Post-Classical
600 CE – 1450 CE
Regional & Transregional Interactions
Post-Classical (600 CE- 1450 CE)
Regional & Transregional Interactions
 Over half of this era is TRADE. Old trade routes expanded &
new ones emerged (and all the lovely things that come with
it; disease, religions, crops, people).
 Forget classical peoples, this era is dominated by two new
groups: Muslims & Mongols.
 Remember the ashes of the classical peoples; feudal
Europe, Byzantines, & Renaissance China.
 Specific people movements are stressed here (Migrations,
languages, peoples).
 Quick look at the little guy: Labor, farming, urban life.
 This era covers 20% of exam questions!
Geography
Key Concept 3.1: Expansion & Intensification of
Communication & Exchange Networks
Big Four Trade Routes:
 Silk Road
 Trans Saharan
Led to powerful new trading
cities:
 Novgorod
 Timbuktu
 Mediterranean
 Swahili
 Indian Ocean
 Huangzhhou
 Calcut
*Notice the location of the cities
along the trade routes*
 Baghdad
*The two American cities are
built along new American
routes*
 Venice
 Melaka
 Tenochtitlan
 Cahokia
Key Concept 3.1: Expansion & Intensification of Communication & Exchange Networks
New luxury goods spread along these routes:
 Silk
 Cotton
 Porcelain
 Spices
 Gems
 Slaves
 Exotic Animals
Key Concept 3.1: Expansion & Intensification of Communication & Exchange Networks
New commercial technology aided this spread:
 Caravanserai (Roadside Inns)
 Camel Saddles (Saddles for Camels)
Key Concept 3.1: Expansion & Intensification of Communication & Exchange Networks
New navigational technology aided this spread:
 Compass (from China)
 Astrolabe (from Hellenistic world)
 Larger ship designs
Key Concept 3.1: Expansion & Intensification of Communication & Exchange Networks
New economic tools facilitated this spread:
 Bills of Exchange
 Credit/Checks/Banks
 Government Coins/Paper Money
 Trading Organizations (Hanseatic League)
 Government Commercial Infrastructure
 Grand Canal (China)
Key Concept 3.1: Expansion & Intensification of Communication & Exchange Networks
All of this is expedited by the spread of
large empires!
Key Concept 3.1: Expansion & Intensification of Communication & Exchange Networks
Diaspora- people living away from their
homelands
 Muslims in the Indian Ocean
 Chinese in Southeast Asia
 Jews in the Mediterranean
Key Concept 3.1: Expansion & Intensification of Communication & Exchange Networks
Inter-regional travellers:
Marco Polo
Ibn Battuta
Venetian merchant- Widely recognized as
traveller whose travel
one of the greatest
accounts introduced
travelers of all time,
Europeans to Central
visited most of the
Asia & China
known Islamic world
as well as many nonMuslim lands
Xuanzang
17 year overland
journey to India,
recorded in detail
Key Concept 3.1: Expansion & Intensification of Communication & Exchange Networks
Cross Cultural Exchanges:
 Environmental Knowledge & Technological Adaptation
 Viking Longships, Arab/Berber Camels, Central Asian Horses
 Migrations
 Bantu Migrations
 Polynesian Migrations
 Languages
 Bantu (Swahili), Turkic, Arabic
 Islam
 Based on revelations to Muhammad
 Mix of Judaism, Christianity, & Zoroastrianism with the Arab
people of Arabian Peninsula
 Spread: Militarily & via Trade
Key Concept 3.1: Expansion & Intensification of Communication & Exchange Networks
Cross Cultural Diffusion:
Neoconfucianism,
Hinduism, Buddhism
Southeast Asia
Islam
Southeast Asia &
Sub-Saharan Africa
Islamic Empires &
Western Europe
Printing & Gunpowder
from East Asia
Greek & Indian
Math
Islamic
Empires
Greek & Science &
Philosophy
Europe
Key Concept 3.1: Expansion & Intensification of Communication & Exchange Networks
New Crops in New Areas
 Bananas to Africa
 New Rice to East Asia
 Dar-al-Islam & Mediteranean Trade: Sugar, Cotton, &
Citrus
Key Concept 3.1: Expansion & Intensification of Communication & Exchange Networks
Disease
Along with goods, increased trade brings disease
The Black Death
Ex:
Key Concept 3.2: Continuity & Innovation in
State Forms & Their Interactions
Two groups dominate the politics of this era:
 Islam
 Mongols
Key Concept 3.2: Continuity & Innovation in State Forms & Their Interactions
ISLAM
661- 1258 CE
Islamic expansion introduced a new concept- the CALIPHATE
 New form of government that gook hold across North Africa & West
Asia
 Led by a succession of Caliphs until 1258
 Know: Abbasids, Delhi Sultanate, Muslim Iberia (Al-Andalus)
 As the Islamic Arabs spread the dominance they took on a great
many PERSIAN influences
 Islamic growth led to the European Crusades
 Key cultural transfer: ABBASIDS with TANG CHINA
 ***** MUCH more to know here
Key Concept 3.2: Continuity & Innovation in State Forms & Their Interactions
Mongols
1206-1368 CE
The Pastoral people of Central Asia created the largest empire in the history of
the planet that integrated both pastoral & agrarian people.
 The state form = Khanate
 Four Khanates




Golden Horde (Russia/Eastern Europe)
Khanate of the Great Khan (China/East Asia)
Chagatai (Central Asia)
Ilkhanate (Middle East Persia)
 Each began as an administrative unit ruled by a descendent of Genghis Khan
(usually children/grandchildren)
 After his death they fought/became independent
 “Pax Mongolica”
 Era of peace controlled by the Mongol Empire
 Transcontinental trade that reconstituted the old Silk Road
 Disease/Goods/Animals/Spices/Paper/Gunpowder/Banking/Printing
Key Concept 3.2: Continuity & Innovation in State Forms & Their Interactions
Other major states demonstrate
remarkable continuity, innovation, &
diversity
Key Concept 3.2: Continuity & Innovation in State Forms & Their Interactions
Byzantine
330-1450 CE
 Eastern Rome
 Byzantine people refer to it as the Roman Empire
 Person to know: Justinian
 Briefly rebuilt the roman Empire to old borders
 Justinian Code
 Administrative system
 Divine, Absolute Emperor
 Elaborate Bureaucracy
 Christian Empire
Key Concept 3.2: Continuity & Innovation in State Forms & Their Interactions
China
 Sui Dynasty
589-1279 CE
 Reunited
 Grand Canal
 Tang Dynasty
 High point of Chinese





civilization
Silk Road
Tribute
Buddhist/Confuc.
Cultural Influence over
Japan, Korea
Printing
 Song Dynasty
 Paper Money
 Gunpowder
 Conquered by the Mongols
Key Concept 3.2: Continuity & Innovation in State Forms & Their Interactions
Italian City-States
 New government that replaced the Old Roman Empire
 Venice, Milan, Genoa, Verona, etc.
 Dominated Mediterranean trade
 Key trade between Europe & Asia
 Later traded with the Ottoman Empire
Key Concept 3.2: Continuity & Innovation in State Forms & Their Interactions
Feudal Europe
 Decentralized
 Local feudal lords gained fealty over local people
 Highlight: Charlemagne
Key Concept 3.2: Continuity & Innovation in State Forms & Their Interactions
Feudal Japan
 Mirrored Europe
 Daimyo = Lord
 Samurai = Knights
Key Concept 3.3: Increased Economic
Productive Capacity & Its Consequences
Post Classical interactions have MAJOR
economic consequences:
Production
Urbanization
Social
Key Concept 3.3: Increased Economic Productive Capacity & Its Consequences
Production
Crop yields increase due to new technology:
 Chinampas- Mesoamerican agriculture using small, rectangular areas of
fertile, arable land to gro crops on the shallow lake beds in the Valley of
Mexico
 Champa Rice- quick-maturing, drought resistant rice that can allow two
harvests (China, India)
 Waru-Waru- technique developed by pre-Hispanic peoples in the Andes
region
 Terracing- series of successively receding flat surfaces or platforms
resembling steps, for more productive farming on slopes
 Horse Collar- to allow a horse to use its full strength when pulling a plow
Crops transported to similar climates
Artisans & Merchants increased exports
Key Concept 3.3: Increased Economic Productive Capacity & Its Consequences
Urbanization
May seem contradictory, but they want you to know that
cities both ROSE & FELL
Growth
Downfall
 Invasions cease
 Invasions
 Safe Trade/Travel
 Diseases
 Rise in Commerce
 Agricultural Decline
 Rise in Temperatures
 Little Ice age
 Increase in Agriculture
 Athens, Rome
 More people/Labor
 Novgorod, Timbuktu,
Hangzhou, Calicut, Baghdad,
Malacca, Venice
Alexandra
Chang’an,
Pataliputra
,
,
Key Concept 3.3: Increased Economic Productive Capacity & Its Consequences
Social
Much remains the same from the last era, but there are some changes
Labor Management
Changes
Not everyone was happy with
these obligations- specifically
the increase in dues/taxes
 Free Peasants
Free Peasant Revolts
 Nomadic Pastoralists
Religious Revolts
 Guilds
 Coerced
 Government Labor
Taxes
 Military Obligation
NOTE: These revolts have little
historical consequence.
Key Concept 3.3: Increased Economic Productive Capacity & Its Consequences