Chapter 2 Notes: Ways of the World
The Worlds of East Asia: China and Its Neighbors
Connecting question: What accounts for China’s political and economic vitality in this era? What impact did China have on its neighbors?
Around 1200, East Asia featured a dynamic core in China with neighboring states drawing on Chinese cultural elements while remaining distinct civilizations.
Core features of East Asia after 1200:
An enormously powerful Chinese heartland with long-standing political stability, cultural flowering, and technological innovation.
Korea, Japan, and Vietnam each absorbed major elements of Chinese culture and institutions but created distinctive civilizations of their own.
Proximity to China fostered tributary relations, cultural borrowings, and political-administrative models, yet none were fully incorporated into the Chinese state.
China before the Mongol takeover (Song dynasty, 960–1279):
Song China built a sophisticated bureaucratic state and revived the examination system (Han origin) to staff it, supported by advances in printing (woodblock and movable type).
A large, urbanized, industrializing society, with Hangzhou (capital) housing over 1,000,000 people, and dozens of other cities with populations above 100,000.
Economic revolution: population growth from roughly 50{,}000{,}000–60{,}000{,}000 in earlier centuries to ~120{,}000{,}000 by 1200; Champa rice from Vietnam enabled fast-ripening, drought-resistant production.
Commercialization and market orientation expanded: credit instruments, cash taxes, and a shift toward a market-oriented economy.
Large-scale industrial production in metallurgy (e.g., armor, arrowheads) funded by coal, which also powered heating and cooking and contributed to air pollution.
Innovations across fields: printing, gunpowder, shipbuilding, navigational technology, and a vast internal waterway network (~30{,}000 miles) and a Grand Canal (>1{,}000 miles).
Commercial agriculture and urban specialization: peasants grew crops for sale; peasants exchanged goods for staples via a market economy.
Paper money and financial instruments (letters of credit, promissory notes) fueled commerce.
Cultural achievements: Confucian philosophy debates; major poetry, landscape painting, ceramics; a robust education system that allowed social mobility for those who could gain access to exams, albeit privileging upper-class families; village-sponsored students could reach officialdom.
The Song economy and society had limits for women:
Patriarchal norms intensified as commerce grew; elite men pursued literacy and refined arts; women faced tightening constraints in textile work and public life.
Foot binding emerged in the tenth–eleventh centuries among dancers and courtesans and became widespread after the Song dynasty, signaling beauty ideals of small feet and domesticity and reinforcing women’s confinement to the inner quarters.
Yet some positive shifts for women persisted: property rights expanded, dowries and inheritance could pass through women, and some officials urged women’s education to raise sons and family fortune.
Korea and Japan: neighbors shaped by China, yet autonomous in development
Korea:
Maintained political independence in the face of Chinese influence, entering tributary relations with kowtow rituals.
Confucian cultural influence deepened, reinforcing patriarchal norms; the Korean elite adopted Chinese family ideals and gender roles, often restricting elite women more than in China.
By 1100, Korea’s peasants and slaves remained largely unaffected by Chinese bureaucratic recruitment, and a Han-style examination system never assumed the Chinese prominence.
Hangul: mid-1400s phonetic alphabet development allowed broader literacy, especially among women, and private correspondence.
Japan:
Voluntary borrowing rather than conquest; selective adaptation after an initial unification (seventh–ninth centuries) into a centralized bureaucratic state modeled on China.
Chinese Buddhism, writing, and poetry deeply influenced elite culture; later, borrowing became selective and local traditions reasserted themselves.
By the tenth century, formal tribute missions to China ceased; private travel and Buddhist exchange continued.
Distinctive features: a court-centered aristocracy with refined culture; the Tale of Genji (circa 1000) provides a window into court life and female influence within a decaying but influential aristocracy.
The Japanese did not develop a centralized bureaucratic state on the Chinese model; instead, power gradually decentralized, allowing the samurai class and bushido to shape political culture.
The Worlds of Southeast Asia
Southeast Asia is divided into Mainland (Vietnam, Cambodia, Laos, Thailand, Myanmar) and Maritime (Philippines, Indonesia, New Guinea).
Shared feature: integration into the Indian Ocean trading network; Buddhism, Hinduism, and Islam spread through commerce and cultural contact.
Vietnam: strong Chinese influence but with notable differences
Elite culture borrowed Confucianism and administrative practices; Vietnamese rulers adopted the Mandate of Heaven and wore imperial-style ritualities, though they preserved a distinct language and social practices.
A Chinese-style examination system existed in Vietnam, undermining aristocratic privilege and enabling some social mobility, yet Vietnamese popular culture retained autonomy (cockfighting, betel-nut chewing).
Vietnam’s women enjoyed comparatively higher social standing than in some Chinese contexts; greater social mobility for certain groups persisted, and local customs allowed women some choices in marriage.
The chu nom script emerged, enabling a national literature and literacy for educated women.
Mainland and maritime Southeast Asia: religious and political centers emerged with Indian influence at different depths
Srivijaya (670–1025): a Malay kingdom controlling straits and trade routes around Sumatra and the Malay Peninsula; wealth drawn from gold, spices (cloves, nutmeg, mace), and taxing passing ships.
Rulers used Indian advisors and Sanskrit titles; Buddhist influence, magical/power-based political legitimation; Palembang as a cosmopolitan capital.
Java states (e.g., Majapahit) fused Hindu-Buddhist beliefs into a Javanese political culture and oversaw large regional influence in the 14th century.
The Worlds of Islam: Fragmented and Expanding
The Islamic Heartland: from a vast expansion to political fragmentation
By 1200, the Abbasid caliphate had weakened; local governors and military commanders asserted autonomy while still acknowledging the caliphate.
Turkic-speaking groups entered as slave soldiers around 1000; many converted to Islam and gained political power, shaping the Seljuk Empire and later sultanates.
The Mongols invaded in the thirteenth century, ending the Abbasid caliphate in 1258 and ruling portions of Persia for a time.
The Ottoman Empire emerged as a major political force in Anatolia and beyond, culminating in a vast medieval-and-post-medieval empire by the sixteenth century.
The Safavid dynasty in Persia, along with the Ottomans, provided political coherence, military power, and cultural brilliance in the Islamic world from the sixteenth century onward.
The peripheries: India and Spain
India: Turkic-speaking conquests from around 1000 and the Delhi Sultanate (established 1206) introduced Islam into northern India; Sufis played a critical role in conversion, offering egalitarian appeal and spiritual guidance.
It never converted more than roughly 20–25% of the population; Muslims tended to live in the Punjab, Sind, and Bengal, with Hindu-dominated south maintaining strong cultural continuity.
Vijayanagar (1336–1646) in southern India resisted northern invasions and fostered Hindu–Muslim encounters; Muslim merchants operated in ports and often formed communities within Hindu states.
Spain (al-Andalus): Islamic Spain emerged as a vibrant, cosmopolitan region by the 900s in which Muslims, Christians, and Jews mingled culturally; Córdoba was a leading metropolis with advanced agriculture and culture.
By 1000, many locals converted to Islam; convivencia persisted but eventually eroded, and Christian reconquest intensified after 1200, culminating in Granada’s fall in 1492 and subsequent expulsions (Muslims and Jews) in the 16th century.
The most lasting impact: Islamic Spain became a conduit for Islamic and Greek knowledge into Christian Europe, fueling the European Renaissance.
Africa’s coast and interior: Islam crosses the Sahara and shapes urban civilizations
Swahili civilization (East Africa): city-states along the coast (e.g., Lamu, Mombasa, Kilwa, Sofala) grew wealthy through Indian Ocean trade; Islam spread through merchants and diasporas; Arabic script and Swahili speech integrated local and foreign influences; Ibn Battuta noted cosmopolitan, Muslim societies with African-speaking populations.
West African civilizations: Ghana (ca. 700–1200), Mali (ca. 1230–1500), Songhai (1430–1591), Kanem-Bornu (late 16th c.); Hausa city-states (Kano, Katsina) acted as middlemen in trans-Saharan trade; cities such as Timbuktu emerged as centers of learning and commerce.
Slavery existed in West Africa with varied roles; the trans-Saharan slave trade (1100–1400) moved thousands yearly to North Africa.
Islam linked these regions to broader Afro-Eurasian networks; gender roles varied, with elite male rulers and female and commoner participation in agricultural, artisanal, and market activities.
The Worlds of Christendom: The Christian World in 1200–1450
The Eastern Orthodox World: Byzantium’s decline and Rus’s rise
Byzantium persisted as a Greek-speaking Christian state with Greco-Roman institutions, Orthodox church, and imperial bureaucratic traditions; its territorial reach declined due to Arab conquests and later Turks.
By 1200 the Byzantine state was weakened, and Constantinople fell to the Ottoman Turks in 1453, ending the Byzantine Empire.
The heritage persisted in Rus (Kievan Rus): Kiev as a political center; Prince Vladimir’s 988 conversion to Eastern Orthodoxy linked Rus to Byzantium, promoting a shared Orthodox identity and Cyrillic script, icons, monasticism, and imperial church-state fusion.
The Roman Catholic World: Western Europe’s fragmentation and ascent
Western Europe remained politically divided by geography and local powers: strong monarchies emerged only gradually; city-states and principalities shaped regional politics (Italy, the German lands within the Holy Roman Empire).
The Catholic Church became a dominant, wealthy, and influential organization, linking rulers and elites; church wealth funded education, charity, and political maneuvering, and monastic and clerical networks extended power.
The church and rulers often competed but also reinforced one another; papacy offered legitimacy and a shared spiritual framework across kingdoms.
The West: Europe’s High Middle Ages and the Renaissance
Between 1000 and 1300, Europe experienced population growth (roughly from 35{,}000{,}000 to 80{,}000{,}000), urban growth, and significant socio-economic transformation.
Feudal structures gradually gave way to more centralized monarchies and corporate-style urban governance; representative bodies such as parliaments began to appear (especially in Spain, Portugal, France, England) forming an early framework for constitutional developments.
Militant yet entrepreneurial society: warfare stimulated military skill, state-building, and the professionalization of armies; these processes helped European states borrow and adapt technologies from Asia and the Islamic world.
Economic and technological transformations:
Agricultural innovations: heavy-wheeled plows, horses instead of oxen, improved collars; three-field rotation increased arable land use.
New energy sources: water mills, windmills, cranks, flywheels, gears—expanding production in many industries.
Long-distance trade expanded; major urban centers: London (~40{,}000), Paris (~80{,}000), Venice (~150{,}000) by late medieval period; Constantinople and Córdoba remained large cities in earlier eras.
Intellectual life and science: Universities emerged (Paris, Bologna, Oxford, Cambridge, Salamanca); a new wave of translations from Greek and Arabic into Latin broadened access to ancient and Islamic knowledge; rational inquiry began to inform theology and law; Adelard of Bath and others championed rational learning over blind trust in authority.
The Renaissance (c. 1350–1500): a rebirth of interest in classical antiquity; Italian city-states as epicenters of cultural and artistic innovation; a shift toward secularism in art and thought and a rise of private wealth and capitalism; humanist emphasis stressed human potential and classical antiquity.
The Americas: Civilizations in Mesoamerica and the Andes (1200–1450)
Geographic context: two major centers—Mesoamerica (central Mexico to northern Central America) and the Andes—developed largely independently, with diverse microclimates and ecological zones.
The Emergence of the Aztecs in Mesoamerica
The Mexica built Tenochtitlán and, through alliances (Triple Alliance, formed 1428), expanded rapidly to dominate much of central Mexico.
Economy driven by a tribute system; conquered peoples supplied textiles, clothing, military supplies, food, metals, building materials, and other goods to the central state.
Tenochtitlán was a major urban center (population estimates of 150,000–200,000) with complex infrastructure (canals, dikes, bridges) and large ceremonial centers; chinampas enabled intensive agriculture on lake margins.
Sacrifice and religion were central: human sacrifice linked to political power, cosmic order, and military expansion; Tlacaelel played a pivotal role in shaping state ideology that underscored sacrifice.
The Emergence of the Incas in the Andes
The Inca Empire (1438–1533) stretched along the spine of the Andes, with a population potentially around 10{,}000{,}000 at its height.
Highly centralized and bureaucratic: the emperor (the Sapa Inca) claimed divine status; ~80 provinces governed by Inca governors; the state owned land and resources (lands of the sun) while allowing some private or temple-held property.
Administrative innovations: quipus (knotted cords) for accounting; forced resettlement (mitmaqkuna) to disperse populations and reward loyalty; sons of local elites sent to Cuzco for cultural assimilation; mandatory religious alignment with major Inca deities while allowing local practices.
Labor tax (mit’a): households contributed labor service to the state; some produced for state farms or “sun farms” sustaining temples; skilled labor produced textiles, metalwork, ceramics, and stonework; the “chosen women” (suyus) trained in Inca ideology and sometimes taken as wives or priestesses.
State authority penetrated society more deeply than in the Aztec model; the social system emphasized redistribution through feast and state-provided sustenance in times of disaster.
Gender parallelism: both Inca and Aztec civilizations displayed parallel gender orders; Inca men worshiped the sun while women revered the moon; local religious officials mirrored this balance; both states integrated women into leadership roles in various contexts, though public political power was generally male-dominated.
Defining civilization: complexities and cautions
By 1200, most of the world’s population lived within civilizations, which shared features like cities, states, social inequality, patriarchy, and writing, yet differed in origins, scale, and institutions.
Civilizations varied in geographic footprint: some (China, India, Byzantium) had long historical trajectories; others (Japan, Korea, Southeast Asia, East and West Africa, Russia, Western Europe) emerged later or left smaller footprints.
The Aztec and Inca in the Americas built on earlier regional precursors yet represented distinctive, large-scale state systems in the fifteenth century.
Political forms ranged from vast automated empires to clusters of city-states; some civilizations were tightly centralized (Inca, Ottoman, Mali) while others were decentralized and fragmented (Swahili city-states, Western Europe).
The term civilization is debated: it implies a hierarchy or clear boundaries that did not exist in practice; local identities (city, clan, village, region) often mattered more than broad civilizational labels. The authors acknowledge both the usefulness and the limitations of the term, advocating it as a descriptive concept rather than a value judgment.
Ethical and practical implications: civilizations generated remarkable achievements (arts, sciences, governance, writing) but also deep inequalities, coercive states, and gendered hierarchies.
Cross-cutting themes and connections to foundational principles
Trade and the growth of commercial networks linked diverse regions: Indian Ocean world; Silk Roads; trans-Saharan routes; maritime Southeast Asia; Swahili coast; Ming and Song-era mercantile expansion.
Cultural diffusion and adaptation: China’s cultural and political influence on Korea, Japan, and Vietnam; Islam’s widespread spread and its integration with local cultures in Africa, India, and Iberia; Hindu-Buddhist influence in Southeast Asia; Christian and Islamic exchanges in Iberia.
Technology and innovation as engines of change: gunpowder, printing, paper money, moveable type, the compass, sails, shipbuilding, agricultural innovations (Champa rice, three-field system, heavy plow), and energy innovations (water/wind mills, gears).
Gender and social structure: patriarchal restrictions intensified in Song China; foot binding as a symbol of social status and beauty; West African gender roles and parallel gender hierarchies in Aztec and Inca contexts; roles of Sufis and reform movements in stabilizing or transforming social orders.
Religion and politics: the church’s wealth and authority in Western Europe; Islam’s appeal across diverse populations through Sufism and egalitarian spirituality; the role of Buddhism in East Asia and Southeast Asia; the incorporation and resistance to Chinese, Indian, and native religious traditions in various regions.
The limits of political unity: Byzantium’s decline; the fragmentation of Islamic, European kingdoms; the rise of centralized empires (Ottomans, Mali, Inca) and the persistence of city-states (Swahili, Italian city-states) revealing varied pathways to political organization.
Notable people, places, and terms to know
Champa rice; Grand Canal; Hangzhou; Marco Polo’s impressions; foot binding; Hangul; tsuny (samurai and bushido); Srivijaya; Angkor Wat; Majapahit; Tlacaelel; quipus; mita; Wives of the Sun; chinampas; Timbuktu; Ibn Battuta; Kievan Rus; Cyril and icons; Danse Macabre of medieval Europe; Adelard of Bath; Sufis; Vijayanagar; Granada; Cordoba; Las Navas de Tolosa (contextual reference).