Unit 1 (1200-1450) East Asia, Muslim World, Africa Flashcards
Dhows
-Small, slender boats with triangular sails that helped trade in the Indian Ocean
-Not good warships, just for trade (too small for cannons and lots of soldiers)
-Demonstrate the time period around 1200
Sufis
-Muslim holy men
-Often traveled on dhows
-Peacefully converted people to Islam
-Spread Muslim culture
Globalism
-The process of the world “coming together”
-Due to trade, nomadic invasions, and the spread of religion
-Most notable in Eurasia, but also in the Americas and Sub-Saharan Africa
What was a large reason for China’s success?
-Agriculture of wheat, millet, and wet rice
-Led to surplus, which allowed more specialization of bureaucracy
Silk Road
-Eurasian trade route
-Connected China to the West
Philosophies and religions in China
-Confucianism (main philosophy, men over women, influential in government, encouraged order, discipline, and education)
-Daoism (more spiritual and nature focused, harmony)
-Legalism (social order through strict laws and punishments)
-Buddhism (religion originated in India, but brought to China)
Qin Dynasty (221 BC-206 BC)
-First dynasty that was all of China, united
-Started by Qin Shi Huang Di
-Standardized weights/measures, language
-Dynasty system lasted until 1911
Han Dynasty (206-220 AD)
-Civil service exam established, merit based bureaucracy
-Paper invented, arts flourished
-Confucianism
-Large military created
-People still call themselves “People of the Han” because of how important this dynasty was
Scholar-gentry
-Civil servants/officials
-Often people with elite family connections due to literacy tests required
-Passed the civil service exam
-Educated in Confucianism
Sui Dynasty (581-618 AD)
-First dynasty since the Han to reunite China (had been 300 years)
-Grand Canal built (linked the Yellow and Yangtze rivers)
-Dynasty ended due to peasants rebelling after being forced to build the canal and lots of other labor (more building, fighting, etc)
Chinese Golden Age
-Tang and Song Dynasties (600-1200s)
-Also called “Medieval China”, just due to the Western timeline
-Inventions like wood block printing, gunpowder, compass
Tang Dynasty (618-906 AD)
-Emperor Tang Taizong expanded the use of civil service exams, allowed the empire to grow
-Lots of Buddhist influence
-Foreign relations: China was the Middle Kingdom, tributary states were subordinate
Buddhism during the Tang Dynasty
-More contact with other cultures through trade led to more foreign philosophies like Buddhism
-A special pagoda built in Chang’an held special Sutras (scriptures) brought from India by Xuanzang (Chinese monk)
-More Buddhism -> more printing technology because people wanted to copy scriptures
Xuanzang
-Chinese monk
-Brought sutras to the pagoda in Chang’an during the Tang Dynasty
Kowtow
-Ritual of kneeling before the emperor
-Envoys of tributary states did this to show their lesser status and obedience to the Middle Kingdom
-Gifts were sent to tributary states for their compliance
Song Dynasty (960-1279)
-Song Taizu had military leaders retire and replaced them with Confucian scholars (weakened the military)
-Internal prosperity was the focus (not conquering other areas)
Decline of the Song Dynasty
-Jurchens formed the Jin Empire in the north and forced the Songs south
-By the mid 1200s, even the south was no longer safe and the Mongols (Kubilai Khan)took over it
Southern Song
-Cutoff from silk road, so had to trade with ocean
-Led to more innovations with sea travel, like sternpost ruddrs, magnetic compass, ships with several masts
-Big cities developed in Southern Song
-Hangzhou was the capital
-Confucianism revived (people didn’t trust foreign stuff like Buddhism anymore), led to things like foot binding
Mongols
-Nomadic war-like people
-Largest connecting empire in history (Middle East to Korea)
-Kubilai Khan took over China
Singhasari
-Modern day Java
-Made an empire by trading with and taxing ships going through China and India
Neo-Confucianism
-Chinese Song scholars wanted to bring back Confucianism, so they combined it with the more spiritual Buddhism + Daoism (people didn’t just want philosophy)
-Shows syncretism
-Became the official Chinese philosophy
Tang vs Song China
-Both part of the golden age
-Both had inventions and trading
-Tang focused on military expansion and supported Buddhism
-Song was more focused on internal improvements and had a Confucian revival
Inventions of Tang/Song era
Porcelain, wood block printing, compass, gunpowder
Champa Rice
-Originally from Vietnam (tributary state)
-China spread it throughout the empire due to its ability to grow fast and resist disease
-Led to China’s population doubling
Out of Korea, Japan, and Vietnam, which did China invade?
Korea and Vietnam
Silia Dynasty
-Korean Dynasty
-Compromised with the Tang dynasty to stop the fighting
-Acknowledged China’s supremacy and became a tributary state (kowtow, gifts, etc)
-Chinese influence (Silia capital looked like Tang capital, elites liked Confucianism, commoners liked Chan Buddhism)
-Distinct traits too (Royal houses and aristocrats, no merit based bureaucracy)
What was Vietnam’s relationship with China like?
-Much more tense than with Korea
-Resisted the Tang
-Still Chinese influence (agricultural/irrigation methods, administrative techniques, Confucian texts studied)
-Distinct traits too (many kept their own religions, women had more power and could participate in economics)
-Gained independence from China once the Tang Dynasty fell
Explain Japanese periods
-Nara Period
-Heian Period
-Kamakura and Muromachi (medieval periods)
Did China invade Japan?
No
Nara Period (710-794 AD)
-Japan
-Lots of Chinese influence (the capital, Nara, was a replica of Chang’an, Tang inspired court, Chinese style bureaucracy, Confucianism+Buddhism)
-Still maintained their own religion too, Shinto
Shinto
Japan’s indigenous religion, held onto by many despite Chinese influence
Heian Period (794-1185)
-Japan
-Capital moved to Heian (modern Kyoto)
-Less Chinese influence than before but still lots (literature written in Chinese, boys studied it in school, business and records in Chinese, Chinese characters in the Japanese language)
-Culture was more distinctly Japanese, very refined culture
Why was the Japanese imperial house so long lasting?
Aristocratic clans, like the Fujiwara, pretty much controlled everything so nobody blamed the emperor
Murusaki Shikibu
-Female author of “The Tale of Genji” (called the first novel)
-Told the story of a fictional prince, but accurately represented life in the imperial court
-Like most women, didn’t have a formal education and didn’t learn Chinese
-Wrote in Japanese instead (best Japanese literature from the time was written by women because of this)
Heian Period Clans
Fujiwara, Taira, Minamoto
Minamoto
-Aristocratic clan
-Beat the Taira in a big fight
-Set up their capital at Kamakura (modern day Tokyo)
-Their clan leader became shogun
-Dominated Japanese politics for 400 years
Shogun
-Military governor who essentially ruled (emperor was a figurehead)
-Shogunate system lasted to 1867
Medieval Japan
-Kamakura and Muromachi periods
-In between Chinese influence times (Nara and Heian) and the modern age (starting with the Tokugawa dynasty)
-Politics decentralized (political lords controlled their own regions)
-Military power more important than anything, samurai became extremely important
Samurai
-Professional mounted warriors
-Served the provincial lords (enforce authority and gain land)
-Got food, clothing, and housing for them and their families
Bushido
-Moral code for samurai, how to act
-If broken, must do sepukku (ritual suicide)
Japanese class system (during feudal/medieval period)
- Emperor
- Shogun
- Daimyo (lords)
- Samurai
- Artisans
- Peasants
- Merchants
Baghdad
-Abbasid capital
-West bank of the Tigris River
-House of Wisdom
-Circular design with 3 rings of walls (Caliph’s palace and Grand Mosque in the inner circle)
Caliph
Islamic leader
Four Social Classes in Islam
1: Muslim at birth
2: Converted to Islam
3: “Protected People” (Christians, Jews, Zoroastrians)
4: Slaves (none were Muslim, mainly were prisoners of war)
Role of women in Muslim society
-Somewhat better than European, Chinese, and Indian women at the time because Shari’a law provided some rights when it came to marriage, family, and property
-Men still had power over women and women were expected to be obedient
-Over time, Muslim women lost freedoms and had to be veiled in public
Sharia
Islamic law based on the Quran
House of Wisdom
-In Baghdad
-Library, academy, and translation centers
-Scholars of all different cultures worked to translate texts into Arabic
Islamic science + learning
-Muhammad supported learning
-Astronomy needed for 3 of 5 pillars (Ramadan fasting, hajj, Mecca praying)
-Astrolabe (calculate time and position)
-House of Wisdom
-Al-Khawarizmi (algebra creator)
-More practical/experimental than the Greeks
Hajj
A month where you’re supposed to make a pilgrimage to Mecca
The Thousand and One Nights
-Collection of fairytales, parables, and legends
-Centered around King Shahryar and his wife Scheherezade who told him a new tale each night
-Shows syncretism (this book contained stories from across the Muslim world)
“The Ideal Man”
-Reflected the Abbasid Empire’s diverse nature
-Included characteristics like being as pious as a Greek and having an Iraqi education
How did the Abbasid Empire eventually come to an end?
Destroyed by Mongol armies in 1258
Mamluks
Slave soldiers, won control over the Ayyubids’ territory from Egypt to Syria
Baibars
-Mamluk general and later sultan of Egypt+Syria
-Defeated the Mongols at the Battle of Ain Jalut (1260 AD) for the first time ever
-Saves the Islamic world and has the Islamic center of the world shift to Cairo
Ibn Khaldun
-Scholar and historian
-Wrote eyewitness accounts of the Muslim world at the time
-Used tools of historical analysis like cause and effect and looking at how economics affects society
Around when did Muslims rule the Iberian Peninsula?
711-1492 AD
Umayyad Caliphate
-Umayyad leadership destroyed by the Abbasids by 750
-Abdal al Rahman, an Umayyad noble, escaped to Spain to start a new Umayyad dynasty
Al-Andalus
-Established by Abd al-Rahman of the Umayyad Dynasty
-Failed to expand more into Europe (defeated by Franks at Battle of Tours)
-Cordoba (capital), Toledo, Grenada
-Palace of Madinat al-Zahra
-Golden age, very advanced compared to Europe in its Dark Ages
-Scholars came from all over to work on translations
-Religiously tolerant and very diverse
Abd al-Rahman III
-Lots of advancements (street lights, running water, irrigation systems, etc)
-Had very diverse advisors and officials
-Very rich, golden age ruler
Great Mosque of Cordoba
Cultural blending:
-Greek columns
-Roman arches
-Islamic design (red and white marble)
-Currently a Christian church
Reconquista
-Europeans slowly conquering Al-Andalus back
-Took hundreds of years, finished in 1492
-Spain united by the marriage of Queen Isabella of Castile and King Ferdinand of Aragon
-A lot less tolerant to Jews and Muslims (Spanish Inquisition)
Toledo’s role in the Renaissance
The Classical works that people in Toledo translated into Arabic led to this European rebirth of Classical ideas where they could translate and study those texts
Dar-al-Islam
“House/Abode of Islam”
-Basically just all of Islamic territory
-United by currency, culture, law, religion, etc
Three ways Islam spread to Northern India
-Arab conquest (Umayyad and Abbasid)
-Muslim merchants
-Turkic migration/invasion
Sind/Sindh
-Indus river valley (NW India)
-Conquered by Umayyads in 711
-Transferred to the Abbasids in 750
-On the fringe of the Abbasid empire, they didn’t have much power there
-Most stayed Hindu, Buddhist, or Parsee
Muslim merchants in India
-Formed small communities in the coastal parts of India
-Spread Islam
-Cambay in the Gujarat region was a big place for Muslim merchants becuase it was India’s main trading center
-Often became part of Indian society and married local women
Mahmud of Ghazni
-Leader of the Turks in Afghanistan
-Invaded northern India
-Mainly just wanted to plunder the country’s temples to gain wealth and destroy Hindu+Buddhist sites
-Built replacement Islamic shrine (didn’t lead to a lot of converting to Islam though, people were mad)
Dehli Sultanate (1206-1526)
-Established by Mahmud’s successors
-Capital was Delhi (could control land from Punjab to the Ganges River Valley)
-Tried to extend to the south (like the Deccan region) but the Hindus resisted too much
-No real bureaucracy/administrative apparatus and people kept on killing the sultans
-Very little power or influence, Hindu leaders were in control
Umayyad vs Abbasid
-Umayyad first (661-750)
-Abbasid (750-1258) was very fragmented but held together by Islam and the idea of the caliph
Who ruled North Africa while the West African empires emerged?
Almohads and Almoravids
Where did the West African empires emerge?
-The Sahel
-A savanna region just south of the Sahara
Who were the first to use camels in the 200s and why were they good?
-Berber (indigenous North Africans) nomads
-Could travel 60 miles/day and ten days with no water
-Substantially increased trade
Gold-Salt Trade
-Gold (from a forest region south of the savanna)
-Salt (from deposits in the Sahara like Taghaza, sold for gold dust)
Ghana
-Founded by the Soninke people
-King collected taxes (gold nuggets and salt slabs) which kept the prices up because it limited supply
-Some people and later rulers converted to Islam (spread through trade)
-Declined after the Almoravids conquered and messed up the gold-salt trade
Animism
Belief that things in nature have spirits, common in Africa
Mali
-Rose up when trade routs shifted east of Ghana
-Capital was Niani (huge trading spot)
-Very rich and educated
-Muslim rulers
-Sundiata (defeated cruel leader Sumangura to gain power)
-Mansa Musa
-Timbuktu
Mansa Musa
-African Muslim ruler
-Devout Muslim (went to Mecca, built mosques in Gao and Timbuktu)
-Strong military, grew Mali to twice Ghana’s size and split it into provinces
-“Richest man in history”, showered people with gifts on his way to Mecca
Timbuktu
-One of Mali’s most important cities
-Important trade city
-Attracted Muslim scholars, judges, doctors, etc to its universities and mosques
-25% of people there were students
Ibn Battuta
-Traveled the Muslim world for 27 years and helped make historical accounts of it
-Visited cities in Mali like Timbuktu
-Devout Muslim from Tangiers
-Thought West Africa could be a bit more strict Islamic
Songhai
-Gold trade moved east again, rose to power
-Capital was Gao
-Sunni Ali (captured Timbuktu and Jenne, married its queen)
-Askia Muhammad (defeated Sunni Ali’s son for not being Muslim enough, ruled for 35 years)
-Defeated by Morocco (lack of modern weapons), marked the end of W African dominance
West Africa’s main empires
-Ghana Empire (830-1235)
-Mali Empire (1235-1600s)
-Songhai Empire (1460-1591)
Hausa City-States
-Included the Kano, Katsina, and Zazzau city states
-Named for their shared language
-Each had an army of mounted horsemen and they fought a lot
-This prevented them from forming one big Hausa empire
Origins of powerful East African seaports
-Bantu speaking people migrated there and formed coastal villages
-Increased trade from Arabia, Persia, and India made these villages into cities
Swahili
-Mix of Arabic and Bantu
-Formed due to increased Muslim trader settlement in Eastern port cities
East Africa in the IOTN (Indian Ocean Trade Network)
-African raw materials brought to Asia (ivory, gold, leopard skins)
-Asian manufactured goods brought to Africa (porcelain, jewels, cotton, cloth)
-Sometimes African manufactured goods were also traded (like iron tools and cloth)
Kilwa
-East African city state
-Extremely rich
-Its location was the furthest south Indian ships could go in one monsoon season, so cities further south had to filter their items through Kilwa to trade to Asia
-They seized the port city Sofala which controlled the overseas gold trade
Portuguese conquest of East Africa
-Portuguese ships sailed around south Africa and then north to try to find a route to India
-They discovered the wealth of East African city-states
-They took Sofala, Kilwa, and Mombasa
-They remained a force in the area for 200 years
Islamic influence on the East African coast
-Muslim traders introduced it
-Even small towns had a mosque and Muslim sultans governed the cities
-Officials+wealthy merchants were Muslim
-Most people though were not Muslim and continued following their traditional beliefs (animism)
Shaikh
Sultan
Qadi
-Judge
-Decided cases with religious law
Wazirs
Government advisors
Amirs
Military commanders
East African enslavement
-Some brought to Arabia, Persia, and Iraq where wealthy people bought them for household work
-Some stayed in East Africa and worked on docks+ships
-Some exported to India, where rulers made them soldiers
-Some exported to China, where they were household servants
-Around 1,000 per year and not due to race (different from European slavery later on)
What were the important cities/city-states on the African east coast?
-Kilwa (super wealthy)
-Sofala (gold trading center, also made cloth)
-Mogadishu (made cloth to export)
-Mombasa (made iron tools, taken by the Portuguese)
Great Zimbabwe
-Established by the Shona people (Bantu speaking)
-Fertile plateau between the Zambezi and Limpopo rivers which was good for farming and cattle raising
-Made money by taxing traders on the nearby gold trade route to Sofala
-Zimbabwe means “stone enclosure”
-Impressive stone architecture
-Abandoned in 1450 (grasslands worn out, bad soil, no more salt and timber)
Mutapa Empire
-Mutota founded it after he left Great Zimbabwe in 1420 to find a new source of salt
-Conquered pretty much all of Zimbabwe
-Got gold from streams/forcing conquered people to mine it and then sold it to eastern coastal cities for luxuries
-Portuguese interfered with politics
Gunpowder Empires
Started around 1300s
-Ottomans in the Middle East
-Mughals in India
-Safavids in Persia
