IH Humanities 2 - WHAP Review

History

Early Civilizations 

• Why did people abandon hunting/gathering

  • Changes in climate

  • Greater population density demands more food

  • Farming provided more food

• Effects of the neolithic revolution

  • Neolithic revolution

    • Transition from hunting/gathering to farming 

    • Deliberate cultivation of plants and domestication of animals 

    • Settled near rivers, there was more food and consistent supply of it

    • More disease because they settled down

  • Gender roles/Less egalitarian

    • Less equal, the women were now working more at home and the men were farming 

  • Spread of disease

    • Since they settled down they are new spreading more diseases

• Egypt + Mesopotamia

• Egypt:

  • Centralized 

  • Nile river

  • Pharaohs and Pyramid

  • Prosperous, shown through optimistic artistic expression 

  • Relied on the Nile

  • Vast deserts on all sides

  • Nile hard to travel in the south

  • Food + security secured 

  • Remarkable continuity, Pharaoh as a god-king

• Mesopotamia:

  • Relied on Tigris and Euphrates rivers 

    • They rose annually but sometimes flooded

  • Relatively open and falt terrain

  • Uncertainty

  • Competing, separating, and independent city-states

  • King represents a deity

  • Probably first written language

  • Hammurabi law rock

    • King of Babylon, made Stele containing laws of Babylon

  • NOT IN FREAKING AMERICA

• Similarities

  • Connected in vast trade networks

  • Relied on River Systems

  • Strong priest class

  • Strong hierarchical structure 

  • Expressed government strength through public works

  • Chariorts

  • Amarna letters

  • Sea people - both attacked by them but egypt survived 

• Differences

  • City states vs centralized

  • City based vs agricultural/village life

  • Insecurity vs security

  • Walls vs natural security 

• Early China

  • Warring states

    • Age of many kingdoms fighting to unite china 

    • Regional warlords controlled everything

    • Qin start to fight to consolidate 

    • A “search for order”

  • Mandate of Heaven

  • Qin Dynasty (Legalism) 221-206 BCE

    • Unified by Qin Shihuangdi

    • Embraced Legalist philosophy

    • Did major work on the Great Wall

    • Very brutal 

    • Lasted 15 years, was hated by the people

  • Han dynasty(Confucianism)

    • Empire after the Qin

    • Took the strict hierarchy of the Qin and made it moral 

    • Emperor Wudi established the Civil Service Exams

      • Makes the government merit based 

    • Wang Mang: China reformer, confucianism

      • Tried to redistribute money from rich to poorer families but failed 

    • Landlords hold the most hi shandy. Greetings my fellow companion. Power

      • They had access to better education and families gained wealth and power through both farms and government bureaucracy

    • Merchants were despised, they tried to become landlords 

    • Scholar Gentry Class: rich people make money, have rich kids, kids get money, money money

    • How they governed

      • Based on confucian ideals 

      • Strong bureaucracy - Civil Service exam 

      • Bureaucrats all throughout empire, assessing taxes and getting rich 

      • Scholar gentry gain power through accumulation of wealth that enables them to get tutoring to get the government jobs ($$)

    • Fall of Han China: 

      • Due to peasant revolts, daoist thinking

      • Yellow Turban Uprising

        • Peasants suffered in China bc: gov, crop failures, landlords

        • Had to sell land to live

        • 360k revoltees ⇒ 2 mil

        • Daoist thinking

        • Suppressed but scared the state; Han only lasts like 35 more years 

World Religions: 

Christianity, Chiddhism, Hinduism, Judaism, Islam, Buddhism 

Buddhism

• Founder: Siddhartha Gautama 

• Buddha: Man who has awakened 

• Critical of Hindu rituals and authority of Brahmins 

• 6th Century BCE 

• Theravada Buddhism = Buddha is wise, not divine 

  • Embrace the monastic life 

• Mahayana Buddhism = Buddhism more open to everyone

  • Able to spread much more rapidly into China, Korea, Japan, and more of Asia 

• Buddhism is not prevalent in India, it was incorporated into Hindu thinking 

• Buddhists do not worship Buddha, they seek to emulate him 

• Spread on silk road 

Christianity https://docs.google.com/document/d/1WxlHLdWhTQy97pE99c21u2Ohc2gtu5zgXKHbOw9uiMM/edit?tab=t.0 - has difference between EO and RC

• Founded by Jesus of Nazareth

• Origins in Judea/Jerusalem 

• Can be centripetal and centrifugal forces

  • Divide between eastern ortho and roman catholic 

  • Diffusion of christianity through conquest and trade →unifying force 

• Roman empire's main facilitators of Christianity 

• Constantinople

  • Big hearth for christianity - of the eastern orthodox variety

• Nestorian Church 

  • “The Church of The East”

  • Roots in China, spread all over eurasia

  • Independent of rome and constantinople 

• Egyptian christianity 

  • Coptic Christianity

• Ethiopian Christianity

  • The most prevalent and influential outside of europe 

  • Built a bunch of churches across the land to keep religion (bc they were so isolated from the rest of christianity) 

Eastern Orthodox Christianity vs Roman Catholicism

• Disagree about

  • Nature of trinity

  • Source of holy spirit

  • Original sin 

  • Importance of faith and reason 

  • Byzantines got rid of icons 

  • West had priests shave and remain celibate 

  • Byzantium had leavened bread with yeast in communion, catholics had unleavened 

• Most significant difference

  • Roman popes claimed to be sole and final authority for all christians everywhere, eastern orthodox leaders, didn’t like this 

  • Eastern Orthodox had Caesaropapism 

    • Relationship between church and state in the byzantine empire

    • Orthodox belief is extremely vital to the state 

Hinduism

• No founder: collection of belief systems

• Founded around 2300-1500 BCE

• Spread through SE Asia - primarily Indian Subcontinent 

• Belief in the divine, but many different forms of the divine - Karma + reincarnation

• The Vedas and Upanishads are critical texts 

• 4 major branches of Hinduism 

• Early hinduism/the Vedas

  • The Vedas are a kind of history that contains many allusions to hymns, prayers and rituals 

  • Starts to craft the roles that people had in their society

  • Eventually the Upanishads were written, they were a type of commentary on the Vedas 

Judaism

• Founded by the Hebrews around 1000 BCE, settling in modern Israel and Palestine 

• Monotheist, worshiped Yahweh, acknowledged other gods but Yahweh wes superior 

• Very small numbers, did not spread, did have a large impact on later religions 

Islam

• Founded by Muhammad 

  • Before muhammad, 

    • Bedouins inhibit Arabia - not unified, many tribes 

    • Traders + warriors - work for both the Byzantines and Sassanid Persians 

    • Many Gods - the Kaaba in Mecca serves as a major shrine 

    • Allah - one of many gods is the most important 

    • kaaba in Mecca 

  • Went meditate outside Mecca because of the corruption, comes back as prophet muhammad

  • United Arabia

    • Muhammad’s message united Arabian tribespeople 

    • Great military success convinced other tribes and countries of Muhammad’s Righteousness

      • Soldiers lived near cities but in their own camps - little interaction with civilians in conquered lands  

• Hajj: pilgrimage to mecca

• Umma: the community of all believers 

• Dhimmis: protected second class citizens/non-islamic citizens 

• Jihad: struggle, both internal and external struggles 

• Sharia: regulations on aspects of religious, political, and social life 

• Sunni: Caliphs are the rightful rules, as they were chosen by the Umma 

• Shia: Leader of the Umma should be descendants of Muhammad and his family 

• Bantu Migrations 

  • Walked very slowly

  • Iron tools

  • 👹

  • How did they spread

    • Slowly - family driven movement

    • Spread of language and culture

  • Farming Bantu vs Hunter Gatherers

    • Large populations 

    • Disease

    • Iron tools 

  • Language and Cultural Connections 

    • Developed distinct political organizations

    • Some matriarchal societies 

    • Nature spirit based religion 

    • Separate but equal gender relations 

• Greece + Rome 

  • Helots

    • Greek slaves. Worked the farmlands in Sparta. They were also forced to be servants and soldiers.

  • Sparta - part of Greece

    • Sparta was founded on Helots 

    • Extreme military discipline and large helot population; extremely warlike

      • Not as strong as they were made out to be

    • Sparta had two kings for the council of elders

      • One for frontlines, one to watch over helots to make sure they don’t revolt.

    • Men: had to be soldiers; Women: Raising children 

  • Athens 

    • Greek experiment 

    • Caused by class conflict and reformation happened breaking the aristocratic hold 

    • Abolished debt slavery and made things more accessible

    • Athenian democracy

      • Direct democracy, not representative

      • Distinctly limited (no women, foreigners, slaves)

    • trade/navy

    • Egalitarian but still with slavery 

    • Leader of a coalition of greek city-states (first among equals) 

    • Embraced greek thinking, sponsored philosophers 

  • Greece - during ancient civilizations time

    • Small competing city-states

    • Relatively small population, peninsula divided by mountains

    • Maritime power, strong navy

    • Motivated by the concept of “Freedom” against “Tyranny”, introduced primitive democracy

    • Expanded via settlement and migration; how culture spread

    • Did not accept foreigners 

    • Called Hellenes, Indo-European and drew from Egypt

    • Culture: similar culturally but not unified 

    • Since they smelted metals so much, led to deforestation and bad soil

    • Distinctive Greek civilization features 

      • Popular participation in political life

      • Free people managing the affairs of the state and quality for all cities (varies from city to city)

  • Greece - Hellenistic Era 323-30 BCE

    • Widespread dissemination of Greek culture 

    • Major avenue for spread was major cities attracting greek settlers 

    • Culture spread through the cities his soldiers lived in after died 

    • Cultural mixing between essentially all the first civilizations and Greece

    • Left behind by Alexander the Great 

• City State

  • Greek had small city states led to rivalry and conflict, lots of fighting and war 

  • Maritime power 

• Roman government 

  • Kingdom -> Republic -> Principate (Augustus) -> Dominate (Empire)

  • Started out with kings but they hated tyranny and started a republic

    • Favored oligarchs 

  • First emperor was Augustus - called self Principe

  • Kingdom had patricians and plebeians, social hierarchy and divide

  • Governed through Mos Maiorum

    • Way of the ancestors 

  • Equal application of the law to all

  • “Balance” of power between different parts of government 

  • Lots of power in the local leaders 

• Reasons for the fall of the classical empires 

  • Fall of Rome: Climate change, overexpansion, corruption, crop failure, invaded by the german goths, epidemic

  • Fall of Qin China: Same as rome, northern nomads 

  • Similarities

    • Overextension

    • Lack of resources

    • Conflict between “nobles” and the state

    • Epidemic disease

    • Nomadic peoples invading

    • Climate change 

Medieval Europe

• The crusades: 

  • 1st crusade: Byzantine asks the pope for help, wants to take back the holy land from jerusalem, went well

    • Established several small kingdoms in the holy land that help connect trade with the middle east

  • 4th crusade: Went horribly, Constantinople taken over despite already being Christian 

  • Pope Urban II calls for an armed “pilgrimage” to defend the Byzantine Empire from the Seljuk Turks 

  • Soldiers from all over Europe come together to take back the holy land

  • Established several kingdoms in the “Holy Land’ that last for nearly 200 yrs

  • Establishes merchant connections with the middle east 

  • The bad

    • Incredibly violent takeover 

      • Crusaders were protected from sin while crusading 

    • Several crusades end in them destroying Christian territory 

      • 4th crusade 

    • “Heretics” in European territory are prosecuted more harshly 

      • Jewish communities are targeted for mob violence 

    • Ultimately, very few long lasting impacts on the region that they conquered 

• Feudalism

  • Strict social hierarchy

  • Higher level supports the lower level

  • King→ Clergy→ Nobles→ Knights→ peasants/serfs 

• Byzantine Empire

  • Eastern Orthodox Christians

    • Caesaropapism: relationship between church and state, pope is leader 

  • Eastern half of Roman empire, continuation of the Roman Empire 

  • Constantinople was capital

  • Had control of the silk road endpoints

  • Byzantine during rise of Islam: 

    • Still recovering from black death

    • Fought with sassanid persians 

    • Later fights with arabs 

    • Battle of yarmouk: Arabian forces take over the levant 

    • Iconoclasm: banning of icons (paintings of religious figures) bc islam didn't have icons 

  • Continuation of the ROman Empire

  • Orthodox Christians

  • Capital: Constantinople 

  • Byzantine during Islam’s Rise

    • Still recovering from Black death 

    • Fought in a 26 yr war with the Sassanid Persians

    • Nearly collapses until Herclius saves the Empire in one major push 

  • Byzantines vs Arab Conquest 

    • 636 Battle of the Yamuk

      • Huge battle 140k B vs 40k A 

      • 50% of B die in fight 

      • Arabian forces take over the entirety of the Levant after 

  • Byzantine Christianity

    • Eastern Orthodox Church

      • Christian church under the direct control of Constantinople; separate from Catholic Church in Rome

    • Caesaropapism 

      • Relationship between Church and State in the Byzantine Empire

      • Orthodox belief is extremely vital to state 

    • Iconoclasm

      • Bad events happen: arab conquest + disease + volcano eruption 

      • Emperor and patriarch take this as God is angry

        • Begin searching for heretical practices in Empire 

        • Muslims ban Icons - its working for them 

      • Bans use of icons; debate spreads and lasts for 100+ years 

  • Byzantines and The World

    • Post 630 CE; under near constant attack from the East 

    • One of the main endpoints of the Silk Road 

    • Maintained much of the ancient Greek knowledge from Athens 

    • Began to convert much of the Balkans to Christianity (balkan rage, german stare, pakistani sitting, indian hawk tuah respect moment, Still water 🥭 those who know 💀)

• Black Death

  • People died → opened up jobs (yay!) 30-60% in Europe and around 33% of the population in the Middle East.

  • Really hurt the byzantine empire

    • Were at height of power

    • Most of their grain came from egypt but then egyptian traders got sick causing famine 

    • Spread plague of justinian throughout the empire via boat 

    • 40% of constantinople died 

  • Affected the Mongol Empire as well 

    • Caused the fall of the Mongol empire and pastoralism decline

    • Spread really bad because mongols united Eurasia 

  • Benefits of Black Death

    • As more people died, the survivors were able to make more money due to supply and demand in labor (not enough supply but high demand so forced to pay up)

    • Peasants can now make some more money and improve themselves 

• Dark Ages

  • Hundred Years War

    • Between France and England for the crown of France 

    • Caused by Edward III for wanting to rule 

    • Effects England as they lose territory 

  • Black Death

    • Started in CHina and ended in Europe

    • Brought from rats and the silk road

    • 1347-1351 

    • Third of european population died

    • Bubonic and pneumonic versions

  • Great Schism 

    • 1054

    • East and west excommunicated each other

    • Didn’t like each other because differences 

    • Mainly views on papal authority and iconoclasm

    • East criticized west, pope sent cardinals to deal with criticisms, couldn;t reach agreement and then excommunicated 

    • Created divide and makes 2 churches 

  • Great Western Schism

    • 1378

    • 2 popes become 3 popes

    • Pope in Avignon France but then they tried to bring it back to Italy

    • So now there are 2 popes 

    • When trying to fix the problem they made 3 popes 

    • Council of Constance got rid of reigning popes and brought 1 

    • Leads to loss of papal respect 

  • First Crusade

    • Pope Urban II tried to take holy land from Muslims

    • Byzantine wanted military aid from Turks

    • Sending the troops to help in Constantinople 

    • End up taking Jerusalem

  • Fourth Crusade 

    • Called by Pope Innocent III to take back holy land from Muslims

    • Broke tho so Byzantine prince said I’ll give you money if you give me the throne 

    • They helped to overthrow the king, but then the prince didn’t give money so they overthrew him too 

    • Captured city 

  • Battle of Tours

    • Umayyad caliphate v franks 

    • Umayyad wanted to take over Western Europe, went to tours to sack it 

    • Charles French army won with terrain advantage

    • Umayyad defeated and couldn’t spread Islam 

    • Preserved Christianity in Europe 

  • Charlemagne’s Coronation

    • 800 on christmas 

    • Charlemagne crowned HRE by Pope Leo III

    • Gave authority and protection to empire

    • United Western Europe 

  • Signing of Magna Carta

    • Signed by king of England so he wouldn't be able to exploit his power, he’s under the law too 

    • Pope Innocent III nullifies it but then later is reinstated 

    • Becomes roots of some legal systems, including US 

  • Battle of Manzikert

    • Between Byzantine and Turks

    • Turks won due to experience, even though Byzantine bigger

    • Led to beginning of end of byzantine empire a successful military state and turks take controls of anatolia 

  • Hanseatic League

    • Confederation of guilds to protect german trade interest between towns 

    • Controlled Baltic Sea and major source of trade

    • Maintained army for protection of towns in the league 

  • Invention of the printing press

    • 1440 

    • Guttenburg

    • Good for creating books

    • Used to print bibles, gutenberg bible

    • Enabled the spread of ideas 

  • Vikings raiding Lindisfarne

    • First raids recorded in Europe started Viking age

    • They keep spreading 

    • Thought Vikings were like punishment for sins 

    • Burned homes and killed people 

• Effects of the Catholic Church

  • Europeans want to emulate Roman Imperial system

  • The roman catholic church is one of the only institutions binding Western Europe together 

    • Binds western europe together

  • Top down hierarchy

    • Similar to roman empire 

  • Continued government functions - caring for the poor and sick + providing law for many areas 

  • Absorbed pagan practices and began converting the peoples of europe  

  • Legitimacy to kings through europe 

• Renaissance + Enlightenment 

  • Renaissance (almost like a rebirth)

    • Wealth in europe is rapidly expanding

    • Major trading cities like Florence and Venice are spending money on culture 

    • Study of the ancient Greco-roman arts and literature expand

      • These had been disapproved of by the Catholic Church

    • Machiavelli’s The Prince, argued for brutal methods for maintaining power

      • Amoral and without regard for church 

    • Renaissance writers began to look at the world for how it was, not from a christian worldview 

  • Enlightenment:

    • Hated absolute monarchies - no logic or reason to how they rule 

    • Believed that society could improve by thinking

      • Opennes and inquiry into how hte world works - question everything

    • Women’s rights are being debated now in an effort to increase women’s role in society 

    • Voltaire: Frenchie who thought about religion

    • Deism: The idea that God created the universe but then let humans do their own thing

  • Scientific Revolution

    • Why in europe? 

1. Competition between states 

2. Can draw on knowledge of other cultures (islamic golden age0

3. Merchants create lots of money and want to spent it on increasing presitge 

4. Independent universities (as opposed to state run schools in china that only focus on Confucianism)

5. Protestant reformation emphasizes independent research and reasoning 

• Copernicus 

  • 1543: Earth revolves around sun

• Galileo

  • Builds great telescope, discovers that hte universe is probably endless (eventually we learn that it is expanding at an ever increasing rate) 

• Newton 1642-1727

  • Hit on the head with an apple and discovers gravity

  • Gravity affects everything, both on Earth and beyond  

The Americas 

• Aztecs/Mayans + Achievements 

  • Both were successful with trading and economy

  • advancing technology, writing, astronomy, architecture 

• Aztecs 

  • Very violent, conquered most of mesoamerica 

  • HUMAN SACRIFICE. 🧐 no

  • Treated conquered with contempt (caused constant rebellions)

  • Capital at tenochtitlan 

    • Lots of trading (Pochtecha- Private Aztec merchants) 

    • Practiced private, land based trade

  • Tribute system with neighbors

• Mayans (when did we learn about them 💥)

  • Sea based trade

  • Flourished around 250-900 CE

  • Strong intelletural class

  • Very big into astronomy

  • Advanced writing system

  • Strong city states - never fully unified 

  • Why they fell

    • Huge population boom - 5 million Maya

    • Less land available for farming, constant conflit 

    • Climate change - deforestation

Asia

• Chinese Philosophies

  • Fuck you obey the law (legalism)

    • Solution is laws, lear and strictly enforced

    • Pessimistic view on human nature, promote farmer/soldier 

    • Helped in the unification under the Qin Dynasty, also seen in the Sui Dynasty 

  • Confucianism

    • Legalism + morals 

    • From Confucius 

    • Follow the moral example of superiors 

    • Hierarchy

    • If the ruler is good then everyone will follow them 

    • Virtues come from education, ceremonies, and willingness to perfect

    • Became a part of culture and the civil service exam 

    • Family life model

      • Rigid hierarchy with women being the earth and men being the heavens

    • Legitimized inequalities but also set expectations on superiors 

  • Daoism or Taoism if ur feelin freaky

    • Laozi went into the wilderness and wrote about how people should return to the way of nature

    • People could withdraw from the world 

    • Counter to confucianism, withdraw into nature, spontaneous, individual, and natural behavior

    • Yearn for earlier time, harmony with nature 

    • Yellow turban uprising used Daoist thinking

      • Peasants suffered in China due to: government, crop failure, and land lords 

      • Peasants had to sell land to landlords to live

      • 360k rebelled against the Han dynasty, balloons to 2 mil

      • Suppressed but scared the state

• Mongols

  • Genghis aka Chinggis Khan aka Temujin

  • Pastoral people

    • People who herd animals, society based on kinship

    • Horse riding

    • Women’s rights more prevalent 

  • Mongolia used to be divided into several competing tribes

  • Thru diplomacy and warfare Temujin takes control and becomes Chinggis Khan - Universal Ruler 

  • Conquers neighboring states and pays own leaders handsomely to maintain loyalty

• Early Conquests

  • Initial conquests focused primarily on China, rich and small army

  • Moved westward - controlling Persia, Russia, and disrupts Abbasids 

  • Extreme military organization and disciple - cavalry tactics 

    • Encirclement and feigned retreat; allows for many victories 

  • Took the knowledge of more advanced societies and incorporated them into their lives 

    • Siege weapons - chinese technology able to bring down walls 

  • Mongols hired most capable conquered people to do more intellectual tasks

• Treatment of People

  • Incorporation of outside craft experts/military professionals 

    • Chinese engineers and nomadic horse riders 

  • Religious tolerance 

    • Unless used as a rallying point to get people to rebel 

  • Extremely brutal conquest 

    • Unless you surrender right away

  • No active conversion to mongol lifestyle 

• Mongols in China

  • First conquest in Mongol Rise - abt 70 yrs 

  • Chinese populations outnumber mongols 100-1

  • Treatment varied by location

    • North China - brutally conquered

    • South China - accommodations 

  • Mongols incorporated many of the Chinese customs 

    • Administration

    • Became a Dynasty - Yuan Dynasty 

    • Claimed the Mandate of Heaven 

• Mongols in Persia

  • Invaded by Chinggis Khan himself

  • Predominantly Muslim

    • Mongols are super-heretics 

  • Incredibly violent take-over 

  • Mongol herdering destroyed tons of agricultural land 

    • The irrigation failed to hold up to the thousands of animals 

  • Establishes the Ilhkanate 

    • Persian Bureaucracy 

    • Mongols “become Persian”

    • Mongols convert to Islam 

• Mongols in Russia 

  • Very loose conquests 

    • Mongols thought there wasn’t much in Russia 

    • Mongols only came around if they caused trouble 

  • Russian Princes had a variety of responses to the Mongols 

    • Kiev resisted and was nearly destroyed 

    • Moscow accepts Mongols and makes money from collecting tax 

  • No centralized Mongol rule

    • Little assimilation

    • Weakened by plague, rebellion and growing Moscow power 

Umayyad and Abassid Caliphate 

• Umayyad was centralized, distrusted caliphs (Sunni)

• Abbasid took over, split into regional rulers that gain power (Shia)

• Umayyad Caliphate

  • Arab empire expanded greatly 

  • Caliphs became hereditary rulers 

  • Emerging Shia factor saw Umayyad caliphs as illegitimate leading to it being overthrown 

  • ***Umayyad has a centralized government 

• Abbasid Caliphate

  • Non-arabs now play a prominent role (such as Persians)

  • Political unity didn’t last, regional rulers gained power

  • Fracturing in the Umayyad caliphate and distrust of the caliphs lead to the Abbasid caliphate emerging

    • Regional rulers gained most of the power

    • Spain/Egypt/North Africa began to rule themselves 

  • Abbasid had a more regional government 

• How Islam changed different areas (Anatolia, West Africa, India, Indian Ocean 

  • In the case of India: 

    • First Muslim state is delhi sultanate

    • Majority still remains hindu (bc views were to different, too large a population) - Muslim rulers are a minority, stopped conversion attempts 

    • Stay in power until the british show up aorund 1800ce

    • Sikhism: Blended hindu and islam beliefs 

  • In the case of West Africa: 

    • Voluntary conversion facilitated by muslim merchants 

      • Merchants brought their faith to city centers

      • By converting to Islam, the African merhants gained advatnages in their trades - preferential trade 

    • States accept Islam for many reasons hgihighihgieighieiegHiphiphiphip hooray

      • Trade

      • Administrative help

      • Linking thier world to the Muslim world 

    • Huge public works made for Muslims 

      • Timbuktu - capital of Mali - many quranic schools 

      • Rulers created mosquess for legitimacy reasons 

      • Rulers convert - regular people do not 

    • Rulers convert, normal people usually don't 

      • Only conversions occur in cities 

      • Rural people did not convert

      • Even when conversion happned - traditional rituals still maintained 

    • Ibn Battuta

      • Appalled by lack of orthodox muslim practice

      • Cities like Timbuktu on peripheries of muslim and follow own path

  • In the case of Spain:

    • Very far from the Islamic heartland 

      • Main point of contact with western europe 

      • Many christian and jewish citizens 

    • Strong intellectual pursuits 

      • astronomy/medicine/literature/art/architecture 

      • Muslim learning gets into europe from spain 

    • Very tolerant - AT FIRST

      • Over time, more distrustful of the second class citizens 

      • Constant conflict between northern christian kingdoms and islamic state in south of spain 

  • In the case of Anatolia: 

    • Turks invade dying byzantine empire, very violent

      • Wipes out large poritons of byzantine society

    • Was very easy to conquer bc not a lot of people

    • Lack of population in Byzantium 

      • Turkish invaders made up a huge proportion of the population 

      • Discrimination against christians led them to leave the area 

      • Common beliefs = easier conversion 

    • Seljuk and ottomon empire offer incentives for conversion 

      • Similar relgions - same founding texts 

      • Sufi teachers establish the institutions left behind when the byzantines decline

      • Islamization without arabization 

    • More egalitarian treatment of women

      • Face exposed as opposed to more “orthodox” face coverings 

      • Influence form their past nomadic lifestyle 

  • In the case of Indian Ocean 

    • Merchants spread Islam 

    • Jizya tax 

    • Strait of malacca 

Islamic achievements 

• After Abbasids, islam didn’t have 1 ruling nation

  • Loosely connected by Islam and Arabic 

  • Hajj connects Islam 

  • Madrassas - islamic schools of learning - teahcing the Orthodox islam 

  • Sufi orders establish themselves and behin teaching in small communities

  • United by trading networks - silk and sand roads particularly 

• Technologies greatly expanded Islamic Power

  • Farming practices allowed for population booms

  • Papermaking allowed for governments to function better

  • Great strides in mathematics and the sciences 

• Baghdad House of Wisdom

  • Academic center that emphasized logic and reasoning

  • Read greek literary works - greek rationalism

  • Spread medicinal practices - used in europe for centuries 

  • Numbers 

Sui/Tang/Song China + Sinification 

Sui Dynasty 581-618

• Regained unity, solidified that unity through the canal system

• Linked the north and south economically, which contributed to prosperity 

• Strives to bring together China by uniting North and South China

• Resources were exhausted because of their ruthlessness and had gotten too greedy trying to take Korea so they were overthrown

• Their harsh military in Korea exhausted the government’s resources setting it up to be overthrown 

• Fall was similar to the Qin Dynasty due to their ruthlessness and legalism 

• Canal System

  • Helped emperors solidify unity by vastly expanding the canal 

  • Linked northern and southern china economically

    • Through Yangxi river which was not really passable 

  • Contributed much to the prosperity that followed 

  • During the economic revolution 

    • It facilitated the cheap movement of goods 

    • Allowed peasants to grow specialized crops for sale when purchasing rice/other staples 

• Interacted with nomads → more gender equality, taoist beliefs 

• Tributary System (mainly Tang, kinda Song) with neighboring countries (Japan, Vietnam, Korea)  

  • Countries still separate and their own identity, but incorporated chinese ideas into their culture

  • Japan

    • Went out of their way to go to china, wanted to become a mini china and have bureaucracy 

    • Never conquered by China 

      • Voluntary emulation 

      • Not as centralized as china 

  • Korea

    • Resisted chinese political control unless benifitial

    • Silla: allied with tang to unify the peninsula

    • Emulated chinese court customs - provided legitimacy 

  • Vietnam

    • North of vietnam was actually a part of southern china for years

    • Elites assimilated into chinese culture

    • “Independence” during Tang dynasty but still tributary 

    • Bettlenuts and cock fighting yum

• Fell to their own millitary, 

Chinese golden age 

• Established the patterns of chinese life

• Golden age of arts and literature, the standard of excellence in poetry, landscape painting and ceramics 

Tang Dynasty 618-907

• Brought back Civil service exams 

• Population boon (doubling to 120 million)

• Mixing with northern barbarians, more gender equality, followed nomadic women beliefs

• Followed taoist beliefs 

• Large scale military: expansion along the silk road

• Tributary System (mainly Tang, kinda Song) with neighboring countries (Japan, Vietnam, Korea)  

  • Countries still separate and their own identity, but incorporated chinese ideas into their culture

  • Japan

    • Went out of their way to go to china, wanted to become a mini china and have bureaucracy 

  • Korea

    • Resisted chinese political control unless benifitial

    • Silla: allied with tang to unify the peninsula

  • Vietnam

    • Were actually a part of southern china for years

    • Bettlenuts and cock fighting yum

• Focus on collecting taxes through coins or in kind

  • Large military leads to military overthrowing the gov in major rebellion

  • Military governors use huge military in a revolution 

Song Dynasty 

• China’s economic revolution 

  • Vietnamese rice crop: Champa rice; drought resistant and plants twice a year

  • Industrial production, urbanization leads to economic specialization 

  • Population growth => urbanization 

  • Coal use increases industry production, increases pollution too

  • Mass production > local consumption; commercialization happening

    • Commercialization easier thru paper money use 

  • Gunpowder, printing press, etc. made

  • Massive iron industry 

• Not focused on expansion, large scale trade

• Return to orthodox confucianism; less northern influence

• View of water shifts from expansion opportunities to being scared of strong military altogether; more pacifist 

• Foot binding, women out of textile industry - lower class jobs now 

Sinification 

• The process through which non-chinese societies come under the influence of Chinese culture 

Trading Routes

• Silk Road

  • Roads that passed through Eurasia

  • Started by Han China/Rome

  • Reflourished in about 600 CE

  • Networks of roads connecting Eurasai

  • Early peoples herded animals along these routes

  • Begins in earnest with Han China and Rome

  • China and Rome would trade with pastoral people in between walking ht eless habitable parts of the system

  • Many empires have inhabited various parts of the Silk Road to try to conquer much of it 

  • Began to floush after 600 CE

  • Byzantines ⇒ Abbasids ⇒ Tang Dynasty 

  • Large Camel Caravans conduct most trade 

  • Many luxury goods traded thru silk road 

  • Culture/beliefs “traded”

    • Religions like Buddhism appeal to merchants - universality

    • Buddhism spreads from India to China primarily through Merchants 

    • Spread through oasis cities, not to ordinary pastorlaists of Central Asia

  • Black Death - Byzantine Empire

    • At the height of their power

    • Grain coming from Egypt; traders in egypt get sick

    • Spread “Plague of Justinean” thru empire via boat

    • 40% of constantinople die 

• Sand Roads 

  • Camel caravans carried luxury goods

  • The Sahara had a lot of copper/salt

  • Included North Africa, West Africa, and Meditteranian

  • Introduces camels to Africa

  • Camels can travel for days with little water 

  • Traveled across the Sahara (Trans-Sahara)

  • Gold was traded - as dust 

  • Arab merchants spread islam - many kingdoms in West Africa - took slaves from battle and traded them 

  • Ghana Empire

    • Traded in gold and other previous metals 

  • Empire of Mali

    • Traded in salt, copper, and gold dust

    • Massively rich

    • Massive divide between rich and poor

    • Mansa Musa 

  • Similarities 

    • Muslim kingdoms - own brand of islam

    • Trading in slaves

    • Initial equality between men and women disappears with time 

• Sea Roads (Indian Ocean Trading Networks)

  • Largest trading center

  • Included India, China, SWANA, and Europe

  • Monsoons aided travel, used junks (boats)

  • Strait of Malacca, chokepoint

  • Facilitated the spread of Islam

  • Before 1500, largest trading center of the world 

  • Connected India, China, Middle East, Africa, and Europe 

  • Highly efficient travel - Monsoons

    • Used Junks - a type of boat 

  • Luxury goods (spices + porcelain) that are hard to transport over land 

  • Culture/beliefs “traded”

    • Islam is friendly toward Merchants 

    • In Islamic world, benefits for Muslim Merchants - lots of conversions

      • Jizya Tax: tax on non-muslims, encourages merchants to convert rapidly 

    • Spread of Islam far away from its hearth - spreads to SE Asia

    • Most populated Muslim Country in the world - Indonesia 

  • East Africa 

    • Swahili Civilization

      • Collection of cities that traded along east africa 

      • Boom around 1000 ce

      • Gathered goods from inland, traded on Indian Ocean

      • Merchants claim most power

      • Converted quickly to Islam

    • Great Zimbabwe

      • Civilization around 1250 traded largely in gold 

• Trade in the Americas

  • Had loose trade routes

  • Pochteca - Professional Aztec merchants

  • Facilitates the diffusion of corn

  • Loosely connected trade routes uniting America 

  • Maize diffuses throughout Americas 

  • Ball game is spread everywhere

  • Most trade is done inside of the various civilizations 

  • NO WHEELED VEHICLES 

  • Teotihuacan

    • Huge trading center in Mexico

  • Aztec Trade 

    • Private, land based trade

  • Mayan Trade

    • Private, also conducted sea trade along the coast 

  • Incan Trade

    • Huge road system

    • Quipus: knotted cords used for accounting 

    • Network of accountants 

    • Absence of private trade - huge government storehouses

• • Ancient Civilizations

    • Sumer

      • Located in Mesopotamia 

      • Competing city states - Uruk biggest one

      • Probably earliest written language

      • Becomes part of mesopotamian empires 

    • Norte Chico

      • Started around 3000-1800 bce

      • Around modern peru 

      • Next to the andes mountains, lots of rivers 

      • Largest city was Caral 

      • Focused largely on fishing 

      • Smaller cities than other early civilizations

      • Did not develop writing and few artworks

      • Base of andean civilizations 

    • Indus valley civilization

      • 2000 bce

      • Well developed, well planned cities, irrigated agriculture

      • Likely no political hierarchy

      • Conflicting historical theories about how it developed so well 

      • Climate change led to abandonment of cities 

    • Early China

      • First signs around 2200 BCE 

      • Legendary monarch in Xia dynasty - wu, organized public works projects that are evidence of strong gov

      • Shang, zhou continued to expand

      • Zhou implemented mandate of heaven

      • Writing and oracle bone readings helped chinese rulers govern 

    • Central asian/oxus

      • 2200 bce

      • Large towns based on irrigation agriculture and stock raising 

      • Highly hierarchical 

      • Extensive trade networks 

      • Rapidly fell apart 

    • Olmec 

      • Competing chiefdoms

      • Primarily agricltual

      • Stone heads

      • Maybe first written language in americas 

      • Influence maya and teotihuacan 

    
    

    Persian Empire 

    Defining characteristics

    • Imperial system, king as divine 

    • Famous rulers: cyrus, darius 

    • Religion: zoroastrianism 

    • Satrap = governors 

      • Strong bureaucracy - satraps and tax collectors 

    • Opulent cities like persepolis 

    • Exceptionally tolerant of other cultures 

    • Standard coins, road connected empire 

    Great Persian Rulers

    • Persian kings ruled as divine monarchs 

    • Cyrus - military guy and achaemenid dynasty

    • Darius - administrative 

    
    

    Greco-persian wars 

    • Greeks in turkey revolted

    • Persia mad

    • Greece defends greeks in turkey 

    • Leads to next war 

    Peloponnesian war

    • End of greek dominence in mediterranean 

    • Athens v sparta 

    • Navy v land 

    • ~30

    Alexander 

    • Siege of Tyre

      • Phonecian city, persian owners 

      • Island off the syrian coast 

      • Alexander built a bridge 

    • Led to hellenistic era 

    
    

    Conflict with carthage

    • First punic war: fighting for sicily

    • Second punic war: fighting to the death 

    • Third punic war: carthago delenda est. 

    
    

    Indian Empires

    Mauryan Empire

    • Influenced by greece and persia bc alexander the great conquered them (?)

    • State operated most industries

    • Ashoka - enlightened ruler

    • Ruled with religious backing and morals 

    Gupta Empire

    • Strong belief in Caste 

    • Strong cultural resurgence 

    • Strong economy - trade throughout the empire 

    
    

    African 

    Meroe

    • Civilization south of egypt 

    • Seemingly more egalitarian 

    • Extensive trading networks 

    • Ironworks 

    Axum 

    • Embraced christianity when rome does 

    • Imperialist

    • Wants to expand trade networks 

    • Declines during the rise of islam 

    Niger River Civilizations

    • Little coercive government 

    • Highly specialized economy 

    • Semi-caste society based on profession

    • Lots of trade within the Niger River valley civilizations 

    
    

    Pluralism in Society

    • Pluralism: variety of power centers in society 

    • Power divided in western europe far more than in other areas 

      • Divided power between kings, aristocrats, and the church 

    • Cities held extensive power both independently and within their kingdoms 

    
    

    The Nestorian Church

    • Church of the east 

    • Spread all throughout eurasia - independent of rome and constantinople

    • Overtime lost influence due to pressures to convert 

    • In china w influence from buddhism but dies off with tang and song 

    Egyptian Christianity

    • Conquered from byzantines 

    • Strong incentive to convert to islam along coast and in cities 

    • Coptic christianity furhter south 

    • Outside forces led to cracking odwn on christianity 

    East African Christianity

    Nubian 

    • Simialr to egyptian 

    Ethiopian

    • Strong ties to judaism and jerusalem 

    • Built tons of chruches to keep the traditon alive so separate from the rest of christendom 

    
    

    Ming Dynasty China

    • Dynasty after the yuan 

      • Return to more orthodox chinese customs 

    • Emperor Yongle 

      • Encyclopedia - trying to compile all knowledge - specific focus on confucian values 

      • Built beijing - forbidden city

    • Return to chinese values

      • Civil service exam - its back! 

      • Government eunuchs - bureaucrats who were exclusively loyal to emperor 

      • Rebuilding china after mongol neglect 

    • Zhenghe - muslim eunuchs traveling 

    
    

    The worlds of islam: Ottomans 

    • Turkish steppe tribes invaded anatolia - eastern byzantine empire 

      • Nearly 300 yr conflict between byzantines and seljuk turks - lead to ottomans 

    • Ottomans establish a kingdom in eastern anatolia 

      • Cross into europe around 1350 - surrounding byzantines 

      • Control much of the end points of the silk road 

      • Establishes themselves as the elacers of the muslim world

        • The sultan takes on teh title of caliph as well 

        • Rules many arabian people 

    • Ottomans invade europe, need to deal with christian populations

      • Janissary - christian slave soldiers - First standing army

      • Devshirme - the gathering of christian boys 

      • Conquer constantinople - begin invading much of sourhtern europe 

      • Religious freedom to the christians, Jizya exists still 

    The worlds of islam: Safavids

    • Persia following the fall of the timurids

      • Founded by sufi orders 

    • Embraced Shia Islam

      • Most of the rest of the muslim world was/is sunni

      • Conflict between ottomans and safavids 

      • Embraces turkish language and continues distinctive persian/iranian culture 

    The worlds of islam: Songhai

    • West african kingdom set up in the 1400s 

    • New sand road kingdom

    • Heavily islamic for the ruling class

    • Regular ppl didnt convert

    • Timbuktu center for muslim learning, lots of trading connections 

    • Conquered many nations over course of roughly 200 yrs 

    • Gold 

    The worlds of islam: Mughals

    • Muslim turkish people invade northern india

      • Mughal = persian term for mongols 

      • Unifying most of india under one state creates incredible wealth and spelndor 

    • India remains 75% hindu during mughals 

      • Muslim leaders attempt to blend together muslim and hindu beliefs to form a cohesive government 

    Qing China

    • Ming was struggling with: general crisis, little ice age, inflation, peasant rebellions, manchu invasions

    • Pastoral-ish manchu people of manchuria invade northern china and claim mandate of heaven 

    • Manchu use massive resources of china + steppe warfare to conquer mcu hof central asia 

    • Qing expansion

      • Established court of colonia affairs to manage new conquests - mongolia 

      • Used local officials 

      • No massive chinese settlement in these new areas - respect for native peoples 

    • Revival of silk road

      • Russia + qing china conquer administer the entirety of the silk road = nomads are not free to be merchants or raid anymore