AP WORLD NOTES

AP World Review Periodization and SPICE

• AP World History Presentation
  • Period 1: 1200-1450 → The Global Tapestry; Networks of Change
  • Period 2: 1450-1750 → Land Based Empires; Transoceanic Connections
  • Period 3: 1750-1899 → Revolutions and Industrialization
  • Period 4: 1900-present → Global Conflict/Globalizations

SPICE

• SPICE is one of several acronyms used to help analyze historical events and processes
  • Social = class/caste hierarchy, gender roles, race, ethnicity
  • Political = government systems, leadership, parties, bureaucracy; war
  • Interactions with the environment = human use/alteration/destruction of the local environment; pandemics
  • Culture = religion, philosophy, technology, innovation, education, entertainment, art, and agriculture
  • Economy = activities, agriculture, trade, industry, labor systems, banking

PERIOD 1 (1250-1450): THE GLOBAL TAPESTRY & NETWORKS OF EXCHANGE

Philosophy in China: Confucianism

Kung Fuzi (Confucius)

• Kung Fuzi (Confucius) 551-479 BCE
  • Confucius was a frustrated low-level bureaucrat and scholar who wanted a position as minister in the imperial government
  • He died without achieving his career goals.
  • He was remembered by his disciples who collected his works into a book, “The Analects”, and popularized Confucianism
• Confucianism was a system of thought that focused on three key virtues:
  • Ren: having humanity in all interactions
  • Li: following proper etiquette and customs of respect
  • Xiao: respecting your parents and supporting them in old age; filial piety
• From the perspective of Confucianism, there are five pairs of relationships that determine people’s position with each other:
  • Ruler and subject
  • Father and son
  • Elder brother and younger brother
  • Husband and wife
  • Friend and friend according to age
• If society was ordered and people interacted in the proper ways, then the nation would always be on the right path

Confucianism and Chinese Society

• Confucianism divided Chinese society into four occupations:
  • Shi: noble warriors and scholars (later scholar gentry)
  • Nong: peasant farmers (farming is essential work)
  • Gong: artisans and craftsmen (silk, porcelain, lacquerware → production of goods is essential work)
  • Shong: merchants (is buying and selling goods essential work)

Song Dynasty (960-1279)

• Achievements (Song Taizu)
  • Ended the chaos after the fall of the Tang
  • Expanded the bureaucracy; all government workers are imperial servants
  • Created a more tightly centralized empire than the Sui or Tang

Song Dynasty: The Downfall

• Reasons for the decline:
  • Poor military leadership: Confucian scholars had no military experience and as a result, border people (nomads), took over northern China.
  • Bloated bureaucracy: increasing centralization and treating all government workers as imperial servants required massive spending to cover the new salaries
  • Raising taxes caused peasant revolts
  • The last Song Emperor was defeated by Mongol forces in 1279.

Women in China

• Patriarchy strengthened in China during the Tang and Song Dynasties.
• The most notable example of this was the practice of foot binding for Chinese girls.
• Foot binding: the process in which a girl’s feet (ages 4-9) were tightly bound to make them smaller

Buddhism

• Founded by Siddhartha Gautama, c. 530 BCE
  • Siddhartha was from an upper-caste family whose father had sheltered him from the reality of the outside world

Siddhartha’s epiphany

• While on a carriage ride, Siddhartha came across a very old and sick man.
  • Having never seen someone this old and near death, Siddhartha was confused and the carriage driver “enlightened” him on the fact that everyone grows old and dies.
  • Unnerved by this, Siddhartha begins questioning life until he came across an ascetic holy man walking along a road.
  • Seeing that there was a way to devote himself to understanding the nature of suffering, he decided to devote himself to a life of asceticism.

Buddha

• After wandering as a hermit, Siddhartha decided to meditate until he had come up with the solution to end human suffering.
  • He meditated for 49 days under a tree when came up with the way of life that would break the cycle of human suffering.

The Four Noble Truths

• All life involves suffering
• Desire causes suffering
• Elimination of desire ends suffering
• Being disciplined in following the Noble Eightfold Path brings that elimination.

The Noble Eightfold Path

• Right belief
• Right resolve
• Right speech
• Right behavior
• Right occupation
• Right effort
• Right contemplation
• Right meditation

Mahayana Buddhism

• In this sect of Buddhism, the Buddha is seen as divine
• Bodhisattvas, or “living saints”, were those who were approaching nirvana but chose to help others
• A follower didn’t need to live his/her life as Buddha did, simply donating to a monastery was seen as an act that merited salvation

Early Japan

Japanese Society: the beginnings

• Japanese society was made up of clans ruled by an aristocratic family.
  • These clans were concentrated on what was called the Yamato Plain in southern Japan (Honshu).
  • Eventually, the leader of the clans was named Yamato, after the Yamato clan. The clan itself was named for the plain.
  • The Yamato became the imperial family of Japan and was given nearly divine status and considered as the living symbol of Japan.

Japanese Social Hierarchy During Tokugawa Period 1200-c.1870

1. Emperor → figurehead
2. Shogun → public leader
3. Diamyas → nobles
4. Samurai → warriors
5. Ronin → paid soldiers
6. Peasants → farmers and fishermen (90% of the population)
7. Advisors → craftspeople
8. Merchants → salespeople

• Feudalism: military service in exchange for land
• The Yamato emperor both admired and feared the Chinese because they were more powerful than the Japanese and could easily invade the island nation.
  • Japan sent officials to China to learn how the Chinese ran their government. As a result:
    • Japan was divided into different territories, or provinces.
    • All land belonged to the emperor.
    • All taxes returned directly to the state and not local aristocrats.
    • Confucianism and later Buddhism became the important philosophy and religion of Japan.

Kamakura Period 1192-1333

• The first Shogun, or military ruler, was established at this time
• There were three shogunates, or periods of shoguns in Japanese history:
  • Kamakura (1192-1333)
  • Muromachi (1338-1573)
  • Tokugawa (1600-1868)

The World of East Asia: China and its Neighbors

• 1200: East Asia was one of the most sophisticated and dynamic in the world
• Between 600 and 1600: new states/civilizations Korea, Japan, Vietnam
  • Proximity to China greatly shaped their cultures (all of them borrowed Chinese cultural elements; or participated in a tributary relationship with China)

Chinese before the Mongol Takeover

• 1200: Song Dynasty (960-1279) ruled over large parts of ancient Chinese civilization
• Since the late 7th century: period of relatively stable rule in China
• Song dynasty: golden age of arts, literature (especially poetry, landscape painting, ceramics) and Confucian philosophy
• 12th century: nomadic Jurchen people conquered much of northern China (created native Chinese Song south, Jin north)
• Song dynasty: built on earlier precedents to create an elaborate bureaucratic state structure
• Examination system: (first established by the Han dynasty) was revived and made more elaborate, everyone could take the test (limited social mobility → middle class had more resources than the poor)
• China’s economic revolution: major rise in prosperity during Song dynasty; marked by rapid population growth (50-60 million → 120 million), urbanization, economic specialization, innovation, and new networks of internal waterways
• China: most urbanized country in the world (some cities over 100,000)
• Hangzhou: Song Dynasty capital, population of more than 1 million
• Industrial production: large-scale enterprises, output increased dramatically, fueled by coal (provided energy), growth
• Technological innovation: printing, first printed books; cheap & available by 1000; navigational & shipbuilding, gunpowder was created
• Along the River during the Quingming Festival: painted during the Song, illustrates urban sophistication of Chinese cities at the time
• Internal waterways (canals, rivers, lakes) stretched around 30 000 miles; Grand Canal of over 1000 miles linking the Yellow River in the north to the Yangzi River in the south
• Waterways: facilitated cheap movement of goods, specialization of crops
• Growing use of paper money → pioneered in China (taxes) contributed to a commercialization of society
• Women: subordination of women and men (Confucianism), males & females separated in every aspect of life
  • Male qualities: calligraphy, scholarship, painting, poetry
  • Female qualities: delicacy, weakness, reticence, taking care of kids
• Textile industry: urban workshops & state factories run by men
• Foot binding: expression of a tightening patriarchy; began dancers and courtesans in the 10th or 11th century; tight wrapping of young girls feet often breaking bones and causing immense pain; was continued & more widespread after Song dynasty
• Improvements: property rights expanded (control of dowries and could inherit property); lower-ranking officials educated women

Korea and Japan: Creating New Civilizations

• Korea generally maintained its political independence while in a tributary relationship with China (tribute was presented by Korean emissaries to China, kowtow/bowing before emperors – China gave visitors gifts/bestowals, reaffirmed peaceful relations & allowed official and personal trade)
• Korean women: had free choice of marriage, could sing and dance at night but China replaced their freedom (e.g., property inheritance, raising kids at parents, husband buried with wife’s family, remarriage of widow or divorce) with Confucian concept of family
• After 688: country largely maintained its political independence from China (only Buddhism had significant impact)

Daoism

• While Confucianism stresses order, Daoism emphasizes flowing with nature.
• Its founder was a wise man named Laozi whose work, "Daodejing", explained his philosophy
• "Daodejing" explains the importance of understanding the forces or laws of nature
  • Sometimes this is referred to as the "flow of the universe"
• Understanding this was called simply, Dao, or the "way"
• If everyone lived in harmony with the "way", then many of society’s problems would disappear

The Worlds of Southeast Asia

• Mainland Southeast Asia: Vietnam, Cambodia, Laos, Thailand, Myanmar
• Maritime Southeast Asia: Philippine and Indonesian islands, New Guinea
• Between 600-1500: a series of cities, states, and kingdoms connected to the growing commercial network of the Indian Ocean
• 3 major religious traditions: Buddhism, Hinduism, Islam

Vietnam: Living in the Shadow of China

• Vietnam borrowed heavily from China: Confucianism, Daoism, Buddhism, administrative techniques, examination system, and artistic and literary styles
• Vietnam achieved political independence but fully participated in the tributary system
• Vietnam had been fully incorporated into the Chinese state for more than a thousand years
• Vietnam dynasties: rulers were emperors, Mandate of Heaven, used Chinese xouet rituals
• Examination system: undermined an established aristocracy, social mobility for commoners, merit-based scholar gentry
• Vietnam: “southern extension of China”
• Uniquely Vietnamese: distinctive language, cockfighting, chewing betel nuts
• Women in Vietnam: female deities (“female Buddha”), greater role in social and economic life
• Confucian gender practices: northern officials tried to impose, it failed
• Customs in Vietnam (distinguished from China): women could choose their husbands, married men lived in the wives household (“Vietnam prefers birth of a girl instead of a boy”)
• Chu nom: “southern script", variation of Chinese writing developed in Vietnam that became the basis for an independent national literature (vehicle for the writing of educated women)

Maritime Southeast Asia: Commerce, Religion, and State Building

• Indian culture (Hindu and Buddhist) shaped maritime Southeast Asia
• Srivijaya: Malay kingdom that dominated the critical choke point in Indian Ocean trade at the Strait of Melaka between 670 and 1025 CE; absorbed various cultural influences from India
• Competition between Malay ports and Sumatran coast because of the new all-sea route between India and China formed the Malay kingdom of Srivijaya
• Srivijaya: plentiful supply of gold access to highly sought-after spices, taxes levied on passing ships → resources to attract supporters to fund an embryonic bureaucracy and to create military and naval forces for security
• Borobudur: huge Buddhist monument in Java, constructed 9th century, mountain-shaped structure, was abandoned and covered with layers of volcanic ash and vegetation under Islamic influence
• Srivijayan monarchs employed Indians as advisers, clerks, officials and assigned Sanskrit titles to their subordinates
• Palembang: capital city, cosmopolitan place
• Rulers: continued to draw on indigenous beliefs (chiefs possessed magical powers and were responsible for prosperity), but also used Indian political ideas, Buddhist religious concepts, sponsored the creation of images of the Buddha
• Srivijaya: center of Buddhist observance and teaching
• Madjapahit: significant Southeast Asian state that assimilated Hindu religious ideas. It was located primarily on the island of Java and was at the peak of its power in the 14th century.
• Hinduism was well established by 1000 in the Champa kingdom
• Khmer kingdom of Angkor: stunning architectural expression of Hinduism Angkor Wat
• Angkor Wat: largest religious structure of its time; expressed a Hindu understanding of the cosmos centered on a mythical Mount Meru, home of the gods, used later by the Buddhists

Indian Ocean Trade in the Middle Ages c. 1200-1450

• From East Africa to India and Middle East:
  • Ivory
  • Gold
  • Slaves
  • Wild animal skins
• From India to the Middle East and East Africa:
  • Spices/peppers
  • Cotton textiles
  • Porcelain (from China)
  • Silk

Religion & Indian Ocean Trade

• The Indian Ocean Trade is sometimes called the maritime Silk Road
  • Considered one of the many Silk Roads
• Along with trade goods (commodities), religion also spread by the Indian Ocean trade
• Islam is spread from the Middle East to East Africa and Indonesia
• Buddhism and Hinduism spread from India to Southeast Asia

Relationship between the Monsoons, sailors, and religion

• What was the cycle of the Monsoon winds?
  • Six months to the Southeast; Six months to the Northeast
• Sailors would be stuck for six months in a foreign port
  • What to do?
    • Marry local women
    • Have children
    • Form religious communities
    • Visit every 6 months

Kilwa: City of Coral and Gold

1. Richard Burton, a British explorer who visited Kilwa in 1859, believed that the indigenous African culture was incapable of developing and constructing stone-built cities. He claimed Kilwa was entirely constructed by outsiders: The Arabs.
2. The building material used in constructing the palace of Kilwa was coral stone that was collected from local reefs while still soft and cemented with mortar.
3. Evidence that overturned the outsider theory was found in the Kilwa Chronicles.
4. The political and economic dominance of Kilwa ended in 1505 when Fransisco de Almeida occupied it. Portugal controlled the colony and built a military fort (Gereza) until, in the early 1700s, Portuguese colonies were invaded by the Sultanate of Oman. Kilwa was never restored to its former glory and abandoned in the mid-19th century.
5. Swahili is derived from an Arabic word that means “coastal dweller”. The language formed when the local inhabitants (descendants of the Bantu) blended their language with adopted words from Persian and Arabic.
6. Kilwa traded their gold, grain, wood, and ivory for Chinese cotton, ceramics, silk, and Chinese porcelain. Evidence of Chinese trade with Kilwa is the interior walls of coral buildings in Kilwa, decorated with Chinese porcelain.
7. Gold was flowing out of the interior of southern Africa, traditionally traded out of the port of Sofala. During the Shirazis rule, Kilwa started to extend its influence to control Sofala as its southern outpost. This way, Kilwa could control the entire East Africa gold trade.
8. Products that Kilwa exported to India:
   • Gold
   • Grain
   • Wood
   • Ivory
9. Products that Kilwa imported from India and East Africa:
   • Cotton
   • Ceramics
   • Chinese porcelain
   • Silk
10. Gaspar Correia, a Portuguese visitor in the 16th century, described Kilwa as a large city encircled by walls: “Within these are perhaps 12,000 inhabitants. The country all around is very luxurious with many trees, and gardens of all sorts of vegetables, citrons, lemons, and the best sweet oranges ever seen.”
11. The merchants from Kilwa used dhows, the typical East African sailing ships to drive with the monsoon winds, across the Indian Ocean, to India and China, as well as to Arabia and Persia.

Five Pillars of Islam

• Declaration of faith (shahada)
  • “There is no god but God and Muhammad is the messenger of God.”
• Obligatory prayer (salah)
  • Praying five times a day in the direction of Mecca
• Compulsory giving (zakat)
  • Giving to Charities. This is 2.5% of a person’s income.
    • Christian Tithe was 10%
• Fasting in the month of Ramadan (sawm)
  • Fasting during the month of Ramaddan, the time of year when Muhammad received the revelations from God
    • This is usually determined by the phase of the moon
    • Muslims may not eat or drink from sunrise to sun down (Exceptions for: old, sick, travelers)
• Pilgrimage to Mecca (hajj)
  • Muslims are expected to travel to Mecca at least once in their life, no matter where they live
    • Six days are spent in Mecca visiting sites of religious and historical significance
    • Ka’aba, or cube, is a black, square structure where a black stone, rumored to be a fragment of a meteorite, is embedded in the wall
    • Pilgrims walk 7 times, counterclockwise around the cube (Muhammad and his forces marched 7 times)

Islamic Empires of the Umayyads and Abbasids

• Within 100 years after Muhammad’s death, Islam spread outward from the Arabian peninsula to North Africa and Persia
  • Islamic armies conquered the Persian empire
• Reasons for the Rapid Expansion:
  • Byzantines and Persian Empires were weak
  • A common faith
  • People felt liberated from the authority of the old empires

Muhammad’s death and the concept of the caliph

• After Muhammad’s death in 632 CE, the leader of the umma, or community of believers, fell to Abu Bakr, a close friend of Muhammad, the first caliph
• This was the issue which divided Muslims, with a minority believing it should be a male from Muhammad’s bloodline
• Supporters of Ali and the bloodline formed the Shia (party) faction which vigorously and violently opposed the Sunni (traditionalists) who supported any inspiring and competent leader (like the 1st caliph)

Umayyad Caliphate (661-750 CE)

• After Caliph Ali’s assassination, the succession of leadership fell to the wealthy Umayyad clan of Mecca
  • Ruling styles:
    • Tolerant to religious minorities; jizya (Jews and Christians)
    • Used only relatives and friends (Arabs only) of the clan to rule
    • Spread Islam throughout North Africa
    • Ruled from Damascus, Spain rather than Mecca

Abbasid Dynasty (750-1258 CE)

• Reasons for wiping out the dynasty
  • The Umayyads were rumored to have been liberal with interpreting Qu’ranic injunctions on modesty and alcohol consumption
  • Overlooked non-Arabs in the new empire
• Abu al-Abbas became the new caliph and established a new dynasty
• In the 8th century CE, Baghdad became the capital of the Islamic world
• Abbasids were more interested in consolidating the empire than expanding it
• This period was among the most prosperous in Arab history, referred to as the Islamic Golden Age under Caliph Harun al Rashid c. 780s

Islamic Golden Age under Caliph Harun al Rashid

• Jewish culture flourishes in Baghdad
• Ibn Sina and other Muslim philosophers take inspiration from classical Greek philosophers like Plato and Aristotle and translate
• First built hospitals (bimaristan) to heal the sick

Islamic Empire: Significance

• The global impact of the Islamic empires was:
  • Spread Islam through the Middle East, North Africa, and most of the Iberian Peninsula
  • Spread the Arabic language and culture through these regions
  • New crops such as rice, sugar, lemons, and oranges are introduced to the Mediterranean world c.1000; largest transfer of new food products until the Columbian exchange c. 1500
  • Though Spain is not a Muslim nor Arab country, Arabic language and culture influenced the development of Spanish culture and language

Islamic Civilization

Sects within Islam

• Sects-branches of the same religion
  • Sunni: 80-90% of all Muslims
  • Shi’a: +10% of all Muslims

Muslim society

• According to Islam and the Qu’ran, all Muslim people are equal, in the eyes of Allah
  • The enslavement of non-Muslims was legal
    • Slaves were usually captured in warfare
    • Some slaves were allowed to join the army
    • Other slaves were given responsibilities and prestige and sometimes even freed

Role of Women

• Women were/are permitted to…
  • Own businesses
  • Testify in court (though this carried only half the weight of a man’s testimony)
  • Under certain circumstances divorce
• The practice of veiling was a continuation of older Arab traditions.
• Generally, women’s rights in the Middle East improved under Islam
  • The Qu’ran admonishes women to “dress modestly”
    • This has been interpreted in different ways
      • Hijab-simple cloth covering over the head and shoulders
      • Burqa-total body covered in clothes, except eyes
    • Veiling in Southwest Asia/Middle East, and parts of Africa, has been a custom for thousands of years

Islamic Cities

• Islamic cities were marked by numerous mosques and bazaars
  • Bazaars were large open-air market places where goods from around the world were bought and sold
  • Minaret → tower for prayer, muezzeve

Islamic Art & Architecture

• It is forbidden for Muslims to depict Muhammad in art and pictures
  • Many Muslims consider it idol worshipping
    • Since Muhammad is not considered a god, but a prophet/messenger, he should not be worshipped as a deity
  • Because of this prohibition, Muslim artists focused on geometric patterns in architecture and paintings and calligraphy

Islamic architecture:

• Byzantine domes and arches, inherited from the old Eastern Roman empire, were common features on churches throughout the Mediterranean
  • These were adopted and improved by Islamic architects in the construction of mosques, or Islamic places of worship

The Worlds of Islam: Fragmented & Expanding

• By around 1200: Dar al-Islam was firmly established along the expanse of Afro-Eurasia (Spain; Morocco in the west; northern India in the east; heartland in the Middle East and Egypt)
• Construction of Arab Empire → incorporated into the Islamic world
• Around 1000: a second major expansion by conquest → India, Anatolia, Balkans in the world of Islam
• By 1200: Islam was spreading far beyond into Southeast and central Asia and Sub-Saharan Africa through Muslim merchants & missionaries
• Growing world of Islam (900-1500): Islam as a religion, a civilization, and an arena of commerce continued to grow even as the Arab Empire fragmented (Ibn Battuta: Arab scholar & merchant revealed how long-distance trade routes linked the Islamic heartland)

The Islamic Heartland

• Abbasid caliphate: an Arab dynasty of caliphs (successors to the Prophet) who governed much of the Islamic world from its capital in Baghdad beginning in 750 CE. After 900 CE that empire increasingly fragmented until its overthrow by the Mongols in 1258.
• In 1200, the Abbasid dynasty’s grip on the Arab empire slipped
• Around 1000: the arrival of Turkic-speaking pastoralists from the steppes of Central Asia into the Abbasid empire → major turning point in political and cultural history of the Islamic Middle East
• First, they were slave soldiers; as the caliphate declined, they increasingly took political and military power for themselves
• Seljuk Turkic Empire: empire of the 11th and 12th centuries, centered in Persia and present-day Iraq; rulers adopted the Muslim title of sultan (ruler) as part of their conversion to Islam rather than the Turkic kaghan
• As Turkic political power grew, more groups of Turkic-speaking warriors converted to Islam between 10th and 14th centuries → significant expansion of Islam; Turks became major sustainers of Islam
• By 1200: Islamic heartland → a series of sultanates (often ruled by Persian or military dynasties)
• 13th century: invaded by the Mongols (pastoral people), ended the Abbasid caliphate in 1258 and ruled much of Persia
• Ottoman Empire: major Islamic state centered on Anatolia that came to include the Balkans, parts of the Middle East, and much of North Africa; lasted from 14th to early 20th century
  • Creation of a Turkic warrior group that had migrated into Anatolia
  • Brought greater long-term political unity to the Islamic Middle East and North Africa
• Constantinople: new capital for the eastern half of the Roman Empire; Constantinople’s highly defensible and economically important site helped ensure the city’s cultural and strategic importance
• 16th-century: Ottoman empire extended its control → the Middle East, Egypt, coastal North Africa, lands surrounding the Black Sea, Eastern Europe
• Seljuk Tiles: ceramic tiles used to decorate mosques, minarets, palaces, made by Turkic Muslims

On the Peripheries of the Islamic World: India and Spain

• Turkic-speaking warrior groups → Muslim faith into India → encounter with ancient Hindu civilization
• Around 1000: gave rise to a series of Islamic regiments that governed much of India into the nineteenth century
• Establishment of the Sultanate of Delhi (1206) → Turkic rule became more systematic
• Between 1206-1526: Muslim dynasties ruled northern India as the Delhi Sultanate
• 1336: Hindu kingdom of Vijayangar arose; drew on north Indian Muslim architectural features and made use of Muslim mercenaries for its military forces
• Conversion to Islam: disillusioned Buddhists, low-caste Hindus, untouchables, avoiding jizya
• Jizya: special tax paid by dhimmis (protected but second-class subjects) in Muslim-ruled territory in return for freedom to practice their own religion
• Sufis: particularly important in facilitating conversion (India valued “god-filled men” who were detached from worldly affairs)
• Islam in India → maximum 20-25% of total population
• Muslim communities: concentrated in the Punjab and Sind regions (north-west) and Bengal (east)
• Muslim and Hindu lived separately
• Many prominent Hindus willingly served in political and military structures of Muslim-ruled India
• Vijayanagar Empire (1336-1646): Hindu state which controlled nearly all of southern India at its height, capital city Hampi
  • Sustained and peaceful Hindu-Muslim encounters
  • Hindu predominated, Muslim presence, peaceful encounters (Muslim merchants)
• Muslim word for Spain: al-Andalus
• Muslims, Christians, and Jews mixed more freely in Spain than in India (Muslim-Hindu)
• 8th-century conquest of Spain by Muslims: vibrant civilization → most prosperous agricultural economy in Europe; largest, thriving capital Cordoba; medicine, arts, architecture, and literature flourished
• Social relationships between upper-class members of different faiths → easy and frequent (“golden age” was limited and brief)
• By 1000: 75% of population had converted to Islam, some Christians adopted some aspects of Muslim culture (learned Arabic, women veiled)
• Reign of Abd al-Rahman III: freedom of worship, opportunity for all to rise in state bureaucracy
• Islamic scholars: Islamic learning flourished in Spain, after 1000 was increasingly transmitted to Christian Western Europe
• Cordoba-based Muslim regime → fragmented into several rival states
• 10th and 11th century: warfare with remaining Christian kingdoms picked up, more puritanical and rigid forms of Islam entered Spain from NA
  • Tolerance turned to persecution against Christians and Jews
  • Social life was divided
• After 1200: Christian reconquest of Spain gained ground
• 1492 The End: Ferdinand and Isabella (Catholic monarchs of unified Spain) took Granada (last Muslim stronghold)
• 16th century: even though promise to maintain freedom of Muslim worship, the Spanish monarchy outlawed Islam in several territories (Muslims had a choice between conversion or exile)
  • 200,000 Jews who refused to convert
    • Many emigrated to NA or Ottoman Empire
• Early 17th century: Muslim converts to Christianity were banished
• Cultural interchange persisted: translation of Arab texts into Latin, Muslim palaces & mosques converted to Christian uses, Islamic-style architecture
• Spain: religious reversal 1200-1450, Christian rule was reestablished
• Chief significance of Muslim Spain: rich heritage of Islamic learning in Europe

Connections across Eurasia: The Silk Roads

• Silk Roads: land-based trade routes that linked many regions of Eurasia. They were named after the most famous product traded along these routes
• Linked various peoples/civilizations from China to Europe by the early centuries of the Common Era
• Vast arrays of goods often carried in large camel caravans that traversed the harsh and dangerous steppes, deserts, oases of Central Asia
• Caravanserai: guest houses where caravans/merchants could rest, exchange goods, resupply their animals; located all along trade routes from eastern Mediterranean to China; centers of cultural exchange
• Dunhuang: major commercial city on the Silk Road trading network and a center of Buddhist learning and art, located in western China
• For 2000 years, goods, technologies, ideas, diseases traveled through Eurasia along the Silk Roads

The Making of the Silk Roads

• Most goods: luxury products destined for an elite and wealthy market
• Silk: most prominent of the luxury goods
• China: largest producer of silk
• 6th century CE: knowledge and technology of silk production had spread to Korea, Japan, India, Persia, Byzantine Empire
• Increase in supply of silk → varieties circulated more extensively across Afro-Eurasian trade routes
• Central Asia: silk was used as currency
• China and Byzantine Empire: Silk was a symbol of high status; laws restricted silk clothing to members of the elite
• Buddhism and Christianity: silk was sacred
• Buddhist pilgrims who traveled to India who wanted religious texts gifted silk to monasteries
• Technological innovations, yokes, saddles, stirrups → made use of camels, horses, oxen more effective
• “frame and mattress” saddle: Arab invention that allowed camels to carry much heavier loads in a stable fashion
• “flying cash” paper money: Chinese innovation facilitated Silk road network, (no heavy metal coins)
• “bills of exchange” European contract promising payment; novel banking houses could offer credit to merchants
• Silk Road trade: modest, limited its direct impact on people (luxury goods)
• Economic and social consequences: peasants in Yangzi River delta (southern China) gave up cultivation of food crops → focus on production of silk, paper, porcelain, lacquerware, iron tools for Silk road markets
• Impact of long-distance trade → ordinary farmers and merchants who could immensely benefit from their involvement
• 12th-century Persian trader Ramisht: made personal fortune with ships that traversed the Indian Ocean and Red Sea, commissioned enormously expensive covering made of Chinese Silk for Kaaba (central shrine of Islam, Mecca)

Religion and the Silk Roads

• Buddhism (product of India) spread widely through Central and East Asia with Indian traders and Buddhist monks along the Silk Roads
• Took root in the oasis cities of Central Asia (ex: Dunhuang, Meru)
• Conversion to Buddhism was voluntary
• Buddhism changed, as it spread
• Buddhist monasteries in rich oasis towns of Silk Roads → more involved in secular affairs (wealthier, more worldly style, far from traditions of Buddhist asceticism), ex: sculptures of drinking parties, musicians, receiving gifts, begging bowls
• Mahayana Buddhism: featured Buddha as a deity of numerous bodhisattvas, emphasis on compassion, possibility of earning merit; flourished