11 th Century Timelines Episode One: Century of the Sword (1000-1100)

1. 11th Century TimelinesEpisode One: Century of the Sword (1000-1100) • http://www.cnn.com/SPECIALS/1999/millennium/learning/timelines/

2. The Larger Eleventh-Century World ContextIf all the world is a stage, the opening scene of this Millennium would be an agricultural village, the place where most of the world's peoples lived. The rhythm of the days and the seasons, planting and harvesting reflected the agricultural revolution, the first great change in human history. Song China, Heian Japan, the Abbasid caliphate, Ghana, the Byzantine Empire, the Anasazi, the Mississippians, and the people of Tiahuanaco developed thriving urban cultures that differed markedly from simple village life. Surplus grain at this time in human history supported urban wealth.

3. Chinese InnovationYet great changes were about to take place. They began in China during the Song dynasty. Although the Song paid huge sums of money for defense, commerce expanded. Various changes had occurred before 1000 which enabled China to shift from a command economy in which government officials set prices to a market economy in which prices were determined by supply and demand. In 611 the Grand Canal was completed linking the northern and southern cities. Canals served the same function as railroads in a later age. China developed regional trade network between the north and south via rivers and canals.

4. Chinese InnovationA new kind of fast ripening rice was introduced in South China. Peasants could plant, harvest, and sell two crops a year. Grain was shipped north to trade for products like iron. The Chinese adopted Korean moveable type. Print technology made paper money possible. Since paper money could be transported more easily and exchanged for gold or silver in another market town, more people traded over longer distances. A credit system developed. The government switched from collecting grain for taxes to accepting cash for tax payments. By the Song period millions of ordinary peasants were able to sell their products, pay taxes in money, and use what was left over to buy things they needed , tools, clothes and household utensils.

5. Chinese InnovationExport of porcelain, silks, spices and other luxury goods also flourished. Chinese ships journeyed to Srivijaya, a Southeast Asian empire, for spices and to Pacific islands for sandlewood. Even though Srivijaya collapsed in 1025, the lucrative maritime trade in spices continued. Chinese merchants traded in the Indian Ocean. More Chinese paid taxes. Print increased demands for books with practical information to improve everyday farming, knowledge of medicines, and mathematics. The lives of ordinary Chinese changed as an economy with modern characteristics expanded rapidly. This was the beginning of a series of changes that led to the modern world.

6. Islamic WorldBeyond China these were the last golden years for Bagdad as the capital of the Abbasid caliphate. Seljuk Turks occupied the city in 1055; soon afterward (1071), they defeated Byzantine military in the Battle of Manzikert. That forced the Byzantines back to Constantinople and opened Syria and most of modern Turkey to conquest. The al-Azhar Mosque, one of the Islamic world's most significant religious centers and universities, was built in the city of Cairo. Spain became another center of Islamic learning and cultural expression. Between these two brilliant cultural centers, Berber nomads conquered trade routes and established a new kingdom that extended from Morocco south to Ghana and Mali. Islam continued to expand on every front, especially in Africa and SE Asia.

7. EuropeIn Europe the Normans invaded England in 1066. European trade gradually revived from centuries of subsistence farming when peasants began to produce a surplus. Europe slowly returned to a money economy with the circulation of silver coins. In 1095 Pope Urban II urged Christians to go to the Holy Land to fight Muslims where they learned about spices, and silks, and porcelains from the Orient.

8. Conclusion The term Orient means east, it also means to acquaint with a situation. The story from 1000 to 1500 is a story of Europeans orienting themselves to the rest of the world; a world in which China was the dominate economy.

9. CHINA - Summary In China, barbarians from the north swept down to seize some of China's wealth. In the course of this invasion, the bustling, cosmopolitan city at the heart of China-Kaifeng-was sacked.

10. Confucian scholars remained confident, however, that China's culture would endure. As it turned out, they were more or less right.

11. China was a center of world innovation and would not be restrained for long. Chinese civilization had produced the print block, paper money, the compass, the seismograph, an accurate water clock, acupuncture, medical sciences, and gunpowder.

12. The invaders, rather than crushing these achievements, were seduced by such sophistication and adopted Chinese ways.

13. JAPAN - Summary Treacherous seas separated the Japanese from much of the world. At the heart of the Japanese islands was a court where manners had became increasingly refined. Female courtiers were expected to be skilled in many things.

14. Writing talent in particular was highly valued. Sei Shonagon was one such courtier skilled in letters. Her portrait of court life has been preserved, as fresh today as it would have been in the 11th century.

15. Perhaps because her world was confined to the walls of the palace complex, she observed her surroundings in their minutest details: the raindrops on a spider's web, the wind created by a mosquito's wings, the play of light on water as it is poured into a vessel.

16. She also recorded awkward and embarrassing moments, such as when a man lay awake at night talking to his companion, only to have the companion go on sleeping. Sei Shonagon's nights were full of intrigue as various lovers tiptoed around the palace complex to visit her and the other ladies of the court.

17. Although this court culture was only a small part of Japanese reality, it typifies this introspective and insular society, which would show no signs of initiative for several centuries to come.

18. INDIA - Summary For centuries, India had provided much of the rest of Asia with sacred scriptures and scientific texts. In the 11th century, the Muslim scholar Alberuni visited India to learn the secrets of Indian wisdom.

19. He traveled around the subcontinent for 15 years, visiting sacred temples and studying Sanskrit. He marveled at the industry of the various Indian peoples he encountered but was puzzled by the behaviour of India's religious leaders. The priests did not take shelter, nor did they wear clothes.

20. The great learning of the previous millennium was no longer in much evidence; instead he found a civilization that had become self-absorbed.

21. SPAIN - Summary The Islamic World was a young and vigorous civilization in the 11th century. Over the preceding four hundred years, the warriors of Islam had conquered vast tracts of territory.

22. Once converted by traders, the nomadic tribes of the Sahara and central Asia proved to be even more zealous evangelists than their mentors.

23. During this century, Turks displaced Arab rulers in Asia and Egypt, and real military expansion occurred on many fronts, including sub-Sahara Africa, North Africa, Afghanistan and Spain.

24. Muslim traders also extended and consolidated Islamic influence. They operated across great distances, connecting the African continent to the Middle East, Christendom and Asia.

25. At the heart of the western Islamic world lay Cordoba. Like many Islamic cities, it boasted hundreds of gardens, shops and baths. It was a mirror of paradise.

26. JERUSALEM - Summary Christendom was also on the fringes of the greater civilizations, and in the 11th century was split irrevocably into two separate geographic and ideological factions.

27. The West held the wealthy Eastern Church in contempt, while the more urbane Eastern Church considered the Christians of the west to be barbarians of little faith. In 1054, years of political wrangling reached a climax.

28. The Pope in Rome issued a document formally excommunicating the Eastern Church. It was a rift that would create divisions within Europe for centuries after. At the time, it appeared that prospects for this part of the world in the future were dim.

29. However, the drive to clear the forests and spread the Christian faith into the corners of the continent proved to be a powerful force of revival later in the millennium. Rapid expansion would begin on all frontiers-the seeds of Western dynamism were already in hand.

30. William the Conqueror, 1027-1087 England as we know it began when William, Duke of Normandy, crossed the Channel and went on to win the Battle of Hastings in 1066. Eager to increase his power as king, he dispossessed Anglo-Saxon nobles and divided their lands among his followers. The Norman influence was felt in every sphere, from language to architecture to warfare. William spent his 21-year reign successfully fending off enemies. No one has invaded England since.

31. Fan Kuan 990 - 1030 • A Taoist recluse, Fan Kuan is best known as the painter of Travelers Amid Streams and Mountains, the greatest single example of the monumental-landscape style of painting and a model for all Chinese artists. The painting, nearly seven feet tall, is based on the Taoist principle of becoming one with nature. Fan's style -- reducing human figures to minute proportions and dramatizing the awesome power of nature -- has led critics to compare his creative powers with those of nature itself.

32. Guido of Arezzo 991-1033 • Musical theorist and teacher Guido of Arezzo solved two practical problems. Choirboys were learning chants by listening and imitating, not always accurately. Guido devised a system of musical notation -- it has evolved into today's five-line staff -- that enabled certainty of pitch. He also used the syllables that began six lines of a popular hymn (ut, re, mi, fa, sol, la), along with the notes on which they were sung, to perfect a method of teaching sight-singing still in use today.

33. Ibn Sina 980 - 1037 • Islam's most renowned philosopher-scientist, Ibn Sina outgrew his teachers as a teenager and educated himself in law, medicine and metaphysics. His intellect served him well: As a court physician in Persia, he survived intrigue and imprisonment to write two of history's greatest works, The Book of Healing, a compendium of science and philosophy, and The Canon of Medicine, an encyclopedia based on the teachings of Greek physicians. The latter was widely used in the West, where Ibn Sina, known as Avicenna, was called the Prince of Physicians.

34. Pope Gregory VII, 1020-1085 • Originally named Hildebrand, Gregory is considered one of the most significant popes of the Middle Ages. He attempted sweeping reforms in the Church, and took a stand for the primacy of the papacy over secular authorities, a policy that was epitomized in his conflict with Emperor Henry IV.

35. 11th Century Segments • China • Japan • India • Spain • Jerusalem

36. How the World Has Changed – World’s 5 Largest Urban Areas (million population) 1000 Cordova .45 Kaifeng (China) .40 Constantinople (Istanbul) .30 Angkor .20 Kyoto .18

37. 11th Century Legacies • The migration and synthesis of peoples created new cultural identities that continue to exist at the end of the millennium. • Modern European languages like English, the international language of business, modern science, and technology, were formed from a synthesis of languages during this period. Arabic becomes the lingua franca of the Muslim world and Mandarin Chinese was taught to the educated of the Pacific World. One-third of all Africans living south of the Sahara speak a Bantu language.

38. 11th Century Legacies • Religious conversions established universal religions with less regard to ethnic identities. • The division of Catholic and Orthodox believers has lasted through the millennium. • Pilgrimages like those to the Ganges or to Mecca have remained a significant religious ritual for millions of people from the year 1000 to the present. Such occasions have tended to link peoples over long distances through time.