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AP WORLD HISTORY. Period 3: Regional and Transregional Interactions, c. 600 C.E. to c. 1450 *Directly from the AP Board!. Key Concept 3.1. Expansion and Intensification of Communication and Exchange Networks.
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AP WORLD HISTORY Period 3:Regional and Transregional Interactions,c. 600 C.E. to c. 1450 *Directly from the AP Board!
Key Concept 3.1. Expansion and Intensification ofCommunication and Exchange Networks Although Afro-Eurasia and the Americas remained separate from one another, this era witnessed a deepening and widening of old and new networks of human interaction within and across regions. The results were unprecedented concentrations of wealth and the intensification of cross-cultural exchanges. Innovations in transportation, state policies, and mercantile practices contributed to the expansion and development of commercial networks, which in turn served as conduits for cultural, technological, and biological diffusion within and between various societies. Pastoral or nomadic groups played a key role in creating and sustaining these networks. Expanding networks fostered greater interregional borrowing, while at the same time sustaining regional diversity. The prophet Muhammad promoted Islam, a new major monotheistic religion at the start of this period. It spread quickly through practices of trade, warfare, and diffusion characteristic of this period. I. Improved transportation technologies and commercial practices led to an increased volume of trade, and expanded the geographical range of existing and newly active trade networks. A. Existing trade routes flourished and promoted the growth of powerful new trading cities. • The Silk Roads • The Mediterranean Sea • The Trans-Saharan • The Indian Ocean basins
The Self Destruction of the 1% IN the early 14th century, Venice was one of the richest cities in Europe. At the heart of its economy was the colleganza, a basic form of joint-stock company created to finance a single trade expedition… it opened the economy to new entrants, allowing risk-taking entrepreneurs to share in the financial upside with the established businessmen who financed their merchant voyages… Venice’s elites were the chief beneficiaries. Like all open economies, theirs was turbulent. Today, we think of social mobility as a good thing. But if you are on top, mobility also means competition. In 1315, when the Venetian city-state was at the height of its economic powers, the upper class acted to lock in its privileges, putting a formal stop to social mobility with the publication of the Librod’Oro, or Book of Gold, an official register of the nobility. If you weren’t on it, you couldn’t join the ruling oligarchy… The political shift, which had begun nearly two decades earlier, was so striking a change that the Venetians gave it a name: La Serrata, or the closure. It wasn’t long before the political Serrata became an economic one, too. Under the control of the oligarchs, Venice gradually cut off commercial opportunities for new entrants. Eventually, the colleganza was banned. The reigning elites were acting in their immediate self-interest, but in the longer term, La Serrata was the beginning of the end for them, and for Venetian prosperity more generally. By 1500, Venice’s population was smaller than it had been in 1330. In the 17th and 18th centuries, as the rest of Europe grew, the city continued to shrink... The story of Venice’s rise and fall is told by the scholars DaronAcemoglu and James A. Robinson, in their book Why Nations Fail: The Origins of Power, Prosperity, and Poverty, as an illustration of their thesis that what separates successful states from failed ones is whether their governing institutions are inclusive or extractive. Extractive states are controlled by ruling elites whose objective is to extract as much wealth as they can from the rest of society. Inclusive states give everyone access to economic opportunity; often, greater inclusiveness creates more prosperity, which creates an incentive for ever greater inclusiveness. The history of the United States can be read as one such virtuous circle. But as the story of Venice shows, virtuous circles can be broken. Elites that have prospered from inclusive systems can be tempted to pull up the ladder they climbed to the top. Eventually, their societies become extractive and their economies languish... By CHRYSTIA FREELAND NY TIMES.COM OCT 13, 2012
Key Concept 3.1. Expansion and Intensification ofCommunication and Exchange Networks Continued… B. New trade routes centering on Mesoamerica and the Andes developed. C. The growth of interregional trade in luxury goods was encouraged by significant innovations in previously existing transportation and commercial technologies, including more sophisticated caravan organization; use of the compass, astrolabe, and larger ship designs in sea travel; and new forms of credit and monetization. D. Commercial growth was also facilitated by state practices, trading organizations, and state-sponsored commercial infrastructures like the Grand Canal in China.
Myth, medicine and medieval tastes created a market for the world's first globally traded product By Paul Freedman YaleGlobal, 11 March 2003 … To the medieval European imagination, the East was exotic and alluring. Medieval maps often placed India close to the so-called Earthly Paradise, the Garden of Eden described in the Bible… Geographical knowledge has a lot to do with the perceptions of spices’ relative scarcity and the reasons for their high prices. An example of the varying notions of scarcity is the conflicting information about how pepper is harvested. As far back as the 7th century Europeans thought that pepper in India grew on trees "guarded" by serpents that would bite and poison anyone who attempted to gather the fruit. The only way to harvest pepper was to burn the trees, which would drive the snakes underground. Of course, this bit of lore would explain the shriveled black peppercorns, but not white, pink or other colors. Certain writers occasionally questioned how pepper could be collected year after year since the fire would presumably destroy the entire tree. Only with a report by the merchant Nicolo de' Conti in the early 15th century do we have a European eyewitness at a pepper harvest on the Malabar Coast. Nicolo remarks that there are no snakes, no fire, no bizarre harvesting methods. Nicolo's account almost invites merchants to undermine a price differential resulting from artificial barriers, middlemen and ignorance, and encourages exploration and economic opportunity… Price and availability of spices in Europe were affected by global factors: from the weather in India to relations between Christian and Muslim powers. While the papacy and the Kingdom of Cyprus attempted to restart the Crusades by prohibiting trade with Egypt, the Venetians and Genoese fought to control that lucrative trade. Traders throughout the Mediterranean bought spices in Alexandria, Beirut and sometimes ports on the eastern Mediterranean or the Black Sea… The quest for spice was one of the earliest drivers of globalization. Long before the voyages of European explorers, spices were globally traded products... High prices, a limited supply and mysterious origins fueled a growing effort to discover spices and their source of cultivation.
Myth, medicine and medieval tastes created a market for the world's first globally traded product Thus, spices were a global commodity centuries before European voyages. There was a complex chain of relations, yet consumers had little knowledge of producers and vice versa .Desire for spices helped fuel European colonial empires to create political, military and commercial networks under a single power… Historians know a fair amount about the supply of spices in Europe during the medieval period - the origins, methods of transportation, the prices - but less about demand. Why go to such extraordinary efforts to procure expensive products from exotic lands? Still, demand was great enough to inspire the voyages of Christopher Columbus and Vasco Da Gama, launching the first fateful wave of European colonialism... In a handbook of practical wisdom written by the Florentine merchant Francesco Pegolotti in the early 14th century, some 288 spices are listed, including items like alum, used as a dye fixative. Even so, the variety of imported aromatic substances is astounding and suggests a high demand, including "long pepper" and "grains of Paradise," both peppery in taste but unrelated to black pepper, as well "dragon's blood," a dye and also a drug ingredient… One widely disseminated explanation for medieval demand for spices was that they covered the taste of spoiled meat. Spices were more expensive than meat, and fresh meat was available, as suggested by extant records of municipal ordinances prohibiting butchers from throwing unwanted animal parts and blood in the streets. Medieval purchasers consumed meat much fresher than what the average city-dweller in the developed world of today has at hand. However, refrigeration was not available, and some hot spices have been shown to serve as an anti-bacterial agent. Salting, smoking or drying meat were other means of preservation… Most spices used in cooking began as medical ingredients, and throughout the Middle Ages spices were used as both medicines and condiments. Above all, medieval recipes involve the combination of medical and culinary lore in order to balance food's humeral properties and prevent disease. Most spices were hot and dry and so appropriate in sauces to counteract the moist and wet properties supposedly possessed by most meat and fish. Merchant guilds that supplied spices were variously known as "spicers," "apothecaries," or "pepperers." Inventories and account books of pharmacies show that such culinary stalwarts as pepper, cinnamon and ginger were sold in many varieties and in different medical prescriptions… More than 100 medieval cookbooks survive today. In the Libre del Coch of Master Robert, written for the king of Naples, are about 200 recipes, 154 of which call for sugar, 125 require cinnamon, 76 ginger, and 54 saffron. Spices ordered for the wedding of George "the Rich," Duke of Bavaria, and Jadwiga of Poland in 1475 included 386 pounds of pepper, 286 pounds of ginger, 257 pounds of saffron, 205 pounds of cinnamon, pounds of cloves, and 85 pounds of nutmeg. Clearly, recipes from the era called for not only large quantities of spices, but also a great variety. Spices such as cinnamon or nutmeg associated with desserts were used in meat and fish dishes. Sugar functioned as a spice during the era…
Popular Medieval Spices Saffron (the world’s most expensive spice!) Grains of Paradise (used in Sam Adams Summer Ale!) Black Pepper Ginger Cinnamon
Caravanserai A caravanserai was a roadside inn where travelers could rest and recover from the day's journey. The caravanserais were usually built a day's journey, about thirty to fifty kilometres, apart. The ruins of a caravanserai in Behistun, Iran
Medieval Banking Houses and Hard Currency The Christian prohibition on usury eventually provides an opportunity for… [Jews], barred from most other forms of employment… During the 13th century bankers from north Italy, collectively known as Lombards, gradually replace the Jews in their traditional role as money-lenders to the rich and powerful... Creative accountancy enables them to avoid the Christian sin of usury; interest on a loan is presented in the accounts either as a voluntary gift from the borrower or as a reward for the risk taken. Siena and Lucca, Milan and Genoa all profit from the new trade. But Florence takes the lion's share. Florence is well equipped for international finance thanks to its famous gold coin, the florin. First minted in 1252, the florin is widely recognized and trusted. It is the hard currency of its day. By the early 14th century two families in the city, the Bardi and the Peruzzi, have grown immensely wealthy by offering financial services. They arrange for the collection and transfer of money due to great feudal powers, in particular the papacy. They facilitate trade by providing merchants with bills of exchange, by means of which money paid in by a debtor in one town can be paid out to a creditor presenting the bill somewhere else (a principle familiar now in the form of a check)... In the early 14th century the family has offices in Barcelona, Seville and Majorca, in Paris, Avignon, Nice and Marseilles, in London, Bruges, Constantinople, Rhodes, Cyprus and Jerusalem. To add to Florence's sense of power, many of Europe's rulers are heavily in debt to the city's bankers. Therein, in the short term, lies the bankers' downfall. In the 1340s Edward III of England is engaged in the expensive business of war with France, at the start of the Hundred Years' War. He is heavily in debt to Florence, having borrowed 600,000 gold florins from the Peruzzi and another 900,000 from the Bardi. In 1345 he defaults on his payments, reducing both Florentine houses to bankruptcy. Florence as a great banking centre survives even this disaster. Half a century later great fortunes are again being made by the financiers of the city. Prominent among them in the 15th century are two families, the Pazzi and the Medici. –historyworld.net
An Example of a Trading Organization: The Hanseatic League The Hanseatic League, or Hansa, began as a northern European trading confederation in the middle of the 13th century. It continued for some 300 years. Its network of alliances grew to 170 cities and it protected its interests from interfering rulers and rival traders using a powerful fleet financed by its members. Given the limits of medieval communications, it developed a modest degree of political cohesion through its parliament, even if its increasingly diverse membership struggled to agree upon common policies. Only the evolution of nation states and rival international businesses led to the Hansa’s demise three centuries later. The League’s creation reflected the weakness of medieval governments and the divergent interests of city dwellers and the feudal overlords with whom they were often in conflict. In the middle ages, the areas now known as Germany, Poland, the Baltic States, the Netherlands, Belgium and much of Russia consisted of a multitude of territories owing allegiance to a variety of kings, margraves and dukes often from remote locations, and to chivalric orders such as the Teutonic knights. The main activities of the groups of nobles involved marrying and feuding with one another and raising taxes from their subjects. They were rarely noted for their interest in trade except as a source of taxation. It was for this reason that a number of cities’ prominent merchants came together in a loose confederation whose main aim was to share the risks of trading, the hazards of travel and the problems of dealing with quarrelsome overlords. One of the early provisions of the League dating from 1296, which clearly shows the independence of Hansa members from their respective rulers, required members to support one another in such conflicts, though a clause in the agreement tactfully added: “If the conflict is against a prince who is lord of one of the cities, this city shall not furnish men but only give money.”
The Hanseatic League Continued… The origins of the League can be traced to the German city of Lübeck… In 1226 the Holy Roman Emperor Frederick II had declared Lübeck an Imperial City... Since Frederick… was normally far from the city pursuing quarrels with popes and other magnates, the merchants of Lübeck were freer than many city dwellers to pursue their own interests which revolved around the herring fisheries of the Baltic. To preserve the herrings they needed access to salt which was found in the vicinity of Kiel. In the late 12th century Hamburg and Lübeck had begun to trade together along the ‘salt road’ through Kiel and by 1259 Cologne, Rostock and Wismar had joined the confederation. This date, 750 years ago, is widely regarded as the origin of the Hanseatic League… By 1400, the League extended as far as Novgorod, Riga and Krakow, now respectively in Russia, Latvia and Poland. Krakow, in particular, had a large community of German merchants, traders and bankers. In 1356, the League established a Diet, or parliament, which first met in Lübeck, where representatives of the cities discussed common approaches to such matters as piracy, trading partners and the ambitions of sovereigns. But conflicting interests precluded any serious moves towards cohesive policies of a broader kind… One of the League’s most successful joint enterprises was in shipbuilding: its Baltic Cog was tailor-made for the shallow waters of the Baltic coastline, being a flat-bottomed vessel with extensive cargo capacity... The League also produced warships, with successful campaigns being waged with English help against pirates between 1394 and 1420 . In the 16th century the largest ship in the world at the time was the Hansa’sAdler von Lübeck… - Stephen Halliday 2009 History Today
Key Concept 3.1. Expansion and Intensification ofCommunication and Exchange Networks Continued… E. The expansion of empires facilitated Trans-Eurasian trade and communication as new peoples were drawn into their conquerors’ economies and trade networks. • China • The Byzantine Empire • The Caliphates • The Mongols II. The movement of peoples caused environmental and linguistic effects. A. The expansion and intensification of long-distance trade routes often depended on environmental knowledge and technological adaptations to it. B. Some migrations had a significant environmental impact. • The migration of Bantu-speaking peoples who facilitated transmission of iron technologies and agricultural techniques in Sub-Saharan Africa • The maritime migrations of the Polynesian peoples who cultivated transplanted foods and domesticated animals as they moved to new islands C. Some migrations and commercial contacts led to the diffusion of languages throughout a new region or the emergence of new languages.
An Example of environmental knowledge and technological adaptations: Scandinavian Viking Long ships The drekar, or dragon-headed longships, were stealthy troop-carriers. They could cross the open oceans under sail and then switch to oars for lightning-fast hit-and-run attacks on undefended towns and monasteries. Far surpassing contemporary English or Frankish vessels in lightness and efficiency, longships carried Viking raiders from northern England to north Africa. –pbs.org
An Example of Diffusion of Languages: Swahili The Swahili language, is basically of Bantu (African) origin. It has borrowed words from other languages such as Arabic probably as a result of the Swahili people using the Quran written in Arabic for spiritual guidance as Muslims. As regards the formation of the Swahili culture and language, some scholars attribute these phenomena to the intercourse of African and Asiatic people on the coast of East Africa. The word "Swahili" was used by early Arab visitors to the coast and it means "the coast". Ultimately it came to be applied to the people and the language…It is an undeniable truth that Arab and Persian cultures had the greatest influence on the Swahili culture and the Swahili language. To demonstrate the contribution of each culture into the Swahili language, take an example of the numbers as they are spoken in Swahili. "moja" = one, "mbili" = two, "tatu" = three, "nne" = four, "tano" = five, "nane" = eight, "kumi" = ten, are all of Bantu origin. On the other hand there is "sita" = six, "saba" = seven and "tisa" = nine, that are borrowed from Arabic... The Swahili words, "chai" = tea, "achari" = pickle, "serikali" = government, "diwani" = councillor, "sheha" = village councillor, are some of the words borrowed from Persian bearing testimony to the older connections with Persian merchants.
Key Concept 3.1. Expansion and Intensification ofCommunication and Exchange Networks Continued… III. Cross-cultural exchanges were fostered by the intensification of existing, or the creation of new, networks of trade and communication. A. Islam, based on the revelations of the prophet Muhammad, developed in the Arabian peninsula. The beliefs and practices of Islam reflected interactions among Jews, Christians, and Zoroastrians with the local Arabian peoples. Muslim rule expanded to many parts of Afro-Eurasia due to military expansion, and Islam subsequently expanded through the activities of merchants and missionaries. B. In key places along important trade routes, merchants set up diasporic communities where they introduced their own cultural traditions into the indigenous culture. C. The writings of certain interregional travelers illustrate both the extent and the limitations of intercultural knowledge and understanding. D. Increased cross-cultural interactions resulted in the diffusion of literary, artistic, and cultural traditions. E. Increased cross-cultural interactions also resulted in the diffusion of scientific and technological traditions.
An Example of a Diaspora Community: The Jews Generally, Jews were relatively free and moderately prosperous in Europe during the early Middle Ages. Pope Gregory the Great (591) forbade the forcible conversion of Jews. Both Theodoric the Great (454-526), ruler of Italy, and Charlemagne (742-814), the ruler of France and western Germany, invited Jews to live within their kingdoms, mostly for economic reasons. In 1066, William the Conqueror welcomed Jews to England. Jews were outside the feudal system and could not be tied to land nor belong to craftsmen's guilds. Because Christianity forbade the lending of money with interest, Jews became money lenders, and were valuable as the merchants and financiers of Christian Europe. With the end of feudalism, Christians claimed the economic functions that the Jews had previously held…
An Example of a Diaspora Community: The Jews The Church also became less tolerant of religious freedom… As part of this religious zealotry, all kind of heretics (Jews, Muslims, scientists, and suspect Christians) became the enemy within Europe. Many Jews fled east from areas of present day Spain, France and Germany to Poland and Lithuania. The Jews continued to have a very difficult time in Europe during the later portion of the Middle Ages... In 1215, the Fourth Lateran Council called by Pope Innocent III, decreed that Jews must wear special dress, badges or distinctive conical hats, to distinguish them from other people. Expulsions of Jews continued throughout the continent. The first of many ritual murder charges started in 1144 in Norwich, England. Jews were charged with killing Christian children to use their blood for making unleavened bread (matzah) for Passover. Blood libels peppered Europe throughout the twelfth and thirteenth centuries… Europe faced a series of devastations in the fourteenth century: disastrous harvests, severe famine, and the Black Plague. Superstitions and prejudice breed during dire times, and Jews were blamed for these hardships. Throughout Europe, the Jews were gradually confined in ghettos as the Middle Ages progressed. The first compulsory ones were established in Spain and Portugal at the end of the fourteenth century. Jewish ghettos existed in Madrid, Barcelona, Venice, Naples, Rome, Florence, and Prague, and other European cities. Jews continued to flee eastward from Germany, Austria, and Hungary to Poland. Also during the High Middle Ages, Jews were leaving the area along the north shores of the Black Sea and heading northwest, into Poland. Jewish life flourished in Poland. Polish rulers welcomed Jews during the 13th and 14th centuries, issuing charters of legal rights for Jews. During the hundred years of the 15th century, the Jewish Polish population exploded from about 15,000 to 150,000. fcit.usf.edu
An Example of Interregional Travelers: Marco Polo and Ibn Battuta
An Example of Interregional Travelers: Marco Polo (1254 – 1324) and Ibn Battuta (1304 – 1368) “I have not told half of what I saw.” –Marco Polo “I have indeed – praise be to God – attained my desire in this world, which was to travel through the earth, and i have attained in this respect what no other person has attained to my knowledge.” – Ibn Battuta
An Example of Diffusion of Literary, Artistic, or Cultural Traditions: The Influence of Neo-Confucianism in East Asia “Neo-Confucianism” is the name commonly applied to the revival of the various strands of Confucian philosophy and political culture that began in the middle of the 9th Century and reached new levels of intellectual and social creativity in the 11th Century in the Northern Song Dynasty…By the 14th Century Zhu’s version of Confucian thought, known as daoxue or the teaching of the way or lixue or the teaching of principle, became the standard curriculum for the imperial civil service examination system. The Neo-Confucian dominance of the civil service continued until the whole system was abolished in 1905…Neo-Confucianism became an international movement and spread to Korea, Japan, and Vietnam. Neo-Confucianism flourished in all of these East Asian countries and since the 16th Century some of most creative philosophical work was achieved in Korea and Japan. http://www.iep.utm.edu/neo-conf/ “People fail to realize that the highest good is in their minds and seek it outside. As they believe that every thing or every event has some specific aspect of principle, they search for the highest good in individual things. Consequently, the mind becomes fragmentary, isolated, broken into pieces; mixed and confused, it has no definite direction.” –Wang Yang-ming (1472-1529)
An Example of the Diffusion of Scientific and Technological Traditions: The return of Greek science and philosophy to Western Europe via Muslim al-Andalus in Iberia In the 9 – 10th centuries, the mosque schools evolved into universities, the first in Europe, which flourished in every city, drawing Jewish, Christian, and Muslim scholars and students like magnets, from all over the world. Finally, there were the academies, separate from the mosques, the most famous of which were the House of Wisdom (Dur al-Hikmah) and the House of Science (Dur al-’Ilm), which were libraries, translation centers, and astronomical observatories.... Hakem II extended education to the needy, by building 27 elementary schools in Cordoba for children of poor families…Books originally written in Persia and Syria, became known first in Andalusia. The city produced 60,000 books a year, facilitated by the use of paper, an invention the Arabs had taken from the Chinese, and developed in factories in every major city. The kings of Castille and Aragon took Arab women for their wives, among them Alfonso IV, Alfonso VII, and Alfonso the Wise (1221-1284). Arabic works were rapidly rendered into Latin in the translation schools… and not only Greek Classics, but also the Koran, were translated. Under Alfonso, translations were done into… French, as well as Latin. It was largely… Christians who had lived under Arab rule—and… Muslims living under Christian rule—who mediated the language and the culture to the new Christian leaders. Alfonso set up a school where the Arab philosopher Muhamed al-Riquti was to teach Arabs, Christians, and Jews. He also founded a “general school of Arabic and Latin” in Seville, where Christians and Muslims taught science and philosophy. Alfonso commissioned Arab navigators and astronomers to work with him on the “Astronomical Tables,” and authored a History of Spain. His Cantigas de Santa Maria also shows the strong Arab influence. By Muriel MirackWeissbach 2001
Key Concept 3.1. Expansion and Intensification ofCommunication and Exchange Networks Continued… IV. There was continued diffusion of crops and pathogens throughout the Eastern Hemisphere along the trade routes. A. New foods and agricultural techniques were adopted in populated areas. B. The spread of epidemic diseases, including the Black Death, followed the well established paths of trade and military conquest.
The Spread of Sugar in the middle Ages In the beginning, on the island of New Guinea, where sugarcane was domesticated some 10,000 years ago, people picked cane and ate it raw... Sugar spread slowly from island to island, finally reaching the Asian mainland around 1000 B.C. By A.D. 500 it was being processed into a powder in India and used as a medicine for headaches, stomach flutters, impotence... By 600 the art had spread to Persia, where rulers entertained guests with a plethora of sweets. When Arab armies conquered the region, they carried away the knowledge and love of sugar... “Wherever they went, the Arabs brought with them sugar, the product and the technology of its production,” writes Sidney Mintz in Sweetness and Power... Marzipan was the rage, ground almonds and sugar sculpted into outlandish concoctions that demonstrated the wealth of the state... The Arabs perfected sugar refinement and turned it into an industry. The work was brutally difficult. The heat of the fields, the flash of the scythes, the smoke of the boiling rooms, the crush of the mills. By 1500, with the demand for sugar surging, the work was considered suitable only for the lowest of laborers. Many of the field hands were prisoners of war, eastern Europeans captured when Muslim and Christian armies clashed… Perhaps the first Europeans to fall in love with sugar were British and French crusaders who went east to wrest the Holy Land from the infidel. They came home full of visions and stories and memories of sugar. As cane is not at its most productive in temperate climes—it needs tropical, rain-drenched fields to flourish—the first European market was built on a trickle of Muslim trade, and the sugar that reached the West was consumed only by the nobility, so rare it was classified as a spice. But with the spread of the Ottoman Empire in the 1400s, trade with the East became more difficult. To the Western elite who had fallen under sugar’s spell there were few options: deal with the small southern European sugar manufacturers, defeat the Turk, or develop new sources of sugar… In school they call it the age of exploration, the search for territories and islands that would send Europeans all around the world. In reality it was, to no small degree, a hunt for fields where sugarcane would prosper. In 1425 the Portuguese prince known as Henry the Navigator sent sugarcane to Madeira with an early group of colonists. The crop soon made its way to other newly discovered Atlantic islands—the Cape Verde Islands, the Canaries. In 1493, when Columbus set off on his second voyage to the New World, he too carried cane. Thus dawned the age of big sugar, of Caribbean islands and slave plantations, leading, in time, to great smoky refineries on the outskirts of glass cities, to mass consumption, fat kids, obese parents, and men in XXL tracksuits trundling along in electric carts… by Rich Cohen natgeo.com
The Spread of Sugar in the middle Ages Marzipan fruit made from sugar and ground almonds. Mmmmm
Don’t Forget About Oceania! • 400 – 700 CE mariners spread sweet potatoes throughout Polynesia • Hawaii was settled 300 – 600 CE - 12th – 13th centuries there was contact between Hawaii, Tahiti, and the Marquesas islands - Hawaii was divided into small kingdoms - Kapu System: “taboo”= things that were sacred/prohibited. Commoners couldn’t approach or even cast a shadow on a high chief!Violators strangled or clubbed to death. • 1400 CE the 1stmoai (giant statues) were erected on Easter Island
Key Concept 3.2. Continuity and Innovation of StateForms and Their Interactions State formation in this era demonstrated remarkable continuity, innovation and diversity in various regions. In Afro-Eurasia, some states attempted, with differing degrees of success, to preserve or revive imperial structures, while smaller, less centralized states continued to develop. The expansion of Islam introduced a new concept — the Caliphate — to Afro-Eurasian statecraft. Pastoral peoples in Eurasia built powerful and distinctive empires that integrated people and institutions from both the pastoral and agrarian worlds. In the Americas, powerful states developed in both Mesoamerica and the Andean region. I. Empires collapsed and were reconstituted; in some regions new state forms emerged. A. Following the collapse of empires, most reconstituted governments, including the Byzantine Empire and the Chinese dynasties — Sui, Tang, and Song — combined traditional sources of power and legitimacy with innovations better suited to the current circumstances.
An Example of a Political Innovation: Tributary Systems Under the Tang Dynasty, Vietnam, Korea, and Tibet become tributary states. A tributary state must pay tribute (money) to ensure “autonomy”.
Key Concept 3.2. Continuity and Innovation of StateForms and Their Interactions Continued… B. In some places, new forms of governance emerged, including those developed in various Islamic states, the Mongol Khanates, city-states, and decentralized government (feudalism) in Europe and Japan. C. Some states synthesized local and borrowed traditions. D. In the Americas, as in Afro-Eurasia, state systems expanded in scope and reach: Networks of city-states flourished in the Maya region and, at the end of this period, imperial systems were created by the Mexica (“Aztecs”) and Inca. II. Interregional contacts and conflicts between states and empires encouraged significant technological and cultural transfers. • Between Tang China and the Abbasids • Across the Mongol empires • During the Crusades
An Example of Synthesis by States: Chinese Influence on Japan 6th century Buddhism ----- Zen Buddhism, tea ceremony, haiku 7th century Government ------ Imperial Court at Nara and then Heian By the 9th century patriarchy in China ----- patriarchal Japanese family, spread of polygamy among Japanese aristocrats
Key Concept 3.3. Increased Economic ProductiveCapacity and Its Consequences Changes in trade networks resulted from and stimulated increasing productive capacity, with important implications for social and gender structures and environmental processes. Productivity rose in both agriculture and industry. Rising productivity supported population growth and urbanization but also strained environmental resources and at times caused dramatic demographic swings. Shifts in production and the increased volume of trade also stimulated new labor practices, including adaptation of existing patterns of free and coerced labor. Social and gender structures evolved in response to these changes. I. Innovations stimulated agricultural and industrial production in many regions. A. Agricultural production increased significantly due to technological innovations. B. In response to increasing demand in Afro-Eurasia for foreign luxury goods, crops were transported from their indigenous homelands to equivalent climates in other regions. C. Chinese, Persian, and Indian artisans and merchants expanded their production of textiles and porcelains for export; industrial production of iron and steel expanded in China.
An Example of Technological Innovation: The Chinampa System With the great city of Tenochtitlan built on swampy but rich ground, the chinampas became key to the food production of the Aztecs… Plots about 30m by 2.5m were staked out on the lake bed. A fence was woven between the stakes, and the area would be filled in with mud and vegetation. The next rectangle would be parallel to this one, with room for a canal in between, where canoes could pass through. These canals of course offered irrigation, and provided food of their own such as fish and water fowl. -aztechistory.com
Key Concept 3.3. Increased Economic ProductiveCapacity and Its Consequences Continued… II. The fate of cities varied greatly, with periods of significant decline, and with periods of increased urbanization buoyed by rising productivity and expanding trade networks. A. Multiple factors contributed to the declines of urban areas in this period. • Invasions • Disease • The decline of agricultural productivity • The Little Ice Age B. Multiple factors contributed to urban revival. • The end of invasions • The availability of safe and reliable transport • The rise of commerce and the warmer temperatures between 800 • and 1300 • Increased agricultural productivity and subsequent rising • population • Greater availability of labor also contributed to urban growth
Key Concept 3.3. Increased Economic ProductiveCapacity and Its Consequences Continued… C. While cities in general continued to play the roles they had played in the past as governmental, religious, and commercial centers, many older cities declined at the same time that numerous new cities emerged to take on these established roles. III. Despite significant continuities in social structures and in methods of production, there were also some important changes in labor management and in the effect of religious conversion on gender relations and family life. A. As in the previous period, there were many forms of labor organization. • Free peasant agriculture • Nomadic pastoralism • Craft production and guild organization • Various forms of coerced and unfree labor • Government-imposed labor taxes • Military obligations
Key Concept 3.3. Increased Economic ProductiveCapacity and Its Consequences Continued… B. As in the previous period, social structures were shaped largely by class and caste hierarchies. Patriarchy persisted; however, in some areas, women exercised more power and influence, most notably among the Mongols and in West Africa, Japan, and Southeast Asia. C. New forms of coerced labor appeared, including serfdom in Europe and Japan and the elaboration of the mit’a in the Inca Empire. Free peasants resisted attempts to raise dues and taxes by staging revolts. The demand for slaves for both military and domestic purposes increased, particularly in central Eurasia, parts of Africa, and the eastern Mediterranean. • China • The Byzantine Empire D. The diffusion of Buddhism, Christianity, Islam, and Neo-Confucianism often led to significant changes in gender relations and family structure.
Periodization of “Period 3” the Post-Classical Age 650 – 1450 CE 1. What key events most define Period 3? 2. Would you rename Period 3? Why or why not? If yes, what would you name it and why? 3. Do you agree with the AP Board’s dates for Period 3? If not, how would you change it?