POST%20CLASSICAL%20PERIOD%20600-1450

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POST CLASSICAL PERIOD 600-1450
Trade and Faith Define An Age
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• And thus does their Lord answer their prayer
  I shall not lose sight of the work of any of
  you who works (in My way) be it man or woman. You
  are members, one of another.
• Surah Al-I-Imran 3195
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• O Prophet, say to thy wives and daughters
• and the believing women, that they draw
• their veils close to them so it is likelier
• they will be known, and not hurt. - Surah 3359
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600-1450 Topics

• Break fall of classical empires
• Spread of great world religions
• Medieval world
• Growth of trade/interaction
• Renaissance

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The Bookends

• 600Great classical empires have fallen
• 632Coming of Islam
• 1000Trade increases both by land and sea.
• 1450Fall of Constantinople and decline of Silk
  Roads
• 1450Europe looks westward toward the Atlantic

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600-1450 Chapter Topics

• 6-8Islam and its spread
• 8Africa the spread of Islam
• 9Eastern Europe
• 10Medieval Europe
• 11Americas
• 12Chinese Renaissance
• 13Japan, Korea and Vietnam
• 14Mongols
• 15European Renaissance Exploration

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600-1450 Themes

• Questions of periodization
• Nature and causes of changes in the world history
  framework leading up to 600 C.E.1450 as a period
• Emergence of new empires and political systems
• (e.g., Umayyad, Abbasid, Byzantium, Russia,
  Sudanic states, Swahili Coast, Tang, Song, and
  Ming China, Delhi Sultanate, Mongol, Turkish,
  Aztec, Inca)
• Continuities and breaks within the period
• (e.g., the effects of the Mongols on
  international contacts and on specific societies)

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600-1450 Themes

• The Islamic world
• The rise and role of Dar al-Islam as a unifying
  cultural and economic force in Eurasia and
  Africa
• Islamic political structures, notably the
  caliphate
• Arts, sciences, and technologies

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600-1450 Themes

• Interregional networks and contacts
• Development and shifts in interregional trade,
  technology, and cultural exchange
• Trans-Sahara trade
• Indian Ocean trade
• Silk Roads
• Economic innovations
• e.g., Tang, Song, and early Ming China, Swahili
  Coast trade, economic systems in the Americas
• Missionary outreach of major religions
• Contacts between major religions, e.g., Islam and
  Buddhism, Christianity and Islam
• Impact of the Mongol empires

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600-1450 Themes

• Political systems and cultural patterns
• East Asia
• Chinas expansion
• Chinese influence on surrounding areas and its
  limits (Japan, Vietnam, and Korea)
• Change and continuities in Confucianism
• The Americas
• Apex and decline of the Maya
• Rise of the Aztec
• Rise of the Inca
• Restructuring of Europe
• Decentralizationmedieval society
• Division of Christianity
• Revival of cities
• Africa
• Sudanic empires (Mali, Ghana, Songhay)
• Swahili coast
• South Asia and Southeast Asia
• Delhi Sultanate
• Vietnam

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600-1450 Themes

• Demographic and environmental changes
• Impact of migrations on Afro-Eurasia and the
  Americas
• e.g., Aztecs, Mongols, Turks, Vikings, and Arabs
• Consequences of plague pandemics in the
  fourteenth century
• Growth and role of cities
• e.g., the expansion of urban commercial centers
  in Song China and administrative centers in
  Africa and the Americas

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600-1450 Themes

• Diverse interpretations
• What are the issues involved in using cultural
  areas rather than states as units of analysis?
• What are the sources of change nomadic
  migrations versus urban growth?
• Was there a world economic network in this
  period?
• Were there common patterns in the new
  opportunities available to and constraints
  placed on elite women in this period?
• To what extent was Dar al-Islam a unified
  cultural/political entity?

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600-1450 Major Comparisons and Analyses Examples

• Compare the role and function of cities in major
  societies
• Analyze gender systems and changes, such as the
  effects of Islam
• Analyze the interactions between Jews,
  Christians, and Muslims
• Compare developments in political and social
  institutions in both eastern and western Europe
• Compare Japanese and European feudalism
• Compare European and sub-Saharan African contacts
  with the Islamic world
• Analyze the Chinese civil service exam system and
  the rise of meritocracy

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Development of systematic interactions between
civilizations Trade Contacts

• 1000 dependable trade routes regular product
  exchange
• Silk Road benefited from big empires and peace.
• Islamic Caliphate
• Mongol empire
• Indian Ocean trade
• Trans-Saharan trade
• Mediterranean trade

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trade contacts continued

• Travel increases during this period
• Ibn Battuta and Marco Polo
• Americas way behind
• No disease contact
• No technological contact
• No animal exchange
• Did not use bronze or iron

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Technology Growth

• Maritime
• Compass (south pointing needle)
• Improved ship building technology (rudders,
  hulls, sails)
• Overland
• Camel saddle
• Stirrup
• Defense
• Short bow
• Gunpowder

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Movement of peoples

• Bantu peoples moved along Congo River and further
  south and east in Africa. (Evidence-Bantu
  languages)
• Vikings moved along rivers and oceans into Europe
  and even the new world. (Viking shipshorses of
  other nomads)
• Turks and Mongols moved southward and westward
  from the steps of Asia bringing bubonic plague to
  China and Europe.
• Polynesian migrations with canoes to the islands
  in the Pacific.

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Development of systematic interactions between
civilizations Spread of World Religions

• Buddhism, Christianity, Islam (most important in
  the numbers affected)
• Spread across cultural/political boundaries
  (missionaries, trade)
• Large numbers convert
• Syncretic conversion
• Accept new beliefs but keep some of their own
• Religious map of Eurasia set

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Spread of World Religions continued .

• Christianity spread in Europe and Eastern
  Mediterranean
• Unifying force during political fragmentation
• Buddhism spread in Asia
• Especially SE Asia where islands had a trade
  relationship with India
• Confucianism spread as Chinas influence grew in
  East and SE Asia
• Islam spread cultural and religious ideas as it
  expanded under Umayyad and Abbasid caliphates

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Why convert to new religions?

• Decline of classical empires
• More chaos, death rates increase
• China
• Buddhism created decline in secular thought
• Fervency of missionaries
• Governments used Christianity for power
• i.e., Vladimir in Russia became Christian

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Islam

• Rise of Arab Islam
• Becomes first world class superpower
• Before this best was probably India

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Religions That Were Not Global

• Hinduism
• Did not travel well outside of India
• Needed the Caste System
• Guptas favored Hinduism within India
• Daoism
• No missionary qualities
• Shintoism (Japan)
• No missionary qualities

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Spread of Civilization

• Spreads to other areas
• Number of definable civilizations increases
• Because of disunity of Mediterranean world

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7 Civilization Areas by 1450

• Expanded East Asia
• S. and S.E. Asia
• W. Asia (Middle East and N. Africa)
• Sub Saharan Africa
• Eastern Europe
• Western Europe
• Americas

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3 types of civilization

• Most developed
• Middle East, North Africa, India, Byzantine
  Empire
• Classical past to build on
• Most trade
• Centralized politically
• The developed world

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3 types of civilization

• Less developed
• Japan, Russia, W. Europe, E. Europe, Sub-Saharan
  Africa, S E Asia
• Some world trade less processed goods
• More decentralized politically
• Not as large bureaucracies
• Active, self-conscious imitators of developed
  civilizations
• Copied social and cultural things religion,
  alphabets, art

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less developed continued

• Copied technology and political structure
• Didnt do a good job of it
• What Western Europe copied from Islam
• Gothic arch was Islamic arch
• Law
• Science and math
• Role of reason

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Least developed

• Americas
• Not in contact with world or world religions
• Didnt matter until contact occurred
• Had their own achievements but not as good as
  first and second tier countries

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Women good and bad

• Good
• Spread of world religions Christianity/ Islam /
  Buddhism
• Men and women share spiritual equality
• Equality not a belief in Classical society
• Patriarchal society

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women continued

• Bad
• Politically and economically major
  deterioration in the life of women
• Veiling originally from Mesopotamia
• Sati wife on funeral pyre
• Footbinding (women as ornamental)

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What IS and ISNT in This Time

• Religion is in control
• Politics not as important
• Not many technological developments
• Population growth only in some regions

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Changes and Continuities

• Change Classic empires have fallen and new ones
  have been created.
• Change Migrations of nomadic peoples cause major
  international changes and diffusion of ideas and
  diseases
• Continuity Religion continues to be important
  and continues to spread.
• Continuity Trade routes continue to grow in
  importance
• Continuity Societies continue to be patriarchal

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POST CLASSICAL PERIOD 600-1450
Trade and Faith Define An Age