Major Belief Systems by 1000 C.E.
Confucianism
Polytheism
Origin: China, circa 6th century BCE, founder – Confucius, major disciple Mencius (350
BCE)
Tenets: humanness, social roles (Husband –wife; Parent-child, Brother-brother, friendfriend, Ruler-subject), honoring elders – ancestor worship, family as extension of state,
only educated should govern
Significance: ethical system of conduct, dominant influence in Chinese gov’t and
education for 2000 years, civil service system, public right to overthrow gov’t based on
loss of Mandate of Heaven
Origin: Earliest religions - all cultural
regions
Tenets: Many gods; spirits; gods as
personification of nature, animism
Significance: first organized system of
religion; examples – Sumerian, Greek
Aztec, Roman, African, Vedic Hinduism;
modern – African, S. American
Daoism
Judaism
Origin: China, circa 6th century BCE, Lao Tze
Tenets: Tao (Dao) = The Way, natural approach, live in
accord with one’s nature, passive – don’t try to control
things, interaction of yin and yang
Significance: popular with peasants – polytheism,
interest in nature – influence on art, seek immortality
leads to development of compass and gunpowder.
Origin: Middle East, Hebrews; monotheism
Tenets: One God; covenant w/ chosen
people; Torah, Ten Commandments; Mosaic
Law, and Talmud; earliest written materials
circa 900 BCE
Significance: monotheism; influence on
Christianity and Islam; no widespread
hierarchical structure; modern-day Israel as
a Jewish state
Buddhism
Origin: India, Founder – Siddhartha Gautama (the
Buddha), comes from Hinduism circa 6th century BCE
Tenets: Four Noble Truths – all of life is suffering, suffering
caused by desires, to stop suffering – stop desires, to stop
desires follow Eightfold Path; no gods, karma and
reincarnation to achieve nirvana – release
Significance: monastic tradition, missionaries, spread
from India to S.E. Asia (Theravada – strict following of
Buddha’s teaching – monastic) and E. Asia; (Mahayana –
more open to everyone, less strict); dies out in India
Christianity
Origin: Middle East, derived from Judaism, teachings of
Jesus (died 30 CE), writings of Paul
Tenets: Jesus as God – Jewish Messiah, salvation
through God’s grace, sins forgiven, Gospels earliest
writings
Significance: at first persecuted, later as state religion of
Roman Empire, monastic, missionaries, organized –
Roman Catholic and Orthodox Catholic, power of RC
papacy rivals that of European kings
Islam
Origin: Middle East (Arabia); Muhammad is prophet of God (died
622 CE)
Tenets: Monotheism (Allah); Jesus and Jewish prophets accepted;
Five Pillars – faith, prayer, alms, fasting, pilgrimage to Mecca;
Qur’an is holy book
Significance: spilt into Sunni and Shia over political differences;
Sharia – legal code; ;no hierarchical structure; Dar-al-Islam – lands
of Islam (Arabic, Middle Eastern customs, etc.), not monastic, Sufi
mystics as missionaries; Jews and Christians as “Peoples of the
Book”
Hinduism
Origin: India, Mix of Indus R. and Aryan religions c 1700 BCE, earliest
religious writings (Vedas); changes polytheism to monotheism from 600
BCE – 300 CE – Upanishads, and epic poems - Baghavad Gita and
Ramayana;
Tenets: Brahman is ultimate reality; rebirth determined by dharma
and karma; release of soul (atman) from cycle of reincarnation to
become one with Brahman
Significance: no founder, tolerant of other religions, few formal beliefs,
adaptable, meditation and ritual; creation of caste system – social
system determined by birth (priest, warrior, merchant, laborer) – do
dharma well, accumulate good karma, move up in caste system
Major Trade Routes, Circa 1000 C.E.
Eastern European
Trade Goods: furs, wood, amber, grain, slaves,
wine, perfume, glass, silk (from Byzantine Empire)
Trade Routes: River routes from Europe (Danube)
and Kievan Russia
Significance: safe route away from Mediterranean
(pirates, Muslims), spread of Orthodox Christianity to
Russia, Byzantine influence on Russian art, religion,
architecture
Silk Roads
Trade Goods: Silk, porcelain from China, horses
from steppe nomads
Trade Routes: overland from China to
Mediterranean (Persia / Byzantine Empire)
Significance: Spread of Buddhism (from India),
Christianity, and Islam to Central Asia and China;
technology transfers from China to the west
Mediterranean Sea
Trade Goods: furs, wood, amber, grain, slaves,
wine, perfume, glass, silk (from Byzantine Empire)
Trade Routes: along edges and across seaways;
Roman Empire roads
Significance: Greek colony city-states, cleared of
pirates for several hundred y ears (Roman Empire),
spread of Christianity and cultural elements of Egypt
Greece, and Rome, later Islam
Indian Ocean
Trans-Saharan Africa
Trade Goods: gold, ivory, slaves, and spices from
Sub-Sahara; salt, cloth, metal ware from N. Africa
and Sahara
Trade Routes: caravan routes N-S across Sahara
Significance: rise of W. African empires, spread of
Islam
Dar-al-Islam
Trade Goods: carpets, linens, ceramics from Abbasid; silk
and porcelain from China; rubies, silver, ebony, dyestuffs
from India; trinkets and slaves from Byzantine Empire; ivory
and slaves from Africa, spices from S.E. Asia
Trade Routes: connected to Silk Roads, Indian Ocean,
Trans-Saharan
Significance: Spread of Islam, assimilating and adapting
artistic styles, scientific and intellectual achievements,
spread of technology from China, Swahili (in connection
with E. Africa)
Trade Goods: slaves, ivory, gold, iron from Africa;
porcelain, silks from China; pottery from Burma; cloth and
pepper from India; spices from S.E. Asia (Spice Islands)
Trade Routes: waterborne; followed seasonal – half
yearly wind patterns called monsoons; regional – Arabia
and India to and from E. Africa; S.E. Asia to India
Significance: source of most major spices; Swahili – mix
of Arabic and Bantu languages; Swahili city-states
(Mogadishu, Sofala, Kilwa, etc.); spread of Islam to S.E.
Asia (Indonesia); spread of foods – sugarcane from
China, banana from Indonesia to Africa
High value items like silk, glass, porcelain, amber, gold, slaves, etc. = long distance, interregional trade
BUT – common items like grains, ore, timbers, etc. continually traded interregionally – particularly on water
routes
Major Cities of the World to 1500
Samarkand / Samarqand
Founded: (c) 3000 BCE
Economic: major city on Silk Roads; silk
and other goods from China, grapes,
cotton, and other food goods from other
trading partners
Tenochtitlan (Aztec)
Founded: (c) 1450
Economic: huge market place, chinampas (floating
gardens)
Political: part of various Islamic empires;
Abbasid regional capital in 800s; major
Mongol city; Tamerlane’s capital in 14th
and 15th centuries; declined with loss of
trade and political power
Political: capital of Aztec Empire (decentralized, tribute
based)
Significance: built after Aztec migrated to Lake Texcoco;
over 300,000 people, temples to gods (ritual human
sacrifices); conquered by Spanish in 1520
Significance: important trade stop along
Silk Roads; trading of technology and
religions
Cuzco (Inca)
Founded: (c) 12th century
Economic: not a large marketplace – little commerce in
empire; storehouse for collected tribute goods (cloth,
foodstuffs, etc. – often redistributed to villages in need)
Guangzhou (later Canton)
Founded: (c) 3rd century CE
Economic: Trade w/ western empires through
Arab and Persian intermediaries; silk, spices, tea;
trade with Islamic and Hindu merchants by 1000
CE, 1500s – first Chinese seaport to trade directly
with Europeans; restricted by Qing as only port for
Europeans until Opium Wars in 1848
Political: capital of Inca Empire (centralized, ruled through
governors, tribute based)
Significance: Temple of the Sun; center of state religion;
thousands of workers from villages (mita tax); connected to
empire through vast road/bridge network
Political: part of most of Chinese dynasties
Timbuktu (Mali; Songhai)
Venice (Italy)
Founded: (c) 11th century
Economic: Trans-Saharan trade route – exchanging gold,
ivory, and slaves for salt and other goods from north;
Founded: (c) 9th century CE as Republic of St. Mark
Economic: trade with Byzantium, then with Islamic
empires, controlled Silk Roads / Spice trade into Europe
Political: Administrative city for Mali, Songhai empires
Political: independent city-state; oligarchy of merchant
families; Roman Catholic; women as assistants and
helpmates; often had treaties with Islamic empires for trade
and to avoid sacking
Significance: major cultural/commercial center of Mali and
Songhai; center of Islamic learning; University of Sankore;
libraries
Significance: built on marshy lands; canals; benefitted
greatly from Crusades (financed effort to take over
Constantinople in 4th Crusade); produces fine glassware
Significance: huge population (up to 1 million),
single port of entry for Europeans until 1848
Comparing the Decolonization Process
Kenya
India
Former Colony of Britain
Former Colony of Great Britain
Process to independence:
• Mau Mau, secret organization, bloody campaign
against British rule
• British military response is brutal repression
• British bow to pressure
• Independence in 1960
Process to independence:
• Sepoy Mutiny – 1857, made crown colony
• Indian National Congress / Muslim League provide input to
governing – 1880s
• Aided British in WW I – promised independence – didn’t
happen
• Gandhi's non-violent resistance (boycotting British goods,
taxes, etc.)
• Aid British in WW II
• Independence in 1949
• Split into Muslim Pakistan and Hindu India
Morocco
Former protectorate of France and Spain
Process to independence:
• Divided and under protectorate status in 1912
• Rebel fighting throughout 1920s and 30s
• Heavy fighting in WW II
• Open warfare on French from 1947 onward
• French withdraw in 1955
• Independence in 1956
•Spanish area returned in 1969
Gold Coast / Ghana
Former Colony of Britain
Process to independence:
• Strikes, protests by nationalists in 50s
• Gradual independence – constitution but British control
foreign policy, defense, economy, law
• demands for complete freedom
• Independence in 1957
Belgian Congo / Democratic Republic of Congo
Former Colony of Belgium
Process to independence:
• removed as personal fiefdom of King Leopold II of
Belgium in 1908 because of brutality
• Belgium colony – reforms instituted including education
• Rebellions in late 1950s
• Belgians bow to world opinion & violence
• Independence in 1960
Burma / Myanmar
Former Colony of Britain
Process to independence:
• province of British India
• rebellions in 1930s
• crown colony in 1938
• sided with British in WW II
• Independence in 1948
French Indochina / Vietnam
Former Colony of France
Process to independence:
• Occupied by Japanese in WW II
• Declaration of independence in 1945
• Reoccupation by French
• French-IndoChinese War
• Partitioned by Geneva Conference into Communist North and
non-Communist South
•Overthrow of president in 1963, Vietcong (communists)
insurgency throughout 60s, Vietnam War with U.S. support of
South 1959 – 1975
• Communist Vietnam declared in 1976
Comparing Migrations (19th & early 20th centuries)
Irish
From: Ireland
To: North America (United States mostly)
Push: lack of farmland to own (farmland was owned
by British – farmed w/ cheap labor by Irish), Famine
(potato disease
Pull: Economic opportunities, political freedom,
farmland
Significance: much of labor for early canals (Erie
Canal, etc.) and railroads in East came from Ireland.
Over 1,000,000 immigrants between 1854 and 1864,
many in North fought in Civil War, political power in
major cities (New York, Boston) ; Roman Catholic
To: Canada, Hawaii
America, Peru
Asians
Italians
From: Italy and Sicily
To: South America (Brazil, Argentina)
Push: lack of economic opportunities, drought
Pull: Economic opportunities – at first mostly on
plantations, then urban
Significance: after abolition of slavery, plantations
needed cheap labor, used “salesmen” to convince
Italian men to migrate to Brazil and Argentina to work
on plantations, many stayed; golondrinas (swallows)
migrated between S. America and Europe to take
advantage of opposite growing seasons; up to 4
million migrated in 1880s and 1890s; contributed to
cosmopolitanism of cities like Buenos Aries
Europeans
From: Ireland, Scotland, Germany, Scandinavia /
later from Southern Europe, Russia, Poles, Slavs,
Jews
To: North America
Push: increasing rents and indebtedness
Pull: Farmland
Significance: almost 3 million immigrants, mostly to
the United States – Midwest; most sought farmland;
others stayed in Eastern cities to become part of new
industrial workforce; labor was a major part of U.S.
industrialization efforts.
From: China and Japan
To: North America and South America
Push:
Pull: Economic opportunities – laborers on
railroads, plantations, gold rush (California), mining
Significance: A million or more Chinese and
several hundred thousand Japanese migrated in the
mid to late 19th century; provided indentured labor on
plantations, and in mining; railroad labor in U.S. and
Canada; in U.S. and Canada – Chinatowns with their
own urban economic opportunities; sparked a
backlash in both countries – in 1880s limited Asian
immigration; more than half population of Hawaii is
Asian or Asian descent by early 1900s.
Other significant migrations in this timeframe:
• English and Scottish forced migration to Australia – criminals, debtors, etc.; created “Australia” as we know it; farmland, sheep, etc.
• Indian and Sri Lankan (Ceylonese) indentured servants to the Caribbean and to Madagascar to work on sugar plantations; created separate
enclaves of their traditional societies
• Urbanization – rural to urban as countries industrialized - CONTINUITY that begins at different times in different regions, BUT more intense and
hastened with industrialization
• Another continuity within this timeframe is the migration of colonial administrators. While not large in numbers, their PECS impact is significant.