APWH unit 1+2

General Overview

  • Civilizations start to become more organized and rulers start consolidating power 

    • Lead to more connection and trade

  • China innovates (paper and gunpowder)

  • Muslims help spread technologies and innovations throughout the world via trade

  • Europe just starting to interact with Africa and Asia

  • Americas still isolated

China

  • Continuities in Chinese history

    • Confucianism and the civil service exam

    • Filial piety and Mandate of Heaven

  • Song dynasty = champa rice and introduction of Neo-Confucianism to drive out Buddhism

  • Yuan (Mongol) = little cultural impact, run by Kublai Khan

  • Ming Dynasty = Establish Chinese rule and erase Mongol rule; Zheng hHe shows off the Indian Ocean, but China isolates because of fear of outsiders

Dar al-Islam

  • Islam is the faith spreading most during this time

  • Religion and politics still intertwined

    • Jizya (non-Muslim tax)

  • Islam spreads rapidly because the world is weak and fragmented

  • At this point in history, on the Abbasid Caliphate is left and will be sacked by the Mongols

  • Muslim merchants help spread culture and innovation around the known world

    • Ex: House of Wisdom in Baghdad, compass, lateen sail, algebra, medicine, etc.

    • Ibn Battuta

India

  • Hinduism was the dominant faith

  • Felt some threats from Buddhism and later Islam

  • Syncretic faith or a blending of various religious practices becomes common in India around the world

    • Sufis- mystical Islam, focuses more on relationship with God rather than strict doctrine 

      • Helps islam spread in India

Africa

  • Trade on the Indian Ocean and Trans-Saharan help spread Islam throughout North Africa and the East African Coast

  • In North Africa, the Ghana, Mali, and eventually Songhai Empire became wealthy because of gold

    • Mansa Musa

  • The Swahili States on the East African Coast profit from the Indian Ocean trade

Americas

  • Aztec Empire in Mexico

    • Used chinampas or floating garden beds to grow food

    • Big military

    • Ran a tribute state

  • Incas in the Andes Mountains (South America)

    • Tribute state were towns and villages were required to send men to do projects for the Empire (mainly roads) 

      • Called the M’ita system

    • Complex road system to connect the empire for the military

  • Both will be taken down by conquistadors in the 1500s 

Europe

  • Europe just beginning to come out of its Dark Ages and was decimated by the Black Plague

  • Closed off from the rest of the world and use the feudal system (like Japan) 

  • Christianity and in particular the Catholic Church has a ton of political power

    • Crusades leads to increase contact with Muslims and the beginning of adopting innovations picked up by Muslims

    • Start exploring in the next time period (1450-1750)

Mongols

  • Ghengis Khan unites the nomadic Mongols and they create the largest empire ever

  • Good at conquering, bad at governing

  • After Genghis’s death, empire broken into 4 Khanates to try and maintain order

    • The Great Khan (Yuan Dynasty) is supposed to be the strongest

  • Leave small cultural footprint

    • Pax Mongolica and help spread some of china’s innovations

Networks of Exchange

  • Trade is more than just products, also includes culture, religion, diseases, etc.

  • Silk Road

    • Luxury goods, made safer by the Pax Mongolica

  • Indian Ocean 

    • Dominated by Muslims - Islam spreads via the trade route

  • Trans-Saharan 

    • Dominated by Muslims - Islam spreads via the trade route

    • Leads to the rise of large African kingdoms (Ghana, Mali, Songhai)