Unit 3: Land-Based Empires

Question 1

What were the main events that happened during this period?

Answer 1

This era witnessed a deepening/widening of networks of human interactions within/across different regions. The result of this brought changes to wealth and cross-culture intensification.
Transportation, polices, and mercantile (trade) had innovations which expanded/developed commercial networks; this resulted in cultural, technological, and biological diffusion within/across various societies.
Pastoral and nomadic groups played a great role role in sustaining these networks.
Islam also developed during this time.

Question 2

What were some trade cities that grew due to innovation?

Answer 2

Silks roads, Mediterranean Sea, Trans-Saharan, and Indian Ocean
Also Timbuktu (Sub-Saharan Africa), Swahili City-States (East African Coast), Baghdad (Middle East), Venice (Europe), Tenochtitlan (Mesoamerica)

Question 3

Where did exchange networks develop in the Americas?

Answer 3

The Mississippi River Valley, Mesoamerica, and Andes

Question 4

What luxury goods did these networks exchange?

Answer 4

Silk and cotton textiles
Porcelain
Spices
Precious metals/gems
Slaves
Exotic animals

Question 5

What were some innovations that increased trade?

Answer 5

Caravanserai, compass, astrolabe, and larger ship designs

Question 6

What were new forms of credit/monetization?

Answer 6

Bills of exchange
Credit
Checks
Banking houses
Use of paper money

Question 7

What facilitated commercial growth?

Answer 7

The Inca Road System, Hanseatic League, and Grand Canal.

Question 8

What empires facilitated Afro-Eurasian trade/communication?

Answer 8

These empires included China, The Byzantine Empire, The Muslim Caliphates, and The Mongols.

Question 9

What did different people use when traveling across new lands for trade?

Answer 9

The Scandinavian Vikings used their longships to travel in coastal/open waters.
And the Arabs/Berbers adapted to camels to travel across and around the Sahara.
Central Asia pastoral groups used horses to travel in the steppes (hills).

Question 10

What happened after some migrations?

Answer 10

The Bantu speaking people spread iron technology/agricultural techniques to Sub-Saharan Africa.
The Polynesians transplanted foods/domesticated animals as they moved to new islands.

Question 11

What languages were spread during some migrations?

Answer 11

The spread of the Bantu language

Also the spread of the Turkic/Arabic languages.

Question 12

What was the religion Islam based on and where did it develop?

Answer 12

The revelations of the prophet Muhammad and developed in the Arabian peninsula.

Question 13

Who did the beliefs and practices of Islam reflect among?

Answer 13

Jews, Christians, and Zoroastrians with the local Arabic people

Question 14

How did Muslim rule expand into many parts of Afro-Eurasia?

Answer 14

Through military expansion, missionaries, merchants, and Sufis

Question 15

What are some examples of diasporic communities that were used to introduce cultural traditions into indigenous culture?

Answer 15

Muslim Merchant communities in the Indian Ocean region
Chinese Merchant communities in Southeast Asia
Sogdian Merchant communities in Central Asia
Jewish communities in the Mediterranean, Indian Ocean basin, and along the Silk Roads

Question 16

Who were the travelers who wrote about their intercultural knowledge within Afro-Eurasia

Answer 16

Ibn Battuta
Marco Polo
Xuanzang

Question 17

What are some examples of cross-cultural interactions that led to the diffusion of literacy, artisitc, and cultural traditions as well as scientific and technological innovations

Answer 17

Christianity’s spread through Europe
The influence of Neoconfucianism and Buddhism in East Asia
Hinduism and Buddhism spread into Southeast Asia
Islam spreading to Sub-Saharan Africa and Asia
Influence of Toltec/Mexica and Inca traditions in Mesoamerica and Andean America
Muslim scholars influenced by Greek and Indian mathematics
Greek science and philosophy returns to Western Europe through Muslim al-Andalus in Iberia
The spread of gunpowder and printing technologies from East Asia into the Islamic empires and Western Europe.

Question 18

What was spread among the Eastern Hemisphere through the trade routes?

Answer 18

the diffusion of crops and epidemic diseases.

Question 19

What were some crops spread along the Eastern Hemisphere trade routes

Answer 19

Bananas from Indonesia/Malaysia/Australia to Africa
Champa Rice from Vietnam to East Asia
Sugar from South Asia/Southeast Asia/South Asia to Middle East and Africa.
Cotton from South Asia,(Africa, and the Americas) to Dar al-Islam and the Mediterranean basin
Citrus from Australia and Southeast Asia throughout Dar al-Islam and the Mediterranean basin.

Question 20

What imperial states were reconstituted after the collapse of empires?

Answer 20

The Byzantine Empire in Eastern Europe.

The Sui, Tang, and Song Empires in East Asia.

Question 21

What were some traditional sources of legitimacy in empires?

Answer 21

Patriarchy (social system in which men hold primary power over citizens)
Religion (system of faith or worship used to maintain control over citizens)
Land-Owning Elites

Question 22

What were some examples of innovations?

Answer 22

New methods of taxation
Tributary System (payment to another state or ruler)
Adaptation of Religious Institutions

Question 23

What new Islamic states formed during this time?

Answer 23

Abbasids (present-day Iraq)
Muslim Iberia (Iberian Peninsula)
Delhi Sultanate (India)

Question 24

Where did new city-states emerge during this time?

Answer 24

Italian Peninsula
East Africa
Southeast Africa
Americas

Question 25

What states synthesized local and foreign traditions?

Answer 25

Persian traditions influenced Islamic states.

Chinese traditions influenced states in Japan.

Question 26

How did state systems expand their scope and reach in the Americas?

Answer 26

City-states flourished in the Maya region.

Imperial systems were created by the Mexica (Aztec) and Inca.

Question 27

What interregional contacts and conflicts between states encouraged technological and cultural transfer?

Answer 27

Tang China and the Abbasids
- paper-making techniques between Tang China and
the Abbasids.
Across the Mongol Empire
- Gunpowder during the Mongol Empire
Between Muslims and Christians during the Crusades
- transfer of Greco-Islamic medical knowledge to
Western Europe
During Chinese maritime activity led by Ming Admiral Zheng He
- Neo-Confucianism from China to Korea and Japan

Question 28

What technological innovations stimulated agricultural production?

Answer 28

The Chinampa Field System - Aztecs
Waru Waru Agriculture - Andes
Improved Terracing Techniques 
Horse Collar
Three Field Rotation System
Swamp Draining

Question 29

How did increased demand for foreign luxury goods in Afro-Eurasia expand production of goods in Asia?

Answer 29

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.

Question 30

What factors contributed to the decline of urban areas?

Answer 30

Invasions
Disease
Decline of agricultural productivity

Question 31

What factors contributed to urban revival?

Answer 31

End of invasions
Safe and reliable transport
Rise of commerce
Warmer temperatures
Increased agricultural productivity and subsequent rising population 
Greater availability of labor

Question 32

What were examples of continuity in labor systems during this time?

Answer 32

Free peasant agriculture
Nomadic pastoralism
Craft production and guild organization
Coerced and unfree labor
Government imposed labor taxes and military obligations

Question 33

What were some examples of continuity in in social structures during this time?

Answer 33

Shaped by class and caste hierarchies.
Patriarchy continued to persist in many empires.
Yet, women had more power/influence in Mongol Lands, West Africa, Japan, and Southeast Asia.

Question 34

What new forms of coerced labor formed?

Answer 34

Serfdom in Europe
Mit’a in Incan Empire
Slavery for domestic and military purposes
Free peasants rebelled against higher taxes in China & Byzantine Empires

Question 35

How did the diffusion of Buddhism, Christianity, Islam, and Neo-Confucianism lead to changes in gender relations and family structure?

Answer 35

Divorce for both men and women in some Muslim states.
Foot binding in Song China.
Female monastic orders in Christianity and Buddhism.