Tour of the World Part 2 Song China, South East Asia, Europe, the Americas The Mongol Invasions

Song China After nearly 50 years of regional fighting after the fall of the Tang Dynasty, this new dynasty was consolidated in 976 This brought nearly three centuries of economic prosperity for the Song with which they were able to pay off potential invaders on their borders In the period , China was far and away the most populous and wealthy state in the world

Internal economy Unlike the rest of Afro-Asia, China’s economic fortunes did not rely on foreign trade, but on a vibrant domestic economy They had enough food (thanks to advances in agriculture) to feed their massive population and had a sophisticated manufacturing sector (porcelain, silk, textiles, iron, etc.) Trade was more of a nuisance than something to be pursued – they could already produce everything they wanted

A money economy One of the things that China did lack was precious metals with which to mint coins – their development outstripped their ability to keep enough cash in circulation This was one of the few commodities that China needed from the outside world in order to sustain its economy One of their major innovations was to print and circulate paper money

Song paper money Song coins Printed book from Song period

Running the state In order to take power away from the nobility the Song developed a sophisticated civil service to manage the country Rigorous civil service exams based on Confucian philosophy meant that the “best and the brightest” the country could create were drafted into service The civil service became the country’s new elite

South East Asia Influenced both by the culture and economy of China and India as well as the people and goods which flowed in through Indian Ocean trade Island cultures accepted new cultural influences but were able to maintain their distinctive cultures New kingdoms emerged, fuelled by the economic prosperity brought by trade

Cultural Mosaic The influx of trade also brought with it the religion of Islam, which mixed with Buddhist and Hindu traditions from India For example, in present-day Cambodia the Kingdom of the Khmer flourished, bringing together influences from other areas of South-East Asia as well as India

Temple at Angkor Wat

Europe In this period Western Europe had a vibrant economy (fuelled in part by trade) and a growing sense of unity under the spiritual leadership of the Pope in Rome Europeans (in the west and east) reclaimed agricultural lands from the forests, providing enough food to sustain a fast-growing population This period is known as the High Middle Ages and is seen as the pinnacle of medieval culture

Intellectual life One of the great achievements of the High Middle Ages was the foundation of universities (in Paris, Oxford, and Bologna) These centres of learning trained people in the arts (grammar, rhetoric, dialectic), as well as in law, medicine, and theology The systemization of knowledge allowed them to make advances in many fields

Notre Dame Cathedral, Paris

The Crusades The Crusades to the Holy Land were a reflection of a dual desire: to unite Christendom against a common enemy and for kings and knights to gain fortune and glory This represented the first unified European attempt to conquer foreign areas Calls for more crusades to the Holy Land continues until the 16 th century

The Americas Although disconnected from Afro-Eurasia, commerce and expansion were transforming the Americas as well In the Andes the Chimu empire came to prominence in the coastal region, and Lake Titicaca in the highlands Both empires were characterized by having large cities and complex irrigation systems to grow crops to feed a growing population

North and Meso America The hybrid Toltec empire emerged around this time in Meso-America They built massive cities and relied on long-distance trade to fuel their economy They traded with many people, stretching from the Great Lakes in the north to the Gulf of Mexico in the south

The Mongols The Mongols were Nomadic tribes from the Asian steppes who lived by riasing livestock and periodic raids Starting in 1206 under Chinggis Khan, they began to create a massive empire through conquest First China, then South East Asia, then Central Asia, right up to the borders with Europe all fell to advancing Mongol armies

Consequences of conquest While the Mongol invasions changed the hierarchy of elites in the societies they conquered, they helped to accelerate trade over a vast area of Eurasia The invasions also transformed social fabric of the regions they touched by bringing in new cultural influences

Conclusion During the period many areas of the world were being drawn into relationships with each other The Mongol conquests made those connections more permanent and more far reaching Next time we will look at how the different areas filled the vacuum left by the retreat of the Mongols