# The Worlds of Christendom Much like the worlds of Islam, the Worlds of Christendom were both spreading and contracting between the 1200s and 1450s Since 600 CE, Christian faith had expanded dramatically in Europe even as if it lost influence in Asia and Africa, which were under the influence of Islam Even as the most sophisticated Christian empire, the Byzantines, declined, they heavily influenced the peoples of the Kievan Rus Even while the Roman empire collapsed, by the 1200s new civilizations were building upon the Greco-Roman Christian past with Germanic and Celtic culture to produce a new hybrid of civilization --- ## The Declining Byzantium and Emerging Rus The Byzantine empire never had a clear starting point, and was viewed as a continuation of the Roman empire after the Diocletian tetrarchy The Byzantine empire was initially large parts of the Eastern Roman empire, and also kept many roman laws, public roads, military structures, and politics Byzantine strived to preserve roman culture, evening naming its fortified capital, Constantinople, as “New Rome” The Byzantine empire lost Syria, Palestine, Egypt, and North Africa due to Islamic invasions, but they still controlled Greece, much of the Balkans, and Anatolia up until the 1200s Political power was heavily centralized in Constantinople, the Emperor had control over the church, the state, and the military; and appointed the patriarch (leader of the Orthodox Church), could make changes to doctrine, and called church councils into session, this system of ruling became known as caesaropapism Eastern Orthodox christianity legitimated the supreme authority of the emperor as a God-anointed (chosen) reflection of the glory of god on earth, providing the identity of Byzatianians/Romans as orthodox christians After growing tensions between the Orthodox and Catholic church, both churches excommunicated each other in 1054, which is known as the great schism, splitting the Catholics and Orthodoxies The Crusades launched in 1095 against the forces of Islam made relations even worse, and after Western forces seized Constantinople in the fourth crusade (1204), the rupture in Christendom proved irreparable The Kievan Rus held onto Orthodox Christianity even after the fall of the Byzantine empire The Kievan Rus was the Area of Ukraine and Western Russia, made up of Finnic, Baltic, and Viking people named after their most prominent city Kiev, which emerged in the 9th century The Kievan Rus was led by various Princes, and was a society of slaves and patriarchies In 988 the growing interaction of the Rus with the larger world prompted Prince Vladimir of Kiev to affiliate the Eastern Orthodox faith of the Byzantine empire in an attempt to link the people and link the state with others The slow mass conversion would pay of, and brought newborn Kiev into the world of Orthodox Christianity, while borrowing many things from Byzantine, like the Cyrillic Alphabet, Architecture, monastic tradition with prayers and service, and political control of the church, all legitimizing Kiev as a civilization As the Kievan Rus grew, the Byzantine empire slowly fell, even though it showed resilience against civil war and neighboring invaders, after 1085 the empire entered a period of slow and ultimately terminal decline The end finally came in 1453 when the Turkic Ottoman Empire took Constantinople by water and siege cannons, bringing the millennium long empire down ## Fragmentation in Western Europe By 1200 most of Western Europe had embraced Christianity in some Roman Catholic variant, and the Church replaced some of the political, administrative, educational and welfare functions of the roman empire Western Europe was isolated from the trade routes of sea and silk, and geographically dividing mountain ranges and forests made it difficult for unification, but the fertile and moderate climate of Europe allowed for large populations to be supported Europe never achieved completely political unity, in the 9000s-1000s to 1500s Europe was a feudalistic and decentralized society consisting of thousands of independent and autonomous city states controlled by a warrior elite of landowning lords in a system called manorialism In a state of constant competition, lesser lords and knights would swear allegiance to greater lords or kings, becoming vassals and receiving lands and plunder in return for military service Roman-like slavery, in the form of serfs, also found way into European society; Serfs were not owned, and could raise their own families, but were tied to the master’s estate as peasant laborers and owed money and service to the lord of the manor, and in return the serf would receive a small farm and protection; due to the uncertainty and violence of Europe at a time, the only form of security was through this system, and people devoted themselves to their manor, lord, and church After the 1000s, European political life crystallized into a system of competing states with Monarchies, and by the 1100s to 1300s the borders of France, England, Spain, Scandinavia, and other states began to appear with their own culture; all of these areas and governments would come to last to the 21st century today Europe’s fragmented nature placed a large emphasis in a states soldiers and militarized society Intense rivalry and technological “borrowing“also allowed Europe to grow extremely quickly technologically, by 1450 Europeans had caught up to Chinese and other worldly innovations, like using gunpowder for cannons, compasses for navigation, and by 1500 Europe had one of the most advanced arsenals and naval fleets in the world European rulers also had to deal with the nobility and the Church, Between 1200 and 1450 the Roman Catholic Church was the only universal power of Western Europe, and it possessed plenty of wealth and power (so much that the wealthy leading churchmen were rightfully accused of losing their spiritual mission) The Church, rulers, and nobles often competed each other but also regularly reinforced each other, rulers provided protection for the papacy and encouraged Catholicism among their subjects, and in return the church supported the oppression of the peasantry The inability of kings, Warriors or church leaders to take power allowed for urban-based merchants independence from political authority, and they exercised local power over their cities Many cities, Venice, Genoa, Florence, and Milan for example, became almost completely independent city states with their own legislation and government, all powered by wealthy merchants, while still paying taxes to the king (much unlike China with heavy regulations on trade) This freedom for merchants led to the rise of capitalism, and also corruption as the parliament was not dedicated to the people, but the the three great “estates of the realm“, the clergy, the landowning nobility, and urban merchants Several centuries after 1000, Europe stabilized and brought about the High Middle Ages (1000-1300), and the population grew from 35 million to 80 million in 1340 Expansion and climate changes lead to expansion of territory and many peasants were able to loosen the shackles of serfdom, the black plague in 1350 would create shortages of labor and a better job market This expansion would be supported by technological advancements, such as iron horse collars, heavy wheeled plows for the dense soil of the north, and the 3 crop rotation These innovations would help stop the overexploitation of the land and helped Europe recover from severe pollution and overconsumption | \*\*Borrowing\*\* | \*\*Source\*\* | \*\*Significance\*\* | |----|----|----| | Horse collar | China / Central Asia via Tunisia | Enabled heavy plowing and contributed to European agricultural development | | Stirrup | India/Afghanistan | Revolutionized warfare by enhancing cavalry forces | | Gunpowder | China | Enhanced the destructiveness of warfare | | Paper | China | Enabled bureaucracy; fostered literacy; prerequisite for printing | | Spinning wheel | India | Sped up production of yarn, usually by women at home | | Wheelbarrow | China | Laborsaving device for farm and construction work | | Aristotle | Byzantium / Islamic Spain | Recovery of classical Greek thought | | Medical knowledge/treatments | Islamic world | Sedatives, antiseptics, surgical techniques, optics, and knowledge of contagious diseases enriched European medicine | | Christian mysticism | Muslim Spain | Mutual influence of Sufi, Jewish, and Christian mysticism | | Music/poetry | Muslim Spain | Contributed to tradition of troubadour poetry about chivalry and courtly love | | Mathematics | India / Islamic world | Foundation for European algebra | | Chess | India/Persia | A game of prestige associated with European nobility | > Cool graph showing stuff the Europeans made stolen from the textbook \\ Europeans also began to tapping into mechanical properties to create watermills and windmills to simplify production and manufacturing, allowing them to bond with civilizations like Byzantine and Islam by trade Cities and towns also grew exponentially, and the new influx of workers and occupations organized themselves into guilds to regulate their work. Expansion of the economy also gave women new job opportunities and guilds, but as Europe moved into the 1500s most of these feminized guilds would be shut down or made male only Women also moved to the church as an alternative to home, marriage, family, and rural life; many aristocratic women were attracted into the secluded monastic life of obedience to avoid male control, and could actually obtain an education and a form of authority, but by the 1300s many of these freedoms were limited by ideas of women’s intellectual inferiority and sexual temptation The man’s role was no longer a warrior protected women, but as providers for the family in the marketplace As Europe grew, European merchants, travelers, diplomats, and missionaries brought European society with it --- The Holy Crusades starting in 1095 stretching to the 1300s extended European control West and East and was manned by Crusaders who undertook gods command in return for an indulgence (repayment of debt, immunity of lawsuits); the Holy Crusades were a religious war against any non-Christians who posed a threat to the Christian empire The Most famous of these Crusades were aimed a wrestling Jerusalem and holy places associated with Jesus from Islamic control; starting in 1095 wave after wave of Crusaders managed to divide four small christian states, which lasted until Muslim forces recaptured them in 1291 Crusading was not limited to the Middle east, Christians who attempted to reclaim the Iberian Peninsula from Muslim hands were also declared crusaders, and so were Scandinavians and Germanic warriors who took part in settling in lands along the Baltic sea The Byzantine empire was also a target of Crusades The Crusades has littling lasting impact, as European power was not able to induce enough conversion, but in Europe the Crusades brought Spain Sicily and the Baltic Region into the world of western Christendom, weakened the Byzantines, and also brought in Islamic goods into Europe along with slave plantations Christian anti-semitism was hardened by the Crusades, and Empires in Europe and later in the Americas would continue conquesting as “God Wills It“ The West also developed a legal system which gave institutions like cities, guilds, professional associations and especially universities, a measure of independence; these evolutions of previous cathedral schools, became European universities with zones of intellectual autonomy free from religion and politics, although these freedoms were somewhat incomplete and contested A new interest in rational thought manned by literate churchmen in these universities began separate theology and religion from science and philosophy People began consulting old original Greek texts, particularly those of Aristotle, which were found in both Byzantine in Greek and in Islam in Arabic; these discoveries lead to an explosion in Arabic translation in the 1200s and 1300s, unlocking Arabic scholarship in astronomy, optics, medicine, pharmacology, and more Aristotle’s writing not only supplemented Arabic translation, but his logical approach and ideas became the basis of university education, dominated the philosophies' of Western Europe in up until the 1700s, and also started the separation between rational thought and divine revelation, laying the foundations for the later Scientific revolution The European renaissance starting in Italy between 1350 and 1500 also turned to the ancient past for inspiration, and Educated citizens sought inspiration in class Greek and Roman Art, and artists included paintings and busts of well-known contemporary figures and mythological scenes By the 1450s a new capitalistic and secular European world was created, challenging the otherworldliness of Christian culture ## Civilizations of the Americas As America is separated from Afro-Eurasia by the Pacific and Atlantic oceans, the Americas were left isolated The two most established centers of civilization was Mesoamerica and the Andes, and together they were home to the majority of the population in America, although they themselves were separated from one another Both regions has widely varied micro environments within small areas, making travel and communication difficult, but also creating a large linguistic and ethnic diversity By 1200 both regions witnessed the rise and decline of many sophisticated states, culminating in the 15th century as the Aztec and Inca empires, both of which were previously marginalized people taken over who gained new power, all to be decimated in the 16th century by the Spanish The Aztec empire inherited an ancient set of cultural, religious, and political traditions, all bound by common agriculture, religion, hieroglyphic writing cycle, and common ritual calendar The Mayans were another civilization (more like fragmented city states) centered on modern day Guatemala and the Yucatan region of mexico between 250 and 900 CE, with sophisticated architecture, art, writing, and math. Another empire, the Aztecs (1345-1528) was the last and largest of these Mesoamerican states before the Spanish came The Aztecs were founded by a semi-nomadic tribe of people known as the Mexica, who joined forces with 2 other city states to then conquer the rest of Mesoamerica in less than 100 years With a core population of 5-6 million people, the Aztec empire was in constant chaos and instability, conquered peoples were forced to pay tributes to tribute collectors who brought the goods to Tenochtitlan, a metropolis of 150,000 to 200,000, where sacrifices and taxes were counted Tenochtitlan featured many canals, dikes, causeways and bridges, with a central walled area of palaces and pyramids, and floating gardens and artificial islands (chinampas) which supported the agricultural economy Slaves, especially those captured form war, were important in Aztec society, and were used in bloody human sacrifice rituals, which were a large part of Mesoamerican society credited to be pioneered by Tlacaelel (1398–1480) the offical In Aztec religion, the sun and patrol deity of the Aztecs, Huitzilopochtli, lost energy battling darkness for eternity, leaving the Aztecs at the brink of catastrophe, and the only way to replenish Huitzilopochtli’’s energy was by the blood of his creations, leading to the popularity of human sacrifices; this crucial part of society lead to more soldiers capturing enemies for a premium, a platonic reliance of generals and rulers, and constant elaborate sacrificial rituals with a display of great wealth Down in the Andes, bleak deserts were made habitable by dozens of rivers, offshore waters provided plenty of game, and the towering Andes mountains offered numerous climates and opportunities for colonization and conquest The Andes offered seafood from the costal regions, maize and cotton from the lower-altitude valleys, potatoes, quinoa, and pastureland in the high plains; tropical fruits and coca leaves from the moist eastern slope of the andes Over thousands of years, many civilizations flourished in the Andes region, but in the early 1400s a small community of Quechua-speaking people known as the Incas built a huge empire, drawn out from the traditions of earlier Mesoamerican societies The Incan empire (1438–1533) would grow larger than the Aztec states, stretching 2,500 miles along the Andes and containing around 10 million subjects during its short life from the 1500s to the 1600s Both the Aztec and Inca empires were rags to riches stories, where a small state gains military power and conquers its neighbors, but while the Aztecs left for tribute, the Incas organized their society into a bureaucracy At the top, a divine emperor, marked as the descendant of the creator god Viracocha and the son of the sun god Inti, ruled and owned all state lands (aka lands of the sun) and supervised local officials with the help of inspectors along with many Incan governors Incan civilization was carefully kept for, a set of knotted cords known as the quipus acted as a record of population data, resettlement programs allowed the emperor to reward or distance various conquered peoples, the sons leaders of conquered states would be sent to Cuzco to learn Quechua (as an attempt to diffuse culture and control the locals) and the Incans required worship of certain deities while remaining somewhat religiously tolerant of local tradition; the Incan empire was a fluid system where control varied greatly from place to place and time over time Incans did not require tribute, but mita, required labor forced onto every household, having people work at home or into large sun farms (state owned farms) which supported public property Those with good skills in textiles, metallurgy, ceramics, or stonework were put to work, the most well known being the “chosen women“, girls removed from their homes as young girls to be trained to produce corn beer or cloth at state centers to be later given as wives to men of distinction or to serve as priestesses in various temples where they would be called “wives of Sun“ In return for all these services large feasts and and necessities would be distributed by the state when disaster struck The Authority of the state directed and penetrated Incan society much deeper than the Aztecs Both the Aztecs and Incas practiced gender parallelism, where women and men operate in two separate but equal spheres, Incan men worshiped the sun, while women venerated the moon a parallel form, women and men had parallel roles in politics Social roles between men and women were different, but the domestic occupations of women were viewed no less inferior than the jobs of men; In the Andes, men broke the ground and women sowed the seeds, allowing all to take part in the harvest # # Reflections Historians have a hard time using the term civilization as it indicates superiority or inferiority of other civilizations Civilizations varied differently, its hard to measure based on one thing, whether its art, communication, culture, technology, or morality its impossible to have single measurable subject Civilizations also make things sound to objected, these peoples did not view themselves as the Byzantines or Incans, they saw themselves as families or communities, the empires themselves never had tangible boundaries, communities never knew if they were a city or an empire Civilization is just a blanket term to refer to a group a people, related or not. --- # # Connections and Interactions In late 2013, Chinese president Xi Jinping announced the Belt and road initiative, a modern revival of the silk roads which would connect and allow China to dominate Eurasia Commerce or trade has been the long standing reason for how many civilizations have maintained relevancy and connection with others Trade has impacted people, from Merchants, Artisans, Politicians, Religious worshipers, domesticated animals, diseases bearing germs, and plants, trade has had a direct impact on the lives of many Long distance trade began well before 1200, and has lasted long after 1450 The most famous of these networks of exchange was the Silk roads, a set of trade routes across the Eurasian landmass from China to Europe which connected all the civilizations in between Especially during prosperous times, the silk roads carried caravans across deserts, steppes and oases of central Asia, only stopping to rest at caravanserai (guesthouses) located along these trades for rest, barter, and resupplying These areas became major places of cultural exchange, and even into major cities such as Bukhara, Samarkand, Khotan, Kashgar, and Dunhuang The market of the Silk roads mainly carried expensive and exquisite goods that could pay for the tedious journey across them Silk was one of these crucial products, and after China lost it’s monopoly on silk production in the 600s, many varieties of silk circulated everywhere, becoming used as currency, a symbol of high status, a holy object in Buddhism and Christianity By the 1200s, Christian and Buddhism monasteries were covered in silk, and even in Egypt, Ethiopia, and Eastern Africa had silk garments as signs of wealth Many technological innovations came from the silk roads, such as yokes, saddles, and stirrups (especially the Arab frame and mattress saddle which allowed camels to carry larger loads), new forms of credit, Chinese flying cash (paper money), and bills of exchange all spread from the silk roads Compared to current global trade, the goods coming through the silk roads were all usually luxuries, made by Chinese peasants who mass manufactured goods and sold by rich merchants who benefited from this long distance trade The Silk roads were also tied to empires, when the Mongol, Middle eastern, Chinese, or Graeco-Roman empires prospered, so did the Silk roads in spreading goods, culture, and even disease Buddhism also spread from India through the silk roads voluntarily, and changed throughout the ages into local secular powers throughout the Oases of the silk roads, picking up elements of other cultures like Zoroastrian fire The Mahayana form of Buddhism spread through the silk roads better than the original teachings of the Buddha, and Bodhisattvas would spread throughout Eurasia spreading their message Buddhism initially entered China through the silk road, and by the 8th century Mahayana Buddhism was widely accepted; one of the most popular forms of Buddhism was the Pure Land Buddhism which allowed all to achieve salvation by devoutly repeating the name of an earlier Buddha, the Amitabha Confucian believers, however, were also against Buddhism, and in the 800s a series of imperial decrees ordered some 260,000 nuns and monks to return to normal life while the state seized the assets of Buddhist monasteries; effectively culling Buddhism in China Buddhism did not vanish through his persecution, the Chan school of Chinese Buddhism, which emphasized meditation, became dominant among the aristocracy during the song dynasty as it tied with the high moral standards of Neo-Confucianism, and Buddhist values assimilated with Daosim and Confucianism among the peasantry, once again allowing Buddhism to rise in China Korea also took these Chinese values of Buddhism, through abroad students or monks, and implemented it into their own culture Japan also took in Buddhism, by 1200 Chan Buddhism became Zen in Japan, and was highly popular among the samurai warrior class; Neo-Confucianism also proved highly popular among the Aristocracy, and by the 1700s Neo-Confucianism was the official ideology of the Japanese Tokugawa regime --- ## The Sea Roads The Sea roads connected the distant peoples across the Indian ocean basin to Afro-Eurasia, and until the creation of a global oceanic system of trade after 1500, the Sea roads remained the largest Maritime network of trade The Sea roads grew out of a desire for otherworldly goods, luxuries such as porcelain, spices, cotton, pepper, ivory, gold, and incense were all brought throw the sea roads The Sea roads were cheaper to use than the Silk roads, mostly due to the alternating monsoons which allowed for reliable transportation based of the ingenuity of Chinese, Malays, Indians, Arabs, Persians, Swahilis, and others New technologies like Chinese \*Junk\* ships or Indian/Arab \*dhows\*, or the magnetic compass allowed for easy trade Permanent settlements set up at various points of the Indian trade routes known as diasporic communities facilitated both cultural and commercial exchange among all Between 600 and 1500, a series of cities and states in islands and mainland Southeast asia connected the Sea roads, and major foreign traditions, like Buddhism, Hinduism, and later, Islam, were brought in by sailors and traders From intense trade competition in the Sea roads among the Malay Peninsula and the coast of Sumatra, the Malay kingdom of Srivijaya emerged and dominated this critical choke point of Indian Ocean trade from 670 to 1025; Srivijaya’s large supply of gold, spices (cloves, nutmeg, mace), and amount of taxes put on ships powered the growth of its maritime power Srivijayan monarchs used Indians as advisers, clerks, or officials, and imported many Indian political ideas and Buddhist values (even sometimes sponsoring certain bodhisattvas who faces resembled holy deceased kings), attracting many monks and students from the Buddhist world Elements of Indian culture took hold in other areas of Southeast Asia as well, the Sailendra kingdom in central Java, an agricultural region allied with Srijaya, mounted a massive Buddhist building movement in the 800-1000s, the most famous monument known as Borobudur, an enormous mountain shaped structure of ten levels with elaborate carvings and a three mile walkway Buddhism spread throughout Southeast, especially in the Champa kingdom of what is not Southern Vietnam, and the Khmer empire, home of the Angkor Wat, the largest religious structure in before the 1450s Islam also spread through the Indian ocean, mostly embraced by rulers of Southeast Asian states in an attempt to attract Muslim traders Islam blended and mingled easy with Hindu, Buddhism, and local Shamanistic traditions The Islamic sultanate city of Malacca, founded by a prince from neighboring Sumatra in the early 1400s, quickly established itself in the Sea Roads with it’s influential location at the strait of Malacca By the 1500s, Malacca had a population of 100,000 people, and due to its stability, lack of taxes, and open immigration, many foreign merchants established themselves in Malacca in their own neighborhoods; the sultan of Malacca appointed 4 important merchants to oversee trade and act as diplomats for the Sultan government Malacca, due to its strategic position, was a hub of exchange, even considered to one of the first globalized cities, goods from the Islamic world, India, the Spice Islands, Java, China, and the Philippines all came through Malacca, giving the city a form of control over its neighbors Malacca also fostered the Malay ethnic identity in the 1500s Malacca owed much of its opportunity as a vassal state to China, which used Malacca as a naval base and trading hub for Sumatran and Thailand spice Not all was harmonious, and by the time the Portuguese arrived in 1551, some Chinese merchants helped them conquer the city Malacca also acted as a pathfinder for Islam into Southeast Asia, as it already contained many religions and cultures along with centers for Islamic learning Islam unified the Silk roads as people were attracted by the prestige, power, name, and prosperity of the Islamic world to facilitate new commercial transactions ### Swahili Africa Emerging in the 800s, Swahili Africa was developing into a civilization of trade and commerce The early forms of Swahili civilizations were small farming and fishing communities which spoke Bantu languages and traded with occasional Arabian, Greek, and Roman merchants, but after the rise of Islam and a new growing demand for eastern products, these villages became kingdoms Swahili civilization traded gold, ivory, quartz, leopard skins, and sometimes slaves acquired from interior societies, as well as iron and processed timber manufactured along the coast, which all found market in Arabia, Persia, India, and beyond By the 1200s, many autonomous Swahili states like Lamu, Mombasa, Kilwa, Sofala traded goods from interior Africa to China, Persia, and India, all from dense and technologically advanced cities The Swahili used Arabic vessels for transoceanic trade while using their own craft for coastal and inner waterways The Swahili also adopted many cultures from the Arab, Chinese, and Indian merchants who settled on the coast; many ruling families claimed to be Arab or Persian for prestige, Kings were dressed in Indian cottons and dined in fine China, the coin currency used by the Swahili was made of Chinese copper and of Indian design, the Swahili language was not only of Bantu tongue but was written in Arabic script Swahili civilization also rapidly became Islamic, linking the Swahili civilizations to large and greater powers, when Ibn Battua, a widely famous Arabic Scholar, came to Swahili, he was accepted by many African Muslims among the transplanted Arabs The impact of trade reached much farther than Islam into central Africa Great Zimbabwe, hundreds of miles inland between the Zambezi and Limpopo rivers, contained large sources of gold, which they used to trade with the Swahili states of the coast At its peak between 1250 and 1350, great Zimbabwe had the resource and laborers to create a huge stone wall sixteen feet thick and 32 feet tall, a great feat without mortar or modern technologies A great example of Indian culture reaching central Africa is the Banana, which in the beginning, only grew in Southeast Asia, and is now widely cultivated in Africa China always maintained a large presences in the South China sea and the Sea roads, and after decades of preparations the Chinese sent 300 ships on dozens of expeditions to find more vassal states for China, bringing gifts and Chinese trade relations with them After 1433 Chinese authorities stopped all these expeditions and left these expensive fleets to deteriorate in port, mostly due to the death the Emperor Tongle, who had been the patron of the enterprise, and a common Chinese view that China was superior and that foreign relations were unnecessary These trips however, did open up Japan, the Philippines, Taiwan, and Southeast Asia to independent and private Merchants, and also cleared the way for the Portuguese to enter the Indian ocean and take over Southeast Asia; although China still neglected and turned their backs on the nearby cities of the Sea Roads --- ## The Sand Roads The sand roads of North West Africa had a transforming impact on West African trade system, well before the European slave trade linked Africa to the rest of the world Trans African trade, much like the commerce of the Silk and Sea roads, was due to large geographical differences and a large variety of goods produced by many peoples Northern Africa produced large amounts of cloth, glassware, weapons, books, and other manufactured goods, the Sahara held large deposits of copper, salt, and dates, southern pastoral people produced textiles, metal products, and gold; the southern savanna grasslands produced grain crops such as millet and sorghum, while the the forests farther produced root and tree crops such as yams and kola nuts The Arabian camel finally allowed trade across the Sahara, and by the 300s to 400s Camel owning desert Oases citizens initiated regular trans-Saharan Commerce, and several centuries later Islamic North Africans also began organizing Caravans across the desert Abundant gold was a prioritized commodity in Africa, mostly sought after by Arabic Merchants, along with ivory, kola nuts, and slaves were all in demand in the desert and the northern Mediterranean basin In return West African civilization of the south of the desert were given horses, cloth, dates, various manufactured goods, and salt from the Sahara When the Sahara was no longer a barrier of trade, it allowed for major resources and development of West African people south of the Sahara, and a new West African civilization started in the region, stretching from the Atlantic coast to lake Chad; including the large states or empires of Ghana (ca. 700–1200), Mali (ca. 1230–1500), Songhay (1430–1591), and Kanem (at its height 1571–1603) as well as many infamous cities In contrast to these large territorial empires, the Hausa people of modern day northern Nigeria had a system of independent city states, much like the Swahili civilizations of the East African Coast These Hausa city states created a flourishing urban and commercial culture as middlemen in West African commerce between Southern Africa and trans-saharan foreigners All Hausa states were various monarchies which all relied on taxing wealth of trans-Saharan trade, and these states became widely known across the world for their wealth At it’s high point, the state of Mali monopolized horses and metals, and managed to tax all salt, copper and other merchandise passing through Africa The growing world of international commerce also lead to new societal orders, royal bloodlines, elite aristocrats, mercantile and artisan groups, military and religious officials, free peasants and slaves, were all present in African civilization; by 1200 most powers were males, as women were viewed as untrustable, but women still played key parts in oral traditions, weaving, and agricultural practices Even the Muslim traveler Ibn Battuta, when he visited Mali in the mid-1400s was appalled at the open and causal intimacy of unmarried men and women while also being converted to Islam Slaves also played a prominent role in society, early on slaves were women made into domestic servants and concubines, but after a while men were also turned into laborers Most slaves came from non-islamic, stateless societies of the south which would be raided during the Summer and Fall Slaves were also traded in the trans-Saharan slave trade, and between 1100 and 1400 around 5,500 slaves were traded per year to be put to the work of wealthy Muslims The states of West African civilization also developed large and expensive urban cities, some cities became centers of manufacturing and created beads, iron tools, cotton textiles, and some became centers of commerce; all of these cities were filled with court officials, artisans, scholars, students, and local and foreign merchants Trans-Saharan commerce was facilitated by Jewish communities which settled in permanent North African communities Islam was an important element in Urban culture in West Africa, introduced by Muslim traders, it gave West African traders a link to Islamic merchants, and also gave the aristocrats a source of literate government officials and religious legitimacy By the 1600s, many West African cities became major centers of Islamic religious and scholarly learning, especially the sate of Timbuktu, which housed more than 150 schools and libraries Monarchs commissioned and sponsored the building of thousands of mosques and Arabic became a important language in religion, education, administration, and trade West Africa was still not however an Islamic state, as many still spoke West African tongues and were simply converts; West Africa did not experience a mass migration of Arabs, but simply converted to Islam Islam was the culture of urban centers, and had a little influence on rural areas, up to the 19th Century Many rules had adopted Islam but many of their subjects still practiced local African religions, and due to political limitations, could not impose Islam into their subjects; this much disgusted Islamic visitors like Sonni Ali and Ibn Battuta ### Connections across the Islamic World By the 1200s, many peoples from diverse backgrounds across Afro-Eurasia spoke Arabic This huge Region spanning from Spain and West Africa to India and Southeast Asia became a vast trading zone of hemispheric dimensions, due to its central location, Islamic intervention and encouragement of trade, and Islamic development Muslim merchants, especially Arabic and Persians, usually played Dominant roles in Mediterranean, Silk Roads, trans-Saharan, and Sea roads trade Arab and Persian traders established commercial colonies in Canton China, West Africa, the Steppes and almost everywhere in Afro-Eurasia Muslims pioneered banking, partnerships, business contracts, and instruments for granting credit to facilitated these long-distance economic relationships Islamic trade also lead to the spread of Agriculture, sugarcane, rice, apricots, artichokes, eggplants, lemons, oranges, almonds, figs, and bananas; along with complex irrigation methods spread throughout Afro-Eurasia, known as the Islamic Green Revolution Muslims also pioneered new uses of gunpowder, rockets, and paper making, spreading these ideas everywhere Religious and Political ideas also spread themselves far and wide thanks to Islam; Islam itself drew heavily on Judaism and Christianity; Persian Bureaucracy, court rituals, and poetry was spread along the elite; Hellenistic scientific, medical, and philosophical texts were widespread throughout the Islamic world In 830, the Abbasid caliphate al-Mamun established the House of Wisdom in Baghdad and while spreading literature also began to aruge that reason, rather than revelation, was the best way to truth, an idea which sparked Scholarly thinking for centuries to come | \*\*Person/Dates\*\* | \*\*Achievement\*\* | |----|----| | al-Khwarazim (790–840) | Mathematician; spread use of Arabic numerals in Islamic world; wrote first book on algebra | | al-Razi (865–925) | Discovered sulfuric acid; wrote a vast encyclopedia of medicine, drawing on Greek, Syrian, Indian, and Persian work and his own clinical observation | | al-Biruni (973–1048) | Mathematician, astronomer, cartographer; calculated the radius of the earth with great accuracy; worked out numerous mathematical innovations; developed a technique for displaying a hemisphere on a plane | | Ibn Sina (Avicenna) (980–1037) | Prolific writer in almost all fields of science and philosophy; especially known for \*Canon of Medicine\*, a fourteen-volume work that set standards for medical practice in Islamic and Christian worlds for centuries | | Omar Khayyam (1048–1131) | Mathematician; critic of Euclid’s geometry; measured the solar year with great accuracy; Sufi poet; author of \*The Rubaiyat\* | | Ibn Rushd (Averroës) (1126–1198) | Translated and commented widely on Aristotle; rationalist philosopher; made major contributions in law, mathematics, and medicine | | Nasir al-Din Tusi (1201–1274) | Founder of the famous Maragha observatory in Persia (data from Maragha probably influenced Copernicus); mapped the motion of stars and planets | | Ibn Khaldun (1332–1406) | Greatest Arab historian; identified trends and structures in world history over long periods of time | \\ Arab scholars made great progress with the ideas of the previous, subjects like Algebra, medicine and pharmacology were all developed in Arabian; the first hospitals and real medical practices were developed by Arabians, whose ideas would come to Europe in the middle ages ### Connections in the Americas America at this time before Columbus was not as densely organized as Afro-Eurasia, there were no complex religions, massive trade routes, or long distance trade; mostly due to lack of beasts of burden and wheeled vehicles, and huge geological barriers in the Americas Nevertheless, there are some signs of loosely interactive webs of communication and trade from the North American Great lakes all the way to the Andes Maize for example, came from Mesoamerica all the way to south America, a small game played from rubber-balls has traces in the Caribbean, Mexico, and even northern South America, Pottery styles also seemed to spread across the Americas Between 1000 and 1500, four distinct nodes of commercial activity emerged in the Americas: Cahokia, Chaco canyon, Mesoamerica, and the Inca Empire Cahokia, located near St. Louis was a network that brought shells from the Atlantic Coast, Copper from the Lake Superior region, Buffalo hides from the Great Plains, obsidian from the Rocky Mountains, and Mica from the southern Appalachian mountains, all thanks to small river trade routes; Cahokia is most well known from its huge terraced 4 level pyramid; Cahokia was also an obvious Monarchy The second node was the Chaco canyon in now northwestern New Mexico, and in between 860-1130 CE, 5 major pueblos (settlements) emerged which encompassed 25,000 square miles and linked around 150 other settlements together; Hundreds of miles of roads with no apparent use radiated out from Chaco, which prompted much debate; Chaco produced many turquoise ornaments, and traded for Cacao (Chocolate), Copper bells, macaw feathers, and tons of shells; following a large drought 1130, many of these great cities had died out into smaller communities which became the Pueblo people Mesoamerica is the third node, comprised of Mayans and Aztecs, which used both land and maritime based trade; Aztec pochtecas undertook large scale trading expeditions, and due to the large amount of wealth brought in by tribute and agriculture, the Aztecs had a large boom in manufacturing in the 1500s; virtually every settlement had a marketplace booming with business, the largest of these markets was found in the city of Tlatelolco The final node of the American web was the Incan empire, with state run warehouses and manufacturing plants and goods kept track of on quipus (knotted cords used to record numbers) by a class of accountants; these goods would be transported by caravans of human porters and llamas across the numerous roads and bridges of the empire, totaling around 20,000 miles; local traders also had a small amount of interaction with groups outside the Inca state # Reflections Large scale trade existed well before the modern day and well before the 1200s, linking people economically and culturally Although these trade routes were for more personal consumption than the global market, and most trades were luxury goods rather than everyday supplies, these trades linked economic relations with others in a much more balanced form than modern times Trade back then was also not dominated by a single region, and more a network of small politically free economic relationships which all joined together in a global trade system --- # # The Mongols In late 2012 Mongolia celebrated a “Day of Mongolian Pride“, marking the birth of Chinggis Khan 850 year earlier After Russian communism faded from Mongolia in 2012, the memory of Chinggis Khan made a remarkable comeback in mongolia, revered and respected as the founder of Mongolia and its history Chinggis Khan’s bloody conquests were also played down however, and his unification and tolerance were glorified Chinggis is honored by dozens of products and commodities named after him, the central square of the Mongolia capital, his image on currency, and is praised in both rural and Urban Mongolia The Mongols connected Eurasia more than any other civilization from the 1300s to 1400s, from the political regimes of China and Arabia, the Kievan Rus, and the steppes, but the Mongols had little cultural impact and after their quick downfall, the Mongols left a political vacuum into which numerous political regimes emerged: the Ming dynasty in China, the Ottoman and Safavid empires in the Middle East, and an expansive Russian state in Eastern Europe. The Mongols were one of many attempts of starting civilizations from the Pastoral steppes and deserts from of Eurasia and Africa, and before hte mongols various pastoralists, the Xiongnu, Arabs, Turks, Berbers had all played major roles in Afro-Eurasian history and influenced many neighboring standstill civilizations ### Stuff Pastoral People did | \*\*Region and Peoples\*\* | \*\*Primary Animals\*\* | \*\*Features\*\* | |----|----|----| | Inner Eurasian steppes (Xiongnu, Yuezhi, Turks, Uighurs, Mongols, Huns, Kipchaks) | Horses; also sheep, goats, cattle, Bactrian (two-humped) camel | Domestication of horse by 4000 B.C.E.; horseback riding by 1000 B.C.E.; site of largest pastoral empires | | Southwestern and Central Asia (Seljuks, Ghaznavids, Mongol il-khans, Uzbeks, Ottomans) | Sheep and goats; used horses, camels, and donkeys for transport | Close economic relationship with neighboring towns; pastoralists provided meat, wool, milk products, and hides in exchange for grain and manufactured goods | | Arabian and Saharan deserts (Bedouin Arabs, Berbers, Tuareg) | Dromedary (one-humped) camel; sometimes sheep | Camel caravans made possible long-distance trade; camel-mounted warriors central to early Arab/Islamic expansion | | Grasslands of sub-Saharan Africa (Fulbe, Nuer, Turkana, Masai) | Cattle; also sheep and goats | Cattle were a chief form of wealth and central to ritual life; little interaction with wider world until nineteenth century | | Subarctic Scandinavia, Russia (Sami, Nenets) | Reindeer | Reindeer domesticated only since 1500 C.E.; many also fished | | Tibetan plateau (Tibetans) | Yaks; also sheep, cashmere goats, some cattle | Tibetans supplied yaks as baggage animals for overland caravan trade; exchanged wool, skins, and milk with valley villagers and received barley in return | | Andean Mountains | Llamas and alpacas | Andean pastoralists in a few places relied on their herds for a majority of their subsistence, supplemented with horticulture and hunting | \*a lot of this stuff pertains to domesticated animals\* The mongol’s 13th century expansion from Mongolia, stretching's from the Pacific coast of Asia to eastern Europe joined civilizations and pastorals from around the worlds, linking them into great networks of exchange and communication, all from a mere 700,000 population state Temujin, or later Chinggis Khan/Genghis Khan, was born into an unstable and fractured tribal form of Mongolia to a minor chieftain of a noble clan who was murdered by tribal rivals when Genghis was 10 Genghis’ family was abandoned by his extended family and headed by Genghis’ resourceful mother, the family was forced to hunting and gathering to survive, which was a sign of social status Genghis’ personal magnetism and courage allowed him to build a small following and a Chineses sponsored allyship with a more powerful tribal leader, and soon Genghis was recognized as a chief in his own right with a growing band of followers Genghis’ rise to power within the complex tribal politics was a surprise in the Chaos of mongolian politics After a large amount of military victories aided by the indecisiveness of his enemies, a reputation as a leader generous to friends and ruthless to enemies, and the incorporation of warriors from defeated tribes into his own forces Temujin was recognized as Chinggis Khan, the supreme leader of Mongolia, in 1206 Genghis decided to expand towards China to supply his army with a goal and wealth, starting the Mongol world war in 1209, which would end up creating an empire containing China, Central Asia, Russia, much of the Islamic Middle East, and parts of Eastern Europe; this empire would be heir-ed by his sons and grandsons The expansion of the Mongolian empire was still however shut out from Western Europe, Palestine, Japan, and Southeast Asia, but it was still a feat that such a small empire could conquer so much with so little The Mongols practically conquered through a snowball effect of using a highly disciplined army organized into powers of 10; implementation of conquered peoples into the army; and the wealth of conquered peoples to further their expansion The Mongols were practically always outnumbered in their fights, but because of good timing attacking divided Song/Jurchen China and the crumbling Abbasid Islamic Middle east, the Mongols were able to persevere The mutually loyalty of both Soldiers and commanders helped keep the Mongolian army together and also to perform the many elaborate tactics of encirclement, retreat, and deception that won many battles The wealth brought in from war benefited all mongols, but not equally, most mongols could now own slaves from the many prisoners of war, and had greater opportunities to improve their social position in an ever so expanding empire The Mongols also incorporated many conquered people into their armies, Mongol and Turkic pastoralists were made into calvary en masse; Chinese artillery and siege crews were taken from the Song; settled agricultural peoples were forced to supply the army; laborers would build bridges, roads, and bring supplies to the vast Mongol army; and artisans and craftsmen were spared and sent abroad to distant parts of the empire where their talents were needed The message of brutality to those who resist and to spare the ones who submit also worked to intimidate and make surrender territories that resources shouldn’t be wasted on The Mongols also invented a elaborate census system for systematic taxation of conquered people; a centralized bureaucracy with various offices which translated various decrees into every language of the empire; and an elaborate communication system of relay stations spread throughout the empire which fostered trade and communication Other policies also fostered trade, Mongol rulers usually overpaid for goods and allowed merchants free use of relay stations to transport goods; a creation of Ortughs, state approved associations of merchants that allowed them to pool their resources for trade and apply for low interest loans; Merchants also received substantial tax breaks and financial backing for their caravans The Mongols held the highest political posts in the empire, but Chinese and Muslim officials held many advisory and local positions in China and Persia The Mongols also tolerated many religions, Buddhist, Christian, Muslim, Daoist, as long as they didn’t become a focus of rebellion This tolerance and these religious, economic, political, benefits helped bring the subordinates of the Mongol empire together The politics of conquest, impact, and assimilation varied greatly throughout the mongol empire, but everywhere after the decline of the Mongols in the 1300s and 1400s saw a revival of older cultural and political traditions ### China and the Mongols China was the most difficult to conquer by the Mongols, the invasion lasting from 1209 to 1279 starting in destruction northern China and diplomacy in southern Song China The Mongols apparently considered exterminating everyone in northern China and turning the land into pasture lands, but rejected that idea and decided to accommodate to chinese culture to draw as much wealth as they could The Mongols gave themselves a dynastic title of Yuan, and made their capital Beijing, establishing the city of Khanbalik Kublai Khan the Grandson of Genghis and China’s mongol ruler from 1271 to 1294 and made many policies that resembled that of a Confucian Ruler, even allying with Daoists and Buddhist for mutual support --- Mongol rule was still harsh, exploitative, and resented, and were viewed by the Chinese with hostility as many Muslim Mongol officials disregarded Chinese etiquette The Mongols kept a steppe lifestyle in their traditional tents in the capital, and mostly important foreign officials to govern China while they kept the topmost positions; The Mongols also created laws which discriminated against the Chinese and supported merchants (something that was against traditional Confucian values) The Mongols forbid intermarriage and the learning of Mongol script, and also allowed women to act more freely and politically powerfully than patriarchal China By 1368, large factionalism among the Mongols, inflation, epidemics, and peasant rebellions forced the mongols out of China and were replaced by the Ming dynasty The Ming managed to recover from the population declines of Mongol rule, and attempted to eliminate all signs of foreign rule by returning to Han, Tang, and Song dynastic values Emperor Yongle (1402 - 1424) sponsored an enormous encyclopedia of 11,000 volume to compile all previous Chinese literature, and constructed the Forbidden City and the Temple of Heaven where Confucian based rituals were performed Two empresses wrote books on female behavior and emphasized traditional values The Ming also reestablished the civil service examination system, and created a highly centralized government around the Emperor and his eunuchs (castrated men) The Ming restored China environmentally and economically, rebuilding canals, reservoirs, irrigation works, and planting a billion trees in China’s forests Emperor Yongle also extended Chinese deeper into the Indian ocean during the 1400s by dispatching large ships into --- ### Persia and the Mongols The Mongols also conquered Persia, an important part of the Islamic civilization Centered in modern Iran, Persia was an ancient civilization which was influenced and influenced Arabic culture Persian administrative and bureaucratic practices, architecture, poetry, court practices, music, and painting all shaped Islamic culture, and would go on to shape Mongolian ideas as well

the collapse of the Mongol Empire spurred Western Europeans to contribute to this long process of greater global integration by creating new transoceanic trade routes Much like the Mongol Empire itself, their network was short-lived, collapsing after 1350 never to revive From yet another perspective, the Mongol Empire’s most important contribution to world history was not rapid or sudden at all, but rather a significant though incremental step in connecting distant peoples, a process that had been under way for millennia before the Mongols burst upon the scene and that continues even today under the label of globalization Instead, the Mongols were ultimately replaced by regimes based in large part on older cultural and political patterns The Mongol moment was the high point for pastoral empires, “the last, spectacular bloom of pastoral power in Inner Eurasia. the Mongols had little impact on the religious landscape of Eurasia Today Mongol culture remains confined largely to Mongolia the Mongol Empire was less transformative than it first appears because it left a surprisingly modest long-term cultural imprint on the regions it briefly governed Mongol Empire’s contribution to history would seem to be an example of sudden transformation Perhaps they were, as one historian put it, “the Mongols of the seas. Europeans, of course, brought far more of their own culture and many more of their own people to the societies they conquered, as Christianity, European languages, settler societies, and Western science and technology took root within their empires Both Mongols and Europeans were apt to forcibly plunder the wealthier civilizations they encountered, and European empire building in the Americas, like that of the Mongols in Eurasia, brought devastating disease and catastrophic population decline in its wake s Europeans penetrated Asian and Atlantic waters in the sixteenth century, they took on, in some ways, the role of the Mongols in organizing and fostering world trade and in creating a network of communication and exchange over an even larger area This disruption of the Mongol-based land routes to the East, coupled with a desire to avoid Muslim intermediaries, provided incentives for Europeans to take to the sea in their continuing efforts to reach the riches of Asia within a century the Mongols had lost control of Chinese, Persian, and Russian civilizations Population contracted, cities declined, and the volume of trade diminished all across the Mongol world Ironically, that human disaster, born of the Mongol network, was a primary reason for the demise of that network in the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries In a strange way, that catastrophe may have actually fostered its future growth. That labor shortage also may have fostered a greater interest in technological innovation and created, at least for a time, more employment opportunities for women undermined the practice of serfdom Labor shortages following the initial outburst provoked sharp conflict between scarce workers, who sought higher wages or better conditions, and the rich, who resisted those demands the Black Death worked longer-term social changes in Europe, the region where the plague’s impact has been most thoroughly studied But not all turned to religion. Giovanni Boccaccio, who lived in Florence during the plague, reported that some lived freely, refusing “no passion or appetite they wished to gratify, drinking and reveling incessently from tavern to tavern, or in private houses. Individuals frequently turned to religion to find some sense of meaning, comfort, and protection In those places where it struck hardest, the plague left thoughtful people grasping for language with which to describe a horror of such unprecedented dimensions. However, other regions of the Eastern Hemisphere, especially India and sub-Saharan Africa, were much less affected Chroniclers reported rates of death that ranged from 50 to 90 percent of the affected population, depending on the time and place the plague claimed enormous numbers of human victims, causing a sharp contraction in Eurasian population for a century or more Infected people generally died within a few days The disease itself was associated with swelling of the lymph nodes, terrible headaches, high fever, and internal bleeding just below the skin Carried by rodents and transmitted by fleas to humans, the plague erupted initially in 1331 in northeastern China and had reached the Middle East and Western Europe by 1347. In 1409, the plague reached East Africa known as the “plague” or the “pestilence” and later called the Black Death. Originating most likely in China, the bacteria responsible for the disease, known as Yersinia pestis, spread across the trade routes of the Mongol Empire in the early fourteenth century The theme of empire resonates still among historians and the general public in the early twenty-first century. Is contemporary Russia seeking to re-create the old Russian Empire? Does Turkey want to replicate something of the Ottoman Empire? Does the global reach of the United States represent a new kind of empire, even if a declining one? The debates continue. Other scholars, when comparing empires to modern nation-states, have found advantages to empires, especially their tolerance toward ethnic minorities within their boundaries. Over the past century, empires have been largely replaced by nation-states organized around the very different idea that sovereign countries should be composed of a single people or ethnic group historians put new emphasis on the massive bloodshed and oppression — enslavement, impoverishment, forced tribute and taxes, deportation — that frequently accompanied imperial conquest and rule Already in the nineteenth century some historians had emphasized the exploitative and oppressive aspects of modern European empires, which were built to feed the capitalist world’s insatiable appetite for raw materials and markets However, an increasingly negative assessment of empire gained influence among historians as the twentieth century progressed The rapid expansion of European imperial enterprises in Africa and parts of Asia in the late nineteenth century coincided with the emergence of university history departments and professional historians in Europe and the United States Historians have also differed in their assessments of empire, in part reflecting the cultural attitudes of the times in which they wrote The end of the western Roman Empire has fostered endless controversy, with scholars emphasizing various factors More commonly, empires fell or fragmented due to external invasion Historians have discovered that few imperial regimes have been toppled by internal rebellions of the oppressed Autocrats frequently ruled over imperial enterprises, but democracies and republics have also created empires the Roman and Arab empires, grew more slowly in reaction to frontier insecurity or internal pressures ome empires were constructed deliberately, like those of the Greek ruler Alexander the Great, the first Chinese emperor Qin Shihuangdi, and the Mongol leader Chinggis Khan  European domains of the Habsburg Empire were largely brought together through family marriage strategies and inheritance Empires were most frequently constructed through violence and conquest, but with important exceptions rivalry of many small states or cities confounded efforts to develop larger imperial systems? some civilizations developed for centuries without generating empires, such as those in ancient Sumer, in post-Roman Europe, and among the cities of the Maya and the Niger River valley European powers conquered and colonized regions thousands of miles from their home countries, creating the first overseas empires pastoralist empires of the Arabs, Mongols, and Turks found their origins in regions without much settled agriculture Persian, Greek, and Roman empires, by contrast, expanded from the edges of established agricultural civilizations The early Chinese and Egyptian empires, for example, took root in the heartland of already settled agricultural regions more people have lived in empires, where multiple distinct ethnic communities were ruled and often exploited by a dominant group, than in any other type of state or society. they could do so without having suffered the devastating consequences of Mongol conquest Europeans arguably gained more than most from these exchanges, for they had long been cut off from the fruitful interchange with Asia, and in comparison to the Islamic and Chinese worlds Plants and crops likewise circulated within the Mongol domain. Muslim astronomers brought their skills and knowledge to China Chinese technology and artistic conventions — such as painting, printing, gunpowder weapons, compass navigation, high-temperature furnaces, and medical techniques — flowed westward This movement of people facilitated the exchange of ideas and techniques, a process actively encouraged by Mongol authorities Mongol outlook facilitated the exchange and blending of religious ideas Karakorum was a cosmopolitan city with places of worship for Buddhists, Daoists, Muslims, and Christians Mongols’ religious tolerance and support of merchants drew missionaries and traders from afar Mongol policy forcibly transferred many thousands of skilled craftsmen and educated people from their homelands to distant parts of the empire political authorities all across Eurasia engaged in diplomatic relationships with one another more than ever before shared intelligence information, fostered trade between their regions, Within the Mongol Empire itself, close relationships developed between the courts of Persia and China provided later historians with much useful information about the Mongols dawning European awareness of a wider world Perhaps the most important outcome of these diplomatic probings was the useful information about lands to the east that European missions brought back These efforts were largely in vain, for no alliance or widespread conversion occurred fearing the possible return of the Mongols, both the pope and European rulers dispatched delegations to the Mongol capital, mostly led by Franciscan friars Western Europe was spared the trauma of conquest Mongol armies destroyed Polish, German, and Hungarian forces in 1241–1242 and seemed poised to march on Central and Western Europe. But the death of the Great Khan Ogodei required Mongol leaders to return to Mongolia Not only did the Mongol Empire facilitate long-distance commerce, but it also prompted diplomatic relationships from one end of Eurasia to the other Mongol-ruled China was the fulcrum of this huge system, connecting the overland route through the Mongol Empire with the oceanic routes through the South China Sea and Indian Ocean The Mongol trading circuit was a central element in an even larger commercial network that linked much of the Afro-Eurasian world in the thirteenth century Ibn Battuta, an Arab Muslim and intrepid traveler from Morocco in northwest Africa, made the journey by sea to China in 1345 following long-established routes of Arab merchants. He stayed only a year or so, and while he was impressed by many things, he was also culturally uncomfortable traders and travelers from the Islamic world made journeys along both the Silk Roads of Mongol Central Asia and the Sea Roads of the Indian Ocean to Mongol China. they described were long-established trading networks of which Europeans had been largely ignorant Many European merchants, mostly from Italian cities, traveled along the Silk Roads to China the Mongol Empire brought the two ends of the Eurasian world into closer contact than ever before The Mongols also provided financial backing for caravans, introduced standardized weights and measures, and gave tax breaks to merchants. they consistently promoted international commerce, largely so that they could tax it and thus extract wealth from more developed civilizations the Mongol Empire, during the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries, that brought all of these regions into a single interacting network, enabling the circulation of goods, information, disease, and styles of warfare all across Eurasia and parts of Africa. Chinese culture and Buddhism were providing a measure of integration among the peoples of East Asia, Christianity was doing the same for Europe, and the realm of Islam connected most of the lands in between To this day, when Mongolian men wrestle, they wear a vest with an open chest in honor of Khutulun Khutulun reflected the relative freedom and influence of Mongol women, particularly of the elite class Khutulun herself supported one of her brothers as khan, while she remained at the head of the army. She died in 1306, though whether in battle or as the result of an assassination remains unclear. In 1301 her father was wounded in battle and, shortly thereafter, died. Some accounts suggest that he tried to name Khutulun as khan in his place, but the resistance of her brothers nixed that plan protected the steppe lands of Central Asia from incorporation into Mongol-ruled China , Khutulun continued to campaign with Qaidu Khan “She chose him herself for her husband. Rumors circulated that she refused to marry because she was engaged in an incestuous relationship with her father All of them failed, and, in the process, Khutulun accumulated a very substantial herd of horses she declared that she would only marry someone who could defeat her in wrestling. Many suitors tried, wagering 10, 100, or in one case 1,000 horses this woman of the steppes had no desire to live as a secluded urban wife gained a reputation for being blessed of the gods fame as a wrestler in public competitions, she soon joined her father on the battlefield Khutulun excelled in horse riding, archery, and wrestling, outperforming her brothers Her father, Qaidu Khan, was the Mongol ruler of Central Asia and a bitter opponent of Khubilai Khan elite Mongol women, many of whom played important roles in public life, Khutulun was unique Born around 1260 into the extended family network of Chinggis Khan, Khutulun was the only girl among fourteen brothers It was also a reminder of the enduring legacy of a thousand years of Byzantine history, long after the empire itself had vanished growing role as an element of Russian national identity the original Rome had abandoned the true Orthodox faith for Roman Catholicism, and the second Rome, Constantinople, had succumbed to Muslim infidels. Moscow was now the third Rome, the final protector and defender of Orthodox Christianity the fall of Constantinople to the Ottoman Turks in 1453 (see Chapter 2) marked the passing of Orthodox leadership to Russia Russia’s power and influence in the Eastern Orthodox Christian world was also growing expansive Russian Empire that took shape in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries aggressive rulers Moscow both conquered neighboring Russian-speaking states and loosened the grip of the Golden Horde Divisions among the Mongols, the disruptive influence of plague, and the growing strength of the Russian state, centered now on the city of Moscow, enabled the Russians to break the Mongols’ hold by the end of the fifteenth century Mongol policies also strengthened the hold of the Russian Orthodox Church Mongol policies facilitated, although not intentionally, the rise of Moscow Russian princes, who were more or less left alone if they paid the required tribute and taxes, found it useful to adopt the Mongols’ weapons, diplomatic rituals, court practices, taxation system, and military draft the impact of the Mongols on Russia was, if anything, greater than on China and Iran \[Persia\], When Mongol domination receded in the fifteenth century, Moscow’s princes exploited their resources and influence to establish Moscow as the nucleus of a renewed Russian state culturally separate from Christian Russia, eventually the Mongols assimilated to the culture and the Islamic faith of the Kipchak people of the steppes, and in the process they lost their distinct identity and became Kipchaks They could dominate Russia from the adjacent steppes without in any way adopting Russian culture In Persia, the Mongols had converted to Islam Mongols in China had turned themselves into a Chinese dynasty, with the khan as a Chinese emperor Mongols themselves, for they were far less influenced by or assimilated within Russian cultures than their counterparts in China and Persia had been. \n