AP World History Unit 1 Notes

Unit 1: Circa 1200-1450

• This unit focuses on how various major civilizations around the world built and maintained their states.

• State: A territory that is politically organized under a single government (e.g., the US or Japan).

Song Dynasty (China)

• Ruled from 960-1279 CE.

• Maintained and justified their rule through:

  • Emphasizing Confucianism:

    • A philosophy that defined Chinese culture.

    • Neo-Confucianism: A revival of Confucianism from the Tang Dynasty.

      • Sought to rid Confucian thought of Buddhist influence.

    • Key Ideas:

      • Society is hierarchical (prescribed orders).

      • Citizens submit to the state.

      • Women submit to men.

      • Juniors submit to elders.

      • Children submit to parents.

      • Filial piety: Children obeying and honoring parents, grandparents, and ancestors.

    • Women's Place:

      • Relegated to a subordinate position.

      • Stripped of legal rights (property became husband's).the

      • Social restrictions:

        • Limited access to education.

        • Foot binding: A status symbol among the elite, where young girls had their toes bent under their feet and bound with cloth

  • Expansion of the Imperial Bureaucracy:

    • Bureaucracy: A government entity arranged hierarchically to carry out the emperor's will.

    • Civil service examination:

      • Based on Confucian classics.

      • Jobs are earned on merit.

      • Theoretically open to all men, but it favored the wealthy.

Influence on Neighboring Regions

• Korea, Japan, and Vietnam were influenced by Chinese traditions.

  • Korea: Similar civil service examination, adopted Buddhism.

Buddhism in Song China

• Originated in India, spread to China.

• Four Noble Truths:

  • Life is suffering.

  • Suffering is caused by craving.

  • Ceasing craving ceases suffering.

  • The Eightfold Path leads to the cessation of craving.

• Shared beliefs with Hinduism (reincarnation, nirvana).

• Different branches:

  • Theravada Buddhism (Sri Lanka): Confined practice to monks in monasteries.

  • Mahayana Buddhism (East Asia): Encouraged broader participation, Bodhisattvas help others to enlightenment.

Song Economy

• Commercialization: Manufacturers and artisans produced more goods than they consumed and sold excess goods in markets in China and then across Eurasia.,

  • Traded porcelain and silk.

• Agricultural Innovations:

  • Champa rice: Matures early, resists drought, is harvested multiple times a year, led to population growth.

• Transportation Innovations:

  • Expansion of the Grand Canal facilitated trade and communication.

Dar al-Islam

• Refers to all the places in the world where the Islamic faith was the organizing principle of civilizations during this time

• Encompasses regions where the Islamic faith influenced civilization.

• Other major religions practiced:

  • Judaism: Ethnic religion of the Jews, Torah, and Hebrew Bible.

  • Christianity: Extension of Judaism, teachings of Jesus Christ.

  • Islam: Related to Judaism and Christianity, the Prophet Muhammad is the final prophet.

• All three religions are monotheistic.

• The Abbasid Caliphate was ethnically Arab.

• By 1200, the Abbasid Caliphate declined, and new Islamic political entities arose, dominated by Turkic people.

  • Seljuk Empire: Established in the 11th century by Turkic pastoralists.

    • The Seljuk warriors were hired to help the Abbasids and then fought against them.

    • The Mongols sacked Baghdad in 1258, ending the Abbasid Empire.

• New Muslim Empires continued practices from the former Empire:

  • The military administered the states.

  • Sharia law was established as the organizing principle of their legal systems (based on the Quran).

• Cultural and Scientific Innovations:

  • Nasir al-Din al-Tusi: Advances in mathematics, trigonometry.

  • Preservation of Greek philosophy: Translated into Arabic in the House of Wisdom in Baghdad.

Expansion of Muslim Rule

• Military Expansion: Seljuk, Mamluk, and Delhi Sultanates.

• Traveling Muslim Merchants: Stimulated trade in North Africa, conversion of the Empire of Mali.

• Sufi Missionaries: New sect emphasizing mystical experience, conversion in South Asia.

South and Southeast Asia

• Belief systems (Hinduism, Buddhism, Islam) affected societies.

• State building efforts.

South Asia

• Buddhism declined in the land of its birth.

• Hinduism remained widespread.

• Islam became influential due to the Delhi Sultanate.

• Bhakti Movement: Devotion to one Hindu god, challenged social and gender hierarchies.

Southeast Asia

• Buddhism and Islam competed for dominance.

• Delhi Sultanate ruled much of Northern India, but had difficulty holding on to its rule over the Hindu population.

• Rajput Kingdom: A Collection of rival and warring Hindu kingdoms that were able to keep Muslim rule at bay.

• Vijayanagara Empire: A Hindu kingdom in the South established in 1336.

Southeast Asia

• Diverse sea-based and land-based empires.

• Majapahit Kingdom (Java): Buddhist kingdom controlling sea routes for trade, declined when China supported the Sultanate of Malacca.

• Khmer Empire: Hindu kingdom converted to Buddhism, Angkor Wat temple is an example of religious continuity and change.

The Americas

• Mesoamerica and Andean civilization were major centers of civilization.

Mesoamerica

• Aztec Empire:

  • Founded in 1345 by the Mexica people.

  • Capital city: Tenochtitlan.

  • Alliance with two other Mesoamerican states and established an empire in 1428.

  • Tribute states: Conquered people provided labor and goods.

  • Enslaved people: Played a large role in Aztec religionists, especially as candidates for human sacrifice.

Andean Civilization

• Inca Empire:

  • Born in the early 1400s.

  • Stretched nearly across the entire Andean Mountain Range.

  • Incorporated the land and languages of older Andean societies.

  • Elaborate bureaucracy with rigid hierarchies of officials spread throughout the empire.

  • Mita system: Required all people under their rule to provide labor on state projects.

• The Aztecs were mostly decentralized in how they ruled, while the Incas were highly centralized.

North America

• Mississippian culture:

  • The first large-scale civilization in North America was focused on agriculture.

  • Large towns dominated smaller satellite settlements politically.

  • Monumental mounds around which their towns were organized.

  • Cahokia people built burial mounds.

Africa

East Africa

• Swahili civilization:

  • A series of cities organized around commerce (trading along the African coast).

  • Independent politically, common social hierarchy (merchant elite above commoner).

  • Influenced by Muslim traders, a new language (Swahili - a hybrid between indigenous African Bantu languages and Arab).

  • Swahili states rapidly became Islamic.

West Africa

• Powerful and highly centralized civilizations grew up, including the Ghana, the Mali, and the Songhai empire.

• The growth of these Western civilizations was also driven by trade, which gave them reason to become Muslim.

• Mostly the elite members and government officials in these empires who converted to Islam, while the majority of the population held on to their indigenous beliefs and traditions.

• Hausa kingdoms were not centralized empires, but rather a series of city-states which were more like Swahili states in the East.

Great Zimbabwe

• A powerful African state that grew thanks to trade.

• Economic bread and butter: farming and cattle herding.

• With the increasing African and international trade being processed through the Great Zimbabwe, it became exceedingly wealthy and shifted mainly to

• Rulers and people in Zimbabwe never converted to Islam.

Kingdom of Ethiopia

• Grew and flourished because of trade.

• Christian state in a sea of African states dominated by Islam and indigenous belief systems.

• The power structure was pretty hierarchical.

Europe

Belief Systems

• Dominated by Christianity, two flavors:

  • Eastern Orthodox: Byzantine Empire (declining), Kievan Rus (united by adopting Eastern Orthodox Christianity).

  • Roman Catholicism: Western Europe (decentralized states), Roman Catholicism linked every state together in the region culturally.

• Muslims and Jews also exerted influence:

  • Muslims conquered much of the territory of the Iberian Peninsula.

  • Jews lived in smaller pockets throughout Europe.

State Organization

• Decentralization and political fragmentation were the political flavor in Europe.

• The political and social economic order was mainly organized around feudalism:

  • Powerful lords and kings gained allegiance from lesser lords and kings.

  • Vassals got land from their lords in exchange for military service.

• European society and economics were organized according to manorialism:

  • A manor is a huge piece of land owned by a lot,d which was then rented out to peasants who worked the land

• Serfs were bound to the land of those powerful landowners and they lived there and they worked there in exchange for the lord's protection.

• Nobility held political and economic power.

• Monarchs began to grow in power after 1,000 CE.