Periodization!!!

Postclassical Period (1200-1450): Yellow

Postclassical East Asia

1. The Song Dynasty in China utilized Confucianism and imperial bureaucracy to maintain its rule.

2. Chinese cultural traditions continued and influenced Japan and Korea.

3. Song China became increasingly commercialized while depending on free peasant and artisan labor.

4. Song China flourished due to increased production, expanded trade, and transportation innovations.

Postclassical Islamic World

5. Judaism continued to shape societies in the Middle East and Europe.

6. Christianity continued to shape societies in the Middle East, Europe, and Africa.

7. Islam continued to shape societies in the Middle East, Europe, Africa, and Asia.

8. The Abbasid caliphate fragmented and new Islamic states like the Seljuk Empire emerged, dominated by Turkic peoples.

9. Muslim rule continued to expand in Afro-Eurasia due to military expansion, merchant activity, missionaries, and Sufis.

10. Muslim states encouraged advances in mathematics, literature, and medicine, and Muslim scholars preserved and commented on Greek philosophy.

South and Southeast Asia

11. Hinduism continued to shape societies in South and Southeast Asia.

12. Buddhism continued to shape societies in South and Southeast Asia.

13. New Hindu and Buddhist states emerged in Southeast Asia.

The Americas

14. New states such as Cahokia developed in the Americas.

15. Maya civilization was organized into a fragmented political system of city-states.

16. The Aztec (Mexica) Empire used religion as a source of legitimacy to rule conquered peoples.

17. The Inca Empire utilized imperial bureaucracy and required labor to maintain its rule.

Africa

18. New states such as the Hausa kingdoms emerged in Africa.

19. Islam expanded in West Africa and Timbuktu became a center of Islamic scholarship.

Europe

20. The Byzantine Empire was predominantly Eastern Orthodox while western Europe was predominantly Catholic.

21. Europe was politically fragmented and characterized by decentralized monarchies, feudalism, and the manorial system.

22. Europe was largely an agricultural society dependent on free and coerced labor, including serfdom.

Networks of Exchange

23. Improved commercial practices led to an increased volume of trade on routes like the Silk Roads, which promoted the growth of powerful new trading cities and states.

24. Innovations in transportation, new forms of credit, and development of money economies increased the trade in luxury goods on the Silk Roads, Indian Ocean, and Trans-Saharan trade routes.

25. Demand for luxury goods increased, which caused Chinese, Persian, and Indian artisans to expand production of textiles and porcelains.

26. Some empires collapsed and the Mongol khanates replaced them.

27. Expansion of empires like the Mongol khanates and Mali facilitated Afro-Eurasian trade and communication.

28. Contacts and conflicts between empires encouraged technological and cultural transfers.

29. The Indian Ocean trading network fostered the growth of states.

30. Merchants set up diasporic communities along important trade routes, introducing new cultural traditions and being influenced by indigenous cultures.

31. Ming Admiral Zheng He led Chinese maritime expeditions.

32. New environmental knowledge, like advanced knowledge of monsoon winds, led to expansion of long-distance trade routes.

33. Travelers wrote about their travels in Afro-Eurasia.

34. Crops and diseases diffused along trade routes.

Early Modern Period (1450-1750): Blue

Land-Based Empires

35. Imperial expansion relied on the increased use of gunpowder, cannons, and armed trade.
36. Land empires expanded, including the Manchu (Qing), the Mughal Empire, the Ottoman Empire, and the Safavid Empire.
37. Political and religious disputes led to rivalries between empires such as the Safavid-Mughal conflict.
38. Rulers such as the Ottomans recruited bureaucratic elites and developed military professionals to maintain centralized control.
39. Rulers such as the Qing continued to use religious ideas, art, and monumental architecture to legitimize their rule.
40. Rulers such as the Ming used tribute collection and innovative tax-collection systems to generate revenue.
41. The Protestant Reformation marked a break with existing Christian traditions.
42. Political rivalries between the Ottoman and Safavid empires intensified the split within Islam between Sunni and Shi’a.
43. Sikhism developed in India as a blend of Hinduism and Islam.

Transoceanic Connections: Maritime Empires in the Americas

44. Scientific knowledge and technology from the Classical, Islamic, and Asian worlds spread and facilitated European technological innovations allowing for more trans-oceanic travel.
45. Western European states such as Spain sponsored transoceanic maritime exploration, looking for alternative routes to Asia.
46. Western European states including the Spanish, Portuguese, British, French, and Dutch established new maritime empires in the Americas.
47. The new connections between the Eastern and Western hemispheres resulted in the Columbian Exchange.
48. European colonization of the Americas led to the transfer of diseases, substantially reduced indigenous populations.
49. Cash crops were grown on plantations in the Americas with coerced labor and were exported to Europe and the Middle East.
50. American foods became staple crops in Afro-Eurasia, nutritionally benefitting populations there.
51. Afro-Eurasian fruit trees, grains, sugar, and domesticated animals were brought by Europeans to the Americas, and enslaved Africans brought other foods.

Transoceanic Connections: Maritime Empires in Asia and Africa

52. Western European states including the Spanish, Portuguese, British, French, and Dutch established new trading-post empires in Asia and Africa.
53. Spain colonized the Philippines.
54. Some Asian states adopted restrictive or isolationist trade policies in response to new European participation in long-distance trade networks.
55. Existing trade networks in the Indian Ocean continued to flourish despite disruption due to the arrival of Portuguese, Spanish, and Dutch merchants.

Transoceanic Connections: Economic Changes and Continuities

56. New colonial economies in the Americas depended on agriculture and utilized coerced labor.
57. Slavery in Africa continued in its traditional forms, incorporating enslaved people into households and exporting them to the Mediterranean and Indian Ocean regions.
58. Plantation economies in the Americas increased the demand for slave labor, leading to the Trans- Atlantic slave trade.
59. European rulers used mercantilism to expand and control their economies and claim overseas territories.
60. European rulers and merchants started joint-stock companies to finance exploration and compete against one another in global trade.
61. Spanish rulers used silver from their American colonies to purchase Asian goods and satisfy China’s demand for silver.
62. The Little Ice Age led to economic changes.
63. Peasant and artisan labor intensified, such as in China’s silk industry, India’s cotton industry, and Europe’s wool and linen industries.
64. The trans-Atlantic slave trade led to demographic changes in Africa, causing changes in gender roles and family structures.

Transoceanic Connections: Political Changes and Continuities

65. State expansion and centralization led to resistance such as the Pueblo Revolt in Spanish America.
66. Slave resistance challenged existing authorities in the Americas.
67. Imperial conquests created new political and economic elites, such as the Manchu in Qing China and the Spanish casta system in the Americas.
68. Existing political and economic elites such as European nobility lost power to increasingly powerful monarchs and leaders.

Transoceanic Connections: Cultural Changes and Continuities

69. The Atlantic trading system led to the mixing of African, American, and European cultures and peoples.
70. Interactions between newly connected hemispheres led to the creation of new syncretic religions.
71. The expansion of maritime trading networks fostered the growth of states in Africa, including the Asante and the Kingdom of the Kongo.
72. Some states such as the Mughal and Ottoman empires accommodated the ethnic and religious diversity of their subjects.
73. Some states such as Spain and Qing China suppressed diversity or limited particular groups’ roles in society.

Modern Period (1750-1900): Orange

Revolutions

74. Enlightenment philosophers developed new ideas about the role of religion, natural rights, popular sovereignty, and the social contract.
75. Enlightenment ideas often preceded revolutions and rebellions against existing governments, leading to the establishment of new nation-states around the world.
76. The American Revolution established the United States of America and inspired the French Revolution, the Haitian Revolution, and the Latin American independence movements.
77. Enlightenment ideas and religious ideals influenced reform movements leading to expanded suffrage, the abolition of slavery, and the end of serfdom.
78. Governments harnessed nationalism – a sense of commonality based on language, religion, social customs, and territory – to foster a sense of unity.
79. Discontent with monarchist and imperial rule encouraged the development of democracy and 19th-century liberalism.
80. Early feminists challenged political and gender hierarchies.
81. The Industrial Revolution began in Great Britain and spread to western Europe, the United States, and Japan.
82. The factory system concentrated production in a single location and led to more specialization in labor.
83. Machines like steam engines and the internal combustion engine made it possible to use fossil fuels like coal and oil.
84. The “second industrial revolution” led to new methods in the production of steel, chemicals, and electricity.
85. Railroads, steamships, and the telegraph made exploration and development easier, which led to increased trade and migration.
86. Industrial capitalism increased living standards for some and improvement in manufacturing methods increased the affordability of consumer goods.
87. New social classes like the middle class and industrial working class developed.
88. Working-class women and children increasingly worked for wages outside the home and middle-class women were limited to household labor.
89. Workers organized labor unions in industrialized states to improve working conditions, limit hours, and gain higher wages.
90. Western European countries started abandoning mercantilism and adopting free trade policies due to the influence of Adam Smith’s ideas about laissez-faire capitalism.
91. Thinkers including Karl Marx proposed alternatives to capitalism like socialism and communism.
92. Urbanization led to pollution, poverty, increased crime, public health crises, housing shortages, and insufficient infrastructure.

93. Social and economic changes caused by industrial capitalism led many organizations to attempt political, social, educational, and urban reforms.
94. Some states promoted state-sponsored industrialization.
95. Expansion of U.S. and European influence in Japan led to the Meiji Restoration.
96. Reformers in the Ottoman Empire and Qing China sought to modernize their economies and militaries.
97. Steam-powered industrial production in European countries and the U.S. increased their share in the global balance of power. Middle Eastern and Asian countries’ share in the global balance of power declined.

Consequences of Industrialization

98. Social Darwinism, nationalism, the idea of the civilizing mission, and the desire to religiously convert indigenous populations were all used to justify imperialism.
99. Some states with existing colonies assumed direct control over colonies previously held by non-state entities.
100. Some European states as well as the United States and Japan acquired territories throughout Asia and the Pacific, while Spanish and Portuguese influence declined.
101. The United States, Russia, and Japan expanded their land holdings by conquering and settling neighboring territories.
102. Europeans established settler colonies in some parts of their empires.
103. Anti-imperial resistance included direct resistance within empires, the creation of new states on the edges of empires, and rebellions inspired by religious ideas.
104. The need for raw materials for factories and food for growing urban populations led to the growth of export economies based on cash-crop production and natural resource extraction.
105. Industrialized states and businesses within those states practiced economic imperialism primarily in Asia and Latin America.
106. Trade in some commodities like opium and cotton gave merchants and companies based in Europe and the U.S. a distinct economic advantage.
107. New demands for labor increased migration around the world and led to growing urban populations.
108. New forms of transportation allowed some migrants to return periodically or permanently to their home societies.
109. The new global capitalist economy continued to rely on coerced or semi-coerced labor.
110. Migrants tended to be male, leaving women to take on new roles in the home society that had been formerly occupied by men.
111. Migrants often created ethnic enclaves in different parts of the world that helped transplant their culture into new environments.
112. Societies receiving migrants sometimes responded with ethnic and racial prejudice

Twentieth Century (1900-2001): Red

Global Conflict

113. Internal and external factors caused the collapse of the Qing empire, the Ottoman empire, and the Russian empire.

114. Political crisis led to the Mexican Revolution.

115. World War I was caused by militarism, a flawed alliance system, imperialist expansion and competition for resources, and intense nationalism.

116. World War I and World War II were total wars.

117. New military technologies and tactics in World War I and World War II caused increased levels of wartime casualties.

118. The Great Depression led to governments taking a more active role in economic life.

119. In the Soviet Union, the government under Stalin controlled the national economy through the Five Year Plans.

120. Between the two world wars, Western and Japanese imperial states maintained control over colonial holdings and in some cases gained additional territories, though some states faced anti-imperial resistance.

121. World War II was caused by the unsustainable peace settlement after World War I, the Great Depression, continued imperialist aspirations, and the aggressive militarism of Nazi Germany under Adolf Hitler.

122. Nazi Germany perpetrated the Holocaust.

Cold War and Decolonization

123. The democratic United States and the authoritarian Soviet Union became global superpowers after World War II, leading to a power struggle between capitalism and communism.

124. The Cold War led to nuclear proliferation and proxy wars between and within postcolonial states in Latin America, Africa, and Asia.

125. The Non-Aligned Movement promoted alternatives to the existing economic, political, and social order.

126. In communist China, the government controlled the national economy through the Great Leap Forward.

127. Movements to redistribute land and resources developed within states in Africa, Asia, and Latin America, sometimes advocating communism or socialism.

128. Nationalist leaders and parties in Asia and Africa sought independence from imperial rule.

129. After the end of World War II, some colonies negotiated their independence, while others achieved independence through armed struggle.

130. The postwar redrawing of political boundaries led to the creation of new states and led to conflict and population displacement.

131. In newly independent states after World War II, governments often took on a strong role in guiding economic life to promote development.

132. Many former colonial subjects migrated to major cities in the former colonizing country.

133. Mohandas Gandhi, Martin Luther King Jr., and Nelson Mandela promoted the practice of nonviolence as a way to bring about political change.

134. Some movements like Al Qaeda used violence against civilians in an effort to achieve political aims.

135. The Soviet Union collapsed, ending the Cold War.

Globalization

136. New international organizations, including the United Nations, formed with the stated goal of maintaining world peace and facilitating international cooperation.

137. Towards the end of the Cold War, many governments encouraged free market economic policies and promoted economic liberalization.

138. New modes of communication and transportation were developed, including radio communication, cellular communication, the internet, air travel, and shipping containers.

139. Energy technologies, including the use of petroleum and nuclear power, raised productivity and increased the production of material goods.

140. Revolutions in information and communications technology led to the growth of knowledge economies in some regions, while industrial production and manufacturing were increasingly situated in Asia and Latin America.

141. Popular and consumer culture became more global.

142. Some groups resisted rising cultural and economic globalization.

143. Rights-based discourses such as the Universal Declaration of Human Rights challenged old assumptions about race, class, gender, and religion.

144. Access to education as well as participation in new political and professional roles became more inclusive in terms of race, class, gender, and religion.

145. More effective forms of birth control gave women greater control over fertility, transformed reproductive practices, and contributed to declining rates of fertility in much of the world.

146. Medical innovations, including vaccines and antibiotics, increased the ability of humans to survive and live longer lives.

147. Diseases associated with poverty persisted while other diseases emerged.

148. As human activity contributed to deforestation, desertification, a decline in air quality, and increased consumption of the world’s supply of fresh water, humans competed over these and other resources more intensely than ever before.

149. The release of greenhouse gases and pollutants into the atmosphere caused intensified climate change.

150. The Green Revolution and commercial agriculture increased productivity and sustained the earth’s growing population as it spread chemically and genetically modified forms of agriculture.