Post-Classic Period
Regional and Trans-regional Interactions
600 - 1450 C.E.(2017 Revision)
This was a time period of increasing networks of human interactions within and across regions - although Afro-Eurasia (eastern hemisphere) and the Americas were still separated. This resulted in increased and concentrated wealth and the intensification of cross-cultural exchanges. Innovations in transportation, state/government policies, and mercantile (merchant/trade) practices contributed to these expansions. Trade routes led to the increased diffusion/spread of culture, religions, technologies, and diseases. Nomadic and pastoral (herding) groups played a key role in creating and supporting these trade networks - that led to greater cultural borrowing, while supporting regional diversity. The prophet Muhammad promoted Islam, a new monotheistic religion, at the start of this period. It spread (diffused) quickly though practices of trade, warfare, and other factors.
SNAPSHOT ~ 600 C.E.
End ofAsian and European Classical Period - epidemics, political and economic collapse, civil wars, invasions
Expanding, inter-regional trade routes, interactions (Indian Ocean, Tran-Saharan Africa, Silk Roads)
Byzantine Empire - former eastern Roman Empire continued many Roman cultural characteristics
Feudalistic, Christian, Jewish, and paganWestern Europe after the fall of the Western Roman Empire
W. Europe - cultural and technological backwater
Early Tang Dynasty (618 CE) - peak, then decline of Buddhism in China
Chinese Buddhism diffusedto Japan
Japan - unifying, centralizing political structure (emperor) by Yamato clan - modeled after Tang China
Polytheistic and animist North Africa and Southwest Asia
Ghana Empire - first West Africacomplex, urban culture
Start of decline of Teotihuacan in Central Mexico
"Classical" period Mayan city-states
Early Anasazi culture in North America
Continuing Polynesian migrations to Oceania
Key Concept 3.1 Expansion and Intensification of Trade, Communication, and Exchange Networks
1. Improved transportation technologies and commercial practices led to an increasing volume of trade, and expanded the geographical range of existing and newly active trade networks.
A. Existing trade routes, including: the Silk Roads, Mediterranean Sea, Trans-Saharan, and
Indian Ocean basin trade routes flourished, leading to the growth of powerful new trading cities.
Illustrative examples of new trading cities: Novgorod, Timbuktu, Swahili city-states,Hangzhou, Calicut, Baghdad, Melaka, Venice, Tenochtitlan, Cahokia
(know several illustrative examples - may be examples used by students in essays)
B. Communication and exchange/trade networks developed in the Americas
Illustrative examples: Mississippi River Valley, Mesoamerica (Middle America), Andes
C. The growth of inter-regional trade in luxury goods was encouraged by significant innovations in previously existing transportation and commercial technologies, including the caravanserai (more sophisticated caravan organization), use of compass, astrolabe, larger shipdesign in sea travel, and new forms of credit and monetization.
Illustrative examples of luxury goods: silk and cotton textiles, porcelain, spices, slaves,
precious metals and gems, exotic animals
Illustrative examplesnew forms of credit and monetization: bills of exchange, credit, checks, banking houses
D. Commercial/trade growth was also assisted/facilitated by state/government practices, including the Inca road system; trading organizations, including the Hanseatic League, and states sponsored, commercial/trade based infrastructure building, including the Grand Canal in China.
Illustrative examplesof state practices: minting of coins, use of paper money
E. The expansion of empires- including China, Byzantine Empire, the Caliphates, AND the Mongols encouraged/facilitated Afro-Eurasian trade and communication as newly conqueredpeoples were drawn into their conquerors’ economies and trade networks.
2. Movement of peoples caused environmental and linguistic effects.
A. Expansion and intensification of long-distance trade routes often depended on environmental knowledge and technological adaptations to the environment.
Illustrative examples: Scandinavian Vikings used their long-ships to travel in coastal waters and rivers, Arab and Berber camels adapted to travel across the Sahara desert,
Central Asian pastoral/herding groups used horses to travel across steppes/grasslands.
B. Some migrations had significant environmental impacts.
Illustrativeexamples: migrating, Bantu-speaking people spread/diffused iron technologies and agricultural techniques in Sub-Saharan Africa,
Polynesian maritimeexplorerstook and transplanted food staples (key food plants) and domesticated animals as they sailed and migrated to new islands.
C. Some migrations and commercial contacts led to the diffusion of languages to new regions or the development of new languages - Illustrativeexamples:
spread of Bantu (including Swahili - combined Arabic & Bantu), Turkic, and Arab languages
3. Intensification of existing or creation of new trade and communication networks/routes led to more cross-cultural exchanges
A. Islam, based on the revelations of the prophet Muhammad, developed in the Arabian Peninsula, reflecting interactions among Jews, Christian, and Zoroastrians with local Arabian peoples. Muslim rule expanded to many regions ofAfro-Eurasia due to military actions, merchants, missionaries, other factors.
B. In key places and cities along important trade routes, merchants set up diasporic communities (away from ancestral homelands) in where they introduced their own culturaltraditions into local/indigenous culture. Illustrativeexamples ofdiasporiccommunities:
Muslim merchants in the Indian Ocean region,
Chinese merchant communities in Southeast Asia
Sogdian merchant communitiesthroughout Central Asia
Jewish communities in the Mediterranean, Indian Ocean region, along the Silk Roads
C. As exchange/trade networks intensified, a number of inter-regional travelers within Afro-Eurasia wrote about their travels. Their writings illustrated both the extent and limitations of inter-cultural knowledge and understanding.
Illustrativeexamples: Ibn Battuta, Marco Polo, Xuanzang
D. Increased cross-cultural interactions resulted in the diffusion of literary, artistic, and cultural traditions. Illustrativeexamples:
the spread/diffusion of Christianity throughout Europe
the influence of Neoconfucianism and Buddhism in East Asia
the diffusion of Hinduism and Buddhism into Southeast Asia
the spread of Islam in Sub-Saharan Africa and Asia the influence of Toltec/Mexica and Inca traditions in Mesoamerica and Andean America
E. Increased cross-cultural interactions also resulted in the diffusion of scientific and technological traditions
Illustrativeexamples:
influence of Greek and Indian mathematics on Muslim scholars
the return of Greek science and philosophy to Western Europevia Muslim al-Andalus in Iberia (Islamic Spain)
diffusion of printing and gunpowder from East Asia to Islamic empires and Western Europe
4. Continued diffusion/spread of crops and disease pathogens, including epidemic diseases like the bubonic plague, throughout the Eastern Hemisphere, along the trade routes
A. New foods and agricultural techniques were adopted in populated areas.
Illustrativeexamples:
bananas in Africa,
new rice varieties in E. Asia,
diffusion ofcotton, sugar, and citrus throughout Dar al-Islam and Mediterranean region
B. The diffusion/spread of epidemic disease, including the Black Death, followed established paths of trade and military conquest.
Key Concept 3.2 Continuity and Innovation of State (Political units) Forms and Interactions
State and government formation varied from continuity (staying the same) to new innovations in various regions of the world. In Africa, Eurasia, many states attempted to preserve or revive imperial political systems (structures) with differing degrees of success, while smaller, less centralized states continued to develop. The expansion of Islam introduced a new type of state - the caliphate as more of a cultural and religious based region, rather than a strongly centralized, political system.
1. Empires collapsed and some were re-established – in some regions new forms of states (political systems/units) emerged.
A. Following the collapses of empires, most re-established governments, including the Byzantine Empire and the Chinese dynasties (Sui, Tang, and Song), combined traditional sources of power and legitimacy withnew political innovations better suited to their specific, local cultural patterns and context.
Illustrativeexamples of traditional sources of power and legitimacy:
patriarchy, religion, land-owning elites
Illustrativeexamples of political organization innovation:
new methods of taxation
tributary systems
adaptation of religious institutions
B. In some places, new forms of governance/political systems developed in various Islamicstates, the Mongol Khanates, city-states, and decentralized government (feudalism) in Europe and Japan
Illustrativeexamples of Islamic states: Abbasids,Muslim Iberia, Delhi Sultanates
Illustrativeexamples of city-states:
in the Italian peninsula, East Africa, Southeast Asia, the Americas
C. Some states synthesized/combined local and borrowed governance traditions.
Illustrativeexamples:
Persian traditions that influenced Islamic states
Chinese traditions that influenced states in Japan
D. In the Americas, as in Afro-Eurasia, state/political systems expanded in scope, reach, and power; networks of city-states flourished/succeeded in the Mayan region, and imperial systems were created by the Mexica (Aztecs) and Inca states by the end of the period.
2. Interregional contacts and conflicts between states and empires encouraged significant technological and cultural transfers, including between Tang China and the Abbasids, across the Mongol empires, and during the Crusades, and transfers during Chinese maritime activity led by Ming Admiral Zheng He.
Illustrativeexamples:
paper-making techniques between Tang China and the Abbasids
Gunpowder during the Mongol Empire
Neoconfucianism from China to Korea and Japan
Key Concept 3.3 Increased Economic Production and its Consequences
1. Innovations stimulated agricultural and industrial production in manyregions.
A. Agricultural production increased significantly due to technological innovations
Illustrativeexamples:
chinampa field systems,
Waru waru raisedbeds and canals in Andes region
Improved terracing techniques
the horse collar
B. Demand for foreign luxury goods increased in Afro-Eurasia.
Chinese, Persian, and Indian artisans increased their production of textiles andporcelains for export. Industrial production of iron and steel expanded in Song China.
2. City fates varied greatly, with periods of significant decline and periods of increased urbanization influenced/buoyed by rising productivity and expanding trade networks.
A. Multiple factors contributed to the decline of some cities/urban areas including:
Invasions
Disease,
Decline of agricultural productivity
B. Multiple factors contributed to urban revival, including: end of invasions, safe andreliable transportation, rise of commerce, and warmer temperatures between800 and 1300, increased food production and subsequent population rise, and greater availability of labor
C. Older cities decline, while new cities developed to take on established urban roles and
functions/activities. Cities continue to play key roles as government, religious, and
commercial/economic/trade centers.
3. Despite continued traditional patterns in many socio-economic class systems and methods of economic production, there were also important changes in labor systems and the effect of religious conversions on gender relations and family life.
A. The diversification of labor organization that began with settled agriculture continued in this period. Forms of labor systems/organization included:
free peasant agriculture
nomadic pastoralism/herding and foraging
craft production and guild organizations
various forms of coerced and unfree labor (slavery, serfdom, mit’a, corvee labor)
government imposed labor taxes military obligations.
B. As in the previous period, social systems were shaped by socio-economic class and caste hierarchies (rigid social status rankings). Patriarchy persisted; however in some areas, women exercised more power and influence, most notably among the Mongols, in West Africa, Japan, and Southeast Asia.
C. New forms of coerced labor appeared, including serfdom in feudal Europe and Japan, and the mit’a system in the Inca Empire. Free peasants resisted attempts to raise dues and taxes by staging revolts. The demand for slaves for both militaryand domestic purposes increased – particularly in central Eurasia, regions in Africa, and the eastern Mediterranean.
Illustrativeexamples of regions where free peasants revolted:
China
the Byzantine Empire
D. The diffusion/spread of Buddhism, Christianity, Islam, and Neoconfucianism often led to significant changes in gender relations and family structure.
CONTINUITIES
European and Japanese feudalism
Chinese cultural patterns and the dynastic cycle
Major cities as centers of trade, government, religion, and culture
Trans-regional trade
Roman legal system maintained in Byzantine Empire basis for western European legal system
Shintoism, Buddhism, Confucianism in Japan
The Japanese imperial family
Patriarchy - inequality increased in some regions (foot-binding in Song China)
Slavery and other forms of forced labor
Mixture of African agricultural, nomadic, and urban cultures
Nomadic cultural groups trade and conflict with settled, complex, urban cultures (civilizations)