AMSCO AP World History Unit 1
UNIT I: THE GLOBAL TAPESTRY FROM C. 1200 TO C. 1450
Understand the Context
Between 1200 and 1450, large empires emerged worldwide.
Some were modified revivals of earlier empires.
Others were new developments shaped by regional trade since around 600.
The Revival of Large Empires
Song Dynasty in China: Wealthiest and most innovative empire.
Mesoamerica: Aztec rise influenced by earlier Mayan Empire.
Baghdad and Spain: Centers of intellectual achievement in the Islamic world.
Africa and Southeast Asia: Growth of regional trade led to larger, more complex states.
West Africa: Trade across the Sahara resulted in empires of Ghana and Mali.
Indian Ocean: Trade provided the context for large states in Zimbabwe (East Africa) and various states in India and Southeast Asia.
Unity in Central Eurasia
Mongol Emergence: Nomads from Central Asia conquered lands from central Europe to the Pacific Ocean.
Created the largest land empire in human history.
Conquest caused devastation, but the unity allowed trade to flourish.
Spread new ideas and technology across Eurasia.
Set the stage for intensifying global interactions after 1450.
Timeline of Events
1192: Japan installs a shogun.
1206: The Delhi Sultanate takes power in India.
1215: King John of England signs the Magna Carta.
1258: Mongols conquer the Abbasid Empire.
1279: China’s Song Dynasty falls.
1321: Dante, a leader in the European Renaissance, dies.
1324: Mansa Musa of Mali makes his pilgrimage to Mecca.
1325: Aztecs found Tenochtitlán.
Topics and Learning Objectives
Topic 1.1: Developments in East Asia (pages 3–14)
A: Explain the systems of government employed by Chinese dynasties and how they developed over time.
B: Explain the effects of Chinese cultural traditions on East Asia over time.
C: Explain the effects of innovation on the Chinese economy over time.
Topic 1.2: Developments in Dar al-Islam (pages 15–22)
D: Explain how systems of belief and their practices affected society in the period from c. 1200 to c. 1450.
E: Explain the causes and effects of the rise of Islamic states over time.
F: Explain the effects of intellectual innovation in Dar al-Islam.
Topic 1.3: Developments in South and Southeast Asia (pages 23–32)
G: Explain how the various belief systems and practices of South and Southeast Asia affected society over time.
H: Explain how and why various states of South and Southeast Asia developed and maintained power over time.
Topic 1.4: Developments in the Americas (pages 33–42)
I: Explain how and why states in the Americas developed and changed over time.
Topic 1.5: Developments in Africa (pages 43–52)
J: Explain how and why states in Africa developed and changed over time.
Topic 1.6: Developments in Europe (pages 53–64)
K: Explain how the beliefs and practices of the predominant religions in Europe affected European society.
L: Explain the causes and consequences of political decentralization in Europe from c. 1200 to c. 1450.
M: Explain the effects of agriculture on social organization in Europe from c. 1200 to c. 1450.
Topic 1.7: Comparison in the Period from c. 1200 to c. 1450 (pages 65–68)
N: Explain the similarities and differences in the processes of state formation from c. 1200 to c. 1450.
DEVELOPMENTS IN EAST ASIA
Essential Question:
How did developments in China and the rest of East Asia between c. 1200 and c. 1450 reflect continuity, innovation, and diversity?
The Song Dynasty in China (960-1279)
Leading example of diversity and innovation in Afro-Eurasia and the Americas during the 13th century.
Enjoyed great wealth, political stability, and fine artistic and intellectual achievements.
Neo-Confucian teachings supported the government and shaped social classes and the family system.
Developed the greatest manufacturing capability in the world.
Spread of Confucianism and Buddhism.
Government Developments in the Song Dynasty
Replaced the Tang in 960 and ruled for over three centuries.
Lost control of northern lands to invading pastoralists from Manchuria, who set up the Jin Empire.
Ruled a smaller region than the Tang, but their reign was prosperous and the arts flourished.
Bureaucracy
China’s strength resulted from its imperial bureaucracy, a vast organization where appointed officials carried out the empire’s policies.
The bureaucracy had been a feature of Chinese government since the Qin Dynasty (221 B.C.E.–207 B.C.E.).
Represented a continuity across centuries and dynasties; it expanded under the Song.
Early in the dynasty, this strengthened the dynasty.
Meritocracy and the Civil Service Exam
Emperor Song Taizu expanded educational opportunities to young men of the lower economic classes to score well on civil service exams.
Scoring well allowed a young man to obtain a highly desired job in the bureaucracy.
These exams were based on knowledge of Confucian texts.
Positions were obtained by demonstrating merit on these exams, and China’s bureaucratic system was known as a meritocracy.
The poor were underrepresented in the bureaucracy, but the Chinese system allowed for more upward mobility than any other hiring system of its time.
By the end of the Song, the bureaucracy had grown so large that it contributed to the empire’s weakness as it increased government costs and dried up China’s surplus wealth.
Economic Developments in Postclassical China
The Tang Dynasty promoted agricultural development, improved roads and canals, encouraged foreign trade, and spread technology.
These accomplishments led to rapid prosperity and population growth during the Song Dynasty.
The Grand Canal
An inexpensive and efficient internal waterway transportation system that extended over 30,000 miles.
Expanding the canal enabled China, under the Song Dynasty, to become the most populous trading area in the world.
Gunpowder
Invented in China in previous dynasties, but innovators in the Song Dynasty made the first guns.
Over centuries, the technology of making gunpowder and guns spread from China to all parts of Eurasia via traders on the Silk Roads.
Agricultural Productivity
Sometime before the 11th century, Champa rice, a fast-ripening and drought-resistant strain of rice from the Champa kingdom in present-day Vietnam, greatly expanded agricultural production in China.
This rice and other strains developed through experimentation allowed farming to spread to lands where once rice could not grow.
In some areas, it also allowed farmers to grow two crops of rice per year, a summer crop and a winter crop.
Chinese farmers put manure (both human and animal) on the fields to enrich the soil.
They built elaborate irrigation systems using ditches, water wheels, pumps, and terraces to increase productivity.
New heavy plows pulled by water buffalo or oxen allowed previously unusable land to be cultivated.
The combination of these changes in agriculture produced an abundance of food, and China’s population grew quickly.
In the three centuries of Song Dynasty rule, China’s population increased from around 25 percent of the total world population to nearly 40 percent.
Manufacturing and Trade
Industrial production soared, as did China’s population.
China’s discovery of “black earth” (coal) in the 4th century B.C.E. enabled it to produce greater amounts of cast iron goods.
China had the greatest manufacturing capability in the world.
The Chinese later learned how to take the carbon out of cast iron and began to manufacture steel.
They used steel to make or reinforce bridges, gates, and ship anchors.
They also used steel to make religious items, such as pagodas and Buddhist figurines.
Steel also strengthened the agricultural equipment, contributing to the abundance of food production as well.
Under the Song (and earlier than in Western Europe) China experienced proto-industrialization, a set of economic changes in which people in rural areas made more goods than they could sell.
Proto-industrialization relied more on home-based or community-based production using simple equipment.
Artisans produced steel and other products in widely dispersed smelting facilities under the supervision of the imperial government.
Artisans also manufactured porcelain and silk that reached consumers through expanding trade networks, especially by sea.
Porcelain was highly desired because it was light-weight yet strong.
The Chinese used the compass in maritime navigation, and they redesigned their ships to carry more cargo.
China’s ability to print paper navigation charts made seafaring possible in open waters, out of sight of land, and sailors became less reliant on the sky for direction.
China became the world’s most commercialized society.
Its economy changed from local consumption to market production, with porcelains, textiles, and tea as the chief exports.
The Grand Canal supported a vibrant internal trade while advances in naval technology allowed China to control trade in the South China Sea.
The military power of the Tang and Song enabled them to protect traders from bandits.
Taxes
The Song promoted the growth of a commercial economy by changing how they built public projects, such as roads and irrigation canals.
Instead of requiring that people labor on these projects, the government paid people to work on them, which increased the amount of money in circulation.
Tributes
Another source of income for the government came from the tributary system, an arrangement in which other states had to pay money or provide goods to honor the Chinese emperor.
This system cemented China’s economic and political power over several foreign countries, but it also created stability and stimulated trade for all parties involved.
The origins of the system existed in the Han Dynasty.
By the time of the Song Dynasty, Japan, Korea, and kingdoms throughout Southeast Asia were tributary states.
The emperor expected representatives from tributary states to demonstrate their respect by performing a kowtow, a ritual in which anyone greeting the Chinese emperor must bow his or her head until it reached the floor.
The Chinese sent out tremendous fleets led by Zheng He to demonstrate the power of the emperor and to receive tribute.
Social Structures in China
Through most of Chinese history, the majority of people lived in rural areas.
At the height of the Song Dynasty, China was the most urbanized land in the world, boasting several cities containing more than 100,000 people.
The largest cities, Chang’an (an ancient capital), Hangzhou (at the southern end of the Grand Canal), and the port city of Guangzhou were cosmopolitan metropolises, active centers of commerce with many entertainment options to offer.
China’s Class Structure
The bureaucratic expansion created an entirely new social class, the scholar gentry.
They soon outnumbered the aristocracy, which was comprised of landowners who inherited their wealth.
The scholar gentry were educated in Confucian philosophy and became the most influential social class in China.
Three other classes ranked below the scholar gentry: farmers, artisans, and merchants.
The low status of merchants reflected Confucian respect for hard work and creating value.
Lower rungs of Chinese society included peasants who worked for wealthy landowners, often to pay off debts, and the urban poor.
The Song government provided aid to the poor and established public hospitals where people could receive free care.
Role of Women
Confucian traditions included both respect for women and the expectation that they would defer to men.
This patriarchal pattern strengthened during the Tang and Song dynasties.
One distinctive constraint on women’s activities in China was the practice of foot binding, which became common among aristocratic families during the Song Dynasty.
From a very young age, girls had their feet wrapped so tightly that the bones did not grow naturally.
A bound foot signified social status, and it restricted women’s ability to move and hence to participate in the public sphere.
Foot binding was finally banned in 1912.
Intellectual and Cultural Developments
During the Tang and Song eras, China enjoyed affluence, a well-educated populace, and extensive contact with foreign nations, and intellectual pursuits (technology, literature, and visual arts) thrived.
Paper and Printing
The Chinese had invented paper as early as the 2nd century C.E., and they developed a system of printing in the 7th century.
They were the first culture to use woodblock printing.
A Buddhist scripture produced in the 7th century is thought to be the world’s first woodblock printed work.
In the Song era, printed booklets on how to farm efficiently were distributed throughout rice-growing regions.
Reading and Poetry
The development of paper and printing expanded the availability of books.
Though most peasants were illiterate, China’s privileged classes had increased access to literature.
Confucian scholars not only consumed literature at a tremendous rate, but they were also the major producers of literature throughout the era.
The Tang and Song dynasties’ emphasis on schooling created generations of well-rounded scholar-bureaucrats.
Religious Diversity in China
Buddhism had come to China from its birthplace in India via the Silk Roads and was widespread during the Tang Dynasty.
The 7th-century Buddhist monk Xuanzang helped build Buddhism’s popularity in China.
Buddhism and Daoism
Three forms of Buddhism from India came to shape Asia, each developing a different emphasis:
Theravada Buddhism: Focused on personal spiritual growth through silent meditation and self-discipline and became strongest in Southeast Asia.
Mahayana Buddhism: Focused on spiritual growth for all beings and on service. It became strongest in China and Korea.
Tibetan Buddhism: Focused on chanting and became strongest in Tibet.
All three include a belief in the Four Noble Truths, which stress the idea that personal suffering can be alleviated by eliminating cravings or desires and by following Buddhist precepts.
All three also embrace the Eight-Fold Path, the precepts (including right speech, right livelihood, right effort, and right mindfulness) that can lead to enlightenment or nirvana.
Monks introduced Buddhism to the Chinese by relating its beliefs to Daoist principles.
Buddhist doctrines combined with elements of Daoist traditions to create the syncretic, or fused, faith Chan Buddhism, also known as Zen Buddhism.
Like Daoism, Zen Buddhism emphasized direct experience and meditation as opposed to formal learning based on studying scripture.
Because of its fusion with Chinese beliefs, Buddhism became very popular in China, and monasteries appeared in most major cities.
The presence of these monasteries became a problem for the Tang bureaucracy because they considered itself the “Middle Kingdom” and had trouble accepting that a foreign religion would have such prominence in society.
Buddhism’s popularity, which drew individuals away from China’s native religions, made Daoists and Confucians jealous.
Despite monasteries’ closures and land seizures, Chan Buddhism remained popular among ordinary Chinese citizens.
Buddhism and Neo-Confucianism
The Song Dynasty was somewhat more friendly towards Buddhism but preferred to emphasize China’s native traditions, such as Confucianism.
Buddhism had a strong presence, and many Confucians began to adopt its ideals into their daily lives.
The development of printing had made Buddhist scriptures widely available to the Confucian scholar gentry.
The Song Dynasty benefited from the Confucian idea of filial piety, the duty of family members to subordinate their desires to those of the male head of the family and to the ruler.
Neo-Confucianism evolved in China between 770 and 840. It was a syncretic system, combining rational thought with the more abstract ideas of Daoism and Buddhism.
This new incarnation of Confucianism emphasized ethics rather than the mysteries of God and nature.
It became immensely popular in the countries in China’s orbit, including Japan, Korea, and Vietnam.
Comparing Japan, Korea, and Vietnam
An important dynamic in the histories of Japan, Korea, and Vietnam was each country’s relationship with China; when China was unified, its political strength, economic wealth, religious traditions, intellectual advances, and technological innovations made it the world’s most powerful realm.
Its smaller neighbors benefited from being so close to China but faced a challenge of maintaining their own distinctive cultures.
Each had to confront the issue of sinification, or the assimilation of Chinese traditions and practices.
Japan
Since Japan was separated from China by a sea rather than land, it had more ability to control its interactions with China than Korea or Vietnam could.
The impact of Chinese culture appeared in many aspects of life:
Japan’s Prince Shotoku Taishi (574-622) promoted Buddhism and Confucianism along with Japan’s traditional Shinto religion.
During this era, Japan learned how to do woodblock printing from China.
During the Heian period (794-1185) Japan emulated Chinese traditions in politics, art, and literature.
Japanese writers also moved in new directions. For example, in the 11th century, a Japanese writer composed the world’s first novel, The Tale of Genji.
Feudalism
For hundreds of years, Japan had been a feudal society without a centralized government.
Landowning aristocrats, the daimyo, battled for control of land, while the majority of people worked as rice farmers.
Japanese feudalism was similar to European feudalism because both featured very little social mobility, and both systems were built upon hereditary hierarchies.
In Japan, peasants, known as serfs, were born into lives of economic dependency, while samurai were born into their roles as protectors and daimyo were born into lives of privilege.
In Europe, the three groups were serfs, knights, and nobles.
What distinguishes Japanese feudalism from that of Europe was that the daimyo enjoyed much more power than the nobility in Europe did.
The daimyo ruled over vast stretches of land and, in reality, were more powerful than either the emperor or the shogun.
By contrast, Europe’s hierarchy placed the monarch above the nobility, and though there were periods when authority of the monarch waned and power was distributed among nobility, the main centralized power structure of European feudalism would not change until the Modern Industrial Era.
In Europe, the ideal knight held to the code of chivalry, with duty to countrymen, duty to God, and duty to women, the last expressed through courtly love and the virtues of gentleness and graciousness.
In Japan, the code was known as bushido and stressed frugality, loyalty, the martial arts, and honor unto death.
Japan also differed from China in how it was governed.
China was ruled by an emperor who oversaw a large civilian bureaucracy and had a central government strong enough to promote trade and peace.
In contrast, when the Heian court declined, a powerful land-owning family, the Minamoto clan, took charge.
In 1192, the Minamoto installed a shogun, or military ruler, to reign, and though Japan still had an emperor, he had little power.
For the following four centuries, Japan suffered from regional rivalries among aristocrats, and not until the 17th century would shoguns create a strong central government that could unify the country.
Korea
Korea’s location gave it a very direct relationship with China; the countries shared a land boundary, and China extended both the north and south of Korea.
Similarity to China
Through its tributary relationship, Korea and China were in close contact, so Korea emulated many aspects of China’s politics and culture.
It centralized its government in the style of the Chinese, and Koreans adopted both Confucian and Buddhist beliefs.
The educated elite studied Confucian classics, while Buddhist doctrine attracted the peasant masses.
Koreans adopted the Chinese writing system, which proved to be very awkward because the Chinese and Korean languages remained structurally very different, so in the 15th century, Korea developed its own writing system.
Powerful Aristocracy
One important difference between Korea and China was that the landed aristocracy were more powerful in Korea than in China.
As a result, the Korean elite were able to prevent certain Chinese reforms from ever being implemented.
For example, though there was a Korean civil service examination, it was not open to peasants, so there was no truly merit-based system for entering the bureaucracy.
Vietnam
Like Japan and Korea, Vietnam traded with and learned from China; for example, Vietnam adapted the Chinese writing system and architectural styles.
However, Vietnam had a more adversarial relationship with China, and at times, the Vietnamese launched violent rebellions against Chinese influence.
Gender and Social Structure
Vietnamese culture differed from Chinese culture, which explains the strong resistance to Chinese power.
Vietnamese women enjoyed greater independence in their married lives than did Chinese women in the Confucian tradition.
While the Chinese lived in extended families, the Vietnamese preferred nuclear families (just a wife, husband, and their children), and Vietnamese villages operated independently of a national government, i.e., political centralization was nonexistent.
Although Vietnam adopted a merit-based bureaucracy of educated men, the Vietnamese system did not function like the Chinese scholar-bureaucracy because instead of loyalty to the emperor, scholar-officials in Vietnam owed more allegiance to the village peasants.
In fact, Vietnamese scholar-officials often led revolts against the government if they deemed it too oppressive, and Vietnamese women resented their inferior status under the Chinese.
In particularly, they rejected the customs of foot binding and polygyny, the practice of having more than one wife at the same time.
In spite of Vietnamese efforts to maintain the purity of their own culture, sinification did occur.
Military Conflict with China
As the Tang Dynasty began to crumble in the 8th century, Vietnamese rebels pushed out China’s occupying army.
In their battles against the Chinese, they showed a strong capacity for guerilla warfare, perhaps due to their deep knowledge of their own land.
Economics: China
Champa rice
Proto-industrialization
Artisans
Society: China
Scholar gentry
Filial piety
Environment: China
Grand Canal
Government: China
Song Dynasty
Imperial bureaucracy
Meritocracy
Technology: China
Woodblock printing
Culture: China
Foot binding
Buddhism
Theravada Buddhism
Mahayana Buddhism
Tibetan Buddhism
Syncretic
Chan (Zen) Buddhism
Neo-Confucianism
Government: Japan
Heian period
Culture: Vietnam
Nuclear families
Polygyny
MULTIPLE-CHOICE QUESTIONS
Questions 1 to 3 refer to the passage below.
“Hangzhou, China, has… ten principal markets. … They are all squares of half a mile to the side, and along their front passes the main street, which is… 40 paces in width, and runs straight from end to end of the city, crossing many bridges of easy and commodious (convenient) approach. … So also parallel to this great street, but at the back of the market places, there runs a very large canal, on the bank of which towards the squares are built great houses of stone, in which the merchants from India and other foreign parts store their wares, to be handy for the markets. In each of the squares is held a market three days in the week, frequented by 40,000 or 50,000 persons.” Marco Polo, The Travels of Marco Polo, c. 1300
Based on the passage, which of the statements concerning the trading city of Hangzhou is most accurate?
(A) Foreigners were not welcome in Chinese trading cities, because they were considered barbarians and had nothing of value to trade.
(B) Many of the people coming to trade in cities in China were Europeans traveling along the Silk Roads.
(C) Hangzhou was a vital trading city because it had foreign merchants and was also accessible by the Grand Canal for internal trade.
(D) Chinese imperial governments limited the number of markets in Hangzhou to just a few centrally-located areas of the city.
What development, which began before the passage above was written, allowed Europeans to obtain the products of East Asia?
(A) Chinese dynasties, such as the Tang and the Song, grew stronger, so long-distance trade could be conducted with less risk.
(B) New maritime technology allowed for ocean-going ships to travel safely between Europe and Asia, going around southern Africa.
(C) The Tang Dynasty expanded into the Middle East, so the trade routes between Europe and Africa were under one ruler.
(D) With the defeat of the Islamic caliphates, Europeans were able to establish direct contact with the Tang and the Song dynasties.
What products would Indians and other non-Chinese merchants be most likely to purchase in a market such as the one described in the passage?
(A) silk, porcelain, and tea
(B) pepper, nutmeg, and cinnamon
(C) cows, pigs, and oxen
(D) rugs, parchment, and horses
SHORT-ANSWER QUESTIONS
Use the passage below to answer all parts of the question that follows.
“The Moral Nature Being upright and modest, reserved and quiet, correct and dignified, sincere and honest: these constitute the moral nature of a woman. Being filial and respectful, humane and perspicacious (shrewd, wise), loving and warm, meek and gentle: these represent the complete development of the moral nature. The moral nature of being innate in our endowment, it becomes transformed and fulfilled through practice. It is not something that comes from the outside but is actually rooted in our very selves. Cultivation of the Self . . . Now if the self is not cultivated, then virtue will not be established. If one’s virtue is not established, rarely can one be an influence for good in the family how much less in the wider world. Therefore, the wife is one who follows her husband. The way of husband and wife is the principle of the strong and the weak. In the past, the reason why enlightened monarchs were careful about establishing marriage was that they valued the way of procreation and perpetuation. The rise and fall of the state is intimately linked to the prosperity or decline of the family.” Empress Xu, Instructions for the Inner Quarters, c. 1420
(A) Identify ONE way in which Xu’s argument was influenced by long- standing Asian cultural traditions.
(B) Explain ONE example of how cultures in Asia from 1200 1450 resisted the expectations for women as recommneded by Xu.
(C) Explain ONE historical situation from 1200 1450 in which states in Asia attempted to limit Chinese political power.
Answer all parts of the question that follows. (A) Identify ONE response by Chinese political leaders to the growing influence of Buddhism during the period of 1200 1450. (B) Describe ONE example of Chinese culture tradition that withstood the spread of Buddhism during the period 1200 1450. (C) Explain ONE example of how the spread of Buddhism influenced Confucianism during the period 1200 1450.
THINK AS A HISTORIAN: CONTEXTUALIZE HISTORICAL DEVELOPMENTS
To contextualize is to look at an event, development, or process in history within the situation, or context, in which it occurs. After you place events in context, you begin to see themes and patterns emerge in history. Historians use these themes and patterns to understand the interactions of laws, institutions, culture, events, and people.
For example, one way to understand the Song Dynasty’s success from 960 to 1279 is to place its political, social, and economic development in the context of what came before and after it. In the context of what came before, the imperial bureaucracy represents a political continuity, since the bureaucratic system had been in place in earlier dynasties as well. However, its modification under the Song to allow more upward mobility represents a change.
Similarly, considering the Song imperial bureaucracy in the economic context of what came after, you might gain insights into causation. That is, the cost of supporting the bureaucracy drained China of its wealth, which in turn helped create problems that led to the decline of the Song Dynasty. Contextualizing also promotes understanding of comparisons among different cultures and time periods.
Explain how the passage below provides context for the spread of Buddhism in China in light of other developments of the time.
In 629, a Chinese Buddhist monk named Xuanzang left China to go on a pilgrimage to India, the birthplace of Buddhism. He traveled west on the Silk Roads to Central Asia, then south and east to India, which he reached in 630. Along the way and in India he met many Buddhist monks and visited Buddhist shrines. In order to gain more insight into Buddhism, he studied for years in Buddhist monasteries and at Nalanda University in Bilar, India a famous center of Buddhist knowledge. After 17 years away, Xuanzang finally returned to China, where people greeted him as a celebrity. He brought back many Buddhist texts, which he spent the rest of his life translating into Chinese. These writings were highly instrumental in the growth of Buddhist scholarship in China.
REFLECT ON THE TOPIC ESSENTIAL QUESTION
In one to three paragraphs, explain how developments in China and other parts of East Asia between c. 1200 and c. 1450 reflect continuity, innovation, and diversity.
DEVELOPMENTS IN DAR AL-ISLAM
Essential Question:
In the period from c. 1200 to c. 1450, how did Islamic states arise, and how did major religious systems shape society?
After the death of Muhammad in 632, Islam spread rapidly outward from Arabia through military actions and the activities of merchants and missionaries.
Islam’s reach extended from India to Spain.
Islamic leaders showed tolerance to Christians, Jews, and others who believed in a single god and did good works.
Under the Abbasid Empire, scholars traveled from far away to Baghdad to study at a renowned center of learning known as the House of Wisdom.
The Islamic community helped transfer knowledge throughout Afro-Eurasia.
When the Abbasids declined, they were replaced by other Islamic states.
Invasions and Shifts in Trade Routes
In the 1100s and 1200s, the Abbasid Empire confronted many challenges, including conflicts with nomadic groups in Central Asia and European invaders.
Egyptian Mamluks
Arabs often purchased enslaved people, or Mamluks, who were frequently ethnic Turks from Central Asia, to serve as soldiers and later as bureaucrats.
Mamluks had more opportunities for advancement than did most enslaved people.
In Egypt, Mamluks seized control of the government, establishing the Mamluk Sultanate (1250–1517) and prospered by facilitating trade in cotton and sugar between the Islamic world and Europe.
However, when the Portuguese and other Europeans developed new sea routes for trade, the Mamluks declined in power.
Seljuk Turks
Another challenge to the Abbasids came from the Central Asian Seljuk Turks, who were also Muslims.
Starting in the 11th century, they began conquering parts of the Middle East, eventually extending their power almost as far east as Western China.
The Seljuk leader called himself sultan, thereby reducing the role of the highest-ranking Abbasid from caliph to chief Sunni religious authority.
Crusaders
The Abbasids allowed Christians to travel easily to and from their holy sites in and around Jerusalem, but the Seljuk Turks limited this travel.
European Christians organized groups of soldiers, called Crusaders, to reopen access.
Mongols
The fourth group to attack the Abbasid Empire were among the most famous conquerors in history: the Mongols.
They conquered the remaining Abbasid Empire in 1258 and ended the Seljuk rule and continued to push westward but were stopped in Egypt by the Mamluks.
Economic Competition
Since the 8th century, the Abbasids had been an important link connecting Asia, Europe, and North Africa. Goods and ideas flowed from one region to another on trade routes controlled by the Abbasids, many of which went through Baghdad.
However, trade patterns slowly shifted to routes farther north, and as Baghdad lost its traditional place at the center of trade, it lost wealth and population.
It could not afford to keep its canals repaired, and farmers could not provide enough food for the urban population, and slowly, the infrastructure that had made Baghdad a great city fell into decay.
Cultural and Social Life
Over time, the Islamic world fragmented politically, and many of these new states adopted Abbasid practices but were distinct ethnically.
The Abbasid Caliphate was led by Arabs and Persians, but the later Islamic states were shaped by Turkic peoples who descended from people in Central Asia.
For example, the Mamluks in North Africa, the Seljuks in the Middle East, and the Delhi Sultanate in South Asia were all at least partially Turkic.
By the 16th century, three large Islamic states had their roots in Turkic cultures: the Ottoman Empire in Turkey, the Safavid Empire in Persia, and the Mughal Empire in India.
However, these Islamic states continued to form a cultural region, and trade spread new goods and fresh ideas.
The common use of shariah created similar legal systems, and great universities in Baghdad, Iraq; Córdoba, Spain; Cairo, Egypt; and Bukhara in Central Asia created centers for sharing intellectual innovations.
Cultural Continuities
Islamic scholars followed the advice of the prophet Muhammad: “Go in quest of knowledge even unto China.”
They translated Greek literary classics into Arabic, saving the works of Aristotle and other