Period 3: Regional and Transregional Interactions, c. 600 – 1450 C.E.
Key Terms
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Diaspora
Swahili
Hanseatic League
Caravans
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Caravanserai
Dar al-Islam
Coerced labor
Mit’a
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Caste system
Chinampa
Waru Waru
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Genghis Khan
Kublai Khan
Al Razi
Al Khwarizmi
Mansa Musa
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King Ezana
Joan of Arc
William the Conqueror
Key People
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Ibn Battuta
Marco Polo
Xuangzang
Muhammad
Abu Bakr
Key Events
570 – 632
Life of Muhammad
618 – 907
Tang dynasty in China
622
The hijra
711 – 1492
Muslim occupation of Spain
750 – 1258
Abbasid dynasty
960 – 1279
Song dynasty in China
1054
Schism between the eastern and western Christian churches
1066
Norman invasion of England
1096
First crusade
11th – 13th century
Kingdom of Ghana
11th – 15th century
Swahili cities in East Africa
12th – 15th century
Kingdom of Great Zimbabwe
12th – 16th century
Kingdom of Axum
13th century
Beginning of chiefdoms in Oceania
13th – 15th century
Empire of Mali
1206 – 1526
Sultanate of Delhi
1211
Beginning of Mongol conquests
1271 – 1295
Marco Polo’s travels to China
1279 – 1368
Yuan dynasty
1289
Founding of the Ottoman dynasty
1304 – 1369
Life of Ibn Battuta
1325
Founding of Tenochtitlan by the Mexica (Aztecs)
1330s
Beginnings of buboninc plague in China
1337 – 1453
Hundred Years’ War
1347
Beginnings of bubonic plague in the Mediterranean world
1368 – 1644
Ming dynasty
14th – 17th century
Kingdom of Kongo
1405 – 1433
Zheng He voyages in the Indian Ocean
1441
Beginning of the Portuguese slave trade in Africa
Key Comparisons
1. Feudalism in Japan and Western Europe
2. Mongol rule in Russia and China
3. Muslim Spain and feudal Europe
4. The spread of Islam and the spread of Buddhism
5. Chinese and European presence in the Indian Ocean
6. Urban Areas in the Islamic world, non-Islamic Europe, and China
7. Acceptance of Islam in Africa and Europe
8. Mesoamerican and Andean civilizations
9. Polynesian, Viking and Bantu Migrations
10. Gender roles in early Islam and under the caliphate
Key Concepts
1. Expansion and Intensification of Communication and Exchange Networks
a. Existing trade expanded and new routes developed
i. Growth in the major trade routes led to the development of new cities
1. Silk Roads
a. Hangzhou
b. Calicut
c. Baghdad
d. Novgorod
2. Mediterranean Sea Lanes
a. Venice
3. Trans-Saharan Caravan Routes
a. Timbuktu
4. Indian Ocean Basin
a. Swahili City-States
b. Melaka
5. The Americas
a. Tenochtitlan
b. Cahokia
ii. New routes between Mesoamerica and the Andes developed
iii. Trade in luxury goods was supported by new innovations
1. Luxury goods
a. Silk and cotton textiles
b. Porcelain
c. Spices
d. Precious metals and gems
e. Slaves
f. Exotic animals
2. New innovations
a. More sophisticated caravan organization
i. Caravanserai
ii. Camel saddles
b. Maritime innovations
i. Compass
ii. Astrolabe
iii. Larger ship designs
c. New forms of credit and monetization
i. Bills of exchange
ii. Credit
iii. Checks or banking houses
iv. State helped to support the trade
1. Minted coins and paper-moneys
2. Created trade organization
a. Hanseatic League – Europe
3. Created infrastructure
a. Grand Canal – China
v. Expansion of empires helped facilitate the trade
1. Existing
a. China
b. Byzantine Empire
2. New
a. Mongol Empire
b. Movement of people had environmental and linguistic effects
i. Expansion of trade depended on understanding and adaptations to local environments
1. Vikings – longboats
2. Arabs and Berbers – camels to travel across the Sahara
3. Pastoralists – used horse to travel the steppe
ii. Migrations effected the environment
1. Bantus
a. Spread of agriculture
b. Spread of iron metallurgy
2. Polynesian peoples
a. Cultivated and transplanted foods and domesticated animals as they
moved to new islands
3. Migrations and commercial contacts led to the spread of languages
a. Existing languages
i. Bantu languages
ii. Turkic and Arabic languages
b. New languages
i. Swahili
c. Cross-cultural exchanges
i. Islam developed on the Arabian peninsula
1. Came from interactions between Jews, Christians, Zoroastrians and local
peoples
2. Expanded to many parts of Afro-Eurasia
a. Military expansion
b. Merchants
c. Missionaries
ii. Diaspora communities were established in key trade cities
1. Muslim merchants in the Indian Ocean
2. Chinese merchant communities in Southeast Asia
3. Sogdian merchants in Central Asia
4. Jewish communities in the Mediterranean, Indian Ocean basin, and on the Silk
Roads
iii. Inter-regional travellers show the extent and limitations of inter-cultural knowledge
and understanding
1. Ibn Battuta
2. Marco Polo
3. Xuangzang
iv. Literary, artistic and cultural traditions spread
1. Neo-Confucianism and Buddhism in East Asia
2. Hinduism and Buddhism in Southeast Asia
3. Islam in sub-Saharan Africa and Southeast Asia
4. Toltec/Mexica and Inca traditions in Meso and Andean America
v. Spread of scientific and technological traditions
1. Greek and Indian mathematics on Muslim scholars
2. Return of Greek science and philosophy to western Europe via Muslim alAndalus in Iberia (Spain)
3. Spread of printing and gunpowder technologies from East Asia into the Islamic
empires and Western Europe
d. Continued spread of crops and diseases throughout the Eastern hemisphere
i. New foods and agricultural techniques were adapted
1. Bananas in Africa
2. New rice varieties in East Asia
3. Cotton, sugar and citrus throughout Dar-al Islam (the Muslim World) and the
Mediterranean
ii. Disease followed trade routes and military conquest
1. Black Death
2. Continuity and Innovation of State Forms and Their Interactions
a. Empires collapse and reformed and some new empires were created
i. Collapsed Classical empires were reconstituted using traditional and new sources of
power
1. Reconstituted empires
a. Byzantine
b. Sui, Tang, Song
2. Traditional
a. Patriarchy
b. Religion
c. Land-owning elites
3. New methods
a. Taxation
b. Tributary systems
c. Adaptation of religious institutions
ii. New forms of governance emerged
1. Islamic states
a. Abbasids
b. Muslim Iberia
c. Delhi Sultanate
2. Mongol Khanates
3. City-states
a. Italian peninsula
b. East Africa
c. Southeast Asia
iii. Some states mixed local and borrowed traditions
1. Persian traditions influencing Islamic states
2. Chinese traditions influencing Japan
iv. State systems expanded in scope and reach
1. City-states flourished in the Maya region
2. Imperial systems Mexica and the Andes (Aztecs and Incas)
b. Contact and conflict between states and empires encouraged technological and cultural
transfers
i. Tang and Abbasids
ii. Mongols
iii. The Crusades
3. Increased Economic Productive Capacity and its Consequences
a. Innovations stimulated agriculture and industrial production
i. Innovations led to agricultural increases
1. Champa rice varieties
2. The chinampa field system in the Andes
3. Waru waru field cultivation
4. Terracing techniques
5. Horse collar
ii. Crops were transported from their indigenous homelands to similar climates
iii. Chinese, Persian, and Indian artisans and merchants expanded production of textiles
and porcelain for export
iv. Industrial production of iron and steel expanded in China
b. Cities experienced decline and increased urbanization
i. Decline of cities
1. Invasions
2. Disease
3. The decline of agricultural productivity
4. The Little Ice Age
ii. Revival of cities
1. End of invasions
2. Availability of safe and reliable transport
3. The rise of commerce
4. Warmer temperatures
5. Increased agricultural productivity
a. Rise of population
b. Greater availability of labor
iii. Cities continued to be governmental, religious and commercial centers
c. Changes in labor management and gender relations and family life
i. Labor organization
1. Free peasant agriculture
2. Nomadic pastoralism
3. Craft production and guild organization
4. Coerced and unfree labor
5. Government imposed labor taxes
6. Military obligations
ii. Social structures
1. Shaped by class and caste hierarchies
2. Patriarchy
3. Women exercised more power and influence (in some areas)
a. Mongols
b. West Africa
c. Japan
d. Southeast Asia
iii. New forms of coerced labor
1. Serfdom
a. Europe
b. Japan
2. Mit’a system
a. Incan empire
3. Slavery increased in central Eurasia, parts of Africa, and the eastern
Mediterranean
a. Military and domestic
iv. Free peasants resisted attempts at raised dues and taxes
1. Revolts in China and the Byzantine Empire
v. Spread of religion led to changes in gender and family structure
1. Buddhism
2. Christianity
3. Islam
4. Neo-Confucianism
Region
Political
East Asia
Japanese feudalism
Tang/Song
dynasties
Mongols
Yuan dynasty
Ming dynasty
Expansion of China
into Vietnam
Economic
Social
Changes
Continuities
Gunpowder
Long-distance trade
Technology
Flying money
Zheng He expedition
Grand Canal
Urbanization
Neo-Confucianism
Buddhism
Moveable type
Celadon pottery
Bubonic plague
Japanese shogunate
Neo-Confucianism
Chinese expansion
into Vietnam
Mongol domination
in China
Nomadic threats
Confucianism
Footbinding
Patriarchal family
Shinto
Malay sailors
Islam
Islam
Hinduism
Buddhism
Agriculture
Fishing
Polytheism
Polynesian
migrations
Stratified society
Settlement of Hawaii
Isolation from global
trade network
Central
Asia
Mongols
Steppe diplomacy
Tamerlane
Silk Roads trade
Moldboard plow
Maori
Mongol Peace
Women have a voice
in tribal councils
Mongol dominance
Islam
Isolation of Russia
from Western
Europe
Pastoral namdism
Steppe diplomacy
Buddhism
South Asia
Delhi Sultanate
Rule of Tamerlane
Arabic numerals
Indian Ocean trade
Caste system
Islam
Islam
Hinduism
Caste system
Crusades
Mongol destruction
of Baghdad
Malay sailors
Long-distance trade
Islam
Veiling of women
Shariah
Umma
Bubonic plague
Rise of Islam,
Sunni/Shi’ite split,
transfer of
knowledge of
sugarcane to
Europeans
Nomadic tribes
Regional kingdoms
Islam, Mamluk
dynasties
Trans-Saharan trade,
gold, salt
Ironworking
Slavery
Travels of Ibn
Battuta
Bubonic Plague
Islam
Trans-Saharan trade
Bantu migrations
Swahili griots
Age grades
Islam
Introduction of
banana cultivation
by Malay sailors
Christianity
Slavery
Bantu migrations
Feudalism
Population growth
Viking invasions
Urbanization
Renaissance
Palace schools
Islam
Increased
urbanization and
trade
Decline of feudalism
Renaissance
Christianity
Feudalism
Serfdom
Viking invasion
Mongol invasion
Viking invasion
Serfdom
Eastern Orthodox
Christianity
Byzantine trade
networks
Trade with
Mesoamerica
Isolated from global
trade networks
Aztec and Incan
empires
Isolated from global
trade networks
S. E. Asia
Oceania
S.W. Asia
North
Africa
Regional kingdoms
SubSaharan
Africa
Stateless societies
Islam
Western
Europe
Feudalism
Holy Roman Empire
Attempted Mongol
incursions
Islamic Spain
Investiture conflict
Eastern
Europe
Byzantine Empire
Mongol invasion
Seljuk and Ottoman
incursion
North
America
Latin
America
Indian Ocean
Trade in ivory, ebony,
animal skins
Trade with Portugal
Ironworking
Manorialism
Moldboard plow
Rise of universities
Bubonic plague
Mediterranean trade
routes
Hanseatic League
Expansion of Western
Europe
Serfdom
Trade in fur and timber
Hanseatic League
Regional tribal
organization
Agriculture
Fishing
Trade with Mesoamerica
Aztec and Incan
empires
Chinampas
Long-distance and
regional trade
Calendar
Incan roads
Quipus
Anasazi and
Mississippian
cultures
MOunds
Human sacrifice
Polytheism
Quetzalcoatl
Parallel descent
Mita
Weaving
Ayllus, capulli