 The end of the Classical Era.
 Between 200-850 CE many of the classical states and
civilizations of the world experienced severe
disruption, decline or collapse:







Han China
Roman Empire
Gupta India
Meroe
Axum
Maya
Teotihuacan
 Post-Classical
 Medieval
 Middle Ages
 **Third wave civilizations**
 Each of the TWC were culturally unique, but like their
predecessors, they featured states, cities, specialized
economic roles, sharp class and gender distinctions.
 All of them borrowed heavily from their predecessors.
 One of the largest TWC = Islam
 Began in Arabia 7th century CE – projecting Arab
peoples into a prominent role of builders of an
enormous empire – all while offering a new religion.
 Egypt, Mesopotamia, Persia, India, interior West Africa,
coast of East Africa, Spain, SE Europe, and more…
 Came closer than any other civ to unite all mankind
under its ideals.
 Older/classical civilizations that persisted or were
reconstructed
 Byzantine Empire (E ½ of the old RE) continued the
patterns of Mediterranean Christian civilization and
persisted until 1453. (was overrun by Turks)
 China – Sui, Tang, and Song dynasties restored China’s
imperial unity and Confucian traditions.
 Indian civ retained its ancient patterns of caste and
Hinduism amid vast cultural diversity.
 Ghana, Mali, Songhay sustained long distance trade
(Niger River civ).
 Following the collapse of the Maya and Teotihuacan
about 900 CE it opened the way for other peoples to
give new shape to this ancient civilization.
 Aztecs
 Incas
 The RE collapsed – kings and church leaders sought to
maintain links with the older Greco-Roman-Christian
traditions of the classical Med civs.
 With no empire, new, decentralized societies emerged
 Germanic peoples – N and W Europe
 For 5 centuries this region was weak when compared to
the vibrant and powerful civ of the Islamic world and
China
 However after 1000 CE, W Europe will emerge rapidly
and build expansive states…
 Change in human societies was the product of contact




with strangers, or at least with their ideas, armies,
goods, or diseases.
The pace of such interaction accelerated considerably
during post-classical/TWC period.
Trade
Empires grew larger
Result: large scale empires and long distance trade
spread ideas, technologies, food and germs
 Long distance trade became more important than ever
in the Post Classical age.
 A network of exchange and communication extending
all across Afro-Eurasian and separately in parts of the
Americas as well.
 Trade altered consumption, encouraged people to
specialize in particular products.
 In short – Trade diminished the economic self
sufficiency of local societies.
 http://www.bing.com/videos/search?q=crash+course+
world+history&view=detail&mid=ED39313F6C5839F32
A88ED39313F6C5839F32A88&first=21&adlt=strict
 Euroasia gave rise to one of the world’s most extensive
and sustained networks of exchange among its diverse
people.
 Silk Road – a reference to the most famous product.
 For 2000 years, goods, ideas, technologies, and
diseased made their way across Eurasia on the several
routes of the Silk Roads.
 Large camel caravans traversed harsh, dangerous
steppes and deserts – most goods were luxury products
destined for the elite and wealthy.
 SILK came to symbolize the Eurasian exchange system
– generally moved from East to West. (China)
 Currency
 Symbol of high status
 Associated with world religions
 The volume of trade on the Silk Roads were small yet it
had important economic and social consequences.
 Trickled down to affect the lives of ordinary farmers.
 Buddhism spread widely throughout Central and East Asia.
 Buddhism had appealed to merchants throughout India
who admired and appreciated its universal message to that
of the Brahmin-dominated Hinduism.
 To the west Persian Zoroastrianism largely blocked the
spread of Buddhism but in the oasis cities of Central Asia,
Buddhism took hold.
 Thousands of Buddhist texts found in Dunhuang where
many Silk Roads joined.
 Spread more slowly through pastoral societies in Central
Asia.
 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rZy6XilXDZQ
When contact among human communities occurred, people
were exposed to foreign disease for which they had little
immunity.
 Athens – 430 BCE – afflicted new and unidentified infectious
disease that entered Greece via seaborne trade from Egypt that
killed 25% of its army.
 Small pox and measles devastated both the RE and Han China
contributing to their collapse – strengthened the appeal of
Christianity and Buddhism.
 Between 534-750 CE there were intermittent outbreaks of
bubonic plague that ravaged the coastal areas of the Med Sea as
black rats arrived by boat from India.
 Constantinople = lost 10,000 people per day during a 45 day period
in 534 CE.
 Most well known spread was associated with the
Mongol Empire which briefly unified much of the
Eurasian landmass during the 13-14th centuries CE.
 Interaction spread the Black Death – bubonic plague,
anthrax or a package of epidemic diseases from China
to Europe.
 Between 1346-1350, 1/3 or more of the pop of Europe
perished from the plague.
 Immunity occurred over time in Eurasia – not in the
Americas.
 The Indian Ocean represented the world’s largest sea-
based system of exchange.
 Desire for goods-porcelain from China, spices from
Southeast Asia, cotton and pepper from India, ivory
and gold from Africa drove commerce.
 Transportation costs were lower on sea.
 In the era of TWC (500-1500) this trade led to two
things: (maritime culture)
 Economic and political revival of China – Tang and Song
dynasties, unified state, Chinese products
 Rise of Islam
 The western side of the IO gave rise to an East African







civilization known as Swahili-8 century CE (Somalia to
Mozambique).
An African merchant class emerged due to demand for gold,
ivory, quartz, leopard skins, and slaves.
Thoroughly urban – politically independent, governed by its own
king. No unification.
Stratified by sharp class distinctions between mercantile elite
and commoners.
Traded with Arabs, Indians, and Persians merchants.
Cosmopolitan society
Quickly became Islamic – introduced by Arab traders
Sharply divided Swahili cities from their western African
neighbors.
 N. Africa = cloth, glassware, weapons, books
 Sahara = copper, salt (dates)
 South Sahara = agricultural peoples grew crops,
textiles, mined gold
 Sub-Saharan = 2 ecological zones
 Savanna grasslands – grain (millet)
 Forest – yams and nuts
 Long distance trade fostered new political structures
 Central Sudan = b/t forest and Sahara developed new
states/empires
 500-1600 CE = Ghana, Mali, Songhay, Kanem and Hausa







Monarchies with elaborate court life
Wealth attained through sub-Saharan trade
Slavery took root in W. Africa
Most came from states farther south
Slave trade began across Sahara
1100-1400 CE, 5,500 slaves per year made trek
Not until 1440s did Africans become the major source of
slaves for Europeans
 Developed separately from the Eastern Hemisphere
 No sustained contact between two great landmasses
 No equivalent to the trade of the Silk, Sea or Sand
Roads of the East took place in the West.
 No cultural traditions spread like Buddhism,
Christianity, and Islam had in the East
 However, there was a loose interactive web – maize