus Bosch (1450-1516)

• Pessimistic view of nature

• Complicated, bizarre scenes

• Paintings show the consequences of sin

• Almost nothing is known of his life

• Symbolism too complex to fully understand

Albrecht Durer (1471 - 1528)

• Born in Nuremberg but moved to Venice

• Most well-known works were woodcuts and line engravings

• Extremely difficult medium

• Inspired by the reformation

Brueghel (1525 - 1569)

• Realistic depictions of middle-class and lower-class life

• Best-known paintings are scenes of peasant life

• Represents the culmination of Renaissance arts in the Netherlands

• Crowded canvases

• The apparent futility of human existence 

Elizabethan Era - February 24, 2025

(The Golden Age of England)

• A sonnet is a 14 line poem

• Ex: Sonnet XXIX

• Iambic Pentameter: ^|^|_^|_^

• Poetic Meter = Rhythm

• ABABCDCDEFEFGG

Info for our awesome poem

• Queen Elizabeth was the first great blossoming of London theatre

• During the middle ages, the dominant tradition was “mystery plays”

• Mystery plays- moralistic dramas based on the bible

• Elizabethian explorers traveled further and more often than in previous centuries

• They found lots of treasures in America including metals and crops

• People believed that plays were distracting young men from apprenticeships and that they were taking people away from the church on Sundays

• By the end of 1500, playhouses were banned across the city (also closed in 1593 due to a plague that hit)

• They believed in tolerating the religious views of others

• There was a wide variation in style

• Fashion completely transformed during 1500-1600

• Developed an especially close alliance with the Ottoman Sultan Murad III

• Exotic goods and foods were brought to England from Turkish coffee, Moroccan sugar, nutmeg, currants, pistachios, carpets, jewelry and cotton

• She believed that there was only one Christ, which was Jesus, and that there was only one faith (Protestants and Catholics were “of the same faith”)

• Over time, with changes to the church, she was able to slowly change most views to be primarily Protestant

• It was illegal to let people starve

• In 1834, everything changed; the cost of this level of welfare support was deemed too high

Shakespeare - February 26th, 2025

Shakespeare’s work has persisted for hundreds of years because the THEMES and the CHARACTERS have resonated with audiences for hundreds of years

• Soliloquy: an act of speaking one's thoughts aloud when by oneself or regardless of any hearers, especially by a character in a play. (Intended audience is the character themself)

• Monologue: a speech presented by a single character, most often to express their thoughts aloud, though sometimes also to directly address another character or the audience - similar to a soliloquy (Intended audience is someone else)

• Aside: a remark or passage in a play that is intended to be heard by the audience but unheard by the other characters in the play.

• Dramatic irony: an audience's awareness of the situation in which a work's characters exist differs substantially from that of the characters' (The audience knows and characters don’t) 😈🤯🤪