Mid-term Review 600-1450

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Mid-term Review 600-1450
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Definitions of Civilization

• Society with enough economic surplus to form
  divisions of labor and a social hierarchy
  involving significant inequalities
• The emergence of formal political organizations,
  or states, as opposed to dependence on family or
  tribal ties
• Society distinguished by reliance on sedentary
  agriculture, ability to produce food surpluses,
  and existence of non-farming elites, as well as
  merchant and manufacturing groups

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Civilizations

• People in civilizations looked down on any
  society lacking in civilization.
• The ancient Greeks coined the word barbarian to
  describe such cases.
• As a result of labels like this, it is easy to
  think of much human history as divided between
  civilizations and primitive nomads.

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Civilizations

• distinctions based on social class and wealth
  increased
• class or caste divisions, including slavery,
  emerged
• patriarchal structure emerged
• women found themselves in subordinate roles

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Consequences of the Development of Civilizations

• Civilizations increased human impact on
  environment.
• The first center of copper production in Europe,
  along the Danube valley, led to such
  deforestation that the fuel supply was destroyed
  and the industry collapsed after about 3000 B.C.E.

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The Four Initial Civilization Centers

• Civilizations developed in its four initial
  centersthe Middle East, Egypt, northwestern
  India, and northern China.

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The Four Initial Civilization Centers

• Civilizations developed in its four initial
  centersthe Middle East, Egypt, northwestern
  India, and northern China.

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RIVER VALLEY CIVILIZATIONS MESOPOTAMIA, EGYPT,
INDUS AND CHINA
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The Birth of Civilization

• 3000 5000 BCE civilized and settled agrarian
  settlements are found in Mesopotamia and the Nile
  River valley of Egypt.
• Which truly developed first is under debate.
• Mesopotamia probably was a bit before Egypt
• 3000 BCE
• First known written languages

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Mesopotamian Civilization

• 3000 BCE
• Settlement within the fertile crescent increases
• Contact with other cultures in the area
• Sumerian cities develop
• Concentrating in the southern regions of the
  alluvial plains of the Tigris and Euphrates
  Rivers
• Why?
• Most fertile soil

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Mesopotamian Civilization

• 2800 2370 BCE Sumerian kingdom building
• Dominant force in Mesopotamia
• Created cuneiform

• Started as pictograms
• Used to record daily life
• Creation of City-states
• Establishment of set codes of laws

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Mesopotamian Civilization

• Religion takes important role in life
• Deities are in human forms and represent some
  natural phenomenon
• No separation of Church and state
• Ziggurats religious centers

• Humans were subservient to the Gods
• Gods are hard to predict
• Art of Divination

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Epic of Gilgamesh

• The Epic of Gilgamesh recounts the adventures of
  Gilgamesh, king of the ancient Mesopotamian city
  of Uruk, in his quest for immortality.
• Composed about 2000 bce on clay tablets. One of
  the oldest literary works.
• The poem is probably Sumerian in origin but was
  absorbed and adapted by succeeding eastern
  Mediterranean civilizations.
• In the first prose passage, the goddess Ishtar
  tries to entice Gilgamesh to marry her
  Gilgameshs rejection enrages Ishtar and she
  seeks revenge.
• In the second passage, the sage Utnapishtim
  reveals that the gods once attempted to
  exterminate humankind with a great flood.

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Gilgamesh
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Mesopotamian Civilization

• Akkadians rise to dominance
• Semitic speaking people from upstream
• Kingdom centered at Akkad
• Near the site of the later city of Babylon
• 2,300 BCE Sargon conquers the Sumerians
• Establishes a 200 year empire
• External attack and internal weakness end the
  dynasty

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Mesopotamian Civilization

• Enter the Amorites 1900 BCE
• Established capital at Babylon
• Dynasty lasted for appx. 300 yrs.
• Slavery was common
• Hammurabi (1792-1750 BCE)
• Created most comprehensive and best preserved
  code of laws
• Possibly the first written fully codified laws

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Ancient Egypt

• Centered along the Nile River and its tributaries
• Nile River is 4,000 miles long flowing from
  Khartoum to the Mediterranean
• Flood cycle of the Nile helped shape ancient
  Egyptian life
• Protected by location
• Originally divided into two kingdoms
• Upper Egypt river valley
• Lower Egypt river delta

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Ancient Egypt

• Menes unified Upper and Lower Egypt in appx. 3000
  BCE, establishing the first Egyptian Dynasty
• Capital located at Memphis
• King or Pharaoh was considered divine
• Entire society was organized under the Pharaoh
  trade, labor, religion

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Ancient Egypt

• Old Kingdom (2700-2200 BCE)
• Adopted the pictograph from from the
  Mesopotamians
• Hieroglyphics
• Had intricate religious and afterlife detail
• Instituted magnificent burial practices to
  evidence the power of the Pharaoh

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Indus Valley civilization
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Indus Valley CivilizationDravidians (native
people)

• 2500-1500 BCE
• Settled Indus River valley
• Pakistan/Western India
• 3-season climate gave plentiful food
• Archeological digging complicated by ground water
• Language can not be deciphered
• Most writing on small seals (not animals)

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Indus Valley CivilizationDravidians

• Cities were well planned
• City laid out in grid
• City probably housed over 100,000 people
• Many smaller towns also in the area
• Oven-baked bricks (versus sun-dried of
  Mesopotamia)
• Sewer systems
• Great baths
• Unfortified
• Religion was polytheistic

The Great Bath of Mohenjo-Daro
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Mohenjo-Daro Structures
Street in Mohenjo-Daro
Well
The Great Bath
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ANCIENT CHINA

• Great Wall
• Began 2000 B.C.E.
• Mandate of Heaven
• Dynasties
• Silk
• astronomy

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Yellow River Civilization

• Ancient China was formed around the Yellow River.

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Chinese accomplishments

• During the Zhou and Shang periods, the Chinese
  made remarkable achievements in astronomy and
  bronzework, learned to make silk and create
  books, and developed a complex system of writing

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Chinese invented silk

• Silk was exotic and expensive, so it was good for
  trading with the rest of the world.
• It is made from silk worms.
• Silk also makes paper

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Silk worm
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Chinese astronomy

• 2137 BCE - Chinese book ?? records the earliest
  known solar eclipse on October 22.
• ca. 2000 BCE - Chinese determine that Jupiter
  needs 12 years to complete one revolution of its
  orbit.
• ca. 1400 BCE - Chinese record the regularity of
  solar and lunar eclipses and the earliest known
  solar variation??.
• ca. 1200 BCE - Chinese divide the sky into twenty
  eight regions ???? for recognitions of the stars.
  
• ca. 1100 BCE - Chinese first determine the spring
  equinox ????.
• 776 BCE - Chinese make the earliest reliably
  record of solar eclipse.

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• According to Chinese political theory, every
  dynasty goes through the so-called dynastic
  cycle
• A new ruler unites China and founds a new
  dynasty.
• China, under the new dynasty, achieves prosperity
  and a new golden age.
• The royal family of the dynasty begins to decay,
  corruption becomes rampant in the imperial court,
  and the empire begins to enter decline and
  instability.
• The dynasty loses the Mandate of Heaven, their
  legitimacy to rule, and is overthrown by a
  rebellion. The Mandate of Heaven is then passed
  to the next dynasty

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Geography of East Asia
Gobi Desert
Central Asia
Himalaya Mtns.
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Neolithic China

• Chinese civilization developed around two main
  rivers the Yellow (Huang He) and Yangtze.
• Around 7000 B.C.E.
• Cultivation of agriculture led to the development
  of urban areas.
• Development of dynasties.

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Early Dynasties

• Xia Dynasty (c. 2070 c. 1600 B.C.E.)
• Not much known, mostly legend verified by some
  archaeological findings.
• Records of the Grand Historian (109 91 B.C.E.)
  by Sima Qian.
• Early writing found on bones and shells.
• Shang Dynasty (1600 1046 B.C.E.)
• Chinese culture as we discussed earlier begins to
  develop during this period.
• History pieced together from oracle bones.
• What is an oracle bone?

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Oracle bones from the Shang period.
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Anyang .
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Politics and Society of Shang

• Primarily agricultural society ruled by a king
  and aristocratic class.
• King (? wang) was an intermediary between
  heaven and earth.
• Religious system revolved around gods in early
  Shang period.
• Human sacrifice evolves into ancestor veneration
  by end of Shang Dynasty.
• Emergence of idea of Mandate of Heaven (??)
• Differentiation of classes aristocrats,
  peasants, and slaves.
• Writing system disseminates throughout East Asia.

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Last Shang King

• King Di Xin (aka Zhou Wang ??).
• Added territory to Shang empire.
• According to Sima Qian, he was given to drinking,
  women, and songs with crude lyrics.
• Ignored affairs of state.
• Fall of Shang Dynasty, 1046 B.C.E.

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Zhou Dynasty

• Zhou Dynasty (1045 256 B.C.E.), named after the
  Zhou province, emerged in western Yellow River as
  a principality of the Shang Dynasty.
• Founded by Ji Chang, son Ji Fa (aka King Wu)
  first Zhou emperor claimed Mandate of Heaven.
• Battle of Muye (1046 B.C.E.), Zhou army attacks
  Shang capital Di Xin sets his own palace on fire
  and is burned alive.
• Dynasty divided into Western Zhou and Eastern
  Zhou dynasties.

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Zhou Politics

• Zhou Dynasty becomes feudal Fengjian system.
• Decentralized rule, emperor appoints lords and
  vassals as territorial governors.
• Eventually results in instability.
• Mandate of Heaven elaborated on.
• Not only justifies rule, but also overthrow.
• He who wins is the king he who loses is the
  rebel.
• Permanent rule of statecraft.

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Zhou Economy

• Feudal economy and land divisions
• Development of an artisan and merchant class in
  the walled towns and villages.
• Improvements in agriculture improved crop
  yields rise in population.
• Silk trade begins with ancient Mediterranean and
  Middle East cultures.
• Barter system transitions into money system.

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Cosmological Beliefs

• Yang and Yin harmony/balance.
• The Dao (?, Way) ethical way of living, similar
  to Dharma.
• Competing schools of philosophy
• Confucianism more philosophy than religion.
• Daoism more religion than philosophy.

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Confucianism

• How did Confucius (Kung Fuci) explain Dao?
• First, duty to family and community.
• Second, human-heartedness compassion or empathy
  for others.
• Third, deemphasize gods, death, and the afterlife.

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Daoism

• Founded by Laozi (4th c. B.C.E.), contemporary of
  Confucius.
• Similar to Confucianism, except
• Inaction over action.
• Let nature take its course.
• Stress on deities and spirits.

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Philosophical developments
Concept of human nature Concept of government Tolerance for other ideas
Confucianism
Daoism (Taoism)
Legalism
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Formation of Classical Societies

• Approximately 1000 BCE early societies emerged
  and
• Achieved high degrees of internal organization
• Extended their authority over extremely large
  regions
• Elaborated influential cultural traditions

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Problems of Classical Societies

• Difficult to oversee vast territories without
  advanced technologies of transportation and
  communication.
• Military challenges arose from within classical
  societies themselves in the form of rebellion,
  civil war, or conflict.
• External threats came from nomadic and migratory
  people who sought to share in the wealth.
• Maintenance of equitable distribution of land and
  wealth

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Benefits of Classical Societies

• Increased trade encouraged economic integration
  within the societies.
• Establishment of regular commerce between peoples
  of different societies and cultural regions.
• Generated sophisticated cultural and religious
  traditions.

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The most important and prosperous of the trade
routes were the silk roads that linked Eurasia
and northern Africa.

• From the eastern terminus at the Han capital of
  Chang an, the trade routes ran to the
  Mediterranean ports of Antioch and Tyre.

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Products Traded Along the Silk Road and the
Indian Ocean Trade Routes
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Religions on the Silk RoadBuddhism

• Buddhism was the most prominent religion of silk
  road merchants from 200 B.C.E. to 700 C.E.
• Ashoka Maurya spread Buddhism to Bactria and
  Ceylon during his reign. (273 B.C.E. to 232
  B.C.E.)

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Religions on the Silk Road Buddhism

• Indian merchants spread Buddhism to Ceylon,
  Bactria, Iran, southeast Asia, and China.
• Buddhism remained a merchant faith and did not
  appeal to the native Chinese until Buddhist monks
  and missionaries capitalized on unrest in China
  during the fifth century C.E. to spread their
  faith.
• After that, Buddhism spread quickly through China
  and into Japan and Korea.

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Missionaries Spread Christianity

• During the 2nd and 3rd centuries C.E.,
  missionaries followed Paul of Tarsuss example
  and worked to attract converts.
• Gregory the Wonderworker, who had a reputation
  for performing miracles, popularized Christianity
  in Anatolia during the 3rd century C.E.

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Christianity on the Silk Road

• Around 300 .C.E. Christianity flourished
  throughout the Gaul, Spain, Italy, Greece,
  Anatolia, Syria, Palestine, Egypt, north Africa,
  and into southwest Asia.
• Christian communities flourished throughout
  Mesopotamia and Iran, and a few Christian church
  appeared in India.
• Christians did not dominate eastern lands, but
  they attracted many converts in southwest Asia.

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Disease on the Silk Road

• The Han and Roman empires suffered tremendous
  losses during the 2nd and 3rd centuries C.E.
  through the outbreak of epidemic diseases such as
  smallpox, measles, and bubonic plague.

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The Bubonic Plague on the Silk Road

• The bacterium, Yersinia pestis, is the agent for
  the bubonic plague.
• The bacteria in its disease form first appeared
  in the east India/China border.
• Fleas carried the disease, and their mechanism of
  transmittance were probably rats, dogs, or the
  central Asian horses.
• The fleas were carried westward along the silk
  roads on the caravans, horses, camels, and dogs
  of the central Asian nomadic traders, and the
  humans themselves.
• Many of the people who survived the plague
  probably passed on the resistance to their
  offspring, who would get a cold but not die from
  the bacterium.

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Disease on the Silk Road

• The population of the Roman empire dropped from
  60 million during the time of Augustus (63 B.C.E.
  to 14 C.E.) down to around forty million by 400
  C.E.
• Chinas population decreased from 60 million in
  200 C.E. to 45 million in 600 C.E.
• As a result, trade decreased dramatically and the
  economies in both empires contracted and moved
  toward regional self-sufficiency.

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What was bedouin society?

• Bedouin society was made up of nomadic peoples
  who migrated through the deserts to find grass
  and water for their animals.
• The Bedouin organized themselves in family and
  clan groups.
• Individuals and their immediate families depended
  heavily on their larger kinship networks for
  support.
• Because the Arabian desert was such a harsh
  environment to live, cooperation with kin often
  made the difference between death and survival.
• Bedouin people developed a strong sense of
  loyalty to their clans.
• Clan identities and loyalties survived for
  centuries after the appearance of Islam.

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How did Muhammad and Islam address the
fundamental problems in bedouin society?

• Muhammads followers recorded his revelations
  into written texts that became known as the
  Quran, or holy book of Islam.
• Muhammad stressed the rejection of idolatry and
  promoted monotheistic faith.
• In Medina, Muhammad organized his followers into
  a unified group called the umma, or community of
  the faithful.
• He provided the community with a legal and social
  code.
• Muhammad led the community in daily prayers to
  Allah.
• He look after the economic welfare of the umma by
  organizing commercial ventures.
• He made almsgiving a prime moral virtue.
• Muhammad and his followers conquered Mecca and
  forced elites to adopt the faith. They destroyed
  pagan shrines and replaced them with mosques.

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What are the basic beliefs of Islam?

• Five Pillars
• Acknowledge Allah as the only god and Muhammad as
  the only prophet.
• They must prayer to Allah daily while facing
  Mecca.
• Observe a fast during the daylight hours of the
  month of Ramadan.
• They must contribute alms for the relief of the
  weak and poor.
• Make at least one pilgrimage to Mecca in life
  time.

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What motivations led Islam to transform itself
from a nomadic society to a global civilization?

• Islam offered detailed guidance on proper
  behavior in all aspects of life.
• It drew its inspiration from the Quran and the
  early historical account of Muhammads life.
• It offered guidance on marriage, family life,
  inheritance, slavery, business, and commercial
  relationship.
• Islam became more than a religion it became a
  way of life with social and ethical values based
  on Islamic religious principles.
• Islamic society drew much of its prosperity from
  commerce, i.e. overland trade, development of
  banks, etc.

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What were the major characteristics of the
Abbasid Caliphate? (750-1258)

• Showed no special favor to Arab military
  aristocracy
• No longer conquering, but the empire still grew
• Abbasid administration
• Relied heavily on Persian techniques of
  statecraft
• Central authority ruled from the court at Baghdad
  
• Appointed governors to rule provinces

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What were the major characteristics of the
Abbasid Caiphate? (750-1258)

• The Abbasids built magnificent capital at
  Baghdad, which became one of the great cultural
  centers of the world.
• The architectural style of the dynasty was unique
  and beautiful. It is best represented by the
  mosque built in Cordoba, Spain.

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How did the position of women in Islamic society
change from Muhammad to the Abbasid Empire?

• With the establishment of the Quran between 651
  and 652, women were treated with more dignity and
  were considered equal before Allah. Also,
  infanticide was strictly forbidden. Women gained
  more influence within the home.
• Under the Abbasid dynasty, however, women lost
  their influence in public life and, in a large
  part, in the home. This happened as a result of
  expansion into the Byzantine empire.

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What was Islams attitude toward slavery?

• The Quran makes numerous references to slaves and
  slavery.
• Like numerous passages in the Hebrew bible and
  the New Testament, the Quran assumes the
  permissibility of owning slaves, which was an
  established practice before its revelation.
• The Quran does not explicitly condemn slavery or
  attempt to abolish it. It does, however, provide
  a number of regulations designed to improve the
  situation of slaves.

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To what extent was Islam successful in converting
India to Islam?

• Between 600 C.E. and 1200 C.E., India was not
  unified. The Gupta Empire, the last state to
  provide any sort of unity, collapsed in 550 C.E.
• Muslim invaders reached the Indus Valley and
  Afghanistan in the 700s and converted it to
  Islam.
• In 1022, Muslim armies began the conquest of
  northern India.
• In 1206, the Muslims captured the city of Delhi
  and most of northern India fell into their hands.
• Muslim generals established the Delhi Sultanate.
• Islam did not displace earlier faiths like
  Hinduism and Buddhism but joined them as one of
  the countrys major religions.

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To what extent was Islam successful in converting
Southeast Asia to Islam?

• As the coastal trade and shipping of India came
  to be controlled (from the 8th century onward)
  increasingly by Muslims, elements of Islamic
  culture began to filterinto Southeast Asia.
• Almost everywhere in the islands of the region,
  trading contacts paved the way for conversion.
  Muslim merchants and sailors introduced local
  peoples to the ideas and rituals of the new faith
  and impressed on them how much of the known world
  had already been converted.
• The first areas to be won to Islam in the last
  decades of the 13th century were several small
  port centers on the northern coast of Sumatra.
• There were large Muslim communities in the
  cities, but not in the rural areas due to the
  trade networks.

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What were the characteristics of the Swahili
city-states?

• Swahili dominated east African coast from
  Mogadishu to Sofala
• Spoke Swahili, a Bantu language, supplemented
  with some Arabic words
• Trade with Muslim merchants became important by
  the tenth century
• The Swahili city-states chiefs gained power
  through taxing trade on ports
• Ports developed into city-states governed by
  kings, eleventh and twelfth centuries
• Kilwa good example of busy city-state on east
  coast exported gold

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What were the characteristics of the Great
Zimbabwe?

• Zimbabwe was powerful kingdom of east Africa
• By the ninth century, chiefs began to build stone
  residences (Zimbabwe)
• Magnificent stone complex known as Great Zimbabwe
  in the twelfth century
• Eighteen thousand people lived in Great Zimbabwe
  in the late fifteenth century
• Kings organized flow of gold, ivory, and slaves

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What were the characteristics of the Byzantine
Empire?

• The eastern Roman Empire, centered in
  Constantinople, became the highly centralized
  government known as the Byzantine Empire whereas
  in the west, the empire collapsed.
• The Byzantine Empire was a lot more centralized
  and organized than the western empire.

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What were the characteristics of the Byzantine
Empire?

• The Byzantine Empire used the Greek language its
  architecture had distinctive domes its culture
  in general had more in common with Eastern
  cultures like those of Persia and its brand of
  Christianity became an entirely separate branch
  known as Orthodox Christianity.
• Throughout Byzantine history, the emperors
  treated the church as a department of state.

Under Justinian, who reigned from 527 to 565, the
period is known for the flowering of the arts and
sciences, evident in the construction of major
buildings and churches, most notably Hagia
Sophia, an enormous cathedral that still stands
today.
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What accounts for the decline of the Byzantine
Empire?

• In the 11th century, vigorous economic
  development in western Europe supported a
  remarkable round of military and political
  expansion.
• The Normans (Scandinavian people who had seized
  Normandy in northern France) took control of
  southern Italy and expelled Byzantine authorities
  there.
• During the 12th and 13th centuries, the Normans
  and other western European peoples mounted a
  series of Crusades and took the opportunity to
  carve out states in the heart of the Byzantine
  Empire.
• As Europeans invaded into Byzantine territory
  from the west, nomadic Turkish peoples invaded
  from the east.
• By the 12th century Islamic invaders had seized
  much of Anatolia.
• The loss of Anatolia- the principal source of
  Byzantine grain, wealth, and military
  forcessealed the fate of the Byzantine empire.

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Byzantine Empire
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Byzantine Empire and Russia

• Mid-ninth century, Russians started to organize a
  large state Kiev
• The conversion of Prince Vladimir, 989
• Kiev served as a conduit for spread of Byzantine
  culture and religion
• Writing and literature and Orthodox missions
  spread Byzantine culture
• Byzantine art and architecture dominated Kiev
  icons and onion domes

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Byzantine Empire and Russia

• Princes established caesaropapist control of
  Russian Orthodox church
• Russian culture flourished from eleventh century
• Moscow claimed to be world's "third Rome"
• Sent out many missionaries from sixteenth century
  on

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What was Feudalism?

• Historians once used the term feudalism to
  refer to the political and social order of
  medieval Europe. It was based on a neat
  hierarchy of lords and vassals, who collectively
  took charge of political and military affairs.
• Increasingly, scholars are abandoning this term
  because it distorts and oversimplifies the
  understanding of a complicated society.
• Medieval Europe was a society in which local
  political and military elites worked out various
  ad hoc ways to organize their territories and
  maintain order in the absence of effective
  central authorities.

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What was Manorialism?

• A manor was also a piece of land under the
  control of a single LORD. The lord was given
  this manor land from the king, usually for his
  devotion to the king.
• Because the lord was away from his manor
  sometimes, he hired VASSALS to help him run the
  manor in his absence.
• Everything was produced on the manor. Cattle
  were raised for milk and meat. Sheep were raised
  for wool. Several fields were used to grow a
  variety of foods like potatoes, corn and wheat.
  Blacksmith workshops, bakeries, a mill, markets,
  and even a church or chapel was present.
• PEASANTS and SERFS lived in huts or very small
  homes around the edges of the manor. Most of the
  work on the manor was done by the peasants and
  serfs.
• During the early Middle Ages, the institution of
  serfdom encouraged the development of manor as
  the principal form of agricultural organization
  in western Europe.

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What was the role of women during the Middle
Ages?

• Women were subservient to men.
• Women of lower classes cared for the household,
  bore children, and raised them.
• One of the few peasant women to leave an
  individual mark on medieval Europe was the French
  war leader Joan of Arc (1410-1431).
• In most parts of medieval Europe, women had some
  property rights. They could own and inherit land
  and property.
• Women had protection, although no always
  equality, before the law.
• Women could enter religious life, but they could
  not become priests.
• Aristocratic women could exert much information
  political and cultural influence.

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What were the causes of the Crusades?

• Religious fervor on the part of Muslims and
  Christians.
• Geopolitical conflict between Europe and the
  Middle East
• The Europeans desire to become more involved in
  the international trade network stretching from
  the Mediterranean to China.
• Personal ambitions of Europeans hoping to gain
  wealth and land in the Middle East.
• Racial and religious prejudice.

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What was the impact of the Crusades?

• Worsening of the relationship between the Muslim
  and Christian worlds.
• Greater awareness of the wider world, especially
  the lands of the east, that the Crusades
  stimulated among the Europeans.
• Increased knowledge of and desire for the
  economic wealth to be gained by greater
  interaction with the Middle and Far East.
• The Crusading idealthe notion that Christian
  warriors were fighting a holy war on behalf of a
  sacred cause

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What were the basic characteristics of the Olmec?

Large wave of humans traveled from Siberia to
Alaska around 13,000 B.C.E. By 9500 B.C.E.,
humans reached the southernmost part of South
America Early agriculture beans, squashes,
chilis later, maize became the staple (5000
B.C.E.) Agricultural villages appeared after 3000
B.C.E. Olmecs, the "rubber people,"lived near
the Gulf of Mexico (1200 B.C.E. ) Elaborate
complexes built The colossal human
heads--possibly likenesses of rulers Rulers'
power shown in construction of huge pyramids
Trade in jade and obsidian Influence of
Olmec maize, ceremonial centers, calendar, human
sacrifice, ball game
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What were the characteristics of the Tang and
Song Dynasties?
See Sarah and Lindas documentary.
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What was the role of women in the Tang and Sang
Dynasties?
Strengthened patriarchy authority explained the
popularity of foot binding which spread among
privileged classes during the Song era. Like the
practice of veiling women in the Islamic world,
foot binding placed women of privileged classes
under tight supervision of their husbands or
other male guardians, who managed the womens
affairs in the interests of the larger family.
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What was Neo-Confucianism? How did it change the
political and social nature of China?
Buddhist influence on Confucianism Early
Confucianism focused on practical issues of
politics and morality Confucians began to draw
inspiration from Buddhism. Buddhism offered a
tradition of logical thought and argumentation
but also dealt with issues, such as the nature of
the soul and the individuals relationship with
the cosmos, not systemically explored by
Confucian thinkers. Zhu Xi (1130-1200 C.E.), the
most prominent neo-Confucian scholar
91
Describe Japan during the Heian era. 794-1185
C.E.
Japanese emperors served as ceremonial
figureheads and symbols of authority. Effective
power in the hands of the Fujiwara family.
Emperor did not rule, which explains the
longevity of the imperial house . Chinese
learning dominated Japanese education and
political thought. The Tale of Genji was written
by a woman, Murasaki Shikibu .
92
How was Genghis Khan able to build one of
historys largest empires?
He formed an alliance with a prominent Mongol
clan leader in the late 12th century. He mastered
the art of steppe diplomacy which called for
displays of personal courage in battle, combined
with intense loyalty to allies, as well as a
willingness to betray allies to improve ones
position. He mistrusted the tribes and broke up
the tribal organization. He forced men of
fighting age to join new military units with no
tribal affiliations. He chose high military and
political officials not on the basis of kinship
or tribal status, but rather because of their
talents or their loyalty to him. He establish a
capital at Karakorum, present-day Har Horin and
built a luxurious palace. The early Mongol armies
were large. They were also talented cavalrymen
and archers. They were also quick to adopt
military technology.
93
What was the impact of Mongol conquest?
By Genghis Khans death in 1227, the Mongols
controlled a large state encompassing present-day
Mongolia, much of Central Asia, and northern and
Western China. From 1237-1240, the Mongols
conquered most of Russia and Ukraine. The
Mongols invaded the Middle East in the 1250s,
toppling the Abbasid Caiphate in 1258 and
advancing until 1260. Mongols imposed a single
political authority, encouraged economic
exchange, made travel conditions safer, and
imposed legal order. The Silk Road flourished,
and cities like Samarkand became crucial economic
centers, with merchants, missionaries, and
travelers of all professions and ethnicities
passing through. Many historians refer to this
brief semi-unification of Eurasia as the Pax
Mongolica, or Mongol Peace.