AP World History Unit 1 Review

• Unit 1 covers circa 1200 to 1450, focusing on state building and maintenance in major civilizations.

Song Dynasty China (960-1279)

• Maintained rule through:
  • Confucianism and Neo-Confucianism:
  • Hierarchical society: citizens submit to the state, women submit to men, juniors submit to elders, children submit to parents.
  • Filial piety: children obeying and honoring parents and ancestors.
  • Subordinate position of women: stripped of legal rights, social restrictions (limited education, foot binding among elites).
  • Expansion of imperial bureaucracy:
  • Civil service examination based on Confucian classics.
  • Merit-based system (theoretically).
• Chinese traditions influencing Korea, Japan, and Vietnam.

Buddhism in Song China

• Originated in India, spread to China.
• Four Noble Truths: life is suffering; we suffer because we crave; we see suffering when we cease craving; the Eightfold Path.
• Theravada Buddhism (Sri Lanka): confined to monks and monasteries.
• Mahayana Buddhism (East Asia): broader participation; bodhisattvas helping others.

Song Dynasty Economy

• Commercialization: production of excess goods for sale (porcelain, silk).
• Agricultural innovations: Champa rice (matures early, resists drought, can be harvested multiple times a year).
• Transportation: expansion of the Grand Canal facilitated trade and communication.

Dar al-Islam (House of Islam)

• Refers to places where Islam was the organizing principle.
• Islam related religions: Judaism, and Christianity that shaped their societies.
• Abbasid Caliphate (ethnically Arab) weakened; new Islamic entities dominated by Turkic people.
• Seljuk Empire: Turkic pastoralists who gained power over the Abbasids.
• Turkic empires maintained Sharia law.

Cultural and Scientific Innovations (Dar al-Islam)

• Nasir al-Din al-Tusi: advances in mathematics, invented trigonometry.
• Preservation of Greek philosophy: translated into Arabic in the House of Wisdom in Baghdad.

Expansion of Muslim Rule

• Military expansion: Seljuk Empire, Mamluk Sultanate, Delhi Sultanate.
• Traveling merchants: conversion to Islam in West Africa (e.g., Mali) for trade access.
• Sufi missionaries: mystical experience, adaptation to local beliefs (e.g., South Asia conversions).

South and Southeast Asia

• Religions: Hinduism, Buddhism, and Islam.
• Buddhism declined in South Asia; Hinduism remained widespread; Islam grew with the Delhi Sultanate.
• Bhakti movement: devotion to Hindu gods, challenged social hierarchies.

State Building (South Asia)

• Delhi Sultanate faced Hindu resistance (Rajput Kingdoms).
• Vijayanagara Empire: Hindu kingdom in the South resisting Muslim rule.

State Building (Southeast Asia)

• Majapahit Kingdom (Java): Buddhist kingdom controlling sea routes.
• Khmer Empire: Hindu kingdom converted to Buddhism (Angkor Wat).

The Americas

• Mesoamerica: Aztec Empire (founded 1345) with capital Tenochtitlan.
  • Tribute system: conquered peoples provided labor and goods.
• Andean Civilization: Inca Empire.
  • Mita system: labor on state projects.
  • Incas were highly centralized while Aztecs were decentralized.
• Mississippian Culture: agriculture-based civilization in North America with large towns and mounds.

Africa

• East Africa: Swahili Civilization (commerce-based cities).
  • Independent cities with social hierarchy, influenced by Muslim traders.
  • Swahili language: hybrid of Bantu and Arabic.
• West Africa: centralized civilizations (Ghana, Mali, Songhai) driven by trade, elite members converted to Islam.
• Hausa Kingdoms: city-states acting as brokers of trans-Saharan trade.
• Great Zimbabwe: powerful state that grew thanks to trade, indigenous shamanistic religion.
• Kingdom of Ethiopia: Christian state that grew and flourished because of trade with countries around the Mediterranean and the Arabian Peninsula.

Europe

• Belief Systems: Christianity (Eastern Orthodox and Roman Catholic).
• Byzantine Empire: Eastern Orthodox Christianity; carried forward by Kievan Rus.
• Western Europe: Roman Catholic Church; fragmented states, feudalism.
• Social, political, and economic order organized around feudalism (lords and vassals) and manorialism (lords and serfs).