14- Crash Course World History Video Notes:
The Dark Ages...How Dark Were They, Really?
1.
“Medieval Europe had less __?__, fewer ___?___, and less cultural ___?___ than the Roman Empire.
2.
Did Europeans live longer or shorter lives during the Middle Ages?
3.
Feudalism: was it centralized?
What was a vassal’s job?
What people were below knights?
Besides being a governmental system what else was feudalism?
4.
Where peasants able to move their way up the social ladder?
One more point that’s very interesting from a world history perspective: this devolution from empire to localism has happened in lots
of places at lots of different times. And in times of extreme political stress, like after the fall of the Han dynasty in China, power tends
to flow into the hands of local lords who can protect the peasants better than the state can.
5.
What are lords called in modern Afghanistan?
Islamic World (Dar al Islam)
6, They had expanded their conquered areas to Egypt and the entire Sassanian empire within how many
years?
7.
The Umayyad Dynasty then expanded how far west? Where was the new capital?
8.
When did the Abbasids take over? And they were in power until what date? Who conquered them?
9.
Although still a hereditary monarchy the Abbasids moved the capital to what city? How did they feel
about non-Arabs in power positions?
10. Despite looking impressive, by 1000CE the Islamic Caliphate was actually a series of smaller __?__.
11. More important than the Persian-style monarchy that the Abbasids tried to set up was their
____?___ to foreigners and their ideas. That tolerance and curiosity ushered in a ___?__ ________
of Islamic learning centered in Baghdad; and Baghdad was the world’s center of scholarship with
its __________ ___ ___________ and immense library.
12. List a few of the Islamic accomplishments during this time.
China
13. How many million people lived in the Tong Dynasty?
14. Many of the Chinese art figures in this time period had non-Chinese features. What does this say
about their dynasty?
15. What are the dates of the Song Dynasty? What were they producing in huge amounts? Did this
dynasty have contact with other parts of the world?
16. List some of the achievements of the Song dynasty.