Name____________________________________________________________
Per.______
Robert W. Strayer
Ways of the World: A Brief Global History
Ways of the World: A Brief Global History with Sources
Part Three, An Age of Accelerating Connections, 500 C.E.-1500 C.E. (pp. 325-329)
The Big Picture: Defining a Millennium
 Between 200-850 CE, many classical states & civilizations (Han, Roman Empire, Gupta, India,
Meroe, Axum, Maya, Teotihuacan, Moche) experienced severe disruption, decline, or collapse
 For Historians, this marks the end of the classical era and the start of some new period of world
history
 Everyone agrees that voyages of Columbus represent new departure in world history
o Signaled the beginning of the modern era
 (Q) How are we to understand the thousand years (500-1500) between the end of the classical
era and the beginning of modern world history?
o Historians have difficulty in defining a distinct identity for this millennium
o Problem is reflected in the vague terms
o Many textbooks refer to this 1,000 year period as the “postclassical” age
o Other refer to it as “medieval” a middle or intermediate age
 This book sometimes uses the concept of “third-wave civilizations”
o These terms indicate where this period falls in the larger time frame of world history but
none are very descriptive
Third-Wave Civilizations: Something New, Something Old, Something Blended
 Large part of problem lies in that it is not easy to identify clearly defined features that
encompass all the major civilizations during this period
 We point to distinct patters of development:
o New civilizations arose where none had existed before
o Ex: In area of what is Ukraine, new civilization (Kievan Rus) took shape
 All this represents globalization of civilization & each new third-wave civilizations was unique
o Like predecessors, they featured states, cities, specialized economic roles, sharp class &
gender inequalities
o Largest most expansive & influential third-wave civilizations was that of Islam
Arabia in 7th Century CE
 Viewed as a new civilization defined by its religion
 Islam came to encompass many other centers of civilization (Egypt,
Mesopotamia, Persia, India, West Africa Interior, & coast of East Africa, Spain,
SE Europe)
o The Byzantine Empire embraced the eastern half of the old Roman Empire
 Continued the patters of Mediterranean Christian civilization until 1453
o China: Sui, Tang, & Song Dynasties (589-1279) restored China’s imperial unity
o Indian Civilization: retained ancient patterns of caste & Hinduism
o W. African savanna kingdoms of Ghana, Mali, & Songhay stimulated long distance
trade
 Variations on theme of continuing or renewing older traditions took shape in W. Hemisphere
 Another pattern took shape in Western Europe following the collapse of the Roman Empire
o Kings & Church leaders sought to maintain links with Greco-Roman Christian
traditions
o In absence of empire, new & decentralized societies emerged by Germanic people
o During centuries after 1000 CE, Western European civilization emerged as rapidly
growing & expansive set of competitive states
The Ties that Bind: Transregional Interaction in the Postcclassical Era
 Different patterns of development within particular civilizations of postclassical millennium
made it difficult to define that era in a single encompassing fashion
 A common theme emerges:
o The world’s various regions, cultures, & peoples interacted with one another far more
extensively
o Change in human societies was the product of content with strangers
o Local cosmopolitan regions emerged in which trade, migration, or empire brought
people together
o “mini-globalization” became a distinctive feature of third-wave civilizations
 Both Egyptian & Mesopotamian cultural influence spread well beyond the core regions of
those civilizations
o Horseback-riding skills & chariot technology diffused widely across Eurasia
o Much of Part Three highlights these intersections
 Three major mechanisms of cross-cultural interaction were of particular significance
o 1) Trade: Exchange of goods has been everywhere one of the primary means of crosscultural interaction
 Historians have focused attention on long-distance trade, commercial
relationships that linked distant human communities
 Ex: Silk Road
 Required that more people devote their energies to producing for a distant
market rather than for the consumption of their own communities
 Many societies learned about new products via trade routes
 Such trade also had political consequences as new states or empires were
established on the basis of resources derived from long-distance commerce
 Trade routes that linked various third-wave civilizations with one anotherReligious ideas, technologies & germs also made their ways along paths
o 2) Large Empires
 Size & stability also provided stability also provided security that encouraged
travelers & traders to journey long distances from their homelands
 Ex: Arab Empire, Mongol Empire, Inca Empire
 500-1500, people with nomadic or herding way of life entered stage as empire
builders- Arabs, Turks, Mongols, Aztecs
o 3) Technologies diffused widely
 Technology spread beyond East Asia allowing development of silk industry in
Eastern Mediterranean & later Italy
 Disease also linked distant communities (Black Death or Plague)