AP World History Unit 1 Review

Unit 1: Circa 1200-1450

  • This unit focuses on major civilizations worldwide and how they built and maintained their states.
  • State Definition: A territory politically organized under a single government (e.g., the US, Japan).

Song Dynasty in China

  • Time Period: During this period, the folks in charge called themselves the Song Dynasty (September to December).
    *Note: Exact dates are generally not required for the AP exam.

  • Main Question: How did the Song Dynasty maintain and justify its rule?

    • Confucianism:

      • The Song Dynasty emphasized Confucianism, which defined Chinese culture from its earliest days.
      • Neo-Confucianism: A revival of Confucianism from the Tang Dynasty, seeking to rid Confucian thought of Buddhist influence.
      • Core Idea: Society is hierarchical (prescribed orders).
        *Citizens submit to the state.
        *Women submit to men.
        *Juniors submit to elders.
        *Children submit to parents.
      • Filial Piety: Children obeying and honoring parents, grandparents, and ancestors.

    • Women's Place:

      • Women were relegated to a subordinate position.
      • Stripped of legal rights.
      • Endured social restrictions more than previous dynasties.
      • Property became her husband's property.
      • If widowed or divorced, she could not remarry.

    • Limited access to education.

    • Foot Binding: Young girls had their toes bent under their feet and bound with cloth until they broke, which meant could not walk easily or sometimes even at all. Was kind of a status symbol among the elites.

    • Imperial Bureaucracy:

      • A government entity arranged hierarchically that carries out the will of the emperor.
      • Expansion of the bureaucracy helped maintain rule.
      • Civil Service Examination:
        • Eligible men had to pass it, based on Confucian classics.
        • Jobs earned on merit.
        • Theoretically, open to all socioeconomic statuses, but in reality, favored the wealthy.

Influence on Neighboring Regions

  • Korea, Japan, and Vietnam were influenced by Chinese traditions.
    • Korea used a similar civil service examination.
    • Adopted Buddhism.

Buddhism in Song China

  • Originated in India and spread to China before the Song Dynasty.
    • Four Noble Truths:
      • Life is suffering.
      • Suffering is caused by craving.
      • Suffering ceases when craving ceases.
      • The fourth noble truth explains how to cease craving and that is to live a moral life according to the eightfold path.
    • Shared beliefs with Hinduism, like reincarnation.
    • Ultimate goal: dissolve into oneness (Nirvana).
    • Theravada Buddhism:
      • Confined practice to monks in monasteries.
      • Believed laypeople were too occupied with the world.
    • Mahayana Buddhism:
      • Encouraged broader participation.
      • Bodhisattvas (enlightened beings) helped others.

Song Economy

  • Inherited prosperity and population growth from Tang and Sui dynasties.
    • Population doubled between the eighth and tenth centuries.
    • Commercialization:
      *Manufacturers and artisans produced more goods than consumed and sold excess goods in markets.
      *Two significant goods traded were porcelain and silk.
    • Agricultural Innovations:
      • Champa Rice: Introduced from the Champa Kingdom. Matured early, resisted drought, and harvested multiple times a year.
      • Led to significant population growth.
    • Transportation Innovations:
      • Expansion of the Grand Canal facilitated trade and communication

Dar Al Islam (House of Islam)

  • Refers to places where Islamic faith was the organizing principle.

  • Other Major Religions:
    *Judaism
    *Christianity
    *Islam related to Judaism and Christianity. Prophet Muhammad claimed to be the final prophet.

  • Monotheistic: Believed in one god.

  • Abbasid Caliphate:
    *Dominant before December, centered in Baghdad.
    *Ethnically Arab.

  • Decline of Abbasids:
    *Power waned, rise of Turkic-led Islamic entities.

  • Seljuk Empire
    *Dominated by ethnic Turks, not Arabs.
    *Abbasids sought military help from Seljuks.
    *Seljuks established their own empire.
    *The Seljuk Empire didn't entirely displace the Abbasid Empire.
    *Mongols sacked Baghdad in December.
    *Dominance of Arab Muslim empires faded
    *Turkic Muslim empires rose up to replace them.
    *Practices from the former empire continued.
    *Military that administered the states.
    *Sharia law as the organizing principle of their legal systems.

  • Cultural and Scientific Innovations:

    • Nasir al-Din al-Tusi: Significant advances in mathematics and invented trigonometry.

    • Preservation of Greek philosophy through translation into Arabic (House of Wisdom in Baghdad).

    • Dar al-Islam and Song China were centers of scholarship and wealth.

  • Expansion of Muslim rule:

    • Military expansion (Seljuk, Mamluk, Delhi Sultanate).
    • Traveling Muslim merchants (North Africa, West Africa - Mali).
    • Sufi missionaries (mystical experience, adapted to local beliefs).

South and Southeast Asia

  • Focus on belief systems and state-building.
  • Religion:
    *Hinduism, Buddhism, and Islam.
    *Buddhism was reduced to monastic communities in Nepal and Tibet
    *Hinduism remained the most widespread religion in India.
    *Islam became the second most important and influential religion.
  • Bhakti Movement:
    *Devotion to one of the Hindu gods was emphasized.
    *Mounted some challenges to the social and gender hierarchies present in Hindu India.
    *Southeast Asia:
    *Mainly Buddhism and Islam.
  • State Building in South Asia:
    • Delhi Sultanate ruled much of Northern India with difficulty.
    • Rajput Kingdom: Maintained Hindu resistance against Muslim intrusion.
    • Vijayanagara Empire: Rose in the South as a counterpoint to Muslim rule.
    • Established because of a failed attempt by the Delhi sultanate to extend Muslim rule into the South
  • Southeast Asia:
    • Majapahit Kingdom:
      *Buddhist kingdom in Java controlling sea routes.
      *Maintained its influence not necessarily through naval power.
      *Began to decline when China started supporting its trading rival.
    • Khmer Empire:
      *Founded as a Hindu kingdom, leadership converted to Buddhism.
      *Angkor Wat built as Hindu temple with Buddhist elements added.

The Americas

  • Mesoamerica and the Andean civilization.
  • Mesoamerica: Aztec Empire
    *Capital city called Tenochtitlan was magnificent. It was the largest city in The Americas before the Europeans arrived.
    *Founded in 1345 by the Mexica people.
    *In 1428, the Aztecs entered an alliance with two other Mesoamerican states and established an empire.
    *Administered through tribute states (labor, goods, etc.).
    *Enslaved people used for human sacrifice.
  • Andean Civilization: Inca Empire
    *Founded in the early fourteen hundreds, stretched nearly across the entire Andean Mountain Range.
    *Incorporated older Andean societies.
    *More intrusive than Aztecs. Elaborate bureaucracy.
    *Mit'a system: required labor on state projects.
    *Mostly decentralized in how they ruled while the Inca were highly centralized.
  • Mississippian Culture:
    *First large scale civilization in North America.
    *Around the Mississippi River Valley.
    *Large towns dominated smaller settlements.
    *Known for monumental mounds (Cahokia).

Africa

  • East Africa: Swahili Civilization
    *Series of cities organized around commerce/trade along the East African coast.
    *Independent politically, shared social hierarchy.
    *Influenced by Muslim traders.
    *New language: Swahili (Bantu and Arabic hybrid).
    *States rapidly became Islamic.
  • West Africa:
    *Powerful, centralized civilizations (Ghana, Mali, Songhai).
    *Growth driven by trade; reason to become Muslim.
    *The elite converted to Islam and government officials in these empires, while the population held on to their indigenous beliefs and traditions.
    *Hausa kingdoms: city-states, brokers of Trans-Saharan trade.
  • Great Zimbabwe
    *Capital city was built sometime between December and 1450.
    *Economy expanded greatly through trade.
    *Economies expanded greatly through trade.
    *Never converted to Islam but rather maintained their indigenous shamanistic religion.
  • Kingdom of Ethiopia:
    *Grew and flourished because of trade, especially with other states around the Mediterranean and the Arabian Peninsula.
    *Massive honking feature that sets Ethiopia apart from many other African states their religion, namely Christianity.

Europe

  • Belief Systems:

    • Dominated by Christianity. Two flavors: Eastern Orthodox and Roman Catholicism.

    • Byzantine Empire: Eastern Orthodox Christianity.
      *The version of Christianity was called Eastern Orthodox Christianity.
      *Nearly declined. Kievan Rus emerged, united by Eastern Orthodox Christianity.

    • Western Europe: Roman Catholic Church.
      *Split into decentralized states after the fall of the Roman Empire.
      *Largely isolated from the larger world of trade, but Roman Catholicism linked every state together in the region culturally.
      *The church's hierarchy of popes and priests and bishops spread through Europe.

    • Muslims and Jews exerted influence; anti-Semitism was common.

  • State Organization and Power:
    *There were no large empires in Europe like there were in the rest of the world.

    • Political decentralization and fragmentation.
    • Feudalism: Powerful lords and kings gained allegiance from lesser lords and kings.
      *The vassals, which were the less powerful party, received land from their lords.
      *Received land from their lords, the more powerful party.
      *Did that in exchange for military service.
    • Manorialism: European society and economics were organized according to manorialism.
      *A manor is a huge piece of land owned by a lord which was then rented out to peasants who worked the land.
      *Peasants bound to the land; worked in exchange for protection.
    • Serfs: Working peasants, bound to the land (not personal property, but tied to the land).
      *Center of political and economic power in Europe during this time was in the hands of these land owning lords, which is to say, the nobility
    • Monarchs began to grow in power after 1000 CE, centralizing states.