Unit 1: Global Tapestry 1/21

Key Terms:

Chapter 1:

• Paleolithic Era: The early period of human history, marked by the use of stone tools and hunting-gathering economies, before the development of agriculture.

• Pastoral Society: A social organization where people raise livestock and migrate to find pasture, often living in small, mobile groups.

• Chiefdom: A political system where a single leader or chief exercises authority over multiple communities or groups, often based on kinship ties.

• Patriarchy: A social system in which men hold primary power, and authority is passed through male lineage.

• Hinduism: One of the world’s oldest religions, originating in India, characterized by belief in reincarnation, karma, dharma, and a multitude of deities.

• Upanishads: Philosophical texts in Hinduism that explore the nature of the self, the universe, and the divine, central to spiritual thought in India.

• Siddhartha Gautama: The historical Buddha, the founder of Buddhism, who attained enlightenment and shared teachings to end suffering.

• Theravada Buddhism: The "Teaching of the Elders" branch of Buddhism, which emphasizes personal enlightenment and the monastic path.

• Mahayan Buddhism: A branch of Buddhism that focuses on universal salvation and the role of bodhisattvas (enlightened beings who assist others).

• Bhakti Movement: A devotional movement in Hinduism that emphasizes love and devotion to a personal god, encouraging access to spirituality for all people.

• Confucianism: A Chinese philosophy that emphasizes ethics, proper behavior, familial respect, and social harmony.

• Han Dynasty: A Chinese imperial dynasty (206 BCE – 220 CE), considered a golden age of Chinese culture and governance.

• Daoism: A Chinese philosophy and religious tradition that stresses living in harmony with the Tao (the Way), which is the fundamental principle of the universe.

• Judaism: One of the oldest monotheistic religions, based on the belief in one God and the teachings of the Hebrew Bible.

• Jesus of Nazareth: A Jewish preacher from the 1st century CE, central figure in Christianity, believed by Christians to be the Son of God.

• Saint Paul: A Christian apostle who spread Christianity throughout the Roman Empire and wrote many letters in the New Testament.

• Muhammad Ibn Abdullah: The founder of Islam, considered by Muslims to be the last prophet of God.

• Quran: The holy book of Islam, believed to be the literal word of God as revealed to Muhammad.

• Umma: The collective community of Muslims worldwide, bound together by the shared faith in Islam.

• Ulama: Scholars and religious leaders in Islam who interpret and teach Islamic law and theology.

• Sufism: A mystical and ascetic tradition within Islam, focusing on direct experiences of God through practices like meditation and music.

• Silk Roads: A network of trade routes connecting East Asia, Central Asia, and the Mediterranean, facilitating cultural and economic exchange.

• Sea Roads: Maritime trade routes connecting regions such as the Indian Ocean, Southeast Asia, Africa, and the Arabian Peninsula.

• Sand Roads: Trade routes across the Sahara Desert connecting sub-Saharan Africa to the Mediterranean world and beyond.

Chapter 2:

• Song Dynasty: A Chinese dynasty (960–1279) known for its cultural, economic, and technological advancements.

• Hangzhou: A city in China, the capital of the Southern Song Dynasty, known for its beauty and commercial importance.

• Foot binding: A practice in China where women's feet were tightly bound to restrict growth, a symbol of beauty and social status.

• Hangul: The alphabet created in the 15th century for the Korean language, developed to promote literacy.

• Chu Nom: A writing system used in Vietnam, based on Chinese characters, for the Vietnamese language.

• Bushido: The code of conduct followed by samurai in feudal Japan, emphasizing loyalty, honor, and martial skills.

• Abbasid Caliphate: An Islamic empire (750–1258) that ruled a vast region, with its capital in Baghdad, known for cultural and intellectual achievements.

• Seljuk Turkic Empire: A medieval empire founded by Turkic-speaking nomads in the Middle East, influencing Islamic civilization.

• Ottoman Empire: A vast empire (14th century–1918) centered in Turkey, ruling much of Southeastern Europe, Western Asia, and North Africa.

• Al-Andalus: Muslim-ruled Iberian Peninsula (711–1492), known for cultural and intellectual achievements in science, art, and philosophy.

• Byzantine Empire: The eastern continuation of the Roman Empire after the fall of Rome, with its capital at Constantinople.

• Constantinople: The capital city of the Byzantine Empire, later renamed Istanbul, known for its strategic location and cultural significance.

• Caesaropapism: A political system where the ruler has authority over both the government and the church, seen in the Byzantine Empire.

• Eastern Orthodox Christianity: A branch of Christianity that developed in the Byzantine Empire, characterized by its distinct liturgy and theology.

• Crusades: A series of religious wars between Christians and Muslims, primarily aimed at reclaiming Jerusalem from Muslim rule.

• Kievan Rus: A medieval state in Eastern Europe, centered around the city of Kiev, which is considered a precursor to Russia.

• Western Christendom: The Christian community in Western Europe, centered around the Roman Catholic Church.

• Roman Catholic Church: The largest Christian denomination, centered in Rome, with the Pope as its spiritual leader.

• Maya Civilization: A Mesoamerican civilization known for its advanced writing system, mathematics, and architecture, flourishing in present-day Mexico and Central America.

• Aztec Empire: A powerful Mesoamerican empire that ruled in central Mexico, known for its impressive architecture, human sacrifices, and agricultural innovations.

• Inca Empire: A vast empire in South America, centered in modern-day Peru, known for its advanced agricultural techniques, road systems, and monumental architecture.

How states formed, expanded, and developed

Pre History: Before 4000 BCE, we couldn’t read or write before this

Out of Africa Thesis

• The general consensus is that our species came out of East Africa and slowly migrated outward from there

Stone Age

• Humans are thought to have developed about 300000-500000 years ago

• We used Stone tools

• Neolethic

  • New Stone Age

• Paleolethic

  • Old Stone Age

Bronze Age

• 3000-1200 BCE

• We used metal instead of stone for our tools

• This allowed us to make much larger variety of tools and adding edges to our tools

• Mesopotamia, Egypt, Indus Valley, China

• History begins because people start to write stuff down

• This is like the time when Egypt built pyrimads

Civilization:

• Eventually humans started farming, stopping hunting and gathering, and lived in homes, etc

• This was the dawn of civilization

• We had a food surplus and people who lived in cities did not have to farm

• World wide, we had gender inequality once we started to have a civilization

  • The role of women

• We ended up with a class structure and people had different roles

Class Structures

• Leader, soldiers, farmers, supervisors, potters, carpenters, priests, etc.

Religion

• Since we had a surplus of food, people started to question what is going on around them

• To explain those things, they began religions in hopes that they would be able to protect themselves and their cities

• They built monuments and worshiped for good fortune

Political Structure

• How power is structured

• The leaders and people who created and enforced rules to maintain order

• Feudalism. city states, priest kings, etc

Culture

• Values: Stories, art, religion, etc

Economy

• We had a lot of trade between river valley societies such as mesopotania, Egypt, Indus, etc.

• Eurasia had many trade routes between major societies

• Trade routes lead to the sharing of not only goods but also of cultural ideas and traits

Migration

• Most places in the world at the time period we are talking about don’t have real civiliation yet

• Only the river valley societies close to Africa have real civilization

• Stateless Societies

  • No written down laws, religion, monuments, etc.

  • Central Asia

  • Sub-Saharan Africa

  • Amazon Basin

  • Oceania(Australia)

  • North America

China

• China’s history is organized by dynasties

• This history begins with the mythical Xia dynasty around 2000 BCE

• Shang Dynasty, Zhou, Qin, Han, Sui, Tang

• This continued to the Song Dynasty

• China called itself the “Middle Kingdom” because it thought that it was culturally superior to the neighboring barbarians

Mandate of Heaven

• This was a principal that granted legitmacy to rulers who governed wisely to mainain order on Earth

• 99% of the population were peasants

• Centralized government led by an emperor supported by a government

• This government was staffed by Mandarins, civil servants who earned their positions through exams

China’s Economy

• Relived heavity on rice for domestic consumption

• Export of luxury goods like silk, jade, and porcelain

• Highly sought after goods

Philosophies

Confucianism

• Confusius(551-479 BCE)

• People should know their place in order to achieve harmoney

• Used to create a class hierarchy and gender inequality

Daoism

• Believes that civilization is fake and artificial

• To be happy, we need to embrace nature

Buddism

• Has beliefs about human suffering

Three paths, One Truth

• In China, historically, the tradition is that someone can have anyone of those three philosiphies/religions and can actually combine them

• This is different from most other religions where you can only have one religion

Song Dynasty

• China was ruled by the Tang Dynasty, which had a huge empire

• It eventually fell and broke into many parts, the biggest part being the Song Dynasty

• This empire lasted from 960-1279

• This dynasty had great urbanization(forming of cities, not rural), trade, and technological advances

• It continued to practice the mandate of heaven and exams for government positions

• It also continued neo-confuscianism to keep people in line

• Chinese goods were in high demand and Canton, a city in Song, was a major port

• At this point, the Song is just a shadow of the Tang empire which fell

Japan

• Begins much later than China

• Asuka period (538-710)

• Nara period (710-794)

• Heian period (794-1185)

  • Heavily influenced by China

  • Confucianism, Buddhism, Taoism, the system of writing, etc

• Shintoism - religion in Japan

• Feudalism

  • Not a very centralized state unlike China due to geography (islands, mountains)

  • Emperor does exist but not that important

  • The emperor was more of a symbol while the real power was in the hands of the Shogun, military leaders

  • Shogunate

    • Kamakura Period (1185-1333)

    • Emperor is mainly a symbolic figure (usually based in Kyoto)

    • Shogun - military ruler that actually has all the power

  • Daimyos - regional lords

    • They had a lot of military power and owned lands

    • They worked for the Shogun and were granted land and power in exchange

  • Samurai - The elite class

    • Warriors who served the Daimyos in exchange for land and income

    • Zen Buddhism - adopted by Samurai, and it emphasizes self-discipline

  • Peasants

    • Poor people who produced food for everyone in Japan

    • They adopted the Pure Land Buddism: which is like a better place waiting for them in the after life

• First Emperor of Japan - Jimmu

  • Son of the sun

  • Family is still in power TODAY lol

India

• Indus Valley Civilization (3300-1800 BCE)

• Vedic period (1500-600 BCE)

• Maurya Empire (323-184 BCE)

• Gupta Empire (320-650)

• Spaces the reason there is space between the time periods is that the civilization was falling

• Would form states which would collapse

  • Very different from China (great continuity of a centralized state) and Japan (weak, feudal state)

  • India was most often stateless

Religions

Buddhism

• Believes that the cycle of reincarnation is just suffering

• started in India to evade the cycle of reincarnation and obtain nirvana(peace and freedom)

• Nirvana is enlightenment

• Siddhartha Gautama

  • The historical Buddha, the founder of Buddhism, who attained enlightenment and shared teachings to end suffering.

• Theravada Buddhism

  • The "Teaching of the Elders" branch of Buddhism, which emphasizes personal enlightenment and the monastic path.

  • Basically said if you meditate and study, you will be free

  • More selflish

• Mahayan Buddhism

  • A branch of Buddhism that focuses on universal salvation and the role of bodhisattvas (enlightened beings who assist others).

  • Try to be a Budda to help everyone else also achieve freedom

  • Less selflish

Hinduism

• One of the world’s oldest religions, originating in India

• Caste System*

  • Very restrictive

  • People are born into their caste

  • Brahmins - priests (top of the caste)

  • Kshatriyas - warriros

  • Vaisyas - herders, farmers, merchants, craftspeople

  • Sudras - farm workers, servants (bottom of the caste)

  • People start to question the Brahmins being in control of everything

  • Suttee/Sati

    • Wives - can’t use husband’s name, can’t walk alongside of him, can’t look him in the eye, if their husband dies they have to die by fire

  • Brahmins - people in charge of the religion and the songs

  • Karma/reincarnation

  • Veda - songs that will eventually make up Hinduism

• Karma: Every action will have consequences in your life or your future life

• Reincarnation: The soul doesn’t die but reincarnates into new bodies. Your quality of life is based off of the quality of your Karma

• Upanishads: Philosophical texts in Hinduism that explore the nature of the self, the universe, and the divine, central to spiritual thought in India.

• Bhakti Movement: A devotional movement in Hinduism that emphasizes love and devotion to a personal god, encouraging access to spirituality for all people.

  • It basically ignored the caste system and gender and said anyone can believe in God

Islam

• Began in Arabia

• Muhammad Ibn Abdullah: The founder of Islam, considered by Muslims to be the last prophet of God.

• Syncretic religion (combines aspects of other religions)

• Sharia - Islamic Law

• Ummah - The Muslim Community

• 610 CE - Archangel Gabrielle visits Mohammed

  • Basically the Angel told him to read the first words of God

  • Eventually, the things he learned from the vists from the Angel were compiled to make the Quaran

  • He then shared these words with everyone in Mecca and beyond

• One who has submitted to the word of Allah is a “Muslim“ and Islam is “submission” to the word of Allah.

• Mohammed made enemies

  • The people who worshipped many gods and were more “capitalistic” didn’t like the teachings of Islam

  • They made him and his followers flee Mecca

• Muhhammed spreads the world of Islam to most of Arabia and gains power

• He then sends those forces to take out his enemies and makes a monethesm triumpant

• Dar al-Islam

  • House of peace

  • The community of muslims who have submitted to Islam and Islamic law

• Dar al-Harb

  • House of war

  • Where Islam was not yet established

• Caliphate

  • After Muhammad died, they needed a succesor to lead them

  • A state lead by a “Caliph”, who were successors to the first prophet, Muhammad

  • Caliphs were leaders who were meant to enforce Sharia Laws

  • People paid taxes so they could have an army who kept them in power

  • They guided the Ummah using the Sharia laws

  • Rashidun Caliphate (632-661)

  • Umayyad Caliphate (661-750)

  • Abbasid Caliphate (750-1258)

    • This is where our class starts but this Caliphate was about to be disintegrated

    • The Abbasid caliphate disintegrated because of internal chaos and rebellion

    • They had integrated an Mamluk institution which basically was military of enslaved soliders

    • These Mamluks were Turkic, and once this fell, the next Caliphates were led by them

    • They actually were gaining power within the Abbasid calpihate but once it lost power, they rose up

    • Even after the fall of this caliphate, Islam still spread rapidly due to missionaries called Sufi who traveled to spread the religion

• Split of Islam

  • Islam was eventually split into two sects

  • Shia

    • Means party of Ali

    • They believed that the first 4 caliphs were invalid and that Mohammad’s son in law should have become a Caliph after Mohammad’s death

  • Sunni

    • Believed that caliphs should be elected

    • That is how the first 4 caliphs were decided and continued to be decided

• Ulama: Scholars and religious leaders in Islam who interpret and teach Islamic law and theology.

• Sufism: A mystical and ascetic tradition within Islam, focusing on direct experiences of God through practices like meditation and music.

• The 5 pillars of Islam

  • Hajj

    • At least once go on pilgrimage to Mecca

  • Zakah

    • give alms to poor people

  • Shahadah

    • There is only one god

  • Salah

    • Pray 5 times daily facing Mecca

  • Sawm

    • Fast during the month of Ramadan

Africa

• Where the human species starts

• Africa is a massive continent with few rivers that are safe to travel in

• This means that it is hard to move around, trade, etc.

• We have a lack of ports in Africa and lack of rain, so not too much fertile soil

• This led to a lot of migration

• The Sahara Desert was a break of civilization, so there were no humans who lived there and nobody could cross it

This meant that Africa had two major sections

North Africa

• Region of Africa above the Sahara Desert

• Roman Empire, Umayyad Caliphate(islam), Abbasid Caliphate, Ghana, Mali

• Slavery

  • Since there were not that many people who lived in Africa at the time

  • Elites needed as many slaves as possible who were forced to work for them and farm their lands

  • There weren’t an excess of workers

Sub-Saharan Africa

• Region of Africa below the Sahara Desert

• Largely isolated because of the desert

• Great Zimbabwe, Swahilli city states

• Mostly stateless

• A pastoral group of people called the Bantus lived in the Sahara Desert/Sub Sahara Africa

• The land they lived in the kept drying up so they kept migrating

• Slowly though, each place that they migrated to started to dry up due to environmental changes

• They would keep migrating along the Niger River, planting crops, over the course of thousands of years

• Over this huge time period, they kept expanding and migrating

• Sub Saharan Africa developed thousands of constantly changing cultures and languages because people didn’t settle down and live in one place of land

• They became warriors and conquerors

• They were one of the first civilizations to invent iron and use it for weaponry

• Groits/Djeli were story tellers whos job was to preserve culture

• The history of Sub Saharan Africa was mostly preserved by story telling

• The main reasons we didn’t have states in Sub Saharan Africa

  • There are thousands of cultures

  • Dieseases

  • Ethnic diversity is huge

  • Most of Sub Saharan Africa was nomadic

Swahilli City States

• These were cities in South east Africa that were part of a major indian ocean trade route

• They were a part of Sub Saharan Africa that was actually centalized

• They had major ports which allowed them to trade with India, Islam, and China

• They adopted islamic cultures

• Most African states who were powerful were islamic

Great Zimbabwe

• 1200-1450

• They were a pretty advanced society

• Part of Sub Saharan Africa that was not decentralized

Development in the Americas

• Area that humans migrated last to

• They came from Africa, to Asia, through the barren straight in the North and eventually came to the Americas

• Geographically very large

• Known as the New World

• People in this New World didn’t have much trade and no domestication of animals

• This lack of domestication of animals leads to a lack of exposure to diseases and epedemics

North America

North America was primarily a stateless area with nomadic people

Anasazi

• Existed from 400-1300

• Civilization brought down by war likely

• Had no writing

• They had buildings called Pueblo Dwellings which were built into caves or canyons

• They were complex

• Existed from 700-1500

• They built massive mounds of dirt and built there homes and cities ontop of the those cities

Central America

• Mesoamerica had large civilizations that came before 1200 such as the Olmecs

• Olmecs

  • A civilization who had a language, religion, and culture

• By 1200, these civilizations were gone but they they laid important foundation for future civilizations

• Mayans

  • Ruled by Priest kings

  • Had some knowledge of astronomy

  • Religion

    • Polytheism: Believing in many gods

    • Human Sacrifice

  • Alot of these values came from the Olmecs

  • After the Olmecs were wiped out, the Mayans replaced them

  • They also valued human sacrifice and built pyramids for these sacrifices

  • The Mayans had a ball game for sacrifice whcih they inherited from the Olmecs

  • Complex hieroglyphics to represent their calender system

  • Slavery

    • There was warfare in Mesoamerica

    • Instead of just killing a state’s enemies in war, mesoamerican societies took slaves or sacrificed the enemies

  • Likely faded away from envrionmental changes or overuse of land

  • They were replaced by the Toltecs

    • They were similiar to the Mayans and Olmecs

    • They liked war

    • They get destroyed eventually

  • Aztecs

    • 1200s-1500s

    • They were war like, they continued the calender, human sacrifice, and polytheistic religion

    • They built pyramids for human sacrifice

    • The Aztecs had far more human sacrifice than before, thousands per year

    • Wars were fought to get sacrifices

    • The reason for these were because they believed in the Son God

      • Huitzilopochtli, the god of war

      • They believed that the sun wouldn’t rise without human sacrifice

    • They had a massive capital with over 500,000 people called Tenochitlan

South America

Chavin Civilization

• The mother civilization that we don’t know much about

• Their culture was the foundation of their predeccesors

• Located high up in the Andes Mountains

• They had a labor clan based system

  • Based on what clan you are born into, you are given a specific job and purpose

• Had no writing, they recorded things using a knot system called a Quipo

• It could have been used for recording inventory of goods

Moche Civilization

• We don’t know much about them, similiar time period to the Chavins

• Existed from about 200-700

• They were ruled by warrior priests

• They were the most powerful people on the Andes Mountains

• Similiar clan system to the Chavins

• They had clans called Ayllus who owned land

Inca Civilization

• When the Chavin and Moche people vanished, the Incas replaced them

• Since they lived on mountains, they used something called terrace farming

  • farming on hillsides, look at a picture

• They domesticated llamas

• They took the Ayllu clan system and the quipu knot system from their predeccessors

• They had a really strong government so they were able to build vital road networks

• They had a large empire and mountainous geography so their road networks were very important

• Machu Pichu

Europe

Ancient Greeks

• They called themslves the hellens

• They started by populating the land of what is now Greeece

• They slowly spread accross the mediterianan and ran that place as their cities grew

• Each city-state that they had was independent and had its own control, culture, and beliefs

Athens

• Named after Greek Goddess Athena

• They were a direct democracy

  • Every male citizen in the city voted for every decision that the government made

  • Leadership positions were randomly chosen

• This was a center of learning, philiosphy, and logics instead of Gods and spirituality

• They believed that the universe wasn’t powered by Gods, but by logic and laws

• Though they still had religion, they started to think about science

• They believed in humanistic, individualism, and secularism

• Inspired modern history

• They made scupltures based off of humans instead of gods

• Herodotus

  • The first historian ever, who wrote history down

Persian War 499-449 BCE

• The persians were far bigger than Greece

• Greece still wanted to fight them, so the city states came together to go to war against them

• This happened because Greece wanted freedom

  • The right to rule themselves

Ancient Romans

• The Romans eventually conquered Greece and while they were doing it, they fell in love Greek culture

• They spread that culture around their massive empire in Europe and the Mediterrianian world

• Rome was a republic, where leaders were voted into power

• They weren’t a direct democracy like Greece

• Rome didn’t hire mercenaries to fight for them as millitary, but instead had citizens who were incentivized to fight for them for a better life

• The millitary fought for the good of the state, and they were extremely powerful

• They had really great roads, centralized and strong government, and learning

• They kept the freedom goal of Greece

• This was the classical age of Greece and Rome

• They replaced their republic with emperors eventually

• They created the Latin language

• After Rome made Christanity its official religion, they got invaded by barbarians and fell

• The trade routes were gone, the roads, the learning etc.

• Europe became stateless again

Judiasm

• Jewish people were conquered by the Roman Empire

• They wanted to free so they kept bothering Rome

• Embraced monotheism

• They followed their leader Abraham to Egypt

• They then followed a new leader, Moses, out of Egypt

• They had a major temple in Jersulem, which was their capital

• They had been conquered many times before being conquered by Rome

• They followed the Torah and 10 commandments

• Jews kept trying to rebell against Rome, and Rome decided to tear down their temple and push them out of their home

• They went around the Roman empire and mediterrian and formed communities called diaspora

Christianity

• Jesus of Nazareth

  • He was a Jewish man raised by Jewish people

  • He believed the charity and compassion was more important than the teachings and traditions of Judaism

  • People started to follow him because they thought he was a savior

  • Jewish people were taught to expect a savior to come to them and save them from their problems from their oppression

  • They thought that a warrior would come and restore a kingdom they would have

  • Instead, Jesus was talking about a Heavenly kingdom, but his followers believed that he was this savior anyway

  • His teachings though, were powerful to the poor people accross Rome, but this wasn’t good for the people who were in power

  • Jewish religion was only focused on one ethnic group but Christanity could be adopted by all

  • This was because the default Roman Religion focused on listening to those in power

  • For this reason, they executed Jesus

  • His teachings spread accross Rome, out of the Jewish homeland

  • Since it threatened Rome’s power, they made it illegal

  • After centuries of trying to wipe out Christianity, an emperor called Constantine decided to make it a legal religion, and adopts it himself

Feudalism

• After Rome fell, and Europe became stateless

• The barbarians eventually formed their own small and weak governments

• They formed feudalistic power where local rulers had most of the power

• There was a shift from science and learning towards religious believes and systems

• They became Christan

• Europe primarily composed of servants at this point who served people in power

• Christanity becomes a lot stronger with Rome gone and religious leaders become the most powerful people in Europe

• The pope was the most powerful person

• Popes could kick powerful people like kings and emperors out of Church which was very powerful in that time

• The popes could even create Crusades, which were religous wars

• They attacked Pagans in Russia, tried to reclaim Jerusalam