PART III REVIEW 600-1450ce BROAD TRENDS

GLOBAL POWER AND INTERNATIONAL RELATIONS With the exception of the Americas, the major civilizations of the world were coming into increased contact with each other. Nomadic and migratory populations (especially the Vikings, Mongols, and Polynesians) continued to have a profound impact on large parts of the world.

The most advanced and politically influential civilizations during these years were China (especially during the Tang, Song, Yuan, and Ming periods) Byzantium and the Ottoman Empire. Major states and empires—such as Mali, Ghana, Great Zimbabwe, the Delhi Sultanate, the Aztecs, and the Incas—flourished, but only for a comparatively short time.

During the 1200s and l300s, the Mongols radically altered the balance of power in Eurasia. Their empire, one of the largest in history, brought together vast portions of Europe and Asia. For a time, the Mongols imposed not just political unity but a measure of economic and cultural connectedness not seen since the days of ancient Rome to Han China.

Nations of medieval Europe, particularly in the west, gained in power and sophistication The invention of gunpowder would gradually start to change the equation of world power.

POLITICAL DEVELOPMENTS Most forms of government remained non-representative. Monarchies and oligarchies were most common. Most states were not nations in the modern sense of the word. Many were decentralized. Others were multicultural empires joined only by the fact that a single civilization had conquered them all.

A few nations managed to place formal restrictions on the power of the monarch, but most still remain centralized. England, with its Magna Carta and Parliament, is an excellent example. Feudalism became a common form of political organization in areas that were decentralized. The best-known examples are medieval Europe and the Japanese shogunates. Urban centers played a larger role in the political life of most cultures.

ECONOMIC AND ENVIRONMENTAL DEVELOPMENTS Most societies remained fundamentally agricultural (agrarian), meaning that the vast majority of people resided in the countryside and made their living by farming. However, artistry and craftsmanship were becoming increasingly important.

This helped give rise to a slow (but steady) trend: urbanization, or the growth of cities. In addition, trade and commerce—and even banking—were becoming a basic part of economic life in most developed societies. The growing importance of trade and commerce made merchant classes larger and more influential in most societies.

Trade and commerce led to the creation of intercultural and international trade networks, Among the most important were the Mediterranean, the Hanseatic League, the Silk Road, trans-Saharan caravan routes, Indian Ocean and Pacific trade networks. Certain cities became important centers for intercultural and international trade. They include Venice, Cairo, Canton (Guangzhou), Timbuktu, and Calicut. Massive epidemics (pandemics), in the form of great plagues, struck Eurasia. The most famous was the wave of bubonic plague that swept China, the Middle East, and Europe (the “black death”) in the 1300s.

CULTURAL DEVELOPMENTS Distinct artistic and cultural traditions were developing in each major region of the world. The civilizations that possessed the greatest degree of scientific knowledge and cultural sophistication were China, the Middle East, Japan, and Muslim Spain.

Europe underwent great cultural development, especially during the Renaissance.

China and India exerted a tremendous cultural and religious influence over their neighbors. Buddhism, Hinduism, and art and architectural styles spread from these countries to Southeast Asia, Korea, Japan, Tibet, and elsewhere. The Middle East played a large role in spreading knowledge, scholarship, music, art, and architecture to North Africa and Europe. Middle Eastern cultural influence on medieval and Renaissance Europe was considerable.

The invention of block printing in China began to alter cultural life in Asia. Even more dramatically, the invention of the movable-type printing press in Europe, during the l430s, led to an information explosion, the rapid spread of knowledge and ideas, and a revolution in intellectual life.

Travelers and explorers created links between societies and increased geographical and cultural knowledge. Examples include Zheng He (Cheng Ho), Marco Polo, and Ibn Battuta

GENDER ISSUES As in earlier times, women continued to occupy a secondary role in most societies. In most societies, women’s political rights were minimal or nonexistent. Women had sharply defined occupational roles & were largely assigned to the domestic sphere (childbearers and homemakers). Most work women did outside the home—such as weaving, food gathering, or farm chores—was seen as low status.

However, in the majority of world civilizations, women possessed at least some freedoms: the right to divorce abusive husbands, the right to a dowry, the right to inherit and own property.

Priestesses and nuns often enjoyed high status as well as an intellectual life, although their conduct was strictly regulated. In some African societies, women enjoyed a great deal of respect, and family trees were matrilineal. In most societies, upper-class women lived easier lives but found themselves more constrained by religious and cultural restrictions on their behavior. Lower-class women, whose lives were much harder.

QUESTIONS & COMPARISONS TO CONSIDER Intellectual and cultural developments in different societies, and the ways in which societies influence each other (the Middle Eastern influence on medieval European culture or India’s influence on Southeast Asian religion, art, and architecture). How did political and social development in Western Europe resemble and/or differ from that in Eastern Europe?

Comparisons and contrasts between European and Japanese feudalism. How important is the nation-state (as opposed to larger cultural units) as an object of study during this historical period? How did Europe’s encounter with sub-Saharan Africa differ from and/or resemble the Islamic world’s encounter with it?

The differences and likenesses between the Mongol Empire and earlier conquest states, such as Rome or Han China. The successes and failures of the Roman Catholic Church, the Eastern Orthodox Church, and the Islamic caliphates in their attempts to create a large, multinational civilization united by religion. The role of nomadic movement as a cause of historical change during these years compared with the role played by the growth of cities during the same time frame.