The Global Tapestry, 1200-1450

1.1 Developments in East Asia (1200-1450)

  • Spread of Chinese Cultural Traditions
    • Confucianism and filial piety persisted, emphasizing societal order and respect for elders.
    • Confucianism focused on earthly life rather than heavenly rewards.
    • Buddhism, originating in India, spread to China via the Silk Roads, adapting to local contexts.
      • Theravada Buddhism was less popular than Mahayana Buddhism, which offered more hope for eternal life.
    • Neo-Confucianism became popular, blending Buddhism, Daoism, and Confucianism into a religion-like philosophy.
    • Foot binding regained popularity as a sign of Confucian patriarchy.
    • Diasporic communities of Christians, Jews, and Muslims grew in China along trade routes as merchants and officials.
    • Confucianism, Neo-Confucianism, and Buddhism influenced Korea, Heian Japan, and Vietnam, impacting their cultures and governments.

II. Song Dynasty, China (960-1279)

  • China was the most advanced civilization with large cities, a strong economy, and advanced technologies.
    • Kaifeng and Hangzhou were trade and government centers with over a million residents each.
    • The economy thrived due to exports to East Africa, Arabia, and South and Southeast Asia.
    • Chinese craftsmen produced porcelain, iron, steel, silk, and tea.
    • Champa rice from Vietnam boosted agriculture and supported a growing population.
    • Paper money was invented, and imports were taxed, sometimes at high rates.
    • Technological advancements included gunpowder, woodblock printing, the compass, and an expanded Grand Canal.

III. Economic Developments in Postclassical China

  • The Grand Canal was expanded to over 30,000 miles, enhancing waterway transportation.
  • Gunpowder was used to create the first guns.
  • Champa rice improved agricultural productivity with its fast-ripening and drought-resistant qualities.
  • Coal was discovered in the 4th century, enhancing manufacturing capabilities, including steel production.
  • Proto-industrialization emerged as rural areas produced more goods, relying on home-based workers.
  • The government paid workers instead of requiring labor for public projects, promoting economic growth.
  • The tributary system required other states to pay money or provide goods to the Chinese emperor.
  • The scholar gentry, educated in Confucian philosophy, became the most influential social class.
    • Imperial Bureaucracy: Appointed officials carrying out the empire's policies
    • Civil Service Exam: Based on knowledge of Confucian texts, expanded to lower economic classes, known as a meritocracy.

IV. Religious Diversity in China

  • Theravada Buddhism: focused on personal spiritual growth through silent meditation, becoming strongest in Southern Asia.
  • Mahayana Buddhism: focused on spiritual growth for all beings and on service, becoming strongest in China and Korea.
  • Tibetan Buddhism: focused on chanting, becoming the strongest in Tibet.
  • Chan Buddhism (Zen Buddhism): direct experience and meditation as opposed to formal learning based on studying scripture.

V. Comparing Japan, Korea, and Vietnam

  • Japan
    • Prince Shotoku Taishi (574-622) promoted Buddhism and Confucianism alongside Shinto.
    • During the Heian period (794-1185), Japan emulated Chinese traditions in politics, art, and literature.
  • Korea
    • Centralized its government in the Chinese style, adopting Confucian and Buddhist beliefs and the Chinese writing system.
    • Languages remained structurally different.
    • A stronger aristocracy prevented certain Chinese reforms.
  • Vietnam
    • Showed strong resistance to Chinese power with more independence for women, preference for nuclear family dynamics, and independent villages.
    • Rejected foot binding and polygyny.
    • Experienced military conflict with China.

1.2: Developments in Dar-al Islam (1200-1450)

  • Islam spread from Arabia after Muhammad's death in 632, expanding across North Africa, Spain, Turkey, East Africa, and South and Central Asia peacefully and by force.

I. Influence of Islam, Judaism, and Christianity in Africa and Asia

  • Christianity retreated in Turkey, replaced by Islam, but gained in Spain, reasserting dominance by 1450.
  • Jews lived in scattered communities (the diaspora) throughout Afro-Eurasia as merchants, scholars, artisans, and officials.
  • Acceptance of Jews turned into persecution as European countries expelled them, blaming them for the Black Death.
  • The Black Death: a global epidemic of bubonic plague that struck Europe and Asia in the mid 1300s (C.E.)

II. New Islamic Political States

  • The Abbasid Caliphate declined before 1200 and fell when the Mongols sacked Baghdad in 1258.
  • The Mamluks, a professional army established by the Abbasids, set up a sultanate in Egypt and repelled Mongol invasions.
  • The Seljuk Turks conquered parts of the Middle East and limited Christian access to holy sites, leading to the Crusades.
  • The Mongols conquered the remaining Abbasid Empire in 1258 and ended Seljuk rule.
  • Turkish groups formed the Ottoman Empire in Turkey in the late 13th century and expanded rapidly.
  • Sufism grew along with the new governments, from Eastern Europe to North Africa and into Central and South Asia.
    • Mamluk Sultanate (1250-1517): In Egypt, the Mamluks seized control of the government

III. Muslim Advances in Technology and Science

  • Cultural transfer in Muslim and Christian Spain included mathematics and knowledge of Greek and Roman literature.
  • The Abbasid Empire’s House of Wisdom in Baghdad was a center of philosophy, science, and engineering, destroyed in the Mongol invasion of 1258.
  • Muslim scholars led in medicine and astronomy, preserving Greek and Roman literature and advancing mathematics.

IV. Cultural and Social Life

  • Political Fragmentation:
    • Abbasid Caliphate: Arabs and Persians
    • Mamluks: North Africa
    • Seljuks: Middle East
    • Delhi Sultanate: South Asia
  • Cultural Continuities:
    • Translated Greek literary classics to Arabic
    • Studied mathematics texts from India, transferred this knowledge to Europeans
    • Adopted techniques for paper-making from China
  • Cultural Innovations:
    • Nasir al-Din al-Tusi (1201-1274): contributed to astronomy, law, logic, ethics, mathematics, philosophy, and medicine
    • ‘A’ishah al-Ba’uniyyah (1460-1507): Sufi poet and mystic, one of the most prolific female Muslim writers before the 20th century

V. Slavery, Islam, Women and Invading Spain

  • Slavery
    • Islam prohibited Muslims enslaving other Muslims or monotheists.
    • Muslims imported slaves from Africa, Keivan Rus, and Central Asia.
    • Enslaved women were concubines to Islamic men that had wed their allotment of four wives.
    • Enslaved women had more independence and could accumulate funds to buy freedom.
  • Free Women in Islam:
    • Hijab: Modest dressing or a specific covering.
  • Muhammad’s Policies:
    • Raised the status of women.
    • Insisted dowries be paid to the future wife.
    • Forbade female infanticide.
  • Status of Islamic Women:
    • Allowed to inherit property and retain ownership after marriage.
    • Could remarry if widowed and receive cash settlements for divorce.
    • Could practice birth control.
  • Islamic Rule in Spain
    • The Umayyad rulers promoted coexisting peacefully with monotheists, promoted trade and scholarly learning.

1.3: South and Southeast Asia (1200-1450)

  • South Asia was not a single state; disunity prevailed after the Gupta Dynasty's collapse in 550.
  • Hinduism provided cultural unity.
  • Southern India was more stable than Northern India
    • Chola Dynasty (850-1267): extended their rule to Ceylon (modern day Sri Lanka)

I. Political Structure in South and North India

  • Southern India
    • Vijayanagar Empire (1336 – 1646): Hindu-led state in southern South Asia, as a counter to Muslim expansion.
    • Began with Harihara and Bukka from the Delhi Sultanate.
  • Northern India
    • Rajput kingdoms: Hindu kingdoms led by leaders of numerous clans that were often at war with one another.
    • Lack of centralized power left the kingdoms open to Muslim attack

II. Delhi Sultanate

  • Reigned for 300 years, from the 13th to the 16th centuries.
  • Dominated by the interaction of Hinduism and Islam.
  • Muslims were resented due to the jizya tax on non-Muslims.
  • In 1526, lost power to the Mughals.
  • imposed the jizya, a tax to all non-Muslim subjects of the empire

III. Religion in South Asia

  • Islam entered forcefully but took on a more peaceful approach.
  • Converts came voluntarily, primarily low-caste Hindus and Buddhists seeking improved social status.
  • The spread of Islam contributed to Buddhism becoming a minority religion in India.

IV. Social Structure and Cultural Interactions in South Asia

  • India’s caste system provided stability to decentralized politics.
  • Changing religion did not guarantee a higher caste.
  • Islam did not alter gender relations significantly.
  • People shared intellectual and cultural achievements.
  • Arabic numerals originated in India.
  • Sultans blended Hindu art with Islamic architecture.
  • Qutub Minar: a gigantic leaning tower that stands in the southern part of the city, being one of the tallest structures in India today
  • Urdu: a new language developed by Muslims of South Asia
  • Bhakti Movement: focused on devotion to a particular deity.

V. Southeast Asia

  • Influenced by South Asia, including Indonesia, Malaysia, Cambodia, Thailand, Laos, and Vietnam.
  • Trade voyages spread South Asian culture.
  • Srivijaya Empire (670 -1025) and Majapahit Kingdom (1293 – 1520) were two of the longest lasting sea-based kingdoms.
    • Srivijaya Empire (670 -1025): primarily a Buddhist kingdom based on Sumatra
    • Majapahit Kingdom (1293 – 1520): based on Java, with 98 tributaries at its height
  • Land-based kingdoms drew power from land control
    • Sinhala dynasties (543 – 1815)
    • Khmer Empire (802 – 1431)
    • Sukhothai Kingdom that invaded the area in 1431.
  • Islam spread to Sumatra, Java, and the Malay Peninsula.
  • Indonesia includes more Muslims than any other country.
  • Sufis did missionary work, and their tolerance facilitated conversion to Islam.

1.4: Developments in the Americas (1200-1450)

  • Mississippian Culture
    • The first large-scale civilization in North America emerged in the 700s or 800s, in eastern United States.
    • Created earth mounds, the largest being Cahokia in Southern Illinois.
    • Government consisted of the Great Sun (chief), priests, nobles, hunters, farmers, merchants, and artisans.
    • Women farmed, and men hunted.
    • Matrilineal society: social standing was determined by the woman’s side of the family.
    • Cahokia was abandoned around 1450
  • Southwestern United States
    • Dry climate necessitated efficient water collection and storage.
    • Chaco: Built large housing structures of stone and clay
    • Mesa Verde: Built multi-story homes into the sides of cliffs using bricks made of sandstone
    • Both groups declined in the 13th century due to drier climate.
  • The Maya City-States
    • Mayans stretched over the southern part of Mexico and parts of what is now Belize, Honduras, and Guatemala, reaching its height between 250 and 900 C.E.
    • Ranging from 5,000 to 50,000 people in each city in approximately 40 cities.
    • City-states were ruled by kings considered descendants of gods.
    • Fought for tributes and captives for human sacrifice.
    • Commoners paid taxes and provided military service.
    • No central government, but strong city-states dominated.
      • Religion, Science and Technology
        • Incorporated zero into their number system
        • Developed a complex writing system
        • Learned to make rubber from liquid collected from rubber plants
        • Science and religion were linked through astronomy
        • Precise observatories were used to develop an accurate calendar
        • Priests conducted ceremonies to honor deities.
  • The Aztecs
    • The Aztecs were also known as the Mexicas
    • Originally hunter-gatherers who migrated to central Mexico from the north in the 1200s.
    • Tenochtitlan, their capital city, was founded in 1325.
      • Located on an island in Lake Texcoco
      • Chinampas helped with food production.
    • Developed a tribute system.
    • Government was a theocracy
    • Social Hierarchy
      1. EMPEROR
      2. LAND OWNING NOBLES
      3. SCRIBES AND HEALERS
      4. CRAFTSPEOPLE AND TRADERS
      • Worshiped hundreds of deities and practiced human sacrifice.
      • Women wove valuable cloth for tribute.
      • Began declining in the late 15th century due to inefficient agriculture and overexpansion.
  • The Inca
    • Pachacuti conquered tribes in Cuzco, Peru in 1438, forming the Incan Empire.
    • Extended from Ecuador to Chile.
    • Huayna Capac consolidated lands by 1493.
    • Empire was split into four provinces ruled by governors and bureaucrats.
    • Subjects were required the mit’a system, mandatory public service, opposing paying tribute.
      • Religion:
        • Inti, the sun God, was the most important of the Incan gods.
        • Rulers were believed to be Inti’s representation on Earth
        • Honoring of the sun
        • Royal ancestor veneration
        • Temple of the Sun in Cuzco formed the core of the Incan religion
        • Royal ancestor veneration: a practice intended to extend the rule of a leader
        • Priests were consulted before important actions.
        • Gods controlled all things and priests could determine their will.
        • Priests also diagnosed illnesses, predicted the outcome of battle, determined sacrifices, and solved crimes
        • Inca religion included some animism; the belief that elements of the physical world could have supernatural powers, referred to as huaca.
      • Achievements:
        • Developed quipu, a system of knotted strings used to record numerical information
        • Developed terrace systems for cultivation
        • Waru waru technique to prevent erosion and store water
        • Carpa Nan: massive roadway
      • Inca Decline:
        • Spanish conquistador Francisco Pizarro arrived in 1532 during a civil war of succession

1.5: Developments in Africa (1200-1450)

  • Islam's growth connected cultures in Asia, Africa, and southern Europe.
  • African societies adopted Islam while retaining traditions; others resisted.
  • Efforts to avoid Islamic forces led to unique architecture.
  • Southern Africa had little contact with Islam until later.
  • Political Structures in Inland Africa
    • Sub-Saharan Africa:
      • Heavily shaped by the migrations of Bantu-speaking people, outward from west-central Africa.
      • Did not centralize power under one leader or central government.
      • Communities formed kin-based networks, where families governed themselves.
      • A chief, or male head of the network, mediated conflicts and dealt with neighboring groups.
      • A group of villages became districts, consisting of multiple chiefs that would decide how to solve problems in the district.
      • As the population increased, kin-based networks became more difficult to govern, leading to an increase in competition and an increase in fighting.
      • Larger kingdoms grew in prominence after 1000.
    • The Hausa Kingdom
      • In what is now modern-day Nigeria, seven states formed the Hausa Kingdom some time before 1000.
      • Although connected through kinship ties, the states were not under a central authority or centralized government.
      • People established prospering city states that possessed a specialty.
      • The region lacked access to sea, however contact with other people was significant.
      • Trans-Saharan Trade: a network of trading routes across the great desert.
      • A state on the western edge of the region defended the states against attack, however the lack of authority left them vulnerable to domination.
      • Islam was introduced to this region in the 14th century.
    • Political Structures of West and East Africa
      • West and East Africa benefitted from increased trade, bringing wealth, political power, and cultural diversity.
      • Islam added to the religious diversity. Animism and Christianity were already practiced in Africa.
      • Ghana
        • Not in the same location as modern-day Ghana, however between the Sahara and the tropical rain forest.
        • Reached its peak of influence between the 8th and 11th century.
        • Rulers sold gold and ivory to Muslim traders in exchange for copper, salt, cloth and tools.
        • Koumbi Saleh, the king, ruled a centralized government aided by nobles and an army equipped with iron weapons.
        • Wars with neighboring societies ruined the Ghanaian state, leading to new trading societies rising in its place.
      • Mali
        • Sundiata: founding ruler, believed to be Muslim.
        • Historians believe that Sundiata used his connections with others of his faith to establish trade relationships with North African and Arab merchants.
        • Sundiata cultivated a thriving gold trade in Mali and under his leadership, Mali’s wealth increased.
        • Mansa Musa, Sundiata’s nephew, made a pilgrimage to Mecca where his lavish displays of gold left a lasting impression
      • Zimbabwe
        • In East Africa, architecture became the growing wealth of a kingdom
        • Zimbabwes: dwellings created originally from wood, eventually being made with stone by the 9th century
        • Zimbabwe became the name of the most powerful kingdom between the 12th and 15th century.
        • Zimbabwe was between the Zambezi and Limpopo rivers, in modern-day Zimbabwe and Mozambique
        • Similar to Mali, Zimbabwe had rich gold fields, putting taxes on the transport of gold, making the kingdom wealthy
        • Tied into the Indian Ocean Trade (connected East Africa, the Middle East, South Asia, and East Asia)
      • In East Africa, Bantu and Arabic were blended to develop Swahili
      • By the end of the 13th century, a massive wall of stone surrounded the capital city of Great Zimbabwe
      • Most of Great Zimbabwe’s buildings were made of stone.
      • By the late15th century, 20,000 people resided in Great Zimbabwe.
      • Overgrazing damaged the environment of the bustling capital city, being abandoned by ethe end of the 1400
    • Ethiopia:
      • The kingdom of Axum developed, prospering by the trading of goods obtained from India, Arabia, the Roman Empire and the interior of Africa.
      • Beginning in the 7th century, the spread of Islam made the region more diverse religiously.
      • A new Christian led kingdom emerged in Ethiopia in the 12th century.
      • Rulers expressed their power through architecture
      • Ordered the creation of 11 massive churches made on rock
      • Ethiopian Christianity developed independently
      • People combined their traditional faith traditions with Christianity to create a distinct form of faith
  • Social Structures of Sub-Saharan Africa
    • Strong central governments ruling over large territories was not common
    • Small communities were organized, focusing on kinship, age and gender
    • Younger people did more physical labor and relied on advice or wisdom from their elders
    • Men dominated most activities that required a specialized skill
    • Women generally engaged in agriculture and food gathering
  • Slavery in Sub-Saharan Africa and Southwest Asia
  • Cultural Life in Sub-Saharan Africa
    • Playing music, creating visual arts and telling stories carried additional significance.
    • Song lyrics were a form of communicating with the spirit world.
    • Visual arts also served a religious purpose.
    • Griots and Griottes:
      • Literature was oral
      • Griots were storytellers, possessing encyclopedic knowledge of family lineages and the lives and deeds of great leaders
      • Griots were venerated and feared based on the power they held. Griots preserved the history and passed it on from generation to generation
      • Women served as griottes, providing women with a sense of empowerment in a patriarchal society.

1.6: Developments in Europe (1200-1450)

  • Political and Social Systems
    • Feudalism: a decentralized political organization based on a system of exchanges of land for loyalty
    • Caused a lack of strong government, leaving the people vulnerable to rival lords, bandits, and invaders, such as the Vikings
    • The core of feudalism was a system of mutual obligations:
      • A monarch, usually a king, granted tracts of land, called fiefs, to lords. In return, a lord became a king’s vassal, a person who owed service to another person of higher status.
      • Lords then provided land to knights. In return, knights became vassals of the lord and pledged to fight for the lord or king.
      • Lords also provided land and protection to peasants. In return, peasants were obligated to farm the lord’s land and provide the lord with crops and livestock, and to obey the lord’s orders.
    • The feudal system incorporated a code of chivalry, an unwritten set of rules for conduct focusing on honor, courtesy, and bravery. Chivalry served to resolve disputes.
    • Manorial System: provided economic self-sufficiency and defense. The manor produced everything that people living on it required, limiting the need for trade or contact with outsiders.
      • Manor: Large fefs or estates
      • Serfs: peasants
      • Serfs, while not enslaved, were tied to the land. This meant they could not travel without permission from their lords. Nor could they marry without their lord’s approval.
      • Children born to serfs also became serfs.
      • In exchange for protection provided by the lord of the manor, they paid tribute in the form of crops, labor, or, in rare cases, coins.
      • The three-field system, in which crops were rotated through three fields, came into use.
        • One field was planted with wheat or rye, crops that provided food.
        • A second field was planted with legumes such as peas, lentils, or beans. These made the soil more fertile by adding nitrogen to it.
        • A third field was allowed to remain fallow, or unused, each year.
  • Political Trends in the Later Middle Ages
    • In the later Middle Ages, monarchies grew more powerful at the expense of feudal lords by employing their own bureaucracy and a military. These employees worked directly for the king or queen.
    • The lands these monarchs collected under their control, particularly in England and France.
      • France: King Philip II ruled from 1180-1223, being the first to develop a real bureaucracy.
      • The Estates-General was a body to advise the king that included representatives from each of the three legal classes, or estates, in France: the clergy, nobility, and commoners
      • Holy Roman Empire: The German king Otto I was crowned Holy Roman Emperor in 962, hearkening back to Charlemagne’s designation as Emperor of the Romans.
      • The lay investiture controversy of the 11th and 12th centuries: This dispute was over whether a secular, non- religious leader, rather than the pope, could invest bishops with the symbols of office.
      • This issue was resolved in the Concordat of Worms of 1122, when the Church achieved autonomy from secular authorities.
      • Norman England: The Normans were descendents of 9ikings who settled in northwestern France, a region known as Normandy. In 1066, a Norman king, William the Conqueror, successfully invaded England.
      • The fusion of Normans and Anglo-Saxons created the modern English people. Many English nobles objected to the power of William and the succeeding Norman monarchs.
      • Normand England: These nobles forced limits on that power. In 1215, they forced King John to sign the Magna Carta, which required the king to respect certain rights, such as the right to a jury trial before a noble could be sentenced to prison.
      • The first English Parliament was formed in 1265. These developments increased the rights of the English nobility, but not of the general population.
      • The Hundred Years’ War: Between 1337 and 1453, the rival monarchies of England and France fought a series of battles known as the Hundred Years’ War.
      • On each side, serving under a monarch fostered a sense of unity among soldiers who often spoke distinct languages or dialects. The war marked another step towards people identifying themselves as “English” or “French” rather than from a particular region.
      • The war also demonstrated the spreading use of gunpowder weapons. Gunpowder had been invented by the Chinese and spread west by Mongols.
      • In addition to conquering England, the Normans also conquered Sicily, taking control of that Mediterranean island from Muslims.
      • The Reconquista: Reconquering Spain
  • The Roman Catholic Church During the Middle Ages
    • In 1054, the Christian Church in Europe divided into two branches, a split called the Great Schism.
    • The Roman Catholic Church continued to dominate most of Europe for another five centuries, while the Orthodox Church was powerful farther east, from Greece to Russia.
    • Church staff were the only people in a community who knew how to read and write.
    • Christianity provided people a shared identity even as vernacular languages, ones spoken by the people in a region, emerged to replace Latin.
    • The Church established the first universities in Europe.
    • The Church held great power in the feudal system. If a lord displeased the Church, it could pressure the lord in various ways.
    • The regional religious leaders, called bishops, owed allegiance to the pope, the supreme bishop in Rome.
    • The monasteries had the same economic functions of agriculture and protection as other manors.
    • Wealth and political power led to corruption during the 13th and 14th centuries. Eventually, corruption, as well as theological disagreements, drove reformers such as Martin Luther to take stands that would shatter the unity of the Roman Catholic Church.
  • The Christian Crusades
    • European Christians fought to gain control over the Holy Land, inclusive to Jerusalem.
    • Pope Urban II gave the permission to Alexius I to allow Christian knights to assist with reconquering this land from the Muslims.
    • Social and economic trends of the 11th century added to the pressure among Europeans to invade the Middle East. Rules of primogeniture, under which the eldest son in a family inherited the entire estate, left a generation of younger sons with little access to wealth and land.
    • The First Crusade: The only clear victory for Christendom.
    • The European army conquered Jerusalem in July 10. However, Muslim forces under Saladin regained control of Jerusalem in 118. The Crusades did promote cultural exchange between Europe and the Middle East.
    • The Third Crusade: Europeans failed to retake Jerusalem from Saladin, however the holy city was reopened to Christian pilgrims
    • The Fourth Crusade: Christians were diverted from fighting Muslims to fighting other Christians with Crusaders capturing and looting Constantinople.
  • Economic and Social Change After the Crusades
    • In the late 13th century Marco Polo, an Italian native from 9enice, visited the court of Kublai Khan in Dadu, modern-day Beijing. Polo’s captivating descriptions of the customs of the people he met intrigued Europeans.
    • This middle class, between the elite nobles and clergy and the mass of peasants, began to grow, known as the bourgeoisie, or burghers, it included shopkeepers, merchants, craftspeople, and small landholders.
    • Agricultural surplus encouraged the growth of towns and of markets that could operate more frequently than just on holidays. As the demand for more labor on the manors increased, the supply decreased
    • A series of severe plagues swept through Eurasia in the 14th century. In Europe, an outbreak of bubonic plague known as the Black Death killed as many as one-third of the population.
    • Urban growth was hampered after about 100 by a five-century cooling of the climate known as the Little Ice Age. Lower temperatures reduced agricultural productivity, so people had less to trade and cities grew more slowly.
      • During the Economic and Social Change After the Crusades, Jews were were expelled from:
        • England in 1290
        • France in 1394
        • Spain in 1492
        • Portugal in 1497
      • In 1492, the Spanish king expelled the remaining Muslims in the kingdom who would not convert to Christianity. Many Muslims moved to southeastern Europe.
      • In the 13th century, the Muslim Ottoman Empire expanded its reach from Turkey into the Balkan countries of present-day Albania, Kosovo, and Bosnia and Herzegovina. These countries developed large Muslim populations.
      • Unlike most people in Europe in the Middle Ages, Jews lived in urban areas, and they served as a bridge between Christians and the Muslims whose goods they desired in trade.
      • Women found their rights eroding as a wave of patriarchal thinking and writing accompanied the movement from an agricultural society to a more urban one.
        • One place where women had greater opportunities to display their skills in administration and leadership was in religious orders. Women in Islamic societies tended to enjoy higher levels of equality, particularly in parts of Africa and Southeast Asia.
  • Renaissance
    • The Renaissance was a period characterized by a revival of interest in classical Greek and Roman literature, art, culture, and civic virtue.
    • Developed in 1, Johannes Gutenberg’s movable-type printing press initiated a revolution in print technology. The printing press allowed manuscripts to be mass-produced at relatively affordable costs. It fostered a growth in literacy and the rapid spread of ideas.
    • One characteristic of the Renaissance was the interest in humanism, the focus on individuals rather than God. Humanists sought education and reform. They began to write secular literature.
      • Southern Renaissance:
        • In the regions of Italy and Spain, church patronage supported the Renaissance.
        • Wealthy families, such as the Medicis of Florence, used their money to support painters, sculptors, and architects.
      • Northern Renaissance:
        • By 1400, the Renaissance spirit spread to northern Europe. While many Renaissance artists emphasized piety in their work, others emphasized human concerns.
  • Origins of Russia
    • During the late Middle Ages in Eastern Europe, extensive trade in furs, fish, and grain connected people from Scandinavia to the Mediterranean to Central Asia.
    • The city-state at the center of this trade was Kievan Rus, based in what is today Kiev, Ukraine. Because it adopted the Orthodox Christianity, it maintained closer cultural relationships with Byzantium than with Roman Catholic Europe.
    • The Mongols overtook this region in the 13th century. The Mongols required local nobles to collect taxes for them. As these nobles grew wealthy in their role, they began to resist Mongol rule.
    • In the late 15th century, under the leadership of a Moscow-based ruler known as Ivan the Great, the region became independent of the Mongols. This marked the beginning of the modern state of Russia.

1.7: Comparison in the Period from 1200-1450

  • State Building and New Empires
    • The Song Dynasty in China continued a long period of technological and cultural progress.
    • The Abbasid Caliphate in the Middle East was fragmented by invaders and shifts in trade. Following it, new Muslim states arose in Africa, the Middle East, and Spain.
    • In South and Southeast Asia, the Chola Kingdom and Vijayanagar Empire used trade to build strong states, while the Delhi Sultanate in northern India was more land-based.
    • In Africa, the rulers of Mali created an empire that was bigger and more centrally administered than the Empire of Ghana that preceded it.
    • In the Americas, the Aztecs formed a tributary empire in Mesoamerica that relied on a strong military. The Inca Empire in the Andean region used the elaborate mit’a system to support state-building. In contrast, most of the Americas lacked centralized states.
    • In Europe, feudal ties declined in importance as centralized states developed. This development was clearer in the Western European kingdoms of England and France than in Eastern Europe.
    • Japan, unlike most states, became more decentralized and feudal.