Mongol Eurasia and Its Aftermath, 1200-1500

I. The Rise of the Mongols, 1200-1260

A. Nomadism in Central and Inner Asia

1. Mongol Society--pastoral nomads of the Eurasian steppes played on on-again, off-again role in Europe, the Middle East, and Chinese history for hundreds of years before the rise of the Mogols. Moving regularly and efficiently with flocks and herds required firm decision-making in public, with many voices being heard

a. Decsions were largely made by a council with representatives of leading families ratifying decisions made by the leader, the khan. Yet people who disagreed with a decision could strike off on their own--even during military campaigns.

b. Menial work in Mongol communities fell to slaves--people either captured during war, or who sought refuge in slavery to escape starvation.

2. Mongol women--leading families combined resources and solidified intergroup alliances through arranged marriages and other acts, a process that helped to generate political federations. Marriages were arranged in childhood and children became pawns of diplomacy. Women from prestigious families could wield power in negotiations and management, although they risked assassination and execution, just like the men.

3. The Khan--families often included believers in two or more religions, most commonly Buddhism, Christianity, or Islam--but virtually all Mongols observed practices of traditional shamanism. Mongols believed in world rulership by a khan who, with the aid of his shamans, could speak to and for an ultimate god, represented as the Sky or Heaven.

B. The Mongol Conquest, 1215-1283--shortly after his acclamation in 1206, Genghis initiated two decades of Mongol aggression. By 1209 he had defeated the Tanggut, and in 1215 he captured the Jin capitol of Beijing. In 1219 he turned westward, invading Khwarezem, east of the Caspian Sea, that included much of Iran. After 1221, when most of Iran had fallen, Genghis left the command of most campaigns to subordinate generals.

1. Genghis Khan's successors--Ögödei, Genghis's son, became the Great Khan in 1227 after his father's death. He completed the destruction of the Tanggut and the Jin and put their territories under Mongol governors. By 1234 he controlled most of northern China and was threatening the Southern Song.

a. 1236 Batu, Genghis's grandson, attacked Russian territories, took control of the towns along the Volga River, and conquered Kievan Russia, Moscow, Poland, and Hungary in a five-year campaign. Only the death of Ögödei in 1241--and the suspension of the campaign--saved Europe from more serious damage.

b. Güjük (another of Genghis's grandsons) was installed as the new Great Khan, and the conquests resumed. In the Middle East a Mongol army sacked Baghdad in 1258 and executed the last Abbasid caliph.

c. Genghis Khan's original objective had probably been collecting tribute from these various conquered peoples, but the success of the Mongol conquests created a new situation. Ögödei unquestionably sought to rule a united empire based at his capitol--Karakorum--and until his death he controlled the subordinate Mongol domains: the Golden Horde in Russia and the Jagadai domains in Central Asia. After Ögödei's death, however, family unity began to unravel; when Khubilai declared himself Great Khan in 1265, the descendents of Genghis's son Jagadai and other branches of the family refused to accept him. As Karakorum was destroyed in the ensuing fighting, Khubilai transferred his court to the old Jin capitol of Beijing. In 1271 he declared himself founder of the Yuan Empire.

d. Jagadai's descendents continued to dominate Central Asia and enjoyed close relations with the region's Turkic-speaking nomads. This, plus a continuing hatred of Khubilai, contributed to Central Asia becoming an independent Mongol center of power and to the spread of Islam there.

e. After the Yuan destroyed the Southern Song in 1279, Mongol troops attacked Annam--now northern Vietnam. They occupied Hanoi three times and then withdrew after arranging for tribute. In 1285 Khubilai's forces invaded Champa--now southern Vietnam--and made it a tribute nation as well. A plan to invade Java by sea failed, as did two invasions of Japan, in 1274 and 1281.

2. Military techniques--the Mongols were extraordinary riders and utilized superior compound bows. These bows could shoot over one-third farther than bows used by their opponents. Mongol archers had only 5 arrows, and rarely used all of these; utilizing their marksmanship from afar, their shots decimated enemy bowmen, and then they charged the opposing infantry on horseback with sword, lance, javelin, and mace.

3. Seige and Terror--cities that resisted faced seige and annihilation--surrender was the only option. The slaughter the Mongols inflicted on Balkh in present-day nothern Afghanistan and other cities that resisted spread terror and caused other cities to surrender.

C. Overland Trade and Disease

1. Travelers' accounts: Marco Polo--the Mongols facilitated trade, and travelers' accounts like Marco Polo, who freely mixed the fantasic with the factual, whetted appetites of other adventurers and traders.

2. Rats and fleas--in northwestern China bubonic plague had festered since the early Tang period. In the mid-13th century, supply trains servicing Mongol garrisons in Yunnan province facilitated the spread of rats carrying infected fleas. Marmots and other rodents along the caravan routes became infected and passed the disease to dogs and humans. Plague incapacitated the Mongol army during its assault on the city of Kaffa in Crimea in 1346. They withdrew, but the plague remained. From Kaffa flea-infested rats reached Europe and Egypt by ship--and began the Black Death.

II. The Mongols and Islam, 1260-1500

A. Mongol Rivalry

1. Il-khan--the state established by Genghis's grandson Hülegü, and controlled Iran, Azerbijan, Mesopotamia, and parts of Armenia

2. Golden Horde--controlled the area north of the Caspian Sea, and had conquered southern Russia and established their capitol at Sarai on the Volga River--and founded by another grandson, Batu.

3. Conversion to Islam--the Golden Horde quickly adopted the Turkic language and Islam, and Batu's successor swore to avenge the killing o fthe Abbasid caliph. Mongol dietary practices (the believe that animals should be consumed with as little bloodshed as possible) were appalling to Muslims (who used the kosher practice of killing animals by draining them of blood by cutting the cartoid artery). While this might seem an insurmountable obstacle, the flexibility of Islam proved able to overcome this difficulty.

4. European allies--this division among the Mongols gave some Europeans hope that the Il-khan state could be recruited to help them regain control of a number of sites in the Holy Land, but the conversion of the Il-khan ruler Ghazan to Islam in 1295 quashed that hope.

B. Islam and the State

1. Taxes and Administration--the Il-khan government sold tax-collecting contracts to small partnerships, mostly consisting of merchants who might also finance caravans, small industries, or military expeditions. Whoever offered to collect the most revenue for the government won the contract. These collectors could use whatever method they chose and could keep everything over and above the contracted amount. While this lowered administrative costs in the short run, in the long term the extortions of the tax farmers drove many landowners into debt and servitude. Agricultural productivity declined, making it hard to supply the army--so the government resorted to taking land to grow its own grain.

2. Paper money--Ghazan faced many economic problems, and citing Islam's humane values, he promised to reduce taxes. But the need for revenue kept the decrease from being permanent, and the government began printing paper money to make up for the shortfall, causing inflation.

3. Khanate of Jagadai--led by Timur (known in the west as Tamerlane), who challenged the control of Il-khan and the Golden Horde from a base in Central Asia.

C. Culture and Science in Islamic Eurasia

1. Administrators and Historians--the Il-khan and Timurids (descendents of Timur) presided over a brilliant cultural flowering in Iran, Afghanistan, and Central Asia based on blending Iranian and Chinese artistic trends and cultural practices. The dominant cultural tendencies were Muslim, however. Timur died before he could unite Iran and China, but by transplanting Middle Eastern scholars, artists, and craftsmen to his capitol Samarkand, he fostered the cultural achievements of this descendents.

III. Mongol Domination of China, 1271-1368

A. The Yuan Empire, 1271-1368--the Yuan sought a fruitful synthesis of the Mongol and Chinese traditions. Khubilai Khan gave his oldest son a Chinese name and had Confucianists participate in the boy's education.

1. Beijing as Yuan Capitol--Beijing served as the eastern terminus of the Silk Road. A horseback courier system improved communications with other parts of the kingdom.

2. Yuan Society--with the Mongol takeover, society in the Yuan Empire was re-ordered, with Mongols at the top, Central Asians and Middle Easterners next, then northern Chinese, and lastly southern Chinese.

3. Yuan Administration--like the Il-khans, the Yuan rulers stressed census-taking and tax collecting--especially tax collecting. The Mongols organized all of China into provinces, and the central appointiments of provincial governors, tax collectors, and garrison commanders marked a radical change. These appointments went almost exlusively to Mongols, Central Asians, and Middle Easteners, shutting out the Chinese.

4. Growth of Commerce--with the Chines shut out of government posts, for which the Confucian system had channeled Chinese elites into, elite families instead began moving into commerce, both as merchants and as bankers, especially lending money to Mongol elites. They also moved into tax farming. While Central Asians and Middle Easterners initiall controlled the corporations in China, Chinese with money quickly became partners, and many eventually gained controlling interests in these corporations.

5. Population loss--although Chinese elites found ways to prosper under Mongol rule, the same could not be said for rural Chinese. Chinese farmers were treated brutally, and many lost their landholdings due to the extreme rate of taxation. Peasant uprisings usually led to even greater brutal treatment.

B. The Fall of the Yuan Empire--in the 1340s, strife broke out among the Mongol princes. Within 20 years, farmer rebellions coupled with this internal political strife created a period of chaos. In this situation, a charismatic Chinese leader, Zhu Yuan-zheng, mounted a campaign that destroyed the Yuan Empire and brought China under the control of his empire, the Ming. Although some Mongols, Central Asians, and Middle Easterners fled the country, a number stayed, assumed Chinese names, and became part of the diverse cultural world of China

IV. The Early Ming Empire, 1368-1500

A. Ming China on a Mongol Foundation--the Ming dynasty re-established many former Chinese practices. The early Ming years was one of conflict over reaching out to the world outside the borders of China, however.

1. Emperor Hongwu--moved the Ming capital to Nanjing on the Yangzi River, turning away from the Mongol capital. Hongwu choked off relations with Central Asia and the Middle East, and severely restricted imports and foreign visitors. Silver replaced paper money for commerce and tax collection, but this proved as economically unhealthy as Yuan policies.

2. Emperor Yongle--seized power in a coup d'etat. Yongle returned the capital to Beijing, and improved the Forbidden City to its current splendor. Yongle also re-established commercial links to the Middle East. Because Mongols still largely controlled the Silk Road, he turned to a possible maritime solution

3. Zheng He--a Muslim enuch, Zheng He was put in charge of this maritime expedition to establish contacts with the Indian Ocean.

Peoples and Civilizations of the Americas, 200-1500

I. Olmec Civilization--the first great civilization of the Americas (that archeologists know about, anyway).

1. Located in the narrow “waist” of Mexico, recognizable civilization by about 1800 BCE.

2.Lived in towns and cities centered on temple mounds that they built. Created large stone heads with helmets, many over six feet tall, that are vaguely African in appearence and have sparked speculations that African peoples may have made contact with them.

3.Olmec practiced human sacrifice (as did the God of Abraham)

4.Intellectual feats--invented a dozen different systems of writing, tracked the orbits of planets, created a 365-day calendar (much more accurate than any used in Europe to the adoption of the Gregorian calendar), and wrote down their histories in accordian-folded books made of fig tree bark. Olmec scholars also invented the concept of zero, which didn’t appear in Europe until the 12th century (1100s)

II. Classic-Era Culture and Society in Mesoamerica, 200-900

A. Teotihuacan--was located about 30 miles northeast of modern Mexico City. It existed between the years 100 to 750, and at its height of power was home to more than 150,000 people--as large as some of the largest cities in Europe and Asia

1. The Role of Religion--The people of Teotihuacan recognized and worshiped many gods and lesser spirits, but the three main gods were the Sun and Moon and Quetzalcoatl, the feathered serpent, god of agriculture and the arts. Murals left indicate that these people also worshiped a storm god called Tlaloc and a female fertility god..

a. Human sacrifice--like the Olmec before them, the Teotihuacan people practiced human sacrifice. These people probably saw human sacrifice as a duty to appease their gods, and believed that it was essential to ensuring the well-being of their society.

2. Agriculture--the elites in Teotihuacan controlled the farmers in the rural areas surrounding the city. Scholars believe this came about from the after-effects of a volcanic eruption, when farmers fled the countryside for the safety of the nearby city. Approximately two-thirds of the city remained agricultural workers, walking from the city out the to fields, and then returning to the city in the evening.

a. Religion and the city--elites were able to control the rural population because of the religious power and symbolism of their city. Teotihuacan was the center of religious practice, and the worship and appeasement of the gods kept order in society.

b. Chinampas--the Teotihuacans developed an early method of hydroponic farming, where they wove together reeds, dredged muck from lake bottoms, anchored it to shore, and were able to grow food year round, because it was resistant to frost. In this way the Teotihuacans were able to support a growing population.

3. Decline and collapse--It is unclear what exactly cause the Teotihuacan society to collapse, but we do know that by the year 500 the population of the city had declined to about 40,000, and those who were left had built defensive walls around the city, an indication that there were threats from the countryside. Pictorial evidence suggests that elites mismanaged resources, and in the societal strife that followed, various factions broke off and fought amongst themselves. The most important temples were burned, and religious images defaced. By the year 750, the collapse was complete

B. The Maya--occupied the territory that now makes up Guatemala, Honduras, Belize, and southern Mexico. Although the Maya shared a single culture, they were never one unified state; instead, rival kingdoms ruled by hereditary elites fought each other for regional dominance--much like Mycenaean-era Greeks. The Yucatan Peninsula, where most of the Mayan cities were located, was ill-suited to support a large population, since only a thin layer of soil covers a strata of porous limestone. The abundance of rainfall quickly passes through the soil, and into limestone caverns, where it quickly becomes undrinkable.

1. City of Kaan--the discovery of the City of the Snake, which covered as much as 25 miles and contained thousands of buildings, alterred the perception of Mayan civilization.

a.) By the year 2000, archeologists uncovered evidence that Kaan was involved in a devastating war that lasted more than a century, and which contributed to its downfall.

2. Mayan civilization was one of the world’s most intellectually sophisticated cultures; developed written language, science, math (invention of zero).

3. Mayans inhabited land that was poorly suited to intensive agriculture, but at the height of their civilization supported a population of upwards of a million people.

a.) Prolonged drought and war decimated the population; archeologists discovered that at the end, priest were inscribing gibberish on stone tablets--they appeared to have lost knowledge of literacy, but still attempted to follow their cultural function.

C. Toltec civilization--occupied the mile-high basin that Mexico City now sits on; their military expertise allowed them to defeat and subjugate most of their enemies. Aztecs believed that Toltecs created everything that contributed to the development of their civilization, although we know that the Toltecs borrowed heavily from the civilizations that preceded them/

1. Internal strife--including allegations of drunkeness and incest--led to the king leaving with a few followers, promising to return. He appears to have set up shop instead in the weakened Mayan sphere, and established a semi-Toltec fiefdom. But his promise to return was portentous for the Aztec civilization that followed.

D. Aztec civilization--what we usually call Aztec is actually an alliance of three native peoples living in city-states around a large lake that was near present-day Mexico City, known as the Triple Alliance. Although this implies an equal share of the rule, in fact it was a very unequal partnership. The rulers in Tlacopan received one-fifth of the tribute, those in Nezahialcoyot received two-fifths, and the Mexica of Tenochtitlan received two-fifths.

1. Mexica people--arrived in the Valley of Mexico in the 12th century (1100s), and served as vassals of the people already living there. Feeling ill-treated, they made alliances with the aforementioned two other groups, and were able to overcome the Toltecs.

2. Usual practice of conquerers in the Valley of Mexico was to destroy the history of the conquered people; the Mexica went a step further and destroyed their own history so that they could re-invent themselves as a people of destiny.

3. Tlacaclel--when the Aztecs came to power, Tlacaclel believed the Mexica were destined for greatness, and was the principle developer of the ideology that the Mexica were responsible for maintaining order in the cosmos (meaning the daily rising of the sun)--but that this order could only be maintained by ritual human sacrifice.

4. Warfare--was the means of maintaining a steady flow of sacrificial victims. Mexica military technique was the mano a mano face-off, and the victims were usually beaten into submission--then taken into the victor’s home, and treated like family until sacrifice time. Warfare for native peoples was a means of displaying manhood, rather than killing one’s enemies.

5. Tenochtlitan, the capital of the Mexica, was far cleaner than its European counterparts--and far larger, as well; it probably was home to over 100,000 people by 1520. It had a large workforce to remove garbage, etc., and a sewer system to remove human waste (in Europe, they simply threw it into the streets, where it mixed with animal waste and garbage). But this system was teetering on the brink of collapse even before the Spanish showed up.

6.Vassal states--the ruling hand of Aztecs was rather heavy, with tribute and the constant threat of warfare to gain sacrificial victims, so when someone showed up promising to upset the balance of power, their were plenty of eager allies.

III. Northern Peoples

A Southwestern Desert Cultures--Around 300 B.C.E. in what is today Arizona, contacts with people living in Mexico led to the introduction of agriculture based on irrigation and maize. Irrigation allowed the planting of two crops every year, the population grew and villages appeared. The Hohokam, who settled in the Salt and Gila River Valleys (around present-day Phoenix), showed the strongest Mexican influence, incorporating many cultural artifacts from Mexico into their own daily life.

1. Anasazi--used to identify a number of dispersed, but similar, desert cultures in the Four Corners region of the present-day states of Arizona, New Mexico, Colorado, and Utah. With irrigation, they grew maize, beans, and squash, as well as cotton, into which they made cloth. After 900, these people lived in multi-story residential and ritual centers (which was why they were called "Pueblos" by the Spanish), incorporating connected residences and kivas.

B. Mound Builders: Hopewell and Mississippian Cultures--natives that lived in the fertile bottom land along the Ohio River and, eventually theMississippi River, near present-day St. Louis, but impacting an area reaching from southern Minnesota to central Alabama.

1. Hopewell--Hopewell towns in the Ohio River Valley had several thousand inhabitants and served as ceremonial and political centers. Large mounds were built to house burials and serve as platforms for religious rituals. Often, these mounds were shaped to resemble creatures the people held sacred, and reflect sunrise and moonrise patters. People living in these towns relied manly on hunting and gathering, with little agriculture--which restricted their size, of course. We are not sure what caused their decline, but the abandoment of major sites around 400 signalled that the decline took place.

2. Mississippian Culture--Cahokia at its apex supported upwards of 15,000 to 60,000 people. By c.1400, workers at the settlement had denuded the immediate area of trees for various building projects, which removed the means of preventing erosion during sometimes severe midwestern thunderstorms. Flooding and erosion during critical growing times meant the loss of the maize crop, and led to the destruction of the civilization

2. While at its apex, Cahokia was a major trade center, a place of exchange between the plains and the woodlands with the gulf coast--and even beyond, into present-day Mexico.

3. Was Cahokia a civilization?--Cahokia was not filled with tradesmen, as we usually picture a city being; however, being the first city-like entity north of the Rio Grande River, they had no idea of what a city was.

III. Andean Civilization, 200-1500

A. Chavin Civilization--by the time of the Chavin, enormous environmental challenges had been overcome to allow human civilization to exist. People had learned to effectively fish the rich source off-shore, and to deal with the lack of rain with irrigation--and to grow food in the mountains, even though there was a danger of frost between 250-300 days each year. This required an accurate calendar and the domestication of frost-resistant varieties of potatoes and grains.

1. Ayllu--the clan, which was the foundation of Andean achievement. The ayllu members thought of each other as brother and sister, and were obligated to assist one another to accomplish tasks that a single family could not accomplish on their own.

2. Mit'a--with the formation of territorial states ruled by hereditary aristocracies and kings after 1000, the obligations of the ayllu were extended to the mit'a, a rotational labor draft that performed work in the fields, herded llama and alpaca for religious establishiments, the aristocracy, and the royal court, and well as construction of roads, public buildings, irrigation and drainage projects. They also made textiles and beer made from maize and coca (Loko One?)

B. Moche--Around 200, some four centuries after the collapse of the Chavin, the Moche developed the cultural and political tools needed to dominate the north coastal region of Peru. The did not establish a formal empire or create unified political structures, but they did exercise authority over a broad region.

1. Moche social order--evidence indicated that the Moche cultivated maize, quinoa, beans, manioc, and sweet potoatoes with the aid of massive irrigation works that the Moche rulers forced commoners and subject peoples to build and maintain. Moche society was highly stratified, with the elite constructing their dwellings on platforms so that they literally looked down on commoners, enhancing their position in society.

2. Environment crisis and decline--the archaeological record makes clear that the rapid decline of Moche civilization was spurred by a succession of natural disasters in the sixth century, including a 30 year drought which expanded the area of costal dunes and clogged the irrigation system. Coupled with the development of a new military power to their immediate south, the Moche were never able to recover.

C. Tiwanaku and Wari--Tiwanaku developed near Lake Titicaca; modern excavations indicate that a vast drainage project undertaken was able to reclaim nearly 200,000 acres of lake bottom land for agriculture, and this allowed them to support a population of upwards of 30,000 12,500 feet above sea level (about 4 miles).

1. Tiwanaku social structure--it is clear that Tiwanaku was a highly stratified society ruled by a hereditary elite that controlled a large, disciplined labor force in the surrounding region

2. Wari--located about 450 miles northwest of Tiwanaku, the Wari shared many elements of their culture, but the relationship between the two remains obscure. Some scholars maintain that Wari was a dependency of Tiwanaku, while others suggest they were joint capitals of a single empire. What is clear from the evidence in the lack of cut stone masonry in public an private buildings is that the Wari elite were either weaker than their Tiwanaku counterparts, or they lacked the necesarry skill.

3. Eclispe of Tiwanaku and Wari--a time of increased warfare throughout the Andes around 1000 led to the downfall of both the Tiwanaku and Wari, and their replacement by the Inca.

B. Inca civilization
1. The Inca Empire--was the largest empire in the world during its time, stretching nearly the entire west coast of South America; much of the empire was contained within the Andes Mountains, at heights were sustaining civilization is very difficult.

2. Inca reign--lasted just over one hundred years before its demise at the hands of Francisco Pizzaro; but as we shall see, like his cousin Cortez, he lucked into attacking an empire that was suffering from internal difficulties that contributed to its downfall.
3. Rise of the Inca--Inca was the name for the people, as well as incorporated into the name of the ruler.

a.) Originated near Lake Titicaca, in the Andes along the border of present-day Peru and Bolivia. Move then to area near Cusco (or Qosqo)

b.) Inca made enemies of the Chanka people, were suppose to be led into battle by Wiraqocha Inca and his designated heir (the Inca named their successors), Inca Urqon. The fled the Chanka, however, and the Incas were led into battle by the youngest son, Inca Cusi Yupaki, who led them to victory. After being tipped off to his father’s plans to have him murdered, Yupaki foiled the plot, and his humiliated father fled. Yupaki then renamed himself Pachakuti (“Worldshaker”) in Runa Sumi, the Inkan language.
c.) The Hegemonic Empire--Pachakuti formed his empire largely by persuading other peoples to adopt Inca ways of life and Inka protections; then co-opting local rulers to do his bidding.
d.) Succession problems--naming the successor worked as long as it was a decisive decision--and the person named outlived the Inka. By the early 1500s, to successive ascensions to the throne were contested, setting off small civil wars in Inkan society; the second was only resolved just before the appearance of Pizzaro.

Inner and East Asia, 581-755

I. The Sui and Tang Empires, 581-755

A. Sui Empire

1. Reunification of China--After the fall of the Han Dynasty, China was fragmeneted for several centuries. It was reunified under the Sui dynasty, a father and son ruling duo who held power from 581 until Turks from Inner Asia defeated the son in 615.

2. Sui rulers--called their new capital Chang'an in honor of the old capital in the Wei River Valley. Though northern China constituted the Sui heartland,  population centered along the Yangzi River in the south and pointed the way for future Chinese expansion. To facilitate communication and trade with the south the Sui built the 1,100 mile long Grand Canal

3. Sui military ambitions--extended to Korea and Vietnam, as well as Inner Asia, and required high levels of organization and the mustering or resources--manpower, livestock, wood, iron, and food supplies. The same was true of their massive public works projects. These burdens proved to be more than the Sui could sustain. Over-extension compounded the political dilemma stemming from the military defeat and subsequent assassination of the second Sui emperor. These circumstances opened the way for another strong leader to establish a new state.

4. In 618 the powerful Li family took advantage of the Sui disorder to carve out an empire of similar scale and ambition. They adopted the dynastic name Tang. The brilliant emperor Li Shimin extended his power primarily westward into Inner Asia. Though he and succeeding rulers of the Tang Empire retained many Sui governing practices, they avoided over-centralization by allowing local nobles, gentry, officials, and religious establishments to exercise significant amounts of power.

B. Buddhism and the Tang Empire--the Tang rulers followed Inner Asian precedents in their political use of Buddhism. State cults based on Buddhism had flourished in Inner Asia and North China since the fall of the Han dynasty. Some interpretations of Buddhist doctrines accorded kings and emperors the spiritual function of welding humankind into a harmonious Buddhist society. Protecting spirits were to help the rulers govern and protect the people from harm.

1. Mahayana Sect--Mahayana Buddhism predominated in the region, and fostered a faith in enlightened beings--bodhisattvas--who postponed nirvana to help others achieve enlightenment. This permitted the absorption of local gods and goddesses into Mahayana sainthood and made conversion of local peoples more attractive to them. Mahayana also encouraged translating Buddhist scripture into local languages, and it accepted religious practices not based on written texts.

2. Inter-regional contacts--as the Tang Empire expanded westward, contacts with western Asia and India increased, as did the complexity of the Buddhist influence throughout China. Chang'an became the center of a continent-wide system of communication and trade.

C. To Chang'an by Land and Sea

1. Tributary system--a type of political relationship dating from Han time by which independent countries acknowledged the Chinese emperor's supremacy by sending representatives bearing gifts. While the "inferior" countries may have seen this as a way to facilitate trade with China, the Chinese saw it as a political relationship/

C. Upheavals and Repression, 750-879

1. Opposition to Buddhism--the later years of the Tang dynasty witnessed increased conflict with Tibetans and Uighurs; one result of this was a backlash among the Chinese against "foreigners," which, to Confucians, meant all Buddhists

2. Wu Zhao--Buddhism was also attacked for encouraging women to become involved in politics. One, Wu Zhao, declared herself empress by claiming to be a bodhisattva. She was not deposed until 705, when she was more than eighty years old.

3. Closing the monasteries--because Buddhist monks and nuns renounced earthly treasures, and live in poverty, they were exempt from taxation--although the monasteries where they lived tended to collect great riches. This, coupled with the fact that these monks and nuns also practiced celibacy, made them seem threatening to Confucians. By 840, the government moved to crush these monasteris, and within 5 years 4,600 temples had been destroyed, and an enormous amount of land and 150,000 workers returned to the tax rolls.

D. The End of the Tang Empire, 879-907

1. An Lushan Rebellion--The defeat of the Chinese army at the Battle of Talas River in 751, which halted Chinese expansion in Western Asia, also led to army demoralization and underfunding. A disgruntled general by the name of An Lushan led his soldiers in a rebellion against the emperor, resulting in his fleeing from the capital. The rebellion lasted eight years, and was only put down by provincial military governors--which further eroded the power of the emperor.

2. Further unrest--a disgruntled member of the gentry led another rebellion, which peasants and other poor farmers joined because it offered some protection  from local bosses and landlords. Hatred of foreigners proved an outlet for this stress, and thousands of the foreigners were murdered on Canton and Beijing.

II. The Emergence of East Asia, to 1200

A. Emergence of Three New States--formed in the vaccuum created by the disintegration of the Tang Empire.

1. Liao Empire--established by the Khitan people, pastoral nomads related to the Mongols living on the northwest frontier. Centered their government in cities, but the emperor preferred life in nomad encampments.

2. Tanggut Empire (1038-1227)--of the Minyak people, who were related to the Tibetans on the Inner Asian frontier in northwestern China

3. Song Empire--Chinese-speaking, located in central China beginning around 960.

B. The Liao and Jin Challenge

1. Khitan People--extended from Siberia to Inner Asia. Liao rulers prided themselves on their pastoral traditions as horse and cattle herders, and made no attempt to impose a single elite culture.

2. Conquest of the Song--the Liao used their skill on horseback and as archers along with the technology of seize engines that they had learned from people in western Asia to defeat the Song, and forced them to send tribute in the form of gold and other valuable metals, and silk.

3. Jin Empire--after a century of paying tribute, the Song allied with the Jurchen people. The Jurchens toppled the Liao, burning their capital in Mongolia, and proclaimed their own empire--and then turned on the Song, defeating them in 1127 by laying siege to the capital, Kaifeng, and then capturing the Song emperor. As a result, the Song withdrew south of the Yellow River, leaving central China in Jurchen control.

C. Song Industries--the Southern Song (as this period is referred to by historinas) came closer to an industrial revolution than any other premodern society.

1. Technology--the Song incorported the technology that had earlier come to Tang China to meet their military, agricultural, and administrative needs.

2. Transportation--refined the compass, which allowed them to use it on sea-going vessels, like the main ocean-going vessel that was also developed around this time, the junk.

3. Iron and Steel--the Song were able to fight their neighbors to the north, and gained control of a significan number of iron and coal mines there--which allowed them to refine the manufacture of iron and develop the manufacture of steel.

4. Gunpowder--to counter cavalry assaults, the Song experimented with the use of gunpowder, which they used to propel clusters of flaming arrows. They later developed the mortar.

D. Economy and Society in Song China--despite living in a war-like era, Song elite culture idealized civil pursuits, and the civil official outranked the military officer.

1. Neo-Confucianism--new interpretations of Confucian teachings became important during the Song era, and later versions incorporated these new interpretations. A man named Zhu Xi (1130-1200), the most important early thinking propelling neo-Confucianism, wrote in reaction to the many centuries when Buddhism and Daoism had overshadowed the concepts of Confucius. He and others worked out a systematic approach to cosmology that focused on the central conception that human nature is moral, rational, and essentially good. Their human ideal was the sage, who could preserve mental stability and serenity while dealing conscientiously with troubling social problems--in contrast to the bodhisattva, who largely withdrew from the world.

2. Mediative Buddhsim--Chan Buddhism (known as Zen in Japan--and the United States) emphasized meditation as a way of achieving salvation; it was probably this shift in emphasis that reconciled it with neo-Confucianism, which also emphasized meditation, after the hostile period Buddhist practice experienced during the Tang dynasty.

3. Examination system--hereditary class distinctions meant less during the Song dynasty than they had in the Tang, and efforts were made to recruit the most talented men, no matter what their origin--but men from rich families retained a distinct advantage, because they could prepare for the examinations much more thoroughly than their poorer counterparts.

4. Printing--a technical change to the woodblock led to the development of an early form of moveable type, and permitted the Song to authorize the mass production of preparation books in the years before 1000. Although one had to be literate to read the books, and a basic education was out of the reach of most Chinese, this did allow a few sons of poorer families to move into the Song bureaucracy.

5. Population growth--during the 1100s, as the Song added more territory and prosperity was the norm, China's population grew to more than 100 million people. Although no individual city was more than 1,000,000, the size of many Chinese cities dwarfed anything else in the world, and despite their size were much cleaner (and healthier) than cities in Europe.

6. Trade and Credit--begun during the Tang era, interregional or intercity money--promissary notes, in reality--largely depended upon family relationships in far-flung places. When the Song attempted to issue paper money to meet its obligations, it created inflation so severe that at the beginning of the 1100s that the paper money was trading at only 1 percent of its face value.

7. Status of women--although merchants depended upon their wives to run their businesses while they were off trading, rights of women further diminished under the Song. Women were only educated enough that they could function in an increasingly comples society, but not to the point where they could compete with men

a. Footbinding--although it appeared in the Tang era among slave dancers, footbinding became more widespread in the Song period. Females of elite families--or those who aspired to elite status--had their feet bound from a young age to make them more desirable for male suitors.

III. New Kingdoms in East Asia

A. Chinese influences--Korea, Japan, and Vietnam had first centralized power under ruling houses in the early Tang period, and their state ideologies continued to resemble that of the early Tang period, when Buddhism and Confucianism seemed more compatible.

B. Korea--our first knowledge of Kora, Japan, and Vietnam comes via Chinese visitors. During the Han era, it was noted that Koreans engaged in horse breeding, were ruled by strong hereditary elites, and practiced shamanism (the belief that certain individuals could contact the spirit world)--which was quickly replaced by Buddhism and Confucianism.

1. Aristocratic families--in the early 500 the dominant landholding families made inherited status--the "bone ranks"--permanent in southern Korea. In 668, the northern kingdom, known as Koguryo, came into conflict with the Sui and Tang. Supported by the Tang, the southern kingdom, known as Silla, took control of the north. In the early 900s, Silla collapsed, along with their patrons the Tang's, and this allowed the Koryo to rule a united peninsula for the next three centuries.

C. Japan--Consists of four main islans and many smaller ones stretching in an arc from as far north as Maine to as far south as Georgia. Mountainous and heavily forested in this early period, only 11 percent of its land was considered arable.

1. Yamato Regime--we are not sure at this point what spurred Japanese unification, although it seems likely that horse riders from Korea played a part. By the 600s, these rulers implemented the Taika and other refoms, which gave the Yamato regime key features of the Tang government. A legal code, an official variety of Confuciansim, and an official reverence for Buddhism blended with the local recognition on indigenous and immigrant chieftains as territorial administrators. Within a century, a centralized government with a complex system of law had emerged--attesting to the influence of Confucianism.

2. Chinese influences--Japanese incorporated Chinese building techniques, and by the 700s Japan had largely passed China in Buddhist studies--but Japan did not incorporate the idea of the Mandate of Heaven, instead believing that the ruling family to have ruled Japan since the beginning of time. While the dynasty never changed, the prime minister and leaders of the native religion, who held actual power, did change with some frequency.

3. Fujiwara Clan--in 794 the central government moved to Kyoto (then known as Heian), and remained centralized (more or less) until 1185, although central power had began to disintegrate near the end. Members of the Fukiwara clan controlled power and protected the emperor during much of this time, and favored men of Confucian learning over illiterate warriors.

4. The Shogunate--military values became increasingly important during the period from 1156-1185, when warfare between rival clans culminated in the establishment of the Kamakura Shogunate, who replace the Fujiwara family.

D. Vietnam--not until the Tang era did the relationship between Vietnam and China become close enough for economic and cultural interchange to play an important role

1. Rice Culture--Vietnam's economic and poltical life centered on two fertile river valleys; the Red River in the north, and the Mekong River in the south. The rice-based agriculture of Vietnam made it well-suited to economic integration with southern China

2. Relations with China--although the Vietnamese may have adopted the use of draft animals before China, the elites of northern Vietnam adopted Confucian training, Mahayan Buddhism, and other aspects of Chinese culture. The Annamese continued to rule in the Tang style after that regimes fall; the Annam assumed the name Dai Viet in 936 and retained good relations with the Song as an independent country.

3. Champa--located in southern Vietnam, were more influenced by its maritime networks of trade with Malay and India. The Champa and Dai Viet were often fighting among themselves, but cooperate together to resist what threats would emanate from the Song

Christian Societies Emerge in Europe, 600-1200

I. The Byzantine Empire, 600-1200

A. An Empire Beleaguered--having a single ruler endowed with supreme legal and religious authority prevented the breakup of the Eastern Empire into petty principalities (as was the case with the Western Empire--the "fall" of Rome)--but a series of territorial losses sapped the strength of the empire.

1. Arab defeat of the Sasanid Empire

2. Arab victories also gain for them the former Byzantine controlled territories of Egypt, Syria, and Tunisia.

3. The threat of Islam--the rise of Islam in these territories meant the diminished influence of Christianity there; by the end of the 12th century, some two-thirds of the Christians in these former Byzantine territories had adopted the Muslim faith.

4. Christiam schism--at the same time that the Byzantine Empire was being threatened by Islam, worsening relations with the bishops of Rome and western princes limited the support for Byzantium when it was most needed; by 1054, religious differences between the eastern Christian churches and the Latin Church in the west had grown into a full schism that has only partly been mended.

B. Society and Urban Life

1. Plague of Justinian--although the eastern empire was more urbanized, both parts of the empire were devasted during the 6th century epidemic of bubonic plague, named for the emperor Justinian, who ruled Byzantium from 527 to 565. Narrative histories tell us little about its effects, but popular narratives of the lives of saints show a transition from stories about educated saints hailing from cities to stories about saints who originated as peasants

2. Urban elite population shrinks--as the urban elite population shrank, the importance of high-ranking aristocrats and rural landowners increased. Populations in cities shrank, and in many area barter replaced money transactions.

3. Rise of Rural Elites--as the number of urban elite shrank, the importance of high-ranking aristocrats at the imperial court and of rural landowners increased. Power centered in rural families began to rival the power of class-based officeholding. By the end of the 11th century, a family-based military aristocracy had emerged.

4. Restriction of economic freedom--Byzantine emperors continued the late Roman inclination to set prices, organize grain shipments to the capital, and monopolize trade in luxury goods. While this kept the masses out fo the streets and relatively well-fed, this was probably a factor in slowing technological development and economic innovation--and tended to restrict the growth of other urban areas in the Eastern Empire, as well.

B. Cultural achievements

1. Hagia Sophia cathedral--as well as a number of other places of worship

2. Byzantine religious art--an outgrowth of the religious archtecture

3. Cyrillic alphabet--used by Slavic Christians adhering to the Orthodox (Byzantine) rites in religious practice--and the basis for the persistance of Orthodox religious practice among the southern Slavic peoples (and Russians), while the Roman alphabet and religion prevails among the Poles, Czechs, and Croatians



II. Early Medieval Europe, 600-1000

A. The Time of Insecurity

1. Muslim Invasions--Arabs and Berbers crossed the Straits of Gibraltar in 711, and quickly overran the Visigoth kingdom in modern Spain. They pushed the Christian princes to the northern areas of the peninsula, then turned to invading France, reaching as far north as Tours (about 150 miles south of Paris) before being defeated and forced to withdraw to Iberia by Charles Martel (the grandfather of Charlemagne)

2. The Carolingian Empire--military effectiveness was the key element in the rise of the Carolingian family, first as the protectors of the Frankish kings, and then as kings themselves--and eventually as emperors. At the peak of Charlemagne's power, the Carolingian Empire encompassed all of Gaul and parts of Germany and Italy, with the pope ruling parts of the latter. When Louis the Pious, Charlemagne's son, died, the Treaty of Verdun split the empire into three parts: the French-speaking west (France); the middle (Burgandy), and the German-speaking in the east (Germany). The Carolingian economic system based upon landed wealth and a brief intellectual revival sponsored personally by Charlemagne provided a common heritage.

3. Viking Raids--Europe was threatened not only from invaders from the south, but from the north, as well. The Vikings were adventerous and skilled sailors, and their hit-and-run raids around northern Europe struck fear into the hearts of the people living in those areas. Their legacy can still be viewed in the person of the stereotypical Irish redhead; Celts were more darkly complected, but with the offspring of Viking invaders, there grew a large population of redheads.

C. A Self-Sufficient Economy

1. Germanic Customs--the Germanic peoples who came to power in the vaccuum of the fall of Rome had little use for the urban-based civilization of the Romans; the population of cities fell, and much of the infrastructure constructed by the Romans fell into disrepair. The German diet consisted largely of beer, lard or butter, bread made from barley, rye, or wheat, all supplemented by pork from swine heards that were free range fed on acorns, beechnuts, and whatever else they found in forests.

2. The Manorial System--fear of attack led many small farmers to give their land to large landowners in return for physical and political protection. The large landowners, in turn, supported a fighting force to protect the area they were accumulating this land in--and to keep the former small landowners in line. In this hierarchical society, the former small landowners found their status changed, as well.



a. Serfs--Serfs were agricultural workers who belonged to the manor, tilled its fields, and owed dues and other obligations. Serfs could not leave the manor where they were born (legally). Most peasants in England, France, and western Germany were unfree serfs in the 10th and 11th centuries. In Bordeaux, Saxony, and  few other regions, free peasantry survived based on the egalitarian social structure of the Germanic people during their period of migration. Outright slavery, on the other hand, diminished as more and more peasants became serfs in return for a lord's protection.

D. Early Medieval Society in the West

1. Feudalism--is the term used to describe the the relationship between nobles and "vassals"--or those person nobles gave land to in return for military service. By the 10th century, these vassals using owned horses from which they fought from, and provided their own armor. As they obtained technology like stirrups, their armor became more elaborate

2. Knights--By the 11th century, the knight had emerged as the central figure in medieval warfare. As a knight became more prosperous, he could afford a more elaborate outfit, which signaled his greater status

3. Fiefdoms--a grant of land in return for military service was often called a fief. Although at first these grants were taken back at the end of the fief's life, by the 10th century, these fiefdoms could be inherited as long as the military service continued to be provided. It evolved as a general practice for a king or major noble to make grants of land to his vassals (other members of the nobility), who in turn made grants to their vassals. The lord of the manor provided governance and justice locally; the royal government was quite distant to the average peasant.

4. Noblewomen--became enmeshed in this system as heiresses and as candidates for marriage. A man who married a widow or the daughter of a lord could gain control of the lord's property. Noble daughters and sons had little say in marriage matters; issues of land, power, and military service took precendence.

III. The Western Church

A. Politics and the Church

1. The papacy--in the west Roman nobles lost control of the papacy, and it became a more powerful international office after the tenth century. Councils of bishops usually convened not only to chose the next pope, but also to fix church doctrine. The lack of trained clergy, difficult transportation, political disorder, and the prevalence of non-standard practice often made the enforcement of approved practice difficult.

2. The Holy Roman Empire--as the French philosopher Voltaire pointed out, the Holy Roman Empire was neither holy, nor Roman, nor an empire. It was a creation of the pope Charlemagne's father Pepin in an attempt to make Pepin an ally. Tension quickly grew between the pope and the various princes in Europe, particularly after Hildebrand as Pope Gregory decreed that all earthy princes were all subservient to him, since he was God's appointee on earth. This tension came to a head in the investure controversey, when Gregory excommunicated (denied the sacraments of the Church) the Holy Roman Emperor Henry IV over Henry's refusal to follow Gregory's reforms. While Henry was penitent over this matter, when Gregory declared Henry deposed (removed as emperor) in 1078, Henry forced Gregory to flee from Rome, and Gregory died in exile in Salerno two year later. This dispute was not resolved until the Concordat of Worms, when Henry V renounced his right to choose bishops and abbots or bestow spiritual symbols upon them, while Pope Calixtus II agreed to permit the emperor to invest papally appointed bishops and abbots with any lay rights or obligations before their spiritual consecration.



3. Henry II of England and Thomas a Becket--Becket was Henry's closest friend and advisor, so when Henry convinced him to become a priest and had him appointed Archbishop of Canterbury (the most important bishop in England), Henry assumed he could therefore also control the Church in England. When Becket resisted, four of Henry's knights, knowing that Henry wished Becket dead, murdered him. The backlash from this underhanded deed undermined the authority the Henry had wielded.

B. Monasticism--became prominent in almost all medieval Christian lands, although its origins lie in the eastern lands of the Roman Empire.

1. Benedictine Rule--the most important form of monasticism in western Europe involved groups of monks or nuns living together in organized communities. The person most responsible for introducing this originally Egyptian practice in the Latin west was Benedict of Nursia in Italy. Benedict began his monastic career living as a hermit in a cave, but eventually organized several monastraries, each headed by an abbot. Benedictine Rule governed the behavior of monks, and envisioned a life of devotion and work, along with obigations of celibacy, poverty, and obedience to the abbot. Those who lived by monastic rules were classified as regular clergy, while those who lived in secular society were secular clergy.

2. Preservation of knowledge--since those living in monastaries were among the few people in European society during this time that could read and write, and because they were to devote themselves to work when not devoted to prayer, monastaries in western Europe were responsible for preserving much of the knowledge acculated by the Romans (Muslim societies and Byzantium preserved much of the Greek knowledge, plus their own discoveries).

3. Cluny--even with the Rule of Benedict, religious practices in monastaries were susceptible to corruption. The abbot at the Benedictine monastary in Cluny, France, led the first reform movement, and at the peak of Cluny's influence nearly 1,000 monastaries and priories (lower-level monastic houses) came under the rule of the abbot of Cluny.

IV. Western Europe Revives, 1000-1200

A. The New Millenium--when the next millenium passed, and Jesus did not reappear as was widely believed, Europeans seemed to gather the wherewithal to work to improve their society, since it seemed likely that they would be around a while longer.

B. The Role of Technology

1. Population growth--the population in western Europe doubled in the 200 years between 1000 and 1200

2. Horses and plows--Europeans switch over almost exclusively to the use of horses from oxen; horses can pull heavier loads, although they need more grain than oxen. Europeans also begin to use the horse collar, rather than previous kinds of harnesses, which shifted the burden back to the animals shoulders, rather than neck, and allowed them to pull things with choking themselves. A new kind of plow was also developed, which allowed ploughmen to furrow deeper, and to work in the heavier soils of western Europe.

C. Cities and the Rebirth of Trade

1. Independent Cities in Italy--Independent cities governed and defended by communes appeared first in Italy and in Flanders, and then spread elsewhere. Communes were groups of leading citizens who banded together to defend their city and to demand the right of self-government from their lay or religious lord. With this independence, they were able to attract workers from the surrounding countryside, who brought their skills to these cities, began manufacturing items--and provided merchants with the material to begin trading with.Venice, built on a series of swampy islands on the eastern side of the Italian peninsula, and Genoa on the western side, became two of the leading independent cities that sparked trade with Muslims in the Middle East, eventually trading with India and on the Silk Road.

2. Independent Cities in Flanders (modern Belgium)--cities like Bruges, Ghent, and Ypres rivaled Italian cities in wealth, by trading in fish caught in the North Sea, and by becoming an early textile manufacturing center.

V. The Crusades, 1095-1204

A. The Roots of the Crusades

1. The Truce of God--Christian societies in Europe were very violent, with knights looking to prove their worth, and war as a means of overcoming ones opponents. Church leaders attempted to change this atmosphere by decreeing certain times forbidden for carrying out war--Lent, Sundays, othe important holy days. While many knight welcomed a religiously approved alternative to fighting other Christians, the leaders of these societies were also looking for new lands to conquer and exploit. In addition, Italian merchants wanted to increase trade with the eastern Mediterranean, and eliminate the Muslim middlemen they were dealing with. But without the rivalry between the popes and kings discussed above, and without the desire of the Church to demonstrate political authority over western Christendom, the Crusades might never have happened.

2. Pilgrimages--were important in the religious life in Europe. The Muslim rulers benefited monetarily from these pilgrimages, and did their best to accommodate these pilgrims. Pilgrims were usually accompanied by knights during the long journey, who interacted with other knights and learned of efforts to overthrow Muslim rulers in other parts of Europe--particularly in the Iberian Peninsula. When security in the eastern Mediterranean began to break down after the Seljuk Turk victory and the spread of Turkish nomads throughout the region, tension rose.

3. Pope Urban II--despite theological differences between the Othodox and Roman Churches, the Byzantine emperor Alexius Conenus asked the pope and western European rulers to help him retake the Holy Land and end the Muslim threat. Urban responded, called upon western Christians to stop fighting each other, and to fight Muslims instead. While the First Crusade was fairly successful, capturing Jerusalem and establishing Christian communities in other locales in the region, Muslim retook Jerusalem in 1187; by the Fourth Crusade, the religious ardor that had animated the First Crusade had waned to the extent that the crusaders sacked Christian Constantinople before beginning, in order to pay for shipping the Crusaders across the Mediterranean

B. Impact of the Crusade--although at war with Muslims, western European crusaders were also impressed with the civilizations that Muslims created in the eastern Mediterranean, and sought to learn from them. The crusaders brought back to western Europe much of the knowledge preserved in the region, from Ancient Greece, from Arab scholars, translated it, and began to incorporate what they learned.