Height of the Middle Ages: Trading and Crusading

• Merchants emerged in towns - referred to as Burghers, became politically powerful

• Towns often formed alliances with each other

• Hanseatic League (1358): trade alliance though northern Europe to drive toward nationhood, increase social mobility and flexibility

• Architecture: Romanesque to Gothic - especially reflected in cathedrals

  • Flying buttresses: tall windows and vaulted ceilings

  • Often had art and sculpture, music

• Scholasticism: growth of education and knowledge - founding of universities for men; philosophy, law, medicine study; ideas of Muslims and Greeks - came in conflict with religion

• Crusades (11-14th century): military campaigns by European Christians to convert Muslims and non-Christians, combat religious questioning

  • Combat Heresies: religious practices/beliefs not conforming to traditional church doctrine

  • Pope Innocent III: issued strict decrees on church doctrine - frequently persecuted heretics and Jews, unsuccessful 4th crusade

  • Pope Gregory IX: Inquisition (formal interrogation and prosecution of perceived heretics with punishments like excommunication, torture, execution) - church often referred to as Universal Church or Church Militant

  • Thomas Aquinas (1225-1274): Christian theologian who made advancements in Christian thought - faith and reason aren’t in conflict

• Urbanization

  • Trade led to the growth of urban culture - cities usually were around trade routes

  • Silk Route cities were the most populous - Baghdad, Merv, Chang’an

  • Constantinople before 1400 and Paris and Italian city-states after 1400 were big European cities

The Rise and Fall of the Mongols

• Set of tribes and clans that were superb horseman and archers

• Genghis Kahn: unified the tribes in Mongolia in the early 1200s to expand their authority over other societies - first invaded China in 1234

• Mongol Empire: spanned from Pacific Ocean to Eastern Europe - spit into hordes after death of Genghis Kahn, ruthless warriors destroying cities but remained peaceful after settling into cities

  • Golden Horde: conquered modern-day Russia

  • Kublai Khan: Genghis Kahn’s successor - ruled China

• Didn’t really have a set culture - didn’t enforce religion or way of life on conquered nations, but did make any cultural advancements

• Timur Lang: Mongol leader who took over India and destroyed everything - grew Islam in the nation

• If any residents of society the Mongols took over resisted, they would immediately kill them, so most had no choice but to give in - they were ruthless fighters, organized and mobile

• Impact:

  • Great diffusers of culture

  • Prevented Russia from culturally developing

  • World trade, cultural diffusion, global awareness grew as they spread through Europe, the Middle East, and Asia

Mali and Songhai

• Mali had a lot of gold that Islamic traders were interested in

• Mansa Musa: Malian ruler who built the capital of Timbuktu and expended the kingdom beyond Ghana

• Sonni Ali: Songhai ruler that conquered region of west Africa in 15th century - became a major cultural centre until 1600

Chinese Technology

• Song Dynasty: bureaucratic system built on merit and civil service examination creating a lot of loyal government workers, improved transportation and communication and business practices

• Concentrated on creating an industrial society - improved literacy with printed books which increased productivity and growth

Review of Interactions Among Cultures

Trade Networks and Cultural Diffusion

• Trade exploded from 1200-1450

• Improved with better transportation and monetary systems

• Main Global Trade Routes:

  1. The Hanseatic League

  2. The Silk Road

  3. The land routes of the Mongols

  4. Trade between China and Japan

  5. Trade between India and Persia

  6. The Trans-Saharan trade routes between west Africa and the Islamic Empire

• Cultural diffusion - spread religions, languages, literature, art, idea, disease, plague

• Bubonic Plague: started in Asia in the 14th century and carried by merchants - killed about 1/3 people

Indian Ocean Trade

• Dominated by Persians and Arabs - western India to Persian Gulf to eastern Africa

• Great Zimbabwe: trading empire in Africa from 11th to 15th centuries

Vibrant Indian Ocean Communities

• Sailors marrying local women created cultural intermixing

Silk Road

• China to Mediterranean cultures in early days of Roman Empire and from 1200 to 1600

• Cultural exchange through travellers stopping at trade towns - Kashgar, Samarkand

• Silk, porcelain, paper, religion, food, military technologies

Hanseatic League

• Made up of over 100 cities

• Created substantial middle class in northern Europe

• Set precedent for large, European trading operations

Expansion of Religion and Empire: Cultural Clash

• Both natural spread of religion through contact over trade and intentional diffusion through missionary work or religious war

Other Reasons People Were on the Move

• Ran out of room in certain places, but cities were always increasing in size as opportunities grew in them

• New cities and empires drew people in

• Muslim pilgrimages

Notable Global Travellers

1. Xuanzang: Chinese Buddhist monk - through T’ang Dynasty to India to explore Buddhism

2. Marco Polo: merchant from Venice, to China and Europe

3. Ibn Battuta: Islamic traveler, through Islamic world to India to China

4. Margery Kempe: English Christian, through Europe and Holy Land

Technology and Innovations